Cuppacafe

One of the richest areas for mining movie material has always been literature. It is probably a safe bet to say that more prose books have been translated into movies than any other previously-published source material. Still, perhaps the most (shall we say) "unusual" form of translation is when a writer takes a previously-published source and then spins it sideways to have it come out as something, well different than the original form.

A couple of prime examples of this are when Rogers & Hammerstein took Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, and turned it into West Side Story or when Amy Heckerling took Jane Austen's novel Emma and (re)made it into Clueless.

Anyways, very soon, there is yet another tome that will be added to these films, it is a epic fantasy adventure involving Dragons, and is based on one of the most seminal works in all of English literature.

Herman Melville's Moby Dick. No, really, I'm not kidding. check it out after the jump.

(more...)

While I haven’t run out to burn, er buy my copy of Sarah’s book, I did watch Stephen Colbert review it.

Last night on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert discovered the one under-the-radar story that nobody is talking about: Sarah Palin's new book, "Going Rogue." Naturally, it was only fair for him to review it.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Grand Old Pity Party
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

You know, listening to Stephen ‘splain about the book just makes everything clearer.

In fact, the only thing that could help, is Jon Stewart chiming in as well:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Daily Show: The Rogue Warrior
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Perhaps, with a helping hand from John Oliver.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Excitement Over Sarah Palin's Book Release
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Ahhh, I feel better now!

The Perfessor

For a book. Take that, you movie hounds.

See more at Harper Collins.

So, a couple of months back, my Father-in-Law, Max, gave me this very funny little book entitled Yiddish with George & Laura. The book is a primer in the Yiddish language, as told through a visit with the still President Bush, his wife, Laura, and the Bush clan.

For the uninitiated, Yiddish — according to Wikipedia — (י’דיש yidish or א’ד’ש idish, literally “Jewish”) is a non-territorial High German language, spoken throughout the world but, unlike other such languages, is written with the Hebrew alphabet. It isn’t as prevelant as it was a generation ago, but it is experiencing something of a comeback.

Anyway, the book is rather cute, and tells a story about George and Laura utilizing Yiddish words liberally sprinkled throughout the tale. There is also a glossary of terms at the back of the book so that you can flip back and forth from the story to the glossary so that you can understand what is going on in the story.

The authors of the book, Ellis Weiner and Barbara Davilman previously wrote a similar book Yiddish with Dick and Jane. To be sure, you don’t have to be Jewish (or have Jewish In-Laws or friends) to appreciate the humor in these books, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

To get something of a feel for how the book reads, check out the following video (sound required).

that is told in the same fashion. I never saw that book, but if it is even half as funny as this one, you should get both.

The Perfessor

You've heard of audio mashups, with two songs being squished into one.

Here comes the a video mashup of sorts,

Mixing the plot from a famous novel/movie with a famous novelist

-- into --

What J.K.Rowling fears most...

sound req'd

Courtesy of Farktv

sound req'd for nice music track