Let me breakdown the recipe:

Start with 1/3 shot of Kahlua, then on top of that add 1/3 shot of Bailey’s, and then 1/3 shot of Wild Turkey (the namesake of the drink). Then add a small floater of Bacardi 151 to the top and light it on fire. Once the drink is flaming, sprinkle cinnamon over the top for a few seconds, enjoy the fireworks, blow out the flame and then consume! Simple enough and quite tasty.

Relatives of mine who tried Turkey Squirts this Thanksgiving described it as “an aftertaste like eggnog”, “holy crap”, “that was hot”, and “can I have another?”

[tags] Alcohol, Thanksgiving, Tostado, Turkey Squirts, flames [/tags]

Lost Panel – Mp4 Version

Lost Panel – Windows Media

Lost Panel – Flash Video (.flv) – This may require a separate download of a Flash player. I recommend the VLC Media Player which is a free download.

Here is the whole panel video:

Also, here are a couple great pictures from the panel.

Also, here is a shot of some attendees dressed up as some of my favorite Nintendo characters. They’re only a few characters short of a Smash Melee!

UPDATED: Added links to mp4 and flv versions of the video.

UPDATED: Added Windows Media version.

UPDATED: Added embedded Google video

[tags] Comic-Con, San Diego, Lost, TV, photos, Harold Perrineau [/tags]

Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip. Enjoy!

At the Monumento al Vittorio in Rome

My dad being swarmed by pigeons in St. Mark’s Square in Venice.

The picturesque countryside of Chianti.

The pretty sunset in Venice.

The Parque del Retiro in Madrid.

[tags] Italy, Rome, Madrid, Spain, photos, Flickr, travel, Europe [/tags]

Sia, a solo artist who is also one of the featured singers for Zero 7, looked like a cross between Gwen Stefani and Bjork and sang like a mix of Fiona Apple and Imogen Heap, a haunting yet intoxicating voice.

They played a two hour set with a 30-minute opening act from Jose Gonzales (pic below). He has a great voice and is an amazing guitarist, but all his solo songs sounded very similar. He was much better when we accompanied Zero 7 on the songs he had performed from The Garden.

There was an amazing song that they did where they recorded Jose singing a few notes, mixed it, looped it over and over added different reverb and SFX to it, continually adding more instruments until it built to a climax and then transitioned into the next song.

The only thing that kept me from giving this concert a 10/10 was the encore took way to long to get started and they ended with a song that dragged on and lost the energy of the audience.
Check out all my pictures of the concert on my Flickr page.

If you haven’t yet listened to Zero 7, I’d strongly suggest that you check them out.

[tags] Zero 7, concert, San Diego, House of Blues, music [/tags]

I went into Snakes on a Plane (SoaP) knowing full well that the movie was likely going to suck and did not want to give myself false expectations of it being an amazing movie. Well, I can pretty much say that my expectations were exceeded, but only slightly. SoaP does a good job of scaring the shit out of anyone who is afraid of snakes (and perhaps others who just scare easily). Samuel L. Jackson seems definitely at home in the role as it seems he decided to just use his image of being a badass as his motivation in every scene. It does a good job of living up to the hype of being a movie about snakes on a plane, and not much else. I usually rate a movie by whether or not I would buy it when it comes out on DVD (and for those who don’t know me well, I have a ton of DVDs), and I’m kind of on the fence about whether or not I would spend the money to buy it. I mean it was enjoyable, and I definitely had fun hearing Samuel L. Jackson say the already classic line “I’ve had it with these motherfuckin’ snakes on this motherfuckin’ plane!”, but for me it didn’t quite live up to all the hype. Similarly, it seems like most moviegoers felt that way as well since SoaP has only pulled in an estimated $15.25 million in its first weekend (to contrast, PotC 2 pulled in a whopping $135 million in its first weekend).

The other movie I saw was Accepted, an Animal House inspired comedy starring Justin Long, the “Mac” guy from the PC vs Mac commercials. I first saw Justin in the tv series Ed where he played a lovable geek/loser, a role which I could identify with. He then had another role in the movie Dodgeball, where he played a similar type of character. At the San Diego Comic-Con, most of the cast were there to promote the movie, but they only got about 5 minutes of stage time. The one plus from Comic-Con was the keg party they threw on the lawn of the San Diego Hilton – Convention Center with a concert, beer, daquiris, BBQ, brownies — all free! That was one hell of a marketing gimmick and it definitely helped spark my interest in this movie.

I also really enjoyed that the premise of the movie involves going to school at a fake college, developing a curriculum, and going to an unaccredited institution. It made me proud to think about how our fake school is now a “new Ivy” after only graduating one class!

So go see Accepted if you get a chance. Little Miss Sunshine is another movie that I saw a few weeks back that has just started to see wide release. Go see that one as well!

[tags] movie, Accepted, Snakes on a Plane, Snakes, Plane, Hollywood, review [/tags]

For the last 4 days, I’ve been volunteering and attending the San Diego Comic-Con. It has been a lot of fun and I’ve gotten to see a lot of cool promos for upcoming movies. The trade show took up the entire bottom floor and apparently walking every aisle is about 3 miles in distance.

On Friday, I went to a Bryan Singer panel where he talked about Superman Returns and the strong possibility of having a sequel made for 2009. He also showed some hilarious bloopers from Superman Returns.

Steve Sansweet gave his annual “State of Star Wars” speech where he announced that the all-CGI Star Wars TV show would hit the networks in 2008 and would be like “nothing you’ve ever seen before”. He also said the live-action show is still being developed and should hit networks “later this decade”.

The best panel of Friday was by far the Snakes On A Plane panel featuring Kenan Thompson & Samuel L. Jackson. They also showed 10 minutes from the movie, which confirmed that the movie will not be by any means a “good movie” but features a hell of a lot of Samuel L Jackson being one bad mother-f***a. They definitely recognized the importance of their fan base in the possible success of this movie by showing a montage of the songs, posters, images, etc that fans have created and posted online. The director also admitted that they were not making a trailer for Snakes On A Plane because they didn’t want to give the whole plot away. You can watch a funny response from the Q&A session by clicking on the pic of Samuel L Jackson below:

On Saturday, I went to a Lost panel in the morning where Jorge Garcia and Daniel Dae Kim (Hurley and Jin on Lost) were there as well as the executive producers. They answered a lot of questions about the future of the show including that they plan to have around 4-5 seasons total for the show, and that Season 3 will focus on relationships as well as getting into more of the science of the island. They also did their best to quash rumors such as the entire show takes place in Vincent the Dog’s brain and that the word “clones” will never be heard in Lost.

Partway through the Lost panel, Rachel Blake from The Lost Experience alternate-reality game grabbed a mic and started accusing the producers of being murderers and hiding the truth about The Hanso Foundation and The Dharma Initiative. I enjoyed this a lot because I’ve been playing along with the online game this summer and getting to be a live part of it definitely makes feel more involved with the show.

Quentin Tarantino got asked if he’d ever make a kid’s movie to which he responded “it’d be like no kids movie you’d ever seen” and that he’d let his kids watch it. Seeing Quentin in person makes me find him even more annoying. I enjoy his flicks, just not hearing him talk.

Kevin Smith was caught in traffic so his panel got bumped to the end of the day and shortened. Although Rosario Dawson did come on stage near the end to answer some questions about Clerks 2 and even called Kevin on her cellphone to have him talk to us through her speakerphone.

Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes came to promote Ghost Rider. I am not too familiar with the comic, but the trailer looked awesome and hopefully the movie will not turnout like Daredevil did (it’s the same director). Cage came out with these big glasses and a few of us thought he might be trashed based on the way he was talking.

For the Spiderman 3 panel, Sam Raimi walked out on stage and then announced he had pretty much the whole cast with him! They answered questions and did their best not to give plot points away, although Kirsten accidentally let slip that Topher as Venom will capture her at some point in the movie. They also played a rough version of a trailer that should hit the theaters during the holiday season that looked amazing! Especially the shot of Venom at the very end as he springs directly at the camera.

Finally, Kevin Smith came on and answered questions about Clerks 2 as well as his plans for other projects. He said he doesn’t plan to sequalize any of his other movies and he also advocated ass-to-mouth for everyone. I saw Clerks 2 on Friday night, and while I enjoyed sequences of it (Star Wars vs LOTR), overall I wasn’t too impressed with the film. When asked if Kevin was planning on doing The Green Hornet, he said he couldn’t make action movies like Bryan Singer can, and if he did make the movie, it’d pretty much just be The Hornet & Kato leaning against a car talking about sex and movies.

If you get the chance to go to Comic Con next year (July 26-29), I’d strongly advise it as you’ll have a lot of fun and get to see a lot of cool promos and celebrities.

For all of my Comic-Con photos, visit my Flickr photoset.

[tags] Comic Con, San Diego, Lost, Clerks 2, Spiderman 3, Kevin Smith, Snakes on a Plane, Samuel Jackson, Nicolas Cage, Bryan Singer, Superman, Ghost Rider, movies, Hollywood [/tags]

Happy Independence Day! I hope you all enjoy having the day off. (Gabe & Ramey, sorry you guys still have to go into work.)

Here are some pictures I took from the fireworks show at the Padres game last Saturday night to help get you in the celebrating mood:

[tags] fireworks, 4th of July, Independence Day [/tags]

I took a bunch of pictures which you can see at my Flickr site.

Also, I took a couple video clips with my digital camera that you can watch below.

Enjoy!

[tags] Death Cab for Cutie, Franz Ferdinand, Agannis Arena, Boston, music, concerts, video clips [/tags]

Jason Mraz with Toca Rivera playing behind him.

Jason singing his heart out.

Me and my sister at the concert. Note that she is wearing the official “Geek in the Pink” shirt.

I am definitely going to try and catch Jason in concert again next time he comes to San Diego.