Lenticular ‘Star Wars’ Poster
There’s not much to say about this one, except to ask, "How in heck did they do that?" (Here are some details about the "Syndimation" process that creates the effect.)
That’s so 3D it’s almost 4D…
Tagged: Star Wars
Me Eat Meat, by John Ostrander
So there I was, in my car, tooling along, headed towards my eye doctor appointment, listening to my public radio station, WNYC, and one of their talk shows – the Brian Leherer Show. The segment was referred to as “Can Meat Be Ethical?” The guests were Joan Gussow, professor emeritus of Nutrition and Education at Teachers College Columbia University, and Gidon Eshel, Bard Center Fellow and a geophysicist at Simon’s Rock College.
I could already tell we weren’t going to be on the same wavelength for this segment.
Here are my basic ethics about meat: if it hasn’t eaten me, I can eat it.
Professor Gussow seemed relatively reasonable. She said grass fed cows are eminently preferable to grain fed and that one should shop locally for everything – meats, grains, fruits, vegetables – as that reduces the amount of fossil fuel for transport. And that we should reduce the amount of meat that we consume and treat it more like a flavoring or a condiment as many cultures do around the world. That would be healthier.
Professor Eshel would have none of it. I should probably try to separate his snide, patronizing tone from his message. The tone probably comes with his turf; Simon’s Rock, up in the Berskshires in Maine, is – according to its website – “a small, selective, supportive, intensive college of the liberal arts and sciences” whose “400 students come to us after 10th or 11th grade in high school.” The few, the proud, the elite.
Professor Eshel maintained that grass fed beef is worse than grain fed beef. Why? Because, as bad as cow shit and cow farts may be for the environment, cow belching is worse not only in volume but in kinds of gases being released into the atmosphere. (more…)
Worst Movie Dialogue Ever?
EW.com recently ranked the "15 Nominees For Worst Movie Dialogue Ever," and a trio of films near and dear to science-fiction and comics fans made the list.
Among the 15 lines of dialogue, the much-maligned piece of dialogue offered up by Storm (Halle Berry) in "X-Men" to Toad (Ray Park):
‘You know what happens when a toad gets struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else.”
Also on the list are two lines of dialogue that were meant to be romantic, but ended up just sounding silly: One of the many ill-scripted romantic moments between Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and Amidala (Natalie Portman) during "Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith", and a moment shared between two violence-prone lovers in the big-screen adaptation of Frank Miller’s Sin City.
Personally, I’m shocked by the absence of MY choice for worst line of dialogue in film history.
Does anyone remember the brilliant observation made by vampire-killer Blade (Wesley Snipes) upon vanquishing the villain of the first film? In case you subconsciously willed yourself to forget it, here it is:
"Some motherf*ckers is always trying to iceskate uphill."
Beat THAT, EW.com.
Rant-O-Rama, by John Ostrander
Lots of different things pissing me off this week so let’s just make this one a grab bag of rant.The Flordia Primary, Part One. Some time ago, Will Rogers, the noted American humorist, said, “I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.” Still true. Given the state of the country today – mired in a war that we shouldn’t have gotten into, edging into recession, a housing shortage that bids fair to upend our financial apple cart – the Democratic nominee for President should be a shoo-in. I think the DNC – the Democratic National Committee – assumes that. Not me. I still trust them to find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It’s a time tested Democratic tradition.
Cases in point – the Florida and the Michigan primaries. You’ve heard a lot this week about the Florida Republican primary but not so much the Democratic one. Why is that? Because the DNC has decided to punish those two states for moving their primaries ahead despite what the DNC told them. Furthermore, the DNC says they won’t be seating those states’ delegates at the Convention later this year. That’ll show ‘em! Naughty locals!
Question: what state lost the Dems the election in 2000? That’s right – Florida. There’s also plenty of votes to be had in Michigan. Mary’s family comes from Michigan and she knows some of them who have voted Democratic regularly before. This time they’ll sit it out or will vote Republican. Why? They’re pissed that the Dems have told them their delegates won’t be seated; that their votes in the primary don’t mean anything. If some people told me my vote didn’t matter, I’d find others who thought it did.
Happy 50th Anniversary, Lego!
On this day in 1958, the first Lego brick was sold. Eleven minutes later, it was lost under a couch.
Children all over the world have played with Lego bricks for the past 50 years, and Lego sets are still right at the top of many wish lists. Industry and trade associations also recognize the Lego success. Just before the turn of the millennium, the Lego Brick was voted “Toy of the Century,” one of the highest awards in the toy industry, by both Fortune Magazine in the US and the British Association of Toy Retailers.
Of course, we recognize their various media tie-ins, like what they’ve done with Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and Batman, among so many others. And over the years, they’ve given back to film themselves:
So let’s go build something!
This Is Not My Column, by John Ostrander
Editor’s note: Due to a completely unrelated attack from the Ether Bunny, this column was supposed to run yesterday. It’s just as swell today, but if you’re looking for Michael Davis’s column, well, it was run yesterday. However, when you’re done reading this, go read Michael by clicking here. Thank you.
There are days when I hate writing, just hate it, and this day and this moment is one of them.Why? Because nothing is working. Absolutely nothing. I have, as of this moment, five different versions of this column in the works including this one. I don’t like any of them. I’m presently reduced to writing about how the writing is not going well. Sad, Isn’t it? Not something in which I’m likely to get a lot of sympathy for, though. I mean, a lot of people have to get up and go into jobs that they may not care for. They do it day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out and so on. Maybe they don’t ever get to love their job. I mean, I make my living writing comics. That should be fun, right?
Not today. Today I’m in hell.
Most days I really do love what I do. I get paid pretty nice for it. I have a really quick commute, from the kitchen into the back bedroom, which serves as the office. We had friends who lived with us for awhile and, in the morning, I’d wave to them as they went to work and announce I was beginning my commute, too. And then I amble away. They recently allowed how they wanted to kill me at those moments. I knew that. It was part of the smug job satisfaction.
Hooray For Ray Harryhausen, by Ric Meyers
What a relief! Fellow audio-blogging ComicMixer Mike Raub put it in perspective for me as soon the credits ended on Cloverfield: “What ever happened to science?” he asked. “Remember the good old days when movie characters would actually think about why something was happening rather than immediately whip out the heavy artillery?”
Well, Mike, my friend, I do, I really do, because this week I got two new, colorized, long-delayed, two-disc special editions from the “Ray Harryhausen Presents” line: It Came From Beneath the Sea and, especially, Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers. In the latter film, particularly, smart people do courageous things to foil an attack from the stars, and the literate, logical, talk – so absent in Cloverfield – would do Mr. Spock proud.
But first things first. It Came from Beneath the Sea arrived first, in 1955, with a Godzilla-esque tale of a nuclear-radiated giant octosquid attacking San Francisco. The following year saw the release of Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers, which was succinct and accurate in its title. Both are being re-released on DVD now because Ray supervised their colorization, and Sony has done a nice job of presenting them in both their original B&W as well as colorized forms, with a “ChromaChoice” toggle so you can go from one to the other with ease.
Only one problem with Ray supervising the coloring: the monsters look great … but the people often also look like they’re made of clay … or used a scoonch too much liquid tanner. All in all, however, it’s one of the more successful colorization jobs, and rarely too distracting. Besides, what with Ray’s Dynamationalized characters, the whole thing has a nice sheen of artificiality anyway, which the colorization folds nicely into.
Our Declining Years, by John Ostrander
And every fair from fair sometime declinesBy chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d
That’s Shakespeare. Sonnet XVIII – or 18 to those of us who don’t want to bother with Roman numerals.
Will is talking about the inevitable decay and decline of beauty in the person to whom the sonnet is addressed. For me, however, it is a reminder that everything – EVERYTHING – declines. It’s the power of entropy, folks – everything that is fair and/or beautiful, that is strong, must inevitably lose what is fair, strong, beautiful. It arrives sooner – by chance, as Will says, by accident – or later – by the accumulation of days but it must arrive.
That includes nations and brings me to a principle consideration of mine about all the candidates, Democrat and Republican, now vying for the post of Chief Executive of these Unites States. Which one is best equipped to deal with its decline?
Decline is inevitable, to begin with. Every nation, every empire, on top of the heap has fallen off that pinnacle. Every. Single. One. It is a historic inevitability that we will also slide as well. I’m betting on sooner rather than later. Here are my reasons.
Oh God, if there is a god… by John Ostrander
Every once in a while, when I disclose or discuss my agnosticism, I get pointed little messages and jokes along the lines of “Agnostics are atheists who like bingo.” I hear that more often from atheists than theists, interestingly enough. Some folks consider agnostics to be the bisexuals of religion – like we’re trying to have the best of both worlds. “They should stop straddling the Theological fence,” seems to be the attitude. Shit or get off the metaphysical pot. Pick a side, damn it! This is America and we pick sides.The suggestion seems to be that I haven’t thought this through because, if I had, I’d be one thing or the other. Charlie Brown probably grew up to be an agnostic. Good ol’ wishy washy Charlie Brown. Or maybe it’s Hamlet – forever philosophizing and never really doing until it’s way too late. The thing is, I have thought about. I continue to think about it, to question it all, including my questioning.
I don’t usually get into discussions about what I believe/disbelieve. These things almost never end well. However, I need a column for this week and this topic comes to mind so…off we go! We’ll start with the usual caveats that one must issue in this civil discourse-challenged era. When I state my position, I’m not attacking your beliefs or unbeliefs, whatever they may be. I’m not trying to insult you, Jesus, Yahweh, Allah, Buddha, Odin, Jupiter or whatever church you may belong to or shun. I’m not trying to convince, convert, or proselytize. I’m just stating my position.
Solitary Pleasures, by John Ostrander
Well, foo.I was working on this great C.O.M. (Cranky Old Man) rant for this week’s column about how technology was making us all more isolated. It was a nice rant, too – it started with the Luddite vision of how, in the old days, people sang together or told stories in order to entertain themselves. It was a group thing and it bound people together. The rant then traced how technology – movies to begin with – changed us from participants to observers and then radio changed it into small family sized units until it was replaced by TV. The rant went on – oh, how it went on – about how the dawning of iPods and cell phones and texting and the Internet was further fracturing us into isolated units and blah blah blah. Really, I was working up a nice head of steam.
Then I looked at what I was doing. At this. At words such as these on the screen or printed on a page. Usually written by one person and then read by one person. What we’re doing, right now, you and I. Reading, in general, is an isolated act, a solitary pleasure. It made mincemeat of my rant.
