It's Been an Indy Weekend At Our House!

No, we're not watching the Indy 500 being run today in Indianapolis, I'm talking about  'Indiana Jones'!

Yesterday, we joined the throng at our local movie house to cheer the return of  'Indiana Jones' in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  

We enjoyed the movie so much , it got us waxing nostalgic for Raiders of the Lost Ark.  So, we watched that on VHS tape Saturday night.

What a kick to see a young Harrison Ford put on the fedora for the first time. And, I got a chuckle out of seeing Alfred Molina (later Doc Ock of Spider-Man II) con Indy out of his prize (but not for long) in the opening scene.

Sunday morning saw me peddling on the exercise bike where I caught the tail end of an interview with Karen Allen (Marian Ravenwood) on CBS Sunday Morning.  She talked about what she's done since Indy.  After splitting her time between NY City (theater) and Vermont, she divorced and "retired" to rural Massachusetts to raise her son.

Well the climate agrees with her - she looks amazing - as you will see in the new movie.  And, it ain't all makeup and it ain't plastic surgery.  Ms. Allen explained how she wouldn't want to go under the knife.

Most recently, she taught herself weaving and started her own textile line (Karen Allen Fabrics) and opened a retail shop.

What an amazing woman, and what an amazing Indy weekend - and it's not over yet!

Tina!

ZZ Top 

At The 

American Idol 

2008 Finale

The American Idol 2008 Finale Show was a long one... ran overtime as usual for this show lately...

With Finale Shows of this nature, there usually is a lot of 'filler' material until they actually get around to announcing the winner.

Sometimes the 'filler' is a 'hit'... sometimes it is a 'miss'.

For me, seeing ZZ Top and David Cook perform together was a 'hit'!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a ZZ Top fanatic, matter of fact Tina keeps telling me I don't have any 'musical taste' at all... even though she and I have voted for the same contestant in the last three Finales of American Idol!

It's just that I have a fondness for ZZ Top, ever since I saw them in 'Back To The Future Part III', where they played the band when McFly traveled back in time to the Old West Days and attended a dance!

Then again, I've had a beard, goatee and/or mustache before my kids were born... so maybe that has something to do with me liking them some! LOL!

However when my beard gets a week past having it trimmed, it does start to feel like the ones that ZZ Top wear! LOL!

Thanks for reading this blog post, and all of the others you may have read during this loooong Season 7 of American Idol! 

Michael's comments  for the Finale Results have already been blogged in Part 1  and Tina's in Part 2 in our archived blog posts!

For those of you new to us, we have an ongoing Comic Con and Pop Culture convention here at Make It So Marketing, what with our daily blog posts and listings of items for sale!

Thanks for reading our Pop Culture - comics - comic book blog post today and join us again!

Michael

The 'American Idol' Winner

 PLUS  The  American Idol  Finalists On Larry King Show 05-23-08

The American Idol Finalists were featured on the hour long Larry King Show Friday May 23rd, 2008. Here are some of the comments made during that airing:

David Cook (DC) had resigned himself to Silver, Not Gold. DC had stood in line in Omaha, Nebraska auditions with his little brother.

DC - What happens next? Working out the kinks on a record deal, plus 'American Idol' Tour starts July 1st in Glendale and ends September 13th in Tulsa, OK.

DC mentioned 'The 4 Horsemen' which were Michael Johns, Jason yeager, DC and (?).

David Archuleta (DA) - Did the over the top congrats from the judges the Finale Night hurt you? He didn't think so.

DA had been on Star Search @12 and now Idol @17.

3rd segment of show: DC & DA were told the Idol Judges were on Larry King in mid April, (see our blog post), and were shown the clips about them.

DA laughs and says that 3 of his friends had DC's songs on their MySpace pages!

DC said the 8 month process from audition to now  was 'pretty heavy'.

Next segment - Syesha and Jason. Syesha said that DC would always cracking jokes, and DA was very humble.

Jason on Paula Abdul  commenting on 2 performances when he had only done 1 - smiled and just tried to smooth it over.

Jason also said the process got to be way more than he could handle.

Brooke and Carly brought out next: Brooke said about her missing lines - A lot of pressure up there on live TV. The piano muff was 'I missed my cue'. 2nd time - 'It was a blank wall'.

Carly said that her early music start was widely publicized by the media, and no that the record company had not spent that much on promoting her earlier failure.

Larry asked Carly if being from Ireland had hurt her. She said she 'wouldn't have made it 6th place if it did'.

DA says Carly was his 'mamma' during the process.

Michael Johns was in Las Vegas so was video streamed to the show. He said 'the rug was pulled out from under me' when asked what happened to him.

Kristy Lee Cook, Ramielle and Chickeze were brought on next. Chickeze said that "in an industry that usually give you very little, American Idol has given me a lot!"

There were some quick one line questions Larry then asked the Finalists, which can be seen in the video at the top right!

Part 2 of Larry King's 'American Idol' Finalist show will air on Monday May 26th in his time slot.

We have an ongoing Comic Con and Pop Culture convention here at Make It So Marketing, what with our daily blog posts and listings of items for sale!Join us again won't you?!

Michael

"Our Take" 

On

'Indiana Jones

And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull'!

We are back from a late morning matinee seeing the new 'Indiana Jones' film. Tina, my pre-teen son, and myself are ready with 'Our Take' for our blog readers!

Tina's Take:

If you're nostalgic for Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, you'll treasure this new Indiana Jones  movie.

Why, if you keep a sharp eye out, you'll even catch a glimpse of the Ark!

Lucas draws heavily on the first, (and best), of the previous films with Ruskies subbing for Nazis, plenty of riddles, and confusing legends. He even brings back Marian, and Indy get to say everyone's favorite line, "Snakes, I hate snakes!"

Some of the most exciting scenes play homage to the first film. There's a long chase scene with Indy and his new side-kick jumping in and out of various vehicles. Indy battles a senseless brute in a circle reminiscent of the fight behind the propeller plane that ended so badly for his opponent in the earlier movie.

If you love Indy - and Harrison Ford is terrific - you'll love this movie! Score: 8.5

Michael's pre-teen son's Take:

Indiana Jones  & Kingdom... was a really great movie. It would be better if you viewed all three first, before seeing this one.

It was a lot better than the all the other Indiana Jones movies to me, and it would keep you in suspense. My favorite scene was with the monkeys! Score 9.5

Michael's Take:

This film was like revisiting an 'old friend' for me!

The opening scene 'dated' the movie for me in the mid 1950's and was picture and song perfect for that time.

The storyline was actually very well written, and I felt that Indy himself was updated very well, and that it was recognized that this was still a 'period piece', but set in the Days of the Red Scare of the 50's, instead of the Nazis era. 

This film actually seemed more 'real' to me as the 1950's is one of my favorite decades.

So Who's

'Hot'

 In Our Archived Blog Posts

Right Now?

None Other Than...

Bettie Page

 Laura Vandervoort

 Samuel L Jackson

& 'The 4400' TV Show!

These are the Big Four Of Our Top 10!

Regular Readers of our Blog know that I check our Blog Stats at least daily to see what topics bloggers are looking at!

Currently we have Four Standouts in our Top 10 Most Viewed!

The following topics are 'Hot' right now per our last 4,000 archived blog post views in less than the last 24 hours!

#1 is our Bettie Page - Jenny in The Rocketeer Film connection. That topic seems to always be in our Top 10 because of the cross-over of Bettie Page Fans and Rocketeer Fans.

#2 is Laura Vandervoort due to news that she won't be in Season 8 of Smallville, and that fans keep looking for her next inperson appearance.

#3 is Samuel L Jackson and the Nick Fury  connection at the end of the Iron Man Film that is out right now.

#4 is amazing to me, as the news that 'The 4400' won't be back for a Season 5 is old news, but more bloggers are giving this show a try. And they Should! Billy Campbell pictured at the top right was just on the Season Finale of 'Shark'. He is one cool but scary character!

The above round out our most viewed topics right now as of the past 4,000 page views...