Here you go. Just what you ordered. A large pizza with everything. Oh, don't I wish. Can you make do with an on-time copy of Reel 2 Reel?
Hey Adventureland Friends:
I dedicate this in loving memory of a great teacher -- Nelson Harrison. He was also an EMT, coach and driving instructor/examiner. So, he touched alot of people.
Allow me to rephrase that, he had touched everybody. Really touched them - heart and soul. That is the man he was in everyway. I miss you already, teach.
You should get this in time for the weekend. Find a great movie and dedicate this to Nelson.
http://www.adventurelandvideo.com
Bravenet has recently unveiled new web building tools. So I am eager to get started a web site for 2009. For this reason, you may see random web site changes.
http://groups.google.com/group/adventureland-friends
This is our free members only community hosted by Google. So far only two of you have joined. I hope to welcome more of you aboard.
This week our Celebrity Spotlight is on John Stamos. That cool rock-n-roll uncle on "Full House." Did you know there is talk of a "Full House" movie?
The Snack Bar has a tastey treat from our good pal Patsy @ Pakadevas' Freebees. See her web site below for more recipes, hints and yes, freebies too.
I ran into a cool bookmark for you this week.
Blog Bytes is moving full speed ahead. Generally, It is DVD release news from My Video Store. Yes, there is pictures too. It has been a long time coming huh?
Happy Birthday to Bill Caldwell on August 22. He shares this special day with Ray Bradbury (1920), Valerie Harper (1940) and Cindy Williams (1947).
Add yourself to our Birthday Alarm today. Then you could find your name here with various celebrities. Provide only the info you feel comfortable sharing.
http://www.clickaudit.com/goto/?36409
I just won a Fandango movie ticket. Before this I had a $5 gift certificate. My sponsor won both as well. I hope you sign-up today and win - because I will too.
http://www.blingo.com/friends?ref=LJt9EIXsXBaBuP-fW5DaMrkkYSk
===================================
!! TAKE THE HAMBURGER SURVEY TODAY !!
Share your opinion and participate in our offers to receive a FREE $500 Gift Card!
http://www.adreporting.com/dir.php?a=689632&p=897&w=text
===================================
FIND SHOWTIMES @ ADVENTURELAND
http://adventurelandvideo.com
===================================
<> <> <> BOX OFFICE <> <> <>
===================================
'THUNDER' OVERTAKES THE 'DARK KNIGHT'
It took 4 Hollywood stars to take down Batman. The DreamWorks-Paramount comedy "Tropic Thunder" - with Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black & Tom Cruise - debuted at #1 with $26 million, bumping
"Dark Knight" to second after 4 weekss on top, according to studio estimates sunday.
The Warner Bros. Batman flick pulled in $16.8 million to raise its total to $471.5 million. "Dark Knight" passed the original "Star Wars" ($461 million) and now stands as #2 on the all-time domestic charts, behind "Titanic" ($600.8 million).
Taking inflation into account, "Dark Knight" trails both movies in actual tickets sold, however. "Dark Knight" would need to gross $900 million to match the number of admissions for "Titanic" and $1.2 billion to equal "Star Wars."
Warner Bros. expects "Dark Knight" to top out at about $530 million domestically, said Dan Fellman, the studio's head of distribution.
"Dark Knight" managed to fend off another "Star Wars" movie this weekend. The animated tale "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," also released by Warner Bros., opened at #3 with $15.5 million.
Families made up two-thirds of the audience for
"Clone Wars," Fellman said. "Star Wars" creator George Lucas intended the movie as an introduction to his "Clone Wars" TV show debuting this fall on the Cartoon Network.
"It was targeted to a specific audience for specific reasons," Fellman said. "We accomplished that mission, and it will continue in another medium."
"Tropic Thunder" was the third R-rated comedy to open solidly in recent weeks, following "Pineapple Express" and "Step Brothers." Most summer comedies are rated PG-13, since an R rating limits the audience by requiring anyone younger than 17 to come with an adult.
R-rated comedy hits tend to open in the $20 million to $30 million range, lower than PG-13, but often have a longer shelf life in theaters. R-rated movies such as "40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up" and
"Superbad" opened around those levels and went on to become $100 million hits.
"We're thrilled, quite frankly. It played out exactly how we hoped," said DreamWorks Chip Sullivan.
Stiller directed and co-wrote "Tropic Thunder," in which he stars with Downey & Black as pampered actors who find themselves in a real combat while shooting a Vietnam War epic in Asian jungles. Cruise co-stars as a studio boss.
"Tropic Thunder" raised its total to $37 million since opening Wednesday.
The 20th Century Fox "Mirrors," starring Kiefer Sutherland as a guard whose family is terrorized by spirits, opened at #4 with $11.1 million.
Woody Allen returned with his Spanish romance "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," which opened at #10 with $3.7 million.
The movie played in narrower release, 692 theaters compared with 3,000-plus for "Tropic Thunder" and
"Clone Wars." Still, it opened far wider than most Allen films, which usually start in a handful of theaters and gradually expand.
"You never can predict how something's going to do, but we felt that the movie is so strong, we just needed to get it out there," said Harvey Weinstein, whose Weinstein Co. released the movie with MGM. "The audience reaction is terrific."
Summit Entertainment's "Fly Me to the Moon," a 3-D animated tale about 3 flies that tag along on the Apollo 11 moon landing, debuted in 452 theaters and took in $2 million, finishing at #12.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday - Sunday @ U.S. & Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers. Final figures will be released Monday.
01) "Tropic Thunder" @ $26 million.
02) "The Dark Knight" @ $16.8 million.
03) "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" @ $15.5 million.
04) "Mirrors" @ $11.1 million.
05) "Pineapple Express" @ $10 million.
06) "The Mummy: Dragon Emperor" @ $8.6 million.
07) "Mamma Mia!" @ $6.5 million.
0
"Sisterhood Traveling Pants 2" @ $5.9 million.
09) "Step Brothers" @ $5 million.
10) "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" @ $3.7 million.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/
===================================
<> <> <> NOW SHOWING <> <> <>
===================================
To be released on video December 2008.
TROPIC THUNDER
Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte, Brandon Jackson, Jay Baruchel Director: Ben Stiller
A group of self-absorbed actors set out to make the most expensive war film. But after ballooning costs force the studio to cancel the movie, the frustrated director refuses to stop shooting, leading his cast into the jungles of Southeast Asia, where they encounter real bad guys.
Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violent content and drug material.
"...a knockout of a comedy that keeps you laughing constantly." - Rolling Stone,
Peter Travers
"... a mega-budget war movie that makes fun of mega-budget war movies." - New York Post,
Lou Lumenick
http://www.tropicthunder.com/
===================================
<> <> <> COMING SOON <> <> <>
===================================
Opening August 27, 2008
TRAITOR
Don Cheadle is a former U.S. Special Ops officer who becomes the lead suspect in a dangerous international conspiracy.
Rated for intense violent sequences, thematic material and brief language.
http://www.traitor-themovie.com/
Opening August 29, 2008
COLLEGE
Three high school seniors attend orientation weekend at Fairmont University, where a rowdy fraternity recruits them as "pledges."
Rated R for pervasive crude and sexual content, nudity, language, drug and alcohol abuse.
http://www.college-themovie.com/
Opening September 5, 2008
MISTER FOE
A twisted Freudian tale about a teenager who fancies his stepmother until he becomes convinced that she murdered his mother.
Rated R for strong sexual content and language.
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809426101/
===================================
<> <> <> SNEAK PEAKS <> <> <>
===================================
===================================
<> <> CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT <> <>
===================================
JOHN PHILLIP STAMOS
DOB: August 19, 1963 - Cypress, California
Actor found fame as a daytime hunk on the soap opera
"General Hospital" from 1982-83. Stamos made the move to prime time in 1984, playing a musician on the short-lived drama "Dreams." He finally enjoyed staying power on television when he landed the role of Uncle Jesse on "Full House." Playing a tough guy with a heart of gold for 8 seasons, Stamos gained national appeal. In addition to his sitcom success, Stamos has appeared in TV movies including "The Disappearance of Christina" (1993), "Fatal Vows: The Alexandra O’Hara Story" (1994), "A Match Made in Heaven" (1997) and "Sealed With a Kiss" (1999)and
"How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale" in 2000. Most recently, Stamos has been on tour with The Beach Boys. Next year he will be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
http://www.johnstamos.net/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001764/
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800099814
NOTABLES:
He has played drums occasionally with The Beach Boys since 1985.
He is close to Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, who played his niece Michelle on "Full House" (1987).
He is close to Bob Saget, who played Danny Tanner on "Full House" (1987).
Was first to announce his departure from "Full House" (1987) after the eighth season because he disapproved of the shows planned move from ABC to the WB.
Grew up in Cypress, CA; hometown of fellow "Full House" (1987) star Jodie Sweetin, Michael Fishman (DJ on "Roseanne" (198 and Tiger Woods.
Loves Elvis Presley.
QUOTABLES:
[on starring in "Full House" (1987)] "The whole time I was on it, I wished I was on another show, I'm not gonna lie to you. But I look back on it fondly, and I'm proud of it. Was it "Seinfeld" (1990), "Friends" (1994), "Mary Tyler Moore" (1970)? No. Was it a heartwarming show you could watch with your kids? Yes. And there's nothing wrong with that."
"Mary-Kate [Mary-Kate Olsen] and Ashley [Ashley Olsen], who played Michelle, were great. I miss them, I love them, and I need to borrow some money from them."
===================================
<> <> <> SNACK BAR <> <> <>
===================================
CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER DESSERT
1/2 Cup all-purpose flour
1/2 Cup sugar
3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1/4 Teaspoon baking soda
6 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter
2 Tablespoons milk
1 Egg, beaten
1/2 Cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 Cup miniature marshmallows
In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, & baking soda. Stir in peanut butter, milk, & egg; mix until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips & miniature marshmallows. Divide batter among six 6-ounce custard cups. Arrange custard cups in microwave oven, evenly spaced in a circle. Cook, uncovered, at 100% power for 1 1/2 minutes. Rotate cups, unless your microwave has a turntable. Continue cooking for 1 1/2 minutes longer. Let cups stand in microwave oven for 3 minutes. Dessert centers will be soft. Serve hot or warm with vanilla ice cream.
Thank you Patsy @ Pakadeva's Freebees
http://www.pakadevasfreebees.com/
===================================
<> <> <> BUDDY LIST <> <> <>
===================================
!!! PAKADEVA'S FREEBEES !!!
This is the place ! Find real freebies, Interesting
finds, & contests ! Subscribe to enter & receive a
FREE phone card ! Check our Crafts, Natural Beauty &
Recipes pages. ( International )
http://www.pakadevasfreebees.com
??? WANT SOMETHING FOR NOTHING ???
Free stuff with free shipping. If it's not clearly
free, it's not on Free N Clear! Freebies and samples
with no postage sent to you! We do the legwork, so you
don't have to.
http://www.freenclearstuff.com
===================================
<> <> <> BOOKMARKS <> <> <>
===================================
===================================
<> <> <> AUCTION WATCH <> <> <>
===================================
===================================
<> <> <> BLOG BYTES <> <> <>
===================================
'MARVIN THE MARTIAN' MOVIE COMING
Warner Bros. is developing the Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian for a feature film. According to Variety, the project will be computer animated and live-action. The publication also says it'll be a Christmas themed storyline. Given that animation takes considerable time, we probably won't see this one until 2010 or 201i. Marvin the Martian made his debut in the 1948 Bugs Bunny short "Haredevil Hare." That cartoon can be found on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1 DVD.
JC PENNEY 'BREAKFAST CLUB' COMMERCIAL
If you've been to the theater lately, then you've probably seen the full version of the new JCPenney commercial. JCPenney in their attempt to appear hip and retro has recast and re-shot most scenes from The Breakfast Club. They have gone to considerable lengths
to make the commercial look authentic, down to Shermer
High School and the art piece in the library. A close examination does reveal the school they filmed at is a poor substitute for Glenbrook North in Chicago.
'IRON MAN' COMING 2 DVD & BLU-RAY
Finally, it's official. The $560 million worldwide hit Iron Man is coming to DVD and Blu-ray Sept. 30.
We've had to stay mum on this for some time but now the cat's out of the bag. The Robert Downey Jr. flick will be available in 2-disc Ultimate Editions on DVD and Blu-ray as well as a single disc DVD. Ultimate Edition DVD and Ultimate Edition Blu-ray are priced at under $40 suggested retail. The pared-down single disc DVD is priced at about $30 suggested retail.
'INDIANA JONES' ARRIVES ON OCTOBER 14
The fourth installment in the adventure series, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, will be released on Oct. 14. The movie will be available in two-disc special editions along with The Complete Adventure Collection, a set containing all 4 Indy films. The movie once again stars Harrison Ford as Dr. Henry Jones Jr. Steven Spielberg directed and George Lucas executive produced with Kathleen Kennedy.
Forget HD DVD: Toshiba focuses on plain old DVD
By PETER SVENSSON
NEW YORK (AP) - After losing out in the battle to define the high-definition successor of the DVD, Toshiba Corp. has turned its attention to the next best thing: the DVD.
On Monday, the Japanese electronics company is releasing a new DVD player that it says does more than previous models to improve the look of DVDs on high-definition TVs.
The XD-E500 will sell for a suggested price of $149.99, twice as much as regular "upconverting" players, which also improve the look of a DVD, but it is less than half the price of a Blu-ray player.
The Blu-ray disc, championed by Sony Corp., early this year beat out Toshiba's HD DVD to become the dominant format for high-definition discs. Toshiba has stopped making HD DVD players.
In a demonstration to reporters last week, Toshiba played the same disc in an XDE player and a standard, $70 upscaling model on side-by-side LCD HDTVs. The new player produced a subtle but noticeable sharpening of the image.
Toshiba didn't demonstrate the XDE against a Blu-ray or HD DVD player, and Louis Masses, director of product planning for the audio and video group at Toshiba America Consumer Products, was careful to stress that it's not meant to compete with or replace Blu-ray.
"If you want Blu-ray, go get Blu-ray. This product is meant to improve playback of DVDs," Masses said.
Masses said the XDE technology, for eXtended Detail Enhancement, will be used in other players, and the brand will be promoted extensively in advertising, including on NBC's Olympics site.
Blu-ray players have six times the image detail of a DVD, and upscaling players, even those using XDE technology, can't overcome that. But they can sharpen edges to overcome the blurriness of a DVD when displayed on a large screen.
Three years after their launch, Blu-ray players are popular with home-theater aficionados but have not caught on in the mainstream, except through Sony's PlayStation 3 game console, which can play Blu-ray discs.
In emphasizing DVDs, Toshiba is playing up to a difficulty for Blu-ray marketers: Most U.S. consumers are happy with DVDs, according to a recent study by ABI Research, and don't believe Blu-ray provides as big of a quality jump as DVDs did over VHS tapes.
---
http://www.toshibaxde.com
Analog TV shutdown kills free cell-phone TV
Email this Story
By PETER SVENSSON
NEW YORK (AP) - Picture whipping out your cell phone and catching up with "Lost" or "Jeopardy," or watching the local 11 o'clock news, all for free. You can do this with an imported Chinese phone, but you can't with any phone sold in the U.S. - at least not without monthly charges.
This is one of the reasons the United States is behind several other countries when it comes to making television an attractive option for cell phones. Carrier business models are partly at fault, but choices about TV technology made long ago are largely to blame.
Most phones sold in Japan can tune in to free TV broadcasts, and there are tens of millions of viewers. Cell phones that can tune in to free broadcasts are also available in South Korea, Germany and China.
But only 3 percent of Americans regularly watched video on their cell phones late last year, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That figure includes people who watched short, downloaded clips rather than broadcast TV.
For starters, you can blame the impending shutdown of all full-power analog TV broadcasts on Feb. 17, a deadline set by the government. That Chinese handset, made by ZTE Corp., can only tune in to analog transmissions. Because most of them are going away, there's no real point in selling phones like that in the United States.
China is keeping its analog broadcasts until 2015, six years longer than the U.S., so the phones are viable there. Ironically, the TV reception chip inside comes from a U.S. company, Telegent Systems Inc., based in Sunnyvale, Calif.
The analog U.S. broadcasts are being replaced by digital broadcasts, but there are no phones anywhere that can tune in to those.
When the U.S. digital TV standard was laid down in the early '90s by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, it was optimized for high-definition signals to stationary antennas, according to Mark Richter, president of the industry group.
At the time, cell phones had screens that could display eight digits and nothing else, so little thought was given making the broadcasts work with mobile gadgets.
The Europeans created their digital television standard later and made it a bit more amenable to mobile reception, Richter said. Thus, there are now phones sold in Germany that can receive local digital broadcasts intended for stationary TVs.
Weijie Yun, Telegent's chief executive, said it's theoretically possible to receive U.S. digital terrestrial broadcasts on a phone, but engineers have yet to overcome key technical challenges. For now, Telegent's chips can receive analog broadcasts in most countries of the world, and digital broadcasts in Europe and a few countries outside it.
Because U.S. phones can't receive regular broadcast TV, carriers have had to look to other solutions. Cell-phone technology company Qualcomm Inc. has created a network that broadcasts signals designed for cell phones. AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless sell some handsets that can tune in to these broadcasts.
Sprint Nextel Corp. has contracted with another company, MobiTV Inc., which streams lo-fi streaming video over the phones' broadband connections. The fourth national carrier, T-Mobile USA, doesn't have a TV service.
The common denominator for the existing services is that they cost money, limiting their adoption. AT&T and Verizon Wireless charge $15 per month for 10 channels. Sprint bundles MobiTV with some high-end plans and charges $9.99 per month as standalone service.
In-Stat analyst Michelle Abraham estimates that Qualcomm's MediaFLO has 100,000 subscribers. MobiTV has done better, with about 4 million subscribers.
Research director John Barrett at analysis firm Parks Associates points to the fees as a problem, and recommends that operators provide free content.
"A free taste would go a long way in making the consumer case for mobile TV," he wrote in a recent report. "Mobile TV services have taken off in Japan and South Korea, where service is offered free of charge. In Italy, where additional fees have been the norm, usage has been limited."
This month, Toshiba Corp. announced it would end a pay-TV system for handsets because of the popularity of free TV broadcasts.
"That's one of the key barriers," Telegent's Yun said. "Once you start charging consumers, they start getting turned off."
U.S. TV broadcasters are quite eager to provide free broadcasts to cell phones, just as they do to TVs with "rabbit-ear" antennas. They've formed the Open Mobile Video Coalition, which estimates that advertising-financed TV for cell phones could be a $2 billion market.
They want to reach cell phones through another wireless standard the ATSC is creating. It will use regular TV frequencies to reach mobile gadgets, meaning TV stations will be able to broadcast from existing towers.
The goal is to complete the new standard, called ATSC-M/H, by the first quarter of next year, Richter said. That could mean broadcasts will be operational before the end of next year.
It's not completely clear that the technology would be used for free TV - the possibility to charge viewers monthly fees will be built in - but it would be natural for broadcasters to simulcast their regular advertising-financed programming on the mobile channel.
The big question then, Abraham said, is whether broadcasters will be able to persuade carriers to sell TV-capable phones.
AT&T spokesman Michael Coe said it was too early speculate.
"If the answer ends up being 'yes,'" Abraham said, "then that opens up a very large market."
8-year-old guitar wiz has reason to play the blues
Aug 12, 10:51 AM (ET)
By CARRIE ANTLFINGER
ELKHORN, Wis. (AP) - When Tallan "T-Man" Latz was 5, he saw Joe Satriani playing guitar on TV. "I turned around to my dad and said, 'That's exactly what I want to do.'"
Three years and countless hours of practicing later, 8-year-old Tallan is a blues guitar prodigy. He's played in bars and clubs, including the House of Blues in Chicago, and even jammed with Les Paul and Jackson Browne. He has a summer of festivals scheduled and has drawn interest from venues worldwide.
And what, you might ask, would a kid not even in the third grade have the blues about? The state of Wisconsin for one, and some possibly jealous older musicians for another.
An anonymous e-mail sent to state officials complained that Tallan was too young to perform in taverns and nightclubs because of state child labor laws. His booking agent even got an anonymous letter threatening her with death if she keeps booking him.
When Tallan's father read him the state's letter saying he couldn't play clubs anymore (he can still play festivals), the boy's response - like his music - seemed beyond his years.
"He goes, 'It's not how many times you get knocked down but it's how many times you get back up and go forward,' Carl Latz said his son told him. "And I told him that's exactly what this is all about and if nothing else this letter just taught you a life lesson."
The lesson can be stiff: Each day he performs, the employer can be fined $25 to $1,000 and the parent from $10 to $250.
Jennifer Ortiz of the state Equal Rights Division said her agency has a responsibility to enforce the law once it becomes aware of a violation.
"Well, the law prohibits it, and the Legislature enacted the laws to protect the health, safety and welfare of all children."
Latz, who also is Tallan's manager, has asked a legislator for help changing the law but it's unclear whether any action will be taken.
Latz received the letter a few days before Tallan was to perform at Lil Downtown Lounge in suburban Milwaukee, where club co-owner Michelle Boche said the boy always packed the place when he sat in with other musicians.
Latz claims that two weeks before getting the letter he overheard local blues guitarist Jammin' Jimmy, whose real name is James Kemeny, say Tallan shouldn't be in a bar and he was going to turn him in.
Kemeny, who's been playing for 44 years, denied badmouthing Tallan.
"It seems totally unbelievable that somebody would even go to that extreme to send a letter to somebody, let alone looking to find something about child labor laws," Kemeny said.
Boche said she has received backlash from musicians and area bar owners because she supports Tallan. Some have tried to take patrons away, she said. Some even called in fake incidents to police, causing them to look for guns or underage drinkers, she said.
"If my doors close and I never open again and this boy becomes successful, then I will be the happiest person in the world," she said.
Tallan's agent, Sharon Pomaville, said she received a threatening letter June 2 warning her to stop booking the boy. She thinks he's a local musician and believes he's harmless. Deputies came to her house, but she didn't want to pursue the case.
Greg Koch, 42, an internationally known guitarist and clinician for Fender Musical Instruments, called the backlash despicable.
He said most 8-year-olds don't have the strength or attention span to pursue guitar or can't endure the calluses.
"It's strange that a kid at this age would glean onto this particular kind of music and show the intensity and kind of the ability to function as kind of 8-year-old blues guy," he said.
Brad Tolinski, editor-in-chief of Guitar World magazine, said kid guitar prodigies are rare, with one emerging perhaps every four or five years.
"It would be unusual to find an 8-year-old who can play Joe Satriani licks," he said.
Carl Latz said there's no explanation for Tallan's blues connection other than he seems to have an old soul.
"I've had more people tell me, they say 'It's a kid's body but it has a 70-year-old dude inside,'" Carl Latz said.
Tallan, whose heroes are Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, has 13 guitars and endorsements from at least nine companies to use their equipment. He can read music but plays mostly from memory.
He has two bands - one with veterans called T-Man's Blues Project and another with 16-and-younger bandmates called Tallan "The T-Man" Latz and the Young Guns. He also sings and plays drums, harmonica, bass and piano.
Tallan said he likes to play guitar to "put smiles on people's faces" when they are having a bad day.
"It sounds awesome," he said. "I think it's so much you can do on the guitar."
He knows 30 to 40 songs and someday hopes to write his own. It was his idea to start playing in public.
"He drags me around," his dad said. "I don't drag him around."
Tallan said the problems he's faced have doing nothing to dampen his ambition to be a blues rock star when he grows up. Just the opposite, in fact.
"Because I got more inspiration, I got more sadness in me," Tallan said. "I'm just feelin' it."
---
http://www.tallanlatz.com/
Blobtown: Movie memories revitalize a community
Aug 12, 3:42 PM (ET)
By TED ANTHONY
PHOENIXVILLE, Pa. (AP) - There is a man. He carries a can, and inside it is a weird, blood-red hunk of goo the size and consistency of a generous bowl of lumpy raspberry Jell-O.
Each summer, man and can climb into the car and drive to a small town on the edge of the Philadelphia suburbs, not far from where Washington spent that bitter, long-ago winter in Valley Forge.
The town, Phoenixville, is a place of history, too. Fifty years ago, this place was touched by the spotlight. A small production company two towns over made a film that no one expected to go anywhere. Instead, it became one of the iconic sci-fi horror flicks of the 1950s and introduced the world to an actor named Steve McQueen.
In the movie, this happens: A mysterious hunk of extraterrestrial gelatin kills a physician in his home, menaces teenagers in a grocery store, surges toward a crowd of people in a darkened theater and engulfs a diner.
In real life, this happens: Each summer, hundreds of locals and folks from as far away as Oregon and Jamaica come to the center of Phoenixville. They visit the house where the doctor "died," stop by the strip mall where the market once stood, eat at the diner on the site where the alien met its frozen end. And, on Phoenixville's main drag, on a warm summer evening, more than 400 of them run screaming from the same theater, the Colonial, in a joyous re-enactment of the movie's big scene.
The man and the can play starring roles in The Big Weekend and its ocean of science-fiction fans and weekend excursioneers. The man is Wes Shank, collector of movie memorabilia. The can contains his showpiece, the thing that gave rise to all the commotion in the first place.
It is a miniature film prop, nothing more, a chunk of silicone manufactured by Union Carbide in West Virginia. But it is also the centerpiece of a story of tourism and entertainment that, a half-century and six manned moon landings later, refuses to go away.
All around the hunk of goo, something odd unfolds: Because a movie was made long ago, because a town's gotta do what a town's gotta do, a festival has risen. A downtown has come back. A past has been leveraged - a fictional past, but a past nevertheless.
Once, in 1958, "The Blob" came from beyond the stars and brought death to Phoenixville. Today, just as unexpectedly, it is bringing life.
---
"When you see something that was on film, it takes you into the movie. It's almost like you are a character," says Dave Perillo, an artist from Swarthmore, Pa. He has come to hawk his sci-fi caricatures at "Blobfest," Phoenixville's name for its annual street-fair excursion into the blobosphere.
"These places," Perillo says, "are our new historic sites for the ADD generation."
Entertainment can be an unpredictable beast. What appears up on the big screen - some of it, at least - was created in real places. And sometimes, because of the fiction, those real places begin to change.
In Scotland, an ancient castle has become a pilgrimage site because part of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" was filmed there. In Dyersville, Iowa, the baseball diamond carved from cornfields for "Field of Dreams" draws fans who consider it a real ballpark. Mount Airy, N.C., has taken pains to make itself feel like Mayberry, the quintessential small town from "The Andy Griffith Show." And the bar exterior from "Cheers," once called the Bull and Finch, has renamed itself; these days, it's "Cheers Beacon Hill."
We live in a land of big stories, in an age where entertainment trumps most everything. So events like Blobfest become natural leisure options at a time when towns need to stand out, to become on-site theme parks and draw tourist dollars.
And here in the cradle of American independence, where real-life history is everywhere, why shouldn't fictional history become something tangible?
"History, the Liberty Bell, the significance of it gets lost of me," says Ellen Plummer of Portland, Maine. "This," she says, "is more real."
She is walking up Bridge Street in Phoenixville with her boyfriend, Rick Naratil, a native who moved away years ago. He remembers, at 5, seeing "The Blob" on TV and thinking, hey - that's the theater where I watch Disney movies.
While the diner and other filming locations draw gawkers during Blobfest, the Colonial Theater is the epicenter of all things blob. Inside, sci-fi flicks play to enthusiastic audiences, and people at the edges of fame like Kris Yeaworth, son of "Blob" director Shorty Yeaworth, discuss the intricacies of filming the movie originally titled "The Molten Meteor."
Outside, the blobbery takes on as many forms as creativity and entrepreneurial savvy allow.
There is the wooden blob cutout that allows you to poke your head through a hole and pretend you're being swallowed by its unearthly maw. There are the actual fire truck and the 1950 Ford coupe that McQueen drove in the movie. Outside the pizza parlor opposite the theater, the proprietors have created their own creamy, oozy pink mass, confined to a garbage bin for the moment.
And there is the parade, led by a fire-extinguisher-wielding grand marshal dressed as McQueen, whose James Dean-like teenage leading man figured out that its frozen contents were lethal to the creature. The lookalike leads an unholy Conga line around the theater marquee while discharging bursts of carbon dioxide skyward.
Only in America, you might say. But there's more here than meets the eye.
"Visitors bring their own imagination with them," says Sue Beeton, author of a critical study called "Film-Induced Tourism." She admits: She's been moved to tears by sites she's visited that figure in her favorite stories.
"Often, simply being in a place is sufficient 'touchstone' for their experience," Beeton writes in an e-mail from Australia, where she teaches.
"People often respond extremely personally and passionately to film," she says. "For many, their journeys verge on a pilgrimage."
---
Phoenixville, once home to an enormous steel mill, seems an unlikely place for a modern entertainment pilgrimage, but hundreds of "Blob" fans can't be wrong.
The town may have been idyllic in the movie, but a decade ago Phoenixville's main drag was dragging. The mill had closed, putting 2,000 people out of work. Storefronts were shuttered. There were problems with drug dealers and prostitutes. The Colonial was operating, but barely. "Those were really rough times," says Mayor Leo Scoda.
Then Mary Foote came along.
Foote, a community organizer, noticed that the Colonial was for sale. Its previous owners hadn't done much with it, which wasn't a bad thing: The theater hadn't been split into cramped "twins" like so many of its small-town counterparts.
Foote led a nonprofit consortium called the Association for the Colonial Theater, which bought the property and began restoring it. The focus was drawing entertainment to Phoenixville; the blob didn't figure in until later.
"A gem like this can transform a community," says Foote, sitting in her office on the theater's second floor. In the background, the movie's jaunty theme song, "Beware of the Blob," plays in a continuous loop. But, Foote allows, "There's gotta be a lot of stuff - not just a blob."
Slowly, around the theater, downtown began to come back. New restaurants like Molly Maguire's opened (it donates to the theater $1 of each $8.95 "Colonial BLT" it sells), as did a gourmet cafe and places like Phoenix Karate, which teaches martial arts to kids.
When McQueen walked these streets in front of Shorty Yeaworth's camera, he moved through a Phoenixville that was the picture-perfect 1950s movie small town. It felt much farther from a big city than it really is. Today, as Phoenixville resurges, it is taking on that feeling again - a 2008 twist on Eisenhower-era America, surprisingly, and ironically, authentic.
Modeling one's self after film can be thorny; real history can get lost. But it's hard to find a downside in Phoenixville. The chain of custody is pretty basic. Theater came back. Community leveraged blob. Business resurged. Downtown got safer. Everybody's happy.
Even now, almost a decade into Blobfest, a bemusement remains about the enthusiasm generated by the alien-visitation tale filmed the summer before Sputnik was launched.
"I take the ride. But do I get it? No," Foote acknowledges. "The volunteers who work all year, half of them don't get it. They say, 'Why do they come?'"
Karin Williams, who does PR for the Phoenixville Chamber of Commerce, echoes many along Bridge Street when she assesses the whole affair: A community identifiable by something purely pop-cultural isn't a bad thing amid the static of the 21st century.
"It puts our little town out there," she says. "It's something that Phoenixville can own."
---
If you're one of the lucky few, the man will let you reach into the can and actually touch the blob. It's sticky. It smells like flypaper. It oozes. Pull your fingers away - SQUIRSH - and a perfect set of prints are left behind.
Some wonder if the blob was intended as an allegory. Think about it: It's the 1950s, and an enormous red mass is overrunning and suffocating the idyll of Main Street America.
Yeaworth's son and others scoff. But there's another take from a new DVD edition of "The Blob": Film historian Bruce Kawin suggests the creature is a "hungry mass - comparable to if not incarnating the growing consumerism of 1950s America." For moviegoers in 1958, he says, "their complacent desire to stuff themselves with goods and good times had shown itself to be a monster."
We are consumers above all, and now more than ever we buy good times. Viewed through this prism, is Phoenixville's Blobtown persona that far removed from, say, Universal Studios Hollywood? One, built for fantasy, became a tourist attraction; one, built for the real world, was used once for fantasy and became a tourist attraction.
Blobfest is the real and the movie, America and Hollywood, all at once. And that fits the modern American identity.
Our ancestors stamped monuments to themselves onto the physical landscape - the Lincoln Memorial, the Empire State Building, the Grand Coulee Dam, the Interstate Highway System. These days, some of our most cherished monuments are less solid - the stories we bring to life in movies, TV shows, videogames.
So we flock to Walt Disney World as eagerly as to Washington, D.C., to Universal Studios Hollywood as ravenously as to the Grand Canyon. We buy flex passes to places that re-create the experience of big-screen storytelling before our eyes. And some of us even traverse the landscape looking for movie sites so we can submerge themselves in the cool waters of entertainment.
Dave Perillo, the artist, has scoured the land for his favorite film locales. He's walked the streets of San Francisco to find Hitchcock's "Vertigo," seen the L.A. bowling alley from "The Big Lebowski," tracked down the corners of coastal New Jersey that Kevin Smith used in "Clerks." At each, he revels in the sheer movieness of it all - as do enough Americans to create a market for gazetteers of fantasy like "The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations."
And in the era of the war on terror, for one moment on one evening in Phoenixville, the fear of attack by outsiders becomes just another thrill. Modern entertainment pilgrims get to run out of a theater and into the night, screaming as though their lives depended on it and having fun all the while.
Going to the movies is no longer enough; we must climb in and consume them, wherever that journey leads. Even to Phoenixville. And so many years later, in the very town it tried to consume, the blob has met its match: a roving band of 21st-century American consumers, weaned on entertainment, who are hungrier than it ever was.
===================================
<> <> <> DVD SHOWCASE <> <> <>
===================================
START SHOPPING @ ADVENTURELAND
http://adventurelandvideo.com
===================================
<> <> <> NOW SHOWING <> <> <>
===================================
THE SECRET
Starring: David Duchovny, Olivia Thirlby, Lili Taylor, Trisha LaFache, Brendan Sexton III, Ashley Springer, Brandon Blue Director: Vincent Perez
In the spirit of Ghost and Birth, Hannah & Benjamin are a happily married couple whose love is tested in ways they never could have imagined. When Hannah is killed in an accident, the couple's strong bond may be responsible for an unusual twist of fate that keeps their love alive -- at the expense of their daughter.
Rated R for language including sexual references, and drug and alcohol use involving teens.
http://myvideostore.com/content/movies/index.html?client=myvideostore&id=105997
LOST BOYS: THE TRIBE
Starring: Corey Feldman, Jamison Newlander, Tad Hilgenbrink, Autumn Reeser, Angus Sutherland, Tom Savini, Moneca Delain Director: P.J. Pesce
One of the essential cult movies of the 1980s, THE LOST BOYS blended terrifying moments with big laughs. This sequel follows Chris Emerson and sister Nicole as they arrive in California following the deaths of their parents. Ruling the beach are a group of local surfers who turn out to be vampires!
Rated R for strong vampire violence and gore, language, sexuality and some drug use.
http://lostboysthetribe.warnerbros.com/
===================================
<> <> <> COMING SOON <> <> <>
===================================
To be released on video August 26, 2008.
REDBELT
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tim Allen, Emily Mortimer, Rodrigo Santoro, Joe Mantegna, Alice Braga, Rebecca Pidgeon Director: David Mamet
Mike Terry, a Jiu-Jitsu teacher, has avoided the fighting circuit, choosing to operate a self-defense studio with a samurai’s code. He and his wife Sondra, struggle to make ends meet. A series of events change Terry’s life introducing him to promoters and movie star. In order to pay off his debts, Terry must step into the ring for the first time in his life.
Rated R for strong language.
"It never really pulls itself together into the convincing, focused drama it promises, yet it kept me involved right up until the final scenes..." - Chicago Sun-Times,
Roger Ebert
"...a satisfying, unexpectedly involving B-movie that owes as much to old Hollywood as to Greek tragedy." - New York Times,
Manohla Dargis
http://www.sonyclassics.com/redbelt/
To be released on video September 16, 2008.
THE LOVE GURU
Starring: Mike Myers, Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake, Ben Kingsley, Meagan Good, Verne Troyer, Romany Malco Director: Marco Schnabel
Pitka is an American left at the gates of an ashram in India as a child. He moves back to the U.S. to seek fame and fortune in the world of self-help and spirituality. His methods are put to the test when he must settle a rift between an estranged couple. Pitka must return the couple to marital nirvana and break the “Bullard Curse” to win the Stanley Cup.
Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, language, some comic violence and drug references.
"Myers has made some funny movies, but this film could have been written on toilet walls by callow adolescents." - Chicago Sun-Times,
Roger Ebert
"...enraptured by bathroom humor that doesn't even reach sophomoric standards. It's more on the level of preschool." - USA Today,
Claudia Puig
http://www.lovegurumovie.com/
===================================
<> <> <> SPORTS FLIX <> <> <>
===================================
FOOTBALL MOVIES:
RUDY (1993)
Rudy has always been told that he was too small to play college football. But he is determined to beat the odds and play for Notre Dame.
AIR BUD: GOLDEN RECEIVER (199
Now in the 8th Grade, Josh discovers he has a great throwing arm and tries out for the football team. Soon after his athletic dog Buddy joins the team.
ANGELS IN THE ENDZONE (1997)
The football team Jesse is on is terrible, after the death of his dad Jesse quits the team. Then angels come to help them but Jesse's brother can see them.
LITTLE GIANTS (1994)
Football star Kevin now coaches pee-wee football. When Kevin excludes his niece, Becky, she convinces her dad Danny to coach a team, and beat Kevin's team.
VARSITY BLUES (1999)
In small-town Texas, high school football is a religion. The head coach is deified as long as the team is winning.
THE WATER BOY (199
The coach discovers the lowly water boy for his college football team has an amazing talent for tackling people much bigger than him.
BASKETBALL MOVIES:
HOOSIERS (1986)
A college basketball coach leaves the Navy in 1951 and becomes coach of an underdog Indiana high-school team.
COACH CARTER (2005)
True story of a high school basketball coach who benched his undefeated team because of poor grades.
LUCK OF THE IRISH (2002)
A teenager must battle for a gold charm to keep his family from being controlled by an evil leprechaun.
A SEASON ON THE BRINK (2002)
Chronicles Hoosier's 1985-86 season, when Bob Knight granted author John Feinstein access to the team.
BLUE CHIPS (1994)
A college coach is forced to break the rules in order to get the players he needs to stay competitive.
===================================
<> <> STEALS & DEALS <> <>
===================================
I am proud to bring you 2 new affiliate offers. They have not been added to the web site. So they can only be found here for now. Hope you like them. - Paul
WANNA BE A SUPER HERO? NOW YOU CAN.
Morph your digital photos using Morpheus Photo Morpher software. Bring your pictures to life! Download the Free Trial now and see why over 6 million people love using this amazing photo manipulation program. Email your photo creations to friends or post on sites like MySpace, YouTube, or your blog or website. Transform yourself into a celebrity! Morph your friends and family, or transform into your dog or cat. The possibilities are endless! Download Photo Morpher here.
http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=83305&U=8392&M=3298
SOMETIMES YOU FEEL A NUT
NutsOnTheNet.com by Zenobia has been a family run gourmet nut business for over 80 years. We take pride in offering premium nuts for all occasions. With NutsOnTheNet.com you don't have to settle for average tasting nuts. Our mission is to provide your the best tasting nuts in the most hassle free environment. We provide a variety of the best nuts available. We offer Free Two-Day Shipping & Handling and a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.
http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=108293&U=8392&M=15692
===================================
<> <> <> NEWS & NOTES <> <> <>
===================================
'MATRIX' TRILOGY COMING 2 BLU-RAY
The Matrix trilogy is coming to Blu-ray on Oct. 14. Warner Bros. is releasing all 3 films, along with The Animatrix, in a 7-disc set. In addition to trilogy and animated shorts, there will be 35 hours of extras and 3 exclusive in-movie experiences. No word yet on what the in-movie features will consist of. A digital download of The Matrix will be included. This isn't the first time The Matrix has gone hi-def. Warner released the trilogy in the HD-DVD format in May 2007.
The HD-DVD Complete Trilogy is no longer available.
BRONZE FONZ AN 'AYYYY'-LIST CELEB
They're giving two thumbs up to the bronze Fonz in Milwaukee. Dozens of people lining the Milwaukee River downtown cheered as a bronze statue of the "Happy Days" character was unveiled Tuesday. Henry Winkler stroked his hair and smiled as he inspected the life-size, bronze statue of Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli. The statue shows the Fonz smiling and giving his signature two thumbs up. Most of the cast was on hand, along with the show's creator, director and producer Garry Marshall and Penny Marshall & Cindy Williams from the spin-off "Laverne & Shirley."
CAST RETURNING 4 'DALLAS' REUNION
Cast members of the popular prime-time soap opera that ran from 1978-91 will return to the Southfork Ranch on Nov. 8 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the show. Several key actors, including Larry Hagman, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy, have confirmed they will attend.
The reunion is open to the public. Tickets go on sale Aug. 22 and will cost between $100 and $1,000. Event will include fireworks, a country music concert, a question-and-answer session with the cast and tours of the mansion. "Dallas" featured the antics of a wealthy oil family.
'OFFICE' ACTOR FACES DRUG CHARGES
Prosecutors filed felony drug charges against Craig Phillip Robinson, best known as Darryl Philbin on NBC's "The Office." Police in Culver City arrested Robinson on June 29 on suspicion of possessing MDMA, also known as ecstasy, and methamphetamine. He was released the same day. Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Robinson with 2 felony counts of possession and 1 count of under the influence. He also appears in the comedy film "Pineapple Express."
RICKY IS A DAD TO TWIN BABY BOYS
There won't be much "livin' la vida loca" for Ricky Martin these days - he's now the father of twin boys. The Latin superstar had the children via a surrogate mother, and the babies were born a few weeks ago. A representative said there was no further information on the details of the children's birth. Martin (36) is a multiplatinum singer best known for hits like "She Bangs!" and "Livin' la Vida Loca." In recent years, the star has been active in charitable efforts.
SIMPSON TO MARKET A LOCAL BEER
Jessica Simpson is now selling beer. The singer and actress has signed on as spokeswoman for Stampede Light Plus, made by Dallas' Stampede Brewing. Simpson will appear in ads for the beer and is taking a 15% stake in the brewer. The Dallas Morning News says terms were not disclosed. Lawrence Schwartz, Stampede president and chief executive, says Simpson is the now face of the brand. Simpson said that she's "always looking for ways to diversify my portfolio with good ideas and good people."
IT'S GIRL #3 FOR DAMON & WIFE
Matt Damon's wife Luciana gave birth to a baby girl Wednesday, his spokeswoman said. The baby's name is Gia Zavala Damon, spokeswoman Jennifer Allen told The Associated Press, adding: "Everyone is great and she is a healthy, beautiful baby girl." She wouldn't give any further details. Damon (37) met wife Luciana (32) in 2003 while she was working as a bartender and he was filming "Stuck on You." They married in December 2005 attended by the bride's daughter, Alexa (10) from a previous marriage. They welcomed daughter, Isabella, in June 2006.
===================================
<> <> <> REEL TALK <> <> <>
===================================
===================================
<> <> <> TRADE TALK <> <> <>
===================================
===================================
<> <> <> TECH TALK <> <> <>
===================================
===================================
<> <> <> PAUL'S PICKS <> <> <>
===================================
OPEN SEASON (2006)
Boog, a domesticated bear finds himself stranded in the woods during hunting season. He befriends Elliot, a deer, and they form an army against the hunters.
*****
Here is a tale of friendship and teamwork for the kid set. But there is enough action and drama for adults. Making it great for the entire family.
Boog the bear has a comfy life with a park ranger and entertains kids. Until he released a stunned deer he found tyed to a hood. No good deed goes unpunished.
Newly freed Elliot shows him the wild side of town life. His new behavior prompts the ranger to return him to the wild. Just 3 days before hunting season.
Alone in the wild, Boog and Elliot must rely on one another. Together they recruit other wild critters and take back the woods from the evil hunters.
Your children will see the importance of friendship. But there is a less obvious life lesson. How those friends can influence you and even hurt you.
===================================
<> <> TIME CAPSULE <> <>
===================================
August 25, 1998 - Gary Coleman plead innocent to the charge that he hit a woman seeking his autograph.
August 27, 1998 - James Brolin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
August 31, 1998 - "Titanic" became the first movie in North America to earn more than $600 million.
===================================
!! TURN EVERY MOVIE INTO AN EVENT !!
Are you looking for a new way to experience your favorite movies? HD/LCD clarity will put you right in the action. Get your Free Toshiba HDTV/DVD combo today.
http://www.adreporting.com/dir.php?a=689632&p=762&w=text
===================================
Well, I thought the house was back on track. It has been delisted. Conventional thinking says to give-up. Be forwarned, I'm not a conventional thinker.
See you next week. Hopefully, I announce my choice for Celebrity Nooz-letter. Care to guess who it will be?
Paul @ Reel 2 Reel
To comment on this issue, simply hit reply or find this issue on our blog and post your comment there. Or send me an email to advland@live.com.
Gosh, I don't have anything planned for this weekend. Oh, someone will think of something. They always do huh?
- Paul 
Bravenet Blog 
Blog Community
Get a Free Blog
Manage your Blog
& 
Where you can find Marvin the Martian's first appearance