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...This week one of the twin pioneers of this pop renaissance releases an eagerly-awaited second album. Air's 10,000 Hz Legend is a sprawling baroque extravaganza. In 60 minutes of multifaceted music, it sparkles with unlikely references: Pink Floyd, cult sci-fi novelist Philip K. Dick, Eric Satie, White Album-era Beatles, German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk and the Beach Boys are all in there somewhere. But there's also impeccably modern production and the latest computer technology. Air transcends its influences to create something dazzlingly unique. The duo from Versailles - a well-off suburb west of Paris...
...first sci-fi project since 2001, Kubrick had planned, as Spielberg says, "to take a step beyond the sentient relationship that HAL 9000 has with Bowman and Poole, and tell a kind of future fairy tale about artificial intelligence." When he suggested that Spielberg direct it, "I thought he was out of his mind. He was giving up one of the best stories he had ever told. But he said, 'This story is closer to your sensibilities than my own.' " Once Spielberg began work on the film, at the behest of the director's widow Christiane and her brother, Kubrick...
...Together David and Joe travel through garish landscapes that, as imagined by artist Chris Baker (who was on the project in the early years) and production designer Rick Carter, handsomely evoke every sci-fi dystopia from Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange to Blade Runner and this year's Monkeybone. Come to the Flesh Fair--a sort of Thunderdome demolition derby where vengeful humans, led by the demagogic Lord Johnson-Johnson (Ireland's Brendan Gleeson), set hapless automatons aflame--and try to get out fast. Spend the night in Rouge City, a city of sensual schlock that is filled with Kubrick...
...telling that to the millions who have bought Apple's iMac. The academicians are also under-estimating the attraction of ultra-portability. In the public consciousness, wearables are the logical future - the destiny, if you like - of computing. Think of all those neat-o gadgets that populate sci-fi flicks and cartoons. The ones that grab the imagination are usually small, affixed to the wrist, the lapel or the belt - in other words, wearable. Or consider the now-ubiquitous Palm handheld computer. When it first hit the market, all it could do was store phone numbers and messages somewhat more...
...Guin is also one of the few science fiction writers to achieve widespread literary recognition outside the sometimes insular sci-fi and fantasy community. Kurt Vonnegut described the problem while looking back at the publication of his first novel, _The Sirens of Titan_. "I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled 'science fiction' ever since," he wrote, "and I would like out, particularly because so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal...