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.
WB is doing a Supernatural Sweepstakes giveaway as a tie-in with today’s release of the season 4 DVD and the rapidly approaching start of season 5. You can grab the official rules here, but the short version is you become a WB Insider Rewards Member, bounce around the site downloading freebies and earning reward points. That gets your first entry; you can submit another entry each day of the sweepstakes period (but only one per day) by logging back onto the site and submitting a sweepstakes form. You have from now to 2Oct09 to get your forms in; thanks to SF Universe for the heads up on this one. Did I mention the prises include props that have appeared in the show?
You have until Sunday or September 4th (or possibly both, if you own a working Tardis) to enter the SF Signal Shatner/Nemoy giveaway. They are handing out 2 digital copies of Mind Meld – Secrets Behind the Voyage of a Lifetime, the 2001 presentation in which Shatner and Nimoy talk about the series, and how it changed everything for them. The title obviously refers to the famous Vulcan mind meld, a phrase that is used for everything from interviews with Nimoy to selling programming language extensions. It has been used to good effect in SF Signals own Mind Meld series, where they put a question to some of the best speculative fiction writers, editors, and thinkers on the planet and compile the responses into a coherent article. Now that I have digressed sufficiently, go enter the contest before time (however much of it is left) runs out.
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!
The second season of True Blood, and the show has gotten downright intense! There are only two episodes left, and I don’t know how they can crank it up any harder. If you have missed it, no problem; the entire season is available through Video On Demand or download-able from ITunes. If you are a fan of J-Rock, one of the best sources I have found is Japanator Radio. The podcast has over 100 episodes so far, and covers a range of artists including High and Mighty Color and Base Ball Bear; the site also runs concert reviews and covers all things Otaku (anime, gaming, cosplay, etc.). Another good J-Rock site (leaning a little heavier on the Rock is ZB’s A to Z of JMusic.