Celebrityscraps

Last night I was chilling with some friends and we got on to the subject of “funniest YouTube videos”.

I came up with Charlie the Unicorn which is awesome and obviously the winner! But the best one I hadn’t seen (which kicks ass) is The Lonely Island’s video of their song “I’m on a boat”.

Enjoy!

I recently purchased the anniversary Command & Conquer pack, which has all 15 C&C games on one DVD!

There were A LOT of problems with the install, such as certain games just not playing due to corrupt files, and the networking not functioning on VISTA. Most of these I discovered are common problems with the release an managed to find user workarounds online.

I find it amazing that titles such as C&C (the original) and Red Alert 1 are timeless. Sure the graphics are a little dated, but the gameplay elements are still as slick and enjoyable as they were 10 years ago.

Even the C&C Red Alert trailer is still cool!

I think I may have to get round to checking out RA3 soon!

About a week ago I did an article on the webtv show Valley Peaks. After a brief chat with starlet Cathy Baron on Twitter (who plays Shelly Breaker in Valley Peaks) I was given the opportunity to interview her with a few questions across the web.

We decided the Q&A format was best. Below is the “uncensored, full, widescreen version” of the Q&A.

Q1: Are there any huge similarities between you and your character on Valley Peaks?

Yes actually!  Shelly is a very excited person.  She is excited about life, love, and fun.  I am very much this way as well.  In my audition, I was pretty much myself (quirky, and trying to make the producers laugh).  I didn’t get the role I auditioned for because it wasn’t a good fit, but they wrote me in the show.  They said I “seemed like somebody’s little sister” and wanted to have me so they created Shelly.

Q2: What do you think makes Valley Peaks such a unique and interesting production?

Besides being funny and well done, I think people like a lack of predictability in comedy.  For instance, some of the funniest shows, Family Guy, The Simpsons  (although cartoons) have some of the most off the wall situations and reactions.  There’s a sense of surprise that keeps people coming back and wanting to know what will happen next.   It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is this way too.  Valley Peaks has this surprise factor.  One of the most frequent comments on our Youtube page is “What will happen next?”  The creators of the show are comedic geniuses in my opinion.  They deserve big things in their careers!

Q3: Things are getting pretty crazy on the show at the moment. Is it going to get any crazier?

HAHA!  Oh yes!  You have no idea!  I laugh outloud thinking about scenes I have filmed.  I can’t give away any details, though. 

Q4: Is Valley Peaks going to return for a second season?

As of right now, we are still in season 1—there are over 20 episodes, so season 1 is going to last forever!  Ha!  We are all just kind of ‘going with the flow’ — One of the BIGGEST networks in Canada and Europe, Global TV flew to Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago to film behind the scenes with the creators of Valley Peaks.  All we know is that it will be an hour long special on Valley Peaks on a huge network station with millions of viewers.  I will give more details as I know them….but, that’s exciting!

Q5: Have you always wanted to be an actor?

Oh yes…and I did some embarrassing things.  I still have videos of my cousin, Lisa and I making up productions and silly commercials.  When I was 13, I searched the names of casting directors in Los Angeles (im from a small town in Texas)  and I would send them my photos.  Not even an 8×10 or a real headshot…but a regular 4×6 photo!  I didn’t know how the business worked.  I remember sending my 4×6 photo and resume to the casting director for All My Children at least once a month for about a year.  I wonder why I never heard from Judy Blye Wilson.  Ha! I grew up performing dance and theater so I have always been comfortable on a stage…hamming it up

Q6: Is there anything new happening in the Cathy Baron universe you can tell us about?

I have two feature films that I completed this past year that I am very excited about, and can’t wait until they are out.  One is a horror film called Dead Stop and the other is a film called Black and Blue.  I play a teenage runaway druggie in Black and Blue.  I have a couple of other projects in the works, but because nothing is set in stone I cannot tell you about them yet!  You can always go to my website for news though.  www.cathybaron.com

Q7: What’s the funniest acting experience you have had during your career?

For this, I’ll replace funniest with embarrassing.  I was filming a movie called The Lights in Texas.  I had a scene with Derek Lee Nixon where I was sitting in the front passenger seat of a suburban.  The director, John Sjogren, had to sit in the seat with me to get my close up.  We did about 4 takes of my close up, were running out of light for the day, and were about to move on to Dereks close up when John noticed something hanging out of my nose.  Yep, you guessed it…I had a little mini booger.  Just flapping there.  We went back to look at it on the monitor to see if it was noticeable…and sure enough, it was. Imagine all of the crew, actors, and producers analyzing a close-up of my face to see if you can see my booger in all the shots!   We only had time to do one more unboogered take.  I recently found out that they used the booger shot.  Makes me laugh now but at the time I was a bit embarrassed.

Last of-course is the standard “Celebrityscraps Random Question”

Q8: If you could be an animal for a day. What would it be and why?

I put a lot of thought into this and I’m pretty sure I’d be an Eagle.  Why?  Well, because for one, its illegal to shoot Eagles so there wouldn’t be any fear of getting shot in mid flight.  Two, other animals would be scared of me as well since I’d basically be a badass flying machine with red eyes and talons of steel.  And three, I would be able to fly high in the sky—even spy on people if I wanted with my eagle eyes.  Did you know that the Harpy Eagle can grab a monkey and fly away with it?  (but, I wouldn’t do that…I’d be a vegetarian eagle—somehow)

So there you have it. Cathy passes the CScraps Q&A challenge! Whenever I see an eagle with a monkey in it’s talons I’ll remember this!

Be sure to check out Cathy at these locations on the web:

Cathy Baron’s Official Site

Cathy’s Blog - “Coffee and OJ in Hollywood”

Cathy on Twitter

Cathy on IMDB

Valley Peaks Official Site

This game slipped past my radar until now, and I have to say I’m looking forward to its release.

I played the Director’s cut of ‘The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay’ and loved it! Judging from the trailer for it’s going to be more of the same shiv happy action.

‘Assault on Dark Athena’ picks up moments after Riddick’s escape from Butcher Bay. In flight away from the prison, Riddick and Johns’ vessel is drawn into the clutches of a mercenary ship called the Dark Athena. Johns is taken captive while Riddick manages to awake from cryo-sleep and evade capture. With mercenaries in pursuit of the bounty on Riddick’s head, Riddick must do what he does best - kill those who get in his way and escape.

An extra bonus is that a fully remade version of ‘Escape from Butcher Bay’ using the new game engine will also be included with the title!

Anyway check the trailer below… it rocks!

theStream.tv streams live, interactive television in a fresh and innovative format, featuring shows like Coin-Op TV Live and the Weakly News.

Shows generally air at 6, 8 and 10pm Pacific Time and are made available on demand the next morning.  There are now over 800 live episodes archived!

Founder Brian Gramo has now secured a new studio and released a trailer for it on theStream’s youtube channel.

Check it out!

Last night my brother found a video walk-through of the old Codemasters classic “Treasure Island Dizzy“.

When I was young I had an Amstrad 464 and Dizzy games were the equivalent of today’s “Super Mario”!

Yes ‘Dizzy‘ rocks, and you can now download the PC Emulated version for free HERE!

I recently became aware of another web series via the micro-blogging network Twitter. As a mutual acquaintance of two other people I know on the network, I have been following rising starlet ‘Cathy Baron‘.

Yesterday she “tweeted” a link to the web series Valley Peaks which she stars in. Being left with a choice of braving the British weather (Snow, wind and rain at the moment) to go out, or staying in and checking it out, I decided to check it out.

Valley Peaks is a spoof of the common teen soap-dramas we get today. Everything is deliberatly over-the-top from the kisses, to the emotional/tearful scenes in the rain. In particular the sub-plots featuring a praying mantis, a lost clock radio, and time travel add to the creative genius.

I really suggest you check it out! It was a welcome and bright addition to my Monday evening!

But there’s more! Over the next week I’ve got a Q&A with Cathy Baron about her character ‘Shelly Breaker’, Valley Peaks, and what is happening in the Cathy Baron universe so keep you eyes peeled for that!

So the 4th chapter of Heroes is now upon us. I watched the first episode of ‘Fugitives’ last week ,and have only just had the chance to write about it.

The whole plot is now revolving around our super powered heroes being rounded up in a Guantanamo Gay type situation (Orange jumpsuits and all!) to keep them away from normal people for public safety.

The whole plot evolution looks better for this chapter. Let hope they don’t include any of the numerous paradoxes that the time-travel aspect brought in on the last season.

When I was at the MCM Expo in London last year I was able to speak to Greg Grunberg about the new chapter. He couldn’t reveal much as but did say that we’ll see a different side to a few of the characters!

Still if you ignore the plot holes in chapters 2 and 3, Heroes is still an awesome watch and in my book one of the best on TV!

The numerous displays of panic and general breakdown of the countries transport infastructure due to SNOW recently only can be described as pathetic.

It makes me ashamed to call myself British!!!

People are taking “SNOW DAYS” off work because they are snowed in! Yes that’s right… I said snowed in! Even though the snow is only a few inches thick and the roads have been salted!

Let me explain what snowed in really means:

THIS IS SNOWED IN!

THIS IS NOT SNOWED IN!

Now we have that cleared up can everyone in the UK please grow a pair!

Arrg………. I have to say it…… 50 years ago everyone would laugh at the sad state of modern society….

Oooooh look out!……snow! …… LAME!

So it turns out that Fox are axing Prison Break!

I’m thouroughly dismayed at this because I can’t see how they will be able to finish it off neatly within the remaining episodes of this season!

“The show just played out,” says Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly. “Creatively everybody feels enough stories were told … we want it to finish strong and not just gimp out next season.”

“Prison” has four more episodes set to air, and might shoot a could extra series-ending episodes as well.

“They have a cool ending,” Reilly reassured.

Now I’m sure it’s a cool ending! But short of bringing back Agent Kellerman for the last 4 episodes I don’t see how they can do it!

Let’s hope they reward the loyal fans with Teabag going down in flames!