Back in the day (you know, the day when all hills went up and there was a foot of snow on the ground and things were simple and we liked it that way), it seemed that every time I bought a pound of coffee beans from any coffee shop, I got a free cup of coffee.

It was a glorious time when the brown caffeinated nectar flowed like the mighty rivers of British Columbia.

We now live in dark times. French roast times, if you will. After buying beans from several different coffee establishments and not being offered even a 10 ounce complimentary cup of joe, I'm starting to wonder if free coffee ever existed.

Maybe every time I bought a pound of beans, they asked if I wanted coffee and I just didn't pay them. Oh, those were the days...

Zombies were dead last on my list of scary monsters growing up. They moved slow, they weren't intelligent, and zombie stories seemed to all be the same. It wasn't until I watched Romero's 1978 "Dawn of the Dead" that I discovered how cool zombies really are.

The undead masses went to the Monroeville Mall (where the living characters were holed up) not because they smelled human flesh but because going to the mall was "some kind of instinct" and "an important place in their lives." The zombie analogy for blind consumerism is brilliant. All of a sudden zombies weren't just a big, bad monster for me; I realized that zombies are metaphors. Fear of death, fear of the unknown, fear of not having a choice.

The undead are now dead first on my list.

Another dead first on my lists is "The Walking Dead" by Robert Kirkland. It's brilliant because it's not about the zombies. It's about the people. It starts out like a pretty normal zombie story, but quickly goes beyond the typical boundaries of that story. Plus, if you put all the trade paperback covers together, they make a cool undead crowd scene.

Read the first issue here.

Everyone has had a song stuck in their head. Most of the time the songs are unacceptably pop-y and catchy. And no matter how far one sticks a Q-Tip into their ear (don't try this at home, kids) the maddening melody won't get out. A friend gave us a term to embody the phenomenon of getting it wedged in there.

tunemaster: (verb) the act of getting a song stuck in somebody else's head (usually maliciously)

While my son hasn't watched all of "Happy Feet," he watches a couple of the DVD extras every day. One of which is the 1936 animated short, "I Love to Singa," done by Tex Avery.

Both my wife and myself vividly remember this cartoon from our childhood. It features a young jazz singer named Owl Jolson [pause for laughter] who is constantly crooning, "I love to singa about the moon-a and the June-a and the Spring-a..." and, dammit, I just tunemastered myself again!

Watch "I Love to Singa" here.

I was just composing a post on my favorite new television shows when I heard the news. My post was about two new shows that I've started to look forward to every week. Two new programs that make me believe in television storytelling again.

The first is the British series "Robin Hood." The brilliant part about the show is that it's not a retelling of the tale. The writers took the characters and developed them to such a point that they can be put into any situation and it's entertaining. The Sheriff is played over-the-top, Robin is played as a cocky do-gooder, and Marion is played as a strong-headed, independent woman. I just can't get enough of this series.

The second is "Andy Barker P.I." -- a quirky comedy from the mind of Conan O'Brien. It's about an accountant who unknowingly stumbles into the world of private investigation. It reminds me of the hilarious, but not picked up, pilot by Conan -- Lookwell starring Adam West.

The news? "Andy Barker P.I." got the axe. The final two episodes run this Saturday. And my faith is once again lost that good television shows can make the cut. At least "Robin Hood" is shown on a season delay from England so I'll have at least a little warning when it gets canceled.

Andy Barker: "Ooh, a tax return. Things just got interesting."

Ever since I saw the comedy "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka," where the main character had a band following him around playing his theme song, I realized that my life would only be complete when I had my own appropriate background music playing at all times. My life would be more compelling, more emotive, and more inspirational.

My dreams were realized just a little bit the other day when I was furiously working on some new code for work. I swept up a handful of 80s songs into my music player and started programming away. At one point, my ear bent to the music that surrounded my desk and I noticed that I was listening to an 80s Movie Montage song.

montage: (noun) a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots is edited into a sequence to condense narrative.

I felt as if I was working faster, getting more accomplished, and having wacky fun in doing so. It was amazing. Obviously, what was lacking in my life was an 80s movie montage mix. Like this one...

1) Joe Esposito - "You're the Best (Around)" [from "The Karate Kid"]
2) Comsat Angels - "I'm Falling" [from "Real Genius"]
3) Chas Jankel - "Number One" [from "Real Genius"]
4) Bone Symphony - "One Foot in Front of the Other" [from "Revenge of the Nerds"]
5) E.G. Daily - "Mind Over Matter" [from "Summer School"]
6) Mark Safan - "Win in the End" [from "Teen Wolf"]
7) Paul Engemann - "Push It to the Limit" [from "Scarface"]
8) Sammy Hagar - "Winner Takes It All" [from "Over the Top"]