Deadline for War

The deadline for war has almost arrived. Who knows what the next few days [weeks?] will bring us.

The nation has gone to a higher state of alert. Cities are tightening their security. Turn on the tv and all you can find on news channels are reports from the front and speculation about what will happen next.

The NCAA basketball tourney will continue as planned. And that's a good thing. I have three of the four number one teams in our annual family contest. The Academy Awards are scheduled to be held on Sunday as planned [although there will be less red carpet and after party coverage]. I'm glad that both of these major events will go on as scheduled. We're going to need something to divert our attention from the media overkill covering the war. I also think that we can't let the possibility of terrorist attacks on the homefront cause us to change our lifestyle.

Well... it's 8:00 straight-up. May God bless our troops and may this war end quickly.

John Carpenter

JOHN CARPENTER used to be one of my favorite directors.

He was a young guy whose love for movies was evident. CARPENTER did it all. He wrote, directed and even created the music for his movies. I first discovered his work with the classic "Halloween."

I learned about another classic that CARPENTER had created even earlier in his career. That was the cult classic "Assault on Precinct 13." In the following years CARPENTER went on to direct "Escape From New York," "The Thing," "Big Trouble in Little China" and even "Starman."

After that his movies began to be hit or miss and mostly miss.

Still when I go back and watch one of JOHN CARPENTER's early films, like "Assault on Precinct 13," it's obvious why he was one of my favorites!

Below Rises to the Top

Way back on October 5, 2002, I told you about a movie that I couldn't wait to see. And I wouldn't have to since "Below" was scheduled to premiere the following week.

Funny thing was, it never got a theatrical release.

"Below" came out on dvd and video this week. I went to Blockbuster to rent it and all copies were gone. I called Best Buy and Circuit City and they were sold out. I went to Wal Mart and they had three copies left. Now they have two.

"Below" is the story of an American submarine crew facing Nazi war ships on the surface and something worse below. It's not just a war movie though, it's a haunted house movie as well... and there's no leaving the house! After watching it, I can tell you it's GREAT! David Twohy co-wrote and directed it just as it did on another favorite of mine, "Pitch Black." Keep an out for him - he's the real deal!

If you like scary movies, you'll love "Below" and unlike me you won't have to wait five months to see it!

MJ - Maybe Now We've Heard It All

Just when you think you've heard it all about MICHAEL JACKSON...

Vanity Fair, in its March 11 edition reports that MJ bleaches his skin white because he doesn't like black people, whom he sometimes refers to as "spabooks."

The article also says that the "King of Pop" paid $150,000 to an African voodoo chief who promised that STEVEN SPIELBERG, music mogul DAVID GEFFEN and 23 other people on the reclusive entertainer's list of enemies would die. Supposedly the voodoo priest sacrificed 42 cows during a special ceremony that was to gurantee GEFFEN's death within a week.

As if that wasn't enough, the article claims that JACKSON is in such financial trouble that the amusement park equipment at his Neverland Valley Ranch was almost repossessed.

Now... maybe... we've heard it all.

Wow! What a cool time I had yesterday at the Megacon Convention in Orlando, Florida. I was able to spend a lot of time with some friends and met some people whose work I really admire. MegaCon is a convention which features celebrities, comic artists, novelists, dealers and more...

Walter Koenig, who played Chekov in the original Star Trek series was there. When I was a kid Star Trek was THE show, so it was really cool getting to meet Mr. Koenig and to shake his hand.

One of my favorite writers was there, Steve Niles. I was first in line to meet him. [And if that sounds like a geeky thing to say, well, I was geeking out yesterday. LOL!] I was able to speak with Steve for a few minutes and get him to autograph both of his novels [more are coming!]. Eric Powell, the creator of The Goon, was there. I got him to autograph his new graphic novel and do a Stallone sketch for me [the sketch will appear in the SZ Gallery soon]. Many, many more artists were there from Adam Hughes to Frank Cho to Mike Zeck to... well you get the idea. I picked up several new pieces for the SZ Gallery which will appear in the near future.

After the show John Beatty, Mike Zeck, Rik Levins, Howard Shum, Brad VanCata, Mike [my son] and I all went out for some Chinese. It was a great capper to a great day. I'll talk more about the show in future ZZone updates