April Round-Up, Star Wars Episode VII, and Never-Ending Cosmos Praise

So, the big news in April came just a couple days ago with the announcement of the cast for Star Wars Episode VII. I must admit I’m unfamiliar with most of them except the original trilogy cast (obviously), Andy Serkis and Max von Sydow. However, I couldn’t help noticing (as did others) that the new cast contains lots of men (mostly white men at that with one token black guy) and one woman. Sticking to tired old formulas, Star Wars? So much for progress. Still, following the fact that lots of people noticed this, it was revealed that there is still another “substantial” role to fill. That’s good news, I suppose. I do have to wonder, though, just how substantial this role actually is, given that they didn’t feel the need to wait for it to be cast before announcing the other actors playing substantial roles. Time will tell, I suppose, but let's be honest, even two is not a great number. Women do make up 51% of the population after all.

Honestly, even though I was a Star Wars fanatic as a child and well into my young adult years, it just doesn’t hold the same sense of wonder for me that it once did. Personally, I’m far more excited about the ongoing series of Cosmos! It has made a much greater impact on me this month, as can be seen with my ongoing coverage of it on this site. I was starting to fall quite a bit behind in my episode reviews, but managed to get completely caught up in the last week. Altogether, this month saw reviews of episodes four, five, six, seven, and eight. I eagerly look forward to the remaining five episodes. Although it’s not exactly Cosmos, here’s Neil deGrasse Tyson giving a kick-ass answer to a rather stupid question about whether genetics plays any role in the lack of women in science:

In gaming, April 5th was International Tabletop Day, and Wil Wheaton’s Geek & Sundry series, Tabletop began a campaign to raise funds for its third season. They’ve already made their initial goals and will be producing a 20-episode season. However, if they reach $1 million total, they will also produce a spin-off series based on roleplaying games. There are only ten days left, but they are very close to that million dollar mark. Tabletop’s a great show, and I would really like to see the RPG spin-off. Let’s hope they’re successful!

I only wrote one Pathfinder review this month: the opening to the new Mummy’s Mask adventure path, The Half-Dead City. The lack of further reviews is down to the fact that next one is of the massive 332-page hardcover, Inner Sea Gods. That took awhile to read through, but I’m done now and my review should be up within the next few hours.

This month, I also discovered the wonderful documentary The Delian Mode, about Doctor Who composer Delia Derbyshire. It’s a must-see for all Doctor Who and electronic music fans. Finally, I also made a brief post about the short video, “Stone”.

Here’s to a great May!