Our friends at McDonalds are taking another step towards healthier products and curbing childhood obesity. Starting last week, the iconic Happy Meal for kids has gotten a makeover. Now instead of getting a hamburger, cheeseburger, or McNuggets plus fries & a Coke, kids will be forced to get a smaller size apple dippers and a smaller size fries. Kids can get double apples instead of fries, but they cannot get double fries. McDonalds continues to offer lowfat milk and juice options in addition to soda.

Good news for adults as well: McDonalds is pledging to cut the sodium in their food by 15-20% in the coming year. This is fantastic news as sodium has become a huge challenge to healthy living worldwide.

Now I think it’s about time for a little McCafe!!!

Are you going to see the Smurfs this weekend? It feels a lot like Alvin and the Chipmunks 3. Our friends at SONY did a great job and the movie’s entertaining. The direction of the premise is a bit surprising because it’s hard to see the Smurfs in Manhattan. It doesn’t seem to make sense with who the characters are. But that doesn’t take away from what is a very well executed family film. I think this is going to be a very lucrative weekend at the box office for the little blue guys! Well done, SONY!

How successful will Captain America be this weekend? Most of the superhero movies have been at least modest hits this summer (including the critically plagued Green Lantern). So how well can the First Avenger do?

It’s the final film before next year’s Avengers film which will team up Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Nick Fury, and the Black Widow among others.  Will this movie be enough fo a hit for Disney to feel validated about its acquisition of Marvel (although Cap is a Paramount film)?

Here’s a cool clip on Marvel’s YouTube page from today that shows more of the fight scenes. Looks pretty solid! I’m hoping for an Indiana Jones style, Nazi-chasing, all-American 1940s film! Anything will be better than Transformers 3!

That was certainly an anti-climactic weekend! What we expected to be like the Apocalypse ended up being a non-event thanks to everyone in L.A. staying off the roads. Hard to believe it was all completed 18 hrs ahead of schedule! I wonder if things will be worse in 11 months for Carmageddon part deux? Will Angelinos think it was all a fright tactic and instead flood the streets. Will we finally have 50-mile back ups? Hopefully people won’t be that dumb, but you never know.

I think the most exciting part was the super long car chase on Saturday night. I heard that half a million local residents tuned in to watch it.

We were back to business as usual on Monday! Happy Monday!

Is this the most hyped up day in L.A. since Y2K? Will it turn out to be fact or legend? We’ll have to wait and see. Looks like the local media have jumped all over Carmageddon like Budweiser ads at the Super Bowl! I personally am enjoying KTLA’s coverage.

Things will be a huge mess near DUCK starting this evening, or so we imagine. Since we’re located less than a mile west of the 405 and less than a mile north of the 10, things are bound to get ugly. Traffic will likely get diverted onto the Olympic/Pico exit of the 405 tonight once the 10 interchange closes at 7 p.m.

Most of us are going to take off early and try to beat the chaos. Some of my friends are even throwing Carmageddon parties tomrrow (strategically located near Metro stations and other public transit). I imagine Venice Blvd will be slammed throughout the weekend as north-bound 405 victims will venture on to Venice Blvd if the 10 comes to a hault.

The big question I’m wondering is how Carmageddon will impact the box office for Harry Potter 7.2? Did most Hogwartian Angelinos head out to the midnight screenings last night? Will they stay at home? We are the second largest city in the U.S. Will that impact the box office gross? Maybe a few million shy?

So we’re about 2 weeks into the initial rollout of Google+, the new social media site powered by Google. It’s big G’s answer to Facebook. They’re targeting younger audiences with slogans like, “Your parents aren’t on here.”

I might be missing something. I’m not sure yet what the point of Google+ is. Other than Google having massive amounts of cash to put behind Plus in order to combat Facebook, I don’t see the advantages. Right now in the U.S. there’s basically a monopoly on social media by Facebook. It’s a duopoly if you count Twitter, but I think FB and Twit serve different functions and aren’t competitors.

Google wants a Coke / Pepsi dynamic. Microsoft attempted several times to create some sort of social network, but has failed miserably each time. I think MS is done for now and just focusing on Windows 8 and getting some market share for Windows Mobile 7/8.

Google has shown that for the most part, its software does not fail. They have flooded the market with Android and created a new dominant mobile OS worldwide. Remember that guy called Symbian? Apple obviously is still the trendsetter in iOS, but Google is after volume. (Quantity over Quality???)

So that leaves Google+ with some huge advantages. Obvious integration with the Google suite of apps (GMail, Picasa, Maps, SEARCH, YouTube, etc.). Google has also been ramping up its cloud tech. And if you’re using Android, you can imagine how they will focus more on Google+ in the future than on FB. The world has gone smartphone, and with the breadth of Android phones/tabs out there, then Google+ is poised to become a default option on many mobile platforms in the foreseeable future. But when? How long?

Separate from all of this, it really felt like Facebook peaked last year with the release of the movie. Facebook is just as much a corporate tool as it is a personal one. Businesses have to have a presence now. Facebook is a way of getting news from musicians, restaurants, friends, news channels, sports teams, and businesses. FB is great but it’s definitely not that cool anymore. Google+ is trying to become that. It’s striving to be an other realm. Something more close-guarded. Some for cool people. Something more elite. Something fresh. Something without college students parents. “Something for us, not them.”

Who knows what the future holds. I see a Coke / Pepsi battle. Will FB vs. Google+ one day dominate the Super Bowl TV commercial ads? Above all, when that day comes, one of these social media sites best hire us to make their TV commercial if they want the best ad possible!

Did you catch a glimpse of the Royals this weekend? I didn’t, but I saw a group of fans waiting outside SONY studios this morning in the hopes of getting a wave or perhaps even a photo. According to some folks there, a group of people waiting outside William & Kate’s place in Hancock Park this morning at 5am, and many of which actually got pictures with the Royals.

Well they’re long on their way now from LAX. I’m particularly happy their visit did not gridlock traffic the way Mr. Obama’s previous two visits did. I don’t know about you, but I sure could go for a spot of tea right about now!

What beautiful weather today! I hope you’re out enjoying it! So many of our weekends last summer were blah and overcast. Time to enjoy it!!!

I’ll be back later this evening for some heavy-duty blogging!

Wishing everyone a happy Independence Day! It was great having the day off and enjoying the fabulous weather! Why were there no fireworks in the Marina this year? I settled for Fireworks last night at the Hollywood Bowl featuring Hall & Oates! Today I barbecued some sliders courtesy of Trader Joe’s. I highly recommend them!

Whatever you did to celebrate the fourth. We hope you had a relaxing and awesome time!

P.S. Contrary to anything you may have read today on FOX News, President Obama was not killed today. They might want to update the password on their Facebook account from Vote4Palin.

News Corp sold Myspace today for $35 million. I guess it’s Nospace at the moment. News Corp paid around $580 million 6yrs ago for the former 5th most daily visited website and the #1 social media site in the world.

Myspace was sold to a venture cap firm in the OC. Justin Timberlake was given a small stake and will constult on how the new Myspace should be rebranded to better meet the needs of musicians and their fans.

I was never a fan of Myspace because it was too chaotic. People digitally barfed all over their profiles. It was really cluttered! It wasn’t sexy! But it was great at linking musicians and comedians with fans in a way that no other site was doing at the time. Myspace peaked in monthly views back in May 2008. it currently gets about 2% of those all-time high views. Very sad for the folks there. I don’t think the site can be saved. It’s like AOL 2.0. Myspace failed to adapt with the times. Same problem AOL had who failed to get on the broadband wagon fast enough. Myspace didn’t learn. Neither did Blockbuster.

Facebook is so close to jumping the shark. Google+ knows this and is on the attack. Stay tuned. Now is the time for FB to be stagnant.

Looks like half the beverly hills Myspace staff were let go today as a result. So that’s half of the 500 employees there. No bueno.

So we’ll have to see if Myspace can make a rebound, but I think the ship has sailed.