2bhip Blog

15% Off T-Shirts for Mother’s Day

2bhip — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:23:53 +0000

All T-shirts are 15% off now through Mother’s Day, use code MOMDAY15 at checkout to capture the savings.

Give your mom a cool and unique gift that you can’t find in stores. From 80′s t-shirts to funny t-shirts you’re bound to find something for any hip mom.

24: The 8th and Final Day….Or is it?

2bhip — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:21:44 +0000

Jack Bauer is undeniably immortal (some say he made both the chicken and the egg, and the ensuing paradox is what killed the dinosaurs), but 24 now faces a self-imposed end at it’s eighth and final day. This season will finish off eight years of counter terrorist action and masterfully fast-paced suspense it’s rivals could never approach. Though there is a feature film in the works to follow up the series, it will still be hard for the show’s 10 million+ fans to watch the clock finally stop. Any 24 fan can hype up the excitement of the latest season, and explain the week-by-week thrill of watching multiple concurrent subplots converge bit by bit into a no-doubt explosive finale. But let’s say you’re a little sketchy on the details. “Jack Bauer who?”, you say. “Why’s everybody talking so fast, and why is that guy getting so brutally tortured on primetime television”? Luckily, with eight past seasons to keep you busy there’s never been a better time to get into 24, and with the series soon about to go down in history as a classic it’s worth taking a look back on this prime-time tv show phenomenon.

While the characters and organizations stay consistent, each season of 24 offers a totally new terrorist situation for special agent Jack Bauer to avert. From stopping a presidential assassination to disarming nuclear bombs hidden across a city, 24 always keeps the stakes high and the situations fresh. The most obvious innovation is the 24 hour time limit to each season, each episode taking place over one hour in real time. Thus, without relying on time jumps and flashbacks to tell the story, 24 is able to offer a genuinely frantic experience that forces you to experience new developments at the same exact pace as the characters involved. Because subverting a suitcase nuke conspiracy has no dull moments, neither does 24, and it’s this innovation that puts you literally right there in the moment with Jack Bauer.

Played by Kiefer Sutherland, CTU special agent Jack Bauer has amassed a cult following all his own. His job is to prevent major terrorist attacks on the United States, but his claim to fame is his brutal approach to counterterrorism. One of the shows main themes is whether the ends justify his brutal means, Jack is not above using torture and fierce interrogation to accomplish his mission. These uncompromising methods have become infamous, and given him the cult following we see today. One of the most famous Jack Bauer moments involves his lengthy Chinese imprisonment, where he withstood two years of torture without saying a word. While most prison escape plots in television involve whittling out lockpicks and digging through tiles, Jack Bauer ultimately escaped torture by tearing out a man’s jugular vein with his teeth. Move over Chuck Norris! He can also speak multiple languages, fly both airplanes and helicopters, has expertise in firearms and explosives, and can allegedly blow up the moon just by screaming at it. All in all, not a bad resume.

So, facing the end of a 192 episode run, having stopped eight seperate major terrorist plots that nobody else could, it’s only fitting that Keifer Sutherland should get the last word on the show he made iconic. From a March press release from Fox:

“This has been the role of a lifetime, and I will never be able to fully express my appreciation to everyone who made it possible. While the end of the series is bittersweet, we always wanted 24 to finish on a high note, so the decision to make the eighth season our last was one we all agreed upon. This feels like the culmination of all our efforts from the writers to the actors to our fantastic crew and everyone at Fox. Looking ahead to the future, Howard Gordon and I are excited about the opportunity to create the feature film version of 24. But when all is said and done, it is the loyal worldwide fan base that made it possible for me to have the experience of playing the role of Jack Bauer, and for that I am eternally grateful.”

New! Beer Opener Flip Flops – 15% Off

2bhip — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:20:14 +0000

Summer is on it’s way and what better accessory to have then a new pair of flip flops to sport? These are the “must have” flip flops this season. Not only are they comfortable, they have a bottle opener right on the strap!

Guiness Style

Beer bottle opener right on the strap!

2Bhip is offering 15% off to our blog readers by using coupon code FLIPFLOP at checkout! Visit today and take advantage of this exclusive deal at 2Bhip!

Spider Man Role Up for Grabs

2bhip — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 22:19:39 +0000

Have you heard? Toby Macguire has bowed out of filming the (Untitled) Spider Man 4 Re-Boot movie. Macguire, 34, was made famous from his breakthrough role as Peter Parker in the Spider Man series decided to hang up the webbed suit weeks before filming was due to start. Sony and Marvel have decided to take the billion dollar franchise in a new direction focusing on Peter Parker in high school dealing with human issues along with super-human predicaments. Coincidentally, director Sam Raimi and actress Kirsten Dunst have also withdrawn from the new film. Speculations circle around Raimi not willing to accept the script or financial conditions. Raimi has been quoted “While we were looking forward to doing a fourth one together, the studio and Marvel have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job.” Alas, the role of Peter Parker is up for grabs. Being that the film will take place amongst Peter Parker’s teen years, whoever gets the part will need to walk and talk the part of a high school student. What do you think? Can you imagine Spider Man without Tobey Macguire? Sony being the power house that it is, is taking on a challenge and we’ll see, upon the release in 2012, if they can deliver a record breaking film like they have done in the previous years.

Go-Go Power Rangers!

2bhip — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:24:08 +0000

Power Rangers was adapted directly from a Japanese superhero team show called Super Sentai, one of the most popular of it’s kind in Japan. Using the hit Super Sentai show as stock footage, and filming brand new scenes with American actors for the overseas market, the end result was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Featuring a team of costumed warriors chosen to destroy the evil sorceress Rita Repulsa, virtually every episode climaxed in a super sized Godzilla-style duel between one of Rita’s henchmen and the iconic Megazord, a giant robotic combination of prehistoric power animals that time and time again becomes humanity’s salvation and just about the coolest thing a child of the 90s had ever seen.

No slouches on their feet though, Power Rangers also featured plenty of martial arts action and a memorable and wide variety of villains for the Power Rangers to tag-team kick in the face. Wearing it’s kung-fu film inspirations on it’s sleeve, Power Rangers offered a brand of action that the rest of children’s television just couldn’t keep up with. Perhaps this is why against all odds the show saw immediate overnight success and sixteen more Power Rangers series were soon to follow, switching up the outfits, members, and villains and sending the team around the world and into the furthest reaches of space. How’s that for epic in scope?

Proving that Japanese entertainment could have huge crossover appeal, one could even argue that Power Rangers was a crucial predecessor to the anime movement today. The use of stock footage kept production costs down and made the show easily distributable just as the anime style was designed to do, and when a robot pterodactyl is tackling a giant putty monster no red-blooded American child is going to notice. An appreciation for dinosaurs, matching jumpsuits, big robots, and flying drop kicks is practically encoded into our DNA, and this is apparent because Power Rangers became a tour-de-force that stretched on for over sixteen years.

They’ve been samurai, ninjas, space police, wizards, and more, but deep down we all have a soft spot for the original six; Jason, Zack, Trini, Kim, Billy, and Tommy. They were the team that got us hooked, and they were the team that every kid wanted to join. However, it’s not for the faint of heart; your enemies are merciless and frequently the size of buildings. Your friendly neighborhood Green Ranger was always off joining the competition and unearthing mystical swords of darkness, stomping around in his big metal dinosaur all the while. And in spite of everything, the Power Morpher comes with great responsibility. You must serve and protect, and only act in defense of the people (you can’t simply go stomping on little putty men in your giant Megazord all day long no matter how awesome that sounds to you). But the perks are nice! Kung fu, zords, and your choice of prehistoric beast to lead into battle. Are you a T-rex, or more of a triceratops? Is the ferocious saber toothed tiger more your speed? A Power Ranger costume is a big decision, but remember, it’s all for the greater good. A world ruled by a malicious skeletal space emperor with an exposed brain is no world that I’d want to live in!

Grateful Dead- Still Truckin’

2bhip — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:50:33 +0000

The reigning kings of the jam band world, the Grateful Dead commands a devoted fan following like none other. Solidifying their place as hippie movement icons early, they played their first show as the Grateful Dead at a Ken Kesey Acid Test, using their inspiration from the rise of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to drop their jug band act in favor of the irresistably attractive rock and roll. With electric guitar on it’s way to cultural-norm status, they embraced electric’s dirtier sound and slipped into their unmistakable sound, quickly gaining counterculture noteriety as a live tour-de-force. Rejecting the usual formula of constant setlists and city-to-city repetition, the Grateful Dead chose to focus on live improvisation, choosing at a whim from a pool of over one hundred songs and leaving room for ambient, spacey soundscapes as well as lengthy experimental jams that ensured that no Grateful Dead concert was the same. This would be the main draw of the Grateful Dead throughout their entire career; never playing the same thing twice, they were able to quickly amass a large fan following that would quite literally follow them to the ends of the earth to watch them play, knowing they’d be hearing something they’ve never heard before.

The fan base, known as “Dead Heads”, is an unprecedented musical fan-base whose identity runs far deeper than musical appreciation. The Dead Heads are a culture all their own. Many would follow the Grateful Dead from show to show all across the country, infatuated with the Grateful Dead’s “play no song the same way twice” approach to music. Also, with the agreement that it remain non-profit, the Grateful Dead was extraordinary cooperative towards fan recordings of their shows. In an era where grandmothers and eight year olds face million dollar lawsuits for mp3 downloads, it seems unbelievable that The Grateful Dead would allow fans official backstage access to record each and every live set, with the sound crew even allowing them to plug directly into the soundboard to ensure studio-quality recordings. Having played an approximate 2,350 shows, almost 2,200 were taped by fans and are now available online, all entirely band-encouraged. Their love for their fanbase and the developing hippie counter-culture was most apparent through their community contributions, making free food, shelter, entertainment, and health care available to any comers in the Haighty-Ashbury area in their early career, and ultimately performing more free concerts than any band in music history.

The Grateful Dead would eventually feel the crushing blow of frontman Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995, going on to play shows but never in the same format again. Though refusing the accept the title of band leader, Garcia was nonetheless the face and voice of the Grateful Dead, his distinctive guitar playing becoming synonymous with the Grateful Dead’s identity. Though often jovial and charismatic publicly, his personal life was fraught with tragedy and self-destructive excess, an emerging byproduct of the times. His drug use would eventually come to destroy him, but due to the prolific nature of the Dead’s live recording, thankfully his musical impact and revolutionary approach to guitar will always live on. It was these personal tragedies that helped give the Dead’s music the deep emotional impact that allowed it a place in history, and it’s that impact that the remaining band mates have tried to live up to through reunions and brand-new bands. The Grateful Dead, though now taking many different forms, has still found a way to live on.

Innovators, record-breakers, and icons, the Grateful Dead will always be synonymous with sixties counterculture and the strive for social justice and equality that came from it. One of the rare musical outfits capable of transcending music to become something akin to a religious experience, the Grateful Dead’s impact on culture cannot be understated, and as a band they’re one of the most hard-working and unique bands to ever play. Just ask any former Dead Head!

BAZINGA! – The Big Bang Theory

2bhip — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:09:13 +0000

Following the sitcom formula with a chemist’s determination, The Big Bang Theory features the straight man, the wacky one, the love interest, the popular one, and the shy one; the time tested tropes of sitcom success. Each character falls in line with the sitcom tropes to a “T”, leaving everyone outside the laugh track wondering just what’s so different about this seemingly generic sitcom.

For starters, it’s main characters aren’t every men in the slightest. Named Leonard and Sheldon, they are two Cal-tech prodigies in the physics trade, with IQs over 170 and multiple Ph.D.s. Their friends are Howard and Rajesh, a master engineer and astrophysicist respectively. In this way, The Big Bang Theory turns the idea of the modern sitcom on it’s head by making it’s characters so smart as to be seemingly unrelatable. It’s “breakout character” Sheldon built a CAT scanner, a nuclear reactor, and received a Ph.D. all before he was sixteen. With all of Big Bang’s talk about twistor theory, darkmatter, and bosonic string theory, you’d think it’d go right over the heads of it’s audience, but that’s where the brilliance of Big Bang Theory comes into play.

See, despite their genius level IQs, they still have to share an apartment, awkwardly chase the girl next door, learn to drive a car, and deal with the anguish of a girlfriend who believes in psychics. As a collective of geniuses constantly hovering around one another at work and home, they are forced to deal with social situations that they are too smart to understand, rather than too dense. This way, Big Bang Theory turns sitcoms upside down, but still proves that geniuses still have to go through the same societal chores as the rest of us, creating a scenario where characters with nothing in common with a viewer could still be totally relatable. Want proof? This award-winning TV show is already renewed for a fourth season and is syndicated to over fifty countries worldwide, and you don’t need a particle physics degree to see why.

Filled with classic lines and characters, and projected to run well into the future, Big Bang Theory provides an advanced science-oriented comedy that everyone can relate to, and characters we can laugh both with and at. Big Bang Theory t-shirts have never been so in demand, with Bazinga t-shirt fever about to hit prime time by storm. An added bonus: All the show’s science is fact-checked by professionals, ensuring a scientifically accurate and fascinating experience for those who choose to dig deep into this hit show!

Sole Food

2bhip — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 23:00:44 +0000

Socks are food for the sole…..literally. Feet take the biggest beating each and every day carrying us to our destinations. Running, walking, jumping, in the moment we don’t consider the impact these type of demands have on our feet. We should take good care of our feet since we only have two to last a lifetime. At the end of a day throw on some comfy socks, pour a glass a wine, and kick those dogs up! Aaaahhh, comfort.

Is there a bigger unsung hero among inanimate objects than socks? Think about it. They hug our sweaty feet all day, keep us warm, get riddled with holes, and never once complain. Usually we don’t think about socks until our big toe is sticking out of them, after all white is white and they all go in the same drawer. Thus, our hometown heroes lie dormant and unfulfilled, wounded and vulnerable, feeling the sting of under-appreciation as their hive-mind convinces them all at once to stand up and revolt, to walk out overnight and never cover a human’s foot again. It is the Sockpocalypse, and no man or woman will wear a sock again.

Okay, maybe not, but that still doesn’t mean socks shouldn’t be fun. You don’t own a whole closet of just plain white t-shirts, do you? Why treat socks the same way? After all, they have the harder job, the far less dignified job. Why not dress them up nice in bright rainbow colors and take them out for a night on the town, where they can be the center of attention? Isn’t it about time these unsung heroes became a little more exciting? Cool socks are finally invited to the party. They’re finally ready to kick back a few with the rest of the wardrobe and finally, at long last, feel at home.

What kind of food are you feeding your soles? Fuzzy, striped, argyle, knee-high, polka dot?

Attention: All Trekkies!

2bhip — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 22:18:14 +0000

Though it was actually The Next Generation that served as the bulk of the series, it’s the original that gets Trekkies everywhere the most nostalgic. It’s where everything we love about Star Trek all started, and it was one of the main sci-fi programs to introduce the mainstream to the appeal of science fiction. Featuring bizarre alien races, imaginative and complex technology, and plot lines dealing with relevant, hard-hitting moral and sociological issues, Star Trek proved that sci-fi can be more than pew-pew laser blasting and UFOs, it can teach us something about the human race itself and it’s coming future. A classic episode like “City on The Edge of Forever” deals with the consequences of rewriting history, forcing the crew to deliberately let someone die in order to save the future. In an episode like “Friday’s Child”, the crew is forced into a planet’s tribal power struggle, forcing them to integrate into new social strata and accept strange new laws or lose their lives in the process. Far above any of it’s rivals, Star Trek had serious points to make, and was therefore nominated for a dozen Emmy awards, an amazing feat indeed for a show ironically facing cancellation.

That’s right. Amazingly enough, given it’s modern fan base of millions, dedicated like no others, the first Star Trek series only lasted three seasons and ended in cancellation. It only made it that far through the volume of fan demand, only making it to it’s last season through an extensive and unprecedented letter-writing campaign. Only after it’s cancellation did NBC realize the property they were dealing with, and the smash success of The Next Generation would solidify just how strong the impact of Star Trek on sci-fi culture was. By then, it was too late to fix their mistake and give Kirk a few more years on the Enterprise, with the smash success of The Next Generation the only consolation.

The old crew retired their uniforms years too soon, leaving Trekkies dying for a few new adventures with Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Sulu, and the rest of the first generation crew to this day. If they won’t fill their old uniforms again, why not fill it for them? You may not have a constitution class warp-drive spaceship at your disposal, but you no doubt have a burning desire to boldly go where no man has before, and that’s what counts. Whether it be Star Trek uniform t-shirts or baby onesies, running the spectrum from Captain Kirk, the scientific and mysterious Spock, and the engineering expertise of Scotty. These feature the classic colors and designs down to the Starfleet badge. The only question is which role you want to play.

What’s Your Take on Family Guy?

2bhip — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:00:24 +0000

Come on, sing along! “It seems today that all you see is violence in movies and sex on TV” You know it! That’s the beginning to the Family Guy theme song. I hear it every night as I crawl into bed to enjoy my favorite animated series while sipping a diet coke. The Griffin family has to be the most twisted dysfunctional family in America! Stewie certainly steals the show with his frequently quoted phrases and often offensive antics. Stewie was absolutely Born to be Bad! What infant has the odasity to walk around saying “You Know You want me!” Or “Whatever lets you sleep at night bitch!” He doesn’t play well with others! My favorite phrase is “That’s the good stuff” as Stewie bends over releasing some…uh…flatulance.

Speaking of Stewie, what is everyone’s take on his communication with the family…do they or don’t they understand him? I think it’s clear that Brian understands him and there seems to be situations where other members of the family do respond and react to him. Below is an example from the episode titled “Dial Meg for Murder” (Sarcasm from Stewie)

Meg: What’d you say, Brian?

Brian: Oh, I-I was just picking up on something Lois said. What-what was it? What’d you say, Lois? Something about Meg being a freak?

Lois: Oh, no, I didn’t say anything. Uh, Peter said something about Meg, which I completely disagree with.

Peter: That-that-that wasn’t me. Stewie was really laying into Meg about something.

Chris: Yeah, it was Stewie.

Lois: Definitely Stewie.

Stewie: Oh, so now everyone understands me.

According to Family Guy creator Seth Macfarlane, Stewie is really talking, but most of the family members ignore him the way most people generally ignore things said by small children. Macfarlane also confirmed that Brian can understand him.

Kids, what time is it??? It’s time for another sing-a-long!!!

It’s peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly time

Where he at? (sing 4 times)

There he go (sing 4 times)

Peanut butter jelly (sing 4 times)

Do the peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly with a baseball bat (sing 2 times)

Now break it down and freeze!

There’s more to it but I have to catch my breath. Lois would be so proud!

The show is in it’s 8^th season and while it is a cartoon, the content of the show is intended for a mature audience. As with many shows, there are topics covered that may be controversial and potentially ruffle some feathers. Recently, there was an episode that featured a Down Syndrome character played by Andrea Fray Friedman, an actress with Down Syndrome. The character said that her mother was the former governor of Alaska. Sarah Palin was not amused by this episode as her son Trig has Down Syndrome. Palin appeared on the O’Reilly Factor and denounced creator of Family Guy, Seth Macfarlane. The actress released a statement that Sarah Palin does not have a sense of humor and that the actress is perfectly content with her life. Seth Macfarlane was questioned about the episode and was featured on Bill Maher’s show. Check out the video below if you haven’t seen it yet:

What’s your verdict on the subject?

Family Guy often finds itself surrounded by controversy. Tune in each night to keep up with the latest! (New episodes air Sunday nights on Fox)