Pages Tagged “Category: Sci-Fi/Fantasy”
Blog Posts
- We Have Met The Ferengi, And They Are US
We finished re-watching Deep Space Nine a few days ago. Quark’s rants in the second-to-last episode about rolling back the reforms regarding gender and worker protections, complaining that Ferengi society has been infected by a disease, and declaring that if he becomes Nagus he’ll bring back what made Ferenginar great again sound eerily familiar. There’s […]
- Avatar and Manta’s Gift
This is kind of funny. When I watched the movie Avatar way back in 2009, I was struck by the similarity of the premise to Timothy Zahn’s 2002 novel Manta’s Gift: The main character, a human who’s suffered a severely disabling injury, is offered the chance to place his consciousness into an alien body and […]
- Eclipses and World Building
I can go with your scifi/fantasy story’s super-impossible thing being associated with an eclipse. It’s activating or deactivating people’s super-powers? Sure! Certain magic spells can only be cast during an eclipse? Sure! The moon transforms into cheese? OK, whatever. (pun not intended) But please, please get the basic mechanics right!
- Ursula K. Le Guin eBook Bundle (Ended)
Humble Bundle is offering 30 books* by Ursula K. Le Guin supporting the Literary Arts charity, including all of Earthsea, several Hainish novels, Catwings, short stories, Gifts/Voices/Powers, nonfiction writing… I’ve read the Earthsea series (good-to-great) and most of the Hainish novels (some great, some good, some OK), plus Lathe of Heaven (great), and I’ve got […]
- Striking the Crowd
Today I found myself thinking of Terminator 3, specifically the plotline in which all kinds of random computer crashes are spreading across the internet. For obvious reasons. In today’s real world incident, it’s a bug in an auto-pushed update for widely-used security software by CrowdStrike, ironically used to protect mission-critical systems. In the two-decade-old movie […]
- Saucer Country is finally complete!
I really enjoyed the original run (Saucer Country) at Vertigo and the second run at IDW (Saucer State)…that ended on a cliffhanger, and I’m really looking forward to being able to read the conclusion! Saucer Country is a dark thriller that blends UFO lore and alien abduction with political intrigue, all set in the hauntingly […]
- The Phantom Clones
Let’s just say the kid was not impressed with Attack of the Clones. To be honest, I think it’s the weakest of the prequels and of the six that George Lucas was actually involved in. The Phantom Menace is better than I remember. It’s well constructed, and there are incredible subtleties and thematic elements hidden […]
- Catching up on Recent Trek
We ended up not watching Star Trek: Discovery when it launched because we didn’t want to add another streaming service at the time. Same with Picard. Sometime during the last two years we ended up adding Paramount+ (or whatever it was called at the time) for some reason, and earlier this year we decided to […]
- New Year’s Eve: 2019 vs 2020
Stay safe tonight.
- Whale Call
We watched Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home last night. It holds up better than I thought it would. At the end, I found myself trying to imagine the conversation between the whales and the probe. Probably something like this: — Hey! We’re still here! Or, we’re back, anyway! — Oh, good! What happened to […]
- Mount Doomscrolling
The way the Palantir network compromises Saruman and Denethor shows the danger in who controls the algorithm that manages your newsfeed.
- Murder Hornets? Really?
Remember the opening from the 1980s Flash Gordon, where the villain has a dashboard with buttons labeled with various disasters? He used it like a sound effects board: Press the Earthquake button and it would trigger an earthquake. Press the Hurricane button and trigger a hurricane. Press the freaking Hot Hail button and it would […]
- What do you think’s in the pizzas?
This place often posts movie and TV quotes on its marquee, but sometimes their choices are a little…odd. #ToServeMan
- Time Gate
When did they install the Guardian of Forever at this park?
- The Rise of Skywalker vs. the Other Star Wars Sequels (spoilers)
I saw The Rise of Skywalker last week, and I’ve had some thoughts bouncing around in my head for a while. I think it’s been long enough. So, to start with, let’s look at the major themes of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. The Force Awakens: There will always be a new generation of fascists, […]
- Doom and Gloom are Not Enough
Doom and gloom alone aren’t enough to help us deal with climate change, or any of the other problems we face. Fear sustained turns to despair, and to inaction – because why bother? We have to celebrate successes to keep hope alive so we can keep going. We do need to know what we’re up […]
- Cloud City Princess Leia Hairstyle
May the Fourth Be With You! @CasualCosplayKatie: Easiest #princessleiahair by a long shot. Now with full ‘bound outfit (even if I’m not bound anywhere today)!
- I made my final post on Google+ yesterday
“Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. There would never be another. It changed the future … and it changed us. It taught us that we have to create the future … or others will do it for us. It showed us that we have to care for one another, because if we […]
- A Gallery of Harry Potter Cosplay at WonderCon
There was a lot of Harry Potter cosplay at WonderCon this past weekend! Here are some of my photos, featuring Bellatrix Lestrange, Hagrid, You-Know-Who, Professor Sybill Trelawney (who should look familiar to regular readers!), Hogwarts Professors Dolores Umbridge, Gilderoy Lockhart and Albus Dumbledore; Arthur Weasley, and Rita Skeeter. There are a lot more that I […]
- Professor Trelawney Cosplay at Long Beach Comic Con
Katie’s been talking about dressing up as Professor Trelawney for a while now. She put together the pieces for a costume over the last couple of weeks, and wore them on Saturday at Long Beach Comic Con. It was a huge success! Lots of people recognized the character and wanted photos. We even ran into […]
- Dementors on the Train
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, when the Dementors search the Hogwarts Express, Professor Lupin derisively says that none of them in the compartment are hiding Sirius Black in their robes. But Ron has Scabbers in his robes, not knowing his “pet rat” is the actual murderer who committed the crime Black was […]
- Cloudy with a Chance of…
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (movie): New tech leads to an economic boom, but politics and greed conspire to ignore warnings from a scientist about the long-term dangers of this man-made climate change until disaster strikes. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2: A tech company without ethics is run by a nerd who […]
- LOST, but Not in Purgatory
People are still arguing over whether the Lost castaways were “in purgatory the whole time?” The finale was very clear on that: everything on the island happened. The afterlife didn’t come into play until the final season. That last season featured glimpses of what looked at first like an alternate timeline in which the plane […]
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi Thoughts – It’s Complicated.
I’ve seen The Last Jedi twice now. I’m still not sure how I’d rank it, but the performances are way better than most of the prequel trilogy, and the story is the first theatrical Star Wars to break new ground in ages. I’ll admit there’s a lot of stuff that happened that I didn’t like, […]
- Convention Inflation
Next year’s WonderCon tickets are available now, and SDCC goes on sale next week. I noticed something interesting about the WonderCon price, because ten years ago, I compared a lot of convention prices. How do they stack up a decade later? WonderCon 2018 costs the same as Comic-Con 2008 did: $75. (WonderCon in 2008 was […]
- The Color out of Cyberspace
The Verge ponders: Has the internet been overtaken by the eldritch horror of Yog-Sothoth? We’ve got this dimension right next to ours, that extends across the entire planet, and it is just brimming with nightmares. We have spambots, viruses, ransomware, this endless legion of malevolent entities that are blindly probing us for weaknesses, seeking only […]
- Catching Up on Two Years of Comics
Last night, I did something I haven’t done in ages: I read a bunch of this week’s new comics. Over the last two years I’ve gotten behind on just about every comic book I read, and the further behind I get, the harder it is for me to catch up. (Making things worse: I stopped […]
- Predictive Frameshift
I’ve been thinking a lot about Robert J. Sawyer’s Quantum Night the last few months. It links human cruelty, psychopathy, and mob behavior to the nature of consciousness, mostly focusing on the main characters but playing out against a global crisis brought on by a rising tide of xenophobia. More recently, I’ve been thinking about […]
- Pixar, the Space Shuttle, and Kids’ Museum Memories
Went with the family to see Space Shuttle Endeavour and a Pixar-themed exhibit on computer animation at the California Science Center. The 6YO loved the Pixar exhibit, which broke down all the steps to creating a computer-animated movie into separate hands-on centers where you could do things like… Apply different textures and bump maps to […]
- Rogue One (Star Wars) and Imperial IT (SPOILERS!)
Spoilery thoughts on Star Wars’ IT practices and where the Rogue One characters actually find the Death Star plans.
- Newsflesh: Worst Case Zombies, Best Case Survival
Mira Grant’s Newsflesh features the worst-case scenario of zombie design, yet humanity survives with civilization mostly intact.That’s really optimistic.
- Still amused whenever I pull Order 66
- Why Kilgrave’s Power is Scarier than a Jedi Mind Trick
It’s not just that Kilgrave’s a sociopath and Jedi are compassionate. The Sith aren’t known for mercy, but Force users’ mind control has limits.
- Genre TV Update: Fall 2015
Somehow I’ve managed to end up watching mostly shows based on comic books this year. And amazingly, there are enough of them out there that I have to pick and choose. It seems I’m able to keep up with about 3 shows on a weekly basis, and still fit in family, work and other hobbies. […]
- Do Not Taunt the Octopus
Some thoughts on Mira Grant’s latest Newsflesh novella exploring the post-zombie world, and some parallels to Scalzi’s Lock-In.
- Looking Forward to iZombie
iZombie has a premiere date! The comedy/horror/murder mystery show launches March 17 on the CW. I’ve been describing iZombie as a mash-up of the Robeson/Allred comic’s premise (woman becomes a zombie, but can keep her mental faculties as long as she eats one brain a month…then starts picking up memories and personality quirks from the […]
- They Didn’t Know What They Were Getting Into: the Woods
A surprising number of people who reviewed the movie on IMDB didn’t know it was going to be a musical or a darker, complex take on the stories.
- Quick TV Thoughts: Flash, SHIELD, Grimm, Castle, Once Upon a Time/Frozen
Now that the fall 2014 TV season is underway, a few thoughts about some shows I’m watching.
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Finally. It should have gone to bed earlier.)
Let’s face it: This is the first live-action Star Wars movie in ten years, and it reunites the original cast on screen for the first time in thirty. Nobody really cares what it’s called: it could be “Star Wars VII: The Search for More Money” and those of us who grew up on the original […]
- No Soliciting Zombies
I’m not sure that’s what the signs on this door are trying to say about zombie solicitors.
- Order 66, Extra Crispy
Appropriately, the kiddo was wearing his Darth Vader shirt.
- Jack vs the Idiot Ball
While Jack the Giant Slayer isn’t a great movie, it’s refreshing that the characters are never stupider than they should be, just for the sake of the plot.
- “Who puts a fountain in the middle of a library?”
I was immediately reminded of the Huntington Beach Central Library when stumbling on this line in The Magician’s Land.
- Comic-Con 2014 – Now That’s Better! (Writeup, Photos and Cosplay)
We managed to do a lot more of what we planned at SDCC this year, from signings to swag to media events…and even got in on the cosplay scene.
- Cosplay: Alice from Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (SDCC 2014)
Katie’s Thursday costume from our 2014 trip to Comic-Con International in San Diego, inspired by Alice’s adventuring outfit in the Once Upon a Time spinoff.
- The Shelves are Paved with (The Path of) Daggers
The only books left from the Wheel of Time back catalog at the end of the sale were the three you might expect people to leave on the shelf.
- Empire Strikes Back (Hoth) Leia Hairstyle
Katie decided to go with an Empire Strikes Back Leia hairstyle this year.
- A Wicked Weekend
Somehow I ended up listening to Wicked, watching Oz: The Great and Powerful, and catching up on Once Upon a Time…on the weekend of Emerald City Comicon.
- Vorlon in Wonderland
The caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland is totally a Vorlon. He’s always asking “Who are you?”, has a short temper, speaks cryptically…
- Party like it’s 1977…
Believe it or not, the record player is new. It turns out there’s a whole subset of the toy market for retro toys. It’s a bit different under the hood – I’ve had to fix it once already, and it’s actually chip-driven, not classic music box works. I figure it’s probably cheaper these days to […]
- May the Fourth Be With You
- No More Origin Stories
It’s bothered me for a long time that movie studios seem to think the only story worth telling about a superhero is the origin. You get a trilogy if you’re lucky, then back to another origin take. It would be like only ever running the pilot of every TV show even though they’re designed to […]
- Les Mis Break: From Paris to Mars for Red Planet Blues
This week I’m taking a break from my epic Les Miserables re-read for Robert J Sawyer’s latest, Red Planet Blues: a sci-fi hard-boiled detective yarn. Talk about contrast.
- Star Wars Director – A Close Second
I was kind of hoping Disney would pick Joss Whedon to direct the next Star Wars movie just to watch fans’ heads explode. But going with the guy who rebooted Star Trek? That’s what I call a close second. J.J. Abrams Will Reportedly Direct the Next Star Wars Movie Originally posted on Google+
- What the M’Hael?
Apparently in the First Age, Mazrim Taim sought power by running a craft store, rather than becoming head of the Asha’man.
- How The Hobbit Will (and Won’t) be Like the Star Wars Prequels
A visionary director returns to his high-profile trilogy years later with a prequel in which some of the same characters establish key elements of the original backstory. Hmm….
- The Saga and the Franchise
I suppose it’s silly, but after thinking about it for a bit, what really bothers me about the Lucasfilm/Disney deal is that by continuing the movie series with Episodes 7-9, they are undermining the distinction between the Star Wars saga and the Star Wars franchise. Originally posted on Facebook
- I knew those looked familiar!
These are the voyages of the starship Epinephrine. Please help support its continuing mission.
- Chicon 7: Something for Everyone at Chicago’s Worldcon
Chicon put on a great scifi/fantasy convention this year, proving that there’s still life in the genre. Plus it was fun to visit Chicago for the first time.
- Car Trek
License plate spotted today: ★TREK11
- Overheard at a Comic Con
Overheard at LBCC: “Some guy asked me, what’re YOU dressed up as? And I said…a Muggle?”
- HP8
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was an impressive ending to the series…but what impresses me most is that it actually finished.
- Lord of the Rings as an “Event” Comic Book
No doubt it would have tie-ins, side stories, spinoffs, and a bunch of extra tie-ins added to plug the inevitable gaps in the schedule.
- Cynicism in DS9 vs. B5
In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode, Accession, an ancient Bajoran ship comes out of the wormhole with a single passenger who claims HE is the Emissary of the Prophets.
- What the Hell Happened To Crusade: What the Hell Happened?
I stumbled on “Crusade: What the Hell Happened? vol.1” while packing, and wondered what happened to book 2. Apparently I’m not the only one wondering that.
- Boba’s Long-Lost Cousin?
I keep passing this sign on the way home from work on nights that I take the 405. After a lifetime of Star Wars, my brain really wants to rearrange the double letters.
- (Mad) Scientific Fact: The Girl Genius Novel is Out!
Phil & Kaja Foglio’s Agatha H. and the Airship City adapts the first storyline from their award-winning Girl Genius comic series to prose novel form.
- TRON
Just watched TRON: Legacy. Realized the plot of the first movie can be summarized as “Information wants to be free.”
- Links: Coffee, D&D Advice, Paused Niagra Falls
Some interesting links I’ve encountered over the past week or two. Help! My Half-Elf is Pregnant! – The 11 strangest Dungeons and Dragons questions from the “Sage Advice” Column 15 things worth knowing about coffee by The Oatmeal. Photos: When Niagra Falls Ran Dry
- Obvious Transformers Knockoff is Obvious
It’s not quite as good a title as Transmorphers, but seriously: look at that logo! It’s a dead ringer for Transformers: Armada, down to the extra capital letter.
- Links: 1.0 Releases, Sci-Fi and Science Fact, The Missile that Wasn’t
Matt Mullenweg on Apple, WordPress & tech release strategy. 1.0 Is the Loneliest Number Robert J. Sawyer on the relationship between science fiction and science fact: The job of sci-fi isn’t to predict “THE future,” but “to suggest a smorgasbord of possible futures, so that society may choose the one it wants.” Mystery California missile […]
- Long-Awaited Fantasy Books: Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, Wheel of Time, Ice and Fire
Back in 2005, Tokyopop started working on manga-style graphic novels based on Jim Henson’s Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. They released one volume of three planned for Legends of the Dark Crystal, taking place centuries before the movie, and two volumes of four planned for Return to Labyrinth, focusing on Sarah’s brother Toby as a […]
- Links! Alarms, Ghosts of History, Firefly Trek, WW2 Star Wars & More
Hazards of too many alarms; Merging historical and modern photos; Computer lightning safety; Allergies, Star Wars as World War II; Firefly as Star Trek, SMBC’s Logogeneplex.
- Links: Identity, Kindle, Language, and the Moon
Linkblogging: Privacy in terms of identity. The new Kindle. The future of old-timey language. Geek Merit Badges. The Moon Hoax debunked as a comic.
- Comic-Con Quotes: Twisting Genres
Authors China Mieville, Naomi Novik, Scott Westerfeld, Daryl Gregory and more discuss mixing things up with books that defy classification.
- Comic-Con Quotes: Epic Fantasy
Fun quotes from fantasy authors Brandon Sanderson, Christopher Paolini, Patrick Rothfuss, Megan Whalen Turner, and Brent Weeks.
- Four Days at Comic-Con 2010 (Index)
Comic-Con International (San Diego) was fun and exhausting as usual. Here’s an index to all of our panel writeups, quotes, stories and photos.
- SDCC, Universal, and Not-Produced-Here Syndrome
It’s funny how some companies will go out of their way to avoid acknowledging the competition. Does anyone really think that the Comic-Con audience will best remember Sigourney Weaver for a supporting role in Baby Mama?
- A Day at Westercon 63: Confirmation
Smaller than the typical media event that comic cons have become, Westercon provides a more literary approach to sci-fi and fantasy fandom.
- Links: Doomed Data, Web Services, WTF Textbook Questions & More
An experiment: I’ve modified* Twitter Tools to create digest posts as drafts instead of publishing immediately. That gives me a chance to edit a week’s worth of random thoughts and links down to the interesting stuff, clean things up a bit, expand things that could use more detail, and remind myself of items that I […]
- National Park Service vs. Robots From Space
If you went out to the movies in the US during 2009, there’s a good chance you saw a turn-off-your-phone PSA in which a movie about “robots from space” tries to negotiate blowing up Mount Rushmore. In a case of life imitating art, the National Park Service is currently battling Transformers 3 — a movie […]
- LOST Finale: DHARMA Initiative Cake and Pizza
Remember the Battlestar Galactica cake? For last night’s LOST finale, Katie made an authentic DHARMA Initiative chocolate cake, and pizzas with the Swan and Orchid logos. The cake is chocolate, with homemade buttercream icing (vanilla for the background, chocolate for the design). The pizzas have an outer ring of sausage, with bell pepper strips for […]
- Spaceballs: The Beer
The latest seasonal beer at Oggi’s* is The Schwartz, a Belgian IPA. And just in case the “May the Schwartz Be With You” tagline wasn’t clear enough…well, check out the poster: Sorry about the image quality. I wasn’t sampling the brew, it’s just the phone camera in low lighting. *Oggi’s (pronounced OH-jeez) is a chain […]
- Farewell to FlashForward, Heroes & Better Off Ted
So, the last few TV shows I was waiting to hear about have been officially canceled. FlashForward is two episodes away from its season — now series — finale. I’ll miss it a little, but I think I’ll miss what it could have been a lot more than I’ll miss what it actually was. The […]
- LOST Commercials Explained
Theory on LOST’s weird commercials: They figure anyone still watching doesn’t need to be convinced, so they might as well have fun.
- Officebot
New design for Optimus Prime? Or maybe that should be Office-mus Prime.
- Whatever Happened to B5: Crusade?
Ever since J. Michael Straczynski started selling his Babylon 5 script book series, I’ve been hoping we’d get a book with the scripts from the spinoff Crusade. Especially the scripts that were finished, but never produced, and would have set up the real story. That whole thing about finding a cure for the Drakh plague […]
- Pon Farr Perfume
In honor of Valentine’s Day, check out this bizarre sight we found at (of all places) Borders a while back: Yes, it’s Star Trek perfume inspired by the Vulcan mating urge. But, wait, there’s more! Apparently, they want you to believe that Starfleet Medical has isolated the factor that made Captain James T. Kirk a […]
- LOST: Return to LA
It’s off to a good start. They made a cosmic reset button work as a story device, explained some things, and set up an intriguing direction for the final arc.
- Myth-Quotations
Myth Adventures, Phil Foglio’s comic-book adaptation of Robert Asprin’s fantasy/comedy novel, Another Fine Myth, is being serialized as a free webcomic [Edit: no longer available.], in the same format as Girl Genius. I remember spending a lot of effort tracking down the mid-1980s books on eBay, before they finally reissued the collection. The title of […]
- Moon Girl Fights Time!
Moon Girl, a golden-age comic known for its rapid title and genre changes, is back after 60 years…on the iPhone.
- New Year’s Eve & Avatar
10 years ago I had just started working at an Internet provider and was very glad they didn’t want me in the server room at midnight for Y2K. I just ordered tickets to Avatar in IMAX 3D. It actually *was* cheaper to see Xanadu on stage, even including parking! Made it into Avatar. Got surprisingly […]
- Hogwarts Groceries
I keep misreading the Snapea Crisps as Snape Crisps…and the right hand placement gets you Aragog Coffee at Trader Joe’s.
- Sir Reynolds of the Wrap
Some people take Renaissance Faire costuming (excuse me, garb) seriously. Others…don’t. Here’s an example of a silly outfit I’ve seen.
- Star Wars Band Names
Take the name of a real band and alter it to make it a Star Wars reference.
- Found Shell Beach
Listening to the Dark City soundtrack while scanning a roll of old photos. Just picked up a photo of the sign for Shell Beach.
- Finished The Gathering Storm (Wheel of Time) – It’s Good
The first book of the 3-part conclusion to The Wheel of Time lives up to its promise. It may not be 100% Robert Jordan, but it’s the next best thing.
- Seanchan Programmers
A tech list is discussing EAGAIN errors, and I keep misreading it as EGEANIN.
- On Army of Darkness
I finally watched Evil Dead 2, and got to thinking about just what makes the trilogy different from other 1980s horror series.
- Geeky Pumpkins of Halloweens Past
I’m not much of a pumpkin carver myself, but Katie likes to get creative. Here are some Jack-O-Lanterns she’s done, inspired by science fiction, fantasy, comics and games. From 2003… Gourdzilla! Inspired by a Grand Ave. strip earlier that week. Also, Aeryn Sun from Farscape! More about these: 2003 Halloween Madness From 2005… Puzzle Pirates’ […]
- Droidmark
I wonder if Lucasfilm will try to assert trademark over the Motorola/Verizon Droid?
- Sci-Fi Remakes
There was a meme running through Twitter today to come up with movie titles for #scifiremakes. Here are my contributions. Shaka Sulu Schindler’s Arcology Obi-Wan Hur Droids on the Side Shuttlecraft 54, Where Are You?
- Star Wars Holiday: So Bad It’s Worse
XKCD on the Star Wars Holiday Special True. Absolutely true. Update: It’s true. All of it.
- Most Disturbing Use of an Alarm Clock
And the award for Most Disturbing Use of an Alarm Clock in a Prime Time Show goes to… FlashForward! I got a weird kick out of recognizing it as Clocky (before the disturbing part).
- Rereading FlashForward
I’ve been re-reading Robert J. Sawyer’s original Flashforward novel…for obvious reasons. It’s been interesting to compare the TV adaptation…
- Optimus Prime(s)
Realized why the Japanese name for Optimus Prime bugs me: “Convoy” implies more than one vehicle. Maybe it’s a translation issue?
- Sylar vs. Sylar?
Possible spoilers for the beginning of Heroes Volume 5: Redemption. So. Last season, Nathan Petrelli died and Matt Parkman telepathically brainwashed Sylar into believing he was Nathan, and since Sylar can change his appearance, as far as anyone can tell, he may as well be Nathan. Now, Matt has a version of Sylar living in […]
- Seeing Transformers 2
I finally saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen today. In some ways it wasn’t as awful as I’d heard, and in some ways it was worse. I’m glad I waited for the second-run showing and only spent $1.75. Read on…
- About Those Robots…
I don’t know how I missed this easter egg before: In Firefox, type about:robots into the location bar. (via @Aeire & @IsobelWren) If you’re a science fiction fan, you’ll get a kick out of it!
- Arctic Lairs
Ah, the Onion! Melting Ice Caps Expose Hundreds of Secret Arctic Lairs. I’m trying to remember whether Dr. Impossible had an arctic base.
- Second-Best. Ripoff. Title. Ever!
From the makers of Alien vs. Hunter and Snakes on a Train, it’s Transmorphers: Fall of Man.
- Competing Clanks
Standing in the movie theater lobby, listening to competing CLANKing from Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation.
- Cyborgs: Terminator Salvation and Surrogates
Finally got out to see Terminator: Salvation at the second-run theater. It was a passable action flick, though a bit overblown and tedious at times. I thought it was better than T3: Rise of the Machines, at least. T3 was too caught up in repeating the first two movies (a Terminator is sent back in […]
- “Lost” Panel Made of Win
The final LOST panel at Comic-Con was a real gift to the fans, with surprise guests, comedy, and hints at the upcoming final season.
- Flash Forward Looks Incredible (Comic-Con)
They showed 2 acts of the pilot at Comic-Con, and it looks great. Different from the book, but they’re adapting the concept, not the story.
- Mad Science: The Science Behind Science-Fiction – Fringe, Eureka! and Caprica
Sci-Fi show reps talk about horror, space, killer robots, undead legal testimony, and the implied “don’t try this at home” factor with Walter Bishop.
- Gandledorf
Go ahead. Tell me Dumbledore doesn’t look like Gandalf in this poster.
- Stalker Watch, Immortality, Fast Food Crossover
Spam subject: “Your watch will find you no matter where you are.” What if I don’t want Stalker Watch to follow me around? @BadAstronomer writes a short-short story: Beware of what you wish for… Immortality is boring. Waiting for food at Rubio’s. Employees are trying to get the lyrics straight for the latest Jack-In-the-Box commercial.
- Pushing Daisies Finale Mini-Review
Pushing Daisies had a satisfying don’t-call-it-an-ending. Looking forward to the comics.
- Why, the NERV!
Spam from “Gendo Ikari” selling lava lamps. The mind boggles. Edit: I guess that orange goo in the finale wasn’t Tang after all.
- Casablanca…IN SPACE!
Babylon 5 has been described as Casablanca in space, so it was weird to catch an episode of Deep Space Nine that really *was* Casablanca in space.
- Crossover Names
Have you ever run into a name that you can’t help associating with a completely different context? Like when people realize that one guy in Office Space is named Michael Bolton? Or when you look at “AD&D,” and instead of “Accidental Death and Dismemberment” your first thought is “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons?” Yeah. Especially in […]
- Star Trek: Experiencing Seismic Activity
Sunday’s earthquake hit while we were watching the new Star Trek movie. It actually fit with the movie surprisingly well. Also: what I liked and didn’t.
- TV Shows: End of Spring Status
A quick look at TV shows we’ve been watching this season. Lost – Good season, learned a lot more than I expected about DHARMA, major cliffhanger. Renewed for a final season…in 2010. (Hard to believe that’s less than a year away) Pushing Daisies – managed to maintain the tone & quality, but canceled halfway through […]
- Drazi Peeps
Green! Purple! (For an explanation, read up on the Drazi effect.)
- S. Darko
Good grief. Donnie Darko direct-to-DVD sequel comes out tomorrow. I liked the original, but nothing in it demanded a sequel.
- Cardassian Reality TV
Every time I hear an ad for “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” It sounds like “Keeping Up With the Cardassians” Does the Star Trek universe have reality shows?
- Zap, Tom said shockingly
Weird: Apparently Tasers were named for a Tom Swift invention, as in “Thomas A. Swift’s electric rifle.”
- Satellite Market, Fast Food Options, Ada and More
Last night I learned that the Satellite Market near Disneyland is still there, but the Sputnik-style sign has been replaced. Old & new photos. Side salad vs. fries study: Adding a healthier option caused people to choose the unhealthy option more often. It’s made me a lot more aware of what I order for lunch. […]
- Not So Farscape
This logo really reminds me of the Farscape logo. It’s not the same font, but it’s close enough to evoke the same feel.
- Lol Lol Binks
Jar-Jar Binks speaks LOLCat – or rather LOLcats speak Gungan. — (Katie on rewatching Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace)
- Geocities Fading Away
Farewell, Geocities. It was nice knowing you. (Wait, no it wasn’t!) In a message on Yahoo!’s help site, the company said that it would be shuttering Geocities, a free web-hosting service, later this year and will not be accepting any new customers. Update: I wrote a bit more on the fandom side of things over […]
- Pushing Daisies Resurrected in Comics
DC will publish a 12-issue Pushing Daisies comic book by Bryan Fuller, featuring Chuck, Ned, Emerson and Olive versus 1,000 corpses.
- Color-Switchin’ Coraline Apocalypse
A file format mix-up switches the color channels on Coraline artwork, making for a hellish-looking image. I ran afoul of the same problem w/a company logo.
- Questions
Is the glut of vampire novels a result of more people WRITING them, or more publishers ACCEPTING them? Google employees ask the all-important question: Will It Lens?
- LOST: Ben and Apologies
Some thoughts on exactly why Ben Linus offered an apology to one specific person, and not to someone else.
- Wheel of Time Finale: 3-Book Split
The last Wheel of Time book is so massive it’s being split into 3 volumes. I’m half annoyed, but it doesn’t surprise me that it needs that many pages.
- Spam from Elvira
In the spamtraps, I found a message from “Elvira” telling me, “It’s awful.” Now I’m waiting for “Tom” and “Crow” to tell me, “It’s terrible.”
- Star Wars Disaster Movie
Is that the one in which millions of voices suddenly cry out in terror, and are suddenly silenced?
- Battlestar Galacticake
BSG Cake – Angled, originally uploaded by alenxa. For last night’s BSG finale, Katie made a cake in the form of the Battlestar Galactica itself! More photos and making-of tidbits in the Battlestar Galacticake set. And yes, it tasted good too!
- Waitaminute
Listening to “Into the West” (end credits song from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King). Lyric, “Across the sea a pale moon rises.” It’s all about crossing the sea into the west to go to elf heaven. Presumably the speaker is standing at the Grey Havens, waiting for the ships to arrive and […]
- Buggy Recipe
Found this ad for Coraline in this morning’s newspaper: It’s kind of hard to read, between the pixel size and the printing, but the funniest bit is the blue sidebar on “Finding the Tastiest Beetles:” Beetles are delicious creatures that live close to home. If you use beetles from your backyard or basement, check them […]
- Rewatching Star Wars: A New Hope
We watched Star Wars last night, the DVD version. It’s been about four years since I last saw it. When Revenge of the Sith came out, we came home and immediately re-watched A New Hope, then caught the next two films over the following week or so. It’s been long enough that memories have blurred, […]
- Critical Miss
This convention press release tells you all about who’s going to be there and what’s going to happen, but leaves out a critical piece of information.
- Midseason TV Watching
Battlestar Galactica As we move into the second half of the final season, will all really be revealed? Season Four has been good, definitely better than Season 3 (which IMO got bogged down by the Starbuck/Apollo “plot”), though the logic of the Final Five Minus One doesn’t make much sense. — Returns Friday, Jan. 16 […]
- Video Linkblogging: Mac vs. PC
Found this fun short movie: Mac vs. PC. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. It’s been done a million times. But how many times have the Mac and PC been Transformers? There’s a strong element of Terminator in there, as well. (via Major Spoilers, though it apparently hit Digg a week ago)
- Fire Twirling With Farscape’s Chiana
Actress Gigi Edgley, probably best known to American audiences as Chiana on Farscape, has another talent: fire twirling. She’s been performing at the weekly Huntington Beach street fair with (I think) her boyfriend, and plugged the show at the latest Farscape convention in Burbank last month. My parents, also Scapers, set up a trip with […]
- Best Ripoff Title Ever
Several months ago I was browsing the local Blockbuster video store for a movie to rent, and I stumbled across one that made me laugh out loud. It’s the title on the right, and you’ll see why if you compare it to the rather more well-known title on the left. I mean, seriously, look how […]
- Conan the Scheduler
Surprised to find no jokes online using the pun “Anvil of Cron,” just typos.
- NBC 3D
I caught a re-release of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D. Movie: Good. 3D: Good. Digital Projection: Not so good, with visible pixels.
- OC D&D
Something like 10 years ago, Katie saw a self-storage place in which the opening S was unlit, making it read, “Elf Storage.” She’s been looking for another one ever since, and we finally caught one in Newport Beach a few months ago. This one was even better, because the S had actually fallen off. Of […]
- Knowing too much
Finally watched A Scanner Darkly this weekend. Better than I expected. One sequence pulled me out of the film, though, and only because I live in Orange County. In the middle of the film, several characters start a road trip to San Diego. They start on the 5 freeway in Anaheim and drive south until […]
- Frostbite Looks Familiar
Looking at the “all ages” shelf in Borders, which seems to be almost entirely made up of novels about vampires and dragons, I noticed that the cover to the Vampire Academy novel Frostbite looked awfully familiar. I walked over to the DVD section of the store and picked up a copy of Buffy the Vampire […]
- Fringe at Two Episodes
Somehow, we’ve found ourselves watching a lot of shows on Fox this fall. And two out of three are returning, so we can be confident that they’ll actually finish out the season. The third is Fringe, and I’m still trying to decide whether I want to keep up with it. So far it basically seems […]
- Dawn from BTVS: Irrational Character Hate
Some fans hate Dawn even when she does things that they like, or that are necessary to set up elements they like. It’s hate for its own sake.
- More B5 Books: Babylon 5 Chronology
Wow. The Babylon 5 Scripts team keeps finding more ways to get my money. The latest: The Chronologies of Babylon 5. And it includes every single piece of B5 canon, down to the six short stories JMS wrote after the series ended and even the unproduced Crusade scripts. The script books have mostly been interesting for […]
- Manhunter: Serenity
Let’s play a game! It’s called: Count the Serenity/Firefly references in this Matthew Clark cover for Manhunter #36! You’ll have to click on it for the larger version to see some of them.
- HP Rebellion
I don’t understand the rage exploding over the Harry Potter delay. More precisely, I suppose I should say I don’t understand the depth of the rage. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was originally scheduled for November, but Warner Bros. has just decided to push it back to June for scheduling purposes. Is it annoying? […]
- The Singing Fly
The latest newsletter for the Center Theatre Group includes a mention of The Fly: The Opera. Yes, The Fly, based on the sci-fi film about a scientist who gets combined with a housefly in a teleportation accident. And its remake. As an opera. 😯 Plácido Domingo conducts the U.S. premiere of the LA Opera-commissioned opera […]
- Following Up on Harry Potter
It was a bit of a surprise to learn that J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beadle the Bard is actually getting a mass-market printing. This book of short stories, set in the Harry Potter universe with commentary by Dumbledore, was originally released only in a tiny run of seven hand-made copies, sold at auction for […]
- Saturday Morning in Line at the Con (SDCC 2008)
Crowds, coffee and crazy lines: Waiting for Heroes in Hall H and navigating the floor from Artists Alley on up.
- Friday at Comic-Con
Pancake House, Read or Die cosplay, Sci-fi writers Connie Willis and Robert J Sawyer, Humor in Sci-Fi, the Field, and running into people we know.
- Rambling On
On the subject of filk, and trying to define it, there’s a whole subset of songs by professional musicians that just rides the edge. (Half of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s repertoire, for instance.) Twice in the last week I’ve heard Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On,” which is apparently about Aragorn and Arwen from Lord of the Rings. […]
- Filker Tom Smith Needs Help
Musician Tom Smith (author of the Talk Like a Pirate Day theme song and Girl Genius’ Transylvania Polygnostic University Fight Song, and a.k.a. filkertom on LiveJournal) is in the hospital after a nasty injury, facing expensive surgery and months of hospital bills…without insurance. And of course he can’t work while he’s in the hospital. A […]
- B5 Script Series Shutting Down
I just got an email with the reminder that J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 Script Book Series is going out of print at the end of the month. Monday, June 30 is the last day. It’s hardly a surprise, since the series was always advertised as a limited edition. The weird thing is that they’re […]
- Links, from the Astronomical to the Surreal
The Value of Space Exploration, via Phil Plait. Neil Gaiman on The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke, a painting by a madman that’s inspired its share of stories. And from Comics Worth Reading, our WTF entry for the day: Paradise by the GoPhone Light. It’s a commercial done in the style of a music video, featuring […]
- Conventions and Distance
You can commute to nearby conventions, drive to others, and fly to even more. Once you have to fly anyway, destination matters more than distance.
- The Born Queen
We’ve both finished reading The Born Queen, the conclusion to Greg Keyes’ The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone. Yesterday we spent the day reading in tandem on the couch: I read book 3, Katie read book 4, and finished within an hour of each other. Determined to catch up, I read 100 pages last night […]
- The Race for Eslen
After working my way through The Briar King in bits here and there, I made time for The Charnel Prince. I finished the second book Tuesday evening, and I’m currently 100 pages into The Blood Knight. Meanwhile, I’ve been talking about the books (Greg Keyes’ The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone) a lot, trying not to drop spoilers in case […]
- No Time for the End of the World
Well, my copy of The Born Queen has arrived via UPS, and I’m nowhere near finished re-reading the first three books of Greg Keyes’ The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone. I’d hoped to start at the beginning of March, but I was in the middle of the Trade Pact books and wanted to finish that […]
- Cataloging Worlds
What’s the best way to catalog a fictional multiverse? Clear definitions, or fluid? Names or numbers? How do you choose the numbers?
- Sylar Industries
Altered photo. The original sign is for Syar Industries in Napa, California, but as Heroes fans, we couldn’t resist changing it to Sylar.
- Hazards of Q&A Sessions
Time is precious. Don’t waste it with flattery, self-promotion, or claiming to speak for the rest of us. Just ask your question and move on.
- Wizard World LA 2008 – Con Report
Despite missing signs and a bad schedule, I got some comics bargains and met a bunch of artists, writers and actors including John Wesley Shipp, TV’s Flash.
- Completing the Series
Yesterday I finally had time to finish reading To Trade the Stars, the final book in Julie E. Czerneda’s “Trade Pact Universe” trilogy. Now I’m ready to pick up The Briar King again, since the final book of Greg Keyes’ fantasy quartet, Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, comes out at the end of the month. […]
- Geek Hierarchies
Another Geek Hierarchy [dead link]. This one, instead of focusing on how geeks of all stripes rank themselves [another dead link], portrays the way “mainstream society” ranks geeks. I appreciate that it includes sports geeks. I’ve never understood why it’s considered acceptable to paint yourself blue, wear cheese on your head and giant foam gloves […]
- Comic Book Convention Prices Compared
On a per-day basis, Comic-Con isn’t actually that expensive compared to other big conventions like Gen Con and Dragon*Con.
- Skiffy Links
Comic-Con 2008 hotel post-mortem at The Beat, the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Starship Captains at IO9, and Computer Love Day from Mandriva.
- Those Glowing Red Eyes
So, how appropriate is it that Lee Thompson Young, who played Cyborg on Smallville, would show up in an episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles? (Not, as far as we can tell, as a cyborg this time.)
- Babylon 5 Scripts: The Bonus Volume
Hard to believe, but J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 Script Books are almost done. Volume 13 of 14 just shipped (my copy arrived today by UPS), and it’s time to talk about the bonus volume 15, only available to people who’ve bought a complete set. This is the book that has alternate versions of several […]
- Golden Compass, Tin Man
Saw The Golden Compass. Enjoyed it a lot, though it felt very rushed, and I think it would have benefitted from having the actual ending instead of cutting it off early. Here’s hoping they do well enough in the long run to greenlight the next film. Now I can re-read the books. Also watched Tin […]
- Legality Links
Organization for Transformative Works – dedicated to protecting the expression of fan fiction, fan art, etc. (via Naomi Novik) Open Standards, One Web, and Opera – Just why are standards important, anyway? (via Opera Watch) Speaking of Opera, their EU antitrust complaint against Microsoft has been making waves. Responses at CSS3.info, Web Standards Project, Slashdot […]
- Phantoms and Rock(y Horror) Operas
Watched Phantom of the Paradise this weekend. It’s a bizarre 1974 mash-up between The Phantom of the Opera and Faust set in a satire of the 1970s music industry. The movie casts Paul Williams (who wrote all the music for the film) as a reclusive recording mogul, Swan, who steals a struggling songwriter’s pop cantata […]
- Londo/G’Kar in 2008!
This just showed up in my email from Babylon 5 Scripts: From JMS’s Cafe Press store (the same site through which he’s selling his script books with commentary): With the coming 2008 elections, there aren’t a lot of candidates we can agree upon. So as a public service, we are now providing a slate of […]
- Temeraire Flies Again
I just found out that Empire of Ivory, the fourth book in the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik, came out today! The series takes place in an alternate version of the Napoleonic Wars in which dragons exist, and are used in warfare. This results in an odd mix of naval battles and aerial dogfighting, with […]
- Cylon Sighting
Hmm, does anyone else think that the logo on this sign…. …looks a bit like a Cylon Basestar?
- From DM of the Rings to Chainmail Bikini
After a year, DM of the Rings is finished. The comic recast Lord of the Rings as a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, using stills (sometimes brilliantly chosen) from the Peter Jackson–directed movie trilogy in a comic-strip format. The series poked fun at RPG tropes and player types, with the players’ dialog given to the LOTR […]
- BEM: Ladies Man
A bizarre PSA I found in a 1967 comic book: Brains, Emotions and Muscles each try to chat up a girl at a party, but only BEM will convince her to dance!
- Saw Transformers
I finally got out to see Transformers today. Yes, I grew up with the cartoons, the toys and the comics. Yes, I even collected every comic book from the original Marvel series through the Generation 2 series (including the prologue in G.I. Joe) through the first round from DreamWave. But somewhere along the line I just lost […]
- Prim(a)tech Sighting
In honor of the Heroes DVD release, here’s a truck that’s almost, but not quite labeled for Primatech Paper: Interestingly, it’s been a month for timing pop culture releases with relevant astronomical events. First Stardust, all about catching a falling star, arrived in theaters the same weekend as the Perseids meteor shower. Today, the Heroes […]
- Spam from the Third Age
I’ve held off on posting funny spam subject lines lately, but I just had to comment on this pair. First up: Mazrim Taim was one of those, raising an army and ravaging Saldaea before he was taken. It’s a quote from Lord of Chaos, the 6th book in Robert Jordan’s fantasy series, The Wheel of […]
- Mike Wieringo (1963-2007)
This weekend I re-read Tellos, a fantasy comic book that ran from 1999-2000. Writer Todd Dezago and artist Mike Wieringo took a 6-month hiatus to prepare the next story arc, but that arc never materialized. Just a few one-shots and an anthology mini that explored backstories and aftermath, with a few hints at the upcoming story. Though […]
- Stardust is Good
Went out to see Stardust with a group of friends, and we all enjoyed it. People have been comparing it to The Princess Bride, and it’s an apt comparison: both are light-hearted fantasy adventures with a love story at the heart. Stardust takes itself a bit more seriously, though there’s plenty of humor. The concept: […]
- Pirates vs. Sylar
I’m still attending Comic-Con in civvies, but Katie wore two costumes this year: another update of her pirate outfit on Friday, and a Sylar victim with a telekinetic slice across her forehead. Saturday, of course, for the big Heroes panel. She did the makeup from scratch, using latex and fake blood, and got a lot […]
- …and the Wizard
After the “Weird Al” concert we explored the fair a bit, then left to go to Borders to pick up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Katie had reserved the book at the new one that just opened at The District. And by “just opened,” I mean Wednesday. Her confirmation number was 7. I kid […]
- Waiting for the Wizard
I walked over to the nearby Barnes and Noble at lunch just to see whether anyone was lined up for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Fantasy Film Follow-Up
Saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I thought it was better than the fourth film, and up there with Prisoner of Azkaban, though Katie liked Goblet of Fire better. The main thing I would really have liked to see more of: Hogwarts in rebellion. “It unscrews the other way.” We agreed that […]
- Lost Finale
That makes two very good season finales this week. Lost was more plot-focused, while Heroes was more character-focused. And we learned some very interesting things about the fate of the islanders. Spoilers follow.
- Thoughts on Heroes: “How to Stop an Exploding Man”
The Heroes season finale was excellent. They did a good job of resolving the main story arc established at the beginning of the season (the bomb threatening New York City), balanced action and characterization, answered some questions while still leaving things open—and set up a really interesting situation for season 2. It’s also nice to see […]
- Mohindiana
Ever notice the similarities between Mohinder Suresh on Heroes and Indiana Jones? His first arc is straight out of The Last Crusade.