Ghost of Zorro 12

Last Chapter- Trail of Blood 

This has been a pretty fun ride, all things considered. I can see why Clayton was chosen to be the Lone Ranger after this, he makes a good hero. I'm really surprised we didn't get DVD releases of everything Zorro related back when the Banderas movies were released. This one has good action even without the stock footage from previous serials, and it's got Moore. Too bad the new Ranger movie seemed to be so awful.

Card Subject To Change (2010)

Guess it's pro-wrestling week here at Xeno!  This here is a fascinating and well done look at the independent wrestling circuit.  It was shot over about three years, from 2006-2009 more or less.  They do some follow up stuff at the end of the movie to let you know what and where the workers they talked to are and what they are doing.

Sometimes there is no good news, as in Trent Acid and Sherri Martel.  This was the last time she was interviewed as she passed on in the middle of 2007.

Mission Magic TV Cartoon Intro

I was listening to Rick Springfield years before I knew he wanted "Jesse's Girl". I didn't know who he was, I just enjoyed this cartoon. He co-produced this cartoon to get his name over here in the States. I don't remember seeing a lot of episodes, I think it aired later on in the schedule on Saturday mornings, toward the time it would get pre-empted by college football.

WWE Rivalries: Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart (2011)

I was watching that match in Montreal back in November of 1997 with some friends of mine.  The ending came out of nowhere and we were all surprised at how it went down.  We had no idea of all the backstage stuff that was going on, as the world hadn't quite gotten "smart" to the workings of the wrestling business.  Even now, over 15 years later I still wonder how much was a work.

With this fascinating doc I still think there's some working going on, but overall it's one of the better interviews I've ever seen.

The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure intro

Wow, I have never seen this intro before, nor was aware of it's existence. It's pretty groovy, one can tell it's from the mid to late 60s. It's got all the guest heroes in the song as well, though I wonder if any viewer ever noticed Aquaman wasn't in the JLA cartoon segments, even though he's in the intro.

Superman vs the Elite (2012)

Based on ""What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?" a single issue story from 2001, this is really Superman vs The Authority.  Clicking on the link will tell you far more about that comic than I care to.  I'm not one much for anti-heroes.  One or two is just fine, but when every character is one?  Pass.

The animation is good and the voice acting is fine.  I didn't care much for the style of the art, but I have that problem with most new comic book artwork.  It's well directed, and I'm still surprised that it came from a single story.

Kaufman Lawler Feud: Chapter 32 - The Final Match part 1

This is the final bout between Andy and Jerry, taking place on 11-21-1983. They managed to keep this feud going on for quite some time, which is just amazing. It's also been entertaining the whole time. Andy has really learned to work the crowd, no surprise since he was working with one of the masters of ring psychology, Jerry Lawler. Andy certainly doesn't look or sound sick right now.

American Scary (2006)

There was no horror host in Colorado in the 70s when I was growing up.  There was just the disembodied voice over for Channel 2's glorious Sci-Fi Flicks, but that mostly just introduced the movies, if memory serves.  They did give it a scary sort of vibration as well.  Even visiting WV I don't recall ever seeing a horror host, though I saw an ad in the TV Guide for "The Ghost Host" at one point.

So perhaps that explains why I am not impressed with this doc.  It's not bad, but I have no nostalgic connection with it.  I'd be happier seeing the openings of the aforementioned "Sci-Fi Flicks" or the afternoon shows from Channel 2, but that sure wouldn't take up much time.

Ghost of Zorro 11

Runaway Stagecoach 

The unit was destroyed and Mason and Rita want to try to save the franchise.  It seems pretty hopeless now, but they are doing the best they can. Unfortunately they don't know Crane is one of the bad guys.  He's done a good job of tricking everyone.

Special Effects... NOT

So I'm watching the Aquabats Super Show episode "The Floating Eye of Death" and it's a cool practical effect- a prop filmed with forced perspective and miniatures.  It looks SO cool.

Then I think of this shot of Asgard from the THOR movie.  It's impressive, but it's cold and has no real feeling to it.  I'm sure it was probably cheaper than building a true city in miniature,  but it doesn't do much for me.

Spectreman: A Great Earthquake Levels Tokyo - Part 1

It's an episode from some part of the show. I sure wish I had seen this when I was growing up, as I know I'd like it far more than I do now. I want to like it, but knowing it's edited for US consumption makes it more difficult as an adult. I think it's dubbed well, despite the changing of the names from Japanese to Western ones. That is just lame, really, since it didn't seem to matter when other Japanese shows and movies were brought over here earlier.

Star Trek into Darkness (2013) part one

Ten minutes in and already the movie has glaring holes in it.  And yet it's still entertaining, thanks to the cast.  Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a big fan of remakes of popular TV shows, so I have low expectations of this movie, again.  Which is exactly how I felt about the first remake.  I still think this Chris Pine is far smarmier than than Shatner ever was.  He sure does drink a lot, too.  The new Spock is the best part of the cast.  The two  of them do have good chemistry together.

Kaufman Lawler Feud: Chapter 31 - the Final Promo

We are nearing the end of Andy's run in Memphis, due to his getting sick with cancer. Knowing how soon he would depart this mortal coil, one can see that he doesn't look as good as he has in the past. He still cuts a great promo for his next match. I'm sure he wanted to go out the way he did.

RIP Mike Road (1918-2013)

Just heard today that Mike Road, the voice of Race Bannon passed on.  He was a fine actor in film and movies, but he's mostly known as Race's voice.  He also was the voice of Zandor of The Herculoids fame.  He also did a lot of other voices for Hanna-Barbera, usually secondary characters in those very shows.

SYM-Bionic Titan: Lesson in Love

I have to admit this show is really growing on me. I'm exactly halfway through the run (episode ten) and like the robot fighting monsters, the backstory (nothing really new to super robot fans) and the characters. I could do without some of the body function humor, but it's not over done and so it's bearable. Sometimes the art is a little too disproportionate, but that's not a deal breaker either.

Xenorama #16 Available NOW!

Yes, amazingly after two short months there is another complete issue of Xenorama available!  I am pretty impressed with that, especially after the long hiatus the zine took.  This is the final version of the cover by Dan Ross and it's pretty darn cool.  He keeps it interesting, and yet not too busy to be distracting.  I think it's really eye catching as well.  Who wouldn't want to buy it just by looking at that cover?  The inside is loaded with cool color pictures as well, not too mention several great articles that aren't even on the cover.

Road Warriors/Super Powers vs The Horsemen

I never saw the original iteration of the Four Horsemen live. By the time they made it out to CO Lex Luger had replaced Ole in the group. Arn, Tully and Lex faced the LOD and Nikita in a six man tag bout the evening I went way back when and Dusty fought Flair (guess what kind of finish we got that evening?). I wish I had brought a good camera to to that event, Sting was making his first appearance after turning face.

presenting... the Xenorama #16 cover (mode one)

Here's the prototype for the next issue of Xenorama, which should be on sale soon!  Dan Ross does some amazing work, doesn't he?  I'm really fortunate to have so many talented people contributing to the magazine.

As one could reasonably ascertain, there are at least three articles in this issue (there are more, but I'll save those for the actual release post):  I can tell you that the Space Ghost article is a complete episode guide to the 1960s series along with some commentary.  It does included the now not so rare six part story from the second season "The Council of Doom".  It's such a great series, I hope it never gets made into anything remotely resembling a movie.

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Message of Death
Of course Zorro rolls out of the way just in time, not bad for a guy with a concussion. I wonder how may of these fight scenes were filmed with Moore or with his stunt double, since you can't see his face at all. Rita confronts Zorro in this episode, wanting to know what his motivation is. Zorro reveals his ID to Rita, and she's of course surprised.

Happy Birthday Thuvia Jane

TJ's birthday is officially September 4th, 2007.  I adopted her around that time in 2008 at a local Petco.  She's my rescue cat, since one of her back legs had been broken by her former family's dog and they gave her up instead of fixing her.  I was there the Friday night when they were setting up and I was back there on Saturday morning to adopt her.

Interestingly enough, I met my first tattoo artist that day as well, since Laura Crow was buying dogfood for her (then puppy) at the time.

Wacky Races intro

I have all three sets from this "trilogy" on DVD, Wacky Races, Perils of Penelope Pitstop and Dastardly and Muttley (also known as Stop the Pigeon). My favorite is Dastardly because that's the show I saw more often growing up.

Hercules vs the Hydra (1960)

This is a pretty fun peplum, made because Jayne Mansfield took it so her then husband Mickey Hargitay got to play Hercules.  She got to play two roles, that of Deianaira and Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta (who takes Deinaira's form at one point in the movie).  Mickey is OK as a beardless Hercules as well.  The movie was originally known as THE LOVES OF HERCULES but was changed to the other title when released to TV later on.

The Hydra has three heads and is a full sized prop.  Doesn't really move like a Rimbaldi creation, but one never knows about such things.   There's also a strange ape/caveman monster in the movie. It just appears to menace our hero, but those are always a fun addition to these movies.

Kaufman Lawler Feud: 29, 30, so much wheat

Another double shot today, since the second one is only 32 seconds long and doesn't really merit it's on post, right? Jerry takes on Nature Boy Buddy Landel (the third wrestler with that name, it would never happen these days) in a pretty good match until the inevitable happens. You'd think the faces would prepare for this sort of thing, but no, they never did.

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes season 2

Anyone who's been paying attention to this blog for a while knows I love superhero teams.  And yes, the big 2 are my favorites- The Justice League and the Avengers.  The Justice League has been treated well in the last few years (possibly my favorite cartoon series) but the last time the Avengers were animated it was a super friends style disaster.  Even the presence of my beloved Tigra in the cast didn't help matters at all.  Hated all that armor that was always present during that time period.  Really, did the Sub-mariner need armor?  That was like putting it on the Hulk.  Which they probably did.

Ghost of Zorro 9

Money Lure

Rita tries to stop the mob from killing Mason. Good thing Moccasin dons the costume and distracts everyone. This is why a hero should always have a confidant, it really helps out. The villains plan another trap, and Rita falls for it, ignoring the common sense suggestion of her foreman. Sometimes serials strain credibility on occasion.

Samurai Jack (2001)

Started watching this cartoon the other day.  Seems like it has lots of fans, so I thought I'd give it a shot. 

It has it's own definite look, that's for sure.  It's a pretty cool story, as "Jack" battles to destroy the demon Aku (Japanese for "demon" so he's the demon Demon).  Before he can kill Aku with his magic sword, Aku sends him into the future.  Naturally Aku rules the Earth by then, since Jack is the only person who can defeat him.  So the story so far is Jack is trying to get back in time to defeat Aku and prevent the future that he's in at the moment. 

Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) - International Trailer

I remember seeing these English language trailers way back in the early 90s when the movies were released in England. I'm no huge fan of the second series of Godzilla films. They aren't bad, but just lack something the first series has. It also could be seeing them with more mature eyes, and perhaps building them up in my mind before seeing them. I had much smaller expectations for the third series and enjoy them a lot more.

Karate-Robo Zaborgar (2011)

Probably the best Japanese superhero remake movie I've seen in some time.  If only Kamen Rider: The First and The Next didn't take themselves so seriously and meander all over the place with backstories and J-horror in the wrong places, I'd regard those as better.

But this one is a lot of fun, and without the overall weirdness that say Zebraman has going on in it's movie.  Sure, there's some juvenile humor here and there along with some of the now to be expected weird sex stuff that seems to have to be par for the course in these movies now, but overall it's very entertaining.

Kaufman Lawler Feud: Chapter 27, 28 - Beware the Russian Wheat Invaders

Politics and wrestling have always been mixed up with each other. Usually it's the evil invaders like Ivan Koloff, Fritz von Erich, Kamala, the Ugandan Giant, many traditional enemies. Occasionally there were countries with which the US had always been friendly who's wrestlers came with anti-US sentiment- The Sheepherders, the whole Japanese thing. It's just a strange thing. many of these traditional foes ended up being heroes later on as well.

The Tenth Doctor

My post on the Ninth Doctor was very popular.  It still gets hits to this day and is the number two most viewed post on this blog.

It sure has taken me a long time to get through the entire run of the Tenth Doctor now, but I can see why he's most of the new fans favorite Doctor now.  He is played by David Tennant and it's pretty obvious he was a fan to begin with which in this case is a big help.  He's funny and charming and doesn't overact despite some of the situations which could descend into general silliness.