It’s a new year. 2013 is behind us. 2014 lays in front of us. It’s that time for us on the podcast to reconvene and talk about pop culture predictions. First, CT, Jeeg and I sit down and go over all the predictions we made last year for Nerdstradamus 2013.
We count up the ones we got right, subtract the ones we got wrong and pick out a winner (because Carlin insists that there always be a winner). After we pick the winner of the 2013 predictions, the group is joined by Rob Graham in the fourth chair to make all new predictions for 2014. We predict events in movies, TV, fast food and celebrity news. It’s a fun time had by all and I expect to do this again next year and see that all my predictions were not only wrong, but embarrassingly wrong.
Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.
Episode 111 of the podcast features the nerds in what the TAG Network likes to call a “3 Way Dance”. No 4th chair this week. CT, Jeeg and I gather to discuss a topic that we haven’t done since WAY back in episode 4; Guilty Displeasures.
Guilty Displeasures; things we think we should love, but don’t. Expect us to discuss things like Mt Dew flavor extensions, comic books, zombies, peppermint and lots more. So come join us for some fun in discovering things that we all hate.
Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.
Well, AWESOME-tober-fest 2013: ZOMBIES!! officially begins tomorrow. You can expect an article every weekday throughout the month of October. I’m excited for Halloween this year, I think I have a lot of good, fun articles for you so I hope you enjoy it. As you can see, I’ve already decorated for the season!
Today, as sort of a pre-game show, I thought I’d look at a few of the Halloween retail items I’ve found lurking in the local store. Some interesting stuff.
First and foremost, Jones has returned this year after an absence with more Halloween sodas. The flavors this year are Blood Orange, Red Licorice, Caramel Apple and Candy Corn. Two of these flavors I’ve already had in the past. If we look back at AWESOME-tober-fest 2008 I reviewed the Candy Corn flavor. I don’t think I liked it. I believe I said it tasted like “…spoiled maple syrup poured through a dirty sweat sock…” I tasted the Caramel Apple the year before in an article about oddly flavored sodas like Dr Brown’s Cel-Ray and Canfield’s Diet Chocolate Fudge. I believe I said that flavor tasted like “…sun tan lotion mixed with burnt maple syrup…” So, Jones isn’t necessarily hitting it out of the park with these so far. Blood Orange is a tangier orange flavored soda and red licorice is way too sweet and thick to be described as anything but “sugar coma inducing”. So while I love the effort and the packaging, Jones, I’m not loving the execution.
Big League Chew is one of my childhood favorites. And I love this Halloween themed packaging. Howlin’ Original and Gruesome Grape flavors aren’t new or formulated for the holiday, but I like the Halloweeny makeover. I believe there’s another one with a vampire/Dracula character, but I couldn’t find it.
Ghoul-Aid has been around since the 80s. Usually only offered in certain markets and usually only around Halloween. I have some of the original mixes but it seems the flavor is making a resurgence. You can find single packets on shelves again and now Kool-Aid Jammers have their own Scary Blackberry flavor. I was so excited to finally find this. I’ll be sucking these things down all month.
It’s League time. This week, we are asked to talk about some of our “pet peeves”. I have them, so I thought I’d talk about them. If you do any of these, I’m sorry in advance…but I hate you.
People not returning their carts to the cart corral. OMFG this absolutely drives me up the wall. Supermarkets, Wal-Mart, Target, you name it, and people will leave their carts in the middle of the parking spot. Or with the front wheels lodged over the curb. WTF?! I’ve actually returned 5 or 6 abandoned carts to the corral before even walking into the store. I’ve seen abandoned carts in parking spots that actually sit RIGHT NEXT to the cart corral. That’s just lazy, people. God forbid you walk your cart 10-15 ft to the nearest cart corral. Yes, I have been in the situation where the nearest cart return is on another aisle (usually when you park close to the front of the store). In that case, I take the cart back to the store. It’s polite, plus, it keeps from making the parking lot an obstacle course when you are trying to park with all of these abandoned shopping carts littering the landscape like dead bodies. PUT YOUR GODDAM CART AWAY.
Leaving your movie seat looking like a popcorn/soda bomb exploded. I think it’s a cop-out to say “they have people to clean that up”. How hard is it to take your leftover bag and cup and drop it in the trashcan on the way out of the movie? I’m not saying you have to grab a broom and sweep up, just walk your trash over to the goddam cans you lazy SOB.
Movie trailers. I love them, but lately they show too much of the f**king movie. And why do studios now release all these clips of the big tent pole movies? Before Avengers was released to theaters you could probably have pieced together 90% of the movie with all the trailers, international trailers and TV spots that were released to the Internet. I hate that. STOP IT.
The above can also apply to TV viewing. Many shows have begun showing “coming up after the break” previews before commercials. It’s irritating. I have to mute or fast forward before seeing something early which ruins it if it’s supposed to be funny or particularly shocking. I’m already watching the show, so essentially those “teasers” are preaching to the choir. Stop that sh*t.
Brian’s new assignment for the League of Extraordinary Bloggers this week is to photograph something green. Well, I have a Flickr stream chock full of green items. So, instead of showing you just one, I’m going to showcase an entire collection of green from my Flickr stream. Soda, candy, milk. It’s all represented. Enjoy.
You can click any of these images to see them on my Flickr stream.
This summer is the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Olympic Men’s basketball team. The original NBA “Dream Team”. To commemorate this anniversary, 7-up products have a set of 7 collector cans featuring 5 of the legendary team’s members.
Here is the lineup of cans available.
The five players chosen to represent the “Dream Team” for this set are Magic Johnson (Sunkist), Larry Bird (7-Up), Patrick Ewing (A&W), Scottie Pippen (Sun Drop) and David Robinson (Canada Dry Ginger Ale). As I said, there are only 5 of the 12 players represented, but there are 7 different cans. Consequently, Magic Johnson is also on Diet Sunkist and David Robinson is also on Welch’s Grape. I’m surprised they didn’t go for the full player roster and have 12 collectible player cans. When I found out about this I was actually concerned that I would have to hunt down 12 more collector cans so soon after my last hunt for cans (see Avengers cans) just ended. I need not worry now. I’d like to get all of these cans but I think I’m only getting the Bird and Magic cans. And I’ll probably get only the Diet Sunkist Magic can.
Honestly, I’m not surprised about Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley being absent from this set. They have separate likeness deals that have always made including them in NBA deals dicey. Jordan rarely showed up as a playable character in NBA Live games in the 90s. However, why not include cans of Stockton and Malone, Chris Mullin, Clyde “The Glide” Drexler or Christian Laettner (not really missed, btw)? I’m very saddened by the absence of Stockton and Malone especially. I was a big fan of the Jazz in the late 80s – early 90s. I’ve even seen them play at The Delta Center in Salt Lake City. Next to Larry Bird, John Stockton is my favorite NBA player of all time. I had planned on just getting the Stockton, Bird and Magic cans, but now, like I said, I’ll have to settle for only the Bird and Magic cans. Which is fine by me, but I would have really liked to have a Stockton can.
So, the actual anniversary of the selection of the initial 10 Dream Team players is September 21. I’ll be back then with a small retrospective on the team. I had planned on doing this retrospective anyway, but it’s nice to see 7-Up, ESPN and the NBA have also remembered the anniversary of this most historic basketball team.
Oh, and NBATV has also been running an hour and a half documentary called The Dream Team. It covers the selection, practices and tournament play of the team with footage and interviews. It’s been running several times a day every few days. Check it out if you get the chance. Here’s the trailer.
Countdown to Avengers is a blog crossover between Nerd Lunch, To The Escape Hatch and the Cavalcade of Awesome. Together we are reviewing all of the solo Avengers movies as well as some of the comics and cartoons. It’s all leading up to the release of The Avengers on May 4 where we will all review the new movie.
So, by this point we have talked about our thoughts on most, if not all, of the movies that lead up to The Avengers. Now, I want to look at some of the ancillary promotions for The Avengers. I’m “the soda guy” of the group so I’m a complete sucker for any big pop culture movie/soda promotion (see my write ups on Star Wars soda promotions here, here and here). So today, I’m going to discuss the big Marvel soda promotions that have happened from all of the Marvel movies including Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America and the upcoming The Avengers. Unfortunately, there were no soda promotions for the original Iron Man or The Incredible Hulk in 2008. So, let’s start with the current Avengers promotion going on with Dr Pepper.
Currently, Dr Pepper has a promotion called “Assemble the Team”. The promotional packaging is starting to show up en mass at retail locations everywhere. The promotion consists of 8 collector cans featuring the principles of The Avengers (Nick Fury, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Hulk) as well as one can featuring the film’s villain (Loki). Here’s an official picture of the set.
The promotion is spread among the four main Dr Pepper brands. The character/brand breakdown (as shown in the right image above, click to make bigger) looks like this:
Dr Pepper – Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor
Diet Dr Pepper – Hawkeye, Black Widow
Dr Pepper Cherry – Nick Fury
Diet Dr Pepper Cherry – Loki
