Moon Rocks!

I'm back!

Saw Moon last Tuesday. Very cool. Sam Rockwell's portrayal of a "regular Joe" type space worker was amazing. He manages
to evoke sympathy for this regular guy who's finding out that he's not so regular after all. The special effects were excellent. They relied mostly on miniatures rather than CGI which had this old geek flashing back to the days of Gerry Anderson. Nods to other SF movies abound most notably 2001. There were also some vague similarities to blade runner and GATTACA. If you haven't seen GATTACA go out and rent it NOW! It is similar to Moon in that it is a serious SF film, that is to say NO EXPLOSIONS! That's right, no Beyhem of any kind. Just serious, challenging ideas. Who'd a thunk? All in all the film came across like an excellent episode of classic twilight zone.

Terminator Salvation (spoilers)

I finally got around to seeing the new terminator and I liked it better than most of the reviewers seemed to. One thing that annoys the hell out of me is some of the postings I've seen about the film on various online forums. Several different people were complaining how easy it was for Conner and Marcus to infiltrate the Skynet compound at the films climax. I watched the film prepared to be disappointed by this and HELLO! Skynet LET them in in order to trap them! It was not a minor plot point. Hell, the computer even explains it to Conner at the end of the movie. How freaking stupid are people? I think I'm beginning to agree with those who say that people should have to pass an intelligence test before being allowed to post on the internet.

Star Trek

This will be a spoilerless micro-review. Overall, I loved it. The writers definitely get the whole trek thing. Naturally, the FX were top notch and the casting was spot-on. My only nit-pick was the antagonist played by Eric Bana, who does really well with what the writers gave him, it's just that they didn't give him much. I'm also getting burnt out on the time travel gimmick but to be fair, the writers don't abuse it too much and also, it actually does serve the "reboot" aspect of the film very well. Overall, I think the producers pulled off the impossible- a trek film for classic fans and also for whole new legion of fans as well!

Watchmen

Late as usual. I won't give an entire review except to say I liked it. There was something about it that kept me from loving it though and no I'm not a slavish Alan Moore fanboy. I found an excellent review here that seems to crystallize some of my minor quibbles with the film. That said I did read and enjoy the graphic novel. I think the film is going to be one of those rare adaptations that simultaneously stands apart from and alongside its source material in the same way wizard of oz or the LOTR films do.

2009 - Year of Panic

One of my fave authors Bruce Sterling has an editorial up at the Seed magazine website entitled " 2009 Will Be a Year of Panic". In it, he addresses one of my biggest concerns as of late. That is the willful ignorance that more and more Americans seem to embrace. Of course, he expresses it better than I ever could: "By attacking empiricism, the world is discarding all of the good reasons to believe that anything is real".

Gundam!

I always wanted my own Gundam. I guess they still need to perfect it.

Told ya so!

Apple fanboys and girls will often try to extol the virtues of Apple hardware and for the most part they're right. Apple makes great, though pricey stuff. This is what has always kept me admiring their stuff from afar. I'm cheap. There. I said it. So it's nice to see some vindication in this article especially as regards the iPhone. Many people have asked me why, being such a geek, I don't have an iPhone. Let me say first that the iPhone is a remarkable piece of technology, especially for the price. I would love to own one except for one thing: the expensive contract through at&t. At 50+ dollars a month, I just can't justify it. It probably doesn't help that I don't like talking on the phone and I like talking on a cell phone even less. Add to that the fact of being "always available" makes me feel like I'm on the end of a leash and maybe you can see where I'm coming from. In fact I decided to go with a pre-paid because for as little as I use the thing, It's actually cost effective.

Why "Inverspace"?

Well, having come late to the blog party it was tough work trying to find an original name and url. All of the good ones and a lot of not so good ones were taken. Then I thought of inverspace. The term is from "Deeper Than the Darkness" an excellent Harlan Ellison story that I read many years ago. In the story, inverspace is a faster than light shortcut through normal space that is used for interplanetary travel. Ellison describes it as sort of a topsy-turvy abomination compared to our normal space. So much so, that the characters in the story can hardly bear to look out of the ship's portholes. I'm not sure, but I think he may have used the term in some other stories as well. It also seemed like a fair description of my own "inner space" so to speak. As you will soon see, my mind is a terrible thing.

Who is this guy?

Been meaning to start a blog since forever. I've been online since about '91 so I really don't have much excuse except, of course laziness. Have a few amateur video projects that I will be uploading soon along with some behind the scenes about the making thereof. Obviously my interests include videography, as well as computers, film making, martial arts, Science fiction, Cyberpunk, Steampunk, um, Punk Rock, Industrial (the new punk rock, IMO) Buddhism, politics and technology. I hope to be posting about all of the above and more so stay tuned.