August 2019:
Not gonna lie, even though I’ve never owned a TRS-80 in my life (one of the few commercially-available American home computers of the early ’80s that I haven’t owned), I was REALLY tempted to get this, just because I have such fond memories of Bogarting TRS-80 time at my local Radio Shack as a kid to play it.
This cat had a pretty good couple of months. Yeah, I got in on his first Topps Now, albeit not out of the gate. He’s on my keeper league fantasy team now, too. We’ll see how that goes.
I hit a new-to-me bookstore in August, The Montague Bookmill in Montague, MA. Billed as “Books You Don’t Need In A Place You Can’t Find”, it’s a great store filled with solid inventory, built from a converted old mill building alongside the Sawmill River. Gorgeous location, comfortable shopping and browsing experience, highly recommended if you’re in the area or traveling through it. I picked up two books by downtown New York guys with similar hair…
I had a cassette copy of the cast recording of the Bogosian play back in the ’80s, and I want to see how the material holds up. In Lou’s case, Lou’s Lou. He was an imperfect dude, to put it mildly, but for a generation and change, he was one of our imperfect dudes. I had kind of a Lou year in 2019, which we’ll revisit later…
In August, I also made it to my first live wrestling card in 17 years (the last time I went was the first MLW show in June of ’02), a collaborative show between Blitzkrieg Pro and Big Time Wrestling celebrating BP’s anniversary.
Here’s Bret “The Hitman” Hart and Ax (Bill Eadie) and Smash (Barry Darsow) of Demolition waving to the crowd after addressing them (all 3 were at the card signing stuff).
While I was there, I met “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy, hero of millions…or whatever.
The Freshly Squeezed one ran into some serious trouble that night, as he was facing The Boogeyman, and while OC is usually pretty chill about things, he was, understandably, very afraid.
So afraid, in fact, that after The Boogeyman spat worms at him (yes, really), he tried to run away. When he ran up into the stands, I actually tried to get him to hide behind me (yes, I, a 45 year old man with a history of head injuries, tried to intervene in a professional wrestling match; way to go there, Icarus…), so The Boogeyman wouldn’t see him, but he apparently didn’t feel like this was an effective enough strategy, so he kept running, but not before I got this “Blair Witch Project”-esque shot of him…
Eventually, not long after that, it ended poorly.
Orange Cassidy has since recovered, and landed on his feet in All Elite Wrestling, so he’s OK, I guess. I’m not sure what The Boogeyman’s been up to lately.
This entire exchange, including the part where I try to help Orange Cassidy hide from The Boogeyman, was captured on video from not one, but two different camera angles, so one of the more ridiculous things I’ve ever done in my life has been preserved for future generations (or however long YouTube lasts) to enjoy.
I show up around 3:43 on this one….
…and 4:26 on this one.
First-run movies watched in August 2019 (1): Hobbs & Shaw (it was the Snakes on a Plane of movies featuring both Hobbs & Shaw!)
Television seasons binge-watched in August 2019 (5): GLOW Season 2 (dark, and there are choice I wouldn’t have made, but I was still entertained), Kobra Kai Season 2 (better than it has any right to be, even if you don’t have the nostalgic familiarity with the characters that I do), The Strain Seasons 2-4 (I loved the first 2-hour episode, one of my best ever TV viewing experiences…and then they did 3+ more seasons of it…I really wish it had lived up to the promise of that first pilot).
Comic books cancelled or ending in August 2019 (1): Rolled & Told (Lion Forge). It’s sort of cheating, calling this one a comic book, as it’s really an all-ages, modern version of a Dragon Magazine-esque magazine covering Dungeons & Dragons, with a complete short adventure in each issue and, oh yeah, a comic within the magazine that serves as a lead-in to each adventure. I still have to go back and read a bunch of the 12 issue run they did before they went on hiatus (the series is supposedly coming back in Fall of 2020), because each issue is packed with articles and information. There’s a hardcover compilation of the run available now, if you can’t find single issues. If you play D&D on the regular, and/or want to, but have friends who are having trouble committing to a lengthy campaign, I highly recommend Rolled & Told.
September was a big month (and July/August weren’t exactly small), so bear with me, it may take a bit.