I Am Iron Man!

the new trailer for the Iron Man movie is up at apple trailers. and it's awesome! I hope the end product lives up to this.

What Happened To Michigan.... Again?

Well the Big Blue held on to high hopes that perhaps their second game of the season would be the redemption they needed to resurrect their National Championship contention dreams. Needless to say, their hopes were squashed by Oregon, who handed them their second of two straight home losses to begin the season; the last time this happened was in 1959. In a 39-7 defeat, this past weekend's game was historical for two reasons:

1) The Wolverines suffered their most lopsided loss in 39 years; which was the season before their famed former coach, Bo Schembechler, debuted in Ann Arbor. And,

2) The Wolverines have not won a game since Coach Schembechler passed away on the day before the Ohio State game last year.

Hopefully Michigan hasn't incurred a “curse” like their sports counterparts the Boston Red Sox (the curse of the Babe) or the Chicago Cubs (the curse of the goat) that will keep them out of the National Championship for years to come, but all the fans who are superstitious might want to double check their rituals before this weekend's game against Notre Dame. Chad Henne, senior quarterback for Michigan, will not be available for the Notre Dame game due to a lower leg injury that kept him out the second half of the Oregon game. Notre Dame is also 0-2 for the season, but they have not scored an offensive touchdown in eight quarters, and have been outscored by 51 points in their first two losses. If Head Coach Lloyd Carr doesn't pull out a W for his Wolverines this weekend, his job security is little at best.

Be sure to keep track of your sports memorabilia through iTaggit.com!

Platinum Studios Recently Released New Trailers

Platinum Studios has recently made links available to their upcoming comic releases. If you would like to check out the previews for Hero By Night (the 2006 Comic Book Challenge winner), Cowboys & Aliens (which will be released as a major motion picture in 2008), Kiss 4k, Blood Nation, Watchdogs, and/or The Weapon, click here and enjoy!

So What Happened To Michigan?

If you have been living under a rock for the past 72 hours, then you have not heard about Michigan losing to Appalachian State. Why is this a big deal you wonder? Well other than the sheer embarrassment of losing on your home field, 109,000+ fans strong, with the critical eyes of the NCAA football community watching, or the many punchlines ESPN announcers will pull from it in years to come, the reasons are two fold:

1) There has never been a tumble as far off the charts as Michigan's since the Associated Press (AP) Poll expanded to 25 teams in 1989. The Wolverines were removed from their #5 seed and booted completely out of the Top 25, AND

2) Until this weekend, no Division I-AA team had beaten a ranked team in the AP Poll from 1989-2006, and it's unlikely that it happened after Division-I subdivisions were created in 1978.

But, the boys from Boone N.C. are not exactly nobodies. They have won 15 straight games, the longest streak alive in the nation, and they are also the two-time defending champions from former Division I-AA, now the Football Championship Subdivision. The Mountaineers have been favored to three-peat for the title again this year, and the win over Michigan gives them more fuel for their fire.

Word from Michigan State, and even Ohio State, who are both arch rivals of Michigan, is that people were leaving their opening season games to check out the unprecedented events occuring in "The Big House."

If you are a Michigan fan, I would hold onto that memorabilia for the time being and catalog it in iTaggit. Maybe they'll rise from the ashes and return triumphant at the end of the season. It is only one loss when stored in the records, and I know I always appreciate a good underdog story.

Jami Deadly: Vintage Pinup Beauty And Horror T.V. Show Host

Jami Deadly is a busy girl. Her resume is highlighted with activities such as becoming a renowned Marilyn Monroe impersonator, hosting her own goofy horror t.v. show called “Deadly Cinema”, and being featured as a pinup beauty contest winner in several magazines. She has been a retro enthusiast for over a decade and has collected just about everything there is to own about Marilyn, as well as vintage pinup books, old Hollywood biographies, and a large dvd collection. I will be sure to feature Ms. Deadly's collection on iTaggit as soon as she has finished posting her things.

As a young brunette growing up on a farm, she loved watching Betty Grable, Jean Harlow, and Mae West, but could identify most with Miss Marilyn Monroe. Jami spoke of Monroe's inner light that matched her beauty as one of her most outstanding features to replicate. Being an impersonator is more work than one would begin to believe. It takes a lot of character study and mental preparation to get down every little detail and mannerism about the person. Jami's first priority is portraying Marilyn in a positive light, as her memory has been skewed by media coverage since her death in 1962. “When I am applying my makeup in the mirror, I have to start the psychological transformation as well, and by the time I've applied the beauty mark, I'm Miss Monroe.”

As a successful Marilyn impersonator, Jami has been able to travel around the world performing in conventions and publicity shoots during her career. She has met a wide array of persons, including those who lose touch with reality, become starry eyed, and begin to ask her personal questions as if she were really Marilyn. Jami also mentioned one instance where she “did a gig representing the Marilyn Monroe touring exhibit, and people were coming up to me and poking me to see if I was a wax figure or not. It can get a little strange!”

In my previous two blogs of this trilogy, I have introduced you to Drew and his comic Halloween Man, as well as Gayla and 666photography. Jami is Drew's wife and the cover model for Halloween Man, which Gayla shot. Gayla has also produced some of Jami's favorite career photos, which can be viewed on their MySpace pages. Jami also loves starring in her own t.v. show, “Deadly Cinema,” which mixes Elvira with Mystery Science Theater 3000. Jami was inspired to create a blonde bombshell horror host, bringing a twist to the usual raven haired beauties. She crossed paths with director/writer/cast member Matt Muhl, and as they say, the rest is history. Jami describes her show as “an odd mix of a glamorous blonde, bad "b" movies, a pink coffin, and monster cast members.” People have embraced it and now it has its own cult following separate of her pinup career. If you want to check it out: Jami has a 3-disc set of all her episodes, including special features, available here on her MySpace page.

666photography Translates Rockabilly Culture Onto Film

Austin is known for its slogan “Keep Austin Weird” because of the unique culture that thrives in the heart of Texas. From the “Hi, How Are You?” frog mural by Daniel Johnston on the side of the old Austin Sound Exchange music store on Guadalupe, to being dubbed “The Live Music Capitol of The World,” the eccentric side of this city is visible where ever you are. 666photography was founded by Gayla, a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, and her vision adds to what makes this town so great.

She has always been interested in modern rockabilly culture, art nouveau, vaudeville, and Victorian fashion, so she was naturally inclined to begin shooting glamorous pinup photography. Gayla has early recollections of family outings to antique auctions or estate sales and has been collecting distinct pieces since she was small. Her first major purchase as a child was a 1930's armoir, and her furniture collection has since grown so vast that her storage room “looks like a bomb blew up in a vintage store.” There is no idea Gayla and 666photography can't recreate for their models. They build their sets from the ground up, and often hand make their costumes, hats, and accessories to form the concept perfectly.

Gayla was the photographer for the cover of Halloween Man, which I featured last week. Jami Deadly, who portrays the character on the cover, has modeled for Gayla on numerous occasions, and is married to Drew Edwards, the writer/creator of Halloween Man. Gayla knew if she combined her photography with Jami's look, they could give Drew the cover shot of Lucy, a main character in HM, he was looking for.

666photography currently has numerous projects in the works including two books, one of them covering the Seven Deadly Sins, and their schedule is filled through December 2007. If you would like to make an appointment and discuss a photography shoot with Gayla, you can reach her through her MySpace page here. To ensure you grab her attention, she humorously encourages titling messages to the effect of “Read This! I Want To Give You My Money,” and that should bump you up to the top of her respondee list.

Be on the lookout for the conclusion of this trilogy with my upcoming blog featuring Jami Deadly!

Apple TV Or Something Just Like It

I have a 1.5gh Apple Powerbook G4 that i used constantly for work and play for 3 years. it's a great computer but about 4 months ago the backlight on the screen died and to replace was more than a new mac I really needed a work laptop so i had to get a new Macbook Pro. I was planning on selling my powerbook on ebay but i had forgot i had it then today i noticed it sitting there and thought about what i could do with it. - the rest of the machine works fine with external monitor - but without a extra monitor at home. i plugged my older TV in my bedroom into the S-video plug and - it doesn't look half bad for playing video. "wa-la" I have an Apple TV .....sort of - The resolution of the mac os is a bit grainy on NTSC but with a bit of tweaking i have it quite usable. The DVD drive plays movies great and i have full internet access via airport. - plugin a USB keyboard and mouse and i can close the lid and slip the notebook into a shelf above the TV. - i use a wireless mouse and will be getting a bluetooth keyboard so i can hide all the wires.i thought i was going to have to copy my iPod videos etc to its hard drive - then i remembered the new iTunes sharing feature. I just shared the itunes library on my office desktop G5 Mac via airport and i can view everything over the net! i am sitting here watching videos streaming from the other room. this is great since i have a ton of already ripped video that i don't need in 2 places. if i need to copy large files i can hook up a firewire drive - but since it has a DVD player it replaces the one i had in bedroom. the resolution on an older TV is just fine. So see what you can do with that old computer before you sell or trash it. have you ever done something unique with your older technology?