Bloomsburg Fair 2018

Bloomsburg Fair (2018)
Bloomsburg, PA
Photo Album
It's that time of year again.  Games, fried foods, animals, massively large vegetables...  What's not to love?  I'll be sharing photos of some of the more interesting food in the days to come.

Talking Baseball Cards

Sportstalk Baseball
Topps / LJN Toys (1989)
This came out when I was nine years old and I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen.  Talking baseball cards?  Sign me up!

Sportstalk Baseball was a lot of fun.  It was basically a mini custom record player that ran on two AA batteries.  It played small, plastic records that were glued to the back of special 1989 Topps baseball cards that came in four packs.  The cards were slightly smaller than a postcard and featured different photos than the ones used for the typical 1989 Topps set, and the record featured a two minute audio recording of Don Drysdale, Joe Torre or Mel Allen speaking about the player.  Some of the cards also included clips of interviews with the player themselves and radio broadcast clips from games.

It was an incredible idea for its time, but the players were prone to breaking and the toy line was discontinued within its first year.  These days, you can find unopened packs of cards on eBay pretty easily but it's a bit harder to find a working player.  I'm lucky enough to have a working player and I was in the process of recording the audio of the cards I have to share on here, but Clyde's Stale Cards beat me to it by several years with this incredible video playlist of nearly every card in the set.  Below is his video of one of my all-time favorite players, John Kruk.

Funky Fruity Breakfast

This photo was shared by Jonathan Shykofsky to a cereal box collecting group on Facebook.  It was taken in 1974 and shows his brother with three of their favorite breakfast cereals: Fruity Pebbles, Fruit Brute and Boo Berry.

Vanilla French Fries

Milkshake & Fries
Coolhaus Ice Cream
I'm a sucker for trying weird foods, so when I saw shoestring french fries as an ice cream ingredient, I knew it had to come home with me.  It was incredibly rich and creamy, and the french fries added a salty, pretzel-like crunch.  On top of everything else, they have Talking Heads lyrics on the carton.  I may have found my new favorite brand of ice cream!

Video Arcade Gum

Video Arcade Gum.
Topps (1983)
With the revival of mini arcade machines, surely a comeback of snack foods can't be too far behind.  The Video Arcade Gum line series included replicas of Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, Frogger, Zaxxon, Q*Bert and Centipede arcade cabinets, each filled with colorful gum.  They sold for less than 50 cents in 1983.  Today, it's not unheard of for a empty torn and crushed container to sell for between $10 and $20.

The Bloomsburg Fair In The 80's

Bloomsburg Fair (1985)
WNEP Newswatch 16 shared a few minutes from their coverage of the 1985 Bloomsburg Fair.  It includes footage of the Two-For-A-Buck Chicken Chuck game, as well as fairgoers shooting Michael Jackson and Joe Paterno in the face with paintballs in the shooting gallery.

The video also features tinsel wigs, and a vendor named Manny shouting at a loudspeaker to invite customers to "get down, get funky and buy some rock and roll shirts".  In other words, all of the awesomeness of the Bloomsburg Fair in the 80's.  Click here to watch.

Grrreat Pumpkin

Frosted Flakes: Pumpkin Spice
Between these and Pumpkin Spice Pop Tarts, I am all set for breakfast for the rest of the year.

Space Age Hologram

Switch Arcade

Nyko Pixelquest Arcade Kit
Nintendo Switch
There have been a lot of awesome mini arcade games to hit stores recently, but this one may be the most interesting of them all.  The Pixelquest is a Labo-style cardboard kit to turn your Switch and two joycons into a retro arcade machine.  Amazon is offering pre-orders with a scheduled shipping date of November 27.

Happy National Peanut Day

Planters Peanuts neon sign (late 1950's)
Times Square - New York, NY

And Then There Was One

Blockbuster Video
211 NE Revere Avenue - Bend, OR
In 2010, the Blockbuster Video on Broad Street in Hazleton closed.  Within three years, there only 13 left in the country.  Three years after that, the chain was down to nine.  At the start of this year, there were only three: Anchorage, Fairbanks and Bend.

The two Alaskan locations stopped renting videos in July and sold through their inventory before closing at the end of August.  Today, the rental shop in Bend, Oregon stands as the last Blockbuster Video in America.

Double Header (sort of)

Philadelphia Phillies vs. Washington Nationals
Double Header - Game One
It was estimated that only 500 fans were in attendance when Nick Pivetta threw his first pitch in the first game of the double header.  I'm happy to say that I was not one of them, as the Phillies would go on to lose both games.  For a team that was in first place at the All-Star Break, this is likely going to be remembered as the final nail in the coffin of our 2018 season.

Do We Still Like Dinosaurs?

Énouement
Samantha Richardson (2018)
This is an absolutely beautiful piece of art.

I'd be lying if I said that my eyes weren't a little misty by the last panel.

Reclaiming Mac Tonight

Mac Tonight
McDonalds (1987)
Two things that I have an appreciation for are clever advertising and things from my childhood in the 80's and 90's.  At the top of my list of things that I've always had warm, nostalgic feelings for is the McDonald's mascot Mac Tonight.

I can't really explain why, but I loved Mac Tonight when I was a kid.  He was much cooler than Ronald or any of the McDonald Land gang.  For a few years, he popped up everywhere.  He appeared at the Funfest parade in Hazleton.  There was a Mac Tonight commercial on my VHS tape of the pilot episode of Duck Tales.  There were Happy Meal toys, t-shirts and all sorts of other merchandise that featured the character, and I've spent the past 20 years collecting much of it.  I even managed to find a translite sign from the McDonalds menu boards.  In the late 90's, my grandfather and I built a light box for it that gives the image the 3-D effect that it had in the restaurant.  It's still hanging in my house to this day, and it's a cherished memory not only of a character from my childhood, but a fun project that I worked on with my Grandpa, many years before he passed away.

With all this said, it saddens me to learn that a parody version of this character has been used to promote racism.  The association it now has with horrible images and hate speech upsets me more than I could put into words in this blog.

When you see Mac Tonight on my little blog, please know that it has nothing whatsoever to do with anything negative.  It's a character that I've loved since I was six years old, and I'll be damned if I'm going to allow my happy memories of it to be overshadowed by horrible people saying horrible things.

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.