Taco Bell is giving away free tacos!!!

It's all part of their "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco" 2008 World Series promotion!

Too bad the offer's only good in the USA.

Dr Pepper makes good on its Guns N' Roses offer.

A few weeks ago, I blogged about Dr Pepper promising to give everyone in America (except for ex-GN'R guitarists Slash and Buckethead) a free can of Dr Pepper if GN'R's long-delayed and much-awaited (depending on who you ask) album, Chinese Democracy, will be released ANYTIME in 2008.

And since Geffen Records announced just last week that the album will indeed be released in November 23, Dr Pepper is bent on keeping its promise by asking everyone to go to their site on that date and register to receive a coupon that can be redeemed for a 20-oz. Dr Pepper wherever the drink is available.

There is a catch, though: the coupon is only available for 24 hours with the ETA for the coupon to be delivered through mail after you register would be from four to six weeks and the redemption of the free soda only until February 28.

Considering the album's been 14-15 years in the making, waiting that long to headbang to the album while you're drinking your free Dr Pepper ain't so bad then, is it?

It's official! 'Chinese Democracy' will be released on Nov.23!

It's been a long time coming, but finally, after my last blog post where studio insiders tipped Billboard.com that Guns N' Roses' new album, Chinese Democracy, will be released on November 23, Geffen Records has finally confirmed it, that the album will indeed be released on that day and will be available on CD and vinyl (accompanied by a free digital download of the tracks) as well as a separate digital album at Best Buy and BestBuy.com.

As a matter of fact, the first single, the title track "Chinese Democracy," was released earlier today and the response on radio has been mixed, running the gamut from people saying that it's "really good" and that it "could've easily been in 'Use Your Illusion'" to people expressing their disappointment by saying they "waited 15 years (or however long) for that?"

What's my take on it? IT ROCKS!!! Sure, the sound is too polished, evidence of Axl's non-stop tinkering of the album, and the guitar lacks Slash's meaty, gritty riffs, but the tune is enough to make you want to stomp your foot and bob - or even headbang - your head to the rhythm. And I agree, the song could've easily been in Use Your Illusion II if it weren't for the distinct absence of Slash's guitar work.

But hey, why believe me when you can listen to it for yourself here:

Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy

As for the some of the other songs that I've heard online (yes, isn't P2P file-sharing great!), Chinese Democracy could've just as easily been called Use Your Illusion III. So all in all, I'm still sitting on the fence on this one.

GN'R's 'Chinese Democracy' gets a release date. REALLY?!

According to Billboard.com, sources close to the situation have confirmed that the long-awaited album (that may or may not be an understatement, depending on who you ask) will finally see the light of day, and that's November 23, a couple of days earlier than the previously touted release date.

Yeah, right. I'll believe it when I see it.

Still, as a run-up to the release date, the album track "Shackler's Revenge" will debut in the video game Rock Band 2 while a portion of another album track, "If The World" can be heard over the end credits in the new Leonardo DiCaprio/Russell Crowe film, Body of Lies.

And while I'm still apathetic over Chinese Democracy, the really good news for me is that GN'R's seminal debut, Appetite for Destruction, will be re-issued on vinyl on October 28! AWESOME!!!

And supposedly, the ORIGINAL cover art that was never used due to its sexually explicit nature will be the one used for the re-issued vinyl. SUPER AWESOME!!!

Superman's Crib has been Saved!

A few weeks ago, I blogged about how fans have helped raise more than $50,000 to help save the house where Jerry Siegel, the writer who helped create Superman along with Joe Shuster, grew and came up with the idea for Superman.

The fans helped by buying some items from the Siegel and Shuster Society, but most importantly, by bidding on a treasure trove of items on auction on eBay that ended on September 30. Among the items sold on the last week of the auction were a Jason Palmer painting that featured all the actors who have played the Man of Steel on both TV and film, full color copies of the shooting script for the "The Donner Versions" of Superman: The Movie and Superman II, complete with writer Tom Mankiewicz's notes, and signed by both Mankiewicz and director Richard Donner, there's also the Superman IV: The Quest for Peace t-shirt signed by Jerry Siegel himself (which really polarizes me, Superman's creator's signature on the crappiest Superman film ever made) and then there's the walk-on part for the TV series, Heroes, which closed at a whopping $14,100 - the second-highest price during the entire auction, with the highest price being set by the Jim Lee drawing of Superman posing with the winner which went for a dollar more. I said before that that was going to be the sweetest prize in the entire auction and, well, I was right. SWEEEETTT!!!

All in all, the auction raised $111,047. Initially, the plan was just to replace the leaky roof and repair and repaint the the wood-sided exterior of the house at a cost of $50,000. So with the extra money raised, the interior can now also be repaired with the leftover money to be saved for future repair and maintenance.

Finally, on the last week of September, more than a hundred volunteers showed up at 10622 Kimberly Avenue in the Glenville neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio to help fix, clean up and re-paint not only Jerry Siegel's old house but the other houses on the block as well. Come spring, all the hard work will pay off when hundreds of red, blue and yellow flowers will bloom in front of the houses.

And soon, as further homage to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's contribution to pop culture, Kimberly Avenue will be renamed 'Jerry Siegel Lane' while Amor Avenue, where Shuster grew up, will be renamed 'Joe Shuster Lane.'

All in all, the auction raised $111,047. Initially, the plan was just to replace the leaky roof and repair and repaint the the wood-sided exterior of the house at a cost of $50,000. So with the extra money raised, the interior can now also be repaired with the leftover money to be saved for future repair and maintenance.

So yes, ordinary people, and not just superheroes, DO change the world.

It's Porn...for Geeks!!!

For the people who love everything about porn - except the sex - cums, I mean, comes James Gunn's PG Porn.

It's a hilarious take on porn movies, complete with cheesy dialogue, bad sets and even badder acting, with mainstream Hollywood actors teaming up with some of America's most popular pornstars in a non-sexual porn film! Really awesome stuff!

While I know some of James Gunn's work, like Slither, The Specials and the two live-action Scooby-Doo movies, I'm more intimately familiar with the works of the porn actresses that are slated to appear in PG Porn. Actresses like Aria Giovanni, Sasha Grey and Belladonna and their vast body of work, with titles like Naked Diva, Massive Facials and Defend Our Porn.

Anyway, in the first installment of PG Porn, we have mainstream Hollywood actor Natahan Fillion playing the handyman to pornstar Aria Giovanni's lonely, sexually unsatisfied housewife in a scene called Nailing Your Wife.

Nailing Your Wife

Damn, he really does nail her good!

M. Night Shymalan's 'Unbreakable 2'?

I'm not a big fan of M. Night Shyamalan, most especially of his more recent works like The Happening, The Village and the forgettable Lady in the Water. However, his earlier works like The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable really captivated me, particularly the latter since I'm a big comic books fan and collector who unfortunately doesn't have the time nor the money to indulge in this once-life-changing hobby of mine as much as I want. Signs was good too, but the whole water-is-deadly-to-the-aliens schtick ruined it for me. After all, water is supposed to be essential for the survival of all forms of life. But I digress...

So when I read the news that M. Night Shyamalan's interested to do a sequel to Unbreakable, I was stoked. If you forget the caption at the end of the film telling how Bruce Willis' David Dunn led the police to apprehend Samuel L. Jackson's Elijah Prince as the mastermind behind the villainous acts - both the depicted ones and the ones that're only implied at - on the film, it was pretty much an ambiguous ending that should've stayed that way. And even if you take into account the caption that Elijah Prince was committed to an institution for the criminally insane, there's always the possibility that he could escape. Hell, how many times has Batman's enemies escaped from Arkham Asylum?

So yeah, considering that the TV series, Heroes, has a large cult following, I do hope Shyamalan does push through with Unbreakable 2 because that's his target market right there. That plus the poor misguided fools who'll watch it because they think all of Shyamalan's films are dark and creepy.

I just hope he doesn't screw it up this time or give in to the studio's demands to market it like a spooky thriller like The Sixth Sense when it clearly is not.

Are you ready for some 'Chinese Democracy'?

I'm sure everyone has heard of this "upcoming" Guns N' Roses album. You know, the one's that been in the making for 14 long years and has cost a reported $13 million to produce? Those figures alone make it really understandable then why GN'R is so protective of their songs being leaked on the 'net. I would be, too, if the album I made cost that much. I have to make a quick ROI after all!

Anyway, the word is out that American retailer, Best Buy, snagged the exclusive rights to sell the more-than-a-decade-in-the-making album, thanks to the band's new management deal with Irving Azoff's Front Line Management, the architect behind the Eagles' Long Road out of Eden album which was released exclusively through Wal-Mart on the first year of its initial release. That album took six years to produce and sold 3.1 million copies in the United States alone, so Chinese Democracy is in good hands of someone who has been there and has done that.

Although some of the details of the deal are still being worked out, the particular kicker is this: the release date hasn't been set although sources familiar with the deal said it's before year's end, with November 25 being tossed around as the likeliest date.

Yeah, right...

Still, if the sources are right about the release date, that could put Dr Pepper in a really, REALLY tight bind since they did promise to give everyone in America (except for Slash and Buckethead) a free can of Dr Pepper if Chinese Democracy is released some time - ANYTIME! - in 2008.


I never liked Dr Pepper much and I've always been partial to Coke so I couldn't care less if, after the recent financial crisis in Wall Street, there would be a soda crisis if Dr Pepper can't fulfill the promised they made to the people.

Me, I just wanna hear Axl rock!!! If he still has it, that is...

"So faaaaar away... the album's so faaaaaar awaaaaay..."