Sunday, August 22, 2010
Happy 90th Birthday to Ray Bradbury!
Jack Horkheimer - AKA the "Star Hustler" - has passed away
There's a whole heap o' amateur astronomers and no doubt quite a few professionals as well who can say that Jack Horkheimer, with his exuberant style and enthusiastic love of astronomy, was one of the biggest reasons why they took up naked eye stargazing. Every week since 1976 we'd see Horkheimer sitting on one of Saturn's rings (gotta love cheapo chromakey done clever) as he effervescently described the heavenly spectacles for the coming week.
A very cool guy, who I am told was just as nice and energetic in real life as he was on his television shows. He will be missed.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
How I spent my Saturday night
This evening I was on stage three times. Two of those I was appearing as either Elvis Presley, or as Jacob Black (the werewolf guy) from the Twilight saga.
Yes, there are pictures. And if y'all behave nice I might post them...
Friday, August 20, 2010
Classic SESAME STREET: Adults finally see Snuffy!
Thank the Lord for YouTube. 'Cuz without it, I would have probably gone the rest of my life without ever seeing this legendary moment for myself!
Kids watching Sesame Street these days are used to seeing Mr. Snuffleupagus mixing it up with his best friend Big Bird and all the other characters. But once upon a time the situation was very different. "Snuffy" was introduced to the show during Sesame Street's third season in 1971. He and Big Bird instantly became best friends. And Big Bird was eager to introduce Snuffy to all his other friends on Sesame Street, including the adults. Especially the adults!
But every time Big Bird hatched a plan that would introduce Snuffy to the grown-ups, something would always happen that would keep it from happening. Usually Snuffy would wind up splitting the scene right before the adults arrived. Other times, the adults would have their heads turned looking at something in the dire opposite direction of Snuffy, dashing Big Bird's plot once more.
This went on for... get this... FOURTEEN YEARS! It came to the point where hardly anybody believed Big Bird at all: to them, Snuffy was Big Bird's "imaginary friend".
But at long last, for Sesame Street's seventeenth season premiere on November 18th, 1985, Big Bird's scheme to reveal Snuffy to the world finally succeeded.
Reasons have varied for why Snuffy was outed. Many of the show's staff have said that by the mid-1980s there had been a lot of cases of child abuse and exploitation and the fear was that children wouldn't be believed if they had to tell their parents about "important things".
But it could also be argued that after fourteen years of "just barely missing" Snuffy, that Sesame Street's writers had completely run out of ways for the adults to keep from seeing him. Rather than stringing it out any longer, Sesame Street producers finally gave up and let Big Bird win his long battle for credibility.
I'd heard about this scene but until a few days ago had never actually witnessed it. This is... a HUGE thing for a guy like me, who did grow up watching Sesame Street and wondering if the adults would ever see Snuffy. My life is a little more complete now for getting to see this :-)
So without further ado, here is Big Bird - with a plan involving an early appearance by Elmo - revealing Mr. Snuffleupagus to the shocked and stunned adult cast of Sesame Street!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
About Roger Clemens and Congress...
My final thought for the day:
Why is Roger Clemens in trouble for lying to Congress... when Congress lies to us ALL the time and always gets away with it?
Chris sez that LIMBO is SUPER MARIO BROS. as envisioned by David Lynch!
Anyhoo, since I'd committed to only playing through the Dark Knight's exploits during the evening hours, my nighttime gaming needed a new cerebral experience... and Limbo is it! And even though I haven't reached the end of the game, I absolutely must pass along word of it to this blog's readers. Why?
'Cuz Limbo is like Super Mario Bros. had it been envisioned by David Lynch! Yeah, imagine Mario from the same mind that brought us Eraserhead, and that will be Limbo. It's a side-scrolling platform game (something we don't see much of anymore), totally rendered in a Gothic black and white palette and with a bare minimum of background noise. The nameless protagonist - a silhouetted little boy - is bereft of any features save two points of light depicting his eyes. You control him as he sets off to find his lost sister.
And between he and his goal are some of the nastiest, most brutal deaths that I've EVER seen in a video game. So far I've watched our hero be drowned, impaled, decapitated, and numerous other grisly bad ends. The first time he stepped into a steel-jawed trap that took off his head, my mouth couldn't contain the prolonged scream of abject shock that came from my lungs. And Limbo contains many such moments...
Limbo is a testament to how an excellent game (or even a movie or television series) doesn't need a ridiculously exorbitant budget and high-end production values. All it takes is a little creativity and a daring imagination to pull off a memorable experience that will engage, entrance and enchant the player. Limbo is available for 1200 points on the Marketplace for Xbox Live Arcade. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Salvation: Plain and simple
I haven't reported much lately about the nefarious goings-on of local cult leader Johnny Robertson and his "Church of Christ" (which again, has nothing to do with the real Churches of Christ). Number of reasons for that, not the least of which is that I've been quite busy this summer with ummm... "other projects". And because as one good friend noted: Robertson and his cronies (and the bisexual criminal that they give so much business to) aren't really worth getting into a huff over. That I've got bigger and better things in my life. Heck, Yours Truly was the most-watched person on television across the continent of Australia last night! And this blog gets many more more - and altogether a better quality - readers than the cult gets viewers. That's been enough to make me content...
...But I couldn't resist posting and sharing this next item, because it is a positivalutely brilliant and exceptionally clever point.
A reader named Jessica e-mailed me the following thought this afternoon:
"Johnny Robertson makes salvation complicated for simple people. Jesus Christ makes salvation simple for complicated people."Very, very true.
And that's something that doesn't just pertain to, as one person put it, "Hypocrites On Parade". It applies to a lot of people.
It's something to think about for anyone who believes that we have to somehow "earn" or "merit" our salvation by being perfect in every way imaginable. When in truth, such a thing is simply not possible!
God isn't waiting for us to be "correct" in our spirituality, in our doctrine, or whatever. God is waiting for us to do nothing more than to desire Him and to cry out for His grace... because without that grace alone, we are lost.
We are taught from scripture that "Ask, seek, and ye shall find." That is a promise. To those who seek, however it is that they might be seeking, they will certainly find. Maybe not to our own satisfaction, but certainly to God's.
Who are any of us then to complicate the matter with our own expectations?
