Ozzy at Jones Beach

No More Tours 2: Ozzy Osbourne / Stone Sour
Jones Beach Theater - Wantagh, New York

September 8, 2018

This was my second time seeing Ozzy on this tour.  The first was nine days ago in Allentown, PA.  We had much better seats for this show and VIP tickets that allowed us to enter two hours early to listen to the sound check.

The VIP tickets also came with a swag bag that included a lenticular souvenir ticket, a cup, a deck of tarot cards, and a prayer candle.

There was also a tent where we got to hang out before soundcheck which had drinks and memorabilia.

Stone Sour had an excellent opening set.  I'm not overly familiar with their catalog.  In fact, the only song of theirs that I know is Bother, but it's one of my favorite songs from the early 2000's.

Ozzy was incredible!  He still sounds the same after all these years.  I'm not nearly knowledgeable enough to give a detailed review, but I had a blast and I feel extremely thankful for this experience.

Here are the setlists.

Luigi In Wildwood

Every year when we went to Wildwood, I had my eye on one of the prizes that you could win at the arcade or from the games on the Boardwalk.  As a nine year old Nintendo fanatic in 1989, I wanted to bring home a giant stuffed Luigi in the worst way.

This photo was taken at the Beach Rest Motel after my grandfather surprised me with one that he had won earlier that day.  They were made by Acme Premium Supply Corp, and I see them pop up on eBay from time to time for around a hundred bucks.  Mine has long since been lost, but I think I can save the cash and just enjoy the photo and the memories.

Summer Of Batman

Movie Posters
Wildwood, NJ (1989)
The Joker poster with Jack Nicholson surrounded by seagulls and holding Smylex cream foam bath (left) was second only to the Batman logo poster (right) in the summer of 1989.  Also, if you look closely, you can see a stuffed Luigi toy as one of the prizes in the top left hand corner of the Batman logo poster photo.

Wildwood Posters

Movie Posters
Wildwood, NJ (1989)
The gift shops and prizes on the Wildwood boardwalk were a snapshot of whatever was culturally relevant over the summer.  If pop culture was an Olympic event, the bronze medal in 1989 would have gone to Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade.  Ghostbusters 2 would have won the silver medal, and the runaway gold medal would have gone to Batman.

Batman was everywhere in 1989.  The movie, the trading cards, the toys, the Prince song that seemed to play on MTV nonstop, and of course, the Wildwood boardwalk which had posters, water bottles, keychains and every other piece of merchandise you could imagine.

This photo is of a gift shop in the boardwalk.  Hanging on the window with the boogie boards is the Michael Keaton Batman poster (left) and the Ghostbusters 2 movie poster (right).

Dad's Dorm

Dad's Dorm
Penn State - September 4, 1978
Forty years ago today, my pop was showing my grandfather his bad ass stereo.

Anthem Of An Introvert

As he often did, Bill Watterson perfectly captured my thoughts and feelings with words and images.

No Play Jose

Jose Canseco
2001 Topps - Anaheim Angels
2002 Topps - Montreal Expos
Thirty-three years ago today, Jose Canseco made his major league debut for the Oakland A's.  Throughout most of my childhood in the 80's and early 90's, he was one of the players that was universally loved.  When we bought a pack of baseball cards at Pantry Quick, Canseco was one of the players we were hoping to find inside.

Personally, I feel that his decision to blow the whistle on the steroid culture of the game has been a service to the game and its fans, but I recognize that I'm in the minority.  Canseco is far from being universally loved these days, even from fans and sportswriters who are all to eager to forgive other steroid users when the Hall of Fame ballots are passed out.  However, even his most vocal critics have to admit that his career was not boring.  Take, for example, these two baseball cards.

On the surface, there's nothing remarkable about either of these cards.  They're not rare or especially valuable.  They're interesting in that Jose Canseco never appeared in a major league game for either the Angels or Expos in his career.  He was cut from the Angels during Spring Training and split the 2001 season between the Newark Bears and Chicago White Sox, and he was cut by the Expos before Opening Day in 2002 before returning to the White Sox organization, appearing in 18 games for the Charlotte Knights.  In both cases, the cards were produced and waiting to be found in packs before the start of the season.

These aren't the only examples of players appearing on cards for teams that they never played for, but there can't be too many who have done so for two seasons in a row.  Dime Boxes, a fantastic blog that highlights the fun of baseball card collecting, has a section called The Zero-Year Club that covers cards like these.  It's a great way to enjoy the hobby without breaking the bank.

All In

All In
Chicago, IL
Tonight, Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks show that professional wrestling is not controlled by a single company.  All In has been funded by the wrestlers themselves, and it's the first non-WWF/E or WCW show to draw 10,000 in attendance in over 25 years.

Retro Multimedia

Random Photos From Childhood
This is my bedroom in Hazleton when I was a kid.  I spent a lot of time back then playing my mother's records and 8-tracks, discovering a love of music.  The cassette recorder was used mostly to record my family talking (usually without their knowledge), or to hold up to the tv to record episodes of Scooby Doo to listen to later on when I was coloring.

Some of my stuffed animals are hiding around here as well, including two little Pound Puppies on the top of the television, and a Lotsa Leggs on the left stereo speaker.  I think that might be Paddington Bear on the right hand side of the tv behind the cassette recorder.

No More Tours

Stone Sour / Ozzy Osbourne
No More Tours 2
Allentown, PA - August 30, 2018
Photo Album
Ozzy returned to the United States for his second (and potentially final) farewell tour by performing an incredible show at the PPL Center in Allentown, PA.  I was lucky enough to get to see the show, and it's fair to say that the Prince of Darkness hasn't missed a step.

Stone Sour opened the show with an awesome and energetic set, followed by Ozzy performing a cross-section of his remarkable career.

The King On Genesis

Michael Jackson would have been 60 years old today.  Here is the King Of Pop in 1992 at a promotional event for the release of Sonic The Hedgehog 2 on Sega Genesis.

RetroFest

WWE RetroFest
Mattel (2018)
Earlier this year, Mattel has released a line of WWE action figures designed after the wrestlers that are featured in the WWF arcade games of the 80's and 90's.  The packaging for the series has been designed to look like a vintage arcade cabinet with a simulated screenshot of the game with the wrestler's profile.

The figures themselves appear as the wrestler's did in the player select screen of their respective games.  Three wrestlers are currently available: "Macho Man" Randy Savage and The Honky Tonk Man from the 1989 game WWF Superstars, and Shawn Michaels, who to the best of my knowledge did not appear in an arcade game until he took on his Heartbreak Kid persona, but who has been presented in this toy series as one half of The Rockers.

The Newest 20th Century Game

Skee Ball Alley
This undated photo is hanging on the wall near the pinball machines at the Playland Arcade in Knoebels.  It cost five cents to play.  The sign advertises a $1 prize for achieving the highest score of the day, a Gillette Razor for the highest score of the week, and $100 in gold for a perfect score of 450.

Despite the fact that the photo features three men and a boy, the sign promises that "ladies play it as well as men".

The Lost Logger

The Lost Logger
Knoebels Amusement Resort
Throughout my life, there has been an area just past the Phoenix and the water flume where a man carved, panted and sold beautiful wooden statues at very reasonable prices.  Since I've been coming to Knoebels as a child, we always took a few moments to admire the things on display here.  I have photos of myself and my family next to large statues of alligators and bears from when I was a child.  As an adult, I've purchased a few decorations that I have around the house and in the back yard.

On my visit to the park yesterday, I noticed some pumpkin statues and wanted to buy one to have as a fall decoration.  While I was waiting for the person ahead of me to finish paying, I noticed a news article tacked up to a sign that told a little more about The Lost Logger.  His name is Don Nilson.  He's the man in the yellow shirt behind me and to the right in the photo above.  He opened his shop at Knoebel's in 1979 (winning a $50 bet in the process), and he's been here ever since.

I hope that everyone who visits the park has an opportunity to stop by and appreciate how truly cool this is.

Heads Up

Heads Up! Baseball Stars
Topps (1990)
Knoebels Amusement Resort - Roaring Creek Arcade
There are two arcades at Knoebels, both of which have a prize counter where you can redeem tickets won playing Skee Ball and many other games.  Between the two buildings, there has got to be over a thousand different things you can win.  The Knoebel family prides themselves on not wasting anything.  It's a principle that I admire and respect, and it sometimes results in finding a prize in the arcade that has been sitting there since my childhood.  Such was the case for these.

Topps Heads Up! Baseball Stars are a unique series that I believe were only issued in 1990.  It's a series of 24 player heads, each of which have a suction cup and double sided tape so that kids can hang them wherever they want.  Each head is about six inches tall by four and a half inches wide.

When I mentioned to the woman at the counter that these had been at Knoebels since I was nine years old, she shrugged and said that no one ever wanted them before.  They were only 50 tickets per package - not much higher than the bouncy balls and mini-Slinky toys, so after about a half hour of Pokerino, we had enough tickets to bring home six out of the seven that they had (and the box they came in).  I could have gotten the seventh one too, but I figured that if it's been sitting in their prize window for the past 28 years, it's become part of the ambiance of the Roaring Creek Arcade, so I left it behind to be discovered by someone else.

No Phillies in the set, but they found room for Craig Worthington?

Clearly Refreshing

Crystal Pepsi is back again, presumably for a limited time.  I'm not sure why this didn't take off and become a regular item in the soda aisle.

Hadoken Auto Repair

Pasta Mañana

Never Ending Pasta Pass

Olive Garden (2018)
In case anyone is interested in giving me an early Christmas present, this would put a great big smile on my face.  At 2:00 pm tomorrow, Olive Garden will be sending their Never Ending Pasta Pass.  For $300, you get unlimited pasta with one topping, soup or salad and breadsticks for a full year.

It's a $10.99 meal, so even if you only used the card once a week, you'd have eaten $300 worth of dinner by July.  I have a hunch I would be visiting the Olive Garden much more often.

Space Age Invaders

Space Invaders playing on an Atari 2600, hooked up to a Philips Discoverer space helmet television.  Though there were a lot of spherical and space age tv sets in the 70's, I was shocked to learn that this model was produced in 1991.  This photo was shared by Mark Howlett on AtariAge.

Mariachi Moon

Duck Tales (NES)
The Moon mariachi cover
Performed by Mariachi Entertainment System
A mariachi band covers iconic video game music.  They have a lot of incredible work on their YouTube channel, but this one is my favorite.

Malls Across America

Malls Across America (1989)
Photo by Michael Galinsky
This is one of the photos that appears in the photography book "Malls Across America".  It was taken in 1989 and it perfectly captures the essence of a mall music store in the late 80's.  It reminds me a lot of the Camelot store that we had in the Laurel Mall.  I love the wall of cassette tapes and the long box CDs when the medium was still new.  Also, $3.99 is a pretty good price for Madonna on vinyl even for 1989.

Tomy Turbo Outrun

Tomy Racing Turbo
Outrun Modification
Matt Brailsford used a Raspberry Pi to convert an old Tomy Turbo Racing toy to a portable Sega Outrun game.  Pretty awesome work!  More info about this project can be found on his website: Circuitbeard.co.uk.

Rest In Pac

Pac Man Tombstone
I love retro gaming, but I don't know if I love it as much as Michael Leroy Luther.  Photo credit to papaduck34 via RetroBitch (left) and Omar of ohmz.net.

Bored Panda Comics

Don't They Know It's The End Of The World
Written by Ehud Lavski
Illustrated by Yael Nathanine
Excellent artwork and brilliant stories.  Check out their work on Bored Panda.  You can also get their digital book on Gumroad.

Hello Yellow

Neon Yellow Joy-Con
Nintendo Switch
These cards were on display at a local Wal-Mart store.  When I brought one to the register, I was told that the yellow ones were never delivered to the store.  The associate allowed me to take the card to help me find or order it at another store.  I've since learned that the yellow controller was discontinued shortly after it was released, but I managed to find a reasonably priced one on eBay.

Boardwalk Bootlegs

Muscle Warriors (Tung Sing Toys)
and MX-Space Robots (Acamas)

When I was a kid, the highlight of my year was our family vacation to Wildwood.  I got to spend three days with my dad and my grandparents riding the rides, playing the games, enjoying the ocean and the food and embracing all of the things that were great about childhood.

One of the things I looked forward to every year was going to the arcades on the Boardwalk.  Usually, I would see a dozen or more games for the first time, months before they came to my local Aladdin's Castle.  However, no matter what new game drew my attention, I always had some quarters set aside for Skee-Ball.  I loved playing the game, but I enjoyed saving up the tickets to redeem for prizes even more.

I snapped this photo in the summer of 1986.  Grandpa is holding two of the toys that I redeemed my Skee-Ball tickets for that year.  The action figure on the left is a knockoff He-Man/viking hybrid from a series of action figures called Muscle Warriors.  The toy on the right is one of the MX-Space Robots figures.  These were the bootleg toys that kids really didn't seem to want, but I enjoyed them very much and they got played with right alongside the "real" toys from KayBee Toys.

The irony is that while these toys were cheap prize ticket items that probably sold for a dollar or less in the 80's, the loose figures from these lines frequently sell for over $50 each on eBay, and unopened figures are even more expensive.  At the time of this writing, the "Hulk" toy on the left was included in a lot of others from the series for over $200.  The figure on the right, which is apparently called "Colonel Stan", was available loose, and in poor condition, for $65.  You can learn more about these, and other loved bootleg toys from the past at Knock-off Collector.

Vintage Games and Prizes

Horse Racing Game
Wildwood, NJ - August, 1986
I took this photo when I was six years old.  It's one of those games where players roll balls or something like that to make the horses run.  The player whose horse got to the end of the track won a prize.  The prizes that are in this photo include a stuffed alligator, a stuffed hippopotamus, and framed posters of Hulk Hogan and the Philadelphia 76ers.

One thing I didn't notice about this photo until today is that you can see my Grandpa's reflection in the glass of the game.  If you look at the bottom left hand corner, you can see him looking to the left on the far right hand side of the red rectangle.

A Tropical Remix

Sprite Mix - Tropic Berry
McDonalds (2018)
Every so often, Sprite comes out with a "remix" flavor.  The latest of these is exclusive to McDonalds fountain drinks.  It's a blend of Sprite with strawberry, orange and pineapple flavors, and it's pretty good.  I'd like to see it come out in the grocery store.

Ignore the Cowlick

Beach Rest Motel
Wildwood, NJ - August, 1985
You'd never know it by the look on my face, but Wildwood was my favorite place in the world when I was a kid.  In all likelihood, my grandpa took this photo right after we arrived, after we rode in a hot car for over three hours to get here.

The picture was taken right near the stairs and outside the pool at our motel.  I'm wearing my He-Man t-shirt and ready to take on the world!

Back To The Conventions

Back To The Future cast reunion
Boston Fan Expo (2018)
This photo was shared by Lea Thompson on Instagram.  Tom Wilson has gone from looking like Donald Trump in Back To The Future 2 to Bill Clinton in 2018.

The Cola Car

Pepsi Van
1978 Ford Transit
In the late 70's, Ford of Britain partnered with Pepsi to turn the back of their Ford Transit van into a giant can of soda (source: History Lovers Club).