This book sounds crazy.
From the BBC:

In 1991, James Palumbo co-founded the Ministry of Sound club in south London. Over the past 18 years, the brand has grown into the multi-million pound business MSHK, encompassing a record label, radio and TV stations and a soon-to-be-released fashion label. Now Palumbo has turned his hand to being an author.

His first novel, Tomas, is a biting satire in which the reluctant star of an absurdly low-brow reality TV show goes on a killing spree, mowing down the grotesque patrons of an exclusive club in the French Riviera. In the ensuing media frenzy, Tomas becomes a messianic figure, enlisting the help of a beautiful prostitute, an elderly judge, an alcoholic journalist, a spherical alien and the Emperor Napoleon.

Publishing companies keep producing trailers for books, which is like using cocaine to get someone hooked on alcohol, but with a description like the one above you want to watch these trailers. NSFW Read the rest of this entry »

I might have done something like this as a child. Fortunately, for you that was slightly impossible because we only had an 8mm film camera, a Commodore64 computer and no internet. Hopefully, this kid doesn’t turn into a bitter, fat, divorced blogger with no redeeming qualities like me.

The youtube page has related videos by the billions.  I watched a few and then I got depressed because I realized 90% of my blogs are done in the same tone. Ha! Who am I kidding? I only wish I was as witty as a child.

So, to convince guys that He’s Just Not That Into You is not a chick flick there’s this new marketing piece. The male stars of this film, Entourage boy, Mac boy and some other dude claim the film has none of the “10 Chick Flick Clichés,” a list they have graciously put together for you. 

First of all, if you really wanted people to know it is not a chick flick, you wouldn’t advertise it as such. Yet, you do because that is how you work, Hollywood. You pigeon hole shit so that it fits into your genre of choosing and rarely step outside the box in fear of disturbing your financial planning.

Secondly, I have read parts of the book and it is supposed to be a reality check for women. There are no secrets in it, the author didn’t rat his fellow man out. He simply tells it like it is and I just laughed when I read it. After he finishes telling reader the truth about her man, he tells her how she is going to justify that the book is right about some men but not hers . Then, he throws in a quote from someone in the situation to, once again, try to convince the reader that her man is like that. I didn’t see how this format could really be translated to a script, so I was uncertain about the film.  Now, that they released this video I am leaning towards a ‘No Thank You.’

Coraline is an award winning novella by Neil Gaiman that has been compared to Alice in Wonderland.  The story is being turned into an animated film due out in February 2009. The trailer can be seen below, but more fun is to be had at the official website.

EDIT: It looks like they have updated the site, click the link and then go to the theater, you can watch the trailer or skip it.  Then you’ll find all the videos.  It is no longer necessary to enter the keys below.

When you go to the Coraline site, you are prompted for a key.  The keys unlock short videos giving you a peek behind the scenes and introducing you to the makers of the film.  Very cool, here’s the keys I have:

moustachio

sweaterxxs

puppetlove

armpithair

stopmotion

buttoneyes

While I am partial to moustachio, as a child raised on Burt Reynolds, the other videos are incredible look behind the scenes. Oh, did I mention that the director, Henry Selick, also directed The Nightmare Before Christmas?

Trailer–

John over at Uncertain Times posted this, it is truly awesome.

According to Uncertain Times it’s, “A film for 4th Estate Publishers’ 25th Anniversary. Produced by Apt Studio.”

The Vimeo page says:

The film was produced in stop-motion over 3 weeks in Autumn 2008. Each scene was shot on a home-made dolly by an insane bunch of animators; you can see time-lapse films of each sequence being prepared and shot in our other films.

I did not know that Michael Crichton was battling cancer privately.  I am saddened by his loss. Read more here.  I love Sphere the most, that is an excellent book.  Jurassic Park, Timeline, Andromeda Strain were others that were popular enough to be bought by Hollywood, but they hardly ever did his words justice.

In 1973 Crichton took his work into his own hands, wrote and directed Westworld.  Perhaps, not the best way to remember him, but I do love me some bad sci-fi movie.  Definitely going to have to get the film, watch it again and post a so bad it is good review.

Robot cowboy!  Makes me think of that Muse video.

At a recent job (Seriously, I did work.  I can barely believe it myself.) I heard all about this curious book called, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History Of Four Meals by Michael Pollan.  The title sounds less than fun, but the book describes what we actually eat and how the food gets to us.  You can guess that most of the ingredients in your pre-packaged meals are just as scary as you imagine, but he analyzes a variety of foods, farming techniques and the wasteful travel arrangements that bring the food to our tables.  It’s one of those books that I want to read, but I don’t.

Well, it is a small world because Pollan was on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday.  He was dicussing his open letter to the next president in the New York Times Magazine.   He presents some really interesting facts about our grub.  “More recently, cheap energy has underwritten a globalized food economy in which it makes (or rather, made) economic sense to catch salmon in Alaska, ship it to China to be filleted and then ship the fillets back to California to be eaten.”  Doesn’t that sound stupid?  It’s cheaper to ship the fish to China, pay Chinese folks to fillet the fish and then have the fillets shipped back, then to simply fillet the fish in America.  LAME.

For a Reader’s Digest like version of his letter you can listen to the Fresh Air episode.  Try this link or this one.