Pop Goes the Culture

Halloween Happenings 2010

 
There's a goblin at my window,
A monster by my door.
The pumpkin at my table
Keeps on smiling more and more.
There's a ghost who haunts my bedroom,
Ana a witch whose face is green.
They used to be my family,
Till they dressed for Halloween!

- Sandra Liatsos

That's right - it's Halloween time again! And that means it's also time for a list of all the creepy, hairy and howling good times there are to be had in our area! If you click here, you'll find a long listing of scary (and some not-so-scary) events to celebrate the holiday - trick-or-treat times, parade times, haunted attractions and more. Whether your looking to laugh or scream, we've got you covered!

As always, there are still a few holes in our schedule to fill, and we'll be doing that in the coming weeks as the info becomes available. In fact, if you see something on the list that needs added or fixed, just email me at jasonsmith@thecourier.com or give me a call at 419-427-8495 and tell me about it - I'll be glad to add it!

So be sure to keep on your toes and your eyes on the shadows and, as always...

Happy Halloween!

- Jason

Fun for the Fourth!

 

Whether it's large booms and bursts of light raining from the sky, giggling children running around in flip-flops with a sparkler in each hand, the hiss of the grill as juicy goodies are cooked up or simply the company of family and good friends, there's no reminder of the many freedoms we enjoy quite like the Fourth of July. There's plenty of festivities and goings-on happening in our area and below you'll find a list of 'em (in alphabetical order, of course).

Have a safe and happy Independence Day!

 

Arlington - Fireworks will be seen over Arlington Community Park at dusk on Friday.

Bowling Green - Fireworks will start Saturday at dusk on Bowling Green State University’s intramural fields. The BG Area Community Band will host a free concert at Doyt-Perry football stadium at 8:30 p.m. Rain date is July 5.

Columbus - Red, White and Boom, the Midwest’s largest fireworks display, will be shot over the Scioto River from Veterans Memorial on the north side of Broad Street at 10 p.m. Friday. A wide array of entertainment and food will be offered starting at 11 a.m. A full events list can be found at http://www.redwhiteandboom.org/.

Findlay - Hancock County Fairgrounds open Saturday at 5 p.m. Music in the Gospel Pavilion will begin at 5 p.m. and will include Gloryway Quartet with Mary St. Clair from Mansfield, The Copenhavers Trio from Creston, Richardson Trio from Waterville, and Findlay songsters Jericho Road and 441 Quartet. Findlay rock band The Game will perform at 7 p.m. Food vendors and pony rides will be available. Fireworks begin at dusk.

Fostoria - Fireworks will start Saturday at dusk at Meadowlark Park. Music, games and food sales will begin at noon. At 6 p.m. the third annual Fostoria Idol Contest will be held with prizes offered to the top three winners. A song list is available at city hall, or singers may bring their own discs.

Fremont - Fireworks will be shot off at Rodger Young Park at dusk Saturday. The Toledo Symphony Concert Band will perform from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, with cannon fire accompaniment to the "1812 Overture." A downtown parade will be held at 5 p.m.

Kenton - Day-long activities Saturday will begin at 8 a.m. with a flea market, followed by a car show at 11 a.m., truck pull at noon, parade at 3 p.m., chicken barbecue at 5 p.m. and bingo at 7:30 p.m. Fireworks will begin at 10 p.m. Rain date for the fireworks is July 5 at 10 p.m.

Lima - Star Spangled Spectacular fireworks will be shot from Faurot Park at 10 p.m. Saturday. Activities will begin with a 5K run/walk at 9 a.m. Food booths, music, games and more will be featured throughout the day. A full events list can be found at www.lima4th.com.

Maumee/Perrysburg - Fireworks start at 10 p.m. Thursday from the Maumee-Perrysburg bridge. Activities for children at 5 p.m. in the 100 block of East Wayne Street in Perrysburg.

McComb - The village received enough donations this year to have fireworks. They will be set off at dusk Friday at the village park. There will also be free admission at the pool, food booths set up around noon, inflatables for all ages from 5-9 p.m. and music.

Napoleon - Fireworks will begin at Glenwood Park at 10 p.m. Saturday.

Ottawa - Fireworks start at 10 p.m. Sunday at Country Acres Golf Club on Ohio 694. Music, rides and other entertainment will start at 7 p.m. Parking is a $2 donation to Putnam County Home Care & Hospice.

Port Clinton - Fireworks start at 10 p.m. Saturday at Waterworks Park.

Put-In-Bay - Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial will be the fireworks launch site at 10 p.m. Saturday.

Sandusky - Stars and Stripes Celebration from 10 a.m. 40 4 p.m. in Washington Park and downtown Sandusky. Fireworks at 10 p.m. courtesy of Cedar Point.

Tiffin - Hedges-Boyer Park will host Independence Day activities from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, with music, games and fireworks at dusk. Rain date is Sunday.

Toledo - Red, White and Kaboom, a two-day event, will end with fireworks at the Downtown Riverfront at 9:45 p.m. Saturday. Those 12 and over will be charged $2 to enter the Promenade Park after 4 p.m. on Saturday, but those who bring a canned good to donate to local charities will be admitted free. Starting at noon Friday, the Northwest Ohio Restaurant Association will host Tent’s Taste of Toledo, and a battle of the bands will be held both days in the park. A kids area will offer activities on Saturday.

Van Buren State Park - Van Buren State Park will play host to a variety of activities this weekend including a movie showing, a canoe trip, a canoe race, a watermelon seed spitting contest, a spaghetti dinner and birds of prey and monarch butterfly programs. For more information click here or call naturalist Natalie Miller at 419-348-7679.

Wauseon - Fireworks at dusk with the best viewing being from the Wauseon High School football stadium and Reighard Park.

*Special thanks to Courier reporter Joy Brown!

Disney makes Jack walk the plank

The first trip I ever took to a Disney theme park was when I was 5-years-old. One of the most distinct memories of that outing is getting Pinocchio's autograph, then quickly ducking away as so many starry-eyed kids mobbed him, he was literally pinned to a wall. Poor guy.

Thus is the plight of the costumed Disney theme park employee. For every Cinderella, Tarzan and Eeyore, there's a throng of drooling children waiting to meet their entertainment icons. It can be a real job hazard.

But who would've guessed your theme park fanbase could get you fired?

It's being reported that Disneyland has fired all four of their Jack Sparrow actors due to recent problems with rowdy, young female park-goers flashing their, uh, "cannonballs" at the rock star pirate. "They lost control when they saw Jack Sparrow," said former Sparrow Brandon Pinto, who left the role about a year ago. "This is a sexy, rock-star pirate."

While park officials deny the claim and attributed the pulling of everyone's favorite Pirates of the Caribbean star to declining requests and popularity for the character, it's really does make you wonder, especially when this incident is followed closely by one actor's account of his former adventures as Jack at the "Happiest Place on Earth" (a recommended read - it's hilarious).

But don't worry. While Jack Sparrows are being ousted, it looks like the Magic Kingdom is hiring extra actors to portray Tinkerbell and her fairy friends to help promote the release of Disney's new Tinkerbell movie.

Rowdy, manly pirates replaced with fairies? It's enough to make you want to protest!

Or maybe make a guy buy his own Jack Sparrow outfit...

- Jason

Won't YOU help a haunted house out?

In my ongoing crusade to gather the creepiest halloween happenings from around our area, I came across a prospective mogul in the scare business who has a slight favor to ask...

"Hello, my name is Nick. I'm 16 years old and live in Toledo, Ohio. Me and my friends Max and Cody (and several others) are from Hell's Gate Haunted Attractions, one of the nation's largest (and not to mention scariest) home haunts.

This year we have pulled out all of the stops for the best haunted house possible.  We have details and special effects in our haunted house that rival professionally produced attractions.  Hell's Gate is ranked the 8th best haunted attraction in the nation by haunternet.com.

We have been worked everyday during the summer from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. making sure the entire production gets done on time.  We currently ran into zoning law problems when we received a few complaints from neighbors, so we'll be sadly unable to open this up to the public. It will have to be strictly family, friends and some neighbors.

However right now we are working on entering into the fearnet.com $50,000 contest for the best home haunted house and could really use your vote.  Once the contest begins you can vote for us by visiting http://www.fearnet.com/ and finding the $50,000 home haunt contest.  From there read the instructions on how to vote and check out our video.   You can see construction pictures on our website at www.hellsgatehaunt.com.

If we were to win this contest, we will be using the money for our professional haunted attraction next year. Please check out our website and I hope we can get your vote for the fearnet contest - it would really open a lot of doors in our future of haunting."

- Jason

Halloween Happenings 2008

It's that time of year again. The time when zombies, ghouls, witches, vampires and other insidious creatures of the night rise from their dusty tombs and roam the streets - in search of candy.

That's right, even if this post is a bit early, you can't get around the fact that Halloween is just around the corner. So what's a person to do? Well, as it turns out, lots of things! If you click on this link or click on the "Halloween Happenings" button in the upper left sidebar, you'll find a listing of area trick-or-treat times, parade schedules and a big ole' list of frighteningly fun things to do. Just keep in mind that this list isn't complete yet (like I said, it's still kinda' early) and we'll be adding to it and updating it as soon as new info comes creeping through our door, so be sure to check back often.

Oh, yeah - Happy Halloween! 

- Jason & Mariah

Movie Poster Madness!!!

My apologies for the lack of posts recently. My only excuse is the excellent football and flood coverage that I've been wading through and tackling as of late (hahaha...ha...heh...eh...).

In any case, here's a little something that Courier editor Sean Corp pointed out to me: a test on your movie poster knowledge. It's a quiz put together by EmpireOnline.com that strains your brain to try and identify letters from the titles of (duh) movie posters.

And even though Sean got 28 correct, I myself scored a 29 before I left work. Though, for some reason, I get the feeling that this is one of those things where even if you win, you lose...

Oh, well - still fun!

- Jason

Comicon 2008: The journey begins...

I'm writing this from the Port Columbus National Airport. Right now it's 5:30 a.m. (having left Findlay at 2:00 a.m.) and, quite frankly, too damn early for this. My cohort is currently typing away on her laptop, feeding her addiction to the TV show Moonlight.

We should be arriving at about 9:00 a.m. and, provided we don't pass out from exhaustion along the way, be waist-deep in sweaty nerds by this afternoon. The itinerary is looking promising: Comic book artists, comic book writers, TV and movie stars and who-knows show up at these things. I'm hoping to hit up the Pixar panel tomorrow morning. We'll post and include photos as we go.

So don't go anywhere, hit the refresh button regularly and enjoy!

- Jason

Obama, I CHOOSE YOU!!! (Pokemon theme song here)

No, you haven't taken a wrong turn while trying to get to one of these blogs (well, maybe you did - who's to say for sure?). But this is a blog about TV, movies and internet phenomenon and by golly if this doesn't fall under that category.

This is currently the "political humor du jour" of the week making its rounds on the web and yes, this is what the actual Pokemon games look like while played.

FYI - It's animated! Click on the picture below and a working version will open in another window!

Hilarious - enjoy!

- Jason

Scientology vs. Anonymous

Yes, I'm a little late on this. But I thought that the virtual lack of coverage warranted a post.

As many of you have heard by now, a recruitment video for the Church of Scientology was leaked onto the web a couple of weeks ago starring none other than the "religion's" poster boy, Tom Cruise:

(This is not to be confused with the Jerry O'Connell parody...)

In any case, after this video leaked onto YouTube, the Church of Scientology claimed copyright infringement and demanded the video be taken down (while most have, the video is still alive and breathing in the deepest, darkest corners of the interweb).

This prompted a vigilante group calling themselves Anonymous, or Anon for short, to leap into action against what they say they consider to be internet censorship. The group includes computer gurus capable of causing trouble on the web. Over the past week or so, local chapter sites for the Church of Scientology have been defaced, and in a few cases denial of service attacks have prevented access to those same sites. "Real-world" attacks have included fax-spamming the Scientology branch offices.

How does the public know this? YouTube, of course. Here's the actual, mechanically-voiced video released by Anonymous this weekend:

This is the first time that a campaign on this scale has been taken against an organized group on the web and, thus, is new territory. Are they cyberterrorists? The greater good? Here's a portion of their statement:

...You cannot hide; we are everywhere.
We cannot die; we are forever. We're getting bigger every day - and solely by the force of our ideas, malicious and hostile as they often are. If you want another name for your opponent, then call us Legion, for we are many.
Yet for all that we are not as monstrous as you are; still our methods are a parallel to your own. Doubtless you will use the Anon's actions as an example of the persecution you have so long warned your followers would come; this is acceptable. In fact, it is encouraged. We are your SPs... Knowledge is free.
...We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
WE DO NOT FORGET.
Expect us.

"We are Legion"? "We cannot die"? I'm sorry, did I accidentally fall into a Doctor Who episode?

I'm not a fan of Scientology by any means, but Anonymous sounds like it's got a bit of a God complex itself. I think we need to keep an eye on both these groups...

- Jason

Halle-lol-jah!!!

And now, a letter to the Gospels from Luke by the Ceiling Cat:

1 'Roun dis tiyem, Caesar Augustus wuz like, "I can has cenzus?" 2 ('Coz while Quirinius was Teh Boz of Syria, is invisible census!) 3 And all teh doodz went home for teh saying, "I is heer!" 4 So Joseph went from Naz'reth to Judeeah to Bethlehemm whar David wuz bornededed, 'coz David wuz hiz graete-graete gran-daddie, 5 An Mary went wif him, 'coz she was gonna be married wif him an she was preggerz. 6 When wuz time for teh baybee, 7 it wuz a boy, so he wuz wrapd in blanket like burrito an placd him in fud dish, cuz innkeeper wuz liek, no room here kthxbye! This is teh gospul of teh Ceiling Cat!

No, I haven't joined a cult. This particular passage comes the from latest project to stem from icanhascheezburger.com (and a rather ambitious one at that). Yes, friends, they're translating the entire Good Book into lolspeak (also known as Kitty Pidgin or Kitteh, the language of cats). Why? Because apparently the Almighty is rife for parody. Just watch for the bolts of lightning.

The main project page itself invites readers to pick their own chapter of the Bible and start translating (hey, it's a big book - full of good stuff, but still big). And, while blasphemous, I couldn't help but laugh as I went further and further into the "lolscripture".

Now, for those of you who lack a sense of humor and are ready to leave your Harry Potter book-burning parties and set fire to the lolheadquarters, keep in mind this is far from the first website to have fun with Christianity. The Brick Testament takes the Bible and translates it via Legos (yes, the little plastic building blocks). An internet project started by Brendan Powell Smith in October 2001, the pious plastic people have garnered enough attention to push the creator to release several books based on his "art form". The Brick Testament is used by Christians and atheists alike, one to teach the Bible and the other to debunk it. In any case, the sight of a lego Jesus being crucified is kinda' surreal (that guy in green has one creepy smile).

Not enough blasphemy for ya'? Then try this: The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. While this is a parody religion, it's gained quite a bit of steam online (and have steamed a few Christians in the process). A "church" that "worships" a "Spaghedeity" and whose followers call themselves "Pastafarians", the tongue-in-cheek church was created in 2005 by Oregon State University physics graduate student Bobby Henderson to protest the Kansas State Board of Education decision to require the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution. You can read the letter from Henderson to the board here.

This particular religion proclaims that pirates are the FSM's chosen people and that the lack of them are  the cause of global warming. While this is all false (and the "worshippers" know it), some people have taken it seriously. This has led to the "Pastafarians" flinging insults back at those who complained, which in turn fans the fire and turns the entire subject into one, big, smoldering mess (no surprise to someone who works at a newspaper - anyone want to calmly discuss homosexuality?).

Obviously, I could go on and on about this topic but 1) I'm running short on time, 2) I'm running short on space, 3) you're probably tired of reading this and 4) I'm sorta' lazy. The fact is, there are probably a million sites out there poking fun at religion. I just picked some of the more prominent ones.

God must have a good sense of humor, though. Otherwise, I think we'd all be smoking piles of ash by now. Besides, with all of the murder, rape, genocide and the like going on in the world, I think we have bigger problems to worry about than some dumb websites.

8 Then there wuz sheep-doods in teh field, an they wuz watchin teh sheep in teh dark. Iz vry vry boring. srsly.9 An suddenly, visible angel! An glory! O noez!!10 But teh angel sed, "is ok, you can has gud news for all teh doodz!11 Todai in da city ov David, you can has sayvur! is Christ da Lord! w00t!12 Is sign fer u, find da baybee wrapd like brrito in a big fud dish."13 An suddenly, moar angelz! They sez, 14 "w00t to teh Ceiling Cat! An peace fer doodz he luffs!

Ramen!

kthxbai!

- Jason