Author: Joey deVilla

…and when the stories coming out of this great state look more like this:

I like how the vaccuum cleaner box in the background really pulls the room together.
Click the photo to read the story in The Independent.

(Remember, this is what passes for “normal” here.)

Take the story above — This woman says she breastfeeds her 36-year-old boyfriend and people really don’t know what to think — with a grain of salt. Most of the outlets running the story are questionable ones at best: The New York Post and notorious Fleet Street rags The Sun and The Daily Heil. But after last week, I’d rather see this kind of Florida story.

If you’ve been on the internet this week, chances are that you’ve seen the fantastic run through American Ninja Warrior’s famously difficult obstacle course by a competitor in an inflatable tyrannosaurus rex suit, getting a lot farther than many others wearing less cumbersome clothing. If you haven’t seen it yet, click on the video above before you read any further.

You shouldn’t be all too surprised that the person inside the T-rex suit is from Florida. He’s Reko “DKRekon” Rivera, who works as an actor and entertainer at the Universal theme park in Orlando and is also a DJ. He lives in Oldsmar, a city in the Tampa Bay area about a half hour’s drive from my place, named after Ransom E. Olds of Oldsmobile fame.

Here’s what Rivera looks like when he’s running the course and not wearing a dinosaur outfit:

Here’s his 2015 audition video for American Ninja Warrior, where he shows off his many skills and interests, which range from DJing, fire-breathing, dancing, parkour, and stuntwork:

You know what’s even better? His 2016 audition video for American Ninja Warrior, which is as over-the-top as Kung Fury, and features a finale with him in a lightsaber duel against a guy in a t-rex suit and a Chuck Norris lookalike:

Around the same time, he also appeared in this video, Jurassic Parkour, where he’s doing ninja warrior training in a t-rex suit:

Reko placed in the top 15 in the Atlanta Qualifiers round, and will advance to the regional finals. Well done, sir!

Now that he’s Pied Piper’s chief evangelist, Erlich Bachman is my spirit animal.

In the most recent episode of Silicon Valley (season 3, episode 8, titled Bachman’s Earning’s Over-Ride), there are a couple of scenes that feature the made-up dietary restriction “pesca-pescatarian”, which is someone who eats only fish that eat other fish:

It’s a cute little evangelism trick — doing something that’s offbeat enough that no one else will do it, but palatable enough that once they see you doing it, people will want to follow suit. It works in the episode, and from experience, I can attest that it also works in real life.

The “pesca-pescatarian” bit got me wondering: which fish would be on the pesca-pescatarian menu? Aside from really tiny fish, clams, and oysters, what fish would a pesca-pescatarian not eat?

There’s at least one good thing to come out of a Trump candidacy: discovering the work of director/VFX artist Mike Diva. Here’s his latest creation, titled Japanese Donald Trump Commercialトランプ２０１６:

Some of you have asked if the accordion with rainbow bellows and sharp/flat keys from my previous post on Orlando was Photoshopped or was actually made. I’m pleased to report that it exists: it’s a Weltmeister Juwel LMM 72. I’d love to have one, and if I had $2000 burning a hole in my pocket, I’d order one from Liberty Bellows in Philadephia, and play George Michael’s Freedom ’90 on it all the time.

Here’s the Juwel in action:

I’m sending love, support, and yes, cash to the city next door, where I’ve honeymooned, Disneyed, taken my sweetie for her birthday, geeked out, and done fun stuff in the place that’s all about doing fun stuff.

I’ll close with the best musical tribute to Orlando that I’m aware of: the song Two by Two from the musical The Book of Mormon:

At this point, any teachers might suffice.