Can you believe it, folks? This humble little blog turned 11 years old this week!
So...11 isn't really THAT important of a milestone. It certainly isn't TEN, anyway. But hell, I never expected to keep this up for eleven years! Especially since blogs as a whole are pretty much a dying medium these days anyway. All my good stuff has been posted on Twitter or Instagram for however long I've been on THOSE platforms.
I just want to say thank you for everyone who's been reading this tiny corner of the internet that I feel doesn't really add anything new anymore. This is still my own personal piece of the pie, and I'm glad that there's someone out there interested in what I have to say.
Until the next time I think of something to post here, enjoy these pictures of the major Elevens of pop culture:
Eleven from Stranger Things.
and of course the Eleventh Doctor of Doctor Who. Matt Smith was the first Doctor I watched, so that makes him MY doctor.
I got to meet him at NYCC a few years back, and he's totally awesome in person, exactly how I expected him to be. Just wanted to put that out there.
Yes, you heard it right! It’s January 31st, so that means that today is one of the greatest days of all:
NATIONAL GORILLA SUIT DAY!
What's National Gorilla Suit Day, you ask?
The holiday was created by Don Martin in 1963 as a story in his book "Don Martin Bounces Back."
This particular book was gifted to me by my friend Ryan for Christmas. He's a great guy, and since he's a fellow lover of the day, he knew this book would be right up my alley.
In this story, Fester Bestertester keeps complaining that National Gorilla Suit Day is nothing more than a conspiracy created by the owners of gorilla suit companies to make everyone buy more gorilla suits.
And gorillas keep showing up at Fester's door in their suits and proceed to beat the everloving crap out of him.
And since there's one panel per page, this gag goes on for 56 pages.
You'd think this would get too repetitive and dull, but it doesn't! Don Martin got a lot of mileage out of this one gag. Fester complains, someone enters the room, they zip down and reveal that they're a gorilla, they beat Fester up, they leave. Repeat. And it doesn't stop. Sometimes the gorilla is in a balloon. Sometimes the gorilla is a lawyer. Sometimes the gorilla IS ANOTHER GORILLA. The man was a master of timing and weird sound effects, and this is one of my favorite works of his. There's a few other stories in this book, but they're not as long or as funny, but I definitely recommend it.
Why is it on January 31st? That was thanks to Mark Evanier, who just decided that it should be celebrated on this day because the date itself is never specified in the story. That's one of his banners up at the top, there.
And according to this 1979 calendar, National Gorilla Suit Day fell on March 5th.
I wish I could go into more detail about all this, but there's not much info on Mark's site about it, because he deleted almost every reference to it in 2007 at the request of Don's widow since she was promoting a new Don Martin collection that had the story in it. Which is really weird in itself, when you think about it, it's always been one of the weirdest enforcements of copyright I've ever seen. His estate owns the rights to all of his non-MAD works and sure, it's understandable. But Mark's been in the business for years and was really close to the MAD magazine staff, and his blog essentially gave it free promotion.
Regardless, folks like Ryan and I keep the spirit alive and celebrate anyway, legal reasons be damned. Again, this could all be another conspiracy by the Gorilla Suit companies to make the public believe that there aren't any gorilla suits anywhere to buy.
I'll just leave you with my favorite gorilla suits of pop culture:
Another year is about to leave us, and I can frankly rank this one as "okay." I’ve had a few losses, not many gains (but some), and the week after Christmas is always weird.
In lieu of any end of the year wrap up nonsense, let me just tell you all what’s happened since the last time I posted.
Went to Wintercon and met Sean Astin! He was awesome. I’m to his right. My friend Mike is to my right, while my other friend Danny is to Sean’s left.
While the room was a bit small (the casino its held in cut the room in half before last year’s con), I had a great time. You can always feel the vibe of any convention or event like this, and I’ve always enjoyed Wintercon’s vibe.
I managed to find one of the comics on my bucket list: Avengers 239, the issue where the team goes on Late Night with David Letterman. I’m also trying to find Marvel Team-Up 74, where Spider-Man teams up with the Not Ready For Prime Time Players.
It’s not an expensive comic, so it’s pretty doable. I managed to get a bunch of my Bucket List comics this year, like a copy of Archie Meets The Punisher, and an intact copy of Life With Arche #78. I'll consider myself done when I get a copy of this one. As you can see, I love the delightfully weird comics, especially crossovers.
I had to take a picture of this one because I’m 12.
This is me with Tsugutoshi Komada, the suit actor for Jet Jaguar. Jet Jaguar was Toho’s answer to Ultraman, and most notably appeared in Godzilla vs Megalon, made famous on MST3K. Again, totally nice guy.
And here’s me with Colin Cantwell, who is responsible for creating the concept art & models for what wood become THE aesthetic for Star Wars. We’re posing with a print of his original design for the X-Wing, and it all started from there. He would follow it with the Y-Wing, the Star Destroyer, the Death Star, the Millennium Falcon, and the TIE Fighter. Amazingly cool to see, and cool to talk to the man himself.
Smash Bros Ultimate is here and man, was it worth the hype. Some might find the adventure mode a bit repetitive (platforming elements are replaced by Spirit Battles, where hundreds of characters from Nintendo’s vast history are fought in battles themed to them), and there’s not many new stages (but lots of returning ones; most of the 3DS stages are here, plus several not seen since Melee!), but it’s a hell of a lot of fun. I’ll be playing this for the foreseeable future.
Finally got to try McDonald’s Szechuan sauce! I bought a pack of it back in June at Eternal Con and I figured this past week was the special occasion I was saving it for.
Well, it was certainly tangy and brown.
I used dinosaur chicken nuggets as my test subjects because I’m an adult. My friend Steve described it as a combo of bbq sauce and sweet & sour and I couldn’t agree more. I’m not a fan of either teriyaki or sweet & sour sauce, so I thought that this was okay at best. I’m glad I tried it, but it’s nothing worth freaking out over.
And last bit not least: Christmas! I had a pretty low key holiday this year, nothing big. The cat definitely had a good day.
I got lots of gift cards this year! A good chunk of the eShop card went to Smash Bros DLC.
My scratch off ticket advent calendar netted me twelve bucks this year.
My favorite barbecue sauce, cleverly hidden in a wine box.
I mostly got clothes this Christmas since I’m now in my thirties and I was due for a new pair of everything. These are my new pair of regular shoes and work boots.
The Thirteenth Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver to go with the others I have.
And a new portfolio book to keep my bigger prints.
My internet friend Goobian snagged this for me off my amazon wishlist. It replaces the VHS I’ve held on to for years since WB took its sweet time releasing it on a format relevant in the past ten years.
And finally, my Reddit Secret Santa came through this year! Prime Wars Punch/Counterpunch was an Amazon exclusive (and nets big bucks after it sold out), while the Doom Patrol collection came from taking about how I love weird, silly silver age DC. I got paired with a comic reader this time, and it really showed.
I hope you folks had a good 2018, and I hope to see you in 2019!
Well folks, Thanksgiving has come and gone yet again. I'm still here, and you're still here, and that's what should be important, right?
I still have my life, a house, a job, friends. It's the same things I'm thankful for every year, but I'm thankful for all of those. They're constants, and don't take them for granted, because I sure don't.
I'm thankful for the brief pauses in life that allow me to escape stress for a few hours. Going to conventions, playing stuff on my Switch (Smash Bros Ultimate drops in one week!), meeting up with friends, listening to podcasts on long drives, watching stuff like The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers and The Good Place, writing these blog entries. I'm thankful for those, too.
Let's be thankful for this giant cow (actually a steer):
Cows are pretty big to begin with, then THIS one comes along. I did an entry about Absolute Units a few months back, and this cow more than earned a spot on that list.
It looks photoshopped, but that thing is real, and it is a BEAST. Here's another shot of it:
Maybe it's because I live on Long Island and I have to drive an hour out of my way to see any, but I still get really excited when I see real, living cows just standing around. "Cows!" I say. I do the same thing with horses (and don't laugh, so do you).
I'm thankful for the people I still talk to, and used to talk to, and hopefully will start talking to again.
I'm thankful for you. Thank you for reading, and continuing to read this little slice of the internet I've carved out for myself just a little over ten years ago. It's still crazy to think about.
Christmas is next month, and that's something to look forward to. See you folks then.
Halloween is upon us once again, and that means Homestar Runner has updated with its annual Halloween cartoon!
I'd say that "Mr. Poofers Must Die" is one of the better entries in the series. Kind of an anti-climax at the end, but I'd say that this was a massive improvement over the last/first time they tried telling a scary story. They got pretty creative with the costumes this year. Pom Pom and Coach Z were combined for a Missy Elliot costume. While it's an inspired choice, it just tells me that they're running out of costume ideas for Coach Z. There's not many identifiable rappers left for him to dress up as.
Well, my only criteria this time around are that they were from cartoons made after that first entry was made. The latest cartoon back then was "Most in The Graveyard" (one of my all time favorites), and since then there's only been six more Halloween toons made. Hell, there was a five year gap between "Doomy Tales of The Macabre" and "I Killed Pom Pom." (not counting a cartoon in between them where characters dressed up for Decemberween instead)
Once again, I stuck to one costume per character (but there's always honorable mentions).
Homestar - Mr. B Natural
I had to go for the MST3K costume. No surprise he managed to creep everyone out in it. Mr. B has that kind of talent. I pretty much flipped a coin between this and when he dressed as Tobias when he auditioned for the Blue Man Group from Arrested Development and Mr. B won. Fun fact, in that cartoon, you can see blue handprints everywhere (just like in the show), despite Homestar's notorious lack of arms.
Honorable Mentions: Dirk The Daring (Mr. Poofers Must Die), Tobias Fünke (I Killed Pom Pom)
Marzipan - Tom Servo (I Killed Pom Pom)
Again, the MST3K costume was an obvious choice. I found the costume as a whole really impressive, and it was one of the few costumes where she wasn't some kind of musician. Servo even has arms! I'm sure they're just as functional as the real thing.
HM: Captain EO (The House That Gave Sucky Tricks), Margot Tennenbaum (Later That Night), Joanna from Chotchkie's from Office Space (Haunted Photo Booth)
Pom Pom - King Size Homer (I Killed Pom Pom)
Pom Pom had a bunch of great costumes and it was pretty tough to choose one. He tends to go with costumes of round characters, and he got pretty creative, like a Pooka from Dig Dug, Orange Bird's head, and Wilson the volleyball from Cast Away. But the Simpsons reference was a no brainer. That muumuu outfit is pretty iconic.
HM: Pooka (Doomy Tales of The Macabre), Orange Bird (Later That Night...), Wilson (The House That Gave Sucky Tricks), Violet Beauregard (Haunted Photo Booth)
Bubs - Grunkle Stan (Haunted Photo Booth)
Bubs tends to go for really shady, huckster characters, and there's no costume that fit his personality better than Grunkle Stan from Gravity Falls. I wish there was a cut of Gravity Falls where Bubs IS playing Grunkle Stan.
HM: Chuck Barris (The House That Gave Sucky Tricks), MCA from the Sabotage video (I Killed Pom Pom)
Coach Z - MC Skat Kat (Doomy Tales of The Macabre)
It was pretty hard to decide which of The Cheat's costumes were my favorite, I loved all of them, but I have to give it to a Calvin and Hobbes reference. I was almost going to go with the Fudgie The Whale costume, as I've been on a kick of watching old Carvel commercials lately.
God, talking like Tom Carvel is addicting. I love his voice.
HM: Fudgie The Whale (The House That Gave Sucky Tricks), A Korok (Mr. Poofers Must Die), The Lorax (Doomy Tales of The Macabre)
Strong Sad - Tummi Gummi (Mr. Poofers Must Die)
I'll admit, I haven't been really impressed by many of Strong Sad's costumes, but Tummi Gummi from Disney's The Gummi Bears was a clear winner. He was famously voiced by Lorenzo Music, who also voiced Peter Venkman in The Real Ghostbusters (and that fact is referenced in Mr. Poofers Must Die).
HM: No Face (I Killed Pom Pom)
Strong Mad - Sal (Doomy Tales of The Macabre)
I've been loving the choices they've been making for Strong Mad's costumes like Powdered Toast Man and Goro, but his costume as the guy from The Dire Strait's Money For Nothing video is one of the most inspired choices I've ever seen.
Looks just like him. And just for fun, here's Weird Al's version of that video, where Sal is played by Jed Clampett:
HM: Powdered Toast Man (Haunted Photo Booth), Goro (I Killed Pom Pom) Strong Bad - Mac Tonight (I Killed Pom Pom)
And here I thought Strong Bad's costumes couldn't get any better than Jambi The Genie, and here comes Mac Tonight. I've gone on before how he's my favorite fast food mascot, so how could I not love this? I knew this was going to be his peak costume because I haven't really been impressed by any of his costumes since then, although Viewtiful Joe from this year's toon might be signaling an uptick, though.
HM: Skull Kid (Doomy Tales of The Macabre), Viewtiful Joe (Mr. Poofers Must Die)
King of Town - Devil's Tower Mashed Potatoes (The House That Gave Sucky Tricks)
It's been well established that King of Town likes to dress as food mascots, or something resembling a mascot (like the time he dressed as Hello Kitty), and an actual mashed potato mountain seemed right up his alley. Since he had that bobbing for turduckens in mashed potatoes booth in Halloween Fairstival, it was only inevitable that he'd one day just cover himself in mashed potatoes.
In case you were wondering, he's dressed as the Devil's Tower made out of mashed potatoes that Richard Dreyfuss builds in from Close Encounters of The Third Kind.
HM: Scrubbing Bubbles (Later That Night...), Ram Man (I Killed Pom Pom)
Poopsmith - Flaming Globes of Sigmund (Later That Night...)
This is probably one of the deepest cuts of any costume they ever did. This was a character played by Larry David in one episode of Seinfeld (The Heart Attack), who has a total of maybe twenty seconds of screentime at the most.
We don't even see anything below his waist, Poopsmith had to improvise. That's dedication. He's had loads of great costumes over the years, but obscurity points win it for me this time.
HM: Sea Monkey (Mr. Poofers Must Die), Instant Martian (Haunted Photo Booth), King Darunia (Doomy Tales of The Macabre)
Homsar - Greg (Haunted Photo Booth)
I'm honestly shocked when Homestar Runner references anything made in the past five years, and Over The Garden Wall is perfect for Halloween costumes, especially Homsar. "It's a rock fact" seems like something he'd say.
It's only ten episodes but I strongly urge you to see it if you haven't already. It's a fantastic miniseries that gets you right in the Halloween/fall mood.
HM: Dungeonmaster (I Killed Pom Pom)
And that's everyone. I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween! I'll see you guys next month.
I’m honestly shocked that he’s still alive. From what I’ve read, 20 years in captivity is considered a long lifespan for a corn snake. Google tells me that ten years or "into its teens" is what’s nornal. Low stress and low maintenance lifestyles will do that, I guess. He’s an old man, but he’s still kicking. He doesn’t really do much these days, but I haven’t seen him this active in years.
It’s weird being able to tell college kids that he’s older than they are. He’s been in like two thirds of my life, it’d be weird to imagine my life without him. I love him, as much as a guy can love a pet snake.
There may be some more I could post in addition to this guy, but it hasn't been a good couple of days for me mentally and thinking about him has put me back into a good place.
