ALL HAIL THE CHIEF !

Our college buddy Matthew "Chief" Flesher dropped in for the week for his buddy Corbin's wedding last Sunday. We had dinner with him last Thursday and I finally got the pix outta my camera. I was disappointed as I was still expecting him to maintain the beard. Ironically Josh has one now, to hide him from the scary Snakes on a Plane he was too much of a wuss to watch.



Nonetheless it was great to see him since he left LA back in 1999. I hadn't seen him since DP Somar's Wedding in 2003.
We all met at President Clinton's favorite restaurant right here in the heart of Burbank, BJ's.





I've added Chief's Sculpting site on the side bar links. He's actually sculpted a few action figures that I actually own. I guess he's like Dave Deneen who's Buddy Christ I own as well.



Happy trails Chief buddy! Hopefully we'll see you soon!

Also - congrats to the Ryan's and their new spawn Jayden Ryan!

Fightin' Phillies are DANGEROUS

That's picture of The Phillies future - RYAN HOWARD who just passed MIKE SCHMIDT with the most Home Runs by a Phillie in one season. He currently has 48, (Schmidt had 47, with 536 total) as the Phillies suddenly have gotten hot, and are 1/2 game out of the Wild Card in the National League.

The Mets still have the best record in the National League, lead the Eastern Division, and second place Philly by 15 1/2 games.

Do they have a shot in the playoffs? Everyone does as the hottest team going into the playoffs has won THE WORLD SERIES in the 4 out of the last 5 played (Diamondbacks, Angels, Red Sox and Marlins). In September they'll play mostly crummy teams that'll give them an edge to hopefully make a playoff push in the Wild Card. But then The Mets will have to kick their asses.

I still have a lot of love for the 1993 Wild Bunch team that came up short; and for the record the first baseball glove I ever had was a Rawlings, "signed" by MIKE SCHMIDT.

INCREDIBLE

So far this August I'm 2 for 2. I've never heard of Vince Papale before; being from NYC I had the luxury and curse of having 2 teams for every major sport, so if one's stinking up the joint hopefully the other wasn't. Except for the Yankees who just suck.

When I went to College in Philadelphia, in 1989 I knew that I was in unfamiliar ground. I was a Mets / Rangers / Knicks / Giants & Jets Fan. But I was warned about the Philadelphia fans (the ones who made throwing snowballs at Santa Claus and opposing NFL teams fashionable) so the one time I went to a Phillies game in Sept. of 1989 at Vets stadium I didn't wear any METS regallia or open my mouth, especially since I went by myself.

As for the Eagles, I always had a healthy respect for them; even as a kid I thought their helmets looked cool with the wings on them, and the Randall Cunningham team of the late '80's early '90's were always exciting to watch.

How times have changed- Sports now is 1000% an Business and I feel that most of the millionaire players with their questionable character off the field makes watching football cold and lifeless for me, because of the mercenary way players move from team to team, only really caring about themselves.

Which is why INVINCIBLE is a lightning shot of confidence that makes you want to believe in sports figures and to bigger degree yourself again. Nothing is out of reach for anybody.

Mark Wahlberg's impressive performance rivals that of his star making turn in Boogie Nights, and dare I say it, Oscar Worthy. I don't believe that with the more "Serious, Cynical and Darker " films that end off each year he'll recieve one , but if Tom Hanks can win for "Forrest Gump" I don't feel that it's out of reach.

They captured the feel and essence of the 1970's Philadelphia real well, from the clothes, music, the location shooting, and even adding a dead ringer for Joe Lampone - the actor who play's Papale's best friend. According to Keegs this was a close to 1970's Philly as we're gonna get today.

Papale hits rock bottom before making each painstaking step closer to achieving his dream of playing for his hometown team, however it's his HUMILTY that makes him so special. I actually got choked up when at one point he causes a fumble on a kickoff, and ends up with touchdown- and stands with his arms outstretched, acknowledging the hometown fans and allowing all of them to live the dream with him. I really also liked the added real footage of the real Papale added at the end of the film. On the 30th anniversary of ROCKY I couldn't think of a better film to hand the torch to.

Invincible is OUTSTANDING.

FANGTASTIC !!!

Christmas cometh early my friends. After months of hype and chuckles, SNAKES ON A PLANE delivered. Big time. This was the first Hollywood movie that really lived up to all the publicity and hoopla surrounding it; I feel completely satisfied from wire to wire with this movie- because it didn't lie to the public about what it was - it did what it set out to do and give you and your $$ and rocking time at the movies. The Great American B movie might yet have a future my friends.

Yesterday's fun fiesta started with Cheesesteaks at the South Philly Steaks restaurant on Victory and Olive Blvds in Burbank @ 6pm. We had great debates about pop culture and the TRANSFORMERS, and - after gourging ourselves with greasy cuisine we set out to find our friend Russ waiting on line for us at the AMC 16 theater at 7:10pm. He was the second guy on line so everything was going to plan. The Crew for the night were Jon Gebhart, Keegs, Jay Warnesky, my buddy Eugene Abano from work at FOX, Kim Le, her boyfriend Ed, and about 10-11 of Gebahart's buddies at the Simpsons.

My Friend, Joshua Taback, I will note was a BIG PUSSY and didn't show up. Rrrrrarrrh!

ON WITH THE SHOW:

So we're let in at about 8:15pm for a 8:50pm show and had two split rows of people. At this point I was a little concerned about the movie as the theater wasn't full yet, but by showtime it was at 90% capacity. After the crummy "Pre Show" Countdowns and a few shitty trailers (Note: I will see "JACKASS 2"; and "Tenatious D and the Pick of Destiny") Sam and his friends were about to start.

The lights dimmed and the energy level rose as I, and the rest of the audience started to cheer and clap because SNAKES ON A PLANE was finally here. I'm not going to go on a detailed account of the movie as to not spoil it for everyone, but I will note a few great audience "POPS" that happened throughout the movie.

POP # 1 - The Villian screaming "whooo" Ric Flair style as his smacks his victim with a baseball bat.

POP # 2 - Sam Jackson's first appearance in the film the house went nuts.

POP # 3 - The Plane takes off from Hawaii / and then they show the cargo hold with the snakes.

POP # 4 - The snakes are released and all hell breaks loose on the plane, there are ways of killing people with snakes
I never thought of. The audience goes nuts for 40 mins straight.

POP # 5- Sam says the line "We gotta get these Muthafuckin' Snakes off this Muthafuckin' plane!" -It was great to hear but
a little anti climactic as we were all expecting it - there was an earlier line about the snakes that was just as funny.

POP #6 - A surprise "Pilot" causes the audience to cheer his name...

As movies with creatures go this one's at the top eschelon with ANACONDA, TREMORS, and LAKE PLACID. There were some genuine "scares" that made me jump out of my seat.

You'll have to hand it to Sam Jackson for not taking himself too seriously to make this movie; and the audience participation on this one was on par when I saw "There's Something About Mary" back in the late '90's. It was refreshing to see a movie and have fun again from beginning to end; and not complain about anything (plot,shot selection,editing etc.) because with a title like SNAKES ON A PLANE you honestly know what you're getting.

Maybe next time they'll re-name a movie like ARMAGEDDON- "OIL DRILLERS IN SPACE" and I'll actually enjoy it.


http://www.snakesonaplane.com

Saturday Snake Fever !

It's finally here. I'll be there with the crew Saturday night @ 8:50pm at the World Famous Burbank AMC 16...

I'm gonna cry tears of joy....

Just Gimme a Cocaine Addicted Donkey Already!

I got Snakes later on this week. Today I get Midgets who work at Target. The Mets are in first place. This week could only get better if George Lucas would CGI a puppet Yoda riding a Coke addicted Donkey in the first 3 Star Wars movies....

http://www.midgetswhoworkattarget.com.html


DOUBLE PRIZES !!!!! DOUBLE PRIZES, YEAH !!!!




The TRON GUY- I forgot who orignally sent me this link but this dude loves Tron (calling Joe Lampone)

Check out this guy's site here:

http://www.tronguy.net.html

I also got some free posters of Star Wars Episodes II and III that I'll be wiping my ass with later today. What a way to start a week!

P.S. I Love my Wife Shelley, and my baby girl Emily!

Seven Days...and counting....

Captain America is Cool again

There's a Civil War brewing in the Marvel Universe currently, and taking a cue from Brad Bird's "Incredibles", the American Government is making Superheroes register to become civil servants of America. This is after a bunch of "C" type Heroes with their own reality show get in over their heads; fight it out with some powerful supervillians, and end up tragically blowing up an entire school killing most of the children in it. The backlash becomes intense, and this creates a rift between a lot of the super powered community and a fierce debate turns into a battle royal between allies.

Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and others see this a natural progression and line up to reveal their secret identites and enlist with the Government, with the Pro Registration act. But the Hero that suprised me was CAPTAIN AMERICA who gives the Government the finger, kicks the crap out of 50 government agents, goes AWOL, all to defend the privacy and civil liberties of other superheroes who don't want to give up their identities...

So currently Cap's underground with a rag tag bunch of heroes who usually patrol the streets (Daredevil, Luke Cage) fighting a battle on two fronts- 1) Supervillans/Crime and the Government sanctioned heroes who now have to bring these renegade heroes in.

Not a bad way to revamp your character after 65 years....I'm also exicited because ULTIMATE AVENGERS 2 comes out tomorrow; and hopefully this will be better than the first one

GO CAP GO!!!!

Swayze, Mullets, and Kung Fu

I love this movie. I remember first seeing it in the theater in the late '80's and not knowing what to make of it.
I dug the action, was confused by the bad guy who lived across the river and started noticing a disturbing trend in action movies at that time, that lead had to show off their butts.

What makes ROADHOUSE so special? It's that guilty pleasure that most men have seen, and like a strange slow burn realize the greatness in it because of all it's flaws...A movie with mullets,kung-fu, monster trucks, and a Polar bear that falls on a fat guy? sign me up!

Recently a new DVD (the one in the picture above is the older release) was released with Commentary by the director Rowdy Harrington and a second commentary by filmmaker Kevin Smith who's a huge Roadhouse fan... I heard that he contacted MGM and begged them to do it even for free. The DVD even has a "What would Dalton do? " Feature and a Retrospective on the Cult fan base of this American B movie classic.

Furthermore an Off-Off Broadway play was done in honor of Swayze and CO



...his name is DALTON!