I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I spent my morning the way I always do: watching the Macy's Parade.
If the parade wasn't defined by Wicked, it was defined by rain. Everyone was damp, Jimmy Fallon wore giant hangover shades, conservatives were outraged by Broadway performances, and there was an actual technical hiccup where everyone had to awkwardly vamp! But ultimately all the balloons survived this year. Luffy, Snoopy, made it to Herald Square intact. Bluey gave us a scare, but she managed to recover just in time.
I was in Manhattan just last Saturday and saw THAT Macy's all decked out for Christmas.
34th Street is a lot more narrow than you'd think it is. Savannah and Hoda are like twenty feet away from the action, tops.
Then there was the Dog Show.
They were all good dogs, but ultimately Vito The Pug won Best in Show.
Apparently he was the winningest pug in America, and the National Dog Show was another notch on the belt. He was clearly the crowd favorite, and I'm glad he won since most of the other dogs I posted? Never even made it to the finals in their groups.
And finally the MST3K Turkey Day marathon. The highlight was the long awaited return of The Final Sacrifice, which had been in legal limbo for the better part of a decade.
It is, of course, the one with everyone's favorite Canadian hero Zap Rowsdower. I hadn't seen it since Netflix had the MST3K rights, and it's still a stone cold classic. I'm so happy it's streaming again.
This is usually the post where I'd highlight what I'd seen at Anime NYC, but since that got moved to August, I have to improvise and write November's entry the way I used to: what am I thankful for?
Well, obviously, parades, dogs, and Rowsdower. I'm also thankful for my cat.
She decided to give us another one of her health scares again. Turns out she was just meowing a lot and my folks were getting annoyed by it. I had to beg to not get her put down just because of that, and I'm happy to say she's still with us. Tell her how cute she is.
I'm also thankful for food on the table, and that I have a stable job and a roof over my head.
Thanksgiving was a rather modest spread this year because it's still just me and my parents. I'm starting to realize that my family is white. If your first thought was "This looks like it was made by someone that hated Thanksgiving," you'd be right. Mom can't stand turkey, and is getting tired of all the other food, too. It tasted better than it looked, I assure you.
And finally, I DID go to a little con. I said earlier I was in Manhattan last Saturday, and it was for Big Apple Con. I went there mostly to meet the Effin' Birds guy.
He was as cool as you'd think he'd be. He even signed the inside!
Plus here are some of the most in character pickups I ever bought.
Don't pay attention to the prices. Aside from the Bob Hope comics, everything I showed was 75% off. I don't think I paid more than $35 for everything.
But the main highlight is this issue of Starburst I found:
I bought it mostly for the cover, and it already checked off a lot of my boxes. Batman '66, Doctor Who news, stuff that censors cut from tv airings of Robocop!
And then I looked inside and I hit pay dirt, readers.
The Doctor Who story was announcing a movie that was ultimately never made. You see, this was a British nerd magazine from 1988, everyone was still holding out hope that it wasn't going to get cancelled by this time the following year. And of course it had a page full of people complaining about how Doctor Who went downhill.
Back then to complain about Doctor Who you had to put in some effort, dammit! Nowadays you can scream right into an underserving social media intern's ear about how a progressive show like Doctor Who suddenly went woke because the Doctor isn't a white guy anymore or some nonsense.
There was a multi page retrospective on Batman '66, which had just entered syndication in the UK market. Just about everyone was still alive at the time, to boot.
Yes folks, Vincent Price was on multiple pages, as he should be. But then I looked on.
And awful review of Leonard Part VI! There were also articles on Captain Power, The Lost Boys, and an interview with Katheryn Bigelow. If I was a British nerd in the 80s, I would've been a subscriber.
And finally, I'm thankful to all of you, my readers. This is the longest project I've ever written, approaching 17 years! And hopefully many more.
