Entertainment

Italo animation mogul Iginio Straffi will be feted by the Ischia Global Film Festival, which Cannes fest juror Christoph Waltz is expected to attend, along with other expected guests in a stellar roster. Straffi is topper of Rainbow Animation, in which Viacom holds a stake, creator of the “Winx” movies and TV series aired globally.... Read more »

CBS has released a second sneak peek for Criminal Minds, season 8 episode 23 & 24 “Brothers Hotchner and The Replicator”.

So I've been getting into Warehouse 13 these past couple weeks (yes, I know I'm late to the party) and am already up to the start of Season 3. I've started dreaming in terms of chasing down artifacts, so I really need to purge the imagery via the blog. How about a discussion on some favorite artifacts from each season?Most WantDimensional Conversion Camera (Resonance)A camera that temporarily turns people into cardboard cut-outs? What's not to like? It's a neat, harmless weapon (well, so long as someone doesn't put a match to your cut-out, I suppose) and I bet it takes good pictures too. I'd use it sparingly to get some peace and quiet from time to time. Oh, who am I kidding? If I'd use it for that, I'd be using it ALL THE TIME. I wonder who it belonged to and how it became an artifact?Coolest But Way Too DangerousLewis Carroll's Looking Glass (Resonance, Duped)You look into it and your reflection is gifted with independent action. It can even play ping-pong against you! That's because your reflection is actually animated by a psychotic Alice Liddell, trapped for our own safety inside the mirror. You really don't want her to switch places with you. Unless you have to go to a ping-pong tournament. She's got mad skills. I bet she's good at croquet too.Cleverest/CraziestPersonnel Quarters Archive (Burnout)Inside the Warehouse is a huge mechanisms that can store and retrieve the bed&breakfast rooms of every agent that ever died or was otherwise "lost" on the job. The entire ROOM. You'd think this gimmick would only be good for a single, very specific case, but the show's used it several times, so I guess it's a good investment. How rooms are transferred from the B&B is a mystery and only adds to the craziness.It's a Curse - Keep It Away From MeFarnsworth (every episode)I'm sure the two-way video phone with unhackable frequencies and an apparently unlimited power supply is very handy for Warehouse agents, but you're reading the words of a man who 1) never turns on his webcam, and 2) doesn't own a phone - neither land line or cel. Throw in an annoying buzz-ring and you've got a gadget I never want to see in my house. If I were an agent, I guess I'd want to carry the Tesla. No ifs and buts about it.Throwaway Most Worthy of Its Own EpisodeTraining Flight 22 (Pilot)An aircraft pulled from the Bermuda Triangle, and the Triangle has been trying to pull it back ever since. How about our agents discovering the truth of this unnatural phenomenon when they board the craft and get pulled to warm tropical waters? Sounds like a cool episode to me!What are your choices from Season 1? Tell me about them while I start thinking about next week's Season 2 artifact selection!

  Welcome debut author Jeannie Moon to the virtual offices today!  She is celebrating the release of The Temporary Wife, an InterMix title that is in stores now. [Manga Maniac Cafe] Describe yourself in 140 characters or less. [Jeannie Moon] Mom, wife, romance author and librarian. I married my high school sweetie and I love hockey, baseball and sappy movies. [Manga Maniac Cafe] Can you tell us a little about The Temporary Wife? [Jeannie Moon] The Temporary Wife is a story about Meg, a kindergarten teacher who becomes guardian to her best friend’s child.  The child’s grandparents mount a custody battle and Meg’s former high school boyfriend, and the Campbell’s estranged son, offers her a temporary marriage to help keep the grandparents in check.  But you know, nothing in these things every goes as planned… [Manga Maniac Cafe] How did you come up with the concept and the characters for the story? [Jeannie Moon] Funny story.  My agent was approached by an editor at NAL, who had read my work and asked if I wanted to take a crack at an idea they’d been bouncing around for InterMix (their digital first line) for a contemporary romance.  I wasn’t so sure about it, until I started playing with ideas.   Once the ideas started to hatch and I developed Jason and Meg, my hero and heroine, I couldn’t wait to get to their story. [Manga Maniac Cafe] What three words best describe Megan? [Jeannie Moon] Smart, passionate, fun. [Manga Maniac Cafe] If Jason had a theme song, what would it be? [Jeannie Moon] This was tough, but the song "Ever the Same," by Rob Thomas describes the journey he’s been on with Meg.  It’s on the playlist I put together for the book.  Love it. [Manga Maniac Cafe] Name one thing Megan is never without. [Jeannie Moon] A hair tie.  She has long, curly, sometimes unruly hair.  The hair tie is a necessity.  [Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things will you never find in Jason’s bathroom? [Jeannie Moon] Ha!!!  Love this! Any waxing products, any hair product other than shampoo and no special skin care products. [Manga Maniac Cafe] What is Megan’s greatest regret? [Jeannie Moon] That she didn’t stand up for herself when she and Jason dated in high school.  He treated her like an afterthought and she allowed him to. [Manga Maniac Cafe] What are your greatest creative influences? [Jeannie Moon] I love stories.  My love of stories is rooted so deep I don’t know a time when I didn’t want to write.  The other thing that influences me is my home.  My books are set on Long Island and in New York City because I love where I live, with beaches being at the top of the list.  And I’m not talking The Hamptons…I love the North Shore.  [Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things do you need in order to write? [Jeannie Moon] Coffee, music of my choice and no interruptions.  [Manga Maniac Cafe] What is the last book that you read that knocked your socks off? [Jeannie Moon] Kristan Higgins, THE BEST MAN.  It’s her best book; a deeply emotional story that will make you laugh, cry and root for the characters beginning to end.  [Manga Maniac Cafe] If you had to pick one book that turned you on to reading, which would it be? [Jeannie Moon] I had a beautifully illustrated copy of CINDERELLA when I was a child that I asked my parents to read to me all the time.  I carried it with me.  I would say that book made me love romance.  The first book I stayed up all night to finish was CHARLOTTE’S WEB, by E.B. White.  I was eight and I cried my eyes out. I was hooked. [Manga Maniac Cafe] What do you like to do when you aren’t writing? [Jeannie Moon] I love the beach and I love to read.  So for me, summer is the best because I can read at the beach!  My husband and I are both sports nuts so we do

"There's nothing worse than a peasant with indigestion. Makes them quite rebellious."TECHNICAL SPECS: First aired Nov.29 1980.IN THIS ONE... The Doctor and Romana meet the vampires and discover the Tower is actually a spaceship. Aukon makes Adric his "Chosen One".REVIEW: It strikes me how much of a capable draftsman writer Terrance Dicks is, maybe because craftsmanship has been hard to come by in the past couple of seasons. Elements, once introduced, tend to pay off (like they should). For example, one of the rebels was once a guard, so he can sneak into the Tower to try and rescue the Time Lords. Dicks also doesn't rely on characters acting stupidly to move his plot forward, so the rebels actually debate and come to a compromise instead of some fool rogue plowing ahead with his plans no matter what. And most importantly, Dicks has thought his premise and its consequences through. The Lords of the Tower's names changed over the centuries through consonantal shift (educational!) and the Doctor can find his way inside the Tower because he's conversant with the type of ship. The pilot room has been left untouched because no one goes there or uses it, while the fuel tanks have been filled with blood to feed "the Great One". The vamps obviously plan to create of themselves, but they've bred the peasants to be sheep, with none of the qualities needed to become "Lords", so cocky Adric looks like a good prospect. This world MAKES SENSE.Its characters do too. The village headman can't bear to hear his wife talk about their son Karl, and she just won't shut up about him. All completely natural, and you almost wish their Karl really was inducted in the Tower guard instead of winding up among those bloodless husks down in the bowels of the ship. The technophile rebels are reasonable. The head guard is quick to offer excuses. Lord Aukon springs a surprise "selection" at the inn in case the previous day's planned visit was staged to only offer the dregs of the village (from the extras lined up, I could believe me - me, I'd probably avoid the inn like the Wasting). The vampires have the somewhat clichéed moment where a character cuts themselves and they show a little bloodlust, but it's nice to see they're not the same person written twice over. The Queen is obviously smarter than her husband, though she perhaps has less self-control, and the King lets slip the vital clue about the "ship of state" (he hasn't lost his old vocabulary).As in Part 1, the leads get to be witty and though Lalla Ward tends to look bored in isolated moments (working AND living with Baker can be straining), their chemistry still provides fun moments reminiscent of their relationship in City of Death (which I'd call their high point). Baker gets to use his story telling skills and that marvelous voice of his to give some creep factor to his musings on the universality of vampire legends. The beating of a hideously large heart certainly helps give the subsequent scenes atmosphere. Adric... Adric is mostly used as an exposition receptor, and his insolence isn't particularly entertaining compared to the Doctor's, but he's got a good entranced scene where the vamps swing a knife close to his eyes and he doesn't react. This is an serial that doesn't mind going dark, but never crosses the line into needless, shocking violence.REWATCHABILITY: Medium-High - Maybe I'm starved for competence - I do require all stories to feature worlds that are well thought-out and characters with proper motivations - but State of Decay is more than competent. It's got a strong script AND effective execution.

The San Antonio Public Library has an interesting description of noir and hard-boiled mysteries. "The difference between Hard-boiled and Noir Mysteries is subtle: both feature violence, sex and have a rough and gritty tone. Hard-boiled mysteries usually focus on a Private Eye or a loner, ex-cop, while Noir Mysteries focus on the criminal or the victim." Michael Lister's The Big Beyond actually fits both descriptions. Jimmy "Soldier" Riley is a private detective and an ex-cop. He's also a criminal and a victim. And, The Big Beyond is definitely violent with a rough and gritty tone.Lister's author's note strongly suggests readers read The Big Goodbye before they read The Big Beyond. And, he's definitely right. My review of the first in the series said hard-boiled novels such as those written by Chandler and Hammett are all about a dame. The Big Beyond picks up soon after the first book ends. It's 1943, in Panama City, Florida, where Riley is being tortured. However, he really has no will to live. He's killed, lost people he loved, lost people he once trusted, and he doesn't care if he's tortured to death. But, he still has a couple friends, Clipper Jones, a one-eyed black man, and Ruth Ann Johnson, a nurse who lost her leg in the war. Those two show up to save him, and set him on the track to finding killers, even though Soldier is wanted for murder. And, it seems as if Soldier, with only one arm, is always dependent on his friends to get him out of jams. Time after time in this book, he is picked up, tormented, and held at gunpoint.So, what's the appeal of Michael Lister's books? He captures the time period and atmosphere beautifully; the war year, with its rationing, anti-Japanese sentiments, fear of German U-boats. He brings to life "the mean streets" of Florida, and makes them his own. The language is perfect. The Big Beyond is gritty, torturous, filled with history, drama, and a twisted plot. And, then there's Jimmy "Soldier" Riley, a detective who fell for a dame, and "loved not wisely but too well." Michael Lister's website is www.MichaelLister.comThe Big Beyond by Michael Lister. Pulpwood Press. 2012. ISBN 9781888146349 (paperback), 223p.*****FTC Full Disclosure - The publisher sent me a copy of the book, hoping I would review it.

"You just ask for it, old sport" edition - La scemenza per la pausa pranzo di oggi il videogioco tratto dal Grande Gatsby in stile arcade classico. S, lo so, roba di due anni fa , ma con tutto l'hype di queste settimane per la nuova versione al cinema una partitella ci sta. - We did a show in Akron where the only person there was Patrick Carney from The Black Keys; we were both Read MoreBlog: polaroid > un blog alla radio >Related: A Band Tries To Disappear From The WebKiddie gun company disappears from the webSpotify introduces a soundtrack widget for the web what this means for you and for Soundcloud.HSHTAG$, is a new series of mini-documentaries from the Redbull...Please Find Lost Music And Return It Via The WebWeb Wrap: Must-Reads From the Internets

Meteor, the new full length crafted by Antigama, is now streaming online over at the Selfmadegod Records official YouTube channel. Meteor will be officially released on May 28th. You can now listen to the album below. All you have to do is enjoy. Read more...

"Strike The Iron", a brand new song from Los Angeles metallers White Wizzard, can be streamed below. The track appears on the band's third full-length album The Devils Cut, which will be released on June 3rd in Europe via Earache Records and June 25 in North America through Century Media/Earache. Read more...

* there's a lengthy catch-up with Mike Diana here. It seems stupid from the vantage point of 2013 that people were once so horrified by Diana's art, which was clearly full of pretty basic symbolism and taboo-tweaking; it seems downright insane that 20 years ago people were being prosecuted and convicted for making art like that. * Matt Derman on The 'Nam #8. Justin Giampaoli on The Massive #12. KC Carlson on Walt Disney's Donald Duck: The Old Castle's Secret. Grant Goggans pokes around more Legion Of Super-Heroes. J. Caleb Mozzocco on Batman, Incorporated's first volume. Richard Bruton on Blood Blokes #3 and Thunder Brother: Soap Division #5. Kelly Thompson on Batwoman #20. * Rob Clough takes another look at mentoring as practiced at Center For Cartoon Studies. * Chris Mautner would like to see Swan collected. I always think of that stuff as already collected the way it's published, but I'm all for that material showing up in whatever form Chris would like. * Alex Dueben talks to Peter Bagge. Steve Morris talks to Kate Brown. Casey Gilly talks to Kieron Gillen. I guess there's something in that Gillen interview about people objecting to a scene where teenagers are shown having casual sex...? That seems totally bizarre to me at this late date. * not comics: here are some robot benches from J. Chris Campbell. * finally, every time you think the comics industry sucks balls, it may help to remember it used to suck mega-balls.