Kanye,Beyonce,& Taylor: Who Cares?

I normally don't really care for all the celebrity gossip and news that appears on TV and the internet, but all this commotion over the VMA awards incident seems pretty overblown to me.

I think the whole incident was planned and staged, just to generate controversy and get people talking about the VMA awards show. Seems like every year at these awards, something like this happens. Anyone remember the Howard Stern incident, when he appeared as Fartman, with his ugly bare butt showing? MTV then pretends it was "surprised" that something like this happened. Howard himself said MTV executives knew what was planned.

People who don't normally even watch the VMA's heard about this and the artists involved, getting publicity for all of them. And people who like Kanye will continue to buy his music anyway, while Taylor Swift and Beyonce come off looking like innocent victims. The music companies behind each artist gets millions of dollars worth of free publicity on all the news and talk shows for days. Sounds like a win for all involved. This is about as "real" as all the so-called "reality" shows. Which is to say, not at all real--just TV!

Personally, I have never bought music from any of these three performers and don't plan on doing so in the future. I would like to see the sales figures for Kanye, Beyonce, and Taylor Swift for the next week or two, because I believe the controversy will probably increase their sales for all of them.

Thanks For Being A Friend, Bea Arthur

Legendary actress Bea Arthur died yesterday, but has left behind a legacy of her work that will live on forever. A stage performer for many years before being "discovered" after appearing on "All In The Family" as a cousin to the Archie Bunker family, Bea Arthur went on to star in her own series "Maude" and of course, later the incredible TV series "The Golden Girls".
Here are a few clips of her, displaying her comedic talents, and a brief interview segment.
The program "Maude" was very controversial for its time, touching on topics not previously talked about on television, such as this clip, in which Maude is considering whether to get an abortion.

Here the ladies from the Golden Girls are trying to make a discreet purchase at a drug store.

The following is a segment of a longer 2-hour interview, conducted by Karen Herman on March 15, 2001. On December 9, 2008, Beatrice Arthur was inducted into the Television Academy's Hall of Fame.

Sorry, Jason !

I guess you've lost your touch, Jason....you just don't seem to frighten people like you used to back in the old days.

I went to see the "Friday the 13th" remake movie this Friday the 13th, since it seemed the appropriate time to see it. It was OK, but I wasn't that impressed. It was the typical slasher movie, with a lot of people running around between bouts of being hacked up.
And from the audience's reaction, I guess I wasn't the only one that wasn't too impressed, because there was very little reaction from the crowded theater. There were a few teenage girls sitting behind me who screamed at a couple of scary or brutal scenes, but the rest of the audience was surprisingly silent. It was mainly a younger audience, teenagers/college-aged people; (sadly) I may have been the oldest person in the theater.
Are today's young people so used to such violent scenes, from horror movies, TV, video games and the internet (not to mention the daily news) that they are just not shocked by such things anymore? I'm not making any kind of judgment, I only found it a bit odd that there was such a lack of reaction to scenes that were meant to shock or frighten? But, of course, I didn't react to it, either, but then I'm old and jaded.
I remember going to the original Friday the 13th movie many years ago, and the audience then had a much more vocal reaction. It was kind of why I went to see this movie, because I thought the audience's response would be fun to experience. But it turned out not to be the case.

So "Sorry, Jason", maybe it's time to hang up your hockey mask and machete and retire to the "Old Slashers' Home". Don't feel bad, Jason--I'll brew you up a nice cup of tea and we can talk over "the good ol' days".

Digital TV Conversion

To convert your old TV's to receive digital signals starting February 2009, just follow the helpful instructions in the following video:

Now, wasn't that easy? It's so simple a child could do it....in fact, I'd recommend getting a child to do it for you as they are more likely to understand all that new tech stuff.
Thankfully, I'm a geek and had no problem hooking up my DTV converter box. And, oddly enough, as the woman in the video was wondering, it did bring back Jack Benny ! A local station has a second digital channel that plays old shows and one of them is the old "Jack Benny Program". ("Oh...Rochester !")
I actually watch as much, if not more, video or TV shows on the internet as I do on the TV.

I've Been Infected ! (By A Bad Movie,That Is)

If you're wondering why the woman in this picture looks so terrified, it's because she just watched the movie she stars in...
"Quarantine".

As Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons would say--"Worst Movie--Ever!!" Unless you enjoy films that seem totally shot in the dark, with a lot of jiggly,wiggly camera movements, plenty of loud screaming, and you can barely see what is happening onscreen. The entire movie is filmed with a hand-held camera, ala "Cloverfield" (which I also found somewhat annoying to watch). Hopefully, this isn't a new trend in movie-making because if it is, I'll just stay home and watch YouTube videos, the quality of which are equal to, if not better than this movie.
The plot revolves around an apartment building in which some sort a rabies-like virus has infected the tenants and the entire building is quarantined by the authorities to prevent the spread of the infection. Too bad they didn't quarantine the movie theaters to keep people from entering to see this "less-than-thrilling" thriller. Don't waste your $10 to see this movie, and frankly, it's not even worth stealing this movie off the internet ! (Not that I recommend that) .

Eagle Eye - FreeFall Interactive Experience

This is a promotional ARG-like experience for the Movie Eagle Eye and is the best 10 Minutes you will spend this week. Just try it.If you're a little bit paranoid to begin with, it will really creep you out !

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Fringe

If you missed the new Fox television show "Fringe", watch it here or go to Hulu.com to see it "full-screen" and lots of other current or classic TV shows. Fringe is a very cool, science-fiction thriller type of show which looks as though it may be a big hit this TV season. It was created by J. J. Abrams, who also did the series "Lost" and the movie "Cloverfield".

Update: There may be a problem with the sound here (or maybe it's just my computer messing up), but if so, just head over to Hulu.com {click the link in red above} to watch the show. It's actually better on their site, anyway. :)

People Love This Smallville Wallpaper

That's right...apparently people love this picture from an ad for the TV show "Smallville" !

And who can blame them...it's a great show and this photo has 5 of the hottest guys in it. And they're not just hot from that explosion behind them. I posted the wallpaper before on this blog; so why am I putting it up again? Well, I'm glad you asked.

As I was checking the statistics for the blog, just to see where my visitors come from (and I was kinda bored), the one thing I noticed is that about 75% of people coming here do so through a search for 'smallville wallpaper' and my little blog's URL comes up fairly high in the search listing. Yay! Actually I don't get that many visitors, *boo hoo :( * , so I'm happy to get some anyway they happen to show up.

Being the helpful sort, I decided to put the picture up again so those who are looking for it can find it. Then I got the brilliant idea (well, maybe not brilliant) to just place it in the sidebar where it can reside for Smallville fans to easily locate. No need to thank me, but hey, while you're here, why not take just an extra minute to check out the rest of the blog. You may see something you like....or not. I realize I'm not the most interesting person, nor is this the best blog on the 'net, but I just want a little "blog love". (LOL)

Anyway, enjoy the Smallville pic, and if you like pictures, check out my new blog, called QE II, that has photos I've taken around my local area. OK, they're not as cool as the Smallville guys photo, but then neither am I. As I am now starting to ramble, this is a good place to stop. Bye.

Spiderpig...Spiderpig...Does whatever a Spiderpig does...

Yes...I went to see "The Simpsons Movie" tonight!

And as Comic Book guy would say: "Best Movie....Ever!"

At least if you are as big a Simpsons fan as I am.
I'm not going to say anymore about the movie 'cause I don't want to give anything away, except to say...don't rush out of the theater as soon as the credits start to roll...you'll miss a few funny moments.

Harry Potter Mania !

Yes!! It's that time again...when movie theaters and bookstores will be overflowing with aspiring wizards! The movie opened yesterday and next week (July 21) the last book in the series will be out. I haven't seen the movie yet but I'll admit I did just pre-order the book from my local Borders bookstore. I was going to wait and eventually just buy a used copy on Amazon.com as I did with the last book, but decided--hey! why not join in the mania!
So, in honor of the Harry Potter craze, here's a trailer from the movie:


Whoops! Sorry, I guess someone must have cast a confusion spell on me! I feel alright now so here's the real trailer:


And as an extra treat, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can listen to some music from the soundtrack along with stills from the movie.
(I had to place it there as it was too large to fit in the sidebar.)

More Than Meets The Eye

TRANSFORMERS !

Wow-- Aren't they cool !





And look how big this one is !













Hey! Wait just 60,000,000,000 nanoseconds* here !

These transformers don't look anything like the ones from the movie !

(*that's 60 billion nanoseconds=60 seconds=1 minute)

Ahhh...that's better. My brain must have short-circuited there for a bit.


As you may have guessed by now I recently (yesterday,actually) saw the new "Transformers" movie. And I give it two robotic thumbs up !

I never really watched the Transformers cartoons when they were first on TV, but I have to say I thought the special effects and CG in this movie are way better than any cartoon graphics!
There's plenty of action and excitement throughout the movie, and the battle scenes are fantastic! The only thing I found a little annoying is that scenes of the robots actually transforming are kind of quick and it's hard to follow the transformation clearly. Guess I'll just have to wait for the DVD so I can slow it down enough to see better.
If you haven't seen it yet, I'd suggest you head for a movie theater this weekend...you won't be disappointed.
And even if you hate robots you still get to see that cute Shia LaBeouf (including a brief shot or two of him in his boxers).

(P.S. click on this post's title to go to The Transformers official movie site)

~~~UPDATE~~~
If you are a real Transformers fan/geek, check out these cool animated T-Shirts over at ThinkGeek.com !
Although they are a little pricey for my budget at $34.99.
{And just so you know, I didn't go looking for these shirts, but happened to see them on another website. OK--I admit it--if I had the money to spare, I'd buy one, 'cause I'm kinda geeky.}

Back To The GRINDHOUSE !

So yesterday I'm sitting at home...bored out of my mind...but it's too cold and windy to go out for a walk or anything. So I think "why not take a ride up to the mall?" I figured I'd grab a slice of pizza there and just hang around, check out a few of my favorite stores. Just to get out of the house and kill some time.

The bus is pulling into the mall parking lot where I notice there are very few cars. It's then that I remember it's Easter Sunday and all the stores are closed ! D'oh ! Now what do I do? I go into the mall anyway and see that the movie theater at least is open. Not much playing that sounds interesting...but "GRINDHOUSE" is set to start in just about 20 minutes. Got a ticket and headed in--but still haven't eaten and I know that this movie runs for 3 hours ! I hate to pay the ridiculous prices at the movie snack bar, but need something to hold me 'til I get home. I settle for a hot dog and medium Coke, which ends up costing $8.75 ! Ouch! And the so-called "medium" Coke is at least a quart of soda (free refills too, who needs that much to drink?) I hate to think what a large must be. They probably just hook you up directly to the soda machine and pump the soda to you through a tube.

Anyway, it turned out to be worth it ! GRINDHOUSE is a surprisingly entertaining double feature consisting of "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof", along with several fake movie trailers. Planet Terror is a very gory zombie movie so if exploding zombies and flying body parts is not your thing, you would not want to see this movie. Death Proof has it's share of gore too, but to a lesser extent, but has plenty of action and explosions as well.

This type of low-budget horror action films were shown a lot during the 1970's at drive-in theaters. But what I was reminded of was when I bought my first VCR (a Sanyo Betamax format) back in 1985. At that time the major movie studios would not allow their films to be put out on videotape as they thought it would keep people from going to theaters to see them. So about the only movies you could rent (other than porn) were old horror/sci-fi flicks or these type of "grindhouse" movies. A friend and I rented a number of these types of movies at the time--I was the only one with a VCR. Most of them had very little in the way of plots, just lots of action, violence and gory scenes. "Grindhouse" fits that bill perfectly.

While this double feature is not for everyone, I found them to be a mindless, entertaining fun time and the 3 hours went by so quickly I barely noticed. The violence and gore is so over-the-top that it becomes comical--sort of like an "Itchy & Scratchy" cartoon from "The Simpsons". And the audience in the theater responded with plenty of laughter throughout the movie.

By the way, that poster at the top--I designed it at the GRINDHOUSE website. It's a pretty cool site, check it out if this movie sounds good to you.
And speaking of grinds, tomorrow it's back to the grind for me as I have to return to work after Spring Break week.

Talk about HORROR !!!

Smallville's Superteam

Is it just me, or does Smallville have the hottest guys on TV ? The promotional picture above is quite fitting I think, with the hot flames behind the hot guys.
This week's episode, titled "Justice", showed the beginning of the Justice League, with Cyborg, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Impulse, and of course, Superman (Clark Kent). Even though they still aren't calling Clark 'Superman' while the other characters are using their "superhero" names, which I don't understand. But whatever they chose to call them, it's a "superteam" of hot guys! Although I still prefer Clark (Tom Welling) over the others, I wouldn't mind being "rescued" by any one of them.

Here's a little clip of the heroes in action: