ROYAL OAK HOSTING WORLD PREMIERE OF NEW HORROR FLICK

Emagine Entertainment will be hosting the North American Red Carpet Movie Premiere of Dark Planet Releasing’s highly anticipated horror movie Thorns, at their Royal Oak, MI theatre on Saturday, February 17, 2024. The premiere will feature red carpet arrivals by key cast and crew including horror film legend Doug Bradley, and Michigan natives, Writer and Director, Doug Schulze and Editor and Co-Producer Julie Schulze. There will also be a live Q&A prior to the film hosted by Anthony LaVerde, CEO of Emagine Entertainment. Emagine Royal Oak is located at 200 N. Main Street in Royal Oak, Michigan. Tickets are on sale now and available at www.Emagine-Entertainment.com.

In Thorns, Archbishop Jenkins (played by Doug Bradley) mentors an ex-priest working for NASA who is sent to investigate a remote observatory that went silent after receiving a mysterious radio signal from deep space. Upon arrival, he discovers the signal opened a portal unleashing a thorned monster. The former priest must now summon his lost faith to stop the signal from spreading hell on earth.

Thorns will have a limited engagement beginning February 23 at select Emagine theaters before a wider release later in 2024. The film will be shown at Emagine Royal Oak, Emagine Canton, Emagine Novi, and Emagine Rochester Hills during its first run. Thorns, which was shot entirely in Michigan at the Motion Pictures Institute in Troy and in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, was created by Michigan based independent filmmakers Doug and Julie Schulze.

The Red-Carpet event begins at 6:30 on Saturday, February 17. At 7:00pm Doug Bradley and Doug Schulze will answer questions from the audience during a live Q&A. The film will begin immediately after the Q&A at approximately 7:45pm. Tickets for the Red-Carpet Premiere and Q&A are $13.25 and available now at www.emagine-entertainment.com.

Thorns has played to rave reviews and enthusiastic audiences at film festivals worldwide, including Sitges Brigadoon Festival, Fright Fest in London, Monsters of Film and was the closing night film at the New York City Horror Film Festival. Thorns features horror icon Doug Bradley, who is well-known for his role as the lead Cenobite “Pinhead” in the Hellraiser franchise films and winner of the 2023 New York City Horror Film Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

BD'S MONGOLIAN GRILL

I always enjoy going out to eat at BD'S MONGOLIAN GRILL! I've been eating at their Metro Detroit locations for nearly 30 years. So when they invited me to visit their downtown Royal location to celebrate National Tequila Day by sampling some margaritas as well as a few of the new dishes they are promoting, obviously I wasn't going to turn them down.

BD'S MONGOLIAN GRILL has a create your own stir fry concept for its restaurants. You walk through a buffet line gathering up meats, vegetables, spices and other ingredients to have grilled together for your meal. You can go freestyle mixing and matching as much as you can fit into the bowl they provide you or gather up the ingredients listed on available recipe cards to make meals like the Blue Ribbon BBQ, Beijing BBQ and Korean BBQ that I was invited to sample on National Tequila Day at BD'S MONGOLIAN GRILL. Once you've filled up a bowl with stuff you'd like to eat, take it up to the restaurant's huge barbeque where a cook will grill up a meal for you.

BLUE RIBBON BBQ

1. Add 1 tong of SAUSAGE and 2 tongs of STEAK.

2. Add 1 tong each of GREEN ONIONS, MUSHROOM and BABY CORN.

3. Fill a sauce cup with 2 ladles of BLUE RIBBON BBQ SAUCE.

4. Add 1/2 spoon of CRACKED BLACK PEPPER to your sauce cup.

5. Head to the grill!

BEIJING BBQ

1. Add 2 tongs of CHICKEN.

2. Add 2 tongs each of YELLOW ONIONS and PEA PODS.

3. In a sauce cup, add 2 ladles of BEIJING BBQ SAUCE.

4. Add 1/2 spoon of CRACKED BLACK PEPPER and 1/4 spoon of GROUND GINGER to your sauce cup.

5. Head to the grill!

KOREAN BBQ

1, Add 2 tongs of PORK.

2. Add 2 tongs each of GREEN ONION and CARROTS. Add 1 tong of WATER CHESTNUTS.

3.Add 2 ladles of KOREAN BBQ SAUCE into a cup.

4.Add 1/4 spoon of GROUND GINGER and 1/2 spoon each of FRESH CHOPPED GARLIC, CRACKED BLACK PEPPER and SESAME SEEDS to your sauce cup.

5. Head to the grill!

In addition to enjoying these great Mongolian BBQ dishes, Sauza Tequila also sponsored an open bar for taste testing margaritas during the evening. All of BD'S MONGOLIAN GRILL'S margaritas are made with Sauza Blue Silver Tequila. They have three varieties to choose from: traditional lemon-lime, strawberry and chipotle mango. Having to drive myself home, I didn't over indulge and just had 2 drinks -- a traditional margarita and one of the spicier chipotle mango ones. They both went great with these stir fry dishes. Everything was very tasty!

Before heading out for the night, I couldn't resist getting a hot fudge sundae. BD'S MONGOLIAN GRILL has some delicious deserts on the menu that also include deep-fried Oreos and cheese cake. Now that hit the spot!

I had a wonderful meal at BD'S MONGOLIAN GRILL enjoying a few Sauza Blue Silver Tequila margaritas and some delicious stir fry dishes. Because this is a restaurant that I enjoy going back to again and again, BD'S MONGOLIAN GRILL has absolutely earned A Geek Daddy nod of approval. In addition to their Michigan locations, there are also restaurants in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Ulaanbaatar Mongolia. For more information, please head over to gomongo.com



While I did receive a free meal, the opinions expressed in this post are honest and my own. Thanks BD'S MONGOLIAN GRILL for sponsoring this review.

Halloween @ the Zoo

During the Halloween season we often skip out on many of the trick-or-treat type events hosted for children because of my daughter's severe peanut allergy to avoid the risks and hassles involved with the candy and goodies that go along with them.  One thing that we do do every year to enjoy the Halloween atmosphere with our kids, and it has become somewhat of a family tradition for us, is take a trip to the local zoo to enjoy their Halloween decorations.

The Detroit Zoo does a nice job of creating artistic Halloween displays made out of pumpkins that you can appreciate as you stroll around the zoo grounds.  With the purchase of an annual pass to the zoological park it also doesn't cost us any extra money to take my minions on a special outing just to spend an afternoon enjoying the decorations. The changing fall colors often add a nice pallet of reds and oranges as a backdrop to enhance the decorations on display that really helps boost our Halloween spirit.

 Here are a few of our favorite displays from this year's visit:

Cinderella's Carriage

The Lorax

Christmas in October

Butterflies

Where the Wild Things Are

Witches Brew

Sesame Street

Detroit Sports Teams

In addition to the pumpkin art work, my kids always want to run up and hug the giant inflatable jack-o-lantern on display.  Yes Charlie Brown there is such a thing as the Great Pumpkin!

The DETROIT ZOO is located at 8450 W. 10 Mile Road in Royal Oak, Michigan.  During the month of October it is open 7 days per week (10am - 5pm/Weekdays & 10am - 4pm/Weekends).  For more information, visit: www.detroitzoo.org