Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category
evawhite on August 17th, 2008
I am very happy today and full of anticipation of some rollicking good laughs. Reason is I just finished downloading Season I and II of the wickedly funny Brit improvisation show Whose Line is it anyway, something that was a staple for my friends and me during our collage days. You can knock reruns all you like but I simply love watching old favorites like this and others.
I have found Mininova (a peer to peer file sharing portal) to be an incredible source of anything film and TV related and thus far I have downloaded as I said Whose Line (UK version), The Pink Panther Films (Peter Sellers at his deadpan, bumbling best), The Jeeves and Wooster series based on the P G Wodhouse books (starring the inimitable Hugh Lawrie and Stephen Fry) and some kids films like Cinderella, Winnie the Pooh etc. (which my 4 year old saw and TV and practically demanded to watch once again).
Now I know that this is a hotly debated topic by the people who think that this as piracy, infringement of copyright laws etc. I don’t think of it that way. Fact is that all these shows have been aired on TV and at the time I taped them all on my VCR to watch and re watch at my leisure. Now the VCR is near about obsolete and the video tapes have gotten scratched and fungified beyond redemption. So in a sense I am simply transferring what I already have and changing the storage format or system.
In any case it is perfectly all right for me to say borrow a friends’ DVD and watch it or to make a copy of it for my personal use right? This is not much different, only it is on a wider basis. The site puts me in touch with people who have the material that I want and that they are willing to share. Who loses out? No one I think. If anyone has a problem with this, show me my fave TV shows again! And Again!
What do you think about this not very straightforward question and the legal, ethical and other ramifications of it? I would be most interested to know.
evawhite on August 13th, 2008
A few articles back I spoke about Virtual Living, I decided to take a better look at this business and here’s what I learnt. There are many virtual world platforms today. The biggest commercial start to virtual gathering was the computer game World of Warcraft. For those who don’t know, World of Warcraft is the fourth iteration of the game Warcraft. It made its first appearance in ‘Warcraft: Orcs & Humans’ in 1994. From simple multiplayer online games it evolved to massively multiplayer online games (MMOG). With ten million gamers online it could be no lesser than that.
Another game which started off offline and simple was ‘The Sims’ in 2000 which was evolved from ‘Sim City’ in which one could build and run a city. In ‘The Sims’ you could build and run a family. Groundbreaking as it was, it took some time to catch on. Namely, more widespread use of computers and better broadband internet availability. ‘Alphaworld’ started in 1995 is said to be the grand-daddy of virtual wording. Still running strong, all names are site linked, hit them to see more.
The most recent and biggest news item was ‘Second Life’. As the name implies you can create an online avatar of yourself in anyway you wanted. Hell, you could switch genders online to offline! Again, a huge hit. Why? Because it allows you to do everything you can do in real life and lets you do things you want to but can’t do in real life. However far your imagination can go. Run a museum if you want or a secret alter ego, anything. Linden dollars in ‘Second Life’ convert in the ratio 250 Linden to 1 US dollar. Money making opportunities can be created.
Then with ‘Entropia’ making news shortly after, one found people buying ‘virtual property’ with real money. Big money at that. One instance was 100,000$ forked up for a piece of online property in ‘Entropia’.
People doing quite the same thing there as in real life. Creating opportunities and making money. There are people developing property and availing to user paid-services. Think for a moment; A few million people logged on. Charging them even a dollar each is raking it in huge. Word is the biggest name in virtual worlds today is ‘Habbo Hotel’ but who’s to really say, there are so many other such platforms in the pipeline we need to wait to see which comes out on top.
We also have today the ‘3D camera’. What it does is digitally map people’s gestures and posture into a 3D world. The technology can also track facial gestures and match them onscreen in real time. It can also read the user’s body gestures to let them navigate and edit within the environment. Quite cool eh? I’d certainly think so.
evawhite on August 11th, 2008
I know I have said in the past that celeb spotting is not is not one of my hobbies, but Vanity Fair put out their Best Dressed Couple’s List which had some improbable on it so I thought I would just cover that.
The fact that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt (aka Brangelina) were topping the list was not a surprise; they are terribly good looking and terribly news worthy. Besides they can afford to be as well dressed as they are, cant they? To give them their due, they are smart even when sloppy.
Next on the list are Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady; not such a surprise: she is a top model he is a top athlete (American Football); people always love such starry alliances
At number 3 are Barack and Michelle Obama as the surprise package! Political leaders don’t often find their way into best dressed lists, but very obviously the Democrat Presidential candidate and his wife are really the flavor of the month or do I mean year. They have captured the imagination of the people as also the eye of the fashion photographer.
The flamboyant and handsome couple of French President Nicolas Sarkozy & Carla Bruni-Sarkozy are at number 4, with the latter being a former model I suppose it is easy to know how to dress for success. Admittedly, that is a very good looking couple.
Next on the list are Gavin Rossdale and Gwen Stefani, which was quite frankly a surprise to me. If Gwen Stefani’s music videos are anything to go by, she deserves a place on the worst dressed rather than the best dressed list. Don’t know about the shower curtain dress either!
David & Victoria Beckham are a given on a list such as this, who are at number 6. Good looking and news worthy, Posh has a rep to protect after all.
Prince William and Kate Middleton are next on the list. If I may just be a bit waspish, may I just say that the Prince had better be well dressed, with all the resources at his disposal and really not all that much to do.
Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany and Justin Portman and Natalia Vodianova follow and number 8 and 9 respectively.
Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore bring up number 10. Now I have always felt that this is a very interesting couple, she an older (15 years older) divorce and mother or Bruce Willis’ kids who’s been there done that , him a fledgling actor just starting out in life; I wish them a long and happy married life.
So all in all a rather nice representative list. I want to see if I can do a worst dressed list next time (that ought to be far more interesting). Your thoughts?
evawhite on July 16th, 2008
In case you haven’t heard, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have become proud parents of twins, a boy and a girl. Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline are their names and they weighed 5.1 and 5 pounds respectively. Apparently the mother (who was conscious with an epidural during the C-section delivery) the father (who was present, did not faint and cut the umbilical cord) as well as the children are all fine. That takes the number of total Brangelina children (Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3; and Shiloh, 2 are the others) up to 6 I believe.
As regular readers may well be aware, I am not particularly enamored of celebrities and their proclivities and activities what does interest me in the ceaseless interest the paparazzi have in all and I mean all of their doings. The reason the Brangelina twins story interested me is reports of the estimated value of the photos of their new born children. Estimates put the value of the photos at between $11 and 20 million! Is that crazy or what! I mean newly born children look like newly born children; a little wrinkly looking, a little wizened looking, a little simian looking… 11 to 20 million dollars? What? Why? Who?
Now the other new parents of twins, Jennifer Lopez and Mark Anthony, were the cynosure of all eyes not too long ago. Reportedly the pictures of their twins sold for some 6 million dollars! Global recession? My eye! And I can post this picture of mother and one of her twins here on my blog at no charge, so how is it worth all the millions that publications pay for them? Well as I already said, CRAZY!
Then the other photos that were really hot property were the photos of J Lo in a bikini after the birth of her twins because she was carrying some extra weight. A new mother carrying extra weight? How outrageous! How dare she!
Among the others, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban had a baby girl Sunday Rose Kidman Urban for whose photos an astronomical sum was undoubtedly paid, and when Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Alba became parents, those baby pix also reportedly fetched seven figures. So what price will upcoming celeb baby pictures fetch? Well, your guess is as good as mine.
evawhite on July 12th, 2008
“My name is Bond, James Bond” that line is a cult classic, but I it always struck me that if the guy is this hotshot spy and undercover agent and all, how come he’s introducing himself as himself? How come he is not incognito or in disguise or something? Hmm… not very undercover to give your real name now is it!
The sharp suits, the martinis (shaken not stirred), the women (fast), the cars (also fast), the gadgets (sometimes rather outlandish), they are all the regulation props for a Bond film. I think the unparalleled popularity of the Bond films is because of these props. I think all guys secretly want to have all the gadgets, be irresistible to women and be all suave and smooth. That and of course the license to kill: All men are boys at heart who want to play with guns!
Actually I did not decide to do this post to mock the Bond films (or only just a wee bit) but to survey the Bonds and decide who made the best Bond: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig (the current Bond).
It all began with Sean Connery (now Sir Sean after his knighthood) of course who was the first ever James Bond and played Bond 7 times. Connery was known for his laid-back smile, wit and impassive manner, and was known among Italian cinema goers as Mr. Kiss-Kiss, Bang-Bang. Methinks that explains all!
George Lazenby is perhaps the least known of all Bonds, he did just the one Bond film and he was the first Australian Bond.
Roger Moore has also essayed the role of Bond a record seven times and had the longest Bond career among all the Bond actors.
Next came 
, Timothy Dalton, who gave Bond a more serious, less humorous edge. He played Bond twice.
Pierce Brosnan who was already quite well known as the sophisticated but lovable private investigator Remington Steel came next and acted in four Bond films. He went on to do some very interesting and eclectic films after his Bond stint as well.
Daniel Craig has now taken up the Bond mantle though critics have decried his being blond; James Bond has to be dark haired. He is probably seen as the toughest Bond till date.
I think all in all the first Bond remains the best Bond till date, he so epitomizes all that Bond is supposed to be. But that is me being objective. Subjectively speaking, Pierce Brosnan is my personal favorite. And yours?
evawhite on June 5th, 2008
Sex and the City, the film, not the TV show is in the news these days, for having its world premiere on Monday, 12 may 2008. Have you noticed how TV show makers and Film makers tend to capitalize on each others’ successes? If ever a TV show got popular, a movie (or several if you count the sequels) promptly gets made based on that and if a film is a hit at the box office, someone will surely come along and cash in on the sensation created by it to produce a TV series based on the film!
Just off hand I can think of several cartoon or animation films that have been turned into long standing TV series: such as Alladin or the Lion King which got adapted for TV as Timon and Pumba and so on. Then Lizzie Mc Guire the series got made into Lizzie Mc Guire the film and so on. The rather bizarrely named TV show Spongebob Squarepants was made into The Spongebob Movie. The Simpsons TV series (which I admit to being a fan of) for made into The Simpsons Movie (which alas I have not yet seen). Then or course there are all the superhero films/TV shows: Superman, Batman, Spiderman; and I hardly know what came first, the chicken or the egg the movie or the series!
Charlies’ Angels, the long running and hugely successful TV series of yesteryears, got made into tremendously popular films wherein the angels are shown as the more modern and up to date and sexed up versions of the TV series.
The Planet of the Apes was another film that got made into a TV series, or was it the other way around, I can’t really tell because I am a fan of neither, though Planet of the Apes seems to have a cult following! Examples of these remakes or adaptations for the big or small screen as the case may be, seem to abound!
There is also the trend of making movies from comic strips, such as the Garfield movies and the movie about Felix the Cat. I was particularly glad of this trend when the comics of Asterix, my fave comic hero of all time were made into movies. I am a particular fan of the adorable Obelix with more brawn than brain.
Oh! And then there is the trend of making movies out of Video games and video games out of movies! A bunch of computer games were made from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and so many, many others!
evawhite on June 4th, 2008
I have been lately hearing a lot about the Oscar De La Hoya vs Floyd Mayweather Jr Rematch. I am fond of boxing. I remember this match last year had broken all box office records and this year they are back with a rematch. It will be one of the richest match in the history of boxing.
I recently read in the papers and heard on the news that Oscar De La Hoya may back off from the May fight. I think Golden Boy is interested in getting some big money for the rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr in September. The exact dates are still not out but Golden Boy Promotions' CEO Richard Schaefer told ESPN that it should be either on September 13 or September 20. The match is going to be held at MGM Grand Garden Arena Las Vegas, Nevada
It’s going to be one exciting match. I did get a site called teamonetickets.com which is selling online tickets for the match, they are not from the box office of the Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr match, but they claim to give better seats and better prices then the Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr office. Booking can also be done for the rematch of Oscar De La Hoya vs Floyd Mayweather Jr. Tickets here.
I am booking my tickets before I miss on the good seats and the good offer, so what are you guys waiting for go ahead and do your advance booking.
See you at the match.
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