A taste of strange from Japan today, starting out with a Japanese commercial for children’s near-beer, so kids could have toasts with their parents. And somehow it got twisted… Just another look into the stranger side of J-Life from WTF Japan, Seriously. Meanwhile, Geekologie has word of a dancing robotic samurai server in a Japanese themed restaurant in Thailand. One good computer virus and the patrons become shish-kabob, although with a face like a cross between Darth Vader and the Cookie Monster it is difficult to get too worked up about the possibility.
Todd Miro has put together an absolutely brilliant article explaining quite a bit about how today’s movies ended up looking the way a lot of them do, and posted it at Into The Abyss. If you’re into making your own movies, particularly if you process them through a computer (and who doesn’t these days), there will be bonus material for you in this one.
The countdown is on for the new Doctor Who; in the UK, it happens on BBC1 this Saturday, April 3rd, here in the US we will be a few weeks behind on April 17th on BBC America. For those in the US who can’t stand the wait, there will also be a Premiere Screening and Q&A Event in NYC on April 14th, with the questions being answered by Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Steven Moffat. Remember, this is the season where Neil Gaiman Is Confirmed as an episode writer. So what, you may be wondering, makes this well-known information worth posting on April Fools Day, when it is obviously not a joke? This wonderful little article at SFX, called Tie-Fi, where they present A brief pictorial history of the bow tie in sci-fi. I couldn’t stop laughing, and yet it is so true! Grin if you got ’em…
In Houston, Texas, Anime Matsuri takes place this weekend, taking over the convention center. This event is huge, and if your browser can handle it be sure to log into the Flash version of the site; one of the best Con web sites I have ever seen. In Seattle, Washington Sakura Con is another monster Anime event with a ton of guests including High and Mighty Color as the featured musical GoH. In Boston it’s Anime Boston, still another large convention, while in Ohio the event is Anime Punch. Why all the big-time Anime cons at once? Part of it could be because there are a lot of artists, actors, and musical groups in the US right now, gearing up for Sakura Matsuri next week, the Cherry Blossom Street Festival in D.C. In fact, the National Cherry Blossom Festival started this past Saturday and runs until the 10th.
In San Francisco, WonderCon is a fair sized Comic Con, and a lot of media folks are going to be there, right down to io9 and G4TV
If you haven’t put your votes in yet, you only have a bit over a day to put in for your favorites for the Locus Awards. If you are not familiar, Locus Magazine is the closest thing the science fiction publishing community has to a professional trade magazine. Voting closes April 1st. Just opened up is the initial set of nominations for the MTV Movie Awards, with their usual off the wall selection of categories. This is you chance to put in for some of the movies that got slighted at the other awards, like District 9, Star Trek 11, or even Avatar. Go out and make your voice heard! For those of you who are members of the SFWA, you have until midnight tonight PST to vote for the Nebulas this year.
I have been waiting quite a while for this one; the 800 pound gorilla in the movie theaters this weekend will be Clash of the Titans. A remake of the original 1981 Ray Harryhausen classic, the changes in technology between then and now promises good things for the movie going experience. I do have to say though that watching the Owl in the original on the big screen brought the kind of sense of wonder that is rare (and it also helped solidify an already strong life long addiction to robotics that I still haven’t outgrown).
In more limited release (NY and LA the first weekend, expanding out over the following several weeks) is the epic period piece The Warlords, in the tradition of Hero and the House of Flying Daggers. Staring Jet Li, it will be available on VOD (Video On Demand), Amazon, and X-Box Live on the 4th, so everyone will have access.