May | 2009 | Cavalcade of Awesome

Archive for May, 2009

Weekly Geeks 2009-18 – Your Hometown in Literature

Posted in books, Weekly Geeks with tags Alabama, books, Fannie Flag, Fried Green Tomatoes, Irondale Cafe, movies, Weekly Geeks on May 18, 2009 by Paxton

Weekly Geeks time. I haven’t been able to do a Weekly Geeks for a few weeks now, partly because I’ve been busy and partly because the last few themes have not interested me. But the one this week looks good. Here it is:

Share your fun literary facts about the town or area where you live. You can talk about famous (or not so famous) authors who live there, novels that have been set in your area, or any other literary facts that you know about where you live. Feel free to embellish with pictures of places and/or authors, maps of the area, and fun facts about the authors.

Today, I won’t talk about where I currently live, Jacksonville, FL, I’m going to talk about my hometown, Birmingham, AL. I was born in Birmingham in 1974 and lived there until I was 31 years old when I had to move for a job. But I plan on going back to live there someday. Anywho, we do actually have a famous author that was born and still lives in Birmingham (at least part time). She is Fannie Flagg, author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.

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The new Star Trek movie and fake IMAX

Posted in IMAX, movies, reviews, Star Trek with tags IMAX, movies, reviews, Star Trek on May 13, 2009 by Paxton

Well, the new Star Trek movie opened on Friday. And since Saturday was my birthday, my wife and I went to see it on Saturday afternoon. And since our local theater has AMC IMAX, that’s the format in which I wanted to see it.

First, I’m going to talk about the movie, then I’m going to give you a bit of a public service announcement about AMC IMAX.

First off, I’m a Star Trek fan. Not a Trekkie (or Trekker) but a fan. I loved the original series, Star Trek: The Next Generation and most of the movies. I even enjoyed reading Bill Shatner’s Star Trek Movie Memories book. So I was excited to see that JJ Abrams was re-imagining the original Star Trek crew. However, when I saw some of the casting choices, I was a little wary (except for Zach Quinto as Spock) because my love for the original crew was causing knee jerk reactions. But, when the first trailer was released…HOLY CRAP…I was on board in a big way. This thing looked fantastic. So on my birthday, I grabbed Steph and we went to our local AMC to watch the new movie. And since they had it in IMAX, I picked that because Star Trek on IMAX is gonna ROCK! Beam me up, Scotty!

And yes, the movie was everything I wanted it to be and more. Chris Pine was FANTASTIC as young Kirk. Played him perfectly. The scene where Kirk defeats the unwinnable Kobayashi-Maru test is everything I wanted it to be. The dynamic between Spock and Kirk is perfect. Karl Urban as Bones is phenomenal. The rest of the crew is also spot on. The action is awesome and the story lines are interesting and handled well. I want to see this again. Actually, I could watch it two more times. I couldn’t have asked for a better Star Trek movie. This is better than the majority of existing Star Trek movies. The only movies I’d put above this are Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek: First Contact. And this new one may move up the list as I watch it more often. My wife even loved this movie, and she doesn’t really like Star Trek. Go see it. I plan on watching it again.

Okay, now it’s time I mention the IMAX screening on which I saw Star Trek. AMC has really been pimping out that they are showing IMAX movies the last few months. I was excited, but I waited until a movie that would really show off the format was released before plunking down the extra $5. Star Trek was it. However, what I found out is that AMC IMAX is NOT the IMAX you are thinking of. When people think IMAX they think 70 ft screen and sound that blows out your eardrums. However, when AMC says IMAX, they mean IMAX’s proprietary digital picture and delivery system. The screen is only slightly larger than a regular movie screen, which is a FAR cry from the traditional IMAX screen. Check out this comparison I found on LFExaminer.

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My 15 step plan for surviving the Zombie Apocalypse

Posted in humor, pop culture, zombies with tags Apocalypse, humor, pop culture, Zombie Apocalypse, zombies on May 7, 2009 by Paxton

First of all, welcome to all the new readers who got here through StumbleUpon. Apparently someone recommended my McDonald’s commercials article from Tuesday and I got a flood of visitors “stumbling” onto my blog. So welcome new readers, hope you enjoy your stay and stick around to enjoy some AWESOME goodness. Today, I discuss, the Zombie Apocalypse.

It’s inevitable. There will be an apocalypse. The only question is, what kind? Will the computers become self-aware, rise up SkyNet-style and annihilate all humans? Will the robots we build all of a sudden get sick of being used to disarm bombs or fetch us a beer and rise up to take over the world? Maybe the mighty Leprechaun army will finally gather and surge against their overly tall oppressors who are constantly searching for their “pot ‘o gold”. Any of these scenarios are viable apocalypse situations. Another more popular situation involves the dead walking around feasting on living brain tissue. This one is known as the Zombie Apocalypse.

Every guy grows up knowing about these various apocalypse situations. Some believe more in the Computer Apocalypse, some put their money on the Robot Apocalypse. Now, I admit, on paper, the idea of living robots rising up against humanity or the undead walking the Earth eating brains sounds pretty bad ass but, in reality, the situation would be pretty horrifying. So, in preparation, many guys make their “Apocalypse Contingency Plan”. In the event of one of the aforementioned apocalypses actually happening, this “contingency plan” would allow you and your loved ones to survive the difficult coming months. So, as I’m a believer in World War Z (aka WWZ, aka Zombie Apocalypse), I thought I’d present to you my 15 step plan for surviving the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse.

Note: Early in our marriage, I let my wife in on this contingency plan. She laughed and mocked the idea of a zombie apocalypse. She is no longer a part of the contingency plan.

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More AWESOME McDonald’s commercials

Posted in advertising, fast food, food, McDonald's, nostalgia, pop culture with tags Hamburglar, McDonald's, nostalgia, pop culture, TV commercials on May 4, 2009 by Paxton

(Via SA_Steve)

Well, it’s ri-donk-ulous how popular my last McDonald’s commercial article became. It’s now constantly at the top of my blog traffic. So, I thought, why not write a sequel? I still search YouTube for old McD’s commercials, so it shouldn’t be hard to find some worthy of a look back. And, I was right, there are many that I can still talk about.

McDonald’s has always had really, really good commercials. Especially during the whole McDonaldLand era. All of those characters were awesome and almost every single one of the characters had their own commercial. So today, I thought I’d look at my favorite character and a few of his commercials.

I love the Hamburglar. He was always my favorite character. He had an awesomely kick ass name and he was a bit of a rebel. Also, check out the striped suit, the dude obviously did some time in prison. How cool is that? A children’s fast food mascot that did hard time. Awesome, indeed. So, in honor of our felon friend, here are a bunch of commercials that feature the Hamburglar. Click the title of the commercial or the image to see the commercial on YouTube.

hamburglar_touch1 hamburglar_touch2
The Hamburglar Touch – This was back in the ’80s/’90s when the McD commercials had title cards like a Looney Tunes cartoon. This commercial featured the Hamburglar dreaming about what it would be like to have everything he touched turn into a juicy hamburger. You can see the Hamburglar in this commercial looks different than the big picture above. The Hamburglar used to look more like a goblin, but they softened him up in the late ’80s to look more like a Cabbage Patch Kid. It’s tough to find commercials with the goblin face.