YEAR IN REVIEW: ZONINO! Award 2009

The 2009 ZONINO! AWARD (which is both invaluable and worthless at the same time) goes to...

Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld of Jake & Amir. Their College Humor hosted site and crazy webisodes have amused us for hours on end and turned us into those annoying quote spouting friends you want to muzzle...if you weren't laugh along so hard. It's FTW.

CONGRATULATIONS FOR ALL OF US HERE AT ZONINO!!!

Sergio del Limonar
Mrs. Fitz 1 (and 2)
AmErica
Buzzy
Bee

YEAR IN REVIEW: WEBSITES

This is the eighth in the YEAR IN REVIEW series. Each day we will profile a different topic and choose out top 5 recommendations for the year. The ZONINO-iest, if you will.

1 Get an intelligent dose of smarts from the cutting-edge writers at Racialicious.
2 Learn something today at Listverse.
3 Who knew cakes could be so funny? Cakewrecks, that's who!
4 Feel better about your handy work at There, I Fixed It!
5 Be glad it's not your family at Awkward Family Photos...or is it?

YEAR IN REVIEW: BOOKS

This is the seventh in the YEAR IN REVIEW series. Each day we will profile a different topic and choose out top 5 recommendations for the year. The ZONINO-iest, if you will.

1 You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers
2 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
3 Tales From the Town of Widows by James Cañon
4 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
5 The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey

YEAR IN REVIEW: MOVIE

This is the sixth in the YEAR IN REVIEW series. Each day we will profile a different topic and choose out top 5 recommendations for the year. The ZONINO-iest, if you will.

1 Awards-darling Precious
2 Kathryn Bigelow's award-winning The Hurt Locker
3 French film Entre Les Murs (The Class)
4 Sci-Fi thriller District 9
5 Michael Jackson's last hurrah This Is It

YEAR IN REVIEW: RECIPES

This is the fifth in the YEAR IN REVIEW series. Each day we will profile a different topic and choose out top 5 recommendations for the year. The ZONINO-iest, if you will.

1 Strawberry Spinach Summer Salad
2 Sad Apple Pizza
3 Coconut Banana Bread
4 Chicken Pesto Pizza
5 Fries Cuatro Queso Dos Fritos

YEAR IN REVIEW: WORDS

This is the fourth in the YEAR IN REVIEW series. Each day we will profile a different topic and choose out top 5 recommendations for the year. The ZONINO-iest, if you will.

1 loquacious
2 palpate
3 emporium
4 apoplectic
5 pernicious

ON HOLIDAY

ZONINO! is on holiday for the 24th and 25th of December baking cookies for Santa and then curling up in the fetal position on the couch the day after with a sick stomach after being forced to eat said cookies when he didn't show. Something about not being "good" enough...

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY BOXING DAY!

YEAR IN REVIEW: EAT OUT

This is the third in the YEAR IN REVIEW series. Each day we will profile a different topic and choose out top 5 recommendations for the year. The ZONINO-iest, if you will.

1 Crifs Dogs in New York City
2 Coast Sushi in Chicago
3 Grand Avenue Cafe in Eau Claire, Wisconsin
4 Burrito Union in Duluth, Minnesota
5 Izzy's Ice Cream in St. Paul, Minnesota

YEAR IN REVIEW: YOUTUBE

This is the second in the YEAR IN REVIEW series. Each day we will profile a different topic and choose out top 5 recommendations for the year. The ZONINO-iest, if you will.

1 "I Got A Feeling" lip-synch video by the communications students at UQAM.
2 The vocal stylings of Garfunkle & Oates.
3 Literal Videos
4 Spontaneous performance of "Do-Re-Mi" in an Antwerp train station.
5 The amazing jump rope team performance.

YEAR IN REVIEW: MUSIC

This is the first in the YEAR IN REVIEW series. Each day we will profile a different topic and choose out top 5 recommendations for the year. The ZONINO-iest, if you will.

MUSIC

1 James Morrison's album Songs For You, Truths For Me
2 Toby Lightman's single "My Sweet Song"
3 Jypsi's single "Mister Officer"
4 Anjulie's self-titled debut album.
5 Sarah Lou Richards 5-song EP Emerald City

MONTHLY REVIEW: December

There won't be any "Blue Christmases" with ZONINO! I know this was a short month with our upcoming "YEAR IN REVIEW" series but that doesn't mean it was any less great!

MUSIC

Shayne Ward left us "Breathless" with his hit single from 2007...it takes awhile to cross the pond, I guess.

Carrie Underwood and the video for lead single from her third studio album, "Cowboy Casanova" had us polishing another award for her in 2010 already.

Another blond bomb-shell, country-folk newcomer Sarah Lou Richards, blew us away with her debut EP Emerald City.

And we "Naturally" fell for the sweet beats and groove of The Scene and Selena Gomez.

MOVIE

Satisfy your musical appetite some more with the biodoc Still Bill, about living legend Bill Withers, when it comes to your town.

BOOK

Need a perfect stocking stuffer for almost any age? The ageless and always amusing The Gashlycrumb Tinies is sure to please for years to come!

WEBSITE

Bored? Try Stumbleupon and see what you discover...

Still bored? Make your DJ dreams come true at daftpunk.

Or maybe you need some last-minute-that-don't-look-like-it gifts. GoJane can help you find the perfect thing!

Check out all the free-ness at Free Documentaries and be the advocate for change no one wants at their holiday gathering!

YOUTUBE

Love to play Minesweeper? So do these guys.

The Muppets have charisma to spare in their web-hit interpretation of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody

And more creative energy comes from Joshua Allen Harris and his amazing bag statues.

And finally, who doesn't love a good romp on a trampoline? Foxes do!

RECIPE

Wine Cake might not go well with an Avocado Drink and Candy Cane Cookies but separately they're divine!

Happy end of 2009!

RECIPE: Pizza Burger

When I was younger, my father would take my brother and I to visit his old home town. It wasn't the one stop sign, the fact that everyone knew everyone, or that Zuba pants were still in fashion here that mesmerized us though. The town drive-in had one of the most delicious things a 10 year old could ever dream of - the pizza burger!

Now, I haven't had one, let alone the desire to have one, since those glory days of my youth, however upon feasting my eyes on this monstrosity, I might have to change my tune. Just follow the artery-clogging instructions and you'll be on your way to a glorious food-coma in no time!

Sergio del Limónar

YOUTUBE: Trampoline Foxes

It's been a long week with the holidays so close. So, here's a little ZONINO! to get you through this last Friday before the holiday festivities really get going...presenting Foxes on a Trampoline! Enjoy!

Sergio del Limónar

WEBSITE: Free Documentaries

Remember when you saw Supersize Me and didn't eat a fast food hamburger for a week (although you swore it would be "never")? Our how you were convinced that all skeet shooters were one hair pin away from wreaking havoc on you and your family at the mall or school after seeing Bowling For Columbine ?

Documentaries can be fascinating looks into other view points vastly different from our own or giant pieces of propaganda meant to mess with our own moral consciousness. However you want to view them, now you can...for free! FreeDocumentaries has over 100 titles - many blockbuster hits - covering various interest areas. Although most are political or historical in nature the science nerd and travel buff will also be satisfied with the selection available. And for being free, who can complain!?!

Now, go watch "Supermarket Secrets" and swear you'll visit your local farmer's market more...until next week.

Sergio del Limónar

YOUTUBE: Joshua Allen Harris Street Art

See that trash laying in a crinkled heap by the curb? Quick! Look again! It's a giant monster come to life! Joshua Allen Harris is one of the creative young artists creating and embracing the spirit of what art is all about - making a person stop and think.

Harris's art is very public and uses nothing more than tape and several plastic garbage or grocery bags. Borrowing from air vents meant to circulate New York City's subway system, his creation lay in pile idly over a vent like nothing more than a piece of discarded refuse only to spring up, filling with air, to become a polar bear, loch ness monster, or giraffe!

Before you have time to grab you camera to snap a quick photograph, it tumbles like an autumn leaf back to the pavement, waiting for the next subway gust to bring it to life.

Sergio del Limónar

WEBSITE: The Daft Punks

Want to be the next DJ rocking the turntable in Miami or Ibiza? Do you have what it takes to make a club jump and grind until breakfast? ...or are you just at work bored to tears?

Regardless of your motivation, check out dothedaft and with just a keyboard and some speakers you can be cranking out your own mix in no time. Play with the rhythm, pitch, and backing beats to create a truly unique dance track, your boss will come be-boppin' out of the office in glow-sticks. To fire you. Better put on the headphones...

Sergio del Limónar

BOOK: The Gashlycrumb Tinies

I randomly stumbled upon the book The Gashlycrumb Tinies in the lobby of a hotel I was recently staying at. A children's book that can easily be enjoyed my adults of all ages for its dark humor and bizarrely creative illustrations, this alphabet book goes through 26 pages of children and their tragic life-ending events.

For example, author and artist Edward Gorey, tells us that "K is for Kate who was struck with an ax." And in rhyming fashion, we later discover that "L is for Leo who swallowed some tacks."
This book, while not for all children, would be a perfect stocking stuffer, white elephant gift, or conversation piece for your coffee table.

Sergio del Limonar

MUSIC: "Naturally"

When I look into my crystal disco ball to see what songs I will be requesting to rock out to this next month to obsession, it will be "Naturally" by Selena Gomez and The Scene. The first time I heard this song I was in love with it's pulsing beat and nauseatingly cheery lyrics. Then I found out it was by Disney-darling Selena Gomez and I became nauseated.

But, truth be damned, a good song is a good song and Disney pre-fab singers can't all be bad, can they? At least this one wasn't in High School Musical...

Buzzy

WEBSITE: GoJane

I love the holidays! The lights, the food, the music, the spirit...I just can't get enough! The one thing I have a love/hate relationship with is my social events calendar. I love getting together with family, friends, and colleagues for this party, or that dinner, or some snappy cocktail hour as much as the next gal, but I find that I'm running out of things to wear!

Now, I don't need a closet full of new outfits, just something to make them look new and different. A friend turned me on to GOJane, a clothing and accessories online store with amazing deals. This is also a prime spot to pick up all those stocking stuffers for your girlfriends!

Just in time for the four New Years bashes you've got to make an appearance at, right?!?

Buzzy

WEBSITE: Stumbleupon.com

Ladies and gentleman, the latest in office (and life in general) procrastination has just found it's way to my desktop. I'm pleased to introduce you to StumbleUpon, a website that allows you to check off your interests (anything from animals and arts to oddities and online games, photography and psychology to science and self improvement). I like to check off every box they offer, to get the broadest range of fun. Once your preferred boxes are checked off, you can start "stumbling" across the interwebs. The site generates one random website after another (just keep clicking the flashy looking Stumble! button) for your general enjoyment. This site is a great time passer for those days at the office that just seem to be moving backwards, and also, a delightful conversation starter. It has actually helped me with some of my Christmas shopping this year by directing me to the "cool Christmas gifts" site, full of pages and pages of different and interesting gift ideas for that impossible to shop for someone in your life. Start stumbling!

Mrs. Fitzsimmons 2

MUSIC: Emerald City EP

If you haven't checked out Connecticut native and current Nashville resident Sarah Lou Richards' recently released five song EP "Emerald City", you are behind the curve my friend! Go to iTunes immediately!

Taking inspiration from artists as diverse as mainstream acts like the Dixie Chicks, Miranda Lambert, and Bonnie Raitt to alternative singer-songwriters Ryan Adams, Patty Griffin, Keri Noble, and David Wilcox, Richards has crafted a debut cache of self-penned tunes that show of her talent not only as a vocalist but also as lyricist.

Supported on the guitar by step-brother Ryan Van Arkel, and recorded at Aim For Zero Studios in Waterloo, Iowa, Richards shines on the heartbreaking "Time To Go" and "Space." Also taking center stage is the motivational "Milemarker 1" which chronicles the daily struggles and triumphs of the independent artist.

Rounding out the disc are the tell-off anthem "He Wears Womens' Jeans" and soul-exposing "Made Her Stay."

This is just the start for this rising star. Be the first of your friends to get your ears tuned to this raw young and honest singer.

Sergio del Limonar

MUSIC: "Cowboy Casanova"

Carrie Underwood is a genius. The first single, "Cowboy Casanova," from her third studio album,Play On, is a catchy country-pop confection typical of Underwood's previously released and wildly popular hits. This song becomes ZONINO!-worthy, however, because of it's video.

The song, a man-bashing anthem about a guy who uses and loses women like it's going out of style, will appeal to Underwood's female fan base without a problem. In the video, Underwood tries like an Oklahoma tumble weed catching a good breeze to appeal to the guys. Placing the video in the brothels of either the wild west or the French Quarter of New Olreans and sporting classy yet sexy period costumes inspired by the 1920's and '30's, Underwood and her troupe of fellow dancers choreograph their way through the catchy tune, all the while this said "casanova" lurks about in the shadows.

Bravo, Carrie! Looks like a great start to another year of well deserved awards for you!

Sergio del Limonar

RECIPE: Candy Cane Cookies

When I was little my Great Aunt Ida-Lynne would make those ever-present Christmas dessert-platter staples, the Candy Cane Cookie. I remember caring more if my Great Aunt would serve the cookies or not and if there would be enough of them (amidst the choco-coco balls, powdery Russian tea cakes, and red & green sprinkled sugar cookies) to go around between all the dinner guests almost more than I anticipated opening presents!

Well, I haven't had a Candy Cane Cookie as good as my Great Aunt used to make them. My grandmother's were good but, bless her heart, not the same. The closest I've come myself is from that master chef, Betty Crocker. It's a lot of work, but if you get good, you can live eternally in the minds of those you love as the one who made the best Candy Cane Cookies EVER. Not a bad way to be remembered!

Buzzy

MUSIC: "Breathless"

I almost hate myself for liking this song so much. I normally despise super sappy lyrics, falsetto-voiced male vocalists, and blue-eyed soul slow ballads, so together I would imagine my head exploding. Maybe it's the cute guy singing the song. Could I be that shallow?

Shayne Ward, the winner of the second season of Britain's American Idol-like show, X-Factor, sings this schmaltzy love song, "Breathless," off his 2007 album by the same name, with such honesty and sincerity that you want to believe every word he says. Even lyrics like "...if we had babies they would look like you," which would normally leave me in hacking fits on the floor, seem genuine.

It must be the holiday season if I'm feeling this ooey-gooey...

Buzzy

YOUTUBE: The Muppets' Bohemian Rhapsody

I have no idea where this awesomeness came from, what it was originally made for (surely not YouTube), or who was behind it, but it's definitely worthy of a ZONINO!

Combining the oft-imitated but always glorious campy Queen anthem, "Bohemian Rhapsody," everyone's beloved Muppets reinterpret the original video with their own signature style. Tell me Animal playing the drums doesn't make you smile? And Beaker? You can never have too much of the little guy!

After this, I might be ready to watch some holiday-inspired "A Muppet Christmas Carol" again.

Buzzy

RECIPE: Avocado Drink

I love avocados. I've made ordering decisions at restaurants based solely on whether a dish had the creamy green fruit in it or not. If you have any similar type of feeling, please do not crinkle your nose in disgust over the thought of this recipe before you try it. For avocado-lovers, this is an incredible addition to the already myriad uses of the fruit.

Ingredients:

2 avocadoes (4 if you are using the Mexican variety)
1/2 cup of honey
1 L of milk
1 orange
ice

What to do:

1) In a blender combine the avocados with the orange.
2) Once thoroughly blended, add the milk, honey, and ice.
3) Blend again.
4) Serve immediately so that it remains cold. Warm avocado is gross. Even I won't eat that.

Sergio del Limonar

YOUTUBE: Minesweeper

As a kid I used to get an unhealthy amount of anxiety playing video games. Dual mode on the James Bond inspired "GoldenEye" gave me veritable heart attacks and "Mario Cart" wasn't much better. Basically any game with a timing aspect stresses me out to the extreme.

If I play any type of electronic game, I prefer to keep it to Solitaire or Pinball on my computer at work. Even the fairly tame Minesweeper is out of the question, although I have tried my hand at it enough in the past to be convinced victory is more or less a combination of luck and if the PC likes you rather than skill.

Either way, this (oldie but goodie) video from College Humor is classic. Poking fun at Hollywood's attempts to make cinematic versions of video games, they have come up with a mock-trailer for "Minesweeper: The Movie".

Satirizing such a simple game might seem difficult but tie it into the obvious war-flick genre and the melodramatic possibilities are ripe. In the discussing strategy, the situational "8 Box" comes up, to which the response is "8...God help us all."

I just wish playing these games was as much fun as watching this video!

Sergio del Limonar

MOVIE: Still Bill

One of my favorite songs of all time is Bill Wither's "Grandma's Hands." If the name sounds familiar, you've surely heard "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Lean On Me." Will Smith even sampled a good portion of Withers's "Just The Two Of Us" back in 1998. But herein lies the problem. This talented musician and songwriter has somehow gone under appreciated in the minds of a vast majority of the music-listening pubic.

Hopefully, not for long. The documentary Still Bill, about the life, past and current, of 1970's singer-songwriter Bill Withers looks at the cultural phenomenon that is his tragic disappearance from the public consciousness.

In the trailer, Withers himself says that often times people don't believe them when he tells them who he is. This looks like an amazing documentary of the life on an incredible talent in the musical landscape of soul music and I can not wait to see it!

Sergio del Limonar

TV: d-CON ads

Sometimes the old adage of less being more is true. I am currently obsessed with the new set of advertisements by d-CON, makers of the snapping glue-filled mouse traps. It has been rumored that I cheer when they come on.

Whoever said you need to have millions of dollars for a successful ad campaign?

Sergio del Limonar

RECIPE: Wine Cake

Wine Cake. "If you serve this once, my friend Oneida says, "it will become 'Whine Cake' because everyone will be whining if you don't make it every time." This actually isn't her joke, but her mother's. Even with this tempered warning, however, Oni didn't learned and exposed more of us to its deliciousness over Thanksgiving.

I'm just here to pass on the same sage advice in hopes that you too do not follow it.

Ingredients:
1 box of yellow cake mix
2 small boxes of Jell-O vanilla pudding
1 cup oil
5 large eggs
3/4 cup sherry wine
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup sherry wine (yes, again)

What to do:

1) Preheat oven to 350

2) Take the first five ingredients and mix them together.

3) Bake in a greased bundt (I love that word) pan for ~50 minutes.

4) Time to glaze: Without popping the cake out, poke the exposed part (the bottom) with a fork. Pour the glaze over the holes until it soaks inside.

5) Wait until the glaze soaks in. Then, pop the cake out of the pan onto a serving dish

6) Repeat poking the rest of the cake, but for the top. Also repeat the glazing process.

7) Cool.

8) (Optional) If you want to have a thicker glaze on top, add more sugar to the glaze and pour some more on after the cake cools.

Buzzy