INKSTAND

There’s still one more episode left, but I don’t even care who wins. This is one of the best things television had produced, ever.

Check out these videos:

The Reveal

josh is a freak

Las Vegas

The size of these mini bags is perfect. The usual size of microwave pop-corn bags is way too big for one person. I assumed that with the “natural” theme of the product the butter and salt aspects would be played down. I was right and that’s fine with me since most microwave pop-corns are way too buttery. What I did not expect was just how much they over compensated for it with the pepper! Holy Cow! I thought “Gosh, this is spicy,” but, since it’s pop-corn, I kept munching on it. Naturally. All the while my mouth was all a-tingle with pepper. It was way too much. I will finish the other three bags of the four pack of course, but I might choose a different flavor if I ever buy these mini bags again.

I’ve posted about organic wine before. That one was a red and we just got an organic, sulfite-free Chardonnay from Badger Mountain. I really wanted to try it because from the small tastes I’ve had of wine before I think I prefer chilled white wine to yucky, room-temperature red wine. The meager ten dollar price tag deterred me. But then, as Jeremy was drinking a substantial helping of white wine this morning I recalled that I had a dream. A dream where I easily guzzled the chard through my gullet. I took this as a sign an decided to try it out tonight.
I’m happy to report that I am well into the bottle and it’s doing super right by me. It’s stronger than beer, tastes a little better, and I don’t think it would take much of this sweet nectar to significantly reduce my inhibitions. Sadly I can’t compare it to other wines, because what I’m accepting now as an allergic reaction to the sulfites prevents me from drinking most, or any, other wines. But it’s yummy and at ten bucks, it should be fun to split with someone close to you or someone you’d like to get closer to.
Enjoy.

Tropicana orange juice has recently started using a new design including the popular, plain, sans-serif font that many other brands like Quaker Instant Oatmeal have been using lately. It gives the package a more modern look, and the incorporation of the juice glass is subtle and well done.
But the thing I love most about this package is that nowhere on it does it say “Great New Look, Same Great Taste!” Tropicana gave the consumer the benefit of the doubt and decided that they are intelligent enough to know that the new packaging is just that and that it’s not a new product all together. I looked all over the carton, in all the fine print, and nowhere on there does it even mention a new look. I often feel that most package redesigns, especially for well-established brands, are unnecessary but I’m glad that Tropicana didn’t feel the need to draw attention to a pretty obvious change. Kudos to you, Tropicana.

There is no real reason for a reunion episode when it comes to reality shows of this ilk. But they all have them, it’s become part of the formula. In the case of “Paris Hilton’s My New BFF” the reunion episode was actually before the finale. They are just an excuse to play the same damn clips we’ve been seeing for months. What made me want to see this one was the fact that I was actually curious as to what Megan and Brandi C. were up to.

Well, Megan delivered, but that satisfaction was nullified by the results of Megan’s interview. Megan, first of all, seems doped up on something. She’s slurry, floppy, and sleepy. I can’t make a “more so than usual” joke because Megan usually keeps herself somewhat composed. After a brief chat with her they bring Rodeo down and Megan begins interrupting her. Words are then exchanged with Sharon Osbourne and a fight ensues, captured on this video:




Now Megan and Brandi C. are BFFs so I was wondering what her appearance/interview would be like after that scuffle. Well, that’s the kicker. She had none, Brandi was gone, just gone. Never to be mentioned again. There’s even a part where the camera sweeps across the stage, 1:14 into this video, and you should be able to see her at her table but it’s empty, like she vanished instantaneously. First major disappointment of ot-nine. That’s okay. Megan was still the most entertaining part of the whole thing. And we’ve still got new episodes of Nip/Tuck, Bad Girl’s Club, True Beauty, and I Love Money 2, just to name a few, in the coming months.

This holiday season we went through a lot of appetizers. Jeremy, after weeks of vigil, was finally able to purchase Pillsbury’s Savorings from Safeway, although they can’t seem to keep the spinach ones in stock and have yet to carry the buffalo chicken flavor. Bags of Gold caught my eye while scanning the frozen section for some alternative. They’re a lot like a crab cake, but instead of cheese crab and won ton, it’s cheese, spinach and Fillo dough. the bag part around the filling is softer than the top, which gets toasty and crunchy in the oven. As much as I like the spinach Savorings, these tasty bags are bigger and have a satisfying crunch to them.

A couple of years ago the Buffy television series continued on in comic book form, picking up a short while after the TV series ended as “Season Eight”. Just like the show, the comic follows a larger story arc with some stand-alone stories thrown in. This latest issue is one of the self-contained stories that borrows from the never-really-produced Buffy Animated Series. A lot of comics and cartoons in the nineties used the stylization of characters popularized by Bruce Timm’s designs of Batman in his animated series, and the Buffy cartoon followed suit in it’s character design. As far as I know, only a short promo was produced and the latest issue of the comic book uses the plot from that short story.

Buffy, tired from demon slaying, falls asleep and has a dream which is, in essence, the cartoon complete with direct quotes. Since the comic book takes place about ten years after the cartoon, Buffy fumbles around with not revealing too much about the future, like Willow’s lesbianism and Xander’s missing eye, and delights in changes that have not yet happened, like her mother’s death. She ends up fighting a dragon rather than getting to go to a party with her friends. Then she wakes up. The message is that while things seemed so simple when she was young, it’s only hindsight and her life was always complicated.

I enjoyed the use of the cartoon story. It never really had a chance but here it’s used to illustrate another aspect of life in the multifaceted Buffyverse. That cartoony art style gets tired really quickly when put on the printed page, working much better on the screen. The longer storyline in Season Eight has been rather weak so far with some of the shorter story arcs and standalone stories like this being more entertaining.
Here’s the animated promo:

So Far, So Gay



Typical set up for a reality show: a group of people live in a house vying for the affection of a notable person. The thing about this show, that pits an assortment of young men against each other for the attentions of Andrew Shue/Ryan Renolds love child Brody Jenner, is wikkid gay. It starts out with the contestants being pulled out of their hotel beds in the middle of the night in their underwear and sat in front of Mr. Jenner as he introduces himself and the house to them. The house was not uber-furnished like other reality shows featuring ladies, but more like a frat house that dudes could chill in. But we all know that, if anything, that environment is even more likely to induce a circle-jerk if enough alcohol is introduced.
The assortment of dudes include lunkheads, a token black dude and a bona fide homosexual who presents Mr. Jenner a birthday card during the first challenge, offending one of Mr. Jenner’s already-existing friends in the process. The gay dude ends up bailing because he was an avid fan of The Hills who misunderstood what the show was like. The the elimination happens in a hot tub. Yeah, like eight dudes in a hot tub, going over their relationships with this studly guy. Sounds pretty gay to me.
I’m going to give this show a chance just because I’m interested in seeing where the drama comes from. Either it will dispel my belief that this show is totally gay or it will reinforce it. The point of “The Pick-Up Artist” was to get chicks and it was wikkid gay. The point of this one is to be a dude’s best friend. . . I can only hope it supplies some mild j/o material.

When I saw Campbell’s Select Harvest soups on sale at Safeway for a buck a pop I thought I’d get a few decent meals out of them, as I had from Progresso soups a few weeks prior. I’m guessing these soups are generally better for you than most others, if not from the packaging or ad campaigns, then from the taste. Talk about bland! I added salt to it and it still didn’t help. It’s filling, I’ll give it that. Unfortunately I have another can of this that I’ll end up saving for a rainy day. I also have a can of Italian Wedding. I hope that one’s better. I’ll let you know.

***Spoiler alert!!*** I’m spoiling this movie! Because you have the right to know!

This is one of those movies that I always saw at the video store. I spent a large portion of my youth scanning the Horror section, yet for some reason the box to April Fool’s Day never made itself seem more interesting than the others I chose. Well, I saw it this weekend. It’s a good, run-of-the-mill, 80’s horror movie. Young people having sex, partying and getting killed. I don’t remember if there were any titties in it, but i sure recall the scene with the dude in tighty-whiteys (Jockey brand y-fronts, to be exact). And a few times when Biff Tannen and another dude kept pretending to be gay together.
A bunch of people get together for some reason at the island-home of Muffy. They all get killed, Muffy has a twin, Buffy, blah blah blah. So what’s the spoiler? Who was the killer?
No one! It was an April Fool’s prank! The whole thing! Even after this is disclosed, Muffy gets her throat slashed…but that’s a gag, too! No one is the killer because no one actually gets killed! Other than that little fact, it’s a perfectly good 80’s horror flick. Just be ready to care even less than you normally would about the characters.