18 November 2009: Convention and concert report

I’m sorry that I haven’t blogged much in the past week or so — I’ve been busy with the usual round of work (for which I went to a trade show), gaming, genre TV, and seasonal events. I’ve also raked numerous bags of autumn leaves. On Saturday, 7 November 2009, Janice and I went into Boston for the Christmas Craft Festival at the World Trade Center. We didn’t buy lots of arts and crafts, just foodstuffs.

We got turned around a few times while trying to get to the Compleat Strategist, but we managed to eventually visit that game store and Pandemonium Books and Games in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We enjoyed a late lunch at Mr. Bartley’s Burger Cottage, one of the best places for hamburgers in the area, and walked around the book shops of Harvard Square, which we try to get to quarterly.

On Saturday, Nov. 14, we returned downtown for the New England Fan Experience (NEFX) and Star Wars in Concert. Janice and I stayed overnight at the Courtyard by Marriott Tremont, which hosted the genre entertainment convention. The ballrooms at that venue were adequate in size, but the hallways and elevators were a bit crowded.

We caught the tail end of the session featuring Corin Nemec, star of Parker Lewis Can’t Lose and Stargate SG1, as well as the career retrospective of character James Hong, who has worked in movies for more than 50 years! Hong was funny, doing impressions and mentioning his numerous roles in films such as Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China, Mulan, and Kung Fu Panda.

Janice and I had lunch at the Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery before taking the
train to meet former co-worker Ken G. and his girlfriend Kahmmie at the Boston
Garden. Star Wars in Concert was excellent, featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a large screen showing clips from all six movies, and even lasers and pyrotechnics.

We had difficulty choosing whether to focus on the talented and precise musicians
or on the well-organized vignettes introduced by C3P0 himself, Anthony Daniels.
On the way into the arena, we gazed at some props and costumes from the two
trilogies, as well as people in costume. I was pleased to see many children (some waving toy lightsabers) in the audience and to see that George Lucas’ space opera lives on.

We then returned to the hotel, grabbing dinner at the International Burger Bar before attending more convention sessions. Unfortunately, because of the concert’s timing, we missed the guest of honor, Star Trek and Mission Impossible‘s Leonard Nimoy. Still, we did get to see Gareth David-Lloyd from Torchwood because his room was on our floor! In addition to the usual aging male fans of comic books and old television shows, there were younger, often female anime and horror enthusiasts, multiple generations of Star Trek fans, and people in outlandish costumes.

I was impressed by the number and variety of panels at the NEFX. That evening, Janice and I sat in on sessions about technology (and “technobabble“) in Star Trek, steampunk media (about which I hope to blog more soon), and archaeology in science fiction. The steampunk sessions were led by comic book author Everett Soares and the fun troupe “the Penny Dreadfuls.”

On Sunday, Nov. 15, we went to the knowledgeable Paul Gavins’ panel on “suitmation” vs. computer-generated imagery in kaiju (giant monster) movies. We also picked up a few elements of steampunk garb at the dealers’ room. I’m looking forward to visiting the Super MegaFest and the “Harry Potter” exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science in the coming weeks!

29 October 2009: Space opera on TV

This is my fifth and last blog post (for now) looking at the new genre television season by subgenre. I’ve noted before that within speculative fiction — which starts with the question “What if?” — supernatural conspiracy shows, vampire romances, and metahuman melodramas have been more popular lately than space opera. That’s too bad, because my some of first loves in science fiction were the late-1970s TV heroes of Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica (see above and reruns), as well as the novels of Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and many others.

The recent success of Star Trek‘s cinematic reboot could be an early sign of the pendulum swinging back to rockets and ray guns. Not surprisingly, the best space opera on the air right now is the computer-animated Star Wars: Clone Wars. Loosely based on the Tartakovsky shorts that took place between Episode 2: Attack of the Clones and Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith, the pilot movie turned off some fans by focusing on young Padawan (Jedi apprentice) Ashoka Tano.

However, since then, I think that Clone Wars has done an excellent job of exploring and expanding various corners of George Lucas’ universe. It has humanized the clone troopers, showed how the Jedi knights are outmaneuvered by the cunning Sith, and demonstrated what Yoda described as the futility of war. Plus, Clone Wars has the blazing space and lightsaber battles, kid-friendly humor, and strange aliens we’ve come to expect from the Star Wars franchise.

I’m still on the fence about Stargate Universe. On the one hand, it’s part of the franchise established by the retro action movie and long-running Stargate SG1. On the other hand, the large conflict-ridden ensemble, dark and shaky cinematography, and focus on survival over heroism are more in the style of Battlestar Galactica: the Plan or Flash Forwardthan I’d prefer.

We’ll see how the major cast and crew changes coming to Doctor Who will affect that British time-travel franchise. I’ve enjoyed its mix of space opera, pseudohistorical swashbuckling, and alien horrors from the Jon Pertwee incarnation through Tom Baker and David Tennant, and I’m willing to give Matt Smith, the eleventh eponymous Time Lord, a shot. Spin-offs include the more adult-themed Torchwood,
the adolescent-aimed Sarah Jane Adventures, and the dubious reboot of K-9
and Friends. Have a Happy Halloween!

Tuesday, 20 October 2009: Second takes on genre TV

Fringe wallpaper — The truth is still out there…

The most popular genres of fiction on television right now are the perennial
favorites of murder procedurals, ensemble dramas, situational comedies, and so-called
reality shows. This season, paranormal conspiracies, exemplified in the past by
shows such as Friday the 13th: the Series and The X-Files, are again all the rage.

So far, Fringe is arguably the best of the bunch, with a good balance of “monster of the week” episodes and an overall story arc. The actors and characters are quirky and sympathetic, the dialogue is clever, and the science fiction/horror aspects aren’t too
unbelievable, if frequently explicitly grotesque.

I’ve been watching Sanctuary, but I hope the SyFy’s cryptozoology show can successfully blend the steampunk tone, globe-hopping adventures (thanks to computer-generated backdrops), and a dysfunctional family-based team better than it did in its shaky first season. Over the summer, the artifact collectors of Warehouse
13 proved to be fun to watch because the writers didn’t taking themselves too seriously despite some heavy themes of betrayal and fate.

I may drop Flash Forward, in which people try to figure out how and why almost everyone on the planet blacked out at the same time, in the interest of time. The Lost wannabe isn’t bad, but with programs like Heroes, V, and the aforementioned shows, I’m already watching enough large casts pursuing numerous plot threads.

Eastwick is one of the few new shows that I’ll probably continue to follow. The frothy witchcraft soap opera is more like early Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Reaper, or Pushing Daisies than later Charmed or Supernatural. Upcoming conspiracy shows in which I’m interested include the remakes of action decoy Human Target, alien invasion V, and espionage paranoiac The Prisoner.

In nonfiction, Janice’s and my DVR is filling up with the PBS documentary on Latin
music and this week’s IFC profile of the “Monty Python” British comedy troupe of the 1970s. More to come!

Monday, 19 October 2009: Fall and fantasy

On Saturday, 17 October 2009, Janice and I had considered going to a local pancake
breakfast or up to Salem, Massachusetts, for the pre-Halloween festivities. However, our plans were derailed when Janice noticed our water heater leaking, almost four years to the
day after the basement of our previous apartment flooded. Fortunately, only a few cardboard boxes were damaged this time, and our oil provider sent someone to repair the leak fairly quickly.

Instead of going down to Dedham and Norwood, Janice and I drove out to Framingham,
Mass., for a late lunch at Olive Garden. We then met Beruk A. and Thomas K.Y. to screen Where the Wild Things Are. The loose adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic book had convincing visual effects and good acting, but the movie probably had too much emotional depth for most children and wasn’t really marketed as being for adults. Of the previews we saw, only Roald Dahl’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox intrigued me.

Yesterday’s early snowfall enabled me to clean up my basement and catch up on recorded

genre television. Among other things, I watched The Quest for King Arthur, a good History Channel International documentary on one of my favorite sets of legends.

As I write up notes for last night’s Pathfinder: “Holy Steel” teleconferencing game and prepare for tonight’s D&D4e “Vanished Lands: the Faith-Based Initiative” role-playing session, it’s interesting to note that sword-and-sorcery fantasy isn’t well-represented on TV right now.

Despite cast changes and melodramatic rather than swashbuckling storylines, BBC
America’s Robin Hood has been good in its third (and presumably final) series. The addition of Friar Tuck, more focus on Robin’s political role as a Saxon rebel, and slightly fewer anachronisms have made this the lead historical fantasy on the air right now.

Fans of Hercules: the Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess can look
forward to Strarz’s sword-and-sandals Spartacus, coming later this autumn, as well as the return of the syndicated Legend of the Seeker, which Buffy/Angel alumna Charisma Carpenter will be joining.

Despite the latest wave of adolescent vampire romances, I’m still hoping that the relatively
cheap computer backdrops used in Sanctuary (which just returned) can enable high-quality literary adaptations or original heroic fantasy to be brought to TV. I’ll try to report more on my second takes of the current TV season later this week.

27 August 2009: District 9 review

On Saturday, 22 August 2009, Janice represented the Animal Rescue League of Boston as a volunteer at the “Blues and Brews” festival in Westford, Massachusetts. I met Brian W. and a friend at the AMC Framingham cineplex to screen District 9.

We enjoyed the science fiction film, which was an overt allegory about apartheid (although some viewers seem to have missed that). Sharlto Copley plays Wikus van de Merwe, a clueless employee of a government contractor managing camps for extraterrestrial refugees nicknamed “Prawns.” The abject poverty, casual racism, and enclaved middle class are all the more believable because of the South African setting. Footage of actual riots is used for some scenes.

DirectorNeill Blomkamp poses the uncomfortable question of who are the monsters — the marooned aliens or ruthless humanity? Other movies, such as Alien Nation and Enemy Mine, have warned “civilized” audiences to beware of the brutality lurking just under
our skins. The first half of District 9 plays like a documentary, while the second half is more of an action/horror flick, similar to Aliens or The Fly.

Despite a modest budget, the special effects are impressive as van de Merwe inadvertently
becomes the center of attention by the government, the news media, the Prawns, and a criminal warlord. District 9 is rated R for graphic violence. This may explain why five of the six trailers we saw before the movie were for horror flicks, with the last one inexplicably for
Where the Wild Things Are.

Producer Peter Jackson, best known of the Lord of the Rings adaptation, no doubt helped this movie get a wider release, which it deserved. I’d give District 9 an 8.5 out of 10, or an A-. Despite Hollywood’s reliance on established franchises, it’s nice to see something relatively original.

Coming soon: Gaming, work, dining out, and superheroes!