The Weirdest of Als...Again!

You might remember last July's entry where I wrote about going to see the Weird Al Yankovic concert at MSG.

Well, a few weeks back, I saw him again! This time at UBS Arena in Queens.

Well, I don't need to tell you that Weird Al still puts on a hell of a good show.

The thing is...it was 99% the same show as last year.

In place of playing "You Can Call Me Al," he brought Puddles out again to sing a duet of "Happy Together."

And speaking of Puddles, his act was mostly the same, except his Kevin Costner tribute didn't end with the gratuitous shot of his ass from Waterworld.

In its place was singing "Under Pressure" while he made this guy eat Ding Dongs.

But still, they didn't disappoint. And this time, I went with friends! Two of them never got to see Weird Al live, and of course they loved it.

I'm on the far right. Don't know what's better: going to concerts with friends, or that we pulled off the Me and The Boys meme.

Down to the facial expressions, too. It's uncanny.

I even saw Machoverse!

He goes to cons and such dressed as Macho Man Randy Savage. You've seen him in my past NYCC entries. 

Well, he also loves Weird Al and got to meet him at this very concert dressed as Macho Man as he appeared on The Weird Al Show.

Down to carrying a plus Harvey The Wonder Hamster with him.

Oh, and on the way home on the train, I saw a beetle!

And I was finally able to hit his merch booth, and of course I got the pins.

I missed out on them last year because the merch booths at MSG were, predictably, crazy.

"Oh, I'll just get them off the website," I said.

The website did not sell the pins. I had to get them in person. This time I don't think I waited more than fifteen minutes.

And speaking of pins, I found some at the flea market the other day!

I found an old Russian guy not only selling old Olympics pins, he had Soviet ones, too.

The red one was from the All Union Games in Leningrad, and Team USSR handed those pins out to everyone that participated. Thanks to a trip to eBay, they came in colors other than red. But red seems to be one of the rarest ones. Either way, I got it for ten bucks, which is a hell of a steal either way.

Various ephemera I saw that day, too. Not much pay dirt this time around, sadly. Either it was the heat or that it was the first time I was able to make it there all year, but there was more junk than treasure this time around.

I did also see a box of old Playboys (but not old, old ones), and a book from the fifties or so about How to Freeze Food. Old cookbooks are always treasure trove of crazy, but since I don't cook, I just left them behind.

And here's that Odyssey that everyone's been talking about lately, I guess.

Smol Feelings by Nao Romero

Magnum XL-200 train from Coaster Pins

KB Toys pins from Icon Heroes

No, I don't have a pin problem. But these were all ones I ordered ages ago and all came in the mail at roughly the same time.

I have…feelings attached to these two KB Toys pins. They’re two symbols of that long forgotten toy store chain: its toy soldier mascot, and their ubiquitous price tags. KB Toys was my first job, and I worked in my childhood toy store, talk about living the dream. I worked there until the day it closed, roughly 20 years ago now, with the rest of the chain folding not long after that. It couldn’t compete with the bigger chain stores and the advent of online shopping. And also private equity. Thanks, Mitt Romney. Seriously. His company Bain Capital rotted it from the inside, and it’s one of the many reasons I’ll never like him.

Oh, and I saw Supergirl! It was...okay. Supergirl herself was the highlight, and I liked Jason Momoa as Lobo. But what I loved most of all was the worldbuilding. I love stories about what mundane things in space are like, and we see Supergirl take the bus, and go to an intergalactic 7-11. Which is something the Mandalorian & Grogu movie kind of touch on, but I liked how this movie handled it.

I didn't care for the girl whose only purpose was to stand around and yell "OY! This is what the moral of the story is!"

That'll do it for July. And once again August will be a busy month. Lots of cons, and a few movies, like Spider-Man and Coyote vs ACME.

Conan Steals a Movie

Last week, I caught Toy Story 5.

I've seen every Pixar movie in their theatrical runs. Yes, even the "Disney Plus"  exclusives: Soul, Luca, and Turning Red. With the fifth entry of the story of toys, I can happily say that the streak remains intact.

Well, with two exceptions: The Incredibles (never got around to it) and Onward (lockdown happened just as I was gonna go see it).

But anyway, my verdict: way better than Toy Story 4. Nothing will ever top the first two, or most of Toy Story 3, but overall I enjoyed it.

(WARNING: Spoilers ahead)

Did this movie need to be made? No.

Did Woody need to be in this movie? No.

Was it good anyway? Yes.

They tackle the "tech vs toys" plot pretty well here. It's not "oh no, tech is here and making kids dumb!" like a lesser movie would do. If anything, the tension between the toys and Lilypad is a parallel to Woody and Buzz in the first movie: a new, advanced toy shows up, upstages the older toys, they eventually learn to coexist, complete with the requisite chase scene at the climax.

It also shares a lot of plot beats from Inside Out 2 in a way: Lily is like Anxiety, the new toy/emotion that thinks it knows what's best for Bonnie as she tries to make friends, casts out the old guard, finds out the hard way that their way alone doesn't help (Bonnie getting cyberbullied hits HARD, not gonna lie.), the old toys and the new ones learn to balance their involvement in Bonnie's life. Everyone wins.

Oh, and Jessie is the lead in this movie, and it delves into her backstory that'd been on the backburner since her introduction in Toy Story 2. Did you ever cry at THAT scene? Well, they revisit it. And prepare to get emotional over it.

If I had to say a negative about this movie it's that the cast is too damn big. Every movie introduces a new "gang", which leads to less screentime to the older "gangs" over the series, with this one being no exception. Most of the old guard gets a line or a bit to let their voice actors retain their SAG benefits, and they spend most of the movie in a box in the garage. Rex and Hamm still deliver the goods, and Mr. Potato Head finally got recast, so he has actual lines again. As for Bonnie's toys, my favorite of the new group is Forky. He's so blunt about everything, it sets him apart from the sardonic and sarcastic Andy toys.

Hell, I was surprised to see some of the Toy Story 4 gang, too. Duke Kaboom (the one played by Keanu Reeves) was the only one that talked. That's how stuffed this movie was.

But the MVP of the new "Gang" was Smarty Pants, voiced by Conan O'Brien.

Yes, he's an early 2000s potty training device, with all the bathroom jokes that go with it. He can only count to 2, he has two buttons, he'll make any pun about gas, it makes a toilet flush sound every time you pull his handle, and he looks like a damn roll of toilet paper. You get the idea.

It's incredible character design. There's one sequence that gives him Conan's hair, and the resemblance is uncanny. And his first scene has him acting like a belligerent drunk. You just gotta think Conan was having a field day in that recording booth.

Oh, and he can text and interface with a camera and a GPS somehow. Don't think about that too hard.

But the best part is that, yes, there is a real toy of Smarty Pants and does everything he does in the movie, even the drunk talk. There's a video of Conan seeing it for the first time and he is HORRIFIED.

"I'm being interrupted by myself!"

"Join the club!" says everyone else lol

But the biggest surprise was the voice of Snappy the digital camera.

It was Shelby Rabara! The voice of Peridot from Steven Universe!

Snappy even acts like Peridot, too! Well, more like post-character development, but she's still anxious, and tiny, and uses a digital interface, but she's more positive.

All in all, a definite recommend.

And now June, Pride Month, comes to an end. And now we enter July: Wrath Month.

Especially if the five day forecast is any indication.

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It's Gonna Be June

 Man, this month was both long as hell and whizzed by so fast.

Just today I saw The Mandalorian and Grogu movie. I have to confess, this was the first new Star Wars thing I've seen since Rise of Skywalker. My verdict? Way better than Rise of Skywalker.

I actually went out of this not sad, or disappointed, or angry at any of the choices made in this movie. The main complaint I've seen for this was that it was a standalone story that would've disappointed fans of the show because there was nothing new plot-wise or any character development. Well, it was more aimed for people like me, and if this movie existed solely to get me interested in watching the rest of the series? Well, mission accomplished. 

I wasn't exactly blind going into this, either. I knew Rotta the Hutt from the Clone Wars pilot movie was back (Jeremy Allen White giving a performance that would make Hayden Christensen proud), Zeb from SW Rebels making that rare jump from tv character to someone in the official canon, and Sigourney Weaver standing around and wondering what life choices she made that led her to be in this movie. And also Martin Scorcese was in this for some reason. You'll know him when you see him, he voices the Italian-sounding alien with big bushy eyebrows.

It was a solid Hawk and Chick-esque adventure with tiny puppet aliens that sounded too much like the Minions. I liked seeing more Babu Frick aliens, but their voices were almost too distracting. But if that was the main complaint I have about a Star Wars movie, it's definitely worth watching.

But the name Grogu still rubs me the wrong way because American Dad introduced a similar looking tiny alien thing named Rogu and he showed up first.

See? Way more worthy of the name. I wish the people running Star Wars came up with literally any other name for Baby Yoda. (Who was of course, adorable and an actual animatronic puppet!)

Other stuff I did? Conventions!

First up, the big Long Island TCG show! Man, this scene really pissed me off this past year or so. Streamers and resellers have ruined this hobby and I've barely bought any cards since more or less the last big show they had here last year.

Seriously. Crazy prices.

And this set of Gem Mint Van Gogh cards were going for $65K. Just insane.

And that's on top of seeing a Black Lotus in the flesh. But it wasn't from the sets people really care about, it wouldn't have been just in a penny sleeve in a big case with the rest of the rare stuff.

I was mostly there to see voice actors.

Was finally able to scratch a few names off my wanted list, like Eric Vale (Sanji from One Piece), Justin Cook (Kirishima from MHA), and Eric Stuart.

He joins Matthew Sussman, the original English voice of Meowth on this print. It's really sad that Rachel Lillis, the original dub voice of Jessie passed away, so I can't complete the set. I just need to wait for Michelle Knotz to come around again to get a Jessie on this.

Oh, and I met Professor Oak.

Yes, the real one. Stuart Zagnit actually cosplays as Professor Oak and he was as delightful as everyone else. It sucks that most voice actors charge extra to add quotes these days, or else I would've gotten him to add "now's not the time for that!" on this pic:

And then later in the month came Cradle Con!

The main event was a few cast and crew of the original GI Joe cartoon were there, and had a panel.

I don't have a lot of nostalgic attachment to that cartoon (I've always been a Transformers guy), but the highlight was hearing Bill Ratner, the voice of Duke, talk about the Barbie Liberation Organization, the people that switched the voice boxes of talking Barbie and Duke dolls. It happened one Christmas in New York City but it was enough to inspire a Simpsons gag:

It was a trip to hear Duke's voice talk like Barbie, and him imitating Barbie yelling "YO JOE!" If it weren't for my social anxiety (and I didn't want to pay the fifty bucks), I would've asked him about that Simpsons gag.

I still managed to pick up these Canari cards. They're from the then-recent Ascended Heroes set and pretty much the only card I wanted out of it. I got the Japanese one at the TCG show, and found the English one at Cradle Con. Thankfully they didn't break the bank too much because everyone wants the fancier (and rarer) SIR cards, but I like this art much better.

My other pickups at that con. Action Comics #454 has a notoriously silly cover:

I bought the original a few years back, but recently DC has been rereleasing various old classic issues, and for some reason they reissued this one, and with a blank cover variant to boot. I'm gonna have some fun with this one.

And while I didn't pick up any new pins at Cradle Con (gasp), I snagged a few at the TCG booth. The Mewtwo one from the official store, and a few from Wild Bill's. Had no idea they sold pins, and two for six bucks was a deal I couldn't pass up.

And finally, various other pics I got at Cradle-Con:

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