wMay 31, 2010


WisCon 34: Demands and Links

If you attended WisCon 34, please visit WisCon's website and fill out the surveys. As a member of the ConCom, I can tell you that all responses are read and considered when planning for next year. As an example, a single comment was all that it took for me to decide to stop having latex balloons as centerpieces at The Gathering.

Also, throughout the convention, I kept hearing people make comments about "the items that Programming put onto the schedule." PROGRAMMING DOES NOT MAKE UP THE PANELS. YOU DO. I cannot stress this enough. If you want quality programming, then suggest some quality descriptions. Suggesting a panel does not mean that you have to be on it. Takes notes throughout the year. Let ideas percolate until you have the perfect notion. And then submit them.

You can already suggest panel ideas for WisCon 35. If you would like to do so, go here.
Also pay attention when sign-ups happen later in the year. Panelists are necessary to making sure that a programming item makes it on to the schedule.


--A list of books and TV shows from the "Writing the Other: Shout-Outs" panel.

--The Vid Party's playlist, complete with download links This party was epic.

--Liveblog of the Avatar panel

--The Politics of Steampunk panel liveblog

--A Field Guide for Editors panel writeup

--Dreamwidth panel writeup


Non-WisCon Added Bonus:
aycheb writes about fashion in Buffy Season 8 [spoilers]

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scribbled mystickeeper at 10:11 AM
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wApr 11, 2010


Issue #34

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!

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scribbled mystickeeper at 9:56 AM
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wApr 4, 2010


Easter

Easter Vigil at any Abbey is pretty sweet. Not only was the homily superb (the abilities of a priest as a homilist will pretty much make/break him, in my esteem of him), BUT THERE WAS A GIANT TORCH TO LIGHT THE EASTER CANDLE. Seriously, that pole had to be 20 feet long, and there were GIANT FLAMES that made me fearful most especially when the dude tried to get the thing through the doorway. Easter Vigil: arguably the most bad-ass mass of the year (except for that one time at Pentecost when we purposely lit the baptismal font on fire).

On a more serious note, I really appreciated the homily. Easter is not just about butterflies and cute bunnies and candy. It means a lot because of the suffering that comes before it, because of the seriousness required by Lent. It's kind of the time of year to screw your head on straight, and then Easter comes and floods your heart with light, and you realize that Spring is here.

A discussion on whether 'The Hunger Games' was cribbed from the Japanese novel/movie 'Battle Royale.' People have pointed out the similarities in general premise to me before, but the argument made here lays out a series of incredibly specific things that happen in both. An interesting read, even if it doesn't convince you.

The Onion's AV Club had a nice article about A Room of One's Own, on its 35th anniversary.

I think that fan-made crafts like these are really cool. In addition to creations focused on by the OTW (fanfiction, fanart, fanvids), I think that crafts are really neat, too. I've been collecting lots of paper cut-outs of various fandoms, along with a few extra Buffy comics. I'd like to make my own, even though I'm not totally skilled in the realm of craft-making.

With everyone lying about what's actually in the Health Care bill, I found this Washington Post link useful: Answer 4 questions and find out what the Health Care bill means for you.

Also, really liked this Buffy Season 8 vid. DO NOT CLICK UNLESS YOU'VE READ THE TWO MOST RECENT ISSUES OF S8. For serious.

Help Out Your Fellow Fan!

--were_duck seeks recommendations for the WisCon Vid Show. Specifically, she'd like some AMV recs, as she's generally unfamiliar.

--meganbmoore seeks old school shoujo anime. Bonus if you can tell her how to get a hold of it, :D

--littlebutfierce both recommends and seeks more baseball anime.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 11:21 AM
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wMar 7, 2010


#33

Spoilers beneath the black, and for serious, you really don't want to be spoiled if you already haven't been.


So reading the spoiler of Twilight = Angel is what made me so interested in catching up on the Buffy/Angel comics a few months ago.

The pay-off is pretty worth it. I liked this issue a lot, and I really have no idea what Joss has planned for his arc, which will close-out the season. [Does anyone know if there's going to be a Season 9?]

I haven't see anybody else writing about it, so I'll assume that I missed something, but when Giles recognizes Angel's voice, Angel makes some comment like, "Now that your witch isn't here to cover it up," or something - does this imply that Willow is in league with him? Or did he mean that Amy had been masking his voice? Probably the latter, although the former would be more interesting!


This season floundered quite a bit in the middle, but it looks like the many, many loose strings have been pulled taut for a neatly pulled-off ending.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 10:35 AM
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wSep 22, 2008


Still catching up on what I've read lately...

Random notes as I finish rereading the series. Most of these are from Little Town on the Prairie through the end. Also, there was a lot of spirited discussion in my last post about these books. They were written in the 1930s by a woman born in 1867. So, yeah. There are racist attitudes here, as well as sexist ones. I don't think that pretending that these times in history never happened is the way to move beyond them as a society. There is still a lot of value on these books.

Spoilers, but who hasn't read these?!

SCANDAL
Okay, so I love the way Laura writes about Almanzo in Farmer Boy, because it's totally cute how she describes how much he eats, and even every time he gets in trouble, he never actually does anything wrong (except throwing the blacking brush at Eliza Jane), while she's pretty mean toward herself, describing how Laura is often naughty.

But she totally still holds a grudge against Eliza Jane, when she was the school teacher in De Smet. Wasn't Eliza Jane still alive when these books were published? It's just fascinating to me. I know that Laura's daughter Rose went to live with Eliza Jane for a while, too, and that they were pretty good friends. I wonder if there were hard feelings or mean letters after Little Town on the Prairie was published!



ALSO, it's hilarious the first time Almanzo asks to see Laura home from the Church meeting. I love how Ma and Carrie are just like....speechless and petrified.


OMG ALMANZO WILDER IS SO NICE! "What do you take me for? Do you think I'm the kind of fellow that'd leave you out there at Brewster's when you're so homesick, just because there's nothing in it for me?"

Aww, Cap Garland. "God hates a coward."

ALSO, LOL when Almanzo gets jealous because Laura's Uncle Tom was there, not smiling and being like, "Who was that young man you were talking to?" THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER NOW THAT I'M OLD ENOUGH TO APPRECIATE IT.

Seriously, when I was a younger girl, I was always like, "WTF, he has nice horses and then she just marries him?" but reading them now, when I'm older, I can see exactly how she fell in love with him. I don't like admitting that my comprehension of a book changed over time, because I take a lot of pride in the high reading level I had as a child. But here, I'll admit it.

I love Almanzo's amusement and Laura wanting to slit Nellie's throat in the buggy.

WTF, I totally forgot that Laura had a garnet engagement ring. I wonder if this influenced my subconscious, and that's why the garnet is my favorite gemstone?! I WANT HER RING.

What else did I totally forget? That Laura told Almanzo that she didn't want women to vote. FAIL.

It's interesting from a writer's standpoint to read The First Four Years, and realize how much time Laura spent crafting her narrative of the other books. Here, it's very clearly an outline, just telling what happened, with only the bare minimum for embellishments.


So what's next? I'd like to try reading On the Way Home and West From Home again, because I found both really boring when I was younger. Unfortunately, my copies of both are at my parents' house. I did bring back the hardcover collection of a lot of articles she published in Missouri, though, so I'm looking forward to reading them and reporting what they say to you, dear Internet.



Tales of the Slayer, by various Buffy writers

This was awesome! Fans of Buffy should totally read it, and by "it" I refer to the graphic novel (I haven't tried the book formats yet). There are stories from the First Slayer, Medieval Slayer, French Revolution Slayer, Edwardian England Slayer, Navajo Wild West Slayer, Nazi Germany Slayer, Nikki Wood, and Melaka Fray.
Also, I totally guessed correctly that Joss wrote the medieval one, and Jane Espenson wrote the Edwardian one. Yay for a Buffy fix.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 4:31 PM
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wJun 15, 2008


Buffy, Season 8: "Wolves at the Gate"

I have now read through the end of the "Wolves at the Gate" storyline.

Spoilers for these issues lie behind the grey.

I didn't like that they killed Renee, but I did like the stylistic choice of having an entire page from her point of view, with her fading vision and the thoughts she was unable to articulate before dying.

In addition to killing Renee, it seems like Satsu is going to be staying in Japan. And with that, two new slayers of color are written out of the plot, and that kind of sucks. Hopefully Satsu won't disappear. I like her character a lot.

I continue to love Andrew until forever. His "OMG, a mecha version of Dawn is fighting actual Dawn in the street, this is my dream!" made my life, as scenes involving Andrew often do.

Overall, I wasn't a huge fan of this arc, but I'm pretty excited to see what happens when Melaka Fray shows up (and how does that work, exactly??).

I think what bothers me most of all about consuming Buffy as a comic book is that I'm really bad at reading things issue by issue, one month at a time. It's hard for me to remember what happened, and to keep track of new characters. I like reading whole "episodes" all at once, but I want to try and keep up so that I don't get spoiled (I have really bad self-control).

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scribbled mystickeeper at 10:45 AM
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wMay 18, 2008


Buffy, Season 8: Issues 6-12

I don't have anything particularly insightful to say about the Buffy comics, so I'll just note my random observations.

I have read through the first issue of "Wolves at the Gate." I know some spoilers, sort of, but just to be safe, please don't comment with any spoilers.


So apparently I was totally wrong about Xander kissing Buffy. Misleading close-ups, I'm looking at you. I will continue to believe that Xander has always been in love with Buffy, and always will be.

Buffy can never get a break, can she? I loved Giles going behind her to work with Faith. SECRET DEALINGS TO RESULT IN DEATH! As much as I love Buffy, I hated her for assuming Faith was evil again.

Does anyone have speculations on who Twilight is? I have a tiny theory, which is probably stupid, but it's a theory. In the two panels where Twilight goes to take off his mask, you can see a broad, defined jaw, and Twilight complains of his neck being "scratchy." Is it just me, or could Twilight be Xander? Out of all the characters in Season 8 thus far, Xander seems to get a lot of love. He is really hot now (or at least dresses that way), totally in charge, and as usual, incredibly sweet to Dawn, Buffy, and everyone around him. Meanwhile, Buffy has stolen things (although he probably helped in that?), Dawn slept with her boyfriend's roommate, Giles went behind Buffy's back, and Willow is keeping her girlfriend from Buffy because she has somehow chosen Kennedy over Buffy (I'm not really sure I fully understood what was going on with all those Tara/Buffy-resurrection references, but I get that it was supposed to be emotional and explanatory). But Xander is a wonderful specimen of a man, and this is Joss Whedon. Should we buy it?

I'm sure there's something painfully obvious that disproves this theory. But it does seem like Twilight knows Buffy, and has for some time - he decries her "always complaining," and Buffy does vent to Xander a lot.

I'm really not sure how I feel about Buffy's being with Satsu. I was following her when she was telling Satsu that she understood Satsu was in love with her, but that she didn't love her. I don't really know how in-character I find Buffy's being gay. Is that offensive to say? I'm not sure, :( I don't think she's in love with Satsu. Which makes it that much more hilarious that Xander, Renee, Willow, Dawn, and ANDREW all see them. And was that jealousy on Willow's face? It's hard to tell! I want me some Xander/Buffy.


Current Music: Some ghost-hunting show on A&E. My father demanded that I turn off the Angel DVDs (but not before watching gratuitous naked!Spike with me), turned this on, and promptly fell asleep.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 12:29 PM
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wMay 15, 2008


Buffy, Season 8: No Future for You and Chains

Spoilers for issues 1-5 lie behind the cut.


Okay, Xander? Is totally hot. ALSO, HE TOTALLY KISSED BUFFY AND I TOTALLY CALLED IT AT THAT HE IS STILL IN LOVE WITH HER (I could prove it, too, given how many posts I've made about Buffy! Somewhere in my season 5 notes, I think, when Riley left). But oh man. I love everything Xander did.

I liked "Chains" a lot, for a one-r. I know that Brian K. Vaughan will do the next four issues as a Faith arc, and I'm hoping he has a "one-r" after that, because I liked his one-rs in Y: The Last man.

Do people complain a lot about the comics, or are they generally well-received? I like reading them, although I sort of loathe reading comics one issue at a time: I much prefer waiting until an "episode" is done, and reading them all at once.

What I love most of all is that the dialogue is so in-character, and it feels like I'm watching the show. I can hear the characters' voices in my head, although maybe that won't be as prevalent with authors who are not Joss Whedon.

I like giant!Dawn, although I have to admit that it freaks me out a tiny bit that these girls have sex at such a young age (she must have been what, 16?). I understand that I am really old-fashioned, though.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 8:47 AM
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