Posted on July 22nd, 2008
By Jessica Gottlieb
The first nay vote is in.
The Hollywood Reporter states today that:
Regarding the satellite radio merger, Democrat Michael Copps has added his negative vote to the two positive ones registered by commissioner Robert McDowell and chairman Kevin Martin, both Republicans.
Now, XM and Sirius are considering just how far to go with concessions in order to sway the two remaining commissioners.
Read more…
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Filed under: fcc, Howard Stern
Posted on July 22nd, 2008
By Travis Tack
There’s a magazine called “Clarkesworld” that pays 10¢ a word for fantasy fiction. They have, on their website, a list of subjects that they no longer enjoy publishing. Having spent a larger part of College in fiction classes, I think this aptly sums up the fantasy-fiction writer genre.
(The following is an excerpt from Clarkesworldmagazine.com. I’ll use their wording because I don’t think anyone could improve upon it; however, I edited and rearranged some parts of it to increase the humorality of the whole thing.*)
“Though no particular setting, theme, or plot is anathema to us, the following are likely hard sells:
-Time travel.
-Stories in which the words “thou” or “thine” appear.
-Talking swords.
- Stories where the protagonist is either widely despised or widely admired simply because he or she is just so smart and/or strange.
-”Funny” stories that depend on, or even include, puns.
-Stories about rapist-murderer-cannibals.
-Sexy vampires, wanton werewolves, or lusty pirates
-Stories about young kids playing in some field and discovering ANYTHING. (a body, an alien craft, Excalibur, ANYTHING).
-Talking cats.”
My favorite part is that they hate puns. And I want to know what kind of talking objects they do publish stories about. ‘Cus I wrote a novel, and, it’s not the main character or anything, but it feature a toaster doing a soliloquy. Plus, it’s 400,000 pages long; so I figure I’ll make bank!
Read more…
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Filed under: the Zaz!
Posted on July 22nd, 2008
By Intern Max
The Ultimate Flirting Championship is a cute little widget that any person is capable of playing, including my dumb ex-wife. You sign in as a male or female, then it decides if you are going to be a judge or a flirter. The judge is always the opposite sex of the flirters. For example: if the judge is Michael Jackson, then the flirters will be black men. Three possible questions exist in each round and the judge picks the one that he wants to ask, such as “Where would we go on our first date?” The flirters type in their best response and the judge decides the best given answer by the flirters. In the end the judge picks a winner and everyone goes home happy, except the kids who play this game with Michael Jackson.
A typical question asked is, “What kind of car would you be?” The obvious answer here is “I wouldn’t be a car, but I’d give you a hummer for free.” That is how you flirt. When I was the judge I picked the question, “What kind of Dinosaur would you be?” The girls actually named real dinosaurs, which despaired me. I was expecting, “I would be a mega-sore-ass after you got done with me.”
Not everyone plays this game with a dirty mind like me. Most people give legitimate, genuine answers. Since people are judged on their flirting, this could be a great way for kids to learn how to flirt. UCLA was developing a course called “Flirting 101”, taught by Danny De Vito. The course would consist of students flirting with each other, while Professor De Vito would stand on a stool and urinate on them. But now there isn’t a need for it. Students: just go to flirtchamp.com, it’s the only lecture you need to attend.
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Filed under: the Zaz!
Posted on July 22nd, 2008
By JP
Every so often, a person gains renown on the interwebs that doesn’t translate in the real world. These people are called weblebrities and this is where I celebrate them.
You may know Lori Hoffman as a featured critic on Rotten Tomatoes, my favorite source for movie reviews. More accurately, you may know her as the woman that gave a negative review of Iron Man on the site. Outraged fanboys everywhere declared a fatwa on Hoffman, since they don’t deal particularly well with dissent and have a great deal of time on her hands. When I began to delve deeper into her work at the insistance of a good friend, I thought she was fantastic. She certainly wasn’t some hack, obsessed with playing Devil’s Advocate. Hoffman is a legit film critic with a fresh perspective. While I loved Iron Man, her reasoning for the low rating was justified and like all of her work, harbors a distinct love of film ingrained in the text.
So, I wanted to ask Hoffman a few questions about her reviews and her chosen profession. Turns out, she’s even more fantastic than I imagined, as she discussed guilty pleasures and fanboy death threats. (BTW, if you’re going after Lori… you’re gonna have to come through me first!) Enjoy. Read more…
1 Comment »
Filed under: Interview, Movies, Movies
By Jessica Gottlieb
