Category: Arts & Culture

Vulcan, Alberta’s Trek Comes to an End

from Vulcan Tourism & Trek Station:

Well, Vulcan’s long and colourful journey that started in September 2007 with our ambitious quest to host the premiere of the new Star Trek movie came to a spectacular and memorable end last evening, as Paramount Pictures arranged for a special advance screening of Star Trek for 300 lucky Vulcan Guests.

It was Vulcan’s red carpet moment, and our brush with Hollywood Glamour as we welcomed actor Bruce Greenwood to the event, and were met by a wall of media flashbulbs and microphones.

I am so excited to report that in my mind, the new Star Trek movie did not disappoint! It was funny, action packed and suspenseful. The cast fit, and reinvented their well-recognized roles very well, and Star Trek is reborn.

Thank you so much to Paramount Pictures for arranging last night’s special event, and thank you for entertaining Vulcan’s lofty goal to premiere this wonderful new movie.

Star Trek is back — revived and fresh, and the town of Vulcan, Alberta is proud to be recognized by so many fans as a fun, if not quirky Star Trek destination, in the middle of the Canadian Prairies, 1 hour south of Calgary and 1 hour north of Lethbridge.

Signing OFF:

Live Long & Prosper
Dayna, Erin & The Crew of the Vulcan Tourism & Trek Station

Squishable

“Squishables are cute giant balls of squishy love. They’re soft, huggable, cuddly, and all-around awesome,” say Squishable.com co-founders Aaron and Zoe of their signature, Asian-designed stuffed animals.

A couple years ago we were backpacking around Southeast Asia doing some volunteering and being bums. We ran into our first fat, fuzzy piggy in Hong Kong and bought it as a tribute to Jhonen Vasquez. When we got back to the US he was immediately kidnapped by rabid fans. We took the hint.

How do you adopt a Squishable of your very own? Easy!

  1. Order your Squishable of choice — for the purpose of this review, the Squishable Octopus.
  2. Track the parcel online as it wings its way towards you.
  3. Squee and do a happy Snoopy dance when the box arrives.
  4. Open the box, marvelling as the giant pink octopus emerges, its body expanding to about double the size of its cardboard packing cube.
  5. Begin a Squishable Hug-a-Thon.

Squishable Octopus

No need to hide the schoolgirls, this well-mannered octopus just wants to be friends! Hug him! Take him to restaurants! Introduce him to your parents! This octopus is one classy cephalopod! 14 squishy inches of tentacle, polyester fiber, ages 3 and up

The Squishable Octopus is incredibly soft, like an oversized, fabric-covered marshmallow. Sporting tentacles, silky pink- and cream-coloured fur, and a big, friendly smile, it could easily pass as a benign alien from any light-hearted anime series or whimsical sci-fi show like Farscape, and would make a great creature prop for an amateur sci-fi web series. Squishable.com’s suggestion is to “Use ’em as a pillow. Throw them at people.” The manufacturer’s tag reads “pillow is intended for decorative use only”, so apparently the Squishable Octopus was originally meant to be a funky throw pillow rather than toy, but something that adorable just begs to be played with. It’s no surprise, then, that Squishables have become more popular as playthings than home décor accessories. (P.S. Does anyone name the fluffy Squishable Octopus anything other than the obvious “Octopussy”?)

Squishable.com generates warm fuzzies by doing more than sell plushies, though. Engaging in admirable social practices, this business leverages the squishy power of its website to Save the World. Contributions are made to a number of charities, including Kiva, a non-profit organization that alleviates poverty by microfinancing small businesses in developing countries. In addition, a dollar for each picture posted in the Squishable picture gallery is donated to a monthly cause. Planet-friendly products marked as Good Karma Items are Fair Trade, handmade, or crafted from renewable materials.

Order directly through the Squishable website.

Big Squishable Animals, the Squishable Wardrobe, and Squishable Understudies are distributed by Squishable.com. For all the latest product news, follow Squishable on Facebook and Twitter.

Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls: What Planet Are You From?

Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls: What Planet Are You From?

Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls, a website dedicated to the positive promotion of girl power, presents Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls: What Planet Are You From?, a picture book written and illustrated by site creator Lauren Faust.

Meet Milky Way and her intergalactic entourage, the Galaxy Girls! Each girl is named after some heavenly body, and none are afraid to be as individual as every star in the sky. With 11 girls in this celestial sorority, there’s bound to be one you can bond with. You may be a total hottie, sizzlin’ with solar power like the Sun. Or like Pluto, a rockin’ rebel who rejects demeaning labels like “Dwarf Planet.” Perhaps you’re an orbital oddball, like artistic, green-skinned Mars. Or a kind-hearted environmentalist with a soft spot for cute animals, like Jupiter. Read on, for this book is your personal guide to the girlaxy, and with a little personal insight you can find out… What Planet Are You From?

Independently published in 2007, What Planet Are You From? is a professional effort that deserves a much wider audience than it’s received so far. Like Neil Gaiman’s Blueberry Girl, it’s a refreshing alternative to the sea of pink, glittery, substance-free fluff that currently floods the bookstore shelves reserved for young girls. Fashioned in the style of an astrology guide, this small hardcover encourages girls to think about who they really are, not just who society and the media tells them they should be. As Faust writes on her website:

What do girls like? The first things that come to your mind may be: clothes, hair, make up and fashion. And you would be right. Most girls DO enjoy these things, and it would be foolish to ignore that fact. But who only likes one thing, right? The world often forgets that girls love art, sports, music, culture, animals, learning… the list is infinite! And, sadly, sometimes girls forget that, too. So why can’t girls be cute, stylish, cool, AND smart, empowered and a little different?

They can. Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls offers the best of both worlds for girls. Fun with trendy, funky clothes and hair styles AND a wide variety of personalities, nationalities and outside interests. Each character has a specific activity she loves and accessories and wardrobe that correspond. They are each individually adorned with a personal symbol and color scheme that define her and her life style.

So, there’s a girl for everyone! All you have to do is figure out… What Planet Are You From?

Faust worked on the popular cartoon series The Powerpuff Girls, and its visual influence can clearly be seen in the brightly-coloured and dynamic art of What Planet Are You From? Elements of Rainbow Brite and Sailor Moon give the simple yet iconic designs a touch of cheerful nostalgia, as well. The eleven Galaxy Girls — Milky Way, The Sun, Mercury, Venus, The Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto — are given four pages apiece to tell their stories. (Earth is absent from the book since Lauren Faust fills the role of “Mother Earth” on the Galaxy Girls website.) Biographical information is listed on a two-page spread, with the name and picture of the described character splashily revealed when the page is turned. Nearly blank backgrounds allow readers to imagine whatever setting they desire. The book would make a memorable reading activity at a slumber party and, as an added educational bonus, can be used to help teach budding astronomers about the celestial objects that make up the solar system.

What Planet Are You From? is a stellar gift for girls of all ages, delivering a message that every child should take to heart:  “Remember, there may be millions and millions of stars in the girlaxy, but each and every one is astronomically awesome and unique… and you are too!”

Once you’ve joined the Solar Sisterhood, proclaim your choice of Galaxy Girl mentor by picking up a t-shirt, poster, postcard, sticker, button, or patch at the online shop, and visit the Etsy shop where Faust sells handmade plush art dolls of the girls featured in Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls: What Planet Are You From?

Order now at Amazon.com:
Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls: What Planet Are You From?

Or order directly through the Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls website.

Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls: What Planet Are You From? is distributed by My Firefly. For more information on the book and its author, visit the official Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls website and its related Facebook and MySpace pages. Lauren Faust may also be followed on deviantART and MySpace.

“Tree of Life” Pendant Fit for an Elf

Solvar, an Irish-owned family business, has designed a sterling silver “Tree of Life” pendant for their Fáilte product line that would make a brilliant accessory for an elven costume.

Sterling Silver "Tree of Life" Pendant

The Tree of Life…

“Celebrate your Celtic Heritage”

Its branches reach in search of
Learning & Knowledge.
The trunk symbolises Strength,
Its flowers & fruit Renewed Growth
and its roots represent our
Ancient Celtic Heritage.

According to a tag enclosed with the necklace, “This fine piece of Irish jewellery has been crafted by Solvar Ltd. Ireland. Each piece of gold and silver is authenticated and hallmarked by the Irish Assay Office.” The company also produces many other pieces appropriate for medieval roleplaying, such as rings, bracelets, bangles, brooches, pendants, neckletts, earrings, tiaras, and hair pins. Materials used include silver, gold, white gold, diamonds, marcasite, marble, crystal, and enamel.

Order directly through the Solvar website.

The Sterling Silver “Tree of Life” Pendant is distributed by Solvar and its associated Vendors.

Luuna

Luuna, Volume 1

Luuna, the French graphic novel series written by Nicolas Keramidas and illustrated by Didier Crisse, has been translated into English by TOKYOPOP, a manga publisher that’s broadening its catalogue by adding English language editions of comic books from around the world. The three-volume Luuna, in which “a Native American girl must save her tribe from her own curse”, is one of the titles leading this expansion, marketed as an example of “Europe’s most popular graphic novels”.

Luuna, Volume 1 collects the books “Night of the Totems” and “Twilight of the Lynx” from the original French publishing run. Printed on oversized pages in full, rich colour, it introduces the titular heroine and sets up the epic journey, bother outer and inner, that Luuna must go on to save her soul from being corrupted by the forces of evil.

On the night of her coming of age ritual, Luuna, a young girl from the mystic Paumanok tribe, enters the sacred wood.

There she will face Hohopah, the Heart of the Forest, and be assigned her totem, the animal incarnation of her inner-self.

But unbeknownst to Luuna, this night belongs to Unkui, the Evil One, who demands that her soul be shared!

Now Luuna is cursed with not one, but two totems: One white — the reflection of all that is good in her; the other, black — representing the darkness that resides in us all, and capable of terrible destruction.

Unable to return to her tribe, Luuna embarks on a quest to seek out the wise spirits of the earth and with their help, rid herself of the cursed totem. But little does she know that Unkui is not finished with her yet, and has set his fiendish minions on her trail…

A dark action-fantasy based on Native American mythology, similar in tone to the later “Wild Hunt” storyline of ElfQuest, Luuna manages to avoid the blatant clichés and stereotypes normally found in comics featuring tribal people and their beliefs. This respect for the source material is even directly referenced in the story when the leader of a group of evil forest spirits, out to kill Luuna’s trio of red-hued sidekicks, commands “Gut those redskins!”, and one of the offended sprites quips, in a winking aside to the reader, “Redskins?! What a dumb name! Redskins!” Luuna and her kin seem like genuine people who just happen to live in a world where forest spirits and magic actually exist. While she may resemble Disney’s Pocahontas in appearance, Luuna is a more well-rounded, relatable character who, despite being the token princess, has common human flaws and a dark side she must struggle against. She’s also given a plausible reason for being able to talk to her animal friends, as she’s a member of the Paumanok, a guardian race chosen by the gods to maintain the balance of nature.

The expressive artwork in Luuna is reminiscent of Jeff Smith’s Bone comics. The clean, bold lines, in the style of traditional cel animation, make the drawings look deceptively simple and cartoon-like until repeated readings reveal little background details and nuances of body language that add greater depth to the story. Colour is used to great effect, as well, emphasizing the cycle of lightness and darkness that Luuna goes through. The first volume of Luuna concludes with a sneak preview of eight art panels from Luuna, Volume 2, but since the dialogue has been removed from these pages, they serve mainly as a tantalizing hint of what will happen next on Luuna and her companions’ travels.

The publication date for Luuna, Volume 3, hasn’t been announced yet, but Volume 2 will be available in July 2009.

Recommended Reading Level: Young Adult (13+) for adult themes, non-sexual nudity, occasional adult language, frightening situations, and intense scenes of violence.

Order now at Amazon.com:
Luuna, Volume 1 (Canada)
Luuna, Volume 1 (US)

Pre-order at Amazon.com:
Luuna, Volume 2 (Canada)
Luuna, Volume 2 (US)

Luuna is distributed by HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollinsCanada and HarperCollins Publishers, in partnership with TOKYOPOP. Check out the full range of HarperCollins/TOKYOPOP titles at HarperCollins Children’s Books.

Star Trek Line of Urns and Caskets

Eternal Image makes it possible to take Star Trek fandom to the grave with the debut of their Trek-branded burial options.

For the millions of fans on our planet and beyond, our new line of Star Trek urns, caskets, monuments and vaults will be an important discovery indeed. After ten movies and five television series, phrases like “Live long and prosper,” “Resistance is futile” and “Space: the final frontier” have become part of our global vocabulary.

Star Trek Urn

“The new Star Trek Urn will feature a bold design reminiscent of the 24th century styling of the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet,” Eternal Image says, adding that “The Star Trek Casket styling has been inspired by the popular Photon Torpedo design seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”

Star Trek Casket

The monuments and vaults will follow later in 2009. Sign up to be notified when prices are announced and each item becomes available.

Nathan Fillion Twitters

Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Serenity, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog) is now active on Twitter. He opened his account at PaleyFest 2009, which he attended with the Whedons and Felicia Day for a screening of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

His first post was actually on Felicia Day’s account:

Nathan Fillion- Sitting next to FD now- she smells just like she looks she would. Little bit like flowers and fresh laundry and a cupcake.

Felicia Day followed up his post with these messages:

Nathan took over my Twitter, he’s so pretty to look at! Trying to get him to make an account. He’s severly witty. http://twitpic.com/3cc3f

Ok everyone follow @nathanfillion . It’s really him! Muhahaha!

Wander Over Yonder

from Craig McCracken:

Hello All,

I’ve always been drawing and typically my stuff (when it doesn’t end up on your TV sets) just sits on a shelf in my office collecting dust. So back in ’07, inspired by the work my wife was doing with her brilliant Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls I decided to dust off some of those drawings and try and hock some of my own wares.

So that year at Comic Con I debuted my nomadic, hippie, muppet man, Wander Over Yonder. It was a real simple affair, a T- Shirt, a patch, and a sketchbook of some of my taken ‘er easy, getting back to nature doodles. Wander was well received and after a good con we still had some stuff left over. So as to not let this “rolling stone” gather too much dust like my drawings used to I’m proud to announce that Wander has launched his very own webstore. So please Wander on over and check it out when you get a chance.

Thank you kindly,

Craig

(PS — shirts come in men’s and women’s sizes, and the sketchbook comes signed)

Tweenbots

Kacie Kinzer, a graduate student at ITP, is conducting social experiments with the help of her little robot friends, dubbed “Tweenbots”.

In New York, we are very occupied with getting from one place to another. I wondered: could a human-like object traverse sidewalks and streets along with us, and in so doing, create a narrative about our relationship to space and our willingness to interact with what we find in it? More importantly, how could our actions be seen within a larger context of human connection that emerges from the complexity of the city itself? To answer these questions, I built robots.

Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.

Given their extreme vulnerability, the vastness of city space, the dangers posed by traffic, suspicion of terrorism, and the possibility that no one would be interested in helping a lost little robot, I initially conceived the Tweenbots as disposable creatures which were more likely to struggle and die in the city than to reach their destination. Because I built them with minimal technology, I had no way of tracking the Tweenbot’s progress, and so I set out on the first test with a video camera hidden in my purse. I placed the Tweenbot down on the sidewalk, and walked far enough away that I would not be observed as the Tweenbot — a smiling 10-inch tall cardboard missionary — bumped along towards his inevitable fate.

The results were unexpected. Over the course of the following months, throughout numerous missions, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, “You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.”

The Tweenbot’s unexpected presence in the city created an unfolding narrative that spoke not simply to the vastness of city space and to the journey of a human-assisted robot, but also to the power of a simple technological object to create a complex network powered by human intelligence and asynchronous interactions. But of more interest to me was the fact that this ad-hoc crowdsourcing was driven primarily by human empathy for an anthropomorphized object. The journey the Tweenbots take each time they are released in the city becomes a story of people’s willingness to engage with a creature that mirrors human characteristics of vulnerability, of being lost, and of having intention without the means of achieving its goal alone. As each encounter with a helpful pedestrian takes the robot one step closer to attaining it’s destination, the significance of our random discoveries and individual actions accumulates into a story about a vast space made small by an even smaller robot.

Check out Mission 1 at the Tweenbots website, then join the e-mail list to receive updates about future missions and Kinzer’s progress on her robot-assisted thesis project.

Wonder Woman: Animated Original Movie

Wonder Woman: Animated Original Movie

Courageous Princess. Fierce Warrior. Legendary Superhero.

Wonder Woman is the fourth film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movie series, following Superman: Doomsday, Justice League: The New Frontier, and Batman: Gotham Knight. Directed by Lauren Montgomery and produced by DC Comics animation veteran Bruce Timm, this direct-to-video animated film is based on the 1987 reboot of the character and tells the origin story of the world’s most famous female superhero. The feature-quality animation is similar in style to the anime-inspired Justice League, with a few design tweaks that give a sharper, more angular look to the film.

“Wonder Woman is one of the most iconic figures in pop culture. This movie succeeds in reinforcing her image as a female role model while firmly planting her flag as an epic action adventure heroine,” says Gregory Noveck, Senior VP, Creative Affairs, DC Comics. “I think audiences will love this modern take on a classic character.”

On the mystical island of Themyscira, a proud, strong warrior race of Amazon women lives in a utopian civilization shielded from the corrupt world of man. But a betryal within the Amazon sisterhood leads to the escape of Ares, the God of War, and Amazon Princess Diana must capture him before he unleashes global chaos and destruction. With the aid of cocky fighter pilot Steve Trevor, Diana tracks Ares to the United States for a battle unlike any humankind has ever faced.

DC Comics, Warner Premiere, and Warner Bros. Animation promote this DVD release as the first-ever official Wonder Woman feature film to be made and rated PG-13 (the first cut reportedly earned an R). This version of Wonder Woman is definitely not aimed at children, opening with a lengthy and visceral battle sequence that sets up the imprisonment of Ares by the Amazons. Characters, good and evil, meet grisly deaths by sword or other bladed weapons, with several beheadings and dismemberments. The later confrontations between Ares and Wonder Woman are nearly as violent, with a bit of on-screen blood adding to the realism; when Wonder Woman can be hurt, it makes the outcome of the story a little less certain.

The mature rating applies, as well, to the use of adult language and sexually suggestive scenes, most of which can be attributed to Steve Trevor, who makes a few racy remarks about Princess Diana’s physique and has a humorous, recurring gag of offending the Amazons with his use of the word “crap”. The casting of Nathan Fillion as Steve Trevor, the complementary opposite to Wonder Woman in the movie’s battle-of-the-sexes theme, is brilliant; Fillion channels the tactlessness and crudeness of his Captain Hammer character (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog) and the charm of his rough-but-honorable Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly, Serenity), deftly striking a balance that allows him to be likable enough to be the love interest that the Amazon Princess would believably leave paradise for, yet still retain his “sexist pig” personality.

Rounding out the celebrity voice cast are Keri Russell (Felicity, Waitress) as Princess Diana/Wonder Woman, Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2) as Ares, Virginia Madsen (Dune, Sideways) as Queen Hippolyta, Oliver Platt (The West Wing) as Hades, Rosario Dawson (Sin City) as Artemis, and David McCallum (NCIS, Batman: Gotham Knight) as Zeus — an ensemble that “infuses thunder and passion into this epic tale of the princess who becomes the World’s Greatest Super Heroine”.

Wonder Woman is available as a Single-Disc Standard Edition, Two-Disc Special Edition, and Blu-ray Disc, and by Download, On Demand, and Pay-Per-View, with collectible packaging for the Two-Disc Special Edition and Blu-ray Disc. All formats include an exclusive sneak peek at the next DC Universe Animated Original Movie, Green Lantern: First Flight, and an audio commentary track featuring Gregory Noveck (Senior VP, Creative Affairs, DC Comics), Bruce Timm (Producer), Lauren Montgomery (Director), and Michael Jelenic (Screenplay). The Two-Disc Special Edition’s second disc carries a digital copy download for iTunes and Windows Media Player, episodes of Justice League/Justice League Unlimited — “To Another Shore” and “Hawk and Dove”, the Blu-ray edition doubling the bonus cartoons by adding “Paradise Lost, Parts 1 & 2” — featuring Wonder Woman and personally selected by Bruce Timm, and two in-depth documentaries:

  • Wonder Woman: A Subversive Dream
    She is one of the pillars of DC Comics. We examine why Wonder Woman is important in the grand scheme of the DC Super Heroes and how her raw strength and power helped define a new generation of empowered women, who realized that their gifts of intellect and strength were just as powerful as their male counterparts.
  • Wonder Woman: Daughter of Myth — Covers Historical Amazon Lore and Its Evolution into the Modern-Day Wonder Woman Character
    This riveting documentary historically defines the meaning of the Amazons and how this links in with the evolution of the Wonder Woman character from comics to screen.

A third documentary appears only on the Blu-ray disc:

  • Wonder Woman: The Amazon Princess
    This featurette includes both a thumbnail history of the character of Wonder Woman featuring interviews with DC Comics creators and artists (Paul Levitz, Dan DiDio), and behind-the-scenes footage of the made-for-DVD release punctuated with interviews from the production staff and voice talent behind the film.

Wrap the golden Lasso of Truth around a lot of multi-disc sets, and the bonus features will be forced to admit they’re just filler. With Wonder Woman, there’s no padding. Each of the fascinating and informative documentaries stand up to repeated viewings, much like the film itself. The DVD would make a strong addition to the curriculum of women’s studies classes, championing female empowerment in the footsteps of Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman, the definitive face of Wonder Woman for an entire generation of little girls who watched her TV series in the 1970s and were convinced that they, too, could transform into a superhero if they only spun around enough times.

Order now at Amazon.com:
Wonder Woman (Single-Disc Standard Edition)
Wonder Woman (Two-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy)
Wonder Woman (Blu-ray)
Wonder Woman (On Demand)

Or order directly through the Warner Home Video website.

Wonder Woman is distributed by Warner Home Video, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment. For more information, please visit the official Wonder Woman movie website.