Skip to main content

Things to Watch: DVDs

Last chance to release disks and have them available for Xmas. So who waited this late before moving? Top movie released this week has to be District 9; it is an incredible and surprising movie, and it is hard to believe it was made on a tiny budget. Top documentary out this week is definitely It Might Get Loud, which brings three amazing guitar players together. From TV, Kyle XY Season 3 hit the shelves Tuesday.

For Anime TV, Spice & Wolf: Complete First Season arrives, the story of a traveling trader and a wolf goddess. If you want to watch a bit of it to see if you like it, visit the official Funimation site. A single volume finishes up the first season of Ah My Buddha volume 6, kind of the Monk’s spirit power strip club version of Ah My Goddess. In live-action the movie Maid-Droid is also being released in the U.S.

More Music while waiting for Avatar; the Beat goes on…

Weather is moving in, so I may not get to see Avatar in my local theater on opening day. But since William Gibson inspired me to post some music yesterday, I thought it might to be fun to post a bit more today, this time recommended by Wil Wheaton from his Radio Free Burrito podcast. The band Monsters from Mars may not be posting many new tracks these days, but I sure like the old ones.

I just noticed that John Scalzi posted some of his favorite music videos today as well, and there are some great tunes there.

Speaking of old audio tracks, anyone remember Lord Buckley? With his classic poems from Hipsters, Flipsters, and Finger Poppin Daddies, knock me your lobes, to The Naz, to Gods Own Drunk, and many more, he was the precursor that ushered in everyone from William Burroughs to Lenny Bruce around 1950 or so (Buckley started recording about 1940). In the process, he singlehandedly invented the language of the Beat Generation, and introduced Jack Kerouac to stream of consciousness poetry, Allen Ginsberg to free-form rhyme, and cheered on Neal Cassady as he also created a unique variation on what it was to be an American Beat. Neal never wrote anything, as near as I can remember; he was just the quiet center around which everyone else kept writing, and doing, and evolving, using him for their inspiration.

Poerty and Music

Sometimes the world hand you some truly beautiful things. Tonight’s special treat came in the form of a Tweet from William Gibson, pointing to a stream of William Burroughs doing his Words of Advice poem. So I figured his collaboration with Jim Morrison was also worth posting, and as long as the music link was there thought I might as well include the other Gibson link that attracted my attention this evening, an Acapella version of a Who medley. On occasion, art trumps science.

Things To Do: Cons

Anime South runs from the 18th to the 20th in Destin, FL. Besides the usual Cosplay, Panels, Viewing Rooms, and Maid Cafe, they have some unusual events, like Anime Speed Dating and the Anime Tractor Pull. Musical guest Eyeshine seems to be touring the Anime and Sci-Fi Con circuit this winter, so they may be playing near you sometime soon.

Also this weekend, Tsunami 16 2009 happens in Merida, Yucatan Mexico. Unfortunately the homepage, while one of the most visually stunning images I have seen for an Anime con, is just that: a JPG image. A bit difficult to click on anything and get more information.

Build your own: Music

No real film fests this week except for the tail end of a few winding down, so a good time to talk about building your own. One thing you will need when creating your own Sci-Fi movie, animation, or radio play is a good sound bed of themes and incidental music. The Super Collider at SourceForge has a single primary purpose; to generate quality music with a command/control string of only 140 characters. These Twitter-sized bites of code play entire musical masterpieces when run through the original program. You can view the source code for the first 120 entries, to give you an idea of how to create your own.

The SuperCollider real-time audio synthesis and algorithmic composition program that takes the source code and converts it into music you can actually listen to is part of the SourceForge family of software. There are more projects you will want to track, so please follow the Wire’s Rendition of the SuperCollider’s instruction set so you don’t miss anything.