| 30 Jun 2004 |
'So Long
Been Dreaming is "an anthology of postcolonial science
fiction short stories written exclusively by people of colour"'
- according to straight.com,
it includes a short story called "Rachel" - 'a
tidy riff on Blade Runner from the Replicant's perspective'. |
| 26 Jun 2004 |
Joanna Cassidy participated
in an event, 40 Fabulous Faces, where celebrity women were asked
to create self portraits, the sale of which will benefit the
charity of their choice, (she named the International Institute
of Traumatic Healing). The portraits went on sale on eBay. Joanna's
portrait has her description, "This
probably would have taken a year to do it justice, but instead
I attacked it fast and furious. I loved doing it. The result
is a self-conscious collage. I can't analyze it. I'll leave
it up to the buyer. There is something there, though."
Unfortunately, most of the portraits in this effort failed to
sell - perhaps because with a starting price of $250 and limited
to USA only, they closed off most of their potential buyers
before starting. |
| 25 Jun 2004 |
In my occasional celebration
of the totally obscure Blade Runner reference, (i.e. BR as cultural
reference point), here
is a review on The Art Institute of Portland’s annual fashion
show. In an amusing article, Jill Spitznass (must remember that
name for my novel...) comments, 'I loved
Stina Johnson’s skirt and tube top combo, made of woven
black elastic and silver rings — very “Blade Runner”
goes to the Oscars.'
|
| 23 Jun 2004 |
Spiked
offers another view on the potential reality of flying cars,
(to add to that of Syd Mead earlier this month). Given the current
number of car accidents in two dimensions, I still can't see
flying cars happening on a large scale in the foreseeable future
- certainly not until flight control is copmpletely automated,
but the cost of creating the infrastructure to control that
is prohibitive. |
| 20 Jun 2004 |
"I AM ALIVE AND YOU ARE
DEAD" - A Journey Into the Mind of Philip K. Dick. By Emmanuel
Carrère and Translated by Timothy Bent. A book that apparently
has an 'alternative' way of telling a biography - one that Charles
Taylor of The
New York Times savages mercilessly. |
| 18 Jun 2004 |
Film endings - sometimes brilliant,
sometimes controversial, sometimes multiple alternatives. Blade
Runner - which ending do you prefer? There are many views on
both. The
Age has an article on endings, including a bit on BR. The
view expressed is certainly not mine, but of course one of the
great things about BR is that there can be so many interpretations
living side by side. |
| 17 Jun 2004 |
The Chronicles of Riddick has
a more positive review in The
Advocate, this time with a more direct reverence to Blade
Runner - to its "gloominess" (what others might call
a certain style). |
| 16 Jun 2004 |
The Blade Runner Chronicles
- a Fan Film in production - has a teaser trailer up. Check
it out - it is looking very good. |
| 16 Jun 2004 |
The new Science Fiction Museum
and Hall of Fame in Seattle that I've mentioned here before
is ready to open. This Friday, the doors will open and many
SF fans will pour in and hopefully be impressed. Many props
from SF film and television are already there including a spinner
from Blade Runner. Check Reuters
for more details. For a sneak peak review, check Slashdot.
Apparently another feature in the museum is computer-generated
cityscapes, including BR, of course. |
| 15 Jun 2004 |
The Stepford Wives - obviously
the original has strong parallels with BR. The new one, being
bigger budget, with populist stars and made as a comedy, is
unlikely to match the original's bite. Perhaps summed up in
this review in NewYorkPress
(end of page) where Armond White finds the humanity missing
from the humans and references Rachael's crying in BR as the
symbol that the makers of the new Stepford Wives should have
taken note of. Or are we simply now in a place where Hollywood
not only makes the robots in their latest films look like cute
and unthreatening machine toys, but they may as well replace
the humans who offer nothing more themselves. |
| 14 Jun 2004 |
Blade Runner architectural
- influence, or simply description? Is the description even
accurate? You decide in this Guardian
review of the Peter Jones department store in London. |
| 11 Jun 2004 |
The Chronicles of Riddick was
not a film I was expecting to be mentioned alongside Blade Runner,
although actually it is more the Akron
Beacon Journal movie critic admitting the possibility that
his mildly negative review might in retrospect look like some
of the negative reviews of BR when it came out. Though he thinks
not. If a major SF action film does indeed try to introduce
some depth, philosophical questioning and emotional complexity,
then I am all in favour, even if in the end they are not fully
realised. The trailers look good. |
| 07 Jun 2004 |
So when exactly can we all
fly around in spinners? According to Syd
Mead, it could be a while... |
| 02 Jun 2004 |
I recommend Donnie Darko to
any BR fan, not because it is any way similar, but because it
reaches beyond the obvious in a way that most films don't. But
why should this film, like Blade Runner, not have done well
at the box office? It did okay in NY and LA and very well in
Britain (where the downbeat theme song became the 'surprise'
Christmas number one song). And then into DVD where it has certainly
made its money back. And now? Well, the Director's Cut of course.
And just like BR, there is scope for the OV and the DC to co-exist.
More on all of this in The
Seattle Times. |
| 31
May 2004 |
Ever thought what the BR city
would look like if it wasn't dirty and dark? Well, Isabel Carlos
has and it looks a bit like Sydney. Isabel is curator-in-chief
of the 14th Biennale - a major international arts event in Sydney.
"Carlos says she has shaped the 10-week event to offer
a promenade of art through a city she once perceived as a clean
and light version of the film Blade Runner." So as people
walk through the city, they will see some of the art outside
the museums, perhaps enticing them in, but also celebrating
the city itself. Read more in the Sydney
Morning Herald. |
| 29 May 2004 |
So what do you know about Gnosticism?
An ancient, disappeared and then revived again religion, it
is incorporated into many things. The Matrix stuff, the His
Dark Materials trilogy (good reading!) and of course PKD. To
find out more, why not read the Weekend
Australian. |
| 28 May 2004 |
Although the BR comparisons
are usually positive, there are sometimes the weird "this
is not" Blade Runner comparisons, such as this MacNewsWorld
article that tells us that Toronto's new Air Canada terminal
has cool but unreliable features in the same way as Microsoft
Windows... |
| 27 May 2004 |
Regulars here will know that
I delight in finding the occasional extremely obscure Blade
Runner comparisons that sometimes appear in news articles so
it should be no surprise that I just have to alert your attention
to this
article talking about dead wasps hanging over a child's
bicycle - yes, that is just soooo Blade Runner... |
| 27 May 2004 |
Is 'Casshern' likely to replace
Blade Runner as the de facto dystopian future vision? Well,
no, but it certainly sounds interesting in this IHT
review. |
| 27 May 2004 |
One of the technologies in
Blade Runner that people are forever pursuing is the Esper computer
- specifically the program that allows zooming in on details
of images. So, no surprise that it is referenced in articles
talking of detectives using similar software to enhance individual
video frames to find incriminating evidence. This MTV
article is about alleged video of underage sex by R. Kelly
which some might find disturbing. |
| 26 May 2004 |
Blade Runner II is a reality!
Err... okay that's true, but of course it doesn't refer to a
film. We're talking boats here. The first Blade Runner was built
in 2000 by Aveco and the second is twice as long - "a 75m
motorised shallow water barge to be used to transport wind turbine
blades from Newport to Southampton". Bet you really wanted
to know that! The irony is that it comes from Teesside which
inspired the opening Hades cityscape in BR. Read the article
if you like. |
| 21 May 2004 |
One cannot look at the array
of interesting films presented in a film festival like Cannes
without finding something that can have the Blade Runner adjective
applied somehow. The film that pops up this year is 'Clean',
by Olivier Assayas. The
Toronto Star says it "opens on a smashingly Blade Runner-ish
vista of Hamilton's industrial harbour, and continues to look
smashing for the rest of its running time" |
| 20 May 2004 |
David Jung is an artist inspired
by Blade Runner. His 'Maker Day' exhibition at the Numark Gallery
(Washington) even has a Nexus 7 exhibit you might like to see.
However, given the Washington
Post's review, perhaps you won't. |
| 19 May 2004 |
The disaster movie 'The Day
After Tomorrow'has faint echoes in Blade Runner - a post-disaster
world. What the environmental disaster has been in Blade Runner
is open to interpretation, but there is no doubt that the world
is no longer healthy. And this new film? Well, it is based on
the extremes of scientific possibilities, but yet is rooted
in real science. What is perhaps odd is it being used in political
games. But maybe that was inevitable given the US government
arrogance ignoring the warnings and shunning international treaties
signed by almost every other country in the world. But when
the USA has 4% of the population of the world and creates a
quarter of the world's air pollution, it is clear that the oil
lobby are just as strong in this arena as when they promote
the USA engaging in stupid wars. Guardian
article. |
| 17 May 2004 |
In DADoES, one of the most
interesting things not translated to the film Blade Runner is
the Penfield Mood Organ. With a fifth of people in modern Western
society suffering from some sort of mental issue each year and
a significant portion of those suffering from serious depression,
one wonders what we would do if we could simply 'change our
mood' artificially. Well at least Newsweek
Health is wondering about it. Too many drugs are anathema
to some of us, (particularly people like me who have to live
our whole lives with a predisposition to depression), and the
answer has to be self-neuro control. But what if the automated
version was available - what would I - what would YOU do? And
would you use it even if you didn't need it? |
| 17 May 2004 |
Blade Runner is more than just
a film from 1982. It is a continuing artistic influence - a
part of culture and sub-cultures all around the world. An example
of this is James Zabiela sticking it in his DVJX1 to play with
it on screen at one of his gigs. Okay, even I'm not sure exactly
what that means, but Resident
Advisor tells you all about James and what he is up to. |
| 16 May 2004 |
Sir Ridley Scott is making
one of seven short films as part of 'All The Invisible Children'
which is "a unique project featuring seven short films
about the plight of children around the world." Read about
the project in the Scotsman
(after other news of Eddie Izzard, etc.) |
| 14 May 2004 |
With our robot servant tending
to our needs and our robot pet to love, what better than to
settle down to play a virtual computer game? And where better
than E3 to find out what's new? Read all about the biggest games
show at the BBC
or Newsweek. |
| 12 May 2004 |
In the last article, we were
presented with the artificial human in fiction. In this
article, we are presented with the artificial animal in
real life. We are, at the beginning of the 21st Century, already
straying into DADoES territory. In a world where some people
name their car and even talk to it, (albeit in my case more
swearing than talking), it is no big surprise that the increasing
presence of robot animals are gaining an emotional place in
our society. Not just as toys, but as real pets, imbued with
emotional ties and even anthropomorphised. Except that your
robo-cat can also double as your iPod. And after the obvious
dog and cat, where do the robo-pet makers go next? A sheep?
No thanks. I'll have me a baby triceratops please. |
| 12 May 2004 |
As we face a Hollywood Summer
filled with artificial people, as in I,
Robot, Van Helsing starring
Frankenstein's 'monster', Sky Captain
and the World of Tomorrow and the Stepford
Wives remake, there will inevitably be many articles
on robots and recreating humanity. This NYT article republished
in the International
Herald Tribune is one of the intelligent views on the history
of the robot in fiction and puts forward that ever more relevant
possibility that perhaps we are increasingly relating positively
to the robots in fiction because we are gradually becoming more
like them. |
| 05 May 2004 |
Is the futuristic rebuilding
of Beijing BladeRunneresque or simply the application of the
latest architectural technology to bring the city into Olympic
mode? Read
and decide for yourself. |
| 04 May 2004 |
A Scanner Darkly - another
of PKD's stories coming to film - looks like being at least
interesting. Joining KeaNeo are Winona Ryder, Robert Downey
Jr and Woody Harrelson, although according to Empire,
as Richard Linklater is rotoscoping and animating the thing,
he has more control than most directors on the end result. |
| 29 Apr 2004 |
Do you think the 1995 Judge
Dredd film cityscape owed a lot to Blade Runner? Then you won't
be surprised that the new Dredd films also will. "The film
will be dark, more like 'The Crow' with the look of 'Blade Runner,'
but dark comedy must have a role in Dredd's world," says
producer Silvio Astarita as reported in this Comic
Reel article. |
| 29 Apr 2004 |
'In the liner notes to this
DVD, Tartakovsky notes that some of his most profound influences
included Conan the Barbarian, The Good, The Bad, and the
Ugly, Star Wars, Blade Runner, and Seven Samurai.
Suffice to say, if this range of influences sounds good to you,
chances are you will adore Samurai Jack.' Interested?
Read the DVD
Talk article. Or Digitally
Obsessed. |
| 29 Apr 2004 |
Well, I have to mention Kill
Bill 2, or as I prefer to think of it, the second half. And
of course Daryl Hannah's great role having a big fight with
Uma. This
article includes some comments by Daryl. |
| 28 Apr 2004 |
Occasionally the 'Blade Runner'
spiders bring me back the odd completely not Blade Runner related
article, but sometimes they are curiously related in a roundabout
way. As in this definitely not electric sheep - an article in
the Guardian
which is very ... errr... interesting... |
| 27 Apr 2004 |
If you want to know the Science
Fiction future, then don't bother with L.A. - you need to check
out Liverpool. this is where you'll find the international centre
for science fiction studies. Home of the Science Fiction Foundation
Collection and also Andy Sawyer, director of science fiction
studies at Liverpool University. Check out what the Liverpool
Daily Post has to say about this. |
| 27 Apr 2004 |
Syd Mead (Visual Futurist on
BR) has influenced many others. One of those is Alex Rockman
who creates amazing images of a genetically modified future
as reported in the Grauniad. |
| 14 Apr 2004 |
I've mentioned this before
and now it is up. A 10-metre high beacon of light in Middlesbrough
that can change colour by having a text message sent to it.
Read about Spectra-txt. |
| 14 Apr 2004 |
More on Daryl
Hannah. |
| 14 Apr 2004 |
More on the SFM. |
| 14 Apr 2004 |
For non-UK TV viewers, this
is totally meaningless. For UK TV viewers it is ... well ...
fairly meaningless. Apparently Linda Barker's favourite movies
are Blade Runner and LotR. Like you cared. And yet, in a funny
kind of way, it is strangely interesting in a perverse kind
of way. |
| 13 Apr 2004 |
Catch up with Daryl Hannah
who has been doing much more lately than just her chilling role
as Elle Driver in Kill Bill. On ESPN
of all places. |
| 13 Apr 2004 |
Megazone 23 Part 1 is coming
out on DVD according to AnimatedBliss.
"A classic title from the eighties’ 'Golden Age of
Anime,'the three-part Megazone 23 is a refreshing blast of intellectual
science-fiction and rousing action in the tradition of The Matrix
and Blade Runner. Megazone was anime’s first successful
OVA ('original video animation') release and was used by Harmony
Gold to create Robotech the Movie in the eighties." |
| 11 Apr 2004 |
"Game on as Hollywood
logs on to the PlayStation generation" - The
Observer reports on top directors taking control of video
games. For instance, Ridley and Tony Scott areseeking a game
designer to form a partnership with them. "RS reasons that
games offer greater creative potential because they are less
costly to make than films and not limited to two or three hours.
'The idea that a world, the characters that inhabit it, and
the stories those characters share can evolve with the audience's
participation and, perhaps, exist in a perpetual universe is
very exciting to me,' he said." Also reported in IHT. |
| 08 Apr 2004 |
The
Las Vegas Mercury talks about the automotive industry and
conspiracies. Also talks of the Las Vegas car show which will
feature Gene Winfield (BR car maestro) with "The Thing"--a
1927 Model T coupe he originally modified for drag racing in
the 1950s. |
| 08 Apr 2004 |
Cyberpunk visionary Richard
K. Morgan takes on the future - as reported by Metroactive.
He talks of the upcoming film version of his book, (a Joel Silver
film) "'I've seen an early draft. They've given Kovacs
a daughter, to humanize him. They've taken this scary, heartless
mercenary and given him the disfiguring scar of morality.' Even
so, Morgan is looking forward to seeing how modern special effects
will re-create the brutal, pitiless world he's imagined for
the year 2550. Citing Ridley Scott's Blade Runner as an example
of a science fiction film that still holds up after time, Morgan
explains what he sees as the major problem with futuristic films
and books. 'The thing about Blade Runner,' he says, 'it was
made 22 years ago, but it still looks like the future. That's
no mean achievement. I can't think of any other science-fiction
movie, with the possible exception of Alien, that still looks
like the future. Every old science-fiction film about the future--and
many of the books--seem horribly, horribly outdated now. There's
a shot of a computer and you think, 'Aw man, I have something
more sophisticated than that on my desk at home.' In Blade Runner,
you watch it today and it still looks like the possible near
future.'" |
| 08 Apr 2004 |
Progress on the Sci-fi museum
I have previously mentioned that is being built in Seattle.
Two months to go according to Seattle
P-I. One of the main four sections of the museum is "Brave
New Worlds" which features Blade Runner and "uses
sophisticated computer technology to look at some fantastic
futuristic worlds" and also "looking at what kind
of choices we need to make now to avoid such places." |
| 01 Apr 2004 |
Quite often, things in the
real world are positively compared to Blade Runner. Sometimes
the comparison is good or bad depending on how you feel about
a rainy, overcrowded, futuristic society. And sometimes the
comparison reflects something that is just plain bad - as in
this
article about AIDS in South Africa. |
