For $1.6 mil, you too can live like a Radio God

Got this alert from Google but held on to posting it since I thought that it might be pulled. Why the precaution? Because the house pictured above is the former Northern Virginia residence of one Don Geronimo, DJ extraordinaire now retired, and it is for sale. I know of the neighborhood since that area is an old haunt of mine and the price is a fair one for the size of the land (over 3 acres) and the house itself (all of amenities including the much-talked about cave) are very nice. I hope that the area's decline market won't affect the sale but I do have a feeling that it is one of the reasons behind the marketing push that trades on Doni's name. Stalkers, beware; he lives in the OC now and will not be availble for capturing, Rupert Pupkin-style.

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Wowio Update And Prize Whore News

It appears that there is more fallout from Wowio's slow payment news that includes its parent company, Paltinum Studios. Hero By Night creator and erstwhile Platinum employee DJ Coffman has taken issue with some of the comments that were posted on a financial message board by the COO of the company, Brian Altounian.

While Coffman does have some vitriol towards Platinum in regards to their business deal that went south after some lengthy non-payment problems, his words are not without merit. Altounian comes off as a minor league ambulance chaser trying to discredit anyone and everyone who doesn't substantiate his claim that the slow payment to Wowio creators is a mere bump in the Platinum's road to Hollywood gold.

Also, if I was the CFO of this company, I would be pissed that my COO has nothing better to do than post his views on a message board; especially one that is searchable by a Google crawlbot. There is a reason why there's a Public Relations division in most competent companies that handle this type of stuff in an official and diplomatic fashion. To me, this type of stuff are just further signs that Platinum is not meant to last longer than a year, tops.

In better news, I have made no effort to hide that I am a prize whore. And I would've posted more on this when it was first announced but I was a big winnah of a indie movie poster from the good folks over at NewsAskew.com. And while you may think that it would involve a Kevin Smith production, you would be wrong.

It's a poster for the direct-to-DVD movie Brutal Massacre, a spoof in the Spinal Tap vein of Slasher movies. it stars David Naughton (of American Werewolf in London and TV's Making It fame) and Brian O'Halloran (Dante and various other Hicks family characters in the View Askew movies).

What makes me the prize whore that I am is that I haven't seen the movie and really have no plans to actually view it (may Netflix if it's a slow week) but I still threw my name and address in the hopper for a chance to get the free stuff. Man, am I clinical or what? The poster is pictured below in case you're interested.

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Wowio Starts Its Death Knell By Stiffing Creators

A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed the website Wowio.com not less than glowing review. Well, it appears that their business model is not working out for Platinum Studios like they may have hoped when they purchased the flagging website this past July.

CBR has posted an insightful piece about how the page rates have changed for the company, how those changes have affected the creators and some creators are getting payments late. In case you are new to the whole comic book industry, the recognition of late payments to creators is usually one of the first signs that a publisher is headed for the comic book graveyard much like former mid-level players like CrossGen and Speakeasy.

This article also gives another black eye to Platinum Studios. There were rumors and gossip that the publisher was having problems with paying creators. These rumors became full-blown facts when its late payments and contract squabbles with DJ Coffman and his creation, Hero By Night. And although the Coffman incident has somewhat subsided, the company is not viewed with a very positive light, which can't be good for sales.

So, while the eventual demise of Wowio.com may not affect the overall health of Platinum Studios in the short term, they may not be long for this earthly plane. And I do find it ironic that the faux sunrise that Wowio uses for their logo may actually be the headlight of an oncoming train for its creators and its parent company.

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The New Lara Croft Vaults Into the Foreground

Hello Gorgeous! The latest person to take up the Lara Croft mantle is not an actor or a model by trade. In these Olympic times that we're currently live in, it should only be fair to have an athlete - to be specific, a gymnast from England - step into the form fitting archaeologist suit. Her name is Alison Carrol and you can find out more on her leap into the world of make-believe at Yahoo!

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Hey - Wha Happened?

Of all of the weeks to take a short vacation from the keyboard. August is supposed to be the boring or "dead" month of Summer before Falls begins but this past couple of days seems to bring tons of news from all corners of the Pop Culture world. Think of when the last time these events happened in the span of a couple of days:

• The death of two highly visiable Hollywood entertainers (Issac Hayes and Bernie Mac)


• The death of so many Olympic and World Records in Beijing


• The death (and possible resurrection) of Wolfmother, an up-and-coming band that contributed to the reimmergence of rock in American music

When you count that today is Madden 09 Day and that Metallica not only announced the completion of Death Magnetic but also tour dates for the first leg of their North American tour, August has become very newsworthy.

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26 ABC Counts Might Have Knocked Out O'Meara's

The details of Mike O'Meara's restaurant closing are coming to light through the mainstream media. It appears that the Virginia Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control, or as we laymen would say - the Virginia ABC, levied 26 fines against the Manassas eatery from August 2006 to April 2007 totalling approximately $26,000 according to InsideNoVa.com.

The laundry list of charges and violations included:

• 7 violations for allowing the consumption of alcoholic beverages by a person the licensee knew or had reason to believe was intoxicated
• 1 violation where the licensee enticed, urged or entreated patrons to purchase alcoholic beverages in violation of state law
• 7 counts of making gifts of alcoholic beverages in violation of Virginia law
• 8 counts of holding happy hour between 9 PM and 2 AM
• 2 charges of allowing people who the licensee knew or had reason to believe were intoxicated to loiter on the premises
• 1 charge of making gifts of alcoholic beverages in violation of Virginia law was dismissed

However, since O'Meara's has closed its doors and surrendered its license in April of this year, these charges will essentially be dismissed.

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Michael George Trial gets the "Dateline" treatment

In case you missed it last night, the Michael George murder trial was the subject of a Dateline piece called (very unoriginal, I might add) The Comic Book Murder. The trial was covered here from the date of arrest to the trial's verdict but the rehash of the events leading up to the end was still a decent watch albeit somewhat sad to see how divided the families involved really are. The only problem that I have with correspondent Dennis Murphy's piece was the introductory sentence:

In the front of the mom-and-pop comic book shop were bins of the fantasies: Spidey, Hulk and X-Men.

Why does every non-comic book reader refer to the medium as fantasies? I know that it was to setup the grizzly details in the back of the store but he could've taken a better tact than that. Just like movies, TV and other entertainment mediums, comic books offer more than just fantasies. Hey, Murphy, get out and live in the real world a little. If you want to view the abbreviated version, click on the player below. If you're interested in the transcript of the entire show, click here.

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Your Random Facts for May 7

Trying to see through last night's funk that was Game 1 of the Cavs versus the Celts, here are your facts for today:

• Want to major in the GTA4 lifestyle? Go to SDSU and pledge Theta Chi.
• Marvel movies that are coming up - Iron Man 2 in April 2010, Thor in June 2010, First Avenger: Captain America in May 2011 and The Avengers in July 2011 so says Reuters.
• Lastly, there are no decent regular CDs released this week but if you're in the mood for some good music, you might want to check out Snack Time by the Barenaked Ladies. From what I've heard, it's really an all-ages listen.

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Your 5 Random Facts for May 1

Still feeling the afterglow of a 25-point win by the Celts. Alright, on with the facts:

1. LeBron must be taking his King James moniker very seriously with this King of Pop-inspired wardrobe choice (photographic evidence shown above). Later in the post-game, Bron Bron stated that he had a certain fondness for the Home Alone series.


2. I hope that the judicial system will commute the rest of the sentence for that Detroit woman who's been on the run for 32 years. She's been married for 23 years with three kids so it should be safe to assume that she's a reformed citizen. And really, murders have gotten less time than what she did back in the day.


3. The cheesiest thing about the David Blaine breath holding stunt wasn't the fact that he did it on the Oprah show but the fact that when she asked Blaine what he was thinking when he was underwater, he plainly stated to her, "You." Uggh, all that Street Magic cred went down the drain right then.


4. Man, Iron Man must be setting records with the number of different tie-ins for one movie. The most recent one was for the LG cell phone that I caught was during Tuesday's episode of Deadliest Catch. The tie-in site (insidethesuit.com) has some decent online stuff as well as a contest to win a 16-carat gold phone so it's well worth the visit.


5. I might be the only one but the whole Anti-Venom character looks like a complete rip-off of the Reverse Flash and will be basically a one-off character.

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Clemens Strikes Out on Character Issue

Put the scarlet letter next to all of those Ks that Roger Clemens used to get. The New York Daily News reported yesterday that Clemens was involved with country singer Mindy McCready for over 10 years when he was with the Red Sox and she was a 15 yr old karaoke singer.

Those same reports have the singer flying in Clemens' private jet, meeting up with Clemens in his apartment in Toronto, Clemens sending cash via Fed Ex during McCready's financial troubles and love notes to Clemens in McCready's CD liner notes. These accusations definitely gives the appearance that the former pitching ace is much more about hanging with this lady than his wife and family which only helps Brian McNamee's fight against the personal defamation suit brought by Clemens at the beginning of this year. The article reflects that McCready ended the affair by her own accord in 2006. Clemens' legal counsel has stated that the relationship was platonic; although with the details listed above, that seems hard to believe that there wasn't something going on between a 15 year old girl and a 28 year old married man with two kids.

It is funny when you think that he probably could've retired a few years ago and hid like Mark McGuire has done so he could await Hall of Fame enshrinement. But he wanted more for less. So, he had teams bid on his services for the highest salary in abbreviated seasons with the Astros and Yanks falling for his aw-shucks act.

For all of those fans out there who hate the way high-end baseball players ignore loyalty for the sake of the all-mighty dollar, it is nice to see Clemens' mercenary tendencies bite him in the ass. I wouldn't be surprised if an old two-time teammate who once has a sex scandal himself while he was playing comes to his aid and helps him with the sex addict defense that lost his trial with Margo.

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Samantha Fox was wrong

File this bit o' news under too much time on his hands, watching too many chick flicks and that nerds need love, too.

Some guy in Jersey decided to propose to his girlfriend by redesigning her favorite video game, PopCap's Bejeweled, to say those magic words when she hit a certain score. And in a move that is basically unheard of in this litigious world, PopCap wasn't even mad. Plus they're gonna supply the game, unmodified, to all of the wedding guest as party favors. Lawyers around the word will be despondent until the divorce process begins.

My questions that never will be answered - How long did it take him to re-code the change? What the score threshold was? How many attempts it took her to get to that score? But one thing is for sure - at least, she was the one to sweat out getting the proposal instead of the other way around..

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Saturday Morning Video

In honor of Beyoncé deciding to find some other 38 year old to marry instead of waiting around for yours truly to hit the open market, here's the video when I first saw the future Mrs. Jay-Z; back when Destiny's Child was a four-piece. Raise your glasses - one more has left the showroom floor.

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Wiimote and iPhone - The New Tools To Counter Terrorism

Shades of the 80's "The Last Starfighter" - recent technological innovations in the way home gaming consoles and digital music are being used have bled over into the military sector. The Packbot (pictured above) is being developed in order to be controlled by a device that mimics the intuitive commands that a Wiimote uses (ie - where the motion sensors on the controller is directly mirrored on the robot). According to David Bruemmer, an engineer at the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Lab:

"Our tests show 90 per cent of the operator's workload goes into driving the robot rather than keeping an eye on the sensor data."

And iPhones are also getting into the mix as well by allowing the device to be use to receive images from the Packbot:

As an alternative to lugging a laptop around, there are plans to modify the Packbot to transmit footage compatible with the palm-sized iPhone. Its touch screen should also allow soldiers to manipulate the video captured by the robot more intuitively.

I understand why the military is modifying these relatively new products for tactical uses but I just find it sad that the government can't do the same kind of development and testing on these types of innovations that the R&D guys over at Nintendo and Apple can do simply because they have the financial capabilities and workforce to do so.

And I don't mean this as purely an American thing as the type of work that these robots do are the ones where they can save lives by disarming bombs or detecting land mines. I hate to get all political but there should come a time where the latest gaming innovation by Sony or Microsoft should take a back seat to something that can be used for the great good of the world.

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Bad Medicine - Sambora arrested for DUI

"Whoaa, we're halfway there..." That might have been the song that Richie Sambora was singing in the car on the way home Tuesday evening before he was busted for driving under the influence.

The Bon Jovi lead guitarist was pulled over when the arresting officer noticed that his black Hummer was weaving in between traffic lanes. He was arrested after failing the standard field sobriety tests.

The only bad news involved was that he was "very cooperative with all of the staff." Hopefully, he fully apologized for "Lost Highway", which should be the only reason why he was drinking the night away - to forget that it was ever made.

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Pittsburgh Comicon Founder is found guilty of murder

As a follow-up to a news item that was posted here in the summer of last year, Michael George, founder of the Pittsburgh Comicon, was found guilty in Macomb County Court of killing his wife, Barbara Maria George, who was murdered in 1990 while preparing for his birthday party in their comic book shop, Comics World, in Clinton, Michigan.

According to reports, George collapsed and was openly sobbing as the verdict was read. Even though the verdict was given, there will be some feelings that will never heal from the outcome of these proceedings.

Both daughters testified for the defense of their father. "“We have two nieces who we’ll probably never see,” Joe Kowynia, Barbara George’s brother, said to the Detroit Free Press. Barbara George’s sister, Chris Ball, also said to the paper, "It’s a steep price for justice."

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Here's a shocker - Pats Suit Dropped

That little whimper that you heard this morning was the news that the lawsuit against the New England Patriots, Owner Bob Kraft and Head Coach Bill Belichick was dropped. That is a stark contrast when compared to when the suit was announced back during the period known to me as the "Blame the New England Patriots with the Death of Modern Sportsmanship Feeding Frenzy" or for others, the month of February.

I've purposely stayed away from dissecting the whole "Spygate" controversy for two reasons: 1) not all of the facts are in or ever will be in and it's hard to make a case either way without knowing what was exactly done, who knew what and how it benefited the team during the game; and 2) there are too many non-qualified people (numerous bloggers and actual professional reporters) giving their heavy-handed and pious sermons and my two cent-ible points would get lost amid the shuffle.

But here's something that I feel that is not rooted in the moralization on the decay of professional sports ethics (which is an oxymoron if I have ever heard one) perpetrated by the New England Patriots. All anti-trust legislation aside, the governing body of the National Football League has made a ruling on the Patriots involvement and have rendered a verdict. Unless there is any new evidence to provide (potential Three Card Monty dealer Matt Walsh included) that can dispute the original findings, the further vilifying of the New England Patriots (and more importantly, their fans) should be dropped faster than this supposed lawsuit.

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False Claims make for an Impossible Dinner season

Well, I guess history does repeat itself; at least for people who think that the path to success is paved with bad resumes. In the honor of such luminaries as Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., and George O'Leary (the 5-day coach of Notre Dame), Chef Robert Irvine decided to roll the dice with exaggerated job duties and came up snake eyes as Food TV canned his Dinner: Impossible show for next season.

I just don't understand why in this age of the all-knowing, all-seeing Internet would someone think that they could get away with blowing up stuff in order to be bigger themselves. Plus, if you're going to lie, why come clean to someone who can and will bring you down Watergate-style? It makes no sense. If you're going to lie, be like Barry (Bonds), Roger (Clemens) or Nero and go down with the fiddle that brought you there, man.

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From the FYI Department - Iron Man spot on ABC's Lost

In case you are not a Lost watcher (which truthfully I am not), there will be a new Iron Man spot on tonight's episode of Lost according to Marvel's Iron Man website:

Not that you need another reason to watch "LOST," but if you do, we have one: The brand new "Iron Man" movie trailer premieres on tonight's episode of "LOST" on ABC and, get this, it's 90-seconds long! "LOST" kicks off at 9 p.m. Eastern/8 p.m. Central. Don't miss a minute of it!

If it is up at the regualr sources tomorrow (YouTube, Google Video), you can rest assured that it'll be here, too.

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Satellite Demolition Factoids

Where's the Superfriends when you need them? With the US-193 coming home to roost, it looks like the US will have to resort to shooting some missles at it in order to minimize the impact to our Mother Earth. Actually, when you think about it, the firepower might make for a great fireworks show. But I just wish that we had a laser cannon to vaporize the free-fallin' disaster just to be safe. So, in an effort to ignore the possible cataclysm, those jokesters at FEMA have compiled some fun facts about the incoming US-193:

Satellite Summary:

• A U.S. Satellite has malfunctioned and is expected to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere sometime between the last week of February and the first week of March. Right now it is in an uncontrolled decent and as a result, the exact date, time and place of impact can not yet be determined.
• The satellite weighs approximately 5000 lbs and about 50% of it will most likely survive re-entry.
• The fuel tank, lined with Beryllium, contains 1,000 lbs of Hydrazine and will likely survive re-entry. Both are considered hazardous materials.
• On a conference call held on Thursday, February 14, 2008 DHS stated that there is a 28% probability that the satellite will hit land and a 21% probability that impact will occur near a populated area.
• Debris field expected to be 100 miles long by 60 miles wide
• Final impact area projections will be more defined within two hours of impact
• DoD will attempt to intercept satellite via missile after February 20th, 2008.
• FEMA will be standing up 1 ERT-A per FEMA Region to facilitate a timely federal response
• State EOC will possibly move to a level 2 activation closer to impact – this has the potential of being a no notice event
• Plans/Ops will be reaching out to all sources to obtain and push out information as it becomes available.
• http://www.n2yo.com/ – unofficial satellite tracking webstie
• Space Shuttle landing is schedule for Monday, February 20th

History of US-193:

• NROL 21 (or USA 193) is the cover name for one-off classified satellite.
• Constructed by Lockheed Martin operated by the National (NRO)
• Launched December, 14 2006
• A few weeks after launch reports emerged, that ground stations were unable to communicate with an expensive experimental U.S. spy satellite launched last year by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
• In August 2007 the satellite has been declared a complete loss and will be allowed to decay from orbit.

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"Marvel"-ous Movie and DVD News

I wish that I had the time to break news stories but unfortunately, blogging doesn't pay the bills and in the immortal words of Latrell Spreewell, "I've got a family to feed." To that end, I read on Newsarama of Marvel's 4th Quarter Profits and appended at the end of the press release was this:

Along with listing the upcoming Iron Man and Incredible Hulk movies (hitting theaters on May 2nd and June 13th, respectively), Marvel reiterated that writers have been engaged for Captain America, Thor and The Avengers films, while Ant-Man has both writer and director. Punisher War Zone is slated for a September 12th release, while X-Men Origins: Wolverine is slated for a May 1, 2009 release.

Wolverine and the X-Men, an animated television series, is slated for a spring, 2009 release, with Hulk: The Animated Series and a property called Super Hero Squad. Iron Man: The Animated Series is slated for a spring 2008 release.

Upcoming direct-to-DVD releases include:

Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow - August 2008
Hulk Vs. - January 2009
Thor: Son of Asgard - September 2009
Planet Hulk - February 2010

And Spider-Man: The Musical? Still in development.

All in all, some great news for the Marvel Zombies out there (and I know one in training who will especially like to hear about the upcoming Super Hero Squad release). And hopefully, Spider-Man: The Musical will still live only in development hell or at least one can hope.

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