The other day, I went to visit my sister. She told me she just got home from a horse show. I knew from previous conversations that “show” in this context was a competition that she participated in. I asked if it was “horse-dancing” since I know she’s into that whole dressage thing. Apparently, though, this time it was jumping. She then proceeded to explain to me how some of her shows were dressage, some were jumping and some combined the two into a whole week-end of horse related frivolity. I did my best to make the expression on my face look like I was interested. She told me I should come and watch her sometime. Now, I want to be supportive of my sister and the strange things she does for fun, however that would be going a bit far. So, I told her the only problem with that would be having to sit through a hundred others just to see her perform.
Then I got to thinking about how you could make one of these shows more interesting to a much broader audience. Then I realized; just add zombies. When I explained this, she was skeptical. But I pointed out the recent trend in books: “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”, “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters”, “Android Karenena”. You just take something classic, add some monsters and voila, instant hit.
The horse can jump over an advancing “fence” of zombies. Then he kicks the heads off a couple of them. When a zombie tries to sink it’s teeth into the horse’s flank, he dances away to the side. You could have a whole course with zombies milling about. The horse either jumps over them or knocks them down and dances on their heads. Now thats a horse show I could really get into.
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Beer, Friends, Food
This past week-end, I had occasion to attend the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. Let me tell you, I was mighty entertained. As a confirmed Fan-boy, I was super excited to see all the vast quantities of comics for sale. Even better was to attend a panel with comic legends Chris Claremont and Len Wein answering questions from the audience about the X-Men.
Just leaving aside the comic half of the expo, the entertainment half was even better. Featuring such celebrities as Aaron Douglas, Tahmoh Penikett, Sid Haig, Malcolm McDowell, and Erin Gray; as well as Brent Spiner and the great one himself (no, not Gretzky) Leonard frakkin’ Nimoy!
I attended multiple panels with all of these guests and more. I heard some very interesting stories and I found out that Malcolm McDowell is a very funny man. One audience member asked him what he thought of the fact that the Halloween remake was widely disliked. He responded, “I don’t give a crap! I cashed my cheque; buh-bye!” Brent Spiner, though, was even funnier. He did impressions of Captain Picard and Worf and he mentioned how he preferred to do episodes of The Next Generation where he only had one or two lines of dialogue, because he got paid the same as when he did an episode that was entirely focused on Data. Then of course there was Nimoy. Just attending his panel was nearly worth the price of admission. He talked about his trip to Vulcan, Alberta, where he was honoured with a parade and a key to the city (which he said he is planning to try out). He mentioned his work on the t.v. series Fringe; he will be in two more episodes before the end of season two (one of which is supposed to reveal William Bell’s true motivations). And he mentioned that he has made a decision to retire from movies and t.v. Instead he will focus on his photography.
Another highlight was Ed & Red’s Mini-Show; starring Ed the Sock and the very lovely, talented and funny Lianna K. (whose picture graces the top left corner). Their guest stars were Aaron Douglas, Erin Gray, Tahmoh Penikett, Sid Haig, and Lloyd Kaufman with The Toxic Avenger. There were some very funny stories told and I learned a few things I never even would have guessed (i.e. Sid Haig is a liscensed hypno-therapist and Erin Gray has been doing Tai-Chi for the past thirty years.
I should also mention a t-shirt booth that was set up. Some of my favourites were “Horton Hears Cthulhu“, “And then Buffy staked Edward. The end.” and one that had a picture of the panther Guenhwyvar gnawing on Drizzt Do’Urden’s head and underneath the caption “I can has elf?”(that one may be sort of an inside joke).
I could just go on and on about this event, I’m sure that our Beer Buddy (and fellow fan-boy), Manodogs, would be fascinated by it and maybe Steve would enjoy a detailed analyisis of how it was all set up and run (seeing as it is a type of trade show). However, I would hardly know where to stop if I really got going. But I will say, if anyone finds themselves out in this general direction next year, you should come by and check it out. The CCEE is Western Canada’s largest expo of it’s kind, second only to Toronto. In the coming days I’ll share some of my pictures with all of you.
Well, there has been a great deal of interest in the whole spam topic. Many people out there are similarly plagued. A lot of you had ideas on how to deal with the infestation. I, however, came up with a plan of my own.
I just packed up everything and moved to parts unknown. Didn’t leave a forwarding address or anything. Now these accursed spammers will still be looking for me at my old place. They’ll never be able to find me where I am; therefore they won’t be able to spam me. I am certain that this plan is fool-proof. How could anyone spam my blog if they don’t know where I live?
Just recently, though, I found out that spam-bots aren’t all bad. I was reading an article in my favourite magazine, Mental Floss, on the subject. Programmers make CAPTCHAs in order to weed out the bots. At the same time, however, hackers are programming their bots to be smarter and be able to defeat the CPTCHA’s. As this process continues to go back and forth the spam bots could eventually achieve true artificial intelligence.
I guess this means that eventually the spam-bots will be able to deluge every single blog out there with a ton of spam all by themselves. This will give the humans more time to download porn; and that can’t possibly be a bad thing.
You know, I got to thinking recently that’s it been ages since the last time I reviewed a Broadway Musical. I shall have to rectify that.
Okay, so I guess Evil Dead: The Musical hasn’t quite made it to the actual, real Broadway; but it’s probably just as well. Those “real theatre” going people wouldn’t even begin to understand a play with a Splatter Zone (where you are guaranteed to get soaked in blood).
The show was absolutely hilarious. The acting was superb and all the songs were excellent. The story itself was kind of a mash up of the first two Evil Dead movies and it included several of Ash’s best one-liners from Army of Darkness (I don’t think it would have been any good at all without, “This…is my boomstick!”) There were also a few subtle inside jokes; at one point Cheryl sit down to read and she holds up Bruce Campbell’s autobiography, later on just after Annie gets off the plane she mentions that the in-flight movie was Spiderman 3 and it “was really poorly directed”.
All of the actors were very talented but Tyler Rive (Ash) was really exceptional. He seemed to be channeling Bruce Campbell. As well, Rebecca Northan did a very good job of playing two very different characters (Shelly and Annie) and when she tore off her skirt, her…talent really showed.
The songs were quite funny and upbeat. My two favorites were “Look Who’s Evil Now” performed by Cheryl and Shelly after they became possessed by Candarian Demons, and “All the Men in My Life (Get Killed By Candarian Demons)” performed by Annie, Ash and Jake as she laments her fate.
If this show come to a city anywhere near you, I urge you to run (don’t walk) right out and go see it. You won’t want to fail to not miss this, I assure you. Now I just have to see “Spamalot” and “Too Much Coffee Man – The Opera”.