CHOKE!

Last week the teaser poster for Chuck Palahniuk's Choke was released.

This week the trailer has been released.

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If you haven't already - READ IT!

Choke - The Movie

I have been meaning to mention this for some time and there is no way my words can convey this joyous news to you better than the writers on the cult:

Choke will hit theaters on August 1st, 2008!

Big News: Choke has been purchased by Fox Searchlight for $5 million. Choke has also won Best Ensemble Cast jury award at Sundance!

Chuck’s fourth novel Choke tells the story of Victor Mancini, self-proclaimed sex addict and fake restaurant choker. Turning regular diner patrons into instant “heros,” Victor fakes his way through life, exploiting funds from good Samaritans to keep his old mother from death’s door.

Choke had an approximate 30 day shooting schedule over the summer of 2007. It was budgeted at roughly 2 million dollars, and shot on location in Vernon, New Jersey. It sold on Tuesday, Jan 22nd, to Fox Searchlight Pictures for $5 million. Check out this interview with first-time director Clark Gregg on adapting Choke. Chuck has raved about Gregg's script, and already reviews pouring in from Sundance have been very positive. A little history on Gregg: He wrote the Robert Zemeckis thriller What Lies Beneath and, as an actor, is a regular on the hit TV show The New Adventures of Old Christine. Gregg adapted Choke into screenplay form and has been championing the project for years now. Here is Clark Gregg's IMDB page.

Recently finished:

Embroideries
Marjane Satrapi

The Nanny Diaries

Just finished this movie not an hour ago. The movie was good but terribly unlike the book. Scarlett Johanson however plays a great Annie.

The book was much better.
If you have already seen the movie - don't bother with the book - it won't be the same.

Oddfellows and Little Thinkers

Late last year I begun reading Jane Austen. Now I understand how she has become SUCH a favorite of so many.

Yesterday after MUCH reading I decided to treat myself to a movie - The Jane Austen Book Club. I remember when this book came out but for whatever reason it did not fully appeal to me. Shame. The movie was brilliant. Not just a movie about a book club - the characters of the book are living out the lives of the women in Austen novels.

Still enough is never enough. If you haven't heard of the little thinkers - OH MY GOD WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!? (Probably reading a slight bit more often than I who all too often falls victim to shopaholism)

BEHOLD!

Jane Austen Little Thinker

The little thinkers can be found on many sites such as unemployedphilosphersguild.com and shakespearesden.com (BTW they have some of the better prices online)

You can procure your own little thinker in such people as:
Edgar Allen Poe
Emily Dickenson
Che Guavara
Ghandi
Buddah
Karl Marx
Claude Monet
Van Gogh (WITH detachable ear!)
there are more but I'd hate to spoil the surprise

I must admit - I had to wiki Oddfellows:

The Oddfellows refers to a number of friendly societies operating in the UK. It also refers to a number of Lodges with histories dating back to the 1700s, and origins dating back to Biblical times.

These various organizations were set up to protect and care for their members at times when there was no welfare state, trade unions or National Health Service. The aim was (and still is) to provide help to members when they need it.

The friendly societies are non-profit organizations "owned" by their members, not by shareholders. All income is passed back to the members in the form of services and benefits.

The Oddfellows are fund raisers for both local and national charities. Branches raise money for local good causes and the Societies as a whole raise large amounts for charities.

Oddfellows Writers Collection

For any six degrees of separation game, comes the Oddfellows Writers Collection. Virginia Woolf and James Joyce were both born in 1882 and both died in 1941. Joyce had great difficulties getting his controversial book Ulysses published but finally had success with a bookshop named “Shakespeare and Company.” Both Shakespeare and Mark Twain were fond of tales of mistaken identities, such as Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper . Mark Twain was a harsh critic of Edgar Allen Poe and referred to his poetry as “unreadable.” Both Poe and Woolf suffered from bouts of depression, which led to their eventual deaths.

The Oddfellows Writers Collection includes Woolf, Poe, Twain, Shakespeare, and Joyce. Each figure measures approximately 2.5" tall. Unsuitable for small children.

These I have pretty much only seen at shakespearesden.com