Mustaine by Dave Mustaine: On Sale Today!
The fall and rise of a heavy metal icon
From his early, crazy days as a founding member of Metallica, Dave Mustaine has seen and experienced everything in the world of rock n’ roll. From his young triumphs and ignominious ouster from the band for his hard-partying ways to his later rule over Megadeth, one of the most successful heavy metal bands of all time, Mustaine tells it all. Outrageously candid and in-your-face, this is a classic rock memoir —an insider’s look at the loud and sordid world of heavy metal.
Available now wherever books are sold
Truth, Revised Histories, Wishful Thinking, and Flat Out Lies
The John Jasperse Company has the New York debut of the brilliant new work, Truth, Revised Histories, Wishful Thinking, and Flat Out Lies, June 16-19 at the Joyce. If you’re in or around NYC you definitely don’t want to miss this one.
Via Joyce.org:
“When Jasperse makes a new work, it should be seen: end of story,” says Claudia La Rocca of The New York Times. You can see Jasperse’s latest work when the company returns to The Joyce for the first time since 2000 with the New York premiere of Truth, Revised Histories, Wishful Thinking, and Flat Out Lies. The evening-length piece explores the often fluid boundaries between fantasy and reality, and features a commissioned score by composer Hahn Rowe and live musicians from the critically acclaimed International Contemporary Ensemble.
(Photos via Joyce.org and JohnJasperse.org)
How Twilight Works
Finally, an explanation of why Twilight drives so many straight females crazy. In video form!
Via Buzzfeed
Amazing technology or Antichrist?
Remember way back in the day when Disney characters in parks were played by sweaty college students in stuffy costumes trying to make a few bucks over the summer? Apparently, those days are over.
I’m half fascinated, half horrified. I don’t think I would want to let kids around that thing for fear that it would malfunction and start eating babies, but hey that’s just me. What do you think?
It Books to publish book by Whitney Port
It Books to publish a new book by The City star, Whitney Port
New York, New York (April 21, 2010). It Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, has announced it will publish True Whit by Whitney Port, star of the MTV hit reality shows, The City and The Hills.
The deal was negotiated by Lisa Sharkey, Senior Vice President and Director of Creative Development at HarperCollins, Matthew Elblonk of DeFiore and Company, and Max Stubblefield of United Talent Agency. True Whit is scheduled to be published on February 1, 2011 and will be edited by Amy Bendell and Jen Schulkind.
Upon reaching her early 20’s, Whitney Port experienced what her mother called, “The Quarterlife Crisis” the time in your life when you’re in your 20s, out of school, and facing the world on your own for the first time. Although initially thrilled to be on her own, Whitney soon learned navigating through the real world wasn’t easy. Real life is filled with challenges, expectations, pressure, and frankly, more than a few crazy people. Hitting a crossroads, Whitney decided not to throw in the towel, and began to reassess and regroup. It was this experience that inspired her to write the book.
In a conversational, fun, and candid guide for girls looking to start out with style, Port shares personal stories, honest and straight-forward advice, and what she’s learned along the way, from how to get rid of puffy under-eye bags, to what to wear on a first date, and how to turn a tiny apartment into a palace, as well as perfecting your hostess skills. Whitney’s fans will get to see a side of her that the cameras don’t capture. The book will be complete with her own scrapbook, worthy behind-the-scene photos woven throughout with intimate and personal family stories, and advice and recipes from the woman she looks up to the most, her mom.
“Being a twenty-something can be a difficult phase,” says Whitney, “There are so many questions, and I wanted to write about my experiences for anyone who needs help navigating through life. It’s a really fun and fresh how-to-guide where I can share anecdotes that I’ve learned from both work and my personal life.”
who is iamamiwhoami?
This interesting YouTube campaign isn’t necessarily new, but I only recently caught on. Now I’m obsessed. Five months ago the YouTube account iamamiwhoami launched. It started with a brief, one minute long, strange-as-hell clip featuring trees with limbs moving to an electronic hymn of sorts…cut with a scene of a woman in a bog looking pool attached to some cord (umbilical?). A viral phenomenon is born!
Via thesound.com: “In the five months since, seven similar videos have been posted, each time revealing slightly more of the mysterious young woman’s features, who is seemingly born of a tree or out of the Earth. The last two, titled simply “b” and “o” (rather than long number sequences separated by periods) are full-length songs, and show enough of the woman’s face, uncovered by tar-like makeup and relatively undistorted otherwise, for some to recognize her as Swedish singer/songwriter Jonna Lee.”
These videos are, in my humble opinion, amazing and certainly worth your time. While it is widely speculated at this point that Joanna Lee is in fact the songstress featured in these clips, her record label denies any involvement and Jonna herself is unwilling to commented on them.
There’s a lot of layers here, and I have to say I don’t care who is responsible…just as long as they keep it up.
Lady Gaga makes some calls
Lady Gaga’s new video (featuring Beyonce) for the song Telephone debuted last night.
Overall, I like! There were hits and misses, obviously, and I can only hope that the acting between Gaga and Beyonce was that cardboard on purpose (Beyonce can kind of act, right?) but otherwise, it was ok. The clear highlight of the video:
I could watch that all day. A few more highlights after the jump.
First Annual Your It List Oscar Pool
This year’s Oscar season seems a bit more tame than past years. What with the 35 nominated films for Best Picture (none, by the way, being (500) Days of Summer, ahem). There are a lot of familiar names on the nominees lists, not quite as many “Who?” nominees… a lot of people seem to think the winners will be the obvious choices.
I’m hoping for a return to the surprise a la 1966 when Richard Burton lost the best actor nod for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf to Paul Scofield in A Man For All Seasons. Luckily Mrs. Burton won that year for Virginia Woolf, though rumoredly the couple abstained from attending due to Mr. Burton’s fear of losing (and worse his fear of losing and watching Mrs. Burton win). It was the first time either Burton ever abstained from anything.
The votes have been cast, somewhere a really boring looking accountant has them in a sealed briefcase. But let your voice be heard in the first annual Your It List Oscar Pool.
Click here to let us know who you think is going to win (don’t forget to leave your email address so we can contact you!).
On Monday, the person with the most correct answers will win a FULL BOX of movie flavored books, including:
Heads On and We Shoot
Avatar
My Word is My Bond
Pieces of My Heart
George Lucas’s Blockbusting
Showgirls, Teen Wolves, Astro Zombies
Tales from the Script
Some Like It Hot Companion
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Shutter Island
Crazy Heart
Coraline
Making of Coraline
We’ll announce the winners on Monday!
Click here for complete rules.
The Art of the Drag
It’s no secret that we’re big RuPaul fans. It Books is publishing Workin’ It! RuPaul’s Guide to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Style tomorrow. But before Workin’ It! was even a glimmer in RuPaul’s carefully made-up eye, Rupaul’s Drag Race was born on Logo. If you never got a chance to see it then I assure you you missed out. However, the hotly anticipated second season premieres tonight and it’s no doubt going to bring twice the amount of fabulosity.
To promote season two, the good people at Logo Online are giving us the chance to get into the drag spirit with the all new Dragulator. Feeling festive, I gave it a shot this morning. The results:
Confirmed! I would make an ugly-ass drag queen. But the martini glass accessory was a nice touch. Try the Dragulator out for yourself here. If drag persona is particularly fierce, email it to us at youritlist@harpercollins.com and we’ll post some of our favorites.
The new season of Drag Race starts tonight at 9:00 EST and Workin’ It is on sale tomorrow.
In related video news, check out Ru on the Today show this morning (spoiler, he basically calls Kathy Lee a drag queen to her face! Hilarity ensues.):
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
He-Man Goes Arty
I’m a child of the 80s, so I may seem a little biased in saying that the best cartoons EVER came out of that decade. (seriously, Pokemon? PokeFAIL.) There are too many kick ass toons from that era to name here, but one that is obviously at the very top of the pile is He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. LOVED it. I was so in to that show my parents even took me to see the Masters of the Universe Power Tour and I remember every minute of it.
Anyway, I’m glad to see I am not the only person with such fond recollections of the show. Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight in Los Angeles, CA currently has an entire exhibit titled “Under the Influence: He-Man and the Masters of hte Universe” in which 100 artists reinterprete the cartoon megapower. Luckily, the gallery has put everything up on their blog, which you can check out here.
A few of my favorites below, but if you are in the LA area, definitely check this out and get me a t-shirt!
How to Make a Michael Cera Movie
Via The High Definite, the completely accurate guide to every Michael Cera movie ever made.
Are you gonna eat that?
Here in New York City, it’s law that any restaurant with 10 locations or more post the caloric content of food and beverages on menus (I’ve often wondered why they don’t do this in L.A. too but was recently told people don’t actually eat there so why make the effort…educational!). Ever since these numbers have started appearing on menus I have been OBSESSED with them. And now thanks to a certain Matt Daniels, you can obsess too!
Matt’s created a fun (or depressing?) way for you to guess how many calories are in many popular food items and then compares your guess to the average guess and what percentage of a 2,500 calorie a day diet that item would take up. It’s fun kids…take a look.
Post-Holiday Weekend Relaxer
Like any sane American the day after Christmas, I am staying the hell away from any shopping facility in the area and am staying in to watch movies and eat left overs. Why doesn’t America celebrate Boxing Day again? Can we start a petition? Anyway….to help you relax over the weekend and meditate on the holidaze, here’s a bit of my favorite part of Christmas, the Yule log. Enjoy.
Mix Tape: 2009 Edition
I lived for mix tapes all through the 90s. I would spend hours and hours slaving over the perfect playlist for my friends and/or potential boyfriends. I thought about every song and what it said about me or my feelings for that other person. “Does this Portishead song properly convey the internal conflict I feel about how you sometimes hang out with people I don’t like?” “Will this Sonic Youth song make you think about me at night?”
I eventually moved to mix CDs at the end of the 90s…but it’s never been the same. A CD just says “I cared enough to click burn” while a tape has time and effort written all over it (literally, because I would write that on the tape).
While we’ll never really get that back, now we can at least pretend with Mix Tape USBs. At the end of the day it’s just a fancy container for a cheapish USB stick, but I can honestly say I think this is totally fucking awesome and I bought 10 of them. Half the fun was always writing out the playlist anyway, right? Christmas shopping: DONE.
Twitter Wit Sweepstakes – Winner!
And the winner we’ve selected for our Twitter Wit Video Contest is:
Congratulations to our Grand Prize winner, Steven Lewer, who will be receiving a copy of the book and an iPod Touch.
Click here to check out more of Twitter Wit, and make sure to sign up for our newsletter below for everything Your It List.
Deconstructing Glambert
The cover for Adam Lambert’s forthcoming album, For Your Entertainment, was just released.
I don’t know what I was expecting his album to look like, but I know I wasn’t expecting this. And honestly, I love it. It brought some big gay sunshine to an otherwise dreary mid-week.
Below are some inspirations that occurred to me right away. If you can think of any more, drop them in the comments!
- Madonna’s debut album
The Trapper Keeper
Jem and the Holograms
Lisa Frank
What is a Stripteese?
Let your education begin….
Dita Von Teese’s new collection of flip books, Stripteese, is on sale 11/3.
Wyclef Jean’s Memoir To Be Published By It Books
NEW YORK, NY (October 19, 2009) – It Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, today announced plans to publish the memoir of Grammy Award-winning multi-platinum musician Wyclef Jean. Jean will be writing the memoir with bestselling author and Rolling Stone writer Anthony Bozza, who co-authored such books as Whatever You Say I Am with Eminem and Tommyland with Tommy Lee.
The book was acquired by Mauro DiPreta, Vice President and Associate Publisher for It Books, from Richard Abate at 3 Arts Entertainment.
The memoir will chronicle Wyclef’s childhood in the tiny rural village of La Serre in Haiti and his subsequent immigration to Brooklyn, NY, where at the age of 9 he began his journey into pop culture. He will recount his struggle between the double life he lead as a preacher’s son playing music in church with becoming a young rapper trying to fit in with his peers. The book will also document his monumental success as founding member of The Fugees and then his impressive solo career where he established himself as one of the most sought-after musicians, performers, songwriters, and producers of his generation. Wyclef’s work as a global philanthropist, especially in his native country through his work with Yéle Haiti which he founded in 2005, will be featured in the book. His philanthropic work has brought him worldwide attention for his tireless efforts to change the way the world sees Haiti.
“I am so happy to share my journey which took me from the hut to the projects to the mansion,” said Wyclef Jean. “I am just getting started and feel so excited about It Books publishing the early stories from my life.”
“Wyclef has an incredible story, filled with drama, humor and inspiration,” said DiPreta. “It is above all a very human story, not necessarily one of celebrity, and I’m happy to say that he is as gifted a storyteller as he is a musician.” Carrie Kania, Senior Vice President and Publisher of It Books, said, “As we continue to grow the new It Books list, Wyclef Jean is a perfect example of the kind of talent we love working with—a passionate, innovative artist whose book will transcend all expectations.”
To Follow Wyclef Jean please go to:
www.wyclef.com
www.Twitter.com/wyclef
www.facebook.com/Wyclef
www.yele.org
Heads on and we give you a free book…
UPDATE: We have a winner! Congrats!
As we’ve mentioned earlier, the film adaptation for Maurice Sendak’s much loved Where The Wild Things Are is out today. Also out this week, our very own and very beautiful Heads On and We Shoot: The Making of Where the Wild Things Are.
We’ve got one copy of the book, signed by both director Spike Jonze AND David Eggers, (who both wrote the screenplay together) that we’d like to give away to one of you, our dear readers.
To enter for a chance to win, just send an email to YourItList@harpercollins.com before 1:00PM on October 22nd. I will randomly be selecting 1 winner from the emails received. No purchase necessary. The last entry will be accepted at 1:00 on October 22nd. Approximate retail value of the prize is $39.95.
Good luck kids!
Click here to view official rules.
Lisa Lampanelli – Chocolate Please
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Click here to read an excerpt of Chocolate, Please.
Aaron Karo is having more fun than you
Our good friend, Aaron Karo, stand-up comic and author of Ruminations on College Life and Ruminations on Twentysomething Life, has a new book out today. Can you guess who’s publishing it? I’m Having More Fun Than You, is an irreverent exploration of why guys embrace bachelorhood and love flying solo in their twenties and thirties.
Click here to read an excerpt and here to buy the book!
Just three frames
I love the idea behind the site Three Frames. It’s essentially exactly what it sounds like…three frames from a movie or TV show, in order and shown in rapid succession on a loop. The results are hilarious, amazing and sometimes scary (in my humble opinion). After I came across the site I found myself getting sucked in and going through the entire archive. It reminds me of those cameras that have four exposures, so the final photo has just a hint of motion in it.
Also, if you have any idea what movie these stills are from, post it in the comments section because topless machine guns = movies I must see.
Snuggies: Now a sex aid?
A friend of mine recently sent me a link to The Snuggie Sutra. We had to discuss…is this gratuitous or genius?
I think I’m kind of leaning toward genius here. I mean, how many of us have snuggies? Don’t lie. You got one when you were out at Target or Bed Bath and Beyond because you thought it would be funny (or a friend gave it to you for the same reason). Your mom or grandmother got you one because she saw the commercial and legitimately thought you’d be more comfortable in that drafty dorm room (or God forbid, office) with a big blue fleece. You just had to have that free reading light that comes in the box.
But now the novelty has worn off. Sure, they are refreshing the brand with animal prints and snuggies for dogs, but I’m just not buying it. I applaud the creators of the Snuggie Sutra for their creativity. After all, this is still a recession…how much money are YOU throwing away on needless sex aids every year?
