ThinkingSkull.com

Not that this would be a problem for anyone, but Jessica Alba wants you to stare at her. In fact, she challenges you to do so! She absolutely DEMANDS that you stare… until one of you blinks, that is. In what may be the dumbest idea ever for an Internet publicity stunt, it doesn’t seem crazy or calculated at all when proposed by Ms. Alba. Check out her challenge at celebrity.myspace.com and remember, if you can’t find a reason to out stare Jessica Alba, you’d better be blind, in a doctor’s care, or seriously playing for the other team. Good luck!

Interestingly, if you’ve ever wondered whether or not a MySpace page was really a celebrity or not, I’d say this is a pretty good way to prove it. Golly, I hope she approves my “friend” request… tee hee!

These are the initial descriptions of a couple panels I’m going to run at a local convention. Did I miss anything?

Occult Television Showdown - Who’s better at investigating ghouls, Sam and Dean or Mulder and Scully? Who’s a better villain, Yellow-Eyes’ Demon Army or Wolfram & Hart? Who’s better at helping the dead, Medium or Ghostwhisperer? And why wasn’t anyone watching The Dresden Files? Brought to you by MovieCrypt.com and hosted by Kevin A. Ranson.

Where Has All the Good Sci-Fi TV Gone (and What Can We Do to Fix It?) - Battlestar Galactica is heading into its last season, and Journeyman failed to get picked up. Jericho is down to its last seven episodes and Stargate: Atlantis is idling. Flash Gordon inexplicably gets a full season while Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles may be our best, last hope for television science fiction. And why is wrestling on the Sci-Fi channel?! Brought to you by MovieCrypt.com and hosted by Kevin A. Ranson.

Battlestar Galactica Panel - Did the original series do anything right other than inspire a better clone of itself? When the Galactica reaches Earth, when will it reach it: now, the past, or the future? Were all the tall people killed off in the initial attack? Brought to you by MovieCrypt.com and hosted by Kevin A. Ranson.

Running You Own Fansite - How do you get started on the web? What do you talk about? How do you get yourself out there? Will joining an organization of like-minded fans benefit or hinder you? Is there any way to actually make any money off any of this? Brought to you by MovieCrypt.com and hosted by Kevin A. Ranson.

Why are producers having such a hard time casting the new Bond Babe/Villain in their new film? Just go into any “Sephora” Make-Up Store, pick out a cutie, and they’re already dressed like supervillains at no extra charge (all black, tight-collars with that lithe-yet-evil silver ‘S’ symbol). Who needs SPECTRE when women everywhere give you money to look beautiful? And the rest of the store’s staff can be her Minions…!

“The Chronicles of Riddick” has really been the only blockbuster advertised for this summer I’ve actually been looking forward to. Everything else is already proven material or has a built-in audience, but “Chronicles” offers a new trend: character continuation without the standard sequel rehash.

Of course, this is always a risk. From the Hollywood Studio Playbook, a sequel should be exactly the same, only bigger and more expensive. The formula is usually %125 more expensive and %75 of the original’s take, which is why a third film is usually fodder pushing the “Why, God, why?” boundary.

But when the original is several years old and was a low-budget cult hit to begin with, you have the makings of another “Terminator” or “Alien” franchise as long there’s a fresh approach to the entire production. It may also be important that the stars have aligned, Venus is passing in front of the sun, “Garfield the Movie” will likely tank, the critics hate every frame of the film, and former President Reagan has already been mourned this week.

It isn’t much, and I’m not one for big birthday hooplas. But five years ago TODAY, I purchased the domain for MovieCrypt.com and moved in a year’s worth of reviews. The site is currently on its fifth incarnation (as I grow bored looking at the same thing and start thinking up ways to tweak and streamline the code).

It’s not the biggest movie review website, but as time goes by, it is fast becoming one of the oldest. In a time when search engines are paid to move ads to the tops of lists, any search with “Movie” & “Crypt” all point to (in the words of CHUD.com) “The only horror site on the web run by undead hellions.”

That we are, five years strong. Here’s to the next five!