If You Love Books, You Have To Check This Site Out.

Web site BookMooch is a free community designed to make it easy and cheap to exchange books with other users. BookMooch charges nothing for swapping books – you only pay for shipping. It works on a point system, in which you get points for typing in books you want to give away and sending books to other users.  According to the site, as long as you send out one book for every two sent your way, you should stay afloat, point-wise.

Apple Warns of Near-Term iPod Shortages – Product Refresh Could Be Soon

Apple has issued an advisement bulletin to select resellers suggesting that the company is beginning to ramp down production of current-generation iPod models, according to AppleInsider. In the advisement, Apple “strongly suggested” that resellers either bring in or place immediate orders for approximately four weeks worth of their top selling iPod models, noting that supplies of the devices would start to become extremely limited within the next week. Apple traditionally holds an iPod-focused special event in the September-October timeframe to announce new iPod models; this report is consistent with the belief that the company is planning to hold a similar event again this year. (From iLounge)

 

Stan Lee Teams With Disney For Cross-Media Superhero Series ‘Time Jumper’

Add another one to Stan Lee’s burgeoning media empire. The co-creator of such iconic characters as Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Hulk — is joining forces with Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment to produce what the studio calls the “most ambitious digital comic book series ever designed.”

Titled “Time Jumper,” the project is set to release on numerous platforms including online, print and mobile. According to Lee, “‘Time Jumper’ is more than a typical superhero. He’s a trend-setting breakthrough across all media; a hero for today’s digital age and tomorrow’s multiplatform entertainment.”

The series will follow Terry Dixon, a secret agent for a government org known as HUNT (Heroes United, Noble and True). His secret weapon? A cell phone invented by Dixon’s father called the Articulus that doubles as a time machine.

Disney says the book “combines the traditional print look and feel, including dialogue and thought bubbles, with today’s cutting edge multimedia elements, including edgy visuals, music, voices and a fast-paced storyboard, to take a classic genre into the next dimension.”

The project is one of multiple deals for Lee. In April, his company POW Entertainment announced a partnership with Virgin Comics where Lee will write, edit and oversee a “new universe of superhero characters.” POW is also producing the CGI superhero series “Legion of 5,” in addition to a slate of direct-to-video films under the “Stan Lee Presents” banner. (From SplashPage.mtv.com)

Cheech and Chong Reunite

Now that their feud is over, Cheech and Chong are high on plans to reunite for their first comedy tour in more than 25 years. Cheech Marin told AP Radio that he and Tommy Chong “looked at each other going, ‘If we’re ever going to do something it has to be now because you’re not getting any younger and neither am I.”‘ The duo who gained fame for their marijuana humor tossed around some ideas and figured a comedy tour would be “the most fun” and “the least hassle,” the 62-year-old Marin said. Marin and Chong, who broke up amid creative differences, have tried to reunite before, but have always fought too much. Marin laughed and said: “It takes about 3 minutes for that to happen. There’s this veiled hatred.” But he added: “We’ve kind of resolved that.” “We’ve gotten to the age where we don’t feel like fighting anymore because the end is a lot closer than the beginning,” he said.

Marin said he thinks pot humor can be as funny today as it was back in the ’70s. “I think it’s time for a revival of dope jokes. It’s a much bigger audience now, it’s much more widespread and institutionalized,” he said in an interview earlier this month. Details of the “Hey, What’s That Smell?” tour were to be announced Wednesday at a news conference in West Hollywood, California, according to concert promoter Live Nation. During their original run, Marin and Chong released nine comedy albums between 1972 and 1985, were nominated for four Grammy Awards and won one. They also starred in eight feature films, almost always portraying a pair of comical stoners stumbling through life. While Chong has continued to do standup, Marin has concentrated on films and TV appearances.

“I guess Cheech forgot how tough standup is,” Chong joked last month after Marin said they were considering reuniting. “But he’s got the incentive and the enthusiasm and he’s ready,” he said of his former partner. “My boy is back.” (From the Associated Press)

 

Prepare For A Spider-Man Spinoff Movie: Venom

Despite being added to please fans, Venom’s treatment in Spider-Man 3 was generally very poorly received by lovers of Peter Parker’s alien nemesis. Sony may be about to atone for that mis-step with the news today that the studio is developing a spin-off for the character.Jacob Estes (Mean Creek) has already been commissioned to write a script, although The Hollywood Reporter says that Sony may decide to pass on that script and is looking at new writers. With no script in place, there’s no news on which version of Venom the movie would follow. It could be Eddie Brock (played by Topher Grace in Spider-Man 3, though Grace has not been approached to reprise his role), which would require some back-pedalling given the end of of Spidey 3, or it could be one of the later characters who are overtaken by the alien symbiote. If Sony was feeling particularly daring, it could even be a woman, based on the comic book lore.

This possible movie wouldn’t replace Spider-Man 4, which Sony is still hoping to release in 2011.

The question is, if you make a movie that focuses on a beloved villain, who do you pit him against? It would be enormously surprising for Sony to put Spidey in this movie and still call it a Venom film, so who should they have him battling, other than the evil within? (From EmpireOnline.com)