In 1977, Mike Olson, owner & manufacturer of Gnu Snowboards, made his first snowboard in shop class. You’re welcome Shaun White. While the rest of us were making ashtrays or dust pans, Mr. Olson was saying “I’m gonna make a really fat ski…” The rest is history.
Don’t know what a Dilly Bar is? Oh, man, are you missing out on pure joy. Google it and drool.
Now, who is this Grieg guy and what the hell is a Peer Gynt Suite you might ask? Who cares, but today’s comic title is one of the better known classical pieces of all time and one of my personal favorites. I grok the entire Peer Gynt Suite from Morning Mood to Ase’s Death to the this grand finale. It’s title always reminds me of George Carlin’s bit about the word f**k as he states loudly “I am F**k! F**k of the Mountain!” Laugh my ass off every time…
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Discussion (71) ¬
Cool strip today. 🙂
What’s even cooler is I’m up when you are and can reply! You must be either a night owl or live in a time zone where it’s like morning already or something. You’re usually the first post! A shiny new dime to you!
🙂
Hmm, Google wasn’t really very helpful. Some sort of not-really-ice-cream bar dipped in not-really-chocolate? I fail to see the appeal. Then again, I detest ice cream and am deathly allergic to chocolate, so no surprise there 😛
I believe Google has gotten smarter than Skynet and localizes results. Probably no DQ’s in your neck of the woods. Dairy Queen is kind of a dinosaur in fast food joints here in the states. A lot of them are only open during warm weather, but the ones that serve food serve some of the fattiest foods in the world. I think their Chili Cheese Fries have like 1200 or more calories and so much cholesterol that you should only eat them in an ER room.
But, I grew up on Dilly Bars back in the 60s as my Dad was a HUGE fan of ice cream and loved to visit DQ.
🙂
Hah! NOTHING is smarter than Skynet. Skynet is even smarter than Chuck Norris 😛
I do remember the existence of Dairy Queen out there, but I never felt moved to investigate. Nor are fried foods part of my universe (always had serious doubts about ’em, and then when I first developed an ulcer in my early teens, they became a no-go. The ulcer finally left, but my distaste for fried stuff remained!). But I do remember loving an American dish that was scarily fatty – Almond Pressed Duck, which was popular in West Coast Chinese restaurants but apparently existed nowhere else in the universe 😀
My Mom’s Uncle was on John F. Kennedy’s Cabinet as Post Master General & on one visit to D.C. he took us to this big fancy Chinese Restaurant where he order duck for everyone. I, being the young snot I was, wanted a cheeseburger.
You can’t take the redneck out of me…
🙂
But but but if you were a *real* redneck, you’d have been jonesing for fried possum. Or chicken fried steak. Or is it fried woodchuck? 😉
Haha! Cute 🙂
Now I’ve learned something new! I didn’t grow up with any Dairy Queen’s so I don’t know much about them. I think I’ve been to a DQ twice in my life. Looks good, but I wonder why it’s a “chocolate FLAVORED” coating and not just chocolate??
Jersey doesn’t have DQ’s? Is it a Midwest thing? Hmmm. Now I gotta go Google Dairy Queen and see how big of a franchise it is.
Oh, it’s chocolate flavored as it’s not real chocolate I’m sure. Everything they prepare has to have a shelf life of about 1000 years so it withstands those long hot summer days without going bad. The things we eat…
🙂
Actually, there is a seasonal DQ in Rochelle Park, NJ. Closest one to Times Square that I’m aware of; there’s one in Wappingers Falls, NY, and there may be a few others on Long Island, upstate and elsewhere in Jersey, but we got ’em.
As for the choice of product, I’ve always been more partial to Buster Bars myself, but I understand getting good hang time while riding one in a half pipe might be a problem, so…
The only one I ever saw in NJ was in (or near) Cranford, NJ. But that one is seasonal as well, and I only new about in the off season (passed it on my way to work). They exist there, but are not common at all. You’re more likely to find a Baskin Robbins or Carvel. Of course, I haven’t lived there for 7 years now, so maybe things have changed.
carvel…
now THAT takes me back. you forgot friendlies though.
“… and a Peanut Buster Parfait to go!” The only French word ever spoken by rednecks…
🙂
…and then there’s the Hostess Twinkie, which has a shelf life of ETERNITY…
there are definitely dq’s in jersey, though i remember them usually being seasonal.
i grew up in southeast PA, and still remember it being a treat to go to a dairy queen. though i remember independant places which were WAY better, but lacked the DQ signature stuff.
alltogether though, dq’s were around, but had nothing on the likes of McDonalds, Burger King, White Castle, or Pizza Hut….
but now i live in the midwest, and have no white castle…. but wow, i drive about 25 minutes to work each way, and literally, go past 3 dq’s every day, no matter which route i take. and of those, only 1 is seasonal.
As I dig into this, I’m finding out how regional some food franchise places are. White Castles are abundant here near Chicago and are in most “major” towns down state Illinois.
I’ve been spoiled having been raised mostly in the Chicagoland area most of my life. I use to eat at Top’s Big Boys as a kid downstate and still like going to Steak & Shake.
I can still remember when Burger King rolled into the “big city” near our farm back in the early 60s. What a treat to have Whoppers down on the farm!
🙂
I read somewhere that Grieg himself got sick of ItHotMK, calling it “Teutonic bombast.” I like it, though — one of my favorite bits in the original Fantasia was set to this piece. The Who did an electric cover of it that shows up on “The Who Sell Out,” an album I’ve always felt deserves more attention than it gets.
I’m sure he’s like anyone else, Grieg has his own opinions on his creations. With it being popular probably right off the bat, I’m sure he got tired of hearing it too. It may have been his “Freebird!” of the time.
And everyone was into “Bolero” playing while doing the horizontal bop, but I preferred “Mountain King” as it wasn’t as long… No false expectations right up front. Nudge, nudge.
🙂
AAAAARRRGGH! Serves me right for reading the rest of the comments – now I’ve got Freebird stuck in my head. The horror, the horror…
Um, it wasn’t Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” that climaxed the original Fantasia. It was Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain. But yeah – I can see it getting old to the poor guy. At least he didn’t have to be Beethoven, whose 5th Symphony became the serious contender for being the “Freebird” of European Classic music… and whose 9th Symphony got turned into an ad for Starz TV.
Or in the Beatles’ movie “Help” it was used to save poor Ringo from the tiger in the bar’s basement. “Come on, lad, sing famous Beethoven’s famous 9th symphony!” Lennon was a blast.
🙂
Dammit, you’re right. They say the memory’s the second thing to go… can’t recall what the first thing was supposed to be.
I think that is the same squirrel that terrorizes our cats.
Squirrels are the ones that are going to take over the world someday. Some folks say cockroaches, but my bet is on these intelligent little rodents. You know they’re scheming something, the little rat bastards…
🙂
Nah, they’d never take over Australia, since there aren’t any – every time someone tried to introduce squirrels, the wombats ate ’em 😛
Thanks to Fritz Lang, “Halls of the Mountain King” always brings images of Peter Lorrie to mind.
Fritz Lang and Chuck Jones are animation Gods in my book. Man, to have been in the studio back in their day. I can’t imagine what they were smoking… more like drinking, but you never know…
🙂
urmm….fritz lang was a filmmaker, most famous for a brilliant, epic silent film called “Metropolis”. he made no cartoons.
Friz FRELENG, however… 😉
–dee!
Cool choice of music today, Byron! Grieg is a fave of mine as well, & I always enjoyed different interpretations of the piece that would show up in people’s works like the Who’s version from the late 60’s, Rick Wakeman’s from “Journey To the Centre of the Earth”, ELO covered it, & one of my guilty favorites was from a British Synth-pop band from the early 70’s called Apollo 100 that had an LP out named “Joy” that was all pop takes on classical pieces including ITHOTMK. I think their version was titled “Mad Mountain King” if I recall right… I grew up with Dairy Queen & Dilly Bars, too! Very big here in the SW – especially with our long hot summers, & the family of one of my best friends from Jr. High (that’s middle school to you young ‘uns) owned one, so we were there allot. Haven’t had one in years tho. Gee, maybe DQ for lunch today & a Dilly Bar?…
I’ve found my clone… and it seems your it. Man, I loved Apollo 100’s “Joy”. Great little pop tune! I know I lean to hard rock like I do steak and potatoes, but it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a taco now and then too!
🙂
I have Wakeman’s “Journey” as I’m a big fan of the book and the original movie (not that piece of crap 3D thing a couple years back). See? I do read books now and then, and Verne is one of those authors I’ve read.
And what the hell is it with “Middle School” crap? It’s freakin’ Jr. High School. You felt like you’d left “Grade School” behind and were finally becoming “a grown up” but now they lump it into this wimpy term that means freaking nothing. I’m so tired of politically correct crap… it drives me nuts that we’re so afraid of insulting someone that our language has been come as vanilla as DQ ice cream.
Sorry, rant over. 🙂
If you’re going to eat DQ for lunch, have the Chili Cheese Fries and watch your heart explode right there at the table. Fun!
I used to love Dilly Bars, We had a Dairy Queen on Pike Street between Huston and Canonsburg in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. It had a walk up window and was closed in the winter. We went there after baseball games and I remember all of the Dennis The Menace posters advertising Dilly Bars, blizzards and Mr. Frosty covering the windows. Alas, on a recent trip home, it was closed and boarded up with tall weeds growing in the parking lot. Many a good time and dates at that place.
One cool thing about “My” Dairy Queen is that it was right by the cemetery where they filmed Night of The Living Dead.
Never seen a DQ actually closed. That franchise is so strong it is nearly inconceivable that one would close. But, welcome to America 2010 where we can crush anyone’s dreams of success with a single stroke… I’m kinda in a rant mood today… sorry.
🙂
Now how cool is that? That’s where they filmed it? Too cool. Get a picture of yourself there and Photoshop it into a still of the movie. Now that would be fun!
😛
My high school girlfriend lived next to that cemetery and we would wander into it at night and take black and white photos. Now if only I knew where those negatives and Polaroids where at.
*laughs* I had a D&D dwarf Fighter named “Fuk of the Mountain!!!” Whenever someone would ask him his name, the other party members covered their ears and groaned while Fuk bellowed his proud moniker for everyone within earshot.
LOL! Nice… Reminds me of this:
The mythical “Land of Fah” ; where supreme rule,
government, commerce, and all things are under
the control and domain of the Fah King.
The laws of the land are set down and known as the
“Fah King Rules”
and of course no one is allowed to bend or break the
“Fah King Rules”
There’s a whole lot more of that… just Google King of Fah and you’ll find it.
🙂
Sounds like the Land of Fah is located right next to what *we* know as the legendary land of Far Kinell…
I can never read “Hall of the Mountain King” straight. I always, without fail, read it as “Hall of the Mountain Grill” (Hawkwind’s 1974 album) and do a double-take when I realize it wasn’t. Great album, by the way, look it up. And I like the Grieg piece too.
Hmmm… I am not familiar with Hawkwind, but they seem to have a ton of material on iTunes, except that 1974 album. I previewed their 1977 release and it’s hard to get a real handle on a band from 30 second samples, but it sounded pretty good. The Wiki article on them was extensive, so they must have been big somewhere!
Hawkwind: just think of them as Britain’s Grateful Dead 😉
Or Spinal Tap… 🙂
Among other things, Hawkwind gave birth to Motorhead by canning Lemmie Kilmeister, featured a naked back-up dancer, and delved full-force into the most adventuresome… and tedious… elements of Prog Rock.
And not to forget Michael Moorcock’s contributions…
Dude, Dilly Bars. I loved Dilly Bars. I worked at DQ for 3 years, My Junior Year of HS on into Freshman year of College, and we used to make some super large dilly bars after hours, freeze them while we were cleaning up, then chomp ’em down after work. There’s still nothing better tasting to me than DQ soft server, packed in their chocolate dipping sauce. You talk about burning you though, when you put that can of chocolate sauce in the heater, you better be careful, the hot plate on the bottom of that thing is cooled with water thru out the day, and boy is it ever hot. YOWZA!!! We also used to make some killer blizzards (Pinto Bean, Nacho Cheese, etc.) – weird stuff, most was clearly undedible after the first bite, but some was strangely tasty. Believe it or not the Pinto Bean Blizzard wasn’t actually that bad.
Hmmm… seems to me you found the Pinto Bean Blizzard right after you found those Magic Mushrooms out behind the DQ…
🙂
DQ stuff was perfect muchies… hot dogs, fries, ice cream, milk shakes… we’d blow a gig’s worth of money chomping down some serious DQ stuff.
🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3Vcoq-QRo4
A little music for you–
and a commentary: I have participated in a stage production of Peer Gynt-even with something ridiculous like 15 scenes cut, it was still 4.5 hours long with a half hour intermission. My dad was a composer who reset the music electronically as there was no way we could do it with an onstage orchestra or solely by recording. It was a phenomenal undertaking for a college drama department, but we pulled it off.
I have only one thing to say about that video… Fuckin’ A, man! That was one of the best music videos I’ve seen in a LONG time and *that* is what MTV use to be about, not that shit they broadcast today.
I’m gonna find this band and start following them… ding, just did!
Oh, and i forgot–I grew up in Jacksonville FL and had a DQ only about 4-5 blocks from home(during the 60’s). I think the last time I was there, maybe 8 years ago, it was still in operation.
This has to do more with your other post, but holy crap… 4.5 hours long? I can hardly sit still to draw my comic for that long let alone watch a stage production of that magnitude!
Kudos for pulling it off. I was involved in stage production all through high school and college working mainly the lighting crew.
Heh, I was born in Jacksonville, Illinois… small world… 🙂 Oh, wait…
Nowhere else but in this strip could you go from DQ to Hawkwind, Byron… Hawkwind: one of those perennial British bands like Status Quo or Barclay James Harvest that’s been around forever, but got/gets little or no recognition on this side of the pond. They probably have 30 to 40 albums out, have had about 50 people go thru the band with the only constant being guitar player Dave Brock, (but do have one notable alumnus – Lemmy from Motorhead who was kicked out of the band in the mid 70’s for his amphetamine use…) & were one of the first of the “Space Rock” groups using synths & utilizing fantasy & sci-fi themes in their music. While they could do some bizarre stuff at times, to me they mostly sounded like a cross between early Pink Floyd & Tangerine Dream. I haven’t heard anything post 1995 or so, but definitely worth checking out!
UncleMac — ah, now you’ve made me wish like feck that I still had my copy of Calvert’s ‘Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters’. Along with the Kinks’ ‘A Soap Opera’, that was one of the greatest underrated concept albums of the ’70s…
~exits, cackling ‘G for Germany!’ repeatedly~
I love today’s strip! As soon as I saw the title I grinned, because I have been working on learning this song for the electric bass as well as the trumpet. Such a fun song to play!
Trumpet and electric bass? Sounds like my childhood where I grew up playing clarinet/bass clarinet and then moved into my electric bass to play in jazz band my Sr. year in high school.
Smooth, man…
🙂
not entirely sure why, but your squirrel reminds me of the Grinch.
I’m not a real big fan of the Grinch, but I’ll take it as a compliment it reminded you of that classic. Having grown up in that era, I’m sure those images are permanently implanted in my brain.
🙂
“the world f**k”? … Not the WORD f**k?
Ah, what the hell. I can justify in my own head.
Well, for having posted this comic at 1:00am this morning (last night?) I’m glad that’s the only boo-boo in the comic. I was tired and one pissed off son of a bitch yesterday, so we’re lucky I even got the darn thing done.
Point out any “oops” you see, and I’ll get them fixed! I am an old fart…
🙂
We have DQ’s up here, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a Dilly Bar. I know what they are though! I have to say I commend that squirrels genius. Also anybody who doesn’t like Grieg and the Peer Gynt Suite is missing out.
Blasphemy! Never had a Dilly Bar? Have one to get it on you list of things you’ve done at least *once* in your life. I have a number of those events…
I love the animals of 1977, and we’re about to get a lot more as Jeff goes to work for the area Zoo.
🙂
Right on, man. Classical music was the heavy metal of its time and any serious rocker should know these things well.
I will say this… it always amazes me what topic/song will trigger a huge wave of comments on this site. Oddly enough, it’s never the ones I think will be popular. So, I’ve given up trying to predict which comics will score heavily with comments and feedback.
In the meantime, I’ve visited my local DQ (which is open year round as it serves hot food too) and had me a wonderfully delightful Dilly Bar! Yum! Makes for a great Friday evening!
Damn, I’m old. A Dilly Bar gets me excited on a Friday night. Use to be tall boy cans of Pabst or Huber beer and a gig at a bar. Man…
🙂
Dude ‘Old’ s when you can remember those Macca’s signs saying there were ‘over 600,000 sold’ Trust me on this 😀
LOL! I *do* remember when the MdD’s had those in numerals on the big Golden Arches out front of the old style McD’s. You’d get excited when it went from 600,000 to 700,000. Great way of drawing folks in to buy more burgers to help the number go up.
Genius marketing has made really crappy food very popular in this fine country. That and you silly women wanting to *work* instead of staying home and making us dinners full of salt, butter and deep fried meat. Ah, those were the days.
And before anyone sends me nasty emails, I’m being exceptionally sarcastic…
😛
ROFL! You know, there are *some* women out there who can go out to work AND cook awesome dinners. Just saying 😀
Also, this is part of the appeal of 1977 the Comic – due to its setting (and your excellent situation- and story-chops), it (re)calls to mind all sorts of vintage-ish stuff that would otherwise be sadly forgot. Or possibly blessedly forgot, but that’s another can of dolphin-unfriendly tuna… 😀
i worked at a dairy queen as a teenager and used to have to actually MAKE dilly bars, amongst other things…
because i worked at one, i rarely go in them … and not because the food’s bad; out of all the fast food restaurants i’ve had the “pleasure” (HA!) of seeing in operation full-stack, that one seems to be the best with regard to freshness of product as well as proper storage of food…
its just that if yer around it all the time, you simply just don’t want it.
well, that, and i am lactose intolerant…
–dee!
Oh yeah! DQ and a good ol Brazier burger. Where I grew up in S. Central Hoosier land you couldn’t swing a dead cat around with out hitting one. Luckily we have a couple here in Memphis.
Byron — just tuned in and found the new page look. It’s MEGA. Much easier to read and follow!
Thanks! I usually will do upgrades like this over a weekend and it had been since like August for any major upgrades.
The new backend really helps me and hopefully helps you guys too. Seems pretty cool so far.
🙂
Good on ya! I also notice the current top strip is the famous Jalapeno Dance 😀
Still on my first pass through the archives and noticed you used that title before. Rick Wakeman used some of it on his 1974 release of Journey to the Center of the Earth.
And Dilly Bars…mmmmmmm…
I was surprised to see you re-use a tune, Byron – but on the other hand, I do love this particular one, so it’s all good 😀
Puts me in mind of this – Seventies and extremely pertinent here. Hall of the King, by focus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lv8YR68vcA