Happy New Year!!!

Let me be the first...well not THE first....to say happy new year! Welcome to 2008 (granted that is still three hours away as of this sentence).

I am currently, and for the fourth straight new years eve, bringing in the clean slate by hosting my New Year Countdown show at the radio station. Well, by "hosting" I mean I am sitting here enjoying a fine bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Margarita, some Miller High Life and some chips!

I wish I could say that I had great plans to ring in the new year! I know I have friends in California, Detroit, Florida, New York...and some just hanging in the bars in Champaign, IL ( have fun Becky!) But here I sit....I guess you could say that I am facilitator again this year!

So the plan is this...Drink...Play Music....Drink....Talk...Drink...Play Music....pretty simplistic. But, it' a format that has worked for me in the past.

I could always fly to New York and stand around forever! Or, I could sit here in Paxton, IL and rock out? Hard choice!

Time now to turn my attention to that bottle of Boone's and a little Gram Parsons to bring 2008 in with a little style ( well, style in the case of Gram!)

Entertainment Outlook 2008

I was just reading an article about one of the most anticipated movies of 2008 that you may or may not have heard of....

Cloverfield........

The brainchild of J.J. Abrams will be released on January 18th, 2008.....and as of now there isn't really a lot of information out there on this one! Which in this day and age is kind of refreshing.

What we do know is that according to an interview that the "Lost" genius gave at this year's Comic Con this is will be a uniquely US monster movie!

This won't be your dad's Godzilla....or hell your Godzilla. Sorry Matthew Brodrick! Although I do like that version...if I would feel the need to appoligize to anyone in the film for how bad it did my appology would go out to Jean Reno (The Professional).

This is going to be a knock down drag out old school monster movie with a '08 mentatility, and I don't even know what that means!.

You may remember seeing the previews before last years "Transformers"...if you were like me then you totally forgot about that trailer. It made no sense, offered little in the way of plot, and most importantly.......HAD NO MOVIE TITLE! Just, Coming 01.18.08

Brilliant to a point, but a kind of disaster to be honest....I was looking forward to finding out more on the movie at the time, but, with no title to go off of the thougth just slipped my mind.

Now I would have to say that it is up there on the list of films that I am looking forward to in 2008.

Others;

*Iron Man -- Downey Jr. is going to bring the Superhero movies to a new level
*Batman: Dark Knight -- Speaking of Superheros....if you have seen the trailer to this one I have two questions...
1) How great is it to see a franchise rise from the ashes the way Batman has?
2) Is Heath Ledger Channeling the spirit of (very much still alive) Jack Nichalson?
*In Bruges -- Colin Farrell and Brendon Gleeson (Harry Potter) working the comedy, priceless!
*Rambo -- Sadly I really want to see if Sly has another action film in him...I held off on Rocky Balboa. I guess if I am going to be let down, I may as well have it be in the film franchise that I care about.

I am sure that there are plenty of other films that look good...but these are the five that I have marked on my calander.

The "Fame Game"

Random Musing of the day....

How famous do you have to be to have your death moved from a Murder to and Assassination?

John F. Kennedy - obvious
Abe Lincoln - obvious
Benazir Bhutto - obvious

2Pac and Biggie -- ???
John Lennon -- ???

What is the impact level that your life must have in order to move from "just being another murder victim" to being assassinated? The news today of Former Prime Minister Bhutto assassination got me thinking on this subject.

In my mind, world leaders should be the only ones who get the assassination tag. Unless you are a "mega celebrity" who is killed while doing charity work....you were just unlucky enough to get killed.

I would have to say that the underlying criteria for being a victim of an “assassination” are as follows:

1) Did you lead, or have your own Country?
2) If killed will your death lead to the total collapse of a government, or economy?
3) Will your death alter the foreign policy of one or more countries?

If you are able to answer yes to any of the above three questions...then congrats…history will probably remember you as having been assassinated....GOOD FOR YOU!

More questions:

1) Will your death lead to a higher profit margin for a record label or movie studio?
2) Will most of your mourners be “friends” on MySpace or Facebook?
3) Did you ever have/star in a reality TV show?

If you answered yes to any of the above three questions…if history remembers you they will be talking about your Murder…not assassination!...Remember, your mom still thinks you're important, and that's something.

I guess you could call this a mini blog run…I go months without post and now two in three days! I may be on to something here…let’s see if I have it in me to blog on current events everyday. I would set the over under at just about a week and a half until I stop!

Things JK Eats...

Do yourself a service and stop reading this now! Head over to http://www.thingsjkeats.com/ !! It's a fantastic blog service provided by my buddy Justin (the "J" in things JK eats).

Here you will find a window to the soul of an everyman. They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. In this case the Window is more of a garbage chute!

Ever seen something in the store, or at your local fast food resturant and thought to yourself, "Self, I wonder if there was someone who could try this out for me before I throw down my $4.99 for a combo/bag of ______ (insert food here)." This is the place to go....if JK hasn't tried it...he may take the time to hunt down your nasty a$$ food item and do the experiment for you.

So far items to be "road tested" are: the New Philly Cheese Stake Thickburger from Hardee's; banana creme reese's cups; BK Fries and Ketchup "chips"; and a chicken product that I don't want to mention for fear that it would ruin the review!....among other items!

So there you go....I haven't mentioned a website in a good long time....hell I haven't even posted in a good long time. ....

So, Visit: http://www.thingsjkeats.com/ "As featured on the Joe Bradley afternoon Radio show on 104.9 FM WPXN, Paxton, IL"