Going to be in Washington, D.C. in May? Then you might want to attend the second annual The Future Is Here Festival at the Smithsonian on May 16th, 17th and 18th. Some of the speakers will include Patrick Stewart, Brian Greene, Adam Steltzner, George Takei, Stewart Brand, Sara Seager, Kim Stanley Robinson, David Brin, and The Mythbusters… and that’s just on one day! At the higher ticket levels the event also includes priority seating on Saturday night for the national premiere of X-Men: Days of Future Past at the National Museum of American History, and Patrick will be taking questions from the audience afterwards.
One of my favorite fantasy series is Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files, where Harry Dresden is the only person listed in the Chicago Yellow Pages under the profession Wizard, and is a special consultant to the Chicago PD. This is an amazingly good blend of gritty noir detective story and combat sorcery, with an entire cast of characters you would want to have with you in a tight spot… or as far from you as inhumanly possible. There are 16 books in the series so far, 15 novels and a collection of short stories, and a TV series that ran for one season on Sci-Fi (it wasn’t Syfy yet). Oh, yeah, two of the Graphics Novels were original Harry Dresden stories not published in Novel form, kicking us up a few books, and James Marsters reads all the audiobook versions but one. Start yourself off with Storm Front; bet you can’t read just one!
Animated fun this time around with Rio 2, from the folks who brought us the Ice Age series. Our happy blue couple think they are the last of their species, but then others like themselves are spotted in the Amazon. There is nothing for it but to pack up their three kids and go find out who else might have survived, and whether they will end up having a future together. But Blu should have worried more about the past, as he discovers he now has a father in law… and a long lost romantic rival he never knew existed.
Besides the silliness and great characters this production house excels at, I expect they may also throw in a selection of samba driven music to fuel the soundtrack, as they did the first time around. The musical pieces they did in the original film allowed them to showcase some quite complex and well choreographed dance animations that were absolutely amazing to watch, especially in 3D. I look forward to seeing at least one such sequence in the sequel, although I can’t imagine what they could do to top their initial offering.
This week has the release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second part of the Tolkien prequel. In TV we get Holliston: The Complete Second Season, a sitcom full of zombies, werewolves, and many other genre favorites. And that’s about it. Everything else I have found is either a re-release, like Familiar of Zero, or an import formatted for another region, like the BBC show Musketeers.
The latest track from FT Island is kick ass; check it out and let me know what you think! They have created some excellent tunes over the years, I think this one makes it obvious how good they are. Thanks to Warner Music Japan for the heads up on this one.
There have been a number of trailers released for Lucy, the new Luc Besson science fiction film starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman, but I like this one the best. It should be on the big screen around August 8th or so.