While Fringe is winding down, with Fox announcing this fourth season will also be its last, J. J. Abrams unveiled its supposed TV inheritor: Alcatraz.

On the surface, Alcatraz has numerous similarities to Fringe: instead of Olivia, the cute blond girl protagonist is detective Rebecca Madsen. Instead of the truly interesting and complex science fiction premises and cases involving parallel universes, we have flimsy as paper premise involving “the worst of criminals” from 1960s Alcatraz flooding our time, conveniently though, one at a time. Instead of a potential love interest(s) and complex back story, we are served a more digested, dumbed-down version of Fringe. One that follows the mantra of 99% of television these days, making it entirely unpalatable: Alcatraz is just another show where bad guys are really, truly bad, and the good guys…well, they are cops.

We are not short on cops. Especially on TV.

Fringe is beloved by audiences. It exemplifies the kind of drama meets science fiction (or X-Files?) where the focus is not on the “bad” but rather on stopping something from occurring. Olivia doesn’t just catch the real baddies you see, but sometimes engages with the perspective of the other, lending it a hand, finding a solution.

Unlike Fringe, composed of now beloved, smart, witty, loveable characters, Alcatraz offers little in terms of heart strings.

The prisoners that seem to pop conveniently across time and space, seem to be dumbed down significantly, like rabid dogs that exemplify some kind of paranoid, perhaps ideological as well as pathological view of “criminals” that leaves little room for understanding, conversation, debate, or even progression of story line.

Granted, Alcatraz is a far smarter show than Falling Skies or Terra Nova, but I sure wish Fringe were to last a few more good seasons for one thing is certain – it shall be missed greatly!

Corptocracy is getting complicated these days, as font use is kicking both Harry Potter and Falling Skies franchises. Matius Gerardo Grieck, a font specialist and designer, has filed a lawsuit naming TBS and Titleboy Films. The plaintiff’s lawsuit is based on not necessarily use of font, but rather software licensing and copyright. The companies named in the suit, have apparently breached the licensing agreement indicated on the software.

Doctor Who Q&A November 2011 by doctorwho-tv

Glimpse of long awaited Season 2 of the greatest show in the world: Game of Thrones. Based on George R. R. Martin’s incredible series of novels, the show, made by HBO, has exceeded my expectations in every possible way. The production values are incredibly high, the writing is tight, and the characters are enchanting. I have never, to this day, seen a show that is as half as good as Game of Thrones. It is simply said, the best of TV.

Even though the show is fantasy, those uninterested in the genre will get to enjoy it too due to intricate, socio-political nature of the storytelling. Pure drama, politics, and all the gory stuff that comes along with power and humanity.

If you spent last year hiding in a cave, I suggest you watch Season 1 stat! 2012 will be all about Season 2 of this magnificent show.

I bring you Minecraft Girlfriend. This is the story of one man’s descent into madness through Minecraft penis sculptures. I actually wrote the script for this one and it was produced by my friends at Megasteakman. I was really amazed with the ability of the actors and director to take such weird and goofy material and then maintain a sense of drama. This video was in part a response to the new Minecraft 1.0 release, although overshadowed by Skyrim and Skyward Sword (mostly Skyrim since even the new and amazing Zelda game barely made tremors in the Skyrim-dominated gamersphere). But again I’m blown away with the cinematic treatment given to a video about making giant penises in Minecraft. It looks and feels like a short film that would screen at a festival, but it’s about penises. It drips a love for cinema that is evident in everything from acting, cinematography, and the platoon references as the lead character watches his creations’ ultimate fate.

Tonight I’m Frakking you! A nerd-culture dance music video featuring actual celebrity TV and youtube talent! I feel videos like this add credibility to the microbudget video movement. It’s really cool when a bunch of hungry slumdogs pick up the camera and make a video to share with the internet for lulz and profit, but it’s also cool to see established actors and professionals joining the ranks of the internet viral videographers. What I found really brilliant was that this is the first instance I’ve seen in any media of the elusive Jedi Vulcan. The battle between Star Wars and Star Trek has been waged for an eternity. It strikes me as odd that people haven’t taken into consideration the possibilities created by combining both franchises. Imagine a force nerve pinch. Or a phaser saber, like a light saber but with an infinitely long blade and the ability to destabilize anything it touches. A mind trick combined with a mind meld is no longer a mere trick but a whole mind theater. What would happen if the Borg assimilated Sith into the collective? Phaser immunity and force lighting? That moment in the video where the cloaked hero at the dance party removes his hood set my mind free from the rigid structure of Star Wars v. Star Trek

Russell McOrmond hails from Ottawa and is an outspoken critic of new measures introduced in Bill C-32, a bill aiming to reform current copyright laws in Canada, specifically those regarding draconian Digital Locks.

Tune in and let us know what you think of recently announced copyright reform in Canada:

HiSciFi _Copyright in Canada_Russell McOrmond Part I

HiSciFi _Copyright in Canada_Russell McOrmond Part II

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The latest Megasteakman video is out and turns the humble act of recycling into an epic battle for the fate of the world. It’s a Lord of the Ring’s parody that uses littering and environmentalism as metaphors for the forces trying to save and destroy the planet. It seems fitting in so far that movies like LotR and Avatar are almost like advertisements for the wonders of natural splendor, even if the nature is modified, or even entirely created, digitally. Whereas the heroics and the environmentalist parable that exists in these movies are out of reach of most people, simple acts like cleaning up your garbage and recycling are real gestures that serve to benefit the world. But yeah, it’s goofy parody video. Also bonus: I’m in it for a moment. I’m one of the extras playing garbage orcs. That made me really happy for two reasons.
1) I like making messes.
2) I’ve wanted to do garbage cosplay larping for years.

It happened awhile ago, but the concerts are still going. What concerts? Miku Hastune and the vocoder characters live. Live? You mean like actors in cosplay, right? The characters are fictional they can’t really perform in front of an audience. Ha ha ha, no. It’s a real concert with a real audience and a real back up band all for a hologram performer with a vocoder voice. The people. Are there. For a hologram. And the musicians are playing for a lead vocalist made of light. Granted that at least 76% of the audience wanted to have sex with the hologram, what with the vocoder cast being 2ch memes and young girls, and there’s certainly a novelty in being among the first people to witness the validation of a sci-fi trope like holographic or android pop stars, but neither of those fully explain the surreal nature of what was just witnessed. Like holograms are cool. I’d look at one if I were at a science demo, but for hundreds of people to show up and cheer for a pre-programmed hologram is the awakening of a new age of human consciousness. It’s like all the men marrying body pillows or pretending that cartoon characters are their girlfriends have finally been recognized by the entertainment economy and have been presented with an artificial pop star to lust after in addition to their cartoon wives and girlfriends.

Then I wonder if this is really a bad thing. In many ways pop stars are vapid, pre-programmed images that exist as constructs with so substance or capacity for thought. Where as producing a pop star requires the destruction of a young person’s psyche as they’re plunged into a world of fame and entertainment industry mindwarping, programming a hologram hurts no one. Celebrity status produces insane people who have had any connection to reality severed and leaves the star in a world without authenticity. Egos and expectations reach unreal hyperbole and the result is a person who simply cannot deal with reality. It’s simple. Kill the reality. With an artificial pop star no humans had their teenage developments ruined and no parents were transformed into to greedy and abusive managers. All that’s left is a robot idol for a generation that fetishizes robots and doesn’t care if it’s made of flesh or light