Pop Quiz, Hotshot!

Hey, it’s ‘That Guy!’

Check out this fun Web site, which helps us finally put a name to the face of ‘That Guy’ you always see in movies, TV  and game shows like “$20,000 Pyramid.”

PQH is proud to admit, we’re suckers for these sort of obscure details of show business.

In fact, we’ve been mulling a “yearbook/reunion” Web site for years, where we’d catalog all the teen characters from movies and TV from the Brady kids on on through the latest version of “90210.”

We could explore just what happened to Duckie from “Pretty in Pink.” Oh yeah, he’s living with his son and man-slut brother over on CBS.

– JOHN “Definitely not ‘That Guy’” SIMCOE

Get your Inuit on for the Winter Olympics

By now, you know that PQH! is a big fan of the British Press. Whether it’s their love of celebrities, treating them like dirt or just being kind of cool, we pay attention to it because it’s just far more lively than The New York Times.

Here in America, the Winter Olympics are being broadcast by the de-Conan’d NBC. For that network, the Olympics are yet another case of make-or-break for the number-crunchers. So, especially with the crazy stuff about ex-Olympian Nancy Kerrigan’s family going on, you can bet that the Olympics aren’t exactly going to be chocked full of fun.

But for the BBC, that’s not necessarily the case. They take their Olympics with a little bit of whimsy, just like they with their Beijing opening sequence.

Following a similiar pattern, the BBC has released its “Winter Olympics Trailer,” which you can see below:

PQH! has to say this, we’d watch a full-length animated feature based on the Beijing or the Inuit cartoons.

As for winter Olympics coverage here at The York Dispatch, look for it coming up in our sports section, where you’ll find regular game stories and reports, and Junior Dispatch, for athlete profiles, medal counts and any variety of interesting tidbits that pop up.

– JOHN SIMCOE

“It’s only a glitch..”

A news conference didn’t go according to plan yesterday at BAE Systems in West Manchester Township. The facility’s big wigs, workers and media were there to see the unveiling of the latest vehicle BAE would be producing for the U.S. military.

With lights flashing and music blaring, the new Paladin self-propelled Howitzer sat there like a pile of scrap, rather than roll out under its own power.

It was probably quite embarrassing for plant officials, but it could have been worse.

In fact the story reminds PQH! of this amusing, but very, very violent, R-rated scene (and, yes, that’s a warning to you hypersensitive readers) from 1987’s “RoboCop.”

So, yes, BAE can take heart that their little problem could have been much worse.

And for you “RoboCop” fans, keep an eye out for the remake due out in 2011.

 – JOHN SIMCOE

An action-packed Christmas marathon

I watch It’s a Wonderful Life every year. And it’s likely that at some point during TBS network’s 24-hour A Christmas Story marathon, I’ll catch a viewing of that, too. There’s no shame in loving a holiday classic, whether it’s White Christmas or Miracle on 34th Street or a newer favorite like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation or Elf.

They’re all good movies; if you haven’t seen them at least once, then maybe you’re not ready to branch out with your holiday season viewing.

But if you’re like me, you prefer your holiday movies more like the movies you watch year-round: full of action, fights, shootouts, sarcasm and bitterness. The Christmas spirit is just a bonus that highlights the contradiction of hatred and violence on a holiday known for peace and good will.

That’s why my Christmas movie marathon looks more like this: More »

Who ever heard of an underwater snowstorm?

As a Lego geek — what the community calls an AFOL, or adult fan of Lego — I’m fond of browsing online to see what fantastic creations Lego builders are developing. One of my favorite spots to stop is The Brothers Brick, which gathers photos of interesting original builds.

Recently, BB called attention to an amazing set of Star Wars Lego-themed photos on Flikr. They look so real that they almost look digitally manipulated:

But the creator gives us a behind-the-scenes look in a post that’s even more interesting than the photos themselves. Things that would be difficult to achieve in a regular setup are suddenly much easier when the whole project moves underwater.

Check out how Avanaut got the perfect snowy look for his Lego on Hoth series, then watch the slideshow of images here.

– MEL BARBER

Christmas wishes do come true

To the tune of All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth… All I want for Christmas is a Tom Servo, a Tom Servo, see a Tom Servo. Gee if I could only have a Tom Servo, then we could mock some awful movies. Awful movies.

Clearly, Shout! Factory has heard the pleas of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans. The company’s latest set, Mystery Science Theater 3000 XVI, comes packed with a collectible Tom Servo figure to match the Crow T. Robot figure that came in last year’s 20th anniversary set. Crow and Servo are silent, immobile, 4-inch-high plastic companions — so if you want them to mock the movies with you, you’ll need to invite some friends to play their parts or take up ventriloquism as a hobby. (That’s them above, standing *gasp* on the wrong sides.)

Like Shout!’s other four-pack DVD sets, MST3K XVI also comes with four faux mini-movie posters featuring Crow and Servo as cast members in some truly awful films. Artist Steve Vance does a great job of capturing the movies’ ridiculous, campy nature in roughly 5×7 posters. More »

Straight No Chaser: Drink up!

Straight No Chaser’s star is still rising. The a cappella singing group formed at Indiana University more than a decade ago, which reunited after old footage posted on YouTube gained them millions of hits and a deal with Atlantic Records, recently passed 10 million views on “The 12 Days of Christmas,” the song that made them famous.

If you haven’t seen it, take a look; the voices are golden and the mashed-up medley is hilarious. (Click here if you can’t see the embedded video below.)

You can hear the rest of the group’s Christmas tunes at their official site and order the album at various places online, including direct from the group as bundled holiday packages.

Those who’d rather sip than gulp can get a taste of Straight No Chaser during the group’s PBS special, Straight No Chaser: Live in New York, Holiday Edition, at 8 p.m. Thursday and again at 10 p.m. Sunday on WITF.

But the best news of all for York-area fans is this: The Strand-Capitol will be one of the group’s tour stops in the spring. The 10 men will bring their beautiful voices and their humorous delivery to the Strand at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 20. Tickets are $29-$33, but they aren’t on sale just yet, so keep watching the Strand’s site for details.

UPDATE: The Strand, via Twitter, says tickets will be going on sale Friday, Dec. 18, so have your browser (official site), phone (846-1111) or feet (50 N. George St.) ready.

– MEL BARBER

Sneak peek: Men of a Certain Age

A drama-comedy about men at age 50 is probably going to be a hard sell for most TV viewers. They want spark. They want pep. They want energy.

They aren’t too interested in going bald, spare tires and Viagra jokes unless it’s packaged as a sitcom, and yet somehow, TNT’s “Men of a Certain Age” works.

The new show, which stars Ray Romano, Scott Bakula and Andre Braugher and debuts Monday at 10 p.m. on TNT, doesn’t dwell on the little things that a sitcom would — and yes, it is mercifully free of jokes about erectile dysfunction.

Instead, it tries to carve out its own place and show the trials, no matter how trivial, of being on what may — or may not — be the downward slope of life.

The show focuses on three characters:

• Joe (Romano) is a recently separated husband and owner of a party-supply store. He’s struggling with a gambling addiction and often grapples with his own neurosis as he tries to restart his life.
• Owen (Braugher) is a car salesman with a loving wife and two slightly hyper kids. His problem? His father, who also happens to be his boss, doesn’t feel his son has ever measured up.
• Terry (Bakula) seems to be happy with his bachelor lifestyle, but his acting career is at a standstill and he’s merely a part-time yoga instructor and office temp.

Through the first few episodes of the series, viewers see their lives through marginally connected stories. The guys trod through their life where sometimes they end up the winners and sometimes they look like dopes in desperate need of their wives’ motherly guidance.

While the pilot episode is a bit of a snooze, the follow-up episodes dig deep into the characters, especially Romano’s Joe, whose gambling habit snapped his marriage in two but allowed his personal relationship with his bookie to flourish. Romano, by the way, is the creator and one of the show’s writers in a fairly bold step from his familiar “Everybody Loves Raymond” persona.

While “Men” isn’t cutesy black humor a la “Desperate Housewives,” it is comparable to that show in the sense that all the main characters from both shows seem to be asking the same question: “Now what?”

I, for one, have been eager to see just how that will be answered.

– JOHN SIMCOE

Batman meets his makers

As it loves to do, DC Comics has once again jumped its characters into a whole new setting.

Years ago, such trips into these new realities were called “Elseworlds” titles. Now, they’re just part of what DC calls its multiverse.

It’s in these worlds where writers and artists are allowed to explore different takes of characters that can’t be fussed with, or else risk the wrath of the Warner Bros. merchandising department.

You want to mess with relative nobodies like the Creeper or Elongated Man, and you don’t get any guff. A writer can turn those guys into zombie astronauts and nobody bats an eye.

But cut Wonder Woman’s hair? Put Superman in a new suit? Kill off Batman? Then you’re in for it. The media calls. Fans get upset. The world collapses into a black hole.
So, when someone gets a classy idea for one of DC’s heavyhitters, the company has learned to spin it as a “What If” story or, as mentioned above, toss it into a whole new “universe” and let them play around.

Such is the case for the latest Batman experiment.

In “Batman/Doc Savage Special” No. 1, Batman is knocked back to the earliest roots of his crimefighting career: That of a pulp fiction hero.

You see, Batman was pretty clearly inspired by the crimefighting pulp heroes such as the Shadow, the Spider and a multitude of others. Heck, there was even one actually called “The Bat.”

Just like Batman, all these guys relied on a good right hook, a variety of gadgets and a bellyful of revenge in their quest to right wrongs.

In this comic, dubbed the first issue of DC’s new “First Wave” universe, introduces us to a Batman who lives in a pulp fiction world.

Most notably, DC secured the license for Doc Savage, one the pulp era’s most-loved heroes.

The story unfolds as the stunningly skilled Savage comes to Batman’s hometown, Gotham, to fight corruption, which he thinks is being lead by the Caped Crusader.

Gleeful Batman moments come and go, but more importantly, comics readers get a chance to see Doc Savage in action, and learn a little more about him. A text and sketch section in the back of the book also outlines other characters that will appear in future issues, including The Spirit, Justice Inc., Black Canary and the Blackhawk Squadron.

Written by Brian Azzarello, the dialogue is tight, well-paced and amusing at times. Art is handled smooth and sexy by Phil Noto, whose style looks great as it portrays the art-deco look at its finest.

I stumbled over an interlude that included the future Commissioner Gordon, but otherwise, it’s a solid book, and I can’t wait for more.

– JOHN SIMCOE

Sneak peek: The Celebdaq upgrade

I’ve been a Celebdaq player for several years now. Celebdaq is the BBC-based celebrity stock exchange game where the more publicity a famous person gets, the higher their stock rises.

The celebrities listed on the stock exchange game are overwhelmingly British, but there’s also a few Americans here and there, so it’s still pretty simple to keep abreast of what’s hip to the British press.

A few months ago, I got an e-mail from the good folks at Celebdaq. They wanted to know what I like about the game and what I wish was better.

I promptly fired off an e-mail and just this week, they responded with an invitation to the Beta-test to the all new Celebdaq.

The new Celebdaq is brighter and more — uhm — peppy compared to the Celebdaq of old. It still features pretty much the same info as the older version. Above, for example, is Robert Pattinson’s biography with a fancy fever chart to assess his public activity.

The features for the new program include better descriptions of how your shares are doing too. Here, we can monitor the “break even” point for earning money on Simon Cowell. These listings (which ought to be collapsible in my opinion) also show you the current share price and its gain by percentage and its gain in fantasy British Pounds.

The new Celebdaq also revives a past tradition of snarky articles on celebrities, which is half the fun of the game.

Don’t ask me to explain the British obsession with American Katy Perry. Sure, she’s dating Russell Brand, but beyond that, I’m in the dark.

– JOHN SIMCOE