Posts filed under Bits & Bobs

Bits & Bobs - 5th Edition

Bits & Bobs collects some of the cool things around the interwebs that I think are noteworthy and worth your time but don't necessarily fill up a full blog post or news item. On with the show...

BACK TO THE PILOT TRAINING GROUND

Quick, get in close enough to take a picture of it for the recon mission -- without crashing into it. It's like landing a plane on the aircraft carrier in the NES Top Gun.

Remember the countless hours spent in a DOS environment trying to get X-Wing up and running on your Dad's work PC? I do, I must have spent hours upon hours trying to get all seven of those discs to install only to find that the sound card he had wasn't compatible and I'd have to play without sound. Regardless, so many days and nights were spent behind the controls of an X-Wing fighter in LucasArts' X-Wing simulator. Later on, they released a CD-ROM version for the Mac that I ate up with a spoon, but unfortunately it hasn't worked on any of my computers (along with the fantastic Rebel Assault games) for years. Enter GOG.com who swiped up the rights to X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Sam & Max Hit the Road, and The Secret of Monkey Island and are offering them through their DRM-free download service. Good news right? Bad news is that it's Windows only for X-Wing and TIE Fighter for the time being. Check it out here!

GET READY FOR PHASE THREE FEATURING...

Unless you somehow completely managed to avoid the internet all day yesterday (or any of your friends that are vaguely enthusiasts of popular culture), you probably already know that Marvel held a big Apple-like event at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, CA yesterday to announce their movie plans through the year 2019. The biggest surprises of the announcement were the revelations that a Captain Marvel film (based on the most recent and awesome Carol Danvers version of the character) is on the way, and also that the next Avengers film will be a big two-parter revolving around Thanos and his killer hand modeling. And the whole thing is going to kick off with a new Cap movie loosely inspired by the Civil War event. So who wants to update that intense info-graphic of the tentpole movie slate for the next ten years?

TERMINATOR: PARENTHOOD

This week's Entertainment Weekly has a cover story on the upcoming Terminator reboot/reimagining, Terminator: Genisys (which I still can't spell the subtitle of correctly without looking up). In it, they reveal how this new film fits into the continuity and how a new incarnation of Sarah Connor has been raised by... a Cyberdyne model 101? According to the article: "Sarah Connor isn’t the innocent she was when Linda Hamilton first sported feathered hair and acid-washed jeans in the role. Nor is she Hamilton’s steely zero body-fat warrior in 1991’s T2. Rather, the mother of humanity’s messiah was orphaned by a Terminator at age 9. Since then, she’s been raised by (brace yourself) Schwarzenegger’s Terminator—an older T-800 she calls “Pops”—who is programmed to guard rather than to kill. As a result, Sarah is a highly trained antisocial recluse who’s great with a sniper rifle but not so skilled at the nuances of human emotion." Interesting. Apparently it has James Cameron's seal of approval, but we'll see how it all shakes out next July.

Bits & Bobs - 4th Edition

Bits & Bobs collects some of the cool things around the interwebs that I think are noteworthy and worth your time but don't necessarily fill up a full blog post or news item. On with the show...

HEAR THE AMAZING "CLOCKTOWER PART 2" LIVE

As part of the upcoming 30th Anniversary of Back to the Future, Universal is planning a re-release of the film in theaters with a very special difference from the original 1985 film: a live orchestra will be playing in time to the action on screen creating a live concert/viewing experience. Composer Alan Silvestri has composed an additional 15 minutes worth of music to accompany the film. Along the same lines, UK based Secret Cinema has plans to bring its live event to Los Angeles to celebrate the 30th anniversary as well. You can read a recap of my experience at the version in London here.

TRUST THE FUNGUS

Fans of the cult-favorite (but famously unsuccessful) live-action adaptation of Super Mario Bros. with Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo will be happy to know that Second Sight Films is releasing the film on Blu-ray. A new remaster of the feature is the centerpiece, with exclusive special features including an in-depth behind the scenes documentary that Second Sight created in conjunction with the Super Mario Bros. Movie Archive fan site. The Blu-ray release was originally slated for March of 2014 but looks to hit stores in the UK this November. What does that mean for folks in the US? Unfortunately the disc is region locked to the UK (Region 2), so you'll need a region-free player in order to view it (much like the recent release of Joe Dante's The Burbs from Arrow Films, which has an abundance of cool special features and a new HD master, but is UK only). Hopefully Disney will capitalize on bonus features already being in the can and release the disc in the US soon.

GET A GOOD DOSE OF OXYGEN TO GET THROUGH THE WEEK

Rebel Force Radio has an amazing podcast program called Star Wars Oxygen, which is essentially a masters class on the John Williams orchestral score throughout all the films. Hosted by Jimmy Mac and Former LucasArts Sound Designer David W. Collins, each episode focuses on a particular section within one of the Star Wars films on a granular level. This week, Episode 11 was just released focusing on the source music of Return of the Jedi (all of the "in-world" music as heard by the characters in the film sourced from an element seen on screen like a certain Rebo band). But if you have the time, or the ridiculous commute like I do, definitely start back at Episode 1 where the team dissects A New Hope, then Empire Strikes Back and helps you hear the score of Star Wars in a whole new light. The show is available on iTunes by searching Rebel Force Radio or by clicking the link above.

Bits & Bobs - 3rd Edition

Bits & Bobs collects some of the cool things around the interwebs that I think are noteworthy and worth your time but don't necessarily fill up a full blog post or news item. On with the show...

Go Home Drunk Hulk, You're...

As of October 6th, Drunk Hulk finally sobered up and will no longer be posting updates to his Twitter. For those unfamiliar, Drunk Hulk was a fictional character on Twitter with over 190,000 followers who would comment on the day-to-day goings on with a spin that only a drunk gamma-ray powered lug possibly could. Among my favorites were Drunk Hulk's views on Miley Cyrus (SHE NATIONAL TREASURE, NEED BE BURIED AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!), and many others. Salon had a great write-up on the character's creator, actually a writer from Poland. So long, Drunk Hulk - we'll pour one out for you.

Get Ready for Paul Feig's Ghostbusters III With New Writer

I'm going to relegate this to the Bits & Bobs column since Ghostbusters III news since 1992 has virtually been given away like free discs of AOL software (they still do that, right?) but The Hollywood Reporter has broken the story that The Heat writer Katie Dippold is joining director Paul Feig on his new Ghostbusters film. Dippold joins the ranks of Etan Coen, Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, and of course Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd who have attempted to crack the code of a third film in the franchise. For more information on the long story of Ghostbusters III, check out this feature on SPT that goes into detail which was written before Feig even entered the picture. The beat goes on.

Bits & Bobs - 2nd Edition

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Bits & Bobs collects some of the cool things around the interwebs that I think are noteworthy and worth your time but don't necessarily fill up a full blog post or news item. On with the show...

Awesome Flux Capacitor MacBook Decal from Etsy

The people of etsy never fail to impress and come up big once again with this offering from Vinyl Smack: a flux capacitor from Doc Brown's famed DeLorean in Back to the Future. The decal sits over the Apple logo on your MacBook shell and utilizes the light to make the device appear like it's... fluxing. It's what makes time travel possible, and it's what makes you the super-cool geek who is the envy of all your friends the next time you bust out that laptop at a company meeting. Check out Vinyl Smack's shop on etsy for a video and to purchase one of your own. (Note: I'm pretty sure this doesn't mean that your MacBook will run off Mr. Fusion. Yet.)

Starlog Magazine Returns

I'm not sure how long it's been back, but one of the magazines that was responsible for so many of my insights into my favorite films throughout the 80s and 90s has made a resurgence. Starlog Magazine, which shuttered in April of 2009 appears to be back thanks to the magic of the internet. As of this past July it appears that a new Twitter feed as well as a web-based blog and article portal has popped back up feeding news items from around the web. The site also has interviews and reviews, plus an archival of some of the magazine's finest retro articles. As of now, it appears to be more akin to a SlashFilm or Collider rather than the in-depth source that it once was, but maybe it'll get back up to speed and mirror the glory days soon.

Nerdist Swag Shop Opens

Chris Hardwick continues his domination of all things pop culture and geek as his website expands to now include a merch store with Nerdist logos galore. I've been waiting to pick up a t-shirt and his awesome but extremely nerdy (fittingly) convention jacket and immediately picked up both. But if you're a fan of the amazing Nerdist podcasts, the website, or Hardwick himself it's definitely worth heading to the store to check out the wares that are currently available. There's also a limited-edition "fall exclusive" t-shirt up that incorporates the familiar Nerdist logo into a pumpkin for you autumn junkies.

Posted on October 1, 2014 and filed under Bits & Bobs.