Meme of the Week - Marianne Williamson

This meme wins the Internet this week. If you did not watch the second night of the first Democratic Party primary debate two nights ago then this will make no sense so just move along. If you did watch it or have seen a highlight reel of candidate Marianne Williamson's performance in that debate AND you are familiar with Twin Peaks then this meme will make perfect sense and hit you in the funny bone unless you are humorless.

R.I.P. Beth

For those of you who never watched Dog the Bounty Hunter and its subsequent iterations this report of woe will mean nothing to you. However, for those of us who did follow this family via their reality television shows over the years, this is very sad news indeed!

R.I.P. CHARLIE MURPHY!

Today it was announced that Eddie Murphy's older brother Charlie Murphy has died. I was utterly unaware of him until he appeared on the Dave Chappelle Show skits "Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories." Until today, I thought the stories were made up for the show to satirize all the Hollywood insider gossip "documentaries" or "exclusive" interview shows. As it turns out, although the sketches are somewhat satirical of the genre, Charlie Murphy is somewhat of a legendary raconteur and these are real stories he experienced that are being reenacted humorously in sketch comedy shorts. Otherwise, these stories are factually correct which makes them all the funnier to me now. R.I.P. CHARLIE MURPHY! Just imagine that being said by Dave Chappelle playing Rick James.


Charlie Murphy - Prince from Neo Suki on Vimeo.

My Top 10 Classic California TV Commercials

Periodically I find my mind wandering back to television commercials that I watched while growing up in Southern California in the 1970s and early 1980s. These are a sampling of my favorites, all of which were strictly regional companies and limited to the Los Angeles media market or California media markets.

The ahead-of-his-time Shadoe Stevens used to do local "Fred Rated" television ads for the Federated chain of home entertainment stores in Southern California long before there were Circuit City or Best Buy stores all over the place, having started way back in 1970 and dying in 1989 as technology and consumer trends changed faster than they could evolve.... the story of business success or failure.

Miller's Outpost created many ads over the years of my youth with this being just one. The company began in 1972, changed its name to Anchor Blue Clothing Company in the late 1990s and entered bankruptcy during the Great Recession in 2009 and ceased to exist in 2011.

"Go See Cal!" Who can forget these ads growing up and watching television in Southern California in the 1970s and 1980s? Cal Worthington's "Go See Cal" campaign actually ran from the 1960s to 1990s.

Round Table Pizza had a great advertising campaign featuring these guys throughout the 1980s.

"Me and Sparklett's Water making friends." I have never forgotten that highly effective ad jingle from Sparklett's Water Company which still exists but is owned by hated Nestle Corporation.

I grew up on Winchell's Donuts which started in Temple City, CA, where I lived for 5-1/2 years in the 1970s into 1980s. I still remember this particular commercial for the drill sergeant.

Adee Heating & Plumbing created a memorable advertising campaign which only reached the Los Angeles media market but I was there and I remember these like it was yesterday. Quite catchy!

The jingle at the end of Roto-Rooter television commercials was inexplicably catchy and effective lasting for decades.

Anybody living in the Los Angeles media market in the 1970s and 1980s cannot but remember the distinctive voice and delivery of Earl Schieb.

I grew up with angry Larry H. Parker ambulance chaser television commercials, most famously, the ones with the black guy who allegedly won $2.1 million from a motorcycle accident, Parker's claimed specialty. After laws changed keeping damage amounts secret, the commercials had to only hint at the dollar amount that by later times was legendary and even satirized on comedy shows and late night television monologues. All the earlier commercials from the 1970s and 1980s are only hosted by Larry H. Parker who has disabled embedding so I can't share any of those here. However, I was able to find this 1995 commercial that gives you the idea of what the earlier ones were like and does feature the motorcycle guy. Note: nobody seems to be able to find any legal record of Larry H. Parker winning this man such a judgement and thus speculation is that his story is a fabrication.

Funniest Don Rickles Moment

This morning Don "Mr. Warmth" Rickles died at his home in Los Angeles at age 90. I have always thoroughly enjoyed his comedy shtick. Above is my favorite comedy scene involving him and as if that was not enough, Frank Sinatra and Johnny Carson appear in it. I'm struck by the fact these three man and Ed McMahon also featured in this segment are all gone now forever. I also enjoyed Don Rickles in the 1970 movie Kelly's Heroes in which he plays "Supply Sergeant  Crapgame". Note: the getting down on Rickles knees and reporting in mafiosa talk in this segment by Rickles is a comedic reference to allegations at the time that Sinatra was in cozy with various Italian mafia figures which was never confirmed.

Image of the Day - Twelve Colonies of Kobol

Both today after school while driving home as well as tonight, I find myself thinking about the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. I feel it is a metaphor for something else as in God is using it to get me thinking about something that is anything but fictional and imaginary. I'm still pondering and discerning the meaning per the truism in Proverbs 25:2. Left-click on image for expanded view. Cartographic artwork by Werthead HERE. All rights reserved!

My Top 10 Favorite 2017 Super Bowl Ads

This year I enjoyed Super Bowl LI (51) more than any such game in many years. However, I noted with some slight dismay the continued trend of not as many good and funny ads being featured during the game's various commercial breaks. Below are my favorites this year in no particular order.


Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster Commercial "Easy Driver"


Skittles | "Romance" | Super Bowl LI Commercial


Tide | Super Bowl Commercial 2017 with Terry Bradshaw


Super Bowl LI 2017 John Malkovich Commercial


Bai 2017 Big Game Ad - Starring Justin Timberlake and Christopher Walken


2017 Kia Niro | “Hero’s Journey” Starring Melissa McCarthy


Justin Bieber's Super Bowl 2017 Commercial for T-Mobile


TurboTax 2017 Commercial "Humpty Fall"


Bud Light 2017 Super Bowl Commercials Between Friends


Budweiser 2017 Super Bowl Commercial | “Born The Hard Way”

It's a Rap on Stranger Things

Last night I watched parts of the Golden Globe Awards next door at my buddy's house. Some of it was fairly insufferable and tantamount to a Hollywood circle jerk of self-congratulation, self-aggrandizement, and self-affirmation. Some parts of it were interesting or even funny, but given my buddy had recorded it I was spared the worst of it and allowed to watch the highlights. The highlight of the night was the intro segment which includes this highlight of the highlight which is a segment of the intro featuring the cast of Stranger Things doing a clever rap making topical references to the show and possibly offering us a spoiler about the fate of one character. Note: if you did not watch this television series then this clip will make no sense to you.

My Top Ten Unobtainiums

Tonight I watched the latest Star Wars film Rogue One and once again had the topic of Kyber Crystals tossed onto my intellectual plate. This got me thinking about other such examples of Unobtainium on the small and big screen over the years.  This is my list of favorite mineral/metal substances that exist only in science fiction/fantasy.

1. Mithril ( Lord of the Rings universe)
2. Dilithium (Star Trek universe) 
3. Kryptonite (DC Comics universe)
4. Infinity Gems (Marvel Comics universe)
5. Adamantium (Marvel Comics universe)
6. Kyber Crystal (Star Wars universe)
7. Naquadah (Stargate universe)
8. Tylium (Battlestar Galactica universe)
9. Eludium (Looney Toons universe)
10. Mimetic Polyalloy (Terminator universe)

*Postscriptum: CrazyDave65 reminded me of Isaac Asimov's Thiotimoline.
**Post-Postscriptum: Linsis reminded me of Star Trek universe's Tritanium which was also appropriated by the Transformers' universe.
(Updated 1/05/17)

My Negan

Last night, comic genius Dave Chappelle hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time and made quite an impression. Most notable of the skits in which he appeared was this spoof of the recent current season premiere (now nearly iconic and viewable HERE) of The Walking Dead wherein Chappelle satirizes the role of Negan, the newest uber-villain on the show (Seasons 6-7) easily making us forget The Governor (Seasons 3-4).

Meme of the Week - Negan 2016

For those of you who have been following The Walking Dead on TV or reading the serial graphic novel this needs no explanation. Otherwise, if I have to explain you would not understand. Needless to say, Negan is the newest badassest bad guy on the planet; a villain with charisma and gravitas on the level of Darth Vader and Heath Ledger's version of The Joker. Needless to say, some part of me would rather have Negan as President than either of the main candidates. He would indeed "shut that shit down" in Washington D.C. and beyond. The meme/image macro above features an odd artifact covering the character's mouth but just ignore it. Below is a small player for a clip from the scene from which the meme image was derived. It starts right after a beloved main character has just been beaten to death in front of the show's protagonists. 

RE: Member Berries

One of the cleverest and most original plot devices to be devised by the creators of South Park are this season's "member berries", anthropomorphic talking berries that wistfully induce us into endorphin rushes of nostalgia for the past as we remember it, not so much as it actually was. If you are unfamiliar with the series then this will mean little to nothing to you.

My Top Ten TV Series To Watch

I got to thinking about this list lately and not altogether in relation to trying to think up some content for this blog. It occurred to me that it is remarkable how many great TV series/miniseries exist at the present and it seems the 2010s are even richer in worthwhile TV viewing options than the 1980s which seemed like the gold standard to me until recently. Below is what I am currently faithfully following with the caveat that it is acknowledged that some of these are much better or worse than others on this list.

1. Game of Thrones
2. The Walking Dead
3. Better Call Saul
4. True Detective
5. Fargo
6. Stranger Things
7. The Night Of
8. The Detour
9. Vice Principals
10. Fear the Walking Dead

A Super Dave Schwartz Weather Highlight

This morning I received a phone call from mom before I could even get caught up on all the news via the internet. She informed me that she had just watched The Weather Channel and they had announced that the effervescent and quirky television weather legend Dave Schwartz died yesterday from stomach cancer. I was not shocked as all his fans were aware of his cancer struggles following his announcement of same last year. I had hoped he would pull through not knowing his stomach cancer was a metastasis of pancreatic cancer which is pretty much a death sentence for anybody. I lost my friend Steve Shears to it a few years ago as some of you may recall. Schwartz was a friend of sorts through the years when he worked at TWC, including years when I was fairly socially isolated with my Kim issues. Schwartz, in his charmingly quirky way, kept me company telling me the weather for Akron, Ohio, the next day or a myriad of other meteorological things that kept my mind occupied. I hope he was ready for eternity and he and God had a conversation before he slipped this mortal coil as I would love to meet him personally someday on the other side. 

Picture of the Day - "El Niño"

The late and beloved SNL icon Chris Farley contributed his memorable character, "El Niño", to weather history in this skit which ran in the fall of 1997 within several weeks of his untimely death due to drug overdose.  Watch entirety of skit HERE. I chose to share this today because after all the nay-saying by the nattering nabobs of negativity in regards to a stormy weather pattern not having yet arrived, El Niño really has arrived and today California got a fairly decent clobbering from the atmosphere with damage reported.
Image courtesy NBC (all rights reserved).

Dubya 2016

Night-before-last this Will Ferrell-as-George W. Bush skit premiered on Saturday Night Live which has sucked for a number of years but this skit knocked it out of the park.

I'm Googoo For Gaga

Place Rammstein's "Du Hast" with Lady Gaga in a promo for anything involving horror (the television series American Horror Story in this case) and I won't be able to resist liking it.

RIP Rowdy Roddy

Today it was announced that Rowdy Roddy Piper of professional wrestling and acting fame (check out his personal website HERE) died last night in his sleep at age 61. The cause of death appears to have been a heart attack. It seems cliche and trite to say he was one of my favorites... but he was. He had higher intelligence and more charisma than most professional wrestlers. He also lived a more wholesome life than many/most of them being a family man his entire life. Below are my favorite examples of his work starting with an infamous episode of his groundbreaking "show" (the one featuring Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka) on the then WWF program. That is followed below it by one of his matches in the ring against the aforementioned Snuka. 




What many people don't realize is that Roddy Toombs (his real name) was under-regarded actor who showed his surprising acting talent in John Carpenter's 1988 sci-fi classic They Live. The movie features the greatest cinematic brawl ever (vs. Keith David) with the closest competition coming from the one at the end of John Wayne's The Quiet Man (vs. Victor McLaglen). Anywho, the They Live brawl is so awesome that South Park spoofed it in the famous "Cripple Fight" episode which part I have placed below the cinematic brawl.



South park cripple fight with "They Live" side by side from JuggleLife on Vimeo. Video posters commentary: " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxFJw0A3-S4 commentary of the creators commenting on the fight scene.I had noticed that they had made a reference in one of there more recent episodes 18x05 (magic bush) so i thought i would create a side by side of the reference to the movie They live prior to the recent one. i will put together another side by side video for the more recent episode eventually."

As I discussed in a previous post on this blog entitled "OBEY and Read This", They Live inspired political artist Shepard Fairey to come up with his now iconic and ubiquitous Obey Campaign. Rowdy Roddy and Fairey met on a couple of occasions and in tribute to Piper, Fairey Tweeted the image below in accompaniment of his condolences today. This merely serves to reaffirm the connection between the They Live and the Obey Campaign.

Courtesy of Shepard Fairey (all rights reserved).

Quote of the Day - "Admiral Adama"

"There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people." ~ Admiral Adama (Battlestar Galactica)

I tend to be rather pro-law enforcement... even through these police shooting stories that get many Liberal's panties in a wad. I have always gotten along quite well with the constabulary even when I was getting pulled over a lot when I drove my meth-mobile-looking beater Volvo until earlier this year. They have a tough and often dangerous job to do and the haters often overlook that part of the story.

That being said, there has been a disturbing trend since 9/11 and the Homeland Security Act: the rapid militarization of our constabulary. Both Liberals and Conservatives alike as well as those from the Center like me view this with varying degrees of trepidation. This trend does not reflect any realities of crime or terrorist activity in our society. It often manifests itself in the heartland interior in even small podunkvilles. Departments of all sizes across our land are beefing up their military-styled SWAT programs and acquiring surplus military equipment like armored personnel carriers. This is driven by greed as homeland security is big business for Big Business. It is also a way for governments to get bigger because they are bureaucracies which tend to have an insatiable appetite for self-perpetuation and accumulation of money and power

However, at what point does our own constabulary no longer serve us but instead serves other agendas? Today we have Gramciian hegemony (Money Power controls indirectly and subtly through proxies and exerts force just under the surface all the while making limited concessions which the masses are content to accept). Does this arrangement metamorphose into something more malevolent down the road?

An Un-PC St. Patty's Day To Ya

I came across this a little while ago on Facebook... fairly hilarious with a touch of un-PC-ness which makes it even funnier.