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Subject: Reel 2 Reel Issue # 210 ~ Farewell 2 Bernie Mac! ~ Happy Birthday Will! - August16, 2008



Hey Adventureland Friends:

I want to dedicate this to the late but great funny
man Bernie Mac. It was immediately after sending the
newsletter last week that I learned of his passing.

It has been another very bad week here. My dryer has
been out for 2 weeks. This week Koda Bear took out my
microwave and my refridgerator died. What's next?

Anyway, sorry for the delay and please bare with me!

http://www.adventurelandvideo.com

Bravenet has recently unveiled new web building tools.
So I am eager to get started a web site for 2009. For
this reason, you may see random web site changes.

http://groups.google.com/group/adventureland-friends

This is our free members only community hosted by
Google. So far only two of you have joined. I hope to
welcome more of you aboard.

Our Shining Star is Wil Friedle of 'Boy Meets World'
fame. There he played the goofy big brother. Now he
can heard on Kim Possible as the voice of Ron.

The Snack Bar is a strange recipe that I had to share.
This popcorn treat gets its flavor from Jello. Think
about the various Jello mixes available.

I ran into a cool bookmark for you this week. Movie
Recipes is not what you would think. It is actually a
unique approach to movie reviews.

Blog Bytes has slowly cranked back to life. First, we
take a look at sex on TV. Then we here from new dad
Matthew on a lesser-known tradition.

Add yourself to our Birthday Alarm today. Then you
could find your name here with various celebrities.
Provide only the info you feel comfortable sharing.

http://www.clickaudit.com/goto/?36409

I just won a Fandango movie ticket. Before this I had
a $5 gift certificate. My sponsor won both as well. I
hope you sign-up today and win - because I will too.

http://www.blingo.com/friends?ref=LJt9EIXsXBaBuP-fW5DaMrkkYSk

+===================================+
!! TAKE THE HAMBURGER SURVEY TODAY !!
Share your opinion and participate in our offers to
receive a FREE $500 Gift Card!
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+===================================+
FIND SHOWTIMES @ ADVENTURELAND
http://adventurelandvideo.com
+===================================+
   <> <> <>  BOX OFFICE  <> <> <>
+===================================+
'POT HEADS' TAKE ON 'BATMAN' AND LOSE

Batman was higher than Hollywood's newest pot heads.
"The Dark Knight" took in $26 million to finish as #1
movie for the fourth straight weekend, beating the
"Pineapple Express," which opened in second place with
$22.4 million, according to studio estimates.

The weekend haul lifted Warner Bros. Batman sequel to
#3 on the all-time domestic box-office charts with
$441.5 million, behind "Titanic" ($600.8 million) and
the original "Star Wars" ($461 million).

The last movie to remain #1 for four consecutive
weekends was "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
King" in late 2003 and 2004, according to Media By
Numbers. That movie did it during a much slower time
of year, with nowhere near the competition "The Dark
Knight" has faced during Hollywood's busy summer.

"It's almost unheard of. Summer doesn't usually afford
films that much of a wide-open playing field," said
Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers.

"The Dark Knight" should surpass "Star Wars" to become
#2 on the revenue chart by this coming weekend.

However, numbers reflect today's higher admission
prices, and "Dark Knight" will not approach "Star
Wars" or "Titanic" in actual tickets sold. "Dark
Knight" would need to pull in $900 million to match
number of tickets sold for "Titanic" and $1.2 billion
to equal "Star Wars."

Even so, "Dark Knight" has far outdone the studio's
expectations. Dan Fellman, head of distribution, said
he would have been happy if the movie exceeded the
$205 million domestic total of "Batman Begins."

It should top out at $510 million to $520 million,
Fellman said.

"It has taken on a life of its own, and in doing so
got so much positive press and word of mouth that
older audiences who normally don't rush out to see
movies or maybe only see two, three movies a year are
coming out in large numbers," Fellman said. "It's a
question of 'We've been reading about this for three,
four weeks now. Let's go see what it's all about.'"

Since opening Wednesday, Sony's "Pineapple Express"
had taken in $40.5 million. Stars Seth Rogen as a pot
smoker on the run from crooks after he witnesses a
murder, with his lovably clueless dealer (James
Franco) in tow.

While "Pineapple Express" was unable to dislodge "The
Dark Knight," Sony executives were happy with a strong
#2 finish given the juggernaut the Batman flick has
become.

"Quite frankly, it's nice to know that everything else
is still kind of doing some business," said Rory
Bruer, Sony head of distribution. "We're so very
satisfied to be at $40 million-plus after five days.
You couldn't ask for more."

The weekend's other wide release, the Warner Bros.
sequel "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2,"
opened at No. 4 with $10.8 million, raising its total
to $19.7 million since debuting Wednesday.

The movie reunites gal pals America Ferrera, Amber
Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel and Blake Lively as the
foursome whose friendship is reinforced by the worn
pair of pants they share.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at
U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By
Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

01) "The Dark Knight" @ $26 million.

02) "Pineapple Express," $22.4 million.

03) "Mummy: Tomb of Dragon Emperor" @ $16.1 million.

04)  "Sisterhood of Travel Pants 2" @ $10.8 million.

05) "Step Brothers" @ $8.9 million.

06) "Mamma Mia!" @ $8.1 million.

07) "Journey to Center of Earth" @ $4.9 million.

08) "Hancock" @ $3.3 million.

09) "Swing Vote" @ $3.1 million.

10) "WALL-E" @ $3 million.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/
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   <> <> <>  NOW SHOWING  <> <> <>
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To be released on video December 2008.

PINEAPPLE EXPRESS

Starring:  James Franco, Seth Rogen, Danny R. McBride,
Amber Heard, James Remar, Bill Hader, Rosie Perez
Director:  David Gordon Green

Stoner Dale Denton visits his dealer Saul Silver to
purchase a rare weed called Pineapple Express. When
Dale becomes the only witness to a murder by a crooked
cop and the city's dangerous drug lord, he panics and
dumps his roach at the scene. Dale visits Saul to find
out if the weed is so rare that it can be traced back
to him. And it is. As Dale & Saul run for their lives,
they discover that they're not suffering from
weed-fueled paranoia; the bad guys really are hot on
their trail and trying to kill them both.

Rated R for pervasive language, drug use, sexual
references and violence.

"... it's a druggie comedy that made me laugh." -
Chicago Sun-Times,
Roger Ebert

"It?s a marijuana comedy that keeps shuffling genres,
like a stoned blackjack dealer." - Chicago Tribune,
Michael Phillips

http://www.ridetheexpress.com/

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   <> <> <>  COMING SOON  <> <> <>
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Opening August 20, 2008

THE ROCKER

Rainn Wilson stars as a failed former '80s hair band
drummer who unexpectedly gets a second chance at rock
n' roll glory.

Rated PG-13 for drug and sexual references, nudity and
language.

http://www.rockermovie.com/

Opening August 22, 2008

DEATH RACE

In the near future, prison inmates compete for their
freedom in a brutal, ultraviolent auto race using
heavily armed monster cars.

Rated R for strong violence and language.

http://www.deathracemovie.net/

Opening August 27, 2008

TRAITOR

Don Cheadle is a former U.S. Special Ops officer who
becomes the lead suspect in a dangerous international
conspiracy.

Rated PG-13 for intense violent sequences, thematic
material and brief language.

http://www.traitor-themovie.com/

Opening August 29, 2008

YEAR OF THE FISH

A rotoscope-animated modern-day Cinderella fairy tale
set in a seedy massage parlor in New York City's
Chinatown.

Not Rated

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809805886/

+===================================+
   <> <> <> SNEAK  PEAKS  <> <> <>
+===================================+



+===================================+
  <> <>  CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT  <> <>
+===================================+
WILLIAM ALAN FRIEDLE

DOB:  August 11, 1976 - Hartford, Connecticut

He is best known as the hilarious older brother, Eric
Matthews, on the long-running "Boy Meets World"
(1993-2000). Friedle began his acting career at the
age of five, in a production of Ibsen?s "A Doll?s
House." He soon landed commercials for Nintendo and
Skittles, and made a guest appearance on the drama,
"Law and Order." Starring on "Boy Meets World" opened
up a lot of other opportunities for Friedle in
Hollywood, and his list of credits includes the TV
movies "The Gift of Love" (1994), "Rescue Me" (1997),
"Trojan War" (1997), "My Date With the President?s
Daughter" (1998) and "H-E-Double Hockey Sticks!" in
1999.

NOTABLES:

Best friend is Jason Marsden and was best man at
Marsden's October 2004 wedding.

Favorite city is Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

One of his passions is traveling.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0295115/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Friedle
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800290899

+===================================+
   <> <> <>  SNACK BAR  <> <> <>
+===================================+
JELLO POPCORN

Ingredients:
12 Cups popped popcorn.
14 Ounce can fat free sweetened condensed milk
1 Small package sugar free raspbery flavored jello
(powder)

Cooking Instructions:
Preheat oven to 300. Line large shallow roasting pan
with heavy foil, extending foil over edges of pan.

butter foil, remove all unpopped kernals from popped
popcorn.

Pour popcorn into prepared pan. Keep warm in oven.

In med. sized saucepan, combine condensed milk, and
dry gelatin, heat and stir over medium heat until
mixture is slightly thickened and bubbly, 4-5 minutes.

Pour milk mixture over popcorn; with long handled
wooden spoon stir gently to coat.

Bake 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. carefully
turn out unto large piece of lightly buttered foil.

cool

break into pieces or clusters. store loosely covered
at room temperature.

Copyright ? 2002

http://www.whirleypop.com

+===================================+
   <> <> <>  BUDDY LIST  <> <> <>
+===================================+
!!! PAKADEVA'S FREEBEES !!!
This is the place ! Find real freebies, Interesting
finds, & contests ! Subscribe to enter & receive a
FREE phone card ! Check our Crafts, Natural Beauty &
Recipes pages. ( International )
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??? WANT SOMETHING FOR NOTHING ???
Free stuff with free shipping. If it's not clearly
free, it's not on Free N Clear! Freebies and samples
with no postage sent to you! We do the legwork, so you
don't have to.
http://www.freenclearstuff.com

+===================================+
  <> <> <>  BOOKMARKS   <> <> <>
+===================================+
MOVIE RECIPES

We ive you an idea about a movie by giving you the
?recipe? for that movie using other films as the
ingredients. Just the meat and potatoes. We figured
you people don?t need or want another rehashing of the
plot, performances, cinematography, or the score, so
we eliminated that crap. You decide for yourself if
you wanna see it. Sure, we give you a little part of
what we think about the movies. If you don?t agree
with our recipes, post your own in the comments. So
enjoy our recipes and hope you find movies to taste.

Your chefs,
Garrison L. & Jason J.

http://www.movie-recipes.com/
+===================================+
   <> <> <> AUCTION WATCH <> <> <>
+===================================+


+===================================+
  <> <> <>  BLOG BYTES  <> <> <>
+===================================+
STUDY: TV LIKES SEX, BUT NOT MARRIAGE

Marriage gets little respect on TV shows that revel in
extramarital and kinky sex. The study by Parents
Television Council includes a condemnation of TV,
"seems to be actively seeking to undermine marriage by
consistently painting it in a negative light." As for
references to pornography, sex toys and "kinky"
behavior, those are now common, the report said. ABC,
CBS, CW, Fox and NBC declined comment. Study analyzed
4 weeks of shows at start of the 2007-2008 season.

http://www.parentstv.org
http://www.commonsensemedia.org
http://www.TelevisionWatch.org

MATTHEW 2 PLANT SON'S PLACENTA

McConaughey says the birth of his son will bring joy
to others someday. Matthew kept the placenta from the
birth of his son and plans to plant it in an orchard.
It will fertilize the land, a ritual long followed in
several cultures. "It's going to be in the orchards
and it's going to bear wonderful fruit," he says. He
and girlfriend Camila Alves enjoy integrating Levi
into their lives. He attended his first concert.
"You're never told in our house, 'Shh, Levi is
sleeping.' No. Get used to the ambiance. Come with us.
That's how I was raised," he says.



8-year-old guitar wiz has reason to play the blues

Aug 12, 10:51 AM (ET)

By CARRIE ANTLFINGER

ELKHORN, Wis. (AP) - When Tallan "T-Man" Latz was 5,
he saw Joe Satriani playing guitar on TV. "I turned
around to my dad and said, 'That's exactly what I want
to do.'"

Three years and countless hours of practicing later,
8-year-old Tallan is a blues guitar prodigy. He's
played in bars and clubs, including the House of Blues
in Chicago, and even jammed with Les Paul and Jackson
Browne. He has a summer of festivals scheduled and has
drawn interest from venues worldwide.

And what, you might ask, would a kid not even in the
third grade have the blues about? The state of
Wisconsin for one, and some possibly jealous older
musicians for another.

An anonymous e-mail sent to state officials complained
that Tallan was too young to perform in taverns and
nightclubs because of state child labor laws. His
booking agent even got an anonymous letter threatening
her with death if she keeps booking him.

When Tallan's father read him the state's letter
saying he couldn't play clubs anymore (he can still
play festivals), the boy's response - like his music -
seemed beyond his years.

"He goes, 'It's not how many times you get knocked
down but it's how many times you get back up and go
forward,' Carl Latz said his son told him. "And I told
him that's exactly what this is all about and if
nothing else this letter just taught you a life
lesson."

The lesson can be stiff: Each day he performs, the
employer can be fined $25 to $1,000 and the parent
from $10 to $250.

Jennifer Ortiz of the state Equal Rights Division said
her agency has a responsibility to enforce the law
once it becomes aware of a violation.

"Well, the law prohibits it, and the Legislature
enacted the laws to protect the health, safety and
welfare of all children."

Latz, who also is Tallan's manager, has asked a
legislator for help changing the law but it's unclear
whether any action will be taken.

Latz received the letter a few days before Tallan was
to perform at Lil Downtown Lounge in suburban
Milwaukee, where club co-owner Michelle Boche said the
boy always packed the place when he sat in with other
musicians.

Latz claims that two weeks before getting the letter
he overheard local blues guitarist Jammin' Jimmy,
whose real name is James Kemeny, say Tallan shouldn't
be in a bar and he was going to turn him in.

Kemeny, who's been playing for 44 years, denied
badmouthing Tallan.

"It seems totally unbelievable that somebody would
even go to that extreme to send a letter to somebody,
let alone looking to find something about child labor
laws," Kemeny said.

Boche said she has received backlash from musicians
and area bar owners because she supports Tallan. Some
have tried to take patrons away, she said. Some even
called in fake incidents to police, causing them to
look for guns or underage drinkers, she said.

"If my doors close and I never open again and this boy
becomes successful, then I will be the happiest person
in the world," she said.

Tallan's agent, Sharon Pomaville, said she received a
threatening letter June 2 warning her to stop booking
the boy. She thinks he's a local musician and believes
he's harmless. Deputies came to her house, but she
didn't want to pursue the case.

Greg Koch, 42, an internationally known guitarist and
clinician for Fender Musical Instruments, called the
backlash despicable.

He said most 8-year-olds don't have the strength or
attention span to pursue guitar or can't endure the
calluses.

"It's strange that a kid at this age would glean onto
this particular kind of music and show the intensity
and kind of the ability to function as kind of
8-year-old blues guy," he said.

Brad Tolinski, editor-in-chief of Guitar World
magazine, said kid guitar prodigies are rare, with one
emerging perhaps every four or five years.

"It would be unusual to find an 8-year-old who can
play Joe Satriani licks," he said.

Carl Latz said there's no explanation for Tallan's
blues connection other than he seems to have an old
soul.

"I've had more people tell me, they say 'It's a kid's
body but it has a 70-year-old dude inside,'" Carl Latz
said.

Tallan, whose heroes are Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray
Vaughan, has 13 guitars and endorsements from at least
nine companies to use their equipment. He can read
music but plays mostly from memory.

He has two bands - one with veterans called T-Man's
Blues Project and another with 16-and-younger
bandmates called Tallan "The T-Man" Latz and the Young
Guns. He also sings and plays drums, harmonica, bass
and piano.

Tallan said he likes to play guitar to "put smiles on
people's faces" when they are having a bad day.

"It sounds awesome," he said. "I think it's so much
you can do on the guitar."

He knows 30 to 40 songs and someday hopes to write his
own. It was his idea to start playing in public.

"He drags me around," his dad said. "I don't drag him
around."

Tallan said the problems he's faced have doing nothing
to dampen his ambition to be a blues rock star when he
grows up. Just the opposite, in fact.

"Because I got more inspiration, I got more sadness in
me," Tallan said. "I'm just feelin' it."

---
http://www.tallanlatz.com/

Blobtown: Movie memories revitalize a community

Aug 12, 3:42 PM (ET)

By TED ANTHONY

PHOENIXVILLE, Pa. (AP) - There is a man. He carries a
can, and inside it is a weird, blood-red hunk of goo
the size and consistency of a generous bowl of lumpy
raspberry Jell-O.

Each summer, man and can climb into the car and drive
to a small town on the edge of the Philadelphia
suburbs, not far from where Washington spent that
bitter, long-ago winter in Valley Forge.

The town, Phoenixville, is a place of history, too.
Fifty years ago, this place was touched by the
spotlight. A small production company two towns over
made a film that no one expected to go anywhere.
Instead, it became one of the iconic sci-fi horror
flicks of the 1950s and introduced the world to an
actor named Steve McQueen.

In the movie, this happens: A mysterious hunk of
extraterrestrial gelatin kills a physician in his
home, menaces teenagers in a grocery store, surges
toward a crowd of people in a darkened theater and
engulfs a diner.


In real life, this happens: Each summer, hundreds of
locals and folks from as far away as Oregon and
Jamaica come to the center of Phoenixville. They visit
the house where the doctor "died," stop by the strip
mall where the market once stood, eat at the diner on
the site where the alien met its frozen end. And, on
Phoenixville's main drag, on a warm summer evening,
more than 400 of them run screaming from the same
theater, the Colonial, in a joyous re-enactment of the
movie's big scene.

The man and the can play starring roles in The Big
Weekend and its ocean of science-fiction fans and
weekend excursioneers. The man is Wes Shank, collector
of movie memorabilia. The can contains his showpiece,
the thing that gave rise to all the commotion in the
first place.

It is a miniature film prop, nothing more, a chunk of
silicone manufactured by Union Carbide in West
Virginia. But it is also the centerpiece of a story of
tourism and entertainment that, a half-century and six
manned moon landings later, refuses to go away.

All around the hunk of goo, something odd unfolds:
Because a movie was made long ago, because a town's
gotta do what a town's gotta do, a festival has risen.
A downtown has come back. A past has been leveraged -
a fictional past, but a past nevertheless.

Once, in 1958, "The Blob" came from beyond the stars
and brought death to Phoenixville. Today, just as
unexpectedly, it is bringing life.

---

"When you see something that was on film, it takes you
into the movie. It's almost like you are a character,"
says Dave Perillo, an artist from Swarthmore, Pa. He
has come to hawk his sci-fi caricatures at "Blobfest,"
Phoenixville's name for its annual street-fair
excursion into the blobosphere.

"These places," Perillo says, "are our new historic
sites for the ADD generation."

Entertainment can be an unpredictable beast. What
appears up on the big screen - some of it, at least -
was created in real places. And sometimes, because of
the fiction, those real places begin to change.

In Scotland, an ancient castle has become a pilgrimage
site because part of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
was filmed there. In Dyersville, Iowa, the baseball
diamond carved from cornfields for "Field of Dreams"
draws fans who consider it a real ballpark. Mount
Airy, N.C., has taken pains to make itself feel like
Mayberry, the quintessential small town from "The Andy
Griffith Show." And the bar exterior from "Cheers,"
once called the Bull and Finch, has renamed itself;
these days, it's "Cheers Beacon Hill."

We live in a land of big stories, in an age where
entertainment trumps most everything. So events like
Blobfest become natural leisure options at a time when
towns need to stand out, to become on-site theme parks
and draw tourist dollars.

And here in the cradle of American independence, where
real-life history is everywhere, why shouldn't
fictional history become something tangible?

"History, the Liberty Bell, the significance of it
gets lost of me," says Ellen Plummer of Portland,
Maine. "This," she says, "is more real."

She is walking up Bridge Street in Phoenixville with
her boyfriend, Rick Naratil, a native who moved away
years ago. He remembers, at 5, seeing "The Blob" on TV
and thinking, hey - that's the theater where I watch
Disney movies.

While the diner and other filming locations draw
gawkers during Blobfest, the Colonial Theater is the
epicenter of all things blob. Inside, sci-fi flicks
play to enthusiastic audiences, and people at the
edges of fame like Kris Yeaworth, son of "Blob"
director Shorty Yeaworth, discuss the intricacies of
filming the movie originally titled "The Molten
Meteor."

Outside, the blobbery takes on as many forms as
creativity and entrepreneurial savvy allow.

There is the wooden blob cutout that allows you to
poke your head through a hole and pretend you're being
swallowed by its unearthly maw. There are the actual
fire truck and the 1950 Ford coupe that McQueen drove
in the movie. Outside the pizza parlor opposite the
theater, the proprietors have created their own
creamy, oozy pink mass, confined to a garbage bin for
the moment.

And there is the parade, led by a
fire-extinguisher-wielding grand marshal dressed as
McQueen, whose James Dean-like teenage leading man
figured out that its frozen contents were lethal to
the creature. The lookalike leads an unholy Conga line
around the theater marquee while discharging bursts of
carbon dioxide skyward.

Only in America, you might say. But there's more here
than meets the eye.

"Visitors bring their own imagination with them," says
Sue Beeton, author of a critical study called
"Film-Induced Tourism." She admits: She's been moved
to tears by sites she's visited that figure in her
favorite stories.

"Often, simply being in a place is sufficient
'touchstone' for their experience," Beeton writes in
an e-mail from Australia, where she teaches.

"People often respond extremely personally and
passionately to film," she says. "For many, their
journeys verge on a pilgrimage."

---

Phoenixville, once home to an enormous steel mill,
seems an unlikely place for a modern entertainment
pilgrimage, but hundreds of "Blob" fans can't be
wrong.

The town may have been idyllic in the movie, but a
decade ago Phoenixville's main drag was dragging. The
mill had closed, putting 2,000 people out of work.
Storefronts were shuttered. There were problems with
drug dealers and prostitutes. The Colonial was
operating, but barely. "Those were really rough
times," says Mayor Leo Scoda.

Then Mary Foote came along.

Foote, a community organizer, noticed that the
Colonial was for sale. Its previous owners hadn't done
much with it, which wasn't a bad thing: The theater
hadn't been split into cramped "twins" like so many of
its small-town counterparts.

Foote led a nonprofit consortium called the
Association for the Colonial Theater, which bought the
property and began restoring it. The focus was drawing
entertainment to Phoenixville; the blob didn't figure
in until later.

"A gem like this can transform a community," says
Foote, sitting in her office on the theater's second
floor. In the background, the movie's jaunty theme
song, "Beware of the Blob," plays in a continuous
loop. But, Foote allows, "There's gotta be a lot of
stuff - not just a blob."

Slowly, around the theater, downtown began to come
back. New restaurants like Molly Maguire's opened (it
donates to the theater $1 of each $8.95 "Colonial BLT"
it sells), as did a gourmet cafe and places like
Phoenix Karate, which teaches martial arts to kids.

When McQueen walked these streets in front of Shorty
Yeaworth's camera, he moved through a Phoenixville
that was the picture-perfect 1950s movie small town.
It felt much farther from a big city than it really
is. Today, as Phoenixville resurges, it is taking on
that feeling again - a 2008 twist on Eisenhower-era
America, surprisingly, and ironically, authentic.

Modeling one's self after film can be thorny; real
history can get lost. But it's hard to find a downside
in Phoenixville. The chain of custody is pretty basic.
Theater came back. Community leveraged blob. Business
resurged. Downtown got safer. Everybody's happy.

Even now, almost a decade into Blobfest, a bemusement
remains about the enthusiasm generated by the
alien-visitation tale filmed the summer before Sputnik
was launched.

"I take the ride. But do I get it? No," Foote
acknowledges. "The volunteers who work all year, half
of them don't get it. They say, 'Why do they come?'"

Karin Williams, who does PR for the Phoenixville
Chamber of Commerce, echoes many along Bridge Street
when she assesses the whole affair: A community
identifiable by something purely pop-cultural isn't a
bad thing amid the static of the 21st century.

"It puts our little town out there," she says. "It's
something that Phoenixville can own."

---

If you're one of the lucky few, the man will let you
reach into the can and actually touch the blob. It's
sticky. It smells like flypaper. It oozes. Pull your
fingers away - SQUIRSH - and a perfect set of prints
are left behind.

Some wonder if the blob was intended as an allegory.
Think about it: It's the 1950s, and an enormous red
mass is overrunning and suffocating the idyll of Main
Street America.

Yeaworth's son and others scoff. But there's another
take from a new DVD edition of "The Blob": Film
historian Bruce Kawin suggests the creature is a
"hungry mass - comparable to if not incarnating the
growing consumerism of 1950s America." For moviegoers
in 1958, he says, "their complacent desire to stuff
themselves with goods and good times had shown itself
to be a monster."

We are consumers above all, and now more than ever we
buy good times. Viewed through this prism, is
Phoenixville's Blobtown persona that far removed from,
say, Universal Studios Hollywood? One, built for
fantasy, became a tourist attraction; one, built for
the real world, was used once for fantasy and became a
tourist attraction.

Blobfest is the real and the movie, America and
Hollywood, all at once. And that fits the modern
American identity.

Our ancestors stamped monuments to themselves onto the
physical landscape - the Lincoln Memorial, the Empire
State Building, the Grand Coulee Dam, the Interstate
Highway System. These days, some of our most cherished
monuments are less solid - the stories we bring to
life in movies, TV shows, videogames.

So we flock to Walt Disney World as eagerly as to
Washington, D.C., to Universal Studios Hollywood as
ravenously as to the Grand Canyon. We buy flex passes
to places that re-create the experience of big-screen
storytelling before our eyes. And some of us even
traverse the landscape looking for movie sites so we
can submerge themselves in the cool waters of
entertainment.

Dave Perillo, the artist, has scoured the land for his
favorite film locales. He's walked the streets of San
Francisco to find Hitchcock's "Vertigo," seen the L.A.
bowling alley from "The Big Lebowski," tracked down
the corners of coastal New Jersey that Kevin Smith
used in "Clerks." At each, he revels in the sheer
movieness of it all - as do enough Americans to create
a market for gazetteers of fantasy like "The Worldwide
Guide to Movie Locations."

And in the era of the war on terror, for one moment on
one evening in Phoenixville, the fear of attack by
outsiders becomes just another thrill. Modern
entertainment pilgrims get to run out of a theater and
into the night, screaming as though their lives
depended on it and having fun all the while.

Going to the movies is no longer enough; we must climb
in and consume them, wherever that journey leads. Even
to Phoenixville. And so many years later, in the very
town it tried to consume, the blob has met its match:
a roving band of 21st-century American consumers,
weaned on entertainment, who are hungrier than it ever
was.


+===================================+
  <> <> <>  DVD SHOWCASE  <> <> <>
+===================================+
START SHOPPING @ ADVENTURELAND
http://adventurelandvideo.com
+===================================+
   <> <> <>  NOW SHOWING  <> <> <>
+===================================+
THE BANK JOB

Starring:  Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Daniel
Mays, Stephen Campbell Moore, James Faulkner, Alki
David, Michael Jibson  Director:  Roger Donaldson

Terry always avoided major-league scams. But when
Martine offers him a lead on a bank hit, Terry
recognizes the opportunity. Martine targets safe
deposit boxes. But Terry and his crew don't realize
the boxes contain dirty secrets - secrets that will
thrust them into a deadly web of corruption and
scandal that spans London's criminal underworld,
British government, and the Royal Family itself.

Rated R for sexual content, nudity, violence and
language.

"A no-frills movie about a real-life heist that
delivers old-fashioned thrills." - Entertainment
Weekly,
Owen Gleiberman

"A masterful narrative full of odd twists and dark
humor." - Los Angeles Times,
Kevin Crust

http://www.thebankjobmovie.com/

PENELOPE

Starring:  Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Reese
Witherspoon, Peter Dinklage, Catherine O'Hara, Richard
E. Grant, Simon Woods Director:  Mark Palansky

Christina Ricci stars as Penelope, a lonely heiress
who has spent her entire life trying to break a
strange family curse that left her with the nose of a
pig. When she meets a charming aristocrat who seems to
see beyond her appearance, Penelope begins to learn
that loving herself is more important than breaking
the curse.

Rated PG for thematic elements, some innuendo and
language.

"Ricci makes us feel the sting of an overly critical
society..." - Chicago Tribune,
Matt Pais

"This fairy tale feels pleasantly down-to-earth." -
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
Sean Axmaker

http://www.penelopethemovie.com/

+===================================+
   <> <> <>  COMING SOON  <> <> <>
+===================================+
To be released on video August 19, 2008.

THE LIFE BEFORE HER EYES

Starring:  Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood, Eva Amurri,
James Urbaniak, Molly Price, Brett Cullen, Maggie
Lacey   Director:  Vadim Perelman

Based on the best-selling novel by Laura Kasischke,
Life Before Her Eyes is a dramatic thriller about
Diana, a suburban wife and mother who begins to
question her perfect life -- and her sanity -- on the
15th anniversary of a tragic high school shooting that
took the life of her best friend.

Rated R for violent and disturbing content, language
and brief drug use.

"...the story wanders agitatedly..." - Entertainment
Weekly,
Lisa Schwarzbaum

"...not a complete bomb." - Seattle
Post-Intelligencer,
Bill White

http://www.lifebeforehereyes.com/

To be released on video October 7, 2008.

THE HAPPENING

Starring:  Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John
Leguizamo, Betty Buckley, Spencer Breslin, Ashlyn
Sanchez  Director:  M. Night Shyamalan

From director M. Night Shyamalan comes a
lightning-paced, heart-pounding paranoid thriller
about a family on the run from an inexplicable and
unstoppable event that threatens not only humankind...
but the most basic human instinct of them all:
survival.

Rated R for violent and disturbing images.

"It's official: M. Night Shyamalan is no longer the
next Spielberg." - filmcritic.com,
Bill Gibron

"Shyamalan isn't drawing the caliber of performances
from his actors as he used to." - USA Today,
Claudia Puig

http://www.thehappeningmovie.com/

+===================================+
  <> <> <>  SPORTS FLIX  <> <> <>
+===================================+
FOOTBALL MOVIES:

RUDY (1993)

Rudy has always been told that he was too small to
play college football. But he is determined to beat
the odds and play for Notre Dame.

AIR BUD: GOLDEN RECEIVER (1998)

Now in the 8th Grade, Josh discovers he has a great
throwing arm and tries out for the football team. Soon
after his athletic dog Buddy joins the team.

ANGELS IN THE ENDZONE (1997)

The football team Jesse is on is terrible, after the
death of his dad Jesse quits the team. Then angels
come to help them but Jesse's brother can see them.

LITTLE GIANTS  (1994)

Football star Kevin now coaches pee-wee football. When
Kevin excludes his niece, Becky, she convinces her dad
Danny to coach a team, and beat Kevin's team.

VARSITY BLUES  (1999)

In small-town Texas, high school football is a
religion. The head coach is deified as long as the
team is winning.

THE WATER BOY  (1998)

The coach discovers the lowly water boy for his
college football team has an amazing talent for
tackling people much bigger than him.

BASKETBALL MOVIES:

HOOSIERS  (1986)

A college basketball coach leaves the Navy in 1951 and
becomes coach of an underdog Indiana high-school team.

COACH CARTER  (2005)

True story of a high school basketball coach who
benched his undefeated team because of poor grades.

LUCK OF THE IRISH  (2002)

A teenager must battle for a gold charm to keep his
family from being controlled by an evil leprechaun.

A SEASON ON THE BRINK  (2002)

Chronicles Hoosier's 1985-86 season, when Bob Knight
granted author John Feinstein access to the team.

BLUE CHIPS  (1994)

A college coach is forced to break the rules in order
to get the players he needs to stay competitive.

+===================================+
   <> <>  STEALS & DEALS  <> <>
+===================================+
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have not been added to the web site. So they can only
be found here for now. Hope you like them. - Paul

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+===================================+
  <> <> <>  NEWS & NOTES  <> <> <>
+===================================+
OFFICIAL ELVIS & PRISCILLA BARBIES:

The marriage didn't last, but that day is special
still. Now, Elvis fans have the official,
Graceland-approved Elvis & Priscilla wedding dolls.
Angel Durham waited all night to be the first to hand
over $65 for a boxed set of dolls. The official
unveiling of the dolls were staged as part of
Graceland's anniversary of Elvis' death. Brenda Moore
offered the high bid of $6,800 when a set was
auctioned for Presley Place, an apartment building for
homeless families. Fans were treated to wedding cake
and orange juice.

GANIS RE-ELECTED AS AMPAS PRESIDENT

Sid Ganis was elected to a fourth consecutive one-year
term as president of the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences. The 68-year-old Ganis, president
since 2005, calls the job "a privilege." He produced
films such as "Akeelah and the Bee," "Big Daddy" and
"Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo." He's also worked for
Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Lucasfilm. Ganis
has been a member of the film academy since 1968.

http://www.oscars.org

CRUISE PARTNER LEAVING UNITED ARTIST

Tom Cruise's producing partner Paula Wagner said she
will leave as chief executive of United Artists to
produce projects independently. Wagner will continue
to co-own the studio with Cruise and "be attached to
UA's most exciting film properties,"
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. added in a statement. Cruise
and Wagner were brought in to head UA in November
2006. She said she still believes in the vision she
and Cruise have for the film studio that was formed 90
years ago by Hollywood actors. "I am proud of all that
we've accomplished in the past two years," she said.

DONALD TRUMP TO BE ED MCMAHON'S LANDLORD

Donald Trump will save Ed McMahan's Beverly Hills
mansion from foreclosure by buying and leasing it to
McMahon. The developer told Los Angeles Times he
doesn't know McMahon, but acted out of compassion
because helping out "would be an honor." McMahon was
Johnny Carson's sidekick on the "Tonight" show for 3
decades. He defaulted on $4.8 million in loans with
Countrywide. "When I was at the Wharton School of
Business I'd watch him every night," Trump said.
McMahon bought the 6 bed/5 bath home in 1990. The home
was listed at $4.6 million.




+===================================+
   <> <> <>  REEL TALK  <> <> <>
+===================================+

+===================================+
   <> <> <>  TRADE TALK <> <> <>
+===================================+

+===================================+
   <> <> <>  TECH TALK  <> <> <>
+===================================+

+===================================+
  <> <> <>  PAUL'S PICKS  <> <> <>
+===================================+
THE DERBY STALLION (2005)

An alcoholic former horse-trainer perceives in a
fifteen-year-old boy a unique gift of horsemanship and
makes it possible for the boy to conceive his dream
and pursue it.

http://www.thederbystallion.com/

*****

This heartwarming tale of truth, love and courage is a
must see for the entire family. Kids will want to see
but parents may hesitate. Don't - because you will
enjoy and this should be seen as a family.

A half-hearted baseball player (there to please his
dad) forms an unlikely friendship with an old drunk
(soothing his own pain). Together they break-free of
their own prisons.

Bill Cobbs is horse training legend Houston Jones. As
a teen, he had hidden his love for a white gal. So he
knows the cross that Patrick bares for living a lie.

Patrick finds himself drawn to Jones and his horses.
Seeing the boy has a horse sense, Jones buys him a
horse and unleashes the champion inside.

As you may have guessed, this movie has a great deal
to teach - both kids and adults. To quote Dr. Phil -
find your "authentic self" and your "personal truth."



+===================================+
   <> <>  TIME CAPSULE  <> <>
+===================================+
August 16, 1993 - Harvey Weinstein was rescued from a
pit. He had been there 2 weeks while being held for
ransom.

August 19, 1921 - Gene Roddenberry was born in El
Paso, Texas. Roddenberry worked as an airline pilot.
Later, he created Star Trek.

August 20, 1939 - Johnny Weissmuller married Beryl
Scott.

August 21, 1984 - Clint Eastwood was given a star on
the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

August 23, 1926 - Rudolph Valentino died. He was 31
and had been a silent film star.


+===================================+
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the action. Get your Free Toshiba HDTV/DVD combo
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+===================================+

The house deal is back on track. I recruited some new
players for added insight. Then my mom pulled out an
ace -- an old friend secretly in the business.

After much consultation and this new insight, the last
hurdle looks easy. We thought what loomed ahead would
be a deal breaker. So I sister started fizzle out.

See you next week. Hopefully, I will have better idea
of our plans. But I should be here through this month.
And probably through atleast part of september.

Paul @ Reel 2 Reel

To comment on this issue, simply hit reply or find
this issue on our blog and post your comment there. Or
send me an email to advland@live.com.











































































































































































































































































































































































































































Make tonight a movie or game night!
http://adventureland.moviefever.com








<< August09, 2008 - Reel 2 Reel Issue # 209 ~ How about a little late? August22, 2008 - Reel 2 Reel Issue # 211 ~ Farewell Mr. Harrison! >>
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