Photo By Mark Britain

George Takei meets fans at last year's Comicpalooza.

Last year's edition of Comicpalooza at the George R. Brown Convention Center was a success all around, giving Houstonians three days to mingle with one another and meet some of their favorite sci-fi idols, and, of course, to buy plenty of collectibles to fill their homes with.

The organizers have begun to announce this year's special guest appearances, and so far they have some fun names signed on to appear.

SLIDESHOW: Comicpalooza 2012

REWIND: Hottest Cosplay at Comicpalooza 2012

The names include Michelle Rodriguez; Cary Elwes; Peter Mayhew; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Avery Brooks and Armin Shimerman; comic-book legend Bernie Wrightson; René Auberjonois; fifth Doctor Who Peter Davison; Ian McNeice; Teen Wolf dad James Hampton; Sam Huntington; Craig Parker; novelist Kevin J. Anderson; and Alan Dean Foster.

My Little Pony voice actresses Andrea Libman and Tabitha St. Germain will no doubt be the favorite attractions of the local Bronies.

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Hangover II sucked. It was a cash-grab, which doesn't mean that The Hangover was some sort of cinematic classic, though I could watch the first one endlessly.

Oh, the days when Zack Galafianakis wasn't overexposed.

Before this movie, young men came to the city of Las Vegas to spend thousands of dollars to get drunk and fail at getting laid on bachelor party trips. Now every supposed "wolf pack" from disparate parts of the world come to Vegas to set fires, get shot, and steal tigers. And you can get movie merch in every gift shop.

Here comes the teaser trailer for the supposed end of the series. The Hangover Part III is due to hit theaters in time for Memorial Day, May 24.

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From Tuesday until Saturday next week in Austin at SXSW, Sailor Jerry Rum (yum) is taking over the address at 1504 East Sixth Street, opening up two pop-up tattoo shops for the inking pleasure of festival goers, with one featuring legendary tattoo artist Oliver Peck, from TV's Ink Master, on board once again as the resident artist.

Here's the kicker.

One shop will be for anyone at SXSW who wants to throw a dart at a dart board and get whatever it lands on tattooed on his body. A bulls-eye scores you whatever you want on the board. If you miss the board, well, maybe you aren't meant to have a tattoo.

This excites me immensely. Some people get tattoo work done simply by pointing at a piece of flash on a wall. With the dart board you only have fate to blame.

The other one will be a Peck private sesh for assembled press and artists, where he will be able to freestyle and work off of Sailor Jerry flash collections.

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Today AMC released a tiny teaser for the upcoming season of Mad Men that's cool except that it tells me nothing, beyond showing me party pictures I have already seen.

Does this "Affair of the Year" refer to a really badass party that the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce agency is throwing where Sally gets high for the first time and tells her newly skinny mother Betty that she hates her?

Does this "affair" mean that Don and Joan are finally gonna do it, like I have been wanting since the series began?

Tumblr would explode in an orgiastic display of GIFs. Imagine the GIFs, everyone!

Okay, I see that Pete Campbell has sideburns now, since the show is progressing further into the '60s, which very much excites me.

I mean, Roger was taking acid in season five already, but I was hoping for bushy Anchorman moustaches all around. Soup-strainers.

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Twenty years ago today, the world met William Foster, Michael Douglas's embattled, harried and very vengeful unemployed defense engineer in Falling Down. The film, helmed by hit-and-miss director Joel Schumacher, was one of the most controversial flicks of that year.

It also happens to be one of the director's best. Lump this one in with Tigerland, The Lost Boys and Phone Booth for a great triple-header.

A white man roaming Los Angeles armed to the teeth, righting all of the wrongs that he saw, was uncomfortable for many, and hit close to home for some. At the time of the film's release, the concept of the "angry white male" was just about to reach its maximum media spot in the sun. The Waco standoff was about three days away from becoming world news, and the assault on Ruby Ridge was still a fresh memory from that past summer.

The folks at FilmSchoolRejects have already profiled their six favorite scenes from the flick, and lamented Falling Down's lack of Oscar love. It didn't do so hot at the box office, but it has become a minor cult hit since its release.

The FSR crew left out the scene in the army surplus store. Okay, I guess that scene wasn't supposed to by "funny," but it was at least memorable and oddly quotable.

Officeresses?

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Foster, center, on set with actors Scott Caan and Alex O'Loughlin.

While he was in Hawaii a few weeks back playing the 2013 Pro Bowl, Houston Texans running back and Twitter philosopher Arian Foster found time to shoot a few scenes for an upcoming Hawaii Five-O episode that centers around a murder on the island.

Foster, in his acting debut, plays himself. Other guests on this episode include that dude from Train, Pat Monahan, and Larry Manetti from Magnum P.I. fame.

Too bad they couldn't snag J.J. Watt to play some sort of bounty hunter, or have Matt Schaub play a tree.

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Back when the Grammys were cool.

A Grammys dress code. Who will enforce this, and how do I become a Grammys hall monitor? I don't care if I have to wear a weird, Bobby Brady-style sash on the red carpet -- sign me up. I'll be drunk with power. Also, probably just drunk.

With CBS still smarting from its bungling of the Super Bowl XLVII blackout coverage and a (supposed) Beyonce halftime nip slip, the CBS Program Practices wing released wardrobe guidelines this week for Grammy Awards attendees.

With the awards show happening this coming Sunday evening, surely tons of artists had to go back to the drawing board to come into compliance with CBS, who fear a wardrobe malfunction.

The text of the CBS memo can be seen below. The term "female breast nipples" takes the fun out of female breast nipples. Plus, NO UNDERBOOB OR SIDEBOOB. That's the best part of the Grammys. Hell, that was why I watched the Golden Globes, for all the sideboob.

What will gossip sites and your gay friends have to talk about on Twitter, if not cleavage, ass, and nip slips? Are we supposed to get off on legs and bare backs? What is this, 1922?

I quit bro.

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My trusty DVR has afforded me the opportunity to record every episode of The Simpsons that airs in syndication here in Houston. It's been a pleasure catching back up with the older episodes in the series because I have so many fond memories of seeing them the first time around in their original time slots.

Obviously the show's current status is always debated, with most people wailing about the decline since those golden days in the '90s, and some completely checked out of the show since the early '00s.

I will admit there have been dog seasons over the past decade and a half, but overall it is still one of the best written shows on TV. There is a new breed running things that keeps propelling the show forward, still making it interesting.

But getting back to what I have been seeing in syndication. For the past month or so, I have seen most every episode from seasons six and seven, both of which are usually brought up in the conversation when it comes to which season has been the best of the series' 26 years.

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The film adaptation of Rudolfo Anaya's controversial supernatural novel Bless Me, Ultima is heading to the big screen in limited release on February 22.

This is big news since the film -- which finished production over two years back -- hasn't had a firm release date.

The book, first published in 1972, has long been a Chicano literary staple in schools, though there has been some backlash along the way. It holds the esteemed honor of being one of the most-challenged books in history too, alongside American Psycho, The Color Purple, and Catch-22.

The film is directed by Carl Franklin, from his own screenplay. Franklin previously directed the 1995 crime noir Devil In A Blue Dress, One True Thing, Out Of Time, plus episodes of TV dramas such as Falling Skies and The Pacific. He currently has three other projects in development, according to IMDbPro.

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Ever since pictures began to leak from the seat of director Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers, perverts everywhere have been rejoicing. Yesterday, the trailer for the film was released, featuring Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, plus James Franco -- and yes rapper Gucci Mane -- in rare form.

Of course the only thing most people care about is Gomez, Hudgens, and her friends carousing in bikinis, a sort of homage to the Bikini Bandits phenomenon of the early '00s.

And with Korine's name on the film, he of Kids and Gummo fame, shit is going to be weird. Korine also cast his wife Rachel Korine as one of the law-breakin' spring breakers. Gomez, late of Justin Bieber fame, makes a promising showing in a spectacular orange top.

Franco's character looks more than a touch like rapper Riff Raff, and sounds a lot like Woody Harrelson in Natural Born Killers. If this whole "James Franco" thing doesn't work out for James Franco, he can always be Matthew McConaughey.

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