Happy Birthday Rick Nielsen

Lead guitarist of Cheap Trick, but more importantly, the writer of the theme song for The Colbert Report, turns 61.

Happy Birthday Samuel Jackson

Happy Birthday Ozzy Osbourne

Happy Birthday Phil Hartman

Happy Birthday Terry Bradshaw

Happy Birthday Lewis Black

I kind of shat this one out pretty fast, as I am tired of slipping behind on these things.

Happy Birthday Mike Holmgren (6-15-09)

The man who led the Packers to their 3rd Super Bowl victory turned 61 yesterday, and only 4 days after the birthday of the man who led them to their first 2 Super Bowl victories. Coincidence? Probably.

Happy Belated 61st, Tony Iommi (2-19-09)

Happy Birthday Christopher Guest

Funny Alice Cooper should mention Spinal Tap in that video I posted, because I think most would agree that This is Spinal Tap is probably one of Christopher Guest's best films. That and Best in Show. Like Alice Cooper, Guest is now 61.

Sometimes when I'm watching The Office I'm convinced that the overall uncomfortable feeling they convey so well, along with the whole painful awkwardness being the new "funny" is all very much influenced by the humor of Guest's mocumentaries. And what a public service he has performed if that is the case.

*HONORABLE MENTIONS:
H.R. Giger is 69
Hank Aaron is 75
William S. Burroughs would have been 95

Happy Belated 61st Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper turned 61 yesterday. I saw him about 10 years ago in my hometown at a sports bar, in a town with a population of about 71,000. This was a day before I saw Ozzy play in front of 40,000 at Alpine Valley. Alice Cooper was pretty entertaining, fun enough that I went to see him again a couple years later (also because I had free tickets that were handed out at my billionth GWAR show).

For anyone who has ever been a fan of any type of metal, I strongly recommend the documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey. It's equally intriguing, informative, amusing, campy, embarassing, etc. There's a segment where they focus on Norwegian black metal, and band members and fans who were involved in a series of church burnings in Norway in the early 90s. They burned down several landmark churches that were up to 600 years old.

If you have 2 minutes, here are 2 clips from that film. The first is a brief interview with the front man of a band called Gorgoroth, regarding the church burnings. That's followed up by Alice Cooper's hilarious remarks about Norwegian black metal.

Happy Birthday John Carpenter

Wow, 16th day of the year and this is already the 7th person I've drawn who is in their 60's. Probably most famous for Halloween, filmmaker John Carpenter turns 61 today. He has directed several horror/sci-fi greats, but as far as his best work is concerned, my votes will have to go to The Thing and They Live.

FUN FACT: Not only is John Carpenter a fellow Elvis fan, but in 1969's Change of Habit, Elvis played a character named John Carpenter. A few years later, Kurt Russell played Elvis in Elvis, a TV movie directed by Carpenter.

Back to They Live, not only does it star who I always believed to be the WWF's (now WWE) most lovable wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper, but it gets my vote for Carpenter's best film for this classic scene alone: