Further Assimilations

• 08:26 @tangowildheart Vilya was the elven Ring of Air, on the hand of Elrond in LotR. #
• 11:20 I can't remember the zip code of the last place I worked, but I can give you the names of the three elven rings in no time. *eyeroll* #
• 12:40 @meiran Be strong. We may knock one down, but the Internet has a nigh-infinite-supply of idiots. #
• 18:13 Rumor going around that Daft Punk will score the "Tron 2" movie. tinyurl.com/b7ru6h Probably BS, but my nerd heart is soaring. #

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There's a "25 Things About Me" meme going around Facebook. Rather than just re-post it here, I was inspired by John Scalzi's column to write "20 Memories of Sci-Fi Movies of My Youth". Agreed, it's not quite a catchy a title, but I can live with that.

1) The first SF movie I saw in the theaters was "Star Wars", when I was seven. I remember seeing the commercials and thinking, "Meh, might be okay." Yeah, underestimated that one a bit. I do not remember "Episode 4" atop the opening crawl. The John Williams soundtrack spent long hours in the following months accompanying my pretending to blast TIE fighters from a laser gun turret.

2) The next one I recall seeing in the theaters was "Starcrash". This would only have been a good movie had I been old enough to enjoy Caroline Munro's outfit. I can't remember too much about it now, which may be a good thing, but I'm tempted to find a copy and enjoy the badness from a whole new perspective.

3) "Close Encounters" confused and frightened me, especially the part where Richard Dreyfuss starts losing his sanity. I didn't understand the ending at that age, either. In fact, to this day, there's a lot of unexplained bits having to do with the aliens, which is just as well; I suspect that any explanation from Spielberg would have been far lamer than the mystery.

4) While we're on such movies, I was mildly traumatized by the laser surgery and 'cannibal' robot in "Logan's Run", and I didn't understand the whole "Carousel" thing at all. That's another movie which is probably unwise to watch before puberty, especially in a midnight showing in a darkened house.

5) "Star Trek: The Motion Picture": Wow, new Klingon ships. Whoa whoa, new Klingons! Triple whoa: I am in love with the new Enterprise model! Okay, excellent, what's going to happen for the next ninety minutes? Oh. Not much. I'm glad I never took it in to my head to get myself one of that movie's uniforms.

( Fifteen more behind the cut )

So, that's a snapshot of my first 20 years of SF movie watching, and I am already remembering a bunch I left out. Maybe I'll hit this meme again if I remember anything interesting about the next bunch.

I just found the Megazone 23 3-disc DVD set on Barnes and Noble. These movies influenced my imagination strongly, and I set one of the strongest pieces of fanfic I've written aboard a similar Megazone.

I got to tell you, though, this Christmas my reptilian "want" reflex is a little muted by the recent move. I can't forget that everything I might buy, or receive as a gift, is something I may have to pack up and move in a box someday. Right now, I'm not thrilled at the prospect; who knows, perhaps my distaste will fade over coming months.

On the other hand, I still do have a B&N card from my birthday... and a couple hardcovers or a DVD set don't take up all that much space... right? Right?

Yeah. I think I'll wait until after the holidays and see if I still want it then :)

I am turning Starr into a Hayao Miyazaki fan, getting her attention with "The Castle of Cagliostro", cheering her on a bleh evening with "Kiki's Delivery Service", and charming her last night with "My Neighbor Totoro". After "Nausicaa" and "Spirited Away", though, I'll be all out and have to pick up some more sometime.

Oddly enough, by coincidence she'd been reading up on Shinto traditions yesterday afternoon, and recognized much of them in the movie - more than I! I foresee a Catbus plush in our future.

Also, over the weekend I finally saw the "Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" (Rowr.) An intentionally bad 50s-style SF movie, this flick is awesome if the viewer's got the right sense of humor. The associated drinking game required drinks on the words "science", "meteor", "atmospherium", "alien", "mutant", and "skeleton". I didn't participate, mainly because I don't drink, but also because I'd have ended up blasted out of my mind. Why do people need to pretend to be forced to drink alcohol?

The other weekend movie was "Dorkness Rising". I really loved it, and am tempted to buy a copy; good script, nice production values for a low-budget film, and an utterly believable - if silly - look at the GM-player dynamic in tabletop RPGs. Additionally, much of the scenes 'within the game' are absolutely hilarious. Really, if you game and you happen to see this on the video schedule at a con, make time to see it.

I will be 40 years old on November 15th. I'm not sure what it says about me that I'm still reminding myself multiple times per day to act like a grownup. I've taken responsibility for a lot of things in life, and willingly so; I want the perks of adulthood. But it means there's a long list these days of stuff that I can't wait for someone else to take care of for me, and after all these years I'm still learning many of the tricks of handling a grownup's duties.

On the other hand, I am surrounded every day by people who aren't giving that half the effort I am, so I suppose there's hope. :)

• 08:20 Reading rumor that Diablo 3 will not support LAN multiplayer, only Battle.net multiplayer. This makes kitty sad. #
• 19:25 @meiran Tell her that 'film noir' is when the lighting guys aren't doing their job. #

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Richard Pini reports on the ElfQuest website that the latest movie deal has gone through, and it's in the lap of Warner Bros. now.

While Pini is optimistic, so I too shall be, EQ fans have heard this song before. OTOH, fantasy movies are much hotter these days, so who knows?

He links to a story in the Hollywood Reporter as well. Cross your fingers, fans!

I really want to sit and watch some good DVDs, preferably with company as I hate watching movies alone. I wonder if it's worth it to buy an upconverting DVD player at some point; we're using the PS2 at the moment.

The Aviator and Catch Me If You Can are on my list. I've seen them before, but they are cool enough to make me appreciate Leo as an actor, and Starr's never seen either. The uncut, re-dubbed My Youth In Arcadia is on the list, as is the recent CGI Appleseed. (Is there an uncut, properly dubbed Galaxy Express 999 available? I'd like to find a good version of that too.)

Also sitting unwatched on my shelf: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; The Heroic Trio, about which I endlessly badgered kittykatya for a copy; and the new Transformers movie, which may not be fanservice perfection, but at least it's got the right Optimus Prime voice.

We won't even talk about the movies in theaters. Everyone's raving about Iron Man, yes I intend to see Speed Racer despite the reviewer bashing, and ditto Indy 4.

I can't even blame World of Warcraft for this. I enjoy the game enormously, but go weeks without touching it sometimes.

From Wil Wheaton's blog:

"I'm going to commit heresy right now and say what few people are willing to say out loud: most of the Star Trek movies are absolute garbage. There have been ten Trek movies, and I'd say that two of them are accessible to mainstream audiences, another two are great, and the remaining six are nearly unwatchable. If JJ Abrams wants to make his new Trek movie unlike the 80% of Trek movies that aren't that good, that's just fine with me. Not that my opinion means anything, you understand, but rambling on and on about things like this is the price of being a geek, and I regret nothing. NOTHING!"

I say without much fear of contradiction that the "accessible" movies were "The Voyage Home" and "First Contact". (Man, I remember movie critics squirming as they reluctantly admitted that FC was pretty darn good.) "Wrath of Khan" has to be in the "great" category - there is no point in arguing with me there, so don't bother.

So, I wonder which movie is Wil's other "great"? Notice that he cannily forgot to mention the names involved...

I'm still looking forward to #11, whatever fandom decides to call it. You have to give people the chance to try something a little different, otherwise we all end up bored to tears.

BIG weekend.

rhaps and shrewlet came down, partially to socialize, and partially to pick up some unused floor tile from Starr's mom.

I won't list all the places to which I drove on Saturday and Sunday, it would be tedious for both writer and readers. But my destinations involved finances, prescriptions, breakfasts, lunch, dinner, additional socializing with Dwight, Bert, and Meche, HD channels for the TV, tile collection, and flowers.

The irises were interesting. Turns out that they were free because I had to dig them out of the lady's downtown Norfolk garden myself. In the rain. And I hadn't brought tools. And there were two hens and a rooster looking over my shoulder and providing constructive criticism.

On the other hand, the additional HD channels were all free, and consisted of content such as Discovery, Science, Food Network, Bravo, and TLC: the only sort of channels our TV tends to be tuned to anyway. We did watch 2001: A Space Odyssey on Universal HD, learning that yes, a pretty movie gets prettier at 1080i.

Good weekend, but I'm pooped.

Okay, I think I'm totally turning into a Daft Punk fan. I saw this video on someone's blog, and now the tune is firmly lodged in my head.

( Harder Better Faster Stronger )

The song's cool, but the video really picks up about 90 seconds in. Completely amateur, but cooler for it.

In further Punkishness, I had mentioned before the Interstella 5555 video, set to Daft Punk music and designed by the gentleman who designed Space Cruiser Yamato, Captain Harlock, and Galaxy Express 999. Watching this really takes me back to the 80s, when I was first getting into the anime that's now old school, watching tapes that had been copied so often that the reds smeared halfway across the screen.

( One More Time )

And, unrelated but cool, this is someone's idea of Star Wars movie titles in the style of Saul Bass, famous for the titles to "The Man With The Golden Arm", "Around the World In Eighty Days", "Psycho", and "Alien":

( A Jazzy Hope )

There is your videos for the evening.