Lloyd Lindsey Young

I'm going to go a little ways back into obscurity for this one today. You'd probably have to be over the age of 25 years old and grew up in New York to have heard about this guy. If you remember him though, he was a small slice of your youth. Before Al Roker and Sam Champion, there was Lloyd Lindsey Young.

I don't know much about Lloyd Lindsey Young. Not much is written about him either. However, he used to be the weather man on the old channel 9 or WOR network in New York. If there was ever a guy using hardcore drugs who also did the weather, this was your man. He also had a voice made for TV.

I'll let the below video speak for itself. Notice the witty banter and old school graphics. This guy was hilarious. Notice how he hardly stops moving and does his patented "hellooooooooooooooooooooooo" at around the 35 second mark. This was a typical broadcast for him too. Sadly I couldn't find him pronouncing the word "humidity" as "hum-ah-did-ity" as he often did as well.

You think Chris "Mad Dog" Russo had some inspiration for his "heellllooooooo everybody" when he opens the Mike and Mad Dog show?

Enjoy...

Slip and Slide

Edit: My Lord, Not sure if any of you read this before I edited it. My grammar was on par with a 2nd grader...

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In honor of the hot summer days, let's go back and examine a product that has brought hours of enjoyment and laughs to little kids who were unfortunate enough to not have a pool. Not only did this product give smiles and squeals of delight to many youngsters, but it also gave severe burns to the legs, broken ribs, concussions, and the ever famous "having the wind knocked out of you". Folks, lets recognize the Slip N' Slide.

Sadly, I could not find a retro commerical promoting the slip n' slide but its hard to forget the catchy jingle..."sliii-IP, slip and slide...sliiii-IP, slip and slide". Despite it looking so smooth and shiny in the commercials, every slip n' slide I used was wrinkly and a bitch to keep to lubricated. Nonetheless is was a marvelous invention.

The slip n' slide was a long piece of thin yellow plastic with these tubes on the side that you could stick you average garden hose into (or something else if the hormones were raging). You'd turn on the hose and the water comes spewing out of these little holes to keep the slip n' slide nice and moist and slippery. What they didn't tell kids is that the slip n' slide is tough to keep wet (hence major slide burns) or that when its wet, be VERY careful not to run on top of the thing or you'd slip and smack your face on the ground. Also, when the perosn using the slip n' slide made it to the end, you'd end up on the grass or even worse, a fence. The later versions added a little pool at the end...only the really rich people had one of those.

Anyway, I wish I could relive those days when a simple sprinkler or garden hose could entertain me on hot summer days. Sadly today, hot summer days involve working and blogging to people who I have no idea if they enjoy this or not.

Enjoy the video...you can't help but know somebody this happened to.

Top 5 Peter Cetera songs

Ahhh yes, Peter Cetera. Formerly of Chicago, this living legend has sung some of the biggest songs ever recorded and probably makes millions every year from dentists and doctors everywhere since they play his music all the time.

His two biggest hits are probably "You're The Inspiration", "Hard To Say I'm Sorry", and "If You Leave Me Now". However, since those are grossly overplayed, I give these five gems. Instead of attaching a video for each of them, I'm attaching a link to watch the video on Youtube.

5.) "Hard Habit To Break" (Off Chicago 17. Released in1985) - A rare duet in Chicago's history but this is mainly Peter Cetera's song. The other guy with the cool beard is Bill Champlain who would become their main singer on Chicago's later hits like "I Don't Want To Live Without Your Love" and "Look Away". The best two parts of the video happens at 3:28-3:30 when the other lead singer in the band, Robert Lamm, gives a super cool look into the camera. My other favorite part happens at 2:26 when Peter Cetera does an awesome fist pump while playing the bass.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsDAEWBuiWo

4.) "Glory For Love" (From Karate Kid II Soundtrack. Released in 1986) - Everybody knows this song from the Karate Kid Part II. It sounds like a Chicago song but its actually his first solo song. A classic 80's video in that they show clips from the movie. Some highlights include the longest eye blink at 0:34, the random movie clips that start at 1:10, the violent scene at 2:05, the hand move that Peter Cetera does at 3:00 and his name appears, and the orgasmic bliss he appears to be in at 3:44.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmSJDOVGIL8

3.) "Searching For So Long" - (From Chicago VII. Released in 1975) One of the more older songs here, this song is perfect Peter Cetera cheese. From the opening string section to Peter singing at his highest notes. The song ends on a rocking note with a great guitar solo and Peter scat singing. The link is for a live version. Things to look for include the groovy outfits including Peter Cetera's crazy hair, the high note he hits at 1:31, 2:24, and 2:37, the cool guitar solo starting around 2:59 (I like the muscle Rangers jersey), the scat singing at 3:18 culminating in the high squeal at 3:20. This would have been my wedding song if it wasn't a little too schmaltzy.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJTXb_yqpfc&feature=related

2.) "One Good Woman" (From Solitare/Solitude. Released in 1988). Another great Peter Cetera mid temp love song. It always gets me fired up. Things to look at in this video is Peter rocking the shades at :30, Peter's awesome button-down vest throughout the video at :43 and 1:22, the facial expressions around 1:40-1:46, the cool shadowesque Peter at 2:45, the big finale at 3:24 with all sorts of weird special effects, and the final money shot at 3:55 when he's dancing while standing still.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK8WHkgsS4s

1.) "Street Player" (From Chicago XIV. Released in 1979). I'd have full respect for you if you've heard of this song before. However, you've definitely heard parts of it since was sampled for a club song in the early 90's. I think the name of the band was the Buckethedz but the song was called "The Bomb". Anyway here's a weird 70's version of the original song. The quality isn't the greatest but you get the point. The main riff kicks in right away and the vocal you all know and love happens at :38. If you love progressive disco rock, then you can watch the whole thing but I won't bore you any more. I added the club song as well to compare.

You have to respect the fact that you've probably danced to Peter Cetera's voice at a wedding or club and never knew it.

Link to Street Player: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdhOWJFwVKc

Link to Club version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2THjmRLyp8

TV Intro Breakdown - Small Wonder

Today we look at the intro to a classic 80's show, Small Wonder.

Small Wonder was about a guy who created a robot in the likeness of a small child. The robot's name was V.I.C.I (or Vicky) which stood for Voice Input Child Identicant. Yup, she's an identicant...is that a word that exists in the English language? She lived in a cabinet in her "brothers" room.

This show featured two of the most annoying people ever portrayed on a television series...the human son Jamie and the next door neighbor Harriet.

The writers of the show must have doing a lot of 1980's cocaine and blow to come up with this concept. If I were writing for this show, I would have started a forbidden sexual relationship between Vicky and her "brother" Jamie (they're almost teenagers). That would have been pretty cool...and yes pretty sick as well.

This show somehow lasted 4 years but I don't recall it ever being on a major network. I think it was syndicated on channel 11 in New York much like other crappy but watchable shows like Charles In Charge, My Secret Identity, and Out Of This World.

Let's dig a little deeper...as usual, you can follow along with the timecode.

:00-:01 - Some angelic vocal harmonies lead to the title card. The graphics aren't too bad for 1985.

:03-:06 - The poor father in the show has nobody to eat lunch with and would rather eat next to the sidewalk in his job's parking lot. No wonder he creates child female robots.

:07-:10 - My 2nd favorite part of the credits...the awkward forced smile turn to the camera an actor has to do when being introduced. This has to be one of the best ones of all the TV series in the 80's...I love the smile that turns into a gentle laugh and he shows his teeth. He looks like golfer Tom Watson too.

:11-:18 - Time to meet the mother. Why is she putting a table cloth on top the kitchen table? I thought only resturants do that. I also love how she also does the awkward smile except it looks like she's looking into the wrong camera...otherwise she must be laughing because she just broke wind and impressed herself with the smell.

:19-:25 - The second most annoying character on TV. This kid just looks like he wants to be punched in the face. There actually was a rumor that this actor was really Billy Corgan. I don't see the resemblence at all but then again I though Paul from the Wonder Years was Marilyn Manson for awhile there.

:28-:37 - Here's Vicky. You get a sexy view of her naked back exposing all of her wiring. Then she turns and gives you her best robot expression.

:38-:39 - The sexual tension between Jamie and Vicky starts almost immediately. Nice shirt he's wearing too.

:40-:43 - THE MOST ANNOYING CHILD ACTOR EVER. Her expression changing from shock to an evil smile is my favorite part of the credits though.

:44-:50 - Another awkward meeting between the two kids. Jamie is already thinking about all the cool things he can do to her when the lights go out at night.

:51- end - Jamie and Vicky appear to sneaking into the house with Jamie holding some kind of box...what could be in it? Condoms? Drugs? A sexy piece of lingerie for Vicky to try on?

Weekend

The below post is probably all you'll get from me until Monday. I have a wedding tomorrow and like God, I usually like to rest on the 7th day of the week. Hope you all have great weekends.

Stick Shifts and Video Rentals

Wrapping up loose ends for the week...

Haha, the below video is great. This could happen at a supermarket parking lot much less an Indy car race. I love Danica Patrick's innocent reactions ("what are you doing?!?" and "what the hell?!?) and how she gets the towel thrown at her not once but twice. The pit crew wisely block Danica out at the end of the video...good stuff.

Caught up on some movie rentals the past week. You can read my review of Batman a couple of posts below but here are some others that piqued my interest. If my wife watched it, I'll give you her quick thoughts on it for any ladies who check this out.

1.) Before the Devil Knows Your Dead - Starring Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Marisa Tomei. Other than seeing Marisa Tomei naked in several different scenes of the movie and having a pivitol scene filmed in the Bayside Bay Terrace shopping center (where I used to live), this movie is just too long. Its one of the more depressing movies but that's not the point. The movie is very slow paced to the point where you feel happy that everything goes wrong in the end just so the credits start to roll. Not recommended until they put out a version that's 30 minutes shorter (or you like seeing Marisa Tomei naked)
Did my wife like it?: She thought it was dark and depressing. Plus, in exchange for seeing Marisa Tomei naked, she gets to see Philip Seymour Hoffman naked. That's like a guy watching a movie where Brad Pitt get it on with the old lady from Titanic.

2.) Vantage Point - Starring Dennis Quaid, William Hurt, Matthew Fox (from Lost), and Forest Whitaker (his lazy eye in solid lazy eye form). Not a bad rental. It moves quickly and it shows a crime taking place from four different points of views aka. "vantage points". Some little twists held my interest. Recommended if all the hot movies are rented out and you still are lookingfor something to rent.
Did my wife like it? : She said it actually wasn't too bad and mentioned it was a good enough movie to pass 90 minutes. It wasn't a chick flick by any means though.

3.) I Am Legend - Starring Will Smith, a german shepard, and a ton of CGI creatures. I held off renting this one for a bit do to the mixed reviews but I have to say that I really liked this movie. The first half is pretty creepy and even when the computer generated bad guys show up (not as fake looking as I thought they'd be) it gets pretty intense. I definitely recommend this movie but there's no love story involved if you're looking for a date movie.
Did my wife like it?: She passed on this one and didn't watch it. Knowing the movies she likes, that was probably a wise idea.

4.) Mr. Brooks - Starring Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Dane Cook, and Demi Moore. With that cast you'd think it would be a laugh out loud comedy (although I despise Dane Cook). However, its a very interesting crime drama about a serial killer (Costner) who's lives a normal life. Its when his blood thirsty alter ego (Hurt) comes around when things get interesting. Not as violent as it sounds though it gets a little crazy at the end, its one of those underrated movies that quietly passed through the movie theaters into the video store that make a great rental. Recommended as much as I Am Legend for it being a different type of movie. Dane Cook actually plays a serious role so I was able to tolerate him for once...barely.
Did my wife like it?: She thought it was pretty good although a little downbeat. Afterwards, she wanted to watch something uplifting for a few minutes on TV...her choice? The Most Dangerous Catch.

Classic Amazon.com Purchases

As some of you may know, I have a rather large and very random collection of CD's and DVD's. Most of that was purchased from used record stores like Vibes, Newbury Comics, Tower Records, and HMV (all in Boston) and of course Amazon.com. Ironically enough, Amazon saves your entire order history going back to 1999. From time to time, I'll list a purchase I made from them over the years and the rational or rather irrational reasons why I bought them.

Let's flashback to a purchase made on December 2, 1999...I was wallowing in money with my first job (making $33,000 a year!) and living in Allston, Massachusetts paying $600/month in rent. Discretionary income was completely wasted on disposable media (and Busch beer).

Items purchased:

1.) Pink Floyd - The Wall (DVD) - This classic movie was finally being released on DVD and being a fan of Pink Floyd's more commercial stuff, I definitely wanted it. After watching it though, its a little weird but that was to be expected. I still cringe at the scene where the guy shaves his nipples...ugh. Great music though.

Regrets: None but I should have watched it more than once in 9 years to get my money's worth.

2.) The Best Of Stevie B (CD) - You cannot deny the pure goodness that is Stevie B. Even if you think you don't know any of his songs, you've definitely heard him at junior high dance parties or on the radio (or in my car). I bought it mainly for one song (In My Eyes) and had no idea that there were four or five great songs on there (Rock Your Body, I Want To Be The One, Spring Love, The Postman Song). The above songs are still on my IPOD today and I even have a Stevie B Megamix I downloaded off the internet. I remember reading that you can hire Stevie B for a mere $20,000 to play at a party if you'd like.

Regrets: Absoultely not..."spring loooooove, come back to meeeeeeee"

3.) Millenium - Backstreet Boys (CD) - Ugh, sad to say, I got wrapped into the boy band craze. I enjoyed their songs at the time but that was the current state of music. I do love bands with good vocal harmonies and that was one of their strenghts. I think this was the CD with "I Want It That Way" which I embarassingly kareoked to at a New Years Eve party later that year.

Regrets: Bad choice made on this one.

Brian Austin Green - We Salute You

Above is an image of a boy who would soon become a man's man...a guy who has lived with/had a child with/been engaged to three of the better looking women in the past 15 years. I give you little David Silver of 90210 aka Brian Austin Green.

Let's take a look at his dating history. He dated Tiffani Amber Thiessen aka Kelly Kapowski (before implants) aka Valerie Malone (after implants) in the early to mid 90's. She was in her prime those years.

After they break up (right after Tiffani Amber Theissen left the show no less), he met actress Vanessa Marcil, also on 90210. You might know her better from the show Las Vegas or several issues of Maxim. They dated from the late 90's until the early 2000's and had a kid along the way. Again, he was with her while she was in her prime. Just do a Google search of her and you'll see what I mean.

Now he's engaged to Megan Fox, the chick from Transformers who's just 22 years old. Apparently they've been dating since 2004 which would put her at 18 at the time. He's having her in the midst of her prime.

Brian Austin Green...you da man!

My Neck is Killing Me or My IMAX Experience

I learned 2 things last night. The first one is to be afraid...be VERY afraid if you plan on seeing a movie at an IMAX theater sitting in the front row.

As most people know, the new Batman movie has broken all first week numbers as well garnering up tons of great reviews. I definitely wanted to see this movie and I have a couple of friends who I try and catch the big event movies with so we agreed to go see it this past Monday. On top of that we thought to take it a step further and watch it at an IMAX theater. IMAX theater is like watching a movie with a dome around you with much better picture and sound....perfect for this kind of movie. The tickets were bought last Friday for Monday's 7:15 showing.

Mind you, there's only one IMAX theater on Long Island. After a hearty meal at Houston's (which I caused my friends to get lost by mixing it up with a non-existant Houlihans in the area), we arrived at the IMAX at 6:45...plenty of time to get a good seat for a 7:15 show. When we arrived, the line was twisted around the outside of the theater and into the little cheesy food court they have. We were probably part of the last 20 people in line (or as my friend Dave says..."on line...its on line").

When we walked into the theater itself only the first three rows were open but one of friends who I'll call "Batman", saw three empty seats near the top. My other friend, who I'll call "Joker", and I thought we should take the third row and hedge our bet. Nonetheless we tried for the upper rows only to see that the seats were saved. By the time we found open seats, all that was left was the front row whose seats are already angled at 45 degrees. The third row seats were quickly swiped due to "Batman's" poor decision making.

Needless to say, the movie was tough to watch. You had to keep turning your head all the way to the left and right just to follow simple conversations. Forget about the action sequences, it was just a blur of activity. Some of the scenes you had to look way up to the top of the screen almost behind you. When the movie started, "Joker" said to "Batman", "I don't think I'm going to make it". I took one sip of my drink since I didn't want to risk spilling it all over me or choking on it as I tried to swallow. We hung in there and left with sore necks.

The movie itself was very good and I highly recommend it. I definitely need to see it again though because I know I missed about 30% of the picture since I'd need eyes like a frog to view the whole movie where the seats were.

---Quick trivia: Keep a look out towards the end of the movie for the old wrestler known as Zeus. He was the tall black wrestler from the late 80's who was cross eyed and get all fired up and breaths through his nose. He also played the bad guy in Hulk Hogan's immortal "Over The Top". He plays a pretty key role for his one scene and even does the cross eyed thing too.

Oh, and the other thing I learned last night? You can't wear a hat in Houston's dining area.

Billy Joel

To quote the Bangles..."Its just another manic Monday". That song was written by Prince by the way who was nailing Susanna Hoffs the pretty lead singer at the time as well.

But I digress...last Friday was one of the best concerts I've ever seen and I've seen a lot (that's a list for another time). It was dubbed the "Last Play At Shea" since they are tearing down good old Shea Stadium after the Mets win the World Series this year and they wanted to have a concert as well before it was razed. Who else to host that last concert but Long Island's own Billy Joel.

Now whether you love him or hate him (and I know some people who despise him), you have to admire the fact that he has one of the biggest catalog of songs. I didn't get into him much growing up on Long Island and really started liking him when I listened to his Greatest Hits Volume I and II a few years ago for the first time in ages. Great song after great song kept playing. Then I dug a little deeper into his albums and found a lot of other classics. In any event, I saw him at two of the twelve shows he played at Madison Square Garden in 2006, but that was nothing compared to Friday night's final show.

It was a perfect combination: Shea Stadium, home of the lovable Mets and Billy Joel, a Long Island icon. The only drawback was that is was so god damn HOT and HUMID. Most of the band members were wearing jackets and pants. Billy is 59 years old and it wouldn't have surprised me if he grabbed his chest during the first song. In any event here are the top 10 highlights for me (in chronological order of the show) and 3 low lights.

1.) Waling into Shea Stadium and seeing the outfield replaced by a huge stage setup that went from left to right field. There were also four video screens. By the time he hit the stage, you could barely see him but the crystal clear video screens made it look like you were in an IMAX theater.

2.) First song is the "Star Spangled Banner". Pretty clever opening.

3.) During a lesser known song "Zanzibar", they showed clips of the Mets playing with a focus of this one shot of Mike Piazza walking off the field. Got pretty emotional there.

4.)"Keeping The Faith" is such a great childhood song although I didn't some of the things he was talking about when I was growing up (trojans...what were those?). I'm glad he played that.

5.) As always he got a nice emotional lift playing "Goodnight Saigon", his ode to Vietnam, by bringing up various soldiers and some of the NYPD. The crowd went berzerk anytime the videoscreens showed them.

6.) Steven Tyler doing Walk This Way. I'm not a huge Aerosmith fan but I like some of their songs and actually played Walk This Way in a band so it was nice to hear it live.

7.) Seeing Tony Bennet come on stage was a treat. He's 80 years old but he seems like a pretty hip guy. He had a cool navy bluish suit on too. He sang on New York State Of Mind which is the classic New York song.

8.) Roger Daltrey coming on stage to sing My Generation. Oh baby...The Who have been my one of my top 5 bands of all time and although I've seen them a few times it was cook to see Roger Daltrey there. Plus, The Who played Shea in 1982 so that was a nice "complete the circle" sort o thing.

9.) 60,000 fans singing Piano Man...although its been overplayed for years its a great party song and Friday night was one big party. I love that line"and the piano sounds like a carnival, and the microphone smells like a BEER"....great imagery.

10.) Seeing Paul McCartney come on stage to do two songs at the end. I've never seen any of the Beatles live before so that was pretty cool. I've seen the original concert the Beatles played at Shea so I'm sure Paul was loving it.

---Quick side note. Billy Joel's guitar player must have had the greatest two concert days of his life...not only did he get to play in one of the biggest concerts, he got to play on some of the greatest songs ever with their original singers (Walk This Way, My Generation, I Saw Her Standing There, Pink Houses, Boys Of Summer).

Low lights:
1.) Billy got off the stage at midnight and it took an hour to walk a quarter of the mile it takes to get to the trains. It was like playing a three hour tennis match and then being herded with thousands of other people shoulder to shoulder for an hour.

2.) Garth Brooks coming out...I'm sorry, as much as I love Billy Joel, I can't stand Garth Brooks. I do respect him but would have rather seen Elton John come on or Billy Jeol read the phonebook for five minutes than see him.

3.) The poor beer people at Shea. I went to get a beer and asked the sellers (there were two) if this was a little more crazy than a Mets game. They said its much worse and I thought they were talking about the heat, but instead they were referencing how nobody was tipping them. Granted its $8 a beer at Shea but c'mon...these people are there for a reason. The guy looked like he was going to throw himself off the upper deck at the end of the show. Hopefully he didn't.

And that's a wrap for today...I have some good stuff lined up the rest of the week.

Tired

Got back from the Billy Joel concert at 2am last night so I'm running at half speed today. Will write more later this weekend. Enjoy the weather in the north east today.

Weekend

HUGE Mets win last night. Hopefully the team can keep the momentum going enough to pad a nice lead in the NL East. Then again they were up 7 games with 17 to play last year and we all saw what happened with that.

Off to see Billy Joel tonight at Shea Stadium. Love him or hate him, he has one of the best songbooks in music history and always puts on a good show. Rumors abound that Steven Tyler (cool), Garth Brooks (not cool), and Paul McCartney (very cool) may join him on stage at some point. I'll have a full report tomorrow on it.

Its been a bit since I put a video on here so here's a beauty off a Japanese TV station. This is actually a pretty neat idea in terms of getting a Polar Bear's attention. I wouldn't recommend being the one who tries it though.

TGIF!

Movies To Make You Cry...IN FEAR

First things first....I removed the dumb restriction that says you need to register with Google before being able to comment. Now you can comment away if you want.

Back on topic...growing up I was a major wussy when it came to scary parts in family type movies. Here are five that although they don't scare me anymore, I'll never forget the total fear watching them for the first time.

5.) E.T.

Basic Plot - Alien arrives on earth, meets young boy, gets drunk, eats lots of candy, almost dies, and then goes back home his planet thanks to a Speak and Spell.

Parts that made me cry - 1.) When E.T. makes his first appearance by jumping out the bushes. The shriek alone he makes scared me. 2.) E.T. is as white as a sheet nearly dead in a ditch. I wasn't crying because I thought he was dead, I was crying because he looked so freaky. 3.) E.T. says goodbye to Elliott...very sad. Oddly enough, I had a calendar of that shot where E.T. and Elliott are hugging and E.T. face is looking down with his eyes closed. I would have nightmares about that picture where E.T.'s eyes would open, he'd look at me, and then sneer (see above).

Nights I spent on my parents bedroom floor - 2 (out of a maximum 5 since they'd kick me out after a week)

4.) Transformers The Movie

Basic Plot - A giant planet (Unicron) arrives to eat every planet in its path. Meanwhile the Decepticons and Autobots fight against each other before realizing that the bigger issue is the planet itself.

Parts that made me cry - 1.) The opening music when Unicron first arrives is just the darkest music you'll ever hear in a film. 2.) The scene where Megatron ambushes the autobot ship and blows away four autobots in 30 seconds...when the smoke comes out of Prowl's eyes (as if it was blood), I couldn't beleive what I was watching. 3.) Optimus Prime dying.

Nights spent on my parents floor - 3 nights

3.) Back To The Future

Basic Plot - Teenager accidently goes back in time, meets his parents, almost screws up his own existence, and invents the Van Halen style of guitar playing.

Parts that made me cry - 1.) Towards the end, trying to make his parents kiss, when Marty starts fading away. The music they play while he slumps to the ground and that evil laugh that one guy gives did it for me. 2.) The scene where Doc Brown is on the top of the clock tower trying to plug in the power source thingee and comes across the gargoyle that looks like a panther (shades of Manimal?). When the lightening flashes and and Doc Brown screams upon seeing it, I knew it was a night on the floor for me. I hate gargoyles to this very day but I felt impressed to know what a gargoyle was when I was 7 years old.

Nights spent on my parents floor - 3

2.) The Neverending Story

Basic Plot - Boy reads a book, realizes the book is being played out in another dimension full of wolves, dragons, and bad 1980's makeup.

Parts that made me cry. Whoa baby...1.) The wolf head falling out of the closet while the boy is reading the book. 2.) The first appearance of Falcor (which looked like a giant white furry turd). 3.) The horse sinking into the swamp and the look on its face...best acting ever by a horse. 4.) The turtle type creature's voice. 5.) The statue's who's eyes would open up and blow away the horse riding guy. 6.) The wolf type creature who fights the hero of the story when his eyes only appeared in the dark. I need to see this movie again.

Nights spent on my parents floor - 4

1.) Ghostbusters

Basic Plot - Ghosts start taking over the city forcing four scientists to becomes Ghostbusters. Even though I was 5 when this came out, I knew Rick Moranis was going to be very annoying.

Parts that made me cry: Only one here...but its a doozy. The part where Sigorney Weaver's character, Dana, sits in her chair and then the monster hands come out of the chair and drag her away. That one scene mentioned here that still freaks me out a bit because it comes out of nowhere and happens so fast. The rest of the movie's goofy horrorness didn't faze me and I still use the line "There is no Dana, only Zuel" on anybody that knows somebody named Dana.

Nights spent on the floor - 5 (I hate gargoyles)

Honorable Mentions - Gremlins (Stripe melting at the end), G.I. Joe (Duke nearly dies), Rocky III (Paulie breaks the pinball machine), Rocky IV (Apollo dies), Cloak and Dagger (scene where the old lady pulls her glove off to reveal a missing finger).

Feel free to share your scary movie moments.

All Star Game Thoughts/Rant

Quick points on last night's All Star Game.

I had zero interest in any of the players of this game so I lasted until the 5th inning. Nonetheless, I wanted to see the pregame show that they were hyping up as the best gathering of Hall Of Famers. Oh really?

1.) The intros of the historical players were neat in that they stood at their respective positions, although Paul Molitor was considered a DH and stood on second base which was weird.

2.) Willie Mays looked like the angriest man in the world and his face had been replaced by the surface of the moon. He completely blew off Josh Hamilton when he went to shake his hand and I'm sure he was thrilled to stand next to the Japanese Cub player as well.

3.) I had a tear in my eye when some of my favorite 80's players were introduced like Dave Winfield, Ryne Sandburg, Wade Boggs (showing off his Hair Club for Men), and Gary Carter (sporting a Mets hat as well as his Expos hat...nice move Gary).

4.) Of course Yogi is introduced last.

5.) Steinbrenner rolling in on the cart was very cool. It first looked like he had had a stroke and his mouth was permanently opened but then it looked like he was crying. Its a shame what's happened but that's what happens when you get old I guess...scary.

6.) Notable historical Yankees who didn't show up...Joe Torre, Don Mattingly, Willie Randolph (not surprising though), Rickey Henderson, and Kevin Maas.

7.) It was good to see Ralph Kiner there but you have to be a Mets fan from the 80's to appreciate that one.

Anyway, my rant generates from a comment that Joe Buck said in that it was greatest collection of baseball players on one field ever. Joe, did you watch the 1999 All Star game at Fenway? That was the year they had the baseball All Century Team. Here are some the players who were there on that night thay didn't make it to Yankee Stadium.

Pitchers: Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, Roger Clemens (love him or hate him), and Warren Spahn. Plus Tom Seaver, who wasn't on the All Century Team, didn't make it either.

Position Players: Johnny Bench, Ken Griffey Jr. (who should have been playing) and Ted Williams.

I'll trade Gary Carter for Johnny Bench and take any of those pitchers. Plus Vin Scully did the introductions that year so I'd take him over Joe Buck.

Enough of that...I love baseball history but Joe Buck's father Jack Buck would have chopped him across the face had he heard that (and was still alive of course).

The BJ Era of the Yankees (Before Jeter)

If you're under the age of 15, you have never lived a time when the New York Yankees were a losing team (at least statistically). However, prior to 1993 and the arrival of Derek Jeter, the Yankees were a truly lousy team and a consistently lousy team at that. Let's focus today on the last Yankee team to finish under .500....the 1992 New York Yankees.

The 92' Yankees opened with a lot of promise. Despite trading away Melido Perez and Steve Sax, they had a rookie manager in Buck Showalter and had some of the biggest free agent signings in Danny Tartabull. Throw in some key cogs like Mike Gallego and a trade for Charlie Hayes and you had a formidable team....on paper. Let's look at the starters.

Matt Nokes, Don Mattingly, Pat Kelly, Charlie Hayes, Andy Stankiewicz, Mel Hall, Roberto Kelly, Danny Tartabull, and Kevin Maas. Throw in the bench players of Randy Velarde, Dion James, Hensley Muelens, a pre manslaughter Jim Leyritz, and a young Bernie Williams, its a miracle this team went 76-86.

The pitching staff wasn't much better...Melido Perez, Scott Sanderson, Scott Kamieniecki, Jeff Johnson, and big ol' Tim Leary were your starters while you had Steve Farr, John Habyan, Rich Monteleone, Tim Burke, and Lee Guetterman in the bullpen.

I was 15 years old that summer and never knew a good Yankee team. I remember the big news when the Yanks signed Tartabull for $5 million a year to counteract the Mets signing Bobby Bonilla (or vice versa). The Yanks never got it going and ended up 20 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays. Nonetheless, there are some classic journeyman players on this team and I didn't even mention Jesse Barfield or seven time drug violator Steve Howe.

Ebay lists the 1992 team set for a "buy it now" price of $2.00. I just might have to do that...

Tid Bits

Some quickies for today:

1.) Went to see Rush last night in concert. Although I only knew two of their songs, they put on a great three hour show that flew by. Jones Beach is a great place to see a concert too. Rush charges $70 for a three hour show...the Police charge $140 for a 90 minute show.

2.) Was in Atlantic City this past weekend. If you ever go there do NOT stay at the Tropicana hotel. Although, the food and restaurants are good, and the casino is big and clean, the hotel part of it is terrible. The bed spreads looked like they were from 1970's and thin as a black garbage bag. The air conditioning was sketchy, the elevators were slow, and I was better washing myself with a garden hose than the pressure coming out of the shower head. To make matters worse, after being out of the room for 6 hours playing golf on Saturday, we come back to the room to find it open. Apparently the cleaning staff forgot to close the door. You've been warned.

3.) The All Star Game is tonight and even better, its at Yankee Stadium. If its anything like the one from Boston in 1999, the pregame should be worth watching. My prediction is that Yogi Berra will get the loudest applause (assuming they are going to bring out some of the older Yankees) and that Fox will cut to the crowd for reaction shots at least 200 times throughout the entire broadcast. For what its worth, listen to the Yankee PA announcer Bob Shepard because it will one of the last seasons you'll see him. He's around 93 years old.

In any event go National League...2008 World Series at Shea Stadium!!!

Ring King - A Video Game or Porn?

A lot of people who had the old Nintendo Entertainment System knows about Mike Tyson's punchout. That review is for another day but I wanted to mention this little beauty of a game called Ring King. I don't remember much about it except for the fact that you could only be two characters, the white or brown guy, and that you had full motion to walk around the ring unlike Mike Tyson's punchout where you just stood there.

The point of this post is that the developers of this game may have been spending a little too much time together. Check out those screen shots above. What is going on there???

Off to Atlantic City

Well, I'm out of here for the weekend again. Last weekend was New Hampshire, this weekend its Atlantic City. The goal is to win big playing some golf and win big on the Roulette table. Sadly, with my 150 yard drives and horrible casino luck, the exact opposite will happen.

I'll leave you with a public safety announcement...if you do one of those flaming shots, don't spill any of the booze on yourself and for God's sake, don't spit it out!!!

The Scourge Of The Great South Bay

Quick post today...

Above is the crusher of many fluke fishermen dreams, the eater of bait, the slicer of many hands..I give you...the sea robin. Supposedly its a good fish to eat but if you ever look at one in person, the only thing you want to do with it is bang it against your boat. With its big dopey eyes, ultra wide mouth, and its huge bat-like wings, I can't imagine this tasting any better than human urine (not that I've ever tasted that). Even worse, it has horns on its back that can cut your hand open when you try to grip it. On the plus side, they make a charming croaking noise.

Mr. Belvedere

Its time for…80’s TV intro breakdown!!! The first in this series is of the mid to late 80’s classic…Mr. Belvedere. Not only does it feature one of the greatest theme songs ever, it has a somewhat odd intro….follow along in the clip below to the time stamps.

0:00-0:03- Mr. Belvedere is writing in his diary. He must be a narcissist as a magazine with his picture on the cover is next to him.

0:04 – A closer look at that magazine cover tells us that he was “Housekeeper Of The Year”. The magazine is called “World Focus” and apparently there is no other news that merits mention on the cover besides him.

0:06 – The money shot of the title credit and the greatest trombone note ever.

0:08 – Apparently Mr. Belvedere got around in his younger days. He served tea to Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin, and FDR during WWII which, if this show took place in 1986, Mr. Belvedere would be about 95 years old at the time this show took place.

0:10 – He also meditated with Gandhi and seems put off by Gandhi’s refusal to accept his offer of tea.

0:12 – Mr. Belvedere also climbed Mount Everest, most likely in the same suit he always seems to wear.

0:15 – Looking a bit younger, Mr. Belvedere is seen here receiving a gold record from Dick Clark.

0:17 – Apparently the royalties from the above hit record were not enough monies to prevent Mr. Belvedere from resorting to hitchhiking to Pittsburgh to look for work. Did he have a major heroin, gambling, and/or hooker addiction? Who could hire this man?

0:20 – Mr. Belvedere appears at the door for the first time with a shit eating grin and eyes darting around to see what expensive collectibles are his for the taking.

0:22 – Apparently Bob Uecker doesn’t initially trust Mr. Belvedere as he serves him his first breakfast. If you look at the background, the characters seem much taller than the refrigerator and other appliances in the background….early versions of the blue screen technology?

0:25-0:26 – Nice cleavage…if you look close enough, you’ll see the son standing on her left admiring at it as well. Creepy!

0:27 – My favorite part of the credits…the part where they take two or three photographs of the actor when they introduce them. I love her facial expressions. Its like the director told her to make a funny face in the first one and then told her to smile normally in the second.

0:27-0:31 – The older son’s intro…he looks completely hammered in the first clip. His photo montage shows him looking away and then into the camera. I like that.

0:31-0:35 – The daughter intro…damn, she looks better than I remember. I was probably 10 years old when this show was originally on the air and had barely enough testosterone to know if she was good looking or not.

0:36-0:39 Ah yes…Wesley. You either liked him or you hated him. I didn’t mind and enjoyed his battles with Mr. Belvedere. I remember him having a friend in the show who wore a night brace which basically was like wearing a giant bear trap around your face. Thank got braces were invented by the time I needed them….but I digress. Sadly I think I owned the same sweater he’s wearing during his photo shots.

0:40 – 0:44 – Some quick clips and the intro of Bob Uecker… one of the greatest announcers/actors alive today (see Major League and any Milwakee Brewers game).

0:50 – Mr. Bevedere and Bob Uecker ignore the fact they have three children in the house and decide to smoke cigars inside. Looks like someone told the other a dirty joke too.

0:54 – Mr. Belvedere turns off the porn and calls it a night.

As a bonus, you get to see the end credits but there’s nothing exciting except the instrumental version of the theme song.

Hidden Negative Effect from High Gas Prices

Random though while driving up north this weekend...

With gas prices here on Long Island up to $4.35 for regular, its causing another problem that very few people have mentioned.

Because the price per gallon is so high, its near impossible to fill your tank up to a nice round dollar amount number once the pump initially stops. I'll get to $49.98, just tap the gas handle for a spilt second and it goes up to $50.02. Then I'll try and round up again and the same thing happens. Anyone else noticing this?

Happy 4th!

Happy July 4th weekend to everybody. I will be "out of pocket" as they say in my business and probably won't be able to post anything new until next week.



In the sprirt of the 4th, here's a game that you and a friend can play if you have nothing better to do and have access to a couple of roman candles. The event that everyone will be waiting for happens at the :37 mark.

Enjoy!

My First Cassette Tape

Although I loved the benefits of being a little kid, I sort of wish I was a little older to understand the magic of the year 1984. You had the Olympics in Los Angelos, a landslide presidential election, the entire Jackson family, including Michael, on tour, as well as some of the best 80's music being released:

* Born In The USA - Bruce Springsteen

* She's So Unusual - Cyndi Lauper

* 1984 - Van Halen

* Heartbeat City- The Cars

* Like A Virgin - Madonna

* Purple Rain - Prince

* Bananarama - Bananarama

* Suddenly - Billy Ocean

Not being old enough at the time to appreciate the above albums (although I loved Carribean Queen), I was 6 years old in the car with my parents when I heard that magical chorus...."you're out of touch, I'm out time....TIME...girl I'm outta my head when you're not around." From the layering of instruments to the beginning to the background vocals of John Oates, to strange lyrics I didn't understand like "manic moves and drowsy dreams", this song captured my imagination.I was 6 years old at the time and the melody blew my mind. After hearing the song's title was "Out Of Touch" I knew I needed it....again, I was 6 years old.

I begged and pleaded with my parents to get me the tape this song was on. I'm assuming they liked that they had a little kid who was appreciating music, as cheesy as it probably was, and so at some point that fall of 84', I received a cassette tape called "Big Bam Boom". The cover, as seen above, looked like a really bad tie dye job of a cover. Ironically enough, Daryll Hall plays more keyboards then anything and John Oates is the main guitar player so the cover makes a little sense. I always thought the person's face seen on the bottom left hand corner looked like she was straining while going to the bathroom.

I don't remember the whole tape but the first some had those chipmuck type vocals that blew my mind. Then came Out Of Touch which I must have played hundreds of times, rewinding it when it was over. I really didn't listen much to the rest of the tape other than those first two songs but over time I realized that there were some classic songs on there. "Method Of Modern Love" taught me to spell words oddly like "M-E-T-H-O-D O-F Melody". "Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid" had a great hook and "Possession Obsession" is a song's who's title I'll still quote today ("My buddy has a major case of possession obsession with that girl...I hope she doesn't call the cops")

I highly recommend checking it out.