MovieHole recently announced that Tom Hardy and probably not Sam Worthington have been rumored to take over the role of Max in the Mad Max film franchise.
Mel Gibson, who rose to cinematic fame in the original Australian "Mad Max" and "The Road Warrior" movies, announced some years ago he had no desire or intention of returning to the role he reprised in "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome".
George Miller will supposedly begin production work on "Mad Max 4: Fury Road" next year. Max is a survivor living in a post-apocalyptic Australia, which presumably survived a nuclear war better than other parts of the Earth. Nonetheless, despite hanging on to some semblance of civilization in "Mad Max", by "The Road Warrior" Australia's outback had become the province of leather-clad, gas-gazzling savages.
In "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" Max undermined the efforts of Tina Turner and her leather-clad barbarians to restore a semblance of civilization in BarterTown. Nonetheless, me managed to lead a ragtag group of orphaned teenagers and a very small genius of a man to the ruins of a coastal city (possibly Melbourne?), where most of them settled and rebooted civilization for real.
Bruce Spence ("Legend of the Seeker") played Max's aviator associate in "The Road Warrior" and "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome". One has to wonder where Miller thinks he can take the franchise now, unless he means to jump on the reboot bandwagon.
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Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Queen Eleanor College students film SciFi movie
Student films often presage the careers of very talented people who find their ways into professional film-making and broadcasting. PeterBorough Today reports that a group of students have completed filming a science fiction project with the help of a professional makeup artist.
The Broadway Cinema in Nottingham had a recent screening of the movie, which I would hope is eventually uploaded to YouTube or a similar service (legally) so that the rest of us can see it.
I'm a big fan of student films.
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The film, titled Darwin 200, was shot at Stamford School using the latest high-definition technology, and uses prosthetic make-up and CGI, to tell the story of how a special serum devised in a science class goes wrong, causing strange visitors to appear in the college, including a gorilla and Neanderthals.
The Broadway Cinema in Nottingham had a recent screening of the movie, which I would hope is eventually uploaded to YouTube or a similar service (legally) so that the rest of us can see it.
I'm a big fan of student films.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Ben Bova writes about his career
Ben Bova, one of the foremost editors in science fiction and fantasy publishing, recently shared his thoughts on his career and influences.
The Naples News carried an article Bova wrote for readers of his column.
Here is an excerpt:
A published author in his own right, Ben Bova maintains his own Web site. A six-time Hugo award winner, Bova was perhaps best known to a generation of science fiction fans as the editor of Analog: Science Fiction - Science Fact and Editorial Director for Omni.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
The Naples News carried an article Bova wrote for readers of his column.
Here is an excerpt:
As I look back on my own career as a writer, that truth shines like the sun. No man is an island. No writer stands alone. We all owe our success, such as it is, to those who taught us, inspired us, helped us understand and persevere.
My first influence was my father. He wasn’t a writer; far from it. My dad spent his life working pressing machines in men’s clothing factories. He taught me that life is what you make of it. He was a happy, optimistic man, despite never going farther from South Philadelphia than the factories in which he worked.
A published author in his own right, Ben Bova maintains his own Web site. A six-time Hugo award winner, Bova was perhaps best known to a generation of science fiction fans as the editor of Analog: Science Fiction - Science Fact and Editorial Director for Omni.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Harvard offers second Tolkien course in January 2010
Dr. Marc Zender contacted me yesterday about a new Tolkien class he is teaching at Harvard starting in January. I'm helping spread the word so if you have the opportunity to the class, take it. Trust me, his two guest speakers will make it well worthwhile.
You can read full details about the class here. It is ANTH E-164 "Tolkien as Translator: Language, Culture and Society in Middle-Earth".
The guest speakers are Robert Foster and Dick Plotz. I'm very, very impressed.
Dr. Zender contacted me last May about his first Tolkien class which was offered over the summer.
I'll be starting a discussion about the class at The Tolkien Forum on SF-Fandom.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
You can read full details about the class here. It is ANTH E-164 "Tolkien as Translator: Language, Culture and Society in Middle-Earth".
The guest speakers are Robert Foster and Dick Plotz. I'm very, very impressed.
Dr. Zender contacted me last May about his first Tolkien class which was offered over the summer.
I'll be starting a discussion about the class at The Tolkien Forum on SF-Fandom.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Bill Nighy says Pirates of the Caribbean 4 may not happen
Changes in leadership at the Disney Studios have led people in the media to speculate that "Pirates of the Caribbean 4" may be in trouble. They have been scrambling to find people associated with the various POTC productions who are willing to go out on a limb and suggest that the movie may not happen.
Cinema Blend quotes Bill Nighy (Davey Jones in POTC 2 and 3) as saying "I understand that there was an announcement that there was going to be a fourth, and now I've been told since that that was not a reliable announcement."
Since Jones was killed off in the third movie, one has to wonder how Nighy would figure into a fourth film anyway (although he could certainly play a new character if Jones cannot be plausibly resurrected).
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Cinema Blend quotes Bill Nighy (Davey Jones in POTC 2 and 3) as saying "I understand that there was an announcement that there was going to be a fourth, and now I've been told since that that was not a reliable announcement."
Since Jones was killed off in the third movie, one has to wonder how Nighy would figure into a fourth film anyway (although he could certainly play a new character if Jones cannot be plausibly resurrected).
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Monday, October 26, 2009
J.J. Abrams talks about "Star Trek" issues
Feeling the sting of fan criticisms about various minutiae in the Star Trek reboot movie, J.J. Abrams recently spoke with Wired to explain a couple of things and promise that more explanations are provided on the DvD.
One area of fan concern was how Kirk ended up on the exact same moon as Spock Prime after he was ejected from the Enterprise. According to Abrams, the writers decided that the Universe insisted the meeting had to take place.
What's interesting about that argument (which is almost certain to confuse and disappoint fans who think they know better than the writers) is that real scientists suggest the future may be sabotaging CERN's efforts to find the so-called "God particle".
The Universe has been accused of many things, so conspiring with itself to arrange for Kirk and Spock to meet in any reality doesn't seem so far-fetched.
It's something to think about, anyway.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
One area of fan concern was how Kirk ended up on the exact same moon as Spock Prime after he was ejected from the Enterprise. According to Abrams, the writers decided that the Universe insisted the meeting had to take place.
What's interesting about that argument (which is almost certain to confuse and disappoint fans who think they know better than the writers) is that real scientists suggest the future may be sabotaging CERN's efforts to find the so-called "God particle".
The Universe has been accused of many things, so conspiring with itself to arrange for Kirk and Spock to meet in any reality doesn't seem so far-fetched.
It's something to think about, anyway.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Newfoundland gets second SciFi convention
Newfoundland's West Coast Convention opened its first year convention on October 24. Stunt Actor Paul Weston served as the convention's first guest of honor.
The Western Star carried a brief feature article about the convention.
Newfoundland SF fans may already be familiar with SciFi On The Rock, which is held every April. Here is hoping the two conventions build a rich, long-lasting fan tradition.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
The Western Star carried a brief feature article about the convention.
Newfoundland SF fans may already be familiar with SciFi On The Rock, which is held every April. Here is hoping the two conventions build a rich, long-lasting fan tradition.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
New Neill Blomkamp film to be set on another planet
Neill Blomkamp, who directed Peter Jackson's acclaimed "District 9" movie set in South Africa, has received a greenlight from Media Rights Capital to do another science fiction film. The unnamed project is to be set on another planet. iFilm spoke with Blomkamp earlier this year and reported on his enthusiasm for the then as-yet unapproved project.
Bill Block, who served as Executive Producer on "District 9", will also produce the next movie. Peter Jackson, who was the power behind "District 9", will not be involved in the new project.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Bill Block, who served as Executive Producer on "District 9", will also produce the next movie. Peter Jackson, who was the power behind "District 9", will not be involved in the new project.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Trailer for Paranormal Romance novel, "The Dark Ones"
There is that word "Paranormal" again. So, Megan Harmon is the author of The Dark Ones which, based on the Web site and trailer seems to me to be similar in concept to Twilight (which Stephanie Meyer has given up writing).
I'm not saying that Megan Harmon is trying to rip off Stephanie Meyer. Rather, her book seems directed at Romance readers who like stories of werewolves and vampires. I'm not well-versed in Romance fiction at all, which has been portrayed as formulaic. I'd be more inclined to describe it as nichey. Every sub-genre has a niche audience and there are occasional breakout titles that garner a lot of interest.
Romance and science fiction or fantasy have blended together many times through the years. I don't think they will ever quite fully part ways. Some Romance novelists do "pure" straight science fiction and fantasy -- or perhaps I should say some SciFi/Fantasy authors have written Romance.
Many good Romance writers also publish in other genres, including Westerns, Thrillers, Mysteries, etc.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
I'm not saying that Megan Harmon is trying to rip off Stephanie Meyer. Rather, her book seems directed at Romance readers who like stories of werewolves and vampires. I'm not well-versed in Romance fiction at all, which has been portrayed as formulaic. I'd be more inclined to describe it as nichey. Every sub-genre has a niche audience and there are occasional breakout titles that garner a lot of interest.
Romance and science fiction or fantasy have blended together many times through the years. I don't think they will ever quite fully part ways. Some Romance novelists do "pure" straight science fiction and fantasy -- or perhaps I should say some SciFi/Fantasy authors have written Romance.
Many good Romance writers also publish in other genres, including Westerns, Thrillers, Mysteries, etc.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Middle-earth Talk Radio Episode 16 Now Online
In our continuing quest to find Gil-galad's car, Hawke Robinson and I have put the finishing touches on Episode 16 of Middle-earth Talk Radio. Actually, this episode marks a change in the show's format/presentation. We went a little freeform on the topicality because I couldn't find any interesting news stories worth chatting about.
You can now visit Middle-earth Talk Radio on its own page at Middle-earth Radio.
We recorded this episode on September 12, 2009 (which was just before the real birthday for Bilbo and Frodo). Topics covered included:
From Hawke: Please feel free to post comments on the show, make requests for topics to be discussed in upcoming shows, or any other comments or questions in the forums:
http://www.middle-earthradio.com/forum
Or via email: webmaster at middle-earthradio dot com
And download all the other shows from the site:
http://www.middle-earthradio.com/
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
You can now visit Middle-earth Talk Radio on its own page at Middle-earth Radio.
We recorded this episode on September 12, 2009 (which was just before the real birthday for Bilbo and Frodo). Topics covered included:
- A dearth of Tolkien-related news
- Tales before Tolkien - The Roots of Modern Fantasy - Classic stories that inspired the author of The Lord of the Rings by Douglas A. Anderson
- The Elves by Ludwig Tieck, Inspired Tolkien's Leaf by Niggle
- Harry Potter and the Emerald Key ;-)
- Even more off topic: A story by Michael Martinez, Fantasy Football leagues Insurance
- Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress by Seattelite & WotC writer Shelly Mazzanoble
- RPG Research Project & related studies on the therapeutic and social impact of RPGs
- MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games)
- Pen and Paper RPGs (Role Playing Games)
From Hawke: Please feel free to post comments on the show, make requests for topics to be discussed in upcoming shows, or any other comments or questions in the forums:
http://www.middle-earthradio.com/forum
Or via email: webmaster at middle-earthradio dot com
And download all the other shows from the site:
http://www.middle-earthradio.com/
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
New book about Tolkien's use of words in LoTR
P Gilliver, J Marshall & E Weiner have published a book about some of the special words J.R.R. Tolkien used to depict the world of Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings (and perhaps other books). I have not read the book as I only just found out about it, although this is actually the kind of stuff I enjoy reading.
The Independent has a very brief review of the book here that is so short I felt I could not even cite a brief passage of it.
Tolkien loved to use familiar words -- and archaic words -- in new, unique ways. He used the word "fief", for example, in non-feudal connotations in The Lord of the Rings -- a fact that came to light in The Peoples of Middle-earth, where Tolkien explained the meaning of the real word ("suza-t") that "fief" is intended to translate.
"Knight" is another such word. If you're familiar with the etymology of the word knight, then you know that it comes down to modern English from ancient Germanic cniht, which meant "boy, youth, servant".
In The Lord of the Rings Tolkien uses "knight" similar to the familiar medieval usage but he also distinguished between the Riders of Rohan and the "knights of the king's household" who rode with Theoden. In Middle-earth, therefore, a knight was not necessarily a feudal vassal who accepted land in exchange for service -- in fact, there were probably several intended meanings for "knight" in Tolkien's mythology and he was using the word very much the same way modern scholars use it to refer to Roman Equites.
If I can find more information about the book I'll post it here.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
The Independent has a very brief review of the book here that is so short I felt I could not even cite a brief passage of it.
Tolkien loved to use familiar words -- and archaic words -- in new, unique ways. He used the word "fief", for example, in non-feudal connotations in The Lord of the Rings -- a fact that came to light in The Peoples of Middle-earth, where Tolkien explained the meaning of the real word ("suza-t") that "fief" is intended to translate.
"Knight" is another such word. If you're familiar with the etymology of the word knight, then you know that it comes down to modern English from ancient Germanic cniht, which meant "boy, youth, servant".
In The Lord of the Rings Tolkien uses "knight" similar to the familiar medieval usage but he also distinguished between the Riders of Rohan and the "knights of the king's household" who rode with Theoden. In Middle-earth, therefore, a knight was not necessarily a feudal vassal who accepted land in exchange for service -- in fact, there were probably several intended meanings for "knight" in Tolkien's mythology and he was using the word very much the same way modern scholars use it to refer to Roman Equites.
If I can find more information about the book I'll post it here.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Follow Stargate cast members on Xenite dashboard
So you know that Xenite.Org has a Stargate News site, right? No? Well, now you do.
Anyway, we've just added a cool new section for fans who want to follow the Stargate cast members on Twitter. You can use our dashboard which we call Stargate Twitter to quickly scan several cast members' accounts all at once. No more flipping through multiple pages or loading several windows.
So far we've got (from Stargate: Universe) David Blue (Eli Wallace), Elyse Levesque (Chloe Armstrong), Patrick Gilmore (Dale Volker), Ming Na (Camille Wray), and Lou Diamond Phillips (David Telford) on the dashboard. And as a bonus we have added a second dashboard for Stargate alumni, which currently includes Lexa Doig (Carolyn Lam on SG-1), David Hewlett (Rodney McKay on SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis), Kate Hewlett (Jeannie McKay Miller on Atlantis), Jewel Staite (Jennifer Keller on Atlantis), and Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter on SG-1 and Atlantis and Universe).
We'll add more accounts as we find them (and as time permits).
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Anyway, we've just added a cool new section for fans who want to follow the Stargate cast members on Twitter. You can use our dashboard which we call Stargate Twitter to quickly scan several cast members' accounts all at once. No more flipping through multiple pages or loading several windows.
So far we've got (from Stargate: Universe) David Blue (Eli Wallace), Elyse Levesque (Chloe Armstrong), Patrick Gilmore (Dale Volker), Ming Na (Camille Wray), and Lou Diamond Phillips (David Telford) on the dashboard. And as a bonus we have added a second dashboard for Stargate alumni, which currently includes Lexa Doig (Carolyn Lam on SG-1), David Hewlett (Rodney McKay on SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis), Kate Hewlett (Jeannie McKay Miller on Atlantis), Jewel Staite (Jennifer Keller on Atlantis), and Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter on SG-1 and Atlantis and Universe).
We'll add more accounts as we find them (and as time permits).
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Spike TV announcement about Oct 27 Scream Awards
A representative of Spike TV is contacting fan sites and asking them to help get the word out about their Scream Awards (a pretty big event in SF Television). This is a press release about the event, which took place on October 17 and will be aired on October 27. To be honest, I would have posted this last week but my email was so stacked up I only just got to it last evening. Sorry, Spike.
Read more about the event here.
If you cannot wait until October 27 to find out who won what, then click here.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
New York, NY, October 12, 2009 – The stars are aligned for Spike TV’s “SCREAM 2009!” The 4th annual event commemorating all things sci-fi, fantasy, horror and comic book will feature the hottest films, TV shows, comics, actors, creators, and icons who have influenced and shaped these genres. “SCREAM 2009” will also feature World Premieres from some of the most anticipated theatrical and television releases. The show tapes on Saturday, October 17 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, CA and will premiere on Spike TV on Tuesday, October 27 (10:00 PM-Midnight, ET/PT).
Continuing its tradition of presenting World Premiere footage, “SCREAM 2009” will feature “Twilight” star Taylor Lautner as he unveils exclusive footage from “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” The show will also feature never-before-seen content from the upcoming “Star Trek” DVD release. “SCREAM 2009” will debut exclusive content from Martin Scorsese’s upcoming thriller “Shutter Island” starring Leonardo DiCaprio. “SCREAM 2009” will also show a sneak peek of the highly-anticipated new television series “V” with Elizabeth Mitchell.
As previously announced, “SCREAM 2009” will honor the godfather of the modern horror film, George Romero with this year's Scream Mastermind Award. Quentin Tarantino has been tapped to present Romero with this prestigious honor. In addition, the cast of “The Big Bang Theory” including Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar will be on hand to present the “Battlestar Galactica” cast reunion farewell tribute.
Fan favorites added to this year’s star-studded talent roster include Megan Fox, Tobey Maguire, Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Carpenter, Eliza Dushku, Jackie Earle Haley, Jaime King, Sam Raimi, Eli Roth, Liv Tyler, Karl Urban, Elijah Wood, cast members from "The Vampire Diaries” including Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley, stars of the upcoming “Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant” featuring Josh Hutcherson, Chris Massoglia and John C. Reilly, “Drag Me To Hell” cast members Reggie Lee, David Paymer, Dileep Rao and Lorna Raver, along with previously announced talent featuring Stan Lee and the cast and creators of “Battlestar Galactica” and “True Blood.” Additional guest appearances will be announced shortly.
JJ Abrams’ sci-fi action-adventure “Star Trek” tops the “SCREAM 2009” list with 17 nominations including the categories of The Ultimate Scream, Best Science Fiction Movie, Best Director, Best Ensemble, Holy Sh*t Scene-of-the-Year and a nod in the all-new Fight-Scene-of-the-Year category. Comic book-inspired blockbusters “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “Watchmen” each nabbed 13 nominations, big screen adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's best selling novel "Twilight" received 10 nominations, while HBO’s vampire-themed television series “True Blood” garnered nine nominations. Fans can log onto scream.spike.com until Saturday, October 17 to vote for their favorites.
The official sponsors of Spike TV’s “SCREAM 2009” are Taco Bell, Subaru, Geico and Free Credit Report.com.
Casey Patterson, Michael Levitt and Cindy Levitt serve as executive producers for “SCREAM 2009.” Greg Sills is supervising producer, Gary Tellalian and Austin Reading are producers and Hamish Hamilton will direct.
Spike TV is available in 98 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks. A unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), MTV Networks is one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. Spike TV's Internet address is www.spike.com and for up-to-the-minute and archival press information and photographs, visit Spike TV's press site at http://www.spike.com/press.
Read more about the event here.
If you cannot wait until October 27 to find out who won what, then click here.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Production art from 1970s "John Carter" film project
There has been more than one attempt to bring Edgar Rice Burrough's Martian hero to the big screen. Some of them probably died well-deserved deaths but many ERB fans have grown frustrated with the on-again, off-again status of the movie. Other literary franchises have proven to be far more successful at making the transition to the big screen.
What has been so challenging for John Carter of Mars?
Design Concepts shares some rarely seen production artwork from a 1970s attempt to being the story to the big screen. Keep in mind these ideas won't be incorporated into the Andrew Stanton movie that Disney/Pixar are producing and which is expected to be released in 2012 (100 years after A Princess of Mars was first published).
The artwork is not entirely faithful to ERB's original ideas (the Green Men appear to have only 2 arms, for example) but in the 1970s even animators were limited in what they could do to bring complex ecosystems to life. ERB's Martian environment was both very similar to Earth's and very different.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
What has been so challenging for John Carter of Mars?
Design Concepts shares some rarely seen production artwork from a 1970s attempt to being the story to the big screen. Keep in mind these ideas won't be incorporated into the Andrew Stanton movie that Disney/Pixar are producing and which is expected to be released in 2012 (100 years after A Princess of Mars was first published).
The artwork is not entirely faithful to ERB's original ideas (the Green Men appear to have only 2 arms, for example) but in the 1970s even animators were limited in what they could do to bring complex ecosystems to life. ERB's Martian environment was both very similar to Earth's and very different.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Trailer for "Probed"
"Probed" is a new science fiction Webisode Series (can't we come up with a better name than that?) that looks pretty interesting. The production values for the trailer, at any rate, are first rate.
You can check out the official site, Probed: Signals and also watch the trailer below.
"Probed" stars Kevin Hermann and Leslie Wall as two students who investigate the paranormal (apparently the spacier side of the paranormal).
Why do they call it "paranormal" anyway? If all this so-called paranormal stuff is real, it's really normal, right? "Paranormal" and "supernatural" are really non sequitur words.
There is also a Probed: Signals YouTube Channel.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
You can check out the official site, Probed: Signals and also watch the trailer below.
"Probed" stars Kevin Hermann and Leslie Wall as two students who investigate the paranormal (apparently the spacier side of the paranormal).
Why do they call it "paranormal" anyway? If all this so-called paranormal stuff is real, it's really normal, right? "Paranormal" and "supernatural" are really non sequitur words.
There is also a Probed: Signals YouTube Channel.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Off-topic: Hard Core SEO Tips
Some of you (maybe all of you) know that I am a Director of Search Strategies -- an SEO theorist, if you will. In fact, for several years I have written the SEO Theory blog (which started here on Blogger before we moved it to its own domain).
Starting in October 2007, every October 16 I've shared an article on SEO Theory offering 20 Hard Core SEO Tips. I wrote the first article because I was stuck for something to write about and figured, what the heck, I could easily slap together a "20 Hard Core SEO Tips" list without much thought.
I did not expect the overwhelming reaction to that article. People loved it.
So a year later I thought, "Why not try that again?" And I did. I wrote "20 More Hard Core SEO Tips". These articles were popular for several reasons. First, I don't normally write "list" articles. Secondly, I like to challenge conventional ideas that have become moribund in mythology. That is, there are often good reasons for why SEOs say "do this" but sometimes the concepts get lost in the repetition. If you challenge yourself by challenging conventional wisdom, you shake your innovative powers out of their lethargy.
And this year people wondered if I would write a third article. Well, to make a long story short I was way ahead of them. I did, in fact, give a lot of thought to writing that article. All three articles are published on October 16. There is nothing significant about October 16 in the SEO world except that is the day when I wrote the first 20 Hard Core SEO Tips article.
If you're curious about what hard core SEO looks like, take a look at these articles:
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Starting in October 2007, every October 16 I've shared an article on SEO Theory offering 20 Hard Core SEO Tips. I wrote the first article because I was stuck for something to write about and figured, what the heck, I could easily slap together a "20 Hard Core SEO Tips" list without much thought.
I did not expect the overwhelming reaction to that article. People loved it.
So a year later I thought, "Why not try that again?" And I did. I wrote "20 More Hard Core SEO Tips". These articles were popular for several reasons. First, I don't normally write "list" articles. Secondly, I like to challenge conventional ideas that have become moribund in mythology. That is, there are often good reasons for why SEOs say "do this" but sometimes the concepts get lost in the repetition. If you challenge yourself by challenging conventional wisdom, you shake your innovative powers out of their lethargy.
And this year people wondered if I would write a third article. Well, to make a long story short I was way ahead of them. I did, in fact, give a lot of thought to writing that article. All three articles are published on October 16. There is nothing significant about October 16 in the SEO world except that is the day when I wrote the first 20 Hard Core SEO Tips article.
If you're curious about what hard core SEO looks like, take a look at these articles:
- Another 20 Hard Core SEO Tips, published on October 16, 2009.
- 20 More Hard Core SEO Tips, published on October 16, 2008.
- 20 Hard Core SEO Tips, published on October 16, 2007.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Short SciFi Film - "The Human Error"
This is another college movie that its creator has decided to share on YouTube. The beginning is a bit slow but once you get about halfway into the 6-minute story things get interesting.
And the ending is very unexpected. I have to admit that I did not see it coming.
You can see more videos from Zenusss' YouTube Channel although I don't know how many of them are from the same producer.
Watch "The Human Error". It's a pretty good student film.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
And the ending is very unexpected. I have to admit that I did not see it coming.
You can see more videos from Zenusss' YouTube Channel although I don't know how many of them are from the same producer.
Watch "The Human Error". It's a pretty good student film.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Spike Jonze' "Where The Wild Things Are"
I thought I would try something different today. I wanted to coordinate posts about Spike Jonze' movie, "Where The Wild Things Are", on two or more sites today. The movie opens in theaters tomorrow (October 16) and I'm going to see it!
I've watched more than one trailer for the movie but the "official" trailer is below. People have expressed real enthusiasm when they've seen this trailer (and others) in theaters where I've seen it. And I think the fact that Maurice Sendak, author of the book on which the movie is based, was involved in the production of the film only promises that it will stay true to the spirit of the original story.
Sendak's tale of a child who goes on an adventure with the wild monsters he was afraid of when he went to bed helped make the night a little more interesting for many children. It's a time-tested tale that inspires the imagination and gets you to thinking about what you would do if you were lucky enough to be in Max's place.
And you may recall that I recently ranted about about bad Warner Brothers' movie sites are. Well, they did a better job for the official site than they have done for other movies' sites, but they could have done so much more. I just don't understand how movie studios cannot come to grips with reality on the Web: people want MORE, not LESS.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
I've watched more than one trailer for the movie but the "official" trailer is below. People have expressed real enthusiasm when they've seen this trailer (and others) in theaters where I've seen it. And I think the fact that Maurice Sendak, author of the book on which the movie is based, was involved in the production of the film only promises that it will stay true to the spirit of the original story.
Sendak's tale of a child who goes on an adventure with the wild monsters he was afraid of when he went to bed helped make the night a little more interesting for many children. It's a time-tested tale that inspires the imagination and gets you to thinking about what you would do if you were lucky enough to be in Max's place.
And you may recall that I recently ranted about about bad Warner Brothers' movie sites are. Well, they did a better job for the official site than they have done for other movies' sites, but they could have done so much more. I just don't understand how movie studios cannot come to grips with reality on the Web: people want MORE, not LESS.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Spokane, WA Tolkien Society meets every second Saturday
Hawke Robinson has organized a smial, a chapter of the Tolkien Society, that is based in the Spokane, WA area. The smial meets every second Saturday at the NORTH Service Station Coffee House.
We chatted through Skype on a conference call on Saturday, October 10 at the first monthly meeting. A couple of people dropped by to let Hawke know they would be able to attend the next meeting. He didn't get the announcements out in good time so I offered to post some announcements around the Xenite.Org Network to help get the word out.
You can learn more about the smial by visiting the Tolkien Scholars Website, which will be the home site for next year's Tolkien Moot in Spokane.
I'll try to post a reminder message here each month a few days prior to the meetings.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
We chatted through Skype on a conference call on Saturday, October 10 at the first monthly meeting. A couple of people dropped by to let Hawke know they would be able to attend the next meeting. He didn't get the announcements out in good time so I offered to post some announcements around the Xenite.Org Network to help get the word out.
You can learn more about the smial by visiting the Tolkien Scholars Website, which will be the home site for next year's Tolkien Moot in Spokane.
I'll try to post a reminder message here each month a few days prior to the meetings.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Druids by Barbara Galler-Smith and Josh Langston has Oct 17 launch party
Barb Galler-Smith and Josh Langston are two first-generation Compuserve IMPs, a very successful online writers group started in the early 1990s. B.J. recently sent the following announcement to her friends and followers and I am passing it on.
My dear friends and colleagues:
My first novel, DRUIDS, is now out, and I invite you to the official Canadian launch. Pop in, bring your family and friends, and help us celebrate this long-awaited event.
Join us in celebration of the Canadian launch of
DRUIDS
by Barbara Galler-Smith and Josh Langston
When: Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 2:00—5:00 pm
Where: Edmonton Public Library, Old Strathcona Branch, 8331 104 Street, Upstairs
Published by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing (www.edgewebsite.com)
Watch their video trailer for Druids on YouTube:
Good luck, guys!
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
My dear friends and colleagues:
My first novel, DRUIDS, is now out, and I invite you to the official Canadian launch. Pop in, bring your family and friends, and help us celebrate this long-awaited event.
Join us in celebration of the Canadian launch of
DRUIDS
by Barbara Galler-Smith and Josh Langston
When: Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 2:00—5:00 pm
Where: Edmonton Public Library, Old Strathcona Branch, 8331 104 Street, Upstairs
- Refreshments (yes, cake!)
- Music by Peter Sanderson
- Art by Aaron Paquette and Herman Lau
- And something a little different.
Published by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing (www.edgewebsite.com)
Watch their video trailer for Druids on YouTube:
Good luck, guys!
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Monday, October 12, 2009
More information on "John Carter of Mars" movie
Additional cast information has been provided about the "John Carter of Mars" movie, which is scheduled to start filming in Utah next month (November 2009).
You can stay on top of the latest developments at SF-Fandom's John Carter of Mars movie discussion, too.
Here is the latest cast rundown provided by IMDB:
Several Web sites are reporting or speculating that Tal Hajus is a "would-be ruler" of the Green Men. In the book he IS the Jeddak of Thark, the tribe of Green Men who capture John Carter and Dejah Thoris. Tars Tarkus eventually kills Tal Hajus and succeeds him as Jeddak of Thark.
Those same sites also speculate that the first three books in the series may be compressed into one movie because of the inclusion of characters like Matai Shang. While that is certainly a possibility, word is that Stanton may actually produce two sequels, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.
It's almost guaranteed that some changes to the story and world of Barsoom will occur in the transition from book to big screen but so many people have been waiting for this project to happen I think that there is a lot of room for creative tolerance. I hope so.
And one more thing -- if you read anywhere that Taylor Kitsch has been doing cocaine on the set of this movie -- don't believe it. How could he be doing that if the movie hasn't started filming yet? Some people just like to start silly rumors and that is all it is.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
You can stay on top of the latest developments at SF-Fandom's John Carter of Mars movie discussion, too.
Here is the latest cast rundown provided by IMDB:
- Lynn Collins ... Dejah Thoris
- Taylor Kitsch ... John Carter
- Willem Dafoe ... Tars Tarkas
- Mark Strong ... Matai Shang
- Dominic West ... Sab Than
- Thomas Haden Church ... Tal Hajus
- James Purefoy ... Kantos Kan
- Daryl Sabara ... Edgar Rice Burrows (Burroughs)
- Samantha Morton ... Sola
- Polly Walker ... Sarkoja
Several Web sites are reporting or speculating that Tal Hajus is a "would-be ruler" of the Green Men. In the book he IS the Jeddak of Thark, the tribe of Green Men who capture John Carter and Dejah Thoris. Tars Tarkus eventually kills Tal Hajus and succeeds him as Jeddak of Thark.
Those same sites also speculate that the first three books in the series may be compressed into one movie because of the inclusion of characters like Matai Shang. While that is certainly a possibility, word is that Stanton may actually produce two sequels, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.
It's almost guaranteed that some changes to the story and world of Barsoom will occur in the transition from book to big screen but so many people have been waiting for this project to happen I think that there is a lot of room for creative tolerance. I hope so.
And one more thing -- if you read anywhere that Taylor Kitsch has been doing cocaine on the set of this movie -- don't believe it. How could he be doing that if the movie hasn't started filming yet? Some people just like to start silly rumors and that is all it is.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Hayao Miyazaki's "Ponyo"
If there is one thing the Disney Company knows how to do, it's create kid-friendly movie sites. Unlike Warner Brothers, whose skimpy sites are a waste of time, Disney at least provides you with some stuff to download, things to do, and cast and crew information. They're not so cheap as to rely upon the IMDB to tell people all the little details.
I'm sorry, was I not talking about "Ponyo"? I wish I could show you the trailer that is on YouTube but one thing Disney does that I hate is it prevents people from sharing its videos.
Clearly, someone at Disney doesn't understand viral marketing (ironically -- most people in the SEO industry mistakenly believe viral marketing is all about embedding links in blog posts, so I'm pretty sure I know where Disney got this dumb marketing idea).
But let's talk about Hayao Miyazaki. This is the legendary Japanese film-maker who gave us "Howl's Moving Castle", "Princess Mononoke", "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds", and "Castle In The Sky" (to name just a few of his great films). Miyazaki is a great story-teller, and his work stands out amid all film-making around the world as being imaginative, creative, inventive, entertaining, and hard to hold down.
Miyazaki's films are the kind of treats you bring home for yourself and hope the kids don't get upset because you want to watch them over and over again. "Ponyo" came out earlier this year but if it passed through my area we missed it (probably because it was released on so few screens. It looks like we'll have to wait for the DvD.
It would be nice if the studios that schedule their films for mass release across thousands of screens would also create decent Web sites. Oh well.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
I'm sorry, was I not talking about "Ponyo"? I wish I could show you the trailer that is on YouTube but one thing Disney does that I hate is it prevents people from sharing its videos.
Clearly, someone at Disney doesn't understand viral marketing (ironically -- most people in the SEO industry mistakenly believe viral marketing is all about embedding links in blog posts, so I'm pretty sure I know where Disney got this dumb marketing idea).
But let's talk about Hayao Miyazaki. This is the legendary Japanese film-maker who gave us "Howl's Moving Castle", "Princess Mononoke", "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds", and "Castle In The Sky" (to name just a few of his great films). Miyazaki is a great story-teller, and his work stands out amid all film-making around the world as being imaginative, creative, inventive, entertaining, and hard to hold down.
Miyazaki's films are the kind of treats you bring home for yourself and hope the kids don't get upset because you want to watch them over and over again. "Ponyo" came out earlier this year but if it passed through my area we missed it (probably because it was released on so few screens. It looks like we'll have to wait for the DvD.
It would be nice if the studios that schedule their films for mass release across thousands of screens would also create decent Web sites. Oh well.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Trailer for "The Book of Eli"
There is something about post-apocalyptic movies that bugs me: the Earth is always a desert in such movies. Why is that? We now know that even under intense radiation plant and wildlife somehow manage to go on. A thermo-nuclear war would, I am sure, clean most life off the planet but the odds are pretty good that unless we figure out a way to boil the oceans off into space life would continue on Earth.
So I quibble over speculative details. I just wish someone would make a post-apocalyptic movie that doesn't portray the Earth as an inhospitable desert. Oh, wait, Kevin Costner did that in "Waterworld". Never mind.
So Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Malcolm McDowell, Jennifer Beals, and Michael Gambon will lead a rag-tag fugitive cast in search of a good movie concept next January when "The Book of Eli" debuts in theaters. There is an official Website where you can watch the trailer I've embedded below. But there is nothing else, really.
Why do movie studios waste our time with these crappy, no-content sites? I'm not signing up with their Facebook account so I can carry their ads. I want to see interviews with the cast and producers. I want to see production stills. I want to see background material. I want to see a good, old-fashioned, fan-oriented Web site that digs deep into the story and helps me identify with it.
Because, frankly, I'm not sure I'm going to be all buzzed up to see yet another post-apocalyptic movie set in the desert. I'd rather see some imagination go into the movies I watch. The advance promotion suggests that imagination is probably the biggest deficit this film carries with it.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
So I quibble over speculative details. I just wish someone would make a post-apocalyptic movie that doesn't portray the Earth as an inhospitable desert. Oh, wait, Kevin Costner did that in "Waterworld". Never mind.
So Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Malcolm McDowell, Jennifer Beals, and Michael Gambon will lead a rag-tag fugitive cast in search of a good movie concept next January when "The Book of Eli" debuts in theaters. There is an official Website where you can watch the trailer I've embedded below. But there is nothing else, really.
Why do movie studios waste our time with these crappy, no-content sites? I'm not signing up with their Facebook account so I can carry their ads. I want to see interviews with the cast and producers. I want to see production stills. I want to see background material. I want to see a good, old-fashioned, fan-oriented Web site that digs deep into the story and helps me identify with it.
Because, frankly, I'm not sure I'm going to be all buzzed up to see yet another post-apocalyptic movie set in the desert. I'd rather see some imagination go into the movies I watch. The advance promotion suggests that imagination is probably the biggest deficit this film carries with it.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Is Google Blogsearch dumping blogs from its index?
I noticed something curious this week which I suspect may afflict many low-frequency bloggers, especially people in the science fiction and fantasy community. Google Blogsearch seems to favor only frequently updated blogs.
At work I used to write 5 days a week for a blog called SEO Theory. I had to suspend daily updates to the blog several months ago because my work schedule was overwhelmed. I have occasionally posted new articles on SEO Theory but not with any consistency.
Time was, if you wrote a blog post -- especially on Blogger -- you could expect to see it show up in Google Blogsearch almost immediately and eventually it looked like it would move over to the Main Web Index in a matter of days (for popular blogs, at least).
In October 2008 Google redesigned its Blogsearch service and at the time they hailed it as a step forward. Unfortunately, from that time forward many blogs I had followed through Blogsearch (without bookmarking them because Blogsearch was so convenient in indexing their latest content) simply vanished from the search results.
Having discussed the changes in Blogsearch results online with a couple of Googlers (who asked for specific examples I was not able to provide because I had until then not needed to bookmark good blogs), I found little hope in seeing Google restore its once superior blog indexing service.
Still, I was working on some popular blogs that were being indexed quickly so there remained some value in Blogsearch for me. Until this week, when I noticed that a blog post on SEO Theory titled Brent Payne's PageRank Sculpting Report is Bogus had not appeared in the Blogsearch results.
You can find the article just fine in Main Web Search -- which is what most people use -- but the article simply doesn't appear in Google Blogsearch. Anything duplicating its content or linking to it shows up just fine, apparently.
So I checked another blog I had created for work which had received much less attention than SEO Theory. That blog had vanished completely from Google's Web indexes -- it's not even appearing the Main Web Search for its own name.
The only common factor between the two blogs (SEO Theory has far more links than the other one) is that the posting rates died down to almost nothing or nothing. So it seems like, in order to be included in Google Blogsearch your blog has to be updated with new content on a regular basis, probably once or twice a week.
Another blog I write for (yes, I keep up with a fair number of them), Best SEO Blog, appears in the Google Blogsearch index just fine, usually within seconds or minutes of publishing a post.
So if you're wondering why your science fiction blog is not receiving any traffic, it may be because you don't post much to it any more. I cannot guarantee that, but if you have stopped posting new articles, maybe you should try writing something twice a week for a month or two and see what happens.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
At work I used to write 5 days a week for a blog called SEO Theory. I had to suspend daily updates to the blog several months ago because my work schedule was overwhelmed. I have occasionally posted new articles on SEO Theory but not with any consistency.
Time was, if you wrote a blog post -- especially on Blogger -- you could expect to see it show up in Google Blogsearch almost immediately and eventually it looked like it would move over to the Main Web Index in a matter of days (for popular blogs, at least).
In October 2008 Google redesigned its Blogsearch service and at the time they hailed it as a step forward. Unfortunately, from that time forward many blogs I had followed through Blogsearch (without bookmarking them because Blogsearch was so convenient in indexing their latest content) simply vanished from the search results.
Having discussed the changes in Blogsearch results online with a couple of Googlers (who asked for specific examples I was not able to provide because I had until then not needed to bookmark good blogs), I found little hope in seeing Google restore its once superior blog indexing service.
Still, I was working on some popular blogs that were being indexed quickly so there remained some value in Blogsearch for me. Until this week, when I noticed that a blog post on SEO Theory titled Brent Payne's PageRank Sculpting Report is Bogus had not appeared in the Blogsearch results.
You can find the article just fine in Main Web Search -- which is what most people use -- but the article simply doesn't appear in Google Blogsearch. Anything duplicating its content or linking to it shows up just fine, apparently.
So I checked another blog I had created for work which had received much less attention than SEO Theory. That blog had vanished completely from Google's Web indexes -- it's not even appearing the Main Web Search for its own name.
The only common factor between the two blogs (SEO Theory has far more links than the other one) is that the posting rates died down to almost nothing or nothing. So it seems like, in order to be included in Google Blogsearch your blog has to be updated with new content on a regular basis, probably once or twice a week.
Another blog I write for (yes, I keep up with a fair number of them), Best SEO Blog, appears in the Google Blogsearch index just fine, usually within seconds or minutes of publishing a post.
So if you're wondering why your science fiction blog is not receiving any traffic, it may be because you don't post much to it any more. I cannot guarantee that, but if you have stopped posting new articles, maybe you should try writing something twice a week for a month or two and see what happens.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Where Middle-earth came from
I have been to England twice. On both occasions I was confined to the town of merry old London, so it is with some regret I must confess I have virtually no knowledge of English geography and landscape, except what I can find in books or online.
As someone who has studied the works of J.R.R. Tolkien for many years, I have often come across claims from scholars and locals that such-and-such-a-place is the inspiration for Middle-earth, or served as the model for Middle-earth, or some connection has been observed, claimed, or otherwise inferred, fabricated, and forced into the Tolkien mythology (by which I refer to the mythology that has grown up around J.R.R. Tolkien, not his Middle-earth mythologies).
And I am in no position to discuss, disclaim, dispute, ridicule, or otherwise diminish the merits of these claims -- which probably extend into the hundreds, if not the thousands. Any writer can tell you that when we write we write from personal experience, and J.R.R. Tolkien's personal experiences took him to many places including forests in northern England, seaside resort towns, Ireland, France, Switzerland, and Italy.
The vivid imagery Tolkien infused into his stories about Middle-earth, Beleriand, and even Numenor no doubt owe a great deal to the things he saw and experienced -- which of course only renders Middle-earth more unrealistic, because it's a bit like dragging parts of northwestern Europe across the globe. One simply cannot reproduce England in Brazil, so to speak.
And Tolkien was not trying to do that. He wanted to model Middle-earth after our world so that it seemed familiar and knowable to his readers. To that extent, Tom Shippey's place-name analysis for countries like Rohan makes perfect sense. Even drawing upon such obscure items as Tolkien's work on an archaeological dig in 1929 makes a certain sense, for 10 to 15 years later Tolkien would have had those memories to draw upon.
And yet one cannot help but see a pattern emerging, a social need for mythological identification with one of England's greatest authors. Here in the United States we have seen the phenomenon develop for many of our national heroes and characters from popular folklore. Daniel Boone, Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crocket, and George Washington (to name only a few) are commemorated in many places around the country. There is no doubt those guys got around. But one has to ask how fast they traveled and how briefly they stayed in the various places that have laid some partial claim on their legacies.
Mythology is not about making up unbelievable stuff. Mythology is about remembering things that are believed. In other words, myths are not fiction -- they are explanations, memories, and resonances. The chief differences between mythology are that science is a bit more organized than mythology and mythology is a bit more stable than science. Science constantly challenges itself to question what is currently believed. Mythology is more conservative and it really is a consequence of our instinct to preserve and memorialize the things we have lost to time.
To Tolkien, a linguist, language itself must have seemed like a living mythology, preserving and memorializing things lost to time that we can barely imagine or understand now. The English language may one day be populated with random words and expressions equivalent to "Tolkien was here" -- concepts that only a philologist a thousand years from now might devine from a few scraps of paper.
I occasionally go looking for pictures and other information of places Tolkien is said to have drawn upon for inspiration, such as the Forest of Dean. There is rarely mention of these influences in the traditional biographies. Certainly he does not discuss them in the letters that have been published. And Christopher Tolkien does not clarify his father's exposition very often by mentioning places or projects from his father's youth.
The omission of references in the traditional sources in no way invalidates the claims that people put forth about Tolkien's connections with their landmarks. Rather, quite the opposite -- these omissions call for increased research and scholarship. Logical conclusions must be shared, published, and analyzed. We need to look at these things now, fifty years from now, and 500 years in the future. Before it is too late. Before they are forgotten.
For in the end it is not so important to know where exactly Tolkien got Middle-earth from -- we know it came from his heart. Rather, we have an opportunity here to look into the evolving ideas and myths that create exactly what Tolkien was trying to show us -- we have the opportunity to see the world as he must have seen it, an ever-changing landscape of memories, traditions, and claims the truth of which no one could prove or know unfailingly, but which all enrichened our collective heritage.
That is really what Middle-earth is all about, is it not? The remembering of things that have almost been forgotten -- passing on the mantle of the Story to new generations, so that the Story itself will continue rather than fade.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
As someone who has studied the works of J.R.R. Tolkien for many years, I have often come across claims from scholars and locals that such-and-such-a-place is the inspiration for Middle-earth, or served as the model for Middle-earth, or some connection has been observed, claimed, or otherwise inferred, fabricated, and forced into the Tolkien mythology (by which I refer to the mythology that has grown up around J.R.R. Tolkien, not his Middle-earth mythologies).
And I am in no position to discuss, disclaim, dispute, ridicule, or otherwise diminish the merits of these claims -- which probably extend into the hundreds, if not the thousands. Any writer can tell you that when we write we write from personal experience, and J.R.R. Tolkien's personal experiences took him to many places including forests in northern England, seaside resort towns, Ireland, France, Switzerland, and Italy.
The vivid imagery Tolkien infused into his stories about Middle-earth, Beleriand, and even Numenor no doubt owe a great deal to the things he saw and experienced -- which of course only renders Middle-earth more unrealistic, because it's a bit like dragging parts of northwestern Europe across the globe. One simply cannot reproduce England in Brazil, so to speak.
And Tolkien was not trying to do that. He wanted to model Middle-earth after our world so that it seemed familiar and knowable to his readers. To that extent, Tom Shippey's place-name analysis for countries like Rohan makes perfect sense. Even drawing upon such obscure items as Tolkien's work on an archaeological dig in 1929 makes a certain sense, for 10 to 15 years later Tolkien would have had those memories to draw upon.
And yet one cannot help but see a pattern emerging, a social need for mythological identification with one of England's greatest authors. Here in the United States we have seen the phenomenon develop for many of our national heroes and characters from popular folklore. Daniel Boone, Johnny Appleseed, Davy Crocket, and George Washington (to name only a few) are commemorated in many places around the country. There is no doubt those guys got around. But one has to ask how fast they traveled and how briefly they stayed in the various places that have laid some partial claim on their legacies.
Mythology is not about making up unbelievable stuff. Mythology is about remembering things that are believed. In other words, myths are not fiction -- they are explanations, memories, and resonances. The chief differences between mythology are that science is a bit more organized than mythology and mythology is a bit more stable than science. Science constantly challenges itself to question what is currently believed. Mythology is more conservative and it really is a consequence of our instinct to preserve and memorialize the things we have lost to time.
To Tolkien, a linguist, language itself must have seemed like a living mythology, preserving and memorializing things lost to time that we can barely imagine or understand now. The English language may one day be populated with random words and expressions equivalent to "Tolkien was here" -- concepts that only a philologist a thousand years from now might devine from a few scraps of paper.
I occasionally go looking for pictures and other information of places Tolkien is said to have drawn upon for inspiration, such as the Forest of Dean. There is rarely mention of these influences in the traditional biographies. Certainly he does not discuss them in the letters that have been published. And Christopher Tolkien does not clarify his father's exposition very often by mentioning places or projects from his father's youth.
The omission of references in the traditional sources in no way invalidates the claims that people put forth about Tolkien's connections with their landmarks. Rather, quite the opposite -- these omissions call for increased research and scholarship. Logical conclusions must be shared, published, and analyzed. We need to look at these things now, fifty years from now, and 500 years in the future. Before it is too late. Before they are forgotten.
For in the end it is not so important to know where exactly Tolkien got Middle-earth from -- we know it came from his heart. Rather, we have an opportunity here to look into the evolving ideas and myths that create exactly what Tolkien was trying to show us -- we have the opportunity to see the world as he must have seen it, an ever-changing landscape of memories, traditions, and claims the truth of which no one could prove or know unfailingly, but which all enrichened our collective heritage.
That is really what Middle-earth is all about, is it not? The remembering of things that have almost been forgotten -- passing on the mantle of the Story to new generations, so that the Story itself will continue rather than fade.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Grizedale Forest to bring Ents to life in NW England
This is one of those rare news items I just had to announce in about every place I could. The UK Forestry Commission manages a lot of forests and Grizedale Forest as I understand it is a small wood in northwestern England, somewhere near the town of Grizedale (which sounds like something out of Andre Norton's Witch World books).
According to a story published on Easier.com children (who must be accompanied by an adult) will be able to carve their own Ent heads on November 15, 2009. This is part of a larger series of events and functions throughout October and November.
Here is the precise information about the event:
If after the 15th anyone posts pictures of the Ent heads, please feel free to let me know. I'd love to see them.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
According to a story published on Easier.com children (who must be accompanied by an adult) will be able to carve their own Ent heads on November 15, 2009. This is part of a larger series of events and functions throughout October and November.
Here is the precise information about the event:
'Ent' Heads
Date: Sunday 15 November
Time: 10.30am – 1pm and 1.30pm – 4pm
Duration: Varies depending on the nature of your creation.
Cost: £2.00
Age: All ages
Meeting place: The Yan, Grizedale Centre
Booking required: Just drop in. All children must be accompanied by an adult.
Description: Create your own ‘Ent’! Ents are guardians of the trees and protect our ancient lands against dark forces. Materials provided.
If after the 15th anyone posts pictures of the Ent heads, please feel free to let me know. I'd love to see them.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Professor George Challenger rises again
I'm very familiar with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, which has been adapted to film and television more than once. One of the most interesting characters in The Lost World is, of course, Professor Challenger, who leads a small expedition to South America in search of living dinosaurs.
What I was unaware of (or had completely forgotten) until I read this review of Science Fiction Classics Vol. 17) was that Doyle had featured Professor Challenger and news reporter Edward Malone in another story called "The Disintegration Machine".
Writer Michael May reveiws the latest in a series of graphic novel style adaptations of classic science fiction stories. The latest issue includes adaptations of works by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and E.M. Forster to name just a few others besides Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself.
May's review is entertaining and compelling. I remember reading the old Classics Illustrated comics in the 1960s and 1970s and loving them. It's nice to see there is an equivalent series that treats modern science fiction and fantasy with a similar respect that was extended to the ancient stories that ignited children's imaginations when presented correctly.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
What I was unaware of (or had completely forgotten) until I read this review of Science Fiction Classics Vol. 17) was that Doyle had featured Professor Challenger and news reporter Edward Malone in another story called "The Disintegration Machine".
Writer Michael May reveiws the latest in a series of graphic novel style adaptations of classic science fiction stories. The latest issue includes adaptations of works by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and E.M. Forster to name just a few others besides Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself.
May's review is entertaining and compelling. I remember reading the old Classics Illustrated comics in the 1960s and 1970s and loving them. It's nice to see there is an equivalent series that treats modern science fiction and fantasy with a similar respect that was extended to the ancient stories that ignited children's imaginations when presented correctly.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
CBC audience picks "Top Ten SF Authors"
It never fails to amaze me how well "old school" science fiction authors do in these surveys, but that does lead me to wonder who votes in the surveys.
CBC Books announced Top 10 Science Fiction Writers (as chosen by you) on October 1 and the top three writers were Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Sawyer.
Unlike Herbert and Asimov, Sawyer is still very much among us and writing. Most of the writers in the list are dead. We'll probably see no more books from them, except the occasional posthumous publication of early works (such as Roger Zelazny and J.R.R. Tolkien.
On the one hand, I'm glad to see writers whose works I have enjoyed throughout my life remain popular, but I'm also very conscious of the fact that some generations hang on to habits that are not passed on to others. It would be nice to see one of these "top ten" surveys publish some demographic data.
An author's true impact can only be measured by the number of generations that admire his work. That is why William Shakespeare remains one of the top-selling and among the most admired of all authors in the English language -- there are people who truly appreciate his creativity and writing. His plays go on and on.
Some writers you would probably never read if you were not required to do so in high school and college. I would consider academic critical longevity to be both a sign of success and failure. It marks success because what you wrote rises above so many other potential works that could be used to teach literature. It marks failure if people only remember you because they had to read your books in high school or college.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
CBC Books announced Top 10 Science Fiction Writers (as chosen by you) on October 1 and the top three writers were Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Sawyer.
Unlike Herbert and Asimov, Sawyer is still very much among us and writing. Most of the writers in the list are dead. We'll probably see no more books from them, except the occasional posthumous publication of early works (such as Roger Zelazny and J.R.R. Tolkien.
On the one hand, I'm glad to see writers whose works I have enjoyed throughout my life remain popular, but I'm also very conscious of the fact that some generations hang on to habits that are not passed on to others. It would be nice to see one of these "top ten" surveys publish some demographic data.
An author's true impact can only be measured by the number of generations that admire his work. That is why William Shakespeare remains one of the top-selling and among the most admired of all authors in the English language -- there are people who truly appreciate his creativity and writing. His plays go on and on.
Some writers you would probably never read if you were not required to do so in high school and college. I would consider academic critical longevity to be both a sign of success and failure. It marks success because what you wrote rises above so many other potential works that could be used to teach literature. It marks failure if people only remember you because they had to read your books in high school or college.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Monday, October 5, 2009
How to promote your online fanzine
Someone dropped by the SF-Fandom fan fiction forum to announce a new fan fiction zine called Kasma.
After looking at the site I decided to leave the link drop in place, even though this was a first time poster. Most of the time we delete these kinds of one-stop wonder posts because these people usually just want to piggy-back off a successful forum (or blog)'s visibility.
You know, I've been there many times, having to launch a new site and needing to obtain both contributors and visitors. This blog, for example, is not exactly one of the high-traffic bastions in the Xenite.Org network, but it does get a fairly regular bit of traffic. And when I post to it regularly the traffic builds up gradually.
When you're announcing a new Web site you should really only do so through venues and channels where you are well-known and trusted. Let your online friends recommend the site to people they know in other venues. That's a form of viral marketing that doesn't offend most online communities.
But there is something else you can do for yourself: start a blog and post to it once a day. If you cannot do once a day, then aim for 2-3 posts per week. You don't have to say something profound in every post. People will stop by to see what you have to say.
You do need to let your blog ping search services. Usually blog software will ask you if you want your blog to be visible to search engines. Set this to YES (or ON) so that each of your blog posts goes out to services that announce your blog to the online world and search engines.
And be patient. You're not going to become an overnight sensation unless you create a substantially unique Web property -- and most of us cannot do that.
If anyone reading this post wants to announce their fan site at SF-Fandom, we do have a Fan Sites Forum where you can do this. But please do us the courtesy of joining our community and sharing in our discussions. SF-Fandom is first and foremost a forum community. It is NOT a place where you can just drop a link and forget about us.
That is really, really rude.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
After looking at the site I decided to leave the link drop in place, even though this was a first time poster. Most of the time we delete these kinds of one-stop wonder posts because these people usually just want to piggy-back off a successful forum (or blog)'s visibility.
You know, I've been there many times, having to launch a new site and needing to obtain both contributors and visitors. This blog, for example, is not exactly one of the high-traffic bastions in the Xenite.Org network, but it does get a fairly regular bit of traffic. And when I post to it regularly the traffic builds up gradually.
When you're announcing a new Web site you should really only do so through venues and channels where you are well-known and trusted. Let your online friends recommend the site to people they know in other venues. That's a form of viral marketing that doesn't offend most online communities.
But there is something else you can do for yourself: start a blog and post to it once a day. If you cannot do once a day, then aim for 2-3 posts per week. You don't have to say something profound in every post. People will stop by to see what you have to say.
You do need to let your blog ping search services. Usually blog software will ask you if you want your blog to be visible to search engines. Set this to YES (or ON) so that each of your blog posts goes out to services that announce your blog to the online world and search engines.
And be patient. You're not going to become an overnight sensation unless you create a substantially unique Web property -- and most of us cannot do that.
If anyone reading this post wants to announce their fan site at SF-Fandom, we do have a Fan Sites Forum where you can do this. But please do us the courtesy of joining our community and sharing in our discussions. SF-Fandom is first and foremost a forum community. It is NOT a place where you can just drop a link and forget about us.
That is really, really rude.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Stargate: Universe not so bad at all
I did watch Stargate: Universe (which we're discussing in the Stargate Forum at SF-Fandom) Friday evening and I liked it. The show is following in the footsteps of grittier science fiction series like Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, and Babylon-5 so I think the hard-core space drama fans will take an interest in it.
As I mentioned in this Stargate Universe discussion, I hope they are done using pseudo-medieval village sets. I know it's cost-effective to reuse the same medieval-looking sets over and over again, but it's just so hard to think of advanced space-faring civilizations as living in small villages.
Toward the end, Stargate SG-1 was developing the courage to speak of "millions of Jaffa" (usually as they were wiped out) living on specific worlds. In my mind, no television show has to do much to convey the idea that there are 100,000,000 people living on a planet. Star Trek in its various incarnations usually made it clear that the crew were visiting just one part of a large capitol city or something.
So I'm looking forward to meeting the orange-and-blue-skinned winged aliens who don't understand a word of English and whom the Destiny crew have to learn to get along with through sign language, simple barter, and many episodes. I don't want to see any silly Ferengi-style aliens. I want to see strange species that have a hard time relating to humanity and who don't know what to make of the intrusion of 80 humans into their part of the universe.
And no more threats to Earth, please. That trick has been done to death.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
As I mentioned in this Stargate Universe discussion, I hope they are done using pseudo-medieval village sets. I know it's cost-effective to reuse the same medieval-looking sets over and over again, but it's just so hard to think of advanced space-faring civilizations as living in small villages.
Toward the end, Stargate SG-1 was developing the courage to speak of "millions of Jaffa" (usually as they were wiped out) living on specific worlds. In my mind, no television show has to do much to convey the idea that there are 100,000,000 people living on a planet. Star Trek in its various incarnations usually made it clear that the crew were visiting just one part of a large capitol city or something.
So I'm looking forward to meeting the orange-and-blue-skinned winged aliens who don't understand a word of English and whom the Destiny crew have to learn to get along with through sign language, simple barter, and many episodes. I don't want to see any silly Ferengi-style aliens. I want to see strange species that have a hard time relating to humanity and who don't know what to make of the intrusion of 80 humans into their part of the universe.
And no more threats to Earth, please. That trick has been done to death.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Roddenberry pilot shows to be released on DvD
TrekWeb reports that Warner Brothers is releasing the pilot shows "Genesis II" and "Planet Earth" to DvD.
"Genesis II" starred Alex Cord as a 20th century scientist, Dylan Hunt, who was trapped in an underground stasis experiment for 200 years. Revived by a group of explorers from the 22nd century, Hunt learned that mankind had nearly wiped itself out in a nuclear war. Humanity had become divided into two groups: mutants and "true" humans, descendants of survivors who had protected themselves from radition.
"Genesis II" was actually a pretty good television movie but it apparently did not resonate with network executives and critics. So we were served up the less satisfying "Planet Earth" starring John Saxon and Diana Muldaur. I always enjoyed watching Saxon's work. I could never stand Muldaur on Star Trek or anything else. She simply grated against my nerves (so did Barbara Walters).
The second pilot was also rejected and Saxon went on to star in a season of episodes for "Strange New World" which looked like a "Planet of the Apes" remake of "Wonder Bug" (a silly Saturday morning TV show that I will admit to watching because it killed time).
"Wonder Bug" was much more entertaining.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
"Genesis II" starred Alex Cord as a 20th century scientist, Dylan Hunt, who was trapped in an underground stasis experiment for 200 years. Revived by a group of explorers from the 22nd century, Hunt learned that mankind had nearly wiped itself out in a nuclear war. Humanity had become divided into two groups: mutants and "true" humans, descendants of survivors who had protected themselves from radition.
"Genesis II" was actually a pretty good television movie but it apparently did not resonate with network executives and critics. So we were served up the less satisfying "Planet Earth" starring John Saxon and Diana Muldaur. I always enjoyed watching Saxon's work. I could never stand Muldaur on Star Trek or anything else. She simply grated against my nerves (so did Barbara Walters).
The second pilot was also rejected and Saxon went on to star in a season of episodes for "Strange New World" which looked like a "Planet of the Apes" remake of "Wonder Bug" (a silly Saturday morning TV show that I will admit to watching because it killed time).
"Wonder Bug" was much more entertaining.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Scifi video - "Quest For Heaven"
This is a pretty amazing and entertaining short film starring two young boys who convert the family SUV, garage, and an aluminum ladder into a starship. There is a Christian message at the very end (John 3:16) but the film is pretty cool. They are looking for heaven but what they find is adventure on the way.
The special effects are cheesy but the execution is pretty good. They use blue/green screen effects and "paint" in some energy weapons.
Don't get caught up in the continuity errors and bloopers -- just sit back and enjoy the ride.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
The special effects are cheesy but the execution is pretty good. They use blue/green screen effects and "paint" in some energy weapons.
Don't get caught up in the continuity errors and bloopers -- just sit back and enjoy the ride.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Video - Better Than The Sequel
Proving that you don't need a huge production budget or "A List" actors to make a sad excuse for a fantasy movie, Farmboy Productions brings us "Better Than The Sequel".
Monty Python would be proud, I am sure -- or perhaps aghast. Nonetheless, I laughed, I smilled, I cried.
Oh, the Pain!, Will Robinson -- The pain.....
I would say the end is worth waiting for.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Monty Python would be proud, I am sure -- or perhaps aghast. Nonetheless, I laughed, I smilled, I cried.
Oh, the Pain!, Will Robinson -- The pain.....
I would say the end is worth waiting for.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
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