Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 11, 2009 in Science
It’s funny I’ve been watching the space shuttle for so many years that when I see a design like this it brings me back to my early childhood of watching the Apollo projects — it’s been that long since I’ve seen a spacecraft that was designed to leave Earth’s orbit. NASA is still awaiting the hear from the Obama administration to find out who the next leader of the space program will be, so it’s questionable if Orion will become real (although the administration seems to be motivated to return to the moon thanks to China).
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 10, 2009 in Star Trek
For me the original Star Trek will always be my first fanboy love — and if you feel the same way and want to show it this collection of over 20 different Star Trek Peel and Stick Wall Appliques can be a fun low budget way (only $13!) of showing your appreciation for those who went boldly where no other TV show went before. There are also two additional versions: On that features Captain Kirk and other with Mr. Spock: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 10, 2009 in Comic Books
Yes I’d love to pretend that there was an era when Emily the Strange wasn’t just about the merchandising, but that would be a lie. I first ran into Emily at Virgin Mega Store (sad to think that they’ll be gone) and her image adorned t-shirts, notebooks and other knickknacks — yet it was the sort of brand that was always slightly under the radar, which I think to me was the appeal. If you gave an Emily item as a gift she’d stand out as just a bit different in a Hallmark world. Well sadly that’s coming to an end and above is the first step where Emily goes mainstream — that sad bit of artwork above is the cover of a limited comic book series. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 9, 2009 in Videogames
To one of the most classic videogames of all time — I’ll drink to that! ThinkGeek is featuring a super cool Ice Invaders Icecube Tray which allows you to make a total of 24 alien ice cubes to chill your beverage. Read more…
50 years ago in April of 1959 the then new American space agency NASA started Project Mercury — the goal of which was to have manned spaceflight. In 1962 Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. would make the first American sub-orbital trip — and later in 1962 John Glenn (shown in the video above) would make the first orbit: Read more…
Being an animation fan from time-to-time I’ll see an ad for a “serigraph cel” from a favorite animated film or TV show. As most fans of animation know old school cartoons were made with hand painted animation cels — which is a piece of acetate inked on one side and with the color painted on the opposite side. These animation cels are always punched so they can be registered, and it takes a mind numbing number of these to make an animated film which is shot at 24 frames per second (although most animation is done by limiting this 12 cels per second or less which is known as “shooting in twos”). Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 8, 2009 in Animation
The Girl That Leapt Through Time really put director Mamoru Hosoda on the map for many Americans — his next film will be Summer Wars which is a light hearted action-adventure film about a modern day Japanese family.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 8, 2009 in Star Wars
This is a vintage 1979 Star Wars themed public service announcement produced for the Department of Transportation. The funny thing to me about the Cantina scene is that for this dive bar filled with scan and villainy the music is inspired by Benny Goodman, which is rather upbeat: Read more…
No self respecting fangurl can be seen at the Mountains of Madness without the proper millinery and this 100% original crochet toque designed by Lesley A. Karpiuk does just the trick! With handmade tentacles and wings soft worsted weight yarn mere mortals will fear your every move. Frankly zombies are so last year — real fashion forward folks in-the-know know that Cthulhu is set for a huge comeback this season… Read more…
This past evening Japanese cosplay singer Reni gave her second performance here in NYC and from all accounts the audience loved every minute of it! Shown above is some video footage of Reni performing the theme from Lucky Star. Mind you she did this as a request from the audience, but I’m especially impressed that she had her dance moves down so well for he song. To check out Reni’s English blog go here.
