I have mixed feelings about The Clone Wars animated series. On the one hand, I've found it to be a great source of ideas and inspiration for my Star Wars RPG campaign, but on the other, I hate that Anakin is being made into a bigger hero than Luke. I'm hoping this starts to change in Season 2; we should really start to see the influence of the Dark Side on him (as well as his relationship with Palpatine). If they can use the series to help setup his eventual fall, then it will be far more appealing to me.

V was one of my favorite mini-series as a kid, and not just because it was one of the first times I was allowed to stay up late on a school night. The theme of benevolent oppressors struck a cord with my proto-libertarian self, and I loved the battle for Earth that unfolded over the course of several nights.

ABC is resurrecting the series for Fall 2009, and I'm cautiously optimistic. Here's the trailer:

The main lesson of the series -- beware aliens (or politicians) bearing gifts -- is just as relevant now as it was then (even more so now, given the state of the economy and reactions to it). Moreover, it could be a good fall for science fiction and geekdom as V takes its place alongside new seasons of Dollhouse and Chuck.

My column about  science fiction folks worth following on Twitter is up on SciFiWire.com. It's a pretty expansive list, with 18 people in the main story, and another five that didn't make the active list, but were still worth noting. This pretty big project -- you wouldn't think it would be, Twitter being Twitter -- but it takes a goodly amount of time to find, follow and read this amount of Twitter feeds (actually, there were more than this during the research phase).

The complete Robotech series is available as digital downloads on Amazon.com, iTunes, and Xbox Live. Each major story arc -- Macross Saga, Southern Cross and New Generation -- is sold seperately. You can also buy or rent the sequel to the series, Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles.

That said, it's not particularly affordable. Buying the Protoculture Collection of the complete series on DVD is only $79 on Amazon ($129 retail); it's $112.97 for the whole series on iTunes. You can also buy individual episodes for $1.99, which seems pricey given that each episode is only about 23 minutes long. It's not a bad price to sample the series, but personally I can't see buying the entire thing in digital format when I could have the series on DVD for significantly less.

If I ever get back to writing my Libertarian Gamer columns, I'll be sure to do one on the Living Dead. Zombie flicks have had political overtones almost since the beginning reaching their pinnacle with George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Reason.com writer Tim Cavanaugh surveys  three books on the subject -- including my favorite Pretend We’re Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture by Annalee Newitz -- and offers his own thoughts on the subject matter: 

No zombie discussion would be complete without orotund socio-political theory, so here’s mine: By foregrounding the question of how much dignity there can be in death and dying, the era of physician-assisted suicide and Terri Schiavo has spurred the recent revival of the zombie film. The British director Danny Boyle revived his career with the zombie-type plague picture 28 Days Later (2002).

Frak has gone mainstream. In the article "The curse word 'Battlestar Galactica' created" looks at the science fiction origins of the word, and how it's been creeping out of fandom, and into non-genre use.

The question raised in the article -- what makes a curse word a curse word -- is a good one. Is it strictly the meaning of the word? Is it the sound? Is it some combination of the two? If frak became widely used as an alternative to its bastard stepfather, would it be as taboo? Is the reason why the FCC doesn't get its panties in a bunch when it's said 30 or so times an episode because most people don't get the slang? Or is it the people who crusade against curse words simply haven't learned about it yet?

I'm inclined to say "all of the above". It's an obscure word whose true meaning is easily understood, but the people who'd need to here it in order to be outraged by don't watch Galactica. Further, to the uninitiated, it sounds like one of the myriad made up words everyone uses to avoid dropping the f-bomb in polite company.

I've never been a huge Warhammer 40,000 fan, but it's been slowly corrupting my brain for the last few weeks as Berin's been talking about the novels on and off at Uncle Bear and fellow Blackrazor Damon picked up not one, but two copies of the Warhammer 40K: Dark Heresy RPG. I'm sorely tempted to start picking up the books myself, but for now I'll confine my fix to this Space Hulk stop action fan film. My only complaint about it would be that it ends on a positive note -- really, how often does that happen in the Warhammer universe?

If you're like me, you saw the shelf-based Dock for Mac OS X Leopard and thought ... hey, I could put some heads in a jar on that! And now you can, thanks to the Futurama "Heads in Jarks" icons from Icon Factory. I give you my ... "Al Gore's Head in a Jar" Dock! (which will be even better once 10.5.2 is out, and you can assign icons to Stacks).

The icons are available for Windows as well as Mac. They've got a bunch of others as well, including one for The Crew, The Humans, The Aliens, and The Robots.

The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival 2007 will be held October 5-7 at the historic Hollywood Theatre in Portland, Oregon. It will include eight feature films, 13 special guests, discussion panels, world and regional premieres, There will also be Lovecraftian vendors, multiple door prizes, and more than 20 short films.

Tickets are $12 per day per person on Friday, $15 per day per person on Saturday, $15 per day per person on Sunday. Advance tickets can be purchased at http://www.hplfilmfestival.com.

According to the organizers:

The 14th annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival shall prove to be our most exciting festival yet. This year we have some great films lined up along with thought provoking discussion panels and compelling live events."