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Things We Learned At The ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK 2014 PaleyFest!

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By AJ Feuerman

It was all about girl power at PaleyFest on Friday night as USA Today’s Andrea Mandell brought ten female members of the Orange is the New Black cast onto the stage along with creator/writer/EP Jenji Kohan.

They were joined by only two of the male cast members, Jason Biggs (Larry) and Michael Harney (Sam Healy).

There were still so many personalities missing making it easy to realize that the cast of this Netflix hit is a true force to be reckoned with.


Throughout the night they covered sexuality, gender roles, comedy, plot twists, family, rehab, mental health and so much more.


Check out the highlights of the panel after the jump.


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Lestat and Quiddich Return, Amtrak Wants Writers Aboard, The Rooster Calls & More

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At Pottermore.com, J.K. Rowling released the first chapter in a new, 2,400-word story about the Quidditch World Cup.
Book Riot presents some great spring break reading recommendations for you to enjoy.

Amtrak is trying a new program using a writer-in-residence who must commute a long distance to work, providing up to 24 writers with a bed and cabin to write in to help creativity.


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A Fond Farewell to HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER at PaleyFest 2014

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By AJ Feuerman
Saturday night at the Dolby Theater brought us Robin Sparkles, red cowboy boots, Neil Patrick Harris on Red Bull, legendary catch phrases and a bevy of fond memories of popular CBS sitcom, How I Met Your Mother, just a few episodes away from the end of its ninth and final season.

Frequent HIMYM guest star Wayne Brady served as the evening’s moderator, a role he was a natural at, though he did speak some on how much he’s enjoyed his time on the show at Barney’s (Harris) gay, black brother.

After his introduction, the audience got to preview Monday night’s episode – and it was one of the season’s best.


Afterward, Brady was joined on stage by Josh Radnor (Ted), Cobie Smulders (Robin), Alyson Hannigan (Lily), Cristin Milioti (The Mother), director Pamela Fryman, and show creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays.

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1001 MOVIES YOU SHOULD SEE (Before You Die)

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If you are a movie buff who thinks that you know everything there is to know about the history of film, then this might be a nice way to either validate your insane knowledge, or knock your movie snobbery down a peg or two.

Based upon the book series, 1001 Movies You Should See Before You Die by Steven Jay Schneider, this visual collection of movies (created in one year by Jonathan Keogh) showcases Schneider's picks as well as adds 215 more just to make it perfectly clear that you should probably watch a lot more movies then you already do.

Now, the best part of this endeavour is how the movies are set up in this 10-and-a-half minute movie, some are shown prominently while others are scattered behind in small boxes and short intervals so you will need a lot of movie knowledge to help you figure all of them out...which is perfect for a night of trivia fun with friends...or while you are home alone while your husband is out in San Francisco enjoying the yearly Game Developers Conference without you...but I digress.

Check it out after the break.

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How It's Unmade...The Sandwich Cookie (A Parody)

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If you have ever been sucked into a marathon session of Discovery's How It's Made then you already know how powerful that show can be when you are a) on cold medicine, b) hungover or c) really, really bored. I'm talking about watching twelve straight hours of how fans and buttons and Popsicles are constructed before realizing that the light in the sky is gone and you have systematically wasted an entire day from your life that you will never get back again.

It's fucking terrifying.

But this parody of that show (by using the actual show, how novel) sort of makes the loss of those twelve hours kind of worth it.

I'm not going to tell you more since it will ruin for you, but trust me, this is as strangely hypnotic as the real show.

Video after the break.

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MUSIC VIDEO MONDAY: Hey Ladies- Beastie Boys

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The declaration of a favorite Beastie Boys album is a sacred rite for those of us who can remember the very day that Licensed to Ill came out back in 1985. But of all the albums they released, it was Paul's Boutique that has remained in permanent rotation on my LP, cassette, CD and iPod collection for lo these many decades.

Now, while Shake Your Rump may be better remembered, it has always been Hey Ladies, that for me, takes me back to late night parties in rec rooms with the three-way lights turned in the low position while the sounds of mouth slurping intertwined between the lyrics:

Me in the corner with a good looking daughter 
I dropped my drawers and it was welcome back Kotter 
We were cutting up the rug she started cutting up the carpet
In my apartment I begged her please stop it 

Oh yes, those were some very good times.

Video after the break.

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The Pull List: THE SHADOW/GREEN HORNET: DARK NIGHTS, DREAM THIEF, and WONDER WOMAN V. 3: IRON

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graph·ic nov·el
noun 
1.  a novel in comic-strip format.
I read them all.  The good and the bad, so you don't have to.

Welcome to The Pull List.

And, as always...Spoilers ahead!


The Shadow/Green Hornet: Dark Nights Vol 1 TPB
Writer: Michael Uslan
Artist: Keith Burns
Colorist: Tony Avina
Cover: Alex Ross
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Price: $19.99
Release Date: March 12, 2014

Team ups in comics are nothing new. However, the way Michael Uslan does it brings style and guile to a great premise featuring two classic pulp heroes.

The Shadow and Green Hornet are no strangers to deep-rooted conspiracies and it’s their similar personality that makes them a perfect combination to foil a history altering plot.

Speaking of history, actual events tied into the main plot serves the story in dynamic fashion. The speculative nature paints the antagonist, Shiwan Khan, in a treacherous light.

As the reader, we know the outcome of events like World War II, but the thought that there was such a potent influence behind it all makes the stakes that much higher.

Keith Burns produces some masterful layouts throughout the book. The flair exhibited when an alligator breaks through walls and chews up folks, only for Kato to take it out with some Karate chopping action is a guilty pleasure worth experiencing. Come to think of it, I might make it my screen saver. 

Dark Nights is a fantastic read that works because of how the adventure unfolds. The volume one in the title of the book makes me up this isn’t the last we've seen of this intriguing pairing.

Score: 8/10


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JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT Bursts onto Blu-ray Combo, DVD and VOD 6/10


That Time of The Week - DVD & Blu-ray Releases From 3/11

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Only a week behind, folks, but don't worry, there's plenty of good within including the latest from the brothers Coen, an underappreciated sophomore effort from director Scott Cooper, an invisible dog movie, plus Statham, Van Damme, Lundgren and Vikings!

Fire up that queue and prep that shopping cart. It's that time of the week.


Inside Llewyn Davis

Sony / Released 3/11/14
Inside Llewyn Davis follows a week in the life of a young folk singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961. Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is struggling to make it as a musician against seemingly insurmountable obstacles - some of them of his own making. Living at the mercy of both friends and strangers, Llewyn's misadventures take him from the baskethouses of Greenwich Village to an empty Chicago club - on an odyssey to audition for a music mogul - and back again. Brimming with music performed by Isaac, Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan, as well as Marcus Mumford and Punch Brotheres, Inside Llewyn Davis is an epic on an intimate scale. The film represents the Coen Brothers' fourth collaboration with multiple-Grammy and Academy Award winning music producer T Bone Burnett.

Last Word:  The films of the Coen Brothers often feature some kind of anti-hero. Focusing on a single character's (or group of characters’) journey that rarely ends positively. Yet, even though characters can be cruel (No Country For Old Men), honorable (Fargo), ridiculous (Burn After Reading), hopeless (A Serious Man) or tough (True Grit), they evoke a great amount of respect, if not, an odd infatuation.  In Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel and Ethan Coen deliver something new: tenderness. A sensitive look at an insensitive man.  We are given a week in the life of a struggling folk singer, who refuses to compromise his integrity to become a successful artist.

And in a few timeless days the Coen’s illustrate the consequential self-destruction of pride.  Oscar Isaac is phenomenal as the title character. He is handsome mess easy to love and hate, simultaneously seductive and offensive with his big brown eyes and embittered speech. The duality makes the character incredible to watch.  Llewyn Davis is, as Carey Mulligan’s, Jean Berkey, puts it, “an ASS HOLE”.

That unyielding need to become a successful folk singer requires a certain level of arrogance and selfishness. But it comes with the expense of isolation, resentment, and disappointment from family and friends. He strives to live, to succeed, not simply “exist”, as he puts it. Llewyn drifts from couch to couch, living on a few bucks and bummed cigarettes. He faces rejection and sadness, barely surviving. And yet he still strums his guitar, singing with verve and raw emotion, which makes him such a genius and such a fool.  Llewyn really can’t catch a break, or make a friend.

His bitter desperation is at once pathetic and endearing, but his scruffy bohemian demeanor remains sexy, and his voice is undeniably beautiful and full of soul – each time he sang I was completely enthralled. The melancholy of Llewyn’s life is palpable and depressing, depicted beautifully through the Coens’ lens. Alongside the musical brilliance of T-Bone Burnett, Inside Llewyn Davis is a gorgeous picture, saddened by the Coens' writing and illuminated by the music.

The Coen Brothers often stay camera-close to their characters creating a visceral journey that we enjoy, and/or fear, alongside them. And as we take the journey, hoping for, wishing for the directors to give us a happy ending, the ultimate tragedy is always that much more poignant.  Llewyn really is incredibly talented, but the market just isn’t having it.  He wants to be a great artist – making music about struggling and deep heartfelt emotion. He’s not interested in crowd-pleasing or saccharine. He is profoundly anti-what-the-people-want. Thus, the cookie cutter good boy acts (Justin Timberlake and Stark Sands as Jim Berkey and Troy Nelson, respectively) beat him every time.

Contrasting the good boys, is John Goodman as Roland Turner, a wise-and-full-of-shit jazz musician whose insistent condescending advice and anecdote spewing ceases only when he returns to a drug-induced slumber. Goodman’s presence is claustrophobic and mean, but entertaining. Opposing Goodman’s grotesqueness is Garrett Hedlund who simply skipped over from On the Road. Speaking sparingly, with marbles in his mouth, his presence only exacerbates Llewyn’s hopelessness.  Carey Mulligan as Jean Berkey looks like a pure folk singer, harmonizing with her doofus of a husband and wide-eyed army friend. But beneath the surface lies a different sort of desperation.  Where Llewyn is obnoxious, she is furious, angry at herself, at Llewyn, at her status. She wants the perfect life, to be a singer, to be a suburban wife. But unlike Llewyn, Jean compromises all of her morals for the sake of success. Mulligan’s ability to appear simultaneously pure and self-loathing is incredible.

Beyond being a wonderful character study, the movie features several memorable musical performances and the soundtrack begs to be revisited and enjoyed.  Joel and Ethan Coen again and again create imperfect depictions of people that are accurate, sad, devious and incredibly authentic. (– Caitlyn Thompson)


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There's A Sh*t-Talking, Scrabble-Playing Robot That Can Hurt You Emotionally Rather Than Physically Now...Just Like Your Brother

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Students at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics division have created a Scrabble-playing robot named Victor who enjoys insulting players as they attempt to win points from him using words like anoopsia or oidioid...whatever the hell they mean (I know what they mean, I have a dictionary, but really, who plays words like that when they have access to "Moo" or "Cat"?).

While a robot playing Scrabble would seem to be a natural winner at the game (because of their devil-enriched brain-power), Robotics Professor Reid Simmons and his students made sure that normal, stupid people (like us) could play Victor, and possibly beat him, by limiting his word usage to only 8,592 words that appear in the book The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes instead of the 178,691 words that are usable in Scrabble tournaments. By giving him such access to such a small amount of words, it allows Victor to become a huge, frustrated jack-off who uses emotional abuse to intimidate his opponents instead of brain power.

To make playing Victor similar to playing with your asshole brother, Victor has been programmed to say demeaning things like:

If I had $1 for every good word I played, I would still hate you. 
Since you're human, I guess you think that's a pretty good move. 
I cannot believe dude is that lucky, I can't believe your feeble mind was able to play that word. 
Your word scored less than a CMU student at a party. 
This is not happy land of make believe. We only use real words.


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TO SPRING: A Bizarre 1930s Animated Love Song To The Season of Renewal...And Elves

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According to this 1936 Happy Harmonies animation, To Spring, the reason the season is so schizophrenic is because we have left it up to a slave-class of elves (who live underground) to battle Old Man Winter (a white guy) in an epic fight to see which one will ultimately win.

Will it be the God-like Cracker who will usher in yet another month of snow and temperatures that make your nether region ache, or will the hard-working elves overcome their adversity of rock splitting and fire-stoking in order to warm up the earth and bitch slap that Winter Honky into submission for a few months?

Watch and find out after the break...stupid white people trying to keep it cold and shit.

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Here's That TRUE DETECTIVE/KING OF THE HILL Mash-Up You've Been Looking For

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It was only a matter of time before these two visionary television shows would get all Mashed together to create one exquisite piece of entertainment that will blow your frakking mind.

Go on...Touch the Darkness sugar...before it touches you.

Video after the break.

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Win a DIVERGENT Prize Pack Fom CAFE PRESS

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The much-anticipated feature film Divergent is set to hit theaters this Friday and thanks to our friends at CafePress we're giving away a prize package to a Forces of Geek reader.

Designed for movie goers by movie goers, CafePress features already more than 40 thousand products available featuring designs inspired by the film and its factions - Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless or Erudite – movie goers are guaranteed to find the best way to define their style – with T-Shirts, mugs or great iPhone cases.

Our prize package includes:

One Choice Can Transform You T-Shirt



Depicting the tagline from the novel turned into movie Divergent, and the 5 faction symbols: Dauntless, Abnegation, Candor, Erudite and Amity.


Divergent Factions Canvas Messenger Bag


Hit the road with this raw-edged and dyed canvas messenger bag. This design featuring the symbols all five of the factions: Dauntless, Abnegation, Candor, Erudite, and Amity.  Made of 100% cotton canvas with adjustable shoulder strap, antique brass slider & D-ring, large flap with magnetic snap     Side and zipped exterior and interior pockets

Enter after the jump.

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"Previously on LOST" - 9 Things We Learned at the LOST 10th Anniversary PaleyFest Panel

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Thousands of die-hard Lost fans, including a few in authentic Dharma jumpsuits, packed the Dolby Theater Sunday night for a panel celebrating the show's 10th anniversary. (No, it's not quite 10 years, since Lost premiered on September 22, 2004, but close enough.)


On the panel were exec-producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and cast members Josh Holloway, Ian Somerhalder, Maggie Grace, Henry Ian Cusick, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Jorge Garcia and an all-grown-up Malcolm David Kelley. Comedian Paul Scheer moderated, and began by advising the audience that questions about the mysteriously missing real-life Flight 370 would be wildly inappropriate.


After a showing of the still terrific and tearjerking “Exodus Part 1” from Season 1, the questions got inappropriate in other ways, such as the guy in the Dharma jumpsuit (and a Matthew Fox mask) who asked Holloway to sign the suit, since it appeared to have his blood on it. An uncomfortable Holloway declined, pointing out, “You already have my DNA!”

After Holloway shared that one overzealous fan offered him a chicken dinner, another (male) fan offered just that if they answered his question. Of course, by then, “chicken dinner” had become code for “sex,” so Lindelof hesitated to give a too-thorough answer.

What was evident throughout the evening was the cast's love for each other and the still obsessive nature of its fans as they watched the ep, cheering Holloway's shirtlessness, chuckling at Arzt's impending explosion and shedding tears over the emotional farewells as the raft sailed.

Among the revelations:

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SXSW Review - 'THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE' 40th Anniversary Restoration

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Review by Todd Sokolove
Produced by Kim Henkel, Tobe Hooper, 
Jay Parsley, Richard Saenz
Written by Kim Henkel, Tobe Hooper
Directed by Tobe Hooper
Starring Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, Gunnar Hansen,
Paul A. Partain, Teri McMinn, William Vail, Edwin Neal


Introducing the the after-screening Q&A of the pivotal horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, SXSW founder Louis Black said it best...

"I just watched The Texas Chainsaw Massacre sitting next to Tobe Hooper!  How cool is that?!"

Though I can't claim I was next to the celebrated director during the screening, it was certainly incredible to be in the same auditorium with the man, let alone hear what he had to say about the movie 40 years after its initial release.



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ForcesOfGeek.com and SuperHeroStuff.com Team Up! Plus Save 15%!

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ForcesOfGeek.com, the source for the coolest pop culture observations and commentary has partnered with SuperHeroStuff.com, the premier destination for pop culture and comic merchandise.

"Im really excited to work with the folks at SuperHeroStuff.  I've long been a fan of theirs as a customer, and creating an online portal with us is really exciting," said Stefan Blitz, founder and editor-in-chief of Forces of Geek.

Micah Dwire of SuperHeroStuff added, “We are thrilled to be working with Stefan and the other contributors from Forces of Geek. We share a common interest in super hero related things and our staff can lose hours on their site!”

And to celebrate our partnership, we've got a special coupon code giving Forces of Geek readers 15% off!  At checkout enter the coupon code FOG15.  A link on our banners as well as the on the right of this page will take you to the Forces of Geek storefront on the SuperHeroStuff site.

Code is valid through April 30th.


CHRISTOPHER WALKEN Busts Some Serious Moves In This Dancing Supercut To End All Dancing Supercuts

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Christopher Walken is one of those guys who you secretly believe will skin and eat you if you accidentally let yourself be alone with him. But for some unknown reason you aren't that upset by the idea, after-all, it is CHRISTOPHER WALKEN who will be murdering you.

Besides this preternatural skill to calm potential victims with his bedroom/homicidal eyes, Walken has also become somewhat of a dancing king ever since he appeared in Fatboy Slim's Weapon of Choice video, busting moves that defy logic. Upon viewing Walken dancing, the public was entranced and ached with an almost religious fervour for him to do nothing else...not acting...not staring intently into a camera...nothing but stretching his taut and muscled thighs and simply dancing like the seductive demon he is.

But we all forgot something, Walken has always been dancing in some capacity in his long career of movies. In fact, here's 57 of them in which this trained dancer (yes, he actually trained to be a musical theater dancer at the Washington Dance Studio) let his feet and hips gyrate over the last 36 YEARS. 

And it's all supercut to C+C Music Factory's Everbody Dance Now...As it should be.

Video after the break.

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Watch LIGHTS OUT, A Horror Short That Will Make You Sh*t Yourself

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When my husband is away attending conferences I like to make my life a bit more difficult by watching horror movies at night and then staying awake from self-imposed terror until the sun comes up.

That's just how I roll.

But regardless of my idiocy when it comes to scaring myself silly while completely and utterly alone for weeks at a time, there has to be something seriously wrong with Swedish filmmaker/demon David Sandberg for creating a short so fucking scary that when viewing it, the audience is forced to sleep with all the lights on for the remainder of their lives.

And no I'm not even kidding a little bit.

In 2:41, Sandberg manages to bring to the surface that one fear that we still carry around from childhood, that there's something lingering in the dark that will happily kill us, and he does it so beautifully that no one will escape from that terror. Which is probably why this short won Best Director at the Who's There Film Challenge competition in 2013.

Watch Lights Out after the break...but you might want to turn on all the lights first.

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LITERATURE AND GOOGLY EYES...You Know You Always Wanted To Combine the Two

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Googly Eye Books is a Tumblr blog that celebrates two things, literature and the awesomeness of self-stick googly eyes.

While the combination of these two things might seem odd, it isn't. In fact, by attaching these plastic doo-dads to the covers of books, they almost seem inviting. Think back to those days of required reading (if you are not already being subjected to a reading list that kills your soul), how much easier would it have been to tackle Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged if you were handed a book that looked like this?


Wouldn't you be more apt to read it if you could stare into the adorably cute eyes that rolled around comically as if to say, "Yeah, I think this is full of shit too"?

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Hey, Hey It's THE GHOULIGANS...

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The Ghouligans! are back and they’re better than ever!

If you’ve never heard of The Ghouligans! before, then prepare to be enlightened, my friend. Boris Stein, Wolfgang W. Wolfgang, and Void star in their very own comedy show where they create a plethora of mischief and mayhem!

If The Monkees made a baby with The Munsters, this would be that freakish, darling lovechild.



If The Ghouligans! are new to you, here’s a little backstory on them.

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