The Voices in Frank's Head

Article first published as TV Review: Pan Am - The Season Thus Far on Blogcritics. Pan Am is a new period drama that appears Sundays on ABC that revolves primarily around the lives of four Pan Am stewardesses, although the pilots are a large part of the story as well. This is one of those shows that started out as “just okay,” in my opinion, but over the past five episodes has evolved quickly into one of the best shows on television today. Pan Am isn’t just good these days – it’s a serious contender for multiple Emmy nominations. The Pan Am  Stewardesses In the first episode, the script for Pan Am almost seemed too eager to tell everyone the back story about this airline, the dawn of the jet age, and the characters. Since then, the show has really hit its stride. We’re still discovering more about each of the characters, but it has become a part of the story instead of an intrusion into it. The show is set in 1963 and there were a lot of important historical events

Stephen King's   Bag of Bones , will soon become a four-hour epic miniseries based on The New York Times  #1 bestselling novel. This will also be Pierce Brosnan's return to television. The two-night event premieres on Sunday, December 11 and concludes on Monday, December 12, airing at 9 p.m. ET/PT on both nights. Bag of Bones is a ghost story of grief and lost love's enduring bonds, about an innocent child caught in a terrible crossfire and a new love haunted by past secrets. Melissa George ("In Treatment"),  Annabeth Gish ("Brotherhood"), A nika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls), William Schallert ("The Patty Duke Show"), Jason Priestley ("Beverly Hills, 90210") and Caitlin Carmichael ("True Blood") also star. In Bag of Bones , bestselling novelist Mike Noonan (Brosnan) is unable to stop grieving after the sudden death of his wife Jo (Gish). Suffering from writer's block, a dream inspires him to return to the couple

I learned, thanks to a Google News Alert, that  Ridley Scott  will soon have an eight-part series entitled "Prophets of Science Fiction" on the Science Channel starting on Wednesday, November 9. He is, of course, the creative genius behind such movies as  Alien , Blade Runner,  and  Gladiator . I'm glad that I saw this because, quite frankly, I didn't even know that there was a Science Channel. 

Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes , issue 1 IDW Publishing and DC Comics are launching a crossover comic book series that will feature the cast of the original Star Trek  television series and The Legion of Super Heroes . This series is supposed to last for six monthly issues, with the first issue available in comic book stores now. I usually cringe at the mention of a crossover. However, the mix of characters in those two story universes gives this one some serious potential. In the first issue, the original Starship Enterprise crew beam down to a planet, only to discover that it isn't the right destination or time period. Meanwhile, a group of "Great Darkness Saga" Legionnaires travel to the same planet; discovering that they aren't in the right place or time either. The meeting of these two groups is a cliche. However, the interplay and witty banter that takes place between the Star Trek  and Legion of Super-Heroes characters makes it worthwhile.

Stephan Labossiere , a relationship consultant, has authored a new book entitled How to Get a Married Woman to Have Sex with You - If You're Her Husband . The publisher even came up with a provocative video to help promote the book.  I'll just say this: once upon a time, there would be absolutely no need for a book like this.

Some interesting press releases find their way into my email in-box. I got this one from a group called Fight for the Future. It's one of the more interesting ones that I've received and I will post in its entirety below, without any further editing, just because I find it so provocative. Justin Bieber - Headed to Jail WORCESTER, MA -- Fight for the Future (FFTF), a new organization vowing to fight for Americans' tech freedoms, warns Justin Bieber and his fans that the teen pop sensation could suffer five brutal years in prison if a bill pending in the Senate becomes law. S.978 (text below) by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) would make it a felony for Internet users to stream unlicensed content 10 times in 180 days. The bill is being pushed by the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America, and others who seek to crush to Internet freedoms for the sake of higher corporate profits.   The legislation was passed unanim

The new trailer for The Muppets is now on-line. The movie will be released this Thanksgiving and, judging from the trailer, it is going be a really entertaining show. I'm thrilled that I'll be able to see Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel on screen in something other How I Met Your Mother . I love that show, but it's still refreshing to see them play a different character.

A conservative acquaintance of mine posted on Facebook that, in his opinion, everyone who voted for President Barack Obama owed this nation an apology. Because I'm in an accommodating mood, I have decided to go ahead and honor his request. I apologize for voting for President Barack Obama in 2008. I apologize in advance for my intention to do such a thing again in 2012. I'm sorry that the War in Iraq is coming to an honorable end. I'm sorry that Obama bin Laden and several other key terrorist leaders are dead. I'm sorry that an economy, which  was losing 750,000 jobs per month when President Obama took office, has now had 19 consecutive months of private sector job growth. I'm sorry that DADA has been repealed and that our troops won't have to betray their integrity in order to defend this great nation. I'm sorry that President Obama actually responded to natural disasters and oil spills instead of just saying what a "heckuva job&quo

Kristen Haglund Wants in Your In-Box My latest side project is the Bikini Day blog, which on-line here . I have a lot of blog posts that involve women in a bikini or in lingerie and there's potential for a lot more of them. I decided to move all of them to a separate site. I started the site with a few of my older bikini posts. I will add a new one every day. (Hence the name, Bikini Day.) This enables me to keep the bikini and lingerie stuff around without it getting in the way of all of my other posts. Women in bikinis do tend to grab lots of attention and it sort dominates my blog as a result. As an added bonus, this also enables me to experiment with a few things that I may or may not incorporate in this blog or my neighborhood one . Please check out the Bikini Day blog and let me know what you think of it.

Marvel Studios announced on Friday that the trailer for next summer's most highly anticipated movie,  Marvel's The Avengers , has been downloaded over 10 million times in its first 24 hours on iTunes Movie Trailers , shattering the most-viewed trailer record in the site's history. Scarlett Johansson is the Black Widow The trailer, which debuted Tuesday, October 11, exclusively on iTunes Movie Trailers, gave fans a sneak peak at Marvel's The Avengers - the Super Hero team up of a lifetime-based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series The Avengers , first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since. Marvel's The Avengers  unites the world's greatest super heroes when Iron Man ( Robert Downey, Jr. ), Thor ( Chris Hemsworth ), Captain America ( Chris Evans ), The Incredible Hulk ( Mark Ruffalo ), Hawkeye ( Jeremy Renner ) and Black Widow ( Scarlett Johansson ) join S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Nick Fury ( Samuel L. Jackson ) to protect the world

After months of pissing off their customers with a significant rate increase and with a reorganization of the company that only seemed to remind everyone of why the facepalm was created, the folks at Netflix have finally managed to do something smart. I will give my esteemed readers a moment to recover from this shock. Anyway, Netflix and the CW Network announced today that Netflix will be the only online destination where viewers can instantly watch complete prior season of The CW's current scripted series as well as future shows. As part of this four-year output deal, Netflix has licensed the rights to stream more than 700 hours of previous-season episodes of The CW's young-skewing dramas as well as future programs. These rights extend for four years after each series, current or future, ends its broadcast run on the network. The CW content can also be made available via traditional syndication windows, electronic sell-through services and, on a partial-season b

There's a new movie coming our next year called The Raven . It's inspired by the life and writings of Edgar Allan Poe . I've only seen the trailer and some of the press materials for it, but this one looks like it has a lot of potential. In this gritty thriller, Edgar Allan Poe (played by John Cusack ) joins forces with a young Baltimore detective (played by Luke Evans ) to hunt down a mad serial killer who's using Poe's own works as the basis in a string of brutal murders. Directed by James McTeigue ( V for Vendetta , Ninja Assassin ), the film also stars Alice Eve ( Sex and the City 2 ), Brendan Gleeson ( In Bruges ) and Oliver Jackson-Cohen ( Faster ). When a mother and daughter are found brutally murdered in 19th century Baltimore, Detective Emmett Fields discovers that this crime resembles a fictional murder described in gory detail in the local newspaper-part of a collection of stories penned by struggling writer and social pariah Edgar Allan Poe

Today is the 162nd anniversary of death of Edgar Allen Poe . In honor of this occasion, let's take a moment to remember the man who taught us how scary the English language really can be.

I have just seen an amazing rack. And yes, I am talking about the pool balls that were racked in EyeHandy's latest instructional video, " How to Rack 9-Ball Pool with Savannah ." Or am I?

I have to admit that I cringed when I first heard that Disney was re-releasing The Lion King  in 3D. However, the 3D version of the movie has since gone on to bring in $80 million and counting. Quite frankly, I find it hard to cringe at $80 million. I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise then that the House of the Mouse will re-release four movies from their archives in 3D in the near future. Beauty and the Beast will be re-released in 3D on January 13, 2012; Disney • Pixar's Finding Nemo will be re-released in 3D on September 14, 2012; Disney • Pixar's Monsters, Inc.  will be re-released in 3D on January 18, 2013; The Little Mermaid  will be re-released in 3D on September 13, 2013 In addition, Monsters University , which is a prequel to the original Monsters, Inc.  movie, will arrive in theaters in Disney Digital 3D on June 21, 2013

I'm a PC, but I will still miss Steve Jobs . Rest in peace, sir. Your contributions to the world of computing, and the difference that you made in how we use computers, will be remembered for generations to come.

I came across the wonder of EyeHandy.com , which uses beautiful women in bikinis or lingerie to explain how to do certain things. Their most recent one introduces use the beautiful and talented Chelsea who shows us how to clean any mirror spotlessly  without any streaks, lint, or residue left behind. If you'll excuse me, thanks to Chelsea and the team at EyeHandy, I have a sudden desire to clean every mirror in my home. And for any raging feminist who happens to find this blog post, before you post any comments, I will simply ask: when was the last time you came across a bachelor who was suddenly motivated to do housework without any complaints?

After five months and one day of waiting, I finally got a response from that publisher in New York. They have decided to pass on the novel version of Roswell Chronicles . Interesting sidenote, my first reaction upon seeing their form letter was to say, "Oh, you idiots." I may or may not have including a profanity in there as well. Anyway, I shall tweak my manuscript and send it off to someone else later this week.

When I first commented on The Playboy Club  on this blog, I talked about how the frequent voice overs from Hugh Hefner  provided one more level of distraction in an otherwise busy plotline. I recommended that they get rid of them and keep the focus on the club that he created; not the man who created them. Rachel Nichols Strangely enough, by the time the second episodes hit the airwaves, those voice overs were gone. My suspicion is that NBC decided to be cheap and aired the original version of the pilot, which always contains a few things that need to be tweaked. Thus, when the show got better, not enough people knew about it because a lot viewers gave up on the show after the first episode - or sometime even in the middle of the first episode. I continue to think that if the writing was a bit tighter, the show could be a hit. Unfortunately, we won't get a chance to find our for certain anytime soon because NBC announced this afternoon that they were cancelling the show.

Pecha Kucha Night in Detroit The tenth installment of Pecha Kucha Night will be on Friday, October 11 at the historic Doubletree Suites in downtown Detroit. This is an excellent opportunity to see what some of the best creative minds in Michigan have been up to. If you, or someone that you know, would like to present at PKN X then please submit a 300 word summary of your work along with some sample image of it to pkndetroit [at] gmail [dot] com no later than October 23.

Waiting... I sent the novel version of Roswell Chronicles to a publisher in New York 5 months ago today. They promised a decision on whether or not they'll publish in 4 - 6 months. Quite frankly, I think my mailman is even more eager for them to make a decision. He's getting a little tired of me asking, "Anything from New York?" Anyway, as soon as I hear anything, you will hear about it.

Defeating Those Who Ban Books A student at an unnamed Catholic school, who identifies herself by the avatar name “Nekochan”, started an unofficial library of banned books that she runs out of her locker at school. She began to lend books to her classmates when her school banned a long list of classic titles, including The Canterbury Tales , Paradise Lost and Animal Farm . Quite frankly, the fact that this library is happening, and the books are reportedly quite popular with her classmates, gives an immeasurable amount of hope for the future. Read more about this secret library of banned book here .

357 Women - the Biggest Bikini Parade Once again, I am profoundly glad to have an internet connection. Without it, I wouldn't have known that 357 women in bikinis gathered on Australia's Gold Coast to set a Guinness World Record for the biggest-ever bikini parade. They squashed the previous record, which was 331 women parading in a bikini. That record was set in Cayman Islands last year. More information - as well as photographs and video - is all available here .

Another Detroit Lions Fan The Detroit Lions beat the Dallas Cowboys earlier today, 34 - 30. They are now off to a 4 - 0 start for the season and are going into a three game home stand at Ford Field. As I write this, the Detroit Tigers are also in the lead. They are currently beating the New York Yankees 4 - 0 in the 7th inning of game two of the American League Division Series. If the Tigers manage to hold onto this lead and win today, I very well may have a sports orgasm. That's kind of like a regular orgasm - just not as messy. Update @ 6:49 p.m. I feel good. Real good .