K3LOID (AND OTHER MEANDERINGS)

 Off Topic  13 Responses »
Dec 102011
 

Last weekend I departed from our usual focus on metal with a piece on a forthcoming movie (“John Carter”) based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic series of sci-fi books set on Barsoom (the Martian word for Mars). That seemed to generate a fair amount of interest, and although I don’t plan to post about movies or books on any kind of regular basis, I got an e-mail about something else sci-fi-related that has set me off again. So here we go.

The e-mail (from a reader named Ben) pointed me to a web site about something called K3LOID. K3LOID is a sci-fi short film by a Spanish outfit called Big Lazy Robot VFX (“BLR”), based on Eliezer S. Yudkowsky’s Artificial Intelligence Box Experiment (more about that later). Coincidentally, BLR did the visual effects for an amazing short film called “The Gift” that we featured in a THAT’S METAL! post almost a year ago (and if you haven’t seen that, definitely go here and watch it).

All that’s available about K3LOID at the moment is a trailer, which you can see after the jump (and I’m actually not positive that there will ever be anything but this trailer, though I hope a film itself will come to fruition, because both the visuals in the trailer and the concept behind the film are cool).

Based on the trailer, and before I found out about BLR’s involvement, I thought this was a Russian sci-fi film (you’ll see why). That got me thinking about both Russian sci-fi movies and Russian sci-fi novels. I’m certainly no expert in either of those genres, but I remembered really liking a book called Solaris by Stanislaw Lem and the 1972 Russian movie made from that novel (directed by Andrey Tarkovskiy), which captured the sense of solitude, profound mystery, and utter strangeness of the mood and the events captured in the book. If you look, you’ll find Solaris on plenty of internet lists as one of the best sci-fi films ever made. Continue reading »

BARSOOM

 Off Topic  58 Responses »
Dec 042011
 

I have to take a break from our usual subject matter and geek-the-fuck-out for a few minutes, because JOHN CARTER, the movie, is on the way.

Edgar Rice Burroughs is best known for being the creator of Tarzan, about whom he wrote 20+ books between 1912 and 1947. But Burroughs wrote other series as well, including 10 books set on Mars that featured the adventures of a hero named John Carter. This coming February will be the 100th anniversary of the novelization of the first book in the series, A Princess of Mars. (it was originally serialized  in a magazine called All-Star). In the Martian language used by Burroughs in his books, the name of Mars is Barsoom.

When I was much younger and even more geeky than I am now, I spent many happy hours on Barsoom, reading all the books in the Mars series more than once (I read all the Tarzan books, too, plus just about everything else Burroughs wrote). They told the story of a Civil War captain who inexplicably found himself transported to Mars, full of exotic civilizations, races of bizarre beings, and rampant conflict. So, I became childishly excited when I saw this morning that Disney has made a movie based on A Princess of Mars called JOHN CARTER.

It was directed by Academy-award winner Andrew Stanton (Wall-E) and starts Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights) as Carter, Willem Dafoe as Tars Tarkas, and the delectable Lynn Collins (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) Princess Dejah Thoris. I really, really, really, really hope this movie is good. Really. Shit, I’ll be thrilled if it’s just decent.

It turns out that a teaser trailer was released in July, which I totally missed, but now there’s a new, longer one, which is finally what woke me the fuck up about this movie.  It looks pretty sweet. Check out both trailers after the jump, and I’ve also collected a shitload of stills from the movie and anothe rposter, too. Continue reading »

IT’S DECORATIVE GOURD SEASON, MOTHERFUCKERS

 Off Topic  12 Responses »
Nov 302011
 

This has nothing to do with music, but it’s goddamned funny and it comes awfully close to what I’ve been composing for my annual Christmas rant, and I just had to share it. So there. The author is Colin Nissan, and his article appeared on the McSweeney’s Internet Tendency web site:

“I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get my hands on some fucking gourds and arrange them in a horn-shaped basket on my dining room table. That shit is going to look so seasonal. I’m about to head up to the attic right now to find that wicker fucker, dust it off, and jam it with an insanely ornate assortment of shellacked vegetables. When my guests come over it’s gonna be like, BLAMMO! Check out my shellacked decorative vegetables, assholes. Guess what season it is—fucking fall. There’s a nip in the air and my house is full of mutant fucking squash.

I may even throw some multi-colored leaves into the mix, all haphazard like a crisp October breeze just blew through and fucked that shit up. Then I’m going to get to work on making a beautiful fucking gourd necklace for myself. People are going to be like, “Aren’t those gourds straining your neck?” And I’m just going to thread another gourd onto my necklace without breaking their gaze and quietly reply, “It’s fall, fuckfaces. You’re either ready to reap this freaky-assed harvest or you’re not.” Continue reading »

THE HORROR IN NORWAY

 Off Topic  20 Responses »
Jul 232011
 

These days, you hear the words “terrorist attack”, and the first thing that comes to mind (at least to most Americans) is yet another wanton act of destruction by some cell of Islamic fundamentalists. I woke up this morning to a reminder that the thirst for the blood of innocents isn’t limited to whackjobs who think they’ve found a green light for slaughter in the Koran. As if we needed another reminder.

It began yesterday afternoon in Oslo, Norway, when a massive explosion detonated in a high-rise office building that housed the Norwegian prime minister’s office, killing seven people. A few hours later, a man disguised as a police officer killed 84 people on an idyllic Norwegian island called Utoya about 20 miles northwest of Oslo, shooting them one by one. At the time, the island was full of teenagers attending a Labour Party youth-wing retreat. (The Labour Party is currently in charge of Norway’s coalition government.) People fled into the lake surronding the island in an effort to escape, and police are still searching the water for bodies. Norway’s prime minister was scheduled to speak at the island youth retreat today.

Police have arrested one suspect, who appears to be tied to both of these atrocities — a 32-year old, blonde, blue-eyed Norwegian named Anders Behring Breivik, a frequent poster on right-wing, Christian fundamentalist web sites.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told reporters, “This is out of comprehension. It’s a nightmare. It’s a nightmare for those who have been killed, for their mothers and fathers, family and friends.” He said that he had spent many summers on Utoya, calling it “my childhood paradise that yesterday was transformed into hell.”  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

LARGE COJONES AND LOOSE WIRING

 Off Topic  8 Responses »
Jul 042011
 

No, I didn’t forget that it’s Independence Day. I’ve been without high-speed internet service for the last 36 hours, and of course there’s no fucking way it will get fixed on the 4th of July, so I’ve had to fall back on a data card on a different carrier, which is slower than a three-legged sloth and just randomly disconnects as if it can’t be bothered — which makes uploading and downloading tedious, and streaming is impossible.

Well, enough spoiled whining from me. Happy Fourth to all you motherfuckers! Hope all you Americans are enjoying your holiday. In honor of the occasion, I thought it might be worth remembering a bit of history.

Almost five years ago, I found myself in Philadelphia with some time to kill and I sought out the Christ Church Burial Ground because I wanted to see the grave of Ben Franklin — who, among many other things, was a signer of The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution — and the grave of Commodore William Bainbridge, for whom the island where I live was named. Also, I like graveyards.

After prowling around the cemetery for an hour, I wandered into Christ Church itself, which was founded in 1695. It’s a relatively un-ostentatious building, but it’s steeped in history. It was the first parish of the Church of England in Pennsylvania, it was the birthplace of the American Episcopal Church, and the rector of the church gave the opening prayer to the first meeting of the Continental Congress in 1774. (more after the jump . . . and there will be metal . . .) Continue reading »

PROGRESS

 Off Topic  17 Responses »
Jun 252011
 

Yesterday, the New York state legislature passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, and NY Governor Andrew Cuomo signed it into law shortly before midnight. Legal gay marriages can begin in New York by late July. With the passage of that bill, New York became the sixth U.S. state — and the largest — to legalize gay marriage. Overnight, it doubled the number of Americans living in states where gay people can legally marry.

Criticism of the new law has already started pouring forth from religious leaders, such as the official statement by the Catholic Bishops of New York that “both marriage and the family will be undermined by this tragic presumption of government in passing this legislation that attempts to redefine these cornerstones of civilization.” I’ve never understood that argument, but then again, I admit I haven’t tried very hard to understand it. To me, you can believe that marriage has a religious/moral component if you want, but it also undeniably has legal consequences, too, and laws like the one NY passed is a matter of extending equal legal rights (and obligations) to gay people. That seems like progress to me.

The metal scene isn’t exactly welcoming to gay people. For the most part, it’s a male-dominated, testosterone-fueled style of music. To steal a line from journalist Amanda Hess, “the human sexuality analysis generally runs along the lines of ‘that band is fuckin’ gay.'” I’ve never really understood that attitude either. To me, metal is about living the way you want and letting other people do the same. It ought to be a culture that fully embraces diversity, requiring only one criterion for admission — that you love metal. But that’s just my ideal, not the reality. The reality, as I perceive it, is that there’s a pronounced prejudice against gay people in the metal scene, which probably explains why metal musicians who self-identify as gay are so few and far between.

But, to commemorate the historic event in New York, I’m going to feature music from a few gay metal musicians who’ve come out of the closet, or were never in it (and credit again to Amanda Hess for these prominent examples). That’s after the jump . . . Continue reading »

WORDS, AND RICE

 Off Topic  10 Responses »
Jun 242011
 

I love words almost as much as I love metal. That’s probably why I’m so wordy in my NCS posts. That’s also why I was very interested in a message I received recently from one of our regular readers and commenters who goes by the name Utmu.  He brought to my attention a web site called Free Rice, explaining, “I see NCS as a metal blog that actively helps people/groups of people”, based in part on the effort we organized back in March (at the urging of our friend Phro) to raise money for relief efforts in Japan (see this).

When people regard you as better than you are, sometimes that can inspire you to become better. Anyway, I was touched by what Utmu said about our site, and it did inspire me to help spread the word about Free Rice. It’s a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program. It espouses two goals: (1) Provide education to everyone for free; and (2) help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

The program is made possible by sponsors who advertise on the site. So, when you visit the site, it generates ad revenue for the program. When you go there, you’ll see a word challenge. If you click on the right answer, you get a harder question. If you click on the wrong answer, you get an easier question. For every answer you get right, Free Rice donates 10 grains of rice to The World Food Program. According to the site, as of yesterday they had donated 6,499,482,970 grains of rice during 2011 and over 91 billion grains since the program started.

The site also provides this “warning”: “This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance… ” It also helps feed hungry people. As Utmu correctly wrote to me, this is something simple that metalheads can do to help the world. And if you get exhausted with the word challenges, click on the “Subjects” tab at the top of the page, and you’ll find other games that use geography, math, chemistry, languages learning, and humanities. One more time: HERE is the link. Thanks Utmu.

MEMORIAL DAY

 Off Topic  8 Responses »
May 302011
 

Today is a “bank holiday” in several other countries. In the U.S., it has a different significance. It honors members of the U.S. military who died in service.

I wasn’t going to say anything about Memorial Day here. First, people come to NCS for metal, not anything else. Second, I’m not into flag-waving and patriotism and America-First sloganeering. All that usually seems to me like one more thing that retards people from thinking for themselves. Plus, I like and admire people from other countries and their cultures (many of whom I’ve gotten to know through NCS). And there’s also the borderline anarchic nature of my own personality.  🙂

I also have my own opinions about the wars the U.S. has been fighting. But that’s neither here nor there. What decided me to write this was just thinking about men and women in the military, in my generation and younger generations, who’ve been killed and maimed and hurt psychologically and emotionally doing things most of us (thankfully) will never have to do. Doesn’t matter that they’re volunteers for these jobs. Doesn’t matter whether I or anyone else necessarily believes in the rightness of the wars they’ve been told to fight. All that matters is that many of them have been and still are in harm’s way, and many have not emerged unscathed, or emerged at all. So, I think they deserve a few moments of thought and reflection, and honor.

I watched part of an interview last night on the 60 Minutes TV show of a guy named Salvatore Giunta — a 25-year-old U.S. Army staff sergeant from Iowa who last November became the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor from the war in Afghanistan for his bravery in an ambush that killed two of his mates. It was not what I expected. When he was asked in a different interview about what he thought when he heard he was to receive the nation’s highest military honor, he said this:  “‘Fuck you,’ I thought. It sounds really awesome in theory, but what’s it worth? Brennan? Mendoza? No. I did what I did because in the scheme of painting the picture of that ambush, that was just my brush stroke. That’s not above and beyond. I didn’t take the biggest brush stroke, and it wasn’t the most important brush stroke. Hearing the Medal of Honor is like a slap in the face. I don’t think you know what I did. I didn’t do shit.”  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

OSAMA BIN LADEN HAS BEEN KILLED

 Off Topic  23 Responses »
May 012011
 

Tonight, in a televised statement, President Obama has confirmed previous reports that a small team of U.S. military forces killed Osama Bin Laden at a compound deep inside Pakistan today and took custody of his body.

I don’t know how much this means to people outside the U.S., or what it means to people in other nations. In this country, it means a great deal, a kind of closure after nearly a decade since 9/11.  At least when I’m in my right mind, I don’t wish the death of anyone, but I confess to a feeling of relief tonight, a feeling that some small measure of justice has been done for the nearly three thousand families, both here and in other countries, who lost loved ones on that awful day.

But, really, I’m just a part-time metal blogger, and no one in their right mind visits NCS to get their “hard news”, so I’m keeping this brief and I’m going to withhold any further comment. Anyone else who feels like saying something, please do so. I just couldn’t let this pass without notice.

A WORD OF THANKS, AND A QUESTION

 Off Topic  41 Responses »
Apr 232011
 

Well, my two weeks of travel and shortness of time are now over. My fears about not being able to put up new posts on the site every day didn’t materialize — I did have time every day at least for quick items (even more than usual, precisely because they were quick).

Nevertheless, I’m truly grateful to all the people who responded to my call for help and gave NCS a safety net by sending us guest blogs. I really enjoyed reading every one of them, and judging by the hits on our site, lots of other people did, too. To all of you who contributed guest posts, both our readers and other metal bloggers, please don’t wait for another invitation — when the mood strikes you, please send more our way . . . It adds to the variety of NCS to have more voices.

And speaking of other voices, I also want to give a tip of the hat to our regular contributors Andy Synn and BadWolf for stepping up with a slew of reviews over the last two weeks.

Now, things around here will be returning to “normal”, for better or worse. With more time, I’ll be able to return to some of our regular features that have been missing for a while, and I’ll be catching up on album reviews — starting with the next post today about The Brown Book‘s new EP.

In addition to offering up my thank-you’s, I do have a question for you, after the jump . . . Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries