#195 - links & drinks 2011.

well...so today, for the first time in almost a year, i actually went back & checked out last year's top ten links & drinks list. in it, i described 2010 as an "often-shite year." hmm...i thought that 2011 was the often-shite year. who knew? 2011 was a year that, with that whole "lack of steady employment" thang going for me, i spent a LOT of time on the internet. on TWO separate occasions this year, i got my google reader down to ZERO. somebody please design me the appropriate nerd merit badge.

as is par for the course, much of my interwebz time was spent perusing food & drink sites, as i dreamed of all the things i could be cramming into my piehole. along the way, i came across a bunch of new blogs & tumblrs & whatnot, many of whom worked their way into the regular rotation.

all told, this year's list is comprised of eight new sites & two repeat members from last year's list. if you're looking to waste all your precious time on the internet, you can't go wrong with adding any of these sites to your daily regimen...enjoy!

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flea at laff #3: salvatore bklyn.

snack: open faced sandwich (ricotta, arugala, prosciutto, sea salt)
drink: san pellegrino aranciata

it's been a few weeks since i last made it out to the brooklyn flea, so this past saturday, i decided to get out of the apartment, get some fresh air & check out the flea scene. by the time i got up & got my lazy ass out the door, it was early afternoon & a beautiful seventy degree day out & i had a bunch of new albums on the ipod, so i was ready to rock. this week, i wasn't all that intrigued by the merchandise at the flea, but i did spend a few minutes at this one booth filled with books. there wasn't really anything worth reading though, but there were an abnormally high number of copies of twilight & the kite runner sprinkled throughout the books.

i'd only had a bowl of cereal earlier in the day, so after a few times weaving up & down the aisles, i was ready for a snack & stopped at the table for salvatore bklyn, who were set up close to the front of the market. salvatore was founded a few years back by two ladies from brooklyn (betsy & rachel) & first made a name for itself with ricotta cheese. their basic story is rachel went to italy, met this dude named salvatore who made bomb-ass ricotta cheese & she and betsy became great friends with him. upon returning to the states, they created a similar cheese & named it after him. then people tried it & were all like "day-yam." now you can get their cheese at all the hip cheese establishments & according to their website, "if cheese were a rock star, it'd be salvatore bklyn." hell, they don't even need vwls. tht's ttly rck str.

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#59 - the beautiful people.

a glimpse into the life of some people who are totally beautiful (on the outside, of course/at least):

rod blagojevich - so the former governor of illinois was on letterman tuesday night. that man's swooping helmet bangs are sooooooo astounding & slightly unreal & toupeeish. at one point in the interview, letterman asked him, "do you use shampoo & conditioner?" i think the answer is obvious. daily, his hair is bathed in milk & vegetable extracts & crushed olives or something before being hand-picked by a female gorilla. he's been all "i'm innocent. i'm innocent. i'm innocent" lately. i'd swear that he & roger clemens have the same pr firm, but i can't seem to find his name on the hendricks sports' management's web site...i did, however, come across this report they did that analyzes the greatness of roger clemens' career...at rogerclemensreport.com. beautiful. i was going to write something funny about the report, but that'd mean i'd have to read it first. so anyway, blago, with his beauty hair, it sucks that he's lost the governorship & i get that he wants to clear his name & not have his kids hate him (i've seen the first season of damages), but that man needs to give it a rest prontolike.

rose byrne - speaking of damages, i mean wow. rose byrne is BEAUTIFUL. AUSTRALIAN BEAUTIFUL. i've already hollywood-crush fallen for robin tunney & thora birch & zooey deschanel (& now that i think about it, alexis bledel on some level) & i put them all in the same genus amazicus black-haired ladius as ms byrne, so it only makes sense that she's my current hollywood crush. it helps that her character on damages is all smart & take-charge & sexy & damaged but trying to hide it at the same time...i'm pretty sure these traits make up my perfect female.

the people on beautifulpeople.net - obviously, if you're a beautiful person looking to meet other beautiful people so that you can breed & create your wholly-attractive master race, you should visit the official social networking site of beautiful people. judging by the photos on the site, beautiful people are pretty much white (or asian females), so keep that in mind when you decide to submit your photo to the beautiful people community & have them vote on whether or not you are beautiful enough to become a member...it also helps if you own a tanning salon and/or are unclear on the whereabouts of your shirt. fyi, the site's only supported in internet explorer (obviously), so we now know what browser the beautiful people prefer.

#59 - the beautiful people.
snack: dark chocolate chex mix
drink: archer farms beauty fortified pear lychee water beverage

so as i noted previously, moms always used to treat us to awesome chocolate homemade chex mix, so i love the fact that chex has started making their own mixes (both sweet & salty) and bagging them up (although i suppose they effectively muscled out my mom, which sucks). i'm pretty sure the dark chocolate chex mix is my favorite thus far. it's got m&m-like thingies and chocolate cookies & chocolate-covered pretzels & both white and dark chocolate chex. with a lineup like that, the chex themselves definitely aren't the first thing i reach for in the bag, but even they're good. this particular chex mix has "50% less fat than regular potato chips," which is definitely helpful if i want to be beautiful...& i obviously do.

in case the chex mix doesn't make me beautiful, i'm also drinking archer farms beauty fortified pear lychee water beverage. on the label, there's a mention of "beauty coming from within." i'm not sure why they're even going there since as we all know, the only important beauty in life is the outer beauty. inner beauty is fine for helping out the non outer-beautiful people, but ultimately outer beauty trumps that. i feel beautiful already. after drinking this beverage (& afterwards sufficiently brushing my teeth), i can tell you that this beauty-fortified drink is super sweet...& i don't mean that in a cool, napoleon dynamite slang sort of way, either. fist-bump beautiful people! you saw that movie! you have the vote for pedro shirt!...that is, you did before you puked on it down the shore.

good day. stay beautiful.

#34 - you ruined it.

i used to love magazines...grew up on them & junk. i read highlights, boy's life, yankees magazine (go sox), sports illustrated, a bunch of wrestling mags, spin, rolling stone (who changed size last issue...weird?), guitar world & whole bunch of other mags that fueled my sport & music obsessions. many of them are still in boxes in the attic of my parents' house, likely drying up from the heat or becoming nests for crafty nh chipmunks.

my all time favorite magazine = punk planet. a friend introduced me to it back in the summer of 2003, when i was on the cusp of thirtydom & the magazine was already on its 56th issue & had totally un-punk binding. every other month, when i thought there might be a new issue out, i'd head into the city like a twelve-year old & drop into kim's or universal news, hoping to find a new issue on the stand. 90% of the time, if there was a new issue out, i'd buy it & take it to a bench somewhere in the city to just sit out, flipping through it, skipping to the back to check out the d.i.y. files & countless album reviews, taking in an article here or there. i bought every single copy from that point until their demise in 2007, a demise that was mostly due to the usual suspects in the demises of independent publishers everywhere, notably lacking ad revenue/subscribers, the stuff that major mags are better positioned to deal with...so it turns out by making a bi-monthly event out of buying it on the newsstand, my non-subscriber ass partially contributed to the death of punk planet.

since its death, i haven't had another mag i've cared about that much. it sort of ruined magazines for me...although i suppose vice magazine probably had something to do with tainting (pun totally intended) magazines for me...that rag.

now, earlier this evening, i stumbled across a blog with a post about portland, oregon based (didn't it used to be san fran?) bitch magazine having financial woes. like i said, i've been out of touch with magazines recently, but i love bitch. it's another mag that i've had newsstand fever over in the past. turns out that back about a month-and-a-half ago, they made a plea to their readers & supporters when the need arose to raise $40K by october 15th to stay alive. within three days, they'd raised $46K. that in itself gives me cause to believe that the independent magazine isn't completely dead yet...i just wish worthwhile publications didn't have to resort to bake sales to remain viable...but, hey if you happen to like the cookies bitch is baking, go here.

#34 - you ruined it.
snack: cherry jello
drink: water

who in his or her life has never had a jello shot? not me, i say. you you say? liar. everyone on the planet who is not allergic to jello has had a jello shot & even some of those jello-allergy-inflicted folks have had at least one or two shots out of peer pressure/a need to live life on the edge. it's a scientific fact. look it up, liar.

myself, i was in both college & a fraternity & as noted previously, love consuming connective tissue & love supporting planters/kraft/altria/philip morris, so i have consumed tubfuls of jello shots in my day. not in one sitting, of course...or out of an actual tub...at least that i can recall. in fact, i have consumed so many jello shots in my day that i sort of hate jello now. jello shots pretty much ruined jello for me. like, right now, i'm spooning a bowlful of this cherry jello into my mouth & my brain is all "are you sure there's no vodka in this? i swear i can taste the vodka."

& since it's officially past midnight, with my bowl of jello, i'm going with a tall glass of water...trying to cut back on drinking a liter's worth of mountain dew after midnight, especially whilst inhaling a bowlful of gelatinous sugar. anyway, this is water's second appearance on the blog, so let's hear it for water & let's hear it for its right hand man, the brita, without whom none of this would be possible. and while we're at it, let's hear it for the boy as well. seriously, let's give that boy a hand. you'd better, or kevin bacon will be forced to give you the noogie of your life.

#23 - running on empty.

enough is enough. i will never again watch an episode of saturday night live. it is horribly acted, both by the guest hosts & the stable of actors. nobody cares enough, it seems. season premiere, folks. michael phelps, thanks for trying. couldn't we occupy this valuable time slot with something a bit less stale? lorne, are you steinbrenneresque in your vanity?

i'm sure michael showalter could come up with something. i hear judd apatow is hot.

#23 - running on empty.
snack: none
drink: water

if i was to eat anything right now, i would puke it up. that is how bad saturday night live is. it has killed my desire for snacking.

...i might as well have some water to calm my stomach. i don't feel that i can fully speak for chris farley, but i have to believe he is rolling over in his grave.

i rushed home from the bar for this. ick.

r.i.p.
s.n.l.