I realize how lucky I am to have had a Hollywood legend as my friend and next door neighbor. But I don’t think I’ll ever fully fathom how truly special, and how grateful I am that it was Tom Sanders.
While geeking out with my family at Universal Studios in California (which is inferior to the Orlando park in every way), I wandered into the ridiculously massive Things From Another World comic shop. Being a resident of Portland, I’m already very familiar with the TFAW brand, so it was kinda fun to see one of the shops outside my local area.
Like I said, the store is huge. Did this used to be a Rainforest Cafe or something? (j/k) While the store does have a current releases wall, it definitely caters mostly to the touristy, gift shop crowd with tons of Legos, t-shirts and Funko type figures. I mean, it would definitely be weird to have a pull list there unless you worked somewhere on the Universal Studios property or have a season pass to cover the expensive parking lots.
Anyway, there was a lot to check out there and would probably be a great introduction their online store for folks wanting to similar items when they get back home.
After wandering through target recently, I came across some of the toys for the latest Batman franchise movie, The Dark Knight Rises. Those movies, even at PG-13, are super mature and aimed much more adults – which is whay I found it so funny that the action figures for the movie are targeted for ages 4 and up. After buying up a bunch of Mattel toys and convincing the Taylors to let their son Joey (pretend to) swear, I’ve ended up with this sketch for this week’s The Daily Buzz.
I’ve always wanted to make a old-school toy commercial!
Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Link: follow me on Vimeo
I own a ridiculous number of Converse shoes, so I can’t say in all honesty that this hasn’t happened before. This morning, in a rush to get dressed, I put on a pair of Converse slip-ons and ran out the door. Later I would discover that they weren’t a MATCHING pair of Converse. Doh!
Inevitably when I’m wasting time in a comic shop for a long enough period of time, there’s always some older guy that comes into the store and starts wandering around. After seeing that he’s out of his element and frightened by all the freaky teen girl anime sculptures in glass cases, the comic shop nerd will soon ask him, “Is there anything I can help you find?” This will lead to a discussion about how the guy’s grandson or nephew is at about the age he was when he started reading comics, and would love to introduce him to the hobby. This is the point in the conversation where I hold my breath and think to myself, “wait for it…here it comes…” as the guy looks around, confounded by all the modern comics and replies, “Do you have any Archies or Little Abners?” Usually, the guy at the counter tactfully replies, “Umm…no. But we do have some Spiderman. It sounds like he’d really like that.” And the guy usually mumbles about how he wished there were comics available now like when he was a kid. It takes everything I have from blurting out, “Your kid will not give one $&%@ about Little Abner! Seriously.”
Anyway, this kinda brings me to the point of this blog post: Ronald McDonald. You see, Corporate Accountability International recently targeted McDonalds with their “Retire Ronald” campaign because they say that Ronald McDonald is marketed towards kids and is leading a trend towards obesity-related issues. I suppose it’s accurate (no adult is going to respond positively to a weird yellow clown man), and probably a worthy cause (though I don’t see it on the same scale of the whole “Joe Camel” controversy). I guess my real issue with their campaign is that they think Ronald McDonald is even relevant to children.
Read More
It might have looked like just any other week where I haven’t updated my blog because I’m lazy, but instead I didn’t have any updates because I was lazy…on a cruise ship.
This year we decided to get away from at least one week of holiday madness, and spend it in a more tropical setting. As a result, I found myself chasing Eliza around a cruise ship and various Mexican ports – never escaping the sound of Feliz Navidad playing somewhere nearby.
But now I’m back on solid ground, expanding my blu-ray movie collection and getting caught-up on projects at work. Hope y’all had a happy holiday. /JL
After months of anticipation, our cruise vacation is finally underway! As of this blog post, we’ve been at sea for about six hours now and I’m not showing any signs of sea sickness. (In case you didn’t know: I have terrible motion sickness issues and what not).
Usually I get doped up on Dramamine, but for the cruise I’ve just been wearing my fashionable, new Psi-Bands. And I’m doing pretty well as long as I don’t peer our a window and see the ocean going in the opposite direction.
We have wifi in our stateroom, so I’ll be sharing some photos and blog posts throughout the week. That is, when I’m not stuffing my face at one of the numerous buffets. Bon Voyage! Wait. Do I say ‘bon voyage’ or do you only say that to people who are sailing away?
I have a love/hate relationship with this Gossip Girl billboard that hangs over my commute home each day. It features a young couple that are perpetually about to “go at it”.
On some afternoons I look up there and think, “Aww yeah!” On other days, when I’m not in the mood for their foreplay, I think, “Get room already!” But they never get a room, nor do they ever stop. He just keeps kissing her neck over and over again, and she always looks as if she’s about to fall out of the billboard onto the 610E.
My mother recently sent this photo (which I had never seen before) of me and some mall Easter bunny from when I was a child.
The caption on the back reads:
“Jason Watkins – April 3rd, 1976 with Easter bunny at Clarksville, Tennesse mall.”
There’s so much scary and wrong about this photo. On a level of pure creepiness, I put it just above the Donnie Darko bunny, and right below the cartoon-bunny-come-to-life from the Twilight Zone movie.
I’m not one of those people who get squeamish about things relating to eyeballs, but I’ll spare much of the more icky details for those who are. That said, when I started writing this blog post I had two different colored fluids running from left eye socket. The urgent care clinic that I just got back from had run a few tests, pouring iodine and some other stuff into my eye, as to best determine what exactly was wrong with it -apart from the fact that it looked like it was punched by someone at the exact moment a bumblebee decided to sting.
How did I end up in such a state? I’m glad you asked, since I’d like my experience to serve as cautionary tale to anyone who accidentally gets shaving gel in their eye. I don’t know what’s more embarassing, the accidental swiping of my eyeball with the substance, or the fact that I’m admitting that it was Skintimate brand shaving gel. What? I like my face to smell like Flirty Mango. Anyway, the numerous chemicals in the gel did not make my eye happy at all (although, upon reading the label I was pleased to learn that it “contains vitamin E!”). The doctor said that I only made things worse by trying to clean out my eye, rubbing at it all afternoon, and waiting so long to have it examined that helped facilitate the start of a small infection. Who knew? I’m taking my meds now and my eyeball is already getting back to normal. Also, now that I can see well enough to read the label on the shaving gel, it does, in fact, warn that it’s not for use in the eye socket. Consider this a lesson learned.
