Today is my 30th birthday and in honor of the special occasion, I'm giving myself and all of you a birthday present - the long-overdue (and I hope also long-awaited) Spook Central update.

This isn't the big update that I was planning to do (though it IS rather big). In fact, this is a rather half-ass update that includes what I've gotten done with from December to now. I'm not finished adding everything on my hard drive and to do list to the site, so there's placeholder text in some places. I just figured it was about time that I did an update, and a half-ass one is better than none. I still did not get around to checking for and fixing broken links (that was going to be the last thing I did on the complete update), so I apologize in advance for all of the broken links that you come across.

As you could probably have guessed, I've abandoned the idea of doing twelve "10th Anniversary" for the twelve months from August 2006 to 2007. This would have been Update #4 for November 2006! I don't know when I'll have the time to do the next update (hopefully one that completes what I intended with this one), so this one will have to do for a while.

This update consists of SOME of the stuff that I had on my hard drive for quite a while now, but never had the chance to add it to the site. Anything that required me to scan, screen cap, record audio, or video was not done as I just don't have the time right now. So there's still LOTS of stuff to add in the future - when I get the time to do it, that is! Here's the down and dirty laundry list of what's been added/changed. I'm sorry that it's not linked or anything, but I've organized my site well enough that you shouldn't have trouble finding the site on the list... at least I hope!

• Added the Lightbox image overlay display javascript which displays all of the linked images over the webpages, so you don't leave the page when you click on a thumbnail or some other link I may have to an image. In those few instances where I've directly linked to an image on another server, I've encoded those links with Lightbox as well, though credit has been given in the link's title/caption. If you have Javascript disabled, then the links will function as normal.

• Added a Flash media player to allow all video and audio files on this site to be played in your browser. Obviously, you'll have to have the Flash plugin-in installed in order to see the player on the various pages where I have it. Chances are you have the Flash plug-in already installed.

• Re-added my Paul's Music Videos page from 1998 (see Everything Else > Miscellaneous section).

• Deleted the individual pages for the GB1 & GB2 1999 DVD menus (which were linked together via an image map) and made a thumbnail page instead for each.

• Combined the Miscellaneous Multimedia and Trivia pages into a new Ghostbusters Connections page. A few new things were added to this page, such as a reference in an episode of Charmed.

• Combined the GB1 & GB2 Soundtrack and Music Video pages into Music pages for each film. Added new videos to many of the song pages - including ones that most people don't even know exist! Also added the official lyrics to Promised Land to its page off the GB2 Music page. Here are the music videos that were added:
  GHOSTBUSTERS
  * "Ghostbusters" -- Ray Parker Jr.
  * "Cleanin' Up The Town" -- The Bus Boys
  * "Hot Night" -- Laura Branigan
  * "Magic" -- Mick Smiley
  * "Disco Inferno" -- The Trammps
  GHOSTBUSTERS II
  * "Higher And Higher" -- Jackie Wilson
  * "On Our Own" -- Bobby Brown
  * "Ghostbusters" -- RUN-D.M.C.

• Updated the photos and layout on the Fan Photos page. Now all images have thumbnails, which link to the larger images.

• To the GB1 1999 DVD page I added a Press Kit subpage (long overdue).

• To the GB1 2005 DVD page I added subpages comparing the video with the 1999 DVD, and menu screen shots and comparisons.

• To the GB2 2005 DVD page I added subpages comparing the video with the 1999 DVD, and menu screen shots and comparisons.

• Added GB1 & GB2 Screen Credits pages which lists the entire credits text from the end of each film.

• On the Fan Artwork page I added: My Ghostbusters II painting (moved from my personal page), photos that I took of a No Ghost Logo neon sign (some have me in them), some amazing art done by Michael Brewer, images of a GB amusement park kiddie ride (since it was created by a fan, it's considered art), and new art entitled Louis in the Park by Troy. Please don't think that I'm, all of a sudden, accepting fan art, because I'm not. The GB Fan Forum is still the best GB site to submit your work to. It's just that a few people have sent me some great stuff over the past few years, and as I'm finally getting around to adding some of the stuff on my hard drive, this great art is being included.

• Added thumbnails and media write-ups for several of the Filming Location pages. For example, I added the Simple Plan "Shut Up" screen shots that I had originally posted to this journal in 2005 (that post has since been deleted) to the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel page. As you'll see, the Dave screen shots on that same page now have thumbnails and a brief write-up. Screen shots from Janet Jackson's "Son Of A Gun" music video were also added to the Biltmore page.

• On the Website Archives - Other Sites page I added a downloadable copy of Mark Brown's Ghostbusting In '99/2000 site that I pieced together using files that I had saved and ones that I retrieved from the Internet Archive. It's not a complete copy, but it still contains a lot of useful information.

• Added an old El Zorro GB1 wallpaper (#9) to the Computer Downloads page. It's essentially a purple library ghost background variation of a wallpaper that's already on the page, but I thought that someone might want it, so I added it.

• Added a Cast & Crew Interviews page to the Everything Else > Misc section. On this page I added the Ivan Reitman / Harold Ramis CBS Early Show interview from August 2005 that was originally posted in this journal at that time.

• I took the GB1 and GB2 Deleted Scenes pages and put all "scenes" with a script excerpt onto their own pages, which are linked via a list on the main Deleted Scenes pages. This allows me to reorganize them into movie order without having to change file names.

• On the GB2 Deleted Scenes pages I expanded a few scenes using footage from the Electronic Press Kit (EPK). (1) On the main page, Janine's "I'm just as thrilled as you are" line now has an expanded version which puts it in context. (2) The image that was previously labelled "Ray and Peter in Ecto-1A as Egon runs alongside" was put onto its own page along with a script except as that is NOT Egon, but actually Louis' cousin, Sherman Tully, played by Eugene Levy! This scene has been fully expanded with the script excerpt and some behind the scenes shots, though none clearly show Eugene's face. I can tell that it's Eugene because later in the EPK Rick Moranis says that "Eugene, who's here for the day, is Canadian" in response to a question - plus Egon is clearly walking around in the background, so it's not him. (3) The scene of Peter and Ray talking to the fire and police captains outside the museum (where the Titanic line originally was) now has an audio file of the full dialogue exchange, as recorded by a behind the scenes camera. A few behind-the-scenes stills were added as well.

• Updated the headshots on the Cast & Crew pages for Alan Shearman, April Hong, Dave Coulier, Eddie Albert, Hamilton Camp, John Mariano, Laura Summer, Melissa Disney, Michael Corbett, Nick Jameson, Reginald VelJohnson, Rene Auberjonois. Added a headshot for Mick Smiley's page. Added some recent photos to Catherine Reitman's page. Added pages for Eugene Levy, Jackie Wilson, and The Trammps. (I was in the process of updating and adding new headshots for LOTS of the pages, but that'll have to wait until a future update.)

• On the GB2 Home Video page, I added a scan of the GB2 laserdisc jacket front.

• Added an "In Print" page to the RGB section, and on it I added a 1986 Starlog magazine article.

• To My Autographs page, I added a scan of a GB2 autographed cast photo that I bought on eBay last year. Eventually I'll replace that small scan (which was the one used in the auction) with my own larger one.

• On the GB1 Multimedia page, added an alternate photo of the three guys standing in front of the firehouse.

• On the RGB Multimedia page, added some promotional images.

• On the GB Music page (Everything Else section), added Bowling For Soup's cover of "Ghostbusters" and Mistah F.A.B.'s "Ghost Ride It".

• On the GB1 & GB2 script pages I added transcripts of the dialogue from the two films, which was resurrected from a now-defunct fan site.

• Added some new items to the Store page in the Amazon section, plus new links in Section 3 for Fangoria, Starlog, and Mile High Comics - plus a few others.

• Added a lot of Video Site (YouTube,Yahoo, iFilm, etc.) links to the GB1, GB2, RGB, and EGB Multimedia pages; video game video footage to the Games page; Fan Videos page; as well as lots of other pages. If you use my search engine to search for YouTube, Google, iFilm, Daily Motion, VidiLife, or Grouper, you'll find the pages that I added Video Site links on.

• Added a page in the Everything Else - Miscellaneous section for Filmation's Ghostbusters.

• Added some old news to the GB3 News Archive page.

• On the GB1 Score page, added a full list of cues missing from the Varese Sarabande CD.

• On the GB1 & GB2 & RGB Multimedia pages I added a Links section which contains outside links to sites with lots of images for each film. There's one GB1 site that has almost 500 screen captures, all high quality! Definitely worth a look.

• Added links to satellite aerial photos on all of the Filming Location pages.