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Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Live long and prosper?

A few weeks ago it occurred to me why this country is presently so screwed-up financially:From top to bottom, we have been trying to hack it on a Star Trek economy... without the requisite Star Trek technology needed to make it work.Gene Roddenberry had funny ideas about money in his Star Trek universe. Namely, that the United Federation of Planets, including Earth, didn't...

Monday, December 01, 2008

WATCHMEN Movie Merchandise: Rorschach's mask and gun

Yet another entry for the "Things We Don't Really Need But Are Lusting For Badly" file...For $295, you can pre-order the Rorschach Grappling Gun and Mask Prop Replica Set from the movie version of Watchmen. This thing is scheduled to be released on February 25th, 2009: just in time to have the mask ready to wear for Watchmen's release on March 6th! Unfortunately (or maybe...

Pentagon wants 20,000 soldiers violating Posse Comitatus (and some of them will be robots!)

Couple of items that I found in the news today, that juxtaposed together make for a rather disturbing scenario...First, the Pentagon wants 20,000 soldiers deployed inside the United States by 2011 to complement local law enforcement agencies. A move that from what I'm reading comes perilously close to blatantly violating the Posse Comitatus Act.And as if that isn't bad enough, the Pentagon is also working with a British scientist to create robot...

Sunday, November 30, 2008

"November Rain" by Guns N' Roses

Because it's the last day of November. And it's been a rainy, cold and dreary mess outside all day, now going into this evening.And because, this is one of the best rock songs of all time...

Bush, worst President ever, dares suggest history will exonerate him

People keep asking me what do I think of Barack Obama, now that he is going to be President come January 20th, 2009. Which I'll admit a kind of devious joy in answering them since I didn't vote for either Obama or John McCain (in keeping with my policy of never voting for anyone who runs a single negative ad, neither one of 'em deserved my vote). Whenever anyone's asked me that in the past few weeks my answer has been the same: that I can't see...

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Dad's latest hand-crafted knives

Dad asked me to take photos of a number of knives that he's made in his shop recently, for an upcoming publication. I thought it would be neat to post some of them here also.Two of the Damascus steel blades that he's finished. Dad learned the art of forging Damascus from Bill Moran, the man who more than thirty years ago re-discovered the centuries-old secret of making layered...

Friday, November 28, 2008

Straight No Chaser: music worth chasing down!

It's things like this that make the hours of blogging, time well spent.Good friend Crystal Stearns sent me an e-mail tonight raving about Straight No Chaser, a performance group that I'd never heard of until tonight. But I shall certainly keep an eye (and an ear) out for them from now on...Here's what Crystal has to say about 'em...You have to check out this group. Their...

Dear Lord, save us from ourselves...

A store clerk was trampled to death this morning after thousands of shoppers stampeded into a Wal-Mart in New York when it opened for "Black Friday" at 5 a.m.And this was the scene at a Wal-Mart in Concord, North Carolina (about 2 hours away) when shoppers stormed the electronics section and fought for the last Xbox 360...EDIT 5:06 p.m. EST: And now two people have been shot to death in a Toys R Us in Californ...

50 free college classes about movies

Interested in just about any aspect of film? Online College Blog has collected fifty open college courses for movie lovers, running the gamut from movies as art and exercises in philosophy, to the actual filmmaking process. And what's more, all of these courses are free! Props to Kelly Sonora for passing this along ...

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Monty Python launches official YouTube channel

So instead of letting us get away with posting inferior copies of their crap on YouTube, the members of Monty Python (except for Graham Chapman 'cuz, you know...) are putting superior copies of their crap on YouTube!Click here for more Monty Python madne...

Hey, all of y'all in Idaho: Listen up!

Word has reached this blog that my good friend Brian Hodges will be entertaining you folks with his exquisite cello talents on Idaho Public Television tonight!There may be some video that Brian will be uploading of the performance too. You guys are going to have to check your own local listings for his appearance tonight though: I'm too lazy to do it from here!(But if anyone...

"I? I am a monument, to all your sins."

EIGHT HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX PAGES OF ADVERTISING CIRCULARS in today's newspaper. That's the pic of all of 'em in a heap on the living room floor.(And if you didn't get the reference in the title, click here.)826 pages. That is... just wrong...We used to have a cocker spaniel named Bridget. Every morning we would let her go outside and she would run out to the end of the...

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Coming soon...

A review of a new movie that most people haven't seen yet. A couple of book reviews. And an awesome contest... with some very neat prizes!Keep an eye on this blog in the next few days for all kinds of kewl stuff.In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving!EDIT 7:05 p.m. EST: And now for a true bit of Thanksgiving comedy. It's the now-infamous "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!" scene from the classic sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati...

As Mr. Sowerberry in OLIVER TWIST

This is one weird costume. It makes me appear chubby all over, mostly 'cuz of the cut of the coat and the pants. I keep thinking that I look either like a London undertaker, or a French guillotine executioner...Am hoping to have some more pics of cast in costume to post soon. Just wait'll y'all see Tim Wray as Fagin!Oliver Twist opens next Friday night, on December 5th,...

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

"Sleeping in Light": The tenth anniversary of BABYLON 5's series finale

Ten years ago tonight, the Babylon Project came to a magnificent end as "Sleeping in Light", the series finale of Babylon 5 - considered by many to be the greatest television show of the Nineties - was broadcast on TNT.I have not written nearly enough about Babylon 5 on this blog. J. Michael Straczynski's soaring, spanning epic about the Babylon 5 space station and the people within it, I can confidently attest, had the most profound impact on my...

Review of Steve Jablonsky's GEARS OF WAR 2: THE SOUNDTRACK

Today marks the release of Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack, featuring the score that Steve Jablonsky composed for Epic's already mega-selling game. Last week I won the single-player campaign and a few days later an advance copy of the CD arrived in the mail. I've been listening to it non-stop ever since! It's also now a proud addition to my iPod, and I had it blaring out...

Sunday, November 23, 2008

And to think that I sometimes loose a screwdriver in the kitchen drawer...

A few days ago during a spacewalk at the International Space Station, astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper accidentally lost her bag of tools and it went floating away.But don't worry: Kevin Fetter of Brockville, Ontario found it last night! He was in his backyard with his satellite-observing gear, which was also armed with a good video camera. And Fetter not only spotted Stefanyshyn-Piper's bag as it scooted past the star eta Pisces, he filmed...