Candleblog

Cross-posted at Geek Mountain State. Andrew at Geek Mountain State asked me to write a post looking back at nerdy stuff in 2011. I didn’t see every movie or play every video game, so this isn’t an all-encompassing year-in-review post, but as I made my notes preparing to write the thing, I realized it was [...]

Man, people on the interwebz are crazy about their top ten lists, especially when years, decades and centuries end. I’d just like to remind everyone reading that decades (that is, periods of ten years) are ending all the time. For example, the decade that began at 2:50 P.M. on December 21, 1999 just ended a [...]

What follows are my next-day thoughts on Avatar. Minor spoilers abound. Somewhere near the middle of James Cameron’s three-hour long sci-fi spectacle, Avatar, I had to pee. The “medium” Diet Pepsi I’d been nursing was making its presence known in my bladder and the matter was just becoming too urgent to ignore. So I waited [...]

Hi. I like good dramatic TV. I like science fiction. I’m a LOST fan. I’m in a very desirable demographic for your advertisers. I have a blog and a radio show. Nice to meet you, I’m your target audience. Here’s the thing: I want to like your show. I saw your extended trailers online and [...]

Am I the only one here who this this might be a good thing?

I just spent an hour and 15 minutes listening to two geniuses discuss science fiction and futurism. Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman sat down to have a conversation with Hugo Award winning author Charles Stross at Worldcon in Montreal last week. This stuff is chicken soup for the nerdy soul. Listen to an mp3 [...]

Here is a list of things I’m going to do next week on my trip to Portland, Oregon… Attend the national Alliance for Community Media conference Visit with new and old friends See The Decemberists and Andrew Bird play an outdoor show See the movie Moon Attend a live theater-in-the-park performance of the classic Star [...]

Once again the Savoy Theater in Montpelier is running a series of classic sci-fi gems on the big screen on the weekends. This is a chance to see these classics in 35mm (I assume they’re not running DVDs). It’s a decent line-up this year: Close Encounters, Slaughterhouse Five, Aliens, Brazil, Dr. Strangelove, among others. Check [...]

John Hodgman is my copilot… See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

There’s a comment thread over at Gerry’s blog that includes a reader named Kate who is experiencing classic Star Trek episodes for the first time (presumably inspired by the recent reboot). She’s making her way through the “good” episodes of the series and it’s got me thinking about how much those hours of TV have [...]