You Down with MCP?
Jeff Bridges in "Tron: Legacy."
Greetings, programs!
In anticipation of the release of Tron: Legacy, let’s revisit the legacy of Tron by taking a trip in the way, way back machine to May 2007.
No, that’s not when the original Tron came out, but rather when the now defunct publication Los Angeles CityBeat published an article of mine on the film’s 25th anniversary.
The article features interviews with Tron’s writer and director Stephen Lisberger and visual effects supervisor Richard Taylor, among others.
Thanks to then CityBeat editors Rebecca Epstein and Andy Klein for letting me share one of my personal obsessions with the larger world.
Oh, and if you prefer to see how it actually appeared in print, you can download a copy here.
And now, further with ado, here’s the lovingly retyped article.
Like a pinch in the neck from Mr. Spock
Take a Töken multitouch screen, add EMULATOR, and a DJ from Chile and you get a performance straight outta the End of Line club.
We’ll always have Trixie
Thank goodness that today’s news about Triceratops—you know, the horribly depressing discovery that they probably never existed —didn’t hit until today. Otherwise, we might have been robbed of Toy Story 3′s Trixie the Triceratops, undoubtedly the most adorable addition to the Toy Story universe since Bullseye, and a standout comedic performance as voiced by the equally adorable Kristen Schaal.
Know when to fold ‘em
Those eggheads at MIT and Harvard are at it again! This time they’ve developed a tiny prototype folding robot that can turn into an airplane or an oragami boat, based on the electrical impulses it receives. Sure, this little guy’s as cute as a button, but the bigger idea here is that several of these tiny robots could form like Voltron and transform into practically anything.
William Gibson on nationality
Here’s a great clip from a 1992 documentary titled Cyberpunk, which contains this gem from William Gibson: “I think we’re leaning toward a world where all consumers under a certain age will probably identify more with their consumer status or with the products they consume than with an antiquated notion of nationality. We’re increasingly interchangeable.”
Crawling terror 100 feet high!
In celebration of a federal judge’s ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional, let’s take another look at a terrifying eight-legged monstrosity from the past, director Jack Arnold’s 1955 B-movie extravaganza Tarantula!
There are many copies
In celebration of a federal judge’s ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional, let’s take another look at everybody’s favorite number eight, Grace Park as Number Eight from Battlestar Galactica.
Another ghost from cubicle past
Here’s another beasty I had hanging in my cubicle at the Getty for many years. My friend Taras (update yer blog, will ya buddy?) cut out a newspaper clip for me about a giant monster festival at the American Cinematheque. This image is from Godzilla: Final Wars, a film which, despite featuring nearly every kaiju from the entire Godzilla series, is hands down, one of the worst films I’ve ever seen.
