Mollie Sugden - AKA Mrs. Slocombe on ARE YOU BEING SERVED? - has passed away

DARN it!!

There are way too many talented people who are leaving us lately. And just after I had finished noting the passing of Karl Malden, now comes word that Mollie Sugden has die at the age of 86.

I say again: DARN it!!!

It's just been in the past few months that I have finally gotten into watching Are You Being Served?, the classic BBC comedy series that ran from 1972 to 1985. Every Sunday at midnight I now tune into North Carolina Public Television, and for the next hour I enjoy the mad hijinks of the Grace Bros. Department Store clothing staff.

And Mollie Sugden, as the uproariously bossy Mrs. Slocombe, never fails to make me honk with laughter. Especially all those hilarious double entendres when she talks about "my pussy"!

Sugden was a profoundly talented lady and by all accounts, a terrific person off-camera. She will most certainly be missed by her many fans not just across the pond, but throughout America and around the world.

EDIT 5:48 p.m. EST: Leave it to YouTube to have everything. Here's a collection of clips from Are You Being Served? featuring Mollie Sugden's Mrs. Slocombe going on about "my pussy"!

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Karl Malden has passed away

Two-time Oscar-winning actor Karl Malden has passed away, it is being reported this afternoon. He was 97.

Malden started out working in steel mills and fighting in World War II, before getting into acting. He first won an Oscar for his portrayal of Mitch in 1951's A Streetcar Named Desire and then again for playing Father Barry in 1954's On The Waterfront. Malden appeared in many other films throughout the Fifties and Sixties (including Patton, where he was particularly memorable as Omar Bradley). And then in 1972 he landed the role of Lt. Stone in ABC's drama The Streets of San Francisco. In 1984 he appeared in the television movie Fatal Vision (based on the book about the Jeffrey MacDonald murder case), for which he won an Emmy.

But to those of us who grew up in the Eighties, Malden might be best remembered as the ubiquitous spokesman for American Express Travelers Cheques, along with his catchphrase "Don't leave home without them!" Malden also served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1989 to 1992.

He was a terrific actor, and will be missed.

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Popcorn Sutton documentary THE LAST ONE wins Emmy!

This past Saturday was a big night for North Carolina filmmaker Neal Hutcheson! At the 35th Southeast Regional Emmy Awards held in Atlanta, Georgia, Hutcheson's documentary The Last One - in which he chronicled Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton's fine art of moonshining - won the Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for "Outstanding Achievement in Television Programming Excellence".

If you've been reading this blog for the past few months then you already know that Popcorn Sutton took his own life in March, just days before he was to report to prison following a series of events that began with a raid on one of his stills last year...

"Popcorn's death underscores the cultural preservation value of films like The Last One," Hutcheson said. "A fact that I doubt escaped the Emmy selection committee."

I have a copy of The Last One on DVD and y'all wouldn't believe how big in demand it has become around where I live: I don't know if there's a house in the neighborhood that hasn't watched it at least once! It is an exceptionally fine film and that it has been so honored is a testament to both its maker and its subject. For more about The Last One, visit the website for Sucker Punch Pictures. UNC-TV has been showing The Last One quite a bit over the past few months, so one way or another you're likely to have a chance to see it.

And congrats Neal! :-)

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Kid gives up iPod for Walkman for a week

It was thirty years ago this week that the Sony Walkman - the gadget that gave birth to portable music - made its debut. To commemorate the occasion, BBC Magazine asked 13-year old Scott Campbell (above) to yield his iPod for seven days in favor of a classic Walkman. And young master Scott wrote about the experience...

When I wore it walking down the street or going into shops, I got strange looks, a mixture of surprise and curiosity, that made me a little embarrassed.

As I boarded the school bus, where I live in Aberdeenshire, I was greeted with laughter. One boy said: "No-one uses them any more." Another said: "Groovy." Yet another one quipped: "That would be hard to lose."

My friends couldn't imagine their parents using this monstrous box, but there was interest in what the thing was and how it worked.

In some classes in school they let me listen to music and one teacher recognised it and got nostalgic.

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.

It's quite a fun read! Click here for more from Scott Campbell about his time with the Sony Walkman.

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TRANSFORMERS sequel making money despite critical panning

Between it's massive opening last week and the run-up to the Fourth of July weekend over the next few days, expect Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen to scarf down an unconscionable amount of coin (much like Devastator, left), its place as one of the top grossing movies of 2009 well assured. That's regardless of how it is also one of the worst reviewed movies of the year!

Breitbart.com has the somewhat humorous story of how wide the gulf is between movie-goers and professional movie critics. Personally, I don't care that it's got so many problems artistically. It's giant transforming robots beating the crap out of each other with lots of earth-trembling explosions. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is everything you'd expect from a Michael Bay summer popcorn flick. What more is it supposed to be?! :-)

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Comic book writer detained by Transportation Security clowns for possessing "terrorist"-ish script

Comic book writer Mark Sable is reporting that last month while going through Los Angeles International Airport bound for New York, he was detained by Transportation Security Administration agents after being flagged for "extra screening".

What nefarious act did Sable commit that deemed him worthy of notice as being in possible collusion with "the terrists"?

The fact that his new comic miniseries Unthinkable deals with 9/11-ish scenarios that start coming true.

Here's what Sable said happened...

"Flying from Los Angeles to New York for a signing at Jim Hanley's Universe Wednesday (May 13th), I was flagged at the gate for 'extra screening'. I was subjected to not one, but two invasive searches of my person and belongings. TSA agents then 'discovered' the script for Unthinkable #3. They sat and read the script while I stood there, without any personal items, identification or ticket, which had all been confiscated.

"The minute I saw the faces of the agents, I knew I was in trouble. The first page of the Unthinkable script mentioned 9/11, terror plots, and the fact that the (fictional) world had become a police state. The TSA agents then proceeded to interrogate me, having a hard time understanding that a comic book could be about anything other than superheroes, let alone that anyone actually wrote scripts for comics.

"I cooperated politely and tried to explain to them the irony of the situation. While Unthinkable blurs the line between fiction and reality, the story is based on a real-life government think tank where a writer was tasked to design worst-case terror scenarios. The fictional story of Unthinkable unfolds when the writer's scenarios come true, and he becomes a suspect in the terrorist attacks.

"In the end, I feel my privacy is a small price to pay for educating the government about the medium."

Just one more reason why Transportation Security and the whole sorry lot of the Department of Homeland Security is the worst new government boondoggle of the past half century (even worse than the Department of Education!).

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Brooke Greenberg: The girl who can't age

The picture on the right was taken about four years ago. It is of Brooke Greenberg and her younger sister Carly.

That's Brooke on the left, when she was 12 years old. She is now 16 and looks the same as she is depicted in the photograph.

Doctors and researchers are stymied at how Brooke has hardly aged at all since she was born. She still has her baby teeth, and her bones are considered to be of a child who is no older than ten. Her mental capacity is said to be that of an infant. But her family maintains that in many other aspects she is just like any other teenage girl (she likes to shop, f'rinstance).

Click here for more about Brooke Greenberg and her family.

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Current agenda

Tonight: paint the rest of my army of Orks for this week's game of Warhammer 40,000 (I'm also working on some Tyranids and a new chapter of Space Marines).

Tomorrow and Tuesday: pre-production and then filming a commercial in which the entire town of Burlington, North Carolina gets heinously destroyed.

One week from now: playing host to and partying with a contingent of 4 or 5 Belgians.

No rest for the wicked, aye? :-P

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Are more people standing up to cult leader Johnny Robertson?

It sure looks that way. I was notified earlier this week about Answering The Church of Christ, a new and rather articulate blog dedicated to taking on Robertson and his local "Church of Christ" cult (which again, has nothing to do with the mainstream Churches of Christ that most people know and respect).

To the best of my knowledge that makes at least four separate blogs - none of which are my own - that have set out to counter Robertson and his gang of ecclesiastical bullies.

(Incidentally, this coming week marks two years since Robertson posted anything new on his own blog.)

And then there's this YouTube video that was sent to me today, proclaiming Johnny Robertson to be this week's "Con-Artist for [Another] Jesus"...

I have been told that Robertson and his goons have been harassing quite a number of legitimate churches in the area lately (apparently they've got a "tent revival" or somesuch going on). Robertson's son Micah even attempted to interrupt a service at one Baptist church in Danville recently.

In the past month or so I publicly asked the following questions on another blog devoted to answering the cult. So far, no one from the local "Church of Christ" that is known for its bullying tactics has dared to answer them. So I will pose them here as well...

1. If Johnny Robertson, James Oldfield and their followers have proclaimed all other denominations are "false", then what evidence is there at all that their own "Church of Christ" is true?

2. Where is the evidence that the "Church of Christ" that Robertson and Oldfield represent is described in the Bible?

3. If no such evidence exists, then why are Robertson, Oldfield and their followers in a church that is not in the Bible?!

I've said before: I don't care what these loons choose to believe in. Because I believe that every person has the right to seek God as best he or she possibly can. But when it comes to someone (like the "Church of Chris" cult) trying to interfere with others' right to seek God and to the point that it becomes illegal harassment... then there is a problem.

And from the looks of things, a lot more people are standing up to this kind of nonsense.

And this blogger absolutely applauds it! :-)

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Billy Mays has passed away

So in one week we have lost Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson... and now commercial pitchman extraordinaire Billy Mays, found dead this morning by his wife at their home in Florida.

Gonna miss him. It was always so easy to make fun of Billy Mays and that voice of his (which seemed to be a natural gift for his chosen profession) but let's face it: the guy was very good at his job. He did his best to be a pitchman and in turn became something much more: a bona fide legitimate character in his own right.

Thoughts and prayers going out to his family today.

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Not so long ago...

...in a different time and a better reality...

The Eighties. What a time to have been alive.

Personally, I think America hit its high water mark as a culture around 1994. There was a kind of dynamic that seems to have vanished about the time that O.J. Simpson went for that ride in the Ford Bronco.

I don't know if we'll ever see days like those again.

But just as King Arthur came to cherish at the end: It was a fair time that will live on in memory. And so long as the memory of that time endures, it may yet come again.

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Amazon.com cuts off Tarheel affiliates (blames WORST GOVERNOR EVER!)

Bev Perdue - also known on this blog as "WORST GOVERNOR EVER!" - has done it again. 'Course to be fair she had help from North Carolina's lawmakers. Amazon.com has stopped doing business with all of its affiliates in this state: a consequence of, as Amazon.com puts it, "the unconstitutional tax collection scheme expected to be passed any day now by the North Carolina state legislature (the General Assembly) and signed by the governor."

This is already the most taxed state in the southeast. Piling on more taxes is not a smart move by any measure. But sadly folks, this state's head honchos have long been drunk on wild spending and are desperate for any way they can find to keep their mad orgy going.

North Carolina, ladies and gentlemen: "The California of the Eastern Seaboard".

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About the "climate" bill that just passed the U.S. House...

I don't mind saying this aloud at all:

Any so-called "legislator" who votes on a bill WITHOUT READING THE FRICKIN' THING needs to be dragged out into the street and shot.

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New short film: PAYMENT

My friend Todd Williard is participating in this year's 48 Hour Film Project (something that I've wanted to take part in for the past four years but stuff keeps coming up... maybe next year :-). Anyhoo, Todd and his crew based out of Greensboro, North Carolina came up with the following brilliant short film called Payment. Check it out!

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MTV's DJ & THE FRO ran my school board commercial tonight!

(I just wish that it didn't have to be followed up immediately by MTV running all of Michael Jackson's classic music videos...)

As several folks have written in about: Tonight's episode of MTV's new show DJ & The Fro, titled "Birds", featured a good-natured mocking of my "Star Wars"-inspired campaign commercial for Rockingham County Board of Education in 2006.

In the episode someone calling himself "Inbred Velcro Warrior" sends the Fro a link to the commercial. "In space, nobody can hear you scream" notes Fro as he and DJ cheer on the Death Star destroying the little red schoolhouse. Fro continues: "That's also true for his mother's basement, where this guy clearly lives!" DJ says "That's the biggest loser in the desert since Moses!" I had some friends over to watch this ('cuz the good folks at Titmouse Productions told me last week it would air this evening) and suffice it to say, everyone in the house thought it was hilarious! I got to show off my lightsaber and rotoscopin' skillz before a national audience, Rockingham County North Carolina got a shout-out, Melody Hallman Daniel's awesome vocal talents got a lot of airtime (well about as long as the commercial anyway)... and I might very well have become the first and last person to get the words "No Child Left Behind" and "unfunded mandates" spoken on MTV!!

The "Birds" episode is scheduled to air quite a few more times over the next several days and weeks. Check yer local listings if you wanna take a gander :-)

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Michael Jackson has died!

Breaking everywhere right now.

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Ark of the Covenant to be revealed tomorrow, sez Ethiopian patriarch

Abuna Pauolos, patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia, has announced that tomorrow will finally see the revealing of the biblical Ark of the Covenant, which his church is said to have guarded for centuries.

According to those who adhere to the legend, King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba had a son named Menelik I, who eventually came to Jerusalem as a young man and spirited the real Ark of the Covenant away (with Solomon's blessing).

It is there, in that land which in ancient times has been called Aksum and is today known as Ethiopia, where the very Ark of the Covenant which contains the Ten Commandments that G-d gave to Moses is said to be kept in this chapel, with a lone guardian tending to it night and day for as long as he lives...

(According to some reports, the Ark guardians don't live anywhere near a full span of life and have a tendency to developing cataracts, supposedly a testament of the Ark's awesome power.)

The patriarch has said that a museum is being built in Ethiopia where the Ark will be displayed for all to see.

If it is the real Ark of the Covenant, let us hope that these guys know what they are doing, and have read the instruction manual (namely the Old Testament) really meticulously.

Or else, who knows what might happen...

UPDATE 06/26/2009 9:20 p.m. EST: As many have noted, the announced time of today's "revealing" of the Ark of the Covenant has more than come and gone, with nothing to show for it. There are some allegations coming out of Ethiopia that Abuna Pauolos has a shady background. Here's WorldNetDaily's report on the failure of the patriarch to produce the goods.

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