March 08 is International Women’s Day. Very appropriately, we are celebrating by going to see Captain Marvel!
I’m hoping it’ll be as awesome as the trailers look!
To the people complaining that this version of Marvel is too political and therefore massively off-putting, I have only one thing to say.
(Long post warning.)
Read the whole post.The Snow Village hotel in Kittilä in Lapland, Finland (which I blogged about last year), updated its Game of Thrones scenery for the 2018-2019 season.
As previously, they’re collaborating with HBO Nordic. This year’s snow and ice sculptures cover seasons 1-7 of the GoT tv series.
Like their previous GoT creation, it looks absolutely amazing! Check out more and/or follow Snow Village on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.
Images: Dining room by Timo Kyttä on Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Baratheon bedroom via Snow Village on Instagram. Three-eyed raven via Snow Village on Instagram.
Out There is an occasional feature highlighting intriguing art, spaces, places, phenomena, flora, and fauna.
Any Pokémon fans here? This might be of interest.
In 2016, a group of dedicated fans in Finland created a musical based on Pokémon games, toured the country, and uploaded a two-hour video of the live performance online:
“Valitsen sinut! -musikaali (I Choose You! The Musical) is an entirely fan-made musical based on Pokémon games Red, Blue and Yellow, as well as the first season of the anime. Behind the project there is a volunteer team of 50 people, and the musical toured Finland in 2016, the 20th anniversary of Pokémon.
“We’re not affiliated with Nintendo or Pokémon Company in any way. No one was paid for the project, and our crowdfunding was used fully for creating the musical.”
Valitsen sinut! -musikaali on YouTube
The performance is entirely in Finnish, but English subtitles are available on YouTube.
So far, I haven’t seen more than a few minutes from the beginning. Looks like the performers were really motivated, though, and enjoyed themselves. Really cool. I’ll have to carve time to see the whole. Mahtavaa!
In the Seen on Screen occasional feature, we discuss movies and television shows of interest.
I first heard about Miss Sherlock in the spring of 2018, but wasn’t able to track it down then. In December, I found a review by Kaisu Tervonen in Helsingin Sanomat, the largest Finnish daily. (NB. Finnish only.)
The Sherlock character is called Sara Shelly Futaba (played by Yūko Takeuchi). She’s a consultant specializing in criminal psychology. Our Sherlock / Futaba meets her Doctor Watson or Wato Tachibana (Shihori Kanjiya) at a murder scene of a good colleague of Wato’s after the doctor returned from Syria.
In a familiar manner, the two end up solving mysteries, one per episode. What the series is really about, apparently, is first building and then endangering their friendship.
Since I last wrote, also the IMDB entry for Miss Sherlock has been updated and the episode descriptions added.
With regard to U.S. viewing, I’ve found out that you can stream (for a fee) all of the season 1 (8 episodes) at Hulu with English subtitles, but I haven’t had the time to check that out.
The HS reviewer wasn’t very impressed, so I’m a little dubious. Have you seen any episodes at all? Please chime in!
Image: HBO Miss Sherlock / HBO via Helsingin Sanomat
P.S. Twitter users have uploaded some screencaps.
In the Seen on Screen occasional feature, we discuss movies and television shows of interest.
Ashley DIYed a really cool Star Wars marquee. It even lights up!
The base is a handmade wooden sign stenciled, painted, and varnished.
Wow. I don’t think I’d have the patience! Full props for such a meticulous job!
See the full tutorial at Handmade with Ashley.
In Making Stuff occasional feature, we share fun arts and crafts done by us and our fellow geeks and nerds.
As a word nerd, I love puns. Nevertheless, I usually keep my RPG characters’ names pun-free if the setting or play style demand it, because I don’t want to ruin anyone’s enjoyment.
Likewise, in World of Warcraft, my hunters usually have appropriate names for their tameable companion pets. Since pet battling is so much more meta than anything else, I do go all out naming my pet battle pets. Here are some I find most groan-worthy.
Legs came as a quest reward during Children’s Week. Mine is called Hello.
Chuck is a pet crocolisk and a fishing quest reward. I’ve seen people joke about Chuck Norris, but I haven’t yet had anyone recognize my Burn Notice reference (Chuck Finley is an alias for one of the POV characters, played by the legendary Bruce Campbell).
The floating ghostly skull named Bob is a reference to Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books.
The lesser voidcaller has a chance to drop from High Astromancer Solarian in The Eye. Mine is named for a muddled-up pun on the word avoidance and the fact that it’s a voidcaller. Not perhaps my best, but good enough of a name to keep.
Mirror striders can be found just hanging around in The Jade Forest in Pandaria. The name for mine is a bit esoteric: in the Finnish translation of The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn’s nickname Strider is translated Konkari; Konkari spelled backwards is, you guessed it, Iraknok.
Willy is another Children’s Week quest reward. Appropriately, as a reference to another child-related work (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), I named mine Wonka.
I can’t remember how I got my worg pup. I named mine Never Lupus, because whenever House encounters a case that defies his diagnostic abilities in the eponymous series, he always says “It’s never lupus.” We must’ve been just watching it.
My bound stream is called Dammed. Because that’s how you describe one. This one reminds me of a crossword puzzle clue, but AFAIK isn’t.
Any good pet names—of any kind—you want to share? Please do!
Images: screencaps from the MMORPG World of Warcraft
Of Dice and Dragons is an occasional feature about games and gaming.
An all-female installation in the Ocean’s heist series opens this Friday, June 08, 2018! IMDB’s description is short and sweet:
“Debbie Ocean gathers a crew to attempt an impossible heist at New York City’s yearly Met Gala.”
Here are two trailers:
OCEAN’S 8 – Official 1st Trailer by Warner Bros. Pictures on YouTube
OCEAN’S 8 – Official Main Trailer by Warner Bros. Pictures on YouTube
Looks like so much fun! Not everyone in the cast is a favorite, but you never know, they might become a favorite after this… 🙂
And, OMG, Ocean’s 8 is so gonna bust the Bechdel test out of the water and use it as a flotation device!
Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
One of the great things about Black Panther is that it allows plenty of room for both male and female characters, but what if we flipped them? Here’s our imaginary cast for a gender-flipped Black Panther.
Halle Berry as T’Challa / Black Panther
Taraji P. Henson as Killmonger
Jon Michael Hill as Nakia
Idris Elba as Okoye
Emily Blunt as Eve Ross
Alfre Woodard as W’Kabi
Donald Glover as Shuri
Ann Wolfe as M’Baku
Whoopi Goldberg as Zuri
Denzel Washington as Ramonda
Amanda Abbington as Penelope Klaue
Viola Davis as T’Chaka
Images: Halle Berry in Perfect Stranger via IMDB. Taraji P. Henson in Empire via IMDb. Jon Michael Hill in Elementary via IMDb. Idris Elba in Pacific Rim via IMDb. Emily Blunt in The Five Year Engagement via IMDb. Alfre Woodard in Luke Cage via IMDb. Donald Glover via LA Weekly. Ann Wolfe in Wonder Woman via IMDB. Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost via IMDB. Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli via IMDB. Amanda Abbington as Mary Watson in BBC’s Sherlock via Fandom Observations. Viola Davis at the 2015 Oscars via The Hollywood Gossip.
Creative Differences is an occasional feature in which we discuss a topic or question that we both find interesting. Hear from both of us about whatever’s on our minds.
I randomly ran into a collection of recreations of Persian or Iranic women’s clothing from different eras, from ancient times to a few hundred years ago. Below are the five oldest outfits.
They seem to be images of modern interpretations based on artwork of various kinds: statuettes, carvings, reliefs, paintings, and drawings.
Aren’t they fascinating? The images clearly come from a print publication, but apart from that I unfortunately don’t have any source information.
I don’t know much about these eras and areas, but I can’t escape the impression that these recreations may be relatively old and, perhaps, not entirely reliable. For instance, the Sassanian dress seems very polyester-like (too shiny). On the other hand, a lot of the draping looks very plausible. It would be so interesting to read an analysis on each outfit by the researchers / creators.
I’ve long been into early history, specifically of textiles and clothing, usually the older the better. Sadly, it’s an area that we tend to have very spotty evidence. I’m so glad digitization and the Internet help get more information out to interested audiences. There are so many more sources and preserved fragments than many may realize, and now we get to see them!
Images found via Non-Western Historical Fashion on Tumblr.
Out There is an occasional feature highlighting intriguing art, spaces, places, phenomena, flora, and fauna.
Another Star Wars franchise singleton movie is about to hit the big screen: Solo: A Star Wars Story opens May 25, 2018. Here’s the first trailer (from February):
Solo: A Star Wars Story Official Trailer by Star Wars
And the second (from April):
Solo: A Star Wars Story Official Trailer by Star Wars
I’m not entirely sure what to think on the basis of the trailers. Alden Ehrenreich sure ain’t got Harrison Ford’s charisma, but perhaps that’s because we are only seeing very short snippets. It’s also impossible to tell how big of a part Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian will have; I hope the writers are not only using him for a quick and dirty “this is how Han got the ship now bye” scene. Emilia Clarke’s Qi’Ra seems both competent and charming. And I believe this is the second time my fellow Finn Joonas Suotamo gets to portray Chewbacca on his own (without coaching by Peter Mayhew).
Solo: A Star Wars Story | “190 Years Old” Clip by Star Wars
Yay, Joonas!
Like with Rogue One, the special effects and directing look stunning, so at least there’ll be that. Here’s hoping the writing will also work.
Two more weeks!
Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
Co-Geeking 