Double Feature: Super 8 & X-Men First Class

*** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR SUPER 8 & X-MEN FIRST CLASS***

I've been so busy the past.. forever that I've fallen behind on summer movies so today I was determined to go to the movies and see at least two if not three movies. On my list of "must" see are Pirates 4, Kung Fu Panda 2, X-Men First Class, Super 8 and Green Lantern. So I checked the movies time and it looked like I'd be able to see Super 8, then X-Men First Class and if I was up to it Pirates 4.

So I went to lunch at a near fast food place and then headed over to the theater. Up first was Super 8. I've heard such good things about this film and from the previews I was very excited to see. I had heard that it's a through back to the 80's films like E.T. and Goonies, both of which I LOVED.

I wish I could say that I totally LOVED this movie but I can't. I did enjoy it.. alot.. but maybe the hype got to me. It was a good movie but it didn't remind me of Goonies or E.T... both of which I can watch over and over. One thing that I did LOVE about this movie were the young actors, all of them...  but the main two Joe (Joel Courtney) and Alice (Elle Fanning) were AMAZING. The emotions they conveyed with just a look was brilliant. Part of this film felt like a horror movie, making you jump out of your seat when the "monster/alien" appeared. I like that we got a quick run down on the alien and why it was doing what it was doing... but I would have liked to know why it was kidnapping the people and eating some of them and not others. Was it just storing food for it's travels. One thing I hated but it's a JJ staple.. the lens flairs. OMG.. they were happening even when there wasn't any light source.  Would I recommend this film.. of course it's a very sweet coming of age story with a dash of horror. It made me cry, it had some very beautiful and heart touching scenes. The acting by far was my favorite part. There is also a train derailment scene that is totally EPIC and incredible shot and the alien looks pretty cool (when you finally see it).

After Super 8 I had about a minute to go to the bathroom, get a drink and some popcorn and get into the theater. Luckily they play five or six previews before the movie so I knew I had about ten minutes. So I got my snacks and then made my way into the theater. Soon as I sat down my full popcorn took a tumble to the floor and I lost all but a few kernels of popcorn.. I was not a happy camper.

Anyways on to X-Men First Class. First let me say I LOVED the original X-Men movie and LOVED X-Men 2 even more. And I even enjoyed X-Men 3, which I know most of my fellow geeks did not. So I'm a huge X-Men fan. Again like Super 8 I had heard a ton of great things about this film so my expectations were high... well I am happy to say that this film lived up and exceeded them. I LOVED this movie. It was well written, well acted and had just the right amount of action and character development. The movie is truly the story of how Erik became Magneto. There were several scenes that had me in tears. The death of Darwin was horrific. And another thing I loved about this movie is it still lined up with the previous X-Men movies. I loved the two big cameos and seeing the "younger" versions of future X-Men. This is a must buy when it comes out on Blu-ray.

After seeing Super 8 and then X-Men First Class I couldn't bring myself to watch Pirates. I was on such a high from X-Men that I didn't want to watch Pirates and be disappointed. I've heard good and bad things about Pirates 4, besides I was hungry and knew I had things to do at home. Seeing two movies was great, just have to make sure I do a few more double features in the future.

So I'd give Super 8 a solid B and X-Men First Class an A Both were fantastic and made for a great double feature.

Dad Update

Been texting with my Dad today, he's finally feeling a bit better... this chemo has really taken alot out of him. He's starting to lose his hair (as expected). I told him that at least its only temporary. He's also lost a huge amount of weight... from 230 to 195.. 35 lbs in a few months. He says things just don't taste good anymore. I remember when he had cancer in the 90's that it altered his taste buds, but I keep telling him he has to eat. With his diabetes he needs to keep his blood sugar levels good and not eating is not a good way of doing that. The one good thing is that the cancer/tumors are reacting to the chemo. He's only had one treatment so far and the doctors are  very happy with the progress of the shrinkage of his tumors... according to my Dad they may only do one more treatment. So I guess will just wait and see.

Going to be going to on Sunday for Father's Day. Now sure he'll feel up for doing much but at least we can hang out and watch TV.

Confessions of a Fanboy

Confessions of a Fanboy is my new podcast idea dedicated to all those wonderful Fanboys and Fangirls. It’s a place to talk about your love for Star Trek and/or Star Wars. Do you Cos-Play or dress up as Animals aka Furries? Do you enjoy LARPing or MMO’s? Can you speak in Klingon or recite every Doctor and their companions. If you’re passionate about one or more geek/nerd topics then this podcast is for you.

Each podcast will have a one on one conversation with a Fanboy or Fangirl. Will talk about how you got into your fandom, why you call yourself a fan and how you have integrated it into your daily life. Will also discuss other fandoms you may have and how being a fanboy/fangirl/Geek/Nerd has affected your life and anything else that might come up. I wanted to create this podcast so others like me could share their passion and love for their fandom. If you’re interested in telling your story email me at ConfessionsofaFanboy@gmail.com

Website: http://ConfessionsofaFanboyPodcast.com
Twitter: @FanboyPodcast
Email: ConfessionsofaFanboy@gmail.com

I'm also looking for folks to help out with my Logo for this new podcast.

Quidditch Practice

Tonight after work was once again my Quidditch practice. I got there a little late (they had played one game already). We played another game but the night was really about drills, tossing the Quaffle (soccer ball) back and forth and getting hit by bluders (dodgeballs). As well as practicing to be keeper (goalie). It was alot of fun. We finished the night by playing one more game with all eight of us (4 on 4) and man was it a great game. We've come a long way and this is the first time that it actually felt like a real game. It was pretty awesome. Only down side is one of our players took a tumble and at the time got up and continued to play but when we were done she got in her car and realized something was wrong. Well they took her to the emergency room and found out she hit her head pretty hard when she fell and suffered a concussion. She's fine but man you don't realize little fall could be so damaging.

As for me, I have major shine splints and will have to start wrapping my ankles and stretching better before and after we play. All in all I'm sore and tired but I'm still loving it. It's great to be part of a team, getting a good workout and being part of something very magical.

Podcasting Mania

Many have asked how I got into podcasting.. so I decided to sit down and blog about it.

Back in 2004/2005 itunes added this new function called Podcasts. I had heard about these a little bit prior to that but didn't really pay them much attention until itunes added them to their site. I remember doing searches for my favorite topics, Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly, Facscape, Harry Potter and so and found so many great podcasts.

When I first started off I was listening to about 50+ podcasts but that only lasted a few months as my "free" time became less available I started to scale down my list. Soon there were good solid 15 shows including Treks in Sci Fi, The Signal and Pottercast.

Treks in Sci Fi was special because they had just started a forum and I was one of the first to join and frequent it quite a bit that I was made a moderator. Also because Treksf was all about the shows I love I use to send in listener feedback all the time and Rico would play my comments and it was kind of cool to hear myself on the podcast. So I started sending in listener comments to my other podcasts and soon it became a regular thing and the podcasting bug got me.

I started RPG (role playing game) on the Treks in Sci fi forums and soon it spawned into The Ready Room podcast which covered the happens of the RPG. I loved doing this podcast with fellow forum members Jen and Rick. It was almost like doing my own podcast but the topic was restricted to the Trek SF RPG game and I wanted to do more. Eventually the RPG ended and the three of us moved on to our own podcasts. Jen started the Anomaly podcast with her friend Angela while Rick started Take Him With You Podcast with his wife Amy... both are EXCELLENT podcasts.

So that left me to think of a topic I could do my podcast on. At the time there were thousands of podcasts and so many topics that if you didn't find your niche you could get lost in the crowd. At the time I was volunteering for a webseries called The Guild doing all their behind the scenes DVD stuff when it hit me. I should do a podcast about The Guild. There isn't one out there and since I "work" for them I'm sure I can get inside info and interviews with the cast and such... so Knights of the Guild Podcast was born. It's a huge undertaking to produce 2 to 5 podcasts a month but I love it. KOTG has really open some doors for me and has been a great experience. We're currently working on our third year and The Guild is about to start it's fifth season. I don't know how much longer I'll be doing KOTG but I'll keep doing it as long as the listeners keep downloading it.

Like The Ready Room Podcast, Knights of the Guild podcast is very specific in it's topic and I really wanted to do a variety geek show since I love many things geek. So in October of 2010 I came up with an idea for Epic Geek Out. I purchased the URL, created an email account, made a podbean website and twitter name. Got a logo made and a theme song. Then life got busy, my co-host (Jen) as unable to continue with this project for the time being so it took a back seat. I've tried several times this year to revive it but because of the show format it's making it very difficult to get things off the ground. I know eventually will get it going and it's going to be great.. but until I can devote a good chunk of time to it, it will just to have wait.

I've wanted to do a MASH podcast for several years now, I mentioned this to my partner at the time Harry (who's a huge MASH fan) but again it never went anywhere until earlier this year I was talking to a few friends and fellow podcasters (Meds & Al) and found out that both of them are huge MASH fans and suddenly this podcast was on the fast track and come February we released the first episode of MASH 4077 Podcast and it's been steadily growing in listeners since.

So now I'm doing two podcasts, I produce, edit, co-host, promote and manage both of these podcasts. Both podcasts put out at least 2 to 5 episodes a month and I spend roughly 40+ hours a week working on them. But my head it still churning up ideas for more podcasts. I have several idea for other podcasts based on some of my favorite TV shows, but at the moment they are just ideas. I have reached out to several "groups" and/or people whom I'd love to do a podcast on/for. I'm just waiting to hear their thoughts on the topic. One is definitely a go, just need to come up with a good format. I'll keep everyone posted.

But this morning while driving into work this great podcast idea came over me and I couldn't get it out of my head. So when I got to work I started to research the URL and with a little tweaking I got what I wanted, also opened a gmail account, twitter and podbean account for my new podcast...  Confessions of a Fanboy Podcast. (more details to follow in future blogs)

So I have 2 podcasts up and running, 2 podcasts prepping to go,  2 podcasts in the wings so many more ideas just waiting to be revealed. 

If you can't tell I love podcasting, just wish I could make a living at it. That's my next step, to sustain of living at podcasting.

Knights of the Guild Ep 32

Download from itunes - http://bit.ly/KotGCast or listen/download directly http://bit.ly/2CrYxk

Today’s show features:

• * Knights of the Guild theme song by Matthew Gehrett http://www.matthewgehrett.com/
• * Guild News
• * Crew Interview with Wardrobe Krystyn Ingrim
• * Guild Something with Sean & Brian
• * Fan Interview with the very talented Adam Levermore
• * What the Cast is Up too
• * How to find us on the Web.. aka Business Time

Thank you again for all your support, we do this podcast because we are fans and more importantly for the fans.... Kenny

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 10

Download from itunes http://tinyurl.com/MASH4077itunes  or listen/direct download http://bit.ly/eXCRxT

Kenny Mittleider from Knights of the Guild Podcast, Simon Meddings from Waffle On Podcast, Al Kessel from Tales from the Mouse House Podcast and special guest hosts Harry Dauz & Joyce Kessel discuss one of the most successful and longest running television series in history.. M*A*S*H

Today we cover Episode #10 - I Hate a Mystery

Directed by Hy Averback
Written by Hal Dressner
Production code J306
Original air date November 26, 1972

Plot Summary: A rash of thefts breaks out in the camp. Missing pieces include Frank's silver picture frame, Margaret's hair brush, and Trapper's watch. The camp is searched and everything is found in Hawkeye's locker, leaving the other MASH personnel suspicious of and, worse, disappointed in Hawkeye. Hawkeye manages to let it be known to the camp where the recovered items have been stored (they have been locked in Col. Blake's desk). When the items disappear yet again, Hawkeye summons many of the MASH personnel to the mess tent in the middle of the night in order to reveal the identity of the criminal. After parodying countless detective stories by revealing possible motives others might have to frame him (jealousy, resentment, etc.), he tells the assembled staff that he has treated the items with a chemical which, when it comes into contact with a human being, turns that person's fingernails blue. When Ho-Jon hides his hands, Hawkeye knows he has found the criminal. (The chemical treatment story was merely a bluff.) Ho-Jon is not punished, however, as he has stolen the items only to raise money to bribe border guards to bring his family from the north to the south.

Hope you enjoy it,
Kenny, Meds, Al, Harry & Joyce

Find Us on the Web:
Main website - http://MASH4077Podcast.com
Twitter - @MASH4077Podcast
Facebook Fan Page - http://www.facebook.com/MASH4077Podcast
MASH 4077 Podcast Blog - http://www.MASH4077Podcast.blogspot.com
Email Us - MASH4077Podcast@Gmail.com

© Geekyfanboy Productions

Harry Potter Scavenger Hunt

JK Rowling loves to make announcements in style. Today various Harry Potter sites posted this...

Following the completion of the seven Harry Potter books and eight films, J.K. Rowling has something new to announce. Even though this is not a new book, we have been informed it is something equally exciting.

As a teaser before the official announcement, ten letters have been hidden on the website below for you to find. To locate them you need to find ten sets of coordinates, enter them into the search box at www.secretstreetview.com one set at a time, and take a look around (meaning zoom all the way in).

Over the next two hours All Ten Coordinates showed up each revealing a letter and a little tidbit about the Harry Potter World and that particular location.

42.523356,-70.890698 - The letter E was revealed and Salem: The Salem Witches' Institute visited the Quidditch World Cup.

51.530377,-0.123259 - The letter T was revealed and King’s Cross: The Hogwarts Express leaves from platform nine and three-quarters.

-34.410362,150.900671 - The letter O was revealed and Australia: The Woollongong Warriors are a Quidditch team referenced in the book ‘Quidditch through the Ages.’

43.640408,-79.388795 - The letter R was revealed and Toronto (Skydome): Where J.K. Rowling achieved the world record for a public reading event.

29.952313,-90.067849 - The letter P was revealed and New Orleans: The Phoenix Rising Convention in New Orleans. One of the largest Harry Potter fan conventions.

-23.547149,-46.520266 - The letter E was revealed and Brazil: The location of an eagle-eyed fan site which spotted a recent trademark registration.

-29.239004,24.507602 - The letter T was revealed and Africa: The Erumpent - whose horn contains a deadly fluid that can make objects explode at the slightest touch (one of which destroyed the Lovegood house) - is originally from Africa.

34.730748,137.383786 - The letter O was revealed and Toyohashi: Toyohashi Tengu is a Quidditch team referenced in the book ‘Quidditch through the Ages.’

51.781383,-2.56844 - The letter R was revealed and Forest of Dean: The beautiful forest where Harry & Ron reunite in the Deathly Hallows.

53.476311, -2.22971 - The letter M was revealed and Manchester station: The train line between Manchester and London is where J.K. Rowling first conceived the idea of Harry Potter.

So this left us with: E T O R P E T O R M and if you rearrange the letters you get MORE POTTER

Well just a few moments ago it was official announced that POTTERMORE is a new JK Rowling website. You can follow them @pottermore and the url of the website is www.pottermore.com It's just a front page saying coming soon.. so all us Potter fans are on pens and needles waiting to hear what JK Rowling is up too.. .let the speculation fly.

Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition Screening

Tonight I went to see this in the theater. It's a promotional thing for the LOTR Blu-ray DVD's coming out soon. AMC is showing the Extended Edition of each film on Tuesday for the next three weeks. Fellowship of the Rings 6/14, The Two Towers 6/21 and Return of the King 6/28.

Went with my friends Harry, Andrew, Adam and Aaron. The room was pretty packed but not full. First to come on screen with Peter Jackson who explained that these releases are the first and only showing of the new REMASTERED Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Editions. I guess they remastered the video and audio for the Blu-Rays.. so in essence we were watching the Blu-ray version of the movie on the big screen. We watched it on a AMC's E.X.T. screen.. not sure what that means but I know it’s supposed to be the best digital video and sound they have.

The crowd was great, some dressed up but all very extremely excited. Every time a new character would come on screen folks would hoot and holler. The video was exceptional, but I have to admit that seeing it in HD you can tell when it's not the main actors and it's one of the little people with a mask on. I don't think I noticed it that much before but watching it in HD on a huge screen you kind of notices now. Still didn't take any of the joy away from watching it again. This is actually my second time watching FOTR EE on the bring screen. I saw it many years ago when they were releasing the final movie The Return of the King they did a marathon with FOTR and TT both Extended Editions and then premiered ROTK. But this was my first time seeing in glorious Digital HD. Like the video the sounds was amazing, some scenes would shake the chairs it was so powerful. I know some folks in my party got a headache from the sound but I thought it was AWESOME.

It was a great experience, I cried like a baby as I always do with certain parts of this movie. This is my favorite of the Trilogy. I'm still debating on going next Tuesday to see The Two Towers. For this one I had to leave work two hours early and it took me a little over an hour and a half in traffic to get there... but it was so worth it.

Dad Update

So it's been a few weeks since I have updated you guys on my Dad's on going battle with cancer. He got his first chemo treatment a few weeks ago and was sick for a few days but then felt fine. I saw him a week ago for my nephews birthday party and he looks in good spirits, the swelling in his face had gone down and his appetite had returned. He also said that the tumors were shrinking (just by his observation).

Well I talked to him today and he's not feeling so hot, though the chemo was a few weeks ago it's started to take a toll on his body and he's extremely sick and he's eating very little, which is bad news since he's diabetic and needs to control his blood sugar levels.

He has several doctor appointments towards the end of this week and the doctors will determined if they will start radiation as well as chemo to give it the 1 2 punch or if they are happy with the results of just the chemo they may opt not to do radiation. So will know more at the end of this week. His next chemo treatment isn't for another few weeks. I just hope we get good news and this treatment is actually shrinking the tumors and preventing the cancer from spreading... only time will tell.

Hanging with Greg Aronowitz

After recording my Doctor Who podcast I headed down to the Barnyard to hangout with my buddy Greg Aronowitz. If you don't know who Greg is, he's a special effects artist and design specialist who has contributed to over two hundred films and television projects. He's made action figures, busts and so much more. He's now directing and writing his own movies. You can check out his IMDB page HERE

Various Props Greg has made for The Guild

We meet a few years back while working on The Guild together and became fast friends as we are both very big geeks. Anyways I actually went over to interview him for The Guild season five companioncasts and he is also going to be making my hobbit ears and feet so I was going to have my ears casted.

Greg's house/ The Barnyard is such an AWESOME place to visit. Everytime I go there something new to see. So I always have fun checking out his place when I visit. We started interviewing around 3:30pm and discussed episodes 1 through 5 before we realized it was 7:30pm and that we were both hungry. So we took a break and went to El Pollo Loco for some crazy chicken and had a really good

Full size Jabba in his living room

conversation during dinner. Got back to his place around 8:45pm and talked about episodes 6 and 7 then realized it was 10pm and we hadn't done my ear casting and I had to get going as seven hours of interviewing was my limit. Greg was also not feeling well so we called it a night. We made plans to finish up talking about episodes 8 through 12 and do my ear casting at a later date. I did give him some old shoes in which he will create my hobbit feet around.

Doctor Who Podcast Recording

Well after my false start yesterday thinking that it was Sunday, today at noon I jumped on skype to chat with Meds (my co-host on MASH 4077 Podcast) and KC (a member of the Treksf forums) to discuss the latest season of Doctor Who for an episode of the Treks in Sci Fi Podcast. The three of us have kind of been the resident Who fans on the forums and have done previous podcasts covering previous seasons of Who.

We had planned to have both Meds and I record the skype call with pamela and each person would individually record their own audio as back ups. First Meds couldn't get his pamela to work so we relied on mine. Which I tested and it worked fine. Then I had issues with my audacity audio levels and finally just gave up on that. We started recording and got about 15 minutes in and my skype died, which caused pamela to crash and we lost everything. We regrouped and started again and it looked like all the gremlins in the systems were gone. An hour and a fifteen minutes later we recorded a fun and entertaining podcast about season 6A of Doctor Who.

I went to stop pamela and yep.. it didn't work, nothing was recorded. So now all we have are our individual audio recordings. I told Meds to send them all to me as it's easy for me to link them all together with my Avid and then I would send him back the full audio that he could add clips and edit.

Well I got all three audio files and imported them into the system. I laid out Meds audio first and then KC's and noticed that Meds was about half as long as KC's. I then laid mine out and mine was the same length as KC's.. For some reason Meds only recorded 30 minutes of his recording.. so now panic has started to set in. It was looking like we would have to re-record the entire thing and the problem is that this episode is due to air this coming Sunday. But when I listened to KC's recording it had all of our voices on it.. not just hers like it was suppose to be. This would have been a major issue if we were trying to sync up all our individual audio but the fact that Meds only had half and we lost pamela this actually saved the entire show. Seems KC recorded everything (by accident, I assume) but that is the audio that we are going to use for our show. KC sounds the best and Meds and I sound kind of hollow.. but at least we have a full recording of the show and don't have to do it again. So what started out as a mistake turned in to a live saver.... Thanks KC