Sampah Google: June 2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

June. It's a Wrap

June ends. Now we just have to make it through the two hottest months of the year. I'm melting. Here's the best of June in case you missed anything. I have no idea why summer makes me so nostalgic but there was an awful lot of 80s happening this month at the blog.

Woody and Buzz and other Toys we played with this month!

Jamie Lee Curtis is Perfect a deep immersion into 80s culture. Put on your unitard.
"I Heard Of It" why people flock to reboots, franchises and crossovers.
Earliest Cinema Memory: JAWS... albeit a second hand memory.
Conviction (née Betty Anne Waters) A trailer overview: Supporting players, Swank, and loveable loathsome Tony Goldwyn.
Cocoon: Cinema's first Viagra joke Because I couldn't help myself

Tony live blog & fashion review Broadway's big night honored film stars.
Death Becomes Her in which Meryl Streep spoofed her past and pointed to her future.
Alejandro: The Fun & Folly of Appropriation Something a bit different, a video review.
Career Lessons from Angelina Jolie a review in posters.
Take Three Craig's series took on the dramatic (Miranda Richardson), comedic (Jennifer Coolidge) and true character (Thelma Ritter).

As for current cinema, one can hardly blame me for retreating into the past this month. Mainstream movies at least, were eager to keep us in the 80s. Even June's big deal opener Toy Story 3 (my review) plucked the heartstrings of our collective ancient history aka The Nineties... and our childhoods in general.

Coming in July
I had to push the book group "Cast This!" back a week (July 7th now for Scar Night). A few "Halfway Mark" articles are coming recapping the year thus far. We'll also wrap up "Streep at 60" (just a few films to go) and share more Screen Bitchery. Plus, an interview with Julianne Moore! New films to argue about: Salt, The Kids Are All Right, Inception. Old films we'll be discussing (put 'em on your queue): Elmer Gantry, Doctor Zhivago, The Best Years of Our Lives, Driving Miss Daisy & more. Stick around and spread the word.

Dodge Durango Hybrid Specs

Chrysler started to build the Dodge Durango Hybrid 2009 in fall 2008, featuring the 340 hp (254 kW) 5.7 L (345 cu in) Hemi engine with MDS as well as the new Two-Mode Hybrid system developed with General Motors and BMW. The manufacturer claimed an almost 25% gain overall fuel fuel economy and an almost 40% gain in the city.

EPA testing on the Hybrid Durango with the Hemi V8 engine indicates fuel mileage to be about 20 miles per US gallon (12 L/100 km; 24 mpg-imp) (city) and 22 miles per US gallon (11 L/100 km; 26 mpg-imp) (highway) for 2009 model.

Dodge Durango Hybrid

Dodge Durango Hybrid

The normal (non-hybrid) Durango with the 5.7 L (345 cu in) Hemi and 4WD gets 13 miles per US gallon (18 L/100 km; 16 mpg-imp) (city) and 19 miles per US gallon (12 L/100 km; 23 mpg-imp) (highway).

The 2009 Dodge Durango Hybrid has a starting MSRP of $45,340.Production of the hybrid models (this included Chrysler Aspen Hybrid as well) began on August 22 2008. Chrysler received approximately 3000 pre-orders from dealers. By early November 2008, 400 of the hybrid S.U.V.’s, including Chrysler Aspen, had already been built.

Dodge Durango Hybrid

Dodge Durango Hybrid

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2010 Dodge Journey Marketing

Dodge Journeys assembled and marketed in Japan are known as Dodge JC.

As part of the vehicle's introductory promotion, Dario Franchitti's No. 40 Dodge Charger carried a "Journey" paint scheme for the 2008 Daytona 500 on February 15, 2008.

2010 Dodge Journey

2010 Dodge Journey

Aston Martin Rapide Information

The Aston Martin Rapide is a four-door, high-performance sport saloon, which British luxury marque Aston Martin introduced in early 2010 to compete with the Maserati Quattroporte, Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class, and Porsche Panamera along with the upcoming Audi A7 and Lamborghini Estoque. It was first presented as a concept car at the North American International Auto Show in 2006. The Rapide name is a reference to the Lagonda Rapide, a saloon car produced by Lagonda, now part of Aston Martin. The car is based on an Aston Martin DB9. The base price for the Aston Martin Rapide is $199,950 (USD)and the first cars were rolled out in May 2010.

The Rapide is built at a dedicated plant at the Magna Steyr facility in Graz, Austria. Production began in 2010 and the factory plans to build 2,000 per year.

The production version features a full-length glass roof and LED light bars on the rear end, two firsts for Aston Martin.

Aston Martin Rapide

Aston Martin Rapide

Let's Link Together, yeahyeahyeah, think of all that we could sha-are.

Tyler Coates shares my favorite personal anecdote post of this past week. Yay, Parent Trap.
Peel Slowly offers up several examples of movies recreating paintings. Neat stuff.

Material Girl Yes, it's true. Madonna's firstborn is now a (fashion) blogger. She loves all things 80s apparently like 4realz. Believe it or not I threw a first birthday party for Lourdes (aka Lola) in 1997 with my roomie at the time who was also a Madonna man. Our apartment was packed -- anything Madonna themed you know -- and we gave all the donations to a local children's hospital. So, see, one can use celebrity obsessive powers for good.
Movie|Line "9 dates that will shape the rest of 2010."
I Need My Fix Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green are now married in case you hadn't heard or cared.
In Contention Tree of Life is Apparition's sole 2010 release now. "And who knows if we'll even see it in 2010," Nathaniel the cynic adds.

Anita Kunz She's one of my favorite illustrators and she drew 100 nude male celebrities for an artshow in Toronto. How funny. This is but a 3% sample. But if you're in Toronto, go see it. Report back.
Eye Scoop Excuse me, how had I not heard that Christophe Honore was doing another musical with Ludivine Sagnier and Louis Garrel (from Love Songs)! So excited. That film just grows on you.
Cinematical Peter Sarsgaard goes Bluegrass.

A Blog Next Door suggests you watch TiMER on Netflix Instant Watch and so do I. Anya!
A BlNYT Wonder Woman has a new look. I'm sure this will be applauded widely but I can't help but worry that it's one more step in completely genericizing all superheroes. Watch it turn into black form fitting armory leather for the movie which all superheroes seem to be wearing ever since they held a mass costume designing conference in 2000 and decreed that The Matrix and The X-Men were the new standards for f/x costuming.
The Awl a conversation about The Twilight Saga: Eclipse that has to be more entertaining than the movie.

Finally, Towleroad alerts us to a rare moment of levity in the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Elena Kagan. The "Edward vs. Jacob case"

I don't even know what to say...

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P.S. If you've been following me on Twitter, you already know that I met Julianne Moore today. Yes, yes, I'll tell you all about it soon enough. I have to process first. [gulp] I reached out my hand to shake hers and... she hugged me!

Who's Up For Hugo

JA from MNPP here, with a bit of casting news hitting the internet today. Martin Scorsese's gathering up his cast for Hugo Cabret, his adaptation of the apparently popular book by Brian Selznick, and you might recognize one or two of them.

Jude Law. Frances de la Tour. Sacha Baron Cohen. Richard Griffiths. Christopher Lee. Ray Winstone. Ben Kingsley. Asa Butterfield. Helen McCrory. Not pictured is Chloe Moretz of Kick Ass and the unnecessary Let the Right One In remake (but the less I say about her the better).

Hey look, History Boys reunion!

Not that those two haven't already done the Harry Potter thing. They are English actors, after all. Anyway, since I haven't read the book I only have a couple of points to make. Firstly, Martin Scorsese is working with Christopher Lee. Secondly, Martin Scorsese is working with Christopher Lee. Okay I guess that's all I got. It makes this horror-geek's head happy though.

Anybody familiar the book? I'm assuming the chance to fetishize George Méliès it promises is what drew Scorsese to the material, no? Now that he's won his Oscar it's nice seeing Marty loosen up again (even if I wasn't too keen on Shutter Island).
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Body Painting of Americas Flags

Body Painting of Americas Flags

Body Painting of Americas Flags

Hayward on My Mind.

Jose here.

Today is the anniversary of Susan Hayward's birth (she would've turned 93). Browsing through her filmography it struck me how conflicted I am regarding her acting. Despite her extreme beauty (what did they feed these women back then?) I find her acting slightly hammy sometimes and rather inexpressive on different occasions.

Hayward was nominated for five Best Actress Oscars and perhaps the reason for my slight discontent with her is that in a way, she created the "easy way to an Oscar nod". Let's take a look at the characters that got her Oscar's attention and the reasons why AMPAS couldn't resist to nominate her:

1946 Angelica 'Angie'/'Angel' Evans Conway in Smash-Up, The Story of a Woman
Angelica is a club singer who marries a rising performer, gives up her career and becomes an alcoholic. The plot is loosely based on the life of Dixie Lee, Bing Crosby's first wife.
(AMPAS buttons it pushed: alcoholism, deglam, suffering wife, performer, semi biopic)

1949 Eloise Winters in My Foolish Heart
Eloise is a wife reflecting on the twists her life has taken. Based on J.D. Salinger's short story Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut.
(AMPAS buttons it pushed: suffering wife, decade spanning drama, famous song, literary pedigree)

1952 Jane Froman in With a Song in My Heart
Real life singer Froman had a terrific career in film and song, until she was almost killed in a plane crash in 1943. She overcame adversity in every possible way and went on to have a fruitful life and career (Froman even outlived Hayward).
(AMPAS buttons it pushed: famous song, decade spanning drama, deglam, biopic, overcoming tragedy)

1955 Lillian Roth in I'll Cry Tomorrow
Roth was a real life Broadway star who overcame her mother's domineering and becomes an alcoholic after the death of her fiancé.
(AMPAS buttons it pushed: do I really have to point them out at this point?)

1958 Barbara Graham in I Want to Live! (pictured left)
Real life prostitute, drug addict and manipulative Barbara Graham gets convicted for murder and executed.
(AMPAS buttons it pushed: biopic, murder, jail, decade spanning drama, deglam)

Hayward finally got her Oscar for this role and was never nominated afterward. So now do you see my point? Hayward was great at this sort of campy melodramatic, fictionalized biopics but her career can't help but leave a bittersweet aftertaste.

Perhaps we wouldn't have instant wins for the Reeses, Marions and Charlizes if it weren't for Hayward. Or maybe I'm just rambling. What's your take on this?
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