a brand new kind of movie....

is this....real?





Synopsis from IMDB.com:
"In this concert film, from the same director as "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour," you follow the Jonas Brothers as they cross the country on their "Burning Up Tour". The film was filmed in Disney Digital 3-D and will only be shown in Digital 3D. Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift guest star and perform a song with the band. You will see backstage adventures with the Jonas Brothers, and you'll follow them as they prepare for the tour. A new song by the Jonas Brothers will premiere in the film as well. This was filmed July 12 and 13 in Anaheim, California at the Honda Center, and August 10 and 11 in New York City, New York in Madison Square Garden."

I'm not particularly into the Jonas Brothers. I feel as if I missed out on their rise to teen superstars...it is as if I went to sleep one night and the next morning, their promise rings and their dark eyebrows were on every channel. Oh, and of course there was lots of chatter about how they learned to treat women right from their mother.

Come to think of it...i forgot the third one's name. I know there is Joe and Nick, but who's the other? Brian? HA. Devon? Jason? I seriously can't remember. It seems that I'm less into them than I thought I was.

PSD

I came across this great blog called "photoshop disasters" that posts pictures that have been horribly manipulated, and it is my new addiction.

some of my favorites:

this is from march's vanity fair. here, we see director sam mendes (with his arm around his wife, kate winslet) with only one arm in the sleeve of a coat when the rest of his torso...isn't.

apparently this poor woman didn't read the fine print on a box of eyedrops!

i don't know which is worse...the arm or the neck.

IN YOUR FACE!

visit http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com for more atrocities.

It's not TV. It's HBO.

HBO has just aired a new documentary called The Black List, from photographer/filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and NYT film Critic Elvis Mitchell whose efforts attempt to explore "an answer to the persistent taint that western culture has applied to the word 'black.'"

The Black List: Volume One premiered in 2008 at the Sundance Film Festival, where Variety called it "an impeccably mounted survey of voices from across the spectrum of African-American accomplishment...a rich and revealing work of portraiture."

I urge everyone to visit hbo.com to find out more.

Here are some great clips:

Chris Rock:



Serena Williams:



Russell Simmons:

"I like pain...I love pain..."

My ears are pierced, but I hardly ever wear earrings. Even though I have some really great pairs (elephants, deep sea fishes, blue tassels, black tassels, and several pairs of chandelier earrings), I really only wear them for special occasions. I don't even really wear studs.

But this chick...she be wearin' some studs.

Her name is Elaine Davidson, and she holds the world record for most piercings. She's from Brazil and is a practicing nurse in Edinborough, Scotland.

When examined by the people from Guiness World Records in 2000, Elaine had a total of 462 piercings (192 of them in her face). In August of 2001, she had 720. In 2005, she got up to 3,950. Just wait.

When she counted them all this past month, she had 6,005.

Care to guess how much all of her piercings weigh?

...6.61386 lbs.

May Victory Be Yours

since i saw slumdog millionaire over winter break, i haven't been able to stop listening to the soundtrack. the techno beats of the songs, "liquid dance," "millionaire," and "aaj raat" help me keep a swift pace when i'm running, and the heartfelt melodies of "latika's theme" and "dreams of fire" make the scratches from my roommate's cat less painful. in fact, when my family and i had returned home after the late night showing at our theater, i bought the album on itunes before i even took my coat off.

that being said, i was thrilled when a.r. rahman won an oscar for "best song" on sunday. "jai ho," like the other songs on the soundtrack, is endlessly enticing. however, i didn't know exactly what "jai ho" meant. whenever i would say "jai ho" in my head, i would think of the phrase "gung ho," so i secretly believed it had something to do with enthusiasm or dedication. 

i wasn't even close.

for those of you who wanted to know, i learned today that "jai ho" means  "may victory be yours." much too cheesy for a lower back tattoo, but definitely perfect for a movie.

Another perspective on The Shock Doctrine

Journalist Naomi Klein's appearance at the IMU last week made waves throughout campus, as evidenced by the several hundred people who attended the lecture. Like any charismatic figure with something to say, Klein has both devoted supporters and critics. 

Will Wilkinson, from the Cato Institute in Washington D.C. delivered a pretty passionate prebuttal the night before Klein's lecture, and Chris Patton ran a column in the DI last week on the discrepancies between Klein's conclusions and the evidence she uses to reach them. (And if the DI's website worked, I could link to it. Damn.)

Here's another perspective from Roman Skaskiw, an Adjunct Professor who teaches Creative Writing for Business. He saw both Wilkinson and Klein, and has also served in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Roman:

"I agree with Naomi Klein's criticism of Iraq, torture, the bailout, corruption and cronyism, but it seems a non-sequitur to implicate the free markets. When there is less government, there is less wealth given to the political cronies. The fact that our government decided to redistribute our wealth to incompetent bankers (who would have otherwise gone out of business) doesn't implicate the free market, it implicates government interference in the market, which is what Naomi seems to be calling for. I remain completely confused by this.

"We live in a country where 22 million people (1/7th of the labor force) is directly employed by the Federal Government. I don't think we can afford so much government, and I don't think my belief is small government casts me in the same light as the Bush administration, which did not increase economic liberties, but saddled us with more debt than all its predecessors combined. Pointing to the Bush Administration as proof that free markets and free market reforms are a source of evil is completely schizophrenic. 

"There seemed to be a free association in Naomi Klein's lecture between free markets and horrible things like corporatism, Iraq, torture, and Blackwater. Freedom and liberty work. Countries with the greatest economic liberty, always have the greatest political and individual liberty."

-Katie Hanson

temptation

I'm feeling very tempted to post some videos on here of a few red carpet interviews from last night's weiner awards, and i'm pretty sure your homepage has already shown you how jolie grinned at aniston as she presented and sean penn's endearing acceptance speech. dare i post a clip of ben stiller's SPOT ON "joaquin phoenix"? (i dare!)

but darnit, i just can't seem to help myself. i guess i'm just a commie-homo-lovin-son-of-a-gun.

but i'm an even bigger lover of  PATENT #US 6840775

the oscar meyer weiner awards

hello all-

if you're like me, you watch the oscars to see celebrities be totally unpredictable. aside from the little men whose jobs it is to wave at the winners and give them the "wrap it up" signals, there really aren't any rules. the winners get caught up in their wins and forget their mother's names and lose control of their bowels. the losers feel like cutting their lover's jugular just as the camera has panned to them to see them feign a reaction that validates the person who stole their golden man. in any case, it makes for great t.v.

another reason why i watch the oscars is to see the fashion. i always enjoy predicting which women will fire their stylists tomorrow morning because of how the blogs and tabloids reacted to their dresses (because who cares about what men wear, anyway? tuxes are all the same, except for tom ford's and calvin klein's...because they are always smashing). 

in case you missed the show, here are the lucky few to take home a statue:

best actress in a supporting role: penelope cruz (vicki cristina barcelona)

best actor in a supporting role: heath ledger (the dark knight)

best original screenplay: milk

best adapted screenplay: slumdog millionaire

best animated feature film: wall-e

best short film: le maison en petits cubes

best art direction: the curious case of benjamin button

best costume design: the dutchess

best makeup: the curious case of benjamin button

best cinematography: slumdog millionaire

best short film: spiezeugland (toyland)

best documentary feature: man on wire

best documentary short: smile pinki

best visual affects: the curious case of benjamin button

best sound editing: the dark knight

best sound mixing: slumdog millionaire

best film editing: slumdog millionaire

best music (score): slumdog millionaire

best music (song): slumdog millionaire

best foreign language film: departures

best directing: slumdog millionaire

best actress in a leading role: kate winslet (the reader)

best actor in a leading role: sean penn (milk)

best picture: slumdog millionaire

AND NOW FOR THE COUTURE:

first of all, DIANE LANE: could you please hold your husband's hand? or look at him? give us something to remind ourselves that you two coexist?

moving on...

we've got a variety of colors on these women but most of the dresses have the same sweetheart or strapless cut across the chest and are relatively long in length. some bold colors here and there (freida pinto, amanda seyfried, heidi klum) but we can also see some paler colors, which might be celebrity's way of acknowledging us townspeople and our "economic crisis." as much as i hate to give them to her, props to miley cyrus (i just threw up a bit) for going balls to the wall in her dress choice and having it pay off. her stylist will live to see another day. props also go to sarah jessica parker (my idol) for never failing to rock a ballet length princess dress in a beautiful light green shade. finally, my compliments to ms. sasha fierce herself, beyonce, for being able to recognize a fabulous and foward-thinking print. 

the worst dressed goes to:

TILDA SWINTON! my dear, i can't see your svelte shape in these haphazardly bows on your shoulder and hips. plus, you look bored as shit.

SOPHIA LOREN! get a grip. you're a mess. bad color, bad hair, bad necklace, bad ruffles. just bad. 

Hello D-(eye) readers,
This is my first post to the D- (eye) blog, so I thought it might be a cool idea to endure myself to my readers by helping everyone out. And what's more helpful than a little distraction during those long study breaks? I know that for me, frequent Youtube breaks are the best way to break up the monotony of studying. Better for your lungs than a smoke break, and more fun than yogic breathing, these bite-sized bits of entertainment should do the trick. So here is a compilation of some fun youtube videos to make that Kierkegaard paper a little less daunting

My first video is "Welcome To My Home: A Comedy Parody by Deven Green." The original video was an eighties videocassette that gave viewers a chance to see the home of Brenda Dickson, star of "The Young and the Restless". This "Comedy Parody" is a ridiculous dub that contains what is likely your new catchphrase. Personal favorites are :
"I read porn to the blind"
"When you eat you're just a vacuum with nipples"
"F.U. F.Y.I."




"VGL Boys: The Recession Video"- Next, another video that I recommend are any videos uploaded by JeffreySelf. The videos can be offensive, but at least they are offensive to everyone.



"Sheila’s phrases to live by"-
This video is by singer songwriter Rosie Thomas’ comedic alter ego. Rosie the singer is a personal favorite of mine, and I'm mighty found of her comedy videos as well. After Thomas’ musical performance, she sometimes will do a stand-up routine as Sheila for her encore.



"Ring my Bell- Leslie Hall- Episode 1"
Leslie Hall rose to youtube fame with her video Gem Sweater. She quickly became "the virtual sensation sweeping the internet nation" as she modestly put it during her last Iowa City show. I recommend searching Leslie Hall on youtube and watching everything you find, but here is a good start.



Thanks for joining me for my first D-(eye) blog post. Good luck with that paper!

It's time to cook biotch: Coolio caprese salad

Rachel Ray ain't got shit on this "ghetto witchdoctor superstar chef." For one, she doesn't suggest recipes for your salad-eating bitch of a girlfriend or use profanity as liberally as olive oil. But to be honest, Coolio's not a bad chef, he's got a ton of charisma, and his chef hat is so fine it makes Bam look like a bum.

I can't believe it, but I might actually use some of these recipes. Spinach? Avocado? All he needs to do is lose the useless sidekick and the chicks who can't do anything but get boob jobs and simper. Then I'm sold. Get this man a food network channel!