Patton Oswalt’s Star Wars VII

On a recent episode of Parks & Recreation, Patton Oswalt described his funny vision for the next Star Wars film as Amy Poehler listened. A creative person named Isaac Moores, who goes by Izac Less on YouTube, rose to the occasion and made a video illustrating Oswalt’s description of Star Wars VII, which adds some characters such as Iron Man Tony Stark.

Update 2025: While the video by Isaac Moores seems to be no longer on YouTube, below is a similar one posted by Nerdist.

What is your favorite part of Patton Oswalt’s vision? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Visiting the Hickory of “Hoosiers” Today

    hoosiers revisited
    One of my favorite movies of all time is Hoosiers (1986), so I really liked this Hoosiers Revisited video by Michael Watson that tracks down the location of many scenes from the movie to show what the locales look like today. The video does a cool job of blending movie scenes with the new shots. And every time I hear the theme music by Jerry Goldsmith it makes me want to run home and put in my Hoosiers DVD.

    Hoosiers, which starred Gene Hackman and was directed by David Anspaugh, is set in the fictional town of Hickory, Indiana. While the story is based on the Milan High School basketball team that won the 1954 state championship, the filmmakers used the town of New Richmond, Indiana for many of the scenes in the movie. But some of the scenes are from other towns, such as the white barn at the beginning of the film, which is in Sheridan, Indiana.

    If you want to test how much you know about Hoosiers, check out our Hoosiers trivia quiz.

    What is your favorite scene in Hoosiers? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Happy Birthday Brooklyn Bridge

    Brooklyn Bridge 1899 May 24 is the anniversary of the 1883 opening of the Brooklyn Bridge connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn across the East River. At the time, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge was seen as a great human achievement, resulting in the longest suspension bridge by more than 50% over any existing bridge. Well over a century later, it is still beautiful and fun to walk across.

    The bridge has appeared in a number of movies, such as Moonstruck (1987), The Siege (1998), Godzilla (1998), and I Am Legend (2007).

    Despite the Brooklyn Bridge’s iconic status, the Manhattan Bridge has stolen some of the more classic New York bridge movie scenes. That bridge is featured in classic scenes in Woody Allen’s Manhattan (1979)) and in Once Upon a Time in America (1984).

    The Brooklyn Bridge still has a pretty good movie record, and you may also check it out online with a live videocam. The bridge also appears in songs. For example, Frank Sinatra sang the song, “The Brooklyn Bridge.” Similarly, the bridge recently appeared in Lee Dewyze’s jazzy “Brooklyn Bridge.”

    Below is Sinatra’s “The Brooklyn Bridge,” which was written by Sammy Cahn. The song was recorded for the movie It Happened in Brooklyn (1947), which also features Sinatra on the Bridge. The song was released as a B-side in 1947.

    For more about the Brooklyn Bridge and its historical significance, a History Channel documentary in their Modern Marvels series tells the story of the bridge.

    If you prefer a much shorter video, you can check out another one that has 10 Amazing Facts About the Brooklyn Bridge.

    Photo of Brooklyn Bridge in 1899 via Brooklyn Museum. What is your favorite image of Brooklyn Bridge? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    7 Things About “Star Trek: Into Darkness” (Short Review)

    Star Trek Into Darkness Here are seven spoiler-free things about Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013).

    1. You already know whether or not you will enjoy Star Trek: Into Darkness. If you are a Star Trek fan or like action movies in space, you will see the movie no matter what I say. And you probably will not be disappointed. For a Star Trek fan like me, it is a very entertaining movie and the most fun I have had at the cinema in awhile.

    2. Director J.J. Abrams continues with our heroes in an alternate time-line from the 1960s series and the characters from the original series. In this first sequel to J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009) reboot, where time does not need to be wasted on the set-up, we are starting to see the brilliance of having the freedom to change the events of the “past” while also connecting to the stories we know.

    3. While the first film took me awhile to adapt to the new actors in the classic roles, by now the actors fit well into their roles. Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho and others have become the characters we know. Benedict Cumberbatch does a good job as the bad guy too.

    4. There are several references to the old TV and movie series. I will leave it to you to decide whether the movie overdoes it. On one hand, one might conclude there was a little too much old and not enough new — while also wondering if this alternate universe storyline really makes much sense for the characters. But on the other hand, the connections did make for an entertaining and clever movie.

    5. As Slate has noted, the new film has a little something to say about the U.S. war on terrorism, making the movie relevant in the way the old series was. The Atlantic, however, finds the message is not so ambiguous. There is a lot to discuss on this point, which makes the movie even more memorable.

    6. While many speculated about the identity of the villain prior to the film’s release (and which I will not spoil here), I was pleasantly surprised by the appearance of one of these (warning: clicking on the link will give you a minor spoiler).

    7. Conclusion? If you liked past Star Trek films, you should see Star Trek: Into Darkness. But I probably did not need to tell you that.


    What did you think of Star Trek: Into Darkness? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Elvis and His Scarves

    Elvis Presley Opportunity Village In his later years, Elvis Presley notoriously used a lot of silk scarves on stage. According to the Elvis History Blog, Presley’s practice of giving away scarves started in September 1970 in Phoenix, Arizona. At that show, Presley gave his green scarf to a young fan in the front row, and her joyous reaction eventually led to Presley continuing the practice.

    I remember as a kid watching his 1973 Hawaii special and being puzzled and amazed as he used scarf after scarf to dab his sweat, giving each scarf to a happy audience member. Watch how a little bit of Elvis brings such joy as he sings “Love Me.”

    In more recent years, even as I have continued to listen to Elvis Presley’s music, I have not given much thought to those scarves. But this year, on All-Star Celebrity Apprentice, the season’s runner-up Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller revealed where the scarves came from as he discussed the charity he was representing on the show.

    Each scarf Elvis used did a little bit of good beyond drying his face and thrilling a fan. Elvis and his manager Colonel Tom Parker supported a charity Opportunity Village by buying scarves from this organization that still provides a number of programs for people with intellectual disabilities.

    This local Las Vegas news channel tells the story about Opportunity Village and Elvis.

    Knowing the story behind the scarves now makes me smile even more when I see Elvis using them on stage. Now that the King is not around, if you would like to walk a mile in Elvis’s shoes and help Opportunity Village, you may donate at the organization’s website.

    [Update August 2013 and 2021: A recent discussion about this post on the Elvis Collectors website recounts a different scarves story from Ed Bonja, Elvis’s photographer and tour manager from 1970-1977. According to the post, Bonja explained that in early 1975 Colonel Parker became concerned about the high cost of the scarves so they began ordering cheap scarves from Korea. It is possible Elvis got the scarves from both sources or that after awhile they stopped getting them from Opportunity Village, which lists itself as “the official manufacturer of Elvis’ scarves” on its website, although {update 2021} the website now has narrowed that claim to the “original manufacturer of the scarves that Elvis Presley tossed to his adoring fans during his record-setting run at the International Hotel in the 70s.”  Still, even if Opportunity Village did not supply all of the scarves, it is still a good cause and worth checking out its website.]

    What do you think of Elvis and his scarves? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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