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Terrestrial Human

Major Tom Variations

Just as the Space Oddity variations grew, so did the sequel song, Major Tom, again focusing on the intrepid space wanderer. Here are a few of the choices, starting out with the Shiny Toy Guns flavor, from LA, and I love the footage that was pulled together to make up this version.

From Germany we have Peter Schilling’s 1983 version:

And then I Hate Kate‘s style…

Still with me? Then here is your reward, a truly unique version of the audio with a world-class build of the video for this song. Extra points for anyone who can correctly identify the band and the language they are singing in!

And the final entry in this segment…

Geek Out: Every Version of Windows

Kudos to Andrew Tait, who created a virtual machine and used it to install every version of windows*, and then used it to upgrade to the next version. Even better, he screen captured the entire process, and presented it with commentary. This one is just silly geek fun, with the only science fiction aspect being the use of the Doom II game engine to test compatibility from OS to OS.

*: Or at least every version he could find that could be upgraded in sequence. He skipped ME because it could not upgrade to 2000, but only to XP. I agree with his decision, because out of the two OS’s 2000 was real, and ME was a brutal mistake that even Microsoft abandoned as soon as they were able to do so.

New Wonders, 3D Star Wars

I am in the wrong country to watch the trailer for the new show on BBC 2’s web site, Wonders of the Universe, but perhaps you might be able to see it. For those of us on this side of the Atlantic Phil Plait, Mr. Bad Astronomer himself, posted the trailer on the Discovery Channel site from Professor Brian Cox’s previous series, Wonders of the Solar System. That should give you the general idea of what kind of program this will be; hope BBC America ends up picking it up. Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter tells us they have announced the release date for Episode 1 of Star Wars in 3D; February 10th, 2012. The plan is to roll out one a year in Episode order rather than release order. Personally, I fell asleep in the theater during The Phantom Menace, so I will be waiting for 2015 to see the first one I care about.

Age of the Dragons trailer

The premise behind Age of the Dragons is a bit unexpected. Dragons are hunted for the napalm-like substance that fuels modern civilization, but Captain Ahab is chasing after the Great White Dragon that slaughtered his family. Yes, this really is Moby Dick done with dragons, and Danny Glover gets to be Ahab in this one. In theaters this Friday (or perhaps a year from this Friday, the release date data is a bit unclear) on a very limited run (along with The Adjustment Bureau and Rango in much wider release), and out on DVD two weeks later, which is where most of us will get to see it.

Also out in extremely limited release this weekend are the Korean film I Saw The Devil and the Thai movie Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. I find it interesting that both movies have their official home page in Japan, which seems to be turning into a gateway to the rest of the world for Asia. In much wider release, Beastly is a story we have seen before, involving a callas guy who earns the curse laid upon him, and must now achieve a goal previously unthinkable to him to get his body back. Even though it is a bit derivative, I suspect I will be attending Beastly this weekend. I should have posted about all of these with my normal Monday Movie post, but here they are before they hit the big screen at least.

Doilaks, P.K. Dick, and a non-special DVD rant

The image of the Doilak just cracked me up, so I had to share it here. Charlie Jane over at io9 has put together a great list of Philip K. Dick Stories that Hollywood Hasn’t Filmed Yet but really, really should. Finally, there were a few unscheduled DVD releases this week… or rather, scheduled in an unusual way. Previously special editions of them had been released, complete with some collector item, such as a figurine or pencil board. Once the special editions were sold out, they then released the regular versions. I suppose they were hoping that people who could not wait to see it would be willing to pay the inflated prices that collector items bring to the table, thereby increasing their up-front profit. I consider this a bit cheesy; I have to see a series before I know if I like it enough to pay an extra $10 to $25 to get the version with $1.29 worth of paint and extruded plastic to proudly mount on my shelf. The bit I find embarrassing is I had not noticed they were doing this until they released the regular ones; I just assumed the initial releases were over priced and didn’t bother. The titles being released this way this way this week include Chrome Shelled Regios and The Sacred Blacksmith. They are referring to it as a First Press Edition, much like the First Edition books have had for centuries, but with tangible value added items.

Something to Do: Movies

There are a couple of interesting choices this weekend, starting with The Adjustment Bureau, written by Philip K. Dick and starring Matt Damon with Emily Blunt. There is a way your life is supposed to go, and if you step outside that path the near supernatural members of the Adjustment Bureau will step in and make corrections to reality to sync your life back to their expectations. As with every other P.K.Dick story turned into a movie, I am guaranteed to be in the audience on opening weekend. Note that the official Dick site is not kept up to date as well as it should be, so it is leaving out several other potential film projects.

Ordinarily a week with one of Phill’s stories coming out on the big screen would be enough to keep me happy, but this time around we get more. Apollo 18 was originally scheduled for this week, but has now been pushed back to April 22nd of this year. With the tag line There’s a reason we’ve never gone back to the moon, it looks quite interesting. But the universe keeps things balanced, and Rango has been moved up from the 18th to the 4th of March. This animated western epic stars Johnny Depp and is directed by Gore Verbinski (they worked together on that Pirates of the Caribbean series of films). So it looks like I have two films I need to see this weekend, and I will do my best to make both.