The ‘Tastic Is Officially Important: We’ve Been Counterfeited By The Chinese

The Chinese: "That's not a mouse. It's a cat with over-sized ears." (Not Kidding)

Today, The ‘Tastic reached the status of such big names as Microsoft, Luis Vuitton, Coach, Chanel, Rolex, Tag Heuer, Franck Mueller, Gucci, Disney, Pfizer, Nike, Vivendi, Adidas, Majestic, North Face, Adobe, Yamaha, Duracell, Eveready, American Standard (yes, these effers even make fake toilets), Gillette, Procter & Gamble, Chopard, Baby Phat, Sharpie, New Balance, Coach, Prada, Marc Jacobs, Monster Cable (although we can assure you that any fake of their products will be just as good as the real thing), etc.

Yes, Indeed. The 'Tastic is as Big as Fake Boner Pills.

We got half-assedly jacked by the Chinese!  As you’ll notice this post looks surprisingly like the one we wrote last Friday right down to our photo and caption.  These people apparently just can’t help themselves.

For more on the Chinese and their counterfeiting here’s our favorite story of all time about the fake Chinese Disneyland.

TV NEWS ALERT! Discovery Channel Will Air Special ‘Killing Bin Laden’ On Sunday May 15th

Heroes

From the “Well-they-certainly-don’t-waste-any-time” file, Discovery announced on Monday that they would be airing an hour long special about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden on Sunday, May 15th.  You’ll notice the lack of a Bin Laden Photo on this site unlike every other site. Sorry, but we’d rather enjoy a picture of the S.E.A.L.’s than a dead terrorist who murdered innocent Americans.

via Press Release:

DISCOVERY CHANNEL ONE HOUR SPECIAL KILLING BIN LADEN (WT) PROVIDES
SECOND-BY-SECOND ACCOUNT OF HISTORIC OPERATION

– Premieres Sunday, May 15 at 10PM ET/PT –

(Silver Spring, Md.) – “Bin Laden Dead.” For ten years – since Osama Bin Laden masterminded the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center — it’s been the headline Americans have waited for. On Sunday, May 15 at 10PM ET/PT, Discovery Channel will premiere KILLING BIN LADEN (WT), a one-hour special that provides an intimate second-by-second account of the Bin Laden operation — from the time the crucial intelligence was gathered in 2010, through the burial of bin Laden at sea.

More Heroes

Utilizing a global team of local reporters, fixers and cameras on the ground in Abbottabad, Pakistan, KILLING BIN LADEN (WT) will delve into the details of how the operation was planned and executed, seeking to answer key questions that are to date unresolved, including: How many special ops forces were involved? From where did they deploy? How was facial recognition used to identify bin Laden? Why was one of the helicopters abandoned and destroyed?

“Bringing Osama Bin Laden to justice is one of the biggest stories of our country’s lifetime,” said Clark Bunting, President and GM, Discovery Channel. “Discovery Channel’s global reach, strong partnerships and unique nonfiction storytelling ability allow us to delve deep into this story and provide viewers with answers to the questions they are asking as well as context and historical perspective.”

KILLING BIN LADEN (WT) will also investigate how intelligence gathered the information that led to Bin Laden’s hideout, including the tracking of a senior Al Qaeda courier. In August 2010, investigators tagged the heavily fortified compound, where the courier lived with his brother, as a possible terrorist hideout. Once intelligence experts were convinced that the compound contained a senior “high value” terrorist target with a strong likelihood that it could be Osama Bin Laden himself, they launched the plan that would end with U.S. Special Forces making a pre-dawn raid on the compound by helicopter.

Encore airings of KILLING BIN LADEN (WT) will air on Discovery Communications’ Military Channel, Science Channel ID and Planet Green in the United States. The special will also air internationally within Discovery’s portfolio of global networks.


‘Boardwalk Empire’ (HBO – Sundays, 9:00 p.m.)

From Terence Winter, Emmy Award-winning writer of ‘The Sopranos,’ and Academy Award Winning Director Martin Scorsese, ‘Boardwalk Empire’ is set in Atlantic City at the dawn of Prohibition, when the sale of alcohol became illegal throughout the United States.

America in 1920. The Great War is over, Wall Street is about to boom and everything is for sale, even the World Series. It is a time of change when women are getting the vote, broadcast radio is introduced, and young people rule the world.

On the beach in southern New Jersey sits Atlantic City, a spectacular resort known as “The World’s Playground,” a place where rules don’t apply. Massive hotels line its famous Boardwalk, along with nightclubs, amusement piers and entertainment to rival Broadway. For a few dollars, a working man can get away and live like a king — legally or illegally.

The undisputed ruler of Atlantic City is the town’s Treasurer, Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, (Steve Buscemi) a political fixer and backroom dealer who is equal parts politician and gangster and equally comfortable in either role. Because of its strategic location on the seaboard, the town is a hub of activity for rum-runners, minutes from Philadelphia, hours from New York City and less than a day’s drive from Chicago. And Nucky Thompson takes full advantage.

Along with his brother Elias (Shea Whigham), the town’s Sheriff, and a crew of Ward Bosses and local thugs, Nucky carves out a niche for himself as the man to see for any illegal alcohol. He is an equal opportunity gangster, doing business with Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg), Big Jim Colosimo (Frank Crudele), Lucky Luciano, (Vincent Piazza) and Al Capone (Stephen Graham).

As the series begins, Nucky’s former protégé and driver Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt) returns home from the Great War, eager to get ahead and reclaim his rightful place in Nucky’s organization. But when Jimmy feels things aren’t moving quickly enough, he takes matters into his own hands, forming a deadly alliance with some associates of Nucky’s that set the Feds, led by Agent Van Alden (Michael Shannon) on his mentor’s tail. Complicating matters further is Nucky’s burgeoning relationship with Margaret Schroeder, (Kelly Macdonald) a local woman in an abusive marriage whom he tries to help out. – HBO

10 out of 10

Apparently HBO has decided that they are sick of playing second fiddle to Showtime for having the best drama on premium cable. After watching the pilot episode of Boardwalk Empire I feel rather ashamed. I feel like a crook, in fact. I feel like I robbed HBO of the $10.50 that I should have paid them to see this show in the theater. Because it’s not a TV show, it’s a Martin Scorcese Academy Award winning film that comes into your living room once every seven days for twelve weeks. There is only word to describe this monumental television excellence: Epic.

The grand scale and visually stunning aesthetics are like nothing that’s been on TV since 2001’s Band of Brothers. The pilot alone cost $50 million and it’s perhaps the best $50 million spent on a television series ever. The sets are absolutely amazing and the level of detail is like none I’ve ever seen for a period piece outside of Titanic. There really is no question that you are in Atlantic City circa 1920 and this show does what I’ve pointed out that other quality dramas do and that is make the city as integral of a character as the politicians and gangsters.

The story and depth of characters are rich and engaging and you’re hooked from the opening scene and the role of “Nucky” Thompson… well, let’s just say the Steve Buscemi was born to play him.

Thompson is the epitome of the corrupt community leader for the prohibition era. He’s an institutionalized pillar of the community and gangster rolled into one. He’s the city treasurer who has built his power through graft and payoffs and is the most powerful man in town, controlling the police department and mayor’s office who hang on his every order. Like most crooked politicians in bed with organized crime he views as himself as morally superior to the gangsters he regularly does business with and he does his best to keep them at arm’s length. This is very interesting to note about his personal character because unlike most corrupt politicians, he truly does care for the citizens of his community and goes out of his way to help those who need it the most with no ulterior motives and his magnanimous attitude and tenderness isn’t out of guilt. As crooked as his empire his, he truly is a man of the people and believes in the virtue of public service. This dichotomy presents itself often as there appears to be a perpetual internal conflict between the noble and the nefarious going on inside of Nucky.

One of the more notable exchanges is between Nucky and his protégé, Jimmy, where he tells Jimmy, “You’d be very foolish to underestimate me, James.  I could have you killed,” right after he lectures him as a father would about going back to school and making something of himself for his wife and son. But, it’s how he says it that’s interesting… it’s kind of like that he has to convince himself that he could have Jimmy killed and he isn’t really comfortable with the idea even though we all know it’s true, he could, but still, we don’t buy it. Jimmy doesn’t buy it either as his classic response indicates while at the same time serving to polarize Nucky’s internal conflict.  “Yeah, but you won’t. Look… you can’t be half a gangster Nucky… not anymore,” and THAT is what Boardwalk Empire is all about.

It’s about how Prohibition changed this country during an era of excess. It’s about our own good and dark sides squaring off.  We see the likes of Arnold Rothstein, Lucky Luciano and Al Capone as small time hoods, who we all know will become kings over the next ten years and rule their particular kingdoms through violence and terrorism but what’s often forgotten is that it was the average citizen that made that reign possible.  It’s a part of our collective history as Americans that hasn’t been told before and Boardwalk Empire shines a spotlight on it.

Boardwalk Empire is going to be one helluva journey. This is the best show on television… period, and yes, it only took one episode to figure it out.

Official Boardwalk Empire show site, here.