New Burger King Commercial

I love anything that makes fun of T.O., including the new Burger King commercial doing a parody of last year's three ring circus press conference outside of his New Jersey home. As menetioned in the past, I really enjoy the BK commercials, especially the ones where the King is transposed into an old football highlight. Here's hoping that they come up with some new ones this year.

Side note: Saw Little Miss Sunshine on Tuesday night, and it could possibly be the funniest movie I've seen in months. The acting is great, the storyline is hysterical, and you'll without a doubt be rolling on the floor laughing. Definitely gets the RPR movie recommendation. I'm hoping to see Invincible this weekend. That needs to happen for sure. Anybody who's seen it have comments?

RPR Concert Ticket!

What will they come up with next? I found a website where you can make your own concert ticket. I know the "Make Your Own Subway Sign" from several months back was a big hit, especially with the BBC, so I'm sure he'll be one of the folks who enjoys this one as well. 

What's in the Monday Bag of Tricks?

Couple of quick items:

- Not sure if I mentioned it before, but I live 1 block from one of the NYU dorms. So yesterday (Sunday) was move-in day for the freshman and let me tell you, this could add some humor to my neighborhood for sure. How can you pick the freshman out from the crowd? Actually, that's a trick question since the freshman are the crowd -- they travel in packs of twenty. I found this amusing when they'd all wander up and down College Avenue in State College, PA, but to see them wandering on 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, in large groups... that is just priceless. By the way, the parents looked they had a wonderful time dealing with the traffic and congestion of the East Village during the move-in. And we all thought East Halls was bad....

- For what it's worth, I spotted film director Wes Anderson (Royal Tenanbaums, Life Aquatic, Rushmore) walking down 14th Street. He looked just like he did in that MasterCard commercial, but much taller in real life.

- The Jessica sent me an article with some blogger statistics. Let's see how many the RPR falls into:

In case you have been living under a rock or something, blogging is now a
big part of Americans' lives, or so says a survey by Pew Internet & American
Life Project. Here are a few findings from the phone survey of 7,012
people:
· Thirty-nine percent of U.S. Internet users, or about 57
million Americans, read blogs; 8 percent, or about 12 million Americans, write a
blog; and more than half of bloggers are under the age of 30.
· Pew
found that 37 percent of bloggers cite "my life and experiences" as what they
blog about, while only 11 percent cited public issues as typical topics. Sixty
percent of bloggers are white, while 74 percent of the country's Web users are,
according to the data. Fifty-five percent of bloggers write under a pseudonym.
· Fifty-four percent of bloggers say that they have never published
their writing or media creations anywhere else; 44 percent say they have
published elsewhere.
· Women and men have statistical parity in the
blogosphere, with women representing 46 percent of bloggers and men 54 percent.
· Seventy-six percent of bloggers say a reason they blog is to
document their personal experiences and share them with others. Sixty-four
percent of bloggers say a reason they blog is to share practical knowledge or
skills with others.
· Seventy-seven percent of bloggers have shared
something online that they created themselves, such as their own artwork,
photos, stories, or videos. By comparison, 26 percent of Internet users as a
whole have done this.

Tobi Elkin is Executive Editor, MediaPost.

- Additionally, in case, you haven't seen this one, Julie sent me a link to a Forbes magazine write-up on America's Drunkest Cities. Not much of a surprise that Milwaukee and Minneapolis-St. Paul came in #1 and 2 since there isn't much else to do in those cold areas besides booze it up. Shout-out to Austin, TX, for landing at #5. Also, let's hear it for Pennsylvania, as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia came in at a respectable #8 and 9.

- I'll do a little write-up about this past weekend in an upcoming post.

Andy's 2006 Penn State Football Preview

In addition to providing his Nuggets of Wisdom and other stories to the RPR, Andy also provides a nice, thorough write-up previewing the Penn State football season. Apologies to the non-football or non-PSU fans for a possible lack of interest, but I'm sure the football and PSU fans will enjoy it.

2006 Penn State Football Preview

With less than a week remaining until the opening kickoff of the 2006 College Football season, I felt compelled to do my 2nd Annual Penn State Season preview. I’m gonna break it down like this: Offense, Defense, Intangibles, and then a gutsy prediction for the upcoming year.

Offense: Offensively, Penn State is going to look to build on the success that they achieved last year. Losing Michael Robinson, your experienced tight end in Isaac Smolko, and 4 out of 5 starters on the offensive line, the offense needs to regroup a little this year. This shouldn’t be as hard as Mark May, Lee Corso, or Kirk Herbstreit thinks. When you have a healthy Derrick Williams returning, a new Quarterback (Anthony Morelli) who can throw a football through a brick wall, and an future first-round pick in Levi Brown anchoring the offensive line, then your offense isn’t so bad off. This isn’t even taking into consideration that there are 4 receivers in addition to Williams who are returning, and 2 running backs that have been playing since they were freshmen! Galen Hall will look to incorporate their speed guys like Williams into different offensive looks to keep defenses off balance. Morelli will be more of a pocket passer, and they could even toy with a spread offense similar to what the Indianapolis Colts do with Peyton Manning. Overall, I think what they bring back will definitely keep the offense strong, despite losing some major contributors.

Defense: I’m looking at another solid defensive unit this year. On the defensive line, you return only 1 starter in Jay Alford, but have 1 guy returning from a year off and have some talented freshmen and sophomores that look like they will be able to keep blockers away from Penn State’s strong linebacker unit. You can’t say enough about what is returning for Linebacker U. Personally, I feel that this will be the top linebacker group in the nation this year. Paul Posluszny, Dan Connor, Tim Shaw, and all the other talented underclassmen, will keep running backs from going too far, and will cause major problems on the pass rush. The secondary, although a bit of a question mark, definitely has it’s good players. Justin King will play defense only and will be joined by some other "nickel" package players from last year. There won’t be much experience, but the speed of these players is phenomenal, and they will be able to keep up with just about anyone.

Intangibles: It is hard to replace leadership. This is a place where someone will have to step up and take over on offense for Michael Robinson, and on defense for Alan Zemaitis. The leadership will be missed, but I look for Morelli to take the helm of the offense and to not let us down. You won’t have to look any further than the linebackers. Poz, and Connor will be bringing that defense up to the task every week. Penn State isn’t losing too many seniors after the 2006 season, so I look for some Juniors to step up and take the leadership roles that could lead to great rewards next season.

Prediction: I predict that Derrick Williams will be in the top 5 receivers in NCAA, and Morelli will answer any questions about his ability at quarterback in the first game next Saturday when PSU plays host to Akron. Defensively, I predict a very similar defense to what they had last year. They will stifle the run, and won’t give up many big plays. Paul Posluszny may be a Heisman candidate this year, for his amazing ability to tackle, and get to the ball. This won’t be an easy year with the addition of Notre Dame to the schedule, playing Ohio State on the road, and Michigan at Beaver stadium.

Overall: Penn State could go 12-0, which means PSU would have to knock off Notre Dame. Beating ND is a legitimte possibility because their defense is lackluster, and Brady Quinn is overrated in my mind.

My real prediction: 9-3 with losses to Michigan, Ohio State, and Notre Dame.

I Can't Emphasize This Enough...

Taken from the latest Bill Simmons Mailbag, a point at which I was freaking out about when this episode of "Entourage" aired a couple of weeks ago. The Jessica can attest to this. And thank you to the guy who wrote in with the comment, and to Bill Simmons for agreeing with him. Let this be a lesson to the uneducated Blackjack players of the world:

Q: After the "Entourage" episode when Vince had $300,000 riding on multiple blackjack hands and the chucklehead sitting to his left split his face cards, as it always does for Vince's crew, things worked out and dealer busted, followed by Ari kissing the chucklehead on his bald dome. Shouldn't there have been a Public Service Announcement at the end of the episode instructing amateurs not to split a 20. ... Or at least have had Johnny Drama beat the pulp out of the dude in the final scene while screaming "Never split a 20!"?--Ben, Charlotte, N.C.

SG: I like the idea of the public service announcement. It could have been like one of those '80s sitcom moments -- Vince and the gang staring seriously into the camera and saying, "Tonight's episode was a dramatization. In real life, you should never split 10s when someone else has $300,000 riding on the table, unless you want to be beaten up, mutilated or murdered outside the casino later that same night. Please respect everyone else at your table. Thank you."

Fall TV and The Shins Concert in Brooklyn

Few quick items to catch up on from this week:

- Even though the end of the summer is approaching, there are two great things in the Fall to look forward to: Football and new seasons of your favorite TV shows. There will be plenty of commentary on the new football seasons for NCAA and NFL, but we'll come to that later. However, thanks to the Jessica for sending this Excel spreadsheet for the 2006-07 PrimeTime Broadcast Schedule (right click, "Save Target As") - taken from cynopsis.com. This is pretty handy so that you don't miss the season premieres of your favorite shows, and even if you can't catch it when it airs the first time, you'll at least know when to DVR it. The schedule looks good with regard to shows that I like to watch and/or am interested in checking out. Of course, the Wednesday schedule is still worthless, especially since I never caught on to the hype for "Lost".

- I went to see The Shins concert last night at the McCarren Park Pool in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. The venue is quite interesting: someone must have had the idea in the last year or so to utilize an abandoned public swimming pool facility for concerts. It's not like Brooklyn doesn't have an outdoor concert venue for the summer season, as I'm aware of several shows that have played in Prospect Park. Any case, McCarren Pool hasn't been used in about 20 years, but several entities got together and restored the area for various concerts and events this summer. They've had free shows on Sundays, and paid events on other days. You figure that an empty swimming pool has plenty of space and is sloped enough whereby those standing close to the stage (in the deep end) won't obstruct the view of those standing farther away (in the shallow area). It worked out magnificently.

There was a large turnout for the show, although it wasn't sold out. It was general admission, but there was plenty of room and people weren't standing on top of each other. The audio was a little choppy at first, as one of the bass amps was having some technical issues and producing static. Once they got that fixed, no problems on the audio front. The Shins played a solid show. They ran through a good deal of their song catalog, granted that only encompasses two records: Chutes Too Narrow and Oh, Inverted World. They played a couple of new tunes from their forthcoming record due out in early 2007, and they sounded good after a first listen.

Funny story: The Shins started to play "New Slang", which is their flagship song after gaining popularity in the movie, Garden State. You'd imagine that they would play "New Slang" at every concert they've ever performed, and at this point, it's like second nature for them to perform it live. After about 30 seconds, the lead singer starts laughing and says, "I'm sorry, I completed messed up the words!" Eric and I look at each other in amazement. "How can you mess up the words to your most popular tune?" So then the band gives it another shot and again, about 45 seconds in, the lead singer messes up the lyrics. Finally, he says, "We'll give this one another shot later on," and they moved to another tune. I guess I can understand that after perfoming a song hundreds and hundreds of times, you don't even have to think about the words; they just roll off your tongue. Regardless, in the first song of the encore (surely after taking a glance at the lyrics offstage), they successfully played "New Slang" and everyone was satisfied.

Overall, the show was enjoyable, and if you like The Shins, check them out the next time you get a chance. Hopefully, they'll get "New Slang" correct the first time around.

- I'm heading down to AC this weekend, so if all goes well, I'm come back with a tan, some more cash in my pocket, and a few good stories to go with it.

Back after the weekend.

The Tourists (Heart) NY

So last night, I was meeting up with a few friends near Rockefeller Center, and I arrived a few minutes early. Whenever I have time to kill, I take part in the national pasttime of people- watching. It always fascinates me, especially in Manhattan. Inevitably, every time I people- watch, I am inspired in some way to write about one of the many situations that I see or observations that I make. Last night was no exception.

I stood in the area right above where the ice skating rink is in the winter time; in the summer, it is transformed into several outdoor cafes and a bar. I proceeded to watch many tourists pass by and I found it very funny how enamored they were by the Rockefeller Center mezzanine area, with that large gold statue and all of the country flags. Personally, I don't find it to be that exciting, but there were plenty of pictures taken with the statue and flags serving as a background. The best was the parents who would force the kids, displaying their I (Heart) NY t-shirts and hats, to take multiple pictures. Believe me, the kids didn't seem thrilled either. The backdrop isn't quite as glamorous as the Statue of Liberty, Grand Canyon, or even Wrigley Field. Those are worthy photo ops. I'm not quite convinced that a gold statue and some flags fall into the same category.

Another source of confusion for me are the tourists who carry around a camcorder while they traverse the urban jungle. They walk with the camcorder in hand -- at times looking through the eye hole, and at other times just filming whatever the hand guides them to film. My question is this: you go on vacation somewhere for, let's say, 5 days. Even if you only shoot 2 hours of tape each day (which in itself is a low-end conservative estimate), then you have 10 hours of footage of sightseeing. Is a person really going to sit down at a later time and view these tapes? Frankly, you're better off using the digital camera, because you can easily flip through 100 pictures in a couple minutes. I know I'd rather view the highlights of a friend's vacation in 2 minutes rather than re-live all the action over 8 hours of amateur video footage. Gotta love it.

As mentioned a moment ago, I'd like to talk about the "I (Heart) NY" paraphenalia. They sell hats, t-shirts, sweatshirts, pins, posters, you name it... with I (Heart) NY on it. And why shouldn't they? This campaign, which began in 1977, has to be one of the most visible and recognized tourism slogans in the world, and the street vendors of NYC love it. They love it because tourists come to visit and they want to buy the merchandise. People travel all over the world and obtain souvenirs of their destination for themselves and friends/family back at home. The part that gets me is when the tourists wear the I (Heart) NY paraphenalia while they are walking around in New York City. I saw a family yesterday and they were all decked out in a variety of shirts and hats, all with the slogan on them. This is a little much, don't you think? The only understandable excuse is if they ended up in the city a day longer than expected and ran out of clean clothes. So maybe they purchased some cheap t-shirts to get them through the last day of the trip before they left. Otherwise, it's purely cheesy and unnecessary. Keep your souvenirs until you get home, and then wear them later on to show the folks in Anytown, USA that you were in the Big Apple this past summer.

That's all I have for now. Back later

Snakes Makes $15M

I slacked on the posts toward the end of last week, but I'll try to get back on the stick this week. Keep an eye out for some new posts in the days to come.

In the meantime, Snakes on a Plane earned over $15 million this weekend and made #1 at the Box Office. I'm not in the least bit surprised. I wonder how much money this film would have made with a lead actor other than Samuel L. Jackson, and involved a much more believable plot than snakes taking over an airplane. Nothing amazes me anymore. More thoughts to come once I actually see the movie... (I always succumb to the hype)

Thoughts on the Homeless

When you're in New York City, or any large city for that matter, there's one thing you can't help but notice: the homeless people. It's a terrible problem that these folks have been hit so hard by poverty, that they must live on the streets among the filth.

Some of the homeless walk around panhandling for spare change, a buck, or some food. Some will come straight out and ask for money so they can buy some booze or drugs. These folks will never get any money from me because I can't condone them not doing anything for money. I always say to myself, "Why don't they just go out and get a job?" They can do something... anything. Why not go be a busboy at a restaurant? Or a trashman? Or work for the transit authority. Granted you need a residence and the ability to clean yourself up before you'll get any job, but it's the principle that I'm trying to convey.

On the other hand, if I'm entertained by the music that a homeless person is playing on the sidewalk or on the subway platform, I'll throw them a buck for their talents and efforts. On the other hand, when a homeless man told BBC, KDowd, and I the meaning of the constantly changing numbers above the Circuit City in Union Square, this was also deserving of $1. Besides, I had been wondering about those numbers for over 2 years now. By the way, the numbers are a clock -- ask me and I'll expain if you know what I'm referencing.

Anyway, the point of the story is that I have a possible solution for the homeless: sign them up for the Army. If they are just roaming the streets, why not put them to work in our nation's armed forces? As long as they pass a mental health test to prove that they aren't a psychiatric liability, why not get them into basic training, and teach them to be constructive? For all we know, it could teach them some skills that would be worthwhile after they served, and would help the nation gain some more bodies during these crazy conflicts that the US gets themselves involved in. Wouldn't you feel better about having some homeless guys over in Iraq as opposed to people you know? OK, maybe that's a controversial question, since these guys may not be the best and the brightest, but they wouldn't be sent anywhere until they can prove that they can be responsible and trustworthy.

Alright, so maybe this isn't the best argument I've ever come up with, but the fact of the matter is that being in the service would be a heck of a lot more productive for the nation's homeless as opposed to roaming around [insert large metropolitan area] asking every passerby for spare change. Boot Camp will get them off of the street and whip them into shape.

Everyone send a letter to your local Congressman.

Providing Worthless Knowledge One Day at a Time

Just a few quick items for the time being:

- While walking home tonight, I was crossing the street about 1 block from the apartment, and saw a NYC Yellow Cab pulled over, with the hood up. Upon further investigation, I saw smoke coming from under the hood. Then, I took another closer look and saw that the engine was on fire. We're talking small flames like you'd see in barbeque or small campfire. People just walked by like nothing was going on. Traffic continued to pass right by. Not that anyone was worried about a possible explosion or anything. Soon enough, the FDNY showed up, and they put out the fire. However, they did leave the cab where it was, with the extinguisher residue all over it. The cab driver was nowhere to be found. Then again, what does he care? He receives his $20K per year regardless of how many cars he destroys.

- I should have held out for this plasma TV: Panasonic 103-inch Plasma. If anyone has $70,000 to spare, they oughta invest in this fine piece of equipment in the upcoming holiday season.

- The Jessica is threatening to see if my TV has a parental lock feature so that I can't flip to ESPN. I wish I was kidding. And I wouldn't put it passed her to play this joke on me.

- America is a free country, right? We have the freedoms of the Constitution which suggest free speech and religion, and all of those righteous ideas. However, somewhere it was written that one shall not be able to back out of thou gym membership without a damn good excuse. Case in point: after moving downtown, the Jessica decided that she'd prefer a new gym, which in very close proximity to the new apartment. She looked into canceling her membership to the old gym, which had decent locations near her old apartment. However, old gym notified her that she wouldn't be able to cancel without having physically moved out of Manhattan, joined the Army, or one of other numerous life altering events.

I find this to be rather ridiculous. It's a gym, and I feel like that "contract" or "agreement" isn't as important as a lease signed for an apartment, other legal documents, or disclosure forms that you'd sign for an employer. The latter are items that you wouldn't think about breaking, unless under dire circumstances. But a gym membership agreement? What if you want to find a better deal elsewhere? What if you aren't happy with the facilities anymore? What if you move to an area of the city where they don't have as many locations? I feel like you should be able to tell them, "Sorry, I just don't want to come here anymore", and that's the end of it. But, that's not the case. People have to jump though hoops, and it sounds absurd.

Luckily, the whole situation was alleviated when the Jessica showed them her valid Pennsylvania drivers license and just stated that she's "moving back home with Mom and Dad". That was good enough for them, and proof enough to get the point across. No questions asked. However, if she didn't have that PA license, then she'd have to pay a termination fee, and that's a bunch of crap. The profit margins on gyms are astronomical anyway. The whole industry is a racket. I'm all pissed off.

That's all for now. Tonight's lesson: "Caveat emptor" when you sign up for gym memberships. Back tomorrow.

This Week's Opening Comments

A few items on the laundry list:

- RPR Shout out to Alexis, Amy, and Eric for hanging out on Friday night. I'm a little rusty on my billiards game, and yes, I'm that guy who scratched on the "can't miss" 8-ball shot to win the game. Way to go Ross.

- Another RPR shout out to the BBC and KDowd for hangin out on Saturday. Definitely good to see the fellas in the city. They deemed me to be a "local" and a "regular" at the Grassroots Tavern (St. Marks Place between 2nd & 3rd Ave) since I've been there 3 times within the last 2 weekends now. Let's hear it for dive bars with cheap beer and $1 buckets of popcorn.

- By the way, for those fans of The Hills, my sources (Alexis) tell me that LC and Jason have already broken up. Wow, if LC didn't already feel like a jerk for skipping out on a chance to work in Paris, I'd imagine she now feels like more of a jerk. I still want to sock Jason in the face.

- Is it weird that I don't even blink an eye to a guy shopping in a supermarket while rollerblading, another singing at the top of his lungs while standing in the butcher line, and a lady who has a leash on her dog and her kid in the frozen section?

- Still not sure if anyone would care about this, but saw Nick Kroll from Best Week Ever on Sunday afternoon around 5pm, at the corner of 13th St and 3rd Ave. I thought it was semi-exciting. And because it's my goal to be on Best Week Ever some day.

More to come throughout the week. Let me know what's going on, or if you have any suggestions for blog posts.

Great Comment Overheard on the Train

So I'm on the train this morning, and the MTA guy is walking around checking tickets. He checks my ticket and moves a few rows ahead of where I'm sitting. I overhear the following comment by some scraggly looking guy:

"Here's my train pass, even though it doesn't look like one. It got all wet from the rain yesterday, and when I got home, I decided to dry it by putting it into the microwave. Instead, it charred half of the ticket. I promise you.. you can see the markings on it."

The MTA guy looked at the pass, and at this character, in amazement, and said, "OK, I believe you." I think he was just shocked at the stupidity that this guy had, assuming that a piece of paper wouldn't burn in a microwave. Absolutely brilliant.

As I always say, just when you think you've seen and heard everything, you see and hear something else. (That's the Ross Rule of Life #4)

Back to some Insightful Commentary

- More craziness with the potential terrorism plots, huh? Next thing you know, people won't be able to fly unless they come onboard without anything... no bags, and nothing in their pockets. I'm all for the security measures to ensure everyone's safety -- it's just a shame that it has to cause so many minor inconveniences. But hey, the FAA and National Guard knows what's best, so let's run with that.

- I came across an excellent new band from Cleveland called Bears. These guys sound a little like The Shins mixed with Elliott Smith mixed with the old 60's band, The Zombies. Their self-titled record, although only 36 minutes long, is absolutely fantastic. I told Eric to take a listen and he agrees completely. So there you go -- I'm not lying. Check out a few tracks here.

- Only 2 weeks until the opening of Invincible. And let me tell you: I am excited for this one. It may not end up being a blockbuster, and let's be serious... Mark Wahlberg is the star, so it isn't going to win any Oscar's. However, it's about the Eagles, and that's good enough for me. When I was younger, I'd watch sports movies like Rookie of the Year, Major League, and Little Big League (remember that one?) and would think to myself, "Man that must be cool to have your favorite team featured in a movie". Better yet, it's based on a true story about Vince Papale, so it's not like the folks at Disney Pictures just arbitrarily chose to make an NFL flick about any team. I'm hyped.

- I'm helping everyone sound less like a delinquent: here's a list of the 100 Most Often Mispronounced Words in the English Language. Just remember, it's "Heimlich Maneuver", not Heineken remover.

That's it from my end. Enjoy the weekend !

Observations of the Apple

I've been slacking the past few days but I have some new observations that I'd like to pass on. Also, I've been thinking this is a good idea for recurring posts, but if you think otherwise, please let management know.

- One of my mottos about New York is that "Something is always dripping on you". I'm serious, no matter where I am in the city, there's something always dripping on me. I walk down the street, I feel something wet on my arm. I'm in the park, I get a drop of something on me. And believe me, it isn't rain. In fact, there aren't any clouds in the sky. I have realized that in many cases, it's condensation from air conditioning units. Otherwise, I think that if I don't know what this mystery liquid is, I'm probably better off. Let's just hope it isn't toxic.

- You know how Clark Kent has a certain facade about him whereby he wears a suit during the day, and then instantaneously transforms into Superman? I think New Yorkers secretly want to be just like him. When they travel, they'll wear the comfortable clothing -- I saw a guy in the subway wearing shorts and a t-shirt, with a suit on a hanger, as he was apparently headed to work. It's like a certain metamorphosis occurs when they get to work, and all of a sudden this guy is Joe Officeworker.

- Someone should study the economics of the competition between the fruit stands. If the guy standing right outside of the subway can sell bananas at 4 for $1, does he end up doing worse than the guy all the way at the other end of the block who sells them for 5 for $1 ? Other rather, if one doesn't speak English, how does he fare? These are the questions that need to be answered.

- I love AM New York. It's the free paper that I read on the train. The articles seem to be written by an elementary school student, but then they slap "Associated Press" on the byline to make it seem legit. They've written articles like "Report says that Street Fairs are Annoying" and "Rising Rents Make it Hard to Find a Cheap Apartment". I'm waiting for a story telling me that the sun will rise tomorrow morning, and then disappear tomorrow night only to return the next day. Journalism at its finest.

That's it for now. I'll be back with more, don't worry.

Andy's Nuggets: Clearfield County Fair Wrap Up

Andy checks in this week after the highly talked about Clearfield County Fair. He promised some craziness, and from the sounds of it, the Fair didn't disappoint:

My most exciting week of the year is the Clearfield County Fair. I take a week off from work to eat, walk around all day, and watch some concerts for free. Let me tell you about my week.
First of all, it started with contoversy. Our Fair has always allowed concession stands to sell anything they want to, whether they be balloons, food, whatever you can think of. There was one stand that had tie dye shirts, confederate flags, and to many people's surprise, stuff with swastikas on it. Let me just say that in 24 years of going to the Fair, I have never even seen these swastikas before, nor have I seen anyone buy anything with them on, and I am in attendance for over 100 hours during the week.

A local attorney took it upon himself to chain himself to the courthouse steps with some of the swastika items, until the fair board ordered the vendor to quit selling them. To make a long story short, this guy has a vendetta against the District Attorney in Clearfield, and that was his motivation to doing this. But he managed to create a huge problem to start the Fair. This did not make Andrew a happy camper [Editor's note: It didn't make Andy happy because it delayed the start of the Fair. Neither Andy nor the RPR supports any anti-semitism. We'll leave that to Mel Gibson.]

The rest of the week would be pretty quiet. Just your typical crap...watch some harness races, play crappy mini-golf, and play the game where you throw dimes into glasses and you keep the glasses. NOTE: To all persons who were ever in my apartment, you'll see that 90% of all the glassware in the kitchen was courtesy of the dime toss.

Now on to the most important part of the fair...the entertainment. Tuesday night was Peter Frampton. This wasn't a very hyped show, but he was an amazing guitarist. I was very impressed. I was a little disappointed though, because unlike the Frampton Comes Alive cover, he had no hair, and it was grey not blonde! Friday night was Poison. This was the best concert that I have seen at the fair ever. I was 3 rows from the stage and felt like Bret and CC were playing just for me. I also got to meet the drummer Rikki Rockett, and the bassist Bobby Dall. They were pretty nice. Bret Michaels was only meeting chicks with big boobs, and CC wasn't meeting anyone, for fear that the smell of alcohol would send him into a relapse. Saturday was Kenny Rogers and the Oak Ridge Boys. This concert would have been awesome...30 years ago. All these guys were really old and it was not very good. I did get to hear "Elvira" and "The Gambler", so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Overall, it was a pretty good Fair. I gained 3 pounds, won 9 glasses, spent $180, and didn't hook up with the Fair Queen (but there is still time for the first runner up!!!)

Join us next week for the PSU Football preview.

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

This is possibly one of the coolest music videos I've seen in a long time. (Yeah yeah I know there aren't that many music videos to see in general, but this one is great). The song is called "Here It Goes Again" by OK Go. I think it ranks up there as one of the top choreographed dance routines in a music video, along with Christopher Walken in Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice".

RPR Phase 2: Big Apple

Hello ladies and gentleman. We're live this evening from New York City, as the Ross Press Release gets back up and running, and hopefully back on a semi-normal schedule.

The moving went pretty well, for those that care. The best thing we could have done was get movers (like we would have chosen not to). People made the comment to me that it must have brutal to move given the ridiculous heat that has blanketed the whole country over the past week. Well, it wasn't really that bad. I let the movers do all the heavy lifting and hard work. After all, we're paying them good money for the job, so these guys have to earn it. I'd say that the Jessica and I did a nice job of getting everything set up. In fact, this apartment looks pretty damn good for 2 people that just moved in on Monday. I'll admit that I was a bit of a tyrant -- I hate having boxes not put away and too much junk laying around. I say "Get it out of the box and put it away somewhere". So that's what we did. My system worked well.

One of the ongoing features that I'm planning on doing is to point out various observations about New York City that make it unique. Thinking ahead, I'm sure that some of these items could apply to any large city, but I'd imagine that it'd be vastly amplified in New York. Things are crazy here. People are crazy. In fact, I'm convinced that a good portion of the citizens walking around Manhattan at any given time are somewhat mentally unstable.

Granted, I've been spending weekends here for 2 years now, but you tend to notice more things when you actually live here. These are in no way earth-shattering discoveries, just some items I'd like to mention:

- I thought I walked fast; some of the people here manage to sprint without lifting their feet off of the ground. If the US Olympic committee is looking for speedwalkers for the 2008 Games, they should check out NYC.

- People will wear anything. It might be actual clothing. It might be some sort of fabric modified to cover a person's body. It might be trendy and fashionable. It might make them look like a homeless person even though they hold a day job and are involved in a fledging acting career at night. Fact of the matter is that I can't tell whether someone looks cool or whether they look like someone needs to give them a handout. Either way, I'm sure that many of them spend a lot of time creating the impression that they spent little time deciding what to wear.

- On the subway platforms during morning and evening rush hour, you better know where you're going, otherwise you will have hordes of people shuffling past you in a huff. You may even get knocked over by a senior citizen.

- Always watch where you're walking on the sidewalk: not everyone in the city abides by the "Clean up after your dog" rule.

- When it's upwards of 100 degrees for several days in a row, beware of potential blackouts every day, and don't be amazed that a local electronics store is selling air conditioners on the sidewalk right next to the fruit stand and the hot dog vendor. Besides the fact that 100 degrees feels like 115 degrees when you add in all of the buildings close together and the concrete.

- The smell of trash and sewage could appear anywhere. Luckily, when you walk by the Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts, the smell is overshadowed by coffee for a brief moment.

- I love the fact that musicians will perform anywhere. One of my favorites is the soul-funk marching band that performs on 14th Street right outside of the Virgin Records Megastore. They use rusty brass instruments and beat up drum sets, but these guys are extremely talented. Think of it as the poor man's Drumline.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for the next post within a couple days. Hopefully I'll do some roaming and wandering this weekend that will inspire some stories.