Monday, July 31, 2006

Have you ever wanted to put people, things, even abstract concepts "On Notice," ala Stephen Colbert?

Now you can!

Here's my crack at it...

Posted @ 9:11 PM

---

---

Saturday, July 29, 2006

As part of their promotional effort for Who Wants to be a Superhero? (watched it last night - not bad for summer cotton candy-like fare), SciFi has set up a make-your-own-superhero widget, based on the popular Hero Machine program. I did one on each platform, and here's what I came up with... behold Greywing and Captain Flash!



If I had to describe them, I guess Greywing would be pretty much a Nightwing clone, while Captain Flash is clearly a mash-up of... well, Captain Marvel and The Flash.

Now, quickly! Someone write some fanfic about them!

Posted @ 1:40 PM

---

---

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Oh. My. God! This is HUGE: Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence has been tapped to write and direct not one, but two new Fletch movies. To make things even better, he wants Scrubs star Zach Braff to take on the role of Irwin M. Fletcher.

I was excited years ago when Kevin Smith was attached to make the movie, with Jason Lee slated to play Fletch. I would have loved to have seen where they could have taken the series, and was quite disappointed that things never came together.

But this... this is better. Much better.

In fact, I can't think of a better duo to take on the project. Lawrence professes a love for the original film as well as the books, but he's smart and talented enough to take what's gone before and move things into new directions. Braff has the right look, demeanor, and ineffable "something" to do Fletch right and make it his own.

Time to go see if I can still get some rubber gloves on a lease, with an option to buy...

Posted @ 1:29 PM

---

---

Friday, July 21, 2006

I'm off for a long weekend jaunt with friends this morning. It's my first getaway in quite awhile that isn't connected to a holiday or a convention. It promises to be much fun.

Before I scurry off, I wanted to pass on something I found yesterday. Mike Nelson of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame has a new venture sure to please fans of that late, great show. RiffTrax is a podcast service wherein Mike riffs on bad movies, just like he did back on MST3K. The differences are you rent or buy the movies yourself, and (more importantly) the movies are big name turkeys they never could have afforded to do on the old basic cable puppet show. And Mike has chosen the perfect big-budget turd for his inaugural RiffTrax outing: Road House.

Now I just have to make myself a Shadowrama cutout to paste onto my TV and I'm all set.

Posted @ 7:57 AM

---

---

Friday, July 14, 2006

I've got three belated shout-outs to give before I miss the window to do so.

First, sincere gratitude to my buddy Dan for his help last weekend reconfiguring the home wireless network and fixing the virus protection software I'd somehow screwed up.

And speaking of Dan, I want to thank him and his lovely wife Jen for having me over for the 4th of July. I think this was the fourth year I've spent the nation's birthday with them, and I always have a blast.

Finally, big kudos to tzikeh for walking me through the setup and tutorial on a couple new pieces of software. Couldn't have done it without you, kid.

---

I bought my first fantasy football mag this week. Is Bastille Day too early to start setting my player rankings? I think not.

---

Apropos of nothing, I've been logging time with a couple of pop culture blogs that I've stumbled across in the last couple of weeks: USA Today's Pop Candy and SFGate's The Bastard Machine. I don't know if these are brief infatuations or the beginnings of something more. We'll have to see how it all breaks out.

Posted @ 3:14 PM

---

---

The cast for the third Shrek movie has been announced, and according to Cinescape it includes "an elite, ninja-like strike force of fairy-tale princesses" which Cameron Diaz's Princess Fiona will lead.

And what a strike force it is. Here's your fearsome foursome:

Snow White - Amy Poehler
Rapunzel - Maya Rudolph
Sleeping Beauty - Cheri Oteri
Cinderella - Amy Sedaris

That's some solid casting. I'd swap Tina Fey for Cheri Oteri, but that's my only quibble.

I am so enamored of the phrase "an elite, ninja-like strike force of fairy-tale princesses" that I'm making it my new sig.

Posted @ 1:24 PM

---

---

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Five years.

Today is five years since I launched the House of Cheer. The day almost slipped right by me, but I was looking something up in the archives earlier this week and came across the first anniversary post, where I listed out some numbers on the first 365 days of the site. Inspired by that, I've spent a little time over the last couple of days compiling stats.

Here's where things stand at the HoC as we reach the five year mark:

• Posts: 582


• Page hits: 177,749


• Words: 82,452


• Paragraphs: 2,445


• Most posts in a month: 18 (tie - 12/01 & 1/03)


• Fewest posts in a month: 1 (3/06)


• Busiest month: 3/06 (5,235 requests for pages)


• Busiest week: 2/19/06 (1,457 requests for pages)

The pace of posting has slowed down a lot as the years have gone on, but I'm still here and I still love my little corner of the 'Net. If I were a betting man, I'd put money on a tenth anniversary post come July 8th, 2011.

Posted @ 10:34 AM

---

---

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Been a while, but it's time for a good old-fashioned Clearing of the Brain Buffer!

---

I can't see the Man in the Moon. I just never had that "aha" moment where I saw whatever it is people are supposed to see in the full moon. And at this point, I take a perverse kind of pride in not being able to see it. If the recognition ever comes on its own, fine, but I wouldn't want the pattern pointed out to me.

---

The weather's unseasonable cool today, and it's got me thinking football. Three weeks until training camps open, one month until the Hall of Fame game. Time to start planning for my fantasy leagues...

---

I saw Superman Returns on Friday. I'm still processing it, which is not unusual for me when I've got a movie that's so hyped up in my mind. As the days have passed, I like it more than I did on first viewing it. I'll have to go see it at least once more before I can give any kind of full opinion.

---

I'm looking forward to this year's other Superman movie, Hollywoodland, about the death of 50s Man of Steel George Reeves (played by Ben Affleck). I first mentioned this film almost four years ago. At that time, it was entitled Truth, Justice, and the American Way, Kyle MacLachlan was up for the Reeves part, and it was projected for a late '03 release. It looks promising, and I've been fascinated by the mystery surround Reeves' death for as long as I can remember, so I'll definitely be taking this one in come September.

---

For the first time in several years, I will not be attending Shore Leave this weekend. Other travel plans on the part of myself and my usual partner-in-con Hutch, coupled with a slate of media guests I'm mostly lukewarm on, made this the right call. It figures - I actually had a room reserved in the con hotel this time...

---

We welcome a new player to the blog list on your right/my left (yes, I'm looking out the screen at you - stop doing that): Mental Flotsam, Mental Jetsam, the soapbox of my buddy Casey. I've been meaning to add him to my public blog pantheon for a few weeks now, so here he is. Casey's a talented guy, full of wry observations. We met doing Assassins this spring, and his Sam Byck brought down the house. Give him a visit, won't you?

Posted @ 6:17 PM

---

---

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

It's the Fourth again, time to reflect on what this great country has been, who we are, and what we must do to live up to the ideals of the Revolution.

That, and eat hot dogs. Gotta eat hot dogs today.

As usual, I link here to the Declaration of Independence. This year, in two forms: the document itself and a staged reading of it from a couple years back.

Happy Independence Day!

Posted @ 8:27 AM

---

---