Dining in Middle Earth: A Proper 1420

“Altogether 1420 in the Shire was a marvellous year. […] In the Southfarthing the vines were laden, and the yield of ‘leaf’ was astonishing; and everywhere there was so much corn that at Harvest every barn was stuffed. The Northfarthing barley was so fine that the beer of 1420 malt was long remembered and became a byword. Indeed a generation later one might hear an old gaffer at an inn, after a good pint of well-earned ale, put down his mug with a sigh: ‘Ah! That was a proper fourteen-twenty, that was!’”

LotR Dinner12

We come back, at last, to the Shire, to end our year of dining in Middle Earth with a humble Hobbit dinner such as Frodo and his friends might have enjoyed after returning home from their adventures. A boiled chicken dinner makes a warm, homey meal for cold winter nights, and of course there’s beer to go with it. For dessert we have seed-cakes, an old favorite of Bilbo’s.

LotR Dinner12 Main

The table setting is sunny and cheerful, decorated with the Hobbits’ favorite colors. An unbleached linen table runner with green and yellow stripes sits over a dark green tablecloth. Green also comes on the napkins and plant pot with an ivy motif. The dinner is served on one large, hefty platter. A cloth-lined bread basket holds the small dessert seed-cakes. Fancy water glasses add another pop of greenish hues to the table.

LotR Dinner12 Dessert

Check out what’s it about in the introduction, or read the how-to!

Images by Eppu Jensen

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!

Scandi-Style Stormtrooper Sweaters

A speed-knitter and a Star Wars fan? There might still be time to make one of these awesome stormtrooper sweaters for Rogue One opening!

Etsy NatelaDaturaDesign Stormtrooper Sweater
NatelaDaturaDesign on Etsy

Both the instant download patterns and finished knits are by Natela Astakhova at NatelaDaturaDesign on Etsy. Just glancing at it, my eye read the pattern as your generic Scandinavian circular yoke sweater, then I did a double take. As I already said, awesome!

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

Folk-ish Steampunk Music: Abney Park

Steampunk is something I only dabble with from time to time, not a steady favorite. That’s why I wasn’t expecting much when I saw someone recommend a steampunk band called Abney Park, but I nevertheless checked out the video the person linked to. Then I listened to another song. And another. Then life intervened. A couple of days later I noticed myself humming something I didn’t immediately recognize. Eventually I figured out it was “Tribal Nomad,” one of the Abney Park videos I’d seen:

Tribal Nomad | Official Video | Abney Park | Steampunk Post-Apocalyptic Music by abneypark

If it sticks so efficiently, I figured there has to be something to it and poked around more. I don’t think I’ll ever be a fan of their visuals, but the combination of folk plus industrial instruments has really grown on me. Also, Abney Park isn’t stuck with one style but has great variety. For example, “The Clone Factories” has more techno / trance overtones:

The Clone Factories | Abney Park | Wasteland by abneypark

They also have a version of a popular Russian folk song “Katyusha”:

Katyusha – Song from Abney Park’s new album, The Circus At The End Of The World by abneypark

No wonder it seems like Abney Park’s got it down: they’ve been around since 1997 and have almost two dozen albums under their belt. Nice going.

I will definitely adding Abney Park to my playlists!

Found via Nörttitytöt. Thanks for the rec, Mikko!

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

Quotes: She Tried to Take It All in

“She tried to take it all in, to memorize every detail of the amazing historical event she was witnessing: The young woman splashing in the fountain with three officers of the Royal Norfolk Regiment. The stout woman passing out poppies to two rough-looking soldiers, who each kissed her on the cheek. The bobby trying to drag a girl down off the Nelson monument and the girl leaning down and blowing a curled-paper party favor in his face. And the bobby laughing.”

– Connie Willis: All Clear; London, 7 May 1945

Just a part of the World War II Victory in Europe Day celebration in Trafalgar Square, London, according to author Connie Willis. What a delightful image, especially the bit about the bobby and the girl with the party favor!

Willis, Connie: All Clear. New York, NY: Spectra, 2010, p. 14.

(This quote comes from my 21 new-to-me SFF authors reading project.)

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

2 weeks to Rogue One—Check out This R1 Trailers Supercut

The peeps at GameSpot Universe went through Rogue One trailers and combined them into this supercut:

Trailer Supercut: All Rogue One Clips In Chronological Order by GameSpot Universe

Their goal was to put the clips in chronological order, by which I’m guessing the order they will appear in the movie. Looks like a reasonable guess to me!

Two weeks—can’t wait!

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

Quotes: More Open to Imagining Better Worlds that Might Be Possible

“Science fiction came into being in response to a new thing in human history: the understanding that not only was the world changing, but also that the rate of change was speeding up. That in a normal lifetime, you could expect to experience multiple episodes of rapid, disorienting change. Science fiction at its best has always been about examining and inhabiting those experiences when the world passes through a one-way door.

“Modern science fiction grew up in the Great Depression and flourished in World War II. It thrived in the strangeness of the 1950s and the different strangeness of the 1960s. It has continued to be an essential set of tools for engaging with our careening world.

[…]

“And I really do believe that science fiction and fantasy storytelling makes us, in some fundamental way, a bit more practiced in the ways of a world caught up in wrenching change—and more open to imagining better worlds that might be possible.”

– Editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Like I wrote in my Arrival Recap: I explicitly do not want all of my reading and viewing rehashing the same old stories over and over, because SFF is explicitly about examining other possibilities.

Nielsen Hayden, Patrick. “The prospect before us.” Making Light, November 9, 2016

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

Maria Turtschaninoff’s Novel Maresi Optioned

Swedish-speaking Finnish author Maria Turtschaninoff announced last week that her fantasy novel Maresi has been optioned for a movie by the U.K.-based company Film4.

Congrats—grattis! Awesome news!

The historically inspired fantasy was originally published in Finland in 2014 and awarded the prestigious Finlandia Junior Prize in the same year. It’s the first in the Red Abbey Chronicles series.

Turtschaninoff Maresi US 2017 Cover

Film4 has developed and co-financed many of the most successful films from the U.K. in recent years, including Academy Award winners 12 Years a Slave and Slumdog Millionaire. Earlier Film4 productions include K-Pax, Trainspotting, and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

The U.S. edition of Maresi will be released January 03, 2017.

A freestanding sequel called Naondel has just been published in Swedish and Finnish, but at this writing there’s no information about translations. Turtschaninoff is currently working on book three for the series.

Maresi comes highly recommended by a friend of mine, but I haven’t yet been able to get it. I’m eagerly looking forward to January!

Image via Maria Turtschaninoff

The Expanse Season 2 Trailers

Trailers for the second season of The Expanse are out!

THE EXPANSE | Season 2 Trailer | Syfy

THE EXPANSE | Season 2 Trailer #2 | Syfy

I saw the first season well after it had broadcasted. It’s clear that it merely scraped the surface of the story, but I liked it enough to want more. The writing managed quite well to avoid infodumps while giving us enough to understand any given situation. Most of the cast was new to me, but I enjoyed their performances. Detective Miller was the most boring character of all; I liked the crew of the Rocinante, though, especially Nagata and Burton.

Season 2 will be out February 8, 2017.

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

Dining in Middle Earth: The Return of the King

“Frodo gave way; and Gandalf, as if he were their esquire, knelt and girt the sword-belts about them, and then rising he circlets of silver upon their heads. And when they were arrayed they went to the great feast; and they sat at the King’s table with Gandalf, and King Eomer of Rohan […]”

LotR Dinner11

This month, we try to imagine a celebratory feast in Minas Tirith for the coronation of Aragorn. The people of Gondor had lived through war and privation, but they would surely have laid on the best they could for their new king and the return of peace. Our feast includes saffron seafood soup, roasted pork with olives and dates, sauteed spinach, and almond pastries for dessert.

LotR Dinner11 Main

Our table setting is based on a contrast of primarily white dishware and the dark tabletop. Most of the color comes from the food. The shapes of the dishware are simple, with no patterns or surface decorations. Silver cutlery, silvery candlesticks, and a white, shimmery table runner introduce a touch of luxury. A pewter cup holds mint sprigs for additional color and flavoring.

LotR Dinner11 Dessert

LotR Dinner11 Drink

Check out what’s it about in the introduction, or read the how-to!

Images by Eppu Jensen

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!

Arrival Recap

So, here are some initial thoughts on Arrival. Spoiler alert is most definitely in effect!

Twitter Arrival Movie Poster Aug 16 2016

Things I loved:

  • No stealth female protagonists here, but an actual, full-time, proper female lead who isn’t there for her boobs and butt, but brains!
  • Top notch plotting, dialogue, and characters, all in all. Also the directing, sets, music, and effects were impressive.
  • Some of the trailers make it look like the linguistics lecture in the very beginning is in a huge auditorium with only a handful of students attending, which might have meant that the movie university was going to have a neglected linguistics department or lukewarm students. Not so. There was a good reason why students didn’t show up, i.e., the alien landing.
  • Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) was treated as an expert almost universally. Notable exceptions were a CIA bloke at the Montana camp and Dr. Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), the male lead. The latter, upon meeting Dr. Banks for the very first time, quoted something she’d written and said something to the effect of “Too bad it’s wrong.” Tut tut. He got over himself, though.
  • Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker), the army liaison for the civilian consultants, was an actual ally to Dr. Banks and Dr. Donnelly, not an antagonist. It would’ve been so easy to take the lazy road. (Then again, they did take it with the antagonistic CIA bloke.)
  • The complexities of language and communication were explained with easily understandable comparisons.
  • Languages were treated as the complex systems that they are, i.e., other levels beyond the lexicon got attention.
  • Many of the English translations of the heptapods’ language were messy (e.g., “Abbott is death process” = “Abbot is dying”). As a non-native English speaker who operates with two languages on a daily basis, I found it very realistic. There are times when quick and dirty is what you need, and others when you can spend more time pondering. In a first contact situation where political and military pressures are high, there might not even be a need to polish the English syntax as long as the message is unambiguous.
  • Some of the aliens’ language was subtitled. I’m a visual person; in addition, I can’t always hear everything in noisy environments such as movie theaters or restaurants. ❤ subtitles!
  • The story is very explicit about the need for people work together to solve problems without feeling preachy. YMMV.
  • A male hero doesn’t punch an alien in the face at the end. I’m all for punching the bad guys—now and then. I explicitly do not want all of my reading and viewing rehashing the same old stories over and over, because SFF is explicitly about examining other possibilities. It feels (’cause I haven’t seen any statistics or anything) like lately we’ve mostly gotten the punchy kind of SFF. It was so nice to face a different fare for a change.

Things I didn’t think were quite as successful:

  • Only one prominent female speaking role. For realz. Surely you’re better than that, writing team.
  • The conflation of linguistics and translating. Of course the two disciplines are related, but each comes with its own set of principles and tools.
  • Dr. Banks and Dr. Donnelly each got their own team in Montana, but the teams were hugely underused. They might have been completely omitted for all the difference they made.
  • Dr. Banks’s visions affected her thinking and behavior, but weren’t integrated into the dialogue terribly well. The one time they tried (“Are you dreaming in their language?”), she responded very defensively, and the matter was dropped without further exploration.
  • Non-linear time as part of the plot. It’s a very difficult concept to pull off successfully. I haven’t come across a story yet where I think it works to its full effect. (I might feel differently about “Story of Your Life.” Note to self: Find it & read.) Even so, the execution in Arrival was one of the most elegant I’ve encountered, and the reveals were well-paced.
  • At the end, the aliens indicate that they’re sharing their full language with Dr. Banks because in 3,000 years they will need humanity, but that was it. What a cliffhanger!

I’ll finish with a couple of links:

How the writer of ‘Arrival’ spent a decade getting his sci-fi Oscar contender made. An interview with screenwriter Erik Heisserer that sheds light to the difficulties in getting a movie project greenlit and adapting the inspiration story.

‘Arrival’ Author’s Approach To Science Fiction? Slow, Steady And Successful. An interview with Ted Chiang, whose short story “Story of Your Life” (1998) was the basis for Arrival.

Ted Chiang, the science fiction genius behind Arrival. Another focus piece on Chiang.

Image via Arrival Movie on Twitter

In the Seen on Screen occasional feature, we discuss movies and television shows of interest.