Reviews are favorable for the new Indy movie. I'm leaving the station with Producer Zack at 10:30 to go see it at our MAN-tinee.  All the highlights (without the spoilers) tomorrow morning + pairs of tickets for Melissa's BFF club night out at the Twin Cities premier of Sex and the City. And speaking of movies, Movie Mom joins us too...Have a great day and I'll see you on the radio!

Check out this below!

10 Awesome Indiana Jones Facts

 1. It Started with Bond Ambitions

George Lucas wrote a story called "The Adventures of Indiana Smith" in 1973. While on vacation in Hawaii in 1977, he spoke with Steven Spielberg, who mentioned he always wanted to do a James Bond film. Lucas told him the Indiana Smith character was even better than James Bond, and that's how the collaboration between the two movie giants began.

 2. Tom Selleck Almost Starred in It

Spielberg wanted to use Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones from the beginning, but Lucas rejected the idea, since he had already used Ford in American Grafitti and Star Wars. So Tom Selleck was chosen for the role. However, he dropped out to star in the television series Magnum, P.I.

 Selleck thought it would be a scheduling conflict, but filming on Raiders of the Lost Ark finished before Magnum went into production. Nick Nolte turned down the role also. Danny DeVito was the first choice for the character Sallah, but dropped out to do the TV show Taxi.

 3. The Fourth Wall (it keeps out snakes)

Indiana Jones is not the only one afraid of snakes. When Marion (Karen Allen) falls in the snake pit, you can see the reflection of a cobra in the glass wall between them. You can also see a glass wall between Indiana and the cobra in the original movie and videotape, but it was cleaned up for the DVD release.

 4. Star Wars Tributes

There are many Star Wars touches in The Temple of Doom. The name of the nightclub in Shanghai is Club Obi Wan. The sound effect you hear when the lava pit opens as they begin to sacrifice Willie is the sound of Darth Vader opening his light saber. The sound effect of the plane failure is the same sound effect used for the Millennium Falcon when it stalls in The Empire Strikes Back.

 And the vest that Indy wears in his palace room was made for Han Solo.

 5. Dan Akroyd has a Cameo?

Part of the crew made cameo appearances. In the airport scene at the beginning of the movie, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, costume design Anthony Powell, and PR man Sid Ganis are missionaries. Executive producer George Marshall is a coolie pulling a rickshaw.

 Dan Akroyd (not a crew member) appears as an airport official who walks the cast to the plane.

 6. An Elephant Almost Ruined the Movie

The dress Kate Capshaw wore in the Shanghai nightclub scene was covered with rare vintage beads made in the '20s and '30s. The club scene was filmed last, but the dress also made an appearance during the camping scene, where an elephant began eating it! Since there were no extra beads to match, the costume department had to repair the dress as best as they could.

 The result was so tight that Capshaw had trouble moving in it when they filmed the nightclub scene. Costume designer Anthony Powell filled out insurance forms for the dress, citing the cause of the damage as "dress eaten by elephant". This was only the second movie for Capshaw, who has a masters degree in special education.

 Spielberg married Capshaw in 1991.

 7. Even the Rats were Insured

The thousands of rats used in The Last Crusade were insured. The insurer wanted to know the minimum number of rats the scene could be shot with, and used the answer to write a policy with a "1,000 rat deductible."

 The cast was padded with another thousand mechanical rats. Their voices were enhanced with the sound effects of ....chicken voices!

 8. Lucas' Dog was his Inspiration

At the end of the movie, Jones explains to his friend Sallah that his nickname Indiana came from his pet dog from long before. Sallah responds, "You were named after a dog?" and gets a great laugh out of it. But it's true.

 Indiana was the name of an Alaskan malamute George Lucas owned in the '70s. The same dog inspired the look of the Star Wars character Chewbacca.

 Jones' real first name is Henry, which is why his father Henry Jones, Sr. calls him Junior. The characters Willie and Short Round in The Temple of Doom were also named after other people's dogs.

 9. The Sequel Almost Involved Mars

Nineteen years is a long time to come up with a new title for a movie, and many were posed before producers settled on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Fake titles that have been released over the years include Indiana Jones and the Staff of Moses, Indiana Jones and the Shores of Avalon, Indiana Jones and the Jade Princess,Indiana Jones and the Raiders of Time, and Indiana Jones and the Ravages of Time.

Real script titles or ideas that were rejected were Indiana Jones and the Garden of Life, Indiana Jones and the Monkey King, Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men From Mars, and Indiana Jones and the Red Scare.

 Working titles for The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull have included Fourth Installment of the Indiana Jones Adventures, Indiana Jones 4, Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods, Raiders of the Lost Ark Sequel, and The Untitled Genre Project.

 It is clear that a lot of work went into the movie before they even knew what it would be about!

 10. The Secret of the Film's Look

Great pains were taken to give the fourth movie the look and feel of the first three, despite the time gap. Steven Spielberg insisted on using stunt men instead of computer animation. Computer-generated effects are used only when absolutely necessary. The footage was shot on film instead of digital format.

 Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski painstakingly studied the first three movies in order to preserve the style of previous cinematographer Douglas Slocombe (who is now retired). The result looks, as George Lucas said, "like it was shot 3 years after the Last Crusade, you'd never know there was 20 years between shooting." Unlike a certain other George Lucas franchise we all know and love.

This morning we talked about the more revealing prom dresses for this year. I haven't seen prom dresses in a couple of years and apparantly they've become a little more risque'.

But check out the most bubblicious prom date for '08...

A 17 year old girl in Wayne, Indiana walked into the gymnasium on prom night wearing a chewing-gum-wrapper dress.

The high school senior made the dress out of 3,000 gum wrappers she has been collecting for the past 3 years. Friends, relatives, and co-workers saved wrappers for her as well. She says the dress is held together with duct tape inside and along the edges and she used elastic braids around the straps and collar and in between some of the chains down the back so she could easily slip into the dress.

 Walking into the gym on prom night with a girl on his arm draped in a chewing-gum-wrapper dress was definitely different.

Max Pistner, Maranacook Community High School senior, said he thought it was "very cool" that his girlfriend, Vanessa Randall, made her prom dress out of 3,000 gum wrappers.

Randall, a 17-year-old senior from Wayne, started collecting Wrigley gum wrappers three years ago to make the dress. She had all her friends, relatives and co-workers chewing gum and saving their wrappers.

Randall said she reinforced the dress with duct tape inside along the edges, and used elastic braids around the straps and collar and in between some of the chains down the back so she could easily slip into the dress.

She came up with the design after drawing sketches all year.

"I came up with how it was going to look like the week before the prom," she said. "The theme of the prom was Japanese, so I was inspired by that in making the collar and flower pattern around the middle and back."

Ellen Randall said she and her husband are proud of their daughter's achievements, saying Vanessa always follows through on tasks she puts her mind to.

I wonder if the dress only comes in a size "ATE"!!!  Good morning everybody! 

Thanks for listening to the Greg and Melissa morning show on 94.5 KS95 and don't forget Birthday Bucks on Thursday for $10,000!  Have a great day and see you on the radio!

 I'm not going to pretend to be the world's biggest Nascar fan. I love and hate that on any given weekend any one of 30 cars could win a NASCAR race on the last lap. It's no different in golf when a nobody wins a tournament never to be heard from again and NASCAR has Kyle Busch as it's Tiger Woods so far this year. And in Nascar you only have to remember a few dozen guys unlike any other sport where there seem like thousands...i.e. golf, football, baseball, American Idol et.al )

But whether or not you think a restrictor plate is a small saucer at Old Country Buffet, today is NASCAR day! It's time for Dale Jr. lovers and haters to unite for at least one day. ( And as much as I love the National Guard - one of Jr.'s new sponsors this year - I think most of us miss him driving the #8 Bud car )

Speaking of which ( here comes the name dropping ),  here's my NASCAR connection which makes me an immediate expert. My brother-in-law Casey works for Kasey Kahne's race team just outside of Charlotte. I have not been there, but my wife has, and Caley tells me it's like an airplane factory where you could eat off the floors...if you wanted or had to. Each building has a parts desk just like at a dealership where you check out parts for each of the cars that are hand made.  And here's the coolest part...(most NASCAR fans/nuts already kinow this)...that the paint job with all the sponsors, numbers and logo schemes on the racecars is nothing but one giant decal! The cars are all white and they lay that giant decal over the entire vehicle. Kasey Kahne drives the #9 car which is the new Bud car b.t.w.

So grab a lawn chair, raise up a PBR (or a Bud), and plop down in front of the HiDef flatscreen for Saturday night's annual All-Star Race Saturday that pays $1 million to the winner.  And thank the Lord for NASCAR, apple pie, and Chevro....er....Toyota.

Thanks for reading my blog and for waking up to the Greg and Melissa show each weekday morning on KS95. Don't forget Birthday Bucks next week for $10K on Thursday. And when you're not watching NASCAR, get outside this weekend and enjoy yourself and I'll see you Monday on the radio!

Growing up, my ice cream truck in my neighborhood  was named "Mr. Softee".  When you're a little kid you don't think that is weird. You just want your Bomb Pop or Push Up...hmmm, come to think of it, even the flavors sound sort of creepy.

 Of all the dangers your kids have to worry about this summer, you probably didn't think the ice cream man was one of them.  But it turns out that some communities have ice cream men who are also . . . convicted sex offenders.

 --Today, San Bernardino County (--in Southern California) will consider an ordinance that would bar sex offenders from driving ice cream trucks . . . after parents realized that one of the local ice cream men was a registered sex offender.

 --Oddly enough, there's no law that prevents sex offenders from becoming ice cream men in most states.  And only a few counties even run background checks for the job.

 --The ONLY state smart enough to have any legislation preventing sex criminals from operating ice cream trucks is New York. 

The fact that this is even under consideration is disturbing.  It should be a given that sex offenders can't hold any of the following jobs:  clown, magician, swim instructor, coach, teacher or mall Santa...I'm sure there are more.

Plus, I think Ice cream trucks are SPOOKY!!!!!!!  This guy needs a new van...

Thanks for reading my blog and for listening to the Greg and Melissa morning show on 94.5 KS95!  Don't forget, $10,000 in birthday bucks Thursday!  And I'll see you on the radio...

Those flyers stapled to telephone poles in your neighborhood proclaiming you can make an "extra" $5,000 a month from home are true! Well, at least THIS offer is. But you have to go to the Johnson Space Center in Houston...but the good news is, you never have to leave your bed. In fact, you can't.

NASA is offering people $5,000 a month to lay in bed for 90 days. The bed-rest experiment is taking place in the Johnson Space Center. It's designed to allow scientists to see how laying down for long periods of time affects the body. People will be allowed to get up on a very limited basis. People will be awake for 16 hours and allowed to sleep for 8 hours.

At first, this sounded great. Catch up on some reading, play some video games, watch Sportscenter all day, and most importantly for a morning guy...catch up on some much needed SLEEP! Sounds pretty inticing...at least for a weekend.

Thing is, or things ARE...what I'd miss. First of all, summer in Minnesota. Dog walks (when I really get to do my thinking), a dinner out with my wife, going to see my mom, gol****lass of wine on the back deck, putzy chores around the house, pontooning, having friends over, an evening summer drive with the moonroof open...all stuff I'd be dreaming about doing while I laid around in bed all day. Which means, most of us prefer staying busy and lead the life we do because we choose to.

Although, if NASA ever needed just a few guinea pigs to do this for a long weekend, I'm in! So if you decide to move forward and lay around for three months, get a few extra zzzzs for me!

By-the-way, some of the negative side effects expected include blood pooling in your body and bone density decreasing. If you're still interested you can apply online.

Thanks for reading my blog, listening to Greg and Melissa each morning on 94.5 KS95, and I'll see you on the radio!