Just want to alert you to two new features on Dino Drac.

First, musings about ten old soda cans, from Dr Slice to Jolt Cola. Second, the most gloriously complex TMNT Colorforms playset ever, featuring a two-level city and a little cardboard Tokka.

In celebration of these two features, here’s a photo of Dino Drac, chewing through a can of Orange Crush, which for some reason is covered in Ninja Turtle Band-Aids.

Also, one of my 2013 resolutions is to be more aggressive (obnoxious) about the site, so in addition for a plea for you to share articles when you think they’re worth sharing, I’d also love to boost the site’s Facebook likes and Twitter followers. (And, if you follow Dino Drac on either, you won’t need posts like this to tell you when new things are published!)

I leave you in the hands of a random survey. In the comments, discuss your favorite and least favorite TV show finales. Series finales, not season finales. Due to the nature of this survey, assume the thread will be spoiler-filled.

Goodfellas is one of my favorite movies, duh. I can’t imagine that I’ve seen it anything less than a hundred times.

Yesterday was one of those days when the only thing that seemed right with the world was my couch, so that’s where I lived, searching for shows and movies that would require absolutely none of my brainpower. Goodfellas got the nod.

Near the end of the film, I noticed something. I already knew that parts of the movie were filmed on Staten Island, but assumed that they were the run-of-the-mill “suburban home exteriors” that people so often come here to shoot.  Somehow, it wasn’t until this latest viewing – the last of over a hundred – that I noticed a clear-as-day shot of the Pergament Mall on Richmond Avenue.

It’s in the scene that leads up to Henry Hill’s arrest. You know, when the helicopter is trailing him all over the place? He and Karen make a quick stop to use a payphone, and holy shit, they’re at the same goddamned strip mall that I go to at least once a week. The same strip mall that I’ve been to more than a thousand times over the years. (To give you an idea of just how often, any past article that referenced “my local Toys ‘R’ Us” was referring to the one in this strip mall. I go there a LOT.)

Here’s a screencap from the scene in question, along with a comparison shot taken this afternoon. Yes, I really went all-out for this one:

Goodfellas was filmed in 1989 and came out a year later. Incredibly, even after more than two decades, that portion of the strip mall hasn’t changed much. Some of the same stores still stand in the same places!

I know this won’t seem like a big deal to a lot of you, but I’ve lived on Staten Island all of my life. As any Islander will tell you, this place is always changing. Longtime residents tend to cling to the tenured establishments, even if they’ve never had a reason to go inside of them. We fear change and we like old wallpaper, I guess.

Course, not every store remained the same, and seeing some of my fallen favorites brought on a serious rush of nostalgia… Read More…

10:30 AM: I’m at work. So of course I’m mapping out ways to turn gum into a hideous monster.

That’s the formula, as I see it.

I will create Gumix as soon as I get home. Check Dino Drac later tonight, because this is going to be HOT.

Read More…