Hatsune Miku, Iron Man and Star Wars. Say -- what?!

Remember when you were told (if you're an SF fan, that is, and talking to somebody who likes to pooh-pooh SF and tell you everything is 1000 yeas in the future) that holograms were never going to happen because they have no foundation in real science?

Well, just now and again the SF fan gets the last laugh. And I'm chortling in large amounts of glee. And I haven't even opened the Father O'Leary's yet.

This here is something called Hatsune Miku. She (it?) is an anime pop star. It's a hologram that performs with a live band. Onstage. Live, in front of a live audience that's looking at the performance from every angle. So there's no way to fake it -- and why would you want to? Charlatanism is not what this is abut. It's just about a band on tour, and they animated their icon.

Now, anime isn't my thing -- and for somebody who grew up on Marineboy and Gigantor the Space Age Robot I say that with all due fervor and a couple of shudders. To me, the fascination of the Histune Miku hologram isn't any interest in the ainme popstar. But ... golly, that could be a hologram of ... anything. Anyone.

It could be the computer interfaces you saw in IRON MAN! What I see in this tale of Hatsune Miku is that the SF fans get the last laugh. Holographs work, and they work now, not in 1000 years.

And I think R2D2's horizontal hold might have been on the fritz:

...because out holographs look a lot better than the ones they were predicting in 1977!

LEIA: Help me, Obiwan Kenobi, you're my only hope!

OBIWAN: Damnit, the quality on this is crap. Can't you adjust it?

LUKE: I dunno. Let me have a go. (Kneels beside Artoo and starts fiddling)

R2D2: Beep! Squaaaaaw! Weeeedle ... wooosh ...awwwwwh.

LUKE: Does that look any better? I can't see it from here.

OBIWAN: Try adjusting the vertical hold.

LUKE: Okay, gimme a second here...

LEIA: I said, help me, Obiwan Kenobi, dadblast it, you're my only hope!"

LUKE: What's she talking about?

OBIWAN: She said something about some secret plans. I wasn't listening, I was trying to figure out why the playback's such crap. Any joy with the vertical hold?

R2D2: SQUAAAAAK! Weeble-beeble tooleoodleoodle ... (Subtitled into English: "Forget the goddamned playback quality and listen to the message, you brainless apes!")

See what I mean?! There's one in the eye for the guys who like to pooh-pooh SF

Robert Downey Jr. -- bisexual, or not?

Robert Downey Jr. the luscious Mr. Ironman himself ... is he bisexual, or isn't he? Well, it depends on who you talk to! By all accounts, he outed himself in an interview where he described himself as "an eccentric bisexual." But lately, he's been saying that all this was part of a "manufactured" personality, or character, going back to the days when he was reinventing himself.

Well ... hmmm. Okay. But try using using your Sherlock Holmesian powers of observation (in other words, OBSERVE as well as SEEING ... you thought that was a joke in Without a Clue, right? Wrong!! Arthur Conan Doyle wrote this in A Scandal in Bohemia -- they borrowed it for the movie) when you watch Robert Downey Jr. movies...

And you will see, if you actually trouble to look, his body language.


Body language tells a whole lot of truths about us that our tongues and the minds that drive them are probably trying to hide. It's in the gestures, the way we use our hands (and feet!!), the way we choose to wear our hair, facial expressions, the way we toss our heads...

AG's verdict? Robert wasn't kidding, the first time around, but now hi career is going into orbit, and IRON MAN is his big ticket -- and IRON MAN is a Marvel movie, and Marvel has just been bought (holy crap, Batdude!) by DISNEY!!!!

Therefore, 'tis time for Robert Downey Jr. to reinvent himself all over again, damnit, and be BON. Which is an acronym for Boring Old Normal.

If you LISTEN to the dialog in the first IRON MAN movie, there's gay and bi throwaway lines alllll over the place. Not so in the second, which was done under the threat (or promise) of a Disney hand on the tiller. (I find myself wondering how Disney will affect the overall integrity of the Marvel product. Yeee-ouch.

Here's the rub: Robert Downey Jr. could have eventually have been a gay icon, if Disney hadn't bought Marvel. Well ... rats.

Elijah Wood ... as Iggy Pop?!

Would you believe Elijah Wood starring as Iggy Pop?! I mean, the guy's an incredibly talented actor, but this is the reverse of casting Viggo Mortensen in the title role of Heidi ... you get what I mean. A complete mis-match:

They couldn't put enough makeup on Elijah Wood to make him look remotely like Iggy Pop. Some wise-cracker suggested casting Robert Downey Jr. in the part (maybe because Robert Downey can and will wear so much makeup, they might stand half a chance of getting a remote likeness...

...and I mean, it would have to be an utterly REMOTE likeness.

But as per angelic Elijah Wood...???

Pull the other leg, man ... it has bells on.

Speaking of Elijah Wood, there's a cute little piece running on Softpedia:

Actor Elijah Wood, aka Frodo from "Lord on The Rings" trilogy confessed he is the subject of a gay site, made by some online jokers.

During a TV show he was invited, Elija told the host that some pranksters have started a website named elijahwoodisveryverygay, where they present fake photos with him that are 'proving' the 'Lord Of The Rings' star is homosexual.

He told US chat show host Conan O'Brien: "There's one that's called elijahwoodisveryverygay, which is actually a personal favorite of mine, it's absolutely hilarious.

"It's this kind of joke website that maintains that they have proof that I am very, very gay in various photographs - photographic evidence of me holding hands with a male".

The actor also revealed he was approached many times by fans who wanted to give him "fake" pictures of himself in compromising situations with his male co-stars.

He explained: "They want to create moments that they didn't get to see in the film, of these characters in sexual congress.

I was actually at a film festival once and this fan came up with a gift, I open the gift in front of all these people that I'm talking to and it happens to be a photo from one of these websites of me and Dominic Monaghan making sweet love".

Now, that wasn't a nice thing to do to the actor! (However ... I've seen photos (and they are not faked; they're on one of the leading PR image sites, where the dopyright owners charge an arm and a leg for reproduction royalties ... fake photos don't sit on those sites) of Dominic Monaghan frenching -- or getting frenched by?? -- Viggo. So ... who knows where imagination and wishful thinking ends, and where the truth begins?! But I really do think fans ought to have more sense and more manners than to hand the actor fake photos -- called digital maniupulations -- in public ... or anywhere else, for that matter. Guys -- get real here. Nuff said.)

Cold steel: Iron Man and other armored legends

Last couple of days, I've been re-reading some of the NARC books (which are my favorite gay SF of all time), and I got to thinking ... woah, if there was a NARC movie. I mean, it might never happen, but if it did, a team of designers would be working for six months to visualize, blueprint, and build, the NARC armor, right? What a blast it would be ... even trying to imaging the armor from these books is a thrill. Anyway --

Anyway -- all this got me thinking about Iron Man, and other armored heroes in the movies. Green Goblin (from Spiderman), Batman, and so on. And -- do you have about four minutes to spare? Because I found this roundup of armored heroes in the movies, and around the three minute mark, there's a great sequence showing how they got Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) into the suit. This is loads of fun:



Note to self: got to watch Iron Man tonight. One of my all-time favorites. What I loved about the movie was not just the fantastic effects -- and the armor! -- but also, Tony Stark is such a real human being, you believed him completely.