Yar Maties!

Well I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End on the weekend and honestly I enjoyed it. Was it a great movie? No way, not at all. Did it look good? Yes it did. Did it have so many poorly or not at all explained double crosses? It sure as shit did. Honestly I'm still not sure who swerved who and when. But no matter if you've seen the other two you might as well go see this one, if for no other reason than pirate monkeys and pirate midgets. Is there a better combination?

Anyway The Filthy Critic has a rather amusing review (as are all of his reviews) of the film here if you're so inclined to check it out. If you liked that one you might want to check out his archives to see what Filthy thought about your favourite flick.

I'm running short on time here so I'll sign off with this last bit; it looks like the people at the Silver Snail (former place of employment of Toy Goddess Supreme, and former Space TV celebrity, Sarrah Young (scroll way down for her brief bio)) on lovely Queen Street West in beautiful downtown Toronto have created another amazing window display, this time using Muppets characters to recreate the Battle of Helm's Deep from the Lord of the Rings and aptly entitling it Ham's Deep. Here are some pictures if you care to check it out.

What do you think? How does it stack up to the Battle of Helm's Deep made out of candy that I posted a while back?

Anyway I'm outta here.

Love is what I got

It was on this very day in 1996 that Bradley Nowell, front man for the band Sublime, was found dead of a heroin overdose in a room at the Ocean View Motel in San Francisco. This fact along with a few good catchy radio friendly songs have guaranteed Sublime's popularity for a long time to come, they still get regular play on Winnipeg's Best Rock and I'm sure that's true for other rock stations around the globe.

By the way today is Towel Day, and event created to celebrate the life of author Douglas Adams, best know for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (believe me the book was waaaaaaaaaay better than the Hollywood movie (although I did enjoy it, the great literal humour of the novel wasn't/couldn't be translated to the screen), even if it did have Zooey Deschanel in it, do yourself a favour and read it), and above all remember Don't Panic.

And now for something completely different; here's a sneek peek at the new Optimus Prime action figure from the good people over at RetroCrush. I have to agree that the figure looks good, not too far gone from the classic Optimus that I remember . . . will I buy any of the Transformers toys that are going to be re-released for a movie tie in? Probably not, I'm looking forward to the movie, I liked the comic and cartoon and the animated movie, but was never a Transformers collector . . . now Gobots, there's something that I might buy re-releases for, if only because they'll cost about $3 a piece if they hold true to the awesomeness of the originals.

Look it's a car that transforms into a car with the doors and hood open . .. . oooooooooooh aaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Anyway back to the Transformers movie, seems that Chevy has themselves some serious movie tie ins and not just having a 5th Generation Camaro featured in the film as Autobot Bumblebee, originally a VW Beetle, (I believe that a Ford Mustang is going to be a Decepticon, I think the one that used to be a tank, shit can't remember his name) there's also the Chevrolet Autobot Headquarters where you can create your own Autobot.

I'll sign off for today with one for the comic book geeks, here's a very good picture of the final/Mark III Iron Man armour suit from the upcoming movie, scheduled for a May 2, 2008 debut. Looks pretty bad ass eh?

And. I. Am. Outta. Here.

Just a quick one this morning . . .

As I'm flying to Kasabonika Lake for work on Wasaya Airlines this morning. I don't know why but the formatting went all wonky half way through my post yesterday, ah well let's hope it's not how things are going to be regular wise eh?

I'm sure some of you are not happy in your chosen professions, I mean what job is perfect? But in case you are thinking about snagging work under the golden arches here's some interview advice straight from Ronald McDonald himself to help you land that sweet McJob.

I told it was going to be short so I'll sign off with Bill Biggart's Final Exposures; Biggart was a photo-journalist who died under the rubble of the Twin Towers on 9/11, this website consists of the pictures that were on his cameras when they uncovered him. Pretty amazing really, something else that I'm sharing with you that I'm sure you'll want to share.

Anyway I'm off to Kas, don't miss me too hard.

Yaarrrrrrrrrrrrr Maties!

Did ye know that today be the 306th anniversary of the hanging execution than none other than Captain William Kidd in jolly olde London town? Although Kidd might have been more a Privateer than Pirate he was executed anyway and after the first attempt failed, the rope snapped, Kidd was brought right back to the gallows and the process repeated. After his death, Kidd's body was slathered in tar, chained up, and suspended over the River Thames where it remained for years as an example to others considering a life of piracy.

The dubious Captain Kidd is also strongly linked to the Oak Island Treasure down at the bottom of the Money Pit on Oak Island in Nova Scotia. All interesting stuff for sure, but will there ever be an answer as to what's at the bottom of the pit or who put it there? And one has to wonder how has been that with advanced techmology people haven't been able to get down the bottom of the pit that would have been dug by hand over 300 years ago? Just saying.

Anyway in something that's not pirate related at all, or at least not that I can tell, here are 15 Useless or Even Dangerous Eyesight Myths; all I can say is thank Gord for Myth #6, especially since it's still National Masturbation Month.

Here's a pretty spectacular website (okay the website isn't spectacular at all, but the subject matter is) entitled Running the Numbers An American Self-Portrait which features a series of photos by artist Chris Jordan that looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. The pictures are pretty amazing, the sheer scale of them will blow your mind, I know it did mine. I'm sure that website is something that you'll want to share with others; I know I did.

Here's one for the wrasslin' fans out there; it seems that a few weekends ago at a sports convention in Edison, NJ The Ultimate Warrior and the Iron Sheik were there signing autographs. When Warrior saw Sheik, he demanded that Sheik leave, saying that Sheik had talked badly about him in the past. Sheik got upset and acted as if he was going to go after Warrior, but Warrior called security and the situation was resolved (Warrior got the Sheik removed by security) here's video footage of the altercation.

Admire the car wreck beauty of an old tough guy who can barely walk and wears a fanny pack (not that fanny for the Brits out there) and Zubaz pants out in public and a rambling self obsessed madman have a shouting match in the middle of a group of fans. My research (okay Googling) has turned up that Zubaz Pants are no longer made but baggy pants in many different patterns from Otomix or Crazee Wear are still available.

Here's a quote from the person who posted the video on line:

"This happened 5/6/07 at a New Jersey sports show. When I was in line to meet the Warrior, the Sheik approached him and tried to shake his hand. The Warrior refused and said, "I'm not shaking a hypocrite's hand. You went around telling people I was on drugs. Get out of my face". At this point, I pulled my trusty digital camera out of my pocket and filmed the encounter starting at that point. The Sheik goes nuts, even decking one of the promoters! I heard that Sheik attacked him again as he was attempting to hide behind a table. Security tried to confiscate my camera as I was leaving, but I headed out the door before the police came."

Well that's enough from the washed up wrasslin' set; now onto something else of interest. It's no secret that I'm a big fan of cover songs, love 'em I do, but the fine people over at RetroCrush have compiled what they believe to be the 100 Worst Cover Songs Ever. As always the RetroCrush articles are top shelf and this one has links to listen to many of the songs, although I have to wonder how complete this list is or how honestly bad these songs are. I have to ask because I don't recall seeing any Cheryl Crow covers on the list.

Now don't get me wrong I realise Cheryl Crow is a talented, and rather attractive, lady but her covers are the worst I can think of in recent memory; if you don't believe me re-watch the Johnny Cash tribute show that aired after his death and suffer through Cheryl warbling her way through a June Carter song, recall her flat out butchery of Guns N Roses' Sweet Child O' Mine or weak attempt at Led Zeppelin's D'Yer Mak'er from Encomium: A Tribute to Led Zeppelin album. But it's all relative isn't it? I'm sure there are several people who'd disagree with me . . . you know now I'm thinking that I might have seen Cheryl Crow live once in Winnipeg at one of the all day outside rock concerts, I wasn't there to see her, but I'm thinking she was on one of the bills, possibly an Edgefest? at the Assiniboia Downs with Hole headlining or at the Bomber's Stadium? . . . aahhhhh my rock and roll lifestyle; can anyone clear this one up for me?

And finally in the interest of cyber safety & security I will leave you with this compilation of the Ten Most Common Passwords; as the site says if you see yours on the list you may want to consider changing ASAP.

Until next time.

Excuse me I have to go to tend to the moose herd

Whether we're Canadian or not I'm sure we're all aware of the common misconceptions and stereotypes about being from Canada, thanks to you Bob & Doug MacKenzie . . . although I have found that most Canadians enjoy the misconceptions and stereotypes, after all what's so bad about being thought of as the big friendly, albeit cold, neighbour to the North of the USA who does the world's peace keeping all while driving snowmobiles or riding on a moose in a plaid 'bush' jacket while wearing a tuque on and with a two-four clutched in mittened hands?

I think it's fair to say that the one to get a Canadian's goat while abroad is to accuse them of being an American. It's happened to in England & Australia; although in Australia I politely said "Actually no I'm Canadian, you calling me an American is like me calling you a Kiwi." They got it, no offense to New Zealand, in fact after watching Grindhouse I'm all fanboy for Zoe Bell, the greatest hottest female Kiwi stunt person I know of it . . . although I don't think I'd let her drive my car, it's just how they feel over there.

Anyway I don't think that Canadians should take any of it too seriously, I mean how can we when Canadian MP for Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont Mike Lake has called for Bigfoot to be protected under Canada's species at risk act. Seriously, I think . . . you can read about it here if you don't believe me. This my friends is our tax dollars at work, but it's funny you got to admit . . . unless he was serious about it, then that's funny for a completely different reason.

I bring this because I rediscovered an article about Canadian misconceptions, both about ourselves and other countries, you can check it out here. It's about as good as anything else linked from the MSN page that comes up after I log out of Hotmail.

But what does it really matter? After the world is a small place, or so we keep hearing. If you're curious as to how the Earth stacks up in size to other celestial bodies you can go to this website here where they do just that. I thought it was cool, but I'm a geek.

The world might be small, but it's still hard to get around to see all of it; out of the 25 places/things that the Times Online have listed as the 25 Wonders of the World I've only seen one of them, but I am baffled how the barrier reef at Belize made the list and Australia's Great Barrier Reef didn't, granted I haven't been to Belize, but I can't imagine it being better than what I saw in Oz.

This one keeps going on and on don't it? Anyway only a couple more things to post for today; Saturday night I saw Spiderman 3 at the Sunset Drive In outside of lovely Shelbyville, Ontario. I've heard mixed reviews of the film and a lot people didn't care for it, but I have to honestly say that I enjoyed it all the way through, and the 'strut' scene was awesome (if you haven't seen the movie you'll know what I'm talking about as soon as it pops up on screen); in fact it made me want to be a better jerk.

And what about the Heroes season finale last night? I have to say that I liked it, but it didn't really feel like an end to me, and I'm a little disappointed with it . . . but not enough to give up on the show, I'm just thinking that there has to be a better way to stop an exploding man than exploding him in the upper atmosphere and was thinking that there'd be more of a showdown or battle at the end, but hey I didn't write it and I am eager to know who is worse than The Boogeyman.

No matter I'll be back in the fall for more Heroes action, and in the mean time maybe I'll bide my time with the gear from Heroes Webstore; and you can already pre-order the Season 1 DVD's.

And today I will leave you with my new favourite condiment, Bick's Hot Pepper Relish, you should try some, it's got some nice flavour to it. That's it, I'm outta here.

I'm Batman

I'm sure you've heard by now, but there's a new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, slated for a July 18, 2008 (hmmm might have to travel to the city for that one) release with Christian Bale returning to reprise his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman who will in this film face off against his greatest enemy, The Joker, being played by Heath Ledger.

The fine folks over at Ain't It Cool News have put up a short write up with a photo (supposedly the first on line and defo the first that I've seen) of Ledger's Joker. The write up and pic are here and the pic itself is here. I think he looks pretty awesome (in fact it's now my new Windows Wallpaper), good and scary and I think that bodes well for another dark Batman flick, which it should be when entitled the Dark Knight, don't you think?

In some non-Batman related news, did you know that May is National Masturbation Month? Neither did I until I read this article here; bet you had no idea you were being part of a national movement when you were fapping away, did you? Apparently May 7 was National Masturbation Day, I guess it missed that one . . . well I can honestly say that I didn't know was celebrating a holiday. Also as part of NMM the Centre for Sex & Culture in San Francisco (where else?) is hosting a masturbate-a-thon to raise money for its sex education programs.

And just in case you need some inspirational material to help you with the remainder of NMM here are some nice black and white photos of Rebecca Romijn shot for a La Perla advertisement.

In case NMM isn't your style but you're more into candy & star wars, and I know some of you are, here's your chance to combine the two rather nicely with this nice instructional tutorial on how to make your own Carbonite Han Solo in chocolate.

With summer on its way and the May 2-4 pretty much done gas prices are climbing everywhere, in fact regular is as high as $1.28 per litre here in town (in fact according to Ontario Gas Prices Sioux Lookout has the 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th most expensive gas in the province, although I know this not to be true because gas is a lot more expensive (in some cases 50 cents a litre more) in some of the remote fly in reserves north of Sioux Lookout), or at least it was yesterday, anyway everyone is pissing and moaning about the price gasoline now, and there's no better way to garner political support than to say that you will do something about or that something should be done about it.

Here's an article that comes by way of CTV about the high price of gasoline and a study that was carried out that says that Canadians are being gouged by as much 27 cents per litre at the pump and that something needs to be done about it.

Personally I believe that the price of gasoline is as high as it is because we keep paying for it; if we could reduce usage, buy less then the price should fall, but I don't see anyone driving any less, I know I haven't changed my driving habits and I have two vehicles each equipped with a nice small block Chevy V-8, because well there's no replacement for displacement. I don't think that not buying gasoline on one particular day or from one particular chain of gas bars will make any difference, sorry folks. If I don't fill up today, I'll do it tomorrow and if I don't buy gas from Petro, I'll buy it from Esso.

One thing I will bitch about is the cost of heating fuel, it's too high and my house is too big and not energy efficient enough so I use a fair bit of the stuff in the winter. Ah well what can you do eh?

Anyway enough pissing and moaning about the price of gas, what next the weather (which by the way is shite over here)? Here's something a whole lot cooler; it's no secret that I like to read and books often trade hands between my friends who read, but here's that taken to a whole new level, Book Crossing. I first heard about this from a friend's blog a while ago, and although I haven't played yet, I loves the idea.

Basically with this site you register a book on the website that you've read, then record the registration number in the book with other information about what is going and what the site/program are about, then 'release' the book somewhere, put the where and when on the website and the idea is someone finds the book, logs it back in, reads and then releases it into the wild again. I think it's a pretty cool idea, if for no other reason than you get to see where the books you release end up.

As of typing this there are 99 books in the wild in Winnipeg, 13 in Thunder Bay and zero in Sioux Lookout.

And don't forget to watch the season finale of Heroes tonight, gotta see how they wrap it all up and explain everything.

I'll sign off today with a cool YouTube video; someone has taken the time to edit together a video entitled 100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers, where basically they put together 100 quotes from movies each with a number in them in count down from 100 - 1. I thought it was cool and well worth the nine plus minutes it took to watch this. I can't imagine the amount of work that went into making this video . . . imagine the time put into watching movies just to get the count down list, let alone splicing all the clips together.

And I'm told I have too much time on my hands. Until next time.

Oh wait, one last thing, I'm using my new slow cooker for the first time today and am looking for good slow cooker recipes, send me your favourites if you have any. Especially if you have one for a good slow cooker curry.

Your Empire Needs You!

Man these are most definitely the best Star Wars t-shirts ever. You know you want to order some. Since we're rocking it Star Wars style, how about this website with free printable paper cut out models of your favourite Star Wars and Star Trek ships . . . but wait there's more, act now and get a bonus DeLorean model.

I've got to post this link for the newest Transformers movie trailer on line; man it looks good, hopefully it's got a bit of a story to back it the visuals. I have to say that the robots are still too complicated looking, the comic book/cartoon incarnations looked better to me, but maybe that's because it's what I'm used to? Either way I am looking forward to this film but I don't know that I'll be able to catch it on its July 4 release date.

Now from geek movies to geek TV; it seems that NBC is disappointed that the super terrific awesome show Heroes lost viewers during its six week layoff this season, so they've come up with a solution to the problem. Do you think it's as simple as running the whole season with out interruption?

No way, this article here says that NBC's answer to this delimna is to run a six week Heroes: Origins mini-series. I'll watch it, but shit don't you think my solution would have been easier and cheaper? I mean start the season late, end it early or a combination of the two . . . or hell if you're going to make a six episode mini-series based on the show, why not make the season six episodes longer?

I dunno, I'm no TV exec that's for sure, but I do have 30 years of TV viewing under my belt and I'd like to think I'm a little media savvy . . . a little, okay I'm no Marshall McLuhan but I haven't strapped on a blue cape and tried to fly off my roof either.

Since we're on a Heroes tangent here's a good interview with none other than Hiro Nakamura himself, Mr. Masi Oka.

From geek TV to another of my passions, cars. I regularly let people know that Miatas are girls' cars, many don't believe because they've seen guys drive them, but here's someone else who believes the same thing and took the time to put together a list of the top five girl cars. I don't totally agree with this list, but I do like its intent.

Personally, I think the Miata should be higher on the list, I think the only way you could get girlier than it is to paint your new VW Beetle pink with daisies . . . and sure, keep the Mustang on there, after all it was long regarded as a 'secretary's car' by car enthusiasts and Ford themselves (don't believe me? Read this or try googling 'Mustang Secretary's Car'), sorry Mustang guys, it's true. Wanna know what makes that worse? That was from a time when all secretaries were ladies, a little harder to feel tough now, eh?

Okay granted I drive a Camaro and of course that's a car that's long associated with mullets and greasy Ginos, not a perfect reputation by any stretch . . . but I can live with it. Hell I even a copy of song called 'Camaro Mullet Love' kicking around here somewhere along with the Dead Milkmen's 'Bitchin' Camaro'.

I know I just plugged it yesterday, but here's another article on the Bob & Doug McKenzie Two-Four Anniversary Special. Don't be a hoser and make sure you watch it, eh?

And I will sign off today with this totally awesome photo. I don't know the back story or anything, but if you care to make one up I'd love to read it . . . especially if it involves a sweet IROC or two.

It's been a long time comin'

It's been a good long while since I've posted anything on here, so I figured I best get back at it. I guess everyone is wondering what I've been up to since I've been so neglectful of this site . . . . well I've been to Kingfisher Lake & Kasabonika Lake for work, had a new window motor put in my car, went to Winnipeg to see Kataklysm, Unearth, DevilDriver & Dimmu Borgir (Unearth & DevilDriver were awesome, Kataklysm all right and Dimmu Borgir (one Norway's premiere black metal bands) was bunk, we walked out on them they were the headliners) at the Walker or should I say Burton Cummings Theatre, winning a new BBQ last weekend at a social (who says drinking doesn't pay?) and celebrating my second Smashaversary last night down at the Legion.

I don't normally use this forum as a soapbox but I wanted to draw your attention to this important petition that I recently signed: "Save the Sons of Butcher!"

I really think this is an important cause, and I'd like to encourage you to add your signature, too. It's free and takes less than a minute of your time. Thanks Buds.

In case you aren't familiar with the Sons of Butcher, it's a Canadian cartoon show about a three piece party/cock rock band from Steeltown, Ontario. It's some funny shit, I saw them play in Thunder Bay in the fall while they were out on their "Touring the Canada" tour; in fact they were filming from the shows across Canada and the show they made from the tour airs on Teletoon this weekend. You can click this link to get a short promo video with times and dates and rocking and what not.

Speaking of TV specials that air this weekend, don't miss Bob & Doug McKenzie's Two-four Anniversary Special and the airing of their hit film Strange Brew on the CBC Sunday night, you hosers. How can you not watch this? Bob & Doug are Canadian icons, and are probably the two people who are most responsible for shaping what most of the world thinks Canadians are really like . . . okay it might be stretching it a bit, but who hasn't been drinking beer, wearing a tuque while wearing plaid? I know I've done it, and I'll do it again so if you don't like it, just take off eh!

Those of you who are Bruce Campbell fans probably already know about this but there is a Bubba Ho-Tep prequel, Bubba Nosferatu and the Curse of the She-Vampires, being released sometime in 2008. This film finds Elvis (Campbell) shooting a film in Louisiana when he runs afoul of a coven of she-vampires . . . personally I can't wait for this movie to come out, I thought the first one was fantastic. It's not high cinema by any stretch but it's classic Campbell baby, yeah.

In case you haven't seen it yet, here's Bruce's latest Old Spice commerical; in this one he lounges Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf (a great song in its own right) up for a bevy of swinging beauties. It's almost enough to make me an Old Spice man.

Well I think that's enough for today, I should go and get something productive done with my days off, don't you think?