Reid Picks: Best Science Fiction Music Videos - Daft Punk

Hands down, I think the best science fiction music videos I've seen are those of Daft Punk's Discovery album (released March 13, 2001). They presented their album to anime creater Leiji Matsumoto, and each track was made into an episode for the movie Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (released Dec. 1, 2003).

The film doesn't have any dialogue but rather tells a story of blue humanoid alien musicians who are kidnapped, taken to Earth and made to look like humans. Their memories are rewritten, and they are made into a hit band on Earth called The Crescendolls. One of their kind later saves them from the human captors but dies in the process. Eventually, the world finds out that the band members are aliens and help them to return to their homeworld.

Below are the videos for the song "Aerodynamic" (it's the second episode) and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" (the fourth episode). I also added a remix of "Aerodynamic" by Portis Hershey, which contains video footage from the rescue scene of the movie (which originally has the song "Superheroes," the seventh episode).

Daft Punk sampled several older songs by other artists to make tracks on the album. For instance, Edwin Birdsong's "Cola Bottle Baby" was sampled for "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," and, likewise, Daft Punk's version was sampled for Kanye West's song "Stronger" from the album Graduation. More recently, Daft Punk created the soundtrack to the movie Tron: Legacy.

Here is "Aerodynamic":


Here is "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger":


Here is a remix of "Aerodynamic" by Portis Hershey:

Reid Review: "Charles Yu's top 10 time travel books"

A friend, Dr. John Guzlowski, sent me an article from www.guardian.co.uk titled "Charles Yu's top 10 time travel books." According to the article, Yu is the author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.

The following are Yu's favorite "reading about 'the fundamental weirdness of moving around in time'":

Word of the Day 'Zeroth' Example Includes Isaac Asimov

Zeroth (ZEE-rohth).

Can you think of a sentence that uses this word? The employees of Merriam-Webster apparently had science fiction on their mind because they had Isaac Asimov's name in an example using "zeroth" in a sentence for the website's Word of the Day entry on Friday (Oct. 15). The sentence reads:

Make Use of Your Time: Listen to Audio Books on the Road

If you drive a lot alone (e.g., more than ten minutes to work), what do you do in that time span? I'm guessing you either (1) listen to music (2) stare at the road in silence (3) talk on a cell phone or (4) text while driving (let's hope not).

Have you tried listening to an audio book while driving a boring route? You can probably find a science fiction audio book at your local library to check out. If you're like me, your time is limited for reading books, so the next best thing is listening to them.

"TRON: Legacy" Movie Trailers

I'm looking forward to Disney's new TRON movie, "TRON: Legacy," coming to theaters in 3D on Dec. 17. The fact that Daft Punk is doing the soundtrack makes it even cooler. Here are some movie trailers:

Eight Social Networking Websites for Book Lovers

If you enjoy social networking, you likely have heard of popular social networking websites such as Facebook.com (the network king), MySpace.com (the dethroned king), Twitter.com (micro-blogging), LinkedIn.com (for professionals), and Ning.com (create your own social network), but what about sites specifically made for book lovers?

Below is a list of eight social networking websites I am aware of that involve books. They're alphabetized rather than ranked (since I couldn't make up my mind on how they would be ranked).

Funny Animation: "How The Empire Strikes Back Should Have Ended"

Below is a funny animation by www.howitshouldhaveended.com called "How The Empire Strikes Back Should Have Ended."

There's more to it after "The End." I like Darth Vader's quote to Han Solo at the end. Check it out.