Natty Dreadlocks freedom soon come, say The Screw
Rasta inmates spend 10 years in isolation for hair
JARRATT, Va. – Kendall Gibson would seem to be one of Virginia’s most dangerous prisoners.
For more than 10 years he has lived in segregation at the Greensville Correctional Center, spending at least 23 hours every day in a cell the size of a gas station bathroom. In a temporary home for the worst of the worst — inmates too violent or disruptive to live among the rest of society’s outcasts — he has been a permanent fixture.
He is there, he says, not for his crimes but for a crime he will not commit — a crime against God.
The only thing imposing about Gibson is his long black dreadlocks, resting on the front of his shoulders so they won’t drag the ground as he shuffles along in his orange jumpsuit.
It is his hair — winding locks he considers a measure of his Rastafarian faith — that makes him a threat, according to Virginia Department of Corrections Operating Procedure No. 864.1.
The rule took effect on Dec. 15, 1999. Inmates had two choices: cut their hair no longer than their collars and shave their beards, or be placed in administrative segregation.
In the beginning, Gibson was among as many as 40 inmates who opted for confinement over cutting. By 2003, when a handful of the inmates filed a federal lawsuit against the department over their detention, 23 remained in segregation.
The lawsuit failed. Some cracked under the pressure of constant isolation with no visits from loved ones, educational or religious programs or commissary. Some went home.
Today, it’s difficult to tell exactly how many remain in isolation. The Department of Corrections won’t volunteer the information, but has confirmed 10 names given to The Associated Press by a group of Rastafarian inmates.
Robin Hood’s Kevin Durand To Play ‘I Am Number Four’ Nemesis
Kevin Durand is ‘Number Four’ villain
‘Robin Hood’ thesp also in talks for ‘Real Steel’
By JUSTIN KROLL
Kevin Durand has landed the role of the villain in the D.J. Caruso helmed pic “I Am Number Four” and is in early negotiations to join Hugh Jackman in the pic “Real Steel”.
He joins a cast that includes “District 9” star Sharlto Copley and Alex Pettyfer.
Both productions are DreamWorks with Disney distributing.
“Number Four” is based on a novel by James Frey and Joby hughes and is about a group of aliens who escape to Earth after their planet was destroyed by another species only to realize they are now being hunted on Earth.
Alfred Gough and Miles Millar wrote the script
Michael Bay is also producing.
Airport Employee’s Puny Penis Puts Him In The Pokey
Suspicious Package: TSA Worker Jailed After Junk Joke
MIA worker assaults colleague who made crack at genitalia after walk through machine
By WILLARD SHEPARD and BRIAN HAMAC
Miami-Dade Police
Perhaps the new airport body scanners are a bit too revealing.
A TSA worker in Miami was arrested for aggravated battery after police say he attacked a colleague who’d made fun of his small genitalia after he walked through one of the new high-tech security scanners during a recent training session.
Rolando Negrin, 44, was busted for assault after things got ugly at Miami International Airport between Negrin and some of his fellow Transportation Security Administration workers on Tuesday.
Sources say Negrin stepped into the machine during the training session and became embarrassed and angry when a supervisor started cracking jokes about his manhood, made visible by the new machine.
According to the police report, Negron confronted one of his co-workers in an employee parking lot, where he hit him with a police baton on the arm and back.
“[Negron] then told victim to kneel down and say ‘your sorry,'” the report reads. “Victim stated he was in fear and complied with [Negron].”
Mickey Rourke’s Review of Iron Man 2
‘Iron Man 2’ star Mickey Rourke says he has ‘no idea’ what the movie is about
Rich Schultz
Best of the rest
Mickey Rourke has some explaining to do to his fellow “Iron Man 2” co-stars. “I have no idea what’s in the movie or what it’s about, to be honest with you,” Rourke says about his latest flick. “I read my character. I didn’t read a lot of the other stuff too clearly.” But Rourke is insisting that he’s spacing out on purpose. “I kind of don’t want to know what’s going on,” he says. Hmm…
The Nashville Flood
“a candle with the steam-grilled-on-a-bed-of-onions scent of America’s first fast-food hamburger”
White Castle Celebrates National Hamburger Month With the Launch of a Slyder(R)-Scented Candle
COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 30 /PRNewswire/ — During the month of May, America’s first fast-food hamburger chain will pay homage to the hamburger with online promotions, the launch of a Slyder®-scented candle benefiting Autism, the recruitment of elected officials to work behind the grill and the delivery of “Sealed With A Crave” (S.W.A.C.) gift cases to its biggest celebrity fans.
To commemorate its 18th annual celebration of National Hamburger Month, White Castle has teamed up with Laura Slatkin, often called the “queen” of home fragrances, to introduce a candle with the steam-grilled-on-a-bed-of-onions scent of America’s first fast-food hamburger. Packaged in a ceramic holder that reproduces the signature cardboard sleeve of the White Castle Slyder®, the candles are available in select White Castle restaurants and on the WhiteCastle.com website. Candles sell for $10 each, with net proceeds benefiting Autism Speaks.
Too Weird For A Title
Memoir Genre Alive And Still Kickin’, Despite “the legacy of James Frey still lingering”
Despite Little Chance of Commercial Success, Average People Still Want to Write Memoir
With the memoir boom of the 1990s over and the legacy of James Frey still lingering, why are memoir writing classes so popular?
By April Rueb
BookCourt, a charming bookstore in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, is usually a calm oasis for browsing and relaxing. But on this warm Wednesday night in March, about 20 women and five men sit anxiously in folding chairs. Young and old, black and white, college-educated and not, these people are all here for the same reason: to learn how to write a memoir.
This night BookCourt is hosting a free memoir writing workshop with the Gotham Writers’ Workshop. Taught by Melissa Febos, 29, a teacher, writer and author of the just-released memoir, “Whip Smart,” the class is meant to be a quick introduction on memoir writing, a little taste of what the Gotham Writers’ Workshop offers for almost $400 in a 10-week program. Febos begins the class with an assignment: write your life story in five sentences, in five minutes.
She calls time and hands shoot up. Febos asks a young woman to share what she wrote. The girl tells the class that she was raised in the Chinatown ghetto of Boston, a bilingual nurse chose her English name and that despite leaving China, her parents return often to visit. Febos gives another assignment: write your life story in five completely different sentences. A young man with a thick New York accent says he was born in the Bronx, raised by an Irish mother and a drunken father. The class quickly turns into a competition, each person trying to outdo the last with his tales of hardship.
Chinese Man’s Bowels Eaten By Voracious Eel Shoved Into His Rectum by “Friends”
Man dies after having eel inserted in rectum during a prank gone awry
In what may be one of the most shocking stories of the year, a man in China died after having an eel inserted into his rectum. Doctors who treated the victim in the Sichuan Province, did not know how the man met his demise until they performed an autopsy and discovered an Asian swamp eel up his backside.
Reports indicate that the man, who has only been identified as a chef, apparently was a victim of a horrible prank. The chef, after a heavy night of drinking, passed out with some of his friends. Those friends thought that it would be funny to put the eel inside of the victim. The medical examiner determined that the cause of death was that the eel, which was fifty centimeters long, devoured the man’s bowels.
“Scary,” muttered Winston beneath his thoughts.
from Media Bistro’s eBookNewser
Amazon Launches “Most Highlighted Passages of All Time” List
Do you want to share your digital book underlines with the world? Amazon is testing a new program that will tabulate and rank underline passages like a scoreboard.
Amazon recently launched a ““Most Highlighted Passages of All Time”” feature that showcases the book passages underlined by Kindle readers–a 21st Century twist on literary quotation. So far, the list has been dominated by bestselling books: The Shack by William P. Young, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, andThe Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.
Here’s more about the program: “AmazonKindle also introduces a “Popular Highlights” feature that identifies the passages that are most highlighted by the millions of Kindle customers. We combine the highlights of all Kindle customers and identify the passages with the most highlights.
Glee’s Dianna Agron Snags Lead Role in I Am Number Four
from The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision Blog
‘Glee’ star Dianna Agron to join sci-fi movie ‘I Am Number Four’ (exclusive)
Dianna Agron, one of the stars of red-hot Fox series “Glee,” has nabbed the female romantic lead in “I Am Number Four,” DreamWorks’ adaptation of the upcoming young-adult science-fiction book by James Frey and Jobie Hughes.
“Four” revolves around a group of nine aliens who escaped their home planet just before it was annihilated by a rival species. Hiding out on Earth, the title character, to be played by British actor Alex Pettyfer, disguises himself as a human high schooler, only to discover he’s still being hunted by his planet’s enemy.
Agron will play a girl dating a high school jock who falls for Number Four and becomes his confidante.
“Four” will be Agron’s big-studio debut. The role in the high-pedigree movie — Michael Bay is producing with Steven Spielberg, and D.J. Caruso is directing — was highly sought-after, and the studio went through several rounds of tests to find the right candidate.
Sharlto Copley is already on board as Four’s mentor, while Teresa Palmer is cast as Pettyfer’s fellow alien, Number Six.
Chris Bender and J.C. Spink are executive producing with David Valdes. Al Gough and Miles Millar wrote the screenplay. “Four” is scheduled to begin principal photography next month in Pittsburgh.
Gawker’s Worst Intern Ever (Miserably Missing The Humble Standard Set by Former G-Intern, James Frey)
The Worst Intern Ever.
 an intern’s life. flickr: Steve Webel |
Thanks, Gawker, for destroying our faith in humanity: the blog’s just posted e-mails from a wannabe intern who is just so awful that we find it hard to believe that this kid is for real:
S/he says things like “Is there a possibility that your internship will turn into a full time position? The reason I ask is because I’m looking for a full time job and I would not want to waste my time at an internship that was not going to lead to a full time position.” And “I find it very unprofessional that you have gone an entire day without responding to me and it makes me question the type of office you work in and if I want to be an intern at your company.”
25ft. Tall Robot Baby Captured In Spain
Spain’s Electronically Animated Giant Baby
Miguelin, is a 6.5 meters tall animated baby that Spain has created for its pavilion, at the Shanghai World Expo 2010.
And if you thing this toddler’s just a big old doll, you’re sadly mistaken. Miguelin breaths, blinks and dreams of the cities we leave to our future generations, while smiling to visitors that walk by. The baby’s “mother” is Spanish film director, Isabel Coixet, who picked this theme both because of “the passion China and Spain share for children”, and as a way of showing that our actions have consequences on our children.
Flan, Man
Flan
This recipe is based on the rich dessert served at La Golondrina’s Cafe — the secret ingredient is orange juice. (Los Angeles Times/Carlos Chavez) |
By Noelle Carter
This recipe, from La Golondrina Cafe a L.A. Mexican restaurant established in 1924, combines a silky, rich custard base sweetened with condensed and evaporated milks.
The subtle hints of vanilla and amaretto pair perfectly with the orange-infused caramel topping. The restaurant serves its flan with a sprinkling of dried cranberries, toasted pecans, whipped cream and an optional strawberry sauce.
La Golondrina Cafe’s flan
Total time: About 2 1/2 hours, plus chilling time for the flan
3/4 cup sugar
Juice of 1 orange, about 1/2 cup
5 eggs
2 1/2 (14-ounce) cans condensed milk
1 1/2 (12-ounce) cans evaporated milk
1 3/4 cups milk
1 tablespoon amaretto
1 tablespoon vanilla
1. In a medium, heavy-bottom saucepan, combine the sugar with the orange juice and one-fourth cup water. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until the sugar is completely dissolved.
World’s 50 Best Restaurants
World’s 50 best restaurants list released
April 27, 2010 10:15 a.m. EDT
This year’s top-ranked restaurant, Denmark’s Noma, helmed by chef René Redzepi, ranked at No. 3 in 2009
(CNN) — Danish cuisine reigns supreme, according to the some of the planet’s most prominent eaters.
S. Pellegrino’s annual “World’s 50 Best Restaurants” list was released on Monday at a celebrity-chef-studded event in London, England, marking the ninth edition of the much buzzed-about (and hotly debated) catalogue of the international culinary landscape.
Eight of the restaurants crowned this year — Alinea in Chicago, Illinois; Daniel, Per Se, Le Bernardin, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, wd~50 and Eleven Madison Park in New York; and The French Laundry in Yountville, California — are in the United States, this year’s most honored country.
Of the remaining 42 top finishers, six are in France; Spain and Italy each have five. Here is the full list:
1) Noma (Copenhagen, Denmark)
2) El Bulli (Roses, Spain)
3) The Fat Duck (Bray, England)
4) El Celler de Can Roca (Girona, Spain)
5) Mugaritz (Errenteria, Spain)
6) Osteria Francescana (Modena, Italy)
7) Alinea (Chicago, Illinois)
8) Daniel (New York)
9) Arzak (San Sebastián, Spain)
10) Per Se (New York)
11) Le Chateaubriand (Paris, France)
12) La Colombe (Cape Town, South Africa)
The Coalition To Get James Frey Re-Addicted To Drugs (YouTube)
“#JamesFrey thinks his [new] book could work, or be the biggest disaster ever.”
oooooh, James Frey gets me riled up – which is exactly what he wants!
25apr10
In the time betwixt when I eat my palate-cleansing pre-dinner salad and my platter of mouthwatering lamb and quinoa tonight, I will be mulling three things. First, which questions I’ll ask Ezra Winton (of Cinema Politica fame) tomorrow about the state of Aboriginal filmmaking in Canada, following up on a story I’ve been writing for about a month now (and which I’m shopping around, if anyone is interested.) Secondly, how attractive apparel on a woman – namely 4-inch heels – will draw second and third glances from men in direct proportion to how painful said apparel is. And thirdly, why I cannot abide James Frey and will never read one of his creations, no matter how much we mutually dislike Oprah Winfrey.
(Oh and I will also be thinking about recent conversations with documentary filmmaker Magnus Isacsson, most of which are highly confidential but I’ll tell all here. Kidding! I’ll write what I can. In a bit.)
Meanwhile, to the despicable James Frey…
The Fourth Horseman of the literary world – a term coined by greater minds than mine – is in Montreal hawking his latest novel Bright Shiny Morning. Yes, that man, the Million Little Pieces guy the world couldn’t get enough of after he was outed on national television for having fabricated (or embellished, as he prefers to call it) his first book. That guy, who flouts every convention known to English writing, doesn’t use quotation marks (“ooooohhhhh!” cries the admiring public. “How very brave!”) and thinks he’s more bad-ass than Hustler S. Thompson. Yes, I said Hustler, because they’re both just that: masters of cheap literary tricks and good at playing fast and loose with the world around them.
I attended this talk at the Blue Metropolis, Montreal’s literary-get-your-book-geek-hat-on festival, titled ‘Face to Face with James Frey’. The interview was hosted by a recent professor of mine, Joel Yanofsky, who did an excellent job asking some tough questions while maintaining a civil and friendly discourse. He’s a brilliant interviewer (and I don’t say that just because he gave me an ‘A’ in Magazine writing.) You can listen to the interview on CBC radio, though I’m not sure when. It doesn’t seem to be scheduled for any time in particular on the site. Should be either on the programIdeas or Writers and Company or the Sunday Edition in Montreal.
Anyway, I have a lot to say about Frey. I’ll start with my twitterfeed as the talk unfolded:
- At BlueMetropolis watching interview of #JamesFrey by a former prof of mine #JoelYanofsky
- Opening question: how do you feel about memoirs now? Answer: I feel the term is bullshit.
- “Anyone who reads a memoir and thinks it’s truth is pretty much lying to themselves” #JamesFrey
- “I thot, F–k it,I’m gonna do James” in answer 2 ? whether it was his idea2put his name in book.#JamesFrey
- “Moved 2 LA 2 write books 2 make money.” #JamesFrey
- Million Little Pieces: was ttrying 2find his voice.#JamesFrey “wanted 2be the most controversial writer of my time”
- “I use a huge amount of profanity, I don’t use paragraph indentations, I don’t use quote marks” #JamesFrey
- He certainly does. Every third word is “profane”. #JamesFrey. And doesn’t speak in paragraphs. Seems 2think it’s cool.
- “It was mostly about making this dream come true, which was writing this book. It was supposed2be shocking in how it was written.”#JamesFrey
- “it was published in 25 languages. I got an extra 10 out of Oprah.” #JamesFrey “In a lot of ways it was awesome, it was perfect.” >>> referring to Oprah-outing controversy and how good it was for sales <<<
- Claims to have HAngels bodyguards w/him when he does book tours or interviews in the US. #JamesFrey HA leader claims “you’re like us now.”>>>> that’s Hell’s Angel’s <<<<<
- Good question: “why wasn’t the truth enough? Why wasn’t what happened to you, enough?” #JamesFrey
- “If I can fuck a reader up, make you cry, or not be able to turn the next page, then that’s truth. I’m not interested in facts.” #JamesFrey
- Talking about NormanMailer: “he said, ‘this happens when you write a book important enough to cause this kind of controversy’.” #JamesFrey
- The idea that memoir is not a legitimate form of writing is… Interesting. True that what’s important is truth, not facts. But.. #JamesFrey >>>>my commentary starting to sneak in <<<<<
- “I’ll be back&I’m coming back with both my middle fingers up&they can all kiss my ass b/c I’m writing a book that’ll b read 50 yrs from now” >>>>>yes, there was lots of crudeness, he seems to delight in it the way a 12 year old boy would <<<<<<
- Re: latest book ‘bright shiny morning’ about L.A. #JamesFrey. JYanofsky calls it “‘Grapes of Wrath’ with lots more swearing in it.”
- #JamesFrey:”You want me to write books that are either fact or fiction?Well F– you! I’m going to do exactly the same thing I did last time”
- “Only I’m going to do it even more sophisticated this time, so you can’t tell the difference.” about his latest book #JamesFrey
- Look for #JamesFrey’s latest attempt at fact-fiction storytelling: The Third Testament of the Bible. About Jesus in Manhatten. >>>>>NOT a joke. <<<<<<
- Believes American fundamentalist religion will cause a war that will destroy the world in the next 50 years. #JamesFrey
- “I want to experience everything. As much of the best things and the worst things in life that I can, and everything in b/t.” #JamesFrey >>>>>>> (Yanofsky asks if he would give his kids this advice, and he replies no, he wouldn’t) <<<<<<<<
- #JamesFrey thinks his book could work or be the biggest disaster ever.”It’s about the most audacious,absurd,ambitious thing ever attempted” >>>>> he DID qualify this by saying, “by a writer” <<<<<<
- Thankfully #JamesFrey turns down comparisons to HSThompson, Truman Capote. Says they turned into caricatures of themselves. Sure u escaped?
- Admits 2writing &commissioning other books &having them written by younger writers. Beware! There are books out there by #JamesFrey,but not!
In conclusion:
- My take on #JamesFrey & his problem with memoir, or any kind of storytelling that purports to be stick to the truth: those who don’t like it….
- … are usually the ones who have an equal and proportional issue with taking responsibility for their words, and actions. #JamesFrey…
- …just wants to write what he wants to write, and let the world be damned. Enjoy the ride while it lasts #JamesFrey. At least ur not alone
Mr. Frey’s arrogance was evident, oh-so-evident throughout the interview. He was gleeful about being labeled “notorious” and a bad boy in the world of highbrow lit. He loves being mentioned in the same breath as Norman Mailer. He’s been determined to do get to this point his whole life.
But that’s not really what bothered me in the end. Even though this whole adventure seemed like one big game to him, all of it: messing up the literary conventions, getting a reputation for being a troublemaker, making piles of money doing it, having to shelter in France because he was so reviled in the States, having Hell’s Angles bodyguards because he’s such a bad-ass, it’s not so bad. There are a lot of rich a—holes with crazy ideas about changing the entire way one field or another is played. I don’t actually quibble with any of the above.
The fact that he’s making tons of money and published in all these countries just means that he has a wider audience for his ego, but I’m sure it was always there. He can be as arrogant as his talent entitles him to, he can make as much money as the buying public will allow him to, and he can flout as many conventions as he wants. That’s his perogative.
However, I don’t buy his dismissal of the entire memoir genre as false. I get that we’re in the post-postmodern age, when everything is relative and nothing is real. Nothing you see is going to be the same as what I see, which is his argument for why the memoir is a false form of journalism. I get that. But that doesn’t mean it’s invalid. It just means you have to be extra-responsible for what you communicate. Extra careful to put things into terms that everyone can identify with, yet which are unique to your perspective and true to the situation.
Frey doesn’t seem to want to indulge in that sort of hard-won, reflective writing. He just wants to write what he wants, and “f–k everyone else.” How many times he said “F–k ‘em” today, I couldn’t count. He’s simply unwilling to take the time to write something with some semblance of truth, so he resorts to his pet creation “storytelling” that he uses to excuse any combination of fancy and fact. And he bears no responsibility for it, because it’s just a story. It doesn’t matter. Fuck em.
Nor do I buy his reasons for mixing fact and fiction so gleefully and calling it “truth”. He claims that what he’s getting at in his stories, which he says are between 75 per cent and 85 per cent factually faithful, is high art and truth. He’s not about the lowly, pedestrian communication of facts, which he seems to consider a little more base than flipping burgers at McDo’s. But as humans we are forced to make decisions every day, to do or not do, and this results in the particular circumstances we find ourselves in. It’s the story of what happened, and why it happened, that’s important, not your damn recreation of it according to how you later decided you want it to have happened.
We all embellish things in the telling. No question. But anyone who so cavalierly dismisses any responsibility to tell things the way they are, not the way they feel they should be, is not writing non-fiction. They should make their money doing something else, or pretending to do something else.
James Frey: Take your illusions elsewhere. I know some think you’re a whiz and buy up your books just because they don’t know what the hell they’re reading, and they don’t care. What’s sad is that it’s precisely those poor suckers that makes Frey laugh up his sleeve the whole time, at the whole establishment, at all of America, because he’s still got everyone playing his little game.
Flight Of The bumblePad by Master Lang Lang
“Both were drunk. Officers saw a gasoline can, a lighter and a cigarette butt on the front porch.”
Cops puzzled after finding drunk couple burned
Associated Press
HARRIMAN, Tenn. – Police are trying to sort out how a couple got burned.
The Knoxville News-Sentinel reported a man, 62, wouldn’t tell police what happened on Tuesday and the woman kept saying the lawn mower exploded, even though there was none in the yard.
Police reported both were drunk. Officers saw a gasoline can, a lighter and a cigarette butt on the front porch.
A neighbor first reported and man and a woman had doused each other with gasoline and set each other on fire, then recanted and said he only saw a fire on the porch and ran to help put it out.
Teresa Palmer – Number Six
Teresa Palmer Joins I Am Number Four
Teresa Palmer has become the newest go-to good looking actress for geek film properties. The Australian actress had a small role in The Grudge 2, but had her big break in the Adam
Her latest gig is a science fiction adaptation: the Dreamworks’ Michael
She will join Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker and Beastly star Alex Pettyfer , who is set to play the lead character – Four.
The Evil That Men Do
Hitler ‘Downfall’ Parodies Removed From YouTube
Popular Hitler ‘Downfall’ Parodies Removed From YouTube; Company Cites Copyright Infringement
(AP) Adolf Hitler, for years a vessel of frustration in a popular Internet meme, has been quieted.
“Downfall,” a German film released in 2004 about Hitler’s last days, has been adopted for wildly popular YouTube parodies that have spanned mock rants about topics as varied as playing Xbox video games to Kanye West to Apple’s new iPad.
Every spoof is from the same scene in the film: A furious, defeated Hitler, played by Bruno Ganz, unleashes an impassioned, angry speech to his remaining staff, huddled with him in his underground bunker.
The scene takes on widely different meaning when paired with English subtitles about, say, a late-season collapse by the New York Mets. Most any subject could be – and was – substituted, made even funnier by the scene’s intense melodrama, artful staging and timely cutaways.
It was the meme that refused to die – until it did.
On Tuesday, the clips on YouTube, many of which had been watched by hundreds of thousands, even millions, began disappearing from the site. Constantin Films, the company that owns the rights to the film, asked for them to be removed, and YouTube complied.
Was It Simply Bad Timing Behind Oprah Winfrey’s “Personal De-spleening” of James Frey?
from The San Francisco Chronicle
Nobody knows the trouble I made up
Writer/memoirist James Frey got fried for making up the downer times of his life in the best-seller, “A Million Little Pieces.” When he was busted, 
Oprah personally de-spleened him on her show after she initially had made him a confessional hero.
That was four years ago. Frey just had bad timing.
Today, the two most powerful celebrities in the world, Barack Obama and Oprah herself, are getting tagged for re-arranging their personal histories to fit what’s referred to widely in our contemporary culture as “the narrative.”
This concept of narrative, otherwise known as “a story,” has become a clichéd requirement not just in politics but for anyone famous using personal plot lines for traction in the public arena.
So if people at the top of society, like the president and Oprah, are going to fabricate some things in service to the larger sense of history and purpose, maybe we should loosen our standards for facts.
[ click to continue reading at the San Francisco Chronicle ]
Kick-Ass
Movie review: ‘Kick-Ass’
It’s a shrewd mixture of slickly made comic-book violence, unmistakable sweetness and ear-splitting profanity that is poised to be a popular culture phenomenon.
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Film Critic
“Kick-Ass” is the movie our parents warned us about, the movie you don’t want your children to see. A highly seductive enterprise that’s equal parts disturbing and enticing, it will leave you speechless because its characters — especially a 12-year-old virtuoso of violence named Hit Girl — are anything but.
This shrewd mixture of slick comic-book mayhem, unmistakable sweetness and ear-splitting profanity is poised to be a popular culture phenomenon because of its exact sense of the fantasies of the young male fanboy population. Directed by Matthew Vaughn and written by Jane Goldman and Vaughn, this comic-book-come-to-life was not just based on a book by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., but made at the same time the original comic was being created.
Doc Banksy
Exit Through the Gift Shop, Brought To You by Banksy, Sort Of
By Aaron Hillis
A genuinely hip, thought-provoking work of art disguised as a doomed documentary resurrected, Exit Through the Gift Shop is not just the definitive portrait of street-art counterculture, but also a hilarious exposé on the gullibility of the masses who embrace manufactured creative personas. Though it’s credited as a Banksy picture—as in the ever-elusive U.K. graffiti ninja whose puckish, anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian stencils have appeared everywhere from metropolitan billboards worldwide to the West Bank barrier wall—the film ostensibly began with him tapped as its on-camera subject.
Banksy’s talking head appears faceless under a dark hood, with his pithy wit digitally masked, to help narrator Rhys Ifans explain how the role reversal occurred. The real “director” of most of the truly fascinating, dangerously obtained footage herein is Thierry Guetta, an eccentric French expat and family man living in Los Angeles. Guetta’s fanatical devotion to recording every banal moment of his life yielded massive amounts of tape from the early days of the ’90s street art scene—tape that would ultimately become Exit.
Outcast
Interview: James Frey may still be a literary ‘outcast,’ but he’s keeping busy
Photograph by: Andrew H. Walker , Getty Images file photo
“I embrace (the Million Little Pieces episode) as part of my career, but I try not to make it my entire career,” James Frey says.
If you read, you’ve heard of writer James Frey.
However, there’s a chance you don’t know much about Frey the art dealer, Frey the art writer or Frey the conceptual writer.
Oh, and Frey the Class Dad.
Arguably one of the most controversial American writers in recent memory, Frey is coming to the five-day Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, which begins Wednesday.
“I have a 5-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son,” Frey said during a telephone interview from New York City. “I’m lucky enough to have a job with flexible hours so I can spend more time with my kids. I love their (pre)school. Little kids are the best.”
Frey speaks with Joel Yanofsky as part of the festival’s CBC Blue Literary Series, at Hôtel Delta Centre-Ville, Saturday, April 24 at 3 p.m.
Sharlto To I Am Number Four
‘I Am Number Four’ Sets Sights on ‘District 9’ Star Sharlto Copley
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, New Releases, Dreamworks, Steven Spielberg
District 9 star Sharlto Copley isn’t a household name yet, but that might change in the not too distant future. The actor has wrapped up work on this summer’s movie version of ’80s television series The A-Team(where he’ll play Howling Mad Murdock) and now THR’s Heat Vision blog is reporting he’s in negotiations to appear in a new sci-film with franchise potential entitled I Am Number Four.
Dreamworks has the rights to the title, based on the first novel in a planned six book young adult series by authors James Frey and Jobie Hughes. Adapted by Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar, I Am Number Four is about a group of aliens who escape to Earth after their home world is annihilated by a rival species. Once here, they disguise themselves as regular high school students and presumably do their best to fit in. Alex Pettyfer has already been cast as Number Four, while Copley would be playing an alien from a lower class who finds himself as Four’s adult guardian. I’m guessing some wacky situations arise out of this arrangement.
D.J. Caruso is set to direct with Spielberg and Michael Bay handling production duties — so at least we know this won’t be some cheap-looking book tie-in. I expect explosions and maybe even a few “giant f***ing robots” from the Bay camp.
Argentinian Fuzz Befuddled By Fake Sheep
Ewe Will Never Get Us Back In Prison
TWO escaped convicts have dodged a huge manhunt – by disguising themselves as SHEEP.
The pair dressed in full sheepskin fleeces, complete with heads, to lie low among farm flocks.
Robbers Maximiliano Pereyra, 25, and Ariel Diaz, 28, stole the sheep hides from a ranch after breaking out of an Argentinian maximum security prison a week ago.
And they have managed to evade the 300 cops on their trail – despite locals seeing them running through fields at night.
A farmworker at La Almeda said: “They were wearing grey clothes but had full sheepskins, including the sheeps’ heads, over their heads and backs.”
Baked fish with mint (samcocho)
Recipe: Baked fish with mint (samcocho)
Total time: 50 minutes
Servings: 4
4 whole sea bass or Tai snapper (each about 3/4 pound), gutted and scaled
Salt
Fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon olive oil
Wrinkly potatoes
Green cilantro sauce
Red chile sauce
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle the fish with salt and set aside 15 minutes. Tuck a few mint leaves into the cavity of each fish. Place the fish in a baking pan and drizzle with the oil.
Doc Martens 50 Years Old
Dr. Martens: The doctor is still in
The iconic footwear favored by punks and postal workers alike has had a long and storied life. The company is celebrating its 50th anniversary with some limited-edition 1460s and 1461s.
Cinderella’s fragile glass slipper and rugged Dr. Martens boots appear to have nothing in common. But you’d be surprised. That storied maiden slipped into her perfect fit and lived happily ever after. Millions have laced up their first pair of DM boots and, seemingly, lived just as happily, sticking with the footwear for decades. The brand marked its 50th anniversary last week and is still drawing fans from around the world.
Not many shoes appeal to such a range of people. Mail carriers, rock stars, skinheads, rebels and conformists are among the avid converts to Doc Martens.
The official anniversary was April 1, but this iconic footwear (it even appears in the Oxford English Dictionary) has roots more than a century old. In 1901, Benjamin Griggs and Septimus Jones set up a boot business in England, and 10 years later, Benjamin brought in his son Reginald to form R. Griggs & Co. Flash forward to 1945 Germany. Dr. Klaus Maertens has invented an air-cushioned sole. On leave during World War II, Maertens injures his ankle skiing. His army-issued boots are torture, so he designs a pair with finer leather and air-cushioned soles. The footwear doesn’t earn Maertens a reichsmark — until he teams up with Dr. Herbert Funck in 1947. Using abandoned rubber from Luftwaffe airfields, they create the perfect sole.
Maertens and Funck, now running a successful factory in Munich, are keen to sell internationally. Coincidentally, Bill Griggs of the Griggs company has heard of their magic soles. He calls the doctors to see whether he can manufacture them for his company in England. Getting an enthusiastic “ja,” Griggs designs different footwear uppers for the German air-cushions. He conceives the eight-eyelet boot, introduces yellow welt stitching and a two-toned, grooved edge. The famous black and yellow heel loop is added. Anglicizing the name, Griggs now has Dr. Martens footwear ready to soothe weary British soles.
Event Horizon Statues Confound Cops
Cops Rush to Aid Empire State “Jumper,” Turns Out He’s a Statue
NYers trained to “say something” if they “see something” — just not in this case By JENNIFER MILLMAN
They warned us this would happen.
Police raced to the Empire State Building yesterday after a frightened 911 caller saw what appeared to be a person poised on the ledge, preparing to jump, according to a published report.
Once they arrived, they realized the possible jumper was only a statue – one of the cast-iron life-size figures modeled in the form of an artist whose “Event Horizon” exhibit has sparked a flurry of 911 calls from passersby who mistake the statues, many of which are posed on precarious ledges and roofs around Manhattan, for possible suicide risks.
The presence of the statues dumbfounds some workers and tourists, particularly at the Empire State Building, from which half a dozen people have plunged to their deaths over the last 10 years. Just last month, a Yale grad student became the latest to leap to his demise from the observation deck.