"The Stolen Earth": First part of DOCTOR WHO season finale one of television's most intense and cataclysmic episodes EVER!

Sometime this past year, the head accountant at the BBC's headquarters in London must have looked at Russell T. Davies' budget request for the episodes of this season's Doctor Who, especially the two-part finale beginning with "The Stolen Earth", then broke out in laughter before incredulously asking Davies "ARE YOU NUTS?!?"This single episode was probably one-third of the...

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Don S. Davis has entered the White Lodge

Wondering how many people will get the reference. If you did, buy yourself a cherry pie...Ain't It Cool News is passing along the sad word that Don S. Davis, who had a real-life military career before turning to acting and becoming one of the best-known character actors of the past twenty years, has passed away at the age of 65.A lot of folks will remember Davis as Dana Scully's...

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Microsoft stops selling Windows XP today

Today is the final day of widespread sales of Windows XP. After today, it will no longer be possible to purchase a new computer from any major manufacturer with Windows XP installed on it.The operating system first went on sale on October 25th, 2001. So it lasted with full support for nearly seven years: not bad for any software product but especially one from Microsoft, a company notorious for pushing updates on customers.I was working at a Best...

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The Godfather Trilogy coming to Blu-ray

It's an offer die-hard movie buffs cannot refuse: The Godfather Trilogy is coming to Blu-ray on September 23rd. As in, this September 23rd!Francis Ford Coppola himself supervised a frame-by-frame digital restoration of the first two films, and The Godfather Part III received a full remastering treatment for the project. The set will cost $119 but will include gobs of extras.Other than the Star Wars saga coming out in the format, this might be the...

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CHILDREN OF EDEN: The final performance and out-of-control strike party!

This is the way the world begins: not with a whimper but with a bang!Yesterday was the final performance of the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of Children of Eden. After the amazing reaction that the show got on Saturday night, could Sunday afternoon possibly be any better? Judging by the approval of the packed auditorium at Rockingham Community College...

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QUANTUM OF SOLACE teaser is online

So this morning, after waking up following an awesome final performance of Children of Eden and the very crazy strike party last night (write-up and pics coming soon), I got an e-mail from Phillip Arthur. He's gone positively bonkers over the teaser for Quantum of Solace, the next James Bond movie (see it in high-definition on Moviefone). You can also find it all over YouTube. I watched Casino Royale (which also featured Daniel Craig as Bond)...

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Ron Price's "complete and factual account": ADMITS to stealing signs! Alleges conspiracy by Teamsters! Plus: Price's science crusade!

In case anyone believed that Yours Truly had some kind of obsession about "getting" Ron Price, bear in mind that it has now been well over six months since I've posted ANYTHING about him. And if I never did write about him again, I would have been happy. In fact, I've rather enjoyed not having anything new to write about the disgraced Rockingham County Board of Education...

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Damn good dog: Uga VI has passed away

The first time I saw Uga VI was a bit of a shock. It came during me and Lisa's first year of dating (she was a grad student at University of Georgia) and after months of seeing the graven image of this stalwart bulldog idolized all over Athens, I thought Uga VI would be... bigger! But if there was any letdown it quickly passed after I saw Uga VI in person: this lovable mascot,...

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CHILDREN OF EDEN: Performance #5!

Tonight... we brought down the house!!!Our best performance yet, playing to the most packed audience so far.Okay, off to celebrate now ...

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CHILDREN OF EDEN: Performance #4 and wild cast party!

Last night we had our fourth performance of Children of Eden. Widespread consensus is that this was the one thus far most plagued by mishaps. A keyboard went out, there were problems with the microphones early in Act I, at least one cast member fell ill (but bounced back and rejoined the show), Noah's Ark almost crashed, and I tried hard to hold back a sneeze immediately...

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Fifteen years since...

"Dear Lord, am I really doing this?!" A Few Good Men. Red eye over England. Bennie and her mom. Mayhem in the marketplace. The brothers. Lots of wine. The village countryside. The pissing statue. The dark hospital. The odd pizza. "Coke is better than beer!" The American compatriots. A prophecy fulfilled. The peculiar picnic. A strange place to celebrate the Fourth of July. The haunted ruins. The jibber-jabbering Belgian lady. Helping...

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CHILDREN OF EDEN: Final weekend of performances begin tonight!

The Snake (left to right: Jessica Reed, Ashley Meeks, Marlo Nall, Brittany Thompson, Samantha Toney, and Tisha Owens) tempts Eve (Rose Cutuli Wray) with knowledge during "The Pursuit of Excellence" in the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of Children of EdenTonight begins the final three performances of Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of Children...

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Wilkins Coffee ads: The dark side of Jim Henson

Yesterday this blog reported the passing of Kermit Love, longtime Muppet designer and operator. His work on commercials led me to look around YouTube for any other examples of Muppets used in advertising.That's what led me to re-discover the spots that Jim Henson made in the late 1950s for Wilkins Coffee.Over fifty years ago, Henson was hired by Wilkins Coffee to create some commercials for their product. The result was a series of clips starring...

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Review of GET SMART

This evening a lot of the cast and crew of Children of Eden got together at the Carousel Grande in Greensboro to catch Get Smart, the new movie starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne ("The Rock") Johnson and Alan Arkin based on the classic 1960s television comedy.I must say, Get Smart the movie was a very pleasant surprise! From the very beginning, we were laughing...

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Why Johnny Can't Spell

In spite of not having actively posted about it for two weeks, this blog is still getting visits (and the occasional comment) from people who've been following what's been going on between Yours Truly and the local cult calling itself the "Church of Christ", especially its power-mad leader Johnny Robertson of the Martinsville Church of Christ.Speaking of which, lately I'm...

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Muppet engineer Kermit Love has passed away

Ain't It Cool News is reporting the sad news today that Kermit Love, who designed Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus for Sesame Street in addition to many other Muppets after an already renowned costuming career, has passed away at the age of 91.Love (who insisted that he was not the namesake inspiration for Kermit the Frog, yeah I checked) also did a lot of commercial work, including the creation of Snuggles Bear and the very strange La Choy Dragon:I'm...

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Supreme Court rules that individuals have right to own guns

The decision was 5-4. Which is why I'm not happy about it. That's still too close. In a saner day and age, the decision would have been 9-0 in favor of gun ownership.Being one vote away from tyranny is still tyranny, in my book.And then there are those of us among the citizenry who hold to the notion that this ruling has no real meaning at all, because we already know that the individual has the right to defend himself or herself. I sure as hell...

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