S. Worthen | Weblog

The Paralympic Closing Ceremonies were fun! I loved the steampunk aesthetic. The homemade-look and the focus on using a more central subset of the stadium meant the whole event felt more intimate and cohesive than its predecessor ceremonies. The giant fish! The dinosaur car! Brief glimpses of a fast-moving motorcycle on a high wire! Lots of whirling flame! Really good use of the pixels too, well-thought out and integrated, not just "oh look, cool pixels we can do things with!"

We had to pause the broadcast periodically to look after little Grouting. Near the end, pausing, we heard booming outside. Distant but loud and thought - fireworks at Stratford? They were! And twenty minutes of unpaused broadcast later, we saw those we'd heard via streamed aerial shots.

Help me with cultural ignorance: why are Coldplay so derisible? FB comments make it clear they are. I mostly only knew them from the one song of theirs I have on DDR.

Reminder that the deadline is the 30th of this month for applying to present at Swords, Sorcery, Sandals and Space: The Fantastika and the Classical World. A Science Fiction Foundation Conference. The conference itself will be held 29 June – 1 July 2013 in Liverpool.