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Most people I’ve talked to about the Firefox browser could care less about the “technical purity” and standards compliance. Rather, they are more concerned if the particular site they frequent is displayed correctly, and sometimes, especially if the site was built for IE only, it may not load at all with the Firefox browser.

Immediately they are turned off from the advantages of what Firefox has to offer instead of looking at the whole picture, wherein the developer of the particular site chose to code it with only IE in mind. One man has started a Firefox Gripes page, documenting the sites that currently do not render in Firefox. Most of the sites on his list use some form of proprietary code and it’s completely understandable why most of these sites do not render in Firefox, when the majority of them were not developed for universal browser use.

The recent fiasco with All Music Guide is a perfect example of this. For those of you out of the loop, All Music Guide is the equivolent of the Internet Movie Database, but in this case for music information. AMG recently re-designed their web site, which displayed without problems in IE, but for those using Firefox (or any other browser besides IE) a message was displayed essentially saying that AMG was built for IE and might incur display problems with other non-IE browsers.

This is ridiculous, only for the fact that you are literally slapping your readers in the face if they don’t conform to your browser demands. Rather than design a site that works universally with any browser, you’ve spent the time and money creating something that only displays correctly with a particular browser. It’s not fair to your readers, who will more than likely jump ship to another site that doesn’t caution them for their browser choice. In the case of All Music Guide, many readers suggested MP3.com, which uses a licensed version of the AMG database.

The Garbage Pail Kids were the definitive gross out card set of the 80s. Every kid in the world at least owned one of these and some kids were fortunate enough to own the entire collection (which sells for top dollar on Ebay nowadays). They were undoubtedly a parody of Cabbage Patch Kids which in my opinion were more disturbing than the Garbage Pail Kids.

I remember thinking anyone who owned an entire collection was just plain cool. I, on the other hand, had only a few of which I “borrowed” from friends and forgot to give them back. Luckily they never appeared on my doorstep at 3 in the morning demanding their cards.

For the less fortunate who couldn’t barter with their parents to buy these cards they had to instead savour in the details from a friend. Looking over each of these cards you couldn’t help but feel that these cards were not only cool but at the same time creepy. Yet, that didn’t matter because Garbage Pail Kids were an awesome addition to your other 80s collections like He-Man, Battle Kats and the occassional Barbie you stole from your cousin to use as a torture victim in your toy escapades.

By the way, did you know that Topps has ressurrected the Garbage Pail Franchise?

For more GPK information, check out these links:

• Poundart - John Pound : Lead Artist of the GPK
• Garbage Pail Kids Archive
• Garbage Pail Kids : The Movie (a review by X-Entertainment)

The Burbs, according to the IMDB is about “An overstressed suburbanite and his paramilitaric neighbor struggle to prove their paranoid theory that the new family in town is a front for a cannibalistic cult.” Now, to me, that’s quite a mouthful. It’s like trying to show your friend a tongue twister you learned:

“Hey Bill, check out this tongue twister; An overstressed suburbanite and his paramilitaric neighbor struggle to prove their paranoid theory that the new family in town is a front for a cannibalistic cult. Bet you can’t say that three times fast.”

Directed by Joe Dante, of Gremlins fame, and starring Tom Hanks, The Burbs was a hilarious movie. It had all of the elements of a great 80s movie with its over-the-top special effects and campy plotline. It’s on my all time top 100 greatest 80s movies list, which by the way is a long list — among them; Sixteen Candles, Back to the Future, Splash, E.T., Jaws and Ghostbusters.

Part of the reason I was thinking of the Burbs was due to the fact I was originally thinking about old Tom Hanks movies (1980s). These include (with brief summaries):

• Turner and Hooch - man and dog.
• Splash - man and mermaid.
• Joe versus the Volcano - man and volcano.
• Dragnet (remake) - man and cop.
• Big - man as boy.

Hmm, makes you wonder.

Born in Des Moines, Iowa and reared in the Great Plains of South Dakota, Wally developed a love for performing at an early age. In Wally’s late teens, his dream was to become a Muppeteer. Though he never pursued that goal, his puppeteering experience was primarily responsible for getting him his “SAG” (Screen Actor’s Guild) card. For in late 1993 he landed an episodic role on CBS-TV’s “Murphy Brown.” His performance as the irrepressible Kelbo remains one of the most-seen “Murphy Brown” clips ever. (wallyontheweb.com)

Wally Wingert is by far one of the best impersonators I have ever heard. The quality of his performances remind me of Rich Little, another famous impersonator who in recent times lent his voice to various characters on John Lovitz’ The Critic.

The fascinating thing about watching Wally perform his various characters is not only the way in which he fully encompasses the character he’s playing but also his performance. He literally is the character he’s playing.

Likewise, many impersonators and voice-over artists allows themselves to become someone else for a few moments to a few hours recording their voices in a professional recording studio. After their session has been completed the track is then used accordingly for the specific media it was intended for; be it commercial, tv spot, movie ad, cartoon voice-over etc.

Wally, according to his web site has lent his his voice to various cartoons such as Family Guy, Invader Zim and Transformers. He also performs his characters in front of a live audience for events like Uncle Davver’s Really Scary Movie Show, a gala movie event in Los Angeles, and played the character of the Ghost with the Most Beetlejuice in the mid-90s Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue attraction at Universal Studios, Hollywood.

Wally’s website not only includes voice clips but also interviews, video clips of his performance as Andy Kaufman (and his alter-ego Tony Clifton - a spot on impersonation I might add) and my favorite feature; the Makeup Process. It is here that Wally explains step-by-step his transformations into various characters like Paul Stanley, Georgie Riggs, Austin Powers and a vampire from Buffy.

In short, Wally Wingert is awesome. Check out the website, especially his performance as Kaufman. It’s brilliant.