After his campaign for A/X summer 2010, Marlon Texeira is back in NYC with Karmen Pedaru for the fall winter 2010/11 of Emporio Armani shot by Mario Sorrenti. Chinese actress Shu Qi has been appointed the face of Emporio Armani in Greater China, Singapore and Malaysia for Fall/Winter 2010. The first advertising campaign will be rolled out starting September 2010 in fashion and lifestyle magazines.
For quite some time now, I have been searching for the one who's gonna be the next great indie band. I need a band that can mesmerize me with their melodies and suck me in with their lyrics. And after countless hours lost spent scouring soundtracks, iTunes, myspace, message boards, and many mediocre albums, not one band can even came close to make me feel like The xx or Cut/Copy or Phoenix did before. Like I was enveloped in this big translucent bubble filled with champagne to make me go all psychedelic when I listened to their albums. I have almost lost faith, that is until I stumbled upon Plushgun. Now, this is one band that I could really get into. Temper Trap was okay but not quite bubbly-champagne-psychedelicky (is that even a word?) enough.
Plushgun is an indie rock/New Wave/Synth-Pop band founded by Dan Ingala located in Brooklyn, New York. The current lineup of the band is Ingala, Taylor Armstrong on guitar and Matt Bogdanow on drums. Their first album, Pins and Panzers, was released on February 17, 2009. In a positive review, Orlando Sentinel music critic Jim Abbott wrote that the lead song "Just Impolite" "manages to be breezy and atmospheric" and other tracks "boast plenty of shimmering keyboards, but enough melody to sing along."
Dan Ingala serves up a thoroughly likable dose of 1980s nostalgia on Pins & Panzers. This early 2009 release isn't an exact replica of the 1980s; Ingala has 1990s and 2000s influences as well, including the Postal Service. But there is no overlooking the fact that Ingala's synthesizer-driven pop/rock has been greatly influenced by 1980s new wave and synth pop. Ingala no doubt appreciates the fact that a lot of 1980s music was relentlessly hooky and infectious, and infectiousness is exactly what he achieves on bouncy tracks like "Dancing in a Minefield" and "Union Pool." Ingala has a healthy sense of humor; his lyrics can be clever and highly introspective. All are important parts of the picture on Pins & Panzers that make up for a consistently enjoyable and well-crafted effort from Plushgun. Check out their albums here: Plushgun album by Plushgun.
You'll like this if you like: Death Cab for Cutie, Owl City, Postal Service, La Roux, Cut/Copy.
And their music video for the single "Just Impolite" is done by Tyler Shields
Diesel unveil its Denim campaign for its fall winter 2010/11 collection. And even if they got rid of their previous slogan "Sex Sells", the spirit is still there ...
Model Baptiste Giabiconi and Anja Rubik are featured in Fendi Fall/Winter 2010 Campaign as an Italian couple on the run in downtown New York. Photographed by Karl Lagerfeld, Anja Rubik in Fendi Fall 2010 Campaign is dressed in decadent fur and classic suiting. The Fendi Fall 2010 advertising campaign was inspired by the artwork of the American realist painter and printmaker Edward Hopper.
Burberry has developed an interactive advertising campaign that allows users to select and control the view and perspective of the campaign, cast and products. Users can find images and videos that can be clicked, rotated, paused and dragged 180°, showing off different angles of the collection with a 3D effect. For example, when viewing the accessories range, a simple mouse click will make the model move her arm to show off a bag in a different pose. In another, the user can use the mouse to move between a view of the models’ shoes to their handbags. 14 images and 6 interactive videos showcase the Burberry Autumn Winter 2010 collections, featuring the Burberry Prorsum, Burberry London, Burberry Brit, and Burberry Accessories lines. Loving this so much with the color-spectrum-ed background.
I am way over the 3D thing, it seems like every single movie now HAS to be 3D. Anyway, the fashion industry and A/X in particular have decided to go 3D for their new upcoming fall winter 2010/11 ad campaign featuring Arthur Sales andAmiris Souza Freitas.
Cast: Eric Balfour, Scottie Thompson, David Zayas, Donald Faison
Director: Colin Strause, Greg Strause
Writers: Joshua Cordes, Liam O'Donnell
Plot:
After a late night party, a group of friends are awoken in the dead of the night by an eerie light beaming through the window. Like moths to a flame, the light source is drawing people outside before they suddenly vanish into the air. They soon discover an otherwordly force is swallowing the entire human population off the face of the earth. Now our band of survivors must fight for their lives as the world unravels around them.
Brought to us by Mariano Vivanco, the latest Fall Winter 2010/11 campaign for Esprit featuring Anne VMissy Rayder, Du Juan, Nate Gill and Andrew Cooper. Hair: James Pecis. Makeup: Ayami Nishimura. Casting & Production: Marion Walter.
No matter the place, no matter the season those two are going strong in their relationship. Once again Carmen Kass and Noah Mills are getting together for the Fall/Winter 2010/11 Michael Kors ad campaign shot by Mario Testino and styled by Brana Wolf.
George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Will Smith...these used to be the names mentioned when the topic of "The Perfect Man" was discussed. If you haven't heard, that debate is now over. What is the name of the reigning "Perfect Man"? Well, not many people actually know his name (it's Isaiah Mustafa), but mention the title of "Old Spice Guy" and people probably know who you are talking about. Mention "that guy in the Old Spice ads wearing nothing more than a bath towel," and they'll definitely know.
The Man Your Man Could Smell Like is a television advertising campaign created by ad agency Wieden+Kennedy for Old Spice to market their brand of shower gel. The original ad features actor Isaiah Mustafa reciting a quick monologue about how "anything is possible" if a man uses Old Spice. Mustafa is filmed during a single uninterrupted take that transitions, with minimal CGI, from a bathroom to a sailboat to Mustafa riding a horse.
A promo trailer for a project called Samurai has just debuted. This will be the directorial debut of Jerry O'Flaherty, who has worked for years as the art director on Epic's Gears of War video game series. They're developing a samurai vs ninja action movie using hyper-stylized action straight from Zack Snyder's 300. But the kicker is that they're using the Unreal 3 video game engine to render the props and environments. And it's pretty damn impressive to see, although it's not in high def.
This trailer for Samurai was a "no-budget piece shot in two days with a volunteer cast of five people against a white background. The background plates were created in Unreal with the intent of sharing all of the environment assets (rendered at higher res for the film) between the movie and the game. Okay, so this is just another one of those fantastic proof-of-concept trailers, but it really is awesome and I've got to share it with you guys
OBLIVION
I have been hearing a bit of industry buzz recently surrounding a project called Oblivion from Tron Legacy director Joseph Kosinski. Oblivion is a futuristic science fiction love story that takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where most people live above the clouds, far from the ""inhospitable place" that the surface of Earth has become. An earthbound soldier who repairs drones that patrol and destroy a savage alien race discovers a beautiful woman who crashed in a craft. They take an epic adventure that changes his world view. It is an original idea conceived by Kosinski and described as "a very spare science fiction film, with a small cast but big ideas and big landscapes."
The project was initially announced by Kosinski in late 2009 but has developed in the last year and he has began shopping the project to studios. I can certainly see why there is a bidding war over this, as it looks amazing and sounds like it has a good story, too.
The art was done by Andree Wallin. The graphic novel will be released later this year. The full book will be 128 pages featuring artwork that spans two pages.
TOMORROW: WHEN THE WAR BEGAN
When their country is invaded and their families are all taken, eight unlikely high school teenagers band together to fight. The cast includes Rachel Hurd-Wood, Phoebe Tonkin, Caitlin Stasey and Lincoln Lewis.
Tomorrow: When the War Began is both written and directed by Australian screenwriter Stuart Beattie, who is making his directorial debut with this film after writing scripts for all three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Collateral, 30 Days of Night, and G.I. Joe. It's based on popular Australian novel series of the same name by John Marsden. It hits theaters in Australia on September 2nd this year.
MACHETE
Robert Rodriguez's Machete, directed by Ethan Maniquis and starring Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba, Robert De Niro, Cheech Marin, Lindsay Lohan, Steven Seagal and Michelle Rodriguez. After being betrayed by the organization who hired him, an ex-Federale named Machete (played by Danny Trejo) launches a brutal rampage of revenge against his former boss. The screenplay was written by Robert Rodriguez and is an expanded version of the "fake" Machete trailer Rodriguez made for the release of Grindhouse in 2007. It hits the theaters in September, 3rd this fall.
DEVIL
Directed by the Dowdle Brothers (of Quarantine), Devil is the first movie in Shyamlan's The Night Chronicles, which is a series of three films where he comes up with the idea and hands it off other filmmakers to complete. The concept in this is that a group of people end up trapped in a elevator learn that the devil is among them. I love the way this starts, and the whole trailer is just Twilight Zone-esque, with some extra intensity and lots more.
EXAM Exam is both written & directed by first-time British director Stuart Hazeldine, a writer who worked on Alex Proyas' Knowing. The concept in this is that eight candidates for a "prestigious job at a mysterious corporation" are brought into a room and given a blank exam paper and told to answer the question to pass the test. Ah but what is the question?
I Spit on Your Grave starring hottie Sarah Butler is an upcoming horror remake of the 1978 popular cult movie of the same name about a writer who's brutalized during a cabin retreat gets revenge on her attackers, who left her for dead. I Spit on Your Grave will arrive in limited theaters, unrated, starting on October 8th in the fall.
DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, the horror remake produced by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth The Hobbit), directed by first-timer Troy Nixey, and starring Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce and the young Bailee Madison. This is a remake of the 1973 TV movie Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, about a young girl (Bailee Madison) sent to live with her father (Guy Pearce) and his girlfriend (Katie Holmes) discovers creatures in her new home who want to claim her as one of their own.
CATFISH
Don't let anyone tell you what it is… That's the new tagline the Sundance documentary that became a huge sensation for its riveting storytelling and controversial nature. A reality thriller that's a shocking product of our times, Catfish is a riveting story of love, deception and grace within a labyrinth of online intrigue.
From directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, Catfish documents Ariel's brother, Nev, a New York-based photographer who becomes pen pals with an eight-year-old girl from Michigan who sends him paintings of his photos. It's a very contemporary feeling film as the filmmakers make copious use of Facebook, Google Earth, Gmail, Google Street View, and YouTube in their film as support of its topic.
THE SOCIAL NETWORK
David Fincher's The Social Network, the Facebook movie starring Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg. directed by Oscar nominated filmmaker David Fincher, of superb films like Alien 3, Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button previously. The script was written by screenwriter and producer Aaron Sorkin, of A Few Good Men, "The West Wing", and Charlie Wilson's War previously. It's based on Ben Mezrich's novel titled The Accidental Billionaires, about the founding of Facebook: "A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal." Sony is bringing The Social Network to theaters starting on October 1st this fall.
SOMEWHERE
This is one upcoming independent film that I can't wait to finally see! From one of my favorite filmmakers, Sofia Coppola (of The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, and Marie Antoinette fame) comes a new film Somewhere. Somewhere takes place at the famous Chateau Marmont hotel in Hollywood (seen above) and stars Stephen Dorff as a "bad-boy actor" stumbling through life who lives in excess at the luxury hotel, but an unexpected visit from his 11-year-old daughter, played by Elle Fanning, forces him to reexamine his life.
It just feels like it could be fun, but in the smart Sofia Coppola kind of way, like Lost in Translation. Not much is known yet about the movie (or the actual plot) besides the fact that it contains a whole handful of appearances from special guests and actors like Benicio Del Toro, Michelle Monaghan, Laura Ramsey, Chris Pontius, and even a score by French rock band Phoenix. I've been anxiously waiting to see the film ever since I first heard about it last year. Looking forward to seeing this, so stay tuned for more updates.
This new Fall/Winter 2010/11 Givenchy Ad Campaign was shot by Mert & Marcus. For this campaign Ricardo Tisci brings Brazilian transsexual Lea T. who is joined by Simon Nessman, Jonathan Marquez, Paolo Rolden, Mariacarla Boscono, Malgosia Bela and Joan Smalls. Lea is one of the hottest models this year with every brand dreaming to have her grace their campaigns. Lea, 28, was born Leandro Cerezo - male - and is undergoing hormone replacement therapy in preparation for a full sex-change. Lea has now made further waves in the fashion industry by posing naked in French Vogue. She also appears in the current issue of Italian Vanity Fair, in which she describes how she struggled with her identity, but always felt feminine. Check out Lea T for Givenchy F/W 2010-11 ad campaign (second right in both photos).
Do you know that the odds of getting cancer in your life time is 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women? Wow... that's just really really frightening... I think it would be good to find out more about this program. Who knows, we could gain valuable information that is useful to us.. The campaign is attractive and it clearly targets the younger generation by featuring up-and-coming celebrities and teenage stars. Note Andrew Garfield who was just cast as the new Spider-Man. In my opinion, it's the right move for the campaign to gear towards preventative measures.
Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) is a charitable program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) established by media, entertainment and philanthropic leaders who have been affected by cancer. SU2C aims to raise significant funds for translational cancer research through online and televised efforts. Central to the program is a telethon that was televised by three major broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) in over 170 countries on September 5, 2008. SU2C made over $100 million after that evenings broadcast.
The telethon is scheduled to return on Friday, September 10, 2010 at 8/7c to ABC, CBS, NBC, HBO, Discovery Health, E!, MLB Network, the Style Network and Fox, among others. Jake Gyllenhaal has also joined on to help the cause.
In http://www.su2c.org/changetheodds Zac Efron, Dakota Fanning, Kristen Bell, Vanessa Hudgens, Andrew Garfield, Zachary Levi, Donald Faison, Jon Heder, Logan Lerman, Naya Rivera, Olivia Munn, Sofia Vassilieva, Clark Duke, William Moseley, Aubrey Plaza and Aaron Yoo all Stand Up To Cancer. It's Up2 all of us to change the odds of getting cancer in our lifetimes.
I love this ad campaigns. This is the Hermes fall winter 2010/11 ad campaign featuring Constance Jablonski and Jonas Mason photographed by Paolo Roversi.
You could be forgiven for thinking we're in the midst of an unprecedented madness for vampires with True Blood, Vampire Diaries, and The Twilight Saga being all the rage these days. A better question might be, why vampires ever? Looking back, it's hard to think of a period when we weren't in the middle of a vampire craze.
Beginning in 1897 with Bram Stoker's gothic horror novel, Dracula, since then there have been numerous adaptations and appearances in the media. In 1922, the first vampire movie, Nosferatu was released in theater. Followed by numerous Dracula movies throughout the 1920s to 1960s. In the late 1970s, Anne Rice started raking in the money with Interview With the Vampire, and movies like Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre and the comedy Love at First Bite were critical hits. Then came The Lost Boys, Near Dark, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Innocent Blood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie), four more Anne Rice books, and Interview With the Vampire (the movie)—which could all be lumped into a rage for vampires that lasted clear through from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. Vampires were back again in the mid-1990s, with Buffy (the TV show), the Blade movies, Southern Vampire Mysteries (the book series), and From Dusk Till Dawn. And now we've arrived at the highly touted mid- to late-2000s vogue of Underworld, Twilight (books and movies), True Blood (based on Southern Vampire Mysteries), and The Vampire Diaries. So you see, we might be further along in the vampire craze than what you have imagined.
However, I want to focus more on the contemporary occurrences (this is, after all, a pop-culture blog). Within the last decade there have only been, in my opinion, four significant vampire-madness-inducing franchises in the media. They are Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Twilight Saga, True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries. Now, we could go onto deep discussions concerning those four particular franchises, but we're not going to do that since it will only spark endless debates. I want to focus more on one aspect, which is the protagonists of each franchises. From my observation, I could gather that contemporary vampire franchises have shifted their focus on the vampire characters to the protagonists who are all happen to be females with the vampire characters being reduced to be the female protagonists' love interests or mere supporting characters. This might indicate a new wave of feminism in this era. What I want to do now is pit all these ladies together to find out who is THE best feminist cultural icon of the decade.Oh, and for those teenage girls who think Bella Swan is a good role model, I'm here to set things straight. Someone is going DOWN!!!
I'm gonna start with Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Created by Joss Whedon, Buffy is a high school cheerleader who learns that she is the Slayer, a Chosen One gifted with the strength and skills to fight vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness. The character of Buffy was created to subvert the stereotypical and cliched female horror film victim, the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every film. Whedon wanted to create a strong female cultural icon. Buffy avoids the "final girl" character trope seen in horror films, where the androgynous and celibate heroine gets to outlive her friends and exact revenge on their killer. She gets to have sex with boys and still kill the monster.
Over the course of seven seasons and 144 episodes, Buffy has saved the world a lot of times, died twice, had sex with more than one vampire, lost loved ones, grew up without parents (her father left before the start of the series and her mother died during her sophomore year of college), and had to drop out to support her younger sister. She had to do all of these between battling forces of darkness on a daily basis and studying for exam, yet she still managed to find time to party.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer's thematic and metaphorical elements have inspired countless studies and academia. Buffy is notable for attracting the interest of scholars of popular culture as a subset of popular culture studies. Academic settings increasingly include the show as a topic of literary study and analysis. Buffy eventually led to the publication of around twenty books and hundreds of articles examining the themes of the show from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives including sociology, Speech Communication, psychology, philosophy, and women's studies.
Versace present their Fall 2010-11 campaign. Their muses this season are Anna Selezneva, Valerija Kelava, Marcel Castenmiller and Tomek Szczukiecki. The campaign photography is the work of Mario Testino, who together with Donatella Versace decided to create a black and white campaign. It's a metaphor for the new direction Donatella is taking, abandoning saturated colors and pastels in favor of a more subtle, minimalist collection. She brings us geometric cuts and asymmetric lines, and experiments with the length of garments. For men, the image evokes a biker look and futuristic details.
