You are seated amongst thousands of your compatriots waiting for the spectacle to begin. Inside, two bodies prepare for the inevitable fight to the death, for your pleasure. They know it won't be easy, but they are prepared to pay the price. Some are condemned to die, others are slaves fighting for their freedom, and yet others (Christians and Jews) branded as heretics; deserters who have fled the field of battle; and some who are even of noble blood are amongst the many who find themselves in the arena. But, there is one more addition yet, and it has been the subject of much controversy.
posted on Apr 25, 2008 - View this thread

The pop music industry has sadly come to depend on “heritage acts” – wrinkled, dyed-hair, aging stars – to pack houses and make money.

“Whatever a future superstar act will be, it won’t be as ubiquitous as the acts from the ’60s because we were all listening to Top 40 radio.”
posted on Apr 11, 2008 - View this thread

Being Rachel Zoe (NYTimes) The life of a celebrity stylist.
posted on Sep 15, 2007 - View this thread

“I’m a singer. I’m a performer.” Accused of taking part in a £1.75m armed robbery Brian Hibberd had an unorthodox defence. Apparently it worked.
posted on Sep 12, 2007 - View this thread

Engineering the newest edition to the Archie Universe—Raj Patel
posted on Aug 7, 2007 - View this thread

She's a mighty pretty woman. She's a funky dancer. She has hijinks with famous people and Orkans. She sings. She uses soap. She can bond with Janis Joplin and outswim a speargun (but not a boat). She fights. She has problems with buttons (and accents). She likes wigs. She's even a poker hand. And she looks dang good for 66.
posted on Aug 6, 2007 - View this thread

Become a joystick.
posted on May 27, 2007 - View this thread

"If I could do what I want right now, I would put out my next album ... you could download it from my site at as high a bit-rate as you want [and] pay $4 through PayPal." Former member of Cleveland's own Exotic Birds and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor flips his lid when he finds out his new album Year Zero is being sold in Australia for $34.99 ($29.10 US). Label responds: "It's because we know you have a real core audience that will pay whatever it costs when you put something out — you know, true fans." Then there's the RIAA accusing Reznor of intentionally leaking his own music. Album is available in its entirety on MySpace. The unique internet-based promotion of this album - what's being called an alternate reality game - has also generated quite a bit of buzz.
posted on May 23, 2007 - View this thread

Los Angeles Magazine asks, "Can the LA Times be saved?" One suggestion is to hire Nikki Finke, Hollywood's ultimate contrarian reporter. Finke was canned in 2002 by the New York Post over a series of articles critical of Disney. [1 2] She sued in response.

Shortly afterwards, she landed at the LA Weekly, where she boasts an incredible archive of weekly columns - recent entries include a quasi-defense of Mel Gibson, coverage of Cruise versus Redstone, and Michael Ovitz's gay problem. On the side, she likes to bite people's heads off, and reminisce about a New York that's now gone. She now gets to let it all out on her own blog, Deadline Hollywood Daily. [previously mentioned 1 2 3 4]
posted on Mar 20, 2007 - View this thread

Esquire sends out 250 napkins to writers across America - from prolific novelists to those finishing off first works. Nearly a hundred respond back - from sex to frustration, poetry to twisted liaisons, even a mini book and plans for murder.
posted on Feb 27, 2007 - View this thread

House of Deception is dedicated to the history of the deceptive arts, including magic, carnival sideshows and pro wrestling.
posted on Jan 9, 2007 - View this thread

From Broadband to Broadway Video bloggers are the newest phenomenon to go from online to the mainstream. For example, Amanda Congdon, former host of Rocketboom, has a new gig as an ABC contributor. In fact, major movie and TV studios are increasingly looking to the Web for new talent for both on and off-line projects. Here's a list (with pictures) of the up and comers.
posted on Nov 14, 2006 - View this thread

Please enjoy this remarkable rendition of a classic Disney tune from Britain's fabulous Jordan(mildly nsfw).
posted on Oct 17, 2006 - View this thread

Friz-Freleng-For-All About thirty blogs paid tribute this past Monday to the renowned animator, keeper of pigs, tweety-bird-hungry cats and panthers, and model for the roughest, toughest hombre that ever locked horns with a rabbit. Happy 100th birthday, Friz!
posted on Aug 23, 2006 - View this thread

The Interweb Medley!! What happens when you mix up some of the more well-known Internet memes around? Madness.
posted on Aug 11, 2006 - View this thread

WSJ: Moguls of New Media Have nearly a million friends on MySpace and you get $5000 endorsements. Make a comedy podcast with cocktail recipes and you get endorsed by Steve Jobs and get interest from advertisers. Post seemingly impossible self-potraits on Flickr and you get hired by Toyota. The Wall Street Journal looks at these and many more "whos' who of new media". from BlogHer
posted on Aug 1, 2006 - View this thread

Warning!!!Extreme violence, mutilation, blood, guts and gore, including but not limited to eye-gouging, chainsaw disembowlment, and torture by propane torch. NSFW, in fact, NOT SAFE FOR ANYONE ANYWHERE. Halfway decent soundtrack though.
posted on Jul 20, 2006 - View this thread

When Everyone Else's Party is Your Job The 24-Hour Show is a documentary project and exhibit that offers a glimpse of Las Vegas through the eyes of the people who live and work in the city. It's based on interviews with a diverse cadré of casino and entertainment workers who have made Las Vegas home.
posted on Jun 15, 2006 - View this thread

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is pumping out a pile of podcasts that have covered the importance of offensive comics to Art Spiegelman, 600 bands over 54 shows, Captain America versus the American government, Amy Sedaris and geekdom, the journey of young immigrants, French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut and Harper's publisher John MacArthur discussing Europe and America perspectives since 9/11, the after life, sex with monkeys, what radio producers do, the french word "corps", Bonnie Fuller's "The Joys of Much Too Much: Go For the Big Life — The Great Career, The Perfect Guy, and Everything Else You've Ever Wanted (Even If You're Afraid You Don't Have What It Takes)", Veteran Washington reporter Helen Thomas and some other bits & bobs [Breakdown inside]
posted on Jun 5, 2006 - View this thread

You can keep your Simon, Randy and Paula, I'll take Barbara Cook any day. Here is the Broadway legend's two hour master class (it's a REALTIME video from The New York Public Library) and it'll teach you more about singing, phrasing and music than every moment of American Idol combined. At least watch the first 20 minutes, you'll be amazed.
posted on Apr 10, 2006 - View this thread

Dancer Sues Movin' Out for breach of contract and sexual harassment she claims to have suffered during her run in the National Touring company of the Broadway hit. In an interesting move, the dancer, Alice Alyse, has created a lawsuit website to explain her side of the story. Perhaps she'll win, but will she ever work again?
posted on Mar 23, 2006 - View this thread

The Oscars don't only breed argument about who should have won--but also about the speeches? Were they good? Did they suck? What are the classics? What's Memorable? What's Misquoted? How would your speech go? Would you thank your "makeup man"? Oprah? Complain? Or just go crazy? And here are some more top ones (1,2,3) and another bottom. And Oscar Night bingo in case it all gets to be too much, too boring or too damn long.
posted on Mar 2, 2006 - View this thread

Fancy watching Star Wars? Foldsfive started and pushed forward the fantastic Pixelmash Experiment. Sit tight and also choose from The Empire Strike Back, Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and now Ghostbusters. (via B3ta)
posted on Jan 6, 2006 - View this thread

Futurama is probably coming back.
posted on Jan 5, 2006 - View this thread

Our desire for the freakshow is on the wane, or at least it seems that way based on some recent closings. Is it the difference in admission costs? If the EH's relative value calculator is to be believed, that 1841 dime museum should only cost about $2.10 to get into in 2003, not five bucks. Even for free on MetaFilter only about twenty people care to discuss freaks. Perhaps we've just gotten used to seeing this kind of thing on sponsored television and don't want to travel to see it. It's certainly not because our tastes have gotten so much more evolved. Perhaps our threshold for how whack something has to be before we consider it freakish has been raised somehow...
posted on Nov 28, 2005 - View this thread

Sword swallowing uncertainties The sword passes within millimetres of the heart, aorta, and other vitals but, surprisingly, few deaths related to sword swallowing have been described. A Canadian sword swallower did die, but that was after swallowing an umbrella.
posted on Nov 4, 2005 - View this thread

Branded Entertainment. Where the insinuation of products in to entertainment reaches new levels of taste and decency. Flashbacks to 'The Truman Show' are symptomatic of this phenomena. The cause, as judged by market research, is the misuse and abuse of DVR players to block advertising messages. However, there could be a new artform in this; some consumers would like to see a new kind of advertising to augment Brand and Myths [more inside].
posted on Sep 30, 2005 - View this thread

An American Giant Dies Who can fill Matthew McGrory's 29 1/2 shoes?
posted on Aug 10, 2005 - View this thread

Hour 25 Online is a science fiction radio station that's been broadcasting since 1972. They're available online now and have a very nice archive of interviews with science fiction authors and other luminaries.
posted on Jul 30, 2005 - View this thread

White Ninja Comics are not for the weak of mind. They are a brilliant satirical commentary on controversial worldly issues.
straight to the archive
posted on Jul 30, 2005 - View this thread

TED UK
(click through to What is Ted : About Ted : Highlights. You'd think a conference with Freemon Dyson speaking could afford a decent web designer)
posted on Jul 25, 2005 - View this thread

Not Ready for Their Close-Up. Quote: "On the brighter side, TV will lose a certain amount of its power over us - I can promise you that. HD won't do advertisements quite the same way. Ask any Catholic priest, or Jung, or Scott McLoud about the power of icons, and they'll explain it the same way. Too much detail, and they lose their ability to induce our identification."
posted on Jun 14, 2005 - View this thread

Christian Video Games set to make comeback? Tired of destroying the same old cliched monsters, day in day out? Want to engross yourself in a more morally sound, Religious video game experience? Well if the Christian gaming community has their way, we'll soon all be playing them (or at least a few % of gamers): "As believers in Christ, we pray that God will be glorified through our work and that each of us draw nearer to him as we develop and grow as a business," the Christian game company says
posted on May 24, 2005 - View this thread

42. I had always wondered why Jim Henson did The Muppet Show in England, after years of successful collaboration with The Children's Television Network in NYC. As a then 9-year old, I felt a kind of betrayal that I couldn't exactly put my finger on. As some little punk kid, what did I know about the financing of entertainment?

This analysis of The Jim Henson Co. as a globe-trotting band of gypsies goes a long way to explain the oddness of The Muppet Show and the change in tone that resulted when the puppets moved from Sesame Street to Lew Grade's London soundstages.
posted on May 6, 2005 - View this thread

Culture by the people, for the people. We all know that there are a gazillion blogs out there, with people talking about anything and everything, frequently to an audience of one. Those same text based blogs are incorporating video as well. People are beginning to organize their internet not through search engine algorithims, but by their own tags. There's also a dedicated cadrey of partisan and non-partisan "amateur journalism" sites. Then you have full fledged communities focused to specific subjects, holding an unbelievable depth of knowledge and opinions. With entire encyclopedias available online, and with smaller topic-centric wiki's available, can the creation and dissemination of audience authored content be far behind? Witness the growth of Flickr, the probable success of Vimeo, people programming their own radio stations and/or shows, the increasing awareness and use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by plain ol' citizens, the courting of TiVo by Google and Yahoo (to share homemovies and pictures, perhaps?), open source news sites like Take Bake the News, NowPublic (for royalty free images to accompany content), Downhill Battle, Our Media ( a place to store your content), and open-source sounds and sights. Could there eventually be enough worthwhile content to break us free of a corporate-delivered culture?
posted on Apr 25, 2005 - View this thread

Just another collection of silly internet videos (most NSFW.) But many very funny. Some strange. Some just sad. Want to hear a play by play of a lady beating a guy with a bible? Or how about the kid that things everything is so gay he has to sing about it? And let's not forget the simple pleasure of an air horn.
posted on Apr 19, 2005 - View this thread

Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix
posted on Apr 7, 2005 - View this thread

Indeed, all over the world, millions of born-again Christians have vanished into the mystical ether--leaving behind their clothing, their eyeglasses, even their dentures--along with every child under the age of twelve. Airplanes are crashing, automobiles are veering driverless and out of control, and fetuses are disappearing from their mothers' wombs, as the born-again and the unborn alike are abruptly "raptured" to heaven. Harper's Magazine reviewer Gene Lyons discusses apocalyptic entertainment.
posted on Mar 11, 2005 - View this thread

EP3 Trailer Awesome.
posted on Mar 10, 2005 - View this thread

Howard Hughes on the set of Hell's Angels. For some reason, the Wisconsin Historical Society has a huge collection of stills from old movies that they are slowly releasing online. This collection is part of the material they sent to Scorsese for pre-production of The Aviator.
posted on Feb 24, 2005 - View this thread

Blackface : From mainstream entertainment to (nearly?) being considered a hate crime. Do we still have 21st century minstrel shows? Can one "plainly see similarities between the insulting stereotypes acted out by blackface minstrels like Al Jolson in the 19th and early 20th century and today's actors who play exaggerated, cutesy roles of gay people in the 21st century" ? Here is a larger question: Is humor and ridicule a necessary first step down the path to eventual acceptance? Is that what Spike Lee is saying in Bamboozled or is he saying we haven't progressed as far as we think?
posted on Jan 30, 2005 - View this thread

Rent-a-Midget. "Think about the best party you've ever been to, wouldn't it have been better if there was a midget there? Another boring day at the office, why not have one of our little people go down and bring some life in there!"
posted on Jan 14, 2005 - View this thread

Great Shockwave Game - "Doom Funnel Chasers" asks you to launch projectiles through space, plugging the funnels o' doom. Each attempt leaves its own trail, producing a fun Spirograph-ic effect. [Found via Qarcade]
posted on Dec 29, 2004 - View this thread

Looking for a career change? (NSFW)
posted on Dec 7, 2004 - View this thread

"The MP3 Experiment is the world’s first live theatrical performance that audiences will experience exclusively through headphones. There are no actors. There is no host. Audience members will download an mp3 track from the show’s website in advance, load it onto their portable players, and bring it with them to the show. The lights go down, a video projection cues the audience to press play on their mp3 players simultaneously, and the show begins. The mp3 track is an intricate mix of music and instructions from an unknown voice." Produced by Improv Everywhere, also mentioned here.
posted on Nov 30, 2004 - View this thread

Making a movie? Throwing a party or an event? Take it up a notch and schedule Frank "Bikerfox" DeLarzelere. Outfits and poses for all occasions.
posted on Oct 7, 2004 - View this thread

Indian Superman is a movie of questionable legality released in India in the mid eighties. Perhaps it should have had a wider release since it has a great deal of humorous appeal for Western audiences. Check out this review from Stomp Tokyo. I'm looking forward to a crossover when Indian Superman meets Indian Spider-Man. via Sepia Mutiny
posted on Aug 17, 2004 - View this thread

He plays the piano with his balls (SFW)
posted on Jul 2, 2004 - View this thread

A Canadian Chinese Celebrity - (LA Times - reg required) Use this to get login. "The lanky Ottawa native, a virtual unknown in Canada, is most renowned for his Chinese TV appearances as the quick-witted foreigner who does amusing skits and the first Westerner to perform the ancient Chinese art of xiangsheng, or comedic dialogue."
posted on Jun 21, 2004 - View this thread

These days, we remember the age of legends by reliving them, virtually. Is it a sign of the fall of civilization when modern leaders are so bland as to be indistinguishable from one another? Oh how I miss the golden years.
posted on Jun 16, 2004 - View this thread