The 4th of July 2015 was a
momentous occasion in American history! Why's that? Because I turned
thirty. Oh and there was some tiny celebration with fireworks I'd
never heard of before, must be a regional thing. So how's thirty
living up to my expectations? well I never imagined I'd be a blogger
who worked for non-profit organizations to pay for my horror movie,
board game, and various other addictions. As a child; I probably
envisioned myself as a ninja master who lived on the moon and was
married to at least 2 or 3 girls from Power Rangers. Such is life,
eh? Still; there's always presents, let's talk about those.
Horror movies ahoy!
My brother grabbed a copy of Fortress
which is an Aussie title from the 80's where a country classroom is
kidnapped by guys in masks only to eventually escape and turn savage
on their pursuers. It turned out to be more of a thriller than full
on horror but it's short and breezy entertainment. Be forewarned that
if you hate the sound of Australian children, you've be clawing at
your face about 15 minutes into the film.
As most of my gifts arrived several
days after the main event, my mother was nice enough to make sure I
had one new item for the night in the form of The Revenge of
Frankenstein. Sadly, by the time I got around to watching it, sleep
was firmly taking hold so I lost several chunks of story. Probably
have to revisit it come Halloween time.
A return trip to the same store we got
Frankenstein from yielded a variety of old midnight movie double
features for 4 bucks a pop. Technically I bought these myself but it
was with a bit of birthday money so let's just chalk em up to my mom
again. Only had a chance to watch 2 of flicks so far. The Vampire was
a surprisingly unique take on bloodsuckers mixed with drug addiction.
Not exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from the 50's. The Earth
Dies Screaming was entertaining enough but at a run time of only 62
minutes, it really doesn't have the room to accomplish very much.
Also on the movie front was a blu-ray
of Knightriders from my sister and brother-in-law. This was the first
George Romero movie I ever liked, mainly because it serves as an
endurance test for anyone with good taste. It's about a loony dude
named Billy (Ed Harris) who leads a traveling band of motorcycle
jousters in the hopes of creating a better community free of many
modern problems or as he puts it, he's “Fighting the Dragon!”
It's two and a half hours of hippies, biker culture, magic Indians,
and impromptu blues harp solos.
They aforementioned group also got me
a little Lo Pan Funko Pop. For the longest time I'd ignored these
figures because a lot of them just seemed so dumb looking. Recently I
learned that there are actually a few badass ones out there. The
trick is to avoid the ones that just look like plain old people.
Seriously go look at ones based on monsters & ghosts if you don't
believe me. Just have your wallet ready when you do.
Going back to gifts from mom, there's
my pour over coffee maker. I'd been investigating these for a couple
months now as the k-cup machine is just getting tiresome. Currently
I'm still experimenting with the proper ratios of water to bean but I
must say it's a nice item to have. Yes it takes forever and a day to
make a cup of joe this way but it's strong, smooth, and remarkably
clean stuff that's damn good at keeping you up. If you ever get your
hands on one, do be careful as it is fully possible to brew up a
glass of concentrated madness.
Unexploded cow
Somehow I forgot to get this one in
the group photo but my sister and brother-in-law got this for me the
night before my birthday. I'd heard of it before but never paid much
attention to it. Good thing they remedied that mistake cause this is
a really solid and fun game. It's silly enough that you can take it
to a party but there's still just enough intelligent design to keep
everyone interested. This one will probably get a full scale entry
sometime soon.
The miscellaneous pile
There's always a few more fleeting
items to any birthday. This year that list started with an heaping
helping of Indian food. Not such a bad idea to start off a new decade
of existence with spicy chicken and goat with plentiful amounts of
Naan. It's the healthy half of a day that also included plenty of
vodka, bear, and some kinda fruity drink called a lavender collins
which in theory was delicious though in practice.....not so much. I
blame the bar in question. A hipster hole in downtown Lansing known
as the Tavern & Tap which is a confounding name for a joint. I
mean you wouldn't call a down home country cooking joint The Kitchen
& Stove would ya? Didn't care for the place. Service was slow,
drinks poorly mixed, bad pricing, lame music. Pretty much the
embodiment of why I drink at home.
Oh but then there's the gift that the
whole country give me every year; fireworks! The whole reason we were
in Lansing to begin with was the fireworks show that's actually been
fairly good for the past few years. Not amazing, but good enough to
leave you feeling satisfied. Thanks nation!
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