Year: 2007

Blizzard of Oz

Six years ago, I went to Detroit with djl to see my second weezer concert. Among the opening acts was a young (or at least around my age) band called Ozma. The Oz played energetic, melodic rock and was a perfect appetizer for the main course of weez.

Last night. accompanied by the Civee, I went to the Basement, here in Columbus, to see Ozma headline. The Basement is a small venue (not more than 100 people), but nevertheless a loud one. We missed most of the first opening act, and the second act, Eastern Conference Champions, had some interesting sounding tunes, even if their lead singer sounded like he had nasal issues.

As for Ozma, well, they’re all grown up. Mostly.

In the time since I last saw them, they released an album, broke up, re-formed, got a new drummer and released another album. They looked comfortable in their headlining role and played more of their old stuff, with only a handful of songs from their new album in the setlist. It sounded like they were having technical difficulties (the keyboards were barely audible for most of the songs), but they did a great job of rocking out. And, as a surprise to me, I wasn’t the only person in the crowd who knew the lyrics to most of their songs.

So it was a good show. Check ’em out sometime.

King Tom

Disappointment

I kind of said yesterday that I didn’t want to know the details.  And now that I do, I just find myself very disappointed. 

And now, I’m moving on.

In addition for his family, I do feel sorry for the federation- they have to find a way to bounce back from all of this, and they’re going to be getting a ton of bad press in the near future.

King Tom

So Long, Crippler

Iron Mike called me about three hours ago to tell me Chris Benoit died. At the time, the idea was incomprehensible, and it doesn’t make much sense now, either.

For the last year or so, Benoit was the main reason I still watched wrestling. Sure, the Rock, Jericho and Austin moved on from active competition, but Benoit was still wrestling and carrying people with one-tenth his talent to great matches nightly.

And now, in some event, from some causes that I’m not sure I want to know, he and his family are gone.

At least I still have all those old matches on tape or DVD somewhere.

And this is still my greatest moment as a fan:

WM XX

King Tom

Fun in the sun

With temperatures in the last few days reaching the mid-90s, I think it’s safe to say that summer’s here.

I’m almost tempted to watch my local news to see if they run my favorite story- the reporter who locks him/herself in a car to see how long one (in the place of a child or pet) can stand being in a car in the hot weather.

It’s an amusing story, but not enough to get me to watch.

King Tom

In Soviet Russia, Missile Commands YOU!

One summer, growing up, I once made the top score on a game of Road Blasters at an arcade in Lake George, New York.

The next summer, my initials were still at the top of the list (but they were gone the next summer). I’ve spent a lot of time playing video games, both in the arcade and at home. But I never realized until today how good I had it.

Wired.com just posted an interesting feature about Soviet-era arcade games. There’s a photo gallery containing some of the game cabinets and one or two screenshots. It might just be their dilapidated state, but these games look bad.

What’s more, according to the article, these communist timewasters did not have high score lists:

“That kind of competition wasn’t encouraged,” explains Alexander Stakhanov, one of the museum’s founders and engineers. “If you got enough points you won a free game, but there was no ‘high score’ culture as in the West.”

Looking back, some of the games in our arcades years ago are primitive. But they were light years ahead of Adventures of Comrade Marioski in Capitalist Land.

Missile Command?

King Tom

Quick question

Say you’re out walking and on the sidewalk, you see a $20 bill.  No one else is around.  You pick it up.  What would you do with it/spend it on?

King Tom

King Tom cooks with fire

Monday, on a whim, the Civee and I purchased a grill. We got a charcoal Weber-wanna-be. I figured if I was going to burn down the neighborhood, I might as well not do it with a lot of extra gas attached to the grill.

We’ve used the grill twice so far. Yesterday, with Iron Mike as our guest, we made turkeyburgers. Today, we made chicken. Both came out pretty good. Even though I’ve only grilled on my own twice in my life, I know the following:

    Fires can take a while to start.
    Don’t put lighter fluid on a burning fire (or don’t put a lot of lighter fluid on a burning fire).
    If the food’s on fire, it can still be okay (just as long as you don’t let it be en fuego for long).

That’s all I have. A few years ago, djl and I considered going halfsies on a ton of coal we saw advertised for $57/ton. I wonder if, in the long run, that deal would still save money.

King Tom

It was thirty years ago today

I was a few months away from being born, so I can only rely on second-hand information, but on May 25, 1977, Star Wars premiered. To this day, it remains my favorite movie.

It was one of the earliest movies I remember seeing. And it’s also one of the earliest media influences that I remember having. My father took me to see the original (and Episodes 5 & 6) in the theaters countless times, and for that, he deserves some type of medal.

Even after they were out of the theaters, I kept watching the movies over and over again (to the point of wearing out the one VHS copy that I had of Episode 4). Growing up, I remained faithful to the franchise, knowing that one day, more Star Wars movies would hit the big screens.

And eventually they did. And while the quality on one of them was lacking, I enjoyed the experience.

I’d consider myself a Star Wars geek. While I (outside of Halloween) have never dressed up as a Star Wars character, I’ve seen four out of the six movies on opening night (the last two at their respective midnight showings, and for Episode 3, twice (back-to-back) on opening night). And, in one of my most fun experiences of fandom, I even attended a Star Wars convention.

So, I’d like to thank George Lucas for all the memories. And while I don’t expect more movies down the road, it’s nice to know I can always go back to the original.

King Tom