Last weekend, I traveled to Tampa to visit members of my family who live on the west side of the state. It was a nice getaway, my first out of town venture of the Summer of 2015.
For someone who enjoys long road trips - in 2014, it was a 28-day, 5,000-mile venture that took me through 10 states - it was another reminder of how nice the open road can be, even if it was only four hours one way and interrupted by multiple storms that are a staple of mid-afternoon life during Florida summers.
Part of the trip was to make a donation several years in the making. My cousin Karen's son, Jared, is now in college, and has grown over the years to become a huge fan of various music styles. Basically, his tastes are as eclectic as mine. And he has also developed a love of how music sounds when it's of the vinyl variety. So in the back of the 2015 Toyota Prius were five boxes with around 250 record albums (including some 78 RPMs) - essentially, the remains of my musical "hard copies" that I've had since my teenage years.
This, of course, comes several weeks after I had purged some 350 compact discs from my collection through a donation to the local library. Which means essentially my entire music collection now exists on two external hard drives for my computer. I still have about 150 CDs and about 10 albums (and yes, about 40 cassette tapes, but they are recordings of Biff Rock Cafe radio shows from the late 1990s). Welcome to the new world order.
The weekend itself was uneventful. Much of this was due to the weather, which was definitely on the rainy side. I stayed at the Brandon Township home of my cousin Leslie and her husband Ron; their two daughters are not currently living at home (Kayla recently moved out on her own, Jillian is at the University of Florida taking summer classes). Kayla came over every day when I was there to do dinner with her 'rents. On Sunday morning, we had a family brunch where I got to see Jared, his father Emad, and my aunt Phyllis. (Sadly, Karen was out of town.)
The weekend was definitely spiked by a series of movies and TV shows we watched together. One film I hadn't seen in ages: the Clint Eastwood classic A Fistful of Dollars. (This despite my owning the "Spaghetti Western" trilogy.) The others I had never seen: the 2001 cult classic Hot Wet American Summer, and two episodes of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
Hot Wet American Summer was easily one of the most bizarre and disjointed movies I have ever seen in my life. It tries to spoof the "teen" sex comedy genre, but really doesn't do a very effective job at that. It was filmed on a cheap budget and looks that way when being watched. But it does have a few hilarious moments along the way, and has what 14 years later would be an amazing ensemble cast: Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Molly Shannon, Paul Rudd, Christopher Meloni, Michael Showalter, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Ian Black, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, Zak Orth, and A.D. Miles. Meloni, in particular, is over-the-top hilarious as a shell-shocked Vietnam war veteran and camp chef (who has open-ended philosophical conversations with a can of vegetables, which offers him some guidance on how to proceed with his life).
Then we watched two episodes of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, which just added to the extremely warped experience. Ron had described IASIP as comparable to Seinfeld, and I can see why: the performances seems extremely improvisational, as if the five-member main cast was basically thrown a conceptual topic and told, "Run with it!" The two episodes we watched focused on (1) a spontaneous group trip to Atlantic City (complete with some of the characters participating in an armed robbery, and others getting stranded at sea), and (2) a spontaneous hosting of a kiddie talent show (complete with Danny DeVito in pure, unadulterated whiteface and insinuations of illegal child exploitation).
I felt like I needed a long, cold shower afterward. I don't think I was alone.
CAMPAIGN 2016 NEWS OF THE DAY:
From Fox News: "This 92-Year-Old Woman Registered to Vote Just to Cast a Ballot for Trump" - So she can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
FACEPALM NEWS OF THE DAY:
From Yahoo! News: "Bounty hunter arrested after mistaking Phoenix police chief for target" - Oops. My bad.
FLORIDA NEWS OF THE DAY:
From The Sun-Sentinel: "Senior slapstick in South Florida" - Body of Binky.
WEIRD NEWS OF THE DAY:
From The Romeoville Patch: "Judge Frees Tattoo Face Kiddie Porn Guy's Snitch Brother" - Come for the amazing headline, stay for the amazing tattoo mug shot.
SPORTS NEWS OF THE DAY:
From the Baltimore Sun: "Documents indicate Ravens warned Colts about Patriots' footballs last postseason" - BALLtimore. Say it, Tom. BALLtimore.
VIDEO OF THE DAY:
Bill Nye Reads Mean Tweets
MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY:
Pet Shop Boys with Dusty Springfield, "What Have I Done To Deserve This"
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