“101 GOOD Things” by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

in #blogging4 years ago

bad bird by rfy.png
["Bad Bird." Digital drawing. Today 18 Sept. 2020. Not that it matters. By me. I guess that does matter, so that you don't assume I'm stealing someone else's brilliant art!]

The world is going to shit. All the bad… Difficult to deal. It’s time for Pollyanna Grandpa to make an appearance. Instead of listing all the horror in the world right now, I’m going in a different direction. I’m going to list 101 things that I like or enjoy! It’s a “Positivity in the Universe” thing… (Like a form of WRITTEN MAGIC---although I don't believe in magic, but I still PRACTICE it all the time!)

The following are all GOOD. They all make me happy. These aren’t in any particular order---just how they came to my head…

  1. My family. (I have to say this, so they don’t beat me up or burn me…but it’s also true. My number one is my family.)
  2. The movie Ghostbusters (1984)
  3. The Cure album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987)
  4. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer t.v. show (1997-2003)
  5. chocolate milkshakes
  6. The documentary How to Draw a Bunny (2002)
  7. making art
  8. The television show The Mighty Boosh (2004-2007)
  9. The television show The Young Ones (1982-1984)
  10. The television show Soap (1977-1981)
  11. The art and stories of Edward Gorey
  12. The writing of Alan Moore
  13. The comic book art of Jack Kirby
  14. The art of Jean-Michel Basquiat
  15. The documentary The Radiant Child (2010) about Jean-Michel Basquiat
  16. The Ms. Pac-Man arcade game
  17. The Donkey Kong arcade game
  18. The novel Ubik (1969) by Philip K. Dick
  19. The short essay “Borges and I” (1960) by Jorge Luis Borges
  20. new socks
  21. The Blondie album Eat to the Beat (1979)
  22. The Blondie album Plastic Letters (1978)
  23. The poetry of Allen Ginsberg (particularly Howl and Other Poems (1956))
  24. The movie Popeye (1980)
  25. The movie A Christmas Story (1983)
  26. memories of when I used to ride skateboards. (I’m old and broken now, so I can’t do it anymore.)
  27. everything by Monty Python (t.v. show, movies, record albums…)
  28. The arcade Ground Kontrol in Portland, Oregon
  29. The Devo album Freedom of Choice (1980)
  30. The Adam and The Ants album Dirk Wears White Sox (1979)
  31. The Prodigy album The Prodigy Experience (1992)
  32. The short story collection Citizen in Space (1959) by Robert Sheckley
  33. The novel Status Civilization (1960) by Robert Sheckley
  34. The Harry Potter novels and movies (really!)
  35. The Stonehenge replica in Maryhill, Washington
  36. The Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris
  37. The Skinny Puppy album Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse (1986)
  38. The Legendary Pink Dots album Any Day Now (1988)
  39. The documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)
  40. The poetry and art of William Blake
  41. The poetry of Robert Browning
  42. The writing of Douglas Adams
  43. The standup comedy of Eddie Izzard
  44. The first season of the Mork & Mindy (1978) t.v. show
  45. a good root beer (like River City or Henry Weinhard’s)
  46. The Urgh! A Music War (1982) concert movie and soundtrack
  47. The Haunted Mansion ride in Disneyland, Anaheim, California
  48. The artwork of Josh Agle (aka SHAG)
  49. lighting at dance clubs
  50. memories of a few of those REALLY GOOD raves (the ones I kinda remember)
  51. The movie Monsters University (2013) (yes…really…)
  52. The movie Wonder Boys (2000) (but not so much the novel… Film was funnier!)
  53. sugar cookies at Saturnalia
  54. everything that Jim Henson ever did
  55. The album Official Version (1987) by Front 242
  56. my cool UE Megaboom speaker (which we’ve used the SHIT out of…)
  57. The Enchanted Forest amusement park just south of Salem, Oregon
  58. my memories of dancing at Confetti Club in Portland, Oregon in the late 1980s and early 1990s
  59. The Playstation 2 game Darkwatch (2005) (Why wasn’t this ever remade on a later system?)
  60. The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
  61. The Far Side comic strips (1979-1995) by Gary Larson
  62. The comic collection Snake ‘n’ Bacon’s Cartoon Cabaret (2000) by Michael Kupperman
  63. The play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) by Tom Stoppard
  64. The movie Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) directed by Tom Stoppard
  65. making zines (either paper or electronic)
  66. most things that Robert Anton Wilson was involved in (He was funny!)
  67. The album Tired Eyes Slowly Burning (1987) by The Tear Garden
  68. sending and receiving postcards
  69. The t.v. show Supernatural (from 2005…)
  70. View Master slide viewers, projectors, and slides
  71. Pez dispensers
  72. The MonsterTalk podcast (The science show about monsters)
  73. The In ReSearch Of podcast
  74. Whoppers candy…and chocolate in general (“Because, you know, Dementors,” says my wife!)
  75. The terrible movie Godzilla vs Megalon (1973)
  76. The terrible supernatural kung-fu film Death Mask of the Ninja (1982) (It’s brilliantly bad…and there are no ninjas OR death masks in the movie!)
  77. Christmas lights (all year)
  78. getting to sleep in
  79. The album Love’s Secret Domain (1990) by Coil
  80. The UbuWeb Archive curated by Kenneth Goldsmith
  81. The original Twilight Zone (1959-1964) t.v. show
  82. dancing (even though I do it very badly)
  83. The Robotech: Macross Saga (1985) t.v. show
  84. 3-D comics from the ‘80s
  85. The movie The Big Lebowski (1998)
  86. The Depeche Mode album Black Celebration (1986)
  87. Halloween decorations (all year, as well…)
  88. The Asteroids arcade game (I have a replica!!!)
  89. The WWI era DADA movement (art, poetry, plays, puppets…)
  90. The movie Tron (1982)
  91. spinning records
  92. writing
  93. glow in the dark stuff
  94. black-light reactive stuff
  95. the incense from Marsh’s Free Museum, Long Beach, Washington
  96. vanilla ice cream (or frozen yogurt) in a waffle-cone
  97. attending comic conventions with my friends and family
  98. taking photos of interesting places
  99. Powell’s Book Store in Portland, Oregon
  100. NFT Showroom
  101. making people laugh

And that’s 101 things that make me happy. Some of them might make YOU happy, too. (Luckily for YOU folks, you’ve got this fancy INTERNET thing, so it’s easy for you to get to know these things that I had to dig through creepy music store used bins and catch films at 1:00 A.M. in the days before INFOMERCIALS. It was DIFFICULT to find WEIRD stuff when I was a kid, especially living in a small town.) I feel better now (especially having drunk a chocolate shake and watched a few episodes of Buffy.)

Now, I’m off to read more comics, again, until I get sleepy…

---Richard F. Yates
(Primitive Thoughtician and Holy Fool)

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