Noir Dame Blog

Retro-inspired culture and media – audio drama, classic TV and film

On the anniversary of Nikola Tesla’s passing, it is our pleasure to present the world premiere “Tesla vs. the United States”, a new piece by Charles Moster, based on the life story of this fascinating and mysterious inventor. What do time travel, a death ray, the invention of radio and the FBI all have in common? Listen and find out!

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All audio content copyright 2010 by Charles Moster and Deus Ex Machina. Video produced by NoirDame.com. Visual of Supreme Court courtesy of

Media: please find a release and detailed background information at our Media Kit site.

CNN describes the rise of “frak” as a curse word, and not just with Battlestar Galactica fans.

Personally folks, I hate the word (and “felgercarb”, as well as all-star hated-phrases like “tater tots”.) In this case, there’s nothing like the real thing.

Still, an interesting lesson on how televised science fiction, at least, is reaching a broader audience than ever.

Nivair H. Gabriel of sci-fi blog io9.com argues brilliantly that there was no reason for The Day The Earth Stood Still to have been remade. As a commenter says, the only good thing about such an excellent movie being remade, is the number of us who will, in protest, spend our money on the original DVD.

Judging by the trailers I’ve seen, the restrained creepiness of the original movie has been turned into a thudding, bombastic thriller with ecological overtones. It is possible, but unlikely, that this source material has been refashioned with a new direction that couldn’t be used in 1951. But I find that unlikely — since the original is really about humanity’s inability to “get along”, something we’re still coping with half a century later.

Gabriel points out that there are lots of new ideas that are ignored, while Hollywood produces remakes. There’s room to tell stories that couldn’t be told in 1951; for example, AMC’s great series Mad Men, set in 1960 (and starring Jon Hamm, who appears in the Stood Still remake). Mad Men explores the flip side of success in the advertising business, as well as 1950s era mores. In 1960, the only advertising agency stories you were likely to see were frothy comedies with Doris Day and Rock Hudson, full of innuendo. I happen to enjoy those comedies, and they were “remade” brilliantly in the recent pastiche Down With Love, which was fun and subversive. Mad Men, though, is telling a completely different story with completely new characters – something audiences can never get enough of, as long as it’s well-made. Hancock is a great example of a new, fresh concept in telling the superhero story – no mutant DNA required.

The Women is also coming out as a remake, and at first glance it’s also a classic movie that doesn’t need redoing… right? Except, even if the remake focuses only on upper class ladies, as the original did, women’s role in society has changed – a lot. In the original, only one woman – an unmarried, middle aged writer – had a career outside the home. This isn’t the case in the remake, and it could change the dynamic of the narrative.

Since The Women is the story of a wronged wife, fidelity in marriage is one of its most important questions. Our understanding of infidelity has changed a bit, too. (Well, unless you were a politician or millionaire. The story of “Peaches” Browning and Daddy was daily fodder for the papers in the 1920s, and even before that, President Grover Cleveland had a love child issue.)

The gist is, there might be something intriguing to say by updating Claire Booth Luce’s bitchy play to the modern day.

Now, it would be interesting, if this new remake of Stood Still decided to return to the original source, Harry Bates’ “Farewell to the Master,” which has darker implications, or if it utilized Ray Bradbury’s sequel script.

But as far as Hollywood’s recent track record, it’s unlikely that the new The Day The Earth Stood Still offers anything really special and new, except more dramatic CGI effects. For those of us who loved the understated threat of the original, it’s reason alone to give this film a miss.

Are you in the greater Boston area, or within driving distance in New England? Do you enjoy science fiction, fantasy and fun TV? Well, this weekend’s the day to hit the Back Bay Hilton, to have fun and make new friends – and support a number of fans who are trying to “make lemonade from lemons”. Best of all, it’s entirely free, though you can donate funds towards the nice people who are putting on this last-minute show.

Many science fiction fans have already been following the tawdry story of an ambitious convention called Jumpcon — the real reason behind this neat and completely FREE get-together by the good folks at United Fan Con. It’s THIS Friday, July 18th, through Sunday at the Back Bay Hilton, 40 Dalton Street, Boston.

Jumpcon garnered special attention after an ugly cancellation of the FedConUSA convention in Dallas last month, which shut down before noon on their second day. Like the Dallas convention, Jumpcon was chaired and planned by leaders with no prior experience running conventions, and was unusually ambitious – planning about an event a week, in cities around the nation.

This weekend WAS to be a major convention for Jumpcon LLC, their premiere event held in Boston. Many fans were excited about the actors booked for this weekend: for example, this con was to be the sole appearance of Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell from Battlestar Galactica – two award-winning lead actors who don’t exactly travel the con circuit on a regular basis. You can imagine how many Battlestar Galactica fans alone have booked to go see them.

Jumpcon Boston was canceled on Tuesday, and in fact, the entire Jumpcon calendar has now been canceled. Yet many fans traveling to the convention have bought non-refundable tickets and are still booked into area hotels.

Today, a small fan run group called the New England Fan Experience, who have successfully run media cons for almost twenty years, announced something for affected fans – a NonJumpCon, if you will.

“This Fan Con will be free to all attendees and include; games,
videos, fan panels, auctions, vendors and more. The event will take
place at the Hilton Back Bay, located at 40 Dalton Street, Boston MA
(directly across the street from the Boston Sheraton). The event will
run from 3pm – 10pm on Friday, 10am – 6pm on Saturday and 12pm – 6pm
on Sunday.”

If you know people in the New England area who might want to volunteer to help out, or to attend (and especially to befriend the folks who are travelling from far distances), please spread the word. It is free to attend for everyone, regardless of whether you have a ticket or not.

You can also join:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jconcons/ to help plan and find out more about the event
and follow the developing Jumpcon story here:

http://community.livejournal.com/jumpconcons/

If you’ve been following the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, airing in the US on Sci-Fi, tonight’s premiere is set to be a bit of a shocker – certainly, moreso than M. Night Shamalayan’s The Happening. The episode will be streamed all day on the Sci-Fi site for the benefit of early birds, and those whose bosses will be lenient about watching TV at work!

Having had this very dark story already “spoiled” to me (though, I was personally grateful to learn the details *before* I watch), it’ll be interesting to see how BSG’s 2 million viewers handle the news – especially with the show not slated to return until 2009.

In the meantime, fans will have at least six months to speculate about the “fifth Cylon model”. If you haven’t checked it out yet, the Cellounge website has published a pretty well-thought out theory for one character’s status as the final Cylon. If you’re a fan of the show, curious about who else the final Cylon could be, or want a summary on the Cellounge claim? Click “more” to unpack the rest of the post. (more…)