Posted in bucket list, mad men, Television, wtf, tagged amc tv, betty draper, mad men, mad men 2012, mad men coming back 2011, mad men delayed, mad men returning, mad men season 5, matthew weiner, roger sterling, slate on March 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The most recent terrible news for Mad Men fans is that the series won’t be back before March of 2012.
The holdup is apparently product placement, more commercial time (ironically) and cutting two to six major characters. Ugh.
Slate did a humorous blog about which characters should be cut, though.
Also my mini bucket list of things to do before Mad Men comes back is feeling less urgent.
Posted in celebrities, tagged elizabeth taylor, elizabeth taylor dead, elizabeth taylor died, RIP Elizabeth Taylor on March 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Aw. Loved her.
From the L.A. Times:
During a career that spanned six decades, the legendary beauty with lavender eyes won two Oscars and made more than 50 films, performing alongside such fabled leading men as Spencer Tracy, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando and Richard Burton, whom she married twice. She took her cues from a Who’s Who of directors, including George Cukor, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, George Stevens, Vincente Minnelli and Mike Nichols.
Long after she faded from the screen, she remained a mesmerizing figure, blessed and cursed by the extraordinary celebrity that molded her life through its many phases: She was a child star who bloomed gracefully into an ingenue; a femme fatale on the screen and in life; a canny peddler of high-priced perfume; a pioneering activist in the fight against AIDS.
Some actresses, such as Katharine Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman, won more awards and critical plaudits, but none matched Taylor’s hold on the collective imagination. In the public’s mind, she was the dark goddess for whom playing Cleopatra, as she did with such notoriety, required no great leap from reality.
Posted in bucket list, mad men, Television, tagged amc, mad men, mad men 2011, mad men season 5, mad men season 5 starts, mad men season five, television, when is mad men coming back 2001 on March 22, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Super annoying. It seems that negotiations for Mad Men continue to be delayed and that the writing for Season 5 hasn’t even started yet.
According to the New York Times:
Production would normally start around this time for the next season of “Mad Men,” but AMC has not struck a new deal with the studio that makes the show, Lionsgate, nor has that studio struck a new deal with Matthew Weiner, the series’s acclaimed creator.
Mr. Weiner has said he wants the show to continue, and AMC has pledged that it will definitely return, so the delay is largely due to a disagreement about money.
“By now, the writing staff should be humming along, maybe about a month or more into work for a summer premiere,” he said. “Unless Weiner is secretly manufacturing outlines in preparation of some crazy all-night writing sessions with his staff, it might be time for fans to grow concerned.”
I guess on the bright side it gives me more time for my Mini Bucket List which I vow to have completed by the time Mad Men returns. Honestly, I’d rather have a start date for the show, though.
Posted in author-ity figures, celebrities, Cinemas, Dating Amy, Internet shenanigans, movies, oldies but goodies, tagged cyberbegging, Dating Amy, internet beggars, internet panhandling, let me stay for a day, phnom penh cinemas, ramon stoppelenburg, the flicks cambodia, the flicks phnom penh on March 19, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I first found about about my friend Ramon Stoppelenburg when we were both Internet panhandlers in the early part of the decade. My site of course was Dating Amy, his was Let Me Stay for a Day.
Let Me Stay was a pretty amazing project–Ramon’s goal was to travel around the world for free and it took off immediately. His site caught the attention of the media and had millions of hits, which garnered the Dutch native 3,577 invitations from 72 countries. I think he visited about 24 of those countries.
Ramon and I are both too lazy to write this blog post, so from wikipedia:
The travels took Stoppelenburg through the Netherlands, Belgium, France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Austria, South Africa, Spain, Australia and Canada. Coverage by international media[1][2] and the number of visitors to the website allowed Stoppelenburg to have everything sponsored: his website, clothing, camera, backpack, shoes and even his airline tickets.
As I correctly predicted just recently, once a cyberbeggar, always a cyberbeggar: Ramon is back to his Internet begging ways. Sort of. He wants to buy The Flicks cinema in his new home of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It looks like he’s already raised a few grand. He is a good guy, so help him out if you have an extra dollar or two.
If you’re thinking of trying Internet begging, there is one caveat: To be successful you have to be born on December 20 as Ramon and I both are.
Posted in books, bucket list, paranormal romances, writing, writing life, tagged bucket list, how to write a novel, how to write a novel in two months, mad men bucket list, paranormal romance, write a novel in two months, write or die, writeordie, writing a paranormal romance, writing advice on March 11, 2011 | 2 Comments »
My mini bucket list is silly because 1) I am not including anything personal on it since I don’t roll that way on the Internet anymore. 2) It doesn’t have an end date and 3) It does have an end date, which is the nebulous “whenever Mad Men comes back on.”
Anyway, I checked a big one off today: Write young adult paranormal romance novel in two months.
Done.
I started writing this book (not announcing the title yet), my first novel, on January 10 of this year. It still needs a lot of work, but I did finish it yesterday. It’s currently 270 pages.
The most important thing I learned is that I can write like a fast mofo when I have to and that it’s really not that hard.
At first I was proud of myself for writing maybe 800 words a day, but now I see that 3000-4000 is not unreasonable at all, especially if you’re not doing other writing work.
I relied heavily on Write or Die and also having a writing buddy, Michelle. We met on twitter and wrote together mostly every Tuesday and Wednesday, with other check-ins throughout the week.
Twitter is great for this kind of thing. It is filled with writers who have nothing but time on their hands. Kidding, but it is a great hangout for writers.
Stephen King recommends that you don’t spend more than three months on your first draft because you lose the energy and enthusiasm for the story. Now I get what he’s saying. I felt really immersed in my novel’s world since I cranked it out so fast.
Not gonna lie, though. I couldn’t have done it if I had been working on other things. Writing a book is freakin’ hard.
Posted in celebrities, gossip, Television, tagged charlie sheen being replaced, television, two and a half men on March 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I pride myself on not taking easy shots at people, especially if they’re in trouble, so I haven’t mocked Charlie Sheen much. I think he’s actually a really gifted public speaker and probably a smart guy. I hope he gets help.
Anyway, the gossip columns say there’s no way the network is letting the incredibly lucrative Two and a Half Men go, but are just going to replace Sheen. That sounds right to me.
Here are the actors they’re rumored to be considering:
John Stamos
Jerry O’Connell
Christian Slater
Jeremy Piven
Donny Osmond
Brad Garrett
Dennis Miller
Emilio Estevez
James Spader
Matthew Broderick
Judd Nelson
Anthony Michael Hall
Macaulay Culkin
David Faustino
Will Arnett
Dane Cook
Rob Lowe
Andrew McCarthy
What do you think? It’s hard to believe some of the more movie star-ish ones would take a job on a really badly written sit-com (and is Macaulay Culkin old enough? They want a forty-something.)
Posted in movies, oldies but goodies, Seattle, tagged abraxus books closed, blockbuster going out of business, mother nature's natural health closed, netflix sucks, queen anne blockbuster closed, queen anne businesses closing on March 2, 2011 | 1 Comment »
So my beloved Blockbuster suddenly closed down this week. I’m so bummed. I love going to the video (yes, video) store. I guess my days of spontaneously renting what I want when I want it are over.
I signed up for Netflix and I’m really sad.
Also, one block over from Blockbuster, Mother Nature’s Natural Health place and Abraxus Books lost their leases.
The really cool woman who started Mother Nature’s and has owned it for decades told me that the evil landlord (I may have inserted the word evil) is turning the block into a multi-use building, which means condos on top, commercial on the bottom. She said the rent is going to be really expensive, though, so I will look forward to more Subway sandwich places in my future.
Suck.
