Sunday, November 30, 2008

TWO-FACED KITTEN DIES


The rare two-faced kitten born November 20th in Perth, Australia died, surviving just one day. The kitten, born with two faces, ate out of just one mouth because of a cleft pallette but meowed simultaneously with both mouths.

20 HEARTBREAKING SONGS


Yahoo posted a list of Cry Me A River: The 20 Most Heartbreaking Songs of All Time. While I disagree with most of their choices (ABBA? Really?), it was good to see Roy Orbison on the list and I was shocked with their number one pick, He Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones. Not because I don't like the song, it's one of my favorites, but because George Jones is so often overlooked these days.

George Jones is one of my heroes and a legend in country music. I could go on and on about the man, his rich past and illustrious career but so much has been written about him, I couldn't really add anything. I will say, if you don't own any of his music, you owe it to yourself to pick up 50 Years of Hits.

WONG GONG


I picked this business card up a few years ago. This is not something I would normally purchase, but as I learn more about carnivals and sideshows, I've discovered fortune tellers are a part of circus history. While I have no idea if Wong Gong ever traveled with a circus during his career, the card was too nice to pass up and the name is priceless.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!



No photoshop, just an optical illusion of the ever-lovin', blue-eyed Thing. Click on the above photos to get a better look. Justen Ladda painted Fantastic Four's The Thing in a old Bronx, NY theater. To see more of his work, click here.

HAIRBALLS AREN'T JUST FOR CATS


An 11 year old girl in India was hospitalized with severe pain in her stomach. The operation revealed a foot long hairball.

The mass of hair - known as a trichobozear -is a potentially fatal result of a mental illness called trichotillomania, a condition in which the patient pulls her hair out and, in many cases, eats it. And while the condition is not well known, American doctors say that it may afflict 1 percent of all Americans.

The doctor went on to say most people with this mental illness do not eat the hair after pulling it out. "This extreme form of the condition occurs in between 30 and 50 percent of patients".

MOVIES THAT NEVER WERE


Eddie Murphy in Star Trek? It was considered, as well as Oliver Stone remaking The Planet of the Apes. Darren Aronofsky worked with Frank Miller on a Batman script, where the title character was "insane, overdramatic, barely likeable". Read more about Movies That Never Were here.

Friday, November 28, 2008

TRICYCLE OF THE ANTI-CHRIST


How would you like to own Damien's tricycle from the original 1976 film The Omen? If you're too scared to own the former toys of the Anti-Christ, you can always pick up C-3PO's helmet worn by Anthony Daniels in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Profiles in History will be having its 33rd Hollywood Memoribilia auction on December 11, 2008 with these items and much more. It's enough to make the most jaded fanboys and film buffs drool. Personally, I'd love to own the jacket worn by Fox Mulder in The X-Files: Fight the Future.

THE FISHING HOLE


I mentioned in a previous blog that The Andy Griffith Show theme song had lyrics. Here they are, so sing along to The Fishing Hole:

Well, now, take down your fishin' pole and meet me at the fishin' hole.
We may not get a bite all day, but don't you rush away.
What a great place to rest your bones and mighty fine for skippin' stones.
You'll feel fresh as a lemonade, a-settin' in the shade.
Whether it's hot, whether it's cool, oh what a spot for whistlin' like a fool.
What a fine day to take a stroll and wander by the fishin' hole.
I can't think of a better way to pass the time of day.

We'll have no need to call the roll when we get to the fishin' hole
There'll be you, me and Old Dog Trey, to doodle time away.
If we don't hook a perch or bass, we'll cool our toes in dewy grass
Or else pull up a weed to chaw, and maybe set and jaw.
Hangin' around, takin' our ease, watchin' that hound a-scratchin' at his fleas.
Come on, take down your fishin' pole and meet me at the fishin' hole
I can't think of a better way to pass the time of day.

Music by Earle Hagen and Herbert Spencer
Lyrics by Everett Sloane
(C) Copyright 1960, 1961, 1966 by Larrabee Music

WORLD'S OLDEST PERSON DIES AT 115



Edna Parker, 115 years, 220 days old, died Wednesday November 26, 2008. Born in 1893, she and her husband were the first to own an automobile in their area of Indiana. In 2007, Guinness World's Records declared her the oldest person on earth. She credited her longevity to education. Her family said she stayed active and was still walking at 113 years of age. At her 114th birthday party, Parker joked she "probably knew George Washington".

Trivia: Edna Parker lived with another Guinness World's Record, she shared the same nursing home with 7'7" Sandy Allen, the World's Tallest Woman, who passed away earlier in August.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND


Entertainment Earth is having their Black Friday Sale all weekend long. You're sure to find the perfect Christmas gift for your favorite nerd there. And if anyone is looking for a gift for yours truly, the Princess Leia (Slave Dancer) Kotobukiya Statue would be the perfect companion gift to Wonder Women of America.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

40 BEST TV THEME SONGS

Paste Magazine has put together a list of The 40 Best TV Theme Songs of All Time. I was surprised to see no mention of The Mod Squad. As a kid, I fell in love with that song and taped the theme song from our television set using a portable tape recorder. I would play outside, pretending to be a cool cop from the show while listening to that theme song over and over.

Of course, it's great seeing such classics listed like Sanford and Son and The X-Files. And no TV theme song list would be complete without The Andy Griffith Show's famous whistling tune (number 7 on the list). Personally, I can't think of a better opening for any television show than watching Andy and Opie Taylor walking side by side accompanied by that classic song. You can purchase the original soundtrack to the Andy Griffith Show at Amazon. And while the entire CD will bring back memories, it's worth every penny just to hear the heartbreaking theme for Aunt Bee.

Trivia: Most people don't know there are lyrics to The Andy Griffith Show theme song. It's called The Fishing Hole.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

SPINNING 3 AT ONE TIME


I wish I knew more about Jimmie Richardson but unfortunately all I have to go on is this single postcard. Click the photo to see the larger image.

COVER OF THE WEEK

Secret Invasion: Inhumans, #4 of 4, Marvel Comics

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

SIAMESE TWINS X-RAY


First x-ray after their birth of Siamese twins Daniel Kaye and Donald Ray Hartley, joined at the waist with common legs, born to Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Hartley.


From Life photo archive

BATMAN R.I.P.


The rumors are finally confirmed, Batman is going to die. Read about it here.

Thanks Robyn!

TERMINATOR SALVATION POSTER


New movie poster for Terminator Salvation. Check out the full motion image at Sony Pictures.

GOOGLE HOSTS LIFE


Google now hosts nearly 10 million images from Life magazine's photo archives.
"This collection of newly-digitized images includes photos and etchings produced and owned by LIFE dating all the way back to the 1750s. Only a very small percentage of these images have ever been published. The rest have been sitting in dusty archives in the form of negatives, slides, glass plates, etchings, and prints."
If you're like me, you'll spend hours searching for your favorite images of yesterday. Click here and start browsing.

Monday, November 24, 2008

WONDER WOMEN OF AMERICA


I normally don't review something I don't own but I decided to make an exception in this case.

As if comic book conventions weren't great enough, we now have women dressing up as our favorite super heroines. Now, costume play or "cosplaying" as it's called, is a part of every convention. So it was bound to happen that someone made a book featuring cosplayers in all their glory. And while there are books on Japanese cosplayers in their anime costumes, Wonder Women of America is the first book I've seen dedicated to American cosplayers.

Just head over to Strangeco and order your copy!

KIRK DOESN'T LIKE KIRK



It's no secret William Shatner is ticked-off about not being in the new Star Trek movie and even posted a response on his YouTube channel. I imagine his real response was much more like this.

Thanks Robyn for the heads-up about this!

BLOG? BLAH!



BITTER MEMORIES

Back in the day, boldly and alone, I railed against the inevitable encroachment on my life of the personal computer. Memory is already fading on those brief halcyon days when the internet was just a hyped promise to get us on some vague “information highway”, but all it had yet done was to more efficiently transport pornography across state lines. I knew I couldn’t put a stopper in the culture’s insatiable lust for new technology, but while I still had breath, I continued to rant about the lunacy of workplace management and the lemmings they called employees.

PCs couldn’t do anything more than what a sturdy electric typewriter and a good fax machine had been doing, but both were being quickly jettisoned for these enormous television-like sets that took a quarter of your diminishing desk space, with its’ the small refrigerator size box that pinged and panged next to your feet and its’ ridiculously unmanageable rat’s nest of cables and wires.

At the end of the day office computers were nothing more than what had been termed “word processors”. That was our culture’s first non-government introduction to the concept of taking something pedestrian and giving it an Orwellian name to obscure and justify its’ ambiguous New World role. Typewriters did what their name said they did, they “wrote type” and you could un-jam a key with the eraser end of your pencil or gingerly replace a ribbon when the going got tough, but now simple typewriting was a techno “process” which was hidden, unfathomable and apparently none of your business.

“Let me ask you something”, I would seriously say to anyone who would listen. “If I came to your company and told you I had a new kind of pencil to replace your current way of writing information on paper, would you buy it? If I told you these new pencils – powered by electricity with six black cables connected up to it - would each cost about $5000 each, would require you to hire at least one new full time employee to walk around from desk to desk all day long to make sure all the pencils were working, would require you to accept the fact that when a ‘glitch’ happened from time to time, you would need to expect and fully accept that everything you had written all day long with that pencil would instantly and irretrievably be erased. (And when that happened, all you could do would be to turn it off, wait a few minutes and hope it would let you redo all of your work again.) Tell me”, I would ask, “would you jump at the chance to own one of these new little marvels of mine?”

People would laugh like they did when Jerry Senfield asked why hotdogs came in packs of ten, but hotdog buns in packs of twelve. All acknowledged the obvious illogic and plain truth, but no one ever had any intention of doing anything about it. They would keep buying those hot dogs and buns and submit themselves to whatever fate and waste had been decided for them.


A NEW DAY DAWNS

But before you write me off as a stuck-in-his-ways old codger, let me tell you that I have not only long ago made peace with my computer and the internet, but now I love them both. I love them like a redneck loves his truck, like your kid loves his binky, like a crackhead loves his crackpipe, Love them, love them, love them.

There is an episode of the old Twilight Zone TV series, where a teenager of the future adamantly refuses to subject herself to the culture’s and technology’s expectation to make-over her earthy face and awkward body into one of three possible streamlined mannequin-like visages. She screamed and cried and spoke eloquently of individuality and what it meant to be human, but then after the final commercial, she stepped out from that now-not-so-unbelievable machine which had fashioned her into Model Number 3, and looking at herself in the mirror, joyfully turns to her friend and says, “And the best part of it Val, is that I look just like you”. A few cynical words through Rod Serling’s clinched teeth and then the final fade out.

Yes, I am one of you and I am happy about it.


A NOW ON WITH THE SHOW

Now my long time friend, compatriot, separated-at-birth brother and partner in crime, Keith Roland (hither to referred to as “the Kingfish”) has dragged me kicking and screaming into my next cyber adventure - blogging.

I say, kicking and screaming, but that is only for dramatic effect, because I don’t kick and scream like I used to. I’ve learned long ago that every concert, tradeshow or movie he has dragged me kicking and screaming into, has been for the most part, of great benefit to my soul. There actually are a few exceptions, but we’re both married now and I digress.

Still, I wrestle with this whole blog concept and how I fit into it. I’m a big compulsive reader. I read the cereal box through a sleepy haze during breakfast, I read the women’s magazine’s at Fast Cuts, I read the McDonald’s receipt at the stoplight and I’ve been known to pick up other ephemera trampled underfoot, just out of curiosity at what I might have missed.

So naturally, I love reading blogs and am no stranger to them. In fact a couple of years ago, I was hired to write and produce a video based on a series of blogs written by some guy whose ramblings had developed a following.

But now I have my own. Where the hell do I fit into this? Who the hell cares what I have to say? Blogs run the gamut from the most absolutely brilliant, insightful and informative to the most worthless pieces of unintelligent drabble imaginable, butchering spelling and the simple grammar as they go. Where does my little boat fit into this ethereal sea of words?

I guess I am going to find out.

Perhaps I have unconsciously made this diatribe long and tedious so as to loose most of you and get you off of my scent. Only the die-hard blog reader - or my mother – could possibly be hanging on up to this paragraph. So if that’s you, thank you. You deserve some kind of reward. Like the end of this monologue.

Now into the blog…..


FREE BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN SONG



Download the new Bruce Springsteen single Working on a Dream from brucespringsteen.net or iTunes. But hurry, it's only free for today!

DVD OF THE WEEK: MUTE WITNESS



Written, directed and produced by Anthony Waller, Mute Witness is the story of three Americans shooting a low-budget slasher film in Russia and find themselves in a dangerous situation. Billy (Marina Zudina), the makeup/special effects artist is accidentally locked in the studio at night and stumbles across the making of a snuff film. A night of terror begins as Billy is pursued by the killers, hunted by the police, KGB and an organized crime kingpin.

Although the film suffers from a bad supporting cast and a poor script, it still packs a punch. The second half of the film severely stumbles but is saved by the talented Marina Zudina, all without uttering a single word. Despite the flaws, Mute Witness still works due to the intense chase and sustained terror. It's a roller coaster ride you won't soon forget.

Trivia: Originally set in Chicago, Anthony Waller changed the setting to Russia for budgetary reasons. Also, this is Sir Alec Guinness's final film.

Link

Sunday, November 23, 2008

PUSHING DAISIES CANCELLED



First I find out one of my favorite comic books, She-Hulk, was cancelled and now the most original show on television is added to that list. ABC will not be ordering any future episodes of Pushing Daisies. While avoiding the word "cancel", ABC has made it clear Pushing Daisies will be living up to it's title while continuing to air such... *ahem*... "gems" like According to Jim, Dancing with the Stars and Desperate Housewives.

Link

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION



It's a no-brainer that Heath Ledger will not only be nominated for an Academy Award for his work on The Dark Knight but will easily win the Oscar. Besides saving the movie from Christian Bale's growling Batman, he made the Joker into the villain he should always have been; a psychotic madman bent on destruction.

VAMPIRES



Twilight
is the number one movie this weekend. No big surprise there, but I thought I'd remind everyone of another vampire movie you can enjoy at home on DVD with no long lines, annoying cellphones or $6.00 tubs of popcorn.

30 Days of Night where the vampires are mean and nasty and don't suffer from teenage angst. Set in Alaska, where it's a full month with no sunlight, is a great gimmick and surprising that no one thought of it years ago. Plus, it's got the best ending in a horror movie since David Croenenberg's remake of The Fly.

Trivia: Writer Steven Niles pitched the idea for years in Hollywood with no takers. He took the idea to comic books where it was picked up by Sony Pictures. One of the producers who had initially rejected the script worked on the film adaptation.

Link

Saturday, November 22, 2008

WONDER WOMAN



Wonder Woman on DVD. So worth it.

Link

Friday, November 21, 2008

SHE-HULK CANCELLED


Issue #38 February 25, 2009 will be the final issue of She-Hulk.
She's been savage. She's been sensational. She's been an avenger. She's been a lawyer. She's been a bounty-hunter. But there's one thing She-Hulk has always been, in all of her many series... cancelled. But it hasn't stopped her yet! In this oversized final issue, Peter David brings his run on the Jade Giantess to a close... but can Jen use her last remaining pages to save her friends from a truly mammoth threat? Catch her now, before someone turns her red.
And from Peter David's website:

I've known about it for a couple months but didn't say anything because I'm not big on making with the bad news.

I have to admit, I'm shocked. Shocked. The market has always been so supportive of books with female leads, and She-Hulk has never had a title canceled out from under her before, so I could never have seen this coming.


FRANCES O'CONNOR




It all started with being dragged to a postcard show. I stumbled upon a real photo postcard of Frances O’Connor. I had recently watched the movie Freaks and couldn’t believe I was holding a postcard signed with her foot. Thus, my new obsession was born.

I’ve been collecting sideshow performer postcards for over ten years now. I try to learn as much as I can about the various performers, reading every book available. And although there are several books on the subject, very little is known about Frances O’Connor.

Frances Belle O’Connor was born in 1914 in Granite Falls, Minnesota. Born without arms, she learned to use her feet for everyday tasks.

With her mother as her manager, she began her sideshow career with the Al G. Barnes Circus in Wyoming. She was quickly billed as “The Living Venus De Milo”, and while not the first sideshow performer to have that nickname, she certainly exemplified the title. Beautiful with a sweet personality, she attracted scores of men to her shows and reportedly turned down many marriage proposals.

From the 1920s through the 1940’s, she worked with Cole Bros., Sells-Floto and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circuses. Her act consisted of smoking cigarettes, sewing, shooting a rifle, eating and drinking, some of which she performed in the 1932 film Freaks.

After her mother passed away, Frances lost interest in show business and retired in California. She never married or had children and passed away in relative obscurity in 1982.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

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