So this is my extremely awesome friend Jessica Mae Stover.
Isn’t she a cutie?
She’s also a powerful force with which to be reckoned. A while back she contacted me because she’s doing this remarkably remarkable thing: she’s making a movie! She needed advice on the phase of the Moon for her movie, and we became e-friends. She’s at Comic Con, so we met for the first time like one minute before this picture was taken.
She’s not backed by Hollywood, or Bollywood, or the BBC. She’s backed by us: folks who want to help. She is getting microdonations from lots of people, help from volunteers, and backing for various bits and pieces from some companies. She’s the Barack Obama of filmmaking.
The movie itself is called Artemis Eternal, and even though I love her to pieces and she’s super awesome, she won’t tell me plot details, and of course I am not at all put out by this. So I’m stealing her blurb off her website:
Two friends find their relationship put to the test when they’re pitted against one another in a frantic battle of virtue and determination. The pair soon realize that their destinies are not solely in their hands… but that two competing supernatural forces are seeking to control the outcome of their conflict. With time running out, each will struggle to triumph over the other.
That sounds pretty epic to me. If it sounds like that to you, go to her site and show her the BABloggee love. What do I get out of it? Hopefully, more hugs from JSto. I’m all about the love.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
There can be only one.
Sorry, I could not resist. Sounds interesting, actually.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
way to go bad astronomer! You met the Ninja warrior herself. I am sooo jealous. Back to reading your tweets.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
cute + smart = greater prosperity for mankind
July 25th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
She looks really familiar to me.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
In short…
…No. Respect for your site and your associates prevents me from saying anything more.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Huh?
I have to admit that I don’t watch a lot of movies, but the blurb makes me hope that a hero will appear and help these poor, misguided souls find the truth that there are no supernatural forces trying to control anything. Sounds like a wad of woo. But then, I don’t watch a lot of movies.
I think perhaps our tastes differ, Phil. (Read into that all you’d like to.)
July 25th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
(ala Viewer 3)
July 25th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
She and the movie both sound like they’re made of awesome. Just a thought I’d like to float out there, has she considered micro-investment. Everyone who participates gets a proportionate (to their investment) share of residuals (with plenty left for her of course). That would be revolutionary. If the movie makes no money, that’s the risk you take with investments.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
@ Certain People (You know who you are)
*apoplectic*
What? Supernatura can’t even exist in fiction now? Isn’t that well within your worldview? The idea that this is even remotely woo, based on available information, is stupid. Fiction is… well, FICTION! The idea that fiction must now be subservient to an empirical reality is foolish, a society that doesn’t have a sense of harmless mendacity cannot possibly understand truth. [/end rant]
July 25th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
OMGShinyHead!
July 25th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
I’d read about this project a while back, and I, too, found it quite interesting from many perspectives. But what I really want to comment on are the anti-WOOists; Phil falls very clearly in that camp, but he seems to find the concept acceptable enough to call for the BABloggee love on her project’s behalf. I’m just sayin’. . .
I wish I could be there. But I’m really waiting to see if @BadAstronomer out-tweets @wilw 
– g^2
July 25th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Sunday live video chat
July 25th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
It’s fantasy! I watch X-Files, Doctor Who, and more. Sometimes it’s OK, if the themes are good. This sounds like it falls into that category.
July 25th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
@The Chemist:
Even as a skeptic, I’ll take supernatural over something ridiculous like midi-chlorians every single day.
July 25th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Not fair Phil!!!!
You show us a picture of you with a pretty girl, then tell us to go to her website and show her some BABloggee love. You know what we’re going to do. You should be ashamed of yourself! (as I do what you command and enjoy it)
July 25th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Phil Plait you are a genius. WINGMEN, FTW!
July 25th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Phil,
I have to disagree with you. She’s not a cutie… She’s definitely a hottie.
July 25th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Two questions:
1) Is she single?
2) Does she like men with antennae?
July 26th, 2008 at 12:36 am
# The Alpha Centaurian Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Two questions:
1) Is she single?
2) Does she like men with antennae?
– - –
Yours aren’t retractable?
July 26th, 2008 at 1:05 am
I really think they should consider being backed by Bollywood. There’s nothing I would love to see more than a science fiction movie with song and dance routines interspersed at random, completely out of context with the plot. It would have made Armageddon a great movie.
July 26th, 2008 at 5:06 am
I wonder what Mrs BA says to all what you do, Phil, when you’re not at home
Sorry, I couldn’t resist saying that!
July 26th, 2008 at 6:53 am
I love good fiction, so I will definitely be keeping my eyes on this. And chipping in a few bucks doesn’t hurt either.
And Ronn — You nearly made me spit out my coffee, which clearly would have been caffeine abuse.
July 26th, 2008 at 7:21 am
I know it’s a few days old, but have you heard about ex-Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell claiming NASA’s covering up aliens? Who told him that, HOAGLAND? XD There’s also an article here, including the fantastic summary line, ‘Australian Skeptics are sceptical’. …No, really? XD
There’s also a fun little UFO gallery attached to the second one – the second photo is almost definitely a meteor. (Picture four is a bit weird – any ideas?) And not sure how much you know about Australian geography, but MOST of these are in reasonably rural areas. I’m just saying.
July 26th, 2008 at 7:51 am
Seriously people, supernatural is fun as fiction! It’s bad when posited as truth. Yeah, Phil, nice f’in shirt! Where can I get one?
July 26th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Phil, you naughty, *naughty* BA…
July 26th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Yeah, you don’t need to believe in monsters to enjoy horror movies.
But we gotta be careful of the movies the portray the stupid in a way that seems like it’s not merely fiction.
For example: stupid in Doctor Who: totally ok, the show does not takes itself seriously and is obviously fantasy, no matter how stupid you are. But stupid as in the exorcist, makes people more stupid.
I mean I love the exorcist, and I love every kind of fiction in movies, but we have to agree that some kinds of stupid in movies make stupid people more stupid. I’m not sure where her movies falls on this. Let’s hope it’s good stupid.
July 26th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Artemis is a Moon goddess but She is also a Wild Virgin goddess of the anti-sex anti-civilization kind.
July 26th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I can’t figure out how to send you a message.
I read an article that I think is in need of critical review, but I don’t have the knowledge to go through it. If Plait has been over claims like this before, can someone direct me to the post? (I tried the search, but didn’t find anything.)
http://www.thunderbolts.info/thunderblogs/goodspeed.htm
(Skip past the discussion of how the mind works, and you get to arguments that black holes don’t exist… it seems the entire website is devoted to this notion. I’m wondering if this is a well-known objection that is ignored because of its stupidity, in the vein of creationism, or if there is actually some kind of legitimacy behind it.)
Thanks for the info!
July 26th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Does _MRS_ BA know about this???
July 26th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
[...] the love, after we were done I sent them to JSto. Push it forward, [...]
July 27th, 2008 at 12:58 am
Thanks for the comments, everyone. Cast/crew/Wingmen… We are all enjoying what you’ve added to the conversation.
July 27th, 2008 at 2:12 am
The cardboard image in the back — whazzat?!
July 27th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
The Barack Obama of film making? What? If she was that, she would be rolling in dough. He’s backed by lots of cash and is a fundraising machine. Sheesh.
July 28th, 2008 at 6:29 am
Good thing she’s cute. Ugly people suck.
March 8th, 2009 at 10:26 am
[...] there’s a bigger mystery here: why does the fair damsel Kahlan look so much like Jessica Stover, who is also making a fantasy movie, and who also once asked me about phases of the Moon — [...]