Gina Browning will love this...

Hamsters at a movie eating popcorn!

Guinea pigs driving!

A dizzy hedgehog!

Bunnies at work in cubicles!

Techno loving chicks! (Yes, baby chickens.)

The video is actually an extended commercial for Samsung's new UltraTouch phone. It's such a clever commercial, I sat through the entire thing twice. Proof that when commercials are fun & interesting, people will pay attention to the message.

And it's the second Samsung commercial this month that I've loved. Someone knows what they're doing there!

Elephants love snow...

When I woke up this morning, I thought for sure the snow was coming back full force.

And yes, I was kinda happy about that.

And so were the elephants up at the African Lion Safari in Cambridge, Ontario - yeah, they love snow! Check out this video of them making giant snowballs and having fun on a snow filled day.

Then go visit them when the park opens for the season in May. It's only 90 minutes from Buffalo.

Sheep Pong!

Pong is one of the most basic video games from the late 70's.

Thanks to some awesome LED technology and sheep, the game has now been completely and totally revolutionized!

It's Sheep Pong!

It's a herd of sheep, LED's, and a camera creating an awesome video that was used for a Samsung commercial.

There's rumors going around that the video's been faked. But even if it has been, it doesn't matter - it's hysterical either way!

An insane supergroup...

Tinted Windows recently made their debut at a Texas festival. Check out this crazy line-up...

Taylor Hanson - the middle brother in Hanson
James Iha - former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist
Adam Schlesinger - Fountains Of Wayne bassist

Bun E. Carlos - Cheap Trick drummer

I saw the festival footage first and the result was exactly as I expected. A mish-mash nightmare.

But then I went to their website and heard the studio single for "Kind Of A Girl" and I love it! Maybe this isn't such a strange pairing after all.

Their self-titled album comes out April 21st - you can pre-order it now here.

Alpine Coasters & Slides...

First, the difference between an alpine coaster and an alpine slide.

The alpine coaster is on a track with rails similar to a regular roller coaster. An alpine coaster can operate year round (but there are exceptions). Check out the video to the right on the Park City, UT alpine coaster in winter!

The alpine slide is more like a toboggan run, with the sled free to move around in the chute. You can control the speed (which sometimes results in things like this happening - don't worry, no one was hurt). These usually only operate spring - fall (again, there are exceptions). This POV video from the Jiminy Peak alpine slide most reminds me of riding the luge in Lake Placid.

I've included links for all the alpine coasters and then only the alpine slides that are relatively close to us. For the rest, Google the websites. For all, check the websites for dates of operation as it varies greatly from park to park.

ALPINE COASTERS:

MASSACHUSETTS: Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in Hancock, MA (POV)

MARYLAND: Wisp Resort in McHenry, MD (POV)

COLORADO: Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park Canyon Flyer in Glenwood Springs, CO (POV)

UTAH: Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, UT (POV)


ALPINE SLIDES:

PENNSYLVANIA: Seven Springs Resort in Champion, PA (POV)

MASSACHUSETTS: Jiminy Peak in Hancock, MA (POV)

VERMONT: Bromley in Peru, VT (3 slides) (POV)
VERMONT: Pico Mountain in Killington, VT (2 slides) (POV)
VERMONT: Stowe in Stowe, VT

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Attitash Ski Area in Bartlett, NH (2 slides) (POV)

KENTUCKY: Alpine Slide in Cave City, KY

TENNESSEE: Ober Gatlinburg in Gatlinburg, TN (2 slides) (POV)

ILLINOIS: Chestnut Mountain Lodge in Galena, IL (POV)

MINNESOTA: Lutsen Mountains in Lutsen, MN
MINNESOTA: Wild Mountain Ski Area in Taylor Falls, MN (POV)

COLORADO: Breckenridge/Keystone Resort in Breckenridge, CO
COLORADO: Steamboat Springs in Steamboat Springs, CO (POV)
COLORADO: Durango Mountain Resort in Durango, CO
COLORADO: Great Heritage in Golden, CO
COLORADO: Intrawest/Winter Park in Winter Park, CO

UTAH: Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, UT (POV)
UTAH: Alpine Slide At Jackson Hole in Jackson, WY

OREGON: Ski Bowl Ski Area in Government Camp, OR

CALIFORNIA: Big Bear Alpine Slide At Magic Mountain in Big Bear Lake, CA (POV)

Eric Hutchinson in the Star Studio...

Eric stopped by the Star studios a little before his performance at the Hard Rock Cafe in Niagara Falls, NY last night (which was incredible by the way and the Hard Rock Cafe is my favorite place for concerts).

I love his song Rock & Roll, so it was cool to see him perform it solo before the show too.

We took video of it of course. You'll be able to see that soon on the Star 102.5 video player.

In the meantime, go check out his official website which has the music video for the song, his blog, and everything else you could possibly want to know about Eric Hutchinson.

SafetySuit in Star Lounge...

If you've ever watched The Hills on MTV, you're familiar with their music as a bunch of their songs have been featured on the show!

They stopped by to visit us last Friday and gave us an in studio acoustic concert. Rob Lucas interviewed them before and after.

See the video in two parts in the Star 102.5 video box here.

Also check out their official website, MySpace, and FaceBook pages.

Read Across America (again)...

This morning, we once again visited a school to congratulate them on their performance in the Read Across America promotion. Today, it was St. Amelia's School and Miss Staff's first grade class!

Here I am reading them another Dr. Seuss classic, Horton Hears A Who. They've just about all seen the movie, so they kind of knew exactly what was coming up in the story. But I think it's still better to read the book.

Everyone in the class received a cool gift bag filled with fun things from Regal Cinemas & Star 102.5. And the school won $750 in books from Buffalo Books & More!

Thanks again to all the schools that participated!

Mr. Belvedere's Brice Beckham (Wesley)...

I'm sure you remember Brice Beckham as Wesley T. Owens, the youngest of the Owens family and the troublemaker on the classic 1985 - 1991 ABC sitcom Mr. Belvedere. You may have also seen him as Corey about two years ago on VH1's I Hate My 30's.

Brice is a Hollywood rarity - a former child actor who's life is still good! And amazingly, he's still working in & on TV!

In honor of seasons one and two of Mr. Belvedere finally being released on DVD from Shout Factory, I talked with him tonight during The Retro Show. What's his favorite Mr. Belvedere episode? Was he a prankster behind the scenes just like his character? Did he drive Christopher Hewitt (Mr. Belvedere) crazy off set too? Find out all of this by checking out the full 8-minute interview here (portions aired on Star 102.5).

And go see clips from I Hate My 30's and a bunch of other shorts at Drama 3/4's website (that's the production company he now helps run).

As for the others from the show, see some of them occasionally pop up on the welcome page of Shout Factory's website and read an interview with Rob Stone (Kevin Owens) on this Mr. Belvedere fansite. Also check out the Blogvedere (I love this blog site)!

And then there's the links! Here's everything Brice mentioned...

Drama 3/4 website (with I Hate My 30's clips, three Mr. Robinson's Driving School segments, Deliverance: The Musical, and a bunch of other shorts on the Moviebox page)

I Hate My 30's - VH1 website for the show

Grapenuts project on MSN (it'll be somewhere in the TV section)

Strike.tv (a short film with Brice will debut here - the title can't be mentioned)

5-Minute Office Workout - with The Biggest Loser's Bob Harper

Mr. Belvedere Seasons 1 & 2 DVD - from Shout Factory

The most talented singing trio ever!

The Muppets put together their greatest singers ever to celebrate St. Patrick's Day today.

Here's the Swedish Chef, Beaker, and Animal with their brilliant rendition of "Danny Boy".

Enjoy!

Coldplay coming to Darien Lake!

Earlier today, Star 102.5 made the official announcement that Coldplay's Viva La Vida Tour will be coming to Darien Lake June 1st! Tickets go on sale Monday, March 23rd at 10am at Livenation.com, participating Blockbuster stores, or you can charge-by-phone at 877-598-8694.

What can you expect at a Coldplay concert? How about Chris Martin shocking everyone by crowd jumping! That's what he did at a recent Australian concert. See the video here.

(He jumps off stage at 2:59, starts running through the crowd at 3:07, then gets back on stage at 5:29.)

Mr. Belvedere's Wesley on Star 102.5...

Brice Beckham played Wesley Owens on the awesome 80's sitcom Mr. Belvedere. Here's the perfect image of just his mere presence annoying Mr. Belvedere.

Hear some behind-the-scenes stories from the show and find out what Brice is up to now when he joins me during The Retro Show Tuesday night at 6:00pm (EST) on Star 102.5!

And don't forget to listen for your chance to win seasons 1 & 2 of Mr. Belvedere on DVD all week long with Retro Trivia! (A giant thank you to Shout Factory for the chance to give these away this week.)

** The interview can now be heard online here. **

Read Across America...

Star 102.5 teamed up with Buffalo Books & More and Regal Cinemas to present Read Across America. It was a contest for schools where we had kids read to win prizes for their classroom.

Today I went to the Niagara Street Elementary School in Niagara Falls to congratulate Mrs. Cimino's 2nd grade class. They made it to the top three for the contest! For that, they won $750 in books from Buffalo Books and More!


Everyone in the class was given a bunch of cool prizes and we all read Dr. Seuss' classic book Horton Hatches The Egg (which explains everyone's elephant ears in the picture).

I love reading, so I was happy to get the chance to go and congratulate and meet them. For the record, the book I'm reading now is Doctor Who: Ghosts Of India (based on the TV series). I've got a couple other Doctor Who books I'll be reading soon and then V: The Second Generation. Can you tell I love science fiction?

Thank you to ALL the classrooms that participated. And keep reading - especially my blog. :)

Amazing Race: Bobrovy Log Resort

If you should ever find yourself in Siberia, Bobrovy Log Resort seems like an awesome place to visit!

That's where the teams rode that amazingly long alpine coaster on this past week's episode of Amazing Race. There's also a cool zipline at the park (unlike the serene image in the picture above, take a foggy ride on it in this video).

Don't book the flight to Siberia just yet though. The Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, Utah also has an alpine coaster along with an alpine slide and ziplines. That's not quite as far (or cold).

This got me thinking, I always put together an annual list of the best amusement parks to visit along with their new rides & an annual list of Halloween attractions. I should put one together for North American alpine coasters & slides!

Check back here sometime next week for that...

New Star 102.5 Jingles!!!!

I am obsessed with radio jingles - I absolutely love them. I would play them between every song if I could, but that would wear out the package way too quick.

Did you know the jingles we've been using for the past three years were created by Brian Demay? Yeah, I was stunned to learn that too when we started running them. A bunch of stations around the country still use them too. Here's the official demo package which was originally created for the last station Brian worked at (the package is called Buzz Traxx).

Our new jingles come from ReelWorld, a jingle company out of Seattle, Washington. Roger Christian and I were searching for the demo of our new package online, but we couldn't find it. I'm thinking it's just too new.

Speaking of radio jingles, also check out The Jam Song, a song made up almost entirely of radio jingles. It was used as a demo for Jam Productions in the 80's.

As for our cool new jingles, hear them everyday only on Star 102.5!

Ms. Cleo returns...

She's back and she was on Star 102.5!

I talked with Ms. Cleo about her past success & future projects. She talks about the time she worked for the psychic hotline, her upcoming TV show (VERY different from her past shows), and what she's up to now.

Hear the interview & the readings she did by clicking on the links below...

Part 1 - Ms. Cleo talks about her past success and her future projects.

Part 2 - Ms. Cleo gives Tammy a reading. I can't believe how long it went - and how accurate it ended up being!

Part 3 - Ms. Cleo gives Jennifer a reading, talks about Whitney Houston, and we talk a little about Dancing With The Stars.

And for more Ms. Cleo awesomeness, visit her official website!


** I've changed the way I upload audio files to my blog. It's a far better website than the one I was using before and has no pop-ups or ads. It's called DropBox and I highly recommend it. To hear the audio, all you have to do is click on the links above. To download the audio files, just right click on the link and select "Save Target As...". Let me know if you have any problems with it.

Ghosts & their hunters...

In about a month, me and some friends are FINALLY going to go spend the night at the haunted Iron Island Museum. It's been up to me to plan it and I'm just not good at stuff like that. I'll let you know how it goes if the ghosts let us survive. :)

In the meantime, here's your chance to spend the night at the Iron Island Museum with an actual ghost hunter! TAPS member Kristyn Gartland (from the Sci-Fi Channel show Ghost Hunters) will be at the museum March 27 & 28!

You'll learn how to ghost hunt and then hunt for the ghosts with a professional! Visit the Iron Island Museum website for all the details.

Solitary 3.0 is done (no spoilers)...

The winner of Solitary 3.0 has been revealed. It appears that's it for now though - I just checked the Fox Reality Channel website and a Solitary 3.0 "union" show isn't on the schedule (it can't be "reunion" because most of the contestants have never met each other to begin with). In fact, a union show isn't even being planned!

#4 from Solitary 3.0 has started an online petition asking the producers to produce one for this past season. Sign it here.

Also not on the website - the casting call for Solitary 4.0. Hopefully, it'll pop up soon. Based on past casting calls, it may show up in June.

As expected, the tests became a lot more difficult this past season. Amazingly, the show didn't fall into the trap of making the tests so difficult that it became boring to watch. The producers have managed to put together three seasons so far that were equally fun to watch.

Relive them all for free on Hulu.com.

Whatever happened to Ms. Cleo???

You'll find out Tuesday night at 6pm (EST) on Star 102.5!

Yeah, she's back and she'll be on-air with me during The Retro Show!! AND she's very excited to do some on-air readings too!!! (There's not enough exclamation points in the world to show how psyched I am about this.)

Even more 80's game shows...

Wipeout: It aired for just one season in 1988. I should have loved this show - it had Peter Tomarken (the greatest game show host ever), it had a fun bonus round, and it just looked cool. But I rarely watched it. Click on the picture to see a clip that featured Maggie Brown as a contestant. The strange thing about this - Maggie Brown was also a contestant on the first episode of Second Chance (the predecessor to Peter Tomarken's Press Your Luck). Game show casting agents must have really loved her.

$ale Of The Century: The 80's daytime version of the show (the longest US run for this series) aired from 1983 - 1989 on NBC. I was never really a fan, as it just wasn't as exciting as some of the other game shows on opposite it. The best thing to come out of this show was the entertaining sequel Temptation in 2007. I didn't really like that at first either, but eventually it grew on me. And when that happened, naturally, it was cancelled.

Win, Lose Or Draw: Aired from 1987 - 1990 on NBC and in syndication. The game show couldn't have had better timing - it aired at the same time that this was a huge game to play at parties and family gatherings.

I love Disk'O (the spin ride)...

I've been a big fan of this amusement park spin ride ever since I went on the one in Wisconsin Dells a few years back. Finally, our area is getting not just one, but two!

Both Fantasy Island (Grand Island, NY) and Waldameer Park (Erie, PA) are getting a Disk'O this year. And there's a third one not too much further in Pittsburgh at Kennywood Park. When run right (fast spinning in both directions), this is an amazing ride. See for yourself with a POV ride here.

While this is amazing news that a Disk'O will finally be near Buffalo this summer, there are a few other rides I'd sure love to see come to our area. Click on the ride name to see a video of the ride in action and "POV" to experience what's it's like to be on the ride. But be careful - don't fall out of your chair! :)

Frisbee (Huss): This is the ride I'd most like to see come to our area. The regular version Frisbee is far better than the XL Frisbee. This would be a perfect ride for Darien Lake, as I know they'd run it right (full speed with extremely fast spinning and swinging). POV

Top Scan (Mondial): This would be awesome over or near one of the "lakes" at Darien Lake. Canada's Wonderland has one called "Shockwave", but it's usually on a dull and short cycle. This ride is meant to be run manually for the ultimate experience. POV

Breakdance (Huss): A classic that was fun to both ride & watch at Astroland in Coney Island. The entire area around this ride can be turned into a party with the help of a live DJ and rides custom tailored to who's on it at the time. POV

The rest of these I haven't been on yet. But I'm hoping they make their way to somewhere in the northeast US soon...

Moondance (Technical Park): This one looks amazing! I so what to go overseas just to try this. Without even riding it, I can tell this one is so much fun. POV

Take Off (Huss): Platform spin rides are so cool. And this one looks insane. POV

Speed Flip (Moser Rides): I'm guessing most people would consider this one a headache about to happen. But it looks fun to me. POV