Casting Internets

Again, thanks for all the kind words on the internets I've been hearing and reading online. In addition to the ones I mentioned the other day,Josh Wigler created the above glorious piece of original art featuring Jim Gibbons and myself. Kiel also gave us a shout out on Linko XXI over at the Cool Kids Table.

Speaking of Mr. Gibbons, his interpretation of "The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of Music" perfectly encapsulates what I wished that movie was actually about when I had to watch it over and over and over as a kid.


In other news, Curt over at Groovy Age of Horror finally saw the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I'm glad he liked it and completely agree with his assessment at the end that it really does depend on when you see a movie like this in your horror movie watching career. The sooner really is the better.

Chris Ward worked his magic on this awesome Dungeons and Dragons ad (pun not intended, but also not deleted):



[post does not go on]
Oh, DO go on.

2007 Danny Trejo Interview

With all the buzz flying around the Machete movie, especially the news that Robert De Niro, Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Alba, Cheech Marin, Don Johnson (Nash Bridges reunion!!!) and Steven Seagal will all be in it, I figured I would dig up an interview I did with Mr. Trejo right before the release of Rob Zombie's Halloween hit on DVD along with a drawing I did a few weeks back when I was relatively bored of Machete. I'm not sure if anything ever happened with the interview (it was originally done for wizarduniverse.com, but I can't find it on the net), but the interview went down on November 30, 2007 and it was absolutely one of the most fun I've ever conducted. Danny was a joy to talk to and really sounds like a dude you could just hang with. Maybe someday... Anyway, here's the full interview.

Dietsch: How are you doing, man?
Trejo: I was just in TJ [Tijuana]. Who was it with? It was Andy Garcia and Ray Liotta and Eli Morales.

Dietsch: I looked at your IMDB page and you seem busy all the time.
Trejo: Yeah, yeah. Thank God. A busy man who's trying to do everything.

Dietsch: So I want to start with a few Halloween questions.
Trejo: Sure. Great movie by the way.

Dietsch: Were you a fan of the series, the previous series, before you worked on this one?
Trejo: You know what, I hate to say it, but no I wasn’t. I knew the movie, but I didn't really get into horror movies until I did From Dusk Til Dawn. I thought, “Wow, this is cool.” And horror fans are probably the most loyal fans that you can get. It's either horror fans or John Wayne fans.

Dietsch: Do you have any favorite horror movies?
Trejo: Well, I go back to Frankenstein and Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney, that era. I think that one of my favorite movies of all time is Bram Stoker’s Dracula. But wait a minute, I don't know if you saw this kind of comedy that was called Dracula: Dead and Loving It. I laugh thinking about that [laughs]. Me and my son watch that and just go hysterical for it.

Dietsch: You’ve worked with a lot of directors in the past. What did Rob Zombie bring to the table for this one? Was there anything that you hadn’t experienced before?
Trejo: You know what, I say it all the time. Rob Zombie brings the same thing that Robert Rodriguez does. They love what they’re doing and any time that you work with anybody that loves what they’re doing it's just a joy. It’s a joy to show up for work. If you’re working with a plumber that loves what he’s doing it’s a joy to be around him because he not only likes what he’s doing, but he likes teaching you. If you’re ever around with Rob [Zombie] or with Robert Rodriguez or Quentin [Tarantino], if you’re standing by them – I hate to say this because I’m a lot older than them, but they’re actually holding class. “And the reason we’re shooting this is because if we get this angel we can edit it like this.” They’re holding class because they love doing what they’re doing.

Dietsch: That’s got to make it really fun to be on set, I’m sure.
Trejo: Oh, yeah. It just makes it really fun.

Dietsch: Now, when you’re working on a horror movie do you ever get creeped out by the atmosphere of the whole thing, especially with something like Halloween where your character gets killed? Is that strange to see?
Trejo: No. I think it’s a lot of fun and people who work on horror movies especially really have to love what they’re doing. Even the stunt guys. If you think that jumping off a building is tough try it in a guerilla suit or try it in a werewolf suit. It makes it a lot more difficult. So everybody that’s on the set loves the costumes and the makeup and everything like that. So I think it just brings a lot more fun to the table.

Dietsch: Would you say that there’s a different energy on set when making a horror movie, more excitement?
Trejo: Yeah, absolutely because people are comparing it to this horror movie and that horror movie. It's tough to compare a drama or something like Gone With The Wind, but with horror you've got all these little different quirks.

Dietsch: Michael Myers is a character who’s been around for a long time. Do you have your own take on him? Do you see him as pure evil or that he was abused and this is kind of the result of his growing up?
Trejo: Well, I’ve taken the abuse so far [laughs]. I mean, come on. It’s funny because Michael Myers, at first he didn't kill me. At first I lived and then after they saw the movie everybody noticed that, “Hey, he didn't kill Trejo”' So this kind of gave him a redeeming quality which they didn't want him to have and so they brought me back for it. Rob called me back and said, “Hey, Danny. You know what? We have to kill you.” I said, “Get your other checkbook out.” [laughs] They killed me and re-shot it. I think it was better that they didn’t let me live because tthat took away his redeeming quality.

Dietsch: Do you have a preference for the kinds of movies that you work on?
Trejo: I love action movies. I love action movies. What’s the body count?! Even my agent knows that if the first five pages don’t have a body count of at least three to pass on it. I go to movies to be entertained. Don’t give me anything too heavy because I don’t want to walk out of there going, “Oh, I’m thinking.” [laughs] Not too much plot for me. Just shoot ‘em up.

Dietsch: Do you have a favorite action movie hero like maybe Dirty Harry or somebody?
Trejo: Like I said, I love John Wayne and Kirk Douglas and all the old action hero guys. [Clint] Eastwood was awesome. What can I say? I love movies. I love good movies. I love good action movies.

Dietsch: Do you think that Machete could take Michael Myers?
Trejo: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Machete can take out Superman. We’re going to do that. This is a Robert Rodriguez quote here. You can quote this from Robert Rodriguez. He promises all his fans that we are going to start Machete in January. So that’s a go. I call him every day and I tell him, “Robert, everybody is asking me when we’re doing Machete. He said, “Well, tell them we're doing it in January.”

Dietsch: Is there a projected release time yet?
Trejo: Probably in the summer. He wants to get it done pretty quick.

Dietsch: We heard that it was going to originally be direct to video, but now it’s theatrical?
Trejo: Oh, yeah, definitely. That’s another quote by Rodriguez.

Dietsch: Can you talk about the plot at all?
Trejo: Well, you know that he’s a federal agent that comes out here from Mexico and he’s double crossed by the mob who’s trying to kill this senator. They double cross him and so he just comes back with a vengeance and I love it because it’s a Charles Bronson Death Wise-type, take no prisoners [movie]. I cut guys in half on that one.

Dietsch: Everyone here is super excited to see it when it comes out.
Trejo: Put that in your article and send it to Robert [laughs].

Dietsch: So the trailer that was in front of Grindhouse, is that still the trailer for the movie or was that a goof?
Trejo: That was just kind of a preview. There’s a whole lot more stuff that they’re doing. There’s stuff when I land that motorcycle. There’s stuff where I cut one guy in half and his legs keep running – some funny shit. It’s really, really heavy stuff.

Dietsch: So the scenes in the trailer will be in the movie?
Trejo: Oh, yeah, absolutely, but the continuation of those scenes because those were just short little scenes.

Dietsch: You’re slated right now to be in Sin City II. Do you know anything about your character or when that will start?
Trejo: Not a thing. I was supposed to be in Sin City and what happened was that I was shooting another film and Robert said, “I have to do this, Danny.” I said, “Go ahead. Go ahead.” So they re-started Mickey Rourke’s character and I'm glad that he did that. He was great in that.

Dietsch: Have you read any of the comics and have a favorite character?
Trejo: Yeah. I met what's his name [Frank Miller?], but it's like I said, I have no idea what they’re going to do with me. You never know with Robert. I mean, Robert, that line of his, “Are you a MexiCan or a MexiCan't?” Robert made that up on the set, right before me and Johnny Depp shot that scene [from Once Upon A Time In Mexico]. It was like, “Here Danny, say this.”

Dietsch: Do you have a favorite Robert Rodriguez movie, one you’ve been in or one that you just love even though you're not in it?
Trejo: A favorite Rodriguez movie? God, when Salma Hayek was pouring that wine down her leg [in Desperado?], I could've watched that for the whole movie [laughs]. That's what I love. I love those action movies. I loved Spy Kids and that movie gave me this whole new audience.

Dietsch: Do you get recognized a lot when you’re out? I would imagine that you do because you’ve doing films for a long time.
Trejo: Oh, yeah. It’s funny. It’s like people complain about the paparazzi and all that stuff, but I kind of make a decision before I leave the house that I’m going to deal with this. If not, I’ll send someone out and I won’t go out. I tell all actors that if you don’t want to be bothered, don’t go outside. You can avoid it. I see all these people yelling at these camera guys and stuff and I just laugh. It’s like, “Shut up. You did it.”

Dietsch: I wouldn’t think that they get in your face too much.
Trejo: No, no. They’re polite and they ask real nice. “Hey, can we take a picture with you” [And I say,] “Yeah, sure.”

Dietsch: My wife wanted me to ask you what it was like when you did Desperate Housewives.
Trejo: [laughs] You know what, let me tell you something. At first I said no to that. My agent said, “They want you to do Desperate Housewives. They called you.” I said, “No way. Come on, Danny Trejo on Desperate Housewives? That doesn’t fit.” My wife happened to walk by and heard that. She goes, “Are you crazy?! That’s the most popular show on TV.” So I ended up doing it and it’s funny because I hang out at this place called Chubby’s Automotive. It’s over in Sylmar on Polk and San Fernando Road. All of my old ex-convict friends and all my old drug addict friends, ex-drug addict friends, they all hangout there. So they’re always ragging on me when I walk up, like, “Ooh, here comes the movie star,” and all of that stuff. I walked up there and they said, “Ooh, here comes the movie star. What are you working on now?” So I told them Desperate Housewives and if you can imagine all these guys with tattoos and all buffed up and wife beaters on going, “Oh, that's my favorite show!” They love Desperate Housewives. “Say hello to Eva [Longoria],” [they said].

Dietsch: What was that shoot like? How long were you on the set?
Trejo: About three days and it was blast. They’re so fun and Eva Longoria is like – I love basketball and so I got an autograph picture [of her husband, Tony Parker]. She kind of cracked up because I went over to her and asked her, “Can I have an autographed picture of your old man?” She was a doll.

Dietsch: You’ve done quite a few videogame voices and animated voice work. How is that different than going to the set and working on an actual live action movie?
Trejo: Just showing up. You can show up in pajamas if you want to [laughs]. No makeup or nothing. You just show up in pajamas and say, “Hey, what’s up?” You do it and I hate to say it, but it's EM: “easy money.”

Dietsch: Do you ever play the games that you’re in?
Trejo: God, no. It takes a genius to play them games.

Oh, DO go on.

Halloween Scene: Halloween H2O & Zombie Island Massacre

Hey, even though things aren't all rosy, doesn't mean you can't depend on me for reviews of old movies you've either seen or have no intention of seeing. Yesterday, on what will be my last Train-Ing Video in a while, I watched Halloween H20 (1998) for the very first. time. As long time readers will remember, from my posts about the Halloween movies last year, I had seen the first 5 movies in the original series and then watched Rob Zombie's remake, but I watched Curse for the first time and hadn't seen H20 or Resurrection yet.

So, it wasn't a bad movie. It had Jamie Lee Curtis, Adam Arkin (from Chicago Hope), Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe (Nash Bridges AND Prison Break!) and Janet Leigh (who I didn't not know was Jamie Lee Curtis' mom). The whole ignoring-4-6 and being a little too Scream were definitely annoying and don't make the series hold up in the long run, but I can see how it would be a good introduction to teenagers in the 90s who maybe hadn't seen the originals yet. I'm not going to really get into it, because, frankly, BC over at HMAD summed my thoughts up pretty well in his review from 2007 (except for the whole "different opinion every time he sees it" thing, cause, you know, I've only seen it once).

I do think it would have been cool if this was the end of the original series of movies, but, not having seen Resurrection, but still reading a few things, I know that Michael got better from that decapitation (or it was a paramedic or some such nonsense?). While I'm not planning on seeing Zombie's Halloween 2 any time soon, I probably will check out Resurrection relatively soon and let you know what's up.

I also watched a little movie called Zombie Island Massacre (1984) on NetBox this morning. Yes it's stupid, and SPOILER, no, there aren't any actual zombies in it (hence the lack of the "zombie" label), but any movie that starts with a white guy in a tribal mask sneaking up on his girlfriend/wife who's taking a shower, then jumps into Hatchet-territory with a tour group going to see some weird stuff, then it kind of gets into Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things and Night of the Living Dead zones. It really is a pastiche and it's not bad, but it's also not good and if you've ever seen a movie like this you'll know what the twist ending will be.

One question I had though: how did they take a bus to the resort's sister island? I could have easily missed a simple plot point about this, but I still laughed later once I saw the bus. Oh well. It's got very little gore, but enough nudity to kind of make up for it.
Oh, DO go on.

Thanks For The Kind Words

Hey everyone, thanks for all the kind words in the wake of my recent job loss, I really do appreciate it.

If you just can't get enough of me (and who can't really :) check out Ben's post on The Cool Kids Table called TJ Dietsch: Soldier of the Apocalypse. There's a pretty embarrassing photo gallery there.

Also, Sean, who's guest blogging over at Robot Six mentioned it here while also posting an amazing photo of the Wizard staff circa 2006. Check that out!

[post does not go on]
Oh, DO go on.

Ad It Up: Sarah Michelle Gellar Milk Ad

Hubba, hubba. Boy did I have a thing for SMG (as she was referred to on the internet) back in 1998 when this ad was running in comics (like Major Bummer #12) and magazine. I had this picture hanging on my "girl wall" that I cut out of magazine in my room up until I tore them down when I went to college :) Good times.
Oh, DO go on.

Casting Internets

How cool is this Lost Season 5 Dharma Initiation Kit DVD set? Gotta love that they included an actual VHS tape and the DVD slips look like big giant floppy discs.
(via AWESOME/Film)

Topless Robot has yet another great list in the form of The 9 Most Questionable Batman Toys.

Over at Gary: Landlord of the Flies , which spurred me to write this post, about my former crummy landlord, is one step closer to getting the case on TV. Can't wait to see what comes of this.

Check out this crazy cab fire in front of the DC offices on Broadway this morning. (via Did You See This?


Everyone's freaking out about Guy Ritchie doing a PG-13 Lobo movie. Why? Is anyone that big of a Lobo fan that they're truly offended by this idea? Is there really that little to really get worked up about? Just relax. Heck, Keith Giffen has even talked about how he's shocked that Lobo has lasted so long and kept pushing the envelope to see if people would still want to read his exploits (I can't seem to find the interview I did with him where he directly says this). (via Variety , heh).

Finally, I find myself in want of employment at the moment, so all you people who've been waiting to swoop in and snatch me up, just leave a comment :)
Oh, DO go on.

NYSeen: Gross Clump Of...Hair?

I've been working in NYC for a few months now (I actually don't even remember when we moved down there) and I've seen all kinds of craziness. It wasn't until last month that I got a phone that could take decent pictures, so I've been sort-of documenting some of the weird and interesting things I've seen like this:


Whatever this pile of grossness is (hair? fur?), it got stuck on the bottom of my shoe after leaving Bryant Park. I was pretty grossed out, but just had to snap a picture because...well, I can. It's not the best picture because I wanted to get away from that monstrosity toot-sweet, but to give you an idea, it was about the size of a frolf disc and quit dense.

Any other thoughts on what it might be?

[post does not go on]
Oh, DO go on.

Book Review: Sonic Boom by Peter Blecha

For the majority of my active music absorbing career, I've felt like I've been playing catch up. I guess that's what happen when you've got 40 or so years of rock and roll (not to mention blues, jazz, folk and whatever else you might eventually get interested in) with dozens and dozens of sub genres with their big hitmakers, indie darlings and one hit wonders. It's a lot to take in and as a result I had a problem understanding how so many bands fed off of each other in a fairly short period of time to create all kinds of classics bands.

Peter Blecha's Sonic Boom which came out earlier this year, does an amazing job of cataloguing all of that albeit in the specific area of Northwest America. Thanks to the cover, which features a shot of Mudhoney, I kind of figured Sonic Boom would be mostly about the grunge scene, but I couldn't be more wrong. In fact, my one complaint about the book is that Blecha didn't give this highly influential era comparably few pages. The section focusing on the intricacies of the scene from the late 50s through the 80s takes up roughly 229 pages while the 70s-90s get the remaining 50 pages. The funny thing is that it doesn't come off as though Blecha dislikes that music, he just kind of breezes through it, which feels rushed after reading about bands you've never heard of like The Fleetwoods.

But, like I said, this book really educated me on an era of rock and roll that I was mostly unfamiliar with and, better yet, and entire sub genre of music I didn't know. I learned about bands like The Sonics, The Wailers, The Frantics, learned more about The Ventures (whose surf rock records blew me away when I stumbled upon my dad's uncle's discs when I first got my own record player for Christmas in high school) and Paul Revere and the Raiders. Plus there were just so many ins and outs to the scene that it played out like a soap opera more often than not. Plus, it's fun to read about real life events that informed one of the all time best rock and roll movies That Thing You Do.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the book was getting an understanding as to how different the record industry used to be. First off, records were sold regionally, so you might record a single on 45 and sell it in your area, but it might not do a anything anywhere else in the country. I've been saying for a while that it's interesting to me that the music industry seems to be turning back to this single format that dominated the industry for so long. Now, we're just buying them on iTunes instead of rolling down to the record store and picking up a record. Another aspect of the scene I found fascinating was the focus int he early to mid 60s of teen dances that would be held at school gyms or VFW halls put on by anyone who could rent the place out. I never experienced any dances like that in my day, but it sounds like local politics really got in the way.

It made me think how cool it would be to open some kind of club that would foster young/new bands. You could record the live shows and put them out as a podcast. Then, considering how easy it is to record with Garage Band, start a little recording studio in the back and then just release them through iTunes. That would work right? Who wants to open a club?

Anyway, I recommend Sonic Boom for any fans of rock who are looking for a detailed history before the Beatles came and changed everything (including focus on plenty of bands who influenced them and just about every other band that would come after). Like I said, it's definitely light on the 90s grunge stuff, but if you're in the mood, I highly recommend checking out a movie about that revolution called Hype. I haven't seen it since high school (when I got into grunge, again, after the fact finishing my Nirvana CD collection, picking up Badmotorfinger to go along with Superunknown and giving TAD and Mudhoney a shot thanks to my beloved used record store Boogie).
Oh, DO go on.

"Look, Another Girl Fight Season Finale"

The above quote was straight from my lovely wife's mouth as we watched the last episode of the third season of Alias. If you could somehow throw the word "crying" in there it would completely sum up my thoughts on this show. Season 3 really seemed to rehash a lot of previous ideas from the show (a man being betrayed by his spy wife, distrust in the organization, lying to loved ones, bad guys who just won't die, incredibly sloppy spy stuff and crying. Lots of crying from our bad ass heroine.

The funny thing, though, is that I kind of liked these storylines better than those from the previous seasons. Maybe it's that I knew what I was getting into when we started. Maybe it's because the few people whose opinions I've heard said it was supposed to get so much worse this season, I'm not sure. I actually enjoyed this season more what with all the Rambaldi stuff taking center stage and twins and other family members coming to light. It's not a great show, but the ticks seemed to be less (or at least less obvious) and you can see where shows like Lost and Fringe may have had their earliest seeds.

The most impressive element of this show, by far, has been the crazy amount of high quality guest stars they were able to pull in. Here's a fairly completely list from Season 3: Scott Adsit, Djimon Hounsou, Bradley Cooper (he came back!), Richard Roundtree (seriously, Shaft is following me), David Cronenberg, Terry O'Quinn (he also came back!), Quentin Tarantino (also came back!), Isabella Rossellini (yeesh), Vivica A. Fox, Ricky Gervais (of original Office fame and general awesomeness), Raymond J. Barry, Peggy Lipton (Julie from The Mod Squad and Norma Jennings from Twin Peaks) and David Carradine (another returner). That's a pretty impressive roster, especially when you consider that many of them made appearances in multiple episodes.

So, I'm curious to see how Season 4 and 5 go. I know there's a twin or something. And a baby. But, since my expectations are pretty low, so I can't really get TOO disappointed.
Oh, DO go on.

Three Movies I Didn't Finish: Vanishing Point, City Heat & Mercury Man

I laughed pretty hard to myself after reading Stacie Ponder's post about trying to decide which movies to watch. I often have the same problem. I'm awake so few hours past 10PM these days that I want to get the most out of my time dollars. So, I'll either play a video game (right now it's Arkham Asylum, more on that later in the week), or watch a movie on NetBox. See, I take the DVDs with me on the train and I've got over 250 movies in the online queue, so I try to get through as many as possible. Oftentimes that means I'll watch some pretty bad movies and sometimes some good movies just don't hook me enough. Here are three such movies in the order that I semi-watched them.

VANISHING POINT (1971)
I'd heard about Vanishing Point before I saw Death Proof and even though I didn't like that movie, I still wanted to check this one out, but the problem is that it's pretty boring. You've got a lot of a guy driving a car, some chases and then weird flashbacks to him getting in motorcycle accidents and being a good cop. We also get several scenes of a blind DJ. I completely admit that I got distracted by other things and wasn't giving this movie 100% of my short attention span, but it didn't really seem like there was a lot of story here (guy's driving a car across a bunch of states for a guy, but I'm not sure why). It's kind of like when I tried to watch Superfly, which was so bad I didn't even write about it. With Superfly the script was way-short so they padded it with tons of scenes of people driving and walking places. That's just boring. I got the same feeling with Vanishing Point unfortunately, and like I said WAY back in my Bullitt review simple car chases just don't do it for me. I'm not completely writing Vanishing Point off. Does anyone have a reason for me to give this one another shot?

CITY HEAT (1984)
This is one that I completely forgot about when I was putting random movies on my digital queue. It's the only time that Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds were in a movie together. By the time this movie came out, they were both around their early 50s, but still kicked ass. Reynolds is a private detective who used to be a cop with Eastwood. The movie's mostly about Reynolds trying to find the killer of his partner, played by Shaft--Richard Roundtree (who I JUST saw in Maniac Cop, I think he might be stalking me through his old movies). It's set in the 30s and has kind of a less-bright (color-wise) Dick Tracy-vibe to it. It's a comedy, but definitely riffs on a ton of film noir movies like Maltese Falcon. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with this movie, I was just getting restless and it wasn't moving all that fast (which is saying something considering it's only 80-some minutes long). I thought I was going to move on to something more horror or action oriented, but barely lasted. I think I'll actually go back and give this action comedy with two awesome Manly Movie Men another shot. Also of note, it was directed by Richard Benjamin Money Pit. So many connections!

MERCURY MAN (2006)
Hey, don't watch this movie. I checked it out thinking it would be another Thai movie in the vein of Ong-Bak or The Protector which are freaking amazing with a superhero bent. It isn't. It's a poorly CGIed Spider-Man rip-off that rivals some pretty bad Indian knock offs. I completely admit to falling asleep for an indeterminate amount of time fairly early in the movie and TRYING to stay away to check out a fight scene to see if this thing was worth my time and it wasn't. If you want to watch a crazy version of Spider-Man, head over to Marvel.com and peep these Japanese Spidey videos they've got. This is episode 26, so it might not make much sense (though I don't know if it would matter if you'd seen the previous 25).


Oh, DO go on.

Casting Internets

Woah. Disney bought Marvel.

The trailer for The Tournament looks awesome. Like the /Film writer, it reminds me of Smokin' Acestoo, but hopefully it'll be good for the whole thing and not just the last 20-30 minutes.



I don't care what anyone else thinks, I'm psyched for a Bad Boys 3! (via /Film)

Ben remembers his going away presents from Wizard. Look at those handsome devils in the top left corner. I'm on the bottom left. Cooler by far, though is the Nova and Flash playing frisbee piece. You'll have to click through to check that out though. Plug!


Check out Topless Robot's 12 Least Appropriate Smurf Figures for Children.
Oh, DO go on.

Casting Internets

Today would have been Jack Kirby's 92nd birthday had he not passed away in 1994 on my birthday (which was weird to say the least as a young comics fan). To celebrate his life Kirby-Vision presents several images of Kirby drawn by its many contributors. Above is my favorite by Uriel A. Duran.

Over at Topless Robot, Rob calls out the British (newspapers) for being filthy liars. Plus, he uses it as an excuse to run yet another sexy shot of Megan Fox. Double whammy!

On my way home from work yesterday I caught an interview with Quentin Tarantino on NPR's Fresh Air. You can find a transcript and podcast here. I'm waiting to listen to the whole thing for fear of even the most remote Inglourious Basters spoilers, which I'm hopefully going to see tonight.

Check out this awesome NASA patch that real astronauts actually wore. Wired dug this and some other pretty amazing ones here.


My buddy Jesse over at Maxim.com collected these 10 crazy Predator tattoos. It's both glorious and kind of stomach churning.

Fans of urban legends should definitely check out legendsrevealed.com where you'll get a triple dose of info with every click. Today's Photography Legends Revealed talks about naked photos from Ivy league schools, photoshopping in the 1800s and where a photo was staged or not. Fascinating.

Finally, I really hope you check out Awkward Family Photos on a regular basis. Here's a recent post called Monkey Love!


Oh, DO go on.

Ad It Up: Gap Kid

I can't be the only person who hated this kid, right? He was on the back of EVERY comic for months (like this one from 1998's Major Bummer #11). I wonder if these ubiquitous back cover ads actually helped or hurt the products/brands they were trying to sell. I was already anti-Gap at this point (I was 15 and liked Led Zeppelin after all), but I'm pretty sure I was even less interested in Gap after seeing this kid over and over and over and over.
Oh, DO go on.

Death: One Mack Daddy You Don't Want to F*ck With

I hope you get the reference in the title of this post. If not, it's okay, I forgive you, but you should really do yourself a favor and watch my favorite horror trilogy (soon to be a whatever-four-movies-is) of the past 10-ish years: Final Destination. Candyman says it to the girl with split personalities from Heroes and the dreamy Devon Sawa.

For those of you who haven't see these movies, there's a basic formula. 1. A high school student sees a highly complex, devastating and graphic accident and freaks out when events in the vision start happening. The student saves him/herself and others. 2. Even though they didn't die with the others, the survivors start dying in really crazy ways, usually involving seemingly natural events. 3. The main character comes upon the idea that death has a plan and death, as noted above, is not one to mess with. Even with that being said, apparently there's a formula to things which the main character tries to decipher. 4. The main character and someone of the opposite sex try to convince the surviving survivors what's going on to varying levels of belief and success. 5. Bad things happen (a lot). 6. It ends.

I'm sure a far more detailed map could be laid out for these movies, but I don't want to ruin too many aspects of the films. And, even though all three are very similar in structure, it doesn't really bother me because these movies aren't really about the characters. Yes, I do think they're fairly well-rounded and like/dis-likeable, but the real hook for these movies are the highly complex and usually gory death scenes that are amazing if you're a gore fan. Sometimes they do get a little mean (the strangulation in 1 and the tanning bed in 3), but overall, I'd say they're highly enjoyable in that way that you feel kind of bad about liking. I watched 2 and 3 on the train (1 was on Netflix instant, 2 I own and 3 I got as a disc from Netflix) and found myself being briefly exasperated, laughing, saying "Oh shit" and then looking around to see if my fellow commuters were looking at me funny. The knives in the first one, falling glass in the second and weights in the third are among my favorites, but they're really all fantastic. This series also showed me my first bus-hit and cut/slide movie moments (1 and 2 respectively).

I also have a history with these movies, well at least the first two. 1 came out in 2000 when I was still in high school and I distinctly remember watching it in a darkened living room at Steph Knisely's house and laughing hysterically when Tony Todd (Candyman), playing the older, vague guy explaining things to a small extent (he's even a mortician named Bludworth) said the above quote. Even though I hadn't seen the movie since that night, it made quite an impression, which is pretty impressive considering how many horror movies I'd seen up to that point and after. The second one (2003), I think a group of my high school friends and I went to see in the theater. I remember having the same kinds of reactions in the theater that I did on the train (something I didn't remember until I was actually on the train). I definitely got some funny looks. I would have sworn I saw 3 (2006) at some point, but I think I only watched a few of the kills.

Aside from the gore, I like how much these movies make me think. And I don't consider these things plot holes because we're dealing with human interpretations of supernatural events without anyone or thing coming in and explaining things absolutely. So, Bludworth may have his theories and the kids extrapolate from there, but we don't know if they're right (especially taking into account the ends of each movie). So, does death have some kind of plan? It would seem so. But why does it go through such complex motions to get back on schedule? Why not just stop a heart, especially considering death seems to be able to manipulate living things (birds, rats, maybe even people). So, what are death's rules?

Also, if death has a plan and is some kind of force of nature, what is the force acting against it? See, the visions have to come from somewhere right? And we're not just talking about the main visions in the beginning of the movies, our heroes see other signs all over the place, as if they're being given the information to help their friends or maybe just toyed with. In 1 Sawa a fan-chopped magazine spits out the name of his friend Tod, but by the time he gets to Tod's house, dude's dead. So, was Sawa just not fast enough or was he being messed with (like how Michael Myers toys with his prey)? I'm going to guess there's an opposing force to death, maybe it's as simple as being life, I don't know, but I like to think about this kind of stuff.

So, you really get the best of both worlds: the best kills in recent memory and a larger story that really makes you think (at least I think so, but I'm not a mack daddy above being f*ucked with). I'm really excited for The Final Destination (I appreciate the finality of a title that already includes the world "final" like "seriously, THIS is the FINAL destination") mostly for the ability to see this bad boy in 3D. I missed out on that with My Bloody Valentine 3D, but now my local theater has 3D capabilities thanks to some kids movie! I'll have to sneak away to see it sometime, but it'll totally be worth it.

Oh, DO go on.

Casting Internets

I saw this on Diggnation yesterday (actually had notes on a whole new Casting Internets for yesterday that somehow disappeared, go figure). It's a long clip because it's actually from the podcast (which I highly recommend), but you get to see a kid getting hit with a Mentos-fueled bottle of Diet Coke he tosses on a tennis court. It's amazing.



Justin's comic can now be ordered, so ask your retailed about ordering Hero House already! He also guest blogged over at Pop Candy today.

Bob Mitchell posted this bad boy. Not sure if it's something he did himself or just found. Either way, it's awesome. How is there not a "Disney characters as superheroes" art blog?


Jim's been doing a cartoon/comic/piece of art everyday. This time it's the Lost island. Jim's Lost island drawing:


Beer prices are going up? Sigh.

I both enjoyed Sean's post about All-Star Batman and Robin and completely agree with him (you can even see me doing so in the comments).

This is another one from yesterday, but Topless Robot's list of the 10 craziest Quantum Leap leaps is pretty rad. I distinctly remember seeing the end of the episode where he leaps into the supposed vampire and being REALLY confused.
Oh, DO go on.

When Did Miracle Whip Get So Awesome?!

Have you guys seen Miracle Whip's new, X-Treme commercials? They're ridiculous! Hipsters freaking LOVE this stuff.

object>

Apparently this isn't the first time MW has tried to appeal to a younger generation though, check out the new wave version:


Oh, DO go on.

Train-Ing Video: Class of 1999 (1990)

"These things are like a bad, f*cked up, George Jetson nightmare!" So says Cody, the hero of Class of 1999 of the robot teachers who have been flipped their programming after being sent into a Free Fire Zone in Seattle. You see, an FFZ is an area, usually around a school in a major city where gang activity has gotten so bad that the cops have backed out and let the kids run wild. Except for in the school for some reason. Think of it as Escape from New York meets Terminator and Sister Act (or, I assume, Dangerous Minds, but I've never seen that).

If you're scratching your head already and asking yourself "Why would kids go to school if they weren't being told to and, oh, and had machine guns?" Yeah me too. It's a plot hole that you could drive an armored bus through. There's lots of said plot holes or just lapses in logic (Why to the robots only have fake skin protecting their important "organs" instead of an actual exoskeleton? Why are the kids more likely to believe that their friends died in highly unlikely accidental ways and not getting murdered by teachers?) Anyway, if you can look past the complete lack of logic and Cody's TERRIBLE Corey Feldman impression, this movie is a whole boatload of weird 80s fun from 1990.



You remember the major cities and the explanation of the FFZs I mentioned above? We get that information thanks to a voiceover in the beginning that accompanies a map showcasing the worst cities. You've got Detroit and NYC of course. Then there's Seattle and Cleveland (not the best places in the world, but not ones I would expect there to be a lot of gang activity at), but the best part? The dot that's supposed to designate Cleveland is not where Cleveland actually is. It should be further up north. For all I know, the other ones are misplaced too, though I did check NYC and it seems correct, hey, I'm no geography nerd, I just know my state.


Anyway, we open with a white haired Stacey Keach who, for reasons never explained, sports a mullet that terminates in a rat tail between his shoulders and white-except-for-his-pupils eyes. He's part of a program for the DED (the Department of Educational Defense) who has these teacher robots he wants to insert into Malcolm McDowell's school. Also, for no real reason, Cody gets released from jail at the same time. Here's some pics (thanks to this post, I figured out how to take screencaps!)

This is the first, non-CG shot of the movie, I swear to God:


Then this:


And here's the teacher-bots, including one of my all-time huge crushes Pam Grier! I didn't even know she was in this movie, that's just a bonus.


So, the story follows Cory who's part of this gang called the Black Hearts. He doesn't really want to get back with the Hearts because he wants to go straight (we're not sure why and we don't know why he was in jail in the first place), but his incredibly weird looking younger brother Angel is about to be initiated and all his friends from school are in the gang too.

Here's Angel, I laughed every single moment he was on screen. He looks ridiculous, but that's just future gang fashion, yo, purples and yellow all the way!


Meanwhile, he falls for McDowell's daughter (why good kids are still in this school, I have no idea. Wouldn't you bounce if kids could shoot guns in your police-abandoned neighborhood and your kid still wanted to learn?). His friends start dying thanks to the new teacherbots and he gets suspicious. He even saves McDowell's daughter from being molested-at-best during the day on school grounds out in the open and gets beat up by the younger dude teacherbot and yelled at by McDowell. That's just crazy!

He discovers the truth about the teacherbots and instead of just straight up going after Cody, the older one concocts this ridiculously complicated plan that includes killing some people and sparking a war between the Hearts and their rivals The Razorheads. Wouldn't it just make more sense to, I dunno, crush him with your insane robot strength? So anywhere, there's a gang war and we really get to see the Hearts in full form. Again, notice all the purple and yellow. At one point, Angel gets pulled over and they accuse him of wearing gang colors and he's only got yellow and purple on. That's just hilarious to me.


When THIS plan fails, the teacherbots make fake phone calls to the leaders of both gangs to get them to meet at the school to kill each other instead of, again, just killing these kids. This is when things go super-bananas. You've got dirt bikes and explosions in school, robot fights, the reveal of some of their awesome weapon systems and the uniting of the two goings (uh, spoiler warning?). While Cody and the leader of the Razorheads are searching the school to take down the teachers ("I'm going in there to waste some teachers - are you with me?") they actually drive their motorcycles into the classrooms and around the room. Twice!


I was pretty impressed with the showdown at the end and the effects were pretty good (I'm not going to ruin it for you, but if you've seen the original VHS cover, you'll see an approximation, if you see the newer Lions Gate version, you'll see a way updated version). Each teacherbot sports it's own hand weapon that was fun to watch, though where their robot hands actually go, I don't know.

The real headscratcher throughout the movie is that there isn't a really good character. I guess McDowell's daughter might count, but she's so one dimensional, she doesn't really count. Like I said, we don't know why Cody was in jail. It could have been murder for all we know. I get that he's trying to turn over a new leaf and he's served his time (after a fashion), but he's still utilizing the people who are the problem (gang members) to take down other bad guys. I guess he could be labeled as an anti-hero, but I just wish we would have gotten a little more background on him.

But, in the end, the movie is just too damn crazy and fun to not enjoy on some level, even given all the problems. And I know some of you might be wondering why I had such high hopes for a movie about robot teachers teaching in a near war zone, but this movie was written and directed by Mark L. Lester who also directed the Jeph Loeb co-written Arnold Schwarzenegger masterpiece Commando . One other thing I want to point out about the story is that it actually has some pretty emotional moments. There's a scene where Cody goes home and we see that his mom is just as big of a drug addict as Angel and the performances are really good. I think Bradley Gregg would have been much better suited if he wasn't asked to/didn't try to put on the Corey Feldman voice. It's really distracting and I think takes away from the skills you can see under the surface.

Oh, also, they gave the Grierbot a nipple hanging out after she gets torn open and they show it a bunch. I was kind of embarrassed to be watching it on the train and even discreetly covered that part of the screen with my hand. But seeing as how this is the internet and a simple Google search for "Pam Grier naked" will come up with a number of hits (this site included now ;) I figure this images ain't so bad.



Oh, DO go on.

Casting Internets

According to Toy News International, I'll have a second chance to score a Masters of the Universe Classics Skeletor figure! Here's my second chance to get a Skeletor!

Wired says I'm screwed for multitasking. Maybe that's why my brain completely shuts down and I just sit staring at my desk for minutes at a time without being able to remember what I was furiously doing a second ago. Not good...


Kiel's Linko XIX post brought this amazing blog to my attention. It's a whole blog dedicated to people drawing in Jack Kriby's style called Kirby-Vision.

My buddy Alex of DC's The Source, runs down a bunch of comics sites "you should bookmark immediately" in a guest blog over at PopCandy. UnitedMonkee must have JUST missed the cut :)

And finally, a group of friends and I have been kicking around Weezer memories lately, which got me thinking about back in 2002 when Maladroit came out and I drove two hours home from Delaware, Ohio to Toledo to buy the record at midnight the day it came out at my beloved and now long gone Boogie Records. New-at-the-time Weezer bass player Scott Shriner was also from Toledo and it happened that his dad was at Boogie picking up his own copy of the record. Someone snapped a pic and sent it to Weezer.com and it just so happened that I was in it! Em's there too, though she does not care and I'm talking to my friend who got me into Weezer, but he didn't make the shot. I couldn't find the picture anywhere, so I sent an email to Karl at Weezer.com and before the day was through he sent it to me. Thanks Karl. Here's the pic (this is as big as it gets):


Oh, DO go on.

Quick Movie Review: Finishing The Game (2007)

I don't have a ton to say about Finishing the Game, so I decided to implement a new category called Quick Movie Review. The movie's a fake documentary about completing Game of Death after Bruce Lee died. I accidentally rented Game of Death a few years back, not realizing it was cobbled together with a few minutes of actual Bruce Lee footage and a bunch of other nonsense with lookalikes. It's really a bad movie that, from what I've read since, was just a crazy cash grab. Finishing the Game takes that idea and runs with it as we see a director and casting agent going through a bunch of people trying to find Bruce's replacement, mostly from unknowns and guys riding Bruce's coattails. There are a lot of funny bits to the movie as it focuses in on a few select people. There's even a brief, but hilarious plot point centering around a TV show starring James Franco.

My only "problem" with the movie is that I don't know if it's based on any kind of fact. I compared the actual Game of Death director to the guy from Finishing and they don't match up and I'll be honest, I'm too lazy to look everyone up, so maybe I'll never know. There's also no trivia on IMDb and the Wiki page isn't all that informative. I'm guessing it's all made up, which is kind of disappointing because it would be a lot funnier if this was based on more fact than "someone tried to complete a Bruce Lee movie after he died." There's plenty else going on like the egos and lack thereof of the guys auditioning to fill Bruce's shoes and a couple love stories, plus an inside look (maybe?) at what casting a movie was like. Plus it's short, which is a plus.

All in all, I'd recommend this for anyone interested in Bruce Lee, mockumentaries or the 70s, especially if you don't get too tied up in the reality of the comedy like I do.
Oh, DO go on.

Halloween Scene: 28 Weeks Later (2007)

Allow me to get nostalgic, just for a moment. The first time I saw Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later was in this tiny art house theatre in Bowling Green, Ohio. I went with Barry's co-worker-turned friend Bobby, his girlfriend-now-wife Sasha, Toth and Randy (I think) and it blew us away. We had been hearing chatter about it and the alternate ending that you could see if you waited through the credits. The ride home was full of conversations about fast zombies and which ending we liked better. I can tell you with zero doubt that that's the furthest I've ever gone to see a movie and it was totally worth it. I later bought 28DL and watched it a number of times, so, like every other person on the planet, I was pretty skeptical when I heard about the Boyle-less sequel 28 Weeks Later. But damn was it good.

I won't be nearly as eloquent and detailed as Sean was when he talked about writer/director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's 28WL back in '07, but it really seems like this flick was amazing in spite of itself. A sequel to a movie that most people either saw in art houses or on DVD getting a bigger sequel by some guy who wasn't involved in the first one with a joke title like 28 Weeks Later? It couldn't possibly live up to it's predecessor, but boy howdy, does it.

And, I think what makes it work so well is the fact that it's not a direct sequel, it's merely set in the same world as the original. No characters return (unless you count London, which I wouldn't argue against) so you're left with a part of the zombie mythos we don't tend to see: the clean-up and aftermath. Plus, if the opening of this movie doesn't get under your skin and make you think about how you'd REALLY react in a situation like this, then you might need to check your pulse. Sure we've seen people ditch other folks to save themselves in movies like this, but damn if this isn't the most effective emotionally.

That's really what makes this such a superior horror film, the level of emotional attachment stays consistent with the original. You start wondering how'd you react in a given situation and it's so easy to transfer most scenarios from a zombie infested world to the real one: how would you react if the woman you abandoned to thieves turned out to still be alive?

I also like how the emotional attachment bounces from character to character. After seeing how easily and understandably a husband might abandon his wife, it makes the adult heroes of this movie who accompany the children, even more heroic, earning them instant credibility (along with Scarlett's attestation that they probably shouldn't be bringing children into the city).

I had seen 28WL on DVD a while back, purchased it almost immediately afterwards, but hadn't watched it in a while, so the fates of the characters weren't fresh in my mind and I was continually surprised followed by moments of "oh yeah."

Another aspect of the movie that I love is the fact that things aren't forced down your throat. You can think about this movie for a while and realize all kinds of things. This time around, I fell in love with the idea that, Scarlett protested the idea of kids coming into London because "what if the rage virus isn't all the way gone?" only to have them not only be the only ones to survive (of our main characters at least), but also re-caused the spread of the virus inadvertently. So, she was right that they shouldn't be there, but for a completely different reason. Damn kids.

Oh, plus Harold Perrineau of Lost fame is in it, so bonus! I know I'm talking about a much-loved two year old movie that most horror fans have already seen, but if you haven't watched it in a while, I highly recommend it, if for no other reason than the helicopter vs. zombie scene and the very end with zombies storming France. It's way more effective than the "invasion" of NYC in Zombie and it nicely sets things up for a potential sequel.

Finally, a quick note about the DVD. There are two animated comics on there that were apparently first published through Fox Atomic that tell the tale of the guys who accidentally created the rage virus before the events of 28DL and one of a vigilante killing zombies and humans in "his city." The first one was really interesting from a continuity perspective (plus it had art by my con buddy Dennis Calero), while the second is more of a slice-of-life from one tiny perspective in a larger world. They're not too long and definitely worth a look.
Oh, DO go on.

Jennifer Garner's No James Bond

I've been saying for a few weeks now that we've been watching Alias. I had intended to do a review after the first season, but we got into the second one right away and I've been busy, so now's as good a time as any to talk about the show now that we've finished the second season. SPOILERS abound.

For the record, I don't love this show. And I've heard that the first two seasons are the best and it declines into the third, so I'm not sure how the rest will go, but Em digs it. My problems with the show are many, but one of the biggest is that our heroine, Sydeny Bristow, played by Jennifer Garner, just isn't that good at her job. Sure, she can throw a wig on, sex it up and get the information she's after, but she's not the best fighter and she tends to get overly emotional when it comes to certain aspects of her missions. Now, I know that James Bond gets put to the ropes and doesn't win every single fight he's in, but he doesn't cry about it.

Another big problem I have with the show as a whole is that it seems like all the big problems presented are tied up too tightly. What, it seems like Sydeny's handler Michael is a spy? No, he's just digging up dirt on her mother. Does this go anywhere? Absolutely not, it's only used to make Sydney and us suspicous. But it just doesn't work. There are all kinds of moments like this. Things don't happen in a natural way and they come out as forced and obvious. There also seems to be this "let's fool the viewer" mentality, which, once you catch on to, it makes for some pretty obvious storytelling. They'll lead with an idea, you're supposed to think A is going to happen, but because you know you're supposed to expect A, you assume Z will happen and then Z happens.

This is exemplified perfectly in the season 2 finale fight between Syd and the woman posing as her friend Francie. Sydney actually comes off as a badass here, but the problem is that the story the writers are trying to tell isn't matched by the fight choreography, so what you see is a fight that Sydeny should clearly be winning (especially considering her training), but, because the writers don't want it to be too one-sided, she makes what look like stupid tactical mistakes just so her opponent can gain the upper hand at times. It was an intense fight, very brutal, but it just felt too written and unnatural.

I also have to call foul on the Season 2 episode "Truth Takes Time." This is a game changing episode, but it was so artificially done that I was screaming at the TV. You see, Sydney's mom turned out to be a spy back when Syd was a girl, but she turned herself in to the CIA, got everyone to trust her and then escaped to team up with the series' big boss bad guy Sloane. In this episode there were just way too many ridiculous things happening I couldn't stand it. First, Sloane's wife turns herself in to help the CIA after hearing how crazy her husband is. Meanwhile, Sloane's thinking of giving up his 20-year mission because his wife is freaked out. Great timing right? Can you guess what's going to happen?

So, Sloane's wife tells Syd and the CIA where he will be so they can grab him. Now, they don't surround the building well enough to actually stop them when they're running through the yard to the spot where the helicopter will pick them up, which was annoying. But then, Dixon, one of Syd's partners, is on a hill with a sniper rifle trained on Sloane (with his wife alongside him), but the dude gets startled by a helicopter flying over him as he fires and, of course, kills Sloane's wife. But here's the thing, Sloane is sitting there for a WHILE and Dixon doesn't take a second shot at Sloane or the helicopter. There was plenty of time for him to take several other shots and he doesn't because he's upset that he killed an innocent woman. I get it, he's a good guy, but he's also a well trained super spy who has killed COUNTLESS people.

I get that shows like this have to keep going on a combination of adventure and emotion, but it's the emotional parts at the wrong time that get under my skin. They show later that Dixon, after realizing he shot Sloane's wife, rolls over on his back and looks upset. WTF?!! He's a damn spy! Take the second shot and THEN cry about it. I don't know spys from anything other than the movies and I know they're human beings, but Syd even talks about how she was trained to compartmentalize her emotions, which I assume is something real spies do as well, so freaking do it!

But, it's not a bad show all around. I like all the characters, though tech geek Marshall has a tendency to poke at my nerves with his nervous, pointless rambling. And the set up of the first season: a spy finds out she's not really working for the CIA, so she goes to the real CIA to become a double agent who finds out her dad is also a double agent was pretty cool. Limited, but cool. And the fact that they completely changed the game in the middle of the season by taking out all of the Alliance (bad spy guys) cells was pretty mind blowing. So big props for that kind of thing.

Another aspect of the show, and the thing that really kept me interested throughout the first season, which I found to be pretty dull for the most part, was the idea of this Renaissance inventor guy Rimbaldi and all his crazy inventions. It's become the backbone of the story now, but I feel like we haven't been shown enough of his inventions and what they can do (hopefully we'll get more of that in Season 3, though we'll see). I also feel like they let it dangle and fall off the radar for too long and it's lost a bit of its luster going into Season 3, but we shall see. It's a strangely fantastical concept for a show seemingly so steeped in reality.

One reason I think I didn't like the show is because we were watching so many episodes on DVD in such a short period of time. When you do that, the little things become a lot more obvious and annoying as the slap you in the face several times in one evening as opposed to once a week. I think there's also a difference in storytelling with shows like this now that the writers know everything will be online and on DVD. It seems like it might be like comic book writing where you're "writing for the trade." It might not make sense in single bits, but when everything's together, you'll get it. They also don't have to remind the audience awkwardly of things in-episode and spend time on things like reviewing the entire season, that's what the "Previously on..." part is for. There's even a full-on clip show with new material wrapped around it (Terry O'Quinn interviewing Sydeny about her involvement with the bad guys). It was during this episode that it struck me that you don't get episodes like this anymore. Sure, we get Lost shows where there are clips and people talk about what's happened so far, but it's not a canonical episode of the show. Since Alias started in 2001, it was just at the beginning of the whole TV on DVD thing and should get a limited pass because of it.

So, it's been an okay show, not something I would give up many other shows to watch, but since nothing's really on this summer, it's worth a peep. I had heard that the second season finale wasn't so hot, but I'm down with this two year jump (though why Michael would get married so damn quickly is beyond me). I'm curious to see where things go and, since I'm already not that into the show, I'll be interested to see how it jumps the shark.

Oh, DO go on.

Casting Internets

Gallery 1988 has a new show called Call of the Wild, you should definitely check it out. Here's a few of my favorites.



According to Toy News International, Hot Toys will be making Inglourious Basterds figures. I probably won't be able to afford, them, but they'll be super cool. Still haven't seen the movie, hopefully tomorrow night.

My buddy Alejandro pointed out this rad site to me called Squirrelizer. The idea is that you upload a photo and it puts a squirrel in it.

Seems like Jim had a much more localized version of My Epic Journey this morning.

In a weird twist of fate, I just read that 28 Weeks Later writer/director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has been tapped for the Bioshock movie. I haven't played Bioshock, but it looks bonkers-crazy. Sounds like a good match. (via /Gamer)

Do yourself a favor and check out the wild and crazy website for Genius' Maneater Series of animals/mythical-creatures-eating-humans DVDs. First of all, marvel at the scariest looking swamp EVER. Then, as an added bonus, drag your mouse over the various carnivores for them to make a scary sound AND get details on the DVD.

Finally, check out Sean's Blackest Night review. He addresses a lot of the "pacing problems" that some people have with the series. Personally I agree and think that, even though this has been built to for a few years now, it's not against the law to have a bit of a slow burn story that will most likely reach epic proportions in the next issue or two. Plus, in a first in many years, I'm enjoying EVERYTHING related to this series, though I've only been looking at the pretty pictures in those Tales of the GLC issues.
Oh, DO go on.

An Epic Journey

This weekend Em and I went to Columbus, Ohio for the wedding of a friend I've known since my freshman year of high school and his lovely new bride. In a weird twist, we have three weddings this year, and for all three the bride's name is Megan. Crazy right? Anyway, that turned out to be one of the more normal aspects of this trip as it slowly descended into whatever can go wrong, will go wrong territory.

The plan was to fly out Friday afternoon from the airport right down the street from our house, connect in Detroit, have an hour layover and then fly to C-bus where my buddy Randy and his wife Lindsey would pick us up and we'd head downtown to hang out with almost all of my friends from high school. It was supposed to be fairly easy and end with some drunken revelry. That's not quite how it went down.

At the airport, we actually ran into Justin who was off to Cali for work. They boarded his plane really quickly because this storm was rolling in and then they got stuck on the runway for 45 minutes to an hour. The storm pushed our flight back about 50 minutes, but things cleared up and we headed out with enough time to not miss our connector in the D.

The flight itself was fine. I dozed off after reading some House of Seven Gables (I'm trying to get some culture). Once we landed we ran down the terminal and made it with time to spare (it's not easy to run in boat shoes with a big ass back pack on your back). We made it with time to spare and had a seat at the gate. It was then that I realized I had left my copy of House of Seven Gables on the previous plane. Since we didn't have much time and it was just a Barnes & Noble version of the book, I wasn't too worried about it. Soon after, they started boarding the plane, which was supposed to take off around 7:15PM. Em and I got on and got situated. Then, about five minutes later an airline guy came on the plane and told as that the airline had changed this plane and it was now going to Cincinnati. And we had to get off the plane.

Between the two of us Em and I have done a good bit of traveling, but neither of us had ever heard of something like this. So, after getting off the plane, the new departure time was 8:00PM. After that I grabbed a beer at an Irish pub right across from our gate, which was nice and calmed me down a bit. Then the departure time changed to 8:30. Then 9:00. Then 10:00. Around 9:30 or so, one of our fellow travelers got a call saying that, according to the internet, the flight was cancelled and it had disappeared from the board in the airport. The woman at the gate started making calls and it turned out it was cancelled due to weather. Here's the crazy thing, even if there was bad weather, which I'm doubtful of, there was another flight for Columbus leaving at 9:30. I'm not sure how that adds up, or how bad the weather could get in a half hour, but there was definitely some shadiness going on (this was a Delta/Northwest flight for the record).

I actually felt really bad for the woman at the gate, because, it's obviously not her fault, she's just the one giving a bunch of pissed off people the bad news. And the news got worse as we stood there waiting. First, her computer stopped working so she couldn't tell us what other flights there were and we were waiting for her supervisor to show up and tell us if they would be providing accommodations. We were sure what we were gonna do. The wedding wasn't until 5:30 or so on Saturday, but it turned out that the first flight to C-bus on Saturday was 11:45AM and they wouldn't pay for hotels because they blamed the cancellation on weather. I call total bullshit. Maybe if they hadn't pulled us off of a plane and continuously bumped us back, it would have been different, but it's not okay to keep yanking people around like that and I don't think we'll be flying Delta or NWA again.

So, we decided to rent a car and just drive the 3-4 hours to the hotel and just make it work. At the baggage desk they told us that our luggage had already gone through to C-bus on that 9:30 flight. Meanwhile this woman who wasn't very nice at all walked behind the desk and told all the people helping us that they would not be getting bags because they didn't have the manpower. Now, I don't know if that was true or not, but she was a total asshole the way she said it loud enough for all of us to hear it.

Now, before we actually went to baggage an older gentleman offered to give us a ride. I told him I'd talk to my wife and let him know. After trying to talk about it while passing through the color-changing German techno tunnel:



we decided to just get our own car, but after finding out our bags we actually ran into the guy again right outside the car rental place and he offered again, so we took it. He seemed like a nice enough guy and then he went to find this other guy who he talked to.

The four of us waited for the bus to take us to the rental car place and made small talk, something we made a LOT of during the long drive down to C-bus. But, before we could get going there was one more snag: the car's tail lights were out. A guy pulled up next to us and told us. Both of them. Have you ever heard of that happening? The brake lights were fine, it was just the running lights. So, we headed back to the rental place (we were only about 5 minutes away, so it wasn't a huge deal), got another car and left around 11.

The drive was fine and both of the guys were really nice, but it was hard to stay awake. On paper, it might not have been the smartest thing to do in the world, but he seemed like a nice guy and he turned out to be an incredibly nice man, as he wouldn't let us pay for any portion of the car or even for gas.

We ended up getting to C-bus (he actually dropped us off right at the hotel) after driving through the town we went to school in and our old stomping grounds, which was kind of surreal. I think it was around 2:30? My sense of timing is all off because I was so exhausted. But it was great seeing Randy, Lindsey, Chad Yates and meeting his new lady Kristen. Toth and Matt Hartmann showed up later (they were hanging out with the rest of our friends, including Matt Bond, the groom, near OSU). I was bummed to miss out on that, but I grabbed a whiskey and Coke and relaxed. Meanwhile, Chad had a Pomegranate Passion Fruit Cooler (this from the dude who I invented Sweet Tart whiskey with):



I had a beer before/in bed and then fell asleep but didn't sweep too well. The next day we met up with Heather, who was in our wedding, and everyone else in our hotel (Erica showed up after we did actually, but we were asleep) and got Mexican food. We came back and it turned out that Chad and Randy were wearing the same shirt:



We then went to the wedding and it was amazing. I remember the first time I met Megan. Geoff and I went down to visit Bond and she refused to hang out with us on a Friday because she had to study for a test on Tuesday. I always thought that was pretty funny. Anyway, the ceremony was great and it's always fun to see my friends in the same spot I was in a few years back. I've made it a point to watch the groom when the bride shows up. Sorry brides :)

The reception was equally awesome and it was great to see everyone who we missed hanging out with the night before. Charlie was in from Texas, the Suttons were there, Jen, Geoff, his fiance Eileen, Chad Mikrut in from Japan and of course Bond and Megan. Did I miss anyone? If so, I suck and am sorry. Everyone seemed to be in a really good mood which was awesome and I got to have some great conversations with everyone. We were a pretty tight group throughout high school and it's nice to know that we can pick right up where we left off after all this time.

The best part of the whole reception, though, was when Matt got up and played "When I Think About You I Touch Myself" with the dueling pianos guy. It was amazing and luckily I took some video with my new phone. Excuse the weird angle, I'm still getting used to this thing.

Everything was great and we ended up heading back to our hotel where we hung out before going to sleep. Well, I was sleeping in theory. I was paranoid about not waking up on time (we were getting a cab to the airport at 6:15AM). Plus, there was quite the commotion going on out in the hallway as there were almost several fights and then some dude kept coming back to a room and banging on the door trying to get inside. It was not optimal sleeping conditions to say the least.

Luckily, the trip home went off without a hitch, somewhat renewing my faith in the airline industry, but not 100%. We even got to go out onto the tarmac and get right on the plane:



So, the journey was long and crazy and not optimal, but it was absolutely worth it to see the Bonds get married and to see all my friends again. I hope they enjoy their honeymoon in Mexico, hopefully we took away all the bad travel karma and theirs was a nice and easy flight. Congrats again you guys!

Oh, DO go on.