The Weirdest of Als

Well, July mostly sucked.

Anxieties, weather troubles, work mishaps, car stuff (not mine for once).

We lost some legends in the span of a week:

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who I'll always remember as the producer at the end of The Magic School Bus

Ozzy

and Chuck Mangione, who I (and a whole lot of other people) was exposed to thanks to King of The Hill.

And the star of Thunder in Paradise, Hulk Hogan.

Hulk Hogan, the character, will be missed. Terry Bollea, the person...not so much.

Joey Chestnut returned to the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest and dominated as usual.

I still don't have a Switch 2 or Donkey Kong Bananza, but I did pick up the amiibo

And this sweet shirt from The Yetee from their Summer Games Done Quick collection.

I thought it wouldn't ship until August!

And I saw Superman!

I quite enjoyed Guardians of the Justice Friends. James Gunn really knows how to tell a Superman story. AMD how you organically include more heroes and build a foundation for what's to come next. But I will agree with some people that felt like this was a sequel to a movie we never saw. But it really did cut down from the bullcrap and repeating stuff we've seen in all the other Superman movies.

Krypto was great, Guy Gardner was great, the Kents were great, and Mr. Terrific was...also great! I'll be seeing Fantastic Four soon, and I hear that one's good, too.

But that's all behind us now. A few weeks back I got to see Weird Al at Madison Square Garden!

I've never seen a concert at MSG before, and the place was pretty huge.

The nosebleeds really earn their title there, and each of those seats were filled. Shame I never got a picture of the seats behind me, but you get the idea.

I had some pretty killer seats. Although while I had floor seat money, I didn't have 8th row floor seat money like my friend did. 

But that didn't matter, Weird Al killed it as usual! And he played some songs I hadn't heard him do live in eons, like Fat, Eat It, and Like A Surgeon, plus ones I wasn't expecting like Everything You Know is Wrong (his TMBG homage), Ricky (his parody of Toni Basil's "Mickey"), and I Love Rocky Road. Some new stuff was sprinkled in, like the new polka, the song at the end of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, and the Captain Underpants theme.

He played the Milo Murphy's Law theme, too. I wish he played more songs from the show, but it was nice to hear this one. He starred in a show from the Phineas & Ferb people, and hardly anyone talks about it!

And yes, he still played lots of clips from shows and movies that mentioned him, like this classic from King of The Hill.

And the ever classic cameo in The Naked Gun.

When I saw the trailer for the new movie I said "he'd better be in this one," and apparently he is!

And Conan The Librarian from UHF.

And Puddles Pity Party opened the show!

The sad clown with the golden voice was amazing to finally hear live. His cover of Crazy Train really took on a different meaning after Ozzy died. And stay for the end where he professes his love of Kevin Costner.

I got to see it with my dad, which made that night really special. My friend who was supposed to go with me backed out a week before and I couldn't find anyone else before he volunteered. He said that "the parodies don't hit as hard when you've seen the actual artists." He has a very impressive concert resume. The last time he was at MSG was to see Bob Dylan and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

But I knew he had a good time.

That'll do it for July, and August will be packed for me: a few conventions, Anime NYC, and a trip to Seattle! Stay tuned!

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It's Hot Out There

 

Ow. Well, the sun was certainly doing its job last week. The highest it read was 107. That's not safe for, well, anyone. I felt like I was gonna burst into flames the moment I walked outside. At least it only lasted two days. And I'm in the Northeastern United States, this ain't common, I can't imagine living somewhere where it's like this all the time.

And stupid me thinking 94 degrees yesterday wasn't as bad, despite still being, you know, hot as hell.

But back when the weather was more sane, I went to look at baby geese.

And saw a Black-crowned Night Heron!

I didn't even notice it until I saw people taking pictures around the pond. I never saw one in person before, let alone one this close! It was super cool.

Phineas & Ferb came back. I know a lot of people (myself included) aren't fans of reboots and revivals of shows that should have never been cancelled in the first place, but this new season really does feel like it never left. That's high praise. Dan & Swampy and crew took what they learned about storytelling over the past nine years and applied them to one of the few hits Disney still has.

I hope we get to see the bread bowl hot tub.

Got to play the Mario Kart World demo! Of course I played as the cow. Someday I'll buy a Switch 2. I just don't have the time or money for a $500 Mario Kart machine right now. I'm holding out for DK Bananza and Pokemon Legends Z-A.

Saw Pixar's latest, Elio! A cute story about a troubled boy wanting purpose and friends. This one was meddled with, AND IT SHOWS, but boy, it turned out pretty good. Definitely a better sci-fi story than Lightyear, that's for sure.

Overall, I didn't do THAT much this month. Nothing much notable, anyway. But I was bequeathed a collection of old school Sailor Moon VHS tapes from the parents of my late friend DJ. They were moving to Florida, and I got to pick through what was left of his DVD and VHS collection.

I didn't take most of the tapes, mostly because I haven't owned a VCR in about twenty years. We were very kindred spirits, we had the same taste in tapes. Lots of Disney. Like "did my tape collection somehow end up with him?" kinda thoughts.

I kept all the Sailor Moon tapes for sentimental reasons. It's mostly S and SuperS, but there were a few of the old school janky covers, like the one above with Sailor Mercury.

Oh, And I went to a food festival.

The Famous Food Festival seems more and more like a scam every time I go. It costs so much to get in, a lot of the vendors I liked stopped coming, and everything's so expensive. This time I mostly window shopped, since my wallet and my stomach aren't as big as they used to be and didn't want to ruin my Sunday dinner.

I did, however, try some omurice.

A fried rice dish with some egg on top. Man, that was good. But I wasn't a fan of the price.

If you have to ask how much something costs, it's too much.

That'll do it for June. Lets hope July is better.

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The Cutest Cat in The World

 Not two days after I posted the last entry, I had to say goodbye to my beloved cat.

This picture was taken that very morning. For the month leading up to this, I'd been leaving my house assuming it was the last time I'd see her, so it wasn't a TOTAL shock, but it still hit me pretty hard.

She made it to 18, much longer than the other cats I've had. It was a terminal case of O-L-D, I'm afraid. She was pretty blind and arthritic near the end, not going up and down stairs or up on couches as much. And she really liked going out of her way to avoid using the litterbox. Like, we put down a second litter box in the spot she usually went in, thinking that would solve it. But no. She'd go BEHIND them to do her business. That's usually a sign that the end was coming.

She came with the name Cleopatra, but had many others over the course of her life: Cleah (clee-ah), Gypsy, Miss America, Mrs. Peabody, Miss Prissy, Dummy cat, critter, or just Cat. She loved chewing on plastic, and sleeping in those boxes water bottles used to come in. She hadn’t been doing much in her later years, mostly meowing and drinking water. But she was always down to lay down next to me and watch tv with me or sleep on her favorite pillows.

She never liked being held, and mostly tolerated it when I picked her up. Only ate dry cat food, nothing else. I called her my picky little princess. We’ve been through so much together. She literally outlived a good chunk of my family, not to mention relationships, hurricanes, Covid, the whole nine. This is literally the end of an era for me. She literally predated this blog. I said there’s not many things I love more in this world than this cat, and I meant it. I’ll break down eventually.

Here are some other great pictures of her.

Needless to say that she was my favorite subject. My muse, if you will.

And here are two of the first pictures I took of her. Yes, those dates are correct.

She had sass since day one. I miss you so much.

My one wish was to get more time with her, and I got it. My other wish is for all of you to see her how I saw her, the cutest cat in the world. Everyone thinks THEIR cat is the cutest one, and they're all right. But MY cat. She was the cutest one.

So...basically my month ended way better than it started.

Like, on Sunday I finally got to go to the flea market for the first time this year! And I hit pay dirt!

"Bayou Billy? I hoped you saved the receipt!"

Yeah, you saw that right. I was VERY tempted to get it, just for the sheer novelty of it. But I didn't.

And here's what I ultimately went home with:

Yeah, you see a VHS copy of Mac & Me for two bucks, you don't hesitate to grab it. Even if I haven't owned a VCR in about a decade and a half. 

And I found a Ren & Stimpy comics trade I didn't have yet! You might remember last month's entry (scroll down) where I caved and went to eBay for issue 43 of the Ren & Stimpy comics, the last issue I needed. The booth I got that trade at had a whole mess of comics, and one box of licensed ones.

They had only a few Ren & Stimpy comics. And guess which issue I found?!

Number 43. AND the mini Wizard special issue. I was kicking myself, but the eBay ones were kinda cheaper, but it really DID feel like I cheated. But hindsight being 20/20 and all that. 

And that Maximum Occupancy sign was from a game store near where I live that closed down not too long ago. Not sure how it ended up with the guy selling the Coca-Cola memorabilia, but I wasn't in the mood to ask. He was kinda pushy and was obsessed with wanting the shirt off my back.

I mean, to be fair, it is a pretty sweet shirt. Got it out of a Teefury grab bag about ten years ago. And if I had a spare shirt in my car (I was absolutely NOT gonna trust the condition of a shirt off the rack at a train station flea market), I probably would've taken him up on the offer.

Here's hoping June is much better, for all of us.

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