Foamheads

Now that the NFL pre-season is winding down and meaningful football games are going to be played soon, I think its time for everyone to start gearing up for watching the games. Behold: Foamheads! Conveniently available from the NFL Shop. Here are some of my favorites:





Oh, if only I could have them all. (Except the Patriots, of course. Boo! Hiss!)

Being a Raider fan, I especially love the Oakland Raiders foamhead. When you think of the typical Raiders fan, you think of this:


But look at the lovable smiling pirate. He looks like a big, happy foam Smurf.



Go Raiders!

It's All Ruined!

The other day at work I was surfing doing research on Amazon, and I came across the DVD for Idle Hands, a movie probably best known for having a young Jessica Alba. I don't remember much about the movie, except that it was kind of a black comedy about dead guys coming back to life. What caught my attention was how crappy the DVD cover was to the original poster. I remember back when the movie came out in 1999 they advertised it on the back of comic books, and the distinctive poster design really caught my eye and stuck with me all these years.

I imagine there are legal issues of usage involved, but they sure went from good to crappy real fast:

DVD Cover

Movie Poster

Speaking of other downhill slides, the movie poster for the 2008 Day of the Dead remake (which I never saw, and did it even come out in theaters, or was it straight to video?) is kind of cool. But for some reason they traded cool for a big pile of turd with the DVD cover:

DVD Cover

Movie Poster

Sure, the DVD cover was a lenticular image of a vomiting zombie (which may be a real bonus for some people), but it really didn't improve on the original poster. Look at that drooling zombie. That's quality.

One last one - Dead Man's Shoes was a movie that came out in the UK in 2004, but from what I gather was only released on DVD in the US. It was a surprisingly good revenge movie, but I think they made a mistake with the DVD cover:

DVD Cover

Movie Poster

The DVD cover isn't that bad, but I really wish they could have reused the movie poster design since its got a lot more of a graphic punch. Incidentally, I like the horizontal format that they use for movie posters in the UK and Europe. Why can't we do that more over here?

Poor Lily Allen

I don't know really know anything about Lily Allen...I know she's a British singer, but I don't know any of her songs. However, I find this picture hilarious:


She was outside of a nightclub one evening, and the following allegedly ensued:

Allen was filmed walking along the street when a female passer-by called her a "f**king a**ehole."

Lily then retaliated, and shouted: "Yeah, come and say that to my face you f**king c**t. "Where is that b**ch man? I'll f***ing batter her."

Allen then approached the woman, punching her several times in the back of the head, before adding: "Violence is bad."

Yes, Lily. Violence is bad. What makes this picture so funny is the "ha ha, Lily Allen is trying to punch me" look on the lady's face, as she and her friend try to leave the scene. Poor Lily didn't even connect...she just hit hair. Ow! Lily, stop it!

The Dark Knight

It's been out over a month already, but we finally saw The Dark Knight the other day (the IMAX version, of course), and it blew my mind.

Excuse me while I pick up the pieces of my blown mind. It was so good, it absolutely rocked. It just jumped to the top of my list as the best comic-based movie ever. It was gripping from start to finish, and there really wasn't a slow moment in between. Even in the quieter moments, there was still a dire urgency to it all.

Christian Bale was his usual menacing, gravelly-voiced Batman. Aaron Eckhart was good (wouldn't his left eye dry out if he didn't blink?); Maggie Gyllenhaal was good (way better than Katie Holmes). Heath Ledger was great - they should give the guy the posthumous Oscar. I'm glad Gary Oldman got a more substantial role this time out; its always nice to see him as the good guy rather than the nutcase bad guy. My only question is, why did they need Cillian Murphy?

I'm not sure if they should make another one after this - how can they possibly top it? One thing for sure: they should never do another version of the Joker. Let's call the Heath Ledger version the definitive onscreen one, and leave it at that.

Hatch Show Print

I was in Nashville, Tennessee this week for work, and I took a couple of hours to venture over to Hatch Show Print, a famous printing company known for their distinctive style of concert and advertising posters.


Hatch Show Print can be found in downtown Nashville, a block away from Sommet Center, where the Nashville Predators hockey team plays. The shop is nestled among a stretch of country music clubs and cowboy boot stores.


The shop has an area in front where you can buy posters and souvenirs, but otherwise its totally open to the rest of the printing facilities. I'd feel kind of weird if someone was always watching me work, but I guess the workers here are used to the tourists coming and going.


Hatch Show Print has always used the old-school letterpress printing method which is so instrumental in their posters' unique look. Everything is still done by hand, and there are no fancy modern printing presses to be found.


I wasn't really in the market for buying posters, but it was neat to be able to them up close. If I had a wad of cash, I would have bought a stack. Instead, I just got a coffee mug (to go with my South Carolina Michelin Man mug).


For a much better history than I could ever give, there's a great book available from Chronicle Books.

A New Member of the Family

Our video game, family that is. After collecting a myriad of gift cards, reward zone certificates, coupons, and all the loose change I could find, we went to our local Best Buy and picked an Xbox 360 Elite! At last!

Oddly enough, it was much easier than getting a PS3. I guess it really helps to wait three years after it was initially released.

Don't worry, PS3... I still love you.

Play nice, PS3. Don't knock your little brother off the shelf.

San Diego!

What's that smell? Do I detect the unmistakable odor of the great unwashed?

Yes folks, it's time for the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con International! Also simply known as "Comic-Con", to those in the know. I prefer to call it "San Diego", because this is pretty much the only place we ever go whenever we are in San Diego. (No offense intended to the million plus people that live there).

We had lots of fun last year as we do every year, and I'm expecting more of the same this time around: overwhelming crowds of people, freebies, endless wandering, and all the A to Z-list celebrities you can shake a stick at. Of course, let's not forget the putrid smell of the lunatic fringe letting their freak flag fly. Like cutting into a onion, it makes my eyes water just thinking about it.

So if you're ready, strap on your elbow pads and let's go!

Celebrity Sighting

We were walking down the street in Montclair Village the other weekend, and who did we see?

Delroy Lindo.

Who's Delroy Lindo? Silly rabbit, you've seen him before. He's been in a lot of movies, but to me he will always be Issak O'Day, Aaliyah's father in Romeo Must Die.

At least we though it was him. I don't know what he was doing in our neck of the woods, but apparently he lives in San Francisco, so it isn't so far-fetched. He was just walking down the street, whistling to himself, and when we passed him we both had that "hey, wasn't that.." look on our faces. He's shorter than I thought he would be, but I guess the camera adds 4 to 6 inches to your height.

Well, That's Just Great

There's a saying that goes, "If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they're yours; if they don't they never were". In other words, say you have a new-found love for something, like O-Ke-Doke Cheese Popcorn. If you search the internet for place to buy this popcorn, but you come up empty, was it never meant to be?

Here's the whole, sordid story: while traveling to Michigan on business, I discovered O-Ke-Doke Cheese Popcorn. It had a name that aspired to mediocrity, and it came in an awful orange package, but boy, did it taste good.

Since then, I looked for places online to buy it. Amazon has a listing for it, but it simply teases that it may become available sometime soon. The company that make the popcorn, Jay's Foods, has a website that merely states "come back soon". There don't seem to be any other online stores that sell it.

I've finally called the search off. I found this news article from January of this year: after 80 years, Jay's Foods has closed its doors and auctioned off its manufacturing equipment. It turns out that by the time I had discovered it in March, it was already dead.

Oh, the humanity!

R.I.P., sweet O-Ke-Doke - we hardly knew ye

Nozza Whirl

Detroit, Again

Somehow, I ended up in Detroit again. Clinton Township, to be more precise; about 30 miles northeast from Detroit. The strange thing about this area was that there weren't any freeways. All you have to get from one place to another are these long, straight stretches of road, with not a whole lot to see other than trees, powerlines, or one or two-story buildings. Here, take a look:

This is what you see for miles and miles. As you make a turn, you hope that the scenery will change a little bit...

Nope, still the same. Except now the sun is in your eyes.

Overall, a disappointing trip. I didn't even get a chance to pick up some more of that delicious cheese popcorn.

The one interesting nugget from my trip: my rental car had a pull string inside the trunk if somehow find yourself trapped inside:

I love how the diagram at the end of the ripcord advises you to run once you get out. I guess nine times out of ten, it isn't a very positive situation to be trapped in someone's trunk. It's also made out of glow-in-the-dark material, so you can find it easily while you struggle in the dark. What will they think of next?

South Carolina: Dum Spiro Spero

The other week I had the opportunity to visit Greenville, South Carolina. I had never been to this state before and really knew absolutely nothing about it. When my co-workers asked me where I was going, I said "Greenville, South Carolina" in a fake country accent, and occasionally punctuated it with a "yeehaw". Shows you what I knew.

You know what? Greenville was a surprisingly nice place to visit. After my construction punchlist was done, I had a few hours to see what there was to see. Here's what I saw:

There's a BMW plant in Spartanburg a town right next to Greenville. The plant has a museum called BMW Zentrum, the only museum of its kind in the US. They have all kinds of vintage cars, motorcycles and engines on displays. It was an interesting to look at the inner workings of car I'll probably never own (I'm primarily a Honda kind of guy).



Greenville has a nice little downtown area that contains a nice park and a bridge called the Liberty Bridge. It's a curved pedestrian bridge that is supported by two large posts mounted at a angle. Its a little derivative of a Santiago Calatrava-style bridge, but it's a nice structure in a pleasant setting.



The crown jewel of the city is without a doubt the Michelin on Main store, the only store in the US devoted entirely to Michelin Man merchandise! If you know me, then you know I love a good advertising mascot, and the Michelin Man is one of my favorites (heck, one of my first blog entries was about the Michelin Man).





The store was kind of like the M&M's store in Las Vegas - it was a two-story monument to their mascot. As I looked around, I felt a tear welling up in my eye. Maybe it was because Bibendum was getting the respect he deserves. Maybe it was because of the prices on some of the merchandise. I ended up buying some t-shirts and other assorted knicknacks. I'm especially pleased with my new Michelin Man coffee mug.

Detroit, Land of Cheese Popcorn

I was in Detroit the other week for work (Novi, Michigan to be precise), and it was cold. Bloody cold. Here's how I remember Detroit:

It's good to be home. On the plus side, in my never-ending quest for snacks, I found this gem during my trip:

I love the slogan: "When it's more than OK, it's O-Ke-Doke!" In other words, "we're not the best, but certainly better than average!" I love the see-through yellow bag, which enhances the cheesiness of the popcorn, as if it wasn't cheesy enough. It's almost too good to be true.

I packed this treasure of a snack and brought it home for us to try. You know what? It was delicious! This was some of the best cheese popcorn we've ever had! I'm going back to Detroit in a couple of weeks, and I'm getting some more.

Mmmmm.... cheese popcorn.

Dave Stevens

I'm way late on this, but Dave Stevens, one of my favorite comic book artists of the eighties, passed away at the age of 52 due to leukemia.


This makes me sad. He was a talented artist.

Al, What Happened To Your Head?

...And the winner of "the worst job of splicing Al Pacino's head on a body that is clearly not his own" is....


...And Justice For All! Hooah!

Crab Crawl

We went to the 2nd annual Crab Crawl at Jack London Square this weekend. I had this event marked on my calendar weeks ago. We hadn't been to it before, but it was advertised to have fresh crab for sale right off the boats, crab cooking demonstrations, crab dishes from local restaurant, live music, and everybody's favorite, face painting.

Unfortunately, we saw only one fishing boat, but there was no crab on it. There were no cooking demonstrations to be found. There were only four booths serving crab (actually three, the fourth booth only had BBQ oysters). If it hadn't been for the live music and the face painting, the day would have been a total disappoinment. Crab Crawl 2008 was a little underwhelming, to say the least.

On the positive side, we did have a tasty crab & artichoke dip from Kincaid's. We also had some very tasty crab enchiladas with some kickass rice from Cocina Poblana, a new restaurant in the area. Add a couple of cups of strawberry and watermelon agua frescas, and we were stuffed. I think we'll be checking out this restaurant sometime in the near future.

Overall, Crab Crawl wasn't the crustacean wonderland that I was hoping for. I was hoping to revel in all things crab, and it just didn't turn out that way. However, we had a great lunch and got a little fresh air, so I've got nothing to complain about.

Sucker!