Category Archives: TV and Film

Anniversary girl almost forgot about the #BuffyRewatch #alyxkelly25

By | | ,
Comments Off on Anniversary girl almost forgot about the #BuffyRewatch #alyxkelly25

wpid-Photo-2012-05-20-948-AM.jpgAs of today, I’ve been not-legally married to Kelly for 9,131 days or 25 years. (And legally married to her for ten and change.)

We got married at a pub event at the University of Lethbridge on January 21, 1989. The pub was hosted by the local NDP club, which meant all of our friends were pretty much in attendance by default, and said club was screening the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The lovely and much-missed Mirella Zappone conducted the service just before the RHPS wedding scene, and the attendees pelted us with rice.

Also, I fell into the men’s room in my wedding dress when trying to avoid a (water)gunfight.

The celebrating starts in earnest tomorrow night–tonight, we’re going to yoga. But it’s all so very exciting that I nearly forgot to post about the latest Buffy essay, “Wouldn’t you like to be a Slayer, too?”

Telewitterings: the Walking Dead

By | |
2 Comments

imageNetflix Canada just got The Walking Dead, and Kelly and I blew through it over the holidays, polishing off the last of S3 when I came down with a cold last week.

I do agree with musician Kari Maaren that zombies are, as monsters go, rather boring. (Kari’s Tube of You channel is here; she hasn’t uploaded the zombie song yet.) I get the mindless mob metaphor, and I appreciate that The Walking Dead is digging into the whole question of how far will you go, in a disaster, to survive? Even so, I found the first season to be tough sledding. I didn’t care much for anyone but Glenn, and the story seemed to end very abruptly.

By the end of S2 I was, along with the rest of the universe as I understand it, happily on board with Team Daryl. And several of the other characters were, if not lovable, at least intriguing. And the story moves. I read a few “top 25 TV shows of 2013” round-ups last week and one of ’em put it this way: it isn’t always well-written, and it isn’t particularly well-directed, but by Gar this thing is entertaining.

The immense degree of arguing, violence, and should we feed Character X to the Walkers, or what? does get to be wearing, over time. The show probably doesn’t get any nastier than the Battlestar Galactica reboot, but it was beginning to have that same kind of cynical edge. But I was pleased with the wrap-up of S3–the situation they left everyone in–and am looking forward to taking a break, possibly a long one, before dipping into S4 at some undefined point in the future.

Kicking Turok-Han Hiney on the @Tordotcom #BuffyRewatch

By | |
Comments Off on Kicking Turok-Han Hiney on the @Tordotcom #BuffyRewatch

slayerI’m up to “Showtime” on the Buffy Rewatch. It’s the one where Buffy jellifies the First’s pet ubervamp, the one who bested her a week before. Other things happen too: read all about it here.

I’ve kvetched elsewhere about having a cold: it isn’t bad, but it’s slowing me down and leaving me in various states out of sorts: sore, grumpy, tired, all the usual. Fortunately for me, Thug Notes has just explained Romeo and Juliet.

This week’s #Buffyrewatch, last year’s stories

By | | ,
Comments Off on This week’s #Buffyrewatch, last year’s stories

SuperHeroes_BookpgeThis week’s Buffy essay is called “Looking for Blood in all the Wrong Places” and it’s about “Never Leave Me” and “Bring on the Night.”

My 2013 publications were all reprints: “Faces of Gemini” appeared in Claude Lalumiere’s Super Stories of Heroes & Villains and my squid story about the Battle of Hawaii, “The Sweet Spot” was in the Chizine anthology Imaginarium 2013: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing, edited by Sandra Kasturi. I wrote a lot of things, and sold several short pieces, but they haven’t come out yet. You’ll see them this year.

And, of course, I worked on the Hidden Sea Tales, the first of which, Child of a Hidden Sea, will be out June 24th.

Sleepy Time on the #BuffyRewatch

By | | ,
Comments Off on Sleepy Time on the #BuffyRewatch

This week’s essay is called “My Sire can Beat Up Your Sire.”

The holiday here was very low-key. We talked about going to movies, and didn’t. We ate out a couple times, and ate in a lot. There was a Walking Dead marathon that took us through the first season but hasn’t drawn us back yet. This may be a show I have to watch fast, in big chunks–it was perfectly good snack food, but also seemed a little boring.

I spent a stunning amount of the holiday period unconscious. Slept in a half-dozen times, and followed up some of that decadence with naps. The conclusion I’m left with is that after gone through a very intense spring, a cross-country relocation, the exploration of a new city and the cancelling of our summer vacation, it’s possible I was tired.

Which isn’t any kind of “poor me” lament. Quite the contrary. The sleeping was delightful, in every sense a gift. In the stretch of years since Dad died, remaining konked out past the hour of five in the morning has been just about impossible. Somehow in the move to Toronto, I’ve found a new rhythm that feels closer to right. Hurrah for that!

So I’m rested, and I am looking forward to getting back to my regular routines and writing/teaching/reviewing schedule soon. I hope this finds you all in a similar state of renewal and anticipation.