On Saturday, April 16th I attended the Cosmix show at the Planetarium in downtown Bradenton. I drove 20 minutes to this planetarium with my friend Zach, really not sure of what we were going to go see nor had either of us ever been there. When we arrived we came to find out the Planetarium is actually a pretty cool place, they have several different models of skeletal structures from all different time periods, including a completely awesome mammoth that was at least 20 feet tall. This made me realize that I had never been to an actual museum where they had dinosaurs on display, and the nostalgia had risen in me, having been a fan of dinosaurs since I was a child. Anyways, on to the Cosmix show.
We arrived just on time and walked into the dim room, lit only by the ambient light provided by the projectors that were displaying the video, and sat down into the chairs that reclined much further than that of a normal chair. I was mostly expecting to see an actual planetarium show with the stars and planets displayed on the building's massive dome, and I was actually looking forward to it since I'd never been to one. I was surprised to find it was more of small film festival type thing that made me neither happy nor really disappointed as I'd never been to one of these either.
The first few videos weren't overly impressive since, I work at a music store and I know a lot of musicians that write much more technically merited electronic music than what was on display in the videos. Speaking of the first few videos they seemed kind of like windows 2000 screen savers with low polygon renders and low res texturing. But then came on, “Thread Theory” which was a some what boring visual experience made infinitely better by the way in which it was displayed on the big dome instead of on a normal flat monitor. What really made this one shine was the fact that all of the music was done by a live musician which I'm always a fan of, it wasn't the most technical of performances, but it was definitely a smooth sound that would fit in any ambient progressive listener's library.
A few of the other videos caught my attention as well, one of them by Trisha , I don't remember the name of the video, but her use of the screen's half spherical shape to signify the passing of mail across the different lines I thought was pretty creative and entertaining to watch as you recline back in your chair. Another one that stood out was PJ's, being one that seemingly creating an anmation by a series of time lapsed still image captures from an entire night and compiling them. Dr. Steiling's “Panorama” was one of the most interesting videos of the night, throughly enjoyed it all the way through and it's 50's vibe made me think of the game Bioshock in it's style. The final video of the night “Take the ride...” was a stand out for me, especially using the planetarium as a medium the video was almost entrancing as it's kaleidoscope pattern kept increasing it's speed more and more until it was almost unbearable to look at any longer and then it burst away and displayed a very fitting quote by Hunter S. Thompson.
All and all I thought it was a unique experience and I'm glad I went, I'm also intrigued to go again and see an normal planetarium event there as well.
-Dan
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Oryx and Crake
For literary speculation week, I decided to pick up Oryx and Crake, a novel by Margaret Atwood. This novel can be classified as and fit into a number of different genre's but I think post-apocalyptic science fiction probably fits it best. But, apparently the author herself has been said to label it as speculative fiction instead because it doesn't deal with “things that have not been invented yet.”
I noticed two main themes to Atwood's novel; the first being a distant future where earth's been effected by global warming to the point that coastal cities don't even exist, and it's impossible to live for any substantial amount of time outside in the sun. Most of the wealthier areas of the world are protected under places known as compounds, but there are places where the poor unprotected people live called the Pleeblands.
The second major theme has to do with the 3 central characters. The novel is mostly a single character driven novel in the form of Snowman, but most of the novels contents are contained with in his past where there are 3 main characters. In the past he is known as Jimmy, his “best” friend is Crake, and his lover (also Crake's) Oryx. The flashbacks seemed to take up most of the story's text, but almost everything in the novel is substantial, a lot of the beginning of Jimmy's story is a little boring but towards the end it's actually pretty interesting how Atwood connects things, like the game's creators being so much more than anyone ever expected in the beginning.
I found myself much more interested in Snowman's survival, the new world that was created by the catastrophic event, and Snowman's interaction with the utopian people the Crakers. It isn't as if anymore thought was put into it over the flashbacks, since it's all very well done, Atwood has fully realized her dystopian future world in almost every detail. But, it's rather a preference, considering I'm very much a fan of the barren post-apocalyptic tale that we see in all kinds of games, books, and movies in the current generation I really latched on to that part of the novel. It seems like a prevalent part of the flashback sequences was the really odd sexual references and pedophilia that I found kind of disturbing and made me not want to read them as much.
Overall I feel that it was an extremely inventive tale with its allusion to scientific advances and ideas of the present that are pushed into the future to be developed and eventually cause the fall of man. This is almost a cautionary tale of sorts ,but even if it's not viewed as that, there's no denying that it's a great piece of literature in all aspects. I was interested to see if a sequel had been written and apparently the author has released a novel called, The Year of the Flood, which isn't a direct sequel but has a lot of connections to Oryx and Crake; I'll probably give this one a shot when time permits.
-Dan
I noticed two main themes to Atwood's novel; the first being a distant future where earth's been effected by global warming to the point that coastal cities don't even exist, and it's impossible to live for any substantial amount of time outside in the sun. Most of the wealthier areas of the world are protected under places known as compounds, but there are places where the poor unprotected people live called the Pleeblands.
The second major theme has to do with the 3 central characters. The novel is mostly a single character driven novel in the form of Snowman, but most of the novels contents are contained with in his past where there are 3 main characters. In the past he is known as Jimmy, his “best” friend is Crake, and his lover (also Crake's) Oryx. The flashbacks seemed to take up most of the story's text, but almost everything in the novel is substantial, a lot of the beginning of Jimmy's story is a little boring but towards the end it's actually pretty interesting how Atwood connects things, like the game's creators being so much more than anyone ever expected in the beginning.
I found myself much more interested in Snowman's survival, the new world that was created by the catastrophic event, and Snowman's interaction with the utopian people the Crakers. It isn't as if anymore thought was put into it over the flashbacks, since it's all very well done, Atwood has fully realized her dystopian future world in almost every detail. But, it's rather a preference, considering I'm very much a fan of the barren post-apocalyptic tale that we see in all kinds of games, books, and movies in the current generation I really latched on to that part of the novel. It seems like a prevalent part of the flashback sequences was the really odd sexual references and pedophilia that I found kind of disturbing and made me not want to read them as much.
Overall I feel that it was an extremely inventive tale with its allusion to scientific advances and ideas of the present that are pushed into the future to be developed and eventually cause the fall of man. This is almost a cautionary tale of sorts ,but even if it's not viewed as that, there's no denying that it's a great piece of literature in all aspects. I was interested to see if a sequel had been written and apparently the author has released a novel called, The Year of the Flood, which isn't a direct sequel but has a lot of connections to Oryx and Crake; I'll probably give this one a shot when time permits.
-Dan
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Transmetropolitan
When I looked at the reading list this week I wasn't entirely intrigued by Snow Crash, though I'm sure it's a fine novel, but I was pleasantly surprised to find something written by Warren Ellis that I had never heard of. I've respected Ellis' work on comics such as Hellblazer, Planetary, and some of his shorter runs on a few Marvel comics like his Iron Man collaboration with Adi Granov, Extremis.
Transmetropolitan written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Darrick Robertson is a literary masterpiece that should be read by any fan of the cyberpunk genre wether you like comics or not. This graphic novel seems almost personal to Ellis and is probably the best writing that I've ever seen him produce, as he depicts this perfect blend of Fear and Loathing in an almost Blade Runner world. The art of Darrick Robertson, though not my favorite style, is absolutely perfect for the story in practically every way. Ellis and Robertson's immaculate effort defines the cyberpunk genre completely, really leaving nothing out.
The tattooed, loud mouthed, pill-popping journalist Spider Jerusalem is perfect and quite a compelling protagonist for this cyberpunk tale. In the genre, protagonists are often patterned on the idea of the lone hero fighting injustice, such as Robin Hood, Spider is no exception. Most of the time the protagonist in a cyberpunk tale is manipulated and placed in a situation where they have no choice but to do what they're being forced to do, just as Mr. Jerusalem is forced to move back into the city he loathes in order to fulfill his contract with a book company. Every column Spider writes he skillfully, through either physical means or entirely through his words, reveals the corrupt nature of whatever it is he feels is unjust. He's not the typical protagonist however, he's unsanitary, a drug user, and I don't think I've ever heard so much poor language out of a single individual, but he's oddly likable.
The world in Transmetropolitan has high tech conventions and ideas, but it's still portrayed in a grungy manner opposite to the very sleek and clean utopian nature of traditional science fiction. The city that Spider inhabits is beautifully illustrated by Robertson, showing the cluttered streets, alien prostitutes, and all sorts of humorous drug and porn advertisements. There are things that are super high tech such as machines that can manufacture just about anything, and then there are things that are still oddly grounded to the present. For instance, many of the buildings are basically what we have presently, which is realistically not how buildings I imagine would be engineered in the future, having all of the other advances that the inhabitants of Transmetropolitan enjoy.
I'm now about halfway through the series, even though we were only required to read the first graphic novel in the series and I just can't get enough of Transmetropolitan. Every time I'm done with a chapter I wanna immediately jump into the next and find out what kind of messed up political or social corruption Spider will violently and skillfully uncover and expose next.
- Dan
Transmetropolitan written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Darrick Robertson is a literary masterpiece that should be read by any fan of the cyberpunk genre wether you like comics or not. This graphic novel seems almost personal to Ellis and is probably the best writing that I've ever seen him produce, as he depicts this perfect blend of Fear and Loathing in an almost Blade Runner world. The art of Darrick Robertson, though not my favorite style, is absolutely perfect for the story in practically every way. Ellis and Robertson's immaculate effort defines the cyberpunk genre completely, really leaving nothing out.
The tattooed, loud mouthed, pill-popping journalist Spider Jerusalem is perfect and quite a compelling protagonist for this cyberpunk tale. In the genre, protagonists are often patterned on the idea of the lone hero fighting injustice, such as Robin Hood, Spider is no exception. Most of the time the protagonist in a cyberpunk tale is manipulated and placed in a situation where they have no choice but to do what they're being forced to do, just as Mr. Jerusalem is forced to move back into the city he loathes in order to fulfill his contract with a book company. Every column Spider writes he skillfully, through either physical means or entirely through his words, reveals the corrupt nature of whatever it is he feels is unjust. He's not the typical protagonist however, he's unsanitary, a drug user, and I don't think I've ever heard so much poor language out of a single individual, but he's oddly likable.
The world in Transmetropolitan has high tech conventions and ideas, but it's still portrayed in a grungy manner opposite to the very sleek and clean utopian nature of traditional science fiction. The city that Spider inhabits is beautifully illustrated by Robertson, showing the cluttered streets, alien prostitutes, and all sorts of humorous drug and porn advertisements. There are things that are super high tech such as machines that can manufacture just about anything, and then there are things that are still oddly grounded to the present. For instance, many of the buildings are basically what we have presently, which is realistically not how buildings I imagine would be engineered in the future, having all of the other advances that the inhabitants of Transmetropolitan enjoy.
I'm now about halfway through the series, even though we were only required to read the first graphic novel in the series and I just can't get enough of Transmetropolitan. Every time I'm done with a chapter I wanna immediately jump into the next and find out what kind of messed up political or social corruption Spider will violently and skillfully uncover and expose next.
- Dan
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Blood Child
Blood Child by Octavia Butler is an obvious novel about "Male Pregnancy" in a way. Alien symbiotic worms use human males as hosts for their children and live in a sort of society together.
1. Questions you have about the story you read:
1. Questions you have about the story you read:
- What is the relative age between all the humans, and why do they prefer living a terrible life with in a preserve only being able to live if they become hosts to these symbiotic aliens?
- I don't particularly have any other questions about the story, it seemed like a pretty straight forward short story about a child being fearful of the symbiotic alien, but in the end accepts it.
- I think the story is asking questions about the moral issue of some sort of race taking over the human race and using us as we use animals everyday.
- Also, is it okay to subject our bodies to something unnatural and seemingly horrifying just because that's what our previous generations of deemed unobjectionable.
- Seeing the author's picture, doesn't exactly arise any questions, but it seems odd as she appears to be a kind black woman to be coming up with weird science fiction ideas. These sorts of ideas are often presumed to be coming from some creepy single male that is left to his own devices.
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