Monday, August 31, 2009


MOVIE REVIEW

H2 HALLOWEEN II







ONCE AGAIN WE VENTURE OUT, INTO "MOVIELAND"


Despite its commercial success and fairly good reviews, Rob Zombie was never really happy with his 2007 remake of the classic film. Now he's taking another stab at it, figuratively speaking. Rob Zombie's Halloween II begins moments after the first installment ended. That, however, is where the similarities to Carpenter's sequel ends. Zombie has repeatedly emphasized that he was not interested in a "remake" of Halloween II. He always intended for his version to be different. And so naturally, it is. But for those familiar with Zombie's style of filmaking, there aren't many surprises here. This is very much a Rob Zombie film. For some, that's a good thing. For others, maybe not so much.



Yes, Michael is still an unstoppable killing machine. The main difference is that he really just wants to be reunited with his family again, and his dead mother often appears to assure him that family bliss is indeed coming. In the meantime though, she just wants him to have some fun. And that means slicing and dicing whoever crosses his path. The addition of these surreal dream sequences is intended to make Michael more human, and they are fun to watch. A particularly engaging one involves characters Zombie termed "The Lords of Halloween". In reality though, we don't get much closer to knowing anything about the mysterious murderer.


Dr. Loomis gets his dues, but not before Weird Al has his fun with him


Other characters have also been updated. Laurie has become a disturbed, nihlistic mess with some horrific visions of her own. In a recent Fangoria interview, Zombie stated that his intent was to show that insanity runs in the Myers family. And Dr. Loomis is now a self-promoting publicity hound who's seemingly only concerned with fame and fortune. Still, despite the addition of these new elements to the Halloween franchise, not much feels fresh and original here.
That does not mean that Halloween II is a bad movie, at least not for horror fans. It entertains with some powerful visual scenes, injects a little humor with its music and film-culture references, and certainly delivers on the gore. Its amusing to note that in the previously mentioned Fangoria article, team Zombie claims that they weren't looking to make a gory film. "It's not gory, but its shocking," said FX creator Wayne Toth. Well, Wayne, that may come as a surprise to many viewers. But still, hardcore horror fans have probably seen worse.

As for Michael himself, played once again by wrestler-turned-actor Tyler Mane, his presence is certainly menacing. He even gets to go sans mask for part of the film. Of course, being menacing is about all Michael can do without ever uttering a single word. In that sense, Mane does it about as well as anyone I suppose. And after having the chance to meet him personally at a convention earlier this year, I can certainly say that I wouldn't want to see him heading my way with a butcher knife.

Woody Sez: The biggest problem I had with this film was the dead mother, little Michael, and a white Unicorn following him around - other wise (with the exception of some real TMM's) it was horrific, as a "HORROR" film should be - 'Nuff Said.






RATING - "TWO TUBES UP"

WEIRD RECORDING OFF REPEATER IN CALIFORNIA
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ON "BOING-BOING"
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This something weird that popped up on "Boing-Boing" about some wayward HAMS. If it's real, it's a sad, sad situation.
CASE IN POINT,
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AND A POINT
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TO THE CASE....



In this auction we find an E.F.Johnson 800MHz Trunking "CB" radio. Your call:


  • "Crazy like a fox", or,
  • "Clueless"
AND THEN, ANOTHER LOOK AT MY PREVIOUS POST...
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I've been thinking about the stupid sellers out there on Ebay, and of course, the ones that weren't stupid, rather "Crazy, like a fox...", and wonder which ones are truly crazy, and which ones are the "foxes".
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Someone asked me about "Craigslist" and how it compared to Ebay. My first gut reaction was to say that Ebay was safer and to judge by the feedback, but then those thoughts of buyers who in some way got burned by the Seller, left disgruntled feedback, and then changed the disgruntlement as if they were "Bought Off", or paid for their silence. I know, it sounds like a plot for "Law & Order", but the question was left unanswered as to whom-to-trust.
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I used to like going to HAM Swapmeets and looking for goodies to purchase, but like Ebay, or any other sort of buy-sell-make-offer situation, I've had HAM radio operators lie to me while looking me straight in my eyes and with a smile on their face using the same lingo you see elsewhere, like: "It worked the last time I used it".
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The odds are even then, amongst the various ways to purchase your used and/or vintage CB's. There will always be bad apples in the barrel so the best one can do is go forth lightly, as if walking on thin ice so you'll make it to the other side of the pond rather than break through the ice into the cold waters of a deal gone wrong.
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P.S. HAPPY B'DAY "Bumface"
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Sunday, August 30, 2009


"A QUICK THOUGHT AND THEN OFF TO BED"
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I just had to jot down my thoughts before I forgot them, but have you ever been looking at rigs or accessories on Ebay and the Seller sez "I don't know anything about this stuff, so consider it AS-IS"?? To be fair, they could be honest in what they say, maybe they picked up a couple items at a garage sale and put it up for auction. But whenever I see that statement, I take a look at their other items forsale, and then I look at feedback and in many cases it turns out that all the Seller does is SELL RADIO EQUIPMENT. Thus the Seller's statement is void, and somewhat suspect. Keep this in mind whenever you run across one of these auctions - it just might save you a lot of grief.
'Nuff Said
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Saturday, August 29, 2009






CONFUSED SELLERS LEAD TO CONFUSED BUYERS







INTERESTING PIECE OF JUNK, PERHAPS MISLABELED?


MOVIE REVIEW
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COMING SOON







ROB ZOMBIES H2 HALLOWEEN 2




LAST NIGHT - PART II












YA NEVER KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT



MY ROBIN




SOMEONE CAUGHT ME BY SURPRISE







POLECAT FIGHT?





WE GO GOOD TOGETHER



AND....MORE TOGETHER



A
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NIGHT
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OUT ON
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THE
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TOWN



If you remember back to a post around Christmas, one of the gifts Robin gave me was a Membership to the Houston Photography Society.
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Tragically one of the staff was killed this year when a huge vehicle hit and pinned her underneath it while she was riding her bicycle. Last night they had an '80's theme event where all proceeds went to charity in her name. It was only $10 and we knew that even though it was for a tragic event, it could be fun as well. Robin looked HOT in her '80's outfit and we had a blast!! Thus ends the text, and the pictures speak for themselves....





























Wednesday, August 26, 2009


REVIEW: "500 DAYS OF SUMMER"




The review of "500 Days Of Summer" is brought to you by my lovely Robin who is my consistent and lovable movie companion! Here is her review of the movie we saw last night.

This quirky little film has been promoted as a “Romantic Comedy”, but ends up being much more than that. It manages to pretty much cover the full spectrum of human emotion without feeling clichéd or heavy-handed. And while the story isn’t that unusual or original, neither is it the standard Hollywood relationship story.

Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a likable guy who writes greeting cards for a living, even as he yearns to be an architect. And unlike George Costanza, he actually has a passion for architecture. He’s also a hopeless romantic who falls for a co-worker named Summer (Zooey Deschanel). They seem to be a good match in many respects, save one. She is a confirmed bachelorette who doesn’t believe in love, romance, or commitment. While she doesn’t try to hide her views, Tom can’t help but be smitten. And, as we are warned in the beginning, there isn’t going to be a happy ending.
Both lead actors deliver solid performances. Anyone who’s seen Deschanel in previous films knows that she often plays independent, slightly oddball characters. In this case, she fits that character perfectly. Gordon-Levitt also is quite effective in getting the audience to sympathize with his angst. As demonstrated in recent films “The Lookout” and “Brick”, he has become quite a talented actor.
Yet, I believe the most credit goes to first-time director Marc Webb for his innovative style here. There are many delightful surprises in store for the viewer as Webb constantly jumps back and forth to different moments in Tom and Summer’s relationship. We get treated to unexpected song, a clever split-screen view that contrasts Tom’s expectations with his reality, and references to La Dolce Vita and The Graduate to name a few. The result is sometimes sweet, occasionally sad, frequently comic, but always fresh and compelling.
ROBIN




RARE




RARE


It's that time of year again to talk about what is a "RARE" CB and what isn't. If you look on Ebay, it seems as if 50% of the radios up for auction are rare, but in truth, aren't. So I'm going to let you know what I think is a rare rig. No, it's not a STONER, ARF, CPI, or some no-name brand mobile. My pick for THE rarest CB transceiver is the TRAM "CORSAIR". This is one of those rigs I always wanted to own back-in-the-day, but couldn't afford and if one comes up for sale within a two or three year period it's a surprise. Odds are it'll look like crap and undoubtedly not work as well. There have to be some out there, but whoever has one, they're holding onto it and I don't blame them. My rule of thumb is if you see the same radio more than twice in one year on Ebay - it's just not that rare.
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THE OTHER KIND OF RARE
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The other kind of rare rig is one that isn't all that old, and you see them from time-to-time on Ebay but they're ugly as hell and are "Tech Specials". Radio Shacks TRC-480 falls into this category. I don't know if there were technical issues with the rig or what, you just don't find one that works. If I'm not mistaken (and I could be), this has the same circuitry as the TRC-459 Base Station. They came out at the same time and have almost identical features. The 459 though is fairly common to find, in decent cosmetic shape, and - working. It is a pretty cool looking radio but you can't change the channel via a knob, it's either push the "UP" or "Down" buttons on the rig itself, or on the microphone.






So there's my explanation of two kinds of "RARE". What's your favorite RARE transceiver??

WOODY




"ANYTIME A FAD COMES ALONG....."


Anytime a fad comes along it somehow ends up being compared to the CB phenomenon of the mid-to-late '70's. Today's example: "TWITTER". Yes, I was wondering when it would come up, and it did - this week. I'm a regular reader/fan of John Dvorak (PC Magazine, and my favorite deceased channel "ZD-TV"). Mr Dvorak has the ability to see things as they really are, with at least an 80% success ratio. If he were to run for President - I'd vote for him, and it would be great to see him leading a terrible tech related company (Microsoft comes to mind) out of the darkness and into the light!

His column this week compares "Twitter" to "CB" and I think it's worth a read. John writes:

"The death of CB radio kind of showed up in an odd way. It just died with a collective "oh well" coming from the chorus. It was weird. Some blamed it on the "improvement" to the system with the advent of the single-side-band (SSB) technology that made the whole system more functional. This sort of thing could happen to Twitter too."

I picked that statement to paste into my post, and if you click on it, you'll be brought to the article itself. I know I've written about him before, and I'm sure that I'll write about him again, but I had to bring up this column because it mentioned CB Radio.
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[Oh...you'll find my comment on that page as well under the name RNRAMPAGE]
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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

TUESDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES
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"500 DAYS OF SUMMER"
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COMING SOON!

Monday, August 24, 2009



A REPRINT FROM 2001


This month is a special month here at "WoodyWorld", because of some "Guest" writers, who have stopped by (Digitally) to share some knowledge with you. For you fervent former fans (FFF) of the printed "CB GAZETTE", you'll remember I had several guest writers appear in each issue. First off, we have a review of the Robyn SB-540D by Todd Evans! If you recall, I mentioned (a column or two back) that this was one of the rarest rigs on the market - and about a week later, 1 showed up on E-BAY! Take a look at Todd's review and I'm sure you enjoy the information he shares with us!
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Last, but not least, is a great "How I got into CB" piece from the other side of the world - Japan! Please stop by and read JMB-505's story and by all means, feel free to send me YOUR story too! New secton - coming soon - Woody's Amp Page! Yea...I know they're illegal, but everyone's run across an amp at one time or another, and maybe you knew someone who owned one of these [DISCLAIMER - these aren't pictures of amps, I've owned, only ones I've seen on the 'net] .






ANOTHER MUSEUM PHOTO





ROBIN EXAMINES A CLASSIC PAINTING AT THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

Sunday, August 23, 2009










"AND WHILE WE'RE WAITING FOR THE MOVIE..."


NO FINER NECK TO NUZZLE



REVIEW


THE "INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS"



We saw this movie last night, and anyone who owns a television knows that the ad campaign had been romping up for the last two weeks, and was especially heavy this week as it opened in Theatres on Friday. Both Robin and I had read enough to more-or-less prepare us for who had more or less screen time, and how 3 stories ended up being all tied together at the end. We chose to see it at one of the newer cinemas in town called " " which, much like the Alamo Draft house, offers a variety of food that is brought to your table (yes, I said "table") in the theatre. They have a weird way of getting ticket buyers to their seats by placing the number 1 on the first fifty or so tickets, followed by the number 2, and finally if it's really packed, number 3. It's almost an Airport-like experience as a woman's voice comes over the intercom and announces "Ticket Group 1 for Basterds can now form a line in column B". About 15 minutes later she makes the same announcement for Ticket Group 2.

I guess this is supposed to be a more orderly approach, however our Group No.3 was never called and really it should be first come, first served in getting seating. We were stuck up front leaving us to tilt our heads and neck backwards for almost the entire movie.


THE MAIN CAST

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The story (if by chance you been underground for the last month or so) is about a group of G.I.'s dropped behind the German lines. Their mission is simple: Kill NAZI's in brutal fashion to stir up fear and rumors amongst their enemies. The movie is divided into chapters (which many Tarantino fans will feel familiar with), some which feature the "Basterds" while others bring the audience up to speed on the other stories which will converge at the end of the movie which clocks in at 153 minutes. It seems much shorter than that, so don't worry about being bored.

Brad Pitt does a good George Bush vocal imitation, Eli Roth is thankfully scene and not heard much, and Christoph Waltz plays Col. Hans Landa, and is the string that ties the stories together. Our tickets were free so it wouldn't be a great loss if we didn't like the movie, however both Robin and I did, and personally I would have liked to see less of the other stories and more of the "Basterds", but that's my personal preference. If you go to see it, try and pick Mike Myers out of the cast, and expect a good time.

OUR SCORE:

TWO TUBES "UP"