The Bad Influence Speaks

30 Days Until Dragon*Con 2012

We're 30 days away from the greatest fan run, multi-media convention ever. Dragon*Con is almost here! We have over 35 tracks covering everything from Comics, Literature, Whedonverse, Space, Alternative History, Star Trek, and Gaming. There are celebrity panels, academic panels and fan panels. (I'm partial to the fan ones myself. It's a group of people talking about the shows/media they love.)

Here is a partial list of the guests that will be coming this year:

Authors:
Kevin R. Grazier
Laurell K. Hamilton   
Sherrilyn Kenyon   
Todd McCaffrey   

Film & Television:
Tony Amendola       
Aaron Ashmore
Adam Baldwin   
Jamie Bamber   
John Barrowman
Amber Benson   
Bruce Boxleitner   
Billy Boyd
LeVar Burton   
Dean Cain   
James Callis
Alice Cooper       
Felicia Day       
Jane Espenson   
Colin Ferguson
Lou Ferrigno   
Joe Flanigan   
Jonathan Frakes   
Josh Gates
Kat Graham       
Anthony Michael Hall
Richard Hatch       
Grant Imahara       
Juliet Landau       
Tembi Locke
Sean Maher   
Joe Manganiello   
James Marsters
Niall Matter   
Eddie McClintock   
Eve Myles   
Kathy Najimy   
Kai Owen
Jaime Paglia       
Sandeep Parikh
John Rhys-Davies       
Ryan Robbins   
Saul Rubinek
Tim Russ   
Chris Sabat   
Katee Sackhoff
Ian Somerhalder   
Jewel Staite   
Patrick Stewart
Robin Thorsen   
Sam Trammell
Adam West   
Steven Yeun
 

Comics, Art, & Illustration:
Mark Bagley
Mike Choi
Georges Jeanty   
Stan Lee   
Ted Naifeh
Dustin Nguyen   
Dan Dos Santos
Bill Sienkiewicz   
William Stout
Bernie Wrightson
Mark Zug
 

Music, Theatrics, & Performance Art:
Atlanta Radio Theatre Company   
Crüxshadows     
Erin Hill & her Psychedelic Harp     
Lips Down on Dixie   
The Extraordinary Contraptions     
Aurelio Voltaire   
Warchild

(full list)

Leverage: The Blue Line Job

Season 5, Episode 2

 

A hockey players son enlists the team to help is father who may not survive another injury on the ice. Treat Williams guest stars.

Nate: That's actually terrifyingly, exactly right.

 

Parker: How are we going to keep that guy from fighting?
Nate: That's what we have Eliot for.

 

Eliot: You're right. I got no family, not like you mean, but I had brothers. I had a lot of them. I didn't know all the names of them, but I knew their faces and I knew their rank, and I did things I didn't want to because they counted on me. Bad things for good reasons. And you know what I learned? Bad choices are bad choices, doesn't matter why you made them. And they tear you apart from the inside out, and you don't even notice.

 

Sophie: You having a staring contest with a turtle?
Nate: No, I just won a starting contest with a turtle.
Sophie: Is it weird that I find that oddly attractive?

 

Pete: Who are you guys?
Eliot: Enforcers are put on the ice to make sure things don't go too far. If they do, they step in. Regulate.
Nate: Every player on this ice is an enforcer.

Comments:
-So are Parker and Hardison actually sleeping together now? Obviously they're living together (unless all the team is living there). That seems like a massive step for Parker to take.

Leverage quotes main page

Excerpt from Born of Shadows by Sherrilyn Kenyon

This comes from the acknowledgments.

 

For those who have walked through the fires of hell and rather than fall to its flames, have emerged battered, but victorious. In the immortal words of Ovid: Quin nunc quoque frigidus artus, dum loquor, horror habet, parsque est meminisse doloris - Even now while I tell it, cold horror envelops me and my pains return the minute I think of it. We can ever escape the pain of our pasts, or the flashbacks that assault us when we dare to let our thoughts drift unattended, but we can choose to not let it ruin the future we, alone, can build for ourselves.

And for those who are currently trapped in a bad situation. May you find the resolute strength it takes to free yourself, and to finally see the beauty that lives inside you. You are resplendent, and you deserve respect and love. Don't let the minions of hatred or cruelty define you, or steal away your own humanity. When our compassion and ability to love and appreciate others go, then our bullies and oppressors have truly won, for it is not they who are harmed, but rather we who lose our souls and hearts to the same miserable bitterness that caused them to lash out against us. The cycle can be broke - it must be broken, even though the path is never easy or without cost. Yet victory is made sweeter when you know it came from within you, without violent retribution. The best revenge is to leave them mired in their hateful misery while you learn to bask in the warmth of self-esteem and happiness. Never forget that broken wings can and do heal in time, and that those scarred wings can carry the eagle to the top of the highest mountain.

BIS Book Review: Born of Silence

by Sherrilyn Kenyon
The League book 5

 

Darling Cruel has long lived a lie to protect those he loves and in doing so created dual roles for himself. In one life, he is the heir to a corrupt thrown; in the other life, he is Kere, a rebellious leader of the Sentella, who helps the resistance on his home world. Zarya, a resistance leader whose father was killed by Darling's uncle, is his only salvation, but she doesn't know his real identity.

Betrayed by the resistance, Darling must come to terms with all he has faced and Zarya's role in it. Will he be able to step into the light and be the leader he was born to be?

 

 

When I first picked this book up, I was wary. It's thicker than normal for her series which is not a good sign. Generally speaking, when Kenyon writes a long novel, it will be heartbreakingly tragic. Acheron is a great example of this fact. His early life is painfully brutal and destructive. Born of Silence follows in this tradition. Darling is subject to horrific torture at the hands of those he had considered friends (and this after a lifetime of cruelty* from his uncle). Sherrilyn Kenyon is about redemption though. Her protagonists learn to rise from the pain of their lives and move forward with, if nothing else, humor.

This book is a heartbreaker. You will gasp, cry, and be truly shocked by some of the content. It is still a worthy read. With each new book, Kenyon reminds me that no matter what obstacles or pain we face in our lives, we can keep on going. True, there will be days (or years) when we're merely putting one foot in front of the other, but in the end we can each prevail.

I started reading this in the late afternoon and finished around 11 pm or so completely missing dinner. I could not put it down. Be prepared.

 

*I couldn't resist the pun.

 

BIS Rating: 5 nightlights

BIS Rating system:
1 nightlight = put it down and didn't care to pick it back up
2 nightlights = finished the book
3 nightlights = enjoyed the book but probably wouldn't re-read it
4 nightlights = had a hard time putting the book down
5 nightlights = stayed up way too late to finish instead of going to bed

Purchase Born of Silence by Sherrilyn Kenyon on Amazon or Barnes & Noble today.

Hump Day Quote: Carl Sagan

What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.

Carl Sagan

Leverage: The (Very) Big Bird Fan Job

Season 5, Episode 1

 

The team reunites in Portland to take on a air freight executive whose company had gotten away with a crash caused by outsourced maintenance. What to tempt him? The Spruce Goose of course! Cary Elwes guest stars.

Parker: Thief Juice: It's a mouth crime.

 

Sophie: We're moving to Portland? No warning. Anything else?
Parker: Hardison and I are dating.
Hardison: Yeah. We just got back from an around the world trip.

 

Nate: Portland is very, uh, odd.

 

Sophie: No, London has fog. Fog is mysterious; rain just ruins my hair.

 

Hardison: To Do: Hack the U.S. National Artifacts website. Yea. What else?

 

Sophie: Parker, why does the money always come before the people?

 

Eliot: I'm only going to say this once, boys. Give me the teddy bear.

 

Parker: This is the part where you get punched.

Comments:
○It feels like forever since I've seen my favorite thieves.
○Was that Adam Baldwin as Eliot's friend? I love seeing the clips with Eliot's friends. You get to see that he has more of a past than just violence.
○Okay, I'm impressed with Parker. I can never successfully insert a USB into a port on the first try. It's always upside down.
○"Damn it, Hardison. You can't..." Eliot's so very concerned with the menu and brewing its charming. I guess we all know what he's going to be sidetracked with this season.

Leverage quotes main page

Hump Day Quote: Jessica Mills

Life has plenty of spectacular amazing moments. Life has plenty of heartbreaking defeat and disappointment.

But the true beauty lies in the simplicity. The quiet moments.

Jessica Mills, Nerdy Girl Talking About Geeky Things: Blatherings on the meaning of life…

Covert Affairs: Hang On To Yourself

Season 3, Episode 1

 

After Jai's shocking death, Annie and Auggie are moved to separate departments. Auggie is in charge of Jai's old office and Annie is investigating with a new team who runs on the fast side. Hopefully she can keep up. Sarah Clarke joins the cast and Richard Coyle guest stars.

Annie: You're the best mother a sister could have.

 

Joan: Nights at home you say we're a team, that I'm your most trusted council, but you pull rank when the shit goes down.

Comments:
○ Sweet mercy! I was not expecting that to happen to Jai. Talk about out of the blue. Man, I'm going to miss his deceptive, snarky ass.
○ Is this the new getting to know you? Measuring you passport against another's. I'd fail that. Mine is currently blank. I haven't been able to afford to go anywhere since I renewed it.
○ The whole "female operatives are discouraged from sleeping with marks because they get attached, we ignore that" thing? Annie's screwed (quite literally). She's already attached to him somewhat. Hell, I'm attached to Simon already even though he's a bad, bad man.

Covert Affairs Quotes

White Collar: Wanted

Season 4, Episode 1

 

Neal and Mozzie are living the high, island life while Peter desperately searches for them to protect them from FBI Agent Kyle Collins and his dangerous methods. Mekhi Phifer guest stars.

Neal: That almost sounds like regret, something you said you don't believe in.

 

Mozzie: Just so I'm clear. You can have any woman you want and the one woman you choose is the only woman in the whole archipelago who doesn't want you?
Neal: You have your pursuits. I have mine.

 

Neal: Have you ever considered us normal people, Moz?

 

Mozzie: Neal, the suit isn't wrong.
Peter: Can't you just say I'm right?
Mozzie: Rather not.

Comments:
○Does Mekhi Phifer ever play a likable character?

○I'd missed that Peter warned Neal off at the end of last season. Damn, I hate myself for that.
○He was born in St. Louis? Nice new pre-criminal career titbit.
○I have high hopes for this season being Neal, Mozzie and Peter on the run from the FBI. Neal got to know Peter's life first hand. It's good for Peter to know Neal's.

 

White Collar Quotes

Eureka: Double Take

Season 5, Episode 12

 

Holly, Andy, Jo and Henry's doubles start the work of converting the town and placing the real residents into the matrix. Only Allison, Fargo, Parrish and Zane are free to help.

Fargo: What?! Do you know how many millions of dollars those things cost? Man, girlfriends are expensive.

 

Fargo: Tell me about it. My resurrected girlfriend is the Manchurian Candidate.

 

Parrish: How did you know that it wasn't me?
Zane: The real you wouldn't trust me.

 

Parrish: You dematerialized me.
Zane: Yeah, what happened to nonlethal weapons?
Parrish: That one's a work in progress.

 

Parrish: I taste like chicken.

 

Kevin: You mean he's a clone? Sweet! Can we keep him?
Allison: This is Jack's evil twin not a puppy.

 

Zane: That's the nicest thing you've ever said to anyone actually.

 

Fargo: I knew night vision mode would come in handy.

 

Jack: I've got to kick my ass.

Comments:
○I wonder how far they would have taken this storyline if the show hadn't have been cancelled. I'm assuming they would have found a way to save the town, but now it will end with it's closing.
○Lets take a look at all the genre references in this episode. It seems like they were trying to cram as much as they can in (not that I'm knocking that).
     ○ Manchurian Candidate
     ○Aliens = queen on LV426 popping out eggs
     ○Blade Runner = replicants
     ○Invasion of the Body Snatchers = pod people
     ○Gamer = meat puppets
     ○Star Wars = frozen in carbonite
     ○Star Trek: TNG = Resistance is futile.
I'm sure there were others I missed. Drop a comment below with any additions you have. And remember, next Monday is the final episode of Eureka.

Eureka Quotes Main Page