Monthly Archives: November 2012

Bigtime Bus Touching

Filed under funner times on the bus, living in new york sucks so hard
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This morning, I was sitting next to a woman in a big, puffy coat whose bus reading pose also included her elbow sticking out halfway into the seat next to her, so I’m sure part of me was hanging off my seat into the aisle, but I was still surprised when I found a woman standing in the aisle pressed against me. She boarded the bus and stopped right beside me, which was fine, and then she backed up into me to let someone pass, which was fine, but then she stayed backed up.

There was no one on the other side of her, and in fact, there was no one else in the aisle with her at all, so she had all of this room not usually found in New York City, and yet she leaned her whole side against my shoulder. And then she moved and leaned her belly against me. And then she moved and leaned her back against me. This wasn’t casual, accidental touching but full-on intimate bodily contact that lasted several stops.

Read the rest here! (Not because I’m a total jerk but because I get paid based on my views there.) (Not that I’m not a total jerk.)

Twilight: Breaking Dawn: Part 2: The Least Bad One

Filed under there's a difference between films and movies
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I went to dinner with my friend Ash last night at Famous Dave’s (chain BBQ!) in Times Square, and then we went to see the dreaded final Twilight movie. (And not dreaded because we’re going to miss the series so much, mind you.)

I wasn’t planning to see this one any time soon, because, you know, they’re generally terrible, awful, horrible movies to begin with, but I especially couldn’t justify spending a month’s rent to see this one after Edward had that amaaaaazingly bad line in the last one. Hold on. Let me find it.

Oh, oh, here we go: “Jacob imprinted. They can’t hurt her. Whoever a wolf imprints on can’t be harmed. It’s their most absolute law.”

SO BAD. Especially in context. The screenwriter was clearly like, “Ahh, crap, I forgot to work in the wolves’ most absolute law earlier in the series. I’ll just have a character announce it out of nowhere. The audience won’t care. They’re all teenage girls and middle-aged women too busy having mindsex with Robert Pattinson to notice.”

But this one was easily the most enjoyable in the series! I’m actually–dare I say–glad I saw it in the theater? Without giving away any spoilers (because I knooooow you’re Fandangoing your tickets as we speak), here are the high/lowlights:

• The opening credits were really artistic and convinced me the baby’s face wouldn’t be CGI this time

• Not only was the baby’s face CGI, but it stayed CGI as she grew up for no apparent reason

• Renesmee got too old too fast, and you realize there’s no way Bella could have possibly loved this kid who skipped right over all of her time as a baby, which is of course the only time children are cute enough to tolerate

• So many creepy imprinting-pedophilia jokes

• Brilliant job working a fight scene into a chick flick

• I actually teared up when one of the wolves fell down the chasm, which I realize is insane

• No cringe-inducing characters-saying-lines-only-to-fill-plot-holes

• Edward and Bella were less annoying now that they could just be together instead of constantly emoing out over not being able to be together

• Bella actually looked kind of hot with her giant Amy Winehouse hair

• The super-extended cheeseball end credits made you feel like you actually loved these characters, as long as you can forget about how ugly everyone was in the first movie

But the real highlight was the costume display outside of the theater and the Jacob mannequin’s manboobs:

Twilight Costume

Giveaway: Zinio Magazine Subscriptions

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Remember my blatant suck-upping to e-magazine superstore Zinio in yesterday’s post about their Give a Little, Get a Lot sweepstakes?

Well, that was a lead-in to my announcement that Zinio has given me ten–yes, ten–magazine subscriptions to give away to you, my dear, sweet, dedicated readers, who would never abandon me just for advertising an Internet newsstand to you.

I’m going to keep one for myself, obvs, and maybe give one to Kamran if he’s nice, and then I’ll offer four to the people who commented on yesterday’s post as a reward for their not judging me. So that leaves me a good four or five still to give away!

How to Enter

• Leave me a comment. Tell me which magazine you’d want if you won, how great yesterday’s post was, how deserving I am of things from companies to give away, whatever you want.

I’ll let random.org pick the numbers for me on Thursday at 5 p.m.!

Zinio Sweepstakes and Coupon

Filed under uncategorized

Have an iPad, iPhone, or Android? Want to read magazines on it?

Don’t have an iPad and wish you did? Zinio is here to help.

The world’s largest newsstand–with hundreds of thousands of the best local, national, and international e-titles–is giving away 16GB iPad Minis to three lucky winners and $5 coupons to everyone in their Give a Little, Get Alot Sweepstakes.

Yes, alot.

To enter and claim your coupon, visit http://bit.ly/givealittlegetalot and fill in the required fields (with or without logging into Facebook) for the iPad giveaway, and you’ll be taken to a new page with your coupon code. Use it to buy a digital subscription to The Atlantic, Juxtapoz, Vogue, Parenting, Newsweek, ESPN, or an array of other titles grouped helpfully by category. Buy it for yourself! Buy it for someone for Christmas!

Here’s a collection of pretty magazine covers to entice you:

Enticed yet? (Am I the only person who didn’t know Kristen was pregnant?)

Enter up to 50 times a day between now and November 30th, because an iPad Mini is more important than whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing at work.

Weekend Update

Filed under it's fun to be fat, living in new york is neat, par-tay, restaurant ramblings
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Kamran was in California all last week being a lawyer, so I spent the week at my apartment, stretched diagonally across my entire bed and eating as many hot dogs as I wanted. My roommate/landlord/co-worker/friend, Jack, and I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (super-entertaining) and Prometheus (ridiculous (abortion machine!) but fun to watch) on his giant 3-D TV, and then I watched The Great Gatsby (teeeeerrible and so, so sweaty) and Martha Marcy May Marlene (amaaaaazing both in acting and cinematography and creepy as hell) in my immense free time.

Saturday night, my friend Ash had a bunch of us over for Early Thanksgiving at her apartment in Queens that has a kitchen big enough to cook a multi-course dinner in. The menu included gougeres, clam chowder, turkey slathered in herbs, shepherd’s pie, cornbread and chorizo stuffing, Brussels sprouts salad, pumpkin Gorgonzola flan, and caramelized apple spice cake decorated with marzipan pumpkins she had formed and painted herself. It was insane. She is insane.

pumpkin Gorgonzola flan

Yesterday, Kamran came back to town, and his friend Gary from back home came to stay with him, and we all went to Jean-Georges for a tasting menu. We’d had a hard time figuring out the best place to take a tasting menu virgin, so I’d made a reservation for J-G and put us on the waiting list for Per Se and Torrisi. J-G called on Saturday afternoon to confirm the reservation, and then, literally two minutes later, Per Se called to offer us a spot. FOILED! Poor Gary only got his first tasting from a three-Michelin-starred restaurant and not the BEST three-Michelin-starred restaurant.

And tonight, I’m going home to Ohio for Thanksgiving. Pretty good livin’.