Jeff's Major Matt Mason Toys

Believe it or not, I do NOT have my collection of Major Matt Mason toys from when I was a kid. But I saw recently a note in Variety about Tom Hanks in a new MMM movie and it brought me back. Far and away, Major Matt Mason was my favorite toy when I was a kid. I was somewhat of a space geek back then (hard to believe, isn't it?) and this toy was right in my wheelhouse.

Looking back on it, my parents completely spoiled me on these toys. I had the space station, lunar trac, space sled, jet propulsion pack, space crawler, star seeker, uni-tred space hauler, space ship case, the bad aliens, the good aliens, and I'm sure a bunch of things I'm forgetting. Hours of joy in the basement at 1233 Limit Avenue in Baltimore City.

The main drawback was that they were rubber over wire and the wire broke if you bent a leg or arm too much. They had somewhat of a limited shelf life and would become useless if played with too much. I played with them too much.

Jeff's Cool-Guy Football Shrine

I keep every little shred of everything so of course I'm going to keep all of my football stuff. To quote Al Bundy, "I used to play a little high school football" and I have the hundreds of shreds of papers and photos to prove.

I've got pictures of playing football as a kid and a copy of the rosters. From high school, I've got newspaper articles, old jerseys, hats, buttons, pictures, souveniers, and programs.

I've got a bunch of crap from my post high school, football-watchin phase which includes a ton of stuff from the Baltimore CFL Stallions and of course my beloved Ravens. I love football and the best time of year is off to a great start!

Sports Equipment Graveyard

With the youth football kicking into high gear, I had make sure my #2 son had his proper equipment. Before hitting the sporting goods store, we took a visit to the Rhodes sports equipment graveyard. With four boys enjoying varying degrees of sports, it seems like we have everything. Laying everything out, I calculated I could do the following (this is no exaggeration):

1) Depending upon the sizes, I have enough gear to equip five hockey players. Excluding skates, I could field a squad of eight.

2) I have six pucks, equipment to repair skates and tools to tie the shoes.

3) Youth golf clubs

4) Tennis rackets, badminton, croquet, horseshoes, and tether ball

5) Balls, balls, balls and balls

6) Four sets of boxing gloves, a heavy bag and wraps.

7) Hand weights,

8) Three scooters (sold two already), five bikes, two boogie boards, and a surfboard.

9) Gloves and mitts.

10) Football cleats, soccer cleats, and baseball cleats.

Ah, the joy of boys...

Behind the Scenes - Uncoolest Hollywood Report

I have received a lot of requests for a behind-the-scenes look at the Uncool Hollywood report so here goes. Here is a partial list of the things sitting behind me when I shoot those reports:

A large map of Carroll County, MD from the 1800's (reproduction). A caricature of my wife that she gave me for Christmas many years ago. A pile of CD's I never look at and I never will again. An old Sidekick v.1 that doesn't work and has buttons missing. A pile of scripts. An old school crank pencil sharpener and an electric one. A desktop heater. An HO-scale train car with fake wood pallets. A stack of old hotel keys. A picture of William and Jack (my sons) when they were very young. A checkbook from a closed account. A cassette tape with the only copy of my rap album DJ JOHNNY CUTS BUTCHHEAD "2 Tons of Fun". A picture of a spaceship I drew when I was a kid. A pile of Monopoly games. A stack of Ben Franklin 1963 half-dollars in a container. An old disk drive that doesn't work and has nothing on it anyway. A microphone from my tape recorder when I was a kid.

And some other stuff...

Stuff I Keep - Pt. 3 - Sports Tickets

I honestly really, really, really thinned things out before I moved to California five years ago, but still I stumble across more 'Stuff I Keep'. It really is not very cool to keep everything you may run across but then again I stopped worrying about cool many moons ago. Case in point...

I keep the ticket stubs from sporting events. Growing up in Baltimore, all the biggies happened at Memorial Stadium so I found this book full of ticket stubs with arrows pointing to where I sat for each of event. A friend of mine from work had given me this cool picture of old Memorial Stadium so I naturally kept it and put it to good use.

Looking through this book, I realized I had season tickets to the Orioles (with my friend Steve Weinstein, Section 13, row 9, seat 16 - first row on the wall, right on the aisle). I had season tickets to the Baltimore CFL Stallions (Section 12 Low, row 24, seat 19 - About the 40 yard line with Larry & Brian Leonardi, Tony Weis, John Donatelli, and Brian Kemp). Also, the first couple of years of the Baltimore Ravens (U11, row 32, seat 14 - with Larry Leonardi & Brian Kemp - nosebleeds extreme).

Though I complain, I really like the stuff I keep. Don't tell anyone...