Imagine a live action movie with Spider-man, Santos, and Captain America. Never could happen, right? Wrong!

Believe it or not, that very film was made back in Turkey back in 1973. We should ignore the fact that the film was made without permission from either Marvel Comics or Santos and just appreciate the wackiness. In "The Dev Adam" (roughly translates to "Three Mighty Men") Captain America and Santos attempt to capture a maniacal murderer in a Spidey mask.

Cap and Santos make a fitting team. I just feel bad for Spidey's publicist.

You can see more information and screen grabs on the always awesome COMIC BOOK LEGENDS REVEALED column (CLICK HERE).

Here are some clips from the film:

I'm really loving this new Eminem video, "We Made You". The song is mediocre when compared to Eminem's best stuff. But the video showcases Pop Culture mockery at its best.

Spoofs include bits on Jessica Simpson's weight, Kim Kardashian's butt, Lindsay Lohan's lesbianism, Sarah Palin's milf-ery, and Bret Michael's 'Rock of Love'. It's like they took 20 of the best skits from SNL/Mad TV and whittled them down into a 4 minute video.

Musical production is standard Dr. Dre/Eminem fare. Eminem's flow has become so refined that's its a sonic chainsaw (vrrmm, vrrm, vrrrrrrmmm!). The ideas are all there lyrically, but I wish Eminem would get back to what made his earlier stuff worked. With the speed and preciseness Eminem is now rapping at, you lose the time and space to let any genuine emotion breath. This is the stylistic approach he's been refining since his 3rd album... but it takes away from the deep resonance of anger that you can feel on his first two albums.

Maybe, Eminem has nothing to be angry about? He's embraced by the Mainstream. But there's gotta be SOMETHING that'll work him up. Em's best when he's got something to prove. I was hoping that he'd start going off on the political culture that existed during 2000-2008. But I guess he's not a political dude.

Can somebody please get Eminem angry? Asher Roth maybe? I feel there's still more greatness in Eminem. But to get to it, he needs something to hate. He needs to be so pissed off that he HAS to unleash it in his music. You can FEEL that. I just haven't really felt much of that since the MARSHALL MATHERS LP.

At the end of the day, mediocre Eminem is better than most Hip-Hop. It's just tough to embrace when you know there's more in the guy. Imagine 2pac without his passion, intelligence, and insecurity. Imagine Biggie without his swagger. That's what we've been getting from Eminem... and it's bums me out a bit.

It's super rare that I'm in a photo-taking mood. But the day I took Jerry to the LAX airport for his France trip, my inner-nihonjin (Japanese) brought out the picture-taking machine in me!  :-)

Since neither Jerry or I had ever been, we decided to have a nice business lunch at The Encounter Restaurant. If you are a Los Angeleno, you may not have heard of The Encounter, but you've surely seen it. It's that super retro-futurist structure that makes the ho-hum LAX airport look pretty nifty. It's like they took a piece of The Jetsons and put it smack dab in the middle of those nasty LAX roads!

I remember being fascinated by the building as a kid. At night it lights up in these beautifully vibrant colors. I'd always hope to see a cool Jetson style rocket car pull up for a refuel.

What I hadn't discovered until recently is that it's a fully stocked restaurant and bar!

Sadly, they've been doing tons of external reconstruction to the building and we went during the daytime (the atmosphere of the place shines best by LA moonlight). But there was enough of a good time to be had to make me want to go again.

The entrance of the building is very unassuming and pretty boring. As you walk in, you enter an atrium/lobby that is very reminiscent of a generic government building. It even has that musty old fabric smell!

You then get on a rickety alumninum elevator and the magic begins! The lights of the elevator dim and some psychadelic shag/jazz enlivens your 15 second elevator ride to the restaurant.

The restaurant is super kitsch. There are tons of lava lamps and aluminum tabletops. You also get an amazing view of the airport and Los Angeles. The interior feels like a weird mix of a 50s Hamburger Diner and something out of your favorite 50s sci-fi film. The silly vibe is a bit infectious... so much so that even the waiters appear to be having a good time hanging out and talking between serving customers.

Food was decent. It's a little costly (I think I paid $20 for a Cobb Salad)... but the funky presentation adds to the experience. I recommend checking out the bathroom (pictured below). It's filled with wacky colored glass that'd probably make a drunkard bug out.

I look forward to going back with the wife one of these days. It's a part of the "L.A." experience that, as a Los Angeleno, I'm sad took me far too many years to experience!

Kami Robo literally translates to 'paper robot'. But there's far more to it than the title suggests. Yasui, the founder of Kami-Robo, initially created robots out of paper to play with as a means of letting his imagination run wild without destroying his favorite plastic and metal toys. This quickly became an obssession that would take a life of its own. His homemade paper robots almost immediately stopped resembling his favorite Gundam robots and begun to manifest unique personalities that came through in their fighting methods. Yasui even began tinkering with the craftmanship behind the robots construction. Unlike action-figures who's ball joints allowed them to move into awkward positions no human could ever do, Yasui attempted to create joints in his robots whose limitations accurately reflected the limitations of human joints.

Flying robot battles became more and more like wrestling matches. Yasui made a wrestling ring and created an intricate wrestling federation. 200+ figures with their own backstories were made. Kami-Robo became an ambitous homemade toy universe that existed in the mind of Yasui.

In 2004, 22 years after Yasui first began making his paper robot wrestlers, Yasui began filming his wrestling matches and posting them on a website for others to view. In 2005, Yasui started having public matches. In order to ensure he could give matches complete concentration (as he fully controls both wrestlers in matches), Yasui has his back to the audience. The audience can watch the match on screens showing different views of the fight as it unfolds.

I find it incredibly courageous and fascinating that Yasui commited to 'playing' with these homemade toys and that, with time, it was able to find an appreciative audience. As with any true Artist, it seems that these wrestling matches speak through Yasui. There's a whole universe in Yasui and his paper warriors are his means of getting that universe out of him.

I remember seeing Kami-Robo set up at San Diego Comicon in 2007. Unfortunately I was unable to watch any of Yasui's fights.

Here's some great videos about Yasui and Kami-Robo:

Now this is the epitome of MONKEY NUTS! I love, love, love the monster designs... and that killer Japanese afro may inspire me to reapproach my hairdo.

Jerry's photos of the pack of Raccoons that visited him last night reminded me of the wacky fascination the Japanese have with Tanuki, the Japanese Raccoon Dogs. Tanukis are apparently mischievious shape shifters. You may find statues of them at your favorite Japanese store or restaurant.

For some reason Japanese folklore and art focus on the Tanuki's testicles. The gargantuan huevos are supposed to bring financial prosperity. Apparently the real-life animal have proportionally large testicles. With generations of artistic freedom, Japanase artist have exaggerated this feature to astronomical extremes. Tanuki ball are depicted as HUGE. I mean scrotum dragging on the floor huge; the kind that you can carry over your shoulder, drum music, or perform sumo matches on huge!

I've included some of the wackier examples of Tanuki ball sac syndrome below.