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Something to Watch: Discs

We have a couple of good choices in the Movie category this week. The Zero Theorem is the latest sci-fi film from Terry Gilliam. As usual with his films, you can watch it as a twisted adventure or you can enjoy the more cerebral aspects. Luc Besson’s tale of forced evolution, Lucy starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman also hits the shelves. The animated feature film The Boxtrolls is one of the best examples of stop motion I have seen in a while, tells a wonderful story, and is nominated for the Academy Award in the Best Animated Feature category. Finally, Coherence is also coming to disc, and has won some awards on the Film Fest circuit. I didn’t really see anything this week in genre TV.

In Anime, A Certain Scientific Railgun: Season 1 takes place in Academy City, and involves the scientific induction of Psy powers into a percentage of the population. Total Eclipse: Season 1, also known as the Muv Luv Alternative, is about an alternate timeline where the Eurasian continent was invaded by aliens in 1967, and mankind has been in a desperate fight for survival ever since. By the present day the invaders own a third of the land surface on the planet. We also get Naruto Shippūden: DVD Box 21 with episodes 258 through 270.

Gary Yost IR Timelapse: Mamane Tree Bones

This amazing video was created by Gary Yost, who is a true artist with video. That isn’t just my opinion; his documentary The Invisible Peak has won an assortment of awards, as one example. This one was shot using time lapse filming in the infrared spectrum in Hawaii, not a normal choice for most presentations but it works very well here, and his appreciation of his subject is obvious in his composition. If you enjoy this one, visit his Vimeo page and check out some of his other work. Thanks to Laughing Squid for the heads up on this one.

Hawaiian Tree Bones, Infrared Time-lapse from Gary Yost on Vimeo.

IPPAwards 2014

The iPhone Photography Awards are exactly what they sound like: the best pictures taken with an iPhone and entered into the contest. The link I gave is to the page that displays the actual winners, but take a look through all the categories, because there are some amazing photographs throughout the collection. I have seen the quality some of the pictures I have taken have, but knowing what the resolution is, what the light levels required for different kinds of shooting are, and understanding simple composition rules like the law of thirds is one thing. It is a far cry from having the eye to compose images of this quality, often having to do it on the fly as the opportunity presents itself. My flabber is well and truly gasted by these amazing pictures, and I think every entrant deserved each award they received.

Clarke Awards Short List Announced

The short list of nominees for the 2014 Arthur C. Clarke Award for best novel has been announced, and I am sorry to say I haven’t read any of them; time to go hit a favorite bookstore. The titles that beat the other 115 titles to actually make the final cut are:

God’s War by Kameron Hurley (Del Rey)
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
The Disestablishment of Paradise by Phillip Mann (Gollancz)
Nexus by Ramez Naam (Angry Robot)
The Adjacent by Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
The Machine by James Smythe (Blue Door)

The award will be handed out as part of the SCI-FI LONDON Film Festival which runs from the 24th of April to the 4th of May this year.

Animate Short: Premier Automne

This is an amazing animation, by Carlos De Carvalho & Aude Danset. It doesn’t use or need words to tell its story, the pictures really are worth a thousand words. In Premier Automne, one lives in the winter, the other in summer… and one day, they meet on the border, and their lives are changed forever. This has won a ton of awards from around the world, and with good reason.

2NE1; Have No Doubts!

How can 2NE1, the band who did so many amazing songs and my favorite Korean Girl Group, have any doubts about themselves? But apparently they do, as the interview released earlier this week indicates. Of course, this amazing foursome also put out the song UGLY, which I assumed was a diatribe against the advertising companies who spend millions of dollars every week to convince women they will never be attractive if they don’t buy their sponsor’s products. But perhaps I misunderstood what was going on in that song; or perhaps this is all a ploy to get more votes in the current World Music Awards competition, for which they have been nominated in 4 categories including Best Band, Best Song, and Best Live Show. Or maybe they just want to sell more tickets for their AON World Tour. I don’t really care which choice turns out to be the real one, as long as they keep generating more incredible music for us to enjoy!