The haters will hate genre TV, Game of Thrones edition

So tonight is the premiere of the Game of Thrones, HBO's adaptation of George RR Martin's epic low-fantasy book. And so the haters have started hating. Apparently the New York Times reviewer showed only contempt for it, calling it "boy fiction" which threw in sex and rape to get women to watch. Yes, my fantasy-and-sci-fi-loving head exploded, because men hate sex and women love rape. What. The. Hell?!?!? The Slate.com reviewer hated it as well. I read the Slate review, but not the NYTimes review. And apparently both reviews were more about making fun of the fantasy genre, and less a review of what the show is about. Which I believe is what a review does, at its most basic. The interwebs exploded as well, with many responses, especially to the NYTimes' reviewer's assertion that women aren't also fans of fantasy genre, because apparently because she doesn't personally know any woman who is. The one response I like most is by Tightrope Walker, link here. Another good one is at Salon.com, link here. Personally, I do want to see the show, have read all the books and do not have HBO. So will have to wait for the DVD so I can watch them all in one marathon.

Steampunking on and Bachelorette Parties

I am currently reading Throne of Jade, book 2 in the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. Think the movie "Master and Commander" with dragons that talk and fight with aerial crews. I read book 1, In His Majesty's Service in about 3 days.

After a weekend of feeling under the weather, I've returned to staying up until 2am reading. Novik is a really good writer. Book 1 is set in the UK. In Book 2, they leave for China by sailing around Africa. She does a good job of showing different cultures and she touches on the issue of slavery in a way that's informative and pushes the story forward.

I really recommend the series. Actually, I've recommended the series to Husband's boss. The week before Dragon*Con, Husband's boss and I were talking about the Song of Ice and Fire. The rest of the dinner party had no idea what we were talking about. Previously he had lent me the Diana Gabaldon and True Blood books, which I returned without reading. I also lent him my Firefly set.

So I e-mailed him to recommend the Temeraire series. He e-mailed back to say he and his wife were really enjoying Firefly, being up to episode 8 (Out of Gas, one of my favorites) and was there a season two? Alas, I had to break the news that there was only the one season, but I could loan him the follow up movie Serenity.

I may have converted another 2 Browncoats and broken their hearts too, just like I was.

Knitting continues apace, a pic will come eventually. However the big thing coming up for me is Sister's bachelorette party coming in Las Vegas. Probably no blogging until I get back. I'm taking Boneshaker in paperback with me (again steampunk) for inflight reading.

But in the meantime, here's an really interesting link. http://kck.st/b8GOoq

Virtuoso is a comic set in steampunk Africa. And it's got a page at Kickstarter to raise funds for it. $10 gets you a copy of the 24 page prologue and supports future issues. When I have time I'll explore Kickstarter more fully. Talk about grassroots fundraising for creative works.

Fourth of July 2010

July 4 is many things. In the United States of America, it's Independence Day. There are fireworks and parades and we have a party at our flat because it overlooks Centennial Olympic Park. We get to be in the thick of the fireworks.

We actually got to see fireworks twice: on Friday at the Braves game, which the Braves won, and on Sunday, the Fourth of July.

In my family, it's my parents' wedding anniversary. #41 this year.

It's also the annual Peachtree Road Race, a very popular 10K race. Brother-in-law came to run it and he placed 332 out of 55,000+ racers, so he ranked in the top 1% of racers. He's really into running, having done a few marathons now too. That's our attempt at taking his picture up above.

And I gave up on the crochet stripy blanket. For some reason, the sides bow out and are uneven. I could block it out, but I've ripped out and redone rows and still not working. Plus, I have to look at my work when doing single crochet rows. Which means I can't read or watch TV or people watch at the same time.

So I'm going back to the Chocolate Box pattern, which I first did here for a friend.

Last time, I made one large block. This time I'm going to try making these colorful blocks, alternating with black blocks. We'll see how it goes.

Also, I don't have to look at my hands while I do the Chocolate Box pattern, so have been able to read Storm of Swords, the third book in the Song of Fire and Ice fantasy series, and watch my Leverage DVDs. Really enjoying the commentary track.