Recently in Local Category
"Weird Al" Yankovic is playing the Tennessee Theatre...wow, looks like tomorrow!
Here's an interview I did with him almost two years ago to the day. Ah, the heady, innocent days of 2008. I remember them like they were just a couple of years ago.
Here's an interview I did with him almost two years ago to the day. Ah, the heady, innocent days of 2008. I remember them like they were just a couple of years ago.
Per Satterfield@KNS, it's freakin' official, you betcha.
Express your outrage over the internet like a good civilized people should. Make more, disseminate accordingly. Post links here. Go here for outdated meme ideas. A decent Downfall subtitle is a shoo-in.
If you win, you get nothing. Well, maybe passing internet fame in a niche audience.
Organized Play is hosting a Knoxville RPGA-sponsored year-end event Dec. 11-13. If the thought of 30+ hours of Forgotten Realms doesn't send shivers up your spine, you can get more details here.
Me, I'm going to set up a Cheetos and Mountain Dew cart outside the venue and make a killing.
(Sure, that's a cheap shot, but does making myself sound like Gheed from Diablo II really make me sound all that superior? Probably not!)
Me, I'm going to set up a Cheetos and Mountain Dew cart outside the venue and make a killing.
(Sure, that's a cheap shot, but does making myself sound like Gheed from Diablo II really make me sound all that superior? Probably not!)
Betty Bean's son-in-law will be on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in, like, an hour, promoting some new project about which we may have spoken already.
If you're up early enough tomorrow, CoK's Solar America City people are doing a Solar Tour & Fair at Krutch Park. Check out the agenda here (pdf) while I attempt to tastefully refrain from making jokes about solar-powered panhandlers.
...whoops.
If you're up early enough tomorrow, CoK's Solar America City people are doing a Solar Tour & Fair at Krutch Park. Check out the agenda here (pdf) while I attempt to tastefully refrain from making jokes about solar-powered panhandlers.
...whoops.
You know those Fathom Events things that are always getting promoted at the movies right between all those glorified TV commercials and the real previews? The stuff that's either too highbrow (operatic performances), too foreign (Team Power Force Laser Face Naruto 7 Go!), or too "if you actually went to this one, stop reading my blog and go punch yourself in the face" (Glenn Beck) for most of us to bother with?
Well, they finally hit the demographic which I - even after more than two years of reviewing video games for an altweekly - admit to being a member of with Turtles Forever.
From the synopsis -
Apparently Eastman and Laird have decided to go inter-universal and play Crisis on Infinite Turtles with their franchise. Fine with me, considering that the whole TMNT thing was initially created as a subversion of popular trends in comics.
Plus, there's always the chance the original original turtles will show up and bump the grittiness factor by a few hundred percent. If so, I'll take ten.
Turtles Forever * West Town Mall 9 * 7:00pm * tickets on sale TBA (check website linked above for details)
Well, they finally hit the demographic which I - even after more than two years of reviewing video games for an altweekly - admit to being a member of with Turtles Forever.
From the synopsis -
This ninja tag-team extraordinaire begins when the new the gigantic, evil, and terrifying Technodrome (a giant mobile battle station from the original 1988 TMNT animated series) suddenly appears in our world, carrying with it the original 1988 series Ninja Turtles. Our world's Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo find themselves with a huge mystery to solve and four crazy Turtles to babysit! Can the Turtles of the past and the Turtles of the present stop annoying each other long enough to stop all of time and space from unraveling? It's a must-see special event for the millions of Turtles fans everywhere --- a journey across multiple dimensions that's full of twists, turns, and more Ninja Turtles than you've ever seen before.
Apparently Eastman and Laird have decided to go inter-universal and play Crisis on Infinite Turtles with their franchise. Fine with me, considering that the whole TMNT thing was initially created as a subversion of popular trends in comics.
Plus, there's always the chance the original original turtles will show up and bump the grittiness factor by a few hundred percent. If so, I'll take ten.
Turtles Forever * West Town Mall 9 * 7:00pm * tickets on sale TBA (check website linked above for details)
Frank Munger has an interesting report over here about the suspension of three Y-12 security personnel for bringing electronic gaming devices into restricted areas.
Only one - a PSP (version unknown) - is currently named amongst the offending devices. Munger notes that the other devices are incapable of transmitting data, which definitely rules out Nintendo DS and Wii systems and might rule out additional current-gen consoles, depending on Y-12's interpretation of what actually constitutes a "transmitting" device.
Only one - a PSP (version unknown) - is currently named amongst the offending devices. Munger notes that the other devices are incapable of transmitting data, which definitely rules out Nintendo DS and Wii systems and might rule out additional current-gen consoles, depending on Y-12's interpretation of what actually constitutes a "transmitting" device.
For those three of you who aren't currently at Bonarroo (and won't as a result be lined up against the wall when I institute my Hippie Purge), AdventureCon is hitting the Convention Center this weekend.
Last year, I visited AdventureCon to get my brother a machete signed by Kane Hodder (this year, he's getting a kitten. Go figure). I probably won't be going this year, but don't let that stop you from meeting all these people instead!
---
RAY PARK: Darth Maul, Toad (X-Men), and (the upcoming movie version of) Snake Eyes are all the same guy, apparently. You'd think a force-wielding ninja mutant could play a character without a messed-up face once in a while. Loses points for not being Ray Parker Jr.
DAVE PROWSE: Played the second-most menacing figure of my early childhood, initials D.P. COINCIDENCE?!?!?! With any luck, will force-choke ANTHONY FORREST for getting mind-tricked by Obi Wan.
JAMES DODD: "Was in a Hellboy movie." Yay! "...It was Hellboy 2." Aww!
GARY COLEMAN and JEFF BRIDGES: This is some kind of coup, but I'm not quite sure which kind. More than anything else, I'm impressed with the sheer randomness of the mind which came up with the idea of getting Coleman and Bridges together for a comic book convention. If I could come up with a Mr. Drummond costume on the fly, I'd buy ten 8x10s of myself with them without hesitation.
LOU FERRIGNO and WILLIAM KATT: I'm grouping these two together not for any rational reason beyond this being my impromptu "Here's What Made the '80s Awesome" category. Extra points if they reenact the Hulk vs. Sentry fight from World War Hulk.
JAKE BUSEY: Whenever I get or find myself feeling down, I remember that Jake Busey is out there somewhere creeping someone (or something) out with that "I wanna see what your insides look like!" grin of his. It never fails to perk me right up. Played the bad guy in Road House 2, but didn't take it far enough by keeping Road House 2 from being made at all. I mean, why try to improve on perfection?
MARGOT KIDDER: Somebody warn Ted Hall.
KANE HODDER, WARRINTON GILLETTE, and ARI LEHMAN: Voorheeses, in order of importance. Maybe they'll fight over who gets to kill AMERICA OLIVO.
NICK FOLEY, CHRISTY HEMME, and STEPHANIE BELLARS: AdventureCon '09's obligatory professional wrestling delegation. Perhaps worried that his Y chromosome would lead to a lack of visitors when compared to the turnout for the ladies, Foley showed some initiative and brought his own Polaroid for fan pics if you left yours at home. If anything, these have a collector's item potential simply due to the whole "Polaroid RIP" thing.
NEIL KAPLAN: I once read a post on a message board that went something like, "You know, I didn't really understand the idea of religious wars until I realized that if Optimus Prime told me to kill someone, that bastard is going to die." The voice the poster was referring to was Peter Cullen's. This guy voiced Optimus in the Robots in Disguise English anime dub, which I guess is worthwhile in that it helped keep the franchise alive long enough for me to see Bumblebee as a Camaro. He also does comic books.
LARRY THOMAS, JAMES HAMPTON, BRIAN HARNOIS: Soup Nazi, F-Troop, and Ghost Hunters, respectively. Try to avoid eye contact.
A DELOREAN: I'm under the assumption that all the Ecto-1s are currently out somewhere promoting the hell out of the new Ghostbusters game (of which I have yet to receive a review copy - get on that, Activision), so AdventureCon got a BttF-ified DeLorean for its one-vehicle auto show this time. This particular one is notable in that donations from fan pics with it will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Michael J. Fox kicks ass. You should give him your money.
Finally, MORE COMIC ARTISTS THAN I CARE TO WEED THROUGH (but don't discount their attendance because of my laziness): It is a comic convention, after all.
Last year, I visited AdventureCon to get my brother a machete signed by Kane Hodder (this year, he's getting a kitten. Go figure). I probably won't be going this year, but don't let that stop you from meeting all these people instead!
---
RAY PARK: Darth Maul, Toad (X-Men), and (the upcoming movie version of) Snake Eyes are all the same guy, apparently. You'd think a force-wielding ninja mutant could play a character without a messed-up face once in a while. Loses points for not being Ray Parker Jr.
DAVE PROWSE: Played the second-most menacing figure of my early childhood, initials D.P. COINCIDENCE?!?!?! With any luck, will force-choke ANTHONY FORREST for getting mind-tricked by Obi Wan.
JAMES DODD: "Was in a Hellboy movie." Yay! "...It was Hellboy 2." Aww!
GARY COLEMAN and JEFF BRIDGES: This is some kind of coup, but I'm not quite sure which kind. More than anything else, I'm impressed with the sheer randomness of the mind which came up with the idea of getting Coleman and Bridges together for a comic book convention. If I could come up with a Mr. Drummond costume on the fly, I'd buy ten 8x10s of myself with them without hesitation.
LOU FERRIGNO and WILLIAM KATT: I'm grouping these two together not for any rational reason beyond this being my impromptu "Here's What Made the '80s Awesome" category. Extra points if they reenact the Hulk vs. Sentry fight from World War Hulk.
JAKE BUSEY: Whenever I get or find myself feeling down, I remember that Jake Busey is out there somewhere creeping someone (or something) out with that "I wanna see what your insides look like!" grin of his. It never fails to perk me right up. Played the bad guy in Road House 2, but didn't take it far enough by keeping Road House 2 from being made at all. I mean, why try to improve on perfection?
MARGOT KIDDER: Somebody warn Ted Hall.
KANE HODDER, WARRINTON GILLETTE, and ARI LEHMAN: Voorheeses, in order of importance. Maybe they'll fight over who gets to kill AMERICA OLIVO.
NICK FOLEY, CHRISTY HEMME, and STEPHANIE BELLARS: AdventureCon '09's obligatory professional wrestling delegation. Perhaps worried that his Y chromosome would lead to a lack of visitors when compared to the turnout for the ladies, Foley showed some initiative and brought his own Polaroid for fan pics if you left yours at home. If anything, these have a collector's item potential simply due to the whole "Polaroid RIP" thing.
NEIL KAPLAN: I once read a post on a message board that went something like, "You know, I didn't really understand the idea of religious wars until I realized that if Optimus Prime told me to kill someone, that bastard is going to die." The voice the poster was referring to was Peter Cullen's. This guy voiced Optimus in the Robots in Disguise English anime dub, which I guess is worthwhile in that it helped keep the franchise alive long enough for me to see Bumblebee as a Camaro. He also does comic books.
LARRY THOMAS, JAMES HAMPTON, BRIAN HARNOIS: Soup Nazi, F-Troop, and Ghost Hunters, respectively. Try to avoid eye contact.
A DELOREAN: I'm under the assumption that all the Ecto-1s are currently out somewhere promoting the hell out of the new Ghostbusters game (of which I have yet to receive a review copy - get on that, Activision), so AdventureCon got a BttF-ified DeLorean for its one-vehicle auto show this time. This particular one is notable in that donations from fan pics with it will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Michael J. Fox kicks ass. You should give him your money.
Finally, MORE COMIC ARTISTS THAN I CARE TO WEED THROUGH (but don't discount their attendance because of my laziness): It is a comic convention, after all.
Wired, still running with a story that local media sources have apparently fallen asleep on, reports on updates to the state's case against alleged Palin email "hacker" and local Guess Jeans model David Kernell.
Citing the prosecution's quick-and-dirty March Madness with charges against his client and an Alaskan court's decision that Palin's private email accounts on which she allegedly pursued government business must be preserved, Kernell attorney Wade Davies has moved that all charges be dropped or reduced to misdemeanors. His reasoning?
Whether Davies' litigation is writing checks that his education can't cash is a matter for the court to decide, but damn if it isn't entertaining. Moves as ballsy as that kick this thing out of the realm of judicial chess matches and into the world of full-on legal wire-fu.
Less exciting are Davies' arguments that wire fraud charges should be dropped. He claims that Palin was deprived of no "traditional" property since emails are "ethereal", but I'm not as sold on this one. I think that I could dissuade Davies of his belief given five unauthorized minutes with any email account of his which contains, say, a credit card number or two.
Citing the prosecution's quick-and-dirty March Madness with charges against his client and an Alaskan court's decision that Palin's private email accounts on which she allegedly pursued government business must be preserved, Kernell attorney Wade Davies has moved that all charges be dropped or reduced to misdemeanors. His reasoning?
Tennessee, he says, only recognizes an invasion of privacy when the invasion exposes something that is inherently private, and the victim was placed in a false light by the invasion. But Palin wasn't placed in a false light by the alleged hack, and her privacy wasn't invaded since "an Alaska court has issued an order requiring Ms. Palin to preserve the correspondence in her private e-mail accounts on the grounds that the e-mails are public records." -WiredDavies asserts that no expectation of privacy can be afforded the Palinian Yahoo, as its status (as he reckons it) as a matter of public record procludes privacy. By killing the privacy issue, Davies would successfully blunt the felony status of the prosecution's case.
Whether Davies' litigation is writing checks that his education can't cash is a matter for the court to decide, but damn if it isn't entertaining. Moves as ballsy as that kick this thing out of the realm of judicial chess matches and into the world of full-on legal wire-fu.
Less exciting are Davies' arguments that wire fraud charges should be dropped. He claims that Palin was deprived of no "traditional" property since emails are "ethereal", but I'm not as sold on this one. I think that I could dissuade Davies of his belief given five unauthorized minutes with any email account of his which contains, say, a credit card number or two.
