Yes, It’s Jenna Jameson And Sylvester Stallone!
Wait until you hear the story behind this picture!
OK, this was designed to be, as it is known in TV, as a “deep tease.” You will have to keep reading to find out how I ended up taking this picture of Jenna Jameson and Sylvester Stallone – it’s all part of a birthday celebration of sorts…
Two Years Of Posting!
Yes, it’s the two year anniversary of this blog! When my wife Alex suggested I start this blog two years ago today, she thought it would be a fun creative outlet. She had NO idea it could lead to THIS:
Yes, I used that trust Alex placed in me to share things like this “bacon cube burger”, and some of you have thanked me for it. I have also shared things like THIS:
If you don’t recognize this image, consider yourself lucky. (Yes, it’s The Bee Gees as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band!) While this blog has been a fun project for me, it has also turned into much more: it’s been a way to share a wide variety of stories of interest to me, and more importantly, it has been a great way to meet a lot of new people with similar passions…like all of the Todd Rundgren fans I’ve met…
521,270 Strong!
I wanted to update everyone on the blog, and of course to thank all of you who take the time to read it. Last year at this time, I had just cracked 104,000 views.
In the last year, I saw a huge increase in the average daily traffic to the site – thanks in part to the huge amount of interest in things like the Eagles reunion tour, which you can see above – as well as the large number of people who have been interested in seeing just HOW Marlon Brando remembered his lines on the set of “The Godfather”:
As you can see, he DIDN’T! Yes, that is Robert Duvall holding cue cards for Brando! That story has been very popular, and if you missed it, here it is:
http://johnrieber.com/2013/03/20/brandos-cue-cards-real-horse-heads-the-godfathers-best-stories/
I also shared Clemenza’s recipe for meatballs – you know, when you need to feed a dozen guys after you “go to the mattresses”:
So, thanks to all of you, I smashed through a half a million views for the blog! I wanted to not only thank everyone for their support, but to share some of the most popular stories – and preview what is still to come!
Cool It, Ringo!
So, what have people responded to most? Well, it’s been everything from crazy stuff like this picture of Ringo and Raquel Welch clowning around on the set of the cult classic “The Magic Christian”…in fact, these guys always do great:
The Beatles never cease to interest people, and rightly so – my single most viewed story of last year was this one – looking at the “lost” Beatles documentary, “Let It Be”:
http://johnrieber.com/2013/04/06/let-it-be-the-beatles-lost-documentary-londons-live-beatles-rooftop-concert/
Over 49,000 views for this story so far – as always, The Beatles have spoken…well, at least their fans! And speaking of rabid fans, let’s hear it for “Jerseylicious!”
“Jerseylicious” Forever!
Thanks as well to the terrific cast of “Jerseylicious”, and to the fans who love them…my wife Alex Duda created this show in 2009, and in the five seasons so far I’ve been lucky enough to befriend many of the incredibly talent people followed on the show…
Oliva is not only “America’s Sweetheart”, she’ a terrific makeup artist – and a wonderful person as well…Tracy is also great, and yes, she got married in the “still to be seen” season six of the series…
I’ve had an amazing amount of interest in my behind-the-scenes looks at the show…like when Gigi, Tracy and Olivia visited Steve Harvey:
It was a great year for the team – I had more than 11,000 views of the story about the “Jerseylicious” book by Anthony and Olivia – with amazing cast pictures by Karl Giant!
So many fun posts so far, and more “Jerseylicious” to come….you know, THE WEDDING…
In addition to stories about TV and movies, I also love posting stories about music…including stories about the eagles, Paul McCartney, great new female singer/songwriters like Grace Potter, the best and worst Jame Bond themes, and of course:
“Todd Is God!”
Todd fans know what that means, and they showed it in a big way this year…I want to thank the Todd Rundgren fans who have really shown support for this blog, including a retweet from Todd himself! Here is that story:
http://musicplatter.com/2013/11/01/laura-nyro-todd-rundgrens-muse-todds-retweet/
The original story was about Todd’s friendship with Laura Nyro, an amazing singer/songwriter…and apparently Todd approved!
I posted this story and got a retweet from Todd’s twitter account – which was really cool – I’ve also been lucky enough to have been acknowledged by Director William Friedkin, Actress Rebel Wilson and the legendary singer/songwriter Paul Williams….among many others who have RT’d my stories and shared them with friends…
You can always sign up to receive all of the music-specific stories here:
http://musicplatter.com
What’s With All The Sites?
I’m sorry if I confused some of you with the “topic-specific” sub-sites, but here’s an explanation: When I started blogging, Alex suggested a title that would capture what the site was all about – but as you see, it’s about a lot of different stuff! So I used my name as an easy entry point…
Well, maybe not so easy, since my entire life has seen RIEBER spelled “REIBER”…So, to resolve the confusion, here’s how it works…I post virtually every single day on Johnrieber.com. I hope you all sign up to get notifications – so you won’t miss anything like THIS:
Yes, “Love Actually” is my favorite holiday film…well, except maybe for “Planes, Trains & Automobiles”…and in case you missed this post, here is a list of ALL of the best holiday films:
http://johnrieber.com/2013/11/23/amazing-love-actually-facts-rare-wonderful-life-photos-the-best-holiday-movies-ever/
You see, Del Griffith understands! You don’t have to do anything to get a wide variety of stories from me – just stop by Johnrieber.com and see what’s new…and, if you want more on a certain type of subject, the mini-sites are a way for you to take a blog shortcut:
If you need a quick “bacon fix”, you don’t have to look through the 500+ posts on Johnrieber.com …because “biteeatswallow” has a bacon tab that will take you immediate to this:
Yes, you know I will always have bacon for you somewhere!
Bite Down Hard!
I enjoy posting about strange and unique food items – or as you can see above, “bacon superheroes”…and of course, I love burgers, like this ramen burger from Japan:
And you can never go wrong with a slider…I have posted many recipes for making unique sliders from around the world, like this incredible one from Japan – the “wasabi avocado slider”!
I post all of the food stories on this site first, but later I also post them on a more-specific site devoted to the wacky world of food – like this food stadium to make for Super Bowl Sunday!
Remember, any time you need a burger fix – or any other food stories, you can always go here:
http://biteeatswallow.com
Something like this will ALWAYS be waiting!
Time For A Fight!
I was most excited this year to start the “film fight club!” This allowed you to hammer down on the important film arguments of the day!
The purpose of “Film Fight Club” is solely to argue about movies we love, hate, and love to hate!
This is where you can discuss your favorite James Bond theme song, as well as why you think “The Human Centipede” is a misunderstood masterpiece!
And yes, I got lots of hate comments from fans of “Centipede”, who couldn’t understand why I called it “misguided”! Check out all of the film battles here!
http://filmfightclub.com/
Forget movies, let’s see the world!
I know that some of you enjoy vacationing here:
Let’s Travel The World!
Yep, for those of you who love to travel the world – well, I’ve got you covered: whether it’s Barcelona’s amazing aerial trams, which give you an amazing sky-high view of this incredible city, or surfing with Sasha Grey on Australia’s Bondi Beach…
I posted a number of stories recounting my G4 shoot in Australia with Sasha Grey: everything from her surfing Bondi Beach – to getting photo bombed by live sharks:
I always have to remind people that there was NOTHING between Sasha and those sharks…and then there was this clip of Sasha in the tallest building in the southern hemisphere – by far the most popular video I posted, with more than 24,000 views:
Sasha went 88 stories high in Melbourne, Australia’s Eureka tower – just one of the many travel adventures I’ve been able to share. I’ve been lucky enough to travel to some really fun places, and I’ve gotten a great response from people when I post these stories on “spinningorbit”, which you can check out here:
http://spinningorbit.com/
So, I want to thank everyone who has read a story, and I hope you come back for many more in the years ahead…there have been many fun adventures – interesting people, places and food – so what is next?
Year Three…
Here is a tease: there are more great adventures to come, including my legendary trip to Thailand with Jenna Jameson!
And it wasn’t just us…we hung out with Sylvester Stallone too!
More on that trip soon – really one of my most unique travel adventures ever – and more on Tracy’s “Jerseylcious” wedding as well:
I also have some VERY unique food to share soon:
And I have some great stories about some of the best movies of the 70′s – films that deserve to be remembered, revered, and watched!
Yes, I will be telling the story of “The Getaway”, a classic action film that also caused a Hollywood scandal! And for fans of TRULY unique movies, I have some of the most amazing exploitation classics to share with you as well!
Yes, more crazy world cinema to share! You can always read about it by clicking here:
http://jrsploitation.com/
This is my mini-site devoted to the most unique and outrageous movies the world has ever offered!
And there is a whole world of entertainment still to explore! That’s just a sneak peek of what is still to come…see, there IS a reason to keep reading!
Thanks again to everyone for your support – as always, please leave comments pro, con, or “positively negative”…I enjoy hearing back from you – and thanks again for reading! I will leave you one last tease – a new post about Todd Rundgren and some of his neglected masterpieces is on the way…
Here’s proof: click on the link to enjoy Todd’s amazing live version of “Fade Away”…more to come on this as well!