Happy Halloween, Everyone

By now, everyone is familiar with the ridiculous trick-or-treat nursery rhyme, but has anyone ever taken the time to break it down?

Because Flula has.

Support Movember

Gear up for November people, it's almost upon us. Thanksgiving takes practice and if you aren't conditioned on game day you can really run the risk of hurting something.  Want my advice?  Train with several Thanksgiving on a Bun subs, that should warm everyone up a bit.  Besides pounds of turkey, great movies at the Coolidge and the brisk smell of Christmas almost in the air, the passing of the October/November/December months means facial hair. It's gull durn beard season.

Refer above to actor, my Halloween costume inspiration and moustache guru, Nick Offerman, and follow him through the month of Movember as he spreads his beardly knowledge.  Maybe you cranked out a quick Octobeard and are ready to move right on into Movember or perhaps you've been saving up for the 3 month tri-beard-fecta of Octobeard into No-Shave-November into Decembeard in which case...epic. Great job on a bold move. For the rest of us, head to the Movember website and read up on the message of the month and be more than just a hairy face.

So what exactly is Movember? It's a loophole guys; a scraggly, wild, or well-trimmed loophole that comes around one month of the year to allow us to grow our dreams big without fear of 'stache stigma. Now in it's 9th year, Movember was created to raise awareness for men's health issues, specifically testicular and prostate cancer, and the wispy sproutings above your upper lip might mean saving a life someday.  This is a time to give the old Dadstache a test run, or break out a Fu Manchu, or my former personal favorite "El Gringo Peligroso"  Give it a shot, have fun and promote men's health awareness while you're at it.

Advantages to having a Moustache
1. Go everywhere incognito.
2. Warm upper lip.
3. You get to say "Who wants a moustache ride?" (Allowed once per each group of friends per week)
4. Be the Evil Twin of yourself and do something you never would, but your Evil Twin might.
5. Burt Reynolds, Hulk Hogan, Tom Sellick, Ron Burgundy, and Eddie Murphy.

Remember you grow this moustache not for your self but for the balls of men everywhere.

Bonus: For your health...30 minutes of Ron Swansonisms. Pt 1 & Pt 2

Cult Movies at the Coolidge

October's not quite over yet, and if my high-school movie tastes taught me anything, then I'm pretty sure that tonight, October 30th, is Devil's Night. This year, Coolidge Corner theater marks the occasion with a late night showing of the Brandon Lee classic, The Crow.  Ending the career of rising star and son of martial arts legend, Bruce Lee, The Crow is a gritty example of early 90's grunge culture moving into film and redemption story with more gore and more angst than ever before. Perfect for a midweek Halloween kickstart.

The theater at Coolidge has had an incredible line-up this month, of which I have taken advantage.  This past Saturday I attended the Halloween midnight movie double feature and I wish I had stayed through the next four films of the marathon.  Luckily, the double feature was The Exorcist followed by The Thing so I could stand to miss Day of the Dead, Phantasm, Candyman and an early Cronenberg.

Next month the Coolidge is rolling out a set of cult masterpieces.  Check out what they have coming.

THIS WEEKEND Nov 2 & 3: Predator

Next Weekend Nov 9 & 10: Evil Dead 2-Dead By Dawn

 

Weekend after Next Nov 16 & 17: ROBOCOP!!! Part Man. Part Machine. All Cop.

I don't know how there could be a better set of midnight movies in a row.  Bam! A buddy war movie that halfway through turns into an Schwarzenegger-at-his-prime driven sci-fi action blow 'em up. Next week, Bam!  Blow-out budget semi-sequel to the campy Sam Raimi horror film with more gags, more blood and more tree rape? Next week, Bam! The best Academy Award winning and immaculate splatterfest/cyber-action flick ever made!  Let's say if you can't find me on the weekends this month a good first guess would be at the Coolidge.

From the Depths of the Internet

 Dear ThreeifbyStrike fans, Jon and Bill,

Unfortunately, this has been a quiet month for me on the blog and for that I apologize.   A busy work schedule has kept me from putting in the time I'd like to towards writing but things should be more settled down now.  The Strike be re-born!  Now that October's nearly at an end and Thanksgiving's a scant few weeks away I'll be sure to be on my toes looking around for the best for our readers. Here are a couple little treats from the black depths. 

-Ryan

 Liz Climo- (Featured at the top of the post.) A tumblr account showcasing the artist's simple and delightful cartoons. Think if Cyanide and Happiness played tummy sticks with the Far Side minus the weird and add in cuter animals.

 Kanye Wes Anderson- A tumblr that combines 'Yezzy's verses and dialogue from Wes Anderson films.   If it sounds bizarre, it is, but it also works.  Flashy colors look good on both Mr. West and on Anderson's characters. Gotta say,  Jason Swartzman from Rushmore sounds pretty thug with Ye's boast backing him.

He Texted- This one's a huge guilty pleasure and a huge time waster so enter into He Texted forwarned.  The site works like Texts from Last Night or FML, where anonymous posters have a forum to share the tribulations of life in a digital world.  Here's where it gets great, the messages being posted are on-going text conversations between genders where ladies can ask the internet for help deciphering the male psyche via text.  It is amazing.  All posts can be commented on with crazy advice and you can vote on whether the dude is into her or not.  Long story short, everyone's crazy....enjoy.

New Star Wars Movie in 2015?

There are few things on this planet that I care about as deeply as the rich historical documents referred to simply as "Star Wars."  Six episodes have been released in theatrical form, getting Earth up to speed on the events a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

The first three episodes -- IV, V, VI -- were easily the best movies I have ever seen.  They told the story of a young farm boy, Luke Skywalker who started out on the remote desert planet of Tatooine with...

Alright, look, I'll cut to the chase, here.  On Tuesday, George Lucas, every fan boy's idol and the creator of Star Wars, has agreed to sell Lucasfilm, and all other umbrella businesses, to Walt Disney.  I'll let that sink in.

Lucasfilm, Lucasarts, Industrial Light & Magic as well as Skywalker Sound now belong to Disney after they forked over $4.05 billion to Lucas in the form of half cash and half Disney shares -- which adds up to about 40 million of those bad boys.

Now the tough part to stomach.  Disney has already said that a new Star Wars movie, which they referred to as "Episode VII" will be in theaters some time in 2015.  I've seen every Star Wars movie in theaters.  I saw the re-releases of the sequels, saw the prequels -- Episode III three times -- and I even sat through "The (god-awful) Clone Wars."  Given the recent trend in the Star Wars universe, on screen anyhow, things are headed south, and I'm already nervous.

The silver lining here is that, no matter what, it's going to be another Star Wars movie.  I don't think Lucas will make that same mistake again in going with an animated feature, as he will still be involved in the production as a creative consultant.  So another live-action Star Wars epic will be hitting the screen at some point in the year 2015.  I gotta put the odds of it being a success at about 250 to 1, to be honest. 

But hey, Disney knows how to market themselves, meaning Star Wars will live on even longer, and hopefully they put in some sweet new themed rides at Disney soon, I haven't been in a while.

Note: the last hyperlink -- "things are headed south" -- had to find its way into this article to bridge the gap between Disney and Star Wars in your minds, but for the life of me, I could not bring myself to make it the main picture.  It still hurts me to look at.

The Ol' Fantasy Curse

So the NBA season tips off tonight, with the Celtics-Heat, Mavericks-Lakers and last (and definitely least...) Wizards-Cavaliers game.

NBA has always been the last of the four major US sports that I follow, becoming a Celtics fan by proximity then staying interested because of players like Ray Allen and Keyon Dooling.  But this season, with the NHL season looking bleak, I decided to try my hand in fantasy basketball.  Fantasy sports and me go together like the Sharks and the Jets, but its still fun.

Sometimes.

For years now, I am convinced that I am a star player's reckoning.  In 2005, I chose David Akers second round (yeah, I know) and he broke his leg during a kickoff.  The two years on either side of Jacoby Ellsbury's near-MVP season I picked him high, only to have him fold up like a paper bag.  Last year in hockey, my top two goalies were Ryan Miller and Kari Lehtonen.  A concussion and a serious groin injury sidelined them for too long to hold onto, and I suffered five straight losses.

This year, I thought, new sport, new results?  Good one.  Top pick: Kevin Love -- out for six weeks.  Second round pick: Dirk Nowitzki -- out six to eight weeks.  Third round pick: James Harden -- traded to the Rockets.

I mean if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.  While my recent picks have been dead wrong, I'll try my hand tonight, going with the Heat, Lakers and Wizards as the winners.  Hopefully the whole Allen-Celtics fiasco doesn't get blown out of proportion tonight, but it'll sure be awkward during the ring ceremony...

UPDATE: Steve Nash was taken out of the Lakers' second game Wednesday night with a leg bruise.  Hopefully it is nothing serious, but either way, my fifth round pick joins the ranks of the DL.

MLB "Accidentally" Leaks New 2012 Houston Astros Logo

The Houston Astros are getting a makeover and moving to the American League in 2013.  After consecutive 100-loss seasons, hopefully the change of scenery will help them out, but moving to a loaded AL West division may not be the remedy they were hoping for.

The realignment will mean interleague games almost every day over the course of the major league season, and the Texas Rangers will now have an interstate rival, joining the A's and Angels, as well as the Giants, Padres and Dodgers as the only groups of teams to have division foes within their state's borders.

Their new logo, which the team had planned to unveil at Minute Maid Park on Friday, has already been leaked in any number of ways.  If you make your way to the Astros site, navigate to the 40-man roster and click any name, the logo and hat are already on display.  At an Academy Sporting Goods store in Houston, the t-shirts were already put out on the racks, but quickly taken down after they realized the logo was not supposed to be public yet.  With the Astros being the worst team in the MLB for a few years now, many believe the leak was an effort to generate some buzz around the ballclub, trying to start anew in 2013.

The logo is a familiar one, having been used in the 1960s and 70s by the club on their hats, but as to what their uniforms will look like, we'll have to wait a few days.  We can only hope they're this awesome again.