Mystery Science Theater 3000, Godzilla and all other daikaiju (Japanese giant monsters), anime and pretty much every other aspect of Japanese popular culture, comic books, video games (especially Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda, Earthbound, Lunar, Kingdom Hearts, old school stuff, and anything from Namco, especially Dig Dug and Beastie Feastie), dinosaurs and paleontology, cryptozoology, herpetology, ichthyology, emtomology, reading, writing, and collecting pop culture memories from my childhood. I love animals, but I’m far from vegetarian. I could live off Oriental, Italian, or seafood alone. I've been a cat rescuer for quite a few years due to the bad stray population in my area. I tame as many as I can and try to adopt them out. Not really an interest because I'm more a dog person, but I get attached to animals easily and they're the closest thing to children I have right now.
You Are Batman
Billionaire playboy by day. Saving the world by night.
And you're not even a true superhero. Just someone with a lot of expensive toys!
What Superhero Are You?
I didn't even plan this one, folks... personally I thought I'd be Superman. Actually I could be either... because a few of the questions that interchange the two are very similar in my life. Oddly enough, I came close to being Wonder Woman on a couple of them as well... still, the trinity isn't a bad set.
In the friend realm, I'd like to meet more people interested in MST3K. I've been part of a chat group for about 5 years and we can always use new members. I couldn't have completed my episode collection without our group (except for the elusive pilot and first 3 episodes of the KTMA season), and we do a group movie night every Saturday (at least we try.. the chat server got shut down about a year ago and everyone had to find their way back.. it's been lonely without friends to laugh with). I'm looking for some people near me who are interested enough in MST3K to help me produce some fan episodes; there are so many movies out there worth making fun of and I've already been scripting a couple of productions. And now that Mike Nelson (among my greatest inspirations and freind list numero uno) has started his Rifftrax website, I've developed even more ideas. I'd also like to gather some people together every so often to show some episodes as events at local libraries like some folks have been doing in Dallas the last few years. And if anyone lived in the Tampa Bay, FL, area and has copies of Dr. Paul Bearer's Creature Feature on tape or DVD, I'd love to get copies. And I'd like to think that I'm not the only Godzilla fan in the entire city. In the famous people realm, I'd like to meet the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (some of the funniest minds on the planet), Phil Hendrie (my hero in the radio business and the father I never had), and that's about it... everyone else who had a positive influence on my life was either fictional or has passed on.This spot used to be dedicated to one of those departed influential individuals singing the song that made him famous, Wade Hemsworth and "Blackfly," but it was removed from Youtube for some unknown reason... well I can't say completely unknown because a lot of videos have been disappearing lately due to copyright and whatnot... enjoy these videos while you can because we ARE the last bastion of the free world, and we are being defeated. We, the ones who are fighting to enjoy what we love unhindered, doing no harm even to those who target us: the big corporations who lose a few pennies from their billions just because we posted a video they owned. Read my blog for more on this, but in the meantime, here is someone else who is fighting for America and winning, Stephen Colbert, host of the Colbert Report. Oh wait! All of his videos were removed for copyright infringement too! What a surprise! Even the clip where he actually reports on this subject is gone! Is there no end to the fascism and childish "we own this show, so you can't touch it" mentality? Will the NFL continue to dictate what size television screen a family gathering can watch the Super Bowl on?I digress. Here is a clip featuring the first famous person I actually wanted to meet and did, Megumi Odaka, recurring star of the Godzilla movies of the 90s, at age 16 in a making-of scene from my favorite Godzilla movie, 1989’s Godzilla vs. Biollante. She was the main reason I took a 1700-mile bus trip to California in the summer of 2000. Framed on my wall is a poster of the movie which she accidentally signed twice due to the nervousness of her first trip to America (maybe it was me who made her nervous… or people like me. Despite my respect and ability to greet her in Japanese, I don’t think I looked anything more to her than a drooling fanboy). She certainly was much cuter in person and made the trip well worth it.I'm not particularly looking for a relationship but I'm not dismissing the possibility of finding Ms. Right. "Nice guys finish last" and "just friends" have been unwelcome mantras in my life, but I hope to have a wife and children someday. I have an obvious attraction towards Japanese women, but that doesn’t mean I judge a woman just on who her parents were. I believe that God has a soul mate waiting for everyone, and it may not be who is expected or initially sought. I haven’t been on a date since I was 19, and that experience isn’t something I like to remember. I haven’t been hesitant to enter the dating world for that reason though; after some long thought, I feel that I need to achieve some goals for myself before bringing a significant other in to share my life. I have the utmost respect for women, but I can’t expect a woman to accept me for who I am when I haven’t accepted it yet myself, much less accomplished it. I have always been popular among girls, but I was the shoulder to cry on and the guy all the girls "wished" they were with instead of the losers they chose. Although a bit neurotic at times, I am a good man who knows how to treat a woman. Only problem is that most women I have known don't know how to reciprocate, and out of respect I won’t go into detail. I'm not the kind of man to call a woman on that, but it's still disheartening that a lot of women play games with men and act superficial. My experience may be limited, but the track record isn’t reassuring. Sure, men can be the same way and most are. It would be one thing, however, if I behaved that way and deserved it, but I'm not a doormat. On a side note, go ahead and judge me by my looks and see how long the conversation lasts. I couldn't care less that I'm fat and bald, and I was not pleased with the email I received inviting me to join a romance group here that judges people by how "hot" they are. I guess personality doesn't count for as much as people say it does. I'm a guy with a lot of opinions, but I know how to act and know a lot of people who can't look me in the eye and say the same. Most of my life, I've had to play Dr. Phil to people I meet... and without getting paid. I'm a good listener so it goes with the territory, and I try to stay objective. Need some advice about love life or life in general? I'm all ears. Just don't expect anything less than the truth. That's all there is to me and all I expect out of the world: some honesty. I do hope to make some new friends here even though I came looking for those I had and missed, so don't be afraid (or Heaven forbid discouraged) to drop me a line about anything. Feel free to add me as a friend if you took the time to read all this. I'm not going to much effort to add friends unless I already knew them in person (they're the ones I originally came here looking for) or with to promote them in some way, so most of the friends you may see made the effort to add me themselves. I apologize if I sound picky in approving friend requests, but considering the level of trust isn't that high here and the level of spam is, I may deny some friend requests if they look suspicious. I would appreciate if you send me a message if you want to add me rather than just throwing a request at random. I'm not here to be some random dude to add another notch to a friend tally just because you have a provocative picture and want to tell everyone on the street you meet that your friends list numbers in the thousands. Call it what you want, but if that simple request bothers you, then I'm not sure we could get along as friends anyway. Otherwise, I think they'd have to change the name to an "Acquaintance List" or maybe just a "Random People I Met and Never Spoke To" List. To mix metaphors, I just want to weed out the bad apples, and I don't want to make the mistake of throwing any of you into the wrong baskets. If we share an interest or you just read my profile and think I'm cool, which doesn't make a difference to me one way or the other, then tell me about it. Grab my attention, and feel free to leave me comments on my blogs or my profile. I wouldn't be here if I didn't welcome input, positive or negative.
Classic rock (The Who, Skynyrd, Foreigner, Joan Jett, ACDC, Beatles, Sting & The Police, Climax Blues Band, and the list goes on and on), Japanese pop (Hikaru Utada, Pizzicato Five, Soul'd Out, Soulhead, and perhaps the most beautiful and talented of them all, Kumi Koda), jazz (old and new age), soundtracks from movies and video games; they don't make music like they used to and I think most music made today is crap... but I am a sucker for a woman with a beautiful voice: Shakira, Mariah Carey (her first three albums), Michelle Branch, and a few others. Tila Tequila has a pretty good voice too.Here's a musical minefield. Mindless entertainment at its best, The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny is a catchy song about the greatest pop culture icons in a battle to the death. Lemon Demon, the singer and songwriter, has talent you can't help but notice.Originally I had a handful of videos here from my favorite Japanese vocalist Kumi Koda, but they were removed from youtube for copyright violation. Such a shame you can't even watch television anymore without someone wanting to sue you. Kind of contradictory considering this is some of the best free advertising. Anyway. "Birthday Eve" was among my favorite of her videos because it's not typical of her work. Usually she has a lot of make-up, sensual dancing, and very imaginative environments. This video, however, showed her lighter, more natural side a bit. Still, a song about baking a birthday cake isn't something you see everyday... and the El Santo family really must have needed the work. Thanks to www.cherryblossom-garden.com for their English translation of the lyrics. The mix of English and Japanese run together too much to be understood sometimes. Personally I just like the music itself, but it's nice to know what they're saying sometimes.
.. FLIXSTER WIDGET START -
http://aczilla.flixster.com
.. FLIXSTER WIDGET END -I'm a movie junkie, but MST3K changed my view of movies forever. I love bad movies; the thicker the cheese, the better. Every movie, no matter how good, has its flaws, and poking fun always gets a good laugh. You'd be surprised how many cultural references are hidden in any given movie.Here is a montage of some of the best clips from some of the worst movies MST3K ever watched. A behind-the-scenes look at the taping of the final episode, this is among the funniest clips I have ever seen.Still, I love sci-fi, fantasy, foreign films, and Italian "spaghetti" westerns, and I enjoy watching horror host matinnes like Elvira and Dr. Paul Bearer's Creature Feature. Favorite movies: Godzilla vs. Biollante, Godzilla 1954, Godzilla 1985, Mothra 1961, Rodan 1955, Frankenstein Conquers the World, War of the Gargantuas, Matango (Attack of the Mushroom People, it's like Gilligan's Island on acid), Frequency, The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name Trilogy, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Friday, Hostel, American Beauty, McLintock, The Quiet Man, To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men (all versions but especially the original with Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney Jr.), Planet of the Apes (the original movie series), Lifeforce, The Exorcist, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Gates of Hell (AKA City of the Living Dead), Night of the Zombies, Manos: The Hands of Fate (considered the worst movie ever made), Young Frankenstein, History of the World Part 1, Legend of the Dinosaurs (considered the worst Japanese monster movie ever made), The Ring (Original Japanese trilogy only), DaiMajin, Sixteen Candles, Not Another Teen Movie, Ernest Scared Stupid, Monster in the Closet, Spirited Away, The Dark Crystal, Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas, Halloween, The Nightmare on Elm Street Series, The Fog (original version), The Omen (original version.. remakes make me ill), Boys from Brazil, 48Hrs., The Golden Child, Unbreakable, King Kong, The Golem (silent film), Star Wars original trilogy (not the special editions), Superman, Yamato Takeru, Onmyoji, The Triplets of Belleville, Attack (perhaps the greatest WWII movie ever made... Buddy Ebsen, Lee Marvin, Eddie Albert and one of my heroes, the late Jack Palance, who uttered one of my {and Phil Hendrie's} favorite lines of all time, which comes 35 minutes into the film for those keeping score: "You play the gutless wonder just once more and I'll come back and I'll get you, Cooney. I'll shove this grenade down your throat and pull the pin!" Classic!), and a lot of others I can't think of at the moment. The list goes on.Here is a montage from Godzilla vs. Biollante. I'm not a big fan of Linkin Park, but the guy who made the video did a great job editing the best clips together so I thought it was worth a look. I have a fan video I'm making that's similar to this one, and I don't expect anyone to judge my song any differently.
The Movie Of Your Life Is Film Noir
So what if you're a little nihilistic at times?
Life with meaning is highly over-rated.
Your best movie matches: Sin City, L. A. Confidential, Blade Runner
If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?I found this quiz interesting... I thought my movie genre might be cult classic... but I think this kinda fits.
I watch way too much television, but I love it. Oddly enough, a lot of my favorite shows are known by their initials. Cartoons, on the other hand, shaped my life in a lot of ways and are partly responsible for my love of using my voice. Getting into radio and voice acting might never have appealed to me without animation and the talent required to give a fictional character a voice.Here was a Tonight Show clip featuring the greatest voice actor of all time and one of my greatest inspirations, Mel Blanc, who provided the voices for every Looney Toons character until his death, but it was removed from youtube like many other videos before it. Whoever did so, however, hasn't stopped me because I managed to add this nice little Johnny Carson interview to my personal library with a nifty little youtube video downloading program before it was taken down. So there.Favorite tv shows and cartoons: MST3K, CSI (all three series), NCIS, The Unit, Boston Legal, Star Trek (the original series), Justice League, Cupid, Out of Practice, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, The Dick Van Dyke Show, I Love Lucy, Teachers, Gokusen Live Action, Great Teacher Onizuka Live Action, You're Under Arrest Live Action, Trick, MADtv, Modern Men, The Rockford Files, Kolchak The Night Stalker, The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tenchi Muyo, Family Guy, King of the Hill, The Simpsons, Robot Chicken, Chappelle's Show, Mind of Mencia, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Spectreman, The Tick, Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother, Medium, Supernatural, Penn & Teller: Bullshit, Quantum Leap, Love Hina, Serial Experiments: Lain, The Greatest American Hero, Transformers, Disney's Gargoyles, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, DuckTales, TaleSpin, That '70s Show, Ghost Whisperer, Las Vegas, Ultra Q, Iron Chef, Power Rangers (I prefer the Japanese Super Sentai versions), Kamen Rider Black, Godzilla The Series, and so many more. Shows that boggle my mind because they are still on the air (in other words shows I never could get into): Grey's Anatomy, Brothers and Sisters, The Black Donnelys (a teenage version of the Sopranos... so what?), Lost (I don't know if I can honestly say I have given this a fair chance, but three years of shadows and suspense and no answers... I speculate on a lot of shows I watch, but it just doesn't grab me... and the ending more than likely will be similar to that of Newhart or St. Elsewhere or even the Lost parody 12 Oz. Mouse... a dream, the vivid imagination of an autistic child, or a government controlled brainwashing), Survivor and most other reality shows. Sorry, just never enjoyed them.Here is a music video montage from my favorite Super Sentai series of the new meillennium, Mahou Sentai MagiRanger (the original Japanese version of Power Rangers Mystic Force). Looks like it was made by a very talented fan from Brazil. They always get the good stuff.Speaking of Americans never getting the good stuff, here is the opening of one of many crossover video games that was right up my alley but never released in the US. A team-up game with some of the best Japanese superheroes from Ultraman to Inazuman to Kamen Rider to Space Sheriff Garivan and more.And here's a very inventive opening of the American version, Power Rangers Mystic Force, set to the original Japanese theme. Very well done.And the final video for this section comes from the makers of the Japanese Power Rangers series. The 1978 live action Spider-Man... and this isn't the Spider-Man we know. Campy and cheap, this series wasn't popular, but I'd still pay for a subtitled DVD boxset. This is the full first episode in raw Japanese, but it's rather easy to follow the story of a man given powers by spider aliens to fight evil.
Don't let the comic book guy image fool you. I enjoy the complete works of Shakespeare, Chaucer, and the great modern novels To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men. I didn't get a literature degree to lecture on superheroes. Still I love comics: Spider-Man, Spider-Girl, X-Men, Justice League, Usagi Yojimbo, and too many others to list. Growing up, I was a huge fan of The Three Investigators, a novel serial for kids that was published during the 60s and 70s and caught the eye of Alfred Hitchcock, who actually wrote and appeared in some of the stories.
Shakespeare was a man ahead of his time. Spider-Man is a representation of teen angst who displayed the depth of humanity. The Beast (Dr. Henry McCoy) is a representation of scientific genius and the epitome of the problems of judging a book by its cover. Stan Lee gave life to Spider-Man and The Beast and so many others, and he continues to write his fantasies to this day for people to enjoy. Godzilla is the epitome of many things from the sum of human mistakes to the reluctant protector of his surroundings. Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsubaraya gave Godzilla life while Haruo Nakajima created his footsteps and Akira Ifukube his voice. Optimus Prime is the ultimate leader for good. Rodney Dangerfield never got any respect but he made his mark. Richard Pryor was the funniest man alive. Joel Hodgson took some bad movies and some junk from Goodwill and put them all together to make a masterpiece while Mike Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett, Bridget Jones, Paul Chaplin and Mary Jo Pehl gave that masterpiece the touches it needed to stay the test of time. Jim Henson created a world of magic with felt and glue, and he and Frank Oz brought them to life. Dr. Paul Bearer was the greatest and longest running horror matinee host in history. Fred Rogers would have been my favorite neighbor. Phil Hendrie uses his voice to out stupidity in society, and his character Vernon Dozier is the ultimate dark side of Phil and myself that makes me laugh out loud every time. John Ritter was an all-around great guy whose presence in my lifetime made his loss all the more difficult. Akira Kurosawa knew how to draw emotion from movies, and Mel Brooks is the undisputed king of directing comedy. Chuck Jones directed brilliant animated comedy through the Looney Toons, and Mel Blanc was the life's blood of every one of the wacky characters. John Wayne was the ultimate badass, and Clint Eastwood follows well in his footsteps. Although rounding out the list near the end, Jesus Christ is among the greatest of my heroes, as well as my namesake Aaron, brother of Moses. Whatever your religious beliefs, it's hard to deny that Jesus was a man who wanted to spread as much peace as possible in a tumultuous time. That kind of courage and self-sacrifice is a gift too few possess. And then there's my mom, who raised two sons all by herself and taught us the importance of family in a sea of turmoil and poverty. And there is no sense of ego here whatsoever, but I am my own hero. I am a man who cares about others more than I do about myself. I put other people's problems before my own and thus rarely do anything to improve my own life unless someone else benefits. I am an unsung hero who needs to save himself but is more willing to save the world even if it seems an impossible task, and it seems I would put my life on the line rather than truly living my dreams and making my own mark. But I would not be my own hero if not for the ones who came before me.Here is one of my heroes at work in one of my favorite movies, Mel Brooks in History of the World Part One and "The Spanish Inquisition," the funniest song since "Springtime for Hitler."