50 YEARS AGO TODAY, the United States launched its very first satellite, Explorer 1, into Earth orbit. It was in response to the Soviet Union launching its Sputnik 1 satellite three months earlier, thus touching off the Space Race. Just thought I’d give you a bit of history as we are now living in the fifth decade of the Space Age. Awesome.


NASA JPL

Below is an image of the planet Mercury taken by NASA’S MESSENGER spacecraft, which this month became the first spacecraft in more than 30 years to visit our solar system’s innermost planet. The first spacecraft to do so was Mariner 10, when it flew past Mercury three times in 1974 and ’75. Like Mariner 10, MESSENGER will fly past Mercury two more times before it finally settles into orbit around that world on March 18, 2011. The second flyby will take place on October 6 of this year, and the third and final rendezvous before orbit insertion will be September 29 of next year. That’s all.


NASA / JHUAPL / CIW / The Planetary Society / Eric Landrenau

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES... Last night, FOX re-aired the series premiere of the show (a new episode couldn't be shown since George Dubya gave the annual Presidential Blow-Smoke-Up-The-People’s-Ass speech—a.k.a. the State of the Union address—yesterday), and I have one observation to make after re-watching the episode: Wouldn’t John Connor be a little more grossed out that he saw his mom completely nude after they jumped through that time portal to 2007? Or was the cringe factor for him reduced by the fact he also got to see Cameron naked as well (even though she's a cyborg)?



The plotline about Cromartie is getting pretty interesting. I think it’s a nice touch that last week's episode ("The Turk") showed how the Terminators get encased in their human disguises. None of the three current Terminator films [yes, there will be a fourth installment, Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins (aimed for a 2009 release)...with Batman's Christian Bale rumored to portray John Connor in his adult, rebel leader years] even bothered to offer any noteworthy explanation about how robots could get placed inside real human flesh. But the question remains: Will Cromartie re-appear like his old self (played by David Kilde), or will he take on a new look? We’ll see.

22 YEARS AGO TODAY... This week marks the anniversaries of three of the lowest points in our nation's manned space program. Rest in peace to the Challenger crew...as well as the Columbia and Apollo 1 astronauts. This Friday marks the 5-year anniversary since the second space shuttle disaster took place. When the shuttle Atlantis launches again on February 7 (hopefully), let's hope it begins a safe and successful round of missions (six in all) to the Hubble Space Telescope and International Space Station this year, so space station assembly can be finished by 2010. After that, we can now focus on heading back to the Moon, and eventually onto Mars...

EARLIER TODAY, I went to Rancho Cucamonga to meet and get an autograph by supermodel Cindy Crawford. She is totally hot in person. And the signing (at least to the point in line I was standing at) went smooth. Unlike the countless of Lakers signings I went to over the years, as well as the autograph sessions held at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium about two weeks ago, the folks at, um, Wickes Furniture (where Crawford appeared so she could promote her new line of furniture. No— I didn’t buy any, haha), were clever enough to hand out Post-It notes to everyone in line to jot down what they wanted Mrs. Crawford (I don’t think she goes by Gerber, the last name of her husband, Rande) to write on their autographs before they went up to her table. It helped expedite the process; making the line move quicker, obviously. Also, there were show organizers on-hand to take photos for us as we sat right next to Cindy while she signed the autograph. If you showed up alone to this event—no problem—one of the Wickes folks took a picture for you with your own camera (duh). Yea, it was awesome. Below are the photos:



Here are some ‘nature’ shots that I took before the signing as well. Rancho Cucamonga is in San Bernardino County, California. Right next to Mt. Baldy. Ignore the fact the photos I took of some mountain peak are larger than the pics I took of one of America’s hottest supermodels, ever. Anyways... *Waits for the day I get to see the Himalayas—or at least the Rockies—in person, haha.*

SpaceShipTwo unveiled... Do you think traveling 60 miles into space will one day cost as much as doing a tandem skydive (usually around $300), or at least a HALO tandem dive (around $3,000)? $200,000—the current asking price by Virgin Galactic, which owns SpaceShipTwo—is a bit out of my price range...for now.




SpaceShipTwo and White Knight II undergoing construction at the Scaled Composites facility:



All images courtesy of Virgin Galactic / Scaled Composites

HEATH LEDGER: 1979-2008... I'm completely stunned. Not to sound tactless or anything, but if this is anything like Brandon Lee's death increasing interest in The Crow in 1994, then you can expect some major publicity for The Dark Knight when it gets released in July.

RIP, Heath. Your portrayal of The Joker looks badass.

80th ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS... As expected, There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men and the so-called "Titanic for this generation" (minus James Cameron, Kate Winslet's knockers, the $600 million domestic box office gross and eye-popping visual effects), Atonement, got Best Picture nominations. However, Ridley Scott's American Gangster was surprisingly snubbed from the major categories...except for Best Supporting Actress (Ruby Dee) and a technical nom for Art Direction. Oh well.



Also as expected (woohoo), Transformers got nominated not only for Best Visual Effects, but for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing as well. Winning all three will probably be a longshot, but Visual FX should be a lock. Never saw The Golden Compass, but I’m pretty sure the effects aren’t anything that we haven’t already seen in other fantasy flicks like The Chronicles of Narnia or Harry Potter. The effects work in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End was awesome, but again, it’s nothing that we haven’t already seen in the first two POTC films.



It would’ve also been cool if Steve Jablonsky got a Best Original Score nod for his music in Transformers. It’s gonna be a while till I stop listening to it on my car’s CD player while driving. You heard me. I listen to orchestral music instead of rap or punk rock while cruisin’ down the 60 Freeway. But that's only if I don't have passengers in my car.

AP / David J. Phillip

GIANTS: 23, PACKERS: 20... That’s what I call redemption. New York Giants placekicker Lawrence Tyne missed 2 consecutive field goals in the second half of tonight’s game against the Green Bay Packers...the last of which would have given New York a victory in regulation, and sparing it of having to go through overtime to meet its inevitable fate against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. But hey, Tyne followed through on his last field goal (a 47-yarder, which ironically was farther than the 43 and 36-yard attempts he missed in the fourth quarter)—which allowed him to breathe a sign of relief, and avoid getting himself tied to a field goal post in Green Bay’s minus-4 degree weather if New York lost. Just kidding. But God, I’d hate to live in the Northeast...unless it was the Big Apple. *Resists the urge to mention the Cloverfield monster here as a lame joke.* Back on topic, we’ll see if Eli Manning becomes the second Manning in two years to win the NFL championship. Probably not likely against Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Company... Not to state the obvious or anything.

By the way, I'm well aware that there were so many run-on sentences in the paragraph above. Oh well.

CLOVERFIELD... I saw the film tonight, and thought it was pretty good. However, many in the audience two of my friends and I watched it with made negative comments right after the ending (cause it was abrupt), but those people are ignoramuses. C’mon now— You must have a far more severe mental issue than ADD to not realize that the flick was treated as a ‘documentary’ from the very start... What makes you think it wasn’t gonna have that documentary feel at the end as well? What, did these folks expect some dramatic music (courtesy of Steve Jablonsky or John Williams) to accompany the final scenes in Cloverfield? Or the camera conveniently capturing footage on its own of the military folks who found the device inside the rubble (not to spoil the ending for y’all who haven’t seen the movie yet)? Wouldn’t that have been nice...



No, the movie was treated as if it was actually raw footage that was pieced together so government officials could view it and find out what happened (for those folks reading this who have ADD). Trust me— A movie that has more of a "WTF??" ending to it is something like 28 Weeks Later...or Rob Zombie’s recent take on Halloween. Basically, the more standard horror fare. I’m definitely gonna buy Cloverfield once it gets released on DVD.



What actually peeves me more than the local audience's reaction to J.J. Abrams' thriller is the fact Hollywood is making too many movies like Bring It On. You have Bring It On’s straight-to-DVD sequels, Stomp the Yard, Honey (but that one has Jessica Alba in it, so all is forgiven), Rize, You Got Served, the upcoming How She Move, and Step It Up’s sequel, Step Up 2 The Streets...whose preview was shown in front of Cloverfield (I had to do research online to find all the recent dance flicks, FYI). Um, just how many of these films do we need to see of a bunch of (insert any derogatory name for urban kids here) krumping and doing all that crap? Of course, that's Tinseltown. Gladiator was a hit in 2000, so, gotta make more sword-and-sandal epics that can also become huge successes...like Lord of the Rings, or major flops like Uwe Boll's recent In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Saw was a huge hit too, so, gotta make more torture porn like Hostel...and more additional Saw sequels (Saw 5 comes out this October...Good God). But I’m just going off on a rant here.



Basically, Cloverfield was good. And for those of you who read my last Blog on the film, the monster looked NOTHING like the image I posted. It looked more like something from the XBox video game Gears of War (which I also wrote a Blog on) or the creatures in The Mist (film review here) than it did a giant whale. And the pic below? Nope— Not a Monster Louse. But a really gruesome ending for one of the movie’s main human characters. Not to spoil the flick for ya. That is all.



UPDATE (January 21): A screenshot of the monster...



All images courtesy of Paramount Pictures / Bad Robot Productions

Twentieth Century Fox

THE X-FILES 2... ComingSoon.net has posted up four new images from the upcoming film, which gets released in theaters on July 25. Unlike the first X-Files motion picture (which came out in 1998), this installment will not delve into the aliens-among-us "mythology" that formed the backbone of the hit FOX TV series (which aired from 1993 to 2002) and the ’98 movie. The sequel will be a stand-alone film that deals with the supernatural. The actual storyline is closely being kept under wraps by X-Files creator and director Chris Carter.

The X-Files 2 reunites David Duchovny as FBI agent/conspiracy theorist Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as FBI agent/skeptic Dana Scully. Also in this movie will be Amanda Peet and, um, rapper Xzibit. Wow.