Ian McKellen Reenacts "The Bridge of Khazad-Dum"

Classic, and very funny! If you're a fan of The Lord of the Rings movies, this short video is a must watch! Although, obviously, McKellen had never watched Ralph Bakshi's 1978 version of LOTR (or perhaps even read The Fellowship of the Ring by that point in the filming of the movie).

Darth Schwarzenegger

A humorous "recasting" of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the voice of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars. NSFW (profanity).

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

I'm reading a book on the Civil War right now, and read yesterday the chapter on the Battle of Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing). I noticed on the map of the battle field that an Owl Creek borders the field to the west. Was that the same Owl Creek that features in the Ambrose Bierce short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge? Apparently not. The Shiloh Owl Creek is located in Tennessee, whereas the short story's Owl Creek is supposed to be located in Alabama.

Of course, the whole thing reminds me of the Twilight Zone episode (original airdate, February 28, 1964) that we all watched in high school.

Tron Trailer, Saul Bass-Style

The way the trailer for Tron (1982) should have been done: Saul Bass-style. ;)

Tron vs. Saul Bass from Hexagonall on Vimeo.

Update: While we're writing about Tron trailers, here are a few more that SF Signal has highlighted. This first is a fan-made trailer for the original Tron that is exceptionally well done. The only demerit I can find in this video is that it completely ignores actress Cindy Morgan's character and that aspect (the love interest/sexual tension from a love triangle) of the movie.



This next trailer is the original from 1982. It makes for a good comparison between the two above and the two trailers for Tron Legacy.

NASA Mission "Movie" Posters

NASA, through its Space Flight Awareness division, is now making cute posters and images for its space shuttle missions and expeditions to the International Space Station (ISS). Many of the posters have a movie poster-quality to them, some more blatantly obvious than others. :) As you can see, the above image for the STS-124 mission, which flew to the ISS in May-June 2008, is patterned after the Harry Potter movie posters. My only complaint about the images available from the website is that the majority of downloads come in the form of PDF files; I prefer jpg images myself.

Check it out!

Tron Legacy

My reaction: "Oh, man! I've gotta wait till Christmas!!!" :) Below is the first official trailer in "good" quality, but you can watch the HD trailer here. If you're interested, here's Disney's official website for the movie and video game, but it's thin on content at the moment.

Cool!

Can't wait!

A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything

I was amused at his reference to the movie 300; too bad he didn't do the same for 2001: A Space Odyssey. ;)

The 100 Cheesiest Movie Quotes

Amusing. Some of these are not quite so cheesy, but many are. As noted elsewhere, Arnold Schwarznegger and Keanu Reeves seem to have a disproportionate number of appearances here. ;) For me, the surprise was that there are only two Bond quotes here (from Goldfinger and The World is Not Enough); Bond movies usually have at least two or three CHEESY quotes in each film but, then again, that's part of their charm.

Be warned: while there's no nudity, some of the language is NSFW!



The movies, in order of appearance:

--0m-- American Beauty, Batman & Robin, Gigli, Batman & Robin, Showgirls, Troy, Star Wars, G.I Jane
--1m-- Love Story, Cast Away, Star Wars, City of Angels, As Good As It Gets, Pearl Harbor, Titanic, Ever After, Death Race, The Covenant, X-Men 3
--2m-- They Live, Commando, Matrix, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Total Recall, Wicker Man, Point Break, Lethal Weapon II, Boondock Saints, Predator, Road House, Kindergarten Cop
--3m-- Forrest Gump, Transformers 2, Lethal Weapon, Speed, Commando, X-Men, Exorcist II, Armageddon, Juno, Blood Diamond, Batman & Robin
--4m-- Goldfinger, Rocky 4, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, Judge Dredd, Commando, Under Siege, Batman & Robin, The Happening, Star Wars, The Happening, Eraser
--5m-- Blood In Blood Out, Batman & Robin, Con Air, Air Force One, Bad Boys II, Snakes on a Plane, Showgirls, Notting Hill, Jerry Maguire, Ghost
--6m-- Pretty Woman, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Dirty Dancing, Matrix, 300, Star Wars, The Postman, The Happening, Congo
--7m-- Wicker Man, Pearl Harbor, Knowing, Predator, Troll 2, Matrix, Poseidon, Face Off, Plan 9 from Outer Space, Star Wars, True Lies, Twilight, Battlefield Earth
--8m-- The World Is Not Enough, Flash Gordon, Showdown In Little Tokyo, Braveheart, Independence Day, Wicker Man, Star Wars, The Room, Mortal Kombat Annihilation, Star Wars
--9m-- Conan The Barbarian, Battlefield Earth, Shark Attack 3, Lord of The Rings, Top Gun

Visual Effects: 100 Years of Inspiration

A short, entertaining video about special effects in movies and television over the past century. A few of the clips show how some of the effects were made (for example, actor Bill Nighy as Davy Jones (The Flying Dutchman) in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies). I thought at first I'd mention that this would be a good video for guessing the names of the various movies shown, but there's a listing at the end that gives the titles and years for all of the clips shown.

If there's one significant movie in terms of its groundbreaking work for visual effects that I think is missing from this video, it's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Question on Titanic

I received an interesting e-mail the other day from someone who stumbled upon my Titanic webpages. The person asked if I knew of a scene from the movie in which a man dresses up as a woman in order to board one of the lifeboats, bypassing the ethic of "women and children first." This is my response:

I'm sorry to say, I don't know of any scene in Titanic in which a man dresses up pretending to be a woman in order to get onto a lifeboat, nor have I ever read of anyone having done this on board the real Titanic.

There are two scenes in the movie in which the issue of violating the "women and children first" rule were addressed. The first takes place around the 2:10 mark of my copy of the film.* This scene is where the real-life person, Bruce Ismay, played by Jonathan Hyde, gets on a lifeboat to the disgust of First Officer Murdoch (Ewan Stewart). Ismay did indeed get on one of the lifeboats and was shunned by society for the remainder of his life because of it. (Even though he was not part of the crew, he was Managing Director for the White Star Lines, the company which owned Titanic. People apparently thought that he should have gone down with the ship like the Captain was expected to because he was part of management. In fairness to Ismay, the lifeboat was nowhere close to full when it was lowered, and Ismay was the only remaining passenger in the vicinity. In this regard, the movie was quite faithful to the scene.)

The scene that you might be thinking of comes a little later in the movie, around the 2:22 mark. This is when the fictional character Cal Hockley (played by Billy Zane) picks up a crying girl who had become separated from her parents. He takes the girl to one of the officers (Chief Officer Wilde, played by Mark Chapman), where he claims that "I'm all she has in the world." The officer passes them through and he gets on to the lifeboat.

Now, it's possible that there could have been such a scene included in one of the deleted scenes. I don't own the special collection DVDs that include the deleted scenes, nor have I seen all of the deleted scenes on Youtube, although I've seen some of them there. However, as I said above, in all my readings about Titanic, I've never read anywhere that a man dressed up as a woman in order to board one of the lifeboats.

Thanks for sending in the question. It was quite interesting.


* You should probably add about one or two minutes here. My current copy of the movie, a VCD, was partially censored by the government of Singapore, where I currently live. Until a few years ago, they used to cut out parts of movies that featured nudity or what they considered to be "excessive violence." So the scene in which Rose is drawn by Jack has been partially cut to delete Kate Winslet's nudity.

Tron Legacy

I've been a long-time fan of the 1982 Disney film, Tron. Although the story line was thin and the CGI is antiquated by today's standards, it is an influential, if underappreciated, movie.

I had read various rumors over the years about proposed sequels to the original Tron; the good news is that a trailer for a new movie, Tron Legacy, has been released. Word is that principal filming has been completed, and the movie is now into post-production. I'm not quite sure when the movie will be out: the trailer says 2010, IMDB 2011. Either way, the film should be awesome, at least visually. Apparently this trailer was shot just as an effects test. If this video is indicative of the type of quality for the effects, Tron Legacy should be a fantastic film to watch. (Assuming, of course, that the plot and acting are decent. :) )

Miscellaneous Links (18 June 2009)

Astronomy & Science:
SNR 0104: An Unusual Suspect (A supernova remnant (a star that blew up) with an unusual shape.)

Stars at the Galactic Center (The center of the Milky Way galaxy, as seen in infrared (heat) light.)

Streaming Dark Nebulas near B44

M13: A Great Globular Cluster of Stars (One of the better pictures I've seen of M13.)

NGC 6240: Merging Galaxies

Discovery Magazine: Holes of Silence (Sonic black holes. Cool!)

Science @ NASA: Mystery of the Missing Sunspots, Solved?

Climate change is already having an impact in the Midwest and across the US (The good news: a longer growing season (by one week) for crops. The bad news: temperature and humidity increases, more winter and spring rain, less rain in the summer (i.e., more droughts), more flooding, lower water levels in the Great Lakes, reduced air quality, more insect-borne diseases, pollen and fungi. But don't worry: global warming is just a hoax, doncha know?)


Comics:
Dilbert ("Too crazy too fast.")

One Big Happy ("Big deal! I know how to say, 'What's the matter with you? You're getting on my nerves," in Italian.")

One Big Happy (Grandma vs. Grandpa.)

One Big Happy (That's right, kids! All us daddies eat breakfast in our underwear. Don't puke while you watch! ;) )

Working Daze (I had a supervisor like this, a guy who kept calling me "Jim." (Not my name.) I could never get him to remember my real name, but when he asked for "Jim" I knew he was asking for me. :P )

Working Daze (Survivor's remorse.)


Science Fiction:
io9: The Composers That Make Space Adventures Epic (Can't disagree with a single one.)

ListVerse: Top 10 Survival Tips For People In Horror Flicks (#11: Teenagers should never have sex! ;) )

SciFi Scanner: Mary Robinette Kowal - Fantasy's Male Warriors Kick Butt (While Baring Butt)

SF Signal: It's Time For Indy To Hang Up His Hat, For Good

SF Signal: Do Literary Awards Affect Your Reading Choices?

The Architects' Journal: The architecture of Star Wars (pt I) (See also part II.)


The Truly Miscellaneous:
APOD: Pyrenees Paraselene (Every now and then, APOD publishes photos that have little to do with Astronomy. This beautiful picture looks down at the Pyrenees mountains, which separate Spain from France, from a local observatory.)

BWG: Asinine Assertion

Google Fusion Tables

IZ Reloaded: Laptop Uses AA Batteries

Kottke.org: 50 Films You Can Wait to See After You're Dead (I've seen three, "Son of the Mask" and "Catwoman," only because they were on TV, and "Rocky V," which was surprisingly good and shouldn't be on this list.)

The Mad Logophile: Foreign Words & Phrases (This diary over at Daily Kos examines the meanings of several hundred foreign words and phrases, including twenty-three from the Middle East, in Arabic, Persian and Turkish.)

WTF Is It Now?!?: Brett Favre, missing the spotlight, to torture country again

Yet Another Web Site: Are audiophiles really this stupid?

Yet Another Web Site: A really stupid article

Miscellaneous Links (11 June 2009)

Astronomy and Science:
Spirit Encounters Soft Ground on Mars

Spokes Reappear on Saturn's Rings

One Armed Spiral Galaxy NGC 4725 (Of all the recent APOD pictures I liked this one the best.)

A Dusty Iris Nebula

High population density triggers cultural explosions

We Knew Black Holes Were Massive. Now Double That.


Comics:
Dilbert ("Is there some sort of rule against collecting money for your own birthday?" Why didn't I think of that? ;) )

Luann (Typical American fair food: "Chocolate-dipped deep-fried donuts on a stick!")

One Big Happy


Others:
IZ Reloaded: The 40 Second Electric Toothbrush (And Ladies, Father's Day is right around the corner! ;) )

Photoshop Disasters: Hugo Boss: All This And No Brains Too (Low-brow modeling. ;) )

Kennedy International: Mobiusbiking! (Who's first?)

Strange Maps: 391 – Ireland As 100 People

Strange Maps: 389 – America’s Mean Streak

Strange Maps: 388 – US States As Countries of Equal Population (Singapore = Colorado!)


Science Fiction:
MIND MELD: New SF/F Recommendations for the Golden Age Reader (The post is a little long, and science fiction lends itself to subjective differences in tastes; however, the mind map at the bottom of the post, giving suggestions to different themes within SF/F was rather interesting - and with some good choices.)

Science Fiction And Interest In Space Exploration ("Does the predominance of Harry Potter over science fiction bode well or ill for the future of public spaceflight support? What science fiction and non-fiction books would you give to a child or teenager to inspire them about space exploration?")

1,001 Science Fiction Story Ideas

Ten of the Most Classic Science Fiction Movie Scenes

Star Trek ("How plausible does SF have to be? Not in terms of "ideas," but in terms of human behavior.")

Mary Robinette Kowal - The Worst-Dressed Women Warriors in Fantasy

The 25 Women Who Shook Sci-Fi (Characters, not writers - unfortunately.)

Links for 1 June 2009

I've been debating whether to continue the Links series of posts, either in its current format (published primarily on weekdays) or in an alternative format (e.g., weekly, rotating, sans the Politics section or American politics). While I won't stop reading the various blogs and websites that I link to, the actual writing of the Links posts takes a little longer than I would like. Suggestions? Thumbs up? Thumbs down?)

Politics:
Dr George Tiller shot to death at Wichita church (By now you've probably heard about the Kansan abortion doctor who was murdered in a church Sunday. This is one of the early reports. Other links you might find of interest include Bill O'Reilly has Dr. George Tiller's blood on his well-stained hands, Operation Rescue's Randall Terry Is Sorry Tiller Didn't Get Proper Trial And Execution, and Operation Rescue Distances Itself From Roeder’s Activities On Behalf Of The Group (sorry, the blood doesn't wash off your hands that easily). )

Lindsey Graham Says Sotomayor Is Not A Racist But Should Apologize Anyway (Sometimes I think of doing an intelligence index for Republicans; say, start at 100 and then add or subtract points based on any smart or (much more likely) stupid things Republicans say publicly. If we started today, Lindsey Graham would take the Republicans down to 99 already.)

Pressing China With A Nuclear Japan?

Gen. Ricardo Sanchez calls for war crimes truth commission.

Obama Administration Files Petition To Block Uighurs From Entering U.S., Praises Gitmo Conditions (Ridiculous!)


Economics:
What to Do Now with $50,000 Cash? ("If you have USD $50,000 in cash, what do you actually do with the money now? It is probably different by age group, but does one buy Ford at $2/share, swiss francs, some gold?")

Supply, demand, and the price of oil

Guest Blog: Japan's first trade deficit in 28 years

The View from the 23rd Century (This was a rather interesting column, looking at some of the ideas floating around in the field of growth economics and applying a Star Trek-twist to them. Some of the essay is "old" in the respect that the notion of "bits and atoms" has been talked about for a few years now. However, the basic idea of the essay is sound: growth in developed economies is strongest and can be very long lasting when it's based on knowledge ("bits"), with government legislation and spending often the key to moving the knowledge acquisition forward.)

"Incarceration as a Labor Market Outcome" (Although I've been looking at unemployment statistics for a few months now, the incorporation of incarceration rates into the analysis wass a new idea for me.)


Business:
At Harvard, Some Students Are Taking an M.B.A. Honor Oath (As an MBA who's Muslim, I find this type of oath a day late and a dollar short. I think it really speaks volumes about the lack of values inherent in Western society, especially within the business sub-culture.)


Islam/Muslim Blogs:
Jesus (AS) in Islam (Austrolabe finally came back online after a five-month hiatus with a link to a documentary on the Muslim view about Jesus (pbuh).)

Al-Muhajiroun sent packing


Miscellaneous:
Alien reboot, a prequel, is confirmed! (The Scott brothers, Ridley and Tony, are going to make an Alien prequel.)

Links for 27 May 2009

Politics:
Countdown: Worst Persons May 26, 2009 (Laura Ingraham, David Zurawik and Pete Hegseth)

Keith Olbermann Talks to Erich "Mancow" Muller About His Waterboarding Experience (At least here's a guy who puts his money where his mouth as - as opposed to the coward Sean Hannity. "I was willing to prove and ready to prove that this was a joke and I was wrong. It was horrific. It was instantaneous and look I felt the effects for two days. I had chest pains. I told my wife, look I have two little kids-- we prayed. I said dear God help me. I had chest pains I was so stressed out by this.")

Going off the rails on a crazy train (TBogg on the right's reaction to the Sotomayor nomination. "My sense is that, if they really want to go after and beat up on this Sotomayer, who presented herself very well this morning, they will pay for it at the polls for years to come. Not with Hispanics, who were lost to the party dating back to the Pete Wilson days (not that the peck-sniffier elements of the right can help themselves), or with women, but with people for whom "empathy" and compassion aren't qualities to be sneered at.")

Tancredo: Sotomayor ‘Appears To Be A Racist’ (A classic case of “Pot - Kettle - Black.”)


Economics:
US and European Employment Rates

Consumer Confidence Up (I agree, at least partly, with Bonddad that consumer confidence has increased due to the change in Washington politics. But I also think economic conditions have been improving as well over the past few months and people are responding to that as well.)


Business:
Three beautiful ads for dental floss


Islam/Muslim Blogs:
Quran Read-A-Long: Al-`Imran 1-9 Discuss the Quran Itself

Lā ilaha illa al-Lāh, Muhammadun rasūlu l-Lāh (The shahada inside a flowery circular badge. Beautiful.)


Miscellaneous:
PSM (A Gillette video (cartoon) about "when there's no underbrush, the tree looks taller." Their advice: use short, light strokes. "Tastefully" done according to one blog (debatable), but definitely R-rated material here.)

Whirlpool Galaxy Deep Field (Very nice pic of Messier 51, the famous Whirlpool Galaxy, and its companion galaxy NGC 5195. It's actually the detail of the smaller galaxy that makes this photo of interest for someone like me.)

Q&A: Hobbit Director Guillermo del Toro on the Future of Film (An interview with film director Guillermo del Toro over at Wired. del Toro, if you’re not familiar, directed Blade II, both Hellboy movies, and the fantastic Pan’s Labyrinth - a must see movie if you’re not familiar with it. His discussion on the future of movies is interesting.)

100 Best Movie Lines in 200 Seconds

The interesting thing for me about this video is not the number of movie lines I'm familiar with, but the number I find that I use in everyday life. For example, when our ten-month-old daughter, A'ishah, is crying, Milady and I mimic Tom Hanks by saying, "There's no crying in baseball!" (from A League of Their Own). Milady also uses "Stella!" (from A Streetcar Named Desire) when A'ishah cries.

Links for 16 May 2009

Politics:
Countdown: WTF!! Texas Still Wants to Leave the Union (Countdown on Texas's Governor Perry still thinking about seceding from the US)

Rachel Maddow Show: Tracing Torture's Trail (A time line for how torture was used in the run up to the invasion of Iraq and to justify the invasion after the U.S. had already gone in.)

Dennis Kucinich: We're Moving From Industrial Capitalism To Financial Capitalism To Crony Capitalism!

Australian Press Releases Abu Ghraib Photos

Gore: Cheney is in no position to talk ‘about making the country less safe.’

Steele: We Need Guns To Defend Ourselves Against ‘Terrorists’ Coming To ‘Our Communities’ More stupid from the GOP; no doubt lacking any real terrorists, redneck gun owners will kill indiscriminately local innocent Muslims instead.)

Yes, it’s that bad for the GOP (Includes The Colbert Report video, "Stephen's Sound Advice - How to Re-Brand the GOP.")


Economics:
Industrial Production Drop Worse Since WW II

CPI Report (See also Bonddad's post.)


Islam/Muslim Blogs:
The Boys' First Portraits (Abu Sinan's two younger boys had formal portraits taken; those two kids are sooo good looking!)

White privilege and the white convert (An excellent essay by Indigo Jo; on the longish side, but "must read" material.)

Islamic Calligraphy Art of Four Qul (The "Four Qul" being Surahs 109, 112, 113 and 114.)


Miscellaneous:
M97 - The Owl Nebula

C&L's Late Night Music Club with Wayman Tisdale, 1964-2009 (Sadly, Tisdale died the other day, most likely from bone cancer. It was a pleasure to watch him play with the Phoenix Suns for three seasons, from 1995-98. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un.)

Rochester Institute of Technology's Domino Madness! (If you like watching large sets of dominoes fall, this video will satisfy.)

New Look: Show A Little Leg ("Evidently the New Look is similar to the I Have Polio Look.")

Saturday Morning Matinee: Reach (Cute animation. Check it out!)

Star Trek Movie Quick Recognition Chart (Can't decide which Star Trek film to watch tonight? /film ("Slashfilm") has an interesting flow chart to help you make the right decision!)

Links for 6 May 2009

Politics:
The Daily Show: Republicans, the Lost Party

Countdown's Worst Person: Laura Ingraham

US Airstrike Kills Dozens; Christian Proselytizing in Muslim Afghanistan (Juan Cole has a number of links to the continuing controversy over American troops passing out Bibles as "gifts" in Afghanistan; moreover, that one of the soldiers had pulled the same stunt in Iraq.)

The Georgian Mutiny That Wasn't

You’re only a whore if you show nipple (This is one reason why I'm glad I don't live in the U.S., where the masses and the media obsess over truly trivial people.)

Limbaugh Mocks Recession During Speech To Wealthy Right-Wing Donors

Dodd: Torture investigations may need to go as high as Cheney’s office.

Q: Even if it goes up as high as — A lot of this stuff seems to point toward Cheney’s office.

DODD: You gotta go where you gotta go.

Business:
20 resumes and 40 business cards FREE from Staples (For everyone in the US unemployed during this recession, now might be a good time to go visit Staples.)

Branding: The Psychology of Color


Economics:
You Are Here (That second graph puts the whole stock market into perspective, doesn't it?)

James Galbraith remarks (A similar post about Galbraith's speech was posted on Economist's View on May 2nd.)

There is a difference between then and now?

What a shame we let ourselves be talked into the “creative destruction” of the rail system, an asset that represents $3.3 trillion dollars in unskilled wages. That's a lot of labor just gone. It represents a relative share of GDP bigger than our actual current GDP! It makes you think about who has managed their wealth better; the US? or Europe who did not creatively destroy their original investment, but built upon it and thus saved themselves from having to generate as much income as we have had to in order to have our now killing us (war for oil?, pollution, resource waste, etc), personal transportation system. I guess that is why we don't get to have 6 weeks vacation for all, we have to work to rebuild what we had.

Islam/Muslim Blogs:
What do you get (Naeem's amusing account about being on "The Road to Mecca." :) There's an interesting overhead photo of al-Masjid al-Haram from his hotel window.)


Miscellaneous:
Cosmos/The Matrix Mashup (Someone with too much time on their hands has overdubbed "Agent Smith" with Carl Sagan's voice from "Cosmos" in a scene from the first Matrix movie.)

Actor, comedian Dom DeLuise dies at 75 (Below, Dom in Mel Brook's "Blazing Saddles" - The French Mistake:)

"Mrs. Han Solo" Roasts George Lucas

This video is old but funny! (Yeah, I never saw it before now.) Carrie Fisher roasted George Lucas at the latter's AFI Lifetime Achievement Award back in 2005. Classic lines included "Hi, I'm Mrs. Han Solo, and I'm an alcoholic," and "I mean I bet she [Natalie Portman] even got to wear a bra, even though you told me I couldn't, because there was no underwear in space!"