I stopped by the KADOKAWA Anime channel, and the focus is on the new Haruhi Wii game released in Japan on Thursday. Based on the video the game play looks a bit simple, but perhaps that is just level one. Word is that the Kadokawa site will be streaming the first episode of season two of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan at 10PM on February 13th. That is Tokyo time, convert for your local time zone. The group at LITA, the Library and Information Technology Association (part of the American Library Association), has put together a video singing the praises of the Hi-Fi Sci-Fi Library and posted it on Libraryman. Nerdcore at its finest!
I have lost all entries with tonight’s computer crash, but here are a few of them I managed to recover. Starting with the Watchmen News, that Fox gave up trying to kill the Watchmen movie in return for a cut of the take. We already knew about the Live-Action version of Cowboy Bebop, but did you know what other live action versions of these stories are coming to town? Disney brought over a pablomized version of Mulan, but the Chinese Government has to step in on something that culturally important to them. They called themselves the China Film Group, and built it with Xinhua this time around. Then there is the Ninja Scroll live action remake, another major milestone. And just in case you haven’t gotten today’s dose of Silly yet, get ready for the live-action version of Marvin The Martian. Does anybody besides me find it scary that Fox and the Chinese Government have so many interests in common, the end result being they are only in it for the money and don’t care about the rest of us (like their citizens/customers)?
Future music from past equipment; Akihabara, the bleeding edge center of all thing Otaku, recently held an event called Silent Live. 8 bit chipsets from decades old game systems were the musical instruments, and if you wanted to join the party you had to bring your own pair of headphones to jack in to the audio. Some things you just have to do for the fun factor.
The other day I mention the tune on SciFi Songs called Grasping for the Wind (The Linkup Meme Song), a song filled with SF review blog names. What I didn’t know at the time (for someone who lives in the future I can be awfully slow about some things) was that this was the name of the blog built by John Ottinger that put together the entire project. The list is getting huge, and continues to grow. To help you with sorting through it, the Crotchety Old Fan Reviews the Review Blogs, complete with links to each conveniently placed next to its review. I knew there was a reason I liked the internet, and thanks to Sheila at Wands and Worlds for making me aware of what I was missing. As Holly said in Red Dwarf (Queeg, episode 5 of season 2) “I may be slow, but I get there in the end”. BTW, did you know the Red Dwarf team was putting together some new specials?
The two deep voices of ’70s and ’80s SciFi in the UK, Tom Baker and Brian Blessed, are together at last. OK, it’s only for a cell-phone add series, not new audio Doctor Who adventures, but it is still fun. I even got a chuckle out of the fact they called him Tom Jones on the download page. Thanks to io9 for pointing that story out. There is also a new tune at SciFi Songs: Grasping for the Wind (The Linkup Meme Song), which names some of the best SF blogs online. If you haven’t been there before, be sure to check out the previous 13 songs as well.
There are tons of places to watch science fiction online, with each site having its share. Sometimes it can be hard to find what you are looking for, but the Crotchety Old Fan’s Classic Science Fiction Channel makes it a bit easier. He doesn’t host the films or TV shows himself, but links to the content on Archive.org, Hulu, Veoh, Classic Cinema Online, and more, filtering it for the good stuff so you don’t have to hunt for it. There is a new issue of Antipodian SF online, with a new URL for the down-under site. They are still tweaking the new layout, but the content (excellent free flash-sf stories) is all in place for the December issue. If you are looking for back issues, they are archived at Pandora, the National Library of Australia’s online repository. Not to be confused with the Pandora Internet Radio service, and yes, that link is to my indi/anime/jrock oriented station.