First phone blog photo

This is a photo of a rainbow that I took with my phone and sent directly to my blog. I still haven't figured out how to do text but I will. Woohoo! This means I can post directly to this blog from my phone!

Who needs an iphone????!!!??

Booty Re-call

ATTENTION BOOTY LOVERS... I hope you are aware of the Veggie Booty recall that is in effect.

The FDA said on Thursday at least 52 people in 17 states had become sick after eating the green-colored snack food marketed by Robert's American Gourmet. The New Jersey-based company said it had temporarily stopped making and selling the snack, which contains spinach, kale and other vegetables.

"Almost all the illnesses have occurred in children under 10 years old, with the most cases in toddlers. Most persons had reported bloody diarrhea; four were hospitalized," the FDA said in a statement.


MMMMM... who's hungry...

I walked past the AT&T store on Broadway and saw two guys sitting in chairs waiting for the store to open for an iphone. The phones went on sale last night at 6:00pm so I don't really know why they were waiting unless they thought another shipment was coming in. I want an iphone but am going to wait until I sell some Apple stock so I can afford one.

Uh Oh...They'rrrrre Baaaaack

Tell me what you want, what you really really want.


If you have some free time, why not role play and act out the following excerpt from the transcript from the Larry King interview with Paris...I'll be Larry.

KING: An embarrassing — were you strip-searched? Do they do that in jail?

HILTON: Yes.

KING: I know they do it in prison.

HILTON: They do. They do it in any jail. It was…

KING: What was that like?

HILTON: The most humiliating experience of my life. I never had to do that, you know, doing that in front of someone you don’t even know. It’s pretty embarrassing.

KING: So it’s a woman police officer and you in a room?

HILTON: Yes.

KING: Is it as gross as we might think it is?

HILTON: It’s pretty gross, you know. (inaudible) having to do that, yes.

KING: Do you understand why they do it?

HILTON: Of course I do.

KING: On January 15, you were pulled over by the California Highway Patrol and told your license had been suspended, and you said you thought it was OK.

HILTON: I told the officer because I called my lawyer at that point and they said you’re allowed to drive for work related purposes and I was at a business meeting before that.

KING: So misconception.

HILTON: Yeah.

Xanadu or Xanadon't

After a visit to the dentist to get a filling replaced, Elissa and I went to see Xanadu on Broadway, my mouth still numb from the novocaine. The $5 million dollar show is still in previews and I couldn't pass up free tickets to see it. I have never seen the movie but have heard about its cult following. In the film, the mysterious Kira (Olivia Newton-John) appears to assist and inspire a young artist, Sonny Malone (Michael Beck). When she helps him meet up with the rich Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly), the two join up together to create an artistic and business success, an unique club called "Xanadu."

Sound campy and fun? Well, it is. The show is nothing but fluff but it's very enjoyable. They poked fun at the movie and I'm sure many of the references flew right over our heads. The music was great as was the rollar skating, singing, costumes, sets, and special effects. Even though neither of us had seen the film version, there were a few songs that we recognized. The show flows well and is only 90 minutes with no intermission, just long enough for a shot of novocaine to wear off. I'm ready to open my own disco rollerskating joint after seeing this show. It'll be interesting to see what the reviews say. I'll admit that I really had a great time! And now, a clip from the movie!




PS. Don't you want an iphone?

Windorphins?!?!

So have you seen the ads on the subway for Windorphins? I was intrigued this morning and tried to figure out what exactly was being advertised. What the heck are Windorphins? Well, had I noticed that the little blobs with eyes were the same colors of Ebay, I might have figured out that this was Ebay's new marketing campaign.

"Laboratory tests have revealed natural, addictive substances in the body called Windorphins that are triggered during victorious moments (winning a spelling bee, ro-sham-bo match or the lottery, etc.) After a big win, windorphins deliver a general sensation of unabashed joy in the brain, leading to heightened energy, exuberance and outright slam dunk high-five behavior"

I really like what Ebay has done here. I am an ebayer and there is this unexplainable feeling that comes over you when you win an auction. However, now this sensation is explainable! Windorphins!! It will be interesting to see if this new campaign is successful.

And then there's this campaign...

I was reading The New Yorker on the train this morning and there was a brief piece on this youtube video, The Manny. So for your entertainment, here it is...

A Weekend To Remember

I don't even know where to begin in explaining how much fun was had this past weekend. On Friday, Elissa and I headed down to Long Branch for Meredith and Mark's rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal went smoothly and the dinner was extremely nice and laid back. The Alarm clock went off at 6:15am Saturday morning (Elissa's Birthday!!!) and Elissa was on her way to get her hair made up along with the 6 other bridesmaids/matrons. We made it to the church on time and the wedding ceremony began at 2:00pm. I made sure to get an aisle seat so that I could snap some photos which I will post soon. The ceremony was very beautiful and the weather was perfect. After the ceremony, I went for a walk on the boardwalk with Andrew and Mr. and Mrs. McMahon. At 6:00 we headed over to McLoone's for the reception. The entire back of the reception room was open to the beach and the view was amazing. Also amazing was the band, lead by the infamous Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg. You may recognize La Bamba from the Max Weinberg 7 on Late Night With Conan O'Brien. The band was so incredible, we could not stop dancing for a minute. Everyone had such a great time and it was a night to remember.

Plinko

As a youngster I used to tape The Price Is Right in hopes that I would catch a blooper, particularly someone falling after spinning the big showdown wheel. I found one of my favorite falls months ago while cleaning out my vhs tapes and I posted it on Youtube. Hundreds of thousands of people have viewed it and the mixed comments are highly enjoyable to read. It's your turn to watch the fall and leave a comment.

Spring Awakening

Last night, Elissa and I went to dinner and to see Spring Awakening, the rock musical that won 8 Tonys including Best Musical. The music is by Duncan Sheik and is terrific. The cast keeps the audience engaged without fancy sets, costumes, or special effects. The stage is very small and the phenomenal band sits onstage along with audience members who purchase "onstage seating" tickets. What drives this show is the music. If you don't see the show I encourage you to pick up the cast recording. You won't, however, get the steamy love scene with the cast recording.

We had a lot of fun despite the creepy guy that was sitting next to us. I still don't understand why he was there because he had no interest in watching the show. He kept looking around and tried giving me his program at one point during the show. The birthday celebration continues tonight and through the weekend.

CLIPS AND QUIPS NEWSFLASH

Exciting things are happening with Clips and Quips and Boaz Frankel. You can read briefly about the exciting news here. I'm so happy for Boaz!!!

Sewage on a Plane

So I think this screams SEQUEL to Snakes on a Plane. Sam Jackson could star once again and it would simply be named Sewage on a Plane. Here's a possible trailer teaser.

Announcer- First the terrorists brought snakes, now they're clogging toilets. Starring Samuel L. Jackson and Jessica Alba. SEWAGE ON A PLANE: Is there a plumber in the house?

Coming to a toilet near you- Summer 2009

I hate to make fun of this story because I would not have been happy if I were stuck on this plane.

Hillary!?!

Have you seen the most recent video on Hillary's site? Funny stuff...

The Magic Pot...no, not that pot.

I completely forgot to mention that over the weekend, Elissa and I met up with Jon and Justine for a night of fondue fun at The Melting Pot in Edgewater, NJ. There was cheese and raw meat and chocolate, lots of dipping and decision making. Which broth? Which meat? Fish? Which dessert? We had a great time and after asking every waitress in the joint, "has anyone ever burned themselves on this?" Jon eventually got the answer he was looking for...YES.

EV'AN

The boy's name Evan \e-van\ is pronounced EV-an. It is of Welsh origin. Variant of a Gaelic name anglicized as John (Hebrew) "the Lord is gracious". In Celtic, the name means "young warrior". In Welsh, it means "God is Good". It is also used as a short form of Evangelos, which means "good messenger" in Greek. In Hebrew, Evan means "rock". See also Evian.

"Young Warrior", "Rock"..not bad


This seems to be the year of Evan on the big screen. The much anticipated movie, Evan Almighty is due out this Friday and yes, I had the good folks at Universal send over some posters. I'm also looking forward to the movie Superbad written by Seth Rogen and EVAN GOLDBERG. One of the main characters in the film is named EVAN so I've got to see it.




In other news, this Evan, is now the proud owner of a bluetooth. The Cardo Scala 700 to be exact. People will think I'm crazy as they see me talking to myself. I figured it was time to get one after both Jon and Elissa told me I was going to get a ticket for talking on my phone and driving in NJ.

Support McSweeney's

I just got the following email in my inbox:

As you may know, it's been tough going for many independent publishers, McSweeney's included, since our distributor filed for bankruptcy last December 29. We lost about $130,000 -- actual earnings that were simply erased. Due to the intricacies of the settlement, the real hurt didn't hit right away, but it's hitting now. Like most small publishers, our business is basically a break-even proposition in the best of times, so there's really no way to absorb a loss that big.

We are committed to getting through and past this difficult time, and we're hoping you, the readers who have from the start made McSweeney's possible, will help us.

Over the next week or so, we'll be holding an inventory sell-off and rare-item auction, which we hope will make a dent in the losses we sustained. A few years ago, the indispensible comics publisher Fantagraphics, in similarly dire straits, held a similar sale, and it helped them greatly. We're hoping to do the same.

So if you've had your eye on anything we've produced, now would be a great time to take the plunge. For the next week or so, subscriptions are $5 off, new books are 30 percent off, and all backlist is 50 percent off. Please check out the store and enjoy the astounding savings, while knowing every purchase will help dig us out of a big hole.

Many of our contributors have stepped up and given us original artwork and limited editions to auction off. We've got original artwork from Chris Ware, Marcel Dzama, David Byrne, and Tony Millionaire; a limited-edition music mix from Nick Hornby; rare early issues of the quarterly, direct from Sean Wilsey's closet; and more. We're even auctioning off Dave Eggers's painting of George Bush as a double-amputee, from the cover of Issue 14.

This is the bulk of our groundbreaking business-saving plan: to continue to sell the things we've made, albeit at a greatly accelerated pace for a brief period of time. We are not business masterminds, but we are optimistic that this will work. If you've liked what we've done up to now, this is the time to ensure we'll be able to keep on doing more.

Plenty of excellent presses are in similar straits these days; two top-notch peers of ours, Soft Skull and Counterpoint, were just acquired by Winton, Shoemaker & Co. in the last few weeks. It's an unsteady time for everybody, and we know we don't have any special claim to your book-buying budget. We owe all of you a lot for everything you've allowed us to do over the last nine years, for all the time and freedom we've been given.

Once this calamity is averted, we'll get back to our bread and butter -- the now-legendary Believer music issue is already creeping into mailboxes everywhere; Issue 24 of our quarterly is in the midst of a really pretty silkscreening process; and in July the fourth issue of Wholphin, our DVD magazine, will slip over the border from Canada, bringing with it some very good footage of Maggie Gyllenhaal and a Moroccan drummer who messes up a wedding in an entertaining way. And then a couple of months after that, we'll publish a debut novel from a writer named Millard Kaufman. This book is exactly the kind of thing McSweeney's was created to do: The novel came through the mail, without an agent's imprimatur, and it was written by a first-time novelist. This first-time novelist is ninety years old. It was pulled from the submissions pile and it knocked the socks off of everyone who read it. Millard may well be the best extant epic-comedic writer of his generation, and he stands at equal height with the best of several generations since.

Whatever you can do to help in the coming days, we thank you a thousand times. We'll keep updating everybody on how this is going over the next few weeks; for now, pick up a few things for yourself, your friends, for Barack Obama. More news soon -- thanks for reading.

Yours warmly,
The folks at McSweeney's

I've mentioned WHOLPHIN before and I strongly encourage you to subscribe to WHOLPHIN. You will not be disappointed and you will support McSweeney's. So go check out their website and buy something!!!

Sicko

I'm not going to write about Michael Moore's new film Sicko until I see it. Rather, this post refers to my getting sick last Thursday. I felt it coming and my overdosing on Vitamin C only helped somewhat. It hit me on Thursday night and wiped me out the next couple of days. I was feeling well enough on Saturday to meet Melissa and Andrew, Elissa's friends who were in from MD. They...well...Andrew, is a frequent reader of this very blog although he refrains from commenting. I really enjoyed meeting them.

I know Boaz has mentioned Man Vs. Wild in one of his previous blogs but I caught an episode of this show over the weekend and was blown away. Host Bear Grylls drops into the wild armed with very little and shows us how to survive. Sounds like something you've seen before right? This show beats them all. In the episode I watched, Bear dropped himself right smack dab in the middle of the Everglades. He avoided alligators, made a bed in the trees, found food, purified swamp water, and much more. He showed us a type of mud in the swamp that acts like quicksand, the more you try to get out the more you sink. In order to show us how he would escape, he jumped right in and showed us first hand how to get out. If you get the Discovery Channel, you have to check this show out. Here is a clip from the episode I saw...Poor Kermit:



That's all for now. Busy week! If you haven't already done so, go out and see Judd Apatow's Knocked Up!

To Lease or Not To Lease? No longer the question.

I did it! I leased a 2007 Royal Blue Honda Civic. I don't have it in my posession yet, but I'm very excited. A toast to the new car...here's to a reliable car that will get me to the bus/train and back and to some wonderful New England towns. I've been asked by many if I am going to name the car and quite frankly, I have no idea. If you have some suggestions please let me know and then maybe I can have a contest on this blog, something I've been wanting to do anyway.

I'm very happy to see that many of the films we saw at Sundance are coming to theaters. I just saw an ad for FIDO, a zomedy which I highly recommend. ***Zomedy is a zombie comedy*** We saw a midnight screening of this flick and even though I struggled to stay awake, I really enjoyed the movie.

Mad Science

I don't know how I missed this, but apparently Don Herbert AKA Mr. Wizard passed away. I used to love watching Mr. Wizard and he taught me some great science tricks. I remember being introduced to him in middle school. I'm sure some of you even watched Mr. Wizard. I just might have to check out some of the shows which are conveniently now available on DVD.

Watch out David Copperfield!

It's sort of hard to see, but Bush's watch disappears in this footage. That explains why he missed his plane back to Washington. Did someone swipe his watch? Did he put it in his pocket before shaking hands? Did it fall off? Perhaps it just vanished. I wonder what kind of watch he wears? Does he set it fast or sync it with Verizon time? Does he carry a cell phone? What wireless service does he have? Who's in his Fave 5?

The Scene

Here is the scene from The Sopranos Finale that was filmed in beautiful Morris Plains, NJ at the Raceway gas station. For those of you who are familiar with Route 10 you can see the Barnes and Noble in the background. Just a warning that this scene contains violence.

Phil Leotardo

So I found out that the big Phil Leotardo death scene on last night's episode was filmed at the gas station near my house. I'll have to get a copy of the episode.

The Sopranos

Since I don't have HBO, I haven't been able to keep up with The Sopranos, but apparently the series finale happened last night while I was watching broadway musical numbers over on CBS. It seems like half of the people waiting at my train station this morning were chatting about The Sopranos.


"I couldn't believe that's how it ended. My tv went black. We thought there had been a power outtage."

"They just left us hanging, I wanted to see Tony get blown up."


I'm sure David Chase is running around outside right now in disguise, eavesdropping on people talking about the episode. He's loving it. He got people talking and all worked up about this. He's a genious and also an NYU Alumnus.

I'm interested in seeing this finale because they filmed some of it at a Raceway gas station in my town. If you saw it, was there a gas station scene?

This past weekend was jam-packed with fun. Elissa and I left early Saturday morning for Spring Lake where we stayed with my grandparents. We went to the beach and then headed over to Bar A (anticipation) in Belmar because it was TCNJ day. Afterwards, we had to check out the infamous Seafood Festival which was quite a scene. They had booths serving up everything from from fried dough to lobsters and oysters. It was a really pleasant day at the beach and would have been nice to have stayed longer. After a walk on Sunday morning, we headed back because there was a graduation party to go to. One of Elissa's friends who I knew from middle school just graduated from Med School. I was sort of nervous because I knew I'd be seeing other people from Middle School and it turned out to be a mini-reunion. I saw people I hadn't seen for 12 years and quite honestly, they haven't really changed all that much. They got older but they are exactly the way I remember them. We had a nice time and it was the perfect end to the weekend.

Senator Balboa

We Americans love seeing politicians fight, so when I saw this clip of Alabama Senator Charles Bishop taking a swing at Senator Lowell Barron, I had to post it. Keep your eye on the man on the left of the screen in the beginning. It looks like he shoves a tootsie roll in his mouth and walks away chewing it. Any guesses as to what he is chewing? Tobacco? Gum?




I haven't been able to blog much this week as there is a lot going on. I promise I will catch up and fill you in. This weekend Elissa and I are going to the Jersey Shore for a relaxing weekend and to visit my grandparents. I'm looking forward to it.

J-Low

So I posted that video yesterday and some of my readers said they didn't know about Sheppard Smith's infamous slip-up. Here it is:

News Bloopers + Cardio = Best Workout Ever

Nothing cracks me up like a good news blooper. I was watching one of those tv blooper shows while I was at the gym last week and everyone working out, including myself, was cracking up. They should really have a blooper channel because the workout is enjoyable when the entire gym is laughing. Here's one for you to watch that I pulled from the internet. I don't like promoting Fox News but this is worth it. Hope you enjoy!

The Weeeeee-kend

I'd like to thank the good folks at Universal Pictures for sending me an Evan Almighty one-sheet. I'll have to find a place to hang it.

This past weekend was a lot of fun! Elissa and I went garage saling on Saturday morning and then to Woodbury Common in the afternoon for a super mega shopping extravaganza. I could not believe the scene there. Miles of outlets, thousands of people rummaging through discounted clothing. There were so many people that I couldn't even stomach looking at the clothes. The Gap and Banana Republic were zoos, monkeys jumping around throwing clothes around to find the right size. When we finished shopping, the sky got dark and we quickly made our way back to the car. Five minutes into the trip home the sky opened up and it was pouring. It was raining so hard it was difficult to see the road and people began pulling over to the side. Then hail. That's right, it began to hail. The small ice pebbles hit the car and quickly melted. After five minutes of this intense storm we emerged safe and sound.

Saturday night we went into Morristown to celebrate Amanda's birthday and then Sunday rolled around.

Sunday morning we travelled to Sussex County to visit Elissa's friends, Heather and Andrew and Meredith and Mark. I forget that some of New Jersey is still beautiful. We had delicious calzones and then went deep into the woods to climb up the steepest set of stairs in New Jersey along side a beautiful waterfall. On our way back, the car veered off the road and almost hit the Dairy Queen. Thanks to Heather's excellent driving, we landed perfectly in a spot and had to get out for some ice cream.

It was a great weekend and I forgot to bring my camera to take photos! Oh well, next time. Do you enjoy seeing Eddie Murphy as a 400 pound woman? I thought so...well head out to your local DVD dealer and pick up your own copy of NORBIT, out on DVD today!