Countdown to Halloween 2013 Opening Ceremonies

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

After 11 months in hibernation, it begins again. Welcome one and all to the Countdown to Halloween at Me and You and a Blog Named Boo!  OK, I admit I'm cheating, the Countdown officially starts tomorrow, but I just couldn't wait to begin sharing some awesome Halloween stuff with you. Plus, as tomorrow is Tuesday, that means a new Tuesday's Overlooked movie or TV program, and I have a great spooky-related one planned for that day. Also, tomorrow will be the day when the main site posts a list of all the participating blogs. Please try to check out as many as you can throughout the season, as everyone posts great stuff all month long.

So let me kick off the festivities with some great clips to warm you up for the season.

Let the Countdown to Halloween begin!

List O' Links for Friday, September 27, 2013

This is the last weekend of September. It's been a busy month for all, I'm sure (it certainly has been for me), so we've all earned a fun, relaxing weekend. Especially since the rest of the year is going to be even busier, but also a lot of fun. The last three months are my favorite of the year: we've got Halloween (and the Countdown to it), Thanksgiving, and my favorite holiday of the year, Christmas!

And appropriately enough, my favorite time of the year kicks off Saturday, which is my birthday! Happy Birthday to me! :)

OK, enough on the passage of time, let's get right to the links!

Check out an actor dressed as Superman at the 1939 World's Fair. This unnamed actor is likely the first live action representation of the hero.

I'd love to hear what the grammar police would say about this author's punctuation proclamation--"Kill the Apostrophe!"

I know it's early, but new Christmas music releases start coming out strong in October. Keep track with Amazon's list of new Christmas music releases here.

Remember Freedom Rock, man? Here's an update on what one of the actors in that famous commercial is doing these days.

The TV series Marvel's Agents of SHIELD debuted this week (and I thought it was awesome!) and Iron Man 3 was released on DVD, Blu-Ray, and Digital HD download this week as well. But did you know that prose novels starring the Avengers were available way back when? Check out their nice cover art here.

Finally, this wouldn't be a decent geek-related blog without some Star Wars cosplay. Here is a video featuring an awesome wookie outfit!

Have a great weekend, and please come back Monday, as next week kicks off--the COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN! See you then!

Tuesday's Overlooked: I Got Nothin'

I'm afraid the title says it all. The Overlooked well is running dry this week, and I'm sorry about that. I do, however, encourage you to check out Overlooked treasures of the past by clicking on the Tuesday's Forgotten keyword in the "May I Help You Find Something" section along the right of the blog. I really need to update that label, as I no longer call the feature "Forgotten." Still, you'll find some goodies there you may have missed previously.

As for the future, I have some good news there.

As you may know, the Countdown to Halloween starts next week! My Overlooked selections will reflect that, as they are all horror-related, or at least connected to the spooky and weird in some way or another. There are five Tuesday's this October, so I've already selected five fun films.

As I was thinking of them this morning, I realized that, purely by coincidence, the selections I've made, while still spooky-related, also have strong elements of comedy to them. Also, two of the five films have the same director.

Oooh, teasers!

I hope you'll stay with me as we look at creepy (sort of) Overlooked films all through October. Thanks!

List O' Links for Friday, September 20, 2013

It's another weekend! Time to kick back and relax with some links. Here we go!

Did you ever wish you could look like an A-list celebrity? Well, chances are, you can't. But you can enjoy A-list celebrities looking like "normal" people.

Cuteness alert! Here is artist Andry Rajoelina's rendering of superheroes taking their children (real or adopted) to school. The Batman artwork gets me the most!

The Fall TV season officially kicks off this upcoming Monday (the Fox network and most syndicated programs have already started this week). It will be interesting to see what new shows won't make it to a second season. You know what else is interesting? Eleven ill-conceived TV spin-offs that almost made it to air. A M*A*S*H spin-off starring Radar, anyone?

If I have my way, I may need to take advantage of this article. How to play your Atari 2600 on a modern television. I have two Ataris, and I hope to get one of them up and running in the coming weeks.

I'm happy to say that reruns of Gilligan's Island are now playing on retro TV network Me TV! This begs the age-old question: Ginger or Mary Ann? The correct answer is Mary Ann, by the way.

Finally, watching Adventure Time is the most fun thing you can do these days, but did you know it can also make you a better person? Really, it can. Give it a try!

Have a great weekend!

The Monkees, "Hitting the High Seas"

Avast, ye hearties! Today 'tis Talk Like A Pirate Day, and we celebrate this day with a look at the one of the most famous and beloved episodes of The Monkees, "Hitting the High Seas." The boys are hired to work on what they think is a simple cargo ship, but instead turns out to be a modern-day pirate ship trying to rob the Queen Anne cruise ship!

That's a lot of uses of the word "ship!"

Enjoy, landlubbers!

Tuesday's Overlooked TV: The Invisible Man

Before I get to this week's Tuesday's Overlooked, I want to let you know that the Countdown to Halloween is coming back! For the fifth year in a row, I, along with dozens of other blogs, will be spending the entire month of October showcasing Halloween and horror- or spooky-related material. It's one of the biggest, if not thee biggest, event here at the blog all year. The official start is Tuesday, October 1st, exactly two weeks from today, but I'm going to start a day early, Monday. September 30th. Mark your calendars, it's going to be spooktacular! For more information, click on the Frankenberry badge along the right side of the blog or simply click here.

With that said, I now return you to your regularly scheduled Tuesday's Overlooked TV--the science fiction series The Invisible Man.

The man in question is Darien Fawkes, an expert thief who is pulled out of prison by The Agency, a clandestine organization which implants into him the Quicksilver gland, which allows him to secrete a light-bending substance that renders him invisible. The Agency sends him on various missions to stop evil threats to society. However, one of the makers of the gland is an evil scientist (of course), who intentionally creates a defect in the gland; it induces pain and psychosis in the user after he's been invisible for a certain period of time. This requires the Agency to stop Fawkes from remaining invisible for too long or else he'll lose his mind completely.

The premise is as wacky as it sounds, but the show had a cheesy charm to it, as long as you didn't take it seriously. During its first of two seasons (2000-2002), the series aired simultaneously on both first-run broadcast syndication and cable TV's Sci Fi Network (now SyFy).

Here for your enjoyment is the series' movie-length pilot. Thanks!

Tuesday's Overlooked TV: The New People

A day late and a dollar short, here is this week's Tuesday's Overlooked TV--the short-lived ABC TV series The New People.

The New People involved a group of young college students who crash in a plane on their way home from a trip to Southeast Asia. They land on an island that, although uninhabited, is littered with ghost towns and mannequins made to look like a real American town. It's determined that the town was created by the American government for possible nuclear bomb testing. The students, with no adults over 30 as they died in the crash, use the town to create their own civilization, leading to several Lord of the Flies-type culture clashes and leadership contests.

The series, with a pilot scripted by Rod Serling, was intended to be an examination of issues presented by the counterculture of the time, and demonstrate the challenges that a youth-oriented control of society would face. However, the series did not receive either good criticism or ratings and only lasted four months. When Lost became a success, comparisons were made to this series, reintroducing the old series to the public.

There is scant footage of the series available, but what I could find is shown here. Thanks!

List O' Links for Friday, September 6, 2013

After a long hiatus, List O' Links is back! Spend the first weekend of the new school year with these links!

Vocals by famous singers isolated from musical tracks have become common thanks to the Internet the last couple of years. If you're a Beatles fan like I am, you'll enjoy these isolated vocal tracks from Abbey Road.

This article is a year old, but I share it's sentiment. The author pontificates on the autumn tradition of reading the Fall Preview issue of my former employer, TV Guide!

Speaking of autumn traditions, here is a list of notable observances throughout the month of September.

August 28th was legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby's birthday. Here is a list of virtues Kirby lived by that helped him create his work throughout his long career.

As long as I'm posting a list o' links about lists, here's another: Salon.com's 23 signs you're a secret narcissist.

Finally, the Countdown to Halloween that I participate in begins October 1st as usual, but one eager blogger is already counting down on his own! His blog is Dinosaur Dracula, and a couple of weeks ago, he sampled the newly returned Monster cereals Frute Brute and Yummy Mummy. Check out his hilarious review here.

Have a great September!

Tuesday's Overlooked TV: Michael Nesmith in Elephant Parts

Hi everybody! If there's a bookshelf in the background of my blog, it means that Labor Day has passed and summer is unofficially over. For me, between the soggy, rainy weather, my daughter's broken arm in the month of July, and a lot of running around during August, summer was pretty much a bust for my household. But no use in complaining. The best thing to do is welcome autumn with open arms and appreciate its splendor. Cool weather, changing color of the leaves, and a certain countdown in the month of October ;)

But first things first. We have this week's Tuesday's Overlooked TV: the 1981 TV special Elephant Parts, created by and starring former Monkee Michael Nesmith.

Elephant Parts is a bit hard to describe, but it's basically an hour of weird comedy sketches, some a parody of Nesmith's previous post-Monkees projects, accompanied by five music videos of Nesmith songs (my favorite being "Rio"). While not exactly groundbreaking, it is amusing, and it definitely shows Nesmith's influence on the creation of visual-dependent media such as MTV. See for yourself below and enjoy the entire hour.

I hope you had a great summer; here's to a wonderful fall!