Monthly Archives: May 2013

Review: ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’

In the latest instalment of the ‘Star Trek’ franchise, ‘Into Darkness’,  Jim Kirk (Chris Pine) and his crew are sent to observe a planet but not interfere. There’s a volcano, Spock (Zachary Quinto) has a plan. It works, but Kirk loses his ship and Spock is reassigned.

A terrorist attack changes everything; reunited, the crew of the Enterprise are sent to catch the terrorist, Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch). It’s not going to be as easy as they think and the weapons they have been given to do the job hold a terrible secret; there are much deeper game in play. However it turns out none of the characters nor the Federation will be the same again.

The film explores what it means to be human, the moralities of war and peace.

It is a great film, the acting is superb and the story entertaining. I saw it in 2D and it was an incredible experience. Go see it!

Rose

[Edit: I found an interview with Benedict Cumberbatch about the film on youtube

http://youtu.be/_a1jsMga9fg ]

Review: “Atheism: Genetics to Geology and Much More Science” by Maurice de Bona Jr.

I offered to review this book because the title suggested it would be of interest to someone of my education and background. I was wrong. Within the first twenty pages I became frustrated by the author’s polemic, ignorance of the subjects, scientific and historical, on which he was commenting, disjointed arguments and outdated assumptions in statements such as ‘’Under monotheism, man shifted from a maternally structured society to a paternally structured society’’ and ‘’There was a time religious men feared science.’’

Among the basic mistakes the author makes is to suggest that matter can’t be created or destroyed only change form, and that ‘Electricity, for example, is a faster moving, less consolidated form of matter than the matter that comprises a rock.’ He is wrong, it is energy which is neither made nor destroyed but merely changes form. It’s called the conservation of energy. Electricity is the movement of electrons through a substance and rocks are made up of atoms in a crystal structure.

The author makes contradictory statements as well as blatantly incorrect ones. He also displays latent racism and sexism on occasion. Examples:
(1) ‘The average European cranial capacity is 90 cubic inches. The Hottentot natives have a capacity of about 65 cubic inches. Some Hindus have capacities as low as 45 cubic inches. This approaches the capacity of gorillas.’
(2) ‘Women, in general, have a greater sensitivity to emotions, such as love, than men. They are less capable of separating love and sex than men. Many women convince themselves that sex without love is impossible.’
He has a terrible habit of dumbing down his prose, assuming all readers will be as historically uneducated as well as scientifically ignorant, and that all atheists have the same beliefs as he does, despite claiming that he doesn’t.
I looked at the sources the author provided. Only four were less than ten years old, many much, much older. With such outdated attitudes I am not surprised he had had to find outdated sources to back his assertions.
The author clearly has a problem with religion but his sweeping generalisations about the nature of religion and the religious, and his ham-fisted attempts at scientific refutation of some religious beliefs does nobody any good. His tract may provide those with no education some basic, if inaccurate, knowledge, but anyone with even a basic education will be frustrated with this book.

Don’t bother with it.

It took me a good couple of months to read and I had to force myself to finish it. I wanted to punch the author after about ten pages. The spelling is atrocious (even if one takes Americanisms into account) he’s bombastic and insulting. Sorry I got really riled by this book. If you believe in something poorly disguised insults to your intelligence and education will not convince a person to take someone’s arguments seriously. if you are already an atheist or agnostic poorly constructed sources will do nothing to strengthen your resolve. Scientific arguments for evolution and the obvious great age of the Universe are strong enough that the this sort of pamphlet are no longer necessary.

Rant over, sorry again,

Rose

Review: Dr. Who ‘The Name of the Doctor’, aired 7pm Saturday 18th May 2013

The ultimate episode of this series of Dr Who, in the lead up to the 50th anniversary in November, was written by Steven Moffat and produced by Marcus Wilson. The Doctor’s big secret, his name, is at the core of this episode. The storyline brings together the major characters of this, and previous, series to do what a time traveller should never do: go to their tomb.

I’m not going to spoil the story for anyone who didn’t watch it tonight by telling you what happened but I have to say, I did feel it didn’t have a strong structure – a beginning, middle and end – and is instead a prologue to the 50th Anniversary episode in November. It was unsatisfying, and Moffat can write better.

Next up, a review of ‘Star Trek: Into darkness’ and that ebook I’ve been reviewing for Book Inc.? Yeah, I finally got that read. The review will be here a.s.a.p. After I’ve had my tea, that is.

Bye, for now,

Rose

Worlds Without End: Women of Genre Fiction Challenge – I’m going to give it a go

I quite like SciFi/Fantasy books, I’ve read a lot of them, so when I found out about ‘Worlds Without End’ I decided to go and have a look at their website:

https://www.worldswithoutend.com/

One of their ‘challenges’ is the Women of Genre Fiction challenge in which participants have to read and review twelve books from their list of women authors. The books have to be by women authors you’ve never read before. I’m going to give it a go. The first I am reading will reading is ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’ by Ann Radcliffe.

For more information on the challenge please go to:

https://www.worldswithoutend.com/authors_wogf.asp

Bye

Rose

One band I like, One band I think are a bit bad mannered and Two bands I’m not fussed by.

Yes, it’s another round up of the bands that follow my Twitter account. Aren’t you lucky devils?

So the first band on my list are Demise, a band from the West Midlands that formed in 2008. They describe themselves as a ‘heavy band’ and say they sound like Pantera, Down, Metallica, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Black Label Society.

Band Members:

  • Mick Hatton – Vocals
  • Craig Williamson – Lead Guitar
  • Leigh Gittus – Rhythm Guitar
  • Don Whitehouse – Bass Guitar
  • Richie Rogers –  Drums

They have several tracks available a:

I listened to ‘The Contender’.

Opinion

I’m not incredibly impressed, but as I’ve said multiple times I prefer clean vocals to shouting and screaming. I know other people like that sort of thing and if you do they might be to your taste. Either way, don’t let my personal preferences prevent you from at least giving them a listen.

 

Next on my list is an American band called Stellar Revival. I have somewhat limited internet access so it was about a week between them following me and me being able to get online and listen to their music. By the time I had a chance to they had unfollowed me. As a result I haven’t listened to their music, but if you want to, their website is:

http://www.stellarrevival.com

Third on my list is another American band, or as they describe themselves an ‘industrial-metal/shock rock performance art act’ from Portland, Oregon.

Members

  • Cody – Vocals
  • Freeman Manfree – Guitar
  • Brick – Drums
  • The Human – Keys/Sequencing
  • Unlucky Eddy – Bass
  • Enygma – Hype and Shenanigans

 

Their website is:

Their facebook page has a quite comprehensive ‘About’ page, but here’s a small sample just to give you an idea

‘Amerakin Overdose is an Industrial- Metal / Shock Rock performance art act from Portland, OR. Known for hypnotic dance beats and horror style theatrics, blended with heavy driven metal riffs, the band brings a very user friendly sound that promotes accidental cardio via involuntary movement of your head, feet and body. The combination of heavy dance music mixed with onstage antics are a freak show in action, a nonstop visual and auditory stimulate from the first note to the last. True to the band motto; they “Get Shit Done”.’

Apart from the bad grammar and slightly off spelling, I find their expression of intent slightly obnoxious.

I listened to three of their songs after downloading them from reverb nation.

Opinion

Er, no, just, no.

Seriously, that’s what I’ve got written in my notebook.

I see what they’re trying to do, it’s very much in the ‘Slipknot’ mould but it’s just not my thing.

 

Finally, because they’re the last in my notebook, a band whose music I actually liked, A New Tomorrow.

From London and formed in June 2009, they describe their music as modern rock.

Members

  • Alessio Garavello – Vocals/Guitars
  • Andrea Lonardi – Bass Guitar
  • Dan Panza – Guitars
  • Tim Hall – Drums

This quartet have a comprehensive website:

Main Home

and their music is available on iTunes, Spotify etc. They also have a few tracks on sound cloud

Opinion

I listened to the tracks this band have on Spotify, their EP ‘Incandescent’ and the single ‘Believe’. On first listen I preferred ‘Love Utopia’ and ‘What they can’t steal from you’ because I found the lyrics of ‘Brighter than the sun’ and ‘Believe’ to be a little repetitive. On listening a second time I found that I actually quite liked all of them; the songs are enjoyable with a positive feeling about them.

Alesso Garavello’s singing is not necessarily to my taste, his voice is a little too high pitched at times, but still good. Occasionally (especially in ‘Love Utopia’) he sounds like someone has got his balls in a vice.

The guitars are not mind blowing, although they certainly seem competent enough, and Tim Hall is a steady and skilled drummer.

In other words, they’re okay, not quite as heavy as I usually like but still appealing. And they get extra points for spelling my name correctly when they answered a Tweet. I didn’t actually mean for them to answer it, I was just commenting on the music when I listened to it. But still, kudos for that.

 

And that’s the round up for this week.

Bye

Rose

 

 

Listening to the radio

I’m listening to BBC Radio 4 Extra; there’s a radio play on called ‘I want to go home’ by David Pownall. The play is about word meanings and sound changes, and is from the perspective of the words that make up the sentence.

The characters are anthropomorphisms of words, ‘I’ starting out as ‘Ich’, ‘want’ as ‘willa’, ‘Home’ and ‘Haim’ and ‘to go’ as ‘gan’, and the story of how they changed over time. It’s an interesting and entertaining programme, very educational as well.

It will probably be on iPlayer for a week if you want to listen, I would recommend it.

Bye,

Rose

Currently reading…

I borrowed this book from the library last week and I’m making my way through it. I’ve never read any Dean Koontz books before, and I’m enjoying it. Proper review to follow when I finish it.

[EDIT: I couldn’t finish it. But the bit I read wasn’t bad, I just couldn’t get on with the writing style.]

I’ve been on a bit of an organisation kick lately

Good evening,

I should be sleeping as I have to be up for work at quarter to four tomorrow morning, but I’m not tired so I thought I’d say hello to everyone, especially to people who have only recently started following this blog.

Hello.

I’ve been organising a few things lately. I had two wordpress blogs, twitter and a tumblr; after a bit of thought I now have 1 wordpress blog (this one), twitter and three tumblr accounts.

I decided that as I’m not shooting much at the minute (no money/damaged lower back/working weekends) there was no point in having the archery blog (travelswithmylongbow.wordpress.com) because I’m not using it. I also decided that my tumblr needed organising. My personal tumblr is a random mix of all my interests, and my dashboard is usually full of fandom stuff, which makes it difficult to find writing/music related posts. I now have two new Tumblrs

• rosemariecawkwell.tumblr.com is my writing blog. It’s where I follow writing blogs, book and literature blogs and sometimes post short stories.

• hornskeepthehaloinplace.tumblr.com is my music blog. I follow various band/fan blogs; they’re useful for news and finding out what fans are talking about.

Most of the posts I make here go to my Tumblrs. Feel free to have a look at them.

In other news, I am now working part time (weekends) so I will have a bit of money coming in while I work on my writing. It’s not perfect but these things have to be done. I have managed to get a couple of short stories written this week though, which I’m pleased with. Next week will be spent typing them up. I would like to get another one of my short stories finished next week. After that I’ll have three left to write for the collection. Now I’m working part-time I’ll have plenty of time to concentrate on writing, and not worrying about money or being too tired to actually write.

I will also be listening to a few new bands who have followed my Twitter account and giving my musically uneducated but passionate opinion on them.

Right, I’m going to try to sleep again now.

Bye,

Rose

Good Morning!

Hello one and all,

My phone is finally working again, so I’m going to celebrate with a quick update on my short story collection.

I have five completed and typed up, one complete but not typed up, and three partially completed.

This morning I plan to finish one of them before I leave for work at half one, I’ll finish another on my breaks at work. And then depending how late I finish work this evening I’ll start typing them up. I’m busy for the next few days, but I have most of next week free so I will probably spend it typing up everything I’ve completed so far.

I’m fairly pleased with my progress so far. It’s been an interesting exercise so far, and some of the stories that I’ve come up with have been unexpected.

Bye for now,

Rose

[Edit: one more finished! It’s fairly long and I’m probably going to write another part for it at some point, but not for this collection. It might make a novella at some time in the future.]