Whether it be campfire tales, ghost stories, or just superstitions shared by your grandparents, I believe all of us have experienced the bone-chilling fear of hearing a tale that scared us to the core.

Mine, strangely enough, was an elementary school assignment.  This is an American folktale not many have heard of, so in true folktale manner, I will relate the story in my own words.  If you have family near, read aloud, or print this and take it with you on your camping trip.

The Yellow Ribbon

Once upon a time there was a man who dreamed of meeting his perfect mate and prayed to the heavens she would cure his broken heart. One day, he met such a woman. From her radiant skin, to her crimson hair, to the yellow ribbon she wore around her neck, she was perfection personified. She seemed to adore him just as much as he did her. He sometimes would ask her why she wore the yellow ribbon around her neck and she would always change the subject. He decided he did not care, if she liked the yellow ribbon, she could wear it for the rest of their lives, it did not bother him.

When he asked for her hand in marriage, he did it in the most romantic way he knew how.  He drove her up to lover’s lane, held her hand, and as they stargazed, he asked her to marry him. She said, “I will marry you on one condition. Never ask me again about the yellow ribbon.” This seemed like a simple request to him and they set a date.

However, as the wedding drew near, he began to wonder why she would not take the ribbon off, even on her wedding day. Perhaps she loved the ribbon more than him! Though he did not ask her about the ribbon, the subject began to infect their relationship. He thought about it day and night. He began to hate to look at her because the ribbon seemed to be on her neck precisely to mock him.

On their wedding day, as the priest said, “You may kiss the bride.” The man saw his chance. As his wife closed her eyes and puckered her lips, waiting for the heavenly kiss from the man she adored, he pulled the ribbon end. His new wife’s head fell off and rolled down the street. The End.

According to AmericanFolklore.com, this was a tale originally from Wisconsin. Read the tale of The Yellow Ribbon and many more American folk tales at: http://www.americanfollore.com and celebrate this Independence Day Weekend by telling a spooky folk tale of your own.

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On this week’s show we continue the discussion of Wizards First Rule Chapters 9 – 12

News/Comments:

• Don’t forget to tune into the live show on Saturday and join in on the discussion.
• Join in the forum discussion of Wizards First Rule Chapters Ch 13-16 at Project: Shadow
• Next week we will discuss Ch 13-16.

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• Stargate Atlantis: The Complete Fifth Season:  Love this show, wished it lasted more then five seasons but now all of it is out on DVD, time to complete the series.  A must own.  If for some reason you haven’t watched this show yet there are some episodes of season five streaming live online here.
• Eureka: Season 3.0:  Another great show and season three they really got good.  I love that I can get the first half of season 3 on DVD, just in time for the second half to air.  Down side, it’s only half of a season and if I wanted an incomplete season I would already own it through iTunes.
• Transmorphers: Fall of Man:  I have not watched this one yet but every time I see the name I giggle because it’s like the Gobots to the Transformers movie.  But with Bruce Boxleitner in it I will eventually have to watch it.
• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li:  This one goes on the rent list.  I didn’t get to watch it in the theaters and the reviews were mixed but I like Street Fighter and the previews looks interesting.

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On this week’s show we continue the discussion of Wizards First Rule Chapters 13-16.

News/Comments:

• Join in the forum discussion of Wizards First Rule Chapters Ch 13-16 at Project: Shadow
• Next week we will discuss Ch 17-20.

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• Lestat ~ I Want More

Most of the musical sucks (and not in a good way) but it’s all worth it for this one song.  This youtube version is cut with video from Interview with the Vampire.

• Dance of the Vampires ~the whole soundtrack

http://www.danceofthevampires.com

This is an excellent musical all about us horror addicts favorite subject! The all and mighty fang! What is cool is that you can download all the songs for FREE here: http://www.danceofthevampires.com/multimedia.html

My two favorite songs are:

Carpe Noctum – or Seize the Night.   This song is excellent on so many levels. The beginning is scary, then it launches into full orchestra instrumental, then it ends with a balladry kind of call to arms for the demons of the city. Not to be missed! This one is cut with video from our favorite cartoon villains.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa46GFQ3_qQ

Confessions of a Vampire.   An excellent, sad song about a vampire and his guilt over feeding. This version is a bit out of sync on the video. Better to close your eyes and listen. If you haven’t checked out this musical, you definitely need to.

• Romeo et Juliette, Russian production

Take a British playwright, have the French write a musical from his works and then get a Russian production cast? If that’s not weird enough, for some reason all of these videos, though they are an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette, have dark or vampire-like overtones. Check them out and see if you don’t agree.

Aimer

Les Rois du Monde

Who’s the guy with glowing eyes?

• Rock on Dracula fanboy!!

And lastly… for your amusement, the Dracula song from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”.

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I love the show Legend Of The Seeker and would like to see the show continue. I know the show has been given a second season but we need to act as though the show is in trouble before it is in trouble of being canceled. If you are a fan and have access to video footage(I am decabled and dont have access) start making some vids and promote the show. Lets increase the audience before that season two premiere.

Discus amongst yourselves on the original thread Calling all Vidders at Project: Shadow, or here.  Let’s get this done!

That is a really good idea. We have to do everything in our power to spread the word and Vids are a great way to do it.

Personally, I would love to see a Vidders guild where vidders can get together to share tips and tricks and take requests from untalented folk like me. Would you be interested in anything like that?

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Overall Rating: 9

When Merlin learns that a knight is using a magic shield to cheat at Camelot’s annual sword tournament, he must expose him before Arthur becomes the next night to die.  Watch the episode streaming online above.

Valiant is a fun episode and will be a lot of fun for fans of renaissance fairs and social combat.  I liked the sword tournament and watching Merlin try to figure out how to assemble Arthur’s armor.  The mystery and obstacles have a more Harry Potter feel to it which I enjoyed very much.

Merlin’s obstacles were not the typical ones found in fantasy stories and the solutions are not permitted to be standard by the setting.  It’s fun to watch a hero that can not directly stand against their obstacles and advisories instead they have to empower another to do it for them.  It creates a more symbiotic relationship between Merlin and Arthur and the situation encourages more creative solutions to the obstacles.

Likes

1. the courtly intrigue
2. the obstacles that are put in Merlin’s path and watching how he overcomes them.
3. the swordplay getting to see the game.

For more read Exploring: Merlin

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Merlin arrives in Camelot and learns that King Uther has forbidden magic, which is punishable by death — yet, it is magic he uses to save the life of Arthur, the king’s son.  Watch the episode streaming online above.

The Dragon’s call, the pilot show for Merlin is really well done.  It’s a great fantasy show and a well constructed pilot.  They did a wonderful job introducing thoroughly and succinctly the main character’s, establishing the setting and showing us the magic of the setting.  The writing is solid and a nice take on the Arthurian legends.

The look of Merlin is well done, I was particularly impressed with the castle used for Camelot.  The show starts out with a Camelot in the background and at first I thought ‘wow what a nice use of the mat painting effect.’  They zoom in and I was even more impressed because it still looks really nice.  Then they get up close and I realized it was not a mat painting effect but it was a real set or a real castle!  After watching a making of special I was pleased to find out that the castle is a real castle in France.  I very glad they used that for the setting because it adds so much to the believability to the show.

I really enjoyed how magic is handled in Merlin.  Fantasy shows turn me off when they claim to have magic but push for a realistic look by removing and muting most of the magic.  I’m also disappointed when a fantasy show goes so over the top with the magic that they undue the immaculate reality making it hard for me to get into the show.  In Merlin they struck a nice balance in the setting where there is magic, it occurs, it looks really nice but it is not over the top.

The characters are likeable, charming and show room for growth.  This is very promising for a pilot and I can’t wait to see what happens with Merlin, Morgana, Guinevere, Gaius, and Arthur.

Merlin is a must see for fantasy fans, and I would recommend it for everyone as well.  I look forward to watching future episodes of Merlin and am thrilled to know that the BBC are already working on the next season.

Likes

1. Very good job introducing the setting, characters, and rules.
2. The look of the magic
3. the set up for how magic works:  there are spells, enchantments and natural / elemental in nature.
4. Merlin character is likeable, charming, he has talent but unrefined, he has noble characteristics, and hot,
5. I like the shift in focus where Arthur is a spoiled noble ass and the focus is definitely shifted onto Merlin.
6. I love the introduction of Guwen with her watching from the window
7. very intrigued with Morgan and how she was set up
8. the witches spell rocked with her singing the song and stuff slowly changing
9. Merlin’s teacher being a physician / alchemist
10. the use of a real castle in France… i thought it was a matt painting effect and a really good one but they kept getting closer to the point where i realized it was a real castle.
11. good fantasy show
    1. two inept guards
    2. A Dragon
    3. the young adventurer in a new town picking fights without discerning who they are fighting with.
    4. lots of magic
    5. Sword play aka medieval weapon play daggers, morning star!!!, ect.

Dislikes / Concerns

1. the music is a little lighthearted at times when not necessarily appropriate like the fight scenes between Arthur and Merlin

For more read Exploring: Merlin

Don’t wait. Guarantee your seat before you go and  avoid a sold out show. Skip the box office lines and buy movie tickets at Fandango.com.

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Overall Rating: 10

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is everything I expected it to be… A giant robot action film and a rip roaring wild ride.  I particularly enjoyed how the story focused on the robots while Sam Witwicky’s story takes on the role of supporting story line.  The pacing is swift and the immaculate reality is maintained throughout the movie to the point that it feels like a short movie even though it runs for almost three hours.

The effects looks great, they continued and improved upon all of those wonderful little moving parts that thrilled us in the 2007 Transformers movie.  There are many intense fight scenes that not only featured the spectacle of the fight but also demonstrated style and strategy which gave more depth.

The Plot / Story: Decepticon forces return to Earth on a mission to take Sam Witwicky prisoner, after the young hero learns the truth about an energon source. Joining the mission to protect humankind is Optimus Prime, who forms an alliance with international armies for a second epic battle.

Likes

1. The story focuses on the robots not the people
2. The pacing is swift, follow able, and without sags
3. Maintains immaculate reality
4. The effects looks great
5. I really enjoyed the comedic antics from Wheelie and the twins: Mudflap and Skids
6. how the fight scenes also showed different fighting style and strategy
7. Some nice emotional twists
8. at several points in the story the writers avoided taking the obvious path with Sam’s Allspark shard.

Dislikes / Concerns

1. none, I really like this movie and will own it.

For more on Transformers Revenge of the Fallen:

• Theater or Renter: June 2009
• Best of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Videos
• Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Round Up
• Exploring: Transformers Revenge of the Fallen
• Transformers on dashPunk

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Star Wars.com added ‘Hunting the Hunters’ to their webcomic collection.  It covers events that occur between season one and season two of The Clone Wars.  Read it onlin here.

The reader  is a little tricky to use.  There is a fit to screen option that makes the text a little bit bigger but I still needed to zoom in to read some of the text… either a sign of my age or because I was on my laptop.  The other problem is that this story starts on page 170 so you have to flip through to the desired page waiting for all of the earlier pages to load slowing down the load time.

I wished they would have just followed other webcomic successes like Looking for Group and made each page a full page.  The reading of the comic would be a more enjoyable experience and I don’t mean like so enjoyable that one might not buy the comic when it is published but more enjoyable so that someone on the fence about Star Wars would stick around long enough to actually read the story.  Also by following that model they could have increased the load time since each page is by it’s self and Star Wars.com would have been able to get more add revenue from comic readers as we would have had adds showing up for each page we read.

Though the delivery could use improvement the 5 page read is still interesting.

(via Club Jade)

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