Britney has had her share of problems. And here’s another one: Footage from her concert in Anaheim shows what appears to be a tampon string hanging between Spears’ enormous thighs.
I’ve embedded a couple youtube videos below – decide for yourself. There is clearly a white dangling string…but is it a tampon string? Now, I don’t really have a good idea of what a tampon string looks like, but the string in the video seems to be pretty thick. It is more linguine than angel hair, which makes me think it may be a stray lace or lining from her costume.
At the same time though, it is kind of odd to have a string there. I can’t really imagine how it got there.
And one more thing, I’ve never seen a live Britney concert, but she doesn’t really seem to dance very well. In the clip she’s just kind of waddling around the stage. I mean, I’m not a good dancer or anything, but she just looks all bloated and uncomfortable – that can’t be good, right?
You Top Chef fans will looooove this Carl’s Jr commercial. It features the oh-so-hot judge Padma Lakshmi. I have to say, I’m not a big fan of fast food, or commercials for that matter, but this spot has created a special spot in my belly for Carl’s Jr.
This was probably one of those plans that no one really thought very much about. I mean, it seems simple right? Take scenic pictures of the President’s Plane while it flies over scenic New York.
But it turns out that New Yorkers are still a bit jumpy after the…well…whole 9/11 thing. And, it didn’t help that the 747 was flying over New York while tailed by an F-16 – probably exactly what it would look like if a 747 was hijacked and flown over New York to crash into buildings.
In any case, the White House apologized for the whole situation, which resulted in a number of buildings being evacuated. Also, from the video below it looks like people were actually kind of running around on the ground in a panic.
All in all, a horrible idea. It’s actually kind of incredible that all these people were involved in the photo shoot, yet no one thought it would be a bad idea.
Still, it’s not anything that you can pin on the White House or Obama. I mean, there is no way the President personally approves every photo op – at worst he’s guilty of hiring some questionable personnel. At the end of the day, no harm no foul. It was a dumb idea, but really I think people should get over it.
This box set has all four BSG seasons, plus over 13 hours of extras that include deleted scenes, insight from actors and directors and unaired extended extras…all on beautiful high def Blu Ray discs. Hear that? That was the sound of just a smidgen of semen escaping from the tip of my penis.
I have to say, the set looks pretty incredible. 20 discs of BSG, all in a cool box with pop-up cylons?
The set will be available on July 28, 2009, so don’t go contracting swine flu just yet. However, this will be a good last purchase to make, because it’s not cheap – Amazon is selling it for $245 – certainly worth it…but kinda rough on the wallet.
Hey, so this swine flu sounds pretty bad, right? Over a hundred dead in Mexico, with new cases starting to pop up all over the US and even in Europe.
This is what bothers me the most: The swine flu is all over Mexico, and there are tons of Mexicans coming to the US every day, many illegally. When these guys get settled they will live in an apartment with like 12 other mexicans..believe me I worked in the restaurant industry for a long time, that’s how it works. Then, those 12 mexicans will go out and work, mostly likely in the food service industry. So, when one infected Mexican comes over he first infects his 12 housemates, who then go and touch food all day at restaurants.
I don’t like that. Just this morning it seemed that swine flu was limited to southern california only – but now a few cases have popped up in nor cal.
And it doesn’t appear there’s really a good solution here. I mean, the only thing I can think of, other than some sort of vaccine that doesn’t exist yet, are masks. I wanted to wear a mask to work today, but I didn’t want to be that guy. It’s like of like how you should always buckle your seat belt, even if there is peer pressure not to, because it just makes sense safety wise.
For example, in Japan when you get sick you are supposed to wear a mask to prevent your germs from spreading. And this works well, because it’s way easier to prevent germs from coming out of your orifices (mainly the mouth and nose), than to prevent them from coming in.
Just as a precaution, I don’t think it would be the worst idea for food service workers to wear a mask while working. Maybe businesses could make masks available at work, or the city could give away masks on buses.
But I don’t think masks will catch on until it’s too late because masks look pretty bad. And all it takes is one rub of the eye with an infected finger to get you on the swine flu bandwagon.
Who knows how this will turn out, but just thinking of it makes me queasy. I was all over the Purell today, rubbing it on my hands and my face like every ten minutes.
You can see how the virus is spreading all over the world here. I swear, I looked at this map this morning and there were like half as many flags. Out of all those virus movies with rare diseases spreading from monkeys to humans that end up with the Military nuking cities, who’d have guessed that the biggest pandemic the US has seen in a long time will really just come from a bunch of Mexicans coming to work in the states.
We all love MLK, but lets face it – we only think about him on one day of the year, MLK day. And although we may not have the same warm and fuzzies for Ryan Leaf, he too will live on in infamy on at least one day of the year – NFL draft day.
On Saturday there was a bit of draft day excitement, with two QBs going in the top 5 spots. Now historically, it’s not a great move to pick a QB so high. Of the top 10 QBs last year (by QB rating) only one was a #1 pick – Peyton Manning. There were three others that were first rounders (Rivers, Pennington and Rodgers), but more interestingly 3 QBs in the top 10 that weren’t even drafted at all (Warner, Romo and Garcia).
So picking a QB in the early rounds is a risky move, but a necessary one if the pick turns out to be the next Manning. More likely though, you’ll get an Alex Smith, Matt Leinart, Vince Young, JaMarcus Russel or David Carr.
The Lions went with Stafford with the #1 pick, and really this is one pick that makes a bit of sense. They needed a QB, unless they want to stick with Culpepper for a long term solution – and history is already going to be pretty harsh on their first round picks, so what’s the worst that can happen. The Jets traded up for Mark Sanchez – an interesting move for a team that signed Brett Favre in last year’s offseason.
The Raiders, in a surprise move went with Darrius Heyward-Bey. I don’t know much about this guy except that he’s fast and tall. Maybe this will be a great target for Russell, but the Raiders will still need to give their QBs a bit more time in the pocket – regardless of who’s running the routes.
The Niners also went with a WR – Michael Crabtree from Texas Tech. The Raiders were expected to take Crabtree, but instead he went across the bay. This seems to be a steal for the Niners, since Crabtree was projected to be drafted a bit higher. I’m not really sure if another WR will solve the Niner’s problems, but at least it will give whoever is playing QB on Sunday a reliable target.
1st round WRs seem to have a higher success rate than QBs. 3 years ago Pittsburgh drafted 2009 Superbowl MVP Santonio Holmes in the 1st round. The next year Calvin Johnson and Dwayne Bowe were drafted in the 1st round – both good pickups.
I’d also like to point out that a chinese guy, Patrick Chung, was drafted in the 2nd round – probably the highest a chinese guy has ever been drafted in NFL history. Sure, when you seem him he appears to be more Tiger Woods than Jackie Chan (he’s chinese/jamaican, so jamacanese?) but that’s an important piece of history that I think was overlooked today.
The introduction of salt and vinegar chips was a big thing for me. They didn’t have these in Hawaii for a loooong time – and when they arrived I couldn’t get enough of them.
What’s followed since has been less than thrilling, I think. Wasabi chips, anyone?
I’m not entirely sure, but I do know you get seven seasoning blends that you can use to create new chip flavors. What can you do with seven flavors that hasn’t been done already, I don’t know…but it’s a innovative idea regardless.
But lets face it, any flavor combination will really just be another way to disguise the real appeal of chips…fat.
With that said though, I have the idea for the chip of the future: bacon. Everyone loves bacon, and guess what? Bacon goes hand-in-hand with fat. Imagine a chip that is fried in used bacon grease from a breakfast joint. Can you think of anything better than that?
I don’t really get beatboxing. I mean, you really are just reproducing an electronic noise, right? So why not just let the machine do it and save yourself the trouble? It’s like washing a car by hand when you can just take the thing to a carwash.
In any case, the video below is of a kid who’s really good at beatboxing. He’s just some little asian kid that looks real unassuming, but I have to admit he does have a skill here.
I’m just not sure how valuable this skill is. I mean, you know his parents wanted him to play piano or violin or something - like all asian parents do. But instead he spends his time on this?
Actually, I guess it panned out well for him because it’s unlikely that his video would get this popular if he was just playing the piano.
Woot! has a refurbished Roomba 530 for a low $130 today plus shipping. I have an older Roomba model and I love it. I mean, it doesn’t clean perfectly – there are crumbs in corners occasionally – but it works well enough to save a ton of time.
This model is usually in the $250 to $300 range new, so $130 refurbished is not a bad deal. If you’re concerned about refurbs you can always buy squaretrade protection.
By now you’ve seen video of Perez Hilton’s controversial question to Miss California at the Miss USA pageant final round. First things first, irrespective of her actual point, Miss California did a horrible job with her answer. I mean, it just didn’t make sense…she says Americans can choose one or the other, but they can’t – that’s the whole point. And to say there are two types of marriage, same sex marriage and opposite marriage…well, that’s not a great choice of wording. I mean, for a few seconds it seemed like she was actually arguing aloud with herself.
But what’s worse, I think, is that Hilton fed her a pretty controversial question about gay marriage. Now, usually the questions are about feeding blind kids in africa with AIDS and malaria, or education, or some softballs like that. But in this case not only was the answer to the question not clear cut, a decisive answer either way would likely alienate some of the judges because of their personal beliefs. It’s like asking Miss Chicago contestants who they like more, the Cubs or White Sox.
Now, Miss California has caught a lot of flack for saying that she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman, and I think this is unfair. I mean, as much as gays bitch and moan about not being understood or not having rights or not being respected, they show an incredible lack of respect for the rights of others. And just to put this out now, I’m going disregard political correctness and refer to gays as one, homogeneous group.
Look, I think most of us can agree that gays deserve to have rights just like anyone else. But I don’t think that necessarily means changing the definition of marriage. Should gay couples get tax benefits, healthcare related benefits, the whole shebang? Of course. But should their partnership be called marriage? Not necessarily.
Why?
Well, some would argue that gay marriage really doesn’t hurt anyone. And to be honest, I’m not married and it’s true, gay marriage doesn’t hurt me at all. In fact, legalized gay marriage would probably stop these enormous protests down market street in SF – so that’s definitely a benefit.
But, there are other people who got married when the definition of marriage meant the union of a man and a woman. And I would argue that these people have a right to be concerned about how the definition of marriage is changed. I mean, they are part of a legal entity – they should be able to voice their concerns if that entity is substantially changed.
If you really listen to Miss California’s answer, she is just saying that marriage should be between a man and a woman. She’s not saying that gays should be hung from fences by their semen-leaking assholes – although how great would it have been if she broke that out on national TV…she’s not saying that gays should not have rights…she’s just saying that the definition of marriage means the union of a man and a woman. And, although this belief is not contemporary in Cali, it’s a perfectly reasonable belief considering region, upbringing, etc.
Now, Miss California lost – almost certainly due to her answer to this question. Not only that, but following the pageant Hilton vlogged about Miss California, calling her a dumb bitch, among other things.
And this is another problem with the gay marriage movement. Gays get really uppity about not being able to get married. And although I can understand why they’re mad, their reactions are counterproductive and frankly show the same kind of bigotry that they are accusing others of showing.
I mean, why is Miss California a dumb bitch? Because she was raised in a religious family? Because she lived for twenty years in a country where marriage was between a man and a woman? She has a certain background and certain beliefs, and she has been raised with certain definitions in her head…definitions that have been the same for 200+ years. Speaking these beliefs on national TV does not make her a dumb bitch (although her grammar does make an argument to the contrary.)
At the end of the day I don’t give a flying fuck about gay marriage. If I had to vote, I’d vote to allow gay marriage if for nothing other than the reduced traffic in the city on weekends. But I think the gay marriage movement really needs to take a step back and…well…refine their message.
I don’t think the best strategy for gay marriage is to have a bunch of flamboyant homos on TV calling everyone who doesn’t believe in gay marriage names. It’s childish and divisive and probably going to lead to more things like hate crimes.
If anything, I think gays should take a more gradual approach. Like the blacks, for example. They took care of the biggies first – eliminating slavery, owning property, etc. Then slowly they worked in things like their votes counting for a whole vote instead of just 3/5, being able to play baseball, and being able to sit in the front of the bus.
That took a long time, and there are still racial tensions even today. I mean, imagine 200 years ago if blacks were like, we want to be free and be able to vote. Not only that, but we want to be able to drive down the street in a black escalade with 20 inch rims and also be the running back on every team in the NFL and all top 5 songs on the billboard charts. That just wouldn’t happen…I mean, the NFL wasn’t even around 200 years ago.
I think the gays should put a lid on the rhetoric for a bit and try to take a more measured approach. Like, first gay couples could get universal tax benefits. Then there could be some sort of health care mandate where gay couples get covered for insurance and what not. I don’t think going for the whole same-sex marriage thing at once is a good approach. It just makes people too angry.
At this rate, folks like religious groups will put gay marriage bans on the ballot in every state – and it’s easy to make this a big issue that many people will vote for. But what if there was a ‘gay couples should get health benefits’ ballot initiative…I mean, that’s a real hard issue to vote against.
Craftsteak is located in the MGM Grand, and it’s a really nice location. The restaurant has a huge bar with 175 different scotches, as well as an enormous wine selection.
We went with the $60 price fix menu which included an appetizer course, entree course with sides, and dessert. A $30 wine pairing was also available but we didn’t spring for it.
The price fix menu was served family style and portioned per the number of people eating. The amount of food was close to perfect – if anything there was too much food for the two of us.
The first course included quail, a persian cucumber salad, a fennel salad and mozzarella. Both the fennel and cucumber salad had a nice yuzu citrus flavor. The cucumber salad also included watercress, and the bitterness of the watercress was a nice contrast to the yuzu.
The fennel was shaved into thin, linguine noodle-sized pieces. It had a crisp texture and a fresh flavor that also mixed well with the citrus.
Both salads complemented the charred quail, which was nicely cooked. The quail meat was juicy, although it was served a bit cold.
The mozzarella was rich, and even though I’m not a big fan of cheese it was tasty. The cheese was topped with a bell pepper salsa that, like the fennel, had a nice crunchy texture.
The main course included a flat iron steak, skirt steak and scallops. Although the cuts of steak weren’t anything special, the meat was well cooked and tender. The scallops were also a nice contrast to the steaks. All three dishes were simple, but they worked well together. It was actually a ton of food, even though the cuts of meat were not as large as Cut.
Sides included mashed potatoes, snap peas, and shiitake mushrooms. The peas were the highlight here. They were sweet and crisp and perfectly flavored.
Again though, the one fault of the main course was temperature. The steak was served warm, not hot. It seemed like they had been sitting out for a bit before being served. This kind of makes sense, given this was a multi-course price fix menu that required a lot of timing to serve, but still, temperature is kind of a fundamental thing, right?
I’m not gonna comment much on the deserts, because I only had a few bites, but TJFKAK seemed to love it. I got a scotch that the sommelier tailored to the caramel in the ice cream and cake, and that was a clear winner.
Side by side, I’d have to say I prefer Craftsteak over Cut by a slim margin. Keep in mind though that we had different types of meals at both restaurants, so it’s not really an apples to apples comparison. I feel like we got a better idea of the chef’s take on steak at Craftsteak mostly because we got to taste so many flavor combinations.
I also think I’d be more likely to return to Craftsteak than Cut. Craft had a ton of interesting menu items that we didn’t get to try, including some pretty tasty looking Japanese Kobe dishes. And one thing that’s great for scotch lovers is that Craftsteak has several scotch tasting flights, ranging from reasonable to ridiculously priced. Definitely check this one out the next time you’re in Vegas.
The reason for this Vegas trip, other than the food and gambling, was to see Elton John’s Red Piano concert. TRP took the place of Celine Dion’s concert in the Caesar’s Palace Coliseum.
We actually got a great deal on these tickets. They were part of a Harrah’s package that included two free nights at the Paris and two tickets to The Red Piano. Not only that, but this was one of the last performances of the Red Piano – I believe there are only three shows left.
Our seats were okay, but not great. We were in the second level, but at least we were just two rows back so we had a great view. Plus, the Coliseum is a small venue so any seat will be pretty good. Either way, the face value of our tickets was $300 plus, so it was a great deal either way.
I’m a fan of Elton John in a karaoke sense, but not much more than that. Like most people I know his more famous songs, but I couldn’t really name that many albums or b-sides.
Still, how can you really pass up on a concert like this?
Unlike the more elaborate shows in Vegas, TRP has a relatively simple set with a few neon signs here and there and a large screen in back of the stage. During most songs visuals are displayed on the screen.
TJFKAK commented that this can be distracting – and I’d agree. I mean, a lot of the visuals were sixties-style movies with lots of bright, psychedelic colors…and I get that. But other visuals included huge nudes and provocative music videos that, while interesting, didn’t really add a whole lot to the performance in my opinion.
One of the music videos though, starred Justin Timberlake as Elton John in a handheld camera, documentary-style video. This played during Rocketman, and it was done nicely. It did a good job of showing a backstage environment in the 80’s from a first and third person perspective. In fact, I didn’t really know it was Timberlake until TJFKAK told me. Elton also mentioned this after the song.
Another video stared Pam Anderson dancing on a pole. Again, this was one of the better videos, but it was really quite overwhelming.
Some of the videos were just bizarre. One showed a guy trying to kill himself in an oven, and eventually this evolved into a scene with the guy and a big blue bear figure skating and throwing snow on each other. It may be artsy, but I just didn’t get it.
As for Elton John himself, the guy has an amazing voice. I mean, he effortlessly hit his notes and his voice was so powerful the seats shook. I would have thought he was lip syncing, but some of the videos showed him close up.
The band that accompanied John was also a perfect complement. Sure, the piano solos were spectacular, but John did a great job of finding a band that maintains a high level of intensity while not overshadowing the piano.
One thing John didn’t do, though, was hit the high notes. I suppose this is just a byproduct of age, but it was surprising and a bit disappointing. This was clear from the first song, Bennie and the Jets – John really just replaced the high notes with lower notes. This worked out fine, but it did take a little getting used to.
The highlight of the night was near the end of the show when Elton allowed the first ten or so rows to stand next to him while he played a song (pictured below). His piano was literally surrounded by fans, which was completely unexpected and incredibly cool. I’ve seen videos of The Red Piano where fans were kept ten yards or so away from John. But at this concert the fans were just a few feet from him – so close that you couldn’t really see him play.
I mean really, how many performers would let fans get that close? Usually when fans get on stage they are immediately hauled off.
One thing I have to mention is that as the show went on, things did get a bit more…well…flamboyant. For the last few sets the stage was adorned with huge blow-up legs, among other blow up objects. Huge inflatable boobs were hung from the ceiling, as well. But the worst thing was a large banana surrounded by two cherries, which Elton went over to pat between songs. Again, all probably very artsy, but just not an artsy I get.
Either way, the concert was pretty amazing. It’s really hard not to like Elton John’s music in general, but it’s nearly impossible not to appreciate the guy singing and playing live. The atmosphere that he creates, while sometimes confusing and very gay, was exciting. If you happen to be in Vegas in the near future you should try to catch one of his few remaining shows. It’s definitely one of the better shows in Vegas, and a good change of pace from the typical acrobatics and special effects of most shows.
The set list is below. It was a great selection of songs – nearly all of his really big hits, with a few treats like a cover of The Who’s Pinball Wizard.
Bennie And The Jets Philadelphia Freedom Believe Daniel Rocket Man I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues Tiny Dancer Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me I Want Love Candle In The Wind Pinball Wizard The Bitch Is Back I’m Still Standing Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting) Your Song
This weekend TJFKAK and I went to Vegas. The theme this trip was steak, and we put two of Vegas’ finest steakhouses on the itinerary.
The first steakhouse we went to was called Cut. This is a relatively new restaurant located in the Palazzo. Actually, the Palazzo itself is pretty new – it opened only last year next to it’s parent property, the Venetian.
At cut we opted for a basic appetizer/entree meal plus a few mixed drinks and wine. We started with Kobe beef sashimi and a shrimp and lobster louie.
The sashimi was quite good. It was tender and rich, and not the least bit stringy or chewy. The texture was kind of like toro actually. The kobe was dressed with a soy ginger blend that reminded me of a korean seasoning. The sauce did overpower the flavor of the meat, really acting more like a marinade than a dressing, but still it worked well.
The shrimp and lobster louie was a complete change of pace. It was more european in seasoning and it was mixed with a rich, creamy cheese sauce. Out of the two I enjoyed the sashimi a bit more, probably because it was pretty unique, although both dishes were nice starters.
Like other vegas steakhouses, Cut has a wide selection of beef. They had two types of American beef that were aged between 15 and 25 days, if I remember correctly. They also had a Japanese Kobe beef that was way out of my price range.
In any case, I went with a rib eye and TJFKAK went with a NY. Both were dry aged for 25 days. We ordered shishito peppers and mashed potatoes as sides.
The rib eye had a nice char to it, and the temperature was on point. We also got a yuzu-butter dipping sauce that gave the steaks a nice citrus flavor. Cut also serves their steaks with a variety of mustards, but I found these to be unremarkable.
The only issue I had is that we really ended up with a lot of food. My rib eye was 16 ounces, which was a lot after the apps. In the future, I’d try the filet with an appetizer, rather than going for a big cut.
There was, unfortunately, a lot that we didn’t get to try on Cut’s menu. They had an oxtail bullion that seems like a must-try for next time. We also didn’t really get into their wine menu – I had a glass of cab, that’s it. I’d suggest that larger parties order a few bottles to get a feeling for Cut’s enormous wine selection.
Another interesting note is that we saw Annie Duke, celebrity poker player and star of the celebrity apprentice at Cut. She was actually just a couple tables down from us.
In any case, Cut was an above average steakhouse. However, in Vegas, it’d bet that Cut gets lost among the others. The Palazzo itself has three steakhouses, and I don’t think Cut stands out….not because it was a bad restaurant, but that it merely meets what has become an insanely high standard for upscale steakhouses in Vegas.
So I just stumbled upon one of the most sad, depressing but strangly interesting websites. Its called Fuck My Life where people gripe about something bad that has happened and people vote as to whether the griper shares any blame for the result. Some examples:
The San Jose Sharks were the best team in the NHL this year. They scored 117 points and won the president’s cup for the first time in team history. But tonight the Sharks were blanked by the 8th seed Anaheim Ducks at home in their playoff opener.
It’s a bad start for San Jose, who has the immense pressure this year of being favored to win the cup. Not only that, but they were shutout by rookie goaltender Jonas Hiller who was playing his first playoff game. All this season, the Sharks were shut out only twice.
To the Shark’s credit, they did hit a couple of posts and they outshot the Ducks 35 to 17. By all statistics except…well…the score, the Sharks were dominant.
It’s not uncommon for the 8th seed to take out the #1 seed in the NHL. There’s not a whole lot that differentiates 1st and last seeds. A hot goalie like Hiller can more than make up for a low-seeded team.
It’s not the end of the world for the Sharks. They dropped their first playoff game last year also, but came back to take the series.
There is a ton of pressure though for the Sharks to win game 2. Check it out at 7:30pm on Sunday the 19th.
Powered by FireStats