THE BIG G IS BACK!

May 16th, 2014, cannot come soon enough!

Via io9

UPDATE: Sorry folks, looks like Warners has yanked the Godzilla clip. Once an official one pops up, I'll revise this post. Until then, here's a little something to tide you over:

Con of the North: Here come the Exonauts!

WELP, I REGISTERED. I'm all signed up for Con of the North, the big gaming shindig that takes place in the Twin Cities after we've all become sick of snow, the cold, and the indoors!

I'm excited, having never attended since it's been ages since I've had a chance to do some serious gamin'. Oh, and like a big dummy I went and sent a proposal to RUN A GAME. I've got no idea if it will be accepted or how this works. So we'll see I guess.

This is all only slightly terrifying as I've not run a game in a LONG TIME. I'm hoping I can get a few practice games before then.

It'll be X-plorers, since that's rules light and I can tweak the hell out of it. To make things even harder on myself, I'll run a one-shot adventure in the RAD ASTRA setting. If I'm going to go in--it's gotta be all in! I had to write a description for the listing (most listings are, thankfully, quite short) and I've not yet cobbled said adventure together--so I just gave a flavor for the source material:

RAD ASTRA: Far-out, Exploitation-style Space Opera
Take a rules-light sci-fi game and pack it with plenty of "spaghetti" space opera from the 60s, 70s, and 80s and you've got the makings of RAD ASTRA. You're part of a group of galactic troubleshooters--think: A-Team with rayguns, space yeti sidekicks, and sharp-shooting robots riding around in the Eagle-1 and taking down maniacal caped weirdos! 

So, sound like a game you'd be interested in?


Pertinent details:

• Register for Con of the North before Jan. 5 ($25 for the weekend) or pay more at the door ($37 for the same duration). Single day tickets are also offered.
• Con of the North - February 15-17 (Friday-Sunday) at the Holiday Inn in East St. Paul, MN

GIANT ROBOTS FIGHTING GIANT MONSTERS!

 TAKE MY MONEY!!!

COMING SOON: Insect brains in robots!

Holy F#$%! This is insane and yet REALLY happening: researchers are working on putting honey bee brains into robotic insect bodies! How long before some madman puts his own brain into a giant robotic exoskeleton? Does nobody think these things through?

Apparently they did, in fact, as the purpose is a bit more altruistic. From io9:

The researchers hope a robotic insect could supplement or replace the shrinking population of honey bees that pollinate essential plant life.

Now, while this might sound like some kind of outlandish futurist joke, there are some serious players — and money — involved. Called the "Green Brain Project," it was recently given £1 million (USD $1,614,700) by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), as well as hardware donations from the NVIDIA corporation.

and...

The Green Brain Project could further our understanding of both artificial intelligence and the neuroscientific underpinnings of animal cognition. But also, along with the National Science Foundation-funded Robobees project (led by Harvard University), the advent of an artificial pollinator could provide a solution (either temporarily or permanently) to the problem of dwindling honey bee populations — an organism that's currently dealing with the devastating effects of colony collapse disorder. In fact, the artificial honey bee may be the first of many robots we introduce into the environment to make up for the current era of widespread extinctions.

BUT STILL. How long until we're fighting off GIANT SPACE HORNETS?

OUR LASERS ARE VASTLY UNDERPOWERED FOR THIS KIND OF THREAT!

Full article.

Webcomic: KILL ALL MONSTERS!

What if Godzilla's family came over for dinner and never left? What would happen to humanity if they'd won the planet and we took runner-up in the food chain? Why we'd build giant robots to take the planet back! This is the premise of KILL ALL MONSTERS! a recently launched web comic set on a post-apocalyptic Earth, after the kaiju have divided and conquered us puny humans.

The creative team is made up of Twin Cities comic writer Michael May (who I've had the pleasure of meeting several times) and Jason Copland (art) and Ed Brisson (lettering).

From May's blog:

In Kill All Monsters! the giants have already won. It's a post-apocalyptic setting in which the world has been completely overrun by giant monsters. Pockets of humanity are hiding and surviving as best they can, but no one's found an effective way to defeat the beasts...until now. Operating out of a hidden temple deep in the jungle, the African Defense Force has created a small until of giant mechs, operated by an international team of the best pilots humanity has to offer. The story begins with the unit's first trip out of their home continent as they try to assess some of the damage done to Europe. What they learn there is even more terrifying than they imagined.

In keeping with the post-apoc genre, KAM is more than just big baddies trading punches. May also promises "...mutant animal-people, barbarians, and secret societies of mad scientists...". As a lover of massive collateral carnage and content in the gamma strain, this is right up my alley--especially since I've been on a Gamma World tear for a while now. It's exactly the kind of stuff that gets my Megathrusters going!

While it's got plenty of panel-breaking action, the base storyline about the human characters is solid and well plotted. It's great to see a really fun idea well executed. The online version publishes a page-at-a-time format employed by many web series, but printed copies aren't far behind. This is pure inspiration for a game, but I can't help but think it'd make for an even more spectacular MOVIE! I particularly love the way the landscape is used as more than just a backdrop...

I can dream can't I?

Linkage

• KILL ALL MONSTERS! web comic
• KAM blog 

Sci-fi Film Fest at the Heights Theater

Step off Tom Cruise! The original Martians are here!

The venerable Heights Theater on the west side (MPLS), is hosting a slew of great sci-fi flicks (the original versions) in their Before CGI: Six Sci-Fi Classics series.

Run Dana, my fans are relentless!

If you're in the Twin Cities you can't beat the Heights for a better days-of-glory movie experience.

The series is run by Take-up.org, the same laudable and beloved movie minds behind my favorite indy theater, the Trylon, which some of you may recall screened an awesome series of Ray Harryhausen flicks just last spring. Unlike that series, I'm going to miss everyone of these because they're on Monday nights, which is the same as my night class **sobs/wailing**.

Tonight's show is a DOUBLE FEATURE of the War of the Worlds (1953) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Invasion stars the recently passed Kevin McCarthy, so it's a fitting tribute that his best-known role gets such a swank screening.

The series includes:

• Forbidden Planet (screened last weekend)
• War of the Worlds (TONIGHT!)
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (TONIGHT!)
• The Invisible Man Directed by James Whale who helmed the original Frankenstein
• The Incredible Shrinking Man
• King Kong (the original!)

I'm jealous of anyone who gets out to see these--and in a place that still sports chandeliers and a Wurlitzer that rises through the stage no less!

New Godzilla in 2012!

It's true--Godzilla is back in 2012. And, no, Roland Emmerich will not have anything to do with the big guy's return. I refer you to the estimable Monster Island News on the matter, which sounds like a news program on Monster Island. Oh, how I wish it were!

MIN has also posted the official press release.

Harryhausen Film Fest Has Begun!

The Ray Harryhausen film series at the Trylon Microcinema here in the Twin Cities kicked off this weekend. I'd blogged earlier that I've seen most of the fantasy films he's done, but none of the sci-fi ones. I corrected that oversight this afternoon with a viewing of Earth vs. the Flying Saucers! It's definitely one of the all-time great B-movies, from the height of the cold war and UFO craze of the 50s. The film shares a lot of plot devices similar to War of the Worlds (Earth is invaded by a technologically superior race, etc.) but instead of conquering them through micro-organisms, lead scientist/hero Dr. Russell A. Marvin played by closet-werewolf and crackerjack actor Hugh Marlowe (if you've seen the last scene of the film you'll get that joke) devises a weapon to fight off the aliens. Of course, conventional artillery and firearms are useless because the aliens are using SCIENCE! So we have to use our own to even the odds. Let's just say it's definitely overdue for a Mystery Science Theater 3000 skewering. :)

The Trylon lives up to it's "Microcinema" name with just 50 seats and provides an intimate, cinema-going experience. It's nestled in the back of the XY and Z gallery at 3258 Minnehaha Avenue in Minneapolis.

The proprietors let me snap a few shots of the lobby and box office/concession area:

 

  

As you can tell by the photos, the theater is quite small and really gives the impression of a private theater. Now, I'm all about the multi-plex (usually). As my wife often endures us getting to the theater early--like an HOUR before the doors open just so we can get prime seating. I'm at home hanging out at the cinema, so this isn't really a problem (for me). But when you're angling for your favorite spot, stupid mistakes will get you bad seats (waaaay up front, or waaaay in back). And then there's the rules of theater-going with Jay:

1. Buy tickets online
2. Get there EARLY
3. Seats before treats (find prime seats before visiting the concession stand)

I'm really not this much of a freak with anything else, but I hate sitting in bad seats at the theater. We've been known to swap our tickets if we get to the theater too late--just to avoid neck strain, motion sickness, and a crappy experience. (And believe me, it's worth it.)

At the Trylon, there isn't a bad seat in the theater--there really can't be in a space this size. In fact, after watching the movie in such a cozy set-up I promptly told the box office manager that this was my new favorite theater. I'm seriously looking forward to the rest of the series--next weekend is It Came From Beneath the Sea.  I can hardly wait!

Harryhausen film fest highlights sci-fi classics

So I'd posted this over at my other blog Spellcard! and thought I should at least mention the sci-fi angle here. The Trylon Microcinema, a tiny indy filmhouse here in the Twin Cities is showing several of Ray Harryhausen's classic films every weekend in March. I'm quite familiar with this "Sinbad" fantasy series, as well as "Island" and "Argonauts," but I've not seen any of the science fiction ones on DVD let alone the big screen, so I'm hoping to get a chance to finally correct that oversight. This being GINORMOUS FOES weekend and all, I thought a prep for next month would be appropriate. Here's the sci-fi schedule:

Sunday, March 7 - Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers
Sunday, March 14 - It Came From Beneath the Sea
Friday, March 19 - First Men in the Moon
Saturday, March 20 - First Men in the Moon
Sunday, March 21 - 20 Million Miles to Earth

See the full schedule.

I can't wait! Oh and here's some artwork (courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art) to make you all jealous:

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

Run for your lives!

Hail to the King Baby!

King Ghidorah that is. By popular insistence I give you a giant three-headed rockstar bedazzled in glorious gold.

 

 

 

Here's a few artistic interpretations. First is one of my favorites from a Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics module. I need to get my hands on one of these and convert it to a space adventure:

Next are a few selections from Deviant Art by Artists hypergojira and KaijuSamurai (respectively)

 

  

And then we have--hold on...what's that? There's a Ghidorah with one of the heads replaced by a robot?!!That's just crazy talk.

Know your enemy folks:

...and then make him your plaything:

That's if for now. I've decided that portions of this weekend's program will be dedicated to GINORMOUS FOES! So get ready. Then we're back to your regularly scheduled sci-fi posts and gearing up Exonauts to take on these baddies.

Intersteller Inspiration: Ginormous Foes!

Click on images to enlarge