TV Tuesday – Doctor Who

Posted on March 6, 2012 by

I have some exciting news about a new endeavour I’m taking on. A few weeks ago on Twitter I responded to a post inquiring about interest in a feminist blog about Doctor Who, intrigued I volunteered to be one of the writers for this new feminist space.

Today I have posted my first blog on the new Doctor Her and I invite you to check it out. There is an incredible depth and breadth of writers for this blog and I encourage you to check out what they have to say and to join in the conversation. You can find my first post, about the framing and writing of The Doctor’s companions in New Who over here. 

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CBS Does Sherlock – What?

Posted on February 28, 2012 by

I had started a blog post about the BBC’s Sherlock, a modern take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s works, but recently there has been chatter online about CBS attempting what sounds like a very similar endeavour.  The more I hear about it, the more issues I have. So now this post is about that. 

The first time I remember being aware that American versions of British things were awful was watching the American film of Roald Dahl’s Matilda in 1996. (Danny DeVito, really?) Since then it’s been a run of examples, from The Office, to Being Human, They even tried to remake Absolutely Fabulous. Viva Laughlin, the remake of Blackpool was a laughable flop, Top Gear, the X Factor, the list goes on.

In the case of Sherlock Holmes, I find it even more puzzling, in my opinion, the market is pretty much saturated with Sherlock remakes right now. In 2009, and again in 2011 we had Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law starring in major Sherlock Holmes blockbuster films, set in the original time period. And over the course of 2010-2012 the BBC produced six 90 minute episodes of their modern-day retelling of the Sherlock story.

CBS’s Sherlock series, Elementary, is another modern-day telling of the books, and the timing reeks of an attempt to market off of the popularity of the other Sherlock franchises currently out there, and the critical success of the BBC’s Sherlock in the UK. Elementary will take place in New York City and feature British actor Johnny Lee Miller as a recovering addict leaving rehab to become a consultant for the NYPD.

The latest news to come out of CBS’s Elementary is that Lucy Liu has been cast as “Joan” Watson, in a gender bending twist of the source material. While I have defended reboots of original material which includes the switching of a characters’ gender – Boomer in Battlestar Galactica and Kono in Hawaii Five-O stand out in particular – I am not in favour of this one. The Sherlock Holmes stories do lack an abundance of smart, capable, recurring female characters, but I’m reading this switch from John to Joan slightly differently. 

One of the recurring elements in the Sherlock stories is the relationship between Sherlock and John, and it’s many interpretations: Friends, Colleagues, a ‘Bromance’, Heterosexual life mates, Lovers, an Asexual and his best friend, there has always been a debate in the fandom, and amongst casual viewers and readers.

To me, this switching of John to Joan reads as the network’s reading of the relationship as a sexual one, or one that can become that. But an absolute reluctance to explore that relationship as it stands. If the source material is being read as one that can be a romance, then the network is simply taking the cowardly and predictable way out of exploring a gay relationship between two leading characters. 

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Friday Reads: Mastiff

Posted on February 10, 2012 by

Book: Mastiff
Author: Tamora Pierce
Published: 2011
Pages: 581
Category: fiction: Young Adult

I was really looking forward to the final book in Tamora Pierce’s Beka Cooper trilogy, but Mastiff did not end up being exactly what I was hoping for in wrapping up the series. Instead of taking place in familiar locations or familiar characters, we were introduced to a wide ranging hunt across the realm with only a few familiar faces.

Beka Cooper Book Three: Mastiff

The story itself was interesting and really enjoyable, and some of the new characters introduced were wonderful, I just felt I did not get enough closure on some of the plotlines that I was interested in from the previous books. It also felt like some of the characters we did know ended up acting in ways that were out of character for them.

While the first novel was set in the capital city of Corus, and the second set in Port Caynn, a city familiar to Pierce’s readers, the wide-ranging scope of this case set across the realm required a lot of exposition and narrative positioning for the reader to understand what was going on. I felt like this meant that many things I would like to have known were left out, such as the lives of characters who had been in previous books, and other plotlines were dropped completely from the story, even ones which had been built up for the previous two books.

Though it was a conclusion of sorts for the character of Beka Cooper, it tried to do too much at the last minute, and my favourites for this series will remain as the first two books, Terrier and Bloodhound.

Overall I thought this series was a great addition to Pierce’s Tortall novels, and a great look at the past of the realm that she created. The nods to the rest of the novels were well done and bits of information I was interested in learning, and I look forward to the other Tortall novels that Pierce has planned. You can check out her website here at http://www.tamora-pierce.com/

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Friday Reads: Matched and Crossed

Posted on February 3, 2012 by

Book Titles: Matched & Crossed
Author: Ally Condie
Published: 2010 & 2011
Pages:  366 & 367
Category: fiction: young adult

Matched (2010)

Ally Condie’s books, Matched and Crossed explore a dystopian world where citizen movement is tracked, culture is regulated, and your partners are decided for you. Citizens wear a uniform except on three special occasions where they can pick from a few pre-determined options. Your job is decided for you based on aptitude and even your dreams are monitored by the government.

Falling into a tradition of dystopian novels reminiscent of Lois Lowry’s The Giver, the main character, Cassia starts to realise that her world is not as perfect as it appears when the government makes a mistake with her match and she briefly sees two faces on her match screen instead of just one.

The world Ally Condie has created is a really interesting one, while it is similar to many other fictional dystopias popularized by novels like The Hunger Games, The Giver, and many more, the element I found most interesting and unique is the curtailing of culture. When The Society was created, a panel of citizens chose 100 films, 100 poems, 100 paintings to represent the culture of the past. New art is prohibited and citizens do not learn how to write or create.

The first novel, Matched explores the awakening of understanding of the flaws of the world, and has our protagonist realizing that this way of living is not the way that she wants to be. By the end of the novel, she has experienced horror and heartbreak at the hands of the ‘officials’ and decides to attempt to find what has been taken from her.

Crossed (2011)

Crossed finds Cassia exiled to the outer provinces trying to find a way to live outside of the government structure, and looking for evidence and artifacts of the past.

I thought these books were good overall, though at first they seemed like just another exploration of the same dystopian genre, Condie did manage to find unique elements of authoritarian government and society to explore. I particularly liked the inclusion of technology and the curtailing of culture as hegemonic tools towards the suppression of society. I also enjoyed the positioning of Museum attendants and historians being the driving force of resistance as well as the importance poetry to the main characters, it was very well done.

Condie has a third novel in the works for this series, and it looks to explore another element of society in terms of an organized resistance movement. These books did not captivate me as much as Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy or Lois Lowry’s The Giver, but they were well written and interesting to read and I will be checking it out when it is released some time in 2013.

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Why I Never Know What To Say To Authors

Posted on February 1, 2012 by

Last night was the last stop on John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars book tourand also the first stop in Canada! It was great to have both John and his brother Hank in Vancouver, as the Green brothers said,  it was like the internet, but in real life!

John Green reads from The Fault in Our Stars

John read from TFIOS (as I tried not to cry), Hank sang some of his songs, there were jokes, questions and answers, and it was an excellent evening. I particularly enjoyed the moments when John just paused, looked out at the audience and tried to explain to any non-nerdfighters in the audience what was going on. (Although there were a couple points when he said “I’m sorry, if you don’t get that one I can’t explain, it involves about ten internet jokes.”)

I was surprised at how few people I recognized from other Vancouver nerd events. Much of my nerd community is located closer to Seattle, and there weren’t many Nerdfighters I recognized from Can’t Stop The Serenity or Wizard Rock shows, but then I guess I’m getting older than the target teen market for these books, and maybe this community. It doesn’t devalue the experience for me at all, just gave me a bit of pause. Perhaps mostly because many of my friends who would have attended did not get tickets in time.

John Green and Hank Green

It did get me thinking about how I never know what question to ask or what comment to make in the 15 second window of the signing line at these events. There are authors that I would like to say so much to, but that I don’t know how to describe what I want them to know. 

I’ve often thought that in my lifetime I would like to be able to say two words to JK Rowling: “Thank You”. It’s the only words I can think of but they mean so much more than what they seem.I would thank her for my friends, for my childhood, for the adventures of my late teens and early twenties.

The Sold-Out Theatre in Vancouver

I would like to say similar things to John Green, to Tamora Pierce, and many more authors from throughout my life. But the three times I have met John Green, and the two times I have met Tamora Pierce, I haven’t been able to say much. There are so many things, but not a single thing I can think to say.

What I would really like to do is to crystallize the feelings inside my heart that are connected to their books, and somehow just hand them a ball of my emotions. And have them know exactly what I mean to say and why I want to say it. 

There are books that are so much a part of who I am, where I’m from and where I’m going that I wish I could accurately impart upon their authors what

The Signing Line

they have done for me. I have had the luxury of spending so much time with their books, both reading them and thinking about them, letting them impact my life, but that same luxury does not extend to talking with many of these authors to the extent that I would have to in order to get across what I would like to.

Do you have any authors that you would like to talk to? What would you say, or what have you said? Was it enough?

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Other Places I’m online this week: Check out the Bookslingers Podcast that I was a guest contributor for this week and while you’re there, take some time to look around their website, it’s a great resource for all of your book-related needs! Thanks Miss Corene and Miss Maiar for inviting me on the Podcast!

Tour Van for the TFIOS Tour

ps. Check out the awesome tour van that was provided by Penguin for the tour! How awesome is this? And way more fancy than the tour for John Green’s previous book, Paper Towns.

 

 

 

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Friday Reads: The Name of The Star

Posted on January 20, 2012 by

Title: The Name of the Star
Author: Maureen Johnson
Published: 2011
Pages: 372
Category: Fiction: Young Adult

The Name of the Star is a bit of a departure for Maureen Johnson. While Maureen consistently writes about awesome, independent, intelligent teens, they usually don’t have to solve a murder. And there usually aren’t paranormal elements involved.

The Name of The Star

I really liked The Name of the Star. Rory is an intriguing protagonist, and maybe I’m a little biased, but I loved that she was a North American going to school in London. This is definitely my kind of plotline!

The novel could be described as a modern day telling of the Jack the Ripper story, but there is more than meets the eye and it ends up working really well. I’m excited to read the next two books in the trilogy, as I continue to really enjoy Maureen Johnson’s work.

This novel fits in with the increasing numbers of paranormal YA fiction that is being produced, but Maureen Johnson does a brilliant job with it and it does not seem overdone or tired. Instead we get a bright and fresh take on paranormal elements in a YA fiction novel that is well executed and intriguing. I really enjoyed The Name of the Star and would recommend it!

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The Fault in Our Stars [no spoilers]

Posted on January 13, 2012 by

Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green
Published: 2012
Pages: 313
Category: fiction: young adult

When I finished John Green’s first novel, Looking For Alaska, I vividly remember  getting out of bed and writing at my desk for pages and pages. There was so much to think about, to reflect on, and I had to get it al on paper before falling asleep at 3am muddied my thoughts. My reaction to finished The Fault in Our Stars was similar, although I am not blogging at 3 in the morning. I’ve been thinking about the book since I finished it last night after dinner. Sitting by the fire in my apartment alone just thinking. Falling asleep thinking. Waking up thinking.

Like Looking for Alaska, I won’t say much here about the plot. The book was released on Tuesday and I want everyone I recommend TFiOS to to experience in their own way and their own time. But I needed to write this.

The novel is about teenagers with Cancer. As Hazel, the protagonist often remarks, stories about kids with Cancer usually follow the same tropes. John Green avoids this, he’s written a novel about teenagers with Cancer that is funny at the same time it is heartbreaking, he’s written characters that are so real. Teenagers that remind me of my friends who had Cancer in High School. Parents that remind me of their parents.

I won’t tell their stories here, except to remark that what this book gave to me was some sort of marginal insight into what they must have been going through. Answering some of the questions I didn’t know how to ask when I was in Grade 10. Grade 11. Or Grade 12.

Cancer is such a ubiquitous disease. We all know people who have fought it, who have been taken by it. Who have dealt with a loss. My mother lost her husband. Her friend lost a wife and their children lost their mother. Another friend lost her mom. There were surgeries and chemo for three of my friends from school. A family friend who we spent Christmases with for years and years fought it in University. And this year a work friend spent most of her time at Children’s Hospital in Vancouver with her one year old son.

John has spent much time talking about how this book is a work of fiction, not to see any one person in the pages. He notes in a page before the book begins that made up stories matter, and that this is one. In great books we can see so many people. But in this case many of John’s readers need this reminder.

It’s funny, this thing we have that is the Internet. I have met John Green twice, once in Chicago in August 2008, and once in Seattle in November 2008. But when I read John’s book, especially TFiOS, I am reading books written by a friend. You see, I’ve been watching John’s videos on Youtube since 2007.

Through this intangible thing of the Internet, a large part of John’s readership are also his friends. And when you talk to someone several times a week over a period of years, your experience of their books is necessarily different than your experience of any other book written by any other author. So yes, our community (The Nerdfighters) might need a little reminder, not to see, or assume they see people they know were/are important to John, and to us, in the characters of his books.

I would often hesitate to call myself an writer, but in what I have written, I have taken inspiration from the people around me, so of course they would see bits and pieces of my life in what I write. This understanding helps me to understand John’s position in all this.

The Fault in Our Stars is a work of fiction, but the beauty and realness John Green has imbued in his characters necessarily comes from his experiences. And since he has allowed us to become a part of his life through his Youtube videos as well as his novels, we see in his writing what friends would see in the writing of any author. Reflections of their lives, their conversations, their experiences.

At the same time I want to recommend this book to everyone I know, I am nervous about recommending it to certain people. I don’t want to intrude, but I think this book is special in its realness, and I think they should read it. So if you are reading this, you should pick up a copy of The Fault in Our Stars. It is a beautiful book.

 

 

 

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The Songs We Were Singing

Posted on December 14, 2011 by

This is a story about how I fell in love with music.

A few days ago I drove to Seattle to go to the Deck The Hall Ball, an incredible line up, with two of my current obsessions, Death Cab for Cutie and Mumford & Sons, headlining the event. While we were leaving we quickly chatted with a  Mother & Son who were climbing the stairs of Key Arena at the same time as us. It was the boy’s first concert, and he was maybe 11 years old. What a great choice, we told the family.

My first concert experience isn’t nearly as exciting, but it’s indicative of my music listening style. In grade 9 my friends and I started going to Ska shows in Victoria, where we grew up. Several friends had older brothers in a relatively well known local band, so I put on a tie over my tank top and headed out to my first concert. (Other than my own violin concerts). It wasn’t in an arena and it wasn’t a big name, but my friends were all there, and we experienced the music together.

That theme has continued for me. The best concerts I’ve been to involve my friends, hilarious stories, adventures, road trips, or  ferry rides. Piling into my tiny 2-door car and driving across the border, following friends in bands through state borders to book shops or libraries or university campuses. Quick phone calls and sudden plans made across hours of traveling. Planning the ultimate concert weekend, or buying spur of the moment tickets because that one band will play. Showing up at the venue to see the opening band has cancelled, and even though they’re the reason you bought the tickets you still stay in the front row, in front of the stage for the headliner you don’t know. Going to a concert with friends who love the band and coming away from it listening to one of their CDs for 6 weeks straight before going to see the same band in concert again.

I always say I’m never good at finding music by myself, but rely on my friends to tell me what to listen to, or who to try out. Music for me is a story through lyrics, the same way I love poetry. But the stories in the songs and the stories between friends, the experience of it all is what I love.

It’s always amazed me how I can hear a song and be transported back in my mind to where I was and who I was with when that song was on repeat for me. There’s a song by Paul McCartney, “We always came back to the song we were singing/ at any particular time” that sums it up for me. I can hear a song on the radio and be in High School again, in England, with friends across the country, or in another country. Specific people, specific times, they’re all connected to different songs in my mind.

Deck The Hall Ball - Dec 7, 2011

While High School and first year University are wrapped up in what songs were playing on our CD players, computers, or iPods, it wasn’t until second year that I started going to concerts, realizing that spending money on shows was more rewarding that some other things I could buy. I have fond memories of Regina Spektor, KT Tunstall, Kate Nash, The Proclaimers, Jeremy Fisher, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, The Mountain Goats, LMFAO, Ke$ha (Don’t judge, I have some theories on the subject for you). And this isn’t even a story about my nerd music tendencies. That story is for another time.

This past term was a great one for concerts for me. I realized how much I love Death Cab For Cutie. I sang ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ at the top of my lungs while a few hundred metres away Journey performed. I sat in Key Arena for over 8 hours watching seven bands (Grouplove, Two Door Cinema Club, Young The Giant, Forster the People, Cage the Elephant, DCFC & Mumford & Sons) play. There are three new tickets on my wall.

Mumford & Sons Take the Stage

And maybe I cried a little when Mumford and Sons took the stage at the end of the Deck The Hall Ball. But they’re more than just a band. They’re the CD I was listening to when I was struggling with future decisions in a job I didn’t love. They were the soundtrack of our road trip to San Francisco. They were playing as we drove for two days straight, as we jumped in the ocean in Northern California, as we wove through the turns along the coast in Oregon. Even though they weren’t yet a band when I lived there, they remind me of London and my hopes to go back there one day. They are poets and lyricists and I love their music. And I love that I could share their concert with wonderful friends

Concert Friends

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The #LondonRiots & The #CanucksRiots

Posted on August 8, 2011 by

I spent much of today following the events in London through the BBC, the Guardian, and multiple social media channels, and it caused me to think a lot about my reactions to both this riot, and the riots in Vancouver after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup. In both cases I took issue with a lot of the discourse surrounding the events, and I’ve attempted to put my discontent into words, as incomplete and unfounded in research as they may be. I speak from personal experience in both cities, and what I have gleaned through multiple non-academic sources, as well as my own political leanings.

Yes there are people taking to the streets all over the UK today (In London specifically, but also in Birmingham, in Liverpool, in Bristol, in Leeds) to take the opportunity to steal and cause damage, yes similar things happened in Vancouver after something as innocent as a Hockey game. Yes violence and crime is inexcusable. But there are Societal factors that we need to look at too. Those who took to the streets caused violence, looting and mayhem. But why are all these young people so angry? In both London and Vancouver, we have high costs of living, lack of good jobs (for young people especially), a hostile economy, and conservative governments taking time and money away from social programs, policing, and so much more. It takes its toll.

I’m not excusing those who damage property and set things on fire, vandalizing and stealing, but I want to see research and evidence about what’s causing this. The people in the wonderful, beautiful, and diverse cities of London and Vancouver are not wrenching off the shackles of authoritarian governments, but we have governments that do not listen to us. Governments that focus on those with means and not the youth, the future who cannot see their own futures.

In looking at the events through the eyes of social media, the reactions I see are mostly those of shame. Friends on Facebook express how they are “ashamed to be British today” or those on Twitter talk about how it makes them sick to see the violence and destruction. Why do we not feel this same shame and outrage when we take the bus along East Hastings and see those left behind by society, invisible to those in power. When we talk with a man on the streets of London who’s wife died, who hasn’t seen his children in years, and who says he drinks and stays on the streets because it stops him from feeling.

Why do we not feel shame in our government for leaving the youth of London without jobs or prospects in a hostile economy? Why do we not blame those who have the power to change something for the better?

There are people who society has left behind. Who don’t conform or play the game, who don’t know how or don’t want to risk getting hurt again. There are people who have been left behind by their cities, their governments, their countries. And every once in a while there will be a spark. It will be something as simple as a hockey game, or as tragic as the shooting of a (perhaps unarmed) man by police, and the spark will cause these people to realize how utterly angry and left behind they are, and this will happen.

Those rioting are not doing so for overtly political reasons, but that does not exclude these riots as political events. 

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On a lighter note, here are some of the nerdier messages left by the people of Vancouver on the boards covering up the broken windows of The Bay Downtown. “The Wall.”

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San Diego Comic Con Day One: Fun In The Sun

Posted on July 29, 2011 by

This year I was finally able to attend Comic Con International in San Diego, and I fell in love with the atmosphere before I even got on the plane to the city. While I was sitting in Vancouver International at the gate waiting for my flight to board, I looked at the people around me, and by their conversation, their dress, their excitement or the patches on their bags, discovered that many of my fellow travelers were going to the same place.

When I got off the plane in San Diego I was greeted with the sunshine, and aura of nerddom around me. The others in the airport shuttle were all here for the same event, and the city chose to welcome us with SDCC banners ‘Celebrating the Popular Arts’ and the porter at the first hotel we went to welcomed us all with ‘have a great convention’. I loved it. Couldn’t stop looking out of the windows.

The Banners Were All Over The City

Our first day at Comic Con began early, with breakfast at the hotel and a quick walk to the trolley – I’m pretty sure the Trolley to Comic Con is similarly magical to the Hogwarts Express – and got into the first line of many for the day. We got our Thursday tickets and swag bags on Wednesday, so we immediately picked up our Friday & Sunday passes.

The first panel I went to was about Battlestar Galactica, including Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek), Dr Kevin Grazier (A science advisor for many shows that film in Vancouver, and who was dressed as the 5th Doctor), Lilli Borden (Blood & Chrome) and Director Michael Nantin (Who was the director for most of the deaths in season 4.5).

It started off with a short featurette about the music of BSGand we got to see an awesome season three blooper reel (different than the one on the DVDs I believe). We ended the panel with a rousing chorus of “So Say We All” lead by Richard Hatch.

Battlestar Galactica Panel

We missed the Game of Thrones panel because we didn’t line up early enough, but we had so much fun wandering around the Exhibition Floor. I managed not to buy too much, but I did splurge on a Doctor Who comic and T-shirt at the BBC America booth. I also pre-ordered my X-Men First Class DVD, they were giving away free T-shirts! And I was planning on buying it anyway! It’s hard to say what the best part of the Exhibition Floor is. It’s size is staggering, taking up Halls A-G on the main floor of the Convention Centre (for perspective, Hall H alone can hold 6000 people).

There was even a Life-Size TARDIS

Some of the booths are gigantic, and even have multiple levels. There is an art section, poster section, gaming section, comic section, webcomics, networks, studios, and all around you there are cosplayers dressed as characters across a range of different mediums, fandoms, and times. And in amongst it all is the free swag. The Penguin Group was giving away books!

Thursday was also the day of my first w00tstock, which was everything I had expected it to be and more. It took place in the Balboa theatre, and was run by Wil Wheaton, Paul & Storm, and Adam Savage (from Mythbusters). Paul & Storm opened, (Someone give that man a sweater is the name of my Weezer Cover band). Wil Wheaton was amazing as always, he did a reading of “William Fucking Shatner” with musical accompaniment by Paul & Storm, and MC-ed like a boss.  Amy Berg, writer on Eureka was there, and wrote a hilarious scene for herself, Wil, and Felicia Day, who showed up (which was great, because I didn’t get to see her at any other time during the convention). Molly23 performed (though sadly, not My Hope, which is my favourite song of hers), Hard & Phirm were also there, as was the Drummer from POTUSOA, and Dammit Liz, in the role of stage manager.

Can you tell I was terrified?

Adam Savage sang “I did it my way” in the voice of Gollum, and told a hilarious story about talking to his son about Internet Porn. Grant from Mythbusters showed up as well, and many people did songs, readings, and just general awesomeness. It was an excellent way to spend upwards of 4 hours.

All in all, day one of SDCC was incredible and left me excited and energized for day two (which was good, because I would get up extremely early).

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