“No time to count what I’m worth
‘Cause I just left the planet earth
Where I go I hope there’s rum
Not to worry mon soon come” -‘Volcano’, Jimmy Buffett

We have been losing a lot of legends in 2023 so far, and there was yet another that passed away yesterday.

Jimmy Buffett has some of the greatest songs of all time, Margaritaville, Fins, Come Monday, Son of a Son of a Sailor etc. Honestly, I am not sure how many songs Jimmy Buffett has had and I do not think he has done anything new over the last many years. I know the songs that are on the greatest hits album, Songs That You Know By Heart, but I do not know many more than that.

Truthfully, there are a lot of people who are more fans of Jimmy Buffett than I am. I have a couple of friends who are much greater Buffett fans than I am, and they have even gone seen Buffett in concert multiple times. I thought of them immediately when I found out about the loss.

Much of Buffett’s music dealt with drinking, which is something that I do not do. However, just because his songs feature topics that I do not do, doesn’t mean that I can not enjoy the music. I mean… Why Don’t We Get Drunk is not a philosophy that I live my life by, but that does not stop me from belting out the lyrics any time I hear that song.

Wherever Jimmy Buffett is right now, let’s hope that he has access to an unlimited amount of rum.

RIP Jimmy Buffett.

It is that time of the year again. The poll is active and the ballot is available on the main page.

Vote here: https://embraceyourgeeknesseyg.com/

You may vote as many times as you would like.

You may vote for any nominees that you think deserve to be inducted in the 2023 Class of EYG HoF.

The poll remains open until Talk Like a Pirate Day (psst… that is September 19th, if you are a landlubber who did not know).

Nominees include:

Dungeons & Dragons (1983 animated TV program)

Barbie Doll (the toy)

G.I. Joe (the action figure)

The Armorer (a character from The Mandalorian)

John Wick (movie character)

The Witcher (streaming TV show on Netflix)

Wheel of Time (fantasy book series)

Return of the Jedi (Star Wars movie)

Smokey Bear (character)

time travel (theory)

Coelacanth (an ancient group of lobe-finned fish)

Neil de Grasse Tyson (American Astrophysicist)

Lock Ness Monster (legendary Scottish creature)

Power Rangers (characters/Team)

Frankenstein’s Monster (class monster)

Lebron James (NBA star player)

UFOs (unidentified flying objects)

Jurassic Park (movie featuring dinosaurs)

Marques Brownlee (YouTube creator)

streaming videos (digital online videos)

Kenner Star Wars toys (original Star Wars toys)

electric vehicles (new cars that run on electricity)

Dave Filoni (director, producer, screenwriter, and voice actor. Mind behind Mandalorian)

It has been awhile since I attended a RiffTrax Live show, and tonight, I was able to go to the latest film being riffed by the three gentlemen. That film is the 1986 BMX bike film, Rad.

RiffTrax includes Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett who watch the movie with an audience (this time with the actual star of the film, Bill Allen, who played Cru, was in attendance in the audience-no pressure guys) and the three comedians take turns cracking jokes about the film.

The last couple of RiffTrax events were okay, but did not reach the level of some of the classics such as Manos: The Hands of Fate, Birdemic: Shock and Terror or The Room.

Rad, however, was very funny and I found this one to be well worth the time. To be clear, the RiffTrax Live show is never bad. Just some are funnier than others. Rad presented the guys with a plethora of humor.

Plus, Rad had some “big” names in the cast including Rocky’s Talia Shore (which had one of the best riff line of the film: as she looked down on screen, ‘I was in the Godfather.’), Olympic medalist Bart Conner, and Lori Laughlin (who received a ton of riffs with the scandal about paying to get her kids into college).

I will admit that some of their jokes tend toward being out of date, but since their jokes feature allusions that fall right in to my generation, I catch more than I miss.

Fathom Events presented this night once again from a theater in Tennessee. I have always wondered if the show was truly live, but it seems as if everywhere I looked indicated that it was live and streamed across the nation.

They warmed up the audience with two short films, both featuring Gumby and Pokey animated films. Neither of the Gumby shorts were great, but it served its purpose.

I look forward to the next time they get together to riff a film.

I have been a Los Angeles Dodger fan since I have been a fan of baseball.

I remember when I became a Dodger fan. I was in fourth grade and two of my classmates asked me who I was cheering for in the World Series, the Yankees or the Dodgers. I had no idea. My parents were not sports fans so I was not exposed to baseball. I remember hearing Dodgers so I responded the Dodgers. They both said ‘Yeah!’ and ‘Alright!’ so I figured I made the right choice. From that point on, I became completely engaged in the sport and the history of it. I learned everything I could about baseball and the Dodgers.

One of my favorite players of all time is Fernando Valenzuela. I will always remember his amazing rookie season and how much I was behind him. Fernandomania was massive and created a unbelievable culture among the Mexican-American community of LA and nationwide!

Tonight in Los Angeles at Chavez Ravine, the Los Angeles Dodgers retire Fernando Valenzuela’s number 34.

The Dodgers have had a rule that the only numbers that are retired were members of the MLB Hall of Fame. The only numbers retired by LA have been Jackie Robinson’s #42, Pee Wee Reese’s #1, Tommy Lasorda’s #2, Duke Snyder’s #4, Gil Hodges’ #14, Jim Gilliam’s #19 (an exception to the rule as Gilliam was not a HoF member), Don Sutton’s #20, Walter Alston’s #24, Sandy Koufax’s #32, Roy Campanella’s #39, and Don Drysdale’s #53.

Nicknamed ‘El Toro,’ Valenzuela was a left hander who brought one of the more devastating and unusual pitches to the forefront of baseball, the screwball. Plus, during his windup, Valenzuela would look to the sky, and then close his eyes…before delivering his pitch to the batter. How difficult it had to be to be the batter and know this guy isn’t looking at you.

Fernando had a career record of 173-153, and, in his rookie season of 1981, went 13-7 (after winning his first 8 games), had 20 complete games (which is unheard of today), won the Rookie of the Year Award, the Cy Young Award and helped lead the Dodgers to the World Series victory.

Fernando is currently working as one of the Dodgers’ broadcasters on their Spanish broadcast.

He is one of my favorite players of all time and he deserves the honor that he is receiving tonight in Los Angeles. It is way overdue.

It all started at Cinemark in Davenport. Friday, July 21, 2023 at approximately 10 AM.

I went to the machine to pick up my tickets. I had purchased them online, as I always do. As a member of the Cinemark Movie Club (a Platinum member), getting them online is just too easy and convenient.

First up was Oppenheimer. It was being shown in the IMAX theater. At least, this was the theater I wanted to see it in. No sense in going to see this in a theater without the largest screen possible.

Excited to start the movie. I even had forgotten that i had my sunglasses on when I left the car. I usually leave them in the car, so here I had to hang them on my shirt.

Noovie is the opening pre-show with Maria Menounos.

Barbie is next up. It is in the XD theater.

Bought some popcorn for Barbie. I do not buy a lot of popcorn often, but it felt like a good day for a taste of the corn.

These seats would be all filled up before too long.

I had a great day at Cinemark, celebrating the event that was Barbenheimer!

Today is July 21st, and it is officially Barbenheimer day!

The release of two of the summer’s biggest films, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer are released in theaters today (technically last night) and are going head to head. For some reason, the idea of watching a double feature of these two movies has gotten me way more excited about both of them.

Honestly, at the beginning of the summer, neither of these two movies were films that I highly anticipated. I would have watched them both, but neither were appointment level for me.

Then, they started talking about the whole ‘Barbenheimer’ idea. Setting these two movies up, such polar opposites, as a perfect double feature is genius.

I mean, there have been plenty of times when two major films released on the same day. Perhaps part of the feel is that there has not been anything thins big since the COVID era. This feels different than other co-releases.

If I owned a movie theater, I would be taking advantage of the promotion of the dual films. There would be Barbenheimer specials and discounts for those who bought tickets for both in the same day.

The internet memes are certainly on fire as well. All of this has made me so excited that I am writing an EYG Blog post about it.

I am starting out watching Oppenheimer in IMAX and then I will follow that up with Barbie in XD. Big screens for a big event.

I hope this is as much fun as I think it may be.