Other+Recommendations

Use this page for other recommendations--that don't fall into reading/viewing--such as events, games, music, etc. Again, I'll start with one below.

Tom Smith (music)--I discovered Tom Smith my freshman year of college. He primarily plays at ComicCon-style conventions (both Fantasy and Science Fiction based conventions). He posts a lot of free music online; here's a sample: "Crystal Gayle Killed Frank Herbert" (about the //Dune// books).

The Flash Girls--This folk band is defunct now, but of particular interest to SciFi/Fantasy fans. The band was made up of two core members, Emma Bull (SciFi novelist) and "The Fabulous Lorraine" (Neil Gaiman's personal assistant). The band formed spontaneously at a party at Gaiman's house in the early 90s. The sound is mostly traditional Irish-folk, but they know the big people in SciFi/Fantasy so their albums include songs written not only by themselves, but also by Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Jane Yolen, etc. They also have guest musicians from time to time, but SciFi/Fantasy novelist Steven Brust is a guest musician on every one of their albums. There is some free music on their website (linked to their name). You can also find their music on last.fm; here is a sample: "Me and Dorothy Parker" (lyrics by Alan Moore).

A song about flying saucers from 1947: media type="youtube" key="yrIcZjIvQM0" height="345" width="420"

Pinky and The Brain (//Animaniacs)...//I was just watching a Pinky and the Brain clip (below) and it made me think of how frequently cartoons make use of SciFi/Fantasy: media type="youtube" key="fuZ7NoIz0Zc" height="315" width="420"

A weird little animation site (with dragons): Draw a Stick Man

If you haven't ever played with CleverBot online, it is a fun internet age adaptation of the Turing Test (regarding how "human" a computer/robot can be/seem): CleverBot

I saw this interview clip with Lady Gaga talking about personality/persona and thought it might tie to this class somehow, but I'm not exactly sure how: media type="youtube" key="2_gM90N-94k" height="345" width="560" ..because "Fantasy" is somehow real? Semantics screw up everything