The Sun King
If good looks was a minute/ You know that you could've been an hour- Smokey Robinson, 'The Way You Do The Things You Do'
Brilliant Noise from Semiconductor on Vimeo.
Without the sun, we have no life. Pretty simple concept. But we take it for granted, even as it is slowly boiling our atmosphere. This film traces archived footage of the sun through ambient, background noise. The definition of far out.
No, dude. That was my skull. 
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog
Fanboy Hall of Famer, Joss Whedon, directed this awesome, awesome web film over the writers’ strike last year. I don’t know how this flew under my radar until now. It stars Neil Patrick Harris, Firefly’s Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day. Very funny, very geeky.
There is also a strong resemblance between our own Mister Furious and Doctor Horrible.
TRON Kept A-Rollin’
With this disc, I thee rule
For those that aren’t in the know, (which puts you only one month behind me) Disney is finally making a sequel to their 1982 cult hit TRON. Can you believe it’s only been 26 years since we last joined the deadbeat Lebowski, Lacy Underall, and umm.. Bruce Boxleitner in their quest to take down a corrupt Master Control program? TR2N, as it has been titled, debuted to the public with 3 ½ minute teaser footage of an updated LightCycle chase followed by a close-up of a pensive Flynn (Jeff Bridges) overseeing the action.
Needless to say, I was pretty jazzed to hear this news. TRON is one of those movies that I loved as a kid, but never understood. (Putting in a class with The Last Unicorn, and Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo) I was so mesmerized by the glowing lacrosse helmets, the laser-light motorcycles, neon tanks, and the combat Frisbee/backpacks that I didn’t care about the plot what-so-ever. As it turns out, it’s not that shabby of a story either: renegade programs working within a corrupt system in an effort to take it down. The thought of a sequel sounds exciting and marketable, but it raises so many questions:
No, we didn't take this idea from T2!
– Is this sequel too late? When you break it down, the original TRON was basically an early interpretation of story lines in the Matrix Trilogy. It has a LOT of the same elements: “unique” human protagonist, rebelling programs, agents of control, evil Master Control/Main Frame, etc. (I think their scripts may even share a “Whoa!” or two) My point is: Will audiences look at it as a second chapter to an innovative classic techno-adventure, or just a copycat Matrix-ish movie trying to cash in on former glory?
–How will they account for the time lapse between the films? TRON was a story that took place in a time when computers took up a whole room in your house, and when BASIC was the standard CPU language. While it was cutting edge at the time, the entire language of TRON is obsolete by today’s standards. The flying toaster screensaver is more complex than anything mentioned in TRON. Also, Jeff Bridges is OLD. He appears to be the only returning cast member, so does that mean he has an active role? Let’s face it, the only disc that Flynn will throw will be the one in his back when he tries to mount his LightCycle.
–Will I finally be able to make a TRON Halloween costume that people will appreciate rather than ridicule?
While we can speculate and pontificate all we want, the real answers won’t be addressed until the films release date in 2010/2011. Until then, all we can do is sit patiently and watch the load-up screen of our hopes and dreams slowly climb to 100%.
Until then…… 011100101 011011,my friends
The Big Chart
Give yourself twenty minutes, and enjoy The Big Chart- a short film about an NCAA tournament to decide the best ‘thing’. It is both funny and thought-provoking in a totally meaningless way- kind of like the best after-hours conversation you’ve ever had.
Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes
2001 goes beyond film for me. Like many of Mr. Kubrick’s creations, it almost seemed to inhabit its own media, separate and distinct from anything I had ever seen. It was a genre film, but intensely not so all at the same time. It contained amazing special effects, but was also lyrical and boundless. In short, the film contained many of the paradoxes that make viewing Kubrick’s films a pleasure.
Here is a documentary about the boxes of research Kubrick left after his demise. If you are a fan, you need to watch this. If you admire genius, you need to watch this.
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