It's official: Grizzlies SUUUUUUUUUUCK...and suck hard

The Grizzlies, who traded away their star player last season for nothing, and who got a bunch of children this season to play on the team, officially suck and suck hard. They started off 3 and 3, making people think that they would be halfway decent this year, but since then they've lost TEN OUT OF ELEVEN GAMES. But their latest loss was the clincher: tonight they lost, at home, to the THUNDER. The Thunder...who are the worst team in the league...who before tonight were 1 and 16, and had lost FOURTEEN IN A ROW. So it's official: the Grizzlies suck as much as they have the past two seasons, and before it's over with, they may suck MORE. Their days in Memphis are numbered, folks, so get ready...before long, they're going to be the LAS VEGAS GRIZZLIES! Or maybe the Louisville Grizzlies. Nah, probably Las Vegas.

St. Jude's WHAT?

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis is a great place that does great work, but...do you think their construction workers could've found a better stopping place while making their new sign?

Magic Johnson: faking AIDS

A couple of talk show hosts on a radio show last week said that Magic Johnson faked having AIDS. Hell, we've been saying that for years!! That man's healthier than an ox and always has been! He probably faked AIDS so he would have an excuse to quit the NBA because he was too lazy to keep playing. I mean, the man's quit or run into the ground everything he's tried since then: returning to the NBA in '92 but quitting before the season even started, taking over as coach of the Lakers towards the end of the '93-'94 season and then not returning for the next season, returning to play in the NBA halfway through the '95-'96 season and then not returning the next year, hosting a talk show in '98 that sucked big time and only lasted two months, etc., etc.

After the talk show hosts said that Johnson faked AIDS, of course he denied it, but did go on to clarify that he has HIV, not AIDS. That reminds me of one time in high school when Johnson first announced he had AIDS, I mean, HIV: somebody was talking about Johnson having AIDS, and a girl in class said, "He ain't got AIDS, he got HIV."

Clone Wars TV series rocks, too

Star Wars: The Clone Wars had the highest-rated debut ever for a series premiere on Cartoon Network last week. Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

Knight Rider is back

Man, the premiere of Knight Rider tonight was awesome! The TV-movie that aired back in February was pretty good, but they really pulled out the stops tonight. I'll have to keep watching this show for a while!

Clone Wars movie rocked, now bring on the TV show!

Saw Star Wars: The Clone Wars last Friday, on opening day, and it was awesome! Now I'm really stoked for the TV series. My favorite character in the movie had to be Ziro the Hutt. He/she was cracking me up big time! Ha ha! It was funny when he said, "I'm outta here!" and tried to run away, but being a slug, he couldn't move very fast.

The Dark Knight: kickin' ass and takin' names

The Dark Knight's all-time movie records so far, according to SuperHeroHype.com:
widest release (4,366 theaters),
biggest midnight opening ($18.5M),
biggest opening weekend ($158.4M),
biggest July opener ($158.4M),
biggest PG-13 rated opening ($158.4M),
biggest single day ($67.2M),
biggest opening day ($67.2M),
biggest Friday ($67.2M),
biggest Sunday ($43.6M),
biggest IMAX opening ($6.3M)
and fastest to $200M in five days ($203.8M).

And it's not done yet! As for me, I saw it on opening day, on one of Jonesboro's new DIGITAL screens!

The Mole: Best Show On TV!

Man, The Mole is the best show on TV! Well, it and Gene Simmons Family Jewels are the only two shows I'm watching right now that are showing new episodes, but still yet, The Mole is awesome! It'd be one of the best shows on TV even if it was on when most other shows were showing new episodes. I've watched it since the first season. I even liked the two celebrity editions, although they shouldn't have done a second one immediately after the first. (But at least Dennis Rodman was in the second celebrity edition...and he won, to boot!) But The Mole is being preempted next week! That means I'll have to wait two more weeks to see more Moleish action! Dadgummit!

HOWL YES!

Arkansas State University had to change its nickname, the Indians, because it was racist. So they changed the nickname to the Red Wolves. A billboard was put up in Jonesboro promoting the new name saying "HOWL YES! I WANT FOOTBALL SEASON TICKETS". I saw the billboard a couple of weeks ago and thought it was pretty doggone funny. Well, then I saw on Action News 5 this past Thursday that some people have complained that the billboard is "not very positive." I just love when people are damn stupid and complain about any old damn thing. It's friggin' funny. As a matter of fact, the next time I go to Jonesboro, I'm having my PICTURE taken with the damn thing, and I'm posting it online! That is, if Jonesboro doesn't wuss out and take it down before I can get over there again. Hopefully they won't. Hell, that billboard makes me actually want to go out and buy football season tickets! Well, not really, but it'd be funny to do it just to spite the dumbasses.

Does Ted know Diddley?

Just saw where Bo Diddley died. He was in an old "Bo Knows" commercial close to 20 years ago, where Bo knew this and Bo knew that, but Bo couldn't play guitar, so Diddley said, "Bo...you don't know Diddley!" Well, I had never heard of Bo Diddley before then, and I've never heard of since either, so the only reason I'm writing this is because it reminds me of "Ted Knows": my and my friends' music video from the early '90s that we made as a parody of "Bo Knows." And, coincidentally, we're about to make a sequel to it called "Teddy Knows"! But for now, just check out "Ted Knows" below!

David Cook wins American Idol!! Yahoo!!

WOWZA!! America got it right this time! I thought for sure that with all the praise the judges heaped on Archuleta Tuesday night that Cook was doomed. But he wasn't! America saw through the judges' crap and voted Cook the winner by a 12 million vote margin! Simon himself said that after he watched Tuesday night's show on TV that the contest wasn't as lopsided as he had made it sound.

Finally, American Idol has a rock 'n' roll winner...and a damn good one, at that! Ryan Seacrest said that a record 97 and a half million votes were cast...I'm thinking America was just trying to right itself after screwing over Chris Daughtry two years ago. Probably everyone thought he was safe back then when he wasn't, so he went out fourth place (but went on to sell the most albums of anyone from that year). So America decided that THIS year they wouldn't let the rocker lose! Congrats, David Cook...and America!

David Archuleta wins American Idol, David Cook sells more records

David Archuleta will win American Idol tomorrow night, but David Cook will sell the most records. It will be a virtual repeat of what happened two years ago with Taylor Hicks and Chris Daughtry, with Hicks winning American Idol and Daughtry selling FAR more records (Hicks has sold 702,000 copies of his album, while Daughtry has sold 3,200,000 copies).

Archuleta has a good voice, but the little girls that are his fan base aren't going to buy his album, because Archuleta is NOT a pop singer. He's like a crooning, adult contemporary singer. He's a nice guy, and he has a great voice, but he's not going to appeal to the masses as far as record sales. Plus, he looks like he's about to throw up when he's on stage sometimes, especially when the judges heap praise on him.

David Cook, as opposed to Archuleta, has shown that he can sing a range of songs in different styles. He would appeal to the teenage crowd, as well as older folks. He also has a lot of stage presence.

Cook's album will sell more copies, so that means he'll continue to make more music in the years to come. Archulea? Not so sure. If his album is a pop album, he might sell some records. But the fact is, he never sung ANY songs in a pop style on American Idol, so that makes one think that he can't sing in that style. That means he'll have to sing his adult contemporary style, which is good, but will children want to buy adult contemporary? And will adults buy an "Aw shucks" kid singing adult contemporary?

Company Convenience time again!

I'm off work again! For eight weeks, buddy! And getting paid for it, to boot! Can't beat that with a friggin' STICK!

My favorite since the first episode wins Rock of Love 2

Rock of Love 2 with Bret Michaels ended tonight, and Ambre won...who was my favorite of the girls since the very first episode! As a matter of fact, she was one of the girls eliminated in the first episode, but when one of the girls that Bret had picked to stay decided to quit, he decided to give Ambre a second chance. And she wound up winning the whole thing! Can I pick 'em or what?

DC Comics to start making movies about their super-heroes

DC Comics has finally done it! They've decided to catch up with Marvel Comics and make their super-heroes into blockbuster movies! You see, years ago, DC was the only game in town as far as super-hero movies, whereas Marvel had hardly any, and what few they had, sucked. But for the last few years, Marvel has kicked it into high drive with movies about their super-heroes, whereas DC has been thinking that the only super-heroes they have are Superman and Batman. But not any more!! DC has announced that they will be soon be making solo movies about Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (the Hal Jordan version, mind you), Flash, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Captain Marvel (but they'll have to call it Shazam!), Zatanna, Lobo, Black Lightning, Elongated Man, Firestorm, Nightwing, Booster Gold, the Atom, and many, many more! As a longtime DC fan who has always wanted to see their super-heroes made into movies, all I can say is, it's about time! For more on these cool developments, click here!

I believe in Harvey Dent

Harvey Dent is thinking about running for District Attorney in Gotham City. We all know that crime is rampant in Gotham, and I think that he would be just the right man for the job to clean up the streets! Read about his campaign at IBelieveInHarveyDent.com! The website wants people to send in their pictures and videos supporting Dent in his run for D.A. So Friday I went to Memphis and had my picture taken in front of some famous Memphis landmarks while holding a Dent campain sign. They published my pic, and you can click here to see it!

Let's all help Harvey Dent take back Gotham City!!

Semi-Pro stuff

Dial 1-800-TROPICS. You'll hear a funny message from Will Ferrell about his upcoming basketball movie Semi-Pro. He's trying to sell you season tickets to the ABA team Flint Tropics for the upcoming 1976 season!

Also, at the Grizzlies game Barbra and I went to Friday night, during a time-out, people played a game on the court and the winner won Semi-Pro stuff for their section of the arena. Stuff like trading cards, pom-poms, and a stick-face of Will Ferrell. Pretty coo! (Well, it wasn't our section that got the stuff, so we just went over to that section and scavenged!)

Which is bigger news today: Castro resigning...or HD DVD resigning?

Fidel Castro finally resigned as dictator of Cuba overnight last night. The old coot is just too weak and feeble to run an island anymore. Hopefully this will be the first step (of probably many) to Cuba becoming democratic one of these decades. Hopefully Raul (Fidel's brother who will probably take over) will be coming under pressure worldwide to open the island up, and Fidel quitting can only be a good thing. Maybe one day I'll be able to take a cruise to Cuba, instead of having to bypass it on the way to other islands in the Caribbean. I mean, the last few decades, Cuba would have had money coming out the WAZOO with all the American tourists visiting the island. But no, Fidel had to ruin it for everybody, not just American tourists willing to pay money down there, but the Cuban people who would have reaped the benefits. Instead they're all dirt-ass poor while Fidel's been living the high life. Well, up till now anyway, since he's about to kick over.

As to the other resignation making news today, Toshiba, the folks behind HD DVD, have announced that they're ceasing HD DVD. Which is wonderful news, because the format war between it and Blu-ray Disc was just pathetic. There should have only been one high definiton disc from the start. So when Blu-ray Discs and machines get a little bit cheaper, I'll be ready to go all Blu!

Star Wars event in Memphis? And I get on TheForce.Net for it!

Scott stumbled upon a webpage yesterday about a Star Wars event planned for Memphis for November 7th-9th, 2008. The page is here. So I told TheForce.Net about it, and they posted it, saying that I told them about it! Check out their article about it here!

Another cool bumper sticker

It seems like every time I go on an out-of-town vacation lately I see a cool bumper sticker on a car! Two months ago, on my Gatlinburg-area trip, I saw a bumper sticker that said "Pro-America, Anti-Bush." (Check it out here.) Well, this weekend I went to Huntsville, Alabama, to visit the Space & Rocket Center, and on my way back home, I saw the below bumper sticker...and on a Navy person's car to boot!

Heat suck

Hey, ain't it funny that the Miami Heat have the worst record in the league? That's what Pat Riley gets for forcing Stan Van Gundy to quit two years ago so Riley could take over the coaching job and get the coaching glory when the Heat won the championship that year. And now they've gotten rid of Shaq, which sucks, cause now Shaq is on a good team. It'd be funny if the Suns started sucking now that Shaq is on their team, even if it did make Suns GM and ex-Bull Steve Kerr look bad. But Shaq probably won't be able to bring them down THAT much, though, although I'm sure he'll try. HAHA!!

My birthday on Deal or No Deal (again!)

In my 11/5/06 column, I commented on an episode of Deal or No Deal in which the final two cases in a game were 12 and 23, which are my birthday numbers. (December 23.) Well, here's a picture of a Deal or No Deal home game that also just happens to have my birthday on it! Maybe these are signs that I should apply for the show, eh?

East Tennessee rules! Bush sucks!

I just got back yesterday from my vacation to Sevierville/Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It was the first time I had been there since 1994, so I was ready to go back. And it was awesome! One of the highlights of the trip was the following bumper sticker that I saw on a vehicle while I was there and just had to take a picture of. It describes me to a tee!

Steroid Man Barry Bonds finally indicted

Barry Bonds, baseball's all-time leading home run hitter & all-time leading asshole, was finally indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday for allegedly lying about using steroids. About damn time! This guy has always been a first class jerk, and for the past few years he's made himself look even worse by pumping up with steroids. So he's finally going to start getting what he deserves, especially if he gets 30 years in prison like he should. (Although he probably won't get any, since he's a celebrity.) This is why Mark McGuire, another steroid-using baseball player, kept saying "no comment" a few years ago when he was under oath and was asked if he used steroids.

Yet another comic book movie at #1

Yet another comic book movie leads the pack, as 30 Days of Night opened in first place at the box office this past weekend. Not a movie that would ever I care to see, but nevertheless...comic book movies rule!

My video posted on trekmovie.com!

I've noticed that trekmovie.com (the best Star Trek site on the Web) has been finding and linking to various cool Star Trek videos that are on the Internet. I had a cool video of my own that I wanted them to link to. It is of two back-to-back episodes of Entertainment Tonight from July of 1987, showing one of the first, if not THE first, looks at footage of The Next Generation. This was a full two months before TNG was to premiere.

So I e-mailed trekmovie.com and told them about my video on August 23. They wrote me back and said they loved the video and would link to it on August 31, and sure enough, they did! They put it right there on the front page. Earlier on August 31, before trekmovie.com linked to the video, the video had 133 views, but within a couple of days, there were more than 1,600 views! And as of right now, there are 2,069 views! Pretty awesome if I do say so myself!

And here is the direct link to my trekmovie.com article!

Tom Welling to finally be Superman?!?!?!

I just heard one of the most awesome rumors ever: Tom Welling has been approached to play Superman in the upcoming Justice League movie!! Now THAT would be bad-ass! I always thought he got screwed over a few years ago when Warner Bros. decided to make a new Superman movie. They should have waited until the TV series Smallville ran its course, and then made a Superman movie starring Tom Welling. Now don't get me wrong, Brandon Routh was damn good as Superman. But Welling had played Clark Kent for years and wasn't going to get to wear the Superman costume at all, except maybe for the last scene of the last episode of Smallville. So this news today is totally cool. Hopefully it isn't too good to be true and Welling will be Supes in Justice League.

(And maybe this Justice League movie will FINALLY kick-start DC into making a gazillion movies about ITS superheroes, just like Marvel's been doing for the last few years...)

Teacher (finally) in space!

The Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off about an hour ago with Barbara Morgan on board. Morgan was the backup to who was going to be the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe, in 1986, when McAuliffe died in the Challenger accident. After the accident, NASA told Morgan that she would fly eventually. Well, it took 21 years, but she finally did! Awesome!

Today is the 20th Anniversary of TNT Collectors Hut

20 years ago today, an awesome store in Osceola, Arkansas was opened. Why was it so awesome? Cause it was mine! Mom, Dad, and I opened TNT Collectors Hut on August 1, 1987, after we spent the previous two months getting it ready to open. The store was open for business until the mid-1990s. We've had other stores since then, but this one was the most special, because...it was right next to our house! I worked in it every day the entire time it was open. Now that did get tiresome, especially working every Saturday, but it was a cool place for me and my friends to hang out.

Following are some pics of the outside of the store from shortly after it opened.

Mom and Dad:


Mom and me:

I order you not to buy so many cars!!

The Osceola City Council tried to pass a stupid resolution last week that said that you could only park four cars on your property, or one car per licensed driver, whichever was greater! It was also going to say that you couldn't even park on your own grass! There were various other stupid things in the resolution. How stupid is that crap, telling someone they can't own as many cars as they want? Mary Milton and Gloria Copeland had a petition going around for people to sign who did not want the resolution to pass, so Mary brought it to my house and I gladly signed it. So when it came time for the vote in the City Council, a lot of people showed up to fight the resolution. So many people, in fact, that the Council didn't even vote on the mattter! It just flat out DIED. Bwahahaha!

Star Wars Post Office Adventures

Star Wars and the U.S. Post Office have joined forces this year. There are new Star Wars stamps, and mailboxes made up as R2-D2! There was also a cool big Star Wars display at the post offices that featured R2-D2 and C-3PO back in the spring. My good friend Gary Chipman, who works at Osceola's post office, tried to get me Osceola's display, but he said that the post offices had to destroy all of them. I figure he probably just took it home himself! Ha ha! But I told him that some would escape destruction, and sure enough, I saw one on display at the Hollywood Americana museum in Metropolis, IL last month!

Here I am with some R2-D2 mailboxes last month!

At Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, AR:


At Little Rock National Airport:


Doing my C-3PO impression, and wearing a Star TREK t-shirt, at Texaco in Jackson, MS:

What do the San Antonio Spurs and the Lord of the Rings movies have in common?

I like them both...but they're both boring!! But how can that be, you say? Well, I've always like the Spurs and their players, and I liked the Lord of the Rings movies with their cool fantasy elements. But the Spurs are about to win another championship, something I've known was a sure thing ever since the two Phoenix Suns players got suspended for a game in the second round for coming off the bench after Robert Horry decked Steve Nash intentionally. This championship will be their fourth in nine years, and yet...none of them were back to back! They've never had a dynasty, which requires a team to win at least TWO championships back to back! In the past 20 years (counting this year), there have been seven NBA champions. Four of the seven have either repeated or three-peated. Two of the three teams that didn't repeat were the Pistons and Heat, but they only won one championship apiece (not counting the Pistons of the late 80s-early 90s which of course repeated). But the Spurs have won four out of nine years, and none of them were repeats! So I mean, I'm just tired and bored with seeing them win every other year. But it could be worse! It could be the Lakers or Heat or Knicks winning every other year! And as for the Lord of the Rings movies, I liked them. Except for the hour's worth of extra footage that could've been cut out of each movie because the extra footage dragged down the story and made me sleepy. At least, that was the case with the first two movies. I've never seen the third one. I've heard that it's the best one, but something tells me it has an hour's worth of boring footage too.

Gene Simmons reads Justice League

A couple of weeks ago on Gene Simmons Family Jewels (the episode where he finally reveals his new face after his facelift), he's shown reading a recent issue of Justice League of America! I always knew he was a comic book fan, so it was nice to see him in action!

I'M OFF WORK FOR NINE WEEKS!! OHHH BABY!!!

Today was my last day of work for nine weeks!!! Every May, my job gives me a voluntary layoff called Company Convenience. It lasts between eight and ten weeks. This year it is going to last nine weeks. And I get paid unemployment while I'm off. In other words, I get paid for doing nothing. Pretty dadgum awesome situation, wouldn't you agree?

Latest comic book movie to rule the box office: Spider-Man 3

Spider-Man 3 made $151.1 million on its opening weekend, which was this past weekend. That broke the record for biggest opening weekend for a movie EVER. What's funny is that Spider-Man's actual weekend gross turned out to be higher than Sunday's estimated gross for the weekend, because Spider-Man didn't have as big of a Sunday drop-off as most movies do on Sundays! And oh, this makes yet another comic book movie to dominate the box office...hell, not dominate it, completely DESTROY it!!

I watched it Tuesday night on one of the DIGITAL screens in Memphis! And the movie was friggin' awesome to boot! Bring on Electro and the Lizard! Or whoever the villains might be in Spider-Man 4! Ha ha!

Grizzlies prove they were just faking being so bad this year

The Grizzlies had the worst record in the NBA this year, which gives them the best chance of receiving the #1 draft pick in the lottery next month. Last week, when they lost to Sacramento, it guaranteed them the worst record of the year. At that point, they had three games left. Also at that point, I said that they would win those last three games. And as of just a few minutes ago, they did. Considering that this winning streak was only their second of the year, it may seem surprising to folks, but it's not. Because, y'see, the Grizz aren't as bad as their record shows. Lemme explain. With Gasol injured for the first two months of the season, all the other injuries, the firing of the coach, the replacement coach only being an interim coach, and issues with possible buyers and non-buyers of the team, they were losing a lot of games. When it became clear they were going to be one of the worst teams in the league, they made absolutely sure of it. In my opinion, they didn't try hard to win games, because they wanted the best chance at the #1 draft pick. But once they were guaranteed the worst record and the best chance at the #1 pick, they decided to show the rest of the league that they were just faking being that sucky all this time. And I predicted it before it even happened.

Why did the Grizz not try to win? Because last year they won games down the stretch and got screwed over for it. A flaw in the NBA's playoff system led Memphis to have to play a better team in the first round than they would have if they had lost games down the stretch in the regular season. (I talked about it in my April 23, 2006 column.) And, of course, they were promptly swept out of the first round of the playoffs four games to none. That flaw in the playoffs was fixed by the NBA after the playoffs were over with, but, of course, it was too late for the Grizzlies. So this year, instead of winning games that they possibly could have won down the strecth, the Grizzlies lost them instead. They learned their lesson last year. Because apparently in sports, sometimes you have to lose to win.

So I predict that the Grizzlies will be like the Spurs were a few years ago. The Spurs were a good team in the early 1990s, with David Robinson leading them, and then all of a sudden one season (the '96-'97 season), they had an awful year. Well, that year gave them the #1 draft pick, and they picked Tim Duncan with it. The Spurs would then go on to win three championships with Duncan, with possibly more to come. So since the Grizz have made the playoffs the past three years, and then this year dropped down to the worst record in the league, maybe they'll get the #1 pick and then shoot back up next year and win a championship one day soon! So if it happens, remember, you read it here first! And if it doesn't happen, well, I'll just blame it on Memphis suckin'.

Memphis Grizzlies to leave Memphis after end of season [APRIL FOOL'S JOKE]

The Grizzlies have been suckin' so bad this year that they're going to go to another city! When the season's over with, they're packing up and moving out. Top contenders as to where they'll wind up are Louisville, Oklahoma City, and Los Angeles (yeah, I know, LA already has TWO teams, but they can always use another! I mean, they're LA!) Another possibility is New York. So it looks like Memphis will go back to being a sorry no-pro-sports town and be stuck with the FedExForum bill for years to come. Of course, with the Grizzlies about to end the season as one of the worst teams in the league, if not THE worst, they'll get a high draft pick, possibly the #1 pick. And considering that the Grizz aren't that bad on paper, and they've had a lot of injuries this season, they could conceivably be a pretty good team next year. But another city will reap the rewards of that next year, even though Memphis had to suffer through the current awful year. But according to Grizzlies majority owner Michael Heisley, they have to leave Memphis this year. Says Heisley, "If we stay in Memphis past this year, and we're not out of here before the NBA Draft Lottery happens, we probably won't get a top ten pick. I know that's supposed to be impossible with our worst-in-the-league status, but Memphis would find a way to do it. I mean, look at how we lost LeBron James a few years ago."

So there you have it, folks. Throw away your Grizzlies stuff and start collecing Xplorers and Hounds Dogs merchandise. For more info on this craziness, click here.

TMNT is #1...comic book movies continue to dominate box office

TMNT opened in first place at the box office this past weekend with $24.3 million. TMNT, of course, stands for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Turtles were first created as comic book characters by Mirage Studios in 1984. So with TMNT's first place finish, that means that there has been a comic book movie finish in first place in 5 of the past 6 weekends (TMNT, Ghost Rider twice, and 300 twice). And with Spider-Man 3 and Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer coming soon, 2007 is truly comics' breakout year at the movies!

But where are DC's comic book movies? I'll tell you where: NOWHERE.

Another comic book movie is on top of the box office; this time, it's 300

300, a movie based on a five-issue comic book mini-series by Dark Horse Comics, was the number one movie at the box office this past weekend, bringing in $70.9 million. It was also the biggest opening weekend gross for a movie for the month of March in history. And this happens just a month after Ghost Rider, another comic book movie, broke the record for highest Presidents' Day weekend movie gross ever. Are comics awesome or what? ;-)

Marvel continues movie dominance with Ghost Rider; DC continues suckin'

Ghost Rider debuted at theaters this weekend with an estimated $44.5 million dollars. By tomorrow, it should cross $50 million, which would make it the biggest premiere ever over President's Day weekend. I saw it last night and thought it was cool.

Marvel Comics characters continue to domintate the box office, while DC Comics continues to focus only on Superman and Batman. I've always been a bigger DC fan than Marvel fan, but if DC is going to continue to let Marvel have all the box office glory, then it's their own damn stupid fault. Marvel will continue to soak up all the publicity and money their movies make, while DC continues sitting on their laurels. Pathetic. Poor Martin Nodell, who created Green Lantern for DC years ago, kicked the bucket in December before he could see his creation make it to the silver screen. (Green Lantern is one of the DC properties that's been supposedly "in the planning stages" for years, but never got off the ground.) I mean, the poor ole guy lived to be NINETY-ONE YEARS OLD just to see if his creation would make it to the big screen! I mean, hell, he just couldn't take it any more!

And to think that just a few years ago, DC was the one who had all the movies (albeit only Superman and Batman), and Marvel didn't have jack crap. Boy, how the tables have turned!

UPDATE 2/23/07: Ghost Rider did indeed have the biggest President's Day weekend ever: $52 million. Yay for comic book movies!

Today is Martian Manhunter Day on Smallville!

The Martian Manhunter makes his debut on Smallville tonight! (Well, he appeared in shadow for a few seconds at the end of an episode a few weeks ago, but that almost doesn't count.) He's the latest in a long line of DC Comics superheroes to show up on Smallville. It's awesome that they're showing so many of DC's characters on the show. (As a matter of fact, last week was the "Justice League" episode that showed four different DC heroes! Well, five if you count Clark.) Showing all these cool characters is part of the reason that Smallville is the best show on TV!

Indiana Jones is back! About time!

Indiana Jones is finally coming back! George Lucas and Steven Spielburg have been talking about it for over ten years, but it looks like it is FINALLY on track this time. Lucas said yesterday that it is going to start filming in 2007 and will come out in May 2008. (Which I think is an appropriate time, because the three Star Wars prequels came out at three-year intervals and always in May, and had there been another one, it would have came out in May 2008!) Lucas made the announcement during a break from preparing for his duties as grand marshal of New Year's Day's Rose Parade. (There are going to be people in the parade dressed as Star Wars characters, so that'll be cool.)

Anorexics on Entertainment Tonight Part Two

In my May 23 column, I noted that Entertainment Tonight has stories on anorexics every night. Well, I watched ET tonight for the first time in a long time, and...yep, you guessed it...there was a story about an anorexic on there!! Thankfully, the story was about a good-looking actress on The Sopranos who had gone through anorexia in the past, so we didn't actually have to see her looking all grossed-out and stuff. But in another segment, Delta Burke talked about some eating disorder she's had before, or something. Ooookay...

Gay Night for the Grizzlies

Last night was Gay night for the Grizzlies at the FedExForum! The first 3,000 fans in attendence to the game were give a free Rudy Gay jersey. I had to make sure me and Barbra got there early enough to get our Gay jerseys, and we did, as you can see in the picture! But the line of the night had to be from a dude in the row below us talking to another dude in that row: "Did you not get here early enough to get your Gay shirt, man?"

Democrats sweep the elections...thank the Lord

The Democrats have won the majority in the House of Representatives, will probably win the majority in the Senate, and in my home state of Arkansas, Democrat Mike Beebe destroyed Republican Asa Hutchinson in the polls to win the governor's seat. Nancy Pelosi will probably become Speaker of the House, and in so doing, become the first female to ever do so. (Bet you'll never see a female Republican politician with that job...waitaminit, are there any female Republican politicians?) And then today, President Dubya, seeing that his power was about to go bye-bye, fired the pariah Donald Rumsfeld. The only way things could be better is if President Dubya himself were gone. I know for a fact that in the past two presidential elections Republican voters have been so stressed out, because they thought that they just had to vote for someone who is such a damn IDIOT to be the president, just because he was a Republican. I mean, entire books have been written on how he can't even talk right! And he's the president! I even gave one of those books to my Dad one year for Christmas. But oh well, the bottom line is, God has truly blessed our country this week, and we should all be thankful for that.

UPDATE 11/9/2006: Yesterday Democrat Jim Webb was declared the winner of the Virginia senatorial election by the Associated Press, which means that Democrats have indeed taken over the Senate as well. God is good.

UPDATE 11/12/06: I wasn't for sure until I saw just now, but the elections have also given Democrats a majority in state governorships across the nation: 28 for Democrats, 22 for Republicans. Praise the Lord.

My birthday on Deal or No Deal

On Thursday's episode of Deal or No Deal, the contestant took the deal when there were two cases left to open. Those final two cases were my birthday numbers, 12 and 23! As in December 23rd!

Taliban or Talabani?

I just found out that the president of Iraq is named Talabani!! Doesn't that sound a lot like Taliban?? Damn, they're coming back in Afghanistan and already in charge in Iraq!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!

P.S. I found out his name from last week's episode of Saturday Night Live. When I heard it on there, I looked it up on the internet to make sure the name was real, and it was! It took SNL to educate me about the name of the Iraqi president because whenever news programs talk about Iraq, all they talk about is bombings and killings that happen over there. Oh wait...that IS all that happens over there.

Road sign love

I took this pic yesterday of a graffitied-up road sign close to Sports & Racing in Gosnell. I've seen other graffiti around Gosnell and Blytheville for a while now saying stuff like "I Heart Baby Tracy", but this sign was sprayed sometime in the past four weeks. On the fence next to this sign was sprayed "I Heart (somebody else)," so Tracy must have sprayed that one. 'Twasn't THIS Tracy, though!

Political signs on public property

Are political signs allowed on public property? I noticed a sign to re-elect Dickie Kennemore the mayor of Osceola in front of the city hospital last week. I took these pictures yesterday. Does this mean you can put political signs in front of churches, banks, and schools too? I don't know what the law is on this sort of thing, but I thought it looked strange having a political sign in front of a public building.

I e-mailed the Jonesboro Sun newspaper about it. Maybe they'll do a story about political signs on public property. I'm not holding my breath waiting on them to do it, but as Vision Man would say, it doesn't matter if you succeed or fail, as long as you try your hardest!

UPDATE 10/29/06: Never heard back from the Jonesboro Sun, so I just e-mailed the Blytheville Courier-News newspaper and the CW and NBC TV stations in Memphis about it. Reckon one of them will think it's a good story?

Grizzly time!

It's that time of year again...time for the Grizz to stink it up! Waitaminit...I take that back...they usually do pretty good in the regular season...it's the PLAYOFFS where they stink it up! But this year's gonna be different, right? Ha ha! (At least they got rid of Lorenzen Wright this summer, so that'll mean a few extra wins right there. Maybe even one or two in the playoffs!) Here are me and Barbra Wednesday night at the first home preseason game, where they sucked big time. But hey, it's only the preseason, so it doesn't count! But that new PA announcer they got sucks. Maybe he'll get better.

Superman everywhere at Mississippi State Fair

I was at the Mississippi State Fair all last weekend because my parents have a booth there. Well, that Saturday I noticed that just about everyone had on a Superman shirt except for me!! I was jealous!! Luckily I had brought along a Superman shirt of my own to wear, and so I wore it Sunday! I had to show those folks that they weren't the only ones who could be cool!

Memphis to finally show Smallville in prime time for the first time ever!

Memphis is finally showing Smallville when it's supposed to be shown: Thursdays at 7pm! See, Memphis used to have a UPN station but not a WB station. However, the UPN station also carried The WB's prime time lineup, but it would be shown after UPN's prime time lineup. But now with the merger of UPN and The WB into The CW, Smallville is finally going to be shown in its rightful timeslot!

When it was first announced months ago that UPN and The WB were going to merge, I immediately figured that would mean Smallville would now be on at 7. I just hoped Memphis didn't screw it up somehow. Well, the other day I noticed on my TiVo's program guide that on September 28th at 7pm, when the season premiere of Smallville was supposed to be shown, that there was going to be DIFFERENT programming!! So I e-mailed the program director of Memphis' CW and she told me that Smallville would indeed come on at that time! And she even called the listing service and told them that their data was incorrect...and it was all because of me: Tracy Walters, TV Watchdog!!

The only question now is...since Survivor also comes on Thursdays at 7...which one do I watch first???

LORENZEN WRIGHT IS GONE FROM THE GRIZZLIES!!! WHOOO DOGGIES!!!

The moment I've been waiting on for years finally happened yesterday! Lorenzen Wright signed a contract with the Atlanta Hawks, thus guaranteeing he won't be back on the Grizz this season! HALLELUJAH!!!!!

I'M A MILLIONAIRE AGAIN!!!!!

Just like in my February 28 column, my grandma won the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes again today, and she's gonna give me half of it again! But back then, it was $10,000,000. Today it was just a measly $1,000,000. Oh well, it'll be good enough!

NBA fixes playoff system...a little late for the Grizz, though

The flaw in the NBA's playoff seeding was pretty much corrected Wednesday, so now teams in certain situations at the end of the regular season shouldn't have to purposfully try to lose games in order to get an easier opponent in the first round of the playoffs. Too bad the new rules weren't in effect all along, or maybe the Grizzlies wouldn't have the worst playoff record in NBA history right now!

Aquaman pilot on iTunes

The Aquaman pilot was put on iTunes for $1.99 last week, on the night of July 25th! I was on vacation in Panama City Beach, Florida, last week, so I didn't even know about it until I got back Sunday night. But then I bought it and watched it and it was totally awesome! And, of course, it was the number one video download on iTunes for over a week after it was first released! So everyone get on over to iTunes and buy it right now!!

Muffler Man makes me famous!

I submitted my recent picture with a Muffler Man in West Memphis to roadsideamerica.com and they published it, along with the description I wrote! Check the page out here! And ole Teddy got credit on the picture for taking the picture! (Even though he took the pic with my camera! Ha ha!)

Muffler Man

I've seen before on roadsideamerica.com that around the Fourth of July, a fireworks stand in West Memphis next to Interstate 40 will have a big Muffler Man next to it. I think that I had seen the Muffler Man there before, but Saturday night (while returning from seeing Superman Returns for the second time) I spotted him and had my picture taken with him!

Super Month

June is shaping up to be Super Month! The main reason, of course, is that the first Superman movie in 19 years, Superman Returns, comes out on the 28th. But there are plenty of other Super-happenings this month: there was a two-hour documentary on A&E last night that told Superman's entire history (in comics, movies, TV, and more), there are SEVEN Superman-related DVDs coming out a week from today, and there was the 28th annual Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois, this past weekend! I was there, and it was the fifth year in a row that I attended. Here are me and Barbra at the Superman statue there Saturday.

TedExForum

Here's a pic I made of Ted in front of TedExForum in Memphis!

Dirty candy

Saw this candy at a gas station last month. It's called Rip Rolls and it's 40 INCHES OF FUN!

Prince on American Idol...could Michael be far behind?

I couldn't believe that Prince was on the American Idol finale tonight! He's such a recluse and so shy (even after decades of being in the public eye). So I'm going to say what I've been thinking for a while now: at some point in the next few years, I predict that Michael Jackson will be on an episode of American Idol. And after seeing tonight's show, I figure that it will probably be at the end of a season finale, like Prince tonight. I've thought for a while now that Michael would eventually be on there, but it won't be anytime soon. It'll probably take a few years, to give the public and Michael himself time to get over his trial. Because after all, American Idol is the #1 show on TV and it's been given the go-ahead for several more years already, so it's going to be around for a long time.

And by the way, I'm glad Taylor won tonight. I wanted Chris to win, but since he was voted off two weeks ago, I've been going for Taylor.

Anorexics on Entertainment Tonight Part Two

I turned on Entertainment Tonight tonight to see what they were going to say about the American Idol finale airing tonight, and guess what I saw...another story about that anorexic they were showing yesterday! ARRRRRGGH!!!!

Anorexics on Entertainment Tonight

Why does Entertainment Tonight always have stories about anorexics? I watch the show every once in a while, and just about every time I turn the TV over there, they have a story about some woman that's so damn skinny that you can see her internal organs and I can't even watch the show cause it makes me sick to my stomach!! There's a story on there TONIGHT about some anorexic! Gross!

UPDATE 7:33 PM
Thought I'd include a picture of the anorexic on tonight's show in case yall thought I was exaggerating or something!

Aquaman petition

I was looking for the petition to get the Aquaman show on the air yesterday and I found it! Here it is! I'm signature #703. And I've also found out that only three new shows made it to The CW this fall, and they were all under development at UPN only. None from The WB (which is where Aquaman was) made it. And the woman who made The CW's fall lineup announcement Thursday was the same woman who was developing those shows at UPN. So maybe that had something to do with it too.

Aquaman may be on his way back!

Now the President of Entertainment for The CW is saying that the Aquaman TV show could become a mid-season replacement. All the people bitching and complaining about Aquaman not being given a chance (like me) and the huge positive response to the trailer may be making the network execs reconsider! Arthur Curry hasn't drowned yet...

P.S. KryptonSite.com has actually seen the pilot in its entirety and says that it kicks total ass! Go there are read the review!

Aquaman on TV this fall? Not yet...

The CW decided yesterday not to pick up the Aquaman live-action TV series for this fall!! What kind of crap is that? And then this morning I saw where the trailer for the pilot was on a Warner Bros. server for a little while, but was then taken down. There was also a page put up temporarily on The CW's site that had Aquaman listed and said that it would come on Wednesdays at 8pm! So what gives?? It seems like they're testing people to see if there is any interest for the show. Well, based on the huge buzz the show has gotten the past few months, and the way people are reacting to the news that it wasn't picked up, there is a LOT of interest in the show. Anyway, I watched the trailer...and I can't BELIEVE that the network passed on this show. It just made me plum SICK they passed up on it, cause the trailer is friggin' AWESOME! Check it out here and see for yourself! If enough people complain, maybe it could become a mid-season replacment, or better yet, just go to another network. All I wanna know is...where's the petition for the show to be picked up so I can sign it!!

Grizzlies don't play to lose...they play to WIN!!!

The Grizzlies might have had a chance at home-court advantage and an easier opponent in the first round of the playoffs if they had purposefully lost a few of their games at the end of the season. How can losing in the regular season benefit a team in the playoffs? Well, because there is a FLAW in the NBA's playoff system which will most assuredly be fixed next season. The three division winners in both conferences automatically make the playoffs and are seeded 1, 2, and 3, regardless of their record. Because of this, the third-seeded team in the West with the Grizzlies is the Denver Nuggets, which are ranked #3 simply because they are a division winner, even though they had a worse record than the 4th, 5th, and 6th seeded teams! Which means whoever wound up as the 6th seed would play them. And plus, between two opponents who are playing each other in the playoffs, whoever has a better regular season record, regardless of seeding rank, gets the home-court advantage! But the Grizz showed that they play to WIN, not to LOSE, and they had an 8-1 April, their best record ever going into the playoffs! So instead of playing Denver, the Grizz are going to play the 4th seeded Dallas Mavericks, who are a lot better team than the 3rd seeded Nuggets! Confused yet? Well, it shouldn't be so confusing next year, cause this crap should be straightened out by then. Here are me and Geneva Tuesday, at the last home game of the regular season, a game that if they had lost, might've helped them get an easier opponent in the playoffs. And coincidentally, they were playing the Los Angeles Clippers that night, the team that the Grizzlies were neck-and-neck with at the time for the 5th and 6th spots. But the Grizz WON, and that's what they're all about, buddy!!!

More than one Grizz game for me this month

The Grizz have sucked more than I wanted them too this year, so that contributed to me only going to one game a month so far this season, which is probably the fewest games I've even been to for a season by this point in the season. But this month I'm actually going to two games (not counting playoff games, if they go to the playoffs). Here's a pic of me and Geneva from the first game we went to this month.

I jinxed the Memphis Tigers!

The Memphis Tigers just lost in their Elite Eight game in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. I didn't watch their first three games in the tournament, but I watched this one, so I figured they'd lose this one, and they did! And watching this reminded me of why I watch pro basketball and not college. In college games, it's just kids playing, so they make 10,000 mistakes a game, unlike in the NBA. And also, college has a long, boring 35-second shot clock, whereas the NBA has a lean, mean 24-second shot clock.

Steroid Man's elbow hurts him again because of steroids

I read today on USA Today.com that Steroid Man Barry Bonds was scratched from the lineup for a preseason baseball game today because his left elbow was hurting him again. It's the same elbow that caused him to be on the disabled list for seven weeks in 1999. The new book "Game of Shadows" says that's because the steroids he was taking allowed him to put on muscle too quickly. However, the USA Today article doesn't even mention that the book says that, even though it talks about the book in the same article! USA Today didn't have to state the book's info as fact, they could've just said that the book said that! And I couldn't even find anything at all about Bonds missing the game today on CNN.com! So what are all these people, WUSSIES!?!? Afraid Steroid Man is going to knock down their doors and beat them up?!?!

Six more weeks...

...until I get company convenience! That's the voluntary lay-off I get every summer from my job as a distribution specialist at American Greetings. The lay-off lasts for ten weeks and I get paid unemployment pay. So I get to sit on my butt and do nothing and still get paid! I love my job this time of year...

The Simpsons...LIVE-ACTION!

Check out this live-action Simpsons intro! It's with real folks and real locations! It was made by Sky One in the UK to promote the series. It has to be seen to be believed! (But a word of warning...you'll see Homer's butt crack! I don't remember THAT in the animated version...but I'll check it when I watch the new episode tonight. Maybe I just never paid attention.)

I'M A MILLIONAIRE!!!!!

I'M A MILLIONAIRE!!!!! I told yall I would win!!!!! My grandma just won the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes, and she's gonna give me half of it! WOO HOO!!

I'm about to become a millionaire...

Everyone has about an hour or so to get in my good graces. Because in about that time, my grandma will be winning $10,000,000 in the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes! She had me fill it out and send it in for her last month, and she said that for doing so she would give me half of the money! The winner will be announced during the NBC Nightly News.

By the way, in the envelope that had all the stuff to fill out, there were a bunch of stamps with different names of magazines on them. If you wanted a subscription to them, you put the stamps of the magazines on a form. Well, she didn't want any subscriptions, so it says if you don't want any, to put down a stamp of a mag that you might be interested in. I knew that she wouldn't care to do that either, so I put down what I wanted, which was Playboy. So if she gets a sample issue or two, I'll gladly take them off her hands. (I still haven't told her I did that though, so she'll be wondering where it came from if she gets an issue in the mail...)

Cheney's Got a Gun

Check out this hilarious music video about our blind vice-president. It's called "Cheney's Got a Gun," and it's to the tune of Aerosmith's "Janie's Got a Gun."

King Kong...even longer!!

I read yesterday on The Digital Bits that they may be coming out with an EXTENDED EDITION of King Kong!! You know, the already way-too-long movie that came out in December! Are they nuts?? That movie would have been awesome...if it had been cut down to two hours...but a lot of scenes dragged on like crazy, and made it a big snooze-fest! But I'm not surprised...the director was Peter Jackson, who also directed the three way-too-long, would-have-been-better-at-two-hours-apiece Lord of the Rings movies. That guy is a major idiot. He needs to go back to movie school and learn how to friggin' EDIT.

Survivor...not!

Richard Hatch, the first winner of Survivor, was found guilty yesterday of not paying taxes on the million dollars he won on the show. Uhhhh...did he not think that anyone knew he won a million dollars? It was the highest-rated summer television series in history!! But he's getting what he deserves anyway, because the guy is a first-class jerk. And him being gay, I'm sure he'll be a big hit in prison.

God the Weatherman

David Waters has a religious column in The Commercial Appeal, and he usually seems to know what he's talking about. I especially liked his column this past Sunday, in which he talks about idiotic people who believe that when there are natural disasters and such, that God must be mad at people. Which is a crock of you-know-what. (I alluded to this kind of crap in my November 14th column.) So check it out here.

UPDATE 6/5/06
I did have a link to his article at the word "here" in the last sentence, but The Commercial Appeal apparently can't keep their pages straight or don't have enough money to buy enough space to keep all their articles, cause the article is no longer at the link. Oh waitaminit, the same thing happened with another Commercial Appeal artice I spoke of back in my 9/9/02 column!

Lex Luthor is cool

I've always known that Michael Rosenbaum, the dude that plays Lex Luthor on Smallville, was cool, and this article proves it. He talks about having action figures hanging up in his house and says that his perfect date would be going to Disney World and riding Space Mountain, the Aerosmith ride, and the Twilight Zone ride! Hey, that sounds like me!

Memphis Grizzlies: #1 Defense in the NBA

The Grizzlies have the best defense in the NBA, holding their opponents to 84.83 points per game. There's a wide margin before the next best defensive team: the Houston Rockets, who hold their opponents to 88.52 points per game. Plus, the Rockets suck. This means that the Grizzlies are kicking ass this year! Finally!

Dubya's approval rating hits all-time low of 37% . . . and here I thought he was divinely appointed

President Dubya's approval rating is now at an all-time low: 37%. Serves the idiot (and I do mean IDIOT) right for screwing up the country royally. Of course, anybody who courts religious extremists who try to make voters think that GOD wants you to vote a certain way is pretty sorry. I mean, Dubya's father didn't court religious extremists like that, and he was a Republican too! Dubya may be a Christian, but that doesn't mean he can run the country effectively. I'm a Christian too, but that doesn't mean I can run the country. I probably could, but that's beside the point. (I know I could do a better job than Dubya. Hell, my cat could do a better job than Dubya.) And hey, you know how some religious extrememists (like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, who of course back Dubya) like to say that when bad things happen to people they deserve it because God is mad at them? I've always thought that was a bunch of crap, but now I'm starting to wonder...could these bad things that are happening to Dubya be because...God is mad at him? Hmmmmmm... ;-)

Pizza Inn lawlessness

There's been a lotta law-breakin' going on at the Pizza Inn in West Memphis, AR, lately! Earlier this year I snapped this picture of pizza boxes being set ON THE FLOOR while they were being made up:



And then this past Wednesday, I snapped this picture on the parking lot when I got there:



And to boot, the Pizza Inn delivery car was parked with its rear end facing to the left of this cop car (but the delivery car left before I took this picture), and a second cop car was parked on the other side of the delivery car, like the two cops were trying to block him in! And before the delivery guy left, he said somthing about how the cop in this picture was parked, and I told him that that's why I made sure that I parked right in front of him, in a REGULAR PARKING SPACE, so that the cop would have to back up to get out.

Sulu's a Lulu!

It was revealed Friday that George Takei, the actor who played Captain Sulu on Star Trek, is gay! Man! You just never know, do ya?

Aquaman on Smallville: how cool was that!!

Aquaman was on Smallville last week, and I just watched it. And they actually got it right! It was Aquaman as he is straight from the comics! Unlike when "The Flash" was on Smallville last year (when they used Kid Flash's alter ego's name from the comics instead of one of the THREE Flashes names), this was done right. And I also saw where many records were broken for The WB across many different demographics with the Aquaman episode. So maybe Warner Bros. will take a friggin' HINT and start making movies and TV shows about OTHER super heroes DC Comics has instead of just friggin' Superman and Batman!!

Back to the moon in 2018!!!

All I can say is...'BOUT DAMN TIME!! The official announcement was made by NASA today, but the news was leaked out last week. Hmmmm...I'll be 44 years old in most of 2018. And I've never seen a moon landing in my life. THAT'S HOW FRIGGIN' LONG IT'S BEEN SINCE WE LAST WENT TO THE MOON!!! The last moon landing was in 1972, and I was born in 1973. Oh well...we're back on track now! Finally!

Revenge of the Sith: DVD-ONLY

Just found out that ROTS will be released only on DVD! Not on VHS! It's the first major release to go DVD-only. 'Bout time! Death to VHS!!

Kaysar vs. Eric...and Eric loses like the chump he is

America voted Kaysar back into the Big Brother 6 house over Eric by an overwhelming 82% majority!! Yayyy!!! There were over 5 million votes cast, so that means Kaysar got 4.1 million votes!! America voted Kaysar, an Iraqi-born American, back into the house over Eric, an American firefighter. See, that proves that Americans aren't prejudiced...we judge people based on their personality, not by their ethnicity! Because even though Kaysar was an Iraqi-born American, he was awesome, as opposed to Eric, who was an American firefighter, but was a son of a bitch.

Space Shuttle landed today!

Wish it had landed when I wasn't working. If it had landed Sunday like originally planned, I could have watched it on TV. Same for the launch: if it had launched when it was originally planned, I could have watched it on TV. Oh well, I'll catch it next time. I'm just glad that they're going again!

Space Shuttle back to space!!!

Yayyy!!! 'Bout time! :-)

Scotty gets beamed up

James Doohan, who played Captain Montgomery Scott on Star Trek, died today. And did you know that the famous phrase "Beam me up, Scotty" was never uttered in Star Trek? I remember when the phrase first became popular in the 1980s and thinking, "They never said that in Star Trek!" The two times that came the closest to using that phrase was in an episode of The Animated Adventures, when Captain Kirk said, "Beam us up, Scotty," and in the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home when Admiral Kirk said, "Scotty, beam me up." (But actually, when Star Trek IV was released in 1986, "Beam me up, Scotty" was already a well-known catchphrase, so you really can't count it. They were probably just cashing in on the phrase's popularity.)

Also, Doohan dies on the 36th anniversary of the first manned Moon landing. And of course, that Moon landing fueled the world's interest in space travel, which in turn helped cause the just-cancelled Star Trek TV series to become very popular in rerun syndication in the years following.

The REAL fireworks for the Fourth of July...in space!

Comet Tempel 1 just got rammed by a spaceship! And the resulting explosion was awesome! I didn't think the explosion would be as big as it was, but it was HUGE! There are lots of awesome pics coming in right now. So I think I'll go back to watching them!

AFI screws Star Wars again

AFI had a list of the top movie quotes of all time on a TV show tonight. "May the Force Be With You," which should have been in the top 3, was number 8, beaten by such winners as "I'm ready for my close-up," and "I could've been a contender." I knew that MTFBWY wouldn't be as high as it should have been, because AFI screwed Star Wars in the Top 50 Movie Heroes list it had two years ago, when it had Han Solo and Obi-Wan Kenobi in the top 50 heroes list, but not Luke Skywalker!! (I wrote about it quite a bit in my June 3, 2003 column.) So, bottom line...AFI sucks.

Shaq-daddy is GONE, HAHAHA!!!

I was in Miami on April 24 when Shaq played his first playoff game ever with the Heat (not at the arena, I was leaving from there on a cruise ship), and I was watching on TV tonight as his fat ass was ELIMINATED from the playoffs, HAHAHA!!! I was glad to see the Heat lose because Alonzo Mourning was on there, too. (I like it when a bunch of players that I can't stand get on the same team.) During the playoffs, every time Alonzo did anything remotely resembling a good play, he'd act like he was bad, or beat his chest like a damn gorilla, when he's really nothing but a big baby.

Revenge of the Sith: Third Viewing!

Saw Episode III for the third time last night. I was going to see it at the digital theater that I saw it at last week, but when I got to Memphis, the next showing at that theater was going to be at 10:30pm, so I wound up going to the other digital theater in Memphis, which was going to show it at 10pm. So now I've hit up both digitized theaters in Memphis!

Revenge of the Sith: Second Viewing!

Just got back a short while ago from seeing ROTS for the second time! And it was just as awe-inspiring as the first time I saw it! (And THIS time I made sure I saw it in digital!)

Clicks in Memphis sucks

Here's another bad experience we had when we went to see Revenge of the Sith that ALSO had nothing to do with the movie: we got kicked out of Clicks in Memphis before the movie Wednesday night! Clicks is a place next to the theater where you can shoot pool and throw darts and stuff. We went to it three years ago before the midnight premiere of Episode II. But we were kicked out when we got in there this time because Scott had on a sleeveless shirt!! Has anybody ever heard of such?? I guess all they want is preppie people in their establishment.

Revenge of the Sith: First Viewing!

I'm a little late with this post, but anyway...I saw Revenge of the Sith for the first time at midnight Thursday morning! I saw it at the Malco Majestic in Memphis, which is where I saw the midnight premieres of Episodes I and II, as well. Needless to say, it was only just about the best movie I've ever seen!

There was a bad part of the experience, though, but it had nothing to do with the movie itself: I thought I was going to see it in digital, but didn't! Three years ago, the Majestic had just put in digital screens in time for the premiere of Episode II, and so I saw Episode II in digital there all three times that I watched the movie that summer. So, of course, one would only ASSUME that those screens would still be there at that theater, right? I mean, you can't go BACKWARDS, right? And plus, theForce.net's website said that there were two digital theaters in Memphis, the Majestic and another one. starwars.com didn't have listings of digital theaters yet. Well anyway, while Scott, Jon, and I watched Episode III Thursday, we each noticed a different thing that told us that the movie WASN'T DIGITAL! I noticed that there were cracks and pops occasionally during the movie. Those are imperfections that bug you while you're watching FILM, not DIGITAL! Jon noticed that there were holes somewhere on screen that are used to notify when to change reels, or something. And Scott noticed that before the movie there was no video saying we were about to watch a digital presentation, and that the sound didn't sound as good! (Still pretty good, but not THX.) So anyway, we found out that the screens had been moved to ANOTHER theather in Memphis! How pitiful is that? So I got home, and FINALLY starwars.com had posted a list of digital theaters, showing Memphis with two, and neither was the Majestic.

So anyway, I'll be going back to see Revenge of the Sith soon, and THIS time...as well as all the REST of the times I go see it this summer...you can be damn sure I'll be seeing it DIGITIZED!!! Oh well, at least this way I'll know if any extra scenes were added to the digital version, since I will have already seen it on film first.

Yoda's a dirty old man!

The Revenge of the Sith toys went on sale yesterday, so I decided that I wanted to buy an action figure. So I looked over the figures, and the one that I found to buy was...Yoda with Crotch-grabbing Action!

The shroud of the dark side is about to fall...off of the ROTS toys!

The Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith toys go on sale April 2nd. That means they go on sale at midnight tonight! So anyway, I was at the Blytheville Wal-Mart tonight and I saw the "shroud of the dark side" covering the toys:


But hey, a bunch of unfolded garbage bags weren't going to stop me, so I peeked behind both sides. I'm just glad WAL-MART SECURITY didn't jump me! HAHAHA!!! But even if I had swiped some toys and tried to purchase them, the cash register would have said that I couldn't buy them yet, right?