from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Next Page: The fabulism of ‘Travels With Charley’

Sorry, Charley: After criss-crossing America in the tracks of John Steinbeck’s ‘Travels With Charley,’ Bill Steigerwald came to a conclusion: The esteemed work is something of a fraud. (Victimless, perhaps, but still.)

By Bill Steigerwald

Bill Steigerwald

A cornfield near Alice, N.D., where Steinbeck supposedly camped overnight and met an itinerant Shakespearean actor in October 1960.

ALICE, N.D. – “Hah!” I blurted out as a million North Dakota cornstalks rattled in the pushy October wind.

“Who were you trying to kid, John? Who’d you think would ever believe you met a Shakespearean actor out here?”

For three weeks I had been retracing the 10,000-mile road trip Steinbeck made around America for his nonfiction bestseller “Travels With Charley,” and chronicling it for the Post-Gazette.

I wasn’t in the habit of speaking directly to the ghost of John Steinbeck. But I couldn’t stop from laughing at the joke that Steinbeck played on everyone in the pages of “Travels With Charley,” released in 1962 to national acclaim and still revered as a document of the American soul.

No one could hear me talking to Steinbeck’s ghost that Oct. 12 afternoon. I was parked on an unpaved farm road in the earthly equivalent of outer space — the cornfields of North Dakota, 47 miles southwest of Fargo.

[ click to continue reading at the Post-Gazette ]

from The Wall Street Journal

Seductively Dangerous

Without Thomas De Quincey there would have been no James Frey

By LEE SANDLIN

William Hazlitt (1778-1830) once observed that the arts don’t make progress the way that the sciences do. Instead, they tend to deteriorate. If you want the best science, Hazlitt said, you want the latest science; but for the best of any art form, you should go for its early days. His example was epic poetry, which has been all downhill since Homer, but the rule will work for almost any creative endeavor: Has anybody ever written better detective novels since Hammett or Chandler? Better science fiction since Heinlein or Arthur C. Clarke? For that matter, when you’re looking for the best of literary journalism, the place to go isn’t Bookslut or McSweeney’s, but Hazlitt himself, and his contemporary and rival Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859), who is the subject of Robert Morrison’s superb biography “The English Opium Eater.”

Hazlitt and De Quincey wrote for the magazines and literary journals that flourished in England early in the 19th century. They were the archetypal hacks, in that they’d write anything that would pay. But they also managed to invent, inadvertently and through sheer expedience, almost every form of modern magazine feature writing. Hazlitt wrote art criticism, theater reviews, book reviews and political commentary. He wrote a brilliantly vivid account of a boxing match that appears to be the first instance in English of long-form sports journalism. He wrote acidly witty portraits of his famous acquaintances and originated the snarky celebrity profile. Middle-aged and with a family, he fell in love with his landlord’s teenage daughter, and he took for granted that he should write a book about it—”Liber Amoris”—the “book of love” that could be the model for all those bloggers who overshare about their sex lives.

[ click to continue reading at WSJ.com ]

from the NY Daily News

Soul singer Teena Marie, known for ‘Lovergirl,’ dead at 54

BY NINA MANDELL AND OREN YANIV 
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

R&B singer-songwriter Teena Marie was found dead Sunday morning in her Los Angeles home, said her manager. She was 54.

Nicknamed Lady Tee, Marie burst into the music scene at the end of the 1970s and rose to fame over the next decade, famously collaborating with late funk legend Rick James.

The “Lovergirl” singer, born Mary Christine Brockert, released 13 albums, six of which went platinum. “A lot of black people swore by her and believed in her, as far as her music was concerned,” R&B singer Eddie Levert told CNN.

[ click to read full article at NYDailyNews.com ]

from TwentyFourBit

Hear The Smiths’ Reggae “Girlfriend in a Coma” Take

[ click to read at TwentyFourBit.com ]

from Chip and Company

Curtain Set to Rise on Spectacular Theaters Aboard the Disney Dream

Over the past few weeks we’ve given you sneak peeks at many wonderful features aboard our newest ship, the Disney Dream, which will welcome its first Disney Cruise Line guests next month in Florida.

Let me welcome you to another magnificent venue, the Walt Disney Theatre.

The 1,340-seat Walt Disney Theatre is located at the forward end of Deck 3 with balcony seating accessible from Deck 4. It’s one of the most technologically advanced theaters at sea or on land and it’s where our guests will be entertained every night with Broadway-style stage shows exclusive to Disney Cruise Line. During the day it’ll also present first-run movies, including some in Disney Digital 3D.

At midship on Decks 4 and 5 is the 399-seat Buena Vista Theatre, an Art Deco cinema that will screen first-run films and other popular movies, some in Disney Digital 3D too.

Upcoming films that will premiere at sea on all three Disney Cruise Line ships the same day they debut on land include “Gnomeo & Juliet” (February 11, in Disney Digital 3D), “I Am Number Four” (February 18) and “Mars Needs Moms” (March 11, in Disney Digital 3D).

[ click to read full article at ChipAndCo.com ]

from CNN.com

‘God’ speaks on upcoming memoir

According to Entertainment Weekly, the reason God inked a recent book deal with Simon & Schuster is because he’s “tired of being misinterpreted.”

The higher power recently spoke with EW about his upcoming memoir - as told to former “Daily Show” exec David Javerbaum - his Twitter account and (but of course!) Justin Bieber.

(It turns out that Javerbaum and God are represented by the same literary agency, according to a release from Simon & Schuster. He’s also co-authored “America: The Book” and “Earth: The Book,” as well as “What to Expect When You’re Expected: A Fetus’s Guide to the First Three Trimesters.”)

The interview with God, which EW notes was just maybe aided by Javerbaum, cites James Frey, the Brothers Grimm, Aesop and Hans Christian Andersen as literary influences. The memoir will apparently cover a variety of topics, including: “[t]he secret history of Adam and Steve; what it was like working with Moses, St. Peter, Mohammed and other legends of the field; which sports teams I truly root for (hint: Go Blue Jackets!); and, because I can see everyone at all times, I will have much to offer by way of celebrity gossip. It will be in a section that I will call ‘God-sip’!”

[ click to continue reading at CNN.com ]

[ click to visit tapedeck.org ]

from artnet

THE FLOWERS OF ROMANCE

by Charlie Finch

Most of the time, I’d rather have my good times happen by accident. Such was the case when I walked down Second Avenue on a cold evening a few weeks ago to visit the Half Gallery on Forsyth Street, which, since it combines the powers, formally and informally, of Bill Powers, James Frey, Andy Spade, Carter Burden, Cynthia Rowley, Olivier Zahm and others, probably has more celebrities per square foot than all the ersatz parties in Miami Beach during the first week of December.

Opening at Half was a painter named Donald Shambroom, who lives outside of Boston. It’s his first New York exhibition in 20 years and comprises a series of mournful paintings of orange gardenias, and one of an outstretched pink hand, bowing towards a gravestone, mockingly thanking George W. Bush on behalf of the war dead of the last decade.

I asked myself where I had met this Shambroom fellow before and, when a number of familiar faces arrived, realized that I had not seen him since he was painting at Yale in 1973. Memories, none mournful, flooded back of other marginally promising painters of our era (Dirk Nelson, Frank Cole), and the faces in the room identified themselves: here was the avant-garde guitarist Gary Lucas, sidekick of Captain Beefheart; there was Robert Rubin, who curates at the Bibliotheque National; and there was painter Dennis Kardon, he of the brash nudes and frequent mentions inArtnet Magazine.

[ click to continue reading at artnet.com ]

from The LA Times

[ click for recipe ]

from Artist Direct

Callan McAuliffe Talks Action in “I Am Number Four,” Futuristic Weaponry and “Red Dead Redemption”

“Going from shooting my friends online to actually shooting and blowing stuff up in I Am Number Four was pretty cool,” laughs Callan McAuliffe.

Callan got to live out every modern guy’s dream with his role as Sam in D.J. Caruso’s I Am Number Four. He gets thrust into a paranoid, pulsating thrill ride rife with intense action and super cool weaponry.

I Am Number Four centers around John [Alex Pettyfer]. John has got something very special inside of him, but there’s a deadly enemy that wants to make sure he never realizes the full scope of his power. Three have already been knocked off, and he’s Number Four. Sam’s the outcast in John’s high school that’s along for the journey.

In this exclusive interview, Callan McAuliffe talks about I Am Number Four, getting to fire off some futuristic weaponry, favorite video games, film score and more!

[ click to read interview at ArtistDirect.com ]

from Social Times

Does MTV Care About Music Again? The MTV Music Meter Is A Good Start 

Posted by Reid McCarter on December 16th, 2010 1:40 PM

We can be forgiven for thinking that, at times, MTV has lost touch with its roots. Between the constant parade of banal reality shows and Bigfoot-sighting frequency of music videos featured on the network it can seem as if the company has given up on actually trendsetting in the world of music. Luckily the release of the MTV Music Meter, an innovative and relevant new charting system, proves this theory wrong by displaying the company’s renewed commitment to current music.

The MTV Music Meter, only just launched in beta, puts the modern music charts where they belong — into the hands of a digital democracy. By accessing the Music Meter fans are able to view a daily list of the top 100 artists currently getting buzz around the internet and then carry on to check out any of the subject’s photos, videos, bios, tweets, music, similar artists and more.

The MTV Music Meter is, in this sense, just a charting system (albeit a more interactive one). What makes it noteworthy, however, is that it is a charting system that is determined by an algorithm (developed by MTV and EchoNest) that crawls the web for the most popular blog postings, video streams and other social media hype-machines. The daily top 100 is then composed from these findings, representing a traffic-driven approach to pop chart listings influenced by the real majority — that is, anyone with a computer and an opinion.

[ click to continue reading at SocialTimes.com ]

from The LA Times

Director Blake Edwards dies at 88

December 16, 2010 | 10:01 am

Blake Edwards, the veteran writer-director whose films include the “Pink Panther” comedies, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Days of Wine and Roses” and “10″ and whose legendary disputes with studio chiefs inspired his scathing Hollywood satire “S.O.B.” has died. He was 88.

Edwards, whose collaborations with his wife, Julie Andrews, included the 1982 comedy “Victor/Victoria,” died of of complications of pneumonia Wednesday evening at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, said Gene Schwam, Edwards’ longtime publicist. Andrews and members of their immediate family were at his bedside.

Edwards scored his first box-office hit with “Operation Petticoat,” a 1959 comedy about a World War II submarine crew starring Cary Grant and Tony Curtis. But a turning point in Edwards’ film career came in 1961 with “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

[ click to continue reading at LATimes.com ]

from The New York Daily News

‘I Am Number Four’ trailer: Is James Frey’s book-turned-film the next ‘Twilight’ or ‘Harry Potter’?

BY ANTHONY BENIGNO / DAILY NEWS WRITER

 Dreamworks / In ‘I Am Number Four,’ Alex Pettyfer plays an alien who falls for ‘Glee’ star Dianna Agron.

With the “Harry Potter” franchise ending next summer and “Twilight” wrapping up a year later, it’s quite likely the wizard and vampire fads are on their way out. If so, a new sci-fi fantasy trend will have to take the reins.

Can we interest you in aliens, perhaps?

That’s the hook for “I Am Number Four,” the D.J. Caruso-directed film whose explosive second trailer was just released earlier this week.

Based on the novel co-written by “A Million Little Pieces” author James Frey (under the pen name Pittacus Lore), “Number Four” tells the story of a group of teen aliens who are hunted on Earth, but who can only be killed in a numerical sequence.

[ click to continue reading at NYDailyNews.com ]

from The Telegraph UK

German man castrates teenage daughter’s 57-year-old boyfriend

An enraged father who disapproved of his daughter’s older boyfriend went to his home and castrated him with a bread knife.

By Allan Hall, Berlin 10:11PM GMT 12 Dec 2010

Helmut Seifert, 47, an ethnic German originally from Russia, was enraged when he heard his 17-year-old daughter was having a relationship with Phillip Genscher, 57.

He went to police in the town of Bielefeld where he lives but officers said they were powerless to intervene.

“The man then recruited two work colleagues at his factory and then went to the house of the victim,” said police.

“The man was forced to remove his trousers and, fully conscious, he was castrated. The severed testicles were taken away by the perpetrator.”

The man was close to bleeding to death but managed to call police. His life was saved but he remains a eunuch for life.

[ click to continue reading at The Telegraph ]

from The Daily Mail

The real-life Da Vinci Code: Historians discover tiny numbers and letters in the eyes of the Mona Lisa

By NICK PISA and LUKE SALKELD

Intrigue is usually focused on her enigmatic smile.

Hidden symbols: This eye is thought to contain L and V, the artist’s initials

But the Mona Lisa was at the centre of a new mystery yesterday after art detectives took a fresh look at the masterpiece – and noticed something in her eyes.

Hidden in the dark paint of her pupils are tiny letters and numbers, placed there by the artist Leonardo da Vinci and revealed only now thanks to high- magnification techniques.

[ click to continue reading at The Daily Mail ]

from Entertainment Weekly

EW exclusive: God the Almighty dishes on his new memoir, Twitter page, and Justin Bieber

by Keith Staskiewicz

Image Credit: Mehau Kulyk/SPL/Getty Images

Sometimes as an entertainment journalist, you’ll get a great interview assignment, whether it’s Matt Damon or Michael Caine, but rarely are you offered a one-on-one with a figure so prestigious, so well-known, and with such staying power as I was recently. In order to promote His upcoming memoir from Simon & Schuster, as well as His recently launched Twitter page, the big cheese Himself, God, deigned to speak from the heavens directly into the ear of this humble servant of Time, Inc. (All right, he may have had some help from former executive producer of The Daily Show David Javerbaum.) Like many in my field, I’ve interviewed aliens before, but this is a totally different deal. Read our entire sacrilicious exchange below.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why a memoir, and why now?
GOD:
Lo, I grew weary of being misinterpreted, and blasphemed, and relegated to sneeze detail; and I longed to telleth all; and it was a matter of urgency, for on April 23, 2013, I shall bring about on Earth an event of such cataclysmic… well, ye will have to read the book.

Nice tease. And what other topics will Thee be addressing?
My topics shall include: The secret history of Adam and Steve; what it was like working with Moses, St. Peter, Mohammed, and other legends of the field; which sports teams I truly root for (hint: Go Blue Jackets!); and, because I can see everyone at all times, I will have much to offer by way of celebrity gossip. It will be in a section that I will call “God-sip”! Getteth it?

Yes.
Like “gossip,” but with “God”?

It’s very clever.
I make this covenant with ye, Keith: This will be a juicier book of revelations than any since The Book of Revelation.

Literarily speaking, who are your influences?
Aesop, The Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and James Frey.

[ click to continue this conversation with God at EW.com ]

from the New York Press

Keith Richards Kills Orchid (and His Dream of Becoming Librarian)

Posted By: Deb Sperling

It seems that, even though the rest of us aren’t allowed to so much as close our eyes at the New York Public Library, Keith Richards can do whatever he wants.

Shortly before giving a talk at the Cullman Center, the Rolling Stone lit up a cigarette in Deputy Director Marie d’Origny’s office. He then stubbed it out on a clay saucer he grabbed from underneath her precious orchid. Just to make sure the famously hard-to-care-for flower was really dead, he had someone open the office window to let in a breeze.

[ click to continue reading at NYPress.com ]

from The Hollywood Reporter

DreamWorks’ “I Am Number Four” and “Real Steel” to unspool on digital screens in 2011

TORONTO — Imax Corp. has pacted with DreamWorks Studios and The Walt Disney Studios to release two Touchstone Pictures releases, I Am Number Four and Real Steel.

“The inclusion of two live-action DreamWorks titles in our 2011 slate enables us to expand the range of content available to Imax theatres and extend our brand deeper into our growing 18-34 audience segment,” Imax CEO Richard L. Gelfond said in a statement.

D.J. Caruso’s I Am Number Four, set to be released on Feb. 18, 2011, is an action thriller about an extraordinary teen, played by Alex Pettyfer, who is hunted by ruthless enemies.

Timothy Olyphant and Dianna Agron (Glee) also star.

[ click to read full article at The Hollywood Reporter ]

from ABC Fresno

from The Observer’s Very Short List

[ click to read at The Observer’s Very Short List ]

from The Wall Street Journal

‘I Am Number Four’: Trailer

By WSJ Staff

The first project from James Frey’s so-called “fiction factory,” “I Am Number Four,” is set to hit the big screen soon. The film adaptation of the bestselling fantasy book tells the story of nine baby aliens who are raised on Earth. Frey wrote the book along with co-author Jobie Hughes. Here’s a look at the trailer.

[ click to read at The Wall Street Journal ]

from The Arizona Republic

[ click to continue recipe at AZCentral.com ]

from Nieman Journalism Lab

“An art brand”: Gawker Artists looks at the image beyond the display ad

By Greg T. Spielberg

Five years ago, Chris Batty, until this week Gawker’s vice president of sales and marketing, was looking to fill un-purchased ad space on the site. He wanted to forgo the “horrendous creative” of ad networks that litter sites with penny stocks and would keep his sales teams pushing buttons instead of building relationships. Batty sought something prettier, more intimate, more unique for the company’s growing real estate. At the time, he was living with a woman who worked for Christie’s art house, and he prodded her to find artists to fill the empty space. She didn’t act on Batty’s inspiration, but he did — bringing images of artists’ work to stand alongside Gawker’s blog posts.

The result was a workaround that gave Gawker full control over its pages’ aesthetics. Born as a stopgap to complement blog posts, Gawker Artists is now taking on an unexpected life of its own — it became a standalone site in 2006 — in large part by thinking of art not merely as a pretty placeholder for text but as something that could survive on its own. Something that could be modeled and monetized. “Gawker Artists is an art brand rather than an editorial brand,” Gawker Media’s director of marketing, Erin Pettigrew, points out. That’s a major distinction in an industry that uses the word “art” as shorthand for photos, infographics, cartoons, and any other visual.

G.A. curators — working with more than 1,400 artists with 35,000 images — tailor and export work to media partners like Elle, Curbed, and The Atlantic. They hang pieces at Gawker’s notoriously bit-focused office, and are in talks to curate work for the headquarters of another high-profile startup. G.A. organizes sponsored exhibitions and events and collaborates with brands on creative projects. Soon, it will launch an art shop that sells limited-edition prints.

[ click to continue reading at NiemanLab.org ]