Today is my birthday (that’s right, I’m a Groundhog baby) and for the past three years I’ve posted a photo shoot to mark the occasion. In 2012 it was Batgirl. In 2013 it was a superhero character I created named Delilah. Last year it was the Dread Pirate Tracy.
This year I FINALLY got my acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (thank YOU Professor McGonagall) so I grabbed my robes, my broom and my handmade wand (I totally whittled and painted it myself thankyouverymuch) and snuck into the Forbidden Forest for some practice.
In case you were wondering, I got sorted into Gryffindor. The socks may have given that away.
I always have a lot of fun writing the silly little stories that go along with the pictures (yes, I know exactly how silly they are) and folks seem to like them so I’ll just keep doing it
What’s that? You want to win a signed copy of one of these pictures? Ok, fine. There’s a contest after the pics. BUT WAIT! This time there’s actually TWO contests!
My name is Tracy and I just got accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy!
I wonder why they chose me, I’m a bit old for a First Year…
Oh well, don’t care! I love practicing spells with my wand.
Sometimes I even get a spell to work!
Flying on my broomstick is also pretty wicked.
Wait – full stop – what is THAT??
The Dark Lord is back! Better race back to Hogwarts and warn everyone!
I got this guys!
Take THAT Lord Voldemort!
All in day’s work.
Big thanks, as always, to my friend and photographer, Jon Upson. The Harry Potter pictures were supposed to be a few quick ones for the calendars and thanks to his wonderful talent, we ended up shooting a ton! To Mama Jedi for assisting on yet another photo shoot and for being my biggest cheerleader. To my friend and HNG Podcast co-host Darcy for over 4 years of constant motivation and support. Seriously, I couldn’t do this without him. To Reba for the lovely, and very last-minute, watermarks. And to my talented artist friend, Ben Risbeck, for fabulous, and also last-minute, photo shopping of the spell effects.
Quick announcement! Me and the Podthingy boys (John Mulhall, author of Geddy’s Moon; Blayne Alexander, lead singer of Idiot Stare; and Hayden Lawrence, NerdBFF and Geek Outlaw) will have a booth at Long Beach Comic Expo February 28th-March 1st! Come say “Hi!” and check out the entire first season of the podcast HERE.
ON TO THE CONTESTS!
Part 1: If you want a chance to win a signed print of your choice from this photo shoot, leave a comment below by Thursday, February 5th at Midnight PST. I’ll pull five names out of a hat and contact you directly if you’re a winner!
Part 2: I love, love, love all of the photo shopped photos that people have sent me over the years. So much so that I have a facebook photo album dedicated to them! Photo shop a spell or a Dementor or anything Harry Potter-related that you’d like into one of the 5 photos below and myself and an expert panel of judges will choose a winner. The winner will get a customized package full of HNG swag and will be featured on the HNG Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest pages! Photo shopped image must be submitted by the Thursday, February 5th at Midnight PST deadline! Send to: princesstrek@hotmail.com
I really need to stop burning the candle at both ends. I woke up Sunday morning with a horrible sore throat and a pounding headache that is making my head feel like it weighs about 800 lbs. But nothing was going to keep me from seeing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Nothing. So I opted to see it in 2D because of my head. I’ll go back and see it in 3D once I’m feeling better.
WARNING: I geek out a bit so expect spoilers. But really, y’all should have read the books so I really shouldn’t be spoiling anything for you.
[youtube:http://youtu.be/nOGsB9dORBg]
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The movie takes us through the first 6 chapters of The Hobbit or There and Back Again by JRR Tolkien which means that it took them just under 3 hours to get through approximately 100 pages of a children’s novel. I’ve been arguing since 1999 that TheLord of the Rings should have been six movies instead of three. People who haven’t read The Lord of the Rings might not know that it’s actually six books in three parts. The movies were great, I can’t even count how many times I’ve watched them, but they would have been even greater had they been able to stretch out a bit more. Cuts had to be made, like Tom Bombadil, and that’s fine but a bit sad for those of us who love the books. The Hobbit could probably have been done in two movies as opposed to three, but I, for one, am glad that they aren’t limiting themselves this time around. It means less changes while they try to squeeze in major plot points. They do still make a few changes, which I’ll mention later, but it’s mostly additions that I didn’t mind.
It starts much like The Fellowship of the Ring did, with a back story setting up the adventure that’s about to happen. In this case, it’s the story of how the House of Durin discovered and claimed Erebor, or The Lonely Mountain, as their home. Erebor is pretty rad. It’s got a ton of precious gems and metals and giant hammers that come down from the ceiling and slam together to make golden blocks of something kick ass. They also have the Arkenstone, which is basically like the greatest diamond ever found, second only to the Silmarils (which were made, but that’s a different story). King Thrór, or as I now like to think of him, the Dwarf with the Awesome Beard Bling, becomes so obsessed with his wealth that he starts going a bit batty. His Grandson, Thorin, is the only one who seems to notice this but says nothing. Apparently, insanity attracts evil because one day Smaug, a Fire-drake (or Uruloki) left over from the days of Morgoth, decides that Thrór’s treasure would make a mighty fine mattress. *Totally random side note – maybe it’s because of my life-long obsession with Norse mythology, but did anyone else ever notice that a UruLOKI stole everything from someone named THrOR?
But I digress.
There are a few things that are different from the book; for example, the way in which Bilbo decides to join the adventure at the last minute, the whole Radagast part, the way the Dwarves leave Rivendell, the Orc hunting party, the scuffle with Azog during the burning trees bit, the way the group finds themselves in the hall of the Great Goblin. But you know what? None of that bothered me. Because they are splitting the book into three parts, they are able to keep the storyline line almost entirely intact. Unlike with The Lord of the Rings trilogy in which they had to cut a lot of my favorite parts out and therefore, modify parts to make it all flow. Which they did quite nicely considering it had to be squeezed into such short films (yes, I said short).
Let’s explore the characters, shall we?
Bilbo Baggins
The first time I saw Martin Freeman was when he was playing Tim in the original British version of The Office and I remember thinking, how can you not love this guy?? What is wrong with you Dawn! GO GET HIM!! (If you haven’t seen it, you really need to, it’s brilliant). Steven Moffat once said that Freeman has a way of making “ordinary people fascinating. He finds the poetry in just being ordinary, and that’s an extraordinary gift.” And it’s true. When I found out that Freeman would be playing Bilbo I literally sqee’d. It’s like he was born for this role. He is, quite simply, a revelation. And I don’t say that lightly. Every word, every movement, every mannerism is perfect. It’s lovely to see Ian Holm on the morning of his birthday party at the beginning of the film but I couldn’t wait until they went back to 60 years prior and the introduction of Freeman as Bilbo. Right from the get go his performance is charming and emotionally gratifying. Even when he’s covered in Troll snot. When Galadriel asks Gandalf why he brought Bilbo along he’s baffled and haltingly replies “Why Bilbo Baggins? Perhaps it’s because I am afraid and he gives me courage.” Indeed, Bilbo is simultaneously the mascot, the cheerleader, the little brother and, in many ways, the most capable member of the group, all of which the Dwarves slowly begin to realize the closer they get to Erebor. One of the minor alterations made by Peter Jackson is the way in which Bilbo tries on the ring for the first time. Instead of just slipping it on like he did in the book, they decided to mirror it with Frodo’s first time by having Bilbo trip and fall. As the ring flies through the air, IT makes the decision to slide onto Bilbo’s finger.
Gandalf
Speaking of people who were born to play a role, the same could be said about Ian McKellen and the role of Gandalf the Grey. He’s here in all his pointy grey-hatted glory. One of the biggest differences between the book and the film is the way that the Dwarves leave Rivendell. In the book they depart with Elrond’s blessing on ponies packed with provisions that he has provided. In the movie they slip away in the middle of the night while Gandalf distracts Elrond, Galadriel and Saruman with a Morgul blade and tales of the Necromancer. As per usual, he saves the day on more than one occasion, the most notable of which is with a repeat of Gandalf the Moth Whisperer from LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring. But the best example of Gandalf’s magic? The fact that he never loses his hat. For real, it’s like it’s sewn onto his head.
Thorin
I never understood why Marian went for Robin instead of Guy of Gisbourne. I mean seriously, just look at Richard Armitage, the guy (heehee) is drop dead. I first saw him in the BBC mini-series North & South. Which you should totally watch if you’re at all into British period drama…which I totally am. North & South is my favorite of all the ones I’ve seen and I’ve seen pretty much every one that Netflix has to offer. Then, of course, he was Gisbourne in the BBC series Robin Hood. A show that I found totally hokey at first but that I ended up being completely addicted to. Seriously dudes, the end of the final episode made me cry the ugly cry. Twice. Armitage has a tendency to play brooding characters and Thorin Oakenshield, the King in exile, is no different. He’s stubborn but magnetic and majestic for a Dwarf. If you’re an Armitage fan like I am, you’ll be thrilled by the countless close-ups of Thorin with his hair blowing in the wind. No joke, they pop up about every 10 minutes or so. Let me tell you, he has nailed the art of gazing just to the right of the camera and looking all inspirational and stuff.
The Dwarves
This jovial band of brothers and cousins is filled primarily with relatively unknown actors from New Zealand and Great Britain, there is one that you might recognize, not only because he starred in another favorite BBC series of mine, but also because the makeup people just couldn’t seem to bring themselves to cover up such hotness and he’s got the least amount of prosthetics of any of the dwarves. I’m referring, of course, to Aidan Turner, our favorite tormented vampire from Being Human who plays Kili. The only other name I even recognized was Graham McTavish and that’s mostly because of my love for gratuitous violence. There are a couple of stand outs though. One being Balin (spoiler alert: the Fellowship finds his tomb when they’re walking through Moria) played by Ken Stott. Stott does a masterful job of being a wise and calming influence for Thorin. If you’re not a Tolkienite, it can be easy to miss Glóin son of Gróin (bottom right in the picture collage). He doesn’t feature prominently in either the book or the movie, but he’s notable in that he is Gimli’s Daddy. Gimli, of course, being the sole Dwarf in the Fellowship of the Ring. As a whole they provide some very memorable and chuckle-worthy moments, including a burping contest and a kitchen clean-up job the likes of which have not been seen onscreen since Beauty and the Beast. “Blunt the Knives,” the comical clean up song, is quickly followed by a haunting rendition of “Misty Mountains.” Both songs are in the book and it’s highly satisfying to actually hear them for once. Many of the songs in the book get left out of the film, but the ones that are scored are brilliant.
Radagast
I think that Peter Jackson felt guilty about leaving Radagast out of The Lord of the Rings because he made the part of Radagast the Brown much, much bigger in The Hobbit. In fact, if I remember correctly, I think he’s only mentioned in The Hobbit. You probably know Sylvester McCoy best as the seventh incarnation of the Doctor (the one who got his wardrobe cues from The Riddler). As one of the five Istari or Wizards of Middle Earth, Radagast is the one who is utterly obsessed with animals. He has virtually no contact with other humanoids and names the animals of the forest he protects. He even lets birds nest under his hat and crap down the side of his face. This is both hysterical and disgusting. He’s got a sled pulled by Rhosgobel rabbits who can outrun Wargs and, according to a disdainful Saruman, he eats lots of shrooms. Jackson uses Radagast to introduce the Necromancer. If you’ve read the books then you know who the Necromancer is, but just in case you haven’t, I’m not going to spoil it here.
Gollum
Along the treacherous road to Erebor, the company stumbles on three Trolls. After defeating them by allowing the dawn to turn them to stone, Gandalf and company find the Troll’s cave and three very important swords, Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver, Glamdring the Foe-Hammer, and Sting. When Gandalf hands Sting to a reluctant Bilbo he encourages the Hobbit by telling him that “true courage is not knowing when to take a life, but when to spare one.” If you’ve seen The Fellowship of the Ring, then you know that Gandalf alludes to this moment when he scolds Frodo for wishing that Bilbo had killed Gollum when he had the chance. Gandalf replies, “Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.” Andy Serkis returns as the strangely loveable Stoor, Smeagol, in a performance that defies explanation. How someone can talk in that voice for that long is beyond me. Serkis mentioned on The Colbert Report that the “Riddles in the Dark” scenes were the first to be filmed. You’d never know it. It seems as though he and Freeman have been at it for ages.
Thranduil
I don’t know if Lee Pace got a new agent or what, but he has certainly been making the movie rounds lately. His adorkable face is showing up in the most random places. If you’re like me your first exposure to Pace was Pushing Daisies, a brilliant and gorgeously shot TV series about a man who can bring people back to life with a touch, but if he touches them a second time they are dead for good. Then I didn’t see him for a few years and I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to him. Then 2012 rolls around and he’s suddenly in the last Twilight movie, Lincoln, and now The Hobbit trilogy as none other than the Elvenking Thranduil (aka Legolas’ Daddy). I gotta admit, his looks are very Elvish and even though the extent of his part in An Unexpected Journey involves him riding a giant moose and cocking his head to one side while looking bemused, I know from past experience that he’s a great actor. I look forward to seeing more of him in The Desolation of Smaug in which he’ll play a much bigger role.
The White Council – Elrond/Galadriel/Saruman
There are a few people on this Earth who are chosen by a higher power to be a part of multiple nerdtastic franchises. Mark Sheppard is one, Benedict Cumberbatch is quickly becoming another, and they are ruled over by Hugo Weaving. As Elrond, he helps the Dwarves discover hidden text on Thror’s Map written in Moon-letters, the Middle-earth equivalent of invisible ink. He brings his usual gravitas to the role. Galadriel shouldn’t even be in this movie but I can’t say I blame Peter Jackson for doing it. I can seriously watch Cate Blanchett and her pre-raphaelite hair all day long. Sheesh she’s pertiful. Also, she has mastered the art of the dress swirl. You know, where she’s standing with her back to you and then she smoothly spins around to face you which causes her dress to do an awesome swirly thing that is the envy of brides everywhere. Saruman is only mentioned in The Hobbit when Gandalf is describing his fellow Istari (there are also two mysterious Blue Wizards who journeyed to the East after being brought to Middle-earth) but again, why pass up a chance to watch Christopher Lee?? The White Council’s surprise regarding the Necromancer is yet another variation from the book but I’m not going to get into that here because this review is getting crazy long as it is.
Lindir aka Aegnor aka Figwit
Way back in 2001 a random elf showed up next to Elrond at the Council in The Fellowship of the Ring. He didn’t appear for long and ended up becoming affectionately known by fans as “Figwit.” The name came from three people who worked on the film who remarked in the commentary “Frodo Is Great, Who Is That??” Voila! F.I.G.W.I.T. was born. His popularity and the mystery surrounding him grew so much that Peter Jackson brought back the young brunette elf and gave him a speaking part. He became Arwen’s Elf Escort and called after her when she ran away and returned to the…uhmmm…well, King. Nearly 10 years later, Figwit shows up in The Hobbit as Elrond’s representative and he’s got an actual name this time, Lindir (he was randomly dubbed Aegnor, aka one of Galdriel’s brothers, in a card game tied in with the trilogy). Then it hits me like a ton of bricks. OMFG, it’s Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords. I have no excuse as to why I didn’t realize it was him in the bazillion times I’ve watched the LOTR triology since Conchords came out other then the fact that I’ve never seen someone look so different without beard stubble. Turns out The Fellowship of the Ring was Bret’s big break and he’s the son of the guy who played Elendil (Aragorn’s 89-great-grandpa). Just thought you should know.
The Baddies – Azog/The Great Goblin
Azog (aka the Pale Orc) played by Manu Bennett, should not be a contemporary character in this movie. Period. He does belong in the flashback of the Battle of Azanulbizar and he did behead Thror, but that was way prior to the climactic battle which he did not survive. He was beheaded by Dáin, a cousin of Thorin’s. The Great Goblin Chieftain of the Misty Mountains played by Barry Humphries does belong, however. He is killed by Gandalf (albeit much earlier in the book than in the movie) and it’s his death that spurs Azog’s son Bolg, the Goblin King of Moria, to confront the Dwarves at Erebor in what becomes known as The Battle of the Five Armies (which you will see in Part 3 There and Back Again).
The movie ends with the thrush (if you’ve read the book then you’ll know what that signifies) and that’s all I’m going to say. Overall, the movie is far more mature than the book. Peter Jackson manages to adapt a children’s novel into something that fits in seamlessly with the Lord of the Rings trilogy he started working on nearly 15 years ago. The cinematography is stunning and the wide shots of the New Zealand landscape are, quite simply, breathtaking. It’s a beautiful film and it needs to be seen on the big screen.
I promised detailed blogs about Comic Con and by golly, I aim to keep that promise. There’s just one problem. There’s waaaay too much for just one post. I tried. I’ve gone through approx. 1000 pictures (no joke) and narrowed them down to the best of the best and even then I was left with so many that I had to break it up. So I’m splitting SDCC into 3 (or 4) blogs. The first of which is the panels.
FRIDAY (Community, Legend of Korra, Firefly):
I’ve been to many conventions but this was my first time at the mothership aka Comic Con and boy, did I learn a lot about what to do/not to do (but that’s a whole ‘nuther post). I thought that because I live in San Diego County I could sleep at home and drive to SDCC each day.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I’m ridiculous.
Parking is a bitch so what you end up having to do is drive to a trolley station and take the trolley the rest of the way. They helpfully provide CC-specific trolleys to make it easy for you. One problem, the first one gets you to the Convention Center just after 7:00am. Waaaay too late if you want to get in line for one of the big panels *cough cough Firefly cough cough*
Daniel to the rescue!
Lucky for me and Geek Outlaw, our mutual fan (and now fave friend) Daniel, had planned to camp out and saved a spot for us in the Ballroom 20 line. I felt guilty about cutting in line for exactly 3 minutes at which point I saw everyone else doing the exact same thing and got over it.
I’m not gonna lie, I was there for Firefly and Firefly alone. But you have to sit on all of the panels before Firefly in order to have a seat for Firefly (they seriously need to figure out a better system) so I ended up sitting through the panels fro Community and Legend of Korra as well.
I wasn’t the only one.
The first panel of the day was Community. I find Community highly entertaining so I was more than happy to sit in on their panel. They did not disappoint. The cast and crew were hilarious and the film clips they put together for Comic Con were chock full of funny shenanigans. Chevy Chase and Donald Glover were noticeably absent. Which is too bad because LeVar Burton was there and they could have had an epic Troy/LeVar moment.
Cast and Crew of Community
The second panel of the day was Legend of Korra (I’d like to know who they had to bang to get the lucky spot between Community and Firefly). This panel was like Chinese water torture for my sister-in-law. She looked like she was either going to explode or throw up. Maybe both. Simultaneously. I had an advantage because I’ve seen a bit of Avatar: The Last Airbender. So I actually enjoyed the panel. It was notable in that I recognized two of the voice actors. Bud (David Faustino) from Married with Children and Janet Varney from The Selling (which I reviewed a while back because it’s directed/produced/starring our mutual friends from SFSU). It was also fun because they recorded the audience doing crowd voice work for a future episode. I’ll admit, it got me intrigued about checking out an episode or two of the cartoon. For those who are Korra fans, they did a preview of an upcoming episode by reading the script live while showing concept sketches of the episode. They also showed off future costume and character designs.
The cast and crew of The Legend of Korra
Hey! It’s the chick from Falling Skies!
Then came the panel we were there for, the 10 year Firefly reunion. It was epic. Truly epic. I felt like I was a part of history. The sheer volume of love being poured forth was incredibly intense. The actors and Joss all cried at some point. Most of the audience cried at some point. My mom cried through 90% of it. It was magical. I took video of parts of it but then I found this full length video and thought you would appreciate it more.
Nathan Fillion was so overwhelmed that he totally missed a question that was directed at him and his costars had to answer for him. They all said that Firefly was the best job they’d ever had. At one point they all blamed Summer Glau for something (which you’ll find hilarious if you’ve watched the extras on the DVD) and the look on her face was priceless. Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, and Ron Glass were missing and their absence was felt deeply by everyone in the room. The most touching moment in an hour chock full of touching moments was when the last question was asked of Joss Whedon – “what do the fans mean to you?”
It was the most beautiful “thank you” I’ve ever witnessed and I feel truly honored to have been there for it.
Tid bit excited!
SATURDAY (Spotlight on J. Michael Straczynski, Roddenberry Presents):
Saturday was the day I cosplayed as Thor. Which was awesome but awful at the same time. It was my first time cosplaying at a convention and I underestimated the amount of time it would take to get ready. As a result I got to Comic Con about…ohhhhh….5 hours later than I’d intended and missed a bunch of the morning panels I’d wanted to check out. I’m a little jealous that Geek Outlaw got to sit it on the Powerful Women, Simpsons, Futurama, Once Upon a Time, and Peter Cullen panels but meh, what are you gonna do?
(Be sure to check out Geek Outlaw’s blog if you want to get the dish on those panels I just mentioned!)
No matter, I had something uber awesome to look forward to. I was scheduled to interview Rod Roddenberry after his 3:00pm panel.
As a result I caught the Joe Straczynski panel right beforehand. The best part of that panel? One guy complained that a Joe comic had kept him up on a school night so Joe reached into his wallet and gave the guy a $20 refund. It was quite hilarious.
The Roddenberry panel was a whole ‘nuther level of awesomesauce but I’m saving all of the Roddenberry stuff for its own post later this week. So stay tuned for that!
SUNDAY (Fringe, Supernatural, Doctor Who):
I was supposed to cosplay on Sunday as well but my experience on Saturday convinced me that it was a terrible idea so I reverted back to an HNG t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Comfort and timeliness will always, always win out for me. I am nothing if not practical.
Morgan to the rescue!
The one panel that I was determined to see was Doctor Who. I lurv me some Doctor. Again, thanks to the trolley schedule, we were pretty much screwed but miraculously, another HNG/GO fan came to our rescue. Morgan camped out and let us join him in line for Hall H. Seriously. Best. Fans. Ever. I’ve promised myself that I will plan this better and do my own camping out next year.
Immediately upon walking into Hall H we were handed Fringe fedoras a la The Observers (fun fact, while I was in New York I saw Evita on Broadway starring Michael Cerveris as Peron and he was AH-mazing)
Fringe was the first panel of the day and after mentioning their brushes with cancellation, there was a very lovely moment when at least half the audience held up pictures of white tulips. I’ll admit that I got a little verklempt.
Despite the best efforts of the audience (and some teasing from Joshua Jackson), the Fringe cast and crew revealed no secrets about the upcoming final season.
It was kind of a kick to see the actors smile and laugh. There was one especially funny moment when Anna Torv said she “was coming…” and then paused in her sentence. The audience started laughing.
Then Joshua Jackson got it and started laughing.
Then the rest of the cast got it and started laughing.
Then Anna got it and was completely mortified.
It then became a running joke throughout the rest of the panel. I feel for you Anna, that is totally something that would happen to me. The mood quickly shifted when the cast were asked what their favorite scene was that they were not in. Cue the waterworks! Anna Torv, Jasika Nicole, and Lance Reddick all teared up when describing memorable and beautiful scenes from the show.
And then shifted back again just as quickly when the best audience questioners ever took the floor. I can’t even remember what their question was, I was too busy laughing at their deadpan Observer impression. Seriously, they never broke character once and the girl in the back right had the most amazingly creepy buggy-eyed thing going on..
It was an all around awesome panel and made me want to run home and catch up on my Fringe episodes on Netflix.
Next up was Supernatural, a show I’ve never had time to get into. Seriously, I wish that I didn’t have to sleep, I would be more than happy to fill 100% of my time watching every awesomely nerdy show there is. I have some friends that are obsessed with this show and have been trying to get me to watch it for years. They were very jealous that I got to see this panel. The running joke here was that “anything is possible” was used to answer at least half of the questions they were asked.
I may not know much about the show but I do know about Mark Sheppard and I was SUPER excited to see him. I’m pretty sure that he’s contractually obligated to only appear in TV shows/movies that are nerd-worthy.
I never really thought that Jared Padalecki was that cute but I must admit, he’s pretty damn good-looking in real life. He and Jensen Ackles win major brownie points for their gag reel antics.
Then came the panel that I was really there for, Doctor Who. Or should I say “Doctor WHOOO???” Seeing these people in real life is kind of a surreal experience. I usually only get star struck by Star Trek actors but I was totally star struck by these guys. I literally sat on the edge on my seat the entire time. And that’s only partly because the girl in front of me was so tall she most likely plays in the WNBA.
First of all, let me just say how incredibly gorgeous Karen Gillan is. Seriously. I didn’t think she could get any prettier than she is on TV but she can! I’ve seen it with my own two eyes! Just stunning.
The moderator of the panel was one of my nerd crushes, Chris Hardwick (not Wil Wheaton as some mistakenly believed) and he was nerding out just as much as the rest of us. He even brought his sonic screwdriver. There was a bit of good-natured ribbing between him and Matt Smith. Apparently they ran into each other the night before at a party and this happened:
Oops! Chris blamed it on his pointy face.
The best audience question came from a little girl dressed up as a Dalek. She wanted to know what button, screen or object on the TARDIS was their favorite. The cast took this question very seriously and even admitted to stealing a few of their favorites (a pair of binoculars for Karen). Matt’s favorite is the main lever he yanks all the time. The little girl walked away but Matt Smith called her back and asked her if she had a favorite button, screen or object on the TARDIS. She looked at him very pointedly, said “NO” and walked away again. The whole room was laughing so hard I think we all peed ourselves a little.
They were also asked what they find annoying about each other. Matt said that Karen picks her lip, Karen said that Matt shakes his head and they both agreed that Arthur Darvill goes into “dad mode.”
Having seen the Firefly and Doctor Who panels, I can now die a happy nerd.
Stay tuned for more posts about Comic Con 2012 including the Roddenberry interview I mentioned and all of the awesome costumes!
Let me start off by emphasizing how much I loved the book Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. Fun, adventurous, perfectly intertwined with historical fact. It was truly brilliant and inspired.
Now let me emphasize how much I didn’t like this movie. I almost can’t believe the script was written by my beloved SGS. I’m kind of at a loss to be perfectly honest. I saw this with someone who has not read the book. He went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised that he enjoyed it as much as he did. I went in with high expectations and was sorely disappointed.
Warning: I spoil the shit out of both the book and the movie so stop reading here if you don’t want to know what happens.
They skipped the beginning of the book. The introduction in which the transcriber (Seth Grahame-Smith uses his own name here which is awesome) of Abraham Lincoln’s journals describes how much this project has cost him but why it was all worth it. For me it’s like leaving Daniel out of Interview with the Vampire. It’s just not the same.
The entire first third of the book details Abe’s childhood. His relationship with his parents and his sisters, his unstable upbringing, his mother teaching him to read and write and nurturing his love of learning, his illiterate father keeping him on a tight leash and forcing him to work for him for years, hearing the story of how his grandfather was killed, etc etc. The movie breezed through all of that in about 5 minutes and left out at least 95% of it. His dad (Joseph Mawle aka Benjen Stark from Game of Thrones) practically came across as a great dad, which he arguably was not.
The movie had a very strange, ethereal feel to it, like it was filmed through a filter that made everything slightly fuzzy and off kilter. I would like to know if any of the sets were real or if they filmed the entire movie in front of a green screen a la 300 and Sin City. The special effects were kind of weird but kind of beautiful at the same time. I felt like I was watching a video game half the time. Especially during the horse stampede scene.
Hi Ho Silver!
Speaking of the horse stampede scene… Up until this point Abe’s fighting skills are relatively realistic (like they are in the book) but when I watched him flip and ride a horse he’d just been pummeled with I literally laughed out loud. When he started running across the backs of running horses and then fell down a cliff and emerged unscathed I threw my hands in the air. Abe’s a tall, scrawny human, not a Goddamn mutant cyborg.
That’s not to say that every fight scene was completely ridiculous. The party fight scene was spectacularly badass. It was filmed in that same slow-fast-slow-motion you’ve seen before but this time with some epic axe swinging. The train fight falls somewhere in the middle of the unbelievability scale. It was pretty awesome and definitely demonstrated the power of teamwork.
What? The bridge is on fire? Do you think we should get off the train?
Speaking of the train scene… I felt like I was watching The Little Engine That Could. Seeing the train climb up the burning remnants of the bridge I couldn’t help but chant “I think I can! I think I can! I think I can!” in my head over and over again. This entire sequence was obviously supposed to replace the Jefferson Davis burning house scene in the book.
The guy who plays Abe (Benjamin Walker) happens to be married to Meryl Streep’s daughter in real life. Wow. That’s got to be simultaneously awesome and hugely intimidating. No pressure on the acting front there Benji. Aside from the fact that he has ginormous earlobes (surely those weren’t prosthetics like his nose…right?) he did ok. Playing someone like Abraham Lincoln has got to be difficult. He always looked so stoic in his pictures. How do you interpret that? I can’t fault him in his attempt. He demonstrated some very impressive axe wielding skills. At 6’3” he has the height. Unfortunately, so do a lot of other men these days. Abe never looked freakishly tall next to, well, anyone.
Dominic Cooper (aka Howard Stark in Captain America) was given the role I was most interested in seeing, that of Henry Sturges. Well they certainly frakked that up. Dominic Cooper was fine, charming even, but they felt the need to change his entire history. Why?? They could easily have kept it the same and inserted the new characters created for the movie. The story of his vampiric conversion is 10 million times more interesting in the book and could have taken up the exact same amount of time onscreen. Fail. Also, doesn’t he tell Abe straight away that he’s a vampire? In the movie Abe stumbles across Henry feeding on a rapist and gets his panties all twisted in a bunch. Abe’s a smart guy but apparently he never figured out the whole sunglasses thing. Henry wins the award for the fastest vampire transformation ever. It took, what? 60 seconds?
I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out where I’d seen Joshua Speed (Jimmi Simpson) before. Then it hit me that he is one of the creepy brothers on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia! That made me really happy. In the book Lincoln and Speed are roommates. This (literal) closeness results in a unique lifelong friendship that few, if any, other people shared with Abraham. In the movie it seemed like Speed lived somewhere else and Abe lived above the shop alone. That made me really sad. The whole thing with him betraying but not betraying and his fate on the train was so far off from the book that I have no idea what to say about it.
Will Johnson (Anthony Mackie) was a character created for the movie. I wasn’t a fan of many of the new characters but I was fine with Will. It was a little cheesy how he came back as an adult and was suddenly all BFF with Abe. It’s like they split the Joshua Speed character in two and gave half the part to Will Johnson. The way better half. I’m not really sure why they felt the need to do that (Token from South Park might) but I dig Mackie and I thought he did a good job.
Mary (Mary Elizabeth Winstead from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) finds out the truth? Huh? Again, not in the book. The first time Abe tells her he’s a vampire hunter is during a picnic. She laughs at him and chides him with an “I thought you were an honest man, Abe!” Hahaha, oh Mary, I see what you did there! Years later she finds his not-at-all-hidden journal and reads it. She gets really angry and screams that he lied to her when actually he did tell her the truth way back when. Ugh. Women. For some strange reason they decided Willie should be an only child despite the fact that Abe and Mary had two other sons. The whole idea of Mary taking action and leading silver-carrying freed slaves to Gettysburg was completely absurd. If you’ve ever read anything about Mary Todd (including the book on which this movie was based) you’d know that she would become completely incapacitated by her grief. She didn’t even attend funerals. Now, that being said, I liked badass Fake Movie Mary way more than Real Historical Mary. Shooting her kid’s toy sword into his killer’s forehead? Yes please! By the way, how did she even know that the toy sword was involved??
I couldn’t find a picture of Tudyk as Stephen Douglas but I thought this picture was an adequate alternative
Wash! As Stephen A. Douglas! I got so excited when I saw Alan Tudyk that I actually yelped. I couldn’t wait to see more! Then they completely ignored his character. *le sigh* Don’t feel too bad Alan, they didn’t even mention Edgar Allan Poe or William Seward.
Jack Barts’ (Marton Csokas aka Celeborn in Lord of the Rings) role was seriously expanded and he was missing his missing arm. We also acquired a 5000-year-old vampire named Adam (Rufus Sewell) and his sister Vadoma (Victoria’s Secret super model Erin Wasson). If I remember the book correctly, there is never a clear vampire leader. Ugh. There were so many things that frustrated me about the vampires. Vampires disappearing? Vamps can’t kill their own kind?? Why no black eyes? Why do they have them turning into weird alien predator vampires?
They skipped the end of the book. The theatre and John Wilkes Booth and the fate of Abe and the hint of what became of another motivational leader. I know that not everyone likes the last few pages of the book but I do and I missed it. Throwing some random bloke in at end was not satisfying for me. I think you can only truly appreciate this movie for what it is if you haven’t read the book and it shouldn’t be that way. I loved the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the last six Harry Potter films despite the fact that they made major modifications to the story. It can be done well. In this case it wasn’t.
Yeah…probably should have taken this picture AFTER seeing the movie.
The previews for Snow White and the Huntsman were gorgeous. People morphing into ravens and shards of obsidian, a T-1000 mirror, Charlize Theron bathing in a vat of white paint. All very cool visuals. So I was super excited to see all of these beautiful shots come together in one stunning example of marvelous movie making.
That’s not to say it was a bad film, it wasn’t, it just didn’t live up to my high expectations. Each scene is lovely, with superb visual fx, but the transitions between those scenes were awkward and choppy. The movie didn’t flow. The acting was good for the most part but Director Rupert Sanders seemed much more interested in the quality of acting in the close ups than in the wide shots. Perfect example is Charlize Theron. She looked and sounded terrifyingly ravishing in the close ups but cheesy and garish in the wide shots. This was a bit disheartening for me since she was the main reason I wanted to see this movie and I know just how brilliant she can be.
Snow White has been reinterpreted countless times since the middle ages. Being German, I grew up with the Grimm’s version in which the dwarves are nameless, Snow is woken up by the Prince’s inept servants as opposed to his kiss, and the evil queen is killed when she’s forced to dance to death in red hot iron shoes. Disney went and fraked that all up. (Fun fact, Dean Stockwell’s daddy voiced the prince in the Disney version. I can’t believe I actually know that.)
Warning: I try not to spoil things but I might so be warned.
This version is nothing like the Grimm’s version. The evil queen has a creepy brother (with an even more creepy haircut), the huntsman is a drunk widower (who doesn’t care if he dies…except that he does care), the prince isn’t a prince (he’s the son of a duke), the dwarves live in a fairy land full of psychedelic flora and fauna (and don’t whistle, work or have pickaxes), and Snow White is far more empowered (which is always nice). The giant elk in the forest with tree branch antlers is lovely and obviously supposed to be on the same level as Aslan but the scene where Snow approaches him is a pale imitation of the Lili/Unicorn scene in Legend.
Charlize Theron as Queen Ravenna is otherworldly. She has a fantastic wardrobe that includes shoulder pads made from bones and lots of raven feathers (get it? Raven…Ravenna….?) She’s great at looking steely-eyed and has nailed the art of letting tears hover just on the cusp of her eye but not letting them fall. Whoever did her makeup and prosthetics should be nominated for an Oscar because WOW she looked incredible the entire time. Even when she was dying she was gorgeous. It turns out that Ravenna is a total spoiled brat throwing a giant man-hating temper tantrum. Which is really too bad because I bet she’s a wildcat in the sack.
Kristen Stewart is most definitely not fairer than Charlize Theron but she’s a very realistic kind of pretty and she does look really cute in her girly armor. To be honest, I kind of felt like I was watching one of the Twilight films during her scenes. Jumping off a cliff? Check. Being scared by giant beasts and falling backwards? Check. Having men stare at her while she’s unconscious? Check. Hair stuck to her lip while she’s saying something that’s supposed to be important except you don’t know what she said because you were distracted by the hair stuck to her lip? Check. As I mentioned before, at least she was an empowered version of Snow White. She wants to fight and kill her evil stepmother…though where she gets the strength to do that after being locked in a tiny tower cell for 10 years with no exercise is a mystery to me. But she’s got help. Birds guide her, horses wait around for her (then nose dive into mud which was HI-larious), and people are eager to help her (when they don’t look like they want to eat her…that was weird).
My boyfr….I mean, Chris Hemsworth brings his usual charm and comedic timing to the role of the Hunstman aka Eric. I love watching him fight. In my opinion, he’s one of the best movie fighters I’ve ever seen. The chemistry between him and KStew was virtually non-existent but it’s obvious how hard he’s trying to make it work anyway. The part where it was most evident is when he’s talking to a poisoned Snow. Without an acting partner in the way he’s able to deliver a very touching monologue to what he thinks is her corpse. He’s dirty and muddy for 99% of the movie and somehow that just makes him sexier. God, I love-hate him. I joke a lot about how hot Chris Hemsworth is and, it’s true, he’s insanely hot, but my love for him has much to more with the fact that he plays my favorite comic book character than the fact that he’s deliciousness on legs. I swear!
I totally thought that young William (aka the non-prince) was the kid who plays Bran on Game of Thrones. But apparently it’s not. Boo. Snow White’s little buddy grows up to be the guy from POTC: On Stranger Tides who falls in love with a mermaid. He was ok. Nothing remarkable. I was more interested in trying to figure out who plays his dad, the Duke. Then it hit me that he was the Captain in 300. I knew I recognized those eyes.
The dwarves are the best part of the movie, especially when they are penetrating the castle through the sewer system. They are funny, charming, and I want to live in the enchanted forest with them. The most notable are Bob Hoskins, Ian McShane, Ray Winstone and Toby Jones. You can’t go wrong with any of those actors.
The end of the movie is rather anti-climactic. You think you know which boy Snow is going to choose but they never show her making her decision…and the part where they should have shown her making her decision hangs on in weird movie purgatory for an uncomfortably long time. I wanted to shout at the screen “Stop standing there with your stupid tree branch and go kiss him dammit!” You wait the whole movie for the truly satisfying, sexy kissing action and they never deliver it. Lame.
The ending credits were beautiful though. Kind of Avengers-esque in that it has the camera hovering over close up shots of armor and swords and whatnot. Because I always sit through the credit crawl (and you should too) I noticed that the movie is dedicated to “Little Eira White” which caught my eye because I happen to know that Eira is “snow” in Welsh. So the film is dedicated to…itself.
I mean seriously, I could totally be a Stark! Right?!
I finally finished reading Book 5 of the Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin (which took me an abnormally long time compared to books 1-4). As I read and finished each book in the series I wrote down my thoughts. Sometimes they are snippets, sometimes they are discussions I’m having with myself, and sometimes it’s just me rehashing something that happened so that I can work it all out in my head. Writing crap like this down is just something I’ve always done. I’m not really sure why.
I did not edit these random thought nuggets so BE WARNED THAT THERE ARE MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF SPOILERS AHEAD and if you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read those sections. As a bonus I wrote down my brain farts while watching the first season of the HBO Game of Thrones TV show. I’m not including any of my thoughts on the second season because it’s still in progress and some folks wait for the DVD’s to come out, etc etc.
So here you go, a glimpse into the way my brain works 😉
Game of Thrones
Having descended from Nordic peoples, I have a feeling I would totally dig living at Winterfell.
I want a direwolf. Pretty pretty please with a cherry on top?
George, I’m not gonna lie, I’m more than a little pissed that you killed off my favorite Lord. I’m sure his death is going to play a huge part in the books to come but I really thought he was going to get out of there and live to fight another day.
I will comfort myself with Ned Stark cake pops
I love Arya. Probably because she reminds me of me at that age, a scraggly, scrawny tomboy running around with all the boys having adventures. I had no use for Barbies except when I needed someone for GI Joe to rescue from the dinosaurs. I would have loved nothing more than to have had a private “dance” instructor back then…actually, that still holds true today.
Dance monkey, dance!
Yeesh Lysa. Somebody get this girl some heavy medication.
Poor Bran.
This Littlefinger dude is more trouble than he seems.
“No Ser Jorah, it’s totally cool. I’m just gonna walk into this burning funeral pyre, mmmkay? It’s all good.” I can see why Ser Jorah would have his doubts.
Way to find your girl power Daenerys!
So wait, what’s the difference between an “Other” and a “Wight”? Ok, got it.
Wow. Joffrey is an asshat.
Thank gods my brother isn’t like Viserys, I’d probably kill him too. Khal Drogo wins the “most creative way to kill a douchebag” award.
Incest is the best, put your sister to the test. Now please excuse me while I vomit profusely.
Theon, you sound like a sexy beast. I kind of dig it how you smirk all the time as your way of sticking it to the man. You might be my crush in this series.
Clash of Kings
GDit Theon Greyjoy, you little shit. I used to have a sort of crush on my mental image of you with your cocky little smile and your bad boy attitude, but now I just want to go bloody mummer on your ass. How dare you sir! How dare you hurt Old Nan!
Sansa is my least favorite of all the Starks…so why do I cry the ugly cry during her parts?!? I love Arya and she’s going through way more crap than Sansa is but I don’t even get verklempt during Arya’s parts. I think it must be because Sansa is so helpless and defenseless. Arya’s got skillz and can take care of herself but Sansa can only whimper while Joffrey is abusing her. I will say that Sansa has grown on me though. I wanted to strangle her myself while reading Game of Thrones.
Poor poor Bran…oh wait, nevermind.
So wait, Melisandre gives birth to murderous shadow babies? WTF??
Hodor. Hodor? HODOOOOOOORRR!!!!
It’s true. Cause he’s huge. You’d probably get knocked down. Yeah.
Craster is fucked up. How do you look at the toddler running around and think, yeah, I’ll bang her in a few more years. I mean WTF?!?? I can’t say I blame Gilly for wanting to get the hell out of Dodge.
The dwarf gets all the best sex. That’s awesome. But for some reason I can’t get the image of Willow banging Sorsha out of my head.
I think I know who Arstan Whitebeard is….I think. But I don’t want to say yet in case it’s BS (see what I did there?) I love a good double entendre.
WHY ARE YOU KILLING OFF ALL OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS, GEORGE?????
A Storm of Swords
1000 pages of awesomesauce.
Hell yeah! I was right about Selmy! Self sci-five!
Please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks that Gendry has a fat crush on Arya.
Geez George, is there anyone you won’t kill?? Is nothing and no one sacred???
Huh. Well Catelyn, I honestly didn’t see that coming. I’d hang all the Frey’s too.
Still not sure what to think of Jojen but Meera is awesome. I’d have a crush on her too, Bran. Why are psychic kids always so creepy?
Valar Dohaeris. Unless you fancy yourself royal.
Always listen to your direwolf.
So are all of the Stark children wargs?
I wonder if House Tyrell is a GRRM nod to the Tyrell Corporation? Either way, the Tyrell women are fantastic. I love the Queen of Thorns. She reminds me of my grandma. Except for the scheming and murdering.
Wow Sansa, you get a lot done in this book. I’m impressed.
Jaime – loses a hand and becomes a man.
Ygritte – I’m glad that Jon won’t die a virgin.
Sam – you fucktard. Making Jon Lord Commander was the worst thing you could have done for him. Although I think you’re right that he was the best man for the job out of the people who were available. Thank God Janos Slynt is dead. I hated that asshole.
Tywin Lannister = biggest hypocrite ever. That kind of surprised me actually. Tyrion wins the “best way to commit patricide” award.
Holy shit Littlefinger. So you’re the puppet master. I knew I needed to keep a close eye on you. I kind of love to hate you. You need to lay off Sansa though, it’s creeping me out.
I’m pretty much convinced that Coldhands is Benjen Stark.
A Feast for Crows
George, I wish that you had stuck with using chronological order. Just sayin’.
So who’s the new Pate? Jaqen H’ghar is my guess. I can’t wait to find out what he’s up to now.
Brienne is my hero.
Oh Cersei. Cersei, Cersei, Cersei. You can talk the talk but you can’t walk the walk. It’s about time karma bit you in the butt.
Damn, Zombie Catelyn, you’re kinda batshit.
Ok, so Littlefinger is a bit of an enigma to me. I’m thinking that he transferred his Catelyn obsession over to Sansa and some warped part of him feels like he can screw over every other person in Westeros so long as he takes care of her. He obviously wants to be king and he’s obviously the master puppeteer in the game of thrones. …. Right?
I don’t have anything nice to say about the Greyjoy’s. Even Asha has lost her appeal.
I do; however, like Dornish women.
I hope this whole Arya storyline goes somewhere super cool because I’m ready for her to move on. Which is weird because I actually really look forward to these chapters. It’s like a different book within the book. I need the kindly man to teach me some patience. And I love how Sam keeps running into all the “dead” Stark kids.
A Dance with Dragons
Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ, George, stop killing everyone I love GDit!!!
Ok Asha, I kind of like you again.
And the recipient of the “character who went through the most crap” award goes to….Tyrion Lannister! Holy shit dude. You had, like, 9 lives in this book.
It’s a relief to finally know where Varys stands in this whole thing.
Poor, poor Quentyn. Yeesh, I feel bad for that kid. All he wanted was to make his daddy proud and instead he ended up a crispy critter.
It’s about damn time Dany rode Drogon! That was epic! What followed was not so epic…
NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Not my Jon!! And how many times do I have to tell you Stark kids not to leave your direwolves behind? Ugh. Littlefinger was right about you lot in that regard.
Season 1 of HBO’s A Game of Thrones
God bless HBO and their penchant for gratuitous nudity.
Director Tim Van Patten’s brother makes my cat’s food.
Robb Stark. I’d hit that.
Renly’s gay??? That was made up for the show right? Cause I don’t remember getting that impression in the books. But I guess I just missed it.
From now on, whenever I hear the Johnny Cash song “Ring of Fire” I will have a very distinct picture of Dany in my head.
I probably would have avoided this little experiment
Theon, you don’t look like how I imagined you in the books but I didn’t want to punch your face in right away so you’re a good actor at least.
Jon Snow. I’d hit that.
That’s a whole lotta penis and vajayjay. Most were cool but I’m pretty sure I saw Pycelle’s and that was just totally unnecessary.
When you play the game of thrones, either you win or you die. There is no middle ground.
And that wraps up my Game of Thrones wrap up. Sorry if this gives you an epileptic seizure but I thought it was really cool.
Just replace the Tribble with one of these 7 delicious men and I’ll be a happy camper
My sister-in-law and I were at WonderCon on Friday and somehow we got on the topic of “Cheat Sheets.”
And no, I’m not talking about the school variety.
The “Cheat Sheet” I’m referring to is a list of people you’re allowed to get it on with and your significant other can’t hold it against you. You both get one and the list is full of people you don’t even remotely stand a chance with. For example, Robert Downey Jr. and Christian Bale are on my SIL’s list. Isla Fisher and Gretchen Mole are on my brother’s list. They are only allowed 5 each.
Now, I’ve written a number of articles about sexy women, the 2 most popular being 10 Hottest Babes of Sci-Fi and Maxim’s Hot 100 Lucky 13 but I have yet to write a post about nerd-worthy sexy men. This kind of blows my mind. It also got me thinking about my own list and who would be on it. I certainly know it when I see it if I’d hit it…but can I narrow it down to a list?
It’s was a difficult challenge but one that I was willing to accept.
Yeesh my job really sucks sometimes 😉
After much thought, meditation and Google image searching, I’ve put together my Cheat Sheet. I couldn’t narrow it down to 5 so I get 7. Because I’m HNG and I say so. So there. Naturally everyone on my list fits nicely into the nerd ‘verse….cause that’s all I ever pay attention to anyways…ahem. Sorry if you don’t bat for this team and it’s not your kind of list. I’m an equal opportunity sexy list maker and I can’t (nay won’t!) neglect the fans who will appreciate this.
So without further ado, here’s my list in alphabetical order:
Orlando Bloom
I studied for my college finals every December for 3 years in a row while waiting in the 5+ hour line for opening day of the latest Lord of the Rings movie. I graduated Cum Laude so I must have been doing something right. The first time I saw Legolas on screen I was 100% convinced that I was going to marry him one day. Then all the teeny boppers jumped on that bandwagon (especially once Pirates of the Caribbean came out) and it turned me off big time. But still, I can’t help it. I think he’s adorable. Thankfully most of those teeny boppers have moved on to RPatz. I used to see Orlando outside my work sometimes, once with Dominic Monaghan (and cue borderline creepy stalker pic) and my heart would still leap into my throat. So he stays on the list.
Nathan Fillion
Does this one really need an explanation? I didn’t think so. But I’ll give one anyway. Actually, I wrote a whole blog about it back when HNG was brand spankin’ new and I stand by it. But aside from the fact that he’s Malcolm Reynolds, Captain Hammer, Richard Castle, The Holy Avenger, etc etc etc…Nathan himself has an amazing sense of humor. I don’t pay much attention to my Twitter account (although I probably should) but every once in a while I go on and just read back through his tweets for fun. I’m often told that I look like Stana Katic, Nathan’s source of sexual tension on Castle. I disagree about the physical similarities but I would gladly trade places with her and experience some of that sexual tension for myself. ….please….?
Tom Hardy
Five of the men on this list are foreigners with deliciously sexy foreign accents. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as proud an American as they come, but GD I love a good accent. There’s a scene in This Means War when Reese Witherspoon meets Tom Hardy for the first time and she asks him to say something again because it sounds so awesome. I could not have said it better myself. Tom Hardy first came to my attention as the Captain Picard clone in Star Trek: Nemesis. I went to see it on opening day with about ten guy friends. About five minutes into the movie I started crying (because I’m a movie psychic and I’d already figured out what would happen to Data) much to the horror of every guy I was with. I will never forget the moment when the friend next to me asked me if I was ok and I looked over and saw ten grown men staring at me like I had tentacles sprouting from my face. It was HI-larious. But I digress. The other thing that stood out was Tom. He’s been charming me ever since, crooked teeth and all. Seriously, he was my very favorite character in Inception. I think I’m the only person on the planet that isn’t looking forward to seeing him as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. I know he’s going to be brilliant but the thought of him like that just makes me cringe. But I’ll still watch it. Over and over and over again.
Chris Hemsworth
If you’ve been following the blog for a while this will come as no surprise. If you are a newbie, allow me to explain. I’m a big Thor fan. 1. He’s my favorite comic book character and 2. I’m a ridiculously proud Scandinavian who grew up listening to stories about Odin and Asgard while we made lefse and sauerkraut. The first time I remember seeing Thor on a movie screen was when Vincent D’Onofrio reluctantly accepted the title in Adventures in Babysitting, one of my very favorite movies of all time. So I had very high hopes for whoever Kenneth Branaugh cast in his Avengers set up. I wasn’t sure what to think about Chris Hemsworth at first. I remembered him being Kirk’s daddy in the latest Star Trek and I thought he was mighty cute but not big enough to be the God of Thunder. Then he took his shirt off and I had a conniption fit. OMFG. Seriously Chris, you just have to say the word and it is on like Donkey Kong.
James McAvoy
I think my attraction to James mostly has to do with his Scottish accent. And his eyes. And the fact that he’s a brilliant actor. And his eyes. And his accent. All of which I discussed in my review of X-Men: First Class. But aside from all that, he’s uber talented. Mr. Tumnus is one of those literary characters that is beloved by fans of The Chronicles of Narnia and James did good by our favorite faun. Plus, he rocks the Jane Austin-type stuff and you know us girls eat that shit right up.
David Tennant
Another choice that needs no explanation. Easily the sexiest of all the Doctor incarnations, his 3 series and 8 specials are the most popular and well-loved of the long running Doctor WhoBBC show. Then he had to go and seal the deal with Harry Potter and Fright Night, forcing me to adore him forever. His face is so malleable, he can twist and turn it in countless ways. But when he just stop and smiles, your heart melts. David, I am so sorry (see what I did there?), but I just can’t quit you.
Michael Trucco
Now, my brother’s name is Michael and normally I’m totally weirded out by the thought of banging someone with the same name as someone I’m related to but in this case I will totally make an exception. I fell head over heels in love with Anders the second he showed up on Battlestar Galactica. Lee who? Seriously, I wanted to punch Starbuck in the face for the way she treated him. Even the fact that he was a Cylon could not diminish my love. It sucked when he went all vegetable and yet I would still probably hit that. I’m a little grossed out by myself right now but damn, that is a fine ass man. He also had memorable guest spots on Big Bang Theory and Castle (where my celebrity look alike got to have a nice little love triangle with TWO of the people on my list. Bitch.)
Runners Up:
Richard Madden – Game of Thrones
Kit Harington – Game of Thrones
Chris O’Donnell – Batman Forever (but never ever ever Batman & Robin *shudder*)
Patrick Stewart – Star Trek: The Next Generation, X-Men
Henry Cavill – The Tudors, Immortals, Man of Steel
Jamie Dornan – Once Upon A Time
Jason Mamoa – Conan the Barbarian, Game of Thrones, Stargate: Atlantis
Ben Browder – Farscape, Stargate SG1, upcoming Doctor Who episode
Alexander Skarsgard – True Blood
Ryan Kwanten – True Blood
Joe Manganiello – True Blood
Tristan MacManus – Dancing with the Stars (I know, totally random, right? But I’m a theatre/dance nerd too and he’s frakking adorable)
These are some of my kick ass friends. No, you can't have them.
If there is one thing I love it’s badass chicks beating the crap out of people, or, in this case, people and Lycans. My friends told me to be honest (most of them thought it was the worst of the four Underworld movies) and it’s true that there was virtually no plot line in Underworld: Awakening but honestly, I didn’t really care.
Give me hot chicks in rubber (or leather, or latex, or whatever the hell that awesome shiny black material is that they squeeze her into) give them a few semiautomatic weapons, and I’m a happy camper.
I have no idea what this outfit is made of but I like it.
Plus, even though they thought it was the weakest link, we all agreed that it was super fun to watch. As per usual I spoil the shit out of things. So tread carefully if you don’t want to be, uh, spoiled.
I didn’t see Rise of the Lycans…which is really weird because I pretty much never miss a chance to watch vampires onscreen, but I was assured by my friend Hannah that this was ok since #3 was a prequel. Luckily, I HAVE seen Underworld and Evolution so I’m good with the whole Selene/Michael R&J-esque romance storyline.
Awakening starts off by describing The Purge, a time when the human race decides that genocide is a fantastic idea (cause it’s worked out so well in the past) and attempts to eradicate all non-human people…maybe I missed it but how did the humans find out about the Vamps and the Lycans? And how pitiful are 99.9% of these supernaturals?! They just sit around and let themselves be killed by humans instead of being all super human strengthy and opening up a can of woop ass on those soldiers like every other movie monster would have done. I mean come on guys, grow a pair for God’s sake.
Wow. Just…wow.
Kate Beckinsale is in fine form as Selene. I mean, really, I would kill for that girl’s legs. I just plain love watching girls kick ass but I know that some people get their panties all up in a bunch when they see scrawny little starlets in fight scenes. But she’s a vampire so even the naysayers must admit that she gets a pass. Personally, I think Miss Kate is one of the most gorgeous women on the planet. The girl’s got that icy cold vampire stare down pat and is the real reason to watch any of these films (Bill Nighy was previously a close second). She even gets naked! Well, I think she does…my friend Meghan thinks it was CGI’d and my friend Nick backed her up by pointing out that her skin looked a heck of a lot like Hermione’s did in Ron’s horcrux vision in HP7p1.
He obviously runs with Klingons
I don’t know what is keeping Scott Speedman so busy that he could only be in the movie for 2 minutes via old footage and body doubles. It certainly isn’t because of a Felicity reunion (which I would totally watch btw). So what gives Scott?? They are obviously hoping that he’ll return for #5 since the movie ends with them determined to find him. Michael’s absence opens up the door for “random vampire hottie with a crazy knife” David (Theo James from UK’s Bedlam). He’s really only there to fill the pretty boy void and to look wistfully at Selene who is totally hung up on the boyfriend she was with only YESTERDAY from her point of view. It will be interesting to see where that relationship goes in the next installment.
This time Selene’s got a daughter (India Eisley)…now, this is where they really lose me. I vaguely remember something about Viktor killing his daughter because she got knocked up by a Lycan (right?) and they don’t really explain how Eve (seriously, could they have given her a more cliché name?) came about so while watching the movie I just assumed that she was a test tube baby because the last time I checked vampire women couldn’t have babies (Edward and Bella don’t count, she’s human). I can see how a Lycan would have viable sperm but aren’t vampires supposed to be all, I dunno, undead and frozen in time and stuff? Wouldn’t all of her little eggies be undead too? And if she were pregnant during The Purge wouldn’t she have said something while she was talking about her and Michael escaping? Mentioning an unborn child that needs saving seems like it would have been pertinent information.
Anyhooters, so Eve’s a hybrid like her Daddy but thanks to Selene she’s a triple threat vamcanortal (I should really copyright that) and I have to admit, she looks freaking badass when she in fighting form. Like Abby from Let Me In but even better. BTW, have any of the movies explained why the Hybrids are blue? I kept thinking that Nightcrawler was going to show up at some point.
Please tell me I'm not the only person who sees the similarities here
Stephen Rea (I’m sorry, he’ll always be Santiago to me and I just can’t picture him as a werewolf) is the papa wolf Dr. Jacob Lane aka the bad guy. He’s the scientist everyone turns to during The Purge but his motivation behind finding a cure for vampirism and werewolfism is nefarious. His son Quint (Kris Holden-Ried from The Tudors) is the big bad wolf. A giant Jekyll & Hyde-type monstrosity who is immune to silver thanks to Daddy’s injections of Eau de Eve. Not gonna lie, he’s pretty awesome to look at in either form.
Oh! And check that out, I managed to squeeze in some of Selene's butt. You're welcome.
I totally thought that Detective Sebastian (Michael Ealy) was going to end up being a vampire since he could sense Selene and his eyes are blue. But alas, it turns out his wife was a vampire and he just has really cool eyes. Personally, I think it would have been way cooler to have had a vampire cop hiding in plain sight for the past 12 years but these movie producers don’t want to listen to me so meh.
Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) plays Thomas, David’s Dad and resident Vampire Elder post-Purge. He doesn’t like Selene, not one bit, and makes sure she knows it. That’s pretty much all he’s good for in this movie but I hope we see more of him in #5 cause I really like Charles Dance.
Do they make vampire viagra? Maybe then he'd like her more.
All in all the plot (what there was of one) had more holes than Swiss cheese but it had an insane amount of gratuitous violence and totally bad ass shots of Selene jumping, fighting, shooting, scowling, putting on a jacket, etc. etc. so it was worth the price of the movie ticket.
I’m not gonna lie, I’m more of a pie girl than a cake girl…Mmmmmm…rhubarb….but one thing that cake has going for it that pie doesn’t is it’s artistic possibilities. Seriously, you can do ANYTHING with cake. As a Food Network afficianado I know this for a fact.
A friend recently sent me a photo of a Clone Trooper cake made by her friend Loriann at Ah, How Sweet bakery and it got me thinking about what other awesomely nerdy cakes might be out there. The following cakes were made by Loriann: Pink Laptop, Steve Jobs Apple, Pac-Man, Starry Night, Clone Trooper, and Jack Skellington. All of the rest I found via Google so if it’s your cake and you want credit for it, hit me up and I’ll be happy to oblige. In an attempt to save some space (there were just too many that I loved!) I clumped some of them together.
So grab your R2D2 eggs and your whisk and get ready to see some kick ass cakes!
Let’s start with my favorite franchise, shall we? That would be Star Trek for any first time visitors. Here are a couple of nice insignia cakes:
Oh no! The Klingons and the Borg!
Phew! Our heroes are here to save the day.
And then, of course, there’s this:
Not creepy at all Data, not creepy at all…
On to Star Wars. We’ve got these familiar faces:
And these:
You want to see some Doctor Who? Ok fine:
If you’re as big a fan as I am of the “Vincent and the Doctor” episode, this one is for you (add a little “For Amy” text on the cake for some extra credit):
Nothing says “I do” like a nice Aliens wedding cake:
This would be the ultimate birthday cake for my friend (and uber Ghostbusters fan) Hayden:
How about we switch gears and look at some fantasy cakes. Here’s one for the Lord of the Rings fans:
And one for the Harry Potter crowd:
And an epic tribute to Dungeons and Dragons:
Are you a gamer? Here you go:
Or if you’re really old school:
Or if you’re really REALLY old school:
If you’re just into math and technology in general:
But what about us comic book fans? It’s ok, I got you covered. Here’s all your favorite heroes in one delectable creation:
And my personal favorite:
I really missed the giant alien squid in the movie version of Watchmen but they definitely nailed this guy:
Whether you’re a Walking Dead fan or just like zombies (that would NOT be me) this wedding cake is for you:
Nightmare Before Christmas is ridiculously awesome and also full of undead dead characters:
If you’re a child of the 80’s like me then you’ll love these. This Bumblebee cake is from the Michael bay movies but I couldn’t find a great Bumblebee cake from the cartoon and this one is pretty awesome so I’m rolling with it (hee hee, get it?):
Heroes in a half shell! Turtle power!
And so ends are cake odyssey. I hope that you’ve enjoyed the trip as much as I have. I’d like to end it on this classy note:
Please excuse me while I give a shout out to my bros in Sto'Vo'Kor
It’s that time of year again. The time when we pay homage to those who passed away in 2011.
Last year I wrote an In Memoriam post that turned out to be very therapeutic for me because I wrote about the loss of my step-dad. It’s been over a year now and I still can’t believe that he’s gone. His passing changed my life drastically, not the least of which was my move from Los Angeles to San Diego so that I could be close to my Mom. There’s a universal truth that you can plan all you want but life will find a way to throw a wrench in it. I am living proof of that.
The post also gave me a chance to showcase those in the world of science fiction, fantasy and horror who probably didn’t get much attention when they were alive but who contributed greatly to their genres. Their pictures might turn up in an awards show or they might not and yet, without them the movies, TV shows, books, and comic books that we know and love wouldn’t be the same or wouldn’t exist at all. We owe them so much and yet, most people don’t even know their names.
This is my way of recognizing all that they did for the nerd lexicon.
Last year I picked 9 people and this year I picked 9 people. Despite the fact that 9 is my favorite number, that was not intentional. I chock it up to fate.
1. Bob Anderson – Swordmaster, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings
An Olympic fencer, Bob Anderson spent more than 50 years choreographing fight scenes in some of the greatest science fiction and fantasy films ever made including Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Highlander, The Princess Bride, The Three Musketeers, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Mask of Zorro and several James Bond films. He coached everyone from Errol Flynn to Viggo Mortenson and even took the reins during Darth Vader’s fight scenes. His last credit is the upcoming and highly anticipated film version of The Hobbit. Anderson died just after the strike of midnight on New Year’s Day.
2. Roberts Blossom – Actor, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Deranged
Most people know Roberts Blossom as old man Marley in Home Alone but I knew him first as the farmer in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (“I saw bigfoot once!”) Years later I saw him in Deranged as Ezra Cobb, a horror film about a man with mama issues and an interesting take on interior design. Highly intelligent, Blossom took a break from Harvard to serve in the Army in World War II before becoming an actor. He left acting in 1995 to write plays and poetry and received many awards for his efforts. Blossom passed away of natural causes in July.
3. Michael Gough – Actor, Batman
Born in Kuala Lampur to parents named Frances and Francis, Michael Gough has appeared in over 150 films. Most people know him as Alfred Pennyworth from four of the Batman films but he also starred in several horror films throughout the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s including Dracula and The Phantom of the Opera. On television he played Doctor Who nemesis The Toymaker (First Doctor) and, 17 years later, Councilor Hedin (Fifth Doctor). He even married Doctor Who companion Polly (Anneke Wills). He would also appear in one of the most well known and best loved episodes of The Avengers as Dr. Armstrong.He passed away in March after a short illness.
4. Kenneth Mars – Actor, Young Frankenstein
The fact that his last name is a planet is just the beginning. Kenneth Mars is best known for his role as Inspector Kemp in Young Frankenstein but this versatile character actor spent most of his time providing voices for the most beloved cartoons of the 80’s and 90’s including but not limited to: The Little Mermaid, The Land Before Time, Captain Planet, Darkwing Duck, Tale Spin, and Duck Tales. I remember him best from the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Shadowplay.” Mars passed away from pancreatic cancer this past February.
5. Pete Postlethwaite – Actor, The Omen, Inception, Clash of the Titans, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Alien3, DragonHeart
Pete Postlethwaite is one of those actors that you always recognize but never know his name (unless you’re like me and you’re favorite actor of all time is someone no one has ever heard of, but I digress). Dubbed “the best actor in the world” by none other than Steven Spielberg, Postlethwaite was extremely respected in his craft. He started out as a drama teacher before giving it a go himself. A smoker from the age of ten, he died of pancreatic cancer last January.
6. Jerry Robinson – Comic Book Artist, Batman
Although it’s disputed by the creators of Batman, it’s generally accepted that Jerry Robinson created the character of the Joker. He also played a part in the creation and development of Robin, Alfred Pennyworth and Two-Face. In addition to his work with DC Comics, he started his own studio and later became a prolific political cartoonist. He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2004. Robinson died in his sleep in December.
7. Joe Simon – Comic Creator, Captain America
Somehow Joe Simon had a vision of the future back in 1941. Along with Jack Kirby he created Captain America and had him punching Hitler in the face on the cover of the first issue a full year before Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II. He was the first editor of Timely Comics, the studio that would later become Marvel and was an early pioneer of the horror comic genre. He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1999. He passed away in December after a brief illness.
8. Elisabeth Sladen – Actress, Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures
Talis Kimberely said it best in her song “Goodnight Sarah-Jane.” Elisabeth Sladen was such an enormous hit on Doctor Who that she was given her own spin off The Sarah Jane Adventures. She was brought back into the Doctor’s life in a series of episodes culminating in the rescue of the Doctor and the saving of the galaxy. Not even the Doctor could save her from cancer; however, and she passed away in April after a long battle with it.
9. Yvette Vickers – Actress, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Attack of the Giant Leeches, Evil Spirits
Originally an aspiring journalist, Yvette Vickers stumbled into acting at UCLA. She went on to make several horror films and was a Playboy centerfold in July 1959, a move that was probably detrimental to her career. This queen of horror had a rather grisly end. In April her mummified remains were discovered in her home more than a year after her death from heart failure. The exact date of her death is unknown.
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Do you know a nerd who Graduated in 2011 who deserves to be recognized? Please leave a comment and let me know or post a picture and comment on the Hot Nerd Girl facebook page.
Honorable mentions:
Jackie Cooper – Actor, Superman
Peter Falk – Actor, The Princess Bride
Dolores Fuller – Actress/Ed Wood muse
Lilian Jackson Braun – Writer, “The Cat Who” series
Steve Jobs – Inventor, Entrepreneur
Bil Keane – Comic Strip Writer/Artist, The Family Circus
Anne McCaffrey – Writer
John McCarthy – Artificial Intelligence Pioneer
Dwayne McDuffie – Comic Book Writer, Spider-Man, Dark Knight, The Tick
Perry Moore – Producer, The Chronicles of Narnia
John Neville – Actor, The X-Files
Cliff Robertson – Actor, Spider-Man, The Outer Limits, Escape From LA, Twilight Zone, Batman (TV)
Andy Rooney – Journalist
Sol Saks – Creator, Bewitched
Karl Slover – Actor, The Wizard of Oz
Cory Smoot – Musician, GWAR
Andy Whitfield – Actor, Spartacus
Dana Wynter – Actress, Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Laura Ziskin – Producer, Spider-Man
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“Every life comes to an end when time demands it. Loss of life is to be mourned, but only if the life was wasted.”