I wasn’t in Hollywood tonight to attend the 2009 Emmy Awards: Creative Arts Awards presentation, but I will be watching on the 20th when it gets broadcast on air, and for those wondering that will be on CBS. But I have to congratulate a few of the winners, starting with Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (and you can see Nathan’s reaction here), which won the Short-format Live-Action Special Class. Which makes sense, since it never actually played on television or in theaters, but premiered on the Web and then was released to DVD. The Wizards of Waverly Place won for Outstanding Children’s Program, and you can see their reaction here. Battlestar Galactica pulled in an award or three, and Dan Castellaneta got one for Best Voiceover (he’s Homer Simpson to you). There were a lot more awards handed out, for next year I am hoping to see a best topless flashing scene in a fantasy category.
For the first time in quite a while, and for one night only, you can watch the original version of The Wizard of Oz in a movie theater. It happens on Wednesday the 23rd, so if you are a fan of this movie you might want to free up that night. Another Fathom Event happens the following night with the one-night only showing of EUREKA SEVEN – good night, sleep, tight, young lovers anime movie, a somewhat different version than the TV series. Check for theaters and showtime here. While not on the big screen, on the following Sunday night (the 27th) on Adult Swim Titan Maximum premieres , and the trailers are hysterical.
According to SFX, the original Prisoner TV series is going to be showing on the big screen, in order, for an all-night marathon. Unfortunately for me that will be at the Prince Charles Cinema in the UK, but if your on that side of the pond don’t miss this one!
That starts the title for the entry Super Powered Breasts Are Our Only Hope Against The Evil Fish People over at io9. I had to include this one just for the title! There are a number of trailers from films premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival (September 10th through the 19th) in that article as well.
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.
This week saw a few important birthdays in the evolution of Nerd and Geek culture which I thought I should mention. To start, on the 1st of September, 1902, the very first science fiction movie ever made was released: La voyage dans la Lune. I find it fitting that it was based on two stories about human space travel, one written by Jules Verne and the other by H. G. Wells. After all, between them they invented modern science fiction as a written art form, so it is appropriate they would inspire the first movie (and ironic that Wells would also become the movie critic for a British newspaper who panned Metropolis in 1925). One day after the birthday of Sci-Fi films was the birthday of the Internet; on September 2nd, 1969, two computers in two different locations exchanged packets over some twisted-pair copper. So Happy Birthday, all of us Nerds and Geeks! I think I’ll celebrate by voting for the Scream Awards nominees I like best, and then going to see It Might Get Loud, and follow that up with Gamer. Sounds like a party!