I’ve now lived longer in Orlando than anywhere else, and it’s good to see performers who’ve passed through Central Florida being successful in show business. The theme parks bring in a lot of talented people.
Aasif Mandvi is one of those who worked in Orlando for a bit. He’s currently on the CBS supernatural drama “Evil.” It’s got to be tricky shooting on location in NYC when a bus could drive by at any minute, promoting the show you’re in the middle of making.
Mandvi is also playing the dad on Disney Junior’s animated “Mira, Royal Detective” and you probably remember him as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” in the Jon Stewart years.
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Just a couple months before I started ThatGuyonTV.com, I started a new Instagram account, orlandoactionfigure. I hit a lot of Goodwill stores for used CDs, where you can buy a whole album for the cost of a single iTunes download. (I see a lot of REM and No Doubt.) You can also pick up castoff action figures for a buck or two.
I started buying action figures, used and new, and posing them around Orlando … where I live. Batman to New Smyrna Beach, Tyrion Lannister to Lake Eola Park… The pic above is Wonder Woman at The Monument of States in Kissimmee. Built with stones from every one of the United States, the monument has a crazy history I’ll get to one day.
I’m trying to keep Orlando Action Figure updated through COVID-19. Lately, it’s been landmarks in walking distance from this desk. Maybe give me a follow?
You hear a song for years and think you know the band, but maybe you don’t. It’s no accident the band below sounds like The Beatles, but it’s actually New Jersey’s The Knickerbockers.
The Knickerbockers’ singer Buddy Randell really could play the saxophone, and in the video, you can see him put it to his lips just as the guitar solo kicks in, but if it’s there, it’s buried in the mix. Buddy’s around 24 in this clip, but he had a radio hit with another band before he was even 18.
The Royal Teens went to #3 in 1958 with “Short Shorts.” On the single, Buddy plays the signature sax riff and says, “Man, dig that crazy chick.” In the clip below, someone else is faking to Buddy’s part. By 1958, the song was a hit, but Buddy left that band because he was still in high school and couldn’t tour. Bob Gaudio is definitely the guy on piano here. Gaudio co-wrote “Short Shorts” and, eventually, went on to perform with Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons for decades.
March of 2020 is not the best time to launch a new product, but Anheuser-Busch had Budweiser Nitro Reserve Gold in the pipeline already, so I snagged a six-pack at Total Wine before heading into the treehouse for a few months.
Most beers are fizzed with carbon dioxide. A few, including Guinness Draught and Boddingtons Pub Ale are nitrogenated. The bubbles are smaller and less acidic than CO2, so they feel velvety, not bitey.
Budweiser Nitro Reserve Gold is the latest beer with nitrogen bubbles. The weird thing is that it doesn’t use a little plastic ball to hold the nitro like other brands. In a can of Guinness, you pop the tab, releasing pressure, and nitro freshly squirts out into the beer. With Budweiser Nitro Reserve Gold, you have to shake the can, but not too much (!), to get the nitro dissolved in the beer.
I’ve tried the “triple flip and pour hard” method twice now and I end up with a sweet, malty beer that goes flat fast. Maybe there’s a reason other nitrogen beers use that “widget?”
Budweiser beers are not very malty, so that’s interesting, but, overall, Budweiser Nitro Reserve Gold is disappointing. If you’ve had Boddingtons, it’s a bit like that but sweeter and not as rich. It’s a clean sweetness, not heavy, but the creamy effect from the nitrogen fades quickly.
Regular Bud drinkers want crisp and dry. Nitro drinkers want velvety with a little bite. Budweiser Nitro Reserve Gold isn’t going to make either group happy. It’s like those weird Oreos. You’re happy to try Birthday Cake flavor once, but this is more a novelty than something that goes on the shopping list again. Alcohol by volume is five percent.
John Graham is That Guy on TV – an Emmy-winning producer/writer/host and owner of Mosquito County Productions, based in Orlando, FL.
Over the years, John has produced YouTube videos with millions of views, worked with Muppets and Princesses, won two regional Emmys for travel reporting, interviewed celebs from Ariana Grande to Hillbilly Jim, and done thousands of live news broadcasts. (You know it’s me writing this, right?)
