Flipping through my press releases, I spied a nifty little gem today from the W Hotels. Top Chef season 6 finalist and fan favorite - Woodfire Grill's Executive Chef, Kevin Gillespie will make an appearance to meet and greet foodies tonight from 8pm til 10pm at the W Hotel's Midtown location.

Today's announcement was just a peek at the hotel chain's latest promotional tool: a custom "insider deals" text messaging system. The perk for tonight's event is a $5 discount for self parking at Colony Square.

Here's how the press release explains the new service:

1.   Simply text TGIW to 99699 every Wednesday, beginning June 2 to score the weekly deal.

2.   Within seconds, receive a message from W Hotels of Atlanta containing the offer of the week.

3.   You’ll have one week to redeem your wonderful offer by showing your insider text message when you visit the participating hotel.

In no time, you’ll be enjoying exclusive SIPS at Whiskey Blue, Whiskey Park, WETBAR and DRINKSHOP, basking in bonuses on products and services at Bliss Spa, savoring the culinary creations of BLT STEAK, Savu, Spice Market, Market, and accessing the hottest summer parties plus much more – all exclusively from W Hotels of Atlanta.

... Sounds swanky, don't it?

Without spouting a bunch of legalese, updates will be available every Wednesday morning after 9am and standard text rates apply.

The W Hotel Midtown is located at 188 14th Street, Atlanta, GA.

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• Symmetry is the latest compilation from the W Hotel.

From the cutting edge architecture of each property to the themed scapes and swanky accoutrement, the W Hotels are known for delivering a posh, experience for trendy travelers and party goers. With such a reputation, it should come to no surprise the hotel chain has its own music director to add a unique acoustic flair to the chain's notoriety.

Last week the W-Hotel Buckhead threw an intimate shindig celebrating the release of the hotel's latest music CD, Symmetry - a collection of music compiled by their Global Music Director, style maven Michaelangelo L'Acqua.

Charged with integrating music into the overall brand of the worldwide hotel chain, L'Acqua steps out in bold fashion blending smoky ambient remixes with glam dance tracks for his latest compilation. Symmetry features music from Mike Snow, Little Dragon, Sebastien Tellier and a host of other "Ibiza-inspired" artists.

Before working for W Hotel Worldwide, L'Acqua created atmosphere for Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. His production company, Onda produced fashion shows for Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren and a host of others.

Slideshow

Symmetry

By Edward Adams

Click to View 6 slides

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• A great game gets a boost of SUPER.

I still remember that spring day of 1993 at my friend Josh's house when I first played Street Fighter II on Super NES. A higher echelon of gaming competition was introduced to me invoking a fury in my soul. I loved it. Most players of the game can confirm the cocky satisfaction that fills you after vanquishing your buddy with a well-timed shoryuken. Street Fighter II was the revolution of mano-a-mano gaming and became the grand pappy of many, many… many fighting games to come. Like a fried Twinkie, too much of a good thing can be monstrously destructive. The genre suffered a powerful decline earlier this decade partly due to consumers being bombarded by fighting games, sequels and updates. It seemed that every few months you had a new game with the Street Fighter or Capcom name: X-Men vs Street Fighter Ex, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, SNK vs Capcom, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter 3 Double Impact, Marvel vs Capcom, blah blah blah. All of these were great, but it got heavy on the wallet, and doesn't include all the other miscellaneous fighting games from Capcom, SNK or Namco (Remember Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure?). I won't bother going into the 3D fighters, the point is made that there were a lot. Marvel vs Capcom 2 was truly the reason to buy a Sega Dreamcast in 2000 as it brought together all characters from five years of Capcom crossover fighting games. Sadly, we gamers later found that MvC2 represented the apparent end of 2D fighters, a depressing realization that set in as 3D gaming became the mainstream. Capcom even stated there would never be another numeric Street Fighter title. But Producer Yoshinori Ono changed the fate of world warriors when he pitched the revival of the series to Capcom bigwigs in 2006, it was a go with one condition: it had to be done proper.

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• "Dickriding Obama" video from upcoming season of The Boondocks on Adult Swim.

Its finally here, yeah nucca  -  The long-awaited return on Aaron McGruder's animated series The Boondocks kick off it's third season Sunday, May 2, on Adult Swim. The premiere episode pokes fun at the hysteria and rockstar status of #44 - POTUS Barack Obama.

According to a recent post on Atlanta Magazine's website, the episode entitled "Its a Black President, Huey Freeman",  Huey (voiced by Regina King) is labeled a domestic terrorist by a cable news show for befriending Obama on MySpace. From the teaser vids posted on Boondocks Bootleg, McGruder and crew seem to satire the groundswell support and sometime mindless adoration for Barack Obama.

The Boondocks "Black Magic" Trailer from Okayplayer on Vimeo.

South Park has already had their fun mocking the nation's polarized views about having a Black President the season 12 episode "About Last Night", which showed the citizens of South Park using the newly elected president as a catch-all excuse to party, while McCain supporters (including Ike) prepared for the end of days. Later we find out the Presidency is only a ruse - a distraction on a national level orchestrated by Obama, McCain and their team to pull off an Ocean's 11-styled jewelry caper.

The LA Times reports that this season will have guest appearances by familiars Ed Asner and Charlie Murphy, but also will feature Bill Mahr, Billy Dee Williams and Marion Ross. The Times (dem Bitches) also have an exclusive trailer on their site promoting the new season. Rumors on the interwebs report that the series will also

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• POWER-PUFFED GIRL: Impressive HD graphics and new features can't compensate for the list of problems with Final Fantasy XIII. Available in retail stores now.

Most gamers know of Final Fantasy. Seriously, a gamer who has not at least heard of the franchise is like a movie goer whose never heard of Star Wars.  The innovations and cult-like fandom of this Japanese series has definitely made its mark on the world's gaming culture. It can be argued Square's ingenuity in gameplay and story telling opened the door to games for development of a bevy of intense story-arced series such as Mass Effect and World of Warcraft.

In regards to the franchise, Final Fantasy's VI and VII introduced me to a mind-blowing level of epic narrative in games. However the series lost its  momentum in previous releases due to an uncharacteristic lack of finesse for the series. Now with the release of the latest version: Final Fantasy XIII,  it seems Square is attempting to correct their pass faults by throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. Yeah it has some interesting new features and stunning visuals but sorely, too many ideas were attempted without thinking them through.

Hear me out, This is a great game with some shining points, but there are tedious moments. Check it!