It was declared the season finally for Defying Gravity, which convinced lots of folks the show had been canceled, although some people disagree. The military of the US is funding development of a cute little shoebox-sized robot called the Precision Urban Hopper that can jump over 25 foot tall walls, making your standard perimeter fence fairly useless. It should be no surprise that this makes some people nervous.
The first full day of Dragon*Con has ended, not because people have gone to bed for the night, but because we crossed the line into Saturday in its time zone. The best real-time reporting I have found so far is the aggregate at the Dragon Con Twitter filter; it’s 2:30AM here (and there), and in the time it took me to type this 58 new Tweets have arrived. Most of the Dragon Con tweets come with links to some wonderful pictures like this one of strange Cosplay, or the Doctor Horrible cast, perhaps performing live like they did last year? One of the tweeters contributing is Fancy Fembot, and the latest episode of her podcast, SciFi Party Line #31 just went live yesterday. A ton of other podcasters are there, like Escape Pod, and a ton of authors, including Scott Sigler, bringing his Rookie Tailgate Tour to the Con.
Since I can’t be there this year, my plan was to hit the movies It Might Get Loud and Gamer tonight. It didn’t quite work out that way; I managed It Might Get Loud, which is undeniably the best rockumentary of the last few decades (longer if you are a guitar player). The scene where Jimmy Page picked up a guitar and started belting out Whole Lotta Love, U2’s guitar guru The Edge jumped up, electrified, riveted, and all but foaming at the mouth, and White Stripe’s Jack White also jumped up, staring at Jimmy’s hands like he was memorizing the secrets of the Universe, was worth every penny of the ticket price. The other hundred minutes of the film were just bonus, glimpses of history, genius, style, attitude, and everything that goes into creating people that much larger than life. Just because that wasn’t good enough to make up an entire movie (or for whatever reason they like; I enjoyed it to much to care), the three of them kept jamming together on songs they each had written. The film started with Jack White building a guitar from some spare lumber, a coke bottle, and some wire he had hanging around; when it ended, they went out jamming on the Dylan/Band classic The Weight. How perfect is that? To see when it plays by you, check the release dates. I also saw Cold Hearts tonight, and plan to see Gamer tomorrow night; but those reviews can wait until the next Blog entry.
The folks at io9 have put together a fun little chart graphing the science fiction after Star Trek (TOS). It goes rather nicely with one they posted a week ago, a timeline of Time Travel, which shows the start and end jumps of many fictional time travelers. Doctor Who was left off the chart, or you wouldn’t be able to see any of the other travelers (he may get his own chart later). Paste has a small but accurate chart comparing the Best and Worst of SF: District 9 vs. Plan 9 that you might also enjoy. To see more Chart Porn, stop by Information is Beautiful.
From the 4th to the 7th its Dragoncon in Georgia! This is an excellent Con, with a ton of everything that makes Cons fun. Guests include Lynn Abbey, Lou Anders, Kevin J. Anderson, and Catherine Asaro for the authors. Then there is Abney Park (Steampunk), ArcAttack (Lightning Rock), and Ayria (Gothic/Industrial/Punk) playing music on stage, Pete Abrams (Sluggy Freelance), Heidi Arnhold (Tokyo Pop) and David Atchison (Occult Crimes Taskforce) from the Comics community, Karen Allen, Scott Adsit and Ben Armstrong from the world of TV and movies. That is just a few of the categories, and it only covers the A’s; the whole rest of the alphabet is represented as well. This is one annual party you don’t want to miss.
They are up to chapter 10 in the podcast reading of book one in the Edgar Rice Burroughs series John Carter of Mars, titled A Princess of Mars. If you don’t already know the story line, this will get you up to speed in time for the movie release.
This is the unedited reading of the original text, which was a bit sexist and racist, so hearing some of it jumps between being embarrassing and being painful. Burroughs managed to create several of the most amazing adventure series of all time even so. While Tarzan of the Apes may be his best known work, and a contemporary of Sherlock Holmes, a number of his other stories changed Sci-Fi forever. First and foremost of that group was John Carter of Mars, about to become a major motion picture.
And then there is a video you might enjoy, called GUMMS, built by an independent film producer named Anton Bogaty. Some choices you just have to go for!
A millionaire murdered at a New York convention turns out to have delusions of being Batman, right down to owning a fully working Batmobile and 4 warehouses full of other Batman devices and memorabilia. His wife (who set him up to be robbed of a million dollars in 2002) and his stepdaughter are fighting over the estate, while the police have not yet named a suspect. Meanwhile, Wired has come out with its list of the Top 10 Science Fiction Languages, and yes, Klingon got the number one spot. While Sindarin, which also made the list, is almost as fully realized, you can’t search google in it; only in Klingon. This one had me rolling on the floor; IJustine with a little bit of Nerdcore…