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.
Terrestrial Human
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.
Just a reminder that Sci-Fi London’s Oktoberfest kicks off tomorrow evening with the Life, but as we know it? event at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich (home of Greenwich Mean Time). This presentation investigates extraterrestrial life in science, science fiction, and comedy. They will also be unveiling their new planetarium program, Astrobiology on pretty much the same topic. I should mention you better already have your tickets if you wanted to see TRON on the big screen before the new version comes out, because that one is sold out. The Studio Ghibli All Nighter still has half the seats left, but tickets are going fast. They will be running Spirited Away, Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind, The Cat Returns, and Howl’s Moving Castle in that theater; I would pay to see any one of them in a movie theater, all four back to back would be a serious treat.
Daft Punk will be doing some music (and making an appearance) for the upcoming TRON: Legacy, and now you can hear about 90 seconds of it to give you a taste…
The fun film for this weekend looks to be RED, or Retired, Extremely Dangerous. Like most of the quality films these days it is based on a comic book of the same name, and has an impressive cast.