More Information About The LEGO Star Wars 10188 Death Star

The LEGO Star Wars 10188 Death Star has 3,803 pieces and will retail for $399.99. Recreate the action and adventure of the Star Wars movies with the ultimate Death Star playset! This detailed battle station features an incredible array of minifigure-scale scenes and accessories from Episodes IV and VI. Its different decks include the Death Star control room, moving turbolaser turrets, hangar bay with TIE Advanced starfighter, tractor beam controls, Emperor’s throne room, detention block, Imperial conference room, droid maintenance facility, and the powerful Death Star superlaser, plus much more! Swing across the chasm with Luke and Leia, face danger in the crushing trash compactor, and duel with Darth Vader for the fate of the galaxy. With over 3,800 pieces, the Death Star measures 16” tall and 16½” wide when completed. Includes 25 Star Wars minifigures and droids!

Death Star is a LEGO Exclusive available for pre-order here and can be found in LEGO Brand Retail Stores starting September 1, 2008!

Click here to see what is included in the set.

Cuisipro Ice Cream Scoop & Stack

Make delightfully amusing treats with the Cuisipro Ice Cream Scoop & Stack. The scoop & stack creates cylindrical blocks of ice cream that can be decorated or stacked for a colorful and creative presentation. The ergonomic scooper cuts through the hardest ice cream with a simple twist-and-lift action. Push button release. Each scoop holds 3.75 oz ice cream. Dishwasher safe on top rack. Choose from three colors (white, pink and green). You can order it here for $14.95.

 

iTunes Hits Five Billion Songs Sold

Apple has announced today that the iTunes Store has now sold over five billion songs. In addition, it revealed that the store is now renting and selling more than 50,000 movies every day, making iTunes the world’s most popular online movie store. According to Apple, the store now offers a catalog of over eight million songs, over 20,000 TV episodes and over 2,000 films including over 350 in HD.

Where Are The Best Record Stores?

The July issue of Paste magazine includes a list of “The 17 Coolest Record Stores in America.” This comes at a time when record shops are disappearing by the hour, so maybe this can help boost business.

Here’s what did make the list (in no particular order):

- Amoeba Records, Los Angeles
- Criminal Records, Atlanta
- Other Music, New York
- Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art, Clarksdale, Miss.
- Waterloo Records, Austin
- Aquarius Records, San Francisco
- Dusty Grove America, Chicago
- Ernest Tubb Record Shop, Nashville
- Shangri-La Records, Memphis
- Music Millennium, Portland, Ore.
- Ear X-Tacy, Louisville, Ky.
- Louisiana Music Factory, New Orleans
- Newbury Comics, Boston
- Grimey’s New + Pre-Loved Music, Nashville
- Turntable Lab, New York
- The Electric Fetus, Minneapolis
- Jerry’s Records, Pittsburgh

Seth MacFarlane Reveals Next Season Family Guy Details

Is Stewie gay? Why did Cleveland get the spin-off? Which celebrity complained about being mocked on “Family Guy”? Will Cleveland leave Rhode Island?

“Family Guy” executive producer Seth MacFarlane answered questions about the show, its upcoming “The Cleveland Show” spin-off and the long-rumored movie. “Most likely,” MacFarlane said in response to the Stewie/gay question, “in some way it’s going to be worked into the plot of the ‘Family Guy’ movie if we ever have the time to get it off the ground,” MacFarlane said.

For the Fox midseason spin-off, MacFarlane confirmed Cleveland’s family will leave Quohog and return to his hometown in Virginia

“It’ll be worth it. You’ll love the talking bear, believe me,” he said.

He held out hope that Cleveland might come back for a visit — “crossovers are cool” — but added that his place on “Family Guy” would be taken by another character. Who? No decision yet in the long term. But at first, Brian will get more screen time.

“We’re going to pump Brian up a little more,” MacFarlane said. “He’ll be the one who hangs out with the guys at the bar.” He also said a crossover of “American Dad” and “Family Guy” might happen next season.

MacFarlane said he’s often asked why Cleveland was chosen for the spinoff and not Quagmire, the lecherous airline pilot. “This is not a guy you want to invite into your hone on a weekly basis,” he said.

He said that Cleveland had opportunities for heartfelt moments as a character was “so complex and tortured and introspective.”

As for which celebrity has complained about being lampooned on the show, MacFarlane said most don’t complain … except former “SNL” cast member Ellen Cleghorne,” and former “Sanford and Son” co-star Desmond Wilson and, weirdly, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart.

“Jon Stewart got really upset but I won’t go into that,” he said.

Rescue Me Minisodes Stoke Fans’ Interest On Break

FX’s Rescue Me, facing an extra-long break because of the writers’ strike, is turning to an unusual tactic to keep the fire burning for fans: a series of weekly five-minute segments, dubbed “minisodes,” that will air Tuesdays at 10 ET/PT starting next week.

The darkly comic series about NYC firefighters, starring Denis Leary, last aired in September. New episodes won’t arrive until April, an eternity in TV, because of production delays and scheduling concerns.

You’re looking at 19 months off the air, which is technically cancellation, I believe,” says Peter Tolan, who writes and produces the series with Leary. “We felt there was some risk there, and the best way to hedge our bets is to give us some face time with our audience so they don’t drift away.”

FX chief John Landgraf, who worried Rescue fans will “forget it exists,” came up with the idea. And on the bright side, when full episodes finally return, fans will get 22, up from 13 in previous seasons.

The minisodes don’t connect to the new season, but they do answer fan calls for more comedy. “They said, ‘We miss the guys talking in the kitchen about sex, their lives, and foolishness in the (fire) house,’ ” Tolan says.

“One involves a flashback that explains something that goes all the way back to the beginning of the series, and another is a dream sequence tied into Tommy’s psyche,” Leary says of his character, Tommy Gavin. “It starts out as a really sexy dream and ends up as a nightmare.”

Tolan hopes they help erase a subpar fourth season: “The story choices we made took us away from our main guys. It was sort of treading water.”

FX doesn’t expect millions of viewers to tune in for five minutes a week, so it’s also streaming the minisodes on several sites, including YouTube, Hulu and Crackle. “I bet more people will watch these things on the Internet,” Landgraf says.

When Season 5 finally arrives, it will “pick up where Tommy left off emotionally, with the death of his father (Charles Durning) and the fact that everyone else is in grief about it, but he’s not,” Leary says.

Also new: Karina Lombard as a French journalist researching a book on 9/11, “and that’s sort of a thorn in everybody’s side.”

LOST: Octagon Global Recruiting

Today, I received the following email from Octagon Global Recruiting which is part of a new LOST viral campaign:

 

Octagon Global Recruiting, on behalf of the Dharma Initiative, would like to thank you for registering your expression of interest in our latest volunteer recruitment drive.

 

We will be launching in San Diego on July 24th at Comic-Con International offering select registrants the opportunity to take an exciting aptitude test that will give applicants the chance to demonstrate their unique talents.

 

The Dharma Initiative hopes you will be able to join us to find out more about their ground-breaking new research project. We will contact you closer to the date with more information.

 

For those not able to join us in San Diego, Dharma’s full recruitment program will be made available online to registered recruits after July 27th.

 

In the meantime, the Dharma Initiative urges you to spread the word. Invite your colleagues to join the team at www.octagonglobalrecruiting.com and take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity.

 

Stay tuned for further instructions…