Rocky Balboa

I am one of these strange people that has to see every movie of a particular movie series even after the series goes down the toilet. Strangely enough, the "Rocky" series never did. It's really a matter of taste. Either you like the "Rocky" movies, or you hate them. Jokes aside, Sylvester Stallone is really a great writer and actually writes dialogue and stories that seem plausible. An aging Rocky Balboa reentering the boxing ring years after retirement seems like a ludicrous idea, but Stallone uses real life examples such as George Foreman's latter-day bout and constructs a story that logically creates a reality that one can accept a geezer boxing away. Every Rocky movie is somewhat over the top, so that has to be accepted if one is to watch these. I would consider "Rocky III" (Mr. T) and "Rocky IV" (Dolph Lundgren) to be the craziest of the series, yet somehow even those two movies have one foot based in reality. I don't know how he does it. I also don't know how Stallone takes basically the same story and somehow makes it exciting over and over and over again.

Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Spider-Man 3 and Superman 3

I just saw "Spider-Man 3" and I have to ask, why do all movie series starring superheroes have to get both "over the top" and also "extraordinarily silly" by the time they get to the third film?!? Both "Spider-Man 3" and "Superman 3" (from 1983) qualify for this. Even "X-Men 3", "Star Trek III", "Jaws 3", "Alien 3", etc. all suffer from a serious case of "What do we do next to top ourselves and write us out of a corner? I know, let's make it embarrassingly silly, or so extreme in action, so that we don't have to do a fourth one!"

Superhero movies in general are hard for me to take seriously. I have no problem with the movies being silly (like Adam West's "Batman") as long as that's the precedent established with the first movie of the series.

So, did I like "Spider-Man 3". Yes. In places. But there are scenes that will make even the most die-hard fan cringe.


Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions - P. O. Box 2616 - Saratoga, CA 95070
_________________________________________________________
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net
Beatles - http://groups.google.com/group/martb
So Rare! Collectibles - http://sorare.home.att.net
Food Shop - http://foodshop.home.att.net
Blog - http://fun-ideas.blogspot.com
Protecto, the Little Robot - http://protecto.blogspot.com
Comicspace - http://www.comicspace.com/Mark_Arnold

BUY MY FIRST BOOK! "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" today!
Go to Amazon or you can order it directly from the publisher by
clicking here: http://www.lulu.com/thft

My Beatles Book Update

I have finished my basic reviews for George Harrison's material. Now I
am working on John Lennon's stuff. My plan right now is to then work
on Paul McCartney's and Ringo Starr's material followed by the group
material. I will then take a second pass at everything, actually
listening very closely to each track and give deeper insight to the
recordings. I tentatively plan to get everything done by the end of
2007, but it may be 2008. You can always check my progress at http://groups.google.com/group/martb

Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Senor Coconut

I don't know if I've written about this before, but one of my favorite albums of all time is "Senor Coconut y Su Conjunto: El Baile Aleman". Why? On it, they do Merengue and Cha-Cha-Cha versions of Kraftwerk songs. Mind you, you probably have to be a Kraftwerk fan to truly appreciate this. However, the "Coconut" version of "Autobahn" is priceless for the opening alone. In the original, you hear a car start, in "Coconut's" version, you hear a car not turning over, playing on all the stereotypes and suceeding!

It's probably hard to find, but check out Ebay or something. I don't know. I got mine at Tower and you know where they are now...


Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions - P. O. Box 2616 - Saratoga, CA 95070
_________________________________________________________
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net
Beatles - http://groups.google.com/group/martb
So Rare! Collectibles - http://sorare.home.att.net
Food Shop - http://foodshop.home.att.net
Blog - http://fun-ideas.blogspot.com
Protecto, the Little Robot - http://protecto.blogspot.com
Comicspace - http://www.comicspace.com/Mark_Arnold

BUY MY FIRST BOOK! "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" today!
Go to Amazon or you can order it directly from the publisher by
clicking here: http://www.lulu.com/thft

An Ape Named APE

I worked the APE Convention (Amateur Press Exposition) over the weekend. I met quite a few people including Dan Vado of Slave Labor Graphics and Steve Wyatt of Super-Con fame and Raphael of Sonambulo fame. I worked for Lee Hester at Lee's Comics and saw a few friends from the Bay Area Comic Book Meet Up Group. We actually sold quite a bit of stuff and the atmosphere was most relaxed and set up and take down was relatively easy. If you are ever in San Francisco during the time of this show (typically April), I suggest checking it out.

I also purchased some books like "Girls with Corpses", "The Possum" and a comic on the Titanic and another on the Santa Cruz Beack Boardwalk and finally purchased Dan Fogel's "Underground Comic Book Price Guide". I got a few autographs and a few original sketches including one of Ren & Stimpy.

Totally fun...

Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Grindhouse Good!!

I haven't gotten this excited about a movie since "Borat". As anyone who knows me, I am HIGHLY critical of most movies made these days. That's because I have seen so many movies in my life at this point: silents, action, drama, comedy, foreign, shorts, cartoons, documentaries, you name it, that I have become jaded that something's been done before ad nauseum. I cannot believe reviewers like Roger Ebert can consistently give films a "thumbs up" after the amount of films he's viewed, or it may be the fact that Ebert doesn't have any more discretionary taste or perhaps is even paid to give a more positive review for a bunch of so-so films.

I am not saying that "Grindhouse" is the best film ever made and even the concept is not original. Heck, they made "Movie/Movie" way back in 1978 where it was a double-feature genre parody/tribute. It just doesn't done with exploitation films.

The Robert Rodriguez movie ("planet Terror") in itself is reminiscent of Rodriguez and Tarantino's earlier "From Dusk Till Dawn" (also a great film). It's a typical zombie film but with the added elements of extreme gratuitous gore (but not as much as "Saw" or "Hostel") and strong elements of humor (like "Return of the Living Dead" or "Shaun of the Dead") My favorite scene *SPOILER* is where the owner of the BBQ is laying on the ground with his guts supposedly hanging out and it turns out that he just passed out with a bunch of sausage links with sauce on himself. *END OF SPOILER* For those disappointed with "Spy Kids 3-D", "Sharkboy and Lavagirl" and even "Sin City" will be happy with this superior feature, and if you like any of those, you'll love this even more!!

The trailers at the beginning and center of the two films are priceless and I won't spoil them here. I will say that one of them is directed by Rob Zombie, who is in a similar class to Rodriquez and Tarantino for this type of film. DON'T go to the bathroom during these trailers!! Really...DON'T! (There's a joke there, son.)

If you have to go, go during the opening credits of "Death Proof", Quentin Tarantino's film. There are no jokes here and you won't miss anything for about two minutes. There is an ironic punchline to this towards the end of the credits which *SPOILER* shows a girl walking along holding her groin area in a little bit of pain looking for a toilet. I laughed hysterically at this. It is similar to the scene in "Lawrence of Arabia" where Lawrence is crawling through the desert and ends up at an oasis right before Intermission! *END OF SPOILER*

Tarantino's film starts off slower and seems interminable compared to Rodriguez's film, but give it a chance, it really grows on you and show's you how GOOD a filmmaker Tarantino really is. He's not much of an actor (he appears briefly in both films), but his directing and song-selection is always top-notch. And, if you haven't seen "Pulp Fiction", "Kill Bill", Jackie Brown", and "Reservoir Dogs" by now, stop reading this and rent them all. It's basically a grisly car-chase film confidently attributed to "Vanishing Point" and starring the always excellent Kurt Russell and Rosario Dawson and others.

The main reason I think this movie is not doing so well is three-fold: 1) Unlike "Movie/Movie" this is truly a double feature complete with bogus trailers and no "true" intermission, so it clocks in at 191 minutes, which is a long time to sit if you want to digest every morsel of footage (which I HIGHLY recommend) and 2) I don't think most people "get it". Younger kids tend to go to the movies and most of them raised in this age of digital clarity and uncut features in first run movie houses don't remember the days of scratchy films with missing scenes and even having the film break or burn through! (someone even complained about these elements on IMDB!) And 3) exploitation films tend to not be made these days. There's not really a Roger Corman, Russ Meyer or William Castle-type out there. EVERYTHING is an A-picture from the biggest epic to the lowliest comedy. A Will Farrell film like "Blades of Glory" in traditional times would have been a B-picture, but not anymore...too bad...we need more movies like "Grindhouse", not made on big budgets, just plain fun...

PS There is also a book of the film filled with pictures and the original script and Rodriguez/Tarantino continued the quality by making it look like a well-read used book!! A must read!! Tell Lee to buy one for you!!

Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions - P. O. Box 2616 - Saratoga, CA 95070
_________________________________________________________
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net
Beatles - http://groups.google.com/group/martb
So Rare! Collectibles - http://sorare.home.att.net
Food Shop - http://foodshop.home.att.net
Blog - http://fun-ideas.blogspot.com
Protecto, the Little Robot - http://protecto.blogspot.com
Comicspace - http://www.comicspace.com/Mark_Arnold

BUY MY FIRST BOOK! "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" today!
Go to Amazon or you can order it directly from the publisher by
clicking here: http://www.lulu.com/thft

The Harveyville Fun Times! #67 is almost ready...

Included is an interview with Howard Post, and information about the upcoming Casper and Richie Rich books, and other information about all things Harvey and some Disney and other stuff. Check out http://thft.home.att.net for more information.

Regards,
Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

Gene Deitch

I recently purchased this book about "Terr'ble Thompson" from Fantagraphics. This was a long lost comic strip by Gene Deitch, better known as an animation director for virtually all the studios in the 1950s and 60s. Primarily at UPA and Terrytoons. He created a number of characters and the Terr'ble Thompson character evolved into the animated Tom Terrific. I was able to contact him and set up an interview for a future issue of "Hogan's Alley"! Happy Day.

Regards,

Mark Arnold
Fun Ideas Productions
http://funideas.home.att.net

Free Comic Book Day

Although Free Comic Book Day is in a month, I figure I should write about it now, especially since I am not blogging as often as I used to. In any case, it occurs on May 5, 2007 this year at your local participating comic book store. If you are not sure where that might be, you might visit www.comicshoplocator.com

Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions - P. O. Box 2616 - Saratoga, CA 95070
_________________________________________________________
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net
Beatles - http://groups.google.com/group/martb
So Rare! Collectibles - http://sorare.home.att.net
Food Shop - http://foodshop.home.att.net
Blog - http://fun-ideas.blogspot.com
Protecto, the Little Robot - http://protecto.blogspot.com
Comicspace - http://www.comicspace.com/Mark_Arnold

BUY MY FIRST BOOK! "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" today!
Go to Amazon or you can order it directly from the publisher by
clicking here: http://www.lulu.com/thft

Shirley Temple and "Thank You For Smoking"

I had nothing else to check out of the library, so I checked out a couple of Shirley Temple movies: "Bright Eyes" and "Heidi". Now, I didn't watch "Heidi" yet, but "Bright Eyes" I have to admit was kind of silly, sort of like an extended Little Rascals episode. The highlight of course is "On the Good Ship Lollipop" which really has nothing much to do with the rest of the movie. What is amusing is that Shirley sings this while the airplane is just taxiing down the runway. I didn't realize that the plane wasn't in flight. (Of course, it really is rear-screen projection, but that's another story.)

Anyway, I also watched "Thank You For Smoking". While there were some funny bits, the film went on a little bit too long to prove its point. It reminded me of those Barry Levinson films like "Wag the Dog" or "Man of the Year".

Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions - P. O. Box 2616 - Saratoga, CA 95070
_________________________________________________________
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net
Beatles - http://groups.google.com/group/martb
So Rare! Collectibles - http://sorare.home.att.net
Food Shop - http://foodshop.home.att.net
Blog - http://fun-ideas.blogspot.com
Protecto, the Little Robot - http://protecto.blogspot.com
Comicspace - http://www.comicspace.com/Mark_Arnold

BUY MY FIRST BOOK! "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" today!
Go to Amazon or you can order it directly from the publisher by
clicking here: http://www.lulu.com/thft

Forgotten TV Shows I Would Like to See Again on DVD

In no particular order:

Don Adams' Screen Test
Animals Animals Animals
Make a Wish
Norm
The Alvin Show
Fernwood 2Night/America 2Night
The Great American Dream Machine
When Things Were Rotten
The Bob Newhart Show (1961 version)
Vision On
The Brady Brides
The Bradys
The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine
The Goodies
CPO Sharkey
Silver Spoons
A Few Minutes With Stan Hooper
Curiosity Shop
Delta House
The Paul Hogan Show
The Beagles
Fridays
Herman's Head
International Festival of Animation
It's About Time
Michael Nesmith in Television Parts
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures
The New Show
Operation Petticoat
Quark
Square Pegs
It's Garry Shandling's Show
The Great American Dream Machine
The Mouse Factory
Make a Wish
Marshal Efron's Illustrated, Simplified and Painless Sunday School
Marlo and the Magic Movie Machine

And...
Mother's Little Network
Sgt. Swell

If anyone has any more information on these, please let me know. This list is not complete. I know you can view some of these at the Museum of Radio and Television in New York and Los Angeles, but I would like a DVD release...

Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions - P. O. Box 2616 - Saratoga, CA 95070
_________________________________________________________
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net
Beatles - http://groups.google.com/group/martb
So Rare! Collectibles - http://sorare.home.att.net
Food Shop - http://foodshop.home.att.net
Blog - http://fun-ideas.blogspot.com
Protecto, the Little Robot - http://protecto.blogspot.com
Comicspace - http://www.comicspace.com/Mark_Arnold

BUY MY FIRST BOOK! "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" today!
Go to Amazon or you can order it directly from the publisher by
clicking here: http://www.lulu.com/thft

Al Feldstein

Well, I met Al Feldstein for the first time ever at Wondercon on Saturday, March 3, 2006. I was telling my non-comic book friends this for weeks and they all said, "Who?" Then I mentioned that he wrote all of the "Tales From the Crypt" stories and edited "Mad" for 30 years, then they respected him. It's too bad that Al doesn't get the recognition that Stan Lee or Walt Disney has, because he did more!

I had Al sign my "Tales of Terror/EC Companion" book, for which Al did a new front cover. Al also signed a print that he was offering for sale. One of the prints was similar to the cover of "Tales of Terror" but featured William M. Gaines in the central position. Al revealed that this painting was done in response to the "Tales of Terror" cover painting.

Recently, my dad has been downloading old children's records and two of them "Rumplestilskin" and "Tom Thumb" feature early Al Feldstein artwork on the sleeve. I asked Al about these and he remembered them well. They were done in 1945, long before he worked for EC and were done as a favor to a relative of his. There was supposed to be a third one, but as Al was not getting paid to do these, he rejected the third one and it was never done. I asked about the original paintings and he said that they were probably stored up in his attic and when he divorced his wife, he believes that she got it and probably tossed them out.

I also mentioned that the first time I had seen Al was on "The Mike Douglas Show" in 1977. Al revealed that he rode in a limo clear from New York City to Philadelphia to make his appearance. My recollections of the interview was that he was discussing the recent "Rocky" movie parody and he discussed the history of "Mad" for "Mad's" 25th Anniversary.

Al also confirmed why he left "Mad" which was because he felt that the publication was getting a bit stale and would do better with color and advertising. Ironically, "Mad" is now in color and has advertising, but the way he said he would do it is to have advertisers that were suited for "Mad" instead of just random advertising like "Mad" does now. I asked Al what he thought of the current "Mad" and he politely said that he thought John Ficarra was a good editor, but the magazine is basically not as good as it used to be.

Also, Al and William M. Gaines were at odds from 1985 (when Al left) to 1992 (Gaines' death), but they still communicated. He left "Mad" while pulling down a huge salary. Apparently, he was one of the highest paid editors in the country at the time of his retirement.

I asked him about the Amicus "Tales From the Crypt" and "Vault of Horror" films. He said that there is nothing that he knows about that would keep them from releasing them to DVD. They just haven't. In regards to the "Tales From the Crypt" TV show, he didn't receive credit for writing the material, because apparently the TV show producers wanted Al to sign a release absolving them from all blame should they find that any of the stories used were not original and that Al would have to take the blame and any financial responsibility should anyone take them to court.

Al didn't want to sign this agreement and called Gaines about it. Gaines said to cross out the part he didn't like and sign anyway. Al did just that and never received any on screen credit for his contributions. Pity.

Anyway, he was a very nice man and I'm glad I met him.

Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions - P. O. Box 2616 - Saratoga, CA 95070
_________________________________________________________
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net
Beatles - http://groups.google.com/group/martb
So Rare! Collectibles - http://sorare.home.att.net
Food Shop - http://foodshop.home.att.net
Blog - http://fun-ideas.blogspot.com
Protecto, the Little Robot - http://protecto.blogspot.com
Comicspace - http://www.comicspace.com/Mark_Arnold

BUY MY FIRST BOOK! "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" today!
Go to Amazon or you can order it directly from the publisher by
clicking here: http://www.lulu.com/thft

How I Watch DVD Box Sets

I tend to view things in order on the disc on any box set I buy, unless there are a lot of extras, then I tend to view those first.

Example: On any given "Looney Tunes" set, I will watch the extras, then I will watch the 60 cartoons in order on the disc, then I will go back and re-watch (actually listen to, kind of like radio, while I'm typing an article or working on my computer) the cartoons with commentary.

I also try to buy the boxes in season order, but since I like to get things on sale or used as much as possible, I sometimes buy them out of order.

Those are my DVD neuroses.
Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions - P. O. Box 2616 - Saratoga, CA 95070
_________________________________________________________
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net
Beatles - http://groups.google.com/group/martb
So Rare! Collectibles - http://sorare.home.att.net
Food Shop - http://foodshop.home.att.net
Blog - http://fun-ideas.blogspot.com
Protecto, the Little Robot - http://protecto.blogspot.com
Comicspace - http://www.comicspace.com/Mark_Arnold

BUY MY FIRST BOOK! "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" today!
Go to Amazon or you can order it directly from the publisher by
clicking here: http://www.lulu.com/thft

Learning Things

Starting a new job is always an interesting adventure, because you always have that learning curve that is very strange. Some companies are more forgiving than others. Some do extensive training, some do none at all. This is why there haven't been too many blogs lately. More later.

Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions - P. O. Box 2616 - Saratoga, CA 95070
_________________________________________________________
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net
Beatles - http://groups.google.com/group/martb
So Rare! Collectibles - http://sorare.home.att.net
Food Shop - http://foodshop.home.att.net
Blog - http://fun-ideas.blogspot.com
Protecto, the Little Robot - http://protecto.blogspot.com
Comicspace - http://www.comicspace.com/Mark_Arnold

BUY MY FIRST BOOK! "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" today!
Go to Amazon or you can order it directly from the publisher by
clicking here: http://www.lulu.com/thft

American Idol

Not a big fan of "American Idol" mainly because I am not a big fan of singing competitions in general. I used to like "The Gong Show" because of the goofy acts and actually liked the initial episodes of "America's Got Talent" until the talented people rose up in the ranks and the crazy acts were sent home. Never like "Star Search" much either.

Anyway, so I am watching "The Today Show" many times over the past few weeks and each time "American Idol" plays a new episode, "Today Show" devotes an entire segment to it. Now "Idol" airs on FOX and "Today Show" on NBC. NBC always belly-aches about not having high ratings on their primetime shows, yet they devote time on their "news" programming promoting the other network. This is stupid.

NBC get a clue. Stop promoting your competition and come up with something more worthwhile to watch, or stop complaining about your ratings since you obviously like FOX's programming more.

Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions - P. O. Box 2616 - Saratoga, CA 95070
_________________________________________________________
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net
Beatles - http://groups.google.com/group/martb
So Rare! Collectibles - http://sorare.home.att.net
Food Shop - http://foodshop.home.att.net
Blog - http://fun-ideas.blogspot.com
Protecto, the Little Robot - http://protecto.blogspot.com
Comicspace - http://www.comicspace.com/Mark_Arnold

BUY MY FIRST BOOK! "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" today!
Go to Amazon or you can order it directly from the publisher by
clicking here: http://www.lulu.com/thft

BUSH IS AN IDIOT!!!

I rarely watch Bush's speeches on the TV anymore because of the way he farts and sputters around to say what he really wants to say which is: I want to go to war with every enemy in such a messed-up way so that the US will permanently be at war for no good reason except just to keep the military employed. In other words, why don't we just fucking bite the bullet and just declare war on the whole fucking world and draft fucking everybody and nuke fucking everybody in the name of peace?

Bush's plan all along is to escalate the war so that the succeeding president (hopefully a Republican in his mind) will be in office for two terms. For some idiotic reason, we ALWAYS re-elect Presidents while we are at war.

Also, WHY CAN'T BUSH CALL THIS WAR A CIVIL WAR???!!!

I don't like Dennis Miller anymore either. On his appearance on Leno's show last night he said that Bush has kept the peace on his watch for over 2000 days with no terrorist attacks and that's why he like Bush. Well Dennis, it could have been longer if he prevented 9/11 which I felt that he could have since I've been reading the "9/11 Report". Also, haven't we gotten enough REVENGE on our enemies since more soldiers have died in this war than died in the World Trade Center terrorist attack?

I know I am going all over the map, but I am going to make a plea to all of our enemies and friends worldwide to urge Bush to send our troops home. That is the highest honor we can give our troops. I am proud of our troops and to send them home would mean that we are respecting their efforts.

I love America, but not this president...

Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions - P. O. Box 2616 - Saratoga, CA 95070
_________________________________________________________
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net
Beatles - http://groups.google.com/group/martb
So Rare! Collectibles - http://sorare.home.att.net
Food Shop - http://foodshop.home.att.net
Blog - http://fun-ideas.blogspot.com
Protecto, the Little Robot - http://protecto.blogspot.com
Comicspace - http://www.comicspace.com/Mark_Arnold

BUY MY FIRST BOOK! "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" today!
Go to Amazon or you can order it directly from the publisher by
clicking here: http://www.lulu.com/thft

Snakes on a Plane is Lame

Finally saw "Snakes on a Plane" last night. Now I didn't have high hopes for this, but this exceeded my already low expectations. It's unbelievably moronic!! And this comes from someone who can stand cheesy Disney and Hammer films. It looks as if it was done by some teenagers who happened to have a budget and the ability to lure some top rank talent. Now maybe that was the point, but it certainly wasn't promoted that way. If they promoted it as a comedy like "The Big Bus", I might have bought into it a little bit more, but it actually was kind of plodding and boring, despite some nudity and goofy scenes of people being swallowed whole by snakes. Kenan Thompson did the best job as he seemed to act like this was another stupid movie like "Good Burger" (which I love) and didn't take anything seriously. Samuel L. Jackson tried to take it more straight and came off looking like a buffoon and overacting in the process. It's embarrassingly bad. I used to joke "What's 'Snakes on the Plane' about?" Now I know. It's about 105 minutes too long...

Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions - P. O. Box 2616 - Saratoga, CA 95070
_________________________________________________________
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net
Beatles - http://groups.google.com/group/martb
So Rare! Collectibles - http://sorare.home.att.net
Food Shop - http://foodshop.home.att.net
Blog - http://fun-ideas.blogspot.com
Protecto, the Little Robot - http://protecto.blogspot.com
Comicspace - http://www.comicspace.com/Mark_Arnold

BUY MY FIRST BOOK! "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" today!
Go to Amazon or you can order it directly from the publisher by
clicking here: http://www.lulu.com/thft

All The Crawling Text on TV

I am sick of all the text crawls and large type and logos that appear nowadays on TV. I guess everyone's afraid of someone copying someone else's work, but all that crap is so distracting. Comedian Lewis Black did a bit on one of his records where he forced CNN to remove all of the text crawls while he was being interviewed, and they did.

The problem is the text distracts you from the visual and since it zips by so fast, you don't get to read the text and so you get nothing. Newton Minnow talked about TV being a vast wasteland...well with this and tabloid "entertainment" shows like "Entertainment Tonight", "Extra", etc. and "reality" shows like "Survivor" and subpar action/adventure shows that are "X-Files" rehashes and subpar comedies about families and friends I don't care about and aren't funny, and "educational/instructional" shows that don't do either function, there's nothing to watch anymore on TV.

TV has finally become what radio became in the 50s and 60s: no shows and a whole lot of meaningless filler. I watch old movies and TV shows and listen to old radio shows to see and hear what was when people could write, actors could act and celebrity private lives were kept more private.

Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions - P. O. Box 2616 - Saratoga, CA 95070
_________________________________________________________
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net
Beatles - http://groups.google.com/group/martb
So Rare! Collectibles - http://sorare.home.att.net
Food Shop - http://foodshop.home.att.net
Blog - http://fun-ideas.blogspot.com
Protecto, the Little Robot - http://protecto.blogspot.com
Comicspace - http://www.comicspace.com/Mark_Arnold

BUY MY FIRST BOOK! "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" today!
Go to Amazon or you can order it directly from the publisher by
clicking here: http://www.lulu.com/thft

Pebble Beach AT&T Golf

Well, once again I am helping out on the filming of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Golf Tournament. This is the sixth or seventh time I've done this in the last 20 years and I must say that I do have fun doing it. The footage will probably air on the weekend and usually there are many celebrities such as Bill Murray and George Lopez among others. Anyway, gotta go and sleep, because tomorrow will be a long day...

Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions - P. O. Box 2616 - Saratoga, CA 95070
_________________________________________________________
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net
Beatles - http://groups.google.com/group/martb
So Rare! Collectibles - http://sorare.home.att.net
Food Shop - http://foodshop.home.att.net
Blog - http://fun-ideas.blogspot.com
Protecto, the Little Robot - http://protecto.blogspot.com
Comicspace - http://www.comicspace.com/Mark_Arnold

BUY MY FIRST BOOK! "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" today!
Go to Amazon or you can order it directly from the publisher by
clicking here: http://www.lulu.com/thft

The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times! available in comic book stores everywhere!

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but on January 31, 2007, my book, "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" was released to comic book stores nationwide. Now you can purchase in person if you want to peruse the contents before buying.

Also, I got a good write up by Bud Plant. Check out the following links:

http://budplant.com/product.asp?pn=BOTHA&bhcd2=1170302864
and
http://budplant.com/article.asp?ai=38

Regards,
MARK ARNOLD
Fun Ideas Productions - P. O. Box 2616 - Saratoga, CA 95070
_________________________________________________________
Please click on my web sites:
Fun Ideas - http://funideas.home.att.net
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fun_ideas_productions
The Harveyville Fun Times! - http://thft.home.att.net
Richie Rich's Vault - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/richierichsvault
Mark's Rare Comics - http://rarecomics.home.att.net
Beatles - http://groups.google.com/group/martb
So Rare! Collectibles - http://sorare.home.att.net
Food Shop - http://foodshop.home.att.net
Blog - http://fun-ideas.blogspot.com
Protecto, the Little Robot - http://protecto.blogspot.com

BUY MY FIRST BOOK! "The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!" today!
Go to Amazon or you can order it directly from the publisher by
clicking here: http://www.lulu.com/thft