NBC Is Bringing Back the Olympics Triplecast . . . This Is Getting Weird

First I express the desire for mummies to make a resurgence in popular culture, and then find out that a major mummy movie (say that three hundred times fast) will be released next summer.  And now, after hoping, for no good reason, for NBC to revive its failed Nineties experiment, the Olympics Triplecast, I learn that they are doing just that.  Well, it’s not really the Triplecast, but it is a new cable network devoted entirely to the Olympics, which is close enough to make me feel as if I have at least a mild case of prophecy.

As far as I know, no one is currently producing a crossover of iCarly and I, Claudius.  But still, two of my blog wishes have come true, so I’m going to come out and say it: I want the dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals to come back, and indeed I would like to be the one to introduce them to the world, and for some of the larger ones I would like to be able to get on their backs and ride around on them.  

Icicles: Winter Is Coming

I saw these icicles over the weekend.  They are a reminder that winter is coming, or, if you, like me, go by meteorological winter, that winter is already here.  

“Winter is coming” is the catchphrase from the popular television series Game of Thrones.  I have never actually seen this show, despite the fact that it looks like the sort of thing that I would like.  Maybe one day I will take the time to watch it all.  Until then, I must rely on the basic knowledge that the characters in Game of Thrones live in an epic quasi-Medieval fantasy world, doing epic quasi-Medieval fantasy things, and occasionally reminding each other that winter is coming.  

For example:

[Somebody is fighting a dragon.]

[They pause.]

Somebody: Winter is coming.

Dragon: Yes, winter is coming.

[They resume fighting.]

Wait a Minute . . . We ARE Having a Mummy Resurgence

In a recent post, I opined that mummies should be the next big thing in popular horror.  Now it turns out that next summer there will be a major mummy movie, starring Tom Cruise.  The trailer was released last week.  

I almost think that I should blog about other things that I want, and see if they come true.

I could start with the dinosaurs returning, but that might be taking things too far.  

Thanksgiving Does Not Inspire Blogging

Over the years Halloween and Christmas have inspired their share of blog posts here.  Thanksgiving never has (other than this), though I don’t know why. 

Maybe if I were still using my old computer I could use the drawing software to try to draw a turkey, as I used to draw things for Halloween.  But my new computer doesn’t have any drawing software.

Anyway, happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

Maybe We Could Have a Mummy Resurgence

The Halloween season is coming to an end.  Soon the last of the plastic skeletons and fake spiderwebs will be removed from front yards.  Normally Halloween inspires me to blog, but this year I just didn’t feel it, for a variety of reasons.

I do have one thought in the general field of spookiness.  We are currently in a zombie craze, centered on The Walking Dead.  And before that we had a long period of vampire popularity, centered on the Twilight books and movies, as well as various television shows.

My hope is that the next stock horror creature to capture the public’s imagination will be the mummy.  Compared to vampires and zombies, mummies are more closely based in historical reality (except of course for the rising from the dead part). We would get a chance to visit the ancient and alien world of the pharaohs, where the Nile winds its way through the desert sands in the shadow of strange stone monuments. 

Plus we’d get to use cool words like sarcophagus, sphinx, and obelisk.

Tales from the Alexandria Necropolis: The Halloween Bear

Since it’s almost Halloween, it’s time that I finish some business from Halloween of last year.  

In the southeastern corner of Alexandria, there is a large complex of cemeteries that covers 35 acres or more.  Most maps label the entire thing as Alexandria National Cemetery (the precursor to Arlington National Cemetery), but Alexandria National Cemetery only makes up a small part of the complex.  The rest is composed of lots belonging to various Alexandria churches.  

The cemeteries are filled with the sort of ornate grave markers that were popular a hundred years ago or more.   

On Halloween of last year (2015), I happened to be in the area of this cemetery complex, and decided to take a walk there, because it seemed like a Halloweeny thing to do, and I hoped that something Halloweeny would happen.  

Nothing Halloweeny happened.

But I did come across this bear, which has to be the most un-Halloweeny thing imaginable.

October Sky

October Sky is the name of a 1999 movie based on the life of former NASA engineer Homer Hickam.  The original title, Rocket Boys, taken from Hickam’s autobiography, was changed when marketing research revealed that women over thirty would not see a movie called Rocket Boys.  (The two titles are anagrams.)

In 1999 I saw Hickam on David Letterman’s CBS show promoting the film.  Letterman recalled an occasion on which the producers of Letterman’s earlier NBC show attempted to enlist Hickam to teach Letterman to scuba dive for a special underwater episode.  The idea turned out to be unworkable, however, as at that time of year the local sea water was so cold that Letterman would have frozen to death over the course of the hour-long show.  That would have been a great loss to television, especially during Letterman’s earlier, funnier days.  

I have never seen October Sky, nor does it, or Homer Hickam, or David Letterman, have anything to do with these pictures.   

They are simply some pictures of the October sky.  

(As always, click to enlarge.)