Coolest. Google. Doodle. Ever.

I love it when Google does a "doodle" for a special occasion. Check out this one that they've cooked up for today's observance of the birthday of Nikola Tesla!

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"It's so hard to say goodbye..."

Well, Bennie, Eric, Gaetan and Fleur just left a short while ago. For most of the past week I have been host to four friends from Belgium: one that I have known since 1992 and her wonderful lil' family that we have had the pleasure of meeting for the first time.

And already, I'm missing 'em.

It's been a long time since I've known such a fun and action-packed last few days. Eric's incredibly bold hike through the Rockingham County wilderness yesterday, has truly inspired me. Dude only speaks French, and yet he took off on a fifteen-mile trek through woods and landscape that he had never seen before. Lord willing I'm going to get to bring him back just so I can get him to talk to our Boy Scout troop here, 'cuz he set a whole new standard for outdoorsmanship here :-)

And I made sure that Bennie left the recipes for all those exquisitely delicious Belgian dishes that she and her family made last night.

Oh yeah, I also learned something: that the Star Wars movies are perfectly suited for just about every language that you can think of! Not only do they translate well even for dubbing, but it's remarkably easy to follow along even if you don't know the language being spoken :-)

Well, anyhoo... they're on the road again, heading along on their tour of the United States. But Lord willing, we shall meet again and sooner than later ;-)

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Tonight's Belgian Drama: Mousse and Missing Person!

So Bennie, Eric and the kids insisted on making a Belgian dish tonight for dinner, so we went out this morning and got groceries from the local Wal-Mart (I also made sure that Bennie and crew leave town with a bottle of Short Sugar's barbecue sauce). Dinner was stuffed peppers, some kind of neatly cooked stuffed tomato which defies easy description, and potatoes and it was all awesomely delicious!!

But around 3:30 this afternoon, Eric went for a walk. And didn't come back.

Long story short, we had to call 911 and have Rockingham County Sheriff's Department look for him. A short while later a deputy that I've known for many years pulled into my driveway and said that he'd found Eric walking further up the road...

Turned out that the dude went for a walk awright. He walked more than five miles east through the woods, then hiked down a road he recognized from earlier today and headed back along U.S. 158.

All in all that was around FIFTEEN MILES that Eric - a Belgian citizen who speaks only French and extremely little English - walked through strange terrain in a foreign land, and arrived right back home ('cept for about 1/5th of a mile's drive that Bennie and I gave him on the return leg).

Are these folks from Belgium a hardy breed, or what?? :-)

Anyhoo, we are currently eating Belgian chocolate mousse (yummy!) and watching Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones in French (not subtitles, real French dubbing, thank goodness for DVD technology). I speak very little French, but as it's a Star Wars movie I understand it perfectly anyway :-P

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PLAY! A Video Game Symphony is coming to Raleigh this weekend!

What? An orchestra playing a concert of music from a wide variety of video games? That's exactly what PLAY! A Video Game Symphony is.

And it's coming to the Raleigh/Durham/Cary area this Saturday, July 11th, courtesy of the North Carolina Symphony and the Concert Singers of Cary. The performance will be at the Koka Booth Amphitheater.

Here's the e-mail that I received this afternoon from Lauren Trojan:

Hi Chris,

I read your recent post about the “Unknown Lifeform in North Carolina Sewer,” and thought you might be interested in another never-before-seen event in Raleigh. For the first time, Play! A Video Game Symphony will be presented by the North Carolina Symphony at Koka Booth Amphitheatre on Saturday, July 11, 2009. Since this is a non-traditional Symphony concert and would be of interest to your blog following, I hope you will consider mentioning the event on your blog.

PLAY! is a symphony world-tour showcasing tunes from classic video games such as Super Mario Bros. and Sonic The Hedgehog, as well as new favorites Halo, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and SimCity 4. Andy Brick, PLAY! associate conductor and award-winning film and video game composer, will lead the Symphony and the Concert Singers of Cary as an array of video game graphics are projected onto video screens above the orchestra.

Below, I’ve included links to the PLAY! Web site and North Carolina Symphony Web page for the event, as well as the concert media alert, which has some great general information in one doc. Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you are interested in more information about the concert. Thanks Chris!

PLAY! A Video Game Symphony
North Carolina Symphony

Best,

Lauren Trojan

Look! Press release!

***MEDIA ADVISORY***

North Carolina Symphony to Perform Award-Winning Video Game Tunes at Summerfest Concert Series

Koka Booth Amphitheatre to be filled with sights and sounds of blockbuster video games

WHAT: The North Carolina Symphony presents PLAY! A Video Game Symphony, a concert showcasing the sights and sounds of new and classic video games. Accompanied by the Concert Singers of Cary Chamber Choir, the Symphony will play music from a catalogue of blockbuster video game titles, as memorable scenes are projected onto large video screens above the orchestra.

For the first time, PLAY! will feature music from SimCity 4 and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Guest conductor Andy Brick, SimCity 4 composer, will also lead the Symphony through the music of other popular video games including, Final Fantasy, Super Mario Bros., Sonic The Hedgehog, The Legend of Zelda, Halo and World of Warcraft.

Exclusive to the North Carolina Symphony’s presentation of PLAY!, world-famous guitarist Carlos Alomar will accompany the orchestra for songs from Silent Hill and Chrono Suite. Alomar, a pioneer in the field of guitar synthesizers, has worked with a number of famous musicians including, David Bowie, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen

WHO: Scott Freck, vice president of artistic operations, North Carolina Symphony, Andy Brick, associate conductor, PLAY! A Video Game Symphony, Jason Paul, producer, PLAY! A Video Game Symphony

WHEN: Saturday, July 11, 2009

6:00 p.m. – Gates open at Koka Booth Amphitheatre
7:00 p.m. – Instrument Petting Zoo for kids begins
8:30 p.m. – Concert begins

WHERE: Koka Booth Amphitheatre at
Regency Park
8003 Regency Parkway
Cary, N.C. 27518

OPPORTUNITIES: Media is invited to attend the concert and enjoy the experience with local families and video game enthusiasts. Media is also invited to attend the rehearsal on Friday evening at 8:30 p.m. Interview opportunities are listed below:

Scott Freck: Available Wednesday, July 8 – Saturday, July 11.
Andy Brick: Available Thursday, July 9 between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. and Friday, July 10 during the morning.
Jason Paul: Available Friday, July 10 – Saturday, July 11.

CONTACT: Stephanie Slipher, 704-556-2626, stephanie.slipher@fleishman.com

WEBSITE: For more information on the North Carolina Symphony’s presentation of PLAY! A Video Game Symphony and other Summerfest Series concerts, please visit Summerfest 2009.

Sounds like a heck of a show!! I'm definitely planning on attending :-)

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First full day with the Belgian Contingent

We went all over Raleigh, then came back and enjoyed a good dinner at Cafe 99 in Reidsville (and treated our guests to a karaoke rendition of "Hey Jude"... with terrific accompaniment by Justin and Haley :-).

That's just what comes to mind most right now. The whole day was well documented with still and video cameras.

Lord only knows what we'll do tomorrow but having four guests from Belgium in tow has been quite an interesting, enlightening and at times hilarious experience :-)

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The Belgians have arrived!!!

Four of the coolest people you can imagine, led by a girl who is very much like a dear sister, have come from the far land of Belgium and will be staying with me for the next several days.

Expect photos of whatever shenanigans we can come up with to appear on this blog soon!

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It's Han Solo and Chewbacca versus zombies!

Check out this gnarly promotional art for Joe Schreiber's upcoming Star Wars horror novel Death Troopers:

Hey, if we can have Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on the bookstore shelves, why not everyone's favorite space smuggling duo against the undead? I've heard a lot of fans are jazzed about this novel: the first serious foray that the saga has taken into the horror genre.

Death Troopers arrives this October 13th.

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Cult driven out of Reidsville as Johnny Robertson gets caught in a lie (and the "Church of Christ" digs for dirt... literally)

Many people have told me that on Sunday night's television broadcast of What Does The Bible Say? on WGSR - or as I call it "The Martinsville Taliban Show" - local cult leader Johnny Robertson of the "Martinsville Church of Christ" claimed that there are now four robust congregations of the "Church of Christ" (which is nothing like the mainstream Churches of Christ) meeting in this area. Those would be his own Martinsville group, one at the old post office on The Boulevard in Eden, the one that has been coming together in Reidsville at the Holiday Inn Express, and a group meeting in Ruffin.

Robertson alleged that the Ruffin "Church of Christ" had been meeting for "over a year" (his words).

Curiously, the July 5th 2009 broadcast of What Does The Bible Say? on WGSR was the very first time that Robertson or anyone else with the "Church of Christ" has mentioned a group of their own in Ruffin.

Now some very intriguing information has come to light, the upshot of which a rational person could only possibly take to mean that, once again, Johnny Robertson is telling us a bald-faced lie.

It turns out that there are only three congregations of the "Church of Christ" that are currently meeting in the area... and maybe not even that many!

James Oldfield, previously of the Reidsville congregation, is conducting the services for the cult in Eden. Robertson is still in Martinsville. There has been thus far no evidence that a Ruffin cell of the cult is meeting at all...

...and the Reidsville congregation is now completely defunct! Sources have told this blogger that "This meeting is no longer being held, nor is any meeting of their group being held in Reidsville." The reason? "This would seem to say that folks in Reidsville are too wise for the tactics of this group, and have rejected participation in this 'sect'."

So Reidsville has proven too much for Robertson's cult. Let us pray that other communities in this area - and wherever else they try to harass - will prove too much for them also.

Meanwhile, other sources have been telling me that the cult's much-ballyhooed two weeks of "tent service" in Danville and the accompanying thirty hours of television airtime that Robertson purchased on WGSR has been "a bust and a sham". In spite of what Robertson and Oldfield publicly claimed was a large outreach in the Danville area, very few people showed up during nightly services at the tent (and Robertson himself did "little or none at all" knocking on doors, choosing to order his goons out instead). I can say that The Knight Shift blog is in possession of numerous photographs that attest to the low turnout at the "Church of Christ" tent but as these might well identify the person who took the photos, I have been asked to withhold publishing them here.

I haven't seen the footage, but several people have told me that during Sunday night's broadcast Robertson aired a tape of himself accosting the wife of some local minister in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart in Martinsville. Robertson alleged that he "just happened" to see her in the parking lot and coincidentally had his camcorder with him... which the same people have told me that it was pretty obvious that Robertson was stalking the lady (as is his well-documented custom).

Now for the last bit of info for this report...

Folks, I didn't believe it at first, but plenty of people have been telling me about it and now The Knight Shift can confirm: Johnny Robertson's "Church of Christ" has been caught digging through the trash cans of people Robertson has decreed to be "enemies" of his cult! They are literally trying to "dig up dirt" that they can use against those they are actively seeking to, as Robertson infamously proclaimed last year, "defeat destroy".

I've read the Bible quite a number of times, but for the life of me I can't recall any passage that teaches us to go through others' garbage in order to attack them.

(But then again, Johnny Robertson also claimed recently that he needs a camcorder because he doesn't have the Holy Spirit... whatever that is supposed to mean.)

The lesser angels of my nature are more than inclined to note that should any member of the cult come to my home and attempt to behave in their typical miscreant fashion, that I will not only shoot him dead, but I will gladly and immediately post full color photographs of his freshly-deceased corpse on this blog. As a warning to the next ten generations that it is the right of each person to seek God as best he or she can understand Him and without fear of harassment.

That's just the lesser angels of my nature though...

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Promo video for the MONSTERPOCAPALOOZA event at HyperMind!

So for the past several days I've been engulfed in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects and whatnot. Hard at work for some good friends: HyperMind in Burlington (click here for the first write-up I did about 'em). Well, among the very popular games that HyperMind carries is Monsterpocalypse, and this summer its publisher Privateer Press is having a mondo ginormous event called Monsterpocapalooza. As part of the festivities leading up to the release of a new add-on for the game is a contest where game stores are invited to make a promo video for their Monsterpocalypse events.

So anyhoo, here is HyperMind's entry. I thought it would be neat if we spoofed Cloverfield. And it came out pretty good!

Thanks to everyone in the HyperMind extended family for making this video possible! And if you enjoyed their efforts, please feel free to give a high rating on the promo's YouTube page, 'cuz we're hoping to land a huge launch party for the upcoming Monsterpocalypse Series 4: Monsterpocalypse Now!

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Michael Jackson's bed

The Mail Online has published a series of photos taken by the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department during its 2003 raid on Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch.

This might be the creepiest photo I've ever seen associated with the "King of Pop"...

Jackson slept in this bed and on the wall over it hangs a rendition of The Last Supper. Except this version of the famous painting has Michael Jackson sitting in place of Jesus Christ. Elvis Presley and Abraham Lincoln are also depicted as being among the disciples.

I don't want to even try to imagine how such a "work of art" possibly comes into being.

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William Gibson's NEUROMANCER... 25 years later

It was twenty-five years ago this week, on July 1st 1984, that William Gibson's now-classic science-fiction novel Neuromancer was first published. The book presented a world overwhelmed by too much technology, a people with a gluttony for body enhancement and personal media, and transnational corporations with the power of major governments. In other words: a time not very unlike our own. Neuromancer is often hailed as foreseeing the rise of the World Wide Web, and it even added a new word to the English language: "cyberspace". In many ways Neuromancer was considerably prophetic, while in others it has missed the mark (so far).

On the anniversary of its release, pcworld.com's Mark Sullivan examines Neuromancer after the rise of the near-future fog and details how it got many things right and failed on a few concepts. It's a pretty good article, and especially recommended for any students of cyberpunk fiction.

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FALLOUT 3 Brotherhood of Steel costume

In one of the more impressive examples of video game-inspired costuming, some folks in Seattle have put together a full set of Brotherhood of Steel power armor from Fallout 3. Looks hella sweet, especially the helmet and that laser Gatling gun!

Now we just need an entire regiment of these guys to walk into Washington D.C. and free the land from the tyranny of the Enclave :-P

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Am watching THE TWILIGHT ZONE marathon on Sci-Fi Channel

Made rather bittersweet in the knowledge that this is the last time they do this as the Sci-Fi Channel. But anyhoo...

They just ran the classic episode "A Game of Pool", which originally aired on October 13, 1961. It's one of my all-time favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone, for a lot of reasons but especially 'cuz I thought the interaction between Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters was brilliant!

So I'm wondering if I'm at all crazy for thinking this...

...that wouldn't it be more awesomely cool than we possibly deserve, if somehow there could be a sequel to this episode made, again starring Klugman and Winters as Jesse Cardiff and Fats Brown?

It could be called "Another Game of Pool"!

Okay, that will probably never happen outside of the wonderful delirium of my dreams. But still, one can practically see it happening.

What an amazing show this was. I even liked the later incarnations quite a bit, but Rod Serling's original series was, I'd dare say, the most influential and revolutionary television show in the history of the medium.

I hope Syfy Channel keeps showing it :-)

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The obvious question about WGSR

In the past month or so WGSR general manager Charles Roark has broadcast footage of no less than three murder victims (before knowing if the next of kin had been notified), and at this moment is defending his "right" to trespass on property and film video of a person's house burning down without regard of what the guy's family was going through. In addition to every other amount of callous disrespect toward others that WGSR under his management has done with no editorial oversight.

So I'm compelled to ask aloud...

If the naked, beaten and dead body of Azile Roark was lying in the street, would Charles Roark be equally insistent on footage of that - the corpse of his own mother and the proprietor of Star News Corporation - be broadcast on television?

Or is there a double standard at work at WGSR?

We already know that Roark has sold out his principles to local cult leader (and WGSR's biggest client) Johnny Robertson. So let's assume that the shoe might be on the other foot someday and that would be Roark's turn to be the victim.

Dear readers, you know just as well as I do: there's not a snowball's chance in Hell that Roark would put himself in as vulnerable a position as he demands on putting just about everyone else.

And no amount of crowing about being "the biggest media" in the area can possibly make up for such a severe deficit of personal and professional ethics.

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No way can I vote for Sarah Palin as President

Sarah Palin announced this afternoon that she's resigning as governor of Alaska effective July 26th. Some are speculating that it's to pursue the Republican nomination for President in 2012.

But I could not possibly consider voting for her now.

If Palin cannot commit to fulfilling her term of office as governor, why should I have faith that she's capable of committing to that of a much higher position?

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Final season of LOST getting extra hour

ABC's smash hit series Lost - said by some to be perhaps the greatest television dramatic series ever and not without plenty of reason - will get one more hour for its sixth and last season, scheduled to begin in January 2010. That makes for 18 hours to wrap up everything still dangling unaddressed in the crazy rich mythology that is Lost.

Hope that'll be enough... but then again, there can never be nearly enough Lost! :-)

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