Valar Morghulis tonight Journal Square

Valar morghulis, you know, the translation for either "All Men Must Die" or "Better Get To the White Castle" will be tested tonight as the man himself, A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin will appear at the Landmark Loew's Theater at 7:30 discussing his new book (No, not the next in the series) “Fire & Blood,” which is a history of the Targaryen family and empire.

Tickets are $40 but you DO get a signed copy of the book. Johnny went to see Mr. Martin discuss his History of Westeros book, the one with all the pictures. He's very very engaging and does take questions from the audience at the end so if you have some gripes with Game of Thrones adaptations, if that is how Hodor dies in the books actually holding the door, or whatever is on your mind, tonight is your chance to ask. When Johnny saw him a couple years back at the 92nd Street Y, Martin did explain some of the differences between his vision and the show's reality. In his vision, THIS is what the Iron Throne looks like. 7:30, see you there Jersey City!

Any Game of Thrones fans think we're in for a treat tonight?

Just the buzz building before this week is a lot like before last year's Battle of the Bastards. Some may have come from the episode leaking and those few having seen it must have raved long and loud. Johnny has a hunch we're in for a wild night.

Apparently there's this show called Game of Thrones

While Johnny might have a passing interest (if by passing you mean encyclopedic knowledge) in the show, he's never been to a viewing party of more than 4 people. Zeppelin Hall here in Jersey City will be hosting a Game of Thrones watch party from 7pm until midnight this Sunday. More on the themed food and drink offerings available here.

Johnny is extraordinarily excited for Game of Thrones tonight

Spawler alert spawler alert! Turn away.

Now.

Last chance.

The Broken Man is the name of tonight's episode. The Broken Man is a famous speech given bt a member of the faith, Septon Meribald in a place called the Quiet Isle in the books. He gives it to Pod and Brienne. If they are doing as Ian McShane says then it's all too clear that indeed one obscure part of the books, the Gravedigger Theory (Seriously a GREAT link for this and all things Gravedigger going forward) will be visited tonight. For those of you with better things to do with your rainy rainy day that sit through an awesome ten minute video, here is who returns as the Gravedigger tonight.

Which can only lead to...

Johnny's a full-on geek today

Lord of the Rings trilogy on all day on TNT, later the Hobbit Unexpected Journey will be on still after the finale of Game of Thrones. Johnny badly needs to decompress and fantasy action it is!

See ya back here tonight to discuss someone on Game of Thrones who's gonna 'Come back to life, back to reality'...

Our first Jersey City promotional video!

The first of what Johnny told the staff should be a long list of videos promoting downtown Jersey City and what you the potential renter or hopefully buyer of real estate can look forward to! Let's take a look but more importantly, a listen:

Five minutes til Game of Thrones

Have you resisted the temptation to check out the all four episodes that leaked? Johnny's taking it one week at a time. Did you peek? Did you have a chance to peek and didn't? Let us know in comments.

Go outside and play!

Get away from your televisions and computers until after the sun goes down. This is the day and pretty much the weekend we've waited for since October.

Til after Game of Thrones tonight...

Dear outside, see you tomorrow!

OK, we all have a day where we simply want to stay inside, watch some teevee and recharge our batteries. If you're Johnny that day is TODAY. The Red Wings are on as the national game again this week at noon. Then Johnny's MSU Spartans will be in tough against Virginia who they beat in the NCAA tourney last season over at MSG. If that's not enough there's a Game of Thrones marathon on HBO2 (Season 1). THEN it's the matchup half the globe will watch as FC Barcelona (Yea!) plays Real Madrid (Boo Hiss!) at 3pm.

So sorry windy, cold, bright Sunday. Other than a couple dog walks, Johnny's going to miss you.

World Cup Today -- Day 9

England, LOL.

Lunchtime brings a wonderful David vs Goliath contest with suddenly hot Costa Rica matching up with World Cup powers Italy, both victorious in their openers. Can the imaginative Los Ticos attack break the Azzurre defense, as legendary as "The Wall" in Game of Thrones. As much as Johnny wants to hope the CONCACAF magic can continue you get the feeling Italy got to be Italy on the world stage by winning matches like this. The 3pm match features the timeless battle of chocolate vs. wine so settle back with a box of wine and a Hershey bar, play both ends against the middle, and watch France try and crack the tough Switzerland defense. After that box of wine and THREE Hershey bars maybe you'd like to order some dinner? Well spice it up as the nightcap at 6pm features a loser beats the postcards home game between Honduras and Ecuador. Johnny would cheer for Ecuador after seeing a human interest piece on their side last night but, well, CONCACAF!

Italy vs Costa Rica noon
Switzerland vs France 3pm
Honduras vs Ecuador 6pm

If you're a fan of Game of Thrones you won't want to miss this

A short interview today in the Jersey Journal with Bayonne native and author of "A Song of Ice and Fire" which became HBO's Game of Thrones. Martin previews a lengthy interview he did with Rolling Stone magazine about sitting in Bayonne and imagining far off lands while seeing the night lights of Kill Van Kull. You can find the interview here.

Winter is Coming

And the White Walkers and Wildlings will come from Hoboken...

An app for Twitter wants more power over Johnny's info than the NSA and PRISM have

Incredible. All Johnny wanted to do was post a tweet in a contest for HBOGo mentioning his favorite Game of Thrones moment (Tyrion commanding the King's Landing forces in the Battle of the Blackwater while being dressed down by The Hound) and to enter one MUST allow a HootSuite app, a URL shortener called Ow.ly to speak for you. Yes, it's Orwellian in its permission level. The NSA or FBI can't do this. Just look at the permission settings they allow themselves:


Balls the size of Alpha Centauri. Who DO you think you people are? Ow.ly can update Johnny's profile? You can posts tweets FOR Johnny on his behalf? In the words of Eric Cartman to Mr. Garrison "Suck.....my....balls."

Good citizens please tell Johnny you're not signing on for things like this. This is disgraceful. A good reason to not use HootSuite.

Are you a geek, dweeb and or dork like Johnny?

Then you'll want to gather your army and head to 3 West 57th Avenue for the Game of Thrones exhibit sponsored of course by HBO and the imaginations of geeks everywhere. They have clothing, weapons, an interactive archery display and you, yes you, get to take part in the Battle of the Blackwater.

But that's not why you're gonna go. We'll get to that.

It is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Easter Sunday. Yes, Easter Sunday, when season 3 premieres at 9pm on HBO, what a perfect day to go see this.

So what is going to tip the balance of whether or not you make the trip? You can get your inner Joffrey on and get your picture taken in the iron throne itself. Sit in that chair and remind everyone "The King can do as he likes..."

Any of our dear readers Game of Thrones fans?

Johnny just can't get enough of the season two previews with the new season FINALLY on the horizon April 1st. If you haven't seen this one it's a keeper.

You win or you die, you'd think that would be pretty straightforward but in George R. R. Martin's world the chances of you dying vastly outweigh the chances of you winning.


Recently George R. R. Martin visited the Audible.com HQ out in Newark and Johnny wanted to pass this interview with him along...