Tag: Universal Studios

Monday Morning Movie Review: Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

The Portly Politico2 Comments

Yours portly is kicking off the Halloween season a bit early this year—after all, it’s the first day of autumn!  I’m doing so with a classic Universal Pictures monster flick, 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein.

Prior to seeing the flick for the first time a year or two ago, I only really knew about the plot from Young Frankenstein (1974), which spoofs key scenes from Bride and Frankenstein (1931).  Shudder had Bride back on its service as of last week, so one night I watched it again, and really enjoyed it.

Bride of Frankenstein moves in a more comedic direction than its bachelor predecessor, with Frankenstein’s Monster smoking (and becoming addicted to) cigarettes and humorous homunculi—like an overly amorous king—offering up some laughs (and padding out the film’s refreshingly swift seventy-five-minute runtime).  But it still offers up some classic scares.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: In Search of Power Plugs at Universal Studios

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Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Yours portly recently returned from one of his many trips to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.  It was a fun-filled trip with my family.  We rode all the classic rides, ate all the classic foods, and bought all the classic souvenirs.  It was a testament to middle-class frivolity and excess, which is what vacation is supposed to be here in the United States.

Readers will know all about my prior excursions to Universal Studios; indeed, there’s an essay or two about my trips there in my poor-selling second book, Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Adventures (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of the proceeds from any purchase made through that link, at no additional cost to you; I also get royalties if you buy the book!).  There’s not much that I haven’t already said about the vaunted theme park and its many fun attractions.

So I thought I’d focus a bit on a side quest, of sorts, that I embarked upon during our visit.  I have an aging iPhone SE.  The phone possesses a battery that is well past its prime and in need of service.  As yours portly does quite a bit of business (and pleasure) via phone, I haven’t taken the plunge to send it off to get replaced.  The idea of being phone-less for a week is rather daunting, my past anti-cellular rants notwithstanding.  Yes, I’m a hypocrite, dear reader, and a proud one.

At this point, I am essentially going to use the phone until I can easily obtain a replacement, and seamlessly port my service to a new phone—no need for that painfully long period of disconnected existence.  Of course, the downside is that I wandering in this world with a phone battery with less charge than a hand-turned jack-in-a-box.  Couple that with a niece and nephews hungry to the fast-paced world of mobile gaming, and you can see the kind of low-battery predicament yours portly found himself in this past weekend.

So, the side quest:  I was on a constant, vigilant hunt for power outlets during our trip.  It may surprise you, but Universal Studios does not exactly have easily accessible power outlets thrown out into the world on full display, eagerly awaiting the powerful connection of a pronged interloper thrusting into its sockets.  As such, I quickly learned the subtle art of eagle-eyed socket detection.

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Phone it in Friday XVI: Week in Review (5-8 October 2020)

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I’m out of town for a few days, so I’m resorting to something I rarely do:  a week in review post.  Some bloggers feature these weekly, such as my blogger buddy Mogadishu Matt.  I sort of did one back with “Lazy Sunday LVIII: Spring Break Short Story Recommendations Recap,” but that was more a review of a week-long series of posts, not a review, per se, of the week itself.

Ah, well.  That’s just nit-picking.  Here’s what I wrote about this past week:

That’s it for this edition of Phone it in Friday.  Here’s hoping I wrote some material good enough that you don’t mind reading it (and reading about it) again.

Happy Friday!

—TPP

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Phone it in Friday VII: Universal Studios

The Portly Politico10 Comments

As I wrote yesterday, I’m out on a rare vacation (other than Christmas, Spring Break, all summer, and every second- and third-tier holiday that falls on a Monday in the winter).  I’m down in Florida visiting Universal Studios Orlando with my family, and it’s been an amazing, tiring trip.  I tried filing away blog posts for while I was away, but couldn’t get enough done to have every day of my trip covered.

That said, we got back from Day 2 in the park a little while ago, and I’m slamming something out while playing with Mario Kart Hot Wheels with my almost-three-year old nephew.  Here are just some observations from my vacation.

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