The Designer Monologues

For those of you with an interest in such things, jkahane has a breakdown of the contents of the new Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG, in a post complete with pictures.

...and yes, local folks. I'm going to be running a campaign, starting ASAP. It's been a bit over 20 years since my last Who RPG campaign, and I'm a bit eager to get started....

Fede Alvarez, a guy from Uruguay, uploaded a short SF video he created to YouTube a month ago. It cost him $300 to make.

Within days, he was being flooded with emails from Hollywood, and now he's been offered a $30,000,000 contract.

Not a bad return on investment.

The classic Beatles tune "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was inspired by a drawing that John Lennon's son Julian had done, featuring a girl in his nursery school.

Recently, Julian Lennon discovered that the same Lucy had passed away, from the chronic disease Lupus. He set out to record a tribute song and ended up working with fellow musician James Scott Cook, who coincidentally was also looking to record a tribute to his grandmother -- also named Lucy and also someone who had suffered from Lupus.

The result is "Lucy," a single now available on iTunes -- with all net proceeds going to the Lupus Foundation of America and St. Thomas' Lupus Trust.

No, not like that.

That's the name of my Amazon wish list.

I'm posting it here because a few kind folks have asked.


Presents are never mandatory, of course, and....

Wait. Who the hell am I kidding? Presents are always mandatory. Love Me With STUFF!

Paul Cornell, the writer of the most recent Captain Britain series, as well as the brilliant Doctor Who season three two-parter "Human Nature/Family of Blood", is doing a set of blog posts that he's calling "the 12 blogs of Christmas" -- and first up is this absolutely lovely Doctor Who story, melancholy yet hopeful in the manner of all good Christmas tales:

"The Last Doctor" by Paul Cornell.

A slice of my childhood, circa December 1977:



(Or, if you're reading this on Facebook, which continually fucks up my embeds when it brings these posts over, just click here.)

Alright, here goes...

Welcome to my favorite song, circa 1983. I got the Business As Usual Album for Christmas '82 and proceeded to play it daily for the next 8 months or so. Oddly enough, despite regular radio and MTV airplay, this song never charted in the US, because it was never released as a single -- which was the criteria at the time. Men At Work - "Be Good Johnny."

Apple has done it again -- found an obscure bit of music for their latest commercial (for the new iPod Nano) which is so damned infectious, I have to go hunting. A while back, it was "New Soul" by Yael Naim, an Israeli. This time around, the track is from a Swedish pop singer -- and ironically, it's a song that bashes the complacency of acquisition-minded suburbanites. Miss Li - "Bourgeois Shangri-La."

I'd never heard the band Metric before, but stumbled across this track. They were described as part of the whole Indie neo-New Wave thing, which is what drew me to listen. I was rewarded by some really tight instrumentation and brilliantly cutting lyrics: Metric - "Gold Guns Girls."

Another absolutely *brilliant* mashup by DJ Moule -- this time mixing "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith, "Give It Away" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and "Block Rockin' Beats" by the Chemical Brothers. My jaw, it drops. DJ Moule - "Give This Way."

Yesterday was Paul Hardcastle's 52nd birthday. Back in 1985 (when he was 28), he gave us one of the best electro tracks ever recorded (and a big part of my initiation into electronic and sample-based music): Paul Hardcastle - "19."

Was thinking a bit about Titan AE earlier in the week, wondering if it might have done better as a live-action film. Not sure -- but as a starship-nerd, I have to admit that I love the sequence of the main character piloting the ship through the gas clouds, accompanied by this track: The Urge - "It's My Time To Fly."

In honor of the ass-screaming drop in temperatures and the snow seen across large parts of the country this week, a track that I think is a better version than the original it covers: The Bangles - "Hazy Shade of Winter."


...and, speaking of winter: Next Friday, I'll be posting the annual Friday Music XMas Collection (complete, as usual, with cover art) for your holiday pleasure.

Enjoy, and see you then.

A special Christmas-and-Doctor-Who-themed channel ident from the BBC this year:



(Link for the embedding-challenged Facebook RSS feed...)

Also -- American fans won't have to wait long this year: Part One of The End of Time will air in the US only ONE DAY after the UK-- December 26th -- and Part Two will air on January 2nd, one day after the UK as well. Given download times, that's almost the same viewing schedule as getting it via Bittorrent... :)

The Human Adventure Was Just Beginning....


December 7th, 1979 --- Star Trek: The Motion Picture opened in theaters.



For all the crap people throw at this moving as "the boring one" -- it's still one of my favorites, mostly by virtue of my memories of being 10 years old and finally seeing my favorite TV show made into a movie that I was convinced was as cool as Star Wars. I remember sitting, absolutely thrilled by the nearly 8 minute long unveiling of the new Enterprise... and I remember coming out of the theater to the sight of the sunset behind some fairly ominous storm clouds, and my Dad pointing out "Look! V'Ger!"

30 years. Wow.

I'm sure most of you have seen this already, but I'm posting it primarily for my own later reference.

It's the "sizzle reel" (a trailer proposal for an unfilmed series) for a British SF series best described as "Ocean's 11 in Space" -- starring one of my favorite British actors -- Sean Pertwee (son of Third Doctor Jon Pertwee):

SLINGERS from Mike Sizemore on Vimeo.

Sorry I'm a bit late today -- busy, busy, busy.

Picked up the new Brian Setzer album, Songs from Lonely Avenue -- which Setzer describes as a soundtrack to a film noir that hasn't been made yet. Good stuff, as always. A lot of it is very appropriate to the period he's looking to evoke. For example the following: Brian Setzer Orchestra - "Kiss Me Deadly."

There are a few tracks which are out of place for the stated theme, but still amazing. There's a pair of songs in the middle of the album -- the first, "Mr. Jazzy Goes Surfin'" is a great bit of jazz guitar, which, as you might imagine, takes a turn towards traditional surf guitar towards the end. Quite fun. Even better, though, is it's mate in the pair, which uses some of the same melodies, but in an entirely surf-oriented style. This is easily my favorite track on the album -- and some of the hottest stuff that Setzer's ever done. Plus the opening has a real "Courageous Cat & Minute Mouse" vibe to it (for those old enough to remember).... Brian Setzer Orchestra - "Mr. Surfer Goes Jazzin'."

The new HTC cellphone ads use one of my favorite tracks -- a house remix of a classic soul tune by Nina Simone, the "High Priestess of Soul." She's been a favorite of hip-hop and electronic producers, and has been the subject of entire albums of remixes. Nina Simone - "Sinnerman (Felix da Housecat Heavenly House Mix)."

My friend Scott quoted lyrics from this song on Facebook this week, which reminded me how much I liked it. From the 1992 album Us: Peter Gabriel - "Steam."

For Dotta Numba Two, by request. We're introducing her to Firefly -- she's hooked, of course. It's been years since I've watched them, and I'm glad to find that they really hold up. Sonny Rhodes - "The Ballad of Serenity (Theme from Firefly)."

This came up on iTunes shuffle for the first time in years. It's one of my guilty pleasures. The soundtrack to early adolescence on turn-of-the-80s Long Island: Zebra - "Tell Me What You Want."

And, lastly, the best use of Star Trek samples in a pop song, EVER. Information Society - "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)."

There you go, kids.

Enjoy.

One of the guys who publishes Diaspora posted this on the original RPGnet thread, summarizing their view on the subject:

"Sales are not of principle interest to us though they are, certainly, interesting. Well, sales-as-revenue that is. Sales themselves, absent the revenue, indicate interest and approval of our work, and THAT we care about. In a sense that means finding clever ways to maximize sales are in fact in opposition to our interest (they blur the metric).

*blink*

*blink blink*

Tell me I'm reading that correctly. It almost looks to me like they're saying that to them, sales are only interesting in the abstract, as an indicator of approval... to the point where they feel that maximizing sales (and let's be clear here -- we're talking about giving customers what they're asking for) is a Bad Thing... because it blurs the metric.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

I'm not even going to bother to ask about this on the thread. People appear to have swallowed that with no difficulty, which has rendered me absolutely gobsmacked.

Cawley Entertainment Company (the folks behind the Roddenberry-approved Star Trek: New Voyages/Phase II fan films) have acquired the rights to do Buck Rogers as a web series to premiere in late 2010.

They've even got Gil Gerard onboard as a producer and cast member (although obviously no longer playing Buck)!

They just released the first tease for the series. They've said they intend a real retro-SF feel to it, and it sure looks like it:



HELL YES.

Malcolm Sheppard has a new blog post up, presenting his thoughts regarding the next generation of RPGs. Very worth reading -- some really excellent ideas there.

Ties in quite nicely with not only my plans for Adamant in 2010, but also tangentially with the clusterfuck discussion referenced in my previous post about offering customers PDF if they want it. If nothing else, it makes for a nice break from checking in over at the RPGnet thread, and reading the latest example of people trying to play whack-a-mole, hoping to goad me into responding by stalwartly attacking what they mistakenly think I was saying.

Example One:

Statement: "WotC is dropping PDFs entirely. That's ridiculous. Customers want them, and are willing to pay."

Internet Forum Gamer: "Yeah! Right On! WTF, WotC? Give us what we want! That's basic business sense!"


Example Two:

Statement: "Diaspora doesn't offer PDFs. Customers want them, and are willing to pay. They say no. That's odd."

Internet Forum Gamer: "Fuck you, Corporate Tool! They produce ART! They're not in it for "business." Your products are abortions!" etc. etc.


Seriously?

To my fellows on the Left:

Stop complaining.


Yes, Obama is announcing today that he'll be increasing troop levels in Afghanistan. No, this does not make him "just like Bush", nor is it a "betrayal" of those of us who put him in the White House.

Why?

Because some of us actually were paying attention when he outlined his positions. Some of us actually supported him for what he said from the very beginning, rather than jumping on the "HopeNChange" bandwagon. Some of us supported him for *his* positions, rather than pouring our beliefs into the vessel he represented.

For my fellow progressives, liberals, etc.: I direct your attention to the Op-Ed that Obama wrote in the New York Times on July 14th of 2008, almost a year and a half ago:

Ending the [Iraq] war is essential to meeting our broader strategic goals, starting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Taliban is resurgent and Al Qaeda has a safe haven. Iraq is not the central front in the war on terrorism, and it never has been. As Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently pointed out, we won’t have sufficient resources to finish the job in Afghanistan until we reduce our commitment to Iraq.

As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan. We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there.

There it is, in black and white, back in 2008, at the height of the campaign.

And now that he's doing exactly what he said he'd do? The Left is bitching.

He said it, clearly and unambiguously, on the record, in July of 2008. What, exactly, is the "betrayal" here?


Bitch about the things that he hasn't done, sure. Bitch about the things where he has been too accommodating to the Right, watering down real progress in favor of "bipartisanship." OK. I'm with you there.

But don't bitch when he does what he said all along that he'd do. Makes you look stupid, and only emboldens the other critics, the fringe Right, who smell blood in the water of a President "losing his base."

Politics -- it's worth paying attention to, ya know?

So, in last Wednesday's music post, I featured what is believed to be a rejected theme for Quantum of Solace, by David Arnold and Dame Shirley Bassey. Sure enough, some enterprising Bond fan has posted a Youtube video of the QoS title sequence using "No Good About Goodbye." Check it out, and enjoy what might have been.

The story behind this great image can be found here. ( Sadly, it appears the T-shirts with that image are no longer available. Too bad -- I'd totally grab one. ) (EDIT: Huzzah! Apparently, only the first-run shirts are gone. It's now available here, from Feed Store. Nabbed!)

Wil Wheaton's take on it is here.

Really, it's been my business model all along -- but the plans I've got for 2010 move that philosophy from just doing RPGs to working within a much wider field. I'm tired of my business knife-fighting for scraps in a dying retro-niche. It's time to look forward.

Most of my readers will not be working tomorrow or Friday, so here's a special end-of-a-short-week Music collection:

Rejected Bond Theme anyone? Nobody is saying so, but the signs are there. Dame Shirley Bassey has a new album out in the UK called The Performance, which was produced by current Bond composer David Arnold. On the album is this track, which was written by Arnold and long-time Bond lyricist Don Black (Thunderball, The Man With The Golden Gun, etc.) -- it uses a five-note string hook that features fairly constantly in Arnold's score to Quantum of Solace, and just happens to track in at exactly the same length as Jack Black and Alicia Keyes' "Another Way To Die" (the theme that was used for the film). If that's not enough, the lyrics prominently feature the word "Solace." As much as I like "Another Way To Die", I really wish they had used this one -- not only for the Bassey nostalgia, but also because the lyrics (which appear to speak to Bond's inner turmoil) would've made a nice counterpoint to the go-go-go action pace of the movie. Dame Shirley Bassey - "No Good About Goodbye."

I picked up Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster, and, as I expected, I love it... Especially this track. Mark my words -- I expect that this will be the next single (after "Bad Romance"), and I expect that it's brilliance, it's brainwormy hooks, the clever bits of digital distortion and the guest-starring gig by Beyoncé will make this a massive hit. Hear it now before it's inevitably overplayed: Lady Gaga - "Telephone (feat. Beyoncé)."

That's part of a wash-my-back-I'll-wash-yours deal (picture that image for a moment)-- the other end of it being the new official remix of a similarly telephonically-themed track from Beyoncé's recent album, which has been expanded to include a verse by Gaga: Beyoncé - "Video Phone (extended mix feat. Lady Gaga)." I like the bizarre, almost Spaghetti-Western vibe to it -- but I have to say that Gaga's track is better.

This list turned out to be a bit Gaga-riffic. Can't be helped. There's a bunch of nifty stuff out there -- like this mashup which I fell in love with the first time I played it, mixing Gaga's "Just Dance" and Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." DJ Tripp - "Just Stop Believing (Lady Gaga vs Journey)."

This is a song that Taco Bell has stolen from Joe Jackson.... I'm stealin' it back. My soul dies a little bit, every time I see one of the best New Wave album-openers ever (from the 1979 Jackson debut Look Sharp) used to shill Gorditas or whatever faux-mexican, new-combination-of-the-same-six-ingredients crap they're trying to foist on the public. Joe Jackson - "One More Time."

There are rare cover versions which I end up liking more than the originals. This is one of them. As brilliant as the original by Gary Numan is, I find this version's far fuller sound and richer production to be superior (blasphemy, I know). Foo Fighters - "Down In The Park."

Lastly -- the first Radiohead song I ever heard (saw them perform it on the Arsenio Hall Show, of all places). Still, in my opinion, the best song they've ever done. The song aches. And then there's that sound... the violent gouge of the guitar. Still amazing, and still gives me chills. Radiohead - "Creep."

There you go, kids. Remember: Copy-and-paste if the links give you trouble.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Posted yesterday on The Muppet Studios official Youtube channel.

They're BACK, bitches!