Bum Fights Turns it Up to 11

Since it seemed to shock everybody sooooo much last night that I hadn't seen 2 Girls 1 Cup then perhaps it will come as an equal surprise to learn I'd also not seen Hobo With a Shotgun until just now:

I am blinded by the light, it's so beautiful! Hard to believe this trailer was made three years ago and screened at SXSW. Perhaps more unbelievable is that a feature-length film is now in pre-production starring Rutger Hauer.

--Matt

Happy Yuri's Night!

How's this for important holiday's you never knew existed: every April 12 since 1962 motley crews of like-minded space cadets around the world get together to turn machine-filled labs and aeronautical test bays into party halls to celebrate the first space shot of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961. Known as Cosmonautics Day in Russia the celebration has spilled across borders and oceans to reach America in 2001 and a huge event is now held every year down at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View. Alas, it was $50 for entry this year and I just don't have that kind of cash--nor anywhere to crash in the area--but my spirit is with them and I continue to watch the circling skies...

--Matt

Everybody Needs to Listen to This Episode

Things are pretty bad right now in the Bay Area and nowhere is it worse than in Fremont, where the NUMMI plant will fully shut down its production line tomorrow. Last week's episode of This American Life focused on the plant's history and what went wrong, and I must say it damn near brought tears to my eyes.

America should be angry at this. Very. Goddamn. Angry.

Take an hour and have a listen: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/403/nummi

--Matt

Together At Last!

I wake up every morning wondering when one of the greatest music videos and one of the greatest sci-fi programs will finally unite.

The waiting is over, I give you BSG vs. Sabotage. Might want to reload the page once or twice to get them synced up well.

For a video bonus the following trailer came across my screen yesterday and sums up my feelings on what it takes to win an Oscar: filmmakers, abandon challenging material and just follow the damn formula.

Ultima Ratio Regum

This was too good to be true. C'mon sci-fi geeks out there, you can't tell me that the heart wasn't pumping a bit above baseline when, say, the gatling needlegun Reason spins up to unleash gouts of red hot death, or when the Culture unleashes extra-dimensional energy--Gridfire --onto an entire ringworld. These are some of the genre's most defining moments and here this artist has gorgeously laid them all out chronologically for us. Bravo, ma'am. Bravo.

--Matt

"Squid Wrestling: All Tentacles and No Substance."

Yikes, I am super busy at work and come home every night really wanting to just collapse in a heap...and I love it! Finally I'm feeling like a semi-contributing member of society again despite the ridiculously low salary. (They tell me it'll pay off, I hope they're right.) The downside to this, of course, is that there's little to no energy left to do my own, non-company, writing here. But tonight I stumbled on a blog that really made my day--Sleep Talkin' Man. This is what happens when a prolific and astoundingly funny sleep talker marries a blogger with recording equipment and no shame whatsoever in broadcasting her husband's most intimate unconscious moments to the world.

His lucid speech and fantastic imagination remind me very much of famous sleep talker Dion McGregor.

--Matt

This is Absolutely Repugnant

It never occurred to me that there would be a day when a mere emergency dispatch call would cost money up-front. Certainly we all pay a share for the service with our tax dollars, but the cash-strapped Tracy government has the wonderful notion that 911 medical calls should be paid for by residents either via annual subscription or, if they don't want to bother with that, in lump sums of $300 a pop. That's right: if you live in this Central Valley hellhole and you or a loved one are experiencing a medical emergency it is now necessary to consider whether or not you have the cash just to make the ambulance call. MC Hammer lives out there...won't somebody please think of MC Hammer!?

That is an astoundingly repugnant thought to me. Thanks for the fun Prop 13. I am lighting some incense, rubbing a Buddha, muttering some Hail Marys, and generally projecting psychic waves of discontent in the hope this idiotic idea doesn't start the snowball rolling for privatized public services. If none of that works, well, I bid everybody a welcome back to the 19th century. Will you take the financial hit and save your neighbor if their house is ablaze or they're lying still in the street clutching their chest?

--Matt