planetdamage.com: hard labour with the lovely paris
Hello. I am Damage, gonzo journalist, catalyst and an explorer of weird and futurologistic. A month ago I knew how to time travel. Now, only a few hours ago, to my best knowledge, I woke up while being abducted by space aliens and remarkably under the drills. It gives me great satisfaction, erection and self-confidence to conclude that ambassadors of superior civilizations warp time and space just to drill me. And I also think this was also the equivalent of a galactic job interview. Because we finished the new issue of The Dose magazine. About Paris. And you will buy this magazine. Because all the money I will hoard up from sales will go into new pancreas and a one-way ticket to Singapore. But more about this after the embed and the jump.
THE DOSE magazine - Issue 3 (Paris) TEASER
The Dose. For those who're late for class, it started as a free PDF mag targeting one city per issue to showcase its weird underdog talents: musicians, artists, designers with a focus on music, more music and great eyecandy. I had friends helping me out but it was mostly a solo project and it was a great thing to do, doing a pilot on Budapest and then two more issues, on Tokyo and London. Then three years passed. And we decided to go back to the original plan we liked, I quit being a full-time IT journalist and after long months of working in our free time, here's the Paris issue. If you were following up on what I did, I promised so many times that this will come that you probably didn't believe me. But it's here now.
Yes. The Paris issue. It has features on French steampunk, cyberpunk, netlabels (amazing stuff ranging from mad orgy freejazz to pumping warehouse techno), parkour, psytrance (a great comparison of chocolate and goa!) and fashion. And a great piece of infographics about French bands we loved. Features on LVA, brain hacking and Chinese underground music. Interviews with Clélia Altaïr, Punish Yourself, Lukas Zpira, Die Puppe, Foretaste, Miss Kittin, Scan X, the guys at Dejobaan Games and RJDJ, Nohno / Kibuka, Blue Stahli, Shiv-R and Black Nail Cabaret. And e-readers. And our recommendations for 2010. And lots of reviews.
So spread the news, enjoy the show, buy our mag, support the artists, don't steal this mag if you don't exactly need to, send us feedback and contact us if you think you could help us rock more. And here are a few music videos from these previous artists you gonna love!
five minutes of nolan's inception online
Inception has already been hailed as one of the best science fiction movies of the decade. Until the crew manages to watch it in the upcoming days and give a review about it, here's five minutes of Nolan's apparent mastery. (via io9)
ong-bak 3: elefánthajigáló thai harcosok, szomorú csepeli gótok
Baj van. Eltörték Tony megfutom a háromszázat a papírlap élén anyád szívéig Jaa mindnégy kezét-lábát és - a trailer harminchatodik másodperce szerint -a szívét is, agyagba is öntötték, onnan is kivették, aztán tényleg csak ennyi kell ahhoz, hogy egészen bitang lendületet vegyen minden. Thaiföld leghíresebb akciófilmjének harmadik részében beletörik egy ember torkát a homokba, eldobnak egy egész elefántot, mindenkit megszáll egy gonosz szellem, amitől - karaktertől függően - szomorú csepeli góttá vagy shaolin gonosz varjú gong fu harcossá változnak, de közben thai lányok táncolnak, kapunk Buddhát közeliben és távoliban és hitchcocki madárkörözős napéjegyenlőség is lesz hirtelen. Ha az Ong-Bak 2 forgatásával kapcsolatban azt hallottuk: Tony Jaa elment két hónapig a barlangba fekete mágiát gyakorolni, akkor vagy ezeket a jeleneteket vették fel, vagy pedig csak sminkelni tanult ütésektől érzéketlen, de szapora ujjakkal. Bemutató májusban, ide meg akkor kattints, ha még több embertelenül gyors és meglepő koreográfiát akarsz TANULNI (meg nézni, nyilván).
The legend of Ong Bak 3 begins after Tien (Tony Jaa) has lost his fighting skills and his beloved stepfather at the Garuda's Wing cliff from the raid led by Jom Rachan (Saranyu Wonggrajang). Tien is brought back to life with the help from Pim (Primrata Dechudom) as well as Mhen (Petchai Wongkamlao) and the Kana Khone villagers. Deep into the meditation taught by Phra Bua (Nirutti Sirijanya), Tien finally is able to achieve 'Nathayut'. His talents are put to the test again when his rivals including the Golden-Armored King's Guard (Supakorn 'Tok' Kijusuwan), the mysterious killers in black, and Bhuti Sangkha (Dan Chupong) return for the final massive showdown. (off wikipedia)
2009, missing point #17: daybreakers
Daybreakers, a new vampire movie comes out next week. Bloodsuckers are the new tad and they're a bit overplayed by now after True Blood, New Moon and all their kin but then again I might just be jealous of the imminent success I didn't have a direct role in. But anyways. Daybreakers capitalizes on an old idea of David S. Goyer that didn't make it into Blade III: vampires walk the face of the Earth and humanity's the sorry-ass minority until the inevitable logistics hell breaks loose: blood farms can't really cope up with the population needs and they need to find a cure, fast. Not quite sure about how this ties into the otherwise evident problem of the energy/oil/resource crisis, but anyways. It has Willem Defoe with crossbows. You don't really need anything for the first week of the new, luckier 2010.
2009, missing post #7: captain power and the soldiers of the future
It was 1987 and I was an eight-year old kid with an extra schedule in his life, one I took more seriously than brushing the teeth, cleaning the shoes and go to sleep at nine. It was waking up at six to get the best futuristic show available at that time (apart from Aeon Flux, of course): Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. It is so oldschool you should all play this in the background today, let it seep back to your already exhausted brainmeat. As for the show - you can all grab the episodes on public video sites here and here or you could just order them right at captainpower.com.
on the upcoming warhammer 40000: ultramarines movie
Gapfiller numero obscuro for you on the eve of the new decade (well, almost). This very piece of news has been circulating inside the tabletop scene and the space marine afficionado sects alike: Warhammer 40K is finally getting the movie treatment. The movie entitled ULTRAMARINES (read about the Ultramarines space marine chapter here) is done by Codex Pictures (the ones who did Bionicle) under the guidance of Games Workshop: so far faithfulness to the original source material is one of the most emphasized points of all official statements. According to the newsblips, Ultramarines: The Movie is helmed by a relatively noname director, Martyn Pick - on the other hand, the script is worked on by one of the greatest names in the literary WH40K universe, Dan Abnett.
This direct-to-DVD movie is quite obscure at the moment, the most important things are eventually published on the official movie site, such as the concept art below for the Codex Chapel Entrance. I am not completely won over and after watching the Bionicle trailers, I'd sacrifice half my friends' kidneys in Tibetan incense rituals (or anything to that effect) to get Square Enix/Square into the production chair.
To soothe the hours (days, years) of waiting, here's something relevant to keep you on your toes, a THQ-developed action-RPG entitled Space Marine - with a trailer.
tetsuo the bullet man trailer
Five months ago a couple of sites broke news about the English-speaking sequel of Shinya Tsukamoto's cult classic TETSUO series: here's the trailer for the third installment called BULLET MAN. For more info on Bullet Man, read my previous post.
hardware: fields of the nephilim's carl mccoy cameo (with robot heads)
Look where sifting through endless linkboxes stored in 2009 will get you. British cyberpunk movie Hardware done almost twenty years ago (read CPR's review about it here) features none other than Carl McCoy, frontman and lead singer for one of the best bands that the Goth subculture ever donated to the world - Fields of the Nephilim. McCoy's voice is slightly altered but his eyes and the hat he wears give him away instantly - playing a zonetripper character who's out there in the wasteland, scavening whatever's left for the taking. The movie is hilariously bad but hey, it was the golden nineties, everything was permitted. Below, one of their best tracks, For Her Light off the 1990 album Elizium.
repo men remake comes in 2010 april, features law, whitaker, rza
Humans have extended and improved our lives through highly sophisticated and expensive mechanical organs created by a company called The Union. The dark side of these medical breakthroughs is that if you don’t pay your bill, The Union sends its highly skilled repo men to take back its property…with no concern for your comfort or survival.
Jude Law plays Remy, one of the best organ repo men in the business. But when he suffers a cardiac failure on the job, he awakens to find himself fitted with the company’s top-of-the-line heart-replacement…as well as a hefty debt. But a side effect of the procedure is that his heart’s no longer in the job. When he can’t make the payments, The Union sends its toughest enforcer, Remy’s former partner Jake (Academy Award® winner Forest Whitaker), to track him down.
Now that the hunter has become the hunted, Remy joins Beth (Alice Braga), another debtor who teaches him how to vanish from the system. And as he and Jake embark on a chase across a landscape populated by maniacal friends and foes, one man will become a reluctant champion for thousands on the run. (via quietearth.us)
Darren Lynn Bousman's REPO: THE GENETIC OPERA last year was a sine wave, high with its much-promising cast (from Skinny Puppy's Nivek Ogre to Alexa Vega, Sarah Brightman or even Paris Hilton), its fusion approach and the visuals, low with coherence and the lack of, well, anything to compel opera newbies to give themselves easily to its entirety. Whatever we missed - the cheesy, gory fun -, Miguel Sapochnik will put it back in his Repo Men remake - debuting on the 2nd of April, 2010 - featuring Jude Law, Forest Whitaker and even Master RZA himself!
universal soldier: regeneration trailer
When a team of former Soviet radicals seizes Chernobyl and threatens to unleash a lethal cloud of radioactive gas one hundred times deadlier than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, the US military brings in a bio-mechanically enhanced super soldier, Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), to foil the plot.
As Deveraux fights his way into the plant, he faces off with his now revived former nemesis, Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren), and a newly ‘updated’ Next Generation Unisol (former UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski), in a battle of battles, and must save the day. (via quietearth.us)
2b - the era of flesh is over
Set in the near future, 2B portrays a familiar decaying world on the cusp of great transformation and awesome wonders. The script is based upon real science and evolving technologies. When the world's first transhuman is created by a renegade corporate CEO and bioscientist, the foundations of society's beliefs are threatened in a transhuman world where man merges with technology. The ‘technohuman’ conundrum is the hottest and most controversial topic of this century. This film is an entertainment designed to jump-start the conversation about the moral and religious questions raised by the bio-tech revolution. What if you could die and live forever?
the book of eli: just like fallout, only with tom waits
Denzel Washington goes Fallout in The Book of Eli, a 2010-scheduled post-apocalyptic extravaganza. Kotaku's already drawing parallels with the Fallout universe which is as obvious as anything, so really, get over it. Apart from Washington, the cast includes, first and foremost, Tom Waits himself as an Engineer (you could only top that with Ron Perlman as the Engineer's evil twin brother. But I'll include his dark swamp cabaret vaudeville here just in case), Mila Kunis (her Max Payne appearance hopefully forecasts annihilating mutant hordes with attitude and a leather-covered ass) and Michael Gambon. (UPDATE: And yes, Gary Oldman himself is there as well - who just managed to blurt out there's a new Batman movie in the works including him in the cast.)
lila hús, rút, szibarita fémváz: hol tart a magyar cyberpunk?
A valós élet és az elképzelhetetlenül szilárd animehajú, éjszakai multiplayer meccsekben brillírozott reflexű, ötezer dolláros baszadékhangú narrátorokkal figyelmesre élhajtott játékok közös halmaza a headshot: viszlát a fánkszagú ing mögé szíjazott kevlárnak meg a szív fölé rejtett, háborút megjárt, dohányszagú nagyapától örökölt cigarettásdoboznak, ha fejbelőnek, százharmincöt fokban megcsúszik a világ, lekapcsolják a villanyt, albumborító marad a vérfoltból utánad az aszfalton.
Ilyen headshotot sikerült bekapnom egy klasszikus gyerekverstől, hogyaztmondja Oravecz Imre majdnemhaikuja (7-8-9), gyűjtöttem a bélyeget, apa hozott három kilót, azóta nem gyűjtök bélyeget, most meg nézz fel a Google Trends grafikonra és értelmezd a lényeget, ez történt a cyberpunkkal is, neonegestül-esőbenhackerestül, ahogy kell. Most huszonöt éves a Neurománc, a sci-fi portálok egymás után robbantják a cikkeket, hogy naprakész-e még a múlt évszázad legjelentősebb víziója és ha körbenézel, naprakész annyiból, hogy jelen lett belőle. (UPDATE 1: Marvin - róla a cikk következő részében lesz szó - azt mondja, Siv Wideberg svédgyermekversíró követte ezt el, nem Oravecz. Boldog vagyok, hogy a svédek is írnak haikukat. Thx, Marvin!)
Cyberspace helyett megkaptuk az internetet, többmillió felhasználó közös megegyezésen alapuló hallucinációját, az adatforgalmat ábrázoló térképet, ahol a nagyvárosok, szerverparkok és az egyetemi kampuszok lüktető szupernóvák, a nagyhatalmak és az országokon átnyúló multicégek köszönik, jól vannak, Afrika gyakorlatilag már a jelen pillanatban is szeparált teszttelep, hackereink, designer drugjaink vannak, az ázsiai kultúra már régen fúzióban van az európaival, a kilencvenes évek összes csecse eszköze az adatkesztyűtől a VR-sisakig meg egyszerűen ergonómiai kurvaanyjának bizonyult.
A Trends hevült szemű szomorúnosztalgia helyett bemondja a frankót: három éve stagnál a cyberpunk, gyakorlatilag döglött, bármi is legyen az, az ébrentartó érdeklődés egyik fókuszpontja pedig Magyarország, elvégre is mi pipáltuk ki a világ jó dolgait hologramoktól a telefonközponton és a tévén keresztül a művérig, üljön le, elégtelen.
Read more
erwin olaf, le dernier cri
Erwin Olaf's video 'Le Dernier Cri' makes use of a kind of hyperrealism that is characteristic of much of his work. Here the slick realism of Hollywood films is being driven to its limits, giving the whole work an absurd character. The camera moves in one long, continuous movement through a house; it almost seems to be floating. 'Paris, printemps 2019', reads a subtitle. The atmosphere in the house is suffocating - despite the spatiality and the fragile early-spring sounds that can momentarily be heard at the start. Everything is reminiscent of the 'homely' variation of modernism that was popular in the 1950s and 1960s. (catalogue.nimk.nl)
Erwin Olaf, as you will see, is someone Paco would approach one day, commissioning him to create a doll comprising magnificient tools, the tainted lust of a housewife, the uncertainty of encountering a new civilization, grafted fuck muscles and a skinjob not entirely unknown to subterranean cults who still remember why curves were formed as curves in the first place. (via grinding.be, pic below comes from photography-now)
14sec: too short to live, too long to suffer
A Marble Arch pakisztáni negyedében egy currytől bűzlő ágyon, késelő londoni lánybandákról szóló tévéműsort nézve, a kínai negyed egyik vietnami éttermében béka felé hajolva, aztán pár héttel és egy fél kontinenssel arrébb a Sunny Corner kékkel és sötétrózsaszínnel erezett ablakai között születik meg a 14sec. A cyberpunkot úgyis szereted, dolgozd át a forgatókönyvet úgy, hogy üljön, mondja Mesmer Tomi rendező, kell bele természetfeletti elem is. Én mindenestül kihoudiniznék bármit, ami nem szilikon, vagy államadósságnyi méretű robbanás, aztán mégis máshogy alakul a történet: 2009 februárjában két napig egy csepeli gyárban, Budapest szélén forgatjuk le a valamikoratávolijövőben rövidfilmet klasszikus elemekből: elhagyatott gyártelepre menekül egy katonai vírust lopott dezertőr, az utána küldött katona pedig nem azzal szembesül, mint amire számított. A film soundtrackjét a magyar First Aid 4 Souls és a japán, cyberpunk körökben jól ismert ipari csapat, a BAAL követte el, a film konceptmunkáit a H.R. Gigerhez gyakran hasonlított Joachim Luetkének köszönhetjük, a továbbiakban Twitter-beszámolók és helyszíni fotók mellett jön a film is, teljesen tizenhatpercestül.
14sec was born in the Pakistani district of Marble Arch on a bed reeking of curry with a hacked up telly showing what looked like a documentary of stab-happy London girlie gangs, in a Viet restaurant somewhere in Chinatown with some real decent frog dish to devour and some weeks (and half a continent) later, in our face place Sunny Corner, windows tainted with blue and dark pink. I know you love cyberpunk, rework the script and make it really happen, says director Tomi Mesmer, but we'll need some supernatural to add there as well. I would honestly Houdini everything out except for silicone or explosions eating up yearly GDPs, then it all goes in a slightly different way. In February 2009 we're stranded for two days on the outskirts of Budapest, shielded by a factory rented for two days, working on classic clichés: soldier steals military virus, runs for an abandoned factory, zaibatsu sends a gun for hire after him and then things don't exactly go according to plan. Soundtrack was done by up-and-coming Hungarian electro project First Aid 4 Souls and Japanese cyberpunk massif BAAL, concept art is by none other than Joachim Luetke - and you're just about to see the movier with some past tweets, behind-the-scenes photos and the sixteen-minutes long movie itself.
Read more
matthew santoro scifi "offline" inspired by tool
There is nothing new under the sun and both the voudoun gods of the interwebs and Warren Ellis work hard to decrease your novelty and shock tolerance levels. But sometimes there's just something to keep you entertained. @vjesci just sent this over and it was both the morning coffee and the trailer for Matthew Santoro's movie Offline that scratched my brain and made me feel and look like interested.
According to the post on Fourtheye, Tool guitarist Adam Jones was a huge source of inspiration for the movie.
He basically said to look at every shot like a piece of art. If your going to put your name on something make sure its something YOU are happy with (emphasis on YOU) because if you truly consider it to be a piece of art then in a way it is a reflection of yourself.
Here's a brief synopsis on offlinemovie.com, enjoy.
purefold: webseries in the blade runner universe
IO9 breaks news on Purefold, a new webseries set in the Blade Runner universe. The project is backed up by the Scott family (Ridley Scott, being the original movie's director, his brother Tony and his son Luke), RSA Films (Scott's commercials company) and independent studio Ag8. The series will take place before the original movie's 2019 setting - the first episodes are most likely to take place in 2011. The five to ten minute shorts will actually be driven by reader input pulled in from FriendFeed - according to IO9, there might actually be some hope for Purefold to make its way to TV (or DVD). As the producers don't own the rights to the PKD novel BR is based upon (Do Androids Dream of Electroic Sheep?), you won't see any BR-specific characters or situations in the series.
Two very interesting things to note about Purefold. 1) RSA is reaching back to how the original movies used billboard ads in the cityscapes and now they're busy hooking up themselves with ad and marketing agencies. 2) Scott announced that the series will be released under Creative Commons, so basically you can remix and recut the episodes to your liking. According to IO9, Ridley Scott is the first major Hollywood director to embrace CC. (via io9)
johnny mnemonic: the deleted scenes
Unnecessary to order the Japanese DVD now. There are quite a few differences between the American version of Johnny Mnemonic that we all came to love and the Japanese one, considered to be the more obscure version - Wikipedia lists all of them. It's just been early this week I found the outtakes from the JM DVD.
neuromancer rescheduled, liv tyler in talks
Early this week, Production Weekly tweeted about Liv Tyler being in talks to star in the Neuromancer movie, the Joseph Kahn adaptation cyberpunk afficionados have criticized so openly for enrolling Hayden Christensen as Case. The movie's IMDB page lists noone at the moment - but if you've been following up on the news every now and then, you'll be delighted to notice that the 2009 screening date has been postponed until 2011. Although there's been no extra info added about Liv Tyler, the general consensus is that she's going to play Molly - even though the role of 3Jane could be more fitting.
This video above is a mock-up of the intro credits of Neuromancer and it's just how we would have wanted to see it up until the mid-nineties, I guess. The cast list is worth a peep: although it still lists Hayden Christensen as Case and makes no mention of Liv Tyler (obviously, the video's been uploaded to YouTube on the 30th of January), the names are self-explanatory and if you check the video comments, users came up with the same conclusions: Olga Kurylenko as Molly, Paul Bettany as Riviera, David Morse as Armitage, Peter Stormare as The Finn, Steve Buscemi as Dixie Flatline, Djimon Honsou as Maelcum, Christina Ricci as 3Jane, Hiroyuki Sanada as Hideo, Ian Holm as Ashpool - and, not surprisingly, Christopher Walken as Neuromancer (or as some believe, Wintermute).
gamer: fusion sci-fi foursome
The indie SF/horror movie cornerstone Twitch had this coming a long time ago under the working title Game. With a sudden twist of a rename, Gamer features Gerard Butler, Ludacris, the creative guys behind Crank and a script that actually brings lots of previous cyberpunk(ish) gems to mind:
Game (sic!) is a near-future action/thriller starring Gerard Butler (Kable) as the champion of an on-line game called "Slayers". Mind-control technology has taken society by storm and "Slayers" allows humans control other humans in mass-scale, multiplayer online game. With his every move tracked by millions, Kable's ultimate challenge becomes regaining his identity and launching an attack on the system that has imprisoned him.
This is basically Running Man (and a little bit of MadWorld, all the broadcast show elements), Avalon (the all-encompassing multiplayer game), Death Race (with the inmates and the hope of freedom). And eXistenZ. And basically all cyberpunk movies about TV shows and virtual reality and MMOs. Cyberpunk for us, squirting ladies for Butler. (via kotaku)
UPDATE 1: You remember Turbo? Teenagers playing fighting avatars is just another proof-of-concept for synchronicity. Here's what I wrote earlier and the trailer for some quick memory boost.
philip bloom: alone in tokyo
From Narita to sleeping sararimen: watch Philip Bloom's short movie Alone in Tokyo - made even more touching by the soundtrack, Air's "Alone in Kyoto". Reminds me a bit of Steve Reich cuddling with a sad, sad National Geography vlogger on vasopressine after heartbreak. (via japannewbie)
moon
Debut SF movie Moon directed by Duncan Jones is a well-executed ballistic hadouken. Get the cards right: the son of David Bowie drops a movie inspired by 2001: Space Odyssey and Blade Runner about how a 3-year long Moon maintenance job can turn into a nightmare in the last two weeks - including a weird doppelgänger, Sam Rockwell and a computer voiced by Kevin Spacey and a set designer from Alien, who's obviously not onscreen. But I surely digress.
The film's screened at Sundance this year, also in Los Angeles and New York on the 12th of June, Sony Pictures Classics starts commercial distribution from June 2009. (via io9)
kenji siratori: japanese cyberpunk institution
Kenji Siratori: acclaimed Japanese cyberpunk artist, bizarro idol, brain sex toy for linguists and rebels alike. Released nine books, over forty discs and worked with names like Portion Control, Bahntier, Pride and Fall, Prometheus Burning and Hypnoskull. According to some, he's not even alive. Yet, he talked to us about the Japanese cyberpunk scene. Be advised. He has FUCKNAMLOAD. (Originally published in THE DOSE #2.)
Read more
wanted: the trailer (and some assassin's creed)
Orgyilkosok titkos szövetsége, Angelina Jolie, Angelina Jolie fegyverrel, Angelina Jolie éjjelnappaliban kilencvenfokos szögben golyódarálva (ezt a trükköt majd Morgan Freeman is elsüti, némivel több szőr kíséretében), Angelina Jolie tengelyszaggató sportkocsimutatványai és össze-vissza ellőtt pisztolygolyók, amik természetesen mind célbatalálnak, woot: mindez a március 28-án robbanó WANTED trailerében. Nyilván elég ahhoz, ahogy felsneakeljek a West End akármelyik mozitermének tetejére, hogy a sajtóvetítés másfél óráját ott töltsem fejjel lefelé függve, a sors iróniája, hogy a link előtt tíz perccel sikerült megtalálni az Assassin's Creed egyik fejlesztői videóját (Montserrat mission), ami ötvözi a hongkongi smart mazafaka akciók higgadt gerincroppantásait a Thief középkori kaszabolásaival és néhol még Angelina Jolienál is jobb, pedig. Holnap az első dolog lesz a munkahelyen megkérdezni a HR-es kolleginákat, akad-e orgyilkosképző tréning esténként a háztetőkön.