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Happy Monday!

Before the happy comes the sad.

Yesterday morning, iconic and revolutionary SportsCenter anchor Stuart Scott passed away after a long battle with cancer at the age of 49. This was devastating news to start the day. It hit everybody hard, including fans of SportsCenter from back in the day when it was on channel 11. Generations of sports fans grew up with him and his electrically charged commentary, quick wit and unforgettable catchphrases.

“Boo-Yah!” anyone?

He solidified in people like me that there were adults who felt the same unbridled excitement about sports that I did. It was an unthinkable thrill and reality. There was a place in this world for people like me when it came to my perfectly unhealthy obsession with sports. During countless lazy summer mornings, countless people woke up early/woke up to hear Stuart Scott illuminating the nation with a home run, a dunk or a random Tar Heel reference.

Stuart Scott was inspiring to kids like me who dreamed of being paid to talk about sports on television for a living.

And Stuart Scott was inspiring because of his courageous battle against cancer while maintaining a genuinely positive outlook on life.

He truly was, “as cool as the other side of the pillow.”

RIP Stuart Scott.

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A month and a half ago, the marketing team from Jurassic World released the very first trailer for their 2015 summer blockbuster. Incorporated perfectly into this long-awaited tease was the delicately slow piano rendition of the infamous John Williams Jurassic Park theme song. In a word: sublime. In more words, fans have technological tools at their fingertips that can produce some very memorable results.

So, how did dinosaur fan Jared Pelletier do with his clever video editing?

Bottom line: Jurassic World (no matter how you cut it) looks amazing!

Have a Roaring Good Week!

Welcome…to Jurassic World!

Just like John Hammond, the makers of the theme park Jurassic World couldn’t wait to show off what they’ve created. Having recently watched the first official trailer for Jurassic World (featured below), it seems like my long-standing predictions about Jurassic Park’s fourth cinematic installment are as acutely accurate as a dinosaur’s DNA.

Good vibrations indeed!

I could describe the trailer, but we all just want to see what the world’s first dinosaur-theme park open to the public looks like.

For fans of the original (and the franchise), this is the movie we’ve all secretly been wishing for since Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur blockbuster rocked Hollywood and the world back on June 11, 1993:

Chaos Theory may have to be rewritten come June 12, 2015…

Good Vibrations

Something big is coming…

When it was announced that the fourth installment of the Jurassic Park franchise was written and would be made into a major motion picture, I was excited. But cautiously optimistic because of what transpired in Jurassic Park III (great individual scenes, but some of the casting…). Then, it was revealed that Steven Spielberg co-wrote this new script and would be executive producing once again. This news should have been treated as massively substantial, considering that Jurassic Park III debuted in the summer of 2001. Thirteen years have passed (along with the franchise’s author Michael Crichton in 2008) and it would have been completely understandable if this dinosaur franchise had ended as a trilogy.

It won’t, and it’s likely because the script/story this time is really, really good…like, possibly 1990s good. Ever since learning the title would be Jurassic World a year or so ago, I’ve had a theory about the tightly-guarded plot.

Here it is:

Cognizant that it is not called Jurassic Park 4 or Jurassic Park IV: _____, this hinted at a return to the original 1993 blockbuster masterpiece. This new movie was not going to be just another sequel or be sequential to the third movie. More than a decade had passed and those involved in the franchise are acutely aware of the amazing reaction to the original and the following two movies (a slow tumble from one to the next). If a fourth film would be made, it had to have a spectacularly epic script that reconnected fans with why they loved Jurassic Park from the start (plus, remember the title). Fans have wanted a fourth film, but only if it did justice to the original with its perfect story, cast of characters, larger than life consequences and dinosaur-size surprises. The year it’s been presented for release has been ~ 20 years since the original (21 to be exact). Last year (year 20) was dedicated to its amazing 3-D re-release, which was a magnificent triumph. Then, a picture was posted on Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow’s twitter account that showed a picture of dirt and leaves covering the “East Dock” arrow sign that Dennis Nedry famously crashed into with his Jurassic Park jeep in the torrential downpour with the caption, “Autumn.” This was back in late September of this year.

All of this, plus the previous and obvious reluctance to quickly make a fourth film after reaction from the third one, has, for a long time led me to believe that Jurassic World would be a direct throwback to the original Jurassic Park that is intended to play on the incredible and loving nostalgia of the 1993 cinematic wonder and the fact that fans like myself went crazy over the movie and the official Jurassic Park merchandise.

So I thought, “How do you play on 1993 nostalgia from the original along with the insane popularity of the toys, t-shirts, backpacks, stuffed animals, etc.?”

It meant that someone/some group had finally built a Jurassic Park for real! And when the poster was released with the tagline that read “The Park is Open” above the date of June 12th (FYI – the original was released June 11, 1993), that seemed like a serious confirmation of my long-hypothesized theory.

Then, today, the first teaser trailer of sorts hit the web. Does anything look familiar?

http://youtu.be/W7bk9glvzXA

While the first “official” trailer is expected for Thanksgiving (November 27th), everything seems to be lining up for a genuine Jurassic World theme park based on/closely with the inspiration of genetics dreamer John Hammond!

If the rumored trailer next week solidifies my theory, then it will make millions of cinematic dreams come true and literally give new meaning to the appropriately altered phrase, “Welcome to Jurassic World!”

A trembling cup of water has never looked this epic.

Happy Shark Week!

In honor of The Discovery Channel’s annual phenomenon known as “Shark Week,” today’s post will (of course) feature a shark-related video. Is it the teeth? The fins? The terrifying mystery of whether a shark is swimming beneath or around you in the ocean? Is it pure curiosity stemming from watching a movie by this guy named Steven Spielberg that practically scared everybody from swimming at beaches in the summertime?

Whatever the reason for tuning in is, it’s a fascinating time of year to safely observe and learn something new about the most feared (and possibly admired) predators in our oceans.

Take a Real Bite Out of This Week!