I wonder if their marketing people realize that any nerd guy who would remotely want to wear this automatically knows that the “red shirts” always end up dead:
Archive for the ‘Media/Pop Culture’ Category
To boldly smell like no man has smelled before!
Thursday, June 24th, 2010Steiners + Chapmans = I like
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
Equal time for Philliefan
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010Unlike my earlier post, I don’t have a major gripe to address regarding baseball announcers nor will any manatees be in harm’s way this time (well, no more than they normally are, anyway).
But my friend Barb alerted me to this, as she put it, “copycat photo” and I feel it deserves a post of its own. Inspired by my posting of Paula’s pic with her guy and the Stanley Cup, Barb’s recent excursion to Citizen’s Bank Park resulted in the following act of goofiness she had to explain to her companions devoted fandom with the Commissioner’s Trophy:
I just wish that our picture of Lester, The Dude and me with the Stanley Cup nine years ago wasn’t trapped on an ancient Mac that I can never seem to get around to taking to my local computer folks to mine it for that pic and a lot of other stuff, including the first draft of my novel. I promise to get it done some time before The Grrl (who was too young to take to our encounter with the Cup) graduates high school. Considering that she’s graduating middle school this week, that should give me enough time.
By the way, Barb, this demonstration that our friendship transcends any sports grudges I hold rivalries we share means that at the first opportunity we get, lunch is on you. Yes, I’m aware that the Phillies really just got even with the Rox for their sweep (!) in ‘07. But seeing as your guys committed the more recent offense… 
A moment of silence, please…
Sunday, May 16th, 2010…for one of the legendary noisemakers of metal, he of the tiny body and enormous pipes, Ronnie James Dio.
For most of last evening and into the wee hours, “rumors” swirled about the internet that he had already passed as a result of the stomach cancer he disclosed publicly only last month. While the information was inaccurate at the time, it turns out to have been merely seven or eight hours premature.
The following statement from his wife Wendy currently appears on his official website (when it isn’t crashing under the traffic caused by a worldwide outpouring of grief and condolences)…
“Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45am 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever. – Wendy Dio”
(As Ronnie was being treated at a leading cancer hospital in Houston, that time is presumably Central Daylight Time.)
I not only had the honor of seeing this legend play the last show of his first solo tour — Holy Diver — at the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara in 1983, but also in 2007 when the “Dio Era Black Sabbath” lineup (always my personal favorite, all due respect to Ozzy) reunited and toured as “Heaven and Hell”, the name of their first album; The Dude declared we HAD to go, and now I’m extremely glad in a very bittersweet way that he did.
Rest in peace, Ronnie. You sang, “Some light can never be seen”, but in actual life, yours could not possibly have been missed.
The Vegas Kings (1957–1958)
Ronnie & The Ramblers (1958)
Ronnie and the Red Caps (1958–1961)
Ronnie Dio and the Prophets (1961–1967)
The Electric Elves (1967–1969)
The Elves (1969–1970)
Elf (1970–1975)
Rainbow (1975–1979)
Black Sabbath (1979–1982)
Dio (1982–1991)
Black Sabbath (1991–1992)
Dio (1993–2010)
Black Sabbath (2006) (Recording of three new songs for Black Sabbath: The Dio Years)
Heaven and Hell (2006–2010)
Speaking of Neil Peart, let’s get Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson in on this as well…
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010Well, seeing as how I “came out” as a Rush fan in this blog post (and you wouldn’t believe how many Google and Bing hits it’s gotten!), I would be remiss to not use this platform to help spread the word:
Look out, Neil Peart –
Monday, May 10th, 2010— you have a competitor, sir. Meet Howard Wong, age four. Thanks to Wyo Cowboy for the find.
Testing using Journey
Saturday, May 8th, 2010This is a test post to see if I can get my phone to play nice with my blog. However, most of you know by now that I never put up anything completely worthless, so here’s your added value — I took this pic on the old RedMex route. Somebody with a pretty sharp sense of humor got some stencils and spray paint and tagged more than a few of these in the neighborhood, and this was my favorite:
Just in time for The Summer Concert Season
Saturday, May 8th, 2010As a public service, this blog would like to provide the following guide to correctly identifying each act you will encounter at your varying summer music festivals which prompts you to ask, “Who the hell is that?”
Presenting Every Summer Music Festival You’ve Ever Been To:
(Thanks to collegehumor.com)
50 Lessons We’ve Learned From The Movies
Monday, May 3rd, 2010
This made the rounds a while back, and I wish I could claim it, but I think it’s sufficiently good (and not beaten to death) that it’s worth posting:
UPDATE: The illustrious MartiniShark informs me that, quote, “These are all entrants in Roger Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary.” Yay, I can accurately credit this piece! Assuming he’s right, that is… but this is a guy I will take on faith:
1. If being chased through town, you can usually take cover in a passing St Patrick’s Day parade – at any time of the year.
2. All beds have special L-shaped top sheets that reach up to armpit level on a woman but only waist level on the man lying beside her.
3. All grocery shopping bags contain at least one loaf of French bread.
4. Once applied, lipstick will never rub off – even while scuba diving.
5. The ventilation system of any building is a perfect hiding place. No one will ever think of looking for you in there and you can travel to any other part of the building without difficulty.
6. Should you wish to pass yourself off as a German officer, it will not be necessary to speak the language. A German accent will do.
7. The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window of any building in Paris.
8. A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.
9. When paying for a taxi, never look at your wallet as you take out a note – just grab one at random and hand it over. It will always be the exact fare.
10. If you lose a hand, it will cause the stump of your arm to grow by 15cm.
11. Mothers routinely cook eggs, bacon and waffles for their family every morning, even though the husband and children never have time to eat them.
12. Cars and trucks that crash will almost always burst into flames.
13. A single match will be sufficient to light up a room the size of a football stadium.
14. Medieval peasants had perfect teeth.
15. All single women have a cat.
16. Any person waking from a nightmare will sit bolt upright and pant.
17. One man shooting at 20 men has a better chance of killing them all than 20 men firing at one.
18. Creepy music coming from a graveyard should always be closely investigated.
19. Most people keep a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings – especially if any of their family or friends has died in a strange boating accident.
20. It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involved martial arts – your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessor.
21. During a very emotional confrontation, instead of facing the person you are speaking to, it is customary to stand behind them and talk to their back.
22. When you turn out the light to go to bed, everything in your room will still be clearly visible, just slightly bluish.
23. Dogs always know who’s bad and will naturally bark at them.
24. When they are alone, all foreigners prefer to speak English to each other.
25. Rather than wasting bullets, megalomaniacs prefer to kill their arch-enemies using complicated machinery involving fuses, pulley systems, deadly gases, lasers and man-eating sharks that will allow their captives at least 20 minutes to escape.
26. Having a job of any kind will make all fathers forget their son’s eighth birthday.
27. All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red readouts so you know exactly when they’re going to go off.
28. It is always possible to park directly outside the building you are visiting.
29. A detective can only solve a case once he has been suspended from duty.
30. If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone you bump into will know all the steps.
31. If you decide to hack into the CIA database, all you need is a laptop and an internt connection. it will usually take about 10 seconds to get into the system and you will usually be undetected.
32. No matter how dirty the water is, it is still possible for you to jump in and open your eyes underwater. You’ll be able to see everything clearly and your eyes wont hurt.
33. In every bar you go into, the bartender will always know how to make any and every long named drink of your choice.
34. When walking in a quiet and dark area, its only fair to ask if someone is there.
35. It’s always possible to outrun an explosion or fireball by running straight towards the camera, sometimes in slow motion.
36. The prologue and/or epilogue, when applicable, is always narrated by a soothing calm monotone voiced individual, preferably Morgan Freeman.
37. Never be afraid to jump off of a building into an open dumpster, as the contents will most likely always be clean, fluffy garbage bags.
38. Most police officers HATE partners. If they do have a partner that they trust and like, s/he will die.
39. The last bad guy in a shootout is too tough to die fast like everyone else. He must pretend to give up or be dead, and suddenly try to shoot one of the good guys. Then and only then can he die quickly.
40. Cars can screech tires and burn rubber even if they’re on gravel or sand.
41. Everybody’s phone number starts with 555.
42. Monsters always make noise before attacking.
43. If you have face stubble, you have a dark mysterious past.
44. Ancient Romans had English accents.
45. Nobody has morning breath in the movies…the first thing a couple does is kiss each other when they wake up.
46. All helicopter crashes occur on the other side of the mountain.
47. Computers in sci-fi films have either male or female voices that speak in a calm, reassuring tone even in the most extreme situations.
48. In high speed chases, no car ever runs out of gas.
49. Funerals usually happen when it rains. The hardest, bravest, coolest person is usually the one without an umbrella or hat and usually stands alone either to the side or behind everyone.
50. If you’re a female who has never been on a date or even been hit on, don’t worry. All it takes is some contacts, new hair styles, and new clothes to make you the baddest bitch in town.
