Stories from the Calindratem

In the last couple weeks, I have been working in silence thinking about the direction I wanted to take this blog to, how to expand it and get more attention to it. I want to create an interesting source for my fellow nerds out there, where we can also discuss our favourite movies, series and books.  I have been busy preparing a lot of posts in advance, as from 2021 onwards I will post every Saturday. Some posts might be more serious and some will be a little light hearted fun of the "What-if-type". Others will introduce you to little known sub genres and consist of character analysis. I will also review TV shows, movies and books.  In addition to this, I will also post several original short stories. One is particular is very close to my heart. It is called "The Knight" and I wrote it for my mom as she was dying. She loved the story and after almost three years, I feel like it is about time, I shared it with the world.  Finally I want to let you know, that I already...

On December 23rd Netflix premiered the highly anticipated "The Midnight Sky" directed by George Clooney, who also plays the lead. The cast is excellent with Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Demián Bichir and Kyle Chandler, among others, although my personal favourite was Caoilinn Springall. If she sticks to acting this young lady will go far. Her expressiveness is outstanding, especially for such a young girl (She can't be older than 8 years.) and she is the perfect counterpart to George Clooney's aged character. The acting in general is superb and proves that George Clooney is the sort of director, who can get the best out of any actor.  The set design sets itself apart from most Science Fiction movies. Spaceships are usually designed in a completely functional way, but the  Ӕther has some unsual components that give it a slightly more organic look, without it becoming too dominant. It makes for a nice visual change.  The problem with "The Midnight Sky" is th...

"Star Trek Discovery" has polarized Trekkies all over the world, because it is setting itself apart from the established style of Star Trek shows. The question is: Do we want a new type of Star Trek show or is the consistency of the previous shows part of its appeal?  Discovery is set approximately 10 years before the events of the original show, in a time, when Klingons were still somewhat a mystery and a huge threat. The Federation was still in its early days.  The story revolves around a female, human officer, Michael Burnham, who grew up on Vulcan.  While her character is interesting it is also one of the parts that sets the show apart from its predecessors. Most Star Trek show are usually mainly ensemble shows, that take turns focusing on the various team members. Discovery deviates significantly from the concept, mainly focusing on Burnham and giving the other members of the team much less space for character development. The result is that whenever a member of the ...

Many women complain that there is a lack of strong female characters in television and movies. I respectfully disagree on that, especially when it comes to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Mystery. What is however true is that most of these characters are supporting characters and therefore often don't receive the attention they deserve.  In the past I have listed some of these characters but I feel that they deserve more than just a paragraph in my blog and therefore I will start this new series about strong female characters. I hope you will enjoy.  Only recently have I started to watch the tv show "Lucifer" and got immediately hooked. While all characters are engaging and perfectly portrayed I have a particular fascination for the character of Maze or Mazikeen of the Lilim as her full name is.  If you have not yet seen Lucifer season 5 part 1 yet, be aware that spoilers will follow.  When the viewer first meets Maze, she is cold, withdrawn and overly sexual as fits he...

I have grossly neglected this blog for a very long time. This was due to various reasons: A family tragedy, a demanding day job, the global pandemic and some personal health issues.  Like the majority of writers I consider this my real work but I also have and need a day job to pay my bills (Hopefully one day this might change). Usually I manage to keep the two of them balanced pretty good. During the day I have an office job and at night I turn into Lorca (Yes, you guessed right, Lorca is a pen name as my personal tribute to Federico Garcia Lorca). In the recent months however other parts of my life took over and writing faded into the background. Not because I didn't care, but to write you need a certain mindset and even if it sounds cheesy inspiration. As I rarely managed to find this days without writing turned to weeks and weeks turned to months.  Soon I started to feel miserable and irritable, blaming stress and lack of sleep. It all took a toll on my personal health and...

Since it is May 4th, Star Wars day, it feels like the perfect day to do this. Also I finally got around to watching "Star Wars - The Rise of Skywalker", as I missed it at the cinema due to a family issue.  Please note that there are some spoilers ahead, in case you haven't seen all of the movies. Here is my personal ranking based on story, execution and how well it fits into the story as a whole:  9. Attack of the Clones Sadly this is an easy one. Attack of the Clones is by far the worst Star Wars movie in my opinion. Almost everything is wrong with it, from cringe worth dialogue, to bad performances. I am a huge fan of Ewan McGregor, Christopher Lee and Nathalie Portman but sadly not even their talent could safe the bad lines they were given. Add to that the lack of direction by George Lucas and you get scenes that are painful to watch. The love story seemed forced and didn't develop organically, one got the feeling on occasion that Padme simply pitied the...

Admittedly including this in a nerd blog seems like quite stretch but medieval literature being another of my passions I couldn't ignore the parallels. I believe that the gerne of fantasy is deeply linked to this the old legends, not just King Arthur but also Beowulf & Grendel and many others.  First of all there is not "THE" King Arthur Story but rather a collection of stories. It seems likely that many occurances were simply linked to him or made up by people hearing stories about King Arthur and just wishing to continue it. Doesn't this sound awefully familiar? I guess you could consider this sort of storytelling the first fanfictions. People were adding to stories they loved and found inspirational. Scholars are still debating wether King Arthur has existed in one or another way or if he is just this a legend. Assuming he was a real ruler, he has most likey lived sometime during the 5th and 6th century, despite the most popular stories putting him somet...

When the original Twin Peaks came out I was just 11 years old. I finally saw it when I was about 14 years and remember loving it and having a huge crush on Agent Cooper. In 2017 the return came out and since my good friend Maik Lohse gave such an intriguing feedback (“I am not sure if it is brilliant or terrible”) I decided to rewatch the original show and the new season 3. It turns out that I pretty much shared Maik’s experience to the extent that I had to rewatch all 3 seasons 6 months later to finally make up my mind and with all the rumours about a possible fourth season it felt like the right time to write this review.  The first two seasons were and still are mostly brilliant. Despite being almost 30 years old they still don’t look outdated but rather timeless. Why does it work like this? Because even the music played at the roadhouse is not particularly nineties. The styles are from various decades James Hurley is the 50ies biker, his uncle Ed Hurley is clearly a 70i...