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Ouija Board Travel-Size Game
The product description reads "Break up the monotony of a long family road trip with the always-mysterious and mystifying Ouija Board! Now light and compact to provide hours of easy backseat fun, let the spirit world delight and entertain your children for hours." What Parker Brothers seems to have overlooked is that a fast-moving vehicle is hardly the best environment in which to make contact with "the other side", particularly given the unlikelihood that there are many disembodied entities lurking about our nation's interstates. The planchette is so small that it is difficult to place one finger let alone several on the instrument and players will have difficulty keeping the small board still given the inherent turbulence of road travel. If spooky seances are your thing, best to stick with the home version and save yourself inevitable hours of unfulfillment.
The Complete Idiot's Guide To: Being A Juggalo Alpha Books
This book is targeted at anyone interested in becoming a member of the burgeoning subculture known as Juggalo, a fiercely loyal fanbase devoted to the Michigan-based rap group Insane Clown Posse. Whether your interest is limited to completing your Joker's Card collection, networking with other fans, or making a splash at the annual "Gathering Of The Juggalos", this book will give you the tools to completely immerse yourself in the Juggalo lifestyle. Everything you need to be an authentic Juggalo (or Juggalette) is here including selecting a suitable wardrobe, adopting a uniquely menacing face-painting design, familiarizing yourself with the Dark Carnival Philosophy, identifying your Faygo flavor of choice, and incorporating Juggalo slang, gestures and expressions into your everyday repertoire. Despite it?s tendency to condescend to adults dressing up in clown makeup and glorifying cartoonish violence, the book is a useful resource to the inexperienced ICP fan looking to take his appreciation a step further.
"All Out Of Love - My Life as a Roadie for the Band Air Supply" by Robert C. Douglas
Finally, the book Air Supply fans have been clamoring after for decades. "All Out Of Love", a biographical look at the life of Air Supply roadie Robert C. Douglas, offers a rare glimpse into the band's traveling roadshow during 1985's "Just As We Are" tour. Douglas re-tells countless stories of excess and debauchery, sometimes in graphic detail. For example, there's the stop in Reno when Graham Russell knocked back two wine coolers during dinner and went straight to bed without saying goodnight to Russell Hitchcock. Or the trip to Cincinnati when, during a heated debate over whether the band was over-using the words "love" and "world" in their song titles, Hitchcock nearly sprained his wrist after tossing a television remote onto his hotel bed in disgust. Stories like these run rampant throughout the book, and provide an extremely entertaining read. And while one could argue that the band's exploits may have been more camaraderie, asprin, and feel-good music than sex, drugs, and rock & roll, everyone will surely agree that Douglas' story is one that deserved to be told.
The SIMS 2 Expansion Pack: Religious Cult - Retail $39.99
The popular SIMS computer game franchise released this controversial expansion pack for Sims 2 with it's first-ever ESRB rating of "M" due to the dark themes and sensitive subject matter presented. Players micromanage their impressionable SIMS as they succumb to intensive brainwashing and express a zealous devotion to the authoritarian leader of an oppressive religious cult. Activities awaiting your SIMS include filing for charitable status, constructing a compound in a remote area far from civilization, ostracizing the congregation from society, engaging in polygamy, indulging the sinsiter whims of the supreme leader and more. Gravitate towards the leader to strengthen your own power base within the cult, intimidate outspoken opponents of the group while silencing former members, stockpile a cache of weapons, distribute propaganda and expand membership. Your SIMS can explore various roles and master new talents within the confines of the cult, but beware the deteriorating mental condition of your cult leader.
"My First Sitar" by PlayTyme - Retail: $39.99
For parents hoping to be Allaudin Khan to their little Shankar-wanna be?s, there probably isn't a better toy on the market than My First Sitar by PlayTyme. The package includes a "Getting Started" CD-ROM featuring commentary by sitar virtuoso Nishat Khan, which is surprisingly easy to comprehend. However, the actual instrument requires four F batteries before it is ready to use - which are unfortunately only available through a PlayTyme distributor in West Delhi, India (battery order forms are included, but expect 10-12 weeks for delivery). And while it's no Hiren Roy, rest assured that once the batteries finally arrive, the results are more than satisfactory. The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" is the featured demonstration track, however the melody never progresses beyond the familiar verse section. Kids also have the option of choosing various forms of percussion as accompaniment, including the tabla, pakhavaj, and the somewhat-peculiar steel drum. Children can expect hours of fun from this product, and before long, they'll be well on their way to becoming the next Gabby La La.
NaNu mp3 player by Cylon - Retail: $129.99
In recent years, Cylon Corporation has developed a reputation for offering products intentionally aimed at 'Techies' and Sci-Fi geeks everywhere. With the introduction of the NaNu mp3 player, this perception isn't likely to change anytime soon. Featuring what CEO Alan Pershing describes as a "delightfully whimsical" image of Mork from Ork, the NaNu is offered in three different colors - red, black, and silver. The buttons are easy to use and the overall package is nice and compact, however it's the NaNu's little (and somewhat irritating) nuances that ultimately differentiate this product from similar offerings by Apple, Sony, etc. First, there's the needlessly-complex Orson software used to manage the mp3 files - which seems to always ask for approval of software upgrades at the most inconvenient times. Then, there's the annoying graphics and sounds used as a pathetic attempt at being clever. For example, rather than displaying the traditional hourglass while the system is busy, the NaNu displays an egg that slowly cracks and breaks in half. And the irritating sound of Robin Williams exclaiming "Shazbot!" upon system shutdown cannot be disabled. If you can get past its faults, the NaNu really does make a very capable mp3 player at a halfway decent price. However, it's unlikely that anybody outside of the die-hard fans of the Mork & Mindy series will find this product attractive.
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