Disney's 2010 Tron Legacy Film (Picture courtesy of Disney's Tron Legacy Website)
Sean posted a great blog post about the ten things he learned from Tron 1982. I know I’m late to the party, but after just seeing Tron tonight, here are ten things I learned from seeing Tron Legacy
The 8 1/2 Foot Tall 2010 Shooter Family Geek Christmas Tree
I’m sure just about everyone reading this article has some sort of a holiday tradition. Our family has several and usually includes the boys in the family going to see whatever SciFi blockbuster is out. This year our plans are to see Tron Legacy together. One of our other long lasting traditions involve each member of the family receiving a Hallmark Christmas Tree Ornament in our stockings. My mother, Mom Shooter, has been responsible for assembling this gift each year for the past 20 or 30 years. Everyone has one or two series that they follow from year to year. My father, Dad Shooter, has received the Classic American Car series every year since 1991. The girls usually end up with a Disney series ornament. I have received the All American Trucks series off and on since 2000, but each and every year Mom Shooter makes sure I receive some sort of a SciFi Hallmark Christmas Tree ornament. In fact, our family have received so many Hallmark ornaments that we’ve had to add a second full-sized tree in our home to handle all of our favorite ornaments. For those of you that follow me on Twitter, you’ve already seen our “geek” tree, but for those of you who didn’t get the chance, here’s a little tour of the vehicle and ship ornaments on our tree.
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BBC's New Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson
In a time of programming uncertainty and early cancellations on American TV, the BBC has produced some of the best television currently available. BBC’s new series Sherlock is absolutely a poster child for great television. Sherlock is a modernized version of the classic Sherlock Holmes tale set in the London of today. Unfortunately, I missed Sherlock when it first aired on BBC, but due to overwhelming positive reviews, comments, and recommendations, I made sure I set the DVR to record it when it first aired on American PBS stations on October 24th. Even amidst such high recommendations Sherlock not only delivered, but amazed me in its brilliance.
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“Are you reading that for the first time?” a stranger asked me on the New York City Subway.
“Yes” I responded somewhat cautiously looking up from my book. As a New Yorker, I am not used to unsolicited literary commentary in public or any kind of interaction with strangers, ever.
“I envy you” he replied simply and in a moment was gone.
At first I was tempted to brush off this exchange. I closed the book for the first time in two days and considered what had just happened: A person was so moved by a book he felt obligated to engage a stranger in the subway to share the importance of the novel. I glanced at the cover which really didn’t give anything away of the plot, just standard sci-fi ships flying in space. The story was becoming with each passing word my absolute favorite science fiction novel of all time. In the coming years when asked what my favorite book was I would name this one and every book I read after this would be compared to it.
That novel? Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.
Confession #1: I watched Caprica out of loyalty to Battlestar Galactica. BSG brought me back to the scifi genre. Somewhere between leaving college and rebuilding my life after my divorce I stopped watching science fiction. Somewhere between the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager television shows simultaneously airing I decided to focus on my career and my post graduate education. Somewhere between Shooter Jr being born and actually paying for cable television I lost track of shows like Andromeda, Farscape, and Babylon 5. But BSG brought me back and I owed BSG, Ronald D. Moore, and everyone else involved to watch Caprica.
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It’s true that Sean is GWC’s resident dragon expert and fantasy fiend — but as we begin our three-week Dragon Arc for the ‘cast, I’ve been remembering my childhood introduction to dragons and my own take on this diverse mythical species. I’ve included a few of my favorites here to illustrate why dragons have always been, in my view, friendly and enchanting rather than the terrible, destructive kind often portrayed in film.
1. Falkor, The Neverending Story (1984)
Other than Pete’s Dragon (1977), which my mom took me to see when it played in a local second-run theater in the early eighties, Falkor was the first dragon that I decided was badass on my own. The Neverending Story captured my imagination with its fascinating, and kind of scary, story, and perhaps the best ending possible in any fantasy movie. The main character basically gets infinite magic wishes from a beautiful princess, and then rides on Falkor’s back to show up the school bullies who used to throw him in the dumpster.
SyFy's New Series Haven - Check it Out!
This summer SyFy introduced a new treat for Friday viewers. Eureka and Warehouse 13 were split to plug the Tuesday and Friday summer timeslots left vacant by such names as Stargate Universe, Caprica, Merlin, and Sanctuary. So, on July 9, 2010 SyFy introduced us to a new Friday show, Haven. The show has many aspects that I know would appeal to GWCers like unexplained supernatural phenomena, Warehouse 13-like artifact powers, Sanctuary style mutants (although all in human form…so far), X-files mystery, and a town full of common Northern Lights style folks.
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While most GWC denizens are sci-fi/fantasy geeks, there’s a healthy number of us that have fallen in love with the musical TV show Glee. Something about awkward high school misfits belting their hearts out in the face of overwhelming unpopularity speaks to anyone who’s ever sat at the wrong lunch table. But if you’re still not convinced to trade your phasers for a high F, let me introduce you to a musical that might help get you in the right mood.
Years before he peeled his face off in The Last Starfighter, Robert Preston charmed and connived his way through my favorite musical, The Music Man.
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A man named Will walks down a dim school corridor. His shoulders slightly hunched, he marks time in the same dull routine. He derives no real pleasure from what he does, even though he is exceedingly good at it. He glances absentmindedly towards a dusty trophy case overfilled with forgotten awards and as he pauses his eyes fall on a plaque. Engraved with the name of a former teacher who passed away, the inscription reads:
By its very definition, glee is about opening yourself up to joy.
Thus opens Glee, a show you — and you’re not alone — may have rejected out of hand. (““A show about a Glee club?” you think? “Seriously? No thank you.” Or possibly: “What the hell is a Glee club?”) If this describes you, I’d like to let you in on a little secret: This show isn’t about a glee club. This show is about you.
Wassup all — it’s the Operator!
It’s award season! That special time of year when LA folks start name-dropping and talking incessantly about who’s who of the what’s what in movies (okay, that’s year round). ANYway, the Producers Guild of America has chosen their nominees for Best Picture. Usually, this list includes one, maybe two I have seen, the rest…not so much.
This is different, however. Three of the nominees for Best Picture are films that some of us may have heard about, if not actually seen.
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek
SLINGERS from Mike Sizemore on Vimeo.
It’s got circa-1960s style and spaceships. It’s got con artists in black-tie formal wear and holographic roulette wheels. It’s got a classic casino heist storyline and a self-aware pistol with a sense of humor. It’s got women in cocktail dresses…and one who changes out of hers into a spacesuit in an airlock. Slingers has all the anachronistic juxtaposition a sci-fi fan could hope for in a TV show, and it promises to return a level of playfulness to gritty, naturalistic sci-fi that we haven’t seen since the days of Firefly. If this all sounds too good to be true, it’s probably because it isn’t…yet.
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]
GWCers on Flickr
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