Go Go Buke-zilla!
Celebrating Charles Bukowski, ‘poet laureate of L.A. lowlife’
Charles Bukowski, “poet laureate of L.A. lowlife,” became one of the best-known poets in America. (Richard Robinson / Black Sparrow Press)
Charles Bukowski was called many things: “poet laureate of L.A. lowlife,” “the enfant terrible of the Meat School poets,” “the prophet of the underemployed” and “a flamboyant provincial.” Those comments are all from our own reporters.
The L.A. Times was slow to warm to Bukowski’s charms. Even in 1985, when he was one of America’s bestselling poets, we were still describing him as “A low-life drifter from out of the ’40s whose gnarled face is to ugliness and abuse what Paul Bunyan’s body was to size and strength.”
Two years later, when Mickey Rourke starred in the semi-biographical film “Barfly” based on Bukowski’s semi-autobiographical novels, the Los Angeles cultural establishment finally, grudgingly, came around.
Bukowski was born in Germany on Aug. 16, 1920. His family soon moved to Los Angeles, where he grew up with an abusive father. He was an outcast in school. He started drinking. He moved around the country, living on the margins, during World War II and after. He wound up back in Los Angeles as unlikely a candidate for becoming a poet, much less an acclaimed one, as you might find.
Of course, that was part of his appeal. Plainspoken poetry set in the streets and bars, peopled by shady characters — including his hard-drinking, big-hearted, angry, gambling, womanizing self. One of our readers, upset by seeing him written about in print, called him “an X-rated Oscar the Grouch,” which might actually not be all that insulting after all.
To celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the poet laureate of L.A. lowlife, here are 18 things he wrote and said and did –
Beyond The Page
SDCC: FREY, DASHNER & MORE GO BEYOND THE PAGE
At Comic-Con International 2014, the “Beyond the Page” session featured a panel deep with talent. The artists and writers, which included James Frey, Christ Weitz, James Dashner, Andrew Kaplan, Fred Van Lente, James Silvani, and Melissa De La Cruz, delivered an engaging discussion on the existing and emerging technologies that are transforming the way we both create and consume stories.
Storytelling today can include a myriad of avenues for delivering content from social media, eBooks, webcomics, online video and video games to more traditional forms of media like print, TV and film. However, modern fans
are hungry for stories that do more to immerse them in the fictional worlds of the characters.
James Frey of “Endgame” shared his approach to immersing fans into his world saying, “We should be thinking of TV and Movies as parts our toolbox… [but] as we move into the digital future, as writers or story tellers, that we need to start thinking of things beyond the page.”
Frey is a huge advocate of coordinating story content across multiple platforms to deliver strategic pieces of content. “You should be doing things across all [platforms],” Frey said.
Ultimately “Endgame” will feature a cascade of content delivering vehicles: three books, thirty-five novellas, a video game launched by Google, social media featuring character profiles and a YouTube channel. There are three movies in the works at Fox, and a children’s television series. The core of these immersive experiences are the three books that feature puzzles to solve and the hunt for hidden keys that open cases full of money.
In discussing his approach to “Endgame,” Frey explained, “We looked at things like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and thought, “How can we use those to tell additional parts of the story that aren’t on the pages of the book? The thirteen characters in the book have had Twitter feeds, Instagram feeds, and Google Plus feeds for [over] a year. And our You Tube channel has five hours of content on it.”
Coolest Kid Ever Builds Fort in WalMart – Keeps Goldfish From The Pet Aisle As Companion
Teenager Made Corsicana Walmart His Home
by J.D. Miles
CORSICANA (CBSDFW.COM) – His age 14. His address Walmart.
Employees of a Corsicana Walmart were shocked to find a teenage boy secretly living inside the store for a few days.
The teen wasn’t just hiding in the store. He built a secret hidden compound and was able to call the 24-hour store home for 2 1/2 days before being discovered.
CBS 11 News obtained exclusive photos of two campsites at the Walmart in Corsicana. One of them was on the aisle carrying baby products behind boxes of strollers. The other was behind stacks of paper towels and toilet paper.
Customers who walked down the aisles where the teen was living never noticed two hidden compounds where the boy was able to store necessities, sleep in a makeshift bed and and eat items taken from inside the store.
He created a crack in the back wall of the drink aisle to grab juice and even collected a fish from the pet department.
The photos show the clothing that employees say the boy would change in and out of every few hours to avoid detection.
Pittacus Lore Returns
Robin Williams Gone – Whole World Sad
Appreciation: Robin Williams, not a faster brain on the planet
Actor and comedian Robin Williams performs on stage during ARF’s Stars to the Rescue XXII at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Staff)
Like most of America, I first saw Robin Williams playing Mork — the hyperactive, fast-talking, off-the-wall comedic alien on the ABC sitcom “Mork & Mindy” when I was a kid in the ’70s.
I loved him. All kids loved him … because it was like he was one of us.
It seemed while the rest of us grew older, he didn’t. Which is why, 36 years after storming into our family rooms like a sillier Steve Martin with his pants on fire, it’s mind-boggling he’s gone. Kids — even big ones — aren’t supposed to go before the rest of us.
Riffing on words and ideas, leaping with lightning speed from thought to idea to rant to epiphany, there wasn’t a faster brain on the planet. His intensity was mesmerizing. Denis Leary’s mouth was pedestrian compared to Williams’. It could be hard to keep up.
Add to that an absolute fearlessness to say whatever was on his mind, and the rare ability to find ridiculousness in almost any situation, no one could compare.
Revisiting the Internet K-Hole (with apologies in advance for the timesuck)
The Teeth Of Christ
Mexico: Christ statue ‘has human teeth’
His tortured look, blood streaming down his neck, open wounds on his face, hands and knees send shivers down your spine. But it turns out that the statue is even more realistic – and macabre – than previously thought. Specialists restoring the 18th Century artwork have discovered that the statue’s eight teeth used to belong to an adult human, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History has announced.
“The teeth were probably donated as a token of gratitude,” suggests head restorer Fanny Unikel. Elsewhere in Mexico, parishioners are known to have volunteered their hair to make wigs for saints, as well as clothing or money. But the teeth and nails of statues are usually made of bones and animal horns. “It’s the first time human teeth have been found in a sculpture,” says Unikel.
Spamboni For Sale
Hey, hockey fans! Remember the ‘Spamboni’? It’s for sale
![The old Hormel-sponsored "Spamboni" ice resurfacer wheels around the St. Paul Civic Center in this undated photo. (Courtesy of Xcel Energy](http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site569/2014/0808/20140808__Spamboni.jpg "The old Hormel-sponsored "Spamboni" ice resurfacer wheels around the St. Paul Civic Center in this undated photo. (Courtesy of Xcel Energy")
The old Hormel-sponsored “Spamboni” ice resurfacer wheels around the St. Paul Civic Center in this undated photo. (Courtesy of Xcel Energy Center)
A slice of Minnesota hockey history is up for grabs.
The old Hormel-sponsored “Spamboni” ice resurfacer that once wheeled around the St. Paul Civic Center — all the while promoting the Austin, Minn.-based company’s canned meat — is being sold, as is.
The Xcel Energy Center and Visit St. Paul hope to get $2,000 for the 42-year-old relic, which for the past decade has been relegated to clearing the ice at the Wells Fargo Winter Skate outdoor rink at the Landmark Plaza.
Hockey fans might recall watching the yellow and blue Zamboni in between periods of Minnesota Fighting Saints games during the 1970s and at high-school hockey state tournaments and Minnesota Moose games.
“It still makes a good sheet of ice,” Larson said.
Indoor city-owned rinks are not an option because it wouldn’t pass today’s indoor-air quality rules, he said.
It does need some engine work — this past winter one of the engine’s four cylinders became stuck — as well as attention to general wear-and-tear items like bearings and bushings, he said.
“It runs on a retooled Volkswagen engine, so it’s not that complicated,” Larson said.
Sally Hardesty Gone
Marilyn Burns, actress in ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,’ dead at 65
By KURTIS LEE
(Sallye Richardson) Marilyn Burns as a bloody Sally Hardesty in “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.”
Actress Marilyn Burns, who starred in the 1970s film “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and TV movie “Helter Skelter,” died Tuesday. She was 65.
Burns’ manager said Wednesday that she died at her Houston-area home and that the cause of her death remains unknown.
The actress’ career spanned four decades, which included a role in the 2013 film “Texas Chainsaw 3D.”
In a 1974 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Burns described working on the set of the original film, which is considered a classic in the horror genre.
The Boxing Browns
Browns Defenders Wear Boxing Gloves in Practice
Cleveland Browns cornerback Justin Gilbert, left, is wearing small boxing gloves to keep himself from grabbing jersey’s of wide receivers during practice at the NFL football team’s training camp on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014, in Berea, Ohio. Tony Dejak—AP Photo
As the NFL cracks down on defenders grabbing the jersey’s of wide receivers, The Browns’ cornerbacks and safeties are wearing boxing gloves during training camps to break the habit
To prepare for the NFL’s crackdown on defensive holding this season, the team is making its cornerbacks and safeties wear boxing gloves during training camp practices. The smaller, mittenlike gloves — used by kickboxers and in mixed martial arts — are meant to deter players from latching onto jerseys of wide receivers, an allowable tactic in the past but one that will draw a penalty flag now.
When he first saw the padded gloves, Browns Pro Bowl cornerback Joe Haden didn’t know what to think.
“I came out and we had boxing gloves on,” Haden said. “It was crazy.”
Just Totally, Totally Awesome – Tractor Shark
How ‘the largest fish in the sea’ ended up on the roof of a tractor
A dead whale shark being carried on a tractor in a seafood wholesale market in Xiangzhi township in Quanzhou, east China’s Fujian province, on Aug. 1. (AFP/Getty Images)
Weighing about two tons and measuring 16 feet long, this whale shark caused quite an uproar in China after it was transported through the streets of Xiangzhi in east China’s Fujian province. According to local media, a Chinese fisherman caught the whale shark Friday while fishing off Fujian province.
Known as the world’s largest fish, the whale shark can grow up to 45 feet long and live more than 100 years. It’s highly prized on the black market. In January, the environmental group WildLifeRisk exposed what it described as “the biggest ever whale shark slaughterhouse uncovered in southeastern China,” which slaughtered 600 whale sharks annually to produce “shark oil for health supplements.”
Selfie-Inflicted Wound
Man accidentally kills himself with a gun while taking a selfie
Taking a selfie is now officially dangerous, although how dangerous depends entirely on the intelligence of the person attempting to capture that selfie. Oscar Otero Aguilar clearly wasn’t that intelligent, otherwise he’d still be alive today.
The 21-year-old was drinking with friends in Mexico City and had somehow acquired a working gun and ammunition for it. With a few drinks inside him, he decided to capture a selfie of himself with the gun to upload to Facebook. But just holding the gun wasn’t enough, he also took the time load it and turn the safety off. Alternatively, he was so inebriated he had no idea the gun was loaded and ready to fire.
Neighbors heard a gun shot and called the police. What they discovered was Aguilar with a serious head wound which soon after resulted in his death. It seems that while he was attempting to line up the camera and gun to capture the perfect selfie he managed to accidentally fire the weapon into his own skull.
Palermobook
Italians enraged at rise of Sicily’s new Facebook mafia
Detectives are poring over social media for details that might help them arrest new generation of mobsters who have turned their back on traditional code of discretion
By Tom Kington, Rome
Domenico Palazzotto, a Palermo mobster, has created a Facebook page under a false name, posted photos of himself cruising on motorboats Photo: Facebook
Just when police thought they had finally loosened the Mafia’s historical stranglehold over Sicily, a new generation of brash mobsters is reclaiming the streets of Palermo – and bragging about it on Facebook.
After years when Cosa Nostra luminaries communicated only by hand written notes in code, their youthful successors are making increasingly unabashed online boasts about their wealth, power and contempt for the magistrates hunting them down.
One Palermo mobster, Domenico Palazzotto, 28, who created a Facebook page under a false name, posted photos of himself cruising on motorboats, sitting down to sumptuous lobster and champagne dinners and riding in a limousine.
The rising boss, who called the shots in the Arenella neighbourhood of Palermo, where he allegedly helped run extortion rackets, listed his liking for Neapolitan music and the US singer Kenny Loggins and name-checked an Italian TV series about the Mafia.
Amid crude insults apparently aimed at the police, Mr Palazzotto also swapped messages with an aspiring mobster who asked to be enrolled in his clan.
“Do I need to send a CV?” asked the applicant.
“Yes, brother,” replied Mr Palazzotto jokingly. “We need to consider your criminal record. We do not take on people with clean records.”\
Every Inch Of Wonder Woman for $33
Meet the United States’ secret and most beautiful weapon in the fight against tyranny: “Wonder Woman!”
“Some say it is a miracle, while others are calling it a curse.”
Mysterious lake in Tunisian desert turns from turquoise to green sludge
The stretch of water, dubbed the Lac de Gafsa, may be the result of a rupture in the rock above the local water table
by Kim Willsher
There are plenty of places to dive but apparently no women swimming. Photograph: Facebook
The lake appeared in the Tunisian desert like a mirage; one minute there was nothing but scorching sand, the next a large expanse of turquoise water.
For locals, roasting in the 40C heat, the temptation to cool off in the inviting water quickly overcame any fears about the mysterious pool.
Hundreds flocked to what quickly became known as the Lac de Gafsa or Gafsa beach to splash, paddle, dive, and fling themselves from rocks into the lake, ignoring warnings that the water could be contaminated with carcinogenic chemicals, riddled with disease or possibly radioactive. Even after the water turned a murky green, they arrived in droves, undeterred.
“Some say it is a miracle, while others are calling it a curse,” Lakhdar Souid, a Tunisian journalist, told France 24 television.
Philip Selway’s “Coming Up For Air”
Call Me Voicemael
Call Me Ishmael: The Phenomenon Revolutionizing How We Talk About Books
“Call me Ishmael.”
It’s one of the most recognizable opening sentences in literature (right up there with “every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” and “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”). And now, the iconic phrase has gained a new life as a multimedia phenomenon.
Call Me Ishmael celebrates the power of literature by giving a person the chance to literally “call Ishmael” and share a story about how a book impacted their life. Many calls are then transcribed and posted on callmeishmael.com, becoming tales that go far beyond traditional book reviews. Titles featured range from The Time Traveler’s Wife to Pajama Time, from Maus to The Catcher in the Rye.
The stories people share are funny, sad, poignant and deeply human, which creator Logan Smalley says is the point. He calls the resulting narrative “an enhanced, evolved and beautiful picture of humanity.”
No More Ball-peen Hammers, No More Batons: BREAKING THE CODE
Former Hells Angel and cop who chased him share their unlikely friendship
Former Hennepin County Sheriff’s Captain Chris Omodt, left, collaborated with Pat Matter, former president of the Minneapolis Hells Angels, to write “Breaking the Code.” (Pioneer Press: Ginger Pinson)
Considered the “godfather” of the Minneapolis Hells Angels, Pat Matter knew three things in life were true:
“When you love someone, you get hurt. … When you’re real, everyone hates you for it. And when you trust, you get killed.”
And yet, Matter found an unlikely man to trust: Chris Omodt — the Hennepin County cop who’d been after him for years.
Two decades after the men first heard of each other, they’re telling the story of their unlikely alliance.
Their co-written book, “Breaking the Code” (self-published and available Friday), tells the tale of how their lives intersected, giving a no-holds-barred glimpse into the world of biker gangs and the investigators who go after them.
” I later went down to the [HarperCollins] booth…”
Saturday at Comic-Con – The Great, The New and The Tasty
WELCOME TO EARTH-4
A Weekly Column with J. Torrey McClain
– I may have missed the “Saga” panel at 1 pm, but I caught Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples during the “Strong Female Characters” panel two hours later in the same room. June Brigman, Colleen Coover, Sara Mayhew, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Paul Tobin, Vaughn and Staples talked about what it takes to make strong female characters, how they approach it and listed some of their current favorites. The story that will last with me though came from the moderator, Maggie Thompson. She told the story of her husband reading to their daughter a run of “Fantastic Four” every night before bed. As a gift for their daughter when she was away in college they gave her a bound collection of a great many of those same stories. When she received them and started to read the stories, she angrily called her mom and yelled that these were not the stories her father had read to her. It turns out that her father had read her all of Reed Richard’s lines as the words said by Sue Storm. He didn’t want the only female superhero in the story to be the one that fades and hides.
– I returned to Donovan’s in San Diego to visit some friends and once again got to enjoy some of their fine food. I had the three sliders and after a lunch of only a Snickers bar in between panels (but I’ll have you know, it truly satisfied – now Mars, please send me a free box), those burgers hit the spot.
– I paid my respects in person to the player and the man of San Diego baseball, Tony Gwynn.
Books Rule Comic-Con Yeah!
No Lack of Major Prose Houses at Comic-Con
By Rich Shivener
From samplers and author panels to signings and galleys of science fiction and fantasy novels, major book publishers such as Penguin Random House and HarperCollins are once again investing heavily in promotional materials for the five days of Comic-Con International, held at the San Diego Convention Center. The annual pop-culture convention draws more than 130,000 attendees and offers programming related to comics, film, books and related media. Book publishers see it as an incredible promotional platform.
Comic-con may celebrate comics but the fans are on the lookout for books and related media of all kinds. Over the weekend, HarperCollins and its partners are set to preview an interactive, multimedia project based on writer James Frey’s Endgame trilogy, which chronicles teens hunting for ancient keys that could save the world. At its core, the project is an augmented reality game that allows players, using their smartphones, to scavenge for items around Comic-Con. Endgame is also getting the film treatment by 20th Century Fox. Frey, HarperCollins, Google’s Niantic Labs and 20th Century Fox collaborated on the project, and they’re planning panels, signings, access codes to games.
Comic-Con is a fitting place to launch the project because of its media convergence, says Sandee Roston, executive director of publicity of HarperCollins Children’s Books, the division that publishes the Endgame series.
“The innovative mobile game adds interactive real-world experiences to Endgame, merging story with social activation to create a fully immersive world,” Roston told PW on Friday.
We’re off to never never land…
The 21 Pics That Will Make You Wish You Were at Comic-Con Right Now
By
OK. DEEP BREATH. Let me put my nerd googles on and see if I can identify all these Comic-Con cosplayers. (And a huge thank you to our intrepid reporter Michael Roha for the pics!)
Spidey and the Human Torch (sort of half-assing that wing, though, aren’t ya, kid?)
Sandman
[ click to view all the beautiful weirdness at The WOW Report ]
Levenbutt
Levenbutt Goes Ass-Backwards All Over NYC
Jen Selter has nothing on Jeremy Levenbach.
By Esti Jungreis
(Photo via @Levenbutt Instagram)
In what is perhaps the greatest utilization of social media ever, Jeremy Levenbach (a.k.a. @Levenbutt) has been Instagramming his early morning, bare-bottomed misadventures all over the city since mid-2012.
“The first one was taken on my old roof in the East Village,” Mr. Levenbach said. “I texted it to a bunch of friends. They liked it. I did a few more and then started posting them to Instagram.”
Since then, Mr. Levenbach, who takes his friends along to capture the butt shots, has amassed over 2,000 followers on Instagram.
The End Begins October 7. ENDGAME Is Coming.
Black Swan Fear
Market ‘Black Swan’ Fear at Record High
BY ANTHONY MIRHAYDARI, The Fiscal Times
iStockphoto/The Fiscal Times
After last Thursday’s volatility surge, driven by the horrific missile strike against Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 and fresh violence between Israel and the Palestinians, the stock market has calmed down. Large cap issues in particularly seem largely unfazed by all this, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average not suffering a meaningful close below its 20-day moving average since April.
Moreover, the Dow finished last Friday with its 11th straight weekly gain — the second longest winning streak of the bull market to date. Bidding stocks up into the weekend is a classic sign of confidence, since it assumes that nothing will go wrong in during the two days the market is closed.
One way to interpret this is that while most investors are very, very complacent now, many are growing more fearful about the future. In other words, fears of a “Black Swan” event are increasing.
Giant Rubber Duck Gone Missing In The Global Bathtub
Giant Rubber Duck Vanishes in Chinese Flood
Hendrik Hansson
Florentijn Hofman, Rubber Duck (2011),
Auckland, New Zealand. Photo: courtesy the artist.
A giant rubber duck designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman has disappeared amid heavy storms in China’s southwestern Guiyang City, the Wall Street Journal reports. The 54-foot-tall, 2000 pound inflatable artwork was perched upon a floating metal platform, tethered to the bottom of the Nanming river by steel wires.
The work has toured the world since 2007 and has been on display in the Netherlands, Brazil, Taiwan, Japan and Australia, drawing millions of spectators along the way. The sculpture’s tour, entitled Spreading Joy Around the World represents the union of people, according to the artist. “We’re one family and all the waters in the world is our global bathtub,” Hofman previously told the Guardian.
THR: James Frey’s ENDGAME… to call it only a book would be vastly oversimplifying things.
Comic-Con: James Frey to Introduce ‘Endgame’ Universe With Panel, Puzzle, Interactive Game (Exclusive)
by Rebecca Ford
Frey’s upcoming YA book, which has interactive components and is being developed into a film, will be promoted with a tie-in to the popular augmented reality game Ingress.
Endgame is James Frey’s upcoming book, but to call it only a book would be vastly oversimplifying things.
While the first novel will hit stores Oct. 7, Frey’s project is made up of the books (a planned trilogy), e-books, a puzzle, a game, a treasure hunt and an upcoming movie. The first YA book, set in the near present day, follows 12 teens as catastrophic events lead them on a worldwide search for three ancient keys that will save not only their bloodlines but the world.
“Endgame was always conceived of and designed and created to be this pretty vast universe,” says Frey. “The idea was that we would build everything before it came out. We’d be proactive in creating the universe instead of reactive.”
Lord Of The Dance
Gina Gibney, Virtual Unknown, Becomes Power Broker of Contemporary Dance
Dibney, Gibney? “Who is this woman?”
By Alex Traub
On the night of May 14, a small group of dancers were smoking outside a fundraiser in downtown Manhattan. As they discussed the work of various underappreciated choreographers, attention was suddenly turned to a short redheaded woman who had just exited the event and was walking away. “That’s Gina Gibney?” asked Connor Voss, a startled young dancer. Yes, the group confirmed, it was. Mr. Voss watched Ms. Gibney round the street corner. “Fund me, please?” he said in her direction.
Mr. Voss is not the only one asking: Ms. Gibney is currently one of contemporary dance’s most powerful figures in New York. The center of her new influence is 280 Broadway, a two-story building just north of City Hall on which she signed a lease in January. Ms. Gibney now has 17 studios, three theaters, and 51,000 square feet under her control. This past year she received millions of dollars in donations to help her run it all. The Connor Vosses of the city turn their heads when she walks by.
Beloved spaces like Joyce SoHo and the Trisha Brown dance facility have closed; many others have had to move or shrink. Since the early ’90s, Ms. Gibney estimates, the death toll around Union Square alone includes 20 venues where she once performed.
Charlie Haden Gone
Appreciation: Jazz musician Charlie Haden spoke for beauty
Charlie Haden founded the Cal Arts jazz program in 1982. His instruction made an impact on generations of jazz artists around the country, including Ravi Coltrane and Ralph Alessi. (Tom Copi)
I’d probably only been covering jazz for the Los Angeles Times for a year or so when the phone rang at my desk and on the other end was Charlie Haden.
For a half-second, I was terrified. Was this how I was going to find out that the tiny voice in my head, the one that plagues so many writers, was right all along? Was Charlie Haden, an unquestionable music giant who contributed to a skyscraper’s worth of immortal jazz recordings, the one who finally figured out I was a fraud?
Of course, that wasn’t the nature of this phone call — or, for that matter, Charlie Haden. Instead, we talked about music. He spoke with a joyful, bebop-like cadence that pushed against his recognizably thin voice — a wispy reminder of the bulbar polio that afflicted him as a child and eventually claimed his life Friday at age 76.
Endgame: The Calling – 2 p.m., Room 7AB
Comic-Con: Highlights From the Film Lineup
by Borys Kit, Rebecca Ford
Comic-Con heads back to San Diego beginning on July 23, with more than 120,000 geeks, cosplayers, and film and TV fans invading the convention center for comics, swag and first looks at some of their favorite upcoming films.
Most of the studios are planning to show off footage from the more genre-oriented part of their slates, bring some big stars to the stage and throw in a few surprises.
Here, The Hollywood Reporter breaks down all the film highlights hitting San Diego. Some of the information is official, while some of it is just rumor. Heck, even the official schedule says “TBD” under some studios’ entries. After all, flying in stars and making sure footage from movies that are still in production dazzles isn’t easy; thus studios sometimes find themselves juggling until almost the very end.
Check back for updates as the Con nears.
SATURDAY, JULY 26
Endgame: The Calling – 2 p.m., Room 7AB
Author James Frey will speak about his new YA book Endgame: The Calling (out Oct. 7), while producer Wyck Godfrey will talk about the upcoming Fox movie. John Hanke, leader of Google’s Niantic Labs and creator of Google Maps, will discuss the augmented-reality game Google is crafting based on Endgame, and puzzlemaster Mat Laibowitz will talk about the puzzle in the book.
Rick Hincks’ World Cup
Artist Captures Every Detail of the World Cup’s Biggest Plays
Sarah Cascone
Rick Hincks.
Photo: Courtesy Rick Hincks.
If you’re looking for World Cup-themed art that truly captures your obsessive need to replay each and every goal and crucial play over and over, reviewing multiple angles to truly experience the match, British graphic designer Rick Hincks has you covered. As reported by the Huffington Post, Hincks, a big-time fan of the Manchester City club, has created a series of elegantly simple posters (available for $20) that capture the movement of the ball and the players during key plays of important games.
Since beginning the series in November, Hincks has covered both historic past matches and major plays in the 2014 World Cup currently headed for a Germany-Argentina final. The purely graphic images feature just two colors, marking the players’ positions by their numbers, and the ball’s trajectory as it approaches the goal, bouncing, ricocheting, and being passed and shot.