The Apollo Theatre, Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. & The Super Mario Bros. Movie

It wasn't necessarily the idea to do one of these today. However, any plans for this random Sunday went awry; for the past several days, there's been intermittent minor pain in my right heel when I walk. I must be getting old; besides that happening to me, I can't explain how it first happened! This all turned out for the best—this afternoon I had an important phone call which was best taken at home.

I'll start with the sad news first. What shocking news it was that The Apollo Theatre in my old hometown of Belvidere would have its roof collapse during bad storms one night and unfortunately led to injury and even death. As a kid that place was driven by many times although my only time in there (once it was reopened as a venue) was an independent wrestling show in November of 2003, of all things. Seeing the photos of the devastation, it also reminded me of how little has changed downtown since I was a kid. As long as I can remember, Sam's Pizza and Lung Fung's Chinese Restaurant have been institutions so I'm happy to see they both are still in business.

Not too much has happened in the past few weeks; the restaurants I've visited were ones I've gone to before although typically not in a long while. This includes the Celebration Town Tavern, Dave's Hot Chicken and Cracker Barrel; the latter had food which wasn't as good as usual which is a shame as at least the service was quite good. Otherwise, there's been the viewing of various sports on television, whether it be football, NCAA basketball (last month I never could have imaged that one of the teams I saw live-San Diego State-would make it all the way to the finals before losing to Connecticut) or the start of the baseball season where there are some big rule changes and I'm undecided if all of them I approve of... yet.

To close this out-I may be back in a few weeks-I'll mention two recent theatrical experiences. Late last month was 2003's Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. That was a Fathom Event presented nationwide. While not even my favorite Godzilla movie of that era, it was still a good time, especially considering it was a first time watch. The other was The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Speaking of my childhood, those games were definitely played although the last one was in the 90's. There was still enough for me that I knew and while the plot was incredibly safe, that doesn't mean it was bad. In fact, the film was more entertaining and amusing than expected. It's perfect for kids and most adults shouldn't mind.

The One Time I Went to the Magic Kingdom on my 42nd Birthday

Now I am finally caught up on what I've done in almost the past two months. One thing I should have mentioned sometime earlier in the year: one evening I went to Winter Garden Village to try out an eatery from the West Coast which had just recently opened there: THE DOLLY LLAMA. What a name that is. They offer such treats as waffles, waffle cones, ice cream & shakes. While messy, what I had was still good; one day I'll make my return to try something else. Another place new to me was in the Western area of Kissimmee, known as Island Wing Company. The boneless wings I had were tasty, although not enough of them for the price. Note that the place adds in a gratuity automatically which serves as a tip for all the employees; curious, especially because I had to ask about it as they never clarified it beforehand.

February proved to be memorable and different from the norm as several people visited Florida from the Midwest. First was a great friend of Mom who has known my parents since before I was even born. Each year she visits various people in Florida and this includes me & Dad. Various restaurants were visited and while some were new to me (the small British pub known as Clermont Fish House) others were returns, such as Suncreek Brewery in Clermont or a place that me and Mom went to years ago. Randomly, while looking at Google Maps one day (what, don't you do that?) I saw that there was an eatery which sounded interesting, even if it was in a town known as Howey-In-The-Hills. Me and Mom liked JB Boondock's Bar & Grill so I don't know why we didn't return but that joint proved to be a BIG hit... I mean, bigger than I expected. I was glad to support a local establishment, even if at times some of my fellow customers were on the uncouth side. It's located right on a lake so there was great scenery. As always it was nice to see them.

More unique was that soon after they left, my sister who lives in Rockford, Illinois came down here for vacation with her beau and two small children. It was nice to see the nephew after all that time and I finally got to meet my niece. Time was spent at Disney Springs with them which included hot dogs & treats, and other trips included time spent with the aunt in The Villages and Romano's Macaroni Grill. However, the highlight was on my 42^nd birthday on February 22^nd where we went to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. It was a LONG day as we were out of the house for a little more than 12 hours yet for two very small children they both acted as well as you'd expect for their age on a warm day in a theme park. It was a lot of fun as both familiar rides to me and ones I hadn't been on before were experienced. Heck, for the first time since I was a kid I was on a carousel period, no matter where it was located at.

While not everything went perfectly on that day, it's no big deal and that's more my neuroses than anything major; the important thing is that not only did everyone have a fun vacation, but both those little tykes liked me. I am very happy that all my nephews & niece feel that way. It was great seeing all of those relatives in the past few months as it not only added excitement, it was nice considering how the world has been the past three years & all the chaos that's happened.

I will return sometime in April, the first half of the month. Nothing is on my docket... yet.

Coca-Cola Move, Dr. Pepper Strawberries & Cream, Home State Brewing Co. & Jury Duty

I'll be writing more tomorrow evening when I return to finally catch up on recent activities, but tonight is the time to dispense some odds and ends. One day I got a haircut (yes, it was much-needed) as the next morning was jury duty. Unlike a regular jury trial, it was for a grand jury; Google can tell you the difference if you care but in short, if I had been selected it would have required going in a few mornings over the next six months and going over evidence with my fellow peers to determine if first degree murder charges would be filed in a case.

As fascinating as that process probably would have been, the time plus the huge burden in determining someone's fate like that meant that it wasn't so bad that I was not one of the jurors selected. That said, it was still an interesting first-hand experience at watching the justice system in action and the two prosecutors involved in the process at least explained the whole thing well for all almost 50 people in the juror pool, who definitely were a cross-section of Lake County residents.

The rest of this short entry will be more frivolous. I did have some new soda since early February, although not the PEEPS-flavored Pepsi yet, despite the bottle sitting in the fridge for awhile. I'll provide my opinion in April; that bottle was purchased for the novelty value as of course I am not expecting that to actually taste good! The Dr. Pepper Strawberries & Cream is as good as I figured; as for Coca-Cola Move... even now, there is debate as to its taste. There's everything from rose wine to bubblegum, coconut rum and vanilla to even popcorn (?!); what do I think? Having just had it once—no idea how to describe the taste! From what I remember it wasn't bad, per se-just strange.

As I'll mention tomorrow, various restaurants have been visited in the past almost two months, most of them familiar to me, although some I hadn't been to in a long while. One I will mention now is a place I went to solo one Sunday; it was a backup selection after I couldn't go to my first place due to an ever-typical Florida traffic jam. It was Home State Brewing Co., a brewery in the Winter Park Hamlin area. It was fine, although the service was more “eh” than anything else. I did have something unique: a peanut butter & jelly sandwich pressed on Cuban bread. Sounds wild, yet tasted fine.

Next time will be on the heartwarming side as it involves family & friends visiting Florida.

Furman Paladins, San Diego State Aztecs, Yalaha Bakery, Scream VI & Cocaine Bear

First off, my apologies for not doing one of these in way too long. In fact, by this time next week I expect to do a few more of these so I can properly catch up. Thus, I’ll be dispensing information in no particular order. This time, it will be the big event I did last Thursday, my trip to a local establishment and the two theatrical movies I’ve experienced since the last time.

Last Thursday was the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, a big deal for college hoops fans each year. This year some games would be played in Orlando at the Amway Center; as the tickets for the early games were relatively cheap (two games for barely over 20 bucks), I hadn’t been to the Amway Center in at least 5 years and I had a good time when the 2014 games were in O-Town, that’s what I did on that way. The second game was fun as the San Diego State Aztecs defeated the College of Charleston Cougars 63-57.

However, the first game was unforgettable. The Furman Paladins played against the Virginia Cavaliers. Virginia was heavily favored; among other things, the Paladins (named after the knights that guarded Charlemagne, which is pretty cool) hadn’t been to the tournament since 1980 and hadn’t won a game since Nixon was in office. Thus, many of their fans drove down from South Carolina for the game. Virginia was ahead most of the way yet Furman held on. Finally, it turned around near the end and how Furman won improbably was incredible.

The highlights that can be found on YouTube show what happen far better than my explanation of same. The Paladin fans lost their mind at the conclusion and that was great. They lost by quite a bit to San Diego State on Saturday but alas…I sat in the upper deck and while there wasn’t much legroom, at least the seats were padded so it wasn’t that uncomfortable. I need to visit the Amway a bit more often; at least I had a good time even if there needs to be more men’s rooms and getting out of the parking garage nearby took at least 10 minutes.

To mention another random activity, earlier this week I went to a German bakery that Mom liked & went to a few times yet until that time I had never visited the Yalaha Bakery. Yes, there’s a tiny town 20 miles away named Yalaha. I picked up a few times and had one; it was in fact quite tasty. After that I went to Montverde and for only the second time stopped by a great ice cream shop known as Orange Blossom Candies & Cream. As the main bridge into Montverde was finally fixed recently, my trips to Montverde will be more frequent.

Finally, the two theatrical experiences I had were for Cocaine Bear then Scream VI. CB, I mainly went as for years I’ve known of the real life story of a random bear in Georgia ingesting coke thrown out of an airplane by a drug smuggler. Of course the bear IRL OD’ed after likely a few minutes instead of going on a rampage as shown in the movie. As for the film, there were plenty of unfunny moments yet the wacky moments, actual tolerable child performers and Ray Liotta’s small role made it just fine. Fine is another word to use when talking of Scream VI. Then again, that’s also my opinion of last year’s Scream V, as it’s unofficially known as. VI had some nice moments-along with gruesome ones-although also some dumb ones, especially in the final act.

When I return real soon, I have quite a few interesting moments to discuss. Everything from new beverages and restaurants to visitors and a special trip on my 42^nd birthday.

Missing, Pathaan, EPCOT Festival of the Arts, Mammoth Oak Brewing Company & Deadwords Brewing

There isn't too much to say this time; however, as the rest of the month will be busy (for reasons I'll elaborate upon next time) I might as well mention the few things I've done in the past two weeks.

I'll mention two movies I saw. First was Missing; it was similar to Searching from a few years ago where the movie is focused on an investigation done by an amateur into the disappearance of a loved one, and the perspective is online sleuthing done on the Internet. This time the scope is broadened a bit but the idea is the same. Searching is a bit better yet both movies are quite interesting. Entirely different is the Indian movie-in the Hindi language-Pathaan; that part of the world usually has bonkers movies melding together various genres and being completely OOT. While not as awesome as RRR, Pathaan is like the 5^th to 7^th Fast & Furious films with some Mission: Impossible moments mixed in. Gleefully absurd and bonkers action scenes, yes... thus, I found it to be fun.

On a random Thursday, I had to be in Leesburg for something; thus, dinner was had at a random small brewery with basic yet acceptable décor in a shopping plaza known as Mammoth Oak Brewing Company. The chicken & fries I had were fine. Another day I was in Orlando so food was had at Deadwords Brewing; the name refers to how recipes for beer were first devised in languages that don't exist anymore. If it wasn't apparent, the place is totally hipster in décor; after all, the bar is right in front of a bookshelf containing random bric-a-brac that doesn't just include books. Be that as it may, their “Neo-dough and cheese curd bites” were definitely tasty. Sure, the place is on OBT (Orange Blossom Trail) but it isn't the worst stretch of that infamous road...

Finally, I renewed my Annual Pass at Disney by visiting EPCOT, where their Festival of the Arts was taking place. The Food & Wine and Flower & Garden Festivals are of more interest to me yet it isn't bad by any means. Relatively new is their Connections Eatery (not to be confused with the Connections Cafe that serves Starbucks) so for the first time I had a meal there. I had two large slices of pizza for what wasn't a bad price, at least by Disney standards.

To reiterate, I'll be back later in the month and I should have more than a few things to discuss.

Babylon, M3GAN, New York Beer Project, IKEA & Root Beer Glaze Wings

In the first 21 days of 2023 I already have a few things to mention which I didn’t bring up a few days ago. On the 8th I finally saw the movie Babylon, which a lot of “online film fans” seemed to love but I know has a frostier reception among the public. My opinion: I know some things about that time in Hollywood and thus understand that at least there’s the reputation of wild hedonism; the movie went in that direction and all the vulgar crassness & F-bombs were not something I loved. I preferred the kinetic scenes and the examinations of how the sausage was made. There were some WTF moments-including the ending-yet overall I’ll say it was fine due to its positive attributes, such as the performances from the cast and its great score.

One night I went to a new area just a bit northwest of Disney which only has a few stores open as of now but there are plenty of buildings waiting to be filled. One restaurant that is open now is known as New York Beer Project; as expected they have two locations in the state of New York itself but this is the first place outside those confines. It has quite the ambiance (chandeliers and big fake trees) & the product I tried was good.

Another night was the movie M3GAN; the trailers promised campy fun and thankfully it delivered on that part. The crowd I was w/ ate it all up and laughed at all the funny moments which only improved the experience. The most (in)famous moment is the robot dancing before going on a murderous rampage. Turns out the reason for that was… there was no reason presented for M3GAN to do so aside from it being some sort of elaborate taunt!

In terms of restaurants, no new ones to mention although I plan on that changing by the time I do another one of these within the next few weeks. One night I ate at a Dave’s Hot Chicken, but not on the East side of town by the UCF campus. Rather, they recently opened another location in Altamonte Springs where a World of Beer used to occupy the space. Once in awhile I’ll get food there as what they offer is fine. Another night I was going to eat at a Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen but when me and some others sat at the bar (one person was already there so we knew it was open) and no one came around for a few minutes or even acted like we existed, I said “the heck with it” (or words to that effect) and instead went to a nearby BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse to originally have some pizza… until I saw that they had boneless wings with a root beer glaze. That sounded bizarre so I tried them; yep, bizarre yet still good.

On Friday I was gonna go somewhere yet my plans changed due to a presumed accident causing a traffic jam so as I didn’t have a plan B, the Mall at Millenia area was visited as it was nearby and I hadn’t been there in awhile. My time there included the mall itself, IKEA (a minor item was purchased) and a nearby Target where some groceries were purchased. Thus, a decent time was made out of ruined plans. The rest of the month not much is on the agenda… yet.

Stories of Splash Mountain & the Bad Moments of 2023 So Far

For the first thing I write in 2023 I wasn’t expecting to discuss various sad events yet that is what I have to do. There have been celebrity deaths that bummed me out-like Lisa Marie Presley & Jeff Beck-which bummed me out and what happened with Jeremy Renner was a shame. But others passing away have affected me more. I’ll be back by the end of the month to discuss the other events of 2023 so far, which will have more cheery stories to be told.

Last Wednesday I was at Mecum in Kissimmee and as typical it was nice to see a few thousand different automobiles for sale on display, whether they be old muscle car, exotics (some will know how amazing it was that I saw both a Ferrari Enzo and a Ferrari F40), or niche vehicles that only some will appreciate. On the way back home I was on the Osceola Parkway heading West. Eastbound traffic was stopped and they were turning around. I then saw a corpse on the ground covered by a white sheet. Needless to say that was upsetting; all the time I’ve been in an automobile my entire life I don’t recall having experienced such a sight before. As there was no wrecked car around I figured out what happened; at home an article informed me that someone from Guatemala was ran over and killed after crossing that road. That section of the 4 lane toll road, I wouldn’t have suspected anyone to be crossing the road either but this will forever me on my mind whenever I am on the Osceola Parkway.

Tuesday night I was bummed out when I heard that a pro wrestler only 38 years old passed away in a car accident. For fans of independent wrestling all across the United States the past twenty years, they’ll know the wrestler Jay Briscoe, who teamed with real life brother Mark as The Briscoe Brothers. They were great even as teenagers; I saw them once in Illinois and quite a few times in Florida from ’06 through ’08. It was always a treat seeing them wrestle (even if I never talked to them in person) and they had many fans across the world. I have no idea why they were never in AEW as that would have been a perfect fit. There are rumors as to why (was it because Jay was once homophobic on Twitter years ago? He soon then apologized so I have no idea if that rumor has any basis in fact or not) but everyone in that world is just broken up about it. The fact that his two daughters were in the car and both were seriously injured themselves… tragic all around.

To end this on a better note, yesterday I was at the Magic Kingdom for the first time in awhile. Even if it was to experience an attraction one last time, overall I had a lot of fun there. After Sunday, Splash Mountain will be no more; next year it will be a reskinned ride, this time based on an animated movie I haven’t seen before-The Princess and the Frog. That is as controversial as you’d expect so no comment on my part, nor how it’s always been funny that Splash Mountain is based on animated segments in a live-action film which has aged so poorly that Disney is petrified to release it in the United States in any format since 1986. I’ve been fortunate to have been on Splash Mountain many times through the years but I had to do so one last time. My time at the Magic Kingdom was pretty pleasant: a nice dinner, going on rides I visit frequently (Space Mountain, the Buzz Lightyear attraction) along with others that aren’t as frequent, such as the Carousel of Progress, which will always be charming… especially the further along in the future we get and the dialogue in the final act remains the same. After all, that final act was last updated, written and voiced THIRTY years ago so it’s rather quaint to hear of CAR PHONES and LASERDISCS as “wow” gadgets.

While there’s no shortage of videos on YouTube of the entire Splash Mountain ride (both at Walt Disney World and Disneyland) it will never be quite like actually getting in the log flume and getting drenched after the big drop. This last time at least had a heartwarming moment which is the perfect way to close out what has otherwise been me recounting sad events of varying degrees. I paid for Genie + to get on that and Space Mountain; like everyone I prefer the old FastPass system but that’s another topic for another time. In the “Lightning Lane” there was a mom, dad and little girl right behind me; they ended up right behind me on the ride also. I’m glad they got to experience that ride once, especially the girl. After the big drop she giggled uncontrollably, that’s how good of a time she had. I’m glad to have had a good time yesterday after the Tuesday night news.

One last random note: one thing I did last night after arriving home: I stumbled upon a YouTube video of the Carousel of Progress in 1981 that some person filmed on a Super 8 camera or some sort of camcorder. Wow was it different, and not just the final segment which was amazingly 70’s. Many people in 2023 would likely proclaim “it’s full of sexism” but you can find that on YouTube if you’re interested. To use a phrase from earlier, it’s aged poorly.