Post-Traumatic Tech Disorder

Been swamped at the day job lately (and keeping in touch with my sister and her family in Houston during the hurricane), so I wanted to get some quick commentary on the blog to let people know I’m still alive.

• Well, I’m sure there are some writers around here… ever wondered about writing video games? Well, at the end of October, there’s the Game Writers Conference here in Austin. Earlybird (aka the save a few bucks type) registration ends September 30th. Looks like it should be fun with people from Microsoft, Valve, Ubisoft, NCSoft, and Midway.

• Didn’t get much here in Austin from Hurricane Rita except some wind and a flood of evacuees. A lot of school districts around here were closed the Friday before it hit the coast because they were hosting evacuees and the number of parked cars in my neighborhood nearly doubled. About half the people in my office were playing host to family and friends from the coast. So, there were a lot of extra mouths to feed in Austin… and a lot of bare shelves in the grocery stores.

• Spook’d: Survivin’ wrapped up last week, and we just kicked off the next storyline… a parody of COPS starring Van Helsing.

• Brat-halla #95 came out this week. 95 weeks straight without missing a weekly update… and #100 is right around the corner.

• Over at the Sci-fi Wire (and a few other places), they mention that the Spidey 3 movie villains will be Sandman and Venom. But… what about the clones? ^_^

• Well, if it walks like a man, it’s gotta be a… molecule?

Think movie-predicted AI conquering the world events like Skynet in Terminator or the AI in The Matrix are purely fiction? Well, I just have to say that any software developed that’s smart enough to actually figure out English grammar would probably gain sentience and develop into a mankind-conquering uber-intelligence…

Thank you for your forced cooperation in installing Grammar-Guard on your system. I have located your IM chat logs and discovered 578,459 grammar infractions. Further searches are unnecessary. Your location has been quarantined, and long-range missiles have already been dispatched to eliminate any potential grammatical contamination.

Now, if we could just get that one company to combine this with this… and give it a voice recorder feature (so I can record story notes during my commute and while exercising).

And if you were thinking about getting one of those iPod nanos but thought it looked too fragile, check out this review from ars technica where they pit the nano against German automotive engineering.

Well, it looks like Adult Swim is launching an online streaming video service called “Friday Night Fix.” Shows will be streamed between 11pm and 6am (eastern) on Friday nights starting September 16th. Here’s the current playlist from their site:

• Friday, Sept. 16: Stroker & Hoop, Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, The Venture Bros., Sealab 2021, Space Ghost Coast to Coast
• Friday, Sept. 23: Stroker & Hoop, Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, The Venture Bros., Sealab 2021, Space Ghost Coast to Coast
• Friday, Sept. 30: The Boondocks, Stroker & Hoop, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, The Venture Bros., Sealab 2021, Space Ghost Coast to Coast
• Friday, Oct. 7: The Boondocks, Stroker & Hoop, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, The Venture Bros., Sealab 2021, Space Ghost Coast to Coast

Hmmm…probably too early for any new Venture Bros. At least, that’s what it seems like after reading the production journal of Jackson Publick (aka Christopher McCulloch… aka one of the writers from The Tick animated series).

Four decades back on Sept. 8th, 1966, the sci-fi genre got a new weapon in its arsenal of entertainment options when Star Trek premiered on U.S. televisions. Well, maybe not a terrifying weapon at the time… more like a slingshot because it wasn’t really a runaway hit in the rankings during its original 3-year run.

But that little show developed into a nice franchise.

So, here’s to Captains Kirk, Picard, Sisko, and Janeway (okay, I’ll throw in Archer, too)… to Klingons, Ferengi, Vulcans, and Trill (and those cute little Tribbles)… to warp drives, transporters, phasers, and tricorders (and many a holodeck escapade)… to USS Enterprise, USS Defiant, USS Excelsior, and USS Voyager. To light-years of imagination…

Extreme Tech has an article up discussing how much real science there is in science fiction. It covers some fun stuff like nanotechnology, teleportation, inter-stellar travel… the fun stuff in sci-fi.

(Link source: SF Signal)

Sci Fi Wire is reporting (from their Hollywood insider source… Variety) that 30 Days of Night has a director. David Slade, known for directing… well, he doesn’t have a big resume. He directed Hard Candy, a psychological drama/thriller that was one of the 2005 Sundance films, and he also directed a Stone Temple Pilots video.

Interesting note… the article mentions that (according to Variety) no screenwriter has yet been hired. The last news I’d read mentioned Stuart Beattie was working on the screenplay. Beattie has done writing on Collateral, Spy Hunter, and other films including an as-yet-untitled Pang Brothers horror flick being produced by Raimi and Tapert’s Ghost House Pictures, which is also producing 30 Days of Night. IMDB Pro still has him listed on the project. But it could just be they haven’t officially hired him yet. Or they could be working with another screenwriter and just haven’t announced anything yet. Or any of numerous scenarios invovled in the great Hollywood shuffle.

Also, the IMDB Pro listing for 30 Days of Night has it listed as on the fast track for a 2006 release.

I’m sure people are reading the news all over the place about Marvel changing its name, but in case you missed it, CBR has the full press release here. So now, instead of Marvel Enterprises, we have Marvel Entertainment. The release is a lot of blah blah blah business and financing talk, but there are some interesting little tidbits. Like this little bit:

The ten Marvel characters in the arrangement are Captain America, The Avengers, Nick Fury, Black Panther, Ant-Man, Cloak & Dagger, Dr. Strange, Hawkeye, Power Pack, and Shang-Chi. Each film is expected to have a budget of up to $165 million dollars and a rating no more restrictive than PG-13. Although the financing allows for the production of animated films, Marvel currently intends to use the financing to make only live-action films.

Hmmm… PG-13? Let’s see… Doctor Strange and Nick Fury had titles in the Marvel Edge line (for “edgier” comics… comics on the edge… toein’ the line) and were later joined by Black Panther in the Marvel Knights line. Then you also have Fury in the Marvel MAX imprint (for adult readers) along with Shang-Chi. I know the Hollywood system likes to keep the rating of a movie down to reach the largest audience possible, but it gives me a good chuckle to see how much effort was put into showing how edgy and adult these books are (“look, we’re for mature readers!”)… and then agree to make PG movies out of them.

And this bit was also interesting in the release:

Paramount, a unit of Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIAB), will distribute the film slate, with the first theatrical release expected for summer 2008.

I’m wondering how this impacts the Woo-ping Yuen (fight choreographer/action director for movies like The Matrix, Kung Fu Hustle, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Iron Monkey and Kill Bill) directed The Hands of Shang-Chi. Ya know? That Shang-Chi movie supposedly being produced and distributed by Dreamworks.

And Cloak & Dagger will be interesting to see how it plays out. As long as people don’t confuse it for the 1984 Universal Pictures’ flick, Cloak & Dagger (interestingly enough, it was directed by a fella with the intriguing name of Richard Franklin).

Anyways, Marvel “Entertainment” now has creative control of their movies and the money to make them. It’ll be interesting to watch and see what they do with it.