Author Archive

I think I just TRON’d in my shorts

Posted in movies, Tron with tags , , on March 9, 2010 by Paxton

Tron book

The new trailer for the TRON sequel (TRON: Legacy) was released before Alice in Wonderland this past weekend which almost had me go see Alice just to see the trailer.  Back in 1998 I actually bought a ticket to the Rugrats movie just to see the Star Wars Phantom Menace trailer (which was twice as good as the actual movie) and then promptly walked the hell out.  And I almost did it again.

But I’m glad I didn’t because today, the trailer is popping up all over the internet and it’s every bit as f***ing awesome as you want it to be.  Neon piping, discs, light cycles and JEFF BRIDGES.

You can see the trailer from its source on this website where it originally popped up. You can also download it from that site.

Someone downloaded it from the site and then posted it to YouTube. Thank you to whomever did that.

Now prepare yourself because this trailer is going to have wild, angry, monkey sex with your eyeballs and then not call them in the morning.

If this movie does nothing else but lead to an awesome modernization of the Discs of TRON video game, prepare for me to spontaneously erupt into a cacophony of creaming geek orgasms.

Discs of Tron

Share this post:

Add to FacebookAdd to DiggAdd to Del.icio.usAdd to StumbleuponAdd to RedditAdd to BlinklistAdd to TwitterAdd to TechnoratiAdd to Yahoo BuzzAdd to Newsvine

Welcome to all of my new readers — Some reading suggestions

Posted in blogging on March 8, 2010 by Paxton

My Time Magazine cover

Well, my last article, 17 things I learned about life from watching movies and TV hit WordPress.com’s front page over the weekend and exploded like an atom bomb onto the Internet. They probably felt the aftershocks all the way on Mars. I’ve had one other article make the WordPress front page, it was my look at 5 Hilariously Inappropriate Star Wars Items, but it didn’t cause near as much traffic as this past weekend.  I didn’t even get as much traffic when TIME MAGAZINE linked to one of my McDonald’s articles (yes, that actually happened…click the link).

As a matter of fact, I think the article is still on WordPress’s front page. Thank you to all the new readers for your awesome, awesome comments. I have nearly 4 years of blog articles in my Archives of Awesome (see to the right) for you to dig into, so get a move on, read some more awesome stuff. I am currently working on this week’s articles.

Just to let everyone know how things usually work around here, I put up roughly two articles a week, more if the mood strikes me. I talk a lot about pop culture entertainment; movies, TV, soda and fast food (Just to name a few).  Check the side bar for “Things I write about” to see a subject tag that may interest you.

The majority of the stuff I’ve written has been on this blog, but I’ve also had articles published on Monkey Goggles and I’m a member of the not very exclusive Cracked.com comedy writer staff (but have yet to get anything passed the editors for publication).

Anyway, I thought I’d give you guys a little primer on the stuff I write here on the Cavalcade.  Here are some suggestions for your reading pleasure.

Windows 7 Whopper
I love fast food and fast food advertising.  Check out these popular fast food articles:
The Golden Archives: McDonald’s Sandwich Hall of Fame
What our favorite fast food joints looked like back in the day Part I
Double Meat Beast Whopper: 6 Completely Insane Fast Food Menu Items

New Coke CHANGE
I also love soda. I have several articles looking at the history of soda in popular culture:
Misunderstood: The Saga of New Coke Part I
Pepsi Patio: The Little Known Origin of Diet Pepsi
I unsuccessfully attempt to taste and review 4 alcoholic energy sodas without getting completely hammered

For some more of my straight humor articles check out my look at 8 absolutely horrible DVD covers that you can find on store shelves or my rage against people who don’t know how to order food from a Subway menu.

Shark v Ninja
Every year on Dec 5 this blog celebrates Ninja Day and those Ninja Day articles are pretty popular (click the Ninja Day link to see all of these articles).  Check out Ninja Day 2009: Things that make a bad ass ninja…well, BAD ASS or Ninja Day 2008: What it’s like to be a bad ass ninja.

Some other popular articles:

7 Time Machines that Would Suck if they existed in the Real World
The Grocery Aisle of Long Forgotten Breakfast Cereals Part I

So click around my archives, check out some of the good stuff I have written. I’ll have some new articles for you this week.

17 Things I’ve learned about life from watching movies and TV

Posted in hollywood life lessons, humor, movies, pop culture, TV shows with tags , , , , on March 4, 2010 by Paxton

1000-tvs1

My wife and I watch a lot of movies and TV shows. We love the s**t out of them. We try to see a movie at least every weekend and we have multiple shows we watch during the week. It’s hectic keeping up with that.

However, having watched all of these movies and TV shows, we have come to take away many deep and thoughtful life lessons. Things you can’t learn by living life, but by watching hours and hours of Hollywood entertainment.

So here are 17 things we’ve learned while watching all of these TV and movies.

Davy Jones
You will always have need of a celebrity (for a charity performance or prom) at the exact time that celebrity is in town for a concert or filming a movie/TV appearance. If you need to get in to see them, it’s very easy to sneak past or distract their security people because they are always completely ineffective. The celebrity will never get pissed that their security people suck and everyone keeps sneaking in to their hotel room.

Monica's Apt
Large, studio apartments (with or without wacky roommate[s]) are affordable even for the most meager of budgets. As are furnishings from Potterybarn or Crate and Barrel. College kids and people right out of college have immaculate decorating sense.

Jolie Wanted
If you are being held at gunpoint, start running away just as the shooter starts shooting and tip over a table/couch/chair to hide behind. The bullets won’t be able to hit you. Odds are the shooter is a terrible shot anyway, and will hit EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE ROOM except for you. If you do get hit, don’t worry, bullet wounds apparently don’t hurt very much as no one cries out or whimpers with a bullet in them. You mainly shrug it off and wait for someone to bandage you up (heavy, stuttered breathing and sweating may be the only symptom that you have been shot). You may also have a sudden urge to tell your partner to “go on without you”, even with a non-fatal bullet to the shoulder.

Dirty_Harry
When you walk into a room and see the person you are trying to capture or shoot, call out their name or yell ‘Hey!’ or ‘Stop!’ first to give them a sporting chance to run. The element of surprise is overrated…and unfair.

Mr Miyagi
If you are being bullied at school, seek out the friendly, ethnic janitor or find your apartment building’s gardener or handyman. All of these eccentric, foreign, older men were actually master martial artists back in their homeland and gave up the fame and glory of being badass tournament fighters to live the dream of being a janitor/handyman here in America.

Defeat
You can defeat a master martial artist who has been studying for his entire life if you spend a few weeks/months learning to fight from the aforementioned janitor or handyman.

Continue reading

Abraham Lincoln is going to stake some undead asses and other historical thrillers

Posted in books, pop culture, vampires with tags , , on March 3, 2010 by Paxton

Well, here’s some pretty awesome news. Seth Grahame-Smith, author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has released his next book. And it’s another fusing of old and AWESOME. It’s called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

The story surrounds a newly found “journal of Abraham Lincoln” that has never before been seen by anyone. In it, we discover that Lincoln’s mother was killed by a vampire over one of his father’s debts.  When the truth became known to the young Abraham Lincoln, he wrote in his journal: “henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become learned in all things—a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose.”

Using the newly found journal as his guide, Grahame-Smith tells the unknown history of one of our greatest presidents and his quest to kill every undead demon he comes across.

I’ll admit, vamps have become a little played out the last few years (thank you, Twilight).  However, this idea is cool and I’m 98% sure these vamps won’t sparkle in the f***ing sun.

Continue reading

Cola Wars: Awesome Vintage Coke commercials

Posted in 80s, Coca Cola, New Coke, pop culture, soda with tags , , , , , , on February 26, 2010 by Paxton

Sodapalooza

Yesterday I was reminiscing about the Coke/Pepsi “Cola Wars” back in the ’80s and ’90s. I took a look back at a bunch of Pepsi’s most famous commercials from that era. If you missed it, I urge you to check it out.

Now, let’s take a look at the other side of the coin, Coca-Cola. They have come up with some pretty famous commercials of their own. Let’s take a look back in time at some of Coke’s most famous TV ads.


Coke’s 1971 Teach the World to Sing commercial (video above) is undoubtedly their most famous advertisement.  It is so famous that it received two official sequels.  First, during the 1971 holiday season, Coke released a Christmas version of the commercial that ended in darkness with all the candles the people were holding in the shape of a Christmas tree. Then, in 2005, Coke inexplicably allowed singer/songwriter G Love to create a horrible douchebag hipster alternative rock version called Teach the World to Chill.  Might have been a worse idea than New Coke.


If the “hilltop” commercial above isn’t Coke’s most famous, then this 1979 Mean Joe Greene commercial is.  It’s still today a fantastic commercial.  Of course, in 2009, Coke filmed a sequel to the Mean Joe Greene commercial with Troy Polamalu.


The 11:30 Diet Coke break from 1996 is another popular Coke commercial.  I remember it airing what felt like every 5 minutes.  And, wait, I’m shocked to say this, but, in 2007 Coke filmed a sequel to the 11:30 commercial.  Talk about milking a concept dry.  I wonder if any of Coke’s commercials haven’t had a sequel.

Continue reading