Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 31, 2009 in Pulp Fiction
If you’re in the market for open source science fiction and fantasy stories you may want to check out freesfonline.de which has a pretty decent collection of works by various authors. For eons what’s left of the pulp magazines have been struggling, so I wonder if like Linux that this might breath some new life into the market? Shown above is a cover for the book Little Brother by Cory Doctorow which is one of the goodies ready for reading.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 31, 2009 in Science
Lacking a new administrator NASA’s next direction seems a bit uncertain — and part of the problem with the previous administrator was that the Orion Vehicle project which was suppose to replace the space shuttle which ran way over budget. This past week a mockup of part of the new system arrived at the Kennedy Space Center with the hope that NASA can put together a test launch by July. While it’s certain that President Obama wants to return to the moon his immediate focus at the White House has been on trying to rescue the economy, although the space exploration fanboy in me hopes he gives NASA some leadership sooner than later.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 31, 2009 in Japanese TV
I can’t place an exact date on this Japanese advert for Kirin Mets Grapefruit although judging by the quality of the animation I’d say that it was produced in the 80s. During the early days of computer animation the technique was so expensive that using it became a visual gimmick to get attention — even if it had no connection to the product that you were selling. You get the feeling that the marketing department at Kirin was a bit worried and added the young lady in the swimsuit “just in case”.
This video is from a New York fashion show that showcases models wearing superhero chocolate outfits. The fashion show was part of the New York Chocolate Show last year (I knew I should have gone). I think the most delicious featured frock was Barbarella although the outfits for Wonder Woman and Iron Man were also tasty treats.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 29, 2009 in Star Trek
I’m sort of sad knowing that Shatner won’t be in the next Star Trek film, but I’ve been watching him take on the role of a talk show host and he’s pretty darn good at it. Look out Oprah you’ve got Admiral Kirk gunning for your job…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 29, 2009 in Star Trek
This is a fan made video that kit bashes the A Team opening theme with the original Star Trek cast. The funny thing is that I’ve forgotten how many silly scenes there were in the original series…
If you’re a geek and you’re reading this, to you social media is old news — which is why it’s now mainstream (and about to get worse). But first a history lesson: The real story behind the sucess of MySpace and Facebook is that they were sites NOT aimed at geeks — unlike so many Web 1.0 hubs the real appeal of this first generation of these Web 2.0 sites is that they allowed a younger demographic to organize their real world activities. As an example MySpace empowered Gen Y to see their favorite band or to meet their classmates before moving into the form on Facebook. Yet there was still a generational barrier in place that has only slowly been crumbling lead by elder techies and creatives. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 28, 2009 in Comic Books
The art student inside of me always takes a certain pleasure when artists take on a pop culture icon — although too many times the result becomes trapped within the techniques of a Andy Warhol silkscreen look or a Roy Lichtenstein graphic approach: Which is why I’m impressed with what artist CW Wells is doing here with his take Batman which is titled mr fancy pants. His multimedia approach has a nice little touch of 80s Memphis with his approach to texture with the dark knight who’s a little bit less dark as a result. For more info on CW Wells you can find his bio here and follow his Flickr feed here.
One of the fun things about urban toys is when they give you a fresh take on a familiar character, and that’s the case with these Modern Pets Friend: Mickey and Minnie figurines. In fact looking at these toys I almost wish that Disney would think of doing some feature length animation with a set of reinvented characters done right (of course while trying to avoid over doing it ala Muppet Babies).
Posted by Guest Author on Jan 27, 2009 in Animation
Editor’s Note: In this essay film critic Joe Strike offers us his insights into the Oscars nominees for best animated feature.
For me, the Oscar I most look forward to during that endless TV show isn’t Best Picture or Best Director, but Best (or Outstanding Achievement In, I guess) Animated Feature (from hereon referred to as BAF). The first straw in the wind was Wall-E‘s Golden Globes BAF win. At that point I was sure the Oscar nominees would be Wall-E, Kung-Fu Panda and (the token intellectual nominee) Waltz with Bashir. Turns out Bashir got a Best Foreign Film nomination (way to go, Avi – nice Jewish boy makes good!) and Disney’s superdog Bolt filled out the third spot. (A fun movie, but not a flick for the ages.) Read more…
The fake iPhones from China are getting much better as time goes on! It should be noted that this is the second (or maybe third?) generation of iClones to hit the markets in China and each time they seem to get better. What’s impressive about this version is that not only does it sport an Apple logo (much improved without that pesky bite mark) but the touch interface looks like the real deal: Read more…
The film Fanboys looks like it’s going to be quite good, but at the rate all these clips are coming out I’m starting to feel like I’ve already seen the entire film… Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 26, 2009 in Star Trek
Permission to sing freely, sir? Granted! This is from a recent episode of Robot Chicken. As someone pointed out to me recently what made this film so good was that it didn’t depend on the Star Trek franchise as a crutch to the story.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 25, 2009 in Animation
As with most things in TV land our story begins in another medium — film! Back in the 50s THE designer who revolutionized opening credits was Saul Bass who favored a very graphic and illustrational approach to making opening titles an art form onto themselves. To me his masterpiece was Anatomy of a Murder in 1958 which matched a striking musical score by Duke Ellington to a simple yet powerful animation: Read more…
At first I had my doubts — but the one thing that won me over to the up and coming Star Trek film is the trailer — to be blunt it kicks ass! So as a fanboy who’s been following the show forever when I read that there was a comic book attached to the film (Star Trek Countdown) I was psyched. But then I glanced at the cover and I was in shock: The illustration looks like a bad tracing from a photo featuring some of the worst Photoshop coloring work I’ve ever seen in my life. I realize the cover is trying to match the posters for the film, but couldn’t they have put more than just ten minutes worth of work into it?Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 23, 2009 in Japanese TV
My guess is that this spot os from the 80s judging by the wear-and-tear of the video tape and the colorful art direction. The commercial is for Chinese styled Yakisoba fried noodles but what sells the spot is the rambunctious children singing along with the music.
I’ve been following the work of Chicago based indie comic artist Chris “Elio” Eliopoulos for some time now, so I got a real kick out of seeing his whimsical style brought to life in an animated short. In many ways his illustration work reminds a great deal of Jay Ward cartoons like Bullwinkle, but looking at this short I see a dollop of George Herriman’s Krazy Kat mixed in with just a dash of Godzilla for good measure. Here are two examples of his illustrations that show of his humorous but harmonious sense of chaos: Read more…
From time-to-time techies go through certain fads where a certain idea just seems right, so we often yearn for a solution to which there is no problem. A good example of this occuired in the 90s when many smart folks realized that while a PC with Windows 95, Netscape and a dialup modem were great — what if you could push this concept one step further and have a consumer friendly all-in-one unit? The answer was WebTV and the device was a resounding failure.Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 21, 2009 in Star Trek, Tech
I would be a liar if I said that I spent the past day thinking of about anything but the inauguration of President Barack Obama. One one level I was just overjoyed to hear Obama publicly re-embrace the ideas of science and ecology, which in a way strikes me as sad as being something that “we have to return to” in the first place. And of course the two central issues at hand today are the economy (or rather the lack there of) and ongoing asymmetrical warfare — yet underneath all of that chaos was a very positive echo of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s. And in a sense part of the triumph of that struggle was an indirect result of a few bold visionaries who embraced the then very odd notion of the world growing smaller was a damn good thing.Read more…
Nearly a day goes by on Twitter without yet another social media “expert” choosing to stalk me. At first it started innocently — back in the day (about a year ago) various techie friends started to declare themselves social media gurus because they decided to hang out on Twitter and Facebook all day. And now an army of their offspring monitor Summize in search of human flesh. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 19, 2009 in Television
Danger Will Robinson! Any fanboy who has loved the 60s sci fi drama Lost in Space knows that one of the more interesting characters in the show was the Robot. Sadly the the man behind the robot just passed away — his name was Bob May. It should be noted that Bob didn’t give the robot his voice — that privilege belonged to Dick Tufeld. Although silent you could say that May was the man pulling the strings of the puppet and bringing him to life.
I love the clever industrial design of this Mickey Mouse Desk Light which is from Japan. The top light enclosure with the ears is a bit of an obvious concept although what I think makes the design so great is the added touch of making the base of the lamp have the buttons from Mickey’s pants. Read more…
The year is 1982 and Crazy Eddie (with prices so low he’s practically giving everything away) decides to hawk home computers like the Commodore VIC-20 and the Apple ][. Crazy Eddie was a retail chain that was started in Brooklyn in the early 70s and hit a high point in the 80s until the Feds shut them down for fraud charges. By the way the guy in the commercial isn’t the owner of the store who was busted — he’s Jerry Carroll who was an FM radio DJ at the time. Here is an example of his more creative work: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 16, 2009 in Television
In 1962 Sean Connery stars in Dr. No and the spy genre takes over the world of entertainment. Within ten short years several more Bond films follows and a host of second rates clones follow — from TV shows like The Saint to comedy films like Matt Helm. In the swinging 60s the two things that make the spy genre special are guns and go go girls: Bond has a license to kill and the spy genre wouldn’t be what it was without the sex and violence.
During this era Patrick McGoohan was a successful actor as the star of Danger Man which ran as Secret Agent Man in the United States. But after a few years McGoohan grew tired of the show and was offered the chance to do something new by Lew Grade of ITC Entertainment. So McGoohan gave his pitch — and it was pure genius: Read more…
