
Suspend Me, Part Deux
March 01, 2018Cereal Atomic, future, James Mandell, Mars, Passengers, sci fi, science, space, space travel, stasisNo comments


You wanna make the 7-month “hop” to Mars? We’ve determined ‘tis a far better thing to sleep through the trip than to look out the window. So let’s get practical.
There you are, ready for the Long Dream (hope it’s a good one), looking fine in your futuristic metrosexual...
Suspend Me
February 28, 2018Cereal Atomic, film, future, James Mandell, Mars, Passengers, pop culture, sci fi, science, space, space travel, technologyNo comments


Remember the movie “Passengers” from a year or two back? It’s a couple hundred years in the future and big space-liners are ferrying hundreds of humans to a new Eden-like planet that takes, I dunno, a hundred years in Earth time to get to, so everyone mounts their hibernation...
Star Trek, the Last Voyage
February 27, 2018Cereal Atomic, Chevy Chase, comedy, Dan Aykroyd, James Mandell, John Belushi, nostalgia, pop culture, retro, Saturday Night Live, SNL, Star Trek, television, tvNo comments


In 1976, just at the end of their first season, the cast did an extended Star Trek skit which few people will remember. It’s remarkable in multiple ways. First, of course, it features John Belushi as Captain Kirk, with Chevy Chase as Spock and Dan Aykroyd playing McCoy. Given...
War of the Worlds
November 09, 2017books, Cereal Atomic, film, James Mandell, music, nostalgia, opera, Orson Wells, pop culture, retro, sci fi, tv, War of the WorldsNo comments


No, not red vs blue, think bigger! In 1898
HG Wells, one of the founding fathers of the Sci-Fi genre “gifted” us with some
incredibly imaginative thinking about an alien invasion, bringing a whole new
(ahem) alien concept into sharp focus and leaving us howling at whatever...
Film Commentary: Logan and Bladerunner -- Bleak vs Bleak
October 24, 2017Blade Runner, Cereal Atomic, film, future, James Mandell, Logan, post-apocalyptic, sci fiNo comments


OK, we all know that the future is loaded with tons and tons of dark, somber grays and blacks and midnight blues with smoke and fog and haze wafting through, to cover the sheer devastation of a shiny future turned dystopic because, well, it’s inevitable, right?...
Another Kind of Immortality
October 19, 2017Altered Carbon, Cereal Atomic, future, futurism, James Mandell, Richard Morgan, sci fi, science, virtual realityNo comments


There's ample evidence and research indicating that it's just a matter of time before virtual entertainment becomes virtual living. How far out are we from being able to step into a world that is so perfectly generated, it becomes real to us and as it does, more and more compelling?
We're...
On Auto

So I'm cruising along at 350, enjoying some big puffy cumulous formations and breathing some sweet pistachio synth air, when Boom, the dash starts flashing bright enough to wake you out of a chem dream, the car screams to a mid-air halt and a blue'n'white floats over with...