I'm Getting To Old For This S**t - Birthday Gifts To Me, From Me!

Despite the title, an obvious homage (hopefully) to Lethal Weapon, I'm not getting too old for this. I love when my birthday comes around. It's made all the more enjoyable because I stand by what I've said before, which is that it's important to get yourself a gift to you from you for being you. If you don't treat yourself right, who else will? Well, hopefully a lot of people, but still...Treat yourself!

 And treat myself, I did.

First up was a series of CD's I learned about from the Youtube channel, Jen's Additiction. I don't normally buy albums past 1989, but when she talked about the one's she got from The Phantom A.D., I was intrigued.

The Phantom (Isaac Rother) takes you back to the days of novelty rock. A period of time where hits like The Purple People Eater, and Monster Mash, played in malt shops, and kids loved them for what they were. Fun rock and roll. He's living his best life, doing his own thing, and getting paid for it. Respect!

Isaac released his albums on both CD and vinyl, and you can even get them with a lyrics booklet that he's sign. That's the route I went. With my purchase, I was also sent links to digital downloads of the albums and artwork.

Next up was one I'd had on my want list for quite some time, but had no expectations that I'd ever find one, nor pull the trigger. Kenny Roger's Gideon (1980) is not only a rare one, but it's expensive. I came across this one brand new / still sealed, and with a price tag to match. While I threw it on my ebay watch list, it sat for a good two months before I pulled the trigger.

Equally difficult to come by, and just as costly was the debut Huang Chung (Wang Chung) album. You say, "Hey! You already did a Retro Spin on this one! How is it for your birthday?" Yeah, I may have listened to it early. Shhh....don't tell anyone.

There was a 007 album I'd been on the hunt to get for a long time, and that was 1981's For Your Eyes Only. I finally came across the version I wanted, which includes the Octopussy (1983) soundtrack as well. It was one of those, "If you don't buy it now while you see it, it's going to be a while before it comes back around," scenarios.

Next up, two more I've also cheated on, and listened to: Bonnie Tyler's Goodbye To The Island, and Notes From America (AKA Hide Your Heart). I promise that's the last gift I got early, but that could be because of the remaining CD's arriving later.

When I heard the announcement that Tom Tom Club was releasing their full discography on CD as a box set, I jumped on the pre-order bandwagon. However, upon its release date, August 7, 2026, Amazon unceremoniously cancelled my order and then changed the listing to "Temporarily Out Of Stock", so I couldn't even reorder it. A few days later, this changed, but the expected delivery date was sometime in October. Annoyed, but still wanting it, I ordered it again, only for it to randomly show up yesterday on the doorstep.

Another pre-order I put in quite some time ago was for the soundtrack to the Super Mario Galaxy Movie. It was distributed exclusively through iam8bit, a site which I had personally never heard of prior to making my purchase. Though it was initially intended to arrive later in the year, it showed up a few weeks back, so I added it to the birthday pile.

A week prior to my birthday, I felt the need to shop for more CD's because...of course I did. This led me to grabbing the two 80's albums from Morris Day, which I'd never heard, but landed on my radar while listening to The Time.

Back in a Prince mood, based on the above, I followed this up by tracking down a copy of The Family, a disc which is not too common to come by. Honestly, I didn't anticipate finding it, as it was only released in the UK and European countries on CD. The one I got came from the UK, and I equally didn't expect to receive it so fast, let alone by my birthday. It came in just three days, so along with Morris Day, got added to the birthday pile.

If all of the above weren't enough, I also filled in some 80's movies gaps. DVD's are a dime a dozen anymore, and you can get quite a few for twenty dollars. I know I did. See exhibits A through F below.

Every time I pulled up a list of must see 80's movies, John Carpenter's The Thing was on it. With everyone calling it a must watch, and me having never seen it, I decided to grab a copy of my own. I look forward to watching it next week.

I've been on the hunt for The Jewel Of The Nile for quite some time and could never find it out in the wild when hunting for used DVD's to go with my copy of Romancing The Stone. I finally resolved myself to just buying it straight out from Amazon.

With that purchase, I also got Private School, another movie I've never seen, but wanted for my 80's collection. It's got that one scene...You know which one.

Return To Oz was a favorite of mine as a kid, and one I kept looking for when I went used DVD shopping. I finally gave up and ordered this one from Amazon as well. I'm totally watching this as soon as I finish this post.

When Chuck Norris passed away, it dawned on me that I never really saw any of his movies. I know the names of them, I mean, they're cult classics from the 80's. Granted, I can't imagine they're Oscar performances by any means. This DVD box set has nine Cannon Films flicks on it and was dirt cheap. As odd as it was to me when I read the titles, I actually only owned one of them. It was a no brainer to get this set as a result.

If that weren't good enough, it also includes the amazing documentary, Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story Of Cannon Films. I have seen that before, and it was great! I'm glad to own it as well.

Adding to my music collection are the Talking Heads concert film, Stop Making Sense, and lead singer, David Byrne's feature film, True Stories. I've never seen either of these, so I'm really eager to get the time to do so.

Last up in the DVD department was two volumes of 90's cartoons I'd been eyeing for years and never got around to. Every time I found them, the boxes looked like they'd been stomped on, so I never bothered. This year, I found brand new sealed copies of each. Unfortunately, it's not the entire series of Darkwing Duck. Disney never bothered to release all the episodes, but I'll take what I can get.

The absolute final item I bought myself, because clearly the above wasn't enough, was a first printing of Gotham By Gaslight. I've never read this one, but I've heard for years it's a must for Batman fans. It'll make a great bedtime story while watching Darkwing.

Truthfully, I didn't intend on buying as much as I did. Rather, the items just built up over time. I bought these over several months and then forced myself to put (most of) them away for my birthday. It's about five months' worth of purchases.

And with all of that generosity to myself, you'd think that'd be enough for one person. But would you believe there were gifts from family and my girl? Those posts coming later!

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