The Origins of 10 Curious Phrases

Read HERE to see the origins of 10 commonly used phrases.

 

Please Join My Blog Network On Facebook

For those of you who are Facebook users, please join my blog network HERE.

Stephen King Fan Publishes Shining’s Jack Torrance’s Novel

A Stephen King fan has published an 80-page version of the book which novelist Jack Torrance obsessively writes during King’s The Shining, where his descent into madness is revealed when his wife discovers that his work consists of just one phrase, endlessly repeated.

Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson in terrifying form in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film, is a frustrated writer who goes with his wife and son to spend the winter in the isolated Overlook Hotel in an attempt to get the novel he has always wanted to write started. But the hotel’s grisly past and unquiet ghosts have their way with him, and his wife Wendy eventually finds that the manuscript he has been working on actually only contains the phrase “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, typed over and over again.

Now New York artist Phil Buehler, who describes himself as “a big fan of Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King”, has self-published a book credited to Torrance, repeating the phrase throughout but formatting each page differently, using the words to create different shapes from zigzags to spirals.

“The idea has probably been marinating for years, because I loved the movie and the Stephen King book,” said Buehler. “I’d just finished my own obsessive art project [and] it was an idea I had over the Christmas holidays.”

He said he decided to stick to type and formatting that could have been created on a typewriter, with the first ten pages duplicating shots of Torrance’s work from the film. “I thought ‘if he continues to get crazier, what would those pages look like?’” he said. “I hit writer’s block about 60 pages in, and I had to get to 80 – that went on for about a week.” His fiancée, who had neither read the book nor seen the film, became a little concerned about his actions. “I finally showed her the movie, and she realized I wasn’t really losing it,” said Buehler.

So far, Buehler says that around 1,000 people have viewed the book, for sale on Blurb.com for $8.95 in paperback, or $22.95 in hardback, and he’s sold “a few” copies, with sales now starting to pick up steam. “A few people have asked me to sign it – they’re looking it as a piece of art rather than a funny thing to give to a Kubrick fan,” he said. “If you’re not a Kubrick or King fan, you might not even get it.”

50 States and Their Mottos by Emily Wick

Artist Emily Wick created this fabulous map of the United States out of linoleum block prints, with official state mottos carved into each of the 50 States.

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen Teaser Poster

Billy Mays Gets His Own Reality Show

Everyone’s favorite screaming infomercial pitch man, Billy Mays is getting his own reality show on The Discovery Channel. It’s called But Wait…There’s More, and will follow Mays and Anthony Sullivan as they find new products and pitch them to you.

Mad Men Season 3 Set For Summer

AMC President Charlie Collier went right to the question on every reporters’ mind at the start of the Television Critics panel on Thursday afternoon: The fate of the net’s Emmy-winning drama “Mad Men.”

The program will return for its third season this summer as scheduled, despite the prolonged contract negotiations between producer Lionsgate TV and creator/exec producer Matthew Weiner, Collier assured.

“As long as we get the writers’ room up and running over the next few months, we’re fine (for a summer launch),” Collier told reporters after the session, adding that he’s optimistic that an agreement with Weiner will be reached soon.

The return of “Mad Men” will lead into the launch of “The Prisoner,” the six-part series remake of the classic 1960s Brit drama of the same name.

139-year-old Baseball Card Found

Bernice Gallego of Fresno, California had no idea what the baseball card she found in her attic might be worth, so she listed it on eBay with a starting bid of $10. After a few inquiries about the card, she pulled the auction and decided to have the card appraised.

 

Turns out her hunch was correct. She did have something more valuable. The card she found was made in 1869 and featured the “Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati,” the sport’s first professional team. It’s considered one of the first baseball cards ever produced and its actual value could be worth more than $100,000 when she puts it back on eBay (with a higher starting price, of course).

 

The 72-year-old was quite surprised. She has never even been to a baseball game!

 

 

Tilt Shift Maker

Tilt-shift miniature style photos are pictures of real-life scenes that are manipulated to look like model photographs.

Now you can easily transform your existing digital camera photos into tilt-shift miniatures HERE.  

Palm Introduces Pre

Palm today introduced its latest handset, named the Pre. Featuring a 3.1-inch, 480×320 touchscreen, a dedicated gesture area below the display, a vertical slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and more, the device is aimed at the same market as the iPhone. Other technical features include high-speed wireless (EV-DO Rev. A or HSDPA, depending on the model and carrier), GPS, Wi-Fi, a 3-megapixel camera with LED flash, 3.5mm headphone jack, microUSB connector, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR with A2DP, 8GB of internal storage, an accelerometer, ambient light and proximity sensors and a removable rechargeable battery.

The device runs Palm’s new WebKit-based operating system, webOS. Designed for next-generation, touch-friendly devices, it offers many iPhone OS-like features, such as a full web browser, Exchange email support in addition to POP and IMAP, IM, MMS, and SMS messaging, and Palm Synergy, a new feature that aims to consolidate information like calendars, chats, and contacts from various sources in one place.

The Pre, initially available only from Sprint, will ship in the first half of 2009. The Palm phone will be sold alongside the Touchstone, an inductive charging dock that lets you charge up wirelessly just by laying the Pre on top of it. No price has yet been set for the Pre.

Yoostar

Are you ready for your close-up? Yoostar today announced a revolutionary home entertainment system allowing users to star in their favorite movie scenes together with the original actors and share their performances online and with family, friends and other Yoostar users.

Yoostar has entered into license agreements with Paramount Pictures Corporation, Universal Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. and Lions Gate Films, Inc. for access to a combined total of 800 movies from the film libraries of these major content players. Iconic clips from these studios’ libraries will be available both with purchase of the Yoostar system and through purchase and download at www.yoostar.com.

The Yoostar system ($149.95 suggested retail price) includes all the tools to turn a home or office into a movie studio: a sophisticated camera with built-in microphone, green screen, remote control and Yoostar software that runs on both PCs and Macs. The Yoostar system comes with an initial assortment of clips, with hundreds of other film scenes and television moments available for purchase and download at www.yoostar.com. Each month, users will have access to new clips from the vast libraries of the studios, which include films such as “The Godfather,” “Psycho,” “The Pink Panther” and “Saw.” Yoostar’s patented Active Immersion Technology digitally removes original actors from scenes and allows users to flawlessly insert themselves into the actor’s place. Users can deliver faithful, on-script performances or their own interpretation of movie scenes while interacting with their favorite stars. The number of takes is unlimited, ensuring that the user gets exactly the performance they want before wrapping the scene.

The Yoostar system allows users to record performances on their PC or Mac for local viewing and to also upload performances to www.yoostar.com for others to view, rate and share. Yoostar.com is a fully developed social networking site where users can build their own personal actor pages, build communities of friends and share favorite performances – on the site itself and through embeddable players and widgets. Yoostar is poised to become one of the largest content-driven and social networking sites, with users having virtually unlimited opportunities to share their starring performances with the world.

Yoostar will be available in late spring 2009.

Obama, Spider-Man Appear In Inauguration Marvel Comic

Spider-Man has a new sidekick: The president-elect. Barack Obama collected Spider-Man comics as a child, so Marvel Comics wanted to give him a “shout-out back” by featuring him in a bonus story, said Joe Quesada, Marvel’s editor-in-chief.

The comic starts with Spider-Man’s alter-ego Peter Parker taking photographs at the inauguration, before spotting two identical Obamas. Parker decides “the future president’s gonna need Spider-Man,” and springs into action, using basketball to determine the real Obama and punching out the impostor. Obama thanks him with a fist-bump.

Marvel comics have featured most presidents, but generally in walk-on roles, Quesada said.

“I think President Nixon might have appeared on the cover, but not in a good way,” he said.

Obama has said that as a child, he collected Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics. His Senate Web site used to have a photo of him posing in front of a Superman statue.

The Obama story is a bonus in Marvel Comic’s Amazing Spider-Man #583, available in comic book shops nationwide on Jan. 14 for $3.99 and is expected to sell out, with half the covers devoted to Obama.

You Never Know What You’ll Find in a Book

We may never fully understand what prompts people to leave unusual objects inside books. I speak of the slice of fried bacon that the novelist Reynolds Price once found nestled within the pages of a volume in the Duke University library. I speak of the letter that ran: “Do not write to me as Gail Edwards. They know me as Andrea Smith here,” which the playwright Mark O’Donnell found some years ago in a used paperback. I speak of any of those bizarre objects — scissors, a used Q-tip, a bullet, a baby’s tooth, drugs, pornography and 40 $1,000 bills — that have been discovered by the employees of secondhand bookstores, according to The Wall Street Journal and AbeBooks.com. Read more HERE.

 

Sony VAIO P

Weighing in at just 1.4 pounds and about the size of business envelope, the Sony VAIO P ($900) is just the right mix of laptop, netbook and ultra-portable. It sports an 8-inch LED-backlit screen with an extra-wide 1600 x 768 resolution, built-in Verizon Wirless 3G Mobile Broadband, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, built-in webcam, and GPS. The VAIO P has a smart instant-on mode that launches directly into Sony’s Xross Media Bar interface for quick access to music, video, photos and the web while waiting for Vista to boot up. It’ll be available in red, green, black, or white.

 

Finally, Guitar Hero for Actual Guitar

As popular as the Guitar Hero and Rock Band are, they still elicit winces from some musicians who’ve taken the time to learn to play instruments rather than their plastic imitations. Thanks to a partnership between Disney and Washburn Guitars, they should stop complaining soon.

 

Disney Star Guitarist trains you on the guitar by displaying Guitar Hero-like note information that applies to the frets and strings of an actual guitar. The game can teach you specific songs and ranks your progress as you go, based on how many notes you hit.

 

In the world premiere demo we witnessed, the game performed remarkably well. When the guitarist hit the right notes, he scored, and when he was slightly off, he didn’t. Meanwhile, an inventive notation system gives the player a clear idea of which notes he or she is supposed to hit, thanks to a color scheme that includes some of the strings on the guitar. Players can choose between rhythm and lead guitar modes, adjust tempo, flip the guitar neck on the screen around so that it’s facing them as a guitar teacher would, and choose between forty or so guitar tones.

 

We’ve been waiting nearly a year for a similar product, Guitar Rising, which still hasn’t materialized. It’s great to see that somebody has finally managed to pull this off — even if the first edition of the game will be a tween-oriented version with ties to Hannah Montana. With any luck, the next generation of Britneys and Christinas will be able to wield an axe handily, thanks to this new, user-friendly way to learn to play music. The game is slated for a summer ’09 release. Other versions will available for keyboards and vocals. (From Wired.com)

 

Who Are The Iron Man 2 Villains?

Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell are in talks to star as the villains in “Iron Man 2,” being directed by Jon Favreau.

Marvel has been keeping a very tight lid on the script for the sequel, being written by Justin Theroux, but it is known that Rourke would play a tattooed Russian heavy named Ivan who becomes Whiplash, a man with deadly, technologically enhanced coils.

Rockwell would play Justin Hammer, a multibillionaire businessman and a rival of industrialist Anthony Stark, AKA Iron Man, being played by a returning Robert Downey Jr.

Rourke and Rockwell would be joining a cast that also includes the returning Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle, who is replacing Terrence Howard, making for one eclectically cast summer blockbuster.

Another part — one for Stark’s assistant Natasha — is still open.

The project is eyeing a spring start in Manhattan Beach. Paramount will release the movie May 7, 2010.

Rourke, repped by ICM, is making the best of the accolades he is receiving for his heart-wrenching turn in “The Wrestler.” On top of this big-budget movie, the actor, who will next be seen in “The Informers,” just joined the cast of “The Expendables,” an action movie starring Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Jason Statham and Dolph Lundgren.

If Rockwell’s deal makes, it would mark a rare studio appearance for the actor, who is best known for his indie dramas. Gersh-repped Rockwell recently starred as a sex-addicted con man in “Choke” and an estranged husband in “Snow Angels.” He can currently be seen in the political drama “Frost/Nixon.” (From The Hollywood Reporter)

Where Are They Now, The Cast Of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

It’s been more than 22 long years since Matthew Broderick first ditched school for a day so glorious, it made the world want to play hooky. “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” has since become “Citizen Kane” of the teen genre—a source of continuous cultural reference and unmatchable quality.  See what the cast is up to today HERE.

 

Jack Skellington in LEGO

Flickr user Legohaulic is a big fan of Tim Burton and an avid LEGO hobbyist, so what better tribute to The Nightmare Before Christmas than to create this masterpiece: Jack Skellington made entirely of LEGO!

Whopper Sacrifice

Burger King just unveiled their new Angry Whopper. The burger is topped with spicy crispy onions, jalapenos, pepper jack cheese, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce, mayonnaise, and spicy Angry Sauce. To promote their spicy concoction, BK tapped into Facebook and created an application to help promote it. This application does not encourage you to join a group or find new friends.  Instead, Burger King’s new Whopper Sacrifice Application is offering you a free Whopper if you de-friend 10 people and those friends will receive a notification alerting them to the fact that they have been removed from your friend list. My friends need not worry; their companionship is far more valuable than a paltry hamburger.  Now if fries and a drink were included, I may have to reconsider…

 

Shepard Fairey’s Inaugural Poster

Shepard Fairey has designed the official Inaugural Poster for President Elect Obama.  The iconic 24 x 36 prints are available now, so hurry and get your part of history!  Don’t forget to visit the Manifest Hope: DC website to get the latest on the events during Inauguration.

The signed and numbered print (1-1000) is $500 and the unsigned numbered print (1001-9999) is $100.  They can be ordered HERE.

Obama’s Hope Portrait Goes To National Gallery

Even before he takes office, President-elect Barack Obama’s image will become part of the permanent collection at the U.S. National Portrait Gallery, the museum announced Wednesday.

 

The gallery acquired the iconic red, white and blue collage by Los Angeles street artist Shepard Fairey, depicting Obama with the word “Hope.” The image — later modified with the messages of “Change” and “Vote” for the Obama campaign — became one of the most memorable images from the 2008 election. The curators at the Smithsonian Institution museum plan to hang it by Inauguration Day.

 

“What I think is so fascinating is the ubiquitous nature,” said Carolyn Carr, deputy director of the Portrait Gallery. “When people think of a portrait of Obama, they think of this image.”

 

Gallery officials would not reveal how much they paid Fairey for the five-foot (1.5 meter) tall, mixed-media stenciled collage. Art collectors Heather and Tony Podesta of Washington donated money for the Smithsonian to purchase the work.

 

Typically, the gallery acquires official portraits of presidents as they are leaving office, and an official Obama portrait will be added later. A portrait of President George W. Bush was unveiled at the gallery in December. (From USA Today)

 

Road Rage With Stephen King And Joe Hill

Road Rage unites Richard Matheson’s classic Duel and the contemporary work it inspired—two power-packed short stories by three of the genre’s most acclaimed authors. Duel, an unforgettable tale about a driver menaced by a semi truck, was the source for Stephen Spielberg’s acclaimed first film of the same name. Throttle, by father and son, Stephen King and Joe Hill, is a duel of a different kind, pitting a faceless trucker against a tribe of motorcycle outlaws, in the simmering Nevada desert. Their battle is fought out on twenty miles of the most lonely road in the country, a place where the only thing worse than not knowing what you’re up against, is slowing down.

The audiobook CD ($13.59) can be ordered HERE and will be released on February 24^th, 2009.

Crossword Puzzle House

The world’s largest crossword puzzle is on the side of an apartment building in Lvov, Ukraine. Clues are spread throughout different locations in the city, and at night, the puzzle lights up to reveal the answers.  Read more HERE.

 

David Lee Roth Soundboard

Piece together the raw vocals from David Lee Roth’s “Runnin’ with the Devil” to make your own sound collage of awesome. This is a great way to annoy your coworkers and friends. Check it out HERE…Yeeeeeah.

 

Disney Plans To Remake 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

According to the trades, Disney has set McG to direct “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo,” a family film that is being fast tracked by the studio. McG, who most recently helmed “Terminator: Salvation,” had multiple studios vying for his next slot. Sources said he will be paid $8 million against 7% of gross. Sean Bailey (“Tron 2.0″) is producing with McG’s Wonderland Sound and Vision. Scripted by Bill Marsilli, the film is an origin story of Nemo as he creates his warship, the Nautilus. The characters come from the Jules Verne novel.

The 1954 original “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” was the first live-action film made by Walt Disney, who famously bet his studio on a movie best remembered for the giant squid scene. It became the second-highest grossing film that year and won three Oscars. The film has also been the basis for various rides at the Disney theme park over the years.

Disney hopes to make the film this year.