Autumn, who is now 6, just had her first ever cheerleading event at her school’s pee-wee basketball game. Her little sister, Julianna, had to get in on the action, of course!

I’ve been hearing so much about this movie and seeing teaser clips of it for months. It looks like it will be great fun - if not just plain great!

The concept is that the film will actually be a “double-feature” of films, one directed by Quentin Tarantino, the other by Robert Rodriguez. Each ‘half’ of Grindhouse will be separated and punctuated with fake ‘trailer’ and vintage-style intermission commercials, just like in the old days of grindhouse cinema.

Kurt Russell headlines the Tarantino half, called “Death Proof”, about a homicidal stuntman in a killer muscle car. Rodriguez’s feature stars Rose McGowan as a hot babe with killer legs, literally. In “Planet Terror”, her leg lost to the monsters in the film is replaced with a machinegun.

Yahoo Movies has posted a great interview with Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez talking about Grindhouse and the movies that inspired them. There’s no better marketing campaign than getting these two in a room and just letting them talk about movies. The video also has a bunch of new scenes from the film. April 6 can’t come fast enough.

Watch the video here:

I didn’t even know they were making another one of these. My friends and I got a kick out of the first one (I was a fan of the original video games going back to the Playstation 1).

The sequel was terrible, and I’d hope this one would have to be an improvement over it. Anyway, Resident Evil Extinction has some good news and some bad news. The good news is that it is directed by Russell Mulcahy who directed the original Highlander. The bad news is that it is directed by Russell Mulcahy who directed Highlander 2. Yeesh…

The cast looks pretty cool, with Milla Jovovich returning, along with Oded Fehr and Ali Larter (”Heroes”).

Plot Summary:

The third and final installment of the $100 million “Resident Evil” hits, “Resident Evil: Extinction” is again based on the wildly popular video game series and picks up where the last film left off.

Alice (Milla Jovovich), now in hiding in the Nevada desert, once again joins forces with Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and L.J. (Mike Epps), along with new survivors Claire (Ali Larter), K-Mart (Spencer Locke) and Nurse Betty (Ashanti) to try to eliminate the deadly virus that threatens to make every human being undead… and to seek justice.

Since being captured by the Umbrella Corporation, Alice has been subjected to biogenic experimentation and becomes genetically altered, with super-human strengths, senses and dexterity. These skills, and more, will be needed if anyone is to remain alive.

Trailer:
Coming Soon!

Let’s hope this one reclaims some cool from the awful sequel and improves upon the first film. More news as I get it!

Some info courtesy of Coming Soon

I don’t know why I’ve been burned out on the updates lately. I guess the lack of income and stress has started to wear me down a little. I am still thrashing about for something to market - a new idea that can get some steam under it.

Anyway, just trying to get by and pay the bills until something breaks. If I just sold the car, I could get some value out of it and use the money for something new. But I really like the car and still enjoy driving it after nearly three years (even though you really can’t enjoy a convertible right at this particular time of the year).

Part of me just wants to either start driving across the country looking for opportunities or perhaps just sell the car and use the money to fly to New Zealand. If I’m going to be poor, why not be destitute somewhere nice?

I’m still looking into the travel agency idea and have had some sound advice from another professional. It looks like my best bet would be to try cruise line packages, with accreditation through CLIA. I’ll post with any updates on that.

So I’ll get back on the ball here again soo. I still have home movies and pictures for the gallery to put up and - as always - lots of cool new content for video and music posts.

The new single from Gnarls Barkely features some pretty cool animation. It’s actually a cover of the Violent Femmes classic “Gone Daddy Gone”.

It’s freaky, twisted and pretty hot!

With the fad of American Idol returning - and me with still no idea how it remains so popular - another insightful blogger has at least produced something interesting to read about it. The following piece was originally published on the blog, Deus Ex Malcontent.

“Sammy Davis wrote a book called Yes I Can. The other day I saw his first television show and I sent him a wire that said, ‘No you can’t.’” — Frank Sinatra

Quite possibly the biggest lie that America has ever been willing to swallow whole is the seemingly benign assertion that anyone is capable of anything. From our first-grade teachers, to our coaches, to Will Smith’s uber-motivated Dad of the Year in The Pursuit of Sappyness, the message that you, yes you, can do whatever you set your mind to is practically encoded into our country’s collective DNA. By the time Tony Robbins has screamed in your face that Christ-like ascendancy is within your reach and television commercials have proclaimed that there’s no need for you to tolerate even the most minor of inconveniences ever, you’ll truly be convinced that there isn’t a force in the universe powerful enough to stop you from making your most outlandish desires come true.

Except that there is; it’s of course called reality.

If you watch “American Idol” — and judging by the ratings, you’d rather have elective eye surgery than miss it — you know that reality occasionally goes by a more specific name: Simon. With several seasons under its belt and presumably all of its potential talent pool now well aware of the basics of how the show works, you’d think that only the most delusional of legitimate contestants wouldn’t understand what it takes to get past the first round (translation: what it takes to avoid having their egos pummeled into paste at the hands of TV’s snottiest British stereotype).

Yet once again this year, thousands have lined up and waited and hoped and dreamed and prayed — only to have a figurative bucket of ice water thrown on their lofty aspirations by Simon and company (nay, by reality) who inform them in no uncertain terms that they suck. The reaction to hearing this “news” is typically as predictable as an episode of “Three’s Company”: denial, outrage, more denial, denial coupled with the contestant’s insistence that he or she does in fact know how to sing, psychosis, bitter proclamations that the contestant will make it as a singer despite having a voice that sounds like a hyena being put into a wood-chipper, defiant overconfidence, more psychosis, crying.

And all the while, anyone with two ears and three IQ points watches the unnecessary drama unfold and asks him or herself: “Wow, did you really think you were gonna make it? Have you ever seen the goddamn show?”

The reality of course is that reality is simply ignored or discarded in favor of the age-old affirmation that anything is possible if you just follow those dreams and believe hard enough. Understand, there are certainly cases in which — after no small amount of hard work and intense training — a person or group can achieve seemingly impossible goals; this is known as the human spirit. Unfortunately, there are just as many cases in which the facts of a given situation — the regrettable truth and undeniable limitations — are completely disregarded in favor of wishful thinking and grandiose aspirations; this is known as human folly.

When the latter rears its head on “American Idol” — as it so often does — it’s usually just good for a laugh.

When it becomes the foundation on which far more significant endeavors are based, it’s dangerous as all hell.

We’re all aware by now that those deciding truly important issues — the judges not of “American Idol”, but of our nation’s courts — occasionally find themselves burdened by obstinate men who claim that it’s their God-given right to become waitresses at Hooters, or 33-year-old white women who insist that they’re entitled to a place in the Harlem Boys Choir, or quadriplegics determined to “break the intolerance barrier” by joining a professional hockey team.

At the core of ridiculous efforts like these is one common misconception: that because America was founded on the principle that all are created equal, all actually turn out equal. It doesn’t quite work that way. Each person is equal in human dignity; human abilities are another subject altogether. Whether by an act of nature, a particular circumstance, or the overall intrusion of reality, one person may be forced to confront limitations that another doesn’t. Using the legal system to try to overcome these limitations — to level the playing field — is just crap. I’m never going to play power forward for the Knicks; I’ve come to terms with that and I’m damn sure not going to go to court to demand that I be allowed to. There are some things I need to just shut the hell up and accept that I can’t do.

Not long ago, I was talking to a friend of mine at a bar. She works with the blind, helping them to overcome obstacles and lead better, more fulfilling lives — obviously, a very noble vocation. After a while though, she mentioned the core belief at the center of her endeavors: she wholeheartedly insisted that there’s nothing people with sight can do that their blind counterparts can’t. I gave her a slightly bemused look, then said, “Sure there is — they can see.” After dodging a glassful of gin and tonic, I proceeded to get a protracted lecture on what a closed-minded, right-wing bigot I am — but as far as I was concerned, it didn’t change the facts: A blind person can’t do anything — at this moment in time and at this stage of technology — that absolutely relies on the ability to see, and any effort based on an assumption to the contrary is a disaster waiting to happen. “The first time I get into a car accident and I see a blind guy get out of the other car — I’m kicking somebody’s ass,” I told my friend.

Her reaction, as it turns out, looked a hell of a lot like those rejected singers on American Idol — minus the part about the hyena in the wood chipper.

Chez is the voice of Deus Ex Malcontent. If you’d like to read part two in this series, please click here.