The passage of time is strange and painful. Art Bell died in April 2018.. it’s already been years. For those of us who cherished his voice in the dark, it still hurts not having those late-night updates about the “AB’s”—as he used to call them. The silence left in his absence has been deafening.
But tonight, there’s actually a flicker of Art Bell news—and it’s something truly special for long time fans.
The new but old info will bring pages back online under the current Art Bell Legacy website run by Rowland. For longtime fans, this will be like cracking open a time capsule buried deep in the digital sands of the late ’90s and early 2000s.
“This is 3 hours of the giant prominence as seen from my backyard solar observatory,” says Wilson. “It looks to me like some huge 4-legged beast shuffling along.”
Prominences are clouds of hydrogen held above the surface of the sun by magnetic fields. The shuffling of the Beast is a sign of magnetic instability, and may herald a collapse or magnificent eruption. Photo-op, anyone? Monitoring is encouraged on July 13th.
An enhanced solar wind stream is moving past Earth and active (Kp4) geomagnetic conditions has been observed. A minor (G1) geomagnetic storm watch is in effect until 18:00 UTC (July 11). The onset of a coronal hole stream was not expected until within the next few days, so it is unclear if this is related to the coronal hole or perhaps a weak transient passing Earth as the solar wind speed jumped from 330 km/s to above 400 km/s. Further updates will be provided whenever necessary.
Ben Davidson of Space Weather News issued a warning on X overnight about an Earth-facing coronal hole that could eject fast-moving solar wind toward Earth, potentially triggering elevated geomagnetic activity, including auroras and geomagnetic storms. The high-speed stream is expected to reach Earth within days… DEVELOPING..
It was the best of times… and possibly the worst of movies.
The summer of 1995… 30 years ago .. where were you?
Batman and Batman Returns, both brought to life by Tim Burton, were massive successes. They were dark, stylish, and completely owned the early ’90s. But then came the third round… Joel Schumacher took the director’s chair, cranked up the pink and purple color saturation, and gave us Batman Forever. Enter The Riddler, Two-Face, and a brand-new Batman in Val Kilmer. Oh, and let’s not forget that power ballad: Seal’s “Kiss from a Rose” (or as my younger brain remembered it: “Hold me, kiss me, throw me, and kill me”).
I actually have a memory of seeing this movie at a drive-in theater during the summer of 1995. It felt like it was going to be amazing, based on my pure love of the Batman movies that came before. But… we were a little disappointed. And yet, when you look back now? It ain’t so bad. I mean, let’s be honest, George Clooney’s nipple suit in Batman & Robin was much worse… offensively worse.
But back to Batman Forever—despite not being as critically praised as the Burton films, it was a box office smash. The movie earned over $336 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing Batman film at the time, surpassing Batman Returns. Even with its campy tone with neon lights, people showed up in droves. It had hype and buzz, and it had Seal. And it had marketing.
Oh my God, the marketing.
McDonald’s French fry containers had some of the most beautiful artwork ever put on disposable paper. And I stand by that. Cereal boxes (I remember seeing Batman Forever characters on boxes of Pops) were glowing in the aisles of grocery stores everywhere. We got comic books, promotional trading cards, toys, and even a website for Batman Forever in 1995. A freakin’ movie website in the early dial-up days! And someone screenshotted it, so we can still bask in its pixelated glory today.
Even batteries had product placement!
You could almost say Batman Forever marked the peak of 1990s advertising. It was vibrant. It was loud. It was shameless. And yet—it was all done with some heart. That’s what made the difference. Even the product placement had soul back then.
Let’s go back to those fries again. Just imagine eating your high-calorie McDonald’s meal, chugging a Coke with enough sugar to stun a bull, and staring at that beautiful art on the container. The summer air was thick with joy. Clinton was president and he hadn’t met Monica yet. People were still using pagers. And we all thought this movie was our big summer blockbuster.
Val Kilmer—may he rest in peace—actually did a decent job as Batman. Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face? A bit much. Chris O’Donnell as Robin? Eh. But Jim Carrey as The Riddler? He kind of stole the show. Even if it felt like we were watching an In Living Color sketch crammed into Gotham City. Remember, 1990s Jim Carrey was a whole different type of acting beast, manic, rubber-faced, borderline alien, until The Truman Show reminded us he could act.
Still, I’ll say it again: the marketing for Batman Forever was everything. It was the moment we realized commercials and packaging could become a part of the cultural experience. And the summer of 1995 gave us a taste of that. For some of us, it feels like just yesterday.
But check your calendar, my friends. It’s been 30 years.
Over the July 4th weekend, beachgoers and internet sleuths alike were buzzing as eerie images began circulating online—especially on TikTok—of a mysterious figure wandering around Santa Monica and other California beaches. The figure in question? A tall person in a long overcoat, floppy hat, and yes, a hook for a hand.
If you’re getting I Know What You Did Last Summer vibes, you’re not alone. This lookalike of the iconic slasher from the original ’90s flick has stirred up enough social media panic to rival a real crime wave. But here’s the catch (pun intended): there’s been no actual crime reported. No attacks. No missing persons. No blood-soaked sand. Just a lot of hype—and a lot of speculation.
And that speculation leads us to what seems like the most likely answer: marketing.
Sony’s remake of I Know What You Did Last Summer drops July 18th, and this beachside boogeyman feels like a viral stunt straight from the studio’s playbook. If so, well played. It worked. People are talking, videos are trending, and the hook is back in the spotlight.
But marketing stunts like this walk a fine line. They’re fun… until they’re not. In this case, no one has been hurt (as far as we know), and the buzz has only amplified awareness for a franchise that’s already been rebooted, remade, and revisited several times over.
So will this version finally hook a new generation? Or are we all just too jaded to care?
In case you wanted to forget, here are the ‘I still know I know I want to know and I didn’t know” film names thus far. Maybe it just FELT like there were more than there really were?
