Right now the East Coast of Australia is experiencing flooding, expected to become more disastrous than the 1974 flood, which affected much of the same area.
The last figures I heard were:
9 dead
62 missing
300 people being airlifted out of Forest Hill
15,000 homes and businesses affected
The flood levels are expected to continue to rise this week. I have seen some truly horrifying footage both on TV and online today - cars being washed away in Toowoomba, a clip on the news of a floating van careening into a tree that a man was clinging to (how he managed to hang on, I don't know. Rescuers were able to get to him shortly after. They had to half carry him out of the water, he was dazed and completely exhausted).
Brisbane and Queensland are in chaos. Homes and businesses have been either completely lost under the water, smashed by torrents, people's belongings and loved ones carried away. The death toll will only continue to rise and the damage count is already in the hundred millions.
Kira, a fellow blogger, is actually in Brisbane but she's in a suburb which is safe (for now). Jerry's also on the Gold Coast. I never thought I'd be so happy about living in Perth, but right now I am.
Please donate if you can, and pray if you're the praying type. We were not prepared for this. Surviving the next week is going to be incredibly difficult for thousands of people, and once the waters have receded, the grieving and rebuilding is going to be even harder. I'm donating what I can when I get paid on Thursday.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
Review: Artifacts #0-2
Because I got so horribly behind on my comic reviews, this is going to be a 5-issue review, done in 2 parts.
Issue #0
On Free Comic Book Day last year (if you haven't heard about it read this) I picked up this gorgeous thing:
I found the cover extremely intriguing, and the intro even more so. In it, the story of the Thirteen Artifacts is being told to Aphrodite IV, a state-of-the-art, absolutely lethal cyborg.
The Artifacts themselves have been the subjects of several series in the Top Cow comic universe: the Magdalena, Witchblade, and Broken Trinity (among others). However, this series is not just for old TC fans - it's being touted as a good introduction for newbies as well. Issue #0 contains information on the Artifacts and their bearers. All but four of the bearers are named and described. One Artifact, the thirteenth, is lost. Two Artifacts have unclear locations and the final fourth is held by the narrator, who does not reveal himself or talk about his Artifact.
The artwork is just wonderful and I love the way Aphrodite looks - in fact, her lips, eyes and hair are the exact same shade as my High Voltage Lip Whip in Iron Butterfly! (Do I smell a makeup look in the works?)
Issue #1
I strongly dislike black and white covers, and I just realised why - they remind me of children's coloring-in books. The urge to grab a pencil and just go at this is almost irresistable! The first page of this issue more than makes up for the cover, though - dramatic, full-page, strong female character! If that wasn't enough, there's some great banter and the main female character has a kid. Realism ftw!
The art in this is great. It's not photo-realistic, but it's not sketchy or cartoony either. There's a real depth to the color palette - each page has great mood, there's variety but not so much that it disrupts the tone of things.
There are four panels featuring Aphrodite that irritated me a LOT (panty shots. Real classy) and totally blew my happiness about the first page out of the water. I guess you can't expect the entire comics industry's portrayal of female characters to change overnight.
There was a pretty thorough storyline intro in this issue, if a few too many un-introduced characters who are sort of floating on the peripherals. It was enough to make me buy issue 2.
Issue #2
Again with the black and white! *grumbles*
There's some really nice - if rather blatant - symbolism in the first few pages here. The artwork pulls it off beautifully - again a muted, but not dull colour palette.
There is a really beautiful intertwining of supernatural and mundane happening already - my absolute favourite element of any fantasy/sci-fi story. Saving the world doesn't mean a character is exempt from or should be unaffected by things like family squabbles, bickering and friendship drama. If you can successfully intertwine or at least balance these two types of conflict, you've got me hooked. There's some blunt but well-appreciated exposition, telling us a bit of backstory of the holders of the Artifacts, and how they're all connected (besides the fact that they're all bearers).
This issue ends with a nice cliffie, so I was glad I picked it up at the same time as the next issue... except you'll have to wait to read about that in part 2 of my review.
Muahahaha.
Issue #0
On Free Comic Book Day last year (if you haven't heard about it read this) I picked up this gorgeous thing:
I found the cover extremely intriguing, and the intro even more so. In it, the story of the Thirteen Artifacts is being told to Aphrodite IV, a state-of-the-art, absolutely lethal cyborg.
The Artifacts themselves have been the subjects of several series in the Top Cow comic universe: the Magdalena, Witchblade, and Broken Trinity (among others). However, this series is not just for old TC fans - it's being touted as a good introduction for newbies as well. Issue #0 contains information on the Artifacts and their bearers. All but four of the bearers are named and described. One Artifact, the thirteenth, is lost. Two Artifacts have unclear locations and the final fourth is held by the narrator, who does not reveal himself or talk about his Artifact.
The artwork is just wonderful and I love the way Aphrodite looks - in fact, her lips, eyes and hair are the exact same shade as my High Voltage Lip Whip in Iron Butterfly! (Do I smell a makeup look in the works?)
Issue #1
The art in this is great. It's not photo-realistic, but it's not sketchy or cartoony either. There's a real depth to the color palette - each page has great mood, there's variety but not so much that it disrupts the tone of things.
There are four panels featuring Aphrodite that irritated me a LOT (panty shots. Real classy) and totally blew my happiness about the first page out of the water. I guess you can't expect the entire comics industry's portrayal of female characters to change overnight.
There was a pretty thorough storyline intro in this issue, if a few too many un-introduced characters who are sort of floating on the peripherals. It was enough to make me buy issue 2.
Issue #2
There's some really nice - if rather blatant - symbolism in the first few pages here. The artwork pulls it off beautifully - again a muted, but not dull colour palette.
There is a really beautiful intertwining of supernatural and mundane happening already - my absolute favourite element of any fantasy/sci-fi story. Saving the world doesn't mean a character is exempt from or should be unaffected by things like family squabbles, bickering and friendship drama. If you can successfully intertwine or at least balance these two types of conflict, you've got me hooked. There's some blunt but well-appreciated exposition, telling us a bit of backstory of the holders of the Artifacts, and how they're all connected (besides the fact that they're all bearers).
This issue ends with a nice cliffie, so I was glad I picked it up at the same time as the next issue... except you'll have to wait to read about that in part 2 of my review.
Muahahaha.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Review: Savvy by DB (part 2)
Part 1 here.
(If my pics look a bit weird, it's because I just got a new lamp. I'm still getting used to it, it's very different from the old one).
Onto the nail polish! I picked this up because it was a beautiful plummy purple with BLUE duochrome shimmer. The brush handle is quite oddly shaped. I didn't find it too cumbersome, but some people might.
First coat went on quite fuschia, with very violet shimmer. Formula was fairly thin and a bit streaky, even over base coat. Second coat evened it up quite a bit, and the third transformed it into the deep, opaque plum of the bottle color. The shimmer remained purple - no blue to be seen, under either artificial light or sunlight. The resultant manicure was GORGEOUS anyway!
I banged my nails up a little overnight, and would have smoothed the mani over with a topcoat, but the only one I have is Orly In A Snap. When I put it on, MY TIPS WENT MATTE. I kid you not, I don't know what happened or why, it was really weird. Another coat of polish fixed it fine, so I guess... just don't use an Orly top coat with Savvy polishes?
Other than that, I really loved this polish - it's gorgeous, really glowy and eye-catching but still subtle enough for work or a fancy party. I'll definitely be buying more Savvy by DB polishes. $2.99!
(If my pics look a bit weird, it's because I just got a new lamp. I'm still getting used to it, it's very different from the old one).
Onto the nail polish! I picked this up because it was a beautiful plummy purple with BLUE duochrome shimmer. The brush handle is quite oddly shaped. I didn't find it too cumbersome, but some people might.
First coat went on quite fuschia, with very violet shimmer. Formula was fairly thin and a bit streaky, even over base coat. Second coat evened it up quite a bit, and the third transformed it into the deep, opaque plum of the bottle color. The shimmer remained purple - no blue to be seen, under either artificial light or sunlight. The resultant manicure was GORGEOUS anyway!
I banged my nails up a little overnight, and would have smoothed the mani over with a topcoat, but the only one I have is Orly In A Snap. When I put it on, MY TIPS WENT MATTE. I kid you not, I don't know what happened or why, it was really weird. Another coat of polish fixed it fine, so I guess... just don't use an Orly top coat with Savvy polishes?
Other than that, I really loved this polish - it's gorgeous, really glowy and eye-catching but still subtle enough for work or a fancy party. I'll definitely be buying more Savvy by DB polishes. $2.99!
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