Weekend pop culture and more

-
Well, my pop culture consumption has take a serious dip this week, especially in terms of gaming and reading. The reason for this is that I currently have a freelance copywriting and editing gig, running Monday to Friday for the next couple of weeks. As I'm attempting to appear like a productive and diligent employee, that means no leisurely start to the work day with an hour or so of blogging. So I've had to invert my schedule, using whatever free time I have in the evenings - and weekends - to get ahead with updates for the coming days, scheduling them to appear automatically. So as much as I just want to veg in the evening with a DVD or Dead Until Dark, I can't fit it in at the moment.

Anyway, in terms of notable activities this weekend, I attended my first ever 27Dinner in Durban on Saturday. These events, held on the 27th of every month around the country, are a chance for local geeky types, gadget freaks, Social Media enthusiasts and individuals involved in the IT industry to network and listen to interesting presentations by entrepreneurs and industry leaders on these various topics.


I had a good time, and the talks were very interesting, although I admit I didn't mingle nearly as much as I should have. I'm naturally shy, so when it comes to meeting strangers I'm far more comfortable at things like Tweet-ups, where the number of attendees is usually below 10, as opposed to gatherings of 25+ people, where it just never feels natural leaping from group cluster to group cluster, conversation to conversation. Then again, perhaps I would have felt more confident if people had been wearing name tags with both their real name and their online alias?

In terms of my other activities this weekend, half of Sunday was a pop culture write-off as I was busy getting bad sunburn and a heatstroke migraine while facilitating a team-build by uShaka Marine World. Plus I ended up making myself quite miserable with the knowledge that all around me on the beachfront swarmed happy couples and young families. Clearly singles stay home in their caves on beautiful Summer days.

But moving on...

Film:
I only watched 2 films this weekend. The first was a revisit of Raiders of the Lost Ark, seeing as I've been on an Indy kick lately. Apart from appreciating how the film perfectly balances action, humour and appropriately creepy to bloodthirsty occult imagery, I did find myself pondering how 2 of my favourite film franchises from the 70s and 80s feature feisty brunettes (and I'm not even talking about Star Wars and Princess Leia). Both Karen Allen's Marion Ravenwood and Margot Kidder's Lois Lane needed to be rescued on occasion, sure, but they have a resourcefulness, competence and do-or-die spirit that's incredibly likable. They just don't seem to make the female leads of blockbusters like that anymore. Cliches dominate.


I also ended up watching the Will Smith drama Seven Pounds. Critics slaughtered the film on release but I honestly didn't find it that bad. The performances in particular were solid. This said, you'd have to be a really dumb movie viewer not to realise what Smith's character was doing well before the "big revelation." It was blatantly obvious.

Books and comics:
Finally, fans of Girlz 'N' Games will be pleased to know that this weekend I did a lot of work on the next comic in the series. Unless something unexpected comes up, #62 is set for online debut on Tuesday - for Girlz 'N' Games Facebook group members - and will appear here bright and early on Wednesday morning.

Comments

Craig said…
I also got pulled into Seven Pounds last night, eventually abandoning the dishes and sitting down to watch it unfold properly. Like you said, the "revelation" was pretty apparent, but the journey in getting there was so fantastically done that the movie just comes off as a powerful, poignant piece of film making. Seriously don't understand why the critics pan this one as much as they do? O.o
3:25 PM
Pfangirl said…
I really didn't get it either, Craig. The way critics were going on about it I was expecting the film to be laughably bad. However, I found the performances, especially Will Smith's, were very good.

I think often critics just all jump on a bandwagon and set out to be as malicious as possible because to them it's fun.
10:55 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is the rebooted Lara Croft gay? Evidence for and against...

-
Image
As some of you know, I’ve been fangirling hard over the new Tomb Raider , the first entry in the video game series since 2008, and ostensibly a reboot for the entire franchise . Taking the form of an origin story, Tomb Raider 2013 depicts the events that transformed a beautiful, if bookish, archaeology graduate into a pistol-packing adventurer with a devil-may-care attitude. We meet Lara Croft as a pretty, fairly ordinary 21 year old, brooding over her work notes, listening to her mp3 player and very much confined to the shadow of her male mentors. By the end of the game, however, she’s taken charge – she’s had to! – and, battered, bruised and bloody, she’s both a survivor and hero, right down to rescuing the princess and carrying her away in her arms. Yeah, this is probably the best point to mention that there will be some Tomb Raider 2013 spoilers in this post, so read ahead with caution. Anyway, I loved the game. Technically it’s near faultless, it looks beautiful, the ov...
Read more

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Queer Icon (Part 4)

-
Image
Part 4: The mystery of Lara Croft’s sexuality “Now what’s a man gotta do to get that kind of attention from ya?” – Larson Conway (Tomb Raider, 1996) Despite being an icon for many queer pop culture consumers, Lara Croft’s own sexual orientation remains ambiguous. Outside of the Top Cow comics and live-action films – where Lara is blatantly heterosexual, with a fondness for slightly scruffy bad boys (who keep betraying and hurting her) – the character comes across as primarily asexual. Kurtis Trent is the only male figure who even comes close to being a love interest in the game series. Lara's apparent sexual disinterest is despite the adventurer appearing very sexually attractive herself; a figure of desire with bee-stung lips, voluptuous breasts, toned stomach and impossibly long, athlete’s legs. Yet Lara is never dominated by sexual yearnings or romantic affections. She is very much in control of herself at all times. It’s worth noting, however, that over time th...
Read more

Ladies I Love: Part 2 - Rhona Mitra

-
Image
Following on from the first post in this series , you may realise that I have a very definite type. Anyway, today we profile model-turned-actress Rhona Mitra . This 36 year old Briton is of English, Irish and Indian descent. You'll have seen her pop up on the big and small screen multiple over the past decade and a half, although Mitra's claim to fame is that she was the second ever model (some say first if you rule out "unofficial"  Nathalie Cook ) to play iconic video game character Lara Croft . From 1997-1998, Mitra could be found in PR material, as well as at trade shows, events and conventions as a flesh-and-blood embodiment of Tomb Raider 's kick-ass archeologist lead. There have been many official Lara Croft models over the years , but as far as I'm concerned Mitra remains the best. In my mind, of all of them, she most closely resembles the video game character in terms of facial features. Plus she comes from money and had a rebellious boarding...
Read more