Birthday Femme Fatale on Friday: Nastia Liukin

 Born in Moscow Russia, Nastia Liukin would become an American Sweetheart in Gymnastics, today she turns 31. 🎉🏆💝

Liukin began studying gymnastics at only 3, both her parents were coaches and she was, "always hanging around the gym" both literally and figuratively.

Even though she missed qualifying for the 2004 Olympics by being 10 months too young, her career in both Junior and Senior competition is nothing short of legendary.

She earned 15 Gold Medals, 14 Silver and 3 Bronze, throughout the Olympics, Pan-Am Games, Pan-Rim Games and Nationals.

Even after a possible career ending ankle injury in 2007, she still competed and won gold for several years.

Liukin has become an analyst for Gymnastics broadcasts starting in 2012 for NBC Sports.

In 2009 she began the Nastia Liukin Fund, that aids gymnastics programs across the United States in conjunction with the, USA Gymnastics and since 2010, ALL net proceeds from their programs go to the fund.

In 2010 she began the Nastia Liukin Cup, an annual competition for gymnasts up to Level 10, for both Junior and Senior competitors.  The competition always takes place on the Friday prior to the AT&T American Cup.

In 2015 she published her autobiography titled, Finding My Shine.

Liukin has tested the waters of film and television as well as being featured on the 2015 season of, Dancing With the Stars, where she made it to the semi-finals.

The incredible talent and heart of this young woman has inspired little girls to grow, strive and achieve.  Her grace and beauty has amazed and won the hearts of fans across the world.

Happy Birthday, Nastia 💘

Happy Birthday to The Gill Man

 Only three days from Halloween and we celebrate a man behind a mask, of one of the most iconic monsters in cinema history, actor, Ben Chapman, who would have been 93 today.

Chapman was born in Oakland California on October 29th 1928.  He would serve in the 1st Marine Division of the United States Marines and becoming a Real Estate Executive before being cast as the, Creature From the Black Lagoon.

Stories would circulate that Chapman won numerous honors as a Marine but unfortunately these would prove to be false, the origin of the stories is unknown, but he did serve his country with distinction and was awarded and honorable discharge after serving in the Korean War.

Chapman would be cast as the creature due to his large stature of 6'5", which was huge for his day in Hollywood, producers wanted a very imposing creature, and Chapman was, on the land anyway.  Local Florida diver, Ricou Browning would be cast as the creature underwater.  If you look at the picture above, you will see the chest plate of Chapmans suit, the center pieces were not there on Brownings much smaller suit, but you'd never notice the difference until you could see them side by side, of which NO photo exists.

To fans, Chapman was known, as he was with the cast, a gentle giant.  He would go on to make hundreds of appearances at conventions and collector shows, greeting fans from around the world with a smile as big as the man.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon remains one of the most beloved of the Universal Monsters franchise and is arguably the most marketed of all the monsters, he even had his own slot machine in Las Vegas casinos.

The film was unique to the franchise due to its release in 3-D and also that it was one of the first ones released to television syndication.

Along with finding it on the DVD/BluRay sets, a behind the scenes feature called, Back to the Black Lagoon, can be found on Youtube and is well worth the watch.

Happy Birthday, Mr Ben Chapman, you are still loved and dearly missed. 

Atlanta Braves brining home Vindication

 CONGRATS to the Atlanta Brave for making it to the World Series!!!

However, their appearance in baseballs grandest stage isn't without controversy, not due to steroids or stealing signs but because of it's logo, name and chop at games.

After the 2021 All Star Game was moved to Colorado due to Georgia's desire for honest elections, the democrats called foul and forced the game to be moved to Denver Colorado.  Atlanta is 51% black, Denver (the most minority free MLB city) is 76% white, but the game was moved to support "diversity".... yeah, doesn't make any damn sense to me either.

Once again the brainless fools of "cancel culture" have ramped up their whining and crying over what they claim "offends" American Indians, even though all those who are whining and crying seem to be about as American Indian as, lifetime liar, Elizabeth Warren.

Back in the late 80's and through the 90's I spent a lot of time in Atlanta and attended 300+ games over the years, and I would occasionally see people protesting the Braves caricature like mascot, as well as the team name and other American Indian symbols but never saw an actual American Indian doing any protesting.  ALL of the "protesters" I saw were, pasty white folk, most of which looked like they had never  even picked up a bat, ball and/or glove, they were just grandstanding and making noise.

America is infested with "cancel culture" and people claiming to be "social justice warriors" who really only come off as whining and uneducated fools.  I have yet to engage a single one that has any real substance to their argument, with the exception of the Washington Football Teams former name, the "Redskins", as that was used far too often as a diversive slur, so I supported that name change, but the Cleveland and Atlanta baseball franchises have nothing to apologize for and therefor, no need to change anything.  

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH from these pompous and petulant, overgrown infants with the thinnest skin in the history of mankind...er, humankind... whatever!  Sports is supposed to be an escape from such simpleton nonsense.  Let's leave sports out of politics and especially, let's leave politics out of sports.

GOOD LUCK BRAVES!!!

MRM : Disney's Lone Ranger: Wild West Wipeout

 

Today's Disney is a sad and pale comparison to it's days of greatness, no film is a better example of this than Disney's attempt at bringing one of the most hallowed and legendary wild west myths to life, The Lone Ranger.

The film was an abomination to the motion picture industry and a disgraceful insult to the American Legend.

One of the worst parts was the casting of, then red hot actor, Johnny Depp to play American Indian character, Tonto, to the loud objections of the masses to cast an actual American Indian in the role rather than just another Hollywood actor.  Depp's character was overplayed and many times seemed to be more of a focus of the film than others, including the namesake of the film.  Depp was, one of the few times, out of his element and really lost on how to portray the character.

The outlandish situations in the story and characters in the film would have been far better put in a sequel to the Will Smith & Kevin Kline hit, Wild Wild West, which was based on such things.

The Helena Bonham Carter character, Red would have been a perfect fit for the second WWW film, as would Disney's interpretation of the lead horse, Silver, who sometimes seemed to believe he was a bird. 

Disney is truly lost, the best they can do in today's market is to repeat stories they have told in the past and to buy out other franchises and characters, rather than telling classic stories in the Disney way.  Creativity has been completely replaced for the sole desire to make money, not understanding that they will never see the revenue they would under the way Walt did it.

I greatly fear for the day that Disney decides to modernize their classic, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, forcing modern political and social issues into the classic tale from Jules Verne, it only seems a matter of time.

Walt Disney's path was to unite the greatest film makers and creative minds that he could, to come up with the greatest creations and telling of tales that would spark the imagination and creativity of audiences, but there seems to be no talent or creativity in the modern Disney company at all.

Disney's telling of, The Lone Ranger couldn't get a lower rating from me, it's one of the worst films that I've ever seen, and being that I grew up watching the reruns of Clayton Moore as the legendary masked man, I consider the film as an insult to Mr. Moore and the legacy he worked so hard to give to the character.

Peggy Carter : The Power Broker

 

Being sick at home 🤧 and watching movie marathons does have one good thing about it, you come up with some really great, if not slightly crazy, ideas for those characters and film franchises. 😵‍💫

Since Steve Rogers went back in time, to return the stones in Endgame, he decided to live out his life with the love of his life, but what else happened?  What if this part of life is what would create the opportunity for Peggy Carter’s niece to become, The Power Broker, in the MCU we know?

After a bit of a “honeymoon period” Steve and Peggy decide to get back to fighting the evil in the world and, in secret form, The Invaders, with Namor, the original Human Torch (no sidekick), the Whizzer, Union Jack and even having Peggy occasionally suit up as a female, Union Jack.

Doing all this completely under the radar would expand Carters connections and end up giving those connections to her niece, who uses it a bit different than her aunt.  

This makes the younger Carter being “The Power Broker” a lot more believable than just another agent who just happens to gain all this… 

This kind of project is what could fulfill the rumors and lure Chris Evans back to his star spangled role, more adventures as a younger Cap in WWII, which would be awesome.  This would allow seeds to be planted for things that are or will pop up in the current MCU.

After Marvel gets things worked out over Fox and the X-Men we could see Captain America’s adventure in Madripoor with Wolverine from back in the day.

Not having The Invaders and officially having, The Howling Commando’s in the MCU was a big mistake and could make for some great movies and build the Captain America legacy that it deserves.