Scarlett Johanssen breaks my heart…

I know she’s been engaged to actor Ryan Reynolds for a while now — and I am kinda married and everything, so I totally shouldn’t care — but I was still sad/surprised to hear that one of our favorite actresses, Scarlett “Scarjo” Johanssen got secretly hitched this weekend in Canada. Just kidding about the sad part…um, kinda.

Seriously though, secretly doing anything in this TMZ world is a big deal, so, kudos on hiding that shit from the media, Scarjo! And congrats on marrying Reynolds too. The dude has done some really good stuff in some really bad movies, but Christine and I still totally dig him. So, rock on, happy couple!

And live it up while you can, amigos, cause you just know my girl Alanis (Reynold’s jilted ex-fiancée) is in a dark room somewhere totally writing a mean-ass song about you guys…

“Wicked” at the Hollywood Pantages

Although Christine and I saw the Tony-award-winning musical “Wicked” a couple weeks back, am finally just now getting around to blogging about it. But please don’t take the delay as a lack of enthusiasm, because this show rocked our world…HARD!

Not only are the songs great and totally catchy, but the story itself is really, really cool and after seeing the show in person at the Pantages, I gotta tell ya, “Wicked” is well on its way to being one of my favorite Broadway shows ever.

Don’t believe me? Just ask Christine how many times I’ve played the rocking soundtrack while cleaning the kitchen…let’s just say she knows all the songs by heart now too. Ha!

I don’t know if it’s the fact that the book of the musical was written by one of my favorite screenwriters, Winnie “My So-Called Life” Holzman, or the fact that it deals with such deep, socio-political issues in such a frothy, lighthearted way, but “Wicked” is way deeper and darker than it need be. And if you ask me, that is totally a good thing!

Loosely based on the best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire, the musical version of “Wicked” is, on the surface, the story of what went down with the “The WIzard of Oz” witches Glinda and Elphaba (aka The Wicked Witch of the West) before Dorothy arrived on the scene. But deep down, the show is about how difficult it is to be different, and the price one pays for daring to stand up for something you believe in, in a society where it’s much easier to simply blend.

I know…deep, huh? I told you! If you’ve seen the classic movie (and, well…who hasn’t?) you know that the so-called Wizard of Oz is a fraud. One of my favorite things about this show is that when Elphaba learns this and threatens to expose the phony Wizard to all of Oz, she is quickly branded “wicked” by the powers that be and banished to a life in the shadows.

Hmm…you might almost say Elphaba is being “unpatriotic” by speaking up and, like some of her modern-day American contemporaries, she pays a stiff price for her views. Hell, there is even a song dealing with the fickle nature of history and how it is essentially written, and often re-written, by the victors. Really interesting stuff any way you look at it.

And when you couple all that depth of content with some seriously kick-ass songs by Stephen Schwartz — the first act closing number “Defying Gravity” will leave you breathless! — and those dazzling sets and costumes, this is a show for the ages, amigos. Even my brother, who generally loathes musicals, loved it.

But “Wicked” is leaving L.A. in January, so, if you live in town, check it out while you can at the Pantages. I mean, shit, even if you don’t like the show, you gotta love that theatre. Just looking up at all those cool green lights outside the facade…wow, it’s like the freaking Emerald City, baby! Awesome!!

Oh yeah, and despite what you read in the paper or online there are TONS of cheap seats available for all shows. We got $100 rear orchestra seats for $50 at Goldstar.com and if you buy you tickets in person at the Pantages box office, they’re even cheaper. Ryan and Laura paid $32.50 a seat the day of the show with not a handling fee in sight! Yee-haw!

Go, “Wicked”!

Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP.com

OK, I ain’t trying to hate on Gwyneth Paltrow or anything, because, unlike a lot of bloggers out there, we love us some Gwynnie. She’s cute, crafty, a pretty decent actress, an even better talk show guest, and her new PBS series with chef Mario Batali: “Spain…On The Road Again” looks awesome! It’s actually been winking at us all week from our Tivo…we’ll let you know it is.

But despite all the things we dig about Gwyneth, we — or maybe it’s just I — cannot get behind her recent jump into the already-crowded lifestyle guru business. That’s right, amigos, Gwyneth launched a lifestyle website this week, and though I’m down with anyone joining the blogosphere, I gotta say, her site is, well…kinda laughable.

First off, the name: GOOP.com. Huh? Weird. Secondly, she has virtually no content anywhere on the site save for the one really cloying, actressy “mission statement” pictured above. And “Nourish the inner aspect”…? What does that even mean? Urgh, kill me already.

Admittedly, the site just launched this week in “preview” form, so maybe GP’s cooking up some seriously def blog posts, but why launch a website with nothing on it? Lame. However, my biggest beef with Gwynnie’s new site is that she totally stole my concept. Seriously! As you can see above, GOOP is organized by categories labeled: “Make”, “Go”, “Get”, “Do”, “Be” and “See”. Jeepers, all she left out was the “Eat”. Might as well take that one too, you old blog-idea-stealer!

I’m not too worried though, if the steady barrage of online Paltrow bashing continues, GOOP will probably die a pretty quick and painless death. And though I don’t agree with much of what has been written about poor Gwynnie, I have to say the best quote I read about her misguided adventures in blogging appeared in an article by Maria Russo in this week’s L.A. Times.

“That brings us back to the life-advice-from-a-star issue. Women are unlikely to line up to hear Paltrow explain how she has perfected the art of living. It’s a tricky line you have to walk, if you want to advise the fair sex. You really ought to have suffered some sort of great hardship and loss. It also helps if you struggle ceaselessly with your weight, and it’s a bonus if your domestic arrangements are on the freakish side. As evidence, I offer this list of successful, beloved female advice purveyors: Oprah. Martha. Suze. Rosie. Tyra.”

Ha, I couldn’t have said it better. So, my advice to Gwynnie is to fatten up, go gay or serve some time and then we’ll talk, or you know…listen. And in the meantime, give me back my blog concept, flaca!

RIP WaMu…Hello Kitty!

Man, all the craziness this week on Wall Street is really freaking us out. I mean, we don’t own a home or anything, but, wow, when we heard that our longtime bank of choice, WaMu, imploded last night in what experts are calling the largest bank failure in U.S. History, well, hell…that shit is a little too close to home, yo!

So, though we haven’t transferred all our funds yet, Christine and I are seriously considering switching to the far less complicated Hello Kitty ATM machine pictured below.

Seriously, it’s either Bank of Sanrio or the freaking mattress at this point…and since Hello Kitty has way cuter ATM cards, I think we’ll go pink.

In the meantime, rest in peace, WaMu, we haven’t loved a bank as much as we loved you since, well…ever. Free checking, cool tellers, cheeky wording on your ATM prompts, and yes, we even loved those goofy ‘Whoo Hoo!” commercials.

But today, as we say goodbye for the last time, the only catchphrase that comes to mind is a sad, heavy-hearted: “Boo Hoo!”

Vaya con dios, amigo…

Ben & Jerry’s newest flavor: Breast Milk Swirl?

Just when we thought those lovable nuts at PETA (People for the Ethical Treament of Animals) couldn’t get any weirder, they sent a letter this week to Ben & Jerry’s urging them to replace cow’s milk with human breast milk in all of their ice cream flavors. Yep…I said breast milk, as in, from a nursing mother.

Still don’t believe me? Read the letter for yourself here.

Crazy, huh? I don’t know what kind of breast milk business plan PETA has in mind, but my guess is that this is one flavor even those crazy hippies from Vermont will take a big old pass on.

However, if they do elect to make the switch from cow’s to sweet mother’s milk, I imagine a few thousand of the intimidating-looking breast pumps above will come in mighty handy at the old ice cream factory.

As for me, I think I’ll stick with the Cake Batter Ice Cream for now…

Zona Rosa: best burritos on the planet!

If you haven’t eaten yet, I suggest you grab yourself a power bar or something, because these here pictures are gonna make you drool like a hungry baby. Or, well, maybe that’s just me…

Either way, allow me to introduce you to my favorite burrito place on the planet…San Francisco, California’s legendary Zona Rosa.

Located at the grungy tail-end of the city’s storied Haight-Ashbury district, Zona Rosa has been serving up bad-ass Mexican food for as long as I can remember. And, seeing as Christine and I have been eating there since 1990, well, wow…that’s a long-ass time, yo.

I don’t remember which one of our roommates first stumbled upon this wondrous place, but I discovered Zona Rosa in college, while living in a rundown flat full of crazies — seriously, we had six roommates and a cat at one point! — just a few blocks away on Fell Street.

Rolling out of bed, all hung over and groggy, and walking up to Zona on a Sunday morning in our sweats was more than just a mere weekend ritual for us…hell, Zona Rosa was our church, baby! And we rarely missed a chance to worship their tasty grub…even on school nights.

And, best of all, because it was the Haight, you could walk into that place in your flip flops and boxers if you wanted to. In fact, many people still do. And, yes, for the record, I did go to Zona Rosa in my boxers several times — before Christine came along and made me wear, you know, pants and stuff — but hey, they looked like shorts, so, no big.

But the extremely lax dress code is just the tip of the iceberg at Zona Rosa, because almost everything on their menu is fantastic. And though it’s not traditional Mexican food by any means, there is something kinda Cali-Mexi-authentic going on here with the flavors that is just amazing.

Let’s start with the beans, Christine favors the black beans, but for me, a Zona Rosa burrito is all about the pintos. I don’t know what they do those things, but they rock…HARD! Couple the beans with that fluffy orange Mexican rice and you’re already halfway to heaven, amigos.

The meat selection is vast: steak, pork, chicken, carnitas, saucy, dry, you name it, they have it. But my favorite will always be the grilled carne asada-style steak. Toss in some cheese, fresh salsa, guacamole and a little bit of sour cream, roll that shit up in a big, fat flour tortilla and you are good to go!

And don’t ignore those free chips either. Sure, they can be overcooked and a tad hard sometimes, but they practically melt in your mouth when smothered with the spicy green and red salsa they have at the tables. I kid you not, amigos, the food here is crazy-magical…you’ll die!

And though my friend Ginger probably gets sick of driving Christine and I all the way out to the Haight from our hotel downtown when we visit the City — as she did in July on our way to visit Master Yoda — I know that somewhere, deep down, Ginger’s a fan too. I think…

Either way, if you’re ever in the city, you gotta make time and room in your stomach for some Zona Rosa. As one of my most-loathed former roommates used to say: “Once a Zona Rosa addict, always a Zona Rosa addict.” And though that wanker has, thankfully, long since faded from our circle of friends, he could not have been more right about Zona…I will love this place till I die!

And I kinda mean that literally as I have already instructed Christine to toss a Zona Rosa Super Burrito in my coffin at my funeral. Yep, it’s that good!

Um…is this really news to anyone?

Clay Aiken, the Barry Manilow of the 21st century is gay?! Shocking! Next thing you’ll tell me that old union-busting scab Ellen Degeneres is married to a woman! Oh, wait…nevermind.

Congrats on the whole coming out thing, dude. And for the love of God, please stop repeating your Christmas Special, because, cheesy as it is, Christine and I watch it every time that shit airs! Yikes…

Jamie & Jools Oliver expecting baby #3!

As crazy-huge fans of UK celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and his super-cute, super-talented wife Jools, Chistine and I were very happy to hear today that the couple is expecting their third child in April. Yay!

Oliver often jokes about the fact that he feels outnumbered at home by Jools and his young daughters, Daisy Boo and Poppy, so hopefully they’ll have a boy this time to help even out the odds a little!

To read more about the impending addition to the Oliver household and see more totally unflattering UK tabloid pics of Jools’ baby bump — like the one above, taken last week in London — check out the full article here.

In the meantime, Christine and I will celebrate the good news tonight with one of our favorite Jamie Oliver meals: roast chicken with rosemary roast potatoes! Cheers, mates!

John McCain “Nope” t-shirts

Since some of my new Flickr frenemies seem to feel I’ve devoted far too much time to the Obama camp lately, I thought it only appropriate to give a little equal time to this year’s Republican nominee as well. And when my brother forwarded me a link to the rocking Dirty Bureau internet storefront, I knew I had the perfect thing to blog about.

Finally, some John McCain swag I can get behind! I’m Yeti9000 and I endorse the hell outta these t-shirts and stickers…go, McCain!

Greta Garbo in color!

This past Thursday, September 18th, would have been Greta Garbo’s 103rd birthday. And seeing as my brother Ryan and I are both huge, lifelong fans of “the Swedish Sphinx”, I thought it only appropriate to celebrate this monumental occasion by posting this super-cool, super-rare color photo of the woman of the hour herself.

Taken during GG’s last photo shoot at MGM — during production of her final film, the virtually unwatchable “Two-Faced Woman” (1941) — the photo is one of only a handful of color photos ever taken of “the face of the century” and as such, is considered very rare.

The picture was taken by legendary Hollywood photographer Clarence Sinclair Bull, whose iconic work includes not just some of the most famous pics of Garbo, but also scads of other classic shots of Hollywood greats from the golden age.

As luck would have it, Ryan, Laura, my stepmom, Wendy, Christine and I had a chance to see this print in person at the incredible “Made in Hollywood: Photographs from the John Kobal Collection” exhibit at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art a few weeks back.

If you get a chance I encourage anyone within driving distance to head up (or down!) to Santa Barbara to catch this amazing show before it closes on October 5th. For although the gallery space dedicated to the show is very small, the photos there are almost breathtakingly beautiful.

Seriously, you could lose yourself for hours in some of those inky, velvety blacks in the B&W prints. Just really top notch stuff all around…and if you go on Sundays, admission to the entire Museum is free! Yay!

So, check it out while you can. And in the meantime, Happy Birthday, Greta!

“Star Wars: The Force Unleashed”

Breaking my long-standing rule about getting up early, I was second in line at Target on Tuesday morning to purchase the rocking new video game from LucasArts, “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed”.

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking: “Yikes..he’s blogging about “Star Wars” video games now? This dude gets nerdier by the minute…” And yes, I totally do. But that’s beside the point.

I’ve been looking forward to this game since my brother and I first saw, and were blown away by, some of the concept art at the Stars Wars Celebration IV last year. Yes, we went to that too and it rocked! The thing that we loved most about the concept of this game is that it acts as a bridge between the plotlines of the actual movies. Cool, huh?

Set during the time period between “Revenge of the Sith” and “A New Hope”, the game’s central playable character is Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice who is recruited to the dark side to hunt down and kill any and all remaining Jedi Knights in the galaxy. Wow! It’s like Lucas and company have finally come up with a game that is just as dark and twisted as the movie’s coolest character, Lord Vader himself. Awesome!

And though I was, as I said above, second in line to purchase the game on Tuesday, I am probably the last in line to figure out how to play the damn thing. For though it looks and plays as cool, if not cooler than, some of the movies, this game is f-ing hard, man!

Chapter One begins with you playing Darth Vader — which, if you ask me, is not a bad way to start — and has you charging around Chewbacca’s crazy-cool homeworld of Kashyyyk in search of a rogue Jedi Knight. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, not really.

See, killing the wookies is easy and the force unleashed powers are pretty spectacularly rendered, but once you meet up with that crafty rogue Jedi — who I’m assuming is also the Secret Apprentice you will play as for the rest of the game — things get real hard real fast!

I should say here that I am not a pro gamer by anyone’s standard, and since Christine was off baking cookies while I played, it was just me and my Wii remote flailing and cussing up a storm in the living room. I was getting better by the end, but man, getting that damn Jedi to surrender to the dark side was way harder than it looks on the box, amigos.

So, for now, I’m gonna bone up a bit on the game — who knows, I might actually read the instructions this time! — and try playing again this weekend with a group. Between the four of us eggheads — Ryan, Laura, Christine and myself — we should be able to at least advance to the next level…I hope.

In the meantime, check out the rocking trailer for the game here and if you pick up a copy of “The Force Unleashed” for yourself, please call me and tell me how to play the damn thing! Seriously, I’m dying here…

Return of the Queen: Stephanie Edwards is back, bitches!

As lifelong Tournament of Roses parade geeks — and one time attendees of the actual parade! — Christine and I were thrilled to hear the news today that Stephanie Edwards, the spunky, red-headed ray of sunshine to Bob Eubanks dark cloud, is returning to the job she made famous this year and will be co-hosting the parade from Pasadena on New Year’s Day, 2009! Yay!

For those of you who might have forgotten, fan-favorite Edwards wasn’t just “phased out” by the heartless bastards at KTLA, she was pretty much stoned to death on live TV. Seriously!

First, they decreased her payday by $18,000, then, hoping to sex-up the show with the addition of spicy Latina, Michaela Pereira, they kicked Edwards out of the broadcasting booth and forced her out into the street on the one year it rained cats and freaking dogs in Pasadena. Yep…even God was irked.

But despite the fact that she was dripping wet and clinging mightily to her own umbrella the whole time — they couldn’t have given her a tarp or something? — Edwards kept her cool and worked her parade reporting magic one more time. And you know why? Because that’s what professional bad-asses do, yo!

And instead of rewarding Edwards for her hard work in the pounding rain, KTLA promptly fired her and then had the gall to accuse Edwards of coercing her fans to deluge their offices with hate mail. Um, excuse me? Y’all got hate mail because you screwed up…not because Edwards asked us to send it in…please!

But the good news is that there is a new regime at KTLA who has apparently seen the error in their ways and done everything they can to bring Edwards back into the Rose Parade fold. So, welcome home, Red! New Year’s day can’t come soon enough in our household!

Now, if we could only do something about those embarassingly awful City of Burbank floats we’d be all set…

Ben & Jerry’s newest flavor: Cake Batter Ice Cream!

I know it’s been a while since we posted anything new in our “eat” category — I guess you could say the steady diet of McCain campaign lies has been keeping us both pretty full up! — but lest you think we’d stopped blogging about food entirely, here is a new ice cream flavor for the ages, amigos!

As you know, we loves us some ice cream, and though I remain a steadfast Baskin Robbins devotee, Ben & Jerry’s has been churning out some pretty rocking new flavors this year, and their 30th Anniversary Cake Batter Ice Cream is another home run from the hippies in Vermont!

The concept here is very simple: yellow cake ice cream with chocolate frosting swirled in for good measure. Baskin Robbins had a similar flavor a couple years back with actual chunks of cake in the mix, but this is much less, well…lumpy.

It tastes exactly like that first wonderful beater you mom let you lick clean when she was making your cake as a kid, except, you know…colder!

And the addition of the chocolate frosting swirl gives the whole thing a warm and fuzzy birthday cake flavor that will leave you jonesing to lick the frosting off the freshly-blown-out candles. Seriously, the memories will flow with every bite.

And though I was tempted to eat this shit on a beater, I think a spoon is much more practical in the long run…

Here’s to another 30 years of Ben & Jerry’s deliciousness!

Elvis movies: “Viva Las Vegas”

Nerdy as it sounds, ever since our memorable trip to Graceland last year, Christine and I have been trying to see all 31 of Elvis Presley’s movies. Now, if you’ve seen even one of them for yourself, you know how truly difficult this task really is. Because, well…most of them kinda suck.

But with the lone exception of the King’s first movie “Love Me Tender” (1956), which I think was an outright bomb, everything else we’ve seen has at least one or two elements or songs that make them fun and totally worth watching. And despite some awkward turns in a few of the clunkier pictures, Elvis is still freaking Elvis, baby, so…he still totally rules!

For example, “Kissin’ Cousins” (1964) has the King playing a military man and his blond hillbilly cousin, and better yet has not one, but several scenes with a fleet of hooting, hollering mountain gals called the “Kittyhawks” descending upon the homestead to steal single men. I kid you not, that happens at least two or three times in the movie. Crazy!

“It Happened at the World’s Fair” (1963) has a funny cameo by a pint-sized Kurt Russell and some gorgeous shots of Seattle and it’s then brand-spanking-new Space Needle. “The Trouble With Girls” (1969) is a period piece set in and around a traveling roadshow type of deal called a Chautauqua — don’t feel bad, we’d never heard of a freaking Chautaqua either! — and features some of the strangest camera angles you’ve ever seen in a Hollywood movie. It’s downright groovy, man. Gotta love those late-60’s filmmakers…wow!

“Girl Happy” (1965) and “Clambake” (1967) both feature a super-cute Shelley Fabares playing basically the same role in basically the same movie, but “Clambake” has a way better theme song!

“Blue Hawaii” (1961) has Elvis surfing with a bunch of adoring Hawaiian kids and a strangely-sinister Angela Lansbury playing his mom. Yes, his mom. I don’t know if Lansbury was gearing up for her iconic role in “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962) or what, but she is crazy weird in this movie…yikes!

And of course, the best of bunch we’d seen to date was “Jailhouse Rock” (1957) which is not just a great Elvis movie, but is also a really great movie in its own right. Cinematic, funny, dark, and beautifully shot in a brooding black and white, there is a reason Elvis fans love this movie. For not only is this probably the King’s best role — playing essentially, a twisted version of himself — this movie is just plain awesome! Seriously, if you were ever gonna buy an Elvis movie on DVD, this is the one to get!

Which brings me, finally, to the most recent Elvis movie on our list…“Viva Las Vegas” (1964). Christine had already watched — and insanely raved about! — this movie without me when I was in Santa Fe, and now we finally caught it again on TCM…and let me tell ya, this is the only other Elvis movie that you simply must have on DVD!

I think Elvis is usually better in his comedies, and here again, he shines playing a gambling race car driver/waiter at the Flamingo Hilton. But this time, the King is joined onscreen by the spectacularly gorgeous Ann-Margret. I don’t know exactly when the term “knockout” came into favor, but I can guarantee you it had something to do with Margret. Seriously, that face, that hair, those legs, that um…posterior…wow, this chick has it all.

And not only can she hold her own with Elvis in the singing and dancing department — actually, I think she’s a way better dancer, but that’s just me — but Ms. Margret can act too. And as written by Sally Benson — who also co-wrote my favorite Hitchcock film, “Shadow of a Doubt” (1943), yay! — her character is no throw-away girlfriend role, but rather a living, breathing firecracker-of-a-swimming-instructior to be reckoned with.

And the chemistry between her and Elvis…wow, I kid you not, you can almost see the sparks crackling off these two onscreen. They are incredible together, and though the first five minutes of so of the movie kinda dragged a bit, the minute Ann-Margret showed up in those skimpy white hot pants…it was on, baby!

Yes the movie has some crazy shit in it — their first date includes a dance class, skeet shooting, water skiiing, a helicopter ride over Hoover Dam and ends on a houseboat, where Margret lives with her father! — but the chemistry between these two keep everything rolling at such a crackerjack pace that you hardly care.

And the extended race car sequence at the end of the movie is really something to behold, especially when you consider the fact that they didn’t have CGI back then! Those are real cars, driven by real stunt men, yo!

I know that George Lucas has said that the chariot race sequence from “Ben Hur” (1959) inspired little Anakin’s pod race scene in “The Phanton Menace” (1999), but I swear to you, there are more than a few similarities between the race in “Viva” and the one in “Menace”. Don’t believe me? Read a hilariously geeky break down of the similarities here.

Anyway, another thing we both loved about “Viva Las Vegas” are the songs! This is one of the first Elvis movies I’ve seen that featured so many rocking duets, and though the title track is still the star, the rest of songs seriously kick ass. And when you factor in two (!) smoking solo songs for Ann-Margret, well, how can you go wrong?

So, if you like your movies loud, fun and loaded to the gills with out-of-control star wattage, check out “Viva Las Vegas”. And if you have a favorite Elvis movie you’d recommend we check out, by all means, let us know.

We’re still dying to see Presley’s last movie — “Change of Habit” (1969), with Mary Tyler Moore as a nun! — but they never play it on TV and the old-ass versions on DVD look pretty crappy. Here’s hoping a deluxe edition is in the works! And in the meantime, we’ll busy ourselves with some of the other movies on our list…next stop, “Harum Scarum” (1965)!

Meow for Change: Kittens 4 Obama!

OK, this whole Obama “lipstick on a pig” thing has gotten way out of hand. I mean, the McCain camp can cry “sexist” all they want, but the truth is, John McCain used the exact same phrase at least twice this year to describe Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated universal health care plan during the Clinton years.

Don’t believe me? Watch the video here. And if that’s not enough flagrant “Maverick” hypocrisy for you, check out this clip here.

What really kills me is that, apparently, it’s OK for McCain to use the phrase in the same sentence with the words “Hillary” and “Clinton”, but when Barack Obama uses the exact same phrase — as it was meant to be used, by the way! — with no mention of nutty old Sarah Palin anywhere in sight, he is branded a sexist? Jesus…what a bleeping joke!

Luckily for Christine and I, there was happier animal news to report this week in the form of these crazy cute pro-Obama political buttons we found on CafePress.com. Yay!

I mean, really, who even knew animals were interested in this whole presidential election thing? All I can say is that it truly warms my bleeding liberal heart to know that if they could, cats and dogs (and even llamas!) would totally vote for Obama. Rock on, animals!

Now, if we could just figure out how to pin these buttons on our cats without drawing blood, we’d be all set…

Brenda Walsh packs her bags…

I’m sure you’ve already heard the joyous news by now, but after filming her four contracted episodes of the super-lame new “90210” this week, our beloved Shannen “Shando” Doherty is leaving the show for good. Yay! There was some initial buzz about Doherty possibly extending her stay on the show, but thankfully, for the Brenda Walsh lovers of the world, that is not to be.

I say “thankfully”, because, if you recall, Christine and were borderline-offended by how bad this new, Aaron-Spelling-less version of “90210” is, not to mention how woefully underused the ferocious, crazy-eyed character of Miss Brenda Walsh was.

So, now that she is free from the shackles of the bumbling programming chowderheads at the CW, Brenda Walsh can live the rich and beautiful life we always imagined for her! Fly, Brenda, fly!

And, as far as “Shando” is concerned, we’ll watch her in anything…so, keep on keeping on, chica!

Nano-chromatic: The new 4G iPod Nanos are here!

Since Christine and I are already a three iPod household — our old grey iPod mini, Yoda, is for the cats, yo! — we need another iPod like we need another season pass on our Tivo. But, man alive, the new iPod Nano’s announced today by Apple are so damn pretty, we might just change our minds…wow!

To read more about the many new features of these gorgeous little Nanos — I seriously wanna sprinkle them on ice cream or something! Yummy! — and the new-feature-tastic iPod Touch models (also announced today) check out the links below. And, as always, go Mac!

Apple Hot News: New iPod Nano

Apple Hot News: New iPod Touch

Shopping cart escalators @ Target

OK…I know it’s totally lame to get excited about shit like this, but does anyone else think that the shopping cart escalators at Target are cool as hell? I know, I know, in an age of iPods and cell phones the size of business cards, an escalator that carries your shopping cart upstairs for you seems kind of, well…old hat.

But, man alive, every time I push my cart onto that escalator at the Glendale Galleria Target and ride up alongside it, I can’t help feeling like George-freaking-Jetson. The future is now, baby! Amazing!!

Yoda statue at Lucasfilm!

After spending a good chunk of the weekend clearing off the Tivo — finished up watching most of the Olympics and the tail end of both political conventions! Whew! — I am finally getting around to uploading the scads of pictures we took this summer onto our Flickr page. Yay!

And while sorting through some pics from our weekend jaunt to San Francisco in July, I came across some rocking pictures I took of the crazy-cool Yoda statue outside the Lucasfilm: Letterman Digital Arts Center on the Presidio.

Yes, I said Yoda, as in, the baddest Jedi in the galaxy. And yes, there is an actual statue of Degobah’s finest that you can pose in front of if you know how to find it…cool, huh? As luck would have it, Christine and my friend Ginger and I kind of accidentally discovered the statue a couple of years ago.

While cruising around San Francisco in Ginger’s sweet ride, the three of us explored the beautifully reimagined Presidio — the place was kind of a ghost town when we lived in SF in the 1990’s — in search of the mythical Yoda statue. It was getting dark, and it was cold and totally foggy, and we were about to give up the search  entirely when I spotted an unmarked employee entrance to the Lucasfilm offices near the base of the Presidio.

And after driving the wrong way through the “exit only” driveway — much to the chagrin of both Christine and Ginger! — I found my Yoda statue! And though I had to drag them out of the car with me, we posed for tons of pics outside the gleaming new home of Lucasfilm’s Letterman Digital Arts Center. Then, to our horror, a security guard emerged from the building…

But rather than making a run for the car, being the gigantic goober that I am, I asked him to take a picture of the three of us with Yoda. I know, nerd-tastic! But he was super cool and not only took a picture, but actually invited us inside to see some of the full-scale “Star Wars” models in the lobby.

Aside from shelves full of awards, they had a life size statue of both Darth Vader and Boba Fett towering over the couches in the waiting area…I’m not kidding, man, I just about fainted…talk about geek heaven!

Sadly, most of those pics we took that day were lost to the ages when my laptop Hal 9000 fried earlier this year. So, this past July, I begged Ginger to drive us over to the Presidio (again!) for some all new pics with Master Yoda. And guess what…she agreed! Thanks, Ginger!

So, here, for your viewing enjoyment are my favorite pics of the amazing Yoda statue/fountain at the Presidio. We didn’t get to go inside this time, but hey, been there, done that. Getting some fresh pics with Yoda was my goal, and as you can see, we picked a perfect day for it!

Rock on, Master Yoda! And may the Force be with you…always.

Joe Klein’s “angry, left-wing media” quote of the day!

Best. Quote. Ever.

“There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is “a task from God.” The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.”

This was taken from Joe Klein’s bad-ass piece on the Time magazine blog. Read Klein’s entire post here and as always, que viva la free press!

Sarah Palin scares me…

Christine and I haven’t been watching the Republican National Convention with nearly as much interest as we did the Dem’s rocking gathering in Denver last week, but, judging from what we have seen, some of the stuff going on in the Twin Cities this week is just plain scary.

First we had poor Bushie — yes, we actually felt sorry for him for once! — giving what will probably go down in the record books as the most gaffe-ridden speech of the modern age on NBC.

I don’t know how it aired on other networks, but for some reason the audio feed from the convention hall was not synced up with the feed from the White House, so Bush was left silently pausing in all these really weird places for like, forever!

I’m not sure if this was some covert NBC or McCain anti-Bush thing or not, but, the overall effect left Bush looking, if possible, dumber than usual. Poor cowboy is probably just counting the days till he and Laura can retire to the ranch…wow.

Then we had the curiously-orange Fred Thompson going into way too much detail about John McCain’s treatment at the hands of his captors in Vietnam. I mean, really, did we need to hear about McCain’s teeth being “broken at the gums” with a blunt object? Yikes-a-holy, Fred, we’re eating dinner here!

Even scarier than that was the sight of that old turncoat, former Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman going all Benedict Arnold by hyping up his buddy McCain at the expense of Barack and Hillary. Wow, I wish I could go back in time and erase his name from the ill-fated Gore-Lieberman ticket. That dude needs to go back to Hadassah and learn some manners!

But the biggest shock came last night when Alaska Governor Tina Fey took the stage at the convention. Talk about an Alaskan huskie! Jesus, that lady gave us the creeps big time! I mean, yeah, I’m glad a woman is on the ticket and everything, but, wow, this chick is hard core!

Her daughter’s baby-daddy drama aside — that poor Levi Johnston dude looked so scared watching his future Monster-in-law rip the Dems a new one! — Palin’s crazy-conservative, Creationist, book-banning, NRA-loving record as Governor is the least of our worries. Seriously!

For though Christine outright loathes the bitch, what scares me most about Palin is that she looks so damn normal, and, dare I say, even a little hot — especially in the now-infamous Photoshopped masterpiece below — that you’d never suspect she was such a right-wing nut job.

Watching her speak last night I gotta say I was impressed by how good Palin was at blanketing her blistering and often brutal attacks on the Obama camp beneath this warm veneer of  “hockey mom” homeyness. If you ask me, a wolf (or, cougar, if you will) in sheep’s clothing is the worst kind of scary. Yikes!

And afterwards, as Palin and her family dutifully shared some awkward hugs and smiles onstage with a very stiff-looking McCain, Christine and I could not help feeling how Bristol Palin’s baby-daddy looked all night…scared freaking shitless.

Go, Obama!

The return of Brenda Walsh?

As huge fans of the original show in it’s heyday — and crazy-huge fans of almost anything Shannen “Shando” Doherty has ever appeared in, including even her craziest TV movies! — Christine and I were kind of dying to see the new and supposedly-improved version of “Beverly Hills, 90210” on the CW last night.

But after slogging through two hours of over-scored, oddly-paced dreck, all we can say is, what the hell? Or in the parlance of the CW’s far-superior teen sexfest, “Gossip Girl”, OMFG! Seriously, this “90210” sucked so bad that we actually fast-forwarded through huge chunks of the show to get to the good stuff.

And, if you watched the season premiere last night, you know that I am being extremely generous in labeling any part of it as “good stuff”. Though some of the actors were winning — the new Brenda and Brandon surrogates were both pretty decent, and the resident mean girl had her moments, but that was about it — the biggest problem with the show is that it was just plain weird.

Boring, badly written and strangely jumpy, the show jerked us around so much that I had some serious Tivo whiplash. Everything just seemed so rushed, and with no scene lasting more than two to three minutes, I actually screamed at the TV at one point: “Let those scenes breathe, baby!” I mean, honestly, if this series was not based on an older, better show, it would have never made it past the pilot stage. Yes…it’s that freaking bad.

Another key ingredient that was missing last night was the “Spelling magic”. Love him or hate him, Aaron Spelling knew how to make some damn fine guilty-pleasure TV. Sure, some of his shows crossed the line into straight-up cheese (“7th Heaven” anyone?) but for the most part, the man was a hit-making machine, whose absence was never felt more poignantly than last night.

With any semblance of nuance and character development chucked out the window with Jason Priestley’s iconic sideburns, the entire show was DOA. Seriously, even Spelling would have had a hard time saving this sinking ship.

And though the press have been running “Shando” stories left and right, our girl Brenda had like, two scenes and both of them were snoozers. Jennie Garth’s return as Kelly wasn’t much more interesting, but hell, at least she got to look kinda “teacher-hot” in some tight-ass blouses and share a mysterious phone call with someone about her young son. Was it the boy’s father? And is said father someone we know from before? Who knows…and really, who cares?

But the much-touted return of Brenda Walsh amounted to “Shando” basically eating at The Peach Pit with Kelly and then offering to babysit for her when she went on a date. Yawn-o-rama! You brought Brenda back from a glamorous life on the London stage for this?? Yikes…

The Brenda Walsh we loved was spunky, pig-headed, impulsive and crazy as all hell. And, lord in heaven, if you needed a babysitter, you’d call Andrea Zuckerman way before you’d even think of calling Brenda. I mean, really!

So, watch this slapped-together CW crapfest at your own peril, amigos. And if you want a true, old-school Brenda Walsh fix, I reccommend picking up some of the early, best seasons of “90210” on DVD.

And in the meantime…go, “Shando”!