Jackie Lanterns | The Punkin Demon


I can’t stop watching this. What is it from?

Now this?

Halloween Pasta w/ Butternut Squash Sauce


OK, so this recipe is really inspired by or let’s say heavily borrowed from a recipe that I saw on a Barilla Campanelle box years ago. I saw some Reggano Halloween Shaped Pasta at Aldi recently, and I thought the butternut squash sauce would hit the right color and flavor for fall.

I’m not fancy enough for pancetta, so I used bacon pieces, and I skipped the balsamic vinegar and added a dash of heavy cream because why not? I didn’t measure anything, but here’s what I did;

Ingredients:

  • 1 bag Reganno Halloween Shaped Pasta (or whatever you have on hand, really).
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • ⅓ cup bacon pieces
  • 1 small Onion chopped
  • 2 small butternut squash, cubed (It was about 8 cups)
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • ¼ cup heavy cream
  • salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, Dash table blend to taste.

Method:

  1. Sauté onions & bacon pieces in the oil on medium-high heat until crispy. Use your seasonings here.
  2. Add the butternut squash and brown it up a bit. Seasonings again.
  3. Add in the chicken broth, and bring to a boil.
  4. Simmer for 10 to 15-ish minutes or until the squash gets soft.
  5. Process half of the sauce in the blender until smooth. (I used an immersion blender and did half of the sautee pan.)
  6. Add the heavy cream and give it a stir.
  7. Cook pasta according to directions and toss with or top with the sauce.

Notes:

  • I should have added some more crisped up bacon at the end.
  • Of course you could use & cook bacon or pancetta here. Or no meat.
  • Try the OG with the vinegar if that’s your thing.
  • I feel like roasting some butternut squash separately and adding it in would add some depth.
  • Hear me out… Roasted Brussels sprouts would work really well with this.

How would you do it? What are your butternut sqash recipes? Have any good pasta sauce recipes that aren’t marinara or alfredo?

LEGO & Not-Quite LEGO Arcade?


I uploaded a photo a while back with the intent to blog, and sort of forgot about it. I have been a fan of LEGO ever since I can remember, and in the past decade or so, got back into it. I like the big epic sets, but sometimes these little ones are fun.

LEGO & comprtetors' brick block toy arcade machines.

It can be a hit to the pocketbook and shelf space. I have checked out lots of off-brand LEGO sets. I remember having some TYCO sets as a kid, and I know I bought my son some He-Man Megabloks/Mega-Construx sets when he was little. I have a few AliExpress sets like the Eagle 5 from Spaceballs.

These were all fun, & of varying quality, and I have amassed them over time. Each was as expected for price paid, and fun to assemble.

LEGO | Arcade Machine 40805 – I typically order from the LEGO website any more, as I have had at least 2 sets tampered with from Walmart, and I have seen the pasta replacement insanity online. Obviously, LEGO is the standard and this set is awesome. It even opens up to a little gamer apartment that has basement vibes, and honestly looks like it was meant to be the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ lair. The minifigure and details inside are incredible as usual, and the lean on the screen is a neat build technique. I wish LEGO would come with less stickers. The coin slots are super cool, and this is the biggest scale-wise even though they’re all similar. Funny they have Pac Man, Donkey Kong, and Mario sets… but this a generic unlicensed game.

JAKI | Arcade Gaming Cabinet AK063 – This came from AliExpress with no brand listed, but JAKI was on the book & box. The quality was pretty good, better than what I expected from AliExpress anyway. This one is super cool because there’s a gear on the back that move bricks inside the clear screen (even if just a little bit) to create some action. I absolutely hate the stickers that cross over brick connections. It’s like nails-on-chalkboard level nope for me. It was cool that this came with an instruction booklet and a box. I have absolutely gotten AliExpress sets with a card to scan for a *.pdf and one that was a link to a YouTube video. That Bricksewer site seems shadier than AliExpress for real though.

Brickcraft | Atari Arcade Classics 72776 – I have noticed an aggressive uptick in Brickcraft advertising. Good for them, as their quality is getting better. I’d say they’re right alongside the Zuru Max bricks and whatever Mega Bloks/Mega Construx are called this week in quality. The best part of this was all the printed bricks! Brickcraft should lean into that and eschew stickers totally. The instructions were clear. The price is approaching actual LEGO, which is bold, but they lean into pop-culture licensing and again the printed bricks are awesome, so maybe that’s a fair trade-off. These sets are cool because you can get the coin out of the back. The ornaments up fun are cool too. Neat to see Asteroids, Pong, & Centipede still getting love.

Snap & Switch | Skee-Ball Construction Set – I got this from Five Below on a whim. It was not nearly $20 like it is listen on this website. The bricks feel… fragile? The quality of the plastic is just not quite right. Again, with the stickers that hit multiple bricks. Why? Who does this? I am not gluing these sets together. No Kragle! At any rate, Snap & Switch is a Well Played Toys brand, and they were awesome when I wrote about a missing piece, and they sent a replacement for free. Also, this is totally playable. It comes with little skee-balls. How fun is that?

What are your favorite LEGO & non-LEGO sets?

Solving my mazes on your screen?


You may be aware that I draw mazes. You may be aware that I have some maze books out, and that you can get my mazes printed on stuff to wear, hang, or sit around the house. You may be aware that I have a bunch of mazes posted here for free. In my never ending quest for World (and Lunar) Domination, I’m moving on to your phone, tablet, laptop, PC, and there’s probably somebody out there with a Raspberry Pi enabled potato or something. Maybe the DOOM fruit fly can solve a few?

While, it’s not ready to roll out to a full-ass audience yet, my buddy Jason has put together a way to solve my hand-drawn mazes on your phone, tablet, or computer. You can use your finger, a stylus, the control in the bottom left corner, the arrow keys, the WASD keys, or a mouse to move the cursor to solve the maze. You can change the ink color, erase, or “snap back” to get to the solution. You can pick the difficulty level & keep playing through to that level or all the levels if you’d like. You can also share your stats to social media or via text.

I did a screen recording of the game play on my phone, using my finger and the cursor on the bottom left at different times:

There’s a fancier 5x-ish sped-up version (with music) on TikTok too:

@aixelsyd13

So, my buddy Jason is helping to make my hand-drawn mazes solvable on a screen. This is a 5x-ish sped-up playthrough on my phone. Looking for people interested in testing functionality & providing feedback. That you? Might blog about it later. #maze #mazes #puzzlegame #apps #AiXeLsyD13

♬ I Am a Banana – Parry Gripp

So, we need some people to test this out! What is working? What isn’t? What’s intuitive? What’s not? Tell us about the functionality, and even if you like the idea. Sometimes, I feel like it is difficult to find maze-solving enthusiasts. Share this with your people who may like to do such things!

I’m not sharing the url for the test phase super wide right now so just reach out to me via email, social media, via comment here, or my contact form if you’d like to test the game out and tell is what’s working & what’s not. To quote the infamous Jimmy Pop, I’d appreciate your input.

If people dig it, I’ll add more & draw more! Do you think it’s something that you or someone you know would enjoy?

PlayFlashFrame.com

Also, if you like movies, you have to check out this other game that my buddy Jason made! In FlashFrame, you guess the movie title by a screenshot or poster/promo image from 4 answer choices. You go in to rounds of 10. You can play against other people, or do solo practice. You can pick your genres and narrow it by decade too if your cinephilia has highly specific interests.

I have gone head-to-head in movie naming competition with my kids, and with Jason himself. It’s a fun way to test your movie memory!

I like to narrow in on 80’s sci-fi, comedy, & action films. What would your decade & genres be?

It’s definitely fun and worth your time to check out. A few rounds go by super quick and you might surprise yourself with your movie knowledge!

Also, the more people who play, the more fun it is. You can invite your friends to play head-to-head battles.

🍌🍌🍌

And, for fun, I put the faster version of the maze solving on YouTube too:

James Gunn comments on the Tromeo & Juliet soundtrack!


Fist off, you should follow Sid the Punk Rock Girl Dad on Instagram, Threads, & TikTok… and James Gunn on Threads.

I “know” Sid from a Facebook group or three, and James Gunn not only crushes it on making movies and TV shows with crazy needle drops, but he also has no problem setting the record straight on DCU projects directly to the people. I have written about his move from Marvel to DC and his Creature Commandos Playlist before.

This lil’ interaction happened the other day and made me super happy:

@thepunkrockgirldad
Finally getting around to watching @jamesgunn ’s phenomenal Superman. It is incredibly difficult to get me interested in a DC character as I have been a Marvel fan since childhood, but this did the trick. Sidenote: I would love to sit and talk punk rock with JG for a PRGD lesson with Lorelai. A guy can dream.

@aixelsyd13
The Tromeo & Juliet soundtrack; @jamesgunn started knocking out bangers EARLY

@jamesgunn
On the T&J soundtrack all of the bands were kind enough to allow us to use their music for free, with the exception of Sublime, who I think we gave $1500, and the Ass Ponys, who asked me for 99 cent check from Troma they promised not to cash and would frame and put on their wall. I learned a lot through the process. It seemed so clunky, choosing all these songs in post, shooting and sometimes cutting before we had a song. So once I started making my own films I always chose the music beforehand.

@aixelsyd13
Oh, that's incredible insight! Learning by doing and moving forward with better knowledge for next time is applicable to all of us. My friends & I who were in a punk band at the time wore that CD out! I absolutely love all the needle drops from then to GoTG to Peacemaker & beyond. Thank you for the behind these scenes glimpse, and taking the time to answer 
@jamesgunn! (This also cements that the Ass Ponys rule! 🤘)

So, how cool is that? An-Die DysLeXiC introduced me to the cinematic masterpiece that is Tromeo & Juliet featuring one of the most unhinged car crash scenes of all time.

The soundtrack is banger after banger, and knowing that Mr. Gunn chased down every one so it could be included is incredible. “Mr. Superlove” by the Ass Ponys is awesome. Same with “Math” by Supernova, “Gizzards, Scrapple and Tripe” by The New Duncan Imperials, “Drink That Whiskey” by The Wesley Willis Fiasco, and… “Sacrifice” by Motörhead!!

Sadly, it’s not all streaming, but somebody did make a Spotify playlist with what they could find. (The score is there though!)

AiXeLsyD used to play “Gizzards, Scrapple and Tripe” at practice, but I don’t know that we ever played it at a show? We rocked this compilation and the Pist Midget: Heavy Music Stopilation #1 CD all the time. (A real one popped that on to SoundCloud!)

I still have this CD, and I’m gonna need to pop it in. I love the inside baseball on making movies and music selection. I’m reading You’ve Got Red On You about the making of Shaun of the Dead right now, and it’s fascinating about all the stuff that has to happen to get a project done.

Peacemaker and Creature Commandos have some bops. (Honestly sort of related, Doom Patrol really did too.)

I’m obviously a huge punk rock compilation fan, but What’s your favorite compilation or soundtrack CD that’s maybe weird or obscure?

Gobblerloaf? It’s Giving Thanksgiving: A turkey meatloaf recipe.


So, I recently made a meatball sub inspired by wedding soup flavors. In that post, I considered making a turkey meatloaf with flavors like stuffing and mashed potatoes in it among other weird meatball subs. I like to mix it up with meatloaf. I have done a mushroom one (and a Swiss Mushroom one too actually), a breakfast one, and I do “normal” ones with the ketchup glaze, or A1, or gravy all the time. I think next up is a taco-inspired meatloaf. Maybe. It’s probably fair to call it “white people taco” inspired.

Did you know I like Thanksgiving dinner? I may have a problem. I made some roasted butternut squash along with this, so I cooked it hotter than I normally would… and employed a foil tent for the first half hour. I listened to one of my many Halloween playlists while making dinner today though, not my Thanksgiving one. I do need to get my turkey maze on a T-shirt or apron.

Gobblerloaf!

Turkey Meatloaf with Cranberry-Apple Glaze

🍗

Meatloaf Ingredients:

  • 3 lbs. ground turkey
  • 1 (6 oz.) box stuffing mix
  • Milk (just enough to soak the stuffing.)
  • 1 cup finely shredded carrots
  • ¾ cup Instant mashed potato flakes
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 dollops of sour cream
  • 1 cup broken-up French fried onions
  • Seaonings:
    • 1½ tsp. Poultry seasoning
    • 1 tsp. Season-All
    • 1 tsp. Dash table blend
    • 1 tsp. Onion powder
    • 1 tsp. Paprika
    • 1 tsp. Dried parsley
    • 1 tsp. Minced garlic
    • ½ tsp. Garlic powder
    • ½ tsp. Black pepper

Glaze Ingredients:

  • 1 (14 oz.) Can jellied cranberry sauce (I used the Aldi brand.)
  • 1 (4 oz. cup) Unsweetened applesauce
  • 2 Tbsp. Apple cider vinegar, to taste
  • 1 Tbsp. Brown sugar
  • 1 Tbsp. Clover honey
  • Seasonings:
    • ½ tsp. Poultry seasoning
    • ½ tsp. Mustard powder
    • ¼ tsp. White pepper
    • ¼ tsp. Onion powder

Meatloaf Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
  2. Soak the stuffing mix in milk to soften.
  3. In a large bowl, combine ground turkey, soaked stuffing, potato flakes, eggs, shredded carrots, French-fried onions, and all seasonings. Mix until just combined.
  4. Divide into two loaves (~1½ lbs. each) and shape onto a parchment lined sheet pan or into loaf pans.
  5. Bake at 400° F, tented loosely with foil, for the first ~30 minutes.
  6. Remove foil.
  7. Continue baking, checking internal temp starting around 45 minutes. Apply glaze in the last 15 minutes or so.
  8. Pull loaves once they hit 165° F internal.
  9. Rest 5 to 10 minutes before slicing.

Glaze Method:

  1. Melt jellied cranberry sauce over medium-low heat.
  2. Whisk in applesauce and brown sugar until smooth.
  3. Add apple cider vinegar, honey, white pepper, and mustard powder to taste.
  4. Simmer until it coats the back of a spoon.

Notes:

  • I honestly don’t measure anything unless I’m using whatever came in the box or can. This is a guess. Season until your ancestors tell you to stop.
  • I thought about sautéing a mirepoix here instead of just the carrots. Maybe next time? I do that for my stuffing, and it adds so much.
  • I used something that’s somewhere between cheese-grater and lemon-zester so my shredded carrots were TINY.
  • I normally may cook meatloaf at a lower temperature, but I was cooking butternut squash at the same time, popped on to the top rack.
  • I also served this with canned green beans (hit with butter & onion-powder), instant potatoes (mixed THICC), and some turkey gravy from a packet so everyone had their choice of glaze, gravy, GTFO, or both.
  • I put my beef meatloaves on top of bread to prevent burning and soak up grease, but there was hardly any fat here. I could have skipped it & let the parchment paper do its thing.
  • I don’t like the cranberry sauce with whole (or mushed) cranberries, and neither does my diverticulitis… but, if you do, I’m gonna guess that would work well here too.
  • In the name of mad science, should I include squash, green beans, and/or cranberry sauce IN the loaf next time?
  • If you don’t have poultry seasoning, use sage, thyme, & rosemary.

Apologies for the absolutely atrocious photo, but I was hungry.

A poorly composed photo of two turkey meatloaves fresh from the oven, sitting on toasted bread slices on a parchment-lined baking sheet. The one on the left plain with golden-brown evidence of the Maillard reaction, the one on the right topped with a glistening deep red cranberry glaze. This was obviously taken by a hangry man in a hurry to eat.
A poorly composed photo of two Giving Thanksgiving turkey meatloaves fresh from the oven.

This might be a cool thing for a second holiday gathering, a small gathering, or in June when you want a turkey dinner. I have some Thanksgiving mazes you can solve too. Maybe skip the ground beef one, unless you wanna just get the book (it even made the cover!).

Really though, if you’re here, you gotta make these Thanksgiving sliders some time too. Should I make a thanksgiving dinner meatball sub with gravy to dip it in?

Hit me up in the comments with your thoughts, concerns, questions, tips, or tricks! Do you make one like this? What kind of themed meatloaf do you make?

What if soup, but sandwich? Wedding Soup Meatball Subs.


So, you know I like to make soup. And you know I’m a fan of meatball subs (& meatball clubs! Join the meatball club). I made my version of wedding soup recently, and it was pretty good. I remarked it’d be good to have a meatball sub with those flavors, and everyone in the family seemed to agree. So, here we are.

Yinz wanna jump to the recipe?

A hearty meatball sub inspired by Italian wedding soup, featuring tender meatballs, greens, and melted cheese on a toasted hoagie roll.
A toasted wedding-soup inspired meatball sub cut in half on a plate, served alongside a warm bowl of flavorful golden brodo di bollito.

Lots of other people have done this and there are certainly other recipes out there, but as always I did my own take here. I get real tired real quick on foodie gatekeeping about the “right” way to do stuff, as it recipes and ingredients haven’t always changed across generations, borders, & families.

I had what I wanted to do and a taste I was going for in my head, and it definitely hit the mark. My son tasted a meatball before we made a sandwich and he said the meatball tasted exactly like wedding soup. I’ll take that!

I ended up making a broth on the side to kind of have like a a French Dip sandwich. Google says it’s a Brodo di Bollito. I took the bun that I messed up, but it still looks pretty good. I’ll try to make the recipe concise below. I just kind of throw stuff together, don’t measure, and hope it works.

How would you do yours? I present this as a guide and a reminder for myself the next time I make these. I encourage you to make it your own. Here’s what I did, I’ll try to present it as a recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 lbs. ground beef
  • 1 lb. ground chicken
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 Tbsp. milk, splash
  • ⅓ cup plain breadcrumbs
  • ⅓ cup panko breadcrumbs
  • ½ cup grated Parmesan (for meatballs)
  • ⅓ box (1 lb.) acini di pepe
  • 1 cup matchstick carrots, finely chopped
  • 1½ celery stalks w/ leaves, finely chopped
  • ½ Spanish onion, finely chopped
  • 4 Tbsp. butter (for sautéing mirepoix & wilting spinach)
  • Dash of extra virgin olive oil, for sautéing mirepoix
  • Seasonings! (To taste, throughout.)
    • onion powder
    • garlic powder
    • black pepper
    • Dash table blend
    • paprika
    • dried parsley
    • Italian seasoning
    • rotisserie chicken seasoning
    • poultry seasoning
  • 3 tsp. jarred minced garlic (I know, I know, the internet hates this. Use fresh then.)
  • 1 (32 Oz.) box chicken stock
  • 1 (32 Oz.) box chicken broth
  • 1 beef bouillon cube
  • 1 cup whole-milk ricotta
  • 4 cups fresh spinach
  • 4 hard rolls, split on top
  • 1 cup fontina, freshly shredded
  • ½ cup fancy shredded Parmesan, for topping

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
  2. In a soup pot, sauté the Carrots, celery, & onion in some butter & a splash of olive oil, with the jarred minced garlic. Season with a bit of the herb/spices to taste, add minced garlic after the stuff cooks a bit.
  3. Take out maybe ½ to ¾ cup of the mirepoix and set aside to cool.
  4. Add the chicken stock and beef bouillon cube to the pot with the remaining mirepoix, and bring it to a boil.
  5. Add the acini di pepe, cook about 9 minutes per the box, just shy of tender — you want it barely cooked, not swollen.
  6. Set aside about ½ to ¾ cup of the acini di pepe to cool.
  7. Put the stock on a warmer or a low simmer.
  8. Mix the meatballs! Combine ground beef, ground chicken, 2 large eggs, 2 tablespoons milk, plain & panko breadcrumbs, 0.5 cups grated Parmesan. Gently fold in the cooled mirepoix/acini di pepe mixture, Mix by hand until just combined, don’t overwork. Don’t forget to season the egg mixture, the breadcrumbs, & the meat.
  9. Form a bunch of meatballs on a backing sheet with some parchment paper. Mine were probably just a little smaller than 2 inches in diameter. I seasoned them after forming, too.
  10. Bake the meatballs at 400°F for 17-ish minutes (until they reach 165°F internal).
  11. Season the ricotta: While the meatballs bake, mix ricotta with a pinch of the seasoning blend until well combined.
  12. Wilt the spinach in a pan with some butter & seasonings.
  13. Split 4 hard rolls on top. Spread the herbed ricotta inside, then toast in the oven at 400°F for about 5 minutes. (You can time it to go in with the meatballs or wait until they’re done.)
  14. Layer wilted spinach into each toasted roll, top with meatballs, then sprinkle fontina & shredded Parmesan generously over the top.
  15. Melt the cheese: Return assembled subs to the oven at 400°F for about 7 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
  16. Warm the broth and serve alongside the subs for dipping, French dip style.

Notes:

  • I should have used fresh parsley in addition to the dried stuff.
  • Use “real” garlic if you’re cooler than me.
  • I should have put a tiny bit of spinach in the meatballs too.
  • This could have made like 10 sandwiches, I only made 4. We’re gonna freeze stuff for later.
  • Use plain or panko or seasoned breadcrumbs, or crush up crackers, parmesan Cheez⟐It, or croutons. Hell, crush up Ritz. Use what ya got.
  • Just melt butter with herbs/seasonings & spread it on the bun, then add mozzarella or provolone or whatever kind of cheese you like here if you’re so inclined. I went with Ricotta and Fontina because they seem more mellow for some reason.
  • I would use a little pasta here. Maybe orzo or stelline or any kind of pastina.
  • Of course you can use sausage, or veal, or pork, or whatever floats your boat.
  • The spinach could have used some type of vinegar maybe, to cut the richness? Lemon would work too, but I’m not a huge fan. We had these with a nice small side salad.
  • I feel like red bell pepper may not have been out of place here somewhere? In the meatball sauteed? Roasted red peppers on top?
  • I hate rice in meatballs, so I subbed in veggies for my cabbage rolls, and that really worked well.

So, there you have it. What do you think? Do you make a similar sub or know of a restaurant or food truck that does? What other kind of soup would make a good meatball sub? My wife suggested French onion. That seems doable and delicious.

What if we got weird with cheddar cheese-filled meatballs dipped in tomato soup? Broccoli cheddar soup inspired, made with meatballs sort of like ham loaf ? I suggested a meatloaf made like a green bean holiday casserole and the family told me that the madness had to stop. (It’s not that far off from mushroom meatloaf mayhem.)

Wait. Ground turkey, boxed stuffing as the breadcrumbs, and a cranberry glaze? That would make one hell of a meatball sub or a meatloaf. (Sort of like my Thanksgiving sliders?)

Maybe the meatball club can be more than just a sandwich, and more than just a photo on some merch? We could strive to make different meatball sandwiches, and have an actual club? Who’s in?

Hit me up in the comments with questions or suggestions!

Not-Quite-LEGO Bat Sets by Block Tech & Brickcraft


You may know I dig LEGO. I find it a relaxing hobby, & a carryover from my youth when it was definitely my favorite toy. These days, shelf real estate is low and big sets are expensive… but more & more competitors are popping up. They’re all over the place quality-wise.

I remember having Tyco blocks back in the day, getting my son some of the He-Man Mega Bloks/Mega Construx sets, and I may have purchased a set or two from AliExpress. Those little Zuru Max sets are awesome.

I guess I don’t really blog about it (save for our LEGOLAND trip!), but it’s peppered on my Instagram.

Recently I saw & picked up two different fLEGO bat themed Halloween decoration sets. I thought I’d share my take.

Built some not-quite-LEGO bat sets. They are cheap as in affordable, but are they cheap as in quality?

Two brick sets - Block Tech (from Five Below) Shadow Bat set & Brickcraft Hanging Bat 72741 set.

Block Tech (from Five Below) Shadow Bat 🦇 This set was pretty neat to build. The pieces don’t clasp & hold together as well as “leading brick brands,” but was fun for the money. The cage piece seemed out of place… but it works, and this used some pretty unconventional pieces in neat ways. I feel like the wings are repurposed sword blades or something? Not sure how they get away with outright cloning real LEGO pieces. This set retails for $6.00, which is decidedly off brand for Five Below. (Yes, I know.)

Brickcraft Hanging Bat 72741 🦇 This set snapped together a little better, and had wildly fun building techniques, but you can see through the gaps in the bricks which usually does not happen with the “other name brands” mentioned on the box. The poseable wings are awesome and the printed pieces instead of stickers are a big win. This set is $9.99 online. If LEGO can learn anything here, it’s printed bricks over stickers all day every day.

All-in-all, they were both fun sets and neat builds. They didn’t take long, they didn’t break the bank, and they’ll look neat as part of Halloween decor. I’d suggest building both while rocking a Halloween playlist on random.

Instruction books for not-quite-LEGO (fLEGO?) bat sets.

Do you stick to LEGO or do you think outside the blocks™?

I really like the little Zuru Max sets, and I am super curious about Lumibricks and some other brands like Pantasy or just the generic stuff from AliExpress or Temu that seems to be creeping into Amazon. I also have a few Snap & Switch sets form Five Below.

I recently got the X-Files LEGO set & the Bricklink Antique Collection set. The quality and little build details on LEGO sets are incredible and worth the price.

Hit me up with your takes on LEGO and not-quite-LEGO or fLEGO bricks!

The Down & Dirty on the Galveston B.B. Stone.


You know I have a collection of weird guitars. I know I have a blog. Sometimes I blog about my weird guitars.

I’ve written about my Galveston B.B. Stone before, and again more recently, but really I’ve only ever nailed down the whole saga of the Eagle brand… Not the origin of this specific model. (Check the comments on those posts too, people have reached out!) So I went back to the well and reached out to Örjan Jacobsson & Jerker Antoni again, hoping to finally close out the top trilogy of my wild axes.

Dewey Decibel FlipOut: A vintage-style sunburst electric guitar featuring an inverted S-style body shape, a white multi-pickup guard equipped with three single-coil pickups, a standard tremolo bridge, control knobs clustered on the lower horn, and a maple neck with a dark fretboard and distinctive headstock shape.

Indy Custom FlyCaster: A bright yellow electric guitar with a custom modified shape combining T-style elements and sharp V-style bottom points, featuring a solid yellow finish, a black pickguard, two single-coil pickups, a standard bridge, and a matching yellow maple neck and fretboard with a pointed headstock.

Galveston B.B. Stone: A honey-burst, flamed-top electric guitar boasting an aggressive, angular dual-cutaway body shape, a bound fretboard with large block inlays, dual black humbucker pickups, a Tune-o-matic style bridge with a stopbar tailpiece, control knobs placed along the lower right edge, and a dark headstock bearing the Galveston logo.

🎶

I’ve already gotten some nice seriously in-depth info about the process of creation from the makers of the Dewey Decibel FlipOut and the Indy Custom FlyCaster. I even drew the FlyCaster into one of the maze designs available in my second book and on merch, like this shirt.

I needed to get to the bottom of the impetus of the B.B. Stone once and for all.

I consider these three my twisted trio. I’ll reach for one of these or my New York Pro Star Gazer before anything else, typically.

I reached out to Örjan & Jerker once again to try and get the inspiration behind the square guitar shape.

Örjan’s reply was short & sweet:

Contact my partner [______]@gmail.com. He was the designer of that model.

Hälsningar Örjan Jacobsson

Which, fair enough, tracks with everything he’s told me before.

Galveston B.B. Stone (Horizontal View): A horizontal studio product shot of the honey-burst, flamed-top electric guitar, featuring its distinctive angular dual-cutaway body layout, dual black humbucker pickups, Tune-o-matic style bridge with stopbar tailpiece, bound fretboard with large white block inlays, and the black headstock with the Galveston logo set against a clean black background.

Jerker sent over a chunk of his memoir, A Music Dealer’s Confessions, written in 2020, and it rules. Here’s the part that pertains to the B.B. Stone, straight from the source:

Eagle Instruments

JAM had the agency for very good sound cards from Korea in the late 90s. And when JAM was no longer allowed to buy Gibson and Epiphone from Luthman due to pressure from, among others, Estrad and others, Örjan and I started a new guitar brand, Eagle Instruments. I found a nice eagle online and fixed the logo that would be on the head and we also designed the shape of the head itself. The eagle I stole was actually a variant of Iraq’s state emblem. Haha!

During the Musikmesse in Frankfurt, Nysse and I got in touch with a very good guitar manufacturer in Korea called Unsung… We visited Unsung’s factory, which was located in Inchon, a port city not far from Seoul. The guy who was the sales manager, we became very good friends with during the Musikmesse in Frankfurt. He had a strange Korean name that I tried to translate because all Chinese and Korean names seem to mean something. He explained that it meant big brave stone. So when we were brainstorming and trying to put it together in English, it became Big Brave Stone. I ended up thinking that he should change his name so that he wouldn’t have that typical Korean name on his business cards that no one remembered anyway. I suggested the name B.B. Stone, and that’s what it was. He still calls himself that — several years after he left Unsung and started his own company, which of course is also called B.B. Stone.

Jerker Antoni

So there’s your answer on the name, at least. Not a bluesman. Not a nickname for the shape. A Korean sales manager Jerker basically rebranded on the spot at a trade show.

There’s a lot more in what he sent, including warehouses full of unpaid-for Epiphone stock because Gibson stiffed the factory, a bass player named Hazze Wazeen who used to end shows by launching his bass into the air, decibel police getting talked into letting the volume slide, a Sam Ash rep getting told off mid-pitch by Hazze himself. It’s a fun read and super inside-baseball to the industry.

I asked Jerker point blank: What was the inspiration for the B.B. Stone’s shape design, the squared-off body with the deep double-sharp cutaways? Buddy Guy meets Van Halen? This is the one that started my whole weird-guitar obsession… I need to know. Right?

His answer:

I dont really remember – just wanted it to stick out! Like my Penis guitar!

Jerker Antoni
Graphic illustration of a light pink, heart-shaped ukulele centered against a solid grey background. The instrument features a brown fretboard, four tuning pegs, and a round soundhole. The text at the bottom reads "EAGLE PRICK-U-LELE" and "Designed by Jerker Antoni" runs vertically along the right edge.

There it is, the whole story.

This is a guy whose first wild design was built as a novelty prop for Swedish rock legend Magnus Uggla’s live show. (See the video below.)

He also sent me pics of a coinpurse-bodied Eagle Prick-U-Lele, the Violele, and an Eagle Metal Vee. Talking all that in, I guess “I just wanted it to stick out” is the genuine answer. It’s bruh’s entire design philosophy in one sentence. It certainly grabbed my attention!

I didn’t get the deep origin story I went digging for, but I think I got something absolutely honest. It’s proof that the guy behind one of my favorite weird guitars genuinely does not design anything that isn’t weird. How can I not have mad respect for that?

Check out Jerker’s site at www.jerkerantoni.se and peep the memoir if you can read Swedish!

Eagle Metal Vee Specification Sheet: A product catalog page for the "Eagle Metal Vee" guitar, featuring a black-and-white illustration of the black Flying V-style electric guitar on the right, alongside the Eagle Instruments logo, model name, and a comprehensive list of technical specifications and features on the left.

Eagle Metal Vee

Solid Mahogany Vee Body with single cutaway for better balance than original
Contour Back
New double arrow head, black with white binding
V shape chrome stringholder
Strings thru body
Tune-o-matic type bridge
2 All Chrome Humbuckers
1 All Chrome single coil
5-way switch, chrome knob
Black finish, white binding
Maple neck
Maple fretboard
Double line markers in black pearl (not just painted like on JJ Stage Blade)
Grover type tuners
Tone and Volume controls
Chrome vintage Tele knobs
Chrome hardware

Also Blues Vee model:
All mahogany body, flame maple top
Brown sunburst with vintage white binding
Finish like B.B. Stone model
2 zebra humbuckers, no single coil
3-way switch
Top of headstock brown sunburst flame maple
Rosewood fretboard, double pearl markers

🎸

A newspaper clipping in Swedish with the headline "Jam klarar e-handel med enkla medel," featuring a photo of Jerker Antoni holding an electric guitar inside the Jam music store, surrounded by guitars on the wall.

Here is a translation of the main article text and key elements from the Swedish newspaper clipping:

Main Headline
Jam handles e-commerce with simple means

Section Header: E-COMMERCE
Music store Jam generates more than half of its sales on the web. Jerker Antoni, who pulls the strings, believes the secret to their success is investing in simple solutions and providing plenty of information about the products.

Body Text
Jam in Stockholm was early out with a website in the spring of 1997. In 1998, web sales really took off.

Since then, Jerker Antoni—who is a co-owner and responsible for web operations—has continued to develop solutions based on normal HTML pages and manual order handling.

– Some of our competitors have fancy database-driven e-commerce solutions, but you won't find as much information on their websites as on ours, says Jerker Antoni.

– We photograph most of the items we sell, rather than using manufacturer pictures, so the customer knows what we are selling. I spend between one and two hours a day updating the website, says Jerker Antoni.

Mail and Order
Unlike some other e-commerce sites that integrate their website with a back-end system, shopping with Jam involves sending an email and reserving the item. If the item is available, Jam sends a reply email, and the customer sends advance payment. When Jam's staff receives payment, they ship the goods at no extra shipping cost. For regular customers, goods are sometimes sent as regular mail-order sales.

– Our motto is that we are scared of anything that makes us lose personal contact. Honestly, our system solves parts of the integration between different systems as a problem. We sell everything relative to value that costs relatively a lot of manual work, says Jerker Antoni.

Belief in the Future
Jerker Antoni is an old IT profile with a past in several pioneering computer initiatives, including Partille Megabyte and Svenska PC-fabriken. He thinks that the computer industry has been slow to transition to e-commerce, which is becoming more computerized. He notes that the computer industry is open and competition is tougher there than in the music industry. He definitely believes that the web will become even more important when it comes to selling musical instruments and that this will drive structural change.

– We already source parts of our manufacturing directly from abroad, without going through wholesalers, which makes it possible for us to lower prices. Thanks to our web-based network, we can reach our products to the entire country, which would otherwise require two distributions in Sweden, says Lars Danielsson.

Box: Jam

Jam: Music store in Stockholm selling musical instruments and other music equipment.

Turnover: Roughly 15 million Swedish kronor.

Web sales: Roughly 8 million Swedish kronor.

Website: www.jam.se
Jerker Antoni and Colleague with Violin-Shaped Ukulele: A candid photo of two men smiling together indoors, with the man on the right—Jerker Antoni—wearing a striped button-down shirt and holding a small, brown violin-shaped instrument or ukulele, with a conference badge hanging from a lanyard.

Oh yeah, can you guess which guitar he designed here?

Also check out the Jam store and Orjan’s site: https://www.oscarguitars.se/en/ (& Facebook Group)

I wonder what Jerker & Örjan would think about the Shitar and the Bat Logo Guitar? I bet they would love to have their rigs rated & roasted.

Do you have a B.B. Stone? How about any other Eagle or Galveston instruments? Hit me up in the comments about how you found yours!

Unlike those who enjoy Ohio Valley Style Pizza, art thieves have no taste.


Alright. You know I like Ohio Valley Style Pizza. You know I draw mazes. You know I sell mazes on stuff. I also occasionally dabble in other bad art & design work. One of those examples is my Ohio Valley Style Pizza T-shirt/sticker/whatever they wanna print it on at TeePublic & RedBubble. These people are worse than the people who make the PiTtsburGH StYLe pIzza is jUsT lunChABleS joke about Beto’s and DiCarlo’s.

Apparently, that caught the attention of art thieves around the world wide web. I used the Goog for trying to locate my Ohio Valley style T-shirt, and three from Printerval popped up… my art, but not my storefronts or name attached to them. Who TF is Printerval? This is maybe worse than the last time my art was stolen and the guy reached out afterward mad about me naming & shaming him. That’s some world-class jagoffery.

Google search results showing sponsored listings from Printerval selling stolen copies of the Ohio Valley-Style Pizza t-shirt design above the legitimate TeePublic result.

Three different dingleberries used my art in a store… or one scraping bot did? Who knows what triggered them? The maddening part of these ones was that they were offering to add a licensed design file for $2.99. I think I make about $2.50 on a T-shirt sale at TeePublic or RedBubble, even less on stuff like stickers or buttons. I don’t know off the top of my head because I don’t sell them often. 😂

I’m absolutely not complaining about that. I really don’t push the links, this is for fun, I’m not making a living off of it, & the stuff I do offer is weird and very niche. But all that being said, it’s still my art and any profit from sales should go to me after TP & RB take their massive cuts in exchange for doing all the work.

If SakuraArt, Mindyguw, & Kemarsporat2zl actually exist, they can all kiss my ass. Are people doing this, or is it all scripts & bots? I’m guessing even if I watermarked it, that could be easily removed… and paying to copyright an image that doesn’t sell seems to be a negative sum game.

If people worked as hard at creating as they do stealing, they might actually make better art than I do.

Oh yeah, the site said that there were currently 8 in carts. I hope that’s a sales pressure tactic and not real. I don’t think I have sold 8 T-shirts total. 🤣

Screenshot of a Printerval listing displaying absurd pressure tactics like 'In 8 carts' for a niche pizza t-shirt that has barely ever sold in real life.

I follow artist Ryan Conners (KilkennyCat Art) on Threads. She has dealt with art theft for quite some time. Sometimes it’s direct. Sometimes the art is changed. Sometimes it’s scrapers. Sometimes it’s actual damn physical stores. Check out her incredible cat art! I reached out for advice and she suggested the DMCA‘s to the websites & to follow-up with Cloudflare.

At any rate, I had Claude.ai help me draft a DMCA and look for more. It found one on ClickOneShirt where I was unsuccessful in finding any more myself. This one was unhinged in that it contained this copypasta-ish word salad that can only be an LLM-fueled fever dream:

It was a sweltering summer afternoon, the kind where the air hung thick enough to feel like you could almost drink it, and the thought of anything remotely warm made me want to crawl back into bed. But my stomach was rumbling something fierce, and the memory of my Grandma Betty’s cookouts, specifically her version of Rawdog the cheese and toppings Ohio Valley style shirt, danced in my head. It wasn’t really about the shirt, of course, but the meal that went along with it. Back then, we used to pile into her dusty station wagon and head over to the local butcher shop in anticipation.
Rawdog the cheese and toppings Ohio Valley style shirt: buy and enjoy this shirt

The butcher, a man named Mr. Henderson with a walrus mustache and perpetually stained apron, always greeted us with a hearty laugh. He knew Grandma Betty’s order by ass: thick-cut, juicy Italian sausages and an assortment of cheeses, the good stuff that melted like a dream. She was a stickler for quality, and the toppings were just as important. Onions, peppers, a jar of Mrs. Renfro’s ghost pepper salsa (that stuff burned, but man, was it good), and always, always, a mountain of shredded cheddar.

Back home, the process was almost a ritual. The sausages would sizzle on the grill, the smell alone enough to make your mouth water. Grandma, meanwhile, would be expertly slicing the hot dog buns, the kind with the squared ends. The real magic happened when the sausages were split and the cheese went in; it would bubble and blister like something out of a cartoon, just oozing perfection.

ClickOneShirt.com

Like. What? Seeing the words Grandma and Rawdog in the same sentence is unsettling to say the least. It doesn’t even make any sense. Why has this backstory been invented? More importantly: Did it work to sell T-shirts and should I add it to my listing?

This is some J. Peterman level shit. Is Eddie Sherman working at ClickOneShirt?

Bonkers, I tell you. Bonkers.

“He knew Grandma Betty’s order by ass: thick-cut, juicy Italian sausages and an assortment of cheeses…” WHAT?

Also, I reached out with a Google report tool to get the fraudulent art removed from their search listings. Who knows if any of it will pan out, but at least I can say I exhausted every avenue that I had available.

-🍕-

So, if you’re following this absolute shenanigans of the highest order, this may help:

The Original:

The Thieves:

Where I Reported It:

If This Sounds Familiar…

Same shit happened with my maze designs:

I hope to have a follow-up saying how quick and cooperative everyone was, but… we’ll see I guess, won’t we? I know where I am going to get a celebratory slice or two.

I guess I should have mentioned that you should buy a T-shirt or some stickers or a maze book from my various stores. It’s better than Grandma Betty using what should be my profits to rawdog Mr. Henderson the butcher.