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04 Jul 2011 09:37

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Culture: “Transformers 3”: Did Michael Bay rip off his OWN movie?

  • Did Michael Bay steal footage from himself? The proof is in this clip, which shows that two action scenes in the movies — “Transformers 3” and the 2005 semi-unsuccessful flick “The Island” — look exactly the same. This is a big deal because Bay has been pushing the film as a great example of 3D filmmaking that doesn’t use any 3D conversion. The reality? The dude’s so terrible at filming action scenes that he has to take the good ones and reuse them. (Oh, and something about a girl getting injured on the set … using her as an excuse? What?) Lame. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Jun 2011 16:36

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Culture: NBA headed for a lockout as collective bargaining talks fall apart

  • NBA headed for lockout: As talks between league officials and the player’s union on a new collective bargaining agreement have fallen apart, it’s clear that the NBA will suffer a work stoppage. It’s been thirteen years since this last happened, when the 1998-1999 season was cut 32 games short. The impasse is mainly about salary versus revenue; the NBA claims 22 of its 30 franchises are losing money, and they want lower player salaries (likely a lower cap) to compensate — obviously, the players feel otherwise. Said union head Billy Hunter: “I’ve been waiting for a lockout for two, three years. Now it’s here. Our guys are anxious to get a deal.” source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Jun 2011 13:41

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Culture: So, Stephen Colbert has his own PAC.

  • Making a better tomorrow, tomorrow.
  • The slogan for Stephen Colbert’s PAC • Yeah, you read that right. Stephen Colbert now heads a PAC, and he can raise money and run ads for candidates at his choosing, so long as he has the money. The main battle Colbert has been fighting, though, is when he has to disclose what he’s paying for the ads. As long as they air during his show, he won’t have to say how much he’s paying because of a media exemption. In trying to get an exemption, Colbert was able to expose some loopholes in the law, causing for a pretty narrow ruling on it…which is a good thing, as it leads to more disclosure from big companies contributing to political campaigns. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jun 2011 10:37

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Culture: Happy birthday, Cheerios. Our breakfast would suffer without you

  • And the way they’re made is fascinating: Roughly 70 years ago, the country’s most popular brand of cereal (specifically its Honey Nut variation, introduced in 1979) started puffing out of guns at hundreds of miles an hour — so fast that it turns the tiny balls of dough into the tiny little inner tubes that float around in your soy milk every morning. Kix, a fellow healthy cereal, gets made in a similar way. The cereal, notable for its health claims, recently received scrutiny from the FDA, who felt General Mills marketed the oat lumps like a drug. That case is still pending. One case that isn’t pending is the case that Cheerios are awesome. Just sayin’. (photo via Flickr user riebart) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Jun 2011 18:02

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Culture: Not the boss, the CEO? James Spader could join “The Office”

  • Think bigger than the next Michael Scott: While the new boss at the Scranton branch of Dundler Mifflin isn’t quite clear yet, one of the candidates for the position, one James Spader, may be out of the running for reasons completely unrelated to his qualifications. See, Spader might join the show — as Dundler Mifflin’s CEO, replacing Kathy Bates. But unlike Bates, word is that he’d be a regular character on the show. Spader is something of an anti-Ted McGinley — when he joins a show late in its run, he makes it better. Example: “The Practice,” where the Spader-led reboot was so successful producers spun it off into “Boston Legal.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jun 2011 18:08

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Culture: Phyllis from The Office was once an NFL cheerleader. Seriously.

  • I was at the height of my glory, because I loved dancing and wearing the boots and the hot pants, the tied up shirts, looking really hot. And I was able to dance, I loved football. My dad used to have season tickets, so I was flirting with the guys on the sidelines as much as I could. The organizations make sure that the cheerleaders and the players have minimal contact, but that’s what you try to do. It was great, in the ’70s.
  • Actor Phyllis Smith • Speaking of her job dancing on an NFL sideline way back in the 70s. Smith, who plays the similarly named Phyllis Lapin-Vance on NBC’s The Office, dreamed from a young age of being a dancer, and had success as a cheerleader as well as doing tap dancing in a vaudeville-style burlesque show. She got out of the dancing biz after a leg injury in her 30s, and worked reception for a few years before starting the acting career that ultimately landed her on the mega-hit comedy. Just another helpful reminder — it’s never to late to set new career goals for oneself. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jun 2011 13:44

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Culture: OJ’s confession is just a dream of Oprah’s, not reality

  • claim Some sources (looking at you, ever-trustworthy Daily Mail) have reported that Oprah landed the ultimate PR stunt for her new network — a confession from OJ Simpson in the 1994 murder of his wife. We posted this earlier, but admit that we took it with a pretty big grain of salt.
  • denial A rep for the talk show icon denied the story not long after, however. Though she hasn’t gotten Simpson to confess, it’s a dream of hers — she said as much at an awards ceremony last week. She’s still waiting, but she knows exactly where to find the ex-football star — he’s sitting in prison. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

23 Jun 2011 12:48

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Culture: “Cars 2” currently has a “Rotten” score on Rotten Tomatoes

  • 44% well, that’s not what usually happens with Pixar flicks source
  • » This is not a common occurrence: The last time a Pixar movie scored below 95 percent on the Tomatometer was back in 2006 … with “Cars,” which still had a relatively solid 74 percent. It’s also Pixar’s first “Rotten” movie … ever. Is it because the franchise is more for the kids — and the massive merch sales that come with kids movies — than the adults?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Jun 2011 15:36

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Culture: Jose Antonio Vargas’ enthralling account of an undocumented life

  • An undocumented immigrant’s story: The New York Times Magazine has run a lengthy, engrossing piece authored by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, a Filipino man who’s been living undocumented in America since being sent by his mother at age 12. Vargas’ story is both emotional and instructional, and hammers home the necessity for citizenship options like (at barest minimum) those proposed in the Dream Act. The idea of a child being whisked into America and thus living in fear and hiding is one that evokes sympathetic feelings for a good reason — our society generally tries to protect children from harsh politics and major strife. source
  • The fear of fakery Vargas describes going to the DMV at 16, and presenting the clerk with the green card given to him by his grandfather. The woman whispered to him that the card was fake, and told him not to come back. When his grandfather painfully confessed he’d bought a fake green card for him, Vargas decided he couldn’t let anyone doubt he was American.
  • Career out of reach With the help of his high school principal and superintendent, Vargas began attending San Francisco State, with an eye on journalism. When he was unable to work an internship due to his immigration status, he decided “if I was to succeed in a profession that is all about truth-telling, I couldn’t tell the truth about myself.”
  • Inspiration for action Vargas says he was moved to write this (we must emphasize, our few points here don’t do this justice, you should really read the whole article) when he learned of four undocumented students who walked from Miami to D.C. to lobby for the Dream Act, at risk of deportation. Many thanks to Vargas for this honest, important story.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Jun 2011 18:21

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Culture: David Lynch to open “Club Silencio” in Paris

  • David Lynch opening predictably odd nightclub: Perhaps you’re familiar with filmmaker David Lynch, whose movies are broadly seen as prime examples of inscrutable, “outer-edge” American cinema — perhaps none quite as famous as 2001’s Mulholland Drive. Well, yesterday came word that Lynch is in the works of designing and opening “Club SIlencio,” a 1920’s style Parisian nightclub modeled after the Mulholland Drive location of the same name. We’ll be honest, this is rather shocking to us. We could imagine George Lucas opening a fake Mos Eisley Cantina, for example, but David Lynch’s “Club SIlencio?” Just too weird. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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