newnumber6

Starting as usual with PoG links.

Advice: Advice from SF/Comic Creators to people starting out in the field... (April 16, 1992)
Part One: Nancy Kress (read as much as you can, and persist, and don't write only when you're in the mood), Candas Jane Dorsey (what makes bad SF, the "Rod and Don Dialogue"), Lewis Shiner (don't start, it's a tremendously discouraging business, and if you're going to, get a day job), Kathy Gale (UK Editor, always submit in a professional way),
Part Two: Kim Stanley Robinson (responding on OSC's advice of "Primacy of Event over Character" and Card not following his own advice, kind of rips on Card a bit too), Tanya Huff (on the pros and cons on writer's groups), Ed Bryant (on Writer's Workshops like Clarion), Dan Simmons (on how the Milford Writer's Workshop helped him), Neil Gaiman (on his experience at a Milford and learning nothing about writing but learning about reading), shift in focus to comics. Frank Miller (know what you want)
Part Three: Fabian Nicieza (take writing courses, plan to have another career, work through independents/small press), M.W. Kaluta (on how he got his first full professional gig on The Shadow, and his advice), Gene Colan (you have to love it, don't do it for the fame), Sergio Aragones (practice, and think ahead at how the world may change). Summary from the host, and a closing clip from Dan Piraro (stay away, I don't want the comptetition)

Farewell (Season 1 finale)
Assorted promotions, Dick Tracy (movie and the then-recent comics), TMNT (in advance of the first live action movie), Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, Archie news, Incredible Hulk comic, 1990 Earth Day, interviews with Max Collins, Rob Salem, artist Dale Keown... very disjointed and none of it terribly interesting so I won't do the full clip-by-clip summary. Part One: Part Two: Part Three:

Memory (December 8, 1993)

How we're defined by our memories, in SF and Fantasy and comics
Part One: Lynda Barry (on what bring childhood memories for her, a trick for remembering things in a different way that you wouldn't normally, triggering other people's memories in writing), Neil Gaiman (on converting his memories into a comic and being replaced by it), Dave McKean (on using collages to represent memory), Neil Gaiman (on suddenly realizing something about your childhood memories as an adult because as child you don't know what's significant), Michael Moorcock (on his childhood memories of WWII shaping the landscapes of his fiction)
Part Two: Harlan Ellison (on what triggers memories for him, and exorcising hurtful memories with writing, and gives a couple of his favorite quotes about memories), Howard Hendrix (on the memory of his brother shaping one of his stories, and the difference of how memory in fiction compared to real life), Harry Harrison (on how memory works, short term vs long term memory, and the disadvantages to a linear memory of computers)
Part Three: William Gibson (on Agrippa, and Cyberspace as a metaphor for memory), Iain M. Banks (on his fascination with memory and the links between identity and memory), Brian Aldiss (on writing his own autobiography, and a story of a memory he'd written when he was 16), Edward Bryant (on how our memory shapes us and lack of memory also influences us)

Medicine and Nanotechnology (December 1, 1993)
Part One: Frederick Pohl (on people selling off organs to finance their trip to Gateway, and the real black market for organs), Nancy Kress (on writing "The Mountain to Mohammed", and her growing concern about health insurance, and the tough choices involved in controlling medical costs, and worries about gene scanning to mark people as uninsurable), Joel Davis (on the Human Genome Project changing the way medicine is practiced)
Part Two: Joel Davis again (on who owns the rights to the drugs created by using human DNA), Nancy Kress (on relaxing the controls of testing drugs on the dying), John Clute (on nanotechnology as a trend in SF), William Gibson (on including nanotech in Virtual Light, and finding it creepy), Tony Daniel (on Nano as the 'new magic' of SF), Stven Barnes (on linking Nanotech and Dinosaurs in The Barsoom Project, and where he researched it), Ian McDonald (on including nanotech in Necroville and his ideas of what resurrecting the dead might mean)
Part Three: Michael Skeet (on his story Relics, and whether writers get carried away with nanotech), Dave Smeds (on the practical obstacles to reaching nanotech), Greg Bear (on writing Blood Music before nanotechnology really became well-known, and why he use it, and his own sins of treating nanotech as 'magic', and the legacy of the Frankenstein image, and his own feeling that we need to know as much as possible)

Next Week, Writer's Workshops, Games, and Awards, the last set of PoG links until the person posting them posts some more, I guess.

In other TV news, what's been new... Heroes, meh. I think it's the last year anyway, so its not really worth getting worked up about, but the developments in the latest ep do not particularly interest me. Flashforward is still entertaining in terms of its normal plot and it's done a good job of keeping me interested with some of the twists they've introduced, although some sloppiness with how the visions work still annoys me.

Glee's still okay, but I'm finding the main characters less and less likable with each ep, with a few exceptions (I liked the Quinn/Rachel scene in this week's episodes) and they really need to start focusing on the minor characters.

Supernatural had a solid MOTW episode.

The big TV story for me was that Stargate Universe had the third part of its premiere, and again, not bad. There's a couple spoilery elements I want to talk about behind the cut (including a possible "I CALLED IT" moment), and some speculation/wonderings for the future: ( Read more... )

I think that's it for this week. It's Thanksgiving Weekend here in Canada, so to all the Canucks on my list, Happy Thanksgiving. Except, not for me. Apparently most of my immediate family is working this weekend, including tomorrow, so we won't be doing anything until sometime a little later. So no big meal for me, alas. Oh well.

Projects: (October 3, 1991) - Isolated upcoming projects in comics, animation, and SF.
Part One: Mike Carlin (on The Psycho), George Pratt (on a comic project about the Blues), Neil Adams (on Bucky O'Hare the animated series based on a comic)
Part Two: James Morrow (on his upcoming novel Towing Jehovah), Michael Swanwick (on Stations of the Tide), William Gibson (on Virtual Light), Dan Simmons (on doing a movie treatment for Carrion Comfort, and co-writing a SF mystery involving fractals and chaos theory)
Part Three: Simmons continued (a bit specifically on the problems of combining SF and mystery), Michael Dorn (on a storyline he'd like to see in ST:TNG, connecting Worf to Cyrano de Bergerac, and his role in Star Trek 6), fandom rumors about ST6 from Toronto Trek, Walter Koenig (on writing a treatment for a ST movie that got rejected, and a suggestion he made for ST6 involving the death of a main character), a viewer letter about the 'death of Star Trek'.

Utopia: March 18, 1993
Utopias in comics and SF

Part One: Bruce Sterling (on Utopias being Bogus), Clive Barker (on Plato's horrible definition of Utopia), Alan Moore (on exploring Utopia in Miracleman, and Utopia as a verb, and the superhero dream being antihuman), Neil Gaiman (agreeing with Utopia as a verb, but disagreeing with the idea that Miracleman actually dealt with a Utopia, and the problem with Utopia is that once you've got it, you fill it with people), Mark Buckingham (on avoiding dealing with Miracleman himself and looking at the rest of the world), Neil Gaiman again (on pulling focus back away from Miracleman himself), Samuel R. Delany (on Triton as a 'sexual utopia', differences from SF thinking and Utopian thinking)
Part Two: Clive Barker (on why fantastic fiction is the perfect place for Utopias), James Morrow (on a 'Utopia' city based on complete honesty in City of Truth and a pacifist utopia in The Wine of Violence), Geoff Ryman (on the Child Garden being an ambiguous utopia, and why utopias often focus on a particular person against the society), Ian M. Banks (on using a protagonist opposed to the Culture in Consider Phlebas, and writing along the outskirts of a Utopia)
Part Three: Sean Stewart (on Passion Play, which involves a dystopia evolving out of an attempt to create a Christian Utopia, and the need for Faith for a society to work), Kim Stanley Robinson (on his utopia novel, Pacific Edge and the question of "Utopia: Can we get there from here?", and the problem of multinational corporations being the biggest threat to a 'better world', and ending his book on a sad note)

Ecology in comics and SF: April 22, 1993
Part One: Frederick Pohl (on Our Angry Earth, a non-fiction book on ecology with Isaac Asimov, and why he doesn't think Zero Population Growth is the most urgent need), Paul Chadwick (creator of Concrete, on what he sees as the biggest Ecological Problem facing us, OverPopulation, and whether/how politics should play a role), Kim Stanley Robinson (on the importance of population control)
Part Two: Paul Chadwick (discussing the religious "be fruitful and multiply" and reading a speech from Concrete about current population expansion), Kim Stanley Robinson (on the Earth's maximum sustainable population), Jerry Pournelle (on solutions to population growth by producing wealth), Joe Haldeman (on tackling overpopulation in The Forever War, and his personal choice not to contribute to it, compared to people in third world countries who sometimes have no choice)
Part Three: Barry B. Longyear (on why Zero Population Growth became 'uncool' and the problems of enacting it in reality), David Brin (on legislating legal population limits in his novel Earth, and the US "growing up", and protecting your greatgreatgreatgrandchildren as a 'genetic investment', and visiting Easter Island)

Next week I'll do Advice (which I thought I'd do this week but got a bit behind on time), Memory, and maybe Medicine & Nanotechnology.

Continuing on TV, I finally finished Tom Baker's run on Doctor Who. Watched the first Davison episode too. Might watch one more to get a sense of him since he spent most of this one in regeneration madness. Overall, my thoughts on the Fourth Doctor (and a bit that he sheds light on Ten) ( Read more... )
Do like the new team of companions so far. Tegan, Adric, and Nyssa give me a little bit of the old Jamie/Zoe vibe. Nice to have a set of companions with skills that mesh together well, instead of one companion having to either be superman/woman to compete with the Doctor, or be all but useless in the face of his genius except for legwork.

Otherwise, FlashForward's still in the 'not bad, but we'll see' territory. Heroes is still marginally better. I can't help but think that if they ditched almost all of the 2nd or 3rd season entirely, and just attached this season directly to this one with maybe a tiny bit of connective plot, many of the elements would be workable, even interesting (the current status of Sylar with respect to Matt would be an entertaining way of keeping the actor but not having the problems of the uberpowerful character) but I can't completely forget the past.

The only big new series premiere of the week is Stargate: Universe. Overall, I enjoyed it, although at present I think it's below both SG1 and Atlantis in quality. The early worries/complaints (usually based solely on casting) of it being "Stargate: 90210" seem to be wholly without merit, but there is a strong taste of the new BSG in terms of style. In fact, it looks almost as though... you know in 200 where they did parodies of other SF shows (and a few non-SF shows)? It looks almost as though somebody said, "Hey, let's copy BSG's style for one of those", except instead of being a parody, they did it completely seriously. Very similar. A bit disorienting, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. (a bit more spoilery stuff behind the cut) ( Read more... )

Prisoners of Gravity links first:

Women
Women in SF, Fantasy, and Comics

Part One: Trina Robbins (on how she first got hooked on comics), June Brigman (on why women don't get into comics, and trying to change it using Barbie comics), Louise Simonson (on lack of things in conventional superhero comics for women to relate to), Kate Worley of Omaha, the Cat Dancer (on whether she's bothered by being in one of the few prominent female comics creators), Elaine Lee (on the difficulty of breaking into comics and the 'boys club'), Chris Claremont (on why he was renowned for good female characters and how it became a cliche for him)
Part Two: Steve Bissett (on why comics are so slow to recognize women, and some of the key roles women played in comics). Shift of focus to SF. Lois McMaster Bujold (on whether SF is a good platform for a treatment of women's issues, and her most 'feminist' book), Veronica Hollinger (professor on SF) (on who are the landmark female figures in SF and male writers who are most 'feminist'), Candace Jane Dorsey (on leaving out gender pronouns in her stories), Pamela Argent (on 'strong female characters' who are just men in women bodies), Gregory Benford (on the tension between the sexes as being a good thing and some of the difficulties on juggling everything in SF compared to toher fields)
Part Three: Leona Gom (on creating a 'last man' in an all female world), a story about James Tiptree Jr. (actually a woman under a pen name) being asked to leave a summit on feminism in SF. Lois McMaster Bujold (on if there are difficulties in writing male viewpoints). Switch in focus to Fantasy: Karen Wehrstein (on her own challenges in writing women characters), Tanya Huff (on whether fantasy has improved in terms of the women, and info about something she changed about her own work on realizing it was somewhat sexist), Terence M. Green (on how men and women are different), Trina Robbins (on the complaint about things that interest women being 'banal')

Leisure - May 2, 1991
How we will spend out leisure time in the future, according to SF
Part One: Lois McMaster Bujold (on mandatory zero-gee workouts and the physiological adaptations of zero-g), Andrew Weiner (on some of his leisure-centered short stories, in particular one about filling time in a permanent unemployment), Christopher Hinz (on the idea of recreational space colonies), Jack Womack (on leisure time, or lack thereof, in his Draco books), Gregord Benford (on the management of leisure, and passive leisure), William Gibson (on dismissing 'television' as 'empty calories' leisure, and the mystery of TV and media and what it's doing to us)
Part Two: Alberto Manguel (editor) (on television in the future according to Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451, and how it's somewhat come true, Terence M. Green (on children raised on TV and creating a video literate world), Bruce Sterling (on what he thinks of TV and his 1991 view of future of TV, and Virtual Reality), Douglas Adams (about Virtual Reality and using it to save the world, and creating virtual reality IN reality). Candace Jane Dorsey (on a baseball story on Mars in a collection she edits), Mark Chiarello (on baseball's imagery, and drawing a baseball card collection on the Negro League), Todd McFarlane (on how Spider-Man hangs out when not working), Walt Simonson (on how Thor spends his leisure time)
Part Three: Neil Gaiman (on how Miracle Man recharges), Louise Simonson (on Superhuman not having any leisure time, except for being Clark Kent), Ty Templeton (on his theory on how Superman kicks back), a clip of Superman Song by the Crash Test Dummies, Fabian Nicieza (on whether he'll show Alpha Flight in their leisure time, and what leisure time says about us), Steve Bissett (on the 24 Hour Comic, as a sort of 'game' for comic creators, and other games of artists (the surreal corpse)).

Censorship - October 25, 1990
Part One: Comics facing obsenity charges. Interviews with Harlan Ellison (on the good messages in a lot of SF), Kevin Eastman (on how his characterss influenced a kid to hurt himself), Harlan Ellison (on how the censors are exposed to the 'corrupting material' constantly, and standing up to censors), Steve Bissett (on the Comic Code Authority and the congressional hearings that led to it), Frank Miller (on him feeling relatively free from censorship lately), Steve Bissett (on temporarily dropping the comic code for the Spidey drug issue, and Swamp Thing deciding to do away with the CCA permanently)
Part Two: Spider and Jeanne Robinson (on the problems with censorship of sex in SF, and a particular unsavory reference that an author slipped past the censors), Jack Vance (on some of the censorship he faced), Spider Robinson (on Callahan's Lady, taking place in a brothel, and not being get the stories in the same magazine as the rest of the Callahan stories), Jack Vance (on the basic choices of censorship), Maryanne Neilsen (on whether, as an editor, she's a censor), David Lloyd (on creative choice to leave our detailed of violence and sex in V for Vendetta), Denys Cowan (on being uncomfortable with drawing a lynching scene)
Part Three: Elaine Lee (on handling violence in Starstruck), Elaine Lee and Charles Vess (on a particular censorship blowup around a comic back-up story about a young witch that includes her first period, when the first story had so much violence), Harlan Ellison (about the comic Taboo, and how art should unsettle you), Clive Barker (on worrying about a backlash, another Dr. Werthem).

Next week: Utopia, Ecology, and Advice for wannabe creators.

Now that that's out of the way, TV wrapup for the week. Doctor Who... well, I've met Adric. For some reason, in my head, I always pictured him older, from the name. Seems nice enough so far, although probably not one of my favorites. Only a few episodes left before I can say goodbye to Four and get to Five.

What premiered this week? House... it was okay, but I thought it dragged on too long focusing on House, and I wanted to see the others. And the ending annoyed me. (spoilers) ( Read more... )

Heroes also premiered and... well, I suppose, objectively speaking, it's probably a little better than last year. But it's still hard to watch and take seriously. The Trust has not just been lost, it's been thoroughly shattered and the pieces each taken on a separate boat ride in a different ocean by a different man who dumps it into the ocean at some random time not in sight of land. It's hard to take anything seriously after the stuff they pulled last year, because there's the feeling at at any moment, they could decide to ignore some plot point they've already established. Slightly more spoilery behind cut ( Read more... )

Dollhouse also premiered, and it wasn't bad, although they seem to be slightly unskeevying one of the characters at the expense of extra-skeevying one of the relatively unskeevy ones. We'll see how it goes, though, the revelations towards the end could be interesting to go on.

FlashForward... it's okay. Needs time to find it's footing to judge for sure. Not sure the premise really works as a basis for a series, but it's got my attention for a few episodes at least.

Fringe: Okay... the second episode of the second season of X-Files was about a genetic mutant Flukeman. Is it just some wacky coincidence or intentional homage that the Second episode of Fringe's Second Season feels like almost the same thing, only, you know, less interesting (because Fringe is mostly a less interesting version of X-files)?

Otherwise, not much. This week: Stargate Universe, the last thing for... oh, about a month or so probably that I'm looking forward to.

Like I did for the midseason, here's my thoughts of the second half of the TV season, stretching roughly from the new year, up until now. I'll generally not be commenting on the whole season, just the second half (excepting of course shows that only debuted in the new year, etc). My criteria for inclusion is if I watched it with most of my attention, most of the time (either now, or up until the midseason point... there've been some dropoffs). There WILL be spoilers, but I'll break each show into a cut.

Prison Break: In short: Well, it's over, and ended up okay, but I still think it should have ended over half a season earlier. ( Read more... )

Heroes: You know how a guy being tortured to death might look over to another guy being tortured to death, but by a window, and say, "Hey, at least you have a nice view."? Well, that's sort of what the second half of S3 is like from the perspective of the first half. It's still a cluster$!@$, but it's the tiniest bit better. ( Read more... )

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (cancelled, sadly): Short version: Second half of the season started very very poorly, but got kickass at the end. I'll miss it. ( Read more... )

Lost: Complete season ran in this half, so let's discuss it. Short version: Quite liked it. One of the few cases of a show that's picked up from a couple bad seasons and has gotten better, and, what's more, gone from a show that started with limited SF influence (a couple hints here and there in the first season), to one that is definately all out SF. ( Read more... )

Dollhouse (new show): Short version: Started poorly, and still probably Whedon's weakest show, but it did pick up. ( Read more... )

House: This is kinda episodic, so there's not much to say. Short version: The big development shortly after the midseason started, although full of emotional play that made for a good few episodes surrounding it, can't help but lower my interest for the show. ( Read more... )

Criminal Minds: (cut and pasted from the midseason review since it still applies) Another episodic show. I don't even know why I like it, especially since the awesome Inigo Montoya (that's his name for me from now on) left, but I still mildly enjoy it. No spoilers, no cut. Still enjoying it, maybe because it's my only real 'serial killer crime' show I watch.

Bones: Another show I watch more by circumstances than choice - it's on, nothing else is, and I like it enough to watch it regularly so long as nothing conflicts. I kind of like the way they use rotating assistants, which allows for a variety of different fun characters they use again. Otherwise, the show's okay.

Supernatural: Short version: Mixed, not feeling the arc so much but still enjoy the series. Don't really like a lot of the big developments this year and don't expect that'll change next year.
( Read more... )

The Office: Not much to say here. Why? Because I stopped watching it. Not a deliberate act, but it conflicted with Supernatural and somewhere along the way I just stopped bothering to look for episodes online. It was my last half hour comedy show, and now it's gone. Since half the fun of watching it is the ongoing plotlines that don't mean much in isolation, I don't even know if it's worth watching reruns,since they'll skip episodes. *shrug*.

Stargate Atlantis (ended): There were only two episodes left at the end of my midseason review, so it still technically qualifies for this. And those last two episodes were pretty good. Not great, but enjoyable. Still I'm more looking forward to Stargate Universe than I am to an Atlantis movie. They had a good run, but if it ended there I'd be okay with it. (Whereas SG1, I'd still be very disappointed if we never got anymore)

Doctor Who (Planet of the Dead only): I don't have a lot to say about it, I think I already did a post about it. In retrospect, a decent stand-alone episode. Not great, not horribly bad and full of stupid, but almost completely forgettable. In fact, aside from the companion and the general thrust of the plot, I'm having trouble remembering anything about it at all. Can't wait till RTD's gone.

Doctor Who (classic): I finished my run on Sarah Jane Smith some time ago, and just recently finished the Leela run. Short: I quite liked Leela. But the Doctor's a bit of a jerk. ( Read more... )

Wolverine and the X-Men: Short version: Still pretty enjoyable. Not up to Evolution enjoyability yet, and too much focus on Wolvie, but fun. ( Read more... )

Spectacular Spider-Man: Watched S2 in this midseason arc, and you know... I think I'm going to call it. This is now the best of the Spider-Man cartoons ever. ( Read more... )

Battlestar Galactica: All I have to say about this I've said before. It jumped the shark with the final five. Sure, they did a couple cool things with it, but on the whole it's left me a little cold this year, and a very poor ending.

The Listener (new show): There's very little new SF out there, so I wanted to give a new one a chance. This is a Canadian show picked up in the US during the writer's strike. And, you can tell it's Canadian... because it's crap! Okay, not really, but it's a little lame, overearnest, and not all that great. ( Read more... ). I officially gave it a chance and I am done with it.

I think that's about it. If there are any other shows you know I watch (or wonder if I watch) that I left out, feel free to comment and I'll let you know what I think.

First, Happy Birthday

geomant!

Secondly, I just want to rant a bit on Heroes, season finale last night. Major spoilers behind cut.

( Read more... )

So, this post I'll be giving my thoughts on all the series I watched regularly, as how they stand on the midseason point. This includes shows which've only aired one apisode (Who), and ones which only have two episodes left to go in their entire run (Atlantis). My criteria for inclusion is if I watched it with most of my attention, most of the time.

So, here we go.

Prison Break: Major spoilers for the newest season so far. In short: Kinda enjoyable for most of it, but turned sour around the end.( Read more... )

Heroes: Major spoilers for Vol 3: Villains. In short: What a cluster$!@$. ( Read more... )

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Major spoilers for S2. Short version: Bit of a down-turn in quality from S1, but still some interesting things going on. ( Read more... )

My Own Worst Enemy (Cancelled): I watched this mainly because it was right after Heroes and nothing else was on. No real spoilers. Short version: Not especially going to miss it. ( Read more... )

House: This is kinda episodic, so there's not much to say. Minor spoilers for relationshippy stuff in the newest season. Short version: Still enjoyable for what I watch it for, the ongoing stuff doesn't thrill me though. ( Read more... )

Criminal Minds: Another episodic show. I don't even know why I like it, especially since the awesome Inigo Montoya (that's his name for me from now on) left, but I still mildly enjoy it. No spoilers, no cut. Still enjoying it, maybe because it's my only real 'serial killer crime' show I watch.

Bones: Another show I watch more by circumstances than choice - it's on, nothing else is, and I like it enough to watch it regularly so long as nothing conflicts. Some spoilers but mostly for the end of last season and how it plays out this time. ( Read more... )

Pushing Daisies (cancelled): Minor spoilers for ongoing plots of S2. Short version: Too bad it's cancelled. ( Read more... )

Supernatural: Relatively low on spoilers. Short version: Mixed, not feeling the arc so much but still enjoy the series. ( Read more... )

The Office: Don't have too much to say about this. I kinda feel bad for Andy though. This is probably my one half hour comedy show left.

Stargate Atlantis: There's only two episodes left before the series is over, so this is almost a season-in-review. But not quite. Anyway, no spoilers really. Short version: Enjoying it, but it's a bit weaker and I'm already kind of more excited about Universe.( Read more... )

Survivors (BBC): Only minor spoilers, since I don't think anyone on my flist's watched it. Or probably planning to. Short version: Actually the show I've been most looking forward to this month.( Read more... ) I'm glad it's getting a second season.

Doctor Who (2008 Christmas Special only): Oh, RTD, you did it again. Decent character work at first, with a crappy plot you must have wrote in the bathroom because it's made out of tissue paper. Major spoilers. Also a bit of fannish speculation for what happens next for the baddies.
( Read more... )

I think that's about it. If there are any other shows you know I watch (or wonder if I watch) that I left out, feel free to comment and I'll let you know what I think.

Edited to add:
Wolverine and the X-Men: Not really many spoilers, except perhaps for characters appearing. Short version: Quite liked it.( Read more... )

First Stargate Universe casting is in... veteran actor Robert Carlyle will be playing... a role that wasn't in the initial manifest released during casting, possibly because they were keeping it secret. In the story that reveals him, they've also released a bit more information on the initial plot (that gets the people in the situation for the series). Anyway, I haven't seen much he's been in personally, but he might be good.

Terminator winter finale was only okay.

Heroes finale was mostly craptastic, with a few decent moments. I think this year I might do a MIDSEASON REVIEW of all the TV I've been watching, in the next few weeks, so I'll expand more on it later.

Personally? I seem to be having another cat day. I had an 8 hour sleep last night, and then two separate naps during the day. I dunno why. Nothing to do and I was sleepy, I guess. Been having a few unsettling dreams lately. You know, the kind where I'm happy, or have a hope of becoming such. Meh. My winter's depression typically isn't supposed to start until after New Years, damnit. Meh I said. An emphatic meh to all the world. Having a lot of 'last survivor of a plague' type fantasies lately, in part triggered by Survivors, in part by general depression and loneliness.

Other than the great mehness, feeling just slightly off healthwise. Like I'm mostly recovered from a cold but still have a risk of slipping back in now and then. Isolated spots of coughing, days apart, or random dizziness. *shrug*

Still have the bad half of my Xmas shopping to do. That is, the half that it's not appropriate to give a gift card. I'll see what I can find tomorrow at the mall on the way to work. Speaking of work, very low-level stressing about whether next week's going to be screwed up schedulewise, but not enough to be worth mentioning. And yet I did. So that should give you an idea of how little is going on in my life right now. :P

And to close off, GIANT UNDERSEA STARFISH FOUND OFF ANTARCTICA. Those aren't starfish... those are Elder Thing pets! (Okay, so it's old, but I was just linked it again).

Finished: Wild Cards, Vol 4: Aces Abroad, edited by George R. R. Martin (reread)
Started: Wild Cards, Vol 5: Down and Dirty, edited by George R. R. Martin (reread)

Aces Abroad's the next in the series, but not really one of my favorites. (minor spoilers behind the cut)
( Read more... )

Finished: Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
Started: Parable of the Talents, by Octavia Butler

Thoughts on AB behind cut, minor spoilers. Short version: Liked it, but probably the weakest Gaiman novel I've read.
( Read more... )

So, since I'm writing this offline while my net is out, I might as well talk about a few more things. Let's start with Wolverine and the X-Men, because apparently, it will be no more. Well, at least, in Canada, on YTV. Teletoon bought exclusive Marvel rights, so YTV isn't airing it any more, and Teletoon will be, starting in January. But that _probably_ means they'll have to rerun the first 12 episodes again, and so it might be a long time before a new one. Grr. Maybe they'll recognize that many people have seen it already and do a marathon or something to get through them quickly.

Saw my first episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures. I only watched it because this was the ep with (spoilers) ( Read more... )

Terminator wasn't bad this week, but the timeline's pretty screwed up. There's no way there's been 6 months since the series started (unless they decided to take a 3 month jump with this episode). Minor point though.

Heroes? My god it's gotten train-wreck bad again. I have one non-spoilery thing to say. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEB! This wasn't his episode, but I'm blaming him anyway. (More major spoilers beyond the cut)
( Read more... )

Anyway, Jeph Loeb will be gone soon but next ep is one he's writing, which of course worries me. And Bryan Fuller is going to be back on the writing staff... starting episode 20... WTF? That's like 2 before the end. And there's no guarantee he'll be back next year. That's not time to turn the Craptanic away from the Iceberg. Meh.

Oddly enough, the only show I've been _excited_ about lately is Survivors, on the BBC. It's not perfect but it hits a lot of my fiction enjoyment buttons. And only a few episodes left about that. Terminator's probably second place but has been a good deal weaker this year.

That's about it.

This week I got one book:

Runaways #4 (kinda fillerish, but still fun)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Work wasn't bad, showed up earlyish and wasn't too bad, load-wise.

Been feeling sick, but still writing, PerExWriMo continues.

Some quick TV thoughts:
Heroes: Takes a turn for the ridiculous again. Well, maybe or maybe not. It all depends on whether they have a damn good explanation for why things are happening. But it better damn well not be "ECLIPSES ARE MAGIC". LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEB!

Terminator: I totally called one of the revelations in this episode, back in September.
One of the others I didn't see coming though and was kinda cool. And enjoyed the ep as a whole.

Stargate Atlantis: Haven't talked about it lately, but it's actually been a bit on an upswing in recent weeks. Figures it happens after they announce cancellation. Ah well. Supposedly February is when they start filming the pilot for Universe, so I bet we'll be hearing casting news soon.

Finished: Wild Cards, Vol 1, edited by George R.R. Martin (reread)
Started: Wild Cards, Vol 2: Aces High, edited by George R.R. Martin (reread)

Even though it's a reread, I think it's long enough since I last read it, and I may never have mentioned it on LJ, that I'll go into more detailed thoughts. In short, I really enjoy the book and the world created. Even rereading it works well. Minor spoilers (mostly concept related) behind the cut.

( Read more... )

Finished: Sign of the Unicorn, by Roger Zelazny (reread)
Started: The Hand of Oberon, by Roger Zelazny (reread)

Liked this one a little more than the last, but not as much as the first. And since I decided to move on to the fourth, I might as well finish up the first cycle of books. It does occur to me that the method of shadow-walking in some way matches my technique of choosing my destination when I have a lucid dream. In fact, it's possible that reading Amber long ago helped inspire that ability, since I didn't try anything like it before. Maybe I just need to find the Pattern in my dreams and walk it and then I can do it in real life. Anyway, no real comments beyond that.

PerExWriMo proceeds on schedule, doing fairly well meeting my goals.

This week I got one book:

Runaways #3 (okay, though not as good as last issue and I'm not sure certain elements of the plot work for me)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Also picked up at the used bookstore: "A For Anything" by Damon Knight.

Work was okay, not bad a load and earlyish. Also got home earlier because I've decided that work is sufficiently late enough consistently enough that I can afford to go for comics before work instead of going after.

Terminator was pretty good this week, and apparently it's been renewed for the full season, which is good news, as I was worried for a while. I still suspect it won't make it to _next_ season, but a confirmed 22 episodes is still good news by my ear. Heroes was... well, it wasn't as bad as it has been recently. I still think they made some awful choices this year, but it's _almost_ looking like they _might_ be able to eventually pull themselves out of it and explain some of the earlier crackheadedness in a not-completely WTFery way. But I'm not holding my breath.

Oh, and someone on my flist already mentioned this, but since I just saw it for myself, much love from this exchange from Corner Gas:

Lacey: Sorry, I guess it'll be one of life's great mysteries, like "Who would win between Spider-Man and..." (trails off)
Davis: ... Sasquatch.
Lacey: Okay, Sasquatch.
Brent: First of all, are you talking about Spider-Man fighting any old Sasquatch, or Sasquatch from Alpha Flight? Two completely different scenarios.

I'm so glad they got an Alpha Flight reference in, considering it's Canadian and the main character reads comics.

Nothing on my buy list again.

Work was okay buy later than usual and heavier than normal and, to make matters worse, rained the whole way home. Grr, argh!

Since there's no comics to review, I think I might as well talk about how Heroes has officially reached train wreck status (spoilers for latest episode) ( Read more... )

In other news, I managed to improve my TV reception by loads with a $1 dollar store item! Yay me! (Yes, I'm still without cable). I can now watch most channels I got before, but without constant tuning, _and_ with relatively good picture, although sometimes it's stuck in black and white. And I even got a channel or two I couldn't get before. And it's remotely possible that with some tuning efforts I'll be able to get more.

Food now.

So, didn't quite meet my writing quota. But I did write a story start to finish. IT was actually one I finished before but it really wasn't working for me at all so I decided to chuck it and start from scratch with the same concept but a different main character. I think it works better now... not perfect, maybe I could still do better with another start to finish revamp, but it's good enough that I'll edit it and see how it works for me.

Anyway, one of the major reasons I didn't get my full quota in... my grandmother fell and broke her kneecap. So she was taken to the hospital. I went to see her and of course have been a bit worried, but she's tough for 84 years old. It was a clean break, and she went into surgery the same day (see, Canadian health care's not _so_ bad!), and the surgery went well, but at the moment we're not sure whether she'll be able to go home or have to go to a rehab centre for a while or what. So if you have any spare good thoughts, well, they'd be appreciated.

Tvwise, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles was an improvement this week, but I still don't like Riley.

Watched Heroes and... I dunno, I think I was preparing myself for the worst, and maybe overprepared myself, because I kinda liked it. Oh, it had a fair share of stupidity in it like usual (I blame Loeb. LOOOOOOOOOEB!). But overall it was enjoyable, maybe in part because of the cheese factor. (More spoilery behind cut)( Read more... )

This week I got two books:

Captain Britain and MI13 #2 (a little too fast paced for me, but enjoyable and my Pick of the Week)
newuniversal: shockfront #2 (conversely, a little too slow, but enjoyable)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

At the comic store I saw the Heroes action figures, which apparently came out... was tempted to get either Hiro (with sword and super-hero messenger bag!) or Claire (with replacable wounded head and arm), but they were almost $20 each, and, well, on a budget. Maybe if they ever get cheaper. They also had Sylar and Mohinder, and maybe there were others behind those but I didn't see them.

Work was okay, and of course I did the long walk both to the comic store and home. Except, there was a little problem. On the way, I started to feel a little gassy, which, well, happens from time to time and is only a mild concern. Then, later, added to that, I began to feel a strong sense of... let's call it intenstinal urgency. This was not a good feeling, particularly when you're a) about 45 minutes walk from home, and b) in an area without anywhere convenient to duck into for a washroom (an area with homes, apartments, and long stretches of bridges). I managed to hold out across the bridges to get into a McDonalds. After I was done, I bought a double cheeseburger, of course, because, well, they really helped me out and when I use else someone's bathroom I feel guilty for some reason. Now, you might rightly think, "hey... given what sent you in there, perhaps eating McDonald's food was not the best idea there", but I think I know what happened. There was no logical reason for me to have those troubles that day, as I'd barely eaten anything. So, I think I scarfed down that double cheeseburger so fast it broke the speed of light on its way to my stomach, and thus travelled back in time, and caused a predestination paradox.

Edit: Oh, and I think I got a touch of sunburn on my shoulders/neck.

So yesterday was one of those days that make me wonder if I'm not secretly in control of the universe on a subconscious level. Why? Because I found $20 on the sidewalk. That's not all, you see, because earlier in the week my brother found $20 (and separately in another incident, $10), and he mentioned it yesterday so while I was walking to work I was thinking to myself, "man, wouldn't it be cool to find $20", and then on the way home, there it was. This was similar to another time when I was thinking about how I once found some bus tickets on the ground, and how cool that would have been, and then later that day I spot like 5 of them on the ground. But then my rational skepticism kicked in, ( Read more... )

Speaking of, Heroes was last night. The first of the big TV show droughts. No spoilers here, but it did feel a bit rushed with plotlines seemingly being dropped (there was originally supposed to be one more ep in the volume but they hastily rewrote when the strike seemed unavoidable, so at least there'd be a conclusion to it), and just a weakness overall. I love Heroes conceptually, but I do think they need to make a few changes in writers and maybe directors, because it's not as good as last year and there are really some dumb plotting bits that need to be smoothed out. Particularly (this is not so much spoilery for the last episode, but a problem that's been recurring throughout this season, and contains some spoilers of that) ( Read more... )

WGA is still on strike. 100% support for the writers here. I'd like to briefly rant about two things I keep seeing popping up on people who are down on the writers (and I realize that most people on my flist are rightly supporting the writers or haven't commented at all, but I see it on message and comment boards a fair bit, and I feel like ranting here rather than there):

1) All these writers suck nowadays anyway, TV is so lame I can't watch it, they don't deserve to get paid what they get.
2) Writers are greedy, they make too much money already, and now they want more? And what's this with residuals, they should just do a job and get paid and have that be the end of it like people who do costuming and set design.
My responses, cut. ( Read more... ) Anyway, rant over.

Today/Last night I had another cool zombie apocalypse dream. They're still shambling around in my subconscious, I guess. This one involved the Marvel Zombies, at least at the start. ( Read more... )

Oh, and I'm thinking of doing a DC companion piece for the icon I'm using. But I need ideas, both for what to say and who to use. I've got the Batman one settled (he writers on his livejournal, then gives an example in typical batman gritty style, ending with MY PARENTS ARE DEAD!), but I don't really want to just have the exact same jokes as the Marvel one with different faces, so need ideas for other ones. Feel free to comment.

Edit: Because I just found it. Spider-Man: One More Day. Either you know the rumors and have an opinion, or don't and should ignore this. But as bad signs go? The writer (JMS) himself saying he considered taking his name off the last two issues of One More Day is a pretty bad one.

Cause nothing was interesting this week. Work was okay, though was feeling a bit dizzy.

Anyway, Veronica Mars Season 3 DVD's been released, and for those who haven't got it yet, and still want to see the "Season 4 Veronica in the FBI Pilot", here (part 2). Kind of cool to see, and some moments rocked, but I still felt it was a missing something, but presumably it would have been better if they had more time to prepare it. I still would have loved to see it.

In other news, Supernatural was fun last night. And Pushing Daisies tonight (which I saw yesterday) was also fun. Charlie from Heroes was a guest star!
Heroes this week was okay, though perhaps focusing on too many plotlines. PB was decent. Didn't care for the last 2 Atlantises too much. And, well, that's about all of note.

Edit: And a new trailer for The Mist, one of my favorite King short stories/novella. And here's more trailers for Will Smith's adaptation of I Am Legend.

Most of the new and returning shows premiered this week (and some in the last, and some will be due in the next week), so I figured I'd give my week in review. So, slightly spoilery thoughts on Prison Break, Heroes, Journeyman, Criminal Minds, Bionic Woman, 4400 (new to me), The Office, Grey's Anatomy, Numb3rs, Moonlight, and Stargate Atlantis.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: giddy

Okay, so yesterday, I got a phonecall from work, telling me that they'd heard that things were running about 6 hours late with the delivery, and instead of showing up for about 6:30am when I normally do on Mondays, I should show up around 11am. So a bit of a pain, but I can sleep in, right?

And, of course, they call me at 6:30am, wondering where I am, because the truck's there. Nobody there apparently had any clue about it. So I rushed out (I had some foresight that this might happen, so I instructed my roommate, who is up nights, to wake me if they call, and pre-showered right before bed so if I had to I could get up and go quickly), and ran as much as I could of the 45 minute walk there, and got there and did as much of it as I could, and helped out with some other stuff I don't normally do to help pick up the slack and still do my fair share.

Next time they tell me that on the day before, I'm just showing up at my normal time anyway. This is the second time they've done that to me.

On the plus side, on the way home I stopped at the post office. See, I ordered some books from Indigo (because Amazon didn't have all of them in stock), and according to their tracker, on Friday, the post office attempted delivery but were unable to due to the size, and left a card to tell me where I can pick it up. Except, when I went down to check the mailbox, there was no such card. Still, since the closet post office was on the way home from work I took a chance, stopped in and asked if they had anything for me, and they did. So I have my books. I got:
Blindsight, by Peter Watts
Glasshouse, by Charles Stross (set in the same world as Accelerando)
The Atrocity Archives, by Charles Stross (the sort of British Intelligence Agency that fights Lovecraftian Horror book)

and in some other news, I finally finished up the Pertwee run on Doctor Who. Yay. I'm watching the first couple Tom Bakers (I decided I'd watch the first season, so I see up to his first Dalek ep and his first Cyberman ep, and then save the rest of his run for next summer). In the middle of Robot now, and yes, definitely Baker is a SIGNIFICANT improvement on Pertwee. I don't know why, Pertwee always struck me as a bit too smug (all the Doctors are a little smug, but he showed it the most that I've seen), and too actiony with his Venusian Kung Fu, and of course the whole Earth Exile plot was dumb and went on waaay too long. But in one ep of Baker he's already neck and neck with Troughton on the old school scale, so I can see why he's generally considered the most iconic one (I'm still not entirely sure where the new school ones fit in on my personal scale).

Oh, and new Heroes tonight, so yay! Finally. And Prison Break too.

Huge post time!

Okay, here's what I thought about the major shows I watched this year. They're not the only shows I watched, but the ones where I made it a point to watch them. There will be spoilers, in some cases for the season finale, as well as a look ahead at what's coming. There will be some ranting.

Ongoing shows: BSG, GA, Heroes, Lost, Office, Prison Break, Supernatural, SGA, 24
( Read more... )

Cancellations/Ending Shows: Drive, Jericho, SG1, VM
( Read more... )

The Coming Year

The networks have released their TV upfronts, detailing the new shows going on the network. A good one-stop site for it all is here.

Shows I'm interested in or vaguely interested in: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, New Amsterdam, Pushing Daisies
( Read more... )
My fall viewing schedule, Monday to Friday:

Monday:
8pm: Prison Break
9pm: Heroes
10pm: Journeyman

Tuesday:
8pm: New Amsterdam

Wednesday:
8pm Pushing Daisies

Thursday:
9pm: The Office
9pm: Grey's Anatomy (tape one, watch the other, probably)

Friday: I usually catch up on Supernatural where it airs on my local channel. Don't know if that'll continue, but it's a possibility.

Saturday/Saturday I sometimes get local broadcasts of US cable shows, plus there's always the typical animation block.

Once January rolls around I'll have BSG, Lost, 24, and Sarah Connor Chronicles

Current Mood: anxious

Thanks to

thebitterguy who's LJ first alerted me, but I thought this warranted spreading to others:

6 EPISODE HEROES SPINOFF SERIES. It focuses on new characters, and after the series ends there will be a vote on which of the new chars joins the next's season cast. When I first read this I thought that it was somehow starting this summer, but apparently that was too optomistic - it looks like it'll be either playing during the midseason Hiatus of Season 2, to ensure no repeats, or after S2 ends.

That is still pretty cool though, since it means 30 hours of Heroes next year.

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Entries tagged with heroes

TV roundup

Weekly TV Roundup and PoG Links

TV and PoG

TV Fall End of Season Review:

Birthday and unrelated rant...

Fall TV Midseason Review

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Book Foo and TV Foo

New Comic Day

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New Comic Day

Found Money, Zombies, and Heroes

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Premiere week in review!

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