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Showing posts from August, 2014

[Film] Guardians of the Galaxy

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Marvel have become something of a cinematic giant in the last five years or so. First there were the X-Men and Spiderman films, then Daredevil, then Hulk, then the Fantastic Four. Then they took matters into their own hands with Iron Man, Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Avengers Assemble. After building the 'Marvel Cinematic Universe' they carried on at full speed, and the second round of releases is by now well established. We've had Iron Man 3, Thor 2, and Captain America: Winter Soldier. That's not mentioning the Amazing Spiderman and X-Men: First Class series, which although Marvel properties aren't controlled directly by Marvel. So far it's all been established characters and franchises. Stories that the general audience will at least have a vague idea about. But there are increasing signs that Marvel is starting to branch out from this set of 'core' properties. The first of which is the release of Guardians of the Galaxy. &q

[Holidays] Seacows reunion

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I've just got back from a long weekend spent with some of my best friends. It's been almost a year since I left St Andrews, but I still miss the people that I met, and the friends that I made while I was there. I've been able to catch up with some of them sporadically via conferences (for the astronomers) and competitions (for the lifesavers), but time's always a bit short and it's not really the best way of spending time with your friends. (Credit: David Brown) As a rule the St Andrews Seacows are pretty bad at organising themselves to do anything, but we finally managed to arrange a weekend away for as many people as we could get. Options were limited for places with enough space to sleep all of us, but my friend Ella's parents were away for the weekend, so we all traipsed down to Sandwich, on the Kent coast, for four days. Well, some of us for four days, others for less than that owing to prior commitments. Even with the dates planned nearly three