News

Smirnoff Drinking Game Is The Icing On Your Hangover

Amy Laviero :: Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 4:30 pm

While I was pissing away time on Facebook the other day, I came across a friend’s photo album displaying multiple, grainy photos of our friends down on one knee chugging what appeared to be a water bottle. The caption underneath each picture? “ICED!” I was a little more than confused by the messaging, but I was happy my friends had finally learned the art of thwarting hangovers. However, I was mistaken. The bottles pictured were none other than Smirnoff Ice; the gag-inducing malt drink of choice for many underaged girls. MORE »

Golden Girls: Five Elderly Singers Who Deserve The Betty White Treatment

Amy Rose Spiegel :: Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 3:30 pm

Betty White has become a Golden Girl in more than one sense of the word, which is to say that her recent career relaunch has confirmed her status as America’s most beloved octogenarian. She gets tons of press, she has a new television show, Hot in Cleveland, debuting this month, and she has been quoted as wanting to get down and dirty with Robert Redford. Basically, she’s untouchable. People fall all over themselves to celebrate her lengthy and accomplished acting career, and rightly so. But what about the ancient musicians of the world? Don’t they deserve some recognition, or at least, a few Facebook campaigns? Below, a list of the elderly songbirds we’d like to see get the Betty White treatment. MORE »

Coming Soon: Donald Glover as Spider-Man?

Colin Jones :: Monday, June 7th, 2010 2:15 pm

To be sure, social networking is a pretty powerful beast. First Facebook got octogenarian actress Betty White to host Saturday Night Live. Now, we are seeing the next push: Community‘s Donald Glover as the first black Peter Parker. MORE »

Rest In Peace, Rue McClanahan

Amy Rose Spiegel :: Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 4:05 pm

Everyone knows that annoying breed of girl who will designate corresponding Sex and the City characters to her friends. “I’m a Carrie, and Mitzi’s a Samantha,” and so on and barf and so forth. My friends and I never did this. Instead, in a similarly annoying but slightly more elderly-inspired way, we picked which Golden Girl was most like each of us. I’m proud to say that my was Blanche Devereaux, played by the late Rue McClanahan. MORE »

The Case For a B.P. Boycott

Johnny Sanford :: Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 6:30 pm

The pink shrimp in the room is covered in oil. More specifically, British Petroleum. It was April 20th, 2010, (37 Days ago) that the explosion on a B.P.-Leased oil rig exploded, killing eleven workers in the Gulf of Mexico. Initial reports of the incident focused mainly on the search and rescue operation, and briefly mentioned that there was a shit-ton of oil pluming into the Gulf’s pristine waters. MORE »

Facebook CEO Begins To Grasp That Users’ Privacy Is Important To Them

Amy Rose Spiegel :: Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 12:25 pm

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who to me has always looked like what would happen if Prince Harry and Screech from Saved by the Bell procreated, knows he screwed up. In a statement that reads much like a letter from a lover who knows he’s in the doghouse, he just wants to make it up to you, baby. He wants to show you he can change…the privacy settings. He has some new, easy-to-use ways to get out of sharing all your personal information with corporations. This time, girl, you’ll actually know whether or not your info is locked up. Shh, don’t talk. Just uncheck that box and let’s see where the night takes us. MORE »

Zuckerberg is Everyone’s Favorite Big Brother

Shannon Hassett :: Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 1:45 pm

Mark Zuckerberg is evil. As in classic, textbook evil. Don’t believe me? Pick up a copy of Nineteen Eighty-Four. If we are the world’s civil servants, Facebook has become our Big Brother.

Despite dramatic changes to its privacy policy in December, Facebook users continued to flock to the site in droves. Small protests were offered here and there, but the total number of monthly visitors steadily rose — to the tune of 500 million a month. Rather than remain satisfied with the knowledge that he had created the most popular website of all time, letting his minions happily stalk each other amid relative anonymity, Zuckerberg decided to exploit us for the lab rats we were. MORE »

Betty White Is Hollywood’s New It Girl?

Amy Rose Spiegel :: Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 3:45 pm

As the world’s biggest Golden Girls fan, I’m thrilled by America’s sudden, unexpected obsession with Betty White, who played the lovable airhead of the bunch, Rose. I have to say, it’s not that it’s undeserved, but I’m startled by the recent surge of affection that has re-ignited the career of the sudden media darling. Below, a study in the re-emergence of Betty White. MORE »

Chatroulette Gets a Taste of its Goliaths

Shannon Hassett :: Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 5:00 pm

I’m not sure if there is a name for this phenomenon, but there should be. The one where your friend tells you she or he is buying a new car — a model that you’ve never heard of before — and you suddenly start seeing the car at every turn. And so it was with Chatroulette.

I met a pal for brunch a couple of weeks ago and casually asked what he had done after leaving the bar the previous night. Reaching for his coffee to hide a smile, I was informed that he went on Chatroulette, but “don’t worry, I was super, super drunk.” I had never heard of it, and his instant shame was cause for intrigue. He explained it as the modern day chatroom, with video in place of typing and full of frat bros hoping for a flash. MORE »

Aubrey Plaza: The Perfect Snotty Comedian

Amy Rose Spiegel :: Friday, February 12th, 2010 12:05 pm

Facebook is a self-centered technology through and through. Even though this has been understood since its inception, I’m still surprised sometimes to see just how conceited its users can be. I know a lot of it is all in good fun, but there’s something about the “celebrity doppelganger” craze that I just don’t like. Everyone, at one time or another, has been told that they look like someone famous, and whether that’s true or just meant to flatter, this trend is a way for some people to revel in that compliment for as long as they choose to leave their lookalike as their profile picture.

Can This Pickle Get More Fans Than Nickleback?

Shannon Hassett :: Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 8:00 pm

Yes, Nickleback is spelled wrong, and unlike the creator of the Facebook fan page of the same name, I get to choose how I want to spell Nickleback. According to the page’s info, Facebook would not permit the creator to correctly spell Nickelback in the title, meaning the social networking site is honoring some sort of stipulation under the band’s copyright guidelines. This is creepy not only in what it says about Facebook’s unspoken corporate and advertising ties, but is the Canadian alt rock outfit really so aware of its own tool status that it will forgo first amendment rights to protect its image (and yet continue to produce new music)? MORE »

Gmail Goes Social Fashionably Late

Shannon Hassett :: Monday, February 8th, 2010 4:25 pm

The Wall Street Journal of all places, a paper not normally known for its fun loving audience, announced earlier today that Google will be adding a social feature to Gmail. Held sacred among email providers for its organizational capabilities, cutesy background theme options and chatting service accessible in the corposphere (and conveniently made to look like regular email), news of a social networking device from fan favorite Google has caused quite a stir. While details are still at a minimum, the new feature will likely combine user updates from Google’s sister sites — YouTube and Picassa — with personal status updates, an option currently available through standard GChat that would most likely see a significant upgrade. GChat has long been considered AIM for grownups (yes, that’s AOL Instant Messenger), and the latest announcement positions Google to similarly school Facebook. Imagine a newsfeed minus all those people you hated in high school, or in other words, social networking sans the spam (just like Gmail!). Let’s all breathe a collective sigh of relief — except for China, of course.

Free Stuff = The Best Kind of Stuff

Amy Laviero :: Friday, February 5th, 2010 2:00 pm

Free concert, free drinks, free prizes!

Baeble Music is holding a free, hi-def screening party for a pre-recorded Passion Pit concert that took place last September in Central Park. If you need more incentive to check it out, there will also be free booze between 7:00 and 8:00. The screening will take place next Wednesday, February 10th, between 7:00 and 10:00 at Public Assembly in Williamsburg, 70 North 6th street between Wythe and Kent.

They are also giving away three Passion Pit prize packs, each with a signed vinyl of Manners and a signed poster from the Central Park concert. To enter the contest, log-in to Facebook, connect with Baeblemusic.com, and leave a comment about the concert on this page. The announcement didn’t specify what kind of comments they are looking for, but it said that winners will be announced via Facebook.

Aziz Ansari Is Often Better Off Sticking With Postmodern Randy Jokes

Amy Rose Spiegel :: Friday, January 22nd, 2010 4:05 pm

Aziz Ansari’s new comedy special, Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, was released this week. Recently, he became the king of viral videos with a web “documentary” about Randy, a character he played in the movie Funny People. Randy’s a obnoxiously vulgar loudmouth who jumps around a hell of a lot…actually, I could probably sum the act up best by saying Randy is a darker-skinned Dane Cook. The act is a perfect send-up of every comedian who chooses to bark dick jokes in order to make their living.

Ethical Floridians Destroy the Joy of Facebook Friendships

Amelia Kreminski :: Friday, December 11th, 2009 4:00 pm

How many times have you asked yourself: When is it okay to friend? Do I really know Water Cooler Joe well enough to be buddies on the Internet? Do I really want to know Water Cooler Joe on the Internet? Would you call him “a contact or acquaintance?” Or do you have “feelings of affection and personal regard” for said person? These universal questions of our technological age have recently been troubling even the austere minds of Florida’s Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee. Yeah, I know, kinda seems like those Floridians don’t have enough to do… But apparently the judiciary system of this great state of sunshine, orange juice and retired folks decided that judges and lawyers are no longer allowed to be friends on Facebook, according to this NY Times article. Now, the committee’s ruling is apparently only advisory-they think friending between judges and lawyers displays some “impropriety.” But I wouldn’t be surprised if next time Mr. Head of Ethics Committee logs into his Facebook account he’s got some angry wall postings awaiting him.

In my opinion, this is just yet another grand example of why Facebook is slowly destroying the world. After years of addiction, I’m happy to say I destroyed mine last month. Use this WikiHow article to stop the cycle yourself.