Monday 27 May 2013

London Expo 2013

The entertainment of London Expo started from the train journey with the driver making humorous comments at the cosplayers.

Despite the exhausting queue to enter London Expo, I did meet and got chatting to some nice people from Northampton.

The first autograph I queued up for was from Hannah Spearritt, who most of you should know from either Primeval or S Club 7.

I also had the opportunity to have a chat with her about what her next project will be and she reckons it'll be more TV work and I was also fortunate enough to have a photo taken as well.


I then had time to spare until Jane Espenson started signing autographs so I had a wander around and took the opportunity to take photographs of some of the many cosplayers that were in attendance at the event.

 





One of the cosplayers in particular was a favourite of mine as he was dressed as Captain Marvelous from the Japanese TV Show Gokaiger.


We had a chat about Sentai and also Power Rangers Megaforce plus Saban's lack of foresight in regards to Super Megaforce.

I asked him if he had ever been to Morphicon and he said yes and he told me that Erin Cahill wished him happy birthday, we then said bye and I went to queue up to get my next autograph from Jane.

Jane Espenson is most known as one of the producers of hit american TV Shows such as Buffy, Dollhouse and Once Upon A Time.

Whilst in the queue I admired the outfit of a girl who was cosplaying as Buffy and I asked if I could take a photo, to which she kindly said yes.


I should have really bought one of my Buffy books for Jane to autograph instead, however for fans of Buffy she was giving bracelets which promoted the Buffy comics.

I was also fortunate enough to get a photo with Jane and as a really big fan of Buffy this was awesome.


All in all it was a great day and I look forward to attending the 50th anniversary Doctor Who convention in November and ultimately Power Morphicon 4 in August 2014.

Monday 20 May 2013

May 2013 Food Festival

This month my home town of Waltham Abbey was host to a couple of culinary related events.

The first was the Beer Festival which took place on the 4th of May.

A couple of weeks later from the 17th to the 19th of May there was also a Italian Food Market.

There was only one stall but they were selling a multitude of culinary delights, which ranged from Dolma to Cappucino Croissants.

Their Dolma was almost as good as home made Dolma and the Croissants were nice and crispy plus they were also very tasty.

Dolma for those of you not in the know are Vine leaves stuffed with rice and also optionally mince meat.

Photographs of the event can be viewed below.






















For more information on the events feel free to visit http://wafestivaltown.wordpress.com/category/italian-food-market/



Sunday 19 May 2013

Spoilers - Doctor Who - The Name of the Doctor


Here are my thoughts on the series finale of Season 7 of Doctor Who, please note this review contains spoilers.

As a long time fan of the show the pre-title scenes of when the First Doctor stole the Tardis from Gallifrey and also the following montage of Clara encountering other past Doctors was delightful to watch especially as it was a homage of sorts to Star Trek Deep Space Nine's Trials and Tribble-ations.

How the prisoner knew of the Space-time coordinates of Trenzalore has yet to be explained, so hopefully that'll be something to look forward to.

The concept of a dream conversation through time and space was an interesting one and it was great to see River Song again.

Jenny's fear as the chilling Whispermen invade the house was a fine performance by Catrin Stewart.

The Whisperman were reminiscent of the Gentlemen from Buffy but far more terrifying.

It was good to see the Great Intelligence back in the form of Mr Simeon, but it wasn't explained how the Great Intelligence and his group could time travel.

The idea of the Tardis as the Doctor's final resting place was quite poetic.

I loved the references to the Doctor's past adventures, i.e. the Sycorax and Androzani .

Clara remembering the non existent timeline from Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS was a nice touch.

The Doctor's death this time round was more emotionally intense then The Impossible Astronaut, but this may have been down to Simeon's speech.

The impact to the timeline as the Doctor ceased to exist was also emotionally charged, especially as Strax turned on Madame Vastra.

I loved the scene where Clara tells the First Doctor which Tardis to steal.

Matt and Alex's scenes together are always a tour de force and they have great chemistry together, it would be great to see them work together elsewhere plus their farewell scene was equally memorable.

I believe the Name of the Doctor is a reference to whatever happened between our Doctor and the Doctor portrayed by John Hurt and that is definitely something to look forward to during the 50th anniversary special.

Is John Hurt's Doctor, one that existed between the 8th and 9th Doctors and could it somehow involve the time war and the establishment of the timelock on Gallifrey, who knows but one thing is sure only time will tell, so roll on November the 23rd.



Friday 17 May 2013

My spoiler free review of Star Trek - Into Darkness.


J.J Abrams continues to impress with Star Trek - Into Darkness, which is his second foray into the Star Trek Franchise.

In the first movie he retold how the legendary James T Kirk ended up in Starfleet and also how he and his legendary crew met and ended up in command of the Enterprise.

This time round he has decided to reinvent a few more well loved characters and mainstays.

The way in which JJ introduced them to his audience was seamless and quite spectacular.

The action scenes are well choreographed plus there are some amazing and stunning visual scenes featuring the U.S.S. Enterprise.

It'll be interesting to see if in the next movie he takes the franchise towards a more original direction or if he simply continues retelling old Star Trek stories in his own unique way.

Monday 6 May 2013

Introducing SunRize


I would like to introduce you to a recently formed group called SunRize .

They are a two piece group, Sheryl Mehmet ( @SherylMarch on twitter) is the vocalist and Lea Rogers ( @leageetar on twitter) is the Guitarist.

Here is their Be On The Scene profile page - Sunrize

Whilst they perform a few original songs, they mainly cover 90s Soul classics such as Sade.

If you scroll down to the My Music section of their Be On The Scene Profile page, you can hear their versions of Sweetest Taboo and Like A Star.

All Sheryl would like to do is get the opportunity to gig as much as possible.

If anyone is interested in booking them to perform at your event, please contact either @SherylMarch or @Leageetar via twitter, thank you.

At the moment SunRize duo have entered into a Music Contest - Be On The Scene's Music Contest .

There are 3 rounds of voting remaining and each round lasts a week.

You are entitled to 3 votes a day per computer / smartphone and it is possible to use all 3 votes at once.