Epic Fantasy thy name is A Song of Ice and Fire

AryaWhen GRRM says Epic, he means it “It took three films to make “Lord of the Rings,” and the entirety of “Lord of the Rings,” all three of Tolkien’s books, is only the size of one of my books.”

This is an except from the interview NYTimes did with George R.R. Martin

Many of you know I’m a HUGE “A Song of Ice and Fire” fan, and when I say HUGE I mean HUGE.  Some people know this series as “A Game of Thrones” because that title is taking on new life thanks to the HBO series being developed from the books.  I have talked about the series briefly on the podcast and insesently on facebook, twitter and with any other fan I can find.  I’m addicted, I know it.

I love that HBO is doing this show.  It never could be a movie, but also it couldn’t be a TV show on any other network other then HBO (or similar) where they can show as much nudity, violence and use any language they want to.

The Game of Thrones Food Truck is in NYC this week (yeah the week before I head down for a trip) and in LA next week.  While I didn’t get to eat there I have been following the pictures and posts of all my friends who got to feast on lemon cakes and other tasty tidbits. (H8 you all)  After reading the books for years I’d love to taste some of that stuff, though I will admit to introducing apples with cheese to my family way back straight from the books, it’s really good.

So if I gush, it’s more then a few little books I’m gushing over, each book is almost as much material as most trillogies and I’ve read four of those now.

Nutty Bites Episode 02

Me and my niece
Just under the wire, Episode 2 is up.

Basically I scheduled the last two weeks of February to work on a piece of short fiction I wrote during NaNoWriMo, unfortunately I came down with pneumonia and could record at all.  Luckily I had a Nutty Debate saved and ready to go, and my voice and health cleared up just in time to record a show :)

Please, keep the feedback coming, send me audio to add to the show and anyone that wants to leave me an iTunes review go right ahead, I will give you a special shout out :)

Direct Link to MP3

Show Notes:

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Book Review: “Jack the Kitten is Very Brave”

Many of you know I love books, no big shock there. I love art and picture books, not a big stretch there either. What you might not know is how much I love, and I mean LOVE reading books to my many nieces and nephews. (my family was graced with it’s 10th just a week ago, and there are two on my husband’s side too) One of my favorite things to do when visiting is to read to the kids, often the whole family is together so there isn’t much time, but when I’m visiting individually I love having a munchkin or two on my lap and reading to them. One of the only things that can make the situation better is when the child turns to me after we finish reading and tells me it is their turn to read to me, even if they don’t know how to read yet.

Jack the Kitten is Very Brave written by Tabitha Grace Smith with illustrations by Mindy Lou Hagan, is a new children’s book for the pre-school to second grade crowd.  It features some great images of cats in a picture book quality with a nice simple story to go along with it.  It’s fun, cute and something I can see a lot of fun reading to the little ones.  There are things to point out in each picture and talk about and the story, the story is based around a struggle that often happens with kids… yeah, no spoilers here, and in the end they learn a lesson.  The two main characters are Machu & Jack, two adorable kitties, the characters are based on the real life cats of the author.  It’s fun, it’s fast and it’s something I’ve already ordered and can’t wait to read to my little ones.

Full disclosure, the author is a good friend of mine, I adore TABZ, I also adore her cats, as does Rory, but that in no way skews my review.  I wouldn’t write things that are untrue here nor would I spend my hard earned cash on something I didn’t really want just because a friend created it.

You can pre-order yourself a copy of this book, signed by the author and the kitties by going to machuandjack.com

You can also order it from Amazon

And lastly, and perhaps most important to some, you can SAVE MONEY  (10%) by going to CreateSpace’s store and using the code: D9A8XUZU

Ordering through CreateSpace is great for international readers too (outside the USA)

Twilight: Eclipse

No I am not a Twihard, I mean yes I have read all the books and liked the first three, and now have seen all the movies, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t love poking fun at the series.  It is a guilty pleasure of which I have little guilt.

First off, I feel bad for all of the men who were forced to go see this by their women.  The theatre I went to had quite a few and I heard some groaning by these poor men.  Though when one vamp was killed in a cool effect way there was a loud manly “NICE!” heard through the theatre, to wit everyone had a good giggle.

I went to see the movie at the base theatre.  I have never been to the base theatre so I didn’t know what to expect.  Would the screen be tiny?  How would the sound be?  What sort of chairs do they have?  Well the base theatre is really nice, a real theatre with real seats on an angle so you don’t have to worry about someone’s head in front.  The seats were really nice, wide, clean with loads of leg room.  Also, the cup holder in on the chair in front of you, got to say, that is a nice feature.  The screen is the same size at the multiplex screens in the town over (20-30min drive).  The sound, really good, and because it is a smaller room, it is much more intense.  There was one moment of the screen going yellow on us but I don’t know if that was in the movie or the projectionist’s fault.  Only problem with the theatre is it is cash only, and I gave all my cash to my husband for the PPV event he went to see tonight.  So I had to dig around in my purse for loonies and tunies to pay, luckily I had enough.  Amazing how much change you carry when the country doesn’t have paper money under 5$ bills.

On to the movie.

So 1/3 of it was awesome, sadly that 1/3 is broken up over most of the movie.  There is way too much sappy “I love you so much it hurts” crap.  Now those of you who I have spoken to about the Twilight series is one of my biggest beefs (behind the fourth book ruining the series) is from Eclipse when it is obvious that the author has never felt the kind of love she is trying to write about.  If you love someone, really love someone like she claims, there isn’t room for another romanic love.  It just doesn’t happen.  That is lust and deep feelings, and who can blame the kid, warm hot wolf kid who continues to put up with your shit and calls you beautiful at every turn no matter how many times you hurt him, who wouldn’t care for him and lust for him?  Same with Abercrombie Ad boyfriend who adores you.  The lalalove stuff was not my thing, and it was too long and drawn out in those scenes.  There is nothing in the movies that makes you feel Bella is into Jake, and honestly, Edward looked to be in pain the whole time, like he was passing a stone or something.  I really feel that Kristen Stewart’s performance in the first movie was great, she was SO Bella, but this movie I felt like she was phoning it in.  The awkward uncomfortable don’t know how to talk look was way overplayed.  I was happy to see more Jasper, and happy with the flashback scenes, I was so scared they would leave those out, though I do wish they emphasized some things more with them.  More about Rose’s desire for children, more about Jasper having a hardship with feeling his victims emotions, you know, his mortal victims!  Those who have seen the movie, the wedding dress flash back was a nice visual!  Rose kicked ass.

The Wolves were awesome!  So fluffy and cool and when Bella is petting Jake, I loved it!  The fight scenes were so good too, I really like how they did that and could have taken more scenes of that.

The wigs were lame, just use their real hair, the makeup sucked, but that is the same as the whole series.  The sparkling was done better, thankfully no chime sounds to let us know they are sparkling.  You know people have been making vampire movies for almost as long as they have been making movies, you might want to use the techniques they used rather then slabbing tons of baby powder on your characters and calling it a day.

The landscape shots were amazing, I see more and more tourism to the area coming.  The snow scene was not convincing, and who camps in cold weather without a heat source?  Seriously there is such a thing as winter camping, people do it all the time.  The music was pretty nice too, went well with the movie.

Oh and the “Valedictorian” was pretty unbelievable, I know they had to give more lines to the actress because her career is going places and they need her to stay in the movie but couldn’t they have made her class president or something?  How was that person the smartest of their class?

I don’t rate the movie highly, but I do say if you are a fan of the series go see it.  If you are not, why would you go to the third movie of any series you never saw?  And to all you men dragged there, I am so sorry.  I would never do that to anyone.  My man went to the UFC fight tonight.

What ever happened to The WEIRD Show Contest?

Remember I ran a contest this summer for The WEIRD Show?  Yeah well it was not forgotten, the winner was picked just after DragonCon, it was Zackmann. He and I corresponded back and forth so I could draw inspiration from him, and then I was able to create a painting for him.  I did this and finished it and actually mailed it just after Halloween.  I waited on updating the blog till I heard from him that he got it… then I just plum forgot to get back and update.  Mark the Encaffeinated ONE even remind me, and then I procrastinated and never updated the blog.  Tonight though, I remembered!

So here I give you, the prize that is now in Zackmann‘s home

TWScontestPaintingTa-Da!

All in all I have to say the whole contest experience was really nice, and personally it pushed me to get my act in gear and create.  I need to do that more often.  We all know the line “I should be writing,” but for me it is “I should be painting.” (Or drawing, or sketching, or shooting, or sculpting or something like that.)