Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 31, 2008 in Science
It’s great to see some physical evidence of progress with the Orion Exploration Vehicle, but it’s depressing to me to think that it will take until 2020 to get to the moon — and 2030 to get to Mars:
“NASA rolled out its next-generation space capsule here Wednesday, revealing a bulbous module that is scheduled to carry humans back to the moon in 2020 and eventually onward to Mars. Unlike the space-plane shape of the shuttles, the new Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle looks strikingly similar to the old Apollo space capsule that carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the moon and back in 1969, with Armstrong and Aldrin becoming the first humans to walk on the lunar surface.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 31, 2008 in Pulp Fiction
Dynamite was one of my favorite childhood mags, for the most part they focused on pop culture but this issue (#12 from 1975) features the slightly evil Count Morbida. The illustrator who brought Morbida to life is Arthur Friedman whose character presented a monthly puzzle page.
Digital archivist Steven Martin has put together an amazing collection of turn of the century photos entitled Halloween in the Time of Cholera. Most of the photos are from the 1910s — having grown up in the age of mass marketing what’s amazing to me is how homemade everything looks.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 31, 2008 in Pulp Fiction
In the early 60s Dan Lawler was the star illustrator of Humpty Dumpty’s Magazine for Little Children. What I like about his style is that he manages to be interesting yet charming in a magical way. In the illustration above from 1964 I love the little touches like the crow in the corner and the feather on the hat. In the spot 1961 illustration below Lawler draws you into the picture with his simple yet theatrical staging:
It’s 68% instant energy! Space Food Sticks date to the golden age of NASA which happens to also be the dark ages of American nutrition. These “chocolate treats” were marketed by Pillsbury in 1969 and lasted until the 80s. Although what’s shocking to me is that you can still buy them online today!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 31, 2008 in Animation
I respect Mike Judge — but I hated King of the Hill! I understand that Judge was trying to do something different, but at the end of the day the show was always like a second rate version of Mama’s Family except none of the characters seemed likable on any level.
Maybe you can argue that the show was a “Red State” thing, yet to me South Park seemed to capture that spirit a bit better. The other thing that got to me is that the show never seemed to take advantage of the fact that it was animated, there was never one episode that I caught that wouldn’t have worked better as live action. But yet for my fanboy snottiness I’m assuming that the show had some loyal following if it lasted this long, so props to Judge for keeping Hank Hill humming along:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 31, 2008 in Science
Just a few days after coming back to life Hubble rewards us with the fantastic image above of a pair of double galaxies, and yet like some sad ignored family member will have to wait for a repair mission for a few months:
“The Hubble Space Telescope is working again, taking stunning cosmic photos after a breakdown a month ago. But the good news was quickly tempered by NASA’s announcement Thursday that a mission to upgrade the popular telescope will be delayed at least until May.
A key replacement part that is essential because of the telescope’s failure in September won’t be ready for at least six months. It was the latest twist in the long-running drama surrounding the 18-year-old space telescope — one that initially took only fuzzy photos, then when fixed, provided dazzling and scientifically significant pictures of space, including a new one NASA showed Thursday.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 30, 2008 in Star Trek
Shown above is the latest William Shatner video: I know it was shot in advance but I wish that Shat would take George Takei up on his recent offer to come out against on Proposition 8 before election day:
“MTV Networks is expected to announce on Thursday a deal to use songs by The Beatles in its popular “Rock Band” video game series, marking the band’s first major plunge into the digital music world. The Beatles’ Apple Corps Ltd and Viacom Inc’s MTV Networks have been in talks for months. They issued media invitations to a teleconference on “a global music project” on Thursday, but did not give more details.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 30, 2008 in Animation
When Futurama first came out in (over 9 years ago!) I have to admit I had my doubts about the show — but it won me over in re-runs on Cartoon Network (maybe it was the voice over work by Katey Sagal?). Well now it seems that fans of the show might have more of the year 3000 to look ahead to:
“David X. Cohen, co-creator and executive producer of Futurama, told SCI FI Wire that work is nearly done on the fourth and final (for now) made-for-DVD movie, Into the Wild Green Yonder, and added that he’s hopeful the show might still return as a weekly series, a feature film or another DVD film.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 30, 2008 in Cinema, Star Wars
Zack and Miri Make a Porno looks quite funny, but I had no idea that there was an entire Star Whores subplot in the film! Here are some more screen grabs which will make an Star Wars fanboy (or fangurl) smile:
I’ve always admired the mechanical creations of Lockwasher. What’s wonderful about this robot is that he a definite sense of boyish excitement about him mixed with with a just a tad of punk attitude in his skull and cross bones emblem.
I recall seeing Flying Nun re-runs during my childhood, and what’s strange looking back at it is that at the time not only did it see like a normal TV show show — but while being blitzed with the more interesting eye candy of the era like H.R. Pufnstuf the Sally Field sitcom seemed pretty mundane. However now that I’m looking back at it the entire concept for the show is pretty bizarre, and I do wonder if the show could ever air today given how seriously everybody takes religion. The show went on the air in 1967, and the above lunchbox was produced in 1968. Here’s the backside of the lunchbox which is just as strange:
The fun thing about a Polaroid camera was that it was always the perfect party device due to its instant gratification. These days digital photography has replaced that, but there’s something nice about walking away with a print that you don’t quite get from being tagged in Facebook. That’s why I got a kick out of this Canon SELPHY CP770 Hello Kitty Portable Printer which is due out in November — I think it’s going to be an ideal party accessory. In fact more and more my hunch is that you’ll start to see what use to be on the desktop become more mobile, playful and stylish. And who knows, perhaps one day we’ll see a return to an all-in-one digital camera/printer ala Polaroid.
While Ridley Scott’s Alien is an amazing horror film, my favorite in the genre goes to his brother Tony Scott who directed The Hunger. To me the genre of werewolves can be a bit campy, but if there is anyone who can get it right it would be Ridley Scott:
“We learned of some interesting news this evening as we were tipped off that Ian Jeffers, who wrote both James Wans’ drama-thriller DEATH SENTENCE and Sylvain White’s upcoming adaptation of CASTLEVANIA, has sold an original script to legendary director-produce Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner). Here’s the juicy tid-bit… apparently the film is a werewolf project! No other details were revealed, but it sounds like we might have something pretty huge to look forward to in the coming years.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 28, 2008 in Science
This is an exciting time in astronomy, although as a fanboy what I wouldn’t give to be alive in the era when we’d have the means to visit these places:
“A nearby solar system bears a striking similarity to our own solar system, raising the possibility it could harbor Earth-like planets. Epsilon Eridani, located about 10.5 light-years from our sun, is surrounded by two asteroid belts that are shaped by planets, astronomers at SETI Institute and Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced today.
But it’s the possibility that currently undetected smaller planets could lie within the innermost asteroid belt that make the solar system intriguing to astrobiologists. “This system probably looks a lot like ours did when life first took root on Earth,” said SETI’s Dana Backman, lead author of a paper on the 850-million-year-old star that will appear next year in The Astrophysical Journal, in a release.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 27, 2008 in Videogames
This is the last scene from LittleBigPlanet and it looks absolutely stunning — not only that but the game play looks interesting which means that this title is more than just eye candy. If the rest of the game is this good I can easily see that it could drive sales for PlayStation 3 in the near future and help Sony win some mind space back from Nintendo. The game is being released this week and you can pre-order it from Amazon: LittleBigPlanet
“Japanese newspaper (shinbun) expertly folded and glued by hand in Towa Village by farmer’s wives. For the environmentally conscience.”
Although now that I’m thinking about it: I wonder how eco-friendly the bag is if it needs to be flown to the United States all the way from Japan thus adding to global warming? Oh well you can’t have it all, but the bag still looks cool…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 27, 2008 in Videogames
My first reaction to these two spots was that “Nintendo is really pushing DSi as more of a lifestyle platform ala iLife apps on the Macintosh” but then I had to remind myself that in Japan Nintendo has already been doing this for a long time as you’ll find the DS being used for everything from education to wine guides. And of course the Wii has always had a wide audience in mind. What we’re starting to see is that game platforms are starting to become more PC like in terms of the content that they’re offering.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 26, 2008 in Star Trek
The above interview with Gene Roddenberry was from Good Morning America in 1986 (I believe that’s Joan Lunden with her big 80s hair asking the questions). Roddenberry came to my mind because he brought the series to life, but sadly was shoved to the side even during the original run of the series which as he points out wasn’t a success during its original run. In fact even after the movies brought the show back to life he was pushed over after the first film.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 26, 2008 in Comic Books
This cover by Juan Doe for Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel #3 (which is due out in January) has a nice poster quality to it. The contrast between the art deco coloring of the Blue Marvel in the foreground makes for a nice contrast with the post-psychedelic hypnotic swirling backdrop.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 25, 2008 in Comic Books
Art Baltazar shows off his sense of humor on this cover of Tiny Titans #12 which is due out in January. In this illustration Baltazar is already in a land of cute with his characters, but I like the fact hat he takes it a step further by having those with super powers in training doing something mundane like the wash — and failing at it so well!
