In general, Canada’s correctly beloved Bloody Caesar is nothing more or less than a Bloody Mary made with Clamato or a similar tomato/clam juice beverage rather than straight tomato juice. In fact, you are certainly not ill-advised to simply make that substitution with the previously described DOTW Bloody Mary recipe. Nevertheless, I recently tried out this particular recipe provided by, naturally, the Canadian Club people to promote their new Canadian Club Classic 12 Year-Old whisky and I highly recommend it.

Yes, you can make a bloody beverage with not only vodka and gin but with various types of whiskey, and I have to say that this particular variant on the classic is pretty fantastic. It’s about as refreshing as an alcoholic cocktail can be while having plenty of spice to it. It really does seem to taste best with CC’s newest brand, but this version of the Bloody Caesar works very nicely with vodka or regular Canadian Club as well. The trick here is that this is the first Bloody Anything I’ve tried that comes out of shaker rather than being built in the glass.

The Bloody Caesar, CC Variant

1.5 ounces Canadian Club Classic 12, or alternative boozes as preferred and available
4 ounces Clamato/tomato-mollusk beverage of your choice
4 dashes Tabasco/Louisiana hot sauce of your preference
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce (I like Lea & Perrin’s, when I find it on sale)
1 dash black pepper
1 lemon wedge
1 small celery stalk (optional but very nice garnish)

Pour your liquor and tomato-clam beverage into a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the hot sauce, Worcestershire and pepper. Squeeze the juice out of your lemon wedge and throw the spent edge into the mix. Shake very vigorously. Strain over fresh ice into a highball/Collins glass. Add your celery, if you’ve got it.

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I did try one more variant of this, using an inexpensive brand of blended Scotch. It wasn’t half bad. I hereby christen it the Bloody Macbeth. Just be careful when ordering it near nervous Shakespeareans.

Click here to listen to San Sebastian’s Relations on Spotify

Behold, the societal plague of the 2050s: aging hipsters.

Actually, this Ontario quintet has some fun with the idea of an older guy getting his swerve on as he leaves his wife at home for the night, steps out with the band, shots are downed and, well, we all know that no good comes from multiple rounds of shots. Especially if you can’t pay the bill. Is the PBR reference innocuous, or a sly dig? We like to think it’s the latter.

Remember when bands used to smile for photographs?

While the video is cute, we would not be featuring it here if we didn’t really dig the song the clip is promoting. “Baby” beats Brooklyn-by-way-of-Madison garage poppers Locksley at their own game, deftly blending crunchy guitars with super-catchy melodic hooks. Singer Mike Veerman sounds a bit like Caleb Followill as well, which makes us wonder how much more we’d like Kings of Leon if they wrote songs this tight and fun.

We’re introducing our new Double Trouble series where we feature photos of two of our models posing together. Here we have Jennie and Roxana in a set we’ve pulled from the archives taken in the Bahamas back in 2007 from our coverage of the American Dream Girl Pageant. Here we have both girls in their Bullz-Eye shirts and bikini bottoms hanging out in the billiards room at the incredible NYGÅRD Cay resort owned by Peter Nygård. Both girl look amazing in this tropical paradise and you can see much more of them in their Bullz-Eye Girl Next Door shoots.

Jennie is a beautiful brunette with an all-natural, all-American look. She was featured as our Girl Next Door for April 2007. Roxana is a blonde beauty from the South who has an amazing accent to go along with her sexy smile and she was featured in May of that year.

Enjoy the slideshow and check out their galleries for more.

You trained for months, sliding on your running shoes to head out into the rain, snow or blistering heat, logging miles when your legs were begging for some well-deserved down time in front of the TV, all in preparation for that moment you had circled on your calendar for ages: race day.

Whether you’re a competitive runner with dozens of races under your belt or a newbie who’s anxious to cross the finish line for the first time, there’s nothing quite like race day. After all the training, adversity and anticipation, it all comes to a head on race day. Doesn’t matter if it’s a 5K or a marathon; all that matters is the task at hand, the race that lies ahead of you. Even better, you’re surrounded by people who’ve gone through the same experience to get to this moment, and most of them are just as excited to see what the day holds. As a runner, you’re part of a growing community — the number of marathon finishers rose to a record 467,000 between 2008 and 2009, a jump of nearly 10% — and on race day, you can see it. You can feel it. It’s an awesome experience.

But eventually, the race will end. Whether you’re happy with your time or just happy to have finished, you’ll cross the line (or get booted from the course) and that moment you waited for, the dedication and hard work…will be over. Then what?

Like the much more common hangover, a race hangover can cause physical pain — body soreness (obviously), a headache (if you haven’t properly rehydrated), and even nausea and diarrhea. Unpleasant, perhaps, but true in some extreme cases. For me, though, the toughest part is the emotional letdown once the excitement wears off and everyday life takes control again. I felt fantastic after I finished my first half marathon last year — well, okay, I felt like shit, but I felt good about feeling like shit. I’d worked my tail off all summer and ran four miles farther than I had ever run before, and I finished with a strong time. It was a great day.

Then I realized I didn’t have anything to train for anymore. After being so focused on this one race for so long, I suddenly felt lazy and uncommitted. Was I going to fall back into my life of inactivity and excuses now that race day had passed? The mental and emotional shift — from race prep to race recovery — was pretty startling. The cure? Well, I signed up for the Vegas half marathon two months later, but different people will handle their race hangovers differently.

If you choose to jump back into the racing community, be sure you’re realistic about your goals and that you give your body enough time to recover. Obviously, your down time should be longer between longer races, but as always, just listen to your body and be smart when you choose your next race. Don’t let a particularly persistent race hangover force you to commit to something you can’t handle. If you’re new to this, take it slow and enjoy it along the way. As you get more miles under your feet, your racing frequency will jump too. That’s when it really gets fun.

Nearly six weeks later, my hangover from the Chicago Marathon is still lingering. Fortunately, I finally figured out why everything went so horribly wrong — I was taking Tylenol with codeine to help me sleep through my shoulder pain, and didn’t know that codeine can cause dehydration and electrolyte imbalance, a particularly brutal combination for a marathon — but now I’m just anxious to get a quality time on the board after finishing more than an hour slower in Chicago than I had planned. Not wanting to waste my eight months of marathon training, I’m aiming to run the Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Marathon on January 15. Tick tock.

My legs have been more tired and sore than anticipated as I’ve ramped my training back up, which makes me wonder if I’m trying to climb this mountain too soon after my last attempt. I’m being cautious, though — I haven’t signed up for the race yet or booked any flights — and I finally had a strong run earlier today, so I feel like I’m on my way. I’d prefer to not have to train through an Ohio December, but so be it. As long as my body holds up, I’ll be out there on January 15, gunning for 3:30 again.

Some hangovers are just too strong to ignore.

Cadillac introduced a completely new sedan here at the LA Auto Show. Check out the slideshow of the new XTS above and you’ll see that Cadillac is definitely on the right track as they continue the evolution of their approach to design. Cadillac executives promised that there would be no more “design by committee” at the luxury brand and they presented the XTS as a representation of a clear direction for the brand.

As you can see from the photos, the design is very impressive. It retains some of a hard lines and edges we’ve seen from Cadillac but the XTS represents a more refined expression of this approach.

Most importantly, the XTS will be the first model to feature Cadillac’s new CUE system that was created to provide a comprehensive in-vehicle experience. We previewed the CUE system last month and were very impressed as it presents a great leap forward for the in-car user experience. Here’s what we said then: “New innovations like tactile feedback on your finger when you touch the 8-inch center stack screen and proximity sensing that has control buttons pop up on the screen as you hand approaches make this system very user friendly, and the customization features make CUE a very powerful system that greatly enhances the driver experience.”

The new XTS also features a 3.6L direct injection engine and advanced all-wheel drive system and is rated at an estimated 300 horsepower. It comes with 19-inch wheels standard and optional 20-inch wheels along with a 6-speed automatic transmission.

Cool safety innovations include a new “virtual bumper” system that will automatically stop the car at low speeds when an obstruction like a telephone pole is picked up by the sensors. Other features include warning systems for things like lane departure. The Safety Alert Seat feature vibrates either the left or right side of the driver’s seat cushion as a warning depending on the location of impending concerns.

The new XTS is a 2013 model that will go in sale in the spring of 2012 and will be positioned directly above the CTS family in Cadillac’s lineup. With its elegant design and the new CUE system, the XTS gives Cadillac another formidable entry in the luxury sedan market.

It has been outgrossed by 15 other movies so far this year – even “Rio” and “The Smurfs,” God help us, made more money – but there isn’t a moment to hit the multiplexes this year that was as jaw-dropping, as pulse-pounding, as the scene J.J. Abrams stages in “Super 8,” where his plucky filmmakers witness a collision between a military train and a pickup truck that ends all sorts of ugly for everyone involved. Well, the kids get out unscathed, at least physically. Mentally, they all officially came of age, whether they wanted it or not.

Back to the point, though: that train scene beats the hell out of the latest “Transformers” movie when it comes to packing the thrills. Sure, there was that one sweet scene with Sam getting jettisoned out of, and back into, Bumblebee, but for a two-and-a-half-hour movie, your best scene should be longer than 10 seconds, don’t you think? Abrams certainly thought so, which is why he made sure the train crash packed a wallop.

Come on, you didn’t think we’d show you the whole thing, did you?

Seriously, if you didn’t see “Super 8,” it is definitely worth picking up when it hits shelves next week for this scene alone – there is even a massive bonus feature dedicated to every possible aspect of the train sequence that you can imagine, along with a few you can’t imagine – but while the boys and the alien are the main focus of the story, just try to take your eyes off of Elle Fanning, as she basically takes the entire cast to school with no less than three showstopping scenes, which are (Warning! Spoilers ahead):

1. Her first rehearsal for Charles’ movie is so powerful that the extra who’s supposed to be talking on the phone in the background forgets to keep talking and instead stares at Alice (Fanning’s character), mouth agape.

2. Her zombie impression. Flawless.

3. Her tearful confession to Joe that his mom took her dad’s shift after he had called in drunk.

While we didn’t know anyone, ANYONE, who used the word ‘mint’ as slang for cool or great back then (or even now), Abrams captured something special with “Super 8.” It would be a pity for the movie to get lost in the shuffle.

“Hung” is a series that, not unlike a particular physical attribute of its lead character, caught my eye immediately. The reason it did so, however, was less because of the apparent anaconda residing in the trousers of Ray Drecker, played by Thomas Jane, and more because of the people behind the scenes.

Now in its third season on HBO, “Hung” was created by Dmitry Lipkin and Colette Burson. I was well familiar with Lipkin’s name from his previous small-screen creation, “The Riches,” which lasted for an all-too-short two seasons on FX. As such, I would’ve followed him anywhere his next project might have taken him…and when I discovered that it revolved around a well-endowed high school baseball coach who turns to prostitution as a way of making ends meet, I’d have to say that I wasn’t entirely surprised that it took him to a premium cable network.

Alas, as is often the case in the life of a TV critic, there never seem to be enough hours in the day to keep up with every series you’d like to watch, and although I was decidedly curious to see how a concept such as this might play as a series, I wasn’t really able to give it a good look until Season 1 made its DVD debut. Unsurprisingly, those first ten episodes proved highly entertaining, making it easy as pie to dole out a four-star review while musing on the conceptual (if not necessarily tonal) similarities between “Hung” and “Breaking Bad,” both focusing on what a father is willing to do to make ends meet for his family. Sadly, though, I wasn’t nearly as charmed by the goings-on in Season 2, and by the end of those ten episodes, I’d reached a point where I was left wondering whether or not it was going to worth the time and effort to follow the series into its third season.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’re having a great time at the 2011 LA Auto Show, and naturally we’ve noticed all the beautiful booth babes helping to promote the new cars.

Check back as we hope to upload more photos tomorrow.

It may seem late in the year to take a look back on the death of Steve Jobs and the legacy he left behind. We’re more than a month out at this point, which even to me feels more like a year, but I think this is a good time for it. The iPhone 4S is now sweeping across the world, faster than most expected, bringing us one of those strange and uniquely Apple experiences, Siri. A lot of people thought the iPhone 4S was the wrong product to launch after Jobs stepped down from his position at the helm. To me, though, the iPhone 4S was maybe the last brilliant move from Jobs, with Siri giving us a look at the new Apple.

This won’t be a shining eulogy to Jobs as the greatest technological mind of our time. That’s not really my place and frankly, I don’t think it’s very accurate. My only point here is that Jobs left the world as he lived in it – carefully and intentionally.

The iPhone 4S was definitely a disappointing announcement for a lot of people. We had been hearing about the iPhone 5 for long enough that, in the light of Steve’s retirement, it seemed inevitable the iPhone 5 was the announcement to make. With Jobs gone, Apple needed to send a message that it was still plowing ahead, right? That it would be at the forefront of technology, always pushing to deliver the next great thing, right?

No. That has never been Apple. Apple has never been first to market. That’s not what Apple does. Apple is not about being the first anything on the market. Apple is about being the most complete experience on the market. When the iPod first launched there were dozens of MP3 players to compete with. The difference, of course, was iconic design and a simplified interface. It was simply better than the alternatives. The iPhone was no different, and please, let’s remember what the iPhone was like when it originally launched. You know, before the App Store. The product has definitely come a long way – Apple’s market cap is a testament to that – but when it launched it was simply a cleaner, more stylized, more complete way of doing things.

It’s also important to remember how Apple launches a product. It does so regardless of hype. It does so without even considering our expectations. Apple releases products when they are ready and that’s a big part of the company’s success. The iPad was a success at launch because it was a complete product. It wasn’t something pushed to market just to have a tablet. The iPad was actually late to the tablet game, but it has since gone on to define that segment of the market.

This is the Apple the world knows and loves. It is methodical. It is plodding. It is sometimes downright slow. But it is also beautiful and well-crafted and damn fun to use. In the wake of Steve Jobs’ death, that’s the Apple I hoped to see. When Apple starts pumping products out faster than you can buy them, then Apple is no longer Apple. The iPhone 4S is a quintessential Jobs-era product. It is an improvement on an already functioning piece of technology. It is beautiful. It is damn fun to use. It is only slightly more powerful than its predecessor but it’s still selling millions of units.

The truly weird part of Apple’s iPhone 4S announcement was Siri, a new digital assistant that launched as a beta. While Siri seems great when it works, it certainly doesn’t work well all the time. That’s the difference between Jobs’ Apple and Tim Cook’s Apple. I won’t say that Jobs wouldn’t release Siri in its current form. He might have. But if I had to make a bet, I’d say this was Cook’s call.

That’s not to say I think Tim Cook can’t keep Apple on top of the tech world. He will. If anything, the iPhone 4S proves that. It’s a conservative play from a traditionally conservative company, even under new leadership. It’s exactly the kind of product Jobs would launch with just a taste of something new. This is the future of Apple – solid products with just a taste of something new.

The Honda CR-V has been a consistent leader in the entry CUV market category for years. This category is exploding in popularity and more carmakers are introducing crossovers to compete in this space. With the all new 2012 model Honda has updated the CR-V and this fourth generation should help the company hold on to its leadership position. We traveled up to Michigan on a crisp November day to test drive the new CR-V and came away very impressed.

Exterior

As you can see from the photos, the updated design looks great. The front grille and wrap-around headlights are a nice improvement over the previous model. The overall look is more aerodynamic which also improves performance. The lines of the vehicle are much more aggressive and dynamic and should be a hit with buyers.

Interior

The most impressive feature of the interior would be the new one touch fold-down rear seat. The Honda engineers have crafted a clever method that has the 60/40 rear seats automatically fold down simply by the pull of a cord at either the side of the seat or a lever at the top of the seat. The lower seat cushion automatically pops up and the headrests and backside of the seat fold down and disappear below it. The result is a best in class cargo area.

I really liked the center stack and the overall feel of the dash. The new CR-V also has new high-tech features as all models include a Bluetooth HandsFreeLink phone interface (previously an available feature), a full-color intelligent Multi-Information Display (i-MID), a multi-angle rearview camera and an SMS text messaging function. Honda has also introduced Pandora Internet Radio as well. Many more features like the nav system are available as options.

Performance

The new CR-V sports a more efficient engine design with improved horsepower and torque, along with an all-new Real Time All-Wheel-Drive (AWD) with Intelligent Control System™. It’s powered by a 2.4-liter i-VTEC 4-cylinder engine with 185 horsepower and 163 lb-ft. of torque and has a standard 5-speed automatic transmission. As I drove the CR-V through the back roads in Michigan I was consistently impressed with the performance and handling. The vehicle has good acceleration and responsiveness and zips around corners with ease.

The CR-V also features best in class fuel economy with 23/31 MPG for the two-wheel drive and 22/33 for the AWD. Another interesting addition is the white-to-green ambient light on the dashboard. As the light moves to green the driver knows that the current driving patterns are resulting in better fuel economy.

Overview

The new CR-V is fun and functional, so I expect it will continue to have very broad appeal, with active singles and young couples being primary targets. It goes on sale on December 15th and you should check it out.