This edition of the X-Entertainment Saturday Night Thread is brought to you by…

Anchor Bay's "Fright Pack," a collection of six "campy classics" dressed in an awesomely shitty beer six-pack-esque box that was too cool to pass up on even despite the fact that I already own two of the movies inside.  The set runs for 25 bucks, and if you'll forgive the parade of italics, includes: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, Return of the Killer Tomatoes, Transylvania 6-5000, Return to Horror High, Sleepaway Camp and Vamp.  Rent out a lakehouse and bring about 6,200 Amstels…you've got a party.

Here's to hoping at least a few of you are spending this SNT in the dark, watching a bad scary flick with a laptop over your crotch and alcohol in arm's reach.

Anticipation rules and anticipation has ruled my life.  Anticipation of fun, of holidays, of things supposedly arriving in the mail any day now.  Of movies, of upcoming limited edition 7-11 Slurpees.  Half the fun's in getting there, even if it sometimes means enjoying things more before they happen than when they're actually happening.  In other words, I am having a motherfucking blast reading all of the Disney World vacation guides I bought a few nights ago.

I am so, so, SO looking forward to this trip.  If it was math, I was doing it: I haven't been on a "real" vacation (for me this means, "something outside of New Jersey") in like, damn, fifteen years or something.  I've gone to Salem twice and had a couple of fun overnight trips, and some business trips that could be construed as vacations only by those who never go on vacations, but this, THIS…wow!  Six nights!  Seven days!  Nice hotels!  Fancy drinks and rides based on Honey, I Shrunk The Kids!  I can barely digest the idea that I'll be vacationing in a place where there's actually more to do than just get loaded and gamble, and I refuse to believe that any amount of preliminary anticipation is overkill.  I'll keep reading and planning even if it's all pointless in the long run, because thinking about what I need to buy and see in Disney World sure beats thinking about when my assignments are due or how we really need to start painting the apartment.

I'm so glad I didn't listen to everyone who told me not to stay at the Polynesian.  Little know Matt fact: He loves Polynesian shit.  I have a collection of Tiki mugs that rivals Trader Vic's.  If I met someone named Raphael I'd insist on calling him Raffiael.  I'm going to really try to enjoy myself first and worry about articles second, but this being X-Entertainment in Disney and all, I don't think we can possibly avoid at least a few bits.

Work-related endeavors have brought me closer to the Nintendo Wii than I would've gotten otherwise, and I've gotta say, the name has kind of grown on me.  No, I'm not saying that I like it, or that I completely disagree with the millions who've griped on their own blogs.  Though it was only just a code name that too many took to heart, "Revolution" sounded pretty pretentious and basic when you get right down to it, and I only say this because defending "Wii" means entering an arena where I really am going to debate the importance of a system's name over its capabilities.  Then again, I do work in marketing.  There will be creative ways for Nintendo to use the name in campaigns that'll get players off their collective giant company back, but more to the point of this blurb, I'm definitely looking forward to actually…you know…playing it.  Check out 1UP's list of upcoming confirmed/tentative games to find out why.  Rarely do I look at a list of upcoming video games and want 50,000 of them, but here it is.  Tack on the novelty gimmicks and the fact that you can buy/play virtually every old Nintendo game worth buying/playing, and we're looking at a system that I refuse to protest merely because it's named after a second grader's penis.

Recapping: X-Entertainment loves Ecto-Cooler.  A lot of people loved Ecto-Cooler.  A lot of people cried green when they took Ecto-Cooler away; a terrible moment made all the more heart wrenching because even though Slimer and pals were cold as fuck by the mid '90s, Ecto-Cooler still prevailed.  This lulled us into a happy sense of false security.  Hi-C eventually replaced Slimer with various box-art imagery (sometimes symbols, sometimes moo cows), but when push came to shove and Hi-C had to look themselves in a mirror, they could no longer justify what was a cartoon tie-in for a cartoon that was by then almost a decade old and out of production.  Ecto-Cooler went buhbye, and with it, a little piece of us.

And then, years later, Ecto Cooler came back to us.  As detailed in X-E's Ecto Cooler Bible, Hi-C was using the exact same ingredients and formula in their Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen flavor, which tasted, smelled and looked just like Ecto Cooler.  (Juiceboxes for both shared identical ingredients list, too.)  During Tangergreen's reign, Hi-C slowly phased out the dyes from their juice box offerings, meaning that while the original Tangergreen bore the familiar green sheen of Ecto Cooler, later versions only smelled and tasted the same.  It was a minor defeat, but barely a blip on the radar when contrasted with the holy idea that we could still drink Ecto Cooler.

Eventually, Tangergreen followed its master's footsteps and died off, leaving the world without ANY VIABLE SIMILE of Ecto Cooler.  Still sporadically found at select retailers who don't give a shit about expiration dates, it's just as true that, eventually, there will be no Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen left in the world outside of the 84 12-packs I bought when I first heard about the Ecto Connection.  Fortunately, none of this matters.

As several readers have e-mailed me all giddy about, Hi-C's continued faith in the little drink that could has once again been proven with the addition of their brand new flavor, "Crazy Citrus Cooler."  It's the exact same formula as Shoutin' Orange Tangergreen.  You know what that means, right?  It's Ecto Cooler!  Ecto Cooler lives!

Current Mood: Happy and slimy.