I know it sounds like a long lost cause at this point, but I’ve found myself thinking a few times of late just how much fun Grindhouse was – it’s been a long time were I’ve had that sort of silly fun watching a film. This got me to thinking about Quentin Tarantino’s love of, well let’s just say the low art of cinema.
A few years ago one of the cable channels (maybe it was Ovation or IFC?) gave Tarantino an entire block of time for his own film marathon of sorts. And one of the films he dragged out was none other than Navajo Joe!
Before this I had never heard of the film before, but for some odd reason it’s stuck in my mind when I think of Tarantino. It’s a 1966 Italian/Spanish Spaghetti Western, directed by Sergio Corbucci. But the kicker is that it stars Burt Reynolds, playing a Native American! The film features a very campy soundtrack and goes on forever, and of course the focus is good old fashioned revenge Here’s the trailer:
Seen above (click to see at full size) are two tin robot toys which I spotted sitting in a Soho storefront window in New York City. Even though the robots shown are based on a very old school design that was a bit before my day, seeing these two always brings me back to my childhood (and an appeciation of a sense of wonder and play).
Photographed by Michael Pinto on February 17, 2007
Yujin’s Time Capsule series features a variety of well known characters like Astroboy and Disney characters, and now they’ve added a Spiderman series to their collection:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 25, 2007 in Science
You know I’m half starting to think that while we may never meet alien lifeforms in my lifetime, that there may still be a shot at finding out where a few of them are hanging out:
“Astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, a world which could have water running on its surface. The planet orbits the faint star Gliese 581, which is 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra.
They say the benign temperatures on the planet mean any water there could exist in liquid form, and this raises the chances it could also harbour life. “We have estimated that the mean temperature of this ’super-Earth’ lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid,” explained Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory, lead author of the scientific paper reporting the result.”
…by the way the potential planet is only 20 light years away, so start designing your warp drives now!
There’s some sad news for a poor fanboy in Japan, it seems his local tax dept. has decided to make him (and his valued toy figurine collection) an example:
“A tax office here has put a set of figures of young girls seized from a tax delinquent up for auction on the Internet “to deepen understanding about the prefectural government’s tax collection,” taxation officials said.
The figures, which were put up for auction by the prefectural government’s Otaru tax office, included characters from a love simulation game marketed in the 1990s. The figures are no longer produced and are considered valuable collectors’ items.
“Our aim isn’t to sell them for a high price, but to deepen understanding about tax collection in Hokkaido. We want to draw people’s attention,” an official from the tax office said.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 24, 2007 in Science
In Star Trek they’re always using deflector shields to protect themselves from hostile Klingon fire, but it seems that scientists may start to add deflector shields to protect astronauts from dangerous radiation in outer space:
“Magnetic “deflector shields” could one day guard astronauts against dangerous space radiation, if experiments now underway pay off. Exposure to energetic charged particles could put astronauts on lengthy missions at increased risk of cancer and even cognitive problems (see Future mars astronauts have radiation on their minds). The particles come from the solar wind and also from supernovae and still-unidentified sources outside the solar system.
The Earth’s magnetic field protects spacecraft in low-Earth orbits, such as the space shuttle and International Space Station, from such particles. But astronauts journeying to Mars or living on the Moon would benefit from no such protection. Now, US and European plans for long-term missions to the Moon and Mars have sparked renewed interest in the problem of radiation shielding.
One group at the University of Washington in Seattle, US, has just completed a round of experiments investigating one possible approach, using a bubble of charged particles, or plasma, as a deflector shield. Now, a second team has begun deflector shield experiments of their own. The team, led by Ruth Bamford of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK, hopes to eventually fly a test satellite surrounded by a cloud of plasma in space.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 23, 2007 in Star Wars
With the 30th anniversary of Star Wars fast approaching (May 25th), it ’s time to begin celebrating the galaxy far, far away all over again. Images from ‘The Making of Star Wars, the Definitive Story Behind the Original Film’, to be released by Ballantine Books on April 24. Check out an amazing sneak peak at the book here:
Seen above is an amazing model dollhouse based on Lord of the Rings. I love the sheer amount of detail and loving craftsmanship that went into this project:
Shown above is the Supergirl vinyl statue designed by the Japanese manufacturer Kotobukiya. If you want to do the Ken/Barbie thing Kotobukiya also has a Superman statue too! For more details check out this article at Toy News International.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 22, 2007 in Comic Books
Here’s yet another example how everyone in Hollywood needs to feel “creative” so they need to “improve” things, like the color the Incredible Hulk which will now go from green to gray:
“ust earlier this week the news hit the internet that Edward Norton would be taking on the role of Bruce Banner aka Hulk in the 2008 “redo” titled simply The Incredible Hulk. Some news has been creeping out about the film, which will hopefully be a better comic book adaptation than the 2003 Ang Lee movie, and it deserves to be mention since everything so far sounds like it’s going in the right directon. Marvel ex-CEO Avi Arad, who now heads up production on almost all major Marvel films and is currently out promoting Spider-Man 3 due out in a few weeks (another awesome Marvel adaptation that you should be excited to see), spoke earlier today and hinted that he may not be the same color as we saw previously. Although he wouldn’t confirm officially, the rumor is out that the Hulk may be grey this time.”
…I mean it’s not like the reason the last movie did so poorly had anything to do with the color of the Hulk!
UPDATE: Sorry campers! This internet rumor turned out not to be true, the Hulk stays green…
