Be seeing you.

I found out this morning that Patrick McGoohan died. He was 80. This made me unutterably sad.

McGoohan was one of the creative forces behind The Prisoner, one of my favorite shows. In addition to starring in the show as No. 6, he also wrote and directed many of the episodes, using various aliases. He even helped write the theme song.

I recently watched all of the episodes of The Prisoner over the course of a couple of days. I watched it so much I inadvertently started using the Village Salute. It's really a work to be commended for its vision, use of symbolism, and perspective.

Anyway, I have nothing to add to the many obituaries celebrating his life and work. I just wanted to say that I'm sad he's gone.

Avoidance is not an option

I was hoping to avoid this topic altogether, but they threatened to take away my nerd license if I didn't come down on one side or the other. So here goes: Steampunk. Sigh.

If you've been avoiding the internets for the last year, maybe you're not up on Steampunk. It's a design movement which attempts to merge Victorian sensibilities into modern technology, mainly through modifying the outward appearance of stuff so that it looks, well, antique. Also, wearing goggles seems to be important too. Never forget the goggles.

Anyway, some people have spent hours and hours modding their laptops, cell phones, etc., and then posted the pictures on the interweb. This has caused no end of controversy, mainly between the "hey, that looks cool" camp and the "that's utterly fucking pointless" camp.

Okay, yes, I do think it looks cool. But I think the TUFP camp is missing the point by a long shot. Most of the arguments seem to be that the steampunkers are merely changing the appearance of the object without adding anything to the function, and therefore is an exercise in futility. I think this comes from a lack of understanding into the importance of design in our daily lives.

Design is a bellwether to our cultural sensibility, and speaks to our collective values as a community. Most laptops and technology are designed to value ergonomics (it can't hurt your thumbs), efficiency of resources (it needs to be made cheaply), and finally aesthetics (nobody likes ugly stuff). Sleekness is valued highly right now, as well as innovative user interfaces: the iphone is a great example. The design of technology, like the design of anything else, has quite a bit of back-and-forth between the function of the object and the means by which it can be produced.

This is evident in any major design movement. Art deco favored clean lines and smooth surfaces, in large part to take advantage of new materials (plastic) and new means of production (big efficient factories). Mid-century modern favored "space-age" textures and shapes, both as a reflection of where the world was at the time, as well as better and better technologies to mass-produce items cheaply. And so forth.

So the point of my little lesson [adjusts pince-nez] is that, steampunk, like many other artistic movements, is about highlighting our collective values by providing a stark contrast. Steampunk, as it modifies objects, values craftsmanship over efficiency, aesthetics over ergonomics. Is it "pointless" to glue a brass gear onto an object that doesn't run on gears? Well, it certainly doesn't change the mechanism by which the object functions. But it does serve to highlight both the beauty and obsolescence of gears, which magnifies the actual technology in contrast.

In a way, steampunk also speaks to the collective anxiety hanging over our society: by allowing us to surmise how our lives would look if our society had evolved with different sensibilities, we can also imagine how our lives would be different in this parallel universe.

It is always valuable for a society to question its values in design. In as much as steampunk continues to provoke a dialogue, I think it's very useful as a aesthetic movement.

Except for the goggles. They are dumb.

Keyboard image courtesy of The Steampunk Workshop
Goggle image courtesy of Steam Gear Lab

I knew this day would come.

David Tennant is leaving Doctor Who. I... I can't even talk about it.

Sigh. If you want the official word from BBC, they have a little video about it, with an interview. A little video that just crushed me into utter devastation, is all.

Oh, David, you will be missed.

Halloween! Yay!

Let's be honest. Halloween is a chance for nerds to really shine. It's the one time of year where you get props for knowing the meticulous details of your favorite scifi/fantasy/horror movie/game/book. It's the only day where explaining the nuance of your Klingon Dress Battle Raiment to a drunk frat boy in a dress won't get you clocked.

This year, I went as Shaun, of Shaun of the Dead. I think the costume was a success, in that at least five people got very excited to point at me and say "You've got red on you!" The costume got more authentic as the night went on, because at one point I hugged a zombie and got blood all over my shirt. I didn't make a headband of the tie, though.


There were quite a few awesome nerd entries, including a couple with a shower/skeleton Karate Kid theme. There were two guys dressed as Andy Warhol (luckily from different eras, otherwise that would be AWKWARD), a droog, a gnome, and a Big Lebowski.

I have to give credit to two guys, though, for really bringing out the geek. First, my friend Buckley, who went as Gambit:

I'm a terrible photographer, so you're not getting the full effect of the outfit. Obviously though, guy knows his Gambit - the pose alone is a shining testament. I was very impressed, even though Gambit is my least favorite X-men.* He was also concerned that he couldn't find a brown trenchcoat and had to go with a gray one. Awesome. He couldn't convince his wife to go as Rogue, unfortunately.

But the ultimate win of the night goes to Cory, who went as Slob Robin, or Slobbin, as we were calling him:

People, this is COMMITMENT TO A BIT. Any costume that involves specifically shaving to give yourself a Fu Manchu is automatically made of pure uncut win. He didn't wash his hair for days, either. And last but not least, letting his gut hang through the costume was absolute gold.Sorry, ladies, he's taken.


*Seriously, playing cards? PLAYING CARDS? Come on. And his accent is ridiculous.

But what about BOY HERO?

FINALLY! A look inside Toxic Avenger: The Musical. Io9.com did up a little mini-doc about the musical based on everyone's favorite Troma pic, complete with a bit of the song "Hot Toxic Love". Check it out!

Thanks io9! Now I don't have to go down to New Jersey.*



*Thank God.

Made of WIN.

Too tired to do anything but link:
Cthulhu Movie Pitch

The Disney-esque font on the Lovecraft is the best part.

Of course he's awesome.

In news that should surprise precisely no one, David Tennant is receiving critical praise for his new role in Love's Labour's Lost. Apparently he was awesome in Hamlet with Patrick Stewart, and he is also killing as Berowne, that signor-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid,
Regent of love-rimes, lord of folded arms,
The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malcontents
Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces
Sole imperator and great general
Of trotting paritors...


Sigh. I lurve me some Tennant. His oath would not be safe with me around, I can tell you!!! I'd be his Rosaline, wink wink! I'd wait a year and a day! Oh, Shakespearean humor. Nothing could be less funny.

Maybe they need new writers?

Judge for yourself. Forty + years of the same question, and it still never gets old:



Thanks for finding this, io9! And thanks for sifting through ten generations, NoDaylight!

How do you spell "ambivalent"?

Okay. Er. I guess Disney is planning a huge comeback for the Muppets. That's good, right? The world needs more Muppets, right? Even if Disney is behind it?

I dunno... I think we can file this one under "careful what you wish for", folks.

Down for scheduled maintenance

That would be me. Yeah, feelin' a little blue lately, can't deny. But you know what makes me feel better? BUCKAROO!

Yes, that is what I need: Buckaroo Banzai. Perfect Tommy. New Jersey. And of course, the inimitable John Parker.



Hey man, nice jacket! What's in the big pink box?

Brain... filling with... politics....

Okay okay okay. Enough! Let's all take a nice break from looking at coverage of the RNC (finally over, yay!) and watch these trailers from one of my favorite indie scifi flicks, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. Politics will still be there in two minutes.

Must have!

I need this set of posters. And so do you.

Blue Sun Travel Posters.

Thanks, ThinkGeek! You always have the best stuff.

Please, just... no.

I was hoping I would never have to address this issue. But things have gone too far. This needs to stop.

Why, why, WHY are they making a Dragonball Z movie? WHYYYYY? And live action to boot!

There's just so many things wrong with this concept. Didn't anyone learn from Speed Racer? Dragonball Z is just a bunch of guys yelling and leaping through the air with energy lines behind their heads.

Don't get me wrong, I devoted HOURS to watching the show. It got the the point where I could tell within seconds of turning on the TV whether I had seen the episode or not. Which is saying something, because at least 63%* of every episode was made up of Gohan/Goku/Piccolo/Frieza/Cell powering up their special attack. There's only so many ways you can animate someone at the epicenter of an energy attack.

Anyway, the plot is incomprehensible. Not to say that I couldn't explain it at one point, because I watched several seasons. But making a movie-length version is just misguided. And a live-action version?!? COME ON. Not to even get INTO the issue that the people playing Goku and Bulma aren't even, you know, Asian. I just... AARRRGGHH! KATE SMASH!

And I really don't want to see James Marsters debase himself as Piccolo. I like him! His gay-off with Captain Jack in Torchwood was the highlight of season 2! How could he DO this to himself?

Oh, right... the money.

*22% was devoted to the attack itself, and the rest of the show was devoted to the aftermath/Goku eating noodles.

I read a book!

I don't know about you, but I've become pretty picky about my choices in reading material as I become an older, more sophisticated nerd. Remember when you were 12? You'd read any old crap from the scifi/fantasy section of Waldenbooks, especially if there was some green chick with cleavage on the cover. I must have had a dozen books just by Piers Anthony alone. Not to mention the whole Weis/Hickman saga (I was a Raistlin Majere fan, I'll admit. I'm not ashamed. I was 12, for God's sake.)

But once I grew up, and I'm guessing this is true for you all too, it became harder to find the good stuff. I don't have tons of time or disposable income to spend on books anymore. If I buy a book, or get one out of the library, I want to be able to finish it, at least. I don't want to throw it across the room in disgust before the second chapter is out.

I mean, yeah, there's always Pratchett, and he's great, but sometimes you want something a little more serious and gripping. Which is why I was happy to find The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss. I read it over my vacation this summer, and it was really good. Just a solid, well crafted fantasy novel. The protagonist is a fully fleshed character, the plot is exciting, the history/world is well thought out, basically everything you'd want in a good fantasy.

I'm pointing this out because it's the first in the series, so there may not be as much hype as other authors yet. It's easy to overlook a single title on the fantasy bookshelf, when everything else is at least a trilogy. Also, the cover art is terrible. It looks like a vampire/native american/goth romance novel. Guh. It does nothing to sell the book.

Anyway, go out and buy/borrow it. I highly recommend it, if that means anything to you (NEWS FLASH: Random blogger likes book! Stampedes of fans mob local Barnes and Noble!)

Anyway, it's over 700 pages, so block out some time. I'm looking forward to re-reading it when I have some time to really devote to it. And keep your eye out for the sequel. Should be good.

Maybe I just have bad taste

I just read on io9 that David Twohy is trying to make two sequels to Chronicles of Riddick. Okay, so for me, that is good news, because I loved that movie. I thought it was just great. What can I say, I'm a sucker for Karl Urban in a fancy helmet, I guess.

But not a lot of other people feel that way, apparently. It got a 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, and even the "good" reviews basically said that the movie was dumb. So I never bothered to see it in the theaters, and only found out I liked it when it started showing on TV.

This happens to me a lot. I read reviews, just like everyone else, and if a review is shitty, I don't go to see the movie. But I'm starting to think there should be a different set of critics for sci-fi movies or something. I've watched tons of movies that got lukewarm reviews, or were outright panned, and I liked them just fine. Time Machine, Aeon Flux, Constantine, Blade Trinity... I thought all of these movies were enjoyable. Maybe not the best movies ever, but definitely worthy of a Sunday matinee, at least.

So I was happy to see a lot of the comments on io9 for the Riddick thing were from people who also liked the movie.* I mean, I can totally be fine with having crappy taste in movies. That's okay with me. I'm just not convinced that all of these movies I like are genuinely bad. It seems like movies in other genres, like comedy, get a pass for a stupid premise or a crappy script as long as the comic timing is good. Case in point: Zoolander, Dodgeball, Anchorman. Don't get me wrong, I love these movies.Hi-larious.

But a crappy sci-fi script, even with the most utterly awe-inspiring effects ever to sear themselves on to your eyeballs, is still dismissed as not having any substance. Huh? Isn't awesome special effects and amazing sets and costumes the reason we go to see these movies? I mean, I didn't watch Dodgeball because I wanted to experience the agony of being an underdog - I saw it because Ben Stiller looks funny in that wig. And apparently, that was enough for critics to praise it as goofy fun. But Chronicles of Riddick, which in the words on of io9 commenter was "the best Dune since Dune," (no argument there!), is dismissed as goofy fun.

I don't get it. I know, let's make up a conspiracy theory about it. Yeah!


*Before devolving into the inevitable squabble over which was better, Chronicles or Pitch Black. Sigh. Nerds.

Is anyone else excited about this?

I don't know, people. I honestly just don't know. I can't bring myself to be excited about Star Trek XI, per se, but by the same token, I am curious. Especially since Simon Pegg is involved. And Karl Urban. I really like those guys. And I'm one of those fools who somehow believes that the mere presence of a favored actor is enough to make something worth watching.

Yeah, I've sat through a lotta crap on that account. Bubba Ho-Tep comes to mind.

But still... the marketing looks good, everyone seems excited, J.J. Abrams is involved... people seem to like Lost, and Cloverfield, right? I dunno. I don't want to get my hopes up, is all I'm sayin'.