Plaidophile

In science fiction series where there's some sort of universal translation thing which uses some ill-defined 'receiving the intent' sort of thing (Farscape, Star Trek, etc.), it seems likely that all civilizations would eventually lose their own cohesive languages. After all, if all children could just understand and be understood implicitly in whatever random babbling they come up with, there's no reason for them to adjust and learn their own civilization's common language, right?

So really, when there's a scene from the perspective of someone who is without the translation conceit, it seems like everyone should just sound like squealing, growling, baby babble, and the like.

Today I was at the Alameda Antiques Fair, and came across what purported to be an original animation cel from the Star Trek: TAS episode Yesteryear. I of course bought it (after failing to convince Mark that he should), and then after framing and hanging it, I decided to watch the episode it supposedly came from.

Thanks again for submitting your work for the Cartoon Art Museum’s Monsters of Webcomics Virtual Gallery.

I’m pleased to say that your work has been selected for inclusion in our exhibition, and will be featured in the Virtual Gallery along with a wide array of webcomics from around the globe. This historic exhibition will include over 100 artists, making this one of the largest exhibitions in the Cartoon Art Museum’s 24-year history, and we’re thankful for your participation.

I am pleased as well! My stuff will be in a museum! I think this is only the second time this has happened.

Here's a full press release of the exhibit, and also you can read more about the goings-on at the Cartoon Art Museum on their LiveJournal.

I will have to finally go to CAM and maybe even meet Shaenon and Andrew in person!

I will not spoil this movie, so much as just say the following:

• Yes, the trailer hints at certain aspects of the story, but it goes in a very unexpected direction
• What you think will be the villain is not the villain
• It is refreshingly ambiguous and open-ended
• The soundtrack could be better (I think Clint Mansell was just phoning it in this time around, which is unfortunate since I loved his work on π) but it still led to a very nice atmosphere
• I was able to look past the many minor science gaffes which were probably made just in the name of making it easier to film (in the case of the live action ones) and looking more "realistic" (in the case of the CG ones), because really who the hell cares that there wouldn't be clouds of dust kicked up in a vacuum? Total nerds, that's who.

This seems like a really bad time to be famous. RIP Mrs. Slocombe and Karl Malden. At least they (along with Ed McMahon) had a good run, unlike certain pop stars and hucksters I could name.

Who's next, Bruce Campbell?

(NOTE: If Bruce Campbell dies within the next month I sincerely apologize for predicting it, because he is certainly not someone I would like to die right now, or ever.)

From TiVo's online program guide:

Just a brief followup to my "review" last night. Don't read it if you are still looking forward to seeing the movie unspoiled.

Well, that was certainly a movie.

So, for various reasons I decided to finally subject myself to the torture of the Matrix sequels. I knew beforehand that Gloria Foster had died from diabetes sometime during the filming of the third one and was replaced by another actress (with the replacement justified by her being a piece of software anyway), but I didn't realize that they had discarded all of her filmed scenes.

So, when the Oracle appeared, I just thought that Gloria Foster had some terribly slurred speech due to the effects of the diabetes and I kept on wondering where in the movie the actress change was to take place, until she specifically mentioned her changed appearance to Neo.

I'd like to see an episode of House where the patient is the star of a medical mystery show. His personality (and even accent) should be completely different than his on-screen persona's, and he shouldn't actually try to know anything about medicine, but the doctors should nitpick about various inaccuracies in his show. In the resolution, it should turn out that he actually has the illness that was last shown on his show, but with a completely different set of symptoms. (As a nice twist, on the show-within-a-show, the symptoms and progression should be the ones that are completely accurate.)

Yet another hand-wavey "cloud" video game console, like the Phantom except this one doesn't even have any game processing in the console itself — supposedly it'll somehow have all the games playing on a remote server farm and have the video streamed in realtime to the console. Call me skeptical.

Also, money quote, from "Sid:"

Can you imagine living in a futuristic society where men don't need PS3s and Xboxes to play insanely gorgeous games? Someone pinch me, I feel like I'm living in a George Orwell book.

I don't think Sid has actually read any George Orwell.

Last night I went to Cinematic Titanic Live with some friends. The "original" MST3k crew^* certainly has their act together.

^* Frank wasn't actually on the original crew — he came along when J. Elvis left the show at the end of the first season, which was the same time Bill Corbett came on board to voice Servo. Bill Corbett has just as much a claim to the "original crew" designation, but he's in the RiffTrax camp. And, strictly-speaking, Mary Jo Pehl, who came on board even later, joined the crew after Mike Nelson, although before Mike became the host.

Unsurprisingly, they their biggest laughs and cheers when they made direct MST3k references.

I did miss a chance to chat with Trace Beaulieu in the lobby while I was trying to get to the bathroom (I actually didn't recognize him, what with him not wearing a chartreuse lab coat and having a full beard). One of my friends talked to Joel a bit though.

So, tonight I'm watching a very new episode of Good Eats, and all I could pay attention to towards the beginning is that when describing the varieties of supermarket oranges, they were using the soundtrack from a rather old episode. Normally that wouldn't matter, except that the particular soundtrack in question was designed to integrate with the timing of the subject matter, with little chords and notes to represent the "symphony of flavors" or whatever. But the timing was all off when talking about oranges and it was just jarring.

It's not that I spend a lot of time memorizing cooking show soundtracks or whatever (although I usually get the auditory puns that tend to come up in them, like Barbecue University using an adaptation of "Ring Of Fire"), I just happen to notice things.

So, I bought the Wall-E Collector's Edition on Blu-Ray. One of the things it came with was the "Disney digital copy" version. Since the voucher was only good for a year I decided I'd might as well just redeem it anyway, and since it's using iTunes DRM it's not like I can't transfer the license between all my computers (unlike the Windows Media version which restricts it to a single computer forever and ever).

Anyway, the whole activation/transfer process was incredibly painless. I popped in the DVD, entered a code, and then 20 seconds later I had a copy of Wall-E on my computer.

So, not all DRM has to make things painful and stupid.

I just saw the SF premiere screening of Nerdcore Rising, to which my friend (and now independent documentary star!) MC Frontalot was an attendee. Afterwards I joined him and a bunch of his friends at a nearby bar. I had two strong drinks on an empty stomach. I opted to just leave my bike at the office and take BART home. I am still feeling drunk.

So what I'm saying is I may be a bit late for work tomorrow.

Some time ago (I can't find the weblog entry so it was probably one of the ones lost in the Great Server Hard Drive Failure) I was saying how much I'd like to see a TV series based on the premise of actual real-life relativistic-speed space travel. Well, The Forever War (which I still need to read) is becoming a movie directed by Ridley Scott! So that promises to actually be, you know, excellent.

Watching a TV show/ad/movie/whatever and recognizing the majority of the loops used in the soundtrack, especially when they're just stock loops bundled with GarageBand or SoundTrack.

(Tonight's offender: Mythbusters)

Buy 2, Get 1 Free.