Saturday, February 11, 2012

Episode 13: Female Tropes in SF/F Movies & T.V

In this week's episode, we talk about female tropes in SF/F movies & t.v, then move onto a bit of making & crafting as Jade & España get ready for Gallifrey

Come & give a listen!
(Click to listen! Uses Flash)


Part 1: Conversations

Events:

Geeky Topics
In the first half of today's episode, we talk about female tropes in the science fiction and fantasy within the t.v. & movies media.

We hit shows from Star Trek to Firefly to Fringe to the Avengers and to Doctor Who (naturally), and then some.

Part II: Make Section

Sandy is:
  • still knitting socks for her husband using KnitPicks Felici in the Time Traveller colorway
  • Needs to re-do her Fellowship sweater sleeves as it has Crystal  Carrington sleeves.

España:
  • Working feverishly on her costume for Gallifrey, and should be done in time!

Jade is currently working on the following things
  • Amused from Knitty 2008 -- pull over cable sweater using merino, cashmere, alpaca
  • A Design for Tardis fingerless mitts. She's finished with the first one and is knitting the second one with a few tweaks
  • FOs:
    • EZ tam/beret with Koolhaus cable (Jared Flood)
    • grey, green striped hat
    • hat for her coach
  • weaving:
    • Finished a Hawaiian Tartan
    • her first handspun scarf, using a Merino, Bamboo, Firestar handspun called “Black Hills Gold”
      • Hawaiian Tartan2 IMG_0650
  • spinning
    • Gretta -- a corriedale merino fleece
    • Teeswater roving
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Episode 12: Sandy's Back

In this episode, Sandy's well enough to join us for another episode. So, we blathered on for a little bit longer than our usual episodes.

Come & give a listen!
(Click to listen. Uses Flash)



Part 1: Geek Conversations

Espana is working the SF Examiner as a writer.
http://www.examiner.com/user-espana

She currently reviews the Custom Made Theatre’s production of Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother. http://www.custommade.org/

Books:
  • Jade just finished One Con Glory that Espana reviewed. It’s a really quick read and she REALLY enjoyed it.
  • Sandy: Reading the following:
    • Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. 
    • The Well of Ascension, 
    • The Hero of Ages. 
    • Readers who are fans of Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora might also like the first book of this series, that has a very caper-like plot to take down the bad guy.
    • Catherynne M. Valente’s Deathless. Slavic folklore combined with Soviet revolution. Far better than Palimpsest, for which she was Hugo nominated in 2010.
  • Espana
    • Ken Liu
    • Reading a lot of short stories to see about nominations for Hugos.

TV Shows

  • Sandy: Anime: Full Metal Alchemist, available on Hulu in its entirety, both tv seasons and the movie
  • Espana: Fringe, Supernatural, Sherlock, and Community; ‘Remedial Chaos Theory’, UFO
  • Jade: Finished re-waching ST: Voyager, Doctor Who Christmas Special, and now re-watching some of Angel.

Part 2: Geek Crafting

Knitting:
  • Jade:
    • Finished a tam out of some left over yarn -- using a combination of Elizabeth Zimmerman (tam o’shanter hat) and the Koolhas cables by Jared Flood
    • Still working on Amused from Knitty 2008 (using a cashmere / merino blend)
  • Sandy: 
    • Halfway done on the Hobbes amigurumi: really quick and easy, cute as can be
    • drafted up a plain sock for jer husband, using math and Felici in Time traveler, size 1 (2.25 mm needles) 11 inch feet, 10.75 ankles, holy moly!
Spinning & Weaving

  • Jade: 
    • Finally finished spinning enough yarn for sleeves on my “Everyone Knows” sweater. It’s washed, fulled, and thwacked
    • weaving-wise:
      • black & acid green houndstooth scarf
      • blue, black, and light blue trial plaid piece of fabric that was sewn into a bag for the rigid heddles
      • Working on a Hawaiian plaid tartan scarf/sash that I can wear to the highland games.
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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Episode 11: First of the Year

In this episode, Espana & Jade talk about the Hugo Award Nomination Process, and kvetch about the upcoming Gallifrey One convention. Sandy is unable to join us for the episode, but we hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

Come & give a listen!
(Click to listen. Uses Flash)


Part 1: Geeky Conversations


Events:
Hugo Award Nominations

Espana goes over how the Hugo Award Nominations work. The following was written on her blog:
 
This year for the first time members of the current, previous and future Worldcon are ALL eligible to nominate. So if you are a supporting or attending member for Renovation, Chicon ORLoneStarCon, you can submit a nominations ballot. (You do need your PIN, which will be sent out according to the schedule on the Chicon website)
  • -You can nominate in all categories but you do not HAVE to. If you only care about novels, then nominate in the novel category and leave the rest blank. It is designed this way on purpose, it means nominations are submitted by people who are interested in that area of the genre.
  • -You can nominate up to five things in each category, but you do not HAVE to. if you only think one movie you saw this year is worth nominating, you can just nominate that one and leave the other four slots blank, that's fine.
  • -You don't have to be an expert to nominate. Don't feel like you have to have seen every movie, or read a hundred books. The point is to get as many fans as possible to tell each other what they felt was awesome last year. Then the voters can take a look at the top five choices and decide for themselves.
  • -Nominations close Sunday March 11th. But you can resubmit your ballot any time until that date and only the final submission will be counted. So if you have three artists you absolutely love and want to make sure you nominate them, submit that bad boy now. Then in a month when you've thought of some more stuff you want on there, resubmit a more complete ballot.

Hugo Award Nomination Links

Part 2: Geek Crafting


Knitting:
Jade's been working on the following:
  • Finished knitting the Hiker’s Waistcoat over Xmas, washed & blocked it...then decided she did NOT like the collar, so completely unwove all ends, frogged, and re did the collar (including the 3-needle bind off).
  • Dyed silk ribbon to match the yarn color; sewed an inner twill ribbon for extra sturdyness, and sewed the button bands. .
  • Socks from the same ball as she knit for her nephew.
  • Started a new 2012 sweater (Knitty 2008 Amused) using Webs Yarn -- alpaca, merino, cashmere. Finished swatch and just started

Spinning
  • Jade's STILL working on Frank
  • She also finished up a silk/merino blend on the Ashford joy
Weaving
New section, because Jade started weaving as her Viking gave her loom for Christmas. The Purlescence Yarn girls helped warp her first scarf using a red & black marled yarn (Cascade 220).





Make it Sew
Jade & Espana kvetch about costuming for Gallifrey One.
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Friday, December 23, 2011

Episode 10: A Short? Episode?

In this episode, Sandy & Jade thought they would do end up doing a short show without Espana, but instead discover they can talk just as much!

Come & give a listen!

(Click to listen. Uses Flash)





Part 1: Geek On

Geek Girl Crafts Podcast has reached Double Digits! YAAAY!!!

Events
Books
Sandy has been doing a LOT of reading lately. She really liked the following books:

Movies:

T.V
Sandy's been watching:
  • Leverage,
  • Castle,
  • Dr Who 11th doctor
  • Anime:
    • Hunter x Hunter 2011,
    • Sora no Woto,
    • GoLion
For anime fans, check out

Part II: Geeky Crafting

Knitting:

Jade is working on:
  • Hiker’s Waistcoat in the round
  • Finished a pair of socks for her nephew
  • long tail socking cap
  • scarves on the knitting machine (still)

Sandy is working on:
  •  crocheted snowflakes, boiling starch and pinning it out.
    A GREAT site for all things “snowflake”: http://crochet.tangleweeds.com/index.html
  • repairing a commercial scarf for a friend. The yarn is metallic yarn (and unpleasant! Sandy, however, has a better description for them in the show)

Spinning
Jade: Finally got back to spinning on Frank, and she has about 4 oz done.

Beading:
Jade: Spent time with her SIL working on beads over the Thanksgiving Holidays


www.flickr.com


For those who listened to the ENTIRE show, you can learn more about THAT song on this website and buy their albums! You can get THAT song for absolutely free, but Jade highly recommends getting BOTH albums, esp. if you're a fan of THAT writer, or just like QUIRKY Holiday music. (Copyright to THAT song belongs to its creators, HPLHS, Inc.
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Saturday, December 10, 2011

Episode 9: LosCon for the Holidays

In this episode, we give a LosCon report, then we talk about DIY holiday gifts and what we're working on during the holidays.

Come & give a listen!


(Click to listen. Uses Flash)

Part 1: Geek Out

For the first half of the show, we give a wrap-up of LosCon along with our "live" recording at the convention.


Part 2: Craft Geeking

Holiday DIY

The holidays are coming up, and while this section might be a little late, hopefully, it’ll give you some ideas for the upcoming season for simple DIY gifts.

Tea Liqueurs
Jade makes easy tea liqueurs which involve:
  1. bottle of decent, but relatively cheap vodka
  2. favorite black tea (Earl Grey, Irish Breakfast, etc). Green tea or Jasmin works well.
  3. Put the tea into to the vodka. 
  4. let it sit for 2 weeks
  5. Decant into sterile bottles
  6. Give to friends!
Infused Oils
Infused oils -- get virgin olive oil from Costco and garlic, rosemary, or thyme...along with sterile clean bottles. Let the oil sit for 1 month.

Baking
Both Jade & Sandy bake cookies for friends

Sandy: I make loads of cookies, and Craftster just sent out a recipe for peppermint bark that I think I’ll add to my repertoire.
Knitted Gifts
Hats are quick easy gifts to churn out, esp. in worsted or bulky weight yarn.

Other

Sandy made a gothic Christmas tree out of tinsel. Pics and instructions on her public livejournal entry: http://racerxmachina.livejournal.com/663092.html



Pointy Sticks & Crooked Hooks:

  • Jade -- has a case of start-itis
    • Started a vest (Hiker’s Waistcoat), which is a button down vest, using her handspun from TDF 2011.
    • A pair of socks for my nephew’s birthday, which had to rip parts out several times over because she can’t count, and he has small feet. (US 2 Children)
    • Finished her daybreak before Turkey day! Needs to be blocked.
    • Started a very long tail hat using the knitting machine and am just knitting now in the round to finish off the hat part.



Make it Sew:

The only sewing Jade's done is to make a modesty panel for her red silk corset.
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Sunday, November 20, 2011

Episode 8: Hugos

In this episode, we mostly geek out in an interview with Chris Garcia, who won the Hugo award for the best fanzine at WorldCon 2011. Then we hit up the craft section briefly with our upcoming projects.

Come & give a listen!


(Click to listen. Uses Flash)


Geeking Out
For this episode , Jade & España ventured off into the wilds of Mountain View, and met up with our local Hugo award winner, Chris, and his lovely & talented girlfriend, Linda, at a quaint little place, Kapp’s Pizza Bar & Grill. We interviewed him regarding his winning the Hugo for "The Drink Tank" -- the Best Fanzine at this year’s World Science Fiction convention in Reno.


Christopher J. Garcia, is a fan writer and hyper-prolific fan editor of multiple zines including Journey Planet, Exhibition Hall, Claims Department and the Drink Tank.

See Chris win the Hugo (http://boingboing.net/2011/08/22/greatest-hugo-acceptance-speech-of-all-time.html)


Geeky Crafting


Linda knitting during Chris' interview

Pointy Sticks & Crooked Hooks
  • Jade
    • Everybody Knows Sweatter (Knitty 2008) -- Jade finished the body, but doesn't have enough for the sleeves. She's spun one ounce of Frank for sleeve yardage
    • Machine Knitting -- Cascade 220. (See LJ for notes)
  • Sandy
    • Spent the Veteran’s Day weekend powering down on the Afghans for Afgans knit. She finished the entire body and wrote up the pattern, then cast on for the sleeves.
Make it Sew
Jade
  • taking apart a cartridge pleated skirt to make a bigger waistband. Cartridge pleating pleats a lot of fabric along a seam w/o bulk. You create the pleats, then you whipstitch the gathered edge of your pleated fabric to a finished waistband or seam (http://www.elizabethancostume.net/cartpleat/)
  • Hemmed a 1930s dress for the Bal de Vampyre so that she could dance in it w/o catching the hem of my skirt
Espana: hemmed up a dress, which she is counting as sewing.

FanArt
Espana -- Art; Fan Art for John Coxon’s Procrastinations #9 out now and Chris Garcia’s Drink Tank #300 coming out soon. Working on something for upcoming Holmes issue of Journey Planet. Prepping and printing for Loscon. Belated new issue of Yipe is up, after some technical issues, next month is the cocktail issue.
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Sunday, November 6, 2011

Episode 7: Boobies!


(Click to listen. Uses Flash)


================================
Part I: Geeky Stuff

Administrative Stuff:

  • There's an explicit tag for this podcast, as we talk about the female anatomy in art.
  • Also, please let us know about the audio quality. We're trying to make improvements, as we record over Skype.

Events:



Book Stack:

  • Sandy:  
    • Tiassa (Vlad Taltos) Highly recommended for continuing fans of the Taltos series.
    • Leviathan --- A steampunk world set on the brink of our history’s World War I, with an england that’s figured out genetic modification to an extent that they have bizarre crossbred animals bred for war and industry. On the other side of the sea, Germany has incredibly large and complex machines, especially big walker-style robots.
  • España; One Con Glory --- Movie/comic ready account of a geek girl and her adventures at a SDCC style convention. Highly recommended for any con-goer & fan (The author's website: Alertnerd.com)

Topic du Jour:

The girls do a short dive into the topic: Why do Women in video games, comic books, or SF/F art always seem to wear very little armor?

This topic is pretty vast and there are a lot of nuances. The girls talk about why this is and how it's changing....as much as they can within 30 minutes....

Blogs from Women Artists & Gamers about the subject:
http://gomakemeasandwich.wordpress.com/
http://boobsdontworkthatway.tumblr.com/

An excellent art site filled with women in reasonable armor
http://womenfighters.tumblr.com/

A photograph of male version of some of the female "pointless" armor as an example (NSFW!!!)
http://imgur.com/gallery/q8bMI

============================================================

Part II: Crafty Section



Pointy Sticks & Crooked Hooks

  • Sandy:

    • Apres Surf hoodie.
    • Still working on the Afghans for Afghans. She had a problem with gauge & tension from working in the round to flat knitting (afghans For Afghans main site. The current drive is asking for mainly sweaters, also vests, mittens, socks, hats, and blankets, in wool or animal fibers ONLY, due date January 2012.)
  • Jade:

    • Everybody knows, from Knitty 2008 -- using Frank handspun from TDF 2011. She might need to spin up more of Frank.
    • Stephen West's Daybreak. Using Cascade Venezia Sport in Copper & Cobalt blue
    • Gift for a friend using handspun Targhee in the Malificent colorway from Abstract Fibers.
    • She finally got the knitting machine over to the store for replacement parts (the sponge). Now, she just needs to get it back in order to start the Doctor Who scarf for her Viking.

Spinning:

Jade is still plugging away on Gretta as she hasn't had time to spin lately. She's 6 ounces into a 2lb fleece....

Make it Sew

Jade talks about her adventures in Fez making

Halloween Costuming

  • Sandy talks about her dead Frida Kahlo costume, and how she got away with making it for $25.00
  • Espana wore her most comfortable costume yet. She & friends cosplayed the roommates from The Young Ones
  • Jade dug into her costume closet to pull together an Indiana Jones/adventurer costume for work.










SF/SF Calendar of Events from SF to LA

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