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Oct. 31st, 2011 03:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_rose1) So, doing the demo Saturday at Comic-con pretty much put paid to any chance I'd be doing so on Sunday. I slipped on the second dance, crashed onto one knee and made my back ache. Admittedly, I didn't help by puttering around for food and through the dealer's area without the support belt, but the former was the greater ill effect. (The Boy is fine... he's been kicking and squirming and all plenty since.)
Had fun the day I was there. And Pretty much finished an illumination project I've had on the go for ... well, years. (Days, really, but spread out over a few years). Scans when I get it back; I left it on site to show off, along with one of my own awards, done by Bearaich, a local member (Who was also doing illumination painting at our demo table.)
2) Avoiding Hallowe'en?
Honestly? The only problem I would have with Hallowe'en as the baby's birthday is the same oft-repeated theme of "OMG the house isn't ready aagh!"
I'm MUCH more interested in not having him on November 11th, thank you. Hallowe'en is an awesome day of ghosts and costumes and excuses to re-watch Corpse Bride or something else ghostly and silly (I'm actually thinking of the Buffy episode "Hush" for tonight's fare....)
(We're not doing candy here at home unless I run and grab some in the next hour and a half or so. We don't have a lot of kids in the neighbourhood, so we've been disinclined many years, but this year has just not been ...
Remembrance Day is about REAL horror, about the worst that war can do. And the end of that horror, yes, the moment when peace was declared and war ended, the long slow breath of joy and hope that comes then. But even in that positive aspect, it's about a solemnity that goes very ill with birthday cake. The repeating song of one's life should not begin as "The you with failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die..." That duty and awareness of duty asks maturity first.
3) Our dryer died. Pretty thoroughly. (This also contributed to not going to Comic-Con the second day, as the dress wasn't dry...) Like we needed another expense.
4)Thanks in part to the conversation between me and Serge in my entry about Green Arrow, Year One, I picked up my own copy of Longbow Hunters. (And borrowed the issues Jeff had of the ongoing series immediately following). reread it, and concluded:
- No really, this is a well-written story. It's as good as I remembered.
- The art is GORGEOUS, shifting between relatively normal comic style except with painted colouring, etched on tinted and textured paper, and just painted. Its one weakness is that it uses two-page layouts wherever it can, and sometimes they get a touch confusing as to order. Still worthwhile.
- Last time I read it, I didn't know enough about archery to geek out, but both archers are drawn using their respective techniques *right*. All the time. (Mike Grell is apparently an archer and a bowhunter, so this isn't all a surprise. But Shado's thumbring and correct bow-side still made me SQUEE when I looked again.) I've seen more than one case of otherwise good art making me wince when I looked at the archer's fingers, which means I wasn't looking the first read this time, but saved it for the closer peek at the art alone. The one dumb archery thing they do is the same one you see occasionally in movies, of holding the string at full draw for whole conversations. (Which makes the arms shake and fouls aim even for really good archers.)
- One thing I liked, especially in comparison to Year One. One of the major motivators for Oliver Queen as the story goes on is that Dinah/Black Canary is kidnapped and tortured. This could have been a refrigerator moment, reducing a heroine to a rescuee interesting only for the hero's concern about her. Except that it happens BECAUSE she has her own agenda, because she's off being a heroine. Because Oliver Queen respects her agency and trusts her to do her thing (He checks on her. Once. Because he's worried. But even then, he doesn't interfere.) Grell seems to actually respect her as a character in her own right, in spite of what role she ends up in for the one story. It's also not the only thing she does in the story, or the only characterization she's given. She's got a whole pile of moments before it, and enough after. (It helps that in the first issues of the ongoing series, she's dealing with the repercussions. As an adult. And he keeps respecting her. But even within the series, it doesn't make me feel icky about her role in the story.)
- Female agency is also supported by Shado. Her path crosses Green Arrow's, their goals are sometimes mutual and sometimes at odds. They each save the other's life. and unlike Taiana in Year One, the respect she gives him in the end is balanced by the respect he gives her. He's not a hero or an idol, but a balance and equal. I was briefly worried she wouldn't be as awesome as I remembered, since one of the first things we see of her is a nude shot. But no, she, too, is in this story because she's doing something of her own choice. (You can argue that her service is compelled, yes, but no more than many male characters there and elsewhere.)
- Okay, one archery nitpick: they say Shado's bow draw is about 30 KILOS, not 30 pounds, which... no. First, draw is measured in pounds pretty much everywhere bows are used, second, a 30 Kilo / 66 pound draw would require a noticeably different physique, and third, they pretty strongly imply this is a *light* bow, which 66 pounds wouldn't be in a Japanese bow or a longbow. (Maybe in some compounds). The heaviest recurve I've seen a *petite* woman draw regularly was 50 pounds, and my experience with longbows is that they're often more jarring to the arm and wrist. My bow is somewhere in the 30s. But that's a one-word slip.
5) I also finished Tim Powers The Anubis Gates, one of those books/authors one seems to hear about a fair bit from other writers. it's an example of the "Secret History", a story that takes place alongside the known historical events of certain time periods, doesn't change them like alternate history,but does provide alternate explanations for why certain things happened. It's a genre that depends on a ton of research. It's a genre I often don't enjoy because either the author explains too much actual history, or not enough. This one strikes me as getting the balance close to right.
But boy does Powers torture his character. There's not a fight, I think, where Doyle doesn't end up injured or worse, never mind infection between -- and there are a lot of fights, kidnappings, beatings, fisticuffs, poisonings... I felt a lot less bad for the number of scars Ketan has already picked up.
Doyle also spends a lot of his time reacting, not acting. This didn't bug me as much as I felt it should at times, maybe because the line between acting and reacting is pretty thin when the reaction involves clever escapes or use of odd knowledge to recognize what has been done in spite of hallucinogen and prevent/reverse the damage.
Yet it was quick and smart and after a hesitant start, I read through it pretty fast. Definitely worth it.
Only one woman in the whole thing, though I liked her.
Had fun the day I was there. And Pretty much finished an illumination project I've had on the go for ... well, years. (Days, really, but spread out over a few years). Scans when I get it back; I left it on site to show off, along with one of my own awards, done by Bearaich, a local member (Who was also doing illumination painting at our demo table.)
2) Avoiding Hallowe'en?
Honestly? The only problem I would have with Hallowe'en as the baby's birthday is the same oft-repeated theme of "OMG the house isn't ready aagh!"
I'm MUCH more interested in not having him on November 11th, thank you. Hallowe'en is an awesome day of ghosts and costumes and excuses to re-watch Corpse Bride or something else ghostly and silly (I'm actually thinking of the Buffy episode "Hush" for tonight's fare....)
(We're not doing candy here at home unless I run and grab some in the next hour and a half or so. We don't have a lot of kids in the neighbourhood, so we've been disinclined many years, but this year has just not been ...
Remembrance Day is about REAL horror, about the worst that war can do. And the end of that horror, yes, the moment when peace was declared and war ended, the long slow breath of joy and hope that comes then. But even in that positive aspect, it's about a solemnity that goes very ill with birthday cake. The repeating song of one's life should not begin as "The you with failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die..." That duty and awareness of duty asks maturity first.
3) Our dryer died. Pretty thoroughly. (This also contributed to not going to Comic-Con the second day, as the dress wasn't dry...) Like we needed another expense.
4)Thanks in part to the conversation between me and Serge in my entry about Green Arrow, Year One, I picked up my own copy of Longbow Hunters. (And borrowed the issues Jeff had of the ongoing series immediately following). reread it, and concluded:
- No really, this is a well-written story. It's as good as I remembered.
- The art is GORGEOUS, shifting between relatively normal comic style except with painted colouring, etched on tinted and textured paper, and just painted. Its one weakness is that it uses two-page layouts wherever it can, and sometimes they get a touch confusing as to order. Still worthwhile.
- Last time I read it, I didn't know enough about archery to geek out, but both archers are drawn using their respective techniques *right*. All the time. (Mike Grell is apparently an archer and a bowhunter, so this isn't all a surprise. But Shado's thumbring and correct bow-side still made me SQUEE when I looked again.) I've seen more than one case of otherwise good art making me wince when I looked at the archer's fingers, which means I wasn't looking the first read this time, but saved it for the closer peek at the art alone. The one dumb archery thing they do is the same one you see occasionally in movies, of holding the string at full draw for whole conversations. (Which makes the arms shake and fouls aim even for really good archers.)
- One thing I liked, especially in comparison to Year One. One of the major motivators for Oliver Queen as the story goes on is that Dinah/Black Canary is kidnapped and tortured. This could have been a refrigerator moment, reducing a heroine to a rescuee interesting only for the hero's concern about her. Except that it happens BECAUSE she has her own agenda, because she's off being a heroine. Because Oliver Queen respects her agency and trusts her to do her thing (He checks on her. Once. Because he's worried. But even then, he doesn't interfere.) Grell seems to actually respect her as a character in her own right, in spite of what role she ends up in for the one story. It's also not the only thing she does in the story, or the only characterization she's given. She's got a whole pile of moments before it, and enough after. (It helps that in the first issues of the ongoing series, she's dealing with the repercussions. As an adult. And he keeps respecting her. But even within the series, it doesn't make me feel icky about her role in the story.)
- Female agency is also supported by Shado. Her path crosses Green Arrow's, their goals are sometimes mutual and sometimes at odds. They each save the other's life. and unlike Taiana in Year One, the respect she gives him in the end is balanced by the respect he gives her. He's not a hero or an idol, but a balance and equal. I was briefly worried she wouldn't be as awesome as I remembered, since one of the first things we see of her is a nude shot. But no, she, too, is in this story because she's doing something of her own choice. (You can argue that her service is compelled, yes, but no more than many male characters there and elsewhere.)
- Okay, one archery nitpick: they say Shado's bow draw is about 30 KILOS, not 30 pounds, which... no. First, draw is measured in pounds pretty much everywhere bows are used, second, a 30 Kilo / 66 pound draw would require a noticeably different physique, and third, they pretty strongly imply this is a *light* bow, which 66 pounds wouldn't be in a Japanese bow or a longbow. (Maybe in some compounds). The heaviest recurve I've seen a *petite* woman draw regularly was 50 pounds, and my experience with longbows is that they're often more jarring to the arm and wrist. My bow is somewhere in the 30s. But that's a one-word slip.
5) I also finished Tim Powers The Anubis Gates, one of those books/authors one seems to hear about a fair bit from other writers. it's an example of the "Secret History", a story that takes place alongside the known historical events of certain time periods, doesn't change them like alternate history,but does provide alternate explanations for why certain things happened. It's a genre that depends on a ton of research. It's a genre I often don't enjoy because either the author explains too much actual history, or not enough. This one strikes me as getting the balance close to right.
But boy does Powers torture his character. There's not a fight, I think, where Doyle doesn't end up injured or worse, never mind infection between -- and there are a lot of fights, kidnappings, beatings, fisticuffs, poisonings... I felt a lot less bad for the number of scars Ketan has already picked up.
Doyle also spends a lot of his time reacting, not acting. This didn't bug me as much as I felt it should at times, maybe because the line between acting and reacting is pretty thin when the reaction involves clever escapes or use of odd knowledge to recognize what has been done in spite of hallucinogen and prevent/reverse the damage.
Yet it was quick and smart and after a hesitant start, I read through it pretty fast. Definitely worth it.
Only one woman in the whole thing, though I liked her.
