Categories
Halloween Scary Stories

Why KISS Scares Me

On October 28, 1978, the movie KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park appeared on NBC. By the time this show aired, KISS had moved from being a successful, edgy rock band with their Alive! and Destroyer albums to pop culture icons who sold a variety of merchandise like Halloween costumes, action figures and comic books that had their blood added to the ink.  They were developing a more kid-friendly image while the lyrics of their songs still had more adult themes.  By the time this TV movie was released they had released a total of 6 studio albums, 2 two-disc live albums, 4 solo albums and a two-disc “Greatest Hits” album. I was still a fan although my interest was waning.

Categories
Halloween Scary Stories

Why Paul Lynde Scares Me

On October 29,1976, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special aired on ABC.  I had always enjoyed seeing Paul Lynde on Hollywood Squares, but any of the variety shows and sitcoms that he starred in were less interesting. A show like this would usually not be on my radar to watch but this one was different.  Earlier that year, I had become a fan of the band KISS.  Ads for this special made a big deal about KISS appearing on this show.  Their single, Beth was released in August and had risen to number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Getting to see KISS was my reason for watching this show.

Categories
Elvis Week Graceland

Elvis Week 2025 – The Incredible Shrinking Candlelight Vigil

As I drove south on Elvis Presley Boulevard around 11:30 AM on August 15, I remembered the traffic moving slow when I was approaching Graceland back on my first trip in 2002.  That year the traffic moved slow because of large crowds and vendors set up at the road selling old newspapers from 1977 when Elvis died.  This year the traffic moved slowly mainly because of construction on the road.  A much-needed southbound lane was being added. But they were also in the middle of a major repaving project. In year’s past, a project like that would have been completed before the crowds descended on Graceland.  But today, there are fewer people traveling to Graceland, so the construction is not a major obstacle. I had my pick of prime spaces in the parking lot to park, further evidence that there will be a smaller crowd this year.  Since my main objective each year is to experience the Elvis fans, I’m concerned that this will be a problem with fewer people here.  There were virtually no lines in the ticketing area. I thought there might be fewer international Elvis fans because of the current political environment.  My concerns were soon alleviated by the sight of a man posing in front of the cars in the car museum wearing an American Eagle style jumpsuit.  While I never got a chance to talk to him, I did overhear him speaking to the lady who took his picture in a language other than English.  They were international fans and they got bonus points for wearing a jumpsuit.  Later in the day, I would see this guy wearing shorts and a tee shirt.  He was committed but not that committed.

Categories
Travel

Canadian Car Rental

Years ago, I went on a business trip to Bracebridge, Ontario Canada.  This was my first time to travel to Canada. My flight to Toronto had a late evening arrival time.  Bracebridge is slightly over 2 hours away from the Toronto airport so I would not be getting in bed early that night.  I remember the highway to Bracebridge being a two-lane road that took me through several small towns.  I understand that Bracebridge is more of a resort town, known for outdoor activities.  The area between Toronto and Bracebridge were very rural with very little that you could see at that time of the night. 

Categories
Birthday

2025 Birthday Gifts

Once again, my wife has been very generous and creative with her gift giving during my birthday month.  A big thank you to her for making it a nice month-long celebration.  Here is a list of this year’s gifts:

1 – The Bourbon Bible book about bourbon

2 – A tie multicolored with flowers

3 – Shemp! A biography about Shemp Howard

4 – Shark razor blades

5 – Black Four Roses bourbon long sleeve tee shirt

6 – Weber Charcoal heat controller for slow cooking on kettle grills

7 – Woodford Reserve Double Oaked Bourbon

8 – Woodford Reserve Bourbon Caramels

9 – Collar stays

10 – Taylor of Old Bond Street sandalwood shaving cream

11 – Sampler case of root beer

12 – Weber’s New Real Grilling Cookbook

13 – Hard Wood The later features of Ed Wood Blu-ray

14 – Weber Connect temperature monitor

15 – Pistachios

16 – Green tie

17 – Barberry Bay Rum After Shave

18 – Zeppo: The Reluctant Marx Brother Zeppo Marx biography

19 – Weber grill gloves

20 – Super Soul Brother and the Films of Rene Martinez Jr. Blu-ray

21 – Four Roses Single Barrel OBSF Bourbon

22 – Cast iron grate for Weber kettle

23 – XGMI MoGo 2 Pro portable projector

24 – stand for XGMI projector

25 – Taylor of Old Bond Street scent sampler

26 – The Atlas of Bourbon and American Whiskey book

27 – Weber’s Way to Grill Cookbook

28 – Cruzan coconut rum and pineapple juice

29 – Red Four Roses Bourbon tee shirt

30 – Blue tie

31 – Weber Rotisserie basket

Categories
Christmas Movies

Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie?

I have never seen Die Hard.  But I have an opinion about its status as a Christmas movie. I was recently asked my opinion as many of us are asked around Christmas.  I thought you might be interested in my reply.

Categories
Christmas

Christmas Playlist

I recently mentioned on Facebook that I have an eclectic holiday playlist on my iPod that I play every year around Christmas.  In response, I received requests to share a list. Below, I not only share my list but some commentary about the evolution of the list and how it came to be what it is.

Categories
Christmas Movies

My Christmas Movie Guide

We watch a lot of Christmas movies and television specials every year, usually starting on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  I frequently make posts to Facebook when we watch some of these.  Some of my friends asked me to post a list of our Christmas movies and this is a response to that request.  This is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of Christmas movies. There are many other Christmas movies and shows worth watching but are not on our radar. 

Categories
Movies

The Worst Afternoon Movie Program

I grew up watching movies on TV on weekday afternoons.  One of the stations in our area had a good catalog of films to draw from and showed classics in their time slot from 3 until 5.  Another channel in our area tried various afternoon movie strategies to varying degrees of success.  The worst of these times is the focus of this story.

My earliest memories of their weekday afternoon programming included the Sherriff Big Jim Show.  Groups of kids like Scout Troops would appear on the Sherriff Big Jim Show where they would drink Big Red Soda, eat McDonalds hamburgers, and watch Roy Rogers and Gene Autry westerns.  After a while, they dropped Sherriff Big Jim and the kids and just showed the westerns.  This was always fun to watch.

Categories
Scary Stories

Why Judd Nelson Scares Me

Back in 1991, I heard about a movie called The Dark Backward.  In this movie, Judd Nelson plays a garbage man that moonlights as an unfunny stand-up comic.   His act career as a comic picks up a little when he grows a third arm out of his back.  How would I not be interested in this movie?  Is it a surprise that this film didn’t see a wide release? It went to video soon after it was released and developed a cult following.