Technically, the producer of this cat movie posted their work back in January so they’re spared my wrath about hoarding toilet paper. It’s pretty funny to see how different cats’ minds work. If you watch, there’s a dwarf cat who goes their own regarding the barrier.
When this mess is over, maybe I’ll do something similar to test Isis and Agamemnon’s smarts and initiative. They’re both pretty strong.
Most people remember Brian for all the contention he and his brother had with D&D’s main creator Gary Gygax. However, if it weren’t for Brian, D&D wouldn’t have gotten off the ground as soon as it did (or maybe, never) because he provided the startup money to print the first 1000 copies of rules via TSR (the original company). His contribution didn’t end with money, he was involved with Boot Hill (TSR’s attempt at a Wild West RPG) and credited for creating D&D villain Vecna. On the latter, I always thought Gary just ripped off Michael Moorcock since Vecna’s infamous hand and eye are ripped off from The Chronicles of Corum.
As for the feud between him and Gary…
They had huge disagreements on how TSR was being run. The details are covered in several books such as Of Dice and Men plus I heard secondhand accounts during my time at GDW. Eventually Brian sold his share of TSR to investor Lorraine Williams illegally. How it was illegal, I’m not sure exactly, probably not through a broker or something. Despite Gary fighting this in a several-year-long lawsuit, the court upheld the transaction awarding Lorraine the status of majority shareholder and Gary’s exit.
Brian Blume was never really mentioned in the whole history of D&D or other RPGs after 1985 from my recollection. He sadly passed away 3/27 at a nursing home from dementia and Parkinson’s.
Well, I still thank you Brian for providing the initial capital to justify a revolution in games that then led to spawning hundreds of programmers and video games based upon D&D’s rules and tropes.
This reminds me how behind (no pun intended) I am on getting my first colonoscopy. For once I’m grateful to the pandemic for providing the excuse for why I haven’t had it done!
Unless the headline writer was thinking/utilizing the post-Eighties pronunciation of the seventh planet (YUR-in-us), they thought this was fine. However, everybody, including little kids still use the humorous ones the Romans never imagined. If you don’t know or recall, watch the clip below.
I had read earlier Adam was put into a medical coma because he was one of the unlucky few to come down with the full-blown illness caused by CV-19. It totally sucks he passed away. He was such a talented guy.
When Fountains of Wayne debuted in 1996, I was completely hooked and shocked that 101X played “Radiation Vibe”! Rarely did this station air anything good when they opened the floodgates to allow Metallica into rotation. (For the record, I like Metallica’s earlier work but it doesn’t have a place on “Alternative” stations, they pair better with AOR.) I remember the plugs for his work on Tom Hanks’ That Thing You Do! Afterwards, I was usually alert to finding his name on other works.
I knew he was often a go-to songwriter to craft stuff for movies and TV since he had the talent to tailor what the writers/producers were looking for. I feel dumb for never knowing about his other act Ivy; need to fix the situation by hunting down the whole catalog when Waterloo Records re-opens. Hell, he wrote one of the best Christmas songs ever made, “I Want an Alien for Christmas,” which Dr. Demento played often.
Although I never ever got to see Fountains of Wayne in a proper concert, either I was unlucky or they never came to Austin, probably a bit of both; I did have the rare opportunity to see them for a taping of Austin City Limits. My great friend Ethan was generous enough to help me get tickets.
Quick explanation on how much effort getting into ACL is.
ACL is a TV show shot in Austin obviously. But like all TV shows, tickets are free. The difficulty is getting them. Usually when an act is going to be taping, KLRU doesn’t announce this very publicly and the only times I’ve known was via KUT/KUTX mentioning, “Hey, tickets go up for grabs today at 10 AM and you have to go blah blah blah.” Few Austinites have jobs with the flexibility to take off work, get in queue and succeed. Thankfully Ethan did.
Back then, the show was still shot in its original location, the sixth floor of UT’s Communication Building (it’s now downtown at the Moody Theater). Despite having a ticket, it’s first-come, first-in until the studio floor/seats are filled. Ethan also saved us seats so we didn’t have to be on the floor and get caught on tape rocking out.
What a show! I wish concerts had the bands play at the more audible level FoW did. I’ve never been a fan of being deafened.
FoW did mostly stuff from their current album Welcome Interstate Managers with a little from their previous two. They perform for roughly over an hour. At the time, “Stacy’s Mom” was being played to death on the radio, including Top 40. So when the director asked them to perform it again (like another take), I could hear Adam and Chris (lead singer) roll their eyes from as far back to where I was sitting, imagining them thinking, “This is not the song I want on my tombstone!”
I was pretty excited to finally see the finished episode on TV. Unfortunately, KLRU trimmed it down to 30 minutes to pair the hour with Jason Mraz (ugh!). Well, at justify I saw the unedited experience. Thanks again Ethan!!!
Adam, I’m distraught to see you pass too soon and I will lament all the great work you had in the pipe and were going to do! Thanks for everything. Based upon the phenomenal outpouring of your peers, Tom Hanks and comedians, you touched numerous lives besides mine with your incredible music. Namely my personal fave, “All Kinds of Time,” which I argue is the greatest example of your talent. Getting a song to re-enact a football game in slow motion as the QB’s mind is racing. I could just visualize that scene perfectly.
OK, I did find something funny for April Fool’s Day via the HEB bakery when I was there before the Pandemic. Yeah…those are…uhh…balloons not trying to fertilize the cookie.
I often look forward to April 1st but given the Pandemic of 2020 along with all the economic fallout; holy crap! Three-plus million unemployment filings recently. It this Recession doesn’t defeat Orange Foolius, America is definitely a nation of stupid, racist, Jesus Freaks who don’t deserve democracy.
Anyway, this year isn’t appropriate for pranks. Maybe some old jokes to tell, just not elaborate, funny hoaxes like a distress signal from Jupiter (1996, I didn’t believe it for a moment) or Playmobil’s Apple Retail Store (can’t remember when but damn did I wish I that was real). Oh yeah, the tauntaun sleeping bag started as a joke and then became a reality via ThinkGeek.
This month’s Header is a tribute to Apollo 13 which was launched 50 years ago. The exact date will be covered in greater detail on the 11th. I probably should find out which streamer has the movie.
Lastly, I added a countdown for when America may be done with the Stay-In-Place situation. Boy am I going to have a ton of comic books, records, games and pinball to catch up on! I will adjust it if there has to be a change.
Oh yeah, I’m finally caught up on 99% of the backlog on my site since the Divorce! There should be nothing further coming out but on-time stuff. Now TV, Movies, Concerts, etc. Those are always late. I think April will be filled with the crap I’m killing time with.
Even before the Pandemic and America going on lockdown, I was going to engage in some reorganizing of the house. With it officially being mine entirely, there’s going to be changes but more importantly…serious cleaning. I decided to go with the master bedroom because I grew tired of sleeping on the couch, which also got hard on my back. I guess I found a painful gap between the cushions.
I stumbled upon this partially used bottle of Purell® that I most likely scored from work. It was misplaced back in the day when this crap wasn’t going for its weight in toilet paper! Then I remembered, I think I have a huge quart to refill this at my desk/cube! No bother, this should be enough to have on hand until HEB has it in stock.
The end of March closes out with a new Category on my site:
Operation: Manhattan
It will be posts and updates on my house’s renovation to modernize it, make it a great, tasteful bachelor pad. I may share my living space again one day, just not for a long time and given how healthy the Austin market is, I need to watch out for hobosexuals. It’s a term my new friend Debbie coined. A hobosexual is someone who only dates you in order to find a place to live. You gotta’ be really careful if they have children too!
Why Manhattan? Well, I couldn’t find any particular buildings which were renovated I liked and had a one-word name. The borough of Manhattan was the most fitting for my generation though. When I was growing up, New York City, especially Times Square, was horrible. Allegedly the whole city smelled like piss, porno theaters were out in the open in Times Square (see Taxi Driver) and about eight murders happened a day. New Yorkers were rather blasé about these developments. I’m not thrilled with the main asshole behind the city’s makeover yet you have to admit, Manhattan is pretty bitchin’ these days.
How are things going for the inaugural entry? I’m glad to report the master bedroom is easily two-thirds done! The majority of my trademark shoes are on the shelving, laundry is put away, dusting and vacuuming have made progress, the master closest is 90% and I think all will be 95-99% well before the end of April! The guest bathroom has always been under control so I will never be ashamed of letting someone use it. When I get bored of the master bedroom, I have a humongous LEGO® project in the garage and I pitch some crap out from the living room. The latter will be next for I want to have people (namely ladies) over to watch TV and whip ass on my PS4 EA NHL 20 game (a story for next month). Hell, I want Nancy and José to spend the night here! I sure as hell owe them at least twice.
Here’s a little serenading Aggie did while I came back from the mailbox. Hopefully he cheers you up for a bit during these crappy times.
If I remember my American History, Texas modified or rewrote its constitution to the satisfaction of Congress to regain its membership. With the “election” of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876 (or 1877), it was all for naught as the GOP withdrew all the safeguards for Black Americans, setting us back for another century. Trust me, I’m not naive, we have a long way to go yet but the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were a good start.
Has Texas really changed after 150 years? Sure, namely in the urban areas which is a normal thing given the trend with all civilizations. It will be up to us in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and El Paso along with other university pockets to bring the Lone Star State into the 21st Century. We won’t be another California, just not a giant Alabama or Mississippi.
I didn’t know there were many lighthouses in Florida. I often associate the structures further up the East Coast, usually the Carolinas and New England. Florida is more often known for the stupid things a “Florida Man” does with their junk.
Courtesy of the Twitter feed Evil MoPac.
The lion’s share of the remaining re-fi money came through! The credit union already decided where it would go, mainly toward the joint credit card from my marriage and with the transition to one income…it was hard to nail down. With it mostly “dead,” I can now make progress on the first major repair/modification to my house. It should be fixing the walls which got damaged by the HVAC system and it was discovered when Somara was moving out all her stuff in a guest bedroom. It looks awful.
Of course this is in limbo until the pandemic passes. Then I can experience the joys of trying to find an honest contractor.
It’s pretty good to being closer to short-term debt free.
It’s cheaper than Zoom or other videoconferencing software and the futility of most meetings are still captured through this.
Sad to find out via Twitter that Curly of the Harlem Globetrotters passed away. He was definitely one of the iconic members during the peak popularity in the Seventies. Back then the Globetrotters were quite conspicuous:
Best of all, when I was a kid, I got to see Curly live in 1978 when he and the team played their straight-men team (the Washington Generals) at the Assembly Hall. He and Meadowlark were even funnier in person. They were on right at the starting lineup announcement. They did all the gags we’d seen on TV and Curly was a hell of a ball handler. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of his techniques are practiced by some of today’s point guards. He did it without needing traveling to be amended to five steps instead of one too…you all know who I’m ripping on.
Thanks for everything Mr. Neal. You were a great contribution to my childhood via cartoons, sports and comedy. As an adult, you helped push Civil Rights forward in an indirect manner because you promoted basketball’s popularity worldwide!
