The Bandwagon

I just thought this was pretty cool. Any former Spartan should enjoy this!!

There is war going on in comic book land. Well, there should be. DC Comics and Marvel Comics are easily the unquestioned leaders when it comes to the realm of superheroes. But if you pay attention to the movies that each company has put out you have noticed a huge disparity. Each company has huge stable of superheroes to draw from, but you’ll notice that Marvel tends to dig deeper into theirs. Marvel has made movies for a multitude of their heroes (Spider-man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Ghost Rider to name a few) and all those movies have made hundreds of millions of dollars. DC relies on their two main go-to-guys (Batman and Superman) but ignores everyone else that they could potentially do movies about (Aquaman, the Flash, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman to name a few). While the Batman franchise has blown up (can’t wait until July 18!!) and Superman had a movie a couple years ago, DC hasn’t done anything else. What is their deal? I would love nothing better than a Green Arrow movie or a Justice League movie. Give us something. I guess until they do I’ll have to settle for something else from Marvel (The Incredible Hulk…due out June 13!!).

This is how the movie business works if you’re an actor: A)You make a movie. B)If it’s successful you get to make a sequel or two. C)If you think you’ve become a big enough actor you leave the franchise. Then your career either takes off or goes in the toilet. The perfect example is Michael Keaton. He was the first Batman. He did the sequel. Whatever his reasons, he left the franchise and has now most recently done such masterpieces as Herbie Fully Loaded and First Daughter. Enough said.
Now there is apparently a fourth option (one that I’ve never heard of being done before): D) You rejoin the franchise a couple of movies later because your career is so in the crapper that you have no other options to get money. Of course now you’re wondering who would do this. Let me say first that this is something I would’ve expected Pete to have reported on already, but maybe he can’t surf the net all day at work anymore. Anyway, this fourth option isn’t being done by one actor. It’s being done by a group. Four members from the original cast of The Fast and The Furious have teamed up to make a fourth installment of the franchise called (very original here) Fast and Furious, chief among them being Paul Walker AND Vin Diesel. I seem to recall Mr. Diesel stating he wouldn’t do 2 Fast 2 Furious because he didn’t want to be typecast as Dominic Torretto (his character in the movie) for the rest of his career. And now 7 years later he’s playing the same role. Hmmmmmmmm.

Side note: For those of you wondering, this is a bigger dive for Vin than it is for Paul. Paul’s career was over the second he did 2 Fast 2 Furious. At least Vin did XXX.

It is NCAA tourney time and I am quite excited. I (like most of the American public) fill out a bracket every year for a chance at some quick cash. I’ve never won any of the ones I entered for money, but I did place fifth once (I think out of 30 people that year). But I think this year will be different. For the first time EVER I am in a tie for first place. Granted, it’s only after Day 1 of the tournament, but I’ve never even done that before so I think I can be happy about it. But at the end of the day, who cares as long as MSU keeps winning? The boys took down Temple and are on to round 2 against Pitt. GO GREEN!!

A couple of nights ago I had the opportunity to take Renee out to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Mishawaka, IN. I can only say one thing about my experience there: FANTASTIC. That was hand’s down the BEST meal I have ever consumed. And the service was really good, too. That’s always a top concern for me cuz you can go to a lot of places and have good food, but really crappy service (see: Ruby Tuesday’s in Southgate, MI). Anyway, for an appetizer we had veal stuffed ravioli in a barbecue butter sauce. Exquisite. Then we each had a caesar salad. I know that doesn’t sound like it could be much different from any other caesar salad, but once you taste it you’ll know. For the main course Renee had a filet and I had a filet with shrimp, each with potatoes au gratin. Cooked to perfection. I dare anyone to try giving me a better steak than the one I had that night. We were both too full for dessert. All in all, an extremely satisfying experience. Has anyone else ever eaten there? If not, you should.