Goff

Anyone who knows me knows I've got a peculiar obsession for a piece of cinema hardware even to the point of contracting with Jim Key, an old-school prop and miniature maker, toward making me a replica. Apparently, I'm not a alone. There's a cottage industry around this item (as with most iconic movie vehicles) that, I think, speaks more toward the artist who created it than the film it debuted in. It's the Nautilus from Walt Disney's 1954 adaptation of Jules Verne's 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. The boat's design by Harper Goff is a (now that we have a term for it) Steampunk masterpiece. Victorian flourishes. Amphibious attributes. Wicked blades meant for ripping the guts out of warships. Nestled in the center of this phenomenal beast is the most glorious man cave ever created for a sociopathic genius. 

A bit later in Goff's career he teamed again with LEAGUES' director, Richard Fleischer, to design another submarine this time destined to explore inside a human body in FANTASTIC VOYAGE. Goff's Proteus is a sleek sports car of submersible science coolness with wraparound windows and an onboard laser cannon. I loved these designs at first sight but it was quite a few years later when I learned Harper Goff was behind both. I'm a sucker for vehicles of spectacular intent. 

My New Gig

My nomadic TV writerly path has led me to a great group of creative types and a show that's very much in my genre wheelhouse.

Like the Way He Thinks

Amazon's Jeff Bezo's got to wondering. Then he went looking for the past and found it.

Ex-Apple Engineer Says New Apple TV UI Rejected by Jobs

Well. That explains it. The new UI has been driving me nuts. 

OS X, X Years Later

A good take on the 10th Anniversay of Apple's OS X operating system.

It's Still Moving

Camera mapping software puts even more creepiness into THE SHINING. 

Via Daring Fireball

Drive, she said

The Chase from Philippe Gamer on Vimeo.

Full screen it. Via Coudal.

Listen Up. Travis McGee is Talking

The late author John D. MacDonald wrote some of the best, if not the best mystery fiction in the last half of the 20th Century. Stephen King agrees with me. Today Audible.com released a bunch of his novels centered on his best creation, salvage expert Travis McGee. Now when you think of salvage don't think of junk or shipwrecks. Think of lost souls, helpless victims, men and women who have no one else to turn to. Do yourself a great favor. Go get yourself a McGee.

Jony Ive

A little Q&A with the fellow likely responsible for that thing in your hand. 

When Exploded Pigs Fly

Oh, factory farms. What sweet delights you bring.

A strange new growth has emerged from the manure pits of midwestern hog farms. The results are literally explosive.

Since 2009, six farms have blown up after methane trapped in an unidentified, pit-topping foam caught a spark. In the afflicted region, the foam is found in roughly 1 in 4 hog farms.

There’s nothing farmers can do except be very careful. Researchers aren’t even sure what the foam is.