BuzzSugar

Buzz News Roundup, 4/16

BuzzSugar — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:32:48 PDT

According to the AP, the upcoming X-Files movie has an official title! It's now called The X-Files: I Want to Believe, and will still open July 25.
Richard Gere is joining two movie projects, writes Variety. He'll costar alongside Hilary Swank in the Amelia Earhart biopic, and he'll star in the cop drama Brooklyn's Finest.
Iron & Wine, Flight of the Conchords, and Wolf Parade are among the bands scheduled for Sub Pop Records' 20th anniversary party this Summer, Billboard reports.
ComingSoon reports that Danielle Panabaker will play the female lead in the remake of Friday the 13th.
Get ready for more "green" storylines: NBC is bringing back Green is Universal for Earth Day, and The Futon Critic has the details. Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter writes that Fox has started an eco campaign of its own.
The writer responsible for adapting Bringing Down the House into 21 is at it again, writing the screenplay version of a lottery scam memoir, Money for Nothing, writes Hollywood Reporter.
Hollywood Reporter writes that Stan Lee will launch yet another superhero franchise, titled Legion of 5.
The New York Times has a very sweet piece on the classic Disney animator Ollie Johnston who died on Monday.
According to ComingSoon, Demi Moore has landed roles in two indie movies: Happy Tears, in which she'll star alongside Parker Posey, and Bunraku, starring Woody Harrelson.

TV Tonight: 30 Rock

BuzzSugar — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 08:30:00 PST

Of all of the shows participating in NBC's Green is Universal week, I've been most excited to see what 30 Rock would do with the assignment. The show is so brilliant at poking fun of NBC's corporate culture that I figured Tina Fey would have something special up her sleeve for this politically correct mission.

Sure enough, tonight's episode will introduce Greenzo, a ridiculous, Jack Donaghy-mandated green superhero, played by David Schwimmer. Liz gets roped in to a promotional tour with Greenzo, and it doesn't take her long to get fed up with the goofy mascot's over-the-top message. Even better, the show convinced Al Gore to come poke fun at himself and his environmental mission.

The other green week comedies don't look bad, either - especially this edition of The Office, which finds Michael dropped in the woods on a wilderness-survival mission. To watch a promo for all four comedies, just

Photo courtesy of NBC

NBC Goes Eco for Green is Universal Week

BuzzSugar — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 07:30:00 PDT

Back in July, when NBC announced it would have a green-themed week of programming, I wondered aloud how many green plot lines there could really be. Well, NBC has released the details about how each of its shows will be integrating the theme from Nov. 4-10, and it seems the answer to my question is: a whole lot.

Some of the plot lines in this press release (warning before you click - it contains spoilers for upcoming episodes) sound pretty great. A few favorites:

On The Office, Michael will get excluded from a corporate wilderness retreat - and then go into the woods on his own to prove his mettle.
30 Rock will poke fun at the whole concept, hatching a plot line with Jack creating a green mascot for GE. Al Gore will guest-star!
On Friday Night Lights, Tami's free-spirited sister will sweep into town, urging the Taylors to make a ton of changes in their lives, including going green.
On The Biggest Loser, the contestants will compete a recycling-themed challenge and exercise without electricity-hogging machines.

A few of the others seem like they had to work a little harder to get that green message in. To see a few of those,

On Chuck, Chuck will return to Stanford on a weekend when the university just so happens to be hosting its annual Green Festival.
On Journeyman, Dan will travel back in time to educate a cab driver on the wonders of recycling.
On Heroes, West will help Claire's family with some energy-saving household repairs. (Seriously!)

Overall, though, I'm getting the sense - at least from these written descriptions - that NBC managed to get green plots into most of its shows pretty seamlessly. What do you think? Is it cool that NBC is raising awareness of green issues - or will this be overkill?

NBC is Going Green This Fall

BuzzSugar — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 14:28:57 PDT

From Live Earth to Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary about global warming, it's cool to be green in showbiz these days. This fall, NBC will be getting into the act with a week of green-themed programming across all of its networks, including Bravo, USA and Sci Fi. According to NBC entertainment co-president Ben Silverman, every single primetime show on the network - from "Heroes" to "Deal or No Deal" - will have "themes of green." The "Green is Universal" week will begin Nov. 4 with NBC's Sunday Night Football broadcast.

It's a cool idea, and I'm not going to dis anything that would raise awareness of environmental issues - especially because NBC Universal is obviously committed to the cause and has launched a Web site with all kinds of great green info. But I do wonder if by the end of the week, the whole theme will start to feel old and trite. After all, how many green plot lines can there really be?

Luckily, the stars and writers of NBC's Thursday comedies - all of whom will be participating in the green week - already seemed to be taking the assignment in stride during their panel discussion on Monday. Greg Garcia, executive producer of "My Name is Earl," suggested maybe they could just recycle a previous "Save the Earth"-themed "Earl" episode, while John Krasinski already had a pretty good sense of how "The Office" would fare: "We're screwed. We're a paper company. We're going to get hammered."

Danny Seo Celebrates Earth Day With a One Kings Lane Tastemaker Sale to Benefit Charity

Guest Writer — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 04:00:00 PDT

We're excited to present a post from guest writer, eco lifestyle expert, and all-around awesome guy Danny Seo.

Late last year, I had the privilege to sit down with one of the co-founders of One Kings Lane, Ali Pincus, and talk about our favorite places to shop, how I'm addicted to the home shopping site, and to talk about ways I could get involved with One Kings Lane. We came up with the idea for me to do a TasteMaker tag sale where I could collect some of my favorite vintage and antique items from my home and put them up for sale on the site. I agreed under one condition: if we could donate the proceeds to my favorite charity, Baby Buggy.

Baby Buggy, in case you aren't familiar, is the wonderful nonprofit founded by Jessica Seinfeld that has the motto "Love, Recycled." It's so appropriate because they accept lightly used baby gear, clothes, and new baby and children essentials to help families in the greatest need. They are a clearinghouse of sorts that works with a network of nonprofits who call Baby Buggy with a wish list of goods they desperately need. And like a fairy godmother, Baby Buggy always comes to the rescue. With the proceeds from this sale, Baby Buggy will be able to buy the most needed essentials to help families in need. In the spirit of Earth Day, selling vintage and antique items is green for Mother Earth since it's reusing what already exists; the sale proceeds will coincidentally help many mothers here on Earth.

In this special CasaSugar post, I'm excited to give you a sneak peek at three items for sale and the unique story behind them. I've traveled the world for work and always found time to visit out-of-the-way antique stores, flea markets, and galleries to search for beautiful things. I hope whoever buys these goodies will cherish them as much as I have over the years.

Indian ArrowHead Collection When I was filming my TV show "Simply Green with Danny Seo" (all episodes on Hulu now), I made a point to visit a small antique store in the sleepy town of Point Pleasent, PN. Down an alley and past a blacksmith shop (of all things!), I found a little antiques store that was going out of business. Rummaging through box after box, I came across a collection of mounted arrowheads, all hand mounted on colorful felt with a hand pounded metal backing in glossy black frames. What I loved about these pieces is that clearly someone had scavenged the woods of Pennsylvania for each arrowhead, cleaned them, and displayed them in a very beautiful and interesting pattern. I also love the pop of color in the background.

Keep reading to learn about two more special items from the sale

Is There a Perfect Place to Raise a Family?

BabyCenter — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:58:30 PDT

Here's a post from our partners at BabyCenter! Every week, we bring you the best parenting and lifestyle stories from the experts at BabyCenter, including this post from Dr. Gwen Dewar about ideal places to live.

Where should I live? I've known this question was coming for a long time, but couldn't do anything about it. I spent the last 18 months fighting my mother's cancer. Now she's gone, our family is irrevocably changed, and I want to find a new place to live.

Part of me wants adventure. I am finally free. But I'm still a mother. My children's well-being comes before anything else.

In an ideal world, I'd live next door to a parenting ally: A like-minded friend or relative who also has young children. The kids would play together. We would help each other in a crisis. We would watch out for each other's kids.

It sounds like utopia to some people. But it should be the norm. For most of human history, families lived in precisely this way.

People lived in small bands or villages. It wasn't perfect. There were personal conflicts and soap operas. But parents weren't isolated, and kids had more autonomy to play and explore.

Now I'm finding it difficult to recreate my own village. In the modern economy, my friends and family are dispersed all over the place. So I'm taking a step back, and thinking first about the locations themselves.

What are the most family-friendly places to live? Like everybody else, I want a place where the cost of living is low, the schools are good, the job market isn't terrible, good health care is available, and the neighborhoods are relatively safe.

I've also got these personal criteria:

I'd like a university town, or at least a place where research is happening and science-minded people can be found.
I want a little rugged natural beauty. If there are no hills or mountains of any kind, I may go bughouse. Ditto for trees. If the winters are cold, there had better be some evergreens, too.
I want some ethnic diversity. It doesn't have to be a dazzling Mecca of international culture, and what really matters most is that people be open-minded. But I'd like there to be more than one important cultural influence in town.
There should be wildlife. Of the non-human variety.
I need a good public library.
There must be places to walk, and I'd like to walk to school without getting hit by a car.
Please let the gods arrange things so that school doesn't start before 8am. At this point, my family would regard an 8:30 starting time as heaven on earth.
I want a natural science museum. A real natural science museum. With dinosaurs. Or at least some extinct mammals.

I know the last demand is iffy. There aren't many museums like that world-wide. But bizarre as it may seem, I pine for a museum. It doesn't have to be next door. I'd probably settle for two hours away. And if there were a really good zoo nearby – or wildlife park – or aquarium - I might be able to make do.

So help me out, please. Does any place fit the bill? Have you struggled with your own criteria? And have you succeeded in finding your own, family-friendly place to live?

More great posts from BabyCenter:
7 Popular Nursery Designs on Pinterest
Remember to Keep Some of Your Non-Mom Friends
10 DIY Spring Home Projects
Is Enjoying Childcare a Woman Thing?
10 Recipes For Cleaning Green

Endurance Athlete Brendan Brazier on How to Fuel an Active Lifestyle the Vegan Way

Fitness Magazine — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 04:23:09 PDT

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Fitness Magazine here on FitSugar!

Ironman triathlete and ultramarathoner Brendan Brazier realized early on in his career that diet would play a big role in his overall performance. "Longer events really level the athletic playing field. It becomes more about training and the speed of recovery than about natural ability," Brazier says. "Nutrition allows you to train harder and recover faster."

The refined white starches he had added to his diet to make up for the carbohydrates he was burning weren't increasing his energy levels as much as he had hoped. After extensive research, Brazier found that about 80 percent of recovery is linked to good nutrition. "Eating more doesn't always mean more energy. You can be overfed while being undernourished," he says.

Brazier eased into a whole food-based, vegan diet heavy on healthy whole grains (amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat), plant proteins (hemp, pea, rice), and dark leafy greens. Besides increasing his rate of recovery, he discovered that this eating plan of frequent, small meals helped him be more productive and sleep better.

"Look at Google. They were trying to decrease the amount of sick days their staff members were taking, so they put in cafés with healthy food. Since everything was free, employees would graze throughout the day. There was no midafternoon crash, and many people were more productive and took fewer sick days," Brazier explains.

Today, Brazier enjoys fitness recreationally and advises professional athletes about nutrition (Montell Owens, a Jacksonville Jaguar Pro Bowler, and Simon Whitfield, an Olympic triathlete, among others). He guest-lectures at Cornell University, has written three books, most recently Thrive Foods, and just launched Thrive Foods Direct meal-delivery service.

We couldn't wait for the meals to hit our doorstep, so we asked Brendan to share one of his favorite recipes. Keep reading to learn how to make his superpowered pizza.

More from Fitness Magazine:

How to Rewind Your Health History

Go Green! Springy Superfoods to Add to Your Diet

Reboot Your Metabolism

Source: brendanbrazier.com

How to Avoid New Mom Comparisons

BabyCenter — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:00:57 PST

We're excited to share this post from our partners at BabyCenter! Every week, we will be bringing you the best parenting and lifestyle stories from the experts at BabyCenter, including this post from Evonne Lack about avoiding the dangerous trap of competitive parenting.

The comparison game is one new moms know well. Even when we try to avoid the "does your baby do this yet?" questions, it's pretty impossible not to notice when, say, a friend's 5-week-old is smiling and yours isn't. As mom Heather Cianciolo says, "Doesn't every mother compare her kids?"

Blame it on our survival instincts, says Kathy Seal, coauthor of Pressured Parents, Stressed-out Kids: Dealing With Competition While Raising a Successful Child.

"We're hardwired to push our kids to compete. After all, our ancestors' children had to be strong enough to get that last piece of meat or outrun that dangerous animal," Seal says. "It's also natural to want our kids to acquire skills, so we compare for reassurance."

Normal as it is, comparing can be a recipe for stress. It can also prevent us from fully appreciating what our kids are accomplishing. Here are some common comparison traps - and how to sidestep them.

Related: Developmental Milestones

Milestone & Developmental Comparisons
Babies vary widely when it comes to hitting milestones like sitting up, crawling, and walking, which makes this comparison trap a particularly easy one to fall into.

"I remember sitting in music class, watching a 10-month-old demonstrate physical milestones that my 19-month-old was just getting around to. It was hard," says Cianciolo.

As moms, we're encouraged to watch for any development problems or delays and to get help right away with anything we notice. So it's no wonder we're constantly wondering what's normal and what's not.

Sidestep the trap: Research shows that as long as your child is reaching milestones within the normal range, how quickly he reaches them has no bearing on his later skills.

So if your 18-month-old says only one or two words compared to your same-age nephew's dozen, it doesn't mean your child won't eventually gab your ears off.

"Milestone development has very little to do with a child's future potential, so I encourage parents not to worry if their children are late bloomers or seem to be at the outer limits of normal," says Darshak Sanghavi, a pediatrician who's also an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and author of A Map of the Child: A Pediatrician's Tour of the Body. "It's tempting to think that what a child does when he's young is going to control his destiny, but everyday experiences don't bear this out. We can't determine a child's destiny based on what month they started walking," Sanghavi says. Enjoying your child's current skills and tricks can help ground you in the present and prevent you from fretting about the future.

"It's hard to hear my 15-month-old niece saying more than my 2-year-old daughter. But it helps to focus on the special things my daughter does - like when we get ready to read, she gets the blanket and pillow and sets it all up, which really makes my heart melt," says Kim Lybrand.

Finally, remind yourself that while we can certainly help our children learn new things, we can't force them to reach milestones before they're ready. When we attribute our kids' development to our superior parenting skills, it can come back to bite us.

"When others noticed how well my son got around, I felt like we must have done something great to facilitate his excellent gross motor skills," remembers Jennifer Parker. "But then I'd hear other children speak so clearly, while my son wasn't yet talking at all, and I'd feel like such a bad mom."

More on no-competition motherhood after the break.

Check Out the Top Contenders For Best Cookbook of the Year

Susannah Chen — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:30:54 PST

Thousands of cookbooks were published in the last year, but which ones are really worth buying? The International Association of Culinary Professionals, or IACP, tackled the question as it announced its cookbook award finalists for 2012 today.

Among them: plenty of cookbooks from top restaurant chefs, like Jean-Georges Vongerichten, John Besh, and Andrew Carmellini, as well as new books from reputed publications such as Fine Cooking and Cook's Illustrated.

Cookbook winners will be announced on April 2 in an award ceremony hosted by Mo Rocca, where the honor of best cookbook of 2012 will also be announced. To see the entire list of award winners, keep reading.

How to Throw a Moneyball-Themed Oscar Party

Shannon Vestal — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:30:21 PST

It may not be baseball season quite yet, but you can get that feeling if you throw an Oscar viewing party and let best picture nominee Moneyball be your inspiration. The film might even make for a better theme than Midnight in Paris or The Artist, depending on your crowd. Here's how to score a home run at your Oscar gathering (and don't forget to fill out a ballot for a chance to win an iPad.)

How to decorate: Bring out baseballs, bats, gloves, and any other sports memorabilia you may have. String up streamers in green and yellow (the Oakland A's colors), and nod to the movie's financial theme by decorating with fake dollar bills. If you really want to tie in the film, get a life-size Brad Pitt cutout (which wouldn't be a bad thing to have around, anyway).
How to dress: Wear the shirt of your baseball team of choice, but to really mirror the film, rock Oakland A's gear, or at least their colors.
What to serve: Traditional ballpark fare like hot dogs, beer, cotton candy, and peanuts in the shell, and if you're feeling ambitious, here are some dressed-up ideas for baseball snack favorites. Bake cookies or cake pops and frost them to look like baseballs.

Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures