You Put The Lime In The Cherry Sprite

Sprite Chill Cherry Lime
The Coca-Cola Company (2025)
This had an interesting flavor, but I think it's much too sweet.  I'm hoping to find the Zero Sugar version to try.

What If You Could Find Brand New Worlds Right Here On Earth...

Sliders
Fox (1995)
A science fiction television series that had potential to become one of the greatest of all time premiered thirty years ago today.

Sliders began its life on March 22nd, 1995 as a mid-season replacement on the Fox network.  It was an hour long show that starred Jerry O'Connell as Quinn Mallory, a young genius who accidentally invents a device that allows people to travel into parallel worlds.  He, along with his co-worker and love interest Wade Welles (Sabrina Lloyd), his college professor Maximilian Arturo (John Rhys-Davies), and a singer who was in the wrong place at the wrong time named Rembrandt Brown (Cleavant Derricks) travel through the wormhole created by Quinn's device and end up getting lost in the multiverse.  Each episode featured the group "sliding" into a different parallel world in an attempt to finally get back home.

Starlog Science Fiction Explorer (June 1995)

The concept of a multiverse is a relatively common plot device after it has been popularized by the Marvel Cinematic Universe and in movies such as Everything Everywhere All At Once which won the Academy Award for Best Picture a few years ago.  However, this was rarely used on television or in movies thirty years ago.  The concept was explored in an episode of The Twilight Zone and several times on Star Trek, but it wasn't the kind of thing that people generally understood unless you were a sci-fi nerd.  I think this lack of familiarity with the idea of parallel worlds was one of the things that kept Sliders from being a big hit when it first aired.  A lot of write ups about the show back in the mid 90's compared it to Quantum Leap, which is another excellent show, but the only thing it has in common with Sliders is the fact that the travelers have no control over where they're going or when they leave.

This show will forever be linked in my memory with the days of dial-up internet.  I was 14 years old when it premiered.  Not long afterward, I got an IBM Aptiva computer from Radio Shack, and a 28.8k modem to go online.  One of the first things that I looked up was Sliders, and I came across a message board run by MCA Universal called the Sliders NetForum where I used the username neonrocketship for the first time.  I didn't post very often, but I checked the boards after every episode to see what folks were saying about the show.

 

I spent even more time back in those days working on my first website, which was a Sliders fan page in the Area 51 community of GeoCities.  I have long since forgotten what it was called, but I remember having a gadget called the Snappy Video Snapshot hooked up to my computer and my VCR to capture jpgs from the show to upload to the GeoCities page.

Computer Life (October 1995)
scanned and shared by Vintage Computing & Gaming

Does anybody else remember this thing?  I spent hours of my life as a teenager going through VHS tapes of movies and shows trying to pause it at exactly the right moment to get the perfect image on my computer.  Clearly I was one of the cook kids... not nerdy at all... no sir-eee.

The first three seasons of Sliders were broadcast on Fox.  If you're going to watch it in 2025, my recommendation is that you stick to these three seasons.  Network meddling began to rear its ugly head midway through the third season, which led the show's co-creators Tracy Tormé, Robert K. Weiss, and John Landis to drop out of the series altogether.  This left David Peckinpah in charge, who wasted no time in running the series into the ground.

Sliders was cancelled by Fox after the third season.  It was picked up by the Sci-Fi Channel for the fourth and fifth seasons.  At the time, I was happy to see that the show had been saved and hopeful that it would get back to its roots going forward, but that didn't happen.  The fourth and fifth season had a handful interesting ideas for parallel worlds, but the show had become an absolute train wreck.  The series finale at the end of the fifth season felt more like a mercy killing than a celebration.

Sliders is available to stream on Peacock and Fandango.  The series was also released on DVD, and new old stock of the box sets are still pretty easy to find on eBay for very reasonable prices.  I absolutely loved this series when I was a teenager and I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys science fiction, but I just as strongly recommend sticking to just the first three seasons.  You'll see a sharp decline in the show from the start to the end of the third season, but I assure you, the worst episode of the first three seasons is still a lot better than what comes after that.

The Philadelphia Inquirer (March 22, 1995)

The One And Only

Mickey 17
Warner Bros Pictures (2025)
Based on the trailer, I was expecting this to be kind of a slapstick comedy about a guy who gets paid to die over and over again.  The more I saw that trailer, the less interested I was in going to see the film.  It has been getting impressive reviews so I decided to check it out, and I'm glad that I did.

This movie reminds me of RoboCop and Starship Troopers.  There is a dark comedic undertone, but the world building is taken seriously.  The villain of the film is an over-the-top former Senator and present-day cult leader who is this film's representation of Donald Trump, and his wife who is essentially a straight up parody of Tammy Faye Bakker.  They're in charge of an expedition to colonize another planet.  This feels like a bit of wish fulfillment, as nothing would make me happier than seeing their real-world counterparts and their followers launched into space to go screw up some other world and leave the rest of us to clean up the mess they've made on Earth.

It's not doing well in the box office, but I think Mikey 17 has all of the makings of a future cult classic.  It probably won't be in theaters too much longer, so I'd recommend checking it out this weekend while you still can.

Happy First Day Of Spring

Almond Blossom
Vincent van Gogh (1890)
There is a framed print of this hanging sideways in my living room.  I didn't realize it was sideways when I first hung it up, but I've gotten used to it so it has remained sideways.

Reach Out And Touch Faith

Violator
Depeche Mode (1990)
My favorite Depeche Mode album, and one of my favorite albums from any band, was released 35 years ago today.  Violator is an incredible album from start to finish with no skippable tracks.  The song that has probably stood the test of time that I still hear on the radio today is its first single, Personal Jesus.  The opening track and the namesake of Richard Blade's autobiography, World In My Eyes, is another excellent song.  However, my favorite song on the album is a tie between these two:

Enjoy The Silence
Depeche Mode (1990)

Words like violence break the silence

Come crashing in into my little world

Painful to me, pierce right through me

Can't you understand, oh my little girl

All I ever wanted

All I ever needed is here in my arms

Words are very unnecessary

They can only do harm

Vows are spoken to be broken

Feelings are intense, words are trivial

Pleasures remain, so does the pain

Words are meaningless and forgettable

All I ever wanted

All I ever needed is here in my arms

Words are very unnecessary

They can only do harm

Enjoy the silence

Policy Of Truth

Depeche Mode (1990)

You had something to hide

Should have hidden it, shouldn't you?

Now you're not satisfied

With what you're being put through

It's just time to pay the price

For not listening to advice

And deciding in your youth

On the policy of truth

Things could be so different now

It used to be so civilized

You will always wonder how

It could have been if you'd only lied

It's too late to change events

It's time to face the consequence

For delivering the proof

In the policy of truth

Never again is what you swore

The time before

Now you're standing there tongue-tied

You'd better learn your lesson well

Hide what you have to hide

And tell what you have to tell

You'll see your problems multiplied

If you continually decide

To faithfully pursue

The policy of truth

Never again is what you swore

The time before

The Pains Of Living A Painless Life

Novocaine
Paramount Pictures (2025)

This is a fun movie that reminds me a little bit of Love Hurts in that it features a nerdy guy with a regular job who is drawn into a battle with bad guys to save his love interest.  The hook in this film is that the nerdy guy in question, played by Jack Quaid, has a genetic condition called CIPA which makes him unable to feel pain.  It may sound like a pretty cool superpower to have, but people who suffer from this condition have an average life expectancy of 25.  His character, Nathan Caine, has to live his life with such caution that he doesn't consume anything that he would have to chew because there's a danger that he could bite off his own tongue without even knowing that he had done it.

Novocaine isn't the kind of movie that's likely to be on too many people's top ten lists at the end of the year, but it's a solid action comedy that I think most people who see it would enjoy.  If you don't catch it in theaters, this might be a good one to save for December.  The story is set during the holiday season with villains who are introduced to the film dressed as Santa Claus.  It's no Die Hard, but I could see it turning into a holiday tradition.

Our Pluto Mining Stations Are Now In Unknown Hands

Descent
Interplay (1995)
The classic science fiction first-person shooter Descent was released thirty years ago today.  It's one of two games on CD Rom (the other being Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure) that came bundled with the first computer that I bought for myself, an IBM Aptiva.  I'm not a big fan of first person shooters but I had a lot of fun with this game.

I can honestly tell you that the 14 year old version of me would not believe that video game graphics could get much better than this.  It's still a lot of fun to play in 2025.  You can get it today on Steam for less than ten bucks.

Elvis Has Entered The Ice Cream Parlor

Sundaes On Broadway
South Broadway - Wind Gap, PA
Just a few doors down from The Gap Theatre is a very nice ice cream parlor that I highly recommend to anyone who's stopping in to see a movie.

This place is just downright charming.  There's plenty of seating available and a hell of a good selection of sundaes, shakes, and other frozen desserts.

I had the Elvis Sundae, which is made with peanut butter sauce, caramel, cut up banana slices, whipped cream and a cherry on top of your choice of ice cream flavors.  My base was Vanilla Peanut Butter ice cream, just because it seemed like it would blend well with the rest of the sundae.  Very tasty!

We Will Cure This Planet Of The Disease Of Human Pollution

Terror Of Mechagodzilla
Toho (1975)
The 15th film in the Godzilla franchise premiered in Japan fifty years ago today.

You Can't Take Back All Those Years

A Boy Named Goo
Goo Goo Dolls (1995)
The album that propelled Goo Goo Dolls into the mainstream was released thirty years ago today.  A Boy Named Goo is the band's fifth studio album, but it's the first of their records that a lot of their fans heard, and I am no exception.  I was 14 years old when I first heard this record and it immediately tapped in what I was feeling at the time.  Hearing those songs today has a way of taking me back to that place and wanting to hop in a time machine to go find my younger self to let him know that this shit will all work out... you just have to hang in there.

I've already written about Name before, so this time, I'm going to focus on the fourth single that came out of the album, Naked.  The lyrics are a pretty straight forward self-examination of anxiety and loneliness.  Hearing it today reminds me of the song Ask by The Smiths, almost as if the person singing Naked is the one that Morrissey was singing to in Ask. 

Naked

Goo Goo Dolls (1995)

Yeah I'm fading

And I call out

No one hears me

Never been, never felt, never thought I'd say a word

Weighed down

Safe now

You're naked inside your fear

You can't take back all those years

And shots in the dark from empty guns

Are never heard by anyone

Yeah I'm hiding

In the fallout

Now I'm wasted

They don't need me, don't want me, don't hear a word I say

Weighed down

Safe now

You're naked inside your fear

You can't take back all those years

And shots in the dark from empty guns

Are never heard by anyone

Inside your head

No one's there

And I don't think I'll ever be

And I don't care

You're naked inside your fear

You can't take back all those years

And shots in the dark from empty guns

Are never heard by anyone

Gravity Always Wins

The Bends
Radiohead (1995)
The second studio album from Radiohead is turning thirty years old today.  This is an album that I was a little late in discovering.  I had their first album and I enjoyed it, but the band kind of fell off of my radar until their third album, Ok Computer was released in 1997.  That one became an instant favorite that I listened to on my drive to work every night for months, and it inspired me to circle back to discover The Bends, which I fell in love with almost (but not quite) as much as Ok Computer.  This may come across like I'm damning it with faint praise, but I don't mean it like that.  If Ok Computer is a five star record, The Bends is four and three quarters.

This album also introduced the world to a song with one of the trippiest music videos of the 90's.

Fake Plastic Trees
Radiohead (1995)

Her green plastic watering can

For her fake Chinese rubber plant

In a fake plastic Earth

That she bought from a rubber man

In a town full of rubber plans

To get rid of itself

It wears her out

She lives with a broken man

A cracked polystyrene man

Who just crumbles and burns

He used to do surgery

For girls in the eighties

But gravity always wins

It wears him out

She looks like the real thing

She tastes like the real thing

My fake plastic love

But I can't help the feeling

I could blow through the ceiling

If I just turn and run

It wears me out

If I could be who you wanted

All the time

The Perks Of Living Near The Amish

Steve's Chicken Stand
Hometown Farmers Market - Tamaqua, PA
Jeez, this guy isn't going to write about that Amish chicken stand again, is he?  Yes he is.  This was $11, which is about as good of a deal for a chicken dinner with a baked potato and a side of homemade stuffing and buffalo chicken mac & cheese as you're going to find in 2025.

Here's another tip if you live in the area.  It isn't very busy at the Hometown Farmers Market on rainy days, and if you stop by after 5:00, the Amish bread and pastry stand will usually have a buy one, get one free deal.  I wouldn't recommend this breakfast bread if you have celiac disease, but for everybody else, it's freaking delightful.  Makes a good bun for a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich too.

Try And Enjoy The Here And Now

Dream Into Action
Howard Jones (1985)
The second studio album from 80's synthpop maestro Howard Jones was released forty years ago today.  It has three singles that charted in the United States, including Things Can Only Get Better and Life In One Day, but my favorite song on the record is this ballad that I'm pretty sure everyone can relate to at some point in their life.

No One Is To Blame
Howard Jones (1985)

You can look at the menu but you just can't eat

You can feel the cushions but you can't have a seat

You can dip your foot in the pool but you can't have a swim

You can feel the punishment but you can't commit the sin

And you want her and she wants you

We want everyone

And you want her, and she wants you

No one ever is to blame

You can build a mansion but you just can't live in

You're the fastest runner but you're not allowed to win

Some break the rules and let you count the cost

The insecurity is the thing that won't get lost

And you want her and she wants you

We want everyone

And you want her, and she wants you

No one ever is to blame

You can see the summit but you can't reach it

It's the last piece of the puzzle but you just can't make it fit

Doctor says you're cured but you still feel the pain

Aspirations in the clouds but your hopes go down the drain

And you want her and she wants you

We want everyone

And you want her, and she wants you

No one ever is to blame

Now Showing Zelda 2, Mario 2, and Donkey Kong

Nintendo World
Nintendo Company Overview (1989)
In honor of Mar.10, here is a photo of a store display from a sixteen page booklet that was published by Nintendo of Japan at the end of the 80's.  It was scanned and shared by Erik from Before Nintendo a couple of years ago.  It's an excellent blog the history of Nintendo with an emphasis on the toys and games created by the company between 1889 and the early 1980s.

There were a few stores in my area during the late 80's and early 90's that made an attempt to follow this display (mostly Hills and Sears), but none of them looked as good as this.  Definitely don't remember seeing any Super Mario Bros tighty whiteys behind a glass case.

Carpenter At The Gap

John Carpenter Triple Feature

Escape From New York / Assault On Precinct 13 / Dark Star
The Gap Theater - Wind Gap, PA
Harry, John, and Kate really hit it out of the park with their opening weekend.  Their follow-up to the Indiana Jones double feature on Friday was a John Carpenter triple feature on Saturday.

I'm in the process of scouting out the place to find "my spot", and I think I might have found it.  The seats going up the stairs on the right hand side of the screen have a lot of legroom; particularly the very top row.  It has three seats with the end seat perched right at the top of the stairs.  It's also sandwiched between two walls while still providing a completely unobstructed view of the screen, so it's almost got the feel of a private box.  I'm not sure if I'll want to sit up here for every movie, but it definitely has its charm, especially when you're settling in for a triple feature.

The first movie of the night was one of my favorite John Carpenter flicks that has my all-time favorite opening credits score, the 1981 dystopian sci-fil classic Escape From New York.  This played at a Tunnel Vision Tuesday at around the same time that we started going to the Mahoning Drive-In Theater, but I didn't go out that night and I've regretted it ever since.

 

The second movie of the night was the 1976 film Assault On Precinct 13.  I've seen this movie once or twice before, but it's been a long time so I didn't remember too much about it.  Very cool to have had the opportunity to see it on the big screen on 35mm.

The final movie was John Carpenter's 1974 directorial debut, Dark Star.  It's an extremely low budget sci-fi flick featuring an alien that's pretty much just a beach ball with flippers, but it was pretty good for what it was.

I realize that these aren't exactly the most detailed or thought-provoking comments, but I've been feeling burned out.  I'm not sure what to write or even what to say when I'm talking with people these days.  I'm not depressed or anything; at least I don't think that I am.  I just feel kind of mentally drained over the past couple of months.  I'm sure it'll pass.

It's Not The Years, Honey. It's The Mileage.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark / Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom
The Gap Theatre - Wind Gap, PA
A single screen art deco movie theatre in the borough of Wind Gap, PA had its grand re-opening last night with an incredible double feature of two of the greatest action adventure films ever made.

The Morning Call - Allentown, PA  (February 2, 2020)

The Gap Theatre opened its doors in the late 1940's.  The venue has changed hands several times over its nearly eighty year history.  The most recent manager of the theater prior to this year was Bill Reese who operated the facility for ten years as a movie theater and live performance venue.  The theatre struggled to get by, and they closed their doors just a few weeks before awareness of the Covid-19 Pandemic took hold in the United States.  The building has sat vacant and unused since January 2020.

The rebirth of The Gap Theatre is the first good news that I've heard this year.  The property is still owned by Joseph Farruggio, who has owned the building for the past forty years.  It is now being leased to Harry Guerro from Exhumed Films who, along with Mike & Kate Drumbore, have worked to restore this theatre to its former glory, including additional seating and twin Century SA projectors with TR4 sound heads.

Harry, Mike, and Kate have been fixtures at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater for some time.  Harry provided many of the 35mm prints that have been screened at the drive-in, particularly for Tunnel Vision Tuesday and weekend annual events like Zombiefest and Camp Blood.  Mike was one of the Mahoning projectionists, and his wife Kate worked in various roles at the drive-in.  The three of them are operating The Gap in the same spirit as The Mahoning with a dedication to presenting classic films on 35mm in a setting that you would have seen them when they were first released.

There's a small snack stand on the right hand side of the entrance where you can get popcorn, candy, nachos, pretzels, and A-Treat soda.  They also have t-shirts, mugs, koozies, and pins available for sale.

The seating reminds me a lot of what the Hersker / Key Theater in West Hazleton looked like before they gutted the place and turned it into the Cinema & Drafthouse.  The main difference is that The Gap has stairs on the left and right hand side with seating going up the side walls of the theatre in addition to the floor seats.

Look at that glorious neon glowing on top of the marquee!

Opening night at the new Gap Theatre was a double feature of two of my favorite movies of all time.

 

At 7:30, the lights went dark and we were treated to vintage trailers, including Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, E.T., and The Goonies.  After that, we got to see the first feature in the rebirth of The Gap Theatre, the 1981 classic Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

This is a movie that I didn't see all the way through or fully appreciate until I was a teenager, but from that point on, it has been one of my all time favorite adventure films.  I've never seen it on the big screen before, so this was incredible.  The 35mm print that we got to see was in good shape, and there were things that caught my eye that I never noticed before despite the fact that I must have watched this movie at least two dozen times over the past thirty years.  Also, there's something that's particularly satisfying these days about watching Indiana Jones punching nazis.

As cool as the first feature was, seeing Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom on 35mm in a movie theater that feels very much like the ones that I went to in the 80's was a truly special experience.

When I was a kid, my grandfather used to record things off of television on his VCR so that I'd have some things to watch when I visited my grandparents on the weekend.  There were some tapes that he'd record over every week with things like Duck Tales, Double Dare, You Can't Do That On Television, and other cartoons and kids shows that he knew I liked.  There were other tapes that he'd record and then pop the pin out so that I didn't accidentally record over them because he knew that I liked to watch them over and over again.  These were usually movies that he either recorded off of network television, or during an HBO, Cinemax or Disney Channel free preview weekend.  This collection included The Wizard Of Oz, The Neverending Story, Flight Of The Navigator, Return Of The Jedi, Police Academy 4, and the movie that I watched almost every weekend that I was at their house: Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom.

God bless my grandparents because they must have watched this movie with me about a hundred times, with my grandmother sitting on her recliner, my grandfather on the other side of the room sitting on his, and me laying on the floor with my Gorilla Pillow eating cheese and cracker sandwiches with monkey brains and eyeball soup, and hearts being ripped out of chests glowing from the console television.

Like the first film of the night, this was my first time seeing Temple Of Doom on the big screen, and it was amazing.  Even though I've seen this movie an ungodly number of times in my life, this was probably the first time since I was in elementary school that I sat down with no distractions and paid attention to the entire film from start to finish.  No computer, no cell phone, no games, no food, no pets, no conversation... just the 35mm film being projected onto the screen in a dark theater with dozens of other moviegoers who were soaking up the experience the same as I was - the closest any of us will ever get to going back in time to see these movies at a theater when they were first released.  Nights like this are as close to time travel that I've ever found, and I treasure each and every moment of it that I am privileged to experience.

The Elephant At The Breakfast Table

Twinkles
General Mills (2025)
A lot of children's breakfast cereals have come and gone over the years.  I've learned about a lot of the ones that were popular before I was born from nostalgia websites and YouTube videos, but this is one that I had never heard of until it was brought back earlier this year.

Twinkles was introduced during the 1960's and was available in the cereal aisle until it was discontinued in 1973.  It was sold in a package that included a storybook on the back of every box featuring the cereal's mascot, Twinkles the Magic elephant.

The Twinkles cereal that's available now doesn't have a storybook, but the back panel of the box is a board game that comes complete with game pieces featuring Twinkles the Elephant, Sanford the Parrot, Wilbur the Monkey, and Leopold, the Lion that you can cut out from the side of the box to play.

When General Mills announced that Twinkles was being brought back, they mentioned that it would have the same vanilla and butter cookie flavor you remember.  I enjoyed it, but to be perfectly honest, I thought it tasted a lot like Cap'n Crunch.  If that's the kind of flavor that appeals to you, give this a shot.