Bargain Biatch

Movie Review: Let The Right One In

First let’s start with the fact seeing a movie at the pretentious, overpriced Angelika barely qualifies as bargain. But it was the only place the movie was playing and I knew we could get in since Slumdog Millionaire had just opened there and it was the new hot ticket. Let the right one in is a Swedish Vampire movie. Huh? First I have no idea why vampires have suddenly become the "New Black" (True Blood, Twilight), or why there needed to be a Swedish take on the whole phenomenon. Anyway the story is about Oskar, a loner-bullied boy who befriends Eli, a little vampire girl who moves into the apartment next door.

The Search Is On For The BEST Cheap Eats

WAAAAA, dining out is starting to take a serious toll on my personal finances. But I really love nice food and eating well is not something that’s on the bargaining table. So since I can’t afford to takes myself out as much as I think I deserve, I’m acting super-friendly, OK slutty, to try to get passing acquaintances, friends of friends, whomever to invite me out or over for dinner. It’s working out pretty well but I better have a backup plan when I’m busted as a complete freeloader. Time to track down the good cheap eats in my area. I found a few restaurants from an MSN article about the 40 best budget bets in the US. The feature was put together by Gayot.com, a website that is rather incredibly not about homosexual overtime. They take their name from bon vivant Andre Gayot and list a roundup of their top cheap eats. To get a more well rounded and borough specific roster, I logged on to City Search.

Bargains Galore For Black Friday

Time to suit up in your protective gear, put in your mouthguard and strap on your cup; get ready for Black Friday, the Superbowl of shopping. It’s that annual event where herds of people still cracked out on Thanksgiving’s gluttony lumber their fat asses to the mall to scoop up the year’s best bargains. But this year Santa’s come early for bargain hunters. For months now, retailers have been getting nothing but a lump coal in their stocking and have had to offer deep discounts in order to generate anything even resembling a sale. And expect prices to drop even more as the competition heats up for your limited end of year coinage.  Here are a couple of time sensitive deals worth looking into. Check out Smart Bargains, one of the best discount sites for a wide range of goods from 500 thread count sheets to Michael Kors boots. They’re running a 48 hrs only sale that knocks an additional 25% their already low prices if you use this link. 

Movie Review: The Edge of Heaven

I’m not sure exactly sure what the title was referring to but I think it was a reference to the character’s near misses with one another and that each seemed to be on the verge of an epiphany. The movie won the Best Screenplay Award at the 2007 Cannes Film festival and showed impressive skill in plot and character development. That said, each of the movie’s segments begins with a title that in some ways took the suspense out of what was to follow. For example, the section titled "Lotte’s Death", well, that pretty much tells me Lotte’s not gonna make it to the end of the movie. But I assume this was intentional since the movie was not meant to be a suspense flick but more of an introspective film about parent child relationships, generational dissonance, radicals persecuted in Turkey and feelings of cultural loss while living abroad. Whew!!!!.

Score Cheap Electronics and Jewelry at Pawn Shops, Hey Somebody Has to Buy Them

Can’t say that I’ve ever been in an actual pawnshop but the picture in my mind ain’t pretty. Some leather wearing dude with a mullet and Vienna sausage-like fingers encouraging you to just try the grip on that purse sized pistol. Or maybe it’s the movie version of the poor, desperate heroine/widow/homeless/good hearted hooker/blind old lady/ or some kinda victim who is forced to pawn her wedding ring to pay for, rent/a kidney transplant/tequila/a tummy tuck/a hitman. Whatever the case, it’s become a reality in these financially tough times as a lot more people are pawing a lot more stuff. For the cash strapped, they can hock their goods to get a short-term loan, and people who have no intention of reclaiming their unwanted shit pawn it to raise some cold hard cash. And it’s the unclaimed items that make for good deals. Apparently you can get TV’s, ipods, fancy watches, and sporting equipment like golf clubs, bikes and guns through a pawnshop.

Get Freebies From Apple: Mac I Think I Love You!

 

Help, I think I’ve become an Applecrackaddict. After taking a bite from the poison apple with the purchase of my iphone, I’m tweaking for more. This weekend I went to a FREE iweb workshop at the Fabulous Apple store to learn about all the cool website and blog applications that I don’t have since I work on a prehistoric computer made of rocks and sticks. My computer is a hand me down I got from Wilma Flintsone when she upgraded. I know this baby’s days are numbered so I’ve been thinking about contributing to Steve Jobs war chest and getting a Mac. And after a visit to the McAppleTemple on 14the street I’m sold.

Movie Review: Rachael Getting Married and her Trainwreck Sister Gets Out Of Rehab…Good Times!

So I’m fresh off a 3 day 12 hour a day screenwriting seminar by the "Script Doctor" Robert Mckee, so I’m a bit more critical of movies these days. But I’m totally rooting for Jenny Lumet who gets her film pedigree from famous father Sidney Lumet. Her freshmen effort was full of ideas and ideals but as I learned in screenwriting class, better not fall in love with your own words or your vividly imagined scenes that don’t have anything to do with the story or advance the plot. Overall I liked the movie. It was sincere and showed Lumet’s potential but at times I found it formulaic and a bit manipulative. There were some other freshmen mistakes including the needless handheld camera scenes. Give huge credit to the incredible cast who brought to life her screenplay and especially Anne Hathaway who played the narcissistic Hot Mess of a sister and was… could I really be saying this, Oscar worthy.

Ditch Your Dom Get Excellent Bargain Boutique Bubbly

I’m sure we all popped a few corks to celebrate to end of the Bush debacle and with the holidays just around the corner, we’ll be raising our glasses again to toast the season and stick a fork in perhaps not the most spectacular year. But we’re still in a recession so better back away from the Dom and think outside the bottle. Besides big name brands like Moët & Chandon, Veuve Cliquot, Perrier-Jouët there are actually more than 100 Champagne houses, each with their own unique style. So for a better value be your own candidate for change and snub the status symbols of the old regime and expand your social circle with some wonderful but overlooked boutique wines. They’re under the radar labels that come straight from the vineyard and arrive in the store with little fanfare but lots of flavor. The wines don’t come saddled with exorbitant advertising costs that go into making pretentious commercials. So without the inflated marketing budget, you get what you pay for and that’s what’s in the bottle. There are interested palate differences from house to house and you can find some outstanding and reasonably priced selections from houses like Henri Abele and Gosset.

Orgasmically Good Deals On Online Sex Toys

Recession cut backs, ha! Sex still sells. The New York Times recently listed this blog post about a Wall Street area "gentlemen's" club whose proprietor boasted that his business has risen, a non-metaphorically, 20% since the financial crisis. I guess The Master’s of the Universe get off on a different kind of retail therapy. And to further enhance the experience for "Americas Most Disgusting", (no judgment), said proprietor has come up with a $1,000 premium package lap dance. For a grand you get a 20-minute lap dance, (probably from a lesbian who hates you) a bottle of Dom Perignon and a private champagne room. And as a lovely parting gift you get to keep you dancer du jour’s G-string. Hmmm, I can think of better and cheaper stimulus packages. I mean really, just pick up a bottle of Veuve Clicquot and buy $100 worth of Victoria’s Secrets. Next, invite your friend with benefits over, have her put on the lingerie, then take it off, have sex, done deal, all for about bill and a half. Or you can get even better bargains buying erotic enhancements online.

Movie Review: In the Extremely Depressing Valley Of Elah

Although I’m not exactly sure that I got the metaphoric title referring to the valley where David met and defeated Goliath, I’m pretty sure I got the basic point of the movie:  War is a horrific exercise during which uninformed and uninvolved people with hidden agendas manipulate national policy. And that it’s a venue that takes overall good people and turns them into twisted fucked up monsters who do hideous things to each other just to keep from going crazy. Good Times!. Although this movie opened to critical acclaim, it was largely passed over by audiences, guess there was a supehero flick playing or a new installment of "Tyler Perry dresses up as a women and embarrasses black people".

Holiday Travel on the Cheap, Yes Virginia There is a Santa Claus

Me you and everyone we know is undoubtedly sick of all the bad economic news and fantasizing about getting away from it all. And for people with more time than money who want to fly to France and not see Paris, this deal’s for you. Make $2,500 by signing up to be a guinea pig for a study about jetlag. Participants fly on a private jet for a 3-day stay in Paris and then fly home, whoohaaa!! The Downside is that you’re subjected to 3 days worth of testing and can’t leave the facility…but they do give you drugs. And with $2,500 in your pocket you can hop right back on the next flight outta town. I’ll pass but I’m still thinking about some R & R and just in time for the peak holiday season when prices are sky-high. But not so much this year. The economic crisis has put a beat down on Holiday travel prices. You can find 5 day trips to warm weather locals like Bermuda and Caribbean resorts for anywhere from $800 to $1600 or about half of what they’d cost in previous years. And not just for people who crave sun and sand, prices for ski vacations have been slashed and you can ski the powder in Jackson Hole or act like a pretentious asshole with the beautiful people in Aspen for a lot less. And since everyone else’s currency had joined the dollar in the toilet, Europe and other destinations abroad are big bargain too.