Fantastic 3 + Me
January 25th, 2012
Not being much a comic book fan, I have never seen the 1994 film version of The Fantastic Four. In fact, almost no one had. It was originally created simply to secure the rights of the series and was apparently (unbeknownst to director Roger Corman and the cast) never intended to be released. Consequently, I was not much interested in meeting or getting autographs from the three principle actors who were present at The Hollywood Show on April 2, 2011. My friend Bob, however, was. He was hoping to obtain a signed photo of the gang to put on the walls of his high school (as he often does with actors with whom the students might relate). They were all kind enough to agree, and then also got together to pose for a picture with him. In a similar fashion that I did with the Billy Jack stars, I then handed the camera off to him and jumped into a photo as well. Read the rest of this entry »
Mayans. Apocalypse. Mysticism. New Age Prophecy. If you take any of these sorts of things to heart (which I don’t), you might be inclined to believe that there is something significant about the year 2012. Mostly it has to do with the world ending. I’m sort of hoping that it doesn’t. Although I’ve seen my share of disappointment and sadness over the course of my life, I am able to look back at these carefully shelved books of my life and remember and enjoy the amazing and fun times that were had by me during any given year. 
There were a couple of odd things about meeting Jane Wiedlin when she appeared at the Chiller Theatre Show in Parsippany, New Jersey, on April 30, 2011. The first was that although she is primarily known as the rhythm guitarist of the all-girl New Wave band The Go-Go’s (with whom she is pictured, second from left), she didn’t have a single photo of herself with the band to offer. The second odd thing was that every one of the photos that she did have for sale had been pre-signed by her. It’s as if she had gotten bored sitting there and just went ahead and signed all of them. As any autograph collector can tell you, part of the thrill of getting an autograph is watching it come to life right before your eyes. 
Although Kim Darby never really disappeared from film for any signifcant length of time, to the casual filmgoer, it would appear that she made the film True Grit with John Wayne in 1969 (portraying a 14-year old at the age of 21), and then disappeared until 1985 when she starred as John Cusack’s mother in Better Off Dead. She was making films and TV appearances in the interim, just nothing I’ve ever heard of. Ten years later she’d show up yet again in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.