Crushable |
- Lionsgate Unveils the First Motion Poster for ‘The Hunger Games’
- A Guy’s Perspective on Ginny Weasley
- 5 Facts About the ‘Jersey Shore’ Season 4 Trailer
- The Daily WTF: Introducing the Leisure Dive
- Love Lessons from ‘The Bachelorette’: You Aren’t a Jealous Stalker If You’re Hot
- The Canadian ‘Cash Cab’ Fatality Is One of the First Reality Show Accidents Involving an Innocent Bystander
- Who is Jonnie Marbles, the Man Who Just Threw a Pie in Rupert Murdoch’s Face?
- Video: Madeon’s Pop Culture Mash-Up, Now Synced to the Music Videos
| Lionsgate Unveils the First Motion Poster for ‘The Hunger Games’ Posted: 19 Jul 2011 10:59 AM PDT “Motion poster” sounds like one of those lenticular pictures you got in specially marked cereal boxes, where the image changes depending which side you’re viewing it from. But this digital poster for The Hunger Games seems to be a really cool .gif. And by “cool,” I mean “blazing with the fires of rebellion.” It’s a very cool image, since it marries Katniss’ (Jennifer Lawrence) iconic mockingjay pin with the notion of her as “The Girl Who Was on Fire,” which is how Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) presents her in the pre-Arena public presentations — half the battle of winning the Games, really. If you head over to the official movie site, you can embed the poster for yourself, as well as a countdown widget. For what it’s worth, we’re a little over 248 days away from the big day on March 23, 2012. By then it’ll have been eight months since Deathly Hallows, Part 2 and we’ll be clamoring for a new, dystopian young-adult adventure. [via Down With the Capitol] Related posts: Post from: Crushable Lionsgate Unveils the First Motion Poster for ‘The Hunger Games’ |
| A Guy’s Perspective on Ginny Weasley Posted: 19 Jul 2011 11:00 AM PDT
If I may offer an alternative, perhaps more male-oriented perspective on the matter of Ginny Weasley: You’re right to suggest that Ginny Weasley is bland, uninteresting and, in many ways, a manifest deus ex machina of a character. What you’re missing is the fact that this is entirely intentional and, even more so, necessary. I would be willing to bet that a blind survey of Potterites that asks them whether or not they like Ginny, the overwhelming majority would answer “yes” (perhaps even “yes!”), and when pressed as to why, specifically, they like her would more than likely come up empty. Right! Why do we (by which I mean “Ginny apologists like myself”) like her? And, for that matter, why do we like Harry? Why does anyone like Harry? Because we’re told to. One of the enduring features of the hero mythology tradition is that the central character must only ever be interesting on an archetypal level (ie, she must be a hero, and she must be dang good at hero-ing) and not on a human level (if you can identify her favorite author, or musician, or sandwich, then the mythmaker hasn’t done her job). Think about it: What does Luke Skywalker do when he’s not meditating or training Jedi or whatever? Does King Arthur have a favorite painter? What kind of music would Buffy put on a mix tape? Tell me, aside from “magic” and “friends”, one thing that interests Harry Potter (and before you say it, yes, Quidditch counts as magic, and Harry hardly spends much actual time talking about how much he likes it anyway, as much as we’re meant to believe the contrary). There’s no way to answer these questions, as much as we supposedly know about the characters in question. The same is not true for, say, Han Solo (gambling, smuggling things, drinking), or Willow (Ani Difranco, Portishead), or Hermione (books, history, Ron Weasley). And if you did a similar blind survey of favorite Star Wars characters, no one would answer Luke Skywalker. Buffy is no one’s favorite Buffy character. And Harry Potter is no one’s favorite Harry Potter character. Except, maybe and perhaps tellingly (and this is a guess), J.K. Rowling‘s. There is a point to all this: The central character of a hero’s myth must always be maximally thinly-drawn in regard to personal details, nuances, and idiosyncrasies, because to as great an extent as possible, the hero must always be us. Whoever is reading Harry Potter must, as much as possible, identify him or herself with Harry, and that’s a tricky thing to do. The easiest way to do it, of course, is to leave as much to the imagination as possible. Harry likes whatever you like, listens to whatever you listen to, reads whatever you read. He likes Ron and Hermione because you do, and vice versa. Harry is only ever as interesting a character as the person reading wishes or wills him to be. Which brings me to Ginny. Yes, Ginny is dull and blank, and in a family filled with distinctly undull and unblank characters (even Percy) she stands out as particularly lame. But Ginny’s only real personality traits are as follows: she is unwaveringly, unfailingly good, and she loves Harry Potter. Do you see where I’m going with this? Any character whose ultimate purpose is to love and eventually end up with Harry needs to be as open a book as Harry is. That’s why Harry couldn’t be with Cho Chang, or Luna Lovegood, or (God forbid) Hermione Granger. Those characters exist in some capacity beyond the reader’s own projections, and Ginny doesn’t. She’s whoever you want her to be. It is thus somewhat unfair to attack her as a character. She’s not a character. She, like Harry, is an idea, limited only by whatever the reader brings to her. In my mind, she’s cool and heroic and probably has great taste in music and likes the Red Sox, because, after all, she, like Harry, is mine to define however I want to define her. Related posts: Post from: Crushable A Guy’s Perspective on Ginny Weasley |
| 5 Facts About the ‘Jersey Shore’ Season 4 Trailer Posted: 19 Jul 2011 10:50 AM PDT
There are two new hookups this season. And those hookups are Snooki/The Situation and Vinny/Deena. Wow, I hope Snooks got over her thing for Vinny because he has now officially slept with two of her best friends. What are the odds that Vinny calls Deena a slut but no one judges him at all? I’d say high. Sammi is not being completely heinous. She seems to be getting along with the other girls in the house, which is weird. Either she watched last season and realized how terrible a friend she was, or something happened with her and Ron-Ron Juice. Snooki does not know what a bidet is. Maybe she’ll get drunk and sit in it, just like the minifridge last season! Unsurprisingly, no one – except maybe Vinny – speaks any Italian when they arrive there, but they learn enough basic phrases to be able to hook up with people. Ronnie and Sitch’s fight is about house/love life drama. It looks like Snooks gets upset with The Situation because of something related to their hookup, and Ronnie says he and Mike have been having drama for awhile. Cut to Mike being taken out of the house on a stretcher and all the girls – even Sammi! – crying. JWoww and Snooki have a fight. Although, it doesn’t seem like a full on argument – Snooks is drunk and crying, and JWoww seems to be trying to knock some sense into her. JWoww says something about how Snooki asked for a reality check, and now she’s getting one. My guess? Snooks is upset about some loser dude – the Sitch, maybe, or Jionni – and JWoww is telling her it’s not worth it. Oh, and one additonal fact: my favorite character, the duck phone, sadly did not make it to Florence. We miss you, duck phone! Related posts: Post from: Crushable 5 Facts About the ‘Jersey Shore’ Season 4 Trailer |
| The Daily WTF: Introducing the Leisure Dive Posted: 19 Jul 2011 10:20 AM PDT |
| Love Lessons from ‘The Bachelorette’: You Aren’t a Jealous Stalker If You’re Hot Posted: 19 Jul 2011 10:00 AM PDT We’re down to four guys, which means it’s time for hometown dates. In case you forgot who the four remaining guys were, Ashley reminds us about Beneff, Constantine, Ames, and JP. I have to say – Ashley did a good job choosing her final four. They’re not all going to be on the cover of Men’s Health next week, but they’re all nice and sweet and capable of using adverbs properly. Cut to Ashley at home in Philadelphia, packing her stuff to get ready for the first hometown date. Hi, Ashley’s cute yippy dog!
First up: Constantine! I think he says they’re in Georgia. Ashley has some kind of red string tied around her wrist, and as far as I know she hasn’t been to the Western Wall lately, so maybe it’s just some kind of ugly bracelet or something I missed from one of the Asian stops. In case anyone had doubts about Constantine’s Greekness, his parents’ names are Dimitri and Eleni and his sister’s name is Maria. Ashley repeats them a couple of times, and as the owner of an unusual name that people mispronounce all the time, I appreciate her commitment to getting them right. His family owns a restaurant called Giorgio’s. Constantine admits it may seem weird for a Greek family to run an Italian restaurant, but they’re just committed to working hard and making good food. And cue the free publicity for the restaurant. Cut to Ashley trying her hand at making a pizza, with Constantine’s help. He tells her to add her favorite ingredients and she tries to dump Constantine into the pan. I love when Ashley tries to be funny. Tries. Then they make a salad and once the meal’s complete they go out to one of the tables to eat it. They kiss, and what seems to be Constantine’s entire extended family is watching from the kitchen and cheering. Ew. I don’t need my relatives to cheerlead for me on dates. Love means the recapper staring at the cute white dog. Constantine and Ashley pull up at his parents’ house, where there’s a huge WELCOME HOME NSTANTINE sign and blue and white balloons. (Blue and white! Because they’re Greek!) Dad Dimitri voiceovers that Constantine looks really happy, and there’s a majorly adorbs white fluffy dog in the house, which means I will not pay attention to anything else while there is a puppy on screen. Ashley voiceovers that she wants a family as close-knit as theirs. They eat lamb chops and Eleni talks about how much she missed Constantine, and I have seriously missed syrupy Southern accents like hers. She sounds like my aunt. Eleni voiceovers that it’s easy to feel like you’re falling in love when you’re on exotic trips, but she grills Ashley (like a lamb chop … man, I am hungry now) about whether she’s planning to relocate. Because Ashley is a dentist (well, a dental student, but whatevs) she can move anywhere pretty easily, and she says she’s willing to move. She also says that she already likes Constantine’s family and wants to be part of something like that. Ashley is pretty guileless, so I believe her. They then toast each other. Ashley thanks Eleni for being so open – isn’t that what she says about every guy on this show? While Eleni’s talking to Ashley, Dimitri talks to Constantine. He says that they’ve been married for 33 years, and that marriage requires work, but it should be magical at first. When they all reunite, Ashley announces she wants to move in. Whether that’s because of Constantine or because of Eleni’s food, I’m not sure. Suddenly, there’s a surprise: Constantine’s entire family shows up and crashes the party Big Fat Greek Wedding-style. That includes dancing, of course, because my Jewish family always busts out the hora in our living room whenever our brother’s reality show girlfriend comes to visit. Related posts: Post from: Crushable Love Lessons from ‘The Bachelorette’: You Aren’t a Jealous Stalker If You’re Hot |
| Posted: 19 Jul 2011 09:55 AM PDT
Last Friday, one of the cars disguised as a taxi for the Canadian edition of Cash Cab ran down a 61-year-old man in Vancouver. That’s it in the photo, tweeted by a DJ who noticed that the show was filming outside of a local restaurant. Castlewood Productions has confirmed that it was the same cab that was involved in the accident later that night, but that the fatality didn’t occur while filming a segment. I can’t find much precedent for this accident. Seemingly every reality show injury or even death sustained counts its victim as a contestant, technician, stunt person, or even the host. You might consider Shandi‘s boyfriend from season 1 of America’s Next Top Model; he sustained emotional damage when she called him from Italy, while the cameras were rolling, to confess about drunkenly hooking up with a stranger. But even he had an idea of what he signed up for. Another anecdote in the gray area is the Manhattan kid who was killed in an accident last Thursday due indirectly to Khloe Kardashian‘s husband Lamar Odom. Lamar was in NYC for his cousin’s funeral and had hired a car service. At one point, the car got into an accident with a motorcycle, which then struck a 15-year-old boy walking by. The only way this would really be added to the list would be if Lamar brought along the Keeping Up with the Kardashians crew. If not, as seems to be the case, then he could have been anyone and the boy would still have lost his life. The Jersey Shore cast has managed to rack up a few lawsuits from partygoers who got into fights with the cast; one woman claims that Snooki and JWoww went after her for talking to the male cast members at a club in Miami in May 2010. As for the Cash Cab tragedy, Vancouver police said the investigation is still ongoing because there were no witnesses. The president of Castlewood Productions identified the driver of the replica cab as a member of the company’s technical staff, “who is shaken and devastated by this tragic accident.” What I’m curious about is if the cameras caught any of it. According to Wikipedia, the car has five high-definition cameras inside the vehicle and two mounted on the roof. They probably weren’t on since the staff member seems to have been driving the car to an off-hours location, but you never know. Related posts: Post from: Crushable |
| Who is Jonnie Marbles, the Man Who Just Threw a Pie in Rupert Murdoch’s Face? Posted: 19 Jul 2011 10:14 AM PDT |
| Video: Madeon’s Pop Culture Mash-Up, Now Synced to the Music Videos Posted: 19 Jul 2011 09:22 AM PDT The hot new mash-up of 2011, by 17-year-old DJ Madeon, is an exhilarating mix of Deadmau5, Ke$ha, Gorillaz, Michael Jackson, Katy Perry, and a lot more. The video itself is rather mesmerizing, since you’re watching Madeon orchestrate in real-time. But that can get repetitive, so another YouTube user painstakingly synced the various music videos, even the ones that were sampled just for melody or a few lines, to match Madeon’s beat. But to each their own, and if you’d rather see no one but Madeon manipulating the music, here’s the original video. Related posts: Post from: Crushable Video: Madeon’s Pop Culture Mash-Up, Now Synced to the Music Videos |
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Last week Lilit wrote a post on her (negative) 
Although we heard plenty of gossip about Jersey Shore‘s Italy season, the official trailer is now out. Some of the stuff we already knew about (
Learn to pronounce Mom and Dad’s names properly.
When it comes to reality TV, it’s usually the contestants who report injuries, like when Michael Skupin fell into the fire on Survivor: The Australian Outback, or Dancing with the Stars contestants regularly blowing out ankles and other body parts. Barring a really gruesome accident, we figure that it’s part and parcel with signing up to live with strangers or compete for a cash prize. Rare is it that an innocent bystander becomes a victim due to whatever’s shooting in the area.| You are subscribed to email updates from Crushable To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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this is a very interesting work, gladly revisited all the parts with the family on the last weekend
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