Dean Ween's "Sunday Sauce."

What is your favorite meal? Mine would have to be what I grew up on living in New Jersey and that is the traditional Italian macaroni dinner. I still live in New Jersey (I have also lived elsewhere) and I still occasionally make myself that big hunkin' Sunday meal. And it usually lasts me a week, it's so much food. Anyway, I was cruising Ween.com recently to see what's up with one of my favorite bands and I found Dean (Mickey Melchiondo) Ween's recipe for "Sunday Sauce." His recipe basically matches our family's recipe for the same meal. Practically all of us in Jersey cook this the same way. Kudos to Mickey for putting it all down on the site, with all of the great pictures and Melchiondo wit. Excellent stuff. Treat yourself and try his recipe out. You'll never have a better Sunday meal. (I took that photo of Mickey when Ween was performing at the Stone Pony back in the summer of 2003)

I Finally Saw "The Dark Knight."

A little while ago, after a particularly satisfying and successful day, I decided to go and see The Dark Knight...after waiting for weeks. Here's what I liked: Heath Ledger. Amazing. As a rather traditional comics fan, I never was much for Jack Nicholson's flawed portrayal of the Joker. But this, this was a whole universe away from that. I loved the freaky and totally unpredictable quality to Ledger's Joker. He deserves a posthumous Oscar for Best Actor. The Watchmen Trailer. Seeing it on the big screen before The Dark Knight was a real treat. I just love that Zack Snyder is helming this film. My favorite graphic novel converted to film by one of my favorite directors. If only Alan Moore would give Zack the props he deserves. Here's what I didn't like: The film. I was about as nonplussed about The Dark Knight as I was about Batman Begins. They both just didn't do much for me. There is still not a film that has done The Batman justice. That's right The Batman. The creature of the night. The being that really strikes fear into the heart of crime, just like The Shadow did. The anti-hero that doesn't care about upholding the law, his law, in nontraditional ways.

What is an "Exotic Pet"?

New information about Wrath of the Lich King is starting to pour in from beta testers. Still confident that I will get into the beta, I'm trying to absorb it all in preparation. My favorite WoW class is the Hunter and I am particularly excited about the new 51 point Beast Mastery skill called, coincidentally enough, Beast Mastery. It reads: "You master the art of Beast training, teaching you the ability to tame Exotic pets and increasing your total amount of Pet Skill Points by 5." So, what exactly is an Exotic pet? We don't know at the moment, since Blizzard is working on the skill, but there is a little more information about it on the beta forums. It sounds like the Hunters will get to tame some esoteric pets and I am so thrilled about that! :)

"A Man's Gotta Do What a Man's Gotta Do."

The supervillian musical for the ages! An Internet mini-series event! Neil Patrick Harris! Nathan Fillion! Felicia Day (of The Guild)! Joss Whedon! Simon Helberg (of The Big Bang Theory)! Is this full of win or what? Click the banner to watch! Free until July 20th only!

Watchmen Movie News

This weekend is proving to be a big one for the upcoming Watchmen movie! I was absolutely thrilled to see the Watchmen cover article this week in Entertainment Weekly, one of my favorite magazines and collection development resources. Between the online and magazine content, EW has a truckload of Watchmen scoops this week: information from Zack Snyder, new elements and pictures from the movie, and (unbelievably) a brand new conversion with Alan Moore himself!!! Click here to go to all of the Watchmen goodness on the EW site. As if that wasn't enough, the brand spanking new very first Watchmen movie trailer is now showing in advance of The Dark Knight, in theaters starting today! The trailer is also available online here. It's absolute nirvana for Watchmen fans right now!

Beta Waiting...

It's that time again, folks. Blizzard announced the opt-in for the Wrath of the Lich King beta awhile ago. We voracious fans opted in right away. The beta testing invite e-mails allegedly began to go out last night and we are all waiting by our computers for ours. Checking the e-mail has been a fairly popular pastime for the last 24 hours or so. Nothing yet for me... :( (Photo courtesy of NOAA)

Catching up with Starcatt

You may remember my World of Warcraft Night Elf Hunter, Starcatt from back in 2006. Ever the role-player, I always envisioned Starcatt as Neq's long-lost sister. Their parting happened when Neq became a Druid. Starcatt was dissapointed by the departure of her sister and was going to follow Neq, but after much soul searching, eventually went the way of the Hunters. Anyway, I dropped Starcatt after she dinged 60 at the end of 2006. A couple months ago, I picked up Starcatt again after getting Twiddley to 70 and discovering that I had a real affinity toward Hunters. So, I quickly leveled Starcatt to 70 and began grinding rep. She first became exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive (my first time doing this with any of my characters) and got her exalted title. Next up was exalted with the Scryers. Then yesterday, she hit exalted with the Netherwing and got her beautiful onyx Netherwing Drake. Currently, Starcatt is close to exalted with the Shat'ari Skyguard and is continuing to do daily quests all over the place. With her most faithful friend, the trusty pure white cat Sam (sound familiar?), Starcatt is currently my favorite WoW character. She's even in a guild, which doesn't usually float with me. Check out her Armory entry here. All hail the mighty Starcatt of the Shattered Sun!