Saturday, August 31, 2013

When cold beer isn't enough, now it's frozen

Japan's Kirin Brewery has launched its new beverage in LA. It says the slushie-topped brew stays frosty for 30 minutes.

Just in time for summer's last hurrah, or maybe the season's final set of heat waves, comes an answer to many a beer drinker's prayer: a really cold, frosty brew.

And when we say cold, we mean frozen. Japan's Kirin Brewery, a part of Kirin Holdings (KNBWF +0.76%), has unleashed upon the world its latest invention, Kirin Ichiban Frozen Beer. The draft beer is served via what looks like a converted frozen margarita or slushie machine, and according to a company press release is "topped with a 23°F frozen beer foam that keeps the beer chilled for 30 minutes."
The frozen beer is currently available at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, as well as some "select restaurants and bars" elsewhere in the city. Kirin officials said they brought the beverage across the Pacific after it became a big hit in Japan. Employees pull frozen froth heads onto cups of Kirin draft beer for their

"After test-launches in Honolulu and Orlando and overwhelmingly positive feedback, Kirin Ichiban Frozen Beer is ready for a larger presence in the U.S.," Randy Higa, president of Kirin Brewery of America, burbled in the press release. "We couldn't think of a better place for this beer to make its California debut than sunny Los Angeles."

Along with La-La Land, Kirin also has plans to launch its frozen beer at locations in Honolulu, New York and at the Japan Pavilion of Walt Disney (DIS -0.41%) World's Epcot theme park in Orlando, Fla.

But how does it taste? According to a review in the FoodBeast blog, frozen beer "doesn’t taste like much of anything really," although the frozen-yogurt-consistency of the foam did indeed keep the reviewer's beer chilled for a half hour, or a few innings, on a hot day at Dodger Stadium. And FoodBeast noted the 16-ounce beer slushies retailed "at the inflated you’re-stuck-at-a-sports-game price of $10, but may vary at other locations."

The Zagat restaurant rating guide also weighed in on the new Kirin product. "The foam is a lot stiffer than you'd expect," wrote reviewer Lesley Balla, "and the best way to get around it, we found, was to poke a hole in it, even if we still got foam on our nose."

Friday, August 23, 2013

Thursday, August 22, 2013

©AP / Elmore Leonard
© AP / Elmore Leonard
Author Elmore Leonard dead at 87 
DETROIT (AP) -- He was the master of his genre, the Dickens of Detroit, the Chaucer of Crime.
Every novel Elmore Leonard wrote from the mid-1980s on was a best-seller, and every fan of crime stories knew his name. George Clooney was an admirer. So were Quentin Tarantino, Saul Bellow and Stephen King and millions of ordinary readers.
Leonard, who died Tuesday at age 87, helped achieve for crime writing what King did for horror and Ray Bradbury for science fiction. He made it hip, and he made it respectable.
Bing: More on Elmore Leonard
When the public flocked to watch John Travolta in the movie version of "Get Shorty" in 1995, its author became the darling of Hollywood's hottest young directors. Book critics and literary stars, prone to dismissing crime novels as light entertainment, competed for adjectives to praise him. Last fall, he became the first crime writer to receive an honorary National Book Award, a prize given in the past to Philip Roth, Norman Mailer and Arthur Miller.
Few writers so memorably traveled the low road. His more than 40 novels were peopled by pathetic schemers, clever conmen and casual killers. Each was characterized by moral ambivalence about crime, black humor and wickedly acute depictions of human nature: the greedy dreams of Armand Degas in "Killshot," the wisecracking cool of Chili Palmer in "Get Shorty," Jack Belmont's lust for notoriety in "The Hot Kid."
Leonard's novels and short stories were turned into dozens of feature films, TV movies and series, including the current FX show "Justified," which stars Timothy Olyphant as one of Leonard's signature characters, the cool-under-pressure U.S. marshal Raylan Givens.
Critics loved Leonard's flawlessly unadorned, colloquial style, as well as how real his characters sounded when they spoke.
"People always say, 'Where do you get (your characters') words?' And I say, 'Can't you remember people talking or think up people talking in your head?' That's all it is. I don't know why that seems such a wonder to people," he told The Associated Press last year.
Leonard spent much of his childhood in Detroit and set many of his novels in the city. Others were set in Miami near his North Palm Beach, Fla., vacation home.
He died at his home in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Township, where he did much of his writing, from complications of a stroke he suffered a few weeks ago, according to his researcher, Gregg Sutter.
Crime novelist James Lee Burke said Leonard was a "gentleman of the old school" whose stylistic techniques and "experimentation with point of view and narrative voice had an enormous influence on hundreds of publishing writers."
Leonard's work contained moral and political themes without being didactic, Burke said. "And he was able to write social satire disguised as a crime novel, or he could write a crime novel disguised as social satire."
Leonard didn't have a best-seller until he was 60, and few critics took him seriously before the 1990s. Now the Library of America, which publishes hardcover editions of classic American writing, is planning a three-volume set of his work.
He had some minor successes in the 1950s and '60s writing Western stories and novels, a couple of which were made into movies. But when interest in the Western dried up, he turned to writing scripts for educational and industrial films while trying his hand at another genre: crime novels.
The first, "The Big Bounce," was rejected 84 times before it was published as a paperback in 1969. Hollywood came calling again, paying $50,000 for the rights and turning it into a movie starring Ryan O'Neal that even Leonard called "terrible."
He followed up with several more fast-paced crime novels, including "Swag" (1976). Leonard was already following the advice he would later give to young writers: "Try to leave out the parts that people skip."
In 1978, he was commissioned to write an article about the Detroit Police Department and shadowed police officers for nearly three months. Starting with "City Primeval" in 1980, his crime novels gained a new authenticity, with quirky but believable characters and crisp, slangy dialogue. But sales remained light.
Donald I. Fine, an editor at Arbor House, thought they deserved better and promised to put the muscle of his publicity department behind them. He delivered: In 1985, "Glitz," a stylish novel of vengeance set in Atlantic City, became Leonard's first best-seller.
Hollywood rediscovered him, churning out a succession of bad movies including the humorless "51 Pick-up" starring Roy Scheider. Its director, John Frankenheimer, failed to capture the sensibilities of Leonard's work, and his ear missed the clever dialogue.
It took Barry Sonnenfeld to finally show Hollywood how to turn a Leonard novel into a really good movie. "Get Shorty" was the first to feel and sound like a true Leonard story.
Then Quentin Tarantino took a turn with "Rum Punch," turning it into "Jackie Brown," a campy, Blaxploitation-style film starring Pam Grier. But Steven Soderbergh stayed faithful to Leonard's story and dialogue with "Out of Sight."
Writing well into his 80s, Leonard's process remained the same.
He settled in at his home office around 10 a.m. behind a desk covered with stacks of paper and books. He lit a cigarette and began writing longhand on the 63-page unlined yellow pads that were custom-made for him.
When he finished a page, Leonard transferred the words onto a separate piece of paper using an electric typewriter. He tried to complete between three and five pages by the time his workday ended at 6 p.m.
"Well, you've got to put in the time if you want to write a book," Leonard told AP in 2010.
Leonard sold his first story, "Trail of the Apache," in 1951, and followed with 30 more for such magazines as "Dime Western," earning 2 or 3 cents a word. At the time, he was working in advertising, but he would wake up early to work on his fiction before trudging off to write Chevrolet ads.
One story, "3:10 to Yuma," became a noted 1956 movie starring Glenn Ford. That same year, "The Captives" was made into a film called "The Tall T." But the small windfall wasn't enough for Leonard to quit his day job. ("3:10 to Yuma" was remade in 2007, starring Russell Crowe.)
His first novel, "The Bounty Hunters," was published in 1953, and he wrote four more in the next eight years. One of them, "Hombre," about a white man raised by Apaches, was a breakthrough for the struggling young writer. When 20th Century Fox bought the rights for $10,000 in 1967, he quit the ad business to write full time.
"Hombre" became a pretty good movie starring Paul Newman, and the book was named one of the greatest Westerns of all time by the Western Writers of America.
Soon, another Leonard Western, "Valdez Is Coming," became a star vehicle for Burt Lancaster. But as the 1960s ended, the market for Westerns fizzled. Leonard wrote five more, but they sold poorly, and Hollywood lost interest.
Leonard was born in New Orleans on Oct. 11, 1925, the son of General Motors executive Elmore John Leonard and his wife, Flora.
The family settled near Detroit when young Elmore was 10. The tough, undersized young man played quarterback in high school and earned the nickname "Dutch," after Emil "Dutch" Leonard, a knuckleball pitcher of the day. The ballplayer's card sat for years in the writer's study on one of the shelves lined with copies of his books.
After serving in the Navy during World War II, he majored in English at the University of Detroit. He started writing copy for an advertising agency before his graduation in 1950.
He married three times: to the late Beverly Cline in 1949, the late Joan Shepard in 1979, and at the age of 68, to Christine Kent in 1993. He had five children, all from his first marriage.
His son, Peter, followed in his father's path, going into advertising for years before achieving his own success as a novelist with his 2008 debut, "Quiver."
In 2012, after learning he was to become a National Book Award lifetime achievement recipient, Leonard said he had no intention of ending his life's work.

"I probably won't quit until I just quit everything -- quit my life -- because it's all I know how to do," he told the AP at the time. "And it's fun. I do have fun writing, and a long time ago, I told myself, 'You got to have fun at this, or it'll drive you nuts.'"

Sunday, August 18, 2013


Cops Ran Out of Free Doritos in 10 Minutes at Seattle Pot Festival

On a day where free Doritos and pot aficionados join forces, it's only obvious that people who might be suffering from the munchies would want to get their hands a little dirty with some orange-y goodness.
But when the salty, cheesy snacks are free? Forget about it.
The Seattle Police Department descended on the city's annual Hempfest, which celebrates marijuana culture, to put into action a plan dubbed "Operation Orange Fingers."
In a move to draw attention to marijuana usage rules and restrictions in the state, officers handed out free Doritos with stickers about pot laws stuck on the bags. Not only delicious, but educational, each bag displayed a sticker of do's and don'ts of I-502, Washington's ballot measure that legalized the possession of marijuana in November.
But Seattle police found themselves at a serious deficit soon after they started sharing their chip stash with the Hempfest crowd. They managed to dole out the entire stash of free Doritos in about 10 minutes, according to the department's Twitter account.
Still, they satisfied the needs of "pretty much everyone who showed up for the morning gate-opening," they tweeted.
So what do the cops consider the don'ts of an overwhelmingly popular pot law? The stickers instructed Washingtonians to remember to avoid driving while high, giving or selling weed to people under the age of 21, as well as forgoing pot use in public.
The do's? "Listen to the Dark Side of the Moon at a reasonable volume," the stickers said. For more information, Doritos-devourers could head to a website with more information on following state laws when smoking marijuana, or what it calls "marijuwhatnow literature."
"Distributing salty snacks at a festival celebrating hemp, I think, is deliberately ironic enough that people will accept them in good humor," Sgt. Sean Whitcomb told Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger. "We want to make sure people learn the rules and that they respect the vote."

Russian gold medalists kiss on medal stand at world championships to protest anti-gay laws

Kseniya Ryzhova and Tatyana Firov won a world championship as a part of the 4x400-meter relay team at the IAAF track championships in Moscow. The edged out the American and British teams for the gold. While on the medal stand, they kissed to protest their own country's anti-gay propaganda laws.
This isn't the first protest of Russia's laws that penalize anyone for talking about homosexuality in front of children, but it's the most visible one done by Russian athletes. U.S. runner Nick Symmonds dedicated his silver medal in the 800 meters to his gay friends back home, and Swedish high jumper Emma Green Tregaro painted her nails in a rainbow in honor of LGBT pride.
Russian pole-vaulting legend Yelena Isinbayva criticized Tregaro for her protest.
"We consider ourselves, like normal, standard people, we just live boys with women, girls with boys... it comes from the history," Isinbayeva said.
Later, she said her comments were misunderstood because English isn't her first language. She regularly speaks English to reporters.
"But let me make it clear I respect the views of my fellow athletes, and let me state in the strongest terms that I am opposed to any discrimination against gay people on the grounds of their sexuality (which is against the Olympic charter)."
The words spoken by Isinbayeva are not nearly as powerful as the protest of two young women kissing on the medal stand. One of the reasons many LGBT sports leaders are against a boycott of the upcoming Olympics in Sochi, Russia, is because more can be accomplished by LGBT athletes and their allies standing atop the medal stand with pride. Ryzhova and Firov put that idea into action in Moscow.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

File photo of Doritos chips (© Paul Sakuma/AP)

Seattle cops to distribute bags of Doritos at Hempfest, obviously

What's the best way to get people at the world's largest pot rally to read a leaflet on marijuana laws? Slap it on a bag of Doritos. The Seattle Police Department plans on distributing more than 1,000 bags of Doritos at Hempfest this weekend, according to The Stranger, a weekly paper in Seattle. Each bag will have a sticker with a friendly reminder of the limits of legal marijuana. The cops, man. Finding the one thing nobody can refuse. "Distributing salty snacks at a festival celebrating hemp, I think, is deliberately ironic enough that people will accept them in good humor," police spokesman Sergeant Sean Whitcomb said. "We want to make sure people learn the rules and that they respect the vote." The project is being funded by privately run Seattle Police Foundation.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Gretzky shows off her glam life with bikini snaps and childhood pics with dad Wayne

She shut down her Twitter account in 2011 after shooting to fame with a string of sexy bikini snaps, and it looks like Paulina Gretzky hasn’t learnt her lesson as she returns to her old ways.

The 24-year-old daughter of Canadian ice hockey icon Wayne Gretzky has been busy posting a series of revealing photos to her Instagram account over the past few weeks.

Paulina has shared everything from bikini selfies to cute childhood photos with her dad.
She loves a selfie: Paulina Gretzky shows off her bikini body as as she shares a stream of photos with her Twitter followers
She loves a selfie: Paulina Gretzky shows off her bikini body as as she shares a stream of photos with her Twitter followers
Paulina first made a name for herself back in 2011 when she posted a steady stream of revealing pictures to her Twitter account, including images lounging next to the pool in a bikini or lying on a bed in her underwear.

But the star in the making soon disappointed her 24,000 Twitter fans by deleting her account after seemingly getting a few stern words of advice from her famous father.

The eldest of five tweeted just before taking her online break: 'Having a nice sit down dinner with my dad about social media..haha'
Sharing her world: Paulina clearly isn't afraid to flaunt her curves in another steamy Instagram shot
Sharing her world: Paulina clearly isn't afraid to flaunt her curves in another steamy Instagram shot

Cracking the whip: The aspiring actress poses in a circus ringmaster costume
Cracking the whip: The aspiring actress poses in a circus ringmaster costume
Not that the break lasted long, with Paulina soon back on Twitter, with her followers now sitting at over 250,000.

 

Paulina’s pep talk from her dad obviously didn’t do the trick as over the past few weeks the model has posted a long line of photos.
Furry friend: Paulina makes friends with a monkey during one of her many beach breaks
Furry friend: Paulina makes friends with a monkey during one of her many beach breaks

She's a fan of red bikinis: Paulina lounges on a boat in another skimpy swimsuit
She's a fan of red bikinis: Paulina lounges on a boat in another skimpy swimsuit
One sees the blonde flaunting her curves in a skimpy red bikini in Miami, whilst she can also be seen swimming with turtles.
There's another animal pic as Paulina is seen posing with a monkey on her shoulder in yet another red bikini on a Barbados beach.
The skimpy outfits don’t stop there with another seeing the star all dressed up as circus ringmaster in thigh high boots and a black basque with a whip in hand.
She's not just a beach babe: Paulina also showed off her snorkeling skills in another Instagram snap
She's not just a beach babe: Paulina also showed off her snorkeling skills in another Instagram snap
Away from the sexy shots there’s some cute photo mementos too including one of Paulina snuggling up to her pet puppy and another which sees the daddy’s girl as a toddler with her father Wayne.

The adorable photo sees Paulina planting a kiss on her father's cheek, captioning the pic 'Every Little Girls First Love.. Their Dad.'
Daddy's girl: In this nostalgic pic for Father's Day, a young Paulina snuggles up to her famous father Wayne
Daddy's girl: In this nostalgic pic for Father's Day, a young Paulina snuggles up to her famous father Wayne
Back in 2011 Paulina’s tweeting spree certainly helped her rising star power with the blonde landing small role in films including Guns, Girls and Gambling, starring Gary Oldman.

She also recorded a song that played on MTV's show Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, and modelled on the front page of Flare magazine in 2008.
Girl's best friend: The blonde gets a smooch from her pet puppy
Girl's best friend: The blonde gets a smooch from her pet puppy
More recently the aspiring actress played opposite Adam Sandler and Salma Hayek in this summer’s comedy sequel Grown Ups 2. Appropriately enough Paulina is credited as ‘Bikini Girl Daisy.’

Her 52-year-old father meanwhile is one of the most famous Canadians of all time, having led the Edmonton Oilers to prodigious Stanley Cup success in the 80s.
Good jeans: A denim clad Paulina poses in a casual outfit for the camera
Good jeans: A denim clad Paulina poses in a casual outfit for the camera

Tuesday, August 6, 2013


ZZ Top’s ‘Legs’ and the Women Who Own Them

They had legs and they knew how to use them. And, as far as we know, they still do.
ZZ Top with Legs girlsThey were the women behind ZZ Top's iconic 1984 video "Legs" and our new pal Marc Tyler Nobleman — the same music-video girl sleuth that found the Sherrie in Steve Perry's "Oh Sherrie" and the girl in Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" clip — has tracked down those famous legs and the women who stand on them.
When ZZ Top released "Legs," from their 1983 album Eliminator, the Texas trio was already a well established forced on album-rock radio, churning out such hits as "Tush," "La Grange," "Tube Snake Boogie," and "Sharp Dressed Man." Yet, that song and accompanying video — with those women and those legs — helped take the band to a whole new level, as they say in the record business.
With their long, flowing beards ZZ Top's singer/guitarist Billy Gibbons and bassist Dusty Hill are certainly a sight to be seen, but they can hardly compare with Wendy Frazier, Kymberly Herrin and Daniele Arnaud — the fine lovely ladies featured in the video.

Frazier, the brunette who makes the transformation from shoe store clerk to video vixen in the clip, told Nobleman she always dreamed of being Miss America. Through a friend, she landed a role in Baxter Robertson's "Silver Stand" clip in 1983, which was directed by Tim Newman. When it came time to cast women in ZZ Top's "Legs" video, she got a call from Newman's office to audition. Initially, Frazier thought she didn't have a chance getting cast alongside the "gorgeous playmates who 'knew how to use it,'" Frazier told Nobleman, but she got the part and celebrated her 21st birthday on the set, and received an autographed teddy bear from the band.
Wendy FrazierThe highlight of the video for Frazier is a bit risqué. At about the 4:15 mark of the clip, she's hoisted up on a counter by a biker and spins around to kick her boyfriend's boss. "In the process, by accident, just a peek of the crotch of my underwear showed. I was ahead of Sharon Stone." Of course, Sharon Stone wasn't wearing panties, but that's a whole other story.
Wendy Frazier nowFrazier went on to attend the MTV Video Music Awards with Newman when "Legs" and "Sharp Dressed Man" were up for awards. "Legs" won Best Group Video, beating out "Sharp Dressed Man."
"The night was magic," Frazier says.
She received fanmail and was recognized more than a decade after the clip premiered on a visit to Aspen, Colorado.
These days Frazier owns a rental property where she once had Kelly Clarkson as a tenant. "She is one of my favorite tenants, because of the beautiful energy she left behind in my home," Frazier told Nobleman. "Kelly had no idea [of my music video past]; my contact [with her was] brief and landlord-like."
Kym HerrinKymberly Herrin, another of the "Legs" girls, was described by ZZ Top's Gibbons as a "groovy hippie chick" in I Want My MTV by Rob Tannenbaum and Craig Marks.
Like Frazier, she was also initially intimidated by the other talent at the casting call. "There must have been somewhere around 15-20 beautiful girls. Miniskirts, high heels, perfect hair, nails and makeup," she told Nobleman. "I came so close to leaving, getting on the 101 freeway, and hightailing it home."
Herrin landed a part in "Legs" after the so-called Eliminator girls Daniele Arnaud and Jenna Ellen Keough didn't like the original blonde girl cast. Herrin says they also didn't like each other, either, or her. "They were always pushing me to the back," she said.
Kym Herrin nowBut, Herrin said she was paid well, more than $2,000 for the shoot, and then something went wrong in the production process and a major portion of the clip had to be re-shot.
Known for her red top, garter belt and fishnet stocking in the "Legs" video, Herrin was recognized by fans on trips to the coast of East Africa and Australia. "The Aussies treated me like an American movie star," she told Nobleman. "I was blown away."
Herrin went on to land roles in Romancing the Stone and Ghostbusters, as well as Kiss's long-form 1987 video Exposed and a David Lee Roth video. She also wrote The Sexercise Book and landed on the cover of Playboy in September 1982 and 1983. These days, she has her own line of jewelry called Kym's Designs.
Daniele ArnaudFinally, there's Daniele Arnaud, who unlike Frazier and Herrin, was a veteran with ZZ Top by the time she appeared in "Legs," having also appeared in the Eliminator-era clips "Gimme All Your Loving'" and "Sharp Dressed Man."
Prior to "Legs," Arnaud had also appeared in a clip by the Manhattan Transfer and well as a few films. Like Frazier, she attended the MTV Awards when the "Legs" video was honored and is often recognized in public.
Daniele Arnaud nowThese days, she works selling art, working on museum project and teaching languages at colleges and for private clients.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Man & woman flirting (© OJO Images/Rex Features)

Nix the G-string, ladies: Men prefer women in classy clothes

Hey ladies, going on a manhunt? Put away the boobage and lower those hemlines. Men prefer women dressed in less revealing outfits, according to a new survey by VoucherCodesPro.co.uk. In fact, a massive 45 percent of the British men surveyed said they’d be more likely to approach a nicely dressed woman (whatever that means). Looking for respect? Toss those butt-bearing short shorts; 53 percent of men say they're more likely to respect a less scantily-clad woman. And if you’re doing the asking, 55 percent say they’d rather give their number to a demurely dressed woman than a gal showing lots of skin. We’re not suggesting you pull out your Victorian hoop skirt, but leaving something to the imagination sounds like the way to go. Assuming you actually care what men think of your clothes.