It really was something different and special.

Spot on.

Clone Wars Returns Friday

And it looks very, very bizarre.

But I Want It Now!

Episodes will alternate between universes.

"People, They're No Fun"

"Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury" is transcendentally hilarious. But before that, back when I was in college, a great punk musician wrote a song that covered the same topic.

Strangely (In)Appropriate

This is a bad bit of boobala pop, but the subject and a slap near the end are worth it (from Upright Citizens Brigade).

Per aspera ad astra

Ray Bradbury hates big government: 'Our country is in need of a revolution'

Ray Bradbury is mad at President Obama, but it's not about the economy, the war or the plan to a construct a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City.

“He should be announcing that we should go back to the moon,” says the iconic author, whose 90th birthday on Aug. 22 will be marked in Los Angeles with more than week's worth of Bradbury film and TV screenings, tributes and other events. “We should never have left there. We should go to the moon and prepare a base to fire a rocket off to Mars and then go to Mars and colonize Mars. Then when we do that, we will live forever."

and from Reason hit & run:

Ray Bradbury Hysterical Theater: We Got Too Much Gummint, Too Many Internets, But Not Enough Moon Colonies!

So Much Better Than The Movies

Star Wars: Clone Wars Season 3

Fully Processed

Inception is now one of my top 3 movies ever.

I Knew I Knew Where Mal Lived

The buildings from Inception's purgatory reminded me of some mid-century modernist building, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was.

At lunch today, I was perusing a book on modernist architecture, and I found it:

The Department of Water and Power in Los Angeles

Am I wrong?

And yes, I bought the book.

Still One Of The Best Endings Ever

Six Feet Under had one of the best endings of any series ever, transcending from a modern show exploring death to a sci-fi celebration of our inevitable end.

I cry every time I watch it...

Science Fiction Music

David Bowie's Space Oddity is a great example of a science fiction short story in song form (albeit one about an acid trip). One of my favorite songs ever, by one of my favorite rockers ever, is equally great. Writing a great sci-fi short story is hard. Writing a song that is a great sci-fi short story is brilliance.

The song is Billy Radcliffe. It's by Frank Black and the Catholics, from their album Pistolero.

Billy Radcliffe didn't go to town
And when we looked up
He was looking right down
Catching blue in his eyes that were brown
Billy Radcliffe
(Billy Radcliffe)

Billy Radcliffe owned by the state
From his first breath
To the cemetery gate
He was the first boy born in space
Billy Radcliffe
(Billy Radcliffe)

Billy Radcliffe very first one
He really had lived just a cursed son
A split in half man sang the cherubim
Billy Radcliffe
(Billy Radcliffe)

Billy Radcliffe saw what the Devil man saw
He saw a spot of blue in black of the eye of the Lord
Such a cruel love
Is the kind that has wrought oh Billy
Billy Radcliffe

Billy sadly didn't live long
He had to stay there
Because he wasn't too strong
He's stepping out the door
Blowing up like bomb
Billy Radcliffe
(Billy Radcliffe)

Billy Radcliffe very first one
Really a hatched man a light switch son
A split in half man sang the cherubim

Billy Radcliffe very first one
A split in half man sang the cherubim
I bet you cried when he died now didja
Now didja ?

Now Billy Radcliffe saw what the Devil man saw
A spot of blue in black of the eye of the Lord Oh Billy
Billy Radcliffe saw what the Devil man had
And I feel very bad for
William Radcliffe

My New Game Obsession

Bioshock 2

Best...Video...Ever...Seriously...

Rufus Wainwright's Across The Universe:

Redstone SF: Twice in a Week

Our online magazine, Redstone Science Fiction, has had a great week and is back in the SF news on io9 again, this time about our writing contest - "Towards An Accessible Future" that draws on Sarah Einstein's essay in RSF. We expected things to go well, but this is has far exceeded our expectations.

Full-Time Hobby

Redstone Science Fiction is up and running.

We have a good first issue, with a lot of our Mallet friends participating and we are quite pleased.

An interview with editor Lou Anders was picked up by io9!

(Now begins the campaign for work from Tobermory & Clyde for issue #2!)

Why I Haven't Bought A House

I would rather rent than not buy pretty.

In the NASA town of Huntsville, one might expect some modern homes. On the contrary, every new home is as horrible as the next.

Even in architecturally progressive Chicago, this lament seems to be common:

When Kathy and Michael Caisley started looking for a new home, they visited several condos and single-family homes.

"So many were brand-new, luxurious and unaffordable," said Kathy Caisley, a city planner. "Then there were a lot of generic, cottage-style homes; we would have had to sacrifice the look we really wanted." What they really wanted was a sleek modular home like the ones they'd been obsessing over in Dwell magazine, so they did some research.

I spoke to one of the scientists at our lab: she and her husband are repulsed by the Georgian monstrosity that they live in. They are building a modern concrete-based home this year.

Maybe one of the reasons that the housing market is in the toilet is that its uninspired, talentless architects never built any modern, efficient homes for the smart people.

Oh Dear...

To all of those to whom I have introduced Fringe:

Define mad and I'll give you the worlds thus defined.

YOU ARE FUCKING WELCOME!!!

Well, There Has Got To Be A Hugo In There Somewhere

I didn't sign on for this, but I love Walter too much to sign out.

While I insisted that a previous Fringe episode should get a Hugo nomination, I think one or two since might be better candidates.

As my dad said, "Thursday nights are Fringe nights; I don't go anywhere."

As for tonight: holy fucking shit-on-my-mother's cuntballs! I had predicted the "secretary" part, but I didn't predict the rapid plot spiral. And that unpredictability, along with the serious and conflicting moral dilemmas, encompasses all that anyone could want from a science fiction series.

And Martha Plimpton is an unforgivably underrated actress. I know she does a lot of New York plays and character actor bits, but someone give her a regular TV part for fuck's sake.

No, We Aren't The Only Ones Who Like Black Leather, Black Leather Smash Smash Smash

A review of These Are The Damned by Joe Dante:

Buckaroo Banzai In The Fringe Dimension

If tonight's episode of Fringe doesn't get a Hugo nod, I quit. Peter Weller getting all sick-out Cronenberg and traveling through time...

It hurt my brain; my brain loved it so.