The Internet is getting on my nerves… or perhaps more appropriately the people who write on the internet. There are no doubt some good journalists, “pseudo-journalists” and just casual writers but when I see errors in spelling, grammar and facts even on MSNBC, CNN and CNET…well let’s just say it is getting serious.

I believe that the position of “editor” and “proof reader” had gone the way of the Dodo Bird.

Modern day cost cutting would be my guess… but people need to realize that the spell checker is, at best, a way to keep from making truly embarrassing errors. It doesn’t help at all if you don’t understand the difference between “you are” (you’re) and “your”. The spell checker won’t pick that up as both words are spelled correctly but have completely different meanings.

Don’t get me started on Fact Checking!

On January 3rd, E! Entertainment did  a very nice little piece on Max Greenfield. Who, you say? Max Greenfield who currently stars as “Schmidt” in the Fox TV Network’s hit show “New Girl”. Max may perhaps be better known as the good natured cop with a serious thing for Veronica Mars’ Kristen Bell.

Now, you have to understand that Veronica Mars fans (I am one of them) are a particularly rabid lot who are still furious over its cancellation and ready to burn Warner Bros. to the ground because they won’t let a movie happen. E! understands this and asked about “Veronica Mars” in the “New Girl” interview.

Max was asked “if he’d be down to reunite with Kristen Bell, she who brutally rebuffed his character for Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), on his hit new comedy New Girl?” His response was a predictable  "I’m so into it, it’s not even funny, I think it’s really possible."

Max goes on to say about Kristen Bell "Kristen is one of those people who, unlike a lot of actors, are down. They’re not like, ‘Oh, I’m scared,’ or ‘Oh, I don’t know if I want to do that,’" Greenfield says of his former costar. "Kristen is the type of person that if you call her and she’s available, which is seldom, she’ll be like, ‘Yeah! Let’s go, let’s do it.’ So I think it’s pretty likely. It would be pretty awesome. I love Kristen. I think that she is so talented and hilarious."

All of this, of course, makes Veronica Mars fans just swoon with delight!

In the last 24 hours this simple article has generated no less than 40 Email news alerts in my email box about Kristen Bell appearing on “New Girl”. No where in the E! article did it say that this idea was anything but wishful speculation on Max Greenfield’s part.

What I can’t understand is if people writing about this are a) just stupid, or b) reading a legit news article and seeing what they want to see as opposed to what is actually written,  or perhaps c) trying to drive up their internet traffic.

So, while I have sadly neglected this Blog for a while now, that’s going to stop NOW! I am going to call out the errors and just plain crap that I read because the Internet needs to hold the people who write for it to the kind of standards we used to expect from our journalists. I will also say up front that I am not a perfect journalist… but I will make every effort to be grammatically correct, spell things properly and always, ALWAYS check my facts and sources!

Feel free to point out my errors in the Comments section!

In satin sheets, with ticking clocks, lay weary heads of tangled locks. Sighing deeply, breathing slows, dreams begin, and so it goes… Erika Christensen 2011

Craig Ferguson (The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson – CBS) made a surprise announcement on his show Monday night… he’s “taking it on the road!”

Now, lots of talk shows do remote shows from various locations, but Craig is famous for poking fun at his show’s $0 budget, so the surprise was where the show is going: Paris, France.

Next week, Ferguson will film a week’s worth of shows in Paris that will air in August. Not a lot of details were given and I suspect will hear more as the week proceeds.

The really cool part of this was that Craig announced he would be taking his “favorite girl” (besides his wife) with him… oh, and Geoff Peterson, sidekick robot as well.

Ferguson’s “favorite girl?” If you watch his show there can be no doubt that its Kristen Bell!

Kristen Bell has made 17 appearances on Craig’s show in the last 6 years. From her first somewhat tentative appearance, there was an obvious chemistry between the two and now when you see them together on the show it is kind of like they are at home in the living room shooting the bull. If I am not articulating how amazing this chemistry is, go to YouTube and view all of her appearances.

From things Kristen has said on the show, she and Craig’s wife Megan have spent time together as well… and Kristen’s fiancé Dax Shephard is no stranger to the show either.

Kristen does have a long standing bone to pick with Geoff Peterson, sidekick-robot. Kristen has long suffered the loss of the sidekick job that she wanted and as such the two frequently trade barbs… it has become a running gag on the show. It wouldn’t surprise me if she tried to sell him while they are in Paris!

Fans of Kristen Bell regularly tweet Craig (@CraigyFerg ) asking when Bell (@IMKristenBell) will next be on the show as each appearance is celebrated and tweeted about endlessly. It really is a love fest. Her last appearance on April 14^th of this year followed Ferguson’s promotional trip to Las Vegas with Geoff Peterson, robot-sidekick. Kristen asked Geoff “Have you finally disproved the adage that anyone can get laid in Vegas?”

Five shows of Kristen & Craig should prove to be a win-win for both the fans and the show!

It was World War 2, and they were landing on the beaches of Normandy in France. The Allies were landing in an all out push to throw Hitler’s Army out of Europe. 9000 men would leave that beach on that day in body bags or on stretchers. 6600+ would be American.

They did it because it had to be done. There was no question in  anyone’s mind.

The Allied armies were citizen armies, regular people in extraordinary circumstances, who by and large were volunteers.

Hitler didn’t know it on  that day, but it was the day he lost the War. 160,000 troops, 5000 ships and 13000 aircraft were there to establish a toehold on the European continent that would allow the Allies to pour men and all of the equipment of war through that beachhead for the express purpose of driving Hitler’s Army to total destruction.

They succeeded.

History and particularly we Americans need to remember that.

The picture is from the American Cemetery at Normandy in France. I have stood on that ground and though I was not even alive when this happened, I unashamedly cried like a baby.

Memorial Day began as a day of remembrance and reconciliation after the end of the U.S. Civil War. Today, Memorial Day serves as the symbolic start of the Summer and is observed on the last Monday in May. It is a day when we remember those we have lost and honor our men and women of the Armed Forces who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the rest of us.

So as we start our summer today with family & friends and dust off the grill and the barbeque tools take a moment to think about the more than 1,431,000 men and women protecting us around the globe.

DISCLAIMER: I have an Embarrassing Fan Crush on Rachel Nichols!

A grown man shouldn’t have this kind of crush on someone he will never meet in real life, never share a cup of coffee with and only in his silly head have a date with. There you have it and everything I write from this point forward will be colored by that.

My first real memories of this amazing lady are from when she appeared on my then favorite TV show “Alias” in its 5^th (2006) season as (ironically) Rachel. There was a lot of other work before then but this show put her on my radar.

Obviously she is breathtakingly beautiful, and very talented. Her ongoing work that kept her on my radar included the horror film “P2”, “Charlie Wilson’s War” “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2” “Star Trek” and “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”.

There is more to the story though than her acting chops and her extreme good looks. Like my regular readers may know, I have been known to also have an Embarrassing Fan Crush on Erika Christensen and Kristen Bell. Both of these women are also extremely beautiful and talented but they also share with Rachel the traits that make them all so attractive to me… they are all very intelligent, articulate and very, very funny.

Rachel writes a column for “Men’s Health” magazine called “The Movie Star Next Door” in which she displays her writing talent and humor. As you read her postings in this column, you will quickly grasp that this is a very human woman who has very human quirks. I love the fact that a woman as glamorous as Rachel can be is also a self-described “dork”. Read the post entitled “I Want the Truth! (And Yes, I Can Handle It). This article says a lot about the woman, as does the posting “20 Things I Love”.

Really, the best thing you can do is just read all the postings in her “Men’s Health” column and you will quite probably love this woman as much as I do.

One of this past year’s most talked about (idiotic) decisions in the television world was the dropping of A.J. Cook (JJ) on “Criminal Minds”. Adding fuel to the fire, Paget Brewster also departed, though despite popular opinion she was not dropped from the show, but contractually requested to be allowed to make a pilot for a new TV show. “Criminal Minds” producers kept the option to bring her back should the Pilot fail (it did). Fans were furious.

Rachel Nichols found herself in the middle of all this when what was to have been a 3 episode appearance became a starring role as “Agent Seaver” on “Criminal Minds”.

Some hard core AJ Cook and Brewster fans took it out on Rachel who had nothing to do with any of it. There was some very nasty “hate” tweets posted to her twitter account. It is amazing how rude people can be when they can hide behind the anonymity of a Twitter account. One hateful fan in particular made the comment that if Rachel didn’t get off the show she could end up dead… I thoroughly enjoyed sending that person a reminder that making terroristic threats over the Internet was a Federal Offense investigated by the FBI. That particular account vanished from Twitter in less than 30 minutes. Hateful people don’t like to be called out on it.

Throughout all of this, I never saw or read Rachel respond to the haters with anything but kindness and understanding.

Rachel appeared in 13 episodes of “Criminal Minds” and was all set for continuing her role for season 7.

The producers on May 28 2011 decided to exercise their option to bring Paget Brewster back to the show after her new TV show pilot failed to be picked up by NBC. Having restored the “Criminal Minds” cast, they, in their infinite wisdom, decided that Agent Seaver was no longer necessary.

As the news was made public, Rachel’s (who was out of the country) Twitter account lit up with support from her fans. I posted the original announcement and resisted the temptation to comment further and just read the posts that roared into her public thread. The support and affection from her fans was quite touching and I noticed that her fans didn’t feel the need to be nasty toward anyone else, with the exception of the producers and network, in the “Criminal Minds” cast. A class act like Rachel has class fans.

Rachel finally tweeted to her fans “Thank you all for the love and support. I am really sad that I won’t be returning to CM, but I am grateful for the time I had on the show!” followed shortly by “Y’all are the best. My heart is broken, but your Tweets make me smile. I’m going to wake up puffy and red, but at least I’ve got…pigeons?” (The pigeons reference referred to an earlier in the day tweet about the public squares covered with pigeons where she is vacationing.)

It is said that when one door closes, another opens and I have no doubt that Rachel will land on her feet. You can’t keep that kind of talent bottled up. This summer, she has a starring role as Tamara in the new “Conan the Barbarian” film to keep her fans enthralled.

I also believe that in the end, class will always win the day and Rachel has a bucket load of it!

Amazon emerged victorious in a battle with North Carolina tax collectors when a Federal Judge ruled that the on line retailing giant did not have to turn over 50 million detailed records of purchases made by North Carolina residents between 2003-2010.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman granted Amazon a summary judgment and said the North Carolina revenuers request for information went too far and ran afoul of the First Amendment. Read more about this case at http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20020680-281.html?tag=topImage1 .

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There is a lot of buzz about this movie “Monsters. The back story on this movie is pretty wild. Touted as this year “District 9,” it represents guerilla filmmaking at its very best. With a budget of $15000, one director Gareth Edwards who also wrote and created the CGI, and 2 actors Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able and nothing else but locals, the film was quickly snapped up by Magnoli.

HDNet Movies, a channel that many have on their cable or satellite systems, will present 3 showings of this film 2 days BEFORE the theatrical opening. On Wednesday Oct 27th, at 8PM. 9:45PM, & 11:30PM (all times Eastern) the movie will be shown before it opens in theaters on Friday Oct 29th.

If this trailer is any indication, this could be another “District 9.”

Low 60’s and clear, the air was crisp and clean.. fall in Atlanta. It will be warm later for this time of year, mid 70’s, but this morning it was perfect. I opened the front door and a couple of windows with the heat off and just a fire in the fireplace. It was a perfect balance. Hot coffee was the first order of business and this kind of morning called for some fresh ground Jamaica Blue beans. The aroma from the coffee mixes well with the wood burning in the fireplace.

It’s time to get ready though and this morning is special. I have some icy cold Cider fresh from the cider mill and some traditional plain cake donuts. I am setting them up in front of the TV for something special at this Halloween time of the year. Cable channel AMC is presenting the classic ‘31 Boris Karloff “Frankenstein” followed by the ‘31 Bela Lugosi “Dracula”.

You can have your Freddy Kreuger’s and Michael Meyers. These guys are the real deal!

John Sheffield died today 4 hours after he fell off a ladder. He was 79 years old.

Who was John Sheffield you say…

71 years ago John Sheffield was selected to play the son of Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan and Maureen O’Hara’s Jane. Known throughout the Tarzan series as “Boy” he appeared in 7 Tarzan movies before he was finally deemed too grown up to play the part anymore. After Tarzan, he went on to play the title role in the Bomba Jungle Boy movies.

His last motion picture was “Lord of the Jungle” in 1955.

He was pruning the palm trees at his Chula Vista home when he fell.

Sorry no posts, Mom is in the hospital so I have other fish to fry.

Those eyes and that special smile can melt a man’s very soul.

Greet the new morning knowing it brings the opportunity to write a new ending!

Every once in a while a singer comes along who hits you right there.. that every time you her their voice it raises goose bumps. Renee Olstead is such a singer.

She is all of 21 years old and is perhaps better known for her acting roles in “Still Standing” and “The Secret Life of an American Teenager” and to be sure she has been acting since the age of 6.

Renee made her first album in 2000, a country and western album called “Unleashed”. She was 11 years old. She has since cut 7 albums in total but beginning with her 3rd album she began concentrating of Jazz/Blue/Swing music which her 4 octave voice is ideally suited for. The first time I heard her sing “Someone to Watch Over Me”, I tear’d up, couldn’t help it.

Below is a poor copy of her appearance singing “Someone to Watch Over Me.” Enjoy it and then go out and find her latest album “Skylark.” Breathtakingly beautiful, immensely talented and a heaven sent voice.

 

Renee Olstead 2006

I made 2 people laugh today before 7AM. Could this be the purpose of life?

She’s beautiful, the song touched me. That’s all.

Knowledge combined with imagination is the foundation of the truly creative.

This week the internet and the Twitterverse were alive with talk of Kristen Bell playing the role of Marilyn Munster in a possible remake. It is a prime example of how things can get out of hand.

I am a big Michael Aussellio (Entertainment Weekly) fan but he was the trigger behind what is at best a whim.

Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) is in the VERY EARLY stages of developing a possible reboot of the classic Munsters TV series. In a conversation he had with Michael Ausellio, Michael put forth the idea that Kristen Bell would make a good Marilyn Munster and Fuller agreed enthusiastically.

That is what started the ruckus: A non existent possible TV show, a suggestion by a reporter who is a giant Kristen Bell fan (understandable, so am I) and a positive response from someone attached to what may become a project.

At this point I think it appropriate for me to say “and THE FANS GO WILD!”

A reboot of the Munsters is an interesting idea. Today’s technology could certainly bring that show to an entirely new level. It is also the kind of escapist comedy that would play well these days.

The question remains though, would Kristen Bell even entertain the idea of this part? Marilyn Munster wasn’t a major character in the Munsters. Kristen is enjoying a busy movie career and is currently attached to 5 unreleased movie projects. This would seem to make a TV show an unlikely tangent.

So instead of just going wild over an imaginary project, tweeters, bloggers and so called entertainment web sites need to stop and THINK!

I do however think Kristen Bell would make an incredible replacement for Pat Priest, there is more than a passing resemblance, and anything that increases the amount of time I can see Kristen on any screen is a good thing!

Inaction is a (sometimes fatal) disease. Taking action is to seize life between your teeth and give it a good shake!

Fox Network hit “Bones” will feature Enrico Colantoni in it’s 8th episode, tentatively titled “The Doctor in the Photo.” Enrico Colantoni has had a long Hollywood career spanning nearly 23 years and his most recent TV foray was as Sgt. Greg Parker in CBS series “Flashpoint”.

Enrico will forever be known to as Veronica Mars’ Dad Keith Mars as well as Detective (Sheriff) Mars of Neptune. The father daughter relationship in this series set a very high standard for future forays into this arena.

Enrico also appeared in the long running TV series “Just Shoot Me” as Elliot DiMauro, the womanizing staff photographer for Blush magazine. He appeared in 149 episodes of the show.

His “Bones” appearance will apparently be as a Security Guard at the Jeffersonian, though no other details are known at this time. Air date for the episode is TBA.

Twitter me @larryflowers