Brown Sugar, How Come You Taste So Good?

Candied Bacon Whopper
Burger King (2024)
The most recent limited edition variation of the Whopper is available at Burger King restaurants in the United States as of January 29th.  It's topped with brown sugar candied bacon, bacon jam, crispy onions, and a creamy garlic aioli.

I'm not sure if the Candied Bacon Whopper has something to do with the Million Dollar Whopper contest or if they're using this wrapper for all of their burgers right now.  However, I am sure that this is a tasty burger!  The meat, veggies, brown sugar, jam, and garlic sauce blend together nicely to make a burger with a sweet and smokey flavor.

Stop Munching Grape Nuts And Go See This Movie

Regal Mystery Movie Monday
Regal Cinema - Hazleton, PA
We've missed the past few Mystery Movie Monday screenings, but I'm glad that we were able to make it out for this one because we got to see a movie that we were both looking forward to since we saw the trailer for the first time.

Lisa Frankenstein

Focus Features (2024)
Lisa Frankenstein was written by Diablo Cody and it's the feature-length directorial debut of Zelda Williams (daughter of Robin Williams), and for as insane as it looks in the trailer, this movie is way more twisted than I was expecting.

The story is set in 1989 Illinois and it's about a high school girl named Lisa (Kathryn Newton) who tends to the grave of a young man who is buried in an abandoned cemetery (Cole Sprouse) until his corpse comes back to life to be with her.  The cast includes Liza Soberano, who seems destined to be a mega star, as Lisa's well meaning stepsister Taffy, and Carla Gugino, who I'll probably always know best as the star of Son In Law, as Lisa's far less well meaning stepmother, Janet.

Since it hasn't even officially come out yet, I don't want to say too much more about it, but it's got an incredible soundtrack and it's every bit as campy and fun as I was expecting.  One of my favorite description was tweeted by @crazysexyghoul who said that it's "Encino Man for goth millennials who wish Edward Scissorhands was hornier", but I think that Matt Devine hit the nail on the head when he said that "it's like a mix of Valley Girl and Frankenhooker".

The official poster for Lisa Frankenstein shows that the movie will premier on Valentine's Day, but from everything that I read, it's going to be in theaters nationwide in three days, and I highly recommend it!

When Life Gives You Lemon Kit Kats...

Kit Kat Lemon Crisp
Hershey (2024)
It's the first week of February, so I guess that means that it's time for Easter candy to start hitting store shelves.  The Lemon Crisp Kit Kat bars are listed on the Hershey website as a seasonal product for Spring, but I think they should consider making these available all year long.  Very tasty!

Happy Birthday To Schnoo

My little buddy is 12 years old today.  Happy birthday, Harvey!

The Count of Monte Fisto

Carl Weathers
1948 - 2024

The great Carl Weathers passed away yesterday.  I will always know him best as Apollo Creed from the Rocky movies, but he's had a long and successful career in films and television with many memorable roles, including Predator, Happy Gilmore, and The Mandalorian.  He was 76 years old.

Don't Forget Your Booties 'Cause It's Cold Out There

Groundhog Day
Shankweiler's Drive-In Theatre - Orefield, PA
We were originally going to visit Shankweiler's Drive In Theater for the first time on New Years Eve for their planned Happy Keanu Year double feature of The Matrix and Johnny Mnemonic, but the event was cancelled due to issues that they were having with their projector.  Truth be told, we probably wouldn't have been able to make it down anyway because my wife and I were both very sick for the last week of 2023.  As it turned out, this delayed our visit by just over a month as they were having an event tonight that we cannot miss: a double feature of Groundhog Day and... Groundhog Day... on the night of Groundhog Day.

Shankweiler's Drive In Theater opened on April 15, 1934.  It was the second drive-in theater to open in the United States (the first one opened on June 6th, 1933 in Camden, New Jersey), and it's the oldest drive-in theater in the world that is still in operation today.  It's a single screen, digital projection theater on Route 309 in Orefield, Pennsylvania, which is roughly an hour away from where we live and about 20 minutes further away than the Mahoning.

Shankweiler's is now owned and operated by Matt McClanahan, who partnered with Virgil and Jeff to turn the Mahoning into what it is today.  Matt is heavily featured in the At The Drive In documentary about the Mahoning, and after I had seen it, I wondered why we never saw him there.  I'm not sure of the details, but at some point prior to my wife and I discovering the Mahoning, Matt struck out on his own.  He and his partner Lauren McChesney purchased Shankweiler's sometime around November 2022.  Since that time, they've shown a mix of first-run theatrical movies and older movies, sometimes on the same night.

We met up with our friends Kate, Mike (who is hiding in the back), Louie, Shannon, and Donnie (who wasn't there yet when the picture was taken), so the Mahoning front row mob was well-represented.  We even ended up parking our regular center-right spots in the front row.  It was pretty cold out so none of us brought our lawn chairs, but we had an opportunity to hang out and catch up before the show and during intermission.  February is right around the halfway point between the end of the Mahoning 2023 season and Opening Weekend 2024, so I'm thinking that a trip to Shankweiler's this time of year might become an annual tradition.

 

I've come to appreciate the charm of seeing movies from their original 35mm prints, but there's something to be said for the crisp picture from a digital projector, and it's nice to have a place to meet up with our drive-in friends during the winter when the Mahoning is closed... especially for the opportunity to see Groundhog Day at a drive-in on Groundhog Day.

The movie premiered in theaters in February 1993.  I was 12 years old at the time, and while I didn't see it on the big screen, it was something that I rented on VHS when it was still on the new release wall.  It was one of those movies that I'd pop in the VCR when I was a teenager, often times just as something to have on in the background while I was doing something else.  It's a very pleasant movie with a performance from Bill Murray that I don't think any other actor could have touched.  These days, it seems to universally be accepted as a modern classic, and it's become an annual tradition for my wife and I to watch it every February 2nd.... never thought I'd be able to do it at a drive-in though!

Let's Nuke The Bridge We Torched 2,000 Times Before

Dookie
Green Day (1994)
An album that I listened to countless times when I was in junior high and high school is turning 30 years old today.  Dookie is Green Day's third album, but it's the first of their records that I heard.  I strongly suspect that this is true for the majority of their fans, although every kid I knew back in the mid 90's would swear that they had been listening to 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours and Kerplunk for years.

Dookie is a catchy pop-punk album that seems in retrospect to have been tailor made for teenage boys in the 90's.  Many of its songs were played in heavy rotation on the radio and MTV, but none got more airtime than Basket Case.  This music video played at least four times an hour on MTV after it was released.  It's not my favorite song on the album, but it's definitely the one that I think of first.

Basket Case

Green Day (1994)

Do you have the time to listen to me whine

About nothing and everything all at once?

I am one of those

Melodramatic fools

Neurotic to the bone

No doubt about it

Sometimes I give myself the creeps

Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me

It all keeps adding up

I think I'm cracking up

Am I just paranoid?

Or am I just stoned?

I went to a shrink

To analyze my dreams

She says it's lack of sex that's bringing me down

I went to a whore

He said my life's a bore

So quit my whining 'cause it's bringing her down

Sometimes I give myself the creeps

Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me

It all keeps adding up

I think I'm cracking up

Am I just paranoid?

Grasping to control

So I better hold on

Sometimes I give myself the creeps

Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me

It all keeps adding up

I think I'm cracking up

Am I just paranoid?

Or am I just stoned?

A Fun Place To Kick The Bucket

Bucket Of Blood Street
Holbrook, Arizona
There can't be too many other roads less than a quarter of a mile long that have their own Wikipedia page.

We’re All In 7th Grade When It Comes To This...

Anyone But You
Columbia Pictures (2023)
This movie premiered before Christmas, but it didn't make it to my local theater until a couple of weeks ago.  Romantic comedies are kind of hit and miss with me.  I find that a lot of them are filled with tedious sarcasm, lame cookie-cutter jokes, and references to pop culture and current events which gives the entertainment value of the film the same shelf life as a gallon of milk.  I'm very happy to say that this is one of the exceptions to the rule.  It tells a heartfelt story without making you want to puke, and it has a lot of genuinely funny lines and scenes.  The title is a little weird because it makes it seem like the stars are happy to settle for anyone except each other and that's not at all the case for either character, but that's a minor complaint, if it's a complaint at all.  It's a fun flick... I recommend it.

Nine Innings Of Pinball

Baseball Champ
Chicago Coin Machine Co. (1973)

I'm in the process of converting my baseball into a combination arcade and vintage video game room.  My favorite arcade when I was growing up was Aladdin's Castle, so a lot of the decorations and tchotchkes around the room are from there.  One of the things I found was a black and white 8x10 of a newspaper photo that was taken by Fred Victorin for the St. Petersburg Times.

The game in the photograph is an electromechanical pinball machine from 1973 called Baseball Champ, which has been customized with an Aladdin's Castle sign in the outfield.  There are two dates on the back of the picture: one stamped July 12, 1973 which I'm guessing is the date that the photo was taken.  The other one is an August 19, 1977 stamp on a newspaper clipping of the caption that was used for the photo.  Unfortunately, whatever paper it was published in is not archived by newspapers.com because I couldn't find it.

A New Beginning Of WWE

Royal Rumble
World Wrestling Entertainment (2024)

I've been a fan of professional wrestling since before I started kindergarten.  Since that time, I've dipped in and out of keeping up with WWF/E wrestling, but even during the times that I'm not following the product, I still try to attend the live events that come to my part of the country, and there's two shows that I make it a point to watch on television: Wrestlemania, and my favorite annual wrestling show, the Royal Rumble.  This year was the 37th annual Royal Rumble event, and it's a bit surreal with the news that broke earlier this week regarding Vince McMahon being forced to resign from the company.  I don't want to get into all of that here, but I will say that I don't doubt a word that Janel Grant had to say and as for Vince... don't let the door of Titan Tower smack your ass on the way out.  I think the company is in a strong position since the sale to TKO and the dismissal of McMahon, Laurinaitis, and Dunn, and it might be time to dip in again.

I've watched every Royal Rumble and this year's was one of the best ever, if not the very best.  There were only four matches on the card, and that's exactly how it should be for an event like this.  Both the women's and men's Rumble matches were incredible and both matches had incredibly talented and deserving winners.  I'm not generally a big fan of Fatal Four Way matches, but the one last night for the Universal Title was as good as any that I've ever seen, and the US Title match was well done and had a very cool, old school finish.  I had a lot of fun watching this show, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops at Wrestlemania 40.

Happy Birthday Joe Bob

Happy 71st birthday to the dude who is responsible for introducing me to more movies than I can count while teaching me more about them and making me laugh my ass off... the one and only Mr. Joe Bob Briggs.

I'm Shipping Up To Boston To Find My Yodels Cake

Boston Creme Yodels
Drake's (2024)

The yellow box caught my eye from a distance and I thought at first that these were going to be banana flavored.  I wasn't too disappointed because I've always enjoyed Boston Creme donuts, so I brought a box home.

After trying them, I think I would have preferred it if these were banana cream flavored instead.  It's not that the Boston Creme Yodels are bad.  They're made with golden cake instead of chocolate cake and I suppose the filling is supposed to taste like Boston Creme, but I didn't think that they tasted much different from regular Yodels.  If you blindfolded someone who is familiar with the snack cake and asked them to try it, I doubt that they'd guess that it was supposed to be a different flavor.

Wiener Music

Music To Eat Oscar Mayer Wieners By
Oscar Mayer (1971)
In the early 1970's, Oscar Mayer released a vinyl record with six variations of their "I Wish I Were An Oscar Mayer Wiener" advertising jingle.  The songs are titled Motown, Bossa Nova, Country & Western, Dixie, Tijuana, and Vienna Symphony.

The record has been digitized and uploaded to the Internet Archive for your listening pleasure.

Game Tips And A Mondo Poster

Nintendo Power
Issue 4 - January/February 1989

This issue of Nintendo Power featuring Zelda II: The Adventures Of Link on the cover was mailed out to subscribers 35 years ago this month.  I must have read this thing a hundred times when I was a kid.  You can read it too at RetroMags.com.

Rhys Lightning Strikes Milwaukee

Rhys Hoskins
Philadelphia Phillies (2017 - 2023)
Congratulations to first baseman Rhys Hoskins on signing a two year, $34 million dollar deal with the Milwaukee Brewers.  We're going to miss you, and that bat spike is going to live in Philadelphia forever  [source: Jeff Passan].

Bunch Of Savages In This Town...

Clerks
View Askew (1994)
Kevin Smith's movies have made me laugh my ass off for the past three decades, and it all started with Clerks.  Thirty years ago today, it was screened for a paying audience for the first time at the Holiday Village Cinema during the Sundance Film Festival.

photo source: Kevin Smith / Instagram

Discount Christmas Ice Cream

Christmas Tree Cakes Ice Cream
Hudsonville Ice Cream (2023)

This flavor was in the freezers of my local Wal-Mart for the past three months, but the price they were charging wasn't something that I was willing to pay.  I must not have been alone, because they still have about 200 cartons of it in their freezer today, and it's available now at the clearance price of 50 cents a pint.

It's pretty tasty ice cream that's loaded with sprinkles and frosting.  I hope that they bring it back for the 2024 holiday season and that they choose to sell it for a reasonable price.  If not, I'll be glad to pay half a buck for it again next January.

Happy Bajaversary

Mountain Dew Baja Blast
PepsiCo (2024)

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the former Taco Bell exclusive Mountain Dew flavor, Baja Blast, they're making the tasty beverage available in grocery store as a permanent flavor.  You can get it in Original or Zero Sugar, which tastes pretty much exactly the same as the full sugar version to me.

Winter In Wildwood

Earlier this week, Wildwood Video Archive shared drone video footage of Morey's Pier and the Wildwood boardwalk covered in snow.

The World Is Closing In

I.S.S.
Bleecker Street (2024)

Movie trailers, overall, are usually pretty terrible.  Often times, they're cut in a way that completely misrepresents the tone of the movie.  They're also frequently guilty of spoiling major plot points which ruins the experience that the film is trying to create.  It's kind of hard to get too invested in a character when you saw them get stabbed to death in the preview three weeks before the movie even premiered, ya know?  Sometimes, they are so overplayed that they give me a negative opinion of the movie before it even comes out.  That's where I'm at with Argylle right now.  It looked mildly interesting the first time that I saw the trailer, but they've played it so often that when I see it now, it makes me think that it's going to be a generic cookie-cutter action comedy with its humor lifted from a corny 90's sitcom.

It's rare that a trailer inspires me to want to see the film, and I find that I can still appreciate it after I've seen the movie, but this one does the job.

This is how a trailer should be done, and I have just as high of praise for I.S.S.  The plot device is a pretty gutsy move in 2024, and while the story follows the American crew more closely, it's presented in as neutral of a manner as possible.  There's no commentary on which country are the "good guys" and which are the "bad guys" back on Earth, or even among the crew on the International Space Station.  The point is that there's war and chaos going on all around, and both sides have people who are noble and people who aren't.  More importantly than that, this is a suspense flick that's done the right way.  It sets up the characters and their relationships well before putting them at conflict against each other in a confined environment.  It's a great flick that is definitely worth seeing on the big screen.

You Can Rest Now

Coming Out
Cammie Sturch
It's not a step that I'd ever be brave enough to take, but it's inspiring to see that so many others have.

We Were Cool On Craze

Points On The Curve
Wang Chung (1984)

The second studio album released by the band, and the first under the name Wang Chung, was released 40 years ago today.  The album includes Dance Hall Days, which hit #16 on the Billboard Hot 100.  I won't pretend that I understand all of the lyrics, but it's a pleasant song that has found its way to just about every new wave playlist that I've ever put together.

Dance Hall Days

Wang Chung (1984)

Take your baby by the hand

And make her do a high handstand

And take your baby by the heel

And do the next thing that you feel

We were so in phase

In our dance hall days

We were cool on craze

When I, you and everyone we knew

Could believe, do and share in what was true

I said, dance hall days love

Take your baby by the hair

And pull her close and there, there, there

And take your baby by the ears

And play upon her darkest fears

We were so in phase

In our dance hall days

We were cool on craze

When I, you and everyone we knew

Could believe, do and share in what was true

I said, dance hall days, love

Dance hall days

Take your baby by the wrist

And in her mouth an amethyst

And in her eyes two sapphires blue

And you need her and she needs you

We were so in phase

In our dance hall days

We were cool on craze

When I, you and everyone we knew

Could believe, do and share in what was true

I said, dance hall days, love

Dance hall days

The Queenslayer Protects The Hive

The Beekeeper
Miramax (2024)
The critics don't seem to be in love with this movie, but they can all go pound sand.  Any movie where Jason Statham kicks the crap out of a bunch of people who deserve it is going to be a good time, and The Beekeeper is no exception.  If you enjoy the John Wick movies, you're going to enjoy this.

Shoveling Snow For Buffalo

The Buffalo Bills posted a request for help from their fans and other folks who live in the area.

It seems like the team is catching hell from the general public for making this offer.  I'm not a big football guy and I'm certainly not a Buffalo Bills fan so there's no motivation for me to defend them, but I don't see a problem with this at all.  First of all, $20 an hour plus dinner is not terrible by any means, but more importantly, I'd imagine that it'd be a hell of a lot of fun.  Granted, shoveling snow is work, but it's an opportunity to get together with a bunch of other fans of your team and become a small part of the team's run in the playoffs.  If I lived closer to Citizens Bank Park and the Phillies made a similar job offer to help prepare the ballpark for the post-season, the only thing that would stop me from signing up is if I wasn't able-bodied to do the work.

You Have Chosen... Wisely

Interesting advice.  Follow it at your own risk.

Back To Booty's Place

Eggplant Rollatini

Booty's Place - Hazleton, PA
This restaurant is under new ownership since the last time we visited, but the food is still delicious.  I had the Eggplant Rollatini, which is stuffed eggplant with ricotta cheese topped with homemade sauce and mozzarella cheese, served with a side of pasta.

There aren't nearly as many Italian restaurants in the area as there were when I was growing up, but I'm glad that this place is still around.

Sink Or Swim

Night Swim

Universal Pictures (2024)
This movie reminded me of the kinds of horror movies that I'd watch on USA Up All Night when I was a teenager.  Wyatt Russell plays the role of a husband, a father, and a ballplayer whose career was cut short due to some sort of seizure disorder.  They really went out of their way to make this character look like Bryce Harper, which was kind of amusing.  He and his family move into a house with a haunted swimming pool that is giving him back his health and his strength, but it wants to take the life of his wife, his son, or his daughter as payment.  It wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't really recommend it too strongly either.

The Colorful Zebra Is Going Extinct

Fruit Stripe Gum
1969 - 2024
It's the end of an era in the gum aisle, as the Ferrara Candy Company has announced that they are discontinuing Fruit Stripe gum.

I remember this gum from my childhood, but I'm pretty sure it was called Yipe Stripe Fruit Stripe Gum back then.  It's not something I ever got for myself, but my grandmother usually included a pack in my Easter basket or in my Christmas stocking when I was a kid.  It had a strong and delicious fruit punch flavor that was unlike any other candy or gum that I've ever had.  Unfortunately, that flavor usually lasted about 10 seconds before it was gone completely.

It's probably been at least twenty years since I've had a stick of this gum, if not longer, but I would have picked up a pack if I knew it was going to be my last chance to try it.  There's probably still some floating around on store shelves, but ordering it online is out of the question.  The current asking price on eBay for one pack is about $80.

You've Got To Roll With The Punches To Get To What's Real

1984
Van Halen (1984)

One of the greatest rock albums of the 80's is turning forty years old today.  Van Halen's 1984 was released on January 9th, 1984 and went on to sell over ten million copies and produced for hit singles: I'll Wait, Hot For Teacher, Panama, and one of my favorite songs of all time, Jump.

I didn't have the album until I was a teenager, but I had a 45 single of Jump in my box of records since before I started kindergarten and I can't begin to count how many times I played that thing throughout my childhood.  No other song captures the 80's for me as much as this does.

Jump 

Van Halen (1984)

I get up, and nothing gets me down

You got it tough, I've seen the toughest around

And I know, baby, just how you feel

You got to roll with the punches to get to what's real

Oh, can't you see me standing here

I got my back against the record machine

I ain't the worst that you've seen

Oh, can't you see what I mean

Ah, might as well jump

Might as well jump

Go ahead and jump

Go ahead and jump

Hello... Hey, you... Who said that

Baby, how you been

You say you don't know

You won't know until you begin

So can't you see me standing here

I've got my back against the record machine

I ain't the worst that you've seen

Oh, can't you see what I mean

Ah, might as well jump

Go ahead and jump

Might as well jump

Go ahead and jump