io9: cowboys

First Footage Of James Marsters As An Alien-Fighting Cowboy

Meredith Woerner — Mon, 04 May 2009 08:00:00 PDT

Did Dragonball kill all of James Marsters' sex appeal for you? Don't worry, we've got clips of him fighting an alien, as a cowboy. Throw in a unicorn and you've got last nights sex dream.

Even though it's getting a solid F for effort on title, the TV movie Alien Western actually looks pretty interesting. Marsters is stars as Sam Danville, a prisoner who's about to be executed, but his day of reckoning is interrupted by an alien attack. While I'm not a fan of the noises the aliens are making, I'll tune in for Marsters any day. Check out the clips below. Western premieres on the Syfy Channel on June 1st.

When is someone just going to give Marsters his own genre show? I don't understand it.

The Art of Cowboys and Killer Robots

Lauren Davis — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 08:00:54 PDT

In 2003, artist Sunny Buick conceived and curated SCI-FI Western, an exhibition of art inspired by both science fiction and the American frontier. Taking the analogy of space as the new Old West to the next level, the participating artists juxtaposed B-movie imagery from westerns and science fiction with bizarre and surprisingly poignant results.

Buick's inspiration for the exhibition stemmed from our tendency to romanticize both the future and the past:

Why Science Fiction and Westerns? It is our own interpretation, personal myth and pure fantasy about our past and future. Each opened a world of possibilities, we imagined Time machines that would help us undo our errors and we imagined Space machines that would solve all the world’s problems. Who lives in the present? No one. We’re always holding on to an illusion of our glory days or residing in a dreamland of future utopias. The uncharted territory of the mind can be as lonely as the desert or space, chained to mistakes of yesterday or terrified of the shadowy nightmare of tomorrow. We struggle to make sense of the two. In searching our hopes and fears we uncover treasures in memories and the lessons learned. With this knowledge we create the future through our dreams and imagination.

Buick has made the show's catalogue available on Etsy.

Sci Fi Western Art Exhibition [SpaceWesterns.com]

Singing Cowboys vs. Radium in "The Phantom Empire"

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 09:00:21 PST

One of the best parts of watching old science fiction serials from the 1930s are the strange title cards that come at the beginning of each installment to remind you about what happened in the last. This is a gallery of those titles from The Phantom Empire, a popular serial starring "singing cowboy" Gene Autry, who fights against the evil Queen Tika. She rules the underground scientific city Murania, which is "far advanced in the use of radio activity."

What's great is how the serial weaves together your basic scifi plot (discovering an advanced underground city ruled by an evil queen) with Autry's status as a radio star who does a daily program with some kids at Radio Ranch. So pop music is in peril as long as Queen Tika wants to get Radio Ranch away from the secret entrance to her city full of "radio activity." Get it? Radio and radio activity don't mix! Plus, an evil professor is also after Radio Ranch because he wants to harness the radium riches of Murania. Every episode usually features a song from Autry, as well as riding tricks from his teen pals in the "Thunder Riders," one of whom was famous for her rodeo skills. Cowboys, science fiction, and radio technology — the perfect combination! Luckily it's available on DVD.