Larry Hagman who was loved by millions, passed away unexpectedly while filming the second season of the “Dallas” reboot.

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J. R. Ewing won’t simply be forgotten he will get an appropriate funeral in an upcoming episode according to US Magazine.

Taken by throat cancer in November of 2012 at age 81, Hagman was remembered affectionately by his Dallas co-stars and crew, who respected the well-thought-of TV idol as “a giant, a larger-than-life personality whose iconic performance as J.R. Ewing will endure as one of the most indelible in entertainment history. He truly loved portraying this globally recognized character, and he leaves a legacy of entertainment, generosity and grace,” according to a statement.

The network has not given any information on how J.R. Ewing will die. Ewing fans can only hope that his ending will be as spectacular as his life, and he does not go gently into that good night.

The TNT reboot is scheduled to premiere January 28,2013. Hagman recorded several episodes that will be aired prior to J.R.’s funeral in the eighth episode slated to air on March 11, 2013.

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Surf Dog Ricochet wanted to do something to lend a paw to the community of Newtown, CT during their time of grief and recovery. She and her mom are trying to raise funds to send Guardian Angel Bears to each of the 700 kids from Sandy Hook Elementary. She is hoping the bears will make the children feel safer.

Ricochet started the Guardian Angel fundraiser to provide all 700 kids from Sandy Hook Elementary School their own personal guardian angel bear to help them feel safer. They can take this guardian angel with them wherever they go, holding it close for comfort. Guardian angel bears will also go to the families of the children & teachers who lost their lives.

Each bear costs $5 wholesale from First and Main, and she is trying to raise enough funds to purchase one for all 700 kids at the school, the teachers and the families of the victims.

All funds received over the $3500 that the bears cost, will be donated to the Newtown community to help fund funeral expenses, counseling, scholarship & memorial funds, and whatever else they need. A special card will also be included with the check that has every donor’s name on it, so the community knows each of YOU guardian angels that came together for this project.

Your Guardian Angel bear will be sealed with a lick!

Please donate $5 or more! If you’d like to designate a bear for each of your children/pets, just donate $5 per individual & note their names in the “note to seller” section on Pay Pal. I know the kids will feel comforted by our small token of compassion.

Thank you so much!
Surf Dog Ricochet http://www.surfdogricochet.com/GuardianAngels.htm

Beautiful and Moving

Published on Dec 17, 2012

The coaches and artists pay tribute to the Connecticut shooting victims with Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”

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Las Vegas Paranormal group Elite Vegas Paranormal Society investigates legendary haunted hospital in Los Angeles.

Article and Photos by Suzanne Philips

Linda Vista Hospital

In the Paranormal community, several locations are legendary for their reported activity: the Washoe Club in Virginia City, Nevada; Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Kentucky; Eastern State Penitentiary in Pennsylvania and more.  Linda Vista Hospital in Los Angeles certainly fits into this category.

The hospital, which opened in 1904, was originally called the Santa Fe Railroad Hospital and was built to treat employees of the railroad and their families.  The original building was razed and rebuilt in 1924 in a Mission Revival Style and in 1937 was renamed Linda Vista Hospital.  The railroad sold the hospital to a managed care company in 1980, when the area around the hospital was becoming less affluent and seeing a huge increase in the number of gunshot woods and stabbings.  The hospital ER was forced to close in 1989 as they were treating a huge number of uninsured and under insured patients and after a decline in the quality of care after a number of doctors moved to other hospitals, the hospital closed in 1991.

“Chapel” used to film “True Blood”

Since it has closed, the hospital has been used as a filming location for TV shows such as “E.R.”, “True Blood” and “Dexter” and films like “To Live and Die in L.A.” and “Outbreak”.  Reports of Paranormal activity have plagued the property for years.  Many people have claimed to see shadows, hear disembodied voices, see apparitions and have strange items move on their own.  Travel Channel’s hugely popular show “Ghost Adventures” filmed 2 investigations on the property, and led to one of their investigators, Nick Groff, coming face to face with the apparition of a lady that affects him to this day.

The Fake Morgue

The hospital is currently being renovated to be used as senior housing, but Las Vegas Paranormal group Elite Vegas Paranormal Society was fortunate enough to be one of the last groups allowed into the hospital to investigate before it is demolished.

Elite Vegas Paranormal Society (EVPS)  is one of Las Vegas’ more well-known Paranormal groups and is very active in the community.  They put on the Las Vegas Paracon each year (http://elitevegasparanormalsociety.com/The_Las_Vegas_Paracon.html) and recently conducted public ghost hunts in October at Historic Bonnie Springs Ranch.

The Famous “Yellow Room” at Linda Vista Hospital

For the Linda Vista Hospital investigation, EVPS took 12 investigators and special guest investigator, actress Amanda Lynn Hills, to the Boyle Heights location for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The team set up a facebook and twitter feed for the evening where they invited fans and friends to watch videos from the event that were posted during the night and comment on photos taken at each part of the location.  They were also asked to tell the team where they would like to see them investigate, thus making it an interactive experience for those who couldn’t be there.

The EVPS team split up into groups as they investigated locations such as the surgical suites, the boiler room and patient floors.  At one point during the evening, the team all came together to try a very progressive experiment.  As several of the EVPS team members are in the medical field, they decided to try a “mock code” to try to bring out spirits and activity.  All of the team members dressed as medial professionals ran a “code” on a team member playing a patient and simulated trying to save her life.  Outside the trauma suite, they placed a REM pod and had cameras running.  They tried the experiment two separate times and each time, the REM pod started to alarm when no one was near it in the hallway outside the trauma suite.  Clearly, someone or something was reacting to the commotion going on in the trauma suite!

EVPS team members spent over 9 hours at the location and collected a ton of audio and video recordings that they are currently reviewing to see what evidence was caught.  The team will produce a video which will be posted on their website at a later date.

Room where “Nightstalker” Richard Ramirez was said to be held

For more information on Elite Vegas Paranormal Society or to get information on their upcoming 2013 Paracon, check out www.elitevegasparanormalsociety.com

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” does not transport you to the Shire. It is a collection of Tolkien odds and ends connected with, excessive, drawn out special effects. Like the Trilogy, you can get your popcorn refilled and go to the bathroom during the battle scenes and not miss anything.

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“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”  was people walking around in New Zealand.  It was not worth waiting in the cold for.

While working for a theater checking service I was given the “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” assignment. The book was difficult to read and to be honest I had only read part of it because my boyfriend loved it.  I never expected to see the movie.  When you do a theater check you make sure the correct trailers are attached, for example no R-rated trailers on a family film. We also physically count how many people are seeing the movie. Checkers leave 10 minutes or so into the film. When “The Fellowship of the Ring” started I was spellbound. It was the most amazing theater experience I have ever had. Leaving to file my reports was difficult.

For “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”, I was there at midnight sitting in the same theater waiting for the same inspiration, the cheering from the crowd and the excitement of a collective shared adventure…it never happened. The beginning was lumbering and a pointless look back at the beginning of “The Fellowship of the Ring”.   Ian Holm as “Old” Bilbo and Elijah Wood as Frodo did an excellent job. “Old” Bilbo introducing the story made sense. My jaded nature makes me feel Elijah Wood was there more because of his enormous fan base from the Trilogy than needing Frodo to introduce the story.

The midnight crowd and I waited patiently for that magic moment, those near sacred words, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms….” This should have been a defining moment! A time when we cheered and the crowd went wild, instead it was clumsily inserted almost as an afterthought.
Big meh.

Ian McKellen was perfect as Gandalf. He is the movie’s saving grace.

Hugo Weaving as Elrond and Cate Blanchett as Galadriel does an excellent job with the little they are given to work with.

The characters were not fleshed out. The movie jumped from Tolkien point to Tolkien point and was confusing.

Dean O’Gorman as Fili and Aidan Turner as Kili are definitely eye candy. Gorgeous men.

There are spots in this movie when the camera went so far out of focus that it hurt my eyes.

In the Trilogy, you never questioned prospective or size or the reality of the situation. In “The Hobbit:  Unexpected Journey” you do. The wargs look cartoonish, change size and generally suck.  Maybe this works out in 3D but not in a regular theater.

Perhaps so much money was spent on the 3D effects they ran out of money for make up and hair. When you look at John Rhys-Davies, you see a dwarf. When you look at the dwarfs in The Hobbit, you see people with prosthetic faces.

Bilbo’s wig is so bad it had me questioning my memory of what the original Hobbits looked like. The Hobbit feet are different and look like things attached to their legs when they show long shots of Bilbo and Frodo. As I started to doubt my memory “The Fellowship of The Rings” came on, and I was right! Things don’t look fake in the Trilogy  the way they do in “The Hobbit.”

Bilbo’s ears are as big as his hands. His right ear is so large at one point it is distracting. Maybe this is a 3D effect, but it looks fake, fake and fake in a regular theater.

Martin Freeman does not sparkle as Bilbo Baggins. His performance is flat and he is not Hobbity enough. He is Watson in a bad wig and Dollar Store fake ears.

The only scene that got a reaction from this midnight crowd was the game of wits between Bilbo and Gollum. Let me remind you this was a  crowd that stood outside in 37 degree weather to see the movie.

The Lord Of The Rings fans turned out for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”. “Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Tolkien’s novel grossed $37.5 million, Box Office Mojo reports. This total gives “The Hobbit” the highest-grossing December Friday ever, according to THR. “The Hobbit” beat out previous record-holder “I Am Legend,” which made $30.1 million in 2007 on its opening Friday. THR reports that Warner Bros. is predicting a $85 million weekend for “The Hobbit,” based on its Friday total.” Let’s see if these numbers hold. The people I spoke with at the theater will not be seeing it a second time.

Minor spoiler below this line.

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“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” is primarily used to introduce the character of  Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage). Bilbo is a background character that seems to be misplaced in the movie at times.

Ride through the park and along the banks of the Suwannee River. If you purchase the package deal, your ticket to the New Year’s Eve Party is included!

SPIRIT OF THE SUWANNEE MUSIC PARK, LIVE OAK, FLA

– Come join horse riders from all over this year at The Spirit of the Suwannee New Year’s Trail Ride (NYTR) Dec. 28, 2012 – Jan. 1, 2013 and find out why the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park (SOSMP) in Live Oak, Fla was featured on RFD-TV’s Best of America by Horseback several years ago. The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park is one of a limited number of Florida campgrounds offering some of the best camping in Florida overlooking the Suwannee River.

Roy Cornett is the organizer of this exciting event

Guests may enjoy meandering rides along the historic Suwannee River and participate in several nights of entertainment including the annual tack auction. Guided rider events are $190.75, tax included. Per person admission includes four nights of camping, one horse stall, guided rides on Saturday and Sunday, guests’ leisure rides Friday and Monday, coupon for one dinner, admission to the New Year‘s Eve party, tack auction Sunday evening with auctioneers Chuck Vonier and Randy Kerr, live music in the Music Hall Friday – Sunday evening beginning at 8 p.m. with Jamie Davis Band Friday night, Dec. 28; Honkytonk Hitmen Band Saturday, Dec. 29, and Pete Hunt and the Southern Branded Band Sunday night, Dec. 30. A tack auction will be held Sunday evening, Dec. 30 in the Music Hall.

The SOSMP hosts a New Year’s Eve Party Dec. 31 in the Music Hall beginning at 7:30 p.m. with live music, party favors, finger foods, dancing and door prizes. Cost is $30 per person for those who have not purchased the NYTR package. The fabulous Justin Case Band will entertain New Year‘s Eve.

For those who don’t purchase the NYTR package, the SOSMP offers a-la-carte pricing for all activities offered during the New Year’s Trail Ride event including camping, cabins and stalls. Admission to the New Year’s Eve party is $30 per person for those who don‘t purchase the package.

The SOSMP is a great place for trail rides, offering special events throughout the year for horse-lovers. The 800-acre park property is surrounded east and west by Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) land. SOSMP trails lead to the well marked SRWMD trails which offer the rider miles of scenic views along the historic Suwannee River. In some areas on SRWMD land you can hear a leaf drop it’s so quiet and serene. The SOSMP is also a perfect venue for any equine event with its clean, well-lit stalls, water and electricity in barn, use of all park facilities, in-park trails, access to more than 50 miles of trails close to park amenities. Negative Coggins required, health certificate required for out of state horses. Whatever your level of horsemanship, this trail ride has an event for you.

Live music is played in the Music Hall four nights each week, other nights on special occasions and at the Pickin’ Shed every Saturday night.

As always, the SOSMP’s SOS Café and Restaurant will be open during these events and have available delicious food at regular prices and a full service bar.

If you would like to make reservations for RV parking, cabins, primitive camping or camper parking for the SOSMP, call 386-364-1683, email

spirit@musicliveshere.com or go to www.musicliveshere.com. You may also contact the SOSMP to inquire about any of the many exciting events coming up such as Suwannee Lights and many other wonderful events. See the SOSMP website for more information including many 2013 events already planned such as the Aura Festival.

The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park is located at 3076 95^th Drive 4.5 miles north of Live Oak, Fl off US 129 at the famous Suwannee River. The park is 4.5 miles south of Interstate 75 and 4.5 miles north of Interstate 10 off US 129. Keep an eye out for the SOSMP sign and white painted board fence!

Cease paychecks and health benefits to ALL members of Congress and the President until the fiscal cliff is avoided

We the people are mad as hell and we aren’t going to take it any more.

The first thought I had was that these people are all millionaires and it won’t hurt them like it would us. But. Something to be done to make sure our government employees are held accountable.

This petition will send a clear message that we are tired of paying four-year olds to squabble!

You have to enroll to vote. It is simply name, email and address. Let’s get this thing going!

Congress and the President must forfeit their pay and healthcare benefits until the fiscal cliff is resolved. And they must pass a solution, not a stop-gap.

And, if they miss the Jan 1 deadline, all of Congress and the President must take a permanent 15% pay cut. Their pay cannot be raised for two years.

“The American People” that both sides constantly regale live in this sort of world (do your job or don’t get paid). If it is good enough for us, it’s good enough for them.   Sign here.

3,129 at 7pm tonight   25,000 signatures needed by January 02, 2013