Amazon discontinued the ability to create images using their SiteStripe feature and in their infinite wisdom broke all previously created images on 12/31/23. Many blogs used this feature, including this one. Expect my archives to be a hot mess of broken book cover images until I can slowly comb through 20 years of archives to make corrections.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Keepers, Bloggers, Repair Men And The A-Team

I'm thinking that this will be the week where I finally get my sea legs back from all the holiday madness. Things seem to be settling back into a routine now. Of course this doesn't mean my thoughts are any less cluttered. Here's the latest rattling around in my brain. (Scary, I know)

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First up, for you observant types who may have scrolled down my blog's sidebar this weekend, yes, I have cataloged and added a widget for the Bat Cave Keeper Stash. Gotta say, it's more books than I thought - with the total clocking in at 74. Now granted, not every book I've kept over the years is a bonafide Grade A read for yours truly. I "keep" books for various reasons. Maybe it's a favorite author and I have an autographed copy? Or in the case of Nevada Nights by Ruth Ryan Langan, it's an autographed copy of the first romance novel I ever read. Not one I would recommend to readers, but yeah - I kept it because I'm a Nostalgia Ho.

If you're curious, and have time to kill - you can see my whole list of Kept Books here.

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The So. Cal. Bloggers got together on Saturday and we hit a couple of used bookstores in Renee's neck of the wood. I came home with a small, but healthy pile of new additions to the Bat Cave TBR. I stole some books from Lori - who is, I'm convinced, my Category Reading Ho Twin separated at birth. We agree so often on Harlequins, it's kinda scary. Notable additions from the bookstores include a copy of Joe's Wife by Cheryl St. John, which I wanted to replace since I got rid of my copy years ago. I also picked up a couple of books by Julia Justiss and Jessica Hart - two authors I "discovered" last year and wanted to read more of.

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The Bat Cave has been overrun with repair men the last couple of weeks. Some of you may recall that we had a small computer meltdown before Christmas. I finally threw up my hands and called in a professional. The good news? I did a great job of cleaning up the computer on my own - so all the icky viruses were gone. The bad news? We were dangerously low on memory. It cost a chunk of change to have the geek come out and upgrade us, but damn - worth every penny.

Then Our Wubby started acting up. This would be our living room TV. Thank goodness we bought the service plan, although turns out the darn thing was still under warranty. According to our repair guy, it was just our dumb luck to have a part go bad. He was in my living room 15 minutes, replaced the part, good as new.

The lesson here? Kids, if college ain't for you - seriously think of going into repair work. Dumb ass people like me will always need plumbers, electricians and people to fix their electronics and we're willing to pay just short of highway robbery to have someone do it for us. Oh, who am I kidding? Sometimes we'll even pay highway robbery.

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When I first heard they were making a movie version of the cheesy 1980s TV show The A-Team I rolled my eyes. I loved that show as a kid, but admittedly it had plot holes you could drive a truck through. These guys are wanted by the federal government? Yet they drive around in a tricked-out conversion van with a big scary dude rockin' a mohawk and enough gold chains to feed a third world country for a year. Yeah, way to remain inconspicuous. And in the immortal words of my Lil' Sis: "I love how everyday people can always seem to find them when they need help. Is The A-Team in the phone book?"

Hardy har har.

Anyway, the trailer leaked last week and it's now officially up over at YouTube. Gotta say, this looks like it's not going to totally suck. I couldn't really see Liam Neeson as Hannibal (I can now) and was totally flummoxed on ideas for who would play the Mr. T character. Turns out they went to the UFC and got Quinton "Rampage" Jackson - who definitely looks the part. But the best bit of news?

Bradley Cooper as Faceman. Seriously. Best casting ever.



We've got the tricked out van, stuff blowing up and Bradley Cooper shirtless. That's really enough for me. And why yes? I really am this shallow. Thanks for asking.

23 comments:

KT Grant said...

Oh yes, Cooper shirtless did it for me also :)

When I heard the A-Team theme music I felt like I was 9 years old all over again.

AnimeJune said...

My keeper shelf is pretty much any book that gets a B and up for me, but I may clean house if I need more shelf space - or if I want money to buy more books!

A-Team - never saw the show, but the trailer looks like the machoist, most testosterone-drenched thing I've ever seen. Firing a machine gun from a tank floating a parachute? Kick ass!

As for casting - don't forget District 9's Sharlto Copley as Murdoch!

Lynette said...

I didn't know there was a new A-Team coming out. I'm so in. I used to watch the A-Team every week. Even with the camp. Loved them and the trailer looks good.

Kay Webb Harrison said...

Dear Wendy,

You piqued my curiosity about who would play Murdock, my favorite A-Team character. I made a detour to IMDB to check that out and was thrilled to see that it is Sharlto Copley, who did such a wonderful job in District 9! After that, I came back to comment and saw AnimeJune's post. Murdock seemed to be speaking with a Southern
U. S. accent in the trailer, don't you think?

By the way, The A-Team was one of my sons' favorite TV shows. I just watched to supervise their viewing [LOL].

Kay

Lori said...

I was SOOOOO in love with Dirk Benedict, ever since Battlestar Galactica. Bradley Cooper is, indeed great casting.

And I'm laughing, because I'm always surprised at how many categories I read. It never seems like that many until I go to put them all in a box/bag for our bookswaps.

Renee said...

Oh, it was so much fun on Saturday! I only bought 1 book in the end, but loved all the book talk. I've been meaning to post about it, but am so behind on my stuff.

OK, so I think I was a little too old to dig the A-Team the first time around, but BC shirtless would make me a fan for the re-make! (Loved him in the Hangover.)

Wendy said...

Katie: One of the catchiest damn theme songs of all time. That one and Dallas are serious ear-worms for me.

AnimeJune & Kay: My sister asked me this weekend "Who plays Murdoch?" and I said, "Some unknown." I didn't recognize him as the guy from District 9 - which admittedly I sort of half watched when My Man rented it a couple of weeks ago.

Lynette: When I first heard about the movie remake I'll admit my hopes were not high. But the trailer kinda surprised me. It's not going to be high art - but it looks like it may be fun.

Lori: According to IMDB, Benedict is in the movie - I'm assuming a cameo of some sort?

Wendy said...

Renee: I was pretty reserved this weekend on the book buying as well. Most of what I "want" right now is brand, brand new - and I'm overdue for either a Borders run or Amazon order.

Victoria Janssen said...

So which one ARE the ones you recommend?

Wendy said...

Victoria: Honestly? Pretty much all of them. The only real exceptions are the Ruth Ryan Langan - and that's mostly because it's one of her VERY early books and it's from the 1980s. So it's dated with all those classic 1980s tropes - even though it's a historical western.

Also, Thea Devine. I mean, I adore that woman because she is my crack - but I'm well aware of the fact that she's my crack and I don't go gushing endlessly about how EVERYONE should read her books. Although if you want to know why Devine is my crack - read Desired. Mmmm, Mmmmm, crackalicious :)

Sayuri said...

OMG! WHen I was at school we used to do this county wide dance competitions and each year the primary 5's from our school would enter and when it was our turn we did our dance to the A-team theme music! LOLOL! Awesome.

You know even if this film is really bad and cheesy I'm gonna love it. I'll simply float along on a tide of nostalgia (and bradley Coopers bare chest...le sigh)

And luckily, because I have an e-reader and have moved to mostly electronical means of reading, evey book is a keeper now!

JamiSings said...

I'm upset about the A-Team movie. Because to me there is only ONE HM "Howling Mad" Murdoch. I would've gotten the surviving cast together, having them start out at Hannibal's grave where they find out he had a daughter (played by me) who'd take over the team. Sparks fly when they catch her in bed with Murdoch of course. (Which is why I'd be playing Hannibal's daughter. LOL)

Kristie (J) said...

I was wondering how to get into your keeper list!! I've been looking at it, on the sidebar but the books come up randomly and the move so slow I never had the patience to sit and wait for them all. Although we aren't reading twins, there are quite a few in there that are on my keeper list too, certainly MANY of the Westerns. Speaking of which - I'm starting to go squirrly looking for Sullivan!! I KNOW it's in the house somewhere - but do you think I can find it??? GRRRRRR

Wendy said...

Sayuri: Is it just me or are TV theme songs just so unmemorable these days? They lack the ear-worm quality of yesteryear.

Jami: LOL - you naughty girl!

Kristie: Yeah, I know. It dumps you into my ENTIRE collection of cataloged books at LibraryThing - not just the "favorites." I've tried tinkering with the widget code, but obviously I'm too dense to figure it out. I'm going to just have to add a separate link I think.

And find Sullivan woman! Do not get distracted. Do nothing else. He wants to be found!

nath said...

Plumbers, electricians and those kind of jobs do seriously pay well :D

Lucky having another meet!! :D

and yay for your computer!!

~ames~ said...

Was totally clueless about the A-Team remake. Thanks for posting that trailer! And Bradley Cooper...oh la la!

Marg said...

The music totally brings it back doesn't it! I am not totally convinced on Liam Neeson (doesn't quite sound right when he says I love it when a plan comes together), but I do have to say that this looks a damn sight better than the other remake trailer I saw recently. That was for The Karate Kid...and looked terrible!

sula said...

zomg, an A-team movie?!?!??! Does that theme song bring back memories. lolol. Face, Murdoch, Mr. T, Hannibal, annnnnd that annoying girl. What fun!

Wendy said...

Nath: My Man is fairly handy, but he doesn't do computers or anything electrical. Which means I still find myself shelling out the bucks to have people come fix stuff for me.

Ames: I was glad to finally see a trailer. They released a publicity photo online several months ago and I was intrigued.

Marg: I know! A Karate Kid remake? Dear Lord, why?!?!?!? Although I'm sure some suit here in L.A. is banking on little boys all over the world dragging their parents to see it.

Sula: And we have an annoying girl in the movie. Jessica Biel. Oh well. Maybe Bradley Cooper's naked torso will short-circuit my brain cells and it will be easier for me to ignore her.

Marg said...

I am hoping that my little boy (well, he's not so little anymore but still) doesn't want to go and see it.

Big Sis said...

I am sooooo going to see this with Dad.

Wendy said...

Big Sis: Hell, I'm tempted to come home in June so I can see it with Dad :)

JamiSings said...

What can I say, Wendy? There's something about that crazy pilot.

Besides, unlike Face, you know Murdoch would be true to you. Whereas with Face, I'd be going to the clinic once a week to get tested.