Jonathan Coulton writes and performs some truly excellent science fiction music, including the theme song to John Scalzi’s new book, Redshirts. Scalzi liked it so much, he did his own cover of it, on a Ukelele no less. And then he recently interviewed Coulton on his Tor Press blog/podcast segment, which you should read, then go back and listen to. It is good to know there are some people having this much fun while earning their living; it gives the rest of us something to aspire to!
Extraterrestrial looks like a lot of silly fun; you wake up with no memory of the one night stand who’s house you are in, to meet her wacky boyfriend and neighbors, only to discover the Earth has been invaded. While this movie is only opening in New York this weekend (it hits LA next weekend), it is also being released on iTunes, DVD, and VOD on Friday as well, so anyone who wants to can check it out.
This one may be a bit more thinkee but looks every bit as entertaining: Safety Not Guaranteed is a time travel comedy that won awards at Sundance and SXSW, and appears to have a lot of heart. Even though it had it’s initial 4 city release last week, I am mentioning it now because it is going to be on the big screen in my area starting this weekend.
The other interesting choice this week is not genre, but it is entertaining: Rock of Ages is based on the Broadway musical, and also looks a treat.
We have a few good movies this week, starting with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, second in the film series. This is a required addition for my permanent collection, and extends into two of my favorite new media distribution trends. First, it includes an Ultraviolet copy, which means you can stream it from the cloud to any of your compatible devices, and download it to your computer if you want to back up the digital copy for when you do not have INet access. Second, you can download one or more apps (more, in this case) so you can slave your tablet/smartphone to your internet aware Blue Ray device, and run all kinds of additional information about the programing. Warner Brothers (who made the Sherlock Robert Downey movies) added this functionality to their Maximum Movie Mode, while Disney (who had the same combination of Cloud presentation with Apps extras slaved to the point the Blue Ray player is currently showing you built into John Carter last week) refer to it as the Disney Second Screen. They have been building towards this integrated combined presentation for quite a while now, slowly creating and debugging each process required to make it happen. Welcome to the future!
Another movie worth a look this week is Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, which is definitely worth your time to check out. While it may not be on a par with the first film mentioned today, it has a serious story to tell of its own. And let’s face it, it is always fun to watch Nick Cage go over the top with some silly or serious action. If you are in the market for something different, The Sultry Assassin: The Aphrodisiac Kill is the first in a series of eroninja novels turned into movies that will be making its way to the US.
For TV, the top spot has to go to The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Fifth Season, which unfortunately will be the final round of these. Doctor Who was a children’s show when it began (and still is, though it is hard for some geeks to recognize), and when they spun off Elisabeth Sladen’s character for the new series they definitely kept that in mind. She kept the original promise to the audience; this would always be a show that promoted a way for children to recognize positive problem solving influences and incorporate them into their own lives, so they could be the ones solving the worlds problems when it became their turn.
In new Anime, Zakuro, the Complete Series tells of the Ministry of Spirit Affairs, and the human/spirit teams they put together to solve the mysteries of the world.
For returning Anime, Bleach: Season 13 brings us episodes 194 through 205, in which Karakura town is threatened with destruction. One Piece: Collection 6 brings us episodes 131 through 156, and for the first time they actually try to get their pirate ship to fly.
We also have a couple of returning favorites coming out in more cost effective packaging. Mongolian Chop Squad: The Complete Series is coming out in a S.A.V.E. version, so you should be able to pick it up for around $20 if you shop around. If you are not already familiar with it, it is basically an animated version of the band BECK’s origin story, somewhat fictionalized. Also the Simoun – Endless Melody Collection is a re-release of that entire series for under $20, and you can find it for $15 if you shop around, so now is a good time to add both of these to your collection.
PBS as a whole has a great Best of Briton segment going this summer, first to cover the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and then expanding to all things entertaining from the empire. Brand new this week however is WETA-UK, a round the clock celebration of the best of British TV. And because it is just starting, you can catch the first episode of a lot of series right now. Episode 1 of Fawlty Towers takes place at 12:30PM EST tomorrow, Sunday June 10th, for example (if you are outside of the Maryland/DC/Virginia area, check your local cable lineups for exact times; if your service does not carry it, ask for it). An hour later will be the first episode of My Hero, a comedy about an Alien adapting to life on Earth while chasing the human woman of his dreams. Immediately following that is episode one of season 1 of the new Doctor Who series, where Rose Tyler gets told by The Doctor Run For Your Life. When that one ends, we get two episodes back to back of Red Dwarf, episodes 1 and 2 from season 1. I know where my TV is going to be set on Sunday afternoons from now on! Then at 8:30PM EST tomorrow, later the same day, we get the next Fawlty Towers episode, followed by Primeval season 1 episode 2, the next Doctor Who episode, and then 4 episodes of Red Dwarf including episodes 3 and 4 from season 1. I somehow missed seeing when episode 1 of Primeval was, but I suspect they may have a glitch or two in their electronic program guide. Guess I will just set my TV on the channel in the morning and let it ride all day, to make sure I don’t miss anything.
This picture from Klein Mania gets my vote for Image Of The Week!
Creating animations using buildings as your canvas… I had to say it right up front, because no matter how I worded the title of this post, it never actually meant what it really is, even though it may have accurately said it. As a person who created his very first animations by drawing pictures in the upper right corner of every fourth grade textbook page I was forced to use, and then flipped through them to see them actually move, these artists have my respect. They do a complete base painting on some large real world object, such as a building or vehicle, and take a picture. Then they change one or more parts of the painting, and take a picture. Then they change something else, and take a picture. Hundreds or sometimes thousands of pictures later, they have a video which can then be save as an animated GIF. When your canvas might be 30 foot tall by 50 foot wide or greater, this can turn into a time consuming process, to say the least. Even so, some amazing work has been done in this field, and more is being created every month. The original article telling us about this is courtesy of the Huffington Post, as many of the more unusual projects are.