Archive for April, 2011
Drink of the Week
| April 29, 2011 3:00 am |Flaming Lamborghini
1 oz Sambuca
1 oz Blue Curacao Liqueur
1 oz Bailey’s Irish Cream
HKS USA Closing their U.S. Doors.
| April 28, 2011 4:39 pm |HKS USA, Inc a leader in the Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) parts industry will be officially closing their United States operations. As of today, HKS’ plan is to close their US Operations by August. However, this does not mean the end of HKS as they will still be fully operational in Japan, where they will be serving their American market from.
HKS cites a declining industry, the poor U.S. economy as well as the weakening of the U.S. Dollar as reasons for their decision to close U.S. operations. You can read their official annoucement below.
U.S. Demand is Outpacing Audi
| 1:40 am |Buyers are saying yes to Audi. You may have noticed a recent upsurge in the amount of Audis on the road. So much that they are having trouble keeping up with U.S. demand, says Johan de Nysschen, president of Audi of America.
“We’re down to a 27-day supply now,” de Nysschen tells Ward’s in an interview at the New York International Auto Show. “We simply can’t get our inventory up to (an optimum) 60-day supply.”
“It’s quite challenging,” the Audi chief says. The small number of choices on Audi dealer lots is pushing up custom ordering. “It’s up to 31%,” de Nysschen says.
“That’s high for us and unsustainable because we’re losing business opportunities and causing our 277 dealers some consternation. I have no doubt that some of our dealers are unprofitable.” But he says Audi dealers average a 3.27% return on sales.
Audi is intent on maintaining profitability. However, de Nysschen admits Audi is challenged to compete on average selling prices with its German luxury competitors. “Their sales mix is far richer than ours,” he says.
Also, Audi’s U.S. prices overall are lower than in other markets, giving us the best value.
“That’s something we have to address,” de Nysschen says. “In other markets, Audi does much better in richness of business.” One of his targets is to increase A6 sales from the current 15% to 55%. “A big focus of our business going forward is to sell more high-end cars.”
Audi also is targeting more diesel sales. De Nysschen predicts half of Q7 CUV sales will be diesel models. “But (again), we are so significantly under supplied and could sell twice the amount we now do. We’re competing for supply with Europe and China.”
[source: wardsauto.com]
Sony Entering the Tablet Wars.
| April 26, 2011 1:12 am |Sony made it official today in Tokyo, disclosing two new tablet designs that will run Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” software and have access to PlayStation content.
It is “developing two tablets,” including the S1 which is “optimized for media entertainment” and the S2, aimed at “mobile communication and entertainment.” The tablets, with the official moniker of “Sony Tablet,” will become available worldwide starting in the fall.
The S1 has a 9.4-inch display, while the S2 has two 5.5-inch displays that can be “folded,” Sony said. The screens on the S2 can be used together as one large screen to browse websites, or separately–for example, checking email on one and using the other as a soft keyboard. Both tablets will be equipped with the Android 3.0 operating system and be WiFi and WAN (3G/4G) compatible.
Sony will also offer access to content via its Qriocity music and movie services and the PlayStation Suite, a framework for downloading and buying PlayStation content on Android tablets. And e-book content will be available from the Sony Reader Store.
Water for Elephants
| April 25, 2011 2:57 am |There’s something endearingly old-fashioned about a love story involving a beautiful bareback rider and a kid who runs off to join the circus. What makes “Water for Elephants” more intriguing is a third character, reminding us why Christoph Waltz deserved his supporting actor Oscar for “Inglourious Basterds” (2009). He plays the circus owner, who is married to the bareback rider and keeps her and everyone else in his iron grip.
Based on the best-seller by Sara Gruen, is told as a flashback by an old man named Jacob (Hal Holbrook), who lost his parents in 1931, dropped out of Cornell University’s veterinary school, hit the road and hopped a train. Played by Robert Pattinson as a youth, he is naive and excited, and his eyes fill with wonder as he sees the beautiful Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) on her white show horse. The owner August (Waltz) is prepared to throw him off the train until he learns young Jacob knows something about veterinary medicine.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6b2XhXkPpg
Coachella Fever
| April 22, 2011 1:37 am |Coachella Fever
Music lovers all over the world gathered at the desert lands of Indio, California for the famous music event called Coachella this past Friday. With over 200,000 attendees and 90 different artists over a 3-day period, Coachella is one of the most popular music events of the year. Temperatures can rise up to 90 degrees, making the fashion at this event minimal but still stylish, nonetheless. Most choose to camp out overnight on the premises while some rent houses and get hotel rooms with friends in nearby areas. I actually spent the weekend in a neighboring city (Palm Springs) and got to witness some of the cool Coachella fashion.
Some of my favorite outfits included high waist denim cut-offs and other shorts, floor length skirts, printed summer dresses and jumpers. Popular tops were tanks, knitted sweaters, old rocker tees, and bandeaus all in various prints, lightweight fabrics, and muted desert colors. These outfits were occasionally paired with floppy hats, and fedoras and other various hat styles. Comfortable shoes such as sandals, booties, cowboy boots, and stylish flats were everywhere. (Stages can be over a mile apart) Accessories tended to be of the more natural look, made of wood, stones, and other vintage looking materials. Bathing suits are obviously a staple item here, along with a pair of oversized retro glasses.( see my previous article for popular sunglass styles). Large totes, satchels, and mini back-packs were the bags of choice. As day turned into night, these outfits mostly stayed the same, but with added jean jackets, shawls, and cardigans.
The overall feel of Coachella really reminds me of a modern day Woodstock, with tons of beautiful vintage pieces everywhere and lots of muted desert colors. It must be a unifying feeling, camping out and experiencing ones favorite musicians along with tons of thousands of other people. And from everyone that attends every year, I hear nothing but positive things and awesome stories that will be remembered for a lifetime. You can definitely count me in for next years desert adventure!
-Sasha Kiyoka
( photos from elle.com and refinery29.com)
Drink of the Week – Orange Crush
| 1:02 am |Orange Crush
1 1/2 oz. Vodka
3/4 oz. Triple Sec
Orange Juice
Combine vodka and triple sec in an old fashioned glass filled with ice, fill with orange juice and stir.
Sports Illustrated Cover Model Brooklyn Decker Topless
| April 21, 2011 1:17 am |Brooklyn Danielle Decker (born April 12, 1987) is an American fashion model and actress best known for her appearances in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, including the cover of the 2010 issue. In addition to working for Victoria’s Secret for the 2010 “Swim” collection, she has ventured into television with guest appearances on Chuck, Ugly Betty and Royal Pains. She made her feature film debut in Just Go with It. Decker is married to American tennis player Andy Roddick. Decker won Esquire magazine’s 2010 “Sexiest Woman Alive” bracket challenge.
420 – A pot smokers Holiday.
| April 20, 2011 1:01 am |Everyone is hungry, with bloodshot eyes and have a look of disconnect. Don’t worry it’s not Z-day yet, it’s April 20th, every pot smokers holiday. You have probably heard the term 420 before can figure out it has something to do with illegal drug use. But do you know why?
Here is a little history: ‘420’ began in 1971 as a bit of slang casually used by a group of high school kids, called the Waldos, at San Rafael High School in California. ‘420’ (always pronounced “four-twenty,” never “four hundred and twenty”) A reminder for the time they planned to meet to light up, 4:20 p.m. near a certain statue.
But most people don’t know the story and instead choose to believe other more enticing false origins. Here are a few examples:
420 is the penal code section for marijuana use in California.
Nope. Section 420 of the California penal code refers to obstructing entry on public land. The penal codes of other states list different entries for 420, but none of them matches anything having to do with marijuana.
However, on 1 January 2004 the Governor of California signed that state’s Senate Bill 420 which regulates marijuana used for medical purposes. This bill comes years after the term ‘420’ was associated with marijuana and indeed its number likely was chosen because of the existing pop culture connection. This is the tail wagging the dog, not the other way around.
It’s the Los Angeles or New York police radio code for marijuana smoking in progress.
It’s not the ‘Police Radio Codes’ for anything, let alone that.
It’s the number of chemical compounds in marijuana.
The number of chemical compounds in marijuana is 315, according to the folks at High Times magazine.
April 20 is the date that Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, or Janis Joplin died.
Though these performers were strongly identified with drug use during their brief lifetimes and the emerging drug culture after their demises, none of them kicked the bucket on April 20. Morrison died on July 3, Hendrix on September 18, and Joplin on October 4.
The 20th of April is the best time to plant marijuana.
There’s no one “best time”; that answer would change from one part of the country to another, or even one country to another.
Albert Hofmann took the first deliberate LSD trip at 4:20 on 19 April 1943.
This was indeed the case — his lab notes back this up. But this wasn’t the source of “420,” just an oddball coincidence. (For the pedants out there, Hofmann’s first LSD trip, which was accidental, took place on 16 April 1943.)
It’s the code you send to your drug dealer’s pager.
Yeah, right. All drug dealers recognize a ‘420’ page as “Please be waiting on the corner with my baggie of wildwood weed.”
When the Grateful Dead toured, they always stayed in Room 420.
Untrue, says Grateful Dead Productions spokesman Dennis McNally. But they do have ties to the wide spread of the term.
Source: Snopes.com
Scre4m – Movie Review
| April 18, 2011 1:03 am |Scre4m – Movie Review
Genre: Mystery & Suspense, Horror
Synopsis: In Scream 4, Sidney Prescott, now the author of a self-help book, returns home to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour. There she reconnects with Sheriff Dewey and Gale, the newscaster who is now his wife, as well as her cousin Jill (played by Emma Roberts) and her Aunt Kate (Mary McDonnell). Unfortunately Sidney’s appearance also brings about the return of Ghostface, putting Sidney, Gale, and Dewey, along with Jill, her friends, and the whole town of Woodsboro in danger. The newest installment in the acclaimed franchise that ushered in a new wave of horror in the 1990s is written by series creator Kevin Williamson and directed by suspense master and director of the first trilogy, Wes Craven. The film stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox-Arquette, David Arquette, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Rory Culkin, Anthony Anderson, Adam Brody, Mary McDonnell, Marley Shelton, Nico Tortorella, Marielle Jaffe, Kristen Bell, Anna Paquin, Lucy Hale, Shanae Grimes, Aimee Teegarden and Brittany Robertson.
For a franchise that is based on charcters knowing the rules and order of horror movies, such as who will die next. They sure don’t know when to let one go. Please just let the Scream series die already. The first was epic in its’ concept, but its getting old now, they are trying way to hard.
It opens with a clever series of horror scenes that emerge one from another like nested Russian dolls. All through the movie, “Scre4m” lets us know that it knows exactly what it’s up to — and then goes right ahead and gets up to it.
Neve Campbell returns as Sidney Prescott, a hometown girl who has written a best seller and has returned to Woodsboro. A town which has already seen so many fatal slashings, why anyone still lives there. to promote it. My own inclination would be to stay the hell away from the location of the killings in the original “Scream,” but hey, that’s just comon sense which has no buisness in horror films. The body count in “Scre4m” mounts relentlessly until you wonder whether everyone in the cast is going to be killed, with the movie ending on an empty room (with the phone ringing).
Sidney’s cousin Jill (Emma Roberts) has a posse of fellow teenagers who spend most of the time picking up the phone and answering the door when they absolutely shouldn’t. They know that in a horror movie when you walk past a dark doorway something is likely to jump out at you. But when they get a call from someone saying “my face will be the last sight you see,” and then the doorbell rings — do they answer it?
Maybe that’s the point. Perhaps Craven and Williamson are making an ironic and cynical comment on the bloody tradition of the genre. “Scre4m” provides exactly what its audience will expect: one victim after another being slashed, skewered, stabbed, gutted and sliced, with everyone in on the joke. Maybe that’s your idea of a good time.
Drink of the Week – Mexican Hillbilly
| April 15, 2011 2:40 am |Drink of the Week –
Mexican Hillbilly
16 oz Corona beer
1 shot Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey
Pour a mug of corona and drop in a shot of jack daniels.
Sunglasses: Rad in Retro
| 2:10 am |Rad in Retro
Sunglasses, what would we do without them? They stylishly keep the sun out of our eyes, and more importantly, help hide our faces after those long, crazy nights that you will never forget (or cant seem to remember). As you all may or may not know, everything in fashion recycles itself over time and right now the most trendy of people are rocking the following retro styles.
The Wayfarer (Unisex): Originated by Ray-Ban in 1952, these glasses have become a staple item for ‘cool’ kids everywhere by being possibly the #1 best selling sun glass design in history.
The Aviator (Unisex): Received their name due to the similarities to flying goggles. The original Aviators attempted to cover the full range of the human eye but variations have been flooding the market since their beginning.
I call this one the Round Eye, though there is no specific name for it. Think of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. This particular photo is of a women’s style by Alexandra Cassaniti and RAEN Optics but there are other variations for men as well, like the photo below made by the Row for Linda Farrow (Totally John Lennon style).
Those these styles may seem outlandish and a little strange to some, this quirky-ness is very much in style right now. Try giving your current stunner shades a break and rock something different for a change J Who knows, you might actually like it!
-Sasha Kiyoka