Arrow: Oliver Queen’s Dossier

arrowcoverJust in time for Arrow Season 5 on the CW Network.  This companion book is Oliver Queen’s Dossier, it is Oliver’s notes and clippings on his battle to fight crime in Starling City.

img_1667Oliver gathers up newspaper clippings, government documents, images, blueprints and maps while writing down his notes and opinions on post-its.  The dossier profiles allies, friends and enemies.  The book also provides information on weapons and vehicles used on the show.

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Food: Halloween French Fries at Mickey D’s Japan

mcdonaldshalloweenfries

Why does it seem that all the American fast food chains in Asia get tasty and unique items to munch on?  McDonald’s celebrates 45 years in Japan with a Halloween inspired dish – the Halloween Choco Potato for the month of October.  The french fry item gets a sauce mix with pumpkin and chocolate.

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Frankie’s Garage: The Hyundai Racing Hatchback

hyundairn30conceptHyundai will be launching their “M” division with their N performance brand of racing inspired street legal cars.  At the 2016 Paris Motor Show, Hyundai unleashes the RN30 Concept.  The hot hatchback features a 2.0L turbo 4-cyclinder engine pumping out 374 horses.  Hyundai looks to compete with the likes of the Golf GTI and Ford Focus ST segments.

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The Art of Deus Ex Universe

deusexartbookHave you played Deus Ex:  Mankind Divided?  Go play it!  Have you read Deus Ex: Black Light?  Go read it!  After doing all this now you can enjoy this by Titan Books – The Art of Deus Ex Universe.

deusart001Video game journalist Paul Davies takes us to EIDOS Montreal and interviews the players – the design and art teams behind the Deus Ex universe.  The artist and designers talk about the incredible world building and designing the right characters.  They also talk about building the atmosphere and emotion to get players into this world.  The art book contains over 300 images, art pieces, concept designs, character profiles, CGI art and sketches from Human Revolution and Mankind Divided video games.

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Deus Ex: Black Light by James Swallow

deusexblacklightcoverBased on the video game series Deus Ex, this new official “canon” novel Deus Ex: Black Light bridges the gap between the end of the video game Deus Ex:  Human Revolution and prequel to the new video game Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.  Author James Swallow who has already penned various Deus Ex original novels starts Black Light like the first Bourne Identity, as Jason Bourne, I mean ex-cop and ex-security Adam Jensen is found at sea and has no memory of his last mission.

Our cyber “augmented” hero Adam Jensen must piece together his past and retrace his steps to find what is going on and all roads lead him back home to Detroit and his former employer Sarif Industries.

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Suicide Squad – The Official Movie Novelization

suicidesquadnovelI will stay out of the critics/fans Suicide Squad movie squabble mess.  Yes, the movie had some misses, like the under-character development of various characters and the overly long 3rd act, but overall I enjoyed director David Ayer’s Suicide Squad as a just a fun summer popcorn action flick.  With the hoopla surrounding the Suicide Squad movie, I was intrigued with the Suicide Squad novelization by long-time DC comic book author Marv Wolfman.

The U.S. government appoints Amanda Waller to establish Task Force X part of the A.R.G.U.S. program to use super criminals locked-up in prison for special government missions.  Dr. June Moone aka Enchantress finds a way to raise his trap brother Incubus back into the world of the living.  Together they have a plan to destroy and rule the world.  Waller taps Colonel Rick Flag to be the liaison for this “Suicide Squad” team and assembles Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, Killer Croc, El Diablo and Slipknot to stop the Enchantress and her brother Incubus.

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Making Artwork from Real Food

foodartayananyThat KFC painting looks like it was made with watercolors, but it’s not.  It’s a mix of honey and ketchup.  Artist Aya Hany combines her two loves – food and art into one.

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Gundam Virtual Reality Battle

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What is it like to watch a battle between a giant Gundam Mobile Suit and Zaku?  Well, Bandai Namco in Japan will take you there VR-style with there experimental VR Zone Project iCan in Odaiba.  The Gundam VR attraction is located in the Divercity Tokyo Plaza shopping mall right next to the giant Gundam statue.

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Reebok Classic x BlackPink

blackpinkreebokReebok signs up new K-pop girl group BlackPink to rep the Reebok Classic brand.  The YG Entertainment pop group features Kim Ji-soo, Jennie Kim, Roseanne Park and Pranpriya Manoban.  BlackPink has released two tracks:  Whistle and Boombayah.

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ALIENS – The Set Photography

aliensartbookOne of the huge blockbuster movies that made a strong impression on me growing in the 1980s was James Cameron’s ALIENS.  It was scary with kick-ass action, had a memorable cast of actors and just a great science fiction storyline.  With a collection of artwork, on-set location pictures and behind-the-scenes photographs, author Simon Ward takes us ALIENS fans on a journey with ALIENS – The Set Photography by Titan Books.

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Tarzan on Film by Scott Tracy Griffin

tarzanHere’s a good Trivia-pursuit question, what is the longest running film franchise?  The James Bond series or the Godzilla monster movies?  Nope.  It’s Tarzan!  Tarzan on Film by Tarzan fanatic author Scott Tracy Griffin explores the over 90-plus years of Tarzan films, from the Hollywood silent film era, the animated versions, the made-for-TV films and network television runs.

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The High Ground by Melinda Snodgrass

thehighgroundWhen you have Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin giving praise about this book, it got my attention.  The High Ground – The Imperials Saga is the first book in an epic science-fiction trilogy by author Melinda Snodgrass.  The heart of the story, a handsome lower-class boy Thracius Belmanor aka Tracy working his way up the class-system falls in love with Princess Mercedes Adalina Saturnina Inez de Arango.  It’s mix of BBC drama and a Kdrama love triangle set in outer space worlds.

By year 2100s the Earth is mostly uninhabitable and humans have conquered other worlds in galaxies far away.  In Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek when Warp engine technology was discovered it was about the search of new worlds and exploration, but here in this universe, when Fold technology is discovered, humans created a backward class-system hierarchy to control the galaxy and subjugated all the aliens they have conquered like the Haijin, Isanjo and Cara’ot races into “servants”.  The Imperial Family, the father and king Fernan Marcus Serverino Beltran de Arango has a dilemma on his hands.  His 5 wives only gave him daughters and no sons to inherit the throne.  He wants his eldest daughter Mercedes to inherit the kingdom.  The Princess has other plans like attending the military school – The High Ground.  She will be the first woman admitted to school on a large city-port space station.   On the other side, is Tracy whose father is tailor to the “rich” and while Tracy wants none of the class system BS, he is “forced” to go to the High Ground military school.

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Food: Hipster Chinese American Cuisine

misterjiurestaurantI have spent a couple of years of living in SF and all I remember is late night dive and karaoke bars in Chinatown next to North Beach.  Now a hipster Chinese-American fusion style restaurant has opened up – Mister Jiu’s.  Chef’s Night Out check outs owner/chef Brandon Jew about Mister Jiu’s eatery, historic SF Chinatown and eating round the neighborhood.

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Kidrobot Yummy World

coverartyummyworldThe love of toy food art is here with Yummy World.  There are 14 wacky food character designs to collect like Chezzy Pie and Flaco Taco.  Fans who like the Seth Rogen’s Sausage Party flick will probably enjoy collecting these too!

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Toast Sculptures for Eating

toastcoverThis is some incredible eatable toast art.  The creator behind all this is Adam Perry.  It all started when his daughter Scarlett who has severe food allergies a few months back.  Adam saw how lame her breakfast was and decided to make it entertaining.  Each sculpture takes about two bread slices, then he snaps a picture and serves the toast breakfast to her daughter.

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Escapology by Ren Warom

escapologyThe post-apocalyptic future Earth is unkind to the masses.  It’s little like Kevin Costner’s ill-fated Waterworld and Mad Max: Fury Road, well kind of.  The world is more of a mix between anime Garganita on the Verdurous Planet without the mechas and Brian Wood’s comic The Massive as an environmental disaster destroys most of the Earth.  Land dwelling places to live are scarce the exception of mega-cities or large ship-cities that rule the seas.  And the internet is run by one gatekeeper, this is the first novel by author Ren Warom – Escapology.

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SoHo Sins by Richard Vine

sohosinscoverMessed-up marriages, adultery, temptation, jealously and power all come to play in this pulp novel SoHo Sins.  With a long career in the modern art scene, author Richard Vine pens his first novel using New York City art world as the backdrop.

In SoHo Sins the art scene golden couple is Philip and Amanda Oliver.  Philip a techy millionaire is in a broken marriage with his current wife Amanda Wingate, the art collector heiress.  The art world is rocked when Amanda is found murdered in her home.  Art dealer and friend of the couple Jackson Wyeth and his P.I. buddy Hogan are on the job to investigate Amanda’s grisly death.

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Frankie’s Garage: The Mugen Civic Type R

mugentyperTwo words in the motoring world that are synonymous Mugen and Honda.  Inside Lane takes a drive in the Mugen tuned Honda Civic Type R FN2.  This just might be best hot hatch on the planet?

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The Art & Making of Independence Day: Resurgence

independencedayartbookI remember sitting at the Cornet Theater, an iconic large single-screen theater in San Francisco, before all the crazy IMAX 3D stuff and mega-mall multiplexes watching the summer blockbuster Independence Day.  Twenty years have past with a new sequel ID4 Resurgence.  The nasty aliens are back to drain Earth’s natural resources.  Okay, I admit Resurgence may not measure up to the classic summer hit ID4, but if you want some popcorn action with no thinking – then you might want to see ID4 Resurgence.  Along with the movie, Titan Books has released The Art & Making of Independence Day Resurgence.

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Drink: The Origins of the Fat Tire Bicycle

newbelgiumbeersI’m not much of a wine connoisseur, but I’m a beer drinking gal.  For the life of me when I drink beer, I cannot smell the apricots, the exotic hops or be specific about a fruity nut taste.  I know I’m not a beer snob, but I do like great tasty beer.  Lately I’ve been trending Chimay and Shock Top.  And Fat Tire was one of those long time “cool” beverages I drank with my girlfriends at Applebee’s a lot.  And hot buzz words for drinking beer these past few years is “craft beers.”  What is it?  Munchies profiles the Fat Tire creator New Belgium.

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Frankie’s Garage: Aston & Red Bull Hypercar

redbullastonmartinamrb001Red Bull making a car?  Yes, this F1 light-looking supercar is a team-up between Aston Martin, Red Bull and F1 star Adrian Newey.  Only 24 will be produced and will be delivered around 2018.

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Frankie’s Garage: Fiesta ST200 Hot Hatch

fiestast200The Fiesta gets another limited edition run from Ford with the Fiesta ST200 hot hatch.  This Fiesta gets 200 horses, upgraded suspension, performance brakes and the ST200 badges if you’re into that stuff.  Carfection reviews this limited run fast Ford hatch.

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Food: Baking in Japan with Carly Rae Jepsen

exlporebakeriesOne part of Japanese culture that’s always been interesting is the art of edible baked food.  Pop star Carly Rae Jepsen was in Japan promoting her last album EMOTION and while there, she also explored Japan’s bakeries.

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Universal Studios is all about Harry Potter

US001I haven’t been to Universal Studios Hollywood in many years and this was the year, because The Wizarding World of Harry Potter just opened.  So, this epic family trip to Disneyland, included a day at Universal Studios.  The Wizarding World of Harry Potter may not be as grand and big as Universal Studios Orlando, but if you live on the West Coast, the cheaper alternative is going to Universal Studios Hollywood.

US003Fans of Harry Potter will enjoy everything about the theme town like the unique shops and waiting in line to get your magic wand.  Forgo the kiddie mini-Harry Potter roller coaster and just head straight to Hogwarts castle.  The Harry Potter and Forbidden Journey ride is one the best 3D rides, like ever.  Take the journey with the young Harry, Hermione and Ron.

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Disneyland Anaheim Trip

DL001It’s the 60th Diamond Celebration at Disneyland and I just had to go this year.  I remember the many family trips, then trips with the cousins, going with college friends and then going as an adult over the years – Disneyland meant something special to me.  This epic summer 2016 trip would be with all my cousins and siblings and most of us did a 2-Day Hopper to check out Disneyland and California Adventure.

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