“Find your next favorite book. Meet your next favorite author.”
kOZMIC Press is very excited to be partnering with Time Travel Events on a new literary event, the Georgia Indie Book Faire! GIBF is an indoor event for readers of all ages to meet authors, publishers, artists, and creatives! Browse author and publisher booths, attend panel discussions, visit crafting stations, and more! Light refreshments will be provided.
Saturday, September 14 10am – 4pm
IAM Local Lodge 709
1032 South Marietta Pkwy SE
Marietta, GA 30060
I’m going to make a guess here. I’m going to guess that the first time you saw “Smile” it reminded you of something. You may have thought of something specific, or it may have left you with the impression of familiarity. I don’t think you’re wrong. This episode seems to cherry pick elements not only from past Doctor Who episodes but from across the sci-fi spectrum, adding a few new elements to the mix. The end result is a lightweight but enjoyable episode, but one that may seem a bit more cluttered in spite of it’s airy, sparse setting. Let’s take a look at some of the obvious references (settle in, this may take awhile):
immediately jumps onto the screen full of life, full of promise, and full of spunk. One feels like one has known her forever; she’s a character that instantly connects with the viewer in much the same way Rose or Martha did. When we meet Amy, it takes a while for us to get to know her because we first meet her as a child and not as the woman who will be traveling with the Doctor. And to be perfectly honest, little Caitlin Blackwood made such an incredible impression in the first half of “The Eleventh Hour” that the transition into grown-up Amy seemed a tad awkward. With Clara, our first three meetings are essentially as different characters, and she was more or less treated as just a plot point for her first season. “The Pilot” takes the very welcome step of going “back to basics” with the companion – even Sophie Aldred posted on her Facebook wall “I ♥ Bill!!” When you get the Ace stamp of approval, that’s pretty high praise. Pearl Mackie gives a very grounded, very realistic, very charming performance as Bill. So far, at least, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly special about Bill other than her inquisitive nature, and that’s enough for me. I don’t need her to become the most important woman in the universe or an impossible girl or any of that. I’m very much looking forward to seeing more of Bill and what she brings to the show and to the Doctor’s life.
I used to be a massive Star Wars fan, with the original trilogy, when I was younger. I lost interest during the second trilogy. I just watched Episode III for the first time. That’s correct, I’ve never seen it before today. I watched it partly because I wanted to fill in the story gaps that I’d missed. But I also wanted to revisit those middle films and give them a fair shot, watch them with new eyes, so to speak. I don’t want to dog on Eps I – III, but what I learned today is that my initial reaction and a lot of the criticism of them is accurate. There are a lot of reasons why I never connected with those films, but I think the biggest one is character. I never cared at all about the characters in those films. Anakin, Amadala, Obi-Wan, etc., none of them seemed to matter. None seemed real or identifiable. Not even Yoda. The story is engaging, the political drama really interesting, but the characters are flat, wooden, emotionless archetypes that have no substance. I know that people always blame the writing and/or the directing and/or the acting, with a lot of validity. The characters are awful. The whole thing lacks HEART. It’s like Lucas assumed we were all invested in the world he built, not the characters he created, so any ol’ characters would suffice to say the necessary dialogue and sell the storyline.
With the very first movie, Episode IV, you immediately clicked with the characters – you cared about what happened to Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, etc. And those characters carried you through the following films because you cared about them and you wanted to know what happens to them, and secondarily because of the amazingly detailed world that was built around them. And that’s what’s so brilliant about The Force Awakens: you not only have all the original characters that you already love and care about, so in a way it’s like a homecoming or a family reunion, but you immediately love the new characters too and connect with them. I left the first screening wanting to not leave at all, wanting to know more about Rey, Poe and Finn, wanting to stay in their world. Caring about what happens to them. Wanting to know what happens next in the saga.
Seeing Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie again reminded me how much I used to love Star Wars. Meeting Finn, Rey, Poe and BB-8 – and even Kylo, Hux, Maz and the others – made me love it again in a completely new way. And because of that, “The Force Awakens” is easily my (close) second favorite movie behind “A New Hope”. And I absolutely cannot wait for the next one!
30 years ago today I was glued to the TV and Radio. Since I couldn’t be in either Philadelphia or London, watching Live Aid as it happened on television was as close as I could get. I have incredibly vivid memories of that day, some of them reinforced (30 years is a long time!) by the release of a DVD set in 2004. I watched (or listened to, as I was forced to run a 2-hour errand for a friend) the entire thing, start to finish. It was in incredible day that produced some amazing music. Here’s my Top 10 performances:
Ramblings of a Grown Up Kid 