Robert Evans, David Christopher Bell, J.F. Sargent : 5 Surprising Things You Learn Designing Movie Monsters (Cracked)
If you've ever seen Starship Troopers, Tremors, Predator, most of the Alien franchise, or the original Spider-Man trilogy, you've seen the special effects work of Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis. They designed and built all of the "practical" effects (physical puppets, creature costumes, prosthetic makeup -- basically everything that isn't CGI) used in those movies, as well as several others, including their Academy Award-winning work on the Bruce Willis murder comedy, Death Becomes Her. Here's what they told us:…
Henry Rollins: The Shangri-Las Were Totally Heavy (LA Weekly)
"The record is melodramatic, distant, dark, hard to catch, moving the way you walk in the sand, the ground slipping under your feet. It began with heavy bass notes on a piano, reached past itself with the faraway cawing of seagulls, a sardonic chorus of ghosts snapping fingers, and harsh, cold voice chanting 'Remember,' as if the singer telling the story could ever forget. On paper it was about a boy telling a girl they were through; on record, like all of The Shangri-Las' best records, it was about death." - Greil Marcus
Scott Foundas: "The Vanishing: The End of the Road" (Criterion)
Contains Spoilers. Given that this is a movie with one of the most famous endings in modern cinema, let's start at the beginning. A man and a woman are traveling through the South of France, near Nîmes. They part from the highway to take the scenic route-often a fatal error in movies that open on seemingly happy couples traveling rural countrysides.
Scott Burns: A Home-Based Investment That Works for Many (AssetBuilder)
The first home I bought cost far more than I could afford. Worse, it needed renovation from top to bottom. In spite of that, owning it was a comfortable experience. The monthly expense of living there was stable for the twenty years it was home. How could that be possible?
Nick Ralston: Seth Richardson's hearse stolen from Blue Mountains funeral (Sydney Morning Herald)
It was a dramatic farewell for Sydney human rights lawyer Seth Richardson that his family says would have appealed to his wicked sense of humour. As his family prepared for the funeral of the 52-year-old, also a regular contributor to letters to the editor in the Herald, in the Blue Mountains on Thursday a man jumped in the hearse and stole it - with Mr Richardson still in a coffin in the back.
This fictional character is known as Blaszany Dzwoneczek in Poland, Skellibjalla in Iceland, and Tingeling in Swedish. By what name is she known in the US?
John H. Watson, known as Dr. Watson, is a character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Watson is Sherlock Holmes' friend, assistant and sometime flatmate, and the first person narrator of all but four of these stories.
In Conan Doyle's early rough plot outlines, Sherlock Holmes' sidekick was named "Ormond Sacker" before Conan Doyle finally settled on "John Watson".
Source
Alan J was first, and correct, with:
John H. Watson
Randall wrote:
Elementary, Marty
Having read all of the Sherlock Holmes books and stories,
the answer is John.
Dr. John Watson
.
Watson wasn't the loveable, bumbling old buffoon as portrayed by Nigel Bruce
in the 30's Twentieth Century Fox productions such as
The Hound of the Baskervilles, Terror by Night, The Woman in Green, The House of Fear, etc...
. . .
Man I loved those old movies...
.
John H. Watson, M.D. was actually more correctly portrayed by Jude Law
in the 21st century, Warner Brothers version with Robert Downy Jr. as a pretty good Sherlock.
....
In the books, Watson is described as solidly built, "average or perhaps a bit above average", with a thick, strong neck, strongly built "man-square" jaw, and small moustache - so I suppose Jude Law might somewhat accurately depict that description.
But as the books progressed, eventually Watson was described as being a "...heavily built, elderly man with a gray moustache" which I guess is kind of how Nigel Bruce looked.
....
Even though the characters are a bit "overblown" in the old 1930's movies,
I think I'll probably always picture Basil Rathbone as Holmes
. .
...
It was those old movies that peaked my interest in Sherlock Holmes and got me to reading the wonderful books written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"Here I had heard what he had heard,
I had seen what he had seen,
and yet from his words it was evident that he saw clearly not only what had happened,
but what was about to happen,
while to me the whole business was still confused and grotesque."
--- Dr. John Watson, The Red-Headed League
Dr. Watson, "Which is it today? Morphine or cocaine?"
Holmes, "It is cocaine. A seven percent solution. Would you care to try it?"
---Watson and Holmes in 'The Sign of Four'
Charlie said:
John
Jim from CA, retired to ID, replied:
John H. Watson
Deborah responded:
Dr. Watson's first name is John.
John Watson. Sounds like a fake name to me.
Marian said:
My Dad and Grandson, brother and 8 cousins all have the same name as Dr. Watson, John.
Mundale of Norfallcali answered:
Dr. John H. Watson. The three preeminent portrayers of Holmes & Watson according to me. One of my best friends has been a Scrower for life. A for real "Baker Street Irregular". The good news is that Benedict & Martin are going to shoot another season! Yes
MAM wrote:
John ~ Dr. John H. Watson, known as Dr. Watson. Sidney Paget's iconic illustrations from the The Strand magazine.
DJ Useo replied:
I would feel a right fool if I forgot his name was John. A commonly employed name, isn't it?
I'm a huge fan of the Sherlock Holmes franchise. Great reading & viewing, for the most part.
I even watch that new Elementary tv show version, flawed though it is.
I'm surprised there hasn't been a stand up comedy duo version. Lol.
As you all know the untimely passing of Terry was unexpected, even by
him. We all knew he had cancer but we all thought he had some years
left. So some of us who have worked closely with him over the years are
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Bart's final wish was to pay off the house mortgage for Mrs. Bart who is
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Local media is fixated on the high probablity of rain.
OTOH, don't need that much moisture here for the freeways to morph into a giant game of pinball, but with dozens of steelies, instead of just one.
Tonight, Tuesday:
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'NCIS', followed by a RERUN'NCIS: The 3rd One', then a RERUN'Person Of Interest'.
On a RERUNDave (from 11/12/14) are Jennifer Lawrence and Boris Johnson.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Henry Winkler and Ariel Tweto.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH'The Voice', followed by a FRESH'Marry Me', then a FRESH'About A Boy', then a FRESH'Chicago Fire'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Reese Witherspoon, David Sedaris, and Rae Sremmurd.
On a RERUNSeth Meyers (from 11/5/14) are Elijah Wood, Cecily Strong, and Ella Henderson.
On a RERUNCarson 'The Scab' Daly (from 10/29/14) are Tone Bell, Coves, and "The Overnighters".
ABC opens the night with an infomercial masquerading as holiday fare, 'Toy Story That Time Forgot', followed by the chestnut 'A Charlie Brown Christmas', then a FRESH'Marvel's Agents Of SHIELD', followed by a FRESH'Forever'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Ethan Hawke, Timothy Spall, and Walk The Moon.
The CW offers a FRESH'The Flash', followed by a FRESH'Supernatural'.
Faux has a FRESH'MasterChef Junior', followed by a FRESH'New Girl', then a FRESH'The Mindy Project'.
MY recycles an old 'L&O: CI', followed by another old 'L&O: CI'.
A&E has 'Storage Wars', another 'Storage Wars', still another 'Storage Wars', yet another "Storage Wars', followed by a FRESH'Storage Wars', then another FRESH'Storage Wars', followed by a FRESH'Shipping Wars', then another FRESH'Shipping Wars'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Santa Clause 2', followed by the movie 'Home Alone 2: Lost In New York', then the movie 'The Santa Clause 2'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] BBC World News
[7:00AM] BBC World News
[8:00AM] Doctor Who - Season 5 - Ep 11 - The Lodger
[9:00AM] Doctor Who - Season 5 - Ep 12 - The Pandorica Opens
[10:00AM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 6 - Ep 11 - Chain of Command (Part 2)
[11:00AM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 6 - Ep 12 - Ship in a Bottle
[12:00PM] Battlestar Galactica - Miniseries-Night 2
[2:00PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares US - Season 2 - Ep 8 - Sabatiello's
[3:00PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares US - Season 3 - Ep 1 - Mojito's
[4:00PM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2 - Ep 7 - Unnatural Selection
[5:00PM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2 - Ep 8 - A Matter of Honor
[6:00PM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2 - Ep 9 - The Measure of a Man
[7:00PM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2 - Ep 10 - The Dauphin
[8:00PM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2 - Ep 11 - Contagion NEW
[9:00PM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2 - Ep 12 - The Royale NEW
[10:00PM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2 - Ep 13 - Time Squared NEW
[11:00PM] Atlantis - Season 2 - Ep 3 - Telemon
[12:00AM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2 - Ep 11 - Contagion
[1:00AM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2 - Ep 12 - The Royale
[2:00AM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2 - Ep 13 - Time Squared
[3:00AM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2 - Ep 8 - A Matter of Honor
[4:00AM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2 - Ep 9 - The Measure of a Man
[5:00AM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2 - Ep 10 - The Dauphin (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of BH', another 'Real Housewives Of BH', followed by a FRESH'Real Housewives Of BH', then a FRESH'Girlfriends' Guide To Divorce'.
Comedy Central has 'South Park', 'Tosh.0', another 'Tosh.0', still another 'Tosh.0', yet another 'Tosh.0', still another 'Tosh.0', followed by a FRESH'Tosh.0', then a FRESH'Sneak Peek'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Sophie Delaunay.
Scheduled on a FRESHColbert Report are Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga.
FX has 'Mike & Molly', followed by the movie 'Looper', then a FRESH'Sons Of Anarchy'.
History has 'The Curse Of Oak Island', another 'The Curse Of Oak Island', followed by a FRESH'The Curse Of Oak Island', then a FRESH'Search For Lost Giants'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] THE BIRTHDAY BOYS-GOOFY ROOFERS
[6:30AM] JOY RIDE
[8:30AM] SWAMP THING
[10:30AM] THE LAST WINTER
[12:45PM] THE LAST WINTER
[2:45PM] SWAMP THING
[4:45PM] COP LAND
[7:00PM] THE TRANSPORTER
[9:00PM] ROCKNROLLA
[11:30PM] ROCKNROLLA
[2:00AM] COP LAND
[4:15AM] THE BIRTHDAY BOYS-HELPFUL TIPS
[4:45AM] THE BIRTHDAY BOYS-FIRST LOOK AT SEASON TWO
[5:00AM] THE BIRTHDAY BOYS-SNOBS AND SLOBS
[5:30AM] THE BIRTHDAY BOYS-WET DREAMS MAY COME (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00AM] Rectify-Weird As You
[7:00AM] A Mighty Wind
[9:00AM] For Your Consideration
[10:45AM] Best in Show
[12:45PM] Smashed
[2:30PM] Hysteria
[4:30PM] The Sting
[7:15PM] Spy Game
[10:00PM] Twelve Monkeys
[1:00AM] Spy Game
[3:45AM] The Dead Zone (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'The Crazies', followed by the movie 'Babylon AD'.
TBS:
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Kellan Lutz, Marc Maron, and Gavin DeGraw.
Actor Christoph Waltz (C) poses on his star with director Quentin Tarantino (L) and actor Samuel L. Jackson after it was unveiled on the Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, California December 1, 2014.
Photo by Mario Anzuoni
Kathy Griffin will be terrorizing the fashion crowd as the new host of "Fashion Police," replacing the late Joan Rivers when it returns to E! in January.
The comic-commentary series, which had aired weekly, will now present 17 special episodes throughout 2015 that focus on high-profile red carpet and fashion events, E! announced Monday. It returns Jan. 12 for coverage of the Golden Globe Awards.
"You celebrities better strap yourself in," Griffin said, "as I am taking no prisoners."
Returning panelists Kelly Osbourne and Giuliana Rancic will be joined by newcomer Brad Goreski, a fashion stylist and lifestyle expert and the former star of Bravo's "It's a Brad, Brad World."
Musician George Thorogood and family arrive in the rain to the 83rd Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade in Los Angeles, California, November 30, 2014.
Photo by David McNew
An 18-page letter written by Beat-era icon Neal Cassady that transformed Jack Kerouac's writing style will be auctioned off this month as the highlight of a collection of work that could fetch about $500,000.
The 16,000-word, stream-of-consciousness missive, which was shown to reporters on Monday for the first time, was missing for decades until it was found among several unopened boxes in a garage in Northern California a few years ago.
It will be sold at auction Dec. 17, exactly 64 years after Cassady wrote it. The reserve price, at which serious bidding will begin, is set between $300,000 and $500,000, according to auction house Profiles in History.
The Beat Museum in San Francisco plans to bid on the letter and eventually display it publicly and publish it, museum founder Jerry Cimino said. The museum launched an online campaign to raise half a million dollars to buy the letter.
After nearly a decade in legal wrangling, a billion-dollar class-action lawsuit over Apple's iPod music players heads to trial on Tuesday in a California federal court. A key witness will be none other than the company's legendary late founder Steve Jobs, who will be heard in a videotaped deposition.
Attorneys for consumers and electronics retailers claim Apple Inc. used software in its iTunes store that forced would-be song buyers to use iPods instead of cheaper music players made by rivals. The software is no longer used, but the plaintiffs argue that it inflated the prices of millions of iPods sold between 2006 and 2009 - to the tune of $350 million. Under federal antitrust law, the tech giant could be ordered to pay three times that amount if the jury agrees with the estimate and finds the damages resulted from anti-competitive behavior.
Attorneys are set to make opening statements Tuesday morning in the Oakland, California courtroom of U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.
The case harkens back to the early days of digital music and portable devices, when Apple quickly became the world's biggest legal seller of downloaded songs after launching its iTunes store in 2003. By agreement with major record companies, which were wary of unauthorized copying and file-sharing services like Napster and Kazaa, Apple encoded the songs sold through iTunes with "digital rights management" software that prevented unauthorized copying. The same software, known as FairPlay, was also built into iPods.
Actress Scarlett Johansson, center, and husband Romain Dauriac share a moment with actress Julianne Moore at The Independent Film Project's 24th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, Dec. 1, 2014, in New York.
Photo by Evan Agostini
An Indian diamond trader has thrown a mass wedding ceremony for 111 fatherless women and given each one gifts worth thousands of dollars, saying giving a bride away was "sacred".
Mahesh Savani said the women, whose families were all too poor to finance their weddings, saw him as their foster father.
The 44-year-old said he had given each one gifts of gold and other items worth 450,000 rupees ($7,250) to start their married lives, as well as paying for the wedding.
"Material gifts are not important, but I have given my name to them and will fulfil all my responsibilities as a father of the bride for the rest of my life," he told AFP before the ceremony was held at a school in Gujarat state on Sunday.
President Barack Obama's 5-year-old campaign to close the federal prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, suffered a major setback as lawmakers finalizing the annual defense policy bill rejected steps toward shuttering the facility.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told reporters on Monday that the final bill omits a provision giving the president the authority to transfer terror suspects to the United States if Congress signs off on a comprehensive plan to close the prison.
Levin had pushed for the authority and hailed it in May as creating "a path to close Guantanamo." With lawmakers rushing to complete the defense bill in this month's lame-duck session, Levin said proponents were unable to prevail.
The president has pushed to close the post-9/11 prison since his inauguration in January 2009. He has faced strong resistance from Republicans and some Democrats in Congress who don't want terror suspects housed in U.S. facilities and have warned of suspects returning to the fight when they are transferred back to their home countries.
Actor Sir Ian McKellen poses for photographers upon arrival at the World premiere of the film The Hobbit, The Battle of the Five Armies in London, Monday, Dec. 1, 2014.
Photo by Joel Ryan
James Watson, the famed molecular biologist and co-discoverer of DNA, is putting his Nobel Prize up for auction. This sad final chapter to his career traces back to racial remarks he made in 2007, which led to his fall from scientific grace.
Watson is best known for his work deciphering the DNA double helix alongside Francis Crick in 1953. The discovery revolutionized biochemistry and earned the pair and their colleague, molecular biologist Maurice Wilkins, the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. But in 2007 Watson made an incendiary remark regarding the intelligence of black people that lost him the admiration of the scientific community.
That year, The Sunday Times quoted Watson as saying that he felt "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours-whereas all the testing says not really." He added that although some think that all humans are born equally intelligent, "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true."
Watson's remarks ignited an uproar. He had to retire from his position as chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Sold-out gatherings in his honor were cancelled. Academic centers uninvited him for lectures. His peers condemned him: "He has failed us in the worst possible way. It is a sad and revolting way to end a remarkable career," said Henry Kelly, president of the Federation of American Scientists. His competitors debunked him: "Skin color as a surrogate for race is a social concept not a scientific one," Craig Venter, the scientist who raced Watson to sequencing the human genome, said to the BBC in 2007. "There is no basis in scientific fact or in the human genetic code for the notion that skin color will be predictive of intelligence."
"Cake Boss" Buddy Valastro admitted Monday to driving while impaired, saying he'd learned a valuable lesson from his arrest last month.
"One is too many, and that's what I'm going to practice" when it comes to drinking before getting behind the wheel, the reality TV star said after pleading guilty to driving impaired, which is a violation, not a crime.
His driver's license will be suspended for three months, and he'll have to pay a roughly $300 fine and attend classes on the hazards of drinking and driving.
The 37-year-old baking whiz from Montville, New Jersey, was arrested on misdemeanor drunken driving charges after police said they saw his yellow 2014 Corvette swerving through traffic in Manhattan around 12:30 a.m. Nov. 13. A court complaint said he was unsteady, smelled of alcohol and had a blood-alcohol level of 0.09 percent; New York's legal limit is 0.08 percent.
"You can't arrest me - I'm the Cake Boss!" he told officers, according to an account prosecutors gave at his arraignment.
Comedian Russell Brand (C) holds a banner during a protest by residents and supporters of the New Era housing estate, in central London December 1, 2014. The housing estate residents, in Hoxton, east London, fear they could face higher rents after the estate was bought earlier in the year by an investment group, local media reported.
Photo by Stefan Wermuth
A Washington rabbi charged with secretly videotaping women during ritual baths has been fired by his synagogue, the synagogue's board said on Monday.
Modern Orthodox Rabbi Barry Freundel had his contract terminated by Kesher Israel's board of directors. Freundel had been suspended without pay since his arrest in October.
The allegations against Freundel "breached the high moral and ethical standards we set for ourselves and for our leadership," the board said in a statement.
Freundel has been asked to leave the synagogue's residence by Jan. 1. He has pleaded not guilty in District of Columbia Superior Court to six counts of voyeurism, a misdemeanor, after police found a clock radio with a hidden camera in a ritual bath area known as a mikvah.
Cast member Evangeline Lilly poses for photographers as she arrives for the world film premiere of "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" at Leicester Square in central London, December 1, 2014.
Photo by Suzanne Plunkett
North Korea said "wait and see" on Monday when asked if Pyongyang was involved in a cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment a month before its planned release of a movie about a plot to kill the reclusive state's leader, Kim Jong Un.
"The hostile forces are relating everything to the DPRK (North Korea). I kindly advise you to just wait and see," a spokesman for North Korea's U.N. mission said when asked about the attack that knocked out the studio's computer network.
North Korea routinely refers to the United States and South Korea as hostile forces.
Asked if North Korea was not involved in the attack on Sony Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp, the spokesman for the U.N. mission said in an email: "I do not know anything about this."
Sony Pictures' computer system went down last Monday. Before screens went dark, they displayed a red skull and the phrase "Hacked By #GOP," which reportedly stands for Guardians of Peace, the Los Angeles Times said. The hackers also warned they would release "secrets" stolen from Sony, the Times reported.
An element of the installation "Voyageurs" by French artist Cedric Le Borgne is suspended at Place Bel Air in Geneva December 1, 2014. The installation is part of the Geneva Lux Festival presenting four art installations in the town city centre until January 11, 2015.
Photo by Denis Balibouse
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