REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Update... USAToday released several official photos from next June’s Transformers sequel last Sunday and Monday. Unfortunately, it looks like we won’t see pics of the robots themselves (with the exception of Optimus Prime, above) till the teaser trailer...which should be released around February. The image below of Megan Fox running and, um, adjusting her top oughta do for now... That, and the cool shot of the Pyramids.













One more photo for the road...courtesy of the website obviously watermarked on the lower left-hand corner of the pic (duh).

TERMINATOR SALVATION... I'm totally watching this movie when it comes out in theaters on May 22...

DRIFTING... I’m too lazy to elaborate on what this car racing technique is (if you don't know already), but the video below should give you a pretty darn good idea on what drifting is about. The highlight of this clip is the driver drifting his Subaru Impreza in a complete 360° circle around another dude as he rides a Segway scooter across an obstacle course (around the 3:14 mark of the video). Now that’s skills.

STAR WARS ACCORDING TO A 3 YEAR OLD... In case you haven’t seen this video yet, check it out now... "Don’t talk back to Darth Vader, he’ll getcha!" Ah-dorable.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! Just thought I’d wish you and yours a happy holiday. Anyways, here’s hoping today’s Lakers/Celtics game resembles Games 3 or 5 of last season’s NBA Finals. But not Game 6. Or 1, or 2, or 4. That is all. Later!



UPDATE (5:10 PM PST): 92-83, LA. Nice.

SpaceX

ENTER THE DRAGON... Yesterday, NASA offered two private aerospace companies—Orbital Sciences Corp. and SpaceX—a contract worth $3.5 billion to haul cargo and/or crew to the International Space Station (ISS) after the space shuttle retires in 2010. The reason why this interests me is pretty much implied above: the United States has the potential to have two types of manned vehicles that will take astronauts into space by 2015. Besides the Dragon capsule that's shown in the pic above, the other manned vehicle—of course—is NASA’s Orion spacecraft.


SpaceX

2009 should be an intriguing year for U.S. human spaceflight. The Dragon spacecraft and the Falcon 9 rocket (which is also constructed by SpaceX) that will carry Dragon into space will undergo a series of test launches next year. This July will see the launch of Ares I-X, a prototype of the Ares I rocket that will ferry the Orion spacecraft to the ISS, and hopefully to more distant destinations (ahem, the Moon, Near Earth Asteroids and of course, Mars?) starting in the later half of next decade. The launch of Ares I-X, however, depends on whether or not the shuttle Atlantis will be able to get off the ground next May on a mission to service and repair the Hubble Space Telescope one last time.


NASA / Troy Cryder

One more thing: Our nation’s potential to have two manned space vehicles by 2015 also hinges on what Barack Obama does when he officially becomes the U.S. President on January 20. *Crosses fingers.*


NASA

RANDOM BABE BLOG #12... Today’s entry goes to Tamara Brown, the sexy young blonde who’s gracing the two Carl’s Jr. ‘charbroiled steak sandwich’ ads on TV right now. If I was that guy in the commercial, I’d quickly throw the laptop to the ground and break it (or simply stop playing that video game...whatever sounds better), run to the bedroom and put on whatever passes for a suit that resembles something you’d buy at the Men’s Warehouse. And, of course, bring along a hat. One that’s of the jimmy kind. But that’s just me. Here’re two screenshots from the ads...



...and here're the ads themselves.





Don’t forget to check out those other Carl’s Jr. commercials that have hot actresses like Ashley Hartman and Cameron Richardson (and yes, Paris Hilton) in them. They’re in the Related Videos section. To the right side of the page. That is all.

THE 2008 L.A. AUTO SHOW... On November 26, I attended the annual car expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center. I took more than 300 photos there (despite the fact my camera’s batteries were dying, and I had to constantly turn the cam on and off to replenish enough power to take another shot), and uploaded 100 of them to my main website. Click here to view them. I’d upload the remaining 200-plus pics, but you know, I’m too lazy to. Despite the fact I already posted a hundred of ‘em online. Anyways...



As you can see, I saw in person the Audi R8 (in the image at the top of this entry), the 2009 and 2010 Chevy Camaros (above) and the Chevy Volt (below). Besides being Robert Downey, Jr.’s ride in Iron Man, the R8 will also be shown in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (possibly as a Decepticon)...along with the 2010 Camaro (which will be the vehicle mode for Bumblebee in the sequel. The 2009 model was used for Bumblebee in last year’s Transformers film). The Chevy Volt will also be featured in Revenge of the Fallen, as the Autobot known as Jolt.

THE DARK KNIGHT... In case you don’t know yet (how’s it like livin’ in that cave? J/k), the DVD for this year’s most successful movie (and the 2nd highest grossing domestic film of all time here in the United States, behind 1997's Titanic) comes out in retail stores today. Definitely can’t wait to buy it. Also, a 2-disc extended music score for The Dark Knight also gets released today. If it’s anything like what happened with the orchestral score for Transformers last year, where all the places I went to either didn’t have the album in stock or was sold out (I eventually bought it at a Borders book store in Northridge, California. I live near ummm, Pomona, California. SoCal folks reading this will know how far the two cities are from each other), the Best Buy I’m planning to buy the DVD at won’t have the score, and I’m gonna have to order it online (most likely at Amazon.com). Hopefully that won’t happen. I’d hate to have Best Buy employees ask "Why so serious?" when I show how upset I am when I find out their store doesn’t have the score available.



Of course, the employees can tell me "Let’s put a smile on that face" and surprise me by handing me the only remaining copy of Hans Zimmer’s latest album. We’ll see.




One last thing... The Dark Knight will be re-released in regular and IMAX theaters here in the U.S. on January 23 next year, a day after the nominations for the 81st Academy Awards are announced. Woohoo! Speaking of the Academy... It reversed its decision on The Dark Knight's music, and Zimmer's work (with the help of James Newton Howard) is now eligible for a Best Original Score nod. Nice.

REVENGE OF THE FALLEN Update... The Transformers Live Action Movie Blog posted this leaked concept artwork of Megatron and a really cool-looking Ravage from Revenge of the Fallen. This image of Megatron pretty much looks the same as the previous Megatron pic that was featured in this journal entry. This latest concept of Ravage, real or not (hopefully real), looks a lot more sinister than this fan art...though the fan art also kicks ass. Definitely can’t wait to see the live-action version of Ravage and Megs on the big screen when Transformers 2 comes out in theaters next June. Still hoping that the teaser trailer for the sequel gets shown in front of The Day the Earth Stood Still...out in movie theaters next Friday.