What happens when you cross the trailer for Pacific Rim…
…with the audio and promotional style of old-school Toho films from the original Godzilla era…
…and run it through some processing to make it look like it was made in the 1960s?
You get something quite wonderful:
Here it is — a Pacific Rim trailer, done as if it were a trailer for Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (which is actually a ’70s film, but it feels like a ’60s one) — which is essentially what Pacific Rim is, anyway.
It may be Shark Week on Discovery Channel, but on YouTube, it’s the first Geek Week! It’s YouTube’s online celebration of all things geek-tastic that runs from August 4th through 10th.
It began yesterday with the feature Skyhook, in which Freddie Wong goes to the world’s greatest crime-fighting gear specialist (I assume they refer to him as “Lucian” rather than “Lucius” to stay out of copyright trouble) to get some equipment to help him out in case his date goes terribly wrong.
Here’s the video:
Skyhook’s got great special effects and an amusing story, and it’s nice to see that Freddie could get the girl, but did we really need another “awkward Asian guy on a date” story to continue the stereotype? Some of us — say, Yours Truly, to cite my favourite example — are cooler than other side of the pillow.
Exhibit A, from earlier this year. And I have plenty more, yo.
You want dating stories that go horribly wrong where the Asian protagonist isn’t completely awkward and awful? Here are Worst Date Ever and Consolation Fries.
Here’s Chester See, delivering the news about some of the highlights today, which is Global Geekery Monday on YouTube week:
Among the goodies for Global Geekery Monday are this imagined trailer for a Naruto movie…
…18 Days, a re-telling of the tale of Mahabharata…
…this amusing deconstruction by the YOMYOMF crew called How to Be More Asian…
…a video for the song Teenage Rebel by Doctor Who-inspired band Chameleon Circuit…
Found via Reddit. Click the photo to see at full size.
Even though I’m in Tampa as I write this, I’d like to wish the people in those provinces in Canada that get a day off today a happy Civic Holiday! I’m sending this greeting in the form of a photo taken by Colonel Chris Hadfield, the Space Station’s best spokesperson ever, who took this shot while flying over Niagara Falls with the Snowbirds earlier today.
The Civic Holiday is held on the first first Monday of August, and judging by the many names it goes under and that fact that it’s not celebrated everywhere, it seems to exist largely as an excuse to have a long weekend in August. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Here are the names it goes by:
Want to know how the various civic holidays got their names? The Globe and Mail tells all.
Click the image to see it at full size.
This page from an old issue of Mondo 2000 (think of a late ’80s/early ’90s gene-splice of Wired magazine, High Times and Omni, and you’ll get a general idea of what it was like) shows what the 1992 idea of cyberpunk was. It gets posted over and over again on Reddit’s “Cyberpunk” subreddit (much to their chagrin), but it’s been ages since I’ve seen it — the last time was in the original magazine — so I thought I’d post it here.
The R.U. in the title of the photo spread is a tip of the hat to R. U. Sirius, Mondo 2000′s editor.
Most of the gear in the photo — the cameras and scanners, audio recorders and playback devices, the encrypted communication tools, and even much of the functionality provided by the old-school PowerBook — could easily be replaced by a single present-day smartphone. You have to keep in mind that 1992 was a time before browsers, when surfing the net was something few people did (and they did it on Gopher or Usenet), when 14.4kHz modems were blazing fast, email addresses were rarities (I had one — 3jmd2@queensu.ca), and a household without a computer wasn’t a strange and rare thing.
In case you were wondering, the PowerBook 180’s specs were:
While many of the tools in the pictorial have changed shape or have been amalgamated into newer devices, the following have remained more or less the same (at least in appearance and functionality) and would still be recognizable to a cyberpunk from 20 years ago:
Before I return you to 2013, one more blast from the past: the trailer for the 1995 film based on the William Gibson short story of the same name, Johnny Mnemonic. Enjoy!
Not only is it Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, it’s also Shark Week at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa! I’ve decided to dress for the occasion:
Click the posters to see them at full size.
I know that these stories take place in the same “universe”, but still, the people behind the posters aren’t even trying anymore.
I’ve got a good relationship going with the person behind Tampa International Airport’s Twitter account, @FlyTPA. Whenever I check in, they always say “hi”, and it’s one of those things that makes TPA my favourite airport.
When I posted my article and photo about setting up shop at TPA this afternoon, I linked to it from Twitter. I got a “welcome” greeting, which after all these visits, is pretty much the norm when I arrive:
@AccordionGuy That’s a nice looking office, Joey. Have a productive afternoon!
— Tampa Intl Airport (@FlyTPA) August 2, 2013
But this time, I got an up-close-and-personal “hello” as well. Justin, the guy behind @FlyTPA, just came up to me, welcomed me to the airport with a handshake and a Moleskine notebook. It’s a little gesture, didn’t cost much, but it’s a level of customer relations I’ve never seen at an airport. Nicely done, guys. You’ve really got a fan now.
Justin and TPA, I salute you with a filet mignon on a flaming sword!