Andy Labis, Author at Entertainment Ave!

Garth Brooks Still Isn’t Touring, but He Might be at Your Movie Theater (sort of).

By:

The Dude on the Right
I can’t believe I wasn’t paying attention on this, but over the weekend
Garth Brooks has so far
lived up to his promise of not touring, yet did sell out nine shows in November
in the musical mecca that is Kansas City, MO. He’s opening up the new
Sprint Center in good ol’ K.C., and had I been paying attention I almost might
have tried to get a couple of tickets and make the 7 hour and 43 minute trip
(according to Google Maps) to catch the show. But, alas, I wasn’t paying
attention, and he pretty much has sold out all nine dates in like 5 minutes
(okay, a little longer than that, but it was Hannah Montana quick).

Now none
of that sounds that weird, I guess he already made a previous commitment to do a
concert or nine there, but the interesting announcement was made a few days
later, at the official opening of the Sprint Center, where Garth announced one
of the shows would be simulcast to movie theaters across the United States.
Most likely it will be handled by
Fathom Events, since
this is already what they do, and they have a quick blurb on their website
announcing it, but no specifics are set yet. The thing is, other than not
actually being at the live event, squinting to see Garth on stage from a million
miles away where you find yourself, a lot of the times, just watching the giant
video screens anyway, might it be almost just as cool to see him on your movie
screen where if you take a picture with your camera phone you might just get a
decent picture of Garth? Okay, fine, I don’t think so either, but if he
still has that kind of demand for live concert tickets, it will be damn
interesting to see the demand to see him on the big screen, and how will the
ticket scalpers handle that?

And you thought getting tickets for a venue that
holds 18,000+ difficult.

For a lot of you Garth fans, seeing him at your local
gigaplex might be your only chance to "see" Garth Brooks, live in concert, at
least until his kids are grown, unless, of course, he has so much fun in Kansas
City that he decides to take his kids on what might be the most exciting "see
the world" experience of their lives. If not, well, hopefully you can
still get free refills on that bucket o’ popcorn when you see him on the big
screen, if you can actually get a ticket.

That’s it for this one!
I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

What’s New? Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up Podcast! The Cubs are Gone, The Bears are Back, “Balls of Fury” is Done, and Stu is “Sim”ed.

For this podcast of “Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up!“, Stu Gotz got to see the Chicago Cubs final game of the season, The Dude on the Right finished the “Stu & The Dude Reviewin’ the Movies for You!” episode of “Balls of Fury.” The Dude was happy the Chicago Bears beat Green Bay, neither of them had any delusions of entering The Chicago Marathon, and Stu might be getting addicted to MySims for his Nintendo Wii.

Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up! The Cubs are Gone, The Bears are Back, “Balls of Fury” is Done, and Stu is “Sim”ed.

By:

The Dude on the Right
Stu Gotz was so anxious to get things started for our

weekend wrap-up podcast that he talks over our intro music, but that’s okay
because we both have so much to talk about. Stu got the privilege of attending
the last Chicago Cubs game of the season and witness the culmination of
the last 99 years of Cub history. Me, I had a chance to go to the game but opted
out to feverishly finish our

"Stu & The Dude Reviewin’ the Movies for You!" episode of "Balls of Fury"
before it’s totally out of theaters.

With the Cubs done with their season I
also fill Stu in on the Chicago Bears and how they are turning their
season around and now are destined for the Super Bowl. We also discuss The
Chicago Marathon, especially since neither of us had any delusions of
running in it, even without the high temperatures of the day. Stu, meanwhile,
has become an addict and might need an intervention soon. Nope it’s not alcohol
and it’s not drugs – his lawn still needs mowing because he’s becoming addicted
to the MySims for his Nintendo Wii.

Thanks for listening.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

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I Can’t Believe I Overslept.

By:

The Dude on the Right
Well, if you are a reader of my
Entertainment Ave! blog, as well as my MySpace blog, you will probably notice that this blog post is the same in both locations. I figured since I usually keep my MySpace blog to my many exercising and eating healthy dilemmas, while the Entertainment Ave! blog is usually about everything else, and since this blog post sort of encompasses both, I would be lazy and just post it in both places. Sorry for my laziness.

Anyway, maybe it was because I was so beaten down by the trouncing the Chicago Cubs took yesterday, or maybe it was because I shouldn’t have gotten sucked into watching “Independence Day” on cable last night, but this morning I overslept and missed The Chicago Marathon. Yup, I had every intention of going to The Chicago Marathon, but of everything to forget I actually forgot to set my alarm. Oh well, I suppose with the heat today it might have been for the best, but not going did allow me to finally finish our animated review of the movie “Balls of Fury” for Entertainment Ave! Sure, the movie’s been out for over a month now, and sure, not many people saw it anyway, but me and my buddy Stu Gotz put forth the effort to write and record the audio, so I figured I might as well get the damn thing finished.

But it did feel good to get that off of my plate, so until the next animated review I can get back to some new music from Bruce Springsteen, Michael Stanley, and matchbox twenty to review, get my movie previews back up-to-date, and catch some concerts. I can also get back to some more consistent exercising (I admit I missed a couple of morning workouts this last week – I could use the animating as an excuse, but that’s just lame), and even shift from all cardio to some actual strength training.

The good thing with the Chicago Cubs out of the baseball playoffs is that at least now I only have one team to cheer on, namely my hometown Cleveland Indians, and if the Chicago Bears lose to Green Bay and Brett Favre tonight, my football season is pretty much complete, and I’ll have plenty of time to get ready for next year’s Chicago Marathon.

I was sort of looking forward to going to the marathon this morning, to cheer on the runners. Please tell me you didn’t actually think I was planning on running in the marathon? First off I’ve only been exercising for a month and that has been on my exercise bike at home and walking outside. By my calculations, even if I could make the 26.2 miles, at my walking speed it would take me around nine hours to finish the thing. Second, I don’t know if my “bowler’s knee” could even survive that pounding. And lastly,
I would probably die. But if the Chicago Cubs had won yesterday it would have been fun to cheer on some of the runners near Wrigley Field and then catch today’s Cubs game in Wrigleyville, with my plan for the Cubs loss to be to head to Chinatown where it is supposedly party central to cheer the runners on, and then get a great Chinese lunch. Oh well, at least I got “Balls of Fury” done!

After last night and this morning, I guess the appropriate phrase for both The Chicago Marathon and The Chicago Cubs is “Wait until next year!”

And that’s it for this one!
I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

What’s New? Stu & The Dude Reviewin’ the Movies for You! Balls of Fury

For this animated movie review of “Balls of Fury,” both Stu Gotz and The Dude on the Right thought Maggie Q was great in the film. The rest of the movie, though, pretty much shows that it isn’t that easy to make a good comedy about ping pong. The boys do play a little table tennis themselves during their reviewing, and they’ve both got some skills. It probably won’t help either of them impress Ms. Q, however.

Episode 10: Balls of Fury

A Video Review of “Balls of Fury"

The Star
Ratings
Stu Gotz:

The Dude:

The Movie is:
Rated: PG-13
It’s 1:30 Long

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Some Quick Words From:

The Dude on the Right
Neither Stu Gotz nor myself really liked "Balls of Fury," but even so we still
pay homage to the movie by playing a little table tennis during our review.
Stu’s got a pretty good slam, while I can put some wicked spin on the ball.
Is a movie about ping pong any fun? Ehh. There was potential and
some of the rumor mills said the filmmaker folks (including some from the "Reno
911" TV show) caved to some of the suggestions from the movie studio folks.
I’m guessing the filmmaker folks should have stuck to their guns. Good or
bad, both Stu and I really did like Maggie Q, and would have liked her even more
if the movie were rated R and she got naked.

Thanks for watching!

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

P.S. If you’re downloading the video rather than using
our YouTube view, please note that this Video Podcast is in Apple Quicktime format, Ver. 7+. If all you get is the audio of this video podcast, or it doesn’t load at all, please upgrade your Quicktime/iTunes
software to the latest version. The files are also kinda big (10meg+), so give them time to download.. Thanks! The DOTR.

Balls of Fury – Movie Stats & Links
Starring:	Dan Fogler, Christopher Walken, Maggie Q, George Lopez
MPAA Rated:	PG-13
The Movie is:	90 Minutes Long
Released By:	Rogue Pictures
Movie Web Site:	www.ballsoffury.com
Kiddie Movie:	There’s a lot of sexual innuendo and people die.
Date Movie:	Not if you don’t want her to see you drooling over Maggie Q.
Gratuitous Sex:	Lots of talk about balls.
Gratuitous Violence:	People die, and a lot of shooting.
Action:	Not really.
Laughs:	A couple.
Memorable Scene:	Any scene with Maggie Q.
Memorable Quote:	Nothing really.
Directed By:	Robert Ben Garant
Produced By:	Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum, Ben Garant, Jonathan Glickman, Thomas Lennon

What’s New? A Podcast of: A Shout-Out to My Favorite Niece, Britney has a Good and Bad Day, and Go Cubs.

For this podcast The Dude on the Right gives a couple of shout-outs, but mostly ponders about Britney Spears and her highs and lows. He also gives her some advice, namely to move out of the TMZ. He also mentions that in Chicago a sport’s weekend of all sport’s weekends is coming up.

A Shout-Out to My Favorite Niece, Britney has a Good and Bad Day, and Go Cubs.

By:

The Dude on the Right
First off a big shout-out to my favorite niece, and a get-well shout-out to her
friend start

this podcast. Mostly, though, it is about Britney Spears who seemed to have
a day that started with great news, and then ended with a Judge saying Kevin
Federline might still be the better parent. My advice for Brit: Move out of the
TMZ to someplace where you can actually be a mom and still focus on your career.
Look at Bruce Springsteen – He’s supposedly a great dad and lives in New Jersey,
or Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, living wherever they live, yet all of their
careers don’t stop.

But this weekend, at least in Chicago, is about the
Chicago Cubs beating the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Chicago Bears beating the
Green Bay Packers, and hopefully no Chicago Cubs fans beating up runners during
the Chicago Marathon.

Thanks for listening.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Download and Listen

Subscribe Here

Dear MLB, TBS, and Whomever Else, I didn’t want to watch the Chicago Cubs anyway!

By:

The Dude on the Right
Dear Major League Baseball, The Chicago Cubs, TBS, and whomever else set the TV
schedule for the upcoming baseball Divisional Series,

Thank you!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
And let me write it again – Thank you!

I would like to thank you for scheduling the first two Cubs games for the
Divisional Series at a time when there is pretty much no way in hell I’m going
to watch, and even more importantly at this stage of my Fall TV season, I won’t
miss any of my old favorite, nor new favorite TV shows. Yup, you scheduled the
first two games on Wednesday and Thursday nights, to start at 9PM CDT. Sure,
first pitch is supposed to be at 9:07ish PM, or so someone said on the radio
this morning (and out of sheer curiosity I might try to sneak and see when that
first pitch actually gets thrown tomorrow night, probably during a commercial
break of a new episode of "South Park"), but even in the best of chances it
would be a major miracle for the games to finish by 11PM, and even a minor
miracle for them to finish by Midnight. As much as I love the Cubs I don’t have
the late nights available for these two games unless I wanted to be a zombie at
my morning meetings on Thursday and Friday, and besides, if the Cubs do win both
games, the game that really matters will be at 5PM on Saturday evening, where
hopefully the Cubs will clinch their series at The Friendly Confines of Wrigley
Field!

Also, with those games not starting until after 9PM, I’ll have no conflict
with my normal slate of Wednesday nor Thursday night TV viewing and TiVoing.
I’ll have no worries of missing "Bionic Woman," "Survivor," "My Name is Earl" &
"Smallville" (both on TiVo delay), "30 Rock," and anything else coming along
those two nights.

And sure, as a transplanted North Coast resident (Lorain, OH – Represent!), I
am also cheering on the Cleveland Indians, but my mom pretty much figures the
New York Yankees already have that series wrapped up, so I figure why bother
watching. Even so, their games are actually early enough they have the potential
to be over by my TV time anyway.

So, again, baseball and TV folks, Thank you! I didn’t want to watch the
Chicago Cubs anyway!

Sincerely,
The Dude on the Right

And that’s it for this one!
I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

What’s New? A Podcast of: Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up! “The Big Bang Theory” and More TV, The Cubs and More Sports, and eBay Dummies.

For this podcast of Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up!, The Dude on the Right and Stu Gotz get into the fall TV season, both liking the new show “The Big Bang Theory” yet wondering if most of America will get it. Stu tells of his weeping at the passing of Flower on “Meerkat Manor,” and The Dude lets Stu know if he should go to the theater and see “The Kingdom.” They both have more TV talk, chat a bit about the Chicago Bears and Chicago Cubs, and The Dude tells Stu about a “not so happy” birthday for a Mom.