calzephyr: Cartoon buckskin horse head (Furry)
[personal profile] tugrik passed sometime recently. Although I didn't know him, I knew of him, I have been thinking about a lot of older fandom folks.

It made me recall the passing of a local model horse collector and how some Canadian collectors are trying to collect hobby history--photos, older models, etc.

It's wild to think so much fandom is just sitting around in people's memories, if not a box of fanzines in the attic or tapes and hard drives gathering dust somewhere. What do we do with these memories? It seems like a miracle LJ and DW are still around. More than one site I frequented has gone away, if I can remember the name of them at all! It seems like a job for AI to sift and sort through.
calzephyr: Podcasts (podcasts)
In 2012, a woman was found with her hands bound in the Mojave Desert. She led authorities to a grisly crime scene where a barbaric attack had taken place. This moment marked the beginning of an international manhunt and a sting operation that turned a once-devoted wife into an informant. Authorities zeroed in on the so-called mastermind behind the attack: Hossein Nayeri, a charming man who had ties to the emerging medical marijuana industry in California. Told with police tapes, secretly recorded informant calls and footage of a prison break, β€œDevil in the Desert” unravels a crime so brutal that it still haunts investigators today.

CW in the first couple of episodes which describe the brutality of the attack.

https://abcaudio.com/podcasts/devil-in-the-desert/
calzephyr: Scott Pilgrim generator (Default)
Hubs just has the WORST post-vacation cold. I feel so badly for him because it was settling in the last couple days we were in Ontario.

My guess is that he picked up something on the plane and just couldn't fight it off. I tagged this post aging because our immune systems aren't as robust sometimes, plus hubs is asthmatic. It's been horrible to watch him gasp for air :-(

My free advice for today is to mask up on planes. I was the only person masking at the airport and on the plane. On the return trip, I was one of a few people masking at the airport and at least one of two people masking on the plane.

There were so many people with nasty ass coughs, and, not to channel my germophobe Dad, but being trapped in a metal and plastic tube for hours with 100 other people is not going to end well ;-D I always resist wiping things down, yet...Dad is not entirely wrong either. On the return flight, there was a family with two little girls who crushed crackers and put their bare feet everywhere o.O People just trash the area around their seats, and it's like, ugggggghhhhhh...

Anyway, our trip had a grim beginning as a sick passenger was actually taken off the plane. The flight crew asked for any medical personnel to identify themselves, and two men did. The passenger sat at the back and was carried out by the volunteers. He coughed up blood on himself. I hope he's all right--we checked local news, but there was no mention of him. One of the volunteers sat near us, and he received gold-star service from the crew--their profuse thanks, a whole can of pop, and a free meal.
calzephyr: Rainbows (rainbows)
Our summer vacation this year was in Perth, Ontario. We travelled to Perth last year as part of our 20th anniversary trip. It's where I discovered that there's been a big family bbq reunion going on for 30 years on hubs' side of the family. Neither hubs nor my FIL mentioned it all this time ;-D

So we returned with a promise to make the bbq. Alas, being Prairie people, we were not used to the mega high levels of humidity! We were melting and constantly running for air conditioning. While watching glasses sweat at restaurants, I wondered how anyone enjoyed living out here ;-D

I posted some snaps on Threads--more details soon!

https://www.threads.com/@calzephyr77/post/DMQrkntuZwK?xmt=AQF0u723d33wlJlqchqxsermUJrmLO8yGnDBSiP3JLajyg

Birds!

Jul. 20th, 2025 05:53 am
calzephyr: Scott Pilgrim generator (Default)
We arrived back from a week in Perth, Ontario on Friday and my birdwatching this year was much more successful. You would think Merlin would detect and prompt you to download the bird pack for your location--which is kinda does--but not when you visit a completely new location.

Here are the birds I mostly heard, thanks to Merlin. I wanted to sight the last two on the list, but we were in a rural area and the deerflies were fierce! One got trapped in my hair, ugh! Just as well anyway--I didn't bring the binoculars or camera.

House sparrows
Rock doves
European starlings
American robins
Canada geese
Grackles (Uncle Mike is feeding them)
Ravens
Blue jay
Song sparrows
Chipping sparrows
Chimney swifts
House finches
American goldfinches
Yellow warblers
Red-winged blackbirds
Ring-billed gulls (Merlin ID for sure! They were flocking at the railway museum)
Black-capped chickadees
Cedar waxwing
Osprey (by the side of the highway--saw the giant nest first!)
Red-eyed vireos
Eastern phoebes
calzephyr: Scott Pilgrim generator (Default)
I'd watch the heck out of this!



calzephyr: Imoen from BG (RPG)
Tubi suggested Fire and Ice to me, and as a fantasy lover, I couldn't resist!

But, IMHO, while I was prepared for a lot of scantily clad people (Frank Frazetta just hates pants ;-D), I wasn't prepared for the straight up racism with the subhumans. It was just very, very bad. The rotoscoping was beautiful, and although simple stories were okay, the plot was just too simple for my liking. It was nice that Princess Teegra is a capable gal and not a damsel in distress, and the fantasy world is interesting, but it was all surprisingly ho-hum for the feature length. Honestly, watching Saturday morning cartoons would be more interesting :-D

I also couldn't get over the fact that when Prince Nekron is using his ice powers--well, he's pretty much having an O! It really hasn't aged well.

Bonus trivia: Thomas Kinkade and James Gurney did the backgrounds.



calzephyr: Imoen from BG (RPG)
I'm happy and a little sad--our adventure into the Abomination Vaults is over!

It's hard to believe that my hubs, some friends, and I started playing the Pathfinder adventure in October 2022! Being a very casual gaming group, we met every couple of weeks, as it was hard to find dates that worked for everyone.

Instead of pen and paper, we used Foundry software, which presented a learning curve, along with learning Pathfinder. It has many similarities to Dungeons & Dragons, but often uses different names. For example, haste is called quickening, and the Dungeon Master is called Game Master.

Abomination Vaults is a multi-level dungeon crawl with monsters, treasures, and several mysteries to solve. Our party consisted of:


  • Azurial, half-elf sorcerer and merchant; tallest of the groupπŸ˜„

  • Bloodblade, a brave catfolk fighter

  • Gnak, a goblin rogue who brought a lot of flavour to the campaign

  • Mauve, Halfling ranger and scholar

  • Skigim, young ratfolk monk fighter



Like all RPGs, it was wonderful to see how our party progressed from running away from mitflits to battling large groups of monsters and taking down the Big Bad with ease at the end.

Our party was a little unbalanced for the adventure, especially since we didn't have a cleric. Mauve became the default healer for the first few levels and often implored party members to have a sense of self-preservation. She excelled at ranged attacks for this reason and finally got around to trying melee after level five. Mauve started out with a pony, Swifty, but he ended up staying in town for the duration of the adventure. The GM and I weren't quite sure how to integrate the pony into the action. A dungeon is no place for a pony anyway!

Hubs struggled with playing a magic user. He often played Azurial as a barbarian, rushing into rooms and into danger :-D

The next adventure is set in more open worlds with travel between towns, but I bowed out. Hubs is returning though with a dromaar fighter. I think he'll enjoy it much more.
calzephyr: Scott Pilgrim generator (Default)
Now that the roofing saga is complete and we've gone a few rains without anymore leaks, we're going with a different company to do the siding.

They provided a quote for new windows and Hardie board fibre cement siding for us in 2022. The cost of the upgrade was half of what we paid for our house, so the insurance claim definitely helped us out this year. In hindsight, I wish we had just done the garage back then and lived with mismatching colours, but the cost was just a total turn-off!

Last year's hailstorm provided a great opportunity for change though--we're going from light grey vinyl to Mountain Sage, a very natury yellow-green. Neighbouring houses are going with dark navy, dark grey, and dark brown for siding--so green will be a sweet standout colour. You can get Hardie board in custom colours, but the paint isn't as weather-resistant as the factory colours.
calzephyr: Save the earth--it's the only planet with chocolate! (Environment)
Hubs finally decided to tackle the disaster that is his office after 20 years, and can we give him a big round of applause for shredding every bill and receipt he had from 1998-2002???

It's a wonder the shredder didn't burn out! I've been after him for years because no one needs pay stubs from 1998. Keep one or two as a reminder, but the rest can gooooooo! This is why you have to keep on top of document management, otherwise you and your SO spend all Sunday night shredding and bagging.

He bought a new Besta bookcase from IKEA, and everything that was just stacked willy-nilly is now nicely organized!
calzephyr: Dr. Orpheus by iconsbycurtana (I see)
I don't have an ungated link to this New Yorker article by Jia Tolentino, but I'm thinking about it a lot.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/my-brain-finally-broke

"I feel a troubling kind of opacity in my brain latelyβ€”as if reality were becoming illegible, as if language were a vessel with holes in the bottom and meaning was leaking all over the floor. I sometimes look up words after I write them: does β€œillegible” still mean too messy to read? The day after Donald Trump’s second Inauguration, my verbal cognition kept glitching: I got an e-mail from the children’s-clothing company Hanna Andersson and read the name as β€œHamas”; on the street, I thought β€œhot yoga” was β€œhot dogs”; on the subway, a theatre poster advertising β€œJan. Ticketing” said β€œJia Tolentino” to me. Even the words that I might use to more precisely describe the sensation of β€œlosing it” elude me. There are sometimes only images: foggy white drizzle, melted rainbows in a gasoline puddle, pink foam insulation bursting between slats of splintered wood."
calzephyr: Podcasts (podcasts)
Have you heard the one about the time Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on a neighbourhood forty years ago?

Neither did I until last year when I listened to The Africas VS. America. It is disturbing and nauseating, so huge CW beforehand...but more people need to know more about this story.

In 1985, police dropped a bomb in a Philadelphia neighborhood. Their target? A family of Black radicals known as β€˜MOVE,’ who found themselves ensnared in a city β€” and nation’s β€” domestic war on Black Liberation. Over seven episodes, host Matthew Amha investigates the events that culminated in the MOVE bombing, and the long afterlife of a forgotten American tragedy.

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1350-the-africas-vs-america
calzephyr: Scott Pilgrim generator (Default)
I always say if I go a week without posting, call the police, but in this case I was super busy with the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, our annual celebration of fandom, culture, and more! Whatever you're into, you'll find--and even if you're not into comics or movies or TV, you'll still love it. Honestly, you could take your grandparents and they'd have a fun time!

I missed 2024 and rebooked for 20026. I'll catch up later, as always! I hope all y'all had a good last week and a good week ahead!

And if you live in Canada, VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!!!!! Find you where you can vote at http://www.elections.ca




calzephyr: Scott Pilgrim generator (Default)
Jumping on the AI doll bandwagon...except mine isn't AI πŸ˜ƒ

As tempting as it was, "homemade" doll packaging is so much more interesting and personalized--and fun to make! Some online oldsters may remember the fun of online doll creators, and this brought back so many memories.

As a toy collector, the AI versions lose all the little design details like those tapes and twist ties that hold things in place, and the blister packaging which always wrecked the back card art πŸ˜ƒ

I made mine with PowerPoint rectangles, free vector clip art, and shape transformations, so even if you don't think you can design...you can!


doll_christine_instagram.png

Conan

Apr. 7th, 2025 07:19 am
calzephyr: Scott Pilgrim generator (Default)
Pulling from my watcher's notes...

I can't believe I'm writing that there's a movie Jason Momoa can't save, but it was definitely Conan.

I love Jason Momoa! He's a beautiful man inside and out, but I moved on after about half an hour.

Honestly, the movie lost me in the first few minutes when baby Conan is born during battle (get it???). His mother is a warrior and wants to see her son before she dies. Her husband takes her knife, does a 2-second C-section, and lifts baby Conan to her so she can name him, and then she dies. It is the most ridiculous thing! I can suspend my disbelief for a lot of things, but not thatπŸ˜„

The first part of the movie is brutally hard to watch (get it???), toned almost entirely blue and black where we see young Conan as the best of the best! He can finish his chores and have time to participate in a young warrior's marathon, where he single-handedly takes down a group of baddies that made his companions flee. Ugh.

After a battle where Conan is orphaned, it moves to the present day in full colour (get it???) where Conan and his companion free a group of slaves. Conan later spots someone who ransacked his village and gets arrested so he can get closer to the man. I gave up when Conan stuck his finger in the man's missing nose.

Although this movie is in no way related to the Arnold Schwarzenegger films and is a new interpretation of the books--and not having read the books, I don't know how faithful either adaptation is--the original Conan movie is so good because the characters have so much depth. The film is as disciplined as Arnold's workout routine and every time I watch it I enjoy the storytelling and cinematography so much. It's not easy to take pulp content and make it a action masterpiece.

This Conan movie is sadly kind of cheap and visually messy. A terrible movie can still be enjoyed if it has some redeeming qualities--but I knew after half an hour this movie was not one of them.



calzephyr: (MLP Blossom)
x-posted to [community profile] vintageads

Grand Champions were a line of toy horses which sadly rode off into the sunset many years ago! They were produced from about 1988 to 2008.

The horses were about the same size as a Breyer Traditional size horse. They were definitely more on the "toy" side of things, but they were so wonderful in their toyness. They had rooted manes and tails for you to brush and braid and loads of accessories. Unlike many toy horses, the Grand Champions and their accessories were on the realistic side of things as opposed to being pink, so they were for any horse-loving kid! Amongst model horse collectors, these horses are still loved by their fans :-)



calzephyr: Scott Pilgrim generator (Default)
Since it's snowing again, can I say, is there any better balm for a Canadian soul than California beaches? I can't remember why we weren't a Baywatch household back in the 90s, but after enough Plex commercials advertising it had been remastered for 4K, I was in!

Now, as awesome as it is to watch old TV shows in order of broadcast, I can't help but feel sad about how poor quality the shows are. The ratio is off and it feels like watching them on a misty CRT instead of a 4K TV. So, I have to thank the TV gods who remastered the show because so many of them will not get this white glove treatment.

The show looks fantastic--beautiful colour, sharp focus, and lovely audio. Baywatch was always controversial back in the day because of Pamela Anderon's boobs, LOL, but watching the first three seasons still makes me wonder what the big deal was. Her character, CJ, doesn't even enter until S3.

After watching three seasons, which is all that is available on Plex, I just can't figure out the why of Baywatch. The show really couldn't decide if it was a prime time soap opera, a workplace drama or something else. For example, sometimes they rescue people, sometimes they solve a murder mystery, and sometimes the lifeguards have relationship problems.

Usually there's a montage of people sailing, swimming, or other watersports activities. Sometimes an episode is a showcase for beautiful people doing beautiful people things or other times the characters passionately defend their profession as a real job.

I really wasn't blown away by the series and don't have any interest in the other seasons. It was a fun time capsule to watch though :-)
calzephyr: Scott Pilgrim generator (hello)
Next up from my winter watch-a-thon is The Commish, which I watched on Plex. The Commish was always a family favourite when it first aired. Instead of a tough-as-nails cop, you had a cuddly police commissioner, Tony, who often used his wits to get out of situations. I completely forgot Theresa Saldana starred as his wife--she was almost ten years older than Michael Chiklis!

The series was filmed in Vancouver, BC and it's quite obvious to me that it's not New Jersey πŸ˜„ Vancouver's film industry boomed during the 90s--there's a good chance many of your favourite shows were filmed there, like The X-Files.

Speaking of The X-Files, I would have loved to see a Commish/X-Files crossover because many episodes were written by Glen Morgan and James Wong. Wild, huh? Does this technically mean The Commish is set in The X-Files universe? Every now and then the writers pushed the boundaries with some episodes and I wonder if some unused Commish ideas were used in The X-FilesπŸ˜„

The Commish is a Stephen J. Cannell show and it's illustrious pedigree goes deeper than just the writers. Before The Commish, John Peter Kousakis worked on another cop show, Hunter. Walter Murphy composed the theme music for both shows too.

The switch to a kinder, gentler cop show doesn't negate the fact The Commish is a masterwork in A, B, and C plot structure. Almost every episode opens up with a family problem Tony has to face, then a workplace problem, then a crime. By the end of the show, all three are resolved with grace and humour. It's such a cozy watch!



Spellbound

Mar. 21st, 2025 10:31 am
calzephyr: (MLP Blossom)
I watched Spellbound without watching the trailer and it was absolutely delightful! All your favourite fairy tale elements are there, but with a big twist--a topic that even Sesame Street couldn't tackle for children. I wondered why this movie wasn't on the big screen, but I can see why...it's got great animation, great voice acting, great everything...but that twist...is well done, but a big screen release would attract criticism IMHO. Watch it regardless :-)



calzephyr: Starship Enterprise (Star Trek)
I love Tubi! It has so many movies and old TV shows I never thought I would watch, including Westworld's sequel.

Honestly, this is not a great movie, nor better than Westworld. Even though it stars Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner, the pacing is slow, the acting is terrible, and the plot predictable, especially since the trailer gives away the whole movie!

However, it's still notable because...


  • the language for science fiction films in 1976 wasn't quite there

  • the moviemakers try hard to problem solve for technology that doesn't exist...

  • ...and SFX that didn't exist either

  • the idea of theme parks and leisure was still pretty new

  • the plot is pretty standard, but with a 70s twist (and lots of fashions)

  • it speaks to the 70s disaster movie genre plus the intrepid reporter trope



Futureworld doesn't feel super futuristic compared to say, Logan's Run, but 70s movies like this crawled so we could watch our favourite sci-fi movies in the 80s soar!



Profile

calzephyr: Scott Pilgrim generator (Default)
calzephyr

August 2025

S M T W T F S
     12
3456789
101112 13141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Sep. 15th, 2025 03:31 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios