08.31.06
Posted in Books, Conventions, Geeky Stuff, SF/F at 4:47 am by Jellyn
Apparently Harlan Ellison groped Connie Willis at the Hugo awards ceremony at WorldCon. I'm very interested in seeing video footage or a photo of this. I especially want to know how the audience reacted.
This seems to me to deserve some strong reaction. An organized boycott of the next WorldCon unless Ellison is banned maybe? Although the way WorldCons are run, by a different group each time, this may not be the best solution. Boycot Ellison's stuff? Doubt he'd notice.
So what I'm going to do is buy one of Connie Willis's books the next time I'm at the store. I don't think I've read any of her stuff.. perhaps some short stories. From what I hear, I should like one of her books. So I'm going to check 'em out.
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08.29.06
Posted in Geeky Stuff, Manga/anime, SF/F at 1:27 am by Jellyn
Because some of you (one of you) asked for it. Here's a followup to the Earthsea/SciFi essay by the same author. And Then Ghibli Screwed Earthsea.
I don't think Ghibli whitewashed Earthsea. Though they might have made most of them Japanese. It looked to me like all the characters who should've been brown had brown hair and brown eyes. Not that I've seen the movie or read the books, so my opinion admittedly doesn't count for as much as it could if I had.
Tried reading Earthsea at one point. Didn't get into it.
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08.25.06
Posted in Geeky Stuff, SF/F, TV at 2:56 pm by Jellyn
I'm afraid this show might get dismissed by people for various reasons. Oh, it's on Sci-Fi Channel. Oh, I don't like reality shows. Oh, I don't like superheroes. Oh, I had no idea it was even on.
While it is not the best reality show ever, I think it ranks up there. It's smart and funny and, as they say, it has heart. On one hand, they don't take themselves too seriously. On the other, they take it more seriously than many reality shows. The challenges are not always what they appear to be. And neither are the contestants.
The finale is next week. SciFi is rerunning the entire show next Thursday (the 31st) starting at 4pm.
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Posted in Books at 2:48 pm by Jellyn
I added a list of Newbery Medal Winners over in the sidebar. I thought I'd read more than that! Only one of them did I have to read for school. What's up with that? I've only read 5 out of 85. And 2 of them were this month when I wasn't even trying! Weird.
Feel free to recommend which ones I should start with.
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08.16.06
Posted in TV at 8:49 pm by Jellyn
I've been watching America's Got Talent on and off. Some of what I didn't catch on NBC, I caught on Bravo. The format of the show really confused me. When they got to some sort of 'semifinalist' show, it made it sound like they were choosing the two finalists then. The judges choose one and we choose one. Except it turned out to be only one of several semifinalist episodes. Then there was a wild card show, just to confuse things further. I have no idea how many rounds the finalists actually ended up going through.
Some acts I wanted to see more of didn't make it to the final. But Quick Change did. For those who weren't watching, they're a quick change act. Real original name, yea? The guy changes his outfit like once, so mostly it's the chick changing into different dresses. Piers, the requisite mean British judge, was constantly saying they kept giving him the same show and he was bored of it. Everyone else was really down on him. It's a quick change act, so what did he want, them to do something else? This is the act, this is their talent, yadda yadda.
Well, Piers was right. They might change the outfits and the music, but it's the same act. They don't even do the changes in different ways. They kept pulling out the same methods of disguising it. Confetti over her head. Her wrapped up in a big cloth. Yawn. And Piers had a point where he said the acts that cry get people to vote for them, apparently, because she cried like crazy and left the stage and yet they're in the finals somehow.
They say they have a 90 minute act. I can't picture it! 90 minutes of what we've seen? Dullsville.
I could think of several ways to make the act different. They could've brought out a kid. They even have a 13 year old they could've used! They could've tried it on animals. They could've employed a pair of twins. Twins are always useful. Or a whole 'chorus' of people changing. Or maybe something involving a manequin. Tons of things! Instead they just changed the clothes and the music. So lame.
So, take heart, Piers, I agree with you!
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Posted in Books, Manga/anime at 8:31 pm by Jellyn
Boo, Tokyopop! The first two volumes of Legal Drug were pretty cool. They have these translucent pages at the front and back of the book that had art on them. Also, the first page or so was in color. As I'm sure it probably was in the original. And, well, I could actually go look, but I don't feel like it.
But volume 3 has no translucent pages and no color at all. Even though the first page was clearly originally a color page. So, boooo. Same price, but not nearly the same production value going into it.
Volume 3 also seems sort of a divergence from the plots of the earlier volumes. It's a lot more like a couple of school shows I've watched lately -- Princess Princess in particular. But that's not Tokyopop's doing.
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08.13.06
Posted in Books at 11:57 am by Jellyn
If I've done my math right, I have to read 17 books this month to catch up to last year. That's the bad news. The good news is that I've already read 10 this month(!). So that leaves 7 books in 18 days. That's not too bad.
Except... last year I apparently went a bit crazy in December! I could lose it all then if I don't get ahead now.
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08.03.06
Posted in Books, Geeky Stuff, SF/F, TV at 4:18 am by Jellyn
The Feminist SF blog pointed me to an essay by Pam Noles about race and speculative fiction and the Earthsea miniseries in particular. I found it incredibly interesting and even enlightening, so you should go read it. It's called "shame".
Did I include the Earthsea problem in my list of why SciFi Channel sucks? I should've.
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