Summer of ’18 is over part one

Posted on August 31, 2018 by Steve

Needed a few days to get my sleep routine corrected because I was feeling exhausted at work most of the day. When it was time to go home, I was beat which meant falling asleep watching TV or just throwing in the towel early. I did manage to reserve some energy on Wednesday to watch Rifftrax rip on She (1935 version with Randolph Scott). Either way, my backlog of stories has grown a tad.

Thankfully we’re heading into a three-day weekend! The downside…Summer is over, mentally. As I’ve always said for Austin, we have another four to six weeks to go. Sometimes I miss what we call Indian Summer in the Midwest, cool-cold mornings with rather warm afternoons/early evenings. The cold morning on a Saturday can be comforting when you want to get in some extra sleep.

Matters have been going in my favor lately too. I still have to make an appeal regarding paperwork but I’m not worried.

Now to get the exercise to be perfect for the month of September and save up the money for a new Apple Watch. There’s nothing wrong with my current one (I am open to offers), I just want to upgrade in order to make the jump to the new OS.

Anything else? Nothing anyone beyond Austin would care about.

Time to get cracking on the writing.

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Wonder Woman doesn’t take crap…

Posted on August 26, 2018 by Steve

…or more appropriately, some creep trying to grab her just because he’s allegedly good at making deals with Themyscira. I think the Amazons would probably go back into hiding since the West is losing its collective mind given the US government, Turkey, Hungary, Italy and Poland all thinking Fascism is the way to go.

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RIP: Robin Leach

Posted on August 25, 2018 by Steve

The guy who helped Entertainment Tonight get off the ground and then went on to do the rather crass show about rich people (very Eighties) is gone. I remember him more on the former really than the latter since he’s ET segments did lead to his syndicated show. Robin was often the butt of jokes/lazy impressions, I recall Dana Carvey played him on SNL in a gameshow parody led by Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) of Blue Velvet infamy. He wasn’t without his own sense of humor. I recall he was in a commercial in which he walked in on a couple and they noticed he was getting settled with ice cream. They asked, “Shouldn’t you be eating caviar?” and he replied, “Not in this economy.”

Thanks Robin. I’m glad you got to finish out your time as a reporter for the local Las Vegas paper despite its scumbag owner.

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Teen Titans Go! To the Movies: Streaming

Posted on August 25, 2018 by Steve

Movie number one for my birthday double feature had to be this on its opening weekend. I readily admit the humorous version is growing on me via Hulu. I remain a fan of the serious version first and will always love the Wolfman-Perez run on the comic book from 1980-84, then it struggled for a few years with just Wolfman writing it. DC has never been able to make a long-lasting nor compelling version since. Trust me, I buy it from time to time and it’s currently struggling alongside an adult team under a similar moniker.

As for the movie, it’s mostly a long version of the TV show. The trailer covers the premise so there’s no real spoilers); Robin wants his own movie given how the (former) Time Warner empire has made them for Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (obvious jokes made here) and even Aquaman (just can’t get interested in him). While the Titans try to make Robin’s dream come true, they run afoul of Slade (aka Deathstroke) who they mistake for Deadpool while being unable to stop his world-dominating plan.

I enjoyed it and was thrilled to see as the credits closed, the serious version with the same voice actors will be returning to the Cartoon Network soon. The DC streaming service version looks dreadful. Still it isn’t really worth the effort for the average person to see this in a theater because there isn’t anything in the movie that’s compelling like a Marvel or Star Wars feature. Wait for this to appear on Hulu or Netflix. Meanwhile, I’m hoping Cartoon Network will start showing new episodes in the Fall.

Alamo Extras: Bugs Bunny as Superman WWII cartoon; failed Superpup TV pilot (it’s awful); Supergirl (Eighties) trailer; Mego commercial for action figures that had magnets in their hands and feet; some stuff they’ve shown before from India, Latin America and the Philippines; Zellers ad with Batman & Robin; Teen Titans music video; Mojo explanation of the Teen Titans’ history in comics starting from the Sixties to the Wolfman-Perez period, the latter is what the cartoon relies on.

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Melody Anderson & Sam Jones

Posted on August 25, 2018 by Steve

I got to meet Dale and Flash together! Well, as above, their real names of the stars from what will always be an underrated movie that should’ve had sequels. They were guests at GACC (almost done). Since I have met Sam before, I spent more time asking Melody questions, namely was it hard to work on the movie given a chunk of the crew only speaking Italian (it was a De Laurentis production), not really. Thanks to my mentioning of how much I love Flash Gordon‘s colors and setting, Melody let me know some of it was recycled for Dune (the other Space Opera Dino had dibs on). Well, love or those movies, you have to give the production company credit and love for incredible costumes. My other question was about the cheerleading bit she did as Flash took on Ming’s minions as if he were playing football. It was her idea. Melody said the whole football sequence was ad libbed by her and Sam. Makes sense. They’re the only Americans in the cast.

Had to go with Melody in a “Mongo” dress. They picked a good actress, she has that regal thing down pretty well even if she doesn’t want to marry Ming the Merciless. The teenage me would find Dale more desirable to Princess Leia until the obviousness of The Return of the Jedi.

Can’t get enough Flash Gordon! We need to get this movie on Blu-Ray, once we figure out our TV’s inputs.

Having these two well-loved actors to be key guests at GACC helped make the convention a success in my opinion. However, it will make 2018 a hard act to follow as they plan 2019.

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If Homer Simpson were truly human

Posted on August 22, 2018 by Steve

Miguel Vasquez is an artist who  is very skilled with 3-D rendering software and he is frighteningly good at demonstrating what some of our favorite cartoon characters would look like if they were real, based upon their proportions. Above is Homer Simpson…holy crap! He resembles a Deep One from the HP Lovecraft novels! In short, there’s no way Homer could be human if Matt Groening’s design were followed.

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Eighth Grade: Must See

Posted on August 21, 2018 by Steve

Bo Burnham’s directorial debut is a triumphant day-in-the-life of an eighth grade girl. The ghost of John Hughes would’ve been impressed because Bo went ever further on the authenticity with today’s teens without mocking, pandering or tsk tsk’ing the heroine.

The movie follows Kayla during her final days of eighth grade (middle school too) and her life is “rough.” Her dad is embarrassing as he pesters her with questions while she’s trying to use her iPhone over dinner. Kayla isn’t popular neither. Much to her surprise, when the “Most…” awards are declared at an assembly, she “wins” The Most Quiet Girl of her class. Stunned, she accepts. It’s also a surprise to us the audience since she posts tips/advice on her own YouTube channel yet she has few, if any, followers.

I don’t want to spoil much more of the plot, what I want to praise is the realism, given how today’s teens have unfettered access to things that could ruin their lives later. Kayla isn’t pretty like the queen bee of her class, Kennedy (someone you can tell is an asshole), she has some acne (to Hollywood, this is a sin unless it has a comedic point) and she experiences social anxiety at a pool party, mostly over body issues. Kayla’s life doesn’t exactly suck, it just isn’t Hollywood perfect. The bright spots are her father who loves her dearly and being a single parent, he was filled with fear over raising her but he praises her on how she turned out; Kayla is a good person and he hears this from other adults. Another moment is when she gets to shadow a high school student, something the middle school does to prepare them. Kayla is paired up with Olivia who is an utter delight. Olivia takes Kayla under her wing and they become fast friends, including an invitation to hang out at the local mall. (Do teenagers still do this given how malls are hurting now?)

You have to see how it ends. Again, I want to emphasize the accuracy on how teenagers behave, speak and utilize today’s technology.

Is it funny? Yes, not in a laugh-out-loud way though, it’s more subtle. Despite the R-rating, I would recommend parents taking their high-school/middle school kids to see it. The rating it received I feel was unfair. There isn’t any sex or nudity, so it should be PG-13. Why the MPAA (or whatever) gave it the R was probably their discomfort on how frankly the teenagers speak.

Eighth Grade is tied for my favorite movie for 2018, the other I will get to soon.

Alamo Extras: Fish school cartoon; K-Pop video in which the singer says “gucci” a lot, this ties into Kayla’s YouTube antics; Clearsail commercial from the Eighties (been there); Enya’s “Orinoco Flow” video; Trailer for Welcome to the Dollhouse; Manchester Orchestra video “Montage,”; Terrible ventriloquist singing about puberty; Bo Burnham stuff from YouTube; A montage of the Alamo staffers’ eighth grade photos; Kid band playing Weezer’s “Come Undone (Sweater Song)”; The staff’s favorite “Worst Teenage Experience” movies: Three O’Clock High, Edge of Seventeen, Saved! and Perks of Being a Wallflower.

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1988: A staple for my first Summer on my own

Posted on August 21, 2018 by Steve

As the Summer of 2018 winds down, I tried this canned “delicacy” again because it’s what kept me alive most days in the Summer of 1988. I hadn’t eaten this since I was a kid and it was rarely ever in our house, my parents weren’t fans of Chef Boyardee. Thanks to the drought in Wisconsin, it was hotter than normal (what would be typical in Austin) so I took to just eating the ravioli straight from the can. This grossed people out which I thought was stupid, this junk is precooked. Well pour it out of the can, you’re just heating it up via a saucepan or the microwave. During a heat wave, why do I want to add to the discomfort? Boyardee went on to be a staple for the rest of college years, a can of this was well under a dollar at the grocery store (anyone remember Pick n’ Save?) and when I looked this up at HEB (the best place in Austin!), I was surprised to see it remains under a dollar, I think 90 cents/can.

In order to get Helen to post a comment, I will let her share a funny anecdote regarding the necessity of canned ravioli.

I usually stuck with the ravioli since the spaghetti was too sweet and anything by Franco American must be filled with sugar, blech.

How does it taste today? I couldn’t find plain ravioli so I had to settle for the overstuffed. The cans have pull-off tops now but thankfully I can afford a can opener nowadays, this was nice. The taste? It was off from what I remembered. A bit on the sweet side which means this goop caters to children. I may have better luck finding a plain can to try. Before you ask, yes, I ate it as is.

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Cynthia Cranz

Posted on August 20, 2018 by Steve

Cynthia came to GACC with a small cadre of voice actors who specialize in Anime, often they provide the English-speaking voices for the characters. She plays one of my favorites, Mitzi, the exhausted, put-upon mother from Shin-chan Crayon. If you’re not familiar with Shin-chan, it’s about a little boy in kindergarten who is the Japanese equivalent of Dennis the Menace but ruder, grosser and just a couple shades shy of South Park‘s Eric Cartman. Mitzi is funny in her own way. Sometimes Shin catches her in a lie or inconsistency so you get to her Mitzi’s adult logic to win the argument.

Cynthia was great fun and I got an autograph for my friend Ayako who has to explain some of the jokes to me, such as why sweet potatoes are equal to bons bons to Japanese housewives.

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Bill & Ted tour shirt

Posted on August 20, 2018 by Steve

Remember Bill & Ted’s band? Wyld Stallyns! They were most excellent even though I don’t think they could actually play anything, well. Some Internet T-Shirt vendor had a tour shirt based upon the time periods when they “borrowed” historical figures.

The mock logos are pretty amusing even if most are from genres Bill & Ted probably don’t listen to. They always appeared to be fans of Arena/Hard Rock like most burnouts I went to high school with.

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Spaceship! Spaceship! Spaceship!

Posted on August 19, 2018 by Steve

The cheaper souvenir I bought from Brick Fiesta was this shirt paying tribute to Lego’s 40th anniversary with the Space sets. It’s not Benny though, this astronaut’s helmet is intact. Lego has come a long way. Now the faces have numerous expressions. I probably should reserve this for when I either put together a large set or I’m kit bashing.

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Brick Fiesta 2018 in San Antonio

Posted on August 18, 2018 by Steve

The annual Brick Fiesta was held in San Antonio this year (it will be back in Austin next Summer) and since any kind of vacation we’re taking will probably be scheduled around 2019, so we took a quick weekend trip to check in. See all the fantastic setups made by the state’s best master builders. I also bought a discontinued Old Republic fighter which is pretty cool and I think one ship is loosely based upon it for the upcoming Resistance show this Fall.

This is a hospital/base station the Rebels took over after it was abandoned when the Clone Wars ended.

The Battle of Scarif on the ground.

The Battle of Crait, if you look closely, you can see Kylo Ren charging toward Luke Skywalker.

Brick Fiesta isn’t exclusively Star Wars setups, it’s just one of the more popular themes and licenses. These people are amazing. They built their walkers from scratch to have them at their actual scale to the height of a mini figure (say the average represents a person at a height of 5′ 10″).

Can’t be Texas without a Whataburger!

I met the builder behind the Whataburger. He told me how this very accurate replica of their famous A-frame stores came to be. He went to the Lego Store at the mall in his city and bought up a bunch of orange-colored bricks from the bins. Then he realized he didn’t have any purpose for them until he drove by a Whataburger. Inspiration!

The train in the foreground circles the whole display.

This year’s Brick Fiesta was extra special because 2018 is the 40th anniversary of Lego’s introduction of the Space and Castle themes. Castles come and go but Space has been a solid seller through numerous iterations. The master builder on this had four monorails running around various sections of the landscape. Sadly, Lego only offered the monorail element briefly in the late Eighties.

Wildstyle and Benny!

The Ghost from Star Wars Rebels in “Space” colors.

The busiest quadrant.

You can see Bowser of Mario Brothers under the monorail.

The masterbuilder put minifigs of Krusty and Xenomorphs all over the place. A white astronaut and Unikitty are unaware of Krusty’s fatal encounter with a Xenomorph drone.

This astronaut’s eyes have enlarged to cartoon proportions since he has stumbled upon a clutch of eggs and their Queen. Corn guy appears OK.

A dropship from the USS Sulacco. Too bad it’s part of another display, the huge Space set could use some help from the US Colonial Marines!

Overall, we had a great time at the convention and I really enjoyed our hotel room. I was more exhausted than I thought I would be on Saturday night. I blame the stop-n-go traffic along much of I-35.

Can’t wait to see what these people have planned to show off next Summer in Austin. If we go with the same venue, there will be plenty of room for more train-based setups. Lego Movie 2 will have occurred too, last-minute influences maybe?

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David X Cohen

Posted on August 18, 2018 by Steve

In honor of Disenchantment making its debut this weekend on Netflix, here’s the finale to my attendance at the Futurama celebration at ATX Fest, meeting the co-creator and show runner, David X Cohen. His real middle initial is S but he changed it to X to be more Science Fictiony plus I think there was already a David S Cohen in the union.

What a thrill to have a photo and some face time with David! Turns out he studied Latin in school too. He dug my Mars University shirt. I told him what the Venusian writing circling the statue says. David chuckled.

He has been added to my special Chucks because he was a writer for The Simpsons before co-developing Futurama. His most famous episode is “Lisa the Vegetarian,” which did something rarely done in sitcoms, the show runners (Oakley & Weinstein then) made the change in Lisa’s diet permanent instead resetting at the end and acting like nothing ever happened the following week.

As he left, I told him I can’t wait for Disenchantment, David is a writer for it. He said thanks and had to get on his way. Woo hoo! ATX assisted me in getting another six autographs on these shoes. I probably should be a case to show them off and protect them the elements in and outdoors.

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Courage the Cowardly Dog shirt!

Posted on August 17, 2018 by Steve

The only shirt I bought at GACC. Finally something with Courage the Cowardly Dog! Couldn’t even find him at Hot Topic of all places.

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Tony Todd

Posted on August 16, 2018 by Steve

Next up from my fun time at GACC, meeting actor Tony Todd! Tony is a staple in numerous Sci-Fi TV shows (Stargate, Babylon 5, The Flash) but he’s probably best known to the general public as titular character in the Candyman Horror flicks, maybe in TV dramas too: 24, Chuck. My favorite role and it’s the photo I went with…Jake Sisko when he’s an adult on Deep Space Nine.

Tony is gigantic in person! He was very personable and I thanked him for all the great shows he’s been in, again, namely being Jake because Captain Benjamin Sisko is my favorite Star Trek commander. Why? He is the only captain to be married and suffered great personal loss while trying to raise a son.

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