Music fans, take note. John Boswell, a recent Galactic Watercooler guest and producer of the Carl Sagan inspired A Glorious Dawn video/song, has added yet another entry to his playlist of science-themed multimedia musical works. Our Place in the Cosmos takes its place, appropriately, beside Dawn and We Are All Connected on Boswell’s website, Symphony of Science. This new song features the inimitable Sagan, as well as evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, and the late astronomer/cosmologist Robert Jastrow. The message continues in the spirit of the previous two, and leaves one with a sense of wonder about the universe and the brilliant minds who have taken on the task of figuring it all out.
Mr. Boswell has been making additions to his website since his appearance on GWC, notably several remixes of A Glorious Dawn, as well as a free ringtone. He’s also cut a 45rpm vinyl album of the song, available from Third Man Records, which I picked up recently as a personal memento of the GWC Cosmos arc. Hint: The B side holds a special surprise.
Symphony of Science [Website]
Colorpulse [John Boswell's Other Music Project]
An unsuspecting Big Apple played host to a Galactic Watercooler Fall Meet-up on Thursday, October twenty-ninth, and while Snake Plissken was a no-show, the I and the other attending NYC Crüemembers had no trouble making our way across Manhattan’s fashionable West Side. And as usual… making our own fun, too.
Aw yeah.
In September, two-thousand and six, the Galactica Watercooler blog and podcast made its first foray into the wide wide world of the interwebs. Charles “Chuck” Cage, Audra Heaslip, and Sean O’Hara made the decision to spend some time each week writing and ‘casting about their favorite TV show, the then-Sci Fi’s (insert Y’s at your leisure) Battlestar Galactica.
It was a simpler time, long before Colonel Saul Tigh (or Chief, or Sam, or…) had any inkling that they were Cylon(z). Gaius Baltar had yet to become a hands-on (IYKWIM) religious bigwig, although he was still the President of the colonies. The Pegasus (minus Helena Cain) was still around and in all one piece, and Galactica herself didn’t yet creak like a rusty hinge whenever somebody hit the throttle. Good times, discounting the whole genocide-and-running-away thing.
If you’re a Firefly fan — or have always wanted to be one — your Sundays just got very shiny! Joss Whedon’s beloved Sci-Fi series is about to land in GWC’s Community Frak Parties forum thread. And those well-versed in the ‘verse know what that means: time to hold on tight!
Starting Sunday, August 9th, at 2pm Eastern/11am Pacific, GWCers can log in, link up, and chat in the Firefly Frak Party thread as we begin a weekly watch of the 2002 hit series Firefly.
Did the new Harry Potter movie pique your interest in reading (or, as in my case, re-re-re-reading) the book that started it all? Starting this month (August 2009), a group of GWCers are going to be reading through the Harry Potter series, one book a month beginning with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and we’d love for you to join us! It doesn’t matter if it’s your first time through or you’re better at remembering the spell names than Hermione — just check out the GWC forum for discussion threads (spoiler and non-spoiler), and keep your eye out for upcoming TalkShoe chats about the books!
Friday night a number of GWCers joined us at our home for a full-on GWC Meetup! From left to right (approximately): Tim, Lady D, the hub, ConnorAZ, DawnAZ, Darthweef, BrettAZ, Default Prophet, and me, b! French Toast and Bacon & Eggs joined us later. Read on for more meetup pix!
Think sci-fi on TV means just Star Trek? Don’t forget Babylon 5! To me, Babylon 5 shows the real potential of television: long running stories with vast complexities over many seasons. Writer/director J. Michael Straczynski paved the way for shows like Lost, Heroes, Firefly, and our beloved Battlestar Galactica.
Sure, the effects haven’t held up well — though they were cutting edge during production. But the story’s richness and density makes up for that shortcoming. B5 is ultimately a show about survival, relationships, loyalty, friendship, politics, and war. It’s a show about what it means to lose your way and what happens when you subvert your ideals. It’s about the fall from grace and the fight to put justice in its rightful place — powerful themes and ideas.
There’s also a lot of fun and explosions. What’s not to like?
We’re currently re-watching the entire season in community frak parties every Saturday night at 10 p.m. ET. Why not come join us? Right now we’re finishing up the first season — available on Hulu, by the way — and having seen it all before I can tell you that if you jump in now you can follow along easily.
Re-Watch Calendar [GWC Forum]
July 25th’s Frak Party (1×21: The Quality of Mercy) [GWC Forum]
Watch Season 1 & 2 Free [Hulu]
Hello fellow GWCers. (Hey, what the frak do we call ourselves? Coolerheads? SeaChuAud-o-philes? Followers of the Galactic Cooler?)
This is my first crack at truly blogging for all of y’all, so be gentle. I’ll start with a little factoid: there are more humans at the end of BSG than there are Vulcans at the end of the new Trek movie.
Now that your noodles are baked sufficiently, let’s talk summer movies. I know, I know. “But Operator,” you say, “the season is only halfway through and there’s still more movie goodness to come.” To which I say, “I agree.” Let’s take District 9 as an example:
Warehouse 13 premieres tonight and I’m kind’ve stoked about it. Every time I see it I’m absolutely positive somebody had the same thought many of us had when watching Indiana Jones when we were a kid; “What the hell is in all those other crates and what do they do with them?” Now – we’ll know!
Clockwise from left: the Hub, Lady D, Topgun, Apollymy, bkitty
I’ve got so much to say about this past weekend- so for now I’ll post a few things and come back later when I’ve slept and am more coherent… 
These last few days I have been surrounded by the funniest, kindest, smartest, warmest group of people in the world. People who’d never met in person were sharing jokes, finishing each other’s sentences, breaking into song, and saying things all at once, like right before we watched the finale- Chuck made an announcement to everyone and said the word “crap” and about fifty people all jumped in with “craaaaaaaap.” Then, laughter as everyone realized how much we were all on the same wavelength and how fun this was going to be.
I hate my smile. It always looks to me like I should be onstage with my brothers Simon and Theodore – singing at double speed. So I normally scowl, it accomplishes several things, people leave you alone and no chipmunk-cheeks. How I feel about my appearance didn’t stop me from grinning like an idiot the entire weekend of the meetup though. Why? Because for the first time in as long as I can remember I was in crowded rooms I felt completely comfortable in.
I didn’t notice it at first but about three quarters of the way through the final BSG episode my wife Shannon (Mrs. Sean) leans over to me and says, “You’re so relaxed considering the crowd you’re in. I figured you’d be a wreck by now.” It was then I knew that for the very first time I was in a room packed completely full of good friends and family. Sounds sappy I know but it’s totally true. I stood up and went to the side of the room where I was sitting and took a picture right at the moment so I could remember it. The whole rest of the weekend I kept looking around trying to burn the scene and faces permanently into my brain.
We watch the BSG finale with GWCers from around the country and world this week, then podcast live from the first GWC National Meetup in Frisco, TX. Highlights: Well, as far as I’m concerned this cast’s highlight is the audience. Together we make sense of BSG’s wrap-up episode, diving into deep issues like who is Starbuck, whether technology controls the nature of man, why freedom is worth the risk, and what might happen next. Thank you so much to all of you who attended the taping and all of you who listened live. (And we’ll see you back next week for the leadup to new Trek!)
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