Hey pretty people! I hope you can still forgive me for not writing again. I have been super busy as I’m sure you all have. Today I have a rant for you. Not necessarily about beauty, but bare with me. Over break, I went to a pub in downtown Naperville. When I was there, I ordered a drink and they checked my ID. Apparently, they refuse to accept any IDs with red on them. Huh? But I’m 21. Yeah, I guess that doesn’t matter to them. They said they only accepted it 2 weeks after you turn 21. Well, it had been 3 weeks. And I was going to the DMV the next day. Too bad for me. I am still outraged over this. My license is a legal document and is valid. WHY CAN’T YOU ACCEPT IT PEOPLE?!

Luckily, I don’t have to worry about this anymore because I did get it renewed. Now, we all have had our drivers licenses since we were 16 (well, most of us) and we all have had to live with those pictures since we were 16. Renewing your license is a chance to finally have a fabulous picture.

With that in mind, I smudged charcoal eyeliner on my lids, darkened my brows, swiped my lashes with my Diorshow mascara and put rosy blush on my cheeks. After being at the DMV for an hour and a half, I was finally ready to take my picture. The pièce de résistance of my look was the Too Faced Lip Injection Extreme that I put on right before camera time.

This lip plumper actually works because it has something in it that stings your lips, so your lips swell and get a hint of red color. They sting for a few minutes and then voilà! Plumped, pretty lips with a glossy sheen over them.

I thought this look would be good for my picture, but alas, I forgot about the florescent lighting. A girl’s worst enemy. Of course my picture turned out looking ugly, again, and I am now resolved to the fact that I will never have a decent license picture. Why won’t people learn that florescent lighting isn’t good for anyone??

But life goes on and I will just have to live with my picture!

To get the Too Faced Lip Injection Extreme, check out good ole Sephora.com. It’s $27.50 and right now Sephora is offering free shipping with orders over $50. Christmas presents anyone?

Also, I would love to know what you all think about this concept. Good or bad idea?

Let me know! MUAH. xoxoxo

Last night Evanescence brought their goth-rock/nu metal to a Champaign crowd of students and plenty of parents with their younger children. The band cast a wide net over their career by playing a good selection of songs from each of their albums.

They opened with two songs from their newer disc, “The Open Door,” which came out last October. Lead singer Amy Lee told the crowd that this is the last tour on “The Open Door” cycle, and it was clear that fans have become familiar with the new songs, as they even sang along to some that haven’t been released as singles.

Highlights of the show were “Going Under,” “Bring Me To Life,” “Haunted” and “Whisper” from their debut album “Fallen”; and “Call Me When You’re Sober,” “Your Star,” “Lacrymosa” and “Good Enough,” from “The Open Door.” “Bring Me To Life” was the song that the band first exploded onto the scene with in 2003, when it was featured in the sub-par superhero flick “Daredevil.” Last night the song benefited from the omission of the rap and screaming parts in the song; Lee is more than capable of carrying that chorus herself.

While I am usually a fan of the heavier side of Evanescence, my favorite part of last night was the beautiful piano ballad “Good Enough.” Lee sat at a piano, with the stage to herself for the song. The quiet simplicity of the song really allows you to get lost in her voice. The band’s more famous piano ballad, “My Immortal,” was accompanied by the loudest singing of the evening from the crowd. I’m not sure how many times they must have played that song by now, but they don’t appear to have lost any energy on it.

The closer of the evening, “Your Star,” was a nice surprise. It’s not a song that I have particularly paid attention to when listening to “The Open Door,” but I think last night’s energetic performance had me humming it for the rest of the night.

I’ll just jump right into the haranguing today.

The Mist: I saw this movie a few days ago. It’s another Stephen King adaptation by Frank Darabont, who has previously adapted King’s “Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile” for the big screen.  This film is more outwardly terrifying than those other two movies.

 It takes place in a small town in New England, like pretty much any King story. A nearby military base performs some sort of terrible experimentation and apparently opens some sort of link to an extremely misty parallel dimension that is filled with an extremely large variety of different things that want to kill us. I thought that was kind of an amusing thing about the otherwise bleak film–everything in this entire dimension seems to be some sort of deadly horror. It seems like a decidedly unpleasant place.

 It’s a pretty scary movie, because you just have no idea the whole time what is happening to the poor inhabitants of the town, who hole up in the local grocery store and try to hold off the misty evils. Bunker-state of mind sets in pretty darn quickly, and the greatest atrocities of the movie are committed by the cloistered population as it descends into paranoia and extremism. It is a somewhat anti-Christian film, as King’s sometimes are. The real villain of sorts is a dogmatic Christian woman who preaches that the end times have come and demands blood sacrifices.

It is a very powerfully morose movie. Do not go looking for a happy ending, and sugar-coated fluff. Some reviews have blasted the film for being over-pessimistic and hopeless, but I just thought that made it more interesting. I for one was taken in by the sad ending, expecting things to work out better for the characters. I’d read enough Stephen King to know that he usually likes happy enough endings. It turns out, though, that Darabont created a much bleaker ending than in King’s original story, which probably helped the film. As the pre-eminent King film-maker, I guess Darabont gets to do what he wants.

Hollywood needs more movies like this. This is a horror movie in the vein of what horror movies can and should be, and not what Roger Ebert likes to call “Torture Porn”. We are living in an age of Saw movies, of Hostel movies, of “horror” movies which consist of nothing but women being captured by crazy people who torture them. I for one am tired of it. The last two Stephen King adaptations to hit theaters, “The Mist”, and “1408″ are real horror films.

The Dark Knight: I haven’t talked about it before, but “The Dark Knight” is the title of the next Batman movie.  If you’ve been living under a rock, let me remind you that Heath Ledger, of all people, is playing the Joker in this one. I’m not sure exactly how to feel about it, so I am sticking with “Cautious Optimism”. A full-photo of Ledger in his full Joker getup was just released though, check this out. THE JOKER.

Be Kind Rewind: I had never heard of this movie until a minute ago. I clicked over to the site to watch the trailer, thinking that it looked stupid and that I would be making fun of it. But you know what? It’s really pretty interesting. The site design is especially neat.

The movie has a dumb premise, but bear with me: Jack Black and Mos Def run an old VHS video store. SOMEHOW…Jack Black’s body becomes magnetic, erasing all the tapes. So he and Mos Def refilm all of the films in their library themselves, movies like “Ghostbusters”, “Driving Miss Daisy”, all sorts of stuff. And people really dig the movies. Then Black and Def battle the FBI for violating copying policy. Check out the trailer. It’s more interesting than it sounds.

Walk Hard: They dropped a new trailer for Judd Apatow’s “Walk Hard” movie with John C. Reilly.  Reilly, for those who don’t know him, was Ricky Bobby’s wingman in “Talladega Nights”.  The trailer is rated R, well, because there’s somewhat more people being cut in half in it than most. Watch.

A dark cloud continues to hang over Hollywood, although it may not be there much longer. Earlier today the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers restarted talks as the Writers Guild strike enters its fourth week. Whether this will mean progress is hard to say, but getting them in the same room again is certainly a start.

On a light-hearted note, check out what Writer Boi of the … er … WGA Crew has to say about it.

Hello everybody. By “everybody”, I mean the few family and friends who actually bother reading my entries. You’d think they’d consult someplace a bit closer to the actual Hollywood machine for their movie news instead of a third-year journalism student with his ear to the ground, but some people are just inscrutable.

Today I have a hodgepodge of news for you. For your convenience I’ve cleverly arranged it in no particular order whatsoever.

Beowulf: I had no real thoughts on Beowulf as it came out, being pretty much ready to dismiss it as,

1. An ill-concieved update on a story that only high-school kids taking English literature have any recent connection to

and

2. Another movie featuring the creepy sort of pseudo-realistic animation of the sort that brought us the souless, waxy visage of Tom Hanks in “The Polar Express”.

I have read a bit more about it, though, and found that it was written by Neil Gaiman, the award-winning author of novels (”American Gods”, “Anansi Boys” ) and graphic novels. (”The Sandman” series) I really do enjoy the guy’s books. I have my hopes that he would not associate himself with an overly terrible project.  I plan on seeing Beowulf soon, and I will then let you know which of my gut instincts proved correct.

John Rambo: I thought it was kind of interesting what Sylvester Stallone said recently. He gave us what amounts to sort of a psychological analysis of Rambo’s character in the next film. Check this out.

“(Rambo) realizes his entire existence has been for naught,” Stallone says of the fourth flick. “Peace is an accident; war is natural. Old men start it, young men fight it, everybody in the middle dies, and nobody tells the truth. He says, ‘You think God’s going to make it all go away? What has He done and changed in the world? He has done nothing. We are an aggressive animal and will never be at peace.’ That’s how he feels.”

Tim Burton: I sometimes think that I could probably just write an entire blog about Burton and just Burton. He always has his fingers in so many things. I don’t even like the guy all that much, but boy is he newsworthy. He has two new projects he’s working on, and here’s the catch: they’re both in GLORIOUS 3-D! I guess having his classic “Nightmare Before Christmas” shown in 3-D has gotten him interested? The first of the two projects is a remake of Lewis Carroll’s classic “children’s” novel, “Alice in Wonderland”. The second is “Frankenweenie”, a full-length version of one of Tim Burton’s early claymation shorts. I believe the original Frankenweenie was included in the special features of the “Nightmare Before Christmas” dvd, and the story is rather morbid, considering it’s about a dog brought back to life by his owner. I guess think “Old Yeller” meets “Re-Animator”.

Cloverfield: I leave you with one last tidbit about my pet super-secret monster-movie, Cloverfield. It is officially called “Cloverfield”, for one. Now we get to start the arduous process of wondering why, WHY is it called Cloverfield? A new trailer apparently debutes with Beowulf. Just one more reason I’ll be heading out to see it soon. Rumors persist that this J.J. Abrams monster flick is a new attempt to restart the “Godzilla” franchise on American shores. The big scaly guy has been absent both here and in Japan for some time now, because Japanese film-makers decided that even the Japanese market needed a rest from Godzilla for a little while. He may be ready to make a stompin’ return, except he’ll be stomping New York and not Tokyo.

 Happy Thanksgiving everybody. We should all celebrate by watching Eli Roth’s “Thanksgiving” trailer from “Grindhouse”.

 I really wish more people had gone and seen that movie.

-Jim

Tomorrow night Jimmy Eat World comes to town with Tampa, Fla. based band The Almost. The group was founded by Aaron Gillespie of Underoath. Gillespie recorded their debut album, “Southern Weather,” by himself. Since then The Almost has become a full band. Drummer Kenny Bozich said he is excited to open for Jimmy Eat World at tomorrow’s show.

“I know they draw a lot of college kids and stuff like that. I think it’s going to be awesome, I hope their fans like us as well,” Bozich said.

Leading up to the show The Almost has been on tour with Paramore, who they have been on the road with before.

“For the Paramore tour, a lot of the shows are sold out,” Bozich said. “I think we’re all gonna be stoked with the end product of this tour.”

Although The Almost haven’t talked about recording a new album yet, Bozich said he thinks they will begin discussing it soon. He added that since they have become a full band, he hopes the whole band will go into the studio rather than Gillespie recording by himself as he did on the first album.

Ultimately, Bozich’s goal with the band is to stay afloat.

“Being able to pay bills by playing music and doing something you love to do,” he said. “I know we’d do it whether we could pay bills or not, but it would definitely help.”

I have a cornucopia of things for you today. Let us bask in this Autumn bounty.

Troll 2: Alright, I have to explain a couple things first.  In 1992, one of the worst movies ever was filmed. It was called Troll 2. It starred a man who had been a dental student until the day before filming, and is now a dentist.

This…thing…is about a family that shows up in the town of “Nilbog” (read it backwards, har har har) and is attacked by tiny goblin-men. There are no trolls in the movie. A movie called Troll 2 has zero trolls in it. Yes.

The movie flew into internet noteriety after it was reviewed on the humor site SomethingAwful. That review (and it is hilarious) can be found here. To quote the review,

“To break up the tension and bickering, the mom steps in and requests Jonathan to “sing that song I like so much.” The song, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” was obviously too technical and confusing for the mother to recall the name of, but that still doesn’t quite explain why she liked it “so much.” I would guess it’s because she’s an idiot, but I’ve been wrong before.”

It goes much further than that. After this, though, most people were content to sit back and enjoy the big steaming pile of a movie that Troll 2 is.

But not all people. Today I learned of a new documentary being produced by people like me–people who really love terrible movies. It is called “Best.Worst.Movie”, and it is a documentary about the making of Troll 2 and how it went from being hailed as possibly the worst film of all time (lowest rating of 2006 on IMDB) to a cult classic. They released a long trailer showing Troll 2 fans and people who were in the original movie, and that can be seen here. Words cannot convey my joy.

Major Movie Star: While we’re on the topic of bad movies, I should tell you about this. It’s a movie about Jessica Simpson joining the army. Watch this trailer. What it right now. I’ll wait, drop everything and WATCH.

You done watching? Good, now if you can convince me that your life has not been cheapened by watching, I owe you a drink.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: An interesting featurette has just hit the web, about the Quidditch matches in the upcoming movie. There has been a lack of Quidditch in the recent films, mostly due to the fact that it’s not important to the actual plot, but it was too big a part of this book to ignore. In the featurette, a fashionista explains to us that the new leather padding (They look sort of like Red Grange on a broomstick now) makes them look much tougher (or “match-oh”, as she pronounces it). This interesting tidbit can be viewed right here.

-Jim

Knowing that you have all been as busy as me, with your laptops permanently attached to your, well, laps, I’m sure you’ll forgive me for not writing. Even now I am supposed to be writing two papers due at the end of the week, and I am choosing to write to you lovely people instead. That, and watch America’s Next Top Model, Gossip Girl and the Season Premier of Project Runway! (you see, it’s all about your priorities) Anyway, I’ve also been waiting for a special package to arrive from Sephora and after repeatedly missing the UPS driver, I finally have the ultimate makeup kit in my possession!

It’s the 2007 Sephora Blockbuster Collector’s Palette and it is fabulous. Remember those big makeup kits built like a toolbox with the hot pink and blue colors that you would happily play with when you were about 8? Well, it’s really nothing like that, apart from the multiple colors that come altogether and the happiness it brings! It’s a relatively small box, complete with 32 lip colors, 16 cream eyeshadows, 48 regular eyeshadows, 7 blush colors and one shimmer powder! I was completely surprised at the sheer number of things packed into this box, even with the three sliding compartments.

The colors are all gorgeous, and there is definitely something for every skin color, in fact, there are multiple things! Plus, the Sephora brand makeup has the reputation of being high quality. I haven’t played around with it as much as I would like what with my homework eating me alive, but what I have played with I have loved!

The only problem that I have with the kit so far is the brushes that come with. They are very stiff and small and probably cost $.50 each. But if you use your own brushes, everything should be ok.

Get it online at Sephora for $48 but hurry because it is a limited edition and these things tend to sell out fast, especially around Xmas. If you buy it online now, you can get free shipping on orders over $50 for a limited time. The good thing about shopping online is that you get to pick up to three samples to include with your purchase. I got a mini Cargo bronzer, Ole Henriksen nourishing night cream and L’Occitane Radiance Moisturizing Cream and there were many more things to choose from.

Oh I love makeup and you all. muah! xoxoxo

If you’re not familiar with The Academy Is… yet, Tuesday is as good a time as any to open up your ears. They are playing a show at The Canopy Club as part of their Sleeping With Giants tour, with Armor For Sleep, Cobra Starship, The Rocket Summer and Sherwood. The closing show of the tour on Thanksgiving weekend in Chicago is already sold out, so this may be your last chance to see them for a while.

The Academy Is… were signed to Fueled By Ramen and have since toured internationally and released two CDs and an EP. Being from the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, the band is fairly familiar with Champaign-Urbana.

“We’ve played at The Canopy Club many times, we played there I think two or three times with Fall Out Boy. Our drummer’s first show with the band was at Canopy,” said Adam Siska, bassist for The Academy Is…

The Sleeping With Giants tour is now in its final two weeks, after travelling all over the country since it started in September. Cobra Starship just recently joined the tour.

“We’ve actually been touring with Cobra Starship for a long time now,” Siska said. “We started on the Honda Civic tour … we’ve kind of become best friends of sorts.”

However, Siska said they haven’t gone too crazy on the road. He said the craziest things that have happened to them so far were when a “disgusting” 14-year-old girl kissed him on the mouth and when a girl resembling Jabba the Hutt flashed their bus.

“We’re a pretty laid back bunch of guys, we hang back in the bus after shows and try to hang out with the Armor and Cobra guys. We’ve just got into this Halo game,” Siska said.

It certainly appears that The Academy Is… has as much fun as anybody on stage, as evidenced by this episode of TAITV (The Academy Is… Television). The group pulls off a Halloween show in style.

“The Halloween show was a blast … now we know how KISS always felt before playing a show. Or My Chemical Romance or any of those makeup-wearing bands,” Siska said.

The band is currently promoting the album “Santi,” which they released in April. Siska called the record a progressive one for the group.

“I think we made a lot of new fans on this record, maybe fans that didn’t know the first record,” he said. “We’re excited to make a new record, we’re going back into the studio this winter.”

The Academy Is… plays at The Canopy Club, 708 S. Goodwin Ave., Tuesday night. The doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Armor For Sleep, Cobra Starship, The Rocket Summer and Sherwood open. Tickets cost $20 in advance.

Whether or not FOX’s “The Next Great American Band” can reach the large fanbase “American Idol” procured, the show does feature some talented bands. Last week, Los Angeles based band The Likes of You did not receive enough votes to move forward to the top 10, which surprised lead singer Geoff Byrd.

“There were only a million and a half votes all together … I don’t feel like it was representative of all of America, but at the same time it was a bummer,” he said.

However, Byrd said it only took him about a weekend to get over it. After all, there were thousands of auditions narrowed down to 12 for the show. His five-month-old band The Likes of You is looking to get into the studio quickly.

“Looking back on it, I feel like it was the best thing that could have happened to us, for sure,” Byrd said. “We can actually move on to make a CD.”

The show will now move on to an all cover format. Byrd said this is a result of the show moving from two hours to one hour, which means there is only time for each band to play one song rather than two.

“The show is now doing only covers from now on,” Byrd said. “The only reason I wanted to get involved with it is original music.”

He likened the experience of being on the show to a band boot camp. It’s easy to see how that could be the case for a band that just started five months ago. Byrd has plenty of solo material from previous years, but said he wanted to deal more with new songs with his band.

“I wrote about seven or eight songs in two weeks, which is basically the crux of the new record,” Byrd said.

He said the new record is all written and the band will begin recording soon. The group’s chemistry has been solid from the beginning.

“We all got into a rehearsal and there was no trying out for the band,” Byrd said. “After the first song it was so good that it was like ‘Oh, this is a band.’”

For more information on The Likes of You, check out their Web site. “The Next Great American Band” continues tonight on FOX.