Thai coup derails Cage September 23, 2006
Posted by grhomeboy in Movies.comments closed
Thailand’s military coup this week interrupted filming of Nicolas Cage’s new movie, an action thriller being shot in Bangkok, a news report said yesterday.
The Chinese news Web site Sina.com said Cage had prepared a private jet to leave the country on short notice.
Hong Kong-born twin brothers Danny and Oxide Pang are remaking their 1999 film, “Bangkok Dangerous,” Sina.com said.
When news of the coup on Tuesday night reached the crew, Cage was sent back to his hotel. Crew members remained on the set to keep an eye on prop guns until Cage persuaded the producer to send everyone home, according to the report.
The directors couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Sina.com said filming was scheduled to be completed next month, but may be delayed by the coup, which saw the military overthrow of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Aiming at war criminals September 23, 2006
Posted by grhomeboy in Movies.comments closed
Richard Gere said he hopes his new film, “Spring Break in Bosnia,” will raise questions about why those wanted for the Balkans’ worst wartime atrocities remain at large.
The movie, directed by Richard Shepard, is being shot in Bosnia and Croatia. It tells the story of a pair of journalists (Gere and Terrence Howard) searching for a war crimes suspect. Although fictional, the character bears a close resemblance to one of the Balkans’ last top suspects, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.
Shepard won’t reveal who will play the role of the hunted war criminal, a character he said is meant to symbolize all war criminals at large throughout the world.
Karadzic and his wartime military chief, Gen. Ratko Mladic, have been on the run since their indictments by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at the end of Bosnia’s devastating civil war more than a decade ago.
“We literally talk about this in the film. It’s a question that is asked a lot: ‘Why aren’t these guys found?’ ” Gere, 57, told reporters in Sarajevo on Wednesday.
Fitting in on frat row: Yale’s gay Greeks September 23, 2006
Posted by grhomeboy in Gay Life.comments closed
The a cappella T-shirt says gay and the cargo shorts say Greek; the pillar candles and coffee table books say gay, the “College: The Best Seven Years of My Life” calendar and list of consulting job application deadlines say Greek.
Matt Smith ’07 is gay and a frat brother, and since there aren’t many caricatures more propagated and elaborate than those two, everything he wears, drinks, says or displays in his apartment seems to feed one or the other effectively mutually exclusive stereotype.
As cliche would have it, frat brothers and gay men are oil and water: Frat brothers yell “faggot” and gay men cry “heteronormative”; frat brothers build pyramids from empty Keystone cans and gay men know what feng shui is. But for Smith and other students and alums who are both gay and in fraternities, being gay, Greek and glad about both is just another chapter in the classic college story of finding yourself in four years.
No truth in the movies
Three years ago, Smith decided to rush. His sexuality wasn’t an issue – the freshman hadn’t even begun questioning his heterosexuality – and the guys of Sigma Phi Epsilon seemed laid back and diverse. Wary of pledges who wanted to jump headfirst into the fraternity scene from Camp Yale, SigEp tended to hang back and let second-semester freshmen and sophomores find them after exploring other parts of Yale.
“It wasn’t like a chug-your-drink-eat-your-shit kind of rush,” Smith said. “There was no ‘Animal House’ atmosphere.”
Forget Hollywood, alums say: Yale’s fraternity scene is low-key compared even to other real-life schools’ fraternities. At Duke, where alumnus Daniel Nugent ’04 worked for a summer, frats are massive, well-funded and “a social force” on campus. In Texas, where alum Fredo Silva ’04 LAW ’08 grew up, fraternities’ waiting lists include high-school juniors, and those fortunate enough to make it in to the frat are expected to fork over more than $1,000 in dues.
The unique atmosphere of Yale’s Greek life led openly gay Randall Rubinstein ’06 to join efforts to re-found Alpha Epsilon Pi’s Yale chapter. Rubinstein asked the AEPi national representative who was pitching the frat to some interested Yalies about “alternatives” whenever he would mention girls as a reason to start a fraternity.
Read more on this subject > Fitting in on frat row: Yale’s gay Greeks
Charter boosts online speed with 10-mbps service September 23, 2006
Posted by grhomeboy in Internet.comments closed
Charter Communications became the latest cable carrier to boost its broadband offerings with its new 10-mbps high-speed service. Pricing for the service starts at $69.99 per month.
Charter Communications became the latest cable operator to hit the broadband accelerator, announcing that it is now offering a 10-megabit-per-second high-speed-data service, along with an upgraded security suite.
The service, which offers connection speeds as high as 10 mbps downstream and 1 mbps upstream, is up and running in 15 of Charter’s 20 markets, and plans are to roll it out to the remainder later this fall. It is priced at $69.99 per month when bundled with other Charter services including voice or video, or $79.99 stand-alone. Charter also provides a 5-mbps service and a 3-mbps service in all 20 markets.
Offering a 10-mbps option will support a growing need for speed among consumers, especially given the trend toward home networking and higher-bandwidth services. More than 25% of U.S. households have some form of high-speed home network, while 35% of users play online games and 25% download music, according to Charter.
“To keep pace with their Internet usage, customers want faster and faster download speeds and improved security, and Charter is continuing to meet those demands,” said Himesh Bhise, vice president of Charter’s High-Speed Internet. “This is a good example of how we’re investing in our business to provide the leading-edge products our customers want.”
In addition, Charter is partnering with online-security-software provider F-Secure to offer its High-Speed Security Suite version 6.15 to the operator’s high-speed-data customers at no extra charge.
The new security software includes root-kit detection to protect against hackers; anti-virus and spyware protection; parental controls; and a personal firewall.
Godiva’s new gold standard September 23, 2006
Posted by grhomeboy in Chocolate.comments closed
The gourmet-chocolate seller has redesigned its classic gold box and introduced new flavors in an effort to stay on top of candyland trends
Get ready for the gold rush. On September 29, a.k.a. “Gold Friday”, Godiva will unveil a new take on one of the great confectionery icons, the Godiva gold ballotin box of chocolates.
“Godiva’s gold box is one of the most recognized pieces of packaging in the U.S., along with Tiffany’s blue box and Bloomingdale’s big bag,” says Clay Gordon, a chocolate expert and editor of Chocophile.com. The makeover is part of a larger brand makeover but goes beyond mere repackaging, Godiva tweaked 23 of the recipes and added 11 new pieces.
Founded in 1926, Godiva dominates in the U.S. gourmet chocolate market, selling more than $200 million worth of confections each year. With medical studies trumping the health benefits of dark chocolate, the candy is a hot commodity. It’s also one of the top emerging luxury trends. Americans spent $15.8 billion on chocolate confections in 2005, according to the Commerce Dept., up 3% from the year before.
Read this article > Godiva Strikes Gold
