Beatles 2000 TV Guide Promotion

Back in 2000, TV Guide had a pretty fun promotion where they featured each of the four Beatles on their own cover, and upon reading inside, found out that you could send away for a collectible WHITE ALBUM version of the issue- yep, a laminated and embossed TV Guide just like the Beatles' seminal 1968 LP!
Only thing that bothered me about this promotion  (besides the very expensive $15.00(!) charge for the variant issue plus shipping and handling) was that the Beatles featured on the covers were nowhere NEAR the"White Album" era of their careers, making this promotion feel more like a gimmick (which of course, it was) than tribute! Ah well, still looks pretty nice on my shelf of Beatle Collectibles!

The Saga of "Saga"

A few months ago, my friend Gerg who keeps abreast of all the newer comics and graphic novels out there came to town for a visit, and after shooting the breeze over lunch, we made our way to check out our old haunts, including a couple of comic stores that still were around back when he lived here.
 So we’re in there and he begins pulling the latest issue of a comic called SAGA, which was at the time on issue 4. I ask him about it, and he says it’s a comic that he’s really getting into lately, and thinks even my  overly-discriminating eye would like it. I laugh and tell him I’ll think about it, but then I see him mosey over to the clerk and ask her if she has the first three back-issues available. She concurs, and directs him to the shelf where issues 1, 2, and 3 are hidden behind some older releases. I eye the stack in his hand suspiciously, saying, “Hey, if you already have these issues, why are you buying them again? He doesn’t answer, but then OF COURSE, once we get back to my house, he hands them to me!!!

Alana and Marko with Baby Hazel

 I’m like, “DUDE! You don’t have to BUY me these- I told you that if I wanted to read ‘em, I’d get ‘em myself!”  “Yeah,” he replied, “But If I waited for YOU to buy these, the series might end before you felt like it!” “Besides”, he waved off my exasperation, “this series is written by Brian K. Vaughan, and I KNOW you like his writing.” I stopped for a minute. “Oh, wait, really? The guy who wrote Y THE LAST MAN??? Ummmm…Then…..OKAY, I’ll check it out, LOL!”

Freelancers: The Will and Lying Cat

The Strangely Sexy and Deadly Killer: The Stalk

By the time I actually got around to reading it, Gerg had already flown back to LA, but read it I did, and I was floored at how good it was! Like Y The Last Man, the stories were just FULL of these intriguing characters, and before you knew it, I was totally immersed in this story (and equally blown-away by Fiona Staples' amazing artwork!!)...The tale begins with the star-crossed relationship between a guy and girl from opposite sides of a war (two alien  races, one horned and one winged), who are trying to escape with their newly-born child while bounty hunters and government agents alike follow in hot pursuit! As the story progresses and you get to know all of them, hero and villain alike, you get the feeling you are getting prepped for a tale of immense proportions!!!!

Royal Pursuit: Prince Robot IV

Ghostly Givers: The Horrors

After that first initial  purchase by Gerg, I went down to the comic store and immediately put it onto my pull list because I knew I was going to be enjoying this one for awhile! We’re now up to issue #9, and unbelievably, it’s just getting better and BETTER!!!

The Will, Gwendolyn and a rescued Slave Girl

A Glimpse of Hawaii’s Past with “Hawaii 5-O”

Hawaii 5-O with the old Waialae Drive In in the background!

...and the same Waialae Overpass in 2013

 Thought some of you out there might appreciate seeing Hawaii Then and Now, through the lenses of Hawaii 5-O!!!

Below: Lippy Espienda's at the crossroads of Kapiolani and Kalakaua.

You can see the old CoCo's Restaurant across the street where my Grandmother worked for years!

It was originally the Kau Kau Korner, and later became the Hard Rock Cafe...

Monsarrat Avenue below Diamond Head:

This is a fun one- looking towards Diamond Head, the street and buildings look almost identical save for some streamlining the street and adding proper sidewalks...

But taking a look the OTHER WAY, and it's  a completely different story- this veiw is so different as to be unrecognizable to us! Only the Waikiki Shell looming back there proves this is the same street! 

Kapiolani Community College. Now this one blew our minds- been such a long time since we saw the old wooden buildings that were torn down to make way for the new KCC, most of these places are only identifiable because of Diamond Head in the background!

"Namahana Street"from "The Grandstand Play" episode, so interesting to see the old building and stores where they'd later erect the Waikiki Gateway Hotel and a small mini-park...

Also from "The Grandstand Play", a cool view of Ward Center/Ward Warehouse back when they actually WERE warehouses...

Below: The Intersection between Hobron and Ala Moana Blvd. Note that the big building in the first picture is the little building behind the Discovery Bay Center in the second!

Here's a scene that had Jas baffled- the old intersection to Aiea Heights Drive. Granted, we hardly went down to that side as kids, but the modern street widening into an almost highway sized width really threw him off! Amazing that that old building's still there, now a Subway!

Below: The Old Kapahulu Theater, where I saw the movie "Slithis" from my last post, LOL!

Amazingly, tyhe building NEXT to the theater's still there, though The Kapahulu Theater's been replaced by a Papa Johns....

Aw, sooooo Nostalgic! Watching these old episodes really takes me back to my childhood!
I'll add more Then and Now comparisons when I've got time!

Middle-School Movie Madness: Slithis!

    In 1978, my next door neighbor took a bunch of us squabbling kids down to the local theater (the grand old long-gone Kapahulu Theater), to see a new sci-fi horror flick called "Slithis" that my brother and his friends were dying to see, and a merry old time was had by all!
  There was quite a bit of a party atmosphere going on in that theater as I recall- for this promotion, they’d gotten some guy to actually dress up in a Slithis costume and walk up and down the aisles. Myuch to his chagrin, my older friends made it a point to follow and harass the monster as he made his rounds, poking and prodding him as well as gleefully squeezing his rubber costume butt!!!
  In the lobby of the theater, they offered forms you could fill out to receive the SLITHIS SURVIVAL KIT, and the gimmick was, if you saw Slithis twice and then sent in the ticket stubs you saved, you’d be sent this so-called survival kit in the mail.  After reading over the “fine print, my friend realized we could just walk around the theater and find all the discarded movie stubs all over the ground between the seats and send it in that very day! So we went crawling around on the floors of that theater between showtimes, and when we'd all found multiple stubs enough for all of us, we scurried home, filled out the form, and sent it off! 
   A few months later, I got a package in the mail- as I recall, an 8x10 manila envelope which was the said “Survival Kit”…The package contained a glossy 8x10 photo of Slithis complete with scrawly autograph (see the picture below, which a fellow Slithis Moviegoer uploaded awhile ago on an SF forum) 

Even MORE strange however, was the accompanying LETTER from Slithis, which not only told me to “Stay off the Drugs and Stay in School” (or some parental advice like that, which was very strange to hear from a deranged mutant killer monster), but it also told us to “Watch out for my SEQUEL, “SLITHIS RETURNS”!!!"
  Well we waited and WAITED, but ya know what, that movie never came out. Maybe they just couldn’t scrape up the cash to get it off the ground, or more likely, Slithis couldn’t bear coming back out to promote the new movie and then getting harassed by my friends again!