Second Geekhood

Category Archives: TimeSiren’s Time Rants

MLP Behind the Scenes: Tina Gou

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Equestria Daily recently put up four short videos of celloist Tina Guo recording a track for the 100th episode of My Little Pony.  Here is one of them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf2LxvkPTOI

MLP has a wealth of talent, from the writers to the voice actors and singers.  Those are the easy ones to spot, but sometimes it’s easy to miss the talent that goes into making the music tracks, from composer Danny Ingram to musicians like Ms. Guo.  If you dig a little deeper into her Facebook page or YouTube channel, however, you’ll see exactly what kind of talent this show has to offer:

At the end of the video, she plays various genres from classical to heavy metal.  Heavy metal cello, you say?  Take a look:

 

Wow!  Does Vinyl Scratch know about this?  Maybe BonBon isn’t the only one with a secret identity.

-The AFOL Husband

Countdown to Friendship Games: Short #5

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A new season, a new movie…it’s a banner year for Ponydome. Here is this week’s short starring Flash Sentry!

Saturday, August 29th, Discover Family aired a preview to Friendship Games.  It contained the first four shorts and about ten minutes of the movie.  It was big news early in season 5, when Rainbow Dash got her first solo song in “Tanks for the Memories,” but until now, nopony seemed to know that she gets a solo in this movie as well.  She even strangely ponys out without her guitar, which ties in with Sunset Shimmer trying to figure out how magic works in the EqG universe in the short, “The Science of Magic.”

On another musical note, I recently found this PMV on YouTube.  It’s the perfect followup to last week’s short, “Photo Finished.” Keep in mind that this is a fan made video!

Still wish the movie was going to be in theaters.  Enough! I go!

– The AFOL Husband

 

Countdown to Friendship Games: Short #2

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Here is the second Friendship Games short from Hasbro Studios, “Pinkie Spy:”


Hasbro’s plan is to release one short per week until the airing of the third Equestria Girl movie on September 26, 2015.  However, the Spanish Youtube channel for My Little Pony Equestria Girls has leaked four Equestria Girls shorts.  If you speak Spanish, you’re ahead of the game.  Enjoy!  If you would rather be spoiler free, stop here and wait for next week’s short.

Shorts #2 and #3 can be found on Equestria Daily’s website here, while shorts #4 and #5 can be found on Equestria Daily here.

It’s interesting to see how well the lip syncing works in Spanish, especially since American (or Canadian) animating takes the care to match the mouth shape to certain vowels and consonants, whereas in anime the mouth is usually just opened or closed. Where they have some trouble is in the musical numbers. If you are a nitpicker and look at the Spanish version of “Perfect Day for Fun,” you’ll catch a few spots where the lip syncing is not quite right.  Still, it’s pretty good, considering some of the sentences have to be changed to fit the music.

None of these shorts are music videos yet, but we still have a few weeks to go.  Before “Rainbow Rocks,” we had “Perfect Day For Fun” and “Music To Her Ears.” Then, earlier this year, we got “My Past is Not Today,” “Life is a Runway,” and “Friendship Through the Ages,” so I can’t complain.

What I am complaining about is that “Friendship Games” is not being released in theaters!

– The AFOL Husband

Thunderbird Follow Up

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Recently, I posted about the new “Thunderbirds Are Go” TV series being produced by Wetta in New Zealand.  But if you are a fan of the original series, here are a couple of videos you may be interested in.  This first one is “The Making of the Thunderbirds the Documentary”.

This second one is a Documentary on the career of Gerry Anderson:

And finally, the 1968 theatrical movie, “Thunderbird 6”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vTP1j_rX3g

Also, you probably have noticed the Tracy brothers answering with F.A.B.  In case you’re wondering what that means, here is what the Urban Dictionary has to say:

“FAB from the TV show “Thunderbirds” stood for “Full Acknowledgement of Broadcast.” Gerry Anderson, the producer of “Thunderbirds,” was known for these obscure catch phrases. In another series “Captain Scarlet” he usied (sic) SIG which stood for “Spectrum Is Green” They both meant roughly,” ten-four”, “I copy” and “roger that.”
 
Jeff Tracy: “Scott set up a perimeter so Virgil can put down Thunderbird 2”
Scott: “F A B”
Colonel White: “All units return to base.”
Captain Scarlett: “S I G”
-The AFOL Husband

I Now Pronounce You Nerd & Geek

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Are you lucky to enough to be engaged or married to a Geek? I was – 26 years ago May 21st.

3 Culmination of geek mating ritual for TimeSiren and AFOL Husband at second geekhoodIt was the happiest day of my life, because when I was a newly-minted Star Wars fan back in 1977, the boy fans around me were zit-ridden and not interested in me. Sure, they were fans, but we were all too young to seriously think about settling down yet. I mean, c’mon, I was 14 when the bloody thing came out!

Luckily, Geek attracts Geek, and so when my wonderful AFOL Husband, Dennis Amador Cherry, wandered into my roommate’s home to scout out my friend Glen’s place for a shoot for his USC Cinema Television project, I looked out the window and saw his Ford Pinto. It was painted up like the the U.S.S. Enterprise and had the license plate, “ENPRISE”.

It would have been better if he had worn a geek T-Shirt, but this was 26 years ago and they were still scarce in those days. He took being on location very seriously, sporting a tie and jacket – a little worrying back then, but I soon had him out of his clothes…

…er I MEAN, he came to our first date more appropriately attired. We hit Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor and caught the midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I was the LOUDEST heckler in the room, screaming “NAKED!” during strategic times during “Damn It, Janet.” By the time he drove me home, I was utterly mortified that I had gotten so into the movie and showed off the insanely funny new heckles I had learned watching it in Berkeley, CA (Or Bezerkely, as the locals call it).

As we said goodnight, I knew that was it, game over, man. I had cluster-f*cked up this date on an epic scale…and then a miracle happened.

He came back for a second date.

I tried to play it a little more low-key, exposing him to Weird Al Yankovic’s song, “Another One Rides the Bus”. I was on the floor laughing –  making a fool of myself, yet again, but again, it didn’t scare him off. Why? Because he had been out with the mundane – dated the Tupperware and Avon ladies and they were, in his words, “boring!”

Thank God!

7 More nerd friends herding at the reception at Second GeekhoodSo, he came into my life and I introduced Dennis to my new, nicer, but just as demented friends in a local Star Trek fan club. The fans came and went, but we still dated and eventually one of those Trekkies/Trekkers became a guest at our wedding and is still local, alive and a friend we see at the Gallifrey One convention every year – Jennifer Cole.

So to all the Geek Girls out there…stick with your own kind. Fans breeding with other fans will results in the best outcome: more little fans!

~TimeSiren

Everybody Run! Aunt May’s Got a Gun!

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Cover of Howard the Duck at Second Geekhood

 

 

 

 

 

This is how Howard The Duck #3 starts out: Aunt May holding up a tattoo parlor at gunpoint.  And yes, that is Peter Parker’s Aunt May.  Don’t believe me?

 

 

Howard the Duck & Aunt May at Second GeekhoodSo who’s behind this foul act?  The Ringmaster, a nemesis of Howard’s from back in HTD #1, Vol #25.  I love how they keep his history, but I won’t spoil it for you.  Go get your own copy.

While I’m enjoying this new reincarnation of Howard, I do miss a few things.  I still miss his old look, which was more cartoony.  He’s a bit more mellow, but I guess he has grow accustomed to this world he never made.  And I miss the cigar…but I guess he can’t smoke like he did in the 80’s.

I also really miss his best human friend, Beverly Switzler.  I hope we find out what happened to her!

In the meantime, here’s some music to read Howard by.

Enjoy,

The AFOL Husband.

On a Runaway Starship…

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Staff Meeting - small - at Second GeekhoodOkay, when I started this concept of Second Geekhood, I never though I’d have to arrange for Staff Meetings, but I am! The ‘site is expanding even faster now and there is so bloody much Fandom out there to geek out about, I literally feel like I am drowning.

But it’s drowning in a good way. I learned to multitask clients for my website design biz and that experience is coming in real handy right now. Currently I am writing this post, recording our FB, TW and website posts on a spreadsheet, handling a FB staff meeting chat and engaging in a great discussion over MLP Rarity’s fear of being naked at the Grand Galloping Gala with Andrew W.C., known as @Honda175 on TweetDeck! Hi Andrew *waves!*. I mean, have you seen TweetDeck?!? It is the multi-headed hydra of multi-tasking all on it’s own!!! And I am chuffed to say, I’m handling it like a boss!

I don’t mean to sound arrogant and if I do, that’s the problem of the arrogant out there. I learned back in my business college days that we hate the so-called faults in others because they are the exact same flaws in ourselves. This doesn’t mean that when they get offended we shouldn’t take a look at ourselves, it means we need to take a breath, not retaliate and understand it is coming from their own internal pain.

This can be harder than hell, but once mastered, it also goes a long way towards stopping wars and hatred. It can also guide you that much closer to your dreams. Don’t believe it? Stick around and you’ll see living proof that loving your reflection in the mirror – and in others is part of what is going to keep us running towards bigger and better dreams.

Watch me, Doctor. Watch me run.

You watch Second Geekhood run, Doctor

TimeSiren

Do Old Geeks Dream?

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They sure as hell do. I’m a 52-year old geek and my geekness has not diminished with age. It is as strong as the first day I saw an original run Star Trek episode when I was 6 years old. You do the math as to what year I was born from that – it’s late and I’m too tired. Today was a big day. The day we did our first serious photo and video shoot for the opening credits for Second Geekhood. I am ignoring the pain of a pulled muscle in my abdomen and the bed, heating pad and tylenol that await because I am too excited about what we did today and I don’t want to lose a treasured memory or second of it ’cause I can’t remember or get too busy in the morning to commit to history what we did here tonight.

Yes, old geeks dream and that’s what keeps them young – the same thing that has me clicking away at the keyboard long after my cohorts Madwoman and AFOL Husband went to sleep. The excitement of it all. The fact that this year is another banner year for science fiction and fantasy in all the media we are swimming in these days…t.v., internet, smartphones and the silver screen. Especially this year for me because the long-awaited new genesis of Star Wars is J.J. Abrams gift to the world. I may have entered this world of the popular arts at 6 years old and made my first costume when I was 10 (yes, 10!), but my Inner Geek didn’t come exploding out until the later age of 14 when Star Wars changed EVERYTHING.

Think about that a moment. Thirty-seven years later I will still get that butterflies-in-the-stomach as John Williams music floods my ears and the beloved opening crawl of words fills my eyes with its magic. If you are a geek, you will understand how we can still be in love with the thing that touched us most in our teenage years. If you’re not a geek, think back to how you loved the music of that era, or the clothing, or the food, or how you felt so invincible as a teen. Nothing, but NOTHING takes away such special, touching memories.

And nothing but NOTHING will take the magic of Star Wars away from me, as a geek. Not the worst of the worst sequels that came after, or the bad merchandising or the terrible scripts, because in the end, it isn’t about ANY of that.

It’s about the magic. It’s for the magic it stirred in my heart that I dedicated this website and it’s love of fandom to. With all my Geeky heart!

May its Force be with You.

~TimeSiren

Cosplay Bliss in the Halls of Asgard

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Cosplayers are a wonderful breed of people. Adults, teens and kids who are not afraid to dress up as their favorites heroes/characters/icons and go out in public for all to see. Costuming is not new – people have been doing it for thousands of years and yet it still amazes me when they get stares from the “mundanes” around them (mundanes being those who neither costume nor understand why other people costume).

This past week, I had the privilege of helping a costumer achieve her dream, even if only in giving encouragement through the creation stages of her outfit and crash space while she was out here from New York. I shook my head as she told me the sad tale of her significant other’s subtle yet poisonous attitude towards her efforts of creating her latest, greatest costume and of her desire to meet her idol, Tom Hiddleson, the wonderful actor behind the devious and handsome visage of Loki, God of Mischief in last year’s movie, Thor, and its follow up story, The Avengers, set to open in the U.S. May 4th.

The tale is doubly sad as her naysayer himself used to costume in days gone by, but now feels it is too much of an effort for no payoff. I HATE when I hear tales of this sort and it is a lesson to all non-costumers to beware when you tread on the dreams of others. “Lady Loki” appeared on hollywood.com’s live feed of the Hollywood red carpet premiere of The Avengers as she was interviewed by Marvel themselves, so impressed were they with her costume. She also got to meet her idol, Tom, and give him a present of something he is well-known to treasure – a gift of music.

It can sometimes be too easy to give up on your dreams. You have to want something so bad it is a driving force to be able to manifest it when the odds are against you, but rest assured that when you do want something that badly, it will come to pass. Like many of us in science fiction/fantasy genre fandom, Lady Loki has a large support group in the Tom Hiddleson fan community, but they are more than just a bunch of fans. The emotional involvement and camaraderie of the cosplay community is not unlike an extended family – Gallifrey One and its Doctor Who community are the ones special to my husband and myself and have been for over 25 years. For Lady Loki, she has discovered this as she and they support each other in hard times as well as rejoice with each other’s personal victories, such as when one of them gets to meet their mutually-admired actor in the flesh. At a premiere where there were thousands of Marvel fans lining the streets of Hollywood Blvd., the philosophy of following your bliss played out beautifully as a single actor met a single woman, reaping the rewards that will never be realized by those who do not believe in the power of dreams.

Lady Loki’s Marvel interview can be seen here.

She can be reached via her Facebook page and Twitter handle of @Lady_of_Misrule.