Shayara!

Shayara, the project that my lovely wife has spent a good part of her life working on, has gone live!



Even knowing as much as I do about it (it helps to be married to a creator; you get all kinds of spoilery info), I'm blown away. Go check it out.

The end of an era

Brett Favre is retiring.

Not totally surprising, but still a little bit of a shock, after this past season.

Ah, crap

Gary Gygax has died.

He's responsible (directly and indirectly) for many hours of enjoyment throughout my life.

The Nodwick icon, which I normally use for my sad/depressing news, does double duty here, given the D&D influence on that comic.

(And yes, I thought of the obvious jokes here on hearing the news, but am passing on them for the moment.)

Tivo Alert: Ray Dennis Steckler

This weekend's TCM Underground will feature Ray Dennis Steckler, one of Hollywood's mad geniuses. They'll be showing The Incredibly Strange Creatures who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-up Zombies and The Adventures of Rat Phink and Boo Boo. Long before Rob Zombie was doing it, Steckler was putting his not-that-talented wife in his cheesy horror movies, but these movies (unlike the trio of assnuggets Zombie has brought to the big screen*) are actually at least somewhat enjoyable to watch.

All Steckler movies, of course, are best enjoyed with alcohol and/or a group of MST3K-minded folks.

The movies are scheduled for 2:15 and 3:45AM, EST, respectively (of course, let's hope that Daylight Savings Time doesn't cause havoc).

*Little known fact**: House of 1000 Corpses was originally to be titled Assnugget, and The Devil's Rejects was going to be called Assnugget 2: Even Assier. They decided that truth in advertising had limits.

**Not an actual fact. But it should be.

Correcting my memoirs

In light of the recent scandals involving Robert Irvine, Margaret Seltzer, and Misha Defonseca, I would like to acknowledge the following, and clarify any misconceptions that might have arisen:

I was not raised by albino chipmunks after being abandoned at a 1973 Steely Dan concert.

I have never been a recipient of a Knighthood of the United Kingdom.

I've also never been a Knight of the Old Republic. In fact, my midichlorian count is zero.

I did not run with the bulls in Pamplona. Or in Chicago.

Woody Allen did not really base Zelig on my own life.

I have never had a #1 single on the Billboard charts.

I did not spend six months trapped on a deserted island, honing my survival skills by learning to hunt and fish with a makeshift bow, eventually making it to safety when I captured a group of drug-runners who were using the island as a base.

I do not share songwriting credits with Stephen Sondheim on Into the Woods.

I have never been a national candidate for the Reform Party.

I am not fucking Matt Damon.

My apologies if anyone was misled into believing any of the above. I can only blame outside pressure to succeed, with a wee bit of guilt on myself for not resisting those pressures in order to evoke some sympathy from you. Once you've forgiven me, hopefully you'll buy my next book, What Really Happened, which was written at the behest of Mahatma Gandhi, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Zeppo Marx. I swear!