It’s January 8, Elvis Presley’s birthday. He would have been 73 today.
Archive for the Elvis Category
Halloween retail goodies
Posted in Elvis, Halloween, candy on October 31, 2007 by PaxtonI love looking around stores during Halloween. The aisles are decorated with cardboard haunted houses, pumpkins and pics of gouls, ghosts and monsters. It’s so much fun to walk around the Halloween sections of retail stores like Target, Wal-Mart and your local grocery store to see the scary versions of some regular favorites that come out every Halloween. Companies also seem to release new Halloween themed items every year. Here’s some of the coolest stuff I noticed while shopping around this Halloween season.
You can click the individual pictures for a bigger size.
I love Reese’s Cups. LOVE them. They are top of my list of snacks including Cheetos and peanut M&Ms. During Halloween Reese’s will release different shaped cups (bats, pumpkins, skulls, etc). The package says DOUBLE sized and, man, they aren’t kidding. This is one giant brick of peanut butter in a thin layer of chocolate. It’s like carrying around a small child. It easily weighed as much as my head. I had trouble finishing it. If you decide to get some of these, make sure you bring along a car trailer or a pack mule. You aren’t going to get a box of these home on your own.
Ahhh, another seasonal favorite for me, Pumpkin Mix M&Ms. Yes, this is just regular M&Ms dressed up as black and orange pumpkins, but I LOVE M&Ms and the packaging is always too cool to pass up (check out Yellow carving a pumpkin that looks like Red). I buy them every year (peanut are my favorite followed closely by peanut butter).
Gummy candy in the shape of human limbs seems to be pretty popular this year. The one on the left even comes in its own coffin. Nothing quite like candy that makes you feel like a cannibal. They make these things extremely realistic. Just sitting there looking at them I got a little queasy. Great, great idea, I’m glad companies are embracing the macabre during the Halloween season, but I’d be lying if I said these things don’t creep me out. Like chopped up midgets in a bag. Yikes.
The monster cereals are back in full force at this time of the year. You can see them here and there during the year but they really get a boost during the holiday season. You especially see more of Boo-Berry during this time of year. I’ve loved these cereals, mostly Franken-Berry, since I was a kid. Does anyone remember the two other flavors that were discontinued? Both flavors of cereal had multiple fruits in it, much like Fruity Pebbles. One was a werewolf and one was a mummy. Give up? Well the werewolf was Fruit Brute and the mummy was Fruity Yummy Mummy. The only difference between the two was that Fruit Brute had lime marshmallows and Yummy Mummy had vanilla marshmallows. I think Fruit Brute was replaced by Yummy Mummy because the werewolf was considered too scary. Aren’t they SUPPOSED to be scary? They are monster cereals.
This isn’t really Halloween themed, but I found it with the Halloween candy so I’m including it. It’s a gift pack of Elvis Presley Pez dispensers. You get three different Elvis heads; Army Elvis, ‘68 Special Elvis and Vegas Elvis. Very cool packaging and display. I approve.
I want to go ahead and vote these the WORST candies in the history of Halloween. For me, there was nothing more dreaded than seeing someone reach into a bowl of generic orange and black wrappers and dump a fistful of this crap into my bag. The look on my face would have been the same had you dropped a trial-sized package of floss or a severed head into my treat bag. I was appalled and horrified. I wanted to slap this person and challenge them to a duel with pistols at dawn. Awful, generic tasting, bland peanut butter chews of death. That’s this candy’s new name. You may disagree, but you’d be wrong.
There are a few items I’ve read about elsewhere but I have yet to find even though I’ve been looking high and low for them. They are:
One of my favorite blogs, Branded in the 80s, found this nugget of black and orange gold. I have never seen this before. I knew Cap’n Crunch released a Christmas Crunch every year during the holiday season but this is more than awesome, it’s uber-awesome. I’ve scoured the stores looking for this but have yet to find it. I fear that my time is almost up.
How mecha-awesome do these Ghost Dots look? I first saw these on X-Entertainment’s Halloween Countdown but they turned up again on Branded in the 80s (in the same article as the above super cereal). I love regular Dots, but the idea that these dots are mystery flavored is just too much to take. SO. F’N. AWESOME. I have to find these things before Halloween is over.
I saw a cool article on Wired asking people to send in some of their best carved pumpkins. They call it Show Us Your Geeky Jack-o-Lanterns. Here are some of the best. You can click the pics to go to the article for the full size picture.
Mozilla Firefox logo
Cylon from BattleStar Galactica
Puss in Boots from Shrek
The Death Star!!
So there’s my roundup of all things Halloween. It really creeped up on me this year (pun intended). I had at least one other article planned but had to scrap it at the last moment.
Hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween!
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Some of my awesome, awesome Halloween costumes
Posted in Elvis, Halloween, personal on October 30, 2007 by Paxton
I have always loved Halloween. I dressed up every year until I was in 8th or 9th grade. It was so much fun wearing costumes and hanging out with my friends going from house to house getting candy. Things have certainly changed. Today, the costumes are infinitely better but you can’t go out in your neighborhood to trick-or-treat anymore because of various nefarious individuals that may (or may not) live in your area. These individuals would love nothing more than to fool you into eating an apple with a razor blade stashed inside. What sick individual gives out apples for Halloween anyway? If that happened when I was a kid that guy would have gotten his own version of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that involved nothing but toilet paper and raw eggs. Giving apples for Halloween is just WRONG, people. Write that down.
Anyway, my family was pretty good at documenting our holidays. I was going through some old photos and found some of my all-time favorite Halloween costumes. I have more pictures than this, but I may save those for another time. So, without further ado, here are some of my favorite costumes that I’ve worn throughout the years. Enjoy!
You can click each of the pictures for a bigger version.
Year Unknown - Spiderman. Yes, this is it! The Ben Cooper Spider-man costume. It doesn’t get much more vintage than this. Obviously I’m “shooting my webs” at a villain off camera. Classic, classic costume. You can find these on eBay now for anywhere between 20 and 100 bucks. Check out the boxed version of this costume here.
Year Unknown - Peter Criss (drummer for KISS). How about them jeans and JC Penney’s belt? That’s so rock-n-roll, man. I never really listened to their music, but I LOVED the whole KISS makeup gimmick. I loved they dressed up and spit fire and had these gaudy knee boots. It was awesome. And for some reason, my favorite was always Peter Criss, the drummer. I was walking home from school and found a large drink cup with a picture of Peter Criss on it and told Mom that’s who I wanted to be for Halloween. My mom was great, she used the cup as a guide for all the makeup. She did a great job, didn’t she? Years later she would do the same thing for me when I was a werewolf. She painted on wolf-like features. It was awesome, I wish I had a picture of it.
Year Unknown - Random Pirate. The costume turned out great didn’t it? My mom was great at making costumes out of crap we had around the house. Dig those funky yellow running shoes! So pirate-y. That ginormous sword was borrowed and I only held it for the picture. There was no way I was carrying that monstrosity through the neighborhood trying to collect candy. Check out my younger brother as Big Bird. Yes, yes that is embarrassing. He’s gonna love that. You can see another pic of this costume here.
1989 - Billy the Kid. In this picture I’m trying to mimic the famous photo of the real Billy the Kid seen here. This was the last year I actually went out and trick-or-treated in costume. I was in eighth or ninth grade in this pic and my friend Steve and I had a few teenagers try to steal our bags. We decided that this should be the last night of Halloween fun for us. Very sad. You can see a closer pic here (and the detail of my stubble/sideburns). I don’t know if you can tell, but I was going for the Billy the Kid look from the movie Young Guns (1998) where he was played by Emilio Estevez.
2000 - Dracula. I had always wanted to be Dracula (or a vampire) for Halloween and never did. So when Steph and I decided to throw a costume party I thought it was the perfect time to bust out a Dracula costume. Turned out pretty good, I think. I’m standing here with my friend Jason who came as Michael Myers from the movie Halloween.
2004 - Vegas Elvis. Having always loved Elvis, I had also always wanted to dress up as him for Halloween. Talking with Steph about it, she thought she might be able to, with her mom’s help, make an Elvis jumpsuit for me. I thought it was a great idea, so we went to the fabric store, picked out a pattern and some colors and Steph and her mom went to town. Turned out better than anything I could have imagined. This costume gets so many compliments from so many people. Great, great job by my wife and my mother-in-law. I’m standing here with my friend Himal who’s dressed as Clark Kent/Superman. He even customized a Daily Planet (check out his left hand). Great costume!
There are several other costumes I can’t seem to find pictures for. The aforementioned werewolf is the most notable. I wore a few ripped t-shirts and jeans and my mom painted hair and wolf features onto my face with makeup. I really liked it but I can’t seem to find any pictures of it. I was also Jason Vorhees one year using a costume from my friend Jason (Collier, not Vorhees). Jas may have a picture of that. I’ll see if I can find some of these. Hope you enjoyed them.
I have another article I think I’m going to post for tomorrow on candy (appropriate topic, don’t you think). Until then,
Happy Halloween everyone.
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Remembering Elvis and Elvis Week
Posted in Elvis, personal, pop culture on August 16, 2007 by Paxton
Today marks the 30th Anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. He died, in his home, on August 16, 1977.
My wife and I are big fans of Elvis. We even named our kitty Presley after him. For our second anniversary we traveled to Memphis, TN and toured Graceland (which I had never done). On the way back we stopped in Tupelo, MS and visited “The Birthplace”, Elvis’ boyhood home. I have read Volume 1 of Pete Guralnick’s two volume biography of Elvis. Amazing. It’s amazing to see the history Elvis created and lived through. Elvis lived an amazing life, yet he died so tragically.
Let’s celebrate the man and his iconic image, not linger on the circumstances of his death. Let me see what pictures I can dig up here of my wife and I and our dealings with all things Elvis related.
You’ve seen my Elvis Avatar from an earlier article.
I also created this M&M avatar of Elvis. Somewhat goofy, but I like it.
Here’s a picture of a commemorative Elvis statue outside the Neal Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. This is the venue that Elvis filmed his famous “Aloha from Hawaii” concert in.
Dale Earnhart Jr. is going to drive a commemorative Elvis car for the singer’s 30th Death Day anniversary. I like the color scheme.
I mentioned earlier about trying the Elvis Reese’s Cups with Banana Cream. Well, there’s a whole website devoted to it.
Here is the two volume Elvis biography I mentioned earlier by Pete Guralnick. I’ve read Volume 1 which covers his birth through him leaving for the Army in ‘56-’57. Volume 2 picks up after the Army until his death.
Last but not least, below are some pics of me in my Elvis Halloween costume. Steph actually made this Elvis jumpsuit with her own two hands (and some help from her mother). It’s AWESOME.
Pretty BAD-ASS, isn’t it? I love it. It’s always a hit whenever I bust it out.
As I said, the wife and I are big fans of The King and love to listen to his music and read about him. Visiting Memphis and seeing Graceland and going to “The Birthplace” were a lot of fun. If you ever get the chance, do it. I actually want to go again.
So, in honor of the 30th Anniversary, Memphis is holding it’s annual Elvis Week with activities, concerts and games. It’s also Elvis Month on TV Land, so if you get that channel on your cable system tune in to check out Elvis movies, concerts and specials.
Long Live the King, baby.
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Harry Potter Book & Movie Countdown
Posted in Elvis, Harry Potter, books, movies, pop culture on July 9, 2007 by Paxton
I am a huge dork for the Harry Potter series. I love both the books and the movies. Well, this week is the home stretch to the premier of the fifth Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I absolutely can’t wait. The movies have been coming along with the same high quality as the books so I’m very happy to see them continue. There was a scare after the first two movies that they were going to replace the 3 main characters because they were getting “too old”. Absolutely stupid and I probably would have stopped watching the movies. However, Warner Bros has gratefully decided to keep the main 3 actors and are continuing with the series unabated. I think Daniel Radcliffe as Harry has signed on for the final 2 films. Very exciting. I also have enjoyed the practice of switching directors every movie as it keeps things fresh (although 1 and 2 were directed by the same man, Chris Columbus). I’m stoked to see this 5th installment this weekend.
That makes this week Harry Potter Week here on my blog. On Wednesday or Thursday I’ll have a review of the first 4 Harry Potter movies. Also, since the seventh and final book is released NEXT Saturday, that would make next week Harry Potter week also. Which means next Wednesday or Thursday I’ll have reviews of the first 6 books up in anticipation of the final chapter in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (UK cover shown to the left). I normally wait a few weeks or months to read a new Harry Potter book, but since this is the last one I plan on beginning reading it the moment I buy it. I can’t risk reading spoilers on the internet. It’s just too risky.
Anywho, hope everyone else is as excited for these two weeks as I am. I’m fit to burst, man.
Click here for reviews of the Harry Potter movie franchise
Oh, here’s something having absolutely nothing to do with Harry Potter. I found this at Walgreens the other day. Reese’s “King” Size Big Cups with peanut butter and banana creme. And there’s a picture of Elvis on it! Haha, get it, cause Elvis liked Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches. Awesome. Well, the candy is okay, probably not something I’d eat everyday, but not bad. I love the packaging though, obviously.
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