Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader recently celebrated a birthday. His best buddy Kevin procured for him a Blu Ray copy of the classic “Evil Dead II” with Bruce Campbell. Your Maximum Leader loves the Evil Dead movies. He is specially fond of “Army of Darkness” (which he’s watched many times over the years on his ole DVD/Blu Ray player).

Well, imagine your Maximum Leader’s surprise when he saw on Pajiba this morning that there is going to be an Evil Dead remake. (Clicky the linky to see the Pajiba piece - as well as read the wonderful Evil Dead lines as rewritten by Diablo Cody.)

He wonders who will star in the remake. Will there be a cameo or a significant part for the fabulous Bruce Campbell? So many questions…

He’ll likely go out and see the film when it comes out…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader spend some money on iTunes last night. He purchases songs from artists that had been recommended to him by friends. In all cases, he’d never heard the songs before purchasing them. He normally is a little more judicious and curious before buying. But something felt right about these purchases. (And if he didn’t like them he was only out $10.)

Of all the songs he bought there are two that really stand out and he loves a lot. The first one is “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley. Your Maximum Leader heard of Gnarls a few years ago, but doesn’t ever recall hearing any songs of theirs. He now owns three songs and does like “Crazy.”

The other song is one your Maximum Leader doubts many (any) of you have heard of. It is “El Camino” by Elizabeth Cook. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be an “official” video or high quality performance video of her performing the song. Your Maximum Leader liked this vid, so he presents it for your listening and viewing pleasure:

Here is a link to another video of her singing the song. The audio is better so you can hear all the lyrics.

Love it.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader apologizes for his dearth of posting. Sadly, he’s been caught up in life. He determined this afternoon to jot down a few thoughts to see if anyone out there is still reading…

Your Maximum Leader did book hotels for his trip to Tennessee later this month. On the agenda for family sight-seeing are: The Hermitage, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Grand Ole Opry, and Graceland. Yes, your Maximum Leader is going to make sure to take the whole family on the pilgrimage to the home of Elvis. (NB to all readers: If you don’t know already… When the Mike World Order comes, your Maximum Leader will “lean” on the Pope to have Elvis Presley made a Saint. It will happen…) So he is looking forward to that. (Both the vacation and making Elvis a Saint.)

Oh yes… It is the first of the month… Rabbit!

Your Maximum Leader has found himself completely engrossed in HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” Although many people have commended the books to him over the years, your Maximum Leader has never read them. Now thanks to the magic of television, he’s been prompted to go to the devil’s own website (term tm’ed by Robbo) and bought the first 4 books of George R.R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire.” (NB: Your Maximum Leader wonders - but is too lazy to google it to get some closure on the issue - if the “R.R.” in George R.R. Martin stand for “Robert” and “Reuhl.” Mmmmmm….) Anyhoo… Your Maximum Leader is particularly partial to the characters of Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf son of the powerful Lannister family, and Daenerys Targaryen, the last princess of her line and the wife of the Horse Lord Khal Drogo. He has invested himself in the story and now feels the need to learn the whole story. So when the books arrive he’ll get started on learning all there is about this world that Martin has created.

There is an element of “Game of Thrones” that reminds your Maximum Leader of Stephen R. Donaldson’s books called “Mordant’s Need.” The similarity is likely superficial. But the similarities have prompted your Maximum Leader to find his copies of the Mordant’s Need books and re-read them.

BTW, with this purchase from Amazon, your Maximum Leader has broken his promise to himself to not purchase a new book in all of 2011 and only re-read books he owns… He doesn’t think he’d mentioned this promise to himself before on the blog. But he was very good in keeping it - until now of course…

Your Maximum Leader is going through baseball DT’s. This is not to say that he’s not been watching baseball on TV. In fact he’s watched quite a bit of it. He has missed going to a game. It is now June and in all past seasons he would have been to at least one and normally two Nationals games by now. He has been to precisely zero. He has time to go this weekend. But the Nationals are going on an 11 day road trip tomorrow. Your Maximum Leader’s Nats were able to steal two away from the dreaded Phillies, and now they sit in the cellar of the NL East and only 7 games under .500.

Your Maximum Leader is likely going to end this little missive now, as the heavens are about to open with water and electricity in a few minutes. He’ll hope the passing storms does something to minimize the heat that has been affecting his area over the past few days. Odds are rain will only add to the humidity… Mother Nature must like saunas…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was reading over the Washington Post today and saw this story on the TV quiz show “It’s Academic”. Apparently at the end of the current season “It’s Academic” will be the longest running quiz show in the history of TV.

Your Maximum Leader should mention that he appeared (twice) on the show back when he was a villain-in-training. Your Maximum Leader represented his high school twice on the program. Our team beat the competition and won the first round, but was defeated in the second round. We were defeated by a team from a Catholic girls school. Your Maximum Leader is convinced that the nuns instructed their charges to gently brush up against my partner (under the table and out of sight of the cameras) and distract him. Those Catholic girls!

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader sometimes finds himself watching “It’s Academic” on TV when he is lounging in bed. He finds that his speed in answering questions is much slower now than it used to be. He feels good that in the subjects he once knew quite well, he still knows the answers and only has difficulty recalling the answer as quickly as the kids on TV. Then again, it has been over 20 years since your Maximum Leader practiced for a speed round…

Congrats on 50 years to Mac McGarry (the host) and the producers of this great show.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader isn’t as hip and with it as you might think. (A shocker! He knows…) Well, thanks to a free SXSW playlist he downloaded from iTunes (see - he’s trying to be hip) he has not been exposed to the work of Hayes Carll.

For your listening pleasure, here is your Maximum Leader’s favorite song of the moment “Another Like You”:

And if you like’d “Another Like You” here is a second Hayes Carll work, “She Left Me for Jesus”:

Your Maximum Leader will have to buy some Hayes Carll music.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader commends to you the second part of Movie Guy Steve’s post on June 1982. This part contains his review of one of your Maximum Leader’s all-time favorite movies, Blade Runner.

One day, perhaps, your Maximum Leader will muse on Blade Runner. He doubts that he could do better than so many others. But, he may just choose to add his voice to the chorus.

BTW, Professor Mondo (unintentionally probably) is touching on this little meme in his post On Movies and Suction. In the post he posits that 1939 is likely the best year for films in the history of film. It is compelling to think about. Your Maximum Leader admits that until just now he’d never thought of it.

Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure that he’d be willing to put 1980 as the year that even “good” movies started to suck. But now that the Professor mentions it, your Maximum Leader will have to start thinking about it…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader followed a link on Kevin’s site and was all a-titter about the article. The article maintains that June 1982 is the single best month for new movie releases in history. While “Movie Guy Steve” admits that there were better years for films, this one month was the best month for new releases. If you follow this link you can read “Best Month Ever Part 1.” Your Maximum Leader will await subsequent parts…

By the way… Poltergeist did scare the bejesus out of a young Maximum Leader…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader generally doesn’t stay up late too much. That said, he is a big fan of TV’s Craig Ferguson and the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Your Maximum Leader DVR’s the Late Late Show and watches it the next day.

So, your Maximum Leader was watching Ferguson’s monolouge from the other night and learned something that he didn’t know. Ferguson was talking about Burns Night and haggis and mentioned that haggis is illegal to import into the US because it contains lung. Wha? Your Maximum Leader has wondered in the past why he could find canned (tinned?) haggis in Canada and Britain, but couldn’t find it in the US. Until last night your Maximum Leader figured “Hell… It’s haggis… How much demand could there be?” and assumed that the demand was so low that it wasn’t economical to import canned (or other) haggis into the states. But apparently there is a law against importing foods into the US that contain sheep’s lung. Again your Maximum Leader writes “Wha?.”

After a little poking around, sure enough, it seems to be the case that one cannot import haggis to the US due to the content of sheep’s lung in the pudding.

This caused your Maximum Leader to wonder if he’s had traditional haggis in the US. He knows he got a traditional haggis in Scotland. (If you can’t get it there where can you get it?) And he suspects that he could get it in Canada (if he wanted to). But he’s had haggis a few times in the US and now wonders if the sheep’s lung was included in the mix? Since it was domestically produced one may assume that it was. But if there is this import ban on sheep’s lung is there some sort of other ban on using the lungs of domestic sheep in haggis?

Your Maximum Leader wonders.

If you care… Here is the Craig Ferguson monolouge in which he discusses Burns night and haggis.

One final note… Your Maximum Leader and the Smallholder had threatened for years to have a “bad heritage food dinner.” This dinner would feature the most awful food we could make from our ethic backgrounds. This would be haggis for your Maximum Leader, and probably some sort of blood sausage for the Smallholder (who’s heritage is German). Since the Smallholder could raise a sheep for the meal, it might prove to be the opportunity your Maximum Leader needs to make an authentic haggis.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees on The Superficial, that The History Channel has decided not to air their 8 part miniseries on Jack and Jackie Kennedy. Apparently the miniseries wasn’t up to the rigorous standards of The History Channel.

What? Not up to their standards?

This is the same History Channel that runs all those great shows like “Ancient Aliens,” “Nostradamus Effect,” and “UFO Hunters”? Because you know there is all sorts of legitimate historical evidence of aliens/UFO’s…

Great jeezey chreezey… What is going on in the world?

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wishes you all a prosperous new year. He hopes that one and all of you will experience more joy than sorrow, more optimism than pessimism and that you all will be showered with blessings in 2011.

Your Maximum Leader hopes to blog more, read more and think more than he did in 2010.

Some images of the new year from around the world for your view pleasure…

From Sydney Austrailia (courtesy of the AP):

From Moscow (courtesy of the AP):

From Venice, Italy:

And from London, England:

Now back to the bubbly for one more drink before bed.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minons. Your Maximum Leader thought he’d have a chance to write Christmas well-wishes on ye olde bloge on Christmas Eve. Sadly, he was overcome by events and is only now getting the chance to sit in front of the computer to type out a post.

Your Maximum Leader hopes that you all had a great Christmas. It was a good Christmas at the Villainschloss. Your Maximum Leader was surrounded by family (his own, his parents, his in-laws and his sister’s family). We feasted on roast beast and yorkshire pudding. We had a wide assortment of pies. A great time was had by all.

In the bad news department, Christmas dinner was the first meal that your Maximum Leader prepared in his remodeled kitchen. It did not go off without incident. He did burn the broiled potatoes. (Some of them actually - not the whole batch. His saintly mother-in-law was able to cut of the bad parts on the burnt potatoes.) He also partially burned the second yorkshire pudding. (Again, not badly. But we had fewer crispy pieces as some was stuck to the pan.) The lesson here is that his new oven works better than his old one and he’ll have to watch things a little more closely until he figures out the peculiarities of his new oven.

Before Christmas your Maximum Leader went out to the locale cinema and saw “True Grit.” By happenstance, Turner Classic Movies showed the John Wayne “True Grit” a few days earlier. The Wayne version of the film didn’t stand up as well to a viewing as your Maximum Leader thought it would. He remembers it more fondly than it might deserve. The acting seemed a little forced in the Wayne version and your Maximum Leader got constantly annoyed by Kim Darby (who played Mattie Ross to John Wayne’s Rooster Cogburn). On the other hand, the Coen Brothers did a great job on their version of the film. Yes, it was not ironic in any way (like most Coen Brothers works), but it was an adaptation of a great book. Both films have a lot to commend them. Your Maximum Leader, if forced to choose, would likely choose the Coen Brothers’ adaptation over the John Wayne vehicle. (Let’s face it, True Grit wasn’t Wayne’s finest role, it was the one they decided to give him the Oscar for since they didn’t yet have “lifetime achievement” awards.) Frankly, both films are a great way to pass a few hours.

Lest you think you’ve escaped a mention of Venice at Christmas, here is the famous porphyry of the Four Tetrarchs found on the side of St. Mark’s in Venice:

And in keeping with his own tradition, here is “The Adoration” by El Greco:

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is faced with a choice to make. His 46″ Sony HDTV has died. It was 7 years old. It was a rear-projection TV. It was really the last generation of high quality rear-projection TVs out there really. So, it looks like he’s going to have to shell out some money to buy himself a new TV. He wishes he didn’t have to, but it will be hard to go without through the holidays.

Your Maximum Leader and Villainette #2 went out to a number of fine retail establishments last night to scope out potential TVs to buy. At this point we are leaning towards a 50″ Samsung Plasma with 4 HDMI connections (we must have at least 3 to facilitate the connection of a Blu-Ray player, an X-Box and a Wii. This is the model we are looking at closely:
Samsung PN50C550 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

The reviews on Amazon and on other sites seem to be favorable, and the TV is in stock at the same price at three different retailers in the vicinity of the Villainschloss. Your Maximum Leader thinks he could likely save a little money by buying on-line, but the delivery time might be an issue…

Anyhoo…

It looks like there will be a new TV in the Villainschloss tonight…

BTW, one of the first posts your Maximum Leader wrote on this blog was about buying the TV that just died. The great irony of this is that in that earlier post, your Maximum Leader fumed and threatened the Samsung company with liquidation in the Mike World Order for making such a crappy TV. 7 years later Samsung is making great TVs and Sony is beginning to decline. Your Maximum Leader will chalk this corporate success story up to his threats of 7 years ago. If he had not threatened Samsung then, they would not be continuing to compete (and flourish) in the marketplace.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has two terrible items to share with you.

First… Your Maximum Leader’s teenage daughter sheepishly admitted yesterday that she’d deleted “The Walking Dead” off the DVR by mistake. Your Maximum Leader was all ready to watch it last night when he couldn’t find it on the DVR. Interrogations ensued and there was a confession. Lucky for him it is on again late tonight and the DVR is primed.

Second… That same teenage daughter confessed that there will be “a bunch of cute guys in high school next year.”

Your Maximum Leader is adjusting the sights on and cleaning his guns tonight. This serves the dual purpose of getting ready for the zombie apocalypse and preparing for the “cute guys” to start coming by the Villainschloss.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been happily married for nearly 15 years. Do you know what would have made him more happily married for all those years? Let him tell you… He would be more happily married if he could look back on that happy day and remember how he was married by Bruce Campbell and had Sam Rami serve as an altar boy.

Yeah… It seems two lucky nerds are going to get themselves hitched by none other that Bruce Friggin Campbell. That is just awesome. A deadite/zombie/Evil Dead themed wedding. Totally cool.

Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure that his lovely wife would be as enthusiastic over this theme as he would. Frankly, your Maximum Leader isn’t sure that his saintly (now departed) Grandmother would have approved of any wedding other than the one he had at St. Michael’s Catholic Church.

Your Maximum Leader would have liked a Bruce Campbell wedding… Instead of the whole “You may kiss the bride” bit your Maximum Leader could have grabbed his lovely wife and said “Gimme some sugar baby.” It would have been great.

Perhaps when your Maximum Leader is old and affected with dementia he’ll remember that he had a Bruce Campbell themed wedding…

Many thanks to the good folks over at Pajiba who directed your Maximum Leader to this news.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader thinks that this is his favorite John Prine song ever.

Your Maximum Leader prefers the album version to the performance above.

Carry on.