Category Archives: Reviews

Junk Food Review: Triple Double Oreo

During my many proud, sugar-filled years as a junk food reporter, I’ve often written about food companies’ inability to leave well enough alone, and how it almost always leads to failure. As gluttonous consumers of empty calories, we crave what is New and Limited Edition; problem is, our nation’s major lard merchants perfected most of their classic offerings decades ago, and most attempts to make them different and/or exciting again only end up making things worse. (Failure, thy name is Pebbles Boulders.)

All of which sort of sums up my feelings regarding the growing number of Oreo variations churned out by Nabisco over the last few years. Chocolate-covered, mint, peanut butter, “golden,” “Berry Burst Ice Cream” — they’re all just pointless dicking around with a formula that was perfected the first time someone stuck a layer of soft, sugary goop between two chocolate wafers. I realize some people like those other flavors, but as far as I’m concerned, those people are worshiping false idols; the only Oreos that have ever been worth a damn are original and Double Stuf.

Until now, that is.

(Photo disconcertingly close to cookie's actual, diabetes-inducing size)

Gentle readers, I give you the Triple Double Oreo, which is exactly what it looks like — two Oreos jammed together, Human Centipede-style, creating an evolutionary step forward in crunchy sweet things that come in plastic trays. I seriously considered just copying and pasting the lyrics to “God Bless America” for this post, because that’s the music I heard in my brain as it tried to shoot out of my eye sockets and ears so it could gorge directly on a full package of triply doubly goodness.

What did I do next? The only thing I could do — head to the register, package gripped in trembling hands, and buy myself a whole bunch of these things. And now, God bless America, I’m stuffing my stupid face full of these wonderful things, harnessing the magic that only mashing lard and chocolate together can bring. FOR LO, I AM THE SORCERER SUGARHIGH, AND I WILL EAT FOREVER, RIDING MY MAGICAL OREO STEED ACROSS THE PEACEFUL, SUN-DAPPLED VALLEYS OF HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP AND SATURATED FAT.#/$

;lasdf;ejA;LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLSDFD

[Jeff Giles was found slumped over his keyboard in a puddle of what we hope was drool, one fist clutching an empty package of Triple Double Oreos. He is under strict medical supervision, and is expected to make a full recovery.]

CD/DVD Review: “Gustafer Yellowgold’s Year in the Day”

As you may already know, I lead another life as an entertainment writer for a variety of “grown-up” sites and publications (including our parent site, Popdose). In that life, I’ve devoted a lot of column inches to my hatred of prog bands and concept albums, and had a lot of fun at the expense of airy-voiced, caftan-wearing singers like Jon Anderson of Yes, whose fascination with fairies (sorry, faeries) and bluebirds and the like has given me endless cynical joy.

I’m saying this now because while watching Gustafer Yellowgold’s latest magnum opus, Year in the Day, I realized that the wide-eyed little alien from the sun has been peddling the kindie equivalent of prog, what with the concept albums and the fanciful creatures and all the mellow singing about living in harmony, man. And also that my love of all things Yellowgold makes me a dirty old hypocrite.

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I admit this. I’m not proud. But in my defense, there aren’t any 10-minute keyboard solos on Gustafer Yellowgold’s records, offering a subtle sonic lesson that all prog bands could stand to learn.

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(I’m looking at you, Keith Emerson.) Anyway. We’re here to discuss A Year in the Day, which is here, and it is good.

If you’ve ever spent time with the Gustafer oeuvre, you know what to expect: Funny, sweetly melodic songs, driven by acoustic instruments and deceptively simple arrangements, all centering around the adventures of a yellow alien and his assortment of unusual friends. Like the rest, Year in the Day is a “musical moving book,” meaning that in addition to a CD of the songs, you also get a DVD that adds illustrations to the songs. They’re barely animated — “musical moving book” is a perfect description — but trust me, your kids aren’t going to complain.

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(And neither will you.)

This time around, as the box art tells us, “we find former Sun resident Gustafer Yellowgold enjoying his Minnesota woodland home and experiencing his own unique take on a year’s worth of Earth holidays, both classic and unusual.” (I’d make a Kwanzaa joke here, but I have class.) Like most things Yellowgold, the concept is fairly loose; you’ll be able to pinpoint certain seasonal themes in the track listing (“New Is the New Old,” “Fireworks!” “Pumpkin Pied”), but songs like “Pancake Smackdown” and “Eggs” could fit in on pretty much any Gustafer record.

Which is fine, really. Throughout his career as Gustafer Yellowgold, singer/songwriter Morgan Taylor (who I interviewed for Dadnabbit not long ago) has excelled at the artful blend of silly and sweet that so frequently evades kindie artists, and he pulls it off again here, using non-sequiturial turns of phrase to build a cuddly, homespun vibe that’s pretty much impossible to resist. There are reasons Gustafer is one of the genre’s biggest stars; they are very good reasons, and they are all on display in Year in the Day. Order it with confidence, and prepare to sing along.

DVD Review – Wallace & Gromit: World of Invention

You remember Wallace & Gromit, right? Me? Honestly, I had forgotten about them. It’s been 7 years since the full length feature, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. But as a casual fan, I was interested to see what the latest release from Wallace & Gromit brought to the table. Wallace & Gromit: World of Invention is the first new release since the Academy Award® nominated, A Matter of Loaf & Death from 2009.

The new DVD contains the entire six-part BBC ONE television series from 2010. The collection features Wallace & Gromit as hosts introducing segments on a number of educational topics. Each of the six episodes include six segments within them. This DVD is much less about Wallace & Gromit and more about the educational aspect. It’s as if Bert & Ernie hosted an episode of NOVA or Nature on PBS.

Topics on the DVD run a wide spectrum; Spy pigeons, marine biology, electric motors, housekeeping robots, termites, jet-packs and much more.

At over two and a half hours long, this DVD packs a lot of punch, for a very small price. It’s well worth it, no matter your child’s age. The collection is more geared towards children ages 6-10 years old. At the same time, my 3 year old was fascinated by the segments and was glued to the television the entire time. Trust me that never happens, especially for over two hours, on a single program.

Here’s a quick snippet on what to expect from this DVD:

All the details:
Blu-ray Format: 1080P High Definition 16×9 Widescreen (1.78:1)
DVD Format:  16×9 Widescreen (1.78:1)
Feature Running Time: 175 minutes
Blu-ray Audio Status: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio™
DVD Audio Status: 5.1 Dolby Digital
Website: www.wallaceandgromit.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/wallaceandgromit