This week: We watch and discuss a Fifth Element, a perfect example of balancing camp and sci-fi. We continue our Futurama arc with Anthology of Interest 2. We bring forth another challenger — and another new challenge — in Fantasy Sci-Fi League 2.0: Black Ops Edition round 3. And we run down the week in geek including Robyn’s new single Fembot, a possible new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and some special thank-yous to the GWC community for saving our bacon (again).
Thanks Chuck, since yesterday I’m caught up again (was behind 2-3 shows) and can vote again after I had to skip Round 2.
haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but Fifth Element!!! yay~
OSSIM! With the brackets table, the promo mp3, and now this…I think you have advanced to the level of MAGE!
Mage is a really high level…right?! 
The car that deorbits in Heavy Metal was a 1960 Corvette and I didn’t take it that it flew by itself…just grabbity taking it’s course on a loose object.
Since he is tech oriented maybe you should make him a TechnoMage!:eek:
Yeah, we’ll do that!
BTW, the airplane I mention during the flying car rant was actually the Ercoupe. Technically it’s not streetable, but it came about during that period when everyone fully expected that every family would own a small airplane much like they own cars. The idea was that it would make flying “as easy as driving.”
That’s really a mess of a concept, because the operate-the-airplane part of flying is actually very much the easy part. It’s the decision making process that’s difficult, and probably doubly-difficult for someone used to putting on makeup/talking on a cell phone/texting/reading a book/etc. while driving.
Anyway, my memory was correct about the no-rudders bit. They actually tied the rudders to the ailerons with a flexible cable to try and make it fly coordinated – assuming, of course, that there’d never be any reason whatsoever to cross-control. Doh!
Unfortunately, I find the reality of the flying car as we want it to happen to be pretty impossible. Not so much from a technical standpoint as from a beauracratic and legal standpoint (not to mention public safety).
I was very excited when I read about the Mollar Skycar, only to find that here we are some 8 years later and no product to show for it. The intention was that this thing would do most of the flying for itself (which is actually the case with a lot of modern aircraft, as I understand it).
I think beyond the socieital problems, We need to move the automobile platform to drive by wire, rather than all this mechanical stuff. Ditch all that weight.
Also, unrelated: I was absolutely thrilled to get an honorable mention 
On the “Sci-Fi with dragon, swords and boobs” issue, has everyone forgotten The Dragon Riders Of Pern Series already?
Nope.
The White Dragon needs to be a movie soonish.
I’s rather they start at Dragonflight personally, though Moretta was my favorite book.
Congrats to Sithwitch as week #3 challenger in the the FSL and congrats to all of the honorable mentions. Just finished the cast. Fun to listen to TechDrew again too.
The Harper Hall trilogy were where I got my start… but I’ve read them all so many times that it’s hard to step back and think where someone who hasn’t read any of it should start… I always kinda liked Dragonsdawn, and All the Weyrs of Pern, particularly as when I was first reading these books, the geeks I knew were like, ew Pern is fantasy not sci-fi (not that fantasy isn’t awesome, too but in the minds of these geeks it was clearly inferior for whatever reason), but um, it’s totally a mix of the two. Plus those got away from some of the really disturbing relationship dynamics in some of the earlier books (I love Lessa as much as the next person, but the start of her relationship with F’lar has abusive warning signs all over it). But these are the things that happen when you come back to a book that you first fell in love with when you were 11…
… though for years I had been resisting the Todd McCaffrey Pern books thinking to myself, really? the son? but having read 2 of them so far, I have to say, they’re pretty good.
Anyone else want a bubbly pie? hmmmm. pie.
(And I’ll admit I haven’t had a chance to listen to the 'cast yet, this is just apropos of Pern :p)
So it’s a good thing I checked the forums last night or I might have driven off the road this morning!
Anyway, I am SO GLAD y’all did The Fifth Element! One of the best movies EVER, in my opinion. Sadly, one of my favorite things about it is one of the reasons my best friend hates it: I love that they just kind of drop you in with NO explanation. Why are they dressed like that? Why are they acting like that? Why is the technology like that? All you have to do is answer “It’s the future” and move on. There’s no other reason needed. And I love that they don’t feel the need to spoonfeed you WHY Zorg prefers to dress in metallic pastels and has a metal brace and a plastic half-cap, or why culture has been kind of ultra-sexualized up in terms of dressed. I love that it took me until my third or fifth time through to realize that the reason the cigarettes looked funny was because he was trying to quit, so the actual cigarette part was getting progressively shorter. I like it when directors, writers, and set designers recognize that audiences are smarter than movie execs give us credit for!
This movie’s beautiful AND fun. One of my best birthday presents was the Blu-ray, since I have an awesome TV and surround sound system–so the opera? SWEET. I wonder if I can bargain yet another watching tonight for a watching of the Matrix with the husband…
(FYI, this is Plourr. Think Anastasia of the Russian royal family if she grew up to become a brawler and fighter pilot instead of dead.)
One of my favorite scenes is the meeting between Cornelius and Zorg. I like that Zorg owns up to his evilness with sheepishness, like he realizes just how cheesy he is as a villain. “You’re evil!” “I know.”
I remember that Jean Paul Gaultier (or another similar relatively famous designer) designed a lot of the costumes (for the flight attendants and the mcdonalds girls) for the film, I wonder if he had anything to do with the designs for the main cast, like for Leeloo, Zorg, or Ruby Rhod.
My film professor would replay the takeoff scene over and over and over again in class and praised Besson on his successful set up of ejaculation/orgasm through the multiple scenes into one seamless coherent scene. As a result, this is definitely THE scene I think of when The Fifth Element is mentioned. It’s also definitely one of my favorite scenes. Hard not to be when I must have watched it at least 50 times in class alone.
And…very impressive, Techdrew, on Leeloo’s name. Wow.
Congrats to Sithwitch and all honorable mentions! Good luck!
And…I can’t wait to see what Tony Stark would be wearing in the next challenge.
I sense… duplicity…
I find it highly suspicious (just kidding) that the GWC Crue decided to talk about ‘The Fifth Element’ during FSL 2.0 COLON Black Ops Edition, considering that Corbin Dallas is on their team. While it is more than likely that this was completely unintentional, and a mere coincidence.
It still suffers from the appearance of ‘buffing’ a character on your team.
I have no doubt that had Juan not stopped by and wished to talk about one of his favorite movies the Crue would have held off discussing that particular movie until the 2.0 had finished. Or for that matter, the fact that Dallas was on their team and in the movie and they might innocently and unintentionally be ‘talking up’ their player may never of even occured to them (this is the more likely scenario).
Something to think about…
(This not a complaint, merely an observation. Please take it as such. )
JFK was shot in Dallas, the crue is based in Dallas…COINCIDENCE?! I THINK NOT
Haha, and here I just impulse e-mailed Chuck for the cut. But here I have it now. Installing. Will use it for hot women and emergency numbers.