On "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" in Latin

Since it came up today in a conversation with The Great and Powerful Pixelkitties, I thought it might be fun (and perhaps enlightening) to explain how you can translate the title My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic into Latin. Because I'm a geek, this is actually one of the first things I did when trying to find ways to bring these two interests of mine together. As a disclaimer, I'd note that my Latin is middling at best, so if anyone spots any errors, please do bring them to my attention.

On the "Equestria Girls" Furore

I awoke today to find that the official announcement and the trailer for Equestria Girls were released during the early hours of the UK morning. For those who aren't aware, Equestria Girls is Hasbro's movie-length spinoff of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and over the last few months it's generated a great deal of rumour and speculation in the latter's fan community. Unsurprisingly, today's announcement sparked a fresh round of debate. Taking my Twitter timeline as a sample, the reactions ranged from gleefully positive to cynically negative; most people fell somewhere in the middle, but there's a clear sense of concern in the air. I usually consciously avoid weighing in when these sorts of tensions arise, as I worry about a sort of observer effect, in which any comment – even an appeal for calm – only ends up adding fuel to the flames. This time, though, I would like to offer my thoughts on the matter. Please take them for whatever they may be worth to you.

On Influences and Beginnings

While I'm still finding my feet in this blogging experiment, I feel it's important for me to recognise some of the influences that led me to begin it in the first place. I've already listed a handful of blogs over in the sidebar under "Links", but I think it's valuable to briefly highlight the reason why I've included them, and to consider the role they've played in guiding me to this stage of my academic life. It's a story
that begins, as so many good stories do, with Doctor Who.

Call for Papers – Classics and Popular Culture – CA14

Owing to the widespread interest in the topic at the 2013 Classical Association conference in Reading, I am proposing a panel for the 2014 conference in Nottingham focused on the intersection of classics and popular culture. Papers are sought on topics relating to the deployment and reception of classical material across a wide variety of different media, including (but not limited to) film and television, literature, music, comics, and video games. A particular goal of the panel is to highlight the use of this material as a tool for interdisciplinary cooperation and engagement with non-specialist audiences.

Papers should last no longer than twenty minutes and will be followed by discussion. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted for consideration by August 16th, 2013. If you would like to be involved, please contact me via email (RWH298 at bham dot ac dot uk) or twitter (@foalpapers).

On #CA2013 and Twitter

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for all the positive feedback on the start of this venture. I'm glad folks are excited about it. I am too, and although I’m not sure where this is all going, it should at least be a fun ride.

So, to business: in my last post, I mentioned my recent experience live-tweeting this year’s Classical Association conference in Reading. At the time, I was asked to jot down some thoughts for the CA blog and newsletter; the subsequent article can be found on their website, but I don't intend to just rehash the whole subject, or to shamelessly plug an older post (though that’s a nice side benefit). Instead, I want to comment on an issue that arose when the time came for the piece to be posted. Simply put, I had no idea what name to use.

Welcome Aboard

So, how do I begin? Having gone through all the necessary technical steps to get this blog ready to sail, I must confess I'm drawing a blank on how to break the champagne bottle and get under way. Up until now I've been content to express my particular brand of nonsense on Twitter – an approach which has, for reasons I still can't fathom (or at least internalize), proven somewhat popular. Rest assured I've no intention of altering my tweeting habits, but I think the time has come to start writing beyond the limitations of 140 characters.