Today Is April Fuels Day!

 

L.A. Becomes First U.S. City To Reach $6 Gas Average

If there was ever an excellent decision I've ever made in life, moving out of California has to top the list.

Until early 2018, I lived in the Los Angeles community of Tarzana in the San Fernando Valley.

It has been reported that Los Angeles has become the first major U.S. city to reach a $6.00 average for gasoline.

According to Fox 13 Seattle:

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles on Tuesday became the first major city in the U.S. to reach an average gas price of $6 or more. 

That's according to fuel savings platform GasBuddy, which reported the national average gas price in the U.S. beginning to decline since its peak of $4.35 per gallon on March 10. 

However, that doesn't apply to California, where gas prices have continued to soar. 

Gas has risen steadily in the past few weeks due to rebounding oil prices amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, but also recent refinery issues in Southern California amid a rise in seasonal demand. 

GasBuddy says California also typically has some of the highest gas prices in the country because of high gas taxes and its cap and trade program, which assesses a premium based on emissions. 

High gas taxes: Enacted by liberal Democrats. 

Cap and trade: Enacted by liberal Democrats. 

Who has a total stranglehold control of the California government? Liberal Democrats.

It appears the people of California got the government they wanted and deserve. They voted for liberal Democrats. This is the price they have to pay. You wanted your high prices, you got 'em!

Well, enjoy yourselves!

To read more, go here.

Democrats' April Fool's Prank By Russia

The Democratic Party is not known for its sense of humor and neither is Russia.

But yesterday, the Russian Embassy poked a little fun at the Democrats.

According to the Young Conservatives website:

Russia has been much on our minds of late, with the concerns about attempted interference during the election campaign.

But Russia, often thought of as humorless, cold and foreboding, took advantage of the day to troll the Democrats and the accusations of election interference.

To see and hear what they did, go here. 

April Fool's Day Fun

Above, the fake Beast.

As you all probably know by now, yesterday was April Fool's Day.

I had some fun with it. What I did was to look for a RV that was either a same/similar model as mine or one close enough in color and graphics that I could pass off as The Beast. I was looking for one that had caught fire.

The best I could find was the above shot of a burned out Class A motorhome. The Beast is a Class C. But, the graphics and color were close enough. After some cropping, I posted the photo on Facebook and sent it out via email and text to a select few.

Some fell for it, while others were not so gullible. Denise wasn't fooled at all. But then, she's very familiar with The Beast and she was just in it last week. Some even had forgotten that yesterday was April 1.

Here's some of the reactions from Facebook:

Here's the real Beast:

Above, The Beast at Joshua Tree National Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Now to think of something for next year.

The Legendary Pictures Godzilla April Fool's Joke

Above, no, this is not a photo from Legendary Pictures Godzilla movie, it is of Yuu Asakura with "The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan" and my Bandai Museum King-Goji toy from the photo-shoot of last month. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The April Fool's joke on the supposed "leak" of the plot to the Legendary Pictures Godzilla film garnered unexpected responses. Some were of the same vein on message boards.

The respondents didn't fall for the joke (although Ken Hulsey seemed to fall for it), but did note that they liked the plot I came up with. Damon Foster said it interested him more than the plots to the last bunch of Godzilla movies.

The story I came up with was that a Japanese scientist invented a shrink ray that reduced Godzilla to about 8" (gee, if such a thing were true, then Bandai could make a 'full-size' Godzilla toy). The scenario goes on with Godzilla being sent to the United States for study and is befriended by a Japanese girl on vacation there.

What I didn't mention were the adventures of the girl, with Godzilla in her overnight bag, trying to elude the authorities. Eventually, Godzilla regains his full size as the shrink ray effects ended up as only temporary and proceeds to trash Los Angeles.

It was fun to do. Wouldn't it be funny if this is actually used?

Speaking of April Fool's

Speaking of April Fool's, this was posted at a Godzilla-oriented message group:

Late on Thursday March 26th Toho filed an injunction against charity event in Kobe scheduled for April 4th, some 16 hours later Diae filed it's own injunction against the same event. These legal actions stem from a perceived infringement on both film companies franchises. The event was organized to raise funds to modernize facilities at a local Zoo and was scheduled feature the bands Shonen Knife and the 1 2 3 4 5s as well a some comedians and personal appearances by
actresses Megumi Odaka (who played Miki Saegusa in the Heisei Godzilla series) and Ayako Fujitani ( who played Asagi Kusanagi in the Heisei Gamera series)

In the brief press statement Toho said that while they had no problem with former stars making personal appearances it was the nature of this appearance that they found unacceptable, Diae had yet to make a comment on the matter. The appearance was billed as "The Super Battle of the DaiKaiju Babes" and was to feature Miss Odaka and Miss Fujitani in two falls to a submission wrestling match in a vat of green Jello clad in string bikinis. Rumors that Odaka co-star Robert Scott Field was to be guest Referee have yet to be confirmed.

Ironically the event might gone on without Toho's knowledge were it not for members of the promoters staff contacting Toho's offices asking about how to get in contact with the management of some other Actresses who had appeared in Godzilla and Mothra series. When pressed for their reason for the information they let slip about the event and how they were trying put together an under-card of a "Shobojin VS Cosmos" tag team match.

Currently it is unknown wether or not the event will go on as scheduled and neither Miss Odaka, Miss Fujitani nor Mr. Field have made any statement as yet. However while being interviewed on an Australian radio show actor Steven Seagal, Father of Avako Fujitani, said of the injunction, "....that's a shame, I know my little girl could have taken her." Any thoughts on this April Foolishness?

What an actor/actress does on their own time is their business. Toho would have no grounds to obtain an injunction blocking an appearance, especially one for a charity event. If this were true, then Toho would have blocked the appearances of actors/actresses, directors, spfx directors, etc. from G-FEST, film festivals, etc. over the years. Logically, this was an obvious joke. Do you really think that Megumi Odaka or Ayako Fujitani would appear in string bikinis and wrestle in jello? Daiei was misspelled "Diae." And, Daiei no longer exists! Kadokawa bought them out. The last sentence was the big giveaway.