With Steve Carell exiting The Office before season’s end, the producers promised that viewers could expect the introduction of new characters in the wake of Michael Scott’s departure. Following Ricky Gervais’ quick cameo this week, funnyman Will Ferrell will reunite with his Anchorman co-star later this season for a lengthier four-episode arc. According to Deadline, Ferrell “will play a branch manager who comes from the home office and is just as inappropriate as Steve Carell’s Michael Scott character.” He will work alongside Scott for three episodes and his character will remain with the Office gang for one additional episode post-Scott’s departure “to help create a bridge” between the old and new (still undisclosed) boss.
The Office’sexecutive producer Paul Lieberstein (who also plays HR rep Toby Flenderson) had this to say about the Ferrell addition: “We found Steve Carell when he was nothing but a movie star and we turned him into a television star. We are proud to continue The Office’s tradition of discovering famous talent, and we hope that once America gets a good look at Will, they’ll see what we see, tremendous raw sexuality.”
Oh, and I just thought of this. If the producers decide to bring David Koechner’s Todd Packer into the mix, we’ll have ourselves an even mightier Anchorman reunion.
Update: Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight Schrute) commented on Ferrell’s Office visit and what’s in store for the show post-Michael Scott; hop after the break for some quotes!
Today the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for this year’s Academy Awards show. Leading the pack is The King’s Speech with 12 nominations, followed by True Grit with 10. In addition for being up for Best Picture, The King’s Speech is also being recognized for its actors (Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter are up for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress, respectively) director (Tom Hooper), and screenwriter (David Seidler). True Grit is also up for Best Picture, Best Director (Joel & Ethan Coen), and Best Adapted Screenplay (the Coens). Actors Jeff Bridges and the young but brilliantly talented Hailee Steinfeld nabbed Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor nods, respectively. 127 Hours, Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, and Winter’s Bone round out the coveted Best Picture category.
Time to talk snubs. First up: Christopher Nolan, the man behind Inception. Though the fantastical mind trip nabbed 8 nods (including Best Picture and Screenplay), Nolan was not recognized for his superb direction. Next: Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) and Mila Kunis (Black Swan) are noticeably absent from the Best Supporting Actor/Actress category. Then there’s the Best Animated Feature category; though Toy Story 3 is locked for the win, Illumination Entertainment’s Despicable Me deserves a spot there amongst TS3 and How to Train Your Dragon. As critically acclaimed as Ben Affleck’s The Town was this past year, the flick only picked up a nod for Best Supporting Actor (Jeremy Renner). And finally there’s Tron: Legacy; it’s one thing not to nominate Daft Punk’s wonderfully electric score, but it’s quite laughable that the Academy did not nominate the movie for Best Visual Effects.
Look after the break to see the full rundown of all 24 award categories. The 83rd Annual Academy Awards, hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway, airs live Sunday February 27 at 8PM on ABC.
Over the weekend Kanye West jumped back onto Twitter and made some surprising and exiting announcements. Whether or not they pan out is up for discussion, but what he exclaimed in caps remains newsworthy nonetheless. He mentioned his collab album with Jay-Z and shouted, “WATCH THE THRONE COMING IN 2 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!” That makes for a March drop date which nicely supports the early spring release date speculation. Next up he shared, “ALL THE LIGHTS VIDEO IN 1 WEEK!!!!!!” This will be the second music video to come out of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy; the “Power” painting dropped in August and the “Monster” video is MIA. And finally he spilled, “I’ll be back this SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!”; he then followed this up with another tweet: “MY NEW ALBUM COMING THIS SUMMER.” Are ‘Ye fans expected to anticipate Watch the Throne to come this March and the Twisted Fantasy followup LP this summer? Hellz yes. My guess is that West created so much content for Dark Fantasy that he has enough to carry over the unreleased tracks (“Mama’s Boyfriend”?) onto an entirely new album, much like Eminem was planning on doing with Relapse 2 before Recovery took hold.
So I was flipping through the channels the other day and was mesmerized by a commercial for a GoPro HD camera. To be more specific, I was not so much attracted to the product being marketed but rather the song playing in the background. After some swift investigation I discovered the song was called “Animus Vox” performed by The Glitch Mob. I found a link to the full song on YouTube (it’s embedded above) and instantly I became a fan of the three-piece electronic group known as The Glitch Mob.
The LA-based group was formed back in 2006 and today consists of Ed Ma (AKA edIT), Justin Boreta (AKA Boreta), and Josh Mayer (AKA Ooah). They’ve been touring around the country carrying along equipment that makes tracks like “Animus Vox” sound so very awesome–laptops (with Ableton Live loaded), MIDI controllers, electronic drums and keyboards. In an interview with Electronic Musician, the band shared their synth-making process. Ma: “A day of songwriting, like from scratch, would generally start with us loading up a basic kick and snare at a tempo that we wanted, and then laying down a very basic kick and snare as the backbone of what the rhythm would be like. And then we’d just play everything in. Synth parts, bass parts.” … “Essentially, all the songs [on new album Drink the Sea] were written to a point where they were almost like demo tapes. The first phase of our album was like a 10-track album that all sounded like it was made in [Apple] GarageBand. And then when we were done with those 10 songs, we’d go back and redesign the songs. And once the redesigning was done, we went back and we mixed the entire album. So kind of in this multistep stage.” Transitioning their sound from live performances to recorded music was an important step in the process. “Almost every melody that you hear on the album has been sampled note for note [for the live show]. That was the only way that we could get the actual sounds of the record to translate live,” shares Ma. “We really tried to reproduce the record, note for note and percussion sound for percussion sound, as close as humanly possible.” The result? Electronic Musician describes Drink the Sea as “mainly [an] instrumental electronic effort that features heavily layered synths, mixed with real bass and guitar, and bolstered by bombastic, cinematic-sounding drums and simple, yet effective melodies.”
There are a ton of electronic groups out there, but The Glitch Mob definitely stands out on its own and is worth a listen; it’s hard not to get hooked to their masterful and sophisticated synths and beats.
Since 2006 they’ve released a number of mixtapes and remixes. Last summer they dropped their first full-length album; Drink the Sea contains 10 tracks, including “Animus Vox.” You can preview the entire album, as well as listen to a bunch of their other releases and download free content, at their official website. While you’re there, be sure to check out their Video section which includes music video remixes and a smattering of live performances. After the break, I’ve posted two of my favorites: an experimental live performance called “Beyond Monday” that features the band using their equipment and the Tron: Legacy trailer infused with “Animus Vox.”
This kid named George Watsky can rap. He’s pretty incredible. This might have turned into a viral hit (it’s currently at 3 million views and counting), but Watsky is no one-hit wonder. He happens to be a professional performer and an extremely talented poet. He was the 2006 Youth Speaks Grand Slam Poetry Champion and was later featured on HBO’s Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. Jump after the break to watch him perform an epic poem about kids who stutter.
META ALERT! This visually splendid music video directed by Mathieu Wothke is unlike any other you’ve seen because it puts you into the director’s head and takes you on a journey through the process of making a music video. In other words, the music video gets put together in the music video. Have you given you a headache yet? Just watch the video and you’ll see what I mean.
Oh, right. The song is “Very Busy People” by The Limousines but in honesty you’re watching for the behind-the-scenes magic, not the music itself. Unless of course this is your cup of tea…
Designer R.D. Silva has created the most bare bones record player you’ve probably ever seen. I mean just look at it. A motor that turns the platter sits in the middle, the pivoting arm and needle hang off to the side, and the built in speaker and controls are housed in small compartment below. Its minimalist design is simply elegant…and I want one.
Rhythm of Light, a psychedelic lamp created by Dutch designer Susanne de Graef, is made up of five concentric aluminum rings with hundreds of multicolored strings attached. These strings, which are threaded throughout the lamp and are spaced slightly apart from one another, move up and down since there’s a counterweight that hangs at the bottom. Says de Graef, “Light is movement, it has its own rhythm. I designed a lamp with its own rhythm. The user decides the rhythm of the lamp by moving the lamp up and down, the layers mingle, the light gets diffused and the layers turn into a game of colours.” The strings represent the properties of light, and the lamp taken as a whole comments on the cyclical rhythm of time. Neat-o. Pictures below, video after the break.
Who could forget that famous scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when Cameron throws a fit and accidentally kicks his father’s Ferrari out the glass garage and into the woods. Well, now you can own Cam’s home for a cool $1.65 million, because it recently hit the market! The Highland Park, Illinois home is located at 370 Beech Street on a one acre lot with 43,560 square feet. The house, designed by famous architects A. James Speyer and David Haid and built in 1953, contains 5,300 square feet of living space including 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, and floor-to-ceiling windows. Interested? Here’s the actual listing. And don’t worry–the garage has been fixed up since the 1986 mishap. You know what’d be really cool? If the same person who won the auctioned Ferrari 250GT Spyder California used in the movie also purchased the home. Check out shots of the interior after the break.
After examining our world’s oceans in The Blue Planet (2001) and the intricacies of nature in Planet Earth (2006), BBC is preparing to unveil its next big documentary that “marvels at mankind’s incredible relationship with nature in the world today.” It’s called Human Planet.
Uniquely in the animal kingdom, humans have managed to adapt and thrive in every environment on Earth. Each episode takes you to the extremes of our planet: the arctic, mountains, oceans, jungles, grasslands, deserts, rivers and even the urban jungle. Here you will meet people who survive by building complex, exciting and often mutually beneficial relationships with their animal neighbours and the hostile elements of the natural world.
The production crew behind the upcoming doc filmed in around 80 locations using state-of-the-art HD cameras. So you can expect the visuals to be stunningly beautiful, but isn’t that the norm for BBC/Discovery documentary series?
Human Planet will air in eight parts. It began broadcasing January 13 on BBC One in the UK and an international release will follow shortly after the series ends there. Watch the trailer for it above, and look after the break for two more sneak peeks.
If you’re a Duke Nukem fan, you’ve been waiting for this news for quite some time. Over a decade long to be exact. Duke Nukem Forever, the sequel to 1996’s Duke Nukem 3D, releases May 3, 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. In addition to revealing the release date, game developer Gearbox Software rolled out this tongue-in-cheek trailer and it includes some radical game footage. The sheer amount of nudity and expletives alone has got me amped for the Duke’s return. The gameplay looks slick, too.
