Michael Hutchison: June 2007 Archives

Once there was a young woman named Sarah Connor. In the mid-1980s, she gave birth to a son, whom she named John. At some point in his childhood, a supercomputer named Skynet became sentient and launched a nuclear Armageddon. Sarah protected her son and they survived. John became a leader of the remaining humans and led the resistance against Skynet's robotic forces.

Skynet designed infiltration units named Terminators which would pose as human. The first ones had rubber skin and were easily detected, but soon the Terminators used organic material and could not be detected except by dogs.

Despite this new threat, the human resistance finally smashed the robotic forces and penetrated Skynet. As its last chance effort at protecting itself, Skynet used a time travel device to send a Terminator back to 1984, in hopes of eliminating Sarah Connor before John could be born. John Connor sent back a lieutenant, Kyle Reese, to protect his mother.

And thus Skynet won.

Yes, I was gone for a week. No vacation, no neglecting the blog, just Internet problems, pure and simple.

I have a major post that I've been mulling over. Coming right up! Stay tuned.

This is, as advertised, the funniest five seconds on the Internet:

Hat tip to James Lileks.

If not for a banner ad on PvP I wouldn't even know about the Robot Chicken Star Wars Special! It's Sunday, June 17th. That's tomorrow!!! Criminy, I almost missed this!

Just a sample of Star Wars goodness previously done by Robot Chicken:

Okay, you've all see the grilling ad. I thought about rotating the ads, but if you thought that one was slightly risque with the "antennae as phallus symbols" motif, you didn't want to see the one I passed up. However, I didn't realize Tivo had added three more, better ads to the campaign. So I'm putting a new one up tonight and I will try to refresh them at proper intervals. Sorry, readers! Sorry, Tivo. I'll try to stay more on the ball.

Become part of the TiVo® Community. Find others who share your interests without ever leaving the couch. Join the TiVo community today. It’s fun. It’s easy. And it’s free. Click here for details!

Entertainment Weekly has the scoop and first photo of Batman's New Suit for the 2008 feature "Dark Knight". The biggest change: Batman can finally move his neck!

Surprise! Babylon 5: The Lost Tales will debut in only a month! It features Bruce Boxleitner, Tracey Scoggins and Peter Woodward (playing Galen, his character from "The Crusade").

To see the trailer, go to the BABYLON 5 site, click Main Menu and then on the button for the Lost Tales movie. There are also two behind-the-scenes segments.

The movie takes place 10 years after John Sheridan became President and departed Babylon 5.

"Dirty Harry" reviews Ghost Rider

Produced by Robert Smigel and Conan O'Brien in 1991, "Lookwell" was the story of a down on his luck actor (Adam West seems to play those a lot) who once played a detective on TV. Now wielding an honorary badge still in its display case, he attempts to find work as a detective.

Sadly, the show was not picked up. Baffling.

I've been wanting to see this for ages, and I found it on YouTube. Enjoy!

From The Pulse at Comicon.com:

R.I.P. Artist Tom Artis;
Please donate to The Tom Artis and Family Memorial Fund

Veteran comic book artist Tom Artis passed away on May 1, 2007 after a long illness. Artis was best known for his work on various DC and Marvel titles throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including The Spectre, Green Arrow, She-Hulk and his own creation, Tailgunner Jo (with frequent collaborator Peter B. Gillis).

The State Journal-Register of Illinois provides details about the final year of Artis's life, and the effect that his passing has had on his family:

Artis suffered a massive stroke in June, 2006 that left him comatose, relying on a ventilator to breathe and a feeding tube to eat.

Earlier that year, ceiling problems at the family’s home in the 1700 block of Clay Street displaced them. The house was further damaged during the March 12, 2006, tornadoes, and they stayed at the Quest Inn while they tried to get it repaired.

Artis’ final stroke put a halt to those plans, and the situation quickly spiraled downhill, Kim said. While Artis was hospitalized in intensive care from June to August, someone broke into the house and stole most of their belongings, including many of Artis’ original prints.

The theft was a difficult blow to Kim. Not only was the stolen artwork irreplaceable, she realized her husband likely would never draw again. Despite an article in The State Journal-Register about the crime, the pieces were never recovered.

Artis was unable to work following his stroke, and his medical expenses have left his family in rough financial shape and facing a very uncertain future.

Friends of the family have set up an account for the family at a local bank.

Please make checks payable to:

The Tom TC Artis and Family Memorial Fund

Donations may be sent to this address:

Marine Bank
Attn: Gale Krueger
1401 North Dirksen Parkway
Springfield, IL 62702

Please consider making a donation to the Artis family, no matter how small. Pick up one less comic book on Wednesday, and you can send $3 their way. Pass up on your fifth viewing of Spider-Man 3, and that's $10 you can spare. Hold off another week on your next trade paperback purchase, and you can donate $20. Each and every donation helps."

Die Hard re-enacted in 30 seconds by Bunnies
(Warning: Contains uncensored dialogue from the movie. You know which line I'm talking about.)

In other Flash cartoon news, Strong Bad e-mails finally reached #173. They'd made a joke back in 2004 about the future of all their characters (a la Animal House) and then added that the Paper would be replaced in e-mail #173. And indeed it has.

A teenager drives a car through a busy shopping mall.

Oh great. Now the Blues Brothers will need a stupid "Do Not Attempt" cautionary warning to avoid getting sued!

It's amazing how much work goes into a single mouseclick!

Ahem! I've amended the last few entries.

However, I have to give kudos to Blue Spider for keeping the site alive. I've spent the last week working throughout the weekend and sleeping about four hours a night, gearing up for the rollout of our new web site at work.

Oh yeah! New web site. In case you didn't know, I'm now working for Mayo Medical Laboratories.