"Wait, I have to take a picture of this!"
"Why?"
"This is where Jerry Cornelius lives!!!"
"Oh. Blog thing?"
"Yep."
- Sid
Thursday, September 27, 2018
Gnomic Statement XVII (and still going strong).
"Wait, I have to take a picture of this!"
"Why?"
"This is where Jerry Cornelius lives!!!"
"Oh. Blog thing?"
"Yep."
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Honeymoon 7: "People like us shop at Forbidden Planet"
The Birthday Trilogy, Part III
After a fascinating trip to the Tower of London and a quick late lunch, Karli and I continue my our day out with an abortive visit to the BBC, in hopes of purchasing merch for the new season of Doctor Who. Sadly, when we arrive at Broadcasting House at Portland Place, a security guard brusquely informs us that the shop had been closed for quite a while*, and directs us to "shops on the high street", a less than informative dismissal.
Fortunately, our next stop is far more rewarding: the Forbidden Planet London Megastore, conveniently located on Shaftesbury Avenue near the Tottenham Court Underground station.
Forbidden Planet, which turned 40 in July of this year, claims to be "...the world's largest and best-known science fiction, fantasy and cult entertainment retailer!" and their 10,000 square foot flagship shopping outlet does its very best to live up to that claim. In addition to its London location, there are 25 other Forbidden Planet stores scattered around the British Isles, and an outlet at Broadway and East 12th Avenue in New York.
As one would expect, the ground floor of the London location has a full array of all the comic book/movie/video game merch that a fan could possibly desire.
(Please note that said fan may need deep pockets: original pricing for the three items from the window display in the above photo would have set you back £1,749.97 or about three grand in Canadian dollars. Good thing the two statuettes are on sale.)
But for me, the real prize at Forbidden Planet is their lower level, which features an impressively large offering of science fiction and fantasy, Japanese manga, comic books, reference texts, and graphic novels.
(Not to mention fandom crochet kits.)
It's safe to say that I've visited lots of non-specialty bookstores that were smaller than Forbidden Planet's genre-specific offering, which actually makes it a bit of challenge for me to shop here. In stores where there's not a lot to choose from, it doesn't take very long to make a decision, but the selection at Forbidden Planet is comprehensive to the point of being overwhelming - it would probably take me four or five days of visits just to become familiar enough with the inventory to feel that I was making an informed choice.
However, I don't have the luxury of dedicating a week of our honeymoon to one store, so when K. W. Jeter's George Dower trilogy catches my eye in the Steampunk section, I'm almost relieved that I've spotted something of interest. The trilogy is a suitable choice for more than one reason: it's in a letter to the editor of SF magazine Locus about Infernal Devices, the first book in the series, that Jeter coined the phrase "steampunk" to describe the particular sort of Victorian-era science fiction that he and his fellow authors Tim Powers and James Blaylock had been writing. I'm also impressed by the trilogy's intricate and ornate cover artwork - I know, you're not supposed to judge books on this basis, but they really are well done.
Just for fun, I also pick up a copy of 2000 A.D., England's long-running serialized weekly comic magazine. Most people in North America are unfamiliar with 2000 A.D. or any of the cast of characters that have appeared in the magazine since its first issue in February of 1977: Rogue Trooper, a solitary clone soldier; the robotic ABC Warriors; barbarian warrior Sláine; Johnny Alpha, mutant member of the Strontium Dog bounty hunter guild, and so on, with magazine regular Judge Dredd being the sole breakout character.
For my birthday, Karli purchases two additions to my growing collection of geek-appropriate t-shirts, one with the new Doctor Who logo, and one for the store itself, which features the unique artwork created for store advertising by English illustrator Brian Bolland in 1981. Sadly, they don't have my preferred size for the Doctor Who t-shirt, and when Karli makes the usual pro forma "Do you have an XL in the back?" inquiry to a member of the store's staff, she is somewhat brusquely informed that they are out of that size at ALL the stores - which, if nothing else, is probably a good sign for the reception of the new Doctor (or at least the new logo).
Thank you, Large it is...
Karli also purchases a Dancing with Jesus figurine, which joins us in celebrating as we finish off the day with a pint at the Sherlock Holmes, an old school English pub on Northumberland Street. All in all, an excellent London birthday, and my sincere gratitude and appreciation to Karli for sharing the day with me - not to mention the new t-shirts! Thanks again, my love!
* If you have somehow ended up on this page because you were trying to determine the status of the BBC brick-and-mortar shop, IT IS CLOSED. If you want to buy Doctor Who merch in person rather than online, look elsewhere - although maybe not the high street.
After a fascinating trip to the Tower of London and a quick late lunch, Karli and I continue my our day out with an abortive visit to the BBC, in hopes of purchasing merch for the new season of Doctor Who. Sadly, when we arrive at Broadcasting House at Portland Place, a security guard brusquely informs us that the shop had been closed for quite a while*, and directs us to "shops on the high street", a less than informative dismissal.
Fortunately, our next stop is far more rewarding: the Forbidden Planet London Megastore, conveniently located on Shaftesbury Avenue near the Tottenham Court Underground station.
Forbidden Planet, which turned 40 in July of this year, claims to be "...the world's largest and best-known science fiction, fantasy and cult entertainment retailer!" and their 10,000 square foot flagship shopping outlet does its very best to live up to that claim. In addition to its London location, there are 25 other Forbidden Planet stores scattered around the British Isles, and an outlet at Broadway and East 12th Avenue in New York.
As one would expect, the ground floor of the London location has a full array of all the comic book/movie/video game merch that a fan could possibly desire.
(Please note that said fan may need deep pockets: original pricing for the three items from the window display in the above photo would have set you back £1,749.97 or about three grand in Canadian dollars. Good thing the two statuettes are on sale.)
But for me, the real prize at Forbidden Planet is their lower level, which features an impressively large offering of science fiction and fantasy, Japanese manga, comic books, reference texts, and graphic novels.
(Not to mention fandom crochet kits.)
It's safe to say that I've visited lots of non-specialty bookstores that were smaller than Forbidden Planet's genre-specific offering, which actually makes it a bit of challenge for me to shop here. In stores where there's not a lot to choose from, it doesn't take very long to make a decision, but the selection at Forbidden Planet is comprehensive to the point of being overwhelming - it would probably take me four or five days of visits just to become familiar enough with the inventory to feel that I was making an informed choice.
However, I don't have the luxury of dedicating a week of our honeymoon to one store, so when K. W. Jeter's George Dower trilogy catches my eye in the Steampunk section, I'm almost relieved that I've spotted something of interest. The trilogy is a suitable choice for more than one reason: it's in a letter to the editor of SF magazine Locus about Infernal Devices, the first book in the series, that Jeter coined the phrase "steampunk" to describe the particular sort of Victorian-era science fiction that he and his fellow authors Tim Powers and James Blaylock had been writing. I'm also impressed by the trilogy's intricate and ornate cover artwork - I know, you're not supposed to judge books on this basis, but they really are well done.
Just for fun, I also pick up a copy of 2000 A.D., England's long-running serialized weekly comic magazine. Most people in North America are unfamiliar with 2000 A.D. or any of the cast of characters that have appeared in the magazine since its first issue in February of 1977: Rogue Trooper, a solitary clone soldier; the robotic ABC Warriors; barbarian warrior Sláine; Johnny Alpha, mutant member of the Strontium Dog bounty hunter guild, and so on, with magazine regular Judge Dredd being the sole breakout character.
For my birthday, Karli purchases two additions to my growing collection of geek-appropriate t-shirts, one with the new Doctor Who logo, and one for the store itself, which features the unique artwork created for store advertising by English illustrator Brian Bolland in 1981. Sadly, they don't have my preferred size for the Doctor Who t-shirt, and when Karli makes the usual pro forma "Do you have an XL in the back?" inquiry to a member of the store's staff, she is somewhat brusquely informed that they are out of that size at ALL the stores - which, if nothing else, is probably a good sign for the reception of the new Doctor (or at least the new logo).
Thank you, Large it is...
Karli also purchases a Dancing with Jesus figurine, which joins us in celebrating as we finish off the day with a pint at the Sherlock Holmes, an old school English pub on Northumberland Street. All in all, an excellent London birthday, and my sincere gratitude and appreciation to Karli for sharing the day with me - not to mention the new t-shirts! Thanks again, my love!
- Sid
* If you have somehow ended up on this page because you were trying to determine the status of the BBC brick-and-mortar shop, IT IS CLOSED. If you want to buy Doctor Who merch in person rather than online, look elsewhere - although maybe not the high street.
Honeymoon 6: "With her head tucked underneath her arm..."
The Birthday Trilogy, Part II
Before I met Karli, I used to travel for my birthday - it was an extra little gift, and I enjoyed the opportunity to do something completely different to celebrate the day in a foreign country. Karli's work schedule has made September travel a bit more of a challenge for the last few years, but this year we had the excuse of taking our honeymoon, so here we are in England, far from home on September 26th.
So - what does the well-travelled geek do in London for their birthday?
The day starts with an appropriately themed card from my wife (it's only been five weeks since the wedding, so it's still neat to say "wife".) After a leisurely cup of tea and a croissant at our AirBnB, conveniently located just south of Waterloo Station, we make our way to the Underground, buy a pair of day passes, and we're off to our first stop: the Tower of London, one of my favourite sightseeing spots in London.
Karli had expected the Tower of London to be just that: a tower. She was surprised to discover that in fact we were visiting a small castle somehow left untouched over the centuries by London's ongoing urban development. The castle encloses almost 12 acres of land, with another six acres in the surrounding grounds, known as the Tower Liberties. (The castle's moat was drained and filled in at around 1830.)
I've always been fascinated by history, perhaps because there's a point in time where it's a lot like epic fantasy, just without magic, elves or dragons. Castles and sieges, swords and armour, kings and queens, deadly combat, base betrayals, brutal torture and silent assassination, it's all there. In fact, some of the events in George R. R. Martin's epic Game of Thrones series are based on the 15th century War of the Roses, where the House of York was locked in battle with the House of Lancaster for control of the English throne for 32 years. (And Martin's Red Wedding is partially based on the Black Dinner, a 1440 Scottish dine-and-die party.)
The Tower of London's grim history stands testament to the bloody nature of those past centuries - not as long past as one might think, the Tower last saw use as a prison and killing ground in 1941. Imprisonments, tortures, executions, midnight murders, mysterious disappearances, the Tower has seen them all. Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife, lived her last days in captivity at the Tower of London, which also witnessed her execution - oh, and the executioner's axe and block are on display in the castle. Henry's less famous fifth wife, Catherine Howard, suffered the same fate.
The Tower's current incarnation is far friendlier than its role in decades and centuries gone by: one part museum, one part history lesson, one part arsenal, one part school, and home to the Crown Jewels, the Tower sees over two million visitors annually.
The central keep, known as the White Tower, is the oldest part of the castle. This Norman fortification was built in 1087 under the orders of Harold the Conqueror, and now showcases the more noteworthy items from the Royal Armouries collection.
The White Tower's exhibits are not intended to present a comprehensive history of arms and armour, but rather its most impressive examples: the armour of kings.* As such, the samples on display are skillfully crafted, artfully articulated, and artistically embellished - gilded, embossed, and engraved.
The exhibits also feature a full range of functionality: specialized jousting and mêlée armours for the make-believe of tournaments, fantastic parade armours, multi-pieced garniture armours with interchangeable pieces, and practical field armours for the battlefield itself.
The final display is far more utilitarian and perhaps shows a grim sense of humour: it's a contemporary P90 submachine gun, stubby, ugly and unornamented - which, at 900 rounds per minute, is a completely democratic solution to the final argument of kings.
* There is also a small apologetic plaque that addresses the lack of the armour of queens - or any mention of queens at all, really.
In the Tower of London large as life,
The Ghost of Anne Boleyn walks they declare.
For Anne Boleyn was once King Henry's wife,
Until he made the headsman bob her hair!
Ah, yes, he did her wrong, long years ago
And, she comes up at night to tell him so!
R.P. Weston & Bert Lee, With her head tucked underneath her arm
So - what does the well-travelled geek do in London for their birthday?
Karli had expected the Tower of London to be just that: a tower. She was surprised to discover that in fact we were visiting a small castle somehow left untouched over the centuries by London's ongoing urban development. The castle encloses almost 12 acres of land, with another six acres in the surrounding grounds, known as the Tower Liberties. (The castle's moat was drained and filled in at around 1830.)
I've always been fascinated by history, perhaps because there's a point in time where it's a lot like epic fantasy, just without magic, elves or dragons. Castles and sieges, swords and armour, kings and queens, deadly combat, base betrayals, brutal torture and silent assassination, it's all there. In fact, some of the events in George R. R. Martin's epic Game of Thrones series are based on the 15th century War of the Roses, where the House of York was locked in battle with the House of Lancaster for control of the English throne for 32 years. (And Martin's Red Wedding is partially based on the Black Dinner, a 1440 Scottish dine-and-die party.)
The Tower of London's grim history stands testament to the bloody nature of those past centuries - not as long past as one might think, the Tower last saw use as a prison and killing ground in 1941. Imprisonments, tortures, executions, midnight murders, mysterious disappearances, the Tower has seen them all. Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife, lived her last days in captivity at the Tower of London, which also witnessed her execution - oh, and the executioner's axe and block are on display in the castle. Henry's less famous fifth wife, Catherine Howard, suffered the same fate.
The Tower's current incarnation is far friendlier than its role in decades and centuries gone by: one part museum, one part history lesson, one part arsenal, one part school, and home to the Crown Jewels, the Tower sees over two million visitors annually.
The central keep, known as the White Tower, is the oldest part of the castle. This Norman fortification was built in 1087 under the orders of Harold the Conqueror, and now showcases the more noteworthy items from the Royal Armouries collection.
The White Tower's exhibits are not intended to present a comprehensive history of arms and armour, but rather its most impressive examples: the armour of kings.* As such, the samples on display are skillfully crafted, artfully articulated, and artistically embellished - gilded, embossed, and engraved.
The exhibits also feature a full range of functionality: specialized jousting and mêlée armours for the make-believe of tournaments, fantastic parade armours, multi-pieced garniture armours with interchangeable pieces, and practical field armours for the battlefield itself.
The final display is far more utilitarian and perhaps shows a grim sense of humour: it's a contemporary P90 submachine gun, stubby, ugly and unornamented - which, at 900 rounds per minute, is a completely democratic solution to the final argument of kings.
- Sid
* There is also a small apologetic plaque that addresses the lack of the armour of queens - or any mention of queens at all, really.
Honeymoon 5: Sidebar
The Birthday Trilogy, Part I
Dear Colin:
Hello, my friend! It’s been a while since I’ve put pen to digital paper with you in mind, but I felt that your generous gift for my birthday deserved a longer response than just a thank-you text.
I’ve always felt that a birthday gift should involve something that, for whatever reason, the person wouldn’t buy for themselves, but might want to if they could - which is why I earmarked my gift to you as part of your guitar replacement fund. However, I freely admit that I'm a tougher crowd in that sense, I don't even play the guitar, let alone have the need to replace a broken one.
Regardless, I do have a short list of extravagances that I might indulge in given the opportunity, starting with the Chris Hadfield MasterClass on Space Exploration.
The MasterClass program showcases an unbelievable list of instructors, featuring chess lessons from Garry Kasparov, Bob Woodward on journalism, Jane Goodall teaching conservation, Annie Leibovitz for photography, film making from Spike Lee, and a much longer list of luminaries from a wide range of specialties. Commander Hadfield is an obvious choice for Space Exploration, with a class that features 29 video sessions dealing with a fascinating range of topics that includes Astronaut Training, Orbital Mechanics, Capsule Design, the exploration of Mars, and concludes with an overview of Chris’ journey to becoming an astronaut and the lessons he learned on his way.
The $120 MasterClass fee would still leave part of your gift - what to do with the rest?
It seems obvious to me that a visit to the past would be a suitable compliment for a visit to the future – as such, the balance of your present will go towards four weeks of training in swordplay at Vancouver's Academie Duello, conveniently located about eight blocks from my workplace. The school offers a choice between rapier and broadsword, and given that the latter features two-handed broadsword, sword and shield, and poleaxe, that may well be my class of choice.
Don’t be surprised if this doesn’t happen right away. We’re currently on our honeymoon, and I’m also in the middle of a 12-week introductory continuing education course in Occupational Health and Safety, so I won’t have free time to dedicate to other pursuits until December. My current plan is to sign up for Commander Hadfield’s class at the start of the month, and then take a four week break from my regular gym schedule in January for longsword classes at Academie Duello – the beginner’s course runs two nights a week for a month, which would make for an interesting start to the new year.
And that's the plan! Thank you again, and my best to Jennifer!
Hello, my friend! It’s been a while since I’ve put pen to digital paper with you in mind, but I felt that your generous gift for my birthday deserved a longer response than just a thank-you text.
I’ve always felt that a birthday gift should involve something that, for whatever reason, the person wouldn’t buy for themselves, but might want to if they could - which is why I earmarked my gift to you as part of your guitar replacement fund. However, I freely admit that I'm a tougher crowd in that sense, I don't even play the guitar, let alone have the need to replace a broken one.
Regardless, I do have a short list of extravagances that I might indulge in given the opportunity, starting with the Chris Hadfield MasterClass on Space Exploration.
The MasterClass program showcases an unbelievable list of instructors, featuring chess lessons from Garry Kasparov, Bob Woodward on journalism, Jane Goodall teaching conservation, Annie Leibovitz for photography, film making from Spike Lee, and a much longer list of luminaries from a wide range of specialties. Commander Hadfield is an obvious choice for Space Exploration, with a class that features 29 video sessions dealing with a fascinating range of topics that includes Astronaut Training, Orbital Mechanics, Capsule Design, the exploration of Mars, and concludes with an overview of Chris’ journey to becoming an astronaut and the lessons he learned on his way.
The $120 MasterClass fee would still leave part of your gift - what to do with the rest?
It seems obvious to me that a visit to the past would be a suitable compliment for a visit to the future – as such, the balance of your present will go towards four weeks of training in swordplay at Vancouver's Academie Duello, conveniently located about eight blocks from my workplace. The school offers a choice between rapier and broadsword, and given that the latter features two-handed broadsword, sword and shield, and poleaxe, that may well be my class of choice.
Don’t be surprised if this doesn’t happen right away. We’re currently on our honeymoon, and I’m also in the middle of a 12-week introductory continuing education course in Occupational Health and Safety, so I won’t have free time to dedicate to other pursuits until December. My current plan is to sign up for Commander Hadfield’s class at the start of the month, and then take a four week break from my regular gym schedule in January for longsword classes at Academie Duello – the beginner’s course runs two nights a week for a month, which would make for an interesting start to the new year.
And that's the plan! Thank you again, and my best to Jennifer!
Cheers,
Sid
Sid
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Honeymoon 4: The City of Love
If l had my way
I'd just walk out those doors
And wander
Down the Champs-Élysées
Going cafe to cabaret
Thinking how I'll feel when I find
That very good friend of mine.
Joni Mitchell, Free Man in Paris
Arriving at the Gare du Nord just before lunch, we hopped onto a Hop On Hop Off tour bus, and made our way down to the Galerie d'Orsay, where we hopped off for a few hours, browsing through the little street-side stalls near the Seine, strolling through les Jardins des Tuileries, where we enjoyed croque monsieur and Kronenberg for two at a little outdoor cafe, and then wandering down the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe where we once again hopped onto a tour bus.
Sadly, the base of the Eiffel Tower is being sealed away behind bulletproof glass and tall steel fences in response to fears of terrorist attacks, and we didn't want to invest the time in standing in line to gain entry - thereby dashing my hopes of a tower-top re-proposal. We finished the balance of the day with more bus sightseeing, caught our train, and were back in London by ten in the evening: all in all, a wonderful day out for two in the City of Love.
During our time spent shopping beside the Seine, I noticed a French paperback collection of H.P Lovecraft stories on sale for an affordable three euros, and decided to pick it up on a whim. (Which resulted in a brief French transaction with the bouquiniste - because if I didn't speak French, why would I be buying a French book? Fortunately my limited French was easily up to understanding, "Trois euros," and "Merci.")
The joke is that Lovecraft is famous for his archaic and obscure English - lord knows what the French version will look like. Regardless, I'm looking forward with a certain degree of curiousity as to the Gallic equivalents for "squamous" and "eldritch", although with my limited French, that will be the least of my problems in actually reading this book.
- Sid
Saturday, September 22, 2018
Honeymoon 3: "The thing about aliens is, they're alien."
Wandering about the south bank of the Thames in the rain while we wait to check in to our AirBnb, and gosh, I won't say that I'm not tempted by this theatrical opportunity at the appropriately named Southbank Underbelly Festival.
- Sid
P.S. Sadly, not meant to be, we would have had to attend that evening, and jetlag recovery won out.
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