Wednesday, December 08, 2004
My first car, on Ebay
I like to browse EbayMotors and check out the old cars. Found a clone of the first car I ever bought - a 1970 AMC Rebel:
I bought this off of a little old lady for in Springfield. It looked good from the outside, but when I got it home I found the windshield was leaking, which let water into the car, which rusted out the floorpans from the inside. I had to tear our practically the whole floor and rebuild it with sheetmetal, poprivets and sealer.
I drove it for a few years, then sold it to my brother Ed. I think he got a year out of it before something in the rear suspension let go and that was that. More on this when my Cars series resumes, but thought I'd post this now while the listing is still on Ebay.
Find it here.
teebee
I bought this off of a little old lady for in Springfield. It looked good from the outside, but when I got it home I found the windshield was leaking, which let water into the car, which rusted out the floorpans from the inside. I had to tear our practically the whole floor and rebuild it with sheetmetal, poprivets and sealer.
I drove it for a few years, then sold it to my brother Ed. I think he got a year out of it before something in the rear suspension let go and that was that. More on this when my Cars series resumes, but thought I'd post this now while the listing is still on Ebay.
Find it here.
teebee
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Ah, Rudolph...
We all sat down last night and watched "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". A holiday classic, at least for me, right up there with "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and ,to a lesser extent ('cuz it's "modern"), "Frosty the Snowman". Previous generations had "It's a Wonderful Life". My generation has the above 4. Wonder what this new generation will have - "It's a Bratz Christmas"?
Anyway, Rudolph is still as charming as ever. Some of the blatent stereotyping and intolerance of nonconformity made me wince, but if it slid off my back as a kid I'm sure it's likewise doing the same for my kids. Was trying to remember who was the sponsor for this when I was a kid (it was on CBS back then too) - was it Dolly Madison? Little Debbie? Something like that.
Hey - whatever happened to the "other" Christmas shows - "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", "The Year Without a Santa Claus" and "The Little Drummer Boy"? Guess they didn't make the cut. Drummer boy I could do without, but the other 2 are great.
Holiday fun.
teebee
Anyway, Rudolph is still as charming as ever. Some of the blatent stereotyping and intolerance of nonconformity made me wince, but if it slid off my back as a kid I'm sure it's likewise doing the same for my kids. Was trying to remember who was the sponsor for this when I was a kid (it was on CBS back then too) - was it Dolly Madison? Little Debbie? Something like that.
Hey - whatever happened to the "other" Christmas shows - "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", "The Year Without a Santa Claus" and "The Little Drummer Boy"? Guess they didn't make the cut. Drummer boy I could do without, but the other 2 are great.
Holiday fun.
teebee
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
TeeBee's Reviews
This week, TeeBee reviews 1 theater release and 2 DVD rentals.
*The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie*
We all went to the Spongebob Squarepants movie on Saturday. I enjoyed it, but thought it was stretching things a bit to take a 15-minute format and elongate it to 88 minutes - there was too much downtime between laughs for me. Still, it had all the trademark Spongebob elements you've come to expect and enjoy - unashamed goofiness from Spongebob and Patrick, exasperated crabbiness from Squidward, an evil plot from Plankton and lots of supporting characters to supply one-liners. A bit of tension thrown in to liven things up, but not enought to overwhelm the young'uns. Potty humor - check. Characters in their underwear - check. Burping - check. A happy ending - check.
An overall worthy effort.
*PeeWee's Playhouse*
It seems like a million years ago that Gina and I were unmarried, no kids, renting a basement apartment, sleeping in on weekends and watching PeeWee's Playhouse on Saturday mornings. I really liked the show - wierd, offbeat but with a good heart. Paul Ruben's star has since fallen (but seems to be back on the rise), but I still liked the show.
Now it's back on DVD, and we rented the 1st 7 episodes and watched with the kids. 15 years later and it's still fresh and funny. The kids really liked it. It still has that goofy, slightly edgy, not-sure-exactly-what's-going-on kind of feel, but again with a good-natured slant. Admittedly a bit strange to watch PeeWee pretending to be a kid after all of the Michael Jackson stuff that's been going on, but any of that is vastly overshadowed by the quality of the show. Thumbs-up.
*The Prisoner*
I can remember watching this as a kid and being just *terrified* by the wierdness of the show, the closing credits when the face comes zooming at you, and the roaring, whooshing attack sound of the Rovers and that shot of someone's face pressing through the surface as the Rover attacked - brrrrr!
OK - I'm better now.
I rented the "1st" episode of The Prisoner (in a 2-for-1 at our local mom-and-pop video store - something you'll never get at Blockbuster, thank you very much!) and watched it with Gina. A bit dated with the 60's look and feel, but still edgy and creepy. Patrick McGoohan is very daunting as #6 - why is he there? Is he good or evil? The village is still a creepy James-Bond-meets-George-Orwell society where no one can be trusted. I liked it and plan to rent more episodes.
teebee
*The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie*
We all went to the Spongebob Squarepants movie on Saturday. I enjoyed it, but thought it was stretching things a bit to take a 15-minute format and elongate it to 88 minutes - there was too much downtime between laughs for me. Still, it had all the trademark Spongebob elements you've come to expect and enjoy - unashamed goofiness from Spongebob and Patrick, exasperated crabbiness from Squidward, an evil plot from Plankton and lots of supporting characters to supply one-liners. A bit of tension thrown in to liven things up, but not enought to overwhelm the young'uns. Potty humor - check. Characters in their underwear - check. Burping - check. A happy ending - check.
An overall worthy effort.
*PeeWee's Playhouse*
It seems like a million years ago that Gina and I were unmarried, no kids, renting a basement apartment, sleeping in on weekends and watching PeeWee's Playhouse on Saturday mornings. I really liked the show - wierd, offbeat but with a good heart. Paul Ruben's star has since fallen (but seems to be back on the rise), but I still liked the show.
Now it's back on DVD, and we rented the 1st 7 episodes and watched with the kids. 15 years later and it's still fresh and funny. The kids really liked it. It still has that goofy, slightly edgy, not-sure-exactly-what's-going-on kind of feel, but again with a good-natured slant. Admittedly a bit strange to watch PeeWee pretending to be a kid after all of the Michael Jackson stuff that's been going on, but any of that is vastly overshadowed by the quality of the show. Thumbs-up.
*The Prisoner*
I can remember watching this as a kid and being just *terrified* by the wierdness of the show, the closing credits when the face comes zooming at you, and the roaring, whooshing attack sound of the Rovers and that shot of someone's face pressing through the surface as the Rover attacked - brrrrr!
OK - I'm better now.
I rented the "1st" episode of The Prisoner (in a 2-for-1 at our local mom-and-pop video store - something you'll never get at Blockbuster, thank you very much!) and watched it with Gina. A bit dated with the 60's look and feel, but still edgy and creepy. Patrick McGoohan is very daunting as #6 - why is he there? Is he good or evil? The village is still a creepy James-Bond-meets-George-Orwell society where no one can be trusted. I liked it and plan to rent more episodes.
teebee
