Marvel Studios owns this summer

(weird, I'm blogging again....)

Marvel already scored a big victory in my book this summer with Thor, and it looks like they're stepping their game up even more with Captain America (judging by this latest trailer). I can't even wrap my head around the combined on-screen presence of Cap, Thor, Iron Man, and friends in next summer's Avengers movie. Anyways, check out the new Cap trailer released last night.

If that doesn't get you amped for this movie.... you might be dead inside.

Don't count on me blogging being a regular thing. I'm openly in-consistant with my motivation to do so... but hey, I have Twitter! Follow @jakeholla if you're more prone to enjoy things of the 140-characters-or-less variety.

return from hiatus (with a VIDEO)

music piracy... the savior of music?

I came across this video this morning. British singer Joss Stone had some interesting points about music piracy during an interview. Give it a look... the clip is under a minute and a half, so no worries about watching some lengthy blahblahblah session.



What do you think? Is music piracy a good thing? Should music be openly shared, for the sake of spreading the joy of songs by artists that you really enjoy?

oh, nostalgia

As I sat on the floor of my room last night... staring up at the clothes, bags, and boxes of stuff that needed to be packed for my return to Lynchburg today... I had a sudden urge to dig through some other boxes.

The boxes under my bed.

The boxes full of my old toys & collections from my childhood.

The 2 boxes, in particular, that hadn't been dusted off and opened up in years.

A good chunk of my childhood was practically defined by the contents of those boxes.

L E G O S

I should have finished packing and gotten some sleep, but I found myself ignoring the clock... digging through the countless little blocks and dismembered Lego people. It was surreal. I was so enthralled in this re-discovery that I took the time to dig out every single Lego man, woman, shark, and horse so they could be set aside and bagged together. Most were mix & matched (like a pirate with an Aztec shield, knight's sword, and an astronaut helmet), but one particular little guy was left in his original get-up.

None other than Robin Hood. Seeing that single Lego character took me right back to those carefree days... spending hours just building the most imaginative bases, castles, and island hide-outs. Lego Robin Hood was my go-to guy when I wanted to play Legos and fight off the evil pirates, their pet sharks, and who knows what else. It was quite the moment finding him buried amidst all the jumbled chaos.

Anyways, I snapped out of it and realized it was almost 4:30 am (yes, I know... ridiculous) and quickly cleaned up, and re-situated all the boxes back under my bed. I stuck Lego Robin Hood up on my shelf amidst other memorable trinkets, and then got back to the original task at hand of packing for my trip.

Ever had a powerful moment of nostalgia like that, that suddenly took presedence over whatever you were doing at the time?

*I apologize often for slacking on my blog-upkeep... so I'll just simply say thanks to anybody that has stuck around. Until next post!*

Merry Christmas (Eve)!

I wish I had used this as a Christmas card, to mail out to loved ones

weird Christmas facts

Stumbled upon these while searching for Christmas traditions... too good not to post:

Weird Christmas Facts:

• Based on a 1999 estimated population count of North America and Europe, on Christmas Eve of that year Santa Claus had to visit 42,466,666 homes in a 12-hour period — that’s 983 homes per second.
• Kris Kringel, a man in his 40s, lives in North Pole, Alaska, and delivers pizzas for a living. He drives a 1984 Ford Tempo.
• A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard.
• 1 in 6 men would like to get rid of all the “gift-giving nonsense.”
• 1 in 3 men will wait until Christmas Eve to finish their shopping.
• 56 percent of Americans sing holiday carols to their pets.
• Christmas pudding should be stirred from east to west.
• Saint Nicholas of Myra, the original Santa Claus, was the patron saint of children, thieves and pawnbrokers.

And to think... all this time I've been stirring my Christmas pudding from west to east. So foolish!

from greatness to WHOA... WHAT?!?

And by that ("that"... as in: the title of this particular post) I'm referring to... Twitter.

I haven't always thought very highly of Twitter. Come to think of it... I used to think it was just about the most pointless, invasive, and downright stupid trend to hit the 'net. Quick nonsensical posts about what you're doing, limited to 140 characters? Count me out, cap'n. And yet here I am today, with well over 7,000 tweets under my belt. I don't particularly remember what nudged me towards ever signing up, but whatever that reason was... I am very thankful to have jumped on board the Twitter train.

Why, you ask?

Is it the fact that I can share my random thoughts, that I often think are hilarious... but only sometimes get a reaction? Or the contests and exclusive offers sent out to followers of various bands, companies, celebrities, etc? Or maybe even being extremely up-to-date with what is happening in the world, like when someone famous dies and every single person I follow has something to say about it?

Sure, every one of those reasons definitely factors into my enjoyment of having a Twitter account... but the reason my experience has suddenly gone from "greatness" to "WHOA... WHAT?!?" is simply this :

Jon Favreau responded to my tweet.

AND he re-posted two... count them, TWO, pictures that I sent to him that pertained to the movie Elf.

*for those in need of being informed : Favreau is the director of Elf, Iron Man 1 & 2, the upcoming Cowboys & Aliens, and much more. He also had roles in Elf, Iron Man 1 & 2, Swingers, Couple's Retreat,  I Love You Man, Deep Impact etc etc.

as Happy Hogan in Iron Man 2, carrying the briefcase suit o' armor

I sent him 2 pictures of some of the decorations we here @ LU's Student Activities made for our Elf-themed Christmas talent exhibition, and a cake one of my fellow staffers made of the narwhal from the movie, and he dug them enough to respond and re-post to his profile for all his thousands of followers to see. Thaaaaat is just plain cool. It definitely made the show we organized seem SO much more legit, in my eyes, knowing that the director himself was aware of what we were doing... and approved.

Yes, it's a bit trivial & ridiculous... but I'm a movie geek, and I was super amped to have even the smallest interaction with a director that I really admire.

I don't know how many of YOU are avid Twitter users... but feel free to share any crazy stories involving Twitter, whether it's like mine... or if it resulted in something happening outside of the internet, even!