The Fantastic Four were never my favorite team of superheroes, certainly not wowing me in their various on-screen incarnations despite some of the cast. However, I always felt like there was a place for these public do-gooders and their matching “can-do” attitude… and by gum, I think this latest iteration seems to have tapped into the right tone! I also appreciate that they released it on the fourth (which I gotta guess is on purpose).
“Supercuts” are always fun and supercuts of a past year’s films are a fine tradition to uphold. For over a decade, I’m enjoyed the meticulously crafted montages by David Ehrlich, a film critic and, as quickly becomes apparent: wholly unrepentant cinemaniac. His tastes and judgment on films are as varied as they are unexpected, paired beautifully with a veritable mixtape of a soundtrack that grabs you as much as it startles you. Basically, one minute…
It probably doesn’t surprise readers, given my posts during Banned Books Week, that I like libraries and bookstores. And while I favor independent and used bookstores when I can (and usually get my books online from Bookshop.org), I have visited various Barnes & Noble stores on several occasions in recent memory. So I was interested to learn that they’re doing well, even in this age of “is anybody reading?” On one level, I am amazed…
Thinking of Saturday’s post, when it comes to writing implements, one shouldn’t be limited to pens of course, but for writers (vs. illustrators) I can’t recall scribes being as agog about pencils these days (I may be wrong, send links!). However, when it comes to markers, Sharpies have not only become ubiquitous when someone reaches for “a marker,” but they come in more colors than Oreos have flavors, i.e., slightly less than the number of…
Everyone appears to have a favorite movie to watch on Christmas, whether or not it’s a Christmas movie (like, say, Die Hard). But what if you wanted a Christmas movie by a well-known director? Fourgrounds Media Inc. and Suitcase in Point Theatre Company have your back:
I’m still not sure what movies I’ll be able to see in theaters in the last two weeks of the year, but as for selections next summer, DC is clearly bringing a Gunn to a superhero knife fight: Come on. You thought “oh yeah, this is Gunn” the moment you saw Supes whistle… because you knew Krypto was going to appear. So yeah, it looks promising enough to check out in theaters… something I can’t…
Ray Bradbury once said he wasn’t trying to predict the future with some of his tales of a dystopian or apocalyptic future, he wanted scare people. Basically, warning society “If you don’t watch out, this is what could happen.” Well, apparently we didn’t get the memo, per Yuval Noah Harari, author of the excellent Sapiens. In his latest book, Nexus, he traces ‘information networks’ from pre-history to today… and he’s not entirely rosy about humans…
A new short film, using CGI technology that would make Forrest Gump blush, is making the rounds amongst the various Trek groups I frequent. It’s called 765874 – Unification. It packs in more references to more iterations of Star Trek than you might expect, involves a lot of old Trek hands, and is very emotional for a lot of Trekkers. Take 11 minutes on the biggest screen you can find and see what you think.
There’s a meme going around that generations should now be divided by “Too old to know Homestar Runner/at the right age to know and love Homestar Runner/too young to know Homestar Runner.” Admittedly, this is rather prejudiced towards knowing Homestar Runner, but seeing as I do (and seriously Stwong Bad, he’s the bee’s knees!), I don’t find this a problem. In part, because I think anyone at any age can discover the sparkling majesty of…
SimCity was a delightful timesink for me throughout the 90s, so I’ve always kind of wondered how actual city designers tackle problems, seeing that they can’t drag and drop things with ease. In another of Wired’s [TOPIC] Support series, urban designer Alexandros Washburn covers a cost of city planning questions you didn’t know you have.