Olympics Fever!

It's the end of July, and as promised, here's the Kool-Aid Man comic I've been teasing.

Behold: The Adventures of Kool-Aid Man #2! What's so special about this issue? Well, for one, it was one of the comics that you could only get by sending away Kool-Aid points back in the 80s.

But it's also the comic where this panel comes from:

It was from a time travel story where The Thirsties steal a time machine to stop the Boston Tea Party. More on that it would leave everyone thirsty, and less preventing one of the first shots of the American Revolution. 

Here is the whole page:

According to Jim Salicrup (the writer), the Ben Franklin cameo was just a fun Easter Egg he tossed in.

The next page is just as crazy.

And this is just nuts to see. Kool-Aid Man riding a horse to make Paul Revere's ride to warn everyone about The Thirsties.

After all is said and done, Kool-Aid Man beats up the Thirsties, they travel back to the present, the 4th of July picnic is saved. There's a second story where the Thirsties invade a campsite, but again, Kool-Aid Man just beats them up and everyone drinks of his life juice. And there's two other issues in the Marvel run, and SIX with Archie.

I'll share those another time. But now for this month's topic: It's the Olympics again!

It's been a while since I posted about the Olympic Mascots...SIXTEEN YEARS AGO?! So much has happened since then. The 2020 Olympics were held in Tokyo in 2021, thus averting the timeline shown in Akira.

As I noted in the December 2020 entry, Izzy's Quest For Olympic Gold had been found!

And then there were the mascots. Tokyo's were actually pretty cool.

Meet Miraitowa and Someity, the mascots of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, respectively. Of course it was a given that Japan, the country that perfected mascots, were gonna create some of the best ones I've seen. As the story goes, their designs were based on their respective logos, while Someity's colors were based on cherry blossoms.

So what are the mascots for the current Paris Olympics? I honestly forgot. So a quick Google later...

Meet The Phyrges. They're anthropomorphic Phyrgian hats, nothing too special about them. If they look familiar, you're not alone.

They're more recognizable here in the States as Smurf hats, particularly the red one worn by Papa Smurf.

And just for funsies, let's catch up on the mascots for the Olympics I hadn't covered since then.

Here's 2016 Rio's mascots: Vinicius and Tom. Vinicius represents Brazil's wildlife, while Tom represents Brazil's forests. They're named after Vinicius de Moraes and Tom Jobim, the co-writers of "The Girl From Ipanema."

If they look like they stepped out of Brazilian Adventure Time, you'd be right. They had their own cartoons that aired on Cartoon Network Brazil, and as they say, as was the style at the time.

And here are 2012 London's mascots:

Wenlock and Mandeville, the Olympics and Paralympics mascots. I noted in the 2008 entry that a lot of mascots were oddly phallic, and these two were no exception. At least the trend stopped after these guys.

As their story goes, their bodies are made from the last girder that built the Olympic stadium, and they're made out of "highly polished steel allowing them to reflect the personalities and appearances of the people they meet." Their eyes are cameras, and the yellow lights on their heads symbolize the ones found on London taxis.

I'm just going off Wikipedia, people. Let's move on to the Winter Olympics mascots.

These are 2014 Sochi's mascots, "Leopard," "Hare," and "Polar Bear." I've mentioned before that the Winter Olympics mascots aren't nearly as impressive or creative as their summer counterparts.

The fake mascot the Simpsons created, Fatov, was way more creative and should've been the real mascot.

It's so creepy, but I love how it's just the lower half of Homer's face turned upside-down. 

The Paralympics mascots had a bit more thought put into them. These are "Snowflake" and "Ray of Light." I bet all these names sound more creative in Russian.

Okay, these are more like it. These are 2018 Pyongchang's mascots: Soohorang and Bandabi. A neat looking snow leopard and black bear.

And finally, coming full circle are 2022 Beijing's mascots Bing Dwen Dwen and Shuey Rhon Rhon. A friendly Panda and a Chinese Lantern, respectively.

Since we're still in the midst of the current games, the mascots for the next two games: 2026 Milan & Cortina d'Ampezzo and 2028 Los Angeles haven't been revealed yet. At the rate I'm going, I'll update this post again in 2040.

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Museum Fun!

 It's the end of June once again!

A few weeks back, I managed to go back to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC for the first time since 2013!

I actually remembered to get off at this station this time. I remember overshooting by a stop the last time I was there.

Got to see this guy in person again.

Had to go see the dinosaurs!

Then went to see the cool exhibit on elephants. The highlight being this lifelike wooly mammoth model.

And it taught the difference between mammoths and mastodons. It's mostly in the shape of the tusks and the skull.

Even got to the exhibits I wasn't able to see last time, like the famous big blue whale model.

The night mode on my phone camera is unreal.  That diorama is completely dark (and it's why it's the only one in the museum not behind glass). This is the famous Squid & The Whale that inspired the movie of the same name.

I love this shot. There are a LOT of dioramas at this museum, and all of the animals are real taxidermy. They're posed in such a way that you're sure that they'll come to life the moment you're not looking at them.

And speaking of which, here's good ol Teddy Roosevelt, waiting for Ben Stiller to have some fun after closing.

I almost forgot about this display that added disclaimers about the horrible racist inaccuracies that made headlines with the "everything is woke" brigade a few years back.

And since the last time I was here, they opened the Gilder Center, this really weird looking atrium that has neat exhibits on every floor.

On the bottom floor was an Insectarium. There were lots of neat models and displays of mounted insects, but there were...plenty of live ones.

Gonna admit, bugs creep me out. Not all of them, mind you. If they're tiny. I'm fine with them. But if they're like, the size of my finger, that's when the anxiety goes into overdrive.

And when you're at the Natural History Museum, you have the get the dino nuggets. And they give a good amount for how much they have the audacity the charge you for...

But this is what I went there to see! They renovated the Halls of Gems & Minerals a few years ago and I finally got to see it!

The thing about that day was, for whatever reason, the museum closed two hours early and I was NOT aware of it. I didn't check out the entire hall on my first pass, so I ran back to it as quickly as I could to see the rest of it before they kicked everyone out.

Here's some pictures of it.

There was also an exhibit of hip-hop jewelery that I snapped a few pics of.

And then after I was shown the door, I took a few shots around the museum.

You don't get those shots every day.

And since it was right across the street, I took in a little of Central Park before it got too hot to stay outside.

And before I left, I managed to catch the giant dragon they put on the Empire State Building to promote House of The Dragon.

And now I realize I had a completely different plan for this month's entry. Guess I'll wait until next time?

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Reunion of The Nerds!

 It's always a good day when The Aquabats releases a new song.

And just a few weeks ago, I went to Cradle Con at the Cradle of Aviation Museum!

Normally it's just a tiny convention, but this year they managed to get some headliners: the very first 40th anniversary reunion of Revenge of The Nerds!

Sure, a good chunk of the movie aged like milk, but it still holds a dear place in my heart.

I managed to get a bird's eye view of everyone at their tables. From Bottom to top (or left to right): Robert Carradine (Louis), Curtis Armstrong (Booger), Donald Gibb (Ogre), Brian Tochi (Takashi), Julie Montgomery (Betty), and Andew Cassese (Wormser).

Since it's been 40 years...they got old. But I can say they were all still real nice and friendly.

Even got a pic with Curtis Armstrong! I knew I'd find my real dad eventually.

He was really touched when I told him I loved Dan Vs. (He played the title character. There was a guy cosplaying as Dan walking around, but I didn't get a pic of him)

And of course, there was a panel! They had lots of great stories, especially Brian Tochi and Don Gibb. Someone asked about uh, certain scenes that didn't age well, and I'm really not gonna repeat Robert Carradine's answer to that. It was 1984, sexual politics were much different back then.

What I WILL say is that to this day he is a lot like Louis in the movie: he almost didn't do it because he's "not a nerd," even though, let's face it, he's the king of the nerds. He told a fun story about how he went to an optometrist office to find nerd glasses, but they only had a box of engineer's glasses and that's what you see him wearing in the movie. And of course, he did the famous laugh.

And I'll show off what I got at the con!

Signed stuff!

Pins! I don't think you'll find four pins that are more in character for me than these.

This comic! I told the guy I had to grab it or else I'd probably never see it again. Oh, if only I found it before Paul Reubens died and got to show it to him.

And I got this comic signed! I found this (and issue 1) at a local shop during Free Comic Book Day, and found that former Marvel editor Jim Salicrup wrote the stories. He was at the con, and I had to jump at the chance to have him sign it.

What's the story behind this particular comic? Well, I think I'll set that aside for next time.

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