June 25, 2009 – A Celebrity Day To Remember

Author: Stephen Gerding June 25th, 2009 No Comments »

June 25, 2009

Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson are dead, Jeff Goldblum is alive and Johnny Depp’s a big tipper. WOW.

General, Movie/TV, Music, The News

David Carradine, Dead At 72

Author: Stephen Gerding June 4th, 2009 1 Comment »

carradine.jpgThe star of “Kung Fu” and “Kill Bill,” David Carradine, was found dead at some time on Wednesday, in a hotel room in Bangcok.

Lest anyone think he was doing something untoward over there, the star was filming a new movie, “Stretch.”

There are not a lot of details available at this time, but according to Carradine’s manager, it’s believed that the actor died of natural causes.

UPDATE: Aw, man – sounds like the manager was just trying to spin things before the horrible truth came out. So sad…

Movie/TV, The News

Marilyn Chambers Dies At Age 56

Author: Stephen Gerding April 13th, 2009 1 Comment »

greendoor.jpgOne of the most famous porno actresses of all times has passed away – Marilyn Chambers died at age 56 in her California home. Apparently she was getting set to co-star with Ron Jeremy in an off-Broadway remake of “Deep Throat,” which I can only imagine would have been one of the most bizarre stage plays ever produced for the mass audience. I remember learning about Chambers back in the late 80s through an interview in GQ, I believe, and I seem to recall reading an autobiography by her, but I may be mistaken. At this point in time, the news is reporting that she died of natural causes, and hopefully that will remain the case oncee the coroner’s report comes in.

Movie/TV, The News

C’mon – “Watchmen” Isn’t THAT Bad…

Author: Stephen Gerding April 6th, 2009 No Comments »

Wow.

Police say about 10 patrons were in an auditorium at Regal Cinemas watching the movie “Watchmen.” About midway through the film some of the moviegoers told the manager they heard a “popping” noise like a gunshot. A 24-year-old man was found in the rear of the auditorium with a gunshot wound to the head.

Comics, Movie/TV, The News

Stay Classy, CNN

Author: Stephen Gerding March 13th, 2009 No Comments »

Seriously (or should that be “SRSLY”?), was this the best photo you could find of Anna Nicole for your lead story today? I know she was “The trainwreck that America loved to watch,” but man, WTF?

cnn_annanicole.jpg
General, The News

Winnah And Still Champeen…Jason Vorheeeeeees!

Author: Stephen Gerding February 16th, 2009 No Comments »

Lil' JasonI guess folks want a break from the horrors of the economy and are looking to our patron saint of slashers for help. The new – and totally fun looking – “Friday the Thirteenth” beat the hell out of pre-release estimates over the weekend and pulled in over $42 million. Not too shabby, and it doesn’t even count any extra cash it may pull in today, what with it being a holiday Monday and all.

With $42.2 million, the biggest opening gross thus far in 2009, “Friday the 13th” easily won the record-breaking Presidents Day weekend box office race, beating out Valentine’s Day favorites “Confessions of a Shopaholic” and “He’s Just Not That Into You,” as well as solid holdovers “Taken” and “Coraline.” (All totals listed here are according to early three-day estimates from Media by Numbers; rough figures for the four-day holiday weekend will be out tomorrow.)

That $42.2 million sum is the top first-weekend figure for any movie in the nearly 30-year-old “Friday the 13th” series — including the 2003 mashup, Freddy vs. Jason, which premiered with $36.4 million. In fact, the original “Friday the 13th” movie, from 1980, grossed just $39.7 million during its entire run, not adjusted for inflation.

In addition, this marks the best bow ever for a horror remake, besting “The Grudge’s” $39.1 million debut gross. And it arrives despite a weak B- CinemaScore review from an audience that skewed male.

Comics, Movie/TV, The News

The Mac Turns 25

Author: Stephen Gerding January 23rd, 2009 No Comments »

lego_happy_mac.jpgOh yeah – this’ll help the whole Cult of Mac image!

For graphic designers like Zoë Korstvedt, now a Los Angeles creative director, the evolving Mac, with each added feature, was ripe with ah-ha moments.

To tinker with a piece, play with the text, “to visualize on your computer was just insane,” she said. “My colleagues and I wonder how we did it [their jobs] before.”

No wonder, then, that when Korstvedt, 44, married her first husband in 1989, she used half of their wedding money to buy her first home computer: a Mac SE/30, for which she forked over extra bucks for an upgrade to a whopping 8 megabytes of RAM. Nothing compared to the 12 gigs she now has. “I was styling,” she said with a laugh.

Jeremy Mehrle, 30, of the St. Louis, Missouri, area is too young to know a world without Macs. This MacAddict began hoarding and tinkering with tossed-out computers, and then he discovered eBay. Today, the motion graphics designer’s 1,400 square-foot basement is a museum to Apple computers, all-white and in gallery-style with about 80 fully-functioning machines on display.

“Some people think it’s really cool. … Others say ‘It’s Jeremy’s thing, it’s a little weird, whatever,’” he said. “I think if I had stacks everywhere, and you couldn’t move in my house, people would be worried.”

What’s Mehrle’s hobby, however, became a career for Dan Foust, 38, of Bloomington, Illinois. “Danapplemacman,” as he’s known on eBay, makes a living out of buying, and when necessary resuscitating, these computers before hawking them online to customers/collectors in places as far-flung as Italy and Australia.

So what would people pay for an original Macintosh?

“A complete boxed system?,” he said. “I can’t put a price on that.”

General, The News, Toys, WebCrack

Japanese Watchmen Trailer

Author: Stephen Gerding January 7th, 2009 No Comments »

God bless the internet for breaking down international barriers, especially when it comes to getting foreign movie trailers online. Here’s the very Nixony Japanese trailer for “Watchmen.”

Comics, Movie/TV, The News