Tag: popular culture

So a book came out this week, you may have heard…

I may have mentioned in this space that Amanda Palmer had a book publishing this week.  Geoff and I were lucky that we were able to go to the midnight book release party of of her first literary offering, The Art of Asking.  The party was on Monday night, the books were sold/picked up at midnight, and fun was had by all.  Because Geoff’s back was Behaving Badly, we weren’t able to join everyone in the concert/parade from Harvard Square to Porter Square, but we did get to meet some very cool people while we waited at Porter Square Books and sampled the hot cider.

Oh, and as Geoff mentioned here, he also got his picture taken with Neil Gaiman.

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@amandapalmer, @neilhimself, & @GeorgeWBush walk into a bar…

Neil & Amanda sit down and have a drink.  George says OW.

Ok, bad joke.  But it was inspired by this tweet from Goodreads this afternoon.

11.6.14 Goodreads Twitter

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Congratulations, #AlisonBechdel !

One of my favorite cartoonists (whom Kelly and I had the privilege of meeting a few years ago) has won a MacArthur “Genius Grant“.  ThinkProgress also has this interview with her.

I am so excited for her.   I literally cheered when I read the news.

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So… about that whole Syrio Forel thing

OK I have been avoiding talking about Syrio Forel, because it is one of those ASOIAF/GoT topics that just brings out the crazy in so many people.  There are a lot of fan theories about things that may or may not be going on in the books and show.  And there are all sorts of theories about Syrio, mostly about him still being alive, and many of those being about he and Jaqen H’Ghar being the same person.

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Goodbye to an honorary Bostonian

Kelly and I were dumbstruck when we heard that Robin Williams died.

And we are not alone.  Our fellow Bostonians have spontaneously created a memorial to him in the Public Garden, on and around the bench where he sat during one of the most pivotal scenes in the movie Good Will Hunting.  

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Language, words, power, and Game of Thrones

I’ve been thinking a lot ever since I first cracked the books in the series A Song of Ice and Fire and watched the HBO show Game of Thrones about the language in the world GRRM has created.  Aside from the fact that most all of the actors speak British English (bravo, Peter Dinklage), there are a lot of interesting accents (bravo, Pedro Pascal), dialects, languages, and such to contend with on screen.

Off screen, in the written word, there’s a lot going on as well.  There’s a great essay here taking apart what’s happening, what GRRM has done and hasn’t done, and things like the necessity of having professional linguists create Dothraki and Valyrian, etc.  Click through, it is absolutely worth a read.

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GRRM, Neil Gaiman, Paul & Storm… so much geek awesomeness concentrated in one spot…

I think there may have actually been danger of having some sort of geek singularity of awesomeness form on stage.

But before I tell you what I am talking about, some context.

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Sigh… I miss Game of Thrones

It really hasn’t been that long since Season 4 ended, but it feels like it has been an eternity.  I guess I had not fully appreciated how much I looked forward to watching Game of Thrones every Sunday, but there were times when it was practically the highlight of my week.  I miss having that weekly thing to look forward to watching with Kelly.

So in the meantime I have been finding all sorts of ASOIAF/GoT things to keep myself entertained.

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How to Play Internet Bingo!

No, our blog hasn’t been hijacked or hacked and this isn’t about some internet gambling site.  This is about something that most people deal with every day and probably don’t even know it.  I first ran into the idea in Childfree circles and discovered that it pretty much applies to everybody in one way or another.

It’s called Internet Bingo.  There are many forms of this “game”.  It happens online and offline and it certainly happens to all of us.  Trolls do it to us, well- meaning friends and family do it to us, even strangers do it to us.  You know what you get when you fill your Bingo card?  Congratulations, you’ve just been “Bingoed”.

Ready for the tutorial?

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