The Legend of Korra

Airbender fans, the creators of Avatar: The last Airbender, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, have created a new series which will air on Nickelodeon on April 14. Watch the preview below!

Looks pretty good to me!


This series takes place in Republic City, about 100 years after Ang's defeat of Azula and the Fire Nation (see original series). Korra, a waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe, is the current Avatar. In the first season, she will take on a group of anti-benders called the Equalists. She must master airbending under the tutelage of Tenzin, the son of Katara, a water bender (original series), and Ang, the last Avatar. 


For those of you unfamiliar with Avatar: The last Airbender, the Avatar is the incarnation of a powerful being who brings peace and balance to the world through mastery over the four elements: Air, Water, Fire and Earth. 


I highly enjoyed the first series and recommend that you watch it before The Legend of Korra comes out. I have high hopes that this new series will be just as amazing as its predecessor. 


In other news, M.Night Shyamalan's, The Last Airbender: Cross Roads of Destiny, is supposed to come out sometime soon! Uh oh! Not everyone appreciated his film adaptation of the first half of The last Airbender series! Here is an idea of what it might look like:

Hmmm...interesting. Airbender fans, any thoughts?

Dark Shadows preview: Johnny Depp doing the Emo Do

Ladies and Gents, how we all love Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. Aren't we glad that they keep giving us more??!!

Check out this preview for Dark Shadows, coming out May 11. Looks very entertaining.

Mr. Depp is Barnabus (with yet another interesting hair-do!) and Eva Green plays his amorous enemy, as they duke it out during the age of Aquarius. I'm not sure if we get to see Eva's assets, as we did in the series Camelot, however, her standard "witch-y" Morgana voice is still going strong, though I'm kind of tired of it (yeah, yeah, you're "evil, like the fru-eets of the De-veel", we get it).

Sick Boy is in it, as is Miss Ghastly-Crumb-Tiny herself, Helena Bonham Carter.

I've added some clips from the original series! Enjoy!!!

The beauty of Martian Landscaping

In a previous post, I mentioned the use of Utah's Plateaus and Canyons to illustrate the Landscape of Mars (Barsoom) in Disney's John Carter.

As some of you may know Mars has just been the closest to Earth it will be for quite some time. If you are like me, you did not possess a telescope powerful enough to get a  glimpse of the martian terrain. Luckily, The University of Arizona  Department of Planetary Sciences/Lunar and Planetary Laboratory's HiRISE, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, has and will continue to capture high resolution images of Mars that we can view on their website . I highly recommend sharing these wonderful photos with the budding astronomer in your family! 

Serpent Dust Devil of Mars, courtesy of HiRISE, University of Arizona

Well Hello, John Carter!!!

Courtesy of Julie Bell and Boris Vallejo, 2009

I'm torn between sharing my John Carter experience and not sharing. It's only been a few days since its release, and, maybe I should give people time to watch it? Hmmm...Nah.

The story is related through John Carter's diary as it is read by his nephew, Edgar Rice Burroughs. Some time after after the American Civil War, John Carter gets transported to Mars, taken captive by a tall species of horned martians and tries to save the Princess of Mars from an arranged marriage to the enemy leader. Unfortunately, this will mess up the plans of an immortal group of pale bald Time Lord type guys, perhaps related to the pale bald guys from Fringe. They have been planning the fate of Mars (a.k.a Barsoom) since before mankind , sorry, Martian-kind existed and are not very happy with Mr. Carter's interference.


Did I enjoy this movie? Yeah, it was O.K.


I found certain parts a bit drawn out, especially the mushy, gooey parts (do people really like that stuff?). The 3D effects were fun when they were noticeable, mostly during flying machine scenes, but I expected far more from Disney. The nature of the story and where it takes place should have offered far more opportunities for 3D to really shine. The most the 3D gave me was a headache and a bit of nausea. 

There were some amusing parts, some comic relief to cut through some of the boring portions, though sometimes it felt a little forced. The sets were well done, parts of it filmed at Disney Studios. The beautiful landscape of Utah was used as the Martian Terrain, which was appropriately dusty, reddish-brownish. 

Mr. Carter, played by Taylor Kitsch, was in fine form. He did  look a bit ridiculous bouncing through the air like the Hulk, an ability stemming from Mar's lower gravity and Earth men's lighter bone density. He became much stronger as well, plowing through giant martians like a bowling ball. 

The Princess of Mars, Dejah Thoris, played by Lynn Collins was quite stunning and exotic. I am particularly happy that she was portrayed as a shapely woman, rather than a Hollywood Skinny. 

The costumes were interesting. It always intrigues me to see how costume designers interpret written descriptions of clothing and style and, also, where they take liberties. The "good side" had cool helmets with wings, which reminded me of the various Hollywood depictions of Hermes' head gear. It seemed, over all, that Martians dress like ancient Greek warriors, and do not like pants.

Frank E. Schoonover, 1917

Another thing that interests me is the story's very brief explanation of time travel. Copies of people travel from planet to planet using a special glowing medallion and a few magic words. The original body remains comatose, back home. More explanation would have been nice. And what exactly was the 9th ray?

Final words? Disney's John Carter wasn't bad. It wasn't great either. I, unfortunately, have not yet read A Princess of Mars, so I cannot comment on how well the film was adapted from the book, whether it remained true or it was altered Hollywood-style. 

I wouldn't be opposed to watching the next film in the series, if Disney decides to make one, however, I really hope that they do a better job of it.

Readers, I'm interested to hear comparisons between the book and the movie, and impressions of the movie in general. Please share!

Tiptree Award Results!

Looking for some new reading material? the Tiptree Award has been given out and posted on it's website. The winner for 2011 is Redwood and Wildfire by Andrea Hairston (Aqueduct Press, 2011).  You can also review the Honor list and the Long list

I've spent quite a bit of time in my life defending Science Fiction and Fantasy to people who say that it's all nonsense and has nothing to do with reality.  I tell them that Science Fiction and Fantasy explores many of the same issues that other works of fiction do, just in a different kind of setting.  We read about class, racial and gender oppression. We explore politics, war and what could happen after we use up the Earth's resources. We examine the human psyche, love, kinship and trust. And we take time to celebrate all this wonderful and thoughtful work. The Tiptree Award is an example of our appreciation.

What is the Tiptree Award? 

"In February of 1991 at WisCon (the world’s only feminist-oriented science fiction convention), award-winning SF author Pat Murphy announced the creation of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, an annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender...The aim of the award is not to look for work that falls into some narrow definition of political correctness, but rather to seek out work that is thought-provoking, imaginative, and perhaps even infuriating. The Tiptree Award is intended to reward those women and men who are bold enough to contemplate shifts and changes in gender roles, a fundamental aspect of any society."                                                                                                                              - http://tiptree.org/welcome                                           

Read More about the Tiptree Award