The Midi Fighter 3D went on sale last night at a very reasonable $249. Of course, I already have mine after winning it in a contest. People often come up to me on the street and they're like, "Hey, so what does the Midi Fighter 3D do?" Actually, that never happens. But DJTT did post a handy walkthrough video that explains the features quite well. Check it out.
Finally received the Midi Fighter 3D in the mail that I won in this contest. I was inspired to make a quick and messy unboxing video, the first unboxing video of an MF3D on the interwebz!
I'm hyperventilating over this. Every year, the National Association of Music Merchants hosts an industry conference during which music equipment manufacturers show off their latest products. There is a shit ton of awesome stuff. But perhaps none as awesome as the Moog MINITAUR.
Earlier this summer we went to see Britney Spears and Nicki Minaj in Houston. It was freaking awesome. If you can't appreciate some good pop music, seriously, loosen up a little and don't take yourself so damn seriously. America is pop music, and pop music is Britney Spears. At least for this generation. This was just pure fun and the people in the crowd were weird and crazy. Nicki Minaj was great too.
Last SXSW post for this year, I swear. Just couldn't stop laughing over this one.
Saw this display next to the cash register at the 99 Cent Only store in LA.
If you buy 99 cent condoms.... What can I say, I'm a sucker for irony!
Canadians are sometimes forced to wait for American TV shows or movies to appear north of the border. But the opposite is true for the epilogue of the long-running and totally fucking awesome Canadian comedic mockumentary TV/movie series: The Trailer Park Boys.
Countdown to Liquor Day was released in Canadian theaters last September. American fans have been waiting on edge for the US release date of the DVD, which just so happens to be THIS TUESDAY. It is available for pre-order on Amazon, but a customer service agent told me that means it will be shipped on February 23; it does not mean it would arrive on Tuesday.
Happily, the people at Best Buy are finally doing something right and stocking this thing on Tuesday. We'll be at the fucking door.
If you have not heard of The Trailer Park Boys, I urge you to give it a shot. You can buy the complete series or watch full episodes on YouTube (or find it another way). It all started in 1999, when Creator Mike Clattenberg wrote and directed a low budget mockumentary about a pair of liquor drinking, pot smoking, petty criminals and debuted in at Canada's Atlantic Film Festival.
Eleven years later, The Trailer Park Boys has spurned seven TV seasons, a couple TV specials, and two movies. It has also inspired a legion of rabidly loyal fans who obsess about the show on web forums.
If you've never seen TPB, you might think the show is based on laughing insensitively at the socioeconomically disadvantaged. And in a way I guess it is. But that's not all it is.
The characters are not one dimensional. They feel human. And they are relatable. Growing up in a small town in the mountains of western Canada, I felt like the characters on the Trailer Park Boys were an amalgam of people I actually knew, and maybe even included a part of myself. They are believable. And they have heart.
The Trailer Park Boys also boasts some great Canadian actors. Ellen Page, now famous in the US because of Juno, got an early start as a character on the show. Barrie Dunn, who plays the hard drinking cheapskate Ray on TPB, is in real life a Canadian TV producer, actor, and a practicing attorney.
One of my favorite characters is Jim Lahey, the uber-hammered manager of the Sunnyvale Trailer Park. Lahey is played by Canadian theater veteran John Dunsworth (his daughter Sarah is also on the show). Dunsworth proves his acting skills by turning a character who should be a depressing alcoholic into a hilarious clown:
But the main focus of the show is Ricky, Bubbles and Julian. They're just three friends looking to swindle enough cash to have an early retirement. And sometimes the law catches up with them.
Anyway, I could ramble on about this show forever. If you like Canadian trivia, drinking, and low brow humor, you should watch the last eleven years of The Trailer Park Boys from beginning to end. You can thank me later.
Tomorrow is Liquor Day in America.
Paula Dean's Jumbo Butter Warmer
BluBlocker Viper Wide-Angle Sunglasses "Complete surround vision"
Bumpits Hair Volumizing Leave-In Inserts
Snuggie for Kids
Revolutionary Self-Cooling Towels
Found this on the Stateman's website two minutes ago. Does it not look like that guy with a beard has a woman's midriff? Hilarious!
First there was the Tenori-On.
Then there was the Monome.
Then the Block
Then the APC40
Then the Launchpad. (And probably some other stuff in between)
I picked up one of these. It's awesome! Expect a review in the future.
Now there's the (significantly cheaper) Bliptronic 5000 LED. Obviously it's a toy but it's only $50!
I'm liking this trend!
Fuck you Jack in the Box! Fuck you for enticing me with this image every morning on my walk to work. I know it's a lie. There's no way you are offering a Big Texas Cheeseburger for only $1. It doesn't look like that picture. But every damn morning I have to walk past this delicious looking 6-foot tall lie and be tempted to break my boycott of you.
(I suffered the worst food poisoning of my life in early 2008 and it occurred after eating a questionable chicken sandwich from this very Jack in the Box. Haven't been back since.)
The sketchy looking Jack in the Box mascot whispers into my mind's ear, "It's only a dollar! What are the odds of lightning striking twice? You're not going to get sick again! Stop being paranoid."
I won't do it Jack in the Box! I've never before purposefully boycotted a restaurant for this long, let alone one so close to my work.
You will not break me with your false imagery, even if it would make an excellent contribution to my ongoing investigative series debunking food advertising. All I have to do is remember how miserable I was with food poisoning. It was so bad that a nurse had to inject an anti-nausea medication into my buttocks to make the throw up stop.
I just hope this "Limited Time Only" come to an end soon, so this Jack in the Box can go back to advertising its Denver Breakfast Bowls or something else lame.
Besides having a mildly racist name, Smart Ones Chicken Oriental offers "juicy white meat chicken in a savory Oriental sauce with vegetables and rice." I bought this frozen meal because it cost only $1.80, but it tastes just as cheap. The flavor is kind of a one note, and the chicken tastes like, well, chicken that has been frozen, cooked, frozen again, then microwaved.
But it's low in calories (230) and contains enough sodium (640 mg) to keep you powering through the eating process. I spent less than two dollars on this meal and I won't have have to eat for at least three hours. Sounds like a win win to me!
I also think Smart Ones' motto could use some work, "Taste so good, you want to be good." What?
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Growing up in Canada, I was always led to believe that Labatt Blue was a product unavailable outside our home and native land. The main reason for this belief was a Labatt Blue commercial that aired when I was a teenager. I couldn't find it on YouTube, but here's the gist of it:
It's a blazing hot summer day at the Canada-US border. Cars are slowly creeping south through US customs. A 20-something slacker dude is sitting in his front lawn, which somehow happens to be right in front of this huge line of cars. People are sweating their asses off, and he reaches into an ice chest and pulls out a Labatt Blue, glistening with moisture droplets. He cracks it open and takes a huge swig. Ahhh... You can almost taste how refreshing it is through the TV set. He looks smugly at the jealous fat Americans heading back to the United States. Then a voiceover comes in and says, "Labatt Blue, only available in Canada," or something like that.
It was wish-fulfillment for Canadians. They are bombarded with American culture day and night. But most often, they can only witness it. They don't "own" the culture or participate in it in. This commercial was a big Fuck You to America. And it must have worked, because Molson adopted a similar, but more annoying, I Am Canadian commercial a few years later. Those ads turned a generic looking guy named Joe Canadian into a minor celebrity, and earned an even greater place in the Canadian psyche. But I still remember that damn Labatt Blue commercial. Finally, we had this awesome beer to be proud of that they couldn't get their hands on unless they came north of the 49th.
Turns out, it is all a crock of shit.-729817.jpg)
In the above picture, you can see the bottle, purchased at an American liquor store in Austin, Texas was clearly imported. I've got to give them credit for actually brewing it in Canada, even if it was at some factory in Toronto. The label could very well have read, "Brewed in Milwaukee, WI."
But really, how "Canadian" is Labatt? It was bought by Belgian brewer Interbrew in 1995, and the company is now called Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Who cares. Labatt's cultural value remains in tact. When I'm down here in Texas and I crack open a long necked cold one with the proud Blue label, I feel like I could be in any of the Canadian locations depicted in these hilarious Labatt commercials from 1987. Cheers!
Because I can't get enough of this, here's my lunch: -766436.jpg)
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Not the worst transgressor I've ever seen, but still quite a disparity between the promise made and the promise kept.
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While at Dollarama in Vancouver, we came across these hilarious Egyptian imitations of popular American cereals. It's almost a mix-and-match of mascots and products. The toucan is with the frosted corn flakes instead of with the fruit loops. The feline (I think it's a feline), who should be with the frosted flakes, is with the puffed corn balls. And the puffed corn balls should be with the Trix rabbit, but his doppleganger is paired up with the puffed rice cereal. I have no idea where that sad looking "dinosaur" came from.
