Sunday 28 February 2021

Nerd Church - The Serpent and Herman Knippenberg

 

(Warning: this post discusses the details of a real-life crime, as such it contains details of murder, drugging, and a serial killer)



This week, I finished watching the eight-part BBC series The Serpent.

Starring Jenna Coleman, Billy Howle, and Tahar Rahim, The Serpent is a drama based on the real story of a serial killer preying on tourists in a variety of countries along the Asian hippie-trail during the 1970s.

It's an excellent series, even though it’s not exactly easy viewing.




'The Serpent and Herman Knippenberg' against a green patterned background





This blogpost is gonna have a few SPOILERS for The Serpent series, OK? 

SPOILERS, SPOILERS, SPOILERS!!!!

Don't say I didn't warn you!


Friday 26 February 2021

Friday Fics Fix - I Am Utter Trash and Do Not Care To Hide It


'...“But when he doesn’t show up for pancakes it's good practice to make sure he hasn’t fallen down a manhole or something,”

Klaus resists the urge to hiss.'



'Fics Fix!' with purple background and white lightning bolt shape


You know I love novel (or novella) length fanfiction.

The beautiful dedication that it takes to write a piece like this always makes me smile.

Sunday 21 February 2021

Nerd Church - Popular Vs Pretentious: I Read Martin Scorsese's Essay So You Don't Have To

 


Why are popular films, and popular media in general, somehow seen as unworthy?

Who decides what counts as Art anyways? 

Cos being asked to locate the grand-high judge of all things artsy films would not have me running to call Martin Scorsese (...who would totally take my call, because let's face it, I'm awesome and stubborn as a mule persistent.)


'Popular Vs Pretentious: I Read Martin Scorsese's Essay So You Don't Have To' against a crinkled brown-paper background


In a pretentious burst of overly-descriptive prose, Martin Scorsese's essay in Harper's Magazine was published this week to the irritation of many fans of superhero blockbusters and popular films.

Why? 

Well, Scorsese previously ran his mouth about Marvel movies in 2019, and it seems that even in this current piece about the artsy Italian director Federico Fellini, he couldn't resist some entitled barbs at films that people actually like watching.

It's titled, 'Il Maestro: Federico Fellini and the lost magic of cinema' because... why not? I guess?


Friday 19 February 2021

Friday Fics Fix - Keep Calm and Carry On

* = commission link



'The massive box of 64 crayons calls to me, every one of them waiting to be picked and pressed to a page. (I could have gone for the box of 120, but that seemed like too much.)'



'Fics Fix!' with purple background and white lightning bolt shape



This week's fic is from a fandom that is super-popular, but also not especially well-known outside its core fanbase.

 ...which is why I'm going to do a very brief explanation of Carry On* aka the Simon Snowverse just so's we're all on the same page.

(I realise that a lot of die-hard fans are probably screaming that how could anyone not know about Simon Snow?! But we do not gatekeep here at Dora Reads, dearest nerdlets.)


(Fandom notes:

gatekeeping - also a non-fandom term, when used in fandom this typically takes the form of 'you're not a real fan of [insert fandom or genre or author, etc.] unless you've [insert arbitrary benchmark]')


Thursday 18 February 2021

Comics Wrap-Up - Bite the Lightning and Tell Me How It Tastes

 

'Comics Wrap-Up' with lined-notebook-style background and speech bubbles containing heart symbols


It's Thursday, somehow it's only February, let's get some comics-y superhero-y goodness!

Everything is once again in the 'other stuff' category (dammit Loki!)

Tuesday 16 February 2021

Month in Review(s) - January 2021

(Warning: this post discusses Coronavirus/Covid 19)


On a personal level, January sucked. Bad.

My beautiful Nan got Covid, and combined with her other health problems, despite the fact that she had very few symptoms, we nearly lost her. 

There are very few things more distressing than watching someone you love slowly fade away via video link.


'January' spelled out in scrabble tiles, with 'Ionawr' written beneath it


Honestly? If you're STILL not taking Coronavirus seriously, you can fuck the hell off.

And, dearest nerdlets, you know how upset I have to be to swear without censoring myself. 

I really wanna delete a few letters and add *s, but I'm not gonna, cos despite the fact that I'm a nice well-brought-up Welsh girl, that's how annoyed I am, and how much you suck if you're one of the selfish people who still isn't taking precautions.