Russ Taylor ephemera

I think the lamp is probably too big for the nightstand.  Otherwise, just a few more items (rug, chair) and it's done.  Guests welcome...

Some of the movies I have seen since summer began.  All in all, it's not a great summer for movies.  Oscar season was so great (The Reader, Frost/Nixon) that it was all downhill from there.

X Men Origins Wolverine -- Slow.  Unsympathetic characters.  Unrealistic.  Unwatchable.

Valkyrie (DVD) -- I thought this might be a dud, but I really enjoyed it.  I knew very little about the historical context -- it was interesting to see how quickly the plot fell apart over a few mistakes / ommissions.

Star Trek -- Started slow, finished pretty good.  Captain Kirk and Spock were a perfect odd couple / buddy cops pair, but I thought Simon Pegg (Scottie) stole the movie.

Up -- Perfect movie, although the animation of some of the characters was a bit odd.  Still most of the scenes, including the dog scenes, were amazing.  Like most Pixar films, there is very little to criticize.

Taking of Pelham 123 -- Fun movie.  A bit unrealistic bad guy played by Travolta.  Still it was fun.  It had a good tense pace.

Easy Virtue -- Mildly humorous.  Too many stock characters and movie cliches.  Colin Firth looked miserable.  He phoned it in.

Year One -- Yes, the jokes were obvious and the plot incredibly thin, but watching Jack Black and Michael Cera trudge through history was hilarious.  Cera's quiet asides were classic.  Mindless humor.

Whatever Works -- I can see how it got some bad reviews, but I thought it was actually really funny in parts.  Larry David was not particularly strong as Boris, but the whole premise (an exploration of how to live if you believe life has no purpose) was very carefully constructed and well executed.

... more later ...

So I got a new charcoal grill for my place in Decatur. I went with charcoal instead of gas after thinking about how great my charcoal grill was in Oxford. This new one is a 22.5 inch Weber One-Touch Gold. It's really a simple device, but the chimney starter made it even easier. Anyway, I inaugurated it with bone-in chicken breasts. Regardez:

The chimney starter in action--

Halfway through (w/ mopping every 10 minutes) --

The finished product 40 minutes later (juicy and smokey) --

I cannot wait to try some other recipes!

Finally: After enjoying the BBQ chicken (with asparagus, baked beans and tzatiki) we walked over to a new place in Decatur called Cafe Cliche.  Great ice cream!  I had the Heath Bar Frozen Yoghurt flavor.  Yummy...

So I was shopping online today for an espresso machine. I noticed that DeLonghi got some really great reviews from T. Carpenter - "Espresso Addict". Regardez (click on the image below to see the actual Amazon profile for T. Carpenter):

[UPDATE:  10 June 2009 -- the reviews have been removed from Amazon]

*****************************************************************

So I clicked on T. Carpenter's profile (here). This person has written 12 Amazon product reviews covering coffee machines, toasters, dehumidifiers, etc. The catch? All 12 reviews are for DeLonghi products and all 12 reviews give the products glowing, 5 star ratings.

Then I googled "Carpenter" and "DeLonghi" and found that someone named Tara Carpenter works for the company (see below) -- as a 'communications manager'.

Ms. Carpenter really knows how to espresso herself (bada bing)...

*****************************************************************

Belkin was busted for doing this recently.

What's amazing in this case is the amateurish fashion by which DeLonghi went about posting its fake product reviews on Amazon. For example, Tara Carpenter gave two product reviews for two different DeLonghi coffee makers on the same day (13 May 2009). One of the reviews actually says "instead of buying 2 different machines for my family I bough[t] only this DeLonghi machine....".  Errr... if you only purchased one, how are you reviewing two?  Thus, the falsity of the product reviews is immediately apparent.  I suppose it's easy to confuse yourself when you are authoring multiple fake product reviews.

There is also an M. Flora -- also nicknamed "Espresso Addict" (and also from New Jersey) who has only reviewed DeLonghi products and has only given them 5 stars.  Link to that profile - here.

You would think that anyone involved at the managerial level in a large firm such as DeLonghi would want to avoid ruining their firm's reputation by engaging in this type of false and deceptive activity. I would imagine it's a violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act, as well as numerous state laws.

Muppets...