Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is getting a new crime-fighting partner – President-elect Barack Obama.
In issue No. 583 of “Amazing Spider-Man,” coming out on Wednesday – inauguration day - Obama and Spidey team up to battle long-time villain The Chameleon in a story by writer Zeb Wells and artist Todd Nauck and a special variant cover by Phil Jimenez.
By Ron Bishow
Special to amNewYork
If New Yorkers think the Rangers are tough, they’ve never seen a cowboy get thrown off and then stepped on by an angry animal. But that can all change this weekend when the Professional Bull Riders bring the Built Ford Tough Series Invitational to Madison Square Garden.
How it works
The competition is the elite series of the PBR, featuring 45 of the best bull riders in the world trying to stay on the back of a 2,000-pound bull for eight seconds.
Eight seconds may not sound like a lot, but it’s an eternity on top of a bull — and, if a rider can’t stay on that long, the score doesn’t count.
Bride Wars
2 stars
Directed by Gary Winick
Starring Anne Hathaway, Kate Hudson, Candice Bergen, Kristen Johnston, Bryan Greenberg
Just months after starring in “Rachel Getting Married,” a movie that will probably earn her the first Oscar nomination of her career, Anne Hathaway turns around and stars in “Bride Wars.”
This frilly chick flick is as consequential as a summer beach read, but it’s not as bad as “Norbit,” whose awfulness may, according to experts, have hurt Eddie Murphy’s Oscar chances last year for his role in “Dreamgirls.”
Hathaway and Kate Hudson star as Emma and Liv, two friends who’ve sworn since childhood that they would one day get married at the Plaza Hotel. When they get engaged on the same day, their big days are accidentally scheduled on the same date.
March 24 is Ada Lovelace Day, a blogday devoted to celebrating women in technology. To spread the word, Suw Charman-Anderson is circulating a pledge to "publish a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire but only if 1,000 other people will do the same." Why? In her words:
Undoubtedly it’s a complex issue, but recent research may shed some light: Psychologist Penelope Lockwood discovered that women need to see female role models more than men need to see male ones.
Well, that’s a relatively simple problem to begin to address. If women need female role models, let’s come together to highlight the women in technology that we look up to. Let’s create new role models and make sure that whenever the question “Who are the leading women in tech?” is asked, that we all have a list of candidates on the tips of our tongues.
Thus was born Ada Lovelace Day...
I love it, and The Tangent is on board. As a engineering school drop-out, I can tell you that the science and technology worlds could use some fem-positivism. (Just to be clear, gender issues were not why I dropped out; laziness was.)
Is this really entertainment-related? Well, yes! People in technology, some of them women, created computers; computers begat the internet; internet begat blogs; blogs begat the entertainment that keeps you goofing off at work all day. Ergo: women in tech created the Tangent (sorry, Scott). (Maybe my Ada Lovelace Day piece will be about myself.) (It won't.)
AMC has put the entire run of the '60s television series "The Prisoner" online!
I remember when PBS reran this series in the '80s or early-'90s. I would watch it with my dad, mostly because I was allowed to stay up late to watch it. And then, of course, I would always fall asleep before the episode ended, so my memories of the show are pretty weird. I mean, weirder than the show was meant to be.
Anyway, AMC has the show up in honor of their forthcoming remake, which is scheduled to air later this year. Sir Ian McKellan is blogging about his roll in the remake, if you're interested.
Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick (Getty)
Well, Star magazine is at it again with the Sarah Jessica Parker/Matthew Broderick breakup biz. Last summer, the mag wrote that Broderick was having an affair; now, Parker allegedly visited a midtown real estate broker to find her own apartment.
“They’re essentially living separate lives,” a source tells Star.
But, really, midtown? Over the summer, SJP told us she loves her West Village neighborhood, even though the “Sex and the City” tour bus goes right down her street (she lives a block from “Carrie’s” pad). And we just can’t picture her giving up her West Village townhouse for the Lincoln Tunnel.
Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt earlier this winter (Getty)
Made-by-TV couple Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt aren’t rushing to legalize their Mexico wedding ceremony.
“We’re gonna maybe have a bigger wedding for friends and family, but I’m not really sure,” Montag told us before hosting a party at Christian Audigier The Nightclub in Las Vegas during the holidays. “We’re just kind of taking it as it is. We had our
elopement and to me that counts. And to me that means a lot.”
When asked for a timeline, Pratt said, “One day, [there’s] no rush. In my world, we’re married.”
But when/if the “Hills” duo does tie the knot in the U.S., it would “definitely” be televised for the “fans and haters,” Pratt said.
Here are some extra questions and answers with Henry Alford, author of "How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People (While They Are Still On Earth)." For the full story, click here.
Did your mom read the book?
My mom read it. She likes it. She very modestly wonders what the hell she’s doing in a book about wise people. But, maybe that’s like Socrates, who’s the most famous example of wisdom studies and he ran around Athens talking to supposedly wise people and determined that most people think they’re wise and they’re not. But Socrates didn’t think he was wise and therefore paradoxically, was. So maybe my mother was the mini Socrates of North Carolina.
(Photo by RJ Mickelson)
For more with Henry Alford, click here.
Henry Alford is at Barnes & Noble Upper West Side on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Wisdom is a nebulous term.
“There are nine million cajillion definitions,” says Henry Alford, author of “How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People (While They Are Still on This Earth).” ”I think William James nailed it when he said, ‘Wisdom is knowing what to overlook.’ That gets as close to it. It’s such a big squishy topic that it’s really hard to nail it down into a succinct definition. It’s like saying, ‘What is beauty? What is truth?’”
But that didn’t stop Alford, 47, from his search. For his book, he spoke with more than 200 seniors in an attempt to discern wisdom, including the famous - Edward Albee, Doris "Granny D." Haddock – and regular people, including his mother and stepfather, who become major players in the book.
Continue reading "Henry Alford: Nailing down an old age idea" »
Dear Scott,
Now we don't have to find a drummer for our band. This beat maker thingy is awesome. Here's a screenshot of something I cooked up.
From Emily
(Via EyeBeam who points out it's a Java script and therefore playable on your iPhone.)
I'm sure you've noticed that I have something of an obsession with the show "Lost." But I'm not the only one. And, guys, don't worry. For those of you who the wait gets ever more tedious the closer we get to Jan. 21, the Paley Center is here. They recently held a poll to determine the best two episodes and are planning to screen them Jan. 17: 'Lost' Saturday.
At this point, reservations are sold out, but there may be stand-by tickets available.
Oh, you want to know the poll's winners? "Through The Looking Glass" and "Walkabout." (The entire breakdown of the results is here.)
"Looking Glass" is one of my favorites, too, if only for the part where Sayid breaks that dude's neck with his hands behind his back, literally.
Oh, and the Charlie part is good, too.
The Southern Mothers offer up an R&B ode to everyone's favorite trashy teen drama. The lyrics are hysterically crass, and show the writers' deep familiarity with the show, dropping mentions to the Ostroff Center, gambling with Dorota (as collateral, not as a partner), Vitamin Water parties and dating secret Dukes. You can find the annotated lyrics here (<--Though it was Blair that dated the duke, not Serena, as noted on this site) .
"The Real World: Brooklyn" cast, from left to right, Devyn (holding dog Brooklyn), Sarah, Chet, Ryan, Baya, Katelyn, Scott and J.D. (RJ Mickelson/amNY)
After months of outrage among Brooklyn bars, speculation and talk, "The Real World: Brooklyn" is finally premiering (Wednesday at 10 p.m. on MTV).
amNewYork recently talked to the eight castmembers and took a tour of the giant Red Hook loft the roommates shared (and got completely lost in the relatively isolated neighborhood where it stands).
Click here to read a Q&A with the executive producer about why MTV chose Brooklyn.
Westsider Books is your classic over-stuffed used bookshop (Ryan Thatcher)
From 1890 through to the 1960s, the area along and surrounding Fourth Avenue between Union Square and Astor Place was known as Book Row and was littered with countless used bookstores, large and small, filled with millions of secondhand tomes.
Much like any other classic treasure of New York City, Book Row fell to the wayside, with big box bookstores reigning supreme, though The Strand, opened in 1927, is still standing as a last vestige of a bygone time in it’s Broadway and 12th St. location it’s inhabited since the late 1950s.
Even though Book Row can only be found in the history books, New York City still has its share of used bookstores. Here’s a look at a few of the second-hand shops around Manhattan.
(Check out some of the used book store treasures we found here.)
Patrick Swayze with Barbara Walters at his California ranch on Dec. 6. (AP)
Actor Patrick Swayze reveals details about his year from “hell” Wednesday night on “20/20,” breaking his silence about his battle with pancreatic cancer.
“There’s a lot of fear here,” Swayze, 56, tells Barbara Walters in his first interview since his diagnosis, which was excerpted Tuesday on ABCNews.com. “There’s a lot of stuff going on. Yeah, I’m scared. Yeah, I’m angry. Yeah, I’m [asking], ‘Why me?’”
The “Dirty Dancing” actor’s sickness didn’t stop him from taking on a role while undergoing chemotherapy — as an FBI agent on A&E’s “The Beast,” which premieres Jan. 15.
(Read our profile of Manhattan's used bookstores here.)
There are a lot of great deals to be found at used bookstores. Here’s a look at what I found spending less than $10 at each establishment. And I didn’t buy all of these, so keep an eye out.
• Book Off: “Wrigleyville” by Peter Golenbock ($8.50, SC) and “The Ruins” by Scott Smith ($1, SC): A nice look a the lovable losers from Chicago’s North side just in time for the upcoming baseball season, along with a great thriller from the author of “A Simple Plan.”
• Westsider: “Portnoy’s Complaint” by Philip Roth ($4, SC), “The Right to an Answer” by Anthony Burgess ($3, SC) and “Mickey Mouse: The First 50 Years” ($3, booklet): Roth’s classic is a must read and I’d never heard of that Burgess novel, so that was a nice fine. The Mickey Mouse booklet was filled with some interesting old images and is certainly the kind of think you’d never find at a Barnes & Noble.
• Housing Works: “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales” By Oliver Sacks ($6, HC), “Just So Stories” by Rudyard Kipling ($2, SC), “Trinity” by Leon Uris ($1, HC) and “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald ($1, SC): Finding Sacks’ book, in hard cover, for that price is a steal, as are the rest of these. The Uris book is a huge, thick vintage edition that will make you look smarter just by having in on your bookshelf.
• East Village: “A Complete Lowlife” By Ed Brubaker ($9, SC): Before becoming the writer who would killed Captain America, Brubaker was the writer/artist of this now out-of-print graphic novel of semi-autobiographical tales, which was a great deal at this price.
Local comedian and Human Giant Aziz Ansari guest stars on "Scrubs" tonight. You can see a preview of him here.
He's not someone I actually know, but I've been following his career since pretty early on (I have been in the same room with him once or twice; that room was the UCB Theatre) and so it's pretty cool to see him on network TV. Go Aziz!
I found these via my new favorite website Zoomdoggle.
• Armchair Logic has a logic test up. I have an additional question for you:
Given:
a) I got 100%
b) Vulcans are completely logical.
Can we conclude, therefore: I am Mr. Spock?
That seems about right.
• This puzzle is super fun.
OK, so I know it's not too far removed from syndicated schlock like "Hercules" and "Xena," but the new original syndicated show "Legend of the Seeker," which airs on WPIX on Saturdays at 9 p.m. (with the previous week's episode typically shown at 8 p.m.) is a fun time.
Sure the acting is over-the-top and kind of B rated, but there's something really endearing about that in a fantasy show of this caliber. It shouldn't surprise that Sam Raimi, the director of some other fun fantasy flicks like "Evil Dead" and "Spider-Man" has an executive producer credit.
"Legend of the Seeker" is based on Terry Goodkind's long running fantasy novels and since I've never read them, I can't personally comment on whether the show is close to them. But from what I've read on message boards on hulu.com, where the show is available (ideal because the time slot is not conducive with having a social life), it isn't. Who cares though?
The show will have a new episode every Saturday in January and if you're looking for something fun and mindless to watch that'll fill that geeky desire to watch a fantasy show, "Legend of the Seeker" is a good option.
This story from Comedy Central's Insider blog is heartwarming:
Poor Will Pike was vacationing in India with his girlfriend, but had to miss Izzard's show in London last month while recuperating [from injuries sustained trying to escape terrorists during November's Mumbai attacks]. Pike's dad asked the comedian if he could send a note and received a personal hospital visit and concert instead.
Izzard performed his entire 90-minute set for Pike!
The coolest part: "Izzard's spokesperson declared that the star's v
