Lady Adventure

Shakespeare post!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation, by Joss Whedon, Age 9: Part II!

AKA, interviews with Joss and the stars of his secret production of Much Ado About Nothing that he filmed at his house with all his buddies. There is nothing that is not awesome about this concept.

COURTNEY: Wait... Branagh directs Thor. Whedon directs The Avengers. I smell some sort of bet or one-upmanship here. Are they playing Director Bingo now? Is Branagh's next project a witty supernatural tv show?
DAVE: Then Joss will direct Mary Shelley's (But Not Really) The Last Man, and Kenneth Branagh will produce Lady Death's Sing-A-Long Twitter Feed...

Meanwhile, Anonymous is ::gasp!:: filled with historical inaccuracies!!! (I think zombie!Marlowe might be my favorite. He can hang out with zombie!Oxford as he writes all the Shakespeare plays published after he died in 1604.) And the great Oxfordians vs. Stratfordians debate has truly reached its pinnacle and landed its very own Fandom Wank entry.

Unfortunately, no one has mentioned whether or not in Anonymous "Shakespeare" has to outrun an explosion (probably from the Globe catching fire). That's what *I* want to see in a Roland Emmerich movie.

Wow, last week was busy. I had three goals: 1) finish two stories to submit to Machine of Death 2; 2) finish Diana's Slytherin scarf for HP 7.2; 3) finish Basara so I could give all 27 volumes back to Courtney. Naturally, I only accomplished one of these things (1). And then, on Thursday when I had a million things to do, I came down with bizarre chest congestion and general blah and have felt like a woeful Dickensian orphan all weekend.

But I did see HP 7.2 on opening night! ( I was underwhelmed. )

And then I drove up to Boston to see Courtney! On Saturday, we went to the MFA:

ME: ...Does that say "Cthulu"?
COURTNEY: I think it's the Chihuly exhibit.

TURNS OUT WE WERE BOTH RIGHT. Little did we know that for all appearances the world of glass-blowing is merely a cover for the Elder Gods to break through to our universe. ( I don't really know what else would explain the theme of extra-dimensional tentacles... )

On a similar note, adherents of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster are now permitted to wear pasta strainers as religious headgear for driver's license photos in Austria.

Thirty Days of Genre

Day 3: A genre novel that is underrated.

(Look, they don't say thirty CONSECUTIVE days.)

I can't think of a specific book, but I can think of a specific author: Patricia McKillip. It seems that no one has anything bad to say against her, but she rarely gets brought up in discussions about classic fantasy novels, and I think she's one of the most consistently good authors in the genre. She's awesome at riffing on some of fantasy's most compelling themes -- the power of nature, music, and story-telling -- and using its most familiar tropes in new and interesting ways while never really repeating herself. She also has a beautiful dream-like style of writing AND a knack for creating likable characters. What's not to like?

Here, have some reviews of her stuff:

The Sorceress and the Cygnet/The Bell at Sealey Head

The Cygnet and the Firebird

Haha, remember that time a noreaster rolled in during the five minutes it takes me to walk down the block to Starbucks, and then it immediately stopped raining as soon as I got there? ME TOO. ::wrings out khakis::

In other news, on my commute this morning, I honest-to-God saw one of these trucks.

It's probably just as well I don't have Lance in my pants; he'd be soaking wet by now.

Spam, Spam, Bacon, Links, and Spam:

Any article that mentions kuru is a winner in my book - FYI: Could Scientists Really Create a Zombie Apocalypse Virus?

The pizza you save may be your own - Alert Pizza Delivery Driver Saves Customer's Life

Said Bookisms: the edible ball-bearings of the writing world - The Use and Abuse of Dialogue Tags

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE - Time Lapse Videos of the Universe

Seriously, anyone who doesn't put Isabella in the Lawful column clearly didn't pay any attention AT ALL during Measure for Measure - Shakespeare Alignment Chart

Damn you, British theater-goers! WHY CAN'T I HAVE NICE THINGS - Danny Boyle's Frankenstein (Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Lee Miller) (HAHAHA HIS FAAAAAAAACE.)
ETA: Woohoo, broadcast!

The Christian Science Monitor: boldly going where all 12-year-old minds have gone before - Need Help Finding Uranus? (And don't miss the follow-up article, Scientists Plan Uranus Probe. Did you know Uranus has the most powerful wind observed in the solar system?)

1) Disney Adapting Mort

Given that a) Mort was never my favorite Discworld book so I don't care if they change it, b) any standard Disney plot + Death = INSTANT HILARITY, c) they DID manage to make The Emperor's New Groove, clearly SOMEONE understands how bizarre and parodic humor works, and d) at least it will LOOK awesome, I AM SUPER EXCITED.

2) Star Wars: The Saga Continues... As an Actual Icelandic Saga

Star Wars! Old Norse! What more do you need.

3) Speaking of Star Wars: Vintage Star Wars Travel Posters!

4) Hipster Hitler

aka Godwin's Law: the Webcomic

"Goebbels, you deutschbag, this is Arial! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

(My favorite are his t-shirts.)

5) PTERODACTYL!

6) Now you, too, can be part of the culture of death!

"Machine of Death is an upcoming published anthology of short stories edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki !, inspired by this episode of Ryan’s Dinosaur Comics." Also featuring internet superstars like Randall Munroe and Kate Beaton and much, much more!

You can buy it on Amazon, or download it as a free e-book or podcast! More info here.

I had a birthday! Now I FINALLY have my own house key! And other awesome stuff too, like remastered The Beatles and a complete set of Avatar DVDs and various classics of English Lit, now with more supernatural menaces.

In Other News

Ten Rules for Writing Fiction: Technically, this is "Two-Hundred and Forty-Six Rules for Writing Fiction According to Various Authors (Including Neil Gaiman), Many of Whom Disagree With One Another". Also, Margaret Atwood needs to invest in some mechanical pencils.

Oh, and Google has apparently weaponized Lester Dent's Secret Master Plot. Big Grandmother does not approve!

P&P&Z: The Mini-Series!

HUZZAH.

The Great Scrapple Flame War of 1872

Still typing up NaNo! Why yes, I am slow.

Did you know that the Knights of the Round Table invented the pick-up line?

And thus Sir Gawain spake thusly, Ladye, in sooth thou muste be soore weried, for with michel fleetness of foote thou hast flied both toward and froward throughout min swefnes all the nicht!
-- "La Morte D'Arthvader"

Anyways, find this instructive tidbit and more in "When You Marry", one of those amazingly helpful efforts from the 50s and 60s designed to tell you almost nothing useful about dating, love, sex, and marriage: Love, 1962 American High School Style.

And go watch some MST3K while you're at it:

Are You Ready for Marriage?
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE RUBBER BAND?!

What To Do on a Date
Had this been an actual date, you would have been instructed where to go.

So, io9 had a post on TV Shows We Wish Would Swap Writing Staffs, which mainly reveals that I am not trusting anyone at io9 to dictate what qualifies as good writing, uh, EVER.

However, they gave some love to SPooN, so yay. Even though I'm pretty sure that if SPooN writers ended up on Lost, their heads would explode, because SPooN is not so much with the complicated plot. And as for Torchwood and Dollhouse switching, while actually funny snarky dialogue for Jack would be much appreciated (::misses Steven Moffat::), letting Rusty and the Torchwood staff near a show that ALREADY has problems with its own tricky consent and rape issues is a whole world of DO NOT WANT.

In conclusion: Sylar was so much cooler when he was basically a zombie serial killer.

ETA: Casting News for Dollhouse. Damn, but that's pretty much made of awesome. It's like they're TRYING to make me watch.

Today's Dinosaur Comic is UNFORTUNATELY RELEVANT to my life.