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San Diego Comic-Con Round-Up

This is Secret Agent M reporting. Comic-Con is officially over. Beside more pictures of great costumes and booths, below you will find highlights of the induction of Sylvester Stallone to the Action Hero Hall of Fame, the annual Zombie Walk, and SYFY/EW’s red carpet event. For those who followed all the Comic-Con news, I was no where near Hall H and know nothing about the guy who stabbed the other guy in the eye because he was sitting too close to him at a panel.

Now to the fun stuff:

Whiplash from Iron Man.

Joker from “The Killing Joke” and Harley Quinn.

Drew Struzan: Movie poster artist of Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones fame.

A Land Down Under, and a Coincidence

We thought you all might enjoy a morning wake up song. Or to put it another way: Get to work!

Holy cow! I had just put that bit of the post up, then went to look for an interesting bit of extra info about Men at Work—and found this:

Men at Work star Greg Ham fears he’ll be forced to “sell his house” to pay out royalties for their 1980s hit Down Under after the band lost a copyright battle over the song.

A judge in Australia has ruled that the flute solo in the track samples parts of Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree, a song written by an music teacher for the Girl Guides in 1934.

The song’s composers, Colin Hay and Ron Strykert, will have to pay bosses at Larrikin music publishers five per cent of the song’s proceeds dating back to 2002, as well as royalties from future earnings. […]

No one detected it – I didn’t detect it and I played the f***ing thing. I was looking for something that sounded Australiana – that’s what came out – it was never Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.

I must be a bit psychic today.

Here’s the Kookaburra song, done with the Aussie dance that Aussie kids do to the song. Let us know what you think: Can you hear how the flute part in “Land Down Under” might have borrowed from it?

Happy Summer, Everyone

It is the Summer Solstice, the day with the most hours of sunlight in the year (in the Northern Hemisphere), and the very first day of summer. Bring on the sun, the heat, the bbqs, the parades, the camping trips, the ants, the snakes, the scraped knees and the burnt skin – and don’t forget the swimming!

To get us all in the mood, here’s the great Loudon Wainwright III, with “The Swimming Song.”

Here’s the lyrics, if you feel like swimming along

RIP Jimmy Dean

Mr. Jimmy Dean has gone to that great sausage maker in the sky:

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Jimmy Dean, a country music star known for his hit about a workingman hero, ”Big Bad John,” and an entrepreneur known for his sausage brand, died on Sunday. He was 81.

His wife, Donna Meade Dean, said her husband died at their Henrico County, Va., home.

We always admired Mr. Dean hear at the BRI—and not just because of “Big Bad John.” We wrote a little something about him some years ago in an article about people who had made the Big Time—despite not having done a lot of schooling:

The singer-songwriter left school at 16 and joined the Merchant Marines. He knew that fame could be fleeting, so after his prime-time TV variety show ran its course, he founded the Jimmy Dean Sausage Company and kept his TV appearances to folksy sausage commercials. He sold the company to Sara Lee in 1991, but is still chairman of the board.

And oh man, check this out, Jimmy doing that great song must have been just a year ago or so:

RIP: Lynn Redgrave

Actress Lynn Redgrave has passed away at age 67:

Our beloved mother Lynn Rachel passed away peacefully after a seven-year journey with breast cancer. She lived, loved and worked harder than ever before. The endless memories she created as a mother, grandmother, writer, actor and friend will sustain us for the rest of our lives. Our entire family asks for privacy through this difficult time.

Happy Fifth Anniversary, YouTube

On this date five years ago the very first video ever was uploaded to internet video behemoth YouTube. It was created by YouTube cofounder Jawed Karim, and is just 19 seconds long. And I know it might be difficult to believe, with the millions of horrible rotten awful just plain dumb videos that have been uploaded to the site in the time since, but this very first video just might be The Most Boring YouTube Video…Ever. Even more boring than this one, which, you might like to know, is titled, “The Most Boring YouTube Video…Ever.” Go ahead. Watch and decide for yourself:

Happy Anniversary, YouTube

Today is the fifth anniversary of the very first video upload to internet video behemoth YouTube. It’s just 19 seconds long and was made by YouTube cofounder Jawed Karim. And I know itit might be hard to believe, with the millions of horribly awful videos that have been uploaded to the site over the last five years, but this very first one is a strong contender for The Most Boring Video in YouTube History. I kid you not. Watch:

Happy Birthday, Arnold Layne

Today is the anniversary of the 1967 release of the very first song by the great British psychedlic-rock (and so much more) band, Pink Floyd. The song was Arnold Layne, written and sung by Syd Barret. It’s about a guy who steals women’s clothes from washing lines and wears them. He is unfortunately caught doing this, and “doors bang, chaingang.” Poor Arnold. Wikipedia has quite a bit of information on the song here.

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