Hopefully you have been attending the USA Science and Engineering Festival since it opened on the 10th, either on the national mall and surrounding area or at any of the Satellite Events taking place at 50 locations in twenty different states. It goes on through the 24th, and I wanted to remind everyone that for the final weekend they are doing a Grand Finale Expo. That runs from 10AM to 5:30PM on Saturday and Sunday, the 23rd and 24th, with more than 1,500 hands-on activities and over 75 stage shows. Hope to see you there!
This Friday’s offering is a bit different, but looks like it could be interesting. Hereafter is a film directed by Clint Eastwood about a psychic who sees the afterlife and a few people he connects with deeply. I am not a fan of Clint Eastwood, Psychics, or near-death phenomena, but the trailer makes me think that perhaps there is something about this movie that would make it worthwhile. Of course, that’s what I thought about The Last Airbender trailer, and once the film actually started the guy sitting behind me kept nudging me to stop me from snoring. I think I will wait until this one is on a service I get anyways, like Netflix or HBO, rather than take another expensive nap in a darkened room full of strangers.
Mamoru Oshii’s latest feature film Assault Girls takes us to a future dystopian China where we return to the virtual realm called Avalon, for more beautifully filmed and soundscaped combat. The environment is very like the one he created for Ghost In The Shell, and could easily occupy that same universe, shifted to the mainland instead of the home islands. This one gets my vote as must-have of the week.
It seems like Predators was just in the movie theaters, but it is already coming out on DVD. In this entry to the franchise, a small selection of Earth’s top killers are exported to a hunting planet as prey. And in absolute last place for this weeks feature films, I am only mentioning Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl because the title gives me a grin. But the people who built both this movie and Tokyo Gore Police look to be the Troma of the orient, except without the humor. And notice I am not even mentioning Zombie Christ.
For live action TV series, a couple of classics are finally out on disk, starting with The Bionic Woman: Season 1, the original version. Personally I thought the recent remake was a much better rendition, with a more realistic story line, better acting and improved FX, if only because we are so much closer to having functional tech these days. The other TV golden oldie is Tales from the Darkside, with both the final season and the complete series being released this week. While it was more horror than Sci-Fi or Fantasy, every story had a little twist that gave it an edge, and figuring that twist out became the fun for watching this series.
Several goodies from the realm of animation this week, with Eden of the East: The Complete Series beating out everything else. I just reviewed it the other day, so my opinions should already be obvious, but let me just restate it for the record: this is the best Anime series I have seen this month, and in the top 10 (maybe the top 3) for this year. Its numerous awards come from many events, including the Tokyo International Anime Fair and Anime Kobe.
Tears To Tiara – The Complete Collection tells the Arthur/Albion legend from a new perspective. I haven’t seen this one yet, but it sounds very interesting and the artwork looks great.
Also out this week, Bamboo Blade: The Complete Series puts the entire girls kendo team storyline into a single box, in their never ending battle for sushi. And Hetalia: Axis Powers – Season 02 continues the personified silliness of WWII. And for western animation, Shaun the Sheep: Season 1 is also available Tuesday. Yes, this last group is just good old silly fun.
Just saw almost this trailer in the theater before RED yesterday, with a small dialog difference that gave a bit more of the back story to the big screen version. The movie itself will be out on February 11th, and based on the trailer it might just be worth checking out. If you haven’t seen RED yet, you should head for your local presentation today; it was even better than the trailer and the buzz made it out to be.
Just about to be released on DVD in the US , Eden of the East sucked me in with the initial scene: the protagonist naked with only a gun and a cell phone in front of the White House saves a tourist girl from arrest, then starts running. In eleven episodes, they cover one of the most interesting conspiracy plot lines I have seen, easily on a par with Welcome to the NHK or Speed Grapher, and every bit as riveting. It carved hours out of my precious sleep schedule, because every episode demanded that I watch the next, to find out what happened. Yes, I watched the entire thing in one sitting; I could not help myself. The link to watch the program online still exists at HULU, but the site link for Funimation Video is already past that, moving onto the new seasons programing, Like Birdy the Mighty: Decode. The best news is that it isn’t over; we get to go back to that world in Eden of The East the Movie I and II and see what happens next!
It has been a while since I have posted about reading, mostly because all the flashy visuals kick me into “Shiny, Pretty…” mode, and I get distracted. But two of my favorite authors, Rudy Rucker and Bruce Sterling, have written a story together that you can read online: Good Night Moon. This is a tasty little story that the two of them obviously had a good time writing, and they do poke more than a little fun at themselves in the course of it. Thanks to the authors and to TOR books for making it a free online read.
A book series I have been enjoying recently is the Parasol Protectorate, a Steampunk treat that has a field day turning the classic Victorian era Gothic novel on its ear, and presenting us with a world that should have been. The creation of Gail Carriger, I tend to think of them as the Less group, since the titles are Soulless, Changeless, and Blameless, with Heartless and Timeless coming soon. The writing is wonderful, the humor is intense, and the attitude is spot on. The description I have read that fits the best to me: They are either Jane Austen doing urban fantasy, or PG Wodehouse doing steampunk. The first novel in the series, Soulless, has already been turned into an Audio Book (you can listen to the first chapter here), and is now in production to become a graphic novel. I would love to see this become a miniseries in the UK; I have seen what they have done with Terry Pratchett, I know they would do these stories justice. You can find out more at Gail’s Blog, or at any of her many online interviews.