That starts the title for the entry Super Powered Breasts Are Our Only Hope Against The Evil Fish People over at io9. I had to include this one just for the title! There are a number of trailers from films premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival (September 10th through the 19th) in that article as well.
The first full day of Dragon*Con has ended, not because people have gone to bed for the night, but because we crossed the line into Saturday in its time zone. The best real-time reporting I have found so far is the aggregate at the Dragon Con Twitter filter; it’s 2:30AM here (and there), and in the time it took me to type this 58 new Tweets have arrived. Most of the Dragon Con tweets come with links to some wonderful pictures like this one of strange Cosplay, or the Doctor Horrible cast, perhaps performing live like they did last year? One of the tweeters contributing is Fancy Fembot, and the latest episode of her podcast, SciFi Party Line #31 just went live yesterday. A ton of other podcasters are there, like Escape Pod, and a ton of authors, including Scott Sigler, bringing his Rookie Tailgate Tour to the Con.
Since I can’t be there this year, my plan was to hit the movies It Might Get Loud and Gamer tonight. It didn’t quite work out that way; I managed It Might Get Loud, which is undeniably the best rockumentary of the last few decades (longer if you are a guitar player). The scene where Jimmy Page picked up a guitar and started belting out Whole Lotta Love, U2’s guitar guru The Edge jumped up, electrified, riveted, and all but foaming at the mouth, and White Stripe’s Jack White also jumped up, staring at Jimmy’s hands like he was memorizing the secrets of the Universe, was worth every penny of the ticket price. The other hundred minutes of the film were just bonus, glimpses of history, genius, style, attitude, and everything that goes into creating people that much larger than life. Just because that wasn’t good enough to make up an entire movie (or for whatever reason they like; I enjoyed it to much to care), the three of them kept jamming together on songs they each had written. The film started with Jack White building a guitar from some spare lumber, a coke bottle, and some wire he had hanging around; when it ended, they went out jamming on the Dylan/Band classic The Weight. How perfect is that? To see when it plays by you, check the release dates. I also saw Cold Hearts tonight, and plan to see Gamer tomorrow night; but those reviews can wait until the next Blog entry.
This week saw a few important birthdays in the evolution of Nerd and Geek culture which I thought I should mention. To start, on the 1st of September, 1902, the very first science fiction movie ever made was released: La voyage dans la Lune. I find it fitting that it was based on two stories about human space travel, one written by Jules Verne and the other by H. G. Wells. After all, between them they invented modern science fiction as a written art form, so it is appropriate they would inspire the first movie (and ironic that Wells would also become the movie critic for a British newspaper who panned Metropolis in 1925). One day after the birthday of Sci-Fi films was the birthday of the Internet; on September 2nd, 1969, two computers in two different locations exchanged packets over some twisted-pair copper. So Happy Birthday, all of us Nerds and Geeks! I think I’ll celebrate by voting for the Scream Awards nominees I like best, and then going to see It Might Get Loud, and follow that up with Gamer. Sounds like a party!
The folks at io9 have put together a fun little chart graphing the science fiction after Star Trek (TOS). It goes rather nicely with one they posted a week ago, a timeline of Time Travel, which shows the start and end jumps of many fictional time travelers. Doctor Who was left off the chart, or you wouldn’t be able to see any of the other travelers (he may get his own chart later). Paste has a small but accurate chart comparing the Best and Worst of SF: District 9 vs. Plan 9 that you might also enjoy. To see more Chart Porn, stop by Information is Beautiful.
From the 4th to the 7th its Dragoncon in Georgia! This is an excellent Con, with a ton of everything that makes Cons fun. Guests include Lynn Abbey, Lou Anders, Kevin J. Anderson, and Catherine Asaro for the authors. Then there is Abney Park (Steampunk), ArcAttack (Lightning Rock), and Ayria (Gothic/Industrial/Punk) playing music on stage, Pete Abrams (Sluggy Freelance), Heidi Arnhold (Tokyo Pop) and David Atchison (Occult Crimes Taskforce) from the Comics community, Karen Allen, Scott Adsit and Ben Armstrong from the world of TV and movies. That is just a few of the categories, and it only covers the A’s; the whole rest of the alphabet is represented as well. This is one annual party you don’t want to miss.