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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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? ...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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 sh...

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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 o...

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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...

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Michael Jackson has died!

Breaking everywhere right n...

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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...

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