5 Fandom Friday (26)

(New Graphic by Darling Stewie)

5 Fandom Friday is a geek-blogger community building project started and hosted by The Nerdy Girlie and SuperSpaceChick. Every Friday, post a top 5 list based on a predetermined topic that can be found on this master post - you can also find more info on the project there. Participate as frequently or infrequently as you like, and if a topic doesn't especially appeal to you, feel free to put your own twist on it.

Also, tweet at @superspacechick or @thenerdygirlie on Friday with your post (and they'll RT) and use the #Fandom5 hashtag so we can all connect!


This week's theme: Holiday Recommendations

I took a flexible interpretation of recommendations, so since I'm a book and movie lover, I'll go with movie + book pairings. These aren't necessarily holiday-themed; they're just things I like that would be nice for a cozy day in.


1) Love Actually + My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories


Love Actually is a modern Christmas classic - the perfect movie for laughs and feels told through a series of interconnected characters' stories. What better book to pair it with than Stephanie Perkins anthology of holiday stories, My True Love Gave to Me, told by some of the best YA Contemporary writers today?


2) Phantom of the Opera + Of Metal and Wishes


The Phantom of the Opera in movie form brings the music, drama, and opulence of the Broadway staple to the comfort of your living room. Can't get enough Phantom? Curl up with Of Metal and Wishes, Sarah Fine's retelling of the tale set in a meat factory in a Chinese-based fantasy world. Throw in a dash of steampunk and Upton Sinclair's The Jungle for an inventive twist.


3) Elf + Holidays on Ice


If the hijinks and heart of Elf leave you wanting more, pick up David Sedaris' laugh-out-loud Holidays on Ice, which collects a bunch of his holiday-related personal essays. This includes his experience as a Macy's elf, which goes nicely paired with this movie. Another fun movie connection? David's sister and fellow funny-person Amy Sedaris is in Elf.


4) Seabiscuit + The Scorpio Races


The holiday season is also the time of the uplifting drama and possible Oscar contender flick. While Seabiscuit wasn't a holiday release back when it was new, it does fit those descriptions. It is also seriously one of my favorite movies (and the book is a fave too), and the little horse that could is a local hero. Set during the Great Depression, it's the story of 3 broken men and one unlikely horse that will give you all the feels.

Given The Scorpio Races decidedly magic-real premise - the book centers around a famous race on a fictional island where they ride killer horses from the sea (based on kelpies of faerie lore) - it seems a little odd to pair with Seabiscuit. But they have a lot in common! The central relationships are about the 2 main characters desires to change their lives and their love for the island and their horses (mystical sea-creature and not), and their story feels as real as fictional as the premise sounds. Not to mention, this book is also a bestseller, an award-winner, and one of my all time favorites.


5) Beauty & the Beast (or Frozen) + A Court of Thorns and Roses


How can I talk about the holidays without a little Disney magic? I always thought Beauty and the Beast had a wintery vibe, and I think Frozen is self-explanatory.

But if you want something just as magical but with a little more bite, try Sarah J. Maas' first non-YA book, A Court of Thorns and Roses, which is a mixed up retelling of the Beauty & The Beast and Tamlin fairy tales. There's curses and magic, fierce family devotion, and steamy romance. To quote Disney's Belle, it has "Far off places, daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise!" But it's definitely not rated Disney PG.


Bonus:

And obviously, you should watch Harry Potter and the LOTR trilogy because those are permanently linked to the holiday season in my mind. And Star Wars just because. ;)

Enjoy!


P.S. There's also a 5 Fandom Friday photo challenge this month! Join in!

The Winter What Now?

So I like totally agree with Krispy that Captain America: The Winter Soldier might be my favorite Marvel movie now, or at least on equal footing with other top contenders such as Iron Man and The Avengers.  And this!  This despite the fact that I found the first Captain America movie to be so utterly unmemorable that I literally do not remember 75% of the movie, to the point that I did not remember that Cap's BFF was a dude named Bucky.  When Krispy was talking about the first movie and how much she loved Bucky, I was like, "Who's Bucky?"

At any rate, the new movie is all kinds of ridiculous funtimes, so here's one of the titular characters (the subtitular character?):

Ahem.  Anyway, after Captain America on Thursday, there was then Game of Thrones on Sunday.  And thinking of those two things, and the fact that Krispy asked me to blog today, and it being late and my brain capacity at approximately 28.5%, I doodled this:

And then I thought: What would the Winter Soldier look like as a direwolf?

And then a further thought persisted: HOW ABOUT A MANATEE AHAHAHAHAHA.

And, had it not been quite late at night (or technically morning), I might have pursued further thoughts.  We shall have to see if further thoughts occur in the future.  They may well might.

Q4U: What's your favorite superhero movie, Marvel, DC, or otherwise?

Lokiday!

By the time you read this, Krispy and the Sister and our friend and I will have seen Thor: The Dark World.  We are excited.  We love the Loki.  Everybody loves Loki.

Speaking of which, Krispy told me how she read that dogs basically stop paying as much attention to you if you talk to them too much, i.e. they might ignore you when you call them because they're too used to the sound of your voice and tune you out.  Possibly this is why our Loki goes charging off willy-nilly into the forbidden recesses of the back yard to scarf down fallen avocados regardless of how we yell, "LOKI NO LOKI GET BACK HERE LOKI OUT LOKI!!!"

Doubtless what he hears is, "LOKI EAT MOAR AVOCADOS 4EVR LOKI!!1"

Perhaps if Thor had spoken to Loki more nicely and specifically instead of interrupting him half the time and ignoring him the other half, Loki wouldn't have metaphorically run into the backyard toward that avocado tree.

Anyway, let's celebrate Thor 2 and the various Lokis in our lives with gratuitous dog!Loki picspam!  Hooray!

"HEY YOU GUYS HI"

"I don't know if I like this. Mommy, what are we doing?"

An elusive horned-and caped Loki captured by the equally elusive Finn-the-Human-hoodied Alz.

We were all sad that this Star Wars dog sweater was too small for
Loki's massive and muscular masculine chest.

"I know you see this thing over my eye. It will bother you
forever because its position has now been photographically immortalized."

Look at them pearly chompers.

Lifeguard Loki on duty!

They are the best of friends, Loki and Sadie. Srsly.
They only look like they're trying to kill each other,
but it's all in good fun.

When we went out to eat in a big group with friends
at a place that had butcher paper covering the tables,
I drew all our canine companions.

Also, Krispy's Sister thoughtfully points out that 99% of Thor 2's promotion seems to revolve around someone other than the titular character here: 10 Reasons Why 'Thor: The Dark World' is Really the Loki Show.

Here's to having an awesome weekend!  November's a good month cinematically speaking, what with The Return of Loki Thor: The Dark World, Ender's Game, The Book Thief, Catching Fire, and no doubt more titles that I'm forgetting.  Got any movies you're excited about?

Catch-Up Friday: Ready.Set.Write! (2)

I missed What's Up Wednesday this week because my internet was down Tuesday night. So Alz covered for me instead: she did two mini book reviews.

So here's my Friday catch-up post for What's Up Wednesday / Ready.Set.Write!

WHAT I'M READING
I finished Froi of the Exiles, which was excellent though I liked Finnikin of the Rock more. Still, I can't wait to pick up Quintana of Charyn from the library. What an amazing fantasy this is!

Currently, I'm reading this:

Nova Ren Suma's writing is delightful, moody, and surreal.


WHAT I'M WRITING
I think I mostly made my 500 word goal, despite the starts and stops. I am also working on "Luck," though not the actual WIP itself. I started writing a sort of side story thing that will help me flesh out some backstory details. I think I'm starting to have a breakthrough on a plot-point through doing so - which is cause for celebration!

Goal: I think steady and slow is the way to go for me, so it'll be another 500 words for me this week. I'll add that I hope to actually write stuff in the actual WIP, but I'll be content with just getting more words down on this backstory.


WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW
The fact that I'm having any breakthroughs on this long-stalled project is pretty freaking inspiring! That aside, I've also been inspired by the gorgeous honeymoon pictures my friend has been posting - or that's possibly just jealousy. The water in Tahiti is seriously UNREAL. I think I need a vacation...


WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO
It's summer, which means it is top movie-going season for me and the Sister. Since the last What's Up Wednesday/ RSW post and today, we've seen 3 movies (and we're probably going to see World War Z this weekend)! We saw This is the End, Man of Steel, and Monsters University. Brief impressions:

This is the End - freaking hilarious. I'm still laughing about it, and I still can't get over one special moment/cameo. I can't say more or I'll spoil it, but it's SO GOOD. The whole premise of the actors playing themselves is pretty interesting and also great for laughs.

Man of Steel - I can see why the reviews are generally mixed-positive. I liked it though - a lot more than I thought I would considering everything I'd heard. It is a truly visually stunning piece (there are really picture-perfect shots / artistic and symbolic), and Henry Cavill wears the cape well and plays a younger, less experienced, and more vulnerable Superman. Also, not gonna lie, he's damn easy on the eyes. Hans Zimmer's score is fantastic too. The mixed part of all this is that I still felt like there was something missing - possibly because the 3rd act was kind of weak, consisting mostly of overly long action sequences filled with ridiculous (srsly ridic) amounts of destruction.

Monsters University - Confession time, Monsters Inc. is not one of my top Pixar movies, but I love Pixar movies in general so I was excited for this prequel. That and less with the creepy children (sorry guys, Boo was more creepy than cute to me). And it was as cute and fun as I thought it'd be! Monsters U doesn't deliver the emotional punch (or complexity, really) of UP or Wall-E, but it's enjoyable, funny, and it has heart - friendship, nostalgia, underdog tale, and so on.

Bonus for me is that Pixar used my old university stomping grounds as inspiration for the MU campus - so it was super fun recognizing the architecture of Cal in the movie. (I spotted some of those knuckle trees, parts of Doe library, the Mary Poppins-look of South Hall, the pylons at the main entrance...)

The entrance gate of MU looks a lot like Sather Gate. (Yes, that's me...graduating.)

Also, I received this on Thursday. Hope I get to read it over the weekend!

Lastly, the Sister and I are trying to figure out what to wear to Comic Con! Definitely more stressful than you'd think it'd be...


Q4U: Do you plan on seeing any movies soon or reading any of the above mentioned books?

Randomosity on Fridays: Star Trek Version

Greetings, all, and happy Friday! The following pictures summarize why Krispy and I don't have much of a blog for you tonight:

We saw. (Krispy giggled every time she saw Benedict Cumberbatch - "evil Sherlock".)  We enjoyed. (Krispy also again lamented the fact that had she been a few years older, she might have stalked looked for Chris FinePine in college before he graduated.) Got any movie plans this weekend, Trek-related or otherwise?

Galadriel the Bamf

DISCLAIMER: The following post contains (generally mild) spoilers for the movie versions of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Hobbit.

So I finally got to see The Hobbit recently and although The Lord of the Rings was better, The Hobbit was fun enough.  I reread the book afterward since my recollection of events was somewhat hole-y in the way that colanders are hole-y, and was mildly astonished at how little of some things I remembered.

Then I proceeded to rewatched The Fellowship of the Ring.  It was at this time that I realized that Galadriel is a bamf.

 

 

This immortal elf lady has power, wields it, does what she wants, and rules with an iron fist clad in a delicate velvet glove.  I mean come on, just watch Fellowship again.  When the Fellowship goes to Lothlorien and everyone is escorted to Celeborn and Galadriel, Celeborn is all vaguely snooty and like, "Hey guys, what's up?  Weren't there more of you?  Where's Gandalf?  I really want to talk to Gandalf."

 

In the meantime, Galadriel is having a mental IM session with Frodo, letting him know she knows why he's there and oh hey is that the One Ring, and also incidentally noting Gandalf's demise.  She politely waits until Celeborn is done making unhelpful comments and demands before announcing that the Grey Wizard is no more.

 

She also proceeds to look at Boromir.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seriously.  She looks at him for like 0.5 seconds and proud Boromir, Captain of Gondor, breaks down in tears.

 

Galadriel is pretty bamfy through the rest of her scenes too, showing she knows what's up and gracefully shoving Frodo into making choices before giving the members of the Fellowship exactly what gifts they need.

 

In The Hobbit, my favorite part (besides her decorously and majestically turning so that her gossamer skirts twirl around her just so) is when there's a meeting called at Rivendell to discuss Thorin and company, during which Gandalf brings up the Necromancer as a growing unrelated problem.  Saruman launches into a longwinded speech about how there's no such thing, the land is peaceful, etc. etc., while Elrond walks around in the background and occasionally tosses in his two cents.  I admit that my portrayal of him in the following doodles is less than accurate, but oh well.

 



 

 

 

 

Basically Galadriel uses her mindpowers to say and do whatever she wants behind the scenes while maintaining an outer appearance of ethereal courtesy and graciousness.  It's no wonder that her husband Celeborn doesn't figure into any of the movies.  If Galadriel had taken the Ring from Frodo, she probably would have crushed Sauron with the power of her brain alone without even bothering to walk into Mordor--and she would have walked, in a stately graceful pace, make no doubt about that.

 

 

 

Have you seen The Hobbit?  What did you think VS LotR?