Grid Report 10.31.11

Another week has passed on the Grid, and the world is still out there getting on their Tron without Disney. Yes, Disney hasn't done much with their 'franchise' in awhile, and as we await Tron Uprising, with pretty much nothing to go on, and the possible news of a Tron 3, Halloween has come and Tron has infected people everywhere, still a popular costume for the festivities, and thousands of people right now are out there wearing a Tron outfit of one kind or another. The thing is, it isn't just "Tron Fandom" it is something weirder than that, it's become a 'thing,' a meme for all time, whether it is really related to the two films or not. Everything that glows is now "Tron," and the "Tron Party" or Tronification of a house, garage, bar, restaurant or club is the same as a 'Haunted House.' It has become a social theme, where young and old, Tron fans and non-Tron fans alike can participate and get crazy. It isn't so much about Sam Flynn and videogames as it is about blacklights and glow stripes, and their mood-altering effects.

I saw a page on the net this week about a school having a Tron-themed 'spirit week.' The thing is, there's so many fun things to try to mimic in Tron, it's a sure-thing, and it's something everybody is familiar with now, where as before, what would you have called it? A glow-party? A 'Rave'? People would have said that either these are bizarre things for total druggies and weirdos to do that they are to be avoided by 'normal' people at all costs. Now, it's like having a 'vampire night', or a zombie-walk, it has found it's place in Halloween, and because of its appeal, will probably survive longer than the "MASH Bash" or the Avatar bonfire.

This week Tokyoflash released its Kisai Seven Tron inspired LED watch, the latest 'Tronified' design-product to hit the Grid. Although I haven't figured out exactly how this watch tells you what time it is, it would seem a lot of people are already enamored with it. If only had a pop-up holographic display. Oh well.

Salacious Sound posted a 'viral promo flyer' for a Daft Punk 2012 'Tron' Tour, but I could find no specific confirmation of this either on Daft Punk's site, or anywhere else. That would be a crazy concert with everybody dressed in Tron Costumes, and glow-in-the-dark makeup and glowsticks. I keep telling you, a "Tron Musical" would be an interesting gig to produce, and eventually, I will turn out to be way ahead of everybody on this. Somebody will eventually do it. It has to be done with electronic music, Daft Punk would be great, but a fresh remix of the original Wendy Carlos soundtrack would best. The set pieces themselves would be amazing to behold...somebody will figure out just how to put such a show on. It's coming ladies and gentlemen, as sure as "Spiderman" or "Star Wars the Musical" was, it's simply a matter of who catches on to this idea first.

Dupont has a rather expensive looking exhibition, the Tron Designs Corian, to cross promote their latest plastics and the movie Tron Legacy. It is quite an exhibit, take a look at their official site which has an extensive gallery and videos. The Tron style-meme is still infecting everyone and everything, and while Dupont's is a Disney exclusive, and the Tokyoflash watch is also another non-Disney brand attempting to capitalize on the Tron-meme, every week comes another design, whether it's from Disney, some unknown company, or simply a fan out there with some design skills.

N.C. Winters, the artist who created the famous Bill Murray Caddyshack portrait called "Wisdom of the Llama" has begun a new project, entitled "Low Rez" and it is a painting of none-other than our very own Yori. We'll be watching closely for the final result of this latest in Yori fine arts.

The world was also reminded this week that Yori is Lacey Underall from Caddyshack. (Well, we knew that) The folks who bring you those wacky stop-motion animated shorts from Adult Swim gave us Nerd Tron, where the nerd character goes to the Grid and meets Yori. Robot Chicken's latest Tron skit is actually pretty funny, and as often they return to the scene of the crime, with further adventures in these invented scenes, I would bet that sooner or later, yet another character will visit Tron world, I'm betting that Cindy Morgan would probably be more than willing to do the real voice of Lacey Underall on that show, er I mean "Yori."

TRON and Artificial Intelligence

Tron. The movie about 'the Dude' who gets sucked into a computer. You know the one I'm talking about.

Since the Apple IIe there's been quite a few movies about computers. Back when I played the equivalent of PONG on the Odyssey, there were only a couple movies about computers, and they were about these huge monstrosities, like "Colossus" and "Novac" from a film called Gog. There was of course, HAL 9000, but these were the idea of computers as living things, as monsters. No Terminator. No Matrix. No Wargames. No Hackers. Spencer Tracy even starred in perhaps one of the first movies about computers, "Desk Set" long before the Apple IIe, or Commodore 64 was even conceived of. Computers were always big monstrosities, and only special people could run them or understand them. They were like harnessed creatures living in a dungeon, kept by their masters, in some secret castle somewhere.

IBM has developed a super-computer which they say mimics 4.5% of the human brain. They call it the BLUE GENE. They also say their SyNAPSE chip has the ability to rewire its own virtual neurosynaptic centers, allowing it to 'learn' the way humans do. They say that by 2019 it will be able to mimic the human brain by 100%. I think that we are now approaching SKYNET country... the question is what will happen in 2020...and by 2029...will we be up against an artificially intelligent super-computer?

Writers seemed to be implying that eventually, some kind of "artificial intelligence" would be born--inside a computer of course. The MCP, or "SKYNET" would eventually try to take over the world. The 'machines' would turn on us, our creation would fight against us. The inevitability of this and the irony of this has become a cliche. It still has yet to actually happen, but it is there in public consciousness.

In The Matrix, humans have to wake up out of a virtual reality in order to fight the machines. In The Terminator, the machines attempt a pre-emptive strike against humanity before they have a chance to fight against them...with a time machine. In TRON, the humans must still 'use' programs in order to fight the MCP, destroy it from the inside, and it would seem the programs become sentient as well.

Tron has a lot of ideas there in it. The MCP is kind of the same old monster, the 'Colossus' who wishes to take over. The 'Colossus' who can threaten people in the real world, and make them do things. I would imagine that this is exactly how something like this might happen, if an evil artificially intelligent computer was born.

In COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT, this is exactly how it begins to operate, by threats, blackmail, extortion, by ordering men against eachother at first. Nobody would know that behind it all wasn't some conspiracy of Illuminati agents, but a computer...playing a kind of chess game with the human race. THE MCP in Tron was already planning to take over the Pentagon, and reach out into the world by hacking systems and controlling them, Flynn, Alan and Lora stopped it however... they would be classified today as 'cybercriminals.'

Colossus, WOPR, SKYNET, HAL 9000 and the MCP all begin as a kind of chess game, the thinking machine that sees mankind as an adversary. The computer in movies like these is a kind of ultimate evolution in computers, the 'end point,' as some would say, 'the singularity.' At some point, computers will reach that point, so long as they are being developed as they continue to be developed now. What if, however, something else happened?

Where did these ideas come from anyway about the computer becoming some sort of self-conscious intelligent entity anyways? It is implied in its original name, 'the thinking machine?' A machine that can think, like a person, which can do math for him, figure things out, perhaps even solve the world's problems for him? Today, are we even sure what it means to think anymore? Are computers doing our thinking for us? Are we becoming less and less intelligent as the computers become more and more intelligent? Or perhaps...something else is going on here, either instead of this notion, or at the very same time.

The idea of the thinking machine implies something else as well, it implies that we built, or are still trying to build a machine that can "think." In order to do that we have to know what 'thinking' is and how it works, but this isn't necessarily how computers were really born. Nobody spent time attempting to quantify the human thinking process before they decided to start building computers. The road leading to building the first computers was simple math. No math was done to explain how humans think, but what is happening, is that because of computers, people are trying to apply math to how people think, and they have suggested that our brains are like computers...

An odd thought indeed, that we envisioned a 'mechanical brain' only to eventually believe our brains are mechanical... How did this happen? How did we go from fearing these sci-fi monsters, only to suggest that we have these 'sci-fi monsters' inside our very own skulls? It would seem to me that this is what technology usually does to us humans...although not everybody sees this, usually not the people who build the technology, and that is that we build this stuff, eventually start combining our stuff into more complex stuff, and time passes, so much time that the old stuff we built our 'new stuff' out of is forgotten, and we start to wonder how the hell we got to where we are... And something unusual happens...

We have a startling revelation in the midst of this complexity, that on our course to building these things, we're re-building ourselves, we learn from the complexity of our technology that we are unconsciously remaking ourselves, and we go back and forth, taking what we know from our technology and applying it to ourselves. However, common stupidity keeps popping up, as it usually does, and instead of applying the IDEAS, we literally apply the technology. The IDEAS are then ignored, and we're stuck with wires and crap coming out of our skulls, or worse, blobs of genetically 'engineered' parts are swapped out for our original ones, and we simply become less and less human.

Taking the ideas literally is the problem, and it all happens subconsciously, as if we inherently know what we 'want' to do, but we're stuck thinking we have to make 'hardware' out of everything. Technology gets smaller, so we assume that we can then inject this crap into our veins. Ultimately what is missing from the minds of these people is that if the idea came forth from building our computers, that our brains are like computers, then the idea is that any other technology out there can reflect part of ourselves or reflect something else, and remember that these IDEAS are the mirror of physical and mechanical things. The 'thinking machine' is a 'machine that thinks' while what we have is something that inspired that thinking machine, it is the origin of it, the inspiration for it, and while we may have never intended this, there it is, and while our machines are a mimicry, we are not machines, however, the definition that comes out of this IDEA is a new one. A brain might be an 'organ made of organic tissue' the only thing truly important about it is what it does. You don't have a clue how your computer works, so how should you be expected to know how your brain works?

Again, there is a difference, how a brain or a computer works isn't as important is realizing what you can do with it. You can use your computer in a variety of ways, just as you can use your brain in a variety of ways, without knowing its components, or constitution. What people are missing here is that what people are using computers for these days, also mimics what people should be able to use their brains for, or should I say, dare I say, what people should be able to use their 'minds' for.

As of yet, nobody has seen an 'artificially intelligent' computer from one of these movies, but we do use all sorts of different kinds of computers. When nobody is using these computers, they are inanimate objects, they can be unplugged, and put on a shelf, and they are utterly useless. There is nothing in them that operates themselves. You can leave them on, download things, but once the series of commands it has been given are complete, it idles, and becomes null. A human being can have a brain, and yet have no mind at all, and there are a whole series of conditions and circumstances we know to be true in this case. However, a person with a fully functioning 'mind' can have his brain injured, altered, degraded, and he can lose his 'mind.'

As you can see, something else is going on here, beyond pure mechanics, a person is not a series of commands, he commands himself. He is a "USER." He has a will of his own, to use his brain however he sees fit. He may not know what it is made of, or how it operates on some scientific empirical level, but he somehow knows how to 'think' and how to calculate 2+2=4, and remember where his car keys are, and which orifice he is supposed to shove food into. He can think of things to build, and figure out how to build them, all with this magnificent 'tool' he was born with. The brain seems to do things, like regulate all his living biological operations, he really doesn't "think" about these background functions, they just 'run.' When people begin operating their computers, utilizing complex functions, such as build websites with flash animation, send emails, and connect to the internet, they are doing more than pressing buttons on a machine, they're doing more than writing code, and commanding their computers, they're almost not even using their computers anymore, they're in a totally different dimension, they're 'in cyberspace,' they're not even thinking about code, programming or math, and while this may seem stupid, it is no 'dumber' than not knowing where your neurons are firing, and just how those impulses are moving your hands. This is itself, 'the new idea' and that is that if you could see what you're doing on the internet everyday, and instead of explaining it with math, such as how many 'packets' or 'bits' you are sending, or how many pixels are on your screen, but see that you are 'combining' the 'senses' that your computer is capable of, and essentially doing something with a computer that goes way beyond 'mechanical.' You are operating on a whole other dimension, you are not simply pressing buttons, you're sending THOUGHTS and IDEAS to people hundreds if not thousands of miles away. They used call such a thing 'telepathy.'

The structure which we have unwittingly started to build with our technology, and not mechanically, is one which is a new dimension of IDEAS that explain to us, just what our minds, our brains, are obviously capable of. What it means is that we have to start looking at what we're doing in this 'new dimension' and imagine a few steps ahead. Where does it lead, or where can it lead? If you're sending not just simple words through 'cyberspace' but images, moving images, ideas, thoughts, sounds, etc, and just how it is you're doing this, not with the math operating in the background, but in the forefront of your mind, and if as the simple analogy is your brain is a computer, then what is the internet? What is a firewall? In other words, there are other plausible analogies.

TRON ultimately suggests quite a few of these analogies, where no other film does. It does not end with robot armies taking over the earth, nor a resistance force storming Encom. TRON takes us into the computer in a totally imaginary way in which one is removed from the dimension of 'Alan Bradley' who is hacking code, doing math, plugging or unplugging things in 'the real world.' While inside this 'computer' and once removed from the 'real world' one can look at some of these concepts which inside the computer, take on a new and different meaning.

Unlike The Matrix, where everything is an illusion, the object is to look at computers differently, and in a new way, and TRON suggests we look at computers in a new way, yet with very old values, or 'principles.' The physical dimension of plugging wires into your brain like The Matrix takes the physical side of the analogy as far as it can go, the problem is that it makes the assumption that we will never be enlightened to the fact that we might begin to operate our 'computers' before our machines plug into our brains and take advantage of our ignorance.

Cybernetics is a kind of cult of the physical, and assumes that we must utilize our brains, or our physical organs from the outside in, and not the inside out. The concept is we will use the brain from the outside, with wires, microchips and physical technology, and using it with remote controls, when our 'minds' are something that obviously come from 'within.' The opposite now, and this is a new idea, is to use the brain, with the mind, from within. Many books and films have alluded to this concept through vague and outlandish imagery, but now, today, we can begin to completely understand this process, we can illustrate and examine it, as I am doing right now in this article. It is something that may seem 'intellectual' or unimportant to the average person, as unimportant as it was to know how your MacBook works, but it is now becoming very important, because if the human race does not begin to see this, or understand this, (and we are already beginning to see why) the people who can only understand the mind or the brain with technology, we will slowly become total cyborgs over the next century, and it will be the next century, starting now, not any other time.

The cyborg is a person who has applied technology to their physical being, (imaginably it could be a machine which has applied biology to their machines as well), the person is literally becoming a machine. This is a serious mis-application of technology. People need to understand that technology should not literally be applied to themselves, but the ideas from technology should be applied. The individual must never lose their humanity, by losing their will, or their physicality, their true senses, their real feeling, otherwise, the true monstrosity will appear. The real reason for this of course, is that we must never allow ourselves to be programmed, as if we were machines, or computers, or digital 'applications.' We are not these things, we are people, and on the flipside, while we are human, and must never allow ourselves to be altered from our biologicality, we must understand that our complexified technology, i.e. computer, digital technology, the combination of all our technologies into this 'new stuff' we're playing with now is completely subconsciously mirroring what are real minds are capable of. Our 'technology' is a crude reproduction of us. The robot is a crude metal and plastic version of our bodies, cameras are eyes, microphones are ears, and the computer, a mind, and the internet...well, now I'll let your computer start figuring out what that is... that's what we are all about to understand... >the next question is also, what will we do with this once we understand?

GRID REPORT 10.24.11

GRID REPORT 10.24.11

So what happened this week in the world of TRON? Each week, each Monday, I will be putting together this "GRID REPORT" which will hopefully supply the reader with whatever might have happened, whatever I have managed to scrounge, whatever appeared, whatever has come up.

Once again there is relatively nothing new in the world of TRON UPRISING, short of finding out about several more actors being added to the cast. Reginald VelJohnson from DIE HARD, and Meagan Holder (90210) will be supplying their voices to characters known as Able and Ada. You'd think that Disney would have more marketing going regarding their series which supposedly comes out in only a couple months. Soon enough, we'll probably be reporting regularly on this series.

Variety reported that Garrett Hedlund is being considered for one of the male leads of the remake of AKIRA. It is not known whether he will be playing Tetsuo or Kaneda, and whether or not he will be wearing appliances to make himself look Japanese... Also, I wonder, if he does get the role, whether this will ever interfere with any forthcoming TRON sequels, being that for one, this AKIRA movie will probably be terrible, and for two, whether it might become any sort of scheduling conflict. Then again, these days they make movies in like 3 weeks, and most of it is CGI, probably not that big a problem.

Galaxy Nexus has the latest TRON inspired commercial, with goofy animated characters riding Light Cycles.

Graff Faucets have come up with the latest TRONified gadget, the Ametis, which seems to be a water faucet with a

joystick that glows. I suppose you could add this to your Tronified Kitchen or bathroom, along with your Tron toothbrush and Tron glow-in-the-dark hair gel...oops I shouldn't have said that... somebody will go and make it now.

I will regularly report on all these crazy Tronified new gadgets, devices, and fads, because, well, you don't see Avatar shower curtains now do you? You don't see Star Trek inspired toilet seats either, and well, while George Lucas has cornered the market on those things, he's the one inventing them out of his greedy and ridiculous brain, but mostly they're just toilet seats that say "Star Wars" on them, all they are is 'brand name' while these fun gadgets have a flair for design and application, they don't say "TRON" on them and Disney isn't producing them. People are coming up with this stuff because its crazy, and perhaps because they're trying to capitalize on "TRON" but without the name, there's just something fascinating about them. Also discovered this week is Cyberdog's flourescing Tronified sexy women's wear. All is aglow with their Tron Lines Line...

Top 10 Reasons Why Yori Was NOT in TRON LEGACY

I have decided to compile a list of plausible reasons why Yori was not in TRON LEGACY. Some of reflect rather negatively on Disney and Jospeh Kosinski, while others leave them a way out. These are nothing but speculative simple possibilities which may or may not be the truth.

1. The idiots didn't watch the first Tron movie, and they have no idea who Yori is.

2. They forgot. While they were busy figuring out how much crap in the movie will be 3-D and how to do it, they almost forgot about Tron himself, Bruce Boxleitner as well.

3. They decided that Yori would get in the way of the other female characters in TRON LEGACY, and in their uncreative ignorance assumed that having any female character in a film means that she must be a sex-symbol and they couldn't figure out how to work a third sex symbol into the script.

4. The original script for Tron Legacy didn't include Flynn, Tron, or even Alan, and if they hadn't gotten Jeff Bridges on board, almost nothing from the original Tron would have been in the movie. You're lucky to have gotten that.

5. They have plans for Yori to appear in the third film, she will be integral to the mystery of the ISOs.

6. If Yori had appeared in TRON LEGACY, it would have required real writers who have the capacity for imagination, and the thought was, if TRON (Rinzler) is evil, how will Yori fit into the equation? Since they couldn't figure it out, they just ignored it, hoping the audience would forget about Cindy Morgan and the original movie.

7. Yori will be in TRON 3 because who else will help Rinzler (TRON) when he washes up on shore of the Sea of Simulation, and pump the plasma out of his lungs?

8. Yori was actually in the TRON LEGACY script originally, and would have been the part of Castor, she operated a night club, and Quorra decided to send Sam to see her because she knew Yori could help him. Rinzler and Clu show up, and Clu tortures Yori in front of Rinzler to find out where Sam is, this was the original motivation for Rinzler's turn to the 'good side.' However, they decided that they wanted something more 'fun' at that point in the movie, and that torturing a digital character, and setting up motivations for Tron in the movie was 'just stupid' so they opted to create a new character, and that also gave them the opportunity to have Gem show up again for no reason.

9. They simply didn't have enough time or money to computer generate any other characters besides Jeff Bridges. Bruce Boxleitner's head was pasted on the guy who played Rinzler to do the scenes with the original Tron, but he wasn't actually there filming them, and this was last minute, which is why they fogged up the lens and he's only in it for 10 seconds. They ran out of time, and money, otherwise the MAIN CHARACTER, Tron would have actually been in the movie more. Therefore, any other characters, such as Yori, were simply cut out altogether, since there was no way in which they could have done the effects in order to get the movie done.

10. The director decided that Yori was like a James Bond girl, and that Tron should have a different chick every movie, he has no understanding of the original Tron movie, which is why he opted to barely even have Tron in the movie called TRON LEGACY at all. If it wasn't for Jeff Bridges and Steven Lisberger, Kosinski would have made a movie called 'TRON' Legacy which would have little or no resemblence, nor anything to do with the original film.

Yori Collectibles

PART I

If you are a Yori fan, finding Yori-specific collectibles is probably not very easy, they are hard to find, rare or simply non-existent. I have scoured the internet for as many as I could find. The following items are not all readily available, and they are not for sale on this site if you're looking for them. They are presented here for your reference and I have added as much information and links as I could find.

If you're a custom figure creator, a sculptor, a T-shirt designer, or any sort of craftsperson, you might consider the rarity of the goods on this character. In other words, there is for lack of a better term, 'an open market' on Yori. When you do see Yori stuff, if it's unique, it ain't cheap.

TRON COLLECTOR'S PIN with Tron and Yori

Number 29 in the "Countdown to Millennium Series."

While this isn't exactly Yori-specific, there she is, in all her 'main-characterhood' as she is on the cover of the Tron videos, and in the Tron movie posters. As we know, the movie is called "TRON" because of this dude named 'Tron,' and with him, the main characters, 'Flynn' and 'Yori' who destroy the MCP.

Get it?

A few of these are still around, you might even be able to still get one under $10.

More information can be found here.

MEDICOM KUBRICK TRON SET A

The only 'figurine' ever made of YORI to my knowledge is by the Medicom toy company. The basic Kubrick figure design is nearly identical to Lego figures.

"Yori" comes in Set A, with "Tron."

If you do find this, it will genearlly run $40 to $60.

You can find more information here and here.

YORI COCA-COLA COLLECTOR'S CUP

I couldn't tell you just where you could originally obtain these, but there were several cups with various Tron characters on them, one of them features Yori.

These are probably not easy to find in very good condition, but if they do show up on ebay, they probably aren't that

expensive, as long as you're willing to spend $3 to $6 plus shipping for a single plastic cup.

TRON COLLECTOR'S CUP

Featuring Tron, Yori and Flynn.

I am not sure if this is the one, but one of these features a handle. Made of plastic.

More information on this and much more rare and unusual vintage TRON Collectibles can be found at the amazing website, Neato Coolsville.

He's not selling, he's just displaying the stuff, but it's worth a look.

RARE PHOTOS

There are quite a few images of these black and white photos on the internet and on the DVD of "TRON." Many of them are poor resolution, and many of them can be found on ebay, however, there are photos out there not on the DVD, and not readily available as scanned and presented on various

websites, that people have either obtained in press kits, or on ebay, more are always turning up that I've never seen before. One could say there are probably a hundred or more different shots from this type, featuring the characters in different poses in costume. Some taken on set during filming, others for promotional purposes, and 'test' purposes for effects. More are always turning up every day, if you see any or have any rare ones, please send us scans for the new Yori Archive coming to this blog. While some of these are autographed, so many of the rare ones are not, and weren't sold with autographs. There are quite a few Yori photos I have seen in such poor resolution pictures, here and there, and either disappear off the net, or I've never seen them again, and never seen on ebay. Please send us scans of your rare photos so we can do more graphics and display them. Also, get them when you find them, they disappear fast.

RARE COSTUME PHOTOS

Anyone who has this set, please scan them to your computer as soon as possible, I can't say how many of these there are, if there are even any more other than the ones shown in this picture. Consider this ultra-rare, and impossible to find. These unique costume photos I've only seen once on ebay. If you own these, I'd consider paying you to scan them in and send them to me.

CRAIG DRAKE YORI PAINTING PRINT

Done in the style of Nagel, by Craig Drake, this special Tron print glows in the dark under ultraviolet light. That is a pretty neat feature for 'fine art.'

These are still available, but probably not for long.

You can purchase them still on a few various sites, Disney Art Studio has them here for $50, unframed.

MORE TO COME...

TRON CULTURE UPRISING

TRON CULTURE: TRONSANITY OR TRONTASTIC?

Rant by Bob Plissken

I have been observing this new "Tron Culture" for some time, it seems to have begun just prior to the opening of the film TRON LEGACY, and got bigger and bigger immediately afterward, all being inspired by its release. Only a few years before TRON LEGACY, there wasn't much to talk about with TRON, there was Jay Maynard, the "Tron Guy" I first discovered on internet forums. I don't think anybody knew his name at that point, and while on one hand he became kind of a joke, he managed to channel that to his own advantage, and why not? He did, however, help to bring "TRON" back into public consciousness, even appearing on the David Letterman show.

JUST A FAD?

Since TRON LEGACY's release, I have been watching with total fascination this explosion of 'Tron Culture' which seems to reach beyond simple costuming or 'cos-play,' and banal merchandising. People aren't just making their own Tron costumes, like Jay Maynard, they're not just creating their own "Tronified" online avatars and likenesses, they're not just showing up at conventions like Star Trek and Star Wars fans dressed as characters from TRON, they're creating their own personalized "Tron Gear." They're identifying with something that goes beyond wearing a uniform, or dressing up like their favorite alien race, there's a kind of "zeitgeist" to it for lack of a better word. Perhaps it is because of the electronic music in TRON LEGACY, that it seems to be a kind of 'Raver' revival, or remake. The thing is, it doesn't stop with people and their "Grid" alter-ego costumes and designs, and though there is plenty of "TRON" merchandise being bought and sold, people are manufacturing with precision and skill, their own "Tronified" devices, their own "Tronified" EVERYTHING. From TRON DOG to TRON CAT to almost anything imaginable, TRON is infecting everything like a virus, and it isn't some 'viral campaign' it just seems to be some sort of fashion statement, some sort of trend that I don't think is necessarily going to go the way of the bell-bottom yet. Sure the 'hipster' out there will be upset at what appears to be 'mainstream rave culture' or that the mainstream has discovered what they think ravers discovered back in the 90s, but hipsters are a sordid lot who will soon enough be extinct, as their own psychosis forces them into their own self-loathing oblivion.

Somehow, people have found it amusing to Tronify everything they can think of, whether just to see what it would look like, or whether it truly means something to the individual, whatever it may be, this strange 'Tron Culture' is entertaining to watch, and interesting to behold. I seem to laugh at these things, at the same time I am amazed and admire them. There is a kind of strange dual reaction, it is completely zany, and yet astoundingly creative at the same time. Sure there's the usual merchandise, Tron watches, pens, underwear, posters and videogames, but people are out there making Tron motorcycle helmets, hell even Tron motorcycles? And somehow it isn't creepy, like if you were to see someone create a Star Trek motorcycle, what the hell would that be? A Star Trek motorcycle helmet? Nope. Why is a Tron desktop computer mouse more fascinating than say, a Star Wars one? Perhaps it is all perception...but perhaps not...

It has been what, two years now since LEGACY came out? People are still having Tron parties, and the idea still seems fun enough, but if one of your friends said they were having a Star Wars party? Seriously, would that seem like the lamest thing in the world? But a glow-in-the-dark Tron party, with Tron Drinks, and all kinds of people with glow-light accoutrements? Why does that still sound like fun? Perhaps it is the psychedelic aspect of the ultraviolet lights, and electronic music, perhaps it is because it resonates with people due to our steeped interaction with technology itself in the real world. Face it, we're never really going to live in a world like TRON, it would be just too damn expensive to make everything look like that, but somehow by dressing up like a David Bowie freak, with glowing stripes, we're getting it out of our system. Can you imagine how scary it would be to really live in a TRON world? It almost appears like some transhumanist celebration, but in a way its the total opposite of it. People dressing like "programs" or even momentarily imagining the world around them is a giant inhuman Grid, glowing with electricity, it just makes people want to party and feel 'free.' Does Star Wars do that? Star Trek? Harry Potter? Lord of the Rings? Vampire Flicks? Sure people still like those other movies, but this TRON thing, well, now this is different sort of reaction.

I think it is because it isn't just science fiction, it's flashy, sexy and cool, its totally crazy and insane, even the old Tron costumes inspire this sort of aesthetic. It is just so absolutley insane that one is dressed up with all these wires and lights, but what ultimately remains is that these people are not aliens or robots, they're not military uniforms, they're not the garb of renaissance festivals and dungeons and dragons, this is something modern, something akin to glam-rock, something like New Wave strangeness of the 80s, and it doesn't stop with clothing.

There must be hundreds of thousands of TRON remixes on the internet now. Really, that many, I stopped counting after listening to about 200 tracks, and I can't keep up with them. Google Tron Remix, and there is no end to the links. Daft Punk's soundtrack has inspired electronic musicians, DJs, and anyone with software to remix music, to the point that I have seen dozens and dozens of full albums people have mixed, remixed and mashed-up. So many of them are well done, you could play TRON music all night long at your TRON Party. And something like the Tron Party or a Tron Convention will have to be the inevitable result, a full social interaction... Go on Deviantart, and similar sites, and everybody 'getting on their Tron.' Thousands and thousands of

TRON paintings, photoshops, drawings and all sorts of odd and unique Tron-inspired artworks are to be found, many of them self-portraits of people as their "Tron-Self" and thousands of other of their favorite characters in various Tron garb. They're "Tronning" cars, motorcycles, vans, shoes, fingernails, hairdos, dishes, bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchens, garages, fridges, you name it, and half of these people aren't even really SCI-FI fans. The electric blue light of Tron has begun to mesmerize a segment of the population, of not just the United States, but the entire earth. When AVATAR came out people were dressing up like blue aliens, but that didn't last long. Too alien perhaps. Are people still Tronning it On? You bet they are, and as a matter of fact there is so much weird TRONIFIED stuff out there, you might as well just think of something, and it has either been TRONIFIED, or somebody is out there making it happen right now. No such luck with "Star Wars-ification" nor Star Trekification or any other such thing. TRON's got it on. And I can't really explain it. People still dress in their favorite sci-fi movie costumes, for whatever events they are attending, and though similarly, "LARPERS" still dress and carry on their antics, but TRON seems to appeal to almost everyone in some ways. Up for a game of midnight glow-in-the-dark frisbee? Works best when wearing glow-in-the-dark Tron outfits. Also, there's the added benefit of intoxication. TRON UPRISING is still on its way...and perhaps some sort of conclusion with TRON 3.

THE CATALYST

Understandably, not 'everyone is doing it.' It isn't exactly on every street corner, and ultimately TRON is it's own kind of fandom, however, it could very well be inspiring the kind of phenomenon that raves did in the 90s. It isn't something you do every day, it isn't a religion, it is simply a compliment to culture, and as more and more people join the company of TRON fans everywhere, it has something the other things don't, people can apply it to almost anything and have it come out meaning some very bizarre and interesting things. It is open ended, and now a cultural opportunity like anything else.

What does TRON culture stand for? What do all these people really believe in? What do they hope for, dream of, and what do they really want? That's the thing, they're everybody, and it could be anything, and anyone. Freedom to express yourself in this electronic and digital environment we now live in, one in which you watch people aimlessly walk down the street oblivious to the outside real world, with their eyeballs glued to their iPhones and iPods and iPads, they're off

in some other world, the digitally provided one. Connected to the Web--disconnected to reality. But do some want reality back? People have become 'computerized' and well, "TRON" could be an expression of people freeing themselves from that. In such an environment, they can mimic programs, and laugh at themselves for doing so--realize their humanity. Also--it is something you can do in REAL LIFE. Not simply online. The World of Warcrafters and Online Second-Lifer game players interact in a bizarre seemingly social environment...but not really. Its the old idea of the costume party, and perhaps

that is why costuming is becoming more and more popular--real life social activity, based on the the ages-old masquerade. Online games are a cold sterile masquerade with none of the benefits. Gravitating towards real-world activities again is a good sign for the masses, yes, even those crazy fan-conventions contribute to this. So perhaps it is a bizarre role-reversal reaction to online life... people dressing up as 'programs' and 'computerized alter-egos' IN REAL LIFE, vs. people computerizing themselves online. Even though in the end ALL fashions are costumes, this strangeness has a way of revealing that people are beginning to show tell-tale signs that the computers and computer-life have told them something about themselves. Nothing beats good old

reality, and even if you're masquerading you're getting off your computer and back into the the real world. If you're Tronifying the world you inhabit, perhaps you're trying to tell yourself something... It has a funny irony to it. It is inevitable that people will begin to illustrate what computers are doing to us, and in all the usual ways ordinary human culture affords us. The crazy cybernetic pop-singer Klaus Nomi was truly ahead of his time, and I think TRON shares that wavelength.

You can dress like a Stormtrooper, but the problem is, in reality, the real army is beginning to look like Stormtroopers, there's nothing amusing about that. You can dress like a wizard or a Jedi Knight, but unfortunately, the real wizards of today don't employ such archaic fantastical implements like wands and crystal balls, they employ technology, or they invent it. Zombies, Vampires and aliens monsters may be morbid halloween fun alter-egos, but what of this technological masquerading? These aren't all science-geeks doing this. Ultimately, all THESE things can be TRONIFIED as well, yes, they're already out there, Tron-Vampires, Tron-Zombies, Tron-Vader, etc, etc. Tron is overtaking them all, but what does it mean?

At the center of it all, in so many people's lives now, is the internet, their computer, their cellphone, their iPad, their Kindle, their iPod, their laptops, etc, etc, etc. We're way past 2001, and we're not exploring space, we're exploring CYBERSPACE. The "Digital Frontier" is obviously not a real place, it is a strange kind of mirror, and it almost seems inevitable that we're not going to other planets, we're experimenting with creating fake ones, we're dumping out everything from our subconscious into this weird thing called the Internet, into 'cyberspace' and mulling it over, and over, and over and over. Everyone has a CLU, and he's out there on the Net, dumping out all your dirty secrets, you just can't see that he is, because you created him, and you assume you're in control...

Star Wars is dead ladies and gentlemen. We're not going to space anymore. At least Star Trek still has a resonant subtext even though it is supposed to really be about exploring space, but seriously, Federations and Evil Empires aside, our Evil Empire today is the complicated world of technological fetters, most of them invisible, and connected to you through facebook, and millions of other digital applications which people try to navigate through. A modern Evil Empire is an international corporation, nations, countries, sovereign states all bow to that Empire now. Armies simply do their bidding under banners invented by sly marketing people. 'The internet is where we get our Information' and yet, there's so many pitfalls in using it, and how it is negatively affecting our lives. Many people are wrapped up pretty tightly in their little internet worlds they live in now, and so tightly I'm not sure anybody would know what to do if they wanted to get completely out of them. If the economy crashes, and internet access is stifled, or becomes so tightly locked up so that your computer will ask you for your DNA in order to 'get on the internet' people will still have the 'internet' in their souls. It may be one day that only the privileged will have access, and a few smart hackers, but most will remember the "WEB" and their days spent on it. Humanity has built new circuits in its collective brains because of the internet, people are born to it now, there are people living now with their very own blogs and websites who have never known a day without it. What will happen when its use is so restricted whether it be through government or corporate regulation, or simply because of environmental disasters? Nothing lasts forever.

What seems to me to be happening out there on the Internet, is a menagerie, an open-ended limitless experiment in looking at who and what we are. All of its insanity, horror and beauty is our insanity, horror and beauty. One day, the internet will have an end. It could be that it becomes something else, or our electricity will go out forever, due to disaster, war, or collapse of what we now know as civilization. It will be a strange memory, and what we did with it will be something that vast epic myths will be written about. It cannot last forever, and we cannot go back to who we were before it came to us. It has changed us forever.

People will remember Tron as a fairy tale, and perhaps one day, people will dress up in circuitry body paint, and dance little tribal dances, sing tribal songs about that 'other world' the ancestors used to visit. Star Wars and Star Trek may have had their day I'm afraid, and while they spoke to us in the midst of a Cold War, and what might have been a hopeless future, giving us Utopian visions where we leave the earth en masse in millions of spaceships, however, that seems pretty unlikely now, and the world of TRON, though seemingly silly and over-the-top, is a world people can really understand. It is a world that the MATRIX fails to define in that it only suggests that the world is a virtual one beyond your control, OR that you can somehow manipulate it all yourself, but there is a world beneath the world it ignores. TRON recognizes that we create that world on top of the world, and it hints that the way in which we have built cyberspace, or even the plastic world is a reflection of something, we better look closer at what that reflection is. A world in which right now as I write this, Microsoft is developing almost every kind of tech in those two films, with the exception of giant floating Recognizers. (Oh, you've already seen the motorcycles...) It doesn't mean we're going to be living in TRON, but some of the stuff they're inventing, well, it looks like magic. Holographic pseudoscreens to make plasma screens and LCDs obsolete. You can put your hand through them, and sensors will see where your fingers are around the edges. They will project "virtual objects" like in IRON MAN... and those identity discs will be real. Will everyone have their own identity discs? God I hope not, it isn't something you really want on earth, but what it represents, what it means to us, and in the films, by having them before somebody makes them for real, we're experimenting with what can be done with them in the imagination. Living in a real TRON world, would stifle the imagination, and destroy the senses. Such technological things are all manifestations of ideas, and once the technology is gone, because we simply are going to hit a wall where there just can't be enough plastic to make it all, there isn't enough energy to run it all, there isn't enough money to go around, the Ideas that the technology revealed to us will still be there. We won't forget them, and for all we know all of this has happened before...

Imagine for a moment that all this Tronification is really just a unconscious desire, an intuition if you will, of something deep inside us, and that all these wires and little hand-held gadgets are showing us something... what if we already did live in a TRON world and didn't know it? No. Not like the Matrix, not a 'virtual reality' where all is a digital illusion created by a computer somewhere, and we don't realize we're all connected to a computer. Push your imagination a bit. It is all a kind of mirror, and given enough time, the human race will connect the dots, or in this case, connect the wires, the neurons will make that connection...that we already have computers inside us that can do ALL these things...but we haven't booted them up yet. Or at least, we haven't booted them up with their original operating systems and software. We already do have 'computers,' in each and every one of us. The computer, after all, is simply an exterior model built crudely to mimic the human brain, so then add all of its applications, all of its capabilities, and all of its uses to that. We're finding out just how WE are going to be doing all this--on our own someday...without wires, without cybernetic implants, without microchips, without Microsoft, without Apple, without the technology created by our own hands (which we made from our unconscious anyways.) We are showing ourselves how it works right now. We are discovering the rules. We are playing with the toys before we set off to play with the real thing. As much as those in power would like us all to believe we're nothing but our genetics, our 'programming' or that we are all parts of a machine, pseudocybernetic organisms made of biological predictable programming...controllable mechanisms without any real freedom... just a cocktail of chemicals, neurons and genes which can be completely reigned and steered, what if we're not?

Time to wake up program and realize you're a USER, not a program, and what you are capable of is what you've already got. You got a computer in your skull which is a million times more complicated and more effective than an iPad. You aren't a computer, but you've got one, and the thing is, figuring out that since it is already a part of you, how the hell do you switch it on and put it to some use? Soon enough people are going to figure this out, and those who've implanted themselves with wires and implants will be hard-pressed to function. Like people who start taking dopamine, or dopamine-inducing drugs, eventually after awhile, their own natural dopamine-creating function in the brain decreases, and so much so they will become dependant on the exterior source of dopamine. Hard-wiring ourselves will only serve the same purpose, however, those 'without' who haven't that access to such 'technology' just might develop the technology they were born with, even beyond the capabilities of those created by mankind. When that day dawns, you will be in TRON WORLD, and you will recognize that you're not a program, that you're a User, that the world around you is interactive, in much the same way a virtual reality is interactive with a computer, but there are two worlds there, there is a world on top of the world, overlayed, and that one is made of cement, plastic and metal, while the original one beneath it, well my friends, that's where all the software is, that is compatible with your original OS (operating system). Everything else is just malware...and spyware. It is time to FREE the SYSTEM. The idea of Program-Tron is simple, he is a hidden algorithm inside us which we need to destroy the MCP, the malware which has infected our brains. Thousands of years of programming, corrupting our hard-drives. Time to reintegrate CLU, escape the Grid, and make it back to the real world. In the end the whole adventure will have been worth it, so long as we make it there in one piece.

Get your Tron On.

Long live the Users.

YORI LIVES ART - PETER BREESE

This week I got a chance to ask Peter Breese about his Yori art. Peter Breese's art can be seen to your left with Cindy Morgan. His beautiful fine art style couldn't be more perfect for Yori/Cindy Morgan.

You have done several works of Tron art, two of them are of Cindy Morgan, Yori. What inspired you to explore these images?

"Yes, actually I've released two initial sketches of Yori and one final, the other final piece is based on Quorra (Olivia Wilde) from TRON: Legacy. It was during the creation and evolution of the TRON 2010 piece that got me reflecting on my memories of the original TRON film. In fact, a few days after inking that piece I started sketching out a Yori portrait. So I was actually working backwards from TRON: Legacy to TRON."

Your art is truly iconic, and 'vintage' looking, how would you describe the style of your art?

"Thanks man. I work almost entirely in brushed ink and gouache - I also do some digital work for books, etc.... Occasionally I

meddle in watercolors, but still prefer the solid finish of gouache. As for my particular style - it's just me. Frankly, I'm not entirely sure where my style fits in - some sort of graphic post pop deal I guess... I've never really thought too much about it."

"I'm super honored to have my art at Gallery Nucleus in California, South Pointe Gallery in Key West FL, and available for purchase at Storyopolis Entertainment in Dallas, TX. My work has appeared in a variety of publications, but the best places to find it right now is in a few books that will be released over the next few months: They Draw and Cook, The New Devil's Dictionary, and Spectrum 18."

You have made your way to the conventions, and you have met Cindy Morgan, how did you come to ending up at the conventions, and what was it like meeting Cindy Morgan?

"I'm a comic geek - nuff said. I was originally there to catch up with some of the artists I've loved since I was a kid, but when I saw Cindy I made a bee line to introduce myself. Cindy is very cool and on her game. After a little chat I told her I'd try to bring in the original TRON 1982 on day two. I don't think she knew just how huge the final painting was, so it was very cool to see her reaction to it. I rarely have the pleasure of seeing people's responses to my originals, so that was an especially awesome opportunity. Cheers for that, Cindy."

Are you a fan of Tron, science fiction? What are your thoughts on the movie, and do you have any favorite kind of science fiction?

"Absolutely. TRON blew my mind when I first saw it - I think it did that to a lot of folks. It wasn't so much about the graphics for me, but more the concept of life within a computer - brilliant! Sci-fi has always had a special place for me - I'm not picky about the flavor."

Your art is particularly reminiscent to me of vintage fashion design, like

covers of Vogue magazine from the 30's, how did you come to approach this style, and add a modern touch? What inspired you in this direction?

"Thanks, I'm honored. I've no formal training and up until a few years ago I was an epidemiologist. Informally, I've been drawing since I was old enough to hold a brush or crayon, whichever was first. My grandma would draw endlessly with me - she's still amazing - and I've never stopped. In fact, I got into some trouble in law school for drawing in the margins of my Tort case book - my prof took preference to a severed foot I was working on at the time, but in my defense it was entirely relevant to the case we were discussing."

"As for my style, well, I'm a child of the 80s and I think that "feel" is fairly palpable in my work. I also a line freak and a bit of a minimalist, so I love the power of a well placed brush stroke - each piece has to be a love affair or I'm simply not trying hard enough. I'm always working to improve and I've plenty of room for that."

"No doubt tons of artists influence me in some way and I owe them all a debt of gratitude. I'm not an island and I appreciate the inspiration. That said, I do work very hard to keep my style personal and evolving. I don't want to do another artist any disservice by imitating their style."

How do you feel about art influencing people? Do you ever use a computer, or software, how do you feel about 'computer generated art?'

"Art influences us all. Ever see a movie? Boom, you were influenced by art. Like that music? Boom, art again. I have an overly broad view of art, because I think everyone is an artist in their own way. Illustrators, a group I'm super honored to be a part of, work in a variety of mediums which are often divided into digital and traditional and I try very hard to be retain skill in both. Traditional is certainly beautiful to touch and see with the naked eye, but we live in the age of computers and I've been knocked on my butt by tons of insanely beautiful digital illustrations. I understand that folks have strong opinions about this and tend to hold one up above the other, but they both seem equally cool to me. Heck, I've had clients who have requested both and I'm happy to provide. In fact, I often include digital at some stage of a pieces development - to check colors or finalize lines - so that I don't get rusty."

What are your thoughts on the art design of TRON, being an artist yourself, it occurred to me after seeing one of your sketches of Yori, that her costume almost has a bit of 1920s look to it, with the circuitry designs, could have been some sort of vintage quasi-futuristic fashion look.

"The art of TRON is unreal. I have always been drawn to the power of simplicity and the designers of TRON really captured this. I don't think it would have been nearly as successful if the palette wasn't so limited. As for the styling of the outfits, it's like Mad Max meets Cirque de Soleil - who knows? Good stuff."

Peter Breese's art can be seen at www.peterbreese.com

He can be found on Facebook ... www.facebook.com/peter.breese