In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream...

[Colin Zeal]

Oh dear. Apparently ash is a robot who's working for the company. The only people left alive are Sigourney weaver, a woman who keeps screaming and mr big from live and let die. I do love a happy ending.

[Recrewt]

I don't see why there is all this fussing about where the new movie will fit in the timeline.  I was never particularly bothered that we lost Hicks and Newt off screen in Alien 3 and despite that movie not being as good as the first 2, I thought it did a reasonable job of concluding Ripley's story.

Bringing these folks back just seems like too much fan-service to me and I worry (like it did in Resurrection) that more Ripley will just not end up as good and we will end up thinking "should of stayed dead in 3".  Why can't this new movie just pick up after the events of Aliens but use new characters?

[Professor Bear]

Bringing these folks back just seems like too much fan-service to me

It's the eighth film about Aliens.  I don't think fanservice is something that's going to hold it back.

[Recrewt]

Bringing these folks back just seems like too much fan-service to me

It's the eighth film about Aliens.  I don't think fanservice is something that's going to hold it back.

Ha, yeah. Thing is, I don't mind them making new movies in the Alien universe but the way they get hung up on certain characters baffles me.  I mean, c'mon - hicks was a soldier and newt was a young girl.  They were both good in Aliens but they are hardly indispensable.

[radiator]

Well, Chappie seems to be getting a bit of a kicking from the critics.

Let's hope Blomkamp has a lot of help with his Alien script...

[Mabs]

Well, Chappie seems to be getting a bit of a kicking from the critics.

Let's hope Blomkamp has a lot of help with his Alien script...

Agreed. 

[I, Cosh]

This seems as good a place as any to post these.

Fasnacht is the equivalent of Carnival over here (but you can tell it's a completely unrelated event on account of it always being exactly a week after Mardi Gras.) Basically, the whole town gets smashed for three days while roving bands of drummers and piccolo players wander the streets erratically. At the heart of it are the Fasnacht Cliques. Groups of locals with a band and a basement bar who spend a good part of the preceding year getting organised for the big blowout.

Each clique will have a particular theme to their costume for the year and their lantern (of which more later.) There are stock characters but it's frequently drawn from popular culture or events of the past year. The death of HR Giger made an impression and there were several references to his most famous creation. No, not Penis Landscape, the other one.

Without further ado, allow me to present the First Facehugger Marching Band.


Random pack of Xenomorphs.


The bandleaders are usually identifiable by the extra big heid on their costume. Here a papier mache Giger plays host to a cheeky chestbuster.


Another part of the tradition is the lanterns each clique produces to illustrate  their chosen theme. These commonly get mired in the - presumably hilarious - minutiae of local politics but can also be simple, striking images. The industry probably keeps signwriters gainfully employed for months and some of the results are quite wonderful pieces in themselves.

Giger portrait.


Reverse view, variation on that thing he did with the woman.


Much more colourful variation on the same theme.


Reverse view incorporating Giger imagery into the more common heavy-handed-but-still-not-entirely-clear satire style.

[Bolt-01]

Cosh- thanks for posting those. Hope you had a good time.

[TordelBack]

Fantastic stuff Cosh, wonder can I expect similar from this year's St Patrick's parade (answer: no).

[Pyroxian]

Always thought it was around the 150 (158) mark in total. The numbers do look more but Commando Forces can give us a heads up on 'tank shock' basically in a state of emotional stress, excitement or fear we tend to see 2 - 3 times what is really there. Z

Van Lewen (Company executive), says that it's "60, maybe 70 families". The sign outside Hadley's Hope says Pop: 158.

I did a count when I was a Student (more years ago than I care to remember...), and remember being satisfied with the tally of Colonists vs. Aliens.

[Colin YNWA]

Love chubby Alien in that parade.

[Link Prime]

Love chubby Alien in that parade.

News just in; overweight cosplayer sighted.

[ZenArcade]

The Alan Dean Foster mentioned 158 as well. Z

[TordelBack]

Love chubby Alien in that parade.

It's just acid retention.

[Steve Green]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/samjparker/the-daily-mail-translation-guide#.ed4WaXAvE