:: theLogBook.com DVD Reviews ::

At the moment that I’m writing this review, the writing is on the wall for America’s dwindling fleet of space shuttles, which were mooted in the early ’70s as the great white-and-partially-black hope of the U.S. space program. A new workhorse spacecraft is on the drawing board (but not even in the testing stages) which will supposedly pick up where the shuttle left off, and apparently before that first launch date the new vehicle will have the good graces to hurry up and be finished and perfected. And if the new vehicle isn’t ready? Oops.

Before embarking on the Apollo program, NASA knew it’d have to develop certain key abilities in the relative safety of Earth orbit. Dusting off plans for a two-man “Mercury Mark II” capsule, the space agency went from Mercury to Gemini, an intermediate series of flights designed to test those abilities. Since Gemini came after the first-men-into-space Mercury flights, and before the first-men-on-the-moon Apollo flights, it’s often consigned to the “also-ran” category of history, or the memory of space geeks like myself. This 3-DVD set from Spacecraft Films preserves the existing footage and adds a documentary that puts it all in context for those who have forgotten. (more…)

Over a dozen of Tori Amos’ videos, from the abstract, low-budget visualizations of the songs from her breakout first album to the much more conventional, Hollywood-ified videos of her mid-1990s stint in the mainstream limelight, to more subdued recent efforts, are collected here, along with a couple of videos rarely seen in the U.S. and a running audio commentary with Tori herself talking about the genesis of both the songs and their videos.

Ever since her solo debut with 1991’s Little Earthquakes album, Tori Amos has embraced the medum of the music video, often taking a visually sparse approach. In fact, Little Earthquakes had its own “video album” released about a year after the album itself, featuring the videos from that album (many of them in a somewhat similar thematic vein) directed by Cindy Palmano, interspersed with interview segments and concert footage. Tori is no stranger to music video, either short-form or long-form. (more…)

In the late 1990s, dial-up modems moved aside to make way for high speed DSL and cable modems. As broadband access spread like wildfire into homes across the world, websites streaming audio and video quickly began replacing simple, static web pages. Those who began putting original content online found a new audience of millions of web surfers looking for ways to max out their seemingly unlimited bandwidth. (more…)

This first installment of what many hope will be a series of new Babylon 5 stories has two segments. A third was originally planned, but was cut for budgetary and logistical reasons during the preproduction process. As a result, Voices in the Dark clocks in at a little over an hour, plus a number of short featurettes included as extras. I’d like to start this review on a positive note, so I’m going to discuss the second segment first. (Spoilers below, and feel free to check out the plot synopsis in the LogBook entry.) (more…)

It might surprise you to learn that some of the most cutting edge graphics, sound and programming created on computers doesn’t appear in off-the-shelf videogames, but rather in the form of computer demos – non-interactive programs coded by gifted artists, who do so for no other reason than to show the world what they (and the machines they love) are capable of.

Computer demos actually got their start in the form of cracking/intro loader screens. In the early days of computing, when programs were “cracked” (had their copy protection removed), crackers would often add an intro (a multimedia page of credits) that displayed each time the program was run. Many early intros were simply comprised of plain text and no graphics; later, intros became more technically advanced, adding graphical logos, music, and scrolling text in which cracking groups boasted about their skills and greeted (and/or taunted) their friends and fellow groups. (more…)

When The Light Is Mine compiles the videos from R.E.M.’s years on IRS Records, and adds several live television performances from the same period. Many of these videos have never been released on DVD, having appeared only on the VHS compilation Succumbs. The band’s low-budget, experimental mentality – driven equally by former art student Michael Stipe’s interest in the medium and Bill Berry, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills’ near-complete lack thereof – is apparent throughout. (more…)

250 miles above us in outer space floats the International Space Station. IMAX: Space Station takes its viewers on a fantastic voyage, letting landlubbers such as myself experience the wonders of space.

Typical IMAX screens are 72 feet wide and 52 feet tall — in addition, IMAX: Space Station was originally filmed with IMAX 3D cameras. While initially I had reservations about how such a big film would look on the small screen, any such fears were alleviated once the film started. Regardless of screen size, this film is fantastic.

IMAX: Space Station documents the assembly and operation of the International Space Station. The film’s footage was recorded during the first and second expeditions to the space station in 2000 and 2001. The movie follows a logical order, taking viewers through astronaut training and through a launch before finally reaching the blackness of space. (more…)

From the demented minds of the Chapman Brothers at HomestarRunner.com, this DVD complements the previously-released 3-DVD Strongbad E-mail box set with an additional 31 responses from Strong Bad and crew to actual fan-written e-mails (one of these never before seen on the web), along with commentaries and other extras. Why so soon after that box set? It’s simple: because this single volume contains some of the very best of the bunch. (more…)

In the interests of full disclosure, this may not be fair game for a review because I had a lot to do with the making of this DVD. Released by Packrat Video Games just in time for Christmas 2004, the Odyssey2 DVD compiles quite a bit of rare footage related to that underdog home video game system of the late 70s and early 80s in one place for your viewing pleasure. (more…)

When the press release accompanying the new Journey live CD states that this June 1981 show in Houston is considered to be the band’s best live performance, and you’re talking about a band that has toured, in various configurations, since the 1970s, it’s a bit of an eyebrow raiser. But so too is former frontman Steve Perry’s credit as the producer of the DVD and CD of that concert.

And while I’ll admit that my knowledge of that touring career is a bit limited, from this viewer/listener’s point of view, the publicity blurb on this one pretty much hits the target. (more…)