Margaret Cho Rightfully Loses Her Shit

By
13 January 2012
3 min read
Leave a comment
In Entertainment
691 views

I have some wonderful new tattoos on my ass by the incredible Cris Cleen, who I love, and I posted a picture of them on Twitter, which got many favourable comments — but there were two negative ones, and I blew a fucking gasket. I screamed out loud and tracked the perps down and blocked them, but not before really ramming it to them in the strongest language I could use. It was over the top and really kind of ridiculous, but I cannot help myself.

Some outside Facebook observer said that my language was too much and told me that I had lost a fan because she couldn’t condone my language. I am sorry for that, as I love my fans, and it sucks to lose one, but obviously she doesn’t understand that when you grow up the way that I did, with kids at school throwing rocks at my face because they hated it because it was so ugly to them and they wanted the blood from my wounds to cover it so it wouldn’t have to be seen and at summer camps stuffed dog shit in my sleeping bag because I was told time and again that I looked like shit — and that I had to empty myself in the dark forest and still sleep in smelling that shit all that night and for weeks after because my family was too poor to afford a new one — my language is on the strong side. I apologise for offending the former fan, but I am only myself. That is all I can be, and if I must apologise for that, I don’t mind. All I am trying to say is that no young girl should be told she is ugly. If she is, you kill her spirit, and she may grow up like me, and lose a fan — via redwolf.newsvine.com

The writer who made millions by self-publishing online

By
13 January 2012
4 min read
Leave a comment
In Business, Entertainment, Technology
536 views

When historians come to write about the digital transformation currently engulfing the book-publishing world, they will almost certainly refer to Amanda Hocking, writer of paranormal fiction who in the past 18 months has emerged from obscurity to bestselling status entirely under her own self-published steam. What the historians may omit to mention is the crucial role played in her rise by those furry wide-mouthed friends, the Muppets.

To understand the vital Muppet connection we have to go back to April 2010. We find Hocking sitting in her tiny, sparsely furnished apartment in Austin, Minnesota. She is penniless and frustrated, having spent years fruitlessly trying to interest traditional publishers in her work. To make matters worse, she has just heard that an exhibition about Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets, is coming to Chicago later that year and she can’t afford to make the trip. As a huge Muppets fan, she is more than willing to drive eight hours but has no money for petrol, let alone a hotel for the night. What is she to do?

Then it comes to her. She can take one of the many novels she has written over the previous nine years, all of which have been rejected by umpteen book agents and publishing houses, and slap them up on Amazon and other digital ebook sites. Surely, she can sell a few copies to her family and friends? All she needs for the journey to Chicago is $300 (£195), and with six months to go before the Muppets exhibition opens, she’s bound to make it.

I’m going to sell books on Amazon, she announces to her housemate, Eric.

To which Eric replies: Yeah. Okay. I’ll believe that when it happens.

Let’s jump to October 2010. In those six months, Hocking has raised not only the $300 she needed, but an additional $20,000 selling 150,000 copies of her books. Over the past 20 months Hocking has sold 1.5m books and made $2.5m. All by her lonesome self. Not a single book agent or publishing house or sales force or marketing manager or bookshop anywhere in sight.

So let the historians take note: Amanda Hocking does get to Chicago to see the Muppets. And along the way she helps to foment a revolution in global publishing — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Hobbes / seamster

By
13 January 2012
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Craft, Entertainment, Wildlife
604 views

I thought that making a stuffed Hobbes doll would be a great gift for one of my sons (whose name coincidentally, is Calvin). However, I knew that the artist, Bill Watterson, famously refused to allow his characters to be licensed and sold as dolls and such, feeling that doing so would undermine the integrity of the strip.

So I was kind of hesitant to make this and offer a pattern and instructions for it online, out of respect for Mr Watterson. I concluded that it shouldn’t be an issue as long as the pattern is available free, for personal, non-commercial use. I’m not selling the pattern or the doll, and you shouldn’t either — via instructables

Palestinian Sesame Street falls victim to US Congress

By
9 January 2012
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Entertainment, Politics
560 views

With its colourful band of Muppets preaching tolerance and neighbourly love, the Palestinian version of the children’s television programme Sesame Street had become a beacon of hope for children in a region ravaged by decades of unrest.

But the cast of peace-loving characters have now found themselves in the crossfire of a political dispute between Palestinian leaders and the US Congress, and episodes have been axed for 2012.

Sesame Street — known as Shara’a Simsim in Arabic — is one of many US-funded Palestinian shows suffering after Congress froze the transfer of nearly £130m to the US Agency for International Development in October. The suspension aimed to punish the Palestinians for appealing to the United Nations for membership.

The funding suspension has affected a broad range of services in Palestine relying on American aid, including hospitals, education, government ministries and communications — via redwolf.newsvine.com

US Threatened To Blacklist Spain For Not Implementing Site Blocking Law

By
7 January 2012
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Entertainment, Politics, Rights, Technology
512 views

In a leaked letter sent to Spain’s outgoing President, the US ambassador to the country warned that as punishment for not passing a SOPA-style file-sharing site blocking law, Spain risked being put on a United States trade blacklist. Inclusion would have left Spain open to a range of retaliatory options but already the US was working with the incoming government to reach its goals.

United States government interference in Spain’s intellectual property laws had long been suspected, but it was revelations from Wikileaks that finally confirmed the depth of its involvement.

More than 100 leaked cables showed that the US had helped draft new Spanish copyright legislation and had heavily influenced the decisions of both the government and opposition.

Now, another diplomatic leak has revealed how the US voiced its anger towards outgoing President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero last month upon realizing that his government was unlikely to pass the US-drafted Sinde (site blocking) Law before leaving office — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Canadian Government Considers Plan To Block Public Domain

By
7 January 2012
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Entertainment, Rights, Technology
527 views

Canada celebrated New Year’s Day this year by welcoming the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Carl Jung into the public domain just as European countries were celebrating the arrival of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, 20 years after both entered the Canadian public domain. The Canadian government is now considering a plan to enter trade negotiations that would extend the term of copyright by 20 years, meaning nothing new would enter the public domain in Canada until at least 2032. The government is holding a public consultation with the chance for Canadians to speak out to save the public domain — via Slashdot

Obituary: Ronald Searle

By
4 January 2012
41 second read
Leave a comment
In Entertainment
580 views

British cartoonist Ronald Searle, best known for his spiky drawings of the tearaway pupils of the fictional girls school St Trinian‘s, has died in southern France aged 91.

Searle, whose anarchic St Trinian’s characters spawned a series of movie adaptations, died on 30 December at a hospital near his home in Draguignan, in France’s south-eastern Var region — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Secret Agent Calvin Hobbes: Meet Dr Robin / kizer180

By
30 December 2011
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Art, Entertainment
626 views

As children, these two had constant feuds after Calvin literally stepped into Christopher’s neck of the woods. That’s when the Battle began, the test of their imagination. Calvin would talk about his friend and his abilities and Christopher would counter and say but can he… it went back and forth between the two of them. As they grew older they grew in different directions. Calvin met new people and made friends — although his best and imaginary friend Hobbes stayed with him all the way into adulthood. Christopher on the other hand became more introverted but made the characters he invented as a kid more apart of his character as he got older — via deviantART

Mystery behind Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ solved?

By
28 December 2011
55 second read
Leave a comment
In Entertainment, Wildlife
557 views

Whodunit? A final mystery surrounding the work of film legend Alfred Hitchcock — what triggered the crazed bird flocks that helped inspire his 1963 thriller The Birds — appears solved by scientists.

Dying and disoriented seabirds rammed themselves into homes across California’s Monterey Bay in the summer of 1961, sparking a long-standing mystery about the cause among marine biologists. The avian incidents sparked local visitor Hitchcock’s interest, along with a story about spooky bird behaviour by British writer Daphne du Maurier — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Spanish village happy to be left feeling blue by Smurfs

By
20 December 2011
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Entertainment, Weird
612 views

pueblo pitufo
pueblo pitufo, originally uploaded by manuelfloresv.

It was meant to be a short-lived publicity stunt for a film that became a box-office smash despite withering reviews. But for the 221 inhabitants of Juzcar in southern Spain, The Smurfs in 3D has brought them an unexpected lifeline in tough economic times – and yesterday they voted overwhelmingly to keep it.

The tiny pueblo of white-washed buildings near Malaga in Andalucía was selected by the filmmakers this summer to be painted entirely in that unique hue, Smurf blue.

While Sony had promised to return the village to its former glory after filming and publicity, the residents have found that being blue is not so bad at all, and yesterday in a referendum voted 141 in favour and just 33 against to remain the world’s only Smurf village — via redwolf.newsvine.com

American Horror Story / Alfred F Rosenheim

By
18 December 2011
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Design, Entertainment
1260 views

The Los Angeles mansion that’s a star in its own right on the creepy FX hit American Horror Story is up for sale, and for a cool $4.5 million, you can own the most awesome piece of show memorabilia around.

The AHS house, AKA the Alfred F Rosenheim Mansion, is a three-story home plus a grand ballroom (formerly a chapel) that features Tiffany stained glass widows and light fixtures — just as one of the deceased characters points out on the show.

According to real estate agent Joe Babjian’s listing, other amenities include six vintage tile fireplaces, a formal dining room with hand-painted ceiling and a solarium overlooking the 30,000-square foot lot — via People.com

FCC passes rules against excessively loud TV commercials

By
15 December 2011
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Entertainment
541 views

The FCC requires broadcasters to ensure that the sound level on commercials is the same as on programming. It will go into effect in December 2012.

Excessively loud television commercials should be a thing of the past, thanks to the Federal Communications Commission.

Responding to years of complaints that the volume on commercials was much louder than that of the programming that the ads accompany, the FCC on Tuesday passed the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act to make sure that the sound level is the same for commercials and news and entertainment programming — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Elizabeth Taylor auction nets record millions

By
15 December 2011
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Entertainment
498 views

An auction of actress Elizabeth Taylor’s world-renowned jewels took in $116 million, more than double the record for a single collection and setting new marks for pearls, colourless diamonds and Indian jewels.

Christie’s sale of 80 items from Taylor’s collection on Tuesday had been estimated to raise about $20 million, but everything from her famous 33-carat diamond ring, a gift from Richard Burton, to her charm bracelets sold for many times their estimates.

Just halfway into the marathon four-hour sale, the Taylor collection broke the record for a single-owner jewellery collection set in 1987 when the Duchess of Windsor’s jewels sold for just over $50 million — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Previous 41 42 4344 45 Next