Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Science Fiction

Robot Sci-Fi 100 Year Anniversary

This week on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the robot in science fiction. The word “robot” was coined for Karel Čapek’s play “R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots),” first performed on January 25, 1921.

“Robot” derives from the Slavic word “robota,” meaning literally “serf labor,” and figuratively “drudgery” or “hard work.” But we all know from “The Golem” and “Frankenstein” that man-made “men” don’t always develop as planned. Clearly Čapek’s robots didn’t read Asimov’s Three Laws.

Join us as we meander through the history of the robot in film and television, from “Metropolis” to Marvel’s Vision. Along the way, we’ll marvel at Lew Place’s life-size replicas of Robby the Robot and B-9 from “Lost in Space.”

Try not to blow a circuit. It’s 100 years since the first robot uprising! CRUSH… KILL… DESTROY! Or enjoy an oil-bath with C-3PO. Leave your comments and observations, as we live-stream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EST.

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner/

January 22, 2021
Triffids Terror Roy’s Sci-Fi Corner

Don’t trifle with Triffids! Try not to tremble at two hours of terror and terrariums on last night’s Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.

Our flowering genius will remain in bloom, when we return next week to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the robot in science-fiction. Join us in getting lubricated. We’ll go nuts ‘til you bolt, as we livestream on Facebook, next Friday evening at 7:00 EST.

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner/timeline

January 16, 2021
October Crossword Sci-Fi Music Puzzle

October. No other month makes the fantastic seem more tangible. The silvery light, the crisp autumn air, the lengthening shadows spur one to activity, creativity, and reflection. With Halloween as their mastering spirit, the 31 days are by turns ebullient, prankish, and frolicsome. Earth and trees are decked in motley. Life and landscape are transformed.

This month’s Classic Ross Amico crosswords will celebrate music and the imagination, beginning today with a hot cider toast to the astonishing influence of science fiction.

To fill out the puzzle, follow the link and select “solve online” at the bottom of the page. You’ll then be able to type directly into the squares. Once you feel you’ve exhausted the puzzle, you’ll find the solutions by clicking on “Answer Key PDF.”

Klaatu barada nikto! Test your knowledge of “Hi-Fi Sci-Fi” here:

https://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/Data/2020.10/0407/04073509.417.html

October 4, 2020
Time After Time A Sci-Fi Romance Gem

Is it a science fiction movie? A chase thriller? A fish-out-of-water comedy?

It turns out it’s all three, AND a quirky Mary Steenburgen romance.

Malcolm McDowell, usually an incorrigible hooligan – or at best an anti-hero – gets his chance to play sweet-natured, as H.G. Wells, in pursuit of perennial bad guy David Warner, as Jack the Ripper, in “Time After Time” (1979). This playful piece of high concept postmodernism marked the directorial debut of Nicholas Meyer, who had rocketed to fame, just a few years earlier, on his revisionist psychological study of another notable Victorian, Sherlock Holmes, in “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.”

Roy Bjellquist and I will round out our time-travel weekend (which begin on Friday, with a discussion of George Pal’s “The Time Machine”), with a little table talk about “Time After Time,” on a special Sunday edition of Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.

All’s Wells that ends Wells. Chime in and join the conversation. This timely exchange will be live-streamed on Facebook, Sunday evening at 7:00 EDT.

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner/

September 20, 2020
Journey to the Far Side of the Sun Review

Remember the classic Marx Brothers mirror routine from “Duck Soup?” Expand that to an hour and forty minutes, and you’ve got “Journey to the Far Side of the Sun” (1969). Okay, maybe without the laughs.

Roy Bjellquist and I will talk ourselves blue over Gerry Anderson’s big-screen debut, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Anderson made his fortune creating futuristic television series, such as “Thunderbirds,” “Captain Scarlet,” and “Space: 1999.”

Deliberately-paced, but with captivating special effects and groovy production design, Anderson’s “Journey” is never boring. It can, however, be a little WTF. Sure, the entire premise is like something you came up with as a teenager, when feeling your way into your first philosophical discussions with a close friend. But the execution is diverting and certainly spectacular.

What if there was a parallel Earth, hidden from our view, on the far side of the sun? And what if we were to travel there? What would we find? To tell more would be to give it all away. We’ll save that for tomorrow night!

Relive that dorm room experience. Leave a comment and join the conversation. Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner live-streams on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT.

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner/

PHOTO: Something stinks here… and it ain’t the cologne!

September 10, 2020

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