Ok, I admit it...

...although the science is interesting, I'm mostly posting this link because I like the headline: 'Alien' stars invade Milky Way.

Quicksilver

Somehow (probably with all the new Gaiman I'm reading - 1602, Endless Nights, etc.) I missed that Neal Stephenson's new book, Quicksilver, was just released. Shame on me.

Kurosawa commercials

For my brother-in-law (Desiree's twin): a link to information about Suntory Whiskey commercials for Japanese TV starring Akira Kurosawa.

Orson Welles as... Batman

Gravity Lens has posted a link to a great story about how Orson Welles was close to making a Batman feature film shortly after working on Citizen Kane.

Particularly interesting were the casting tidbits - Basil Rathbone as the Joker, George Raft as Two-Face, James Cagney as the Riddler, and Marlene Dietrich as Catwoman... fascinating stuff!

.hack//ENEMY

Decipher is releasing a .hack TCG, called .hack//ENEMY. The first release will be called Contagion and it will be released on October 15th.

Since .hack//SIGN is the favorite for both Desiree and I when it comes to anime and we both enjoy collectable/trading card games, we consider this to be an uncommonly good thing.

Rock star stupidity

While it's pretty funny that Alanis Morissette yelled "Thank you Brazil!" at the end of her show in Lima, Peru, it's downright hysterical that David Lee Roth had to get 22 stitches after whacking himself in the head while performing what his spokesman called "a very fast, complicated 15th-century samurai move."

Free gaming goodness

Lots of PC demos available recently:

If you're strategically inclined, check out the Empires: Dawn of the Modern World demos (yes, I did use the plural - there's a single player and a multiplayer demo). Also be sure to catch the Worms 3D and Lords of EverQuest demos, too.

Action gamers can download demos for Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi, the comic-book inspired Dredd vs. Death, and the impressive Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Although I prefer playing brawlers like RotK on a console, you can't complain about a free demo!

But what does it have for dessert?

The BBC News has an article about a star that was seen to flare last year (which puts the actual event at about 20,000 years ago) three times without any explanation - now it's thought that the occurances were the result of the star consuming planets. [You can add your own Galactus joke here.]

That's an odd superpower

In the U.S. (or at least here in Chicago), we call the device that police attach to your wheel when you have too many outstanding tickets a "boot".

Apparently, it's more descriptively called a "wheel clamp" in the UK, and this BBC article has information about the first "wheel clamp vigilante" (complete with spandex costume and cape).

The Flash coming to the WB - sort of

Sci-Fi Wire has a story about a live-action Flash TV show, which honestly doesn't sound that interesting at this stage.

According to the article, it seems that the premise for the show (a Gotham City college student who can run so fast that he can move forward or backward in time) is only very loosely based on the DC Comics character, with no regard for the character's history.

I'm all for re-imagining continuity and character histories for the purpose of a better story, but why call the show The Flash if you're not going to draw on the strengths of the character's mythos? This is synergy gone bad for AOL Time Warner - you'd think they'd have learned from last time.

Lowenmench

Anthopologists in Germany have discovered a 30,000-year-old carving (thought to be the oldest statue in existence) of a half-man, half-lion figure. This makes it doubly interesting because it would be the oldest example of non-literal art as well.

He's Batman.

Christian Bale will be Batman.

I'm not familiar with the work of all the actors that screentested, but among the ones I know, Bale was my first choice. I think he's got the swagger and playboy appearance to play Wayne's public facade, the intensity to play Wayne's dark side, and he's solidly-built enough to have the physical presence Batman requires. Even though he's Welsh, I think his American accent is pretty convincing.

He's a good casting choice - and coming from a pretty demanding fan like me, that's saying something.

Cuuuuttteeee!!!!

My dad sent me this flash this morning. So cute! Not as cute as my boys, but will work in a pinch. Make sure you pet it's tummy!

September and beyond

There's lots of high-profile (and hopefully high-quality) video game releases happening between now and the end of the year.

Right away, we have some downloads - a new Raven Shield patch, and a multiplayer demo of the Medal of Honor: Breakthrough expansion.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for GBA is out now too, and the rest of the month is looking good as well.

With Jedi Academy (9/16), the Athena Sword expansion for Raven Shield (9/23), Troika's Temple of Elemental Evil with v3.5 D&D rules (9/23), the much-anticipated UFO: Aftermath (9/29), and The Titans expansion for Age of Mythology (9/30), there's going to be lots of reviews to read and some hard purchasing decisions to be made. Throw in the possibility of a Silent Storm release, and (based on the excellent demo) it's going to be tough to pick a reasonable number of games to get!

The rest of the year is shaping up nicely as well, with a bunch of potentially great titles split between the Xbox and the PC:

October
Batman: The Rise of Sin Tzu (Xbox)
Final Fantasy XI Online (PC)
Gladius (Xbox)
Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup (Xbox)
TMNT (Xbox)

November
Half-Life 2 (PC)
Hordes of the Underdark (PC)
Magic the Gathering: Battlegrounds (Xbox)
Return of the King (Xbox)
Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC)

Pixies

Yes, you've probably read about this on every other weblog already - current Blogdex citations (for the MTV link and the Pitchfork link combined) are up to 78. I saw it first at Clader's. The Pixies will reunite and tour in April, with a studio album possible afterwards. That is all. And that is enough.

An open letter to my wife

Desiree -

I couldn't possibly tell you what you mean to me in this format or this forum, so suffice it to say that I love you very much - so completely, in fact, that none of my most sincere ambitions and dreams include much more than you and I together forever, happy and in love.

That makes today as much (or more!) of a cause to celebrate for me as it is for you. "The boys" and I can't love you any more than we already do for this event - 'da lub' is already turned up to 11, so to speak - but we'll try lots of things to make this day special anyhow.

Happy birthday!

Love eternally,
Dan

Long, long ago...

Ok, there's been a lot of Star Wars synergy in my life recently, and I knew I had to post about it when I saw the Illinois license plate "JEDIKGT" on the drive into work this morning.

First, I have to say that the recently released Jedi Academy demo that Reid posted about over on his weblog is really polished. Say what you want about Jedi Knight and Jedi Outcast, the third time's a charm. This went from "who cares" to "Desiree and I will kill many people in team Free for All - it is our... destiny."

Desiree's desire to play a shooter - a genre she only very seldom gets into - is no doubt inspired by the amount of fun she's having with Knights of the Old Republic - she finally got started on it and is loving it (a sentiment I'm sure she'll expound on by commenting on this post). She's somewhere between half and two-thirds of the way through the light-side story, while I'm a little less than a quarter of the way through on the dark side. (Just to see how the story's different! Honest!)

KotOR is a great reminder of what an interesting setting the Star Wars universe can be for a story, especially when it's not told by a post-RotJ George Lucas. Like, for example, if Star Wars stories were being told by Genndy Tartakovsky, the creator of Samurai Jack?

Nolan's casting couch

Christopher Nolan is auditioning 6-7 actors for the role of Batman in his upcoming addition to the Batman franchise, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The film is supposed to start shooting in February; I'm hopeful that things are far enough along (pre-production, casting, etc.) that it won't get derailed.

Short break

Desiree and I spent a (mostly) computer-free holiday weekend. Very relaxing - lots of food, drink, spending time with friends and family, etc.

There was plenty of tabletop gaming, too; we took the plunge and decided to get some Mage Knight figures and try it out. Desiree's brother, Mike, and I played a decent-sized game, and despite the three of us misunderstanding some of the rules, it was still a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to playing some more. (Desiree's brother beat Mike and I, if you're wondering.) Desiree and I also managed to get in a few games of Magic.

At any rate, that should explain our short break from blogging. We'll slowly be getting back into the normal routine over the course of the week.