Expect photos of whatever shenanigans we can come up with to appear on this blog soon!
Hey, if we can have Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on the bookstore shelves, why not everyone's favorite space smuggling duo against the undead? I've heard a lot of fans are jazzed about this novel: the first serious foray that the saga has taken into the horror genre.
Death Troopers arrives this October 13th.
Robertson alleged that the Ruffin "Church of Christ" had been meeting for "over a year" (his words).
Curiously, the July 5th 2009 broadcast of What Does The Bible Say? on WGSR was the very first time that Robertson or anyone else with the "Church of Christ" has mentioned a group of their own in Ruffin.
Now some very intriguing information has come to light, the upshot of which a rational person could only possibly take to mean that, once again, Johnny Robertson is telling us a bald-faced lie.
It turns out that there are only three congregations of the "Church of Christ" that are currently meeting in the area... and maybe not even that many!
James Oldfield, previously of the Reidsville congregation, is conducting the services for the cult in Eden. Robertson is still in Martinsville. There has been thus far no evidence that a Ruffin cell of the cult is meeting at all...
...and the Reidsville congregation is now completely defunct! Sources have told this blogger that "This meeting is no longer being held, nor is any meeting of their group being held in Reidsville." The reason? "This would seem to say that folks in Reidsville are too wise for the tactics of this group, and have rejected participation in this 'sect'."
So Reidsville has proven too much for Robertson's cult. Let us pray that other communities in this area - and wherever else they try to harass - will prove too much for them also.
Meanwhile, other sources have been telling me that the cult's much-ballyhooed two weeks of "tent service" in Danville and the accompanying thirty hours of television airtime that Robertson purchased on WGSR has been "a bust and a sham". In spite of what Robertson and Oldfield publicly claimed was a large outreach in the Danville area, very few people showed up during nightly services at the tent (and Robertson himself did "little or none at all" knocking on doors, choosing to order his goons out instead). I can say that The Knight Shift blog is in possession of numerous photographs that attest to the low turnout at the "Church of Christ" tent but as these might well identify the person who took the photos, I have been asked to withhold publishing them here.
I haven't seen the footage, but several people have told me that during Sunday night's broadcast Robertson aired a tape of himself accosting the wife of some local minister in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart in Martinsville. Robertson alleged that he "just happened" to see her in the parking lot and coincidentally had his camcorder with him... which the same people have told me that it was pretty obvious that Robertson was stalking the lady (as is his well-documented custom).
Now for the last bit of info for this report...
Folks, I didn't believe it at first, but plenty of people have been telling me about it and now The Knight Shift can confirm: Johnny Robertson's "Church of Christ" has been caught digging through the trash cans of people Robertson has decreed to be "enemies" of his cult! They are literally trying to "dig up dirt" that they can use against those they are actively seeking to, as Robertson infamously proclaimed last year, "defeat destroy".
I've read the Bible quite a number of times, but for the life of me I can't recall any passage that teaches us to go through others' garbage in order to attack them.
(But then again, Johnny Robertson also claimed recently that he needs a camcorder because he doesn't have the Holy Spirit... whatever that is supposed to mean.)
The lesser angels of my nature are more than inclined to note that should any member of the cult come to my home and attempt to behave in their typical miscreant fashion, that I will not only shoot him dead, but I will gladly and immediately post full color photographs of his freshly-deceased corpse on this blog. As a warning to the next ten generations that it is the right of each person to seek God as best he or she can understand Him and without fear of harassment.
That's just the lesser angels of my nature though...
So for the past several days I've been engulfed in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects and whatnot. Hard at work for some good friends: HyperMind in Burlington (click here for the first write-up I did about 'em). Well, among the very popular games that HyperMind carries is Monsterpocalypse, and this summer its publisher Privateer Press is having a mondo ginormous event called Monsterpocapalooza. As part of the festivities leading up to the release of a new add-on for the game is a contest where game stores are invited to make a promo video for their Monsterpocalypse events.So anyhoo, here is HyperMind's entry. I thought it would be neat if we spoofed Cloverfield. And it came out pretty good!
Thanks to everyone in the HyperMind extended family for making this video possible! And if you enjoyed their efforts, please feel free to give a high rating on the promo's YouTube page, 'cuz we're hoping to land a huge launch party for the upcoming Monsterpocalypse Series 4: Monsterpocalypse Now!
This might be the creepiest photo I've ever seen associated with the "King of Pop"...
Jackson slept in this bed and on the wall over it hangs a rendition of The Last Supper. Except this version of the famous painting has Michael Jackson sitting in place of Jesus Christ. Elvis Presley and Abraham Lincoln are also depicted as being among the disciples.
I don't want to even try to imagine how such a "work of art" possibly comes into being.
It was twenty-five years ago this week, on July 1st 1984, that William Gibson's now-classic science-fiction novel Neuromancer was first published. The book presented a world overwhelmed by too much technology, a people with a gluttony for body enhancement and personal media, and transnational corporations with the power of major governments. In other words: a time not very unlike our own. Neuromancer is often hailed as foreseeing the rise of the World Wide Web, and it even added a new word to the English language: "cyberspace". In many ways Neuromancer was considerably prophetic, while in others it has missed the mark (so far).On the anniversary of its release, pcworld.com's Mark Sullivan examines Neuromancer after the rise of the near-future fog and details how it got many things right and failed on a few concepts. It's a pretty good article, and especially recommended for any students of cyberpunk fiction.
In one of the more impressive examples of video game-inspired costuming, some folks in Seattle have put together a full set of Brotherhood of Steel power armor from Fallout 3. Looks hella sweet, especially the helmet and that laser Gatling gun!Now we just need an entire regiment of these guys to walk into Washington D.C. and free the land from the tyranny of the Enclave :-P
They just ran the classic episode "A Game of Pool", which originally aired on October 13, 1961. It's one of my all-time favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone, for a lot of reasons but especially 'cuz I thought the interaction between Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters was brilliant!
So I'm wondering if I'm at all crazy for thinking this...
...that wouldn't it be more awesomely cool than we possibly deserve, if somehow there could be a sequel to this episode made, again starring Klugman and Winters as Jesse Cardiff and Fats Brown?
It could be called "Another Game of Pool"!
Okay, that will probably never happen outside of the wonderful delirium of my dreams. But still, one can practically see it happening.
What an amazing show this was. I even liked the later incarnations quite a bit, but Rod Serling's original series was, I'd dare say, the most influential and revolutionary television show in the history of the medium.
I hope Syfy Channel keeps showing it :-)
So I'm compelled to ask aloud...
If the naked, beaten and dead body of Azile Roark was lying in the street, would Charles Roark be equally insistent on footage of that - the corpse of his own mother and the proprietor of Star News Corporation - be broadcast on television?
Or is there a double standard at work at WGSR?
We already know that Roark has sold out his principles to local cult leader (and WGSR's biggest client) Johnny Robertson. So let's assume that the shoe might be on the other foot someday and that would be Roark's turn to be the victim.
Dear readers, you know just as well as I do: there's not a snowball's chance in Hell that Roark would put himself in as vulnerable a position as he demands on putting just about everyone else.
And no amount of crowing about being "the biggest media" in the area can possibly make up for such a severe deficit of personal and professional ethics.
But I could not possibly consider voting for her now.
If Palin cannot commit to fulfilling her term of office as governor, why should I have faith that she's capable of committing to that of a much higher position?
Hope that'll be enough... but then again, there can never be nearly enough Lost! :-)
What. The. Hell. Were. They. Thinking. ?!?
GeekTyrant posted this yesterday. It's a scene from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines that was edited out of the final film. And had this been included in the movie, I could almost see how Terminator Salvation would have been better for it, because it proves that the Terminator saga's timeline incongruities were being actively addressed. I like how it's explicitly stated that the Skynet technology originated with Cyberdyne, and the reason why all the T-800 Terminators look like Arnold Schwarzenegger and even have identical voices (as weird as that was).
But I swear: I literally fell out of my chair when the clip gets to U.S. Army Chief Master Sergeant William Candy.
Nothing I can say could possibly prepare you for this, friends and neighbors...
"OOH... it's ME!!"
But in reality, something slimy and ominous is lurking in the sluiceways of the capital of North Carolina.
Behold the horror that was recently discovered by a maintenance "snake camera"...
This video has gone viral bigtime in the past day or so, with some speculating that there might be an alien organism breeding beneath the streets of Raleigh. Personally, I thought it looked a lot like something out of the video game Dead Space, or maybe the insides of that giant worm from Gears of War 2.
But as it turns out, it's actually a colony of tubifex worms, which are said to be common in sewers but rarely documented in such up-close detail.
Still looks pretty dang deees-gusting though :-)
(Thanks to Lex Alexander for the fascinating find!)
But look at what Jorge Lopes, a design student and doctoral candidate of the Royal College of Art, has done with it...
Marrying ultrasound imaging and MRI data to the rapid prototyping process, Lopes has engineered a way to create a life-sized exact model of a human fetus while it's within its mother's womb!
Whoa.
Lopes foresees the technology being used in the near future to give expectant parents a model of their forthcoming new arrival, as well as becoming useful in treating birth defects.
Absolutely, unbelievably mind-boggling stuff. Jorge Lopes is a genius!
Click here for the rest of the story and more amazing photos!
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"!
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.
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! :-)
