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Just a quick post about a great sale on Timberland shoes, clothes and accessories. They’re having a Friends and Family sale with 40 percent off everything, even outlet and sale items. But act fast because the good stuff gets snapped up quickly and sizes sell out. At checkout just enter promo code FFINVITE (all caps) and hit apply. And if you spend $100 they’ll throw in free shipping and returns are always free.
File this under my new favorite thing, my iPhone speaker dock. I was recently gifted a Logitech docking system in celebration of the commemoration of my 30th birthday. I totally pre-shopped what I wanted, specifically something with decent sound and ample volume to fill the room. And my current stereo system is beyond ghetto so I was looking for a cheap upgrade. It’s a totally Plug and Play device with something called Omni directional Acoustics which basically means a tiny version of surround sound. But the best part is I have access to all the music I loaded on my iPhone, plus Pandora and the I Heart Radio app, which gives me nearly unlimited and programmable music selections. And it was a bargain, under $100 at Amazon with free shipping and small enough to take from room to room. It also great for guests who don’t share my musical tastes. In the past when people came over and complained about my music I’d tell them to Fuck Off. Not I can still do that or put their iPhone or iPod into my dock and play their crappy music….for like 10 minutes.
As April, the official month that we press the brakes and attempt to slow down or destruction of the planet, here are a few green money saving tips.
First, save a tree and get magazines digitally. The Green Initiative is offering a free one-year subscription to a magazine of your choice offered by Zinio. And while you’re at it, log on to Catalogchoice.org to stop unwanted catalogs.
Another way to save a tree and save some cash is by taking a trip to the library. You can get past and present bestsellers or take out DVD’s with your card. And besides being free, the time limited feature will give you incentive to read faster than a 7yr old.
Finally get green and clean. Eco friendly cleaning products have definitely become more popular and are safer and typically cheaper than the chemical laden choices. But you can get your own dermis clean and green and have a luxurious spa experience using an Oxygenics showerhead. Using technology that aerates water, it increases the pressure whiles actually conserving water. And for about $20 you can treat yourself to an invigorating spa like shower sans guilt.
Maybe I just wanted another chance to look at the
beautiful Penelope Cruz or maybe I was on crack, not sure what possessed me to
put Elegy into my Netflix watch instantly queue, and then actually watch
it. It’s exactly the kind of movie
I despise. It’s about some aging Master of the Universe kinda guy having a late
mid life crisis and cataloging his
sexual conquests and sharing his feelings or lack thereof. Strike one. Then pair him with and unattainable totally age
inappropriate beauty and watch his old ass pursue her and eventually have sex
with her. HURL! HUGE strike two. That’s the premise of Elegy with Ben Kingsley
as David, a literary professor and critic, who in voice over talks about his
latest object of desire. Consuela,
played by Penelope Cruz is a 24 year old Cuban student who is taking his
class. And in addition to the
unappealing setup, the movie’s early dialogue was cliché ridden and unrealistic.
In the opening scenes the characters seem to talk to each other solely to set up
the plot and explain the back-story, a complete violation of the rules of good
screenwriting. But just as I started to lose reach for the remote, the
characters began to reveal more about themselves. Kingsley's
character, a shallow narcissist misogynist begins to change and much to my and
his surprise, for the first time in his life, experiences complex and deep
feelings. His transformation
carries over into his other relationships and he begins to evolve and actually
care for someone other than himself.
The performances were excellent including the fabulous Patricia Clarkson as
his longtime lover. I’m glad I stuck with it because the movie was compelling
and although Kingsley having sex with Penelope Cruz is still repellent, I still
enjoyed the movie.
I like wine, very much thank you. And what’s better than good wine than good cheap wine. Throw in a $25 prix fixe dinner and I may need to towel off. And that’s what you’ll get April 26th – May 2nd during Rioja Week. Participating restaurants are celebrating the rich and delicious oak driven vino by preparing special complimentary menus and offering a free glass of Rioja with meals or a discount on bottles. Check the online guide since deals vary by restaurant with some doing a $50 tasting menu or a food wine paring. But if you’re a fan of this rich, full-bodied wine, it’s worth reservation.
With salaries plummeting and prices skyrocketing who isn’t looking for a good deal? And over the past 10 years some things has actually gotten cheaper. Number one on the list is electronics. Like TV’s. In the 90’s televisions that were considered cutting edge were priced in the stratosphere. Toady prices for high quality TV’s are down 90 percent. Even a few years ago only pro athletes and high drug lords could afford that gigantic flat screen but today every afternoon millions tune in to watch a life size version of Judge Judy. Add to the list of cheaper, (and better) electronics, computers and digital cameras. Thanks to increased competition and exploitive labor practices we have cheaper bigboy toys made on the backs of third world children. Ditto Cars. The overseas market combined with poorly rated domestic cars has forced the auto industry into crisis and they’re making deals on by slashing prices and offering unheard of financing.
And lastly, cash. Yep money is cheaper. Mortgage rates are scraping the bottom of the barrel and now are definitely the time for a re-finance. Too bad banks won’t even return your calls. Rates may be low but lenders have reduced or eliminated lines of credit or made it so difficult to qualify that even if you give your right arm and your first born, you’ll still be turned down.
And then there’s the bad news. You can’t read the directions to operate any of that fancy electronic equipment because the price of college is up over 200 percent. And American families have to huddle our dumb asses together for warmth because household fuel oil costs have nearly tripled. And while you watch mind numbing reality TV on your monster flat screen, your unsupervised 12 yr old teenage daughter surfs porn on her cheap computer. Then with her new bargain digital camera she’s taking nudes photos of herself to post for free on facebook. Here’s hoping this will inspire more reading, one of the last cheap thrills.
For today’s money saving tip I decided to cancel my Cinemax and keep that $11 in my pocket. I already get HBO, which has great original programming, and Cinemax has tired movie and even there porn is lame. And I still have Roku and Netflix which finally shipped Vicky Christina Barcelona. But I wish it was called Vicky Maria Elena Barcelona. Or better yet Penelope and Javier in Barcelona. Either way I would have preferred any version of the movie that did not have Christina, aka Scarlet Johansson. What a vapid waste. Unfortunately Woody Allen has made her his mouthpiece and this is the third movie where she spouts his whiny angst filled dialogue. This movie could have been so beautiful since old-world sexy Barcelona was the golden backdrop. The city was shown at its sensuous best and definitely deserved top billing. But the movie was dragged down by talky scenes that sucked the life and almost all of the sex appeal out the relationships. Javier Barden and Penelope Cruz, a couple in real life, had tremendous chemistry and I hope they’re paired on screen again soon! Overall, the movie was just OK, I expected better and it would have benefitted from more sex and less talk.
I recently came across a grid that laid out restaurant specials by days of the week. Tasting Table put it together and maps out best daily dining deals starting with Monday’s all you can eat BBQ and ending in a carnivore’s extravaganza. It’s great but limited and considering the contracted state of the state, I knew there were more deals to be had. So I just pointed and clicked on some of my local haunts and no surprise, there were tons of bargains. I started with Abigail, a restaurant and wine bar a few blocks away and found a new daily (weekends included) $25 dinner Prix Fixe. They also have a Happy Hour Daily From 4-8 pouring pints for $3 pints and $4 glasses of wine. But I do realize that not everyone lives in my fabulous hood and even I need to break out every once in a while so City Search has made Happy Hour Hunting easy. They have a citywide list of the best deals from the best Prix Fixe lunch and dinner to the best deals for marathon drinking sessions. If have want to narrow your focus to just drinking, log on to Coovents for a daily listing of Happy Hours throughout the city. There’s also a Free Download app for your iPhone that gives you an up to the minute Happy Hours based on your location. And it constantly updating so you never have to break your drinking flow as you stumble through your drunken bar crawl.
Gigantic Sale, Everything Must Go! Every week another store announces a “Going Out Of Business Sale”. But according to the Better Business Bureau, too often the “unbeatable” liquidation prices are not the real deal. The Today Show recently ran a segment that uncovers the not so frugal truth about liquidation sales using Fortunoff as an example. The reporter shopped the sale nearly a month in, when prices should be scraping the bottom of the barrel, and for nearly every item they were able to beat the price online or at another retailer. And Electronic Closeouts didn’t fare any better with numerous complaints of bringing boxed items home only to find them damaged (broken flat screens) or an older model bait and switched in the box.
So to help keep you from overpaying on anything, make sure
you visit BeatMyPrice.com where you can comparison shop. Just find the cheapest price you can
for an item and enter the details to see if someone else has found it
cheaper. If someone has found a
better deal you can find the purchasing details and save money. And if your price is cheaper you have
the satisfaction in knowing that you kicked some poser bargain shoppers’ ass.
Billed as a sweeping epic, Australia is Baz Luhrmann’s return for another eye-popping spectacle with Nicole Kidman. Set in northern Australia just before WWII it’s about an aristocratic English woman who travels to the land down under to meet up with her husband and help tend their farm and care for their herd of cattle. But things take a decidedly bad turn as she arrives only to find her husband murdered and no one to drive the cattle to the harbor to feed hungry soldiers. Enter our Hero, the so sexy and slightly gay Hugh Jackman. He’s a drover (cattle driver) who Kidman persuades to lead the cattle drive and basically get their cows to market. There’s also a subplot about the practice of stealing mixed raced aboriginal children and a dastardly villain cattle baron who attempts to sabotage the drive and kidnap his illegitimate “bleck” child. The cinematography is great but the movie is too long. I felt like I could flown to Australia in the time it took to for the final credits to roll. And Nicole…. her porcelain visage remained unchanged from her plucky beginning to harrowing end. That is with the exception of some ill-timed collagen injections making her lips seem oddly plumped at inappropriate times. But Nic was an indestructible force of nature; she soldiered through multiple bombings and an island escape without some much as a scratch or even a smudge. She must write that perfection into her contract. So if you have an afternoon to spare or on a long flight I would recommend Australia.
