F-22, what DO you do?

Check out this dizzying air show footage of a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor doing maneuvers that have got to be putting the pilot’s balls in a box.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUdt6ZSWUsI]

This video, from the same air show, is even longer. Wow.

My dad was a radio technician in the Air Force, and he was lucky enough to share a hangar with an SR-71 Blackbird. (It’s still the scariest looking, most beautiful airplane ever built.) Listening to his stories is what started my lifelong fascination with Lockheed birds, and my parents and I used to go to the Air Force museum in Dayton almost every summer. (In fact, we went again just a couple of years ago. They had one of the YF-22 prototypes of the F-22 there, and it was the unanimous family favorite. Dad and I also flew the simulator. We couldn’t shoot anything down, so we just started rolling it over and over again until our time was up. We could barely walk when we got out.)

The F-22 is everything rolled into one: speed, agility and advanced stealth technology. It does things that civilians like me will never know about, and that drives me friggin’ crazy.

That’s my idea of Heaven. I’m on the beach, with a big giant book that’s got the answers to everything. Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, what the F-22 can do. Why the things I like to eat make my cholesterol go up, while the things that taste like cardboard make it go down. Stuff like that.

P.S. I was going to show this to my friend James, but I already know what he’d say. “Not enough Lima Lima Lima!”

Both Iron Man armors revealed

Back on April 11, Paramount Pictures released this massively cool photo of the original old-school armor suit from next summer’s comic book adaptation of Iron Man.

Yesterday, director Jon Favreau gave Entertainment Weekly this sneak peak of the more advanced version of the suit worn later in the film by gazillionaire military contractor Tony Stark, who uses his own creations to battle international evils of every variety.

The man in the suit will be played — in a truly inspired bit of out-of-nowhere casting — by Robert Downey, Jr.

USA Today published this excellent interview with Downey about the role, and there’s also a photo of the way-in-shape actor as Stark out of the armor.

(But what’s that glowing thing on his chest? Favreau tells you himself on his MySpace blog.)

The suits in the film are being built by Stan Winston, whose creations include everything from the best movie monster ever — the Predator — to Edward Scissorhands.

The cast rocks from the top on down. Terrence Howard is Jim Rhodes, Stark’s best friend and pilot. Gwyneth Paltrow is Stark’s spectacularly named assistant, Pepper Potts. (I’m sure the name sounded great when they made it up in the ’60s, and I think it’s really cool that they’re keeping it for the movie.)

And if that’s not enough to knock your iron socks off, the incomparable Jeff Bridges is on board as the film’s villain, Obadiah Stone.

I expect Iron Man to be a fun, action-packed romp filled with great performances and cool technology.

Add this to the Hulk revamp starring Ed Norton and the return of Christian Bale’s Batman in The Dark Knight, and I think we’re looking at one of the best superhero movie summers of all time.

Robert Downey, Jr. hopes his armor is air-conditioned as well as the theater near you when Iron Man makes its debut on May 2, 2008.

Gilmores no more? Or maybe so? The latest (sort of) news!

Update

Click right here.

The show was officially canceled as of today.

On the heels of this week’s Gilmore Sounding Board comes the latest — in a “no news is maybe non-news but maybe it really is news in itself” kind of way — news from TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello, who dishes out more scoop than Baskin Robbins.


The girls with producer David Rosenthal

His report is right here:

Looks like we’ve got ourselves a nail-biter, folks.

Although all indications were that Warner Bros. and the CW were nearing a deal to bring Gilmore Girls back for a shortened eighth season, sources close to the negotiations now tell me that talks are at a complete [Gulp] standstill.

“It’s anybody’s guess what’s going to happen,” reports my Gilmore mole. “There’s no deal in place at this point, and there may never be. This is probably going to come down to the wire.”

The holdup can be summed up in five words: Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. According to the insider, “very good” offers were made to both actresses, but it apparently wasn’t enough to coax signatures out of them. “Now it’s a game of chess,” whispers the spy. “It could go either way.”

Further complicating matters is the fact that the CW’s upfront presentation — the unoffical deadline for a deal to be brokered — is scheduled for May 17. What’s so complicated about that, you ask? Well, that’s two days after the show’s potential swan song airs. In other words, if negotiations literally go down to the wire, we won’t know if we’re watching the season or series finale.

Bottom line: This kind of uncertainty sucks for everyone.

Will we get to spend another season in Stars Hollow, or will “Bon Voyage” really be the bon voyage?

And it’s possible that we won’t even know while we’re watching it?

Whew.

Hold on to your hats and consider the situation monitored. I’ll post any developments as they happen.

Though if the show does end now, Lauren Graham will have a lot more time to date! Me!

But.

If it means we’d get another season, I’d be willing to take one for the team and delay the courtship another few months.

I’ve waited this long, after all, and I think she’s worth the wait.

Stay tuned.