Elflore's Errant Thinking

Fun Find of the Day

elflore — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:52:31 GMT

I borrowed X-Men 3 from the library today, since I felt like rewatching for Colossus, Iceman, Angel, and especially Beast and Kitty Pryde (while ignoring the crimes committed against Cyclops, Phoenix, and good dialogue), and found this Easter Egg deleted scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvHW1oIKUxI

Officially one of the Best Things Ever.

Do Not Ask Davros to Disco

elflore — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 20:32:04 GMT

Feminist Hulk Smash!

elflore — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:19:47 GMT

A few days ago I found out about the PURE AWESOME that is Feminist Hulk.

What could make this even better?

Ms. Magazine interviews Feminist Hulk.

I Support The Superhuman Facebook Registration Act

elflore — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:46:53 GMT

Today's Link of Awesome.

"...why are there doombots welding rockets to my foundation, Victor?"

Warning: Contains Soapbox.

elflore — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:57:12 GMT

So the other day I read this article about truck drivers text-messaging and operating computers while driving. (Most are told to pull over to use these devices to check info they need; most say they never do, can't afford to lose the time.)

Today this was followed up with this article about how many more people are texting and using laptops in their cars as a sort of "mobile office" extension. Because apparently you can't compete with today's high-speed business world if you ain't doing it even when in motion at actual high speeds.

ENOUGH ALREADY.

People are claiming that the added "efficiency" in their business is worth the slight risk of an accident. But how can it make you so much more efficient that it's worth the lives that are lost when an accident does happen? It's BS. We didn't need this kind of "efficency" 5-10 years ago, we don't need it now. While I respect the POV that says "we shouldn't need laws to protect people from themselves," I want the law to protect me from these idiots. I want the cops to haul their asses over before they hit me.

Where can I sign up for one of those no-texting no-computers hands-free-phones-only while driving laws, plz?

Scrubs, Shoes...teeeeeeny tiny Soapbox

elflore — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:51:17 GMT

So my love just linked me this hi-larious video starring Zach Braff & Donald Faison --J.D. and Turk from Scrubs, unofficially yet clearly in character, to promote a great cause. They're working with Soles4Souls, a charity raising funds to distribute 50,000 shoes to kids around the world who don't have them. We're not talking Air Jordans here, either--every $5 buys 2 pairs.

So watch. Laugh. Buy shoes. Pimp this vid.

Oh, the 80s...

elflore — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:17:33 GMT

...when it was perfectly acceptable--nay, AWESOME--to have Doctor Doom guest star in your hero cartoon, only to make him play second-fiddle to a sad old man turned omnipotent super-being called Mr. Frump.

Yeah, I've been watching Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends again.

And then Firestar pointed at something in the sky, and I had to make this icon.

McKean & Gaiman's Mythical Creatures

elflore — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:25:32 GMT

The UK Royal Mail came out with a gorgeous set of postage stamps yesterday based around 6 mythical British creatures, with art by Mirrormask director/designer Dave McKean, and (very) short stories to go with them courtesy of Neil Gaiman. You can see the stamps here and read the drabblish vignettes here.

They're all wonderful, but I can't say if I like the fairy story or the dragon story best.

Up With Pixar

elflore — Sun, 31 May 2009 00:51:56 GMT

Rachael, her mom, and I saw the new Pixar movie "Up" this afternoon, and definitely are pointing all our thumbs that way. It starts out wacky and gets increasingly zany as it goes (so by the end it's a perfect melding of Looney Tunes and action movie), but also has a really beautiful melancholy throughout. I can't remember another kid's movie that brought tears to my eyes so many times (including the Potter films)--but in a good way. It actually reminded me of Doctor Who, in that it's a story for children, yet pervaded by a sense of loss: we lose, we remember, we go on, and find new adventures, make new family, learn to live with our ghosts.

I don't know that I'm making a lot of sense or doing this movie any justice, but it's well worth seeing, even in plain old 2D.

Show's Not Dead Yet (they can dance and they can sing)

elflore — Sat, 30 May 2009 17:03:34 GMT

So I was just amazed to notice in the TV listings for tonight...

A new episode of Pushing Daisies!

I'm pretty sure the show was cancelled, but apparently they're finally going to air the last three episode that were shot, starting tonight. At least that's what happening here at 10pm. So check your listings! And welcome back Ned, Chuck, Emerson, and Olive (and Digby).

While worlds were ending/beginning

elflore — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:18:26 GMT

So I get up this morning, and I see that of course everyone's talking about the BSG finale. To be expected. Great show, at least for a while, even if it lost me this season. I may still check out the end sometime. *Shrugs*

But I do have to say, while the BSG was starting...Dollhouse ROCKED this week.

Joss and others have been promising that this was the episode where the bigger plot really kicked in and the show went off the chain, and it totally delivered. Huge, awesome, kick-@$$ twists, and while I've been loving the concept, possibilities, and characters (yes, even Echo) and enjoying the stories told up to this point, now I am completely psyched about where it's going, and turning over quite a few new mysteries in my head.

Plus, Patton Oswald. Who managed to give the show both it's funniest ("Is this a Porn Man?") and most beautifully, eloquently heartbreaking scenes yet.

Grrr, Argh, I missed you. (Low in calories, spoiler free!)

elflore — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 03:26:04 GMT

Dollhouse.

A little uneven, which is typical of a Joss pilot. Some odd pacing at the beginning, which is really atypical of Joss, though typical of Fox. And Rachael and I had some discussions about the way they're choosing to introduce the concept/characters, which seems to jump right into an unusual day at the 'house (aren't I hip?) before giving us the baseline normal.

But all that said, I am still way psyched for this show.

Eliza rocking. Tahmoh in parallel land for now, but fun to watch as always.

Joss wearing his BSG fanboyness adorably on his slave ("like Edward James Olmos") as well as his feminism--probably a wee heavy handed there, but still.

Slick, slightly creepy, gorgeous sci-fi premise.

Amy Acker, how ya been? And I'm sure your face has a story to tell, looking forward to that.

The ex-cop turned handler. ROCK. Didn't know anything about this character going in, but you know I love my quixotic types.

So yeah. Go go show!

Inauguration 2009

elflore — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:48:37 GMT

Geek that I am, I can't think of a better way to sum up the day than with a couple of fantastic images from Alex Ross.

Goodbye, vampire.

Hello, Man of Tomorrow!

More like Lamisodes

elflore — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:30:51 GMT

So I've not gotten around to watching the BSG mid-season premier yet (and I'm still unspoiled, though I'm seeing both "Best BSG in a long time!" and "OMG, they killed show!" reactions from my flist), but today I sat down and watched the latest batch of webisodes straight through.

Going in, I saw it was co-written by Jane Espenson, and the whole story was a sort of classic locked-space mystery. I thought there was potential. Boy was I wrong.

That Gaeta is Gayta? Not a surprise.

That he's also BiCyCurious, and a bit of a slut? Okay.

That he co-starred on New Caprica in Sharon's Lists, a Deeply Serious Film by Stephen Seriousberg? Oh dear.

But wait, no!

He WASN'T starring in Sharon's Lists. He was starring in You Don't Know What I Did Last Occupation, a teen horror hit by M. Night Shamama Lama-Man.

And thanks to Creepy Stalker Sharon, Gaeta's gonna go all DARK and PUNISHERY. So we have that to look forward to.

WHAT A TWIST!

Crichton Returns...more or less

elflore — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:11:59 GMT

So the new Farscape comic started this week, with a story by Rockne O'Bannon and a script by Keith R.A. DeCandido (author of 'House of Cards,' the only half way decent Farscape official novel), and all in all it's...not bad. Definitely no Buffy: Season Eight, or Angel: After the Fall.

The story takes up soon after Peacekeeper Wars, and involves Rygel finally heading back to Hyneria to try and reclaim his throne (something the TV budget obviously could never have sustained). The art's a bit weak, sadly, although this cover rocks. (It's one of six for the first issue, apparently.) The dialogue's a little on the uneven side...somewhat clumsy and/or cliche, but with some definite Farscapean gems (usually revolving around, what else, Chiana's sex life).

It's great to hang out with these characters again after so long, but they're not really operating at the top of their game. Rygel is especially off. David Kemper always referred to Ryg as "the smartest guy on the ship," but he makes a mistake of D'Argovian proportions here--one any reader will see coming light years off. Kemper and Rockne had a whole Lennon/McCartney thing going, with Rockne providing the sunny optimism and Kemper giving Farscape it's edge. I can't help but feel that Kemper's touch is really missed in the comic, to ground the story and keep it snappy.

Still, we learn what the Crichton-Suns nickname their son, the Erp-town Crichton will always think of as home (though Rachael felt it too late in the series' game for such a revelation), and precisely how many times--well, I won't spoil it.

Fandom.

elflore — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:49:22 GMT

"I was here, and I loved this thing, and these are the people that will remember me."

Sitting With Abe

elflore — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:03:40 GMT

I voted Obama, and I'm optimistic, hopeful, about what the future holds. I know one man being elected will never be a magic fix, and there's a lot of work to be done. But I'm loving just watching how joyful people are about politics and America again, especially people of my own generation. I always knew we cared, I just didn't know how long we'd wait before we felt like someone was listening to the things we cared about. It's a great contrast to how afraid and bitter I remember feeling in 2000 and especially 2004.

But the biggest reason I'm posting is to share a couple of election op-ed pieces from yesterday...

In the Just Plain Funny category: Finally, a Skinny Black Guy President

In the Awesome Imagery category: Small crowd gathers around Lincoln & a transistor radio for news (With a picture which feels like it's gonna belong in the history books.)

Holy Fandom Baby Day, Batman!

elflore — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:23:45 GMT

Today, the world learned that Rose Tyler has just given birth to a baby boy.

Meanwhile, it is announced that Willow Rosenberg and Wesley Wyndam-Price are expecting their own first child.

How awesome is that?

A Classic Scaper Musical of Neveryear (Revisited)

elflore — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:34:32 GMT

Thursday night, Rachael and I went to see Avenue Q and generally laugh our pants off. (Except not literally, as we were in public.) I'd heard the show before, I've had the soundtrack for a couple of years, but this was my first time finally seeing the whole ~~muppety~~ puppety shebang, and it every bit as beautiful, deranged, and wrong as I'd hoped.

And, inevitably, it turned my thoughts back to "Avenue M(oya)," the Scaper musical version first envisioned back at Virtual Scapercon 2006.

The show's 'preview' there mentioned D'Argo's smash hit song, "The DRDs Are For Porn," but I can now reveal these additional details about life on Avenue M:

* The Avenue Q roles of Rod and Nicky will be played by Brac and Scorpy. Brac kicks his beloved Scorpy out of the Command Carrier, driving him to a life of couch-surfing and panhandling in the UT. No surprises there, then.

Fan-favorite songs include:

* "I Wish I Could Go Back to YearOne," a nostalgic look at the innocence of yesterseason

and

* "Only For Now," an ode to all our fleeting SciFi favorites and the scion-of-unwed-parents networks that cancelled them.

"Invisible Man! is only for now...Firefly! is only for now... Skiffy! is only for now...Fox! is only for now..."

What are your favorite Avenue M(oya) memories?

Ultimate Shakespeare

elflore — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:37:54 GMT

Chuck Norris as Hamlet
Christopher Walken as Claudius

Discuss.

(spinning from a conversation with jessofthebugs)

Is This What I Think It Is?

elflore — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 22:45:12 GMT

Evil League of Evil now taking applications

Found this linked through the_cortex. Note the last line: "The best applicants, as determined by the League or its designated agents, will be included on a special DVD commemorating our most recent member."

Is this an official Dr. Horrible project? Will fans be included on the DVD for the show? It would be just like Joss, no?

I'm a little angry too, but I'm grinning.

elflore — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:43:18 GMT

Aaron Sorkin writes the meeting between Barack and Jed Bartlet.

There's a gorgeous, classic Barlet rant in there. Great stuff.

Mounties Rule (Not Irony).

elflore — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:37:02 GMT

Dear Canada,

Please produce a comedic film co-starring Paul Gross, David Hewlett, and Nathan Fillion. Wacky buddy comedy, a story of three hi-lariously dysfunctional brothers, I'm not picky.

With greatest respect,

me.

This post brought to you by tonight's viewing of the pilot and first regular episode of Due South. How have I never seen this show before? Benton Fraser is my latest fictional hero. Not really surprising, since he's actually Clark Kent. No, seriously--the faith in people's better natures, the courtesy that looks ridiculous to most Americans, the fact that when he is pushed into action he's really, effortlessly good at it...this is Superman written exactly right.

Has Benton Fraser attended Fandom High yet? I could see that working beautifully. I also want to see Mr. (Officer? What's the Mountie honoriffic?) Fraser encounter Charlie Crews from Life. 'Cause that'd rock. FH roomies, even.....

Well, yes, I am slightly overdue for sleep at this time.

Another Doctor Who post S4 finale post--SPOILERS behind the cut

elflore — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 21:03:32 GMT

So last night I found this Doctor Who vid, a beautiful DoctorDonna tribute set to a gorgeous Mika song, with a connection made at the end between the latest season finale and an earlier S4 ep that blew me away...

And it got me thinking again about what really happens afterwards.

At the end of the vid we hear the Doctor saying, "I don't think she ever really forgot. A brilliant mind like that...bits of memory kept bleeding through." It's in regards to Agatha Christie, at the end of "The Unicorn & the Wasp," after Ms. Christie's amnesia seems to have taken her memories of the adventure.

But what if that episode really is the template for the future? What if Donna's memories bleed through--and she becomes one of the great sci-fi/fantasy novelists of the 21st century? 'Copyright Donna Noble' becomes more than a joke, and the Doctor's insistance that Donna avoid 'spoilers' in the Library takes on a whole new import.

Consider too the life of the Doctor's alter ego John Smith in Human Nature/Family of Blood. Others have already commented that the human-Doctor that went home with Rose gets to have much of the life John Smith dreamed about at the end, but now I wonder if the DoctorDonna also carries something of Mr. Smith. With the Doctor's memories locked away, he certainly had 'bits of memory bleeding through,' and they surfaced in his 'Diary of Impossible Things.' He seemed likely to become a sci-fi writer himself, had he remained in 1913.

Of course, being me, then I get *really* fanwanky, and imagine Donna somehow coming across a copy of that D.O.I.T. (an acronym I only realized as I typed it, heheh), and it serving as the inspiration/springboard for her own first work... But hey, wasn't the Diary last seen in the care of Miss Joan Redfern? So it could well have survived, been cared for...

Novel Decisions

elflore — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:42:54 GMT

So yesterday, I came to some rather major decisions about my novel.

As I think most of you know by now, I've been working on a big fantasy novel...working for the last 3-4 years on a couple of major drafts, working on the general story and characters in various forms on and off since I was 12. But last night, I took a hard look at the (sort of) complete first draft, the second draft I'd recently returned to, and the copious notes and outlines I'd developed, and I decided that copious was too much the word.

What I've really developed over the years, I think, is more of a role playing game, or an entirely unfilmable TV series. Too many subplots and characters, overly complicated magical systems, and a story slowed down way too much by attempts to investigate the nature of good, evil, and modern warfare in a metaphorical context.

And my central character, the guy who happened to share a name with this journal, really never developed a personality to speak of. I invented him when I was 12, to serve as my proxy and explore the world I was creating and react to it much as I would, but I finally had to accept an odd paradox. It seems when you try to write a character more or less as yourself, what you would expect to be the easiest character to describe...instead you get a cypher. Rachael compared it to something with from the Wayside School books about how you can't taste a you-flavored ice cream. You just can't pin down or describe your own uniqueness like you can observe and relate those of others. ( I sincerely hope this is the problem, and I'm not just really boring. )

So I've come up with a new streamlined outline. It takes one peripheral character and puts him in Elflore's place at the center (with a couple of Elflore-ian traits and relationships), it cuts most of the other side characters and a lot of subplots, and hopefully takes us directly to the action in a way that makes sense and makes readers care.

It's kind of a scary thing for me. I feel like I'm starting over, because I pretty much am. I feel like I should've been smarter, should've been able to figure out these needs for the book a long long time ago, if I was a 'real' writer or something (more emo). But I really think this is how the story has to work, so--we'll see how it goes, yeah?

But I'd definitely love to hear your takes on the situation, especially those of you who've read some of the last draft. If there are things you really liked and want to see preserved, let me know. If it was totally boring you, this is absolutely the penalty-free time to say so. *snerk*