Author: Eppu

Star Trek: Picard Series First Trailer from SDCC

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The first trailer for the Star Trek spinoff Picard was released at San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend, and it’s looking mighty fine:

Star Trek: Picard | SDCC Trailer – Sir Patrick Stewart Returns by CBS All Access on YouTube

Like Discovery, it’s absolutely breathtaking visually! I do wish technology had been more advanced when TNG and DS9 were filmed.

Storywise, I’m not quite as excited, though, for the borg stories never interested me. I will probably want to see this, however, since Sir Patrick Stewart is incomparable. Also, it would be a joy to see some old faces like Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine).

Any thoughts you had?

Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.

Black Mermaids Aren’t Far-Fetched

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A little while ago there was an Internet brou-ha-ha over Disney’s decision to cast singer Halle Bailey as Ariel in their upcoming live action version of The Little Mermaid. The harrumph is due to Bailey’s skin color.

I say the uproar is silly—it’s a fairytale, and if there’s one carved-in-stone-truth about fairytales it’s that they must and do change with the times. (Besides, I haven’t heard Bailey sing, but apparently she’s got an amazing voice. Scratch that: here’s a video clip of her singing “Unforgettable”, and her voice is indeed awesome. Talent is talent despite the shell it comes in.)

But in case someone’s arguing how black mermaids aren’t historical or some other claptrap (not even starting on mermaids being fictional to begin with), allow me to present a statue of one:

Smithsonian Dona Fish Statue Angola

This statue depicts Dona Fish, part of the many Mami Wata traditions of Africa. As a water spirit that straddles earth and water, she often appears with the head and torso of a woman and the tail of a fish—i.e., just like a (western) mermaid.

Smithsonian had an exhibit on Mami Wata, and some materials are still available online. I encourage you to visit.

Found via Mahealani Uchiyama on Facebook.

Image: Dona Fish, photo by Don Cole via Smithsonian National Museum of African Art  (Ovimbundu peoples, Angola; c. 1950s-1960s; wood, pigment, metal, mixed media)

Out There is an occasional feature highlighting intriguing art, spaces, places, phenomena, flora, and fauna.

50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

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July 20, 2019, is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission—the spaceflight that landed the first people on the Moon.

Ben Feist, a software engineer and historian at NASA Johnson Space Center, and a team of other experts put together a website for Apollo 11 video, audio, and pictures of the astronauts and mission control.

Apollo 11 in Real Time Ben Feist Screencap

The site consists entirely of original historical mission material, with data and audio restored plus transcripts corrected. There’s video, too, and views of the Earth receding and Moon showing up in the viewscreen, various details from the lunar surface, and support teams back home. And a whole host of additional data.

How cool is that!?!

Image: screencap from the Apollo 11 in Real Time website by Ben Feist

In Making Stuff occasional feature, we share fun arts and crafts done by us and our fellow geeks and nerds.

Mulan in Live Action: First Trailer

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Disney is making a live action version of their animated story Mulan, and the first trailer is out:

Disney’s Mulan – Official Teaser by Walt Disney Studios on YouTube

As far as the look goes, I’m all in favor of the live action one—how absolutely gorgeous! So far we can’t say how much the story may have been tweaked or which supporting characters might have been omitted, but I can’t say I’d lose much sleep over the loss of talking animals doing goofy gags in the sidelines.

According to IMDB, Mulan‘s U.S. release date is set on March 27, 2020.

Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.

First Rise of Azshara Impression & Some Bad Jokes

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Rise of Azshara is out! We’ve been taking it slowly, partly because the new zones remind us of Argus (and not always in positive ways—for example the drop rates, the rep farming) and partly because adulting is a thing. Mechagon looks fun, albeit maybe small; we’ve barely started there.

WoW BfA RoA Nazjatar South Monk on Mount

Anyway, the other night we first played some new zone content, especially Nazjatar, and then rolled through earlier Battle for Azeroth dungeons when my brain apparently went into bad jokes mode. Here are three of the funnier ones:

You could say that the drop rate for these Fathom Flesh is… abysmal.

I really hit the bottom with that one!

A tank and a healer walk into a 5-man dungeon. Three hours later they walk out.

Told you they were bad! 🙂

(Okay, fortunately it really doesn’t take three hours for the two of us to clear a BfA dungeon, but it does feel like very slow going!)

Of Dice and Dragons is an occasional feature about games and gaming.

Quotes: There Was No Room for Romance

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I don’t usually like to do two quotes posts in a row, but the interview at A Mighty Girl blog with Captain Marvel co-director Anna Boden was too good to pass. So:

“We didn’t take some kind of firm stance like ‘There will be no romance in this movie’ at the beginning. But as we were exploring the character and exploring what the story was really about, it was about her humanity and, ultimately, her friendships. Not just her buddy friendship that she makes with Nick Fury over the course of the journey but that key, essential friendship with Maria Rambeau from her past that helps link her to her own humanity. And even her friendship with Talos, the Skrull leader, which is a surprising friendship, as she kind of recognizes the humanity in him as well. There was no room for romance. That wasn’t the point. The point was about her connection to these friendships. That felt like a more true story to tell for this character.” [original emphasis]

– Captain Marvel co-director Anna Boden

Bang on. It really annoys me when action movie writers deign to put in a lone Smurfette of a woman, they’ll apparently also have to squeeze in a romance—usually poorly written and atrociously justified with respect to the rest of the story. It’s like regardless of the story, the presence of Wimmin Parts Dictates That There Must Be Romance(TM) Because Otherwise the World Will End. (Although sometimes they work for me, like in The Terminator, but that was better justified, not superficially tacked on.)

Women are people, and like most people, we are able to focus on multiple issues and shift our focus as needed. A war-invasion would definitely be the kind of a situation that takes most of one’s concentration! Besides, not everyone is interested in romance.

It makes for more realistic, genuine, accurate storytelling to show people acting like they do in real life, and to show various kinds of people within a group, any group. It’s so refreshing that the writers of Captain Marvel recognized that; I can’t believe Hollywood’s taken this long to realize it (and/or listen to the storytellers that do).

Serving exactly what it sounds like, the Quotes feature excerpts other people’s thoughts.

Quotes: Lords of Creation Don’t Take Advise

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I’m (re)reading some things from my childhood, except in English instead of a Finnish translation. This paragraph made me gawk:

“Amy’s lecture did Laurie good, though, of course, he did not own it till long afterward; men seldom do, for when women are the advisers, the lords of creation don’t take the advise till they have persuaded themselves that it is just what they intended to do; then they act upon it, and, if it succeeds, they give the weaker vessel half the credit of it; if it fails, they generously give her the whole.”

– Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Whoa! Little Women isn’t really the kind of book where you’d expect to see sarcasm this sharp; it sounds more like Jane Austen.

Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. New York: Puffin Books, 1997 [reissued; published by Puffin 1953; first published 1868], p. 571.

Serving exactly what it sounds like, the Quotes feature excerpts other people’s thoughts.

Historical Miniaturization: An Astronomical Ring that Opens into a Sphere

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The Swedish History Museum shared this nifty gadget on their Facebook page:

FB Historiska museet Astronomy Ring1

We all know looks can be deceiving, right? That’s definitely the case with this item. It’s a German 16th-century ring that turns into an astronomical sphere:

FB Historiska museet Astronomy Ring2

It’s a brilliant example of the possibilities of miniaturization technologies. I’m immediately thinking of a fantasy or alternate history world where a (rich!) scholar takes this with them when traveling for work.

Images by Historiska museet via Facebook

The Visual Inspiration occasional feature pulls the unusual from our world to inspire design, story-telling, and worldbuilding. If stuff like this already exists, what else could we imagine?

Second Spider-Man: Far from Home Trailer

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It’s two weeks to the release of Spider-Man: Far from Home, and end of Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (I think, although Wikipedia disagrees with me.)

Here’s the second trailer, and it’s VERY SPOILERY unless you’ve seen Avengers: Endgame.

SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME – Official Trailer by Sony Pictures Entertainment on YouTube

Alright, looking good. There are more tidbits about the plot and Peter Parker maybe becoming the next Iron Man. Perhaps the most intriguing bit is how they’re hinting that the multiverse might become a part of the MCU (althought I’m really hazy on this aspect since I haven’t read any U.S. comics, only some of the translated ones and even that was years ago). If that’s the plan, I wish the writers all the best—it’s not going to be an easy task.

Like I mentioned earlier, the first Spider-Man movie was enjoyable. If these trailers don’t lie, the sequel seems to do many of the same things; can’t wait! Also, it looks we might see more of MJ, and Maria Hill is back; both great in my book.

Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.

A Minas Tirith Wedding Cake

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One reason I love my fellow geeks and nerds so much is the dedication we put into things we care about. Exhibit number 18,452: a Minas Tirith wedding cake.

Flickr Jenny Wenny Minas Tirith Wedding Cake at Enchanted Forest

Photographer Jenny Wenny gives only this detail about it: “Minas Tirith wedding cake at the Enchanted Forest”; sadly no other information is available at all.

Isn’t it astounding, though? So incredibly detailed I wouldn’t want to touch it! And even though it’s a few levels short of its literary model, the adaptation works for its intended purpose perfectly. Kudos to the creator(s)!

Image by Jenny Wenny on Flickr.

Geeks eat, too! Second Breakfast is an occasional feature in which we talk about food with geeky connections and maybe make some of our own. Yum!