Pee Wee's Playhouse

I've been watching Cartoon Network's Adult Swim's reruns of Pee Wee's Playhouse (Wikipedia's entry) and it really takes me back to the late 80's/early 90's. I must have seen every episode three or four times because I remember them with great clarity.

 

I also find it hilarious that it's showing at 11 at night when the kiddies are supposed to be asleep. My sister was watching it at the tender age of 5 and I at 13.

 

I absoultely love the first season. It was an absurd mixture straight out of a John Waters movie. Everything fits together: the wonderful incedental music by Mark Mothersbaugh; the strange toys; the puppets; the speedo-wearing, buff and tan Tito the lifeguard; and the Divine Mrs. Steve.

 

The second season started up the other night - wow, what a disappointment. I forgot how much things changed. And not for the better, in my opinion.

 

In the first episode of the second season, Pee Wee is redecorating his playhouse and everything's under drop cloths. I guess this is their way of easing the kids at home into the big changes.

 

And those changes in order of what irks me most are:

• Captain Carl (the always funny late Phil Hartman) is gone
  
• The incedental music of Mark Mothersbaugh is replaced by that of The Residents and is more like traditional cartoon music than Mothersbaugh's subtle stylings
  
• the cute and sassy Dixie is replaced by the trio of flowers who now announce the King of Cartoon's arrival (lame!)
  
• the bedroom-eyed Globey, who always looked as if he were looking directly at whomever was talking to him, is replaced by a new cartoony, beady-eyed one (although the French accent remains)
  
• there's a new King of Cartoons (and a TV to replace the film projector; Pee Wee was righteously disappointed when the new King bestowed upon him the TV)
  
• beefcake Tito the life guard (hey, everything can use more Tito!) is replaced by Ricardo the soccer player who wears more modest shorts and a shirt (a shirt?!)
  
• the playhouse kids (did you know Opal was played by the ill-fated Natasha Lyonne?) are gone
  
• the "Divine" Mrs. Steve is replaced by Mrs. Renee

Thankfully, Lawrence Fishburn remains as Cowboy Curtis. (hoooo-whee!)

 

I'll still watch, but I'll feel cheated.

 

 

 

Jersey Shore literature

Salon is doing a series of book discussions focused on where in the world the book is set. Today's article by Susy Hansen is about the literature of the Jersey Shore. The first book on her list is Frederick Reiken's Lost Legends of New Jersey .

 

I read this a couple of years ago and found Reiken's discussions of the Shore to be pretty much just an expansion of those "You know you're from the Jersey Shore if..." emails. Great for people who grew up in Jersey and moved away, boring for people like me who still live here. FYI: The book only focuses on the Shore in the first half; it moves up to North Jersey thereafter.

How to take the bus from Aldrich Road in Howell, NJ to New York Port Authority

I recently took the bus from the Aldrich Road Park and Ride in Howell, NJ to New York Port Authority. When I take a mode of transportation I've never taken before, I like to do a little research about fares, tickets, parking and all that. I couldn't find much on the web about daily parking at the park and ride so I set out in the real world to find out and am sharing my knowledge with you here.

Note: At off-peak hours, the bus to NYC doesn't stop at the Aldrich Road park and ride, instead it picks passengers up at the bus stop on Route 9 North just before Aldrich Road. You can park at the park and ride regardless of where you board the bus.

Schedule: You can find the PDF schedule (valid as of July 28, 2006) for NJ Transit route 139 here at the NJ Transit website.

Costs (as of July 28, 2006):

• The bus costs $12 one-way. It seems that you can't buy a round-trip ticket, so you'll have to buy two one-way tickets.


• The park and ride costs $.25 to park for 3 hours. You can park for a maximum of 24 hours.

To use the park and ride when boarding the bus in the park and ride:

1. Buy your ticket(s) from the Colonial Coffee Shoppe in the Aldrich Plaza strip mall, located at the Southwest corner of Route 9 North and Aldrich Road.




2. Park your car in the park and ride, just behind the strip mall on Aldrich.

   
   

   Daily parking is in the West side of the lot (the side furthest from Route 9).

   
   

   Daily parking spaces are numbered. Only monthly permit holders should park in non-numbered spaces.
   

3. Remember your parking space number.




4. At the park and ride bus shelter, go to the machine with the big 'P' on it and pay for your parking.
   

   Follow the instructions on the screen.
   

5. Sit back and wait with joyous anticipation for your bus.
   

To use the park and ride when boarding at the bus stop on Route 9 North: I suggest parking your car at the park and ride first, walking to the Colonial Coffee Shoppe to get your tickets, and then walk up to the bus stop.

Helpful Hints

• Sometimes buses from the Academy bus line substitute for NJ Transit. So don't be surprised if you wait in line at the Port Authority at the gate that says it's for NJ Transit route 139 and then get to the bus and find Academy bus #500-something. You can politely ask the driver whether or not the bus will be stopping at your stop.
  
• Don't sit directly behind the driver if you plan on talking to your companion or on your cell phone. I've learned this from experience. Apparently, if you look out the window while talking, your voice in full volume travels up the window to the driver and distracts him. The driver will get very angry and start yelling at you to keep it down.

Update (8/3/06):Here's the Wikipedia article about bus 139.

President Garfield died there

I'm reading Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation and while trying to find where the old Francklyn Cottage was in Long Branch, NJ (where President Garfield died; I think Vowell might tell me, but I'm not at that part yet), I found this cool website of old prints chronicling Garfield's death.

 

Hat tip to Annabelle for bringing up the story a couple of months ago and reminding me to read this book. (I hope she doesn't mind the pseudonym I gave her!)

 

If I had a million dollars

Audrey Hepburn's black dress from the first scene in Breakfast at Tiffany's is going up for auction. Le sigh.

Kill, Do, or Marry

Ok, gang, let's play Kill, Do, or Marry!

For each choice, tell us if you would kill them, do them, or marry them. Give us a little explanation for each choice to make this fun.

You can just play with choices of the opposite sex, or for even more fun, play with both sexes!

Here are your choices:

Women:
Katie Holmes
Angelina Jolie
Gweneth Paltrow

Men:
Keanu Reeves
Woody Harrelson
Robert Downey Jr

Go!

Yeah yeah, she's cute, but what's her thetan count?

Only Scientologists can see Suri-with-a-fringe-on-top.

Look out, Plankton! The oil companies are comin' ta git ya!

Geez, I didn't think Plankton was that bad.

This is weird - when I did a Google search for the Spanish company that's partnering with the Spanish University of Alicante to make the oil, Bio Fuel Systems, I found a company called BioFuel Systems based in England.

The only thing I can find that mentions Bio Fuel Systems, the University of Alicante, and plankton is the Reuters article.

And I realized after reading the article more closely that nobody's name is used. The article only attributes a "press dossier" from the company.

The article does say that Bio Fuel Systems was created this year, but I would think that a cutting edge company that released a press dossier would have a Web site containing that very dossier.

So I guess Plankton is safe: I wouldn't count on gas from that process any time soon.

Don't marry a gossip

I admit it - I'm hooked on My Life on the D List, the reality show that follows Kathy Griffin around doing her D list-y things. I find it funny - she's funny and she tells a good story. And I'm all about the story telling these days, which is why I listen to The Croncast, because I'm trying to hone my own story telling skills so I can start writing good fiction.

Anyway, back in May, Kathy Griffin divorced her husband, Matt, who was heavily featured in the show, because he stole about $72,000 from her.

So Kathy went on Larry King and told her story and Matt doesn't like that because it's a private affair. He hasn't been blabbing about it, so why is she?

Uh, hello? Because she's Kathy Griffin, queen of gossip, and this is a really juicy story, that's why.

You should have known what you were getting into, buddy.

Howell is safe

An Asbury Park Press article reported that Howell is the 11th safest town in the whole country.

I can attest to that. During the recent Independence Day four-day weekend, about half of our neighbors were shooting off firecrackers and bottle rockets and not a one caused a fire. Neither did I hear about anyone losing any fingers.

Cats that Look Like Hitler

The name says it all:

www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com

My b/w cat does not look like Hitler, although he does tend to bark (meow?) orders at me quite a bit.

The Monks!

There's a new documentary out about The Monks, a band from the 60's made up of U.S. Army GIs stationed in Germany. I first learned of them from a WFMU video. The documentary doesn't have international distribution yet but rumor has it that the band will reunite for a late-2006 tour.

But mine goes to 6.0

Holy crap.

Just make the damn site intuitive!

From Overheard in the Office.

You know what happens when you assume things?

I was thinking about why wearing a Support the Troops t-shirt would be considered an act of protest.

Maybe someone was reading into the message the wrong way because he feels very guilty that his actions aren't actually supporting the troops? Hmmm?

Granted, the woman wasn't treated as badly as Cindy Sheehan, but she was still removed from the audience.

Stress

As one of the buttons on my denim jacket in high school said, stress is "The confusion created when one's mind overrides the body's desire to beat or choke the living shit out of some asshole who desperately deserves it."

Seems like I know a lot of people who want to choke somebody what with the Alito confirmation, the spying, the continued violence in Iraq, bickering going on in the office while the cats are away...

Little less than 7 weeks till Hawaii! Hooray!

R.I.P. Chris Penn

I wasn't going to comment on the recent death of Chris Penn, one of my favorite actors, because I don't like projecting feelings I would feel for a friend onto a complete stranger.

But my iPod played Sinatra's It Was a Very Good Year and then Stealers Wheel's Stuck in the Middle with You and even though Penn wasn't in that scene in Reservoir Dogs it nevertheless made me think of him and how I'm sorry I won't see him in much of anything else again.

And when I read that one of his last movies is the upcoming The Darwin Awards, I kinda winced.

The black cloud of crime spreads far and wide

O! how I wish a story like this popped up in the Montclair State campus police blotter when I was on that beat.

In today's Asbury Park Press police briefs lies an item just teeming with story ideas for one Guy Ritchie (or maybe it's a sequel to Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle).

Two guys, one from Piscataway, the other from Woodbridge, work at one of those shady car audio shacks you see across the state, this one in Edgewater Park. (Edgewater Park??!! That's about an hour from where these guys live so I hope the pay is worth it).

They go to Eatontown (Eatontown??!!) thinking they're going to sell some audio equipment to a bunch of guys in 80 Acre Park at 11:30 on a Saturday night.

So it's no surprise to you that once these guys get to the park, they "were threatened [by five guys, one of whom works for the Bradley Beach Department of Public Works] with a knife and a gun and robbed of jewelry, cash, cellular telephones and their 1997 Chevrolet van, which contained equipment from their business."

I see quick cuts slickly edited to the funky beats of James Brown as the Dept. of Public Works employee and his gang plan the heist and tool up route 35...

Ritmo Latino: the correct link

A while ago I posted about one of my favorite podcasts, Ritmo Latino. I gave you links that were all wrong. This one is the right one.

Listen to it! It's great work-out music...

Prejudiced Google

This article points out a "Prejudice Map," which points out stereotypes of the world according to Google's search results. It's cute; not all countries are represented.