Dayton's Blog: A pimple on the ass of the Internet.

Spurred by "17 Movies You Watch Over and Over" as posted on EW.com, I decided that their list was notably lacking, and opted to create my own such list. Here are 17 movies I've watched uncounted times, and likely would include on my "desert island" list. I make no pronouncements about these being "the best" or whatever. These are just 17 flicks I could watch with no cajoling whatsoever, on a rainy day or just any day I feel like veggin' on my couch.

(Note: I'm purposely leaving off Star Trek movies and the three Star Wars films. What's that? They made three more? Bullshit, I say.)

Presented in order of release:
( Read more... )

Up next? Maybe I'll offer up 17 "bad" movies I love to watch over and over.... :)

Continuing the geekification of the next generation....

Addy, playing with the Star Trek dollhouse action playset my mother bought for me her.

Click to enlarge.

"Daddy, they even got Shatner's toupee right!"

For you Trekkies who are missing the late and lamented Star Trek: The Experience attraction, which stood proudly within the environs of the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel from January 1998 to September 2008, there's now something which just might fill the void, if only a bit.

Digital Properties, a firm specializing in "360-degree virtual tours" for a variety of uses from showing off houses for real estate websites to hotels and other commercial properties, has made available for public viewing a tour package they originally created for the attraction's management team as a "historical archive" as well as being a gift to the employees. The tour covers all areas of The Experience, including staff areas which only were available to the public if they took the "Behind the Scenes" tour. So far as I can tell, they don't go so far as to spoil the illusion of how certain aspects of the attractions were "brought to life," but it's still fun to drag your mouse around the different pictures and zoom in on this or that.

Check it out: Digital Properties: Star Trek: The Experience 360-Degree Virtual Tour

You can even get a look-see at Quark's Bar, which is mighty damned important, if you ask me....





Thanks very much to the staff at TrekToday.com, who brought this very cool bit of news to my attention.

Snurched without guilt or remorse from torenheksje:

CollegeHumor.com: "5 Star Wars Status Updates"



Among my favorites:

Obi-Wan Kenobi: She's your sister, bro.

Luke Skywalker: wut.

Han Solo: I AM SO IN.

So, I'm toolin' around the TrekBBS this evening, and I happen across a thread where folks are trying to turn Star Trek episode titles into something you'd hear as the title of a porn flick.

Say what you will....I thought of five or six examples just in the time it took you to read that first sentence.

Anyway, one of the posters in the thread reminds the others that the subject was covered rather well in a previous thread from some time ago. Then a link is provided to what at first seems like an innocuous dialogue, titled "How to have fun with Spock's Brain." Then, one superhuman poster, who goes by the name "payndz201" on TrekBBS (actually author Andy McDermott), took things to a whole new level. The result? A photonovel-esque journey through the classic Star Trek episode "Spock's Brain."



Yeah, you read it right. The rest of the pics pretty much take that ball -- so to speak -- and run with it. Don't say you weren't warned.

My contributor's copy arrived in today's mail. Sweet!



As the cover says, this here be the "Villians!" issue, featuring an in-depth rundown on the "Top 10" villians from onscreen Trek, as well as a look at seven bad guys from "Trek Literature." Thrown in an interview with writer/director Nicholas Meyer, an exclusive sneak peek into the forthcoming Star Trek: The Art of the Film book, and an extract from David Mack's Precipice, the fifth book in Pocket Books' Star Trek: Vanguard series, and you've got a mag chock full of TrekkieGoodness(tm).

Among the TrekLit Peanut Gallery making contributions to the issue:

Christopher L. Bennett
Greg Cox
Keith R.A. DeCandido (kradical)
David R. George III
Bob Greenberger
Bill Leisner (bill_leisner)
David Mack (infinitydog)
Andy Mangels
David McIntee (lonemagpie)
Marco Palmieri
Lance Parkin

Kevin and I also contributed a piece focusing on Nero, as well as a smaller bit highlighting Adrik Thorsen, the Bad Guy du jour for the seminal Star Trek novel Federation.

I've seen this on store shelves, so you should probably run out and buy two or three copies.

Just sayin'.

Admit it. You know you want a pair.

SubspaceCommunique.com: Jeff Staple-Designed Star Trek Kicks Available At Payless.



More pics available at the SubSpaceComms site.

I'm thinking the red ones might be pretty swank....

Celebrating the 54th anniversary of the invention of time travel....

Dr. Emmett L. Brown

Keepin' it Outatime Since November 5th, 1955

Over on his blog, Doug Drexler as has made with more of the sweet, sweet nerdy goodness, this time posting a series of photographs from the construction of the sets for the U.S.S. Defiant as seen in the Star Trek: Enterprise 2-part episode "In A Mirror, Darkly."

Of course, in the original Star Trek episode "The Tholian Web," the Defiant interiors were really just the standing Enterprise sets, so you know what that means, right?

REBUILD THE ORIGINAL SERIES HOTNESS, FANBOYS!

: Ahem. :

Anyway, check this out: DrexFiles: Reflections from the Mirror Universe

In addition to recreating corridors and and maintenance shafts as seen in this collection of photos, the crew also was able to go one step farther and show us parts of the ship never before seen, extrapolating from what was known to produce new sets that add a new dimension to what we've already seen all while evoking and remaining faithful to the classic Matt Jefferies design aesthetic.

Man, I love this stuff.

Check out the entry, and the rest of Doug's blog while you're at it. The site continues to be a treasure trove for old-school Trekkies like me.

So, I decided to try an experiment this Halloween.

Tomorrow night, starting sometime after 6pm Central time (about the time I assume my post as CandyGuy at our front door), I'm going to start "live tweeting" over on Twitter. One tweet at a time, I'll present a flash fiction story I wrote back in 2007 called "Last Stand." It was a story I originally wrote as a favor to friend and fellow writer Christopher Pimental (chrispimental) for his e-Zine Thug Works and its Halloween-themed issue.

I'd been thinking of posting a "Twitter-fied" story of some sort for a while, and a month or so ago, as Halloween 2009 began looming on the horizon, I decided that was a good time to try something. Thug Works unfortunately has passed on into the aether, taking with it "Last Stand" and all the other, better fiction that once called the zine home. With the story appearing nowhere else -- at least, not so far as I've been able to determine -- I figured the story might be the right vehicle for test-driving this sort of thing. It's short (850 words originally, but I pumped it up to just over 1,000 while reformatting it and tweaking it for Twitter), is told in first person (perfect for Tweeting), and it's got foul language, violence, and zombies.

Trick or treat, yo.

Anyway, tomorrow night, you can follow me (@daytonward) on Twitter, and/or the "#laststand" hashtag, to watch "Last Stand" unfold in all its Twitterific glory. For those of you with lives and/or better things to do, I'll likely post a transcript at some point in the coming days.

Hope to see you there!

They're tough to clean, and cooking them properly is a bitch.



Just sayin'.

So, I recently discovered that this event was coming to Kansas City in December. I've talked it over briefly with Michi and Kevin, and we finally decided we were going to go. The idea sounds fun enough on the face of it: the entire Star Wars saga presented with highlights from the six movies shown on massive HD screens and accompanied by live performances of music from the films. Sounds like a bigger, louder version of Star Wars: A Musical Journey, a DVD feature included with the soundtrack CD to Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

Sweet.

Being a Star Wars fan, this sounds like it could be a fun evening. Anybody else heard anything more about this, or -- better yet -- seen it themselves? If so, whaddaya think about it?

Earlier this week, I was interviewed by Scott Hertzog and Miles McLoughlin of the SciFi Diner Podcast, a weekly show that covers all the latest happenings in the SF and Fantasy genres. Film, TV, books and comics, games and toys, you name it, chances are they've got something to say.

The guys spent about a half hour or so catching up on their sleep as they asked a series of open-ended questions and let me blabber on at length. Somewhere in all of that mess -- we think -- lay the answers to said questions. You can hear the interview as well as a healthy dose of genre news, trivia (I knew the answer to the contest question, without using IMDB!), and other nerdy goodness.

Check out Episode #37 ("37???") at the podcast's homepage: Click Me!

Thanks very much to Scott and Miles for having me on! We're already talking about a follow-up visit to the show for me, this time bringing along Kevin for the ride. Stay tuned for details as they firm up. It should be fun!

Okay, tell me something: Is there any context, any at all, in which you might think I (or anyone else, for that matter) would -- with actual serious intent -- insert something like the following passage into a Star Trek story?

-----

"What's your name, scumbag?"

"Sir! James T. Kirk, sir!"

"T? What's the T stand for? Thumbdick?"

"Sir! No, sir! Tiberius, sir!"

"Tiberius? Well, holy shit. We've got ourselves a fucking Roman emperor here. You know the Romans were only good for two things: orgies and the second finest military force the fucking civilized world has ever seen. You best learn how to fight, Tiberius, because you don't look like you could get laid in a fucking whorehouse with gold-pressed latinum strung around your pencil neck."

"Sir. Yes, sir!"

-----

Apparently, at least one person thinks so.

And people wonder why I laugh and shake my head when I read message boards.



(For those looking at the time stamp and wondering: Yes, I'm having another bout with insomnia.)

Yeah, I laughed. :)

I am an addict, and Doug Drexler is my dealer.

This bastard, with all his pictures and graphics and stories about Star Trek as told from the point of view of someone WHO WAS THERE, working on shows every day; how dare he post such tantalizing morsels of fanboy goodness on his website and just leave them there for me to drool over? It's killing me, I tell you! I am powerless to resist. No matter how many times I say aloud, "I won't go back. He can't keep posting good stuff like that forever. He has to have run out by now," I succumb to temptation over and over again. And each time I return? There's more stuff to ogle.

DAMMIT!

What's new there since my last visit? Among the juicy tidbits and insights from Trek's past he's offering now, are two entries of particular note:

The First, posted on October 11th, showcases pictures and reminiscing of Doug and other members of the production crew in 1996, working on the re-created sets for the original Enterprise, as seen in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations." It's not enough that these folks get to do something like this and get paid for it. Oh, no. They have to joke around and have all sorts of other fun while they're doing it.

Rub it in, why dontcha.

The Second, also posted on the 11th, revisits a graphic Doug created for the Star Trek: Enterprise two-part episode "In A Mirror, Darkly." Yeah, the one where they got to build the original series sets AGAIN, with even more detail and AwesomeSauce thrown in this time around. The graphic is a "cutaway" technical schematic of a Constitution-class starship. Here's a taste, but you need to go to the site and see the full-sized version to really get your nerd on in first-rate fashion:


(Not responsible for any inadvertent release of body fluids you may experience upon viewing at full size You've been warned.)

Yeah, I had to change my shorts after seeing that one, too.

If the original Star Trek series is not your thing, Doug's blog is chock full of all kinds of other stuff. For example, check out this recent entry highlighting visual FX master Gary Hutzel as he works on a Piece of Sweetness for the still-forthcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel, Caprica. That'll get your pilot lit.

My name is Dayton, and I'm a fan of Doug Drexler.

"Hi, Dayton."

My online friends over at Geek Girls Network are getting set to unleash "Zombie Week(s)." Scheduled to run from October 19th to the 31st, the GGN will be offering up a smorgasbord of links, blogs, comics, prizes, and other zombie goodness.

Among the cool prizes being offered as part of the festivities is a copy of Pride and Prejudice With Zombies, autographed by author Seth Grahame-Smith. Rumors that the book also will be signed by the undead, flesh-eating corpse of Jane Austen herself remain unconfirmed.


GeekGirlsNetwork: Zombie Week(s)!




As a prelude to the madness, GGN also will offer up a "live battle" between the Girls and the Zombies, as waged on Twitter starting tonight at 8pm Eastern. Follow @geekgirls and @the_zombie to see all the action. You may even be called upon to bring forth reinforcements! Follow the "#BattleZ" hashtag for more info.

Let's get it on!

The other day, I was reading a thread on the TrekBBS where the original poster asked about best/favorite Star Trek book covers.

( Cover musings behind the cut. )

On Friday, NASA will "bomb the Moon." In reality, they're planning to drive a used-up rocket motor from the LCROSS satellite into the Moon so that they can study the resulting ejecta for signs of water trapped beneath the lunar surface. Cool, huh?

According to this newsbit from SciFiWire.com, you can watch the whole thing live on NASA TV (assuming you don't have a telescope powerful enough to watch the whole thing "for real":

SciFiWire.com: How you can watch NASA bomb the moon

I figure the Moon had it coming, the prick.

Way back in 1977, Doug Drexler published the Star Trek Giant Poster Books, a series of magazines which unfolded to reveal a big-assed poster featuring an image from the original Star Trek series. During the Great Trek Drought of the 70s, stuff like these magazines were manna from heaven. The series ran for 25 issues before riding off into the sunset of Trek lore, of which Doug oversaw the first 12.

My favorite of the run is Issue #10, which featured a look at the state of the original Enterprise and Klingon cruiser filming models after their internment at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. Doug has reprinted the pages from the magazine in a recent entry on his blog, and included with it the original photos which accompanied the article. Two words to describe this blog piece? Suh weet.

DrexFiles: The Smithsonian Report - Poster Book Flashback - 1977

This kind of stuff is crack to old-school Trekkies like myself. Go forth, read, and dig it. Personally, I can't get enough info and images detailing the behind-the-scenes aspects of the original Star Trek series. I particularly love finding new info on the filming model, or rediscovering articles and photos I'd all but forgotten. If I could dry this out and smoke it, I would.

Related entries:
A ship called Enterprise: Feelin' Nostalgic, Part 1
The little shuttlecraft that could: Feelin' Nostalgic, Part 2
How it all began: Feelin' Nostalgic, Part 3
The Real Story: Feelin' Nostalgic, Part 4
Sketchin' it: Feelin' Nostalgic, Part 5
Waxing Nostalgic: Feelin' Nostalgic, Part 6
The History of the Future: Feelin' Nostalgic, Part 7

Oh, and:

Wax that baby, while you're at it.