Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Tuesday Odds and Ends: Primeval, Harry Potter and Han Solo P.I.

+ Sad news for lovers of attractive British people and rampaging dinosaurs: "Primeval" has been canceled after three seasons. Of course, BBC America operates about seven years in the past so I'm sure we'll still be enjoying plenty of "new" episodes here for a while.

+ Have you seen the pretty new behind-the-scenes photos from "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince?" I09 won't let me pilfer them so you'll actually have to click the link and head out into the great Internet wilderness to see them for yourself.

+ Speaking of "Harry," someone's crying plagiarism against J.K. Rowling, saying she lifted large portions of "Goblet of Fire" from a little number called "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard - No 1 Livid Land" including the wizard competition scenes and other bits. If J.K. did lift anything, one would hope it would be from a more promising source than something titled "Willy the Wizard."

+ The A.V. Club has its review of "Ghostbusters: The Video Game." Their verdict? A grudging "not bad." Which is kind of what I expected.

+ Wired's Gadget Lab blog has an interesting item on something called Open Source Embroidery, a movement that looks at the connections between open source software design and the way crafters such as knitters, embroiderers and quilters work.

+ Thanks to Michelle for sending in this Han Solo/"Magnum P.I." mash-up. Check out the link to see the original version, but I'm posting the side by side version because I think it makes the experience even better.



+ And finally, have you got any nominees for Nerd Man of the Month? If so, please add 'em to the comments. There's a new and actually updated list of past winners to the left for easy reference.

13 comments:

MPH said...

That Magnum/Han mash up was all kinds of awesome. Thanks for posting it to help me start off my day!

Anonymous said...

I nominate the Boosh! C'mon, they're TOTALLY nerds.

Amy said...

Oh man, that was awesome. Now if only Han had worn the short shorts.

Amy said...

Oh, I want to nominate John C. McGinley for Nerd Man of the month.

"Bobs."

Lisa said...

My Nerd Man nominee: Ira Glass.

Sphinxvictorian said...

Actually, sadly, BBC America is showing the third season of Primeval now, so what we're seeing now is it. I have to admit, the show really lost me to some extent with the latest character death (and the leaving of another character), so, while I am sad to see a good series go, I was already sort of saying goodbye to it. I'll miss it though, it was a great show in many ways.

Anonymous said...

What about Christopher Eccleston? He's been a Doctor, had a guest part on Heroes, and now he's got a role in the GI Joe film. I'd say that's a bit nerdy.

Ahava Jora said...

Am I the only one who is a little icked out by the way that Wired article made embroidery and programming seem like woman's and man's domains respectively? I can't dispute that most embroiderers are probably women (today, not historically, mind you) and most programmers are probably men, but I don't like the way this article compared the two activities. There are more interesting similarities between embroidery and programming than the gender of the enthusiasts.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just more sensitive to the issue because I'm constantly trying to explain why sewing, knitting, and embroidery are natural hobbies of a nerdy girl.

Ahava Jora said...

(That last line in my comment really should say: "Maybe I'm just more sensitive to the issue because I'm constantly trying to explain why sewing, knitting, and embroidery are natural hobbies of a nerd.")

Alyson said...

The Magnum/Han mashup is even funnier when you consider that Tom Selleck was originally cast as Indiana Jones.

Nerd Man suggestion: how about Nerdist himself, Chris Hardwick? Or Al Yankovic? (who, incidentally, has a record coming out later this summer)

Anonymous said...

Oh, please, can we nominate Seth Green for Nerd Man? He was in Buffy, and Austin Powers, and he created Robot Chicken, and he had a cameo in a Weird Al video, and he's on record as being a huge, huge Star Wars geek. If that doesn't get you some nerdy street cred, what does?

Plus, when his grandmother came to visit him in LA (this would've been probably 10+ years ago), he took her out to see Robo Cop--and she loved it! Everyone needs a grandson like that.

agent57 said...

I would like to nominate Misha Collins (Castiel from Supernatural) even though I know it's unlikely he would be picked... being a relatively new character to a questionably geeky show, and not being in anything else I can think of. His Twitter is hilarious, though.

I actually had a hard time thinking of one this time around. Most of my favorites have been granted the honor already.

crone51 said...

I second the Ira Glass thing.