WASHINGTON (CAP) - A sizable majority of the Internet is taken up by pictures of cats, according to a new study out of the Pew Research Center.

"Cats have always taken up at least half the Internet, but they've really pulled away in this study," said Dr. Francis Spitznagel of the Pew Center, who noted that when the center conducted a similar survey in 2009, pictures of cats led videos of people injuring themselves by only a relatively small 18 percent margin.

"Now nobody's within 30 points of the cats," he said.

The study breaks down the pictures of cats into the following categories:

1) Kittens;
2) Fat cats;
3) Cats canoodling with other animals (dogs, mice, babies, other cats, ferrets, etc.);
4) Cats wearing clothes (mostly hats);
5) Cats wielding lightsabers;
6) That cat with the lime peel on its head;
7) Catwoman (NSFW).

"The bandwith required for the kittens and fat cats alone is greater than that taken up by Amazon, Google and the Pentagon combined," said Spitznagel, who noted that it took researchers more than a year to compile the information. "Although we were able to carry over much of the Catwoman data from our study of superheroine breast size," he noted.

Pew researchers were hard pressed to explain the feline photo surge, but Stanford University economist Wendall Wuffie says the state of the economy could be the cause, in much the same way the economic collapse of fall 2008 led to a run on cardboard turkeys.

"During tough times, people turn to stress relievers that make them feel more relaxed despite an uncertain future," said Wuffie. "And what makes people feel more relaxed than a picture of a soft, fluffy, happy kitty?

"Aside from all the porn, I mean," he added.

Pornography, always popular on the Web, actually fell from third to eighth on the list in the latest survey, however. In addition to pictures of cats and videos of people injuring themselves, porn took a back seat to:

- Videos of babies talking to each other
- Videogame cheats
- Rebecca Black's Friday video
- Spoofs of Rebecca Black's Friday video
- Bomb-making instructions

"We definitely expected pornography to finish higher," admitted Spitznagel. "It just goes to show you that the personal habits of our researchers don't necessarily reflect those of society in general.

"And if you worked with some of these guys, you'd know what a good thing that is," he added.

Numbers nine through 20 on the list all featured some combination of dogs and/or other animals; wedding mishaps; smiling and/or crying children; Star Wars fan films; squirrels inserted digitally into other photos; and opinions about President Barack Obama's birth certificate.

"Home sweet home."

That is what I referred to our stateroom aboard the Disney Wonder for seven blessed days. Only our home doesn't have a balcony with ocean views (more than 70 percent of staterooms have them), a door adorned with Mickey, or James, our doting stateroom steward who kept our room meticulously clean.

I have yet to convince my own beloved husband James to follow his fine example.

Sleeping with my kids in the same room is not my top choice but with a curtain partition, bunk beds for the kids and a large comfy bed for Linda and I, it was pretty ideal. The split “bath-and-a-half” design provided us with the convenience of a sink and tub/shower in one room and a sink and toilet in a separate room.

Our stateroom had all makings for a good slumber but I'm a neurotic sleeper and need complete silence. Combine a snoring roommate (who shall remain anonymous) and the creaking of the ship (the only time it testified of its age), I awoke exhausted.

Which is why it made perfect sense to checkout the fitness center.

Disney Cruise Line Fitness Center

The adults-only workout facilities are a part of the Vista Spa & Salon and are open from 6 a.m.-8 p.m. The equipment is state-of-the-art with a complete range of cardiovascular and weight machines and classes. There is also an open-air track for walking and jogging, about 1/3 of a mile in length.

When I worked out the first day it sea, the facility was crowded. On the final day on the cruise, it was a ghost town. After a week of leisure and gluttony, I think my fellow devotees instead opted for the buffet.

Perfect Palo

Speaking of food, it doesn't get any better than Palo, Disney Wonder's signature adult-only Northern Italian restaurant. After dropping the kids off at Oceaneer Club, Linda and I indulged in the Champagne brunch. The options included made-to-order entrées, seafood, a selection of international cheeses, fresh breads and pastries, desserts, Champagne and mimosas. Favorites were the Eggs Benedict and strawberry-mint soup.

In addition to brunch, Palo also offers elegant dinners. On our final night, we began with antipasti selections and the choice of six different kinds of pizzas. We moved on to fresh pastas and then came seafoods and meats (my classic beef tenderloin with Gorgonzola sauce redefined tender) and our evening was topped off by chocolate souffle dessert.
Our beloved and adorable Italian waiter Daniel summed up our culinary journey by this statement: "It’s a moment you never want to end.”

He was correct but fortunately for my waistline, it eventually did.

Reservations are required for Palo and there is an additional $20 charge for dinner and brunch.

An Expert Opinion of Disney's Oceaneer Club

When Linda and I retrieved 6-year-old Hadley from Oceaneer Club, she reported: “I made a friend and we pretended we were Captain Hook on the ship.”

She was referring to Captain Hook's pirate ship straight from Never Land with a treasure chest-themed television set, lamps that resemble barrels, hanging ropes, wooden planks and a glistening fiber-optic night sky.

"Oh, and Bode? All he did was play Mario Kart and just watch TV," she snitched.

The Club has a computer lab with child-friendly computers, video games and multiple televisions. In 4-year-old Bode's own defense, "I had the most fun ever."

To each his own.

Oceaneer Club is open from 9 a.m. to midnight daily for children ages 3 to 10, no reservations are necessary. Bode preferred The Club (which is more geared to younger kids) and Hadley liked the Oceaneer Lab (stay tuned for that review tomorrow).

Water Play

There are three pools on-board the Disney Wonder: Quiet Cove Pool (an adult-only oasis), Goofy's Pool and Mickey's Pool a.k.a. my descent into hell.

Let me explain: My kids are finally getting old enough that they can be relatively independent in shallow waters. Goofy's Pool had an ideal location with a state-of-the-art, jumbo 24-by-14-foot LED screen that played Disney animated or live-action movies poolside. Unfortunately, at a depth of 4 feet, it is too deep for my kids.

That left Mickey's Pool. In theory, this is a fantastic pool that features Mickey Mouse's famous smiling face, a maximum depth of 2 feet and a twisting, one-deck-high yellow slide suspended from an over-sized Mickey Mouse hand.

The problem is 85 percent of the ship's children think this mouse is the cat's meow. By afternoon, Mickey's Pool was absolute bedlam every day and my dreams of relaxing poolside in a chaise with a Pina Colada smoothie were replaced by having to keep a vigilant watch they didn't get trampled.

The kids still loved it, though. Haddie tore up the slide, we grabbed burgers and fries from Pluto's Dog House (healthier options were at nearby Goofy's Galley) and topped it off with soft-serve ice cream. Basically, it was every kid's dream and every parent's nightmare.

To each their own, Part II.

Tip: To avoid the crowds, skip swimming in the afternoon and go after breakfast or during the first dining hour (around 6 p.m.) Stay tuned for our favorite moment aboard the Disney Wonder, which happened on our final night in Mickey's Pool.

On-board Entertainment

Upon returning home from our cruise, I was asked, "Did your kids ever get bored?"

A Disney Cruise is the very antithesis of boredom. Between song-and-dance shows starring our favorite Disney Characters in the Disney Theatre daily to first-run movies like Tangled and Gnomeo and Juliet in the Buena Vista Theatre, magic shows, karaoke, dancing and games, we were never, ever bored.

One of our favorite performances was the Golden Mickey's, a Disney-esque version of the Academy Awards. We arrived with fanfare: Paparrazi snapping pictures, red carpet and even a “celebrity” reporter who interviewed the little ones. The show combined live-action theatre from talented performances with our favorite clips from Disney films, an emotional tribute to Walt Disney and pyrotechnics.

It doesn't get much better than that for kids.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Day 3 at sea: Our Slacker Character Breakfast, Oceaneer Lab's Red Hen and the Magic of Animator's Palate.

====

If you missed it:
*It's a Wonder Cruising with Disney
*Day 0.5: If Getting There is Half the Fun Then I'm in Trouble
*Day 1: Kids Club, Sail Away Party and Fat Kitty Stowaway

The guys at Motor City Nightmares (MCN) have posted the screening schedule for the 2011 MCN Weekend of Horror Film Festival and Stunt Kitty Films' "A Fish Called
Martha or: Who's Really Afraid of H.P. Lovecraft Anyway?" is first on the list.  I guess that means our uncanny
little comedy will be opening the festival. How cool is
that?

The official screening time for the Lovecraft spoof is 5pm Friday, April 15th at the Sheraton Detroit Novi Hotel in Novi, Michigan.

 

Stunt Kitty Films' (SKF) filmmakers Debora Roventini and Rob Robinson will be attendance for the world premiere of their latest short film "A Fish Called Martha or: Who's Really Afraid of H. P. Lovecraft Anyway?" at the Motor City Nightmares Weekend of Horror Film Festival (MCNFF) at the Sheraton Detroit Novi Hotel in Novi, Michigan running April 15th thru April 17th, 2011.

It's out of the frying pan and into George and Martha's rumpus room for a
night of supernatural mambo jumbo when young H.P. and his slim-hipped
wife, fleeing a monster of comic proportions, seek refuge on the campus
of the infamous Miskatonic University in the outrageous spoof of classic Hollywood with a Lovecraftian twist directed by and starring Debora Roventini.

Having grown up in nearby Plymouth, Rob Robinson (Writer/Producer) could not think of a better event to premiere SKF' latest film while helping to show support for the fledgling Michigan film industry.

The filmmakers encourage everyone in the Detroit area to come on out to see the show and say hello.  Check the MCNFF webpage for screening times.

Gig, here. I am reporting from CinemaCon at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas this week. The inaugural CinemaCon is the largest trade show for movie theater owners around the world. Many of the film studios are presenting their upcoming films to the theater owners. Although we’re not allowed to report significant details of the screenings provided to the attendees, so I’ll be keeping the descriptions to a minimum. On Monday night, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks kicked off the convention with several anticipated films this year. So here we go. POSSIBLE SPOILERS ALERT!!! Super 8: Director J.J. Abrams was at CinemaCon to present his film. He told the story about on how he was hired long ago to restore Steven Spielberg’s super 8 films. Then years later, he proposed the “Super 8” concept to Spielberg about the friendship of a bunch of kids and something that arrived from Area 51. There was 22 minutes of footage that included two scenes of the kids filming at a train station before an Air Force train with unknown cargo is derailed and something strange that visits a gas station. Thor: Actor Chris Hemsworth introduced the film’s footage at the convention. There was twenty minutes of finished footage shown to the delegates of the convention, including a very exciting action sequence between Thor and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Since this story is already published all over the Internet--there is confirmation Jeremy Renner’s character Clint Barton/Hawkeye in the film. He has several lines of dialogue with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg). He will not be introduced at the end of the movie, but plays a critical part in the middle of the film. His Hawkeye costume was not in the film. In one of the scenes, there is a cameo of comic legend Stan Lee as a pickup driver. Captain America: Several clips were shown to the audience, but not with any major action sequences. They were mainly the introduction sequences of Captain America. Many of the scenes featured Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) and Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci). None of the scenes shown were of The Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) or the mysterious Cosmic Cube. Kung Fu Panda 2: Director Jennifer Yuh introduced the film’s characters, including the new bad guy Lord Shen (Gary Oldman). Some of the action clips were in 3D, which some scenes were definitely unfinished at the time. The audience had a first look of Lord Shen, Wolf Boss and The Soothsayer (Michelle Yeoh). Puss in Boots: Director Chris Miller presented the sneak peeks into the final animated film of the night. The scenes introduced a hilarious introduction to the first meeting between Antonio Banderas’ Puss in Boots and Salma Hayek’s Kitty Softpaws. The presentation also featured Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis), Jack (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jill (Amy Sedaris). There will be more reports to come from CinemaCon in Las Vegas.Source: Latino Review

The University of Nottingham woke up one morning and, after taking tea with talking badgers (which was the custom of the place), decided to produce and share sixty videos on astrophysics, each one allied to an astronomical symbol. Sixty Symbols was born.

Whether the symbol is a 70s medallion (minus chest hair) or a kitty (plenty of chest hair), whether it's pi (not apple) or apple (no pie), there's a video behind it.

Sponsor

In the forgoing examples videos covering Mars, Schrödinger's Cat, 3.14159265 and Isaac Newton.

On each video, a perky, stunned, non-Euclidian or tonsorially terrifying scientist explains something so convoluted that in the past listeners would frequently blink out of existence rather than face the fact that our world is a crazy backward alphabet-land built on Wiffle balls and soap bubbles.

Laughably, the project's ringleaders assert that none of this learning will harm you.

"They aren't lessons or lectures - and this site has never tried to be an online reference book.The films are just fun chats with men and women who love their subject and know a lot about it!"

In addition to the symbolic questions, viewer questions are also occasionally answered.

Nottingham [something something something sheriff] goes for the full-court press in terms of outreach by trumpeting its geeky peacockery over the rooftops of the world via Twitter, Facebook, RSS, YouTube and a blog, Periodic Videos.

Discuss

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have announced that 248 feature films are eligible for best picture at the 2010 Academy Awards.  The number is down from previous years -- According to THR [1], 274 films were eligible in 2009, and 281 in 2008. The list of 248 eligible films have been sent with a nominations ballot to all active and life members of the Academy "who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than ten pictures." The ten films receiving the highest number of votes shall become the nominations for final voting for the Best Picture award. The nominations will be announced live on January 25th 2011 at 5:30am psd. The rules for eligibility is as follows: Films must be feature length (defined as over 40 minutes) Publicly exhibited by means of 35mm or 70mm film, or in a 24- or 48-frame progressive scan Digital Cinema format with a minimum projector resolution of 2048 by 1080 pixels For paid admission in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County for a qualifying run of at least seven consecutive days, advertised and exploited during their Los Angeles County qualifying run in a manner considered normal and customary to the industry. Films that, in any version, receive their first public exhibition or distribution in any manner other than as a theatrical motion picture release will not be eligible for Academy Awards in any category. (This includes broadcast and cable television as well as home video marketing and Internet transmission.) However, ten minutes or ten percent of the running time of a film, whichever is shorter, is allowed to be shown in a nontheatrical medium prior to the film’s theatrical release. Here is the list of qualifying films: THE A-TEAM AGORA ALICE IN WONDERLAND ALL GOOD THINGS ALPHA AND OMEGA THE AMERICAN ANIMAL KINGDOM ANOTHER YEAR ANTON CHEKOV'S THE DUEL APAPORIS APPLAUSE BABIES BARNEY'S VERSION BIUTIFUL BLACK SWAN BLACK TULIP BLUE VALENTINE THE BOOK OF ELI THE BOUNTY HUNTER BROOKLYN'S FINEST BURIED BURLESQUE CAIRO TIME CASE 39 CASINO JACK CATFISH CATS & DOGS: THE REVENGE OF KITTY GALORE CHARLIE ST. CLOUD CHLOE THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER CITY ISLAND CLASH OF THE TITANS COCO CHANEL & IGOR STRAVINSKY THE COMPANY MEN THE CONCERT CONVICTION COP OUT COUNTRY STRONG CRAYON THE CRAZIES CYRUS DATE NIGHT DAYBREAKERS DEAR JOHN DEATH AT A FUNERAL DEFENDOR DESPICABLE ME DEVIL DIARY OF A WIMPY KID DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS DREAMKILLER THE DREAMS OF JINSHA DROOL THE DRY LAND DUE DATE EASY A EAT PRAY LOVE EDGE OF DARKNESS ESSENTIAL KILLING EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP EXPECTING MARY THE EXPENDABLES THE EXTRA MAN FAIR GAME THE FIGHTER FLIPPED FOR COLORED GIRLS FOUR LIONS FRANKIE & ALICE FROM PARIS WITH LOVE FURRY VENGEANCE GET HIM TO THE GREEK GET LOW THE GHOST WRITER THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEXT THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO GOING THE DISTANCE GREEN ZONE GREENBERG GROWN UPS GULLIVER'S TRAVELS HAPPY TEARS THE HARIMAYA BRIDGE HARRY BROWN HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 HEARTBREAKER HEAVEN'S RAIN HEMINGWAY'S GARDEN OF EDEN HEREAFTER HIDEAWAY (LE REFUGE) HOLY ROLLERS HOW DO YOU KNOW HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON HOWL HUBBLE 3D I AM LOVE I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS IDIOTS AND ANGELS THE ILLUSIONIST INCEPTION INSIDE JOB IRON MAN 2 IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY JACK GOES BOATING JACKASS 3D JOHN RABE JONAH HEX THE JONESES JUST WRIGHT THE KARATE KID KICK-ASS THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT KILLERS THE KING'S SPEECH KNIGHT AND DAY THE LAST AIRBENDER THE LAST EXORCISM THE LAST SONG LEAP YEAR LEBANON LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: THE OWLS OF GA'HOOLE LEGION LET ME IN LETTERS TO GOD LETTERS TO JULIET LIFE AS WE KNOW IT LIFE DURING WARTIME LIKE DANDELION DUST LITTLE FOCKERS THE LOSERS LOTTERY TICKET LOUIS LOVE & OTHER DRUGS LOVE RANCH MACGRUBER MACHETE MADE IN DAGENHAM MAO'S LAST DANCER MARMADUKE MEGAMIND MICMACS MIDDLE MEN MISCONCEPTIONS MONSTERS MORNING GLORY MOTHER AND CHILD MY DOG TULIP MY NAME IS KHAN MY SOUL TO TAKE NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS NEVER LET ME GO THE NEXT THREE DAYS NIGHT CATCHES US A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET NOWHERE BOY THE NUTCRACKER IN 3D OSS 117 – LOST IN RIO OCEANS ONDINE 127 HOURS THE OTHER GUYS OUR FAMILY WEDDING PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF THE PERFECT GAME PICTURE ME: A MODEL'S DIARY PIRANHA 3D PLEASE GIVE PREACHER'S KID PREDATORS PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME PURE COUNTRY 2: THE GIFT QUEEN OF THE LOT RABBIT HOLE RAMONA AND BEEZUS RED RED HILL REMEMBER ME REPO MEN RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE RESTREPO ROBIN HOOD ROZYCZKA THE RUNAWAYS SALT SAW 3D SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD SECRETARIAT SEQUESTRO SEX AND THE CITY 2 SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE SHREK FOREVER AFTER SHUTTER ISLAND THE SICILIAN GIRL SIX DAYS IN PARADISE SKYLINE THE SOCIAL NETWORK SOLITARY MAN SOMEWHERE THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE SPLICE THE SPY NEXT DOOR STEP UP 3D STONE SUMMER WARS THE SWITCH TAKERS TAMARA DREWE TANGLED THE TAQWACORES THE TEMPEST 3 BILLION AND COUNTING THE TILLMAN STORY TINKER BELL AND THE GREAT FAIRY RESCUE TOOTH FAIRY TOUCHING HOME THE TOURIST THE TOWN TOY STORY 3 TRASH HUMPERS TRON: LEGACY TRUE GRIT THE TWLIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE TYLER PERRY'S WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO? UNBEATEN UNSTOPPABLE VALENTINE'S DAY VAMPIRES SUCK THE VIRGINITY HIT WAITING FOR "SUPERMAN" WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS THE WARRIOR'S WAY WATERCOLORS THE WAY BACK WELCOME TO THE RILEYS WHEN IN ROME WILD GRASS WINTER'S BONE THE WOLFMAN A WOMAN, A GUN AND A NOODLE SHOP WRETCHES & JABBERERS YOGI BEAR YOU AGAIN YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER YOUTH IN REVOLT [1] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/248-films-eligible-2010-oscar-61716

Oakland's William Ryan Fritch earned his stripes crafting work for Anticon artists and when you listen to "Stir Coals, Burn Nothing" you can tell he is a maturing rap vet. It's boudoir swank, overly sensory and apropos for laying down a hip-hop head or a krautrock lover. But the essence of the track must come from a Giorgio Moroder upbringing, who we have told you before is one of every rap producer's guiding lights. Moroder's work wasn't all thug love, it was passion too, and that's where Fritch's jam fits in. It comes from Asthmatic Kitty's foray into experimental instrumentation with their Library Catalog—a series that started off as playful, but blasted into a large collection of tunes that should be scoring films. William Ryan Fritch's Music For Honey And Bile can be found here, along with the other volumes of the Asthmatic Kitty Library Catalog Music Series.

William Ryan Fritch - Stir Coals, Burn Nothing

It's getting closer and closer to the end of the year, and we've already seen a couple top 10 lists and critic choice awards announced. Since we began posting "best of the year" video montages a few years back, it seems a lot of new wannabe video editors have emerged. Maybe the software has become cheaper or more accessible, or maybe the coverage on sites like /Film and other movie blogs garnered interest in the task. Last year I received a dozen or so best of videos, most of them were not anything we would share on the site. I think we posted three in total last year, two of which were created by video editors we've featured in previous years [1]. Today I was sent the first "best of 2010" video montage of the season, from a video editor named Gen I. I'll admit that while I was expecting the worst, I came out pleasantly surprised. It is not only well edited, but features a wide selection of films, from smaller documentaries to the big blockbusters, to Japanese anime to the Hollywood Oscar bait. 270 movies in all. Hit the jump to watch it now. Music: 1. Ratatat - Nostrand 2. Kanye West - Power 3. Rooney - Not In My House 4. Apartment - Fall Into Place 5. Civil Twilight - Letters from the Sky 6. SUNBEARS! - Little Baby Pines FILMOGRAPHY 2010 Films in Order of Appearance: 01. Iron Man 2 02. The Social Network 03. Saw 3D 04. TRON: Legacy 05. Never Let Me Go 06. Legion 07. The Book of Eli 08. Easy A 09. The Runaways 10. Farewell 11. Kick-Ass 12. Jonah Hex 13. Harry Brown 14. The Sorceror’s Apprentice 15. Percy Jackson & The Olympics: The Lightning Thief 16. Despicable Me 17. Stone 18. Dinner For Schmucks 19. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 20. Hereafter 21. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World 22. Black Swan 23. Howl 24. Faster 25. Casino Jack 26. Casino Jack and the United States of Money 27. Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist, and Rebel 28. Waiting for Superman 29. Inception 30. Resident Evil: Afterlife 31. The Town 32. The Expendables 33. The A-Team 34. The American 35. The Concert 36. The Tempest 37. Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang 38. The Tourist 39. Metropia 40. Burlesque 41. Love Ranch 42. Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer 43. The Warrior’s Way 44. Twelve 45. Going The Distance 46. Chain Letter 47. Catfish 48. Machete 49. Step Up 3D 50. Devil 51. Clash of the Titans 52. Countdown to Zero 53. Jackass 3D 54. Alice in Wonderland 55. Buried 56. Red 57. Mesrine 58. Predators 59. MacGruber 60. Robin Hood 61. Green Zone 62. The Way Back 63. Due Date 64. Daybreakers 65. Knight and Day 66. Heartbreaker 67. The Karate Kid 68. Secretariat 69. Middle Men 70. Repo Men 71. Hot Tub Time Machine 72. All Good Things 73. Skyline 74. Animal Kingdom 75. Fair Game 76. Paper Man 77. Eclipse 78. Megamind 79. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader 80. True Grit 81. Accidents Happen 82. Date Night 83. Perrier’s Bounty 84. Killers 85. How To Train Your Dragon 86. The Other Guys 87. Unstoppable 88. Leap Year 89. Cop Out 90. When In Rome 91. Centurion 92. Salt 93. Takers 94. Barney’s Version 95. Diary of a Wimpy Kid 96. The Winning Season 97. Just Wright 98. Legendary 99. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest 100. Ong Bak 3 101. Rogues Gallery 102. Defendor 103. District 13: Ultimatum 104. Conviction 105. The Losers 106. The Disappearance of Alice Creed 107. Brooklyn’s Finest 108. Wild Target 109. Four Lions 110. The King’s Speech 111. Boogie Woogie 112. 127 Hours 113. Somewhere 114. Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll 115. Letters to Juliet 116. The Kids are All Right 117. Sex and the City 2 118. Vampires Suck 119. Love and Other Drugs 120. Life As We Know It 121. Blue Valentine 122. Jolene 123. The Extra Man 124. The Last Song 125. Our Family Wedding 126. Morning Glory 127. Greenberg 128. Remember Me 129. Please Give 130. Certified Copy 131. The Last Exorcism 132. Peacock 133. Flipped 134. Cemetery Junction 135. I Love You Phillip Morris 136. Toy Story 3 137. The Romantics 138. Welcome to the Rileys 139. I’m Still Here 140. Get Him To The Greek 141. The Yellow Handkerchief 142. The Greatest 143. The Virginity Hit 144. Furry Vengeance 145. Eat Pray Love 146. Don McKay 147. Solitary Man 148. Cyrus 149. Case 39 150. Dear John 151. The Good Guy 152. Jack Goes Boating 153. You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger 154. Leaves of Grass 155. How Do You Know 156. Death at a Funeral 157. Tamara Drewe 158. The Killer Inside Me 159. The Back-Up Plan 160. Another Year 161. Great Directors 162. The Ghost Writer 163. Splice 164. Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale 165. The Wolfman 166. Piranha 167. A Nightmare on Elm Street 168. Charlie St. Cloud 169. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time 170. Biutiful 171. The Lovely Bones 172. Monsters 173. Cairo Time 174. The Crazies 175. Valhalla Rising 176. Ondine 177. It’s Kind Of A Funny Story 178. Stolen Lives 179. Creation 180. Chloe 181. The Debt 182. Princess Ka’iulani 183. Like Dandelion Dust 184. Shutter Island 185. Inhale 186. Heartless 187. Rabbit Hole 188. Let Me In 189. Hemingway’s Garden of Eden 190. The Fighter 191. From Paris With Love 192. Shrek Forever After 193. The Next Three Days 194. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole 195. Spring Fever 196. Stonewall Uprising 197. Smash His Camera 198. My Soul To Take 199. Life During Wartime 200. The Joneses 201. Mr. Nobody 202. The Good Heart 203. The Lottery 204. Leaving 205. Night Catches Us 206. Nowhere Boy 207. Babies 208. Barry Munday 209. Tooth Fairy 210. Yogi Bear 211. The Borrowers 212. You Again 213. Standing Ovation 214. Soul Kitchen 215. Multiple Sarcasms 216. The Nutcracker in 3D 217. The Last Airbender 218. Youth in Revolt 219. Edge of Darkness 220. Last Night 221. Extraordinary Measures 222. Ramona and Beezus 223. Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore 224. Alpha and Omega 225. Tangled 226. Marmaduke 227. Grown Ups 228. Inside Job 229. Gulliver’s Travels 230. The Spy Next Door 231. The Dry Land 232. Tiny Furniture 233. La mission 234. City Island 235. Letters to God 236. She’s Out of My League 237. Lottery Ticket 238. Wonderful World 239. The Infidel 240. Holy Rollers 241. Why Did I Get Married Too? 242. Paranormal Activity 2 243. Frozen 244. The Switch 245. Finding Bliss 246. Made in Dagenham 247. For Colored Girls 248. Crazy on the Outside 249. The Last Station 250. The Bounty Hunter 251. I’m Here 252. I Am Love 253. Red Hill 254. Country Strong 255. Peepli Live 256. Oceans 257. Sanctum 258. Little Fockers 259. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work 260. Exit Through The Gift Shop 261. Winter’s Bone 262. Get Low 263. Fish Tank 264. Valentine’s Day 265. The Tillman Story 266. The Company Men 267. Tales from Earthsea 268. Spoken Word 269. To Save A Life 270. Hubble 3D [1] http://www.slashfilm.com/votd-matthew-shapiros-2009-the-cinescape/

ALBUM

“The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III),” Janelle Monáe

Emerging seemingly from nowhere, Ms. Monáe has crafted my favorite record of the year on the basis that she’s willing to try anything. The ArchAndroid is a sprawling effort, and the messianic-android concept contributes to its quirk. Above all, though, Monáe is a supremely talented vocalist whether she’s screaming her heart out on the standout track “Cold War” or getting lost in her vocoder on “Mushrooms & Roses.” At its core, it’s just pop music, but it’s unlike anything you’ve ever heard.

Cameron Ellis

“The Suburbs,” Arcade Fire

With “The Suburbs,” Win Butler and company have created one of those rare masterpieces — and I use that word to its full extent — that should be listened to in full and, despite its hour-long runtime, it’s almost an injustice to listen to any one song out of order. Thinking nine years in the future is difficult, but placing The Suburbs on a best-of-the-decade list seems a safe bet already; I wouldn’t be surprised if Arcade Fire had an album or two more alongside it. Only time will tell.

Bryden McGrath

“High Violet,” The National

A masterpiece from start to finish. End of discussion.

Colin Gorenstein

“Teen Dream,” Beach House

The third album from the Baltimore dream-pop duo “Teen Dream” is its most accessible yet, as much of the murkiness of their previous work has been scrubbed away. This newfound clarity lets the songs themselves shine through, pushing Victoria Legand’s voice — one of the most arresting in indie rock — to the forefront.

Andrew Gospe

“Broken Bells,” Broken Bells

“Broken Bells” was a great album upon its release in March this year, and it’s still compulsively listenable nine months later. The collaboration between The Shins’ James Mercer and Danger Mouse is an unexpected delight, taking the melodic strengths of both and creating a fantastic album with strong sound and lyrics, a combination increasingly difficult to find in today’s music.

Robert Frankel

“The Wild Hunt,” Tallest Man On Earth

A great many people may be turned off by Tallest Man’s (Kristian Matsson) somewhat unique-sounding voice, but that’s what makes it interesting to listen to. “The Wild Hunt” may not show up on a barrage of top-ten lists, but for me, it’s one of the more original sounds to come around in a while, boasting masterful fingerpicking and some great lyrics for someone whose first language wasn’t English.

Kristen Steenbeeke

Along with the Weekender staff's top picks for the year, here's what all the Rainy Dawg Radio DJs have been spinning most during fall quarter (as well as this past week).

Top played records for fall quarter 2010

1. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest (4AD)

2. Glasser - Ring (True Panther Sounds)

3. Brian Eno - Small Craft on a Milk Sea (Warp)

4. The Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (Merge)

5. The Walkmen - Lisbon (Fat Possum)

6. Belle and Sebastian - Write About Love (Matador)

7. Sufjan Stevens - Age of Adz (Asthmatic Kitty)

8. Avey Tare - Down There (Paw Tracks)

9. No Age - Everything In Between (Sub Pop)

10. Weekend - Sports (Slumberland)

Top played records for the week of 11/29 - 12/6

1. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Def Jam)

2. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest (4AD)

3. Girls - Broken Dreams Club EP (True Panther Sounds)

4. Glasser - Ring (True Panther Sounds)

5. Dntel - After Parties I & II (Sub Pop)

6. Jonathan Richman - O Moon, Queen of Night On Earth (Vapor)

7. Eux Autres - Broken Bow (Bon Mots)

8. Bruce Springsteen - The Promise (Columbia)

9. Parting Gifts - Strychnine Dandelions (In The Red)

10. Orange Juice - ...Coals To Newcastle (Domino)

LOCAL BAND

The Head and the Heart

If you’ve seen the live show, you know the hottest band in the Pacific Northwest isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. The group’s self-titled debut is a toe-tapping, charming mix of Americana folk-pop. The hooks are sky-high, the energy is remarkable and the future is off-the-charts bright. Haven’t heard The Head and the Heart yet? I just did you an enormous favor; you’re welcome.

Bryden McGrath

Oberhofer

Tacoma native Brad Oberhofer is making his way to the top, and with style. His debut EP, oO0OoO0Oo, is full of youthful, power-poppy melodies and yelping that’ll indubitably get stuck in your head for weeks. Oberhofer is currently touring alongside The Morning Benders and Twin Sister.

Colin Gorenstein

Shabazz Palaces

The “up-and-coming” label is a bit unfair — emcee Ishmael Butler was a member of the ’90s alternative hip-hop group Digable Planets — but Shabazz Palaces is certainly one of the most exciting new Seattle acts this year. The group’s darkly experimental hip-hop earned it a surprise mainstage slot at this year’s Sasquatch! Festival, and they’ll release their full-length debut on Sub Pop early next year.

Andrew Gospe

Hey Marseilles

Everybody should know Hey Marseilles’ name by now. They’ve got an upbeat, orchestral sound that combines well-thought-out lyrics with tunes that’ll stick in your head, in a good way. Whimsical songs like “Gasworks” bring about nostalgia for spending time in the actual park. And the band was started by two UW grads, Nick Ward and Matt Bishop.

Katelin Chow

SONG

“Empire Ants,” Gorillaz

Gorillaz returned in 2010 with “Plastic Beach” to the usual rave reviews with singles “Stylo” and “On Melancholy Hill” leading the way. While both are excellent songs in their own right, the album’s centerpiece is “Empire Ants,” which builds from a sparse, pretty arrangement into a pulsating, electro-monster of a song. Get some nice speakers, and remember to be patient.

Cameron Ellis

“We Used to Wait,” Arcade Fire

If any one song could do “The Suburbs” and a fantastic year of music justice, it would be “We Used to Wait.” In an era of Facebook, Twitter and technology, Win Butler’s chronicle of the good ol’ days inspired me to handwrite a letter (“I never took my true heart / I never wrote it down”). The results of my endeavor were absolutely horrid, but the point is that Arcade Fire’s sprawling anthem is a powerful reminder of simpler days.

Bryden McGrath

“Spanish Sahara,” Foals

Goosebump-inducing sferics will have you “forgetting the horror here” by the coda. The track is a beautiful progression from drowsy to pulsing catharsis. A journey through an abandoned Spanish coast has never hit quite so close to home.

Colin Gorenstein

LCD Soundsystem, “Dance Yrself Clean”

In an age of compressed files and limited dynamic range, “Dance Yrself Clean” seems out of place. It starts off deceptively quiet with just a simple beat and a simpler bass line. But when the song absolutely explodes at the three-minute mark, James Murphy shows that he was screwing with us all along: This song is enormous, the best cut off of one of the year’s best albums.

Andrew Gospe

“The Cave” by Mumford & Sons

Simple lyrics, exploding instruments, catchy melodies — this is a song you can belt-out loud without being embarrassed. Mumford & Sons has an impassioned anger that lends its songs a sweeping feel. “The Cave” goes from quiet contemplation and builds to a thunder of banjos and belted harmonies (all in a British accent, to boot), making for a powerhouse of a song.

Kristen Steenbeeke

TV SHOW

“How I Met Your Mother”

I don’t have cable and my computer dies if I push its video capabilities too far, but every time I get a chance to watch “How I Met Your Mother,” I’m always glad that I did. All of the characters are instantly likeable, and the writers always let a good joke run its course. The sixth season continues to impress, cementing its place among the sitcoms worth watching.

Cameron Ellis

“Mad Men”

In its fourth season, a point where many shows enter a creative slump, AMC’s flagship drama about a 1960s ad agency is as sharp as ever. “Mad Men” somehow manages to be stylish but not shallow, topical but not heavy-handed. And despite some indications to the contrary early in the season, Don Draper is still the man.

Andrew Gospe

“Friday Night Lights”

How this show has been basically ignored for five seasons is beyond me. Its telling of a small Texas town with football at its heart features the best cast on television, bar none. The final season, already playing on DirectTV before re-running on NBC next year, has heavy storylines involving abuse, race and an ex-convict father. H.G. Bissinger, author of the 1990 novel that inspired the show, should be proud.

Bryden McGrath

“Boardwalk Empire”

At once an epic narrative and an exciting piece of historical fiction, “Boardwalk Empire” is groundbreaking, riveting television at its best. I haven’t been so caught up in a series since HBO’s “The Wire.” With explosive writing and direction and outstanding acting and period details to keep it all together, I would take this regal production over AMC’s more popular, but more uneven, zombie apocalypse any day.

Robert Frankel

“Dexter”

It creeps my mom out that my favorite TV show is about a serial killer, but I think most people who watch the show would agree: It’s the best there is. The actors are superb, (Michael C. Hall as Dexter should win every Emmy there is) and the writing is some of the only stuff I can tolerate on television. While this season took a while to pick up, the past few weeks have made it worth it; I end almost every episode with nail marks in my hand, my roommate hyperventilating next to me. It’s that good.

Kristen Steenbeeke

“Community”

Into its second season, NBC’s Community has a hilarious grouping of characters who’re all at community college for different reasons. The punchy one-liners, dry humor and pop-culture references never fail to evoke laughs. It’s a show that’s helping to slowly fill the hole that Fox created when it discontinued “Arrested Development.”

Katelin Chow

LIVE SHOW

Josh Ritter at The Wonder Ballroom and The Commodore, June 26 and Nov. 4

I don’t care if you don’t know who he is; most people don’t, and that leaves less people to sing obnoxiously behind me at his shows. Ritter’s been at it for more than 10 years, and it’s evident. His show was energetic to a fault, and most of that energy came from the fact that he was just so damn happy to be playing for his audience, always full of grins and funny little anecdotes. It’s also a testament to his greatness that I traveled to Portland, Ore. and Vancouver, B.C. to see him twice in one year (damn 21+ Seattle shows).

Kristen Steenbeeke

Arcade Fire at the Key Arena, Sept. 29

Go ahead, I dare you. Tell me the Key Arena “blows” one more time. There’s no denying Arcade Fire’s set was a religious experience, though. Surrounded by sweaty, gyrating bodies, a mess of confetti and baton-twirling, it didn’t matter where the hell you were for those few hours; Arcade Fire took each and every one of its attendees to “The Suburbs.” Oh, and Rebellion (Lies) was everything I hoped it would be.

Colin Gorenstein

Sufjan Stevens at the Paramount, Oct. 30

I was all, OMG! when I found out that Sufjan Stevens would be at the Paramount the Saturday before Halloween. With his eccentricities — angel wings, endearing awkwardness, choreographed dance moves — it was a whirlwind of a show.

Katelin Chow

Stars at Showbox at the Market, Nov. 6

I’ll give it to the Canadian indie rockers touring behind “The Five Ghosts,” the band’s excellent release from earlier this year. Local band Fences opened with an increasingly solid live show before Stars came out and blew everyone away. Its 24-song set featured Torquil Campbell making amends for a botched 2009 show and included all its best songs, plus shout-outs to The Crocodile, Death Cab for Cutie, KEXP and Seattle for support throughout the band’s 10-year career.

Bryden McGrath

Animals as Leaders at El Corazon, Nov. 10

I’m not the kind of person who is usually blown away by live shows, but I was in awe of Animals as Leaders. If instrumental, progressive metal is your thing in any capacity — anyone? — I recommend checking the band out. The performance combined inhuman guitar-shredding with a large helping of complex time-signatures. Some might’ve called it excessive, but I was totally captivated. Oh, and the band the opener for three other bands that night.

Cameron Ellis

MOVIE

“Inception”

I feel like “Inception” is everyone’s favorite movie of the year. It wasn’t actually my favorite of the year, but I do have to give Christopher Nolan props for creating yet another movie that’s stumped audiences. The concept, acting, writing and visuals were impressive. Plus, watching Ellen Page star alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in a more serious role — who knew she could move away from cute one-liners? — did not fail to disappoint.

Katelin Chow

“The Social Network”

Of the films I’ve seen in 2010 — and I’ve by no means seen all of them — “The Social Network” has been the only one to take up a permanent residence in my mind. Cinematic and theatrical in the strictest sense of the words, the film is many things at once: an example of the transition from analog to digital filmmaking; a comment on the frailty and fibrousness of modern relationships; a study in the use of, and meaning behind, semantics; a parody of modern youth; and more. But it is, above all, great filmmaking and better storytelling. This alternative history of the rise of modern social interaction isn’t just an intellectual satire, but also an insightful commentary on the human condition in the digital age.

Robert Frankel

“Kick-Ass”

For a pure, sit-back, eat-your-overpriced-popcorn-and-enjoy-the-ride movie-going experience, there wasn’t much else like “Kick-Ass” this year. It was loud, twisted and wildly inappropriate (see: Chloë Moretz’s brilliant performance as Hit-Girl). Famed movie critic Roger Ebert infamously asked, “Will I seem hopelessly square if I find ‘Kick-Ass’ morally reprehensible and will I appear to have missed the point?” Yes, you will, Mr. Ebert. Kick-Ass has what so few films seem to make time for these days: It has fun.

Bryden McGrath

“The Kids Are All Right”

A fun, family-centered “dramedy” that you might actually want to avoid watching with your parents — unless you’re numb to any nudie scene-induced awkwardness. There are moments of laughter, tear-jerking sadness and heart-warming wit. “The Kids are All Right” director Lisa Cholodenko is extraordinary.

Colin Gorenstein

“Never Let Me Go”

Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield are some of the best up-and-coming young actors, and putting them together in one movie with veteran Keira Knightley was genius. While the movie leaves out a couple important things from the book, the emotion is still there, bringing us into the eerie and heartbreaking world of Hailsham, where Mulligan, Garfield and Knightley are students trying to figure out exactly why they attend the “special” school.

Kristen Steenbeeke

Reach members of the Weekender staff at weekender@dailyuw.com.

Filed under: Oscar News, Cinematical

It's official: When 'Toy Story 3' wins the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, there will only be two losers in the category rather than four.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rules state that if there are between eight and 15 eligible toons, the category has three nominees; if there are 16 or more, five are nominated. (If there are fewer than eight eligible animated features, the category is canceled.) The tallies are in, and 2010 has 15 contenders. So close!

This is the 10th year the category has existed, and three nominees is the norm -- it's only had five nominees twice (last year and 2002). The question is, which two movies will join 'Toy Story 3' in competition for the coveted Let's Avoid Having to Take Cartoons Seriously By Giving Them Their Own "Special" Category award? According to the Academy, these are the 15 movies in the running:

'Alpha and Omega,' 'Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,' 'Despicable Me,' 'The Dreams of Jinsha,' 'How to Train Your Dragon,' 'Idiots and Angels,' 'The Illusionist,' 'Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole,' 'Megamind,' 'My Dog Tulip,' 'Shrek Forever After,' 'Summer Wars,' 'Tangled,' 'Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue' and 'Toy Story 3.'

Continue Reading

Fifteen features have been accepted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 83rd Academy Awards. That's one short of the 16 necessary for 5 films to be nominated, meaning this year's Oscars will feature only 3 nominees in the category. The 15 features in contention are: "Alpha and Omega" "Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore" "Despicable Me" "The Dreams of Jinsha" "How to Train Your ...

  Beverly Hills, CA — Fifteen features have been accepted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 83rd Academy Awards®. The 15 features are: “Alpha and Omega” “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore” “Despicable Me” “The Dreams of Jinsha” “How to Train Your Dragon” “Idiots and Angels” “The Illusionist” “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole” “Megamind” “My Dog Tulip” “Shrek Forever After” “Summer Wars” “Tangled” “Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue” “Toy Story 3” “The Dreams of Jinsha,” “The Illusionist,” “Summer Wars” and “Tangled” have not yet had their required Los Angeles qualifying run. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and meet the category’s other qualifying rules before they can advance in the voting process. Under the rules for this category, in any year in which 8 to 15 animated features are released in Los Angeles County, a maximum of 3 motion pictures may be nominated. If 16 or more animated features are submitted and accepted in the category, a maximum of 5 motion pictures may be nominated. Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category also may qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they meet the requirements for those categories. The 83rd Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2010 will be presented on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre.

Earlier this year, Harper Perennial released Erika Meitner's Ideal Cities, which has already received praise from poets such as Paul Guest, Nikki Giovanni and Denise Duhamel. And you can go ahead and throw me on the bandwagon too, because I really enjoyed the way Ideal Cities dealt with both location and family.


In addition to Ideal Cities, Meitner is the author of Inventory at the All-night Drugstore (winner of the 2002 Anhinga Prize for Poetry). Her poems have been anthologized widely and have appeared in publications, including The New Republic, Virginia Quarterly Review, and on Slate.com. She is an assistant professor of English at Virginia Tech, and is also completing her doctorate in religious studies at the University of Virginia.

Here is one of my favorite poems from Ideal Cities:

1944, by Erika Meitner

My grandmother made
holes in hand grenades
to leave Bergen-Belsen
each dark night shift--
burnt-out bulbs beneath
the canopy of forest,
bare-shouldered trees
like the thinnest trip-wires,
the name of the unnamed
over and over, hollow
bones scraping the space
nothing could reach.
What would you place
in her outstretched hands?

*****

What are you currently up to?

At this moment I'm sitting at my dining room table, surrounded by piles of unopened junk mail, desperately hoping my son doesn't start yelling "mama! Mama! MaMa! MAMA! I have to poop!" so I can finish typing out the answers to your fantastic questions. He's totally potty trained except when it comes to pooping--he asks for a diaper, I oblige, he poops in it, I change him. He's three and a half years old, and I'm hoping we don't have to send him to college in Depends.

If you mean what I'm currently up to poetry-wise, I've been traveling around a lot to do readings from Ideal Cities. I've been to Indiana, various parts of Ohio and Virginia, and New York so far this fall, and I'm headed to Mississippi next week, and multiple parts of North Carolina the week after that [check out Meitner's reading schedule]. I'm also teaching an undergraduate poetry workshop, and a literary editing class. Virginia Tech just inherited The Minnesota Review, so my MFA students have been selecting the poetry and fiction for the next issue. (We realize, incidentally, that we're not in Minnesota, but the name came with it.) It's been hard to get a substantial amount of writing done with so much on-the-road time this semester, but I'm chipping away at two poetic projects slowly--one involves writing poems that all include Walmart in some way; the other is a project that has to do with writing documentary poems about Detroit. My fourth manuscript, tentatively titled Copia (after Brian Ulrich's series of photos of ghost box stores and dead malls), has to do with consumerism, place, and memory.

In Ideal Cities, there are quite a few poems dealing with location. In fact, the book is divided into two sections: Rental Towns and Ideal Cities. Have you traveled a lot? And depending on your answer, how have your experiences helped shape your sense of location in your poems?

I don't know that I've traveled a lot compared to other friends that I have who are real globetrotters, but I've definitely moved a lot. Being in academia is like being in the domestic foreign service. From the year I graduated college (1996) through 2007, when I got my job at Virginia Tech, I've moved every single year. I've lived in New Hampshire, Jerusalem, Brooklyn, Charlottesville (VA), Santa Cruz (CA), Wisconsin, Washington, DC, and now I live in Blacksburg, which is rural Appalachian Virginia, close to the West Virginia border. I boomeranged quite a bit, back and forth from Charlottesville, as I kept getting one-year fellowships and jobs, and then would head back to my PhD program in Religious Studies at UVA, so many of the poems in Ideal Cities deal with that cyclical shiftiness and homecoming.

I do think I try to write my way back home a lot through my poems, but moving a lot also makes me a bit of an outsider wherever I go, and heightens my observational abilities. I'm always sort of anthropological about my surroundings, and I feel like I'm very adaptable because of that. I find every place I've lived fascinating in its own way. Here, when you call your doctor to make an appointment, and you tell him what's wrong, the receptionist will always unfailingly say, "Bless your heart." They also have bibles in all the doctors' waiting rooms here. I think both these things are strange and amazing, since I'm a Jew from New York. Details like that are what provide a sense of place, a texture of place, in poems, and why would you ever notice them if they're commonplace and not weird to you?

Many other poems I love from Ideal Cities deal with pregnancy and motherhood. How do you go about writing sincere parenting poems that don't dissolve into abstractions or sentimentality?

I think the first reason the poems aren't sentimental is that in order to be sentimental about an experience, you need distance from it. I wrote Ideal Cities while I was in the middle of what, in retrospect, was the most difficult phase of parenting so far for me (and my husband)--early babyhood. I wasn't sleeping, our kid was sick a lot, he cried a lot, he had tones of trouble nursing, and we had no family near us as backup caregivers. I was also quite ill with an infection that I picked up in the hospital, which hung on for over a year, and made everything twice as hard as it might have been otherwise. And I was negotiating for my job at Virginia Tech while I was in labor (literally), and then started this big new job when my son was four months old. Those first months were often hellish, because of the convergence of parenthood, radical change, and illness. I think the poems in the book reflect some of that hardship, ambivalence, fear, and loneliness, which undercut the preciousness of that experience of first-time parenthood for me.

In my poems, I've also been working for a long time with what I've slap-dashedly nicknamed 'the resistant ending.' Many of my poems are narrative-ish, and there aren't really that many ways to end a narrative poem. I'm partial to poetry that resists the 'transcendent' ending--where everything breaks into light and all is redeemed at the end of the poem. (In my head I call this the "fruit and light" ending after Louise Gluck's poem "Winter Morning"--"And suddenly it is summer, all puzzling fruit and light.") Joel Brouwer does resistant endings. Carrie Fountain, in her new book Burn Lake does resistant endings. Mark Doty's amazing book, My Alexandria, uses transcendent endings to great effect, but those endings are balanced out by the subject material he tackles in there: homelessness, AIDS, urban blight, poverty. If I tried to put a transcendent ending on a parenting poem, I'd risk moving into cloying or sentimental territory.

I think, with parenting, as with other life experiences that I write about, I'm more into realism. Rather than raising the reader or the subject material up in a poem via transcendent language, I instead ask the reader to look at the things depicted in the poem closely, to make their own connections between accumulated images and statements. It's sort of the Bishop vs. Whitman schools of contemporary American poetry--Bishop blesses things just by bestowing attention on them, whereas Whitman uses a lot of elevated rhetoric and flourishes to get to a similar place of praise. I fall into the 'look closely' category, but I don't have the patience of Bishop--I move through my subject material much faster. If the poems in Ideal Cities were an event, they would be those contests people win where they get to go into a store for five minutes and toss anything they can into their shopping carts. There's a lot of stuff in my cart, but it all has a pattern--a reason I put it in there; I'm just usually not going to tell you what that reason is outright.

Do you have a favorite poetic form?

I love sestinas! They have the potential to be such a wickedly funny form, and the repetition lends itself to everyday speech. Some of my favorites are Denise Duhamel's "On Delta Flight 659 with Sean Penn," and Catherine Bowman's "Mr. X." The McSweeney's archives, from back when Dan Nester was editing their all-sestina poetry section, have some really imaginative ones: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/sestinas. Canzones are also amazing--like sestinas on crack. Sean Thomas Dougherty writes fantastic canzones, as does Paisley Rekdal.

In your acknowledgments, you give shout outs to Blue Mountain Center and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Could you explain how these centers assisted in the completion of Ideal Cities?

I spent a month at Blue Mountain Center when I was about five months pregnant, and a few of the very early seeds of Ideal Cities got started there. They had assigned me to a room in a little house there, and the woman who had the studio next to me on one side was the musician Basya Schecter, from the band Pharaoh's Daughter, and she was working on a project where she was setting Abraham Joshua Heschel's Yiddish poetry to music. An entire super-long lyric poem from Ideal Cities called (shockingly) "Pharaoh's Daughter" comes from my interactions and late-night conversations with Basya. Also, I'd take these epic walks in the woods while I was there, and those led to "North Country Canzone." VCCA is the closest artist colony to my house, and they've been wonderful in letting me have really short week-long residencies that could use to work on the book in various ways. Now that I have a kid, it's hard on him if I'm gone longer than a week. I've been going to VCCA on and off from the last ten years, and it's the only place where I can tack up an entire book manuscript on the walls of a studio and really dig in to a project as a whole. I can write individual poems at home, but clearing out the head-space and physical space to put together an entire manuscript is something I feel like I can only do at a colony.

In your acknowledgments, you also mention your virtual NaPoWriMo group, which includes poets Sandra Beasley, Mary Biddinger, Oliver de la Paz and Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Could you explain how you connected with these poets and how you group virtually workshops poems?

We actually don't workshop poems at all--we just write them at the same time, then post them online for a form of group accountability! The group started because Sandra Beasley spearheaded a movement to get together a group of poets (this was back in August of 2007, when I had just moved to Blacksburg) to do a NaPoWriMo together virtually. The NaPoWriMo idea originally came from Maureen Thorson as a creative response to National Poetry Month in April--poets would gather virtually, and write a poem a day for the month of April. But Sandra decided to gather a bunch of us together and implement it in August, which was the busiest month I could possibly imagine--I had just moved, I was starting a new job, I was sick, I had a new baby. But I decided that even if I got a little writing done, it would prove that I could write through anything. I mostly wrote late at night--I would start at 11 p.m. or midnight, and then wait up until my son woke up for his night feeding. And I wrote most of Ideal Cities through various NaPoWriMo sessions; I really needed that indirect push from the more faithful members of the group. Oliver's a poetry machine! We still keep meeting two or three times a year, sometimes for a month, and sometimes for shorter two-week stints, where we all try to produce a poem a day, sometimes with prompts and sometimes without. And the membership fluctuates too--usually we have others that come on for a session, and then drop off.

I think of those poets, the first one I met was Aimee, back in 2001-ish. I went to visit Madison, Wisconsin, to apartment-hunt--I had just found out I had won the Diane Middlebrook Poetry Fellowship from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing--and I ended up having dinner with a bunch of the current fellows that year, and Aimee was among them. Something about our shared love of Hello Kitty, and the fact that we both had new books out around the same time and were Wisconsin Fellowship alums drew us together, and kept us connected throughout the years. It's great to have someone who, at certain points, has a similar career trajectory to you, but is a little ahead of you too, I think. Aimee was always an invaluable resource for publishing and fellowship and colony advice for me, and just such a source of sunniness and light. I met Oliver and Mary via Aimee--and actually, I had been in the virtual writing group with both of them for a few years before I met either of them in person. And Sandra and I connected when I moved to DC in 2006. I had known her in passing when she was an undergraduate at UVA, but when I moved to DC, we became friends in person, as the poetry community in DC is quite close-knit.

You're currently an Assistant Professor of English at Virginia Tech, but you've previously worked as a dating columnist, a Hebrew school instructor, a computer consultant, a lifeguard, a documentary film production assistant, and a middle school teacher in the New York City public school system. Of all your previous jobs, which one did you enjoy the most and why?

I loved working on documentary films, and I feel, really, like my poems are an extension of that early interest in telling true stories, and being aware of the interplay of image and sound. I worked for a tiny documentary film production company while I was still in college, and right after I graduated (called Tatge-Lasseur Productions), that did a lot of contract work for PBS and the American Masters series. This meant that for the most part, I got to watch master artists at work, which was pretty life-changing. I was a production assistant on so many different gigs--I watched ballerinas like Maria Tallchief and Merrill Ashley recreate all of George Balanchine's dances for his archives; I worked on the film version of Bill T. Jones' Still/Here; I sat in on the taping of Bill Moyers' Book of Genesis series, which was actually one of the reasons I went back to graduate school in religion. I researched a program for FR3 (French public broadcasting) on Philip Roth, so I had to read all of his collected works. And I can still tell you how much it cost in 1994 to move a Jimmy Jib (giant camera crane) from Arizona to NYC.

Following up on the varied occupations, do you feel having a diverse job history has passed on any benefits for your writing?

I definitely think that my diverse job history has made me more functional as both a writer, and a human being in general. My job as a computer consultant meant that I could support myself financially through my MFA program without going into debt. We got funding at UVA, but at that time, in the late 90's, it wasn't very much. Our first year it was about $4,000 above tuition. I also designed and still maintain my own website with the skills I learned at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). Being a New York City public school teacher (and a Hebrew school teacher) gave me a thick skin--something that was critical for me when I started in MFA workshops, and also began to send my work out to publish. My work in film also taught me not to take no for an answer--if that crane had to get to New York, we would find a way to do it. Being a poet most of the time seems like a similar feat of not taking no for an answer. I mean, what a ludicrous career path, to be a poet! I always think of this Nike ad that I had tacked to my wall in college: "All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES."

Who (or what) are you currently reading?

Right now I'm reading a few different things: I'm right in the middle of The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, by Thomas Sugrue, as part of the research for the Detroit project I'm working on. I'm also an avid reader of The New Yorker, and I take great pride in being up-to-date on each issue (so that I don't get the dreaded 'New Yorker guilt' when the issues pile up). I'm generally working my way too, at any given time, through multiple books of poems, reading and re-reading. Right now, I have Sarah Vap's newest, Faulkner's Rosary, on my bedside table, piled up along with Julie Carr's 100 Notes on Violence, Claudia Rankine's Don't Let Me be Lonely (a re-read), and the manuscript for a new book due out in the spring from Persea that I'm reading to blurb--Sightseer, by Cynthia Marie Hoffman, which is snappy and excellent. With poetry books, I tend to pick them up and put them down a lot, and read three or four at once.

If you could pass on only one piece of advice to fellow poets, what would it be? 

Go live abroad, travel around the US too, road-trip and fall in love, work weird and mundane jobs--live a little, and grow a thick skin, and collect your images and snippets and bring them with you wherever you land. And most of all, don't edit out the ugly.

*****

Check out Erika's website here: www.erikameitner.com

Check out her publisher's website here: www.harperperennial.com

*****

Follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer

*****

Get metrical!
Learn how to write metrical poetry with William Baer's Writing Metrical Poetry. This book helps make writing in meter easier to learn by providing step-by-step instruction and great examples.

Click here to learn more.

The Accolade Competition is proud to announce the awardwinners for the August 27, 2010 deadline. The list can also be found on our website, http://www.accoladecompetition.org

Best of Show Winners:

- Silent Shame (feature documentary) (Athena Productions LLC, dir. Akiko Izumitani) 

-Unstoppable (feature film) (Razor Films UK)

- Vento (short film) (Salem Produções)

- Twentysixmiles (miniseries) (Tower 17 Productions)

Award of Excellence Winners:

9MM Production (France), Beneath the Surface, short film
Curio Film Productions Ltd (United Kingdom), Curio, feature film
David Krupicz (Canada), Archon Defender, animation
Dori Media Group (Israel), Split - Second Season, drama program/series
EXERO HDTV (Australia), 13 Strings, feature film
Frantic Films (Canada), 'Til Debt Do Us Part - Blended Family Blues – episode 8100, on-camera talent (host: Gail Vaz-Oxlade)
Ginzberg Video Productions , Sowing the Seeds of Justice, feature documentary
Greg Watkins , This is Hamlet, educational video
High Wire Films (Australia), Lowdown, comedy program and leading actor (Alex)
Horizon Films Pvt Ltd (Australia), Riwayat, feature film
Jamie Moniz & Genie Willett, Stalker Chronicles, podcasts/webcasts/webinars
Joshua Records, LLC , Keiko: The Untold Story, feature documentary
Karolyn Szot , Message Received, viewer impact: content/message delivery
Kemper Kommunikation GmbH (Germany), Cayenne Emotrailer "Against all odds", sales/branding/product demonstration
Kevin Chan (Singapore), Yours Truly, editing
Liaoning TV Station/LIC   (China), Chinese Merganser - Love Birds From the Ice Ages, short documentary
Lost Art Films (Australia), El Monstro del Mar!, feature film
Maitely Inc. , Mother Eve's Secret Garden of Sensual Sisterhood, webisode
Mark Hagerling , Magic in the Forest, original score
Milo Productions, LLC , Ridin' The Dog!, feature documentary
Ophir Production (Italy), Deu Ci Sia, short film
Push it to the Limit Pictures (Australia), Chick Flick, feature film
Radio Television Hong Kong (China), Cadenza - Colours for the Aged, direction
RIT SportsZone , SportsZone Live RIT vs. Air Force Hockey, live TV events
RNG Films , Life! Camera Action..., feature film
Roy Khalil (Lebanon), All Birds Whistle, short film
RTÉ (Ireland), Single-Handed 3: The Drowning Man, drama program/series
Snagbuddy Productions , Grown Folks, music video
Stephen Schioppo , A Safe House, feature film
Steven Cowan , Priceless, short documentary
Tolerance Through Knowledge , The Desperate, short film
Trost Moving Pictures , A Christmas Snow, feature film
Turner Studios - Original Productions , Grady Health System Foundation "Helping Hand", viewer impact motivational/inspirational and use of film/video to enhance website
University of Southern California , Signal, short film
Wedmoments (Greece), The Butterfly Effect, weddings and dramatic impact

Award of Merit Winners:

 1,001 Ways Productions, LLC, 1,001 Ways to Enjoy the Missionary Position, feature film
322 Films , Pleasures, leading actor (Robert Factor)
904 Productions , The 904, feature documentary
Allusion Pictures , The Gypsy, short film
Almost Free , The Obsession, feature film
Andrew Carlberg , Til My Voice is Gone, music video
Appleseed Entertainment , Ellipse, short film
ArbatFilm , Take Off One Ear!, short documentary
Arcata Arts , Sensual Massage Made Simple, educational/instructional
Atlas Productions LLC , Citizen Mayor, feature documentary
Blue Moon Films LLC , Hamlin Pond, feature film
Brian Luke Seaward , Earth Songs: Mountains, Water and the Healing Power of Nature, short documentary
Brian Lynch (Canada), Indelible, short film
Bruce Hyer , Tamassee: The Place of the Sunlight of God, nonprofit/fundraising
Carnegie Mellon University , Ready-girls, health/medicine/science
Chiara Cavallazzi (Italy), Changement l'Histoire à travers les yeux des guinéiens, feature documentary
CIESC , Public Schools Work, contemporary issues/awareness raising
Cinema do Polvo (Brazil), Claudia, feature documentary
City of Titusville FL , A Max Brewer Bridge Replacement and Enhancement Project, public service programming
ClearMetrics , TWINLAB Meat Muscles, commercial/infomercial and creativity/originality
Cooley Productions, Inc. , Unaware, feature film
Cristaldi Pictures (Italy), Rita, short film
Darren Horne (United Kingdom), The Maniac Project, feature film
David Kinskey-Lebrada , 1 Year for 2 Minutes, college/university/government
Denkmal-Film (Germany), Scientists Under Attack - Genetic Engineering and the Magnetic Field of Money, feature documentary
Derek Meyer , The Hatter's Apprentice, short film
Diverboy Films (Canada), The Last Stop, short film
Dream Balloon Animation Studios ,  The Whisper Home, feature film; and We Are the Head Chefs, music video
DreamStreet Pictures , Positive, short film
DVW Films , Controlled Burn, short film
Edmund Fargher (United Kingdom), Manning the Baton, short documentary
Eman Pictures (Canada), Inner Quest, feature film
Emotive Films (Canada), Determined, short film
ETPNEW , The Hidden Homeless, documentary program
Eye Goddess Films , Pink Smoke Over The Vatican, feature documentary, editing and voice-over talent (Jules Hart)
Fall Risk Films , By Love and Art Scarred, feature film
Feldsott Entertainment, LLC , Under-Tow, short film
Felix de la Concha , La Historia Más Larga de Bilbao Jamás Pintada, short documentary
Fernando Ortigas (Philippines), Reality Check!, short film
Film 38 (United Kingdom), Inbetween, leading actor (Slauvko Stanic: Branko Tomovic)
Film Fatale & Mad-G Productions , Player Hating: A Love Story, feature documentary
Final Cut Productions , Renaissance of the Dead, feature film
Five Strangers Films Ltd (Canada), Poker Face, commercial/infomercial and humorist
Fox Learning Systems , Caring For Those Who Cared For Us: Dementia, health/medicine/science
Frank Raffel (Germany), The Dark Warrior, feature film
Frantic Films (Canada), 'Til Debt Do Us Part - Blended Family Blues – episode 8100, reality programming
Fund for Sustainable Tomorrows , Scarred Lands & Wounded Lives - The Environmental Footprint of War, feature documentary and viewer impact: content/message delivery
Gideon Emery , Sex Drive, tube length video
Grellman Film , Whiskey Blue, feature film
HAS III Inc. , Barbarossa and the Towers of Italy, short documentary
Hawkeye Productions, Patchwork, short documentary
High Wire Films (Australia), Lowdown, direction
Humble Productions , Humble Beauty: Skid Row Artists, feature documentary
In A Minute Productions , Convergences, experimental film
Jeeperz Crow Productions (Canada), One Night Only, short documentary
Jester Pictures , We'll Be Alright, music video
Jigsaw Films , Adam Blank Gets A Vasectomy, short documentary
Jodi Wu , Arpaio's America, short documentary
Jonathan Coleman , I'll Call You, short film
Jordan Mohr , Hollywood Mouth, feature film
Joseph Jolton , Winter's Discontent, short film
Josephine Mackerras (France), Prayer, short film
JPNT Films , Jimmy Traynor's "Second Chance", actor supporting (Rick: Tom Lyle)
Judith Levine , Midlife, short film
Julian Dobrev (United Kingdom), A Spirit To Guide, short film and direction
Karolyn Szot , Message Received, special purpose film
Kat Coiro , Idiots, short film
Katrina Frederick , Imaginary, short film
Kemper Kommunikation GmbH (Germany), MHP Image Film "It works", industrial/technical/business
Kevin Chan (Singapore), Yours Truly, short film and sound editing/mixing
Klaus Schrefler (Austria), Intiñahui, experimental film
Law and Order SVU , Mozambique, short documentary
LolitaMoon Productions & and Korry Productions, Of Yesterday and Tomorrow, short film
Loyola Marymount University , Marvin, short film
madnessfilms , A Day in the Life, short film
Meeting the Challenge, Inc. , Invisible Voices, use of film/video for social change
Melinda Prisco (Spain), Play Mates, television pilot program
Michael Gorrie , Nothing Personal, feature film
Midnight Blue Films , Two Fireflies, feature film
Milo Productions, LLC , Ridin' The Dog!, original song (Roll on Home: Opening Song by Alan M. Whitney and Bill Bairley) and viewer impact: entertainment value
Mindflow Media , We Shall Not Be Moved, history/biographical/travel
Miro Digital Arts , Enter The Dark, short film
Miss T , Kitty, short film
Monelli Films , The Grave, short film
Monumental Pictures , The Death of Hollywood, feature film
Moonshadow Productions , Love You to Death, contemporary issues/awareness raising
Mundo Loco Films , The Cycle, short film
Nathan Ruegger , Another Life, short film
Native Sun Teleworks, LLC , "Stubborn As A Mule!", short documentary
Niko Hronopoulos , The Eater, short film
Ocular Nutrition (Canada), Apocalypse Story, short film
One of Each Productions, LLC, The Learning Curves, television pilot
Phwoar, LLC , Stealing, short film
Picture Trail Productions (Australia), Sent Beyond, short film
Potion Pictures , Up&Down, feature film
Praatiek Dodeja , Mission Rajasthan, short film and direction
President Street Promotions , That Show with Michael Rakosi, interview/talk show
Productions Forever (France), Teenagers, feature film
Quagmire Productions (Australia), The Toll, feature film
Radio Television Hong Kong (China), Cadenza - Colours for the Aged, cinematography and leading actress’ and Do Not Gamble Campaign - Don't Gamble Your Family Away, public service programming
Real World Productions , Backpack the Grand Canyon, educational/instructional
Reality's Illusion Productions , To Have & Have More, feature film
Ricardo Manavello , The Dive, short film
RIT SportsZone , SportsZone Season 8 - Episode 1 – 106, sports/fitness and post-production overall
RNG Films , Life! Camera Action... , cinematography, direction and dramatic impact
Robert Bruce (Canada), Songs of Human and Divine Love – I, short documentary
Roman Pictures , Mismatch, television pilot program
Ross Bark (Australia), Best Enemies, short film
RTÉ (Ireland), Seamus Heaney: Out of the Marvellous, feature documentary
Scrap and Taffy Productions, LLC , Sniff, the dog movie, feature documentary
Semplice Pictures & Brink Tank Productions, Live My Life, music video
Sergio Camacho , Paradise, short film
Severe Enterprises , Ipon!, animation
Shalamar Records/Three Alexander Music , A journey from the N-Side: an unscripted profile of a jazz/poet, short documentary
Shams Charania , Life of a Cabbie, short documentary
Sheldon Pearson (Canada), Bike Trails: Regaining Balance, short documentary
Snowball's Chance Productions , Sweet Sweet Baby, short film, dramatic impact and editing
Sonia Eye Documentary, Inc. (Canada), We Can't See You Beating Us, short documentary and viewer impact: motivational/inspirational
Stephen Rota (Malta), Il-Hajja (Life Cycle), short film
Steve Ly , Fighter, animation
Tara von Baron , The Samurai of Strongsville, Ohio, short film
Tatvam Productions , In That Moment, short film
The Light Millennium/LMTV , Francis Bacon: "Humans Are Violent", arts/cultural/performance/plays
The Money Shot (Australia), Northcote (So Hungover), music video
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey , The Persistence of Forgetting, video remixes/mashups
The Walkabout Company , Detective, commercial/infomercial
Tirtza Even , All Day, experimental
Tonya Lehman , 3 Days 2 Buildings 100 People, short documentary
Towson University , Hope: Then & Now, short documentary
Traquitana Filmes (Brazil), Na Madrugada, short film
Tucker Kloetzke , The Dead Body, short film
Turner Studios - Original Productions , Grady Health System Foundation "What If?" PSA, PSA
Union College , Detour, feature film
University of Southern California , Vicissitude, short film
Videoview (Greece), Eutuxis & Eleni, weddings
V-Shaw Productions (Canada), Rev: A Buried Treasure, short film
White Lotus Film LLC , The Name is Rogells (Rugg-ells), feature film
WMCD, LLC , White Men Can't Dance, feature film
Wordwise Productions , Dying Wish, health/medicine/science
Z.N. Enterprises , Burning Away, short film

I have amazing assistants.

Here is a really impressive project from brother Peter and Andrew Sutherland with a series of films that is derived from on a intense family memory. Peter Sutherland provides us with a great insight to the project below.

“My mom had a cat. Everyone in our family loved this cat. Andrew and I wanted to keep things super casual, so we refused to let anyone name it–we just called it “The Kitty” or “Kitty.” My mom had to live with this, even though it was very foreign to her to have an unnamed pet, because animals were usually treated as equal family members in our house. Kitty was black and white, and my mom would drape Kitty over her shoulders and wear it almost as a scarf while she made dinner. The kitty’s back legs would lie limp as they straddled my mom’s left shoulder, and it would watch her prep food with its head draped over her right (best cat ever?). One day, the kitty didn’t come home. It didn’t return the next day either. This was a bad sign, because there were coyotes near our house that would sometimes munch on pets.

That afternoon my mom came running down our back hill in tears–I hated to see my mom cry. She almost never cries. She is one of those people who can handle everything–she’s worked in juvenile detention facilities, nursing
homes, schools for special needs kids, etc. Andrew and I found the kitty lying dead in the road–it had been hit by a car. My mom came up from behind us and really started to scream. I froze and started to break down and cry, partly because my mom was crying really hard and I was sad for her, but also because we had lost that cat. I also felt guilty about owning a cat and forcing it to live with the risks of a busy street nearby. As my mom and I stood by the fence and cried, my brother calmly walked to the garage and reappeared with a snow shovel and a dirt shovel. He scraped the kitty off the ground with the snow shovel as if the body was a pancake, and gracefully dropped the kitty over the fence into our backyard. Then he grabbed the dirt shovel, stabbed it into the ground, and buried the kitty in a perfect little grave within about one minute. He did all of this without loosing his cool. We both hugged my mom and went back in the house. ”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Majestic Plaza from Peter and Andrew Sutherland is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Hope you caught my appreciation of the the late, great Tony Curtis, now available online and in print. This very special edition of Friday Fromage is dedicated to his memory. Curtis didn't make much of the junk we typically showcase here; let's call these two films gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches.

Posted above in the trailer for 1960's The Rat Race, co-starring America's other sweetheart at the time, Debbie Reynolds. She plays "the beautiful babe from Tampa" who moves to New York and gets a job as the closest thing to a hooker that Hollywood would cast her as at the time. Curtis is the nice guy from Milwaukee (with that Bronx accent?) who moves to the Big Apple searching for success. All he fiinds is Don Rickles slapping around Reynolds when he doesn't get a cut of her kitty.

Below is a oddity I've never seen before, a trio of teaser trailers for the same year's Who Was That Lady? pairing Curtis and Dean Martin as a couple of horndogs who... well, they don't do much except ogle women and repeat the movie title like they mean it. It's the kind of chummy shenanigans that used to sell movies, that today's stars are too prideful to attempt. Enjoy!

 

Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, iDevice Apps

iPhone, iPod and iPad product updates and announcements for September 30, 2010:

• Apps
• Accessories

Apps

• Fans who can’t wait for the November 9th release of Call of Duty: Black Ops can hone their zombie combat skills on iPhone and iPod Touch with the newest map release for Call of Duty: Zombies, Der Riese (“Zombie Factory”), which is an adaptation of the popular downloadable content originally released for Call of Duty: World at War. Call of Duty: Zombies is developed by Ideaworks Game Studio for the iPhone and iPod touch, based on Treyarch’s console version, and now all four maps from the original game are available for $4.99 from the App Store.
• Zikera has announced that their app, Groove, now allows music enthusiasts to share their music and mixes on Twitter and Facebook. Groove is an app that helps music lovers to rediscover their music library and enjoy their music in a whole new way. The updated version, Groove 1.4, also adds support for iOS 4, including fast app switching and higher resolution graphics.
• AdelaVoice has launched StartTalking, the world’s first smartphone application that lets motorists keep their eyes on the road and hands upon the wheel. StartTalking addresses the issue of distracted driving throughout the entire process of composing, sending and receiving text messages, removing the visual and physical distractions normally associated with text messaging.
• Sunday Drive is both a location-based mobile app and a travel aggregator that allows for consumers to choose pre-planned routes with directions via GPS using both maps and voice command. Photos of the Points of Interest along the way, as well as informative descriptions of each POI and the overall drive, accompany each route. Sunday Drive routes are scenic, historic, educational, and are constructed by local photographers, writers, historians and other passionate travelers around the nation.
• Motion Math has announced the launch of their app that will help students master mathematics. Fractions are notoriously difficult for many learners. Motion Math’s innovative game makes estimating fractions an engaging, physical experience. Conceived at the Stanford School of Education and based on research in embodied cognition, Motion Math offers the first learning game that uses the full physical capabilities of iDevices to promote math understanding.
• Double Apps Inc. has announced PounceHD, the new iPad version of their Pounce card game, as well as new versions of Pounce and Pounce Lite for the iPhone and iPod touch. Pounce is an intense multi-player speed card game. Game play is similar to solitaire, except that you are competing to play your cards faster than your opponents. The new iPad version includes updated graphics and more computer opponents, as well as multi-player compatibility with the iPhone/iPod touch version.
• Affinicore, Inc. has teamed up with SlapApp to run a promo code giveaway and contest for Park’n Find, their exciting iPhone and iPad parking app. Starting Thursday, September 30th, SlapApp will give away daily promo codes for Park’n Find. Those who promote the contest on Twitter are automatically entered to win a iTunes gift card. To be entered to win a free promo code, readers need to post the correct answer into the form on the contest page.
• Software Ops has announced My Eyes Only Photo 2.1, a significant update to the powerful photo encryption application for iOS devices. Using 256 bit RSA encryption, My Eyes Only Photo is designed to secure photos on your iPhone or iPod touch by password protecting and encrypting photos. Version 2.1 has been updated to included new advanced features and a significant rewrite to improve performance, reduce memory usage and increase overall stability of the secure photo app.
• MobWeb.ch has announced Mail Templates 1.0.1 their new iOS app. Mail Templates is a utility aimed at people who repeatedly send the same e-mail. It allows the user to save up to 10 different templates, which can be sent instantly from within the app. Upon launching Mail Templates, the user can create templates for e-mail messages, which include a predefined subject line, message body and recipient. Mail Templates also includes a guided tour for new users which explains how to use the app.
• Predators has received a game update. Defend yourself against three powerful Berserker Predators, each determined to destroy your clan. Fend off the dangerous Tracker Predator with his ferocious dogs, the Falconer Predator and his vicious hawks, and then face off against the ultimate nemesis—the Super Black Predator. Defeat these brutal enemies with a brand new weapon, the Razor Whip—which makes it a breeze to entangle, lacerate and slice your enemies.
• Gap Yah’s Orlando now brings his afterparty video to you via his iChunder iPhone app available from the itunes app store. Bringing you his “bangers and Iash” and “lash gordon” phrases Orlando is now taking tactical chunders whilst having the best time of his life whilst recalling his behaviour from the night before party to raise “Awarness” for good causes. The iChunder app also features him visiting remote parts of the world whilst promoting his unique take on life - with hilarious results!
• Digital Poke has announced 360 Web Browser 1.0.1, their new app for iPhone and iPod touch. 360 Web Browser revolutionizes the way users interact with their device while browsing the Internet. With innovation and user preference being the key ingredients, the app is powered by the Prodigy Engine which makes the app powerful, intelligent and unique. Experience features ranging from Tabs, Quick List, 360 Arcs, Saved Pages/Passwords, Plug-ins, Ad Block, Log-in Lock among various others.
• Cats Reversi 3D is a reversi board game with active kitty cats. The first-ever “reversi game” with 3D kitty cats has been finally released. Real 3D cats run around and sit on the board by themselves, behaving like reversi pieces. Up to 64 cats can get around for you.
• Star Cat Studios has announced Arcade Cats: Magnificent Puzzle Adventure for the iPhone platform. Created to as a completely full-featured arcade experience and specifically designed for use on mobile platforms, Arcade Cats mixes multiple classic and well-established arcade elements together with new spins on the arcade and puzzle game genres to provide an enthralling game experience accessible to anyone at anytime.
• Love to play “I’m crushing your head” but find your hands get tired? Introducing AutoCrush Versus! Let the app crush (or pinch or squeeze) your opponent!  And now the vs. mode lets you compete, head-to-head, with a nearby competitor (using Bluetooth) who is also running AutoCrush Versus. AutoCrush Versus playslike a fast-paced Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament and leverages Peer-to-Peer networking so you can play against a friend!  Diehard fans of The Kids in the Hall’s hilarious skit know that Crushing always beats Pinching, but we’ve added Squeezing!  So the rules are: Crush beats Pinch, Pinch beats Squeeze, and Squeeze beats Crush.
• Villain has announced a limited time $0.99 pricing promotion for its intense, critically acclaimed online multiplayer first-person shooter game Archetype. The special “killer” price promotion for the iPhone and iPod touch went into effect today, September 30, and will run through October 8.
• Music now looks as good as it sounds thanks to Musicpix.net who has announced its new mobile app now available for iPhone and iPod Touch.  Musicpix.net is the premiere home for live concert photography on the internet with a massive library of live concert images and is now available for music lovers on the go.  An iPad version will be available by mid-October.
• NetworkGlobal Companies, a leading producer of premium online video spanning from Hollywood and Broadway to world news features, announced today its Red Carpet Network video library can be streamed on the iPhone and iPad via the RCN App. The Red Carpet Network, RCN.tv, talks to A-list celebrities at the premieres of top films, TV shows, and Hollywood’s most exclusive Red Carpets. With millions of online streams per month, it is one of the top independent entertainment news outlets on the Internet. The new app is available for free in the iTunes App Store.
• Most major game studios had a crazy price drop yesterday. Nexx Studio decided to follow their moves for the launch of Pig Shot by dropping the prices of our products to free. Over the next few days, most of Nexx Studio’s products, including Photo Spot, The Idiot Test 3 and The Stupid Test 5 can be downloaded for absolutely free.
• Apimac has announced the release and immediate availability of iDatabase 3.4, an update to their popular database tool for iPhone and iPod touch. The latest release of iDatabase 3.4 brings iOS 4 optimized high-resolution Retina display graphics on iPhone 4. Designed specifically to take advantage of the iPhone’s unique capabilities and interface, iDatabase serves as an excellent personal database solution for anyone on the go. iDatabase features a collection of ready to use, and easy to personalize, database templates to organize any type of information.
• Speck loves to give cases away not only on Appletell, but on other sites as well. Want living proof? Head on over to AppleThoughts for your chance to win the iPhone 4 case of your choice.

Accessories

• Beats by Dr. Dre and Monster have announced five new products that redefine the music experience and present exciting new listening opportunities. The new additions to the Beats family include: Beatbox, the brand’s first digital sound system with iPod docking station that expands the Beats experience from individual enjoyment of high-end audio quality to a social experience; Powerbeats, a ground breaking new sports performance headphone inspired by 2009 and 2010 NBA MVP Lebron James; Beats Pro, a breakthrough studio-quality headphone for professionals and prosumers; iBeats, affordably priced in-ear headphone ideal for use with the Apple iPad, iPod, iPhone and all portable music players; and JustBeats, a collaboration with pop music phenomenon Justin Bieber and the first headphones specially aimed at “opening the ears” of young music fans to the richer listening experience that comes with high quality sound. The new Beats by Dr. Dre products from Monster will be available at leading U.S. retailers in coming weeks, in addition to the UK, France and Germany.
• Grantwood Technology, LLC has announced the release of the Car Kit for iPad, consisting of a SimpleCase for iPad, headrest straps, and FM transmitter/Car Charger for iPad. The Car Kit for iPad is compatible with the iPad and iPad 3G and can be used with almost any vehicle. The Car Kit for iPad allows the iPad to be strapped to a headrest, around the base of the headrest or between two headrests. The FM transmitter simultaneously charges the iPad while playing the sound over the car speakers.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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Thousands of years ago, the pharaohs revered the scarab. This weekend, the Egyptian Theatre comes together to worship The Beatles. A Celluloid Celebration of John Lennon's 70th Birthday begins Thursday with the premiere of Nowhere Boy, a dramatization of Lennon's early life and the formation of Beatles proto-type The Quarrymen. The surviving Quarrymen still perform together 40+ years on, and cross the pond for a rare live performance. They're joined by the film's director Sam Taylor-Wood and Lennon-as-a-lad Aaron Johnson. Should you prefer the real deal, vintage documentaries and Fab Four feature Help! screen on double-bills throughout the weekend. Particularly noteworthy is Friday's feature, What's Happening! The Beatles in America. Helmed by the Maysles Brothers (Grey Gardens, Gimme Shelter), this backstage pass to The Beatles' first U.S. tour was shelved due to legal issues, and has never been released uncut on DVD. Note that the Nowhere Boy premiere/concert has a $25 ticket, while the other nights are standard prices.

Perhaps you'd rather hail to The King. The Cinefamily sports a weekend of Stephen King adaptations. Some of the best are from Masters of Horror Brian De Palma (Carrie), John Carpenter (Christine) and Mick Garris (Riding The Bullet), playing Friday & Saturday nights. Then Mistress of Horror Mary Lambert appears alongside her two Pet Sematary films on Sunday. But the real treat is two programs of "dollar babies". These come from budding and student filmmakers to whom King licensed his works for a single dollar. These shorts cannot be screened commercially, so this one-of-a-kind event is free, but be a sport and donate to Cinefamily at the door. For more freebies, bring out your dead! Every Sunday this month, the Echo Park Film Center's Filmmobile stalks the night, bringing free outdoor screenings to persons living and... not-so-much. Counting down to Halloween, the center joins with Ghost Hungers of Urban Los Angeles (GHOULA) to cherrypick choice haunts around the city. The series kicks off with Haunted Honeymoon, a horror-musical-comedy starring Gene Wilder (who also wrote and directed), Dom DeLuise (in drag) and Gilda Radner (in her final film role), at "Hollywood's most famous haunted landmark". Speculation abounds, but until we unearth the location, only three know the secret, and two are dead. Check GHOULA's website, EPFC's Facebook page or follow @EPFCfilmmobile on Twitter for updates.

That's all for this week. See you at the movies!

All Week

• Altiplano (2009) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
• 
  
• Anjaana Anjaani (2010) (Laemmle's Fallbrook 7)
• 
  
• Automorphosis (2008) (Downtown Independent)
• 
  
• Barry Munday (2010) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
• 
  
• Brutal Beauty (2010) (Downtown Independent)
• 
  
• Endhiran (2010) (Laemmle's Fallbrook 7)
• 
  
• The Freebie (2010) (Nuart Theatre)
• 
  
• The Girl (2009) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
• 
  
• The Temptation of St. Tony (2009) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)

Thursday 9/30

• Automorphosis (2008) (w/ special guests) (Downtown Independent)
• 
  
• Best Worst Movie (2009) / Troll 2 (1990) (w/ Troll 2 stars Michael Stephenson & George Hardy) (New Beverly Cinema)
• 
  
• LA3D Club Free Screening (Downtown Independent)
• 
  
• Nowhere Boy (2010) (w/ director Sam Taylor-Wood, actor Aaron Johnson & live performance by The Quarrymen) (Egyptian Theatre) (A Celluloid Celebration of John Lennon's 70th Birthday)
• 
  
• The Philadelphia Story (1940) (Old Town Music Hall)
• 
  
• The Player (1992) / The Rapture (1991) (w/ writer/director Michael Tolkin) (Aero Theatre)
• 
  
• Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) (Arclight Hollywood) (21+ screening)
• 
  
• Shanks (1974) / Shout (1991) (w/ Don Calfa) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Staff Picks)
• 
  
• S.O.B. (1981) (w/ Blake Edwards) (Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences) (Blake Edwards Evening)
• 
  
• The Town (2010) (Arclight Sherman Oaks) (21+ screening)

Friday 10/1

• Across the Universe (2007) (Nuart Theatre) (Cine-Insomnia Midnight Movie)
• 
  
• Automorphosis (2008) (w/ special guests) (Downtown Independent)
• 
  
• Christine (1983) / Carrie (1976) (w/ Keith Gordon & Alexandra Paul) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Stephen King: Adapting the Master)
• 
  
• Fists in the Pocket (1965) / China is Near (1968) (LACMA) (Weekend Series: Spotlight on Marco Bellocchio)
• 
  
• The Freebie (2010) (w/ filmmaker Katie Aselton & actor Dax Shepard at 7:30pm & 9:30pm shows) (Nuart Theatre)
• 
  
• The Goonies (1985) (The Bay Theatre)
• 
  
• Let the Right One In (2008) (Art Theatre of Long Beach) (Mondo Fridays)
• 
  
• My Brothers (2010) / Swansong: A Story of Occi Byrne (2009) (w/ directors Paul Fraser & Conor McDermottroe) (Aero Theatre) (Los Angeles Irish Film Festival)
• 
  
• The Philadelphia Story (1940) (Old Town Music Hall)
• 
  
• Reel Injun (2009) (free event) (Warner Grand Theatre) (Community Cinema of the Independent Lens)
• 
  
• Super Fly (1972) / Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (Paint It Black: Revisiting Blaxploitation and African American Cinema of the 1970s)
• 
  
• Twentieth Century (1934) / Midnight (1939) (New Beverly Cinema)
• 
  
• What's Happening! The Beatles in the USA (1964) / Mighty Good! The Beatles (1976) / "Things They Said Today: Reflections on A Hard Day's Night" (2002) (Egyptian Theatre) (A Celluloid Celebration of John Lennon's 70th Birthday)

Saturday 10/2

• 13 Ghosts (1960) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (William Castle's Shockers!)
• 
  
• Ahead of Time (2009) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
• 
  
• Automorphosis (2008) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
• 
  
• Child's Play (1988) (Regency Academy) (Insomniac Cinema Midnight Movie)
• 
  
• Claudine (1974) / Aaron Loves Angela (1975) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (Paint It Black: Revisiting Blaxploitation and African American Cinema of the 1970s)
• 
  
• Cup Cake (2010) / The Yellow Bittern (2009) (Aero Theatre) (Los Angeles Irish Film Festival)
• 
  
• The Devil in the Flesh (1987) / La Balia (1999) (LACMA) (Weekend Series: Spotlight on Marco Bellocchio)
• 
  
• Dollar Babies Mini Film Fest (w/ director Mick Garris) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Stephen King: Adapting the Master)
• 
  
• Farewell (2009) (Warner Grand Theatre) (Foreign Films in French)
• 
  
• The Freebie (2010) (w/ filmmaker Katie Aselton & actor Dax Shepard at 7:30pm & 9:30pm shows) (Nuart Theatre)
• 
  
• Help! (1965) / Two of Us (2000) (Egyptian Theatre) (A Celluloid Celebration of John Lennon's 70th Birthday)
• 
  
• Iraq in Fragments (2006) (free event) (Getty Center) (Witnesses in Action)
• 
  
• Lost Angels (2010) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
• 
  
• Neshoba: The Price of Freedom (2008) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
• 
  
• A Night to Celebrate: Women in Film (Korean Cultural Center)
• 
  
• Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985) (Regency Westwood Village Theater) (Insomniac Cinema Midnight Movie)
• 
  
• The Philadelphia Story (1940) (Old Town Music Hall)
• 
  
• Psycho (1960) (Laemmle's Royal Theatre) (Laemmle's October Horror and Suspense Series)
• 
  
• Restrepo (2010) (free event) (Getty Center) (Witnesses in Action)
• 
  
• Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Sins O' The Flesh Midnight Show) (Nuart Theatre)
• 
  
• Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Midnight Insanity Midnight Show) (South Coast Village Regency Theaters)
• 
  
• A Shine of Rainbows (2009) (Aero Theatre) (Los Angeles Irish Film Festival)
• 
  
• Standing Ovation (2010) (New Beverly Cinema) (New Beverly Midnights)
• 
  
• Stop and Go Rides Again (Echo Park Film Center)
• 
  
• Twentieth Century (1934) / Midnight (1939) (New Beverly Cinema)

Sunday 10/3

• Ahead of Time (2009) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
• 
  
• Automorphosis (2008) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
• 
  
• Automorphosis (2008) (w/ special guests) (Downtown Independent)
• 
  
• Ballybrando (2009) / The Field (1990) (w/ director Jim Sheridan and special guests) (Aero Theatre) (Los Angeles Irish Film Festival)
• 
  
• Cloak & Dagger (1984) / War Games (1983) (w/ screenwriter Tom Holland at 7:30pm show) (New Beverly Cinema)
• 
  
• Dollar Babies Mini Film Fest (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Stephen King: Adapting the Master)
• 
  
• Gerrymandering (2010) (free event w/ Gray Davis, Kitty Felde, Kathay Feng, and filmmaker Jeff Reichert) (UCLA Film & Television Archive @ Hammer Museum) (Archive Documentaries)
• 
  
• The Goonies (1985) (The Bay Theatre)
• 
  
• Haunted Honeymoon (1986) (Echo Park Film Center) (GHOULA) (Filmmobile Screening)
• 
  
• Imagine: John Lennon (1988) / The US vs John Lennon (2006) (Egyptian Theatre) (A Celluloid Celebration of John Lennon's 70th Birthday)
• 
  
• Lost Angels (2010) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
• 
  
• Neshoba: The Price of Freedom (2008) (weekend morning show) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
  
• Pet Semetary (1989) / Pet Semetary 2 (1992) (w/ director Mary Lambert) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Mistresses of Horror)
• 
  
• To Do Better…Films by Kevin Jerome Everson (w/ Kevin Jerome Everson) (Egyptian Theatre) (Los Angeles Filmforum)
• 
  
• War Photographer (2001) (free event) (Getty Center) (Witnesses in Action)

That's all for this week. Best worst column!

A new batch of rumors from inside sources say that there are plans to convert Inception to 3D for presentation on a new 3D on-demand channel that HBO is planning. Apparently, HBO has confirmed that the channel is forthcoming and that the films Clash of the Titans, The Polar Express and Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore are among titles that will be available for a per-play fee.

HollywoodinHighDef goes on to say that the same sources reporting the HBO 3D channel also said there were plans to convert Christopher Nolan's latest achievement for play on the channel, as well as a possible 3D re-release. However, spokespeople for both HBO and Warner Bros. say that there are no such plans. Converting Inception to 3D would not be in line with recent statements made by Nolan himself regarding 3D technology, though he apparently prefers conversions to shooting stereoscopically.

But that's not all. The article ends with this sentence: "Prevailing opinions at Warner are that Nolan will not enjoy the luxury of taking a pass on 3D for the new Batman movie, which will surely be set up for 3D from the beginning."

Well there you have it. What do you say? Batman 3 or Batman 3D?

What's going on in sexy San Francisco this week? Everything. End of column. Jokes! As a matter de facto, however, Folsom Street Fair has unfurled its chaps from its carry-on from Detroit and would already be generating some friction between its thighs (were they not a crotchless affair), the amount of sexy parties its been stirring up from SoMa to NoMa to Ma and beyond. After all, with all the fresh meat on the street this week, it seems a shame to relegate all the naughtiness to Sunday's main event. Here's a smattering of what's going on in terms of pre-planned bacchanalia.

 

<!--break-->

Lesbo Retro: A Dyke Porn Retrospective

Sexy founder of Harlem Shake Burlesque (and one of SFBG's 2001 Sexiest People in the Bay Area ass pat) Simone de la Getto performs at this retrospective of films of lustful ladies, by lustful ladies. Shar and Jackie of S.I.R. Productions take you down this memory lane of film clips. Plus, free pizza!

Weds/22 8-9:30 p.m., $10

The Women's Building

3543 18^th St., SF

www.gv-ixff.org

Indie Erotic Film Festival

A whole Castro Theatre full of San Franciscans watching other San Franciscans get it on in homemade short films? And it's the same week as Folsom? Sounds like a recipe for sweet, sweet trouble. Peaches Christ and her fab friends and Carol Queen will be on hand to add some levity to the goings-on – and to hand out the $1,500 for the best clip.

Thurs/23 7-8 p.m., $10

Castro Theatre

429 Castro, SF

www.gv-ixff.org

How To Eat a Peach: Pleasuring Her

Midori teaches the method for sucking out the sweetest juices (fruit props will be involved, natch) at this workshop for all those that love loving the ladies.

Sat/25 8- 10 p.m., $20

SF Citadel

1277 Mission, SF

(415) 626-1746

www.sfcitadel.org

Slut!

Dykey sluts, slutty dykes – you too deserve your own Folsom party! Host Oxana Olsen of Mall Madness hosts this hawt dance party, where prizes will be awarded for best uniform, leather outfit, and fetish wear.

Sat/25 9 p.m., free

The Lexington Club

3464 19^th< St., SF

(415) 863-2052

www.lexingtonclub.com

 

Perverts Put Out

 

Oh how we love the words: as seen on Fox News! An onstage celebration of all things demonstrably slutty, this sporadic series will feature performances by Meliza Bañales, Greta Christina, Stephen Elliot, Robert Lawrence, Thomas Roche, Lori Selke, and horehound stillpoint. It may well be more than enough sexual confessional, monolouging, and live smut to satisfy for the evening.

Sat/25 7:30 p.m., $10-15 sliding scale

Center for Sex and Culture

1519 Mission, SF

(415) 255-1155

www.simonsheppard.com/pervertsputout.html

Magnitude

Folsom Street's official dance party – because why ever would you romp about in the sunshine? Hit the floor to work up a froth to the tunes of DJ Manny Letham. Stay later for the Aftershock party to ensure you'll be a hot mess for the Fair the next day! ($30-40 www.thediscosf.com)

Sat/25 10 p.m.-4 a.m., $80

525 Harrison, SF

www.folsomstreetfair.org

Pussyfest

Here kitty, kitty, kitty! Kinky Salon's cat-themed play party is here, so grab your partner (no singles allowed), fluff your whiskers, and swing over to the cat fight.

Sat/25 9 p.m., $25-30 (members only)

Mission Control

2519 Mission, SF

www.kinkysalon.com

Folsom Street Fair

The grandaddy of all public, streetside leather events assumes its five-block throne in SoMa, where leather bars have been located since The Tool Box's grand arrival in 1961. Join the 400,000 strong who will be frolicking at the third largest street fair in Cali.

Sun/26 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., $7 suggested donation

Folsom between Seventh and 12^th Sts., SF

www.folsomstreetfair.org

What's going on in sexy San Francisco this week? Everything. End of column. Jokes! As a matter de facto, however, Folsom Street Fair has unfurled its chaps from its carry-on from Detroit and would already be generating some friction between its thighs (were they not a crotchless affair), the amount of sexy parties its been stirring up from SoMa to NoMa to Ma and beyond. After all, with all the fresh meat on the street this week, it seems a shame to relegate all the naughtiness to Sunday's main event. Here's a smattering of what's going on in terms of pre-planned bacchanalia.

 

<!--break-->

Lesbo Retro: A Dyke Porn Retrospective

Sexy founder of Harlem Shake Burlesque (and one of SFBG's 2001 Sexiest People in the Bay Area ass pat) Simone de la Getto performs at this retrospective of films of lustful ladies, by lustful ladies. Shar and Jackie of S.I.R. Productions take you down this memory lane of film clips. Plus, free pizza!

Weds/22 8-9:30 p.m., $10

The Women's Building

3543 18^th St., SF

www.gv-ixff.org

Indie Erotic Film Festival

A whole Castro Theatre full of San Franciscans watching other San Franciscans get it on in homemade short films? And it's the same week as Folsom? Sounds like a recipe for sweet, sweet trouble. Peaches Christ and her fab friends and Carol Queen will be on hand to add some levity to the goings-on – and to hand out the $1,500 for the best clip.

Thurs/23 7-8 p.m., $10

Castro Theatre

429 Castro, SF

www.gv-ixff.org

How To Eat a Peach: Pleasuring Her

Midori teaches the method for sucking out the sweetest juices (fruit props will be involved, natch) at this workshop for all those that love loving the ladies.

Sat/25 8- 10 p.m., $20

SF Citadel

1277 Mission, SF

(415) 626-1746

www.sfcitadel.org

Slut!

Dykey sluts, slutty dykes – you too deserve your own Folsom party! Host Oxana Olsen of Mall Madness hosts this hawt dance party, where prizes will be awarded for best uniform, leather outfit, and fetish wear.

Sat/25 9 p.m., free

The Lexington Club

3464 19^th< St., SF

(415) 863-2052

www.lexingtonclub.com

 

Perverts Put Out

 

Oh how we love the words: as seen on Fox News! An onstage celebration of all things demonstrably slutty, this sporadic series will feature performances by Meliza Bañales, Greta Christina, Stephen Elliot, Robert Lawrence, Thomas Roche, Lori Selke, and horehound stillpoint. It may well be more than enough sexual confessional, monolouging, and live smut to satisfy for the evening.

Sat/25 7:30 p.m., $10-15 sliding scale

Center for Sex and Culture

1519 Mission, SF

(415) 255-1155

www.simonsheppard.com/pervertsputout.html

Magnitude

Folsom Street's official dance party – because why ever would you romp about in the sunshine? Hit the floor to work up a froth to the tunes of DJ Manny Letham. Stay later for the Aftershock party to ensure you'll be a hot mess for the Fair the next day! ($30-40 www.thediscosf.com)

Sat/25 10 p.m.-4 a.m., $80

525 Harrison, SF

www.folsomstreetfair.org

Pussyfest

Here kitty, kitty, kitty! Kinky Salon's cat-themed play party is here, so grab your partner (no singles allowed), fluff your whiskers, and swing over to the cat fight.

Sat/25 9 p.m., $25-30 (members only)

Mission Control

2519 Mission, SF

www.kinkysalon.com

Folsom Street Fair

The grandaddy of all public, streetside leather events assumes its five-block throne in SoMa, where leather bars have been located since The Tool Box's grand arrival in 1961. Join the 400,000 strong who will be frolicking at the third largest street fair in Cali.

Sun/26 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., $7 suggested donation

Folsom between Seventh and 12^th Sts., SF

www.folsomstreetfair.org

What's going on in sexy San Francisco this week? Everything. End of column. Jokes! As a matter de facto, however, Folsom Street Fair has unfurled its chaps from its carry-on from Detroit and would already be generating some friction between its thighs (were they not a crotchless affair), the amount of sexy parties its been stirring up from SoMa to NoMa to Ma and beyond. After all, with all the fresh meat on the street this week, it seems a shame to relegate all the naughtiness to Sunday's main event. Here's a smattering of what's going on in terms of pre-planned bacchanalia.

 

<!--break-->

Lesbo Retro: A Dyke Porn Retrospective

Sexy founder of Harlem Shake Burlesque (and one of SFBG's 2001 Sexiest People in the Bay Area ass pat) Simone de la Getto performs at this retrospective of films of lustful ladies, by lustful ladies. Shar and Jackie of S.I.R. Productions take you down this memory lane of film clips. Plus, free pizza!

Weds/22 8-9:30 p.m., $10

The Women's Building

3543 18^th St., SF

www.gv-ixff.org

Indie Erotic Film Festival

A whole Castro Theatre full of San Franciscans watching other San Franciscans get it on in homemade short films? And it's the same week as Folsom? Sounds like a recipe for sweet, sweet trouble. Peaches Christ and her fab friends and Carol Queen will be on hand to add some levity to the goings-on – and to hand out the $1,500 for the best clip.

Thurs/23 7-8 p.m., $10

Castro Theatre

429 Castro, SF

www.gv-ixff.org

How To Eat a Peach: Pleasuring Her

Midori teaches the method for sucking out the sweetest juices (fruit props will be involved, natch) at this workshop for all those that love loving the ladies.

Sat/25 8- 10 p.m., $20

SF Citadel

1277 Mission, SF

(415) 626-1746

www.sfcitadel.org

Slut!

Dykey sluts, slutty dykes – you too deserve your own Folsom party! Host Oxana Olsen of Mall Madness hosts this hawt dance party, where prizes will be awarded for best uniform, leather outfit, and fetish wear.

Sat/25 9 p.m., free

The Lexington Club

3464 19^th< St., SF

(415) 863-2052

www.lexingtonclub.com

 

Perverts Put Out

 

Oh how we love the words: as seen on Fox News! An onstage celebration of all things demonstrably slutty, this sporadic series will feature performances by Meliza Bañales, Greta Christina, Stephen Elliot, Robert Lawrence, Thomas Roche, Lori Selke, and horehound stillpoint. It may well be more than enough sexual confessional, monolouging, and live smut to satisfy for the evening.

Sat/25 7:30 p.m., $10-15 sliding scale

Center for Sex and Culture

1519 Mission, SF

(415) 255-1155

www.simonsheppard.com/pervertsputout.html

Magnitude

Folsom Street's official dance party – because why ever would you romp about in the sunshine? Hit the floor to work up a froth to the tunes of DJ Manny Letham. Stay later for the Aftershock party to ensure you'll be a hot mess for the Fair the next day! ($30-40 www.thediscosf.com)

Sat/25 10 p.m.-4 a.m., $80

525 Harrison, SF

www.folsomstreetfair.org

Pussyfest

Here kitty, kitty, kitty! Kinky Salon's cat-themed play party is here, so grab your partner (no singles allowed), fluff your whiskers, and swing over to the cat fight.

Sat/25 9 p.m., $25-30 (members only)

Mission Control

2519 Mission, SF

www.kinkysalon.com

Folsom Street Fair

The grandaddy of all public, streetside leather events assumes its five-block throne in SoMa, where leather bars have been located since The Tool Box's grand arrival in 1961. Join the 400,000 strong who will be frolicking at the third largest street fair in Cali.

Sun/26 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., $7 suggested donation

Folsom between Seventh and 12^th Sts., SF

www.folsomstreetfair.org

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key administration posts:

• William R. Brownfield, Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Department of State
• Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States, Government Accountability Office
• Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, Member, Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation
• Kurt Walter Tong, for the rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service as United States Senior Coordinator for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, Department of State

President Obama also announced his intent to appoint several individuals to serve on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Their biographies are below.

President Obama said, “I am impressed by the sound judgment and tremendous dedication these individuals have demonstrated throughout their careers, and I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key administration posts:

William R. Brownfield, Nominee for Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Department of State
William R. Brownfield is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service.  He has served as Ambassador to Colombia, Venezuela and Chile.  In Washington, Mr. Brownfield’s assignments have included Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Executive Assistant in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, Member of the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff, and Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. He has also served overseas in El Salvador, Argentina, Panama, and Switzerland.  A native of Texas, Mr. Brownfield received his B.A. from Cornell University, graduated from the National War College.

Gene L. Dodaro, Nominee for Comptroller General of the United States, Government Accountability Office
Gene L. Dodaro has served as Acting Comptroller General of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) since March of 2008. Before his tenure as Acting Comptroller General, Dodaro served as GAO’s Chief Operating Officer, and, before that, as Assistant Comptroller General for GAO’s largest unit, the Accounting and Information Management Division. A 37-year veteran of GAO who rose through the agency ranks, Dodaro is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, a member of the Association of Government Accountants, and has received recognition from numerous organizations including the National Public Service Award, the Roger W. Jones Award for Executive Leadership and the Arthur S. Fleming Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in the Federal Government.  Dodaro graduated from Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, Nominee for Member, Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation
Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy is an Associate Scholar of the John Carter Brown Library, a center for advanced research in history and the humanities at Brown University.  He has served as a Director of Kennedy Enterprises since 2005.  Mr. Kennedy wrote Danger's Hour: The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot who Crippled Her, chronicling the worst suicide attack against the United States before September 11th. Prior to that, Mr. Kennedy co-founded the Urban Ecology Institute (UEI) at Boston College in 1998 where he taught in the English and Biology Departments.  Mr. Kennedy served as an Assistant District Attorney for three years in Philadelphia. Mr. Kennedy graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 1988. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School in 1992 where he served as President of the Student Legal Forum.

Kurt Walter Tong, Nominee for the rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service as United States Senior Coordinator for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, Department of State
Kurt W. Tong is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. He is currently serving as Economic Coordinator in the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Mr. Tong has served overseas in the U.S. Embassies in Manila, Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul. Most recently, he held the position of Director for Korean Affairs at the Department of State. Prior to that, he was Director for Asian Economic Affairs at the National Security Council. Mr. Tong was a Visiting Scholar at the Tokyo University Faculty of Economics. He holds a B.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

President Obama also announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key administration posts:

Tom Bernstein, Appointee for Chair, United States Holocaust Memorial Council
Tom A. Bernstein is President and Co-Founder of Chelsea Piers, L.P., formed in 1992, to develop and operate the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex along Manhattan’s Hudson River.  In addition, Mr. Bernstein was one of the two principals of Silver Screen Management, Inc., and the affiliated Silver Screen companies, which from 1983 to 1998 financed 75 films with the Walt Disney Company.  Mr. Bernstein was appointed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council in 2002, and he now serves on the Executive Committee and as Chair of the Committee on Conscience. For many years, Mr. Bernstein has been a Board member of Human Rights First, where he now serves as Vice-Chair. In January 2010, Mr. Bernstein was appointed Chair of the Board of Directors of the Fund for Cities of Service, formed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  Mr. Bernstein also serves as Chair of the Partnership for Public Service and is a member of the Yale University Council and the Board and Executive Committee of the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, GA.

Joshua Bolten, Appointee for Vice Chair, United States Holocaust Memorial Council
Joshua Bolten is a Visiting Professor at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.  He served in the White House under President George W. Bush as Chief of Staff from 2006 to 2009, Director of the Office of Management and Budget from 2003 until 2006, and Deputy Chief of Staff from 2001 to 2003.  His nearly 20 years in government service also includes positions at the Office of the US Trade Representative, the US Senate Finance Committee, and the US State Department.  In the private sector, he worked at Goldman Sachs International in London, and O’Melveny & Myers in Washington, DC.  In addition to serving on the US Holocaust Memorial Council since 2009, he is a member of the board of the ONE Campaign, which is dedicated to combating extreme poverty and disease, and is co-chair of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

Matthew L. Adler, Appointee for Member, United States Holocaust Memorial Council
Matthew L. Adler is the Chief Investment Officer of Adler Group and President of Adler Realty Services where he oversees fund management and acquisitions for the commercial real estate company founded by his grandfather. In addition, Mr. Adler is on the Board of Directors of Miami-based Union Credit Bank. Prior to joining Adler Group, he spent two years as a financial analyst for New York-based Insignia Financial Group, Inc.  Mr. Adler serves on numerous community-based organizations including: immediate past chairman of the Network and member of the board of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, member of the Jewish Federations of North America’s National Young Leadership Cabinet, vice chairman of Mount Sinai Medical Center Foundation’s Young Founders Board, trustee member of Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and member of the Miami Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization.

Katharine D. Dukakis, Appointee for Member, United States Holocaust Memorial Council
Katharine Dukakis is an author, social worker, and advocate for human rights worldwide.  She has served on the Board of Directors of the Refugee Policy Group and Refugees International, and was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the President’s Commission on the Holocaust. Mrs. Dukakis went on to become a founding member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and now serves as a member of its Committee on Conscience. She is also a member of the advisory board of Mapendo International, a humanitarian organization that rescues and protects at risk refugees in Africa, and the board of the New England Center for Children, a school for autistic children in Southborough, MA.  In 2007, the Kitty Dukakis Treatment Center for Women at the Lemual Shattuck Hospital was established in honor of her advocacy work on addiction and mental health.

Judge Karen Chaya Friedman, Appointee for Member, United States Holocaust Memorial Council
Karen Chaya Friedman is an Associate Judge of The District Court of Maryland in the First District of Baltimore City.  Prior to her appointment to the District court, she served for nine years as a Judge on the Baltimore City Orphans' Court. Judge Friedman's civic leadership includes chairing the Elijah Cummings Youth Program in Israel and the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Fund for the Enrichment of Jewish Education, which provides funding for projects that enrich Jewish education in the Greater Baltimore area. She also serves on the Board of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore and is the former Chair of CHANA – Counseling, Helpline, and Aid Network for Abused Women.  Judge Friedman is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors.

Mark Goodman, Appointee for Member, United States Holocaust Memorial Council
Mark Goodman is the Founder of Terawatt Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in clean energy technologies.  His finance and investment career includes positions at First Chicago and Brookline Ventures. As a Teaching Fellow while completing his doctorate in philosophy and later as a Lecturer, Mr. Goodman taught philosophy and liberal arts courses at Boston College and Emerson College.  In his doctoral dissertation he explored philosophical and poetic responses to the Holocaust in the works of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas and Jewish poet Paul Celan.  He is on the Board of the Boston Chapter of the American Jewish Committee.

Ronald Ratner, Appointee for Member, United States Holocaust Memorial Council
Ronald A. Ratner is a member of the Board of Directors for Forest City Enterprises, Inc. and President and CEO of Forest City Residential Group, which manages all of the company’s multifamily housing efforts, including development, ownership, management and financial activities. An active supporter of community and civic organizations, Ratner currently serves on the boards of The Ohio State University and Brandeis University, and is a director of the National Multi Housing Council. Ratner holds a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and completed the master’s program in architecture at UCLA.

Menachem Z. Rosensaft, Appointee for Member, United States Holocaust Memorial Council
Menachem Z. Rosensaft is General Counsel of the World Jewish Congress, Adjunct Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, and Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at Syracuse University College of Law.  Born in the Displaced Persons camp of Bergen-Belsen, he is vice president of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants.  In June 2009, Mr. Rosensaft served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the International Conference on Holocaust Era Restitution Issues in Prague.  He has previously served two terms on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, and chaired its Content Committee, Collections and Acquisitions Committee, and Committee on Governance.  Mr. Rosensaft is also a past president of Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan and a former national president of the Labor Zionist Alliance.

Kirk Rudy, Appointee for Member, United States Holocaust Memorial Council
Kirk Rudy is a Co-Founder and CEO of Endeavor Real Estate Group.  He currently serves on the Austin Area Anti-Defamation League Executive Committee, and was the 2002 President of the Real Estate Council of Austin. Mr. Rudy’s civic engagement has included service on the Board of Directors of the Austin Area Urban League, the Jewish Community Association of Austin, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Austin Economic Development Corporation, and the Long Center.  He received the Austin Jewish Community Volunteer Leadership Award in 2002 and 2006, the LBJ Humanitarian Award in 2008, and the 2010 Anti-Defamation League Austin Torch of Liberty Award.

Over the last year I've had the pleasure of collaborating with Grahame Weinbren, a great artist and friend, on an art project called Still Life With Banquet for the San Jose Zero1 Biennial.

The idea originally emerged over dinner when we were chatting about a public meal I’d been dreaming up. Talk quickly turned to impractical “what if's...” and we began imagining how food and art could intersect.

Much of Grahame’s recent art has been based on great works. For the series 50 Letters, he recreated sumptuous still lifes of fruits and vegetables on hidden beds of soil. As the raw foods returned to the soil, seedlings and young plants sprouted up. Images, shot every four minutes, documented the process. After several thousand images were generated, they were assembled and edited down to beautiful, slightly subversive, short films.

Grahame’s previous work provided our point of embarkment. The dinner we dreamed up would be based on the breathtaking still life paintings of the 17th and 18th century. These works famously celebrate luscious arrays of exotic fruits, vegetables, flowers, meats and fish, cheeses and breads, seductively arranged on imported porcelain bowls, gold platters, or in delicate hand-woven baskets. They tend to include a "memento mori" (reminder of death), in the form of a skull, a fallen glass, a worm burrowing into an apple, or an unfurling lemon peel, as a moralistic omen of the futility of indulging in sensual pleasures. (Read an earlier tangent on the subject.)

Inspired by Luis Melendez, Still Life With Tomatoes, A Bowl of Aubergines, and Onions, 1771–1774

We chose four paintings to base the meal upon — readers familiar with their art history may recognize the image at the top of this post, our recreation of the scene in Floris Claesz Van Dijck's Laid Table, from 1622. Each course for our banquet would be based on a painting, and only the ingredients present in that painting could be re-imagined for the dishes. We were prepared to serve 200 and it was important that a creative and skilled group of cooks were assembled to envision and reinterpret the paintings for the plate. I was honored and humbled that the talents of Niki Ford, Michelle Fuerst, Libbey Goldberg and Jenny Raven (all of whom hail from Bay Area standouts like Olivetto, Chez Panisse and Zuni Café) came together for the meal. Together and separately they considered the ingredients, the time, place, painter and created the following menu to reflect the paintings, the films and the process of decomposition. Preserved lemon peel was candied, cod bones were used for a Spanish caldo, and eggplants and onions were roasted whole in coals to impart a mysteriously smoke flavor to the first course.

Menu

Eggplant and Onions Roasted in Coals with Tomato Confit
Luis Melendez, Still Life with Tomatoes, a Bowl of Aubergines, and Onions, 1771–1774

Ling Cod in Saffron Caldo with Cauliflower, Leek and Anchovy Aioli
Luis Melendez, Still Life with Cauliflower, 1716–1780

Baby Green Salad, Three Cheeses, Assorted Seeded Bread and two Van Dijck Chutneys
Floris Claesz Van Dijck, Laid Table, 1622

Framed Figs Poached in Pomegranate Syrup with Candied Lemon Zest and Lemon-Olive Oil Cream
Jacob van Hulsdonck, Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Pomegranate, 1640s

Inspired by Jacob van Hulsdonck, Still Life With Lemons, Oranges and a Pomegranate, 1640s

Hannah Alvgren’s skilled hands sculpted runners out of moss, fruits and leaves, all accented by candlelight. Projectors encircled the tables. When showtime arrived, the sequences of images were projected using LimoHD, a high-resolution, uncompressed, full-color moving image technology (developed by Grahame and software engineer Isaac Dimitrovsky). Each perfectly recreated still life rolled out in synchronicity with each course; as the diners ate, the projections revealed a wild process of decay. Once a course was finished, the plates scraped clean, the relevant image stood frozen, messy, dead and used, on the screens. Then the next course and film began.

Photo by Barbara Kalina

We began inspired by the paintings of the 17th and 18th century. Those were at the heart of what we did, but our project grew. We got excited by the imperfect and chaotic atmosphere that took over the recreated still lifes. The dinner became an installation, and in the end a sensual space was created that was beautiful despite being unusual, irksome and surreal.

Kitty Greenwald, cook and author, coordinates all things Eatsy — our locally sourced food program. Through communal staff meals held around handmade farm tables, and via seasonal dishes shared with you on our blog, Eatsy aims to nourish and inspire through food.

Recipes on the Blog | Plants and Edibles Category

Picture this: In the cubbyholes of Lajpat Nagar, Delhi, a family of 4 is rejoicing. They have just received Rs. 7,200 as Income Tax refund. The mother wants a new fridge, the son wants a Dish TV connection and the daughter wants an iPod. The father? Well, he just wants peace! As they fight it out to see who wins the battle of what the family will ultimately buy, comes a phone call. There is a wedding in the family. And they all need to go. Argument over. The 7,200 Rupees will go in the Wedding Expenses kitty. What’s more, they need to break some savings too. They whimper and grumble over dinner. Like Payal Duggal says, “Hamaare ghar par discussions aise hi hote hai!”. Another day has ended for the Duggals. No one got what they wanted but they grudgingly make do with what’s thrown their way. They all go to bed with some unfulfilled wishes and some dreams to look forward to.

This is where Do Dooni Chaar begins. The film, directed by the immensely talented debutant Habib Faisal, is one which we had the privilege of producing. “We” meaning Planman Motion Pictures. And then Walt Disney came on board, showed immense faith and made this their first live-action Hindi film. It stars Rishi and Neetu Kapoor, alongwith 2 young kids who are facing the camera for the very first time – Aditi Vasudev and Archit Krishna.

As a part of this team, I have had awesome opportunities to be a part of some genuine cinematic efforts being made. Do Dooni Chaar is an extension of the same passion that saw Dosar, Mithya and The Last Lear happen. I remember that it was in our Bandra office that Do Dooni Chaar was born. A discussion with Habib led to a germ for an idea. That germ grew and became a thought. The thought grew and became a script. The script grew and became a film. It’s been a long journey of 2 years. It took us more than 3 months to write the script. Every day there were discussions. Brainstorming. Arguments. Fights. Finally, we had one rockstar script that was all-heart and entertainment. When our script was written, we all sat and pondered. Script toh likh lee.. Ab kya? Whom could we cast? Our leading man is 54 years old. His wife will be of a similar age and the kids are 18 and 14. Four – Five names came to mind for our leading man. One of them was Rishi Kapoor. We gave him a narration. He loved it and asked us,

RK: “Script toh bahot achhi likhi hai, Habib sahab. Par iss mein main kya kar raha hoon?”

Habib: “Sir, aap Santosh Duggal hai!”

RK: “Par Santosh Duggal toh iss film ka hero hai! Aap career ki pehli film mein mujhe hero lenge? Aapko toh koi star ko lena chahiye!”

Habib: “Mera hero 54 years ka hai aur who aap hai”.

RK: (Laughing) “Aapko Producer nahi milega!”

Habib: “Producer taiyyar hai aur yeh baithe!”

RK was almost moist eyed.

Getting Neetu Kapoor to agree on even a narration was difficult. She wasn’t interested in getting back to films. But RK insisted that she give the story a listen. As soon as the last line of the script was read, we had her on-board. She said that the script has forced her to come out of her home and begin working again. For the kids, we conducted auditions. A tedious and long process! After weeks of searching, we found our Payal from Mumbai and Deepu from Delhi. Apart from Akhilendra Mishra and Supriya Shukla, our entire support cast is from Delhi. So we had long auditions even in Delhi. We found some great theatre actors there.

It was a creative decision we took to not make a set. We did a month long recce in Delhi and zeroed in on locations in Lajpat Nagar, Connaught Place, Ring Road, Shalimar Baug, CR Park and Lodhi Colony. A relatively unseen Delhi, a far cry from the India Gate that’s thrust upon us almost always. The entire film was shot on location. No sets whatsoever. We shot for 60 days in the winter months in a start-to-finish schedule. Shooting in the Delhi winters meant a lot of production hurdles. From battling fog and mist to shorter days and chilling temperatures.. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Habib had a minor accident and was wheelchair-bound. The shoot didn’t stop and he directed sitting on the wheelchair. Within a week, we don’t know what it was, but at least one person from every department had broken one part of the body. It was a common sight to see people limping on the sets, going about their work.

The crowds would get unmanageable. The cold would get unbearable. The equipment would snap. The crew fell ill. But, the show went on. The madness never dipped. The cast was ecstatic. It was common to suddenly see that Rishi and Neetu Kapoor wont be joining us for lunch. Why? Because some friendly neighbours had called them over and they had gone to their place for a meal. The set was in a constant state of madness. But every single person kept going on the basis of only one thing – their immense drive to make the film happen.

We had some of our best times in the music sessions. The lyricist, Manoj Muntashir, would throw up random words and the Meet Brothers, who composed the songs, would be left in the lurch. Almost in retaliation, they would hum up a melody and ask Manoj to write something that fits. In between, Habib and all of us had our own suggestions to give. They were the maddest, craziest times. The title song is sung by Shankar Mahadevan and Vishal Dadlani – an interesting jugalbandi to listen to.

Very often, we got asked who is acting in our next film. When we say “Rishi and Neetu Kapoor”, their next question would be, “Haan.. lekin hero kaun hai?”. From family and friends to buyers.. It has been a constant battle to tell them that they are our heroes! Thankfully, Disney didn’t ask us that. They saw the film and jumped on-board. It was heartening to see a Hollywood studio that understands there are Indian films that are not “Bollywood-ised”. There are films that are made only because the makers genuinely have something to say. There are films that aren’t made after the mathematical equations have been balanced. Through thick and thin, ups and downs.. Do Dooni Chaar has made it.

Do Dooni Chaar is our story, yours and mine. It is the story of every Indian (for that matter.. anyone in the world) who is trying to get on to the next level on the social and personal-comfort ladder. In our film, the Duggals are trying to upgrade themselves from a scooter to a car. The car is a metaphor for anything that we want in life. Today they are fighting for a car, tomorrow it might be for a bigger car. Then a holiday. Then a foreign holiday. Then a home theatre system. Then an apartment. Then a bungalow. Does it ever, ever end? Perhaps not. Does that make us ‘bad guys’ because we love the good things in life? Absolutely not! But, like Habib once told me.. “Jab ameer log 4 gaadiyan khareedte hai, tab kuch nahi. Jab middle-class Nano khareed-ta hai, toh environmentalists khade ho jaate hai!”. Subliminally, it is also a comment on the sorry economic state of our teachers. They are the people who lay the foundation stone in our lives. How would a teacher feel, whose students earn a six-figure salary after learning from him when he himself takes home his monthly pay cheque of 11,000 rupees? Does he not have a family? Does he not have kids who might want to drive a car? Do Dooni Chaar is all this.. and funny! It is no brooding picture of middle class India. It is, in fact, a celebration of that. It is a film on how, despite all the troubles and shortcomings, the Duggals can find happiness. Happiness for them, is a balance between what’s in the heart and what’s in the garage!

The film has been made with a lot of passion, conviction and honesty. Which is why I thought that I must write to you all on PFC because it is here that genuine cinematic attempts are celebrated. In this noise of big powerhouses releases, I would urge you to let a Do Dooni Chaar get heard. I could ask Habib too to write something here, if that would interest you’ll. There’s lots more I could write, but then that would be endless. So I will stop here. I truly hope that you all will help spread the word and go see Do Dooni Chaar. It is a film made straight from the heart! If attempts like these work, we shall be encouraged to keep pursuing relentlessly for that one, elusive script that will get us excited enough to tell another tale!

To visit the Do Dooni Chaar’s official website, please click  here

Lots of meat, lots of filler. Food coma commencing in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

• You can never get enough awesome Lego creations.
• Michael Bay gets pwned by this two-minute Transformers-inspired short.
• You can tell studios are running out of films to reboot when there's talk of a Timecop 2.0.
• R2-D2 is now your all-purpose home entertainment droid.
• Who doesn't love a great random top ten list? Here's great train robberies.
• The key to successful removal of a facehugger is to remain calm ... and get the f^%# off your spaceship before chests start burstin'.
• Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and some C-list celebs are definitely out to flatter their A-list counterparts by jumping on the weird baby name bandwagon.
• File under "Awesome": Marvel-inspired kitty illustrations.
• And the award for "Biggest Waste of $60,000 Ever" goes to ....

Enough of the silicon and studio lighting! Sex in San Francisco just isn't that scripted – or is it? Good Vibrations put its yearly call out to amateur filmmakers to turn in their own seven minutes and under blue films. Straight, gay, perverted, vanilla, the rainbow of oohs and aahs will show you what's really going on in your neighbor's bedrooms (the hots ones, obviously). But wait, that's next week. This week, you can attend the IXFF kick off party at El Rio, where clips of queer hipster porn will be showing and burlesque babies will shimmy and shake for your viewing pleasure. Look at it this way, if you're going to be squirming in anticipation, you might as well have a cheap Pabst Blue Ribbon in hand.

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Bawdy Storytelling: Cheapskate Sex & Cut-rate Coitus

He made you pay 25 cents for the bathroom vending machine condom? Jesus! Sometimes the sex is so cheap, you roll off the mattress and feel the urge to decry your date's tightwad tentacles to the world at large. Oh girl. Lucky you, because monthly series Bawdy Storytelling is featuring nothing but the least-fine and dine at this week's installation. Contact host Dixie De La Tour and wax on your tale of woe, she'll grab you your moment in the spotlight.

Weds/15 8 p.m., $10

The Blue Macaw

2565 Mission, SF

(415) 920-0577

www.bawdystorytelling.com

Rough Sex

Wanna wrassle? Carol Queen and Robert Morgan Lawrence guide you through the times when you wanna reach out and choke someone (lovingly, and with consent). This females-only workshop will cover rape fantasies, ravishing, and unstylized BDSM play.

Fri/17 8-10 p.m., $10

The Women's Building

3543 18th St., SF

(415) 431-1180

www.theexiles.org

Master's Den: Casino

Female submissives and male dominants are invited to pony up to the table at this blackjack and Texas Hold 'Em event, where subs can work on their service-providing skills and doms have the chance to up their “Den Dollar” holdings. The night is part of a trio of events leading up to sex power couple Stefanos and Chey's “Auction” night. 

Fri/17 7:15 p.m.- 1 a.m., $25-35

SF Citadel

1277 Mission, SF

(415) 626-1746

www.sfcitadel.org

Hubba Hubba Revue Four Year Anniversary

Four years of one of SF's hottest troupe of betassled performers, monkey men, and wisecracks galore? My, they're aging well. Celebrate Hubba Hubba's commitment to sexy, strippy excellence by attending the show they're purporting to be their biggest ever, starring all the sparkling sequins we've grown so fond of: Honey Lawless, Bunny Pistol, Alotta Boutte, and so, so much more. 

Fri/17 9 p.m.- 2 a.m., $12-15

DNA Lounge

375 11th St., SF

(415) 626-1409

www.hubbahubbarevue.com

Hot Rods and Lube Jobs

Rev your engines, ladies and gentlemen. This fundraiser for the Center of Sex and Culture capitalizes on all the fantasies generated by those well greased photos in auto magazines – you know, the ones with boobies up on the hood and whatnot. Pole dancing performances by Kitty Me-OW, and an appearance by Jiz Lee are featured. Exhibitionists encouraged to drop the top and cruise through.

Sat/18 8 p.m.- 1 a.m., $40-50

Marty's Motors

10929 San Pablo, El Cerrito

(415) 246-5477

www.sexandculture.org

Indie Erotic Film Festival Kick Off Party

Because you can't just bam, start off with the main event! No, some one needs to ease you into it, give you some hipster queer porn as a tease, perhaps a couple of burlesque dancers stripping down to their pasties. Next week will be the actual IXFF, patience child. 

Sat/18 9 p.m., $7

El Rio

3158 Mission, SF

(415) 282-3325

www.gv-ixff.org

 

Just recently we found out that Dwayne Johnson would be replacing Brendan Fraser in the sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth, currently being called Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.

Johnson will be playing the boyfriend of returning star Josh Hutcherson's mother, who accompanies the young explorer on his journey to a mysterious island to find his missing grandfather...a grandfather who at the time was not yet cast. Today that has changed. We now know who will be joining the cast to play this missing grandfather, and that man is Sir Michael Caine.

Many would think that this new role would be a brief one for Caine, but fear not, the knighted actor will have his share of screen time and action sequences. According to reports, he'll be involved in a few chase scenes, including one with a swarm of massive bees. If he can help take down a shark, he can handle a few bees says this observer.

The 77-year-old Caine joins the cast and director Brad Peyton, whose previous films include Cats & Dogs 2: Revenge of Kitty Galore and a collection of short titles. [...]

Pour cette nouvelle édition de la chronique In the Closet with... nous nous sommes entretenues avec un personnage pour lequel nous  avons eu un coup de cœur il y a quelques mois. Son nom: Little Miss X.

Little Miss X est la petite fille de Tamisha et Samantha (graphiste et photographe), les 2 auteures de TAM +SAM, un blogue où le design, la musique, la mode et bien d'autres idées se présentent aux internautes. Pour leur premier billet en tant que GuestBlogueuse, le cool duo créatif a laissé la parole à sa Miss qui nous a accordé quelques minutes pour nous parler de mode... Hello Kitty et Fifi Lapin n'ont qu'à bien se tenir!

Pour toi quel est le secret pour avoir une belle allure?
Il faut avoir en confiance en soi; c'est l'estime de soi et une attitude positive qui donne ce "je ne sais quoi" a notre allure. Il faut toujours garder le sourire, et rester soi-même.

Ton icône de mode sans conteste?
Il y en a tellement... En ce moment, j'adore le style de Janelle Monae, Solange, Alexa Chung, Liya Kebede - que j'ai eu la chance de rencontrer... Sinon J'aime aussi Coco Chanel Cisely Tyson, Katherine Hepburn…

Dans quelle tenue tu te sens la plus hot?
Un jean slim, un t-shirt simple avec un message sympa. J'adore les couleurs vives et j'ajoute toujours une petite touche de fantaisie à ma tenue avec des bijoux accessoires assez flashy. 

Quelle est selon toi LA destination shopping incontournable?
Sans aucun doute NYC!
De Brooklyn à Harlem en passant par le Lower East Side on y trouve de tout et pour tous les goûts.


Lors de périodes de grosses soldes, tu serais prête à te battre pour...?
Je suis accro au shopping en ligne car je trouve qu'on peut y faire des affaires en or - comme mon short chino couleur olive à 20 $ de chez J.Crew.

Collier Lapin, Katie Hillier | Ballerines, Marc Jacobs | Bracelet, Frieda + Nellie |  Tee-Shirt "Africa is the Future"|

Je demande souvent à mon cher ami Burdee, de m'accompagner faire des trouvailles comme cette paire de Marc Jacobs dont je suis amoureuse depuis un moment!
 
Quelle est pour toi la série télé ou le film " La/Le mieux habillé(e)" ou le personnage?
Clueless mais aussi les séries Girlfriends, My So-Called life et Mad Men ; es films Marie Antoinette, Coco avant Chanel.
J'ai adoré aussi les costumes dans City of God, dans la partie qui se déroule dans les années 70s.




Cette saison, la pièce-clé de ta garde-robe est...?
Cet été j'ai souvent porté ma marinière verte et beige de Madewell et mon maillot ROXY. Cet automne vous me verrez partout avec mon sac Hillier Hobo signé Marc by Marc Jacobs.

 Quel est l'achat que tu regrettes d'avoir fait jusqu'à présent?  Un énième paire de jeans de Madewell... J'adore les jeans de Madewell, mais je dois avouer que j'en ai trop…


Question Beauté: tu ne te sépares jamais de...? (nom des produits et la marque)
Mon lipgloss transparent de NYC New York Color (http://www.newyorkcolor.com/)


Quels sont les blogues ou sites de mode que tu lis régulièrement?
Bien évidemment Tam+Sam et Jeans & Stilettos.

Nuvany Ni'ce: www.nuvanynice.com
Style and the City: www.styleandthecity.com
Design Work Life: www.designworklife.com
All Pretty Birds: alltheprettybirds.blogspot.com

Green Future from Tam Sam on Vimeo.

International News: 'Kitty Galore' given two different ratings -- Sweden's Board of Film Censors is to view 3D films differently in future.

International News: 'Kitty Galore' given two different ratings -- Sweden's Board of Film Censors is to view 3D films differently in future.

more images September 2, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Priyanka Chopra is one of the busiest actresses these days and that is quite visible from the list of the films in her kitty this year. But, this is not enough good reason for director Kunal Kohli, who is miffed with the actress for denying being a part of .... Source article  : Kunal Kohli Miffed With Priyanka Chopra!.

Cette semaine au ciné, vous allez rester scotché à votre siège. Que ce soit en regardant les anciens combattants réunis dans Expendables , qui ne lésinent pas sur le coup de poing et la gâchette, ou bien en vous retenant de danser sur votre siège avec S exy Dance 3D , les sorties cinéma de cette semaine vont vous mettre à rude épreuve. Choix numéro 1 : Expendables : unité spéciale de Sylvester Stallone, avec Sylvester Stallone , Jason Statham , Mickey Rourke , Bruce Willis ? Synopsis : Ce ne sont ni des mercenaires, ni des agents secrets. Ils choisissent eux-mêmes leurs missions et n'obéissent à aucun gouvernement. Ils ne le font ni pour l'argent, ni pour la gloire, mais parce qu'ils aident les cas désespérés. L'avis de Première : Dans les années 90, on pensait Stallone perdu pour le cinéma. Mais au tournant du siècle, la bête s'est réveillée pour produire deux incroyables films bourrins et/ou nostalgiques qui lui permettaient de régler ses comptes avec Hollywood et surtout avec sa propre légende. John Rambo et Rocky Balboa semblaient avoir été conçus pour sceller une fois pour toutes le mythe Sly ! On pense au début que Expendables est le pendant de ces deux films crépusculaires : l'adieu, non plus aux personnages, mais carrément à tout le cinéma bodybuildé des 80's. Mais on comprend rapidement que Sly est parti ailleurs. Plutôt que de signer une Horde sauvage 80's, l'acteur/réalisateur le plus musclé du monde a préféré s'amuser, réaliser un tour de piste rigolard et explosif avec ses potes d'antan. Tout est là : les coups de lattes de Jet Li , les coups de boule de Statham, les coups de couteaux ou de mitraillettes de Lundgren et même les cigares de Schwarzy... Ca fait mal, c'est fun, parfois émouvant (la séquence de Mickey Rourke ) et on a du coup très envie de voir la suite ! Bande-annonce : Choix numéro 2 : Sexy Dance 3D de John Chu , avec Adam G Sevani Synopsis : Fraîchement diplômé de la prestigieuse Université de New York, Moose fait équipe avec une bande de loyaux street dancers et, parmi eux, Luke et Natalie . Ensemble ils vont se mesurer aux meilleurs break dancers du monde au cours d'un affrontement dont l'issue changera leur destin à tout jamais. L'avis de Première : Si le premier Sexy Dance nous avait laissés de marbre, le deuxième du nom avait réussi à réveiller nos âmes de breakers en proposant des chorégraphies hallucinantes. Jon Chu applique la même recette en y ajoutant un ingrédient nettement plus convaincante ici que dans les récents ratages du type Le choc des titans ou Le dernier maître de l'air. Outre le réalisme des scènes de danse, un hommage assumé à Gene Kelly , un danseur-automate bluffant et une vraie déclaration d'amour à la danse urbaine font de Sexy Dance 3 un pur divertissement. Bande-annonce : A éviter : Joseph et la fille de Xavier de Chouchens avec Jacques Dutronc , Hafsia Herzi Synopsis : Joseph vient de passer vingt ans en prison. A peine libéré, il n'a qu'une obsession : préparer un ultime braquage. Pour monter ce coup de maître, il a besoin d'un complice. Ne pouvant se fier à personne, il décide d'initier Julie, 20 ans. Le trouble s'immisce entre ces deux êtres que tout oppose? L'avis de Première : L'idée - allier les codes du cinéma "mélodramatique" et de genre - tenait du coup de poker. Hélas, De Choudens n'a pas tiré les bonnes cartes. Ou plutôt, il ne sait pas bluffer. Il est en effet rapidement évident que le casse, dont la mise en scène est incompréhensible, intéresse beaucoup moins le réalisateur que la naissance d'une crépusculaire histoire d'amour intergénérationnelle. Mais le manque d'alchimie et d'ambiguïté entre un Jacques Dutronc absent et une Hafsia Herzi peu convaincante la fait vite capoter. Bande-annonce : A éviter : Marmaduke de Tom Dey avec William H. Macy , Lee Peace Synopsis : Pour la famille Winslow, déménager du Kansas à la Californie est un vrai bouleversement. Mais pour leur chien Marmaduke, grand Danois ado taille XXL, cela signifie aussi une nouvelle vie et surtout de nouvelles bêtises à faire.... Pas facile de trouver sa place dans cet univers inconnu. Il lui faudra du mordant et des compagnons pour lui prêter patte forte s'il ne veut pas en baver ! L'avis de Première : Adapté d'un vieux comic strip dont l'histoire tient en une case, Marmaduke est un croisement bâtard entre La belle et le Clochard et 4 bassets pour 1 danois, dans lequel les chiens bavassent grâce à un effet de synchronisation labiale. C'est également, avec Comme chiens et chats - la revanche de Kitty Galore, le 2e film canin à sortir cet été, sous-genre typiquement américain, et revenu au gout du jour avec Le chihuahua de Beverly Hills puis Marley & moi. Autant dire que passer derrière ces deux cabots sans faire mieux est la véritable prouesse du film. Gags lourds, bande-son ultra prévisible ou chorégraphie collective de canidés : on a plus envie de laisser Marmaduke sur une aire d'autoroute que de l'emmener avec nous en vacances. Bande-annonce : Pour les autres sorties, c'est ici !

James Cameron knows a potential money grab when he sees it. 3D screens are opening up after Labor Day, and Cameron has nine minutes of footage to add to Avatar -- including that Na'Vi alien sex scene the Avatards clamored for.

Only eight months after igniting a 3D windfall at theaters worldwide, Cameron is bringing back his billion dollar baby on Aug. 27 -- just when it appears that moviegoers are losing interest in 3D.

Blame that on a combination of the extra fee for 3D glasses (typically $4) and movies billed as 3D that technically aren't. At least nine major releases so far in 2010 inflated their box office totals with that eyeglasses surcharge -- but only five were created from scratch as 3D projects.

The rest are movies filmed in traditional 2D then converted to a form of 3D that many viewers are calling inferior and not worth the extra ticket price. Avatar caught studios by surprise and they're taking short cuts to get into the 3D chase. 

Genuine 3D movies (sometimes called "native 3D") like Avatar are shot with stereo cameras, with two lenses slightly offset, creating a ghost image the eyeglasses worn by viewers bring into focus. 2D movies use traditional single lens cameras, and conversion to 3D is accomplished with computers "drawing" a reasonable facsimile of a ghost image. It's a digital lithograph, so to speak, rather than an original painting.

Even when the process succeeds, the fact is that some converted movies weren't planned with in-your-face moments in mind. Reshoots or adding scenes is impractical. 3D conversion makes backgrounds appear deeper and richer (i.e. Alice in Wonderland) but if little that is optically extrusive happens in the foreground, the effect loses meaning (see: Clash of the Titans). Not to mention the extra $4 per ticket lost by moviegoers expecting an Avatar-like experience that wasn't technically possible in the first place.

That's why moviegoers need to know whether the optically enhanced movie they want to see is native 3D or converted 3D. If it's the latter, save your money until the process gets refined or Cameron's plan for entirely 3D filmmaking succeeds, whichever comes first.

These lists should help: 

COULD YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE? -- These nine 2010 releases were shown in 3D theaters but which five are genuine 3D, and which four are faked coversions? (Answers at the bottom of the page.)

1. Despicable Me

2. The Last Airbender

3. Step Up 3D

4. How to Train Your Dragon

5. Toy Story 3

6. Alice in Wonderland

7. Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore

8. Shrek Forever After

9. Clash of the Titans

WILL YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE? -- The final months of 2010 will bring at least seven new (and genuine) 3D movies to theaters, plus four films converted to 3D.

The real deals: Resident Evil: Afterlife (Sept. 10); Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole (Sept. 24); Jackass 3-D (Oct. 15); Saw 3D (Oct. 29); Megamind (Nov. 5);  Tangled (Nov. 24); TRON: Legacy (Dec. 17).

The pretenders: My Soul to Take (Oct. 8); Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 1 (Nov. 19); The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Dec. 10); Gulliver's Travels (Dec. 22).

ANSWERS: Could you tell the difference? The genuine 3D movies are Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5 and 8. The other four are converted 2D films.

It was presumed even if the final numbers weren’t as close as anticipated. Sorry, lovers of Lifetime Movies. The Expendables were able to break out on top above Eat Pray Love, and it looks like they’ve brought the .50 caliber guns with them. Meanwhile, further down the charts, Scott Pilgrim was barely able to edge its way into double digits. A sad opening for such a deservedly beloved film, but history may be a better prognosticator of successful film making than a weekend box office tally. We’ll get to that in a moment. Back to Stallone and the boys for a bit, though. After more than 40 years in the business, over 50 acting jobs (yes, we’re counting The Party at Kitty and Stud’s), and 8 films serving as director, Sylvester Stallone, a man who less than a decade ago was populating DVD shelves with his movies, has his biggest opening yet. In fact, The Expendables beats his previous largest opening by more than $15 million, an awesome feat for an action star who is well into his 60s. There has been some news the past few weeks of a potential sequel and Lionsgate, a company who seizes the opportunity when they have franchise potentiality in their grasp, is now sure to make that a reality. Eat Pray Love didn’t provide the mega opening life-long fans of Julia Roberts were anticipating from her, but it’s decent enough. The 2000s weren’t exactly kind to the vehicles Roberts attached herself to. Her [...]

Though unlikely to overtake Avatar as number one in the all-time UK box-office rankings, Pixar's animated film is expected to make an assault on second place in the next few weeks

The winner

A week ago, this column reported that Toy Story 3 stood at 12th place in the all-time UK box-office rankings, after just 21 days of play. Seven days later, and it's now moved up to seventh position, overtaking The Full Monty, the second Pirates Of The Caribbean, the second Harry Potter, Casino Royale and the second Lord Of The Rings. In just 28 days, Toy Story 3 has grossed £58.91m.

Next in the Pixar animation's sights are Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King (£61.06m) and Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring (£63.01m). It should overtake both during the next seven days, earning fifth place in the all-time rankings. The top four films of all time are, in reverse order: the first Harry Potter, Titanic, Mamma Mia! and Avatar. Toy Story 3 has close to zero chance of catching Avatar (£91.99m, with a special-edition re-release imminent). Where it will place in relation to the other three top pictures is open to conjecture – place your bets now.

Toy Story 3 has mounted a much faster assault on the box-office than any of those previous hits. Avatar, for example, stood at £40.99m after four weekends of play, but went on to gross £5m-plus on both its fifth and sixth weekends of release. Toy Story 3 has reached a much bigger total in four weeks, but has already slowed its pace considerably. And being among the glut of blockbusters that entered the UK market after the World Cup, it faces a more competitive environment than Avatar did, to say nothing of the direct competition it faces for access to the nation's 3D screens.

The climber

Two weeks ago, Inception nestled in fourth place. Last weekend, it moved up to third. Now it's in second. Shrugging off the challenge from current releases such as The Last Airbender, Knight And Day, The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Step Up 3D, Inception finds itself in the weekend chart's runner-up spot on its fifth week of release. Not even Alice In Wonderland managed that feat. With cumulative takings of £29.20m, Inception ranks as the fifth biggest release of 2010 so far, behind Toy Story 3, Alice In Wonderland, Shrek Forever After and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (with the latter just ahead of Inception, on £29.31m). Whether or not the success will embolden Hollywood studios to place further bets on visionary film-makers telling original stories that place demands on their audiences remains to be seen.

The newbies

Scoring one out of 10 in the Guardian's own weekly assessment of the nation's reviewers, and rated just 7% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, M Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender certainly didn't benefit from critical endorsement. Saddled with a title likely to provoke pubescent sniggers, and facing the challenge of its TV source material lacking the popularity here that it enjoys in the US, the film overcame many odds to open with a decent £1.65m, including previews of £390,000. That's not a figure likely to see Paramount executives doing cartwheels, but it could have been a whole lot worse.

The result is also significantly ahead of Disney's new Jerry Bruckheimer production, The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Following a limp opening for Bruckheimer's Prince Of Persia (£1.37m) in May, his latest fantasy adventure debuted with £1.14m, including £289,000 in previews. After many years as the blockbuster king (Pirates Of The Caribbean, etc), and a long run of action hits with former partner Don Simpson (Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun), the Bruckheimer formula seems finally to be losing favour with cinema audiences. Even King Arthur, which was a rare commercial disappointment on the Bruckheimer resumé, debuted with £1.91m back in 2004. National Treasure: Book Of Secrets, the last film to unite the producer with Sorcerer's Apprentice director Jon Turteltaub and star Nicolas Cage, opened with £2.48m in February 2008.

As for Shyamalan, his previous movie The Happening started its run in June 2008 with £1.63m, almost identical to The Last Airbender's opening, albeit achieved without the benefit of previews.

The loser

Having entered the chart the previous week in lowly fifth place, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore finds itself down at number nine on only its second weekend of play. In fairness, it is a property that is playing rather better midweek, thanks to kids on summer holiday, but this is nevertheless a poor result. The fact that the film's weekend takings at 2D screens were almost level with 3D earnings indicates that it is losing the battle for key 3D venues and showtimes to competitors Toy Story 3, Step Up 3D and The Last Airbender. For comparison, Step Up's weekend takings at 3D venues were more than seven times the amount the film grossed in 2D.

The Revenge Of Kitty Galore is evidently discovering that, in the current exhibition landscape, it doesn't pay to be fourth in a four-way fight for 3D screens.

The arthouse winner

Although both Toy Story 3 and Inception continue to exhibit strong appeal for upscale audiences, there are currently no actual arthouse films in the top 10. Premier arthouse title is The Secret In Their Eyes, Argentina's foreign language picture Oscar winner, which opened on 15 screens with an impressive £5,624 average. Juan José Campanella's crime mystery brings to an end the run of French-language films that have dominated arthouse venues all summer. Of those, biopic Gainsbourg plunges a disturbing 53%, although that can partly be attributed to a significant shedding of screens, down from 50 to 34.

The future

Despite the lack of strong commercial new releases, the overall market is a surprising 40% up on the equivalent weekend from 2009, when The Time Traveler's Wife and Aliens In The Attic opened in the top two places. One key difference is the current frame boasts six films with weekend takings of £1m-plus, whereas a year ago there were only two. The success looks likely to continue with the release on Friday of Angelina Jolie thriller Salt, old-school action ensemble The Expendables and Piranha 3D. Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables already has some nifty coin in its kitty: it previewed on Friday and Saturday with takings on those days ahead of the likes of The Last Airbender, The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Step Up 3D.

Top 10 films

1. Toy Story 3, £3,162,944 from 569 sites. Total: £58,908,398

2. Inception, £1,681,130 from 472 sites. Total: £29,204,120

3. The Last Airbender, £1,653,776 from 450 sites (New)

4. Knight And Day, £1,529,478 from 441 sites. Total: £5,908,505

5. The Sorcerer's Apprentice, £1,140,532 from 406 sites (New)

6. Step Up 3D, £1,078,100 from 401 sites. Total: £4,946,688

7. The Karate Kid, £764,748 from 428 sites. Total: £10,600,383

8. The A-Team, £762,570 from 413 sites. Total: £8,915,586

9. Cats & Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore, £488,905 from 480 sites. Total: £3,218,492

10. Tinker Bell And The Great Fairy Rescue, £288,544 from 236 sites (New)

How the other openers did

The Secret In Their Eyes, 15 screens, £84,357

Le Refuge, 13 screens, £16,012

Five Easy Pieces, eight screens, £10,982

Black Dynamite, eight screens, £6,409 + £418 preview

The Final, one screen, £228

The Expendables laid a smackdown on all other films at cineplexes this weekend, its conclave of ‘80s action heroes returning to snatch the number one spot.

Starring Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren and featuring cameos by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the flick promised a meaty clash of the titans – and earned itself an opening weekend of $35m.

Not that other ‘80s icon Julia Roberts didn’t have a good pop at them first with her spiritual awakening flick Eat Pray Love. But Ms Roberts had to settle for second place and $23m.

Meanwhile third place went to The Other Guys, who had a strong second weekend with $118m (those positive reviews probably helped), and Inception slipped from second to fourth place after five weeks in the top ten with $11m.

But wait, wasn’t Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World opening this weekend as well? Yup, he sure was – but for some reason the fanboys and girls didn’t seem too fussed, and Pilgrim entered the charts in just fifth place with $10.5m. Fingers crossed that excellent worth of mouth keeps Pilgrim’s money pots spinning.

Despicable Me stuck fast to sixth place this weekend with $6.7m, while both Step Up 3D and Salt took spectacular nose dives, the former from third to seventh with $6.6m, the latter from fourth to eighth with $6.3m.

Rounding out the top ten, Dinner For Schmucks somehow siphoned $6.3m out of movie-goers (perhaps the ones who couldn’t get into full-booked Other Guys screenings), and Cats & Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore sat in the bottom spot with just $4m. Bad kitty.

What did you see this weekend? Talk to us below...

The action ensemble flick The Expendables took the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office raking in $35 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

The film, written by David Callaham and Sylvester Stallone and directed by Stallone, is an homage to many of the blockbuster films from the 1980s and '90s. It stars action-movie veterans Stallone, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, among others, as well as actors newer to the genre, such as Jason Statham and Jet Li.

VIDEO: Check out the Expendables trailer

Read More >

Other Links From TVGuide.com

• Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Bruce Willis
• Jason Statham
• Jet Li
• Julia Roberts
• Sylvester Stallone
• Despicable Me
• Inception
• Salt
• Dinner For Schmucks
• Cats And Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore
• The Other Guys
• Step Up 3d
• Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
• The Expendables

LOS ANGELES — Sylvester Stallone has proven that he's not quite expendable yet at the box office.

Stallone and his pumped-up pals lifted Lionsgate's 1980s-style action romp "The Expendables" to a No. 1 debut with $35 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

While the macho "Expendables" lured male audiences, Julia Roberts delivered a crowd-pleaser for women with Sony's "Eat Pray Love," which opened at No. 2 with $23.7 million.

The previous weekend's top movie, Sony's cop comedy "The Other Guys," slipped to third place with $18 million, raising its 10-day total to $70.5 million. The Warner Bros. blockbuster "Inception" was fourth with $11.4 million, lifting its total to $248.6 million.

Opening in fifth place with $10.5 million was Universal's graphic-novel adaptation "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," starring Michael Cera as a slacker caught up in duels to the death with his new girlfriend's seven evil ex-boyfriends.

"The Expendables" continued a box-office uptick for Stallone, who has had a career resurgence in recent years revisiting his past with fresh sequels to his "Rocky" and "Rambo" franchises.

The movie features such action stars as Jet Li and Jason Statham – along with cameos from Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger – in a tale of mercenaries aiming to overthrow a dictator.

It's a throwback to the brawn and body counts of 1980s and '90s action, a genre whose top three stars were Stallone, Willis and Schwarzenegger. The cast also includes such actors with 1980s roots as Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren and Roberts' brother, Eric Roberts, as well as wrestler Steve Austin, ultimate fighter Randy Couture and former NFL player Terry Crews.

"By combining all that star power, they really had a strong debut," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "Maybe star power doesn't work with just one star, but when you throw in a dozen, it really looked fun. In the action world, these guys are big names."

Adapted from Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir, "Eat Pray Love" stars Julia Roberts as a woman traveling the world in search of enlightenment after her divorce.

Lionsgate deliberately chose this weekend to open "The Expendables" since it would be aiming for a different audience than "Eat Pray Love."

"We figured anybody going to see 'Eat Pray Love' would not want to see 'Expendables,' and vice versa," said David Spitz, head of distribution at Lionsgate.

Still, the hunky-men factor brought in a solid female crowd for "The Expendables," whose audience was 39 percent women, a bigger ratio than many male-driven action flicks.

Women made up 72 percent of the audience for "Eat Pray Love." Older women dominated the crowds, with 56 percent of the audience over 35.

"We definitely had the women and they definitely had the men," Rory Bruer, head of distribution at Sony, said of the split between "Eat Pray Love" and "The Expendables."

Sony is counting on a long shelf life for "Eat Pray Love" because of its appeal to women, who are less likely than males to rush out to see a movie over opening weekend.

"This is the type of picture that really will hang in there. I would be very surprised if the picture doesn't play right into the fall," Bruer said.

The year's biggest hit, "Toy Story 3," took in $2.2 million over the weekend to climb to $400.8 million domestically. The blockbuster from Disney's Pixar Animation became the 11th movie to top $400 million and only the second animated film to hit that mark, after "Shrek 2" at $436.7 million.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Expendables," $35 million.

2. "Eat Pray Love," $23.7 million.

3. "The Other Guys," $18 million.

4. "Inception," $11.4 million.

5. "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," $10.5 million.

6. "Despicable Me," $6.8 million.

7. "Step Up 3D," $6.6 million.

8. "Salt," $6.4 million.

9. "Dinner for Schmucks," $6.3 million.

10. "Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore," $4.1 million.

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Online:

http://www.hollywood.com/boxoffice

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Universal Pictures and Focus Features are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount and Paramount Vantage are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney's parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Rogue Pictures is owned by Relativity Media LLC; Overture Films is a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corp.

More on Julia Roberts

The tracking was spot on this week as Expendables was looking to take down $35 million and become king of the box office its debut weekend against two other debuting films. Sly and his band of brothers made a nice dent in the box office with an estimated $35 million weekend. I'm sure a sequel will be announced soon. Sly wants to do one and I'm sure Lionsgate is happy with how this one did. Just get Van Damme and Jeff Speakman in the sequel, ok? I know Speakman hasn't done anything action on film in years but I'd love to see the perfect weapon come back and kick some butt.Eat Pray Love came in 2nd place with $23.7 million. The Julia Roberts romantic whatever it is had a pretty good showing against her manlier competitor. But boy did Scott Pilgrim bomb. The fantastic movie, like Kick-Ass, is hard to market. If you saw some of the TV spots, you had no idea what the film was about if you're not familiar with the source material. Is this the end of Michael Cera as a leading emo man? Scott Pilgrim vs the Box Office came in 5th behind The Other Guys and Inception with an estimated $10.5 million. Ouch. I do think the film will be in theaters as word of mouth spreads on how good it is. Showing in 400 less screens than Expendables and 200 less than Eat Pray Love doesn't help either. Rest of the movies fell down a notch. Despicable Me is still doing good and has made just over $278 million worldwide.I saw The Rocketeer last week at The Arclight and it was awesome. Can't wait to watch The Black Hole on the 23rd. If you live in LA, go to Arclight's website and watch some Disney classics on the big screen.Next week Nanny McPhee Returns and goes up against the not screened for press horror movie Piranha 3D. The Switch and Lottery Ticket also debut as does the latest crap fest Vampires Suck from those two jackasses Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer who should be dipped in oil, lit on fire and shot into the middle of the ocean so they can be devoured by sharks. I'm not even gonna put a link to Vampires Suck because I want to do whatever I can to make sure this film fails miserably so those two hacks never get the greenlight to work again. Sorry I even mentioned it in the first place.WEEKEND TOP 10 STUDIO ESTIMATES, August 13 - 15, 2010. 1 The Expendables $35.0 M 2 Eat Pray Love $23.7 M 3 The Other Guys $18.0 M 4 Inception $11.3 M 5 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World $10.5 M 6 Despicable Me $6.7 M 7 Step Up 3-D $6.6 M 8 Salt $6.3 M 9 Dinner For Schmucks $6.3 M 10 Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore $4.0 M What did you guys see over the weekend? What did you like, what did you hate? Comment below or e-mail: george@latinoreview.com You won't be expendable if you Source: Box Office Mojo

Section: Exclusives, Originals, Features, Columns, Japanese Imports, Consoles, Consoles-Other, PCs, Windows, Handhelds, DS & DSi & DSi XL, GBA, Genres, 2D, 3D, Action, Casual, Children's, Role-Playing, Sports, Sim

Everyone has heard of Sanrio, thanks to Hello Kitty. Her fame has made the company a household name. But she isn’t the only famous character the company has created, and Sanrio isn’t just about cranking out assorted Hello Kitty products for cash. (Though it does create a lot.)

Sanrio’s been around for over 30 years, and has accomplished quite a bit in that time. It’s created a profitable line of adorable mascot characters, and successfully branched out into anime series, amusement parks and video games.

Sanrio itself

Sanrio didn’t always start out as Sanrio. It was originally the Yamanashi Silk Company until the 70’s, when it actually became Sanrio. It always did make little gifts, greeting cards and novelty presents with cute characters and designs though.

It didn’t really start making successful and memorable charcters until after the company took the Sanrio name in 1973. Some of the first few characters may sound familiar, as they’re still part of Sanrio’s stable of mascots. Hello Kitty, Little Twin Stars, My Melody and Tuxedo Sam.

Sanrio also focuses on other endeavors though, which people may not realize. As mentioned earlier, they’re a huge greeting card company in Japan. It also makes movies, TV shows and original animation videos (OAVs) as Sanrio Films. It even has Sanrio amusement parks in Japan, Sanrio Puroland and Harmonyland.

Sanrio’s most popular characters

The most famous Sanrio character, without a doubt, is Hello Kitty. Reportedly inspired by the maneki neko (lucky cat), her face has appeared on countless products around the world. Not to mention her tv series and games have been quite well received. But there are a number of other famous faces from Sanrio’s character line which also enjoy a bit of worldwide popularity. Even Hello Kitty’s boyfriend and pet, Dear Daniel and Charmmy Kitty, have become international stars.

Keroppi and Badtz Maru, the chipper green frog and the surly black penguin, are both reknowned characters. Cinnamoroll and My Melody, puppy and bunny characters, are also quite popular. And Chococat, a little black cat, has always encroached on Hello Kitty’s fame. Even Pochacco and Spotty Dotty, the white sporty dog and the dalmation with a pink bow, enjoyed 15 minutes of fame in the late 80’s and early 90’s. One of Sanrio’s most recent and successful line of characters are Jewelpet, which were designed with Sega and are actually a collective of cute, bejeweled animals.

Worthwhile Sanrio games

There have been many video games released over the years starring Sanrio’s characters. Most are geared towards children. Even so, there are still quite a few that are very good, and fun for anyone who takes the time to try them.

Here are a few of the most interesting:

• Hello Kitty Online (Windows PC) - released in 2009 worldwide. It’s a free-to-play massive multiplayer online game.
• Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams (DS) - released in North America and Europe in 2008. It’s a simulation.
• Hello Kitty: Happy Party Pals (GBA) - released in North America and Europe in 2005. It’s a mini-game collection.
• Cinnamon Roll: FuwaFuwa Daibouken (GBA) - released in 2005 in Japan. It’s an action game.
• Kero Kero Keroppi no Bouken Nikki: Nemureru Mori no Keroriinu (SNES) - released in 1994 in Japan. It’s an RPG
• Onegai My Melody: Yume no Kuni no Daibouken (DS) - released in 2005 in Japan. It’s an action game with some mini-games tossed in.
• Sanrio World Smash Ball (SNES) - released in 1993 in Japan. It’s a little like Pong.
• Jewelpet: Kawaii Mahou no Fantasy (DS) - released in 2009 in Japan. It’s a pet simulation where you take care of a Jewelpet and play mini-games.

COMING NEXT WEEK: Important Importables lists some import video game soundtracks you should own.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Last week Important Importables talked about the some Japanese summer festivals.

Site [Play-Asia] Site [YesAsia] Site [NCSX] Site [Himeya Shop] Site [Strapya World]

Full Story » | Written by Jenni Lada for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

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Warner Bros. is planning to bring Bugs Bunny to the big screen in a live-action film, reports Deadline . David Berenbaum, the screenwriter of Elf and The Spiderwick Chronicles has been hired to draft the film which, like the studio's upcoming Yogi Bear , will blend live action with computer animation. Bugs Bunny, who recently celebrated his 70th birthday, has not appeared on the big screen since 2003's Looney Tunes: Back in Action . Other Looney Tunes characters recently made a theatrical resurgence with a CGI short before Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore . Two more shorts are planned before WB family films later this year.

Pixar's latest film overtakes Shrek 2 to become biggest-ever animated film in UK and continues climb up all-time UK box office pantheon

The winner

After just three weeks on release, and with £51.52m in takings, Toy Story 3 is now the biggest animated film of all time at the UK box-office, overtaking previous title holder Shrek 2 (£48.24m). But Pixar's latest film achieved this record so speedily, there was scant drama in the success. Ever since Toy Story 3 opened with £21.19m in its first seven days, Shrek 2's hold on the summit of the all-time animated chart has looked distinctly doomed. The question now is how far TS3 can go.

Shrek 2 had held the animated UK box-office crown since 2004. Now that Disney/Pixar have seized it back from rival DreamWorks Animation, the latter studio may wait a while to regain it, especially since no new Shrek movies are planned. The top gross for a non-Shrek DreamWorks animation is Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, with £23.38m lifetime.

Toy Story 3 is one of only 15 films ever to gross £50m in the UK, and it's done it in 21 days. It now stands in 12th place in the all-time UK box-office pantheon, just behind The Full Monty (£52.2m) and the second Pirates of the Caribbean flick, Dead Man's Chest (£52.5m).

Compared to other titles at the third-weekend stage of release, it's the leader by a considerable distance. The previous biggest grosser after three weekends was the third Lord of the Rings picture, Return of the King, with £41.8m. Toy Story 3 is nearly £10m ahead, albeit boosted by extensive previews on its opening weekend. Other big earners after three weekends are the sixth Harry Potter, Half-Blood Prince (£40.5m) and Bond's last outing Quantum of Solace (£40.3m).

The 6-8 August weekend saw Toy Story 3 experience its biggest drop to date, with a 43% fall from the previous frame. Since the box-office decline on 3D screens was 48% and on 2D screens only 28% it's hard not to attribute the fall to the fresh competition for playdates and showtimes at the nation's 3D venues. Previously Toy Story 3 had faced only a declining Shrek Forever After in 3D screens, but the weekend saw the arrival of both Step Up 3D and Cats & Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore. Despite the steadily growing number of 3D screens in the UK, there are not enough to properly accommodate three major 3D movies at the same time. If Toy Story 3 ends up grossing a number closer to £60m than £70m, Disney will be regretting that the major chains didn't convert to digital (and thus to 3D) quicker.

The surprise

Lambasted by many critics, and hampered by perceptions of box-office disappointment in the US, Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz vehicle Knight and Day has performed beyond expectations with a £2.40m opening in the UK, the top new release. While by no means at the top end for a Cruise film, it's a creditable result for Twentieth Century Fox, serving an adult date market that either has seen Inception already or considered it too challenging.

Knight and Day opened nearly £400,000 ahead of Step Up 3D, which picked up £2.02m in its opening frame. The figure is slightly disappointing when you compare it to the franchise's previous film Step Up 2 the Streets' £2.36m debut back in March 2008 – especially when you consider the price premium on 3D tickets for the new picture. Again, it's hard not to imagine that Step Up 3D would have done better had it not faced competition with Toy Story 3 for access to 3D screens.

Earlier this year, homegrown hit StreetDance 3D overtook Step Up 2 the Streets to become the biggest ever dance movie at the UK box-office, with takings of £11.6m. Universal had every reason to hope that its new 3D Step Up movie would retake the all-time dance crown, but that is looking less likely at this point.

The magnificent seven

Call it a triumph of marketing, a temporary phenomenon caused by a post-World Cup glut of blockbuster-size offerings or – more straightforwardly – a case of Hollywood offering the public a well-balanced and appealing mix of product. Whichever way you look at it, it's the case that as many as seven films this weekend grossed £1m-plus, for the first time since February 2009. (Small caveat: one of those films, Cats & Dogs 2, achieved its seven-figure total with the help of previews, although that's also true of one of the seven £1m-grossers 18 months ago.)

The weekend's seven big earners contributed to one of the most lop-sided top 15s in UK box-office history. Only two films in the chart achieved a gross in six figures (ie between £100,000 and £1m), with the bottom six each earning less than £100,000.

The famous five

Leaving aside Bollywood title Aisha (based on Jane Austen's Emma), the top five foreign-language films currently on release are all French. Top two are dueling celebrity biographies Gainsbourg and Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, with Heartbreaker, The Concert and Leaving all still holding on after a respective six, four and five weeks of play. Gainsbourg's box-office fell a slim 32% from the previous weekend, despite losing nine of its cinemas, and stayed in the top 10. Coco & Igor landed one place below, with a not-terribly-auspicious debut of £53,000 from 36 venues. Last summer, Coco Before Chanel opened with a whopping £423,000.

The survivor

With a drop of just 30%, Inception is once again the gentlest faller on the chart. Its fourth-weekend takings of £2.26m are the second highest for a 2010 release, behind only the fourth frame of Alice In Wonderland (£2.50m). Fourth-weekend takings for 2010's other £20m-plus grossers are as follows: Clash of the Titans, £985,000; Iron Man 2, £523,000; Sex and the City 2, £710,000; Shrek Forever After, £1.22m; The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, £779,000. (Toy Story 3 has only been on release for three weekends.)

With £25.72m so far, Inception ranks ninth among films released in the past 12 months, behind Avatar, Toy Story 3, Alice In Wonderland, Up, Shrek Forever After, Twilight flicks Eclipse and New Moon, and Sherlock Holmes. It is clearly headed for £30m-plus, which would place it ahead of the last three titles on that list. Of films released in the 2010 calendar year, Inception currently ranks fifth.

The losers

Thanks to weak screen averages the previous weekend, and pressure on screens caused by the top eight films enjoying a 400-plus theatre count, two titles lost a punitive chunk of their playdates and thus plummeted down the chart. Catherine Zeta-Jones romcom The Rebound lost 195 of its 247 screens (ie 79% of them), and saw box-office revenues fall by a woeful 84%. Similarly, Predators went down from 164 to 47 cinemas (a drop of 71%), and saw takings decline by 79%.

The future

In line with post-World Cup trends, box-office is overall 64% up on the equivalent weekend from last year, when The Ugly Truth and GI Joe opened in the top two positions. But the market has its work cut out if it hopes to maintain that level of uptick, since this weekend's new releases are middling Disney adventure The Sorcerer's Apprentice and M Night Shyamalan's critically derided kiddie sci-fi The Last Airbender. In the US, the popularity of the latter's source material (Nickelodeon TV cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender) ensured a blockbuster opening; in the UK, the property isn't such an automatic easy sell.

Top 10 films

1. Toy Story 3, £4,666,021 from 555 sites. Total: £51,524,519

2. Knight And Day, £2,404,163 from 434 sites (New)

3. Inception, £2,259,595 from 468 sites. Total: £25,719,644

4. Step Up 3D, £2,015,403 from 400 sires (New)

5. Cats & Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore, £1,553,005 from 408 screens (New)

6. The Karate Kid, £1,411,486 from 446 sites. Total: £8,566,079

7. The A-Team, £1,386,868 from 453 sites. Total: £7,041,641

8. Shrek Forever After, £362,464 from 407 sites. Total: £30,468,038

9. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse £324,469 from 271 sites. Total: £28,870,688

10. Gainsbourg, £87,125 from 50 sites. Total: £343,467

How the other openers did

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, 36 screens, £52,874

Aisha, 25 screens, £52,759

Undertow, 6 screens, £10,132

Eccentricities Of A Blonde Haired Girl, 2 screens, £1,898

Comme Chiens et chats : La revanche de Kitty Galore prend la première place de la première séance parisienne au milieu de sorties cinéma mollassonnes. Cette semaine de sorties cinéma est plutôt terne, après une fin juillet plutôt explosive ( Toy Story 3 et Inception, par exemple). Surtout après la vague de départ en vacances des aoûtiens? La preuve ? C'est Comme Chiens et chats : La revanche de Kitty Galore , un film pour enfants en 3D, qui fait le meilleur score de la première séance parisienne à 14h, avec 963 entrées pour 15 salles. Le ratio entrées / salles reste à peu près constant pour les autres films du top 5, les spectateurs allant plutôt se rattraper en allant voir les grosses sorties récentes... Donc, au vu du choix réduit de cette semaine, aucun film n'est réellement sorti du lot par rapport aux autres . Insoupçonnable , ce thriller avec le trio de charme Marc-André Grondin , Laura Smet et Charles Berling , est tout de même deuxième avec 754 tickets vendus dans 16 salles. Troisième place pour Un poison violent de Katell Quilévéré , présenté à Cannes en Quinzaine des réalisateurs et récompensé du prix Jean Vigo, attire tout de même 545 curieux dans 15 salles. Droit de passage , drame sur l'immigration avec Harrison Ford et Ray Liotta , est une obscure production Weinstein qui parvient tout de même à drainer 487 clients dans ses 9 salles. Enfin, Le Café du pont de Manuel Poirier (d'après l'autobiographie de Pierre Perret ), prend 311 billets dans 13 salles. (Source : Ciné-chiffres) Box-office parisien de la première séance à 14h : 1) Comme Chiens et chats : La revanche de Kitty Galore Bande-annonce 2) Insoupçonnable Bande-annonce 3) Un poison violent Bande-annonce 4) Droit de passage Bande-annonce 5) Le Café du pont Bande-annonce

It was a close race when the weekend began. Dinner for Schmucks was actually ahead of Inception on Friday. However, a major boost in numbers on Saturday helped the Christopher Nolan film make it three weekends in a row on top of the box office. With yet another decent drop from the previous weekend, Inception is now nearing $200 million in domestic sales, and it is very close to overtaking Batman Begins as the 2nd biggest grossing film under Nolan’s belt. As far as worldwide receipts go, it is nearing the $400-million mark. All in all, a very successful endeavor for Nolan, Warner Brothers, and everyone involved. The new films released this weekend don’t seem to be on the same pathway to success, though, with Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Pride coming up the shortest in regards to expected gross. The subgenre of the talking animal film may have met its end, as 2010 hasn’t been exactly kind to it. With the trailer for Yogi Bear causing audible groans around the country, the demise might not be soon enough, either. Charlie St. Cloud did about as expected given the odd time of year it was getting its release. Zac Efron may be big enough to vehicle his own films, but releases in July may not be the best idea for those films just yet, especially if they don’t have any other sort of branding with them. Steve Carell and Paul Rudd pushed Dinner for Schmucks‘s opening weekend about [...]