Went out on Saturday with my friend Jack and we traversed the Appalachian Trail from Newfound Gap to Charlie’s Bunion and back. The weather was awesome and the views were super fine. It was quite warm and there were several shirtless guys out enjoying the trail as well. So … BONUS VIEWS! Ha, ha.
And … the late afternoon sun/clouds at Lake Junaluska put on quite a show yesterday.
Here are some upcoming movies that I am super excited about!
One potential cure for ennui might be six moonshine tastings (plus moonshine laced jello shots) and a journey through the Mysterious Mansion. Yay, Gatlinburg!
This changes nothing in the grand scheme of things … but …
F U C K
C A N C E R !
30 years ago today, Disintegration was released! This is The Cure firing on all cylinders. It’s a masterwork with the singles including four really excellent B-sides. This album was the capper to my senior year in high school with me riding around all summer in the 1979 Ford Mustang I had at the time blasting it at full volume. I also remember buying the cassette single of “Lovesong” at The Rhythm Section on a trip to Gatlinburg with my dad. I can’t remember where my mom and sister were and why it was just Dad and I on that trip. I do remember Dad napping in the passenger seat as we made our way home through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a bright sunny day. I eventually ended up buying the Integration box set so that I could have all the non-album tracks. Seriously. Those B-sides are so good.
I always find it strange and interesting just which albums make a big impact on our lives. I can say that The Cure have a few albums that have done that to me with Disintegration being the one with biggest impact. I suspect it’s because this album came right at the moment of a lot of change in my life as I went from high school (I was 17 when I graduated) and stumbled my way into adulthood and a schedule of full time school and full time work.
Anyhoo … if you are not familiar with Disintegration, you should immediately find it on your favorite streaming service or get old school and track down the excellent 3-Disc Deluxe Edition.
I am pretty excited to have been able to grab the Prom Night Soundtrack in the Disco Acid Flashback and Bloody Disco Ball variants from 1984 Publishing! This release features art by “Ghoulish” Gary Pullin, has a gatefold cover, and also comes with a custom “tuxedo black” condom. This soundtrack has been on my “most wanted” list for a long time. Squee!!!
Hello, Sister Sledge!
So, I managed to get Avengers: Endgame (wow!) and Game of Thrones‘ “The Battle of Winterfell” (whoa!) watched before seeing any spoilerific posts on the internet. Yay! It doesn’t appear that Avengers: Endgame has been spoiled to badly … but I am sure glad I saw Game of Thrones when it aired last night. A bunch of my friends on Facebook were immediately posting (supposedly) cryptic comments about the events in the episode that a 2-year-old with half a brain could guess the meaning of. Ugh.
Honestly, I REALLY HATE the attitude of “if you don’t want to see spoilers, stay off the internet” attitude that some people have. If folks want to discuss stuff, they should have the courtesy to go into dedicated fan sites and forums for this sort of thing. When you post cryptic comments or outright spoilers on your social media accounts, you’re just being a selfish dick.
Anyhoo.
Also, I finally got to watch the new Robin Hood movie from last year. I am a sucker for the Robin Hood story, but I knew it was going to be bad. And yeah. It’s pretty bad. I would equate it to A Knight’s Tale in that the movie is trying to be a period piece but modern at the same time. That never seems to work very well. At least Taron Egerton was gratuitously shirtless at one point during the movie. Lucky that it’s an official clip on YouTube! You can watch it (the best part of the movie) and save yourself from wasting nearly two hours.
The work week is now underway. What else is new?
And … we’re off to see Avengers: Endgame tonight in an effort to head off the inevitable internet spoilers. Yay! I am fully expecting that Steve Rogers will sacrifice himself to ensure the defeat of Thanos. So, if you hear loud, uncontrollable sobbing later this evening, that’s just me having a meltdown. 😛
After owning this bad boy (exclusive edition, of course) for over a year, I was finally able to get a group together to play it! If you are familiar with John Carpenter’s The Thing, then you know the drill. Outpost 31 has been infected by the Thing and you have to investigate three sectors, find items, battle the Thing, figure out which one of your fellow players is an imitation, and escape the outpost with only humans in your group. Along the way some of your fellow players (or maybe even you) might be infected and become an imitation (whose task it is to sabotage the game). You have to have at least four people to play but can have up to eight.
There was a bit of a learning curve and we totally messed up the first round. The second try at game play went much smoother. Playing with four people was fine, but I suspect this would be much more fun with 6-8 people. Who wants to come join the fun?
And … I am stupid excited to have landed a copy of the Blood on Black Wax (RSD Edition) with limited edition “Blood Red” Prom Night 7″ Single! I am bit Prom Night obsessed as it’s one of my favorites from the golden age of the slasher movie. I mean … c’mon. How can you not love a horror movie that has a Jamie Lee Curtis led disco dance sequence right in the middle of it?! I might have bought two copies of this because I am that obsessed. There’s one to open and play and one to keep sealed. Woot!
Oh yeah! It’s prom night and everything is alright.
So … a much needed weekend in the Low Country of South Carolina has come and gone. Charleston really is an awesome town. History, fun, food, beaches, and lots of drinks!
Here’s the view from Philadelphia Alley (aka Dueler’s Alley).
When downtown, you really need to stop into SNOB (Slightly North of Broad) on Bay Street for a Barn Raiser. It’s easily one of the best cocktails ever. It’s made from honey, house-made honey-infused bourbon, local spicy ginger ale, bitters, and an orange twist. Pure heaven! We’ve eaten here before and the food is on point too.
We also partook of Zombies at Cane Rhum Bar. It supposedly the strongest drink in Charleston. They will only sell you one and it comes to the table in a cool skull glass … and it’s flaming (though you can’t really see the flame in my photo).
A walk on the beach at Isle of Palms is always a must. Thankfully it wasn’t too windy or cold on Saturday. There were lots of people out enjoying the sun and surf.
And the best thing you can do late night on Friday or Saturday (10pm to 2 am) in Charleston is get a Chicken Biscuit at Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit on Upper King Street. Seriously! Go get one of these Chicken Biscuits when you are in Charleston. I love them so much went Friday AND Saturday. Yum!
And, for no real reason, here’s some Red Roof Inn Plus realness.
What else happened?
– Uber rides in BMW’s and Audi’s. Swank.
– I didn’t buy any records at Monster Music. Willpower!
– Yummy brunches with David’s former cohorts.
– Drank too many Vodka Tonics at Dudley’s on Ann.
Speaking of Dudley’s on Ann. It’s apparently the non-gay gay bar. We went to the drag show on Friday night and the number of straight girls and bachelorettes was quite annoying. We ending up hanging out/chatting with one of the locals for most of the evening. We left the bar at the same time after the second drag show and parted ways on the street. I couldn’t decide if this guy was interested in something more or just being nice. Maybe he was waiting for one of us to make a move? I didn’t think he was putting out any signals … but then again, I was very drunk and (in general) am terrible at picking up on other people’s signals. It’s probably a sad commentary on gay culture that we can’t just meet a stranger in a bar and hang out without thinking there is some immediate desire on their part to hook up.
Now, it’s back to the drudgery of daily life. I mowed the yard yesterday and got some Game of Thrones Oreo’s in celebration of the Season 8 premiere.
Sadly, I have already reached my four cookie per day maximum … and it’s only 3:00 pm. How will I ever make it through the evening?!
