| Kentucky Fried Words |
[Jul. 2nd, 2009|01:09 pm] |
This is the exact text of the sign I saw on the cash register at KFC yesterday:
"Sorry we don't have no more wedge. Please replace it by an other side thank you"
I was surprised that they remembered the apostrophe in the word "don't." |
|
|
| Remember-y things about Michael Jackson |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|09:42 pm] |
I was thinking maybe I was a few days too late for this post, but the fact is I've had "Man in the Mirror" stuck in my head since Thursday, so what the heck.
-When I was about five years old, I tagged along on a church youth group trip that my dad was chaperoning. I distinctly remember one of the teenagers had a tape recorder, and she instructed me to say, "Michael Jackson is the greatest singer in the world" so she could record it. I'm not entirely sure why.
-In our elementary school days, my friends and I would usually say Michael Jackson was our favorite singer, even though we had probably only heard two or three of his songs. But when I read in a magazine article that he had working replica of a "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" car AT HIS HOUSE, I was really jealous.
-One time a guy at school said he knew Michael Jackson was gay, because he had seen him "kissing a guy on TV."
-When I was around 11, my friend Daniel and I tried to write a parody of "Heal the World" called "Eat the World." We were not exactly a couple of Weird Al Yankovics... All I remember is "Eat the world/Give it a better taste/For you and for me, add some custard paste." Custard paste? Is that even a real thing?
-I think I may have seen the world premiere of the "You Rock My World" video from the "Invincible" album in 2001, with its Chris Tucker and its random, pointless Marlon Brando cameo. At the time, I seriously believed that it would lead to a huge comeback, but that didn't pan out.
-When I lived off-campus during college, I went through a cable news phase (I've since been cured). One evening I took a nap, and I set my TV's alarm mode to turn itself on to CNN at exactly 6:00 or whatever... When it came on, I was startled to see a breaking news story about police surrounding some guy's home and raiding it, as the anchor breathlessly spoke about allegations and search warrants. I was thinking, "Wow, who is this dangerous, notorious criminal? Did they track down a serial killer, and now they're searching his house for bodies of his victims?" And then it was Michael Jackson, and it was that second lawsuit, and I just thought, Man, the news is REALLY DRAMATIC.
-I happened to be walking through Times Square on the night Jackson's death was announced. There were crowds gathering around the huge TV screen to watch the news, people crying... and one drunk lady who was either mourning him or making fun of him. She was saying things like "This is not a THRILLER! BILLIE JEAN has left the building! We miss you, Michael -- You didn't have to BEAT IT!" People are weird. But then, Michael Jackson was pretty weird himself. |
|
|
| WGR in NYC |
[Jun. 30th, 2009|09:11 pm] |
So, my dad was here visiting from last Tuesday night to this Tuesday morning. We did a lot of stuff.
We went to three Broadway shows -- 9 to 5 (pleasant), The 39 Steps (terrific), and In the Heights (I had seen it once before, and once again it was very entertaining) -- and one Off-Broadway show, Coraline (Pretty good for a tiny, low-tech production).
We went to the South Street Seaport, Madison Square Park, the New York Public Library (where we saw exhibits about the Nazi occupation of France and the Stonewall riots), and Grand Central Terminal.
We went to church at Riverside Church, where it was Pride Sunday. We went to Coney Island, where we walked the boardwalk, glanced at the beach, rode the Wonder Wheel, and saw the Ringling Brothers circus.
We got caught in an amazing, sudden but brief downpour at Times Square.
And we ate. We ate at local pizza places, the original Nathan's Famous, the Shake Shack, Tom's Restaurant (as seen on Seinfeld), and... Burger King! And I made lasagna and cinnamon rolls.
It was fun. It was the first time Dad has visited me in all the time I've lived here, and I hope he doesn't take another 2 1/2 years for his next visit. And now my mom and my sister are talking about making a visit here in July! Woo-hoo! |
|
|
| CAPTAIN GOOGLE!!! |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|09:17 am] |
The latest from AppleJuiceDance. This may be the silliest video we've ever made.
|
|
|
| Gators |
[Jun. 18th, 2009|09:48 am] |
|
I used to think that leather was made from the skin of alligators, rather than cows. I held this misconception until probably sometime in my teens. Where in the world did I get that idea? |
|
|
| Teenage Ryan's Star Wars spoof on YouTube |
[Jun. 2nd, 2009|08:17 pm] |
This is from approximately 1996... I'm probably about 15. It's pretty bad. Co-stars include my brother Jason, my sister Erin, and my friend Molly.
|
|
|
| Does time heal all wounds? |
[May. 26th, 2009|12:41 pm] |
Perhaps it does. But that doesn't mean there won't be some scar tissue left over.
(I wonder if I'm the first to make that profound, poetic observation. Probably not.) |
|
|
| Celebrity on the subway! |
[Apr. 27th, 2009|01:07 pm] |
On Saturday night I went to the Minerva company party at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square. It was awesome. But just as awesome: Guess who I was sharing a subway train with on the way there?
SPIDER-MAN!
A guy in a Spider-Man costume got on the L train at Bedford Avenue, then Spider-Man and I both transferred to the R train uptown, and we both got off at Times Square. On the train, he received a few second glances, but mostly people just ignored him. "Huh. Guy dressed as Spider-Man. Okay. Back to Sudoku." But once he got above ground, he was immediately surrounded by tourists and people taking his picture. I suppose that's how you tell the difference between real New Yorkers and out-of-towners.
At one street corner, a very large man got right up in his face (right up in his mask?) and said, "Yo, Spider-Man, I got a beef with you. I seen you in those movies -- you make it look so easy."
Spider-Man chuckled nervously and said, "Yeah?"
The very large man said, "So let's see you shoot a web!"
Spider-Man said, "Not right now! There's no supervillains around!"
Then the very large man said something like, "Yeah? Well, maybe you want to see me shoot what I got!" Fortunately, that's when the "walk" sign lit up, and Spider-Man crossed the street, leaving the guy on the corner.
Being Spider-Man is dangerous! |
|
|
| Major league potty |
[Apr. 16th, 2009|12:06 am] |
I went to a Mets game tonight, and using the restroom at Citi Field brought to mind an odd old memory of a previous trip to a baseball stadium.
I'm pretty sure that the first time I ever used a public men's room by myself was at a Texas Rangers baseball game. I would have been about five years old, I guess... It was during one summer when I was staying with my aunt in Dallas for a week, and she took me to what was also undoubtedly my first professional baseball game.
I guess said aunt didn't know that it's okay to take a five-year-old boy into a women's restroom, so I had to brave the men's room alone while she waited outside, and I was pretty terrified. Here I was, a tiny guy, surrounded by all these giant men. Sports fans, no less. Too short to reach a urinal, I locked myself in a stall, where I felt momentarily safe. I specifically remember one of them saying, "Don't fall in, kid!" He thought it was hilarious, I'm sure, but to me it was a horrifying threat of a very real possibility.
And to this day, I'm afraid of toilets. Well, that's not true at all, but how else am I supposed to conclude such a random and pointless anecdote? |
|
|
| Happy media |
[Mar. 27th, 2009|01:42 pm] |
I just ordered my ticket for the This American Life Live event which will be beamed to movie theaters across the country on April 23rd, and it occurred to me: I'm going to a movie theater to see a live stage version of a radio show show (which is also a TV show), which I usually listen to via internet podcast.
What a strange world we live in.
|
|
|
| Stupid |
[Mar. 20th, 2009|11:48 pm] |
Man, sports sure are stupid.
I just decided that I would watch David Letterman's show for the first time in months, so I went in the living room, and turned on the TV, and changed the channel to CBS... and college basketball was on. At 11:30 PM. And the game was in the second quarter, and it will be followed by half an hour of local news, and THEN Letterman. But I'm going to stay up that late.
Can't they relegate these things to the cable sports channels? Sports are stupid. |
|
|
| Post-concert thought |
[Mar. 2nd, 2009|12:37 pm] |
As I mentioned in last night's post, I went to a They Might Be Giants concert on Saturday night, and enjoyed it thoroughly.
There's something thing I've been thinking about since then, and it's the same thought I had the last time I went to a big TMBG show, last year at the Beacon Theater. This is my favorite band, ever, in the world, on this Earth. I love them more than I've loved any other musical artist, and probably more than I ever will love any other artist. I'm so grateful I've gotten to see them live so many times, but at the same time, it seems a little sad to know that I'll never discover another band I'll like as much... I'll never find another band whose whole catalog I know so well, and whose every new project I anticpate so giddily.
I mean, I don't actually feel sad about it. But it's true. |
|
|
| Happy Me-day |
[Mar. 1st, 2009|10:49 pm] |
I had an excellent birthday weekend.
Friday was my actual birthday... I went with everyone else from work to a fitness club for which we installed the entire AV system. My job was to order equipment, so it was like a trip down memory lane for me. ("Ah, yes... That's the 42" Sharp Aquos I ordered for $20 less on CDW than it was at Dale Pro Audio.... Good times.") My boss bought lunch for everyone at a local sports-themed restaurant, where I had the "Kournikova burger," which was a very sexy burger, though not particularly good at tennis.
When we got back to the office, the bookkeeper had a chocolate eclair cake waiting for me. Score! It occurred to me that this time last year, I was working at a temp job, and nobody knew it was my birthday. It makes such a huge difference when everyone at work wishes you a happy day.
On Saturday, I went to FAO Schwarz's Muppet Whatnot Workshop with Tough Pigs friends to use the gift card I got for Christmas. After some careful deliberating, I ended up with a Whatnot that I'm pretty pleased with. He has a yellow nose.
From FAO we went to Hill Country Barbecue, which is modeled after a barbecue joint in Lockhart, Texas. I had some delicious brisket, some awesome homemade-style macaroni and cheese, and some flavorful beans. And my friends paid! Score again! And guess who else was eating there? That's right: Saved by the Bell's Mr. Belding, Dennis Haskins. I watched him eat a salad!
Then I went with Michal to a They Might Be Giants concert, where they played all the way through their platinum album Flood in sequence. That's the album that got me into them in the first place, so that was pretty fantastic. They did the best version of "Istanbul" I've seen them do.
And today, on a whim, I went to a double feature at the Film Forum: Footlight Parade and Gold Diggers of 1933, playing as part of a series of Great Depression-era films. Both are musicals choreographed by Busby Berkeley, with his trademark ridiculously extravagant musical numbers. A double feature meant two movies for the usual price of one movie - score yet again! I now have a crush on 1930s musical star and dancer Ruby Keeler.
So, yeah. Good times on the anniversary of my birth.
|
|
|
| Helpful |
[Feb. 23rd, 2009|06:50 pm] |
A word of advice from me to you: Don't have epilepsy.
(In case you're wondering: No, I didn't have a seizure, but the existence of the epilepsy is proved to be a major inconvenience today.)
|
|
|
| Work would be great... |
[Feb. 17th, 2009|03:36 pm] |
|
...if it weren't for the customers. And I believe that is true of everyone's job. |
|
|
| Fancast toons |
[Feb. 4th, 2009|12:52 pm] |
|
Fancast is a Hulu-like website with tons of great TV shows and okay movies to watch for free. They just launched their "Animation Celebration" page, which is a hub to loads of cartoons. The page includes Scooby Doo and Fat Albert alongside Family Guy, King of the Hill, and The Simpsons. Is it just me, or does that seem kind of wrong? And not even just morally "wrong"... more like incorrect. Scooby and Albert are for kids, while those other guys are primetime sitcoms written with a grown-up audience in mind. I guess adults are more likely to use the site than kids, but I just hate the idea of a parent leaving a 6-year-old to watch The Smurfs on the computer, and then the kid clicks over to American Dad. Of course, that assumes that a modern 6-year-old would have any interest in The Smurfs, which is perhaps unlikely. And then there's The Flintstones and The Jetsons, which were originally broadcast as primetime sitcoms, but are appropriate for all-ages, so that just confuses things. At least they have Thundercats... I'm going to have to check some of those out to see if they still hold up. HO!
|
|
|
| Her visage haunts me |
[Jan. 27th, 2009|08:51 pm] |
I can't escape from Ginnifer Goodwin. This morning when I caught the bus for work, her face was on the side in an ad for Big Love on HBO. This evening when I caught the bus for home, her face was on the side in an ad for He's Just Not That Into You. It's like she's following me.
I'm sure it's happened before that an actor's face has been plastered all over city transportation for two different, unrelated projects, but I sure can't think of any examples. Of course, it could be a lot worse. I'd much rather see a cute chick like Ginnifer Goodwin twice day than, say, a photo of gum disease on the side of the bus.
Incidentally, have you noticed that the cast of He's Just Not That Into You includes two Jennifers (Aniston and Connelly) in addition to the one Ginnifer? And Ben Affleck is in it, and his wife's name is Jennifer! (Garner) WHOA! And Bradley Cooper is in it, and his MIDDLE NAME IS JENNIFER! That's incredible!
|
|
|
| Off the wagon |
[Jan. 23rd, 2009|06:14 pm] |
A couple weeks ago I posted about my attempt to cut way back on my soft drink consumption in 2009. At that time, I had gone nine days without soda. After that, I had a Coke, then I went 8 days without one. Then I had a Pepsi, and then two days later I had another one... and then the next day I had another one.
I'm weak! Still, I think I'll try again rather than just giving up and pouring Dr Pepper on my cereal every morning. |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
prawnrr's journal