
Donut Burger!
In Syracuse, NY the big question in September will be "Do you want fries with that doughnut"?
A food booth in Syracuse will unveil the "Big Kahuna Donut Burger" at this year's New York State Fair. For between $5 and $6, the adventurous eater will get a quarter-pound burger in between slices of a grilled, glazed doughnut. Toss on some cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato and onion and you've got yourself a 1,500-calorie meal.
America's state fairs can be counted on to provide foods featuring offbeat ingredient combinations. Wisconsin has chocolate covered bacon on a stick, you can get fried beer in Texas, Massachusetts provides fried jelly beans and North Carolina has the "Koolickle," pickles soaked in Kool-Aid.
New York's fair opens Aug. 25!


Honey Badgerette with Lucy Lawless
For all you Honey Badger fans out there, straight off the presses (or to be more accurate straight off of YouTube), we now introduce the Honey Badgerette!
Star Craft Theme Park in China
What seemed like the stuff of a fanboy fantasy, a theme park dedicated to mega-hits World of Warcraft and Starcraft has opened its gates in China. Most noteably dubbed “World Joyland,” the park is located north of Shanghai. Watch out Mickey..the Horde is about to rush your castle!
Unfortunately, the park’s not exactly authorized by Activision or Blizzard Entertainment, but if you don’t read Chinese, you probably wouldn’t realize that. Technically, the World of Warcraft section of the park is called the “Terrain of Magic” (because, after all, there’s magic in Warcraft), and the Starcraft portion is referred to as the “Universe of Starship.” Authorized names? Who needs ‘em!
The park itself is about 600,000 square feet — roughly ¼ of a square mile, or 148 acres. The builders spent $31 million putting it together. Beyond the rides, they also included oversized gaming and tech R&D facilities in the park — you know, in case gamers feel separation anxiety from their gaming systems. If you’re a ride enthusiast, though, there are plenty to choose from – including a Warcraft-themed log-ride called “Splash of Monster Blood” and the StarCraft-ian “Wrath of Rathelon” drop tower ride.
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Get Your Glee on…
...and Sing! The Danish acapella group Local Vocals has put together a medley of everyone's favorite pump-up dance jams from the 90s and recreated them without the use of any instruments. The resulting megamix is basically a seven-minute walk down memory lane, only with dance music, so it's more exciting than that -- a power-walk down memory lane.
It's the perfect thing to keep open in a tab and play while you work today. And while everyone sounds great, we've got to say our favorite singer is definitely the guy with the awesome beard at the center of the bottom row.
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Comic-Con Winners and Losers
Now that another Comic-Con has passed leaving us battered and fatigued, it’s time to look back on the panels that set up shop inside Hall H. The good news is that there was more good to behold this year, though whenever things got tedious, the crowd turned restless and pondered what other awesome panels they were missing. Let’s take a look at the highs and lows of Hall H this year…
The Winners:
Twilight: Breaking Dawn: Part 1 – While it may not be the traditional fanboy movie, Twi-hards turned out in force, and to say the place was packed is an understatement : When the doors opened to Hall H on Thursday morning, about 5,000 seats were available for over 7,000 fans. This goes without saying, but every clip and every shot of a shirtless Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner was met with shrieks of delirium. With Bill Condon’s direction, this latest Twilight movie looks like the best of the bunch, although that isn’t saying much, is it? Sony Pictures Panel – Sony was one of the few studios willing to roll the dice inside Hall H with some high-end properties and they came away with strong buzz. You can read the full Sony recap here, but suffice to say, the crowd was buzzing from clips from The Amazing Spiderman, 30 Minutes or Less, Total Recall and, yes, even Ghost Rider 2. The panel proved that if you get a nice mix of solid properties to present, the Hall H crowd will show their appreciation. And the surprise appearance of Andrew Garfield delivering a passionate speech pre-Spiderman panel got the crowd pumped up. Knights of Badassdom – In retrospect, hosting a panel centered in the world of live-action role players at a convention where people dress up as their favorite heroes and villains was a smart move by IndieVest. A packed Hall H cheered and laughed at the footage shown from this comedy starring Ryan Kwanten, Summer Glau and Peter Dinklage. Check out the trailer which premiered inside Hall H to loud applause. Snow White and the Huntsman - This panel really could have gone either way, considering no actual footage had been shot yet. With the presence of curious Twilight/Kristen Stewart fans packing the massive room, Universal managed to pull ahead in the Snow White race after Relativity’s Tarsem Singh’s (Immortals, 300) version debuted a single photo of Lily Collins as Snow White. Universal not only presented a Rupert Sanders sizzle reel, but we got a first look at the concept art for the dwarves, Sam Claflin’s Prince, Chris Hemsworth as The Huntsman, Charlize Theron’s Queen and Stewart’s Snow White. And on top of all that, Hall H got to view a short concept trailer featuring stand-in actors that gave us a taste of the grandeur and scope of Sanders’ movie. Time will tell if the buzz created from this Comic-Con weekend will carry over to box office success, but Huntsman certainly made a strong appearance. Haywire – Speaking of Relativity, their panel was a tale of two sides. On the one side, there was the mind-numbingly tedious Raven panel that included a generic trailer invoking the tone of Seven mixed with Edgar Allen Poe. On the other (winning) side, there was the Haywire panel, featuring director Steven Soderbergh, MMA fighter Gina Carano making her Comic-Con debut and Channing Tatum. The crowd ate up the footage and during Q&A one audience member pretty much voiced the thought of many in the crowd, saying, “It’s nice to finally get a female action hero who you can believe is capable of kicking [butt].” Watch the trailer that premiered Friday in Hall H below. Immortals – If there was an “on-the-fence” category, this movie would fall into the top spot. While the 3D visuals and action sequences look impressive, there is much to be desired as far as the actual story is concerned. Director Tarsem Singh even said, “Most directors start by conceiving a plot and character, I don’t work that way. I start with an image and then proceed to build my movie from there.” That should be a red flag that translates to, “This movie may not have a great story, but we’re gonna wow you to pieces with our camera work and CGI.” Overall though, if you liked 300, you’ll love Immortals. Grab the popcorn and get ready to watch the heads roll November 11th. Drive – Easily the best trailer and quite possibly one of the better clips that appeared on the giant screen inside Hall H. The panel consisted of a melding of Guillermo del Toro’s Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive. Guy Pearce sat with del Toro while Carey Mulligan and Ron Perlman were seated next to Refn. Since pictures speak a thousand words, there may be no limit to the number of adjectives and adverbs moving pictures can convey. Check out the red-band trailer that had Hall H buzzing, courtesy of IGN.The Losers:
The Raven – As mentioned above, Relativity’s panel was split, response-wise. Instead of rolling out a pre-screening panel for Cowboys & Aliens or bringing the cast for The Change-Up or House at the End of the Street which stars Hunger Games’ Jennifer Lawrence, they brought out John Cusack, Luke Evans and Alice Eve to promo a movie that 95% of the Hall H crowd has surely forgotten by now. Surely they could have mustered up a few people from the compilation film Movie 43 that stars (deep breath) Emma Stone (who was already there for Spider-Man), Kristen Bell, Chloe Moretz, Elizabeth Banks, Hugh Jackman, Gerard Butler, Josh Duhamel, Anna Faris, Kate Winslet, Leslie Bibb, Jason Sudeikis, Naomi Watts, Kate Bosworth, Uma Thurman…the list is seemingly endless. Oh well, there’s always next year. Dorothy of Oz – The epitome of a “Death Panel.” Summertime Entertainment trotted out Patrick Stewart for his Comic-Con debut, much to the crowd’s delight. They even sang Happy Birthday to the man, led by Megan Hilty who joined him on stage. Missing from the panel though were leads Lea Michele, Hugh Dancy, Kelsey Grammar and Martin Short, who could have livened this panel up considerably. Also missing was the note in the Comic-Con program that mentioned that this was an animated musical, something that caught a lot of people off-guard and had them heading to the exits after the first clip screened. The only bright side to this panel was that it was an hour long (though it felt much longer) and was preceded by the always entertaining Kevin Smith. 20th Century Fox Panel – Overall, the Fox presentation left much to be desired. That’s not to say the presentation didn’t have its moments including first footage from Prometheus, Ridley Scott receiving a huge ovation while appearing via satellite from Iceland and LOST writer Damon Lindelof doing a great job at moderating the panel. But when the panel concluded, all we got was that Prometheus was a dark 3D sci-fi flick shot on a grand scale, Charlize Theron looks great as she closes in on her 36th birthday, Scott will never shoot anything without 3D ever again, Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried were visibly nervous making their Comic-Con debut, and a bunch of clips from Rise of the Planet of the Apes that pounded into our heads how awesome the CGI and Andy Serkis’ acting is. It would have been nice if Fox presented something from The Three Stooges movie (if for no other reason, to hear the fanboys lose their minds with Sofia Vergara on stage). The good news is that their 2012 slate of films looks promising, including action flick Protection and hopefully, fingers crossed, The Wolverine? Fright Night - If you thought this was a remake that nobody really cared about, Hall H pretty much confirmed it for you. In the dearth of vampire properties that descended upon San Diego, including Twilight and True Blood, Dreamworks’ Fright Night presentation pretty much fell on deaf ears. The 3D isn’t all that impressive and the crowd barely managed to bring their hands together following each clip. Maybe this was just an issue with scheduling, as Fright Night preceded the highly anticipated Sony panel. But even if that were the case, Sony featured Total Recall as one of their presentations, which included Underworld director Len Wiseman and one of the sexiest, badass vampires in movie history, Kate Beckinsale. Not to mention Colin Farrell was on that panel as well. Fright Night hits theaters August 19 and the bargain bin by Christmas. So there you have it. Did we leave any panels out? Did you make it over to Hall H? Comment below with some of your favorite panels and what you thought could have been better.via
The Muppet Bar!
SFist reports that San Francisco's much-anticipated muppet-themed bar, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, has at last opened its doors. Located in the hipsterfied but culturally diverse Mission District, the bar is owned by the same group responsible for several other popular City watering holes.
"Mayhem" will serve infantilized pub-style food (Sample item: fried chicken with a jelly doughnut, although there's allegedly a burger garnished with ghost pepper--the world's hottest--as well, which would be pretty messed up to serve to a kid, in retrospect...).
The bar had a soft opening last week ("It's a nice place to sit and have a can of Bud on a Wednesday night," reports neighborhood daily Mission Mission). The interior is apparently a work in progress; there's a distinct lack of Muppet memorabilia, but word is there's more decor to be done and Jameson on tap is coming soon.
While I'm not sure how the Muppet's correlate with drinking your face off, like most people, I have a deep fondness for the show (especially those chickens!). Whether or not that encourages patronage is anyone's guess, but the Mission embraces quirkiness. Here's looking at you, Dr. Teeth.
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Who’s Got Your Name?
In CBS's 'Same Name,' celebrities will trade lives with ordinary folk who share their very famous name. First up? None other than 'Baywatch' star David Hasselhoff.
The series premiere (Sun., July 24 at 9PM) sees Hoff trade lives with Texan David Hasselhoff Jr. In the preview video below, Hoff meets Hoff Jr. As if that weren't enough for you, Hoff Sr. is also there to get in on the Hoffy times. Everybody get Hoffed tonight!
After the hugs and introduction, celeb-Hoff whips out some autographs for the family to show off to their fellow Lake Jackson residents.
Take a gander at all the Hoffs!
A Date with Mila
Marine Sergeant Scott Moore has a few months before the 2011 Marine Corps Ball to prep for his big date with…Mila Kunis. Moore released an invitation via YouTube to the Friends with Benefits actress over the weekend to be his date to the ball, which she accepted shortly after it was posted. You can check out Moore’s invitation below.
Moore, who is with the 3rd Battalion 2nd Marines regiment stationed in Musu Quala, Afghanistan, can thank Kunis’ co-star Justin Timberlake as perhaps being the most patriotic wingman in the history of wingmen. Kunis told Fox News last weekend that Timberlake asked her, “Have you seen this? Have you heard about this? You need to do it for your country.” Kunis responded, “I’ll go. I’ll do it for you.” Could this be opening the door for just anyone to ask a star on a date? If you were in Moore’s shoes, who would you ask to go to the ball?
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A Weezer Cruise!
Having long ago disregarded the blurry line between irony and sincerity, it makes perfect sense that Weezer would involve itself in a moneymaking scheme more commonly associated with aging classic-rock bands than indie rock. But the bill for The Weezer Cruise—which sets sail Jan. 19-23, launching in Miami and heading toward the Mexican island of Cozumel—is far from tired: Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, Gene Ween and Dave Dreiwitz, Wavves, The Antlers, Yuck, Free Energy, Boom Bip, J. Mascis, Lou Barlow, Keepaway, Ozma, The Nervous Wreckords, The Knocks, Sleeper Agent, and Yacht Rock Review.
Weezer, of course, will also perform, “on the pool deck as the ship pulls out and then again in the indoor main theater,” according to the band’s press release. Along with shows taking place on four stages, “fans will participate in games and activities, swim in the ship's pool, play a few rounds of bingo, or order from the 24-hour room service menu.” There also will be time to hang out on the beaches of Cozumel.
We gotta say, as weird as this sounds in a lot of ways, it also looks pretty awesome. Prices start at $799 per person for double cabins, or four people can sail together for $599 per person. You can sign up for the pre-sale here; pre-sale bookings go on sale July 21, and tickets to the general public go on sale Aug. 3.


