Let’s get real: the Miss Universe pageant is a mostly bloated, hoary affair, now resurrected by Donald Trump and his lackeys and it’s essentially a travelogue and two-hour commercial-filled tribute to Las Vegas, which is where this tired blimp has now parked itself recently. The show, telecast by NBC last Monday night, even lost 10% of the late summer audience from last year, so maybe this thing really is on its last legs. Read the rest of this entry »
George Steinbrenner, who died the other day following a massive heart attack at the age of 80, was a larger-than-life figure. As owner of the New York Yankees for 37 years, he presided over 7 World Series titles and 11 pennants -no small feat for anyone in baseball, especially someone who took on such an obsessively managerial role in virtually every aspect of the game, from the merry-go-round hiring and firing of managers to on-field calls that really weren’t the purview of a team owner. Read the rest of this entry »
Get out! 7-11 is here. Not the date, silly -the store. Oh yeah, well it’s 7-11 the date too, we guess. Don’t you know what happens every year on this magical date? Thousands of people flock to their local 7-11 stores and celebrate the anniversary of the store chain by filling up on free small Slurpees. Tomorrow is 7-11’s 83rd birthday. That’s right -more than eight decades serving up local fare that’s literally a block away, and serving customers all over the world.
We all grew up with this chain, and we definitely grew up with the Slurpees -my favorites were the Cherry Red and of course, the old standby, the Coke flavored one. Pull back that knob and fill up those cups, but don’t get brain freeze like Bart Simpson did when he went into the Quik-e-Mart, which is “The Simpsons”’s homage to this most venerable of institutions. Read the rest of this entry »
Summer has officially begun and with the toastin’ and roastin’ temps and it’s time we crown a new Summer of 2010 pop song champion. It’s the 3rd annual SMASHgods competition, and I have to tell you, with pop radio stations blaring everywhere across this country, everyone is in the mood of enjoy a totally energetic song right now, whether it be cruising down Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood (KISS-FM, 102.7 with Ryan Seacrest), or the Upper East Side (Z-100 in Manhattan) or up north in SF, where I have managed to find no discernible difference between Wild 94.9, Energy 92.7 and Movin’ 99.7. Read the rest of this entry »
Full disclosure: I was a pretty hardcore Jamiroquai fan back in the day. In the early 90s I was in Paris and inside the Virgin Megastore I heard a pretty amazing album, “Emergency on Planet Earth” on the headphones. Its eclectic mix of jazzy beats and funk on what was a paean to the horrors that we have caused to our environment made them noticeable to world audiences who also noticed the lanky lead singer, Jay Kay, the one that appeared in a furry buffalo hat.
They seemed to be very popular in Europe before they caught on here; in fact, the “Return of the Space Cowboy” US club tour in 1995 was played to small audience–they even performed at a tiny dive bar in the Rockridge district of Oakland, CA (which is now a lonely laundromat). Read the rest of this entry »
For some reason, and after stints in LA, Las Vegas and Chicago, the Top Chef crew decided this season to decamp in the nation’s capital. As we can see from scenes that are coming up, the city plays host to a number of venues like the Goddard Space Center and politicians like Nancy Pelosi (yes, that Nancy Pelosi). The crew has also added Le Bernardin chef extraordinaire Eric Ripert to the lineup of judges, including Padma Lakshmi, Tom Collichio and Gail Simmons. Read the rest of this entry »
Ice Cream! Ice cream! Come and get it because not only is it the best premium ice cream around, but it’s absolutely free! Today Haagen Dazs celebrates its 50th birthday by giving out free scoops of its classic and iconic flavors, vanilla, chocolate and coffee, between 4 and 8 pm at all of its locations. Don’t miss out on this opportunity because you never see this stuff being given out like this.
Simply point yourself to a location here and find your closest shop. (Think fancy pants shopping mall or main drag in a university town, like Palo Alto). Then walk in, point to your gaping mouth and say “I’ll have a scoop of the coffee ice cream, please”. Other flavors, such as caramel cone or rum raisin, or even my all-time favorite that they don’t make anymore, Peanut Butter Vanilla, are not free during this celebration, so you’ll have to keep it simple. Enjoy!
It is honestly hard to muster excitement about the final four American Idol contestants. Many have called this the most lackluster season, one that given us mostly stiff and uninspiring contestants, and we’re inclined to agree. This wasn’t the season of an unusual talent, like Adam Lambert last year, an artist who transformed some song choices like David Cook (remember what he did with Mariah Carey or “Eleanor Rigby”?, or even the crowd pleasing charm of a Carrie Underwood. No one this season has generated much originality, or at least these streaks of brilliance haven’t been sustained. Remember when (now-departed) Andrew Garcia did Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up”? Read the rest of this entry »
We know today is Tax Day and I know a lot of procrastinators out there are waiting til the very last minute to file their returns. Still need to staple all those receipts together and crunch some numbers? Still don’t know how to make sense of your Turbo Tax? Or maybe you’re like us and got this all done a while ago. Don’t fret. Cause SmashGods has your deals for you to make you forget this yearly burden. We have found the following free deals specially for you today –the hard-working American, the one who deserves a break every day, but having this today just makes it all a little sweeter. Get these specials now before they’re all gone: Read the rest of this entry »
Ah, Singapore! I have spent some time here in the last few years and I was just there recently on a business trip. What can be said about this amazing but sometimes unsettling authoritarian city-state? Where the main activities that concern most Singaporeans seems to be a heavy dose of extravagant shopping (you really must see the incredibly designed Ion Orchard shopping center, a feat of art and design with swirling escalators going up and down several floors) and bodacious eating. Read the rest of this entry »
Last week saw the much-hyped premiere of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution on ABC. It did pretty well in the ratings (well, who watches TV on Friday nights anyways?) and it was all over the media outlets, from Larry King Live to the Oprah Winfrey Show. The preternaturally boyish celebrity chef from England, with executive producer (and also boyish) Ryan Seacrest in tow, were busy telling the nation that it was facing a crisis in how poorly its children were eating in public schools all over America. Read the rest of this entry »
The latest product from Ymax, is a derivative of the magic Jack and is called the femtoJack, The femtoJack is very similar to the magicJack in look and feel but it takes the technology of the magic Jack to the next step and allow users to make wireless phone calls for free from their home instead of just landline phone calls. Read the rest of this entry »
I was trying to figure out why this family of four had brought in some throws and pillows to my local AMC movie theatre yesterday. The kids were in tow, too, and they seemed just as eager as their parents to go see…..”Cop Out”? “Tooth Fairy”? It couldn’t be. When I looked closer at the displays, it turns out they (and quite a few others) were queueing up for AMC Theatre’s annual tribute to this year’s Academy Award Best Picture nominees. Read the rest of this entry »
If you’re anything like me, you like to start your browsing day with a start page or “portal” that caters to your daily dose of online interests.
Sure there are the more well-known, corporate portals that allow their own brand of personalization [iGoogle, myYahoo, Microsoft Live]. But quite often these mainstays include “value added” content or sponsored links that interfere with your personalized experience. So if you crave to have something a bit more streamlined (or you’d rather have quick access to the aforementioned 3), Fav4 is worth a serious look. Read the rest of this entry »
I thought this was an interesting and effective way of demonstrating just how huge the Internet is. Scroll down and get a glimpse of some of these numbers.
This montage was put together by the folks at Online Education, who proudly feature the stuff they don’t teach you in college.
I have pancakes on my mind. Been craving them for a while now. In fact, I am about to meet a friend at Suppenkuche in San Francisco for brunch, since I just can’t resist both their German-style apple-plum baked pancake and their crisp, tender potato pancakes (served with apple sauce). Hold on –let me just savor this moment in anticipation.
Well, wouldn’t you know it – this coming Tuesday is National Pancake Day, so maybe all these pancake thoughts aren’t just a coincidence. There may be even a Hallmark card section for them. But no matter –they’re a quintessential American morning staple. Soft and fluffy, stacked with little pats of butter, all they need is a generous serving of warm maple syrup. And how do you cut your pieces? One at a time? Or do you take your knife and fork and cut it all up before you dig in? Read the rest of this entry »
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