R.I.P. LARRY STEWART - MAY WE EACH FIND THE SECRET SANTA IN OURSELVES THIS YEAR

The compassion shared from one spontaneous random act of kindness is elevating, priceless and not easily explained. It is an instant connection between souls that can change a life forever. This is the experience of being a Secret Santa. Being a Secret Santa has blessings beyond words.
-SecretSantaWorld.com

a single act of kindness changed Larry Stewart's life and planted the seed of Secret Santa in him. he went on to hand out over 1.5 million dollars over 27 years, changing lives. Stewart succumbed to cancer earlier this year but his legacy lives on.

Here's the story of the new Secret Santa

spread the word...

INDUSTRY SPEAK

The Ontario Finance Minister has announced that the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit for domestic producers would increase from 30 to 35 per cent and the Ontario Production Services Tax Credit benefitting foreign production, will rise from 18 to 25 per cent.

The boost comes just in time for FilmPort, a new studio on the Toronto waterfront set to open 31 March.

Traditionally US studios make decisions about film production in January, February, with many of the majors currently greenlighting features to stockpile in anticipation of a possible Screen Actors Guild strike in June.

The last time Ontario increased their Tax Credit Incentive, Brightlights, Vancouver's largest studio, threatened to move unless BC would match the incentive. Currently the BC Film and Television Tax Credit is at 30% for domestic and 18% for foriegn productions.

The original deal which was set to expire next year was recently extended to 2012 by BC Premier Gordon Campbell just this past October.

source: the Ontario Media Development Corporation

AMERICAN MCGEE'S ALICE

Universal Pictures and Collision Entertainment are prepping production on the film "Alice", based on the 2000 video game "American McGee's Alice".

The horror fantasy film will shoot in Langley, BC starring actress Sarah Michelle "Buffy" Gellar as 'Alice'.

Story begins after Alice's second adventure, "Through the Looking Glass", when she loses her parents, becomes catatonic and institutionalized in 'Rutledge Asylum'.

Years later, she is summoned by the 'White Rabbit' to come back to 'Wonderland', now under the despotic rule of the 'Red Queen'.

Director is Marcus Nispel, from a script by Erich and Jon Hober, based on author Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass".

Producers are Scott Faye and Julie Yorn."Alice' is set for a July 2008 release.

c/o Sneek Peak

TRAILER - THE DARK KNIGHT

KNIGHT INDUSTRIES TWO THOUSAND (a.k.a. K.I.T.T.)

Michael: Kitt, where are you?
KITT: I'm in your parking space Michael. Where else would I be?

we all remember the Knight Rider - the show that brought us the Hasselhoff? of course we do!



and we've all heard the movie rumours, yes? here's the skinny:

KNIGHT RIDER' REVS UP TO RETURN TO NBC FOR SPECIAL TWO-HOUR MOVIE
-source: NBC Universal Media Village


here's the KITT from the original series displayed at Universal Studios:



meet the new KITT (a.k.a. the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR):



did anyone else just get chills?

QUOTE OF THE DAY

cyndy: we've switched to free-range eggs

rad: are those the ones that say "oh-my-god 3" on the top of the carton?

I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER

I <3 THINKGEEK.COM

it's Optimus Mash
see also the Spud Trooper, Darth Tater and Artoo Potatoo

THINKGEEK.COM

because i have that strange obsession with funny tees:

the back says "fair warning"

it says "you are dumb"

WATASHI BAKA DA

omg! how happy do these make me?!

THE PALM VS. THE PDA PHONE

so at the beginning of this year i was toting around a clunky Blackberry 7290
and i swore just this side of new years that i was going to work less which meant breaking free from my email ergo me being sans Blackberry - well that and the fact that it was huge and wouldn't fit into my teeny Guess purse.

i've been using the very sleek and mod krazr phone which i'm still very much in love with.

but here i am at the end of the year working more than ever and with no way of keeping track of the up from the down. i was up all night last night trying to make notes in the calendar app. on my phone but you can imagine how very not effective that was.

you know you need a new way of organizing your life when you're double booking your commitments constantly (sorry again to everyone i had to reschedule with and/or bail on) so tonight - i'm up all night again - and in the market but i'm torn. do i go back to the pda phone or go just plain old pda?

i have it narrowed it down to 2 products - both with raving reviews i might add!
the pda phone: HTC TyTN English - for $299.99 at Rogers on a 3 year contract.
friggin adorable, no?

this would save me from having to carry around yet another device. like my face plate, ipod, camera and phone weren't enough - do i really want to throw a pda into the mix? truth be told - i've wanted something like this ever since i saw Veronica Mars use one. i thought it was genius! if this bad boy were available earlier when i was shopping to replace my blackberry i would have gone this route - no contest.

option b - also known as the Palm T/X ML Handheld - going for $399.99 at Future Shop sexy, yes?

why on earth would i add another device to that huge bundle i lug around (also known as my not quite as cute but way more practical purse). well - it does what most stand alone devices do; it does more and it does it better. this is designed with organization in mind and it isn't encumbered by having to be a phone and a camera to boot, although it is bluetooth AND wifi enabled and it does come with this darling wireless keyboard that brilliantly folds up for easy web surfing and emailing:

oh how far we've come in only a year?

so i don't really want to go back to always being so accessible by email and paying for a monthly email/data plan on top of my voice plan but do i really need to be lugging around a whole other device? do i even really need everything the Palm has to offer?

even if i didn't really need it tho, we all know how much i love new shiny pretty things. on the bright side the designer purses come in large too!

oy! the choices!

feel free to opine...my Libra-ian indecision is kicking in.

TRAILER

behold! the Iron Man trailer

can you say saaa-weeeet!

RIGHT BRAIN VS. LEFT BRAIN TEST

do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise? full story here



thanx for the link janet!

THE GLASS MENAGERIE

playing at the Stanley Theater until Nov. 25.

see Trailer here

SAVE THE SCHMUCK!

from The Onion:

Saying he could no longer stand idly by while a vital part of American culture is lost forever, activist and Broadway producer Mel Brooks has founded a private nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the word "schmuck."

here are some of the cold hard facts Schmucks for Schmuck has compiled on "schmuck" usage in the last 80 years:

• Utterances of the word "schmuck" have declined every year since its peak in 1951
• in 2006, the word was spoken a mere 28 times—17 of these times by Brooks himself
• people are 50 times more likely to use the word "jerk" than "schmuck, 100 times more likely to use "dick," and 15,000 times more likely to use "fucking asshole."

So like the article says "Tonight, when you get home, please, call up your family, your friends, your loved ones, and tell them they're a bunch of schmucks."

FYI: THE FACEBOOK VS. BLOGGER CONUNDRUM

dear blog followers (all 3 of you that still come here),

i assure you that my lack of updates has absolutely nothing to do with Facebook. Facebook did not eat my blog as it has so many others.

there are 2 reasons for my absence. i do the majority of my blogging from work (this is where i procrastinate best) and:

1) work has been crazy busy - it's that time of year for us and i am quietly dying.

2) the powers that be sporadically blocks my blog - why? i dunno - something about sex and inappropriate content (neither of which actually ever make it onto my blog...i save that for my letters to Penthouse and Playboy)

so rest assured that tunabelly is alive and well but is temporarily preoccupied.

IT'S INTERNATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!

here be some pointers to git you thru the day, arrr!

THE HOUR RETURNS!

just in case you missed it my boyfriend George Stromboulopoulos is back for season 4 of The Hour. see last night's show here

i love you George!

FILM NOIR

Pacific Cinematheque is hosting the newly revived Film Noir Festival and i'd like to go! unfortunately i've already missed the first half :(

i'd like to catch Kiss Me Deadly but am open to other suggestions as well.

any takers?

Kiss Me Deadly synopsis:

Film noir so nasty and nihilistic it's positively radioactive, Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly — “one of the most extraordinary films of the Fifties” (Georges Sadoul) — is the work in which the chaotic noir universe hits critical mass. Or reaches apocalyptic apotheosis! The movie is adapted from one of Mickey Spillane's sex-and-violence-filled Mike Hammer novels; Aldrich, professing disgust for Spillane's right-wing politics, transforms the author's private-eye vigilante hero (played here by Ralph Meeker) into Neanderthal sadist, bungling his vicious way from brutality to brutality as he tries to understand why the half-naked hitchhiker he picked up in the film's nocturnal opening was tortured to death — in front of Hammer's semiconscious eyes. Hammer stumbles his way into a sinister Cold War conspiracy — and, memorably, the desperate search for, well, “The Great Whatsit.” Extreme close-ups, crazy camera angles, and disorienting point-of-view shots keep the kinetic action deliriously off-kilter. The opening credits roll in reverse to the sound of a woman's heavy panting. Wow! “The most original American film since Orson Welles's The Lady from Shanghai ...You must see Kiss Me Deadly ” (François Truffaut). “Brilliantly characterized down to the smallest roles, directed with baroque ferocity, superbly shot by Ernest Laszlo ...it's a masterpiece of sorts” (Time Out). B&W, 35mm. 106 mins.

FROOGLE

yes, it's that time of the year again!

my wishlist hasn't really changed much from last year - it's just a bit shorter now.