Thundercats Are Loose!

Warner Bros. has optioned a script to turn the Thundercats into a CGI-animated feature.

I'm a little nervous about the animated aspect of this movie. Hopefully it will be more Manga style than Pixar. In any event, I'm looking forward to new adventures with Lion-O, Cheetara, Mumm-Ra, Ratar-O and even the twins (Wylie-Cat and Kit). Hopefully the new millenium edition will have Snarf die a tragic death on Thundera when it is destroyed. Its too bad they aren't doing a live-action film because Ving Rhames would make an excellent Panthro.

Outside Its Wednesday, Inside Its Thursday

Unfortunately, tomorrow this morning is another one of those days that somedickbody expects me to do work first thing in the morning. What sort of a person schedules a meeting for 9:00am?

With that in mind, I decided to write this post last night so I wouldn't leave the 5s of people that read this blog hanging. Of course, this presents me with an interesting dilemma - what if something remarkable happens after I publish this post.

Right now (Wednesday night) I'm just sitting at home drinking a few beers and watching the Golden Girls, speaking of which, was Rose suffering from dementia? She gives ding-bats a run for their money and I find it hard to believe that she wasn't touched in the head. Anyway, suppose after publishing this and polishing off a few more beers a mysterious stranger shows up at my door and hands me a pack of cigarettes with a USB drive containing the details of a sinister agency's plans to take-over the Madison Square Park Shake Shack so that they can administer a toxin in the hot dogs that will cause any New Yorkers who eat the dogs to go crazy and run amok through the Home Depot on 23rd street.

It would be my civic duty to take those plans to the proper authority. By the time I figured out who the proper authority was, where that authority's office was located, changed into something appropriate for high-stakes intrigue and espionage, traveled to that office, handed over the plans, answered repeated stupid questions as to how the plans came into my possesion, and finally returned home, I would barley have time for a quick nap and shower before having to head to that stupid meeting at 9:00 am.

The point of all this is, I would have experienced one of the most exciting adventures of my life but you would all be reading this long-winded claptrap assuming that my night consisted of a few beers, some old ladies on TV and then bed. So just to cover my bases, I'm going to publish tonight last night and refuse to answer my door.

Surfs Not Up, Dude!

I was walking down 6th avenue around 11:30 this morning when I happened upon a group of guys carrying surf boards on 42nd street. Judging by the proximity to Bryant Park, I'm assuming this has something to do with a new Xtreeme sport, where the members scour the city looking for the perfect wave in a fountain.

We Interupt Your Regularly Schedule Post With The Following

I usually like to have my first weekday post up by 10am. There are of course, occasions when that doesn't happen. I may be too hungover to turn on my computer and choose to stare at the suithing blank screen for a while, perhaps I've overslept and just didn't make it to work earlier enough to meet my self-imposed deadline, or its highly possible that I'm stuck indside a train on the Manhattan bridge as it waits for the train ahead of this one, which is sitting at the Canal street station while the EMTs medivac the "sick" (ie, diet-crazed woman who fainted because she hasn't eaten in four days) pasenger to safety. Then their are those days where work rears its ugly head and someone expects me to actually do something before 11am, which is the time I normally feel up to the challenges of duty.

If you are reading this message right now, that can only mean that I am having one of the above scenarios acted out upon my morning. I'll let you decide which one is the case and feel free to let me know which scenario you think I am experiencing in the comments section. In any event, I promise to atone for my tardiness with a worthwhile posting soon. Until then, I hope your morning is going as regularly scheduled.

PS. Please note, I didn't have time to spell chack this. Can you spot the mispelled words?

Something That Peeves Me

When a person walks into an establishment that requires them to order something over a counter (i.e. deli, bodega, food cart, concession stand, fast food joint, etc.) and they begin the order with the words "Let me get".

Bizarro Weekend

After the previous weekend's Memorial 5 day river-fest drunkorama, which was then punctuated by Thursday's blogger booze-fest, I had a relatively quiet and sober weekend. Of course, I still managed to tie one on Friday night, which was really surprising considering how hungover I was when I woke up that day.

Saturday was a slightly different story though. This was the first weekend that both Seth & I have been in town in a long time. Since many of our friends were out of town, we decided to not make any plans, stick around home and take care of some overdue business such as pay bills, put in the a/c units, a little Spring cleaning, etc, etc ( I know dull). On Saturday night we had a couple (literally) cocktails and rented the film, 'Epic Movie'. If you are anything like us and enjoy mindless entertainment, potty humor, and fart jokes then you might enjoy this flick.

I was up bright and early Sunday and immediately noticed the complete lack of the standard Sunday symptoms i.e. headache, nausea, exhaustion, mysterious bruises, and surprise over night guests on the fold-out. I did something I rarely do on Sunday and took a shower then headed out to run some errands. Later that day I began sorting items for the upcoming stoop sale we are having with Kitty and her husband. I'll keep you posted on that.

All in all, it was a relaxing, enjoying and energizing weekend, which was exactly what I needed because this week is already shaping up to be another booze-tastic endeavor.

Blog Writers Of The World Unite And Take Over

Most people assume that the life of a blogger is a glamorous existence of premiers, parties and beautiful people. And you know what? Its true! Last night at my first Blogger Summit (that just sounds so much better than happy hour, plus now I'm sure I can use my bar tab as a tax deduction) I got to put faces to my favorite blogs. I then proceeded to drink so much that I forgot what those faces look like. So Midwesterner, you can keep writing "This Is Not Me" and I will be just as duped as everyone who has never actually seen you.

I'd like to say the following to everyone who was there last night:

I hope you had as much fun as I did.

When are we doing it again?

What was the deal with the waitresses shushing us?

If I said anything to offend you in the hour leading up to my departure you can rest assured that I don't remember saying it and lets just leave it at that.

pop-o-matic Bar Report

Occasionally here on pop-o-matic, I like to share my ideas of a good bar for you to whet your whistle at. But why should anyone bother listening to my opinions and take my bar reviews into account when choosing a bar to visit? Where do I get off suggesting a place that you may or may not enjoy?

Well I'll tell you my friend.

The fact is I have spent a lot of time visiting bars, saloons, taverns and pubs. I've been in front of the bar, on top of a bar and behind the bar. When I say behind the bar, I don't just mean sticking my head under a tap when the bar keep wasn't watching but rather, I tended bar during college.

Throughout my years frequenting bars I developed the following list of requirements and considerations, which I employ when evaluating a drinking establishment. If a place can provide most of my list then I then pass that info on to you in the form of a half-assed review here on pop-o-matic.

1. The establishment must serve booze! Before you leave this page in disgust over what seems like such an obvious requirement that the rest of this list will probably suck, let me explain. I don't know about you, but I can't claim to have visited every bar in the world. Its a big world and I'm sure there are some places where the people may define an establishment, such as a coffee house, as a bar. I imagine in other parts of the world, perhaps Utah, there are even bars that serve nothing buy soft drinks. Rest assured, if I ever find myself in one of these frightening locations, you will not read about it in the pop-o-matic Bar Report.

2. Does the libation location poses ample seating or at least enough room to claim an area with plenty of leaning options while not getting bounced about by crowds. I'll admit it, I'm lazy. I like to sit while I drink. If I can't sit, I at least want to be able to lean on something or put my foot up on the rung of somebodies chair, as long as that somebody is part of my party. If I have to stand around without support of any kind, you can bet I won't be staying for more than two beers.

3. What does the bar look like? I can have fun at any drinking establishment from the diveiest hole in the wall to the latest Schragar hotel lobby concept but there better be something for me to look at. I don't care if the drinking room has a collection of dust that began settling before prohibition or a diving tank mounted behind the bar with people in mermaid costumes swimming under water, there better be something interesting about the bar's decor.

4. Aside from me and my drunken friends, what sort of entertainment does the place provide? Juke-boxes are ideal, especially if it's like the one at Yogi's on the Upper West Side. Bands are great, TVs are nice, and even the bartender's iPod plugged into the speaker system will do. There just has to be some sort of background noise other than the people in the bar.

5. What's the crowd like? I certainly wouldn't want to limit my going out experiences to places that strictly serve a clientele of me clones. However, I would no sooner willingly enter a bar full of neo-Nazis as I would a bar packed with bankers. I like a good mix of people who are all out with the same goal - to have a good time without interfering in anyone elses good time. I rarely, if ever, strike up a conversation with strangers but some of the best times I've had in bars have been when when my group ends up hanging out with another fun group or person at the bar.

Now that you know my criteria, I'd like to introduce a new section of the pop-o-matic Bar Report, where I will tell you about a bar you should never go to. This was actually Jenni B's idea and it was born after a particularly terrible happy hour last week.

The bar is the Bryant Park Cafe located in Bryant Park. Yes, the establishment serves booze but that's about all it has to offer of my requirements. This place was packed to the gills last Tuesday, which resulted in a complete lack of seating or leaning, unless you include being propped up by the crowd as leaning (I don't). If there was music I couldn't hear it over the crowd and that's where the bar received it's biggest strike in my book. There seemed to be two main factions of people here - giudos and Wall St. types. In all my years of public drinking, I've never experienced an odder dichotomy of people or larger gap between myself and the rest of the crowd.

So for all these reasons and more, I have to advise you to steer clear of the Bryant Park Cafe.

I Like A Short Week

I'm finally back after an extra long holiday weekend. As I mentioned last week, Seth & I spent the weekend down south on the Potomac river. Aside from all that clean air reeking havoc with my allergies, we had a blast. Now that we are back, I need to take a vacation from booze for a while, well at least until the weekend.

I hope everyone had as much fun as we did over the weekend. Now that Memorial day has come don't forget the start of white pants season has arrived so wear them if you got them!

I'll fill you in on drunken weekend stories as I remember them. In the meantime, after playing hooky for the past few days, I've got a lot of work waiting for me on my desk, including this giant box from Hasbro's PR firm. The box is filled with the full set of Transformers products for the upcoming movie and I have a lot of transforming to get to work on.

Everybody's Working For the Weekend

Hey Gang,

I'm sneaking out of town for the weekend early. Seth and I are heading to the fascist state of Virginia to spend the weekend with his family who live on the coast of the Potomac river. I imagine we will be drunk and on a boat for most of the weekend so I don't know if I'll be blogging again until we return to civilization.

Until then, here's another picture from last Saturday, that I find very entertaining. Enjoy the picture and have a wonderful long weekend!

Fulton Mall hair haiku challenge

As most of my friends know, I love a good haiku. Well today, Colleen of cokane's bloggery, is running a haiku challenge. Check it out at the following:

cokane's bloggery: Fulton Mall hair haiku challenge

Funniest Headline of the Day

Not really a headline but I saw a bumper sticker on a car this morning that read:

"Clinton ruined a dress, Bush ruined a nation"

Super Happy Terrific Products

Finally! The perfect gift for my smoking friends who have expressed an interest in quitting.


This jacket (pictured above) is actually an art project created by Fiona Carswell. The jacket contains an area that smokers can breathe their smoke directly into rather than exhaling into someones face or apartment (cough, cough, Jen & Kelly). The smoke then filters through the jacket into a pair of see-through lung images that immediately turn red and then gradually blacken over time.

It's May 23rd! Do You Know What That Means?

That's right, its Fleet Week!


This is the annual week when the US Navy drops its anchor in our harbor and the men and women come ashore in their cute Popeye uniforms looking for tattoos and hookers. So if you see a confused seamen, seawomen, or seamonkey wandering around, stop and ask if they need a hand.

Happy Birthday!

Celebrating their birthdays today are Pop-O-Matic's Rock-O-Matic contributor - Josh, the always ready to rock - Rita and rock's brooding bad boy - Morrissey! I'm going to assume they are celebrating together even though Josh is in LA, I'll be seeing Rita tonight in NYC and who knows where Morrissey is.

I Like Art

If you are a regular reader of the blog, Zombie Fights Shark, you are probably familiar with the Friday afternoon post titled "Oooh Pretty", where an image of something, you guessed it, pretty is posted. Last week's Oooh Pretty was a picture of some shiny art thing on the streets of Chicago to which I commented that I wish NYC had more shiny art things laying about town. Well it seems as if the city's art gnomes read my comment and granted my wish with the following sculpture in Madison Square Park.



Ok, I know these sculptures have been there for a few weeks now but its still fun to delude myself and claim to have some sort of influence over the art world. In fact, each summer Madison Square park hosts an exhibit of large outdoor art. Last year there were concrete pillars, which I thought were just the foundations for the actual installation but as summer progressed and nothing was ever added to the pillars I realized they were the art. The summer before last, there were giant mounds that I'm fairly certain were petrified dinosaur terds.

Madison Square Park is the perfect outdoor setting for these exhibits. Its small with lots of walkways and more people que-up in line for the Shake Shack than all the city's museums combined. So the next time you find yourself waiting over an hour for a hot dog, remember to look up and enjoy the art.

So Just How Crazy Did Things Get on Saturday

In my earlier post, I mention a wild weekend. Well here are some pictures to show you what my idea of a wild night looks like.

Nothing says drunk like late night bodega beer runs in wigs and costumes. Here Kelly and Seth pay for our purchases.


Jen and I on the streets of Park Slope.

Life Lessons

I started this day feeling kind of lousy and in a bit of a funk. As usual, I drank entirely too much on Saturday beginning at brunch and not stopping until some point late that night or early Sunday morning. As a result, I was too hungover yesterday to even make it off the couch and missed out on enjoying a beautiful day. This morning, I woke up still feeling the after results of the weekend binge and turned on NY1 on time to see their coverage of yesterday's Aids Walk. Great! While I was too hungover to even pour myself a soda yesterday, thousands of do-gooders were out volunteering for a worthy cause and doing something healthy at the same time.

By the time I got to work I wasn't even in the mood to blog so I decided to do a little reading instead and happened upon something titled. "10 simple ways to save yourself from messing up your life" posted on lifehack.org.
It was as if this article had been written just for me and after reading the first few simple steps, I was already in better spirits and ready to face the day.

Below are a few of the steps that I especially liked. You can read the entire list at the link above:

Stop taking so much notice of how you feel.
How you feel is how you feel. It’ll pass soon. What you’re thinking is what you’re thinking. It’ll go too. Tell yourself that whatever you feel, you feel; whatever you think, you think. Since you can’t stop yourself thinking, or prevent emotions from arising in your mind, it makes no sense to be proud or ashamed of either. You didn’t cause them. Only your actions are directly under your control. They’re the only proper cause of pleasure or shame.

Ease up on the internal life commentary.
If you want to be happy, stop telling yourself you’re miserable. People are always telling themselves how they feel, what they’re thinking, what others feel about them, what this or that event really means. Most of it’s imagination. The rest is equal parts lies and misunderstandings. You have only the most limited understanding of what others feel about you. Usually they’re no better informed on the subject; and they care about it far less than you do. You have no way of knowing what this or that event really means. Whatever you tell yourself will be make-believe.

Take no notice of your inner critic.
Judging yourself is pointless. Judging others is half-witted. Whatever you achieve, someone else will always do better. However bad you are, others are worse. Since you can tell neither what’s best nor what’s worst, how can you place yourself correctly between them? Judging others is foolish since you cannot know all the facts, cannot create a reliable or objective scale, have no means of knowing whether your criteria match anyone else’s, and cannot have more than a limited and extremely partial view of the other person. Who cares about your opinion anyway?

Give up on feeling guilty.
Guilt changes nothing. It may make you feel you’re accepting responsibility, but it can’t produce anything new in your life. If you feel guilty about something you’ve done, either do something to put it right or accept you screwed up and try not to do so again. Then let it go. If you’re feeling guilty about what someone else did, see a psychiatrist. That’s insane.

Your Man On The Inside

Fact: A lot of my friends and readers don't live in New York City.
Fact: Lots of TV shows and movies use New York City as both a backdrop and often a character. Therefore I've decide to start a new post, "Your Man On The Inside", where I will dispel the rumors that Hollywood would have you believe about New York City.

Item #2: Crime Dramas on both television and in the movies would have you believe that New York City is literally bisected and disected by alleys. Hollywood often portrays theses alleys as havens for hobos warming their hands or baking their beans over garbage can fires, escape routes for crooks during hi-speed chases, the perfect spot to score and shoot crack, concert halls for crooning cats, and long maze-like halls that end at tall wooden fences.

The truth is there are little to no alleys like those mentioned above in NYC. While these places may exist in Queens or the Bronx, real estate in Manhattan is so valuable and scarce that no space, no matter how small, is overlooked.

A Man Of My Word

Some of you may recall that yesterday I was singing the praises of responsible drinking (much to the chagrin of my soused supporters). In said post, I also promised to atone for my night of responsibility with many evenings of irresponsible imbibing. Well I'm pleased to announce that I lived up to that promise last night!

Let me recount the portions of the past 14 hours that I can clearly recall. I met Seth for dinner at 6:30... I woke up in bed this morning. Just kidding. I actually remember the entire evening from my first cocktail to my second nightcap. After dinner, Seth and I made our way to the Knitting Factory for Kiki & Herb, where we met up with Seth's friends Aaron and Julie.

For those of you who have never witnessed the awesomeness that is Kiki & Herb, they are a lounge-style musical duo played by two guys whose names I can't remember at the moment. Herb plays the piano and occasionally sings while Kiki belts out the hits, does some fascinating dance steps and polishes of a bottle of Canadian Club. Last night's one-night-only performance was filmed for their upcoming DVD, which we will likely hear Seth and Julie shouting on. Words can't do this act justice, which is why I shot the following video for you. Enjoy!