Nostalgic G

If there is an actor that truly understands Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol its Patrick Stewart. After having played every single role in the text for more than ten years every Holiday season on Broadway, Stewart starred in one of the best film adaptations of the text in 1999 for the TNT cable network. I've never had the opportunity to see Stewart's one man show but those who have seen it say it's quite an intelligent and powerful performance. Last night I saw the movie version again. I hadn't seen it since it first aired ten Christmas seasons ago and I had forgotten how great this production is. Stewart is amazing as Scrooge. The scene were he has to witness his younger self letting the love of his life walk away is truly remarkable as we see Stewart powerless to change his past and painfully reliving one of the biggest regrets of his character's life. The film is full of great moments just like that one. It truly is a joy to watch Stewart take Scrooge throu...

I love all the Rankin / Bass animated Christmas specials, in fact just last night my brother and I were watching The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. Imagine how happy I was to see a new commercial paying homage to these beloved specials. Verizon Wireless has a new commercial showing the Iphone getting banned to the Island of Misfit Toys due to AT&Ts lack of good nationwide coverage. The commercial has the same look and feel as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and all the other Rankin / Bass Christmas classics. If you haven't seen it on T.V. check it out now via Youtube.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles debut in the pages of Mirage Comics' independently produced and distributed first issues of TMNT. To commemorate the event Playmates Toys reissued a couple of the action figures from the first wave of TMNT action figures, as well as the first ever vehicle in the line, the Party Wagon. The packaging is almost an exact replica of the original box. Playmates only added the new TMNT 25th Anniversary logo and updated trademark and copyright info. The actual toy is just as awesome as the original with all the features and accessories from the earlier release. My brother and I had the original when we were kids and got a lot hours of fun out of it. We played with it so much we destroyed it during the many battles the Turtles endured against The Foot Clan. We were really happy to see this again in toy shelves. Although it was tough to find and we only saw it at a couple of Toys R Us stores and in very limited quantiti...

"Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking. Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child's cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, with the sound of bells, and with gifts. But especially with gifts. You give me a book, I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry can do with a new pipe. For we forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. Its his birthday we're celebrating. Don't let us ever forget that. Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most. And then, let each put in his share, loving kindness, warm hearts, and a stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shinning gifts that make peace on earth." - David Niven as Bishop Henry Brougham ...

Just got back from AVATAR at Universal Studios Hollywood and I must say you need to see this movie in IMAX 3-D, it's mind boggling. I truly felt immersed in the world James Cameron has created thanks to his ability to mix performance capture technology, CG, and live action to perfection. Combine all that with 3D imagery on an almost 8 stories high screen and you have a movie watching experience unlike anything we've ever seen. The screenplay does borrow a lot from previous stories and films such as Dances with Wolves, Aliens , and even a bit of Star Trek: Insurrection , and some of the characters would've benefited from a little more back story and development, but we have never seen this type of story told on such an epic scale. Let's face it James Cameron is not the greatest screenwriter in the world, but he is a damn good director -- he can keep things visually exciting, kinetic, and compelling without loosing track of the story he's trying to tell. It was als...

In the previous installments of this series of posts I went over some of the pieces I have displayed from my Star Trek collection , my Sci- Fi Collection, and my DC Superheroes collection . Now its time to go over my Star Wars display. Star Wars is one of the collections I have the most items in, though I mostly collect the Hasbro and Kenner stuff. I would say the stuff on display is only about 1/4 of my entire Star Wars collection. Most of the newer stuff I have had to pack aways since I ran out of room to display Star Wars stuff a long time ago. I'll update this post when I rotate the items in the display in the near future. Now let's take a look at the most recent display for Star Wars.