Coraline’s Miniature Knitter

Coraline is a high-definition 3D animated feature that is now in theaters. Director Henry Selick employs old-fashioned stop-motion animation enhanced by computers to create state-of-the-art 3D effects. For the last three years the most talented animators and puppet makers in the world have been making Coraline. HERE is an interview with Anthea Chrome, a miniature knitter, who made the clothes for the film at a ridiculously tiny scale.

Confessions of a Superhero

Confessions of a Superhero is a feature length documentary that chronicles the lives of three mortal men and one mortal woman who make their living working as superhero characters on Hollywood Boulevard.  The Hulk sold his Super Nintendo for a bus ticket to LA; Wonder Woman was a mid-western homecoming queen; Batman struggles with his anger, while Superman’s psyche is consumed by the Man of Steel.  This deeply personal view into their daily routines reveals their hardships and triumphs as they pursue and achieve their own kind of fame.

Will You Please Help Michael Moore With His Next Film?

Michael Moore appears to be making a new movie about the collapse of America’s financial system and he wants you! Click HERE to read an e-mail from him asking for assistance with the great task of outing all of the crooks who have destroyed the savings of millions of American’s.

 

Dirty Car Art

 

Scott Wade is an unusual artist. Instead of using canvas or paper, he creates images on dirty cars. While the rest of us exasperate the cliche of writing “Wash Me” on dirty car windows, Wade puts decidedly more time and effort into his creations. Some of the works found among his creations include portraits of famed individuals and re-creations of well-known works of art. The creations can be viewed on his website HERE.

 

 

If Valentine’s Day Cards Told The Truth

What if Valentine’s Day cards really told the truth?  They may look like THESE.

 

Friday The 13th

Friday the 13th is today and therefore we are a bit more superstitious.  We walk more carefully, watch out for black cats crossing our path, and knock on wood. Even if we don’t like our mother, we won’t step on a crack and break her back.  These superstitions are rampant in America, though we usually scoff when accused of being superstitious and deny everything, insisting we’re too mature to believe in such nonsense.  The popular, humorous magazine, Mental Floss, has come up with some facts about Friday the 13th, which can be found HERE.

 

 

12-Volt Battery Hack Saves $40

Here’s a cool trick you can do with a 12-volt battery (cost= less than $2.00 for two).  When you open it up and peel back the case with a screwdriver, you’ll find eight 1.5 volt button-cell batteries, the kind you use for watches and calculators, that normally cost about $4.99 each. 

You can power six different electronic devices with the batteries you remove from just one 12-volt battery, and save about 40 bucks. 

 

Great Big Stuff

GreatBigStuff.com sells everyday items (from food to office supplies) in gigantic sizes. If you need giant scissors for a ceremonial ribbon cutting or an oversized corncob stool for sitting, then this is the place to go!

 

Words For Sale

This new website is selling the 1000 most important words on the web, with each word becoming a link to your website for the period of 10 years once you purchase it. The price is $100 per word.

The site is designed by an artist and it looks beautiful to navigate, as the words spin in 3D space.

Best Shop Front, Ever

American Idol 2009: Meet The Top 36

Weeks of audition episodes, Hollywood tears and drama, and long waits have come to this: On Wednesday night, American Idol introduced its semifinalists for season eight. This year, 36 contestants are moving on to the next round, and here they are:

THE GIRLS
Alexis Grace, Allison Iraheta, Ann Marie Boskovich, Arianna Afsar, Casey Carlson, Felicia Barton, Jackie Tohn, Jasmine Murray, Jeanine Vailes, Jesse Langseth, Kendall Beard, Kristen McNamara, Lil Rounds, Megan Corkrey, Mishavonna Henson, Stevie Wright, Tatiana Del Toro, Taylor Vaifauna

THE GUYS
Adam Lambert, Alexander Wagner-Trugman, Anoop Desai, Brent Keith, Danny Gokey, Jorge Nunez, Ju’Not Joyner, Kai Kalama, Kris Allen, Matt Breitzke, Matt Giraud, Michael Sarver, Nathaniel Marshall, Nick Mitchell, Ricky Braddy, Scott MacIntyre, Stephen Fowler, Von Smith

If you watched the show on Wednesday, you might notice that Joanna Pacitti went through. Fox’s press release (issued after the West Coast broadcast) included this line: “It has been determined that Joanna Pacitti is ineligible to continue in the competition. American Idol contestant Felicia Barton has replaced Ms. Pacitti as part of the Top 36.” More news about that HERE. 

Facebook In Reality

Devolve Me

Are you ready to journey back in time? Use this fun tool to see yourself as you would have looked as an early human. When you’ve finished, why not share the results with a friend?Upload your photo HERE and see yourself travel back through the evolutionary timeline.

 

 

Christopher Nolan Directing Inception Next

Christopher Nolan has set up his next project with Warner Bros., an original screenplay he wrote called Inception. The “Dark Knight” director hopes to shoot the sci-fi action film in the summer for a release during summer 2010.

Nolan will produce with partner Emma Thomas, who served as a producer on The Dark Knight.

“Chris Nolan is a visionary filmmaker who continually raises the bar with each movie he makes,” Warner Bros. Pictures Group president Jeff Robinov said. “We are thrilled to be collaborating again with him and Emma on this exciting new motion picture.”

Inception is described as “a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind.”

This pushes back any potential filming on a third Batman film, but three years — and The Prestige — passed between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Nolan has also long been attached to direct a big-screen adaptation of the British TV series “The Prisoner” for producer Scott Stuber at Universal.

 

How To Fight

How To Blow Your Nose

Blowing your nose to alleviate stuffiness may be second nature, but some people argue it does no good, reversing the flow of mucus into the sinuses and slowing the drainage. Counterintuitive, perhaps, but research shows it to be true. To test the notion, Dr. J. Owen Hendley and other pediatric infectious disease researchers at the University of Virginia conducted CT scans and other measurements as subjects coughed, sneezed and blew their noses. In some cases, the subjects had an opaque dye dripped into their rear nasal cavities. Coughing and sneezing generated little if any pressure in the nasal cavities. But nose blowing generated enormous pressure — “equivalent to a person’s diastolic blood pressure reading,” Dr. Hendley said — and propelled mucus into the sinuses every time. Dr. Hendley said it was unclear whether this was harmful, but added that during sickness it could shoot viruses or bacteria into the sinuses, and possibly cause further infection. The proper method is to blow one nostril at a time and to take decongestants, said Dr. Anil Kumar Lalwani, chairman of the department of otolaryngology at the New York University Langone Medical Center. This prevents a buildup of excess pressure. (new York Times)

 

 

Full Inglourious Basterds Teaser Trailer

Here is the full teaser trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. Opening August 21st, the film stars Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, B.J. Novak, Mike Myers, Cloris Leachman and Samuel L. Jackson.

Inglourious Basterds begins in German-occupied France, where Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa. Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema.

Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as “The Basterds,” Raine’s squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own…

Comic Book Recommendation of the Week

This week, I recommend Batman issue 686 ($3.95) written by Neil Gaiman with art by Andy Kubert and Scott Williams.  The covers were drawn by Andy Kubert and Alex Ross and there is a variant sketch cover by Andy Kubert

 

The issue is entitled, “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?” Best-selling author Neil Gaiman and superstar artist Andy Kubert join forces for a special 2-part BATMAN event! This is a captivating and mysterious tale the likes of which Batman and friends have never experienced before. Delving into the realms of life, death and the afterlife, Gaiman leaves no stone unturned as he explores every facet and era of Bruce Wayne’s life. 

 

New Angels & Demons Trailer

Get Forever Stamps Now, Postage Is Going Up

Sending a letter will soon be a little more expensive, the U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday. The price for a first-class mail stamp will increase 2 cents to 44 cents, starting May 11. But until the new prices go into effect, customers can buy “Forever Stamps” at the current 42-cent rate.

This Is Even More Spinal Tap

For the March 2009 issue, Vanity Fair sat down with the members of Spinal Tap, whose genre-defining mock-umentary (directed by Marty DiBergi) just turned 25. HERE is an extended remix of the interview with Nigel, David, Derek, and Marty.

 

Holy Smoke! Batwoman Makes Her Comic Book Comeback

Batwoman is making her comic book comeback – as a red-haired, crime-fighting lesbian.

Billed as a ‘lesbian socialite by night and a crime-fighter by later in the night,’ she replaces the Caped Crusader after he was killed off in a recent issue.

Batwoman – the alter ego of Kathy Kane – is clad in a figure-hugging black outfit and knee-high red stiletto boots.

She is Detective Comics first openly gay superhero and will stalk the means streets of Gotham City in June.

Writer Greg Rucka said the introduction of a gay character was ‘long overdue’

‘We have been waiting to unlock her,’ he told the Comic Book Resources website. ‘Yes, she’s a lesbian. She’s also a redhead.

‘It is an element of her character. It is not her character.

‘If people are going to have problems with it, that’s their issue. It’s certainly not mine.

‘My job is to write the best book I can, about a character that I think is exceptionally cool, that J.H. Williams (his co-writer) thinks is exceptionally cool, that DC Comics thinks is exceptionally cool and worthy of being the lead player in Detective Comics.

‘Frankly, she should be judged on her own merits.’

Batwoman first emerged from the Batcave 50 years ago, appearing intermittently before she was eventually killed off in 1979.

She was originally invented as a love interest for Batman and first appeared in her present  present incarnation two years ago, sparking a slew of publicity about her sexuality.

However, her outings to date have been sporadic and this is the first time she will be the lead character in comic

Batman, whose alter ego was multi-millionaire Bruce Wayne, was killed of in November.

He met his end in a grisly fireball after battling with his enemy Mangrove Pierce on a helicopter.

However, in the time-honored tradition of superheroes through the age, it seems unlikely fans have seen the last of him. (Reprinted from the Daily Mail UK)

Lost Star Says Smoke Monster Secrets to Emerge

Actor Daniel Dae Kim, who plays Jin in ABC’s “Lost,” has said that the origin and nature of the Smoke Monster will be disclosed soon and viewers will even get a glimpse of its lair. Turns out the monster is as “old as the island.”

Kim also cautioned against expectations that his character, Jin, will reunite with his wife, Sun (Yunjin Kim), even though Jin survived a freighter explosion and Sun returns to the island after escaping it.

Those events don’t mean “they’re particularly in the same place or chronologically in the same time,” Kim said.

As for the atomic bomb that showed up in the “Jughead” episode, he said the show’s producers rarely give something such prominence unless it counts in the island’s mythology.

“That’s a huge red herring if it’s a red herring,” Kim said, suggesting the bomb could help resolve plot points as the series ends in 2010.

 

 

A Tribute to Forgotten Sodas

HERE is a look back on some of the sodas and soft drinks of years past that no longer occupy the crowded grocery store shelves.

 

The Toy & Action Figure Museum

Kevin Stark from Pauls Valley, Oklahoma is a figurine collector and comic book artist who has become the Toy & Action Figure Museum curator. The museum has one of the largest action figure displays in the world, along with a Batman shrine, a superhero changing room and enough Transformers, G.I. Joes and He-Man figures to fill a grown man’s bedroom in his mom’s basement.

In 2000, Stark convinced the Pauls Valley City Council that the town needed a tourist attraction and the museum should be it. In 2005, it finally opened its doors. The museum seems a little out of place among Pauls Valley’s other businesses: a gun store, a couple of gas stations, an insurance company or two. But if you love action figures, you’ll find plenty to covet HERE.