Author: Paula

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Sci-fi titan Ray Bradbury has died

Legendary science fiction (and fantasy and horror) author Ray Bradbury has died at the age of 91.

Bradbury is probably best known for Farenheit 451 (bane of many a high school English student) and The Martian Chronicles. But he was a prolific writer of so much more than can be listed here, so we’ll send you to his own chronology. You might be surprised at the titles you recognize there from his own printed works to the titles that eventually became television or movies.

So we’ll close out with some inspiration from the man himself:

Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation launching Blu-ray with theater event

Star Trek: The Next Generation is coming out on a remastered Blu-ray in July.

To celebrate and show off the quality of the new transfer, Fathom Events is going to be showing “Where No One Has Gone Before” and “Datalore” in theaters on Monday, July 23rd.  Tickets go on sale June 8th.

In addition, Amazon has fired the first volley in what will hopefully become a price war by lowering the price to $78.86 from the suggested retail of $129.99. (Seriously, Paramount? Why you so pricey?)

Even though the first season is best described as iffy, this did kick off an amazing series that should look amazing on Blu-ray.

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Star Wars 1313 – Why, it is a video game!

Brace yourselves, people. You not only have me reporting your Star Wars news instead of Dunc, but it’s video game news. So you’re kinda doomed. But let’s see what we can piece together, because it sounds kinda interesting. (And 13 is my favorite number.)

So, as suspected in an earlier round-up of postulation, Star Wars 1313 is, indeed, a video game. It was announced on SpikeTV to coincide with the big Electronic Entertainment Expo (aka E3). It will take place on Level 1313 of Coruscant where you get to be a “lethal bounty hunter” (as opposed to a bounty hunter who, say, hands out marshmallows?) who hunts down marks using “exotic weaponry.” So no powers or lightsabers, here.

Rud was kind enough to explain to us on Twitter that it’s an “over-the-shoulder third person shooter” type of game, as opposed to a first-person shooter. And per other comments on Twitter (nothing but crack reporting here), it looks similar in style to Arkham City.

According to TheForce.Net (who actually watched the whole announcement), we’ll get to see game play on Monday night on SpikeTV.

I kinda like the idea of a shoot-em-up game for Star Wars. I have no skills with lightsabers in video games. It’s kinda pathetic.

So what does everyone think? Are you anticipating awesome with this?

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Zahn, Stackpole and Allston Talk SWEU at Origins

Dunc is enjoying a well-earned break at Origins hanging around with a nice chunk of Club Jaders getting up to some mischief or other.

So I’m going to link you guys over to our friends from Tosche Station who wrote an awesome summary of what happens when you get Timothy Zahn, Aaron Allston and Michael Stackpole in a room egged on by Club Jaders. (Although I’m sure others helped.)

Is anyone else depressed they’re not at Origins this weekend?

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Gate Geek: New Stargate project teased

Fandom insanity is at fever pitch after a producer teased an upcoming Stargate project at the Creation Stargate convention over the weekend.

Darren Thomas is apparently affiliated with an app development company and said the announcement would be made at San Diego Comic Con.

Michael Shanks and Ivon Bartok took things up a notch by teasing each other on Twitter about what the project really is. But they have since clarified that if it’s a live action type thing, neither of them has been contacted to be involved.

Since it’s an app development company, I’m not confident it will be much beyond a comic thing at most. But it’s nice to have something new in Stargate.

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‘Women don’t read sci-fi’ incites chaos on Twitter

What started out as a lovely tribute to the awesomeness of A Wrinkle in Time has ignited a hashtag frenzy on Twitter.

In the article, Pamela Paul, a children’s book editor at The Book Review, cites some sad surveys that indicate the number of women who identify as reading sci-fi is depressingly low.

So rather than talking about the book, the statistics got Twitter going.  The hashtag #womenreadSF has gotten the geek women on Twitter recommending all sorts of awesome titles and authors.

In the face of these depressing statistics, what would you recommend? Do you try to engage the girls in your life with some good sci-fi?

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George Lucas on Oprah’s Next Chapter this Sunday

This Sunday at 9/8c, George Lucas will be appearing on Oprah’s Next Chapter on OWN. (There’s a channel finder on the page.)

The series features hour-long classic Oprah-style interviews with people she finds interesting. They usually feature behind-the-scenes glimpses of their home life, pretty straight-forward questions about things most people want to know (well, most non-geek people) and an interview with family. The teaser shows George’s girlfriend Mellody Hobson will be included.

It also looks to include a nice tour of Skywalker Ranch. And the OWN question for the week asks about places that inspire you. So hopefully it will be an extensive tour!

(And if you get the chance, the interview with Steven Tyler is really interesting.)

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New wave of Star Wars fabrics rolls on

It’s heaven for fabric hunters! I just got back from Joann Fabrics and Crafts where there were loads of designs we hadn’t seen before from Eugene Fabrics.

In addition to the fabrics spotted previously, there were:

  • Three polar fleece designs in Clone Wars, Original Trilogy (in cartoon style) and a black and white Vader.
  • In Clone Wars, there were two flannels; one in blue tones and another in green.
  • A cotton of nothing but Marvel comics covers.
  • An OT ships design to complement the Clone Wars ships design released last year.
  • A black and white cotton with OT characters Vader, Yoda, Artoo, Threepio and Luke.

Sadly, it’s not showing up on their website for ordering, yet. But if you have a store near you they should be able to order it for you.

Even sadder is the complete dearth of “girly” fabric designs. Did they not like how quickly the Leia fabric disappeared the last time? And more smaller designs would be helpful for us quilters. But it’s new stuff! So, overall…Yay!