Lorely Rodriguez, aka Empress Of, snagged an Album Of The Week nod a couple of months ago on the strength of Me, her debut collection of minimal, fractured dance-pop. Last night, Rodriguez stopped by SiriusXMU for a live in-studio session, during which she ditched the synths for a spare (but not energy-less), piano-led cover … More »
Having a plan is good. Waiting until you have the perfect plan before you take action, on the other hand, can keep you from doing anything at all.
High off the success of Fargo, now in its second season, Noah Hawley has set his sights on another all-American classic of pitch-black comedy. Hawley and FX are developing on TV series based on Kurt Vonnegut‘s Cat’s Cradle, a dystopian sci-fi tale that satirizes the Cold War arms race. More details on the Cats Cradle TV series after the jump.
IM Global initially announced plans for a Cat’s Cradle TV series in May, and the project is now moving forward with FX Productions producing. Hawley will write and executive produce the Cat’s Cradle TV series as part of his two-year overall deal with FX. TheWrap reports Cat’s Cradle will be a limited series, which makes sense — it’s not the kind of premise you can sustain indefinitely.
In the broader sense, Cat’s Cradle is about, among other things, the dangers of technological advancement, the purpose of religion, and the possibility of nuclear annihilation. Published in 1963, it reflects the concerns of the Cold War era, but its themes are still relevant today, and will be as long as science, war, and religion are around. So, you know, forever.
In typical Vonnegut fashion, those themes are bent and twisted into surreal yet resonant forms. The story follows a writer named John who gets involved with the children of the (fictional) co-creator of the atom bomb, and learns of a (fictional) crystalline form of water called ice-nine. The characters wind up on the fictional island of San Lorenzo, where the local population worships a strange religion with even stranger origins.
Vonnegut’s voice is so distinctive, and Cat’s Cradle so weird, that my immediate instinct is to worry that Hawley will screw it up. But no one thought a TV adaptation of Fargo really sounded like a good idea at first, either (well, no one besides Hawley and FX, at least), and Hawley’s somehow managed to pull that off. That show’s mix of bleak humanity and pitch-black humor suggest Hawley’s sensibility could actually work pretty well for a Vonnegut adaptation.
Cat’s Cradle is Hawley’s third show with FX. Besides Fargo, he is also currently working on the X-Men-inspired Legion. The latter follows a troubled young mutant named David Haller (Professor X’s son in the comics), who’s been diagnosed as schizophrenic but comes to realize that the voices he’s hearing might be real. Legion already has a pilot order and Hawley is writing and executive producing.
The post ‘Fargo’ Creator Noah Hawley Developing Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘Cat’s Cradle’ for FX appeared first on /Film.
This Black Friday Deals craziness has gotten far too big to cover on this site, but I wanted to spotlight some of the pop culture screenprint deals which will be going on post-Thanksgiving. As of this morning, three of the five biggest pop culture galleries have announced a slew of Black Friday deals, including Mondo in Austin Texas, Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles California and Phone Booth Gallery in Long Beach California. Hit the jump to find out all the limited and not so limited deals you will have the chance to purchase this Friday.
Lets start off with Gallery 1988 as they were probably there first pop culture gallery to jump into the black Friday craze. Once again they will be offering 25% off most of their back inventory (excluding only recent/current exhibits and releases). The sale will begin November 27th at midnight and ends December 31st 2015. Alongside the annual sale, Gallery 1988 will also be releasing a bunch of new sreenprints, including:
Gallery 1988’s Black Friday sale begins online and in store (at the West location) from 11-6 PM.
Here is what Mondo in Austin Texas has announced for Black Friday:
Since 2011, we’ve opened up our poster flat file a couple times a year for a sale featuring a selection of sold-out prints from our archive. This has been something offered exclusively at our gallery space in Austin – until now. This Wednesday, we’ll be shutting down our site to prepare for the first online Flat File sale in the company’s history, kicking off at 10AM central time on Friday, November 27th. Fans can expect over 400 different prints sold at original cost from artists like Aaron Horkey, Tyler Stout, Olly Moss, Daniel Danger, Ken Taylor, Martin Ansin, and many more. With just a few of each poster available, you’ll want to be there when the Black Friday countdown clock hits zero. Flat file sales provide an opportunity for fans to purchase sold-out posters from the Mondo archive at original cost. The tradition began at our gallery in Austin, Texas where we opened up our poster flat file to local fans in between gallery exhibits. For Black Friday 2015, we’re excited to present the first-ever online flat file sale for fans across the globe.
No clues on which prints will be includes in the sale other than some of the posters will date back to 2010. Some posters we’ll only have a single print available, others will have a few. The sale goes live on Black Friday at 10am central time and will run through Sunday at 11:59PM CT. These prints are likely to sell very fast. Please Note that Mondo warns that adding posters to your cart does not guarantee purchase. Once an item is in your cart, you must continue to “checkout” to secure it for the allotted time. Also note that due to the number of posters available in the sale, Mondo can’t guarantee that your order will be fulfilled before the New Year. So don’t count on this as a Christmas gift. There is a full FAQ on their website.
And Phone Booth Gallery is also doing a “2015 Holiday Mystery Tube Sale.” Here are the details from their mailing list:
“As many of you know, we have moved out of our space in Long Beach, which makes this mystery tube sale even more unique. We discovered some hidden gems during our move, so we’re pulling out all the stops with rare and sold out prints, original drawings, scratch and dent, and even more surprises for everyone.
Phone Booth Gallery’s mystery tubes are now available on their website. And New York based artist Billy Dyson has donated an original work of art from his latest series “Speak 2 The Dead” as a giveaway — to one lucky winner.
They will also be doing a Black Friday deal:
Early birds that purchase something between now and Black Friday will receive an additional 10% off and a Phone Booth Gallery 0.75″ Pin/ and 2″ Patch set available for the first time to the public, absolutely FREE (while supplies last)! Use Coupon Code: HOLIDAYPBG at checkout.
The post Black Friday Deals: Mondo, Gallery 1988 and Phone Booth Gallery appeared first on /Film.
We all cry sometimes. For example, you may get sawdust in your eyes while woodworking. Or you watch an emotionally intense movie, such as The Dirty Dozen.
Those are the two occasions when it is acceptable to cry.
But Aaron Gillies, a comedy writer, has noted that his wife cries more often than that. She cries at incidents that he finds trivial. He has published a list of some of these occasions. These include watching a rabbit escape from a fox in a nature documentary and remembering that swans can be gay.
On reflection, I agree with the wife: all of these are legitimate reasons to cry, which you can now add to the pair that I have mentioned above.
Now, as a happily married man who plans to remain that way, I advise you gentlemen to never do this. Embarrassing your wife online is a terrible idea for most marriages. But Gillies's wife tweets that "I don't feel at all attacked." She's a good sport.
We’ll have over 400 different posters available dating back to 2010.
When the countdown clock hits zero at 10AM CT, all posters featured in the sale will go live on the site.
Some posters we’ll only have a single print available, others will have a few.
Adding posters to your cart does not guarantee purchase. Once an item is in your cart, you must continue to “checkout” to secure it for the allotted time.
CoreyNice. If you are not watching this, you should be.
FX announced Fargo will get a third season according to Deadline. The show, characterized as a limited series, is based on the Joel and Ethan Coen movie of the same name, but tells tales far and away from the kidnapping case of the feature. The second season, set in the 1979, stars Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Bruce Campbell as presidential hopeful Ronald Reagan.
“Year 2 of Fargo is an extraordinary achievement and, given Noah Hawley’s masterful storytelling, we can’t wait to see where the third, all-new version of Fargo takes us,” said Eric Schrier, a President of Original Programming for FX Networks and FX Productions.
Besides Fargo, Hawley is developing an number of shows for the cable channel, including Legion, based on the X-Men character, and an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut‘s novel, Cat’s Cradle.
Fargo, which airs on Mondays, has four episodes of the current season left to broadcast.
During the recent APEX Fights 8 event, Joshua Spears lost a tooth – and based on its subsequent trajectory, it’s probably not one he got back.
Facing fellow featherweight Preston Schick at the Nov. 14 event in Kingsport, Tenn., Spears ate a heavy right and then a quick left, which dislodged a tooth and sent it airborne. Schick then quickly unloaded another right, and the tooth was sent rocketing into the crowd:
Check out the full fight above (courtesy of Valor Fights), or skip to the 3:30 mark to watch the fight-ending sequence and the flying incisor.
And if you’re in the Tennessee area, you can try to grab your own souvenir on Dec. 12, when APEX Fights 9 takes place in Newport.
CoreyThis actually looks pretty good. His desperation may be funny.
Netflix has revived everything from Arrested Development to The Killing to Full House to Gilmore Girls, and apparently they figured while they were at it, they might as well bring back Rob Schneider‘s short-lived CBS sitcom ¡Rob!, too.
Well, not really. But the company is putting out another sitcom named after and starring Schneider. Real Rob promises to be somewhat more autobiographical, though. This is to Schneider what Master of None was to Aziz Ansari. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing depends on what you think of Schneider’s brand of comedy. Watch the first Real Rob trailer after the jump.
Netflix unveiled the first Real Rob trailer on YouTube.
Per Schneider’s website:
The scripted series is an exaggerated yet brutally honest depiction of Schneider’s real life. Rob lives in two worlds, one where he’s the most important person on set, and the other, where he’s the third most important person in a three-person household, after his two-year-old daughter, Miranda, and his younger Mexican wife, Patricia. Patricia doesn’t quite grasp Rob’s level of fame, because when he was getting his first movie role, she was getting her first tricycle. Rob lives a life where his stalker is more reliable than his assistant, while his assistant is creepier than his stalker. Real Rob! is a ‘close to the bone’ portrayal of the internationally famous comedian, from the ups and downs of celebrity life, to the closer to home issues Rob faces daily with his wife and daughter. Season 1 guest stars include George Lopez, David Spade, and Norm Macdonald.
The page also boasts that Schneider is “the first actor to have written, produced, starred, directed and self-financed an entire season of a television show,” so now we know where all that sweet Grown Ups money is going. Speaking of which, Schneider is also reuniting with his Grown Ups co-star Adam Sandler for another Netflix project, Ridiculous 6.
The Real Rob trailer is full of such gems as “claustrophobia — the gayest of all phobias!” which doesn’t bode particularly well for the series. (Though this trailer is arguably less cringeworthy than the one for Ridiculous 6. Right? Maybe?) But it doesn’t really matter. According to Schneider’s website, another season is already on the way.
The way I see it, Real Rob is a win for everyone. If you like Schneider, it’s one more show to look forward to on your queue. If you don’t, it’s a welcome breather from the barrage of must-see TV that’s come from the service in the past few weeks. Now you can peruse Jessica Jones at your leisure, without worrying you’ll fall behind on your TV-viewing all over again when Real Rob hits December 1.
The post ‘Real Rob’ Trailer: Rob Schneider Has His Own Netflix Show Now appeared first on /Film.
HBO has dropped the first Game of Thrones Season 6 poster, and it confirms two things we’ve long suspected. One is that the show will return in April, as it usually does. No big surprise there. The other is that a certain someone will be back, in some way, shape, or form. Feast your eyes on the Game of Thrones Season 6 poster after the jump.
For the past five months, the Game of Thrones fandom has been embroiled in a debate about what really happened to Jon Snow. All the while, the cast and crew have strenuously insisted that “dead is dead.” But Snow’s return has been perhaps the worst-kept secret on television. Kit Harington has been spotted on set on numerous occasions, and at this point the question isn’t so much if he’ll be back as how.
HBO isn’t quite ready to give away the answer to that second question yet, but it is at least giving up on pretending Jon is gone for good. The Game of Thrones Season 6 poster confirms we haven’t seen the last of him. Even if he does seem to be in worse shape than usual.
Could that be a corpse? I mean… maybe. But it’d be awfully strange for HBO to kick off its entire Season 6 marketing game with an image of a guy who won’t figure into the season beyond a funeral scene. We’ll point out that while, yes, “dead is dead,” “dead” doesn’t quite mean the same thing in Westeros that it does in our reality. Jon Snow exists in a world where the red priest Thoros of Myr can revive Beric Dondarrion, after all. And there just so happens to be a red priestess currently hanging around the Wall, which seems awfully convenient.
Meanwhile, it’s looking increasingly likely that Jon Snow won’t even be the only “dead” character to resurface in Season 6. Recently, Ian McShane dropped some clues that seemed to indicate his character would be responsible for bringing back another fan favorite. So if we’re just bringing dead people back willy-nilly now… can someone maybe get to resurrecting Oberyn Martell? Pretty please?
The post ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6 Poster: Guess Who’s Back? appeared first on /Film.
CoreySome awesome stuff here. I wanted to get something, but they are pricey.
Uber is a convenient way to get around most cities, but airport rides can be tricky. It’s possible to use Uber for dropping off and picking up at airports in some cities, but there are rules and drawbacks to be aware of. Travel + Leisure lays them out.
If you’re a Verizon customer, you might want to check out these freebies. To celebrate “Thanksgetting” (ugh), Verizon’s giving away extra data, iTunes and Amazon gift cards, and more (yay!).
The Street Fighter franchise may not be the obvious place to go for advice on your sex life, but those bare knuckle brawlers Chun Li and Ryu are total knock outs so maybe they have some good advice to offer.
Dhalsim is surely a master of the Tantric arts, seeing as how he's so flexible, and Blanka, well, let's just say he's shockingly good in bed.
Thanks to Ross Snow's naughty yet nerdy mind we can now glean a sexy move or two from the Street Fighter crew, and while they're not all winners they're guaranteed to lead to round 2!
See 7 Street Fighter Sex Moves here (contains NSFW material)
Instagramming illustrator Greg O’Regan is combining his passions for drawing and film with a recent ambitious undertaking. Starting on October 21, O’Regan began watching a movie every day, and then posting a sketch of a prominent character from the film.
(Photo: South African Tourism)
Baobabs are among the widest trees in the world and this particular one is a whopper. At 155 feet around, the Sunland Baobob in Limpopo, South Africa is the largest in the continent. It's the location of a nice bar, located in the interior of the tree. The bar is designed to look like a classic English pub. It even has a dartboard. Up to 20 people can fit into the pub comfortably, drinking beer stored in the bar's literal root cellar.
This is 1 of 10 unusual bars located at remote or extreme locations rounded up by Atlas Obscura. The list includes one in Antarctica that distills its own vodka, the only bar on Pitcairn Island, and one in Scotland that is usually accessed by a boat ride.
-via Marilyn Bellamy
CoreyDool try to make it to 18 at least.
26 is even better.
Traditional Wedding Anniversary Gifts from Memory
GIFs are like sweet little nuggets of digital eye candy that sit there cycling through a series of frames, treating our eyeballs to a tiny visual tale we should, in theory, enjoy watching.
Truth is, many GIFs are sorely lacking in payoff, and viewers are left feeling like they wasted a few precious seconds of their lives watching that goofy GIF play out.
But those who enjoy their GIFs with a surprise twist will surely find something enjoyable to stare at in this collection of 10 GIFs Twists You Won't See Coming, where you won't have to wait long to be pleasantly surprised.
Chicago Dynasty by DC Visual Arts
The Blackhawks are taking to the ice once again to see if they can continue the Chicago dynasty and bring the Stanley Cup back home to Chi-town. Many amazing players have called the Blackhawks home during their 85 years on the ice, from Stan Makita and Bobby Hull to Ed Belfour setting franchise records in the goal to Jonathan Toews leading the team against their rivals to retain possession of the Cup. What does the future hold for those who don the Indian Head jersey? Keep tuning in, hockey fans, and find out for yourself!
Show your favorite town, and hockey team, some love with this Chicago Dynasty t-shirt by DC Visual Arts, it's one easy way to win a hockey based argument at the bar!
Visit DC Visual Arts's Facebook fan page, official website, Twitter and Tumblr, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more slammin' designs:
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| Incendiary Forces | US Troopers | Midi-Chlorian Rhapsody (Variant) | Weeping Direwolf |
View more designs by DC Visual Arts | More Sports T-shirts | New T-Shirts
Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!
CoreyThis show is phenomenal.
We can’t talk enough about Fargo. And by we, I mean you and I, dear reader. It’s been a long time coming — we’re already 6 episodes into the 10 episode second season of this fantastic show — but that doesn’t change the fact that we need to have a conversation about it.
Remember Game of Thrones in its third and fourth seasons? There was a raw, exposed nerve of unpredictability, especially for viewers not already familiar with George R.R. Martin’s books. The show experienced a lot of death. No one was safe. People have been telling me for weeks that this is where The Walking Dead is in its sixth and current season. On any given Sunday evening, one of your favorite characters can be snatched from you, their previously vivid presence snuffed out in some horrible manner. For shows like this, it’s all about “who” is going to die that brings about the horror.
Fargo is a different sort of beast entirely. Sure, there’s plenty of investment. I really like Patrick Wilson’s Lou Solverson, the Minnesota State Trooper with the adorably cancer-ridden wife, the young daughter (who is the connective tissue to season one) and the charming relationship with his local sheriff father-in-law (played gruffly by the living legend that is Ted Danson). But if Lou didn’t make it out of this second season — he’s still around through 6 episodes, sorry if that’s a spoiler — I’m not sure I’d be worried so much about the “who” as I would be about the “how” and “when.” Because when Fargo decides that it’s your time to go, you go in an unapologetically harsh manner. Everything is on the table at all times. And the show, oozing with style and kitschy accents, is a finely tuned weapon of anxiety creation. It’s easy to get swept up in the high-wire act, equally enthralled in the beautiful, silky smooth rhythm of its visual presentation, while also being tight as a fisherman’s not inside.
The most recent episode, “Rhinoceros,” is a perfect example of this matching of elegance and pre-trauma storytelling. If you haven’t watched it yet, go catch up. I’ll wait.
What you’ve just seen is an episode that is all about the consequences of sometimes rash decisions. As Kirsten Dunst’s Peggy explains, sometimes we make decisions and it feels like we’re deciding inside a dream. The core theme of Fargo, both seasons now, is that in times of crisis, normal people don’t usually stop and take stock of their options. Bad things don’t happen in a vacuum. And the result of allowing yourself to be hurled forward toward a wrong decision can cause utter chaos.
In the Fargo universe, that chaos is splendid. Chaos is the engine that drives the narrative. And the methods they use to convey this chaos, mostly via split-screen in season 2, amplifies what we already know: that at any one moment, characters are being hurled at each other with immeasurable force. And only rarely, as we saw this week with Nick Offerman’s spectacular scene outside the police station, does reason prevail.
Death comes for us all. Fargo understands that and isn’t intrinsically focused on who gets the bullet, or the clever, or the front end of someone’s car. It’s core goal is to keep us tightly wound, ready for the brutality of the “how” and “when.” Which is what makes it all so exciting. Season 2 appears to be building toward some kind of grizzly, chaotic end. And that’s wonderful, no matter who ends up in the cold ground.
Fargo’s next episode, “Did You Do This? No, You Did It!” airs on November 23rd at 10pm on FX.
CoreyMeh. It wasn't very good.
Once upon a time, a holiday variety special hosted by Bill Murray would have been a star-studded live affair airing on a major television network. As a sign of changing times and tastes, A Very Murray Christmas is heading straight to Netflix and it looks like it captures the kind of melancholy and dryly funny humor that infect so many of us during the more festive months of the year.
After a series of brief teasers, the first actual trailer for A Very Murray Christmas has arrived and it feels far different than what we were expecting. What initially looked like it was going to be a riff on kitschy Christmas specials of old now appears to be very much a project of late-era Bill Murray: the comedy is only matched by loneliness, sadness, and sense of detachment. But if there’s one thing we know, it’s that few people are capable of mining comedy from those concepts quite like Murray.
So grab some eggnog, load it up with the alcohol of your choice, and watch the A Very Murray Christmas trailer after the jump.
The plot of this movie – or is it a TV special? Streaming is weird – is actually fairly ingenious. Bill Murray, playing himself, is hosting a star-studded Christmas special from a New York City hotel. Unfortunately, winter storms have shut the whole show down and none of those stars are coming. So Murray decides to make the most of a bad situation and parties on, celebrating the season with the friends who showed up and the hotel workers who happen to be in the vicinity.
With a cast that includes George Clooney, Paul Shaffer, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Julie White, Dimitri Dimitrov, Michael Cera, Chris Rock, David Johansen, Maya Rudolph, Jason Schwartzman, Jenny Lewis, Phoenix, Rashida Jones, and Miley Cyrus, A Very Murray Christmas finds our star interacting with folks from across the entertainment industry, many of whom seem to be playing self-deprecating versions of themselves. Poehler goes total Murray fangirl. Cera is an obnoxious jerk. Murray even suffers a hilarious Monuments Men joke. The whole thing looks laid-back and low-key – this is a bunch of funny people hanging out, being charming and a little sad.
The special/movie/streaming event is directed by Sofia Coppola, who previous directed Murray to an Oscar nomination in Lost in Translation. She also co-wrote the script alongside Murray and comedy vet Mitch Glazer, who wrote the screenplay for Scrooged, which just-so-happens to feature the great Bill Murray Christmas scene of all time:
Here’s the official synopsis for A Very Murray Christmas:
This winter, Bill Murray brings an extra-special dose of holiday cheer to Netflix with the premiere of an all-star musically-driven holiday special, A Very Murray Christmas. Set inside New York City’s iconic Carlyle hotel, A Very Murray Christmas opens with Murray preparing to host a live, international holiday broadcast. After a blizzard shuts down the production, he makes the best of the situation by singing and celebrating with friends, hotel employees and anyone else who drops by.
A Very Murray Christmas will drop on Netflix on December 4, 2015.
The post ‘A Very Murray Christmas’ Trailer: The Booze-Soaked Holiday Variety Special You’ve Always Wanted appeared first on /Film.
CoreyYes.
