Almost Worth Knowing: The most incoherent trailer... ever?

Yesterday, my post was about the upcoming movie, Play Dead, starring none other than the great Chris "I Never Slept With Mena Suvari" Klein. Today, I present to you the trailer:

What I hadn't realized yesterday, but am now enlightened to, is the fact that the "TV Action Hero" role that "Leelee Forever" Klein's character had was a Power Ranger rip-off. Sigh, if only he had really been one of the original Power Rangers. Still, I hope we get to see "Cruise stole my Holmes" Klein in some nice "Blue Hero" tights. Then again, the movie will be awesome even without it. "Dreamz with a 'Z'" Klein never lets his fans down.

Almost Worth Knowing: How cool does this movie sound?!?!?!2#4QXCavdf!!!!

With a release date of September 22, this oscar-hopeful is just around the corner. Play Dead is the story of "Ronnie Reno... a former TV action hero in dire need of a comeback. On his way back from a failed audition he winds up snowbound in a remote Nevada town run by scary meth dealers, including Merle, and their henchman. When he finds the body of a dead FBI agent there, life imitates Reno's art as he is forced to reunite with his former co-stars, including Devon, to save himself and the terrorized townsfolk."

Written by Shem Bitterman and directed by Jason Wiles, this film is chock full of chocolatey star power, including the likes of Jake Busey as Merle, and Fred Durst as "henchman." Busey is Gary Busey's son and Durst is of Limp Bizkit fame. Follow the link and check out Jake Busey's headshot.

Oh, and one more thing. Did I mention that the lead role is played by none other than Chris "I Love Robert Frost" Klein?!?! Seriously, I don't just smell Best Actor on this one... my lungs are choked and black with it. The only other contender this year is the character of Briggs, in Caught in the Crossfire.

I just wanted to quickly note that the post you guys were so quick to jump at, entitled "The Day the Music Died", which was posted on August 18th, was accidentally posted. The post had only been a draft which I had post-dated, but never came back to, and it auto-posted itself unbeknown to me. I actually hadn't check back on AlmostWorthKnowing.com until I re-entered the 21st century. (That's right! During the time I spent in Myrtle Beach, I was forced to access the internet via America Online Dial-up. Crazy, but more on that at another date!) Nonetheless, I will finish that post when I get the chance, and re-post it complete with your reader responses and with full-credit where credit is due. Thanks anyway for all your loyalty!

Almost Worth Knowing: Man, people still own dial-up?

Unfortunately, I'll be unable to blog for the next few days, because I am stuck wtihout broadband. In any case, I'll be back and writing in about a week. Until then, my friends... adios!

Almost Worth Knowing: There is a surprising volume of professional athletes turned published musical talents

First off, I would like to make it clear that I am using the words "talent" and "artist" in the loosest way possible. Nonetheless, I have a couple of favorite athletes turned artist, and some of them are even somewhat talented. This issue came up in my post from three days ago, when I ran across the musical exploits of one Justin Fargas, aka Young Hugg. I issued a challenge for my readers to name any other professional athletes who have published musical careers. BAyates was the first and only to respond listing Shaq, Deion Sanders, Ron Artest, Troy Hudson, and the entire 1985 Chicago Bears Team. BAyates gets a whopping 5 points!

If you haven't seen the Super Bowl Shuffle yet, it's actually quite fun. The Wikipedia article on the song provides some greater detail behind the history and production of the song, but I particularly liked the stanza by #4 Steve Fuller and the sax solos by #33 Calvin Thomas. Check it out:

Comically, it's quite clear the white guys in the video have far less rhythm. #45 Gary Fencik is especially bad. Also, as a bit of clear trivia, #9 Jim McMahon and #34 Walter Payton were spliced into the song and video afterward, because they were not available for the filming. Dan Hampton declined participation because he felt that the song was too cocky. Furthermore, the song and video were produced on the Tuesday following the 1985 Bear's only loss of the season to the Miami Dolphins. This is significant because it prevented them from becoming the second team in history to have an undefeated season and win the Super Bowl. Lastly, the 1985 Chicago Bears was not the only Superbowl Championship team to produce a song; the 1984 San Francisco 49ers also produced a song called "We are the 49ers" before becoming Superbowl Champions (according to Wikipedia's Superbowl Shuffle page). I searched for the song online, and came across the following video, but I admit I'm not sure it is same song that the Wikipedia article is referencing.

Honestly, I think I like this song even more than the Superbowl Shuffle. It makes me nostalgic of that great era of music: the 80's. Tomorrow, I'll get into some more modern examples of athletic musical venture, but for now let's just consider these two curiosities. Are the current works, by the likes of Shaq and Fargas entertaining? Yes... but it also lacks the charm of the aforementioned videos.

Almost Worth Knowing: Fallout 3 Rap

For those of you who are unaware, Fallout 3 is the award-winning game by Bethesda Studios, released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, X-Box 360, and PS3. Multiple media outlets went on to name Fallout 3 Game of the Year for 2008.

The focus of today's post, however, is not the game, but a video and song related to the game, which I came across in my internet journeys. To preface, a game mod is an alteration to video game code frequently seen for computer games. A mod can do anything from making cosmetic changes, to adding game content, to changing fundamentals of how the game is played. I came across the following video on a Fallout 3 modding website, and it uses several other mods in order to make the characters dance like that. I assure you, the 2008 Game of the Year did not come standard with those character animations. Check out the Fallout 3 Rap below:

First off, the characters in the video dance better than I do. Moreover, I hope you paid particular attention to the song in the video. I cannot get enough of it. I am further haunted by the fact that I cannot find an Mp3 copy of the song anywhere, thereby forcing me to listen to it on YouTube when I want to listen to it. To the best of my information, the song is listed in the beginning caption as the "Fallout3-Rap," by DJZB Project, or by the alternate title of "What I'm Living For (Fallout Radio Promo Edit)" in the end credits. Still, I can't find a website for the DJZB Project that has the song listed, so I'm not sure what to do.

Sigh... my favorite lyrics are from the chorus. "This is serious, suckas gettin' furious. I'm like a virus, spreading on bacillus." Very clever...

Almost Worth Knowing: Life of Young Hugg

Last night was the oh-so-stressful draft for the EB Fantasy IV fantasy football league. Man, what a hair-yanking ordeal that was. Nonetheless, something good certainly came of it, and I don't just mean my team.

In the course of my research, I happened upon an interesting note about Oakland Raiders running back, Justin Fargas. The following lyrics come from track 11 on his solo rap CD, published under the stage name Young Hugg.

"Gonna have a drink to this one
We gotta bang her
E'rebody to the dance floor for this one
I got a story to tell..."

You can listen to this track, "Life of Young Hugg," as well as any other songs from the album on Rhapsody's website for the artist here: In Black and White, by Young Hugg. Curiously, Hugg is also the son of Starsky and Hutch actor, Antonio Fargas, who played Huggy Bear (I wager this is the justification for his chosen alias). Fargas published his rap album in late 2006, becoming this feature artist around the same time he was promoted to first string running back for the Raiders. Indeed, after listening to a few tracks, I must say, "what an artist he is." Certainly, Young Hugg's own words put it best... "from a pimp, to a player, to a baller..."

Challenge: How many other professional athletes can you name that have published music careers? Internets not allowed, except possibly to elaborate upon your response...