Spoiler Alert: Elysium

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Elysium, a science-fiction film brought to you by the same people that created the film nominated for four Academy Awards, District 9, is story set in 2154, when the rich have fled the Earth to live on a construct space station called Elysium, and left Earth and its inhabitants in shambles. The atmosphere in Earth is ridden with disease and pollution and the people neither receive the medical care nor the money to find similar care, and not even the right to try. The film, much like District 9, deals with socio-political themes such as immigration, over-population, poverty, corruption and so on. It follows the story of Max Da Costa, played by Matt Damon, as he is exposed to a harmful dose of radiation at his workplace and given five more days to live. Max does not want to die and decides to fly to Elysium to receive the necessary medical attention that can be provided there. Of course, everything has a price and so begins the epic journey to Elysium with its losses and its gains.

First of all, if you enjoyed D9, you must watch Elysium. The style is different and emphasis is placed on different things. I for one found myself extremely involved in the emotions that were being projected in D9, however with Elysium, I couldn’t relate to Matt Damon’s character at all, but instead I was looking at the bigger pictures, and I was being more critical about the facts. The premise of the movie is quite similar to that of Cowboy Bebop or Firefly – no matter how good the technology gets, and no matter how much of the universe we conquer, the rich will live well and the poor will suffer. In Elysium, people can use these “med-beds” to reconstruct their body completely to the point of curing any illness, and even changing their own appearance, people on Earth die of every disease you can think of and no help is provided. The story is set in future L.A. filled with slums and criminals. I find this location choice very interesting as for one thing, the USA – nation of immigrants, still filled with racism and this false idea of nationality – left in a state where they are trying to immigrate to Elysium. It is made even more interesting as it seems as though all the central characters either don’t speak English as their first language or at least have another language that they speak fluently – you put all these different races and nationalities together but at the end of the day, the rich stay with the rich and the poor stay with the poor. Secondly, just watching a city like L.A. in bits and pieces, the way it was shown in the film, you start to wonder what might have happened to the third world countries of today.

In the movie, everything is automated to the point where law and justice are handled by robots and droids. It was a nice and sly commentary, I think, on how workers of the law act even these days. You watch these droids man handling and breaking an ex-criminal’s arm while he was on his way to work because they confused a joke for abuse/violence. The ex-criminal then has to speak with his parole officer only to find that no matter what he says, the officer will extend his parole, and as the officer is also a machine, it will work on data provided to assume that the ex-criminal will become aggressive so immediate cautions need to be taken. It was the same way with the Prawns in D9, these people aren’t there to help them or listen to them, and they are just working in a pre-planned manner because they are programmed to assume danger. And when you watch people of law handling criminals and ex-criminals and any suspected criminal even today, you can see that robotic instinct in them to just assume the worst case scenario and make the job for themselves simple and easy.

Elysium is an amazing film that is basically slapping today’s politics, justice and immigration laws in the fact with a huge bat. It sheds light on many of the problems today and how the solutions may be a lot simpler than we think. Please watch the movie and if you have already, share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Signing off

Pigment Editor

Spoiler Alert: District 9

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d7/District_nine_ver2.jpg

District 9 is an independent science fiction film released in 2009. The film was inspired by the events of district 6, Cape Town during Apartheid. It won the 2010 Saturn Award for Best International Film presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. It was also nominated for four Academy Awards in 2010. The film is shot in a mock-documentary style follows the story of Vikus, a man who works for MNU, who has been appointed to notify the alien inhabitants of district 9 that they were being evacuated and moved to a facility more suited to their needs in district 10. The premise of the show is that an alien ship crash landed in Johannesburg some 20 years ago and the aliens that came out of it, Prawns, as they were called, were left to fend for themselves in world where they didn’t understand anyone and no one understood them. They seem to have caused fear, and public discord and were segregated from the community.

The film seems to have been made as a form of pointing and laughing at the prudence of human society today, with their conceit about their acceptance of the “other”. It brings not only reminds us of the atrocities of apartheid using images of cafes and public spaces made only for humans and not for Prawns, and their “population control” but also brings to light the latent issue of xenophobia that many of us still hold. By showing mock interviews of people saying things like “If they were from a different country, we would understand, but they aren’t even from this planet.” And portraying the attitude with which the people speak with the Prawns as though they were just objects of observation and experimentation and not living beings, the film emphasised the problem with our understanding and acceptance of races and people that we do not understand. Even when we accept people that do not look like us, we only do so if they act like us. Today, a black man, wearing a suit and tie, holding a briefcase and off to his respectable job would be treated with awe – look at that man who was meant for a life of crime, changing himself and becoming better, becoming like us white folk (apologies for the racist stereotype used here, no offense was meant). A large population of our species still struggles to understand the difference between accepting differences and making up for differences. The film puts us face to face with violent aliens with stronger abilities than us, exactly what colonisers were faced with when they set off sail. Not because anyone who isn't white is violent, but because we see violence we don’t understand and we don’t seem to want to understand and we become afraid. No one stops to consider the fact they also have needs of their own.

You might question the fact that because the species spoke a different language, humans and them would not be able to understand each other. To be honest, I felt similarly while watching the movie as it seemed as the when the MNU workers talked to the Prawns, they didn’t seem to understand each other’s words but relied completely on body language. Later in the film this conjecture of mine was proven wrong. The humans and Prawns although can’t physically verbalise each other’s languages, they could understand each other perfectly. The humans always just assumed that they were violent and dangerous and worked under that assumption. They never stopped to actually listen, or even talk to these aliens directly. They treated them exactly like a lab rat, acting as though they knew better, and the pain inflicted was for the greater good. The most astonishing and enlightening part of the film was when a human started to mutate into one of the Prawns, the MNU took him into custody and experimented relentlessly on him. He begged and pleaded in a language they understood and was happy to co-operate if they would just listen. However, no one even stopped to hear him out. The film slapped across my face the reality that many of us walk around the place believing so strongly in our opinion and beliefs, we never even stop to listen to others, even when they are simply trying to help us.

The characters written in this movie were all layered and multi-dimensional – both human and Prawn. The final point that this movie left me with was – power corrupts, no matter in whose hands, power over another life is corrupted and will corrupt. The film also has great action scenes with brilliant special effects. Please make sure to check it out if you haven’t already and share your thoughts in the comments

Signing off

Pigment Editor

Spoiler Alert: Paradise Kiss

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Paradise Kiss is an anime about Hayasaka Yukari, a final year highschool student, who has spent her entire life studying alone. She is scouted by four students from YSD, a school of design, who want to make clothes and open their own shop, to be their model for a school competition. The four students include Arashi, (a punk, guitarist with a body filled with piercings and tattoos) Miwako, (a girl entrapped in the shadow of her older sister who is an established designer) Isabella, (a transgender woman who adores glamorous and eccentric styles) and George (a bisexual, designing prodigy, perfectionist and idealist). They call their brand, Paradise Kiss. When Yukari, a girl who has never had an original thought in her life, or wanted something of her own volition, meets these four outgoing people who are following their dreams with passion and hard-work, she finds herself wanting to become a part of their world. As she spends more time with them, she grows and gradually starts to find her own will and desires and dreams.

The anime is only 12 episodes long and the story itself happens in a short frame of time. However, it pulls you in and enwraps you in its fantastical fabrics, intricate embroidery and patterns created with passion. While dealing with themes like highschool romance and young love, you might find yourself in a nostalgic space, reminiscing about the precarious nature of that time or the constant insecurity that seemed to have rented a room out in your heart permanently. The story depicts intense, intoxicating romances between the main characters in a world filled with gorgeous pieces of clothing. However, while these young blooming artists weigh the reality of needing to make clothes not just for art but for the purpose of being worn by people every day, the anime shows the characters in school having to face harsh realities of life and livelihood. Despite the show being all about appearances, the focus isn’t beauty but rather knowledge and understanding. And although it takes academics and education off their pedestals, it values them equally to knowledge gained from experiences and from meeting new people.

As the show portrays students about to graduate from their schools and step out into the “real” or “adult” world, it balances the difference between fantasies of childhood and responsibilities of adulthood extremely well, valuing each feeling and emotion equally as paradise for these children changes as they grow up.

Please watch the anime and share your thoughts!

Signing off

Pigment Editor

Spoiler Alert: Yumeiro Patissiere

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Yumeiro Patissiere is a feel good anime about a girl, Amano Ichigo, whose only talent is her ability to eat infinite amounts of sweets. During a sweets festival, Ichigo stumbles upon Henri Lucas, a genius patissier from Paris, who discovers her amazing taste-buds and invites her to join St. Marie Academy to become a patissiere. Ichigo, decides to transfer to the academy without realising the level of excellence expected in the classes. She has trouble adjusting but with the help of the Sweets Princes and her Sweets Spirit partner, Vanilla, she soon learns to hone her skills and with practice, tries to catch up to everyone else.

Now, I know what you’re thinking – this is just some mindless, cutsie, shoujo for five year olds still into fairies and tiaras. To be honest, the anime almost makes an effort to make sure that image never leaves your mind. On the surface, it is a reliable anime to watch when you need your spirits lifted and what a bit of fun. However, this anime is extremely layered and deals with stories and characters with several dimensions. The story is consistent and characterised extremely well. Unlike anime such as Uta no Prince-sama, Ichigo is constantly learning new things about sweets and hasn’t miraculously become the best patissiere in her year. Of course, there are some talents that are discovered, of course, they weren’t ever hidden, just unacknowledged. The story uses sweets to solve its problems and express many an emotion.

We are often too focused on the bad things in the world, the negative traits that people posses. The question these days always seems to be, what’s wrong? Yumeiro Patissiere, in its subtle ways reminds me that it’s not about the bad or the negative, those aren’t actual entities. It’s about the good and the positive. Every character in the show is flawed in more ways than one and some seem more flawed than other, but, at the end of the day the flaws are just there to make them human and relatable. What they are is the collection of the good. They are incredible at making sweets and many other things.

I would recommend giving this show a chance. As much as we all like to portray dark things and serious and important and cheerful things as silly and shallow, the world isn’t black and white and Yumeiro Patissiere does a good job of reminding us that. It is cheerful and cutsie, and it is serious and full of valuable “lessons”.

Share your thoughts in the comments.

Signing off

Pigment Editor

Spoiler Alert: Fate/zero

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Fate/zero was an anime created as a prequel for Fate/stay night, the anime that produced the line we’re all too familiar with – “People die if they’re killed.” Oh, Fate/stay night and your amazing ability to make an awesome idea and concept translate into an infamously hated-on show. Fate/zero, however, has received extreme praise from many viewers. The series is based in a world where magic and mages exist. Three ancient families of mages once summoned the Holy Grail, an omni-potent wish granting goblet in search of knowledge. Once it arrived however, the grail took matters into its own hands. The Holy Grail places red marks on 7 chosen mages’ right hand. These 7 mages or masters then summon a servant each from the seven classes – Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Castor, Assassin and Berserker – who then fight amongst each other until there is a single winner left. The winning master and servant are granted their one true desire. The grail then disappears for 60 years until it starts choosing the next set of masters again. The servants in the wars are famous or known heroic spirits such as King Arthur (Sabre class), Alexander the Great (Rider class) or Sir Lancelot (Berserker class).

Fate/zero is twenty five episodes long. It starts off slow, describing the premise of the show and the back stories of the main characters. Although a little confusing at first, the anime slowly picks up momentum as it unravels its riddles and mysteries. The anime efficiently and effectively exploits the concept of pairing ancient heroic spirits with people living in the present world as it emphasises their differences and similarities to weave a tale that questions each and every single reality but offers no answers. The characters are well written – layered and confusing – just like the story. It is dark, brutally honest and unapologetic. Moreover, by sneaking in younger versions of the characters from Fate/stay night in the storyline, Fate/zero leaves you with an irking desire to re-watch the not so great anime series you watched a few years ago and wondered how someone could so massively f*ck up as cool a concept as bringing random heroes from every time and every world back to life to fight each other with magical arms.

All in all, the anime is a good watch. Although, sexism alert, it does go on and on a bit at the start about dreaming little girls not being fit to be leaders. Let me know how you felt about it.

The Feminist Eye: Death Note

I’m sure most of you know what Death Note is. So let’s get right to business. I will be analysing some of the female characters the anime. There only seem to be six that appeared more than once in the anime. First of all, Misa Amane or Misa Misa, is the closest we get to a female lead in this anime. Her character is defined by three points – her career as an idol, her shinigami friend Rem who granted her wish to possess shinigami eyes and her obsession with Kira because he killed the people who attacked her home. Then there’s the whole thing about how for no apparent reason, two shinigami are completely obsessed with her to the point of sacrificing their infinite life to extend hers, which she repeatedly halved in exchange for shingami eyes for Kira’s sake. At the end of the anime, she is the last one standing without any memory of the kind of things she accomplished or lost and for no reason what so ever, she finds herself all alone. It was as though her character was just written as an example to people about the horrors faced when someone who is too weak willed stands in the shadows of the shinigami powers. The lose everything, and they have no idea why.

Wedy was one of the “criminals” L brought on board his crusade against Kira. That’s it. Her character is this extremely sexy, hot, thief girl who... does she do anything else in the anime? No. Her male partner gets to act as the second best detective in the world but Wedy just steals and once L is dead, gets killed by Kira. Then there was Naomi Misora, a brilliant cop. But she quit, because she was getting married, and her husband who wasn’t even as good as her at the same work refused to let her even talk to him about his work. What is that all about? And then he goes and gets killed by Kira, so she becomes a vigilante and tries to kill Kira herself, but of course, a woman could never be good enough so she dies to too. That’s her story. She gets engaged, quits her job, loses her fiancé, tries to take revenge and dies. And let’s not forget Kiyomi Takada. She started off as the stereotypical example of the kind of women that a successful man would want. She was smart, aloof and secretly submissive to her male partner. She was someone that Kira exploited and broke.

Finally, Sachiko and Say Yagami, Kira’s mother and sister respectively. From start to end they had no role to play except for the stereotypical housewife mother and the stereotypical boy band obsessed little sister who couldn’t solve simple algebra problems. They never found out that their son and brother Light was actually Kira. To them, Light was a martyr who beat Kira. Funny isn’t it, because the whole point of the anime’s story was that the more Light was in contact with the Death Note, the more Kira was taking over and Light was slowly being lost. But to those two women, the point of the anime is never clarified, as though your mother and your sister only exist to act as a base or foil of some kind.

Some of you may argue that Misa and Kiyomi are examples of the perils of obsession just like the main character himself, Light. To be honest, that’s only partially true. Part of the reason for the girls’ “demise” was their obsession but it wasn’t an obsession with something like their personal goals or the betterment of the world or the desire to be God. They were obsessed with a man, worked for a man and in the end gave everything up for a man and no one ever questions this. All in all, I think Death Note sends many misogynistic messages to the public. That is not to say that I didn’t enjoy the anime, it is probably one of my favourites. It’s a good anime that sends some messages that I do not agree with and I may be wrong or reading too much into it, but hey, it’s just a topic of discussion. Do you agree or disagree? Comment and we can have a civil discussion and share some new and different insights into the world of Death Note.

Doctor Who, the Universe and Brendan Cuffe

Greetings!

This is a post about the universe! Yes, the universe! You know how the Doctor and various characters in Doctor Who have personified the universe as a conscious existence a couple times.

“There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought.”

“You can't be too careful, can you? And it would be a terrible tragedy for the universe if it turned out I was colour blind...”

“The outside universe is breaking through!”

“The dawn of time, the beginning of all beginnings. Two forces, only good and evil. Then chaos. Time is born, matter, space. The universe cries out like a newborn. The forces shatter as the universe explodes outwards. Only echoes remain, yet somehow, somehow the evil force survives... an intelligence of pure evil.”

“Oh, I did it again. I picked another stupid ape! I should've known. It's not about showing you the universe, it never is. It's about the universe doing something for you!”

“We will sing to you, Doctor. The universe will sing you to your sleep. This song is ending, but the story never ends.”

“The universe is big, it's vast and complicated, and ridiculous. And sometimes, very rarely, impossible things just happen and we call them miracles. And that's the theory. Nine hundred years, never seen one yet, but this would do me.”

“The cracks in the skin of the universe.”

“You've decided that the universe is better off without you. But the universe doesn't agree.”

“I saw the birth of the universe, and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained.”

Okay, so more than a couple times. Some of you might just brush over that idea thinking it’s just sci-fi talk. It’s only fair, I mean, the Doctor says a lot of crazy things. But, listen to me okay, this part of DW science-fiction is a little more than fiction.

Introducing Brendan Cuffe!

"The universe is both intelligent and self aware, and I can prove it!

The atoms that comprise you are very, very old indeed. In fact, the matter that comprises you has existed in some sense since the big bang: Everything since has been a re arrangement. Our universe does not create material from nothing, merely rearranges. We are not just being that live in the universe, we are made of universe. We are children not of the stars, but of the big bang. Hold on to that thought.

"So what?" You might be asking. "So humans are intelligent, which is pretty cool, but it hardly means the universe is." I disagree. When I describe myself as intelligent and self aware, Most of my atoms are not. My hand is not conscious. But I contain a brain. That is what allows "me" as a whole to be considered intelligent. Most of 'me' unconscious, yet 'me' as a whole is, justified by that glorious organ known as the brain. When one looks at the beginnings of life and marvel at how it would someday become self aware, one in fact marvels at the fact that the system would one day contain brains.

So, I ask you, can one not look at the early universe, see the galaxies forming, and marvel at how that matter would someday become sentient? My brain is a part of my body, which grants me the label of '"intelligent''. But my brain is a part of the universe, made of ingredients forged ultimately at time's beginning. Sure, most of the universe is empty space, dead planets, balls of gas... But like me, it's a system, most of which doesn't think, some of which does. To quote Niel de Grasse Tyson, "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself." The universe has become intelligent, has become self aware, and is questioning it's own nature and origins, through us, and any other intelligent life forms." 

~ Brendan Cuffe

Fan-fiction: Panic - A Harry Potter Fan-fic

They were sitting in a large and sprawling bush that grew around the end of a  low stone wall, which they were using as a seat. It had eventually stopped raining, but the wall was damp, and the leaves on the bush were slowly gathering little pools of water that would weigh them down and regularly splash onto Remus' head, adding to his discomfort. His cheap boots were already sodden from a ditch that, had it been any deeper, he would have been swimming in, and he couldn't even dry himself with his wand, because even that small magic would be detected.

Spying on Malfoy Manor was generally considered a very boring duty, as nothing really ever happened there, or if it did it was well hidden, and the wet weather lately had only made it more unpleasant. Sirius had grinned rather nastily when Remus was leaving. Remus knew he was bitter that he wasn't allowed leave the house, but doing his damnedest to get everyone to throttle him in the night – because that was where his attitude was slowly but surely bringing him – was not the answer.

Yet Remus couldn't really bring himself to be dismal. The reason was sitting next to him with pink hair and a slightly sour expression.

“I keep getting excited every time I see her leave the house, but it's always for something boring, and distinctly lacking in evil,” groaned Tonks in frustration, after leaning forward excitedly when Narcissa Malfoy had briefly stepped out to water her flowers. Well, to order a house elf to do it, anyway.

An involuntary smile tilted the corners of his mouth, but he kept his eyes focused on the nearby manor. From their vantage point they could see the front door and little else, but it was the best they had. Nowhere else offered a good view and cover, and magic was out of the question. The Malfoys had very sophisticated wards.

“I thought you would be better at stakeout, considering your profession,” he remarked.

“Nope, never had the patience. Basically, anything to do with waiting or sneaking I'm bloody awful at.” She didn't sound particularly unhappy about it.

“Fair enough.”

Silence descended again.

He liked sitting here beside her, liked talking to her, liked the silence between them. She relaxed him, and catching sight of her bright pink hair out of the corner of his eye never failed to bring a smile to his face, even though his feet were getting colder by the minute and rain water was occasionally dripping down his face.

She was always there, recently. A year ago he didn't know who she was, that she existed. But one day Sirius had introduced her as a new member of the Order, his cousin, Andromeda's, daughter.

They got on well. Often he would get off a midnight shift and, if he knew she had a later shift, or finished shortly after him, he would put the kettle on and wait for her in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place. She was new, she had a stressful job, and she had been beginning to look almost as tired as him after a full moon.

It was always worth losing an extra hour or two of sleep to see her smile gratefully as she took a cup of tea and talked to him about … anything, everything, nothing at all. Something about her, possibly her vibrancy – her inner vitality, not just the hair – made her light up the room. Or bush.

“You know what, Remus?” she said, and he saw her turn to him, so he glanced at her and gave her a smile, but returned his eyes to Malfoy Manor. Just in case.

“What?”

“I think you're my best friend,” she said, and grinned before giving him a brief, one-armed hug.

“Oh, thanks,” he said, feeling his skin heat up oddly, and tingling where they'd touched.

He felt suddenly aware of just how small a space they were in, and tried to shift without being it noticeable. There was only a few inches of space between her left arm and his right.

She was watching the manor now, but he was having difficulty keeping his eyes away from her.

“Don't tell Sirius,” he said, nervously, his mouth inexplicably dry – the only part of him that was, at this point, “but you're far more pleasant company than he is, so …”

“Why, thank you, Remus,” she said, laughing as softly as she could. “I'm glad I'm more fun than a moody escaped prisoner.”

“No! That's not what I …” He could feel his face begin to burn. What was wrong with him? They had joked earlier that day without him feeling at all awkward.

She laughed again. “Relax, and don't worry, I appreciate the sentiment.”

When she laughed, her lips thinned and curved upwards and her mouth opened, her shoulders shook slightly and her the skin around her eyes crinkled. She laughed properly, fully, nothing forced, nothing polite and delicate. He couldn't help wondering, as he watched her chuckle happily, what it would be like to press his lips against her laughing mouth.

The thought appeared in an instant, and left its image branded on his mind. His eyes widened and he hurriedly shifted until there was at least two feet between him and Tonks.

She turned in surprise. “What's up?” she asked, looking at him in confusion.

“Nothing,” he said, quickly. “Um, there was a … spider.”

She laughed again, and he quickly averted his eyes from her lips. “I didn't know you were scared of spiders. You've been sitting in a damned bush all day! How do you manage?”

“No, I'm not scared of spiders, it was just … it just surprised me, that's all. It was pretty big,” he added.

“OK, whatever you say, Remus.”

For the rest of their shift he fidgeted and kept glancing at his watch, praying for an end to this confusing day. If he just had a day without her presence he was sure he could figure this out. He tried not to look at her, but remained aware of her every movement. Any time she spoke he kept his eyes straight ahead, but attempted to smile (failing dismally). He answered her briefly when he had to.

Inside, he was panicking. Nymphadora Tonks was a beautiful, young, funny, kind, intelligent woman; what right did he have to be having inappropriate thoughts about her? They had been getting on so well! She was one of the few Order members who he truly enjoyed the company of, felt comfortable with and, even more rarely, seemed to really feel comfortable with him. This could ruin everything. He didn't want to lose a good friend, but if he couldn't manage to get a grip then wouldn't it be better for her if he just … backed off a little? Kept his distance? The main problems were a slight ache in his heart as he thought about not talking to her, not seeing her – and her words: You're my best friend.

When their shift finally ended the sun was beginning to come out, and a weak and washed out rainbow had appeared in the sky. Its pale colours seemed to match Tonks' hair, which was looking a little lack lustre, as they Apparated away without a word. He failed to notice a disappointed look in Tonks' eyes as he made his excuses after they arrived back at Headquarters and vanished to his room. He lay down on his bed fully clothed, sopping shoes forgotten, and buried his head in his pillow.

He desperately needed to rid his mind of ridiculous notions.

Changelings by Emily Brien

Here is a piece by Emily Brien, who also made an appearance at Phenomecon 2014 and will appear in 2015 again.

"This piece was loosely Based off of the idea behind Changelings, the idea of a human being transformed into something magical in both a dark and beautiful way. Varying as much as possible physically and still trying to retain something human- is it good, evil, or just as lost and confused as we'd all be if we were taken by the Fae?" ~ Emily Brien

Phenomecon 2014

Greetings!

So Phenomecon (formerly known as Epic Con) is a convention held yearly by NUIM Omega Society. This year we had Tiffany Grant, voice actor for Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion and characters any many other animes and the voice actor for and a big fan of Hello Kitty.

We also had Fencing and Archery Coaching, Origami workshops, Pokemon quizzes. It was a beautifully organised event and will hopefully be even better next year. So make sure to keep your eye out. Here's the poster from this year that has all the contact information on it.

You can visit: www.phenomecon.com
Follow us on facebook at: Phenomecon Ireland
And contact us on: epiccon.ireland@gmail.com

Cheers!
Signing off
Pigment Editor

Bloodshot by Brendan Cuffe

Here is a weavesilk piece by Brendan. This is the Pigment's current image. You can find Brendan on his deviantArt page - http://pitchfork-joe.deviantart.com/ .  Go check him out for more weavesilk!

Do you use weavesilk? Let us know and share your work!

Street Angel by Sorika Reilly

This is a painting by Sorika called Street Angel. You can find her on http://the-hangman-project.deviantART.com. She wrote a little note about this painting as well.

"I take a lot of inspiration from whatever music that I was listening to at the time, so it's inspired partly by Lindsey sterling's music and partly by looking at glow in the dark artwork I saw on deviantART. I love art that has a glow, or an aura about it and just really wanted to draw something like that. I don't usually tie a lot of emotions into my art, I just sketch out whatever comes into my mind at the time and go with the flow.

It's my favorite piece of mine because on its first draft it was perfect, it didn't need any tweaking or altering, it just came out perfectly from what I saw in my head, and it's the piece I've gotten the most feedback from on my deviantART." ~ Sorika Reilly

She sold a lot of her work at Phenomecon 2014. If you're interested in attending the convention, don't forget to keep your eye out for next year's dates. Hopefully she will grace us with her art again.

Worth it

Here's a silly little poem I wrote.

Worth it

So it begins yet again

You and me

In front of the screen

Ready to marathon another series

You give up half way through

Tired and groggy, you fall asleep

And I, well I,

How could I?

I stay and continue

What started at 7 years old

I found in it something more

Than just entertainment

For the little old me

Something to obsess over completely.

This, my obsession

How could I stop?

My escape from lonely reality

My reason to question

To imagine a fantasy

My very own world

My intangible possession.

Dragon Ball, Cardcaptor Sakura, Digimon repeated

Every time I looked for an easier way in magic

Hard work will be required any way I see it.

Fullmetal Alchemist taught me

To push farther and farther

But be prepared for the consequences

And rather

Than hitting randomly

Stop and learn and learn more

And be sure

When you take up a task

You know you’re good enough for it

You know you can do it.

Then came along the beautiful years

Code Geass at 15 and at 17

Death Note and Attack on Titan at 19

Every hero and every villain at the end of the day

Is a normal person

Who could have been anybody

So ask you self again and again

No matter what path you take

Are you prepared for the losses that accompany

Each and every step of your journey

And ask

Is it worth what you want

And if it is then do it

Push through

And if you can’t anymore

Keep going anyway

Because it will be worth it.

And so I continue

This new

Series of wonder and awe

And never surrender

For this is it

Because Anime is

Worth it.

Review: Firefly Episode 8—Out of Gas by Kate O'Brien

     For those unaware, Firefly is a sci-fi TV series, cancelled before the completion of its first season nearly a decade ago. It has been celebrated and mourned among its fans ever since.

     While technically sci-fi, the show has a very Western feel – which works far better than you'd think. Space Westerns can be very nicely done, as one would see in both Firefly and Cowboy Bebop (a popular anime series). This mix of genres works very well thematically – in Westerns, as in sci-fi shows like Firefly, humans are reaching beyond the borders of 'civilised' society, further and further out, where life is harder, harsher, wilder, but freer from oppressive governmental restrictions. The music adds exponentially to the Western atmosphere. See the Firefly Theme – written by Joss Whedon for reference (a Youtube search should do the job).

     The story focuses around a ship called Serenity and her crew of (in Whedon's words) “nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things,” struggling under the oppressive nature of a corrupt 'Alliance' government (allying all planets in the solar system under one rule – whether they like it or not).

     I would recommend Firefly not just to lovers of sci-fi (or even Westerns) but all those who love wonderful characters, beautiful and dark story lines, excellent writing and hilarity.

     This episode in particular is one of my favourites, sucker that I am for back stories and character development. 'Out of Gas' is one of the darker areas of the series, when Serenity loses power while out in the Black, meaning life support won't function, spelling out slow but certain death for the protagonists, lost in the depths of space. The mounting tensions under such despair and panic lead to character interaction of a sort not often seen within the series, highlighting problems and resentments in the crew, as well as the closest relationships, contrasted with a series of flashbacks during the crisis and, later, as Mal – Captain Malcom Reynolds – ends up waiting, alone, for death within his dead and empty ship. Each crew member's first introduction to the captain, and the ship herself, is shown in bright, warm colours, contrasting to the dim coldness of a dying ship and a dying man. It also illustrates how far each of them have come, how much they have been changed since they met one another, since they first found Serenity, and the jarring nature of such a time ending in such sudden tragedy.

     This episode, with its warmth, love, despair and depth of character exploration, while perhaps not the best introduction to the series (due to a disconnected and non-linear plot structure, as well as its focus on back story without much broader in-'verse context), it is without a doubt one of the highlights of the series' all-too-short life-time.

     Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go comfort myself with Firefly fan-fiction.

Greetings!

Greetings world!

This is Pigment - NUIM Omega Society's newsletter. This is a place where I, the current editor of the newsletter will be posting reviews about shows, books or fan-fictions watched or read relation to the genres Omega Society deals with. This is also a place for you to post any form of art - paintings or literature - you create in relation to the same genres.

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