Cocoa DeMonkey's Xomblurbs

Having recently visited Las Vegas, as always I found myself upon my return looking for more information and insight to this amazing place. When doing this, my weapon of choice is Wikipedia, the greatest thing since DVD players. Check out the wikipedia link below on the history of Vegas, theres some pretty interesting stuff in there, like how most of the Vegas strip is not actually in Vegas, but the towns of Paradise and Winchester, Nevada...enjoy.

-Cocoa De

With more of my digging of information on Las Vegas following my return from Sin City, I stumbled upon a really cool website called "Old Vegas Chips." This site has tons of chips/memorabilia/other random stuff from Vegas for sale.

When in Vegas, I collected chips from each Casino, but this site has chips from EVERY casino, even ones that were demolished over 10 years ago, and some that never ended up opening but had chips printed.

One section is devoted to chips from the Hard Rock Hotel, who print chips of bands when a big concert is happening there.

They also have decks of cards from casinos, dice, old room keys, and other cool stuff to look at if your interested.

You can buy the chips/memorabilia through the website, but most of it is just cool to look at.

Take a look, let me know if you like it.

-Cocoa De

If you're like me and until recently were not too informed on the upcoming election, or simply are having trouble determining which candidate fits best with your personal or political beliefs, I recently discovered a website/questionnaire that's a huge help in determining this.

From WQAD News Channel 8 in Illinois comes the Select a Candidate Quiz (I first heard about the quiz from Opie & Anthony's morning radio show, but they gave props to WQAD as deserved). You simply put in your zip code (or someone else's if you want), your gender, and age, then proceed to rate your beliefs on certain election topics i.e. the war in Iraq, taxes, health care, abortion, immigration, stem cell research, and most others you can think of. They ask what you oppose or approve of, give several options to pick where your beliefs lie on some issues, and rate the importance of each topic.

Upon completing the questionnaire, the quiz generates a candidate in the election that fits best with your answers based on their political beliefs and what they've pushed for in their campaign so far. It also gives you percentages of how you matched up with every other candidate in the election (just in case you don't like what you see I guess).

Granted, this isn't an exact science, and surely has its flaws, but it's definitely an interesting resource to look at, for curiosity if nothing else.

Maybe you'll like what you see, maybe you won't, but one thing is for sure, it certainly will make you think.

Take care and remember to vote, no matter who it's for, in November.

Regards,

Cocoa De

Radiohead is currently gracing the cover of this week's Rolling Stone on the heels of their recent internet released album, "In Rainbows," which was more recently released independently on CD. They've also been in the spotlight lately due to guitarist Jonny Greenwood's unique score for the Academy Award Nominated film, "There Will Be Blood" starring Daniel Day Lewis.

Sad to say, I only have one of Radiohead's albums their masterpiece "OK Computer" (Which is so good that in itself makes them one of my favorite bands) and Thom York's solo album if that counts (also amazing), but I hear "In Rainbows" is amazing, so I might go out and pick it up. I did get a chance to see "There Will Be Blood" recently in NYC and have to say not only was it an amazing film with great performances, but Greenwood's soundtrack was unlike anything I've ever heard (and I mean that in a good way). I'm considering picking that soundtrack up too, it had to be one of the strangest most original soundtrack scores I've ever heard, I'd compare it in it's obscurity to John Carpenter's score for the original "Halloween."

But anyway, the link below is to Rolling Stone's photo gallery they have up that goes all the way back to Radiohead's beginnings in 1993 from the "Creep" era, to the Tibetan Freedom Concerts in 1997/98, all the way up to a small free club gig they did in London 2 weeks ago. Even though I'm not a Radio-head, outside of their popular songs, OK Computer, and York's solo album, I'm still always on the lookout for stuff like this.

Enjoy!

Cocoa De

Found this article on About.com detailing and explaining certain myths, facts, and urban legends that are tied to Super Bowl Sunday.

Some of these include: toilet flushing, domestic violence, avocado sales, and Disney Land. Very interesting stuff, huh?

If you're interested (like I was) about finding out if more toilets are flushed during the Super Bowl than any other time of the year, or if a spike in Avocado sales is directly linked to the mass production of homemade guacamole on Super Sunday, check out the article for yourself.

Greetings from the swamps of Jersey,

Cocoa De

I saw this on the news this morning, then just read further into it on CNN.com. They found that soccer fans in Germany during the World Cup were having heart attacks and believe it was linked to stress caused by watching their team in big games. It goes on to give warnings like avoiding smoking and junk food (duh) as well as making sure you get a good night's sleep and not to get too angry with refs (not so duh).

Luckily for me, I'm a Jets fan, so I won't have to do too much worrying this Sunday since I think the Patriots are going to win, but if the Giants pull the upset I'll be pleasantly surprised and happy that the constant grimmace of Napoleon Bill Belichick will continue through the off-season.

The link to CNN's article is below, check it out if you're a die hard Patriots/Giants fan or compulsive sports gambler.

Here's to Tom Petty's half time show!

Cocoa De

For all the Quentin Tarantino fans out there, here's a link to an article from BFI (Because Films Inspire) where they interviewed Tarantino recently, while he's on a press tour in Europe for his Grindhouse film, "Death Proof." It's a good read for any Tarantino fan, he goes into his earlier work and what he's working on now, why he thinks Grindhouse didn't work as a double feature, and just his general outlook on life (which is always interesting to read about if you've read or seen any interviews of him in the past).

AMC Theaters is offering 12 hour screenings (all on Saturdays I believe) of the Best Picture nominees for this year's Oscars on their website for $30 (Over a $50 value).

You just go down a list of states/towns offering the showings and you can buy tickets in advance. Not sure if I'm going to partake in this since I've seen 2 of the 5 films already, and have no desire to see "Atonement" but it definitely seems like a good deal.

Below is the link to AMC's website, when you click on the theater you want, it then takes you to the specific theater's website. With the admission fee, you get a large popcorn, free refills on soda all day, and a "collectible pass" (probably a laminated piece of paper you'll end up throwing away). If you're up for movie marathons, this is definitely the event for you.

Suggested accessories for the event:
-A Box of Joe from Dunkin' Donuts
-Visine/Clear Eyes
-Slippers
-A comfortable outfit and/or PJ's

Happy Viewing,

Cocoa De