For those people who do not know (or have already forgotten) Constantine was a television variant of the DC Comics Hellblazer, starring one John Constantine, a sarcastic, sardonic, British … dealer in dark arts, more or less.
On NBC this past season, Constantine was played by a Matt Ryan. The plots were strange (because, well, why not?) but Ryan managed to carry it with a certain rough charm that makes you think if he were more witty, he’d be Harry Dresden when he grew up.
Not too long ago, I wrote a post on all the reasons why sacred music done right was so important. There are good reasons why fluff is not right for the Mass, and “fluff” includes guitars, pianos, and anything written by Marty Haugen or David Haas. I have already exhausted that subject, but I recommend you read my other post, too.
Today, I get to slap the other side of the argument upside the head. Fluff is bad, but “art for art’s sake” is, too. You can jump off the deep end in two completely different directions.
This whole thing started when Declan brought this link to my attention. Basically, I had a momentary freak-out when I saw that the head of liturgical music for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia resigned because of “long-standing differences” with Archbishop Chaput.
http://player.cinchcast.com/?platformId=1&assetType=single&assetId=7819391
Tonight was the long threatened episode where Karina Fabian return to The Catholic Geek to talk about the conclusion to her space opera trilogy, Mind Over All.
The opening was fun, and the opening rant was a little bit, starting with Catholic Marvel comic geeks learning about Nightcrawler coming back as a Catholic. We also discuss Fantastic Four, and sci-fi returning to Fox (think Firefly and Dollhouse). The episode then devolved into a discussion zombie exterminators and cows with lasers on their heads. Bwahahahahaha!
It was a fun episode.
The links mentioned in the radio show include a review of Uncanny X-Men #423, and #424.
Oh, yes, we were also mentioned on Chicks on the Right for our fisking of the Marvel boytcott.
http://player.cinchcast.com/?platformId=1&assetType=single&assetId=7805827
This was interesting.
Elma and Arthur are both members of the Catholic Writer’s Guild. One has a career and a CV that’s longer than any two body parts put together, and writes historical fiction in the classical period. The other writes Mennonite historical fiction of the 1940s, and has enough travel experience to open her own tourist bureau.
The monologue seemed to go over well, and thanks, once again, to L. Jagi Lamplighter-Wright for her data on the Satanic temple and the demon they used.
Thanks also go to Planned Parenthood, for being so evil and demonic, that the PP videos dovetailed nicely with the Detroit story. And RICO may give it a happy ending.
Bwahahaha.
At Gamescon 2015 in Cologne, Germany Blizzard Entertainment announced the sixth expansion to World of Warcraft, and it is… well… see for yourself…
Ever have that one awesome favorite that is nothing like anything else you like of the same type? That’s me and the Cruxshadows.
The Cruxshadows are a darkwave band. If you don’t know what that is, just think “goth”; the two things aren’t synonymous, but there’s enough overlap to use as a shorthand. The Cruxshadows are an unusual example anyway; they turn downtempo music into upbeat experiences, skillfully mix strings with electronica, and have lyrics that celebrate heroism, self-sacrifice, and the value of life itself.
And if you think “upbeat,” “heroic,” and “value of life” can’t go with people who dress like that, then you might need to read further. The Cruxshadows aren’t just my favorite band. They’re some of the best people I’ve ever met. Continue reading
Author (and Catholic Geek) Karina Fabian has finished her massive, world-bending trilogy on the scope of Dune …. without the obvious money-grab continuation books. She has submitted herself to an interview.
I’m even going to be talking on the radio show with her this coming Sunday, August 9th.
Okay . . . I have to admit it. I’m impressed. I am still wary of this new installment, given what they did to XI, XII, XIII–all three installments; don’t get me started–and XIV. But, wow. This trailer alone makes me want to forgive them for all of those bad previous games. Hopefully, Final Fantasy XV will live up to the expectations.
This website has some additional plot information, too. Sounds like they might be doing the plot of XII correctly this time.
One can only hope.
Follow the squirrel minion to get to Lori’s website, Little Squirrel Books.
Comics Alliance and I have had a longstanding grudge. As in they print politically correct BS, and I ignore them without playing my preferred Deadly Sin card: Wrath.
However, when someone directly asks me to have a crack at them, well, who am I to say no? 😀
This was suggested by the great and powerful Matthew Bowman, otherwise, I’m sure I would have blissfully coasted through life without ever having heard of this. But hey, we can’t let Lori have all the fisking fun.
The following comes from Comics Alliance author JA Micheline. I refuse to indulge her / him / them with the clicks, but if you must go there, it’s not hard to find — JA has written two articles. Go party. But I’ll be fisking all of it here, so why bother?
The title? “Why I’m Boycotting Marvel Comics.” Continue reading
For well over a year, various people have been telling me I need to be on Twitter. When I created The Catholic Geeks’ Twitter account, those same people celebrated that I would be able to put the “smackdown” on various other people, of the sort that I would occasionally run into on Facebook.
Well, one of the first group decided to bring one of the latter to my attention via our Twitter account.
https://twitter.com/daniellabova/status/628242219699408896
My conclusion after looking this group over?
But I was told that perhaps others would like to enjoy the snark, so here’s more for your reading pleasure. Continue reading
So, let’s back up a little. Once upon a time, this guy Matt (he writes for a blog about being geeky and Catholic, you might have read it) mentioned this little series called Monster Hunter International. He was kinda cryptic about it, saying that I would be indoctrinated just as soon as I finished the Dresden Files. Well, the current Dresden books, anyhow. Fast-forward a dozen Dresden books and a great many months later (also after I’d gotten my introduction to Brandon Sanderson, but that’s a subject for another post), and suddenly I find out that the first book in this Monster Hunter International series is on Kindle for free. (That’s totally not a giant wink for you to check it out. Don’t worry, this won’t be the last time I give you that link.)
And hey, I have a 1.5-hour commute via bus and Metro, so I need things to pass the time. I have a tablet computer. I figure that I’ll give it a shot. I’ve heard plenty about the author and about the book itself, so I guess it was time to see for myself. Spoiler alert: it was a blast. Continue reading
Call them reasons. Call them excuses. But there are several issues that keep me from blogging a lot, from the full-time writing job for Top Ten Reviews (which is awesome fun, especially lately), balancing the social marketing and interaction for my writing and the Catholic Writers’ Guild, and of course…
My latest novel, Mind Over All, is coming out this month. It concludes the Mind Over Trilogy, a story 15 years in the making and 30 since I wrote the original story. The trilogy follows the adventures of Deryl, a human who develops psychic powers, goes insane as a result, and eventually finds his way back to sanity and saves two alien worlds from destruction. He’s helped by Joshua, an intern who becomes his best friend. Continue reading
Blizzard Entertainment has just teased that they will reveal the title for the next World of Warcraft expansion on August 6th at Gamescon 2015. Is it surprising that they want to move away from the mess that is the current expansion so quickly? Definitely not. But announcing a Warcraft expansion before the annual BlizzCon in November? That just feels wrong. And desperate. WoW has been bleeding subscriptions since the Warlords of Draenor expansion launched, and this is probably Blizzard’s attempt to retain player interest and stop the exodus.
This upcoming revelation could be a tiny blessing, on the other hand. I was considering renewing my WoW subscription for the month of October to enjoy the in-game Oktoberfest and Halloween holidays, but if the August 6th announcement turns out to be a stink bomb, maybe I’ll just forget it and save $15 instead.
We’ll see next week I suppose, but I’d recommend that WoW players keep their expectations low; I suspect we’re getting another half-effort expansion.
The following is a preview of the opening monologue for this upcoming episode of The Catholic Geek Radio Show.
Let’s start with the Satanic Temple unveiling its statue of Baphomet in Detroit. Yes. This happened. Not only did it happen, but it required the attendees to buy tickets, and then sign a contract turning the custody of their souls over to Satan, just to make sure those pesky Christians couldn’t come and break up the party. This is after Oklahoma stopped them from posting it near a monument of the Ten Commandments at the state capital.
https://player.cinchcast.com/?assettype=single&show_id=7786823&version=2.0&platformId=1
Welcome my friends to another episode of The Catholic Geek.
On this week’s episode, we have the lovely, talented, and downright awesome author Ann Margaret Lewis, author of Murder in the Vatican, The Watson Chronicles, former employee of DC Comics, author of Star Wars, and generally all around wonderful person.
Listen in as we discuss the latest trends in DC Comic books tv shows and movies. Enjoy Ann go evaluate the three Sherlocks present in media right now (including commentary that suggests that Holmes was so immaculate, he might as well be played by Legolas).
Seriously, why are you still reading? Go play the show.
We’re all geeks, and I’m sure we’ve all heard that line: Gort . . . Klaatu barada nikto.
Once again, we have a Classic Review for your reading (and hopefully, viewing) pleasure here at The Catholic Geeks. Last time, I reviewed one of my dad’s favorites; just to be fair, time to review one of my mom’s favorites. Today’s subject:
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), starring Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal.
This one isn’t quite as influential as Forbidden Planet, but it certainly has its charms. It is widely regarded as one of the best films of 1951. It ranks seventh on Arthur C. Clarke’s list of the best science-fiction films of all time, above 2001: A Space Odyssey, which Clarke co-wrote himself. It still maintains a 94% “certified fresh” rating from Rotten Tomatoes.
Just for the record, don’t even bother with the remake of the same name. No, I’m not going to give you a link to that remake. Yes, it’s that bad.
In 2011, I originally interviews Ann Margaret Lewis for my blog, A Pius Man. Since then, the interview was broken up and reposted for Examiner.com, twice.
But now, as Ann Lewis will be my guest this Sunday on the Catholic Geek, you’ll get it in it’s original format.
You will notice that some of the questions are numbered differently. These are questions that came with the press packet that I believed readers of this blog might be interested in.
The questions I came up with are plainly numbered, with no additional lettering … you’ll see what I mean.
So, if you just want to skip to those questions I asked, you can ….
Here we go.
1. The description for Murder in the Vatican says that each story is taken from the works of Arthur Conan Doyle. Care to elaborate?
Ann: Holmes biographer and friend, Dr. Watson, will often throw out the titles of cases Holmes has solved in the past, but he never tells you those stories. In the world of Sherlockian scholarship, these are called “the untold tales.” I took three of these little untold case references and told the stories for them. In the book, I introduce each story with the story quote from which each title originated.
Did I ever mention I live on a corner? A corner that does NOT have a four-way stop sign?
What happens when a body (of a sports car) meets a body (of a Jeep Liberty) driving through New York? You get a nice game of pool. The little white sports car is the cut ball. The blue Jeep is the 8 ball. My house is the corner pocket.
For the record, DO NOT WORRY. Everyone here is fine. The firemen came in and checked our foundations, etc. We’re good. Unlike the last time, we didn’t even lose any bushes.
Yes, this is the second time this has happened in the last few years. Yay.
Oh, yeah, IT TOOK OUT MY FIOS INTERNET CABLE.
Fun fun fun for the whole family.
But I managed to get online for the radio show anyway.
This radio show was brought to you by WBTN, Matthew Bowman, and lots and lots of luck.
Guests are Jason Garrick and Ava Armstrong. We cover “The Pope is a dirty commie,” part 15, as well as Iran and military technology.
Andy
ashetoashes
catholicgeekguest
Declan Finn
Karina Fabian
Matthew Bowman
Lori Janeski
Hannah Rose
Ross Windsor
Olivia Bushey
The Catholic Geeks 
Anime 101: the Catholic Geeks Intro to Anime
Look, you keep me around on a general geek blog for long enough, and you’re bound to get a post about Japanese animation (colloquially known as “anime”). Several posts, in fact; between talking about various series, discussing currently-airing shows, and providing some recommendation lists, I think there’s a lot of fodder for fruitful blogging. So, if you know nothing about the medium, buckle up and get ready to learn!
Continue reading →