Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2376

The Only Way to Watch Glass Explode is at 300,000 Frames Per Second

If you’ve ever poured too-hot liquid into the wrong glass, you know instinctively that it’s a terrible conductor, and that the contrast between cool exterior and hot interior may cause it to shatter (the same is true of some people, ironically, but let’s not go there). If you’ve ever been a human being, you know that breaking stuff is inherently fun, so long as you don’t have to be the one to clean up the mess afterwards. So when the Slow Mo Guys put these two concepts together, along with an insane camera that can film things at 13,000 times the speed of human perception, well, we couldn’t look away. Though we may have instinctively blinked at the sight of glass flying our way. Don’t tell anyone.

While it’s undoubtedly fun seeing glass crack, you might learn something here too. Like the difference between how a thicker piece, like the handle of a Pyrex jug, can crumble to dust while the rest just shatters. Or how fast the cracking is compared to the amount of time it takes to shut your eye when water is being poured into it (yes, there’s a side-by-side demo). Also, American pyrex is apparently inferior to European, though that could just be the English hosts’ national pride showing.

We don’t envy them the clean-up. While a tarp was laid down to catch all the shards, it turns out that super-heated pyrex just melts on through to the other side. And you thought sweeping up the kitchen after dropping a jar of salsa was bad!

What else would you like to see get smashed in slo-mo? Throw out some ideas in comments below.

Michael J. Fox Joined Coldplay on Stage to Play Songs from BACK TO THE FUTURE

When you’re Moses Martin, the child of Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay’s Chris Martin, you can pretty much get whatever you want. Want your dad’s band to play some songs from your (and his) favorite film, Back to the Future? Sure, no problem Moses. Wait, you also want Michael J. Fox to play with them? I don’t know, we’re a long ways from 1985, but ok Moses, anything for you.

Last night at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, as Spin reports, Martin heeded his son’s request and brought Marty McFly on stage to play a couple tunes from the movie’s famous “Under the Sea” dance. In some fan-shot footage (below), Martin plays a recording of Moses’ plea and then dives into the Penguins “Earth Angel,” the less provocative song played at the high school dance. Halfway through, Martin invites Fox onstage. The actor joins Coldplay by rocking some harmony on a Les Paul.

Fox then opens Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” by shredding the iconic opening riff that makes everyone at the dance lose their shit. Word on the streets is, during the performance, one of the instrumentalists could be heard backstage on the phone calling his cousin Chuck with “that sound [he’d] been looking for.”

Coldplay is still on tour for their latest record, A Head Full of Dreams, and Michael J. Fox is still the coolest cat on the globe.

Has your son ever asked you to cover songs from his favorite movie with said movie’s star? Were you able to come through? Let us know in the comments below.

Image: Universal

Niantic Explains Why POKÉMON GO Hasn’t Launched In Japan Yet

Japan may be the birthplace of pocket monsters, but the good folks over there have yet to enjoy Pokémon Go. There is, however, a good and simple reason the augmented reality title has yet to hit Japan: The servers aren’t ready. As everyone who has been obsessing over Go know, the game crashes routinely because of server issues. At this point, most people just assume that Niantic is using potatoes as online servers, but I personally doubt the validity in that. Jokes aside, it makes sense that Niantic is waiting to launch the game in Japan.

In a conversation with Forbes (via Kotaku), Niantic CEO John Hanke explained the situation: “At present, the server capacity in Japan is not powerful enough. We are working hard with our partners in Japan to enable the servers to keep up with demand once the game goes online there. We expect it to be released by the end of July.”

To be fair to Niantic, the team probably didn’t expect such an influx of players this early into the game’s infancy. Who would have thought that this mobile game would become such a phenomenon? Adding more stress on servers doesn’t sound like a good plan.

Despite Hanke’s reassurance that the game will be launching by the end of July, some are starting to fear they’ll have to wait even longer to start catching pocket monsters while on the toilet. The official Japanese Pokémon Go website went from saying the app will launch “July 2016” to simply “2016.” Just hang in there, Japan. It’ll come soon enough.

If you’ve been lucky enough to play Pokémon Go, which is the rarest Pokémon you have added to your collection? How many more monsters do you need before you’ve completely catch ’em all? Let us know in the comments below!

For those of you who can play Pokémon Go, here’s a little trick that may help you out.

Featured Image: The Pokémon Company

A Perfect Playlist for New York City’s First Ever Panorama Music Festival

Coachella, the bellwether of the American festival circuit, has long been unrivaled when it comes to the comprehensive music festival experience. A proverbial melting pot of musical genres, Coachella fields lineups that place the world’s biggest names alongside its budding next wave. Goldenvoice’s crown jewel also deftly marries technology with culture, offering a wide spectrum of amenities—both music-related and otherwise—that will find appeal with nearly all would-be attendees. Now, for the first time ever, Goldenvoice is bringing a Coachella doppleganger to the east coast: a three-day, broad reaching music festival in New York City that’s fittingly named, Panorama.

Beginning this Friday, New York’s Randall’s Island will play host to the new music festival. The lead-up to the inaugural Panorama has not been without some contention. Governor’s Ball, the city’s other three-day summer music festival, petitioned mayor Bill de Blasio to reject the festival—apparently on the grounds that two is not better than one. The petition failed, though, and now here we sit on the verge of the first ever Panorama.

The festival’s headliners are about as big as they come. Arcade Fire, Kendrick Lamar, and the newly reincarnated LCD Soundsystem will each cap one of the weekend’s three music-filled days. En masse, Panorama is admittedly a little more top heavy than its West Coast counterpart. A bevy of major players, like Sia, Alabama Shakes, The National, Major Lazer, and Sufjan Stevens, dominate the lineup, but there’s certainly a smattering of notable smaller acts, too. To help you find the perfect balance of music—from indie mainstays to explosive MCs to burgeoning turntablists—we’ve prepared this Spotify playlist. If you’ll be at Panorama, take a listen and take heed, and if you won’t be there, hopefully this simply turns you on to some sweet new tunes.

 

Image: LCD Soundsytem 

Constantine is Back in HELLBLAZER: REBIRTH #1(Exclusive Preview)

The character of John Constantine has been a DC Comics staple since he was first introduced in the pages of Alan Moore’s seminal run on Swamp Thing, way back in the ’80s. The sarcastic, cigarette smoking, British purveyor of supernatural knowledge may have transitioned to the publisher’s “mature readers only” label, Vertigo, only to return to the DC Universe proper with DC’s New 52 reboot in 2011, but now his role in the DC Universe is expanding. Constantine is one one of several iconic characters getting the royal treatment as part of the big DC Rebirth event, starting with the Hellblazer: Rebirth one-shot, which kicks off his newest ongoing series, which is set to debut next month.

The Hellblazer: Rebirth one shot is being brought to us from the creative team of writer Simon Oliver, artist Moritat (with a cover by Moritat and a variant cover by Duncan Fegredo), and is set to hit comic shops this Wednesday, July 20th. Here’s the official synopisis for the one-shot from DC:

John Constantine’s lost weekend in New York City was fun, but London’s where his heart is—only a pissed-off demon and a curse on his soul stand in his way. Even Constantine’s questionable ethics are pushed to the limit when he puts eight million souls on the line to get what he wants….

You can check out our exclusive preview of the first five pages from the upcoming one-shot, as well as a look at both the regular and variant covers in our gallery below.

Are you excited about the upcoming return of John Constantine to the DCU Universe? Let us know your opinion down below in the comments.

Images: DC Comics

The Time George Harrison and Eric Clapton Had A Drunken Guitar Duel

Male or female muses can bring out the best in creative types. They can be the key to some inner genius that, without their presence, might never be tapped. But there’s a dark side to the muse, too. Take Almost Famous’s Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), for instance. She brought Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup) and Stillwater to the verge of stardom, but she also incited several bouts of jealous rage amongst Hammond, other musicians, and our Cameron Crowe-inspired Rolling Stone journalist, William Miller (Patrick Fugit).

Lane’s character was based on a number of muses and groupies Crowe met in the ‘70s, but mostly on a Portland woman named Pennie Trumble. For whatever reason, some muses just resonate more than others. Such is the case for Pattie Boyd, who inspired George Harrison’s “Something” and a pair of Eric Clapton tracks, the ballad, “Wonderful Tonight,” and the incendiary rock ode, “Layla.” Boyd just penned an autobiography called Wonderful Today, as Rolling Stone reports, and it divulges some Almost Famous-esque tidbits about the two musical icons.

Boyd and Harrison were married in 1970, but Clapton captured her attention when he played “Layla” for her in her honor. “We met secretly at a flat in South Kensington. Eric had asked me to come because he wanted me to listen to a new number he had written,” Boyd remembers. “He switched on the tape machine, turned up the volume and played me the most powerful, moving song I had ever heard. It was ‘Layla.'”

Harrison, later that same night, found them together in the garden of manager Robert Stigwood’s house. “[Harrison] kept asking, ‘Where’s Pattie? But no one seemed to know. He was about to leave when he spotted me in the garden with Eric,” Boyd recalled. “George came over and demanded, ‘What’s going on?’ To my horror, Eric said, ‘I have to tell you, man, that I’m in love with your wife.’ I wanted to die. George was furious. He turned to me and said: ‘Well, are you going with him or coming with me?'” (She went home with Harrison.)

The ordeal came to a testosterone fueled head when Clapton drunkenly showed up at Harrison’s house and challenged him to a guitar duel. “George handed him a guitar and an amp — as an 18th-century gentleman might have handed his rival a sword — and for two hours, without a word, they dueled,” Boyd said. “At the end, nothing was said but the general feeling was that Eric had won. He hadn’t allowed himself to get riled or go in for instrumental gymnastics as George had. Even when he was drunk, his guitar-playing was unbeatable.”

It’s worth noting that, in Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists, Clapton ranks fourth and Harrison sits back at number 21. Whatever their ranking, they’re both pretty great, and it seems we can thank Pattie Boyd for at least some of that greatness.

Who would you rather have drunkenly show up at your house to challenge you to a guitar duel, Clapton or Harrison? Let us know in the comments.

Image: White House Press

8 Things You Might’ve Missed from STAR WARS Celebration!

The force was strong in the UK over the weekend, as fans from around the globe flocked to England for Star Wars Celebration 2016! By now, we’ve all heard the big news: the announcement of Alden Ehrenreich as the new Han Solo, Grand Admiral Thrawn‘s graduation from the now-defunct Expanded Universe into official canon, and of course that goosebump-inducing Rogue One featurette.

But with all the big news clogging up your feed you may have missed a whole slew of smaller stories to come out of Celebration. So let’s dive in, with eight big things you need to know about!

8.) Send some flowers to the Solo residence, because it looks like we’ll all be attending a nerf herder funeral in Episode VIII. Carrie Fisher let the tidbit slip in an interview when asked what had happened to Princess Leia between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Apparently mishearing the question, she replied “Han’s funeral.” Fisher quickly corrected herself, but by then the cat was out of the bag. We already know there will be no time jump between Episodes VII and VIII, so it makes sense that we’ll be catching up with Leia just as she says her final “I know” to Han. The only question now: will Kylo make an appearance? You just know he’s the kinda kid who’d make a family funeral all about him.

7.) Sorry typography nerds, but Rogue One is going to be the first Star Wars movie without an opening crawl, which is…pretty exciting! One of the coolest things about the Star Wars anthology movies is the chance to see some original takes on the franchise. Abandoning one of its most iconic elements seems like a pretty bold declaration of intent. Right from the start this is going to be a new look for that old galaxy we love so much!

6.) In Rogue One, we’ll be introduced to Jedha, a planet director Gareth Edwards referred to as, “the Mecca of Star Wars.” In an interview, he explained that Jedha is where “…People go on pilgrimages and…when the story begins, it’s an occupied territory by the Empire.” It’s also the planet where we find Donnie Yen’s blind monk, Chirrut. Hmm…is the Force so strong there because it’s home to kyber crystals, the element that powers both lightsabers and the Death Star? We heard rumors that the Empire was mining kyber crystals for that very purpose in Rogue One, so could that be why they’re occupying Jedha in the first place?

Aaaand it’s sizzle reel lightning round time! What potential cameos did you miss in that Rogue One behind-the-scenes featurette? Probably a bunch! Here they are…

5.) None other than Grand Moff Tarkin was seen creeping in the background of some quick shots from the flick. Which further corroborates rumors that Peter Cushing would be digitally recreated for Rogue One.

4.) Is Jimmy Smits appearing for the first Star Wars Story as Bail Organa? Some eagle-eyed viewers seem to think that could very well be Bail’s ruggedly-handsome chin peeking out from behind the camera. Big news for for all three prequel fans out there who want to see Episodes I-III incorporated into the Sequel Trilogy!

3.) Ponda Baba is back, baby! Boba was, of course, the Aqualish thug who lost his right arm to a lightsaber blade after instigating a fight with Luke and Ben at the Cantina in A New Hope. Maybe Rogue One will feature one of the twelve systems he got his death sentence on?

2.) Did we catch everyone’s favorite and extremely-recognizable Death Star droid, 5D6-RA-7?! Oh man, who could ever forget good ol’ 5D6-RA-7? You probably remember him best for strolling on by Han, Luke, and Chewie as they rode up the elevator to detention block AA-23 to save Leia.

1.) And finally, we mentioned up top that Grand Admiral Thrawn would be entering the official Star Wars canon when he appears in Season 3 of Rebels. But what’s really exciting about Thrawn’s return is that he’s getting reunited with his creator! Author Timothy Zahn—who introduced Thrawn in his Heir to the Empire novel trilogy in the early 90s—is writing a new novel starring the Expanded Universe’s most popular villain that fits him into the new canon. And not only is it awesome to see a creator re-taking control of his greatest creation, but it opens up all sorts of questions about what other elements of the EU might be making its way into Star Wars proper! Though sadly, we won’t see Mara Jade any time soon. Or at least not in Rebels, per series creator Dave Filoni.

But what do you guys think? What was your favorite part of Star Wars Celebration 2016? Were there any stories we overlooked? How psyched are you for the return of 5D6-RA-7? Let’s discuss!

MONDO Whips out Exclusive CASTLEVANIA Vinyl for SDCC

Finally, a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive we music nerds can really get behind. Mondo have just announced they will be unleashing the Castlevania soundtrack at SDCC this year, with a half red and half grey colored pressing being available exclusively at the convention. This is the original game soundtrack, pressed on 10″ vinyl, people. We all know the songs; they’ve haunted our nightmares for decades. Now, you can own them on vinyl, wrapped in beautiful packaging. Slaying the minions of the Dark Lord has never sounded so good!

Of course, this being Mondo and all, they couldn’t just through the original game art on the cover and call it a day. Instead, they enlisted the talents of the utterly amazing Becky Cloonan to design the whole package. You know, the Becky Cloonan who makes amazing posters for bands like Black Sabbath and The Sword? The Becky Cloonan who writes comics like The Punisher and Gotham Academy? The Becky Cloonan who just did the art for the Criterion Collection release of Pan’s Labyrinth? Yes, that Becky Cloonan, folks, and the Castlevania Soundtrack clearly couldn’t be in better hands. It looks gorgeous.

This is the 30th anniversary of the Castlevania franchise, and nobody celebrates quite like Mondo. If you have had the pleasure of picking up any of their previous vinyl soundtracks, you know they do this stuff right. These are real works of art and a lot of care goes into the music, packaging, and presentation. There’s no better way to honor one of the greatest game franchises ever than spinning some vinyl and listening to its awesome soundtrack.

There are two ways to get your hands on this masterpiece, but it won’t be easy. The first is through the Mondo webstore, which will feature the grey and black splatter vinyl. The second will be at SDCC, over at the Mondo booth (#835), and that’ll be the SDCC exclusive half red, half grey edition. If you know Mondo, you know these bad boys will go fast, so get thee to the Mondo booth and pick up that exclusive! Or hang at home and keep refreshing your web browser to grab the ol’ standard version. They’re both pretty.

The album tracks are listed below and the SDCC Edition is limited to 1000 copies, so don’t sleep on this one. We’ve also got a peek at the stunning artwork, so feast your eyes on that, too.

Underground
Prologue
Vampire Killer
Stalker
Wicked Child
Walking On The Edge
Heart Of Fire
Out Of Time
Nothing To Lose
Poison Mind
Black Night
Voyager

Do you Count the days to get this bloody good record? Stake out a comment below!

Images: Mondo

Adam Savage’s TED Talk on Cosplay Makes Us Love Him Even More

Everyone who meets enough of their heroes in real life is capable of being disappointed, like when the guy who so brilliantly plays an aggressive jerk on TV turns out to actually be one, or when the film director whose movie’s subtext you swore you understood tells you your interpretation of his work is way off-base (that second one may have happened to me in a very public forum. Or it may just be hypothetical. You’ll never know!). Point is, not everyone you think is cool from a distance actually is cool, which is why it does my heart good to know that Mythbusters‘ Adam Savage has exactly the kind of childhood backstory you would imagine. From making space helmets out of ice cream tubs to attending school in a full metal suit of armor, he was committed to building stuff that, perhaps ironically in hindsight, made him feel mythic.

And that’s what led him to cosplay, as an adult, which still seems to bring out a childlike glee in him. Given that his chosen costumes tend to be so elaborate they make him really physically uncomfortbale, that glee is essential for survival. Check out his TED talk about coming to costuming, and admire the hell out of the retro Jaws outfit from a time when people designing Halloween outfits for kids neither gave a crap nor thought logically.

The revelation that he had misjudged a certain reaction to one of his characters is particularly nerdy in its analysis, and as such, awesome.

Now, how many of you out there have ever cosplayed as Adam Savage? Have you ever missed a crucial character detail? Let us know in comments below.

Image: Adam Savage

Limited DAZZLER Album Cover and More X-MEN: APOCALYPSE Blu-ray Details

Earlier this summer, the X-Men borrowed a page from Idris Elba and cancelled the apocalypse! Now 20th Century Fox is bringing X-Men: Apocalypse to the San Diego Comic-Con ahead of its release on Blu-ray and DVD.

As reported by Entertainment Weekly, X-Men: Apocalypse is heading to home video on October 4, which will be preceded by a digital HD release on September 9. The special features include commentary by director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Simon Kinberg, a behind-the-scenes featurette, video from the wrap party, a gag reel, and a photo gallery that includes an amusing pic of Singer with Oscar Isaac in full Apocalypse makeup as they examine a shot.

As part of the Comic-Con promotion for the film, fans who pre-order the Blu-ray or DVD at SDCC will receive a limited-edition Dazzler vinyl cover that was briefly glimpsed a few months ago!

We still think that Taylor Swift would make a great Dazzler. Make it happen, Fox!

Fox is also bringing the Tomb of Apocalypse X-perience to the convention floor, which will feature several costumes from the film on display, including Storm, Quicksilver, and Apocalypse himself. The booth will also let fans challenge Apocalypse in a series of challenges for a chance to win customized T-shirts and photos. We will preemptively award “points” to any fan who undertakes the Apocalypse challenges while cosplaying as Ivan Ooze!

Are you excited to see X-Men: Apocalypse‘s special features? And will you answer the challenges of Apocalypse at SDCC? Declare yourselves in the comment section below, and let only the strong survive!

Images: 20th Century Fox