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.

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. AND 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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