Photo Shopped Sci Fi Posters

A couple of years ago there was a contest to produce photoshopped movie posters with a sci fi bent, below are just a few:
http://fx.worth1000.com/contests/18241/missing-title/3

Science Fiction radio programs on BBC 7 for Tuesday

Some amusing sci fi radio at BBC Radio 7. Nothing new (BBC7 plays reruns of old material over and over again, but if you've never heard it, of course it's new. ; ) )

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2010/02/16
Paradise Lost in Space
Episode 1
1/6. Armed idealist Norman and cheerful bore Max will soon ruin a planet. 18:30–19:00 Mind's Eye

Faith
2/5. Jake's claim that an angel saved his life is met with suspicion.

Each episode will be available to listen to for 7 days. Don't be concerned about the times listed for when the episode is supposed to play - just click on the Play Now link and it will come up immediately.

So Much To Do, So Little Time

I received Peter H. Brother's Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men: The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda a couple of days ago, and will be reviewing that very shortly.

I've started a new blog, in which I review the blogs of people who offer them for subscription via the Kindle (99 cents a month to have the blog delivered to your Kindle, and you get full text and photos, as opposed to free RSS feeds which don't give you photos, and can truncate text.) $12 a year to get material delivered to your Kindle, which saves time and prevents procrastination by doing web surfing after checkign blogs...what could be better? (That blog is at http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/ - and I may be expanding it shortly to include reviews of blogs that don't bother with trying to get in on the Kindle craze... so if you've got a blog you'd like reviewed, email me).

And of course I have to watch the Olympics.

Nevertheless, many new and intersting articles should be ready for The Thunder Child Science Fiction and Fantasy webzine shortly!

Why Can't Olympic Ice Skating Announcers Ever Be Quiet?

I know announcers are paid to talk. And for football, basketball, and sports like that, it doesn't matter if they natter on from now until the cows come home.

But when it comes to Olympic ice skating, whether it be pairs or dancing, or even singles, why destroy the ambience by chattering throughout the routine? I want to watch the performance and listen to the music, and the chatter takes me right out of it. After the performance, they always show highlights, so why not describe a move or commiserate over a fault then?

And shut up at all other times.

I remember many, many years ago, when Torvill and Dean did Bolero, it was reshown that night, with no announcing, so people could just enjoy it. They should have continued that tradition. (As an aside, truth to tell, though I loved their Paso Doble that year, I preferred Blomberg and Siebert's Scheherezade to their Bolero....)

Same special effect, different movie

Is anyone getting tired of choreographers - or stunt directors, whoever's in charge of it - doing the same thing in different movies?

For example in the trailer for the new Wolf Man, there's a guy standing there, then all of a sudden there's this blur as the Wolf Man runs over him, and he's knocked out of the camera view.

They did it a few years ago in Ghost Story, when Greg Kinnear's character at the beginning of the movie is standing in the middle of the road, and a big ol' bus comes along and hits him.

And I've seen it done a ocuple of other times... although now that I'm typing this blog entry my mind is conveniently blanking as to where! - but I've seen that little visual treat so often that I'm fed up with it.

I remember many, many years ago when there was a rash of fencing flicks...in each one of them one of the two fencers would grab the sword by the sharp end and swing the guard end at their opponent - stupidest thing ever!

And then there was the woman wearing a full length shirt or uniform, running away, getting her shirt caught on a spike so that it would rip off to reveal her belly button as she ran for the rest of the scene - that happened to Princess Amandala in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and to Mary Jane in Spiderman 1. Just soooo stupid.

Check out my Kindle Blog Report

If you've got a Kindle, you might be interested in my Kindle (blog) Report.

I'd originally been going to use it to do reviews of Kindle books, but there are a few blogs that already do that, and so I decided that my niche would be the blog.

The blogs on offer are divided into ten different topics:

Arts & Entertainment
Business & Investing
Humor & Satire
Industry Focus
Internet & Technology
Lifestyle & Culture
News, Politics & Opinion
Regional & Travel
Science
Sports

Now, each of these blogs is available for free on the web, of course, but what the Kindle does is deliver each day's blog entry straight to your Kindle. This works fine for those blogs that are mostly text, with photos. But youtube video don't render, and its a pain if the blog entries consist of a first paragraph and then a "read more" link, because since the kindle doesn't have a touch screen, you need to use the five way controller to inch your way up to the link, click on it, then wait for your wireless to turn on and the relevant webpage to load. So I never recommend blogs like that.

It's brand new, only seven blogs reviewed to date, but in order to give my readers some good content to go through, I'll review at least five blogs a day from now one.

And I've put up a webpage that lists each blog I review, in one of the ten appropriate categories, so that you can have a quick overview of what's available.

Most blogs cost 99 cents a month (or $12 a year) to deliver to your Kindle. But it saves time, and thus at least $12 a year, to have them delivered this way, so you don't have to waste time going to the blogs site on the computer - and on your way, getting sidetracked by other stuff on the web!

http://volcanoseven.com/KindleReport/index.html

Listen to the Call of Cthulu

The Thunder Child recently interviewed Matt Sanborn, who writes RPG modules for The Call of Cthulu.

Read the interview here!

http://thethunderchild.com/Interviews/Books/MattSanbornInterview.html

Stingray episode 1, pt 2

Atlanta and Commander Shore worry as they can't contact Stingray.



Commander Shore calls for Battle Stations. All buildings, all cars, are lowered underground.




Troy Tempest recovers conscoiusness to find himself caputured by King Titan of the underwater city, Titanica. The buidings are air-filled. Troy tells Titan that he is from WASP. They are investigators, not fighters.

Commander Shore orders hydronic missiles made ready. Since they've lost contact with Troy and Stingray, they are going to bombard the entire area. (I'm not sure if this warlike intention is intentionally ironic, or just a plot device!)




Troy is on trial. If the fish god Teufel turns away from him within one marine minute, Troy and his crew (Phones) will be put to death.



Teufel turns away. At the exact instant King Titan declares Troy's death sentence, a thousand miles away, Atlanta accidently drops a photo of Troy.



Troy and Phones on their way to the Robot Fish that will take them to Aquatraz where they will be executed. For some reason the mute slave-girl Marina is ordered to accompany them.



The command module of the Robot Fish traveled through the tube and into the fish. Here the Fish has disengaged and is heading out to sea.



Marina unties Troy and Phones.



An amphibian comes to check on Troy. Troy kicks him where it hurts, and then takes over the ship.



Thirty minutes until the missiles launch.



WASP headquarters alerted by scanners that a robot fish is coming toward them.



Underwater interceptors readied.



Atlanta realizes the ship is towing the Stingray.



Troy tells the story to Shore, Atlanta and an unidentified technician. (We never do find out what they did with the two amphibians. Keep them prisoner? Set them free to swim home?)



"How did you manage to tow the Stingray back without your underwater gear?" asks Atlanta. It is only then that Troy introduces Marina, whom he has not told them about at all previously - so he apparently doesn't intend to reveal her integral role in their escape!



WASP finally knows there are underwater races. They finally know what they're up against. Atlanta realizes what she's up against, too.



The mute Marina simply smiles.

The Voice Performers
Don Mason - Captain Troy Tempest
Robert Easton - Lieutenant George Lee 'Phones' Sheridan, Secret Agent X20
Ray Barrett - Commander Sam Shore, King Triton
Lois Maxwell - Lieutenant Atlanta Shore
David Graham - various voices

Stand By For Action! Stingray, 1964

(All 30 minute episodes are divided into two blog posts.)



Sea Probe is destroyed by a missile shot from a giant robot fish, manned by two amphibians.

WASP (World Aquanaut Security Patrol) is alerted.

Commander Shore tells Atlanta to launch Stingray.

Captain Troy Tempest and Phones (navigator) launch Stingray.

En route to destination, Tempest pores over past reports of destruction, while the "automatic bosun" pilots the Stingray.



Meanwhile, the Stingray passes a certain island.

Surface Agent X-2-Zero keeps a sharp eye out. Then he hears a signal and presses a button, which....



sets various ordinary items revolving to reveal their true purpose.



King Titan wishes a report from X-2-Zero. After learning of the location of Stingray, he sends out his Robot Fish.



Phones hears something following them, but too late...


The Robot Fish incapacitates the Stingray.

These photos are for instruction and information only. No ownership of copyright implied.
Nothing replaces actually seeing these shows on DVD, and they are for sale, so buy a copy!

Rocketship XM (released May 26, 1950) pt 1

Rocketship X-M and Destination Moon were the two “spaceship to the stars” movies that made their debut in 1950.

Rocketship X-M (X for expedition, M for Moon, for all that they end up on Mars)

Although Dr. Lisa Van Horn (played by Osa Massen) is a scientist, women’s roles are pretty well defined in this film in a 1950s way. It is her miscalculations that cause them to crash.

“Four men and a woman blast into space on humanity's first expedition to the Moon, a 48-hour journey. At 112,000 miles into their 238,000-mile journey to the Moon, the engines shut down because of a fuel problem. The solution accomplishes something they had never dreamed.”

Rocketship XM was rushed into production after Destination Moon had begun filming. It was shot in black & white and of course beat its competitor to release by three weeks.

According to Bill Warren:

Because Pal’s film was much more scrupulously scientific than Rocketship X-M, and because Lippert’s production was clearly designed to capitalize on the orchestrated and extensive publicity of Destination Moon, Rocketship X-M was frowned on by some critics. Today, however, it seems much more exciting and interesting than Destination Moon, which is austere and cautious. The melodramatics of Rocketship XM are more entertaining, and the warning about atomic warfare is still timely.

Both films make a similar error in dramatics, in having a comic sidekick to the main action, Dick Wesson is somehow more offensive in Destination Moon than Noh Beery Jr in Rocketship XM, but there is little reason otherwise to choose between them. Both derive from war films in which there was generally a comic corporal along for “audience identification.”

Quote:
Floyd: I've been wondering, how did a girl like you get mixed up in a thing like this in the first place.
Dr. Lisa Van Horn: I suppose you think that women should only cook and sew and bear children.
Floyd: Isn't that enough?

Cast
Lloyd Bridges ... Col. Floyd Graham
Osa Massen ... Dr. Lisa Van Horn
John Emery ... Dr. Karl Eckstrom
Noah Beery Jr. ... Maj. William Corrigan
Hugh O'Brian ... Harry Chamberlain
Morris Ankrum ... Dr. Ralph Fleming
Patrick Aherne ... Reporter #1 (as Patrick Ahern)
Sherry Moreland ... Martian Girl
John Dutra ... Physician
Kathy Marlowe ... Reporter (as Katherine Marlowe)

The Perfect Woman (released in US in 1950)

The Perfect Woman is a British film, and released in the UK on May 23, 1949.

The synopsis from the IMDB.

In need of cash, Roger Cavendish and his valet take a job escorting the perfect woman for a night on the town. She is in fact the robotic creation of Professor Belman, but it turns out rather to be the Professor's niece Penelope doing a pretty good imitation of the perfect Olga who winds up with them in the bridal suite at the Hotel Splendide.

Miles Malleson will be familiar to American audiences, perhaps, as the Grand Vizier in Conrad Veidt's Thief of Bagdad (he is stabbed to death by the Silver Maid). He's also the vicar in Peter Cushing's version of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Bill Warren's opinion of the movie: While no classic, The Perfect Woman provided sufficient entertainment and novelty for audiences of its day.

TV series that have exploited the idea of a robot impersonating a human. There was a Twilight Zone episode in which Lee Marvin substitutes for his robot boxer and gets beaten to a pulp (one of my least favorite Twilight Zones).

My Living Doll (starred Julie Newmar) Sitcom
Future Cop (drama, starring John Amos and Ernest Borgnine)
Holmes and YoYo (with John Schuck as YoYo) Sitcom
Mann & Machine (starring Yancy Butler, later of Witchblade) - cop drama
Prototype was a TV movie starring Christopher Plummer and David Morse...a reworking it seems to me of Gene Roddenberry's Questor Project

The Cast - The Perfect Woman
Patricia Roc ... Penelope Belman
Stanley Holloway ... Ramshead
Nigel Patrick ... Roger Cavendish
Miles Malleson ... Prof. Ernest Belman
Irene Handl ... Mrs. Butters
Anita Sharp-Bolster ... Lady Diana (as Anita Bolster)
Fred Berger ... Farini
David Hurst ... Wolfgang Winkel
Pamela Devis ... Olga the Robot
Jerry Verno ... Football Fan On Underground
Johnnie Schofield ... Ticket Collector
Philippa Gill ... Lady Mary
Jerry Desmonde ... Dress shop manager
Dora Bryan ... Model in shop
Noel Howlett ... Scientist

The Flying Saucer (released Jan 4, 1950)

The 1950s are known for their science fiction of a certain type - radiation effects everything from ants to dinosaurs, causing them to grow huge and wreak havoc.

But in 1950, there were only six science fiction films released in the United States.

The first of these was The Flying Saucer (available on DVD from Amazon for $5 and up), released on January 4, 1950, which means of course that it was filmed in 1949, just a few months after the first UFOs were seen over the mountains of Washington state.

Bill Warren, in his book Keep Watching The Skies, does not think much of The Flying Saucer.

The film is dull and thuddingly unimaginative.

In real life, flying saucers had been seen over a mountain in Washington in 1949. Film maker Mikel Conrad gets the idea for The Flying Saucer. It doesn't occur to him (at least in the movie) that this saucer could be from outer space. No - it is from a foreign power, and must be found for the United States.

The Flying Saucer is a spy movie, not really a science fiction movie. But if one accepts it on that premise (after all, why shouldn't the flying saucers people see be experimental craft from the US or Russia or China, and nothing to do with outer space at all? Asimov for one, while believing that there wer plenty of aliens in outerspace, believed the distances between planets was far too vast for aliens to come here and waste time kidnapping people for decades instead of just contacting us!)

But for $5 or so for a used copy...it deserves a look-see.

Here's the cast, as per the IMDB:

Mikel Conrad ... Mike Trent
Pat Garrison ... Vee Langley
Hantz von Teuffen ... Hans
Earle Lyon ... Alex Muller
Lester Sharpe ... Col. Marikoff
Russell Hicks ... Hank Thorn
Frank Darien ... Matt Mitchell
Denver Pyle ... Turner
Roy Engel ... Dr. Carl Lawton
Garry Owen ... Bartender
Virginia Hewitt ... Nanette
George Baxter ... Fred Burnside
Philip Morris ... Dreamland Bartender
Robert Boon ... Barge Captain

Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men: The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda

“MUSHROOM CLOUDS AND MUSHROOM MEN -- The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda.” by Peter Brothers

For the first time in America, a book has been published on Japan's foremost director of Fantasy Films: Ishiro Honda.

Known primarily for directing such classic Japanese monster movies as Rodan, Mothra, Attack of the Mushroom People and the original Godzilla, Honda has been a much-overlooked figure in mainstream international cinema.

The book is the first to cover in English print Honda's life -- including his heretofore untold military service in Japan's Imperial Army during World War II -- as well as the first to comprehensively cover all 25 of his fantasy, science-fiction and monster movies. It is also the first to give objective and critical analysis of Honda's filmmaking methods, favorite themes and his relationships with actors and technicians.

Making use of extensive interviews from Honda’s colleagues, as well as a wealth of original source material never before gathered into one volume (including unpublished essays), MUSHROOM CLOUDS AND MUSHROOM MEN is an affectionate tribute to arguably the most-prolific and influential director in the history of fantasy films.

View a video interview with Peter Brothers here: http://www.youtube.com/user/encinostalgia

The Thunder Child will have a review of Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men shortly, so stay tuned!

A Plot Device Right Out of Clive Cussler

Just read the news today about Centralia, Pennsylvania. That's an old mining town that, in 1962, had a fire start in a coal seam. Bureaucratic delays allowed it to burn and burn, until now, this fire underneath the town is impossible to put out. It has been burning for 48 years.

The last remaining members of the town believe that the fire was allowed to go on so long because the government wanted the mining and mineral rights. Frankly, knowing our government (both Democrat and Republican) I wouldn't put it past them.

Few remain as 1962 Pa. coal town fire still burns

The fire began at the town dump and ignited an exposed coal vein. It could have been extinguished for thousands of dollars then, but a series of bureaucratic half-measures and a lack of funding allowed the fire to grow into a voracious monster — feeding on millions of tons of slow-burning anthracite coal in the abandoned network of mines beneath the town.

At first, most Centralians ignored the fire. Some denied its existence, choosing to disregard the threat.

That changed in the 1970s, when carbon monoxide began entering homes and sickening people. The beginning of the end came in 1981, when a cave-in sucked a 12-year-old boy into a hot, gaseous void, nearly killing him. The town divided into two warring camps, one in favor of relocation and one opposed.

Finally, in 1983, the federal government appropriated $42 million to acquire and demolish every building in Centralia. Nearly everyone participated in the voluntary buyouts; by 1990, Census figures showed only 63 people remaining.

Two years later, Gov. Robert Casey decided to shut the town, saying the fire had become too dangerous. The holdouts fought condemnation, blocking appraisers from entering their homes. The legal process eventually ground to a halt.

Until recently, Lokitis Jr., who works a civilian job with the state police in Harrisburg, had been one of Centralia's most vocal defenders — star of a 2007 documentary on Centralia. He expressed hope that it could stage a comeback, claiming the fire had gone out or moved away.

State officials say the fire continues to burn uncontrolled and could for hundreds of years, until it runs out of fuel. One of their biggest concerns is the danger to tourists who often cluster around steam vents on unstable ground.

Virus Makers Should Be Shot

And I'm completely serious about that.

A few days ago I got the Anti-virus Live virus on my computer. I managed to get rid of it on my own (wihtout having to take it in to a professional who charges money) but my computer has never been tbe same since.

I tried to play a game called Luxor the other day, that I quite enjoy, for all that I haven't played it in several months. First the screen went white, then black, after I restarted the computer told me I'd had a serious system error. Was it the after effects of the Virus, or was it something than at application called Spyware Doctor did? (I had downloaded Spyware Doctor because its website said it was free. After it's downloaded and runs a system check and tells me it has found 500 potential threats, it says I have to buy it before it can remove those threats.

Now - I'm not above buying a program, but when I've been told on its very website that it's free, then hit up for a charge after I've downloaed it, I resent that. I left it on the computer for a few days, just in case I changed my mind about purchasing it, but its ever-present scanning slowed down my system ridicuously, and I'm pretty sure contribguted to the failure of Luxor. So I got rid of it this morning.

What with one thing and another, I'm way behind on various projects...so today is a busy day of work and I hope my computer problems are behind me.

But here me now and pay attention to it later...anyone who kills a virus maker who has me on the jury will find me very sympathetic to their justifiable homicide.

Number 7 Looks Just Like You

Okay...this isn't an entry on science fiction per se, or the Twilight Zone episode "Number 7 Looks Just Like You," I am just so sick of being bombarded by TV commericals where skeletally thin women tout the use of diet drugs like Hydroxy Cut, or Weight Watchers and Jenny Craid tout their services (at least Valerie Bertinelli and...the new woman she's partnered with...have curves!)

Then there's Yahoo News and other gossip site on the internet, where people get all hot and bothered about the clothing the female actresses wore to some function ("Best and Worst Dressed at the Emmies, Lady GaGa's Style Mistake), crap like that.

Then, because I watch crime dramas like CSI on the Spike Channel, I have to see these revolting commericals for series like Blue Mountain State, and it just makes me think...the coarsening and dumbing down of America is complete.

NCIS Fan Fiction In The Dark is now complete

I wrote a fanfiction for NCIS called The People Out There, in which aliens transported the character of Mark Harmon into that of Gibbs, and vice versa. It was well received, and so I did a follow-up story called In The Dark.

It is now complete, in 12 chapters.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4715154/1/In_The_Dark

Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David switch places with Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo. Can they survive?

Wordsworth's Adventures Continues

I've been writing a blog to help people (such as those taking their SATs, GREs, and ACTs) build their vocabulary.

Now, for $25 a year, that's right, $25 for a whole year!, I'll also be your online English language coach. Build your vocabulary, learn cultural references, learn how to better comprehend what you read, and so on. I'm available 16/7 (rather than the usual 24/7 claim, I'm available 16 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Of coures, just reading the Wordsworth blog is free.

http://wordsworthandthevisitorfromplanetx.blogspot.com

To enroll in one year's worth of Online Language Tutoring, go to:
http://volcanoseven.com/Wordsworth/

Those who don't wish to enroll in my service can also go to this site to download the free vocabulary sheets, which are uploaded as accompaniment to each Wordsworth blog entry.

Wordsworth and the Visitor From Planet X

If you're studying for the writing segment of the SAT, the ACT, or the GRE, there are plenty of study materials to help you.

One of the most enjoyable ways to do this - to increase your vocabulary, to increase your understanding of similes and metaphors and the usage of language - is to visit my new blog, Wordsworth and the Visitor From Planet X.

It's part of a growing method of study aids... the vocabulary is taught enjoyably by placing it in the context of an interesting story - a mystery novel or a science fiction novel.

Wordsworth and the Visitor From Planet X is a science fiction serial.

Here's the URL:
http://wordsworthandthevisitorfromplanetx.blogspot.com/

And to make it easier for you, if you've got a Kindle, subscribe to this blog and have each entry delivered to your Kindle. It's only $2 a month, or $24 a year.

So if you're studying for the SATs, ACTs, GREs, and need a study guide, check it out. (And of course, best to check it out a year before you actually have to take the tests, to make sure you pass with flying colors.

Tuesday on BBC Radio 7

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2010/01/19 (Tuesday, and available to listen to for 6 more days.)

Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards!
4/6. Captain Vimes tries tracking the dragon and the Librarian travels in time.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
2/5. Hyde is wanted for murder and disappears. But what is his connection to Dr Jekyll?

And that's it for Tuesday!