Are Aliens the oppressed or the oppressors?

LINK:  ALIVE IN JOBURG
This was the question that kept coming to my mind as I watched this amazing viral video for the upcoming movie District 9. Placing it 1990 South Africa makes the premise of the movie all the more troubling and conflicted. What struck me most was the various layers of power between everyone here, from the lowly alien begging for water, the bio suit alien that could crush someone like an insect, the giant ships, to the race and class differences right at the height of Apartheid. I love the comment someone made on Vimeo, "I love that the aliens just become a social problem, not an apocalyptic threat."

Where there is pattern there is meaning.

This is something I learned very early on from Sean Kane, the guy who wrote this book, Wisdom of the Mythtellers. Myths are full of patterns reflected in nature, and their telling reveals layer by layer their connections.

It would take a keen ear to catch such patterns, and perhaps the patterns mean different things for different people at different stages in their life. I'm trying to be aware of this as I write, where I draw on the natural world, but also on the web of social relationships between the characters. All of this while within a story being narrated, which I guess acts as a synecdoche (I love that word, hehe).

The story I'm using as reference is inspired from the Mabinogion, "Branwen Daughter of Llyr" which features some of the most vicious scenes. I'm taking my time with this one...

Prologue Narration

Well here it is... the prologue to my story, accompanied by Renee's beautiful artwork. I hope you enjoy it, please feel free to point out anything you like or dislike. Please don't the intentional ambiguity in some parts. All of the elements in this prologue are repeated throughout the first 11 chapters. ENJOY!

Part One:



Part Two:



Part Three:

Milestone is near.

Nine chapters, plus the prologue have been finished. I've been tidying up and tightening some loose connections in the story thus far, and am at the 35 thousand word mark. As soon as I've finished the 10th chapter I will post a draft of my prologue.

Character designs from nature pt. 2.

The story is slowly maturing, which is good because I really dislike rushing a narrative. I find when I start writing with guns a'blazin the story is rather short-lived, my fingers just can't keep up with my imagination. So what I've decided to do is s-l-o-w my imagination down in a way that allows me to nurture character and plot development.

3. Oven bird.

Anyway, here are two other character designs based on creatures in nature. The first is the tiny oven-bird, an unassuming bird at first glance, but quite intricate with its overall shape, breast design and beautiful song. This character is similar and serves a very important role in the story. In the story, they are actually aids in storytelling, and oddly enough have kinship with the Coddle Squid HERE.




4. Fen Wasp.

Don't ask me why I chose to make hummingbirds nasty, but in my story they can't be trusted because they'll want to kill you. Yeah, and I love hummingbirds, so I'm not quite sure what I was thinking. Perhaps I wanted to come up with a character that appears really beautiful but is deceptively dangerous, hence the fen wasp: a medium dog size literal mash-up of a wasp/hummingbird. I'll offer more details when I write character and creature profiles.

Movie: Battle For Terra Trailer

I love animation and sci-fi....put them together and it is fun all around for this gal! I can't wait to see this movie.

New adona painting - The Fox

Painting in Progress - The Fox

Here are some pictures of my current painting in progress about the character called "The Fox".  Rick will provide more details later in the week when I have finished filming the painting progress.  I am really enjoying this painting and doing all the little details like the hair and the dual colored eyes. 

er... a real life flood narrative.

I went to visit my grandparents a few days ago while their town was under a state of emergency because of flooding. They live on the north branch of the Sydenham river, about two miles north of the east branch, which had already risen above street level. Apparently there were miniature icebergs floating down mainstreet.

When I got there an icebreaker was going up and down the north branch literally doing doughnuts (that's Canadian for spinning out) trying to break the ice dam that formed in front of my grandparents. Fortunately the river top the street, I had visions of carry my gram on my back to the garage roof...

Anyway, here are some pics, the way these guys handled the tug was amazing. They would push straight to the shore and open the throttle in an attempt to create a current that could push the ice downstream. Oh, and the tugs' name is Menasha, its apparently a town in Wisconsin, but also a great character name.

Perception

Painting of Princess Aleris

So this is the lovely Princess Aleris from the planet of Adona in the Sky Wheel Galaxy.  It was painted by me...Renee.  I asked Rick to give you guys a little background information on her tomorrow, but I couldn't wait to post my video on the making of this painting.  I hope you enjoy the first of many paintings about the people, creatures and landscapes that comprise Adona...just one planet in the vastness that encompasses the Sky Wheel Galaxy.  The painting is acrylic and watercolor on canvas board. It is 6" x 8" in size.  The tile is formally called, "Princess Aleris."

pssst..

I don't mean to pressure her or anything, but I think Renee is going to produce another Skywheel painting this weekend!

Character designs from nature - pt. 1.

I've always been so impressed by creatures that seem altogether different, here are two creatures I'm using as the foundation for the Skywheel storyline.

1. Frilled Shark.

Because the first part of the story is a flood narrative, there has to be an underwater being, and the oldest known shark on earth is perhaps the best inspiration for it. Just think of this one as being much larger, by about three football fields in length, with glowing eyes. Also, think of Jonah. In the story it is known as the Sea Wurm. Its quite awful that these ancient fish are dying off, as many of them are turning up far from their deep sea habitat.



2. Neon Rainbow Jellyfish.

Also in keeping with the flood narrative, I went to this amazing jellyfish for inspiration. In the story, a select few members of the tribe are deep sea divers that harvest the iridescent ink from these creatures, they're about the size of a family van. I call them Coddle Squid, next to the Frilled Shark, they are the oldest creatures on the planet Adona, and like the Sea Wurm, they are sentient, or at least their ink is...

Trailer for "LAND OF THE LOST"

Will Ferrell stars as has-been scientist Dr. Rick Marshall, sucked into a time and spat back through space into a new land. Located sometime in the past, the landscape has roaming dinosaurs, weird humanoid monkey and lizard creatures and it is just all around weird. Now, Marshall has no weapons, few real practical survival skills and questionable intelligence to survive in this alternate universe.

Sucked alongside him for the adventure are his side-kick and super-smart research assistant Holly (Anna Friel) and a not-so-smart redneck survivalist (Danny McBride) named Will. Chased by T. rex and stalked by painfully slow reptiles known as Sleestaks, Marshall, Will and Holly must try to ally these friendly creatures, such as a primate called Chaka (Jorma Taccone), in order to navigate out of the hybrid dimension. Escaping from his expedition terribly gone awry offers audiences a relaxed and funny escape for their movie-going pleasure. Audiences will be watching to see if this trio will get stuck, and be permanent refugees in the Land of the Lost.

Below is a trailer for your viewing pleasure.

Clever crows and intelligent wheat.

This has been floating around the internet for a while, but I thought I'd post it here. Its one of those lessons that keeps coming back to me as I write about human / animal relationships in my story and the supposedly inherent hierarchies authors' (perhaps unknowingly) put in their stories.

I would never expect an animal to communicate in human terms, that's expecting a bit too much and assuming a bit too much. But dialogue occurs nonetheless, and not just with animals. I once heard someone say the most intelligent species are the different grains, after all they've convinced humans and other animals to spread them around the earth, as well they've created a desire in humans to alter their growing conditions (environmentally, biologically and genetically) to make life easier for them.

A Journey Round my Skull

http://ajourneyroundmyskull.blogspot.com/

I find myself returning to this blog time and time again. I love the attention the author gives to literature and art that might otherwise fade to obscurity. The art and the author's essays are quite rich and the archives are worth looking through. Enjoy!

Little update.

I'm beginning to chart the flood narrative, the first part of the story, and so far I have 20,000 words in 6 chapters. I wasn't expecting to have completed so much so soon. I've also found a good rhythm for the narration, which is done in third person limited. There is some ongoing (and humorous) discussion of this taking place on the Terry Brooks forums, because this is the narrative style used by Brooks.

I'm transcribing a ton of material for my dissertation, so while creative writing doesn't have top priority, I am finding moments here and there. Next I will work on the Prologue and maybe Renee can pump out a painting for the scene I have envisioned, in which a group of ten elders are preparing for the prophecized end of their civilization... which happens rather early in the first chapter.

People of the land and sea.

I've always been fascinated by my Grandfather's stories of the "old country," that being Breskens in Zeeland, the south of Holland. While most of his stories concern his experiences during WWII as a young boy under Nazi Occupation (all of which are brilliant in their own right), I've always wanted to go much further back to the older stories people told about their relationship to the land and sea. While stories of war occupy his memory, there are glimpses in these two photographs from the post-war period in which the Bressianders seemed genuinely proud to resume their relationship with the land and sea once more. The photographs are from the magazine Op Bresjes, 5 August 2006. I would love if someone could post a translation under what I call the Neeltje photograph.

Self-aware mythology: Rick's welcome.

I’d like to welcome everyone visiting this site for the first time, I hope you’ll come back from time to time, share your ideas, perhaps we could exchange work, and explore new ground in fantasy writing. While this blog will convey Renee’s art for my narrative, I’d like to make this a space where others are welcomed and encouraged to share their own creativity. I frequently peruse Renee’s other blog and I know there are quite a few creative minds converging over there. I also know from the Terry Brook’s forum I frequent that there are a great number of creative writers. So perhaps this could be a convergence of written and visual artists with a love contemporary fantasy.

This is a new venture for Renee and I, in which we focus through creative writing and visual collaboration on a single storyline, the Skywheel Galaxy. My idea for this project is still being nurtured, so I don’t feel too comfortable revealing the storyline, as I’m in the ‘pre-10’ chapter first draft stage. However, I promised Renee that when I finish Chapter 10 that I will make available a working prologue on this blog.

One the things I also intend to do on occasion is interview other authors and people who subscribe to this blog, as a means of expanding the dialogue, as well as, for pure entertainment. I’ve already confirmed one interview that I hope to do next month.

In terms of the story, as I explained to a friend last night, I am attempting to write a fantasy narrative that walks backward in mythology. One of the things I frequently see in fantasy writing is a vague acknowledgment to predecessor mythogologies without ever raising the bar by truly inhabiting myth. Skywheel won’t necessarily inhabit old mythologies, but I intend to write this as a fantasy that embodies particular mythic characteristics that appear over and over. For instance, the first 6 or 7 chapters I’ve written are a flood narrative. This particular narrative nods to various world mythologies. At the same time, Skywheel is entirely autonomous from the stories that influence me.

Finally, and this is what I find most difficult yet most rewarding, the mythos meta-narrative I am writing in Skywheel has a self-awareness to the story that happens in the human world.

Movie Review of Outlander

Movie Trailer

Movie Title: Outlander

Director: Howard McCain
Writers: Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain
Release Date: 23 January 2009 (Canada)
Genre: Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Vikings and aliens are not something that you see in the theaters every day, so I thought I would give this movie a look-see. As a movie watcher I love the sci-fi, fantasy, and action genres in both film and television. I was intrigued by the film plot and was excited about the cast member involved. Sadly, all film seem to “get me at hello,” but tend to often let me down so quickly with all the words that follow. So was the case with this movie. The movie is one of those films, you either like it or not. I am more in the not category and believe me when I say I tried to like it. I gave it chance after chance because of all the A list actors involved. I kept thinking that it has to get better, but I must say that it was more of a rent-it category then a theater-going category.

The movie is set in 709 AD during the reign of the Vikings. To open the film, a spaceship violently crashes down from outer space, landing rather violently somewhere in Norway. Out pops out Kainan (James Caviezel...aka Jesus), an alien soldier from an advanced culture hell bent on conquering other worlds for resources and land. Soon after Kainan’s crash landing, we soon learn that he has brought a little stowaway along with him that proceeds to kill of scores of human inhabitants living around the surrounding countryside. The alien is from a race of creatures called the Moorwen that hail from a once beautiful planet that was colonized and the creatures destroyed to make way for colonies. The last Moorwen hitches a ride on the Kainan’s ship in order to enact its revenge. Once the ship lands the alien finds a whole new home thanks to Kainan. The local viking villagers, led by King Rothgar (John Hurt...remember him as Gandolf in Lord of the Rings and Dumbledore of Harry Potter fame), are skeptical of this stranger whom they refer to as “Outlander,” that tells them of a monster, which he calls a dragon, is responsible for all the recent deaths and destruction of nearby villages. At first no one trusts him to join them in the defeat of the creature menacing the village, but soon enough, even the elder, the heir apparent (Jack Huston), and his headstrong wife-to-be (Sophia Myles...famous for her role in underworld) will realize that what they are up against is born of nightmares.

Drawing parallels rather freely to the old stories of Beowulf, it fails to offer the same vigor and awe as the original story which I personally found brutal. Maybe I have been corrupted by all the really bad versions of the Alien and Predator movies that keep popping up every year, but this movie only offers false hope for something new, propped up by the interesting Computer Generated Graphic (CGI) effects used to create the glowing alien that draws in its prey using pretty light effects before eating their heads off. Overall, I found the characters shallow portraits that never develop personalities. There is a strange little boy called Eric that is rather pathetic looking, who never plays a significant role in the movie, but oddly reminds me of Alien 3’s Newt with scruffy hair that looks like it has never been washed. The plot oddly blends not jus Alien 3, but a host of other movies including, Predator, The Chronicles of Riddick, and the also the animated version of Beowulf. From Alien and Beowulf, it takes a wronged monster-mother protecting and then avenging its young. From The Chronicles of Riddick it borrows from a conquering race of aliens wrecking havoc on the universe and from Predator a dose of monster-killing kick-ass action. I forgot to add how it takes the same tacky set and costume design as that sword wielding, fur-moon-boot wearing, bad hair Euro-action and horror mess known as the Brotherhood of the Wolf.

The movie is packed in the first half with awkward scenes that seem to have little purpose other then to act as a vein attempt to fill in time and offer a sad display of cultural history. I don’t even know if any of that stuff was historically correct, but I really hope it wasn’t for the sake of the descendents of the “real” Vikings. There is one scene in the Great Hall where the men play “shields,” a strange game of bravado and strength where men proceed to walk, hop, jump and flip around on shields held up over the heads of other men. I found myself wishing I had a remote control to fast forward. I can’t tell you how awkward and foolish it all was.

The sometimes silly, but also sometimes action pact story line is acted by a cast that tries its hardest to sell movie with a straight face. The big pay checks paid out probably helped them put up with it all. Caviezel remains as stoic and driven savior of humanity as when he played Jesus Christ in the Passion of the Christ. Hurt, the aged and wise King of the Vikings, is rarely used for his acting prowess and instead becomes the symbol of the old generation passing away to make way for the new generation. Huston is the reluctant, brash sidekick and competition for the love interest who is played by Myles. She is both pretty heroine that needs to be saved by her alien knight-in-stinky-furs Caviezel. Lastly, there is an incredibly too brief appearance by a bearded and ever-grumpy Ron Perlman as the bald leader of an opposing settlement. Rather unfortunately, his part is rather small and only is there to add limited comic relief in the film's middle act. He never becomes an integral part of anything in the film and seems rather a useless character that could have been played by anyone and probably for a lot less money I would suspect. I might add his death came too soon. In my opinion, Perlman’s part was altogether a poor use of a good action actor.

The alien became my hero in this film. I felt myself cheering on the alien for almost the entire movie. Maybe it was the bad acting and writing that made me side with the “so-called” bad guy of the movie or maybe it was the fact that Kainan’s people committed genocide on the Moorwen’s homeworld. I really didn’t feel sorry for Kainan and his new viking friends. Okay, maybe I felt a bit sorry for the women and children that got eaten and killed by the Moorwen, but the rest of the Vikings...not so much. I feel that the alien monster was doing us all a favor. Too bad it didn’t win! Throughout the movie both man, man-alien and alien monster are seeking revenge back-and-forth for violence committed against them. Kainan leads a large alliance of Vikings to kill the Moorwen by fusing his advanced technology with the Viking's Iron Age weaponry. The Moorwen goes and gives birth to a second Moorwen that beginnings wrecking its own havoc on the Viking village. The move turns into a kill fest back and forth with bodies piling up and up and up. The action is not spectacular and the graphics are not really as good as they could be.

Now I must admit that the plot idea is vaguely amusing and I thought it would be a good fun-filled romp, but if I can offer a word of advice...rent it...most of the good actors are barely used and it is a lot of boring scenes. Every character in this movie looks like they seriously need to take a bath or at least jump in lake and take a swim now and then...jeez. Filthy is the word I would use to describe how they look. I really wish they had been more creative with the costumes. Maybe it is because I am a chick but the clothes and set design are important aesthetics that set the mood. If those things are bad, I just can’t believe the rest of the story.

Director Howard McCain co-wrote this film with Dirk Blackman, who together also wrote the Underworld franchise, which I so heart after. I am not hearting Outlander even though I applaud more sci-fi movies pouring into theaters. Outlander is out on limited release and will likely get buried in the after-Christmas winter wasteland where movies go to die or at the very least be forgotten so it don’t ruin actors careers...I am sure the actors in this film are hoping for just that. If you are going to see this movie because of the cast of actors involved in this project then brace yourself because you will be shocked at what your money gets you. If you are going just to see humans kick alien ass and not superb acting prowess then you will probably still be disappointed, but less so then if you were expecting this film to dish you content that would be Oscar worthy.

This is all my opinion and done in fun. Take it or leave it. Just one gal's review.

Review written by Renée.

Welcome from Renee

Welcome to the Sky Wheel Galaxy blog.  We will slowly be building up this blog with fun stories, new movie trailers and reviews, original artwork and interviews of interesting personalities.  

You will see my artwork scattered throughout and I will be soon selling original work, prints and other fun goodies in the near future.

We hope you will come back and enjoy our site.

In Production

This site is currently being developed.  More posts to follow.

Thank you from the Creators of the "Sky Wheel Galaxy".