Take a peek at this animation short as it takes you on a sleek adventure through a noirish world of smooth music and an elusive action hero. Animator and director Etop Akpabio borrows style from comic strips and spy films and adds an impressive soundtrack.
Ok ok, so you have to sit through the commercial in the beginning, but hey it’s the one with Carlton dancing like Michael Jackson!
Don’t let the name fool you, this independent short is less about romance and more about urban gentrification. Two people ruminate over a recent stabbing in one of those typical conversations where a local tries to scare a newbie with tales of the neighborhoods criminal past, complete with references to rap songs and mayhem in a third world country.
Written and directed by Neil Drumming and starring Gbenga Akinnagbe and Sofia Regan, Romantic was produced on a shoe-string budget. Shot on HD with a Canon HV30 in a studio, the short makes use of some creative production by subbing actual urban streets for a green screen backdrop and some photography of stereotpical Brooklyn shots -brownstones, graffiti, bodegas, and of course a liquor store.
Justin Timberlake almost pulled a Sean Penn on a photographer outside of a West Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
Check out the smirk on Timberlake’s face as the paparazzo gets up in his grill and the two men face off while hotel employees look on (in amusement).
Blindie loves JT but we’re a little worried he may not be able to hold his own in a street smackdown and fear he would probably wind up crying a river.
Stick to singing and dancing JT, and oh yeah acting! The triple threat just received his first acting Emmy nomination, for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, and his second Creative Arts Emmy nomination for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for his collaboration with Andy Samberg with the song “Motherlover.” Timberlake and Samberg won a Creative Emmy in 2007 for the SNL short “D-ck in a Box.”
President Obama swatted and killed a fly during an interview with CNBC correspondent John Harwood on Tuesday and quickly became an internet sensation because of his skillful hand-eye coordination and quick reflexes.
The media jumped all over Obama’s fly smackdown and compared him to Karate Kid‘s Mr. Miyagi and even called him “Lord of the Flies.”
PETA however, was not a fan of Obama’s smackdown and according to TMZ they had this to say about the President, “He isn’t the Buddha, he’s a human being and human beings have a long way to go before they think before they act.”
Blindie’s fave model Chanel Iman cozied up to Kanye West during the MEN.STYLE.COM Women of Fashion event in New York on Wednesday and even shared some fries with the ego-tastic singer.
The 3rd annual fashion bash held at the New York Palace Hotel’s Palace Gate celebrated 25 of the fashion industry’s most glamorous ladies, including Rachel Roy, Chloë Sevigny and Berrin Noorata, selected by a panel of equally stylish men: André Benjamin, Paul Sevigny and Sean Avery.
Even though Blindie already covered the reunion of America’s most beloved black family, pre-Obama era, there can never be enough said about the Huxtables. Before Barack and Michelle came on the scene, they were our black royalty… despite being fictional. I know we were all supposed to feel all warm and fuzzy seeing the Huxtable clan with Matt Lauer during breakfast, but the whole thing just made me wish that maybe it’s time to stop carrying a torch for The Cosby Show and put some TV shows on the air in THIS CENTURY that feature people of color that are just as progressive. After all, the show debuted 25 years ago! It’s a shame there hasn’t been a show to fill the Cosby gap and clearly the networks aren’t looking either because they gave us My Wife and Kids, The Bernie Mac Show and Girlfriends. Trust us, nobody will be talking about those shows 25 years from now. If more people watched, we might be talking about The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. C’mon people!
Progress: 100 steps backward. Sadly, boasting about the progressiveness of The Cosby Show for 25 years has reversed all the advancement and social change the show caused in its original eight-year run.
50 Cent and Bette Midler BFFing
It’s official hip-hop is the safest most family-friendly mainstream music in America. Curtis Jackson, AKA 50 Cent, teamed up with Bette Midler for a second year in a row to help fix a park. What, you were expecting a duet? Maybe Mr. Cent was listening to “Wind Beneath My Wings” when he was recuperating from those 9 gunshot wounds. Hopefully the unlikely besties will collaborate musically!
Progress: 97 steps forward.
Beyonce releases new video “Ego”
Does Beyonce’s ego prevent her from making another video concept? People like to say that Woody Allen makes the same film over and over again so why does Bey get a pass? I’m not denying her talent (her musical talent), but why are all of her videos essentially rehashes of the same Bob Fosse concept? Boh-ring! Still, watching her dance with two women who aren’t Destiny’s Child always amuses me.
Lily (Kelly Rutherford) proves the old adage “like mother, like daughter” holds true as she finds herself becoming just as controlling and manipulating as Cece just to avoid scandal and protect her family name while Serena (Blake Lively) and Blair (Leighton Meester) learn GFs come before BFs. And hello, flashback city as creator Josh Schwartz unveils the Gossip Girl spin-off
Here are Blindie’s Top 10 moments from Gossip Girl‘s “Valley Girl” episode:
The zingers were flying all night as Serena zaps her mom with, “I would rather give my kids up for adoption than end up like you. Oh wait, you did that.” And Lily sums up Cece saying, “my mother doesn’t need forgiveness, she needs electro-schock therapy.”
We’re so over the Dove Go Fresh commercials! Why is the only non-white girl featured in the series a broke filmmaker from Brooklyn? What, they couldn’t find any privileged Upper East Side ethnic girls?
We’re loving Grandma Cece’s fondness for gin! “May I have a gin and tonic, no tonic,” she orders in an 80s flashback. And now her daughter Lily accuses her of “rushing back to that bottle of gin she has hidden under the sink.”
How fitting for 80s dreamboat Andrew McCarthy to play Lily’s dad Rick. But wait, wasn’t McCarthy a preppy teenager wooing Jenny in Pretty in Pink in the mid-eigthies, not a big time music exec shirking his parental duties.
We must have the music from the Gossip Girl flashback soundtrack: “Mirror in the Bathroom,” by English Beat; “Dancing with myself” by Billy Idol; “I Melt With You” by Modern English; “Blue Monday” by New Order; “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats.
No Doubt posing as a punk band and Gwen Stefani looking so young and hot, like she doesn’t have two kids and a hubby at home.
Loving how the lure of a tiara convinces Blair that prom queens aren’t just for “suburban schools and the lame teen comedies that are set at them.” And Mother-Chucker Bass making sure that Blair gets the crown and all her scrapbook prom dreams come true -right down to the dress!
Now that Blair has achieved her ultimate high school dream of going to prom with Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), she realizes she’s over him.
When is Lily’s sister going to resurface in the present day? She’d probably bring more drama than Georgina!
Did the final flashback scene on the L.A. bus remind anyone else of Pat Benator’s “Love is a Battlefield”
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