[via The Geek Twins]

Hmm. Suddenly I’m in the mood for cheese…

[via Poe TV]

Just in time to promote the upcoming release of J.J. Abrams’ Stra Trek on DVD and Blu-ray, it’s the Star Trek Gag Reel!

UPDATE: The video has been taken down. So instead, please enjoy this climactic fight sequence from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock…to the tune of Benny Hill.

[via io9]

• Interviews & Profiles:
  • @Tor.com: Tim Burton (9).
  • @Innsmouth Free Press: Alex Irvine.
  • @SFWA: Ysabeau S. Wilce.
• @Tor.com: What Young Adult Lit is and isn’t.
• Writing advice: Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Freelancer’s Survival Guide – Setbacks Part 2.
• AMC’s Alex Zalben is making his comic book debut this week with Hulk Team-Up #1. [via SciFi Scanner]
• Here’s a promising new superhero web comic: Kisenja.
• Atomic Fez announces publication of:
  • Twisthorn Bellow by Rhys Hughes
  • The Terror and the Tortoiseshell by John Travis
  • The Beautiful Red by James Cooper
  • Wicked Delights by John Llewellyn Probert.
• Topless Robot deciphers NBC Marketing fluff which shows that NBC Admits Heroes Has Been Sucking. Tell me about it.
• Head on over to the awesome Drivers and Sundry to see George Lucas’s student film, Freiheit.
• Over at Wired, Michael Peck offers A Military Analysis of District 9.
• At AMC, John Scalzi Ranks Star Trek’s Directors.
• Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page & Liv Tyler to star in Super, a superhero comedy written and directed by James Gunn.
• Lists:
  • SCI FI Wire lists 6 things people really hate about our beloved District 9.
  @AMC’s Future of Classic: 6 Great Movies That Are 6th in a Series.
  • Mike Brotherton lists The 10 Best “Silly” Science Fiction Movies.
  • @ScifiSquad: The Top 10 African-American Sci-Fi Characters.
  • @AMC: Mary Robinette Kowal lists Fantasy Films’ Greatest Quest Partners.

• Interviews & Profiles
  • Two interviews with LeVar Buron:
    • @DVDs Worth Watching: Levar talks about being Black Lightning in the upcoming animated Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.
    • @NPR: on the end of Reading Rainbow.
  • SF Legend Frederik Pohl on L. Ron Hubbard (part 2). Sez Pohl: “He was a chick magnet.”
  • @Suite101.com: David Weber (Off Armageddon Reef).
  • @Off the Shelf: a podcast-interview with Tobias Buckell. [via Tobias Buckell]
  • @Writing Excuses: a podcast-interview with Mary Robinette Kowal.
  • @Stomping on Yeti: Paolo Bacigalupi. (The Windup Girl)
• @The Guardian, Tola Onanuga tells us Why District 9 isn’t racist against Nigerians: “If District 9 ‘hates Nigerians’, as a Facebook group would have it, then it hates its powerful, white characters even more.”
• Tor.com — not Tor the publisher — debuts its first title as a separate publishing entity: Year’s Best Fantasy 9 edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. (Table of Contents here.)
• “DC Comics is being renamed DC Entertainment, and will as such focus on all media, not just comics.” [via Topless Robot]
• Halo-8 Entertainment has slated Matt Pizzolo and Brian Giberson to create an “illustrated film” adaptation in early 2010 of Xombie; Reanimated, a horror/sci-fi adventure comic book created by James Farr, published by Devil’s Due Publishing.
• The latest issue of Concatenation is posted.
• Does anyone expect (or hope, or fear) Stallone will follow up his Cyborg Rambo with the just-green-lit Judge Dredd remake?
• Real (Cool) Science: NASA has released shiny new snapshots from the The Hubble Space Telescope. [via Neatorama]
• Real Cool in 4 words (one hyphenated): Animatronic Fire-Breathing Dragon Boat.
• Your geek-craft for the week: How to Make a Star Trek Phaser. Yawn. Call me when I can learn how to make a Yeoman Rand.
• Lists:
  • @SCI FI Wire: Your guide to 11 sci-fi punks. [via Alyx Dellamonica]
  • @Fandomania: Ultimate 20 Comic Book Film Adaptations.
  • @The Galaxy Express: 5 Ways Digital Publishers Could Increase Science Fiction Romance Sales.

• Interviews & Profiles:
  • @Philip José Farmer International Bibliography: Win Scott Eckert.
  • Authors By Design interviews Karen Miller.
  • Fantasy Magazine interviews Lev Grossman.
• GalleyCat asks; What’s Urban Fantasy? What’s Paranormal Romance?
• Free excerpt: Underland Press has posted a lengthy excerpt of Jeff VanderMeer’s Finch. [via Jeff VanderMeer, who also eveals other cool Finch extras...]
• Jo Walton’s love/hate relationship with funny fiction: “I hate things that are trying to be funny, rather than letting the humour bubble up from underneath.”
• Joseph Mallozzi’s October Book of the Month Club Selection is…Open Your Eyes, by Paul Jessup (which I happened to like.)
• Jim C. Hines tells us The Hugo Awards are shaped that way for a reason.
• Reactions to recent Gender discussions from S.M. Duke and OF Blog of the Fallen.
• Super Punch shares H.R. Giger’s ads for Pioneer.
• Summer Glau is better than my girlfriend.
• At AMC, John Scalzi will undoubtedly ignite even more nerdgassing over his new article, Epic SciFi Design FAILs – Star Trek Edition.
• Lists:
  • @Rotten Tomatoes: Respectable Horror Sequels
  • @io9: The Science Fiction Sitcoms That Never Were.
  • @SCI FI Wire: 12 weird sci-fi statues you can buy for your garden.
  • @BestScienceFictionStories: 5 Great Science Fiction Stories that Contain Talking Animals.

• Interviews and Profiles:
  • @If You’re Just Joining Us: Jeff VanderMeer.
  • In a video over at Angry Robot Books, Dan Abnett talks about writing.
  • @The Nebula Awards website: Jeffrey Ford.
  • The Los Angeles Times profiles John Twelve Hawks…kinda…since he writes anonymously.
  • @Suite101.com: Esther Friesner.
  • @BoingBoing: An exit interview with Doctor Who: David Tennant and Russell T. Davies, interviewed by Richard Metzger.
  • John Scalzi turns the Whatever mike over to C.L. Anderson, author of Bitter Angels.
• Jay Lake on The Kindle $9.99 boycott vs Green.
• Nancy Kress likes Paolo Bacigalupi’s debut novel, The Windup Girl.
• Jeffrey Somers has sold the film rights to his Avery Cates books: The Electric Church, The Digital Plague, and The Eternal Prison.
• @The Art Department, Irene Gallo shares Jon Foster’s Boneshaker sketches. [Homer Simpson Gurgle Noise...]
• Tim Holman plays amateur (and awesome) statistician again with this Urban Fantasy Growth chart. [via GalleyCat]
• Ian Randal Strock is no slouch when it comes to chartage either. Check out his chart of Number of times Dr. Sam Beckett leaped into various states (and foreign countries) during Quantum Leap.
• George Lucas has been named as a 2009 California Hall of Fame inductee.
• Lists:
  • @Wired: Best Science Visualization Videos of 2009.
  • @Mental Floss: 7 Space Missions to Remember
  • @MTV: Horror Franchises That Rob Zombie Should Tackle After Halloween.
  • @Unreality: An Awesome Collection of Star Trek Bloopers. [via Look At This]

• Interviews & Profiles:
  • Suvudu has a video interviews with Aaron Allston, Christie Golden, and Troy Denning, authors of the Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi series.
  • The Nebula Awards website interviews Charles Coleman Finlay.
  • SciFiNow has an interview with Director Alex Proyas.
• The World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award winners for 2009 are Jane Yolen and Ellen Asher.
• Win Scott Eckert posts covers for Phantom Chronicles 2.
• Cory Doctorow explains Why free ebooks should be part of the plot for writers: “…the right time to do a free ebook release is when the printed book is available…”
• David Brin has some issues with LOST, that “infuriating television show”.
• The Outer Alliance is a new group dedicated to intelligent discussion of LGBT issues in speculative literature. [via Cheryl's Mewsings via Hal Duncan]
• Amy Sterling Casil looks at more Star Trek book covers.
• James Wallace Harris asks: Has the Universe Gotten Too Big for Science Fiction?
• EVENT: As part of the Fantastic Fiction free reading series, Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present Andrew Fox (The Good Humor Man and Calorie 3501) & Chris Genoa (Foop! and the upcoming Lick Your Neighbor) Wednesday September 16th, 7pm at KGB Bar in NYC.
• Quiz: Can you name the books of George Orwell?
• The chicago-sf.org has some tidbist of interest:
  • Peter Watts (posting as ‘megasquid’) answers questions about his book Starfish.
  • The reading group’s September selection is Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr. [via Allan Rosewarne]
• Apex is running a promotion in support of Harlan County Horrors.
• @Wired: Marvel Moves Into Motion Comics With Spider-Woman.
• The Steampunk Workshop points us to the cool steampunk artwork of Ivan Mavrovic.
• Publishers Weekly‘s Genreville blog gets a reboot and a new (redirect) domain name.
• Horror Squad looks at science fiction horror films. [via ScifiSquad]
• Retro-Geek-cool: USS Enterprise record player.
• Lists:
  • Neil Gaiman and Wil Wheaton make the list of Top 10 Twitter Feeds to Follow by HowStuffWorks.
  • @Geeks are Sexy: Top 5 Places to get Free Science Fiction Online.
  • @GeekDad: 5 Science Fiction/Fantasy Books We Wish Had Never Been Written.
  • @Comicbook.com: 10 Fall Movies For Comic Book Geeks.
  • @Bookstove: 5 Sci-Fi Books That Should be Made into Movies.
  • @io9: The Best of SciFi’s Oppressed Alien Species.
  • @SFX: SciFi’s 26 Greatest Tearjerkers.
  • @Fancast: 50 Sci Fi Things You Must Watch Now.
  • @SCI FI Wire: The 10 most badass sci-fi battlesuits ever.
  • A response to Quentin Tarantino’s picks for Top 20 Movies of the last 17 years: Joseph Mallozzi’s Top 20 Movies of the Past 17 Years.
  • Just…Wow. Concept Art World has 25 Inspiring Examples of Spaceships and Aircraft.

• The LA Times Lev Grossman (The Magicians).
• The LA Times reviews Joe R. Lansdale and USA Today reviews Lev Grossman.
• Bibliophile Stalker interviews Lavie Tidhar.
• Diana Pharaoh Francis talks about Serializing a Novel at SF Novelists.
• Kaaron Warren has been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.
• John Scalzi gives an update on BigIdeaAuthors.com.
• Space Atoms is an upcoming short SciFi comedy film from the UK.
• Irene Gallo, Tor’s Art Director, has a great art-centric roundup of WorldCon posted.
• Scott Edelman has posted video of his 2000 Nebula Awards Weekend speech…and blames Paul Levinson for the demise of Science Fiction Age.
• The Angry Black Woman is soliciting titles for mindblowing science fiction by people of color.
• Damnation Books, publishers of horror, dark fantasy, paranormals, thrillers, science fiction and dark-themed erotica, is giving away a 2nd book this week for folks who join their reader’s list.
• SciFiNow reminds us of this retro Star Trek spoof from Saturday Night Live.
• Real Science:
  • Astrobiology and the quest for extraterrestrial life: “The discovery of life elsewhere in the Solar System would ‘profoundly change our understanding of where we came from and our place in the cosmos’, astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell told Sam Wong ahead of his public lecture on the subject this week…”
  • TechRivet points us to this interesting article about the feasibility of a lunar nuclear reactor. Anyone else getting the image of the Moon from the remake of The Time Machine with Guy Pearce?
• A bar in Minneapolis reopens as a zombie-themed bar. [via Neatorama]
• Mmm…Doctor Who cakes… [via HardcoreNerdity]
• Lists:
  • Some genre films make Quentin Tarantino Reveals His Top 20 Movies.
  • Mania lists 7 SFX in Movies That Changed Everything.
  • Marooned rounds up an impressive list of facsimiles of first edition sf book dust jackets selling for $22 each.
  • Also from Marooned: Den of Geek’s Top 10 potential sci-fi franchises Hollywood ignored.

• News to me: Amy Sterling also moonlights as a cover artist! Check out her survey of Star Trek book covers. (Then check out her photoshopped version of Star Trek: Priceline Negotiator.)
• Zombie Girl is a documentary about a twelve year-old girl from Austin, TX, who is making her own zombie film. It’s free online (and below) until August 20th. [via Cinematical]
• Suite101 points us to this old Crescent Blues interviews William Browning Spencer and calls him a “Sci-Fi Fantasy Genius”.
• Free Fiction: “Also Starring” by Cliff Burns.
• Real Science: Space.com reports that the first solar sail might soon fly. [via Gravity Lens]
• The New Yorker lists 7 Essential Fantasy Reads for the Post-Novice fantasy Reader. [via educating alice]

• Interviews & Profiles:
  • io9 talks with Hugo-Winner Ellen Datlow (editor of the upcoming Lovecraft Unbound) on the art of editing short fiction.
  • Omnivoracious talks with Hugo-Winner Ann VanderMeer, editor of Weird Tales.
  • The LA Times talks with Michael Moorcock.
• @CNet: Why does this e-book cost $14? “Dear e-book publishers: stop gouging us.”
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch continues her Freelancer’s Survival Guide series talking about time.
• Heather Massey’s been busy. First she Defines Science Fiction Romance, then she asks: Does Science Fiction Romance Need More Alpha Heroes?
• There are some nice, fantastical art pieces from Patri Balanovsky at Gorilla Artfare.
• Orbit Publisher Tim Holman offers up an illuminating Chart of Fantasy Art Cover Elements.
• Holy Copyright Caper, Batman! Warner Brothers and DC Lose Certain Superman Rights.
• Superhero Nation explains How to Avoid Info-Dumping.
• Here’s a Star Wars collectible that, at first glance, looks dirty, but really isn’t.
• These Star Wars Lightsaber Chopsticks work great with the General Grievous’ Chicken! http://bit.ly/15foNZ [via Derryl Murphy]
• Jen at Multi-Genre fan will not be watching Stargate Universe.
• Den of Geek looks at The Costumes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
• Real Science: “Two recent scientific discoveries mark the latest steps toward the ultimate medical-diagnosis technology: the tricorder.” [via Duderina]
• Lists:
  • 100 Best Comic Book Covers
  • Geek Dad lists 10 Sci-Fi Movies We’d Like to Throw Into a Black Hole.
  • @VideoHound: The Ten All-Time Best Years for Sci-Fi Movies

• The controversy over Justine Larbalestier’s cover for Liar results in a new cover. [via Bibliophile Stalker]
• RainTaxi interviews Catherynne M. Valente.
• Fantasy Book Critic interviews: Jennifer Fallon.
• As of today, urban fantasy author, Seanan McGuire (Rosemary and Rue), joins Book View Cafe.
• For the next two weeks Karen Miller will be guest-posting at the Babel Clash blog. [via Orbit]
• Adam Roberts wants you to pick the best cover for Jack Vance’s Lyonesse. [via Pyr-o-mania]
• John Clute reviews George Zebrowski’s Empties. [via Locus Online]
• Omnivoracious looks at a few Young Adult titles.
• There’s an interesting discussion going on at Asimov’s forums about SF Masterpieces Ruined by the Ending.
• Norilana Books has acquired the Jane Austen mashup Mansfield Mark and Mummies by by Jane Austen and Vera Nazarian.
• Locus Online has posted the contents of the August 2009 issue, which features the obituary of the Magazines longtime Editor-in-Chief, Charles N. Brown.
• File 770 #156 has been posted at eFanzines.
• @TeleRead: Why print books are like zombies.
• John Anealio posts his latest Sci-Fi Song regarding the recent flap over George R.R. Martin getting fan backlash over his Game of Thrones delays.
• John Scalzi talks about the chances of this year’s Hugo nominees making it to the big screen.
• Terry Gilliam wants to adapt Philip K. Dick’s The World Jones Made.
• Can someone explain to me why Ridley Scott, the man who said SciFi film is dead, is not only directing an Alien prequel, but no an adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World? What, is he done with Monopoly already?
• Wikipedia features this handy List of science fiction film and television series by lengths.
• Geekend asks: Which characters do you want to see in the Star Trek sequel? I think seeing Chief Wiggum would be cool, but only if it could realistically explained by a wormhole to another dimension where people are yellow.
• Mary Robinette Kowal lists Iconic Fantasy Weapons. Bouns points for including Jackie Chan. (Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.)
• In response to the table of contents of The Mammoth book of Mindblowing SF, Marooned has posted the TOC for the imaginary The Mammoth e-Book of Mindblowing Mars SF.

• @Book View Cafe: Ursula K. Le Guin on Literary Bests: “I don’t believe there are three ‘best’ works of American or any other fiction of the last sixty years — or ten ‘best,’ or a hundred. Maybe a couple of thousand?”
• Patrick at Stomping on Yeti continues his profiles of Tomorrow’s Big Genre Stars, this time with Chris Roberson.
• Suvudu has parts 3 and 4 of a video interview with Patrick Rothfuss (Wise Man’s Fear).
• Neil Clarke: Save the Semiprozine Part 2 and Part 3.
• Abigail Nussbaum on io9, conflicts of interest, and banning: “You can’t review your own sponsor and expect to be taken seriously as a news source, though of course it remains an open question whether that is a state that io9 has ever aspired to.” Ouch! [via Niall Harrison and Graham Sleight]
• Clive Thompson on the Future of Reading in a Digital World: “Books are the last bastion of the old business model–the only major medium that still hasn’t embraced the digital age.”
• Nacho Vigalondo (director of the awesome Timecrimes) is working on a new Sci-Fi video game comedy called Gangland.
• Geekend asks: What are your Low-budget science-fiction film favorites?
• John Scalzi looks at SciFi’s Baddest Computers.
• Mary Robinette Kowal goes back to the future with Fantasy’s Top Ten Time-Traveling Devices.
• Jerry Bruckheimer buys rights to IDW’s graphic novel World War Robot.
• Topless Robot lists The 10 Lamest Star Trek Villains. Good call on the Probe from Star Trek IV.
• Movie Crunch lists 12 Children’s Movies That Adults Love. A sort of counter-list to my own 7 Sci-Fi Movies For Parents to Share with Their Kids.

• The New Yorker chats with Ursula K. Le Guin about The Left Hand of Darkness. [via Locus Online]
• The Vietnam News interviews the head of the VFSF, biologist and SF writer Vu Kim Dung. [via The World SF News Blog]
• Locus Online has the Scribe Award Winners, honoring the best in media tie-in fiction.
• Peter V. Brett’s debut fantasy novel The Warded Man has been optioned for film by the people behind Resident Evil.
• Tolkien’s heirs want production of The Hobbit stopped. [via Locus Online]
• Sez Joe Abercrombie: “RPGs have nothing like the wide cultural purchase they used to…” as evidenced by his neighbor’s lack of knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons.
• @ThGalaxyExpress: How Science Fiction Romance Can Reinvent Penny Dreadfuls Into Something Wonderful.
• For the nightclubbing geek: Red Shirt Star Trek Cologne. Smell your best on your last away mission.
• Warren Ellis is Scripting King Arthur. “It’s NOT an Excalibur remake, ok?”
• MentatJack lists The Chocolate and Peanut Butter of Noir and Speculative Fiction.