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Happy NATIONAL DONUT DAY...Mmmm...Doughnuts

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Today is National Donut Day which means various doughnut companies around the county (like Dunkin' Donuts, Krispy Kreme and even some of your local bakeries- if they participate) will be giving away delicious morsels of fried dough covered in glazes and frosting to consumers who don't give a damn about frakking calories.


In other words it's the world's single greatest food-related holiday. So perhaps this might be a good day to round up a bunch of your friends, nominate a designated driver and hit up your town's and/or surrounding towns' doughnut offerings.

It may not be as sophisticated as doing a wine tour, but at least there's more sprinkles.




WTF FRIDAY (THE MUSIC EDITION): The Freshest Drum Cover In the World

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The thing I love the most about writing for the end of the week is how little thought I give to it. By the time most people read my posts on a Friday, they are already thinking about their awesome weekend plans and have very little patience for some deep and calculating "Upworthy"-type of article that will ultimately make them feel bad about being alive.

Which brings me to this particular post. It will not cause you any uncomfortable 1st World Problem guilt, nor will it force you to engage in any kind of political arguments online. The only thing it will do is kill a few minutes in your Friday workday...which should be looked as a gift from the procrastination gods...and make you feel happy at its simplistic stupidity.

 So here's The Freshest Drum Cover In the World (which, surprisingly does not contain the drum-heavy songs Moby Dick by Led Zeppelin, Hot for Teacher by Van Halen or My Generation by The Who).

Happy Friday!

Video after the break.

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The Classic Rocker: THESE BOOTS Are Made For Rockin'

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I bought a pair of outdoor boots in 1971.

Actually, my parents bought the boots - I just shopped for them.

It was a northern Midwest winter and I was a teenager in high school. They cost $60 which was approximately the cost of a used car at the time and considered big bucks.

To put it into perspective…

Only five years before I saw The Beatles in concert and paid $5.50 for the highest priced ticket.

Actually, my parents bought the ticket - I just used it. But a lot of kids I knew didn't go because $5.50 in 1966 seemed like $60 in 1971. If I had to spend my own hard-earned bucks as a thirteen year old Beatlemaniac, I would've probably had to settle for a ticket costing $3 - which they had.

In an era when most kids were still wearing buckle-up rubber galoshes over their shoes for wet weather wear, a $60 pair of outdoor boots for a teenager was a major expenditure.


There was no other place to wear them since they didn't look as cool as Dingo Boots, light enough for a school dance, or a decent substitute for dress shoes when a relative got married or croaked (sometimes the same thing). If you weren't clearing out a swamp for a future Duck Dynasty clan, digging a ditch or laying a highway, that was a lot of money to spend on boots. I didn’t even make enough to pay them back by shoveling driveways that winter since the going pay rate for that competitive job was a dollar per.

One neighbor even paid me fifty cents for my snowbound shoveling skills. If I'd only had the foresight to start my own company, I could've been the guy famously known as 50 Cent. But that's hindsight, which is the direction I'm booting this discussion in.

A lot has changed since 1971. Then again, a lot hasn't. The Rolling Stones are still on tour, Michael Jackson just performed at the Billboard Music Awards, and today I wore the same boots to mow the lawn. Yeah, they still aren't as cool as the Dingo Boots O.J. Simpson advertised in the 70's, but at least mine are free to walk around in the public eye.


As a tribute to my boots, shoes in general, and the people who love'em and save'em, I kicked open the vinyl archives to dig around for some Leather Soul music, as opposed to Rubber Soul. After brushing away the dirt and grass (of the mowing type and not the rolling type) I morphed into our favorite shoe store salesman Al Bundy, and searched the "footwear" category.

What…? You don't have that category in your record collection? Get with the times… the decade… or whatever half century we're in now.

Without worrying about sizes, shapes and styles, since my tastes have been known to stagnate, I pulled out a few songs that made the best fashion statement about footwear. With a runner-up nod to George Harrison and The Beatles for Old Brown Shoe, and also as a thank you for the best price my parents ever paid for a concert ticket, here are…

The Top Three Classic Rock Songs About Shoes

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I Have a Bad Feeling About This: Carth Onassi and The Knights of The Old Republic

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Back in the day, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic taught me two things; 1. How a video game could rival a movie in both presentation and story and, most importantly, 2. That I could hate a video game character more than I’ve ever hated any other character in any other medium.

Ever.

I picked up Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic because more than one trusted friend swore that it wasn’t just a solid Star Wars game, but a solid Star Wars story. One friend was even saying the story rivaled anything put to screen, including the entries from the original, Blessed Trilogy.

When someone you trust gives that kind of endorsement to a game, how can you not pick the damn thing up?

I fell in love almost immediately.

My friend was right. It was clear from the start that this Star Wars game was something special and it was mostly because of the story. Understand, this was a time when Star Wars fans were still reeling from the disappointment that was the prequels. We’d spent so long wanting new Star Warsstories that made us feel the way the original trilogy did, and the prequels failed in every way possible.

But Knights of the Old Republic?

It was everything so many of us had been starved for and much, much more.

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LET'S GO TO THE MOVIES: The Pee-Wee Herman Show From 1981

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Before Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, before Pee-Wee's Playhouse, there was The Pee-Wee Herman Show, a staged comedy spectacular (starring Paul Ruebens and his Groundlings cohort Phil Hartman) which managed to cram as much darkly subversive humor into it's one hour running time than you would think was humanly possible.

In fact, it was so weird and freaky that it helped launch Ruebens' career into the stratosphere where he would go on to create content that would endlessly confuse parents while simultaneously enthralling kids and people on drugs.

And, although we all know what happened to Pee-Wee after the man-boy discovered self-abuse at a porn theater, it's sad to think that there are kids today who will never know the thrill of sucking down a bowl of Sugar Smacks while a grown-ass adult talks to chairs.

 So watch where all the awesomeness began some thirty-three years ago after the break...it'll bring back memories.

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Win KILL ZOMBIE on Blu-ray!

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A Russian Space station crashes in Amsterdam, releasing a deadly virus that turns everyday citizens into flesh-craving psychopaths. Aziz (Yahya Gaier), his brother Mo (Ouled Radi) and several strangers emerge from jail, oblivious to the mayhem until they team up with a local police officer (Gigi Ravelli). After receiving a desperate call for help, this unlikely band of heroes sets out on an insane rescue mission - and it's going to take a seriously crazy plan if they want to get out alive...


And we're giving away three copies!

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MUSIC VIDEO MONDAY: Treat Me Like Dirt- Patti Rothberg

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In 1996 I was 22 and living life to the fullest. I had the typical McJob that paid my part of the rent that I split with 4 other people, I wrote completely narcissistic poetry that would end up in various 'zines around the Houston area, I spent Thursday-Saturday drinking, doing fabulous drugs and dancing to early-to-mid-80s dance music like Warm Leatherette by The Normal, and not once did I ever test positive for a sexually transmitted disease.

All-in-all it was a pretty good decade for me.

Of course, my love life was in shambles due to the fact that I had no real idea what a relationship consisted of (my train of thought went something like "How Do I Know He Likes Me If He Doesn't Make Me Cry"). Between the long list of dudes who always disappointed me and the feeling that I was missing something important about this whole "Love" thing, I was pretty sure I would die alone, eaten by a horde of cats by the age of 40.

 But then I was gifted a copy of Patti Rothberg's debut album, Between the 1 and the 9, which featured a plethora of songs written by a woman who seemed to understand the dark longing for love that was known to dwell inside the heart of a third-wave feminist (a weirdly pessimistic feeling that was usually controlled by attending Bikini Kill or Babes in Toyland concerts).

Of all the songs that were on permanent rotation on my CD player, it was her deeply sardonic song Treat Me Like Dirt that seemed to speak to my soul. With lyrics like: You stay away from me/Because you know I'm good for you/And you are masochistic too/The reason I want you so much/Is 'cause I know you're no good for me/So together we are perfect, dont'cha see? It felt that Rothberg tapped into a generational dating malaise that was not only affecting me but those of more than a few of my friends, as judged by how often this album was passed around.

Whatever it was that made us feel conflicted about love and being in love (and usually with the wrong person) it was this album that perfectly articulated it at that time.

After the break is the video for Treat Me Like Dirt but I highly suggest you take a listen to the rest of the album as well, you might be surprised by how intensely specific it is to your life.

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Sh*t Showreels Say: Yup, Even Animation Has Some Tropes To Bitch About

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Following in the Shit____Says trend (that I thought had died a nice quiet death last year) comes a short animated piece about the always present offerings that show up in tons of showreels for the animation crowd.

While I am not an animator and spend very little time looking at showreels, my husband is so, naturally, I showed him this video by Peter Quin, prefacing it by quoting Quinn's decision to make the short (my husband gets very testing if someone says anything derogatory about his profession):
I love showreels, and make sure to watch a few every morning with my first coffee. Noticing my own reel was insanely out-of-date got me thinking about reels in general. Here are a few of the obvious 2D and 3D showreel tropes I could think of (and am guilty of, too) mashed together into one almighty anti-showreel!
Upon my husband's viewing of the short he said, and I quote, "Yeah, that's about right".

So there.

Video after the break. (note: My hubby is going back and fixing his own reel, just so as not to be a cliche)

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Please Stop Giving Everything Away In Your Movie Trailers Hollywood...Dumb F*cks

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These days, going to the movies means seeing a film that you didn't pay to see right before the movie you did pay to see begins. Seriously Hollywood, there is absolutely no reason for me to plunk down $11 for the privileged of sitting through an entire movie that I already saw the cliff-notes version of in the trailer.

You want to know what movie trailers are supposed to do? They are supposed to entice you, seduce you, make you crazy to find out what happens in a movie, not hand over all the best parts leaving the foaming crap that's left be what we pay to see.

Take the following trailer for Alien (1979):


Were there any catchphrases? Was there any hip song playing in the background? Did we actually see ANY of the best parts? No. What you did see was enough stuff to know that you were probably going to be scared shitless for a couple of hours and you were excited for it.

But Alien coming out today?

You would have already found out who all the characters were, the major plot points and seen the chest burster in the two minutes allotted.

 But it's not just me getting pissed about the trailers being shown in theaters nowadays, even Glove and Boots are royally peeved.

So check out their plea to Hollywood to stop giving everything away.

Otherwise, we might as well wait for the DVD to come out for every movie made today.

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Amazon's Luster is Tarnished, Game of Thrones Goes For Eight, Habitual Reading & More!

The Pull List: BALTIMORE V. 4, INTERESTING DRUG, and BATMAN & ROBIN V. 4

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graph·ic nov·el
noun 
1.  a novel in comic-strip format.
I read them all.  The good and the bad, so you don't have to.

Welcome to The Pull List.

And, as always...Spoilers ahead!


Baltimore Volume 4: Chapel of Bones
Writer: Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden
Artist: Ben Stenbeck
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $24.99
Release Date: June 11, 2014


In some small way, I hate telling people how good the Baltimore series of comic are.

The quality of visual and literary storytelling is something that needs to be experienced in order to fully appreciate it.

Chapel of Bones brings the Lord Baltimore character full circle, and then immediately gives him a new purpose with a chilling catch that even the vampire hunter didn’t see coming.

Mike Mignola is at his finest here and creates tension that builds with each turn of the page.

Normally, Baltimore is a vintage badass that won’t be denied. This time, the odds are stacked against him in a manner in which you doubt the titular characters finality. Ben Stenbeck’s illustrations truly gives this book and look and feel of a horror story with dark gray tones, smooth visuals and great detail in every panel.

Vengeance is ultimately the catalyst for everything that occurs in this universe created by Mignola and Golden. It’s a gloomy moral to a ghastly tale that Baltimore can’t escape. As much as I want him to find closure, doing do would mean one less amazing comic book to read.

Score: 10/10


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Hasslein Books Releases New DOCTOR WHO Reference Guide

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The company's first unauthorized Doctor Who book, written by
Matthew J Elliott  with a foreword by Alan Barnes, is now available for order

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Boston Cinegeeks, We've Got Tickets For 'JERSEY BOYS' Directed by Clint Eastwood!

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From director Clint Eastwood comes the big-screen version of the Tony Award-winning musical “Jersey Boys.”

The film tells the story of four young men from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who came together to form the iconic 1960s rock group The Four Seasons. The story of their trials and triumphs are accompanied by the songs that influenced a generation, including “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Dawn,” “Rag Doll,” “Bye Bye Baby,” “Who Loves You,” and many more.

These classic hits are now being embraced by a new generation of fans through the stage musical, which has been running on Broadway for more than eight years and has also enjoyed successful tours around the globe.

Starring in the film, John Lloyd Young reprises his Tony Award-winning portrayal of the legendary lead singer of The Four Seasons, Frankie Valli. Erich Bergen stars as Bob Gaudio, who wrote or co-wrote all of the group’s biggest hits. Michael Lomenda and Vincent Piazza star respectively as Nick Massi and Tommy DeVito, two original members of The Four Seasons. Oscar® winner Christopher Walken (“The Deer Hunter”) stars as mobster Gyp DeCarlo.

Oscar® winner Eastwood (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Unforgiven”) directed “Jersey Boys” from a screenplay and musical book by Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice, song music by Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe. The film is produced by Eastwood, Graham King and Robert Lorenz, with Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tim Moore, Tim Headington, James Packer and Brett Ratner serving as executive producers.

The behind-the-scenes creative team was led by Academy Award®-nominated director of photography Tom Stern (“Changeling”); Academy Award®-nominated production designer James J. Murakami, (“Changeling”); Oscar®-winning editor Joel Cox (“Unforgiven”) and editor Gary D. Roach; and costume designer Deborah Hopper.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents a GK Films Production, a Malpaso Production, “Jersey Boys.” Opening nationwide on June 20, 2014, the film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

For your chance to attend the JERSEY BOYS screening on Tuesday, June 17, at 7pm at the AMC Boston Common, go to www.gofobo.com/RSVP and enter the code FOGBSHW.


So Who, Exactly, Plays Online Bingo?

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photo by Alli Worthington

We already know that online bingo is geekishly very popular. But do we know just how many people play the game – and who these people are in terms of their socio-demographic profile?

Well – yes we do, to a certain extent anyway, but the numbers and profiles are shifting all the time – particularly with the explosion in the use of tablets and other mobile devices.

The UK has one of the most developed and best-analysed online bingo markets in the world. Just six years ago, market research by Mintel showed that approximately 50,000 people were playing online bingo regularly in the country. Today, the equivalent figure is over three million. So there’s been a huge surge in demand for online bingo – a fact not lost on the major providers who jockey continually for position with ever-more creative advertising and, of course, ever-more generous introductory bonuses, free games, and myriad other promotions to lure punters in to get their “eyes down”.

One of the most successful sites in this regard of late has been Winner Bingo. The bingo bonus at Winner Bingo amounts to a hugely generous £40 free for new players depositing an initial £10. Then there are ongoing promotions with different games more or less daily – along with loyalty bonuses for players staying with the site. This kind of promotion is replicated throughout the industry – though it has to be said - not usually quite as generously as this. 

In short - the competition is fierce.    

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Win an Autographed Poster And The Soundtrack From THE SIGNAL!

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Three college students on a road trip across the Southwest experience a detour: the tracking of a computer genius who has already hacked into MIT and exposed security faults. The trio find themselves drawn to an isolated area. Suddenly everything goes dark. When one of the students, Nic (Brenton Thwaites of The Giver and Maleficent), regains consciousness, he is in a waking nightmare…

The Signal arrives in theaters this Friday, June 13th and to celebrate it's release, four lucky winners will receive a poster signed by the film’s cast (Brenton Thwaites, Olivia Cooke, Beau Knapp, Lin Shaye and Laurence Fishburne) and writer/director Will Eubank as well as a copy of the film's original soundtrack!

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Enjoy TURKISH SUPERMAN In 'Super-Duper Man' By Toy-Box

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For all the weirdness that comes with foreign-interpretations of American superheroes, this music video by the Danish pop group Toy-Box is still a hundred times better than the re-boot of the Superman character in Man of Steel.

That may seem hash to say, but whatever, that movie totally pissed me off...like Superman would be okay with demolishing an entire city during a fight...right.

Music video after the break.

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'Tosh.O: Collas Plus Exposed Arms' Blu-ray/DVD out on June 17

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Collas and Exposed Arms is 21 episodes of comedic hysterics. It’s double the wardrobes and double the laughs.

This 2 disc set include the first delves into all aspects of the Internet, featuring razor sharp humor and biting commentary from comedian Daniel Tosh. From the absolutely absurd to the incredibly ingenious, the series features viral clips, sketches, and "Web Redemptions" which give subjects of infamous viral videos a second chance to redeem themselves from the embarrassment with which they've become synonymous. It’s cable TV's most trusted source for exhibitionist weirdos, injurious idiots and all things Web.


Bonus features include:
  • Extended Redemption Interviews
  • The Uncut Tiptoes Spoiler

Here's a recent clip of Tosh commenting on the Donald Sterling situation.


STEPHEN KING Sleeps With the Lights On...Well, At Least Back In 1982 When This Interview Took Place

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This might just be one of Stephen King's first television interviews, and no, it wasn't with some notable morning news program like the Today Show or Good Morning America. It was for the University of Maine, Orono's video magazine (his Alma mater) and it totally showed up any and all of his former classmates (which, let's face it, is exactly what you hope to do once you graduate).

Sure, the interview is all about fear, writing horror and generally living with an internal creepiness that helped to create horror classics like Carrie, It, The Stand and my personal favorite, Cycle of the Werewolf, but let's not forget what the ultimate goal of this program is...shoving it up the ass of any person (classmate or professor) who said he wasn't good enough to be published in the first place.

So yeah, King might admit to sleeping with the lights on back in 1982 when he was just really getting started in his career, but I don't think it was done out of fear, I think the lights were kept on for one reason only...to see the piles of money he kept in his bedroom.

Because I would have done the same thing.

Interview after the break.

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Blood Widow (review)

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Review by Dean Galanis
I adore horror movies. I tend to get looks from many people (mostly family members) when they’re reminded of how much I DO love horror.

It’s interesting, because many of these folks tend to speak to me about horror with a tone that suggests “that’s kid stuff. Why would someone your age watch/read/give the time of day to that crap.”

Of course, these same people tend to like the most contrived, infantile, generic romantic comedies they can get their hands on.

I would concede, however, that these two genres – romantic comedy and horror – tend to encompass maybe the worst percentage of bad to good films of any genre.

For every WHEN HARRY MET SALLY or THE SHINING there are a thousand THE UGLY TRUTH’s or HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION’s.

But I’m always on the lookout for a good little horror gem.

I sat down to watch BLOOD WIDOW with guardedly high hopes.

It received some reviews along the lines of “if you like slasher films, you could do far worse than this one”. Fine with me.  I ain’t expecting the world, but I’m up for a cool little slasher flick.

My hopes were dashed in the opening scene.

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The Yogibo, A Bean Bag Chair Specifically Created For Your Lazy Ass

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Back when I was younger and lived off of pizza, cheap champagne and playing Mario Kart for the N64 for twelve straight hours, I often found myself engulfed in the perfect comfort of a smelly used bean bag chair that had obviously been around since the 70s.

Oh it was glorious, let me tell you.

Not only did I do all my gaming and television watching in it, often I would be found by my former roommates asleep in it's toxic comfort and probably contracting some lethal disease from the fumes released by the petroleum-based beads slowly decomposing within its vinyl casing.

Alas, I grew up and accepted the fact that a real adult would forgo the bean bag chair for a matching couch and Lazyboy recliner.

But now, at 40, and suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, I long for those days of puffy, body-conforming bags of beans that led me down a comfy road of happiness, and thanks to a magical creation called the Yogibo, I can return to them without worrying that I am adding incurable cancer to my list of maladies.


For these bags will not only conform to your lazy ass, they can become whatever you need them to be (unlike the people in your life). You want a comfortable chair that hugs your butt for hours as you play video games? Here it is. You want a recliner in which to read the entire catalog of Christopher Moore books? No problem. You want to throw children across the room into a giant pillow where they won't suffer a severed spine? Well, you can do that but Yogibo cannot be held responsible for what occurs.

Yep, this bag is that awesome...But wait! There's more! Yogibo also has pillows, bags for the outdoors, a swing(?), bags that can fit two or more people (hello bean bag orgy), even beds for your dog.

So, if you have been looking for something super comfortable that can adapt to your laziness, search no more. Go and buy yourself a Yogibo chair and feel what it's like to be so happy that you never want to stand upright ever again.
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