Book 3 and another very interesting rendition of Rapunzel. Marissa Meyer does almost a pretty brilliant job of not only still incorporating the different components of the traditional fairy tale but also merging it quite well with Cinder’s ongoing saga.
There were a couple of edge-of-your-seat moments in this book that made you wonder, while reading, how will our heroes get out of this mess. You cannot help but to keep reading to find out how they pull it off … or do they 😉
The one negative thing I thought after finishing this book … how am I going to make it until winter, for Winter, to find out what happens next! Again, if you want to read an interesting twist on the classic story of Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella I would recommend checking out the Lunar Chronicles!
February 15, 2015 a three and a half hour comedy special aired to celebrate 40 years of Saturday Night Live! I actually remember watching the episode that celebrated 25 years. It was really great to see so many great actors and comedians return to the studio and reprise some of SNL’s most classic characters. I think the Wayne’s World skit that provided a Top Ten list of what’s great about SNL nailed everything that truly is great about SNL. Here is the YouTube video of that skit, if you didn’t see it:
Oh Kanye, I’m so glad you can laugh at yourself for your ridiculous antics during awards shows. I doubt Beyonce enjoys the negative publicity. I also did not enjoy your bizarre “musical” performance on SNL 40. In fact I didn’t really enjoy Miley Cyrus’ performance either. Actually, I hate to say it but Paul McCartney’s performance was painful to watch. His voice isn’t what it used to be and sounds worse at 72 than Frank Sinatra’s did at 80. The musical performances were probably the biggest downside of the celebration, which is unfortunate because SNL has always had some amazing musical talent.
I realize that this post is a couple weeks behind and I almost deleted it, but SNL has been such a pop culture staple for the past 40 years that I couldn’t bail on the post. I hope by now you have watched the 40th anniversary episode, and if you haven’t then you need to as soon as you can. The show did have its peaks and valleys. It really depended on how talented the cast was. It’s obvious when the show was at its peak because it usually created so many amazing careers. We probably wouldn’t have had the Jimmy Fallons, Tina Feys, David Spades or Chris Farleys without Saturday Night Live.
Speaking of Chris Farley, I really enjoyed the montage dedicated to those SNL icons that have passed away and it really shows how close the cast and crew are when writers, cameramen and other crew members are included in the same montage as John Belushi, Phil Hartman and Gilda Radner. I am a little surprised that Robin Williams wasn’t mentioned but I can’t remember if he had ever been on SNL. I included a link to the SNL 40 In Memoriam Tribute, so check it out when you get a chance.
I know there will never be another show like it so I hope it sticks around for at least another 10 years so we can celebrate 50 years of amazing satirical humor and extraordinary comedic talent.
Issue 114 – Welcome back, you “girlie and weak” gamers! It has been an interesting week for all the talented writers that were kicked to the curb by AOL last week. They quickly learned that while their employers had no support for their livelihoods, the gamer community demonstrated unfathomable support. Nicely done, everyone! It’s pretty extraordinary when you have so many people that have never met each other come together like we saw this past week for Blizzard Watch and Massively OP.
I also just want to point out that there is a new boss fight in WoW that is a play on Hans & Franz and I freaking love the fact that it exists. The Hans & Franz characters bring back some old college memories! The header image is also fitting as SNL celebrates 40 years this year. The next WoW Patch (6.1) is due out on the 24th and Blizzard promises some Overwatch news at PAX East this year (which is in Boston, March 6-8). The interesting news was slow, which is why this post spans about 10+ days. All the big news is probably withheld for PAX East. Hopefully there is still something in here that you hadn’t heard about. KCGO
I really like the modern, dystopian twist to classic fairy tales that Meyer has created in these novels. I’ll admit that when I was just starting Cinder that I didn’t think I would enjoy it despite the fact that I was slightly intrigued by a cyborg Cinderella. I initially thought that each book was an independent retelling/re-imagining of each classic tale, however when I discovered that all the books are connected and continue Cinder’s story, then I became much more interested.
Scarlet is the second book of the series and, as you may be able to ascertain from the cover, is a re-imagined Red Riding Hood. While it was fairly obvious to me which part of the Red Riding Hood story would become entwined with Cinder’s story, there was still sufficient mystery and intrigue to keep me reading.
So far this has been a fun series to read and I’m looking forward to Cress and Winter. I would recommend it to anyone that might enjoy a fun twist on some beloved fairy tales.
Issue 113: I am going to rant a bit in the intro; if you don’t want to see the horrible things I think about AOL, you can probably skip this paragraph. If you haven’t heard by now, AOL has shut down three of my favorite gaming blog sites: Joystiq, Massively and WoW Insider. Some troglodyte in the upper ranks of AOL has made the ignorant decision to further ostracize AOL and shutdown these sites and fire 150 people; and ultimately left millions of faithful readers reeling in disbelief. There was nerd rage the likes of which the world had never seen. The beautiful irony is that the brilliant writers that were unfairly dismissed have a plan to persevere and we will soon see new weblogs pop up; AOL on the other hand will die a miserable and deserved death (finally). Make sure you take a moment to thank all the extraordinary writers for Joystiq, Massively and WoW Insider!
**Phew** I’m glad that’s out of my system. So let’s get back to talking about the games we all love. The former Massively and WoW Insider folks are already working on making a comeback. The first bit of new content for the current WoW expansion has been unlocked, unexpected news from Sony and more news from all of the great and valuable MMO news sources out there that deserve better than they often get from the corporate ass-hats that leer over them.