This morning I was sitting there thinking what in the world is wrong with the Vols this year as I was flipping through a Star Wars magazine. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks: Every year a Star Wars movie comes out, the Vols suck. So I found the Vols' records in years that Star Wars movies came out and here is what I discovered Tennessee's record to be in those years:
1977 Star Wars, A New Hope (4-7)
1980 Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back (5-6)
1983 Star Wars, Return of the Jedi (9-3)
1999 Star Wars, The Phantom Menace (9-3)
2002 Star Wars, Attack of the Clones (8-5)
2005 Star Wars, Revenge of the Sith (5-6)
2008 Star Wars, Clone Wars (2-4 so far)
With the exception of 1983 and 1999 UT had 5 or more losses in each of those years including the 3 of the Vols' worst 4 years since 1977. Tennessee had 4 of its 9 5-loss seasons during these years. UT had only one other losing season since 1977 (5-6 in 1988) and one .500 season in that time. UT's winning percentage during Star Wars years was 55% during all other years since 1977 is 72%. In addition, a 9-3 campaign in 1999 was considered a major disappointment following a 13-0 national championship season. The 1983 season was the only truly successful season during that stretch following a 6-5-1 season.
Considering the success of Tennessee football over the years to have 7 years randomly chosen for a particular movie series coming out and performing poorly in all but one of those years (1983) is interesting to examine. Of course this brings up a real issue for me since I'm a huge fan of both Star Wars and UT football. Fortunately for the Vols, it looks like there won't be another Star Wars movie coming out in the forseeable future. Maybe the Vols will come back from the Star Wars universe and play football in the years to come...May the Force be with them?
Monday, October 13, 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
Global Warming...the Ultimate Scam
I'm getting really tired of this Go Green, Climate Change, Global Warming crap. This whole global warming thing is based on lies to make money. For instance, one of the biggest lies is the warming part. For those of you who didn't know, NASA quietly revised some temperature data down. In reality we have been in a state of cooling over the last several years. Not to mention that the temperature studies have been tainted by the placement of thermometers near hot objects to increase their readings. Interestingly enough, a few years ago Al Gore outfitted his house to be more green and a funny thing happened. Recently, it was released that the Gore estate used 10 % MORE energy after changing to more green things like lightbulbs, etc. Kind of funny isn't it.
The whole climate deal is basically run by communists who failed at that endeavor and decided to focus their energy on using environmental causes to distribute wealth. Think of this: Oil prices go up from limited supplies, oil companies make record profits (nevermind that their profit margins are declining), Congress decides to tax their "windfall profits", then the goverment and environmentalists get the oil companies' hard earned cash. Not to mention that the price of oil keeps rising because the oil companies will have to pass the cost of additional taxes on to the consumer. It is an endless cycle that can only be stopped by ceasing government intervention and letting the free market take over.
Now I'm not saying that we don't need to watch our pollution, litter, waste or anything like that. We should be good stewards of what God has given us. However, I believe that it is impossible for man to destroy the planet. Now we might destroy ourselves, but that's another issue for another time. But the only way we could actually destroy the planet is to build something with the firepower of the Death Star and blow the earth into tiny pieces. Let's face it, the technology isn't there, and probably will never be there. Although the idea of a real Death Star is kind of cool, but I digress. For all intents and purposes, Global Warming is just a scam to redistribute wealth around the world.
The whole climate deal is basically run by communists who failed at that endeavor and decided to focus their energy on using environmental causes to distribute wealth. Think of this: Oil prices go up from limited supplies, oil companies make record profits (nevermind that their profit margins are declining), Congress decides to tax their "windfall profits", then the goverment and environmentalists get the oil companies' hard earned cash. Not to mention that the price of oil keeps rising because the oil companies will have to pass the cost of additional taxes on to the consumer. It is an endless cycle that can only be stopped by ceasing government intervention and letting the free market take over.
Now I'm not saying that we don't need to watch our pollution, litter, waste or anything like that. We should be good stewards of what God has given us. However, I believe that it is impossible for man to destroy the planet. Now we might destroy ourselves, but that's another issue for another time. But the only way we could actually destroy the planet is to build something with the firepower of the Death Star and blow the earth into tiny pieces. Let's face it, the technology isn't there, and probably will never be there. Although the idea of a real Death Star is kind of cool, but I digress. For all intents and purposes, Global Warming is just a scam to redistribute wealth around the world.
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Old Knoxville...Theater Stlye
My friend Phil has inspired me with his blog to write about some of Knoxville's places of the past. So here are some random thoughts about former movie theaters in the Knoxville area.
When I was a kid one of the places that I would occasionally visit was the theater at West Town Mall. Now I'm not talking about the nice theater that's in the mall now, I'm talking about the one that was out in the parking lot on Kingston Pike. It was kind of a round building with two screens. When you walked in you either went to the left or the right depending on the movie you were watching. I remember going here as a kid and watching Star Wars! It was awesome and molded my life in ways that I could have never imagined.
The Powell Cinema was another place that I went as a child. This theater opened up in the late 70s or early 80s. I remember going to the 10am movies that they would show for kids there during the summer. They stopped showing movies for a while here in the late 80s. Then it went through a revitalization and showed movies in the early 90s. It was finally destroyed in the late 90s/early 00s and replace with a KARM store. The last movie that I saw there was Basic Instinct. Yes that is correct, Basic Instinct.
Another theatrical relic of the past was the Kingston 4 down on Kingston Pike (how original). It was actually pretty close to the Downtown West theater. This is another one of those places that showed the 10am summer movies for kids. The first movie that I ever saw was here when I saw Gulliver's Travels. One of my favorite horror movies (more like a comedy though) was viewed in this facility - Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3. When I was in high school we had one of our mom's drop us off here to watch that movie on the last day of school. We all loved the one liners in the movie, and continually repeated them. Now this theater is a flat piece of concrete.
Out at East Town there use to be a theater in the Home Depot shopping center. Its hey day was in the late 90s. I remember waiting in line there to watch the Star Wars Special Editions. It was awesome. One day Jared and I went to ANH, ESB, and ROTJ in the same day. However, we had to go to Downtown West for ESB because one theater couldn't have them all. This theater was closed in the early 00s and was destroyed.
The Commons Six on North Peters was another theater that no longer exists. I was surprised when this theater was destroyed in the early 00s. It was really nice in a good spot. Although, the Wynnsong was on the horizon. The Commons Six location has a nice Dick's Sporting Goods in its place.
Finally, there was the Drive-In/regular theater over on Clinton Highway. I can't remember the name of it, but I remember going there. I remember going to movies with daycare during the summer. The most noteable movies were Red Dawn and The Last Starfighter. These were shown in the conventional theater. I saw one movie in its entirety at the Drive-In, and it was John Candy's Summer Rental. A classic tale of the vacation from hell. One other interesting memory of the place was them showing XXX movies. I remember as a kid we would drive by going to a friend's house and you could catch a glimpse of the screen driving by. This was my first experience with movie nudity. Of course when you're 6 or 7 years old, you don't know what the heck you're looking at on the screen. Later in life I figured it out though ;-) This theater is now a Wal-Mart shopping center.
Many theaters have gone away over the years in the Knoxville area, but if you want to relive the nostalgia, take a day trip to Campbell County and go to the theater up there. No digital sound, no surround sound, no stadium seating, and no high prices for first run movies. Ahhh....the good old days....
When I was a kid one of the places that I would occasionally visit was the theater at West Town Mall. Now I'm not talking about the nice theater that's in the mall now, I'm talking about the one that was out in the parking lot on Kingston Pike. It was kind of a round building with two screens. When you walked in you either went to the left or the right depending on the movie you were watching. I remember going here as a kid and watching Star Wars! It was awesome and molded my life in ways that I could have never imagined.
The Powell Cinema was another place that I went as a child. This theater opened up in the late 70s or early 80s. I remember going to the 10am movies that they would show for kids there during the summer. They stopped showing movies for a while here in the late 80s. Then it went through a revitalization and showed movies in the early 90s. It was finally destroyed in the late 90s/early 00s and replace with a KARM store. The last movie that I saw there was Basic Instinct. Yes that is correct, Basic Instinct.
Another theatrical relic of the past was the Kingston 4 down on Kingston Pike (how original). It was actually pretty close to the Downtown West theater. This is another one of those places that showed the 10am summer movies for kids. The first movie that I ever saw was here when I saw Gulliver's Travels. One of my favorite horror movies (more like a comedy though) was viewed in this facility - Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3. When I was in high school we had one of our mom's drop us off here to watch that movie on the last day of school. We all loved the one liners in the movie, and continually repeated them. Now this theater is a flat piece of concrete.
Out at East Town there use to be a theater in the Home Depot shopping center. Its hey day was in the late 90s. I remember waiting in line there to watch the Star Wars Special Editions. It was awesome. One day Jared and I went to ANH, ESB, and ROTJ in the same day. However, we had to go to Downtown West for ESB because one theater couldn't have them all. This theater was closed in the early 00s and was destroyed.
The Commons Six on North Peters was another theater that no longer exists. I was surprised when this theater was destroyed in the early 00s. It was really nice in a good spot. Although, the Wynnsong was on the horizon. The Commons Six location has a nice Dick's Sporting Goods in its place.
Finally, there was the Drive-In/regular theater over on Clinton Highway. I can't remember the name of it, but I remember going there. I remember going to movies with daycare during the summer. The most noteable movies were Red Dawn and The Last Starfighter. These were shown in the conventional theater. I saw one movie in its entirety at the Drive-In, and it was John Candy's Summer Rental. A classic tale of the vacation from hell. One other interesting memory of the place was them showing XXX movies. I remember as a kid we would drive by going to a friend's house and you could catch a glimpse of the screen driving by. This was my first experience with movie nudity. Of course when you're 6 or 7 years old, you don't know what the heck you're looking at on the screen. Later in life I figured it out though ;-) This theater is now a Wal-Mart shopping center.
Many theaters have gone away over the years in the Knoxville area, but if you want to relive the nostalgia, take a day trip to Campbell County and go to the theater up there. No digital sound, no surround sound, no stadium seating, and no high prices for first run movies. Ahhh....the good old days....
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