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.
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| Smol Feelings by Nao Romero |
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| Magnum XL-200 train from Coaster Pins |
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| 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.
