Ariellalphabet’s Week- Zombies Have Been An Ongoing Theme

One of the more flattering pictures from last weekend.
I'm not sure why I was dancing, I just know that I was.

On the week I hoped could be nice and relaxed (I’m still recovering from last week’s shenanigans) I was busy as usual. Cinema trips, fun shopping trips and a Lolita meet-up which I’ve just got back from, I’ve spent this week getting up to all sorts.

On Monday I began doing something I never thought I would- arranging a Lolita meet-up.  I’ve explained what Lolita fashion is in this post before, but in case you didn’t know, it’s a very cutesy fashion style from Japan which is surprisingly big in the UK and the US! Anyway, since I’m usually really shy and pretty bad at organising stuff, it all spiralled from a post I made in my local Lolita group on Facebook. I’d been to the previous Vintage Fair held here in snowy Sheffield previously, and since the friend I usually went with couldn’t go and I didn’t want to miss it, so I’ve ended up arranging a trip out to the vintage fair, followed by a meal out in my favourite Sheffield bar/pub Bungalows and Bears, and then, if we still have energy, go out to a swing jazz speak easy. I’m looking forward to it! Aside from planning outings, I also had my screenwriting seminar where I was finally blessed with an idea for my script and assignments! All I’ll say is that it’s based loosely around a love of music, the Mixtape comic that I blogged about a while ago, and the stories my Dad’s told me about following bands on the road, and how it’s changed as he got older and got more responsibilities. When I got back from uni, after having a few cups of tea and relaxing, my housemate Daryl broke out the Wii and we played (or attempted to, in my case) Mario for a good couple of hours, before we moved onto MarioKart, a game I am woefully terrible at, at least in comparison to my other housemate Robin!

On Tuesday, my day off, I finally got around to seeing Warm Bodies. I remember reading about it on IMDB *ages* ago, and being somewhat torn about the premise. Zombies? Yes. A zombie love story? Perhaps not. I met up with one of my friends from uni and my future housemate Eleanor, and we traipsed over to the cinema to watch it. Aside from the constantly commentating teen girls who were in there, it wasn’t too bad. Not even half as bad as I had expected/prepared myself for, but there was still this odd feeling throughout, and I was pretty annoyed as the more the film went on, the shorter and less enjoyable zombie boy R’s internal monologue became. Either way, the film was ripped apart and analysed in a dozen different ways by Eleanor and I once we’d made our way over to Bungalows and Bears afterwards! When  I got back, I spent the evening relaxing with Robin and Daryl.

This is my new phone background.
Such a brilliant cover.

Ahh, Wednesday. New comic book day, as I usually like to celebrate. This week’s pull list was very heavily Image oriented (as it usually is!) but, disaster of all disaster, ‘extreme weather conditions’ were keeping all Image comics firmly grounded in America, so I’ve been struggling to stay spoiler free for Saga and Happy, two series that I’ve been thoroughly enjoying just recently. However, Captain Marvel came out, and wow. That series, despite being constantly amazing is really pulling up the tension, and after the big post I wrote about Kelly Sue DeConnick and Captain Marvel over on Comics Crux last week, I’m getting more and more impatient for it every week it comes out! At uni, I’ve been studying classical narrative (which is mostly about the structure of films and how they’re put together) so we had the chance to watch the classic Casablanca, a film I hadn’t seen before. I really enjoyed it, and now I finally know where so many of those iconic lines came from- Here’s lookin’ at you kid! After my weekly trip to the comic shop, I came home, read through Captain Marvel and got right on with writing a review, and then it was time for game night! Eleanor came up as usual, and we broke out the MarioKart, which caused some of the most violent and hilarious game rage I’ve ever heard in my house before! Even with Robin and Daryl raging at online Halo, I’ve never heard anything as funny as Eleanor shrieking “DIE BABY MARIO DIE!” and so on. Eleanor also brought up two Mel Brooks films called Blazing Saddles and Spaceballs to watch. I wasn’t particularly swayed by either of them, but Daryl and I somehow made another agreement and he made bacon pancakes for us. A good night was had by all!

Thursday was my big shopping day! My Dad’s birthday is swiftly coming around, and although I’ve already given him/got conned into giving him something, I decided to pick up another graphic novel that I saw in the comic shop that he’d like. I know that he reads this, so I won’t reveal what it is- what I will say is that I’ve read it already. I couldn't help myself! Could you expect any less?! My shopping trip also took me to Waterstone’s, the big book store chain where I bought World War Z by Max Brooks (It’s Sunday as I write this and I’ve almost finished it!)  and Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, by Dr. Hunter S Thompson, as I fancied a change in reading. I’d re-read The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides earlier this week, and have definitely been in the book reading mood. On Thursday I also got the well-awaited artwork for my blog that you’ll see up on the banner! After posting a request on Twitter a couple of weeks previous, I was contacted by an illustrator called Andrea Hatch who offered to help, and that was the finished project! I’m so happy with the finished project, and I’ll be interviewing her for my Spotlight On Indie post in the future to talk about her incredible webcomic, Neau. I also made my usual phone calls back home to my family, which included a pretty random one-hour call to my Dad, which included laughing at each other, talking about my cats and comic books. (In fact, this strip from Marc Ellerby’s Ellerbisms sums it up pretty well!)  Aside from more shopping, I spent the rest of Thursday watching Supernatural and Lost Girl with Daryl.

Friday saw the roll-around of the Performance and the Big Screen segment of my course, and we watched a 50’s film I’ve been wanting to watch for a very long time- Rebel Without A Cause, starring the iconic-but-sadly-short-lived James Dean. I absolutely loved it, and it was even better that I got the chance to watch it on the big screen! After lunch with my friends and the seminar, I headed back home and finally got around to writing a review of 90’s 2000AD series Mazeworld, a TPB that my Dad had let me borrow the last time I’d gone home. Amazingly, my review got retweeted by the 2000AD Twitter Profile, and I enjoyed a lot of retweets, comments and views for the rest of the night, and had my next bright idea for a regular section on here- 2000AD Thursday! The plan is to write about old stories, characters and review the newest issue. My plan is to make it biweekly, going up the first and third Thursdays of the month, with my first post being about my namesake, Psi-Judge Cassandra Anderson! As I’ve mentioned before, one of my many middle names is after Mega-City One’s popular psychic judge, so I feel it’s only fitting that I write about her! I’m considering making Friday nights ‘Find New Comics Night’ as, like last week, I ended up coming across a new series (new to me anyway. I know for sure that Chew has a well-established fanbase!) read the majority of it in one night, and laughed like a crazy person at  it. Chew is absolutely hilarious and completely unlike any other series I’ve read in a long time. However, I do feel sorry for Daryl though. On Friday night, while he was trying to concentrate on playing Fallout 3, he had me chuckling away at Chew without explaining what I was laughing at, and Robin laughing like a madman at a Defiance livestream. Our house is rarely quiet!

I love Saturdays. I really don’t say it enough, but I do. Our house is usually quiet until about 3, which is the time that everyone finally lurches out of their rooms, craving tea and sustenance. To say we resemble zombies on Saturdays is an understatement! Anyway, after finally rising out of bed at the completely reasonable time of 2PM, I began another comic quest, and read through a series that has been heavily recommended to me- The Li’l Depressed Boy. Packed full of obscure music references (I was fairly proud to recognise a Cat Power poster in the background) comic references done in brilliantly intelligent ways, and an intensely emotional, can’t-stop-reading storyline, again, I enjoyed it, and will be adding it to my future pull list! The rest of Saturday was spent watching Daryl play Fallout 3, offering my help where I could (in a very, very rare twist of events, Fallout 3 is one of few games that I know inside-out, better than Robin and Daryl) watching Robin continue his quest to try and work out codes for Defiance, and eating Mars bars. I love Saturdays.

The Lincoln Loli girls! L-R Charlotte, Cassy, Gina & Me!

I’ve spent Sunday out at a Lolita meet-up with the lovely Lincoln Lolis. I hopped on the train from Sheffield, and received a lot of funny looks (a girl wearing big poofy dress and reading World War Z on a surprisingly packed train, what else could I expect?!)  as I headed over to Lincoln. I met the girls at one of the many restaurants in Lincoln, the Slug & Lettuce, and had some pretty yummy chicken wraps, and we had a good catch up, as well as planning a lot of future events! We also exchanged some (very!) late Christmas gifts, and Cassy gave me a lovely pink bath set, complete with pink rubber duckie! I had  a lovely time out with the girls, and it was good to see them too, and we got some great pictures of everyone’s outfits… even if to get a group photo I had to balance my camera on a box, set the self-timer and then run back in shot!

I’m now back home, relaxing in my PJs, and I plan on finishing World War Z before I go to bed tonight!

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on Twitter- @Ariellalphabet

This week’s posts:

Comic Book Wednesday, Review of Captain Marvel #10

Review of Mazeworld

Review of Warm Bodies