Friday LinkFrogging – 2/18/11

Welcome to Friday kids.

I don’t know about you, but this weekend couldn’t have come any sooner.

If life is a juggling act, I’ve been struggling to keep all my balls in the air this week.

I’ll pause here whilst you make your own jokes.

(pause)

Okay, moving on.

Our ongoing cold snap has passed and left us with days in the 70s.  Perfect weather to bring out the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

I have to honest here.  I didn’t realize this thing was still such a big deal.  Of course, I’m the same guy who used last year’s covergirl as cheesecake last week so maybe I’m not quite as clueless as I’d like to pretend.

All that having been said, its time to introduce you to this week’s cheesecake, even though she really needs no introduction.

Say hello to “the Body,” Elle MacPherson.

That picture right up there is my first real memory of the Swimsuit Issue.

It was the Day of the Supermodel.  Cindy Crawford was everywhere.  So were Kathey Ireland, Linda Evangelista and Rachel Hunter.  Everyone had their favorites.  Elle was mine.

She tried her hand at acting in movies like Sirens, If Lucy Fell and the underrated, The Edge.  She was also in Batman and Robin, but I think we can all agree that the less said about that the better.  She even appeared for a few episodes as Joey’s roommate/girlfriend on Friends.

These days she is the face and body of Elle MacPherson Intimates.  You can thank me for THAT link later.

On to the links.

Friday LinkFrogging – 2/4/11

What a week dear reader(s).

Snowmageddon was predicted and fell well short of the hype.

I fell victim to an especially nasty flu strain that drove me to bed for most of the week.

Oh yeah, and its Super Big Game week.  Really NFL?  We can’t just call it the S***r B**l anymore?  Get over yourself.

Speaking of that which we can actually speak of, say hello to this week’s cheesecake, Jillian Barberie Reynolds.

Ms. Reynolds is the weather girl for the Fox football team and, as such, I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of her in the 18 hours of pre-game show this Sunday.  Her and the cast of Glee.

On to the links.

Friday LinkFrogging – 11/5/10

Bust it!

How the hell did it get to be November already?

Before you know it we’ll be gorging ourselves on turkey.

Then it will be Black Friday and that can only lead to Christmas.

Wow.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

This week we saw a typhoon of voter unhappiness turn control of the US House of Representatives over to the Republicans.

We saw the Dallas Cowboys lose…AGAIN!

We saw the “final” Saw movie top the box office.

We saw the San Francisco Giants win the World Series for the first time since they moved to the left coast.

It has been quite a week hasn’t it.

Kinda makes you wonder what comes next.

I can’t answer that question in the more big picture sense, but I can tell you what comes next in this post.

Cheesecake.

Please say hello to Kari Byron.  Kari is the hottest of the crew on Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters.

How did she get chosen?

Simple.  Stephe sent in a request.  I do most of the picking so when one of my Gonzo Compadres makes a request, I honor it.

Well done sir.  Well done.

On to the links.

Friday LinkFrogging – 10/1/10

  

Happy Birthday to us!  

Why?     

Simply put, today is the one year anniversary of the debut of LinkFrogging.  What started out as a fun idea, has grown into one of our most looked at features and a highlight of my week.     

The boys and I are always on the lookout for fun, offbeat stories to bring you.  We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we enjoy hunting them down.     

Of course, no discussion of LinkFrogging would be complete without a mention of the cheesecake, our weekly visual aid to help the links go down.     

Earlier this week, our very first cheesecake, Kaley Cuoco, revealed that she had a behind the scenes relationship with co-star Johnny Galecki.  I wonder how John Ritter would have felt about that?     

What does that have to do with anything?  Not much really.  It just goes to prove that, given the right circumstances, you can draw lines between any events.     

On to this week’s cheesecake.  Say hello to Lea Michele from Glee.  Ms. Michele plays Rachel Berry, the lead on the America’s favorite glee club inspired sing along.     

Glee hit new ratings highs this week with the appearance of guest star, Britney Spears.  Soundtracks have been released.  Tours have been undertaken.  Jane Lynch won an Emmy for her portrayal of evil PE coach, Sue Sylvester.  The show has become a monster hit for Fox, America’s home for football and karaoke.     

I’ve heard the fans of this show refererred to as Gleetards.  That doesn’t seem fair.  As we say around here, “everyone is a geek about something.”  Yes, I’m looking at you fantasy football guy.  And I’m looking at you Twilight fan.  And I’m looking at you Sex and the City movie goers.      

Fans call themselves Gleeks.  I like this much better.  Its a clever way of commenting on their fandom and keeps with the show’s themes.  Of course, they aren’t the first Gleeks in pop culture history are they?  Don’t remember?  Shame on you.  You’ll have to wait until after the links for bonus Gleeky goodness.

The Expendables – the review

Image via Wikipedia

When I was in eighth grade a new kid moved in and was quickly assimilated into our wandering band of geeks.  The new guy came to Louisiana from New Jersey.  He brought The Destroyer with him.

I was intrigued by the covers of his paperbacks showing cars, guns, women, ninjas and guys doing martial arts.  None of those were things eighth grade me was doing. 

I wanted to check out the books, or, at least, books like them.  So the next time we were at the department store I made my way to the long aisle containing the paperbacks.  They were all there:  best sellers, romance, and, down at the end, the “men’s fiction.”

It was there that I met Mack Bolan.

“The Executioner” became my companion.  I think I must have carried around one of those paperbacks with me for the next 3 or 4 years.  In that time I learned a lot about guns, the Mob and international terrorism.

What does any of this have to do with The Expendables?

Simple.

It was these books that paved the way for my entry into that sub-genre of movies known as the 80s action-adventure movie.  Mack Bolan got me to John McClane.  He got me to Red Heat, Commando, Cobra, Lethal Weapon, Predator and Wanted:  Dead or Alive.

And, as I was watching The Expendables, I couldn’t help but think of Phoenix Force. 

Friday LinkFrogging – 9/10/10

First things first, thanks, once again to Chris for filling in for me so ably on our weekly jaunt around the web.  Well done sir.  Well done!

Can you feel it?  Summer is fading and fall is in the air.

Football, of every kind, is back underway.

The Boys of Summer are heading into the home stretch and looking for the next Mr. October (or is it November now?).

The networks are blasting us with promos for new fall shows.

As we roll toward the holidays and the inevitable Black Friday that is to come, let’s sit back and enjoy this week’s cheesecake, shall we?

Say hello to Milla Jojovich star of today’s new cinematic release, Resident Evil:  Afterlife.

Ms. Jojovich’s geek cred is strong.  In addition to the Resident Evil franchise, she has starred in such other geek fare as The Fifth Element, Ultraviolet, Zoolander and the seminal 70s high school stoner flick, Dazed and Confused.

VH1 referred to her as “the reigning queen of kick-butt.”  Hard to argue.

On to the links.

Friday LinkFrogging – 7/30/10

   

Maybe Nelly was right…

Its hot out there kids. Summer is in full swing and its getting harder and harder to cool off.  

Its also been a hot month for us here at GonzoGeek.  Our traffic went through the roof thanks to folks looking for pictures of Katherine Heigl.  We thank each and every one of you who looked at this picture.  

This week saw the debut of season 2 of Jersey Shore on MTV.  MTV finally worked out the last possible iteration of the The Real World idiom and has started moving the entire cast to a different city, presumably to spread the crabs around.  

No, this doesn’t mean Snooki is going to be our cheesecake.  I wouldn’t do that to you.  Instead, I decided to go with a Jersey Girl who is much gentler on the eyes.  

Say hello to the pride of Cherry Hill, New Jersey…Ali Larter.  

 She first jumped into our collective consciousness wearing a whipped cream bikini in Varsity Blues.  Then she spent a few seasons as America’s favorite schizo She-Hulk on Heroes.  Now expecting her first child, she’ll be seen next kicking zombie ass in Resident Evil:  Afterlife.  

On to the links.

Friday LinkFrogging – 4/16/10

Are you ready?

Are you ready?

Alright, let’s get it on!

Welcome back cats and kittens.  Its time once again for you take a stroll around the web with your favorite bunch of geeks.

Don’t worry.  We won’t send you alone into those scary corners of the cyber world.  Oh no, as always we’ll provide you with a travelling companion sure to make the trip much more enjoyable.

Please say hello to this week’s cheesecake, Busy Philipps.

I can hear some of you already.

What the…?

Who the…?

Ms. Philipps got her first taste of fame as freak bad girl, Kim Kelly, on the late and lamented Freaks and Geeks.  Since then she’s worked pretty steadily with appearances on ER, Entourage, White Chicks and Made of Honor.  She can currently be found plying her craft on ABC’s Cougar Town.

And that my dear friends is what got her this week’s nod.  In a week with not much new to watch on television, the wife and I played catch up on some DVR’ed programming, including a nearly season length Cougar Town marathon.  She that sticks last sticks best I suppose.

And FYI, she also co-wrote Blades of Glory for which Jon Heder will be forever grateful.

On with the links.

Friday LinkFrogging – 3/19/10

March Madness has begun.  SXSW is underway.  Productivity nationwide has taken a nosedive this week.

Our turn to add to the decline in our own humble way.

Before we begin our journey, let’s meet this week’s cheesecake shall we?  Say hello to Helena Bonham Carter.  Why Helena Bonham Carter you ask?  I’ll tell you.  I took my kids to see Alice in Wonderland this week and her enormous Burtonized head freaked them out.  So, being a good father, I looked for “normal” pictures of Ms. Carter and was surprised to find a load of cheesecakey photos.  I think most of them probably predate her current gig as Tim Burton’s goth muse, but still, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Enjoy.

On with the links.

It’s a Work: Markism, Names and Money

So who are the marks? 

If your independent promotion is losing money and you think putting a “name” on your poster will help, then you’re a mark.

 I touched on it last time out, but I think it warrants repeating. People will read the above and take many different meanings from it. 

I’ll expand on that a bit, and in doing so I’ll also exercise my editing skills. Yes, I’m still working on that novel. I’ve been unable to really put many words on paper for the last five weeks, so I dug into some theory on editing.   

Without even looking back at my statement, I know I’ve broken a rule. According to the mighty William Strunk Jr : do not draw attention [to a colloquialism] by enclosing it in quotation marks. He continues that to do so it to “put on airs”, and I tend to agree. Nevertheless I did so with regard to “names”. 

The idea of a “name” has come to take on different meanings. It refers to wrestling adverts or posters and the drawing power of a name on it. That’s it; nothing more. 

So if your goal is to profit, as it should be, you have to figure out if you’ll make money on this venture. Some promoters are worthless pieces of shit that will put a name on their poster without ever even contacting or attempting to book the name they’re exploiting. I mention them to point out: a) that some promoters truly do this for the sole purpose of cashing in on the names with zero cost to them, and b) that these promoters make money doing this. If one fan bought a ticket to see a name he put on that poster, he made money. Will he be able to get away with this forever? Logic would dictate he wouldn’t, but that’s not always the case. Don’t ask me for names and specifics; I work for these promoters sometimes and will continue to do so. 

Assuming you’re a mostly-honest promoter who has enough integrity to actually book the talent you’re advertising, you should do some math before sending off that confirmation email. 

So let’s edit that statement. The quotation marks are bothering me now.