It's 2010, and I would like my flying car, please.

from terrafugia.com

Two ways you'll know the future has arrived, according to the gospel of The Jetsons: we have mouthy robot servants to manage our lives, and we all drive flying cars or have personal jetpacks.  

Well, I don't see any robots around (at least ones that don't scare the bejeebus out of me by tripping and falling squarely into the uncanny valley, a la this specimen) , but jetpacks and flying cars are getting closer to becoming a reality.

Case in point: the Transition.  I say getting closer, because to me this still looks mostly like a plane (although it becomes more VW-bug like when the wings are folded up).  It's only a mere $10,000 to be put on the waiting list behind 70 other prospective futurists, and a cool $194,000 expected sticker price.  Added drag: total fuel hog.  So yeah, we're closer but not quite there yet.  Show me one that runs on renewable energy, and maybe I'll get in line.

Sadly, that's still science fiction for now.


I'm still waiting for my jetpack, too.

Salaryman robots...a cultural diversion

As most of the people reading this blog know me in real life or in other various internet incarnations, I think most of you know that while I love science fiction, I also love many aspects of Japan and Japanese culture.  I lived in Japan for a couple of years and did my graduate work at Cornell on Japanese Literature, so some of that is bound to seep through, here and elsewhere.

In that light, please enjoy this somewhat sci-fi lookin' Japanese music video from World Order, called Mind Shift:




More interestingly (to me, anyway), after doing some quick googling, I discovered two great blog posts about this song.  Kogibbq.com talks about the lead singer, Genki Sudo, and his Mixed Martial Arts career before he got into J-Pop.  It also discusses some of the larger themes in the song itself, which is fairly important to the music video.  This blog over at globalpost.com sheds some light on the actual lyrics.  The TL;DR version seems to be that it's about a salary-man feeling out of touch with the spiritual, creative side of life, leaving him feeling like a mechanical, robotic part of society.

I love that on the surface this looks like a slightly goofy musical video of businessmen doing silly things in Japan...but that underneath, this has got a rather important message about life in Japan (and for workers in most places, I reckon).  Rather like Genki Sudo himself, there's a lot more than meets the eye.

Also?  It's pretty darn catchy.

Why we should read science fiction

io9 has a great excerpt from a longer article up about why people should read science fiction.  From the article: "Why should you be reading more science fiction? Not just for the thrills or awesome science. You should read SF to explore ideas about society that academics and pundits won't talk about, writes Walter Russell Mead in The American Interest."


Read more here >


That's always been the major draw of science fiction for me: what happens to the people of the speculative elsewhere/when?  I think it's why I like political science theory so much - basically it's all about trying to imagine what people will do when put into a certain situation.  Sci-fi usually incorporates much more, of course: it's also about technology, of discovery and innovation.  And aliens.  However, while I love all that about sci-fi, it's really what the people do when they encounter these new things that interests me.  


It's kind of interesting to look at sci-fi from an historical point of view, as well: since sci as a whole often reflects our cultural fears and societal norms of the time, reading something like Alas, Babylon or pulp novels from nearer to the turn of the century like People of the Mist or War of the Worlds can be an interesting exercise in social history.  I like to call those retro-futures (and for a tangible example, wandering around the Tomorrow World part of Epcot Center is the biggest retro-future phantasmagoria I can think of).  They reflect all the hopes and fears of the time when they were created, as well as all the cultural biases and bigotry.

Artificial skin made from nanowires

Things like this make me happy: Futurity.org reports that "A pressure-sensitive electronic material made from semiconductor nanowires—dubbed e-skin—could one day give new meaning to the term “thin-skinned.”"

5 incredibly cheesy-looking movies to get excited about

Not everyone loves schlocky sci-fi movies.  They're an acquired taste, kind of like natto or kimchi.  Also, what might be a B movie to some might be a paragon of film-making to others.  However, if you've been a sci-fi fan for very long, chances are you've seen one or two, maybe without meaning to.  There's a lot of kitsch out there, and sometimes that's the most fun.  In that vein, here's 5 that I'm excited about seeing.  Whether or not they'll be good, well, that depends entirely on your definition.

1.) Age of the Dragons
Ok, never mind that it sounds kind of dirty; in the same vein as "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," we now have "Moby Dick and Dragons."  Cheese-fest meter?  Probably high, since there's about 2 lines of dialog shown in the trailer, and one of them is yelled.



2.) Skyline
Well, people getting sucked up into the sky is a good place to start on the schlock-o-meter.  They quote Stephen Hawking's 'aliens probably don't wanna make friends' bit, so that's also a point in its favor.



3.) Monsters
I have to admit, I really like the premise of this film.  It sounds a little District 9-ish in some ways, and glowing mutant mushrooms are cool.



4.) Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
The name is certainly long enough.  Movies about animals are always tricky, and this movie might rightly be classified as fantasy rather than sci-fi, but I think it deserves a billing for content, if not style.



5.) Tron: Legacy
This one I'm a little worried about, although I'm still looking forward to seeing it.  There's the good kind of cheesy, which is a film it doesn't take itself too seriously, and then there's bad cheese which does, and this may wind up being in the second category.  The original was a cult classic; hopefully this one is enjoyable.

In Honor of H.P. Lovecraft

Today is H.P. Lovecraft's Birthday!  I figure those of you reading this blog are well familiar with his work, but if not, click here.  For other fun, Lovecraft-related stuff, here are a few links:

Via McSweeneys, Selections from H.P. Lovecraft's Brief Tenure as a Whitman's Sampler Copywriter.  

A great, Lovecraft-inspired graphic novel: Lovecraft is Missing (thanks, @ThirdMusket)

Cthuugle: The Search Engine Man Was Not Meant to Know!

And of course, you can always get your own Cthulhu over at Cthulhuchick.com

Hail to thee, Red Shirt

Over on his blog, Dave Perillo reminds us that the real Expendables are the kind wearing red shirts:

Art by said Mr. Perillo

I love this! Poor Red Shirt, you never stand a chance.

Zombies! (again)

Via Reddit, World War Z author Max Brooks will be answering your zombie questions online on the 17th of August.  As the poster says, "Mr. Brooks will answer the top ten questions (using "best" comment sorting) in this thread as of Tuesday 8/17) at 12pm ET. This will be a video interview. Ask Him Anything."


Get your questions in here: Ask Max Brooks Anything

And, while you're waiting for the 17th to arrive, here's some reading: 5 Reasons You Secretly Want a Zombie Apocalypse (via Cracked)

Review: Ark

There are some awesome things to be found on Hulu.  They have a fairly good selection of the latest sci-fi shows, for example, and one of these is Ark.  Hulu has 9 'mini-sodes' available right now, the longest clocking in at about 8 minutes, the shorter ones coming in at around 3 minutes.

The Premise: Two very different people, from different eras in modern history, find themselves suddenly aboard a ship, without any clue why they've been taken or where they are.  If it sounds a bit like Stargate: Universe, the premise is basically the same, only there's no action that predicates their sudden appearance on the ship.  I'm a big fan of the "what the hell just happened and where the eff are we?" genre of sci-fi: it leaves a lot of possibilities open for the story and allows you to figure out what's going on along with the characters.  It can be difficult to make the punchline discovery of what's going on really satisfying, but in this case it's the journey that's important.

The Pros and Cons: Since the episodes are presented in short clips, it means everything has significance.  There's really nothing in the way of fluff, and the story is pushed along by increasingly dramatic discoveries and events.  The ship is a jumbled amalgamation of habitation area and dusty corridors filled with doors that don't always work and screens that track where the characters are, filled with numbers and symbols that do a good job of making everything seem alien and disorienting.

However, since the episodes are so short, some things are necessarily sacrificed.  Character development is the big one.  We see aspects of their lives before they arrived on the Ark, but there's not much in the way of connection to either of them.  This is not a character-driven story, at least not yet.  Further, while it's good to enjoy Hulu while it's free, the advertising is rough for Ark: 30 seconds to a minute of ads for a 3-minute episode is not a good exchange.

Apparently there's also a graphic novel being released along with the episodes, although I haven't seen it yet.  I'd give Ark six of ten stars, and I'm interested to see where the story goes.

More about Ark >

"Precision Driving?"

Apparently the third Transformers movie, shooting in DC later this summer, is looking for extras.

Anybody in DC familiar with precision driving?  Now's your chance to be a star!

Comic-con and 'nerd' culture

Interesting article by Wil Wheaton: Is Comic-Con Really Hurting Nerd Culture?

Short answer: no, unless you get stabbed in the eye with a pen.

Onmyoji Fascination

Silly hats: all part of the charm!

In 2001, when I was living in Japan, I happened to catch a preview for a movie that looked intriguing.  Heian period clothing, magic, folklore - right up my alley, in fact.  I had no idea what an Onmyoji was, but I thought the movie might be a good, possibly cheesy, diversion for an afternoon.  And indeed, it was (both good and cheesy).  It also rapidly became one of my favorite movies.  It's not a paragon of film making by any stretch, but the story is a great example of Japanese historical sci fi.

So, what's the big deal?  They took their vengeful spirits very seriously in the Heian period, and the magic of onmyodo was a part of courtly life (in fact, there was a bureau that oversaw the practice and regulation of onmyodo...too bad that doesn't still exist!).  The movie is about a Merlin-like character named Abe no Seimei, who is one of a number of court magicians/spirit exorcists, and the unlikely friendship he forms with Minamoto no Hiromasa, an affable and somewhat bumbling nobleman.  They have a Sherlock Holmes/Watson dynamic, and Hiromasa helpfully provides the audience with  the layperson's view into the dynamics of courtly intrigue and Abe no Seimei's magic.

"Hiromasa, dude....pretty sure you're not supposed to touch that."

The capital has started to become overrun with demons, vengeful spirits, and other badness, and the Imperial family in particular sees the worst of these occurrences.  Seimei and Hiromasa track down the source of these disturbances...and wacky hijinks ensue.  Both of these characters actually existed in history, although it's questionable whether or not they were friends.  

The movie itself is based on the novel of the same name, by Japanese sci fi writer Baku Yumemakura.  Having loved the movie (and the sequel), I wanted to track down the book.  Unfortunately, an English translation doesn't exist (that I know about).  My Japanese is pretty rusty, but I'm hoping to try translating this thing.  It's going to be a fairly slow process, but a fun project.  I'm thinking about posting the progress on twitter as an ongoing saga that gets updated one or two sentences a day.  If I manage to be able to make any sense of the translation, I'll post the link to the twitter account here.

Weekend DIY Sci Fi

Looking for something to do this weekend?  Well, if you're anything like me, then all you're looking to do first is relax, recover from the week with a good book and a delicious drink.  However, once that's out of the way, some of these geeky DIY projects may interest you.

1. Miss Portal?  Make yourself a Companion Cube tissue box cover.  If you're feeling bakery, try making the Portal Cake.
2. Here's something that takes less time: make your own blob (ok, it's crazy putty, but still).  Messy AND cool.  Note: rolling it over household objects will not net you a katamari, but you can make one out of Play Doh like this creative fan.  
3. Want something to spruce up your lair?  Check out this dragon instructable that you can hang from a wall. 
4. Feeling dwarven and up to something a little more adventurous?  Make this micro-forge and create some small metalworking projects.
5. If you're feeling like baking AND playing D&D, why not make this pecan pie d20?  Perhaps not the most practical project on the list, it will certainly meet with approval from your gamer friends.  I'm pretty sure it rolls a critical hit just by existing.
6. Want to add a little more depth to a campaign, make some art, or just make your manuscript look awesome? Check out this Pages of a Forbidden Tome Make project.
7. Got someplace geeky to go but nothing to wear? Make yourself a corset (3 part series - might take longer than just one weekend.).
8. For something cute and also fairly quick, make a free range monster.  Adorable.  
9. Finally, via Jessica, an easy way to raise the geek-factor of your next get-together: cupcake molds in the form of nomskulls and yumbots.  Cute!

Other fantastic DIY ideas:
Make
Craftzine
Instructables

The geek alphabet

Via Unreality Magazine: an alphabet for geeks (and other sci fi aficionados).  The other letters are great as well (although W really made me laugh)...check 'em out at the link.

Music Post: Robots!

Today's music post celebrates robots, or at least works as a guide through the different stages of budding robot-icity: denial, anger, acceptance, and finally violent retribution on their human creators.  Now with 100% less Uncanny Valley effect.

Let's work with denial first.  Marina and the Diamonds: I Am Not a Robot

Anger.  The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots



Acceptance, via Robyn: Fembot



Retribution, Flight of the Conchords style: the Humans Are Dead



I realize there's a lot of other robot-related music that could have gone on this round-up, so I'll probably do another robot-themed music post sooner or later.

Finally, here's an informal poll: who, or what, is your favorite robot (cylons, terminators, fembots, etc - all valid)?  I'm partial to Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I think my favorite is R2D2.

Giant steps are what you take, walking on the moon

This isn't science fiction (unless you're a conspiracy theorist), but it is neat: 41 years ago today, Apollo 11 landed on the Moon's Sea of Tranquility, thus proving once and for all there are no three-tailed monkeys, rabbits making mochi, or Sam Rockwells up there (yet).

Too bad about the mochi; that stuff is good.

Flashback Reviews: Riddley Walker

Riddley Walker, written by Russell Hoban and published in 1980, is probably one of the weirdest books I've ever read.  In fact, I'm prepared to say that I didn't understand it completely, and there were parts I didn't enjoy.  So why am I reviewing it now?  Of all the sci-fi books I read as a kid, this one has stuck with me the longest.  It's a strange and haunting book, but not necessarily an accessible one.

The story is set in England, long after an apocalyptic nuclear event that has blasted the world back to the stone age.  Humanity has lost its grip on modern civilization, and the current religion is a hodgepodge of Celtic myth and Christian legend, communicated by Punch-and-Judy puppet shows and allegorical fireside tales.  St Eustace (Eusa, according to Riddley) is a prominent mythological figure and the legend of his life inspired Hoban to write the book.

Technology has devolved, and so has language...in fact, the whole book is written in Riddley's thickly accented dialect, words spelled phonetically and occasionally not very close to the original.  I had to read some sentences out loud a few times before the meaning clicked.  This will either fascinate you (as it did for me), or drive you bonkers, so reader beware.

Despite this, Riddley is an engaging narrator; he's clever (or is that clevver), and it's interesting to watch his ideas evolve.  Occasionally he struggles with how to express himself.  At one point, he says:

"I dont have nothing only words to put down on paper. Its so hard. Some times theres mor in the emty paper nor there is when you get the writing down on it. You try to word the big things and they tern ther backs on you. Yet youwl see stanning stoans and ther backs wil talk to you. " (if this quote made you want to claw your eyes out in frustration, then I'd recommend avoiding the book!)

One of my favorite theological discussions in sci-fi literature happens right at the beginning of the book - page 6, in fact.  It's poignant and colors the rest of the novel, giving Riddley surprising depth in a hard-scrabble setting where life is the classic Hobbesian "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."   Riddley may be a product of his devolved world, but he's not primitive.

This book isn't for everyone.  But if you're willing to take it on, there are a lot of gems here.  

8/10


Links of interest:

A better summary than I've given
An Interview with Russell Hoban on RW
Riddley Walker Annotations (very helpful - wish I'd had this when I read it.)
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (references the book...plus, a Sci Fi Sweetheart recommendation for the sheer camp of it!)

Subway Star Wars

Improv Everywhere, only you could be so bold:

Hee!  I love how everyone is amused but basically unfazed.  This kind of stuff doesn't happen on the DC metro (sadly), although we do get participation in No Pants Day.

That's no moon....

Yesterday, the lovely Jessica of Bacon, Baking and Everything in Between made a surprise for my birthday.

It wasn't just any surprise.  This was full of win.  The reason it's featured on the blog?  Just see for yourself:

A mini-Death Star, in cake form!  The laser is a PEZ candy, and the protective shielding is pure cream cheese frosting goodness.  Fortunately, it had no time to blow up a planet (or my desk), because it was devoured by coworkers in about 15 minutes flat.

Our taste buds could not handle taste of that magnitude!

The adventures of Tiny Cthulhu

I recently adopted a tiny cthulhu courtesy of the fabulous Cthulhu Chick.  It was a tough choice picking just one, since there were a lot of cute ones, but we eventually decided on ours.  He arrived a couple of days ago.

At first, he was a bit shy.

But then he got around to meeting the new neighbors:

Introductions were made.

Soon, he was making friends and learning the local customs!

Some of these encounters were not as hospitable as he expected....uh oh!  Fortunately, he was rescued before any misunderstandings could occur (editor's note: no cthulhus were harmed in the making of this adventure).

In no time at all, Tiny Cthulhu was right at home.  Hey, Tiny Cthulhu, what are you doing in there?

Tiny Cthulhu, isn't that MY drink?  Who are you calling?

Uh...

The reign of terror has begun.

Hee!  Hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed doing it.  There may be further adventures of Tiny Cthulhu at a later date, once everyone has come out of hiding.  In the meantime, here's an outtake.  Cthulhu, The Bitening:

Happy Birthday, Mr. Tesla

dashing!

According to Wikipedia, Nikola Tesla's Birthday is actually tomorrow.  We're getting the drop on him by celebrating a day early!  I'm sure he won't mind.


History tells us that Tesla was something of an underdog; though famous in his own lifetime, he was considered an eccentric at best and a mad scientist at worst by his peers (not without reason).  He was a friend of Mark Twain, a possible synaesthete, and a proponent of women's equality.  He won the War of Currents against Edison (who was kind of a jerk, seriously - also, the accompanying video is NOT for the faint of heart, you have been warned), but Edison may be remembered better in part for his contributions to the light bulb.  He worked on  inventing the radio, but Marconi (also kind of a jerk, at least as far as radios are concerned) beat him out in the patent dispute and won the Nobel prize for it in 1909.  In fact, here's a helpful comic from Hark! A Vagrant laying it all out: Tesla, Marconi, Edison.


However, he invented other stuff, too.  Take this, for example:





The Tesla coil.  What a celibate rock star!   


Finally, Tesla may or may not have been responsible for the Tunguska Event in his quest to discover a super weapon.   He even has a Cthulhu mythos connection: he might have been the inspiration for Lovecraft's Nyarlathotep (I don't see the resemblance myself).

Ready, Set, Shamble

early warning systems: our only chance

If you’re like me, you enjoy a good zombie yarn or two. At their best, they can be a fascinating look into the psychosis of constant terror and the politics of disease and warfare a la Max Brooks’ book, World War Z. As far as monsters go, they’re pretty high on the squick-meter: they’re us, only hungry, ineluctable, lizard-brain us. With more rot. But don’t worry…all they want to do is eat our brains.


I kind of like to think of zombies as the anti-vampire. Zombies, as far as the ‘enemy among us’ trope goes, are a useful palliative against the monster-with-a-heart vampire books that seem to be the recent trend. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy those kinds of books every once in a while, and will no doubt talk about some of them on this blog. However, if you want your monsters monstrous and more of the horror staple many of us have come to love, then zombies are a safe bet…and unlike certain vampiric creations, they don’t sparkle (unless they're also radioactive, and then well, you're doubly screwed).


Speaking of zombies, here’s a site that was recently introduced to me (thanks, Benn!): Tales of the Zombie War. The site is a collection of (free!) short stories and poems of zombie-related fiction. While it claims it is not strictly a fanfic site, World War Z does seem to be a major influence. Since it IS a collection of public submissions, however, browser beware – but in general the quality of the writing seems fairly high. At the very least, check out the first and second-place pieces featured.


Other fantastic ways to get your zombie fix, if you're looking for some summer reading:
Feed, by Mira Grant
Every Sigh, The End, by Jason Hornsby 
The Passage, by Justin Cronin