Cereals of Our Youth (10 of 11)

Kellogg's Sugar Smacks..........I dedicate this entry to Andrea Rorer who ran over a frog in her pickup truck this afternoon.

Facebook Friend of the Week- Brian Woodward

This week's Facebook Friend of the Week is Brian Woodward of Richmond, Va. He is one of the few guys from Glenvar High School who graduated with me in 1988 who also never romantically challenged me for a woman's affection. That is perhaps the reason why we remain good friends today.

Woodward was born on Aug. 20, 1970. He is both single and available. And, he is wearing a shirt and tie for his Facebook photo.

Woodward is an ordained minister, but he doesn't have a church quite yet. However, he did preside over a mass wedding at Valley View Mall in Roanoke, Va.

The Great Bonzini, which was his name at K-92 FM in Roanoke, now works for a radio station in Richmond though he is no longer an on-air personality.

Woodward is a partisan Republican who made a lark about Hollywood lefties which I responded to.........hey, I know I am not the only person who likes Sean Penn more than Rush Limbaugh!

Songs of Our Youth (Entry 9 of 11) The Bangles

"Manic Monday" by The Bangles.

The smash hit was actually written by Prince.

Quote of the Week- Van Morrison

"Hearing the blues changed my life."

Six Degrees of Separation (8 of 11) Turhan Bey

I was delighted to discover while researching this entry that Turhan Bey (born in 1922 in Austria) is still with us! For some reason, I thought he died many years ago like our last subject Rin Tin Tin.

But, Turhan Bey (not his real name) was the first actor of Turkish heritage to become famous in Hollywood. His father was a Turkish diplomat, and his mom was a czech industrialist.

His first film was "Shadows in the Stairs" in 1941 and his last was "Prisoners of the Casbah" in 1953.

Turhan Bey was also in "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "The Amazing Mr.X."

Unbegonest to me, he was also in two episodes of "Babylon 5."

Turhan Bey, who usually played exotic roles, has only two degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon.

The Turkish-Czech actor was in "Prisoners of the Casbah" (1953) with Leonard P. Geer who was in "Hero at Large" (1980) with Bacon.

If anyone has ideas for future entries, feel free to email me at tango74@aol.com

Cinema of the Week- Varsity Theatre in Chapel Hill

Today, we focus our seventh entry in the series (of 21) on the famed Varsity Theatre of Chapel Hill, NC, which was once featured in an episode of "Dawson's Creek." This series has usually run on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire."

We chose the Varsity because it may one of the very few cinemas in the country to show "Slumdog Millionaire" on one screen, and the new "Friday the 13th" remake on the other. Of course, we don't have a crack team of researchers here to actually confirm this!

The Varsity is located at 123 E. Franklin Street, and their phone number is (919) 967-8665. There is now free parking in downtown Chapel Hill on Sundays, which is a good thing because it costs like $92 to park there usually (we aren't being completely serious here!).

On Feb. 27, the cinema will screen the acclaimed Israeli film ""Waltz with Bashir."

I had a chance to see the independent film "The Visitor" there back in the spring, and it was truly an enjoyable experience.

SIDEBAR: There is another historic cinema some 20 miles from Chapel Hill in Graham, NC. The Graham Cinema was showing the Will Smith vehicle "Seven Pounds" this past week, and they are known for a hysterical joke like which also lists their movie listings. It is (336) 226-1488, but I believe the movie they are showing this week is "Marley and Me."

Quote of the Week- Nikki Giovanni

In honor of Black History Month, we have two quotes today from two black poets on our respective blogs. The late Langston Hughes is featured on "The Daily Vampire."

Here is one from Nikki Giovanni. The Virginia Tech literary teacher was our Person of the Year in 2007:

"We love because it's the only true adventure."

Celebrity Birthdays- Paris Hilton is 28

Yes, the annoying/amusing socialite turns 28 today.

For her 21st birthday, Paris Hilton had parties in New York, Hollywood, Las Vegas, London and Tokyo, so much for concerns about carbon footprints!

Hilton's measurements are 34B-25-35 and she wears a size 11 shoe!

She briefly dated Backstreets Boys singer Nick Carter, and she has been in several bad movies.

I gather she also has a thing for shopping and cellphones ...........?!

An Actual Church Sign I Saw in Franklin County, Va.

CROOKED
PERVERSE
NATION MAGAZINE


I saw this on a church sign near Rocky Mount, Va., on Route 220. The sign is refering to the liberal magazine "The Nation." Even though I'm more to the political center than the publication (I subscribe to the moderate liberal magazine "The New Republic"), I couldn't help but wondering: "Are people who go to that church smart enough to read The Nation?"

Of course this is a clear example of the disappearing line between church and politics

Obviously<

College Gymnast of the Moment- Ashley Shepard

Her teammates Brooke Barr and Taylor Seaman won EAGL (college gymnastics conference) weekly honors for their efforts in winning a quad meet over The University of North Carolina, The University of Maryland and Towson University, but we are profiling Ashley Shepard, a senior North Carolina State gymnast who hails from my mom's hometown of Rock Hill, SC.

Shepard was born on Oct. 21, 1987, and she is a senior, majoring in microbiology.

Shepard who specializes on the floor exercise scored a 9.875 on the event against The University of New Hampshire last year.

Shepard also earned all-EAGL on the floor in 2007, and she received a third straight EAGL all-academic team honors last year.

For those of you from Rock Hill, Shepard is an alumnus of Northwestern High School, who have a HUGE rivalry with Rock Hill High School.

The Wolfpack gymnastics team faces UNC again on Friday. Two other schools will be at the meet as well.

Songs of Our youth (8 of 11)

"One Night in Bangkok" by Murray Head

For those wondering why the chess board, the song was originally part of a Broadway production called "Chess."

First Line of a Novel (Entry 6 of 11)

This line comes from the 1996 novel "Primary Colors" which was made into a movie with John Travolta and Emma Thompson. The front cover still says that the author is Anonymous, but it was revealed that it was penned by political reporter Joe Klein of "Time" and "Newsweek" fame. The fictional Southern governor running for president at the center of the plot was a fictional take on Bill Clinton. Here is the line:

"He was a big fellow, looking seriously pale on the streets of Harlem in deep summer. I am small and not so dark, not very threatening to Caucasians. I do not strut my stuff."

Celebrity Birthday- Ziyi Zhang is 30

Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang is 30 today.

She has appeared in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Memoirs of a Geisha," "2046," "Hero" and "The House of Flying Daggers."

We won't mention that she was also in "Rush Hour 2," or a former spokes model for the Korean mineral water 2%.

Quote of the Day_ Lauren Conrad

Right in time for Valentine's Day (eyes rolling):

"Love is not a maybe thing, you know when you love someone."

Six Degrees of Separation- Rin Tin Tin (Entry 7 of 11)

Today, we check out how many degrees of separation actor Kevin Bacon is from a golden star of the silent film era Rin Tin Tin, who is pictured above. This is the first time we have linked the star of "Footloose" and "A Few Good Men" to a dog!

Rin Tin Tin was in "The Show of Shows" with Ann Sothern in 1929. She was in "Crazy Mama" with Cloris Leachman in 1975 and she was "New York, I Love You" with Bacon in 2008.

Therefore, Rin Tin Tin is three degrees removed from Bacon.

During the research of this piece, we learned there is a modern-day Rin Tin Tin dog (www.rintintin.com) who does things like visit school children in Tulsa!

Coming this Weekend- Blogathon II

Yes, I will trying to play catch up again as we will attempt to post seven new entries both here and on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire."

I want to take a moment to congratulate the Radford University's men's basketball team for beating Winthrop University from Rock Hill, SC- which is my cousin Mike's alma mater.

Go highlanders!

Songs of Our Youth (7 of 11)

"Devil Inside" by INXS.

This song was also banned by K-92! And, some people still wonder why I'm a Democrat.

Songs of Our Youth (6 of 11)

"Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode.

This song was actually NOT played on our local top-40 station K-92 FM out of Roanoke, Va., when I was did because the station didn't want to to offend the Jesus People.

I find it ironic that I live in the heart of the Bible Belt, but I am not a religious person at all. Then again, I don't go to NASCAR races either.

Celebrity Birthday- Shelley Berman is 83

Today is the birthday of tv actress Morgan Fairchild (59) and cinema/tv actress Blthye Danner (66), who is also known as Ms. Paltrow's mom, but we chose to devout our celebrity birthday of the day to actor/comedian/writer/lecturer Shelley Berman, who I presume is one of the subjects in cartoonist Drew Friedman's book on Jewish comedians. Berman also has a recuring role on "Curb Your Enthuiasm" which garnered him an Emmy nomination. Speaking of Morgan Fairchild, does anyone remember the early 80s show "Flamingo Road?" Yeah, I didn't think so.