Want a BEAUTIFUL image from STAR TREK for your desktop?

If you saw Star Trek over the summer then you'll remember that stunning shot of the Enterprise rising out of the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. Diamond Sky Productions has just posted two VERY high-res images from that scene: one of the Enterprise's engine nacelles breaking through the clouds and a second of the Enterprise emerged in all her glory. The image at right is just a small preview of the entire picture. I'd already had a pic of Enterprise with the shuttles arriving as my desktop wallpaper for the past few months, but I've already changed it to this one. Dunno how long these'll be up, so grab 'em while you can!

Read More

WATCHMEN: THE ULTIMATE CUT streeting on November 3rd!

If I can keep being a good boy until Christmas maybe Santa will put this in my stocking...

Even though I already own the Director's Cut (and have recommended it to everyone instead of the original that came out in theaters earlier this year) I am already lusting badly for Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut. /Film has the succulent details about the DVD and Blu-ray releases. Here's what you get on five discs for the DVD...

Disc 1:
- Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut Film
- Audio Commentary with Zack Snyder and Dave Gibbons

Disc 2: Over 3 Hours of Special Features
- The Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed Comics
- Real Super Heroes, Real Vigilantes
- Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World
- Watchmen: Video Journals
- My Chemical Romance Desolation Row
- Under The Hood
- Story Within A Story: The Books of Watchmen

Disc 3: Digital Copy of the Theatrical Version

Disc 4 and 5: Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comics

Remember: this is the cut that is going to incorporate the "Tales of the Black Freighter" animated material (which saw a separate DVD/Blu-ray release at the time the film premiered) within the Watchmen movie itself! I am very stoked about seeing how this is going to play out 'cuz if you've read the book you know how the comic book that young Bernard is reading parallels with the main story. The theatrical release was pretty faithful to the graphic novel (read my review here), the Director's Cut was even better (here's my take on that one) and the Ultimate Cut might be the best of the lot.

This is going to be a fine addition to my humble DVD collection, right next to my Blade Runner 5-disc set (the one in the snazzy "briefcase" :-)

(And thanks to Phillip Arthur for the heads-up!)

Read More

Nightmarish "Christianity"

I know, you don't have to tell me: "Consider the source". I'm still debating whether Max Blumenthal is aspiring toward that higher vision of what journalism should be, or if he's got some kind of agenda. But I'll say two things in this instance: his research and writing is quite good. That, and I'm compelled to agree enough that he's on to something here that I felt led to post about it.

The Nation's website has publishedan excerpt from Blumenthal's new book Republican Gommorah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party. The selection, titled "The Nightmare of Christianity", is about Matthew Murray, who shot and killed four people during attacks at a missionary training facility and then a church in Colorado two years ago. Murray may or may not have had severe problems already that should have been addressed. But to hear Blumenthal describe it, Matthew Murray's struggles were hopelessly complicated by his family's hyper-religious demands and expectations... until finally he snapped and took five lives, including his own.

Here's some of what Blumenthal writes...

But as soon as Murray enrolled at YWAM's training center in nearby Arvada in 2002, he found himself trapped in an authoritarian culture even more restrictive than home. He realized that, as another student of YWAM bluntly put it, the school's training methods resembled "cult mind-controlling techniques." Murray became paranoid, speaking aloud to voices only he could hear, according to a former roommate. He complained that six of his male peers had made a gay sex video and that others routinely abused drugs. Hypocrisy seemed to be all around him, or at least dark mirages of it. A week before Murray was scheduled to embark on his first mission, YWAM dismissed him from the program for unspecified "health reasons." "They admitted that I hadn't done anything wrong, just that they had prayed and felt I wasn't popular/'connected' and talkative enough," he recalled.

Two years later, Murray raged at two YWAM administrators during a Pentecostal conference his mother had dragged him to attend. The shocked staffers promptly warned Loretta Murray that her son "wasn't walking with the Lord and could be planning violence." Within days, an ornery local pastor was allowed to burst into the young Murray's room, rifle through his belongings, and leave with a satchel full of secular DVDs and CDs--apparent evidence of his depravity. Murray's mother searched his room for satanic material every day afterward for three months, stripping him of his privacy and whatever was left of his love for her. After the trauma-inducing raids, in which Murray estimated his mother and her friends destroyed $900 worth of his property, he concluded, "Christianity is one big lie."

There's a lot more in Blumenthal's extensive article about Murray and the kind of "Christianity" that he was forced to experience, including this song that students at a south Florida "Christian"-based charter school are made to learn:

Obedience is listening attentively,
Obedience will take instructions joyfully,
Obedience heeds wishes of authorities,
Obedience will follow orders instantly.
For when I am busy at my work or play,
And someone calls my name, I'll answer right away!
I'll be ready with a smile to go the extra mile
As soon as I can say "Yes, sir!" "Yes ma am!"
Hup, two, three

Sounds like something out of the Hitler Youth movement, don't it?

I wouldn't be bringing this article to anyone's attention if I didn't think it merited some thought. Because I know it does. Matthew Murray obviously had issues that should have been given sincere treatment. But if Blumenthal's reporting is anywhere even remotely accurate, I have no doubt at all that the kind of "Christianity" inflicted upon Murray destroyed his spirit, his mind, and ultimately his life.

I have written about it before many times on this blog: that Christianity is not supposed to be about having power in this world at all. To follow Christ means a putting to death of the old nature with each new day... but because we desire to, not because we are made to. But that is precisely how too many alleged "Christian leaders" have gained and maintained power and control over others.

Don't believe me? Look at this pic that I snapped from the website of Bill Gothard, cited in Blumenthal's article as the one most responsible for the insane regimen that Matthew Murray's parents subjected him too...

They "formed an army" and started a "movement of power"?

How is that anything near to demonstrating the love and grace of Christ to others?!

To follow Christ is to be in this world, but not of this world. It means saving the lost from a dying world, not saving a dying world from the lost.

(And if you can suffer an hour or so of your own blood boiling, I would also recommend watching the documentary Jesus Camp: one of the most disturbing looks at American "Christianity" ever produced.)

When I read stories like that of Matthew Murray as Max Blumenthal is conveying it, I can't help but envision Jesus turning down Satan's offer to give Him all the power and authority over this world. Jesus rejected it... but a countless multitude of men and women instead began screaming "PICK ME! PICK ME!"

Neither can I but believe that Satan smiles and says "Of course I'll pick you. And you will be fine. After all, you are only doing what He should have done. I'll even let you do it for Him."

People like this are not trying to win America for Christ. They are trying to win America for their own "Christianity". For their own religion. But to sincerely follow Christ has never been about something so mere as "religion".

And in the end, Christianity of this sort can only hurt and destroy lives, not build them up. Matthew Murray was but an extreme example.

Am I making too much of this? Folks, I don't know if I could make nearly enough of it. So much grief could have been avoided, and still be avoided, had some among us professing Christ only taken the admonition of Proverbs 3:5 to heart...

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

Read More

Red sky over Sydney

The apocalyptic sunrise that residents of Sydney, Australia awoke to this morning...

The city is choked by a cloud of "red dust" and haze that experts haven't seen before. Hit here for more amazing photos of this curious weather phenomenon in Syndey.

(Special thanks to Father Roderick Vonhogen for the eerie and stunning find!)

Read More

Is this Nicolas Cage as Superman?!?

That's what GeekTyrant is wondering (and has Twitter-ed that sources are confirming). This does indeed appear to be Nicolas Cage in a costume test for the Superman movie that Tim Burton almost began production of in early 1998. That would make this photo around twelve years old... which jibes with Cage's current age.

And then there's this tidbit that also adds credence to it being real, from a very long article posted in 2005 about the INSANELY bizarre story of the Superman film franchise between Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in 1987 and 2006's Superman Returns...

"Nicolas Cage, having been fighting tooth and nail against Burton and [Jon] Peters' vision of Superman (even though he'd been putting on a happy public face about working with them), angrily demanded that he be allowed to wear the classic Superman costume and fly. So WB relented much to Burton's dismay, ordering up a rubber Superman suit and flying FX tests. (A chintzy, Sam Jones-as-Flash Gordon-type Superman suit was dished up, but it went over like a lead balloon.) However, when Cage tried on the rubber suit, it looked stupid. And when they stuck a long-haired wig on him, it looked even worse."

Some are saying this might be a Photoshop job. Personally, I think it fits well with the evidence.

So lemme ask you, Dear Reader, after you have finally stopped hysterically laughing: what do you think? :-)

Read More

The stainless steel art of Catherine Thornton

This past Friday afternoon, while we were at Artspace in downtown Raleigh waiting for me to give my presentation about my copyright fight with Viacom as part of SPARKcon, a friend and I spent about an hour walking through the gallery and taking in the fantabulous artwork: some very neat stuff in there and some things were... rather offbeat, to put it mildly.

But there was one piece on display that grabbed hold of my senses more than anything else, because I had never seen something like this before. It was a "painting" made by grinding on a sheet of stainless steel:

Now ain't that cool?!?

Well, it so happened that the artist responsible for this eye-arresting image was on the gallery's premises and at work in a small studio down the hall. Her name is Catherine Thornton, and I was most delighted to meet a lady blessed with not only artistic vision but original techniques and concepts. As it turns out she has done several works in stainless steel, using various grinders and sanders to etch patterns and shapes into metal as another artist might use a paintbrush on canvas. But as Thornton was sure to note, the advantage of her medium is that it will last indefinitely with no fading away of pigment or deterioration of the surface.

Truthfully folks, the photos that I shot do not do justice to Thornton's work. They have to be seen in person and up close to best appreciate. As one who works in metal also from time to time, I thought it was one of the most creative use of steel so far as artistic handiwork goes. If you possibly can, I would heartily recommend a visit to Artspace at 201 E. Davie Street in Raleigh to check it out for yourselves. And Catherine Thornton also maintains a website devoted to her work and artistic philosophy.

Read More

WOOOOOO!!!

The TV commercial for the Ric Flair Scratch-Off from the North Carolina Education Lottery...

I'm sorely tempted to insert a "Space Mountain" joke in here somewhere :-P

EDIT 3:18 a.m. EST 09/23/2009: I am just now discovering that this game is not called "Ric Flair Scratch-Off" as I had originally thought. Instead it is officially known as... Wooooooo!

As if this state didn't have enough people imitating Ric Flair, heh-heh...

That's it. I'm definitely going to buy at least one of these tickets. Not to scratch off, just to keep and hold onto because, well... a Ric Flair-themed state lottery scratch-off game called "Wooooooo!" is just too clever to pass up on owning one.

This will be the hottest-selling scratch-off game since the lottery started up here almost four years ago, I would wager an RC Cola and a Moon Pie on it. Maybe we'll see the entire Four Horsemen appear on a ticket sometime down the line :-)

Read More

North Carolina will let illegal immigrants enroll at community colleges

Last week North Carolina's State Board of Community Colleges voted to allow illegal immigrants to enroll at the many community colleges we have here.

Very, very wrong move. As Rockingham County's own Phil Berger Sr., the state Senate Minority Leader noted...

"This action is a slap in the face to legal North Carolina residents that desperately need access to the job training provided by our community colleges during the worst period of unemployment since the Great Depression."

But it's still worse than that. It's this kind of thing that encourages illegal immigration to begin with. And in my opinion that's not being a good neighbor to our friends across the border in Mexico. They have their own house to clean, just as we have our own that needs a lot of work. Sweetening the pot so that more people will be drawn here illegally to take advantage of our already over-burdened societal infrastructure is a detriment to the citizens here, and it does more damage to Mexico than most realize by bleeding away personnel that could otherwise be trying to make their own nation a better place to live.

All of that, and I have to wonder aloud how what is officially admitted to be illegal behavior is now being rewarded.

Read More

A blogger is born!

Hey everyone, say hey to the newest blogger on the planet (along with the probably 500 or so in the past few minutes who also took that first leap into the blogosphere): Steven Glaspie and his Gentle Giant Express. Steven is a longtime friend and fellow Eagle Scout, and yes he's yet another brilliant mind to come out of Rockingham County, North Carolina! This is a thinkin' dude, who writes some great poetry among other things. The blog is brand spankin' new, so check it out at stevenglaspie.blogspot.com and watch Steven flex his skillz!

Read More

Burglar caught after logging into Facebook at victim's house

No wonder it's often called "Crackbook": some folks are addicted to it! Consider one Jonathan G. Parker, age 19, of Fort Loudoun, Pennsylvania. Police in the town responded to a call from a home on August 28th in which the resident reported a breaking and entering, and the theft of two diamond rings valued at more than $3,500.

The cops didn't have far to look for a suspect, however: Parker used the victim's computer to log into his Facebook account and forgot to log out.

Jonathan Parker was arrested, and is currently in jail on $10,000 bond. He's facing one to ten years in the slammer if convicted.

Dumb, dumb, dumb. But also very funny :-)

Read More

I would so buy this game...

Halo 3: ODST (the ODST means "Orbital Drop Shock Trooper") is getting a massive midnight release later this evening. I've already got a copy pre-ordered. And those fun-loving chaps at Ctrl+Alt+Del have come through with the box art for the next Halo game. And you thought it was going to be Halo: Reach next year? Get ready for Halo: OWST!

All we need now is Halo 3: Commissary Orbital Kitchen Officer and we will have our new Halo trilogy!

Read More

It's that Dr. Horrible thingy from the Emmys last night!

I heard during the wee hours of the morning (thanks Phillip!) that during the Emmys last night, Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion had appeared in a Dr. Horrible segment! YES!! At last, more of Joss Whedon's wonderfully twisted Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (click here to purchase it from iTunes and it is HIGHLY recommended).

So while we're waiting for Joss Whedon to hopefully make more episodes, here's last night's hiliarity between Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer...

Is it just me, or is Dr. Horrible a way sad supervillain for letting his arch-nemesis just walk into the secret lair and take over his Internet? I can't see Destro or Dr. Colossus ever being that slacking. Horrible better pray that Bad Horse doesn't hear about this...

Read More

Michael Emerson wins Emmy for LOST!

I do not watch much television, truth be known. A show has to be mighty impressive for me to invest the time to keep up with it on a regular basis. But I can't recall any show that has so captivated my imagination as has ABC's Lost. And of all the remarkable characters from the magnificent Lost ensemble, few have been more intriguing than Benjamin Linus (shown here from last season's episode "316" as he shares the story of Thomas the Apostle), played as no one else could by Michael Emerson. Is Benjamin a bad guy? A good guy? Someone with an agenda we can't even begin to imagine? Even now going into the show's final season, Ben Linus is a complete mystery.

Last night at the Emmy Awards, Emerson finally got his long-deserved recognition: he won the Best Supporting Actor for a dramatic series. Considering that there is no single "primary" character in Lost, that is certainly something to be proud of.

Congrats to Michael Emerson, and everyone who won something last night :-)

Read More

I have returned...

...from a most interesting weekend!

(And I'm wrapping up a bunch of projects this morning too. Boo-yah!!)

Awright, back to the blog. I hope you people have behaved yourselves in my absence. If I'm told you've been nice, there may even be some photos that I'll post later on :-P

Read More

BIOSHOCK 2: Coming February 9th, 2010 worldwide

I had a gut feeling this morning after posting the story about BioShock on Windows for $5 that good news was imminent...

Mark your calendars: February 9th, 2010 will herald the release of BioShock 2: the sequel to 2007's mind-rattling first-person shooter. It will be an international debut across Xbox 360, Windows and PlayStation 3.

From the official press release from 2K Games...

Currently in development for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation3 computer entertainment system, and Games for Windows LIVE, BioShock 2 will deliver two unique, yet intertwined experiences that form the perfect blend of explosive first-person shooter combat, compelling storytelling and intense multiplayer action.

Set approximately 10 years after the events of the original BioShock, the halls of Rapture once again echo with sins of the past. Along the Atlantic coastline, a monster has been snatching little girls and bringing them back to the undersea city of Rapture. Players step into the boots of the most iconic denizen of Rapture, the Big Daddy, as they travel through the decrepit and beautiful fallen city, chasing an unseen foe in search of answers and their own survival.

Multiplayer in BioShock 2 will provide a rich prequel experience that expands the origins of the BioShock fiction. Set during the fall of Rapture, players assume the role of a Plasmid test subject for Sinclair Solutions, a premier provider of Plasmids and Tonics in the underwater city of Rapture that was first explored in the original BioShock. Players will need to use all the elements of the BioShock toolset to survive, as the full depth of the BioShock experience is refined and transformed into a unique multiplayer experience that can only be found in Rapture.

Are you ready to return to Rapture? Just four and a half months to go!

Read More

I'm speaking at SPARKcon in Raleigh this evening!

Just a friendly reminder that if you want to meet the blogger/proprietor of The Knight Shift in person and you're going to be in the Raleigh/Durham today, that you're in luck!

I will be at Artspace, located at 201 East Davie St in Raleigh at 5:45 p.m. this afternoon during the filmSPARK track of SPARKcon: a grassroots-organized four-day festival celebrating individual creativity around the Triangle area and throughout North Carolina. This will be the fourth annual event and this year SPARKcon will be held September 17-20. I'll be speaking about the bizarre "copyright infringement" situation that happened between Yours Truly and Viacom on YouTube two years ago.

Look! Event announcement!

The Dude Who Took Down Viacom: One Filmmaker's StoryEVENT LOCATION
Artspace

EVENT DESCRIPTION
Meet North Carolina filmmaker Chris Knight, a.k.a. "The Dude Who Took Down Viacom". In 2006, Knight made a campaign advertisement to help promote his running for a seat on Rockingham County's Board of Education. Knight did not win a seat on the board, but he did win some internet and media fame as his commercial was featured in The New York Times, on the Fox News Channel, every major newspaper in the state, on National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Company, by the Heritage Foundation, VH1's show "Web Junk 2.0", and E! Entertainment Television's show "The Soup". The major attraction of Knight's commercial was his creative use of Star Wars as an allegory for his strong commitment to reforming education practice. Life was good for Knight, until he loaded a few clips of his infamous commercial's featurette on "Web Junk 2.0" onto Youtube and was slammed with a copyright infringement claim. Come here the details of Knight's battle tonight as the filmmaker recounts his battle with Youtube and VH1's parent company Viacom firsthand.

SPONSOR
Artspace

And look again! There's also a Facebook page for "The Dude Who Took Down Viacom"!

Once again, I am compelled to note that I am very thankful to Nene Kalu, Kathy Justice and the rest of the good folks organizing the filmSPARK track for inviting me to take part in SPARKcon. Check out the SPARKcon website for more information.

And I hope to see you there! :-)

Read More

Classic SESAME STREET: Ernie's reminder(s)

Another classic sketch from Sesame Street. This is the one where Ernie has gone to great lengths (of string) to not forget something important...

Poor Bert. He probably wakes up every morning with quiet dread about what Ernie is going to do that day :-)

Read More