It's Hot

Pant o' Mine

Summer — 2007-10-11T16:39:00+00:00

Okay, we all have them lurking back in the closet: the dreaded "fat jeans." Those jeans we reserve for the day after we ate three slices of cheesecake or binged with our good friends Ben and Jerry and didn't make it to kickboxing yet. Anyone who understands the concept of "fat jeans" will find these tummy tuck jeans to be pretty cool for a number of reasons. But the reason that I'm bringing them up is because they have this contest where they are giving away 30 FREE pairs.

Plus, 1$ will be donated to the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for every pair of jeans that is tried on (not even purchased, simply tried on) at Nordstrom's. Oct is Breast Cancer Awareness month ... maybe now is a good time to go jeans shopping?

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Winamp's New Media Player Dukes It Out With iTunes, WMP

Marc — 2007-10-11T14:40:00+00:00

Winamp launched its 10th anniversary media player on Oct. 10 (get it? the 10th anniversary on 10/10). Version 5.5 is a serious improvement over previous iterations of the software, but as Switched.com asks, what's its relevance in a space dominated by Windows Media Player and iTunes?

One big difference between 5.5 and older Winamps is that this one syncs with your iPod -- providing a viable alternative to iTunes if that's your preference. Winamp 5.5's new interface includes album art, customizable skins, and an easy way to drag-and-drop songs or videos into your library.

One of the best things about the new software is its slick integration with AOL Radio, with dozens of channels as well as 20 more from XM Satellite Radio. You don't have to be an AOL member or XM subscriber to listen, though because I happen to have XM in my car, I can vouch for the quality of the 20 stations you get.

Some of the best make the list -- XM '80s, XM 20 on 20 (top hits), XM Deep Tracks (classic rock), XM Flight 26 (current alternative rock) -- and I find that they actually load and play more quickly in Winamp than they do in the radio player built into the AOL 9.0 software. And the stations, like Winamp itself, are all free.

Check it out at http://www.winamp.com/

Old Time'rs Rock & Roll

Summer — 2007-10-09T16:50:00+00:00

As evidenced in my responses to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame post, I'm not a fan of most of the popular bands out there. However, I do have a kid and someday soon that kid is going to tell me I'm out of touch and not with it because I am not familiar with the music she's listening to. I'm pretty sure MTV doesn't actually play music videos anymore and top 40 radio has too many commercials. So I downloaded this music video widget which automatically plays the top 100 AOL music videos on my desktop. Now, without any effort on my part, I can be spoon-fed what's hot in the music world, and while I still may not like the songs, at least I can say I know what they are.

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Holidaze

Summer — 2007-10-08T17:32:00+00:00

At the mall on Friday night, I was stopped dead in my tracks upon seeing a fully decorated and lit Christmas tree. I had to do a quick calculation... the last holiday-type thing that we celebrated was my birthday, in late September. I suffered no recent head-trauma that would have left me in a coma-like state for six weeks, passing over Halloween and Thanksgiving, which leads me to the conclusion that Halloween and Thanksgiving have not yet occurred. So why are there Christmas trees in the mall already?

Honestly, AOL isn't any different. We're already featuring a sneak peek at the hottest toys of the upcoming season. You can even shop by age. And while on the one hand, I'm a little peeved we haven't even gotten our Halloween costumes yet, carved, or even bought pumpkins, and it's still 80 freakin' degrees outside which puts me in anything but the holiday spirit, I totally admit, I started looking. It's hard not to get swept up in the frenzy. You want to stay ahead of the game because once they start publicizing the *Super-Hot-Every-Kid-Must-Have-Or-You-Suck-As-A-Parent* toy of the year, you know they will be sold-out within a week.

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Caption O My Caption Part Two

Summer — 2007-10-05T16:22:00+00:00

So those folks over at Cinematical are giving away a TRIP TO INDIA for the winner of the latest Insert the Caption contest. Since their prizes are usually DVDs or things like underwear, this is kind of a big deal. Being an AOL employee, I can't enter, so I live vicariously through you! Go forth and caption!

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The Face Place

Summer — 2007-10-04T18:11:00+00:00

So Ellen and AOL are doing this neat promotion where you can send letters or photos or videos about why your hometown is the best. Or funniest. Or quirkiest. Or something-est. The winning town gets a visit from Ellen. The site where you can learn more about the contest has some other neat content too. My favorite was this 50 Faces in 50 States feature. I'm originally from Maryland and live in Virginia now, so I got Babe Ruth and Rob Lowe. Meh. There are some better ones. Rumor had it that my high school alone was graced by the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Goldie Hawn, Connie Chung and Carl Bernstein. Who's on the list (or left off the list) for you?

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Let 'Em R.I.P. -- Or Not

Summer — 2007-10-03T17:30:00+00:00

Styledash is having an interesting conversation about their favorite discontinued items, which made me think of some of my favorites. Diet Vanilla Coke, how I miss you. Vanilla Coke Zero is good, but not the same. I also miss the heck out of Wendy's Garden Wraps from about 10 years ago. That was by far the best vegetarian fast food option I've ever had. Is there a petition somewhere I can sign to get those brought back?

Some of the folks on that blog were able to suggest places that sell retro and hard-to-find items to others who were missing specific things so I thought maybe I'd bring it up over here too and see if anyone has anything they miss or suggestions on where they might be able to find them.

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DirecTV Finally Gets With the Program

Marc — 2007-10-03T15:26:00+00:00

I've been a DirecTV subscriber since around 1997, which, you may recall, was a few years before the ubiquitous satellite dishes started popping up on people's roofs. An an early adopter I'm a big believer in DirecTV's value, even though the signal goes out in heavy thunderstorms, even though I can't get the local forecast on the Weather Channel, even though the HD offering is well behind the curve. Well, until now.

After months of promises, the boys at DirecTV have finally gotten with the program, so to speak. Twenty-one new HD channels just launched, with more on the way, all part of a program to have 100 HD channels by the end of the year.

I've been resisting the move to HD because to this point I couldn't justify $2,000 for a TV that picks up 9 HD channels. Today, all that would keep me from making the move is the need for a new dish (necessitating a service call to get it on my roof, and thus an afternoon spent "working from home") and giving up my superior TiVo box in favor of DirecTV's proprietary DVR, a less intuitive interface.

Time to make the move? Could be ... could be.

The Party's Over?!

Missy — 2007-10-02T11:28:00+00:00

Well, it looks like being a Hollywood Party/Bad Girl may have lost its allure. The icing on the cake is yesterday's announcement that Britney is losing her kids to the seemingly more stable parent, K-Fed (heaven help them all). I'd hoped that perhaps this might be her "bottoming out" if you will, but no, Britney was out and about last night. Doing what?? "Celebrating"?? Giving the paps a photo op??

Britney aside, I'm sensing that some of the notorious bad girls of Hollywood are getting wise to the fact that being bad isn't working for them financially. Lindsay is back in rehab for a while and hopefully the third time will be a charm for her and she can get back to what was a promising film career. Paris ' jail sentence seems to have helped her realize that maybe there are other things in life than partying (not that she needs the $$) and is off to Rwanda to help bring attention to that country. Even Paris ' old BFF Nicole Richie seems to be embracing motherhood, taking care of herself and possibly setting a wedding date.

Nice work ladies! Let's hope you can leave your crazy past behind and act like responsible adults!!

And hopefully someone who cares can get close enough to Britney to help her.

What do you guys think? Is being "bad" no longer "good"?

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That's Horror-ible

Summer — 2007-10-01T16:37:00+00:00

Ahhh lists. I love lists. In celebration of October and Halloween, Moviefone is counting down the 31 best horror movies over the next thirty days. We start today with 'The Ring' (which I completely agree should be on the list) and they have hints about the rest of the list which will be revealed every day through the rest of the month. I'm not a horror buff by any means, but I thought I had enough random movie and pop-culture knowledge that I'd be able to figure my way around most of the hints... I was wrong.

I'm taking predictions for what *should* make it, or guesses as to what the upcoming days will be based on the hints. Give yourself a point for each one you guess that actually shows up. I'm going to come back here every couple days and comment on the newest reveals and will keep a running tally.

I'm sure the final list will have the usual contenders - 'Halloween,' 'Friday the 13^th,' 'The Shining,' 'Poltergeist,' 'The Exorcist' etc. Those were classically good; especially the originals of each, but my favorite horror movies are more like "fusion" horror - a horror basis with absurdist humor or an artsy touch to them. Likely, most of them won't make the Moviefone list, so I'll include some of them here.

'The Evil Dead 2' and/or 'Army of Darkness'
'Spoorloos'
'Dawn of the Dead' (Zack Snyder version also)
'Blair Witch Project'
'The Lost Boys'
'Shaun of the Dead'
' Battle Royale'
'Man Bites Dog'
'Jacob's Ladder'
'Scream'

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Rock and a Hard Place

Summer — 2007-09-28T12:37:00+00:00

Okay, I'm going to get some crap for this one I know. Madonna and the Beastie Boys are nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Sorry, I just can't agree. It's called the ROCK AND ROLL Hall of Fame. Not the Music of All Genre's Hall of Fame. There are lots of inductees that I don't think deserve to be there. Madonna, for example, is Pop, pure and simple. While you might hear a Madonna song on a radio station where you also hear a rock song, you would not hear Madonna on a "Rock" radio station. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame should be reserved for bands and musicians who play Rock and Roll. I can understand including a nod to musicians who might not be considered "Rock" but influenced or was directly influenced by Rock and yes, I know if you look at Jack Black's flow chart of musical influence, Pop does fall under rock somehow, somewhere, but it's pretty far down the line when you try to link bands like The Clash to *NSYNC.

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Televisionary

Summer — 2007-09-27T17:01:00+00:00

It's a big night for TV. You got premieres left and right and there are a lot of good shows facing off. 'CSI' and 'Grey's Anatomy' both should have interesting plot twists tonight, given the rumors that major characters will be written off. But how do you decide what to tune into? Well, if you already set the Tivo to record 'The Office,' rest assured you don't have to miss out on one of the other two. You can catch it online tomorrow while you're at work ... oh, um, on your lunch break of course! You can see last night's ABC shows or CBS shows the day after they air for free.

So here are my questions of the day: is this the wave of the television future -T.V.ideo? Shows on demand, on your computer, whenever you want them? Do you see this as a potential medium for other media? For example, could the DVD box sets of TV shows start getting released on your computer instead of going out to purchase them? Will we get to the point where new-release movies are available for (legitimate) download at the same time they hit the theaters?

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Secrets - Out!

Summer — 2007-09-25T18:25:00+00:00

Honestly, the top 11 secrets most men keep wasn't terribly enlightening. I like that they appended it with "most" men, because those secrets definitely don't apply to apply to all men. My husband, for example, is utterly delighted when I drive. He doesn't play golf (video games, however, is another story) and he might wish he was 25 again, but I'm pretty sure he does so also wishing he can keep the knowledge and experience he's gained since he was 25. But overall, it was a disappointing list. I was hoping for a little more insight. The top 11 secrets most women keep, while more accurate in my opinion, was equally superficial and most of the things on it, I'm sure my husband would say are not "secrets."

So from a woman's point of view, I'll expand on a couple of these "secrets." Yes, it's likely the items we bought probably did cost 20% more than what we told you, but it's also likely they cost 30% less than what we told our girlfriends. Yes, we do notice and appreciate the chores you do but we worry if we make a big deal of it, you'll realize you're doing something out of the ordinary that is not expected and you'll stop. We are absolutely scared we'll turn into our mothers but most of the time we don't notice when we do the same things they do that irritate us. So, yes, the most hurtful thing you can say is "You're acting just like your mother" but at the same time, letting us know (in a kind way) that we are doing the same things we complain about helps us avoid those things in the future.

Now that I've opened up a bit with my secrets, play fair. Provide some more insight and perspective on these lists from either point of view.

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Party Pooper

Summer — 2007-09-24T17:37:00+00:00

Remember the olden days when only the rebellious rock stars used to party hard, do drugs, and drink themselves stupid? It was all part of the show back then, so much so that when they were rushed to the hospital for an OD or crashed while driving drunk, no one was really surprised. Now it seems to be the trend for all kinds of celebrities. Spinner takes a walk down memory lane, counting down the worst "party" offenders in the music business. At first I thought they were sticking to hardcore rockers, but they included Britney. So where is Elvis on the list? Was his drug and alcohol use just "classier" than the rest? Who else are they missing?

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Was it the Uniform?

Jeff — 2007-09-24T11:04:00+00:00

One NFL player went into this past weekend with more to prove than anyone. That was Donovan McNabb. There was chatter that if McNabb had a bad game, it was time for him to get out of Philly. This, of course, was on the heels of controversial remarks he made on HBO's Real Sports.

If you didn't see what he said, check it out.

So, what does McNabb do? He goes out and plays what may have been the best game of his career. He threw for 381 yards, four touchdowns and had a perfect passer rating. For a guy not known to come through under pressure, that was pretty impressive.

What was more impressive, was that he was able to perform like that playing in "those" uniforms. I'm a fan of the throwbacks, but clearly, the Eagles don't wear yellow for a reason. Perhaps the Lions were so distracted that it got them off their game? You be the judge.

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Taze of Our Lives

Summer — 2007-09-20T17:59:00+00:00

So we've all seen this by now:

And just about everyone knows it was, at least initially, a set up (if you didn't know that... well, surprise! It was a set up, and welcome back out from that rock you were living under). But I don't think he expected it to go so far. So let's weigh in. Did this guy have it coming in that it was a practical joke, he was monopolizing the conversation and was belligerent to the police? Or was this a gross violation of the first amendment since he was still making valid points? While I'm a firm believer in freedom of speech (bloggers do tend to support that one as a general rule of thumb), I also get annoyed by people who intentionally make a big production of something and talk just to hear themselves talk (which makes it ironic that I blog). In my opinion, with great freedom comes great responsibility (how very 'Spiderman' of me, I know). Yes, you should be allowed to yell "Fire" in a crowded theater, but if everyone in the theater rushes to the door and you get trampled in the stampede, well, you probably had it coming.

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Making Technology Approachable

Marc — 2007-09-20T11:24:00+00:00

I recently attended the AARP annual convention in Boston -- and yeah, I know, I'm only 34. I was there to show off AOL Good Life, a new Web site we've developed for the over-50 crowd.

Our display had several fancy plasma TVs, comfy couches and a collection of laptops with different AOL programming and products. The day we arrived, the laptops were arranged on small, circular tables right next to one another. As attendees entered the booth and approached the laptops, the first thing they asked was, "Where's the mouse?"

Uh-oh.

It's easy for Gen-Xers like me to forget how new the Internet is, how new the concept of a personal, portable computer is. We're really talking only one generation here -- a decade, maybe two. As an AOL employee, it's easy to forget that we have millions of members whose ways of using a computer are vastly different from mine. I approach a laptop and naturally begin using the touchpad mouse. If I gave that laptop to my mother, she'd be lost at Step One.

I take for it granted that I approach technology without fear; that I can pick up a new device and, generally speaking, figure it out without being intimidated. How do we make technology approachable for everyone? Apple seems to try, but try giving an iPod or iPhone to someone who's never used one before.

We strive to make AOL powerful enough for advanced users but simple enough that anyone could figure it out. Striking the balance is impossible; techies decry us as "the Internet on training wheels" and newbies complain the instant we make any change, no matter how small. The convention was a useful reminder that the barrier to entry for technology is still steep for most people. The trick is not to make techier tech toys, but to make them work for everyone.

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Auntie Emmy, Auntie Emmy

Summer — 2007-09-17T18:36:00+00:00

So like millions of Americans, I tuned into the Emmys last night. But I actually set the DVR to tape it, turned it on around 10 and fast-forwarded through anything that seemed uninteresting... which was about ¾ the show. What were they doing? It was a disaster. From the round stage (it's nice for experimental theater, but who thought it was a good idea here?) to all the censoring (what was Ray Romano saying and why would FOX of all stations feel the need for strange audio and video cutaways?) to the 'Jersey Boys' (totally fast-forwarded that and thanked Fios for the power to do so) to the obviously rehearsed yet still painfully awkward interaction between Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to Ryan Seacrest's medieval pimp outfit (actually, simply to Ryan Seacrest - could he have been more pandering with the 'Idol' attacks and the 'Desperate Housewives' smoozing?).

Here's what I liked: the 'Family Guy' character's opening song. Rainn Wilson vs. Kanye West singing Kanye West songs. Al Gore getting a standing ovation. Here's what I didn't like: everything else. I checked out a lot of the stuff I skipped over on the Emmy page today at work. Yeah, I didn't miss much. Instead, I had fun flipping through the best/worst dressed and hair galleries. I was able to check the list of winners for the awards I fast-forwarded through, got to see some party pictures, and then weighed in with my thoughts in reaction areas. Next year, I am going to skip watching altogether and just get caught-up online the next day. The coverage is so much better and I don't get blisters on my thumb from fast-forwarding.

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Caption O My Caption

Summer — 2007-09-13T18:11:00+00:00

This is one of those things I thought everyone knew about, but as I talk to people I'm slowly realizing that's not the case. So here goes: there's this really fun contest that Cinematical does where you have to make up a caption for stills from current movies. It lets you showcase your humor and creativity while competing for great prizes. Let us know if you enter any captions so we can cheer you on!

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My Two Scents

Summer — 2007-09-12T17:54:00+00:00

This blog on Switched about adding scents to movies seems so futuristic it's almost camp.

I love movies and I love anything that enhances them. I'm that sucker who spends another $15 on the IMAX version of a movie I've already seen and you can count on me seeing the 3-D version of the 'Nightmare Before Christmas' in theaters, even though I already own two versions of film.

When I was a kid, a theater near me offered a similar smell-o-vision experience. They piped in the smell of flowers for a rose garden scene and chocolate chip cookies for a scene in the kitchen. I left the theater feeling nauseous because the smells were so terribly artificial and overwhelming. It was a short-lived experiment and I think the theater actually got sued because someone had an allergic reaction. Based on that experience I have to agree with the author - I'm not sure I want a smell-enhanced movie, especially when I think of something like 'Labyrinth' - the Bog of Eternal Stench looked foul enough... I don't need to smell it too. What do you guys think? Should they scratch the idea or will the sniff experience enhance your viewing pleasure? Any particular examples where you'd want to see and smell or where you absolutely do not?

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