March 11, 2025 - Pong, Honey Pig, Birthdays, Clark
This week I celebrate a lot of birthdays, including my own, check out Gary Clark Jr. and Danielle Ponder, consider famous video games and enjoy Korean BBQ with the family.
Nuggets of Information: Shall We Play a Game?
In the September 24, 2024 issue of Boo’s N.E.W.S. I wrote about the National Toy Hall of Fame’s slate of proposed toys for inclusion into the Hall. This week, we go electric, and focus on the World Video Game Hall of Fame, and their nominees for induction to the Hall this year. The Hall of Fame is located at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY, where the the National Toy Hall of Fame is also housed.
The 2025 finalists are: Age of Empires, Angry Birds, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Defender, Frogger, Golden Eye, Golden Tee, Harvest Moon, Mattel Football, Quake, NBA 2K and Tamagotchi.
“This year’s finalists span the decades and range from arcade classics to one of the most popular mobile games of all time,” Jon-Paul C. Dyson, director of The Strong’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games, said in a news release. “All of these games have enormously influenced pop culture or the game industry itself.”
The Hall of Fame gets thousands of nominations online each year for arcade, console, computer and handheld games. Staff members choose the finalists based on their longevity, geographical reach and influence on game design and pop culture. The inductees are then chosen in a ballot vote by an international committee of experts. Of the games listed, I have spent the most time playing Angry Birds, Defender, Frogger and Golden Tee, and I hope to one day welcome a Tamagotchi to our family if we can find one available for rescue/adoption.
The winners will be enshrined May 8th. Which ones did/do you play? Share in the comments!
Enrichment: Honey Pig for the Win
My birthday was this past week, and part of the celebration was our family dinner at Honey Pig, a Korean BBQ restaurant in Duluth, GA. The best part was that Samantha came home last Friday for the first part of her college Spring Break, so the whole family got to enjoy dinner together!
We like Korean BBQ, and Honey Pig was delightful. I ordered the Honey Pig Signature Duroc Pork Belly, Lisa ordered the whole Ribeye, Alex ordered the Prime Short Rib and Samantha got the Bulgogi. With this came all the sides (banchan) - assorted mushrooms, soybean paste stew, corn cheese, steamed egg, potato salad, kimchi, and bean sprout salad. Oh - we also ordered the fried dumplings, which were delicious.
Our server/helper/chef did the cooking for us, and spread out each person’s choice around the table, so we could all try each others’ food. Smart move. She deftly cooked the food while answering our questions.
Similar to our experience at fondue restaurants, you don’t think there is that much meat before they get started, but once everything starts, there is more than enough. We started getting nervous about just how much food was being produced even before she started cooking Samantha’s. We were happy to bring home leftovers. Overall it was a very lovely experience.
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Workshop: Happy Birthday Everybody!
Last week I wrote about our celebration of Monica, Hilary and Scott’s birthdays, and this week there were even more birthdays to celebrate. Friday we hit three different parties. First, we went to Chamblee Tap & Market to celebrate Mark U.’s birthday. It was a beautiful late afternoon, great crowd and lots of fun conversations.
From there, we drove with the Cutlers to the 57th Fighter Group for our friend Erinn G.’s birthday. It was 90’s night at the 57th, so Lisa and I did our best to dress like what YouTube teen influencers think folks dressed like in the 90’s, even though we lived through that decade, and it seems like just yesterday. It was a bit odd getting all dressed up in flannel and a Sublime shirt to go hang out in a place with a World War II theme. But the party was awesome.
After 57th, we went to Tin Roof Cantina to celebrate Brian V.’s birthday. As we walked in to Tin Roof, the crowd was half way through singing “Happy Birthday” to Brian, and luckily we knew the words, and could fall right in. Part of the activities included Brian singing a few songs on stage with the band, RNR MFers, who Brian has been friends with and performed with since his days in Columbia South Carolina. They sounded great, and it was fun hanging out with a third set of friends that day.
For my birthday, we celebrated by doing a bar crawl through the city of Chamblee on Sunday. Lisa organized everything, and even made pretzel necklaces for party goers to wear/eat. It was rainy and cold, but we still had a great crowd of people. We started at Chamblee Tap & Market, where even Samantha and Alex showed up for a spell, then on to Contrast Artisan Ales, then to Bluetop, then Moondogs, and finally Block & Drum.
While each location was fun, our final stop at Block & Drum was unexpectedly cool. Unbeknownst to us, they were holding their “Fusion Sunday” event, hosted by Larry Wilson. A house jazz band was there, and different Atlanta-based singers and musicians joined them to sing and play. It was a very hip, laid-back environment, with a warm friendly crowd and some really awesome fusion jazz music. And Katie the bartender made excellent cocktails (and mocktails).
Thanks to everyone who came out last Sunday! And a special thanks to Lisa for organizing our Sunday funday!!
Selected Content: Pondering the Hype
Last Tuesday Mark U. and I went to the Eastern to see Gary Clark Jr. with opener Danielle Ponder. We got to the Eastern, one of our favorite live music venues, and headed up to the rooftop bar/restaurant to grab food. I had only learned that Danielle Ponder was opening the show the day before and was very excited to see her. Her song “So Long” is a fave of mine, on my go-to Spotify playlist. Here’s my recording of it from the show:
Her set was great – big voice that filled the room, great support from her band. Ponder is relatively new to music. She graduated from Northwestern and enjoyed a career as an attorney until, three days before her 40th birthday, she left law to pursue music full time. Three years later, she’s opening for Gary Clark jr.. Oh – and she recently moved to Atlanta, so that’s a bonus! Her set lived up to all my expectations.
Next up was the headliner, Gary Clark Jr.. Mark and I were both in the same boat regarding Clark – we’ve listened to him a lot, heard plenty of hype about him, but had never seen him live.
The show was good, the band was good, Clark was good. But I have to say, I was not blown away. Sadly, I don’t think he lived up to the hype. It took me a couple of days of reflection to come up with what led to this impression. Clark is certainly a very talented guitar player – in the last minute of each song. I can tell he has been influenced by George Clinton, who I have seen several times. Besides the funk influence, Clark draws on Clinton’s role as a bandleader/emcee – shining the spotlight on each individual in the band, one at a time, during each song. Then he steps up and plays a blistering solo in the last minute, the crowd goes crazy, then everything settles back down for the next song. But the relationship between Clinton, his band and the audience is critical to the experience. He gets everyone on the same page, and the energy is consistent and fun and permeates every corner of the room. Clark didn’t ever get there.
A pattern emerged - song starts with low energy, very chill and mellow, then a burst of energy at the end. Repeat pattern in next song. Very loose, a little rambling. Maybe it is because I had just seen Billy Strings and his band a week earlier, they are all extremely talented, and give 100% of their energy and ability in every second of every song. Clark and his band were maybe a bit too relaxed.
Here’s an example from a song I started recording, waited for something to happen, then just bailed:
Don’t get me wrong – we had a good time. I’m glad I went. Clark is certainly one of the better guitar players out there. But after this performance, I won’t be adding him to my list of artists I will see whenever they are in town. If he is playing at a festival I’m going to, I’ll check him out again. But overall, I was a bit disappointed. Danielle Ponder was the best part of the night, for me.
Next up on the live music docket: Dead & Company at the Sphere in Vegas with Samantha, round two.