The Fredösphere

Science Fiction gets all the cool designed environments; see the 15 best locations from futuristic movies at Oobject (my favs being the Marin County Civic Center and Seaside, Florida), then visit the City of Ember (but only visit; it looks like you wouldn't want to live there; and what's with Bill Murray as Big Brother???  And why does Ember remind me of Ambergris so much?)

Labels: Design, Futurism

Snapshots from the Washington National Opera's production of Elektra suggest that Strauss drew inspiration from a certain SNL sketch, or vice versa.

Labels: fun, Opera

Many people have commented on Stanley Kubrick's brilliant choice of music for 2001:  A Space Odyssey.  By using classical standards, Kubrick maintained more personal control over his movie.  These pieces--Zarathustra, Lux Aeterna and the Strauss waltz and all the rest--were originally placeholders, music Kubrick inserted into early drafts of the film while he was waiting for the commissioned score by Alex North to be written.  (In a shameful episode, North did not find out his music was axed until he saw the film just before its release.  North's score was eventually released as an album.)

Here's a take on the film that's new to me:  2001 as a kind of visual music in three movements.  Experts discuss the film, its music, its musical nature, and what the heck the ending is supposed to mean, anyway.  (Short answer:  anything you like.)

Labels: movie, sci-fi, SoundClip

Tim Stone must be one of the underappreciated geniuses of the internet:  He attempted to recreate the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic ... using Microsoft Flight Simulator!

“Although the actual time occupied in my Transatlantic flight was under 16 hours, it may be fairly said that it took ten years to accomplish” John Alcock

JUNE 4
Ten years? I want to do this thing right but there’s right right and there’s undiagnosed Asperger’s Syndrome right. Ten days will have to suffice for prep.

(Spotted by Colby Cosh, he of the eagle eye.)

Labels: Culture

I like DesignObserver, I really do, but sometimes they play to the stereotype.  Here they are, analyzing Spirograph:

The Spirograph demonstrates, if not promotes, the belief that design can be formulaic and that good design has something to do with simplicity and objectivity. However, qualitative aspects such as emotion, irrationality, and instinct are largely missing. The patterns themselves make no direct reference to a user’s nationality, ethnicity, social class, or gender. Choices are officially confined to color and template combinations.

...and inevitably, the Tet Offensive also gets a mention.  Only near the end does the essay get back on track.  I wonder what ominous visions of militarism one could see in Major Matt Mason (one of my favorite childhood toys) if one went looking?  I loved the space crawler, which one could mount atop the moon base and use as a crane (since it had a winch in its tail).  Don't make my mistake and confuse it with the crater crawler, another toy I owned but which is not of the MMMM (Major Matt Mason Mythos).  Don't forget, James Lileks has beautifully deconstructed the MMM Big Little Book.  Beat me to it--dang.

Labels: Design, sci-fi

The title says it all:  The Revolution Will Not Be Pasteurized.  (Hat tip 2Blowhards.)

Meanwhile...

Rene's Apple will have what Ann Althouse is having:

I'd rather see a show where philosophers descend on a woman with a perfect exterior and rip into her for her intellectual and spiritual failings, put her on some kind of internally transformative regime, and turn her into a human being of substance. Can we get that?

...and furthermore...

Man Babies.  Plus, have a look at Nazis on the Moon.

Labels: Culture, fun, Futurism, movie, VideoClip

I've said it before, and I become more convinced of its correctness by the day:  some of the most entertaining literature of any genre is found among the Advice to the Young Writer.  Most choice among this type is the Fiction Magazine Submission Guidelines.  Such guidelines are de facto distillations of all the entertainment value (which is to say, unintended entertainment value) of the bottom 90% of the slush pile.  These editors do the miserable work of reading the drek; we reap the rewards.

Today, I direct your attention to Clarkesworld Magazine, an online outlet for the big three--fantasy, science fiction and horror.  These are among the types of stories the editors list as "hard-sells" (as they can't quite bring themselves to state unequivocally that they will never print one of these):

stories in which a milquetoast civilian government is depicted as the sole obstacle to either catching some depraved criminal or to an uncomplicated military victory

talking cats

 talking swords

stories that depend on some vestigial belief in Judeo-Christian mythology in order to be frightening (i.e., Cain and Abel are vampires, the End Times are a' comin', Communion wine turns to Christ's literal blood and it's HIV positive [yeeee-ikes! -ed.], Satan's gonna getcha, etc.)

stories about young kids playing in some field and discovering ANYTHING. (a body, an alien craft, Excalibur, ANYTHING).

stories about the stuff we all read in Scientific American three months ago

stories where the Republicans, or Democrats, or Libertarians, or the Spartacist League, etc. take over the world and either save or ruin it

your AD&D game

"funny" stories that depend on, or even include, puns

sexy vampires, wanton werewolves, or lusty pirates

stories that take place within an artsy-fartsy bohemia as written by an author who has clearly never experienced one

The guidelines are not restricted to Thou Shalt Not invectives; here's what thou shalt include in the cover letter that accompanies your submission:

[I]f you send us a lusty pirate story and happen to BE a lusty pirate, mention that.

Dang, I could read this stuff all day.  Editors are geniuses!

Labels: Fiction