Until next time...

I can't believe that I started this blog twelve years ago, TODAY!

February 26th, 2008.

Time certainly does fly.

I started it mainly so I could post about my trip to Australia and New Zealand in 2008 and to try to keep in communication with friends along the way. I had forgotten that I was gone for almost two months on that journey.

That is the longest vacation I've ever taken.

I need to win the lotto so I can do another one sometime.

After that trip, I was so used to writing something every day, that I just decided to continue posting during the week, just to do something entertaining at least once a day.

I've really enjoyed doing it over the years and hope that anyone who came to visit enjoyed it too. All these years later, I think it's probably just a couple of my friends who pop in once in a while to check in, which I've always appreciated.



But, with Facebook now a part of most of our daily lives, posting updates on trips, life events, photos and the like seem to be easier to do there and more people probably see them.

So, after twelve years....I've decided to take a break from updating this blog.

It just seems like the right time.

If I ever pick it up in the future, I'll definitely let folks know on the Facebooks.

For those of you who have checked in, THANK YOU for taking the time to do it.



I reread the posts from that first big trip this week and they made me smile and laugh often, especially the comments that people made along the way.

You can read my first post here and, if you want to read them in order, just click on the Newer Post link on the left side of the bottom of each post.

I've chosen a few of my favorite posts during the trip and thought I'd link to them here, if anyone just wants some highlights and a smile:

Kathy Griffin on the flight to Australia
A screaming "Nana" and a couple that took me on an unexpected trip
When my old landlord, Frank, passed away during my trip
Meeting a lovely older woman in rain pants in New Zealand
The message from my suffering house plants back in California during my trip
The hang gliders in Queenstown, New Zealand
The mountains of New Zealand
Taking a steamer
A trip through a Fjord
Queenstown pics
Wellington 
Meeting Ruth
What the world thinks of the United States
My trip to Hobbiton
The creepy dolls of New Zealand
Auckland, New Zealand
The island of Rarotonga
Island People
My last day of the trip
First Trip to Florence, Italy
Trip to Berlin, Germany
My hometown of Tipp City, Ohio



You can also access any post from any year by clicking on the year listed on the upper right side of any page and it'll open links to each month, which opens links to each post during that month.

Well, thanks again to anyone who followed along over the years. I wish you all the best and I do still believe that life really is too short to go to bed early.

Enjoy it.

Ken

Run

A new trailer and a featurette were released today for the upcoming A Quiet Place 2...



I can't wait to see this when it comes out on March 20th.

Free Will

A new trailer for the upcoming third season of Westworld was released today...



It's looking really good.

I'm going to have to get HBO again before it starts to air on March 15th.

The Red Pill

The Matrix 4 is filming now...exciting!

Ja'net DuBois

Sad news today...

Just over two months after she wowed the crowd at ABC’s Live in Front of a Studio Audience: All in The Family & Good Times, Ja’net DuBois passed away suddenly today. She was 74.

Known for making some of the greatest entrances in sitcom history week after week as neighbor Willona Woods on the Esther Rollie, John Amos, Jimmie Walker and Janet Jackson-led Good Times. 

Back in December of last year, DuBois joined Walker and co-star Bern Nadette Stanis for an appearance on the latest live retelling of one of Norman Lear’s classic TV shows – and she stole the star studded show with pure pizzazz. 

Going on to win two Emmys later in life for her vocal work on Eddie Murphy’s animated series The PJs, DuBois also co-wrote and sang the iconic “Movin’ on Up” theme song from The Jeffersons that opened each episode of that Lear produced series from 1975 to 1985. Though the show originally ran from 1974 to 1975 on CBS, the 133 episodes of the inner-city Chicago set Good Times is still seen on TV Land in repeats in 2020.

She was great on that show and her theme song to The Jeffersons will certainly be remembered for many years to come.

She will be missed.

Dear Diary

The first trailer for the upcoming Netflix series I'm Not Okay With This was released today...



It actually looks pretty entertaining. I may have to give this a lookey-loo when it becomes available on February 26th.

Really Dark Knight

The first test footage of Robert Pattinson as Batman in the upcoming The Batman movie (currently filming) was revealed today...


The Batman - Camera Test from Matt Reeves on Vimeo.

It looks like it was filmed in a very dark cave, but he looks Batman-ish.

So, there's that.

The Batman is set to open on June 21st, 2021

True Story

Golden Gal

Wonder Woman 1984 makes the cover of the upcoming Entertainment Weekly magazine, with some additional pics and additional info from the movie.





O.M.G!!

As you can tell, I'm a "little" bit excited for the movie opening June 4th.

Just a skosh.

Better than Cats

The first pic of Kristen Wiig as Cheetah (the villain) in the new Wonder Woman 1984 movie appeared online over the weekend.

It'll be interesting to see other pics of her character as they start to release more images and posters from the movie as it approaches its opening on June 4th.

I can't wait!

True Story

Kirk Douglas

 Very sad news today...

Kirk Douglas, an icon of Hollywood’s Golden Age and star of such films as Spartacus, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Bad and the Beautiful and Champion has died. He was 103. 

A three-time Academy Award nominee and recipient of an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1996, Douglas will be remembered for a prolific career in which he appeared in close to 100 movies and delivered numerous defining performances. 

As well as his titular role in Stanley Kubrick’s 1960 historical epic Spartacus, in which he played the leader of a slave revolt against the Roman republic, his leading turns included fierce defense attorney Major Steve Garrett in Gottfried Reinhardt’s Town Without Pity, ambitious and devious journalist Chuck Tatum in Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole, and Colonel Dax in Stanley Kubrick’s anti-war story Paths of Glory. Douglas was well noted in the biz for his fiery personality. 

The actor once claimed he was “the most disliked actor in Hollywood” because of his aggressive nature, though he also was highly regarded for his sense of humor. 

Alongside Michael, Douglas had three other boys: the producers Joel and Peter, and the actor and stand-up comedian Eric, who died from an accidental drug overdose in 2004. The elder Douglas was married to the actress Diana Webster from 1943-51, having Michael and Joel, and then the producer and philanthropist Anne Buydens from 1954 until his death.

He had a very long and successful career and lived to be 103.

That's quite a life.

He will be missed.

More Carbon

The first teaser trailer for the upcoming second season of Netflix's Altered Carbon was released today...



I really enjoyed the first season and am hoping the second one holds up to that.

We'll soon find out when it becomes available in a couple weeks on February 27th.

Marvel Mouse

The first clips of the upcoming Marvel series on Disney+ were released during the Super Bowl yesterday...



It's pretty short and the only thing it really shows is that the WandaVision show might be very weird.

Hopefully the good kind.

Nine Lives

The first trailer for Fast and Furious 9 was just released...



It's almost pointless to critique these movies anymore. They all have the same basic premise and usually end just about the same as the previous one. Basically, if you liked any of the other ones for any reason, you'll probably like this one.

I've seen most of them, so I'll likely see this one.

Whether I like it or not.

The movie opens on May 22nd.

Batman begins again

Production has started on The Batman, the new Robert Pattinson Batman movie.

Do we need another Batman movie?

Time will tell.

Koby and Gianna Bryant

Terrible news over the weekend...

NBA legend Kobe Bryant and one of his daughters were among nine people killed Sunday in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, a source confirmed to ESPN. Bryant was 41. 

Bryant was on his way to a youth basketball game with his daughter Gianna Bryant, who was 13, when the helicopter crashed. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a news conference that there were no survivors, and according to the flight manifest, there were nine people on board the helicopter. 

A 6-foot-6 swingman with the ability to swing up front and play point or shooting guard, Bryant entered the NBA out of high school. In 1996, at age 18, he became the youngest player in NBA history. 

He won five NBA titles in his time with the Lakers, as well as two Olympic gold medals playing for the United States. Now fourth on the NBA career scoring list with 33,643 points, Bryant won two NBA Finals MVP awards and the regular-season MVP in 2008. He wore Nos. 8 and 24, both of which were retired by the Lakers.

So very sad.

Yes, it is.

John Karlen

Very sad news today...

John Karlen, the Dark Shadows actor who loosed a 200-year-old vampire from a chained coffin and two decades later won an Emmy Award for playing a detective’s husband on Cagney & Lacey, died yesterday of congestive heart failure in hospice in Burbank, California. He was 86.

Planned as a short-term last-chance plot, the vampire storyline, starring Jonathan Frid as the fanged Barnabas Collins, turned the failing soap into a phenomenon, providing the fledgling ABC daytime line-up with its first hit. Karlen would remain with the series until its end in 1971, playing, as did most of the ensemble, multiple characters in various centuries and parallel universes. 

Prior to Dark Shadows (which currently streams on Amazon Prime), Karlen appeared on Broadway in Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth, had small roles in ’50s anthology series, ’60s primetime episodic series and daytime soaps, but the Loomis role pegged him for horror through much of the early ’70s. Film and TV credits from the post-Shadows era include Daughters of Darkness, Night of Terror, The Sixth Sense, Night Gallery, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Wide World of Mystery and Trilogy of Terror. 

But his real second act came with CBS’ 1982-88 female buddy cop drama Cagney & Lacey: As Harvey Lacey, devoted, stay-at-home husband to Tyne Daly’s Det. Mary Beth Lacey. Karlen was Emmy-nominated three times (1985, ’86 and ’87), winning the Outstanding Supporting Actor trophy in ’86. He reprised the role in several stand-alone TV movies during the 1990s, including 1996’s Cagney & Lacey: True Convictions, his last major credit. 

I loved him on Cagney & Lacey. It was always nice to see he and Tyne Daly together on the show.

He will be missed.

Oh, bartender?

Patrick Stewart went on The View today and surprised Whoopi Goldberg with an invitation to join the second season of Picard (the first seasons starts airing tomorrow on CBS All Access)...



That is awesome!

They are practically forcing me to subscribe to that damn channel.

Devils!

More Schitt

I'm so glad that Schitt's Creek is back on. I hate that it's the last season.

For now, keep bringing on more Catherine O'Hara and her wigs (which she has names for).

Hilarious.

Bloodshot

The International trailer for Bloodshot was released today...



Vin Diesel appears to be playing himself very well and it looks like a lot of things will get blown up, people will get beat up, and it's likely to all work out in the end ( while setting up for a sequel).

And I'll probably see it.

We'll see how it all turns out when the movie opens on March 13th.

Morbius

The first trailer for Jared Leto's upcoming vampire movie, Morbius, was released today...



Judging by that last shot, he's obviously not one of the pretty Twilight vampire's friends.

The movie opens on July 31st.

Lucky number 13

Looks like AHS has a few more good years to go...

At TCA today, FX announced a three-season pickup of its flagship drama series American Horror Story, bringing the run of Ryan Murphy’s anthology horror series to 13 seasons. 

“I’m really excited that we were able to continue to work with Ryan, and somehow it just feels really poetic to me that American Horror Story is going to have 13 seasons. That just felt right,” FX Networks chairman John Landgraf said from the stage about the mega renewal. (AHS already had been picked up for Season 10, which is next to go into production. 

Because of the number 13’s big significance in the horror genre, Deadline asked Landgraf after the session whether AHS will be ending after Season 13. “Could be,” he said. “It will be poetic, won’t it if it ends after 13 seasons?”

I hope they bring back the Coven.

Less stabby, more magic.

March Madness

The third season of Ozark was given a launch date today...



March 27th is going to be a very good day/night for me to spend with Netflix.

More Sex

The trailer for the second season of Sex Education was released today...



The first season was really good, so I'm looking forward to watching this when it becomes available on Netflix January 17th.

Newish Mutants

A new trailer for the two-years-in-the-making Marvel film New Mutants was released today...



I'm not sure I want to watch a horror version of X-Men-type folks. But, it does have Arya from Game of Thrones...so I might be tempted to watch it when it comes on HBO or Netflix.

I stress "might".

The film opens on April 3rd.

TGIF!

Let the first weekend of 2020 begin!

Enjoyable

Vanity Fair posted a new interview with Kathy Bates recently. It's well worth the watch, if you enjoy her.

How it began

The first full trailer for A Quiet Place 2 was just released today and it looks even more tense than the first one...



Happy New Year to us!

The movie opens on March 20th.