Ron Price update: 1 year later and still no "complete and factual account"

Yes, even from somewhere deep in the heart of Texas, I am still committed to holding Ron Price accountable for his misdeeds!

Just a little reminder to everyone that it was one year ago today that Ron Price, admitted sign thief and disgraced member of the Rockingham County Board of Education, promised us the "complete and factual account" of the "sign incident". If you're a regular reader of this blog then you already know that Price was caught stealing campaign signs belonging to Congressman Brad Miller on the night before the 2006 election. Price went on live television on election night and blamed "goons" for going after him and then said that he wished that this hadn't raised such a "commotion". And then he said that the full story was coming soon.

Well Ron, it's one year later and you still haven't given it to us.

And don't even think you can scrub it out that you promised that either. I've got that saves as both raw file and screen capture, saved in multiple locations. Just like I saved your admission: the one that you later tried to erase out of existence.

So it's a full year later. Where is it?

There is a bunch more stuff about Ron the Con that I've recently come into possession of. Might be releasing that soon. In the meantime, I'm gonna get back to enjoying my lil' Texas odyssey :-)

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Texas, Day 3

Still can't get the pics to load at the moment (our digital camera is more used to hooking up to a Windows XP machine and it's nothin' but Macs here) but I'll be showing the cream of the crop from the bunch when I get back. In the meantime, I can report that it was another action-packed day here in Texas...

My friend Deborah and I got in my rented Jeep about 10 this morning and headed to Austin. She got us on Congressional Avenue and I got some awesome photos of the Texas State Capitol. Then we headed over to the University of Texas at Austin campus, and Deborah got a pic of me standing in front of "The Tower". And yes, this is the building from which Charles Whitman shot and killed all those people. Which isn't really why I wanted to see it: it's always struck me as a great design for a building. But I couldn't disassociate being there from the history of the place, either.

After that, we got on I-35 and headed north to Waco, 'cuz there's something I've been bound and determined to do ever since I found out that I was going to this year's Butt-Numb-A-Thon in Austin: visit my brother-in-law Jonathan who's a seminary student at Baylor. About 1 p.m. we got to his apartment and hooked up with him, and we went to this place in Waco that serves up Chicago-style deep-dish pizza... which was the first time in my life that I'd had any. After that (and it was a lot of pizza, believe you me) we went to the Dr. Pepper Museum: Waco is where Dr. Pepper was invented and I think the whole state is pretty darned proud of that :-) Then Jonathan took us around Baylor: a school with more steeples than some entire towns that I've been too.

We got back to Jonathan's place, and we said goodbye for now (I'll be seeing him again in a few weeks). Then we got back on I-35 for the drive back to Austin. I dropped Deborah off at her home around 7 and then high-tailed it back to town. The reason? A get-together for the Butt-Numb-A-Thon people at some chili joint in downtown Austin. Took me awhile to find it but in the end I got there and met some of the Ain't It Cool gang: Nordling (will be posting a funny story about when he and I met when I get the pics up), Massawyrm, and then the man himself Harry Knowles! Will have a pic of Harry and me up soon too.

Then I came back here, and I'm gonna be hitting the hay soon 'cuz I'm gonna be getting up early tomorrow morning so that I can be at the Alamo Drafthouse (the Ritz one) at 10 for Butt-Numb-A-Thon. Which is where I and a few hundred other movie geeks will be spending the next 24 hours watching Lord-knows-what.

So this is the last report that I'll be filing 'til Sunday afternoon. Expect tons of good stuff that I'll be writing about when I get back :-)

Butt-Numb-A-Thon starts in 13 and a half hours. Here we go, fast and furious...

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First report from Texas

I arrived in Texas just after noon local time yesterday, flying in to the airport in Houston. On the flight from Orlando I saw the Gulf of Mexico for the first time in my life, New Orleans (got good pics of the French Quarter and the causeway across Lake Pontchartrain), offshore oil rigs, Johnson Space Center and the Astrodome, and then touched down in Houston. Waited there 'til 1:30 and took off for Austin. The girl at the car rental place recognized me from when my school board commercial ran on E!'s The Soup a few weeks ago!

The car rental people said that they didn't have too much to choose from at the moment. I said "Give me the most Texas-ish thing you got." The girl said "You want the big white Jeep." So that's what I'm driving.

I'm staying with friends in Travis County. If I'm not mistaken, this is the home turf of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Today I went down Highway 281 to San Antonio and visited the Alamo. Am having trouble uploading pics at the moment but hope to have them up soon.

Tomorrow I'm hitting Austin, then driving up to Waco to hook up with my brother -in-law. Butt-Numb-A-Thon starts at noon on Saturday.

This has already become far more an adventure than I could possibly let on right now.

More soon :-)

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4 days to Butt-Numb-A-Thon: Austin-bound!

Hee-hee-hee... not bad eh? I didn't have much time to do a perfect job on it, but ever since I found out that I'm going to the Butt-Numb-A-Thon film festival in Austin, Texas this year, I've had it in mind to do a spoof of Preacher: Gone to Texas (a really good graphic novel that I discovered some years ago). Just 'cuz it sounds cool to say "gone to Texas" like that, and this'll be my first time ever going there.

I'm not staying in some swanky hotel in Austin, either. I'll be staying with some friends who live outside of town, in an area notorious for scorpion infestations and whatnot. They tell me that I'm going to love Texas barbecue... which is not pork at all but beef. "Porkless barbecue ribs" ummm sounds like blasphemy to me. But you know, "when in Rome..."

Expect posts on this blog from Austin, San Antonio, maybe Waco, and a blow-by-blow after-action report on Butt-Numb-A-Thon over the next few days, including photos (well not from Butt-Numb-A-Thon 'cuz cameras aren't allowed 'cuz there's going to be some real top-secret unreleased movies going on in there :-)

The next time you hear from me, I will be somewhere in the Lone Star State: home of the Dallas Cowboys, the Alamo, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Ron Paul, Leatherface, millions of illegal immigrants, J.R. Ewing, Ann Richards, Howard Hughes, Gene Autry, Dale Evans, Charles "Tex" Watson, and world-famous Texas Pete hot-sauce!

(Actually, Texas Pete is made in Winston-Salem, North Carolina... but French Fries are from Belgium too, so go figure.)

See y'all on the flip side!

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Andy Griffith's "What It Was, Was Football!"

In 1953, a young North Carolina actor named Andy Griffith did a stand-up routine about the game of football. The recording of it became a runaway bestseller across the country, and it quickly propelled Griffith toward major motion picture roles and of course The Andy Griffith Show. And since that time "What It Was, Was Football!" has become one of the best-known comedy monologues in history.

I first heard this bit around 1984, when the local edition of P.M. Magazine did a video clip of Griffith's routine accompanied by footage from a local game. They even had a guy act out the "Buddy have a drink!" part. I thought it was pretty hilarious and years later when I spotted an Andy Griffith CD at a store in Asheville I bought it, just for "What It Was, Was Football!". It's now on my MP3 player :-)

And guess what? You can enjoy it via YouTube, complete with lots of football images! So whether you first heard it many years ago or have never enjoyed it until now, here is Andy Griffith's "What It Was, Was Football!"

But that's not all! I didn't know until tonight that in 1958, "What It Was, Was Football!" was adapted into graphic form by MAD Magazine! Click here to see MAD artist George Woodbridge bring to life Griffith's tale of a country rube discovering the game of football :-)

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Happy Birthday to Mom!

A wonderful Happy Birthday today to my Mom!

We had dinner with her and Dad tonight at Sagebrush here in Reidsville. And they got to ride in my new car for the first time. A great time was had by all :-)

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First official image of Darth Plagueis

Last week the new Star Wars book Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force came out. I haven't bought it yet but might later this afternoon (and I found these images on Wookieepedia). Within it, hauntingly painted by Chris Trevas, there is the first-ever "canon" image (meaning it's fully approved by Lucasfilm) of Darth Plagueis. If you saw Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith then you already know that Darth Plagueis was the Sith Master who trained Darth Sidious. He was also obsessed with stopping death.

So here it is: Chris Trevas' portrait of Darth Plagueis (watching a young Sidious spar with a lightsaber):

And here's a close-up of the face of Plagueis:

Even though that's just one picture, that's still an awful lot more about Plagueis than has been released since Episode III. There was going to be a novel about Darth Plagueis that James Luceno was working on, but it was cancelled mid-stream 'cuz Lucasfilm announced that George Lucas wanted to keep a tighter grip on the Plagueis/Sidious part of the Star Wars backstory. Might this mean then that we might start seeing more about Darth Plagueis? Let's hope so! :-)

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An update ... a major one ... about running for Congress

I'm still going to run for United States House of Representatives.

But not right now.

No, I'm not "dropping out". I'm still wanting to see if a regular American citizen can do this. But for the time being, the experiment is delayed.

Please understand something: I've been dead-serious about this all along. I filed to create the exploratory committee. The website was almost finished. Some other stuff was taking place behind the scenes too, that I've been busy with the past few days.

Looking back over the past week, it's pretty darned amazing at what came together, so fast on this.

But there've been a few other developments too. Enough to make me realize that yes, the time is soon for this... but the time is not now. Not yet. And before people start sending in real money, this needs addressing.

A lot of people have wanted me to do this. Plenty of them have said that I probably could have won this thing, even though how I was going to run this campaign was going to be wildly different than anything you've probably ever seen before.

I would love to take a shot at it. Would like nothing more than to try this, so far as that "arena of ideas" thing that I've been fighting in for most of my life goes.

But if I were to go to Congress now, I wouldn't be as strong and capable a servant as I could be if I waited a few more years.

If you want the real reason why I've chosen not to do this at the present time, here it is: the past few days (no I don't want to say what exactly caused me to arrive at this) made me realize that I'm not as wise as I would like to be. That I still have some growing-up to do. That doesn't mean that I'm "immature" in the least bit... but I would be doing a terrible thing if I didn't give myself some time to grow into that more, into whatever it is that God is wanting me to become.

I've said on here before that between being in Congress and being able to live my life to the fullest according to what God would have for me, there's no contest as to which I would pick. My life has to be defined by something other than whether or not I win an election. That's not the basis of my happiness. And in many ways I'm still looking for that basis. But it's not in politics as most people understand it. But whatever it is, it's out there. And I'm just going to trust in the Lord to bring me to it.

There are a few other reasons why I'm choosing against doing this at this point in time. Some personal and some that would take a very long time to discuss here, so I'm not going to try.

Let's see how things are around 2009. That's not far away at all anyway...

EDIT 11:00 a.m. EST: One other reason why I'm not doing this now: I sincerely believe that we are coming upon a time when those outside of government, will be able to do much more good than those inside of government can possibly achieve.

I'd rather be one of those who is capable of doing something meaningful, with whatever passion and talent that I possess. As I've said before, you don't have to be elected to make the world a better place :-)

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Today in review

It was a good day today! In short...

- We visited my parents.

- We had lunch at Salsarita's (great new taco/Mexican restaurant) in Grensboro.

- We bought a new computer: one perfect for high-definition video editing.

- We went to the Greensboro Historical Museum (and my friend Johnny Yow told me about this last night so I gotta credit him for passing along the word) to see North Carolina's original copy of the Bill of Rights. It had been in North Carolna's possession until 1865 when it was stolen by a Union soldier (darned Yankees!). It was out of the state all this time until 2003 when some dude tried to sell it for millions, before it was taken in a sting operation. It was one of only 14 original copies made, along with the one at the National Archives and the ones belonging to the 12 other original colonies. If you wanna see it, better hurry: the show ends tomorrow afternoon and then it goes back to Raleigh, where Lord only knows when it'll go on display next.

- We went to Rice Toyota and three good fellas named Don, Vic and Mike helped us get a new car. After a month since my Corolla got totaled, I'm finally roadworthy again!

So all things considered, it was a productive day :-)

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Evel Knievel has passed away

Time keeps on slipping into the future...

Now it's motorcycle daredevil legend and 1970s icon Evel Knievel, who has passed away at the age of 69.

Evel Knievel: the only man who could literally "jump the shark" and have it still be awesome.

I've heard quite a bit that in the past year he had an intense spiritual awakening and came to have a profound Christian faith.

Don't know what else to say, except that he was quite a character who will be greatly missed.

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Those danged Nazi lizards from outer space are coming back!

Look at what's being published on January 8th, 2008!

From the creator of V himself Kenneth Johnson, and weighing-in at 448 pages, it's V: The Second Generation.

So in case you are one of the "younger" generation (i.e. my friends younger than 20) and are wondering what V is: almost a quarter-century later it still ranks among the scariest and most disturbing things ever put on American television. And had it been better managed, it had the potential to be one of the greatest sci-fi franchises of all time.

In the spring of 1983, NBC broadcast the two-part original miniseries V. They came from a distant star: a fleet of fifty gigantic "motherships" - five miles in diameter - one for each of the largest cities on Earth. These "Visitors" - who looked human in every way - came begging for Earth's help, claiming that their home planet was dying and that only certain chemicals manufactured on Earth could stave off disaster. In return for our aid, the Visitors promised new technology and medicine and that when done, they would leave us in peace.

What happened after that made V into one of the most brilliant fables about tyranny and resistance of modern times. It was Nazism on a global scale. And there are moments from this miniseries that have haunted many people to this day: I've no doubt that the scene where Diana "has dinner" is going to be burned into my gray matter until the day I die.

The original miniseries was amazing, and ended on a terrific cliffhanger. And had creator Kenneth Johnson had his way, V would have become a series of television movies that would further chronicle mankind's worldwide fight against the Visitors. Unfortunately the NBC suits wanted another full-blown miniseries and then a weekly series. Johnson worked on the 1984 sequel V: The Final Battle for a bit and then left the project, and based on what I've heard over the years Johnson had a much different (and better) idea of where to take the story than what NBC did with the franchise. The ending of V: The Final Battle has too much mystical hokum (I hate the whole "star child" thing) and the ensuing regular weekly series quickly devolved into not much more than "Dallas in Space". It was canceled after one season.

I've thought for a long time now that V was a great concept, that is perhaps more fitting to the world we live in today than it did twenty-odd years ago. There was an attempt in the early-1990s to revive it (courtesy of Babylon 5-helmer J. Michael Straczynski) that would have been set in the years following Earth's final surrender to the Visitors, before the arrival of the Visitors' "enemy" that Juliet had sent the signal to at the end of the first miniseries. That didn't get past the script stage, but from what I've read of it Straczynski had bold ideas in mind for maturely progressing the story past the mistakes of the second miniseries and the regular show.

It looks like V: The Second Generation is going to build on at least the original miniseries. But perhaps a thorough rebooting is more appropriate. I mean, V - the original four-hour miniseries anyway - was a magnificent achievement of compelling story, wonderful characters, and early-Eighties special effects. But by today's standards, it's woefully out-dated. Seeing the Maxwell kids playing an Atari 2600 made sense in 1983, but it's too era-specific today. And no doubt that if the Visitors first came to a world circa-2007, they would take active measures to clamp down on the Internet. Heck, they would probably have their own website set up with all of that cool Visitor propaganda.

But the biggest impetus to entirely relaunch V is this: can you imagine how that same premise could be executed today, with the same technology that makes shows like the current Battlestar Galactica possible? V would finally stand to be a true depiction of global war, instead of just seeing it through the eyes of folks in Los Angeles (yah that did get tiring after awhile).

Anyhoo, problems that eventually plagued the franchise aside, I'll eagerly be watching for V: The Second Generation when it hits shelves in another month or so :-)

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Something I never, EVER thought that I would find myself writing

Okay so... what would be a good Mac to buy?

Specifically, one for high-def video editing.

(This is why you should be careful about what you say, folks. All those years of calling them "Macincraps" might finally be coming back to haunt me.)

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TRANSFORMERS: THE SCORE continues to do well!

I just checked the Amazon page for Transformers: The Score. Almost two months since it came out and it's continuing to rack-up impressive sales: right now the overall Amazon music rank is #257, which isn't bad given all the other releases that have come out since then. In the category of Orchestral Pop it's at #6 and its #10 in both Classical and Movie Scores!

Where it's really shining though is the Amazon customer reviews: Transformers: The Score has been given a consistent average of 4 and 1/2 stars. And out of 52 ratings so far, 41 of them have given the CD the full 5 stars!

Okay, I'll share a lil' story about the CD. A few weeks ago, Lisa and I went down to Georgia for her cousin's wedding and then we stayed on through Thanksgiving (that's where we did the deep-fried turkey at). After the wedding, a whole bunch of Lisa's extended family came by her parents' house and we were hanging out for a bit and Lisa told her cousin the story about the whole thing to get Steve Jablonsky's Transformers score released: the petition, how we auctioned off on eBay the copy that Steve signed to help buy some music instruments for the schools here, etc. Lisa's cousin's girlfriend said that she didn't know the CD of that was out and she liked the score too when they saw the movie in the theater. Soooo long story short: I had the copy in our car that we found at Best Buy a week or so earlier (I haven't had my signed copy framed yet but I will soon :-) and I wound up giving it to her. So now that's another happy owner of Transformers: The Score.

The thing that I didn't realize though is that I had brought that copy to Georgia to be the accompanying soundtrack for this Thanksgiving's turkey-frying!

Well, it's like this: either I have the right music to fry to, or I don't fry at all. It's that important to The Ritual. It's part of what gives each turkey its own distinct history and personality. So a few days later, while Lisa was out shopping with her mom and her dad was off on an errand, I drove our rental car (yah still looking for a permanent one after the Corolla was totaled) to Marietta, got a few things (including more marinade for the turkey) and at the Border's there I bought another copy of Transformers: The Score. So now that's five copies of this one CD that have been in our possession since the beginning of October!

But at least it's pretty easy to find now :-P

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Truck adorned with pics of aborted babies lands man in jail

This Associated Press story comes from Buford, Georgia, where the Mall of Georgia is located (one of the best-designed shopping malls that I've ever been too)...

Man arrested for truck showing images of aborted fetuses near Atlanta area mall

The Associated Press

BUFORD, Ga. -- Police have arrested a Missouri man for driving near the Mall of Georgia with a truck that showed large, graphic photos of aborted fetuses.

Gwinnett County police arrested Robert Roethlisberger Jr., 44, for disorderly conduct Friday. He was released from jail Monday on $1,200 bond.

Police went to the area after a caller reported seeing a panel truck displaying "bloody" and "gory" images. The truck had two large banners on each side and a banner on the rear of the truck, police said.

The images on the banners included the headless and bloody torso of an aborted fetus and the partially crushed head of an aborted fetus being held in forceps, police said.

An officer told Roethlisberger the banners were being displayed in an area full of shoppers and children. He was arrested after refusing to display less graphic banners instead, police said.

Police also impounded the truck and removed the banners from it. The truck was released from impound Monday, but the banners are being kept as evidence, Gwinnett County police Cpl. Illana Spellman said.

Roethlisberger is a driver for Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group.

The group called Roethlisberger's arrest "an egregious abuse of power."

Operation Rescue's president, Troy Newman, said the arrest was unconstitutional because the truck's display was protected under the First Amendment.

"We intend to vigorously fight these unjust charges and will seek a remedy for our property loss," Newman said. "We cannot allow the illegal use of police authority to bully us into silence."

I believe abortion is wrong... but this is not the right way to fight it. In fact, a stunt like this is perhaps more likely to galvanize indifference toward abortion as it is to impassion people to be against it.

And after watching the Operation Rescue people in action over the years, I have to wonder if they are doing things like this out of sincere concern for abortion. It could be just as likely that they do stunts like this because they want to be arrested. Because that gives them grounds to claim persecution. If they can project the notion that they are persecuted, then that - in their minds anyway - bestows upon them the status of being "legitimate". Legitimacy brings with it the quality of purpose. Take away the supposed rationale for persecution, and the assumed purpose likewise vanishes.

You see, I also have to wonder if people like the Operation Rescue folks are not secretly grateful that there is abortion: because it gives them something that they can use to assume importance and affluence.

All too often in affairs of human nature, there comes a point when the fight is no longer about a real cause, and it becomes a fight for sake of the fight itself. That's the surest sign of purpose gone astray. And there are also plenty of unscrupulous people out there who don't think twice about exploiting others' misplaced passion. It already happened a long time ago with the civil rights movement. It's also happened with the anti-abortion and "pro-family" movements, too.

In any case, the police were right to stop this guy. Mall of Georgia, especially at this time of year, is packed with families and small children. This sort of display is completely inappropriate for that kind of public venue.

EDIT 7:41 a.m. EST: If you can stomach it, here's a picture of Operation Rescue's "Truth Truck". This is something much larger than I had imagined it would be... and I'm downright horrified that something like that was driving around the Mall of Georgia on the day after Thanksgiving! Click if you must, but be warned: it's rather gruesome.

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"Nature Trail to Hell" live on stage!

Right now I'm averaging just one blog post a day. Which means that behind the scenes, I'm up to something.

But whenever I'm not on sabbatical from blogging (boy did that one go SNAFU or what?) I like to keep a little activity going so that the site doesn't stagnate.

Here's something that I found tonight that's well worth sharing: from a 1994 variety show at a New York high school, it's a live-action on-stage performance of "Weird Al" Yankovic's classic song "Nature Trail to Hell"!

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Some INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL pics!

Look at what Phillip Arthur has found: three sweet new pics from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! They all feature Harrison Ford as Indy and one of them has Shia LaBeouf as Indy's sidekick. Look closely at LaBeouf's leather jacket and it seems like the word "Mutt" is inscribed on the left side. Is that his character's name? Are the rumors true that LaBeouf is playing Indy's son? If so, "Mutt" would be kinda fitting, since Indy took his nickname after the family dog anyway :-P

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WATCHMEN official set photos!

Hey hey! Taking a bit of a break from getting my U.S. House campaign website up and running. Okay, at this point it's an "exploratory committee" and the website is going to reflect that. But it's still looking pretty good.

Anyhoo, I wouldn't normally break in from doing something serious like that (and it is a serious endeavor) unless it was pretty massively major and/or immensely cool. If you've been following this project for the 20 years that it's been attempted, then you'll understand that this certainly qualifies as both.

It's about Watchmen. Namely, the first officially released photos from the set.

I don't know what else to say but... "HOLY COW!!"

Zack Snyder and his crew have nailed it. So help me, they have actually nailed it. This is really going to happen.

Let's take a look, courtesy of this blog post on the official Watchmen site.

This first photo alone is enough to make me believe that this is finally going to work. If you've read Watchmen then you already know why this picture is a big deal...

A seemingly more innocuous pic but close inspection will reveal some more Watchmen eye candy...

Here's the Gunga Diner itself. See the taxi going past it? I'm assuming that this is being driven by the same female cabbie that we see a lot in the graphic novel. Look really close and you can see that she's even wearing the same hat!

And finally there is this one: a big re-election poster for President Nixon (this is taking place in the 1985 of an alternate-history Earth). And that's none other than Rorschach himself walking past it! Looks like he's headed toward the bar on the left. That can't possibly be a good thing...

So there ya have it: our first official glimpses of Rorschach, Bernie the newsstand vendor, the comic book kid, the Gunga Diner, the cabbie, the Nixon poster, "Who Watches The Watchmen?" graffiti, the Tales of the Black Freighter comic...

This could be to comic book movies what Gone With The Wind was to Civil War epics.

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