Filmic Friday 222: The Spirit 1987

Once upon a time, a man named Will Eisner made a superhero called the Spirit. The Spirit was pretty popular for a while, being essentially a cross between the Shadow and the Green Hornet, but somehow lacking something that both of these pulp heroes had. I don't know why we never hear about the Spirit these days, but considering the relatively negative reaction people had to the Frank Miller reboot starring Gabriel Macht (which I don't 100% get, to be honest, it's not that bad a movie), I figured that the never-before-referenced "tv-movie" from the late 1980s would be a better look at who and what the Spirit was.

Oh boy was I wrong. I hope.

Starring Flash Gordon himself, you'd think this would be the same levels of camp as the space drama.
You'd be very wrong.

This is an origin story for the character of the Spirit, who was a mild-mannered detective named Denny Colt who wound up being believed dead.

And yes, the movie is essentially color-coded. You know who's good and who... isn't.

Denny is trying to right the wrong of his mentor's murder and tries to go about solving the crime, but he is repeatedly stymied by lackluster bureaucrats and peppy ingenues and underage criminals... it's a mess. The script is a mess, and I gave up any pretense of understanding it and settled in to hopefully at least enjoy the acting.

Alas, this was not to be.

Those who are not hamming up the joint are as wooden as a pirate's bad leg. Despite Flash Gordon being an enjoyable foray into camp sci-fi, Sam Jones has lost every ounce of the charisma he'd found during that movie. Every joke falls flat. Every line reading feels like a first take. Every movement is stiff and joyless. Even fight scenes are both poorly choreographed and sluggish.

Jones looks the part, but he's completely uninteresting.

The love interest is so bland I can't even remember her name. Ellen? Helen? I don't know. I don't even remember the evil mcbad-lady's name! How do you have a lady with a legit torture chamber and I can't remember what she's called?!

Thankfully, we have the lighting and prop crews to carry us through.

I will say this for this fustercluck of a failed pilot: The crew they had working behind the scenes were doing their best and it shows. Look how that moment where the Spirit walks through a blown-up wall to catch bad guys mid-robbery is lit! The perfect balance of light and dark. The excellent use of smoke. It's like they really wanted this to be well done. Even the hole in the wall is convincing with its rubble edges and scorch marks!

And don't even get me started on the lighting and design of the graveyard where the Spirit has made his base!

Low budget? Very. Well-lit? Extraordinarily so!

Seriously, this is a bad, bad, bad tv-pilot and within ten minutes of it starting, both Z and I were very aware that it should have been lost to time. With the exceptions of the lighting and, occasionally, the score (orchestral bombast and 80s weirdness in equal measure), this is a meritless endeavor, and it hurts me to say that.

Still, if you're interested to see a flick that actually annoyed me no end, feel free to boot up the DC Universe app on Roku and check it out.

In spite of this plotless, saggy pilot's best efforts,

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Thursday Art Walk 222: Dedbert and Friends

I was wrong about getting colors down today, guys. Sorry! I did, however, work on some more designs for the main logo and drew out some preliminary sketches of potential new "characters" to add to Dedbert's cadre:

I just can't get the bowl to look right :(

These three are based off of stuffed animals I have.
The bear is Patches, the rabbit is Benjamin, and the snake is Mr Wigglesworth.

I don't know if I'll do anything else with these guys, but I think I'll practice drawing them some more anyway!

Today is partly sunny. I'm at the kitchen table watching a bluejay tussle with some grackles and gray squirrels while our resident chipmunk steals every single seed from under the bird feeder. There are old Christmas trees slowly drying out by the wood pile, and I can see Forget-Me-Nots, swamp mallow, and dandelions waving softly in the breeze.

The neighbor's chickens are out clearing the ticks from the backyard again, and I'm happy to report that the one who has usually been missing every feather from her behind is recovering nicely. She has a tail again!

Evie the cat is curled up in her "tent" - a fleecy blanket draped over the back of the couch with another fluffy blanket folded up underneath - snoring away. She apparently slept on my dad's lap last night. Yeah dad. Tell me again how much you hate the cat...

I do want to apologize for how little work I got done on my art today. I was delayed significantly because the house was not empty like it usually is on Thursday mornings. My poor mom couldn't get to work because we were blocked in by road crews paving the street. I'm not going to complain about better pavement. I just wish they'd waited until 10AM to start instead of trapping people in their homes, lol...

But enough whining.

Today looks lovely, and I'm probably going to go for a short walk later.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Wednesdaymania 222: DOUBLE OR NOTHING

Oh my God, it happened.

The Pay-Per-View happened, and it was awesome.

Seriously, guys, you have no idea how cool that was to be in a room with people who watched through the Attitude Era and got to tell me that this is how it felt at the time. It was electric. It was incredible. It was all that I hoped it would be.

It wasn't 100% as advertised, but that's why they always, always say "Card Subject To Change".

So what changed?

Well, firstly, there was supposed to be a match between PAC (Neville from WWE now that he's free) and Hangman Adam Page. Unfortunately, due to circumstances outside of AEW's control and the respect they have for the plans that Dragon Gate have for their champion (PAC), the match couldn't go on. It wasn't that they couldn't have Page lose to PAC, or the other way around. They could've had Page lose to PAC. It was the next several matches that could have been a problem. Basically, they thought they had everything in order, but the storytelling didn't support it on Dragon Gate's end. No one is at fault. It happens sometimes.

They had the match anyway, just not on Double or Nothing.

Now, thankfully, there were really cool changes, too, but I'll get to those in the card!

Here's what I saw:

First of all, the commentary team consisted of the slightly underwhelming but still pretty good Alex Marvez, Excalibur, and good ol' Jim Ross. JR maybe couldn't pronounce the Japanese names very well later in the card, but he was himself and you could tell by their interactions that the drills they'd been going over prior to the night's events were really paying off. I think Marvez may have been a bit overwhelmed by just how intense everything was. I don't think anyone was ready for the almost nuclear heat of the event!

So. So. So COOL!

In America, we watched through an app called "B/R Live" or Bleacher Report Live. It was pretty simple to purchase via Roku and credit card, and despite the $50 price tag... well... it was freakin worth it, man!

The pre-show, however, was for free on YouTube (you can actually still watch it here).


Pre-Show Match #1: 21-Man Casino Battle Royale!

The rules are weird. They kinda worked, though!
Instead of having one guy every minute, they had teams.
It was pretty cool.

I'm not a huge fan of most Battles Royales. They're usually a mess. You don't get to see much of what's happening, and everyone's sequences get broken up by the new entrants. This method of BR really worked for me, though. I got to see a lot of people I'd never seen wrestle before, like Luchasaurus (who is my new favorite), Sonny Kiss, Jungle Boy, Dustin Thomas (who is a bilateral amputee, which... that doesn't happen in wrestling, so it was awesome to see him work!), and a guy called Orange Cassidy who was both hilarious and shockingly agile (seriously, who else can do a no-hands kip-up with both fists firmly in their pockets?!).

I really enjoyed the storytelling in this match, since MJF stayed in the whole time and was a total creep to everyone, especially Dustin Thomas, who he taunted by calling "Lt Dan". I loved how smooth Jungle Boy (Luke Perry's son) was in the ring. I loved everything about this Battle Royale! We even saw the (however brief) return of Marko Stunt! He's okay kids! Also, holy cow, Billy Gunn and fricken GLACIER showed up and it was incredible!

The final four were great!

I loved, loved, loved the finish. Not only did we get to see Hangman clear house, but we got to see some great character work from MJF, who waited for Page to dump Luchasaurus and... I think maybe Jimmy Havoc? before he tried to take out Page. He failed, however, and Hangman Adam Page took the win at 16 minutes!

Preshow Match 2: Kip Sabian vs Sammy Guevara

There was a lot of build towards this match on Being the Elite, but even without that, they did a great job of being two guys who hate each other. It was a very solid match that satisfied when Sabian took Guevara down in 10 minutes. Seriously, though, I might not have much to say here, but it was a really good match.

It's just... well... all of these are going to be great matches, so be prepared for a lot of me gushing.

And with that, we finished up our Pre Show, and Z, our Wrestling Friendos and I rapidly switched from the YouTube App on Roku to the Bleacher Report app.

It was time for the main show!

Show Match 1: SCU vs Strong Hearts

Now, we all know how much I loooooooove SCU scu and their fun, cool personas. I'm a huge mark for these guys, so of course I was always going to love this match. SCU made their stand against a three-man team from OWE, a Chinese wrestling promotion who AEW has a good relationship with. The Strong Hearts consisted of El Lindaman, T-Hawk, and CIMA (who runs OWE). There were so many great moments in this match - Christopher Daniels coming to the ring in a dark Freddie Mercury gimmick complete with singalong; SCU doing their "worst town" schtick about Las Vegas, which they actually quite like; Strong Hearts showing the world what Asia has to offer outside of Japan (spoilers, they're awesome); the pinning combination of "Best Moonsault Ever" into Tombstone Piledriver...

It was an incredible 13:40.

Oh, by the way, there were exactly 0 matches under 10 minutes.

And it doesn't feel that way.

Main Match 2: Triple Threat

You know how much I hate capitol-A Authority figures.

I hate that garbage.

I have to admit, the way Brandi has appeared to take on the Stephanie McMahon gimmick in this match is a little annoying, but considering the nature of her feud with MJF and the nature of her introduction to the ring in general, I think it does still suit.

So why am I mentioning Mrs. Rhodes in a match she's not booked in? Did she book herself?

Oh no.

She definitely pitted all three combatants against one another in Being the Elite videos, but... she had another plan.

Another woman, in fact.

Awesome Kong.

The pop Kong got when she came out was insane. It was one of the most intense freakouts I've ever heard for a female performer, and she was great. She pummeled everyone, and I love how it's building to a feud between her and Nyla Rose! I personally wouldn't have gone with Britt Baker as the winner, but I like the idea of a feud between her and Kylie. Actually, I would have loved the women's match on Double or Nothing to be a Singles match, but there was no framework for that, so I get where they're coming from.

Kylie is in yellow. She was eventually pinned by Baker while Nyla and Kong exhausted each other.

At 11:10, this was one of the longer women's matches I've seen in a PPV, but it was fairly well-laid out. I'm just not as big a fan of Western-styled women's wrestling as I am the next women's match on the card...

Main Match 3: Best Friends (Trent & Chuck Taylor) vs Angelico and Jack Evans

The main complaint I've heard about this match was the overabundance of green on the ring gear. I may have to agree, despite loving it. I kind of wanted to shove Evans & Angelico into a locker because the neon chartreuse they chose was definitely activating my bully impulses. That being said, these men can absolutely go. Holy guacamole, these guys were everywhere. They did high flying. They did striking. They did submissions. The did it all, and they did everything well.

It was great storytelling, though I noticed that the Best Friends did a lot less of their "comfort me, I'm scared!" gimmick than they usually do. In the end, they triumphed, which leads me to wonder how this will effect their standings in AEW and on Being the Elite.

At a breezy 12:35, this is a great match: fast-paced and satisfying to watch!

Ever wanted to know what women's wrestling was like in Japan in the 1990s?
Main Match 4: Hikaru Shida, Riho Abe, and Ryo Mizunami vs Aja Kong, Yuka Sakazaki, and Emi Sakura
Joshi Wrestling is awesome.

I have loved women's wrestling from Japan ever since Z and I watched possibly the best Dream Slam. It had everything I love, though it also included a fairly tedious kickboxing match, as Japanese wrestling shows seem to have done often in the 1990s...

Regardless, this was basically a match ripped straight from one of the best cards of the 1990s Joshi scene, complete with Aja Kong still wrecking it in her late 40s. Seriously, this match rocks. Every one of these women are brilliant in the ring. I mean, Emi Sakura reprised the Mercury gimmick from Daniels, also bringing a microphone, but with the addition of a fake mustache that had me howling. I really, really hope we get to see far more of these ladies in the future, perhaps in more one-on-one matches. I'd love to see Aja Kong vs Awesome Kong or Nyla Rose. I'd love to see more of all of them.

I have a quote I found from lb hunktears over at fanbyte: "God made the devil just for fun (when he wanted the real thing he made Aja Kong)".  I 100% agree. Aja Kong is the beast incarnate. Not Lesnar. Kong.

Shida, Abe, & Mizunami won in a seemingly timeless 13:10, which seriously felt too short!


Main Match #5: Cody vs Dustin

I'll get this out of the way quickly:

I love the gimmick at the start of this where Cody destroys the HHH throne with its stupid iron cross and dumb skulls with a sledgehammer.

I love it.

It's hilarious, and if HHH is going to call them a "pissant company", then he's just going to have to expect this.

Besides, it looks so much like the throne from the Dungeon of Doom that I can't help but love it.

Cody. What are you doing? Cody. Stahp. lol

But this match wasn't about gimmicks. It wasn't about killing WWE or taunting them. It was a symbolic sacrifice of the past on the altar of the future. It was a way to free Dustin Runnels from a lifetime of servitude to the WWE. It was bringing him back home to the bosom of Turner. And it was kind of a redemption for Earl Hebner, too.

It was also a freaking bloodbath.

Early on, Dustin bladed.

It was like someone had punctured a balloon filled with infinite cherry Kool-Aid. It went everywhere. Dustin may have arrived in the ring with half of his face painted red and black, but he left coated in blood.

The match itself was easily the slowest men's match on the card, but it didn't need to be flashy. This wasn't a match to impress people. This was a symbol. This was brother vs brother. This was a fight, and fights don't tend to have a ton of flipty-doos.

Brandi was eventually ejected from this match for spearing Dustin, which she fought, but then DDP came down and carried her away. Cody seemed... surprisingly okay with that.

In the end, Cody pinned Dustin on a mat so coated with blood it was hard to find a spot that didn't have a liter on it. It was dramatic, it was satisfying, it was terrifying.

Earl should've worn gloves. That's the biggest thing that bothers me.

That's a very good sign, by the way, that the Ref not being careful of himself was the biggest issue I had in a bladed match.

After the match, which lasted 22:30, Cody began to head back to the entrance while Dustin began, tearfully, to unlace his boots, symbolizing that his career had ended. Cody saw this and stopped him, cutting a teary and powerful promo demanding that he be at Fight for the Fallen, an upcoming event to benefit victims of gun violence. He needs Dustin to help him fight the Young Bucks. He doesn't need him as a partner. He doesn't need him as a character. He needs his big brother.

It's one of the most emotional and beautiful moments I've ever seen in a ring.

Speaking of the Bucks, though...
Main Match #6: Young Bucks vs Lucha Bros for the AAA Tag Team Titles.

At first, this match and its finish annoyed me.

You don't have two of the best luchadors on Earth show up at your PPV to reclaim their AAA titles and then have them lose, after all.

And yet they did.

It's a fantastic match, don't get me wrong, but it's also a match we've all seen before. We've seen Bros vs Bucks. They're great. They're always great. But we've seen them tango a few times, now. I thought this would be the end.

But now that I know that they're having at least one last matchup in AAA itself, I think that'll be where the Bucks drop those titles until they find a way to do a Tag Tournament in AEW.

I liked this match, but at this point, everyone in The Elite had won. I was ready for things to be shaken up and was almost disappointed when they weren't, despite already knowing that the build to this match wouldn't allow the Bucks to take the loss.

At 24:55, this match is one of the only ones that felt a little long, but that was only because I'd seen the booking before.


At one point, however, they took a break from the action and revealed the title (which I've left to the end) delivered by another surprise:

BRET HART.

Bret freakin Hart was presenting the AEW championship belt with the help of Hangman Page, but they were interrupted by MJF, who taunted Bret about the random guy who had attacked him during the Hall of Fame ceremony. MJF was... disposed of by Jimmy Havoc, Jungle Boy, and Page, who chased him to the back. It was great, though the cameramen had a very hard time keeping the lenses on the belt (it's a handsome belt, too).


Finally, though, it was time for the Main Event:

Omega vs Jericho

You cannot convince me that Kenny Omega isn't one of the best wrestlers on the planet.

This match was brilliant. Not only can Omega have a match with anyone and, like Bret Hart, polish it to a high shine, but Jericho can do the same. I honestly think that these two have Sterno gel instead of blood, because they are heat machines. They built this match to a fever pitch with finisher after finisher, move after move, near-fall after near-fall, and each almost-ending cranked up the intensity more and more!

But these fiery fellows weren't the only thing to blow our minds, even with Jericho winning at 27 minutes.

AEW had one last surprise for us following this brilliantly executed Main Event. I was shocked that Kenny had lost (especially being the only member of the Elite to take a fall during the PPV), but I was utterly and completely unprepared for what happened next.

Remember how everyone was contemplating what would happen to a certain WWE guy who'd just quit?

Yeah. You know the one.

It was pure electricity the moment he appeared.

While Jericho was spouting demands of gratitude from AEW and its corporate owners, there was a wave of sound rising from the crowd. You could feel it rising and overtaking everybody there, one by one, as they realized who it was who was coming through the crowd. No words can do justice to the moments before the cameramen and announcers seemed to cotton on to showing Moxley (Dean Ambrose) stalking towards the ring with sinister purpose.

He destroyed Jericho. He destroyed Omega. He nearly destroyed the set dressing (which really gave me a WCW vibe, by the way, in the best way!)

So that's it, right?

Jon Moxley is All-Elite, right?

Kind of.

He's actually got a deal with New Japan right now, which makes things... interesting. See, here's what fascinates me:

The Bleacher Report App belongs to Warner.
AEW is a Turner show.
Jon Moxley is signed to NJPW.
NJPW has a working relationship with ROH.
ROH is tied into Sinclair.

How can these entities all work together, especially when Jericho has not officially severed ties with WWE (though after Dustin's remarks, I'm not sure there can still be any friendliness there...)

What a strange time for wrestling. I like it!

Okay, so that's what I thought of this amazing Pay-Per-View. Seriously, 10/10, would 100% watch again. And again. And again!

But what about the belt?

It's no 24/7 Title, to be sure.

It's so, so much better.

According to the belt's creator, it took 34 hours just to set the gems. Amazing. Look how heavy it is! I like that it seems to be largely silver? The E in AEW seems to be goldtoned, which is really cool.

It's beautiful.

I love it.

I would have a replica of that displayed proudly in my home.

Actually, I kind of want a cuff bracelet made to look like it.

Wow.

I hope we get more closeups of this beautiful belt!

I think that'll do it for me, though.

I'm out of coffee and there's a cheddar bagel in the kitchen calling my name. Also, I might have to go find videos of these matches to rewatch again :)

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Talk About Tuesday 222

It's a cloudy 55℉ (~13℃) day here. The cat is curled up in the next recliner over from me - the one my mother usually sits in. My coffee is gone and I'm debating grabbing another cup. I just ate a cheddar bagel with cream cheese.

Life is pretty okay today, y'know?

I mean, my feet are cold, but I'm just being stubborn about pulling down a blanket to drape over my lap.

One of my tabs is playing a weird playlist purporting to be 80s Japanese music. It's pretty great. I have that granny-square crochet project on my lap, working on the 21st round. Probably have 8 more to go before I change it over to make the skirt. There are three different labels inside the cone of chenille yarn I'm using for this project (courtesy of the local thrift shop). One is from the Dutton Yarn Company and calls the color "cognac". The others are apparently vendor labels, only one of which is legible (since it's slapped on top of the other) and says the color of this acrylic chenille is "port". I'll have to go with Dutton on this. It's much more brown than red, so port doesn't quite work with it.

Wildlife updates:

We have what might be a Scarlet Tanager female in our backyard! It's a fairly good-sized yellow bird (two or three times the size of our usual goldfinches and the wrong shape to be one) and it hangs out around the suet feeder. How pretty!

We also have a new pigeon which is about 88% white. We're getting paler pigeons every year. How novel!

Z & I saw something bolt across the street the other night when he was walking me home. It moved like either a rabbit (serious hind-leg movement!) or maybe even a very small bobcat kitten, but I'm leaning more towards wild rabbit because I've seen those much more reliably than our bobcat (multiple sightings over the course of multiple years). I'm pretty sure they live in a nearby swamp.

Our chipmunk may have a little one it's showing the ropes! I've seen the normal-sized chipmunk around the yard and on the deck, but lately I've also been seeing a very small chipmunk - about the same size as a mouse!

Finally, we had a Newfoundland in our house the other day. She was enormous and adorable, and at first, Evie (our cat) was very cautious. She ran upstairs at first, but since she's very confident in her ownership of our house she came back downstairs later and we discovered that the colossal canine was actually afraid of our 8lb cat! Seriously, Evie sniffed the edge of the dog's tail as she was laying down and the dog bolted up and power-walked over to my sister & her bf (who brought the dog). It was adorable, because Evie was just looking after her like "what? What'd I do?"

I think that'll do it for animal updates for now, lol...

On to the Weekly Updates:

• Tomorrow I'm talking about Double or Nothing because I'll explode if I don't!
• Thursday will be more art, maybe even colors?
• Friday should involve either a freaking insane movie I half-watched or the world's worst superhero pilot. Seriously. It's terrible.
• Saturday will probably be about the blacksmithing game I just downloaded.
• Sunday will be about some great noodles Z & I made up - either the ones with a donated topping or the ones we prepared for funsies with the naughty name...
• Monday will have more pictures than this yesterday!
• Next Tuesday will be more of me blithering away like a dingbat :P

So there's the plan, man!

My granny squares and hidden object or merge games call my name.

So does the teakettle...

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Fiber Monday 222: Shawl Good

I'm going to run out of punny titles eventually. We all know it.

I worked on the Lost Souls shawl for a while again this week! I mean, I also have a few other projects I'm working on (an experiment in filet crochet, a shrug, and a weird granny-square tunic), which has meant that my Lost Souls shawl has been a little slow to grow, but...

It's shawl good.

I'll see myself out...

It's reaching a size where it becomes a bit unmanageable to photograph without my legs/feet in the shot.
Also, that's a pretty standard sized coaster for scale!

I'm pretty pleased with how it's starting to look, but I know that I'm going to really, really struggle to get it to stay in the right shape, so I'll probably have to go at it with an iron. I don't think the thread will like too much heat, so I'll go on a lighter setting and try to keep it from getting away from me.

It's gonna look pretty cool in action, I think :)

As for the other three projects I'm doing, I will post photos next week, I think, of my progress. I'm... not thrilled with how the shrug is going, to be honest, and it's going to be a few weeks before anything recognizable happens to the filet crochet (I'm making the lower border right now). The project with the most progress is the tunic, and that's because it's granny-square double crochet in rounds around a neck hole that's... pretty big, to be honest. I may have miscounted a time or two with it, too, but it's coming along. Curse my weird shoulders and short torso...

So how are you all doing? Any really cool projects you're working on? If you want to show off your projects, feel free to toss them up in the comments!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Survival Sunday 221: Pizza Time!

I love pizza. Seriously. Like, this is a problem I have - I LOVE PIZZA. It's like bread, but with tomatoes, cheese, and cured meats (sometimes veggies, too!).

So of course I had to learn how to make a good homemeade pizza.

But I didn't want to use any yeast, since I hate waiting for the rise (even "instant" or "pizza" yeasts need a little time). And also, I hate having to figure out the perfect temperature, or whatever.

So I found a recipe for yeastless pizza dough!

Now, I'm told this is a "biscuit"-style crust, and I have to say, I'd definitely eat biscuits made from this!

Ingredients for the Crust:

• 1 1/3 Cups flour (I used all-purpose)
• 1 tsp baking powder (make sure you use baking powder and not baking soda, because there's a huge difference in how they interact with the ingredients and the flavors they impart)
• 1/2 tsp salt (whatever kind of salt you like - you could even use a flavored salt to add extra flavor, if you wanted!)
• 1/2 Cup milk (they say non-fat, but... seriously? You're already making pizza. Just use whatever's in your fridge. It's just half a cup.)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil (oh boy you could do a lot with this! Actually, you could probably use any oil... hmm... sesame oil with furikake and sesame seeds baked into the crust? hmm.........)

First, put your flour in a big bowl.

Add your baking powder next.

Finally, add your salt.
I found, the second time I made this, that mixing the dry ingredients up first made the second mixing easier.

When you add your liquids, start with your milk.
We had (I think) 1.5% milk? Whatever we had, I used.
You could probably substitute other milks if you had to, but I'd do that cautiously, since I'm not a chemist and
don't know if the lactic acid in milk is an active ingredient in the leavening process...

Finally, add your olive oil.
Like I said, you might be able to use other oils (especially if you have an olive allergy).
I like olive oil, so that's what I used.

Now, the next thing you want to do is mix this all together and bring it into a ball.
I did this with my hands, but if you use that approach, make sure you use a liberal coating of oil
on your hands to keep the dough from sticking.
Then you knead the dough 10 times.
This can be hard to do if you're limited on space, so I actually just did it in the bowl.

Here is where things get weird.
Pat your dough into a nice ball and cover it.
This is a good time to start preheating your oven.
Mine takes 10 minutes to preheat, which is, coincidentally,
the amount of time you want your dough to rest!

You want to preheat to about 400℉-425℉ (~200℃-230℃)

At this point, I had to leave my phone alone, since my hands were coated with dough and oil. Just be aware that my next steps were these:

I greased the pan I was using with oil, though you can use cornmeal, cooking spray, or parchment. You could also use a pizza stone, which we have, but I'm not confident enough to try that. Maybe next time!

Next you take your dough and either roll it out (which was probably the right approach) or press it out. Again, make sure your fingers are either oiled or floured to prevent sticking. Whether you press or roll your dough, you start from the center and move out towards the edges, that way you avoid a thick center that doesn't cook evenly. I like my crusts pretty middle-of-the-road between thick and thin, so that's how I went.

After your dough is rolled out, it's time for toppings!
I know the recipe says to blind-bake the crust, but... who has time for that?
It's fine to just toss it all on, trust me.
I used all jarred or bagged stuff on this simple pepperoni & cheese pizza!

 At this point, you can put your pizza in the oven and either set the timer or (like I did) just watch it like a hawk. I find that if you wait patiently for the first ten minutes, you'll wind up with a better pizza than one that you obsessively check from start to finish. Your pizza will be done when it's done. You're the best judge of this. I prefer things a little crispier, so I waited for some moderate browning of both cheese and crust. You may like things a little more on they soft and supple side, so you'll take it out just as the crust sets and the cheese melts. You might like a full-on crunchy crust, so you'll wait for a more extreme browning to occur. All of these are valid pizzas.

Heck, there's no egg in this crust, so you'd almost certainly be fine eating the dough. I wouldn't recommend it, though. It's pretty bland without added flavoring (before cooking). Also, raw flour is maybe not great for you.

With luck, your pizza will come out well.
I maybe over-oiled the pan, because when I pulled it out, the pizza slid around!
It was, however, really easy to pull out and cut!

Here is my lovely pizza cut into slices and placed in a Tupperware for portability.

One serving of the dough makes a pizza from about 8-12 inches (20-30cm) across. Mine was maybe 9? Not sure. Regardless, it was really good and more-than-adequately fed two. Technically, we could have served 4, but... uh... Z and I take pizza seriously, so... 2.

The crust itself does really taste like a biscuit! It's a little dense (probably from overkneading), but it has a delightful crispness to the outside and a soft, tender, bready inside. It bakes really well both on top and bottom, and it resists sogginess from the sauce (which I was light with, since both Z and I get heartburn sometimes). Basically, if you need to make a pizza in 30 minutes or less (mine took about 25, start-to-finish?), this works really well.

I made this a second time for Double or Nothing, and it came out great. I made a double batch of the dough and spread it across a whole cookie sheet! It was plenty to feed Z, our Wrestling Friendos, myself, and maybe a couple other friends? I'm pretty sure I left the Wrestling Friendos with the other half of the pizza... I hope they enjoyed it!

I'm so happy with how this crust has consistently turned out that I might try to make mini pizzas or calzones or maybe even mini pizza pockets? Pizza!

Thanks for hanging out for the pizza party here, guys!

Go Enjoy Something!!!
FC

Saturday Casual Gaming 221: Pokemon Quest

So, you may have noticed by now, but I freakin love Pokémon. I have loved these little Pocket Monsters since my misspent youth in the 1990s, and I love them today. I've loved watching the games evolve from 8-bit to 16-bit to the modern 3D era. I've watched movies and anime, read manga, and played some of the gaiden titles (side titles).

This is one of the newer Pokémon Gaiden games, and I've got to say, so far, it's pretty fun.

Look how chunky and weird they are! I love it!

Honestly, I'm surprised it's taken this long for Pokémon to join in the Minecraft/Voxel style, but I'm glad they have. Why? Because it's basically what it would look like if 8-bit games went full 3D without any upscaling. Seriously. I am a weirdo.

But what do you do in this game?

You're (I think) a researcher traveling to a group of islands where you use a combination of Pokémon friends and your weird drone MoBee to study and fight the local Poképopulation. Regardless, the style of combat is a lot more like the Pokemon Rumble game from the 3DS, except you have a team of 3 Pokémon. They automatically walk through various areas and attack the local wildlife, sometimes even destroying trees or rocks, and collecting ingredients and items.

You press on the attack icons to unleash special attacks from your Poképals!

Now, when you've finished a level and beat the level boss, you end up back at your base camp, where you install decorations, welcome new friends who've stopped by your camp (I got a random Dratini once!), and delightfully enough, you also get to cook! (Insert obligatory Breaking Bad reference here...)

You have a cauldron in your camp where you dump a bunch of ingredients you've found, but you can also just... toss random stuff in and see who shows up. Once you've got the ingredients in the pot, you go on little adventures with your friends, slowly filling up the time requirements. I will say this: If you don't have the "right" type to challenge a specific zone, it becomes that much harder to beat the zone. I'm kinda stuck in a zone where Grass has the advantage because I have no Grass types. I've been spending a lot of the premium currency (which you don't have to pay for, it's just... optional to do so) on bringing back what I've already found.

Speaking of currencies, you've got only the one: PM Tickets. Basically, you get 50 of these every 24 hours or so, and then you can earn more from quests. The more quests you complete through your gameplay, the more Tickets you end up with. These tickets are used to buy items and to use as Continues when you have a total party loss in an area.

My personal favorite part of the loot that you get isn't the Decorations, since they just kinda hang out at your base, I like the power stones that you add onto the stats page of your Poképals. They come in Strength-boosting and health-boosting, and they can really up your game!

I think that about covers Pokémon Quest, since there's not really all that much to it beyond what I've said besides "This game is fun"!

Go ahead and pick this up on your mobile devices (and possibly Steam?)!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Filmic Friday 221: The Mummy 1932

Once upon a time, there was a child who was afraid of everything. Every slightly scary movie was an invitation to nightmares. Every trip to the doctor's office or the dentist was an opportunity for a panic attack. The Scary Stories books were traumatizing. Are You Afraid of the Dark? was terrifying. Goosebumps was more a command than a book series...

I was a scaredy cat, alright?

But you know what didn't really scare me?

Universal Monster Movies.

I started with Creature from the Black Lagoon, which was one of the last Universal monsters to arrive, but I soon branched out and discovered a love for the children of the night.

Today, I'd like to talk to you about The Mummy since I just got a steel jacketed copy of the gorgeous BluRay for my birthday, courtesy of my Film & Editing Friendo!

I wish movie posters still looked this cool...

I won't go too deeply into the history of this movie, since there are maybe a dozen documentaries and commentaries on just that topic (including on the copy I watched!), but I will say this: This movie would never have happened if no one had cracked open King Tut's tomb. Egypt-fever was gripping the world, people were nutty about mummies and curses and the relatively young field of archaeology, and money was pouring into the studies of history, anthropology, and art. I mean, there were also funds flooding the fields of woo and nonsense, what with "spirit medium" rapidly becoming a viable vocation for anyone at the time (kind of like "Ghost Hunter" today...).

Regardless, it was from this fascination with ancient Egypt and its magic that The Mummy arose, though apparently it was supposed to be a weird biopic about a charlatan at one time.

The story goes thusly:

A bunch of white folk wander into Egypt and decide to give elevated tomb robbing - er, archaeology - a go, popping open the tomb of an unknown mummy whose sarcophagus has been heavily damaged and who carries a horrible curse. This mummy is played by Boris Karloff, but unfortunately they don't show much of the mummy itself moving very often...

This is a still from the production. In the movie, we do not get to see more than Imhotep's arm.
We do, however, get the assistant's reaction...

If there's one thing I've learned from Universal movies, it's that insane laughter is one of the scariest sounds on earth. Forget the creepy throat-voice from The Ring. Forget the screaming of the Xenomorph. Forget the warped gurgles from The Thing. No. It's between Renfield's mad, bitten-off, borderline pained cackles in Dracula and this guy's babbling guffaws after his mind shatters on seeing Imhotep's desiccated corpse shambling around, stealing scrolls.

This movie also taught me to fear being buried alive. Did you ever see the Brendan Fraser version of The Mummy? The bit where they're wrapping Arnold Vosloo up? Yeah. That's a direct lift from this movie. It's upsetting to watch it happen. That's because Boris Karloff has mastered the art of acting with his eyes.

No seriously, his eyes are terrifying.

And by the way, I'd always thought that they'd artificially darkened Karloff's skin during production to make him more believable as an Egyptian, but apparently, he was of Indian (from India) descent. On both sides. Huh. Cool.

So ten years after Imhotep vanishes and the assistant goes to cloud cuckoo land, a lanky, slightly terrifying Egyptian fellow calling himself Ardath Bey appears and leads the expedition to the tomb of deceased priestess/princess Ankh-es-en-amon, Imhotep's forbidden love. The expedition, of course, takes her mummy and puts it in the museum. All according to Imhotep-as-Ardath-Bey's plan. Yeah. Not sure how exactly Imhotep un-mummified himself, but wow is he creepy like this.

Eventually, Imhotep crosses paths with Zita Johann's character, Helen (huh, like the princess from Troy...) and realizes she's his dead lover reincarnated. Cue plans to get her back, including mind control and killing her dog (offscreen, thankfully). There are a lot of parallels with Dracula here, especially since there's even a Van Helsing character played by the same actor!

But all of the good guys' best efforts fail, and Helen is drawn to the deadly mummy.

Who immediately does her hair and gives her fancy new clothes.

Imhotep/Ardath Bey shows Helen her past life with him and tries to convince her that they should be reunited.

All while this poor girl must be freezing, since there wasn't such a thing as body stockings in the 30s
and she's practically naked from the waist up. Also, she hadn't been able to eat or drink all day,
so she famously fainted during the scene, prompting deep concern from Boris.

Of course, any sort of reunion will involve killing Helen, and Helen/Ankh-es-en-amon wants to live, so they end up at cross purposes. In the end, Ankh-es-en-amon pleads with Isis for assistance in protecting the life of Helen, destroying Imhotep entirely.

That's right.

None of the men in this movie do anything effective to resolve the plot.

Which is why I don't show any of them.

But this is honestly one of the best original scripts for a Universal movie. From the flashbacks (which are cranked at the same speed as a silent film in a bit of lovely visual shorthand!) to the lighting to the music and acting, this is an A+ picture.

If you have time for a monster movie, and you want something with some class but also is a bit... racy for the 1930s, definitely give The Mummy a try!

Also, Boris Karloff was a brilliant actor who deserved every honor he got, and makeup artist Jack Pierce deserves far more renown than he has, since he literally invented every major monster makeup from the time. Seriously. It's incredible.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Thursday Art Walk 221

I'm enjoying a late lunch as I type this - an omelet with both a Mexican cheese blend & queso fresco as well as a handful of bacon bits. You aren't here about my attempts at breakfast-for-lunch, though - you're here for the art!

Logo sheet 2: Filmic Friday, Saturday Casual Gaming, Survival Sunday, attempt 2 at Talk-About-Tuesday

"Filmic Friday" will have 3D goggles colored in, but for now you can really see his eyes.
Yes, he's eating popcorn & drinking a soda :)

"Saturday Casual Gaming"
I'll be drawing games onto his screens.
Also, I promised Z I'd draw a butt today, so here it is :P

"Survival Sunday"
Of course he is munching on bread!
Bread Club 4 Loaf!

A second attempt at "Talk About Tuesday"
I'll probably add a handle later.
I kinda like this one better!

So what do you guys think? Are these mini logos ready for final inks & colors?

That's all from me for today - I have dishes to do and an omelet to finish!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Wednesdaymania 221: Commission: Halloween Havoc 1997

Welcome to another commissioned edition of Wednesdaymania! My generous patron (not Patron, you haven't missed a secret Patreon page...) has requested the 1997 WCW masterpiece Halloween Havoc! If you'd like to watch the PPV yourself to see what all the fuss is about, check it out on the WWE Network, find a copy at a second-hand store or library, or use the miracle of the internet (WWE has posted a lot of these matches to YouTube, it seems...).

Without further ado:

I give you WCW's Halloween Havoc 1997

We have arrived at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and if that sounds familiar, that's because it's where AEW is holding Double or Nothing! It's a fantastic arena, even as far back as...

1997.

Because I hate that I have to say that that was 22 years ago when it feels like I was 22 only yesterday. Ouch. Time is a cruel master.

But we begin with a raucous crowd and a firecracker commentary team of Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes, and Bobby Heenan as announcer Dave Penzer calls out that the first match is starting before we even finish panning over the crowds and taking in that this arena is jam-packed and everyone is freaking out.

Opening Match: Yuji Nagata (yes that one!) with Sonny Onoo vs Ultimo Dragon, who they have heat with.

Despite the crowd being fairly chilly, this match is awesome.

1) Yuji Nagata with Sonny Onoo vs Último Dragón

This match was a real firecracker. Seriously. Ultimo came out to some truly shrill and angry sounding pyro, Yuji & Sonny came out ready for business, and Iron Mike Tenay joined the commentary desk so we didn't have to listen to Bobby Heenan demean both us and himself with overtly racist commentary. Seriously, I love Bobby Heenan, but the man should never have been asked to give commentary on Asian or Hispanic wrestlers. Ouch.

Regardless, it's truly wild to see Yuji Nagata moving like he's Sho or Yoh. Fast, accurate, and heavy-hitting, he's a joy to watch. Even Dusty Rhodes puts him over (which makes sense - they've probably had matches back in the day in Japan when Nagata was a younger man).

Suddenly, though, I was distracted by a gangly man in the crowd running around with a TENAY THE ICON sign. That got me laughing so hard I nearly choked on my popcorn, so good job, random crowd guy with the sign!

Nagata gives UD a piledriver that looked like he was dropping him in a basket of kittens, but he followed it up by literally kicking Ultimo Dragon out of the sky.

Raven & his Flock wandered down to ringside at this point, and the combination of their presence and a random "HOGAN FEARS IDAHO" sign (wtf?!) were pretty distracting, but the amazing match was impossible to look away from for long.

Eventually, however, Nagata put a truly brutal armbar on Ultimo Dragon and held him in place until Sonny Onoo could kick the arm, breaking it and handing Nagata an envelope of cash.

At 9:42, it's one of the longest matches I've seen in WCW involving Japanese wrestlers where there was no reference to rice or Pearl Harbor. It's also one of the best opening matches I've ever seen.



At this point, we cut backstage with Mark Madden & the Disco Inferno (ew). Mid-interview, they are attacked by an irate Jacquelyn, which was pretty cool, but I was eager to get out to the ring again.

Gedo (yes that one!) and Chris Jericho (yes that one!)

2) GEDO vs Chris Jericho!

I can't help it, but I have to say this: I hate that they replace Jericho's "Boys of Summer" ripoff theme with his "Break the Walls Down" theme. That being said, this is another fantastic match. It's amazing to see both of these men so young, though... uh... Gedo kinda looks a bit like Aja Kong here. I guess that means he looked like more of a badass when he was young and wearing a terrible yellow gi than he does now with his hypeman gimmick?

Tenay is still with us on commentary and talks about Gedo's pertner Jado (also still in NJPW!) as Jericho parades around in a leftover Stone Cold vest with the patches missing.

These boys go hard. Jericho looks like he's trying to murder Gedo with his kicks, and Gedo gives him a powerslam answer that made me reflexively curl into a fetal position. It was - b r u t a l - and they follow that up with Jericho giving him the gnarliest Top Rope Hurricanrana (I will not call it a Frankensteiner, even though they did on commentary) I have ever witnessed. It left me wondering who resurrected Gedo, because it did not look like he could've survived.

This was the fastest 7:18 I've ever had in my life. I was not bored in the least. Neither, it seems, was the gentleman in the coolest Papa Shango sweatshirt that the cameras cut to a couple of times.

Regardless, amazing match.



We rolled straight from this brilliant match into possibly the best match on the card:

Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio Jr

3) Rey Mysterio Jr vs Eddie Guerrero; Title vs Mask for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship

Rey is a total babyface here, in his fancy purple Phantom outfit, and he's the perfect foil to Eddie's foul-tempered, hateful heel persona. This brilliantly laid-out match is certainly not hurt by the fact that these were two of the best wrestlers on the planet at the time.

And the crowd were both too drunk and too racist to get that, it felt like.

Oh, they were hot. They were screaming and hollering and moving around, but they were also... there was a weird undertone. It's the kind of weird undertone we get today with brilliant athletes like Sonny Kiss & Nyla Rose. Not much has changed in wrestling in that regard, I guess...

Regardless.

This is a beautiful match. Every hit looks like a ton of bricks. Every jump reaches the moon. Every leap is well-executed. Everything, in short, works.

I was so hyped going into this match. I love both wrestlers to bits, and the fact that the match devolved quickly from enraged trash-talking from both parties to COMBAT POETRY... it was a real treat to watch. I mean, early on, like, before they even announced the name of the ref (Billy Silverman, btw), Z, who was watching with me, let out a mighty "YEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Moments into this match, Rey's eyeblack was starting to rub off on Eddie, which really sold, for me, the idea that Eddie was slowly taking Rey to pieces. Well, as far as Rey's mask goes, that was kind of literal. Eddie tore the mask! Rey's answer? Knock Eddie down, dive out of the ring, and yank Eddie into the ring-post crotch-first while Eddie was laying on his stomach.

It's one of the best matches I think I've ever seen, so I strongly recommend watching Rey take Eddie's title in Halloween Havoc 1997.

The most satisfying 13:51 in my PPV watching history.



Ugh. Sorry, guys, but I just hate these awful NWO Hogan promos. He and Bischoff are in the back and Bischoff keeps harping on about how with Sting wandering around, it's just not safe for Hogan to work. Not. Safe. For Hogan. Who claims to be the toughest man on earth. It's garbage. All of it is garbage. I hate it.

Alex Wright w Debra vs Mongo McMichael

4) Alex Wright with Debra vs Mongo McMichael

I don't like Mongo. I just don't. I find him obnoxious and not that good in the ring. I feel the opposite about Alex Wright. He should've had a much longer, more illustrious career and been in the WWE having great matches against all of their best Cruiserweights. This match is one of the longest 6:31 in my life, because it starts with Disco Inferno interrupting the Nitro Girls & making fun of Alex Wright. I wish he'd just stuff it and go away.

And then Mongo comes out and...

look.

This is one of Mongo's best matches.

That should tell you more about how good Alex Wright was than anything else.

At least they gave Wright the win here.

I'll take "Matches That Shouldn't Exist" for 1000, Alex...

5) Disco Inferno vs Jacquelyn.

I neither understand nor care about the origins of this match. All I care about is the fact that Jacquelyn looks like a million bucks here, and her DDT is one of the best in the business.

She takes out the garbage with a rollup in 9:39. Honestly, I feel like if they'd switched up the times for the Wright/Mongo match and this one, everyone would've been happy. It's probably only almost 10 minutes because that's how long it took to get up, go to the bathroom, and get back.

WCW never had faith in women's matches.

WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

6) Ric Flair vs Curt Hennig

Despite Hennig being offered Arn's spot on the Horsemen when the Enforcer had to retire (and there's about 40 years of footage played before and after this match on that subject), Flair wants Hennig's WCW US Heavyweight Championship, so they have this brilliant match.

Either man could wrestle a broom and make it look good back in the day.

So of course this match is brilliant.

Flair sprinted to the ring, grabbed a cameraman, and mauled Hennig to start with, devolving to kicks before stealing Hennig's robe. The two are fighting, but the announcers are too busy quibbling over nonsense, idiot NWO garbage that no one cares about anymore (except for when Heenan basically shoots on Hogan being a trash human).

There's only one way this incredible match can end, though, without losing heat - it's a DQ finish.

Hennig retains in 13:57



Backstage, Macho man is discussing things with the WCW website, then one of the most boring segments on the show (besides the NWO making fun of Arn's retirement speech. Ugh) happens.

Why yes, Bischoff, the main event is happening.

And then Penzer announces that the special guest referee for the next match is...

Larry Zbyszko?!

Oh heck yeah.

There are enough drugs in this ring to kill a small nation.

7) Scott Hall (with Syxx) vs Lex Luger with Living Legend Larry Zbyszko as referee

Despite the fact that every person in the ring was probably riding about 8 lines of coke each (rumor, partially substantiated by participants through various shoot interviews), this is a really solid match.

It's an angry match, but it's a solid one.

And everyone here is alive. Which is incredible when you consider the hardships all four of these guys have faced. I mean, Syxx reportedly had his heart stop in a Denny's in Maine once...

But seriously, this is a great match. Syxx is a perfect heel, belittling the counts, while Zbyszko does an excellent job as a ref, taking no garbage from any of the men involved. Larry even threatens to eject Syxx at one point. It's great.

Someone keeps dancing their Wrestlebuddy (a stuffed wrestler doll) on the stairs off and on. It's hilarious.

At first, the match ends with Hall winning, but it's such an obvious troll finish that Larry watches the replay and tells them they have to get back in the ring and finish it for real. They do, but even though Luger technically wins, the NWO wreak havoc (hah!) on both him & Larry Zbyszko.

Honestly, it was the shortest 13:02 Luger match I've ever seen.

I don't like most weird gimmick matches and the origins for this one are icky.

8) Mach Man Randy Savage with Miss Elizabeth vs DDP with Kimberly in a Las Vegas Sudden Death Match

Okay, so the origins of this match involve implied rape. Seriously. Macho implies that he assaulted Kimberly and claims she enjoyed it. I don't forget garbage storylines like this.

NWO 4 Life in Prison...

Anywho.

Basically, the only way to win this match is via countout. Your opponent cannot get up before the ten count.

Mickey Jay is the referee for this match, and boy does he have his hands full. Both Macho & DDP battered each other down for a while before the camera got bored and panned over to the Flock, still watching from the crowd.

At one point either Macho or DDP took a move that sent Dusty over the moon screaming "HE WOBBLE-LEGGED HIM! HE WOBBLE-LEGGED HIM!" and you cannot miss that. It's one of the best Dusty-calls of all time!

At one point, Miss Elizabeth & Kimberly got into a catfight on the outside! It was pretty bad, since neither one was really a wrestler, but it got Heenan interested again, so there you go.

This is a pretty decent match, and Macho Man sells really well. Unfortunately, there are Fake Stings in attendance, so they beat DDP down and Macho wins in, perhaps, one of the longer 18:07 of my life.

Main Event time, folks.

It's Age in the Cage.

Yikes.

9) Rowdy Roddy Piper vs Hollywood Hogan in a Steel Cage Match

This is one of the worst cages I've ever seen in wrestling that didn't involve the word "Punjab".

I will say this, it's pretty hilarious watching Piper biting Hogan on the buttock first and then on the head. Eventually they both left the cage, which... ugh. Eventually, however, like all NWO matches at this point, they were interrupted by a slowly growing horde of Stings of dubious reality. I really thought the top-of-the-cage fighting was great, though. This is probably Piper & Hogan's best match together.

Eventually, there were too many Stings, so both Hogan & Piper returned to the Cage proper where Piper choked Hogan out with a Sleeper before being attacked by Macho with a baseball bat. Huge multi-Sting brawl ensued with Piper shackled to the cage. What really freaked both Z & I out was that a fan had snuck into the fracas wearing Sting makeup. If there's one thing I know about fan interference in wrestling, it's that it never ends well for the fan in question. RIP Sting-makeup guy. Yikes.

At 13:37, this was a little longer than either man was ready for, but it was as long as it had to be, I feel.

And that, my friends, was WCW Halloween Havoc 1997, presented by Slim Jims.

I would 100% recommend you watch this whole PPV - it's a really fun time, and even though I hate the NWO's promo packages and their treatment of Arn's retirement (I love Arn), it's an easy enough watch. So, thank you, Commissioner, for requesting this Havoc!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC