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Girding my loins for Twilight 4. It’s coming…

Posted in books, movies, pop culture, Twilight with tags books, movies, pop culture, trailers, Twilight on June 9, 2011 by Paxton

The Twilight series and I have a…complicated history. I think of us as adversaries, coldly staring at each other over the battlefield of pop culture. We’ve each taken (and given) our wounds, but we rise up to fight again. And again.

And again.

I first tried to stop the EMO-ification of badass vampires in the first Twilight movie here.

Not content with completely ruining vampires, Twilight: New Moon set it’s sights on raping awesome werewolves. See that here.

Twilight: Eclipse at least promised a vampire vs werewolf war, but instead ripped off our sack and stomped it into the pavement. You can read that loveliness here.

Now, the long road is coming to an end. There is only one more book left in the saga. And to make it last as long as f**king possible, Summit Films is splitting the last book into TWO movies (a la Harry Potter).

And we finally have an official trailer for Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part I.

Now, if you’ll pardon me, I have until November 18 to prepare for battle.

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My elementary school sticker collection Part II: More Mr T and bumper stickers

Posted in nostalgia, pop culture, stickers with tags collecting, nostalgia, pop culture, stickers, vintage on June 7, 2011 by Paxton

Back in March, I took a look at my elementary school sticker collection. It consisted of some scratch and sniff stickers, puffy Mr T stickers and a crap load of Michael Jackson stickers. It was pretty popular and I got several requests for more awesome 80s sticker goodness. So I’m delivering.

First off, I had a few requests for a better look at the Mr T puffy stickers on the front and back covers of my sticker album. To refresh your memory, here’s the cover to my sticker album.

So, I scanned the Mr T stickers again and tried to clean them up a bit with Photoshop. Here they are.

On the left we have cartoon, puffy Mr T bending a pipe with his bare, manly hands. The one on the right is probably my favorite, Mr T lifting a f’n semi over his head. It looks like the two truck tires are reaching down to hug the awesomeness that is cartoon, puffy Mr T.

Here are two stickers I didn’t actually share in the earlier article. They were on the inside cover of the sticker album. A full body shot of Mr T looking like he’s about to tackle some poor fool (left) and Mr T’s giant head (right).

So, those were the awesome Mr T puffy stickers. They are obviously based on the Mr T cartoon from 1983-1984 that featured Mr T traveling around the country with a group of young gymnasts (!?). Now, let’s take a look at another faction of this sticker collection, bumper stickers. I collected a few bumper stickers around the same time I kept the above sticker album. The majority of the bumper stickers I obtained as prizes/giveaways at my elementary school’s Fall Festival. They were an easy way to promote stuff to us kids.

Here are some of the better ones.

Here’s a Putt-Putt Golf & Games bumper sticker from the mid-80s. This particular Putt-Putt was located on Hwy 31 in Birmingham right in the middle of Hoover. It was there for me like a good friend all through elementary and high school. It later turned into a Krispy Kreme donuts and then something else which I can’t remember. I’m not sure what is there now.

These bumper stickers are great for the logos alone. This is a MADD sticker (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) that is sponsored by local TV station WBRC6 and Big B Drugs. Big B Drugs was owned by the local Bruno’s Supermarkets and was the precursor to stores like CVS and Walgreens. Big B was bought out by Revco then CVS in the mid-90s. I love that they passed out drunk driving bumper stickers to elementary school kids.

What would an 80s bumper sticker collection be without a “Just Say No” sticker? It would be dead inside. So here’s mine, and it has a great 80s Pepsi logo too.

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Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire released 20 years ago

Posted in books, movies, pop culture, Star Wars with tags anniversary, Book Report, books, movies, pop culture, Star Wars on June 1, 2011 by Paxton

Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire was released at the end of May 1991 which makes it 20 years old. Heir to the Empire was the first “expanded universe” Star Wars novel since the Lando Calrissian solo novels in the 80s. It would become immensely popular and spark an avalanche of Star Wars novels that continues to this day.

The next two books in Zahn’s “Thrawn Trilogy”, Dark Force Rising and The Last Command, were released in 1992 and 1993 respectively.

The characters Zahn created in his trilogy became extremely popular and would be used by other authors for years afterward. Grand Admiral Thrawn, the Empire’s strategic military genius, would be one of the more popular. However Thrawn as a character would not really be written by anyone other than Zahn. Mara Jade would be used by many authors up until the current day. She would go on to marry Luke and have his children. Talon Karrde, smuggler extraordinaire would also prove popular and show up in novels from time to time, as would the New Republic’s military strategist, General Garm Bel Iblis. Zahn’s three books would also popularize the idea of clones in the Star Wars Universe as well as be the first to use the formal name of the Imperial homeworld (and current Republic homeworld); Coruscant.

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Vincentennial: 10 Vintage Vincent Price movie ads

Posted in advertising, movies, pop culture, Vincent Price with tags advertising, Held Over, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, vintage on May 27, 2011 by Paxton

It’s the Vincentennial! Vincent Price would be 100 years old this year, so people all over the net are celebrating the films of the godfather of horror. Strange Kids Club has been having Price-centric articles all week. I wrote one about Vincent Price and the origin of the Michael Jackson song Thriller. Today, I thought I’d continue the celebration with a look at some awesome and vintage movie ads for some of Vincent Price’s films.

Some of these movies are his most popular (The Fly, Masque of the Red Death) and some may surprise you (Beach Party?). Regardless, they are an awesome bit of marketing and movie history. So without further ado, here are 10 vintage ads for movies starring Vincent Price. I’ve put them in chronological order.

The Fly (1958) – One of his most famous. And a suitably creepy movie on its own.

Return of the Fly (1959) – Rushed sequel that can’t really live up.

The Bat
The Bat (1959) – A serial killer called The Bat terrorizes the residents of a creepy mansion.

Beach Party (1963) – Yes, Vincent Price played Big Daddy in this Annette Funicello-Frankie Avalon beach comedy. I love the art and how busy this ad looks. The ad itself is huge, so click the image to see it FULL SIZE.

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Mt Dew Pitch Black’s Glorious Return to Store Shelves

Posted in Mountain Dew, Pepsi, pop culture, soda with tags Mountain Dew, Pepsi, pop culture, soda, sodapalooza on May 23, 2011 by Paxton

Back in March I mentioned that Pepsi was re-releasing the original Mt Dew Pitch Black to store shelves this Memorial Day. I was surprised they weren’t going to do it for Halloween, but whatever, that means we get Pitch Black back into our lives and there’s nothing more important than having that Black Grapey goodness back inside me.

Well, you may have heard the girlish screams coming from Jacksonville this weekend, because I found brand new 12 packs of the 2011 Pitch Black.

As a matter of fact, I’m drinking one of them right now. And it’s delicious. It tastes exactly as I remember. Mt Dew citrus + black grape = toe curling awesomeness. And the design of the 12 pack/cans are nearly identical to the original release. Pepsi really only updated the logo. Check it out compared to the original Pitch Blacks I and II (left to right).

I love that they kept the design of the can so close to the original. Even including the silver Limited Edition label.

I thought I would let another, possibly more impartial, person taste the new drink to see if it is, in fact, still tasty. In a bid for parent of the year, I decided the impartial judge will be my 8 month old son, PJ. He was certainly up to the task and tore into the can like he was Teen Wolf and Pitch Black was a can of beer.

I’m sure Pepsi will be thrilled that they passed the “8 month old boy” taste test with flying colors.

Like I said, it tastes awesome and I look forward to finishing my 12 pack. I’m going to stock up on these like a case of fine French Bordeaux because I don’t know how long they’ll be around. Maybe Pepsi plans on re-releasing Pitch Black II later in the year? We’ll see. Hopefully Pitch Black can be an annual release every year much like Cranberry Sierra Mist (which is also awesome).

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