I decided to kick Casting Internets back up today because I’ve read and seen some pretty interesting things around the nets today. I’m also trying to branch out and read a few more websites than I usually do, so hopefully this will be a little more varied.

Everything kicked off with this old school Frank Sinatra piece that Gay Talese wrote for Esquire back in 1966 called “Frank Sinatra Has A Cold.” It’s such a good piece of New Journalism that it not only made me want to try writing that way, but also made me want to buy Talese’s book. Thanks to Jen for the link on Facebook!

Checking out that link got me reading some posts on Esquire’s politics blogs like this two-parter by John H. Richardson called On The Road With The Birthers (part 1 and 2) in which he follows a group of people demanding to see President Obama’s birth certificate. Those two pieces combined with Mark Warren’s article called “The Questions We Have Refused to Ask of the Tea Party” definitely creeped me out. I understand feeling trapped and hopeless when it comes to the economy, but to focus that energy on ridiculous ideas like proving the President is American (don’t you assume that’s part of the whole process?), but this is just scary.

Okay, enough scary political nonsense, check out Abigail Chu’s audition tape for Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World that Edgar Wright posted on his blog. Reminds me of the time I went to the first Bonnaroo and Jack Johnson was playing with a seven year old drum prodigy named Scarlett. I have no idea how I remember that. Anyway, cool video. I just started reading Tom Spurgeon’s The Comics Reporter. Good timing especially because he linked to Paul Tobin’s rad gallery of Jim Steranko covers. Steranko was the first old school comics artist I got into, so this gallery is right up my alley. I know the above, from Steranko’s non-consecutive three issue run on Captain America, isn’t a cover, but it’s one of my favorite pieces of art (not just comics) ever. Rad.

In semi-related comic book news, AMC had a bunch of zombies right outside of Penn Station to promote this week’s premiere of the Walking Dead TV show. When I worked in the city, I walked up those steps every day and I’m afraid that I’ve seen so many–read: too–that I would have either run back to my train and skipped work for the week until the zombie apocalypse died down or found the nearest blunt object and done my part for society. Either way, I would have gotten in trouble. (via Bleeding Cool)Speaking of TV, I’m bummed I haven’t caught up with Doctor Who yet. Why can’t those DVDs come out faster, or better yet, just make their way to Netflix Instant? Anyway, I really dig this piece of art by Ian Leino featuring most of the previous Doctors. I’ve only watched one older Doctor Who series, but I love the idea of all these guys being together in one place. (via Fashionably Geek)

I also love Dean’s renditions of the Cybermen over at Springfield Punx. They should get him to do a webisode or Saturday morning cartoon.

One last bit of TV news I saw today over on /Film that got me kind of got me excited is that Comedy Central has approached Waiting‘s Rob McKittrick to work on a series based on the movie for the network. I honestly haven’t watched Comedy Central on a regular basis in years and I didn’t like the crappy Waiting sequel, but I’m still hopeful for this, assuming it doesn’t butt up against a show I already watch.

/Film also informed me that there might be a plan to convert the Indiana Jones movies to 3D along with the Star Wars flicks. Sign me the hell up. Seeing those movies on the big screen again is worth it, I don’t care what it takes to make it happen. Let’s chill out on all the whining. NECA makes some of the raddest figures on the market, take this Army of Darkness Medieval Ash figure they revealed on the TwitPic account. I might not be as big of an Evil Dead fan as the rest of the horror community, but I still know a damn good figure when I see one. The G.I. Joe Collector’s Club revealed their 2o11 exclusive club figure today. Generally I wouldn’t care too much, but it answers a mystery from my childhood. I had the original Dial-Tone figure, but I found him somewhere or was given him loose, so I never knew his name or which side he was on. I figured he was a bad guy and also French thanks to the mustache, beret and the red symbol on his arm. Finally, something about this image blew me away. There’s no information about what this is either on Ffffound (where I first saw it) or the Could Even Be The Best One Yet picture set (where it came from originally), but I’m guessing that it’s a hand colored image of the building of the Golden Gate Bridge. I hope that’s what it is. Kind of took my breath away.