Somewhere Different Now

-I found a cool discussion thread over at Feministe for recommendations of feminist sf/fantasy/speculative fiction books. There are a lot of authors and stories I love recced over there, and a bunch more I now want to check out. This is going in my bookmarks!

-We actually had frost last night! On the central California coast!

-Go away, sore throat. :(

Things that were awesome about today:

1.  Mini singalong in the Goodwill store! I was looking at trousers (no success) when "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" came on the store radio.  At the part where it bursts out loudly "I! Love!  You!  BA-ABY!/ And if it's quite alright.." I realized that not only was I accidentally humming under my breath but two other people, apparently not in the same party, started singing along.  If a few more people had joined in I'm convinced that backup dancers would have spontaneously appeared.  It happens in movies ALL THE TIME.  

2.  I saw the movie Whip It and had a ton of fun! You could describe it as a coming of age, teen girl rebellion movie crossed with a sports flick, which sounds like a recipe for badness but turned out to be awesome.   That's the sort of thing that capable screenwriters and actors can do.  Plus, the sport in question was roller derby, which is delightfully bizarre.  Ellen Page (from Juno) played the lead with pizazz and heart, and the rest of the cast was excellent as well.  It was funny, full of action-packed contact skating, and a bit moving.  The plot was somewhat predictable, but the dialog and characters were fresh enough that I didn't much care.  It's a film about discovering your passion, families both natural and chosen, and growing up alternative in a small town.  (Bonus: this showing was a sneak preview, so they had local roller derby women skating around outside the theater trying to interest passers-by. Fun!)

3.  This photo of the Spanish Prime Minister's family posing with the Obamas is great.
Apparently Spanish law allows the Prime Minister to prevent the press from publishing photos of his teenage daughters, so nobody had seen them.  The US state department didn't get the memo or something, released the photos (oops!), and revealed the big secret: the daughters are kinda goth. 

I like this photo for several reasons:
I do feel sorry for the girls, given that there will undoubtedly be a lot of commentary that is not so nice.  At least it will provide fodder for some properly angsty teenage poetry. 

Tonight's Heroes had me talking to my TV screen a lot.
( Do the Heroes writers watch DW and hate us? Or was that accidental? Spoilers within. )

Completely unrelated note to self:  just because the huge bag of candy corn in the grocery store calls up a seasonal craving doesn't mean that you need to buy that huge bag right away.  It's ok to wait and look for a package of candy corn suitable for consumption by one.  If you buy the huge bag, you will eat too much at once, and it will be a Very Bad Idea.

Dragoncon was grand fun.  It was a fairly eventful weekend.  Among other things, I:

-won a Vogon poetry slam.  Winning a contest to write poetry in the style of the third-worst poets in the Universe is a dubious honor at best, but it was really fun.  I hadn't originally intended to participate.  When volunteers were running short, I ended up volunteering and winning my first matchup.  In the final round, where the winners so far competed against each other, the topic was naked mole rats.  Now, I'm a biology major with a fondness for bizarre animal behavior, and among mammals you just don't get much more bizarre than naked mole rats.  They're some of my favorite creatures.  I know quite a bit about them, so I managed to write a poem that was educational while still being atrocious literature!  I won a wooden egg decorated by hand to be a Dalek.  It's pretty nifty.  

-attended the Brit Track's party for the anniversaries of Doctor Who and some other shows.  The party was mysteriously lacking in traditional party characteristics like snacks or music, although some of us did briefly compensate by singing the DW theme song while beating out the rhythm on our thighs.  Despite all that, I got into a lovely long conversation about DW with rusty_halo , minervamoon , jaydk , darketernal09 , and other fans I met there.  We had lots of similar opinions, making it fun, but enough differences to keep things lively.  It was great.

-watched the Mighty Rassilon Arts Players*'  From TARDIS with Love, a spoof of DW with a dash of James Bond style thrown in.  It was hilarious, like watching a live action version of a high quality crackfic.  As a bonus, the guy they had playing Captain Jack was appropriately good-looking and spent a good chunk of the play shirtless.  Huzzah!

-had people complement and even ask to take pictures of my Turn Left Donna costume.  Having my work on that beetle appreciated was wonderfully flattering.

-saw panels with Gareth David Lloyd, James Marsters, Nathan Filion, Alan Tudyk, Sean Astin, and more.  They were all entertaining speakers.  The Firefly lads in particular seemed to be having a great time in each other's company on stage. 

-actually woke up in time to see the parade, which was full of great costumes.  The costumewatching throughout the convention was excellent.

-attended a panel on New Who so crowded they had to move everybody to a new room. My fandom is unexpectedly large, like the TARDIS interior!

-let my fangirl tendencies rule me for long enough to stand in line for James Marsters's autograph.  Eee!  I managed not to completely embarass myself or lose my capacity for speech while shaking his hand and collecting the autograph.  He is very friendly and still quite good-looking in real life, although rather too tan to play a vampire at the moment.

-barely restrained myself from spending nearly $300 on a corset.  I don't need a corset.  I wouldn't have many occasions to wear it.  But it was so pretty, and it made my figure look great!  Sigh...maybe I'll get one next year.

-met a guy in a panel on the Whedonverse track and ended up seeing a movie with him after the con.  Alas, he lives on the opposite coast from me.


*a comedy group that has previously performed plays with titles like Buffy:  Warrior Princess;  Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter; and Welcome Back, Potter.  Their first play many years ago was classic Who themed, hence the name.