Movies Under The Rainbow

The Dark Knight / Journey To The Center Of The Earth
Laurel Drive-In - Hazleton, PA

I'm not sure if it's was my actual first movie, but my earliest memory of seeing a movie out with my family was at the Laurel Drive-In.  Dad brought me here to see The Karate Kid: Part 2 when I was five years old.  Back then, the Drive-In still had the little speakers hooked up to poles that you would park next to so that you could hear the movie.

This place has been in operation since the 50's and it's still going strong.  Most nights, it's ten bucks per car to see two movies.  They have a great selection of food and snacks, all of which are inexpensive, and it's just a few miles from my house.

It rained last night when we were at the Transfiguration Church picnic.  Thankfully, it stopped before we got to the Drive-In, and we got to see a beautiful rainbow that arched over the entire parking lot.

This is the inside of the orange building in the photo with the rainbow.  It's where they project the movie from.  It's also the snack bar with a few arcade games.  I think I've played this Ms. Pac-Man machine every time I've seen a movie here for over 20 years.

 

The movies that were playing last night were The Dark Knight and Journey To The Center Of The Earth.  The Dark Knight is the sequel to Batman Begins, and with the exception of The Crow, I think it's my favorite movie based on a comic book that I've ever seen.  I didn't think anyone could ever outdo Jack Nicholson as The Joker, but the late Heath Ledger delivered a performance that is second to none.

Journey To The Center Of The Earth was a good family adventure film.  It's not the kind of thing I'm likely to want to watch again, but I'm glad to have seen it.  Brendan Fraser was solid, as always.  I've never read the book, so I don't know how far it strays from the source material, but it was enjoyable.  I will say that even watching this on a 2-D drive-in screen, it was pretty obvious which scenes were shot entirely for the purpose of showing off the 3-D special effects.  It didn't ruin the experience or anything, but it was very noticeable.

Farmers Market Superheroes

Super Heroes action figure set
Hometown Farmers Market - Tamaqua, PA

You can find some pretty crazy bootleg toys at the Hometown Farmers Market.  Take, for example, this team of super heroes.  Wouldn't you love to see these six guys get together with swords to fight crime?

The graphics and phrases on the package are pretty amusing, but the real star of the show here are the toys themselves.

First, there is a very smug looking Superman hanging out with a silver gloved Batman.

Then we move from DC to Marvel Comics.  There's Spider Man with an odd peanut-shaped head, and a very constipated looking Thing from The Fantastic Four.

Finally, there's Disney/Pixar's Mr. Incredible, and last but not least, the White Power Ranger.

At six bucks, it works out to a dollar per figure.  In all likelihood, these things fall apart seconds after being taken out of the package, and I wouldn't rule out lead-based paints, but those are the chances you take with the Farmers Market Superheroes.

We'll See You At The Movies

UA: The Movies at Schuylkill Mall
Schuylkill Mall - Frackville, PA

I love the aesthetic of the Schuylkill Mall in general, but my favorite part of the mall is the United Artists movie theater.  It's not fancy - just a four screen theater with modest seating and a small arcade to the left of its entrance, but it has a lot of charm because it's virtually unchanged since the day that it opened.  My grandfather brought me here to see a movie a few times when I was a kid in the 80's, and it's still exactly as I remember it.

For Radio, Take Maximum

I haven't fit in this t-shirt since I was 15 years old.  My dad was dating a girl whose sister worked for a record company in Russia.  When she came back to South Florida, she brought a few of these t-shirts and gave one to me.  It's from Maximum 103.7 FM, a rock station on the radio in Moscow.  Their slogan on the back of the shirt translates to "For Radio, Take Maximum".

McPanda

Kung Fu Panda Arch Card
McDonald's (2008)
Stopped for a late ice cream last night and found that they've got these awesome Kung Fu Panda gift cards.  The minimum to load on a card is $5, so I did that first and then used it to pay for the ice cream.

Back In Black Diamond

Black Diamond Antiques & Collectibles
Schuylkill Mall - Frackville, PA

We stopped by Black Diamond for a little while before heading to Knoebels.  It's the best flea market store that I've ever been to.  It's a collection of well over a hundred different vendors.  Some of them are ridiculously expensive and others are very reasonable.  If you're patient, you can get some pretty good deals on vintage toys, comics, memorabilia and other fun things for a fraction of what you'd pay for them online.

This place is absolutely huge.  These photos barely scratch the surface of the kind of things that they have for sale here.  Money is a little tight this week so I only bought a few things, but are some of the more interesting items that caught my eye.

 

Even if you're flat broke, it's worth coming here just to look around.  I did have a few bucks to spend, so a few retro goodies came home with me.

When I was a kid, Tonka made a series of toys called WWF Wrestling Buddies.  They're pretty much just pillows that are shaped like professional wrestlers that kids could suplex and body slam around the living room without causing too much damage.  They had a Hulk Hogan one from either the late 80's or early 90's that was in good shape for a good price that I picked up.  I also bought a couple of Supernaturals action figures that I had when I was younger, and an ET card game that I never heard of before, but it was only a couple of bucks and it looked like a fun game.  Angie found a Barbie Doll case from either the late 70's or the early 80's.

Three Generations

Mom is on the left.  Pop Pop is on the right.  I am the goober in the middle.  Spending time with them always makes me feel tall.

A Ticket To Win Tickets

Philadelphia Phillies Instant Lottery Ticket
Pennsylvania Lottery (2008)
My grandparents put one of these tickets in my birthday card.  I didn't win, but they have a Second Chance Drawing to win Phillies season tickets, a trip to Spring Training, and other baseball prizes that would make for a pretty awesome birthday surprise!

Wall-E and The Incredible Hulk

Wall-E and The Incredible Hulk
Garden Drive In - Hunlock Creek, PA
I grew up going to the Laurel Drive-In in Hazleton.  It's still in operation, and we still go to it from time to time, but the Garden Drive-In has two screens, so there's more of a selection to choose from.  Last night, we went to see a double feature of Pixar's latest animated feature, Wall-E, and Edward Norton starring in The Incredible Hulk.

If I'm being honest, I went mostly for Wall-E and stayed for The Incredible Hulk because it didn't cost anything extra.  Don't get me wrong, it was alright, but my fandom of comic books is a passing interest at best.  I didn't read them too often when I was growing up.  In fact, most of my experience with comics is from the 1990 Marvel Universe tradings cards.  But enough about comics for now.  We have a masterpiece to talk about.

Wall-E isn't just good - it's absolutely incredible.  If it's not the greatest animated film I have ever seen, it's definitely in the running.  I think the majority of the viewing audience will come out of this thinking that it's a grim prediction of humanity's future, with the environmental destruction of Earth and humans living their entire lives on a hoverchair in a spaceship with their faces in front of a screen.  Frankly, I thought it was an optimistic look at the future.  I'm not saying the world that humans are coming back to in Wall-E is good.  In fact, I have no doubt that this is exactly what we're doing to the planet.  I just strongly doubt that humans will still be around to sift through the garbage, and if they are, I doubt they'd be peaceful adult babies in space, but warlike animals scraping out whatever life they can.  Regardless, Wall-E is a fantastic animated film that everyone, of all ages, should see.

The Match That Didn't Happen

ECW World Championship Match preview
WWE.com (2007)
This match was scheduled to take place this time last year at the WWE Vengeance: Night Of Champions pay-per-view.  It didn't happen as a result of the Chris Benoit murder/suicide.  Benoit wrestled for over 20 years and he worked a style that was particularly abusive to his head.  An autopsy revealed that Benoit had severe CTE and damage to his brain stem and all four lobes of his brain.  This damage was so severe that his brain resembled that of an 85 year old Alzheimer's patient.  It has been speculated by doctors and other experts in the field that the severity of his brain damage was enough to cause dementia, which may have been behind this horrible tragedy.

I hope that World Wrestling Entertainment and the industry work harder to protect the health and well-being of the performers.  No diving headbutt or chair shot is important enough to put a human being's health and safety at risk.  It can never be known for sure if brain damage was the sole cause of the violent behavior that led to the death of three people, but it's something that must be taken seriously.  Things cannot continue as they've always been.

The Best Phone To Order Takeout Lasagna

Garfield Phone

Tyco (1986)
In honor of the 30th anniversary of the publication of the first Garfield comic strip, here is an advertisement for one of the most iconic consumer goods that was produced with the likeness of the lazy orange cat.  If you grew up in the 80's, you probably knew at least one person who had a Garfield phone.  (Ad Source: Seventeen Magazine; Vol 45 No 12 - December 1986)

A Bird From A Pirate Ship

I found this cheerful little bird cawing next to the Galleon at Knoebels yesterday.