New Food Product Roundup

Lucky us, we get to review new food products that are sent to us! Here are a few awesome new ones that we recently received:

Utz Pub Fries/Cheddar Cheese Flavor--Leave it to the folks at Utz to take a product that someone else is making and make it better. I remember the Andy Capp’s “Fries” as a kid and these are like an upscale version. There is a strong onion undertone but the burst of real cheese flavor makes up for it.

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Review: Rockport Wispen

I had the pleasure of reviewing a pair of dark brown Rockport Wispen shoes and from the time I took them out of the box these shoes have impressed. I knew I would enjoy them the moment I first saw the rich dark brown leather of these men’s dress loafer’s.

The Wispen is straight to the point in its styling as its clean design is elegant and the full grain leather is easy to clean. These Rockports incorportate EVA adidas adiPRENE, which is a highly shock-absorbent cushioning that protects the heel at impact. They are among the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn.

Like many Rockports the Wispen has as a polyurethane sole with flex grooves and a lighty padded collar that add comfort to the sole and heels of your feet. Quality, clean design and comfort are what stand out most on the Wispens and it all a started when I opened the box!

  

On our radar: The beautiful Minka Kelly

Fans of “Friday Night Lights” have known about Minka Kelly for years, but we think she has what it takes to become a household name. I noticed her recently while watching “500 Days of Summer” on cable. Minka grabbed my attention with her beautiful eyes and killer smile even though she had a very minor part at the end of the film. I was also pleasantly surprised last night when Minka appeared on “Entourage” in a brief cameo as herself as Vince tries to hit on her at Eminem’s private party.

UPDATE: Since our original post, Minka Kelly landed one of the starring roles on “Charlie’s Angel’s.” We’ve updated our slideshow to add some photos from that series, and we have some pics from “Friday Night Lights” and “The Roommate.”

We also have a page with more celebrity slideshows, so check it out!

  

Seen Your Video: Music video directors who made the jump to the big screen

It was not along ago that there were only a couple paths to the director’s chair on a studio lot. Many went to film school and did time toiling for Roger Corman, while others jumped over from another profession within the industry. (Joel Schumacher, for example, began as a costume designer.) In the ’80s, there suddenly was a new way to get into the game – use a music video as your calling card.

Now, of course, we’re at the point where people receive job offers after posting a clip to YouTube (Lasse Gjertsen, who made the live stop-motion clips “Hyperactive” and “Amateur,” has received several offers of employment, but has turned them all down), and the music video path is now a well-worn road. Indeed, there are two movies coming out in the next few weeks (“Never Let Me Go” and “The Social Network”) that were helmed by men who got their start telling rock stars to act like rock stars, which inspired us to take a look at the more prominent directors of the music video world and track their success. The lesson we learned: even when someone has so many small successes, it only takes one big disappointment to kill them. (Big, big shoutout to the good people at the Music Video Database for helping to clear the cob webs, as well as opening our eyes on just how prolific some of these directors were.)

Julien Temple

You know it’s a Julien Temple video when: The entire piece looks like it was filmed in one giant tracking shot. (Look closer – the edits are there.)
Breakout video: ABC’s “Poison Arrow,” and the short film “Mantrap” the band made in conjunction with their (spectacular) album The Lexicon of Love.
Big screen debut: Temple is the only one on this list whose feature film debut came before his music video debut, though some would argue – and we wouldn’t disagree – that the movie in question, the Sex Pistols “documentary” “The Great Rock ‘n Roll Swindle,” is actually just a long-form music video.
Best Temple video you never saw: Paul McCartney, “Beautiful Night,” from Macca’s Flaming Pie album. Gorgeous, and the tune is a good one, too.

Russell Mulcahy

You know it’s a Russell Mulcahy video when: Dozens of extras are wearing body paint, or when a prop nearly kills Simon Le Bon. In slow motion.
Breakout video: Mulcahy was arguably the first “name” director of the music video world, helping clips for Ultravox, Kim Carnes and the Tubes – and, let us not forget, the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star,” the first video MTV ever played – but it was the clip for Duran Duran’s“Hungry Like the Wolf,” along with the other videos he shot for the songs from Rio, that made him a household name…with music geeks like us, anyway.
Big screen debut: “Razorback,” a monster movie about, yep, a bloodthirsty Australian pig. Mulcahy’s luck on the big screen changed two years later when he made the cult classic “Highlander”…then lost some luster when he made “Highlander II: The Quickening.”
Best Mulcahy video you never saw: “The Flame,” the overlooked third single from Duran Duran spinoff group Arcadia. Le Bon is in full Barry Bostwick mode as he attends a fancy dinner party and the hosts try to kill him Agatha Christie-style.


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Friday Video – Cee Lo Green, “Fuck You”

Here’s how quickly the window opens and closes in pop culture these days: last week, when we first saw the clip for Cee Lo Green’s stupidly catchy and hilariously foul song “Fuck You,” the video only had a couple hundred thousand plays. As of this writing (three days before post), it was up to 1.25 million, which is our way of admitting that we probably should have posted this video last week. But Kaci Battaglia would not be denied. And really, who are we to say no to a girl with a bod like that?

Some friends of ours have complained about little things in this song, like the way Cee Lo’s focus shifts from singing to the girl to singing to the guy she’s with. Another friend complained that it perpetuates the stereotype of all women being gold diggers. Yet another joked that white people like this song because it allows them to say “nigga” in public. To the second point, we’d simply like to say that Cee Lo is saying that this girl is a gold digger, not all of them. To the first point: honestly, who cares? Catchy is catchy, and this song is Krazy-Glue catchy. As for that last point, well, he might be on to something.

We’ve complained in the past that the one thing that the digital revolution destroyed was the mass pop culture moment (Thriller, Madonna, Nirvana, etc.) How many of those were there in the last decade? Outside of “Hey Ya” and “Umbrella,” we’re at a loss to name one. But you can definitely add this one to the list.