This weekend’s gotten off to a musical start. First I saw the film version of “Mamma Mia!” (good movie) and now I’ve just finished up the final act of Joss Whedon’s “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog“.
Starring Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer, and Felicia Day as Penny, the story follows Dr. Horrible as he attempts to gain admittance to a super villain organization and work up the nerve to talk to the girl of his dreams (Penny), who he has inadvertently introduced to his arch-nemesis (Hammer). As the name suggests, the show is a musical and features Joss’ quirky, irreverent sense of humor.
The show is presented in three 15-minute acts that were released over the course of this week for free on the internet. After today (July 19), it will only be available for purchase on iTunes until the DVD is released sometime in the coming months. Joss came up with the idea during the writer’s strike and explains the motivation behind it in a note to his fans:
Once upon a time, all the writers in the forest got very mad with the Forest Kings and declared a work-stoppage. The forest creatures were all sad; the mushrooms did not dance, the elderberries gave no juice for the festival wines, and the Teamsters were kinda pissed. (They were very polite about it, though.) During this work-stoppage, many writers tried to form partnerships for outside funding to create new work that circumvented the Forest King system.
Frustrated with the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, as we all know, there are far too few.
The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first.
Not that I’m obsessed over this movie or anything, but the folks over at io9 (via Metblogs) have video of a life-size animatronic of the robot Wall-E in action. He seems to have a wide range of motion and is very expressive, at one point rolling up to the camera, raising up a bit, and waving.
I’ve heard he’ll be making the rounds of the talk show circuit to promote the movie. He should also be making appearances in Disney theme parks no doubt giving Push a run for his money.
In what has now become tag-team Ultimate Wall-E posts, a friend posted this morning about Gizmodo’s coverage of the upcoming toy at last weekend’s Maker Faire. Their story included a video of a rep showing off the remote control and talking about Wall-E will be able to do, but there wasn’t much of an actual demonstration because Wall-E was sitting on a small table in loud and crowded room.
Engadget also had a story from Maker Faire about Ultimate Wall-E that included a video (from Techie Diva, embedded below). This video better showcases Wall-E’s range of motion, including his head, arms, and eyes. The rep also demonstrates his collision avoidance and directional sound sensors. And while not implemented in that prototype, the rep explained that he’ll also respond to small number of voice commands.
After seeing this new video, I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these.
Update: A friend pointed out that video changed at some point. It would appear that the embed code I got from Engadget points to the most recent Techie Diva video instead of this particular one. (Incidentally, the original Techie Diva story is showing the same incorrect video) You can find the original video at Blip.tv.
By the time I started watching Six Feet Under, it was nearing the end of its run on HBO. In reading up on the show, I found out that house used as the funeral home in the series was not that far from where I lived. In fact, my daily commute brought me relatively close to the neighborhood it was in, so I made a mental note to go find it at some point. Well, I was never a very good note-taker so I soon forgot about it.
Jump ahead about a year-and-a-half. I got a new job closer to home. About 2/3 of the new commute was the same as part of the old commute. Instead of getting on the freeway, I stayed on surface streets, which meant that I now had to drive through the neighborhood the house was in, but I still never took the time to go looking for it.
Over time, I started trying different routes to work and finally settled on one that I have been using for a little over a year. So, not too long a go, I was on my way to work and happened to look to my right as I was passing through a particular intersection, and there it was. I can’t believe I have been driving by it nearly every day for over a year and never noticed it. The Fisher & SonsDiaz sign may be missing, but the house itself is pretty distinctive.
On the left is screen capture from the pilot episode. On the right is a photo I took.
If you’d like to see it for yourself, the house is on the southwest corner of Arlington and 25th St. in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Disney/Pixar’s Wall-E is still about two months from release, and I am definitely very excited to see it. However, I (and several of my friends) have also been anticipating the merchandise. Being a movie about a robot, there is strong potential for some really cool toys.
For example, some friends have a voice activated R2-D2—a Wall-E version of that seems like a no-brainer. Well, last night I came across this Gearlog story (by way of Engadget) that would appear to be just that.
Ultimate Wall-E is a programmable robot with 10 separate motors and sensors that will let him react to his surroundings. He’ll be out sometime this summer for $190 but will be introduced to the public at Maker Faire this weekend (not the 29th as mentioned in the Engadget story).
This weekend’s gotten off to a musical start. First I saw the film version of “Mamma Mia!” (good movie) and now I’ve just finished up the final act of Joss Whedon’s “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog“.
