The U2s have a new album coming out.  That has been known for a few months.  The album, to be released March 3rd in the US, will be called No Line on the Horizon.  There are four or five different configurations with books, bonus DVDs, posters, vinyl and others.

Expect a new single any day.  Their track record is to release the first single 6-8 weeks before the album and a second about two weeks before the album. 

Rolling Stone gave a song by song run down of the new album.  Q Magazine, the UK music mag, has a U2 mini-site.  @U2 has all you need to know about the new album.  Much like one of the early band names, The Hype machine is in high gear.

Word is the album will be more like Achtung Baby rather than All That You Can't Leave Behind.  In other words, more experimental and chance taking than traditional, safe U2 sounding.

As with every new U2 album, I am looking forward to it and will pick it up as soon as it comes out.  I will pick up the CD only version because after 28 years, the extras have to be really, really good to get me to move up.

Haruo Nakajima turned 80 on January 1st.  For those who are not familiar, Mr. Nakajima was the actor in the Godzilla suit from 1954 - 1972.  He was the person who came up with every movement, tail shake and dance that Godzilla performed all the way back to the very first Godzilla movie.

Not only did Mr. Nakajima bring Godzilla to life but he also gave us Rodan, Mogera, Varan, Mothra, Baragon, King Kong and Gaira, the Green Gargantua.

Armand Vaquer has put together a blog so that fans may send their birthday greetings.  He will see to it that his daughter Sonoe receives them.

Sign the Birthday Greetings Blog here.

Nakajima-San As Gojira

Nakajima-San as Gaira, the Green Gargantua

 Nakajima-San as Rodan

The WHO received Kennedy Center Honors on December 7. 2008. 

They along with other recipients were honored first by President Bush.

Then Joss Stone, Dave Grohl, Bettye LaVette and Rob Thomas performed WHO songs.

Those are members of New York City's Fire And Police Departments paying tribute at the end of Baba O'Riley just as the WHO paid tribute to them after September 11, 2001.

I saw a lot of films this year.  The Summer was especially busy with films.  This is my list of the best and worst films that I saw in 2008.  There are probably films that should be included on either list but I didn't see them.  The Bottom 10 list contains films that were horrible as well as just disappointments that did not live up to my expectations.

Top 15 Films of 2008

1. Tropic Thunder
2. Wall-E
3. Iron Man
4. Dark Knight
5. Cloverfield
6. In Bruges
7. Kung Fu Panda
8. Burn After Reading
9. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
10. Ghost Town
11. Hancock
12. Indiana Jones
13. Quantum of Solace
14. Journey to the Center of the Earth
15. Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Bottom 10

1. Speed Racer - H
2. Australia - D
3. Step Brothers - D
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - B
5. Hulk - D
6. Get Smart - B
7. Forbidden Kingdom - D
8. Space Chimps - H
9. Made of Honor - H
10. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - D

B - Boring
D - Disappointment
H - Horrible

No, it's not Gojira!!! Rob Hood has more info on the film.

Official Movie Website

We are working our way through the Two Disc Director's Cut of Tropic Thunder.  The Director's Cut includes about an extra 20 minutes of choice material that was trimmed from the original film for pacing and takes up all of disc one.

It includes possibly the funniest cast commentary on any DVD I've seen to date.  It is two ours of magic with Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Stiller.  Downey steals the commentary, much like he film, as he lives up to the "I don't break character until I've done the DVD commentary" line in the movie and delivers it as Sgt. Lincoln Osiris. There is also a commentary with Stiller, co-writer Justin Theroux, cinematographer John Toll, producer Stuart Cornfeld, production designer Jeff Mann, and editor Greg Hayden.

Disc two has several hours of special features, documentaries, mockumentaries, extended scenes and an alternate ending.  The extra features could easily stand on their own but as an add-on to the Extended version of the feature, it makes the set sweeter.  This DVD shows the comedy genius of the entire cast.  This ensemble works amazing together.

This film is highly recommended.  Tropic Thunder Director's Cut is a must have Gold Disc.

We have HOT WATER!!!!

The secret weapon... a pond liner.  The thick plastic should give apt protection should the runoff fill the hole again.

The Bears put their fans out of their misery.  Other teams in the NFL did what the Bears needed but the Bears didn't do what they needed to, win the game.  Kyle Orton showed promise until his injury.  The receivers were bad all season.  Dropped balls, incorrect routes, it was attrocious.  Thankfully, the Tight Ends were there.  Matt Forte was a godsend.  Finally a high draftpick that pans out.  The Defense was terrible, too.  Unlike every other year, the Offense did the bailing out of the Defense.  Sometimes it worked but too often it did not.  Wish list for 2009... Receivers, New D-Coordinator.  Throw in an O coordinator, while their at it.

So here I am, still reeling from the John Deere incident.  I take a shower before a dental appointment and the water is not it's normal degree of hot.  It is warm enough but not hot enough.  I ask Mary if something had run with the hot water while I showered, the washer, dishwasher, anything?  Nope.

So I checked the water heater in the crawlspace and wham, the base was under water!!!  We had just replaced it in the Summer after the previous 30 gallon "shorty" water heater finally sprung a leak after 25 years.  We got a good life out of it.  The new water heater is a 40 gallon "shorty" but it was about 18 inches taller than it predecessor.  We dug a hole in the clay and placed a 10 inch deep baby pool in the hole to keep water out. 

It did a pretty good job until today.  The amount of water in the drainage field of the house was too much and the water ran into the lowest point in the crawlspace, the water heater hole.  The walls of the baby pool just couldn't keep the water out.  So I turned off the gas and called our plumber buddy.  We are hoping that things dry out a bit and we can get the pilot going again. 

Whether we get it started again or not, the baby pool idea failed.  It is very sad because it was a good, cheap solution to the problem we encountered when installing the new water heater.  It will have to be replaced with a new liner.  There are other liners, like for yard ponds that we looked at but were much more expensive.  It is certainly cheaper than buying a new water heater, though.  Unless we need to do that, too.

Oh, and at least I didn't have any cavities.

So today, I went to get my first of two estimates to fix my car.  $4000 from the first place.  He says the computer alerted him that this was essentially more than the car was worth.  Since it's paid for and not rusted out, I beg to differ but it's me who doesn't want car payments, not the deciders.  The big thing was, when I went out at 8:45, there was a thin layer of ice over everything as we had more frozen precip.

Now we've got fog and mild temps that are supposed to change to rain and thunderstorms.  Tomorrow will be in the 50s as well as Sunday.  Monday and Tuesday will also be mild.  There will be flooding and icing and then snow.

It's just crazy I tell ya.

So in addition to my run in with the snow remover, I had a run in with EA about Spore installation, the Drum Pedal on the Guitar Hero: World Tour drum kit does not work and the copy of Metroid Prime 3 that I picked up on Black Friday did not include the disc.

Other than that, it's been a great Christmas.  The one true sad event is that Lillie entered the adult world and learned that Santa is the "Spirit" of Christmas.