SEVERANCE Continues to Enthrall!!!!

 Season Two of the brain-stimulating Apple+ series SEVERANCE is underway and BETTER than EVER! Episode two was just chock filled with compelling scenarios and new ideas, but it was THIS scene with Helena (herself shockingly revealed as the DAUGHTER of the enemy just last season!) that really made the episode for me!!!

 Without giving away any spoilers, the EYES say it ALL! Britt Lower is just FANTASTIC as Helly/Helena, conveying SO MUCH without a single word!!!

This is gonna be a GREAT freakin’ SEASON!!!!!

The Warriors: Hey, That Was Trini!

Whenever I'd see some great movie over the weekend, I'd always talk to my friends in school the following day about it, and I remember gushing incessantly about some urban sci-fi fantasy I'd just seen on cable called The Warriors. Though a heralded classic nowadays, back then it was this little known and very strange movie with carnival-esque gangs fighting each other over turf, murder and revenge in a quasi-futuristic New York all set to the tunes of cool rock n roll music! But it was a hit among us kids, and back then cable showed the same movies over and over so everyone got a chance to see 'em!

Indeed, one of my classmates named Ross had already seen it, and said, "The Warriors? Yeah, it's cool- Gramercy Riffs and Baseball Furies, right? Cyrus and CAN YOU DIG IT?!" 

I agreed and then he added, " I liked the part where the Rogue dude threw the candy bar at Trini from 3-2-1 Contact!" "Eh?" I laughed. What was he talking about?!

In the scene, the Rogues have just killed Cyrus, a huge leader figure in the gang world and have placed the blame on the Warriors. But the heat is coming down on them and the other members are starting to worry.  In front of a newsstand, they discuss their future while helping themselves to the candy there. As they walk off, the girl running the stand says, "Hey, what about the money you owe?" to which the Rogue guy throws the candy at her and yells "FER WHAAATTT!"

A great scene, and I had to laugh, because the girl DID look a LOT like the aforementioned Trini, she  of course one of the three hosts (along with Marc and Lisa) of the PBS science-oriented kids show 3-2-1- Contact! back in the 80's...

I didn't think it was ACTUALLY her, (not that there was really any way I could find out back in those early non-internet years) but always laughed whenever that scene came on and thought of my classmate enjoying the candy fiasco and how funny it would be if it really WAS Trini!

Fast forward to 2025 and for some reason the Warriors crosses my mind and that mystery girl, and I realize that with the power of Google-Fu, I can FINALLY  find out just who she actually is!

Going onto Google, I type in "3-2-1 Contact, Trini" and it immediately comes up with "Trini: Played by Ginny Ortiz". With that info, I open a new window, and, feeling rather foolish, type in: "Ginny Ortiz, The Warriors". I hit 'enter" and...WHADDAYA KNOW:

Holy HECK, It totally WAS Trini running that Newsstand! WHAAAA! Guess my classmate really had an eagle eye for details ...or just really liked 3-2-1 Contact...(or Trini, for that matter!) HAHAHA, This is a mystery I've wondered about for YEARS that has been waiting to be solved! So COOL to find out, YEP, it's HER! Ain't technology grand??

I do think it's funny that in her credits, The Warriors is listed FIRST, and 3-2-1 Contact isn't mentioned at all! Guess her brief appearance is the highlight of her career!

John Byrne's Intricate Artwork: Avengers #189

Have always loved artist John Byrne's attention to details in his ilistrations, and a great example of this is in Avengers #189, depicting bowslinging Avenger Hawkeye's apartment!

 You get it all: the shabbiness of it, the broken windows, the dinky television set (with tinfoil wrapped around the antennae), the pin-up of Wanda over the bed and of course the picture of Falcon with darts in it!!

As a kid I cannot TELL yoy how many hours I spent poring over this and his many other drawings throughout- such fine attention to details, no WONDER he is always regarded as one of the all-time best!!

Paraceratherium: BIG, But Not THAT Big

Somebody uploaded this illustration of prehistoric mammal PARACERATHERIUM, and, to show just how doggone HUGE they were, had drawn a tactical jeep drawn behind it. HOLY TOLEDO, did this image knock me out-this friggin' thing was GINORMOUS, like 3 stories tall!

I  could not BELIEVE an animal had ever been so darn GIGANTIC, and I said to myself, "I have GOT to see photos of the fossil skeletons of this thing! Went online and right away found some...but I have to say, if these exhibits have anything to show, it's that the illustration exaggerated JUST a bit- While still very large, it was CLEARLY more like the height of two adults than the TOWERING depiction on facebook.

Maybe this particular exhibit was smaller than average? Read up to find a more general apporximation of its size, but nope, it seems all details on Paraceratherium show him to be about two and a half humans high.

Still huge, but a bit of a letdown.