We met for three hours tonight in the auditorium at Rockingham Community College. I got to know quite a few of my fellow cast members (Children of Eden demands a fairly large number of people for this show, which is one of the reasons why it hasn't been run on Broadway yet). As one of the principles I got to bring home a script, but it's not mine to keep and in order to have this copy I had to leave a security deposit. That gets returned to me...
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
THE INCREDIBLE HULK trailer wrecks great havoc!
The Incredible Hulk with Edward Norton is a movie that I really haven't cared too much about. Due in part no doubt to my being among the minority that thought there was nothing at all wrong with the 2003 Hulk film. Personally, I thought that Ang Lee's approach to the Hulk and his world was brilliant and engaging. And that scene toward the end where Bruce and his father...
"Ewoks" Star Wars gospel song
Ewoks, a United Methodist choir and Billy Dee Williams himself. Could this possibly be the greatest Star Wars-themed video ever hosted on YouTube?!Thanks to Geoff Gentry for passing this along! ...
Remember that eBay auction we did for the signed copy of TRANSFORMERS: THE SCORE?
The one that we did back in the fall of 2007? Transformers composer Steve Jablonsky gave us a signed copy of score CD and we put it up on eBay, with the understanding that 100% of the proceeds would go toward music education here in Rockingham County. When all was said and done the sale netted over $300!So, wanna know what the money went toward?The original plan was to assist...
Grand Theft Auto IV as a test of Christian conscience
No doubt I'm going to draw flack for suggesting this, but it needs to be said. Yesterday afternoon I bought Grand Theft Auto IV.And having played it for a few hours, as a follower of Jesus Christ I would like to recommend that my mature brethren in the Christian faith (both spiritually and those who are not teenagers anymore, parse that as you will) play Grand Theft Auto...
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Quicktime video of the new INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL commercial
Crack your whip at this!I will confess that I still can't entirely believe this is happening. After a decade and a half of false starts, unfounded rumors and even a few fake scripts (Indiana Jones and the Sons of Darkness, anyone?), part of my mind is convinced that this is a colossal prank hatched by Messrs. Lucas and Spielberg. Only when I'm situated in a theater next month with Dad (we've seen every Indiana Jones movie together since 1981) will...
Fear and Loathing in Liberty City
Things have been going so well lately (and Lord willing the trend will continue for awhile) that this afternoon I went out and splurged a bit, and got Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360. I got to play the original Grand Theft Auto for a while in 2001 but this is the first time I've bought a Grand Theft Auto game for my own collection.Initial thoughts?This is not a game that I would ever let children or even older teenagers play. It's definitely...
Michael Giacchino's "Roar!" from CLOVERFIELD is now on iTunes
Scott Kelly sends word that after three months of a lot of people wanting this, that "Roar!", the instrumental piece by Michael Giacchino that plays over the end credits of Cloverfield (and the only original musical score composed for that movie) is now available for purchase via iTunes as of today. If you have iTunes already loaded on your computer then aim here to go straight...
Monday, April 28, 2008
Guess who will be among the CHILDREN OF EDEN!
Well, this day has seen it all.I spent most of it working on stuff in my capacity as treasurer for my friend Eric Smith's campaign for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction. This mostly entailed finishing up the First Quarter Campaign Finance Report. Also had a few errands around town.When Lisa got home from school I gave her a birthday card and the new Mario Kart Wii (also got another Wii steering controller so that we can race...
Is anyone else watching this Star Wars edition of DEAL OR NO DEAL?
Johnny Yow called about an hour ago to tell me to turn to NBC. There was Howie Mandell as usual, but the models with the cases were all Imperial Stormtroopers (probably members of the 501st, way to go guys :-) and Darth Vader was sitting up in the banker's chair.I checked it out again a short while ago and the regular female models were back, all wearing "Slave Leia" metal bikinis from Return of the Jedi. Lisa quipped that "That must be every guy's...
Happy Birthday to my lovely spousal overunit!
Here's wishing a wonderful Happy Birthday to the most beautiful, wonderful girl that God could have ever let any guy have for a wife...Happy Birthday Lisa, and I love you ...
Sunday, April 27, 2008
This is why you should vote Eric Smith for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction
I'm the treasurer for his campaign, but this is the first time that I'm getting to see this. In this video of his appearance at the Wake County Republican Convention a few weeks ago, Eric discusses why North Carolina parents should be fully liberated to send their children to the schools of their own choice - including private school and homeschooling - and he hits on one of the biggest problems facing this country and the one that politicians seem...
Blogger: Google Inc.'s neglected stepchild
For the past few weeks I've been working on an overhaul for this blog. I'm feeling like the time is right for a drastic new look: something that'll pop into a reader's retinas and stay burned in his gray matter. Longtime readers will remember a time when this was a pitch-black site with strange-colored fonts, back when I didn't really know what the heck I was doing with a blog. I gave it the white "newspapery" look a year ago but other than those...
Eating their young: Anti-Paul hijinks demonstrating GOP corruption
Anyone left who still believes that we have to "work within the system" to effect change in this country had better read this and think real hard about what they're advocating.Because the undeniable truth is: the system no longer works. The system has not worked in a long time. The system is hopelessly broken. We're just now becoming able to see how bad the damage is.And anyone who still believes we must abide by the status quo and stay within...
"The Sontaran Stratagem": No one is safe in new DOCTOR WHO episode
A diabolical race of alien Mr. Potato Heads, inspired by Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, hires an evil clone of Google founder Sergey Brin to sabotage every car on Earth with homicidal wacko environmentalist computers and the only person who can stop them is a guy in a blue police box.Can there be any doubt that this is a new episode of Doctor Who?"This is your final destination.""Getting...
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Today I auditioned for a musical
Several months back I learned that the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County was planning a production of Children of Eden. It's a musical by Stephen Schwartz based on the first six chapters of the Book of Genesis: from the Garden of Eden on through the story of Noah and the Ark. I've loved this show ever since first seeing it performed at Elon when I was a student there. I bought the 2-disc soundtrack CD some years ago, and I've tried to catch a...
Grand Theft Auto IV comes out in 3 days
And I've still only played Grand Theft Auto I. Probably means I've got to play the rest of the series before getting this new one, right?Seriously though, if you want to jump right on in without having to grind through ten years of previous story (there is a story to this game series, right?) then check out IGN's exhaustively researched but wildly entertaining "History of...
Jock Ewing for President
I've no idea how I found this, but it's too danged funny not to share.The really scary thing is, this guy does sound like Jock Ewing!He's got my vote. After 7 years with the illegitimate son of Digger Barnes in the White House, America needs a Ewi...
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tonight's LOST was season finale material...
...and we still have five more episodes to see how this season ends!"The Shape of Things to Come" might have been the greatest episode since Lost premiered almost four years ago. It was the perfect mixture of everything that makes Lost work: strong characters, heavy action, tense moments, moral choices that sometimes go wildly wrong, all the major bits of Lost mythology (DHARMA, Jacob, Smokey to name a few), a bit of humor... and the notorious Lost...
It's "The Shape of Things to Come" as LOST returns tonight
Lost resumes tonight on ABC (at 10 pm, an hour later than previously so remember to bear that in mind) with the first episode completed since work resumed following the writer's strike.When we last looked in on the Island, Rousseau and Karl had been shot and Alex was pleading for her life with the unknown assailants. I'm pretty confident we can already figure out who these people are. Rumor is that tonight's episode at last brings the start of...
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
ANOTHER petition for TRANSFORMERS: THE SCORE?! Movement afoot to re-release album
By Primus, I never thought that we'd be going through this again. But, it looks like we will! :-)If you've been reading this blog for awhile, then you're no doubt familiar with the hijinks (among numerous others) that happened this past year regarding the movie Transformers and it's amazing orchestral score by composer Steve Jablonsky. After seeing the movie I went looking...
More shredding of Constitution: Supremes give police unprecedented search power
The United State Supreme Court has ruled that police can search and seize evidence even though the search itself is illegal.This will be abused. The high court has just given "law enforcement officers" (God I hate that term) a blank check to stop, search and seize from everyone on even nonexistent grounds.No doubt there are good cops out there who wouldn't abuse this... but that does not diminish the fact that this will be abused. And enormously...
UPDATE: Pastor takes down Obama/Osama sign, gives pathetic excuse
Regarding Jonesville Church of God in upstate South Carolina that a few days ago caused a furor with it's vile church sign attempting to link presidential candidate Barack Obama to Osama Bin Laden: today it's being reported that Pastor Roger Byrd chickened out and removed the message.And why did Byrd do this in the first place? In his own words..."His name is so close to Osama I feeling might be Islamic therefore he doesn't recognize Christ."Ummmm......
Some very neat photos of American history
HBO's John Adams miniseries has left me still feeling both floored and haunted. If only everything else on television could be so powerful...Ever since Sunday night when the finale ran, my interest in real American history (as opposed to the fake pageantry of, say, the current election cycle) has been stoked. Not that it ever went away or anything, but I guess that after...
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
A church sign we'll never see in Jonesville, South Carolina...
Courtesy of Church Sign Generator. Credit for the idea goes to Ed Darrell who suggested it on Kevin Bussey's post about the Jonesboro Church of God, which has upset a lot of people with the ridiculous un-Christlike message on its church sign regarding Barack Obama.Jesus and Usama... yup, per the logic of Jonesville Church of God, that's certainly suspicio...
Theophysical conundrum: Time, sin, and the universe
Here's something that I've been wondering about for awhile now (actually going on three years). Maybe it's time to let others ponder it too...We're told in Genesis 5:1 that "When Adam had lived 130 years..." (as the New International Version words it) that he gave birth to his son Seth. This is the first time in scripture that we are told that a person had lived a certain number of years. A few verses later it says that Adam lived 930 years, and...
Today was EARTH Day?!
I thought it was NERF Day!No wonder people kept staring at me when I was bouncing that ball everywhere I went...
Tonight we watched LICENSE TO WED
Although technically it was last night, since I'm writing this past 1 in the morning (am working on a few video projects before hitting the sack), but you know...Anyways, Lisa had License to Wed sent to us via Netflix, and we spent part of the evening watching it. In spite of the harsh reviews this movie has received, I found it to be hysterically funny... and hitting the...
Monday, April 21, 2008
South Carolina church's sign shows un-Christlike attitude toward Obama
Could somebody please tell me where there is a scriptural mandate for what the Jonesville Church of God in upstate South Carolina is doing with their sign?From the story at WYFF in Greenville's website...Small Church's Obama Sign Causes Big ControversyPOSTED: 4:20 pm EDT April 21, 2008UPDATED: 10:18 pm EDT April 21, 2008JONESVILLE, S.C. -- The sign in front of a small church...
We are sooooo screwed
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain using WWE Pro Wrestling to pimp themselves.America really is turning into that movie Idiocracy, isn't it?What a contrast. Last night we watched the finale of HBO's John Adams, which conveyed the virtue and nobility of the Founding Fathers as beautifully as any production that possibly comes to mind. And less than 24 hours later, we see what has become of the fruits of their labors and sacrifice: three...
Sunday, April 20, 2008
"Peacefield": A magnificent conclusion to HBO's JOHN ADAMS
There wasn't a dry eye in the house.That was the most perfect ending for a television miniseries that I've seen since Lonesome Dove. And easily one of the best finales for anything ever produced for the medium.All day long, HBO had a marathon going from start to finish of John Adams. Lisa and I watched Part 6, "Unnecessary War", and then segued right into the finale "Peacefield". The previous chapter ended with the image of Adams, alone and seemingly...
New DOCTOR WHO this week voyages to the "Planet of the Ood"
"The file is irrelevant, sir. Have a nice day.""Now that's what I call a spaceship. You've got a box and he's got a Ferrari!""We're so not married. Never ever.""D'oh!""Who do you think made your clothes?""I spent all that time looking for you Doctor, because I thought it was so wonderful out here. I want to go home.""It's a revolution.""Please have a drink, sir.""Being...
The photo that may scare you from ever again buying Chinese-made products
Every politician, corporate executive, and management-type in America who believes that globalism is "a good thing" and that there's nothing wrong with outsourcing our jobs to China, had better take a damned good hard long look at this photograph...This is what passes as a high-grade pharmaceutical plant in the village of Xinwangzhuang, in the Juangsu Province of China. The...
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Lost Infocom games unearthed
Journalist and programmer Andy Baio's discovery of an old backup hard drive used by legendary computer game publisher Infocom has yielded, among other things, some games that were publicly announced but never saw the light of day. The most notable so far is Milliways, the sequel to the game based on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.And if you go to the link you can even...
Friday, April 18, 2008
Bush Administration defends NAFTA, declares "There's nothing broken."
If nothing else has convinced any among my fellow citizens who beyond all reason yet hold to an opinion but that the government of George W. Bush is completely and hopelessly insane, then perhaps this will persuade them otherwise. It's about the disastrous North American Free Trade Agreement. From the Associated Press story...The White House on Friday vigorously defended the 14-year-old free-trade agreement among the United States, Mexico and Canada...
Gasoline prices in Reidsville, North Carolina today
Averaging about $3.39 a gallon. Up about 10-15 cents in just a few days' time. And $4.45 has been spotted in at least two places around town. I had to pay a bit more than $50 to fill up my Toyota Camry.While gassing-up at a convenience store on Scales Street I had a spirited conversation with one guy and his mom, about the high gas prices. We all agreed: we are being led by "lunatics and madmen" who probably can never remember the last time they...
DC rolling out Gears of War comic this fall
WRAL is reporting that Cary-based Epic Games and DC Comics have announced plans to publish a Gears of War comic book/graphic novel this fall, in the lead-up to the release of Gears of War 2. The story is to be set after the conclusion of Epic's 2006 mega-selling video game, which saw main character Marcus Fenix giving humanity a dire-needed victory over the Locust Horde.A few days ago I wrote that I'd finished playing the game and how much I enjoyed...
No joke: THIS is what Storm Shadow and Baroness will look like in G.I. JOE
Words fail...There are many more pics of the G.I. Joe actors in their costumes over at What Would Tyler Durden Do, including additional pics of Rachel Nichols as Scarlett, Ray Park as Snake-Eyes, and also Dennis Quaid as Hawk... who looks like a cross between Solid Snake and General Bernard Montgomery.I haven't seen that many tight butts and rubber nipples in a movie since...
More American jobs moving overseas
A few days ago RF Micro announced it would relocate much of its work from its Greensboro, North Carolina plant to China. 80 local jobs will be lost at the microchip plant.And yesterday Dan River, a textiles plant that has been in operation for 126 years in Danville, Virginia, announced it would be closing down. It was a little over a year ago that Dan River was bought by a company based in India.About time to post on this blog a video of James...
