I saw Cloverfield tonight, and either I’m still digesting the film, or the Cloverfield monster is digesting me. I will have more to say about this movie soon!
Digesting Cloverfield, More to Come
January 18, 2008
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Review, Science Fiction | Tagged: cloverfield, jjabrams, monster | 
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Posted by Jason W Ellis
Scary Go Round Painting on eBay
January 17, 2008I’m a big, big fan of John Allison’s Scary Go Round webcomic beamed to the Interweb from the far, off strange land of England. He’s selling a painting of the Scary Go Round character Esther De Groot on ebay. The bidding is fast and furious, and it’s on-going until Saturday. Unfortunately, my financial situation precludes my bidding on the painting, but I would like to direct some traffic that way for the artistic and aesthetically inclined art barons looking for the next big thing (or those just interested in buying me an awesome birthday present).
Bid on the auction here, and read Scary Go Round here (updated daily, Monday through Friday–there’s something to be said about webcomic punctuality).
Leave a Comment » | Comics | Tagged: art, auction, esther, johnallison, scarygoround, webcomic | Permalink
Posted by Jason W Ellis
William Shatner’s Interpretation of Rocket Man
January 17, 2008Lisa Yaszek forwarded a link to the SFRA list of William Shatner’s performance of “Rocket Man” at the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards. His act is introduced by Bernie Taupin, the song’s writer and longtime collaborator with Elton John. You have to watch the video to fully appreciate Shatner’s contribution to avant-garde performance.
In response to Lisa’s link, Mack Hassler said:
Lisa’s post is such a great illustration of how art and technology protect us and fix us in time. Reality moves on. Look at what Shatner is airing now. In the signature to this posting, I still list myself as deeply implicated in Extrapolation; when you receive the current issue in a few weeks I shall be “gone.” Time and reality move on for us all just as it does for Bill Shatner.
Shatner’s video definitely places him at a particular temporal interstice of culture and history. Also, Mack’s point that we should consider what Shatner is doing now points to the actor’s work in the here-and-now relies on an exaggeration or pastiche of his past works. Now, he is a pastiche of himself in many respects.
However, consider our longing of nostalgia for art such as this. Our desire for nostalgia is manifests strongly in works such as Fox’s Family Guy animated sitcom. Many of the jokes are obscure and rely on a culturally aware audience. Taking the Shatner example above, Family Guy reinterprets Shatner’s interpretation by having Stewie assume the role of smoking singer. This new version of Shatner’s performance drags the past into the present moment thereby creating the joke, which implicates not only Shatner located in a stylized past, but also ourselves as witnesses and accomplices. Have another laugh thanks to postmodern nostalgia on YouTube here.
Leave a Comment » | Science Fiction | Tagged: bernietaupin, eltonjohn, familyguy, nostalgia, rocketman, stewie, williamshatner | Permalink
Posted by Jason W Ellis
Cloverfield this Friday
January 16, 2008I’m eager to see Cloverfield this Friday. Who’s up for some monster mayhem?
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Posted by Jason W Ellis
Spring 2008 Semester
January 15, 2008The Spring 2008 Semester at Kent State University began with a sigh on Monday. I’m taking two courses: Queer Theory with Professor Kevin Floyd and World War I Literature with Professor Robert Trogdon. I’m eager to learn more about Queer Theory, particularly since I’ve already applied it and Gender Studies in general to my work such as the recent posts on Alien Versus Predator Requiem. Also, WWI Literature will help me pick up a bit more of the canon, and I hope to turn out a paper on H.G. Wells’ SF from around that time. I have high hopes for the semester–at Kent State as well as at conferences including the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts conference in March.
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Posted by Jason W Ellis
Battlestar Galactica Season 4 Updates
January 14, 2008Galactica Station reports that the date for the BSG Season 4 premiere is set for April 4, 2008. Read more here.
Entertainment Weekly is running a “Last Supper” photo of the BSG Season 4 cast. There is an interactive version with hints about the upcoming final season available on the EW website here. A high resolution version is also available on Flickr here.
The beginning of the end approaches!
Leave a Comment » | Science Fiction | Tagged: battlestargalactica, BSG, lastsupper | Permalink
Posted by Jason W Ellis
Warren Ellis’ Crooked Little Vein
January 13, 2008Warren Ellis’ (no relation) Crooked Little Vein is the BEST novel I’ve read in a long while. It sinks its teeth into the heart of American sexual fetishism and perversion in a weird tale that’s part alternate history, SF, and the New Weird. I read the first half of the novel sitting at Starbucks a couple of days ago, and I got stares from the people sitting around me upstairs. Why? Because I was laughing my ass off! There’s a lot to be said about this novel, but all I’m saying right now it go out and read this book so we can talk about MHP (macroherpetophile), saline injections, and roulette parties. Stay tuned for more!
1 Comment | Review, Science Fiction | Tagged: americansexuality, crookedlittlevein, fetish, mhp, warrenellis | Permalink
Posted by Jason W Ellis
Sociology of Sexuality
January 12, 2008“Sociology of Sexuality” sounds like an interesting course to take at the University of California at Irvine (interestingly enough this isn’t offered at Kent State, and there certainly aren’t any pornstar guests). I ran across a recent visit to the class by Dana DeArmond, her boyfriend Daniel, and fellow porn actors Justin Long and Jon Jon. LAist talks about the event in words and pictures here.
Also, check out Dana DeArmond’s blog on myspace here, and the studio that produced her latest DVD “Dana De Armond’s Role Modeling,” Vivid-Alt.
I wonder what a Sociology of Sexuality in SF course would look like. There’s definitely a lot of material to pull from to look at the sociological implications and impact of SF on sexuality and vice versa (no pun intended).
Leave a Comment » | Research | Tagged: danadearmond, porn, sexuality, ucirvine | Permalink
Posted by Jason W Ellis
AVP2 Requiem Post Round-Up
January 11, 2008Aliens Vs. Preadator 2: Requiem really left an afterimage on my retina for me to have written so many posts on that movie in the past week. Here are all the posts collected for your reading pleasure:
On Forced Deep Throat in Aliens Vs. Predator Requiem
More Thoughts on Forced Fellatio in AVP2 Requiem
1 Comment | Movies, Review, Science Fiction | Tagged: aliens, avp2, fellatio, predator, requiem, roundup | Permalink
Posted by Jason W Ellis
Star Trek the Tour Beams Down
January 11, 2008I saw as part of the four installment big news blog post on Ensign Wesley Crusher’s (aka Wil Wheaton’s) blog that Star Trek the Tour will be making the rounds in the United States beginning in California next week. The list of cities, and details of the experience are available on the official Star Trek website here.
From the looks of it online, it will be a lot like the Star Trek Exposition in London, except a thousand times cooler. Now, don’t think I’m playa hatin’ on Star Wars. My first love in SF is the fantastic space opera, Star Wars. However, Star Trek the Tour appears to be much more thought out and executed than the Star Wars Exposition.
See you there (in my Darth Vader costume)!
Leave a Comment » | Science Fiction | Tagged: exposition, startrek, starwars, tour, wilwheaton | Permalink
Posted by Jason W Ellis
