Back to the Future: The "Eastwood" Timeline

Because you didn't know you needed this until now:

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Meanwhile, Three Years Later...

2011 Matt: No! It can't be! I just finished this blog!

2014 Matt: I know. You DID finish this blog, but I'm back. I'm back to the blogging.

2011 Matt: Great Scott! [faints]

Well lookie what we have here...

S'up, everybody! It's Matt! Didn't think you'd ever see another post from me, huh?

Oh, who am I kidding, me neither.

Seriously! When I wrote that "Time to Smile" post 3 years ago today (crikey!) and hit "Publish", that was supposed to be it. Done. Finished. Thanks for playing.

(The Barnes & Noble post was a bit of an anomaly. Non-canonical but necessary.)

I mean, what else was I supposed to write about here? Read the tagline: "Living in Seattle. Writing about Japan." and I'd officially just stopped doing both. If you recall, when we last left our hero(ld), the first draft of my book about Japan was complete and I was using that as the perfect excuse to finally leave the Pacific Northwest.

It was time for my Great American Road Trip™!
I was east-coast-bound!
A cruise ship docked on the horizon!

Well, I'm happy to report that my cross-country drive ended up being amazing.

My time on cruise ships, not so much.

[If you're curious, I successfully completed two contracts with Carnival. The first was to see if I was cut out for ship life, the second was to confirm that I wasn't. I'm sure I'll delve deeper into the waking nightmare that was working as an entertainment host but, until then, the following video pretty much sums it up.]

And now, here it is, precisely 3 years later (fittingly, on the 29th anniversary of the opening of "Back to the Future") and I'm back sitting in a coffee shop - right leg jittery from too much caffeine - spending way too much time composing a blog post. The view out the window, however, is quite different. I've traded the claustrophobic gloom of Seattle for the Instagram-filter-like haze of Los Angeles, my new home. Crazy, right?? But there's still some familiar territory:

I'm back at Mad Science.
I'm back in theme parks.
I'm even back capital-W-writing so it only seems fitting that I be back here too.

Sadly no, that doesn't mean I've started revising my book (hopefully soon GAWD DON'T PRESSURE ME) but I have started working on a screenplay - it's required within the first 6 months of residency in LA - and it seems to have awoken the somewhat atrophied part of my brain that liked blogging.

So weird, I thought writing on this thing was just a huge distraction but it inadvertently ended up producing a ton of actual content, some of it pretty decent. I also didn't think anyone was reading this stuff. Turns out I was wrong. (More on that soon.)

As for the blog's somewhat outdated "theme", I'm sure I'll figure something out. My brother once commented that "Black Coffee and Green Tea" was more than a blog title, it was a way of life, an apt description of me. I still take my coffee black, I still love my green tea, I still drink too much caffeine.

So, here I am! Not sure how frequently I'll be posting. Or for how long. Or if I'll even ever post again but I'm back. (To that same ol' place that I laughed about...)

Welcome back, welcome back, welcome baaaaack everyone! Missed you.

Happy Birthday, Christopher Lloyd!

Happy 72nd birthday to the greatest Doc Brown of all time!

Thank you, Mr. Lloyd, for unintentionally becoming such a huge part of my life.

For those of you out there who didn't catch him on stage the other night with Michael J. Fox at the 2010 Scream Awards, here's a clip:



That man looks GREAT for his age.

And, if you haven't pre-ordered the Blu-ray Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy Box Set (with a digital copy for Pete's sake!), what are you waiting for??  Do it now!

Best. Coffeeshop. Ever.

DeLorean time machine in the window?
Original Ghostbusters poster?
MOCHA PUFFS???



Sorry Seattle, Chicago's got us beat.

Read the full story about The Wormhole here: http://bit.ly/dbt2iO Or visit them here:

The Wormhole
1462 N. Milwaukee
Chicago IL
http://thewormholecoffee.com

And if you've been or ever get the chance to check it out, let me know all about it in the comments!

(Thanks, Ken!)

When This Thread Count Gets Up To 88 Threads Per Inch...

You're going to see some serious stitch.

A hand-beaded DeLorean sitting outside the Twin Pines mall:

Who says sewing isn't awesome?

(via The Lone Beader)

I Figured Out Who I Want to Draw My Book Cover

Drew Struzan.

And who is Drew Struzan, you ask?

Only the greatest movie poster artist... ever.

Here's a piece of his you might have seen before:

Speaking of which, the fine folks over at /Film (who seem to love Back to the Future almost as much as I do) have pointed out that there's a preview of a documentary about Drew over on Starwars.com. (Yeah, he did the Star Wars posters as well.) Click through below to see the video:

How good does that look?? Now I just have to figure out a way to become famous enough by the time my book is done so I can afford to have Drew draw the cover. (At the rate I'm going, that shouldn't be a problem.)

Anyway, here are a few pictures of some Back to the Future Concept Art that I had on my hard drive.

From the first film:

 And from the second:

Genius.

Universal is Really Trying to Get Me to Buy a Blu-Ray Player

Digital copies!!

Universal adds Digital Copies to upcoming Blu-ray & DVD releases (via BackTalk):

"Universal Studios Home Entertainment has just notified BTTF.com that they will be adding digital copies of all three films to both the Blu-ray Disc and DVD releases of the 25th Anniversary box sets being released October 26, 2010."

Can you just imagine being able to watch "Back to the Future" on your iPhone whenever you wanted??

I love technology.

GREAT SCOTT!!

Check out my blog traffic for the week:

I wish EVERYday could be the 25th anniversary of Back to the Future!

UPDATE: I don't know how everybody found my site but nearly all of them seemed to be going to this post about the Back to the Future iPhone app.

UPDATE II: Think I figured it out. If you do a Google search for "back to the future time circuits", the picture from my post is in the top three. Interesting!

Happy 25th Anniversary, Back to the Future!

It was 25 years ago today that "Back to the Future" was released, giving my 11-year-old self the thrill of his life and my 29-year-old-self a job in Japan.

Great Scott! Back to the Future Was Released 25 Years Ago Today (from /Film):

"Robert Zemeckis‘ Back to the Future was released 25 years ago today, on July 3rd 1985. The movie is not just a classic but, as you know, my favorite movie of all time.

After the jump I’ve included a bunch of behind the scenes videos and old trailers. Please leave your memories of the first film in the comments below!"

Big thanks to everyone who brought this trilogy to life.

Back Blu-Ray Future! (OK, it's a stretch)

Universal Announces Back to the Future Trilogy Blu-Ray (from /Film):

"After many years of waiting (and one convincing headfake back in January), Universal has finally confirmed in a press release that the Back to the Future Trilogy will be released on Blu-Ray on October 26, 2010. It will be sold as the “25th Anniversary Trilogy” and will also be available on DVD. Details about the box set after the break."

Man, I was really hoping I wouldn't have to buy a Blu-Ray player any time soon.

Happy Birthday, Michael J. Fox!

Marty is 49 today!

Amazing.  He looks better than the 47-year-old version of himself in Back to the Future II. Gotta love Michael J. Fox.

Oh, and he's got a new book out, too!



You should totally buy it!

This Is Heavy Duty, Doc!

Today's a red letter date in the history of science!

54 years ago today, Doctor Emmet Lathrop Brown had a vision.

A picture in his head.

A picture of this:

This is what makes time travel possible. The Flux Capacitor!

Happy Flux Capacitor Day!

How Back To The Future Almost Nuked The Fridge

Peter Sciretta over at /Film wrote an interesting post about how the original script of Back to the Future nearly "Nuked The Fridge", a term he explains below:

"After Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released, a new pop culture term was coined. Nuke The Fridge is a reference to the film’s opening scene (possible spoilers if you haven’t seen it) where Indiana Jones finds himself on a Nuclear test site and hides in a refrigerator to survive the atomic blast. The phrase Nuke The Fridge was joined as an alternative to Jump The Shark, another pop culture term based on a scene in an episode of Happy Days when Fonzie literally jumps over a shark while water skiing. The scene was considered so preposterous, and is considered by many to signify the moment in time when the show became unappealing to its core audience."

Hard to believe that such a term could be used to describe anything related to the Back to the Future movies, but it's true.  Obviously, I loved the first Back to the Future movie but, I will admit that the original script was pretty cringe-worthy.  In fact, I talked about it a bit in this post back in July of last year:

"Now, in the original "Back to the Future" script (which, I'm sorry to say, was rather painful), the climactic scene did not revolve around Marty using lightning to power a DeLorean time machine back to 1985.

Actually, it had Marty leaving the "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance to take a road trip with Doc to Nevada where they snuck onto a restricted military base so Marty could hide out in an empty test house (with a TV playing "Howdy Doody", see a pattern here, folks?) before using a nuclear explosion (and a bottle of "Coke", in an act of really blatant product placement) to power his trip back to 1985... in a refrigerator.

Come on! When I first read that, I thought "Thank God they were smart enough to change that".

Peter gives more of an explanation over why the idea was scrapped:

Director Robert Zemeckis has said in interviews that producer Steven Spielberg was afraid that children would start climbing into refrigerators and getting trapped inside, after replicating the scene in the film. Who would have thought that he would have made a film where the hero climbs into a fridge at a nuclear test site almost 25 years later.

Zemeckis still believed that the time machine should move, and they came up with the idea of using a retrofitted DeLorean because it could lead to the gag of farmer Peabody thinking it was a UFO/Aliens. The concept of the Hill Valley courthouse didn’t come until much later. Even the third draft of the screenplay involved taking the DeLorean time machine to the atomic bomb test site. The idea was scrapped because it was deemed too expensive for the budget. ILM wanted one million dollars to create the bomb effect, and at that time, that was a lot of money. The power source was changed to lightening and the location was changed to the Hill Valley courthouse, which they filmed on the Universal Backlot.

Click over to read the rest. He's even included a video of the storyboards from third-draft ending.

Back to the Future Courthouse Wedding Cake!

Take note, potential future Mrs. Matt Herolds...

(via /Film)

"...Tony J got married a couple weeks ago, and his wedding featured a new Back to the Future-inspired wedding cake. But this time around, its not an edible DeLorean, but instead Hill Valley’s courthouse square. The cake was designed by Caryn’s Cakes in Atlanta, and the Clock Tower is made out of red velvet cake."

I don't want to say there's a test for true love, but this woman passed it.

Dear. God. No.

Did You Know That Zac Efron is Obsessed with 'Back to the Future'? (via Cinematical):

"So he's obviously a huge Back to the Future nut, which, honestly, makes me like him a little bit more now -- but does that mean he'd also jump to play McFly if a studio presented it to him? Or, like a true fan, would he yell, scream, hiss and throw flaming piles of monkey poop at any studio henchman who does so little as hold a conversation about taking on the role in either a sequel or a remake?"

Let's hope he's a true fan.

Crispen Glover Reads "Little Miss Muffet"

Hey you, get your goddamn hands off of her curds and whey.

Oh, George...

[Mirror Link]

New Judd Apatow Movie!

Also known as "The 30-Year-Old Virgin".

Big hat-tip to Flex MacGuffin for taking the idea and running with it and to Judd Apatow for throwing a few Doc Brown impressions in "Knocked Up":




Oh, and quick tip to any sexy ladies out there who may find themselves on a date with me in the near future: if you don't know who Doc Brown is and you'd still like a ride home, dear god, don't tell me.

This Is Where You Are, This Is Where You're Going, This Is Your Alarm

Like most of people in Japan, I wasn't going to buy an iPhone.

Until now...



"This application emulates the Time Circuit Panel, similar to the one installed into the DeLorean Time Machine, an invention of Doc Brown, the key character of one of the best movies of 80s (you know which one - 'Back To The Future')."

Hopeless Back to the Future geek?

Yeah, there's an app for that.

Octane Talks About The DeLorean

The February issue of octane does a story on the history of the DeLorean (with some great pictures):

"Nightmares are not that uncommon in automotive history. One only has to look at the Boulevard of Broken Dreams that is the British car industry to see where we’re coming from. Few are as infamous as the DeLorean DMC-12 – because if we’re talking about cars that embody the hopes and ambitions of their creator, but which fail spectactularly, then few come close to comparing with his gullwing-doored, stainless steel-panelled sports car."

Related Posts:
Women + DeLorean = Hot
Chuck Versus The DeLorean
Roads? Where We're Going... We Won't Need Roads

TODAY'S THE DAY!!!

It has arrived!



Best part? It's got footage from the ride! In ENGLISH!



More bonus footage over at BTTF.com.

Or on the DVD!

BUY THE DVD!!!

BUY (ME) THE DVD!!!