Odd way to spend the 4th. 
It’s at the Marriott on Great America parkway near the stadium called Levi’s again, so there’s a big fifa standee. 
So many nerds. No cosplay hawtties (yet). A few bad cross dressers.

Already interviews the light saber group & a knife maker. Waiting for the martial arts dude - a swordplay recreationist, the type the maestro & I disdain.

Came a little too early because my parking will cost a lot if I stay past 4 hours. Might leave & comeback.

(06-17-2026, 07:42 AM)Drunk Monk Wrote: Hunt the Wicked



It's all about Miao Xie now...

I've never seen it, just clips from various musical numbers. I've searched on various streaming platforms, but none had it, except as a rental. It never occurred to me to check YouTube. 



This seems to be the film in its entirety, except that the musical parts are cut a bit...I would have guess that this was to avoid YouTube's copyright bots, but songs are mostly intact, long enough that Inwould guess they would still trigger copyright take-downs, and annoying enough to make the music bits less enjoyable.

I knew that the Bonzo Dog band played Death Cab for Cutie in this (giving a later band its name), but I did not know that the suitor of Ringo's aunt was named Buster Bloodvessel (singer for Bad Manners). I'd never seen the Blue Jay Way bit...that had some cool ideas.

I know the whole thing was a mishmash. Paul said let's go film stuff and capture what happens and unfortunately nothing did. Editing this into something cohesive must have been a bear. 

I can now check that off my list. 

--tg
PS: the walrus was NOT Paul.

I won 2 tix from FB: https://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFo...7#pid84917

I like the guild. It's intimate, but fancy...we got there early enough that we could grab a spot right by the stage. Ran in to a couple people I knew and chatted...people watched a bit. 

Right about 8pm, Monkey came out. It was their 30 anniversary. They were tight and lots of fun. Great vocal harmonies, rudimentary choreography, dynamics. Good stuff. Mosh pit started about the 3rd or 4th song in, but didn't last. About that time, an Ed Bagley Jr look-alike in a sharp suit came down to the dance floor, stood right next to me and stated doing the best/most amazing ska dancing. Fully committed. The guy was awesome. He danced for 2 or 3 songs straight, then left. Later, I figured out that he was the DJ that was camped out in the balcony before and between sets. Monkey played for about 30-40min. 

Let's Go Bowling came on after a short intermission. It's their 40th anniversary. They are a bigger band, adding keyboards, second guitar, and trombone. They seemed to have a bigger fan base present. They were ok, but less energy than Monkey, and they had a really long set, almost 2 hours. They covered Shame & Scandal by Madness which was pretty good. They have a great bass player. He sounded great and was just in the groove all night. He was a very large man, bald, in all black, sitting on a stool in the back, next to the drummer, but almost off stage. Occasionally, a stage light would land on him from above and it struck me that he looked like Marlon Brando from Apocalypse Now.  

Fun, unexpected night out. There aren't any sad ska songs. 

--tg

This was fine. Completely what I expected. A very pleasant way to spend two hours. Good voice cast. Mystery was so-so. Lots of good visual puns littered throughout.

No sword fights. Recommended if you are looking for a cozy mystery.

Only 1900 more to go...

--tg

Unlimited nachos and whiskey
Suite life is good

In case you had a hankering for some Siberian music today.

The founder of Arista. 

Bob Weir allegedly changed the lyrics of Jack Straw from 'we used to play for silver, now we play for life' to 'we used to play for acid, now we play for Clive.'

Another limited series based on a Harlen Coben novel. I have probably read the novel.  I can't remember a single plot point in this unfamiliar story. But it has the Halmarks of a Coben novel. Something tragic happened in the past which is now coming back to effect the future. 

David Burroughs went to prison for bludgeoning his five year old son to death. He claims innocence but the evidence shows otherwise. Five years later, Burroughs sister-in-law shows up at the prison with a picture of Burroughs still alive. And off we go. Mistaken assumptions galore propels the story. Everyone seems to be lying for good reasons and bad. It is nice to see a Coben novel in the setting for which it is written so we are traveling up and down the Eastern Seaboard in the quest for clues from Maine to New York with the FBI always just one step behind Burroughs. 

It's enjoyable if implausible. Two episodes in with I think 4 left to go.