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Song of the Day: Feist, "My Man My Moon"

BuzzSugar — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 08:05:28 -0800

Leslie Feist, better known simply as Feist could easily be the next Norah Jones or a quirky indie darling along the lines of Cat Power or Joanna Newsom. Though the Calgary singer has played with weirdo electroclash artist Peaches and the more experimental Broken Social Scene, her lovely ballads are lush and catchy with a comforting DIY feel. This new track "My Man My Moon," from her next album, The Reminder, due May 1, is no exception. To listen, read more

Thanks to I Guess I'm Floating for posting the track.

Vampire Diaries "History Repeating": The Good, The Bad and The Bloody

BuzzSugar — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:30:00 -0800

Dear The Vampire Diaries, I see your master plan now: it's to bring it every week now. Please continue to do so. Moving on, this week we learned more about Bonnie and her family ties, revealed Damon's master plan, and met the new mysterious, history teacher.

But that's not even half of the amazing things that went down, so to see the good, the bad, and the bloody from this week's episode, just read more.

The Good

Bonnie's talisman/necklace is bringing her nightmares and visions of her ancestor Emily, who we learn was definitely Katherine's handmaiden back in the day. Her appearances are so creepy, but I was kind of digging that the scares were coming from a non-vampire source.
Damon and Stefan's interactions this week are brilliant. The role reversal, where Stefan takes on Damon's persona and Damon mocks Stefan in kind, are priceless. There even seems to be some genuinely affectionate times between the brothers, but was it just Damon's vulnerability/lack of strength due to avoiding human blood?
New characters for this show have tended to be pretty intriguing, and new teacher Alaric Saltzman is no exception. The dreamy Alaric, played by Legally Blonde's Matt Davis, has a shady past (dead wife who was almost certainly murdered) and every sign points to him being a vampire: the sun-protecting ring, the lingering exchange of Jenna not inviting him in. It's almost too obvious. If he is a vamp and not some other supernatural being, then what role does he play? I'm sure he must know the Salvatores.
Gratification! In one episode, we get two mysteries solved: why Damon came back to Mystic Falls and what's up with Emily and her necklace. The master plan - and Damon's reason for return - is Katherine. Specifically, to rouse her from the spell that left her trapped but unharmed (well, relatively unharmed, considering she was already dead) underneath the church 100 plus years ago. It's news to Stefan that Katherine didn't perish in the fire, but that's not the only revelation about her; the boys trade barbs about their last encounters with their shared first love, and they both end up wounded. I think Stefan is lying when he insists that Katherine compelled the brothers into loving her and that it wasn't real; why else would he have come out of hiding to pursue Elena?
One seed-planting I appreciated: The Gilbert family history. You know Jeremy's on the verge of discovering something big. I have my theories.

The Bad

Right about now I feel the need to introduce something I'd like to call Twilight Corner. It'll be where I bring up any glaring similarities The Vampire Diaries has to that other vampire story. This week, it's Stefan leaving Elena, telling her it's for the best. I smirked early on, when Stefan tells Elena that he's backing off from school, that it's the right thing to do; but I pretty much spit my water out at the end of the episode when Stefan tells Elena he's leaving to protect her while they're in the woods. Shades of New Moon! Generally, the show has distinguished itself from Twilight but that's waaay too close for comfort.

The Bloody

Damon swears off drinking human blood in a demonstration of goodwill to Stefan after killing Lexie last week. My my. Damon, showing repentance? What is this crazy fake world coming to? However, he doesn't maintain his new diet for long: he takes a big bite out of a possessed Bonnie after she, as Emily, destroys the amulet and Katherine over the Fells Church ruins.
OK, let's talk past bloody: We got more of the story of the history of Mystic Falls, including what sounds like an epic, ongoing battle between vampires and humans. It was no accident that Katherine was in that church, having been rounded up by the townspeople to be killed. And she wasn't alone; Emily sealed up the whole church, full of other vampires, who potentially could have been freed upon the town this week. Stefan accuses Damon of not wanting to free Katherine out of love, but revenge, rather; he nearly introduces an army of angry, ancient vampires on the ancestors of the people who exterminated them. Personally I think it was a little bit of both for Damon - love and revenge. He almost has his soul mate and a group of allies back in his life.
I'm counting Damon's broken heart as a casualty this week, as cheesy as that sounds. I just can't ignore how wrecked his face looks at the end of the episode. We went from seeing how inhumane Damon is just last week, to being confronted by an emotional man who faces a final loss of love. Ian Somerhalder, you're rocking it.

What did you think of "History Repeating"? Are you disappointed at all that Katherine didn't rise from the grave tonight, along with a crew of her nearest and bloodthirstiest? Do you even believe she's totally gone? And what about Jenna's situation - are both Logan and Alaric out to suck her blood? For more chatting beyond this week, join the Hooked on Vampire Diaries group in the Buzz Community!

Photos courtesy of The CW

Rob, Kristen, and Taylor Are This Week's Entertainment

BuzzSugar — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:56:22 -0800

Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner have been posing for photo ops all over town - check out Pop's favorite promo tour moments - and it wouldn't be complete without an interview with Entertainment Weekly. In the cute interview, the costars quip about everything from Rob's attachment to his signature hair to Kristen's confession that she'd like to quit smoking to Taylor's obsession with hitting the gym for New Moon. There're also tidbits about Rob and Kristen's off-screen relationship and how Robert handles fandom. They're clearly a tight-knight trio, so check out the highlights below. If you can't get enough Twilight, keep the convos going in the Twilight Saga community group, and be sure to check back next week for my own interview with Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz!

Robert Pattinson on his hair in Eclipse: I swear to you I’ve never experienced anything like this. It's every single day. In Twilight, they wanted me to have extensions down to my hips.
Kristen Stewart: He's a liar. He doesn't remember. He's remembering how they made him feel, but they were just, like, down to here [pointing to her shoulders].
Pattinson: So I told them, "Look, that's just not going to happen." I said, "It looks like this already – I'll come to set like this." I sound so stupid, but in a lot of ways the hair is 75 percent of my performance, so in the second one I said, "Listen, I need to tone down the hair. Let's make it a little more real, a little bit more . . . Method.” [Laughs] And then in the third one, I'm doing fight scenes and there's a strand going down my forehead and they're like, "We need to do it again because no one will recognize you! No one will know who it is!" I'm like, really, is my face that generic?
Stewart: They want proof that you're doing your own stunts, man!
Pattinson: I have to look like the poster at all times. Just in case they want to use any clip for the trailer. Any clip at all! There were about five people in different departments who, because of my forelock, ended up in tears.

For tons of more quotes, just read more.

EW: How are you all coping with living in a fishbowl?
Pattinson: It really depends on the mood. When I met you last year [before Twilight came out], I was doing interviews very sporadically and I never got recognized. Now it's like anywhere I go there's immediate recognition. So there's more of a responsibility . . .
Stewart: I don't mind working every day. It's just, suddenly, I have this other role. And that's really disappointing. All I'd like to do is go outside with a book and figure out what to do with the day. And if I can't do that, then I'm just going to sit in my hotel room on my balcony and chain smoke. [Pauses] I'm going to stop smoking. I'm not such a good smoker, anyway. It's not in my bones. I'm gonna drop it.
Pattinson: The three of us have been working for two years [straight]. It does feel like your day has a shape just as soon as you wake up. I just forget what it's like when you're free.
EW: Taylor, you're the only one who almost lost a shot at the sequels. Do you have a different relationship with fame because you had to fight for your job?
Lautner: No, I kept my eye on the prize 100 percent of the time. I was motivated. I wasn't even thinking about anything else.
Stewart: Thank God you got the job. I wouldn't have wanted to deal with you if you didn’t. After all those months of working out!
Lautner: I just wanted to focus on what I could control, and I worked really hard.
EW: You mean in the gym? Because I see your abs everywhere these days.
Lautner: Yeah, the gym was a major part, but I really studied the books and the character, too. And it all turned out good.
EW: Kristen, it must be nice to watch the guys' appearances get obsessed over for a change.
Stewart: Seriously, it's a trip to sit back and look at the sexual objectification of these dudes. I've never been asked to do any of this stuff.
EW: You guys are lucky. You clearly all dig each other.
Lautner: The amount of time we have to spend with each other – if I didn't like these two, it would be exhausting.
EW: Rob, you made Remember Me this summer, between sequels. Was that the set in New York, where you were knocked into a cab by hordes of fans?
Pattinson: That was completely made up. I was walking across the street, and there was one cab going about one mile an hour and it nudged my leg. The story ended up being how I got hit by a cab because of a mob of screaming fans, [but] it was 4 o'clock in the morning and there was one person there – a paparazzi. . . . And then there was another time – apparently they said on the news that I had a drug overdose. The security guy saw it on TV, and I wasn't in my room, and he was like, "Uh-oh!" It's just so weird. I wake up and my room is too messy to order room service, and so I end up eating a pack of M&M’s for breakfast – and it takes me about five hours to find it. That's my first five hours of the day. [Laughing] And then you see the news and think, "Who cares if he had a drug overdose? It would probably make him more interesting!"
EW: Kristen and Rob, why do you think people are so obsessed with the state of your off-screen relationship?
Pattinson: Good question. That's a little thing I have to think about every day.
Stewart: Maybe it's just my personality, but I'm never going to answer it. I probably would've answered it if people hadn't made such a big deal about it. But I'm not going to give the fiending an answer. I know that people are really funny about "Well, you chose to be an actor, why don’t you just f---ing give your whole life away? Can I have your firstborn child?"
EW: You don’t think just saying, for example, "Listen, we dated for a few months, it was weird, we're better off as friends" would end the speculation?
Pattinson: No way.
Stewart: People are deeply judgmental and I'm not strong enough. I would love to be like, "I don't care what anybody thinks." But I'm a very private person. And think about every hypothetical answer: "Okay, we are. We aren't. I’m a lesbian." I've thought about this a lot. There's no answer that's not going to tip you one way or the other. I'm just trying to keep something. If people started asking me if I was dating Taylor, I'd be like, "F--- off." I would answer the exact same way."

Buzz In: What Biopics Have You Enjoyed?

BuzzSugar — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:30:31 -0700

The reviews for Amelia have been kind of dismal, including my own, quieting the Oscar buzz that had surrounded it before it was released. It's not a strange situation for a biopic to be in - many movies about people's lives are so ambitious that sometimes they end up boring and overlong.

The award-baiting flicks can also be very entertaining - Walk the Line and Amadeus number among my favorites because they're enjoyable and compelling. I also love those about powerful icons (Malcolm X), and sometimes, the more obscure the cultural icon, the better (Man on the Moon, Searching for Bobby Fischer).

And of course, there are ones I've sat through that have been a bit boring, despite their accolades (cough, Ray, cough) - or missed the mark, like the Bob Dylan-based disappointment I'm Not There.

But there are still plenty of great biopics that have come out of Hollywood - which ones have you liked?

Buzz Battle: Are Spoilers Ruining New Moon?

BuzzSugar — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:30:53 -0700

With exactly one month to go until the much-anticipated (to say the very least) premiere of New Moon, the folks at Summit are still getting the Twi-hards' tongues wagging with a new clip aired last night and this latest batch of stills from the movie. But has too much of the movie been revealed - both for those who never read the book and for those who did but still want to be surprised by the visual interpretation?

In today's Buzz Battle, editors S and B square off about whether or not the spoilers are already ruining the yet-to-be released movie.

Editor B: For my opening remarks, I will admit that I'm enjoying all the new footage. I'm always on the hunt for a hot new RPattz photo for my desktop background, and as someone who didn't know much about the Twilight saga this time last year, I've become a full-fledged fan. But like any TV or movie spoilers, the fun of the anticipation is never worth it if expectations are too high. I don't want to walk out of the theater saying, "Man, that was a boring and anticlimactic 2 hours, but the 12 months of hype leading up to it sure was exciting."

To see Editor S's retort and additional arguments, plus more photos just read more.

Editor S: I read the book New Moon over a year ago, so nothing can be spoiled for me. In fact, I'm kind of inspired to re-read the book since I don't remember everything I'm seeing in these new photos. My point is that the audience of New Moon will largely be made up of readers who are looking for a loyal scene-by-scene mirror of the book, so the clips are exciting reminders of what happened in those pages. And if you haven't read the book? A) It's not a spoiler if it's in the book, and B) There are still 30 days to read up.
Editor B: Back at Comic-Con, I felt like it was a very special privilege to see the shirtless Edward scene in all its glory, and I totally didn't expect that part to make it to the movie's preview. But there it was: the climax of the book played out in the trailer. I understand that the folks at Summit are catering to pre-ordained fans of the series, but couldn't they have kept the most intense scene of the movie a secret for the select few who don't know exactly what's going to happen? Part of the fun of the books is not knowing how or why Edward and Bella are reunited.
Editor S: In this age of the Internet and blogging, there's no way to avoid anything that gets leaked. That said, for those who haven't read the books, it's a brilliant ploy to show Robert Pattinson shirtless. I'll say it again: Robert. Pattinson. Shirtless.
Editor B closing argument: While I don't deny that the spoilers are helping to generate excitement and buzz, I fear that I'm being set up for disappointment. I just hope that New Moon has some quality entertainment to fill the scenes we've already seen - because otherwise we're all just victims of a publicity stunt.
Editor S closing argument: The book version of New Moon is 563 pages. That's a lot of ground to cover, and we have plenty left to still see. Worst case scenario? Everything's out there in the open right now. You know you'll still be sitting next to me opening night, Editor B, your skittles and popcorn in hand, a big fat smile on your face.

So whose side are you on? Are you loving the footage or has too much been revealed? To talk about the film even more, head over to the Twilight Movies group in the Buzz Community.

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