YOUTUBE: Betty White's Hoodies

As a follow-up to the post from yesterday about Betty White's partnership with clothier Hoodie Buddie to raise money to benefit the Morris Animal Foundation, comes this farse of an advertisement naming White as the "designer of the year". Full of White's sartorial wit and some great one-liners, the spot amkes it clear why this woman is a national treasure, even if she's got a mouth like a sailor.


Sergio del Limonar

APPAREL: Betty White's Hoodies

Comediene extraordinaire and everyone's favorite octagenarian is, as they say on the shirt, "White Hot" right now. Ex-Golden Girl and pop-culture phenomena, Betty White is riding an incredible and unexpected career wave for all its worth. Well, join in the fun and head over to Hoodie Buddie and get a piece of the action with your very own Betty White apparel.

T-shirts and hoodies - complete with built-in technology to suit your iPod - in a multitude of designs and colors. My favorite is the white "Propaganda" hoodie and t-shirt with a black and white campaign poster-style print on the front with the word "Betty" printed boldly below. The holiday season is fast approaching, folks! This is great gift for you or your funniest friends!

Sergio del Limonar

MOVIE: Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Middle School is a painful time for most kids. Usually when I meet someone who exclaims that they "loved" this awkward time of adolescence I figure they were one of the ones who made my life miserable. For Greg Heffley, however, as much as he tries to navigate the halls of popularity and ridicule, he finds himself slipping further and further down the social ladder.

Based on the illustrated novel of the same name by Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid infuses both Kinney's sketches with live action to create an endearing film that will cause cringes and laughs. Whether being separated into shirts and skins in P.E., being surrounded by girls who have all had their growth spurts, or putting up with a good friend from elementary school who hasn't begun to recognize the new social norms - "How many times do have to tell you? Middle School kids say 'hang out' not 'do you want to play'!" - Greg, played amazingly by Zachary Gordon, is the perfect guide.

While its not great nostalgia, but it reminds us that, although we may not want to repeat this time of our lives, we can be oddly proud to have survived it.

Sergio del Limonar

MOVIE: Zombieland

Regrettably, the first zombie movie I ever saw was 2004's British comedy, Shaun of the Dead. Since then I've seen parts of other's in the same genre sans the comedy aspect. I prefer to laugh while I'm being occasionally startled.

Zombieland is the American answer to "Shaun" and I enjoyed every gratuitously violent minute. Other than a great concept and script, you have Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin in the same movie; if that doesn't scream "movie worth checking out" I don't know what does!

Anyone who likes horror/zombie flicks will love this movie. Also, if you're any kind of film buff, there is a cornucopia of movie references in both dialogue and action. See if you can spot shout-outs to Babe, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Deliverance, and many more! Just another added bonus to seeing this great comedy!

Buzzy

YOUTUBE: Twilight (What Have You Done To My Wife?)

As Twilight-mania seems to be currently overcome by blue space aliens, real world shaping events like the Haitian earthquake, or just general boredom, I'm sure it will only be short-lived. Another book or subsequent movie is right around the corner and at the very least, someone else will attempt to knock-off the genre and get a few bucks out of it.

In the mean time, the band Shallow Day has made a video for a song capturing their frustrations. "Twilight (What Have You Done To My Wife)" begs the question of how a "pale skinned Cullin who's ass-shaped" can steal the hearts of some many normally-levelheaded women?

The video is low-budget but has evidence of a Dracula-sized castle full of creativity. I love the werewolf posse the band acquires as they walk down the street. Ironic, as the lyrics hint, that a book and movie franchise about vampires and werewolves can turn people to zombies!

Sergio del Limonar

MOVIE: What's Up Doc?

Time for an unlikely blast from the past. Now, I feel that in the spirit of honesty I need to state that right off the bat that Barbra Streisand is in the movie. Pleasedon'trunawaysheonlysingsonceandthesceneisnotthatimportantsoyoucanskipitifyouwant!

Still there? Good.

The 1972 film, What's Up, Doc?, is slapstick comedy at it's most intelligent. The genre is pretty much dead, and for good reason, but with this movie, we see why it had its charm.

Directed by Peter Bogdanovich and also starring Ryan O'Neal as a nervous and awkward "musicologist," Dr. Howard Bannister, with a bag full of his precious igneous rocks, the story becomes a who knows what, has what, heard who say what to whom, switcheroo. Streisand's Judy, who looks surprisingly like a young Jennifer Aniston, plays a woman who has been in and out of many colleges for short attempts at many degrees.

One mishap turns in to another which rolls into a third until the entire cast is wrapped up in one messy ball of wax. A scene at musicologist's banquet in which Judy, against Howard's wishes, posses as his fiance in an attempt to win him a $20,000 grant is especially humorous. A turn of events that results in a fire in a hotel room will also cause you to laugh out loud.

With all it's got going against it - Streisand, slap-stick, 70's chic styling - this movie is bound to become a favorite...if you can find it.

Sergio del Limonar

MOVIE: 2 Days In Paris

If there ever was a great self-indulgent dark comedy about mediocre love, this is it. From 2007, 2 Days In Paris is the story of a couple, American Jack (Adam Goldberg) and Marion (Julie Delpy), who is French but lives in New York, and their two days in Paris following a relationship-testing trip to Venice.

Written and directed by Delpy, the film looks at the facets that make up a relationship and how they are often illuminated once the people involved are out of their comfort zones. In this case, Jack, an interior designer and ruler of the sarcastic world, who knows no French has taken to snapping many photographs while adjusting to the idea that his girlfriend of two years has had many boyfriends before him and, in France, it is not uncommon to stay friends with one's ex. Marion, a professional photographer, is wrestling with the idea of her boyfriend being the one taking pictures all of sudden and, in the presence of he hometown and past-lovers, coming to the realization that Jack might be the one she stays with.

While much of the humor stems from cross-cultural errors and missteps, along with Goldberg's expected and often spastic delivery of his lines, the entire film wreaks of intelligent-real life comedy. Delpy has a clear talent for satirizing the events in everyday life as well as in bumpy relationships. Even her crude humor has a hint of class to it. Screaming to Jack from the side of the very public river promenade during one argument, Marion shouts, "

Classic. I'm sure this movie is in some Walmart bargain bin. Go rescue it now!

Sergio del Limónar

MOVIE: The Great Buck Howard

The character of mentalist (not magician) Buck Howard is based on the real life George Joseph Kresge, Jr., also known as "The Great Kreskin." Buck's most famous performance piece is the finale of his show, where he takes tow volunteers backstage with him - to ensure secrecy - and has the audience collectively hide his wages for the night. He then re-emerges and finds the money. At one point in the film, Buck's road manager and the movie's narrator, says "If you are doing what you love, you will find the money."

This simple philosophy embodies the backbone of The Great Buck Howard. Released in March of 2009, starring John Malkovich at the titular character and Colin Hanks as his road manager and soul-searching law-school drop-out, the movie comically addresses the idea of reality and happiness. Both endearing, bizarre, and hilarious, Malkovich and the rest of the cast - including Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn, Tom Hanks, and a memorable performance from Adam Scott, make you believe in magic. Not the rabbit-out-of-a-hat kind of trickery, but of the human spirit and doing what enlightens you and those around you.

Sergio del Limonar