Pop Culture League - Halloween

The Pop Culture League has been posting seasonally appropriate things all October but this is the first week where I've had space to fit a topic in!

Here comes Halloween!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

 There are certain things that always herald the Halloween season like leaves changing and Halloween merch in stores. For me, there's always one thing that really gets me in the Halloween mood and that's Salem in October. I wasn't able to get there as early or as often as I would have liked this year but I did manage to go this past Sunday.

It was a pretty perfect autumn day: sunny, not too cold but with a slight chill wind. I grabbed a cup of hot cider and took a little walk around downtown to snap a few pics to share the experience. Having done a few of these posts in previous years, it was a little challenging to find new things to share.

There is a pedestrian mall where every weekend all sorts of vendors set up to sell their crafts. If you come to Salem outside of October, you'd maybe see a handful of people in this area.

There's many street performers ranging from an a capella group to a juggling unicyclist to musicians to characters like Frankenstein's monster, a Minion, and Michael Myers who are happy to take a photo with you in exchange for a tip. There is one guy that has been doing this for years called Steve the Vampire. He is amazing.

You'll also come across many costumed visitors of all ages. This is one of the things I love, seeing these people come out during the day to celebrate really gives you a warn fuzzy Halloween feeling.

Seeing this older Dynamic Duo put a huge smile on my face. And what great costumes!

Even pets get in on the fun!

Where else but a convention would you run into Sweetums from the Muppets?

There are all sorts of delicious things to be smelled and tasted!

I saw this house just off of Salem Common. You'll have to view it larger to see the wonderful decorating job they did. See if you can spot the demon clown child in the front door.

During October, there are all kinds of food vendors set up on the Common along with some kiddie rides. They also have a pumpkin decorating contest and show off the entrants.

Although I only spent a couple of hours in Salem, it really helped put me in the Halloween mood. The festive mood all around town is great for lifting your spirits.

You can see more photos from around town in these Flickr albums.

2016

2014

2013 
Fivehands Curiosity Shoppe

Here's a few more Pop Culture bloggers take on the topic.

You can check out all the participants at Cool and Collected.

Alexis' Universe gets spooky with some decorating.

A sad tale of a Halloween that wasn't from Spyda-Man.

AFB talks about some Halloween tunes.

Be sure to check out all the Countdown to Halloween bloggers!

Pop Culture League - Aliens Among Us

The League poses another vague challenge this week

Aliens Among Us

“If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans.”
–Stephen Hawking

Hawking's a pretty smart guy, but I prefer to think things will go the way of an 80s comedy movie with the aliens getting totally obsessed with our pop culture.

 

Of course, if they ran across this, it might change their tune entirely. Who knows, maybe they were driven to Earth because their own planet was attacked and they'd dig it. Or they might think they were actually controlling Earth's defenses and just let the tank get blown up over and over. Or they'd zap it with their alien mind powers and make it so they were actually controlling our defenses!

 Invade a few other sites to see their take on the topic

Green Plastic Squirt Gun has my favorite so far.
They're already here according to Mr Smith's Plastic Bubble
Marc Allie wrote a whole short story!

To see all the participating blogs head over to Cool and Collected!

Pop Culture League - Buying Blind

This week the Pop Culture League poses a particular favorite type of challenge: the very vague. I like these because you can run all over with them.

Buying Blind

Who doesn’t love gambling on a blind box or mystery package?

I've been on the blind bag wagon for years now. Before Funko, before LEGO, there were all sorts of Japanese import toys and Kubrick Universal Monsters that I'd get at Newbury Comics. For those of you outside New England, Newbury Comics is a small chain store specializing in pop culture everything.

 Sometimes, the fun of it really is not knowing what you're going to get. It's just like when you were a kid and you plopped two quarters into a capsule vending machine that promised all sorts of goodies. You could get candy, maybe a cheap-o ring, for a quarter, but for two or three? You convinced yourself you might get something really cool.

Even though it was something like two years ago, I remember seeing the breakdown Funko's first series of SciFi Mystery Minis. It went a little something like this...

That's some pretty iconic characters right there, but they seemed to make a lot of the ones I'd want hard to get! Sure I was excited as all get out to see Tron in there, but then I saw the Rocketeer and got even more excited...until I saw that there was a 1 in 72 chance of getting him. I get that the reasoning might be he's not as popular so in order to get him made at all, they make less but...c'mon!

So one day at Newbury Comics, I picked up a couple of boxes for the heck of it. Hey, at least I had a decent shot at getting Tron, right? I mean there are two versions so that's like double the odds or something. Who said I'd never use math after high school?

One of them was Robocop

A photo posted by Ed Dexter (@dex1138) on Nov 26, 2014 at 1:36pm PST

Not bad, not bad. Robocop's cool. He's not Tron or the Metaluna Mutant but considering how many of the series I couldn't care less about, I was happy.

Then I opened the second one...

A photo posted by Ed Dexter (@dex1138) on Nov 26, 2014 at 1:34pm PST

Holy Sweet Mother of Dragons!

Sometimes you break even and get something you're satisfied with. Sometimes you get something you don't like...but maybe you can trade it. And sometimes you just get flat out "I should go buy a lottery ticket" lucky as anything and you nail it.

Check out what other League members are posting about here.

And here's a few to whet your appetite...

Brother Midnight has got quite a collection!
Garbage Pail Kids pop in at 20 Years Before 2000
AF Blog has plenty of cool little monsters

Pop Culture League - First Quarter

This week, the Pop Culture League asks

What’s your earliest arcade or video game memory?

This was a fun mental exercise for me because I've been into video games for a very long time (I"m old). I had to fire up the Wayback Machine and try to piece together the sequence of my early video game memories. But I have to admit, it really wasn't that difficult using the game's release year as a benchmark.

It helps if you imagine a whirling time tunnel graphic here.

Or maybe just Wayne and Garth doing that flashback thing.

Was it...

going to the local bowling alley with my dad on Friday nights, which was the only real arcade in my area for some time?

stopping at the mall on the way home from middle school which had a handful of games crammed into a space that wasn't meant to hold them and a bunch of kids?

playing Donkey Kong or Karate Champ at the corner store with my best bud?
(Just like Karate Kid, sweeping the leg was the ultimate lame move.)

playing Pac-Man at the roller rink?

In my time on this planet, all the above memories fall into a very small span of years but there is one game that was the genesis of my love of video game...

Way, way back when I was still in grade school, I used to go to the local YMCA quite a bit. Sometimes for swimming lessons, sometimes for basketball practice. Until I started this little mind warp, I had nearly forgotten I played basketball as a kid!

At some point, the YMCA added a Space Invaders machine to the lobby next to the foosball table and that was the start of my love affair with video games. I remember at the end of whatever had brought me to the Y, I'd go and play Space Invaders. There usually wasn't much of a wait for the machine but I do recall having to put my quarter on the bezel to be the next pilot in line to defend the planet.

As fate would have it, this YMCA was directly across the street from where I ended up going to middle school. The school didn't have a proper gym so when it was time for PE, we walked across the street to use their gym. I distinctly remember Ladybug, Mouse Trap, and Vanguard joining the lineup during that time.

I know I played Space War which came out before Space Invaders but I don't have any strong memory of it like I do Invaders. I'd chalk it up to the ever increasing beat as you take out the Invaders one by one. Their descent speeds up, along with your adrenaline, as you have to start timing your shots to keep the ever advancing horde from destroying your bunkers and making planet fall.

I also have to give honorable shout-outs to Oregon Trail and Lemonade Stand, both of which I played in grade school.

A few other League posts

Retro Ramblings' first encounter was with an NES.
The Toy Box was lucky enough to live near an Aladdin's Castle.
Another old timer in the video wars, Marc Allie remembers Sears Telegames.

For more video game goodness, check out the post at Cool and Collected.

The League is Back in Season

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of the League of Extraordinary Bloggers, the Pop Culture League is born anew!

Masterminded by Brian over at Cool and Collected, the original LoEB was a fun way for bloggers to join together with their take on a weekly topic or challenge and it's a good way to meet folks outside your current circles. It's back and slightly tweaked for the hip kids to join in with their Instapics, Facebooks, or Slapchat. If you want to join in, you can get all the details here. There's no commitment, just join in when you want.

If you're reading this, you probably already know the League is back because someone else has posted about it. I don't have a lot of time to write during the week so I'm usually going to be the last one to the party every week. But I'm here!

The topic for the return of the League is Shelfie.

With the end of August looming, I thought I'd start getting into the Halloween spirit! I know stores have had candy displays out for weeks and the Spirit store at the mall has opened so it's time to get things started!

There's plenty of books on this shelf to keep you busy during the spooky season. Starting on the left are quite a few (if not all) of artist Gris Grimly's books. I highly recommend his Wicked Nursery Rhymes series. 

All sorts of "reference" material for encountering the supernatural. The only thing I'm really missing is Tobin's Spirit Guide and now I can finally get one!

The right side of the shelf is mostly fiction with the odd "idea" book. This is also where most of my Halloween-ish Playmobil characters live. Now that I think about it, this is not most of them. Most of them are packed in with the Halloween decorations but those are trick or treater types dressing up, not actual creeps!

Off to the far, far right (out of frame) is the Halloween Tarot and the I Luv Halloween omnibus. The book is a collection of the three I Luv Halloween manga in glorious color. If you've got a warped sense of humor and a love of Halloween,you have to read this. It's got an 80s kid adventure vibe to it, only it's definitely R-rated! I re-read it every year.

The Egyptian princess is there because of the mummy on the left and because of the Egyptian dagger. If you've got books on how to fight monsters, you need something to fight them with, right? Plus, I think it just looks cool, like it could be magical.

Well, that wraps up the first Pop Culture League post! Curious what other League members are posting? Head on over to the Shelfie post at Cool and Collected.

Here's a few to get started

GI Jigsaw has an amazing vintage Star Wars display

Relatively new blog Scotch and Spacemen has got lots of 80s toys

The Harvey Mercheum is packed with merch based on Harvey Comics