A Geek's Walking Tour of Downtown Victoria

 

Rather than just charging over to Vancouver Island to see Chris Hadfield perform and then heading back again on the same day, Karli and I decided that it would be fun to have some time to wander around Victoria on the Saturday - neither one of us had the opportunity to do any sightseeing there for several years.

 The man himself.  You know, sooner or later people are going to have to start using a different picture of Chris Hadfield, although, to be fair, it is the first image that pops up if you Google™ him.  Maybe a wider selection of media shots on your web site, Commander?

 

I'm constantly amazed by the degree to which geek culture has insinuated itself into everyday life.  In addition to the usual offerings of brightly coloured cooking utensils and semi-inspirational wall plaques, home decor store Paboom surprisingly features Minion Green Lantern and Totoro pillows, along with Star Wars tourist posters for local attractions. I feel that Minion tchotchkes have become fairly common, but isn't Totoro a bit obscure for the general public?

We also paid a visit to Munro's Books, the excellent independent bookstore which is centrally located in Victoria's downtown core.  As always, their selection did not disappoint, and I walked away with about eighty bucks worth of reading material: a paperback collection of short fiction by Terry Pratchett - A Blink of the Screen, a long overdue copy of Pulitzer-prize winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (based mainly on the title, to be honest) and an extravagant hardcover copy of collected Ursula K. Le Guin non-fiction, Words Are My Matter, which is nominated for a Hugo Award this year.

"Essential" gear - this is actually from the Friday night, and I'm a bit sorry that we didn't get back to Dragon Impact when they were open in order to find out if you could actually buy some kind of standardized package for dealing with the walking dead.  Based on the quantity of sharpened metal on display in the shop windows, I doubt that the package would include anything really practical, like a good pair of running shoes.

Speaking of which, isn't it a bit ironic to use a famous hobbit surname for a shoe store?  (Because, after all, hobbits never wear shoes.) *

However, the star of the day has to be the Little Shop of Strange, located near the entrance to Market Square at 566 Johnson Street.  If you're looking for a weird but wonderful (not to say strange) selection of music, local art, and taxidermy, this is your spot - where else could you buy a reasonably priced and beautifully made actual Plague Rat?

 

- Sid

* Purists will cite the Stoors, one of the three breeds of hobbits, who wore boots in muddy weather.

T minus 48 hours.

When you've booked off a half day from work for travel time, made round trip ferry reservations, and rented an Airbnb condo for two nights, it's very comforting to discover that the person you're going to see perform has actually arrived at the venue location*.  Thanks very much for posting that, Commander Hadfield - see you Saturday night.

- Sid

* And is apparently staying at the Empress Hotel in downtown Victoria, based on the view and the angle of the photo.

UPDATE:  Aha!  https://www.instagram.com/p/BSBpyf7hAxj/?hl=en

Or Christopher Eccleston, for that matter.

No, seriously, can you imagine?  Yes, of course I've made a donation to enter the contest, are you kidding? And, AND, the contest details state that:

The winner plus guest will go for breakfast with at least seven Doctor Whos at the Wolseley restaurant, London. 

"AT LEAST SEVEN" - okay, if there's a chance they're going to get Tom Baker out for this as well, I may need to lie down for a minute.

Wish me luck!

- Sid

P.S.  Sigh...okay, in the interest of promoting a good cause, here's the campaign link:

 https://www.omaze.com/experiences/Dr_who

Anybody who wins because of this had damn well better be prepared to take me with them as their plus one, that's all I ask.

pReview: (Old Man) Logan.

 

Logan, Hugh Jackman's dark and gritty swan song as the adamantium-enhanced Canadian mutant, has been out for two and a half weeks now, with an impressive box office total to date of over half a billion dollars. As usual, attendance dropped dramatically after the first couple of weeks, and now that the fan boy rush is out of the way, I'm hoping to see the film sometime in the next week or so. I have three potential opportunities lined up, and I'm confident that at least one of them will come through - if it's more than one, well, all reports indicate that it's a well done movie, so I won't say no to additional viewings.

So far I've managed to avoid seeing any serious spoilers regarding the plot, but the overall mise-en-scène is clear from the trailers: an older, less confident Wolverine, bitter, disillusioned, and perhaps slower to heal as his abilities diminish with age, who is taking care of a decrepit Professor X.  There are no mansions, no stealth jets, but rather rusty sheds and battered cars instead.

A lot of fans were hoping that the movie would be closer to the 2008 comic book series Old Man Logan. This eight-issue alternate future* story takes place in a United States that has fallen to an alliance of super-villains, with the country divided between the Red Skull, Doctor Doom, the Kingpin, and the Hulk, who has killed the Abomination and taken over his domain on the West Coast.  An aging, pacifist Logan, sworn never to use his claws again, lives a quiet life with his wife and two children while operating a farm on the edge of nowhere in Hulkland.

When his bucolic lifestyle is threatened by the Hulk Gang, whose members are the incestuous offspring of Bruce Banner and his first cousin the She-Hulk, Logan agrees to go on an extended road trip with a blinded Hawkeye in order to raise enough money to pay off his protection fees.  As they travel from Logan's home in California to New Babylon, the Red Skull's capital city on the East Coast, Hawkeye discovers how the other X-Men died during the final battle with the super-villain alliance and the reasons for Logan's resulting renunciation of violence.

Ultimately, they're betrayed to the Red Skull, but Logan defeats him and uses fragments of Iron Man's armour from the Skull's trophy room to rapidly return to the West Coast, where he discovers that the Hulk Gang has killed his family in advance of the deadline for his payment, prompting the return of the Wolverine - claws and all.

Everything I've seen suggests a different future for the last X-Man in Logan, along with some substantial retconning for the child companion who appears in the trailers.  Based on the configuration of her claws, she's got to be X-23, a clone of Logan who made her first appearance in the 2003 X-Men: Evolution animated series before moving to the comics. The comic book version eventually took over as the new Wolverine after Logan lost his healing abilities and then suffocated after being encased in adamantium.**  At 12, Logan actress Dafne Keen seems a bit young to step into Logan's shoes, assuming that it is in fact the same character.

Which leads us to the big question: does Logan survive the movie?  Does the Professor?  Given that both Jackman and Patrick Stewart had announced that it was their final turn as those characters, it would make a lot of sense if one or both of them dies - why would a scriptwriter miss that opportunity? 

However, that leaves a bit of a gap for the First Class series. James MacAvoy has been doing an excellent job as the young Professor X in those films, but Mr. Jackman has been the only person to play Wolverine.  Will they simply leave him out of future films in the series?

There's no reason that they can't recast the role, but it feels like a loss. Hugh Jackman has done outstanding work as Logan, regardless of the quality of some of the scripts that's he's had to work with, and anyone who takes over will be faced with the huge challenge of attempting to match the high standard that he's set for the part.

But, let's face it, nothing lasts forever, and sooner or later, even the Wolverine has to hang up his claws - one way or another.

- Sid

* It has become difficult to keep track of all the X-Men alternate futures, to be honest.

** If any readers are going, "Wait, if he's dead, what about the Old Man Logan thing?"- as above, alternate futures. but you're right, it's confusing.  Even so, being dead isn't always a permanent thing in either comic books or comic book movies.

Although he wasn't really sure about Ian McKellan for the part.

Photo by KT

 Partied with Cogsworth on the weekend.  He's really excited about the new live action film.

- Sid

P.S. No, seriously, we were at a 99th birthday party for Karli's best friend's grandfather, and I glanced over at the mantlepiece, then leaned over and said to her, "Look, it's Cogsworth!"

"I wish I had a thousand words for love."

- Sid

Disneyland III: The Dark Side.

As a purist, this is exactly the sort of thing that I was concerned about when Disney Inc. took over Lucasfilm, and acquired control of the Star Wars branding: you can't just go around sticking ears on everything!  Not only does it confuse the identity of the newly earred character, it diminishes Micky Mouse, who deserves better than that.

C'mon, Disney - let the Mouse be the Mouse.

- Sid

Disneyland II: "Stupid's with me."

I have to admit that I actually found these two t-shirts at the Star Trader gift shop in Tomorrowland to be a cute and clever alternative take on the the usual sort of "I'm with Stupid" thing that you traditionally see featured in gift shops.

Although not cute enough that Karli and I bought a set for ourselves - I'm not certain that Han and Leia are the perfect relationship role models, at least based on how their son turned out.

- Sid

Disneyland I: The Happiest Place on Earth.

The clear morning sky is the sort of pure cerulean blue that you only see in video games or in California.  In front of us, the bronze statue of a smiling man gestures to the azure horizon as if explaining his vision of the future to the attentive waist-high cartoon mouse who holds his other hand.  A laughing little girl with a bubble wand adds an unexpected touch of whimsy to the passing crowd, which is too intent on planning a day of fun and excitement to do more than just notice the partners on the pedestal. Nearby, an unscripted pigeon wanders across the immaculate pavement in a futile search for even a crumb of discarded food which has been missed by the grounds staff.

Welcome to Disneyland - the happiest place on earth.

And, to be honest, it is pretty happy.  I completely enjoyed our three-day visit to Disneyland and its sister location, California Adventure - it was a lot of fun, more fun than I had expected, to be honest.  My childhood didn't include anything even remotely similar to Walt Disney's sprawling 156 acre extravaganza, and I really didn't know what it would be like.

I found that it engaged me on two levels:  on one hand, I was simply entertained and amused. Disneyland offers all of the pleasures of any amusement park, plus its signature experience-oriented adventures, and I was unexpectedly charmed by the classic animated movie rides. On the other hand, I was fascinated by the park itself, by the degree of artifice and imagination that has gone into the creation of both the attractions and the framework in which the Disney imagineers have placed them.

Disneyland draws upon only a portion of the epic library of source material available to its parent company to create this experience. In addition to the traditional fairy-tale content such as Snow White or Pinnochio which characterized Disney's early years, and its more modern animated offerings such as Dumbo, Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland, Disneyland is able to find inspiration in acquired properties ranging from the Muppets to Marvel Comics, and from Pixar to Lucasfilm.

However, there's an unexpected sort of Darwinian struggle evident at the park, where only the fittest - or most popular - survive. Fame is fleeting at Disneyland:  Space Mountain morphs into Hyperspace Mountain, Muppet Vision 3-D is pushed out by Frozen Live, Honey, I Shrunk the Audience is replaced by Star Tours, a Star Wars based 3-D adventure, and Tower of Terror is currently being rebuilt with a Guardians of the Galaxy theme.

On the other hand, it's not all about the latest and greatest. In addition to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Karli and I visited a number of the older rides such as Snow White's Scary Adventures, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan's Flight, and, of course, "It's a Small World", all of which more than demonstrate their popularity by the length of their lineups.*

 

To my surprise, many of these classic Disneyland rides aren't really what I would consider to be "rides" as such.  Whereas many of the attractions at Disneyland and the California Adventure draw upon the traditional amusement park catalogue of ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds, roller coasters and so on, there is also a wide selection of what could be classified as primitive immersive environments, where the riders pass through the plot of a movie presented as a series of animated tableaux.

Although the older, simple rides remain popular (possibly because of their complete friendliness to all ages and physical capabilities) Disneyland has not rested on its laurels over time.  In fact, it would be possible to work your way through the rides chronologically and observe the increasingly more sophisticated techniques being used to enhance the experience.

The 1995 Indiana Jones adventure, Temple of the Forbidden Eye, is a good example of the results of this evolutionary process.  The entire ride is over 50,000 square feet in size and cost $100 million to construct, taking over seven years from conception to completion.

It takes place in the bowels of a massive temple complex - riders actually walk through close to half a mile of meticulously detailed passageways to reach the boarding point of the ride. Once there, they climb onto simulator motion platforms disguised as all-terrain transport vehicles to travel through the temple.

Riders then experience a combination of forward motion, which takes them through an environment featuring smoke, flames, and (of course) giant stone globes, and extreme motion platform effects, which exaggerates the rider experience without having to make the track physically match the range of convolutions and twists programmed into the platform.

The cumulative effect is a complete success - Karli and I went through the Temple three times, and would undoubtedly have done more return visits if time had allowed.  

The 2012 debut of Radiator Springs Racers raised the ante, with six acres of vivid desert scenery recreated from Cars at a cost of more than $200 million, making it the most expensive attraction constructed by Disney. The incredible backdrop of Ornament Valley rears hundreds of feet into the sky, and also features underground caverns filled with animatronic characters from the movie.

 

But where does Disney go from there?  What's the next step in this process?

Personally, I was surprised to see the number of other adult couples that were visiting the park without children, which indicates that the phenomenon of the Magic Kingdom has an appeal which extends beyond the stroller demographic. One has to wonder if Disney has ever considered widening their scope to include more mature themes. Imagine if the imagineers focused their skill with epic landscapes and believable animatronic characters on a park that featured more adult content - perhaps making the leap to elements of violence, or possibly even sex.

Maybe something with a western theme...

- Sid

* Lineups are the price of doing business when you visit Disneyland, a necessary evil caused by thousands of people wanting to visit a limited number of venues.  Disney recognizes that this is a negative aspect of the park experience, and does everything they can to minimize the effect.  The lineup environment is referred to as "Scene Zero" of a ride, and as such the waiting areas feature animatronic characters, videos, and set dressing, all intended to entertain (and distract) guests standing patiently in queue.

 

Newer attractions are also constructed to stage out the lineup process so that it takes place at different locations - a twenty minute wait will involve five minutes at the entrance, ten in the middle, and five at the ride itself.  In addition, there's a Fastpass system that allows ticket holders to reserve seats on popular rides during a set range of times.

Ultimately, though, there are times when you just have to stand and wait. Karli and I visited during one of the slowest times at the park, and as such rarely had to wait longer than ten or twenty minutes to board a ride. Peak times can involve lineups of 90 minutes  - or longer.

Ukulele lessons.

blog (bläɡ/) noun: blog; plural noun: blogs

1. A regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.

Today marks the tenth anniversary of my first posting on The Infinite Revolution.  Since then, I've posted a total of 637 short pieces featuring my thoughts on science fiction, fantasy, and the supernatural.  I've talked about science, spaceships, giant Japanese robots, movies, comic books, cosplay, interplanetary voyages, visits to bookstores in foreign cities, zombies, artificial intelligence, space exploration, video games, ghosts, time travel, Canada, Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Great Cthulhu, Conan the Barbarian, Hugo Gernsback, psychotic belly button fans, and whatever else has caught my passing fancy and seemed worth writing a couple of paragraphs about.

Acquaintances who discover my blog are often surprised that someone would actually do that - write for fun - and it is fun for me, even after ten years.  Sadly, the fun has been somewhat adulterated over time by a sense of pressure to produce:  if I don't post for a few weeks, I start to feel that I'm somehow behind, and I begin to stress about finishing topical postings so that I can move on to other content which is closer to completion.  (As an example, this piece is pushing back a half-finished post on Disneyland.)

The odd thing about this is that, really, there is no pressure - it's purely a hobby, and pending Bill Gates paying me to do this, it makes not one bit of difference in the world whether I regularly post something or not.

Nonetheless, I put a lot of thought and consideration into the postings. The final paragraphs are the most challenging, because for me, that's the punchline.  If I can't come up with a clever ending, I feel that I've somehow failed, even if the rest of the posting feels well-written and interesting. The titles are equally challenging, but more fun - I try to use as many obscure genre references as possible.

I actually first started talking about doing something like TIR in about 1992 - it's a testament to my archiving process that I still have the first version of the logo that I designed for the site, as seen at the top of page.  (Please note that my initial usage of the atomic structure graphic predates The Big Bang Theory logo by 15 years - and that's the only part that survived from the logo, as my end mark.  I also experienced a change in demonstrative adjective from "an" to "the" when I did finally start the site.)

At the time, I pictured it as more of a resource-oriented web site, with author profiles and bibliographies and so on, but one of my co-workers commented that it sounded more like a blog to him.  I nodded gravely, then crept away and looked up "blog" online.

At the time, nothing came of it. I was incredibly busy with work, a condition which continued for more or less the next decade, and I really didn't have a clear idea of how I would actually go about turning my idea into a real thing.  However, when my friend Colin started his blog, it demonstrated to me just how simple and straightforward it would be to create, update and maintain something like what I had imagined. (Full points to Blogger™ for having set up a system which allows for such easy site creation and maintenance - although I live in fear that they'll start charging for the privilege.)

To my complete surprise, this site has also become a significant part of my social life.  I have conversations that end up here, and I write things here that then become part of conversations, and I have to send links to people so that they get the whole story - it's a vicious circle.

Even more surprisingly,  I seem to have established ownership of the brand.  A Google search for "the infinite revolution" returns over fifty million results - and my little blog is the first on the list.

However, I have sometimes wondered how long it will keep going - how strong is my commitment?  As an illustration to the question, when I first started dating Karli, she had been taking ukulele lessons for some time. Not long after our first date, someone asked Karli how her lessons were going.

"What ukulele lessons?" she replied.  "I have a boyfriend now."

As a result, "ukulele lessons" has become a euphemism in conversations between Karli and I for the things you do to fill the time when you don't have anyone important with whom to share your life. Initially I was concerned that my relationship with Karli would displace blogging, and that The Infinite Revolution would just fade away along with her interest in the uke.

I'm pleased to say that this didn't turn out to be the case. Over the past two years, I've more or less maintained my level of output, and it would appear that TIR isn't a ukulele lesson after all. In fact, Karli has even contributed to the site, which I think clearly demonstrates that it HAS to be love.

At the exact moment that I cut and paste the number, The Infinite Revolution has had a total of 211,830 visitors - roughly the population of Regina*. I realize that a lot of that readership is web bots, crawlers, spiders and spammers, but I'd like to think that at least some portion of that number is actual human beings who stumbled across the blog for whatever reason, in addition to the people who read it because they know me personally.

If you do represent one of those 211,830 visits to the site, I'd like to thank you very much for your interest - even if you just looked at the picture of cosplayer Jessica Nigri in an armoured bikini and then moved on.

- Sid

* For non-Canadian readers unfamiliar with the Jewel of Saskatchewan, you can substitute either Akron, Ohio or Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Sweet Dreams Are Made of This.

As discussed in my previous post, the titular role in Doctor Who is up for grabs yet again, and I'm pleased to say that the current front-runner with the bookies* is female:  Tilda Swinton, with odds of 7:2 in her favour.   Other female favourites are Olivia Colman (5:1, but a Doctor Who veteran, which may work against her), Maxine Peake at 8:1, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Who? 12:1, regardless) and the intriguing long shot of Gwendoline Christie at 20:1.

No ill will, but I actually don't want Ms. Swinton to get the part. She's certainly a talented actress with lots of genre credibility, but I feel that every time someone wants to cast an unusual female character, her name is the first one on the list, and it would be interesting to look past that sort of obvious casting choice. I also can't help but feel that her performance would be somewhat predictable - again, no ill will, but having seen her in a number of roles, she does tend toward a somewhat uniform delivery.

So let's think outside the box for a minute. Scottish actors have been popular, and of course we want the person playing the Doctor to have a strong personality.  A couple of the actresses on the list have a touch of androgynous appeal to their look, and there's some feeling that the Doctor should have a certain maturity - Helen Mirren isn't on the odds sheet, but her name has come up in the past as an ideal candidate for the first female Doctor.

Our survey says?  Annie Lennox.

Yes, I know, not an actress as such, but think about it!  I mean, just look at that face, that fabulous combination of humour, strength, experience and insight.  And she's overtly Scottish, what a fun piece of continuity.  I can easily imagine what her Doctor would be like, a far more restrained and low-key presentation than Smith or Capaldi, but with hidden depth and passion - earnest, committed, caring, and powerful.

Do I expect her to get the role?  Of course not, I sincerely doubt that the BBC has even momentarily considered scheduling Annie Lennox for an audition. The purpose of this exercise is simply to demonstrate that an unexpected replacement for Peter Capaldi might well bring a new dimension to the part.  Hopefully new show-runner Chris Chibnall will be equally willing to consider the benefits of a surprising choice when the time comes.

- Sid

* Odds are courtesy of The Independent.  For a full list of candidates and their chances, visit their web site.  I have no idea where you would place your wagers, but, as per the BC Lottery Corporation, The Infinite Revolution requests that you gamble responsibly.

The Woman Who Lived.

Peter Capaldi has announced his planned departure from Doctor Who following the 2017 Christmas special, and once again, the debate is on: whether or not his replacement will be a woman, whether it should be a woman, and what woman it should be.

Blah, blah, blah.

Every time the role of the Doctor has been recast since the revival in 2005, everyone says that it's long overdue for the Doctor to regenerate as a woman, then a man is cast for the role anyway, and we're done for another couple of years.

I don't deny that the time seems right. The show itself had laid the foundations for the switch: the Master's female regeneration, plus that of the General in 2015's Hell Bent, have clearly demonstrated that regeneration can result in a change of gender*.

There is apparently some bias in the process: the regenerated General comments: "Oh, back to normal, am I? The only time I've been a man, that last body. Dear Lord, how do you cope with all that ego?", but in spite of that conditional statement, the door has certainly been opened for the next regeneration to result in a female Doctor.

Michelle Gomez's brilliant turn as Missy has wonderfully demonstrated that a change in sex is not a liability for a Time Lord (or perhaps Lady).  Her version of the Master is certainly feminine, but it is not one bit less evil and dangerous than her predecessors, and she has added an edge of instability and insanity to the role which has only improved it.  One could only hope that a matching change in the Doctor would extend the character's depth in a similar fashion.

Regardless of whether or not this is the ideal time for this change to happen, I'm not certain that people have really looked past that moment of decision to the inevitable consequences, so here's my message to the people behind Doctor Who.

This is a great opportunity, but it's also an immense challenge. The instant that you do decide that a woman will be the next Doctor, you will be walking a tightrope, and you will not be permitted to make any mistakes. Everything you do  - EVERYTHING - will be subject to an exacting scrutiny far beyond the spotlight which is normally focused on the show when the lead role changes.

And the first time you have the female Doctor say something that doesn't ring true, the first time that you let some unfortunate cliché about being a woman sneak through, the first time you substitute cleavage for cunning in the Doctor's strategy, you will have failed, and you will suffer for it.  People who have previously never even heard of Doctor Who will descend upon you in punishment like a plague from the Old Testament, and it might even prove to be fatal for the show itself.

So, to summarize:  yes, it's time for the Doctor to be a woman.  Don't screw it up - or else.

- Sid

* And race, which was equally provocative. 

"If you believed, they put a man on the moon, man on the moon".

It's not always easy to be in a relationship with a geek, but I have to say that Karli has been an accommodating and flexible partner, one who has been more than willing to participate in things like visits to the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle or side trips to photograph giant robots in Japan.

However, I was a little apprehensive when I suggested that I was interested in going to see ex-astronaut Chris Hadfield perform with the Victoria Symphony at the end of March. It somehow struck me as being above and beyond the call of duty to expect that she would be interested in joining me.  To my extreme pleasure, she instantly expressed her eagerness for a weekend away on Vancouver Island that would culminate in attending Commander Hadfield's symphonic performance.  Tickets have been purchased, hotel reservations made, and we're looking forward to a fun little getaway next month.

All that being said, I'm a little curious as to the actual content of the show.  Presumably it will highlight songs from his 12-cut album, Songs from a Tin Can, but even with an orchestral backup, that's only about 40 minutes, and the performance is slated to run from 8-10 pm.

The description of the event says that Commander Hadfield "will be singing, playing his guitar and telling stories about his time as an astronaut and is joined by the VS performing space-themed music."  "Space-themed music" certainly opens the door to a wide variety of fairly epic Hollywood movie scores for the orchestra - John Williams' Star Wars theme, Thus Spake Zarathustra from 2001, and so on - but I wonder if Chris Hadfield covers any pop songs other than the well-known version of David Bowie's Space Oddity that he recorded on the International Space Station?

Even if the show is called Rocket Man, it would be a very confident person* who would perform that particular Elton John hit with the spectre of William Shatner's version looming in the background.  Deep Purple's Space Truckin' really isn't Hadfield's style, and Peter Schilling's Major Tom seems a bit derivative after covering Bowie.  Bif Naked's Spaceman?  Cygnus X-1 by Rush?**  I think I've seen a video of a Hadfield version of the Beatles' Across the Universe, so that's probably part of his non-album repertoire.

Probably not Man on the Moon by REM, though - I don't think that a retired astronaut would approve of the chorus.

- Sid
 

* On the other hand, based on all evidence I think it's safe to say that Chris Hadfield would classify as a very confident person, so who knows.

** Do people actually cover Rush? I'm sure that there are several tribute bands working their way through small town bars in Northern Ontario, but it's difficult to imagine, say, Adele deciding to reinterpret Spirit of Radio for her next album.

Geekmas 2016: The System Works.

This seems a little harsh....

A somewhat delayed wrap-up (no pun intended) to the 2016 holiday season this year, due to equally delayed shipping for a couple of my seasonal gifts. However, shipping glitches aside, I have to say that this year was one of the most successful in terms of people reading the wish list that I had posted here, and then following through on the suggestions. (Many additional thank-yous to my girlfriend* Karli for managing this process via her blog and ensuring that there was no duplication in selecting gifts from the list.)

On the other side of the coin, it was also most definitely the least successful year for shipping as well. As it turned out, the quondam Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (now MoPop) doesn't ship outside of the United States, which immediately took the Star Trek movie posters out of contention as possible gifts. (How strange that an institution that deals with themes involving all of time and space would refuse to ship to Canada.)  Alternative Star Trek posters didn't trickle in until early January.  I also ended up with two copies of Naomi Novik's Uprooted just because my benefactor received two of them, for whatever reason.

However, the most impressive shipping gaffe involves my workplace gift exchange. I received an IOU from my Secret Santa (AKA my office mate Bill), who was mortified by the absence of a shipment containing my presents as the 25th drew near. As January wore on, he became increasingly embarrassed by this continued lack of fulfillment.  He harassed the shippers, terrorized his postie, and finally arranged for the order to be re-sent.  Shortly after that, a package arrived on his doorstep, almost a full month after Christmas and almost two months after his original order - with a postal label that explained everything. (Well, the delay at least.)

I think that if a package leaves Connecticut with Vancouver as its destination, Sweden is probably the long way round, even by the convoluted standards of international postal shipping.  Now let's see if the replacement shipment takes the same route.

Once everything was in hand, it was certainly an impressive haul:  in addition to Uprooted, I received Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace, Ian McDonald's Luna: New Moon, and Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear, which reads surprisingly like a well-written fan entry into Cherie Priest's American steampunk Clockwork Century series.

On the video side, three excellent episodes of Doctor Who - The King's Demons, with Peter Davison, Tom Baker in The Stones of Blood, and The Moonbase, a fascinating partial Patrick Troughton episode with existing audio only for two of the chapters, and the missing video filled in with animation. Part of Bill's gift was a beautifully transferred Blu-ray edition of The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Karli gave me a long desired copy of The Day of the Triffids**.  Amazon.ca gift cards allowed me to purchase the entire run of Star Trek: The Original Series on Blu-ray, along with Star Trek: Beyond and X-Men: Apocalyse in digital and Blu-ray formats.

 

The most unexpected choice from my list would be the Halo UNSC M6 blaster, which I included on a whim but never expected to receive. It's surprisingly well made for a child's toy, and feels sturdy and nicely sized for an adult grip. But forget using it on Jaq the Cat, I'd be reluctant to aim this thing at a person - it's rated to shoot the supplied rubber-tipped darts 70 feet, which means that it has quite a punch in the ten to fifteen foot range. All in all, a much appreciated addition to my science fiction armoury - thanks, Karli!  And thanks to everyone else who read my list of suggestions, and followed through so considerately and generously.

Damn...now I have to come up with a new list...

- Sid
 

* My gorgeous girlfriend Karli, to be completely accurate.

** Full disclosure:  as far as I can tell, there's only one extant DVD or Blu-ray edition of this movie, and to be honest, it's not a fabulous transfer.  Which doesn't make me any less pleased to have received it, but it's sad that they didn't do a better job.

"Fine and strong and simple."

Glancing back, they saw a small cloud of dust, with a dark centre of energy, advancing on them at incredible speed, while from out the dust a faint ‘Poop-poop!’ wailed like an uneasy animal in pain. Hardly regarding it, they turned to resume their conversation, when in an instant (as it seemed) the peaceful scene was changed, and with a blast of wind and a whirl of sound that made them jump for the nearest ditch, It was on them! The ‘Poop-poop’ rang with a brazen shout in their ears, they had a moment’s glimpse of an interior of glittering plate-glass and rich morocco, and the magnificent motor-car, immense, breath-snatching, passionate, with its pilot tense and hugging his wheel, possessed all earth and air for the fraction of a second, flung an enveloping cloud of dust that blinded and enwrapped them utterly, and then dwindled to a speck in the far distance, changed back into a droning bee once more.

Toad sat straight down in the middle of the dusty road, his legs stretched out before him, and stared fixedly in the direction of the disappearing motor-car. He breathed short, his face wore a placid satisfied expression, and at intervals he faintly murmured ‘Poop-poop!’ .

Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows 

Karli and I are currently in the final stages of tactical planning for a trip to Disneyland for her birthday next week.  As part of the process, Karli has been going through the various rides, attractions and activities available at the park and dividing them up based on the following criteria: things that she really wants to do; things we could do; and things which fall below the threshold of interest* for adults.

This list is not as self-evident as it would seem - there are some entries in the first category which many people might well consider to belong solidly in the third group.  However, Karli has a strongly nostalgic bias for our visit to Anaheim, and as such there are activities that she wants to do based on her youthful memories of them rather than their adult appeal. (Which in my mind is a completely valid approach -I'm a big fan of reliving childhood.)

One of the selections which came up as part of this process was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, which premiered at the park's opening in 1955 but received a facelift in 1983. When it was suggested as a preference, my first question was, "Does it go 'poop poop'?"

Karli lowered her iPad Mini and looked at me quizzically.

"Does it what?"

"Go 'poop poop'."

"Why in the world would it go poop poop?"

At this point, I went to the bookcase and pulled out my worn copy of The Wind in the Willows for a brief dissertation on the foundations of Toad's ill-fated obsession with motor cars, as seen in the opening quote.

Written by British author Kenneth Grahame in 1908, The Wind in the Willows is part of the great body of Edwardian children's literature. Beatrix Potter first introduces The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902, J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan debuts on stage in 1904, E. Nesbit's The Railway Children is published in 1906, and Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden in 1911.  (In the interests of Canadian content, Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery, makes its appearance before the public eye in 1908.)

The Wind in the Willows tells the story - or more accurately the stories - of a mismatched quartet of animal companions:  the Mole, a naive but earnest visitor to the world aboveground; his more experienced guide the Water Rat, who lives in a burrow by the river; the Badger, a gruff, respected and somewhat feared senior member of the woodland community, and the Toad, the egotistical and somewhat scatterbrained inheritor of Toad Hall.

The book is intensely episodic, ranging widely from the broad comedy of Toad's mishaps and adventures to the lyricism of the Water Rat's encounter with the Sea Rat, the unexpected mysticism of chapter entitled "The Piper At The Gates of Dawn" and the simple heartfelt nostalgia of the Mole's desire to see his old burrow once again when he catches its scent.

I first read The Wind in the Willows when I was about 20.  My then girlfriend owned a copy, and one evening when I was looking for something to read, my eye fell upon it in the bookcase as a recognized title. I started to read, and fell in love with it instantly.

Since then, The Wind in the Willows has been one of the great quiet foundations of my life. Reading the poetry of its text has calmed me when my spirit has been troubled, and comforted me after nightmares. In times of contentment, it has warmed me and satisfied me.  Like the Mole, I am "bewitched, entranced, fascinated" - taken out of my life and shown a different world through Grahame's descriptions of simple things: sunlight on water, a welcoming light in the darkness, good food and the company of good friends, and the whispering of the wind through the willows.

- Sid

* Or seat size.