I have been walking around my living room jumping up and down and swinging knockout blows in air because for the life of me I can not figure this new Panasonic camera out to download movies to iMovie. Apparently there are a million ways to do it and I am the only guy who believes in magical conversion. I have no patience I guess so until I get the video that I wanted to put on here, I present to you a crappy slideshow with fuzzy pictures from an iPhone of the Grove Park hotel located in Asheville, North Carolina. Enjoy!
It’s the Great Pumpkin Board Game
Recently my parents returned from a long vacation in Italy. Every time they take these trips I get the pleasure of not only hearing about the adventure but they bring me back something nice, no matter how I insist that they do not need so. Regardless, I do like having neat little items from around the globe so I can impress the three visitors I get a year.
This year they brought me back a hand-carved chess set that is so beautiful, I am nervous to even display it. (Visitor #2 is a shifty one. He’s a dog) But when I put it together, I knew it needed to have a permanent spot on the coffee table. And then it dawned on me; I have never learned how to place chess.
Well, not knowing exactly how to play is the first issue. The second is that I am by myself. I did manage to get the gist of the game thanks to YouTube and an animated frog playing a rabbit but I still didn’t quite grasp the game well enough to play myself. It’s a battle of wits, math and the ability to think three moves ahead in an ancient simulated battle between armies and when it comes down to it, I live in America: the inventor of the…
A-bomb!
No, I need something a bit more my standard and with the Halloween season well underway, what better time to break out a board game to challenge my multiple personalities. I present to you “It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” board game for ages five and up.
Now anyone who knows me or has ever read this blog will know my true love for all things Great Pumpkin. It really is a nostalgic link that I share with my Dad and no matter what is going on in life, when The Great Pumpkin is on ABC that last week of October, I am there. So, it is no mystery why I would choose to review this, rather than battle an imaginary Big Blue over chess. LET THE GAMES BEGIN, BLOCKHEAD!
Alright, let’s see what we gots. There are eight characters which upon closer inspection are really only four because the others are in costume. I’ll cover that in a second. Also there is a stack of cards, a spinner-thing and the board itself. Here are the rules:
“The game is to get your character in costume and be the first to return back to the pumpkin patch to tell Linus he is a retard when the Great Pumpkin doesn’t show up.”
I have to admit, it is a pretty neat looking board. I may just hang this on the wall if I end up beating myself. And looking a little closer I see Snoopy’s brother Spike. It’s nice he paid a visit from his home in Needles, California. Know how I know that? From Dad. I still can’t believe I even remember that detail.
The cards dictate the fate of the characters or at least how quickly they can get in their costume and get back to the pumpkin patch. The various cards are: one invitation to the Halloween party (the mother of all cards and the character goes right into costume), twenty candy (collect five and change to costume), seven quaaludes (to spike the punch at the Halloween party), and seven rocks (draw one and the character surrenders a candy card).
Hrm…apparently the quaalude card is really quarters. You can use this card to either spin again or buy candy from another character. Quaaludes would have been more fun but this is a kids’ game.
And a waaaaaay we go! Spin the wheel around and around, where it lands…nobody…round…I hate rhyming. Anyway, Charlie Brown is in a race with Snoopy, Lucy and Sally to change into costume, trick r treat and be the first to meet Linus back at his most sincere pumpkin patch. Who will win? I don’t know because they are being moved by my alter egos; Phil, Gil,and Jill. I am Bill. And Bill will always root for Charlie.
The first few minutes of the game were a bit frustrating because we all landed on the “move back one space” and drew rocks. Then we all drew candy. It seemed a bit redundant and it occurred to me that Gil never shuffled the deck! I would have but I can’t shuffle. Take a look.
So after that shuffle method of “pick up off the floor” we again resumed play and eventually all players were out of the patch and roaming the neighborhood. For the first time in Charles’ life he drew an invitation card and rocketed to the Trick r Treat spot to change into his holy ghost costume. His luck is changing, says me!
I don’t think I will bore you with play-by-play action of how many spaces Lucy moved or the fact Jill was hiding quarter cards up her sleeve so we will skip to the final few moments.
At this point it really could have been anyone’s game. The path was mined with plenty of “move back 2 spaces” and there were plenty of quarter cards remaining now that I smacked Jill in her cheater mouth. I know it’s not morally right to place money on a child’s game but I raised the stakes with a cool fifty bucks. We were all in except Phil. He was a tad light but we struck a deal for barter and he has to do the winner’s laundry for a week and reenact “Camp Town Ladies” at a random wake.
Oh my god I am the winner! And so is Mr. Brown. It really is refreshing to see him finally get one over on Lucy. Sure it’s no football field goal but when it’s a chance to give Lucy the middle finger, any opportunity is the right one. This one is for you Chuck.
To the victor goes the spoils! Enjoy it Charlie Brown. It has to be better than the crap you got along the trick r treat journey.
This is a great game if for nothing more than to roll around in Halloween nostalgia. Perfect on a Friday game night with kids to teach them how awesome It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown is. It’s an important part of American culture and I embrace it every year, if only to relive the thirty minutes some twenty-five years ago with Dad, carving pumpkins and laughing hysterically over Snoopy’s gaff when he howls over Shroeder’s piano. I give it a solid A.
Frick
I am currently wrestling between iMovie and WordPress Video, neither of which will take my video that was shot a while ago. I am about to punch them in their computer faces. Especially since I have spent much cheddar insuring that enough space and editing software is made available. If I see another “HTTP ERROR” or YouTube Time-out I…I will just lose my shit. So until a little later tonight, I will entertain you with three creepy movie moments for me. Hopefully YouTube will not deactivate the videos before the end of the Samhain season.
UGH! There are so many great scenes in the 1979’s The Brood, but this particular scene makes the hairs standup and pretty much fall out. I think it’s how the music dies out and not only the teacher but the children are completely like “what the fuckin’ heck?”. It’s a brilliant scene and even though it seems a stretch that Fisher Price hammers could kill a person, the little devils in snowsuits remain high on the creepy list.
Okay, so this isn’t in English. That’s not the point of this particular scene in the 1997 creeper, The Blair Witch Project. I challenge anyone to turn off the lights, turn up the volume and watch this part of the movie without admitting a slight discomfort. Little dead kids laughing and making guttural sounds in the woods, miles away from any help, is enough to rename Captain Badass to Private Peepants. I especially love the foggy camera lens and the feeling of damp cold as the victims awake to a nightmare. Amazing.
The Exorcist will always go down as the movie to end all movies in my little world. There are numerous scenes that make you cringe or look away but when it comes to a creepy scene that only recently was introduced through the help of computers, the spider crawl really spooked me. I am not usually one to “add-to” a classic movie (GEORGE LUCAS) but if it’s a scene that causes me to wince in fright, I love it.
So, there are the three creepy scenes that will tide you over until I choke WordPress or iMovie. Whoever’s fault this is. I’ll be right back.
They’re Baaaaack! Fall Beer Review 2012
I know what you’re thinking so don’t even say it; it’s too early. While it is too early to chat Halloween it is not too early to yap about Fall Beer because, shit, it’s already out in the market! I declare this my official duty to tell everyone what is available and drinkable that is orange, black and alcoholic. You can say it’s a silly hobby but I say your haircut is silly. I kid, it looks fine.
The first review of 2012 I bring you Blue Moon’s annual Autumn sample pack. I have reviewed these in the past but this year they did a little something different. Listening to their fan base, the company allowed a select number of Blue Moon drinkers to choose this year’s flagship beer and man, they did good. They did real good. I only review this pick because to review the others would be dull and to be honest, nine minutes of me yapping is too much. Let me present you with this year’s Blue Moon Fall Beer that is 100% Great Pumpkin: Caramel Spiced Apple Ale.
P.S. The new intro song is actually named “Veggiemacabre Reviews” and that makes things a bit more official. Or something like that.
Where Did You Go? Part 16: Kids of Horror!
Adding to the long page of “where did you goes” here comes another segment that lets people like us spy on people like them. And by them I mean stars that no one links to look for. It’s a strange hobby of mine but it keeps me from my other hobby; shopping cart racing. So let’s kick this diddy into off with a little known film from a little know director called Stanley Kubrick.
Well, well, well…it’s Danny Torrence (Danny Lloyd) from the greatest Stephen King book turned Stanley Kubrick film, The Shining. This is one of my favorites and it is so hard to say why. Even people who hate horror movies tend to really like this film. It’s as mysterious as the bear suited person going down on that guy when Shelly Duval is running around like a moron wielding a 3 foot knife with jelly wrists. (horrible sentence) But there is one character that is just cute as a button!! Little Danny with the boy who lives in his mouth, Tony, have the Shining; a psychic gift that proves helpful when his father (Jack Nicholas) loses his shit and tries to “correct” them. And by “correct” I mean chopping them to bits with an ax. Danny saves his mother (Shelly Duval) and himself by losing the deranged psycho in a frozen maze and they ride to safety in a snow cat.
Sorry for the recap of a movie more famous than refrigerator but really, besides a made for TV movie in 1982, Danny Lloyd never worked in Hollywood again. I guess he grew up as a normal kid and The Shining became just something he did in 1979. If that was me, I am pretty sure my girlfriend would snap at the end of each day with, “We know! We all know you were in The Shining! You don’t have to tell everyone you meet!”
Turns out Danny grew up an above average dude and resides in Missouri teaching high school science. And from those who had the pleasure of interviewing him they say he is very private but extraordinarily nice. I say a class act and only does signing events for charity. Tony on the other hand, total jackass. Heard he’s in a methadone clinic dating Heidi Fleiss’s thumb.
Of all the movies that I write about in this series of “Where Did They Go” on a scale of 1-10 , Pet Semetery 2 ranks as a òó. That’s two angry zeros. This movie made me throw an apple at my TV a couple years ago. I am not ashamed to say that. But that’s not what I am here to write about, I am here to write about Jared Rushton who played the most supreme asshole, Clyde Parker, but it’s okay. He was beating up Edward Furlong and somebody needed to.
Jared had an amazing career through the last part of the 80’s and most of the 90’s. From Disney’s Honey I Shrunk The Kids to Big, it looked like Jared’s career was rocketing with no end in sight. That is until 200o when he dropped from Hollywood altogether. But you know what happens when guys like Danny Cooksey, Edward Furlong and now Jared Rushton do when life on the big screen gets downgraded to a one star Netflix pick? That’s right. They join a band. Jared sings and plays guitar for Deal By Dusk. I wonder if they do a rendition from Big? You know…
“The space goes down, down baby, down, down the roller coaster. Sweet, sweet baby, sweet, sweet, don’t let me go. Shimmy, shimmy, cocoa pop. Shimmy, shimmy, rock. Shimmy, shimmy, cocoa pop. Shimmy, shimmy, rock. I met a girlfriend – a triscuit. She said, a triscuit – a biscuit. Ice cream, soda pop, vanilla on the top. Ooh, Shelly’s out, walking down the street, ten times a week. I read it. I said it. I stole my momma’s credit. I’m cool. I’m hot. Sock me in the stomach three more times.”
God I am a tool.
Okay, I know that the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind is not a horror movie but the scene when Barry (Cary Guffey) is abducted is about as scary as any horror movie around. Just the thought of red lights and records playing by themselves is enough to make me pee the bed. Please…observe below.
Is it just me or do you think Steven Spielberg picked Cary because he looked just like the aliens that appear later? Just a thought.
Cary isn’t too dissimilar to Danny Lloyd in the fact that he had a brief career as a child actor only doing a few made for TV movies through the late 70’s and early 80’s. Honestly, none worth even mentioning because they are too difficult to find. After his stent in Hollywood he grew up a normal kid and went on to receive a marketing degree from University of Florida, got an MBA, married a girl and is now a financial planner for Merrill Lynch in Alabama. How’s that for normalcy? Good for him.
I have more to write about but to be honest, I am actually filming a hot sauce review in a few minutes and I am testing one now. Let’s just say I am sweating through my fingers. Can that happen? Anyway, I can’t type for a bit. I’ll be back with part II!
Casserole of Disaster 
