Ooh, Shiny!

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

Apparently Now I Must Get into The Expanse

Eppu

Browsing Tumblr the other day, I ran into what looked like stills from a scifi series. My immediate reaction was “What is this? Who’s she? I wanna see it!!”

EW Bobbie Draper 000230444-the-expanse-0005

Turns out they were indeed scifi show stills. The pictures come from an article by Dalton Ross on Entertainment Weekly. He talked with The Expanse showrunner Naren Shankar about a new character introduced in season 2, and shared these photos.

EW Bobbie Draper 1739082-frankie-0006

The commanding presence that drew my eye is marine Roberta “Bobbie” Draper from Mars, played by New Zealand actress, model, and boxer Frankie Adams.

Mr. Shankar talked about casting Ms. Adams for the role:

“When you ask a casting director to find a 6-foot half-Polynesian, the response is usually one of stunned silence, like, ‘Really?’ And we were like, ‘Yeah, really.’ We’ve been very conscious about maintaining the ethnic identity of the characters in the book as much as humanly possible. And we were really intent on doing that with Bobbie.

“We actually looked in the U.K., Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Hawaii, and New Zealand. And when [co-author] Ty Franck saw the first casting tape on her, he said, ‘That’s her, that’s her,’ right away. She’s a professional boxer, as well as being a model and so she had the physicality and a very interesting, unusual kind of face you rarely see on television. She’s awesome and we couldn’t be more delighted to have her on the show.”

EW Bobbie Draper 17390800-arm-wrestle-00007

I have to say that the third shot (above) reminds me a lot of the 2004 Galactica reboot. I’ve only seen the pilot for The Expanse, though, and that streamed over a very hiccupy connection. It looked interesting, but for some reason or another I never got back to it.

I seriously hope that Bobbie won’t just be another case of Strong Female Character syndrome. Kick-ass female characters can be awesome, and they are definitely an improvement over women as mothers or love interests. But I’m done with women written as one-dimensional beings, be it demure damsels in distress or forceful fighters.

I want the people in my entertainment to be complex and three-dimensional regardless of their gender. Whether The Expanse delivers or not will remain to be seen, though. (Haven’t read the books that it’s based on, so I’ve nothing to go on there.) Apparently I now must check out season 1 in order to see season 2 when it comes out. 🙂

Images Rafy / Syfy via Entertainment Weekly

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

Fan Video: Marvel Cinematic Universe with Glitter & Gold

Eppu

YouTube users Grable424 and djcprod collaborated to bring us this awesome Marvel Cinematic Universe music video / mashup:

MARVEL || Glitter & Gold (collab w/ djcprod) by Grable424

They’ve skillfully intercut clips from Iron Man and Captain America movies, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ant-Man, among others; the Doctor Strange trailer also features, even if the movie wasn’t out yet. The song is “Glitter & Gold” by new-to-me artist Barns Courtney, and very catchy. Love it!

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

Metal Cover of Star Trek: Voyager Theme

Eppu

YouTuber Captain Meatshield arranged a heavy metal cover of the Star Trek: Voyager theme, and it’s fantastic:

Star Trek: Voyager Theme – Metal Cover by Captain_Meatshield

How do I know it’s great? Like the original, Captain Meatshield’s arrangement passed the goosebump test. Good job, sir!

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

Paleolithic Siberian Unicorn

Erik

Besides being an awesome name for a band, paleolithic Siberian unicorn is an apt description of an animal otherwise known as Elasmotherium.

160630elasmotheriumElasmotherium was a prehistoric relative of the rhinoceros that ranged across central Asia and eastern Europe. It stood over 2 meters tall at the shoulder and its body was as long as 4.5 meters. Its distinguishing feature was an enormous horn on its face. The exact size and shape of the horn have never been determined, since no horn remains have been found, but the bony basis for the horn can be clearly seen on preserved skulls.

Elasmotherium was long thought to have gone extinct over 350,000 years ago, but recent work on a skull found in Kazakhstan has shown that the animal survived until at least 29,000 years ago. That puts living Elasmotheria in the middle of the upper (more recent) paleolithic (40,000-10,000 years ago). Humans certainly lived alongside them and may have depicted them in cave art.

Some have speculated that Elasmotheria survived even longer and may have been the inspiration for fantastical animals including unicorns, as described by eastern European legends, and the Chinese qilin. It’s impossible to verify such ideas, but they’re fun to think about.

Image: Elasmotherium via Wikimedia (c. 1920; painting; by Heinrich Harder)

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

ActionMovieKid’s Awesome Adventures

Eppu

ActionMovieKid is a terrific YouTube channel that I just discovered. It’s run by ActionMovieDad (also known as Hashi), who does the videos mostly with Adobe After Effects. He writes of how the channel came to be:

“My 4-year-old kid is awesome. He gets into some epic situations which remind me that life is an adventure. Now his sister’s getting into the action too. Buckle up.”

Below are my current favorites. They’re all really short, but there are many neat longer compilations, too.

Toy Lightsaber by ActionMovieKid

Get in the Boat! by Action Movie Kid

Scary Bridge by Action Movie Kid

3-Year-Old with a Real Portal Gun by Action Movie Kid

It’s so great when adults take kids seriously enough to immerse themselves into their adventures. And I especially love how well Hashi incorporates his kid’s expressions into the videos.

P.S. ActionMovieKid is also on Facebook and on Twitter.

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

Computer Issues (SATW Style)

Eppu

I’ve been having computer issues on and off for a couple of months now, so my part of the posting here will continue to be lighter than normal until they’re resolved.

It’s not all bad, though: whenever my computer has been acting up really bad, I pretty reliably end up returning to one particularly brilliant Scandinavia and the World comic.

SATW Computer Technician Snippet

The character in the snippet above is Brother Finland. As a fellow Finn, I feel his pain (especially when Brother Sweden – of all people! – walks in and fixes the computer with a touch). And usually I then end up reading more SATW, which is a great stress relief.

Image: Computer Technician, detail of a Scandinavia and the World comic by Humon

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

Two Star Wars Tributes in the Style of James Bond and Top Gun

Eppu

Serendipity delivers again: in today’s online reading there were links to two gorgeous and skillfully made Star Wars video tributes. One is made to Spectre by Radiohead in the style of James Bond opening credits.

Star Wars – Episode V “The Empire Strikes Back” Homage (Title Sequence) by KROFL

The Empire Strikes Back Homage is designed, directed, and produced by Kurt Rauffer. The other, by Weston Wong, mashes up SW with Kenny Loggin’s Danger Zone from the movie Top Gun.

Star Wars – Danger Zone – Kenny Loggins by Weston Wong

Uh oh, now I have 80s movie music in my head… 🙂

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

Five Captain America: Civil War Clips

Eppu

Marvel UK’s YouTube selection includes these five Captain America: Civil War clips that I hadn’t seen before. The first includes snippets from interviews with the movie’s main actresses (Scarlett Johansson, Emily VanCamp, and Elizabeth Olsen).

Captain America: Civil War – In Good Company by Marvel UK

Yay, Sharon Carter / Agent 13!

The second has interview snippets with Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Jr., and the Russo Brothers.

Captain America: Civil War – Brothers In Arms | HD by Marvel UK

Captain America: Civil War – Right To Choose | HD by Marvel UK

Captain America: Civil War – New Recruit | HD by Marvel UK

Captain America: Civil War – The Team Vs Bucky clip | HD UK by Marvel UK

We’ve been in blackout mode, avoiding anything spoilery like the plague. Alasdair Stuart’s Civil War review for Tor.com doesn’t include spoilers, so I did read that one. After tonight, I don’t have to hold back anymore. 🙂

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

Unreal Elwynn Forest

Erik

Elwynn Forest is the starting zone for humans in World of Warcraft, a sun-dappled wood with little villages and outposts. Like a lot of other players, I have fond memories of leveling up some of my first characters through Elwynn. Here are a couple of screenshots from in game of what the area looks like.

160502inn160502farmNow, feast your eyes on Daniel L’s gorgeous and detailed reconstruction of the zone using the Unreal Engine 4:

Elwynn Forest in Unreal 4: Update 2 by Daniel L

Post edited for formatting

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