Welcome to the Open Mike Blog where author and comic Mike Carlon shares reflections on life, liberty, and the pursuit of laughter. Sometimes the joke is on him.
Celluloid Zeroes Ep 4: The Black Hole
When Mike and Jim saw this movie in 1979 we thought it was one of the coolest things ever. There were spaceships, robots, lasers and giant red meteors! Oh, and this whirlpool looking black hole that meant almost certain death to anything that got sucked into it....
School Boy Heart
In their haste to go swimming at a friend’s house today, my three favorite children left the kitchen a complete mess; apparently there’s nothing as scary to my kids than a clean dishwasher. I have a lot of work to do today but, since I have a Ph.D. in procrastination,...
Celluloid Zeroes Ep 3: MegaForce
Today, the Carlon brothers are joined by filmmaker Joe Indusi to discuss 1982's MegaForce. When this film came out, Mike and Jim were 8 years old. Looking back, that must have been the prime demographic for this film because it included flying motorcycles, glorified...
Celluloid Zeroes Ep 2: Hawk the Slayer
In the second installment of Celluloid Zeroes, the Carlon brothers discuss the 1980 fantasy film Hawk the Slayer and question whether they actually had a happy childhood after all. The plot of this movie has more holes in it than the European countryside in the...
Celluloid Zeroes Ep 1: Zorro the Gay Blade
In this inaugural episode of the Celluloid Zeroes Podcast, the Carlon brothers take a deep dive into the 1981 parody Zorro The Gay Blade starring George Hamilton, Lauren Hutton, and Ron Leibman. Listen in as Mike and Jim discuss what they liked about this film back in...
Author and facial coding expert Dan Hill
Dan Hill is the author of eight books including Famous Faces Decoded: A Guidebook for Reading Others; Two Cheers for Democracy: How Emotions Drive Leadership Style; and First Blush: People's Intuitive Reactions to Famous Art. His specialty is analyzing the power of...
Fatman and the Boy Blunder
CHalloween was one of my favorite holidays as a kid. I loved the fact that, for one day out of the year, I could pretend to be someone else. It's not that I didn't like who I was, but the idea that you could put on a mask and a cape and turn yourself into your...
The Daily Smile—Time Travel Dream
Have you ever had a really awesome dream and not want to wake up from it? I did last night. It was one of those dreams where after I woke up I was disappointed that I wasn't still in it. I traveled back in time to the 1980s and went back to my hometown of Plantation,...
The Daily Smile Day 9-Does it Count?
It's fair to say that this Easter is unlike any I can remember. Instead of heading to a church for mass, we watched a live stream on TV. To add to the realism, Nicole came in a few minutes late and Maggie showed up during the closing hymn. I decided to dress up with...