Ok, let’s get this out of the way….it ain’t worth it to get up at 3 a.m. and stagger to a lineup for a Steve Jobs keynote. But that’s just what I did this morning, since I’d never been to one of Apple’s signature shindigs before. My verdict on the new gear Apple trotted out today? Meh. Canada doesn’t have movies for purchase on the iTunes store, let alone rentals, and we also don’t have iPhones. The Macbook Air is a nice bit of engineering, but it’s nothing I pine for.
Still, getting to see a live “Macbreak Weekly” was cool, as was finally meeting Merlin Mann and Andy Inhatko. Tonight there’s a party for attendees featuring non other thanDevo, and there’s a lot of informative podcast creation sessions over the next couple of days.
Somehow, despite an almost complete lack of news, the RFS crew managed to pack together almost an hour of action-packed banter, hilarity and mumblesuch into the latest podcast. Enjoy our digressions and debate, and stay tuned for next week when we’ll have the premiere of the second season of Torchwood to mull over and…well, another 40-odd minutes of banter. (feed, web, direct download)
Prolost, the blog of author and special effects whiz Stu Maschwitz, has an excellent feature on how a BBC program used four graphic designers, greenscreens, color correction, and some clever thinking to more or less reproduce the opening of Saving Private Ryan. The video is below, but go to Stu’s blog post, as he has plenty of things to say about the process.
Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential and host of “A Cook’s Tour,” is spending less time in the kitchen and more time making television, and he’s none too happy about it. Bourdain’s book launched (for better or for worse) the “bad boy chef” phenomenon, but his candor and willingness to ferret out BS generally puts him above such nonsense, as evidenced in this Onion AV Club interview.
The Justice League catapults back to the Victorian Age, in action figure form. What’s not to like? It’s pretty much nerdvana. (courtesy of this post at Boing Boing)
Hillary Clinton is already feeling the pressure from Obama’s success in Iowa and his probable victory in New Hampshire. I’m a little surprised that someone with as much experience, and who has put up with so much crap from her political enemies for 20 years, is cracking up this early in the race, but the facts say otherwise. And while people are shaking their heads at the somewhat inexperienced Obama’s sudden success, I think it comes down to a couple of factors For one, Bush has left such a bad taste in the mouths of the American people, and has been such a colossal failure, that people are aching for change. But on a personal level, I can say that Obama has that certain ineffable something that turns a candidate into a force to be reckoned with. And he’s the first guy who transcends the baby boomer feuds and battles that have dominated American politics for the past 30 years. Seeing Obama’s rise, I can understand how the boomers got behind Kennedy in 1960….whether you liked his policies or not, he was one of us. Same goes for Obama. Whether any of this pans out into him actually winning the presidency, or if he’ll be worth a damn if he gets into the White House, is up for debate. But as it stands now, he’s the guy I’d most like to see win.
With next to nothing in the way of news, the RFS crew brings you a full 71 minutes and change of rip-roaring commentary on the Doctor Who Xmas Special, “Voyage of the Damned.” Does it stand up after a week and a half? Is Warren’s Kylie jihad over and done with? Is Steven actually a computer programmed with nothing but Doctor Who facts? Tune in and find out! (feed, web, direct download)
Io9, a new and snarky sci-fi site that recently emerged from the bowels of the Gawker empire, has a list of reasons why Star Trek should stay dead for a while, and I have to say I agree with every point they make. Top of their list is the series slavish devotion to continuity, but they also point out that Star Trek’s entire structure is a Cold War relic, and that new shows like Battlestar Galactica do a much better job of reflecting the present day in a sci-fi setting. I’d add Doctor Who (not surprsingly) to the list of worthy retuned series….Russel T. Davies and friends were very smart in that they lifted what worked in the old series, such as witty writing and great acting, but still managed to make Doctor Who very much a 21st century show with quick pacing, great effects and more adult approach to the material.
At first I was a little nervous at the idea of a fourth Indiana Jones film, given that there’s really no need for one and Harrison Ford is now as old as some of the mummified creatures he’s battled in the previous films. But with the return of Karen Allen as Marion, and Speilberg declaring he’ll keep the CG nonsense to a minimum, I’m actually kind of looking forward to the film, due this summer. Here’s some Vanity Fair goodness on Indy IV to stoke the fanboy flames.