BACON!

Barbecued Alaska – washingtonpost.com

In a move that’s sure to get you scratching your head, an Ice Cram Parlour in Alaska has a bit of a creative side with one of the owners. Mixing up unique flavours is nothing new to most Ice Creameries but this one takes the cake. Or should I say grill?

Linus licks the bacon ice cream. “Not bad,” she says. But she’s not big on the frozen bits of bacon. McDonough thinks it tastes a little like butter pecan and kind of likes it.

Wait…butter pecan? frozen bacon pieces? I mean…wait..what? ugh.

You Must Remember This

Winona Finally Talks About Shoplifting Incident – Yahoo!

Hey! remember Winona? You know….Winona? She was in some movies…a while back..Heathers? Uh…Girl, Interrupted? you know….the brunette one. No? Remember the chick who got busted stealing shit from Sak’s? yeah no? Sure you do, because she’s here to remind you!

Winona Ryder, after years of obscurity silence, opens up about that whole shoplifting thing she did in 2001 that FOX News wouldn’t shut up about. Now that your memory is refreshed right up, she can go on to tell you that it wasn’t her fault, merely the underpants gnomes drugs were telling her what to do.

But, never fear! Drugs are bad mmmkay? She stopped taking Oxy and is all right now and is really sorry that she was that desperate for attention. Although from the looks of things, she’s still pretty desperate for attention that she’s talking about stuff that happened almost six years ago.

In the spirit of Winona Ryder and no longer famous – Primus!

A Sickly Green Descends Over The Screen

Fifth “Shrek” May Be The Last – LATimes.com

Just when you thought that the disappointing third installment was the last one, here comes another one. No wait, another two. Coming out of the “no new ideas” folder is word from DreamWorks that the fifth installment “may be the last”. What worries me is that there is definitely going to be a fourth one and that the fifth one “may” be the last. Also meaning that it may also “not be” the last.

Shrek The Third is said to have raked in almost $80 Million dollars worldwide as nothing but profit. Nothing encourages more of the sameness than stupidly high amounts of profit. Sure, not nearly as much as part I or II, but enough to as they put it:

The story itself has five chapters,” Sullivan said. “Based on the success of the first three films, at the very least, the next one, ‘Shrek 4,’ is warranted.”

Hide while you can. There’s more of this crap on the horizon.

Meme Monday: Ya Rly

Popularity: Medium.

Context: Son of the meme is the Chain Meme. A Chain meme is when a single meme post will spurr on a whole bunch more of connected meme posts. The most popular of these is the O RLY, YA RLY, NO WAI! set of meme chain. Once a context of O RLY is made and O RLY is used, the next logical meme is to post a YA RLY. YA RLY can also be used on it’s own as an answer to a question of ambiguity. Is this true? YA RLY.

From: O RLY?

Example:

Definition: Yes, really – that is so.

Silverchair – Straight Lines

 

You Can’t Hide When You’re Yellow.

Fox Keeps A Lid On “Simpsons Movie” – LATimes.com

As we should all be well aware by now, the Simpsons Movie is almost vomiting upon our screens. Whilst the trailers would like us to believe that this is that snappy, witty and wise Simpsons of the earier years any realist will know that the show has slipped in the last 5 years. That the movie could never be as great as if they had released it at the peak of the popularity of the show.

Now this comes out – that they are not doing any critic screenings until 3 days before the release (27/7/07). The official word from Fox was that they didn’t want to spoil the “plot” or have the movie scooped by internet blogging sites. But just a quick read of the article and even blind freddy can see that there is a little misdirection going on here.

“Anybody who’s needed to see the film has already seen it,” said the spokeswoman, who asked that her name not be used. “We’re not concerned about audience response to the film. The audience response has been overwhelming.”

Or to put it in English: “Only Matt Groening, Rupert Murdoch and the usher have seen it. We don’t care what you think, millions of idiots will pay to see it regardless of how crap it is”

This is actually a fairly common marketing ploy among movie makers when they are worried that their movie isn’t quite up to par, yet they have spent a lot of money buzzing it and making people excited about it. They want to earn as much money as they can before the negative reviews come in and quash the film (Fantastic Four, anyone?)

If the film was any good they’d have no qualms about a pre-release screening for the critics because the critics with their positive opinions could sway the so-so public into going to see the movie, thus making more money for Fox. The die hards will go no matter how bad it is.

It’s sad to say that the Simpsons should have kicked it years ago but it’s honest. There will always be a place for main stream animation, but just not the Simpsons. Not anymore.

Nerds Everywhere Start Salivating

E3 2007 Coverage – Yahoo!

Well E3 is finally here which means that we get to see all the previews for upcoming games and systems that we’ve already been lambasting for the past six months. Three giants take the stage and show off their bling to cash-heavy nerds and guys dressed like Link. This is E3, this is the where games like Diablo III get unveiled (we can all dream) or Duke Nukem Forever get shown (lolz) and we get a hands on with StarCraft II (yes!)

This is also where we get the latest console buzz, the price drops (on PSP and XBox360) the new designs (PSP) and the upcoming releases that include:

• Guitar Hero III
• Halo III
• Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
• Gran Turismo 5

My only wish is that I could have been there to g33k out on all the goodies. That I could have seen with my eyes how the PS3 can actually perform and how the Wii is going to extend it’s market to women. This year’s E3 is sounding like a real awesome one, check out the link for videos and stories from the YVG guys.

Life Immitates Art…At A Price

Dubai Luxury – Submarines For The Super-Rich

Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen recently paid a reported $12 Million dollars for a fully functioning 12.2 Meter Yellow Submarine. Yes, that’s right – a Yellow Submarine.

 It’s obvious that Allen is a, er, minor Beatles fan and this just goes to show that a fool and his money are soon parted. Surely there’s not a better way to spend $12 million dollars than on something this stupid? Sure it’s his money and he can do what he likes with it, but whilst he is cavorting in that Octopus’ garden I hope he gets the bends because this is just a stupidly selfish purchase.

Mot enough attention can be given to the Gates’ Foundation but crap like this needs to be lambasted for the selfish greed it is.

The Tao Of Shopping

Preaching the anti-shopping gospel – latimes.com

I wonder how many people actually get the irony of Rev. Billy? Using the consumer culture against itself. Turning the mass market of televangelism into a way to expose the putrid masters of push..

[…]Rev. Billy has spent much of the last decade parading through the streets of Manhattan, shouting through a megaphone messages such as: “Mickey Mouse is the anti-Christ!”

Accompanied by a robed choir belting out gospel songs, the Rev. Billy condemns the “Disneyfication” of Times Square and warns that Wal-Mart is part of the “consumer axis of evil.”

The Rev. advocated the re-empowerment of the people and choice. To turn our back on big-box retailers and their small town crushing ways. Given choice and the power to move beyond the big-business retailers.

Still, I would like to know what Rev. Billy would say to those that can only afford to do their shopping at these retailers. I’d honestly like to stick it to Wal-Mart but with the purchasing muscle that the corporation versus the prices offered by smaller outfits I can’t pay the prices to shop other places sometimes.

“Don’t go shopping in a big-box store if you can help it,” he said. “Don’t go to a chain store if you can help it. Those are sweatshop products. Those are union-busting companies.”

Yes! I couldn’t agree more with these sentiments. I think that the union in America needs to be empowered again. To carry some real clout and to influence politics on the left. The little guys for the little guys. But it twists that we all can’t move beyond these retailers because of our class status.

So where do people like us go? People without the material worth to shop elsewhere at all? It feels like these places have people like us in a stranglehold. So…where do we go?

Meme Monday: O Rly?

Popularity: High

Context: To be used when something of a highly dubious nature is stated in a post. Or can also be used when something contradictory is posted. It is also rarely used when a thread gets too wordy to interject a small notion of stupidity. Though originally just a text meme it has forever become synonymous with a certain snowy owl with it’s head cocked to one side.

From: The phrase “o rly?” was used on the Something Awful Forums at least as early as August 2003. The original “O RLY?” Snowy Owl image macro is based on a photo taken by nature photographer John White, which he posted to the newsgroup alt.binaries.pictures.animals in 2001. (wiki)

Example:

 Definition: Shorthand for Oh, Really? as in “Oh, really? I didn’t know that”