I am sad to report that a piece of Americana was destroyed by fire in Tulsa, Oklahoma today. The Admiral Twin Drive-In burned to the ground today in a huge blaze. Firefighters are still investigating the cause of the fire. It has been speculated that the electrical system may have been the cause. The was also a report that a small group of people were seen in the area shortly before the fire began. All of that is speculation and we will have to wait for investigators to make their final determination.

Here is actual video footage of the fire taken by someone who was on I-244 at the time of the fire. This video is posted on our Channel 2 NBC news affiliate’s web site at KJRH.com.

You might be asking me how The Admiral Twin Drive-In theater is a piece of Americana. Well let me explain. It originally opened in 1951 with a single screen as The Modernaire Drive-In. A year later they added on a second screen (back to back screens) and changed the name to The Admiral Twin Drive-In. The Admiral part of the name comes from its location just north of East Admiral Place here in Tulsa. It was/is one of the longest operating drive-ins in the country. Thousands of people drive past it each every day as they commute down I-244. All of this has made it an iconic landmark in Tulsa.

Of course all of that doesn’t really make it a piece of Americana now does it? What solidifies its place as a piece of Americana is that it was featured in the classic 1983 film The Outsiders which was filmed here in Tulsa. The nearly ten minute scene at The Admiral Twin Drive-In will be kept alive forever, even if they can’t rebuild. Here is the entire clip of the Drive-In scene. Unfortunately I couldn’t find it in one clip, so it is about the final four minutes of the first clip, and the first five and a half minutes of the second clip.

Admiral Twin Drive-In After the Fire

Blake Smith, a current co-owner of the Admiral Twin said that they don’t have fire insurance and are unsure if they will be able to rebuild.

Soon after hearing about the fire a company named Bigfoot Prints began selling “Save The Admiral Twin” t-shirts for $10 each. All of the profits from the shirts will be given to help rebuild the landmark. There is also a Facebook page which was previously setup to try and help keep the drive-in up and running. A few days ago it had about 25 fans. It now has nearly 10,000 fans as I type this. Save The Admiral Twin Drive-In Facebook Page

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The Celebrity Apprentice Finale

I have always liked Bret Michaels and Holly Robinson Peete. On The Celebrity Apprentice however I didn’t like Holly. She came across as being mean. She always stayed TOO conservative, and it cost her most of the time. If it isn’t obvious by now I was pulling for Bret Micheals to win going into the finale.

I was shocked to see the celebrities they brought back to help the two finalists last week. Summer Sanders being on Bret’s team was very unusual, but she worked well in the task for Bret. Darryl Strawberry coming back at all was surprising since he essentially quit early in the season. He also worked very well in the task though. Maria Kanellis coming back wasn’t a huge surprise, but her being on Holly’s team was. They didn’t get along at all before Maria was fired. Curtis Stone was the least surprising of the returning celebrities, and him going with Holly’s team also wasn’t at all a surprise.

In last week’s episode it seemed like Curtis gave Holly a definite advantage because of him knowing which flavors would work with the others. Maria didn’t seem like she helped a lot, but I am sure that is more due to editing than anything. Darryl and Summer seemed to help out a lot on Bret’s team, even though it seemed like Bret was actually doing everything, again probably due to the editing.

The products that both teams produced were amazing. The bottles looked great, the commercials were good and funny, and either of them could have won really.

From here on might be some spoilers, so stop reading if you don’t want to know the important stuff.

I think the best thing that happened to Bret was that he lost his script and had to get creative in the editing of the commercial. It eliminated him doing two commercials which would have led to the Snapple people and Donald Trump thinking he spread himself too thin and both commercials suffered because of it. Not to mention the one commercial all together was really good and much better than each one individually. His brochure was much better too. Holly’s was just to plain, which is actually what she was going for. Her commercial was good, BUT it was a Snapple commercial. Which in essence was a good idea, but as usual she wasn’t outside of the box. Luckily for Bret he lives outside of the box.

During the live finale it was great to see Bret up and around after coming so close to death. That in itself was a huge victory. It was also very nice to see the real Holly come out. Her and Bret had become friends during the show, and she was genuinely happy to see him at the finale.

In a REALLY anti-climatic moment Donald Trump pointed out that Snapple was matching the $250,000 prize, so both Bret and Holly’s charities would be receiving a quarter of a million dollars. This basically meant that it didn’t matter who was named The Celebtiry Apprentice, cause after all they were both definitely there for their charities.

He then finally announced that Bret had won and is The Celebrity Apprentice.

All in al it was a good season for the show. I am sure it has rebuilt an audience that had to be shrinking a bit. Last year’s Celebrity version I lost interest in with a couple weeks to go. This one kept me watching every episode. Of course that was partially because I liked many of the celebrities before they were on this show. So, I guess casting had a lot to do with it all. They should try an All-Star season. Bring back some of the regular players, and maybe a couple of the celebrities that might be interested to compete together. Would probably go pretty well I think.

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Once again, I won’t reveal the winner of the show until later in the post to assure you don’t accidentally see the winner before you watch.

I was definitely an interesting season for Survivor. After 20 seasons of the show they still manage to keep it interesting. That in itself is very impressive. They also manage to find the almost perfect mesh of all-stars to assure it is interesting.

I was so upset when Stephenie and James went out so early on in the game. I bet they will both be back for another try at some point. At least I hope they will be. Them, along with Rupert are probably my three favorites in all of Survivor. I am betting that one of those three WILL be winning the $100,000 fan favorite vote. (I am writing this as the jury is interviewing the three finalists.)

Now, we are beyond the excerpt point, so here we go.

The three finalists turned out to be Parvati, Russell, and Sandra. The worst decision that Russell made this time, is the same worst decision he made last time. That decision is who he took to the final three with him. This time he took the two people that have actually won Survivor! Sure, he was right that he will have Jerry’s vote, but it might turn out to be one of the few he actually gets.

Russell did control the game all the way through again, just as he did last time. He had people actually giving him idols this time. How stupid was that? Russell just makes bad choices when it counts the very, very most.

Parvati was great at challenges, she played a good social game, she aligned with the guy controlling everything early on. It all worked to get her into a position to win a million dollars AGAIN! She did however make too many enemies along the way though, I think.

Sandra managed to ride coattails to the final three, and stay off everyone’s radar AGAIN! Did people not watch her original season at all?? She has played the exact same game, and it worked. Not only did it work, along the way she gave people the chance again and again to try and take out Russell, and no one would help her get it done. The one time it was going to work Candice threw a wrench into the plan which caused Sandra to vote with Russell again.

I don’t really understand how, but I feel Sandra is about to win AGAIN! I still don’t understand how she won the first time. Her winning was one of my least favorite Survivor moments of all-time.

Here is how I think voting is going to go:

Russell gets: Jerry

Parvati gets: Danielle, J.T.

Sandra gets: Courtney, Rupert, Candice, Colby, Coach, Amanda

Yep, I think Sandra wins by a landslide.

So, now let’s see how the voting actually went.

Well, Sandra did win again. I am amazed, even though I just typed that she would win a minute ago. She is the first two-time winner of Survivor. Probst asked, and Sandra agreed that she is the best Survivor ever.

Of course Russell still thinks he is the best player in Survivor history. He may very well be the best ever. He makes the bad decision at the end though. He claimed there is a flaw in the game if Sandra can win twice. He says America should have a percentage of the final vote.

OK, they just announced they will be picking the dumbest move in Survivor history. My pick is Erik giving away the idol and then being voted out, or James getting voted out while holding idols.

And the winner is…J.T. for giving Russel the idol this season. I totally disagree. lol

Wow, Russell won the $100,000. Oh well, I thought it would be Rupert, but it wasn’t.

In closing, I enjoyed the season. All-Star seasons are the best. My idea for the next All-Star season… there have been 300+ Survivor contestants. Put all of their names into a vote of America. The two people that get the most votes are named Tribe Captains. They then do a schoolyard type tribe choosing from the remaining top 28 vote getters (that previously agree to be on the show if chosen). Do the tribe choosing show live and then start the show 2 weeks later. Mark Burnett and Jeff Probst, are you listening?

Next up is Survivor: Nicaragua…interesting choice of location. I also can’t wait for Survivor: New Jersey.

Hey, they never did reveal who voted for who. They did mention that Russell didn’t get any votes at all though.

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Just in case you are like me and record stuff and some times don’t get around to watching it until a few days later… I will be revealing who won The Amazing Race last night later in this post. I am making sure it isn’t in the excerpt that will show on the main page because I HATE when someone ruins a show for me, especially a show finale.

Anyway, for me the ideal ending would have been Jeff and Jordan from Big Brother winning. I was excited to see they were still together, and trying out The Amazing Race. Just wish they could have stuck around longer.

I actually would have liked to see Louie and Michael (the two police officers) win the race, too.

OK, I think I filled enough space to start talking about the finale now.

Out of the three finalist; Brent & Caite, Dan & Jordan, and Jet & Cord…I couldn’t stand Brent & Caite, or Dan & Jordan. They were the two most annoying teams throughout the race. Well in the top three anyway (Brandy & Carol aka The Lesbians get in the top three too.). They whined, they fought with one another, and other teams, they whined some more. It was just so annoying! Of course in the history of The Amazing Race, the annoying teams usually tend to stick around longer than the likable teams.

Now, here is the bone I have to pick with last night’s finale. What ever happened to the rule that teams HAVE to fly in business or coach class, or whatever they are calling it now? Dan & Jordan moved up to first class! At that moment I was celebrating because I was expecting that if they had crossed the finish line first, Phil would say “Dan & Jordan, you are the first team to arrive…However I am sorry to tell you that you must serve a one hour penalty before I can check you in for flying in first class.” Then when I saw they were the team running for the finish line first, I got even happier. I loved that they were going to be first, but have to serve a penalty. It would have been perfect karma biting them in the butt. Then Phil told them they had won The Amazing Race…I was like WTH?!?

Jet and Cord were the only option of the final three that I would have enjoyed seeing win the race. It has nothing to do with them being from Oklahoma either. They were just very real, genuine people. It was enjoyable to watch them go through the entire race. They weren’t bickering with each other at every turn. They worked together nearly constantly, rather than against one another. They should have won!

They will be on our local news here on Friday morning. I can’t wait to hear their thoughts about everything. I am sure they will be very gracious in losing, even with their competitive spirit.

I certainly hope they bring them back for the next The Amazing Race: All-Stars season.

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I have a ton of stuff I need to be doing, but before I get to all that I need to post this because time is running out.

First a little background story.

(Click for full size image)

I was born in 1971 so when KISS got started I was very young. Thanks to a couple of my brothers I was exposed to music like Pink Floyd, The Kinks, The Eagles, and a bunch of other classic acts from the 60s and 70s at an unusually young age. I thank them for giving me what is now a vast spectrum of the types of music I like today. This includes KISS. I still have the 8-Track tape that was my brother’s which was the first time I remember hearing them. It was Rock and Roll Over. ( Coincidentally if I were to ever get a tattoo, it would be a full sized album cover of Rock and Roll Over on my back. It is the first image in this post. Nice, huh?) Now I know I had heard some of their other albums before that, but that is the first one I actually remember.

Some time after that I remember one Friday night my sister who was watching me at the time let me stay up late. The condition was I had to be laying in the bed of the pullout couch in the living room. The reason I wanted to stay up late was to see the late late movie that was going to be on. That movie was KISS Meet the Phantom of the Park. Yes, I know it is an extremely cheesey movie in every way shape and form, but I was a young impressionable kid, and loved it! Truth be told till this day I still watch it on occassion and still enjoy it. I have owned it on VHS about a dozen or so times, needing to be replaced for one reason or another, or just because it wore out.

While growing up and establishing my own musical tastes KISS moved to the forefront and have been my #1 favorite band from about the time I was about 10 probably. I went out and got a complete mint condition set of the original KISS trading cards. I spent hundreds of dollars accumulating a pin collection, and a cutout/stand up picture collection of all sorts of live concert shots and poses of the band. They all came from an amusement park in the town I grew up in. The owner of the stand / booth where I got them had a friend who was personal friends with the band. He was such a friend that he had in his possession a pair of Ace Frehley’s boots. I made good enough friends with them that I actually got to touch one of the boots! Yeah, I know I am a bit obsessed so?

While working for a demolition company many times people would tell us what to get rid of, what walls to tear out and such. Some times this included getting rid of trunks full of all sorts of stuff. Of course since we were getting rid of it all, anything we found inside stuff that we were sure the people just wanted to get rid of was divied up between everyone that was working that day. This is what lead to one of my “Holy Grail” type findings of KISS memoribilia. We had like three steamer type trunks full of all sorts of collectibles. There was a set of Wizard of Oz action figures new in the package. A set of Donny & Marie dolls from the 70s in their original packages. I was the one that got to sort things out of the trunks into piles for everyone to go through – for doing this I got to pick the first thing I wanted. Then the clouds parted and the sun shone down like a spotlight over my shoulder onto an original Gene Simmons action figure still in full costume. Unfortunately it wasn’t in a package and had clearly been played with. Nonetheless, want to guess what I picked?

Actually the other guys didn’t want what they were calling “dolls”. I had collected things my entire life, from baseball cards to t-shirts, and movie posters and such. So, basically my mind said, “Well those are definitely worth something.” So I wound up getting The Wiz and Osmond ones too. I went ahead and sold them to two different people and made a decent amount of money.

Anyway, back to my actual story. . .

Where I lived there really wasn’t an arena that was considered “close”, well not a big arena anyway. It was an hour or so north to The Meadowlands, or an hour or so south to Philly. By the time I was to the age where I had money, andwas able to figure out a way to get to one of these arenas on my own I had missed so much.

The first concert I ever went to was Whitesnake with Faster Pussycat opening up for them. Absolutely loved it. It was right after Steve Vai joined Whitesnake. He did like a 10-15 minute version of the National Anthem into a sick guitar solo while the band took a break. It was unbelievable.

My other concerts were Pink Floyd on their reunion tour, and the Eagles on their reunion tour. See the influence of my brothers lived on strong. By the way both amazng shows I am so glad I got to see them in my lifetime.

In there somewhere was the KISS reunion tour. At that point I was working for a landscaping company. I had my money all put away to get tickets to go see them. Leading up to the Saturday at 8AM when the tickets were going on sale it rained for almost two weeks straight. This led to the boss making it mandatory that we work that Saturday to get caught up on all the stuff we couldn’t do during the rains. We left before sunup and of course weren’t done till the sun was going down.

All day long I kept telling myself that I would just go and get tickets after I got home. Well, when I got home I found out that tickets had sold out for the one schedule show at the Meadowlands had sold out in like 18 seconds or something like that. so they added two additional shows spontaneously. Guess what, they sold out right away too!

Now KISS is asking the fans to choose what cities they visit in their North American tour. You can demand that they play in your city – or for that matter any city.

I now live 5 minutes from the BOK Center here in Tulsa which is where they would play if they came here. I would be able to get my hand on tickets one way or another if they did come here. So, what I am asking anyone reading this to do is go and Demand that KISS comes to Tulsa. It doesn’t matter where you live, you can put in any zip code. Yes, even you my friends in Australia.

In the current standings Tulsa is ranked #77 in the voting. Oklahoma City is 42nd in the voting, but it would probably cost about $200-300 more for us to go see them there, plus add on a major headache of getting there and back, and finding puppy and kitten sitters and such. Obviously them here in Tulsa would be much much better than in OKC.

Here is the link where you can go and enter the zip code 74120.

Demand KISS play in Tulsa (or your city if you must)

That zip code again is 74120 (or any other Tulsa, Oklahoma zip code for that matter) You have to hurry though. The deadline for DEMANDING KISS is Tuesday June 30th. So go vote quick and often.

Thank you to everyone who helps me try and get KISS to Tulsa and make a lifelong obsession and dream come true.

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That’s right Zach Morris, not Mark-Paul Gosselaar showed up for the Jimmy Fallon Show last night. It was a fun little segment which in the end had Zach agreeing to be part of the Saved By the Bell reunion that Fallon has been trying to organize. Preppy even got a call on his dinosaur of a cell phone from Jesse Spano (Elizabeth Berkley) who also said she was in for the reunion.

This only leaves Tiffani Thiessen and Dustin Diamond who haven’t agreed yet. I believe Thiessen will be easy to get, but Dustin Diamond will probably demand a million bucks to do it.

Anyway, enjoy the video of Zach’s appearence on Fallon.

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As many of you know I am rather busy with other aspects of the site and have little time to actually be posting stuff on my own blogs. That being said, sometimes a story comes along that I just cannot pass up writing about.

Teaching today's youths English

Tony Danza became the lovable sit-com and TV drama staple for many years. He was starring (and co-starring) in primetime almost nonstop from 1978 – 2002. From Taxi’s Tony Banta (1978 – 1983), and Tony Micelli on Who’s The Boss (1984 – 1992). then onto some drama roles as Tony Canetti on Hudson Street (1995 – 1996) after a three year break from TV. Then back to a short-lived comedy The Tony Danza Show as Tony DiMeo (1997 – 1998). then finally after another short break from TV he returned for Family Law (2000 – 2002) as Tony. . . no wait. . . finally his character was not named Tony! Instead he was Joe Celano.

Fast forward till now.

Danza is set to star in his very own reality show on the A&E network. The network that has spawned hits like Gene Simmon’s Family Jewels, Intervention, and of course its biggest legacy, Biography will follow him on a daily basis for the new show.

Danza is the second one from the right in the white shirt. That is his Taxi co-star Danny DeVito on the far left.

The main focus of this show which Danza is referring to as “responsible reality”, will be the tenth grade English class he will be teaching in a New York City school. That’s right I just said Tony Danza will be teaching tenth grade ENGLISH! He also suggest he might teach some drama, while fulfilling the nromal teacherly duties like cafeteria duty.

Danza told New York Post reporter Michael Starr, “I was talking about going back and answering the call to service and doing something different with my life,”

As for the “responsible reality” remark he told Starr, “I don’t want to do that other [reality] stuff and I don’t want to do a game show and nobody’s knocking down my door for acting jobs.”

Danza actually has his degree in History Education from the University of Dubuque which he got prior to following his dream of portraying many Tonys on the big and small screen.

This seems like one of the strangest matches, Tony Danza, and ENGLISH. I will actually be tuning in at least a couple times though to see what the new show is like. I have always liked Danza’s shows for the most part. He just might be the next hot reality star, you never know.

I wonder when Stallone will stop making Rocky and Rambo sequels and get a spin-off show in the same school teaching Speech Class.

On that note I will leave you with a clip from the show The Family Guy, that kinda drives home the strangeness of this situation.

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Please Stand Up 2 Cancer

I watch so much TV that I am usually behind in watching many shows. The reason is, I record most things and watch them at a later time. This allows me to eliminate commercials and make things move faster. Last night I finally watched the Stand Up 2 Cancer hour long special that was on last Friday night.

For those that have no clue what I am talking about – All three major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) came together last week and gave an hour of primetime television to the charity Stand Up 2 Cancer. The show was an hour long telethon of sorts full of stars, many were actually cancer survivors. Everyone on the show, other than the three network news anchors, wore t-shirts saying how hey were involved, i.e. survivor, in the fight, touched by cancer, and such.

The show included some cancer stories of the stars, normal people, and a segment where the stars took the place of the normal people who were too sick to be there and read their story as them. There were also a few musical performances. You can currently purchases them on iTunes with all the proceeds going to the charity.

The highlighted musical performance was a song called, “Just Stand Up”. It was sung by a blockbuster lineup of female singing stars which were all on the stage singing together. They were; Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Rihanna, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus, Mellissa Ethridge, Ashanti, Natasha Bedingfield, Keyshia Cole, Ciara, Leona Lewis, LeAnn Rimes, and Carrie Underwood. For me though, I liked the James Taylor – Sheryl Crow duet of Fire & Rain.

Stand Up 2 Cancer is all about raising money to put an end to cancer. The way that this charity and idea is different than the rest is that their fundamental plan to get to a cancer cure is different and smarter than the rest. Their plan is to bring the greatest scientific minds together to find a cure. Forget about who gets the credit and the fame – just compare notes, talk, brainstorm, and find a cure in a few years, rather than another decade or more.

Everyone is touched by cancer in some way, a friend, a relative, a co-worker, yourself. One person in America dies every minute from cancer. My sister-in-laws grandmother lost her battle less than two months ago. I lost my grandfather to three different types of it many years ago. My wife has lost multiple people to it. We both have a number of friends currently winning in their fights. The sure is out there, it is just a matter of how soon we can find it.

As one of the stars in the show says (it may have been Ron Reagan Jr.), “Think of the billions and billions of dollars we spend every year as a country dreaming up more inventive ways to kill one another. . . I’d say our priorities are pretty screwed up.”

Here is the hour long show in its entirety.

If watching doesn’t make you want to Stand Up 2 Cancer, I doubt my asking you to will make a difference, but it is worth a shot.

Please Stand Up 2 Cancer

If anyone would like to send me a message with the story of how you are touched by cancer I will try to put together a nice post including all the stories. I would prefer to just use first names in the story, but if you want I could use a full name, just let me know. If I get at least three stories I will do the post. I do hope I can help spread the story of your loved ones to others.

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