Disney likes to add an element of magic to all of their properties and even their cruise line is full of special secrets. In fact, even people who have traveled on Disney cruises often are unaware of all the fun things available to them.
For example, pin traders are given one night per cruise of amazing pin trading with the crew, but the nights are not on the official schedules and are never publicized so you have to keep your ears open to participate. Another fun fact -you can exchange currency on the ship without any commission fee. Oh and want to catch the newest Disney flick but won't be on land to see it? All films are released on the ship the same day they are released in the states.
Stranger Things is the ultimate homage to 80s movies like Goonies, Firestarter and Poltergeist, and directors the Duffer Brothers aren't shy about including easy to spot nods to their favorite 80s movies in each episode.
But in case you didn't catch them all the first time around, or you're just looking for a fun way to get in the mood for season 2, check out this video by Looper showing the Easter eggs from Stranger Things season 1 you may have missed.
There's a scene in the second episode of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things in which Eleven is in Mike's bedroom looking at an old photograph of Will. She leans forward and points to the photo, somehow identifying the missing child. This scene, one of the few non-sci-fi or horror homages in the '80s referencing Stranger Things, is also among the only Easter Eggs in the series the Internet has missed, according to its directors the Duffer brothers.
It's a reference to the 1985 Harrison Ford movie Witness, directed by Peter Weir. In the original scene, a young Amish boy is walking through a police station when he sees the photograph of the man whom he identifies as the perpetrator of a murder investigation.
Cosplayers who get serious about their craft never stop improving and refining their costuming skills, and after a few years of making costumes they look back at their first cosplay creations and have a good laugh.
It's fun to see how far a cosplayer has come with their costuming and prop building skills over the years, and the difference is night and day when their old and new costumes are presented side-by-side.
Some show marked improvement after only a few years, while others spent over a decade honing their skills so they can take the Cons by storm in their amazing costume.
And while not every cosplayer will improve their skills so dramatically those who do prove they've got what it takes to make screen worthy costumes that stand up to scrutiny.
Overwatch is a fun game and all, but I find myself going back to each character's animated trailer more often than I actually play the game- because they're so much fun to watch that Blizzard should make an animated Overwatch movie.
In each trailer we get an idea of what each character is capable of, their motivations in life, and how they fit in to the overall story of Overwatch which many players simply skip over so they can get to the action.
If you enjoy animated shorts, and don't particularly care to play a multiplayer shooter with a bunch of people you don't know, then you're not missing a thing by skipping the game and watching all the trailers instead. Thanks GameCin!
If you think about it Pennywise chose the hardest group of kids to terrorize- pre-teen boys, who actually enjoy being scared, think blood and gore are cool, and whose rising hormone levels leave them eternally horny.
That's not to say pre-teen boys aren't easily haunted, but the hauntings would have to pertain to being embarrassed in front of a girl at school, or getting an "over eager visitor" during class, and Pennywise does sewers, not schools. (comic by JHALL)
When DC Comics announced they were releasing a bunch of DC/Looney Tunes Specials I was excited to see what they would do with these beloved characters.
Then they released titles like Jonah Hex/Yosemite Sam, Lobo/Road Runner and Martian Manhunter/Marvin the Martian which proved to be both crazier and cooler than expected when the concept was fleshed out with artwork and grim storylines.
But none of the DC/Looney Tunes crossover titles are as delightfully dark, or as bats#$t crazy, as the Batman/Elmer Fudd special, where we find Fudd giving up his hunt for wabbits to take down the Bat.
Comic artist extraordinaire Neal Adams liked the crossover comic so much he created this super fun audioplay as "An homage to my new favorite comic book", so we can actually hear the Fudd hit the fan.
Kids shows aren't known for their attention to detail, nor do they normally care about continuity errors or plot holes, and even though they've gotten better over the years show creators were terrible about these things in the 1980s.
So many 80s kids shows left giant plot holes unexplained that we can discuss all the disconnects until the cows come home, and speaking of cows- was Barth's Burgery on You Can't Do That On Television actually serving beef?
Whatever Barth was serving up made the kids sick on a weekly basis, so you'd think they would have stopped eating there, but I guess they were sick of slime.
And speaking of sick- Gargamel chased the Smurfs because he wanted to eat them, and even though it was never fully explained it seems like Smurfs must be pretty tasty if Gargamel was willing to go to so great lengths for a Smurf Sandwich.
80s Kids looking for a regular meal could pay a visit to Punky's Place, where a teenage Punky Brewster fulfilled her dream of running a restaurant and sold sammiches and such instead of going to school.
So why would a kids show let their main character play hooky? Because any show that features a dog wedding as their final episode clearly had no idea what kind of message they were trying to send to kids!
Ever wish you could cosplay in the comfort of your own home all while getting nice and cozy? Then you'll love these adorable princess dress blankets by Etsy seller CHCreations4U.
If you can crochet, you can get the patterns to make your own almost immediately, but otherwise you'll have to message the seller to see if there's any chance she may custom make you one of these blankets. Alternatively, there's always plenty of other crafters on Etsy that may be willing to put the pattern together for you.
Wes Craven's 1977 film The Hills Have Eyes is an unique horror flick about a family of mutant cannibals who waylay travelers in the Nevada desert, robbing and cannibalizing them to survive.
The film is now considered a cult classic and generally thought of as the film that launched Craven's career, but in the beginning The Hills Had Eyes had one major problem- it was originally rated X due to graphic violence.
Craven produced the film on a tight budget, which forced him to get creative- he found the tarantula used in the film on the road and procured a dead dog "from the county" for the scene where Doug finds the family dog's mutilated corpse.
And the grueling conditions of filiming in the Nevada desert made the threat of heatstroke a grim reality for star Michael Berryman:
Berryman, who became a horror icon thanks to this film, was apparently game for just about anything Craven and company wanted him to do, though he personally told the producers he was born with “26 birth defects.” Among those birth defects was a lack of sweat glands, which meant that the intense desert heat was particularly hazardous to his health. He soldiered on, though, even in intense action sequences.
“We always had to cover him up as soon as we finished these scenes,” Craven recalled.
The Nintendo Game Boy revolutionized portable gaming in three major ways- it allowed gamers to take multiple games with them on cartridges, it let them use their headphones and it offered multiplayer options via the Game Link port.
These were amazing features in a handheld gaming device in 1989, and even though the black and white graphics were somewhat dull games like Tetris and Dr. Mario were fun and addictive.
But kids today grow up with smart devices that have touchscreens, HD graphics and online connectivity so to them the Game Boy must seem like an ancient relic, one which they can't figure out how to play.
Proud papa Chris Cohoon shot these videos of his daughter puzzling over the Game Boy's antiquated features, such as buttons and a screen that doesn't respond to touch, but after a while she figures out how to play.
The bond between a child and their imaginary friend is strong, and even though kids eventually outgrow their imaginary friend they, and their parents, never forget their special time together.
But what about all the unimagined friends waiting for a kid to summon them from Imagination Land and give them imaginary life? For them life continues to feel flat and colorless, as they wait to get called up to the imagination big leagues...
Unimagined Friends is another great student made animated short from The Animation Workshop in Denmark, where having an imaginary friend is not only encouraged- it's mandatory!
Where is a gamer to go when they have a weird experience while playing a multiplayer game online?
They can share their story on Facebook, where people will leave likes and nice comments but really won't give a crap, or they can share their strange tale with people who are passionate about gaming, like the Steam community.
On Steam you can read all about how someone found and adopted a naked man in Rust who later killed the player and his virtual wife, or how in Town Of Salem naming your character Justin Bieber is punishable by death.
But as crazy as those stories are the stories about Conan Exiles are exactly what you'd expect!
Most of the music videos made in the 1980s and 1990s were made in Los Angeles, where actors and musicians freely mingle before and after their careers had taken off.
This Hollywood connection between pop music and visual media made music videos the perfect platform for launching an actor's career, and some of the most famous faces in Hollywood started out as unknown extras in music videos.
1. Christina Hendricks in Everclear's "One Hit Wonder"-
Christina Hendricks hit the big time when she played the fierce yet sultry Joan Holloway in Mad Men, and some even think playing Kelly Kramer on Beggars and Choosers really launched her career in television.
But nobody seems to remember her portrayal of "Loopy" in the video for Everclear's song One Hit Wonder, probably because she was overshadowed by game show host extraordinaire Wink Martindale.
2. Angelina Jolie in Meat Loaf's "Rock 'N' Roll Dreams Come Through"-
Just because Angelina Jolie has a famous father who was already a Hollywood A-lister by the time she was in high school doesn't mean she got to skip straight to the top.
No, Ms. Jolie had to start at the bottom eating meatloaf like everybody else, err...I mean acting with Meatloaf in the music video for his song Rock 'N' Roll Dreams Come Through! The video came out in 1993, which is the same year she starred in Cyborg 2
The video came out in 1993, which is the same year Angelina starred in Cyborg 2 and co-starred with Amy Smart in the video for The Lemonheads song It's About Time, blink and you'll miss her!
3. Courteney Cox in Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing In The Dark"-
Before she was a sitcom star who was always there for you Courteney Cox was there for Bruce Springsteen to serve as his biggest fan in the "live concert" music video for Dancing In The Dark.
Courteney had the moves, she had the Springsteena look popular with female Springsteen fans in the 80s, and she had the sweet face people adored, so it's not surprising she became one of our best Friends in the 90s.
When John Cleese and his ex-wife/co-star Connie Booth created the TV comedy Fawlty Towers he didn't expect the show to overshadow his work on Monty Python's Flying Circus, nor did he expect his portrayal of Basil Fawlty to become part of comedy history.
But despite BBC exectutives doubt and initial low ratings Fawlty Towers went on to become one of the most popular Britcoms of all time, and it all started when Cleese met "the rudest man I've ever come across in my life" at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay:
While shooting Monty Python’s Flying Circus, John Cleese and the rest of the Monty Python team stayed at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, where they were constantly berated by the eccentric hotel owner Donald Sinclair...Sinclair, who was known for being in a perpetually high state of anxiety, apparently threw Eric Idle’s briefcase into the street as soon as the team arrived, claiming it could be a bomb. He chastised Terry Gilliam for holding his silverware incorrectly and knocked on Michael Palin’s door to ask whether he meant to put up his “Do Not Disturb” sign.
According to The Spectator, “He’d be furious if a teapot meant for four was placed on a table for two. He marched about in his dressing-gown berating guests for wanting hot water to heat a baby’s bottle, early alarm calls, late suppers, or if they requested a taxi. ‘Why?’ he’d howl incredulously, taking a step back, his jaw dropping. If you went out late he might yell after you, ‘And where do you think you’re going?’”
While others might have found Sinclair’s outbursts off-putting, Cleese was inspired. When he began working on ideas for a television show, Sinclair’s antics immediately popped back into his mind, and he decided to model Basil Fawlty and his wife Sybil after Sinclair and his wife Beatrice.
The Grim Reaper will come for us all some day so there's no need to summon him before your time has come, and any necromancer who dares to summon the Reaper while he's at work is asking for trouble of the immortal kind.
That's why we don't have to fear the arrival of the Reaper, because when he comes we'll be stone cold dead without a care in the world, so keep on rockin' until you feel that bony finger tapping on your shoulder!
Fauche Qui Peut (Rest In Fame) is a fun 3D animated short created at the ArtFX School in Montpellier, France, and it reveals what we've always suspected- Grim Reapers naturally gravitate towards rock stars. Live fast, die young...
