Cyberpunk is one of those genres that is clearly defined by it’s elements. It’s always got some form of post humanism, some form of technology corrupting society, some form of secret cabal that controls the rest of the world, some form of societal degradation, and always, always there has been a massive shift in the economy to either total collapse, or brink of collapse with everything controlled by the aforementioned secret cabal.

I know that most of these posts on cybperunk have been concentrating on technology that already exists, and me calling out the scoffers who claim bullshit on the tech. Well, what about the societal concepts as well? Having been paying attention to the crap that’s going down both here and abroad lately, it’s beginning to make me seriously think that perhaps Ben Elton, William Gibson and Masamune Shirow were onto something. (more…)

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If you go to SupaNova at all, you’re probably familiar with John Robertson. He’s a Perth based comedian that does a lot of nerdcentric comedy. He’s also a tad on the gawth side. And it’s with no small pleasure that he’s at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival this year… Which basically makes for two goth comedians, and half a dozen nerdcentric shows.

With details of the various kinds of villianous laughters

A Nifty History of Evil is a fun romp through John’s facial expressions, mans inhumanity to man, movie villians, and a puppet show about the Marquis DeSade… Which is in no way related to the store Marquis And DeSade, located in North Road, Ormond… Even if John happened to spend the entire show wearing a black PVC corset. (more…)

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In case you somehow missed, Dom Deluise died today.

Proving large men achieve great things

And in case you have no idea who Dom Deluise is, he was the last of the jolly fat guys. Unless you’re a fan of Mel Brooks films, there’s a good chance you’re not too familiar with what he looks like, although if you ever watched a Disney cartoon movie in the 80s, you’ve probably heard his voice dozens of times over and not even realised it.

Unlike current fat comedians such as Jack Black, Dom was rarely an angry or sarcastic character. He was a gentle giant of the silver screen, much like whales are the gentle giants of the deeps. With that said, watching Dom attempt to dance in some of his roles was a rather similar experience to whale watching.

Either way, he was always a good watch. Whether it was as Pavorotti in Silence of the Hams, Pizza the Hutt in Spaceballs, or merely listening to his melifluous voice in All Dogs go to Heaven, there was always gentle, jolly, giant entertainment to be had.

The world will be a sadder place, and the only thing not made lighter by Dom’s passing will be our hearts.

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It's ok B-9, you're in a place where you there's no danger, and you don't have to flail your arms around no more *sniff*

It seems that B-Grade cult celebrities just can’t stop dying this year. I mean, we had the warlock from Fantasy Island, and Betty Page popped off only a week ago (I tried to write a post about it, but when it ended up being over a thousand words long and none of it seemed bad enough to cut, I figured it was too long for most people).
And now the traigc passing of Bob May, best known for playing Robot B9 in Lost in Space, died yesterday.

A lot of you have absolutely no idea who is, but you’d definitely remember him flailing his arms about as Dick Tufield (the voice actor) screamed “Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!” from somewhere off camera every time Johnathan Harris (Dr Smith) got close to Billy Mum (Will Robinson). 

"Will, my dear boy, can you guess why my trousers are in absentia!?"

B-9 was quite possibly the arcehtype for a lot of the other robots out there. Elements of his design and personality are clearly evident in other more modern and equally (if not more) famous robots, such as Marvin the Paranoid Android. Let’s face it, 1960s robots were clearly classy, even if amazingly useless in their design. I mean, why pretend to have legs if you’re clearly getting around on wheels? Surely caterpillar treads would have been far more efficient, and would have provided a base that allowed for storage of many more useful items, and possibly an armament.

Of course, the real tragedy is that now the B-9′s that you could purchase and own for yourself at www.lostinspacerobot.com have become that much more tragic and endearing.

I think the real tragedy is that no one has attempted to kill that stupid robot that’s Nova FMs logo.

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