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Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me

Random accordion photo: “The Egg Roll Machine” (September 11, 2024, Louisville, Kentucky)

This photo was taken on September 11, 2024 at a bar called Kaiju, located in Louisville, Kentucky’s Germantown neighborhood. A group of us travelled to Louisville to celebrate our friend Erinn Day’s 50th birthday by visiting a lot of bourbon distilleries and other interesting drinkeries.

The front of Kaiju is taken up by the usual bar and bar seating, but the back is taken up by the snack bar, which has a giant sign that reads “The Egg Roll Machine.” It’s from a Japanese/Vietnamese restaurant that started in 1980, relocated in 2009, and operating until 2019. The owners of Kaiju saved the sign, and it now stands over the part of the bar that serves Asian snack foods.

Joey de Villa poses with his accordion by the “The Egg Roll Machine” sign at the back of the Kaiju bar in Louisville, Kentucky.

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Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me

Serenading the King of Kensington

American viewers may know Al Waxman from his role as Lieutenant Albert Samuel from the TV series Cagney & Lacey, but we Canadians will always remember him as Larry King from the home-grown sitcom King of Kensington (the Kim’s Convenience of the 1970s).

So when I was last in Toronto and saw his statue in the Kensington Market park that often goes by his name (it’s really called Bellevue Square Park), there was only one thing to do.

 

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It Happened to Me

Top 10 reasons why I didn’t get a drink from the Buzzfeed-branded airport convenience store

10. Coke zero was warm

9. Coke zero was warm

8. Coke zero was warm

7. Coke zero was warm

6. Coke zero was warm

5. Coke zero was warm

4. Coke zero was warm

3. Coke zero was warm

2. Coke zero was warm

1. Coke zero was warm

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It Happened to Me

It’s a bad news / good news day

  • Bad news: My 11 a.m. Tuesday flight to New York was cancelled Monday afternoon. I now have to get to the airport at 5 a.m. to play standby roulette.
  • Good news: Managed to get a seat on 7:30 a.m. flight to Atlanta, and a connection to LaGuardia.
  • Bad news: Middle seat…
  • Good news: …in an exit row!
  • Bad news: The layover time in Atlanta is 30 minutes.
  • Good news: Doing a 10K bike ride most days has made me pretty good at airport sprints. I should be able to make it, assuming the flight doesn’t encounter any delays…
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Food Geek It Happened to Me

Lucky Tigre / relationship goals

Anitra and I saw the sticker pictured above on a Model Y Tesla parked outside Lucky Tigre, Tampa’s hippest Filipino restaurant.

“How hip is Lucky Tigre?” you might ask. It’s this hip:

Here’s a closeup of their “wallpaper,” featuring old-school ads you’d see in magazines in the Philippines, including a promo for the anime TV series Voltes V, one of my favorite cartoons from my childhood:

They even have hip Filipino literature!

And the food’s great. Here’s what we ordered:

Pictured above from left to right: beef lumpia (egg rolls), tocino pork ribs with garlic rice and atchara (pickled papaya), mochi fried chicken.

Anyway, on our way into the restaurant to get our take-out order, we saw the “Happy waifu, happy laifu” anime sticker on the Tesla. I figured the car belonged to the two cosplayers in their early twenties sitting in the back corner of the restaurant.

But as we left the restaurant, we saw the car’s owners getting in the driver and front passenger seats — and they were a grandpa and grandma couple!

“Whaaaat?” Anitra exclaimed. “That was not the couple I was expecting to own that car.”

“Me neither,” I replied, “but that means that someday, WE can be the weird old anime couple at the hip restaurant. Relationship goals, sweetie!”

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It Happened to Me

Before there were demotivational posters, there were demotivational tapestries

Tapestry or rug with this message stitched into it: “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord though hand join in hand he shall not be unpunished”.
Tap to view at full size…you proud, to-be-punished SINNER!

I saw this a couple of weeks ago in Austin at Uncommon Objects, a delightfully quirky antique/vintage furniture/housewares shop will a lot of really cool stuff. It’s worth a visit!

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It Happened to Me Tampa Bay

No weapons allowed in the bridal shop

Bridal store with a bridal gown in the window and a sticker that says “All weapons including concealed firearms are prohibited on these premises.”

Anitra and I were dropping off a package at the UPS Store on Kennedy when we saw a “no weapons” sticker on the bridal gown store next door. I know some people who work in the wedding industry, and from the stories they tell, I’m not surprised.