Sunday, November 23, 2008

New Guns N' Roses Album = Free Dr. Pepper

Apparently, back in March, Dr. Pepper announced that if Guns N' Roses actually released their new album in 2008, then they would give away free Dr. Pepper. Talk about your all time backfires...

Guns N' Roses started recording this album almost a decade and a half ago, in 1994, so thinking that it would be delayed even further was not too much of a stretch. However, "Chinese Democracy" dropped today so Tony Jacobs, VP of Marketing for Dr. Pepper only had this to say: "We never thought this day would come, but now that it is, all we can say is: 'The Dr. Pepper's on us.'"

Get your free coupon on Dr. Pepper's website for TODAY ONLY: click here.

Get the new Guns N' Roses album at your local Best Buy or through iTunes just in time to set the mood at Thanksgiving dinner.



Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Top Chef Fantasy Game

It's Wednesday...tonight is week 2 of the new season of Top Chef. I gave my predictions for the season last week, which could easily be swayed after tonight's episode...we'll see. For those of you looking to compete with your own predictions, Bravo has a fantasy game for you to play.

How to play you may ask? Simple...just register for free at Bravo's website and choose your team, consisting of 3 contestants, which you can change week to week. Your goal is to rack up the most points based on the point rules for that week, which probably largely stay the same week to week. Here are some examples of the logical point rules:
  • Winning elimination challenge: 6 points
  • Makes a dessert: 5 points
  • In the top group at judges' table but not a winner: 4 points
  • Wins a quickfire challenge: 4 points
  • In the bottoms group at judges' table but does not lose: -4 points
  • Eliminated: -6 points
And here are some examples of some of the fun rules, to make things interesting:
  • Featured in a "coming up next" clip: 3 points
  • Says, "I'm not here to make friends," or a variation: 1 point
  • Gets bleeped: -1 points
  • Cries: -1 points
  • Judge spits out food: -5 points
The "gets bleeped" rule will definitely harm a lot of people because those who have watched the show know that there's a *bleep* load of cussin'.

I racked up 19 points in the debut with 2 of the 3 top scorers (Leah being my missing link) One week may be gone so you might not have the best shot at getting the highest score for the entire season, earning the grand prize, $2500, but you never know. Regardless, there is a prize for the top score for each week: a Top Chef cookbook and an oven mitt.

Sign up! Good luck!



Friday, November 14, 2008

Nirvana - Nevermind 17 years later

17 years after the groundbreaking release of Nirvana's Nevermind, Spencer Elden posed in largely the same shot that his parents got a mere $200 from. I think he's bugged out enough about the fact that pretty much everyone in the world has seen him naked as a baby, so it was probably wise to spare everyone since he's an adult now.




Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Top Chef - Season 5


Top Chef is a reality cooking competition show on Bravo that just started its 5th season. It has the standard elements of a reality competition show in the sense that it creates drama and tension, reeling in viewers to watch every week to see what happens and to see who will win or lose. Bravo's website even has a fantasy competition game. There are always chefs that you want to win and those that you want to go down in flames. A large basis of my love for this show is my admiration for the skills of the contestants. Like many others, I have a deep appreciation for fine food and cooking and many of the contestants that have competed on this program are artists of this craft. It's amazing to see how quickly and creatively they can create dishes based on the sometimes absurd and shocking situations that they are given in order to do so.

After having just watched the first episode of season 5, here are some of my predictions, which will likely change down the line...

My initial prediction for the top 6:
  • Stefan - I knew before even watching the first episode that this guy would be trouble...on the Bravo website, they have headshots of everyone - this guy is the only one not smiling.
  • Fabio - Okay, this guy's name is ruined by the model of "I can't believe it's not butter" fame, but he is definitely Italian so he knows his stuff...the question is whether he'll know his stuff when it comes to cooking other than Italian food, but I think he'll still make it far.
  • Gene - This guy is all tatted up - he's from Hawaii and he moved to Vegas and has no "culinary education"...but he looks like the real deal to me. School of Hard Knocks.
  • Hosea - I haven't seen a lot to judge this guy yet, but he looks serious, experienced and competitive.
  • Jamie - Again, I'm going with the badass physique as with Gene to go with, but I think she won't take crap from anyone and she'll bull her way through.
  • Leah - The NY native, she has the advantage of being exposed to such a culinary versatile city on a daily basis and she proved to be a top contender on the first episode.
Now...on the other hand...the people that I think will be eliminated in the next few weeks (in this order)...
  • Radhika - she squeezed by on both the quick fire and the elimination challenge on the first episode. She does not seem very competitive at all and she wants to prove that she has more to offer than Indian cooking...but I don't think it will happen.
  • Carla - She seems confident but something strikes me that she will not go far in this competition.
  • Danny - although his over-the-top Long Island 'tude would go far in the dramatic aspect of the show, I think his personality might give him problems in any team challenge
  • Jeff - this guy seems way too vain. Either prepare your food or prepare your hair style dude.
So those are my initial predictions...I hope the loyal viewers are excited and enjoy this season and I hope some people might try watching for the first time...



Mouse Advertisement

This is one of those commercials that has you sitting there for the first 95% of the commercial, puzzled, wondering what it's about...but it hooks you in so that you want to find out what it's about...and then obviously the "Ohhhhh so that's what it's about" moment at the very end. Enjoy!




Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The Sopranos Complete Series

The Sopranos Complete Series came out today on DVD...33 discs, 86 episodes...meaning you'll get in a lot of "couch time" if you buy it. You might have seen the television commercial for it which snapped together about 100 scene images running by at about 0.1 seconds each. Here is another advertisement for it, appropriately right after the election:




Thursday, November 6, 2008

Holiday Shopping - Best Buy all the way to Dubai

It's November believe it or not...which means the holidays will be here before you know it and you're going to be hitting the malls and the web to get presents for everyone. This year might be a little bit different though. Since we're in an economic crisis, chances are that both: (a) people will not be buying as much and (b) people might be relying on the holiest of all days in the shopping world, Black Friday, for their shopping. Even so, stores might seem a bit worried about their sales this year so you may be seeing more promotions...after all, you probably felt the oddness of getting your Halloween costume with Santa, Rudolph and possibly even some jingles playing near you.

Best Buy, a mecca for people with turkey hangovers, is trying something different this year...something a bit odd...something that kind of makes me think of A Christmas Story. An Essay Contest. [You'll shoot your eye out] The Black Friday VIP Contest wants people to write, in 250 words or less, about how Black Friday is "an important annual tradition" for families. 25 winners get a limo ride to/from the select Best Buy locations, early admittance (30 minutes ahead) into the store, a camcorder to record the experience and a $1,000 Best Buy Gift Card.

Pretty sweet prize but annual tradition? Personally, I've experienced Black Friday madness a few times and it was to get Christmas presents...for my family. Call me crazy, but I just don't buy Christmas presents for my family when I'm with my family, nevermind the fact that everyone in my family will usually sleep well beyond 5 am the day after Thanksgiving. But I guess I'm just not the demographic for this contest...good luck to the entrants.

If you really want a nice shopping experience, you may want to go to the amazing city of Dubai, a city that I have blogged about before. They just had the largest, single-day mall opening in the world: about 600 retailers, an aquarium, a fashion catwalk, an ice-rink and art galleries that cover about 12 million sq feet with about 14,000 parking spaces. I don't think they need to promote this monster with an essay contest. Take that Mall of America!



Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Election Promotions

As we all know now, Barack Obama will be the 44th President of our country, marking a very historic and emotional time for many of us. I hope that everyone reading this blog exercised their right to vote yesterday. Some voters did not have the luxury of walking in and out of the voting booths, waiting hours in line. Even amidst an economic crisis, some businesses were reaching out yesterday particularly for that patience and the patriotism of voters. Here are some of the freebies/promotions that you may have capitalized on yesterday, most of which simply with the "I Voted" sticker (or that you'll kick yourself for missing):
  • Starbucks: free tall cup of coffee
  • Ben & Jerry's: free scoop of ice cream between 5-8 pm
  • Krispy Kreme: free patriotic donut (star-shaped with red, white & blue sprinkles)
  • Chick Fil-A: Many locations gave out free chicken sandwiches
  • Wendy's: Free Frosties at Participating Locations
  • Kenneth Cole: In honor of the 44th President, you could get 44% off your order yesterday. I'm going to hold out for the 100th President.
Bars across the country were offering a free beer for voters too. And here are a couple funny ones:
  • Babeland - Babeland is an "adult" store...I'll leave it at that and no, I didn't learn about this at their store (MSNBC Article)
  • In Dallas, TX, you could get a free laser tattoo removal! They cited that this election is all about change so why not change your tattoo? I guess this helped for the people who got a McCain/Palin '08 tattoo.



Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Election Day




VOTE TODAY!!








Sunday, November 2, 2008

Post Halloween

Halloween has come and gone...I just wanted to post a couple of pictures from our night downtown at Southport Brewing Company (SBC)...


I saved people loads of money on car insurance all night...


And Hilary was a pumpkin...

The best part of the night: you may notice the guy behind Hilary dressed as Tony Montana aka Scarface...ironically at some point in the night, he started a fight which ended with beer all over the floor...which slowly crept toward my gecko feet.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween!