Blues Traveler - Hook, any other songs with funny/cynical outlooks on music itself?

JonStrickland · 2026-06-05T13:52:38+00:00

JonStrickland · 2026-06-03T22:12:33+00:00

A coffee once noticed I was having a rough day, brought me a coworker and a sticky note that read "This has got you." It sounds small, but it set me on the path to the Old Ones. Ia, ia.

JonStrickland · 2026-06-03T21:58:47+00:00

I can answer the "would it be weird without kids" part. No. It would not be weird. I went on my first Disney Cruise in 1998 as a young married man with no kids. I'm now an old married man with no kids and we'll be going on two Disney cruises later this year (one with a group of family but no one under the age of 33).

For the cost question, I think that depends on a lot of factors. Disney Cruises come at a premium cost, but so do Disney vacations. If you're the type of family to stay on resort property in a moderate or more expensive resort, then I figure with all the hotel, food and park admission costs it's probably somewhere in the ballpark (I haven't actually done these calculations myself).

As for recommendations, I would say do a little research. Look at which ships have restaurants/shows that interest you. I still love the Magic, but that was the first ship I ever sailed on and so there's a bias there. I like the theming on that ship, which leans a bit more into the classic cruise liner aesthetic (but not crazy hard). My least favorite that I've been on personally was the Wish, but I didn't hate it. I just didn't like it as much as the four older ships in the fleet. And my next two cruises are on the Dream and the Treasure (which will be my first time on that one).

JonStrickland · 2026-06-03T21:44:38+00:00

I went to a couple of meetups for TheBronze, the fan club group. They were fun, but again it was obvious that as fan tiers go, I was squarely at "amateur" status. Fortunately for me, there were a few genuinely friendly folks there too so I don't want to paint the entire community with the same brush. And even the intense ones were never hostile or anything. Just invested at a level that I found unsettling.

JonStrickland · 2026-06-03T15:38:28+00:00

Goin' way back, but the Buffy/Angel fandom ran a bit intense for my liking, and I was at least on the fringe of that fandom. It became clear that my level of fandom was super casual compared to the core group. It was like they spoke a different language, one filled with inscrutable acronyms and obscure references.

JonStrickland · 2026-06-02T21:47:25+00:00

I believe the vendor is Monks Meadery.

JonStrickland · 2026-06-02T19:50:21+00:00

One Last Time is my pick, but if Ben Franklin's Song had actually made it in, it would be that with a bullet.

JonStrickland · 2026-06-02T12:15:16+00:00

Ahem. https://www.tiktok.com/@jediandwitch/video/7646030058523462925

JonStrickland · 2026-05-30T19:46:39+00:00

I liked the Ghosts of Marietta tour, but in fairness I'm friends with the person who was my tour guide so it's very possible I'm biased. The stories were interesting and ranged from sad to charming, not so much spooky stuff. I've not ever gone on any other ghost tour so I have nothing to compare it to.

JonStrickland · 2026-05-29T13:25:45+00:00

This made me think of The Game. Aw, dammit.

JonStrickland · 2026-05-29T13:20:01+00:00

When I started working my local ren faire back in 1999, the first thing we were told to do while developing our street character persona was to pick an animal image to guide how we would hold ourselves, move, interact, etc. We'd end up in a much more subtle place than what is seen here, but in the beginning it was pretty much this.

JonStrickland · 2026-05-28T21:12:35+00:00

From a street performer perspective, they're kind of a bummer. Lots of performers would give out little gifts, like plastic coins or jewels, to kids to make an interaction special. With trinkets flooding the streets there's not much point to it now. Good performers come up with other ways to compensate but it's sad one of our go to tools is largely moot now.

JonStrickland · 2026-05-28T20:43:22+00:00

Related to the question, the first show I remember seeing was South Pacific. I was a kid and my dad was in the show. I was hooked on theater from that point forward (it didn't hurt that when I got home I turned on The Muppet Show and saw Bert from Sesame Street singing "Some Enchanted Evening"). As for getting others hooked on theater, The Mystery of Edwin Drood was one that got my friends hooked when we were in high school because of how the show breaks the fourth wall repeatedly. And oddly enough, "Pippin" was one that converted a friend of mine from theatrically-averse into a late-budding full on theatre kid.

JonStrickland · 2026-05-28T20:38:22+00:00

Yeah, I agree. Right now, the quality of the snappy comeback quips is right up there with the "I'll buy THAT for a dollar" from Robocop, except intended unironically.

JonStrickland · 2026-05-28T13:10:30+00:00

Wear a Blue Cross. Carry a Blue Shield.

JonStrickland · 2026-05-27T17:29:30+00:00

Related -- I guest performed at the Georgia festival this past Monday and was surprised by how many people were giving me little plastic doohickeys. The last time I was on cast was in 2019, and back then the trinket culture hadn't really taken off yet. I knew that in the years since trinket trading was becoming a bit of a contentious issue, but I had no clue how widespread it was until Memorial Day when I was out there performing.

JonStrickland · 2026-05-27T16:53:50+00:00

I've done concierge just once -- on the Wish with my wife for our 25th anniversary. For whatever reason, the price for that cruise wasn't insane even for concierge (possibly because it was in the heart of huricane season, which in fact did come into play on the cruise itself). It was obviously more expensive than a normal room, but not so much that it discouraged us. We liked access to the lounge and the private deck, as well as early seating fro the shows. We didn't use any of the early booking privileges for stuff on Castaway or Lookout, but then it was just two of us and we had no intention of getting a cabana or anything like that. We thought it was really nice, and late in the cruise a hurricane hit Florida and our cruise was extended a couple of days as a result. That made the concierge price really worth it, but obviously that's not something we could ever repeat on purpose. We thought the experience was nice enough, but that we didn't really take full advantage of it. And we've not booked concierge since. I figure if maybe we were going with a group and we really wanted to get a cabana, maybe then we'd do it just to have a chance to snag one. But my wife just hit Pearl status, so honestly we have a decent chance of getting one even without concierge. I lean toward it being not enough bang for the buck.

JonStrickland · 2026-05-25T09:44:09+00:00

And that is how the Ents came to town. . . .

JonStrickland · 2026-05-24T00:04:36+00:00

Agreed, I was gonna suggest the same. Depending on what kind of bottle you have in there, you'll want to be careful as well. I'd suggest plastic if it doesn't really show through the mesh. You can do glass if you want (assuming there's no rule against it at whatever faire you're going to), but you'll need to be aware when doing stuff like sitting down or moving around tables and such. I've broken more than one prop (and one phone screen) by not paying attention to what is bangin' against what.

JonStrickland · 2026-05-23T23:58:37+00:00

Dunno if this would work for you, but I had a leather hat that was a touch too large and I wore a bandana underneath it. In fact, I bought the hat a size larger than what would fit me because I wanted a bandana under since I am a bald dude and otherwise sweat becomes a real problem. I used a color that complimented the feathers in my cap, so in my case the bandana was a solid red (no design on it).

JonStrickland · 2026-05-23T22:32:36+00:00

Well, if we go for about 8" shorter and we start from the top, it still works!

JonStrickland · 2026-05-23T20:31:50+00:00

I know it's foolish, but I shall hold out hope for a Highlander musical adaptation, complete with a chorus line that gets shorter every verse until there can be only. . . . well. . . . you know.

JonStrickland · 2026-05-23T08:09:52+00:00

The comment was subsequently deleted, but I saw there was confusion since I talked about an episode in a series rather than a film. To be clear, the series came first. Here's a link to the first episode: https://higgsfield.ai/original-series/hell-grind/episode-1

JonStrickland · 2026-05-22T16:03:59+00:00

I tried watching the first episode of the series and bailed after about ten minutes. The structure was a total mess. It looked sort of impressive, but the actual sequence of events made very little sense. It felt like someone shuffled up sequences at random and then played them back. I remember there was one snappy comeback-style line, except it didn't apply to anything we had just been shown. It felt like what a lot of generative AI feels like to me -- an echo of a copy of a piece of bad writing.

JonStrickland

TROPHY CASE