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Post by Mod City on Feb 10, 2014 14:23:39 GMT -5
Joel did this not far from where I live, but I couldn't make my schedule work. The local paper did a nice cover piece in the weekend arts section that I still have, though. Wish I could have made it.
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Post by Mod City on Feb 3, 2014 21:50:26 GMT -5
Glad to see you're getting some ink on the project. Though, as a fan, I hope FSR would correct Joel's last name from Hodges to Hodgson. Joel is a bit of a legend around here, after all Continued luck with your doc!
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Post by Mod City on Feb 3, 2014 0:28:17 GMT -5
I was confused and thought the new season kicked off tonight, but the marathon is keeping me entertained. Glad it's about to come back, my Sunday nights were pretty void without it.
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Post by Mod City on Feb 2, 2014 14:43:19 GMT -5
Wow, I did not expect to read that today. That's really too bad, he was a heck of an actor. I thought he was great in Boogie Nights. And he was awesome in Charlie Wilson's War.
Rest well, sir.
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Post by Mod City on Jan 30, 2014 23:10:22 GMT -5
It's going pretty well. We kind of work on a week on, week off schedule. We did a lot of work on the underside and fixed (we believe) several mechanical and electronic issues. We won't know for sure until we get it back in and turn the power on. Otherwise, a fresh box of parts just arrived and I put another in with another vendor, so we should be ready for the next phase next week. The big fun/challenge will be thoroughly cleaning and reassembling the playfield stuff. The artwork is pretty cool, but it's considered middle-of-the-road, if that, as far as good pinball art goes. And yeah, Winona and Gary seem to be having an...ecstatic...time. The backglass is really quite nice, especially with the flashers working great behind it, but I don't have a good picture of it handy. I'm surprised how many people have seen the machine and said they had no recollection at all of the movie. It's pretty good for what it is, and a damn sight better than that freaking Twilight nonsense. We've taken a lot of pictures not with my camera, so I only have a few to share, but here are a few. Here's a plastic that's been warped by heat and weight. It's also broken toward the back, if you look carefully. These are originally and have not been reproduced to my knowledge. That means we'll make due unless I can find someone with an old one they want to sell. The warping can be corrected by using a heat gun, the kind that you use to activate shrink wrap and the like. Place the plastic on a flat pizza stone, and slowly heat it up with the gun. It twists and warps with the heat and then lies flat. Let cool. Makes a big difference in appearance. Looking up the playfield. We'll be replacing the two yellow and one red target at the center of the picture. They work, but are beat to hell. So we're working on it. I'm excited to start on the playfield cleaning in earnest. That's the biggest thing you notice when it's all back together and working.
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Post by Mod City on Jan 29, 2014 12:58:54 GMT -5
The concept of not coming into work because of weather is lost on me, but when you're not experienced driving in those conditions, yeah, best to just stay put. It can be amusing to watch from afar, but when accidents become fatal due to the road conditions combined with inexperience, obviously that's not funny at all.
Take care down there, guys, and know your limits.
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Post by Mod City on Jan 23, 2014 12:15:43 GMT -5
The Bram Stoker's Dracula shop job has begun! We're about two weeks in, taking our time, and trying to keep track of all the dang parts. Lord, there are a lot of parts on this machine. We've got about as much of the top stripped as we're going to do, and tonight we'll be doing an evening of work on the underside. Been taking lots of pictures, but this is the only one I have access to here at work. You can see we've taken much of the upper half of the top apart. We've done some pre-cleaning so far, and it's coming out quite nice. After we finish the underside work we'll go back to the top and do a final, hard core cleaning. We've already identified what we think are the solutions to a couple of problems, and we're gearing up for another parts order. Will try to get some better pics up at some point.
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Post by Mod City on Jan 21, 2014 19:29:22 GMT -5
I don't know of any rulebook that says in order to be a fan of the show, you have to love every single episode of it. Many, many fans have episodes they like more than others, seasons of the show they like more than others, and yeah, a host they prefer over the other. I got hooked on the show in 1991 and watched until right around before Joel left when I left for college. I didn't watch another episode until Space Mutiny, but immediately picked it up again when I realized it was still a great show, and generally unchanged despite the host difference.
The Russo-Finish episodes are still some of my least favorite because I don't really enjoy the movies, despite their utter weirdness. To some fans, these are the definitive episodes of the series. With almost 200 shows at around 90 minutes of running time each, there's going to be parts that just don't do it for you.
As for the change in tone over the years, yeah, it's probably there, but it never seems to morph out of what it is at heart.
Just enjoy what you enjoy of the series. That makes you a MSTie, as far as I'm concerned.
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Post by Mod City on Jan 16, 2014 20:11:17 GMT -5
They don't make them like Gilligan's Island anymore. What a sweet, simple, silly little show. Grew up watching reruns after school in the early to mid-80s.
I remember one special where they escaped the island (can't remember if they did this more than once, want to say it was in the 80s), and the Professor has a nice lab and he's all excited inventing things, but they're all things that were invented and made people successful while he was stuck on the island. Like the Frisbee, which the Skipper points out someone else has already come up with. I felt for the poor guy!
Rest well, sir.
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Post by Mod City on Jan 9, 2014 14:30:59 GMT -5
I'll agree with Space Mutiny, for sure. That was the episode that brought me back to the series after years of not watching. There are some other good suggestions above, but I'd also consider Pod People. It might be a little slow for some, but that was part of the appeal for me. Felt like I should be dozing off while watching it, if I hadn't been laughing out loud.
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Post by Mod City on Jan 7, 2014 20:18:10 GMT -5
Beer is a winter refugee's best friend! Chicago is one of the few major US cities that really know a cold winter (Minneapolis/St. Paul is another). My dad still says the coldest he's ever been is feeling the wind from the lake effect in Chicago. Respect, crowfan Chicken - I've been to Hawaii (beautiful place), so I can see that being cold for the climate. Being from the Great Plains makes the idea of not having a furnace in the house unfathomable, though it makes perfect sense in tropical places. Like spice said, it's all relative. Cold is cold for wherever you are. We're warming up, too. Supposed to be in the 30s tomorrow and Thursday. Things are looking up.
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Post by Mod City on Jan 7, 2014 0:58:40 GMT -5
Caught the return of Community and I'm glad it's back. Harmon is obviously working around and with what happened last season, but I could tell he was working the strings again. I hope the shortened season is enough to build enough momentum to give the show its energy. Either way, I laughed quite a bit. A few quick notes:
* Crazy to see Pierce make an appearance, even as a hologram. Nice that they didn't just have him disappear. Wonder if they have anymore virtual Pierce bits in the can.
* The character played by Jonathan Banks really grew on me quickly. I've never watched enough Breaking Bad to know him, but by the end of his episode he was making me laugh hard. Troy: "Are you the coolest guy in the world?" Banks: "I doubt it." I hope he sticks around but I doubt he will.
* Abed got to shine with the Nick Cage bit. Great stuff.
* Donald Glover was kind of under the radar, but I have a feeling that will ramp up a bit. His Scrubs line was fantastic.
* Brita: "Psychologist. Psychology."
Again, glad it's back. Can't see it lasting beyond this season, but it is what it is.
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Post by Mod City on Jan 6, 2014 22:05:46 GMT -5
To be fair, when I say "it's not so bad," it means that winter has once again broken me and I find it impossible to care anymore
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Post by Mod City on Jan 6, 2014 14:42:27 GMT -5
It was -17 when I left for work this morning a bit before 9 a.m. Around a 28 mph wind is giving us somewhere in the neighborhood of -50 or -60 wind chill. No snowfall. Most schools called off today, which is weird as the skies are clear and so are the roads. Usually schools only close around here for visibility/snow accumulation reasons, but the cold has them all scared today. Don't want kids waiting for the bus in these temps. Better safe than sorry.
In all honesty, it was -10 a few weeks ago when I left for work, so this is cold, but it's not that bad. Just a few years ago it his -25 overnight twice in the span of three weeks and nobody said anything about it. Nobody cares until it starts to encroach on the east coast. Then national news treats it like nobody has even heard of sub-zero temperatures.
I wish I didn't have to deal with work today, but those are the breaks. Good day to stay indoors.
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Post by Mod City on Jan 3, 2014 13:42:06 GMT -5
I'm trying to figure out if Joel ever uttered the phrase "...not the slant six Swinger!" in any episode other than Phase IV. I can hear him uttering it so clearly and it's ingrained in my MST3K memory, but I'm surprised a KTMA episode line has stuck with me for so long and so clearly. Which makes me wonder if that's a line that crossed over to the Comedy Channel/Central era of the show somewhere, where I may have heard it more frequently.
I had to do some research to even remember that the line was in Phase IV, but couldn't find any other references to it. Thanks for any help, all.
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