Gigabiting

image via the Urban Craft Center

The blogosphere seems downright sedate when you see what’s going on with zines.

For the uninitiated, a zine is a small circulation, independently produced publication. It can be a hand-drawn masterpiece or a crudely photocopied manifesto. The time and materials needed are seldom matched by sales revenue, but profit is rarely the goal of these labors of love. 1,000 copies at $3.00 apiece would be a pretty big deal to most zine publishers. Read entire article.

    image courtesy of the Kentucky State Fair

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You coast dwellers can keep your Jersey shore and your Venice Beach. August is state fair season, and the middle of the country is happy to stay right where they are, thank you very much. There are 4-H exhibits and livestock competitions, country music stars and carnival rides, but the real draw is the food.

If it’s worth eating, it’s worth eating on a stick.

The state fair tradition of food-on-sticks dates back to the 1947 introduction of the Pronto Pup, a corn dog-like deep-fried hot dog encased in a pancake batter coating. The modern food-on-sticks era can be traced to the seminal 2001 season of the deep-fried candy bar-on-a-stick. When macaroni and cheese-on-a-stick was introduced the following year, it was game on; competition and creativity merged as vendors vied to outdo one another to create the best-selling, the tastiest, and the most outlandish food-on-a-stick. Read entire article.

Let’s cut to the chase.

Sure, you can sit on a beach or breathe in the clean mountain air. You can tromp through museums and national parks, or get your thrills at a theme park. But you know that what you really look forward to on your vacation is the food.

What if the food is the vacation? Read entire article.

image courtesy of the Onion

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Move over, frozen water.

Ice used to be a colorless, tasteless addition. It chilled a drink as it melted, and lowered the alcohol level to a palatable strength. In today’s current renaissance of cocktail culture, bartenders have become mixologists, dilution is a dirty word, and every aspect of a mixed drink is subject to fetishistic scrutiny.

Now we have artisanal ice. Yes, I said ice. Read entire article.

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There’s nothing quite like movie theater popcorn. The heady smell fills your nostrils tempting you before you even reach the ticket window. According to industry group the Popcorn Board, “popcorn is among the healthiest — and tastiest — snacks around.  It’s a whole grain food that’s low in calories and fat and it’s a complex carbohydrate.” Don’t you feel virtuous for passing on the Junior Mints!

Actually, there is something like movie theater popcorn. How about a half rack of Ruby Tuesday’s barbecued spareribs and a scoop of Häagen-Dazs? That’s the nutritional equivalent of a medium popcorn at Regal Theaters, the nation’s largest chain. Read entire article.