Right at the end of 2016 and we get the devastating news the actress Carrie Fisher, the Star Wars icon that played Princess Leia, has passed away at the age of 60 due to a heart attack...
This really makes me sad...
Princess Leia, Daisy Duke, Wonder Woman, Farrah Fawcett and the Bionic Woman were my first crushes as a kid.
Carrie Fisher played that role to perfection and owned the character. Her character was beautiful and tough.
In the 80s, early in high school, she reprised her role as the Princess in the 3rd film of the Star Wars saga called 'Return of the Jedi.' This time she showed off her perfect body by appearing in the "slave" bikini shown above. I was old enough now to take notice of her hotness!! Boy was she smoking!
That was all my friends and I wanted to talk about! Lol.
Above is a picture of Carrie in the second Star Wars film, 'The Empire Strikes Back,' which is my favorite of the franchise.
I was fortunate enough to meet Carrie a few years back at a Star Wars convention I attended in Orlando. I waited in a very long line to meet her.
She was very sweet. I got a couple autographs from her and then took a picture. She didn't just stand beside me for the photo, she latched onto me with a big hug and planted her head against my chest. After the photo was snapped, she looked up at me with the warmest smile and kindest eyes. She was a very warm person and seemed to really enjoy meeting and interacting with her fans. I hear stories about celebrities that are rude to their fans, but Carrie was awesome.
I was able to meet her again a couple years later in Dallas.
On the right is one of my favorite art prints of Princess Leia. It's done in the 80s art style of famed artist Patrick Nagel.
I've always wanted a poster of this. I guess now is the time to get it in memory of Carrie.
I enjoyed seeing CGI doctored image in the premiere of 'Rogue One' last week. Had no idea that a week later she would be gone. I read an article saying that she had completed her scenes for next year's 'Episode 8.' That is great news and I can't wait to see her in it. It's her final film :)
Rest in Peace Carrie Fisher and long live the Princess!
The force was strong with her...
Hope you all had a very merry Christmas! God Bless!
July is soooo hot!! I've been working outdoors a lot in the heat this month and it's blistering out there! Can't wait for October to roll around so I can cool off.
The Fam & I just returned from a few days of vacation in the Ozark mountains. Branson, MO to be specific. We had a great time.
On the way we stopped off at a little town called Gilbert in Arkansas, checked out their 100+ year old general store & post office and walked down to the beautiful Buffalo National River. I had originally planned on doing some canoeing on the Buffalo but our vacation time got cut short due to work. Maybe next time we can paddle down this cool river.
Our resort in Branson had an awesome view of Lake Taneycomo just right off our balcony porch. If we had more time I would have loved to kayaked Taneycomo.
Lake Taneycomo
We went to the theme park in Branson called Silver Dollar City.
I had been there many times before but this was Tonya's first.
Picture a Six Flags type theme park set in an old 1800s mining town and that sums up Silver Dollar City.
The place has working characters such as a blacksmith, a knife maker, leather and wood craftsmen, a wild west saloon show and much more.
The girls rode several rides including a water ride called the Lost River.
The Lost River
The food was pretty awesome too. I had a bowl of this mixture called "campfire skillet" which had sausage, potatoes, green beans, onions, and lots of other stuff. It was great.
Campfire Skillet
While at Silver Dollar City we explored Marvel Cave...
We also went to the Hollywood Wax Museum in Branson.
We had fun taking interactive photos with the statues using some of the available props.
Tonya and I took turns punching out Rocky.
He aint so tough!
We also got captured by the mighty Kong and lived to tell about it!
Our last day in town the girls went go-cart riding and got to zip line over the Lake.
In all we had a great time, although it was short. We told the girls we would do another trip somewhere in November since we didn't get a full week's vacation.
The day before we left on vacation I put on the Calcasieu Serialfest in Sulphur, Louisiana. It was a lot of fun. It was a mini film festival featuring cliffhanger serials of the '30s & '40s. This was the 3rd one I had.
This year we focused on the life and serial films of actor Buster Crabbe.
He was an amazing actor who played iconic heroes such as Tarzan, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. He was Hollywood's golden boy for a stretch starring in serials, movies and TV shows.
We had Bill Necessary from Tyler, TX, a serial cosplay guest, in attendance wearing serial costume versions of Captain Marvel, The Green Hornet and The Lone Ranger.
It was so much fun and I can't wait to put on another one next year!
Well, that's it for this edition of The Adventures of Louisiana Bennett. Keep cool in this heat. I'll see you on the flip flop!
Greetings! It is hot! Louisiana summers are harsh. Hope all my American friends and family had a great 4th of July!
Tonya, the girls & I spent part of this holiday weekend at Fort Polk for their Freedomfest.
Theory of a Deadman & Charlie Daniels performed on an outdoor stage and there was a big fireworks show.
I don't know much about Theory of a Deadman except that they are a Canadian band. Didn't make much sense to me that they decided to get a Canadian band for an American holiday concert. Should have got Skynyrd!
Anyhoo, Deadman played and some of the younger crowd seemed to like them.
Theory played for about an hour. I got some good shots of them as the official photographer. I heard of them but never listened to their music. Tonya knew who they were and seemed to like them.
There were a lot of people in attendance, but when it came time for Charlie Daniels to take the stage there were lawn chairs as far as you could see.
I heard later that there were over 8,000 people in attendance for his performance.
Seeing Charlie Daniels perform live was a real treat.
That man has some energy for an 80 year old.
I wonder how much longer he will be performing at his age.
I was the photographer at his VIP meet & greet and got to visit with him for a moment. Awesome guy. So friendly to everyone.
He played both of my favorite songs of his... Wooley Swamp and The Devil Went Down to Georgia.
Seeing Charlie Daniels play The Devil Went Down to Georgia... live... is a life highlight.
Wow. What an American icon!
Here's Tonya & I enjoying the fireworks show from the parking lot.
That's all I got this time.
I'll give y'all another shout real soon!
Hope everyone is doing well! I haven't blogged in a while. A lot has been going on the past few months.
I shot some footage in New Orleans for a TV series pilot called "Hollywood on the Bayou." It's going to be a documentary style series about films make in Louisiana. I'm the director and co-producer on the series. The other co-producers are Ed & Susan Poole.
Ed also hosts the show. He and Susan are Louisiana Film historians.
We hope to have the pilot fully edited this summer and then begin shooting several episodes for a nice season package that we can shop around to some cable channels.
Our first episode in on the making of Elvis' "King Creole" which was shot in New Orleans and surrounding places.
I'm busy cutting the episode together at this time. Gonna take a while to get it just like it needs to be.
The second project I've been working on this month is another pilot... this is for a web series I'm doing called "Stretch." This will be shot entirely in Lake Charles and I'm using local actors and crew for it. We did our very first shoot on it this month.
The series is about a young woman who gains super powers and is now being hunted by a covert black ops group that wants to exploit those powers. It's going to be a fun show with lots of action and special effects.
This series is going to be exclusive content for my website popninja.net.
Here's a pic of our first shoot on "Stretch."
That's me to the far right (with the awesome beard!) next to me is actor Gary Shannon, then my production manager Jackie, sitting is my audio guy Barry and in the back right is my script supervision Cat.
Here's another pic from the set... actress Heather Benoit, who plays
the title character "Stretch,"
and actor Gary Shannon have a serious conversation. You can follow all the updates and behind the scene info on this series by liking our Facbook page. Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/stretchseries/?fref=ts
I've also been talking to an old friend about doing a reality TV series following members of a Brazilian Jiujitsu school. We even shot some test footage last month.
This will be filmed in Alexandria, LA.
We will begin production on the pilot for it next month.
RPG stands for Role Playing Game.
There are many kinds and most these days are played on a computer or videogame console. But the RPGs I want to talk about are the old school pen & paper games with graph paper, dice and miniature figures.
In the 70s & 80s TSR ruled them all with games like Dungeons & Dragons, Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Top Secret, Boot Hill and Gangbusters. I owned all of these games. Star Frontiers and Gamma World were my favorites.
I remember playing these games in the early 80s with my brother (David) and then with my friends (Matthew, Peter, Anthony and Greg.)
Those were amazing times! I miss playing those old school games very much.
This past weekend I attended a sci-fi / anime convention called Cyphacon in Lake Charles, La. While there I came across a vendor booth selling a new old school style RPG called Tortured Earth.
They had my attention immediately.
Downstairs at the con was a game room and these guys were running demo games for this new RPG at two different tables. I stood nearby and watched a game then I actually got to sit down and play the game. Memories came rushing back. Awesome memories.
I purchased their starter game guide and their first module. I've been reading through it learning the game play dynamics and all the rules. Now I'm trying to find some guys around Lake Charles who would like to get together once a week and play.
The guys who developed Tortured Earth are from right here in Louisiana (Monroe & Mamou.)
I can't wait to get a game going.
Tortured Earth RPG player guide
If you are in the Lake Charles area and want to meet weekly at Cerebro gaming on Ryan Street every Wednesday night for game night let me know. I'm trying to set it up.
This week I started reading the book 'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline. This fellow has knocked it out of the park!
The book is sort of a mixture of Tron, the Dungeons & Dragons RPG, and every pop culture icon from the '80s. At times I feel like the book was written just for me because it has everything I love in it. There are so many obscure 80s references too like the cheesy B-movie 'Hawk the Slayer' and my favorite cartoon of all time 'Thundarr the Barbarian.'
The list goes on... Knight Rider, Airwolf, Back to the Future, Family Ties...
Ernest Cline is a guy after my own heart.
I'm also excited to learn that this book is being fast tracked into a movie that will be directed by Steven Spielberg and will be shot right here in the great state of Louisiana. I hope they decide to go the multi-movie route with this one.
If you grew up in the 80s and enjoyed the tv shows, movies and video games of that era... then this book is a must read!
He has a new book out called Armada that I'm gonna pick up as soon as I'm done reading this one.
Reading this book has made me relive some of my childhood... especially the coin op video games I would play, like Joust, Defender and Dig Dug... and the awesome role playing games I would play with my friends like Dungeons and Dragons (the grand daddy of all RPGs) and others like "Gamma World," "Star Frontiers" and "Top Secret."
I really miss those RPGs. They were lots of fun and made you use your imagination to totally immerse yourself into those fantasy worlds. It was like acting out a movie in your brain and you were the hero in the story.
There's a new game shop in town called Cerebro. I may just have to look into getting a Gamma World game going in there at least one night a week.
Until next time... happy role playing!
- Patrick Shawn Bennett
broadcasting live from Flynn's Arcade...
Hey Y'all!
How's it going? I haven't posted in a good while.
Here we are already in March! This year is moving so fast.
Today the Captain America Civil War trailer hit the internet and revealed our first look at the new Spider-man. Absolutely fantastic! I can't wait to see this movie.
When the first Captain America movie came out I loved it so much. It is now one of my favorite films. I said to myself "Self, this is your new Star Wars." Well, it was my new Star Wars... until the actual new Star Wars came out.
Check out the Civil War trailer below...
I have followed all of the Marvel films and the Captain America films and the Avenger films are my favorite.
Here's some cool posters for this upcoming film:
Now here's a look at the new Spider-Man from the trailer...
Pretty cool, right? I think so.
Anyways, besides movies, what else is going on?
I was at Wallyworld the other day and they had a big endcap display with bottles of Dr. Tichenor's Peppermint Mouthwash. I like peppermint so I decided to get a bottle and try it out.
I was in the car driving to work and I decided to try out the mouthwash so I shook it up, opened it and smelled it. It had a wonderful peppermint smell. I took a swig to swish around in my mouth. I had an empty cup in the car I was going to spit it into.
Immediately my tongue went to burning like it was on fire... like I was eating a ghost pepper or something. My tongue went completely numb! I spit it out. It was so intense that there was no way I could even attempt to swish the mouthwash in my mouth.
My tongue remained numb for the next 20 minutes or so and my mouth felt like it was on fire and my eyes were watering like crazy. I thought to myself that there is no way that anyone would be able to use this kind of mouthwash. It is just way too intense.
Well, I took a closer look at the label... It said in bold letters "CONCENTRATE. DO NOT USE AT FULL STRENGTH."
Wow. Really. Concentrate? Who buys concentrate mouthwash to have to take it home and mix it up like cool aid before you can use it. What a total inconvenience and pain to have to make pitchers of this stuff and then find some type of container to put it in for use. Horrible idea.
LOL. Lesson learned!
Television...
Have y'all watched the NBC TV series "Constantine" that aired last year for 13 episodes and was then cancelled? It was based off the DC comic "Hellblazer." It's the same character that Keanu Reeves played in that Constantine movie.
Anyhoo, I didn't watch the series when it aired, but I do watch the series "Arrow" on the CW and in an episode of Arrow they did a Constantine crossover. This peaked my interest in the character so I Tivo'd the entire 13 episode run of the series and binge watched them. Very cool show. I enjoyed it very much.
Hated that it just ended like it did.
Hopefully they will bring the character back in more episodes of "Arrow."
That's all I've got for now.
May God bless you all.
