This was the first time I’d seen Doctor Hooves and Derpy Hooves cosplayed, and these two looked amazing!!
Throwback Thursday – Buffy Reboot Idea
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
I don’t often do Throwback Thursday, not because I dislike the concept, but because I’m not always as proud of my old writing as I am my new.
Facebook reminded me today of my idea for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot. About eight years ago they were considering rebooting it as a new movie. It was a terrible idea to do without Joss Whedon and it died quietly.
My Buffy Reboot Idea
2017 Éric’s commentary in italic and bold.
Cast:
Buffy Summers: Molly C. Quinn from Castle. She’s a little young but has the acting chops to pull it off. (She’s still in her mid twenties and I think she could do it. Alternate casting being Zendaya.)
Joyce Summers: Amy Adams as the Ju-jitsu instructor/ Anthropologist mother. She normally doesn’t play action roles but would be great with Quinn and could definitely train for it. (I’d still love to see Amy Adams in an action role, but it would also be cool to see Sarah Michelle Geller.)
Watcher: Gerard Butler as a non-action geeky “Supernatural” nerd type of watcher. (I think I’d rather see Idris Alba or Jason Momoa in this role)
Villain: Gary Oldman as a brutal and intelligent vampire. (This is still a good choice but I’d also like Tom Hiddleston or Peter Capaldi)
Comic Relief: Andy Serkis and Paul Bettany as over-educated fast talking vampires. (Replace Serkis with Fran Kranz)
Storylines:
There would have to be several story lines running through the movie that hasn’t been done before in Buffy history. Within each of the story lines there would be several mini stories.
Main 1: Buffy discovers her powers and as a preppy cheerleader is unprepared for them and is thrust into a dangerous situation. I’d avoid a lot of the high school stuff after she discovers her powers and concentrate on her strained relationship with her mom as she teaches Buffy how to fight. (This could work but there would have to be a few scenes of high school as her way to rebel against her Mom and everything happening.)
Main 2: Villain is trying to kill the slayer. He became a vampire to save his daughter from some disease having to turn her into one too but it didn’t help. He’s been trying to find a cure for her disease. Finds some old book that says the still beating heart of a Slayer cures anything in vampires. (I’d completely forgotten about this. I like it as a motivation. Make sure to show the villain as vicious but also as a loving father.)
Love: In a twist, the love story wouldn’t involve Buffy but her mom and the watcher. Reverse damsel in distress scenario. (Still love the idea of the awkward romance and Buffy’s sarcastic comments about it. In the rebellion stage there could be a nice fake out where Buffy is dating someone that the audience thinks is a vampire but turns out he’s just a jerk.)
Comics: Having most of their clan wiped out by the Villain, our comic reliefs decide to try and help him by catching Buffy but continuously fail. I want to make clear these “clowns” are going to be more of a cheesy/witty comedy that will lend itself to a darker story. (It should be mentioned that they are the last of their clan/nest of vampires. Randomly have them break into bad Shakespeare speeches.)
Opening:
I think it would be very important to set the scene with a dark and dirty backdrop in a large city alley where a “traditional” slayer is kicking vampire ass hand to hand. Her watcher looms in the background and as he watches her, a shadow comes behind him and slits his neck.
She wins the fight and slays her last foe when she gets shot in the head by a vamp sniper on the roof. The bullet goes through her head and into a propane or natural gas tank, (which explodes). The shadow screams in anger and literally runs up the building towards the sniper, kills the vampire and howls into the night.
Then we go to a cheer practice where Buffy is basically teaching the choreography and doing some things that surprise even her. This is interspersed with scenes of her mom teaching an advanced weapons Jujitsu class. Early in the sequence you see a man hiding in the shadows watching Buffy and at the end you see the same man walk up the Joyce and try to stutteringly tell her about Buffy. She of course ignores it and promptly forgets.
Then we’d go to the mother picking up Buffy and them arguing. Something should slip about the Dad being dead (3-4 years.) I really want you to get the feeling that they are all each other have.
Etc etc. (Holy blood sucking vampires… who wrote this? I love it!)
Ok, Hollywood. I’ll help develop this if I get producer credits and choose my own script-doctor (one guess who that would be.)
Barring a big picture deal I may adapt this into a novel… Hmm…
Opinions?
Éric
Castle Village Enchanted Kingdom
Personally, I love buying locally, and travelling locally is even better!
I love the idea of this park in Midland, Ontario: Castle Village Enchanted Kingdom! They have a park and trail for the outdoors, and a castle with three escape rooms and many activities inside the building.
Midland is North of Barrie on the shores of Lake Huron. There is a great selection of hotels, motels, and camping accommodations, and lots of cute touristy things to do. Check out Midland’s website for more.
Are you interested in travelling to Midland? Jen has retired from working as a travel agent. Hope you’ve enjoyed Fandom Travel.
I’m Sorry I Lied (And Rejection Sucks)
Hello Imaginary Friends, Coffee Drinkers, Crochet lovers, and all around awesome fans,
At Comiccon I told a lot of you that we were going to be a Geek Market in the fall. I lied, or better, I was a little arrogant. You see, we weren’t accepted at the time, but I felt that the strength, and uniqueness of our product was enough to guarantee us a spot.
Like I said, it was arrogant and I must apologize because JenEric Designs and Gourmet Coffee will not be attending. This Fall’s event is a juried event. They, from what I’ve been told, judged quality of product, uniqueness of product, and visual appeal of tables/booths.
We were told that we scored well in the first two, but for vendors in our category we scored poorly on visual appeal. We’re on the wait list but I’m not expecting to be going.
My first reaction was anger (rejection hurts) and then I took a long hard look at our booth and I realized that I’ve been neglecting evolving the outside look. I’ve concentrated really hard on storage in the booth to make sales go faster and on coffee products.
My second reaction was confusion. I had no idea what to do to improve. So I contacted Geek Market and asked to know the criteria, our scores, and what category we are considered. (Being both coffee and crochet can put us into multiple categories.) We received a reply on May 19th saying that they’d get back to us in a couple of days.
It’s humbling to be told that your table isn’t visually appealing, but we’ve taken steps to try and make it better. We’ve ordered custom printed table cloths, and I’m working on a way of adding levels to our display.
I hope that we’ll be able to get back into Geek Market in the future. Sales are good and I know there are certain fans that we only get to see at that event.
Once again, I’m sorry,
Éric
Comiccon 2017 Report
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
With my week off and 2d6 Con drain, I forgot to talk about Ottawa Comiccon 2017. First things first:
You made this years’ comiccon the best we’ve ever had, both in sales and in great company. We had a lot of people coming by to see Baby Dragon (who was quite the trooper) and a lot of return customers.
A great big thank you goes to Lindsay (GiLove2Dance) for sharing a table again this year and helping with Dragon. It was nice to get a break when she stole the baby and walked around.
We’re almost recovered from Comiccon now, so it’s time to start thinking about our next events. Our next selling event is C.O.N. Creative Ottawa Nerds Craft Show. It’s one of my favourite shows.
Thank you again, and hope to see you June 10th,
Éric
Blush: Pleasure
Last week, an article crossed my Facebook feed about sexual pleasure, and how we shouldn’t hide that fact from kids.
I admit, my first instinct was to scream internally. I have never been shy about my lack of knowledge about sex pre-University classes on sexual health and education. (Thank you, Professors Peggy Kleinplatz and Darcy Santor!)
So I started reading the article hesitantly. And wow, was I ever blown away! I enjoyed the writing style, first off. Very personable and felt like she was talking directly to me. Second thing I thought was that I want to be like this woman. I want to be able to talk to my daughter as easily as she talks to her son. I am so glad that I read this article when Dragon is still a baby, because it gives me time to get used to the idea and comfortable with talking about sex and sexuality with her.
I also feel the need to go and do more research and/or memorize the answers to the questions in Blush.
On a more (even more?) personal note, I finally sent an email to Prof Santor, the professor of the class that started Blush originating as a final project. I thanked him for his encouragement to complete the game 9 years ago, and told him that I finally got it published last year. I hope he’s proud that I finally did it.
If you’re enjoying the Blush blogs, consider learning more with Blush: The Card Game from Renaissance Press.
Dear Dragon – Your Uncle
Dear Dragon,
It’s a beautiful sunny 23rd of May and it’s your Uncle Dan’s birthday. You haven’t seen much of him yet because he’s really busy. Sometimes busy is an excuse adults use, but not in this case.
Your Uncle loves you a lot. I know he does because when I was younger, he lived in Ottawa while I lived in Val Gagné. I didn’t see him much then but when he came home, he was there for his annoying little brother. I never felt that he wanted to be somewhere else or that he was bored hanging out with me.
He was my favourite person and he would have done ridiculous stuff to make me happy.
Your Gramma told me about one time when I was very young but still older than you are now. I was sick and had to go to the hospital. She needed to get a ride from someone because she didn’t have a car. At that age I took Toutou (my teddy bear) everywhere and I brought him to the doctors with me, and of course I forgot him at the office.
I got home and took the medicine the doctor told me to and I snuggled in bed, only to realize I left poor Toutou at the hospital. I was devastated and wouldn’t go to sleep. I’m pretty sure I screamed… a lot.
There were no buses in Val Gagné and she couldn’t get a ride. Dan rode his bike all the way to the hospital and back. It was twenty or more kilometres one way.
He was my hero and that’s just one of the many things he’s done since.
So you may not see him as often as you see your other Aunts and Uncles, but he loves you, would do anything for you, and is a lot of fun to be around. Kinda like me, but cooler.
Love you lots baby Dragon,
Your Papa
