The Fat Man Does Good by Zangz!

Well, I guess I have to eat a bit crow here. My last post was quite the rant about how Xmas bites it hard as a holiday and how I'm not much of a Xmas kind of guy and that getting an Xbox 360 out of relatives was looking like nothing more than a pipe dream. There was also that smarmy comment about the band Stryper looking like a bunch of bumble bees.

I admit it. I was in quite the Ebeneezer Scrooge mode and must apologize to those of you who might hold the holidays near and dear to your hearts (and also to the throng of outraged Stryper fans). For I was visited by three ghosts on Xmas eve who all reminded me what the true meaning of the holiday should mean to me......

Getting a bunch of money for an Xbox 360!!!! That's right kids, the "Family Donation Xmas Fund to Buy Zangz and Xbox 360 Foundation" came through in a pinch and come this weekend, I'll be playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in a zombie-like addictive game mode type of vibe. Ahhh... ya just got to love Xmas.

Other good news that has come upon this holiday is that my favorite band, Type-O-Negative, have moved up the date of their next recording opus (Tentatively titled: Dead Again) from their original date of the 7th of Never to the 13th of March! It may take them a while to record an album, but once it comes out it is worth the wait! I'll be looking forward to that.

More fun news.....

You may have noticed a slight change here and there to the format of this blog. Blogger.com has upgraded their system so I took advantage of it and added / revamped some of the things you see in the column to the right of this blog. Nothing too crazy, but you'll notice that as you read these blogs, I'll be ever present, watching you. My eye's shall be burning into your skulls, consuming all your thoughts, loves, hatreds and dreams. Bwahhahahahahaha!!!!!!

Well, I'm going to continue to enjoy my day off and bum around a bit. Hopefully I'll jump back in here before the end of 2006. If not, make sure you have a great and safe new year!

Zangz.

Fa La La La La...La La La.. Blahhhh!

Here we are, knee deep into the holiday "cheer", just a scant amount of days before ol' fat-ass leaps down the chimney and regales all the good boys and girls with loads and loads of gifts galore. Then there will be the kids tearing apart their gifts while at the same time screaming at the top of their lungs and running around in a sugar induced sense of spastic hysteria.Ahhh... Xmas.

Lets face it folks, Xmas is strictly for two types of people... 1) The people who are wealthy enough to not have to worry about Xmas doing serious damage to their financial stability, and 2) The church going faithful. Now, I'm certainly not Donald Trump and I haven't been to church in years, unless you want to count funerals, baptisms etc. So pardon me if Xmas isn't exactly that big on my list. As you all should know, I'm a Halloween man myself. And I'm still coming down off of that high. Also, the prospect of getting an Xbox 360 for Xmas this year looks bleaker and bleaker. So basically, some spoiled little bastage, who's father is probably some corporate leader and is responsible for a bunch of lay-offs this Xmas season, is living in Yuppieville and will be getting his video game counsel and stocking full of games and ol' Zangz will be sitting there with a bunch of new socks. Grumble Grumble Grumble......

I know, I know. There is a "reason for the season" as I recall the 80's hair band Stryper used to sing (hey, didn't they dress like bumble bees?). Let's just say I won't go into some diatribe on my personal religious beliefs and leave it at that.

Call me a Grinch or a Scrooge all you want, but at the end of the day Xmas just blows! It allows those that are blissfully happy to be even happier and those that are down in the dumps, lonely and financially strapped to feel like pure crapolla. 'Nuff said!

So what good things do I have to say about this time of year?

• I am happy to say that all my Xmas shopping is done and over. Now all I have to worry about is wrapping the buggers. I am quite pathetic at this. Relatives and friends know when they've gotten a gift from Zangz as the wrapping is all disjointed, catywhompus and half-assed. Hey, I do my best!

• I have also been able to take a couple of days off to unwind from a busy couple of work weeks. So I'm laying back, doing my blog here on a Friday afternoon after sleeping most of the morning away. This afternoon I'll wrap gifts while watching one of the Lord of the Rings movies.

• One of my favorite beer companies has come out with a winter lager that is always quite scrumptious this time of season.

• There's going to be a holiday party coming up that I annually attend that should be a rollicking good time. There's going to be a chance to auction off cruddy Xmas gifts we receive with play money we win at contests throughout the evening. Which is great since I'll have a ton of socks to unload.

I'm going to have to get going now as I've been trying to publish this post at the same time, apparently, that Blogger is doing some sort of work on it's server and going from a beta version of this website to a final version and I'm having all kinds of problems posting this friggin' thing. Hopefully they'll get their act together and I'll be back for more grumbling at a latter time.

God I hate Xmas!!!!

Zangz McScrooge.

A Lil' Something for the Stocking.

Since were closing in to that holiday when a big fat creepy old guy breaks into our homes puts presants under the tree then sneaks up to our bedrooms and watches us while we sleep, fighting his every urge to put his hands around our necks and start to squeeze.......

Ok, maybe I've gotten off the topic here and am skating on some twisted ice, I'll get to the point. Here's a pre-Xmas gift for you all..... the newest post of Zangz's Pod of Geekdom Podcast. This one is a big clue as to what to get that special geek in your lives.... if you have a pants load of cash to spend on him/her. The next generation of video game counsels that have hit the store shelves. Roberto DelAmorte joins me again as we review the Xbox 360, Wii and PS3. You can find it by clicking HERE!

I'm hoping to pop in here right before the Holidays and post about.... sumthin'. We'll talk soon!

Zangz.

It's Up!!!!!

The latest edtition of Zangz's Pod of Geekdom is up and posted right HERE!

As I've mentioned before this post revolves around a review of the latest James Bond movie, Casino Royale. It gets pretty interesting as I have special guest, my friend Spanky, on to help me review the movie. I hope you enjoy it!

I have to go and gawk at Ali Larter on Heros right now.

See ya.

Zangz.

Tossing the Twenty Sider in the Star Wars Universe

Last Saturday I had the tri-monthly joy of hanging out at Castle De Baleywah (That's Mad Mario and Hope's apartment) with a group of friends for a gaming session with the Star Wars Role Playing Game. Our gamemaster, Mad Mario, always comes up with thrilling fun filled scenarios with lots of twists, turns, action and nasty villains to do battle with.

Everybody always brings lots of grub to shovel in our craws as we roll the dice, take hit points off our character and babble on about the latest episodes of Dr. Who and Battlestar Galactica or how frackin' excellent the new James Bond movie is.

Things usually take a turn for the bizarre once we start to crack open the mass quantities of different beers that we've brought to the game. This usually leads to flying off the beat and path of where Mad Mario was originally aiming the scenario to go the way he had meticulously planned it out. In the end everyone always has a darn fine time of it all! After the 4 to 9 hour gaming session we usually relax and talk about.. well... episodes of Dr. Who and Battlestar Galactica or how frackin' excellent the new James Bond movie is.

Since I've mentioned a few times before in these blogs about the character I play (Jodz Burdoz) in the game, I will not bore you with it again. Suffice it to say, he's a rogue-like captain of a smuggling vessel called The Naughtier Vixen that has a crewload of odd characters all going on missions that get them into some form of intergalactic and political intrigue.

I've decided to post a recent recap of one of the last scenario that Mad Mario ran. And the neat thing is that it's in his own words as he emailed us all a recap of the game. So without further yammering on, here's Mad Mario.......

A few notes.

M

Notes for the Star Wars scenario:

" Cargo and merchandise "

Reaching the Bastion space station #56 in the pursuit of the criminal Kamino geneticist Saji and the Ogres, the crew of the Naughty Vixen discovered very quickly two things. One that the Kamino and the Ogres were not the only residents on the space station.

A small ionic signal coming from a ship moored at the lowest point under the station. A ship called the Hounds Tooth belonging to the nefarious Trandoshan Bounty Hunter Bossk.

And two...

A powerful energy emission was detected on board the station as well which was mysteriously duplicated moments after they arrived in the system.

Managing to physically connect secretly to the Hound's Tooth they soon learned that the second emission was their friend D who decided to make his appearance and help funnel the Ogres who were near the generator and the lowest part of the station.

But when D arrived on the station the “ other “ D arrived on board the Vixen. Learning now that there were two of them and this one seems to be some kind of elder the crew moved quick. But somehow D got left behind after he funneled the Ogres on board the cargo hold of the Houdns Tooth and learned that his father has now entered the Star Wars universe with the intention of destroying it.

With the Wokiee and the cargo now on board the bounty hunters ship and the good D now making it to the Naughtier Vixen the heroes headed back to Coruscant.

However Quarren Mercenaries hired by the Trade Federation were waiting in ambush and before they could land they were attacked by not only the Quarren but a hidden forty Vulture droids. Immediately they broke out of the Corsucant system. Buzz near the Hoth system and Jodz to regions unknown.

Deciding that Rigal-7 would be a good place to meet after Buzz left the Ogres in cryogenic freeze thanks to some heavy cash being sent to a band of smugglers on the ice world; Jodz fell into a bit of a trap with three killer Twi'Lek mercenaries named Bambi, Thumper and Rose. Who were looking to hold him hostage.

While waiting for the Wookiee and managing to get out of the killer hot tub with his new friends they decided to lay low for a while.

But as things go, nothing stays calm forever.

Intoxicated with a mind enhancing beverage the Bothan somehow accidentally obtained an encrypted series of commands that look as if they originated from the computer of the Supreme Chancellor himself. An executive order that is somehow transmitted through a very sophisticated network. Technology that is highly advanced much like the Kamino.

Reaching Rigal the Wookiee thought he'd give Rose a try in the Fiore sandpitt and when it went well, the Trandoshian crashed into the wrestling pit Squib gun blasting. Desperately trying to save their friend, the Bothan was all but killed as well as Jodz himself.

When the rest of them arrived the battered Wookiee was gone.

Burnt blasted and wounded after his fight against the trio, A grisly end was intended for our heroic Wookiee Buzz as Bossk dragged him back to his recently acquired ship; but a timely intervention by the Twi'Lek Mari changed that and when Bossk went for his gun; the Twi'Lek cop shot him through the head.

Now resting in their personalised Bacta tanks the heroes ponder these new series of events.

Look for the crew of the Naughtier Vixen returning January 2007 in: " Ogres on Ice "

Now, that may not have made any sense to anybody, I still thought I'd be fun to show all of you reading this how friggin' intricate Mad Mario's games get. Pretty frackin' cool isn't it?


Real quickly I wanted to mention that I saw Casino Royale for the second time last weekend dragging my family. They all loved it. Both my Mom and sister, Dizzy Lizzy, thought Daniel Craig was very sexy.

Speaking of Casino Royale, keep a watch on my podcasts for the next installment of Zangz's Pod of Geekdom where my opinionated friend, Spanky, will guest star and we'll go at it reviewing the movie. It should be up soon!

This afternoon I think I'm going to watch one of the Lord of the Rings films while this evening I'll be indulging myself with a game of Munchkin with friends.

On that note, I'm getting some lunch in me. Take care.

Zangz.

Two posts in under 24 hours!

God, do I spoil you people, or what?

Yep. I'm sneaking in here again because I forgot to mention something on yesterday's blog. Perhaps it was because the whole Hobbit catastrophe had me all shook up that this little notation was temporarily tossed out of my mind.


I had a chance to play the new next gen, big hit video game, Gears of War. I have to say, though I don't know if I would become as addicted to it as Oblivion, I was quite impressed. The look and settings in the game are spellbindingly stunning! There was a PVP level (player vs. player or one on one, if you will) that took place in a mausoleum / graveyard setting that was quite creepy, while at the same time, also very beautiful.

The game play isn't first person as I thought it was going to be, it's more of an over-the-shoulder perspective. The controls take a bit of getting used to as they're not you typical FPS settings. The creature AI is quite receptive to what's going on and they're as nasty as mother-truckers!

One of the things I'm most impressed about isn't the game itself, it's the commercial spot they have running on TV for it. A quiet, sad song by R.E.M. (Mad World) plays softly against graphic and action packed scenes from the game.


Ok, well, that was about it. But far be it for me to leave you with such a little snippet of a blog post. So here's another.......

ZANGZ'S WEBSITE OF THE MOMENT:

WWdN: In Exile
Wil Wheaton's not-so-temporary blog.
I mentioned Wil in my last blog. Though I was never a real Trekkie, I always liked Next Generation and was never as repulsed as a lot of Trekkie's were toward his character of Wesley Crusher. In any case, he's grown up and is quite comfortable in his geek skin. He blogs about quite a lot at his web blog. So if you're looking for far better geek banter from someone who actually has some fame attached to him, this is the place to check out.

Enjoy the rest of your Turkey Day.

Zangz.

The Reckoning of the Shire.

Had to pop in here and make mention of a horrible occurrence in the making of The Hobbit movie(s). It appears as though New Line Cinema, the movie company who were revitalized from it's stagnant, post Freddy Kruger state by Peter Jackson and his Lord of the Rings trilogy (which brought New Line boatloads of cash and nearly saved the pathetic movie company) has made the catastrophic decision to oust Peter Jackson and all involved in creating one of the greatest movie trilogies known to movie history from any sort of inclusion in the making of the proposed prequel to the trilogy, the Hobbit films.

It seems to be a matter of New Line trying to shill Peter Jackson out of some money it still owes him from The Lord of the Rings movies. Mr. Jackson feels that there may have been some questionable practices when it came to the accounting of the money owed to him by New Line. So he enacted a clause in his contract with them to audit their financial agreement from the trilogy.

Since he did so, New Line has taken offense and told him that he and his creative forces would not be asked to have anything to do with the Hobbit project(s).

It's interesting to see how many people in Hollywood are making career ending decisions lately. Whether it be Michael Richards and his racist diatribe in response to a couple of A-hole hecklers at a stand up gig or Mel Gibson and his drunken anti-Semitic babbling while being arrested for drunk driving, it appears the powers that be at New Line want to join the tardling party (yes, that is a word, not the most politically correct, but a word).

Anybody born with a brain and soul knows that Peter Jackson and his team are the only ones who can truly bring the works of JRR Tolkien to the big screen without if being pure crap. But New Line, under the spell of pure greed, think otherwise.

You can read about the whole silly debacle HERE with a letter Mr. Jackson wrote to a Lord of the Rings fan site.


On to more pleasant avenues.....

If you haven't seen Casino Royale yet, get off you lazy butts and do so! It is the best Bond movie to hit the silver screen in a long time. Don't get me wrong, I loved Pierce Brosnan as Bond and am saddened he won't return. But, the reinvention of the series is really a good booty-kickin' event and Daniel Craig delivers!!! I'm going to see it again this weekend when I drag my Mom to go see it.


You'll be seeing a new Podcast uploaded in the not too distant future. There are some scheduling glitches, so we may not be as prompt as we usually are. But, rest assured, a really cool Zangz's Pod of Geekdom will be up soon featuring a heated review of the new Bond pic, Casino Royale!


You know who's a real cool, out of the closet Geek? Wil Wheaton! A lot of fanboys gave him flack for playing the role of Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the guy is real down to earth and not afraid to "come out" on his love for geeky stuff like being a gamer. Might I direct you to a recent column he wrote about a recent gamer convention? Click HERE! Now, he's not refering to the REAL Gen Con I used to go to yearly when it was located in Milwaukee. He's reviewing a mere shadow of that con that's held in California and is related only by name (yes...still bitter). But, it's still cool that he's attending and enjoying himself. Very cool dude. BRING GEN CON BACK TO MILWAUKEE YOU GREEDY CORPORATE WHORES!!!!!!


Speaking of gaming, I've got another really cool session on the Star Wars Role Playing Game coming up this Saturday. There was a tense moment there when the game master, Mad Mario, was thinking about ending the game and starting something new. Though, I'd like to try out some new RPG in the near future, I'm way too addicted to my rogue character of Jodz Burdoz (imagine Kurt Russell from Big Trouble in Little China) to give it up just yet. Mad Mario decided to continue on with his Star Wars scenarios for a bit more. Huzzah!!!!!


I'm hoping everyone reading this will have a really good Thanksgiving and be able to cram as much food into their craw as humanly possible without any digestive catastrophes including regurgitation or a good long sitting on the porcelain god.

On that note, everybody have a great and festive Thanksgiving!

I'm outta here, like Michael Richards' career and New Line's IQ!

Zangz.

Scratching That Itch!

I've just arrived home form one heck of a fine and enjoyable evening! It involved some Guinness, a cigar and most importantly the new James Bond flick, Casino Royale!

After the producers over at Eon Productions turned the Bond franchise into a cluster-frack of a mess by unceremoniously ousting one of the best James Bonds since Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, we Bond fans had a major itch we needed scratched. We all heard rumors that they were going to reinvent Bond for the video game generation and get someone much younger. Names like Heath "Cowboy in Love" Ledger and Tom"Couch Jumper" Cruise were rumored to be possible replacements. Horrible images filled our heads as we saw our beloved 40+ year spy movie franchise crumble into fragments of rotting rubble and dust.

After what seemed like years, they finally announced a little known actor, Daniel Craig, as the new James Bond. A lot of Bond fans were repelled by the idea of a blond, shorter and "not as handsome" actor taking on the roll. Add to that the fact they were going to take the continuity of the series and frell it all up by starting the James Bond story all over while it still would take place in modern day times. I had my doubts, but instead of acting like a childish brat and threatening to boycott the movie, I decided to be a bit optimistic and took the "wait and see" point of view. Hey, I of all Bond geeks, understand that the 86ing of Brosnan was quite uncalled for and that he should have done one last Bond movie before they rebooted the series.

Well, I gotta tell you, I saw the movie tonight and must say that those stooges who've decided to boycott the movie are missing out on something quite wonderful. Casino Royale will go down in history as one of the best Bond flicks of all time. For me, it's right up there with Goldfinger and GoldenEye! Craig ROCKS HARD as a rougher, grittier Bond! There's far more characterization of the main characters (something Brosnan was fighting for while they were giving him invisible cars to drive). And the action sequences are less cutesy clever and far more brutal and all out balls to the wall kick-ass!

Let me break it down for you....

The story and plot work well as a way to show us how Bond became the double 0 agent he is. Though there is a little dragging here and there the story is put together well. However, the pace of the movie isn't as smooth as other Bond movies. But for those that have read the Ian Fleming novel, Casino Royale, you'll understand why they paced the movie that way. They tried hard to follow Fleming's novel as best they could while still providing us with something that's worthy of a good action / spy movie for the entertainment factor.

As I've said before, Daniel Craig makes a fine fledgling James Bond. He's far more ruthless and roguish than any other Bond before him. Both him and Connery are the only two Bonds you wouldn't want to find yourself in a bar fight with. With the other guys you'd think that maybe there be the off chance that you could maybe take them. But with Craig, you'd know you'd be in for a serious ass whoopin' followed by a hospital stay. Craig also plays it cool throughout the movie, even though his Bond makes a few mistakes here and there. He's classy yet rough. I'm gald I took the "wait and see" approach with him, otherwise I'd be eating crow like all the nards on the "I Hate Daniel Craig" message boards. I'm hoping he'll do more than the two or three he's contracted to do. And hopefully Eon productions won't treat him the way the treated Brosnan at the sudden end of his tenure.

All the other performances are top notch also. Eva Green (Vesper Lynd) is not only naturally beautiful, she's also got the acting chops to not be another Bong Girl ornamentation. Mads Milkensen is creepy and weasely as the bady, Le Cheifre. Dame Judy Dench is once again wonderful in the role of Bond's superior, M, even if it is a bit of a continuity glitch having her be M again. Not one sole in this movie had a bad performance!

I was quite a bit worried that I wouldn't enjoy this Bond movie when I heard that a lot of the usual trappings of a Bond film were omitted from Casino Royale. I always loved a lot of the gadgets and gizmo's he used in past movies. There's also no Q, no Moneypenny and no opening sequence where we see the white dots float across the screen. But after viewing this movie I understood why. This is Bond's first assignment becoming a double 0 agent. Perhaps we'll see a bit more of the Bond mythos revealed in the next couple of movies. As for the gadgets, there is a bit of techno coolness to this movie, but without the invisible cars, mini-copters and submersible Lotus Esprees.

There's also quite a few cool as frack action sequences that will have you holding on to the edge of your seats. All were excellently executed. I just wish the last big bruahah would have been a bit longer.

There's also a torture sequence that is quite graphic in Fleming's novel and I was surprised to see that they had the balls (pun intended) to actually portray it in the film. (Scratch that itch, buddy!)

Oh, and here's a pretty geeky observation I made. Towards the end of the film Bond is recuperating at some villa in Italy. If you are a die hard Star Wars geek, like myself, you should recognize the setting right away. It's the same place that Anikan Skywalker and Padme Amadalla get hitched at the end of Episode II. GeekGeekGeekGeekGeekGeek!

After the movie me and my friend, Spanky, sat and discussed our love of this movie over a good dark stout and some fine cigars that smoked quite smoothly. Hopefully you'll be hearing the two for us rave over the movie on my next podcast.

All in all, weather your a Bond zealot like myself or just someone who wants to see a great spy thriller, go see Casino Royale. They really did pull it off quite nicely!!!


In other geek news, I saw in the media the release of the new Playstation 3. Once again Sony was pulling the ol' "Lets under ship the amount so we can fail at satisfing everyone at launch time" game which of course created a frenzy. People were camping out days in advance of it's release. In some places there were riots and shootings in the lines waiting for the system. One person in my state got trampled underfoot for crissakes! What idiots! By summer they'll have more than enough of these things on the shelves. On top of that Sony has out priced itself by loading on a hefty price tag of $500 to $600 per system. Youch!

I, myself, am waiting to get my paws on an Xbox360 before I even start to think about purchasing a PS3. So for those of my friends and family that actually read this blog and have a vested interest in my happiness, you may want to band together and make a donation to the "Zangz's Needs a '360 Cause", since Xmas and my B-day are right around the corner. Hinty hint hint!


That's it for now. I'd link up all of this but it's nearly 1am and I still want to get a little snack in before I hit the hay.

Zangz .

Popping in Quickly...

Just popping in to make my usual announcement that there's a new Podcast of mine up at the AZCast.net site. It can be downloaded HERE.

This podisode's about enjoying the three Lord of the Rings movies. Not my best 'cast as I was slightly unprepared due to recovering from a nasty head cold. Hopefully the next one will be far better and less snott filled.


To be brief, here's a couple of points I'd like to catch you all up on.....

- I saw Borat last weekend. It's friggin' hysterical!!! If you go see it, I hope you don't have an aversion to scenes involving male genitalia.

- This Friday is the opening of Casino Royale. Though, it won't be the pulpish romp that I thoroughly enjoyed during the Connery, Moore and Brosnan years, I'm still really looking forward to it and seeing what Craig can bring to the table.

- I still haven't taken all of my Halloween stuff down yet. Consider it an act of defiance upon the upcoming crap-fest that is the holiday season. In reality, it's because I'm quite lazy.

- Lost is off the air until February! What da....? Do networks believe in full seasons any more?


Ok enough of that silliness. Here's another edition of.....

ZANGZ'S WEBSITE OF THE MOMENT

007 Bond Supplement
Here's a near daily update on what is going on in the world of James Bond. Whether it be the books or movies, there's news on it here at this blog-like site. The site master scours the press for anything Bond related, so it's updated quite nicely.

That's all for now. They'll be more general bafoonery later in the week, I assure you.

Zangz.

The Downward Spiral Into the Realm of Dankness Known as the Holiday Season.

Aww poop! Halloween is now done and over with. So, I'm currently coming down off of my spookosity high and it's a real nasty crash, I must tell you. No cold sweats, shakes or vomiting, but a hell of a lot of woefulness. The only things I see ahead of us are overly expensive holidays and a long 6 months of the freezing cold tundra taking over our weather system. This blows!

There's very little to look forward to, with the exception of the next James Bond movie, Casino Royale. Other than that, the holiday season always breaks out the saltiness in me. As I've mentioned before, the holidays always bring out the worst in people, especially the Yuppies. It's always the @#$%! in the BMW who is either moving at a snails pace in front of you or right on your tail behind you. An then when he/she drives by they have their cell phone in their hand without a care in the world.

Let's move on to some other nicer subject before I become all maudlin and snarky, shall we?


The news just broke that the Brothers Walchowskis (who brought us The Matrix and V for Vendetta) will be the ones to bring historic japanimation cartoon, Speed Racer, to the real life big screen. I remember originally Tom Cruise was interested in doing this movie as the title character. Thank god that fell through.

I have very fond memories of being a young lad and coming home from kindergarten and watching that cartoon on the local independent station while eating oatmeal with a boatload of cinnamon and sugar on top of it. I had weird food hang ups as a kid. What can I tell ya?


Sadly, the movie based on the uber popular video game Halo is on indefinite hold for now. Too bad since Peter Jackson was involved as a producer. The movie companies buckled like a bunch of wimps when it came to financing the project.


Speaking of man/god Peter Jackson (The man has a haunted attraction in his own house, thus he is of the god like echelon), there may be, not one, but two movies based on the J.R.R. Tolkein book, "The Hobbit". Please, please, please, please let Peter Jackson have a major power in these films. They shall be shat on form a very great height by us fan boys if he doesn't have some artistic say in how these movies are made. These could be something to really look forward to!


I played a bit through Evil Dead: Regeneration for the Xbox and thought it was quite enjoyable. A lot of the dialog is hysterical and the general creepiness of the settings were quite nice. Sometimes the game got a little frustrating, though. If your a big Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi fan, I truly recommend it. Hopefully, I'll rent it again soon so I can finish it.

On a last note, before I check out the latest episode of Dr. Who, I want you to peruse this cute picture.....



This is a picture of one very happy child that I shall dub Solo Van Halen, son of my best friend, Goof. Ya see, already Solo Van Halen has delusions of his manly prowess as he is happily set all snug between two female newborns. Evidently, he's already plotting his adventures into puberty.


Ok, kiddos. I've got to get something into my system before the good Doctor appears with his buxom sidekick, Rose.

I'll find something to harp about later.

P.S. Look at my last blog entry as I was FINALLY able to upload a nice graphic with it. When I originally tried, Blogspot seemed to be having some issues with uploading pictures.

Zangz.

'Tis the Season.....

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I hope the ghoulies, goblins, spooks and spirits helped you all have a wonderfully creepy Halloween season this year. I'm already making plans for next year!

Here are the counts...
Jack-O-lanturns carved: 3
Haunted Houses attended: 5
Octoberfests consumed: too many to count
Paranormal Encounters: none sadly


If you find yourself with little Halloween fun to do this evening, pop yourself open a good Octoberfest lager or a pumpkin ale and head on over to ....

http://www.azcast.net/menu/radio/zangs/zangs100.htm

...where the latest edition of Zangz's Pod of Geekdom Podcast will put you into the spirit as it is the last of a three part series on Halloween and Haunted Attractions!

Enjoy the rest of the holiday! It's one of the few really good ones that we have all year.

Zangz

Crap! It's almost over.

Well folks, were in the last days of my beloved Halloween season. I know, it's sad to say. This fall started out pretty nice with the leaves changing color and the sky being sunny. But, the last few weeks have been unseasonably cold and rainy. This has put a big damper on the season of the dead.

But, there are a few Halloween-esqe things for me to still look forward to.

#1. I'm off tomorrow! Whoo-hoo!
#2. I'm going out tomorrow night to see the psycho-billy band Pychomania play a show.
#3. Though, my friends are completely sick of having to be dragged to local Haunted Attractions, we're still going to celebrate the season on Saturday with a huge inflatable haunted house for youngin's to play around in while we all drink and feast completely ignoring their futile screams of terror as the house deflates on top of them. Good times...good times.
#4. A pumpkin carving party on Sunday night!
#5. Diner at my sisters while watching a good ol' Hammer Horror movie. Can you believe that my sister (who is void of any sense of geekiness) is into the Hammer Horror movies more than I am. Jeeze, I need to catch up!

I also think that I shall indulge in a bit of Halloween movie watching tomorrow. I think Sleepy Hollow and The Others will be on the bill. Perhaps even The Haunting may make it's way to my DVD player if I'm feeling that kitschy tomorrow. We'll see.

After that it's all downhill with the crappy holiday season. Bah Humbug, Bah Humbug and Bah FRACKIN' Humbug!

Oh yes. I'll warn you all now that another wonderful episode of Zangz's Pod of Geekdom should be up this coming Monday evening. It is the last of the Haunted Attraction/Halloween shows and once again features my good friend and fiend, Dr. Roberto Del Amorte! So check it out, won't you?

I finally got to see the video game based movie Silent Hill. I have to give props to the production designers as the first part of the movie really captured the feel of the video games quite wonderfully. It was the plot and story line that went south as the movie ran on. It's not a total waste if you're a fan of the video games and the Horror genre in general. There is some really creepy imagery in this as there is in the video game. It's also cool that Sean Bean has a bit role in this movie.

I'm still a bit peeved that I have yet to see any real excellent and imaginative Halloween displays or yard haunts out there this year. There's a lot of cutesy crap up, but no huge gothic graveyard with rotting corpses rising from the grave. Sigh. I guess my home town is void of any sense of imagination.

What am I listening to right now, you ask? Well, I'm still in the Halloween mood so it's Wednesday 13's "Transylvania 90210, Songs of Death, Dying and the Dead"". A fun little rocker that's sounds like Alice Cooper on acid. It's nice to know that the whole grunge scene didn't kill off the creativity and imagination of Rock'N'Roll like it almost did. Check them out, won't you?

I think that that's about it for this evening. I may pop in once more during the Halloween season. Or, I may not. Who knows at this point.

Until next time, life's a grave... Dig it!

Zangz.

Another Haunting Podcast!

Yep. A new podcast is up at Zangz's Pod of Geekdom, and this one is part 2 in a 3 part Halloween series that focuses on Haunted Attractions. This time around I have my fellow haunt buddy, Roberto DelAmorte, with me as I ramble on about haunts that we've visited in past Halloween seasons. So, by all means, check it out. You can download it either flash, MP3 or iTune. And you can find it right HERE.


In other quick news, a group of us haunt fans traveled over hill and dell to find some killer haunts. First we checked out the return of Terror on Rural Street. In a nutshell, this haunt was pretty good with a really creepy facade, some good art direction and a few good scares. I'm not sure that is was as good as it has been in years past, probably due to the fact that it just overcame a huge legal battle and a last minute "go a head" to proceed. But it was still worth the visit!!!

Then we creepedt our way over to the Meadowbrook Farm's Haunted Cornmaze Adventure. Even though it was really friggin' cold, we still had a great time traversing the huge stalks and constantly running into creepy tableau's during our half our journey. The pirate ship was a highlight. However, some of the set ups our getting a little old. But I still marvel at the amount of hand made props and the length of the attraction.

The next evening we headed up to Green Bay to visit Terror on the Fox. We'd heard quite a few ravings about this place and were excited to finally get to see it. Let me tell you, this was the
most visually intricate haunt we visited this year and in a very long time! From the facade to the cave dwellings inside, the artistry that is put into the sets out rank the mass majority of local haunts I've ever visited. The only major complaint was that it was a little on the short side. I was trying to pace myself so I could see all the incredible sets and props, but it still seemed to be over just as things were getting started.

I'm hoping Roberto and I will get a chance to babble about it in the next Podcast of Geekdom which will be the last of the 3 part Halloween/Haunted Attraction series.


I'm taking a sabbatical this weekend, so sorry kids, no haunts this week. But, I'm hoping to do something Halloweenesqe by the end of this month. So we'll see what we can do and let you know about it.

Until next time, make sure you do something spooky this week!

Zangz.

Flakes of the Dead!

Ungodly, I tell you!!!! A basephemy and a pox upon the season, it is!!!! What I saw and bore witness to as I left work today was the truest of proofs that there is no god and that Mother Nature is a sadistic wench, indeed! Flakes of snow flew around my head at a time where we should still be bathing in the beauty of Autumnal bliss. At the very least we have yet to be cursed with the snow actually accumulating. But, after listening to the local media within the last few days, you'd think that the artic glaciers themselves were moving toward my hometown.

Bleh....

Well there are a few things to look forward to this weekend. I'll be visiting some excellent Haunted Attractions this weekend. First, tomorrow night, a bunch of us will be visiting an old favorite that was shut down last year due to an ugly legal battle that I mentioned here on the Blog of Geekdom. Terror on Rural Street has reopened its doors this season and I'll be fracked if we don't go up and pay the ghouls and spirits there a visit. From there it will either be a visit to the Meadowbrook Haunted Corn Maze, pending we're not in blizzard mode, if so then we head to the Hartford JC's Haunted House.

Saturday is also quite an adventure.... OF THE DEAD! We spook hunters will be making a pilgrimage to one of the 10 best Haunted Attractions of recent years in North America. Not far from the home of the Green Bay (Can we actually lose any more games this season?) Packers is a place filled with so much darkness that few can utter it's name... Terror on the Fox! This baby was voted one of the 10 best haunts to visit during Halloween season and has been featured on Nikolodeon as well as Haunted Attraction Magazine.

Next week, I'll let you all know how it goes down. So keep an eye out.

Last weekend we visited our first haunts of the season. Three in one night, actually. The Lindner pumpkin farm provided us with both The Corn and Scream Reapers. We went through the haunted house (Scream Reapers) first. I was pretty impressed. Though there was no cool facade to the place (it was held in a big white tent), you could tell that there was a lot of work put into the detail of the rooms. A lot of creepy imagery was implemented to give you that feel of being in an old dilapidated house. One room was a huge gallery of spooky old photos that just gave you the creeps. Pretty chilling. The length was pretty decent also, as it felt like a good 20 minutes or so. There were a lot of rooms to go through. The actors were pretty good, though, a few of them were either caught off guard or gave us the slightly empty and flat, "Rarrrr" which scares no one. But, I was pleasantly surprised with what the Scream Reapers attraction delivered.

The Corn was a different ball of wax. The first haunted corn maze I ever went to was the Lindner farm before they dubbed it The Corn. Back then, there was no haunted house, just a huge corn maze that had a simplicity that lent itself to quite a few unexpected scares. Unfortunatley they have since shortened it and have subtracted many actors form it's arrey of spooks and ghouls that would wait in the corn for us hapless victims. Even though there were a few times we jumped when the dead would pop out at us, there was far more corn than there was ghosties. I was hoping for something more like the way it used to be. It was an ok effort though. I guess I liked the Scream Reapers haunted house quite a bit better. The Corn was a bit anti-climatic.

The other Haunt we visited was the Bear Den Haunted Woods. We first visited a couple of years ago and then it was one of our favorite haunts. A real sleeper attraction that got it's popularity through word of mouth. It doesn't rely on huge effects or animatronics, but what it does have is a real rustic feel to it. Kind of a Texas Chainsaw massacre flavor is embibbed into it, whether it's meant to or not. The woods are filled with ramshackle shacks that visitors are forced to crawl, creep or traverse through. Most of these dwellings have dead bodies and the undead to occupy your visit there. Other features are a trip in an actual hearse (where my friend Iris Von Beaverhousen molested me), a creaky rope bridge, something that flew over me that made me nearly wet my pants, many bon fires, ramps, mud, and a disturbed young girl... in a cage... tearing appart stuffed animals. Creeeeeeepy. Another good showing from the people at the Bear Den Zoo. I only wish they could make it a bit different from years past. It tends to get a bit repetitive from year to year.

Me and my good friend Roberto DelAmorte will hopefully go into more detail of our visits to these haunts in the next Zangz's Pod of Geekdom.


I'll be back soon with more musings on the wonderful season of Halloween and it's living dead that wander about and watch you from afar when you think you're alone. Are you alone right now? Take a look around the room you're in. There's something dead in there watching you as you read this. Maybe you can't see it, but it sees you! I shat you not! Don't you feel it? No? Well, maybe it will appear to you when you to go to sleep tonight. Brahahahahaah......

Pleasant dreams, SUCKA'S!!!

Zangz.

Where are all the Undead in the Front Yards?!

Ahhhhh.... The Season of the Dead is kicking off quite splendidly! Just last night I recorded my second Pod of Geekdom, with my special guest, Roberto DelAmorte, on the subject of Haunted Attractions as well as other spooky stuff. Then tonight there are plans to explore a Haunted Corn maze, a Haunted House AND a Haunted Trial! Add to that the fact that moon shall shine brightly this evening! We'll surly be tempting the living dead and lost souls this evening. Bruahahahaha.....


And speaking of the Halloween season, one thing a love to see around this time of year are the wonderful and creative yard haunts that pop up all over the nation. Sadly, within the last few years, good yard decoration sightings have been slim to none around my neck of the woods. Either people are becoming less and less creative and imaginative or perhaps people are afraid of what the neighbors will think. Either way, this town needs a good Halloween filled enema to flush out the mediorcre mentality.

On my ride to and from work, I pass plenty of houses that could do a wonderful job of putting up some undead fun in their front yard to give trick-or-treeters, or passers by, a good laugh or scare. If you're not sure as to what I'm babbling on about, I'll spell it out for you. In years past, during Halloween season, I'd tool around the local neighborhoods and always come across at least two or three front yards where the home owner would put up a fake graveyard with ghosts and ghouls and all sorts of cool spooky stuff. So far this year, I've seen bupkiss, nada, zero, zilch. The coolest thing I've seen so far this year is a circle of ghosts standing around a tree. That's all.

Where are the haunted graveyards with corpses coming out of the ground? Where are the homes with fake facades to look like a castle, or a haunted house? Where are the multitudes of grim grinning Jack-O-Lanterns? Nowhere, I guess. Has something evil come over the neighborhoods of my town and sucked all the imagination out of the brains of the local yard haunters? What's going on?
Perhaps they need to step back in time and remember an era where the yard haunt was a thing of dark beauty to treasure. I can recall a huge yard haunt not too far from where I lived. The front of the house had a fake facade that looked like an old gothic castle. Within it's front door, there was the head of a giant, animatronic dragon that would interact and talk to those that visited at night. That's not all, there was a dangling corpse hung from a tree, a giant spider that would jump out at visitors as well as an undead soul rising from the grave. I haven't seen that set up in a few years.

Then there was an entire street on the southwest side of my town where most of the neighbors put on an entire avenue of terror where nearly every other house had some big Halloween display or yard haunt. I believe it was called something like, Halloween Hollow or something similar. I remember there was one front yard there that had a couple of hearses set up and some "dummies" of ghouls standing in front of them. When spectators would move in for a closer look, the dummy would suddenly reveal itself to be alive and jump forward. This would cause a lot of underwear to be stained. This was over a decade ago and, as memory serves, I believe that salty, soul less neighbors, along with a few corrupt law makers and ignorant local aldermen, put the old "We Hate Everything Good and Fun" keebosh on the whole haunted block party. Sons of beeeeotches!

When I was a young lad, I'd usually do up my family's front yard to look like a small grave yard during the trick-or-treat hours.. The very early incarnations of it were pretty pathetic with cardboard cut out monsters and bright white foam gravestones. But, over the years it got slightly more sophisticated with dummies that had cool corpse masks for heads coming up out of the ground. The gravestones got a decent paint job with spooky inscriptions on them. Spooky music would come out of a hidden boom-box. I'd always try and do a little something. How could I not?

And that's the question running through my mind. There are a lot of creative people out there who love Halloween. Where are they and what are they doing to their front yards this year? C'mon, people! Let's get the undead party started already!!!!!


Hey, expect some reviews of the Haunts I go to tonight being posted here soon. Also listen for the next Zangz's Pod of Geekdom (now with a Flashplayer option!) to be posted within a week or so. It features more on Haunted Attractions PLUS a special guest. One of my Haunt-going friends, Roberto DelAmorte!

Until next time, "There coming to get you, Barbara."

Zangz.

Podcast of the DEAD!

Hey, I nearly forgot to tell you all that my 3rd Pod of Geekdom is up and running. You can download it HERE! This 'cast is the first in a 3 part Halloween inspired series that focuses on Haunted Attractions from the perspective of a fan and patron of many of them.


In other geek-o-rific news, tonight was a great night for TV! First of all, we had the premier of the 3rd season of the wonderful mind-frell of a show, LOST. More answers and more questions. Gotta love it. Then after that I caught a bit of the newest episode of South Park that was soley dedicated to the massive multiplayer on-line role playing game, World of Warcraft!

Though I've never gotten a chance to play the game I've heard many stories about it. It looks as though those South Park people have the game and its players pegged! Quite hilarious! Ok, then. I'll return here later in the week for more stories of Halloween chills and thrills. So stay tuned.

Zangz.

And now they start to rise......

Ahhhhh....... The chill in the air, the leaves falling slowly to the ground, the nights coming sooner and sooner, the Octoberfests in the beer section of the supermarkets and Type-O-Negative's "World Coming Down" in the CD player in my car. These signs can only mean one thing. The living dead are rising from their graves to celebrate the Season of the Dead. Though it's not quite October yet, this weekend brings in the fall festivities along with the flavor of Halloween!

Zangz's Headquarters is already decorated from one end to the other with gravestones, Jack-O-Lanterns and things that go bump in the night. I'm in full swing Halloween mode once again! Bruahahahahahahah!

Tomorrow I may go on my first Halloween expedition. It'll be either a pumpkin farm or a fall festival. I'm not sure which one yet, but I'll be sure to report back. Not only will this blog be filled with Halloween spookiness throughout the month of October, so will my podcasts. Hopefully we'll have the first of three Halloween episodes up this Monday!


Tonight was the first two episodes of the 2nd season the of new Dr. Who TV show. Both were quite entertaining, although the first one took a while to really brew up. The new Doctor (David Tennent) was pretty good and easy to warm up to, though he isn't quite as dark and ballsy as his former incarnation. Rose was smokin' in the second episode and should go for that more... "heaving" look in future episodes, most definitely!!!


It's going to be a short post as I have a wonderful Octoberfest chilling in the fridge waiting for me. You know... nectar of the gods from the teet of Mother Nature and all that. Hope you all fall into the spells of Halloween soon. And beware of the ghosts, ghouls and living dead. Bruahahahahah!

Zangz.

What's Hollywood Pinching Out for us Geeks?

What's stirring in my feeble, little, twisted mind this week you may ask? Well, much to your chagrin, I'm going to tell you, ad nauseum, per what you usually find around here in my Blog of Geekdom.

I've been contemplating on what the people in Hollywood are cooking up for us genre fan-boys after the peak at which the Star Wars prequels and The Lord of the Rings trilogy ruled the movie screens. Honestly, I do believe we are in a bit of a grand downfall when it comes to anticipation for great Action/Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror movies. Sure there's a plentiful amount of them in production to be released. But, how many of them within the next few years will command a number of us geeks to camp out for midnight showings.

Let's take a look at what's coming out in the future.


Indiana Jones:4 - Apparently, this movie looks like it will be coming out sometime around the 7th of never. Little has been done when it comes to preproduction outside of getting a script together. There are alternating stories that have been coming out for the past few years as to the script being approved or not approved by Spielberg, Lucas and Ford. So who knows where they are at with it. In any case, if this movie is destined to be made, it will surly be worthy of a midnight showing with fellow geeks dressed in brown leather jackets and fedoras! I just hope to god they don't frack this one up and keep with the fast paced pulp stories of the original three.

I am Legend - Based on a 1950's horror novel about one last survivor of an apocalyptic virus which has turned most of the city into zombified vampires where Will "Get Jiggy Wit it" Smith forges on to do battle with the undead. Sounds cool as hell, doesn't it. Though I do enjoy Will Smith in movies, his casting worries me that producers have decided to Hollywoodize the story to aim it as a blockbuster rather than a great movie. Rumors already have the story deviating from the book. Wait and see.

Casino Royale - I've said enough about this one already. If you're not acquainted, read many of my past blogs! Suffice it to say, I'm really looking forward to this one and am hoping that it will be a welcome addition to the James Bond series.

300 - Based off an awesome graphic novel by gifted scribe, Frank Miller, this movie depicts a grand battle during the ancient times of the Spartans. Buzz on this baby is that, though you may not have heard anything of it in the mainstream media, this will either be a huge blockbuster or a phenomenal cult, classic sleeper hit.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End - Of course this one will be a fun one and a big blockbuster. It will also be filled with elements of the fantastic and a great pulp story. Depp will rock! 'Nuff said.

Die Hard IV: Live Free or Die Hard - Bruce Willis will return as John McClain, the cop who by sure circumstance always finds himself smack dab in the middle of someone's wacky terrorist plot. Sure. I loved the first three Die Hard films, but I don't know if I'm all that psyched for this one. I'll wait and see.

The Mummy III - Looks as though things are in motion for a 3rd Mummy film to start shooting. A script is being written and both Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are showing interest. Surprising, since Ms. Weisz hinted heavily after the release of the 2nd one that she wouldn't do a 3rd. I absolutely loved the first one. It brought back that sense of pulp adventure that had been so lacking in movies since the last Indiana Jones flick. The second one was a lot of fun also, although it got way too far fetched in the second half of the film, even for a fantastic pulp action movie. So I'm looking forward to what they're going to come up with in the 3rd.

Harry Potter Films - Being a geek, I guess I have to give a shout out to the several Harry Potter films still coming out..... Well, that was the shout out.

The Hobbit - This prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy could also be a biggy for the geek movie genre, if done as it should be... with Peter Jackson at the helm!!!!! Both MGM and New Line are very interested.

Terminator 4? - There could be another man vs. machine flick down the road. It's questionable if A-nold will be involved. I really could care either way. The last one didn't floor me as the first two did. I'm over the whole Terminator thing anyway.

Sure we'd love to see more Star Wars films, but it ain't gunna happen so stop yer whinnin'. We're stuck with what Hollywood throws us. Hopefully, we'll all find some new film franchise to glom onto and obsess about very soon.


Very quickly, I'd like to give a shout out to Iris Vonbeaverhaousen and her husband Dr. Roberto DelAmorte for filling me with meat and beer last night and sending me home with even more meat. Your constant hospitality is mucho appreciated!

Well, I'm off to rent more Deadwood! So I'll leave you with some grand words of advice from Deadwood resident Al Swearengen....

"!*$#@$@*^! You sons of $&#@*$^@#$^! !@)#*#$&#@^%@^!!!!)#$@*$)#@$)@*#)$!!!!!"

Zangz.

New Podcast!

Just a quicky announcement that the 2nd Zangz's Pod of Geekdom is up and running. It revolves around the "fully possible action collectable".

You can find it HERE!

Sit back with a cold one and listen to a full grown geek expound on his loves.


Hopefully I'll post something here at the end of the week.

See ya.
Zangz

"YOU HAVE JUST REACHED MILE 2, HANGOVER BOY!"

So here I sit before the keys on a nice Saturday morning nursing a bit of a hangover. Last night I attended a friend's wedding just down the street from Zangz's Headquarters. Perhaps I took the convieniece of not having to drive home a touch to far. Yet, I'm not so sure it was the amount of drinks I had as much it was the fact that I broke the golden rule of drinking... Don't Mix Your Liqures! Uggh.

To add insult to injury, there's a huge charity walk/race being held right on my street in front of my appartment this morning. I'm all for charity walks and the such, but do they really need a guy shouting through a bull horn telling the runners that they've "JUST REACHED MILE 2"? Why don't they just do away with the charity walk and have a charity Slipknot concert to hold right in front of my appartment this particular morning? It would have the same effect on my fragiled skull, yet be oh so much more visually stunning.


I just read a review of the upcoming reinventional Bond movie, Casino Royale and it's looking to be quite good. As I've said before, I still think it was an insulting error to give Brosnan the boot they way they did and not let him do one more film, but I'm pulling for Daniel Craig and the Bond franchise and it sounds like giving the Bond series the Batman Begins treatment could do the trick! Cross yer fingers folks. We have two more months before this puppy hits the theaters!


The Halloween and Haunt season is just starting to rev up a bit. In fact, NEXT WEEKEND some of the local Haunts are going to start opening up. I was also just at a local craft store and they had loads of spooky goodies to gawk at. If I weren't on a strict budget and saving up for going to the haunts I would have scooped up some of the decorations they had on display. There was a pirate skull that had eyes that would pop out and float around before returning to the sockets. Very cool! I'm hoping for another banner Halloween season. Of course this blog will be celebrating Halloween throughout the entire month of October!


It's gunna have to be another quick one since I'm starving and need to fix up a bowl of Zangz's Chilli 'o' Death. That'll cure a hangover for sure.

See you soon.
Zangz.

40 Years of Boldly Going.....

Being a hard core Star Wars fan boy, I know what it is like to be faithful and dedicated to a specific Sci-Fi institution. The action figures, midnight premier showings and way too long discussions on the 6 movies and they're accompanying video games, comics and novels always springs up a scenes of joy and excitement that the average yuppie, jock and "normal" human being will never understand.

That is why I salute the contingency of Trekkies around the world on the 40th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise. It all started 40 years ago last week, when Star Trek aired on network television. Although this series would only last three seasons, it would slowly spawn not only a national movement, but 4 other spin off TV series as well as 10 movies and thousands of toys and other collectibles.

Having gone to a few genre conventions in my day, I'd always marvel at the huge turn out of Trekkies that would attend and how unified they were in their love of all things Trek.

Sure, they certainly are of their own breed. I mean you gotta wonder how may restraining orders Star Trek:Voyager actress, Jerri Ryan, doles out a year. But, in the end Trekkies take the ridicule like an odd badge of honor. Good for them!! I have to admit, I've never met a Trekkie I didn't like!!

So once again, congratz to the lot of ya!



I'll be making this post short and sweet as I have some preproduction work to do for my next Zangz's Pod Of Geekdom Podcast.



Here's something I mean to do here more often but never think to do it. So strap in for another segment of.....

ZANGZ'S WEBSITE OF THE MOMENT:

THE MEGO MUSEUM

While doing some research for the next podcast, I fell into this wonderful little Memory Lane of a delite that will surely send a lot of us old school action figure fans back to the days of tossing our Superman figures across the backyard in hopes that his cheesy vinyl cape would help him glide just a little bit. The Mego company made loads and loads of fully possible action figures of dozens of Super Heros from both Marvel and DC comics. Take a peek and see all the figures they made.

Ok, kids, I told you it would be a quick one this time. Until next time, I'll leave you with more insightful words my father would tell me...
"Damnit Zangz! Stop playing so rough with your toys, 'cause if you break them I'm not buying you new ones!"

Zangz.

One more weapon in the arsenal of Zangz's Media Empire!

Now is the time for my big announcement! If you haven't guessed, I now have my own Podcast! It is brought to you from the wonderful people at AZcast.com, 'cause there is no friggin way I could put it together myself with the lame assed computer and dial up connection I have.

The first Episode (Podisode?) features the subject of what's going on with the James Bond movies, as well as a few thoughts on some of the past summer blockbusters that I have seen.

Keep in mind the first show is a bit shaky as I've never friggin' done this before. So be kind. And I hope you have a high speed connection!

Here's the link to the site you can download it from....

http://www.azcast.net/menu/radio/zangs/zangs100.htm

So I'm just one more step toward world wide domination! Bruahahahahahaha! Soon I'll have my own hidden base in a dormant volcano with stainless steel staircases all over the place.

In some sad news, one of my favorite resources for James Bond information has gone the way of the Crocodile Hunter. Well, not really. It didn't shut down due to being pierced through the heart by a stingray's tail. It was closed down due to the webmasters not having enough time to keep it up to standards. So we bid farewell to Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Good luck and god's speed!

To those of you who are Steve Irwin/Crocodile Hunter fans, I apologize for the smarmy and tasteless remark. I'm drunk with power.

Enjoy,
Zangz.

A Robhain for Roberto.

This week brought no new exciting genre stuff to geek out about. However, last weekend was one heck-o-roonie of a good time! It was the 40th celebration of Robhain (aka: my friend, Roberto's 40th birthday party) So sit back a bit and I'll tell you about it.

Every year my friend's wife throws him a HUGE birthday extravaganza that is usually theme oriented and involves lots of contests, beer and food. In years past we've had Horror themed ones. This year it was a WWII theme as the party goers were separated into two teams, Axis and Allies (as Roberto has been addicted to Call of Duty on the Xbox 360) . The competitions included a recreation of the bombings of Berlin/London with water rockets (none came close to the miniature cities we created out of cardboard boxes, but one nearly took out some roofing on Roberto's house, much to the chagrin of his lovely wife, Iris). There was also a code/cryptix treasure hunt, rocket cars, dwarves dressed as Churchill and Stalin doing a dance, a mine field race, smarming from Peej, a knee injury, an ankle injury, an ass injury (all incurred well before the festivities even started) and lots and lots of food prepared by the good Lady Peej, wife of Peej The Smarmer. (actually, the dwarf thing I made up. I was checking to see if anyone actually reads these friggin' blogs).

All in all, Robhain 2006 was a wonderful success. I'm already wondering what Iris is going to think up for next year. Dwarves?


Here's something I was pondering on a bit lately. What ever happened to Saturday morning cartoons? Do you remember when Saturday morning was the be all to end all? When I was a kid we had Scooby Doo, The Funky Phantom, Sid and Marty Kroft's Super Show, Super Friends, Clue Club, Jabber Jaw , Josie and the Pussycats (can you tell I loved the adventure and mystery cartoons?) and loads more cool as heck cartoon and children's programming. Now Saturday morning's are plagued with news shows and horrible infomercials.

I remember when Saturday morning was an event! Once the crisp fall air would waken us on a Saturday morning we'd race downstairs from our beds and watch all the new cartoon shows that the networks would come up with. Very few of them had anything to do with Poke-what's and Youh-Gi- Who's. The Friday night before the new cartoon season they'd have TV specials on each of the networks to showcase the new season! Then the next morning from as early as 7am on through, sometimes, 1pm all three major networks would regale us with hours of fun filled adventure. The commercials were a wish list of all the new toys, action figures and uber-sugarized cereals. It was a cornucopia of fun that stroked our youthful imaginations. The kids today are lucky if they get a couple of hours of corporatized cartoons disguised as crappy anime. But then again they have things like video games, iPods and internet porn to amuse them. Sigh....ahh, the good old days.


In gaming news.... I'm replaying through Return to Castle Wolfenstein on the Xbox. A fun FPS with lots of spooky, pulpy content. A fun one, but you can chew right through it within a day's worth of pounding on the controller.


The Octoberfests are starting to make their way to the store shelves, the local convenience stores are starting to stock Trick-or-Treat candies and the leaves are, indeed starting to change color. Labor Day is upon us already and these are all signs that the wonderful time of year when the undead rise from their graves and seek out the living is right around the corner. As usual, my Blog of Geekdom will be turned into a virtual Halloween Headquarters where you'll be able to share in the love of Halloween that I have.


Hopefully, very soon I'll have that announcement on the expansion tot eh Zangz's media empire that you've all been waiting for.


Well, I think I'm going to run on over to the local blockbuster and rent me some episodes of Deadwood. Since I don't have HBO, I check out the show on DVD. What an awesome, if not VERY adult oriented, show. That Al Swearengen is one nasty bastage!

So, see ya later.
Zangz.