PR: Call for Entries: 2010 Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival

Seattle, Washington

Call for Entries - MIFFF 2010
2010 Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival
MIFFF is seeking features, documentaries, short films and animation for the 2nd annual festival.

MIFFF has officially opened the submission season for the 2010 Festival. The premier genre film festival in the Pacific Northwest, MIFFF showcases action, animation, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and other mind-blowing films from across the globe. For additional information, or to submit your short or feature-length production for consideration, you may visit the MIFFF website at http://www.mifff.org

2010 Festival Dates are September 17th - 19th, 2010

IMPORTANT FESTIVAL DATES:
Earlybird Submission Deadline is May 15th, 2010
Regular Submission Deadline is July 12th, 2010
Late Submission Deadline is July 26th, 2010
Final Submission Deadline is August 9th, 2010

Click here to download the Entry Form
http://mifff.org/pdf/submission_2010.pdf

or apply online:
Click to submit on Withoutabox.com
http://www.withoutabox.com/login/7533

If you have questions, please email us at info@mifff.org

MIFFF produces the Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival, the premier Pacific Northwest weekend long event devoted towards independent and international genre film making. The event was created to offer exposure to films that traditionally are overlooked by the festival circuit from genres including action, animation, fantasy, horror, and science fiction.

--
Cheers

Isaac Alexander
MIFFF Co-Founder
http://www.mifff.org

Luray Caverns Car and Carriage Caravan Museum

I recently spent a few hours at Luray Caverns, an hour underground walking through the beautiful caverns, and another hour in the Car and Carriage Caravan Museum.

Below are two videos taken inside the Museum. The quality isnt' very good, but you get a taste of what's there. If you're in to cars (nothing there older than the 1930s) you'll love this musuem.

Girl Scientist Magazine blog

Should I ever have the funds to do it, I'd certainly like to bring out a print magazine called Girl Scientist. Until that time, this blog will have to do.

Check it out at:

http://girlscientistmagazine.blogspot.com/

It contains (and will continue to continue) biographies on women scientists (of all the sciences, from astronomy to vulcanology), source books for scientists (lists of sources for each scientist) and information on my own particular scientific interests - oceanography, dinosaurology, etc.

Introducing the Encyclopedia Asimova

A new blog of mine, which you can view here:
http://encyclopediaasimova.blogspot.com/

In it, I discuss all facets of the world of Isaac Asimov.

Tank Girl is about "girl power"?

I'm watching Criminal Minds, a show I've never watched until the last few days, and one that I don't really care for.

This particular episode has George Costanza (or at least the actor who played him on Seinfeld) doing a very good job playing a serial killer. But their Abby clone, (Abby from NCIS) called Garcia, only she's blonde and tubby and not a Goth, but still has the same execrable clothes sense, was just talking about Tank Girl.

Here's the exact quote, thanks to a Criminal Minds wiki that listed it as "Season 4 Funny Quotes":

"B, she is all about wild hair dye, flatulence, nose picking, spitting, explosive vomiting, occasional random sex, and more than occasional drunkeness. And she has a tank. Her very own tank. And that, mon amie, is girl power."

How sad, how frightening, that girls and women acting like the grossest of teenage boys are being encouraged to look upon these coarse activities and call them "girl power" as if being "lady-like" is now an obscene word, and women who don't get drunk, don't have sex with any and every man they meet, don't pick their noses, and don't deliberately fart in someone's face are somehow inferior to those who actually do.

Too many people watching crap like Dog the Bounty Hunter or Mean Girls, I guess. It's all very sad - and very frightening.

Bring back the days of Emma Peel and Cathy Gale, where women were strong, confident, able to kick the butt of villains - not other girls who kissed their boyfriends!!!, and totally elegant.

The fact that these role models, like "Tank Girl," like the Grace of Saving Grace who is alcoholic and promiscuous and ...I just read earlier today that there was a Goth Supergirl for a while... is so very sad. Today more than ever girls need positive role models, and instead they get this crap.

The Original Human Torch

First major character cross-over, first meeting of Human Torch and Sub-Mariner in Timely Comics Marvel Mystery Comics #9.

If you visit your local comic store today, you may be able to pick up the reprints of the original Human Torch and Sub Mariner, published under the Timely Comics imprimis.

From Wikipedia:

The Human Torch, also known as Jim Hammond, is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics-owned superhero. Created by writer-artist Carl Burgos, he first appeared in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct.1939), published by Marvel's predecessor, Timely Comics.

The "Human" Torch was actually an android created by scientist Phineas Horton. He possessed the ability to surround himself with fire and control flames. In his earliest appearances, he was portrayed as a science fiction monstrosity, but quickly became a hero.

The Human Torch was one of Timely Comics' three signature characters, along with Captain America and Namor the Sub-Mariner. Like many superheroes, the Human Torch fell into obscurity by the 1950s. In 1961, Marvel recycled his name and powers into a new, unrelated Human Torch, a member of the Fantastic Four (who actually was human). Unlike Captain America and the Sub-Mariner, the original Human Torch has had only a small presence in the post-1950s Marvel comic books and is closely associated with the Golden Age.

Fess Parker in excerpts from an episode of Daniel Boone

I had wanted to upload Fess Parker's brief - but hilarious - cameo in Them! in which he plays a pilot who saw a giant ant flying in the sky. No one believes him so they put him in an insane asylum, where FBI agent James Arness comes to interview him.

Unfortunately, for reasons beyond my control, I can't do it, so I'm sharing a few clips from the one Daniel Boone episode of his that I have, Perilous Journey (because of course Steve Ihnat guest-stars as one of the villains.)

The Daniel Boone TV series is on DVD now, and although it is no longer "in print", used copies cam still be purchased.















My favorite scene. Take that, Tyler!

Institute for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is needed, because there's precious little of the real kind around...or at least there's precious little common sense on offer.

http://www.aaai.org/home.html

Founded in 1979, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) (formerly the American Association for Artificial Intelligence) is a nonprofit scientific society devoted to advancing the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines. AAAI also aims to increase public understanding of artificial intelligence, improve the teaching and training of AI practitioners, and provide guidance for research planners and funders concerning the importance and potential of current AI developments and future directions.

Science Fiction on Radio Spirit's Website

Radio Spirits has a show called When Radio Was. It used to be hosted by humorist Stan Freberg. Freberg was replaced a couple of years ago by Greg Bell - they never said why but I assume it was ill-health, since he is very old.

You can listen to the program at their website. http://radiospirits.com

Tuesday 3-16
after Philip Marlowe comes

Blackstone the Magic Detective
The Riddle of the Red Rose
Original Air Date - 3/6/1949

Wednesday 3-17
The Hall of Fantasy
The Night The Fog Came
Original Air Date - 3/23/1953
Chandu the Magician
Looking for Dorothy
Original Air Date - 10/28/1948

Sunday 3-21
Arch Oboler's Plays
The Ugliest Man in the World
Original Air Date - 3/25/1939

Tuesday 3-23
Lights Out
Money, Money, Money
Original Air Date - 3/30/1943
The Origin of Superstition
Break Mirror - Bad Luck

Wednesday 3-24
The Clock
Past or Present
Original Air Date - 3/30/1947
Chandu the Magician
Finding Dorothy's Hat
Original Air Date - 10/29/1948

Saturday 3-27
The Shadow
The White Legion
Original Air Date - 3/20/1938

Tuesday 3-30
after Tales of the Texas Rangers

Blackstone the Magic Detective
The Hand of Cagliostro
Original Air Date - 2/20/1949

Wednesday 3-31
After Escape - "A Shipment of Mute Fate"

Chandu the Magician
Nicholas Has Disappeared
Original Air Date - 11/1/1948




Blackstone the Magic Detective
The Reluctant Saw
Original Air Date - 10/10/1948

Definitely visit the virtual Science Fiction museum

Now t his is what I'm talking about!

http://www.sciencefictionmuseum.com/

A Tribute to Horace L. Gold, Founding Editor of Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, Beyond Fantasy Magazine and editor of If SF Magazine. Galaxy Magazine under Horace's editorship also contributed some stories to the NBC radio show, X-Minus-One during the mid-1950's.
HORACE L. GOLD

As Editor of Galaxy Magazine, he was counted among the "Big Three" of the Silver Age -- Campbell, Boucher & Gold.

He was noted for fair pay for authors, initiating the 5 and 6 cents a word rates when everyone else was paying anywhere from 1/2 cent to 2 cents.

Gold championed "On Acceptance" rather than "On Publication" payments to authors and was known for introducing new writers. Galaxy ran several big-money contests to attract new writers to the field.

Gold opted for Galaxy's Award-Winning L-Shaped Covers, was daring enough to hire pioneering illustrators such as Ed Emshwiller and others, and its high-quality printing on low-acid pulp with expensive but gorgeous high-gloss Kromekote covers.

In particular, check out their reading room.

Time to visit the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle

And tell me what the heck it is!

I thought it was a museum devoted to science fiction, and had a few things from Forry Ackerman's collection, but in searching the web for it, this is the only website I came across:

http://www.empsfm.org/

And it looks like music (the EMP of the EMPSFM) takes precedence.

Any Seattle-ers want to cllue me in on whether or not this museum is worth visiting?

This week on BBC Radio 7

MONDAY
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2010/03/15

(All shows can be listened to at any time (after their day has come), for the next seven days.)

The Voice of God
Fields of Thunder
1/5. Earthquakes rock Australia. Seismologist Sam investigates and uncovers a nightmare.

I am Legend
Episode 6
6/9. Crushed by the dog's death, Earth's last living man's vampire quest continues.

Tuesday
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2010/03/16

The Voice of God
Silent Roar
2/5. The enigmatic Colonel Walker persuades Sam and Joshua to help him in his deadly project.

I am Legend
Episode 7
7/9. Earth's last living man Robert Neville's shock discovery makes him feel deeply suspicious.

The Ape That Got Lucky
Science and Progress
3/4. Chris Addison's spoof lectures exploring human evolution. From August 2005.

Wednesday
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2010/03/17

The Voice of God
Dreamtime is Over
3/5. What is being built out in the desert? And what havoc will it wreak? With Clare Corbett.

I am Legend
Episode 8
8/9. Worried that Ruth has the vampire plague, Robert Neville regrets being so candid.

Thursday
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2010/03/18

The Voice of God
Blowback
4/5. In Simon Bovey's thriller, will the person responsible for Belinda's death be revealed?

I am Legend
Episode 9
9/9. With the new society on the attack, Robert Neville refuses to leave his house.


Friday
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2010/03/19

The Voice of God
Can You Hear That
5/5. The Colonel plans to fire the sonic weapon and risk a global catastrophe. 18:30–

Vostok
Three intrepid divers plunge into the world's last unexplored Antarctic lake.

Saturday
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2010/03/20

Terry Pratchett's Nation
Episode 8
8/8. It looks like decision time for Daphne. Read by Matt Addis and Charlie Norfolk.

Hothouse
Episode 3
3/5. The Morel fungus is helping Gren and Poyly survive without their tribe.

Sunday
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2010/03/21

Isaac Asimov's Jokester
Vast computer Multivac runs global affairs, but can it explain man's sense of humour?

The Man in Black
Series 1, Bombers' Moon
5/5. A horrifying tale of something evil stalking four stranded soldiers in Afghanistan.

Goodbye, Mr. Phelps

Peter Graves, who starred as Jim Phelps for several memorable years in Mission Impossible, died today just a few days short of his 84th birthday. He was returning home from having brunch with his wife and daughters when he had an apparent heart attack.

To me, he will always be Jim Phelps, and its such a pity that he didn't go onto the set of those ridiculous MI remakes with Tom Cruise and kick his butt! In the first place Phelps would never have turned traitor, and in the second place even if he had turned traitor, he was way too smart to have been caught by the likes of Tom Cruise!

Peter in The Invaders, Moonshot:


Mission Impossible

When Worlds Collide: The Rich Man and the Kingdom of Heaven

In the 1951 movie When Worlds Collide, a group of scientists deduce that two planets are coming straight toward the earth, and as a consequence the earth will be destroyed. Their only hope is to build a rocket ship that will be able to take some people to the second of these two planets, which appears to still have an atmosphere, and on which humans should be able to survive.

No one believes them.

Except one rich - but cantankerous man in a wheel chair, Sydney Stanton, (played by the great John Hoyt). He provides the money to build the rocketship, with one proviso - he has to be allowed on board. Well, the scientists take his money and build the rocketship, but when the time comes, Stanton, helpless as he is in his wheelchair, is not allowed to board the ship. Nope, he's shunted aside, so that some poor person (albeit one perhaps with scientfic knowledge) can have his seat.

Is this fair? The rocketship wouldn't have even existed if Stanton hadn't paid for it out of his own funds, but once the money has been used...he is owed nothing in return?

Of course the movie sets it up this way. Stanton has an aide, Ferris, who is his dogsbody, pushing his wheelchair during the day and helping him into his bed at night. Ferris could have protected Stanton's interests if he'd been allowed to go on the ship, but no, Stanton cold-bloodedly shunts the aide aside first. Ferris, desperate, pulls a gun in order to force his way onto the ship, but Stanton shoots him, thus depriving himself of the one man who could have helped him get on the ship.

And while that's a convenient plot device, it really makes no sense. Why wouldn't Stanton originally have contracted for himself and Ferris to have places on the ship, in return for his money. Stanton knows Ferris, Ferris knows Stanton, and Stanton will need someone to take care of him - push his wheelchair, bring him food - on the new planet. It makes no sense that he would even consider leaving Ferris behind.

But without Ferris it's easy for Dr. Cole Hendron (designer of the spaceship, father of the heroine) to sacrifice Stanton (and himself - he remains behind also) so that two young people can get on the ship in their stead.

As the saying goes, it's easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than that a rich man get into heaven.

I'm also reminded of a Dorothy Gilman book, called Talley's Folly. Now I love Gilman, she's the author of the Mrs. Pollifax books - and the early ones in the series are great (the later ones admittedly not so much so) but she expresses an interesting philosophy in the book. She's got some characters living in a house to which they do not have title (the owner had said she would leave it to them, but died and they can't find her will), and none of them work. They can grow their own food, but they need heat. So they go to a local junkyard to steal a heater.... which the owner of the junkyard has conveniently left out for them to steal. ("They won't take charity," he says indulgently, "but if I let them steal it, they feel as if they're not dependent on me.") Okay I'm paraphrasing that, but it's the general gist.

But I read this and thought, what kind of philosophy is that? Yes, they're not breaking into someone's home and stealing, they're just stealing from a junkyard (i.e. from a "rich man" who has stuff to spare), but still the implication is clear. If you don't have something, don't work to earn money to buy it, just find some rich person - who by definition has more money and things than they deserve - and take what you need.

From there let me segue back to my topic of yesterday, Christians and home schooling...since that actually is the topic of today's post!

I read the Religious board at www.hannity.com, and there's no doubt that there's a dozen or so very knowledgeable religous types there, who've read the Bible and believe in it. So I thought I'd ask that old standby, "If God created man, who created God?" Well of course they had the answer. "The answer is revealed in the opening lines of Genesis. "In the beginning there was nothing, then God created this and that..." In other words, God created time, and the Universe. He himself exists outside of time, and thus was not created - he has always existed. Yeah, like that makes sense.

But then, some people say, if God has always existed why couldn't the Universe have always existed, without being created? And the answer to that is, "No, no, there's scientific proof that the Universe was created - whether it was the Big Bang or what have you - and since it was created, there must have been a Creator to do it."

So since God wasn't created (it says in the first chapter of the Bible that he wasn't) he must always have existed. But since the universe was created, obviously God created it.

Talk about sophist reasoning.

And of course this is a kind, just and loving God who wants us all to reach the Kingdom of Heaven. Which is why, no doubt, he created all these people and then specified that the Jews were his "chosen" people, and he'd help them over all their enemies - other people he'd created. So there was no sweetness and light in God's original plan... indeed, in the beginning mankind was apparently peaceful, all spoke the same language, and wanted to build a tower up to heaven. God couldn't have that, so he destroyed the tower and "split men's tongues" so that everyone spoke different languages and no one could understand each other, thus ensuring thousands and thousands of years of strife. Gee, thanks God.

But that is, again, why I don't understand how religious people can even think of their God as a kind and generous and loving God. (Of course there are two - the God of the Old Testament who is only concerned with the Jews, and the God of the New Testament who sends Jesus down to earth to die "for our sins.")

So God gets offerings from Cain and Abel, and he spurns Cain's and likes Abel, causing jealously between the two of them so that Cain kills Abel. Classic reaction of a child to a parent, eh? God should have known better than to have shown favoritism, but of course he does it again, when he chooses the Jews as his chosen people, despite the fact that he supposedly created all mankind. Why do the Jews get to be his Chosen - or remain his chosen once they show that they don't really care for him all that much - breaking his convenant, et al.

Talk about a lousy parent! Talk about an incompetent God!

Your name as a ring tone!

Well, I continue to amuse myself creating ringtones.

Just uploaded Uhuru with her "Hailing frequencies open, sir" (did you know that in "The Corbomite Maneuver" she had just four lines - and they were all, "Hailing frequencies open, sir.")

I'm also working on assembling a collection of people's names as ring-tones Now this will be a long, drawn out process and it will probably always be pretty sparse, but if your name is Chambers, Falken, Joshua, McCoy, or Shore - you've got yourself a ringtone:

It's a cook book! (Twilight Zone: "To Serve Man" (Mr. Chambers))
Greetings Professor Falken (War Games)
Hello Joshua (War Games)
Dr. McCoy. This is Captain Kirk. (Star Trek)
HQ to Guard Sub. Come in, Captain Shore (Stingray)
Stingray to Commander Shore (Stingray)

Religion vs Science

Ah...how I wish I could have been homeschooled as a kid. Would have been nice to not have had to face the bullying... but on the other hand, if I hadn't been exposed to the evil that is people in grade school...how much more severe would the consequences have been if I hadn't discovered it until college or even after?

But, not coming from a religious household, and not having given much thought to it, I confess, I'd always assumed that's why parents wanted to homeschool their kids - to keep them away from the bullies, or to teach them at a quicker pace then schools did, which had to accomodate kids of all knowledge levels in one class room.

I suppose I must have heard that Christians home schooled their kids (and other faiths too, presumably) but I never gave much thought to it.

But today I picked up the magazine "The Old Schoolhouse: The Magazine for Homeschool Families," because I have an idea to write some science pamphlets and I'm looking for markets...

And I start paging through this quarterly magazine and yes, every article is permeated with Chistianity, quoting from the Bible, etc., etc.

Although there was an article in it I wasn't expecting to see: Alien Intrusion: UFOs and the Evolution Connection. Of course, the author, Gary Bates, believes the aliens and the UFOs are actually from God...

Of the 23 contributing writers to this issue (it's a thick issue), all are white, four are guys. I state these statistics only because it's one of the men who writes the article, "Who needs calculus?". Norman M. Birkett is prosletyzing for teaching students calculus...but one does wonder how many parents (ie the mom in the family) is actually qualified to teach calculus?

The rest of the articles are on reading and writing - the easy stuff.

Now, I have no problem with home schooling, as long as the kids are taught what they need to know (including the fact that all people, of whatever race, creed, color or religion are not to be trusted - something you learn if you go to a public school, heck, probably even a private school but not if you're sheltered in a home school!) but what I really found amusing were some of the ads, for materials teaching creationsism.

I'm an atheist. But I'm curius about the Bible and religion. I just can't understand how anyone in the 21st century, knowing everyhting we know, can believe in an omnipotent being - or, if there is such a being, that he's a "loving and merciful god." Jee-sus! Just look around you at what 2,000 years of religion has brought us to! "The Holy Land" of the Bible... probably the bloodiest stretch of land on earth, as Jews, Christians and Muslims have fought over it with implacable savagery for decades...all to bring greater glory to their god...

That's what I find fascinating and frightening...that people can look at a child born with encephaly (no brain), or spina bifida, and say, "God has sent us a gift, to teach us something." Or survivors from an Earthquake that has killed 20,000 people can say, "God has sent us a message, we'd better start believing in him and worshiping him."

Frankly, if there ever did come a time that I did believe in God, it would only be to reject him, totally and utterly, for the incompetent he so clearly is!

There's an example, that religious types use, when trying to convince atheists that of course there is a god. "You come across a watch, so intricately made, you know it must have had a creator."

And that's very true. But a watch is a mechanical construct...whereas life is organic.

And of course, here's the final argument from the atheistic point of view... If God created everything, who created God? If God could appear fully grown, with all his powers.... why couldn't life itself have evolved over billions of years?

Evolution is certainly more compelling than a "pop" and "OH, I'm God. All powerful. Now, I think I'll create some people to worship me."

Star Trek: The Corbomite Maneuver

Although this episode was the third one shown, it was the first episode filmed (after The Cage).

Kirk calls Bones, Doctor, and he and Bones get into a verbal quibble over the fitness of Ensign Bailey.

Mr. Spock tells Mr. Bailey there's no need to raise his voice, but when he is reporting on the radiation from Balok's warning buoy, and even later on in the episode, he let's his voice raise a bit, too!

Mr. Sulu does his countdown thing.

We get to see William Shatner shirtless. He was in such good shape back then...

Kirk calls the Enterprise the United Earth Starship Enterprise. (No Federation?)

"Not chess, Mr. Spock." Wait for it... wait for it.... "Poker!" Shatner waits so long to deliver that final word! (Check it out at my ringtones page!)

It was a lot of fun. Although Star Trek is my favorite Star Trek series (indeed, the only one I like) I haven't watched any episodes (except Whom Gods Destroy) in several years. So it was fun to become reaquainted with the characters and see that this was an early event...not only in the TV series but in the Star Trek universe itself.

It's a Cookbook! Ringtone

Note: All ringtones now gathered together on a single webpage Science Fiction Ringtones from The Thunder Child


For anyone named Mr. Chambers
Don't get on that ship! The rest of that book, to serve man... It's a cookbook!

For those who get calls from Germany
This is Germany calling. This is Germany calling. (From Green for Danger)

Never, ever try a backblast
The backblast backlash will bounce back and destroy everything

More Doctor Who: Warrior's Gate
We are Gundan. We exist to Kill.
Same as above plus Slaves made the gundan to kill the brutes who rule
Same as above plus We faced the timewinds and we lived

Star Trek Ringtones

Note: All ringtones now gathered together on a single webpage Science Fiction Ringtones from The Thunder Child

Okay, I admit I'm having way too much fun with this... the more so since I can't even upload them to my cheap ol Tracphone!

To download, right click on the link and choose SAVE TARGET AS. To just listen, click on the link normally.

Avengers
The Joker: The Wires Have Been Cut

Star Trek: Whom Gods Destroy
Kirk as Garth throws a tantrum
Gentlemen. Courtesy for the performer
Queen to Queen's Level Three, Captain Kirk
By the way, I assume you play chess
Queen's Level Three with music

Star Trek
Space, the final frontier...
Opening Star Trek theme

This Is The Voice of the Mysterons Ringtone

Note: All ringtones now gathered together on a single webpage Science Fiction Ringtones from The Thunder Child

To download, just "right click" on the link and save to your hard drive. (Normal click to hear it.) Any problems, email me.

I just creasted this Voice of the Mysterons ring tone (actually all it is, is an MP3 file, but supposedly this is all you need?) for any Captain Scarlet fans out there.

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Download Voice of the Mysterons MP3 file.
Voice plus a bit of music

Stingray
Calling Stingray Crew
Stingray music
Anything Can happen in tbe next half hour

The Avengers
Download Avengers theme short
Download Avengers drum intro
Download Avengers theme long
The Joker: The Wires Have Been Cut

Star Trek: Whom Gods Destroy
Kirk as Garth throws a tantrum
Gentlemen. Courtesy for the performer
Queen to Queen's Level Three, Captain Kirk
By the way, I assume you play chess
Queen's Level Three with music

Star Trek
Space, the final frontier...
Opening Star Trek theme

Supercar: Rescue pt 2

Voice Cast
Graydon Gould - Mike Mercury
Sylvia Anderson - Jimmy Gibson
George Murcell - Professor Rudolph Popkiss, Masterspy
David Graham - Horatio Beaker, Mitch, Zarin, others

Supercar: Rescue pt 1

The lyrics of the Supercar themesong:
Supercar, Supercar
With beauty and grace
As swift as can be
Watch it flying through the air
It travels in space, or under the sea
And it can journey anywhere
Supercar, Supercar
It travels on land, or roams the skies
Through the heaven's stormy rage
It's Mercury manned, and everyone flies (?)
It's the marvel of the age
Supercar, Supercar
Supercar!









Pilot Bill Gibson, younger brother Jimmy Gibson, and pet chimpanzee Mitch float in a raft, waiting to be rescued. But the weather deteriorates badly.


Meantime, Professor Rudolph Popkiss, Professor Beaker, and Mike Mercury, test their invention 5 years in the making, Supercar.

Roy Thinnes (The Invaders) Will Be Guest at Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention

I just got the word today from one of the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention's organizers that Roy Thinnes has contracted to be a guest-star there.

This will be Thinnes' first appearance at a convention in over 20 years, so don't miss out on this great opportunity to meet him, chat with him, get an autograph, maybe even a photo-op with him.

The days: September 23 to 25, 2010
The place: Marriott Hotel, Hunt Valley, Maryland
The cost? Only $15 to get in the door - you can't beat that!

Also at the convention will be science fiction stars Van Williams (The Green Hornet), Mark Goddard (Lost In Space), and Marsha Hunt who guest-starred in a few sci fi series.


So, Roy Thinnes?

David Vincent in The Invaders (1967) and TV Movie 1995, which starred Scott Bakula
Jeremiah Smith in three eps of The X-Files (1996, 2001)
Roger Collins in the revival of Dark Shadows (12 eps) (1991)
The Norliss Tapes (unsold pilot, Kolchak imitator) 1973

among many other roles!

Do your homework:

World Of Warcraft decorative steins from Taverncraft

I received a presss release a few days ago from Taverncraft, a company offering World of Warcraft steins - and they look really, really cool. Who needs the press release, the photos are advertisement enough.

These steins can be pre-ordered at: warsteins.com. Cost is about $150 for each stein, and apparently they won't be ready to ship until April 2010.