Don LaFontaine R.I.P.

Don LaFontaine, the voiceover king whose "In a world ..." phrase on movie trailers was much copied -- and much parodied -- has died, according to media reports. He was 68.

LaFontaine died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, according to ETOnline, "Entertainment Tonight's" Web site. He died from complications from pneumothorax, a collapsed lung that causes air to build in the pleural cavity, his agent, Vanessa Gilbert, told "ET."

LaFontaine, who was born in Duluth, Minnesota, began as a voice actor in the mid-1960s while working as a recording engineer, according to his Web site. His strong, slightly gravelly voice was featured on trailers for thousands of films, including "The Godfather," "Fatal Attraction" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." For a time in the late '70s, LaFontaine was the official voice of Paramount Pictures.

Here is a sample of his work...

Hurricane Gustav II - The Evacuation Trip

Here is part 1 of my Hurricane Gustav story.

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Carlos and I left New Orleans at 2 am Saturday (going into Sunday), hoping to beat all the evacuation traffic (or, as we informally call it around my office, "evacucation" - an evacuation vacation - because we got a week off of work).

We arrived in Atlanta, where my younger sister lives, at 10 pm Sunday night - 19 hours later. The drive from New Orleans to Atlanta normally takes about 9 hours. Since neither of us wanted to leave our cars behind, we both drove that amount of time - and with only three short breaks for food and gas.

Ugh!

We spent from Sunday night until this morning (Saturday) with my sister, her husband, their two kids, and my parents. It was great seeing them.

The return trip was only 8.5 hours; We arrived about an hour ago. My house is fine. Our electricity was restored yesterday afternoon. My fence has some minor damage. We were very lucky.

Now, we have to wait and see what the next storm, Ike, brings.

Double ugh!

Hurricane Gustav I - Evacuating

Carlos and I are evacuating New Orleans and going to Atlanta, where my younger sister lives. That's assuming Hurricane Gustav stays on his same path.

More on that later.

I wanted to share with you the mixed CD I made for the 10+ hour car ride. The theme is Hurricane.

Like A Hurricane - Neil Young
When The Levee Breaks - Led Zeppelin
Flood - Jars of Clay
Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughn
Here Comes The Flood - Peter Gabriel
Flood - Sarah McLaughlin
Floods - Fightstar
The Levee - Jonny Lang
When The Levee Breaks - Dread Zeppelin
Riders on the Storm - The Doors
Stormy Weather - Etta James
Storm - Lifehouse
Shelter from the Storm - Bob Dylan
Riders on the Storm (live) - Creed
Riding The Storm Out - REO Speedwagon

Male Stars Update

In addition to the two current Yahoo groups that I moderate - MaleStarsShirtless and MaleStarsUndressed - I have created a new one - MaleStarsUpdate.

Here is a sample of a picture I have posted to the group:

It's The Little Things II

(To read It's The Little Things I, click here.)

Carlos and I have a new Saturday night tradition - dinner and a movie. (For quite awhile, we had been staying home watching movies on Saturday nights.)

The first week was Zea's and The Dark Knight at The Palace Theatre Clearview.

The second week was Country Flame and American Teen at Canal Place Theatre.

Tonight is Vaqueros and Tropic Thunder at The Prytania Theatre.

I tried looking up the restaurant to make sure it was open in our post-Katrina world, but I couldn't find it. When I called Carlos to update him, not only did he immediately figure out that I was spelling it like Brenda Vaccaro, but he knew her birthday was November 18, 1939.

Cute and knows everything about pop culture!

New Discovery: The Subways

Every week, I watch Sundance Channel's TV show "Live From Abbey Road" . This week's show featured Gnarls Barkley, Herbie Handcock, and a band that I had never heard of before - The Subways.

No. Not all together, silly!

I really like their sound. They remind me of Dash Rip Rock or Reverend Horton Heat, yet they're from England.

Here's the video for their song Oh Yeah. It was released 3 years ago in the UK. I'm still a bit slow in getting hip to new music.



If you think the singer, Billy Lunn, is cute, check out my other blog devoted to Male Stars Shirtless (or my Yahoo group of the same name).

Hallmark Corners Gay Marriage Card Market

From The Associated Press:

Not every state recognizes same-sex marriage - but Hallmark now does.

After California decided to join Massachusetts in legalizing the unions, the nation's largest greeting card company began rolling out its first same-sex wedding cards this summer to meet growing demand.

That puts them in a niche once served only by independent card companies, and one that No. 2 American Greetings Corp. has no plans to enter.

Hallmark started offering "coming out" cards last year, and the four designs of same-sex marriage cards are being gradually released this summer and will be widely available by next year. No sales figures were available yet.

The Greeting Card Association, a trade group, said it does not track how many companies provide same-sex cards but believes the number is expanding.

Three Is A Magic Number

As I do at work when I'm trying to avoid work, I was playing a round of Really Tough Music Trivia Categories via email with a friend of mine today.

The only rule is that the person who starts the category must also throw out the first example. Then the first person to miss loses. We try to make the categories as tough as possible.

My category today was "Bands that have exactly three members - and all three members are somehow related. First answer: Hanson...Go." We were able to come up with The Jonas Brothers and The Bee Gees before giving up. Can you think of any other answers?

Another Silly Quiz

My result for The Sexuality Spectrum Test...

Mostly Gay

You scored -31 (-52 being completely gay, 0 being bisexual, and 52 being completely straight)

You are mainly homosexual, but you have a few heterosexual qualities. You much prefer the same sex, but you have a mild interest in the opposite sex. While you would jump at the opportunity to screw someone of the same sex, you might be up for experimenting with members of the opposite sex if given the opportunity. If you are sexually inexperienced, you could shift on the spectrum at a later time depending on whether you have sexual encounters with the opposite sex and whether or not you like those encounters.

Take The Sexuality Spectrum Test at HelloQuizzy

The West Wing II

For those of you who would rather watch the scene instead of read the transcript, I found this: