Attack of the 50 Foot Blog – Page 32

Iron Man Halloween

The neighborhood where we live gets a lot of trick or treaters during Halloween. Our family has always enjoyed giving out candy. When I answer the door I try to interact with the kids. I’ll make comments about their costumes. If I recognize the character, I try to ask them about the movie or television show that the character is from. If I don’t recognize the character, I’ll ask them who they are. I try to keep up with pop culture enough to at least have some knowledge of the latest super heroes and princes and other characters that might make their way to my door on October 31.

Halloween

Halloween with Granny

As my wife’s grandmother got older, there were years that we probably should have supervised her a little more than what we did. This was probably most obvious the year of my oldest daughter’s first Halloween. We planned to take my daughter trick or treating at the houses of several family members and make our final stop at Granny’s house.

More Bad Cinema Club

Going to the movies in the early 1980’s was completely different experience than you get now. There were still drive-in theaters and small movie theaters that would show low budget and second-run films. There were lots of these films out making the rounds to these theaters. For me and my college friends, this created a great opportunity to see lots of bad films. I have talked about the Bad Cinema Club in a previous post. One of our group noticed that a small theater in a town very close to our school was regularly running double features of the types of films that we sought out. We would become regulars at this theater on their mid-week bargain night.

Halloween Scary Stories

Why Joan Crawford Scares Me

Post author By elvisgumby
Post date October 7, 2016
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When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time with my sister and our best friend Nan watching TV together. The TV would be on sometimes even when we were doing something else. Many of the movies that the three of us came to know and love were ones that ran in the background as we were playing. Something in the film would make us take notice and soon we would quit playing to start giving all of our attention to the movie. One of the films that falls into this category is “I Saw What You Did”.

Cosmetic School Graduation Elvis Week Album Song Writing Video

Writing Cosmetic School Graduation

Post author By elvisgumby
Post date September 21, 2016
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While many of my songs are based directly on specific incidents, Cosmetic School Graduation is an exception. I have never fallen in love with anyone that cut my hair and I’ve never gone to a cosmetic school for a cheap haircut. I’ve had several real life experiences that were inspiration for this song. This is the story behind the song.

Elvis Week Album Song Writing The Ballad of the Pennsylvania Swiss Cheese Man

The Story Behind The Ballad of the Pennsylvania Swiss Cheese Man

Post author By elvisgumby
Post date September 8, 2016
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I was on a business trip and the passenger in a car being driven by a very aggressive driver back in early 2014. I was surfing the internet on my phone to keep me distracted from the driving and I read a story about someone they called the Pennsylvania Swiss Cheese pervert. In the suburbs of Philadelphia, there was a man pulling up to traffic lights offering money to women that would help him do nasty things to him with slices of Swiss cheese. There were pictures of a suspect sitting in a car, naked from the waist down and dangling slices of Swiss cheese in the air. In some of the reports they said this person also fit the description of someone in the area that had been reported to be on dating sites with similar interest in cheese. On the Facebook page for the town watch group for the neighborhood where he had been spotted, they referred to him as the Pennsylvania Swiss Cheese Pervert.

Elvis Week Elvis Week Album Kids

The Little Boy on the Cover of Elvis Week

Post author By elvisgumby
Post date September 1, 2016
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Most of you probably know that the little boy in the picture on the cover of the Elvis Week album is my son, James. This picture was taken at the candlelight vigil in 2003. It was my second year to go to Graceland for Elvis Week and the first year to take my son. When I went in 2002 with my friend Terry, we arrived too late to take a tour of the house. Also in 2002, we waited too late to get in the line to go to the gravesite after the candlelight vigil ceremony. When I took my son in 2003, I knew we would need more to do during the day to keep my 8-year-old son entertained. I went online weeks before the trip and booked the full tour of the house and all other exhibits on the property. The trip with my son would be the first time that I did the house tour and the first time to get the full experience of the candlelight vigil line and gravesite visit.

Elvis Week Graceland

Clouds Over Graceland – 2016 Elvis Week

Post author By elvisgumby
Post date August 25, 2016
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The rain started falling on us as we got to the edge of Memphis. By the time we pulled into the parking lot at Graceland, the rain had stopped but there was rain and threats of rain all day. When we were getting out of the car, I suggested to Tina that we take the rain ponchos with us that I had purchased several years earlier for a previous Elvis Week. It was the right thing to do.

Elvis Week Album Lucy Song Writing

The Story Behind Lucy

The song Lucy is based on some of my experiences from the first grade. I started first grade in 1968. Kids in my school would usually wear nice clothes to school every day. Occasionally, the girls would wear dresses. One day some of the boys in the class were talking about a specific girl that wore a dress and she had a hole in her panties. One of the guys claimed to have actually seen it. This discussion started while we had some free time in the class. It was suggested that we start crawling under the table to look. Someone even said we should crawl between the legs of the chair. The chairs in our classroom looked much like the one in the picture below. It would be impossible for the smallest kid in our class to successfully do this and go undetected. Needless to say, no one ever crawled under the table or the chair. We never confirmed this rumor.

Elvis Week Album Footprints Song Writing

The Story Behind Footprints

Post author By elvisgumby
Post date August 11, 2016
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Footprints is a song that might benefit from explanation. It is based on a dream that I had as a child. I don’t remember how young I was when I had this dream. I also don’t remember if it was a recurring dream or one that made a huge stamp on my memory. It is a dream that I have shared many times over the years and seemed like it was a perfect subject for a song.