The 2nd Annual Popcorn Sutton Acoustic Jam is getting BIGGER!

There have been some developments (to put it mildly) since I first posted two weeks ago about the 2nd Annual Popcorn Sutton Acoustic Jam happening August 6th. I've been in regular contact with the event organizers and folks, this lil' celebration of the life and legend of Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton is literally seeing good stuff happen with each passing day!

First thing that everyone should know about is that the event has moved! There's been so MUCH interest and plenty enough people saying that they're gonna be attending, that the 2nd Annual Popcorn Sutton Acoustic Jam is now being held at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds in astonishingly beautiful Maggie Valley, North Carolina (which is right next door to Waynesville, where it was going to be originally held). Set your GPS units accordingly! There should be plenty of parking for everyone.

You should also plan to be there for awhile, 'cuz the tribute is now scheduled to last from noon until 10 p.m.

And as of this writing, the list of musical acts scheduled to appear is growing. Michelle Leigh, Tennessee Jed, the Josh Fields Band, Ali Randolph & Outta Luck Band, and Maggie Valley's very own "Man in Black", Charlie Duke have all confirmed to be there! Probably be lots more performers announced during this next week as the event draws closer.

And then there's this lil' item...

ATTENTION!!!! For all who will be attending the Popcorn Sutton Acoustic Jam in Maggie Valley,NC on August 6th, there will be a Popcorn Sutton look-alike contest at the event. Come in your best Popcorn get-up! There will be a wonderful prize for the 1st place winner and the judge will be the one and only Mrs. Popcorn!!!

D'oh!! I had the idea months ago to make a Popcorn Sutton costume for this Halloween, only to choose another one that I'll be doing along with a friend. Now I'm kicking myself in the tail 'cuz a Popcorn Sutton getup would have positivalutely rocked! Oh well, maybe next time :-)

There is a Facebook event listing and a Craigslist page for the 2nd Annual Popcorn Sutton Acoustic Jam. Keep checking both of them as next Saturday gets nearer. I'm planning to drive from Reidsville on the day before so I can commit all of next weekend to honoring the memory of Popcorn Sutton: a man who I never got to meet, but had already long respected and appreciated. And I'm extremely looking forward to meeting many more of his fans and admirers this coming Saturday!

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"...and a cat was thrown in the minister's face."

Yet another classic illustration from the archives of the National Police Gazette...

That's from the February 8th, 1889 issue of the magazine. That's still not as wild as some revival meetings that I've witnessed...

Props again to William A. Mays, the proprietor of The National Police Gazette, for keeping alive the spirit of this historic American publication!

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"Weird Al" Yankovic's book WHEN I GROW UP now an awesome app for your iOS gadget!

This past winter master musical parody artist "Weird" Al Yankovic published his first-ever book, When I Grow Up. Yankovic's children's book resonated with audiences of all ages and fast found itself on the bestseller lists. If you've read it (and even if you haven't yet, you hooligan!) and you happen to have an iOS gizmo like an iPad or an iPhone, you'll be sure to want to check out the When I Grow Up interactive book on Apple's App Store. The entire book with all its artwork is here, along with at least 27 (quite possibly many more) hidden surprises, all accompanied by Yankovic's voice! There are also a few mini-games that will have you honking with laughter. Not kidding: "Gorilla Masseuse" for a few days recently was the most-played game on my iPad! I think it took me the better part of the week to keep that poor ape from going on a GORILLA RAMPAGE!

The app is $2.99 and is well worth the price, whether you want it for your children or for that kid in each of us :-)

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Americans Elect: Worth some cautious consideration

A few days ago I heard about Americans Elect. And the notion of it intrigued me enough that I spent some time this afternoon visiting its website, signing up and doing the "political colors" app.

So here's what Americans Elect is: an Internet-based political party, committed to nominating a candidate for President of the United States in the 2012 election. To that end Americans Elect is working to get on the ballot in every state of the union. So far they've met the qualifications to have ballot access in Arizona, Nevada, Kansas and Alaska... and they've just turned in enough to be listed in California, too. If Americans Elect has its way, a candidate meeting all the requirements to be President (and Vice-President) according to the United States Constitution will be up for election alongside the Republican and Democrat candidates. Supposedly, all of this is an effort to bust up the stranglehold that the two major parties have on American politics.

I gotta say: I love this idea a lot. But having visited the Americans Elect site and gone through all 64 questions determining where I am politically, I can't help but think that Americans Elect is being determined too much by the two-party duopoly. The questions given seem too centrist between the Left and Right... and I long ago abandoned that paradigm when I saw at last just how false it really is. Also, there are some questions as to how open Americans Elect is so far as its operations and policies are concerned.

Very few people will doubt that there is too much that is very, very wrong with our political process. The unaffiliated and those who try to challenge the system on their own have long been shut out by laws and procedures that both the Democrat and Republican parties have put in place to ensure that they are the only game in town. And that's wrong... damned wrong!

I don't know if Americans Elect is going to have much of an impact. The concept is right. And the time is fast becoming ripe for an overthrow of what is in effect a one-party rule of America.

I'm gonna say: check out Americans Elect if you feel so led, and investigate and feel free to arrive at your own conclusions. Personally I wish the organization well, and I sincerely mean that. But it shouldn't be afraid to not play by the rules of the Republicans and Democrats. Those two parties have wrecked the United States and the sooner their kleptocratic reign is toppled, the better!

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Tomb of Philip, one of the Twelve Disciples, found in Turkey

A team of Italian archaeologists reported yesterday that the tomb of Philip the Apostle, one of the original Twelve Disciples that followed Jesus Christ, has been located in Turkey's southwestern province of Denizli.

Philip is mentioned in all four Gospels as being among the disciples closest to Christ. He is often associated with that Philip who preached to the Ethiopian eunuch (recorded in Acts, chapter 8), however there is plenty of reason to suspect that there were two Philips who each played a prominent role in the history of the early church. Philip the Apostle is said by tradition to have been martyred at Hierapolis (located in the present-day Turkish province of Denizli). Philip is reported, like his friend and fellow apostle Peter, to have been crucified upside-down.

From the article at World Bulletin...

The tomb of St. Philip the Apostle, one of the original 12 disciples of Christianity's central figure Jesus Christ, has been discovered during the ongoing excavations in Turkey's south-western province of Denizli.

Italian professor Francesco D'Andria, the head of the excavation team at the Hierapolis ancient city in Denizli, told reporters on Tuesday that experts had reached the tomb of St. Philip whose name is mentioned in the Bible as one of the 12 Apostles of Jesus.

Professor D'Andria said archeologists had been working for years to find the tomb of the Biblical figure, and finally, they had managed to reach the monument while working on the ruins of a newly-unearthed church in Hierapolis.

D'Andria said the structure of the tomb and the writings on it proved that it belonged to St. Philip the Apostle, who is recognized as a martyr in the history of Christianity.

This is turning into a very exciting time for Biblical archaeology. In the past few years we have found the tombs and other remnants of many people associated with Christ: from the ossuaries of James and Caiphas, and now the resting place of Philip. We also now have ancient documentation of Pilate, and significant evidence of Joseph's time in Egypt (not to mention what can only be described as an "advertisement" for the services of one Balaam the Prophet).

Hey, who knows: maybe someday we'll get really lucky and finally locate pieces of Noah's Ark :-)

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DONKEY.BAS: Bill Gates tries to create Xbox twenty years too early...

Good friend and fellow blogger Scott Bradford pointed out that today is the 30th anniversary of Microsoft giving MS-DOS its name. That was the main operating system for the vast majority of personal computers for many years, until it came to be supplanted in the mid-Nineties by Microsoft's own DOS-less Windows software (even though every version of Windows since Win95 has had the original style DOS window available to open, just like the old days).

Well, 1981 was another landmark year for Microsoft, though it's the kind of history that Bill Gates would no doubt just as well wish nobody would remember! It was in 1981 that Gates and fellow programmer Neil Konzen wrote DONKEY.BAS. This was the very first video game that Microsoft would ever produce for commercial retail. It was packed in the early versions of MS-DOS, as a way to sorta "show off" the IBM PC architecture's power along with that of the BASIC programming language. Legend has it that Gates and Konzen were working in a hot, sweaty room one Sunday afternoon at Microsoft HQ when they came up with this thing.

So here is the game they produced: Donkey. It's a rudimentary driving game, so named because the "cow" that the driver had to avoid hitting ended up looking more like a donkey. So it became Donkey...

I've read numerous accounts over the years about how Apple's staff broke out into hysterical laughter when they saw DONKEY.BAS in action. And it's not hard to understand why. But in retrospect, DONKEY.BAS is pretty neat in the sense that twenty years later, Microsoft would be rolling out the Xbox and come to dominate home video gaming (a trend that continues with the Xbox 360).

Aim here to read more about DONKEY.BAS at Wikipedia.

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Atlas is shrugging: Alabama mine owner goes Galt

Back in late February through early March I wound up reading Atlas Shrugged for the first time in my life. That revelation shocked many of those closest to me, who had assumed that bibliojunkie that I've always been, that I would have long ago devoured Ayn Rand's classic novel.

Can't help but wonder what my life would have developed into had I read the book when I was in high school or college. Atlas Shrugged didn't add much substantially "new" to my belief system, but it did clarify and crystallize it as nothing else had before. I'm thinking of re-reading it again sometime soon (but I've re-read the part about Kip Chalmers' train at least forty times since winter and laughed every time it goes into the tunnel: yes, I'm perverse that way :-P)

So now in a page right out of Atlas Shrugged, a coal mine owner in Alabama has metaphorically taken the Ellis Wyatt route: abandoning his business and leaving the sign saying "I'm leaving it as I found it. Take over. It's yours."

Here is Ronnie Bryant's statement that he made at a public hearing in Birmingham, as being reported on David McElroy's website...

"My name’s Ronnie Bryant, and I’m a mine operator…. I’ve been issued a [state] permit in the recent past for [waste water] discharge, and after standing in this room today listening to the comments being made by the people…. [pause] Nearly every day without fail — I have a different perspective — men stream to these [mining] operations looking for work in Walker County. They can’t pay their mortgage. They can’t pay their car note. They can’t feed their families. They don’t have health insurance. And as I stand here today, I just … you know … what’s the use? I got a permit to open up an underground coal mine that would employ probably 125 people. They’d be paid wages from $50,000 to $150,000 a year. We would consume probably $50 million to $60 million in consumables a year, putting more men to work. And my only idea today is to go home. What’s the use? I don’t know. I mean, I see these guys — I see them with tears in their eyes — looking for work. And if there’s so much opposition to these guys making a living, I feel like there’s no need in me putting out the effort to provide work for them. So as I stood against the wall here today, basically what I’ve decided is not to open the mine. I’m just quitting. Thank you."

Well, I can't say that I blame him. Earlier today I learned that a dear friend in California was having to apply for a business license just to tutor kids after school. When I read that, I was like "What the...?!?"

Business owners, and especially small business owners, are the source of all industry and productivity in this country. Hell, in any country. They do not need or deserve to be overly burdened with ridiculous amounts of government oversight, legislation and regulation. When I read the story of Ronnie Bryant, and how he has given up out of frustration... it pisses me off!! This was a man who created and maintained jobs that people need and want.

Much more of this, and there won't be a United States as we have come to know it.

Sometimes, I wonder if that's the conscientious purpose of too many in our government.

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Twentieth anniversary of Pee-wee's big adventure

Awright, I'm gonna try to keep this as decent and family-friendly as I can. Meaning that I'm refraining from re-telling any of the corny jokes that we were all sharing with each other back when this happened.

It was twenty years ago today that one of the most darkly comical incidents in pop culture history occurred...

Ahhh yes, Pee-wee Herman. By the end of the Eighties Pee-wee had conquered the world. From an HBO special that is still considered one of the best ever, to star of one of the funniest movies of all time, to the long-running CBS Saturday morning children's show Pee-wee's Playhouse. There were Pee-wee Herman dolls and toys in all the major retail outlets. Yes, Pee-wee had it all.

To have climbed so high. And then, to only fall so hard.

It was on July 26th, 1991 that Pee-wee's real-life alter-ego Paul Reubens was arrested for publicly masturbating at an adult movie theater in Sarasota, Florida. Detectives who had stationed themselves in the theater had witnessed Reubens exhibiting "Pee-wee's wee-wee" (okay, I tried, honest!!). Reubens attempted to get out of trouble by offering to do a "children's benefit" event with the sheriff's office "to take care of this", an offer that he also made to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune so that they would sit on the story. But it was to no avail. A few days later the mugshot photo of Reubens - with long hair, unshaven and looking totally disheveled - was all over the news.

Pee-wee Herman was done. Reubens made two more appearances as Pee-wee Herman, at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards (he received a standing ovation after taking to the stage and asking "Heard any good jokes lately?!") and then when he appeared at a Grand Ole Opry tribute to Minnie Pearl. And then, he went into apparent self-exile.

Pee-wee Herman, it seemed, was dead and buried.

And then in 2007, Paul Reubens brought Pee-wee Herman back. Following that year's Spike TV's Guys' Choice Awards, Pee-wee has since become the star of a successful Broadway show, and apparently a new movie is in the works.

But today, we remember that very strange situation two decades ago that had children all over America asking "Mommy, what does 'masturbate' mean?"

Seriously though, glad to see that Paul Reubens has enjoyed a career rebound. Pee-wee Herman seems to be bigger today than ever. Here's hoping that he'll be around for a long time to come :-)

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Trailer for the next batch of DOCTOR WHO episodes!

Last month this year's series of Doctor Who arrived at one hum-dinger of a mid-season cliffhanger.

So you wanna see some of where the rest of the season is going? Check this out, courtesy of the BBC...

Doctor Who returns on August 27th. And I can't wait!! Well, I guess I'll have to but, you know... :-P

Speaking of the Whoniverse, I haven't watched the rest of them yet but I did catch the first episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day. Am waiting for my girlfriend to come over some weekend so we can watch the rest together (no, not gonna take a peek at them without her to share it with :-). But I have watched that first episode a number of times now and, it's some of the best Who-ish material that Russell T. Davies has done since he was the revived series' first showrunner in 2005. Looking forward to seeing the rest and discovering how this story goes :-)

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A "Super Congress"?! What the...?! Here come the Politburo, and Congress AIN'T suppose to establish a religion!

When the hell do the people of this country once again get representatives who know what "un-constitutional" means enough to not come up with bullsh-t like this?

The Huffington Post was the first place where I found the "Super Congress" referenced. So in case (like me until late last night) you didn't know what the politicians in Washington are now up to: there is a proposal to create a 12-member body comprised of six members from both the House and the Senate... and composed of six members from both major political parties. This "Super Congress" would be capable of over-riding the normal legislative process, all in the name of fixing the United States' monstrous debt problem.

Click here and here to read what others have been arguing about how anti-Constitution and insane this scheme is.

But here is what disturbs me most about this proposal...

THE "SUPER CONGRESS" WOULD OFFICIALLY ESTABLISH THAT TWO POLITICAL PARTIES AND ONLY TWO PARTIES ARE LEGITIMATE, TO THE DETRIMENT OF ALL OTHERS.

Think about it. The "Super Congress" plan gives seats to the Democrats, seats to the Republicans... and ummm... nothing to the unaffiliated or those who have chosen not to align themselves with either of the two major parties.

What is a political party, really? Is it any different from a body of religion? I mean, a political party and a religious denomination share many similarities. They each have their adherents. They each have their beliefs and ideas. But according to the Constitution, Congress cannot endorse any body of belief and faith.

And now there are some who are conspiring to make Congress controlled by a body of belief. Namely, a body of ideologies. Oh yeah, you get to, ahem, "choose" which one of the two that you wanna affiliate yourself with... but how the hell is that really a choice at all?

How the hell is it that the United States government - something which is supposed to derive from a mandate of the people, by the people and for the people - is now poised to be legally controlled NOT by the people, but by two political parties to the exclusion of ALL others?!?

This, is wrong.

And President Barack Obama and the "leaders" in Congress are taking us all on a road that is too damn much like what Russia found itself on about a hundred years ago.

I've said it before and I'll say it again now: the United States now owes the old Soviet Union an apology. At least the Soviets had one-party rule and were honest about it.

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"Hold still, dumb-ass!" It's the first new BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD since November 28th 1997!

I choose to take this as a sign that there is hope yet for our culture.

At Comic-Con 2011 going on this weekend in San Diego, Mike Judge announced that Beavis and Butt-head - one of the most classic and beloved shows of the Nineties - is coming back with new episodes this fall!

'Course, things have changed for MTV since the boys last graced (?) that network with their presence in the autumn of 1997. For one thing, MTV doesn't do the music videos thing like they did back in the day. Based on the following clip, looks like Beavis and Butt-head are gonna now be ragging on things like reality television and such.

So look! New Beavis and Butt-head footage!

Looks fresh as ever! Now I'll just have to clear some space on my DVR for when the show begins running :-)

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Photo of a ghost at Annie Penn Hospital?

Annie Penn Hospital is the main medical facility in my hometown of Reidsville, North Carolina. It was founded in 1930. There's the original building and then a few additions that have been constructed over the years. Today it is part of the Moses Cone Health System based in nearby Greensboro.

And it was at Annie Penn Hospital where this photo was recently taken...

The photo comes courtesy of James Hodges, a good friend, writer and pastor of Burton Memorial Missionary Baptist Church in Reidsville. The photo did not originate with James but it was made by someone that he knows.

Feel free to leave whatever comment you are led to make about this image. Could it be that this is photo documentation of a ghost at Annie Penn Hospital: a place that has a long history of reputedly being haunted?

EDIT 3:35 p.m. EST: Okay, the mystery has been solved! And turns out... it is a Photoshop job. But quite a neat one! Dwayne Corum who also hails from this burg submits this...

"It was a Photoshop...sorry to let you guys down. I know the guy who took the pic and put the "ghost" in the pic...sorry to let your supernatural heart down..lol"

Nah, it's all good Dwayne. This probably gave a lot of people a good thing to catch on a Friday when nothing else is going on but the heat around here! Just shows that even us small-town folk can have some high-tech fun just as well as everyone else ;-)

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CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER is darn nearly the Captain America movie that Chris always dreamed of seeing!

So being old enough to (very barely) remember those dopey Captain America TV movies from the late Seventies (starring Reb Brown, forever known best as Yor: Hunter From The Future) and then years later the 1990 film with J.D. Salinger's son Matt as the star-spangled Avenger, I have waited long enough for Cap to get the respect he rightfully deserves as a live-action adaptation of the legendary comic book superhero.

What sayest then this blogger about Captain America: The First Avenger?

This is almost the Captain America movie that I have always wanted to see happen. I mean, it's dang nearly perfect... as a film about a Marvel Comics hero. Chris Evans nails it as both the frail Steve Rogers and the super-soldier that he eventually becomes courtesy of cutting edge (for the early 1940s anyway) science. I sincerely thrilled to the production design and the distinctly World War II tone that director Joe Johnston (who has some experience with this sort of thing, having directed 1991's The Rocketeer) and his crew have evoked. I love all the little Marvel nuances that made their way into this movie, like how Cap's shield is made of Vibranium (quite a lot of applause during our screening when that got mentioned) and the sly nods to the mythology of Thor (both the comic and the movie that came out a few months ago) and the Cosmic Cube and all that jazz. That Howard Stark (the father of Tony Stark, the future Iron Man, played by Dominic Cooper) has such a substantial role in the story is something that I especially dug. This might be Alan Silvestri's finest score for a film since Back To The Future. I even liked Stan Lee's cameo (does that guy know how to crash every Marvel party, or what?). For those reasons and more, I liked the movie immensely.

What I can't help but keep thinking about though is how Captain America, for a hero created during and for the World War II era, doesn't really do in this film what he's meant to do best: beat the snot out of Nazis! In fact, the Nazi stuff is downplayed so far as to be practically non-existent. And there is nothing that is more short-changed as a result of it than Hugo Weaving's otherwise chilling portrayal of the Red Skull.

That is the one glaring major failing of Captain America: The First Avenger, at least in my opinion. Ya see, I wanted the Red Skull to be what he is in the comics: a thoroughly dedicated living embodiment of everything that his mentor Adolf Hitler made him to be. And that's sorta the point of the classic Red Skull character: as the counterpart to Captain America he is at once everything against but also identical to Steve Rogers. Johann Schmidt was a frail weakling German who was picked out of nowhere by Hitler to be his top henchman and as the Red Skull, he became the symbol of all the evil that the Nazis were perpetrating. So the Allies go and create their own symbol: Captain America. Who thrashes the snot out of the Nazis! Instead in this film we get Red Skull (with an origin way too much like the 1990 Captain America movie) as the leader of HYDRA: a splinter sect from Nazism.

You tell me which you want to hear chanted most by the enemies of liberty before they get their asses whupped: "Heil Hitler" or "Heil HYDRA"? I know which one works for me... and that ain't what we get in this movie.

Okay well... other than that, Captain America: The First Avenger is a barn-burnin' toad-stranglin' hella fun ride! And it tracks well with the story from the long-running comics: how Steve Rogers wants to enlist in the Army following America's entry into World War II. Unfortunately this kid has a list of maladies as long as a grocery list, any one of which would (and does) get him categorized as "4F". But Rogers is persistent (to the point that he tries enlisting in five different cities). It's at the World of Tomorrow exhibit in New York City that Rogers elicits the attention of Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci), a German scientist who fled to the United States so that Hitler could not exploit his research. Though derided as a joke of an enlistee by Colonel Phillips (a terrific performance by Tommy Lee Jones) and to some extent by British officer Peggy Carter (Haylee Atwell), Rogers is soon brought to the secret lab where his fragile body will be doused with the serum that will transform him into the massive, agile powerhouse. And the experiment works! Unfortunately Rogers winds up the only super-soldier when Erskine is assassinated. What follows is a frustrating tenure for Rogers as a mascot for war bonds sales, and then a fateful USO tour of Europe that ends up catapulting him into the action that he has desired for so long.

Awright, as I said Captain America: The First Avenger is a great Marvel Comics movie, and maybe one of the best yet. It just lacks some substance in my book as a World War II-era film, when it coulda and shoulda gone balls-to-the-walls full-tilt wacko as a movie about that conflict. But that's not gonna stop me from wanting to see it again at least once more during its run in the theaters, and from buying the Blu-ray when it becomes available.

In wrapping up, I'll say that Captain America: The First Avenger is a movie that might disappoint somewhat for those who love the character and the historical period that he springs from. But if you can get past that, it's not a bad way to spend a mid-summer's evening at all. Just don't be so hasty to leave the theater: there is quite a bit more to see after the credits end. And based on what I saw following Captain America's own movie, all I know to say is: bring on 2012 and The Avengers!

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Review of BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE

2007's BioShock is on my short list of all time greatest video games ever. Okay, scratch that: BioShock is not a "video game" at all. It is an entirely new style of storytelling narrative. BioShock is high-brow literature all its own. And like the very best of books, you come away from it more enlightened and driven to ponder than you were before you encountered it. In the mind of Chris Knight, BioShock stands on the same level as George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Seriously.

And like those and other classic novels, BioShock is something that many people finish with many different perspectives to wrestle over. My own personal take is that BioShock... and with a theme that continued into its sequel BioShock 2... is a morality tale about what man invariably becomes in the complete and conscious absence of God. Andrew Ryan's sub-Atlantic metropolis of Rapture was meant to be a Utopia where individual capability would be unfettered from the binds of government, religion and "petty morality". Instead it became a fallen ruin: an ultimate monument to man's corrupted nature.

We already knew about the city of Rapture from playing BioShock and BioShock 2. But we never got the full story of how Andrew Ryan built his underwater society... and how it collapsed.

But now we get to find out, because the tale of Rapture's rise and fall has just been published as a novel. And fitting for BioShock, it stands on a higher plane than most other video game-derivative books!

BioShock: Rapture is written by John Shirley, with plenty of input from BioShock creator Ken Levine. And having read it, I cannot recommend it enough for BioShock fans. BioShock: Rapture is a masterful working of the bits and pieces of Rapture's history that we learned throughout the two games, with a healthy dose of real-life history and politics thrown in. The result is a magnificent epic that in truest BioShock fashion leaves it to the reader to arrive at his or her own conclusions about morality.

The novel begins in 1945. Immediately after the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, billionaire industrialist Andrew Ryan has at last become disillusioned with a modern world hellbent on suicide. Ryan - who fled from the Communist revolution in Russia as a child - has also grown disgusted to the point of pathological hatred with the socialistic programs of Roosevelt's New Deal. With apparently no nation on Earth that he can feel at home, Andrew Ryan resolves to make a nation for himself and others who want to live at the discretion of no government or religion.

No doubt everyone who's played a BioShock game has wondered: "How the heck did Ryan build a city on the floor of the North Atlantic?" We find out how in BioShock: Rapture. Yeah there's some "deus ex mechanics" involved (particularly in regard to how Rapture isn't crushed to bits by the intense water pressure) but I found that such concerns were adequately addressed for what is admittedly a work of retro-historical science-fiction. And we also discover how Rapture was populated, per Ryan's peculiar standards. All the characters from the two games that we've come to know and love and all too often hate are there: from Andrew Ryan himself to master plumber Bill McDonagh (who gets quite a fulfilling backstory), on through to Sofia Lamb and the lunatic artist Sander Cohen, who will soon give entirely whole new meaning to the phrase "flaming homosexual".

But there are two factors in particular that come to play a part in the larger tale of Rapture. The first is the man who is known as Frank Fontaine (which is all I'm going to say if you haven't played the game yet). The second is the discovery of ADAM: the substance that makes the gene-changing plasmids possible. It is the plasmids which will eventually intoxicate with power most of the population of Rapture. A population that is growing increasingly restless and frustrated with utopian promises that fail to deliver. So it is that a series of circumstances come into being that lead up to the explosive events of December 31st, 1958: the day that Rapture erupted into civil war.

BioShock: Rapture not only answered questions stemming from my own curiosity about Rapture, it also cleared up quite a lot of material that I was a bit cloudy about. The part about how Fontaine Futuristics was taken over by Ryan was intriguing and illuminating, and that Andrew Ryan - a self-styled champion of capitalism - would become that which he hates most and nationalize an entire industry is an irony that is not lost upon the reader. We also get a better picture of how the Little Sisters came into being... along with their horrifying wardens, the Big Daddies.

BioShock: Rapture is by far one of the more satisfying novels to have sprung from a video game franchise that I have found. John Shirley has performed an elegant job at taking the enormously rich environment of the BioShock games and not only revealing more of the tapestry of Rapture but also reconciling details where such was needed. And just as much as I hope and pray that there will eventually be a true BioShock 3, I find myself very much desiring that this will be but the first of more novels that delve into that beckoning city deep beneath the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Highly recommended, even if you haven't played BioShock yet!

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End of the Space Shuttle program

The orbiter Atlantis landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning, at 5:57 a.m.

And so, after 135 missions that began on April 12th 1981, the Space Shuttle program - a system that began to be engineered in the late Sixties - has come to an end. So too apparently has the United States' manned space endeavors: NASA has no crew-capable vehicles anywhere close to near-future use (the Orion system has been scrapped because of budgetary cutbacks). For now the International Space Station is going to have to be serviced by Soviet-era Soyuz craft: a design that has been flying into space since our own Apollo program.

Well, at least private enterprise is beginning to seriously engage in spaceflight. That is where there's going to be a future in manned space exploration. There is still a passion for space: it just needs to be matched with equal zeal and funding capability... and government can't do that anymore like it could in the days of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

But today, I don't wish to lament what many others have already done so and with greater eloquence. The Atlantis has come home. The Space Shuttle has accomplished its mission.

And that is worth honoring no matter how one looks at it.

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Have been busy lately

Not much time for blogging, 'cuz your friend and humble narrator has had his hands in all kinds of projects! And then again there's been so much nonsense happening in the news lately, it's been hard to pick and choose what to comment on.

(Hey all you politicians in D.C., there's a really easy way to stop worrying about the debt ceiling: quit making more debt!! Sheeeeesh must a guy with a blog have to come up with everything for you people?!)

Okay well, expect more good stuff in the next few days or so. And to kick it off, how about something beautiful? No not more Lauryn, even though my cousin is still the most awesomely sweet official pinup girl that this or any other website could possibly have. But rest assured, Lauryn will be back soon ;-)

Time for something a lil' different. Here is Kristen this past weekend, at the reception for a wedding that she was maid of honor in. Along with her ne'er-do-well rogue of a boyfriend...

Is that enough of a tease for all two of this blog's faithful readers? :-)

More soon, including hopefully a review of Captain America: The First Avenger!

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THE DARK KNIGHT RISES teaser trailer is online!

And that ain't even the best look at Bane that we get in the first trailer for The Dark Knight Rises! That comes at the end of the one and a half minute-long glimpse of next year's surefire megahit.

Yes friends, Warner Bros. has officially released the trailer online (which you couldn't see until now unless you went to see the last Harry Potter movie over the weekend, which I didn't, so this is new to me too).

My only gripe is that this is going to be the last of the "Nolan-verse" Batman... which is easily my most favorite Batman continuity ever! I'd hoped that Warners might have let Nolan's work be the springboard of an ongoing series, sorta like its own James Bond franchise. But we've had two excellent Batman movies from Christopher Nolan already and I've no doubt that he will end this trilogy in fine form!

Anyhoo, there it is. And if that YouTube link disappears, you can still find the teaser pretty much anywhere.

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