Monthly Archives: April 2011

Trailer Park: Stolen Column Edition

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With our beloved Dan Joslyn still settling into his new role as International Spy in the Future, it feels like someone from the past (present?) should share with you these totally awesome trailers for upcoming summer blockbusters. So I may have, uh, stolen his Trailer Park column. Since he lives in the future now and I haven’t heard anything against the stealing of his column, I’m sure this means he approves.

 

 
First off, let’s take a look at the new trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part 2. This movie is going to be so good, but knowing what’s going to happen, it’s going to be difficult to watch some of my favorite characters face their mortality. I got the chills watching this trailer, and was even a little teary-eyed near the end.

 

 
Next up, the second International trailer for X-Men: First Class. The last edition of Trailer Park back in March had one of the earlier First Class trailers; this trailer is very heavily focused on Charles and Erik, and helps to make this movie appear even more awesome than it already looks. I’ve got my fingers crossed here for a great movie, guys.

My favorite X-Man is Beast, and here’s what Nicholas Hoult had to say about Hank McCoy’s transformation into the blue furry Beast in an MSN interview: “[H]e tries out a serum from Mystique’s DNA to try and stop his feet from appearing apelike and massive, because he’s very self-conscious about it. Unfortunately that goes wrong and he becomes the Beast that we know from the other films and cartoons and comics.”

 

 
Frat Boy Ryan Reynolds swears that the upcoming Green Lantern movie isn’t a comedy, but his acting seems to lead me to believe otherwise. At least this movie features Sinestro, AKA the best Green Lantern ever*.

*Not intended to be a factual statement.

 

 
Finally this week, James Franco stars in Ape Movie That Probably Only Tiarra Will Watch – often better known by it’s other title, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. This prequel to one of my favorite science fiction movie series of all time (outside of Star Trek, of course), is sure to be enjoyed and praised by tens of people everywhere. The rest of you can just admire the dreaminess of James Franco; how he managed to fit this movie in while earning 17 degrees, teaching a class, and looking sleepy and/or high is beyond me — but I still appreciate the effort.

 

 
Okay, I lied. One more, because it’s Thursday — AKA Thor’s Day. This isn’t a trailer, but a cute spoof of the VW Super Bowl commercial. This came out a couple of weeks ago, so you may have seen it already; if you did, feel free to enjoy it again to get yourself in the mood for seeing Thor next week.

“Brightest Day”‘s Other Surprise Return

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John Constantine Returns to the DCU

John Constantine Returns to the DCU

We had heard some hush-hush rumors a while back that John Constantine was on his way back to the DC Universe, but I don’t think anybody expected it to be this soon.  The star of the wildly popular and long-running series Hellblazer, Constantine is a fan favorite character (despite the bastardization of the character that made it to the big screen).  Much like Swamp Thing prior to Brightest Day #23, Constantine had more or less been banned from the DCU as part of the Vertigo line seperation.

Unfortunately, Constantine’s arrival may only serve to further fuel speculation that the Vertigo line, dwindling in both sales and titles, may soon be coming to an end.

The RAW Reactor #031 — “Hombre, yo era una leyenda en México.”

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WWE Superstar Christian

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So I’m putting some music on my iPod, and one of the songs is Christian’s theme song, which I really like.  Unfortunately, I can’t find cover art for it.  So I figure I’ll just google for a picture of Christian and put there, and I noticed the craziest thing: there is not a single picture of Christian that doesn’t look like he’s trying to screw you. No, seriously! He’s always winking, or pointing at you, or pointing at himself and pointing at you…the man takes way too many pictures that feel like he’s trying to bang me.  I mention this because it’s funny, but also because we can now rejoice that Christian is pretty much a lock to finally win the World Heavyweight Championship. Huzzah! Moving on to the rest of the night, I don’t feel that “complete waste of time” really describes the way we felt about the Draft.  You’ll notice 20 minutes in when John Cena is initially drafted to Smackdown! that we’re the happiest we’ve ever been.  An hour later when Randy Orton follows, we’re even more excited.  However, much like we initially feared, the draft ends with Cena drafted back to Raw. Really, it makes no fucking sense whatsoever. Drafts do not work that way! Why wouldn’t a wrestler’s name be yanked out of the lottery after they were drafted?  Imagine if the NBA just kept repicking the first draft pick over and over again.  We discuss this a little bit at the end, but mostly we talk about how the Draft ultimately changed…well, not that much. If you’re wondering about the title of the podcast…well, it’s a quote in reference to Sin Cara. You’ll just have to listen to get it.

Geeks in History: Thomas T Goldsmith, Jr

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A television is something almost everyone has in their home. While they may no longer run on cathode ray tubes, that is the origin of the technology. Of course, many video games today still use CRT monitors for their displays. Did you know that one of the people responsible for commercially produced CRT televisions is also the first person to make a CRT-based arcade video game? Keep reading!
Goldsmith 

Thomas T Goldsmith, Jr

Tomas Toliver Goldsmith Jr was a pioneer in the field of television and entertainment. He was born in Greenville, South Carolina on January 9, 1910 to Thomas and Charlotte Goldsmith, a real estate broker and concert pianist respectively. As a teenager, he built crystal radio sets, and continued his interest in engineering as a graduate of Furman University in Greenville. He earned his PhD in physics from Cornell in 1936, building an oscilloscope for his doctoral research. This led to his communication with Dr Allen DuMont regarding cathode ray tubes, and then led to his eventual employment at the DuMont Laboratory. It was during his time with DuMont that he pioneered the turning of oscilloscopes into full television displays. In 1948, U.S. Patent 2,455,992 was granted to Goldsmith and his partner Estle Ray Mann, describing what is commonly considered to be the first CRT-based video game. The game was inspired by World War II radar displays, using the electron gun of the CRT in a manner not unlike an Etch-A-Sketch where the beam of light is focused on a single point. The game isn’t programmed and doesn’t use much sophistication in graphics, but it is still a game. This “Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device” had a “missile” on screen that would be controlled by the player to hit paper targets on screen, with mechanical adjustments made to increase the difficulty.
Tennis Game 

Early CRT-based Tennis

Over his life, Goldsmith received a number of honors. He was a Life Fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. In 1949, he won an Institute of Radio Engineers Award for the contributions he made to the television industry. He was the first recipient of the Allan B. DuMont Citation for “important contributions in the field of electronics to the science of television” in 1979. For the work he did as a non-musician for advancing music in America, he was made an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national men’s music fraternity. In 1966 Goldsmith left DuMont to become a professor of physics at his Furman University, and afterward he retired to become an emeritus professor in 1975. On March 5, 2009, he died due to complications of a hip fracture at age 99 in Lacey, Washington. He was survived by his wife, Helen Wilcox, and his three children, six grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren. To all of us, he left a legacy of technology that fuels the modern world of entertainment.   Geeks in History is a biweekly column about notable geeks of the past and how they impacted modern life.

REVIEW: “Doctor Who” 6.01 — “The Impossible Astronaut”

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“The Impossible Astronaut”

Writer Steven Moffat

Director Toby Haynes

Rating: ★★★★½

 

With four mysterious envelopes and a humerous opening montage, The Doctor’s latest companions are summoned to the beach for a picnic. But an ominous warning and a spaceman’s arrival changes everything, as The Doctor is soon mysteriously and violently killed. The group soon realizes there’s another envelope, someone The Doctor must have trusted as much as he would himself. Lo and behold, they’re soon reunited with…The Doctor, himself! Journeying to America, the companions must accompany The Doctor on his mysterious mission to 1969, but are torn as they cannot allow The Doctor to know he is destined to die after this adventure.

The Series 6 opener, “The Impossible Astronaut” suffers only from the inevitable comparison to it’s Series 5 counterpart, “The 11th Hour”. Where “11th Hour” was full of quick action, twisty turns and a freshly invigorated Doctor, Series 6 opens with the cast settled into their roles. As such, the story is based very much on the reactions of the characters to the action around them, and less on the character’s themselves. There’s a certain bizarre quality to Smith’s Doctor upon first arrival (quickly explained by the revelation that this Doctor is expecting death), but even after that he seems somehow off, more alien and distant than usual. Furthermore, the “death” of The Doctor feels like a bit of a cop out. Yes, it was surprising that he died, and seeing the actual funeral hit home that it actually happened, but I was never wondering how the group was going to rebound from this; I was simply wondering when The Doctor would inevitably pop back into the picture. Fortunately, the writers appear to have known we would be thinking this, as he returns a scant five minutes later. I’m not a huge fan of Amy’s end of episode reveal either, as it feels a bit forced if only to add more suspense for her character arc this season.

However, this is not to say “Impossible Astronaut” is a bad story. Taking place in America (and filming on location for the first time in Doctor Who history), the story is a frightening turn, with lots of creepy monsters in the shadow and an alien invasion that seems to have already occurred. The characters are in top form, River Song is more lovable than ever (and will immediately send fans screaming back to their Series 4 box sets to watch “Silence In The Library” and “Forest of the Dead” after the premiere; Lord knows I did!). Furthermore, the first American companion is a hoot to see how he plays with the decidedly British cast.

As mentioned before, the only flaw with “Impossible Astronaut” is that it can’t hold a candle in terms of sheer thrills and excitement to it’s premiere predecessor, “The 11th Hour”. This is still a top notch Who story, however, and one that definitely needs to be watched, but I was disappointed that I never really had a “In a word: run” moment like there was last season. However, Moffat again shows that he excels at writing a horrifying and mind blowing cliffhanger, guaranteeing that we’ll be back next week for the continuation of the premiere.

The Asylum Presents “Almighty Thor”

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You’ve heard of The Asylum, but you may not realize it yet. They make low budget rip offs of movies that are going to be big, the goal being that you’ll mishear or have similar interests and buy their crap.  They’re already legendary for Transmorphers, Snakes on a Train and this year’s infamous Battle of Los Angeles.

With Thor coming out in a few weeks, they’re doing it again. Introducing Almighty Thor, which is just like Marvel’s Thor, except is has no budget and Thor has an Uzi. At least it has Kevin Nash as Odin, right?

The “film” will air on SyFy May 7th (just one day after Thor is in theaters, conveniently), and will be purchasable on DVD on May 10th.