Rattled by McKay's

I got a lot of stuff to get to here today, so please forgive the lack of buildup. For those that need something though, okay, I got you -- my once a month yearning to go to McKay's (heaven for lovers of all things physical media) came upon me a couple of weeks back , so I made the trip to Knoxville in order to satisfy my desire. Cool? Cool.

I though I'd start with something different for a change. I struck out on toys, I mean they had a bunch, but nothing for me. I did however find this really nifty slammer in one of the two very full fast food premiums bins. I know for a fact that I never saw one of these way back when, and looking around online, it appears that One & Only Toy and Games Inc. only made a couple of pog related items, including at least three different slammers that were packaged like this -- though this is the only one that "rattled". I think that it's partially filled with BB's, or something very similar to, which makes for a fun effect, but would've made for a sh*tty slammer. Something that's shifting it's weight while being thrown down would have been less than ideal, and wouldn't have had the desired effect, i.e. flipped over very many caps. And it may have sucked as far as Pog playing goes, but it does look cool, and I enjoy seeing it hung up on my wall everyday.

I remember being in a Border's (anyone still remember that bookstore?) back in '02 (I had to look inside the book cover to get the year), and coming across this book while I was perusing the new releases. It seemed like such an odd book at the time, but did sound really interesting nonetheless. The new release price was much more than I'll ever spend on a book, so I had to settle for checking it out at the library not too long after. It was an excellent book, very well researched, and I had planned on buying a copy once they started going down, but than the usual happened, I ended up forgetting all about it almost immediately after I had to return it. And it stayed forgotten until sometime around this past Christmas when I came across a reference to it in another book. I started looking for a copy online, but couldn't find one under $7 (not including shipping), so I held off and hoped that I could find a cheaper one the next time I went to McKay's, and I did! $1.50 is heckuva lot better than $7. I've got about 50 pages left to finish my long overdue reread, and I'm happy to report that it's just as good now as it was almost twenty years ago, possibly even better. I don't recommend things very often, but I'd so with this book, or at least I would to any history lovers out there.

I recently spoke of my first experience reading Graham Masterton, which I concluded by saying that I'd have to read something else of his, as I couldn't quite gauge his abilities from that one book, so this was me getting another one of his books to try.

Is it weird for someone who wants absolutely nothing to do with large bodies of water, to get great joy from reading maritime stories? Asking for a friend ;-)

I'm fairly certain that there are no Forever Knight fans reading this, so I won't bore anyone by going on endlessly about it, but will mention that the show was a childhood favorite, and would still make my top 10 favorite shows list. The books started up after the show had ended, and are usually terribly difficult to find, especially for a budget-conscious reader. Finding one that I don't have for 95¢ was pretty cool, of course like a lot of things at this point, nobody remembers the show (or the original television movie), and nobody cares about the books, so there's really no reason for them to still be expensive.

I was more than pleased to find that they had marked down a bunch (100+) of compilations and added them to the bargain CD section (95¢ or less), took me quite awhile to look through them though:

I think I've already discussed these before, but back in the glorious pre-internet days, the Living in Oblivion series was tops among 80's compilations, and used to be rather pricey, key word(s) "used to be". Nowadays they can be had for the price of a song, literally... assuming that that song is a dollar. That's how much it costs to download a song, right? I don't know, I've never downloaded music before, but either way, this was less than a dollar, so if a song costs a dollar, this was less than a song.

Most of the compilations were of the 50's, 60's, and 70's varieties, which is why it took me so long to look through them. This was the only one that I ended up getting though. I have the Charlie Feathers tracks on vinyl, but don't think that I own any of the others, in any format.

It's funny, the 90's were my prime era for music, but as I've gotten  older, I've begun to dislike the music from that era more and more. I think it's mostly just because I've heard a lot of the radio staples too many times at this point, and don't really need to hear a lot of them anymore. Of course there are some exceptions, some of which are contained on this album.

I wasn't of "clubbing" age during the 90's, but I did spend a lot of time in arcades, and this album reminds me of arcades in the late 90's, more specifically, mall arcades in the late 90's. I really, really, miss those days!

Moving on to the bargain ($1.95 or less) DVD/Blu-Ray section...

This was pretty crazy, I was looking at this show last time I was there, and was semi-tempted to pay $6.95 for it, but ultimately end up passing on it. Fast forward a couple of months, and now I find it for $1.95, which was much more my kind of price. Sometimes patience/cheapness does pay off!

I've mentioned in past McKay's posts that they seem to be including a lot more television show seasons in with their bargain stuff than they used to. Normally though they're shows that I'd never watch, and will never watch, but this time there was a few things of interest (Ip Man being the biggest). I don't know if I had ever planned on watching the Hannibal series or not, I mean I certainly heard enough about it, but for $1.95 it's worth trying. I've never been big on the films, well, save for Manhunter, that one was good, so I will not be surprised if I don't end up liking the show.

This is the slightly edited version of Phenomena. I never knew that a retitled cut existed, and having still not watched it (this version that is), I don't know what has been edited out, but I'll pop it in and find out at some point. This was more of a curiosity get than anything.

I hadn't planned to upgrade my Secret of the Ooze video, but some of this stuff is getting so cheap on Blu-Ray, it seems like I'd be losing out by not doing so.

Like with the Turtles above, AOD was just too cheap not to upgrade. I've had both on video for over 25 years now, and both tapes still work as good as the day I got them, and now with me not needing to put any more wear and tear on them, they'll probably still be in great working order when I'm gone.

Quick fun fact regarding AOD: A former longtime friend of mine's uncle was an extra in the film. Unfortunately I can no longer remember which scene he appeared in, or even what he looked like.

That does it for the actual purchases, but I did pick-up a few freebies on my way in, so...

Current YA fiction doesn't usually do much for me, but this one had catchy cover, and sounds like it could potentially be something. I'm in no hurry to read it, but I know that when I do get around to it I'll probably know within like ten pages or so whether or not it'll be to my liking. It just has the kind of feel to it to me.

Aside from the corner wear, I'm kind of surprised that this would've been out in the free boxes, as it seems like the sort of thing that certain people might've paid at least a dollar for. Heck, I don't even have much interest in things pertaining to New York City, and I would've paid a buck for it.

I'll be starting this one after I finish "Salt", hopefully it'll be as good as it sounds.

Not bad haul this time if I do say so myself. What made it even better too was that my mom had given me list of books that she was looking for, and I was able to knock some of those out as well. Oh, and I took in a bunch of stuff for trade again, and the credit from that took care of everything.

It was relatively early when I got done, and still was by the time I got done eating lunch (I always take my own and eat it in the car when I come out), so I decided to make a few more stops on my way home, the first of which was the Book Cellar:

Young Jon used to LOVE these kind of books, and old Jon still buys and reads them to help hang onto what's left of young Jon. Also, it's a Scholastic book from 1965, so I kind of had to have it.

I had no clue that there was an Elementary book series. I was gonna wait until I read it before looking up how many books there were, as I didn't want to have it spoiled by seeing what kind of rating it's received by random internet dipsh*ts (I've gotten to the point where I absolutely loathe reviews and ratings, especially those of the internet variety).

Not shown is the half-a-dozen more books found from my mom's booklist. My two books were added to by these cassettes that I found in the free boxes on my way out. I knew quite a bit of French at one time, but most of it's gone now. I'm hoping that these tapes might help bring a little of it back. As for Dutch and Russian, well, I don't have a great deal of interest in trying to learn either, but if I can learn a few words, or more importantly, learn to recognize a few words when I hear them, than these will have paid for themselves (which isn't hard to do since they were free).

Besides having the time to do so, the other reason I wanted to stop before getting home was because my mom had mentioned needing another bookshelf, and I just had a feeling that if I went to the thrift store that's across the parking lot from the Book Cellar on this day, that I would find one. And you know something, I was right, because I did, and it was a good one too! I also managed to find another little something for myself...

There aren't too many Humphrey Bogart films that I don't own, but this was one of them. Awesome movie for those of you who dig the older stuff, it had been a while since I last saw it, but it still holds up really well, or course most of his stuff does, so it's not like I'm breaking new ground by saying that this one does too.

Much like last time, this turned out to be basically a perfect day for me. Nothing went wrong, and I was able to bring home plenty of cheap entertainment. It's probably a good thing I don't live too close to Knoxville, otherwise I'd be at McKay's multiple times a week, and all you'd see around here is recaps... so I guess it's good thing for you too that I don't live any closer to Knoxville!

Books 'n things

Despite living in a relatively rural area, I have access to quite a few neat places. There is one used bookstore, one comic book shop, one pseudo card shop, two antique malls, and five thrift stores, all within 30 minutes of me. Not too mention pretty much all of the retail establishments that anyone could ever need (I wouldn't mind if there were a few less of those around). Expanding the drive time by just ten minutes increase some of those numbers, especially the thrift stores. If I'm ever feeling froggy, Knoxville's not that far away either, which is home to a plethora of fun places, most notably, McKay's. And of course I got Nashville in the other direction, which is a longer drive, and isn't a city that I've been overly impressed with, but it is home to a more than a few places that are worth stopping in at (not as many as Knoxville though), the biggest of which is the twice-a-month card show (twice-a-month during normal times).

In the six years that I've been here, I'd say that my most frequented place has been the Book Cellar, which has been featured many times here on the blog. I used to try to stop in at least once every six weeks or so, but since the Rona got going, I've found that those have increased to about every 2-3 weeks, and judging by the turnaround in inventory, I'm not the only one. It really is a much better used bookstore than you'd expect to find in such a small town, although said small town has seen exponential growth over the last couple of years, as it continually makes "best places to retire" lists, and is now making "best place to escape your post-apocalyptic city" lists as well. I won't share my thoughts on the towns growth in general, but will say that it has had a positive effect on the bookstore, as the quality of the selection just continues to get better.

The store was recently put up for sale, bought, and is now under new ownership/management. Normally this would've been cause for concern, but this too has seemingly improved the store, especially where organization is concerned, all of sudden it's much easier to find things. I was a little worried that the new owners might come in and make some unwanted changes (unwanted by me that this), namely no longer continuing to sale videos, as that's starting to happen elsewhere. But my fears have gone unfounded, as not only have they not stopped selling videos (or CD's and DVD's), but the selection in that department has actually increased as well.

Looking at my post history, I see that I haven't done a Book Cellar post since early November, and have gone three times since, so I guess it's time to do some catching up. It's worth noting too that on two of these stops, I had many other places to hit in a very short amount of time, thus only having a few minutes to look around.

#1:

Have you ever wondered how different The Breakfast Club would've turned out if Bobby Stine had written it (and let's be honest, who reading this hasn't?), if so, you're in luck, because that's pretty much the best way I can think of to describe this book. Minor spoiler alert: The ending of this book is considerably different than that of the film!

I don't have a list made, but if I was ever to make a list of my top 10 favorite vampire films, Count Yorga would be an automatic entry. I like everything about this movie (well, except for maybe the cat scene, that's kind of gross), and have since I first saw it at the age of 12 (watched it on AMC not too long after we got cable again for the first time in a number of years). And I've had it on video for decades now, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to upgrade that old video for a buck.

I hadn't realized that this series was now available on DVD (apparently it has been for a few years btw). I had only ever seen two episodes, so this was must get. This pack was missing it's slipcase, hence there being no shot at the synopsis on the back. Basically though, it's just young Charlie Bronson playing a freelance photographer who always seems to find himself in the middle of the action, and more often than not this action is of the criminal variety. It'll feel dated to most modern/young eyes, but I really enjoy it, genuinely enjoy it that is, not tongue-in-cheek enjoy it.

There are a couple of free boxes out front that I almost always check despite there almost never being anything of interest to me within their confines. This trip proved to be an exception though, as I found this possibly interesting coffee table book on college football, I say possibly interesting because I still haven't read it yet, but it was free, so there's no rush.

#2:

I saw Amityville 3-D on commercial television sometime before my teens, even at that age when garbage films can seem good, I still didn't care for it, and have never seen it again since. And yet, I didn't hesitate for a single second to grab this adaptation when I found it. The book isn't perfect either, but is considerably better than the film. The narrative is much clearer as well. It's funny too, I had forgotten some of the film after all of these years, but after reading this, and then remembering some of those forgotten parts, I feel quite confident in saying that I believe that this film/book was the inspiration for Ringu (or The Ring for those of you who don't like foreign films). There are way too many similarities for it not to have been. It's also worth noting that this paperback was an import, and is still sporting it's nifty Hodder & Stoughton sticker on the back.

I will never grow tired of finding old films that I haven't seen. I was already quite familiar with Kiss of Death, but the opportunity to watch it just hadn't ever presented itself. I enjoyed it a great deal, but do realize that it's definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea.

#3:

Through the first 80 pages or so, I was ready to say that this as one of my favorite books ever, as well as proclaim Graham Masterton to be one of the great modern horror writers... then the rest of the book happened! This was the first book of Graham's that I've read, and even after a few weeks have passed since I finished it, I still don't know what to think. The first third of the book was great, very Lovecraftian in it's slow build of an unseen terror, but then it just goes bonkers with an addition that came from further than left field. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that he had ideas for two different stories, but couldn't flush either of them out to book length, causing him instead to decide to mash both of them together. I can honestly say that I've never encountered anything like this before, hence my perplexedness (I know, it's not a word, but it works here, so...). Seeing as how the first part was so good, I will give his stuff another chance, hopefully this mash-up of things that don't go together was an anomaly for him, and not the norm (Norm!!!!!).

I was familiar with probably 60% of this books content, but it never hurts to have a refresher. For my money, the most interesting thing that I didn't already know was that William Peter Blatty spent 15 years writing The Exorcist. I've long known of the story that it was based on, but had never heard that it taken him so long to finish the book. Seeing as how it was one of the more successful books (then later, films) of it's era, it really furthers that old adage about not rushing things (now if I could just remember that when blogging, I might actually be able to produce something worth reading!).

They do have used magazines too, but rarely do they have anything of this, or the followings, caliber. 

At one time, Filmfax was one of the better movie magazines out there. I say was though it is still around, but they've lost a few steps in recent years. Between most things having already been discussed ad nauseam, and running out of people worth interviewing, their content just isn't what it used to be. Thankfully, #45 here was put out during their prime, and was well worth the fifty cent price tag.

Ah, 1995, the year in which it was virtually impossible to pass a newsstand without seeing Mulder and Scully on the cover of some magazine, sigh... I want to go back!

OUTRÉ was put out by the the fine folks over at Fimfax, and while not nearly as good, is still something that I will always pick up if cheap.

Horror comics/monster magazines/movie magazines are just about the only thing I get excited about finding out in the wild anymore, and all of these certainly fit the bill. Now if I could just find them more often...

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.