We are heartbroken to report that Esther Ellis, Greg and Dale's grandmother, had died on March 18 following a painful battle with kidney and bladder cancer. She was 80.

Online, Esther had become something of a cult figure for a viral video depicting her dancing to the Sounds' "Tony the Beat." The video was shot and released by Brandon Doering, Greg and Dale's cousin, on his MySpace page.

Naturally, the whole family is devastated. She will be missed beyond words.

We're proud to announce the newest addition to our still-new Gama News Team section: Fred's Shelf, hosted by Fred the Mole! Check it out!

In every column, Fred will review a variety of pop culture items, from books to movies to music to whatever. There will also be a number of other fun surprises along the way, so it'll definitely be worth checking again and again. Enjoy!

Way, way, way back a long time ago we were promising a new section devoted to our Gama News Team family of characters. Well, we're pleased to announce that it's finally up and ready to go! Check it out!

We've got two new features on board that will soon be added there, most notably Fred's Shelf, a series of mass media and pop culture reviews by our rodential puppet character Fred the Mole.

Meanwhile, we're still gearing up to launch Where the Heck is Aaron? very soon, but we're currently stuck in litigation that we're slowly but surely getting out of. You'll see why when the feature has its debut. So keep checking back!

Here's a cool little update on Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction, last year's intriguing biography by Jonathan Eller and William Touponce that Greg worked a little on.

The Life of Fiction was nominated in the "Best Non-Fiction" category of this year's Locus Awards, the prestigious awards honoring the best in science fiction, fantasy, and horror writing. It was up against The Gernsback Days: A Study of the Evolution of Modern Science Fiction from 1911 to 1936 by Mike Ashley and Robert A.W. Lowndes; The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination by Ursula K. Le Guin; The Annotated Brothers Grimm edited by Maria Tatar; and Dancing Naked: The Unexpurgated William Tenn by (who else?) William Tenn.

The awards were presented over Fourth of July weekend at the Westercon 58 convention in Calgary. Unfortunately, The Life of Fiction lost to The Wave in the Mind, but hey, it's cool that it was even nominated!

Way to go, Jonathan and Tupac!

Usually it's "Yankovic" that we're talking about on our web sites. But this summer, another similar-sounding Slavic name has been making the rounds around here, "Jacovich."

As in Milan Jacovich, everyone's favorite modern-day, Stroh's-drinking, Cleveland-based private eye. The brainchild of television veteran Les Roberts--whose writing credits include The Jackie Gleason Show, The Andy Griffith Show, Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Hollywood Squares--Milan has gumshoed his way through thirteen suspenseful, down to earth, and often really funny mystery novels.

The entire thirteen-book Milan Jacovich series is being reissued in paperback, and the first nine adventures are currently in stores. Greg did some minor technical work on the fourth reissue, The Cleveland Connection, making sure the book was reproduced correctly without any glaring omissions like halves of pages missing or anything. It's a very thin connection at best, but Greg is so psyched about these books that he forced us to cover them. Hey, he's the boss.

The reissues were commemorated with Cleveland mayor Jane Campbell declaring June 17 to be "Milan Jacovich Day," and Les will be spending the rest of the summer appearing at book signings. More info, such as dates, can be found on Les's own web site.

And of course, The Cleveland Connection (A Milan Jacovich Mystery) and the other eight reissues can be ordered with the greatest of ease at Amazon, so go get 'em!

Wow, it seems like only a year ago when we were sent a cease-and-desist order forbidding us from mentioning a project that Greg worked long and hard on because someone else's ego didn't like the fact that we weren't tossing their salad on our web site. And because we just love things that come back to bite people in the very same rumps, that project tanked miserably as both a failure commercially and glossed-over by most critics. Haw-haw!

Anyway, one project that we can mention is one that Greg did some minor editorial work on last year, Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction by Jonathan Eller and William Touponce. A sort of analytical biography, Eller and Touponce cover the strange, overly protective sci-fi master's life and career thus far, making unique observations and parallels as they go over all of his work, both major and minor. And hey, there's even a foreword by the old boy himself!

The book is now in stores and can ordered at (where else?) Amazon. Hopefully this will sell more than the three copies that other thing did!

Now on DVD is a riveting documentary called Comedian, chronicling Jerry Seinfeld on the road as he tempers his new stand-up routine. Also appearing in the movie are Bill Cosby, Colin Quinn, Chris Rock, Garry Shandling, Jay Leno, that chimpanzee that stars on Everybody Loves Raymond, Orny Adams, and...Greg and Dale???

'Tis true! In his quest to sneak into every low-budget movie produced in the next ten years, Greg can be seen in the front row of Jerry's audience during his 2001 stand-up act in Cleveland. You need really good eyes to catch him (start looking when Jerry walks past the giant Chief Wahoo flag), but he's there. Dale was also with Greg for that show, and sure enough his head is also obstructing the view in a few shots! Dale's is the somewhat-buzzcut head that seems to be in direct path of Jerry's crotch.

So by all means, order the DVD and check it out!

While we're plugging DVDs, we might as well mention that the ultra-dull Rob Lowe made-for-HBO movie that Greg was cut out of, Proximity, is also out in stores!