Tag: Fantasy Magazine

Fashionista

By:  TempestElsewhere on the Internets
Fashionista

I think that Genevieve and I are probably the only people in our circle of friends who will find her column today (Fantasy’s Guide to Holiday Fashion) uproariously hilarious. Back in the day we both worked for S/h/e/F/i/n/d/s, though she was a writer and I was a web monkey. We actually first met at a holiday cocktail party for the in-NY cadre of employees that featured some of the most expensive (tiny portions of) cheese ever.

Genevieve perfectly captured the style and tone and feel of our holiday fashion guides with her piece. I mean, really, if those clothes were actually in style, this seriously would have been published at SF. I’ve leave you to determine what that says about the state of our culture.

Sound Off: Culture Clash

By:  TempestElsewhere on the Internets
Sound Off: Culture Clash

Today’s Blog for a Beer:

This week Silvia Moreno-Garcia gave us an excellent primer on the many ways in which fantasy filmmakers completely mess up Pre-Columbian cultures by lumping them all into one group, assigning practices and beliefs they don’t have, and generally turning them into random brown savages. Because who cares, right? They’re all dead anyway. Oh wait…

Hollywood is not the only offender when it comes to misrepresenting non-American, non-Western or non-white cultures. Literature, comics, television, and even games get in on this party. In your experience, what are some of the worst offenders?

Go See Some Theatre

By:  TempestGeekitude

If you live in or near NY, then you should definitely check out the steampunk production of Twelfth Night going on right now.  I wrote it up for Fantasy Magazine earlier this week.  There are pictures, go see!  Though they don’t do the design complete justice.

They’re using a quote from my write up on the production’s web page, and I can’t tell you how much that makes me squee.  I’ve had that happen to me a couple of times when writing formal reviews.  Once for SheFinds, once for TheFix, and now for Fantasy.  It gives me a little bit of lift to know that my words are worthy of pull quotes.

Seeing the play also renewed my enthusiasm for the YA novel I wrote and am revising based on the story.  I’m about to attempt a major overhaul as I make the book part 1 of a trilogy.  Scarier words have never been spoken!

Fiction n’ Things

By:  TempestElsewhere on the Internets

Fiction: The Plagiarist by Alex Rose.  Very interesting piece this week.

Thing: In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re back to doing an author spotlight for every story that goes up.  The lovely Ellen B. Wright has been in charge of those and is doing an excellent job of taking them beyond the standard questions I’d been asking before.  Very interesting stuff, particularly from this week’s author.

Fiction: Nine Sundays in a Row by Kris Dikeman. Fellow Altered Fluidian Kris has a story up at Strange Horizons this week. Check it out.

Thing: I just said “oh noes” on national radio.

Oh, and over at my other job…

By:  TempestElsewhere on the Internets
Oh, and over at my other job...

Brilliant post today from Genevieve: 10 Fantasy Movies That Ruined It for the Rest of Us.

List includes Willow, Labyrinth, Somewhere in Time, and Excalibur, among others. Excalibur will always hold a special place in my heart, as Scott McPartland had us watch that movie when doing a lecture on Arthurian myth. It was fantastically bad, and included a scene where Merlin made it so Uther coulkd ride across the sky on a pony to reach his lady love. As it was the early 80’s, the effect is as bad as you’re imaginging it. Possibly worse.

25 Top Black Superheroes of All Time?

By:  TempestElsewhere on the Internets
25 Top Black Superheroes of All Time?

Naamen wrote a great piece taking BlackVoices.com to task for their list of top black superheroes.  I can’t say I’m surprised about that, though, as BlackVoices is an AOL joint, so it’s mainly about commercial interests.  But I thought it would be fun to come up with an alternate list.  So go read Naamen’s column and nominate your favorite black superheroes.

Not being an afficionado of the genre myself, I don’t know that many to begin with.  I do like John Stewart from the Justice League cartoon and, of course, I think Storm is pretty damn awesome.  Other than that, I am woefully ignorant.

Blog for that beer, y’all

By:  TempestElsewhere on the Internets

Warner Brothers is suing a Bollywood film company because the title of their film is ‘Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors’ and Warner Bros. thinks that name is too much like Harry Potter.

Seriously.

Yet the film has nothing to do with wizards or magic. It is a Home Alone-style story. And according to the article, Hari is a common Indian name, and “puttar” means son.

And also, Jake Gyllenhaal is going to be the Prince of Persia.  Oh world.

Go win some money.

I’m melting, meltiiiiiinnnnnggggg

By:  TempestNon-Fiction Publications
I'm melting, meltiiiiiinnnnnggggg

Working for a living is no fun.

Well, it is a little fun.  But my new job is very intense and takes up a lot of time.  It won’t always, but right now there are many Things To Do and I am doing many of them.

Why am I whining about this?  Mainly because, due to this, I have less time to do things for Fantasy that I want to, including doing interviews of authors, actors, producers, etcetc.  Yes, we are starting to do interviews of folks in the wider media now.  And as much as I would like to get on the phone with Robert Picardo and ask hm what Kate Mulgrew is really like, I just do not have the time.

So, if anyone out there is interested in doing some interviews for Fantasy, email me asap.  If you don’t have a lot of experience, don’t worry, I’ll assign you to the easier ones (author spotlights and artist profiles all start out with the same questions, then I’ll guide you through how I go about doing follow-ups based on them.  It’s not hard to learn, you just have to be interested).  If you have some or a lot of experience, then I’ll let you loose on authors and actors and such depending on your areas of interest and knowledge.

Gmail address: fantastictempest.  Subject: Interviewer Applicant.  In the body of the email just let me know if you have experience, if you’re more comfortable doing email, phone, or instant message interviews, and links to stuff you’ve done, if applicable.

We don’t pay interviewers (or anyone else) so I am indeed interested in folks who are looking to build up experience.  You have to start somewhere, and I do have time to give guidance and advice and editorial oversight so that you’re not just flailing in the wind.

Want to know what’s going on this week at Fantasy?

By:  TempestElsewhere on the Internets
Want to know what's going on this week at Fantasy?

Perhaps you should sign up for our newsletter.  It goes out on Friday mornings, tells you about all the great content that went up that week, and also points you toward Blog for a Beer.  Someday soon, there will be contests that only subscribers can enter.  Doesn’t that sound fun?  Subscribe!

Cuz I can’t tell you every week, now can I?  I have stuff to do!  Though I will say that the article on “The 99” is excellent and Naamen’s piece on Stargate: Atlantis almost made me want to watch it again…