One of the excellent friends I made in Toronto is Kari Maaren. A bunch of cool stuff has happened to her recently that I feel compelled to share. (This is internal compulsion, not from her—she might be appalled/embarrassed that I’m doing this, if she notices.)
First of all, some of my few readers may be familiar with her because she has been writing the West of Bathurst webcomic (linked from my sidebar) for the last seven years or so. In the midst of recent server troubles which eventually saw me helping her migrate the site hosting, she/the comic got nominated for an award! Specificially, the Aurora Award, for “Best Graphic Novel – English”.
If you happened to click through on that link to the Aurora nominees, you might have noticed that her name appears a second time! (Cue dramatic music.)
Yes, she was also nominated for “Best Fan Filk”. (That’s a kind of music.) Kari writes and performs geeky songs, and has finally actually recorded some and released some of her stuff on not one but TWO albums! (Okay, so the first album, Pirate Elves in Space, is a collaboration, but it has 3 of her songs on it.) Her album Beowulf Pulled My Arm Off even got a mention on SF Signal, a popular science fiction/fantasy/horror blog.
You can listen to her stuff at those Bandcamp links, or find her YouTube channel. If you enjoy nerdy folk music—or think you might—you should definitely check out Kari’s work.
Anyway, that’s about it for my shameless friend-promotion. I will endeavour to check in again soon with another movie update—we’ve started the summer season.
Thanks for the shout-out, House. And yes, I get all shy and awkward when people promote me, but you did it very well.