Who Wants To Be A Superhero?

This show and Big Brother have been the highlights of reality TV this summer. If you haven't seen it yet, this is bad TV at its best.

Even the prize is campy - the winning superhero will be immortalized in a Stan Lee comic book! They'll also be featured in an upcoming Sci Fi Channel movie and an action figure will be made of their superhero.

The second season is nearing its end with only three contestants remaining...

• Hyper-Strike: A circus performer & martial arts expert. One of his superpowers is he can use his sweat as a weapon. I'm sure he's going to win as he's like a cartoon come to life.
  



• Hygena: She fights grime and crime. She actually carries a feather duster around with her at all times. My guess is she'll be second place - she's a fun superhero and seems like a nice person, but I can't see a comic book about her doing well.
  



• The Defuser: A cop turned superhero. Reminds me of a less robotic android. The world doesn't need another robot-like superhero.

Hearing those descriptions, I know you just can't wait to see the show. The second season finale for Who Wants To Be A Superhero is Thursday (September 6th) on the Sci-Fi Channel.

Grocery shopping with 6 kids!

Just the thought of it is terrifying to me.

My cousin, Sharyn, passed along the link to the story. She's about to have her third kid, so this story hits close to home for her.

I visited Sharyn on my recent vacation. At one point, we went to the grocery store with her kids (Ian & Bryn). I was expecting a disaster, but it wasn't bad - Sharyn & Mat have made sure the kids are well behaved.

Not so for the mom who sold a box of Pokemon cards on eBay. Just standard, ordinary Pokemon cards - they weren't worth much more than what she paid at the grocery store. But they sold for over $140 based on her description of how she ended up buying them without knowing it.

See the eBay page for the hysterical story and a link to her blog.

Dancing With The Stars cast announced!

This season's cast was announced earlier this morning on ABC's Good Morning America and it's the largest group of celebrities yet for the show.

And I've actually heard of half of them this time - Scary Spice (Melanie Brown), Jennie Garth, Marie Osmond, Jane Seymour, Mark Cuban, and Wayne Newton.

TMZ.com's predictions were close yesterday. Some of their guesses that didn't make the final list - Tori Spelling, Aaron Carter, Lou "The Incredible Hulk" Ferrigno, and singer Nia Peeples. TMZ is now claiming that ABC had put together the bogus list in case it was leaked (which it was).

See ABC's official announcement here. The 5th season of Dancing With The Stars premieres September 24th.

"Behemoth" at Canada's Wonderland!

Get ready for a world class roller coaster at Canada's Wonderland!

A height of 230-feet, an 85-degree drop, over 5000 feet of track, a speed of 77 mph, and a ride length over three minutes - the $26-million dollar Behemoth is scheduled to debut May 2008. It'll be Canada's Wonderland's 15th roller coaster and Canada's biggest, tallest and fastest roller coaster!

The ride was designed by Bolliger & Mabillard of Switzerland. B&M roller coasters are typically very smooth and fun rides - they're always favorites of mine.

Other B&M coasters...

• Raptor (inverted coaster) at Cedar Point
• Mantis (stand-up coaster) at Cedar Point
• Dominator (floorless) at Geauga Lake
• Great Bear (inverted) at Hersheypark
• Alpengeist (inverted) at Busch Gardens Europe in Virginia
• Apollo's Chariot (mega coaster) at Busch Gardens Europe
• Griffon (floorless diving) at Busch Gardens Europe
  

Check out Behemoth's unique seating, track layout, videos, and all the other ride details here.

Get ready to take on Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland next year!

Big Brother's Jen

At the beginning of the game, I thought she was crazy. But as the game went on, I realized she was actually a really good player and I was hoping she'd win. Especially since she was always aggravating Dick, one of the most annoying Big Brother players ever.

Unfortunately, she was evicted from the Big Brother house last night.

And it turns out she really wasn't playing for the money after all. It appears she received the best prize of all from the show - free publicity. She's a model & actress and this turned into almost two months of free publicity for her. Check out her website / resume.

And if you're doubting how smart she was, watch this 40-second YouTube clip - it seems like Jen figured out that Eric is America's Player.

Survivor: China contestants revealed...

The 15th season of Survivor starts September 20th on CBS. Today, the cast was revealed.

There's a school lunch lady / Karate expert, a grave digger, a chicken farmer, a Christian radio talk show host, a professional poker player, and a WWE wrestler this season. I'm sensing some clashes already. See all sixteen contestants here.

Now after fourteen seasons of Survivor, nothing is really surprising anymore. Big Brother and Amazing Race are definitely the better reality shows, but how could I stop watching now? Especially with this cast?!

Let's hope this season is as exciting as the contestant's descriptions.

The greatest album of the year...

...and yet, no US radio station that I know of plays anything from it!

It's Mika's "Life In Cartoon Motion". I've been a big fan of the songs "Grace Kelly" and "Relax (Take It Easy)" from before the CD even came out. "Love Today" was released a couple months ago overseas and was also a big hit.

And now I've noticed "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)" is being used to promote the ABC series Ugly Betty (a show I've never seen, but the promos look funny). See the video for the song here.

If you're a fan of upbeat pop music, you'll love this album. But I highly suggest NOT buying the CD. For some insane reason, the record company put a ridiculous copy-protect on it which not only makes it unplayable on my CD player, but also makes it unable to be uploaded to my iPod. And the record companies wonder why CD sales are down?!

Instead, download the album from iTunes or one of the other online stores. By doing that, you'll also be able to preview the tracks first.

Why are you still reading this? Go get this album...

Galactic Suite - the first hotel in space!

It's opening in five years - make your reservations now before the waiting list gets too long!

It's only $4 million for three nights and includes Velcro (for when you're tired of floating around) and eight weeks of training at a space camp in the Caribbean.

And no, this isn't on the moon. It'll be rotating the Earth, about 300 miles above the surface. So get ready for some awesome sunrises - there will be fifteen of them a day as the hotel will take only eighty minutes to make it around the Earth.

See the website for reservations & info. And feel free to invite me...

Interview w/ Vicki Peterson of The Bangles...

Vicki Peterson is the Bangle on the right. My full unedited interview with her (including quite a few minutes that didn't make it on-air) can be heard here.


And make sure to check out The Bangles' new DVD that was released today. It's called "Return To Bangleonia" and features their 2000 comeback concert at the House Of Blues in Hollywood, a commentary track to the concert, and an interview session with three of the Bangles!

Road trip: Coney Island

One of the main things I wanted to do on my vacation was visit Coney Island in New York City one last time before it's gone.

That's right - the Coney Island boardwalk area will most likely be no more after this season. There is a tiny chance it could survive (read the NY Daily News article from August 5th here), but why risk missing this American classic.

If the new development happens, the only things that will remain will be the Cyclone roller coaster, the Wonder Wheel, the Parachute Drop structure, and Nathan's Hot Dog stand.

As for my day at Coney Island, it was so much fun. Coney Island is not just one amusement park. It's a bunch of attractions owned by different people (with Astroland being the most well known).

I rode Astroland's Cyclone once. It was a very rough ride and is overrated in my opinion. The rest of the rides at Astroland are awesome though.

The Breakdance is one of my favorites at the park (it's similar to the Crazy Quilt that used to be at Darien Lake). But this one - like almost all the rides in Coney Island - is run manually, making for a crazy ride.

Their Top Spin (the same ride as Darien Lake's Twister) was also run manually and was just pure insanity!

Then there's the individually owned Zipper. My ride went about ten minutes and I must have flipped upside down about a hundred times. Not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. My friends just watched and wouldn't go on this one with me.

And obviously, I ate some Nathan's hot dogs, rode the Wonder Wheel, checked out the boardwalk, and just had a fun time.

The full season for Astroland ends September 3rd and then it's open weekends only until a date yet to be determined. If you want to see it, I highly recommend getting there soon. Otherwise, you might have to settle with just reading about it.

It's about a seven hour ride (if you're lucky enough not to hit traffic) and the Mapquest directions were perfect! As for parking, I was there on a Sunday so I just parked on the street for free. At other times, the nearby Aquarium parking lot is an option (an expensive one, but easy to get to at least).

Have fun if you go!

Marineland's Topple Tower is now open!

This is what a Topple Tower looks like. But it's not Marineland's - their ride has a walrus attached to the top! See pictures of Marineland's Topple Tower here (these pictures are from a few weeks ago when the ride was still under construction).

The Topple Tower takes you 70 feet into the air and then tilts you 60-degrees back and forth as the ride rotates, toppling you towards the ground! If you're worried about the spinning, don't be - it's not a super fast spinning ride. The spin is there just to give you a change of view each time it tilts.

The ride is manufactured by Huss Rides, which I consider to be the best amusement park ride manufacturer in the world. Dozens of their other rides can be found throughout parks in our area.

Unfortunately for me, I leave on vacation tomorrow, so it'll be a week or so before I finally get to ride it. But if you've got a day off and you're looking for something to do, get to Marineland and check it out for yourself. And then e-mail me and let me know what you think.

And make sure you don't miss Magic (also a Huss ride) and Flying Dragon (both pictured), two of my all-time favorite rides at Marineland. Plus there's the Dragon Mountain roller coaster (with some new theming this year) and Sky Screamer - the world's highest triple tower ride - amongst a bunch of other great rides and shows. Have fun!

And FYI, as of now, US-born citizens do NOT need a passport to go to Canada.