Gotta LOVE Superman!

I've been collecting Superman related stuff for quite a few years now. Thought I'd show off a few of the things I've acquired. And brag on a couple of the newest purchases too. Check it out. Enjoy!

The top of the bookshelf in my office...



And a couple of links to pics of the latest additions.

http://www.dccomics.com/media/products/3200_a_full.jpg
>http://www.dccomics.com/media/products/3126_a_full.jpg

Logo Notions

I'm a logo designer, I've learned to live with it. one of the things that stimulates me, is reading about logo design, studying it, immersing myself in it, bathing in it. Okay, I get carried away, but since this blog is all about me, I'm gonna post the things that interest and inspire me. Jeff Fisher's Logo Notions column at Creative Latitude is one of those things that inspires me. Jeff is my neighbor to the North, I'm proud to call him a friend, though we've never actually met in person. He's a solid guy, with a solid reputation in the industry. He's also recently written and published a great new book, The Savvy Designer's Guide To Success, specifically tailored to graphic designers, to aid them in getting the most out of their careers. It's a great read, with tons of useful information. I highly recommend it, whether you're a graphic design student or a seasoned design veteran.

Click on the image below to be directed to Logo Notions.

RETRO...RETRO...RETRO!

I don't want this blog to become all about the next great site I come across, but I really liked this one! No build up, just check it out.
As always, click on the image to be taken to the website.

So...addicted to reality shows?

Then you're gonna love this site. It categorizes curent shows, cancelled and previous shows, reality show chat boards, reality show news, casting calls, and a links page to other reality show sites. Definitely a must for reality TV fans.

Click on the image below to be directed to the site.

Enjoy!

How Did We Ever Survive Our Own Childhoods?

How true this is...


How Did We Ever Survive Our Own Childhoods?
--- By Devin Silloway

According to today's ubiquitous child advocates, self-serving regulators and 2 bazillion published so-called child development experts, those of us who grew up in the late 60s and then 70s, probably shouldn't have survived to experience high school in the 80s. Yet somehow, most of us are parents now. So how can this be?!

As infants, our baby cribs were covered in lead-based paint, there were no childproof lids on anything and we were always made to sleep on our stomachs. Our strollers didn't have any brakes and our booster seats were a wobbly pile of Sears catalogs and phone books. Formula was thought to be superior to mother's milk and car seats, if we had them at all, were purely ornamental.

As toddlers, we roamed around freely in our homes that had no outlet covers, baby gates or cabinet latches. In fact, 'childproof' anything had yet to be invented as prescription pill bottles were as easy to open as a box of Tic-Tacs. Alas, we were carted around in cars with no seat belts, anti-lock brakes or air bags and riding around with our heads out of the window on a hot day, was always a special treat.

As kids, we would leave home in the morning and play outside completely unsupervised all day long; dangerously skating on frozen ponds, building tree houses high in the air and blazing trails through poison ivy fields. As long as we were back home by dark, no one ever thought to check in with us. 'Digital leashes' or pagers and cell phones, weren't even on the drawing board back then.

We used to spend hours building go-carts out of used lawnmower parts only to bomb down the hill without a helmet and rudely discover that we'd forgotten about a thing called brakes. We fell out of trees, fell off our bikes, fell on the pavement, got cut, got stitches, broke bones and teeth... and there were no lawsuits from any of these accidents. They were, after all 'accidents'. No one was to blame... Remember accidents?

Sure, we were violent and politically incorrect by playing games like Smear the Queer, Kick the Can and the most deadly of all games, Dodge Ball. But we also made up countless games ourselves and the only one that required batteries was Flashlight Tag. We were particularly reckless at birthday parties, where we were willingly blindfolded as we ran with sharp objects or wielded clubs to try to win Pin the Tail on the Donkey or crack open the Piñata. Heck, we ate Play-Doh, modeling clay and ear wax and although we were told it would in fact happen, our faces never froze from crossing our eyes.

We all drank water from the same garden hose and not from designer plastic bottles. We ate Ding-Dongs, Wonder bread with real butter, eggs cooked in the left-over bacon fat and gulped down sugar cordials called Kool-Aid; yet we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. Quite simply, frozen Eggo Waffles, SpaghettiOs, Hamburger Helper and Creamsicles represented our 4 basic food groups. And although we shared one Bomb Pop, Devil Dog or cherry Lifesaver with the entire neighborhood, no one ever got sick and died.

And our most prized possession, besides the toy that fell out of the cereal box earlier that morning, was not our latest Gameboy game, DVD or laptop. It was our banana-seat or 10-speed bike. We did not have an Xbox, 501 cable channels, DVD players in our family mini-vans (a.k.a. station wagon) or Internet homework services. Nope, we had friends. We went outside and found them. We rode our bikes, roller skated or walked to their houses and stood in their front yards and yelled for them to come out to play... or simply opened their front doors and walked inside.

And despite, or perhaps because of all this, our generation has produced some of the most outstanding risk-takers, problem solvers and innovators ever. The past 20 years has seen an explosion of advancement and new ideas. So why?! Because we learned how to make the most of what we were given and exercised our bodies and imaginations daily. Our parents were wise enough to grant us unabashed freedom while tasking us with accountable responsibility; the chance to succeed or to fall on our faces, while learning from both. And indeed, we did just that.

From the website: Do You Remember?

THIS GUY ROCKS!

Okay, I'm admittedly a bit of a comics geek. But that aside, I thought I'd share this project with you, and a link to the Alex Ross website where you can view alot of his previous work. This guy's artwork is amazing...check it out for yourself. Click on the image to be taken to the official site.

The project: Justice.

The Justice League against the Legion of Doom premiering August 17th

“These last several years, I’ve done these solo stories with the individual heroes where there was nothing fantastic in their storylines beyond themselves,” Ross explains. “Here, you’re getting the whole enchilada—the Justice League going up against their greatest villains, the Legion of Doom.”

Remember the Legion of Doom from the Superfriends cartoon??? Sweet!

PACMAN turns 25. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

From MSNBC.com
Pac-Man turns 25, chomp chomping away
Venerable video game still popular

The Associated Press
Updated: 8:48 p.m. ET June 14, 2005

For a video game, Pac-Man is getting downright old. The ghost-wary hero with an insatiable appetite for dots turns 25 this month.

From the early 1980s "Pac-Mania" to today's endless sequels and rip-offs, the original master of maze management remains a bright yellow circle on the cultural radar.

But there was more to Pac-Man's broad appeal than eating dots and dodging on-screen archrivals Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde.

"This was the first time a player took on a persona in the game. Instead of controlling inanimate objects like tanks, paddles and missile bases, players now controlled a `living' creature," says Leonard Herman, author of "Phoenix: The Rise and Fall of Videogames." "It was something that people could identify, like a hero."

It all began in Japan, when Toru Iwatani, a young designer at Namco, caught inspiration from a pizza that was missing a slice. Puck-Man, as it was originally called, was born. Because of obvious similarities to a certain four-letter profanity, "Puck" became "Pac" when it debuted in the U.S. in 1980.

Its success spawned a romantic interest (Ms. Pac-Man), a child (Junior Pac-Man), a cartoon show and hundreds of licensed products. The phenomenon even reached the pop music charts when "Pac-Man Fever" by Buckner & Garcia drove us all crazy in 1982.

Billy Williams, the first and only person known to play a perfect game of Pac-Man (he racked up a score of 3,333,360 after clearing all 256 levels in more than six hours in 1999, according to video game record keepers Twin Galaxies) says Pac's popularity was in its nonviolent simplicity.

"The fact that it's cute, it's almost like a hero running around the board from bad guys. It's not an appeal based on violence," the 39-year-old from Hollywood, Fla., said. "Whether it was an 80-year-old lady or a kid, everyone could adapt to the Pac-Man world."


Billions of quarters later, Pac-Man's influence continues.

As part of a final project for a class in New York University's Interactive Telecommunications graduate program last year, students with cell phones and Wi-Fi Internet connections mimicked the game, tracking their movements on a grid spanning several city blocks.

They called this analog re-enactment, where four people dressed as ghosts searched for Pac-Man on the streets around New York's Washington Square Park, Pac-Manhattan.

"We never had anyone clear the entire board," said Frank Lantz, a game designer who taught the course.

Namco, which can't offer an exact date for Pac-Man's birth, sold 293,822 of the arcade machines between 1980 and '87. It shows no signs of giving up on the franchise.

The company has several new games this year, including "Pac-Mania 3D," "Pac-Man World 3," Pac-Pix" and "Pac-Man Pinball." It even began making a special 25th anniversary edition of the old arcade machine.

"People say, ‘Who buys Pac-Man?' It's one of the few games where the answer is, ‘Everyone,'" said Scott Rubin, general manager of Namco America.

Herman said Pac-Man's place in video game history is forever secure, saying: "It was a milestone of video game history."

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2005 MSNBC.com

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8218674/

FILM CLICHES

“Villans will always explain their plan, in its entirety, to the hero before leaving him in an easily escapable situation with an incredibly incompetent guard, or no guard at all.”

“In movies and television, Crime Scene Investigators don't just do the forensics, they question suspects and solve entire crimes FOR the DA.”

“Men don't seem to show signs of pain when receiving brutal beatings, but do when women try to clean the wounds.”

Recently came across this interesting web site which lists a plethora of “film cliches.” Funny stuff! Click on the image below to be directed immediately to the site.

POSTSECRET: Have you SEEN this?

It's like a trainwreck, you just can't look away. The owner of this blog encourages people to submit a postcard with their secret. Be warned, not always for the faint of heart. But definitely interesting. Click on the image to check it out for yourself.

Heh, nice blogger template.

HOWie whaaaa...?

HOWiezine.

What is a HOWiezine? From the website:

“Howiezine is a book project that HOW forum members, also known as HOWies, have been doing. There is a theme and participants create a page based on their interpretation of that theme. You can use any medium you want. Paint and scan, Photoshop, video stills, whatever. Both sides of your page or pages must have artwork on them so there will be no blank pages. You can do a 2-page spread if you want, as long as there is artwork on the reverse side of each page.”

HOWiezine 3, the third installment, was the first time I'd been involved with the project. I'd had to bow out from HOwiezine 2 at the last minute because of a grueling moving endeavor. The signups for the first HOWiezine came and went before I'd even heard about the project.

The theme for the 3rd HOWiezine, was “Black & White.” I've posted my two page entry below, click on the image to see a larger view.

I THINK I WAS BORN IN THE WRONG DECADE!

Here's something most people don't know about me, I LOVE Old Time Radio Programs! I started listening to them when I was just a kid, fiddling with the AM radio dial until I found something intriguing to listen to as I tried to fall asleep at an early bedtime. The innocence and humor! The mystery and adventure! Yes I was hooked early on. Of course, I grew up in the 70's and 80's, so what I was listening to were either rebroadcasts of earlier shows, or the CBS Radio Mystery Theater which aired during that time and emulated greatly those older broadcasts. Regardless, I was hooked, I can still remember the stories from so many of those old programs. Stories you “saw” in your head, not on any TV or movie screen. Over the years, I've collected a huge assortment of programs. First on audio tape, later on CD or CD-R. I've found that I love to travel with a stack of Old Time Radio Cd's on hand, the time just flies by on those long road trips! I also listen alot while I work, I find that it's stimulating to listen while in that creative groove. Just check out my work on BadDesignKills.com and tell me my little “killer” doesn't lend alot of it's origins to an afternoon of listening to The Shadow! I've recently come across a great website database that lists several great links to listen to and download old time radio programs for free. And I thought I'd share. if you're at all interested, click on the image below to be taken directly to the website...Have fun!

From the back of a Cereal Box!

I've enjoyed the Imaginary World Link listed in my favorites for quite some time. I've never, however, noticed before the great collection of cereal box backs on the site. I've posted a few below. ENJOY! And check out that site, it's awesome!

The Imaginary World

American Gothic - Goth Chic!

.

Goth chic
'American Gothic' has become a cultural icon. But why? And what is it really about?
By David Mehegan, Globe Staff | May 21, 2005

CAMBRIDGE -- It's the most familiar American painting, even more than Emanuel Leuztze's ''Washington Crossing the Delaware" or Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington. It's instantly recognizable.

This year, Grant Wood's ''American Gothic" turns 75, and in his forthcoming book of the same name, Harvard historian Steven Biel tells its history and raises questions so simple that no one seems to have asked them before: What does this literal icon mean to America, and why is it the most parodied image since the Mona Lisa?

There are no simple answers, because the image has been interpreted in various ways by various people -- with anger, celebration, satire, even horror -- for 75 years. ''It is randomly adapted to almost anything now," said Biel, director of Harvard's program in history and literature, ''but if you look at it and try to get beyond the blandness that comes from having seen it so many times, it can be unsettling."

Biel's 1996 book, ''Down With the Old Canoe," was a similar treatment -- in that case of the various cultural understandings of the Titanic disaster. ''I seem to be attracted to things that have been flattened, reduced to cliché, over time," he said, ''and to recovering some of the richness of their meaning."

In advertisements for corn flakes, Saks Fifth Avenue, Paul Newman's organic produce, and even colleges, in political cartoons or television promotions (Paris Hilton's ''The Simple Life"), we continually see versions of the famous image of a woman and dour man holding a pitchfork, in front of a house with a Gothic window. Many of us, as a joke, have struck that pose for a camera, holding a rake, a broom, or a snow shovel. But what is the joke? That we consider ourselves heartlanders, or just the opposite? Or are we poking fun at the idea of a heartland? Or are we merely imitating a famous painting?

The story begins with a mystery. No one knows what Grant Wood, an Iowa painter with European training, was thinking in 1930 when he put together his sister, Nan Wood Graham, his Cedar Rapids dentist, Byron H. McKeeby, and a lonely little house in Eldon, Iowa. (Built in 1881, the house is owned by the state historical society.) Each element was modeled separately (Graham and McKeeby never stood in front of the house), then combined in Wood's mind and painting.

In later years, when the work was famous, Wood gave different explanations. It was merely a composition of forms, such as ''Whistler's Mother." The couple were a married farm family. Or they were father and daughter. Later still, he said that the man was a local banker or a businessman who liked to dress up in farmer duds at home. They were ''basically solid and good people," or they were ''prim" and ''self-righteous." But there is no record of his thinking before or during the painting's creation.

Its fame was a fluke. Wood entered it in the Art Institute of Chicago's annual painting contest, where it was dismissed as cloying. But a museum trustee implored the judges to reconsider. They did and gave it the third-place bronze medal, with a $300 prize. It became part of the museum's collection, where it remains. But fame rushed in with a reproduction in the Chicago Evening Post in October 1930, followed by appearances in rotogravure sections nationwide, including in Boston, New York, and eventually Cedar Rapids.

When Iowa farmers saw the painting, they were outraged, seeing it as another lampoon of small-town America, the sort of sneering at the ''booboisie" famously practiced by H.L. Mencken. Many critics, including an admiring Gertrude Stein, also assumed it was a satire. But Wood, stung by his neighbors' anger, called himself ''a loyal Iowan" who would never make fun of his state's people.

As times changed, so did understandings of the painting. In the Depression, some critics admired it as a celebration of authentic values, akin to the works funded by the Federal Arts Project. During World War II, some saw the farmer and his wife or daughter as symbols of triumphal strength. ''The Germans may today slay a thousand Danes," an Illinois pamphleteer wrote in 1944, ''but the man with the pitchfork knows that . . . he will have hay to pitch when the cows come home."

In the 1960s and since, critics have offered various understandings of ''American Gothic." One pointed out that ''gothic" also means horrifying, that dark and shameful deeds might lie behind the subjects' faces and veiled window. Robert Hughes wrote that Wood was obviously a deeply closeted homosexual, while Hilton Kramer attacked the work as kitsch that has no place in the canon of great 20th-century painting. John Seery saw ''Oedipal, generational, incestual" themes.

The image appeared in Meredith Willson's ''The Music Man," but the age of parody really got going in the late 1960s, when Nan Wood Graham (Grant had died in 1942) sued Johnny Carson and Playboy magazine for defamation. Carson had held up an image showing the man in bathing trunks and the woman in a bikini, while Playboy had showed her, of course, bare-breasted. Graham settled out of court but lost a similar 1988 suit against Hustler magazine. She died in 1990, and by then the flood of parodies was unstoppable.

''American Gothic" is fixed in the nation's collective brain, but perhaps mainly as parody. As an experiment, Biel showed ''American Gothic" to 59 Harvard sophomores and asked them to name the title and painter. Most of them recognized it, but only 31 knew the title, and only five could name the painter.

Uses of the image often stretch far beyond the original scene. ''There was a billboard I used to pass every day on Massachusetts Avenue in North Cambridge," Biel said. ''It showed two college kids advertising Quincy College in the 'American Gothic' pose. Maybe somebody can tell me what that has to do with Quincy College. There are parodies that use it in thoughtful ways, but it also tends to get used in an automatic, 'Oh well, everybody will recognize this' fashion." (A spokeswoman for Quincy College said the billboard promoted the fine arts department.)

''American Gothic" may work so well as parody because it's a kind of broad template. It shows middle-age, middle-class white people in the Midwest, apparently a family, before their middling house (neither imposing nor a hovel), an odd splice of agrarian and suburban elements, half home and half church. It may be that ''American Gothic" is the archetypal theme that we crave to vary. Possibly the earliest variation was Gordon Parks's 1942 photograph of Ella Watson, an African-American charwoman in Washington, holding a broom in front of an American flag.

Growing up in suburban Cleveland, Biel, 44, says he was immersed in television and popular culture, and is clearly sensitive to cultural imagery. His book, which will be published June 6, has authoritative analyses of ''American Gothic" in the 1960s sitcoms ''Beverly Hillbillies" and ''Green Acres." In addition to a large framed print of ''American Gothic," Biel's Harvard office is full of parody items, including a flip-book in which the painting gradually morphs into Edvard Munch's ''The Scream." He turns on his laptop computer to show the 1963 Country Corn Flakes ad, in which the painting's familiar duo sings, amid clucking chickens, ''It won't wilt/ when you pour on milk!"

Like ''The Scream," ''American Gothic" could not work as parody if the original did not have power of its own. Biel is not an art critic, and he hesitated to comment on the painting, apart from the myriad understandings others have had. But when pressed to do so, he gazed up at it over his desk and mused, ''It's haunting -- creepy in a lot of ways. Look at those faces. They're disturbing. Why isn't she looking at us? He is -- why isn't she? What does he want, peering into our souls? He is holding a pitchfork, but there's no dirt on it. Is he posing with it because this is Sunday afternoon and this is one of the tools of his trade? Or is there something -- more sinister?"

David Mehegan can be reached at mehegan@globe.com.

The Boston Globe

FREE KATIE!!!

Okay, I just thought this was hilarious, not that I don't agree with their opinions. Click on the image to go straight to the website to check it out yourself. Buy a t-shirt! Too funny!

THE REBIRTH OF COOL HAS ARRIVED

My buddy Keith clued me into this site today, check it out. Does that take you back to your childhood, OR WHAT?? Click on the image to be taken directly to the site.



When you get there, be sure to click on the history link and check out the video clips. Too cool for school!

I am what I am...(apologies to Popeye!)

Came across this ad today in a magazine, was impressed by how well it captured what I'd tried to say in my profile. Kinda sums it up I'd say...



If you can't read the text it says, “I try to believe like I believed when I was five...when your heart tells you everything you need to know.” -Lucy Liu

You can see the ad, download screensavers and more at RBK.com.

Design Catch Phrases

My buddy Von posted this on his blogsite Art Backwash. Loved it and thought it bore repeating. So, with his permission...


Design Catch Phrases
Over the past 18 years in this industry I've heard and experienced a lot of things design related. And as any good designer does I've learned to deal with most of them in a fun sarcastic way of course. The following is a brief collection of catch phrases that have evolved over time, some inspired by specific co-workers or ones gleaned from a conversation and elaborated on. They are fun design related quips you can start to use in your own circle of influence. Think of it as the 'Verbal Advantage' for designers. If you piss someone off and get fired though it's not my fault so use at your own risk.

You can't polish a turd!: If the concept or design is bad to begin with then no amount of revisions or repurposing will improve it. (My room mate in art school was fond of this saying and so am I.)

FRANKENSTEINING: The process of collecting graphic parts from different design options and compiling them into one new option. What you end up with is a design solution worthy of a mob carrying torches and pitch forks and not good design. (Inspired by weasel marketing people. Big surprise huh?)




Craptacular!: An easy one word critique used to relay your dislike of the work being presented, while still sounding up beat about it. (Inspired by art meeting that catered to the lowest common denominator.)

Serial Design Killers: What you start calling the marketing department when they keep shooting down every original idea or design? (See the pattern yet?)

The client may be King but they're not the Art Director: Listen to your client, take into consideration all their input, weigh the options, study the details, know the target audience and then if necessary ignore all of it and design what you think will work best.





Design-O-Saur: A designer who refuses to embrace digital design methods and trends and is constantly referring to the good old days of colored marker comps and border tape.

Have a good design catch phrase? Post in the comments and I'll add it to this list.

Art Backwash

Beautiful Downtown Burban...uhhh...Roseburg!

Thought I might share a few recent photos Michelle and I took in the downtown metropolis that is Roseburg, Oregon. I love retro signage and the downtown area is very old school. I love it!

Raisins may help fight cavities

Here's something you didn't know before...


Raisins may help fight cavities
Study: Phytochemicalscan suppress oral bacteria

Reuters
Updated: 4:06 p.m. ET June 8, 2005


WASHINGTON - They may be sweet and sticky but raisins contain compounds that suppress bacteria responsible for cavities and gum disease, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

While the researchers have not shown that people who eat raisins have healthier mouths, they identified five compounds known as phytochemicals in raisins that can be beneficial for teeth and gums.

“Raisins are perceived as sweet and sticky and any food that contains sugar and is sticky is assumed to cause cavities,” Christine Wu of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry said in a statement.

“But our study suggests the contrary. Phytochemicals in raisins may benefit oral health by fighting bacteria that cause cavities and gum disease,” said Wu, whose work was funded by the California Raisin Marketing Board.

“Foods that are sticky do not necessarily cause tooth decay; it is mainly the added sugar (sucrose) that contributes to the problem.”

Wu’s team found five compounds in Thompson seedless raisins that might help make teeth and gums healthier -- oleanolic acid, oleanolic aldehyde, betulin, betulinic acid and 5-(hydroxymethyl)-2-furfural.

All are phytochemicals -- antioxidants found in plants, Wu told a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Atlanta.

Oleanolic acid slowed growth of a bacteria that causes cavities and another that causes periodontal disease. The acid also stopped bacteria from sticking to surfaces, which prevents them from forming plaque.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
© 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8146778/

Summer Movie Preview

A few movies I'll be looking forward to this Summer...

June 15- Batman Begins
Explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight's emergence as a force for good in Gotham. Christian Bale stars as Bruce Wayne/Batman; Michael Caine as his trusted butler Alfred; Gary Oldman as Lieutenant James Gordon, a detective on the Gotham police force; Katie Holmes as a childhood friend of Wayne's; Liam Neeson as Wayne's mentor, Henri Ducard; Ken Watanabe as the villainous Ra's Al Ghul; and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, a former board member and sidelined employee of Wayne Enterprises.
www.batmanbegins.com


June 29- War Of The Worlds
Next summer, the earth goes to war. From Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures comes the motion picture event of the year: Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, starring international superstar Tom Cruise. A contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells’s seminal classic, the sci-fi adventure thriller reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it.
www.waroftheworlds.com/

July 8- The Fantastic Four
When an experimental space voyage goes awry, four people are changed by cosmic rays. Reed Richards, inventor and leader of the group gains the ability to stretch his body, and takes the name, Mr. Fantastic. His girlfriend, Sue Storm, gains the ability to turn invisible and create force fields, becoming the Invisible Girl. Her little brother Johnny Storm gains the ability to control fire, including covering his own body with flame, like a Human Torch. Pilot Ben Grimm is turned into a super-strong rocky Thing. Together, they use their unique powers to explore the strange aspects of the world, and to foil the evil plans by the likes of Doctor Doom, which is who the villain of this film will be. Even as they deal with the various threats that arise to threaten Earth's peace, the Four must also deal with the pressures of fame as the world's most famous superheroes, and the realities of being a super-powered family.
www.FantasticFourMovie.com

July 22- The Island
Lincoln Six-Echo (McGregor) is a resident of a seemingly utopian but contained facility in the mid-21st century. Like all of the inhabitants of this carefully controlled environment, Lincoln hopes to be chosen to go to the “The Island”—reportedly the last uncontaminated spot on the planet. But Lincoln soon discovers that everything about his existence is a lie. He and all of the other inhabitants of the facility are actually human clones whose only purpose is to provide “spare parts” for their original human counterparts. Realizing it is only a matter of time before he is “harvested,” Lincoln makes a daring escape with a beautiful fellow resident named Jordan Two-Delta (Johansson). Relentlessly pursued by the forces of the sinister institute that once housed them, Lincoln and Jordan engage in a race for their lives to literally meet their makers.
www.theisland-themovie.com/

The Candy Wrapper Museum!

The Candy Wrapper Museum, where wrappers are to be enjoyed as art, nostalgia, and humor.





From the Site:
I began collecting wrappers in 1977 with an eye toward the unusual, ironic, and aesthetic, although I also collected "classic" but more mundane wrappers for posterity's sake. I haven't yet counted all the wrappers in my collection, but it's HUGE. It's stored in a stack of boxes nearly 4 feet high and about 1.5 feet x 2 feet wide. (Physics majors - you tell me how many that probably is!)

As frightening as it may seem, I've actually eaten most of the candy in my collection, and yet I'm not (yet) overweight. I'm sure I owe this to countless intense walks and aerobics sessions. And no, I'm not a diabetic. Perhaps this can be attributed to good genes, although knowing my family, this theory is doubtful. Maybe it will catch up with me soon and I'll decompose all at once, like an aged candy. (See below.)

One thing I learned the hard way is that no matter how chemically inert or unresembling food a candy product might be, it will eventually become molecularly unstable and turn into a hideous, sticky goo. For this reason, you'll see precious little candy in this museum. However, amazingly enough, the candy that I kept actually held up for about twenty years before I had to throw most of it out. Based on this experience, I'd say 25 years is the point when you've kept the candy too long.

For the record, I collect some gum wrappers, but only the ones I think are really great. Purists may quibble that gum isn't candy, but why pass up a hilarious wrapper when they fit right in with the spirit of the Candy Wrapper Museum?

Due to the immensity of this project and my desire to make nice images of the collection, this site will be slowly assembled for an unspecified period of time. So if you stumble across this site during its formative years, please make a bookmark and visit again sometime. I hope to make it worth a visit.

Check it out-

http://www.candywrappermuseum.com/index.html

A new direction.

This blog has been lying dormant for a few months now. Upon reviewing it, I've decided to take the blog in a completely new direction. Thus, starting today, LESS meaningless rambling on, and MORE entertainment for your money. I've deleted the majority of the old posts. I've decided it best to not taint the greatness of what is to come here with the triviality that was displayed before.


Yeah right. ;)