Rutger Hauer

Sad news today...

Rutger Hauer, a rugged Dutch actor who played Nazis, action heroes and bloodsucking vampires, but who was best known as the android outlaw in the science-fiction thriller “Blade Runner,” died July 19 at his home in Beetsterzwaag, a village in the Netherlands. He was 75.

He won a Golden Globe for best supporting actor for “Escape From Sobibor,” a 1987 TV movie about an uprising at a Nazi death camp — he played the Jewish hero, against type — and in 2005 was a morally corrupt Catholic cardinal in “Sin City” and a greedy Wayne Enterprises executive in “Batman Begins.” 

Mr. Hauer also starred in the 1985 medieval fantasy “Ladyhawke,” alongside Matthew Broderick and Michelle Pfeiffer; played a vampire king in the 1992 movie “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”; and ruled a supernatural tribe in the HBO series “True Blood.” 

But Mr. Hauer, who described himself as “a very nonviolent person,” soon returned to the menacing characters that made him famous. He starred as an SS officer in the TV movie “Fatherland” (1994), was a vampire in the TNT miniseries “Salem’s Lot” (2004, adapted from a Stephen King novel) and played a bloodthirsty businessman in “The Sisters Brothers” (2018), a Western starring John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix. 

“It’s so much fun to playfully roam into the dark side of the soul and tease people,” Mr. Hauer told the Associated Press in 1987. “If you try to work on human beings’ light side, that’s harder. What is good is hard. Most people try to be good all their lives. So you have to work harder to make those characters interesting.”

He was great in Blade Runner and many other movies and TV shows.

He will be missed.

The Outsider

HBO released the first trailer for its upcoming Stephen King series, The Outsider, today...



It looks pretty good. Plus, it's got Jason Bateman and Mare Winningham...enjoyable!

Looking forward to this when it starts airing in January.

New Brighton Beach Memoirs

Now THERE is a land that should have a resort!

Unfortunately, for the people of Christchurch, you can't buy liquor in a store on Good Friday. They have odd liquor laws that cover most, but not all, bars during Easter weekend. A restaurant can serve drinks if you're eating, so many bars suddenly had a snack menu this weekend...always ways around the law.

And from what I saw last night, the New Zealand kids enjoy drinking just as much as the Aussies. Someone told me yesterday that New Zealand has got one of the highest percentage of teen binge drinkers in the world (more than the US and Britian). Here is a little info:

Surveys of New Zealand teenagers show much higher rates of binge drinking - 37 per cent of those aged 12 to 17.
In Christchurch, 43 per cent of males and 33 per cent of females aged between 12 and 17 consume five or more drinks in one session.

It's like watching a city full of frat kids run amok at times. Last night, I saw a group of drunk kids trying to climb this tall, angled, steel, monument and, with each drunken attempt, they would get part of the way up and then would slip and often fall backwards down to the concrete. Dumb-asses. Opposite of this energetic group, were three older people laying down in open parking spaces trying to catch some sleep...ignoring their drunk friends who were trying to get them to get up and go home.

And it's not just the kids, their adult counterparts are just as bad. My first night here, I saw a man so drunk that he eventually lost his balance and fell into the tree he was leaning against. He hit his head and just lay on the ground falling in/out of sleep for over a half hour until the po po came and took him away. Now, I enjoy a drink or three now and then, but never anything like the people described above. That's just dumb...and a little sad.

Of course, it's entertaining to watch when it's not someone you know and, if they fall and don't die or bleed all over the place, it's really good for a laugh.



So, after recovering from my failed attempts at climbing that damn, slippery monument in town last night...I mean, after doing a little knitting in my room and getting a GOOD nights sleep, I woke up today and headed to the local beach in the city of New Brighton. Unlike my last visit to a beach, this one was enjoyable, nice temperature and my skin didn't melt off of my skeletal structure when I stepped into the sun.



Wanna know what I saw?

Girls in dark glasses, with black satin sashes...



Sufers in bodysuits, that clung to their asses...



Some random sand art, that said "Good something"...



Those were a few of my FAvorite things....

Sorry....couldn't resist.

ANYWAY....it was just a nice day hangin' by the beach. Here are a few random pics I took...





Interesting bridge support design. I enjoyed the circles....




I would only surf if I could do it like the guy on the lower right.












They also had one of those run-down/rusty amusement parks that you only find in beach areas like this. The kind that, in a Stephen King novel, would malfunction and send the various patrons spinning out of control to their deaths.



So, of course, I had to ride something. Fortunately, they had the flying chair swings. I LOVE THOSE!



While waiting for the other 4 year olds to get into their seats (come on kids, I don't have all day!), I noticed this little boy across from my hanging body...crying, CRYING because he wanted to ride the ride and his mother wouldn't let him.



I wanted to tell him that a real "ladies man" wouldn't cry so much, but it was like he was begging me to get out of my chair (no way, tiny!) and let him in. So, then he attempted to crawl through the very childproof fences they always have at carnivals of death...





He wasn't happy about being pulled back into the "safe" body dropping zone. Mom brought his little sister over and they both watched as we slowly spun out of sight, clinging to our rickety chairs and watching our lives flash before us...



It was a fun ride, everyone was accounted for when they stopped it and no one hurled...a banner day and I was ready to go.

So, I hopped into my magical flying machine and headed back to the hotel for a long winters nap....

Harry Anderson

Sad news today....

Harry Anderson, who earned multiple Emmy nominations for playing Judge Harry T. Stone on the NBC comedy Night Court, was found dead today at a home in Asheville, NC. He was 65.

Anderson appeared in three Season 1 episodes of NBC’s Cheers as local flim-flam man/magician Harry “The Hat” Gitties, including a memorable sting episode in which he starred. That role — which he would reprise a few times later on the then-rising sitcom — led to his landing the lead in Night Court. The sitcom also starring John Larroquette, Markie Post and Richard Moll followed the wacky goings-on in a Manhattan night court and its staffers led by Stone, a boyish, grinning, jeans-and-sneakers jurist who was unconventional to say the least. 

He guested on a number of 1980s and ’90s TV series including Tanner ’88, Tales from the Crypt, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose and The John Larroquette Show and starred as Richie Tozier in the 1990 miniseries It, based on the Stephen King book. His most recent credits included episodes of the 2000s comedies 30 Rock — which featured a reunion of the Night Court cast — and Son of the Beach. He also co-starred in the 2014 indie film A Matter of Faith.

He will be missed.

Cockadoodie Two

The first trailer for the upcoming second season of Hulu's Castle Rock was released today and it introduces a very familiar Stephen King character...



I don't have Hulu, so I haven't seen the first season (which I heard was good). But, this trailer is starting to sway me to subscribe.

Why must there be so many damn subscription services??!!

The new season of Castle Rock starts on October 23rd.

Horny Potter

This is the first image of Daniel Radcliffe from his upcoming movie, Horns.

Here is a little bit about the plot...

"Horns" is directed by Alexandre Aja ("The Hills Have Eyes") and is based on the best-selling novel by Joe Hill (Stephen King's son). Daniel plays a young man who, via a series of intriguing events, wakes up one morning with a hangover and a set of horns growing out of his head. In addition to the whole waking-up-with-horns issue, Radcliffe's character must also deal with the fact that he is the prime suspect in the brutal killing of his girlfriend, but thanks to a newly discovered power associated with the horns, which forces people to confess their darkest sins, he can use it to find out who really killed his girlfriend.

It sounds more like Voldemort might not be quite done with messing with Harry Potter just yet....

Pack your Baggins

The journey finally begins, again, with Peter Jackson directing (as it should be)...

Wellington, NZ, March 21, 2011—Production has commenced in Wellington, New Zealand, on “The Hobbit,” filmmaker Peter Jackson’s two film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s widely read masterpiece.

The two films, with screenplays by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson, will be shot consecutively in digital 3D using the latest camera and stereo technology. Filming will take place at Stone Street Studios, Wellington, and on location around New Zealand.



Martin Freeman takes the title role as Bilbo Baggins and Ian McKellen returns in the role of Gandalf the Grey. The Dwarves are played by Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield), Ken Stott (Balin), Graham McTavish (Dwalin), William Kircher (Bifur) James Nesbitt (Bofur), Stephen Hunter (Bombur), Rob Kazinsky (Fili), Aidan Turner (Kili), Peter Hambleton (Gloin), John Callen (Oin), Jed Brophy (Nori), Mark Hadlow (Dori) and Adam Brown (Ori). Reprising their roles from “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy are Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Andy Serkis as Gollum and Elijah Wood as Frodo. Jeffrey Thomas and Mike Mizrahi also join the cast as Dwarf Kings Thror and Thrain, respectively. Further casting announcements are expected.

The Oscar-winning, critically acclaimed “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, also from the production team of Jackson and Walsh, grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide at the box office. In 2003, “The Return of the King” swept the Academy Awards, winning all of the 11 categories in which it was nominated, including Best Picture – the first ever Best Picture win for a fantasy film. The trilogy’s production was also unprecedented at the time.



I'm so relieved that, after so many delays over the rights the past couple of years, these two movies are back on track and have begun production.

As many of you know, I visited Hobbiton in New Zealand (where they filmed all of the Hobbit village scenes) a couple of years ago (the shot of me above is right outside where Peter Jackson is standing in the new photos at the top).

If you ever get to New Zealand, I highly recommend taking that tour. If you're a fan of the Lord of the Rings films, you'll be very glad that you did.