This is a fascinating documentary, covering every aspect of the Apollo 11 mission and the science and technology that supported it. Continue reading “Moonwalk One”
Month: July 2014
Once Upon A Time geeking, pt II: Gastown, Vancouver, BC
With bonus Highlander.
Anyone who’s watched OUAT, Highlander, X-Files, Continuum, or a dozen other made-in-Canada TV shows will recognize Gastown. It is the semi-gentrified “hip” neighborhood along the waterfront in downtown Vancouver. Like such neighborhoods in many cities, you can turn a corner and go from a trendy shopping area to a dodgy skid row. Most of the OUAT “Manhattan” scenes were filmed in the Alexander/Powell/Carrall street triangle.
On-screen and off-screen photos follow. Warning: Image heavy. All screencaps courtesy of screencapped.net.
Continue reading “Once Upon A Time geeking, pt II: Gastown, Vancouver, BC”
Once Upon A Time geeking, pt I: Steveston, BC
So on my most recent vacation, I went to Storybrooke. Er, Steveston and Ft Langley, BC.
Most of “Storybrooke” is located along Moncton and Bayview streets between Third Avenue and No 1 Road in Steveston. This quaint little Richmond area burg appears to have embraced its alternate identity (hey, tourist money!). Although filming had not yet started, some of the buildings retained their “Storybrooke” signage. Others were disconcertingly Steveston/Canadian.
Actually walking the street and seeing where everything is relative to everything else gives you a three-dimensional context when you go back to watch the show. In each new scene, you can orient yourself and say, “The characters are near X. Yep, there it is.” It also makes you notice how often the show uses shipping pallets stacked against walls to hide the Steveston signs.
Another thing you notice upon rewatch is when the same business is sometimes named one thing, sometimes named something else in different episodes. Perhaps the name changed in real life, or maybe they just didn’t bother covering up the real name in early episodes. On-screen and off-screen photos follow. Because I really am that geeky. Warning: Image heavy. All screencaps courtesy of screencapped.net.
Continue reading “Once Upon A Time geeking, pt I: Steveston, BC”
140 characters of character
I’ve figured out my writer’s platform “Twitter strategy”: follow who’s interesting, regardless of who they are and what they tweet about, and have fun. One thing I won’t be doing: tweeting every hour on the hour with Yet Another Promo of My Book. That is a one-way ticket to being boring and unfollowed. It seems a lot of writers on Twitter only follow you so you’ll follow them, and then it’s promo, promo, promo. Like a hall of mirrors, writers tweet “Read my book” at each other, instead of talking to people (some who, hey, you never know, might be readers) about things that make life (and themselves) interesting.
Talk about the writing process. Talk about cool space probes. Talk about a rock star that just died. Talk about your kids, your favorite TV shows, something funny you saw on the way to work, respond to what other people are talking about and make it All About Them.
But a steady beat of alternating one-liner book promos? Is internet navel-gazing.
https://twitter.com/masqthephlsphr, in case anyone’s interested.
Author Nancy E. Shaffer 