"Kid Charlemagne" Burger (Recipe)

 Ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef
1/2 cup Heinz 57 sauce
1/4 cup honey
1 red onion, diced
1-4 Roma tomatoes, sliced
Bread & butter pickle slices or chips
Onion sandwich rolls, sliced
Sharp cheddar cheese, sliced
Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
Honey Dijon Mustard
Gas grill REQUIRED

Before preparing food, go to music player and put on Steely Dan's "The Royal Scam". While the music plays, you work by candlelight.

In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, Heinz 57 sauce, honey, and red onions. Form into hamburger patties of desired size and thickness. Preheat gas grill to approximately 350 degrees for 10 minutes (Is there gas in the grill? Yes there's gas in the grill!). Lower temperature so that flame is at minimum setting. Grill patties on low flame for 5-7 minutes, flip patties, then grill for 5-7 minutes on other side. Remove from flame. Place sharp cheddar cheese slices on patties and allow the heat from patties to melt cheese. Toast onion sandwich rolls to desired consistency. Spread mayonnaise/Miracle Whip on underside of top roll slice, then spread honey Dijon mustard on bottom roll slice. Add patties to buns, and top patties with bread & butter pickle slices/chips and sliced Roma tomatoes.

Then after eating, clean this mess up, else we'll all end up in jail!

Please also feel free to check out my recipe for a chicken Milanese sandwich here:

https://thethousandeyes.blogspot.com/2018/07/heros-chicken-milanese-sandwich-on.html

"Kid Charlemagne" Burger (Recipe)

Ingredients: 2 lbs ground beef 1/2 cup Heinz 57 sauce 1/4 cup honey 1 red onion, diced 1-4 Roma tomatoes, sliced Bread & butter pickle slices or chips Onion sandwich rolls, sliced Sharp cheddar cheese, sliced Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip Honey Dijon Mustard Gas grill REQUIRED Before preparing food, go to music player and put on Steely Dan's "The Royal Scam".

 

Suicide Squad (2016)

Last night I saw the movie Suicide Squad. Despite all the negative ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, I'm glad I decided to ignore the hype and see the movie, myself. I really enjoyed the movie.

From a technical standpoint, Batman v. Superman was a better-edited movie than Suicide Squad, but that's really the only beef I had with the movie. Director David Ayer had to cram a lot of exposition into the first 30 minutes of the movie in order to set up each character for the audience; otherwise the average fan would have virtually no idea who any of them were. The die-hard DC fans would pick everybody out almost instantly, but the rest of us would have been clueless.

Being more of a Marvel fan that DC fan over the years, I was only casually familiar with a few characters besides Batman, the Joker, and Harley Quinn. I was able to pick out Captain Boomerang as a for of the Flash (who had a short cameo in the movie) and Deadshot from the Batman: Arkham games, and I recognized Viola Davis' Amanda Waller character, but overall, I was pretty much learning about the rest of the cast of characters for the first time. Mr. Ayer did a pretty good job essentially setting up the origin story of everybody within the first half hour without the pace getting too slow.

I loved Jared Leto's take on the Joker. I felt he the best of all the previous Jokers, especially Cesar Romero's Joker from Batman '66 and Mark Hamill's Joker from the animated series and video games. He definitely played the part of a homicidal maniac quite well, and in a real-life setting, I would have been far more scared of Leto's Joker than Heath Ledger's Joker from the Christopher Nolan films.

Will Smith was, without a doubt, the lead character in the film. I really enjoyed his take on the Deadshot character. He played the part with a commanding presence, despite the fact that he wasn't the leader of the team; Joel Kinnaman's Col. Rick Flag was. Mr. Smith was able to portray the part of a gun-for-hire with the dimension and turmoil of a doting father who didn't want to be taken away from his loving daughter.

My favorite character in the film, by far, was Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn. Harley stole the show in every scene she was in. She offered realistic and believable take on a cartoon character who is normally over-the-top comical and extremely exaggerated in her every move and word in the animated series. Ms. Robbie's Harley came off as an extremely beautiful and extremely dangerous femme fatale that I would fall in love with in a heartbeat, even if I knew she could kill me at any moment. The only person in the world who could possibly capture her heart was the Joker, for sure.

The dynamic between the Joker and Harley in this movie was quite moving for me. Despite being crazed, murderous criminals, you could tell these two genuinely loved each other, and Joker would do anything for this woman, and vice versa. I just wish these two could have been given more screen time together.

Leto's Joker didn't get nearly as much screen time as the trailers made it look like he would. He a grand total of 7 minutes in the movie, but the scenes in which he appeared were pretty powerful. I heard that there had been more scenes with the Joker shot for the movie, but they had to cut most of them out in order to meet the total screen time of 2 hours and 10 minutes. Here's hoping there's an extended cut like there was in Batman v. Superman.

Amazing Spider-Man #39

I'm selling my copy of Amazing Spider-Man #39. If you're interested in purchasing it, check it out here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Amazing-Spider-Man-39-Aug-1966-Marvel-/272325112927?

Journey - Feeling That Way

WONDER WOMAN Comic-Con Trailer

Justice League Special Comic-Con Footage

Voltron: Old vs New

Voltron: Old Vs. New

I originally published this video on YouTube on June 16, 2016. The commentary you are reading right now has been published as of May 24, 2022. Yeah, it's been a while.....

I was a fan of the original World Events Production adaptation of the original Japanese GoLion cartoon, back when it was syndicated in 1984. I was hooked on the original U.S. release of Voltron, right away. I used to watch it at my grandma's house during the summers, both Lion Voltron and Vehicle Voltron. I still have my original Matchbox Vehicle Voltron warrior sets. I won't be letting those go, anytime soon.

Back in the mid-twenty-teens, DreamWorks bought the rights to Voltron, and decided to launch a reboot series about the lion force. This video is about that series, and how it is both similar and different to the original release. I produced this commentary video as a follow-up to my Mazinger Z: Anime vs. Manga video, which you can watch here:

Mazinger Z: Anime vs Manga

I only managed to catch the first season of DreamWorks' Voltron series. A lot has happened since season 1, that I haven't had a chance to catch up to. I no longer have NetFlix, so it could be a while before I see any of the subsequent seasons, assuming they're still available to watch. 

On a positive note, my YouTube analytics shows that my Voltron: Old vs. New videos still gets a fair amount of views daily. Unfortunately, my YouTube account got de-monetized about 5 years ago when YouTube changed the rules for eligibility. I was so demoralized after going through all that work, and producing all of that content, that I didn't want to bother with that platform, anymore. I'm still a content creator, and I still earn money from various ad revenue sources, but YouTube is not currently one of those sources. 

Right now, my goal is to get The Hero's Blog re-furbished, and caught up to current blog standards, increase my viewership here, and then maybe I may try producing video content on YouTube again. 

The Story of The Hero

The Story of The Hero

Ever since the mid-1990's, I've been referred to as "Hero". Some people from that time period still call me that to this day. So how did I get that name?

Answer: From a Steve Lukather song.

In 1994, Steve Lukather released his second solo album, entitled "Candyman". The first song on the album was entitled "Hero with a 1000 Eyes". I thought that was a cool name, so I started using it in my various musical acts. In fact, my main musical project since 1999 has been under the name "The Thousand Eyes". You can check out my ReverbNation page here: https://www.reverbnation.com/thethousandeyes

UPDATE 05-24-2022: My Hero's Journey has taken a series of twist and turns in the years since I originally posted this blog, but I'm still here. I'm not currently making music right now, but I'm still alive. I don't know when, or if, I will be able to resume my musical career. A lot has happened, but that is a Hero's Tale for another day.......