Notes Category

"Science Fiction Serving the National Interest"

"Science Fiction Serving the National Interest."  I don't even know what to say about the crazy reported here in National Defense Magazine. (via Fusion Dispatches)

Evil, but so soft...

Pet the horror at the Chenille Beasts Gallery. (Thanks, spookymonkey!)

"Weapon of Mass Defacement"

The Graffiti Research Lab reports on Dutch taggers and their RV-mounted tagging laser. And if you're interested, there's open source code.

"Porn's reality is... uncanny"

Behold, Susannah Breslin's The Unporny Valley! And Grand Theft Auto IV in "Return to the Unporny Valley."

Invisibility, Flight and Ira Glass

I admit it. I'm a sucker for This American Life. The second season of their television is starting, so in celebration here's a link to a 2006 radio show with a theme worthy of the Gutter: "Superpowers."  (And here's a preview of season 2).

Venture Bros., season 3

Fresh and toasty from the New York Comic Con, it's the Venture Bros. season 3 promo with clips a-plenty! (thanks, tera!)

"Guillermo del Toro to make Hobbit films: bleah!"

Andrew O'Hehir is here to tell you that Guillermo del Toro making The Hobbit--and a sequel to The Hobbit--for Peter Jackson is not a good idea.

Infocom's Lost Drive

A blogger got ahold of a network drive from Infocom circa 1989, which has the behind-the-scenes story -- and a tiny playable demo -- of the failed sequel to the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Universe, reconstructed from emails and other digital artefacts. Most of the text-game greats chime in in the comments.

Interview with Jackie Chan and Jet Li

Speaking of Forbidden Kingdom, Jackie Chan and Jet Li are interviewed together at wu-jing.org.

Revenge of the Lady Fighter

With the ladies of Forbidden Kingdom looking a little... lackluster, here's some of the original white-haired bride, Brigitte Lin (Bride with White Hair and The East Is Red) and the original Golden Swallow, Cheng Pei-Pei (Come Drink With Me and The Lady Hermit).  And here's some Angela Mao just for the hell of it. (Scroll down).

No More Screaming

Hammer Studios and Corman horror star, Hazel Court, died Wednesday.  She starred with icons like Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Peter Lorre--and even Patrick McGoohan (Danger Man) and Rock Hudson on television. 

Who Wouldn't Elope With Chewbacca?

The first paragraph alone does it for me in Heather Havrilevsky's reviews of Friday Night Lights and the new reality-dance show, Step It Up and Dance: "When my sister and I were kids, we made our Star Wars action figures go on dates with each other. First we'd take turns picking our favorite action figures, then we'd set up "apartments" for each of them. (We knew from "Three's Company" that single people always lived in apartments.)"

Israeli SS She-Wolf Pulps

Stalags are SS She-Wolf pulp fiction. From Israel.  Think I'm gonna lie down for a while.

Iron Man is Anti-Linux

So. Tony Stark is anti-Linux. Does Marvel like breaking the hearts of Iron Man fans? (Thanks, Chuck!)

You want comics? We got comics. Like, all of them.

Curious what the cover of Doom Patrol #89 (August, 1964, first appearance of The Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man) looks like? Or any other comic, for that matter? Check out the bottomless treasure trove that is the Grand Comic Book Database, home to over 150,000 scanned comic book covers and counting.

Red Shirt Deaths

Ah, the internet, what we would do without distractions like Analytics According to Captain Kirk: "When Captain Kirk meets an alien woman and "makes contact" the survival rate of the red-shirted crewmen increases by 84%."

44 YEARS OF MAD FOLD-INS

This fascinating NY Times interview with Mad Magazine artist Al Jaffee reveals the origin of the Mad Fold-In and the process Jaffee has used to create every one since 1964 (he still doesn't use a computer). It also includes a great slideshow of Fold-Ins past and present. What, me hyperlink?

Bollywood 2050

Love Story 2050.  It's Bollywood. There are robots.  Dance, robot, dance! (via Kaiju Shakedown, again).

Five Years After Leslie Cheung's Death

Grady Hendrix has some thoughts about Leslie Cheung on the fifth anniversary of his death.

Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula

The year is 1890.  The city, London. Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula: Is there anything more to say? (Oh, yeah, it's a radio drama).

An Obtuse Sword and Urashima Taro

In the news, crazy old Japanese animation from 1917 and 1918 has been recovered. 

Killer Jellyfish! Invading!

Worse than Killer Bees!  Killer jellies!  On the move!

Lulu Eightball

I picked up Emily Flake's Lulu Eightball collection at the Buffalo Small Press Fair and I couldn't be happier.  Desperate millipedes, hammers with heft and a slanty take on our friend the observational humor comic strip. The weekly strips are here and here.  Her illustration work is nice, too.

The Gotham Times

It's The Gotham Times, promotional but still neat.

Love and Change-bots

Comic artist Jeffrey Brown's badly cropped on SexTV, but the interview is still worth seeing. And while we're at it, see him transform like an Incredible Change-bot in a Washington Post interview at the 2007 Small Press Book Expo.

"The Easter Bunny Is Eating My Candy"

Is it ever too late for a horror short about the Easter Bunny? (An alternate link)

"Secret Skin: An essay in unitard theory"

Michael Chabon traces the secret origins of the superhero costume in Secret Skin: An essay in unitard theory, in which he proposes "a fundamental truth: like the being who wears it, the superhero costume is, by definition, an impossible object. It cannot exist."

Momotaro Kicks Up Against Mickey

Mickey Mouse attacks and Japanese characters fight back.  But in this cartoon, Momotaro might be using the master's tools to tear down the master's house.  (Thanks, Heather!)

"Violence without pretence, an endless hobgoblin holocaust"

Erik Sofge writes on roleplaying games and Gary Gygax's legacy: "There is a way to wring real creativity, and possibly even artistic merit, from this bizarre medium—and it has nothing to do with Gygax and his tradition of sociopathic storytelling." (Moira Redmond reports on the resulting fray).

Harlan Ellison's a funny, weird old guy

"I look at it as a movie about this funny, weird old guy. And I think, 'That's a funny, weird old guy. I'd love to know him. He's really funny.'
Harlan Ellison talks about Dreams With Sharp Teeth, a new documentary about him. (Salon article, here)

JCVD is Jean-Claude Van Damme

Jean-Claude Van Damme is Jean-Claude Van Damme in JCVD. Watch the trailer. Seriously.

Why Is Miike Smirking?

Takeshi Miike smirks, and I shudder.

World Domination is Fun

Dr. Steel builds the robots, creates propaganda and issues manifestos. Plus, he has a band.

Shutting Down the Obvious

Rudy Rucker, on his excellent photoblog / scifi-stream- of-consciousness, talks about virtual reality (with responses): "My whole point is to wake people up to the fact that the physical, daily world is inconceivably rich."

"Cured of Being a Tomboy"

Sleestak explores those strange girls in comics, tomboys from Romance comics to Disney.

"I'm a sucker for a girl with a metallic lower jaw"

Metal mandibles and elongating limbs--it's the Top Ten Sexiest Comic Book Robots! (by Amazing Challengers of Unknown Mystery's Evan Munday)

Crochet Hypberbolics and the Nubbly Universe

At The Institute for Figuring, Dr. Donna Taimina brings "abstract mathematics into the realm of tactile experience" with her crocheted models of hyperbolic space. (Model galleries are along the sidebar).

Battlefield Asia

Looking for movies that combine big battles with the pain of Chinese history? How about: The Warlords, with Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro; Mongol, with Tadanobu Asano as Temujin/Genghis Khan; An Empress and the Warriors, with Donnie Yen, Kelly Chen and Leon Lai; and after being roughed up by Hollywood John Woo returns like a dove to its roost with, The Battle of Red Cliff, starring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Zhang Fengyi. (watch out--horse-tripping and one shirt ripping).

The Pathos of Dave Sim

Tired Fairy discusses why she doesn't want to talk with Dave Sim about his gender beliefs at Sequential Tart. And it's not just that he's kind of, well, sad.

Appropriate Technology for Making Monsters

In this clip seems like Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze have been up to awesome with their film adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are.

Difendi!

Looks like Italian neo-Fascist political party Alleanza Nazionale like them some 300. The candidate, Andrea De Priamo, has taken it off his site. (thanks, Sparky!)

My Borg Pony

Six of Seven says, "You will curry us."

Cuz No One Talks About It

Money! Scalzi gives advice, stirs up the pot: "when it comes to money — and specifically their own money — writers have as much sense as chimps on crack."

The Mainstream Notices Us, Head Explodes

Forbes gets worried - World of Warcraft will create "offline political forces". Charles Stross' Halting State has a lot to say about this stuff, including a fun, opposing theory: we've never been contacted by aliens because they're probably too addicted to some advanced MMO game to worry about reality anymore!

A Nasty Little Piece of Work, Just Perfect in Fact

It's a game called "Blood Car! 2000! Delux!" and it's just about everything the title says it is.

Sympathy for the Yellow Peril

In this crazy racist 1930s Mystery Men comic, Chen Chang "embarks on a trail gutted with blood and sudden, horrible death, as he carries on his vendetta against the white race," and dragon lady River Lily and I end up shouting, "Get him Black Lightning! Tramp down the white man!" (via Kaiju Shakedown).

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am that deranged millionaire."

In 2006 John Hodgman reported a deranged millionaire had challenged They Might Be Giants to create a song for every venue they played on their tour, or lose their magical song-writing talisman forever.  See the deranged millionaire and hear the songs for yourself.  You can also see animated videos of TMBG songs by Brandon Smalls, LAIKA, Divya Srinivasan and John Linnell.

It's the only way to resolve differences.

The Thing and the Hulk clobber and smash each other in mixed media. It's the only way to resolve differences.  (Make sure to follow the link through to the Stan Lee Excelsior Exhibit entries).

Canadians Have Known For a Long Time Of Course: Pingu!

An ode to the wonders of Pingu! With lots of Youtube links.

Everybody Freeze

Hit by a freeze ray? Lost in time? It's Frozen Grand Central.

Sammo Hung and Wu Jing, Together Again

With Wu Jing, Simon Yam and Sammo Hung all grim, Fatal Move looks like an SPL reunion, with Johnnie To regulars like Wong Tin-lam and Lam Su-et dropping by. Scroll down a bit for the trailer. Does Donnie feel left out?

The Gill-Man in Love

Is it the human or the not-human that terrifies people in The Creature from the Black Lagoon?  Frank Wu writes about the Gill-Man, the Uncanny Valley and "the human and inhuman at war within ourselves." (Thanks, Chuck!)

You Suck at Photoshop #4: Paths and Masks

"You Suck at Photoshop"--depressing, educational and hilarious. Here's #4 via Boing Boing 'cause the comments on it at YouTube are too sexist for me.

Born to Front

Born to front and without a syllabus, MC Frontalot rhymes over a Messiaz' beat at G4's Freestyle 101. (Thanks, Ms. Paula!)

North Korea's PEE Ensemble

Behold North Korea's Ponchobo Electronic Ensemble:

"The musical style is a lunatic mash-up of oompah-band beer garden beats, operatic vocals cranked up like power drills and buggy, sparking electronic organs squeezed and tortured until they short circuit in a sonic eruption of bleeps and blarts. Every note is clearly played by people who've not only received the Manchurian treatment but are also bombed out of their minds on a powerful pharmaceutical cocktail of super-strength Prozac and military-grade speed."

Andy Lau Ain't Nothing to Mess With

Don't let his Cantonese popsongs and slick style fool you--Andy Lau ain't nothing to mess with.

Ask Golden Age Wonder Woman

"Golden Age Wonder Woman is a Doctor of Philosophy, professional advice columnist, and Super-Heroine of note.  Her column, 'Ask Golden Age Wonder Woman' is syndicated in over 350 newspapers nationwide." Read her and wonder at Again With The Comics. 

New Elric Omnibus

A new omnibus printing of Michael Moorcock's Elric is being released by Del Rey in February 2008 - finally presenting these stories in the order they were originally written.

Ballooneering with Shaun Tan

Thought Balloonists, the fancy new comics criticism blog, takes off with a discussion of Shaun Tan's The Arrival, a heartbreakingly beautiful picture book.

SimLibrary

In the history of games that train you for the real world, have we ever seen one about... libraries?!

Indie Games Smorgasbord

Jayisgames has the best indie games of 2007, with some instant classics like The Tall Stump and Grow Island on the list. And Tales of the Rampant Coyote gets worried about the addictive nature of Flash Element TD2.

Vampira Dies

Maila Nurmi, aka Vampira, died January 10th. She was the first horror televistion host, a master of the corset, a friend of James Dean and featured in Plan 9 from Outer Space. Learn more about her here.

More Goddamn Batman (and Robin, Age 12)

Confined Space collects a chain of fan art from the "Goddamn Batman" meme.  My favorite: Law and Order: Goddamn Batman. Protoclown read All-Star Batman and Robin--the start of the damned and batty--so you wouldn't have to.

All About Gu Long

It's all about ladies, booze and mysteries for Gu Long and his most famous character, the Bondesque swordsman detective, Chu Liu-xiang.  "When you hear 'martial arts novels,' you can think of several famous writers of Chinese literature.  But when you hear 'mystery martial arts novels,' only one name can pop in your mind: Gu Long."

Waiting for the Goddamn Batman to get the Goddamn Joke

Though he's not much for superhero comics, Marc Sobel gets the joke that inspired so much "righteous, nerd rage":

"Ultimately, the Joker's rebirth is a physical manifestation of the creative process... accompanied by a profound sense of disillusionment that none of it matters, for the cycle will begin anew before too long.... The ultimate irony, of course, is that Batman has not been granted such self-awareness, and, as the Joker points out in his endless frustration, all he wants is for "the goddamn Batman to finally get the goddamn joke.'"

Movies in 2008

SF Signal collects some movie trailers for 2008.

Birth of an Internet Meme

Good old comics controversy: Spider-Man gets rebooted (back to 1971!), and the response: "It's magic, we don't have to explain it!" You can already buy the t-shirt.

My Mousefinger's Worn Out

A minimal, clever, innovative videogame... is it redundant to mention it's Japanese? All hail Cursor*10!

Early implanters rejoice!

Nextgen humans Annalee Newitz and Charlie Anders have launched a terrific new sci-fi blog for Gawker called io9, which has a great origin story: "io9s were marketed as cheap time machines in the 2070s. They were actually just low-grade input/output devices for the brain that tuned tachyon waves and gave users vivid images of possible futures. The things were so addictive, and drove so many people insane, that io9s were eventually outlawed."

Animating Louis Koo's Inner World

Here's a sample of the fine animation in Sylvia Chang's new Triad drama, Run Papa Run. The link slides straight into an English-subtitled trailer. (Thanks again to Kaiju Shakedown).

Year End at Kaiju Shakedown

Hong Kong was winner of the year and Thailand was loser of the year over at Kaiju Shakedown. But in a world with Johnnie To in it, we're all winners.

Superhero Make-Over

Sure, Project: Rooftop is intended to help "improve costume design in the industry," but in the recent Wonder Woman Wardrobe War, all I care about is the invisible pony. (Thanks, Sparky!)

The Whisperer in Darkness

All the best films are shot in Mythoscope. 

5 minutes of Cloverfield (and Bruce Campbell)

Twitch has 5 minutes of Cloverfield, the kaiju in New York movie that seems more like The Host than any monster movie featuring Minilla. There's a plug in that one.  And they have a trailer for the much sillier My Name Is Bruce, a movie where fans convince Bruce Campbell to fight an Ancient Evil because he's, well, Bruce Campbell.  

Speaking of Jonathon Coulton...

What would we all be without free stuff on the internet? There's still a couple weeks to give financial support to the Creative Commons for 2007. Sure, they didn't bring us a skateboarding dog or that dramatic squirrel, but there's still Infest Wisely and Jonathon Coulton.

We're not unreasonable, I mean, no one's going to eat your eyes

Re: your brains, by sf songster Jonathan Coulton, has been having its way with my headmeat like -- well -- the zombie who sings it would like to. Despite zombie fatigue, the corporate culture stuff is sharp.

Onomatoplaya

How many games can you play while doing the activity depicted? Margaret Robertson comes up with a grand total of... Chocolate Castle!

Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse

Over at FirstSecond books, comic artist George O'Connor shares his "Preparations for the Imminent Zombie Apocalypse."

The Golden Compass: Mechanized Magic

Stephanie Zacharek reviews The Golden Compass:

"Most of what's magical about Pullman's novel has been mechanized, obviously at great expense: It must cost a heap of dough to make animal figures look like they're talking, and there's barely an instant in The Golden Compass when you can't hear the money gears turning."

Fossilized Dino Discovered

Speaking of dinosaurs, paleontologists have discovered a dinosaur with nearly intact skin.  Preliminary analysis indicates that the hadrosaur was likely striped and its butt was 25% larger than previously thought, which might mean that Godzilla's butt is 25% more realistic than previously thought. 

Tips

Making an indie videogame? Some advice about graphics, starting with this basic tip:

"If you are a programmer and can only make squares, make a game that uses squares as graphics. It worked for
Tetris and it can work for you."

Giant Critters, So Tasty!

"In early ’90s Japan, mobs of hungry primeval men hunted gigantic prehistoric creatures in a series of fanciful 'Cup Noodle' commercials featuring stop-motion animation by Kim Blanchette." And Pink Tentacle has video!

Repent for Free!

Read 61 pages of post-Rapture Chicago with a Raven and a Mummy from Therefore, Repent!, a graphic novel written by the Gutter's founding editor and former Evil Overlord, Jim Munroe. 

Going All the Way with Beowulf

Are you geeky? Geeky enough to enjoy Beowulf in any form?  Geeky enough to hear it recited in Old English?  Geeky enough to watch Benjamin Bagby accompany his recitation with the Anglo-Saxon lyre? Dang, I'm impressed! Thanks to Greg Kamiya and his Salon essay, Beowulf vs. The Lord of the Rings. Kamiya writes, "There's no real reason to take on Beowulf unless you want to go all the way."

Stardust Returns

"Almost like a crazy person is holding the pencil."  My God, Mike Allred has created a comic featuring Fletcher Hanks' disturbing and punitive hero Stardust. (Thanks to Again With The Comics)

Multiple Advice Columnists, One Chthonic Deity

Ask Cthulhu.  Ask Plush Cthulhu; he's crabbier.

Who Is The Superest?

There can only be one Superest: "Player 1 draws a character with a power. Player 2 then draws a character whose power cancels the power of that previous character. Repeat."

Cosmonauts Love It

Listen and learn all about Vyachaslav Mescherin's Soviet E-Z listening, the first music transmitted from orbit--by Sputnik.  Cosmonauts love electro-musical instruments. Scroll down to the bottom of the Third Coast Festival's 2004 archive.

Mazen Kerbaj

French comics publisher L'Association is showing some of Mazen Kerbaj's drawings and that's a good excuse to put up a link for them. Kerbaj's blog, Kerblog, is here.

Spoiler Warning!

Check out Half-Life 1 and 2 in 60 seconds - with a just a few spoilers ;)

Inside Science Monster

Science Monster might not be pretty, but with monsters, it's what's on the inside that counts.  Two things are inside Science Monster that I really, really like:  old pulps periodicals and comics and old audio like science fiction radio serials and the Peanuts, aka, the foot tall fairies from the Mothra movies.  

Try Autonibble

"You awaken in a large complex, slightly disoriented. Glowing dots hover mouth level near you in every direction. Off in the distance you hear the faint howling of what you can only imagine must be some sort of ghost or several ghosts."

It's the Pac-Man text adventure!

Cartoon Osteology

Peer deep inside the anatomy of cartoon characters, right to the bone, with Dia de los Muertos Looney Toons at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Michael Paulus' osteological Hello Kitty and Peanuts drawings and Hyungkoo Lee's rascally, Animatus sculpture. (via Boing Boing)

Collect'em All, Kill'em All

Ever feel kind of sick reflecting on a game you enjoy?  Flak Magazine's James Norton does some soul-searching over Adult Swim's almost Peckinpah flash game, Viva Caligula!

"You personify the mad emperor Caligula as he goes on a neighborhood - to - neighborhood killing spree through Rome, taking down senators, housewives, gladiators, prostitutes and basically everyone else who crosses his path. And you have fun in the process, at least until your conscience catches up and you feel a bit sick about the scenario you've just created." 

Gothtober

Gothtober is a sort of online Halloween advent calendar. Click on the S.S. Gothtober and see a new short everyday.

Nutcracker Suite

Ever wanted a comprehensive collection of comic book "nadshots"? Ah, the good old internet. (Thanks Ezra).

Nonlinear Theater

Make your own space opera with Nonlinear Theater, the random movie generator at Chinese Jet Pilot.

Hip Hop Grue

You are likely to be eaten by a Grue. Don't say we didn't warn you. Nerdcore hip hop visionary MC Frontalot is on tour and soon to be in the documentary, Nerdcore Rising.

Robert Jordan Remembered

Some words for Robert Jordan's passing, and on the series he left unfinished:

"Jordan stretched his ambitious tale even further, to a dozen books, until it was not just a Dark Tower but a literary Tower of Babel possessing all of the attendant frenzied hubris such an analogy demands."

MC Chris Retrospective

With MC Chris (aka, "MC Pee Pants" from Aqua Teen Hunger Force) about to go on tour, now seems like a good time to revisit his Kingdom Hearts/Resident Evil 4 rant. And, well, how about Baddd Spellah's "Fett's Vette" remix, too?

Blame Society in France

Matt Sloan of Blame Society Productions went to a film festival in France and made two films, including one that uses a "popular web translation site" for its dialog. (Here's the other one, about his coup de ville).

Not that Rhino!

Joe Kubert illustrated a preventative maintenance manual for the U.S. military. Click here to maintain your vehicles--and see the art. (Thanks to Sleestak at Lady, That's My Skull!)

Deja Vu?

A videogamer visits San Francisco and gets a serious case of deja vu -- with pictures.

Crime, Punishment and Batman

In reprinting, Batman by Dostoyevsky, Brian Hughes reveals an existential truth: "Everything's better with Batman." (Make sure to follow his Kafkaesque Superboy link, too).

Readings

Charles Stross talks Tools of the Trade: Readings: "Rule #1 is that the audience is not your enemy."

Recreating Aliens

Rock, Paper, Shotgun revisits the classic shooter, Aliens vs. Predator, and finds one moment to match the Aliens movie:

"I don't need to fight the Alien queen, to control a powerloader or take off and nuke the entire site from orbit -- I just need to be the last Marine left alive, fighting to the inevitable end."

I only came for the fights.

This is a nice mash up of wuxia, kung fu and (mostly) HK gun action.

Sammo's Sweet Site

Man, the offical Sammo Hung site is worth it for the opening alone.

Peering into a Den of Sin and Depravity

Looking at Thomas Allen's pulp fiction photographs is like peering through a peephole into a raunchy 3-D diorama of femmes fatales, nameless gunslingers and sailors looking for trouble on a one day pass. Online you don't even have to drop a nickel, just click on the gallery. (Thanks, Craig!)

No Bubba, No She-Vampires, No Nosferatu

Looks like no sequel to Bubba Ho-Tep. Bruce Campbell is bowing out of Bubba Nosferatu to avoid wrecking his friendship with director Dan Coscarelli. Damn it, I was looking forward to Paul Giamatti's Col. Tom Parker, too. (Thanks, Colin!)

Mileage may vary.

The "When Musicians Play Interactive Fiction" article on Grand Text Auto made me smile, as did Ryan North's new IF inspired shirt, but hey, I'm a child of Infocom.

Getting the Damn Book to Work

Trouble with your Bookes? Watch medieval technical support--now with English subtitles! Just ignore the clip's laugh track.

Venture Bros. Duet

Henchmen 21 and 24 offer this beautiful duet on the occasion of the Monarch's wedding to Dr. Fiancee.

Diving in the Cartoon Dump

Cartoon Dump is the best fake children's show featuring damaged hosts Moodsy the Clinically Depressed Owl (played by Frank Conniff of MST3K and Invader Zim), Compost Brite and Buf Badger and disturbing cartoons curated by Jerry Beck you'll ever see.

Retro Maakies

Miss the old Maakies cartoons now that Drinky Crow has his own show? Maakies creator Tony Millionaire can hook you up with a page of aired and unaired cartoons.

Steam Wars

The US Steam Force wants you!

Boulder POV

Must! Crush! Indiana! Jones! This hilarious game was made in 4 days: "You play as the infamous rolling boulder. Roll over the archeologists and protect the honor of the golden idols of fertility."

Reverse Engineering William Gibson

William Gibson talks to Salon.com about his new novel, Spook Country, writing the recent past and the dangers of looking into mirrors like Node Magazine, "a doorway into the spooks within Spook Country" including maps, links and reverse engineering.

Whedon, at Length

What has Joss Whedon been up to these days? Comic books, development hell (in the movies), and regaining an even keel: "I've had more luck than any 10 guys I know. I've been able to tell my story more than a few times, and that's the greatest gift."

Darth Vader's Had Enough

Akjak's Vader Sessions might be a little old but it's well before its expiration date. "We'd like to maintain the current level of Black representation on the committee--so, let's go for a stroll."

Psychedelic Spies and Swanky Podcasts

Like your spies swank, Sixties and psychedelic? Jiangtou from Spiltpopcorn found The Pschedelic Spy, a 5-part BBC radio drama over at Greylodge, where there's a whole lotta podcast swank going on.

Gojira To Kitty Cats

20 years ago, his job was demolition. Now Godzilla's a web designer in Portland. This is his story. Or at least the first episode. (Thanks, Flusty!)

Game Types

A breakdown of different types of games, including:

"Casual: You encounter a ferocious Grickle-Grak. Match three candies of the same type to satisfy his appetite and make him your friend."

And: "Rhythm Game: You encounter a ferocious Grickle-Grak. Match his mad raps with the right beats to defeat him!"

Slush Survivors

A slush reader profiles 14 opening lines that kept him reading: "I put most stories down after the first page. The writers fail to grab me. You must grab the editor on page one."

Hiding Harry Potter

"Do you love Harry Potter, but think you're too old and too awesome to be seen reading the books?" Pointless Waste of Time.com is here to help with some printready covers of some awesome phallicly-oriented fictional books.

Radio Coolness

TUN3R.com, click on the squares and play or mash up radio stations from all over the world.

Relative Dimensions

So much geekiness is at your disposal with Jeff Russell's Starship Dimensions. Now you can conveniently view the relative sizes of Farscape's Moya, a Vorlon transport from Babylon 5, the Eagle from Space 1999 and a rebel medical frigate from Star Wars. And that's not even bringing in Star Trek, Serenity or the Tardis. It's like the promise of the internet fulfilled. (Thanks, miss paula!)

Un-gamelike

The un-game? Real Lives is a simulation of life for most people in the world, kind of like an educational version of The Sims: "In my latest game, however, I've been born as a girl to an extremely poor family in rural China, and things are going to be difficult."

Fred Saberhagen, RIP

City on Fire and Days of Atonement author Walter Jon Williams has a eulogy up at his blog for Fred Saberhagen, who died a little over a week ago. Williams writes about Saberhagen's unacknowledged influence on fantasy, science fiction and horror. And he tells a couple of nice stories too.

More Shatner in More Media

ShatnerVision: William Shatner's videoblog. You know best whether you want to click it or not.

Alter Ego

Curious about the people behind that mech armor and those cute anime ponytails? Here's a neat slideshow with commentary for Alter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators a photography book of people side-by-side with their avatars. (Thanks to jane at gamegirladvance).

Magical Girl, Wonder Woman

This pitch by Tin Tin Pantoja reimagining Wonder Woman as a manga-style magical girl is pretty sweet.

Now even more pissed

It's been a little over a year since Girls Read Comics And Boy Are They Pissed began and in honor of the occasion, Karen's committing a whole new pissed analysis to the portrayal of characters who aren't white, heterosexual, able-bodied or young, starting with Onyx.

Fandom?

A piece that's a few years old but still pretty entertaining, The Complex and Terrifying Reality of Star Wars Fandom: "There is a diabolical twist to Star Wars fandom, you see, that defies comprehension, and yet is the life-blood of all Star Wars fans. It is this: Star Wars fans hate Star Wars."

Pullman Backlash

Some snark, and more importantly, alternate recommendations, in response to the news that Philip Pullman's Northern Lights is supposedly the best children's book in the last 70 years.

Abyssal Creatures

Fascinated by the ocean's abyss? There's a gallery of mysterious wonder and beauty--and even more mysterious occasional cuteness--at the website for Claire Nouvian's new book about abyssal species.

Comics Fans, Grow Up!

Over at Salon.com, Douglas Wolk writes a dense article about comics culture, graphic novels, collecting and nostalgia and urges comics fans, whether art or pop, to grow up: "The medium's new enemies are internal: the much less casual snobbery of the commercial mainstream and the art-comics world toward each other, and cartoonists' nostalgic yearning for the badness of the bad old days."

Games x2

Gamers With Jobs looks at the pendulum that's swinging from fantasy back to science fiction: "After ten years of elves and magic, I could use a bit of a change."

And The Escapist is the new home of Shoot Club! Awesomely nerdy dialogue reproduced faithfully, and some insights too: "There's nothing like bald math to undermine a game. The scales fall from my eyes and I cannot bear to earn another XP."

Steam Trek

Steam Trek: The Moving Picture is a silent setting the starship Enterprise in the steam era. In space, no one can hear you--though the music cues are neat. Go here for a full version and here for more information. (Updated and thanks to Hellblazer.net).

The Bar is Set High

Do you think someone can come up with 300 brand-new never-before-used gameplay ideas? In 300 days? Sean Howard is giving it a try!

JLA Songs and Stories

Just hearing the first song on Songs and Stories about the Justice League of America left me stunned. By the second, I decided it might be one of the best things ever with its hammond grooves and swinging Sixties songsters. But the stories are fun too with a villainous Zsa-Zsa Gabor imitator, a lot of plastic and scientific exposition. The only way it might be better is if Ann-Margret played Wonder Woman. Way Out Junk has the whole amazing presumably common domain album here. (Thanks, Ian!)

Kryptonite Discovered!

A mine in Serbia has turned up a sample with the same chemical composition as the fictional Superman-killer. Dr. Stanley was interviewed by BBC News: "Towards the end of my research I searched the web using the mineral's chemical formula -- sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide -- and was amazed to discover that same scientific name, written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luthor from a museum in the film Superman Returns." (Thanks, Mr.Dave!)

Listening to Generation Loss

The first chapter of Elizabeth Hand's new novel Generation Loss is available as a mp3 at her website. It's nice listening. She's got just the right voice for desolate punk noir. (According to Boing Boing, it's in honor of April 23rd, International Pixel Stained Technopeasant Day)

This Retro Game is Not Retro Enough!

Okay, Doom is now more than a dozen years old, but apparently it's not old-school enough for some people. Check out this ASCII-only version called DoomRL: "One of the more entertaining things about the game is that, while the graphics are ASCII and the gameplay is turn-based, the sound comes directly from the original game."

Busy, Busy HPLHS

The HP Lovecraft Historical Society has been awfully busy since releasing their Call of Chthulhu silent on DVD a couple years ago. Their next film will be The Whisperer in Darkness shot as a 1930s horror movie. If you need some tiding over till then, you can always listen to their At The Mountains of Madness radio drama, their musical There's a Shoggoth on the Roof or one of their seasonal CDs or just follow the link to Nueva Logia del Tentaculo's e-zine. Don't forget the Expressionist wonder of the Call of Chthulhu trailer

Harryhausen Creatures

Do you miss the days of dynamation? Stop motion skeletons and Selenites? Mighty Joe Young and the Minoton? Chinese Jet Pilots has a Ray Harryhausen Creature List with clips of nearly every creature Harryhausen made. There's also a link to some nice stopmotion footage. Check out the beetlemen by the lesser known but still swell, Pete Peterson.

BSG Surprise

Spoiler alert! Abigail Nussbaum talks about the finale of season 3 of Battlestar Galactica: "In fact, I find myself dangerously close to the 'but it's not supposed to make any sense' mindset that keeps people watching 24 and Lost."

Knitted Zombie Doom

Behold the power of a knitted Dawn of the Dead, Tom Savini from Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead (see the flickr slideshow
if you'd prefer) and the knitted Shaun of the Dead all created by cakeyvoice. cakeyvoice sells them, too. (All props to jiang tou at spiltpopcorn for the catch)

Incredibly Cool Control Scheme

Instead of an accelerate key you have to make motor noises into a microphone to make your racing car go? Awesome! Clive Thompson takes a look at some very innovative indie games.

"It's a delightful way of breaking outside well-worn control techniques -- buttons, thumbpad, keyboard. This isn't a