Fangirl Unleashed on Roxana-Mălina Chirilă

Cum se mai distrează fanii: cosplay

Tue, 06 May 2014 08:10:36 +0000

Se pare că o să ajung sâmbătă pe la East European Comic Con, în București (doar sâmbătă, doar Comic Con, după care iar trenul înapoi spre Brașov). N-o să fac nimic special pe acolo, pentru că sunt genul de fan mai retras și netalentat la chestii gen costume, dar o să mă întâlnesc cu persoane mult mai organizate ca mine – printre care o fostă profă din facultate, care împreună cu cineva face niște benzi desenate simpatice. Și o prietenă care și-a făcut un costum ca al celui de-al șaselea doctor din Doctor Who.

Chestia asta cu imitatul costumelor se numește cosplay. O să vă arăt și niște poze, dacă tot.

La stânga e editoarea mea, Amanda Meuwissen, costumată ca Poison Ivy din Batman. Poza e din 2013. Ca idee, vă recomand romanul ei de pe Big World Network. Sau varianta de Kindle, revizuită și adăugită, de pe Amazon. Gay romance, cu scene explicite citite de autoare însăși. Ceea ce nu e foarte neobișnuit, doar că nu mi se întâmplă des să dau peste o fană suficient de relaxată să facă asta și să-și dea numele adevărat.

Așa, dincolo de persoane cunoscute, poze din alte părți cu fani care și-au făcut costume faine:

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Lara Croft, din Tomb Raider

Dacă ești tipă n-ai foarte multe variante dacă vrei să te îmbraci ca un personaj cunoscut din jocurile pe calculator, dar Lara Croft și Alice Liddell sunt două variante bune.

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Alice, din Alice: Madness Returns, joc bazat pe Alice în Țara Minunilor

Două variante de Alice Liddell cu Regina de Inimă Roșie, care e o parte din ea în Alice: Madness Returns. (e mișto jocul, apropo – foarte literar; adică, e mișto ca idee, că din punctul de vedere al realizării sunt niște mici probleme *mormăie ceva despre unghiurile din care vezi acțiunea și bug-uri*)

Și tot la capitolul de jocuri, Altair din Assassin’s Creed:

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Altair, Assassin's Creed

Din benzi desenate:

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Moartea (Death), din The Sandman

Și tot din The Sandman:

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Delirium/Del, din The Sandman

Un Loki, din Thor/Avengers (e uimitor câte poze am găsit cu un tip care seamănă rău cu Tom Hiddleston și care e la bustul gol – dar suntem aici pentru costume):

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Loki

Dacă mai citește cineva articolul ăsta și nu se uită doar la poze, cică o să vină niște cosplayeri faimoși și la noi (rândul doi de anunțuri – că de actori vorbește toată lumea oricum, nu mai trebuie să vorbesc și eu).

Doctor Who – The Day of the Doctor [first impressions, no spoilers, no coherence]

Sat, 23 Nov 2013 21:32:25 +0000

…and it was everything that I remembered Doctor Who being, because it was awesome and plot-filled, humor-filled, and with loads of adventures and running about through time and some aliens and huge decisions to make.

And several Doctors!

Really, I missed David Tennant and it’s wonderful to see him interacting with Matt Smith.

And Billie Piper! I mean, sure, at some point most of us thought that Rose Tyler was getting a bit too much of a ditzy blonde, although she was nice, but right now Billie is just perfect and I was, like, wow. Hello, you. Missed you and didn’t realize it until now! You are FANTASTIC!

Clara was nice, but somehow I feel like she’s getting the short end of the stick as a companion now. But seriously, with three Doctors around, everything else was bound to be in the background. But she was still useful and cute and she reminds me of a sparrow, as always.

Which reminds me that we did get cheesy aliens and some cheesy lines, but somehow that’s part of Doctor Who. Good ol’ British cheese, different from American cheese because it’s less pompous and more in good humor.

Which, in its turn, reminds me that they didn’t miss the chance to throw in a joke at the expense of the US XD They keep doing that. But, hey, of course they would.

I’m just squeeing and running around like a proper fangirl now and going „Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!” all over the place.

Tomorrow I might actually catch my breath (and my brain) and write a proper damned review.

Încă niște conversații cu Linda (rochii masculine, fuste și kilturi)

Wed, 28 Aug 2013 21:06:46 +0000

(de ce nu ni se permite mie și Lindei să stăm prea mult împreună? Poate din cauza ideilor crețe)

În urma comentariului cu Ionuț despre Asociația Familiilor, am zis să mai bag un ochi pe careva din site-urile Alianțelor/Asociațiilor Familiilor din România, care au toate ca scop promovarea „familiei puternice, întemeiate prin căsătoria între un bărbat şi o femeie, ca normă validată istoric în societatea umană.”

Desigur, eu sunt destul de neîncrezătoare în ce privește „normele validate istoric”, pentru că și „bărbatul trebuie să fie doar puțin mai urât ca dracul/mai înșeală/mai lovește femeia” e o chestie la fel de validată istoric. Just sayin'.

Din una în alta, am ajuns la un articol despre propaganda homosexuală prin școli/instituții de învățământ, moment în care am aflat că ambasadele diverselor țări promovează perversiuni (nu, zău! citez: „Ambasade ca ale Olandei, Cehiei, Franţei şi Marii Britanii sunt promotoare active ale perversiunilor în ţara noastră, încât până şi ambasadorii lor participă la respingătoarele parade stradale”). Nu pot decât să-mi imaginez ambasadorii Franței invitând lumea la o orgie în toată regula, ambasadorii Marii Britanii promovând scandaluri liniștite, dar foarte scandaloase, ambasadorii Olandei scoțând studentele la olandeză și secretarele la vitrină și ambasadorii Cehiei… Ok, habar n-am ce stereotipuri sexuale există legate de Cehia.

Și, spre final, am aflat vestea îngrozitoare: „la o grădiniţă din ţară un părinte reacţiona prompt faţă de ideea perversă a unei educatoare de a-i invita pe cei mici să vină a doua zi îmbrăcaţi potrivit sexului opus. Educatoarea respectivă a declarat că iniţiativa a fost mai mult o glumă”.

Ideea perversă de a veni îmbrăcați potrivit sexului opus… XD Dacă un tip (suficient de slab, e drept) s-ar îmbrăca în hainele mele de zi cu zi, cred că nu v-ați da seama prea repede că e ceva ciudat. Și dacă eu m-aș îmbrăca în hainele unui tip (e drept, mai pe măsura mea), nici voi nu v-ați da seama. Unisex. Și! Tipele sunt sexy în haine masculine, de obicei. Sorry, dar. E adevărat.

Moment în care i-am zis Lindei: Știi, problema cu rochiile la bărbați e că de fapt nu li se potrivesc. Nu-s făcute după măsurile lor, pentru că dacă ar fi făcute…

Linda: Dar se fac!

Eu: Pe bune?

O scurtă căutare pe Google mai încolo, mi-am dat seama de un adevăr terifiant: preoții se îmbracă în rochii. Nu, tipul din dreapta nu e în sutană, e în fustă. Dar mamă ce seamănă.

Linda: Acuma înțelegi de ce-mi plac bărbații în kilt?

Eu: Îmmmmmhî.

Linda: Dă pe Google „utility kilt” sau „work kilt”. Sunt mișto. Sunt cele mai tari chestii inventate vreodată.

Și nu pot să zic decât că sunt aproximativ de acord cu ea XD Mai ales după ce am găsit o poză cu un utility kilt , un tip mișto și o pisică neagră. (kittyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!)

Sau un tip mare, negru, plin de mușchi și care pare să fie mai samurai decât toți soții de la Alianța Familiilor împreună.

E foarte amuzant că persoanele care merg la Biserică și ascultă ce spune un tip în rochie sar în sus când copiii lor fac chestia asta puțin la mișto (deși, e drept, poate subminează autoritatea preoțească)

Și cu ocazia asta am fost convinsă (mai ales cu o Linda lângă mine care zice „Kilts are aaawwwweeesome”): kilturile sunt tari. Da. Se pot face fuste/rochii pentru tipi care să le stea bine. Doar că nu se prea obosește nimeni.

Discussions on literature (consider us drunk)

Sat, 24 Aug 2013 19:07:49 +0000

Linda’s come over, all the way from the other side of the country. Which is really cool. And conversations are getting really weird. We were talking Flight from Hell and we got to incubi and succubi.

Linda: Do you remember how incubi and succubi used to be so rare in fiction? And now they’re all over the place.

Me: I swear to God I didn’t know Amanda had a series called Incubus before submitting to the Big World Network.

Linda: Speaking of Incubus. *fangirls* I really, really like it. It’s fun!!! But no, I mean, all over the place. Everywhere.

Me: Remember where vampires were a metaphor for sex?

Linda: Yeah.

Me: So we just decided to drop the metaphor part.

Linda: Remember that English lit class?!

Me: YES!!!! O_O

*flashback*

15-20 students are sitting around a table during a literature seminar.

Professor: So, how would you like to die? [note: In her defense, we were talking about Emily Dickinson]

Student: By incubus.

Class: *stupefied silence*

Linda: Do you know what an incubus is?!?!?!?!

Student: Yes. *confused*

Class: O_O *more stupefied silence*

Professor: *starts snickering*

Student: I want to die peacefully in my sleep.

Professor: *barely stops from laughing out loud*

Linda: *dramatically* But they suck your soul and drag you to hell!

[…]

Me: But do you remember that class in which a professor asked what the fuss about vampires was?

Linda: *falls over laughing*

*flashback*

Professor: What’s the fuss about vampires?

Student: [something-something metaphors, literature, symbolism]

Professor: No, I still don’t get it.

Annoyed student: They’re hot, sexy hunks used as sex metaphors!

Professor: Ooooooooooooh. I understand now! *gets wistful look*

[…]

Me: *checks her blog stats* OMG, somebody came from Google Plus! That place is alive!!!!!!!!1 This is the first time this happens. I should write a special ’thank you for sharing my post, single G+ actual user out there!'

[…]

Me: I never meant to put any actual gay stuff in Flight from Hell. Aside from Ashmedai-the-pansexual-devil being a threat in the background. I thought I could just skirt the issue constantly and have Nakir escape him over and over. Then I realized, Ashmedai would go for him in immoral, creepy ways. He totally would.

Linda: *does that dreamy thing fangirls do*

Me: And Nakir’s weak and confused and trying to play reverse psychology at one point and Ashmedai, well… „Lead us not into temptation, because we’ve already been there and proved we were abysmally bad at it.” [note: I have a thing for that ’lead us not into temptation’ saying recently]

Linda: *wiggles her eyebrows*

Me: Not that anything actually happens, mind you. Not really. Not beyond this one thing, this short, clothes-on thing which ends fast and makes the threat and Nakir’s confusion so much worse.

Linda: *does a sad face* I would love to see them together. Maybe all three of them. That would be fun.

Me: Bad idea in the text.

Linda: *puppy eyes* How about in the Alternate Universe Christmas Special?

Me: There is no Alternate Universe Christmas Special.

Linda: There could be. Hey, I knew this author who wrote fanfic of her own stories, ever thought of doing the same?

*conversation dives straight into the gutter*

[…]

Me: So sometimes, I look at the editors’ comments, and they’re, like, so confused, you know? Trying to solve that old question, which for once makes perfect sense: what did the author mean to say over here?

Linda: I only ever get giggles in the margins.

Me: I get confusion. What did the author mean?… And then the author shows up and says, no, no, no, wait! That’s not what I meant! Oh, crap. Let me change it. In chapter two, I had the devil say that thing, you know? *quotes from memory* „For that I, and not your husband, must be their father.” Except the first time I said it like crap and it was confusing. So when the editor modified it for clarity, there was this confused scene between the queen and the devil. He was like, „I won’t be your husband.” And she went, „Good, I’ve already got one of those.” And I went, „ooooh, wait, he was actually saying ‘I’ll be knocking you up myself’. Which is a bit different.”

[…]

Linda: I never thought I’d say this, but I am so happy to get rid of the romance subplot with my story. It didn’t work. At all. So right now I’ve taken the romance down and I’m adding a lot more crazy.

Me: Like?

Linda: Well, there’s a whole new plot with the Physics Department. Some klutzy students did some experiments and that’s why it’s… missing. Carmen goes off to search for the missing South Wing.

Me: You have a vanishing university.

Linda: Pretty much. Oh, and I have to figure out how to put in the vampire bounty hunter. Because I said there would be one – and there will be, dammit.

Wondering what I should re-read…

Fri, 26 Jul 2013 09:32:45 +0000

Three choices, all of which are awesome stories.

Lightning on the Wave’s Sacrifices series. Because it’s a wonderful mess of great characters, great writing, poetry references and psychological stuff. I loved it and I only read it once. Bad points: it’s 3 million words long. Good points: subtlety, great writing, I can’t remember things in it very well but I’d want to. It’s basically a series that starts with a gritting mindfuck and something that’s clearly wrong:

„What are your vows, Harry?”

Harry knew what they were, even though he was only five. He whispered them as his mother held him over his brother’s bed, and his mother said them with him, murmured hypnotic words that Harry had heard his whole life.

Think about it. A kid who has vows. Since he was 5. It only becomes horrible and then wonderful from there. Also the only story to make me wish I understood poetry more.

Peppermint Quartz’s Psychoverse. It’s got one of the most psychotic love relationships I’ve ever read. And it’s filled with disturbing scenes of the BDSM kind (not the 50 Shades stuff, I’m talking the real thing and then some), and of the freely psychopathic horror kind. When I first read it three years ago, I was giggling with horror and fascination and couldn’t stop talking about it. Bad points: I really need to dig up my list of which stories were part of it and in what order. Also, the writing isn’t that good in the beginning, although it gets better. There’s horror stuff going on. The author’s favorite way to move the plot forward is through porn. Good points: fascinating and horrible. It’s an interesting insight into psycho ways of thinking. It has occasional places where things and ideas just claw their way into your head and refuse to leave.

Thinking of Aizen made Ichigo tighten his grip on the battered steering wheel. He had actually begun to empathize with the traitor after spending almost two months with him and Ichimaru. He had fallen into their circle. They had wrapped everyone they came across into a spell – people saw the warmth and love they had for each other, and they wanted into that warmth. Hungered for it. Fought for it. Died for it.

Ichigo now realized that all the warmth was real, tender and genuine, and restricted to the two of them. They generated heat, that was true, but the heat didn’t touch any other person that they interacted with, merely a lure to lead the credulous in.

That pretty much__ describes the disturbed relationship of the story. The other parts are… less disturbing. Always a fascinating read, but clocking at over half a million words somewhere. Maybe more. I didn’t add everything up.__

Phoenix.writing’s _The Problem with Purity. _Basically a romance, but one with a plot, a very neat writing style and interesting ideas. I read it back when it came out, but I’ve always wanted to re-read. Good points: fancy writing, clever characters. Bad points: I can’t recall one, but maybe I’m not as enthused about it as about the others right now.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.