Oh, the many wonderful places you can go in the World of Seussville adults and children alike have been revisiting since Horton Hatched his famous Egg in 1940.  It wasn't until later on though until a famed cat would fictionally walk into our doors and into our imaginations and change our lives forever as we knew it.      In the May 24, 1954 issue of Life Magazine, Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Hershey wrote a 10 page article about the issue of poor literacy rates that plaged the chidren of the era and opinionated that children were viewing too many boring, dull books with characters and storylines that were abnormally proper, rather than the books with vivid illustrations that greatly exaggerated the lives of fictional children as more realistic and adventerously creative as the children of the era found on bookshelves.  The article in Life (the leading periodical of the time period) continued on to challenge a book be written by an illustrator that would cater more towards the childrens' appeal, while assisting the learning primers schools were lacking.  The question directed toward illustrators and schools alike that ended the article was simple, what reasonsoning was behind not having a more effective learning method by accurately capturing the attention of children with illustrations as those in books by Walt Disney, Dr. Seuss, Tenniel, and Howard Pyle, while teaching children the primers they needed to be learning with stories that will not only keep the childrens' attention accurately but accurately aid in the battle of illiteracy.      Theodor Seuss Geisel, more commonly known as pseudonym "Dr. Seuss", accepted the rhetoric "challenge" by crafting a book around the 'look say' reading programs taught in schools, with a limited list of simple elementary words, and further with the story crafted around only two of the random words--cat and hat.  Seuss' publisher gave him a list of 223 sight vocabulary words that were in unison with the simplistic writing concept and with what chilren would be learing in school at the time.  Seuss desired the book to have a simple title that would rhyme and found 'cat' and 'hat' the first two sutable words to make it happen.  After nine months of the difficult task of having only a limited amount of words to rhyme in a strict triple meter (anapestic tetrameter), a story with 236 unique words (of which 54 occur only once and 33 twice), one cat. two kids, two things, an absent mother and articulate goldfish, was born--The Cat in the Hat.      Fifty years later, in celebration of The Cat in the Hat's 50th Birthdy, Random House Children's Books and Dr. Seuss Enterprises in partnership with First Book created Project 236, a literacy initiative aimed at celebrating the birthdate of the famous Cat on the birthdate of it's famous creater Dr. Seuss on March 2 (which is also celebrated every year by the National Education Association as Read Across America Day).

LAPD Detective James Carter and Hong Kong Police Chief Inspector Lee reunite once again at the World Criminal Court Summint in Los Angeles after what looks to be an assinaton attempt of the Chinese Ambassador by the Chinese Triads.  The trail of the Triads leads them to a very unsuspecting place--Paris, France.  The film releases August 10 and stars Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Vinnie Jones, Max von Sydow, Roman Polanski, Roselyn Sanchez, and French star Yvan Attal.

After 7 wonderful seasons on the hit forensic schow CSI:  Crime Scene Investigation, the leader of the nigh-shift team, buglover Gilbert "Gil" Grissom is set to retire after he realizes that his job is starting to get old and tiring and wants to leave on top.  The team has been hinting about the character retiring the majority of the season, along with hints that Grissom's corrective otosclerosis (inner ear) surgery, may not have been a success.  William L. Peterson, the man behind the character.  states that he plans to return to his original home in the outskirts of Chicago (Evanston) to continue what gave him his start--theater.

The Simpsons return to a different screen this summer on July 27, the big one!  The film itself. although similar to the series, was filmed with more "cinematic" concept with a wider screen approach than the traditional animation seen in the series.  The color in the movie, although still remaining 2-Dimensional, was created digitally rather

Occult directors Quentin Tarrantino and Robert Rodriguez team up to create this "drive-in"type double feature with two mini-features Rodriguez's Planet Terror and Tarrantino's Death Proof.  Keep a look out for some of their other familar cult-favorite characters from their other independently directed films, with many new creations.  The movie is shot like an classic horror movie you would see at a drive-in, and the term "Grindhouse" is defined as being an exploitation film, often featuring excessive sex, violence and gore, popularized more in the 1970s with the relaxing of film bans.  The film stars Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Stacy Ferguson and Kurt Russel just to name a few, and releases April 7.

than by hand, to compensate for the wider aspect ratio of the cinematic concepts.  In other words, higer clairity and higher quality!!!  The film stars all of the original cast and favorite characters seen throughout the series, as well as their usual list of reknown special guests.

Being born in the early 80s, I never took a following to the Transformers, Heman, or Tundercats sagas.  I was more of a cheezeball over shows like Garfield & Friends, Duck Tales, Scooby Doo and Bugs Bunny.  That is, until now.  You better believe that I am going to be the first in line this July 4th to see the brand new blockbuster from highly acclaimed director/producer Michael Bay, whose credits include the likes of Armageddon, Bad Boys I & II, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre just to name a few.  You also better believe that you will not find me in the lines I now see as cheeseball for the thrid installments of Garfield, Scooby Doo and Shrek, unless of course Michael Bay is up to directing a Todd McFarlane version of a the twisted dark interpretation of The Wizard of Oz.  The film stars Tyrese Gibson, Shea LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Bernie Mac and others.

Madonna is back in the game (not that she ever left) with her new Confessions Tour DVD out January 30.  The iconic material girl has been entertaining us since 1983 and still going strong with her powerful music, huge perfomances and occasional controversy, not to mention a movie here and there.  I know her show is a must see, now everyone can enjoy their own a copy of her most recent tour.