Popcornbender Spatch

@spatch.bsky.social

891 Followers 406 Following

Writer/old-time radio actor/roller coaster rider/CAT TOWN guy/funy computar maker/etc. Wrote Pick Up The Phone Booth and Die once. Married and we have a cat. Often tells you to enjoy the show at your friendly local independent movie theater. Aquarius. Hi

A man in red checkered vest and brown corduroys, having just engaged in mock street combat with his bandleader, has taken a stage fall on bare asphalt and is in the process of letting his legs and feet go over his head for the true ass-over-teakettle experience. A bystander is walking their dog in the background and the dog is very interested in what's going on. This is why I have back problems 16 years later.
In a scene set aboard the mining vessel Red Dwarf, Dave Lister perches on the top bunk in his quarters talking to Arnold J. Rimmer, who has smugly stretched himself out on the lower bunk. (This shot does not represent the scene quoted in the post.)
A 2400 baud Hayes Smartmodem, silver case with black faceplate recognizable by its long streamlined top, row of red LEDs for every status, and the fact that the faceplate says "SMARTMODEM 2400 - Hayes" and has the company logo and everything.
Swoosie Kurtz in "True Stories". A woman in a red bouffant and salmon pajamas sits in a bed with teal sheets and a pineapple-like gold headboard with a mechanical machine that is feeding her food off a dish. She is intently watching television and holding her channel selector with way too many channels. She is trying to find something good on but keeps getting commercials.
in this cat town rpg screenshot, we are in El Guapo's house. El Guapo is standing next to his litter box, represented in the game world by a chamber pot, and he must have said a bad word while pondering it because Debug Lions shows up in a dialogue box and says DEBUG LIONS: IT'S JUST A SIMPLE SWITCH ANYWAY SWITCH 0003:POTTYMOUTH SET TO "ON" As with all the best RPGS, one simple action taken at the very beginning of the game (El Guapo saying "poop") can have SERIOUS REPERCUSSIONS through the rest of the game and possibly into the sequels as well if you're into that whole Mass Effect/Dragon Age thing. I mean, you know full well the Animal Hat Gang is gonna razz the morally upright El Guapo for being a pottymouth every chance they get
in this super secret leaked screenshot from the cat town rpg, the character of El Guapo is shown looking into a mirror. the dialogue caption for El Guapo (now represented by a man with glorious sideburns and a mustache) reads "...I NO LONGER APPEAR TO BE A CAT."
a screenshot of an open RPG Maker 2000 project. we are looking at a map titled CAT TOWN OVERWORLD and looks like a good old-fashioned 8-bit RPG overworld map, with so many biomes pushed together for quick travel. there's grasslands and forests and hilly areas and a desert with oasis and a scary-looking area which I think will be a graveyard. there is a crescent body of water in the middle of the map and in the middle of the crescent is a castle that represents CAT TOWN. a little road leads east from there to ROUTE TWENTY and then the road goes off in all directions. the lower left corner of the screenshot features a list of map assets the developer slyly neglected to minimize before taking a screenshot. it is a tiny window which means most of the names are truncated and because this is RPG Maker 2000 Value! you cannot resize these window elements or enlarge the text because the developers didn't figure on weirdos twenty-six years later running this thing on an iteration of windows at least three times removed from the one they developed for. among the truncated names we see "CAT TOWN OVERWOR(LD)" and encounter zones named "LOW LEVEL SLIME(S)", "LOW AND RARE SL(IMES)", "LOW MID SLIMES", and "MUDDY SLIMES". did you know the majority of the creatures you will fight in the overworld will be slimes? this game is cursed in several ways. we also see sub-area names for "ROUTE TWENTY", "GLADE OF TRIV(IA)", and "ROADHOUSE".
Part of a printed diagram of the marquee changes I will be making today. Words in blue, such as AUG 16 - TRIGGER/TALANGOR and [CHRIS cut off] TOPHER NOLAN'S 'THE ODYSSEY', denote things already up on the marquee which will stay. Items in red, such as [SIL cut off] ENTS PLEASE: 7/26 CHANG and 7/25 HOWARD THE DUCK 70MM, denote lines I have to build and put up. Handwriten annotations such as SAT: HATEFUL 8 70MM denote lines up on the marquee which need to be taken down. It is helpful to know what letters are usable up there in case I run out of letters inside and need a few Ms or something.
A little black cat perches on a blue rug. A hand has reached into the shot and is firmly patting the little cat's back near the base of the tail. The cat has bent her head and front paws down while raising her rear up. This might be like the downward dog yoga pose, I don't know, I'm not into yoga, but in this house we call it the Pineapple. The cat has also curled her tail around the wrist of the person petting her.
A little black cat curls up on a brown blanket and green-like couch, sleeping happily with one paw stuck out.
A picture of some of the staff of radio station WENN in Pittsburgh, taken in 1940 or '41. Back, from left to right: Mackie Bloom, actor; Celia Mellon, actress; Scott Sherwood, station manager; Betty Roberts, writer; Jeff Singer and Hillary Booth, the Fontanne & Lunt of Pittsburgh. Front row: Mr. Foley, sound effects engineer; Eugenia Bremer, organist. Not shown: Victor Comstock who I think by this time is covering the Blitz with Edward R Murrow; Gertie the switchboard operator; CJ the board op; Mr. Eldridge the all-around gopher and dogsbody.
Alan Arkin in "Simon", reading his list of demands and questions in front of a television camera.
A package of Bays' English Muffins on top of a farmshare box which contained peaches but that's not the point; the bread product on top is sold refrigerated and you keep 'em refrigerated and they're pre-split for real instead of like cheaply hinged and they're very tasty.
Newsprint from a while ago pasted to a peeling red painted wall above, IIRC, a kitchenette sink (not shown in this picture). One piece reads "HEDONISM" and the other reads "feng shui", with some of the letters reversed or upside down. This probably no longer exists.
An ice cream churn made up of a big brown wooden bucket filled with ice and rock salt and a metal cylinder full of ice cream in the middle of freezing. On top is a green electric churn motor, as this is the year without a working hand crank.
Close-up of a large yellow and black bee of the bumble variety currently gathering pollen and avoiding the tiny ants that are crawling around an orange flower bloom.
A screenshot of Deep Space 9 with a caption reading I'm at the shopping mall I'm at the war outpost I'm at the combination shopping mall and war outpost
A white Italian marble statue of a woman in classical gown standing rather insouciantly, with something in hand, on top of a curved piece of granite that reads "TILTON". Below that is a stone base and the trough that used to serve as a place to water horses. The statue is flanked by bushes and the Winnipesaukee River can just be seen behind some trees.
A 55-foot tall gray Concord granite Romanesque revival arch (phew) stands on a hill in Northfield, New Hampshire, overlooking the town of Tilton. Under the arch is a large red granite sarcophagus with what is described as a "Numidian lion" on top. Charles E. Tilton wanted to be interred there, but they put him in a cemetery instead.
The cover of sheet music for the Boston and Maine's "Snow Train" song, written by Jesse E. Richardson with music by V. Bernice Richardson. Jesse, we are told, is a railroad engineer for the Maine Central who wrote the song with his wife, and there's a picture of him in his cab as proud as a Mainer can be. There's a cartoon of a happy diesel locomotive pulling a bunch of passenger cars through a snowy landscape, and a picture of The Murray Twins who sang the song in the first place.
A poster for the Boston and Maine Railroad's Snow Train, featuring a stylized and dynamic painting of a skiier determinedly whizzing past our view. The color palette is all whites and various shades of winter blue. We are informed, in modernist text, that the train runs "SUNDAYS = WEEK-ENDS from NORTH STATION".
A map of the northern New England states with the routes of the Boston and Maine marked in red. It covered routes from Boston up the seacoast to Portland, spread across New Hampshire into the White Mountains and up to Canada, and even had a little finger stretching out to Schenectady.
A newspaper ad from the Boston and Maine Railroad which reads: You've been hearing it on the air... singing it... humming it "They call me Time Table Mable, The girl who's in love with a train" Now you can have your own record of "Timetable Mable" We've had so many requests for records of New England's catchiest radio jingle that we've had a limited quantity of recordings made so that you can enjoy hearing Dolly Dawn and the Jesters singing TIMETABLE MABLE on your own phonograph. YOURS AT LESS THAN COST! Now available by mail . . . only 25c! (Do not send postage stamps!) Address: H.L. Baldwin, Publicity Manager North Station, Boston 14, Mass GET YOUR RECORD TODAY... THE SUPPLY IS LIMITED!
A vaguely blurry picture from 1999 of a large tuxedo cat with yellow eyes and a white streak down his nose and an enormous amount of whiskers emerging from his snout and eyebrows. At least one whisker is curling up like Salvador Dali's mustache. Oh, he also had ear whiskers like nobody's business. He was just a beautiful fancy cat.
A little black cat sits on the corner of a small embroidered mat and looks hopefully up at the camera because she knows that behind the camera is someone about to pet her the way she likes it
It's the danse macabre from The Seventh Seal, silhouettes of six characters holding hands and following Death with his scythe
Bicentennial-themed wallpaper features old-timey icons such as a bald eagle, cannon, US capitol dome, a ship, and crossed Revolutionary War-era flags, all on a faded mauve-like background.
From five years ago: most of a black-and-white sticker showing a scene from "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" stuck to a pole on the Route 28 bridge over the Mystic River. The big ass casino in Everett can be seen in the background across the water.
Lucy Ricardo (dressed like Harpo Marx) and Harpo Marx (dressed like Harpo Marx) face off in front of each other and move simultaneously, as Lucy tries to convince Harpo that he's looking in a mirror. The mirror routine was a Marx Bros classic. You can watch Harpo, Groucho (and maybe Zeppo) perform it in Duck Soup.
I took a squishy green stress ball in the form of a bloodshot eye, strapped on somebody's wrist or ankle jingle bell band, and placed it on top of some cups. Behind is a tiny mirror ball and behind that is a paper star and purple tote.
Two stick figures are engaged in an intellectual discussion over a nonexistent ID. The figure on the right first tries to show a credit card as proof of age, then attempts to bribe with a sad wad of bills. The figure on the left (author self-insert) is not having any of it.
G.O.B. (Will Arnett) descends from a crane, in hard hat and hi-vis vest, to celebrate the big "Mission Accomplished" banner placed on the second model home they've built for the Sudden Valley development project. This house, actually held together by its big red celebratory ribbon, will shortly collapse on Buster.
A little black cat with yellow eyes and white whiskers sits with her front paws curled around her back paws and looks at the camera.
A brick-lined plaza, slightly damp from recent rain, with circular greenery in the center and horseshoe-ringed with concrete benches. This is behind the Center Plaza building in Government Center. Mounted flush into the seat of the bench closest to us is a circular plaque. Wonder what it says!
A blue and white (with some yellow text) mockup of how the Prevue Channel in my area looked circa 1997/1998. Instead of the MediaOne logo on the top right (and the slogan "This is Broadband. This is the way") we have a logo for MeteorOne and their slogan reads "This is Broadband. This is your mom." To the left we have notice of a Family Channel special "A Manson Family Christmas", coming up Thursday on Channel 28. Programs listed below for the 7:30, 8:00, and 8:30 slots include "Infrared Lass' Party Machine" and "The Parsnip Avenger Power Hour" on Channel 68 ("HERO"), "WOMBAT-MAN RETURNETH" , "Flail on Fluffy", and "Beat The Glock" on Channel 69 ("SMTV") and on Channel 70 ("W4R3Z") we have the film "CAPTAIN COOKWARE VS. THE KR4D SKW4D" with the description "A culinary superhero meets his match". I seriously don't know how I got the MediaOne job after showing them this during the interview, but hey
One wooden utility pole stands upright and intact on the left. Suspended 10-15 feet in the air on the right is half a utility pole, attached to the left with a few metal brackets. The short pole juts out at an angle and is carrying all the utility wires.
I am standing 20 or so feet above the street on a ladder and I have taken a picture of Statue Park in Davis Square from this lofty position. One of the theater's ornamental owls, who graces one side of our marquee, looks out over the square (and the light gray roof of a UPS truck) as the rainbow arcs high overhead. The owl's eyes glow red.
A little black cat curls up on some blankets in a corner of the couch. She is yawning widely, showing white fangs and a long curled pink tongue.
A large open rose with lovely peach-like coloring. The ends of the petals are dark orange/red and fade to almost yellow on the insides. It is a beautiful rose and if anybody dares touch it I will come after them with pliers
A TV Guide ad for "The Popcorn Kid", a 1987 sitcom about the staff of a midwestern movie theater that'd seen better days. Back row (L-R): John Christoper Jones as Marlin the projectionist, Bruce Norris as Scott the titular Popcorn Kid, Jeff Joseph as Willie, Raye Birk as theater manager Leonard. Front (L-R): Faith Ford as Lynn Holly and Penelope Ann Miller as Gwen. The series tagline reads "They've got show biz in their blood, stardom in their dreams, and sticky floors to sweep."
A yellow, black, and brown bee clings to the underside of a spiral wrought iron porch railing, checking out the lichen.
An orange and black spacecraft named "Cosmik Debris" and emblazoned with the Spatulari Enterprises logo (black cat grinning inside a pentagon shape) sits inside a hangar, waiting to be sent back out into the asteroid belts which it wants to call home
Over three dozen Canada Goose, many goslings, hanging out in a large open green field bounded by tall trees (and an unseen river) behind. The geese are all small black dots in this picture, taken from a sidewalk, because it would be extremely foolish to approach any further.
IT IS CAT TOWN: THE LOGO WHICH IS OF THE WORDS "CAT" AND "TOWN" ABOVE FOUR HOUSES WITH LIT UP WINDOWS AND DOORS THAT MAKE THEM LOOK SURPRISED, ONE IS GREEN, ONE IS RED, ONE IS I THINK BROWN AND THE OTHER IS GRAY (THAT'S EL GUAPO'S [THIS IS NOW CANON, I HAVE ESTABLISHED CANON IN ALT TEXT])
A kitchen door next to a green trash bin next to a kitchen bench with an air popper and a radio on a shelf and stuff. The bottom half of the door has been kicked in, shattering and splintering the wood up all the way to the top and breaking the deadbolt assembly.
(the same picture as I posted previously, but this time I'm leaving key words out of the alt text just in case)
Albert Speer's 152-searchlight "Cathedral of Light" at the 1936 Nuremberg Rally
Panic on the streets with Peanuts, the kids all stand in line and chant "Hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ..."
A little black cat sits on a computer case shadowed with stripes from the vertical blinds, and looks off-camera at something, anything other than the camera
I drew Waldo (Wally outside the US) in Sharpie marker. He is holding a bucket of popcorn and a box of Whoppers, and appears very happy to be at the best darn cinema around. I am now going to hide this drawing somewhere in the theater.
Dave Foley as the Daddy who drank for the government. Pictured: His handle of booze and his willingness to commit murder. Not pictured: His quiet shoes
It's a black cloth trucker's style cap with the words "THE ODYSSEY" stitched on the front in calm water blue
Brown-like iron scaffolding rises up along with a thin access tube. The underside of the top of the lighthouse is visible and octagonal.
The thin scaffolding of a skeletal iron lighthouse tower is silhouetted against a deep blue to gray sky and the yellow orange setting sun. In the foreground there is a wind-swept tree and then closer to us there are gray Atlantic granite rocks and green shrubs.
A fuzzy red circle upon which words have been blurrily written; these words read (I think) "Turn to clear vision"
Surveillance camera. Sign offering "Police Assistance". Floating in a concrete void.
Pencil drawing of human thumb with dead eyed stare sitting in a theater seat with a bucket of popcorn in his lap. He is throwing a piece of popcorn at himself with a very poorly-drawn banana finger hand. The popcorn goes nowhere near his closed mouth; instead it bounces off his forehead. This of course does not represent anyone cool and intelligent enough to view it.
Poorly-cropped street view cap standing on "Midway Park Drive", looking down a sterile suburban street which the map has labeled "Roller Coaster Way". This was the site of the Comet and the parking lot, but I guess Parking Lot Way wasn't colorful enough. Housing developments love to name their streets after the things they displaced and destroyed: amusement park features; woodland features and tree species; Native American tribes