Guy Maddin's "Heart of the World"

This was one of the headlines in the news this morning:

"Transformer explosion rocks Manhattan"

I'm sure, like me, the real explanation to that headline is not the first that comes into your mind.

Damn, those Deceptacons.

Oh, I so don't know:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HYBmKdVk-jQ

2007 VES FESTIVAL OF VISUAL EFFECTS is on in June somewhere in California.  There's a younger version of me that yearns to go.  I still am a visual effects junkie, but amusingly I've become more interested in the history of it rather than catching the very latest examples, although I do enjoy seeing cutting edge SFX.  I used to read Cinefex from cover to cover right up to the end of last century.  Now I flick through it in Borders for old times sake.  I still watch all the SFX extras on the DVDs and was engrossed in all the Lord of the Rings material.  I recently watched a wonderful doco on the making of the original 1933 King Kong. As there was no material on the special effects I was impressed by how they (WETA) recreated a shot to show what was actually done.  Impressive.  And fascinating was the recreation of the legendary lost Spider Pit Sequence by Peter Jackson, Frank Darabont and the WETA crew.  That was enlightening.

Anyway, back to the festival.  The highlight of the program is a panel with the following people: Richard Edlund (supervisor on Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Poltergeist, 2010), Dennis Muren (supervisor on ET, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, AI, Hulk, War of the Worlds), Doug Trumbull (supervisor on 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, Close Encounters - yes, he's the man), John Dykstra (supervisor on Star Wars, Spiderman 1 & 2).

Man, if you're into effects ya just wanna be there for that one.

Anyway, again, the Visual Effects Society has voted the top 50 most influential special effects films.  To be a member of the society you must have five years professional experience and be recommended by two other society members.  So no Empire Magazine style fanboy vote here.  Of course, most of them are fan boys and girls but they are so with authority.  Scary giving fan people authority of anything, but it's safe in this case.

Anyway, again, again, below is the list. It's interesting indeed (if you can be interested in such things) and I find it so difficult to fault the top 20 that I ain't gonna try:

    1. Star Wars (1977)
    2. Blade Runner (1982)
    3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (tie)
    3. The Matrix (1999) (tie)
    5. Jurassic Park (1993)
    6. Tron (1982)
    7. King Kong (1933)
    8. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
    9. Alien (1979)
    10. The Abyss (1989)
    11. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
    12. Metropolis (1927)
    13. A Trip to the Moon (1902)
    14. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
    15. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
    16. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
    17. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
    18. Titanic (1997)
    19. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
    20. Jason and the Argonauts (1963) (tie)
    20. E.T. the Extraterrestrial (1982) (tie)
    22. Toy Story (1995)
    23. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
    24. The Ten Commandments (1956)
    25. The War of the Worlds (1953) (tie)
    25. Forrest Gump (1994) (tie)
    25. Citizen Kane (1941) (tie)
    25. The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) (tie)
    25. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) (tie)
    30. The Terminator (1984)
    31. Aliens (1986)
    32. Mary Poppins (1964)
    33. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
    34. Forbidden Planet (1956)
    35. Babe (1995)
    36. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) (tie)
    36. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) (tie)
    38. King Kong (2005)
    39. Planet of the Apes (1968)
    40. Fantastic Voyage (1966)
    41. Jaws (1975) (tie)
    41. Ghostbusters (1984) (tie)
    43. Sin City (2005)
    44. Superman: The Movie (1978)
    45. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
    46. The Lost World (1925) (tie)
    46. Return of the Jedi (1983) (tie)
    48. What Dreams May Come (1998)
    49. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
    50. Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1958) (tie)
    50. The Fifth Element (1997) (tie)

Daniel Wilson is having fun again.  Who is Daniel Wilson you say?  He has a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie-Mellon University, which I've been told is pretty grand.  But what is grand was his first nifty little book How to Survive a Robot Uprising, and having a PhD in Robotics, he should know.

He now has come out with another nifty little book called Where's My Jetpack?.  And indeed that is something we all ask.

Inside he gives us a run down of things the past promised would be the future we expected today. Yes, someone has done a book based on the nerd boy lament of "Where's my flying car?"  Why he didn't use Flying Car in his title, I dunno, but Jetpack is a pretty good substitute.  So here is everything you wanted to know of the future we didn't get.  Well, at least not yet.



And what haven't we got yet?

Obviously the Jet Packs (ever since we saw them in Lost in Space we thought they were cool.  Except for that little tassel on Professor Robinson's helmet, that was naff as Debbie the space chimp - gloop gloop), but where are the Moving Sidewalks? (I remember those in Asimov's 1953 Caves of Steel).  The Zeppelins over every city skyline (but in every bloody alternate world novel you can think of).  Self Steering Cars (still promised in every future tech doco show for the last twenty-five years).  Flying Cars (in those same docos).  Underwater Hotels (well, there's at least one out there but it fits like two bunks and it ain't very deep).  Holograms (otherwise all the nerdboys would have Princess Leia appearing on their coffee table whenever the phone rang).  Teleportation Devices (yeah, well, who didn't think they were a pipe-dream).  X-Ray specs (I'm grown up now and I can see naked women whenever I want to, so I don't need to dream of x-ray specs).  Universal Translators (in case I haven't learnt Klingon by the time we engage them in our space exploration, but then I could always pick up a Not-So-Lonely Planet edition of The Klingon Phrase Book).  Robot Servants (but then, the bastards would uprise anyway).  Food Pills (God forbid,  I luv my bulky food, I luv it).  Rayguns (but I can make the sounds, that's all I need).  Unisex Jumpsuits (I know people who so want those.  I know people I wish who had those instead of what they do wear.  No shorts with capes, wear unisex jumpsuits, dammit!).  And Space Stations and Moon Colonies and whatnot.

We dream, we dream.

I dream, but most of all I dream of Smell-O-Vision.  But wait, we did have Smell-O-Vision. I saw John Water's 1981 film Polyester in Smell-O-Vision, I had a scratch and sniff card and I smelled new car upholstery and farts in elevators and everything.  Oh wait, that was Odorama.

Damn you the future of yesterday!  If only I had this book in the past I wouldn't have confused my odoramas and smell-o-visions.  But thankfully now this book is in our future.

 

British bookies scared of aliens

Cause I'm a lazy writer and my posts are too few and far between, It seemed like a decent idea to join a group journal instead. I've done my first post at Talking Squid. Some interesting people are also blogging there on very different subjects. I think you'll quickly get the feel of what's going on. It's already become good place for the regular visit.

Check it out at http://www.talkingsquid.net/

I may resume my blogging here but I think Talking Squid is a good way to go.

Finally saw Alain Resnais' 1961 masterpiece (and it is) of time, memory and madness; 'Last Year at Marienbad'.

Visually stunning and intellectually enthralling if you have the patience for the build up. But you have to feel your way through the film for it to seem to make sense. I understand why so much writing and discussion has been dedicated to this film. It almost justifies wanky academic film crit head nodding with the wine and cheesys.

Roger Ebert's review sums it up quite well:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19990530/REVIEWS08/905300301/1023

Here's a nice piece on the film from a fantasy/horror fan's P.O.V. Even mentions 'Sapphire & Steel' in relation to it.

http://www.moria.co.nz/fantasy/marienbad.htm

And thus I don't need to say anything else about it. Except my critical observation that with 'Marienbad' I saw everything by Stanley Kubrick in one film. Indeed, I won't watch Kubrick in quite the same way again.

I know it can be argued that Marienbad should not be included in SF guides and often isn't (it's not in the Clute & Nicholls' Encyclopedia, but it is in the Alurum Encyclopedia which I think is the by far best SF film resource in print) and though it is set in some baroque hotel seemingly at some time in post WW2 France I think this is the best alternate reality film I have seen.

Gak! And I was hoping to hate everything French new wave or that's forced modernist cinema. Bugga.

Actually, I really liked 'La Jetee' which is part of that oeuvre and I luv the work of Jean Cocteau who is the father of this indulgent movement.

Remember 'The Magic Roundabout' that English children's show with the ultra cool Doogal and the wise Zepadee?

Did you know it's actually French?

You can go to Wiki for a bit of a reminder and to check out its history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Roundabout

It was recently made into a movie ala CGI (fair enuff) and released in France and the UK with different voice cast (quite fair enuff). It's about to be released in the US as "Doogal" with a different cast again (Though they both have Ian McKellen as Zebedee and Kylie Minogue as Florence).

Brit Cast has Tom Baker as Zeebad (a new character me thinks), Jim Broadbent as Brian the Snail, Lee Evens as Train, Joanna Lumley as Ermitrude the Cow, Bill Nighy as Dylan the Rabbit, Ray Winstone as Soldier Sam and Robbie Williams as Dougal.

The US cast has Jon Stewart as Zeebad, William H Macy as Brian, Chevy Chase as Train, Whoopi Goldberg as Ermitrude, Jimmy Fallon as Dylan, Bill Hader as Soldier Sam and Daniel Tay as Doogal (Kevin Smith also does a cameo voice).

Who's Daniel Tay? A child actor. Yes, Doogal has a kid's voice in the Yank version compared to Robbie Williams in the UK. That's your first clue there's a difference. (Of course, nothing will compares to Eric Thompson as the voice of the original Doogal and the voices of all the other characters, as well as dubbing it without a script. Which I'm sure added the charm of the '60/'70s English version.)

But compare Bill Nighy as Dylan and Jimmy Fallon? Not just different style voices but clearly a change of character for poor Dylan.

What have the Yanks done?

Find out for yourself.

Trailer for the original French is here:
http://www.pollux-lefilm.com/site.htm

Trailer for the UK version is here:
http://www.the-magic-roundabout.com/main.html

Trailer for the US version is here:
http://www.doogalmovie.com/

French version looks twee and cute (with a French version of ELO's Mr Blue Sky). The UK version looks kind'a kiddy/adult cool like 'Wallace and Gromit'. But the US version looks like, or more sounds like a cheap 'Shrek' rip-off. It has pop cultural references and those bad jokes 2nd rate stand-up comics improvise as if they think they have some kind of unique talent. You know, the Sat Night Live guys that Letterman doesn't let on his show.

Disgusting! Man, you can fuck up 'Thunderbirds', you can even fuck up 'Dr Who', for all I care. But you don't fuck the 'Roundabout'.

Here ends the lesson.

[Doo dee doo dee doo doo, doo dee doo dee doo doo...]

Don't want to give away anything for those who haven't seen it yet but I found it involving, rewarding and surprisingly entertaining despite how much warning other critics have given to how dark and serious it is.
Also, I have little quams in saying Christian Bale is the best Bruce Wayne and the best Batman so far and that Micheal Caine and Gary Oldman are the best Alfred and Grodon. All performances except Katie Holmes (a tad too incircumstantial) are well matched and despite being the most visually impressive of all the Batman films (I don't count Tim Burton stylistic indulgences) this has maintained the recent standard of being a character based adventure. It is also the one Batman film most in the style and theme of the best Batman comics. Interesting too is that Nolan has not done a Frank Miller with this. Despite being a dark, tough Batman with villains that have to be taken very seriously this seems to have been more inspired by the Neal Addams Batman and as far as I'm concerned this was a very wise move. Though I do think that the filmmakers were taking the best from the whole history of the Batman comics (not the films). Indeed, I think this is by far the best distillation of the Batman mythology to film by far.

It is also the first Batman movie to regard both Gordon and Alfred as key characters not just to the mythos but to the understanding of Bruce Wayne and Batman himself.

I also think Batman Begins might be the closest yet to a comic book hero movie being a completely non-genre cliché mainstream film at least until the climax where such things are hard to avoid.

In short, if this isn't the best Batman film so far then it ties with Batman:Mask of the Phantasm. I haven't seen this animated film for a while but I got a dvd of it coming from Amazon and hope to compare soon.

In short of the short, it's bloody excellent.

Stoker's novel is being published on-line as a blog with each entry correlating with the date. Rather cool.

http://infocult.typepad.com/dracula/2005/05/chapter_1_jonat.html

Astrologer to sue NASA over comet plans

A Russian court has ruled that an astrologer can proceed with a lawsuit against the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for its plans to bombard a comet.

The astrologer claims the destruction of the comet would "disrupt the natural balance of the universe."

Marina Bai's case was thrown out of a lower court because Russia has no jurisdiction over NASA, but the ruling was overturned when her lawyer, Alexandra Molokhova, was able to show that the agency's office in the US Embassy in Moscow does fall under Russian jurisdiction.

Ms Bai seeks a ruling that will restrict NASA in its plans to annihilate a section of the Tempel 1 comet, in a project that has been dubbed Deep Impact, as well as punitive damages of $US300 million.

"My client believes that the NASA project infringes upon her spiritual and life values as well as the natural life of the cosmos and would disrupt the natural balance of forces in the universe," her lawyer said.

The lawyer says Tempel 1 has sentimental value to Ms Bai because her grandparents met when her grandfather pointed the comet out to his future wife.

In a $US279 million project, NASA in January launched the Deep Impact spacecraft.

It will travel to the comet and release an impactor - a 370-kilogram self-guided mass - on July 4, which is expected to create a crater that could be as large as a football stadium.

Scientists believe that the exposed material from the resulting crater will yield clues to the formation of the solar system and provide important information on altering the course of comets or asteroids on a collision course with earth.

Effects of the collision will be visible from earth with an amateur telescope.

- AFP

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200505/s1362134.htm

Me and Dave Yeates went to see Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy last night. Dave's a bit of a fan of the ol' Dougie Adams and so am I. I've listened to the radio-plays countless times, read the books, the first at least three or four times. Watched the TV series, done the whole Hitchhiker's thang.

So then the movie finally comes along. Gotta see this I know, but I'm not full of excitement over the prospect as I have to admit I think the whole awesome Hitchhiker's thing has sort'a moved on a bit and become more historical than contemporary cultural. I don't love it less and I still consider buying cd replacements of my old tapes of the original radio series to play once and a while like fav old tunes, but it doesn't feel like it's in my immediate what's-cool-sphere.

Anyway, me and Dave see the movie and it was okay. It was alright. It was generally a hitchhikery, Douglas Adamsy kind'a movie and as far as that goes it was quite fine.

But I, along with Dave, couldn't really find much to talk about except trivial little chatter about this bit or that bit. We just couldn't really discuss the film as a film except to say it was mildly entertaining.

I made the comment that I don't know what kind of opinion I should have of this one of various versions, as that's how I, along with numerous fans, do see it.

Dave then said, "Hey, iz just zis film, ya know."

I couldn't have said it any better myself.

Via Boing Boing:

In celebration of the E=mc2 centenary, Spiked asked 250 well-known scientists, science communicators, and educators one question: "What, if you could pick just one thing, would you teach the world about science... and why?"
http://www.spiked-online.com/sections/science/sciencesurveyA-B/default.htm


Many Americans pray for the health of loved ones; others turn to shamans or reiki. Now science is putting these practices to the test.
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-prayer2may02,0,3690879.story?coll=la-home-health

Via Ben Peek's lj:

If truth be told, sci-fi writers say, their work and "Star Wars" never had much in common. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/weekinreview/01fount.html?oref=login

The chat on this has started at Ben's place with some interesting comments:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/benpeek/317672.html

Bollywood has just had it's equivalent to the oscars.

International Star of the Year went to:

David Hasselhoff

I kid you not.

He was also there to present Best Film.

At the time of posting this entry, the anthology "Diakiaju! Giant Monster Tales" edited by Robert Hood and myself was #1 on the Project Pulp bestseller list.

http://projectpulp.com/bestsellers.asp

Pretty neat, huh?

Remember those mysteriously exploding toads?

Turns out it was crows.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1355973.htm

A veterinary surgeon examined the exploded toads and found they have been pierced with a single peck by crows trying to eat their livers. Toads do that swelling thing to make themselves look bigger, but "when their livers are taken away and their stomachs are punctured, their blood vessels explode, their lungs collapse and the other organs come out."

The mystery of The Pond of Death is solved.

Or is it?

For meanwhile, the special at The Fat Duck Restaurant is Crow ala Orange stuffed with Toad Liver Pate.

Can the love of Godzilla movies be the Nietzsche equivalent of loving toy trains: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger with hell cool model buildings?

I tend to think they're more Campbellian distillations of the absurdity of humanity's inhumanity to, well, everything.

Then again, if we go with Peter Carey's conclusions in his book "Wrong About Japan" we couldn't possibly understand if we are not Japanese.

I guess I'll have to like Godzilla movies cause, well, cause I do. And give up any hope of justifying my fascination to others by creating an elaborate academic reasoning for their existence. No essays exploring the inherent meanings of giant monster slash will be coming from me.

Anyway, I delightfully and unexpectedly received a copy of GODZILLA: TOKYO S.O.S. in the post today. As this is a direct sequel to GODZILLA VS MECHAGODZILLA (III) I had to watch that one again before being entertained by the follow on.

They aren't the best of the more recent Godzilla films (Like GODZILLA MILLENNIUM and GODZILLA, MOTHRA AND KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK!) but they have their moments and the ending of the two part saga is a little touching, but then any departing in any fashion of the godmiester can bring a bit of emotional upsurge. Maybe I should see a psych about it and find out if it relates to some deep traumatic moment in my youngster life I've since blanked out. Probably the loss of some cool soft dinosaur toy when I was three.

The DVD was sent to me by good pal Robert Hood who also happens to be my co-editor (though I think it better to say I was his) of a just published anthology called "Daikaiju: Giant Monster Tales". You can sort of guess what it's generally about by the title. If you haven't heard of it, trust me, it's groovy cool and full of hot monster cerebral action of the po-mo literary kind, with some jokes and sad moments and deep philosophizing of the human condition, a 200 ft zombie and a Bob Eggleton cover.

You can read more about it if you go here:
http://www.roberthood.net/daikaiju-antho/

I also answered a few questions on it as part of Ben Peek's snapshot of the Australian speculative writing and publishing scene:
http://www.tabula-rasa.info/Snapshot/RobinPen.html

If you go to the main page of this (http://www.tabula-rasa.info/Snapshot/) you see a long list of interesting people including fellow editor Rob, Cat Sparks the publisher and several of the Australian contributors to the antho.

For a fascinating Q&A by most of the contributors of "Daikaiju!" you should go here:
http://www.roberthood.net/daikaiju-antho/contributors/index.htm

The snails are coming back to planet earth!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1352592.htm

"The astronauts are also accompanied by some 50 live snails.

The snails went into space, not as an appetiser for astronauts, but to spend more than a month on the ISS as part of series of experiments on weightlessness.

"Three-and-half hours after the Soyuz lands, I will be able to pick up the snails and observe them" after their sojourn in space, Givi Gorgiladze, the researcher in charge of the experiment"

Haven't they learnt!?!

As soon as that scientist opens up the container those snails will swell up to gianormous size and proceed to devour humanity. Never! Never subject snails to cosmic rays! Curse these mad scientists and their failure to understand "Intelligent Design".

Our only hope will be The Fat Duck and their recipe for Snail Porridge.