Danielle Harris of Hatchet 2 at Comic Con: contest and vagina talk in limo

This video called Comic Con 2010 - Danielle Harris of Hatchet 2 - contest and vagina talk is just the first video in a series I made after being with the cast and crew of the upcoming movie Hatchet 2, the Chicago-based Dark Sky Films production which is due for release October 1, 2010. (Comic Con trip sponsored by The Kings Inn Hotel in San Diego.)

Before I continue, I must add that Hatchet 2 is going to be a classic cult film that people will talk about for years to come. I've seen a number of clips, which were presented at the Hatchet 2 panel Friday evening at Comic Con, and I was impressed.

But I was more taken with the cast and crew of Hatchet 2. They are some of the nicest, most down-to-earth people you'd ever want to meet and spend time with. And I was with them from 1 PM to around 8 PM, and then we ran into each other at the USS Midway and wound up catching cabs together at 11 at night. Great people.

Jen and Danielle

Danielle Harris and The Limo

The day started with a ride in a stretch Hummer limo you're going to see more of in the days to come in this space. In it was Hatchet 2 actress Danielle Harris who plays "MaryBeth" (also known for Halloween and H2: Halloween), her good friend Jennifer Blanc (from Party of Five, Dark Angel, and the upcoming The Victim) who's married to the actor Michael Biehn, Kene Hodder, who's plays "Victor Crowley" in Hatchet 2, and has played "Jason" from the Friday the 13th movie series four times, R.A. Mihailoff, who's in Hatchet 2 and was in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, and film director Tom Holland (joined by his wife), and AJ Bowen, both in Hatchet 2.

Frankly, when you're in a limo with people you're just getting to know, the experience can be either really good or really bad because you're in close quarters. This experience was really good. Between Kane Hodder calling me "Century 21" (my new nickname because of my mustard blazer) and Danielle Harris asking for people to explain what "MV/SI" on her Comic Con badge stood for, I've not laughed so hard in a while. But out of that, came a new contest by Danielle Harris. It's called "Name My Badge."

What happened was that Danielle Harris - who should be on FHM Magazine's Top 100 Sexiest Women List for 2011 - was asking what "MV/SI" stood for on her badge. That led to a number of wild responses, all in the video, from "My Vagina Smells Indifferent," to, well, a number of variations on the "My Vagina" theme.

(Danielle wants her fans to come up with a name for  "MV/SI" that's not used here or in the video, and the best one will win a video shout out from her and the badge itself with her autograph, though I think she should include one of her hot photos.  She's on Twitter and called @HalloweenGal.)

R.A. Mihailoff broke the pattern with "My Virtue Seem Intact" to which Jennifer Blanc said "That's so not her," as Harris shot back that she was just "trying to throw her under the bus."

Fun People = Fun Movie

All of the people associated with Hatchet 2 are just plain fun, and that's a product of Hatchet 2 creator Adam Green's style. He's an energetic, engaging, brilliant man who, as one person said "Has a really fucked up imagination."

You've got to see Hatchet 2 to get what that person means. In the movie we see two men lifted in the air and cut in half between their legs with a giant buzz saw used by Crowley; as this happens, blood is gushing everywhere and you can guess what bloody objects fall out.

Wild old school American Horror at Comic Con 2010.

Stay tuned.

Comic Con 2010 - Human Target star Mark Valley gets boss and tools

Comic Con 2010 is full of artists who created amazing graphic novels (and this visit is sponsored by The Kings Inn Hotel in San Diego). And in this digital age, combined with Hollywood's hunger for story content, some of those graphic novels become hit TV shows, and fuel the growth of Comic Con. One of those shows is FOX Television's Human Target, starring Mark Valley as Christopher Chance.

Mark Valley 

I talked briefly with Mark about the upcoming season and as he was being mobbed for pictures by fans after his appearance at William Shatner's show about MyOuterSpace.com at TweetHouse on The USS Midway. Valley said he just arrived at Comic Con, but there were "more people this year," and the ones present love him in Human Target.

Human Target is the story of San Francisco-based private detective and bodyguard Christopher Chance, who embeds himself in the lives of clients seeking protective services to become "the human target." In the first season, Christopher Chance did things more by the seat of his pants without any real supervision. In the second season, all that changes.

Asked what's new for season two, Valley said "Well, I get a new boss." That person is reported to be English actress Indira Varma, who according to EW.com plays Iisa, his team leader, a who is "sophisticated, driven and principled. She is a widow with a vast fortune that she uses to help better the world. Ilsa finds Chance’s [Mark Valley] lethal methods and his past deeds unacceptable, but she will learn to appreciate (slowly) the altruistic benefits that he has to offer. Ilsa is witty, sexy, clearly in charge and doesn’t take any nonsense from anyone. Chance has met his match."

How Valley will take to his new boss is the mystery, because when I asked Valley, jokingly, if he "can do boss" he responded, "well, we'll see."

But beyond Ilsa, Valley told me he gets new gadgets to play with, of various types. But no new car. I suggested a car, and Valley said "Yea. A car. A talking car?"

It's clear Human Target and Mark Valley / Christopher Chance are moving more in the direction of James Bond. Let's hope the show keeps its quirky style in the process.

NY Post dishonest cover Deputy Goldsmith by Suzannah B. Troy

Deputy Goldsmith is an inarticulate guy who thinks he can reform Albany and he would have more luck getting the Mafia to become vegetarians! He was introduced as a Jane Jacobs just like Mike Bloomberg's mini-me Christine Quinn was at the Jane Jacobs Street signing even though Quinn has gotten kickbacks from developers as in campaign donations for smoothing their way crushing our communities. I don't like Rudy but Goldsmith doesn't have an ounce of his "rudi-ness". When asked about gay marriage he went on and on for way too long than saying he did not want to answer questions that were political social aka he is anti-gay marriage AND HE WANTS TO CLOSE FIREHOUSES. He did not seem to understand the difference between a engine and a ladder and why we need them both in a firehouse. YouTube search engine type my name and his name to see two YouTube - mine and an activist showing him his embarrassing inarticulateness and cowardly non-speak. Bloomberg is nuts to bring in a republican especially now and I believe just like hiring his campaign staff burdening tax payers to the tune of 2 million and going national w/his donations = eye on Presidency. Watch the YouTube and see someone awkward, a disaster for the people and NYC which he is clueless about as well as how the press is not reporting the real news on this guy.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/the_thinking_new_york_needs_LoaJ4owZyO8ITl7syzlbcJ#comments#ixzz0uapXp5Vk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdLQNanbNhU

Listen to him say "thank you" when I tell him about NYC's infrastructure is shot and that I hope he will help the people of NY and again he says thank you translated in to "F-you" you are dismissed.

Watch him on this YouTube and hear his non-speak, his cowardly non-answer which I interpret as he is anti-gay marriage and there doesn't believe in equal rights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdMmTFbsD2A&feature=watch_response

Please explain how straight people get off denying gay people equal rights to marriage when straight people are marriage gluttons, getting married 2,3,4,5 times?

Some anti-gay people are closeted gays.

Special note:  Goldsmith could not handle questions from 2 white male reporters.  He was out of his league and does not belong in New York politics.

Comic Con 2010 - Sylvester Stallone target of Twitter attack for The Expendables

Stallone 

While Sylvester Stallone's new movie The Expendables has many at Comic Con 2010 in the USA excited, the movie's unofficial debut at Comic Con created enough buzz to upset South Americans. As of this writing, Sylvester Stallone represents not one, but three trending topics on Twitter. In order, "CALA BOCA SYLVESTER STALLONE", "Stallone", and just plain old "SYLVESTER" appear on Twitter.

Why? Many tweets are like this "top tweet":

nataliagoficial - CALA BOCA SYLVESTER STALLONE is a brazilian campaign to protest the actor Sylvester Stallone, for trying to denigrate the Brazilian image.
about 2 hours ago via web

But the problem is The Expendables isn't out yet, so the people launching the campaign haven't seen the movie. Plus, at Comic Con 2010, Stallone said to me that it wasn't a political message movie. OK, he was referring to mercenaries at the time, but if you think about it, mercenaries should take offense, too.



In developing a war story, which The Expendables is to a degree, it's almost impossible not to come up with a political message, even if the movie's not about delivering one. In writing The Expendables, Stallone's 63-years of World view has accidentally bumped up against the hypersensitive 21st Century consumers of Internet news.

I'm not calling Mr. Stallone old, just making a point that you have to remember, he played a man in John Rambo who embodies the American soldier's "us versus "them" view at a time, the early 80s, when America was sending hired killers to upend political revolutions in Central and South America.

Perhaps The Expendables would have had even more impact if the focus were North Korea and not a fictional country in South America. But it's too late for that now. The Expendables is set for release on August 13th, and will undoubtedly be helped by this buzz.

Stay tuned.

BP's Deepwater Horizon warning system was disabled

An article in today's Washington Post highlights disgusting, disgraceful business practices at BP. The profit-motive places pressure to pivot risk-analysis decisions on the short term bottom line numbers, particularly when the people making the decision are driven by personal gain.

The Post has video of Deepwater chief engineer Michael Williams, an ex-Marine who survived the April 20th explosion and fire, telling a government panel that "warning systems on the drilling rig were inhibited because the crew did not want to be disturbed in the middle of the night."

Williams told the panel that he understood that the rig had been operating with the gas alarm system in "inhibited" mode for a year to prevent false alarms from disturbing the crew.

Washington Post, 22 July 2010

The profit motive accomplishes certain things very well. It's driven the price of medical equipment in Japan well below what similar products produced in North America costs, for instance, and it obviously drives creative innovation across the business sector.

But the mortgage-lending and Wall Street crises that are still hampering our economy years after they surfaced demonstrate that without regulation and enforcement business owners can, and all too often do, become focused only on money. To balance that greed is one of the ways that governments can, and should, "promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..."

Special interest money has entirely too much influence in Washington. It's time that our leaders stopped talking about small businesses while voting to enable big business to ruin our planet, our standard of living, and our future. That's a bankrupt ideology - that's the real threat to our children.

Thomas Hayes is an entrepreneur, Democratic Campaign Manager, journalist, and photographer who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community.

Comic Con 2010 - Sylvester Stallone and The Expendables cast has red carpet fun (video)

Thursday at Comic Con 2010 was a big day, both for San Diego and for Sylvester Stallone and The Expendables cast that arrived for Comic Con (and this blogger's trip was sponsored by The Kings Inn Hotel in San Diego).

The Expendables is Sylvester Stallone's new movie is about a band of mercenaries led by Barney Ross (Stallone), who are led on what they're told is a covert, CIA-funded mission to overthrow the dictator of a South American country. In reality, it's a trick; they were sent on a suicide mission.

Stallone 

The Expendables stars Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Eric Roberts, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke, and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in what is the greatest collection of action movie heros in Hollywood's history. Of the cast, four arrived at the red carpet press conference held at Comic Con and just before their The Expendables panel in Hall H.

From the way Stallone, Lundgren, Crews, Couture, and Austin got along on the Comic Con red carpet, the movie had to be fun to make. But that aside, what is it about Stallone's movies - his formula, if you will - that has made them so popular for so long?

"It's about redemption," Stallone says, before he laid out a big set of words. "My theme is 'epistemological taxonomy,' which means 'spiritual signifiers.' In this movie, or in Rocky, or in Rambo, it's always about something, some mission. Like, in the last Rambo it was about The Burmies, and you had Christianity against Atheism. And in Rocky it's about just having some recognition in your lifetime; the last one was about loneliness. But the main thing I think, in all (of his) films is about redeeming your soul. Mercenaries, by in large are cold-blooded killers for money. And Mickey Rourke in this scene (in The Expendables) says 'Don't be like me. I did that, and I'm cursed. I have no soul left.' So these guys go back to save this person, not for money, but for themselves. They're saving themselves."

With all that, Stallone says he's not trying to make a political statement about mercenaries, even though the focus on a South American dictatorship may ruffle some feathers. But political issues weren't on the plate at The Expendables red carpet, fun was. From Terry Crews bragging about his muscles and saying "The gun show has come to Comic Con," to Stallone, Crews, Lundgren, and Couture, giving muscle poses before the cameras, and just a lot of laughing in general, it's clear these guys really like each other and had a lot of fun making The Expendables.

Where was Bruce Willis?

As Dolph Lundgren noted in the video, a number of cast members didn't show up for the red carpet event, one of them being the legendary Bruce Willis. Later, after the press event ended and the stars rushed to Hall H for the Comic Con panel, I walked outside of room 28 CD to get some air and exit, talked to a security worker, and was pointed to an elevator to take. That elevator went down to a dark driveway dotted with more security people. As I walked, I realized the back entrance to Hall H and where The Expendables cast was, was on my right, so, realizing I could have walked into the event and on stage, but not wanting to make trouble, I walked to my left and as I did, a tall, bald white guy in a dark blue suit walked toward me. As he did, he pointed, gave a smile and nodded; I returned the action. Then I realized it was Bruce Willis, giving me the "bald brother" nod.

Of course, it's hard to miss a bald black guy in a mustard colored blazer.

Stay tuned.

Will the RNC replace Michael Steele with a hockey-mom?

GOP strategists are surely already considering who can best replace their controversy-laden RNC Chair - their principle questions are the timing and who will be able to insure the media spotlight stays on the party's message while inspiring both donors and voters, particularly the vocal, visible Teabaggers. Perhaps this time they'll turn to a woman?

After all, the most recent crop of Naval "Sailors of the Year" were all female, and women make up more than 50% of the U.S. population while turning out to vote more consistently than men.  In fact, if Representative Bachmann weren't seeking re-election she'd surely be in the running, but she'll have to wait her turn as elite GOP strategists have to be aware of the looming November election as they consider their "short list."

Who can inspire big donors? Who can keep the media focused on the GOP's talking points? Who has a photogenic face and comfort in front of the cameras?  Who has the balance of national recognition and all these other elements, and is available to step up and step in when the next gaffe strikes Michael Steele down?

The Thrilla from Wasilla.

It's what she's been waiting for. It won't matter that she's blown any credibility on international affairs, or quit her post as Governor --  the chair doesn't direct policy or even write speeches; the job responsibilities are largely smiling for the cameras and memorizing scripted phrases while insuring a good turn-out for fund-raising events.

I'm sure there are other possibile choices, not to mention that the GOP loves how she distracts the rest of the pundits already pondering future presidential hopefuls.  But the GOP still has Romney and Huckabee, plus Pawlenty and Coleman coming out of "middle America" with records they can ostensibly run on to work with  thus leaving the hockey mom free to court publicity without anybody questioning her readiness or suitability to be Commander-in-Chief.

Thomas Hayes is an entrepreneur, Democratic Campaign Manager, journalist, and photographer who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community.