From MetaFilter:

"In 1999, 23-year-old singer-songwriter Bree Sharp recorded "David Duchovny," a fangirl ode to the male star of The X-Files. After the demo tape proved popular in Duchovny's trailer, two X-Files assistants created a celebrity-filled music video as a gag for the show Christmas party. A grainy bootleg of the video quickly went pre-Youtube-viral among X-Philes. Twelve years later, a high-definition version of the David Duchovny video sees daylight for the first time."

As someone who has had that grainy bootleg on my hard drive since the days of usenet, I am both ridiculously excited and completely earwormed by this.

The MetaFilter post contains the list of celebs who appear in the video and all kinds of Bree Sharp trivia. And the final paragraph is worth the price of admission:

THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE MONOTONE
David Duchovny currently stars in the Showtime dramedy Californication. At age 51, he continues to be brooding and comely.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 1 volume 1 coming August 21st.

It's only twenty bucks (14 if you pre-order from Amazon) for 30 episodes, which is a damn good deal.

From the Star Wars fan page on Facebook
Happy Star Wars Day! Yes, it really is, at least according to both Wikipedia and Wookieepedia. To celebrate, here's a linkspam.

Denver Post: Photos: Star Wars Day – “May the fourth be with you”

Google News results for Star Wars Day.

I Can Haz Cheezeburger's Happy Star Wars Day site.

Posts with the Star Wars tag on I Can Haz Cheeseburger's Set Phasers to LOL

Watch out tomorrow, for then it will be The Revenge of the 5ith!

Felicia Day spills the beans on her brand new internet empire

In 2007, Felicia Day launched her internet gaming webseries The Guild. Five years and oodles of fans later, she's now unveiling her absolutely nefarious plot to become the Tycoon of the Internet.

This morning saw the debut of Geek & Sundry, Day's new YouTube channel that showcases everything from Hellboy cartoons to a science fiction book club to Wil Wheaton's own gaming show.

Interview at the link in the title.

Tumblr.

io9 has the officially approved embed from Global TV in Canada.

In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, I give the gift of crossover fan art.

What if Dr. Seuss had written and drawn Star Wars?

The university even issued a press release about it.

Michigan State University: Student video goes viral
Published: Feb. 15, 2012

The lives of twins Justin and John Grosjean changed when they released a video - "Skyrim: 2012" to their channel on YouTube.

Justin, a media arts and technology senior at Michigan State University, and his brother John, a student at Oakland University, have always loved the games produced by the company Bethesda Softworks. They began making videos about six months ago and it was only natural that they wanted to make a video out of one of the games they love - Skyrim.

But they didn't expect it to be such a big hit.
...
The number of subscribers to their YouTube channel also went through the roof, from 66 to almost 15,000 in a week. The video currently has almost 2 million views, and their channel has more than 23,000 subscribers.
...
The Grosjean brothers have officially made GrosBrosPros a limited liability corporation and are also now partners with YouTube, meaning they will continue to produce content on a regular basis. The film event coordinator for the Phoenix Comic Con reached out to the brothers and asked if he could show their films at the event. They produced a follow up video to their original success called "Skyrim 2012: Part Two," which has almost 290,000 views. The Grosjeans hope to eventually grow from making web episodes to feature-length films.

In case you can't see Michigan State University's video at the link in the headline, the YouTube version is here.

First, Season Two of Game of Thrones is returning April 1st (no fooling).

Second, CW is developing a Green Arrow show. It's by the producers of the Green Lantern film, so the author is less than enthused.

Yes, really.


Return of the Jedi

So how are we feeling about Star Wars: The Old Republic? I just finished installing and patching this morning. I played around with some character creation, but haven't a chance to do much else. But even in doing that little bit, I realized how dated WoW's graphics really are. I suppose that's a good thing in some ways--WoW can run on almost game PC, at this point.

Either way, I'd love to have a new game on my list. I'm a little pissed about WoW actually adding the panderan. It just feels like more comic relief.

If I weren't a fan of Coates before, I am now. SQUEE Awesome!

Athhilezar? Watch Your Fantasy World Language

“The days of aliens spouting gibberish with no grammatical structure are over,” said Paul R. Frommer, professor emeritus of clinical management communication at the University of Southern California who created Na’vi, the language spoken by the giant blue inhabitants of Pandora in “Avatar.” Disney recently hired Mr. Frommer to develop a Martian language called Barsoomian for “John Carter,” a science-fiction movie to arrive in March.

The shift is slowly transforming the obscure hobby of language construction into a viable, albeit rare, career and engaging followers of fantasies like “Lord of the Rings,” “Game of Thrones” and “Avatar” on a more fanatical level.

At “Game of Thrones” viewing parties in San Francisco, fans rewatched Dothraki scenes to study the language in a workshop-like setting. Last October, a group of Na’vi speakers from half a dozen countries convened in Sonoma County, Calif., for a gathering known as “Teach the Teachers.” Mr. Frommer gave attendants tips on grammar and vocabulary and fielded any questions they had about the language. The rural, wooded setting felt “almost like being on Pandora,” he said. At a question-and-answer session in July that he participated in, at least a dozen attendants rattled off their questions in fluent Na’vi.

“There’s been a sea change in Hollywood. They realize there’s a fan base out there that wants constructed languages,” said Matt Pearson, a linguistics professor at Reed College in Portland, Ore. He created Thhtmaa (pronounced tukhh-t’-mah), the language of termite-like aliens in the short-lived NBC series “Dark Skies"

In case you're wondering, Klingon is mentioned on the second page of the article

HuffPo: 7 Life Lessons You Can Learn From 'Star Trek'

Thanks to George Takei on Facebook for this link.

Literary Matchmaking: Characters Who Would Date in Real Life

Tuesday marked the release of Jeffrey Eugenides’s third novel, "The Marriage Plot", a modern take on Victorian matchmaking novels and the women who love them.

We adored the book, and all its protagonist’s Jane Austen talk, coupled with her own love triangle, got us to thinking about pulling an Emma and trying a little literary matchmaking of our own. We’ve already taken a stab at guessing which literary characters would be best friends in real life, but of course, when love is involved, the stakes are a little higher.

Click through to check out the literary characters we think would totally fall for each other if they met in real life, and let us know your own ideas for star-crossed lovers in the comments.

Among the pairings are Arya Stark and Ender Wiggin, Hermione Granger and Artemis Fowl, and Willy Wonka and Mary Poppins. Bonus pairings (and surprisingly little wank) in comments.

Artist Shaylyn Hamm rendered female versions of TF2's the Heavy and the Medic, and they're...actually pretty awesome. This is the same person who wrote an article criticizing the body templates usually found in games, namely the diversity of male ones versus the tall-thin-busty typical female one.

YouTube video: female!Heavy (Medic and Spy also available)

The article: The Aesthetics of Unique Video Game Characters

Artist's dA (which includes other female versions of characters): ChemicalAlia



(Links and info all taken from this Tumblr source.)

The Daily Telegraph: Chile superheroes dance for education reform
Hundreds of caped avengers dance in downtown Santiago, as part of a demonstration for education changes.

NBC 9 News in Colorado: Superheroes fight for Chilean education reform.
Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman demonstrated for education reform in Chile Monday night.

BBC: Student 'Superheroes' protest in Chile

Commentary on ontd_political and Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

In addition to the big three from DC Comics, I also recognized Huntress, Poison Ivy, Sailor Moon, the Mad Hatter, and Mario and Luigi. It was a true geek riot.

...between two Tesla coils, dancing to the theme from Doctor Who.

ForaTV on YouTube: Sparks Fly as Caged MythBuster Adam Savage Busts a Move

The Huffington Post: Butterbeer: How the Harry Potter Beverage Was Made Real

By now, even the dimmest of Muggles knows that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a smashing success. Ever since this theme-park-within-a-theme-park opened at Islands of Adventure at the Universal Orlando Resort, people have been raving about the "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" attraction as well as Hogsmeade's highly-themed shops and restaurants.

But when you get right down to it, what's the most successful aspect of The Wizarding World? 'Forbidden Journey''s state-of-the-art ride system? The dazzling effects that theme park visitors experience whenever they visit Ollivander's wand shop? Or -- for that matter -- the overall look of Hogwarts Castle and Hogsmeade Village? Which make you feel as though you've stepped inside one of the "Harry Potter" movie?

And the answer is... none of the above. Based on surveys that UOR employees have done, the greatest Guest Satisfier in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, that piece-of-the-magic that people most wish that they could take home and share with friends and family... is a beverage. Butterbeer, to be precise.

The story of how butterbeer became reality at the link in the headline.

io9 has Doctor Who characters as if they were drawn by Charles Schulz. Also at Kuriositas and Flickr.

Reuters has the video on YouTube

Reuters also has a video about 'Batman Live' on their site.

Raw Story: Felicia Day discusses her web series ‘The Guild’

CNN’s Poppy Harlow interviews actress, script writer and producer Felicia Day about The Guild, an American comedy web series. Day explains how she build her business to what it is today, including how to grow a brand online and attract a large following.

CNN Money video at the link.