Bizarro Not Leap the frog!

Here's a pretty cute story from the Leapfrog Superman module.

Me not like this story.  You not like it either!

Records from Regulus

In our never-ending battle to share records from the popular culture to the topic of Flying Saucers and the Space Race, we bring you Records from Regulus.

Here are the tracks:
1 Man from Mars Ferrante and Teicher 1955


2 Those Funny Little Saucers in the Sky Dr Danny Hart of the Church of Soul-Truth 1958

3 Take Me to Your Leader Cha Cha Cha Sam Space and the Cadettes 1958

4 What Do You Hear from the Red Planet Conried-Pearce 1959

5 The Girl from the Fourth Dimension Sheldon Allman 1960

6 Space Mice Walter Brennan 1960

7 Sky Men Geoff Goddard 1963

8 Hootenanny on Mars Randy Starr and the Merry Martians 1964

9 You Came from Outer Space The Kirby Stone Four 1964

10 Mr Spaceman The Byrds 1966

11 The Invaders Are Here Mike Adkins 1967

12 Urban Spaceman Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band 1968

13 Space Oddity David Bowie 1969

14 It Came Out of the Sky Creedence Clearwater Revival 1970

15 Space Buggy Asleep At The Wheel 1973

16 I've Seen the Saucers Elton John 1974

17 Flying Saucer Attack The Rezillos 1977

18 The Flying Saucer Man and the Truck Driver Red Simpson 1979

19 Thing from Another World Marlin Wallace 1981

20 Rocket Ship Kathy McCarty 1988

21 I Saw Elvis in a U.F.O. Ray Stevens 1989

22 Humans From Earth T-Bone Burnett 1991

23 Background Background 2000

24 I Want an Alien for Christmas Fountains of Wayne 2005

25 Heck, I'd Go Maria Muldaur 2006

26 Flying Saucer U F O with Dee Dee Bridgewater 2006


I must say that this is some fun stuff, and I hope you like it.


Here is the link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LTYSBH70

Sharing a list of Movies

Today I got a plug from Sofas and Sectionals.  It may be a plug, but it's an interesting list of Superhero Movies:

http://www.sofasandsectionals.com/superhero-movies-we-want-to-see

Read and enjoy.  Is Namor really going to be a big draw?

Get the Scoop

These are five middle pages from Leapfrog's Superman learning module.

Next, a Bizarre story

Read All About It!

In this story from the Leapfrog book, we learn about a poor schlub who wishes he could he powerful like Superman.  Hmm, sounds like me!

See you again soon!

Super Leapfrogging

As you might have imagined, the "Leapfrog Learning System" had a Superman module!  This week I'll share it with you.  There are a few pages that won;t mean anything without the toy, but there are two separate kind-of-cute stories, and in the interests of completeness I'll share the whole thing.

(I don't know if I would like Lois giving MY five-year-old such a come-hither look as seen on the page above.)

In a couple of days, the first story.

Buying No More Superman Comics

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/04/27/superman-renounces-us-citizenship/

Well, you might not have know this but I have been buying comics even nowadays, basically the DC-Superman lines.

Action Comics #900 is the last comic book I plan on buying for a while.  Because Superman renouncing his US citizenship is something I don't like.  That is, I don't like the editorial policy reflected here.  That's the "Blame America First" policy, if you didn't know.

The basic values of Truth, Justice, and the America Way are the best goals of any country.  While there is a heck of a lot wrong with some of the things around here, the only worse country is ALL THE REST OF THEM.

Superman, as a comics/cultural character, will always be American, in the best sense.  It's a shame that his creators seem to be focusing on America's failures and not using Superman as a tool to point them out, while believing that we can be better if we only LIVE UP to our ideals, like fair play and personal responsibility.

Saying, "I'm going to take my cape and run away" is NOT the Superman who, like Abraham Lincoln, "belongs to the ages."

Strange Critters

Here we have a small assortment of books dealing with Alien Animals.

Clark & Coleman have produced a couple of books.  Usually they lead around to a theory that these critters aren't run-of-the-mill flesh and blood animals that are always here.  The beasties are examples of bleedover from another realm whose manifestations here, on OUR plane, have a supernatural appearance.

In this book, Holiday likes to find older antecedents comparable to today's reports.

Warren Smith, a pseudonymous author, jumps right into the mystical realms, asking breathlessly "Coud it be???" that so-and-so could be true.

This other book by Holiday, specifically about Nessie, says that she really exists, but is also a "magickal" creature from the Goblin Realms.

Goin' Fission! - a new compilation

With great power comes great responsibility. With atomic power comes greater responsibility. No one can predict an earthquake and tsunami is going to wipe out your reactors. And if such a thing happens, then there are plenty of doom-sayers who are going to crow, "I told you something bad was going to happen."



Well, some of these people are crooning in tune, and you can listen to them here in this latest compilation of mine.




Here are the songs:

1 Jesus Is the First Line of Defense Pilgrim Travellers 1951
2 Atomic Kisses Earney Vandagriff 1955
3 Hydrogen Bomb The Laurels 1961
4 The War Drags On Mick Softley 1965
5 Atom and Evil General Electric 1966
6 Please Don't Drop That H-Bomb on Me Country Joe & The Fish 1967
7 Wooden Ships Jefferson Airplane 1969
8 Political Science Randy Newman 1972
9 Nuclear Babies Oingo Boingo 1980
10 Let's All Make a Bomb Heaven 17 1981
11 Run Like a Villain Iggy Pop 1982
12 World Suicide Defuser 1983
13 Uranium Rock The Cramps 1983
14 Surfin' USSR Ray Stevens 1988
15 The Bomb Lifesavers Underground 1992
16 Atomic Power Uncle Tupelo 1994
17 The Bomb Inside the Bomb We Are Scientists 2002
18 Nuclear Blues Frances Plante-Scott 2004
19 Bomb.Repeat.Bomb.1954 Ted Leo and the Pharmacists 2007
20 Atomic Bomb Brian Butler 2008
21 Atom and Evil song Heaven and Hell 2009
22 Atom Bomb Blues The Naptown Jug Busters 2009







And here is the link:  http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T131NP70

Such Secrets Have Never Been Told

... until now.

Since the 1980s, breathless books like these have been released by Abelard Publications, each spreading the same kinds of ideas put forth by William Cooper in Behold a Pale Horse .

According to this tale and its variations, we (the USA) captured the crew of one or more downed alien vessels in the 1940s or 1950s, and were able to keep them alive and then to negotiate with their race of extraterrestrials.

The idea is that the government of the USA, perhaps in collusion with other world powers, agreed that the aliens could kidnap and experiment on Earth citizens.  In return, the guys from Kwatloo were supposed to give us some wonderful access to fancy alien technologies.

This led to several underground bases staffed by mixed human/alien crews, and indeed a hybrid race of the worst of both worlds.

Then, so the story goes, the aliens pulled a double-cross on us by kidnaping (and doing worse than that) to many more people than agreed to.  Also their vaunted technology has lost some of its vaunt.

Supposedly, these kinds of disagreements led to a shootin' match in an underground base around (or BELOW) Dulce, New Mexico.

Other breathless revelations have included various suggestions that the biologies of pigs, or cows, are similiar enough to human in some ways, that secret government experiments on cattle have been performed as part of some strange weapons program, probably involving germ warfare.

You can make of tales like these what you will.  I think it's a bunch of malarkey.  For fifty years or more, folks interested in mysteries like these -- a group that includes me! -- have been strung along by hints of cover-ups that will soon be revealed.  The big governmental information cave-in will be any year now . . .

And it's been just around that event horizon for half a century.  It's not any closer, because it's the tantalizing hints of "possible maybes" that sells books and lecture tours, and videos.

See you again soon.  Any comments?

The Mirror Master and Alpha

In another TV angle on the Flash's classic Rogue's Gallery, we have the episode "Done with Mirrors," reflecting a new take ("reflecting" -- get it?) on the Mirror Master, with holograms.

Then we have the pet android, Alpha, who doesn't want to be a government assassin.  Now, no offense to the actress Claire Stansfield, who plays Alpha, but the TV Guide ad is pushing it a little bit.  Alpha is exotic, fascinating, but not gorgeous.  She's a lot better than that.

Captain Cold and the Clone Wars

The guy who plays Captain Cold, Michael Champion, does a pretty chilling job of playing a cold-hearted killer.

And the next episode, cleverly titled "Twin Streaks," is a pretty fun look at a really improbable scenario.  Like the Talosians who didn't mean to be evil, the clone of Barry isn't intentionally destructive -- he just wasn't raised right.  He's depraved on account of he's deprived, Officer Krupke!

The Trickster and More Twisted Fun

Man, how could it get any more fun than this?  Megan, the lawyer who discovered Barry's identity while falling for him, is being stalked by a wacko who decides that getting his own costume will make him irresistable.  And thus is born ... THE TRICKSTER!

Read the caption in the ad above.  Now, really -- How can you resist anything involving an EVIL SCHEME !?!?

Then we have some really, really, really superspeed running, ending up a decade in the future.  Where, after the Flash's disappearance, bad-guy Pike moved in and took over.  Talk about always winter and never Christmas!

Mext we have "Deadly Nightshade," where Central City's first vigilante has his identity stolen (twenty years ahead of you or me) and has to reclaim his name, with the Scarlet Speedster's help.

Plus, kudos to the headline department.  "Trias by Fury!" -- doesn't it just give you the chills?

More Flash Listings

Here are the synopses for episodes 4, 8, and 9, "Watching the Detectives," "Shroud of Death," and "Ghost in the Machine," the latter of which introduced us to the wonderful character of "The Nightshade," Central City's FIRST vigilante.  Shades of the Minutemen!

New Superman Movie Officially Sucks

With the announcement that an actor has been hired to play the role of Zod in the new Superman movie, I have sighed and hung my head in defeat.

There's a picture of this guy Michael Shannon as Zod on this page: http://www.mtv.com/photos/michael-shannon-imagined-as-general-zod/1661693/6017657/photo.jhtml

The idea of Zod cannot be good.  It brings images of huge hams laced with cheese.  It brings memories of a unmasculine screechy tenor voice whining, "KNEEL before Zod ... and admire my freshly painted fingernails!"

Zod was invented for the 1970s Superman movies.  There had been a Kryptonian general in the comics, but he was a heartless villain, not a swishy-boy in leather with self-image issues.

On the bright side, I guess I will now be a lot easier to impress if the movie gets ANYTHING right.

Tomorrow we will return to TV's the Flash . . .

The Profoundly Titled "Pilot"

Here's how TV Guide presented the (2-hour) first episode of the Flash TV show.  It introduced Iris West and waved her into the past, established Tina McGee as the second lead, and introduced the great character of Julio, Barry Allen's assistant in the crime lab -- played by Alex Desert.  Desert played the thankless part of clueless citizen who is presented with all the evidence that his boss has a secret crime-fighting life, but *just misses* the proof.

In its original listing, here, the show is listed as "Fantasy," you'll note.  Soon after that, it became "Adventure."

TV Guide on TV Superheroes

Inspired by the debut of The Flash on CBS, TV Guide ran an article on TV superheroes in its December 22, 1990 issue.  Probably also inspired by some money from CBS?

Let's Flash!

Over the next few days I'll be pulling out some TV Guide clippings on that late lamented CBS TV show, the Flash.

La La Land Records still has copies of their 2-CD soundtrack release from the TV show.  This is great stuff, folks!      www.lalalandrecords.com/Flash.html

Now, I can understand quibbling about the lack of Iris West after the first episode, the addition of Earl the dog, and so on.  But this was a fun TV show, with an actual attempt to put this silly idea into a world at least similar to our world.

When his superspeed kicks in, suddenly, Barry runs to Catalina, burns off half his clothes through friction, and has to wipe out a pizza buffet to restock his starved cells.  This scene may have introduced this energy-consumption idea to the comics.  Does anybody know for sure?

Starting Friday evening, we'll share a few days loking back on The Flash.

Finally Number One at SOMETHING

See you in a few days . . .