Give Me Liberty ... Or Merchandising

Filed under: City Living, Stuff We Don't Love

No offense to the home team.

 

The red carpet for the All-Star Game parade on Sixth Avenue is long gone, but 42 commemorative eight-and-a-half foot statues of liberty are still hanging around Manhattan.

I mistook the first one I saw for one of those street performers who paint themselves pale green and strike the pose for hours. Only this one was red. I thought it might be a political commentary -- Liberty on fire, Liberty gone awry -- but when I got closer, I noticed that this crowned lady really didn't budge at all. Plus, she was slightly larger than human scale. And made in China.That's one detail that Major League Baseball's site neglected to mention in its open letter to the people of France.

People of New York -- or anywhere else -- who like the statues can take home a nine-inch replica for $24.99.

Don't get me wrong. I like the idea of multicolored statuettes, a la Ivan Chermayeff's 1974 poster for the Museum of Immigration at the Statue of Liberty. The larger-than-life Statues of Liberty on Parade smack more of commercialism than freedom of expression. I can't help equating them with the "Cows on Parade" that grazed New York streets in 2000.

But maybe I'm just carrying a torch for the Lady of the Harbor.

Laura Silver

9:42 AM ET | 07-18-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Juiced

Filed under: Stuff We Don't Love

Eleven Heath Bars in here.

Baskin Robbin's Large Heath Bar Shake has 73 ingredients, 2,310 calories and 108 grams of fat. That's disgusting. Men's Health named it "The Unhealthiest Drink in America." Makes you a little thirsty, huh? Apparently, the average American drinks a few too many calories every day. Here are the other drinks that made their "unhealthiest" list:

Worst "Healthy" Drink
Glaceau VitaminWater (any flavor; 20 oz bottle)
130 calories
33 grams sugar

Worst Juice Imposter
Arizona Kiwi Strawberry (23.5 oz can) 360 calories 84 g of sugar

Worst Smoothie
Jamba Juice Peanut Butter Moo'd Power Smoothie (30 oz)
1,170 calories
169 g sugars
30 g fat

Worst Summer Cocktail
Pina Colada
625 calories
75 g sugars

Lauren Spohrer

2:04 PM ET | 06- 3-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

Journey: The Video Game(s)!?!

Filed under: Stuff We Don't Love

I loved the piece Dan did today, yet I still hate Journey. I'm not going to go into detail here, as that would just invite a brutal public flaying in the comments. Consider the white flag waved.

What I propose is a pact of solidarity between Journey lovers and foes. If you like Journey, please at least stand with me in saying that the Journey video games are a spectacular embarrassment to the band and gaming. And if you hate Journey, you're really going to suffer when you hear their songs rendered as 8-bit bleep boops in a bleatingly loud arcade game.

Painful as that is, game execs didn't know when to quit. They also released a home version for the 2600! After the jump, savor the deadly serious promo for the "world's first rock video game" and ponder whether you have the courage to help "Journey escape through mobs of love-crazed groupies. . . and live to rock another day."

Continue reading "Journey: The Video Game(s)!?!" »

Mark Garrison

9:31 AM ET | 06- 2-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Now That's a Bad Review

Filed under: Stuff We Don't Love

I don't think they like it.

From the Spiritual Science Research Foundation.

 

If you're like me and happily contributed your $12 to the $101 million opening of Iron Man, you probably saw the trailer for the new Mike Myers vehicle, The Love Guru. Looks pretty terrible, but the Spiritual Science Research Foundation says the film commits a sin worse than just being dumb. For more on their objection to the film, try this pdf. To get a sense for just how bad it is in the eyes of the SSRF, note that murdering an average person is also worth 30 demerits.

Here's my question: What movie would you sentence to eternal damnation?

Ian Chillag

8:31 AM ET | 05- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (12) | e-mail post

Bon Appetit: Frogs' Legs Recipe

Filed under: Stuff We Don't Love, Stuff We Love

Chef Bernard Loiseau's "Cuisses de Grenouille."

Samira Bouhin, AFP via Getty Images

 

On the show today we talked about the quintessential French dish, frogs' legs ("cuisses de grenouille" en français, which translates to frogs thighs). Our guest, writer Mort Rosenblum, mentioned his favorite recipe, created by 3-star chef Bernard Loiseau.

If you have some frogs' legs and goose fat handy, the recipe, courtesy of The Food Network is after the jump:

Continue reading "Bon Appetit: Frogs' Legs Recipe" »

Tricia McKinney

2:50 PM ET | 04-28-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Emergency Krulwich Deployed!

Filed under: Stuff We Don't Love

A guest fell out at the last minute today, so we had to employ an "Emergency Krulwich."

The head coach of the Rutgers women's basketball team, C. Vivian Stringer, was supposed to be on to talk about her new book, "Standing Tall: A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph." Well, she didn't quite make it to the phone -- she may have been busy, you know, coaching her team in the NCAA tournament.

Whatever her excuse for not being able to talk with us, we had it covered.

Click here to listen to how it all went down this morning.

Matt Martinez

12:23 PM ET | 03-28-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

The Song Stylings of Barbara Walters

Filed under: Stuff We Don't Love

We had the Moldy Peaches on our show a few weeks ago and they played a bit of their song "Anyone Else But You"--you know, the song from Juno. I have to say (and I know this is unpopular) I was not a big fan. Too sing-songy. I told director Jacob as much as we listened to the interview in the control room.

Flash forward to Sunday night and the Barbara Walters pre-Oscars special on ABC. I didn't watch her interview with Ellen Page, but director Jacob did. He forgot to tell me until today that Barbara Walters got Ellen Page to whip out a guitar and sing the song. And Barbara sang along.

Sorry to Barbara Walters (full disclosure: I once worked at "The View" and I liked her a lot), but this does not make me like the song any better:

Tricia McKinney

2:19 PM ET | 02-27-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post