So Valentine’s Day is this Saturday and every person in any form of romantic entanglement is scrambling to come up with the perfect romantic present for the object of their affection.
Though I don’t have the patience or the interest to sit around and list five wonderful/ romantic/ creative/ affordable gift ideas, I can post about five absolutely horrible gifts that you should not buy if you want your special someone to stick around.
So take a gander at these awful, and even bizarre, gifts.
Candy is one of the classic Valentine’s Day gifts. The seasonal aisle of grocery stores is always filled with heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and other assorted sweets for your sweetheart.
Though your lady may be expecting something edible, I doubt she wants you to give her a Candy G-String. Just like those candy necklaces enjoyed in childhood, imagine your lady’s joy when you present her with candy she can wear between her butt cheeks.
The Candy Bra is also available if you really want to go all out and get your lady the complete set.
I love art, but talk about creepy. Personalized gifts especially made for a couple can be a great gift, but this one is just a little strange. Basically they take a photo of you and your beloved and then photoshop your faces onto a painting of Adam & Eve.
Sure, you may think, aw that’s cute or original. But imagine you walk into someone’s house and you see that hanging on their walls. Talk about uncomfortable. And what lady or guy would open this up and say “Oh, it’s what I’ve always wanted.”
Want to make the man in your life just a little more self-conscious? Give him an Erectile Quality MonitorThough it’s touted to be a great tool for detecting the on-set of Erectile Dysfunction, if you gave this to a guy, the subtle message would instantly shrink his Johnson in shame.
Lingerie is usually a great gift for a girl on V-day, but she’s probably looking for something lacy and slinky, not something that lights up your bedroom like Vegas.
The LED light bra features stylish feather, effective in the seduction of any man or woman of your choosing. Honestly, no girl wants her rack to look like a neon sign.
Flowers, especially roses, are a staple of the Valentine’s Day tradition. For an interesting twist on the classic gift, you could buy her Elephant Poo Paper Roses.
This gift is touted as eco-friendly since these odorless roses are handmade in Thailand from animal poop. You can read all about how they do it here. Though it may be better for the environment, I don’t think anyone would feel comfortable sniffing these roses.
Now that the election is over and we’re no longer treated to Tina Fey’s spot on impersonation of Sarah Palin, the Digital Shorts are my favorite part of Saturday Night Live.
Sometimes they don’t quite make sense, but most of the time they’re hilarious, especially the shorts featuring songs created by the group The Lonely Island.
Their first studio album, Incredibad, comes out tomorrow, and features some of the best songs from the SNL Digital Shorts. Watch the five best below.
This is the short that started it all. Although this was the second of the Digital Shorts to air on SNL, this song swept the internet like a plague in December of 2005. Enjoy the hilarity of Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell rapping about such hardcore topics as cupcakes and the Chronic (what) cles of Narnia.
Proving she’s a million times cooler than we already thought, Natalie Portman pairs up with Chris Parnell to mock her perfect and clean image in this profanity-laced rap.
(this is the uncensored version)
The next year, Andy Samberg paired up with Justin Timberlake to present this R&B parody. It was also a huge hit online after NBC posted the uncensored version on Youtube, and it went on to win the Emmy for Outstanding Original Lyrics and Music
I know some of the reactions to this short have been mixed, but I think it’s absolutely hilarious. I know premature ejaculation is a serious matter, but the heightening of the ridiculous causes builds up to the perfect crescendo of jizzing. Yeah, it’s a little immature, but it’s still funny.
(That’s the explicit version. You can watch the clean version here)
This is the latest of the shorts, which premiered this past Saturday. In this parody, the guys are joined by T-Pain to rap about their experiences on a boat. They’ve got their swim trunks and their flippy-floppies, and you just have to watch it to really experience the magnificence.
Personally, I don’t get it, but lately Twitter has been the hottest thing on the web. (For those not in the loop, Twitter is a social-networking site that lets it’s users post little 140-character updates on whatever they want. It reminds me of status updates on Facebook. Learn more at wikipedia.)
People love following their friends, complete strangers, and now can even follow legit posts by the rich and famous. Though there are a lot of posers, here are five actual celebrities with Twitter accounts.
Known best for his role on Star Trek: The Next GenerationLeVar discovered Twitter in Dec of 2008 when he learned of an impostor using his name. Now the account belongs to the real guy, and he updates constantly, recently about his new struggle to quit smoking cold turkey.
The British comedian and actor Stephen Fry, is well-known for his show A Bit of Fry and LaurieHe discovered Twitter in October of 2008, and updates it constantly.
As of this month, he is the second most followed person on twitter, only beat by President Barack Obama.
Best known for his role as Kelso on That 70s ShowIn addition to his work, he spends time with his notable wife, Demi Moore.
I don’t know how long Ashton’s been on Twitter, but he updates several times a day with such thought-provoking messages as “seahorses for eva.‘
One of the hottest actresses of the 1990s, Demi Moore is best known for classic films like GhostAgain, I’m not sure when Demi discovered Twitter, but like her husband she updates it constantly and often replies to her follower’s messages.
Britney Spears, the pop star (sometimes attempted actressShe started her account in October of 2008, and along with pertinent updates from her manager about album sales, Britney candidly posts about preparing for her tour and taking care of her sons.
For more celebrities on Twitter, visit The Busy Brain.
As the world anxiously awaits the historic moment of Barrack Obama’s Inauguration this Tuesday, it’s good to take a few moments to take a look back at the inaugurations of previous presidents.
Though their elections may not seem as significant as that of our nations first African American president, their entry into the White House marked the beginning of significant shifts–both good and bad–in the future of the country.
Take some time to review the speeches of our last five presidents, and then appreciate the hope and optimism for the future of our country that comes with Obama’s highly anticipated Presidency.
View the full speech here.
Edit 1/21/09:
As a bonus, here’s the video of Barack Obama’s 2009 Inaugural Address:
The passing of a beloved actor or actress always breaks the hearts of fans and admirers. The untimely death of a young star at the peak of their career or the shocking loss of a veteran are tragic enough on their own, but when they die in the middle of a project, their unfinished business leaves the cast, crews, and audiences unfulfilled. Here are five examples of movies that were finished after the death of one of their stars, preserving their final performances.
Heath Ledger was the heartthrob who rose to fame in films like Ten Things I Hate About You, A Knights Tale, and Brokeback Mountain. After finishing filming as the Joke in the highly anticipated The Dark Knight, Ledger began work on The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. In the story he plays a mysterious outsider named Tony, who joins a theater troupe on a mission to rescue a girl.
About half way through filming, on January 22 2008, Ledger was found unconscious in his bed by his housekeeper and masseuse. His death was rule an accidental overdose of prescription medications.
Production on The Imaginarium was immediately disrupted, the suspended indefinitely as director Terry Gilliam tried to decide what to do with the film. Deciding to keep Ledger’s footage intact, Gilliam cast Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law to portray transformed versions of Tony as he travels through the magical realms. Filming resumed in March 2008. The release date is set for September 24, 2009.
Here is the official teaser trailer:
Beginning as a child actress in films like Tomorrow Is Forever and Miracle on 34th Street, Natalie Wood went on to appear in the classics Rebel Without a Cause and West Side Story.
In 1981 she was playing a researcher in the science fiction film Brainstorm. On November 29, at the age of 43, while the cast and crew were on Thanksgiving break, she drowned near Catalina Island. Wood, her husband Robert Wagner, and co-star Christopher Walken spent the weekend on the Wagner’s yacht. Somehow she fell from the boat after a night of drinking. There were no witnesses and her body wasn’t found until the next morning. Speculation over the circumstances continues today, though it’s officially ruled as an accidental death.
Her climactic scene and many other crucial shots for Brainstorm had not yet been filmed and it was two years before the film was finished by using body doubles, creative shots, and whatever footage they already had. The film was critically acclaimed but bombed at the box office.
The trailer for Brainstorm:
A hilarious comedic actor, John Candy appeared in such memorable films as Spaceballs, Planes Trains and Automobiles, and The Blues Brothers.
In 1994, he was filming Wagons East! a film he was contractually obligated to complete. On the morning of March 4, his bodyguard discovered him non-responsive in his hotel room. He passed away from a fatal heart attack resulting from a blockage of one of his coronary arteries at the age of 43.
The remaining scenes were rewritten to exclude him, or stand-ins and digital inserts were used. The film was released in August, with John playing an alcoholic wagon master who takes a group of settlers back east to their homes. Though this was the last project he worked on, it was not the last film he appeared in. Canadian Bacon, the only non-documentary film Michael Moore has made, was released in 1995.
This video shows an example of a scene used twice in the movie:
A British actor with an impressive resume, Oliver Reed is best known for roles in movies like Oliver! and The Three Musketeers. He also had a notable reputation as a heavy drinker.
In 1999 he was filming the role of Proximo, a former gladiator who trains Russell Crowe’s character Maximus, for the movie Gladiator. After a night of intense drinking at The Pub in Malta, where Gladiator was being filmed, he suffered a heart attack which took his life at age 61. This left the filmmakers with major scenes, including Proximo’s dramatic death, incomplete.
Director Ridley Scott began a $3 million project to digitally recreate Reed’s likeness. His body double was filmed and then a 3D digital image of Reed’s face was embedded onto the double. The film was a box office success and critically acclaimed, with 7 Oscar nominations and 5 wins, including Best Picture.
Here’s Part 1 of the documentary “Resurrecting Proximo,” which covers the cast and crew’s reaction to the tragic loss and the technology they used to bring Proximo to life.
[Part 2] [Part 3]
The son of Bruce Lee, Brandon Lee followed in the footsteps of his father making action movies like Legacy of Rage and Showdown in Little Tokyo. At age 28, he was filming The Crow, playing Eric Draven, a man who was brutally murdered with his fiancé the night before their wedding, then brought back to life by the crow to enact his revenge.
Towards the end of the shooting schedule, they were filming a scene in which Draven is shot. “Dummy” cartridges were used for filming close-ups of the gun. When it came time for a wide shot of the shooting, the gun was loaded with blanks. No one knew that there was a dislodged bullet left in the gun from earlier shots. As they filmed the scene, Lee was shot in the abdomen and immediately rushed to the hospital. He died later from severe internal hemorrhaging.
The remaining scenes were finished using a stunt double and special effects. Though studios were wary about taking on the film, Miramax promoted it and it did well at the box office, earning over $50 million.
Here is the scene in which Brandon Lee was accidentally shot: