Dr. Spock's Backup Blog

 

  Radiator by Super Furry Animals (1997)

 It's 2026. I shouldn't be paying $20 for a 60 year old album on CD in 2026. Not even a special/deluxe edition or anything, just the regular old album. What's that all about?

 A little while ago I began a collection of various artist They Might Be Giants albums to compliment my already gigantic (ba dum ts) TMBG CD collection. It's pretty small but here it is so far. Starting off with the earliest of the bunch, it's the Rubáiyát: Elektra's 40th Anniversary album from 1990, celebrating what else, but Elektra's 40th anniversary. So far the only original contribution album in my collection which is a bit of a shame. I'd love to get more of them! TMBG contribution to this is "One More Parade" which was originally by Phil Ochs (AKA  The one that married Marvin Gaye in that one song ) from 1964. I got this one at a 2nd & Charles back in November, only $5.95! Aside from TMBG, this album also features tracks by The Cure, Metallica, Tracy Chapman, The Sugarcubes, 10,000 Maniacs and more. The second earliest is Never Mind The Mainstream: The Best Of MTV's 120 Minutes, Vol. 1 released by Rhino in 1991. The TMBG track featured is ...

 So today is the day the church sale we go to every year starts. I didn't find much but here's all of it! The first thing I found was this plush of the gummy bear (or "Gummibär" is they call him) of "I am a Gummy Bear" fame. It's supposed to play the song when you press his belly but the batteries are dead. The best thing I found by far was this RCA VCR!!! Now I can finally watch my VHS tapes again! This VCR seems to hate Dora The Explorer. When I got it, me and the guy running the electronics area tested it with two tapes: Turner and Hooch and a Dora The Explorer tape. Turner And Hooch played just fine, but Dora didn't work. Either this VCR hates Dora or the Dora tape is cursed.

 I've run out of ideas for this blog. Yesterday was the first day I missed while blogging. Even with the They Might Be Giants concert coming in a week, life has been kinda boring lately.

 Deep within the jungle we call Oakland County, once laid a sports and entertainment mecca, this mecca was known as the Palace of Auburn Hills. Opened back in 1988, it was home to the NBA's Piston for almost its entire life, and was the spot for many concerts during its time. It closed in 2017 (not even 30 years after it opened! What a waste!) and rotted for 3 years before it was demolished. Even though I live in Michigan, I didn't go to the Palace very often. My family isn't very interested in basketball or sports in general, and the stuff I wanted to go see was usually at the Fox Theatre or elsewhere. I did however, attend only 3 events at the Palace in my life. Here are all of them. My first Palace experience was back in 2011, when I saw The Wiggles there for the first time. This is the same concert I talked about in a  previous post,  and like I said over there, I don't remember a thing. Mostly because we didn't save anything aside from the ticket stubs. My seco...

 Nothing very interesting is happening in my life for at least 2 WEEKS! In celebration of this, here is what I did today. - I went to a rummage sale at a local heritage railway. I found absolutely nothing. - We got Chinese food! Yum! That's it.

  If you've ever been a chronically online 13 year old or someone who's lived in Metro-Detroit from the 80's to now, you've probably heard the name Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum at least once. It's a crazy place, a mix of museum and arcade. The best way I could describe it is Stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. I first went to Marvin's back in 2022. Marvin's moved out of their OG location early last year, and has been closed for over a year with no concrete reopening date yet. Most of these photos are from my latest visit, two days after Christmas 2024. Here are their Chuck E Cheese animatronics. They formerly had Chuck E, Pasqually, and early guest star Harmony Howlette, but they're long gone now. Marvin's dining/food court area. Lots of neon around this part! Marvin's "Passion Tester". I tried to use it last time and it didn't work. Am I really THAT bad of a lover? :( THE LAUGHING SAILOR!!! 😱😱😱 Marvin's Weather Stone....

  I finally got my World Is To Dig CD!!!

This week's CD: Miscellaneous T by They Might Be Giants (1991)

 Up until about 3 years ago, my favorite band EVER were The Aquabats. And they still are one of my favorites. Since i'll be seeing them again in June, I thought i'd share my Aquabats concert memories. I've been going to Aquabats shows for almost 12 years. My first ever Aquabats show was at St Andrews Hall in Detroit on May 2, 2014. It was my first real concert. I got a copy of the Radio Down EP on CD. Not counting my Yo Gabba Gabba CDs, it was my first ever Aquabats CD. Back in 2014 I would've never guessed how hard it would be to track down another copy of it. I lost it several years ago. It's now my holy grail of CDs, pretty much the last thing I need to complete my Aquabats CD collection.  I also wanted this exact T-shirt from the merch table, seen below, but I didn't get it because they didn't have it in my size. Koo-Koo Kangaroo was the opening act, they did their show in the audience!  3 years after, I saw my next Aquabats concert, on July 26, 2017, al...

 So basically I recently learned of an old Japanese rock paper scissors arcade game by Data East. Romanized it's called "Janken Game: Acchi Muite Hoi!". I would love to play it but I wouldn't have a clue how to play it with a standard game controller/keyboard lmao So basically this video of the game got recommended to a bunch of people around September/October. Suprisingly I don't think I ever saw it during that time. I usually get all the randomly recommended stuff too but not this one. During that time it also went viral on Twitter. I believe it reached its peak a month or two ago since that's when most of the fan content about this game was put out. I had seen it around a bit but I didn't learn more about it until recently. It seems that for the most part, the Janken Game hype train has died down. Better late than never I guess? 

 AWESOME!!!! Favorite tracks: Wu-Tang, Character Flaw and Get Down.

 Well I finally went and did my PSAT. Wasn't too hard tbh. Still i'm very glad it's over with. They Might Be Giants' The World Is To Dig is on streaming now. I'm still tempted to wait until I get my CD to listen but i'm not sure. Another new album I will definitely be preordering is Paul McCartney's new album "The Boys of Dungeon Lane". Problem is i'm not sure when I'll actually hit the "preorder" button. It's $20 which is a bit more expensive than the average CD. It also won't come out until late May, so we got quite a lot of time to do it. Either way, I'm still super excited for both!!!

 THE WORLD IS TO DIG COMES OUT TOMORROW!! Well sort of. They early released it digitally on the 10th. The 14th is when the album is put on streaming. I can't wait!!! I've heard very good things about it, no spoilers thankfully! The only problem is, I have to go in and do my PSAT tomorrow. I am really, really, really dreading this. They're making me wake up at 7 AM in the morning to go to a school that I don't even go to, for testing, for some reason. Why drag us to this random ass school when we could literally do it at our own building?  Apparently if one of your devices goes off/beeps, they'll have to file some kind of "incident report" and will make everyone else's tests null and void, and they'll have to come back AGAIN a bit later to do it again (Which is the stupidest thing i've ever heard in my entire life) so yeah I'm REALLY dreading this. 🫩

 So after we got ice cream yesterday, we turned on our local college radio station. Every Saturday they play a block of oldies from the 50's/60's. Right after we turned on the radio, this song played. 😂 When I first heard it, I couldn't tell if the innuendos were intentional or not, or if it was even supposed to be an innuendo. I think it HAS to be. Look at some of these damn lyrics! 🤣 "But I really get her goin' Then I take out my Big Ten Inch" "Last night I tried to tease her, I gave her a little pinch, But she said stop that jivin and get out that big Ten Inch" "And when she gets all excited She begs for my big Ten Inch" It HAS to be an innuendo. 😂

Well sort of. I have some ideas but I'm saving them for later. In honor of running out of ideas, here are some random things I have done and seen today: - I think gas prices have gone down a little bit! Now they're back down to $3. Just a little bit ago it was $4! Let's just hope it eithers stays $3 or goes down! - I drove by a house with like 5 chickens in the yard - I heard "Splish splash i was taking a bath" on the radio - I got ice cream! That is it.

 I'm extremely excited for April 14th. The new They Might Be Giants album is coming out that day!!! This is the first TMBG album that's come out since I became a fan (became a fan c. Summer 2024) and their first in 4 years.  The Instant Fan Club people already have it (because of course they fucking do), and it seems that according to  this mailing list newsletter  they're offering the album digitally EARLY. Not some IFC BS, but to the GENERAL PUBLIC as a "Fundraiser for studio time". For a bit there it was SOLD OUT! I'm honestly not sure how digital files can sell out, but if this gets us album 25 faster then hell yeah!! The only downside is that I have to go in and do my PSAT test the same day. I really don't want to do it, it's kind of stressful :( Also I won't be getting my CD copy of the album until the 17th. I'm getting it from Amazon (I would've bought it from the TMBGshop, but like every online store their shipping + handling costs ...

 This week's CD: Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants (2009)