Nissin has released two limited edition Ramen flavors for the Fall: Turkey Dinner and Pumpkin Pie. As we are nearing the time when my want of turkey meat becomes a throbbing biological urge, I wondered, "Could this be a cheap substitute?"
First off, unlike many limited edition foods of the past, I was able to find and obtain Turkey Dinner with perfect ease. I didn't even try for Pumpkin Pie because... I mean... do I have to explain?
The first thing that jumped out at me upon getting it, is it's not just Turkey flavored Ramen, it's Turkey Dinner Flavor. The word "dinner" is conspicuous here. I don't believe Cup Noodles is up to the level of some Willy Wonka experiment where it simulates a three-course meal in one soup. As far as I can tell, the "dinner" is turkey with corn, green beans and cranberries. And the fact that the turkey is in a broth, I'll give them "gravy" by default. For all I know there's stuff in there to create a mashed potato and/or stuffing flavor but that's beyond my level of discernment.
So what's the verdict? Well, if we limit ourselves to the good/bad binary, I would say it's good. It does taste like turkey, pretty much. I'll put it this way: it tastes as much like turkey as the chicken flavor tastes like chicken or the beef flavor tastes like beef. Let's call that "on par." But aside from the binary, I wouldn't recommend it, in the sense that if you're looking for cheap Ramen, Chicken and Beef are still the way to go.
I am not a car racing guy. I assume this is one of the wildest endings to a race in the history of NASCAR, and even then it does nothing for me.
So what's the point?
The man on the mic is Ken Squier. Ken Squier played the announcer in "Rad." Ken worked for CBS and was the principle announcer for the Daytona 500 for nearly 20 years and he once said "Hulk Hogan eat your heart out" after a kid did a backflip on a bike.
Be aware: the above is serious and somewhat graphic.
Some years back, in the Netflix days, I watched a few Kurt Cobain documentaries and did a little reading on the circumstances of his suicide. The general impression I was left with was that it was all slightly suspicious but he was on drugs, we have no witnesses and we'll ultimately never know.
This new idea that there were people hanging around the house interacting with him and seeing what was going on is incredible. It should be noted that everyone in that orbit, at that time, was a junkie. So it's up to the listener's discernment as to whether testimony is reliable or memories are accurate. But there is also the forensic evidence and toxicology, etc.
Below is an interview with the new witness coming forward. It is a tough watch and I don't recommend watching it but here it is if you're interested.
Blind Mike continues trudging through GD Fenderson's "worst stand-up special in history." Getting toward the end now but I think I'm looking for a full compilation so I can catch up on what I missed.
Firstly, the Friendly's that was near me that was barely hanging on has since closed. As I noted then, there was nothing I could do.
Secondly, and more importantly, Chi-Chi's is coming back. From wikipedia:
On December 3, 2024, it was announced that the restaurant chain will re-launch in the United States in 2025. Michael McDermott, son of original owner, Marno McDermott, will lead and operate the new restaurants under Chi-Chi's Restaurants, LLC. Hormel Foods, the current owner of the Chi-Chi's trademark, has allowed the use of the Chi-Chi's name for the physical restaurant locations. A few months later, McDermott announced that he will convert his two Rojo Mexican Grill restaurants in St. Louis Park and Maple Grove to the revived Chi-Chi’s brand.
As far as I can tell, the St. Louis locations are the only announced locations. Stay tuned.
I posted the full Harvey Pekar/David Letterman collection a while back, but I know from firsthand experience that that's not for everyone. If you want just the highlights as well as humorous commentary, Blind Mike takes you through Harvey Pekar's appearances on Letterman.
And in case anyone's wondering, I'm fully on Letterman's side in this. The "you're a guest in my house" paradigm is 100% correct. But while I don't fully agree with the thrust of "American Splendor," it is quite a good film.
Aside from the fact that this is a great Summer-to-Fall transition song, I just noticed recently that one of the guys in the band is wearing a Penn State shirt. I did some research to try to figure out what the connection is between a British band member and Penn State and I found absolutely nothing.
Last known photo of this guy
Plus, at 2:44, Joe Strummer narrowly avoids getting run over.
Ranking the films of Joe Dante continued. Another great movie discussion.
I don't have the same relationship with the "Gremlins" movies that other people seem to have. It's probably that I didn't see them when I was a kid, I watched them later, so that may be it. I love "The 'Burbs" though and I'm glad to see it high on the list.
It's all pretty much for hardcore Star Wars fans only. Nothing crazy here, just small subplots and insignificant bits of dialogue. I did find one thing though that is worth noting.
When I was a kid, growing up in the days before the internet, the word went around - I don't know where it came from and how it moved - that George Lucas' student film was called "THX 1138" and he had hid references to it in "all" his movies. From that point, the hunt was on, to find the hidden references in all the Star Wars movies.
A New Hope - Luke (posing as a Storm Trooper) claims that Chewbacca is a prisoner being transferred from "Cellblock 1138." I remember being surprised that "THX" was left off but there it was, obvious enough.
The Empire Strikes Back - A little trickier this time. During the Battle of Hoth, an officer is heard to say "Send Rogues 10 and 11 to Sector 38." It required close attention and some processing to decipher but it was plain enough.
Return of the Jedi - Nothing.
There I was scrutinizing every line of dialogue, looking at every sign, trying to pause on shots of computer screens while watching on blurry VHS... and I found nothing. And not just me but all my friends.
Fast forward a few years and the internet exists. I "google" (or whatever it was) the answer. Other people are online looking for the answer and also stumped. I seem to remember some person claimed to have found the answer because of a new, higher quality home release. The number flashes on a computer screen briefly, they say. I didn't have access to that version and never confirmed it later - all I saw was gibberish on every screen.
A few years after that, someone else claims the answer, "1138" was printed on the bounty hunter's helmet. It was discovered via photographing the prop in better lighting. Well, that's disappointing because that remained strictly behind-the-scenes - they gambled on the lighting, shot angles, shot selection and so forth, and lost. But if that's what they did, it is what it is.
Why is this relevant? Because now it's like 30 years later and at 7 minutes into the above video, I hear Moff Jerjerrod say, "Open the power discharge gates. Flood sectors 304 and 1138. That should slow them up a bit." Unreal. After all that time, the mystery is finally solved. Sure, it's still not a reference in the movie, but it's clear, it's spoken - just like in the other two movies - it's on film. It's great. It was in the script, it was filmed and it just happened that that scene was cut from the final edit..
Editor's Note: This "newest" Easter Egg is not noted on Wookiepedia. Am I a bigger nerd than the entire community of editors of Wookiepedia? In fact, I don't see anyone else mentioning it anywhere, but I'm not digging too deep.
A new 9/11 documentary attempts to explain what happened using original research and gaining clues from raw footage from the day. Check it out before it's deleted, if you're interested.
Growing up, I've been aware of the various baseball stars dying of cancer, but each one is chalked up as "just one of those things." The idea that they may be connected is pretty amazing.
A possible rebuttal to this argument, or at least something that needs to be investigated further, is: they played football there too, do we see the same problems in football players? Going off my own limited memory right now, I don't think we do.
On August 29, 1997, Radiohead played "Karma Police" to promote their new album "Ok Computer" - their first appearance on Letterman.
Big deal for me since Radiohead were my favorite band and the "Late Show" was my favorite TV show. That's why it always pained me that Radiohead hated either Letterman or his show, at least that's the impression I got.
Then we move forward to the day of the appearance. At the soundcheck on the Late Show, documented in the film "Meeting People is Easy." Thom tells the sound booth, "Twenty minutes to rehearse spinning a wheel and we don't get five minutes to play the fucking guitar?" Later, offstage he complains, "There [was] a guy on stage giving us shit." What he says after that has never been clear to me and the exact nature of the conflict is not explained to any degree that I can discern.
Fast-forward to 2003 and it's time to promote "Hail to the Thief." Radiohead go on the "Late Show" again to perform "2+2=5." The song ends and no handshake or communication of any kind.
Ah, but let's rewind to just before that... we gain more context by remembering the "Late Show" era we're in. This is during the period where Paul Shaffer is doing his James Brown bit. If you don't know, there was a running bit from 2002-2004 where Paul Shaffer would sing "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" in the style of James Brown, even to the point of falling to his knees, getting covered in a cape, ushered away from the microphone, before throwing off the cape and returning to sing. The bit was made more elaborate by having guest cape operators who were celebrities. The apex of the bit was the time when James Brown himself came out to do the cape. The full song was only for the theater audience (played during commercial) but the TV broadcast would come back in time for the cape part.
So Radiohead are on stage waiting to perform "2+2=5" and are confronted by this bizarre ritual. And it probably didn't help that the cape person that night was CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer. I doubt they know who that is. I don't believe they appreciated the joke. I seem to recall someone saying so in an interview later but I have not been able to find the source so it may be my own hallucination. Nevertheless, I challenge you to look at the expressions and body language of the band and decide for yourself . And, again, after the performance they avoid shaking hands with Dave or even acknowledging him. Significant? Coincidence? Thom's a big Michael Stipe fan, perhaps he's doing an impression.
Apparently someone agreed with my assessment that something was going on and thought to submit a question about it to BBC Radio 1 in an interview a few months later:
Mark: Right, James in South Korea, says: I saw Radiohead perform on David Letterman a few weeks ago, and they seemed a little annoyed by the whole thing, was there a reason?
Thom: (laughs) I'll tell you why, man
Mark: What was going on there?
Thom: I'll tell you
Mark: Well do, yeah
Thom: In order for Mr. Letterman not to break into a sweat, he has the studio at sub-zero temperatures
Mark: Does he?
Thom: Yeah
Ed: Yeah
Thom: So our hands went numb (laughs)
Lard: Ahhhhhh!
Thom: So there you go
So maybe it's that innocent, laughed off as a joke. Radiohead are a very tough band to figure out, it remains a possibility that I may be overthinking everything.
1997 and 2003 are the only two times Radiohead performed on the "Late Show."
But ever since 1997 (or 1998), when I discovered the Hammerstein ballroom quote, I've been wondering "why the hatred?" One might look at "Meeting People is Easy" and just assume they hated the show because they had a bad experience there. But the key here is Thom was complaining about having to go on the show before he was ever on the show. Another possibility, then, it may be just a matter of: they hated doing television appearances in general and Letterman just happened to be in the way. I'm certainly open to that possibility, they probably don't like TV. But then, they've also done Conan's show, Leno, Jool's Holland, Stephen Colbert and "Saturday Night Live" and I've never heard them complain about those, show disdain or avoiding shaking hands with the host. In fact, on Leno and SNL, they seemed delighted.
Reddit had a thought that could connect the dots. In a thread speculating on who the song "Talk Show Host" was based on, a redditor points out that Radiohead were big fans of "comedian" Bill Hicks, even dedicating their second album to him and Bill Hicks was famously censored in his last "Late Show" performance before dying of cancer in 1994. If this is the cause, it would completely explain why they hated Letterman and resented having to do the show sight unseen. I personally don't think it's likely. Remember: this is in the days where the different sides of the Atlantic had completely separate spheres of entertainment and the internet was still very nascent. I doubt they even knew who Letterman was, let alone knowing about the behind-the-scenes censorship controversy. [Footnote: years later, Letterman would air the performance in full and apologize to Hicks' mother.]
Another possibility: it may be a matter of timing; the band was in a bad place at this point and things were only getting worse. According to Yorke in a Rolling Stone interview, the band's all-time low point would come only two months after their 1997 appearance. Bad timing, bad mood... maybe.
But that's the history of my favorite band "feuding" (perhaps) with my favorite talk show host. It's always bothered me and the "feud" is made all the more irksome because it seemed to arise without a cause. My best guess is that their disdain for doing the show was a combination of being a famously temperamental band, resenting having to do TV appearances and the particular timing of August 1997. But that's only a best guess, and not very satisfying.
I largely agree with Mr. Plinkett, aside from the fact that I have no opinions on "Andor" and "The Acolyte" because I haven't seen them. I am an old Star Wars fan who is not passionate enough to continue through the crap and also not passionate enough to complain about the crap. I've made my peace with reality, although this review brings the mourning back to the surface, ironically enough.
I miss the humorous Mr. Plinkett videos. This is solid anal-sis but it's a bit depressing, to be honest.
A good while ago I opined that I would love a "build your own" slot machine kit. I figured it was unrealistic because the amount of work to create the kit compared to the demand probably makes such an endeavor unprofitable.
But now there's a "build your own" cuckoo clock kit, which is pretty close. Such an interesting idea, though I'm unsure if I will pull the trigger on it. I have no need for the end result and I'm skeptical about how hands-on it will be with the clock mechanism itself - does the clock just come as a single piece or are you going to be assembling intricate gears?
Clue is being re-released to theaters to mark its 40th anniversary. Check showtimes here.
The movie will reportedly be shown for 3 nights (August 24-26), with a different ending each night. Though when I search my area for show times it has more than 3 dates, so... repeats, I guess.
Continuing my series of discovering and cataloging Youtube genres, I've discovered Pool Cleaning Videos and they're somewhat compelling but not compelling enough, for reasons I'll explain.
There are at least two types of pool cleaning videos. In the first type, the pool is empty and they're cleaning the cement. These are fine, these are pleasing but you'll note they don't differ in any meaningful way from the Pressure Wash genre so I will omit talking about them. See below for an example.
Categories: "Things Going from Disorder to Order", "Cleaning", "Pressure Washing", "Oddly Satisfying."
The other type of pool cleaning video - the main one for the topic of this discussion - is a pool cleaning where the pool is full of water. You'll find my favorite example below.
Categories: "Things Going from Disorder to Order", "Cleaning", "Bright Colors", "Oddly Satisfying."
There are two aspects of this example I need to point out. First, you'll see the pouring of chemicals, the churning of the water and the color of the pool changing from dark dirt to a crystalline blue. It's an amazing phenomenon and one that I'd never seen before. This process is the main feature that all videos in this genre have in common. But as much as I find the color change satisfying, it's also too slow and usually involves "checking back in" periodically so you don't really get the satisfaction of watching it change before your eyes. This is the main disappointment of the genre - the pretty color change that I want to watch mostly happens off-screen.
The second aspect of this video to discuss is pretty rare and the reason this one rises above the rest... The part where they run some sort of pool vacuum and you watch the pool bottom getting cleaned in neat strips - the part starting around 11:00 - that's superb. That's the best. More of that please, because I haven't seen other videos that feature it.
So in summary, I find the Pool Cleaning Genre to be compelling but not as satisfying as other similar genres.
Blind Mike has some thoughts on Jon Stewart's reaction to the Late Show's cancellation and it serves as an incisive look at the entire late night talkshow landscape.
My first reaction to the idea that talkshows can be more like podcasts was to dismiss it. But then he mentions Charlie Rose and Tom Snyder and it seems reasonable. That is essentially what those shows were. And they never got great ratings but they could be successful because they were so inexpensive to produce.
I don't believe I've mentioned GD Fenderson already. GD is a stand-up comedian who's alledgedly made the worst stand-up special of all-time. Blind Mike is watching/reacting to the entire special in installments - every week or so, they're trudging through a few more minutes.
In this episode, they find a fun way to treat the added captions. It really elevates the material.
The official designations from Blind Mike are: Tom Myers is the worst stand-up comedian of all-time but GD Fenderson has the worst special of all-time. I haven't looked into it in-depth but I find these terms to be reasonable.
Conan's youtube channel has officially released this classic appearance by Norm Macdonald.
There are a number of mysteries with this particular clip.
I had every beat of this interview memorized and I don't remember where/how I watched it originally.
Why does the video start whilst coming back from commercial? There's a first segment that's omitted. You can watch that here.
It's now 2025 and so we should be able to find and watch the MTV appearance Norm describes. Norm was actually on for a week of shows, Days 1 through 4 are online, the incident should be found on Day 5 which did exist on the internet at one time, but has been thoroughly scrubbed from the internet. If you find it, let me know.
At some point during his military career, a platoon sergeant started "throwing his weight around." He ordered Pvt. Mr. T to chop down trees on the base but failed to mention how many. Mr. T axed 70 trees in 3.5 hours before the company commander ordered him to stop.
A tall tale? The new Chuck Norris? A modern day Paul Bunyan? I sure don't know. But, reddit has already made the connection to other obscure Mr. T Tree lore (from Curbed Chicago):
Now, in honor of Curbed Outdoors Week, let's take a look back at one of the Chicago area's most infamous landscaping debacles: Mr. T's 1987 inexplicable destruction of more than 100 trees (actual tree counts vary) on the old Armour estate in Lake Forest...
...The home in question was built in 1910 for a banker named Orville Elias Babcock, and it was later occupied by meatpacking magnet[sic] Laurance Armour... In 1986, Mr. T (a Chicago native, by the way) bought the sprawling English Tudor estate for $1.7 million... Then, a year later, he went all Paul Bunyan on the hundreds of trees that filled his property. He even wiped out four 12-foot topiary trees that had been sculpted to represent birds in nests....
The papers called it the 'Lake Forest Chainsaw Massacre.' Arborists were stunned. And for his part, Mr. T never bothered to fully explain why he fired up a chainsaw and, alongside hired workmen, got busy clearcutting the oaks, elms and maples that populated his seven-acre estate...
So, I don't know, it seems that Mr. T hates trees. If we're looking to see if this can be added to the Mr. T Cinematic Universe, it maps to the S03E05 "A-Team" episode "Timber!" where the A-Team helps out a lumber company, but I don't know of any other connections.
This performance, officially released today by the Pinkpop channel, is from 1996. From this time, it would be another 21 years before this song would be officially released. But the official release would be a disappointment, in my opinion, because the studio version can't compare to this one perfect live version from 1996.
Of course, I wasn't a fan of any of the long-awaited releases ("I Promise", "Man of War") so maybe it's just me.
A few weeks ago, I got the inexplicable urge to buy a Vanilla Coke.
I first visited a pharmacy, but it wasn't there. No surprise, this particular location is slowly going out of business. Then I went to another pharmacy, then another, then a Wawa. On this fourth location, I found one.
Since then I've been curious. I looked for it at a Wegman's then a Weiss, then a 7-11. None available. Not a big deal, I just went back to the Wawa... not there this time.
Though I see no official word anywhere online, I theorize that Vanilla Coke is being discontinued. Everywhere where I might have found it, I see Coke Zero or the NEW Orange Coke, which is pretty good. It's possible that Coke is slowly and quietly phasing it out so as not to create a panic - a run on the bank if you will.
Or not. But if you're a fan of Vanilla Coke, maybe keep an eye out and stock up. My impression is nobody really likes it much. It came out when I was in college so I suppose maybe I only like it due to some nostalgia.
I saw this repeatedly when I was 4 or 5 and it freaked me out and haunted my dreams. I've been looking for it for a while but all I remember is a creepy girl waving a white stick and I remembered it involved climbing stairs, for some reason. Finally found it.
As you may know, "Dirty Work" was supposed to be an R movie but the executives intervened and made it PG-13. Now Vinegar Syndrome has re-created the original cut and released it.
I'm not much of a fan of "Dirty Work." As much as I love Norm, and I love Chris Farley, it's an "Ok" movie that doesn't live up to the talents of either. So my first instinct toward buying this is to pass. But then again, maybe that's exactly why I should buy it. Maybe I don't like it because I've only ever seen the wrong version.
Another video I found fascinating: it's just a timelapse on renovating a beaten down shack. Makes me wish I could do this. But maybe not... When it seems like they're still getting started and it says "Week 15" maybe it's not as satisfying as I imagine.
In 1990 Bobby Brooks, a talent agent, died in a helicopter crash along with Stevie Ray Vaughan. To honor him, MCA Records released a Nintendo-themed CD ("White Knuckle Scorin'") that included a whole host of songs and artists that had absolutely nothing to do with Nintendo or video games in general.
The first song, "Ignorance is Bliss" by Jellyfish is the only Nintendo-related track. It's set within the Super Mario World... world. Sung by Bowser, he tells the kids not to read. It's a clever case of that reverse psychology - the kids ARE encouraged to read, you see! I'm not sure how successful that was, considering that the kids are already into video games - that's time not spend reading - and all the time spent listening to a song on a CD is just more time not spent reading. So...
From there on, not only does it have no connection to Nintendo games, check out the hot artists that the kids love: Crosby, Stills and Nash; Dire Straits; Roy Orbison; Britny Fox; Sheena Easton among others.
The Roy Orbison track deserves a drill-down. "I Drove All Night" is a previously unreleased track and was also released posthumously, as Orbison had died in 1988. Releasing his music on Nintendo CDs is probably what he would have wanted, I guess. The music video features black and white footage of Jason Priestly making out with Jennifer Connelly, which makes it all-time peak 1991, as far as I'm concerned. The video also features old footage of Orbison and "subtle background references to the Mario series and the album's title" according to Wikipedia.
But does it contain subtle references? I see a sign that says "Princess" and a sign flashes on screen that says "White Knuckle Scorin.'" It's up there for about a tenth of a second, so I guess the claim is technically true. I guess. There's also a "Dino Dogs" sign that could be construed as referring to Yoshi. Seems pointless.
Having listened to the full album (time I could have spent reading, by the way), it just makes no sense. The artists are pretty stellar, the songs are generally good, it's just they don't belong together and the fact that they're released within a Nintendo context is just crazy.
Hey, I have an idea how you could make a CD with a collection of unrelated pop artists which would have a Nintendo/Mario connection AND it just so happens that my plan ALSO involves Roy Orbison.
As you probably remember, almost all of the Koopalings in Super Mario Bros 3 (and Super Mario World), were named and styled after some musician:
So there's your lineup. You've got your album right there. You're coming straight outta the gate with U2, then on to The Plasmatics, then some Iggy Pop, then Roy Orbison, then Motorhead and finally Beethoven. Then, since Bowser is the final boss, you can tack on the "Ignorance is Bliss" track. Going out on a bang. That's your absolutely absurd collection of bands/artists all on one compact disc that has the Nintendo label on the front. Sure, it'll appeal to no one but at least this one has a tenuous connection to Nintendo.
I don't know if you're in the market for a longform interview with SNL cast member Cheri Oteri but I saw this and said, "Yes, please."
I think it was already pretty known that the Rita Delvecchio character was based on growing up in Upper Darby but it was fun hearing about it. And SNL stories are always fun, especially when Christopher Walken is involved.
The boys watch 3 movies based on the randomization of a not-so-legally-distinct Plinko board.
Of interest to me, and perhaps to you, they watch "The Peanut Butter Solution" which I covered myself here. It's fun to see that our thoughts mesh well. Of particular note: we both compare "The Peanut Butter Solution" to "Rosemary's Baby," which is wildly specific.
Strange times. "Psycho Killer" was a song by the Talking Heads released in 1977. The official music video was just released today.
I'm a big Talking Heads fan and a big fan of "Psycho Killer." In the abstract, I'm not opposed to making a modern music video for it - I don't see the point, really, but not opposed. But I don't get this. The contrast in era between the music and video is too great, it's jarring. I think maybe it could be helped if you go for a 70s aesthetic, but I don't know. Certainly a better concept/story is called for, for such a classic song.
Brutalmoose watches VHS tapes about how to throw a Tupperware party.
My grandmother was the queen of Tupperware. One of things of hers that I inherited is the "How to Throw a Tupperware Party" book, which was probably the forerunner of the tape. But I never realized the multi-level marketing aspect to it before. We were constantly bombarded with new Tupperware but I don't remember ever hearing a pitch about becoming a salesperson once.
Does the vaporwave version improve upon Robbie Robb's "In Time?" Well, I think it's a lateral move but it's pretty cool and you can decide for yourself.
Whereas we previously covered two chocolate bar based puddings, we're onto Sonic milkshake puddings.
It should be noted that I know nothing about Sonic shakes. There's a Sonic near me and I've gotten food there maybe twice and I don't think I ever included a shake. So I won't be attempting to evaluate how well they simulate what they're trying to simulate and I'll just focus on whether they're enjoyable.
Sonic Birthday Cake Shake Pudding
You can probably imagine how this tastes by the name but I was trying to figure out how to describe "birthday cake" flavor anyway. Is it... vanilla + butter + more sugar? It's that in pudding.
What shines here is the Vanilla. I am a huge Vanilla pudding fan, so I'm down for this. Nothing spectacular but good.
Sonic Strawberry Shake Pudding
What are the top dessert flavors? Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry, right? So it would seem to follow logically that we've had Strawberry pudding a million times and yet... I think this is the first time in my life I have had it. That is a strange revelation.
And I don't think I like it. I mean, it's not bad, I'm not sure any pudding is bad, but I don't like it. It's obviously an artificial strawberry flavor but it's just not a good artificial strawberry. Mine also had a hint of garlic but that was picked up from sitting in my fridge. Even taking the garlic out of the equation, it's just not a hit.
Sonic Banana Shake Pudding
I love Banana pudding. That's my bias. I love this. This is my favorite. Is this better than the other brands of Banana pudding? I can't tell. That would take a side-by-side comparison. Does the "shake" simulation part throw it off somewhat, or is it an improvement? I don't know. But it's great.
---
My favorite pudding is Vanilla so I would have liked to try that, but it appears to have been discontinued. I'd also like to try plain old Chocolate but that's hard to find also.
Pudding's been a stale game for a while - it's Jell-O, with the standard flavors, and it's the other guys. But I recently saw - I don't remember where - some people are changing up the game, ya dig?
Milky Way Pudding
Now between the two candy bars represented in this post, Milky Way is my favorite, so this pudding theoretically had the greatest chance of success.
The pudding, I suppose, is attempting to simulate the chocolate, the nougat and the caramel. The chocolate and nougat, it simulates well. The caramel is represented by a weird taste that seems to me to have nothing to do with caramel. I'd call it butterscotch... maybe.
I wouldn't say this tastes at all like a Milky Way bar but, at the same time, it has a deep earthy cocoa flavor that I really appreciate, so I would marginally recommend it (if that's your thing).
Snickers Pudding
I think Snickers are Milky Ways with peanuts. Am I wrong about that? I think so. So this has to simulate the same flavors plus peanuts. And this it does well - there is a definite peanut flavor with the chocolate. I would give this a thumb's up in the aspect of simulating the candy bar.
The thing is, though, do you really want this kind of smooth artificial peanut simulation? Make regular chocolate pudding and add real peanuts. Even better, make regular chocolate pudding and add peanut butter. Have you ever done that? It's the best (aside from the seed oil aspect).
Conclusion
In the end, these aren't terrible but are also skippable. Try them if you really want to. Available at Walmart and Amazon, and probably other places. Peanut butter and chocolate pudding is the real MVP.
When the subject of "who wrote Shakespeare's plays" comes up, this video is a fair representation of what you're told about the controversy.
The controversy is waved off as merely down to intellectual snobbery - an uneducated man couldn't be the greatest writer of all-time. And just in case you don't find that retort satisfying, well remember that the people who are quick to dismiss any conspiracy theories will also tell you it also doesn't really matter. Well why'd you bring it up at all?
But it isn't intellectual snobbery to think that a man living in the late 1500's, with little or no education, and who owned no books, could have "a profound knowledge of English, Latin, Greek and Italian as well as a deep and wide knowledge of history, mythology and multiple subjects like jurisprudence, military matters, foreign geography, seamanship amongst much else."
In fact, the official story sounds pretty ridiculous, when you really look at it.
The Angry Video Game Nerd revisits one of the games from his early episodes: Dragon's Lair. He attempts to get further into the game, and possibly even beat it.
It seems so apparent to me that this game was specifically designed to ruin the lives of children, that I looked up a speedrun to see to what extent a best-case scenario is possible. Here it is:
I don't have any real opinions on Jamiroquai one way or the other but it's a nice trip back to the late 90's.
Oh, I do have one opinion, actually. It's amazing to me how all the elements of this video came together perfectly. You don't just have the concept but the "slipperiness" of the floor is combined with a great dancer who can make it amazing. And they didn't just combine the concept and the dancing and say "we'll improvise" - this is meticulously planned and choreographed. And how are we going to hide the edits? It's just in time for early CGI. Everything just comes together perfectly to make a hit video.
A new glitch was recently discovered in Super Mario Bros. which allows speedrunners to shave 20 seconds off their time (though pulling it off is very difficult).
This is another video that gets into the nature of the glitch by digging into the programming.
Scorch is on tour, living the dream, without Meghan who can't be on because selling old napkin holders for 25 cents each takes priority. Scorch still has the antagonistic relationship with the chat, which is why I stopped watching regularly.
The credit to this discovery goes to the "Why Are You Laughing" podcast, which you can listen to here.
In 1990, the nominees for the Grammy for Best Comedy Album were:
Sandra Bernhard - Without You I'm Nothing
Erma Bombeck - Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession
Andrew Dice Clay - Dice
Sam Kinison - "Wild Thing"
Peter Schickele - P.D.Q. Bach: 1712 Overture and Other Musical Assaults
Winner: Peter Schickele
In 1991, the nominees for the Best Comedy Album Grammy were:
Bob Elliott & Ray Goulding - The Best of Bob and Ray: Selections from a Career, Vol. 4
Garrison Keillor - More News from Lake Wobegon
Various artists- The Best of Comic Relief '90
Jonathan Winters - Jonathan Winters into the '90s
Peter Schickele - P.D.Q. Bach: Oedipus Tex and Other Choral Calamities
Winner: Peter Schickele
1992, Best Comedy Album:
Erma Bombeck - When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time to Go Home
George Carlin - Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics
Garrison Keillor - Local Man Moves to the City
Jackie Mason - Brand New
Peter Schickele - P.D.Q. Bach: WTWP Classical Talkity-Talk Radio
Winner: Peter Schickele
1993:
George Burns - An Evening with George Burns
Rita Rudner - Naked Beneath My Clothes
Jonathan Winters - Jonathan Winters is Terminator 3
"Weird Al" Yankovic - Off the Deep End
Peter Schickele - P.D.Q. Bach: Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion
Winner: Peter Schickele
Peter Schickele won 4 times in 4 straight years, against a murderer's row of talent: George Burns, Jonathan Winters, Weird Al, Jackie Mason, George Carlin, Sam Kinison, Various Artists... this guy beat them all.
Have you ever heard of him? Have you ever heard of someone who's heard of him? Isn't this guy on the Mt. Rushmore of comedy? How did this happen? Is this guy the most critically acclaimed yet underrated comedian in history? Well, let's take a look at his act.
Okay, well that's not great. But it's also pretty visual and he got his awards from his "P.D.Q. Bach" albums. We need to examine those.
Wikipedia:
Schickele developed an elaborate parody around his studies of P.D.Q. Bach, the fictional "youngest and the oddest of the twenty-odd children" of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Okay, well I can't find his albums on youtube directly but here's one of the songs on an album:
Comedy?! Man, awards mean nothing. People still venerate them and I used to do that myself but they are literally meaningless.
For those of you who want to learn about the Late Night wars of Leno vs. Letterman, there is no better resource than Bill Carter's book "The Late Shift."
But if you don't want to commit hours and hours of reading time, the "Why Are You Laughing?" podcast is perhaps the second best source of information.
The book was turned into a made-for-tv movie also (same name), for those of you who would prefer that. But that's a distant 3rd place, as the movie is less informative and a bit cheesy.
But, as above, if books aren't for you, the following podcast has you covered. There has been no made-for-tv movie about this topic, to my knowledge, but can you imagine?
If you'd like to read my book review of "The War for Late Night" see here.
As a self-proclaimed expert, I have my disagreements and differences with the podcast, just as I do with the TV movie. But they're mainly minor quibbles and who cares anyway? I enjoy their fresh perspective shedding light on my own.
I watched this a million times on the Late Show website, back in the day. This is the first time I'm seeing it in actual video rather than the horror that was RealAudio/RealMedia over slow internet. Remember RealAudio?
There is a thing that seems to happen often where a band will put an unusual "outlier" song on their album and that will be the big hit that everyone likes. People buying the album for that song, may be disappointed that the rest of the album is so different. And the band may feel the pressure of success and be forced to change their entire sound to satisfy expectations.
Such is the case with Blind Melon's eponymous album. "No Rain" is a complete outlier: rather than Country-tinged hippy rock, the album is mainly is bluesy, hard-ish rock, somewhat reminiscent of Led Zeppelin. Seriously. With the benefit of this hindsight, listen again to the vocals of "No Rain" and you will hear the Robert Plant in there.
I don't say that "No Rain" is one of the greatest songs of all-time but the music video for "No Rain" is one of the greatest music videos of all-time. So simple, so effective, so affecting.
In a previous post I mentioned that "Rad" is available on AltaVod and that one of the special features is an interview between Jorma Taccone (of The Lonely Island) and the cast. Jorma makes it clear that he is a huge fan and says he put "a ton" of "Rad" references into his own works. I thought it would be fun to go through some of them.
First, the phrase "set to jet" used in the "Rad" dance scene is in "MacGruber."
"Hot Rod" and "Rad" are both bike movies, culminating in a big event at the end with crowded bleachers.
Rod's uniform often has a big star on it, reminiscent of Cru's outfit for the big race.
Both Rod and Cru get special outfits before the big race replete with stars.
Rod's friends' "Team Rod" t-shirts, are clearly referencing "Rad Racing." In both movies, the friends wear them to show support in the big climactic event.
Wesley's "Charming-Check, Witty-Check, etc" shirt is recreated for Richardson in "Hot Rod."
And in both movies, the villains drive a red corvette.
There may be more references that I didn't catch and there are other cases where it's hard to tell the difference between a reference and a coincidence.
Finally, there's a similarity that's a bit of a riddle. In "Hot Rod," Rod gets gifted a new bike in honor of the big event at the end. When Cru is gifted a new bike for Hell Track only in the deleted scene that I grew up with and remembered. Did Jorma watch the same version that I did or is this just a complete coincidence?
