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Paramount and CBS Home Entertainment have announced the Blu-ray releases of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7, the fan-favorite series' final season. Also revealed: All Good Things..., a standalone release of the ST:TNG series finale. Like previous seasons, the Blu-ray editions of Season 7 and All Good Things... will feature newly remastered 1080p video presentations, visual effects rebuilt from the original elements, DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround tracks and a variety of extras. Street date is December 2nd....

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Interstates 90 and I-787 at the Exit 6 interchange will be closed in all directions from midnight Saturday to 8 a.m. Sunday and from 11 p.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday. The bridge deck is being replaced on the highest ramps so all ramps and interstate lanes underneath must be closed for the public's safety.

4K Blu-ray is officially on the way. According to Victor Matsuda, Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee, the BDA expects the specs for 4K Blu-ray to be finalized in the first half of 2015, paving the way for commercial availability by the end of the year. This means we can expect to see actual 4K Blu-ray movies and players available in stores by Christmas next year....

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Word to “Jesus Built My Hotrod“: The phrase “feat. Gibby Haynes” usually means good things are about to happen. And now the Butthole Surfers frontman has hooked up with Atlanta metal monsters Mastodon for their song “Atlanta,” a fuzzed-out sprint with some demented soloing and Haynes in full rant-and-gibber mode. The song is Mastodon’s contribution to this summer’s Adult Swim Singles Series, and it’s a brutal blast of fun with none of Mastodon’s proggy tendencies. Check it out below.

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This dog named Walter was captured in Siracusa, Sicily by his owner with a Go Pro camera clearing a wall, running across a couple of patios, down an embankment, through the rocks and across the beach to exuberantly jump into the sea. Although you can’t even see the dog’s face, I’ve seen seldom few things convey as much pure and unbridled joy as this video. And that’s what makes dogs so great. May we all love something in our lives as much as Walter the dog loves jumping into the water.

Filed under: Upcoming, Web Culture Tagged: Animals, dog videos, FUN FUN FUN

Shout Factory has officially announced and detailed Pee-wee's Playhouse: The Complete Series. The eight-disc Blu-ray set will be available for purchase on October 21....

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Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has officially announced that it will release on Blu-ray Frank Capra's film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), starring James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Thomas Mitchell, and Eugene Pallette. The release will be available for purchase on December 2....

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Hey, look! Game of Thrones made the 2015 Guinness Book of World Records! Let’s get HBO on the phone and give ‘em the good ne-…

The hugely popular HBO fantasy drama series Game of Thrones makes its way into the 2015 book as the Most pirated TV program. “GoT” retained its spot atop Torrent Freak’s top 10 list of most pirated TV shows, with 5.9 million downloads per episode. [Guinness Book of World Records]

Oh.

Actually, maybe HBO will be pleased about this news. Remember the time Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said being the most pirated show in the world was “better than an Emmy”?

The much-discussed fantasy series is HBO’s most popular, and “if you go to people who are watching it without subs, it’s a tremendous word-of-mouth thing,” the exec told investors. “We’ve been dealing with this for 20, 30 years—people sharing subs, running wires down the backs of apartment buildings. Our experience is that it leads to more paying subs. I think you’re right that Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in the world,” he said. “That’s better than an Emmy.” [AdWeek]

So, uh… con … grat … u … la … tions? Yeah, CONGRATULATIONS! YOU DID IT, JEFF! GOOD FOR YOU!

Source: Watchers on the Wall

Filed under: TV Tagged: BitTorrent, game of thrones, Guinness Book of World Records, HBO, PIRACY

It's finally here: new music from Aphex Twin. In just a few weeks (September 22, to be exact), Richard D. James will release Syro, his first new album in thirteen years. Not long after announcing a series of listening events and revealing the album's art and tracklisting, James has shared "minipops 67 [120.2][source field mix]" from the LP. Listen below.

The YouTube description of the track reads: "This is the first Aphex Twin dong fore 13 years between the publication of the first a formal music." (Seems to have gone through the same mangled translator as the album bio.)

Similar to the album art, the visual that accompanies "minipops" details specs related to Aphex Twin activity on YouTube for the previous seven months.

Read excerpts from Philip Sherburne's forthcoming interview with James. 

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Well, here’s a story that makes my heart grow three sizes. For those of you unfamiliar with Guardians Of The Galaxy, if features WWE superstar Dave Batista’s character Drax The Destroyer who is incapable of understanding sarcasm and metaphors. He doesn’t get jokes and reacts to everything literally. This characterization led one kid to identify with Batista as someone with autism.

From the Tumblr Merryweather Blue:

I took my little brother (who falls on the autism spectrum) to see Guardians of the Galaxy and after this scene he lit up like a Christmas tree and screamed “He’s like me! He can’t do metaphors!” And for the rest of the film my brother stared at Drax in a state of rapture.

So for the last 6 days I have heard my brother repeatedly quote all of the Drax lines from the movie verbatim (one of his talents), begin studying vocabulary test words, and tell everyone he knows that people with autism can also be superheroes.

Jesus. I can’t.

The author goes on to say he’s not sure if Drax is actually supposed to be portrayed as a character in the autism spectrum, but the unintended consequence is as heart-warming as it gets. Nobody at Marvel, Disney or with any affiliation with the movie has responded yet, so we don’t know if they did this on purpose, but I say they go with it. If one kid is inspired by it, just imagine the possibilities. I swear if there’s a video of Batista dresses at Drax and goes to visit this kid I’m gonna lose it.

Filed under: Media, ProWrestling, Sports, Web Culture Tagged: autism, BATISTA, DAVE BATISTA, DAVE BAUTISTA, Guardians of the Galaxy, PRO WRESTLING, WWE

The Bug just released his latest album Angels & Devils last week. Apparently, that album had, according to a press release, 160 demos and outtakes. Six of those will appear on a new EP called Exit, which is out October 7 via Ninja Tune. Check out "Black Wasp", which features Grouper's Liz Harris, below.

The Bug has also added more North American tour dates. Find those below.

Exit EP:

01 Void [ft. Liz Harris]
02 Void Version
03 Black Wasp [ft. Liz Harris]
04 Black Version
05 Function [ft. Manga]
06 Blaow [ft. Daddy Freddy]

The Bug:

09-06 Pula, Croatia - Outlook Festival
09-19 Daikanyama, Japan - Unit $
10-08 New York, NY - Output $^
10-10 Boston, MA - Good Life ^
10-11 Detroit, MI - The Works ^
10-24 Guadalajara, Mexico - Ensamble *
10-25 Mexico City, Mexico - Mutek MX *
10-26 Austin, TX - Barcelona ^
10-28 Denver, CO - Cervantes ^
10-29 St. Louis, MO - 2720 Cherokee ^
10-30 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel ^
10-31 Houston, TX - Gritsy ^
11-01 San Francisco, CA - The Independent ^#
11-03 Los Angeles, CA - The Echoplex ^#
11-05 Montreal, Quebec - Underworld Cabaret *
11-06 Toronto, Ontario - Coda *
11-07 Calgary, Alberta - Ten Nightclub *
11-09 Vancouver, British Columbia - Electric Owl *
11-13 Seattle, WA - Nectars ^
11-14 Portland, OR - Rotture ^
11-15 Chicago, IL - Evil Olive ^

$ with Actress
^ with Manga
* with Flowdan
# with Wolf Eyes

The great, adventurous Bay Area metal band Faith No More broke up in 1998, and though they got back together for live-show purposes in 2009, there was no real indication that they had any new music in the works. But they do, and we’ll hear some of it soon. The band is at work on a new album, their first since 1997′s Album Of The Year. They’re expecting to release the album next year, and they’ll drop a 7″ of a new song with the promising title “Motherfucker” on Record Store Day’s Black Friday event 11/28. It’s one of the two songs they debuted live this summer. As a B-side, it’ll have a remix from Foetus mastermind J.G. Thirwell. That single will also be out digitally 12/9. Talking to Rolling Stone about the new album, bassist Bill Gould says that they’re “pretty far into it” and describes it like this:

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TROY -- A sports utility vehicle rolled over shortly before 1 p.m., near the intersection of Burden Avenue and Main Street in the city. Traffic was being diverted around the wreck.

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Good things happen to good movies with great talking racoons. Guardians of the Galaxy added another $3.8 million to its box office total last night (another way of phrasing that: $3.8 million worth of people didn’t pay to see Sin City 2), giving the Marvel movie a grand total of $262.1 million, or enough to pass Captain America: The Winter Soldier as the highest grossing movie of 2014 at the domestic box office.

Guardians added $3.8 million on Friday, which is down just 20 percent from last weekend. That puts it on pace for around $16 million for the three-day frame and over $20 million for the four-day holiday weekend. In the long run, Guardians is now guaranteed to earn over $300 million, and could finish as high as $320 million. (Via)

You can buy a whole lot of Dancing Groot toys with all that money, but it’s not THAT much, relatively speaking, compared to other year-end winners. For instance, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire took home over $424 million last year, and in 2012, The Avengers made $623 million. Plus, there’s a chance another film might eventually pass it — Interstellar has an outside, though unlikely shot, but don’t be surprised if The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 makes THIS MUCH money (“THIS MUCH” = more than Guardians). J-Law is the new Chris Pratt is the new J-Law, etc.

Via Box Office Mojo

Filed under: GammaSquad, Movies Tagged: box office, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, Guardians of the Galaxy

Police said a Montgomery County man dumped manure on another vehicle. Kerry Lee Stowell was driving his tractor with a manure spreader attachment on a road and activated the spreader when a vehicle passed him, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. The other vehicle was covered with manure, police said. Stowell of 1545 Kennedy Road, St. Johnsville, was charged with disorderly conduct.

Now that Piers Morgan has left CNN, I believe, nay, demand that his timeslot be filled by John Oliver and Cookie Monster. Actually, scratch that: get rid of everyone on CNN (and Fox News and MSNBC and ESPN Deportes) and replace them with Misters Oliver and Monster, who you can see host a sadly fake news show for Mashable below. (Oliver has a history of working with puppets.) The whole thing’s as adorable as you’d expect, especially when Kate McKinnon and Nick Offerman show up.

Filed under: TV, Upcoming, Web Culture Tagged: cookie monster, JOHN OLIVER, KATE MCKINNON, nick offerman

It’s been almost a decade since Death From Above 1979 released their seething, monstrous full-length debut You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine. As of right now, that’s the only proper album the band has ever released, but that’ll change next week. DFA1979 broke up in 2006 and got back together in 2011, and now they’ve gotten together with producer D. Sardy to record the follow-up album The Physical World, an album full of the sort of guitar riffs that we, as a society, are just not used to hearing anymore. We’ve posted the pummeling early tracks “Trainwreck 1979” and “Government Trash,” as well as video of the band debuting “Right On, Frankenstein.” And now, the whole LP is streaming at iTunes.

The Physical World is out 9/9 on Last Gang/Warner Bros.

As we build and introduce robots that are more and more complex into human society, it’s going to bring up a tough question nobody has the answer to: When do robots become complex enough, independent enough, that they’re a new form of life? That appears to be a question Automata wants to answer, and the trailer is rather promising as a sci-fi action movie.

The plot is pretty straightforward: Antonio Banderas is a robot insurance investigator who finds a robot that’s modified itself. That’s a no-no under the semi-Asimov’s laws they operate under in this universe, and, needless to say, Banderas quickly finds out there are lot more of these robots than anyone realizes. In true SF movie style, he’s won over by the robots and has to figure out a way to defend them from the corporation that wants them dead.

It also appears, like any interesting sci-fi movie lately, to be getting a token-at-best theatrical release; Millennium Films will be rolling it out On Demand and theatrically at the same time, and they haven’t even bothered to put up a website for the movie. But we’ll actually get to see it, which in the end is the most important part. Keep an eye out for it on October 10th.

Filed under: GammaSquad Tagged: ANTONIO BANDERAS, automata, MILLENIUM FILMS, Movies, Robots, Sci Fi, TRAILERS

OK, so gingers admittedly get the short end of the stick most of the time. They have to deal with ghostly pale skin, an abundance of freckles, and they’re an almost extinct species. But thanks to one savvy red-head from Scotland, all the gingers of the world now have one less problem.

What started out as a gag gift for his 30th birthday quickly turned into a big money saver for Richard Macrae. A buddy presented him with a homemade “Ginger Discount Card” which sported Macrae’s photo on a laminated piece of orange paper. Macrae, seeing it for the piece of genius it really was, decided to try out his new gift, presenting it at local retailers.

I ask if they do the ginger ­discount and when they look confused, I slide across my card. Usually everyone gets the humour behind it. Some people look confused and wonder if it’s real, which is always a laugh, but most get the joke. I’ve saved a couple of hundred pounds maybe, with money off booze, taxis, food and club entries. Over four years it fairly builds up. (Via)

Macrae estimates he’s saved hundreds of dollars by using the card and it’s inspired folks he’s met to try to create their own. Your move, Bonaduce.

Via the Scotsman

Filed under: Web Culture Tagged: .lol, GINGERS, Viral

Next month, Aphex Twin will release SYRO, his first proper studio album in 13 years. This is both a big deal and a weird one, and Richard D. James has concocted an interesting way to let the world hear the record for the first time. Next week, around the world, James will hold SYRO listening sessions. But rather than letting members of the media or the elite hear the album, he’s opening it up to the world. The sessions are in secret locations in a few big cities in North America and Europe, and the only way to get in is to enter a ticket lottery. Below, check out where and when you might get to hear SYRO.

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Experimental guitarist Luke Wyatt aka Torn Hawk might get the award for most accurate song title of the week. “I’m Flexible,” the first single off his upcoming Let’s Cry And Do Push Ups At The Same Time, mangles synths, drum machines, and guitar playing in the same way he has through many releases, but here it hits with a muscular heaviness. It’s a beautiful piece of music filled with sounds that are grindingly abrasive. The dichotomy makes “I’m Flexible” a song that you can sit with and appreciate for all of its art, or simply enjoy the aural wonder. The best comparison from this year is probably Mark McGuire’s Album Of The Week Along The Way, but Wyatt covers much more ground. It conjures the same inward-looking space sounds of pre-Replica Oneohtrix Point Never, but with the a pure-pleasure electronica that reminds you how great that first Ratatat album was. This is around the time of the year when I expect the unexpected, a late in the season game changer that makes me reconsider what my favorite recent music is. That might have just happened. Listen to it below soundtracking one of Wyatt’s “visual mulch” constructions.

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It’s long been accepted than Jon Stewart can do no wrong. Whatever you think of his views of mosh-pitting or Israel (please dear God, save those comments), he’s one of those comedians who consistently performs with integrity. Stewart stole a car? Committed a murder? It’s cool, I’m sure he had a totally legit reason to do it.

So I tried to keep as open a mind as possible when I saw the trailer for Rosewater, Jon Stewart’s directorial debut. Rosewater tells the story of Maziar Bahari (here played by Gael Garcia Bernal), a British-based journalist sent to Iran to cover the 2009 Iranian election. Bahari, who left behind his pregnant fiancé, was subsequently captured and tortured for 118 days. During the interrogation, Bahari’s torturers actually used real footage from Bahari’s appearance on The Daily Show against him.

But while Bahari’s appearance on the show must’ve influenced Jon Stewart’s direction, none of that footage appears in the trailer, pointing (potentially) to the movie’s strength. More often that not, movies about torture become nothing more than one-dimensional glances at sadism. The external political landscape is simplified/ignored in favor of voyeuristic looks at pain (Sorry, but I’m looking at you, Zero Dark Thirty). In Stewart’s trailer, the outside world appears with a seeming level of intellectual complexity that movies like Sin City 2 juuuuust can’t seem to achieve.

Rosewater opens in theaters November 7th. Try and look past the “live,” “laugh,” and “feel hope” comments. This is a movie about torture – we gotta have at least one Candy heart quote.

Filed under: Film Drunk, Media, Movies Tagged: GAEL GARCIA BERNAL, JON STEWART, MAZIAR BAHARI, Movie Trailers, ROSEWATER, THE DAILY SHOW, TORTURE

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell tried to correct a wrong today. In a letter to league owners, ESPN reports that Goodell told league owners, “I didn’t get it right,” in response to the issue of domestic violence, partially due to Ravens’ running back Ray Rice’s two-game suspension for a physical altercation with his wife caught on camera:

“At times, however, and despite our best efforts, we fall short of our goals,” Goodell wrote. “We clearly did so in response to a recent incident of domestic violence. … My disciplinary decision led the public to question our sincerity, our commitment, and whether we understood the toll that domestic violence inflicts on so many families. I take responsibility both for the decision and for ensuring that our actions in the future properly reflect our values. I didn’t get it right.”

In an effort to initiate changes, the NFL announced new regulations to the conduct policy regarding domestic violence. With these additions, any offender will receive a six-game suspension for a first offense and a lifetime ban for a second offense. The policy applies to all league personnel and it still applied whether they’re convicted in a court of law or not:

“A six-game suspension would be without pay and the length of the penalty could increase in these cases: an employee was involved in a prior incident before joining the NFL; violence involving a weapon; choking, repeated striking, or when the act is committed against a pregnant woman; or in the presence of a child. A second-time offender may petition for reinstatement after one year but there is no assurance the petition would be granted, the letter said.

“A league source told ESPN’s Andrew Brandt that discipline would be triggered by adjudication of a player’s case, such as a conviction or plea agreement. The policy is not retroactive, meaning all personnel have a clean slate, a league source told ESPN’s Mark Dominik. If a player commits a crime while in college or high school and then has a first offense while in the NFL, the player could be subject to a suspension harsher than six games.” (via)

Yesterday, Beware and I had a quick conversation about how Josh Gordon’s year-long suspension made Rice’s mini-vaction from the NFL look even more laughable in the public eye. The NFL appeared infuriatingly blind to how seemingly miscalculated Rice’s punishment looked in light of other situations. While weighing one wrong versus another doesn’t always work out, the unfortunate fact stood that the NFL hadn’t updated their stance on domestic violence to coincide with the times. Goodell admitted as much in July when he defended Rice’s punishment by saying, “We just can’t make up the discipline.”

The changes announced today are a step in the right direction, with a hard line drawn that we can only hope no one crosses.

(Via ESPN)

Filed under: SmokingSection, Sports, Web Culture Tagged: Domestic Violence, HEADLINES, NFL, NFL FOOTBALL, RAY RICE, roger goodell, Sports

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Lois Lowry’s YA novel The Giver has been a popular book in school libraries across the world since it came out in 1994. And the movie coming out today is the result of a process that took more than a decade and was driven by, of all people, The Dude himself, Jeff Bridges.

The Giver is a fairly simple book in terms of plot. Jonas, our hero, lives in a community where there’s no privacy and everyone follows a strict set of rules, right down to not perceiving color. Jonas is assigned the job of the Receiver, the one person who, essentially, is allowed to be human, so the rest of humanity can consult him on thorny problems they don’t understand. Needless to say, dumping the entire cultural memory of the human race on a kid ends badly, and upon discovering that a baby that has been assigned to his family will be killed, he takes the kid and sprints for the wilderness.

Being as it was an incredibly dark book, it was a huge hit. Bill Cosby took a crack at it right when it was published, but couldn’t make it work. Bridges discovered the book through his daughter back when it was published and immediately thought it was a great role… for his father, Lloyd Bridges. So Bridges got the rights to the book… and spent nearly a decade trying to get the movie made before the rights were swept out from under him by Warner Bros.

Warners couldn’t make it work either, and after another five years, Bridges finally got his shot, largely thanks to the YA adaptation fad. By then, his father had passed away, and Bridges found himself taking the title role.

The movie itself is… OK. Truthfully the production history is more interesting than the movie that came from it. But Bridges works. Honestly, it’s despite the script; in the book, the Giver is a much more complex and not entirely friendly character, with hints that being the only one who remembers famine and war has worn at his psyche in ways even he doesn’t quite realize.

But, especially if you know the backstory and the fact that Bridges spent twenty years working on this movie, it’s arresting to see him on screen, not least because he slips, occasionally, into his father’s mannerisms. If there’s one person who cares on the screen, it’s the man who built this for his father, only to find him gone. It’s a bittersweet end to two decades of work.

Filed under: GammaSquad Tagged: adaptations, JEFF BRIDGES, LOIS LOWRY, passion projects, the giver

Photo by Eric Coleman