Category: Reviewing

Hugo Awards Voting Adventure Wrap-Up

My weekend got away from me and I didn’t make my final post of how I voted for the remainder of the 2014 Hugo Award categories I hadn’t previously discussed.  I did carve out two hours on Sunday afternoon to watch the live streaming of the Hugo Awards ceremony (which streaming went off with hardly a hitch, especially as compared to the Retro Hugo Awards ceremony from last Thursday night).

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Watching (but not Hearing) the Retro Hugo Awards Ceremony

Technical difficulties again plagued the Ustream live video of a Hugo Awards ceremony.  Beautiful video, but no audio. Those of us in the audience were left with Tweet breadcrumbs from @LonCon3 on the hashtag #RetroHugos:

46 minutes into the ‘broadcast’ and still no sound . . .

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Hugo Awards Voting Adventure: Remainder of Retro Hugos

Tomorrow the winners will be announced for the 1939 Retro Hugo Awards.

The 1939 Retro Hugo Awards can be watched online via ustream. The stream will be located at http://www.ustream.tv/hugo-awards. The Retro Hugo Awards Ceremony starts at 8PM BST (or 2PM Central) on Thursday 14 August.

Retro Hugo Awards Ceremony, LonCon3

I’ve covered the main ‘big’ categories in previous posts.  Today, I’ll summarize the remaining ones that are less, ‘sexy’, for lack of a better term. Continue reading “Hugo Awards Voting Adventure: Remainder of Retro Hugos”

Hugo Awards Voting Adventure: Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) aka Movies

After books, movies are my next ‘go to’ source for hours of uninterrupted entertainment.  If I’m not happy with the book I’m currently reading, I will take an afternoon or evening off from reading to enjoy a good movie.  New or old … it doesn’t matter.  If the story is good, and the acting convincing, and the directing sublime … all else is irrelevant.  Special effects may be indistinguishable from reality today, but if you don’t have a great story, you’re just a flash in a pan that fizzled, smoked and went boom.
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Hugo Awards Voting Adventure: Best Novelette 2014 and 1939

I’d dropped the blog ball over the weekend. I’ve got less than a week before the Hugo Awards Ceremony announces the winners and about three days before the 1939 Retro Hugo Award winners are revealed.  No use crying over spilled milk, though, so on to the novelette category: Continue reading “Hugo Awards Voting Adventure: Best Novelette 2014 and 1939”

Hugo Awards Voting Adventure: Best Novellas 2014 and 1939

Last week I posted about my adventures in reading the books nominated for the Best Novel award (2014 and 1939).  I had hoped to write my second and subsequent posts on the other categories on a daily or every other day pattern so that I could wrap up before the Hugo Award ceremonies on the 14th and 17th of this month.  A distraction arrived over the weekend and then work returned on Monday and Tuesday.  Here I am halfway to the next weekend and just now getting around to this post. Continue reading “Hugo Awards Voting Adventure: Best Novellas 2014 and 1939”

My First Hugo Awards Voting Adventure – Best Novels 2014 and 1939

I took the plunge this year and decided to buy a supporting membership to WorldCon so I could vote in the Hugo Awards. What pushed me over the edge?  The Best Novel (or Series) nomination for Ancillary Justice and the entire Wheel of Time series.  I could not let this opportunity pass me by without making my meager voice heard.

I spent (or wasted, depending on your point of view) over two decades reading (and re-reading) and waiting to read the Wheel of Time series.  At one point, upon Robert Jordan’s death, I gave up hope of ever being able to complete the series.  I made my peace with that, prayed for his family, and went on with my reading life. 
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Movie Review: Saving Mr. Banks (2013) – 4 Stars

Savings Mr. Banks

3.5-4 stars out of 5 stars

Watched BluRay June 1, 2014

My husband and I watched Saving Mr. Banks last Sunday evening.  We both enjoyed the movie, especially the acting.  I took the ‘story’ with a grain of salt, realizing early on that some liberties must have been taken with the facts to create a more enjoyable experience for the audience.  I confirmed this in my spare time this week and will relate some of those findings later on in this review.

Savings Mr. Banks jumps back and forth between Continue reading “Movie Review: Saving Mr. Banks (2013) – 4 Stars”

Movie Review: Godzilla (2014) – 3.5 stars

Godzilla (2014)

3.5 out of 5 stars

Watched opening weekend (May 17, 2014)

My husband and I watched Godzilla on opening weekend at our favorite local movie theater, taking advantage of their VIP seating.  One recent change to their pricing has me a bit rumbled.  The Legends 14 Theater’s matinee pricing stops at 4:00 p.m. now, instead of the traditional 5:00 p.m.  This means the main attraction, like Godzilla, only has one matinee per day in the large screen theater.   I prefer matinees more for the time slots than the cost savings (since I’m paying extra for VIP service anyway), but still.  Irksome.

I had read a couple of reviews before deciding to watch this movie in theaters.  I have many fond memories of Godzilla week on the local Kansas City television stations in the 70s.  I’d come home from school and the after school movies would feature Godzilla classics from the 50s and 60s.  My forty-year foggy memory doesn’t recall much of the plots, but I do remember them being entertaining.

This latest iteration of Godzilla took me a bit by surprise.  Continue reading “Movie Review: Godzilla (2014) – 3.5 stars”