Tales from the Corners

Another summer must-see: Netflix's Stranger Things I confess that I was hooked on the Netflix 'vehicle,' Stranger Things . For some odd reason, I never saw much promotion for it - only a 'Facebook Friend' suggesting the series with the description that the series is a cross between the 'Two Stephens' which is Stephen King and Stephen Spielberg with some George Romero thrown in for good measure. While I enjoyed seeing the early-to-mid-1980s look done so well throughout the eight episodes, I also loved spotting sites in Georgia. In some of the 'later episodes,' I saw Gloucester Road which is probably the one in Chamblee and Bankhead Highway which is a long stretch of road. Obviously Stranger Things  was shot in cooler weather which I terribly miss. Indeed, Stranger Things  takes place in Indiana, but Georgia unknowingly easily doubles for other states. It's the diversity of the Peach State and of course its economic benefits that attracts ...

Satoshi Uematsu  The suspect in a  stabbing spree in a facility west of Tokyo that left 19 people dead  wrote of his "ability to kill" disabled people. Check out this package in which I worked on this week - click here

Summer cabin fever is the worst. There, I wrote that fact and I'm concerned. Let's admit the fact that many in the U.S. this summer have been staying indoors way too much due to the massive heat dome in which we are entrapped. Here in the Southeastern U.S. this awful weather is expected, but this summer is incredibly bad for us. We are setting records this summer. The latest record is our average temperature is 92.5 degrees Fahrenheit. We are in line to beat the summer of 1980 for the highest average temperature and as of this writing, we should have no problem beating that record. Well, at least Atlanta is winning at something because the baseball is not at the moment. It's frustrating, but there are few options to beat the heat. We can hydrate, find shade, wear light clothing and fan ourselves, but no matter what we do outdoors, we cannot win. Ultimately the cool indoors pull us back in for refuge. Whenever we go through these unbearable summers, I ask myse...

Another convention season is now in the history books. All the speeches were passionate and quite riveting - obviously some more than others. The DNC put on a great show. I feel that the AJC's Jay Bookman sums it all best right here (click here) . ..and this happened during the morning of DNC Day 3. John Hinckley set to be released Here is a backgrounder from last year (2015): Back to the '90s! Awesome Colbert opener references the speech of Bill Clinton returning to the DNC to give another speech Colbert knocks this one out of the park...or in this case, arena (which he only visited before returning to New York) Big night on premiere night The talk of the night is the first lady's speech, but what was more telling was comedian Sarah Silverman getting real at one moment telling Senator Sanders' supporters that they were being ridiculous. Ms. Silverman along with U.S. Senator Al Franken were told to stretch it on stage before...

Pokemon Go is all the rage around the world and more importantly, in the Mideast. These facts have Saudi Arabia upset. Just recently, that country renewed its Fatwa against Pokemon - indeed Saudi had a previous Pokemon Fatwa, but let must have let that lapse. Check out this report:

Third night:  Wow, that was a douzy with Senator Cruz last evening. Anyway, check out this link from the folks over at FactCheck.org. There is some great material on that page. Just like Ted, I'll stop short of making any opinion or endorsing that page, only to say that it is quite interesting. Colbert Fever! Watch Stephen Colbert serve up folks at the RNC from a food truck. There's no doubt that Stephen is a jack of all trades. Click here for the video from FOX8. This was a fun one to work on this week. NJ Gov. Chris Christie says Melania is a true original. Perhaps Coach Corey ought to be giving an address this week at the RNC? Second night - also known as 'Make America Work Again': I was listening to some podcasts and then watched  Animal Kingdom  on TNT so maybe I missed a lot of the RNC as I switched during the 9p EDT hour during commercial breaks - and then the 10p EDT hour. Wasn't this supposed to be about the economy? To be fai...

File: Associated Press Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's extradition has been approved. Check out this article and then the video that I put together here.  Apparently El Chapo has been dealing with quite a bit of stress these days. El Chapo claims that the stress is so bad, that his hair is falling out. Some wonder if the stress is a tactic to delay extradition. Most likely that delay will not happen because El Chapo's 'stress from hair loss condition' is temporary.

This has been one amazing week. Down here in the South, the high temps keep on coming with very little relief in sight. We're not as bad as summer 2007 which featured a drought and 100-plus-degree days, but we're awfully close. If it were not for the quick storms that have been plowing through the Peach State, we would be close to repeat of 2007. To keep my mind off of the insane weather, I turn to my love of podcasts. It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Marc Maron's WTF podcast. This past week, Maron . Also check out episode 724 with the brilliant writer/comedian Amber Tozer. Also, a cheap plug on a video that I put together. In this video, the "Hot Felon" has released some new material since leaving prison:

U.S. President Barack Obama at The White House Correspondents Dinner, C-SPAN U.S. Rep. John Lewis taking to the U.S. House Floor, C-SPAN Historically speaking and writing from an unbiased view, President Obama had an uber-meteoric rise like no other president. Just think about how this president went from state senator to the highest political office in a such a short span of time. It didn't take long for President Obama to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and end up taking on a myriad of challenges within a few years. With that said, I'm wondering how many streets or schools have been named after the president, who as of this writing, hasn't even left office yet. Just this week, we can add another school named after President Obama here in Atlanta's metro area of DeKalb County (pronounced D'cab for you out-of-town folks). The Barack H. Obama Elementary Magnet School is the first educational institution to receive that name in Georgia. Along with that sc...

Courtesy Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital A koala with one blue eye and one brown seems to be the talk of the folks 'down under" in Australia. This cute bundle of joy reminds us all of the late pop legend/musician/actor/fashionista David Bowie. So, this little koala has those "David Bowie eyes." Apparently the Aussie koala's condition is called heterochromia. Heterochromia does not affect how "Bowie's" vision. In fact, her eyesight is good. As of this writing, do not expect any "ch-ch-changes (sorry, couldn't resist)" to get the eyes to match and why should anyone change this amazing koala? The koala world is probably fascinated and giving "Bowie" the 'Fame (OK, I'll stop)' she deserves. Let's hope that this "Bowie" will go on for a long, long time. By the way, "Bowie" ended up at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital after being hit by what many think is a car. Thankfully "Bowie...

The Night Of   HBO Even though we received at least two days of some rainfall in my neck of the woods, we're still considered to be in a drought situation this summer. There's also a drought situation on television, but all is not lost as of this writing. This past Sunday, I viewed The Night Of  on HBO. Like many programs out there, the cast and crew are amazing. It's a tad slow, but the plot is intriguing. I'll keep giving this one a chance. Check out the trailer here.  NEW The 'season 2.0' premiere is incredible. Rami Malek more than knocks it out of the park with intense drama never before seen on cable television or any other outlet for that matter. Check it out now! What a cast and let's not forget the amazing Carly Chaiken and Craig Robinson! Oh my, do these folks deliver! USA Network's Mr. Robot returns this week. I enjoyed Mr. Robot 's first season, but forgot a good deal of what was happening on the show. Viewing many episodes du...

There are summers and then there are summers like this one. Not only has this one been a scorcher in terms of the weather, but so much has been boiling up lately. It's at times like these I'd like to go off the grid and ignore the madness. I'm not talking about endlessly viewing cat trick and 'Chewbacca Mom' videos -- although I'm a fan other types of viral videos. I simply choose to attempt to "lose myself" in hobbies and activities as much as possible. For myself, running is one of the activities I enjoy, but I cannot run 24/7. The same goes for listening to podcasts or watching the Tour de France.  I love them all, but I do have to come back down to earth at some point. On a side note with the Tour de France, I might be the only one viewing the event, but lately others are joining in since it has been making some news of its own with one participant punching out a spectator. On another day, the course was temporarily obstructed from an infl...