Dinosaurs and a Desert Apocolypse

Jurassic World and Mad Max: Fury Road
Laurel Drive In - Hazleton, PA

There aren't too many drive in movie theaters in operation, and I'm lucky enough to live within a thirty minute drive of two of them.  Actually, I could probably walk to the Laurel Drive In from my house, but going without a car kind of defeats the purpose.

In the summer of 1986, the first movie I ever saw in theaters was at this drive in.  It was The Karate Kid: Part 2, and I loved every minute of it.  In the years since, I must have seen at least a hundred other movies at this place.  The Laurel Drive In really is a treasure of the Hazleton area, and it's one of the few places that's still in operation in town since my childhood.

This is the entrance to the drive in where you pay for your ticket to get in.

Every time I see this sign, I think of Doug singing Banging On A Trash Can.

One of the best parts of the Laurel Drive In is the food.  It's all delicious diner-style food, and it's all very reasonably priced.  That pizza you see on the menu there for $6.00 isn't for a slice - it's for a whole pie.  Granted, it's not an extra large, but it's enough to feed at least two people.  Tell me one other movie theater in the world where you can get a hot dog, a bag of popcorn and a soda for five bucks.  The cheesesteaks and meatball hoagies are delicious, and they've got to be one of the only places in the country where you can go see a movie and buy pierogies and funnel cake at the concession stand.

The first Jurassic Park movie is one of my favorite summer blockbusters of all time, but if I'm being totally honest, I don't care about The Lost World or Jurassic Park 3 at all.  Thee first movie was epic, and the two sequels aren't bad - I just don't think that they're necessary, other than to squeeze as much money out of the success of the first film as possible.

Jurassic World is definitely a better movie than the second and third sequel.  It more fun, the callbacks to the first film were great, and the plot expands on the world build by Jurassic Park in a way that the second and third films in the franchise did not.  The story begins over two decades after the events of Jurassic Park, and at a time in which the Jurassic World theme park has been open for over a decade.  The idea of seeing a real dinosaur isn't as special as it once was, so the folks in charge are feeling pressure to ramp things up to keep interest in the park alive.

 

The second part of this double feature was Mad Max: Fury Road, and... uggh.  I'm sorry, I want to like the Mad Max films.  I really do.  I know it's highly regarded by critics and fans, and it ticks a lot of the boxes that I typically find interesting, but with the exception of The Road Warrior (which I think is good, but not great), I've been bored to death by the franchise as a whole, and Fury Road may be the most dull out of them all.

I don't know if I'm just not into car chases, or if I'm just not all that interested in this particular style of post-apocalyptic fiction.  The whole plot can be summed up with "We're all savage nomads, and we're almost out of bullets and gas and everybody's craaaaaazy".  I might enjoy something like this if it was made into a cheap 90 minute grindhouse style movie like Hell Comes To Frogtown, but it tries to take itself way too seriously and the dialogue is so dopey that it could be an unintentional comedy if it wasn't so damned boring.  There's no depth to any of the characters at all, so I have no reason to care what happens to them.  At about 45 minutes into the film, we both realized that we couldn't name most of the characters and couldn't care less if they all burst into flames at that very moment, so we left.

Old News

Newsstand In The Subway
Photo by Janet Delaney
New York City (1985)
The magazine covers at the newsstand date this photograph to June 1985.  It is just one of many beautiful photos from the Janet Delaney's collection: New York City 1984-1987.

Breakfast Sub With Scrapple

Breakfast Sub with Scrapple
Eddie's American Diner
15th Street - Hazleton, PA
This was a very tasty breakfast.  The sub is filled with fried eggs, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion and salsa.  They know how to make scrapple too - thick cut and crispy on the outside.

Eddie's is in the old Ferdinand's Restaurant building, which closed five years ago.  Ferdinand's was open from 1983 to 2010 and served mostly Italian food.  Our family usually went to Blue Comet instead, but I was still sad to see it closed.  Glad to see another nice restaurant pop up in its place.

Is It Too Late To Be A Pirate Astronaut?

Joe Dator
The New Yorker (May 25, 2015)

Fun On Tap

RePlay Magazine

February 1981
FUN ON TAP - Phil Robertson, day bartender and assistant manager at Pickwick’s Pub in Woodland Hills, Calif., loves the Asteroids upright their operator installed late in 1980.  Bar patrons are equally fascinated by the game and Phil maximizes play by holding an informal tournament now and again just for fun.  Current high score is visibly posted on the upright.  [text from Replay Magazine; scanned and shared by @mznewman]

Getting Some Sun

Peanuts
Charles Schulz (August 27, 1963)
Sometimes I can really relate to Linus.  As for Charlie Brown, you ought to know that your friend is nothing if not sincere.

Find Mickey

Fully Computerized
Wally Wood (1953)

Another Caucasian, Gary

Another Caucasian Gary
Joshua Budich (2015)
This Lebowski inspired artwork was part of an exhibition called Fictional Foods.  Limited edition prints are available from Gallery 1988.

Keep Your Head In The Game

Jose Canseco
Texas Rangers (May 26, 1993)
On this day in 1993, the most memorable home run of Jose Canseco's career was hit in a game between the Texas Rangers and the Cleveland Indians.  The problem for him is that it came off of the bat of Carlos Martinez.

The LGBTQ Sandwich

The Black Sheep Deli

Amherst, MA
I absolutely believe in equality, and there are few things in this world that I love more than a good sandwich, but I'm not sure that I can get on board with spelling it "Qucumber".  [source: Runcibility]

Vector Refreshments

Creative Computer Graphics
Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton (1984)
Vector images on MPC systems (fiber optics) from Moving Picture Company Ltd.  Scanned and shared by Palm & Laser.

Nana's Communion

I found a certificate that was given to my great great grandparents 100 years ago when their daughter (my Nana) received her First Holy Communion.  She passed away when I was 13 years old.

Discount Wrestling DVDs

Ollies is a pretty awesome store.  This is over 33 hours of wrestling that cost a total of $12.96.

Playing With My Pleasure Zone

Low Life
New Order (1985)
The third studio album from New Order was released thirty years ago today.  My favorite song on this record is an instrumental track called Elegia, but that doesn't seem to be on YouTube at the moment.  Love Vigilantes is another excellent song on this record, but the one I'm sharing below is easier to dance to.

The Perfect Kiss
New Order (1985)

I stood there beside myself

Thinking hard about the weather

Then came by a friend of mine

Suggested we go out together

Then I knew it from the start

This friend of mine would fall apart

Pretending not to see his gun

I said "Let's go out and have some fun"

I know, you know, you believe in a land of love

I know, you know, we believe in a land of love

I have always thought about

Staying here and going out

Tonight I should have stayed at home

Playing with my pleasure zone

He has always been so strange

I'd often thought he was deranged

Pretending not to see his gun

I said "Let's go out and have some fun"

I know, you know, we believe in a land of love

I know, you know, we believe in a land of love

When you are alone at night

You search yourself for all the things

That you believe are right

If you give it all away

You throw away your only chance to be here today

Then a fight breaks out on your street

You lose another broken heart in a land of meat

My friend, he took his final breath

Now I know the perfect kiss is the kiss of death

Hershey Park In The Mid 80's

Hershey Park Opening Weekend
May 11-12, 1985
This circular was published in the Sunday Patriot News on May 5th, 1985 for the opening of Hershey Park which took place thirty years ago today.

I'd have to look back at my grandfather's old photos to be sure, but I think that this was the first year that I visited Hershey Park when I was a kid.

Let Me See That Kong

This is my Grandpa and Dad standing in front of the Kong ride at Morey's Pier on the Boardwalk in Wildwood, NJ in the mid 1970s.  The ride opened in 1972 and was an iconic part of the landscape for the rest of the decade.  A planned renovation of the ride failed in 1980 when the Kong statue disintegrated as it was being disassembled.

A new Kong ride is returning to Morey's Pier in 2015.

My Day In Court

Luzerne County Courthouse
Wilkes-Barre, PA

My time has finally come.  I was picked to report for jury duty and to spend a fun and exciting day wandering around the Luzerne County Courthouse while the folks in charge make up their minds on which of the lucky contestants will be chosen to serve on an actual jury, while the rest of us are sent home with a copy of the home game.  On the positive side, I got the day off of work with pay, and it was nice to have the opportunity to spend some time here without the pressures of being the defendant.  Plus, there's also the pride of being chosen to do your civic duty.  Just look at how much joy it has brought me on this fine day.  

All kidding aside, it really is a beautiful building, and there's a nice little cafe inside.  I guess it's pretty hard to screw up an egg and cheese sandwich, but it was very tasty and a lot better than anything I was expecting.

Here are some photos I took in and around the courthouse:

The cherry blossom trees are in bloom.

Being here makes me realize that I may have spent too many hours playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater.

This is the inside of the dome ceiling of the courthouse.

I can neither confirm or deny that one Hawaiian Italian juror stepped beyond this point.

Here are the sinks in the men's restroom, surrounded my late 60's tile in all of it's pea green glory.  It's a little less dignified than the marble you find throughout the rest of the courthouse.

I wasn't picked to serve on a jury, so after many hours of wandering around, taking pictures and doing my best to not get in any trouble, I was sent home.  The parking garage was an adventure all of it's own.  It's loaded with hand-written threats of tolls and tickets, but there was no one in sight to accept any money.

 

I was perfectly willing to pay for parking, but according to the sign next to the broken clock and in front of the giant slab of cardboard, the office is closed for the day.  The same sign that informed me that the office is closed also asked that I "exit here to pay 4 parking".  I'm not quite sure how that's supposed to work.  I briefly considered taping a few bucks to the window, but I didn't have the scotch tape or the desire to throw money away, so I just went home.

If it turns out that I did something illegal, I'll guess that I'll be back.  Maybe I can even pick up one of those swell $9 compact umbrellas.

Fish Like An Egyptian

Memphis Pyramid
Bass Pro Drive - Memphis, TN

Fun fact: the sixth largest pyramid in the world is a Bass Pro Shops Superstore.  The Memphis Pyramid, which re-opened yesterday to the public, also includes a man-made cypress swamp with live alligators, shooting and archery ranges, a bowling alley, a Ducks Unlimited waterfowl museum, and a 105 room hotel.  It is also home to the tallest freestanding elevator in the United States.  [source: OutdoorHub]

Right Now

Well... it was clear, it was caffeine free, and it tasted pretty much the same as a regular Pepsi.

You Are Repressed But You're Remarkably Dressed

Postcard (1980)

Knockout

The Final Blow
Eric Joyner (2003)

Saving The World With Jell-o Pudding Pops

Crystalis
SNK (1990)

The final years of a console's lifespan often produce some of its most interesting games, and Nintendo's 8-bit era is no exception.  Crystalis is an action RPG that was released for the Famicom in Japan 25 years ago today, with a release in North America on the NES just a few months later.  

In this game, you play as a man who has just woken up from cryogenic sleep in a cave just outside of the village of Leaf in the year 2097 - a hundred years after a savage war destroyed civilization.  The descendants of the humans who survived the war live in a medieval world in which science and technology has been banned, with the exception of a giant floating tower.  Your character soon learns that he must unite the four elemental swords to defeat the mutants and the evil Draygonia Empire, who have brought back the forbidden sciences and threaten to take over the world.

Although it doesn't get the same level of attention from the retro community as its contemporaries, such as The Legend Of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and the Dragon Warrior series, Crystalis had a good amount of support behind it in its time.  This game tips card was printed on the inside of a Jell-o Pudding Pops as a part of their promotion of the 1990 Nintendo World Championships.

This Sunday newspaper circular was shared by Jason Liebig on Flickr which shows some of the other games that were used for the Power Playing Tips cards that were printed on the inside of Jell-o frozen desert boxes, including Super Mario Bros. 3, Tetris, Code Name: Viper and Double Dragon II: The Revenge.

This ad from The Pittsburgh Press on March 18th, 1990 shows that in addition to getting a couple of Nintendo tips, buying a box of Jello-Pudding Pops back would also get you a free ticket to the Nintendo World Championships.

Rock and Roll Memories

Toys In The Attic
Aerosmith (1975)
This iconic album, which includes rock anthems Sweet Emotion and Walk This Way, was released forty years ago today.

My favorite story about a song on this album happened nine years later in 1984.  By this point in his career, Steven Tyler was suffering from memory loss after years of drug abuse.  He and Joe Perry had put their differences behind them and were planning the Back In The Saddle tour when You'll See Me Crying was played on WBCN FM.  Tyler enjoyed it and suggested that Aerosmith record a cover of the song, to which Perry responded "It's us, fuckhead."

Pearsall Hall

Pearsall Hall
Wilkes University - Wilkes Barre, PA

From the 2015 Wilkes University calendar.

Games And Snacks

Vintage II
Kyle Willis (2012)

Ewww...

This photo was uploaded by an appropriately named Tumblr account called Oh No Problems.  I'm usually up for trying almost any weird foods or drinks at least once, but I'd have to pass on this monstrosity.

Last Snowfall

This was my backyard on Tuesday. In 24 hours, it was 62 degrees and it had all melted.

New Hot Chick

Wendy's
Route 93 - Hazleton, PA
Either they have a new spicy chicken sandwich, or someone in the kitchen is trying to flirt with the new girl.