Emerald City Comicon 2014 - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: A Retrospective

Emerald City Comicon (ECCC) is fast becoming one of the more popular conventions for fans who are into comics more so than the pop-culture fest that San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) has been in recent years.

Red Dot Diva's Twitter pal, @TheArtimus (whom she has met at SDCC before) decides to take on ECCC this year.

And this is his experience at the Seattle-based convention!

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This year marked my first trip to ECCC. While I’m not important to this article, a little background information might come in handy.

I’ve been to traditional comic conventions that are so tiny, you can throw a baseball from one end of the show floor to the other, and I’ve been lucky enough to attend the granddaddy of them all, San Diego Comic-Con.

"Da Vinci's Demons" Season 2 - Diva Gets Devious With Blake Ritson and Carolina Guerra

Starz TV's very hip and very sexy cable TV series "Da Vinci's Demons" scored themselves a strong fan following in its first season.

Created by David Goyer, the historical-fantasy show is a re-imagining of the life of young Leonardo Da Vinci. The series stars Tom Riley as the lead character, Blake Ritson, Laura Haddock, Elliot Cowan, Lana Pulver amongst others. Part of the series draw are the sequences and depictions of what goes on in young Leonardo's mind as he observes the things around him, and fervently engineers his often over-the-top inventions. Well, over-the-top for that era, anyway.

At NYCC 2013, Red Dot Diva was given the chance to find out more about what's in store for the second season of "Da Vinci's Demons", which has moved beyond the Italian city of Florence, to South America and would feature the Inca Empire and related characters.

Hmmmmmm.... this certainly sounded absolutely absurd, and yet....  very imaginatively intriguing.

Before we get more into that and see what David Goyer had in mind for Season 2, Red Dot Diva managed to draw some tidbits from resident "Da Vinci's Demons" villain Count Girolamo Riario, played by British actor Blake Ritson, and gorgeous Inca high priestess Ima, embodied by Columbian actress Carolina Guerra.

"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" Press Conference in Singapore - The Good, The Bad and The Unexpected

A special and international press conference was held right after "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" red carpet event at Marina Bay Sands on 27 March. As part of the special access given, those with the blue wristbands were allowed into the Mastercard Theatres upstairs to sit in the press conference.

The hall was decorated with a giant Spider-man logo on the stage and at the side was an interesting intricate web pattern. Sure gave the setting a nice Spidey feel.

@Sarahcoldheart and Red Dot Diva literally sank into the plush seats with a sigh of sweet relief. Their tired feet, sore from standing more than 4 hours before and during the red carpet event, needed rest. However, they did not manage to score seats in the front, but had a pretty OK view of what was going on onstage.

(For more details of the red carpet event, click here!)

Turned out local actor Adrian Pang was host for the event. He came up to the podium to say that there was going to a bit of a delay with the cast coming on stage. One can assume that there were probably some exclusive VIP meet and greets happening before the press con, and some much needed freshening up.

It wasn't too long though that the cast and crew were introduced and they entered through the side door. Everyone was so excited, they just stood up and snapped photos with their cameras. Being a petite dwarf, Red Dot Diva could do little more than peep through the raised arms.

When everyone settled back down again, Adrian Pang took some questions from folks sitting in the media section. About half of the questions were interesting and fun, and then there were the other half which Red Dot Diva thought were just bizarre.

Fans Go Wild For "The Amazing Spider-man 2" Cast And Crew - Red Carpet Event in Singapore

With Spider-man being the first Super-Hero for Earth Hour, a glitzy international "The Amazing Spider-man 2" red carpet and press conference event was held at the Marina Bay Sands' (MBS) Skating Rink, Singapore on Thursday evening (27 March 2014).

Our little Red Dot Island is the home for Earth Hour, and this year's festivities will kick-off at The Float @ Marina Bay in a few hours' time, at 5 PM on 29 March 2014.

At first, Red Dot Diva did not expect that she will be able to attend the red carpet and press conference because she had no media invite, and she did not join any contest in a bid to win passes. Then, out of the blue, fellow lady geekster @Sarahcoldheart invited Red Dot Diva to be her +1 for the event. SQUEEEE!

HBO Asia Sets Up Special Fan Premiere Screening of "Game of Thrones" Season 4 !

Click photo above for a larger view

Calling Red Dot Island geeks -- how hardcore of a "Game of Thrones" fans are you??

HBO Asia is looking to anoint 200 fans of the hugely popular, Emmy and Golden-Globe-winning series so that they can invite them for a first-ever special screening of the Season 4 debut episode, "Two Swords"  - totally uncut and ahead of its April 6th premiere date in the USA!

The details of the screening are:
Date: Friday, 4 April 
Time: 6:30 PM 
Venue: GV Grand, Great World City

Here's how you can join the contest to attend the screening:

1. Like HBO Asia's Facebook page

2. Share the post pertaining to this screening with the hashtag #GOTAsia13Apr

3. Leave a comment on the same post to tell HBO Asia why you are the greatest "Game of Thrones" fan in Singapore.

SRT's "Rising Son" Is Made In Singapore - An Interview with Dick Lee

This year, the Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT) has announced a run of locally-made plays in their "Made In Singapore" production series - "A Wedding, A Funeral & Lucky, The Fish" (Dora Tan), "Stand Behind The Yellow Line - Garisan Kuning" (Michelle Tan), and "Rising Son" (Dick Lee).

"Rising Son" is written by well-known performer and composer Dick Lee, who also happens to be SRT's Associate Artistic Director. Unlike his other more familiar works in theatre, which were musicals like "Beauty World" and "Snow.Wolf.Lake", "Rising Son" is part 1 of an epic drama about set against the backdrop of the Japanese Occupation in Singapore during World War II.

The story spans the period of 1941 to 1945, and follows the story of a young ambulance orderly Sunny (Tan Shou Chen), and his younger sister Ruby (Seong Hui Xuan), and their lives and relationships during these horrific times.

To find out more about this new local production, Red Dot Diva posed "Rising Son" 's playright, Dick Lee, a few nosy questions:

"War Of The Worlds: Goliath" Now Steampunking Its Way To Viewers

Long awaited indie animated movie "War of the Worlds: Goliath" is now readily available for its viewers in the theatres and in other formats.

The 2D/ 3D futuristic action adventure - a joint collaborative venture between Malaysian set-up Tripod Entertainment and American creators like director Joe Pearson (Epoch Ink), Executive Producer Kevin Eastman (CEO, Heavy Metal) and writer David Abramowitz (head creator of the "Highlander" series) - has been several years in the making. The story, which is loosely based on the world created by H. G. Wells, also features many familiar talents voicing its characters, for example - Peter Wingfield (Highlander/ Caprica/ Sanctuary), Adrian Paul (Highlander), Adam Baldwin (Chuck/ Firefly), Mark Sheppard (Supernatural/ Leverage/ BSG) and Elizabeth Gracen (Highlander).

Ever since it's inception around mid-2000's or so, geeks and fans who knew about the project have been eagerly waiting to view the finished product in the cinemas and in digital formats.