GeekSugar

Where the Hell Is Matt Harding? He's at Macworld, Baby!

GeekSugar — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:00:50 PST

I got up bright and early yesterday morning to wait in line for the David Pogue panel at Macworld, and was pleasantly surprised to find that this wouldn't be like the other forums I've seen before - this was the David Pogue Show! Set up like a late night talk show set, David welcomed a few tech-savvy guests you may (or may not) recognize, one of them being Matt Harding.

Matt is the dancing man you (and 17 million others) have seen on YouTube, going from country to country, dancing the same little jig at each location. Matt was there to tell us all about how he started this whole adventure in the first place. Check out how it began when you

read more. After spending years as a video game designer, Matt had a change of heart:

I had just quit my job - cause I realized I wasn't very good at it - but I realized I was really good at traveling, so I made my first video in 2003, shot it on a little digital camera I kept in my pocket and was easy to carry around. In 2005, it was sorta "found" and got over a million views, and that's when Stride Gum approached me and asked me to do a video for them.

I'm totally blown away to see how someone could make a career out of dancing around the world, just by doing what they love! Enjoy Matt's latest video above, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm totally jealous.

Catch Fire With The Hunger Games Nail Collection

BellaSugar — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:39:44 PST

Adding to the continued excitement of all things Hunger Games, we got our hands on the polishes from China Glaze's forthcoming Colours from the Capitol collection. Nail colors inspired by movies can sometimes be a yawn, but these will charm die-hard fans and manicure connoisseurs alike. From ashy, matte shades to high-definition glitters, these polishes could soon be among your most favorite nail colors. Preview them all in our video now!

Are You Addicted to Diet Soda?

Shape — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:28:49 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

Cracking open a can of diet soda instead of regular pop may seem like a good idea at first, but research continues to show a disturbing link between diet soda consumption and weight gain. And though the sweet, effervescent drinks may taste good, they're certainly not good for your body. "Diet soda may not have the sugar or calories of regular soda, but it's chock-full of other health-draining chemicals, including caffeine, artificial sweeteners, sodium, and phosphoric acid," says Marcelle Pick, member of the American Nurses Association and co-founder of Women To Women. It is possible to ditch your diet soda dependency, however. Read on to find out how after the break

We Bought a Zoo: Damon Puts on the Hard Sell

Becky Kirsch — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 03:05:00 PST

The simple premise of We Bought a Zoo is laid out right there in the title, and with no hint of irony. The "we" is Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) and his two children, who are looking to make a fresh start when the death of Benjamin's wife still has them reeling six months later. When Benjamin finds his dream home, he accepts the caveat that the house is built on an old zoo territory, and that he must renovate it to save the animals. It's a story that's hard to swallow at first, but the underlying layers and an impressive performance from Damon make it go down easy.

Damon shows his range as an actor yet again, in a role that's a lot more complex than it seems initially. Though Benjamin is renovating a zoo, the story is really about a man struggling to accept his wife's death and his role as a single father. With another actor in the leading role, the film could be relegated to a tale that's both mawkish and emotionally manipulative, but thanks to Damon, you can't help but love and root for Benjamin. Sure, you care a little about the fate of the animals, but more than anything else, you just want this guy to catch a break.

To see what else I liked about We Bought a Zoo, just

read more. There's a hint of romance between Benjamin and head zookeeper Kelly (Scarlett Johansson), but Cameron Crowe is wise to focus more closely on Benjamin's relationships with his kids than his employee. In fact, the movie may have benefited if the romantic subplot was left behind altogether. Johansson seems out of place in Kelly's dowdy duds, and as charming as Benjamin is, it seems unlikely that a 28-year-old would want to jump into a relationship with an older man who makes no attempt to hide the fact that he's not over his recently deceased wife. Child actors are hit or miss in Hollywood, but We Bought a Zoo features an impressive cast of rising stars. I defy you not to fall in love with Maggie Elizabeth Jones as Benjamin's precocious and utterly adorable 7-year-old daughter Rosie, who will make your heart melt as she slaps together PBJ sandwiches and chases the zoo animals. Colin Ford has a heavier burden to carry as Rosie's troubled teenage brother Dylan, who is coping with his mother's death and his fractured relationship toward his father. Though Dylan is obnoxious and frustrating at times, Ford brings a depth to the character that's only annoying in the sense that it's a realistic portrayal of an adolescent. Thomas Haden Church and Elle Fanning are also assets to the cast, as Benjamin's disapproving older brother and Kelly's spacey cousin, respectively. And, of course, there's the menagerie of animals, who shape the story without stealing the show away from the humans that care for them. It's an important feat, as you never question that the heart of this film is in the personal connections, not in the cute creatures that affect their lives. We Bought a Zoo perfectly fits the movie mold for holiday time; there's something for kids, something for adults, and a little bit of magic for everyone.

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox

Young Adult: Charlize Theron Ain't No Judy Blume

Shannon Vestal — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 03:05:00 PST

Growing up is hard to do, especially if you're a delusional, malicious shrew who's stuck in the past. That sums up Charlize Theron's Young Adult character Mavis Gary, a woman who lives in Minneapolis and has a career writing novels aimed at adolescent girls. Her world of hard drinking and sleeping in is disrupted when she gets an announcement from her high school boyfriend Buddy (Patrick Wilson) that his wife has had a baby. Mavis interprets it as a message that he's still in love with her, and she disdainfully heads back to her quiet Minnesota hometown to win him back. It's a journey that makes you cringe every step of the way, but Theron is so delightfully nasty that she makes the film sharply funny, even if it's also brutally uncomfortable.

Screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman are behind the dark comedy, who teamed up previously for Juno, which found humor in the tough situation of their straight-talking female lead. Young Adult may have a sharp-tongued heroine in common, but that's where the similarities end. To find out why else I liked Young Adult, just keep reading.

Glee-ful Highlights From Episode "I Kissed a Girl"

Shannon Vestal — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:41:59 PST

Everyone's got election fever on this week's Glee, and we find out the results of both the student body and congressional race. Because of the political ad threatening to expose Santana, we watch her deal with her sexuality, and the support she gets (and doesn't get) from those around her. It brings out a soft side of Finn (no, that's not a reference to Santana's preferred insults for Finn), who asks everyone to sing a song celebrating women. Sue also gets taken to task for her love life, but her tactics end up hurting Coach Beiste.

Meanwhile, Puck and Shelby take their forbidden relationship to the next level, and Rachel does something to help Kurt, but she ends up hurting the whole glee club. It's a surprisingly emotional episode, and there are lots of great lines (Santana and Sue really outdo themselves this week), but what made it for me are this week's upbeat, encouraging musical numbers. Let's break it all down into the highlights when you keep reading.

Video: Matt Lanter Says 90210 Cast Is "Full of Secret Twi-Hards!" at Breaking Dawn Premiere

PopSugar — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:32:47 PST

90210's Matt Lanter stopped by the Breaking Dawn Part 1 premiere in LA this evening. Matt revealed that his 90210 cast is apparently "full of secret Twi-hards" including himself. He had to watch the first two Twilight films many times to prepare for Vampires Suck, though he has never actually met Robert Pattinson. Perhaps tonight's the night. Check out our interview!

The Vampire Diaries "Homecoming": The Good, the Bad, and the Bloody

Shannon Vestal — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 09:15:59 PST

Brace yourself: this week's episode of The Vampire Diaries is the last for the whole year! We won't see any new episodes until 2012, which is even more disappointing considering that this week's midseason finale is utterly epic. The showdown between Klaus and basically everyone else goes down at a homecoming party, and it's a blur of stakes and daggers and twists. Damon and Elena's plan to finally kill Klaus with the help of Mikael doesn't exactly go off as they hoped it would (as plans tend to do on this show).

There is a momentous death toward the end of the episode, plus a sad breakup and of course, since it's a finale, there's also a cliffhanger. But I'm ready to talk about all the dirty details, spoilers and all. To get to the good, the bad, and the bloody, just keep reading.

In Time: Not Worth Your Precious Minutes

Becky Kirsch — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 05:15:00 PDT

The value of time is a universal theme: we all wish we had more of it, we wish we could turn it back, we're all trying not to waste it, etc. In Time takes this theme and runs with it, taking us to a futuristic world where currency is no longer measured in dollars and dimes, but in hours and minutes. The rich can live forever while the poor wake up each morning unsure if they'll still be around to see the next. It's an intriguing idea, but the finished project didn't leave an impact on me beyond memories of Justin Timberlake running and constantly looking at a time clock branded on his arm.

Timberlake's character, Will Salas, is one of the aforementioned poor - he essentially lives in the ghetto, as the government has divided everyone into "time zones" so the rich can stay isolated from the poverty-stricken individuals that are going to desperate measures to steal time from each other. Will spends each day struggling to garner enough minutes to keep himself and his mother (Olivia Wilde) alive. Isn't Wilde a bit young to play Timberlake's mother, you ask? Why, that's because nobody ages past 25, which means the cast is made up of fresh-faced actors like Alex Pettyfer, Matt Bomer, and Vincent Kartheiser - save for Johnny Galecki, who, even as an alcoholic, looks so haggard and out of place that you wonder how he made it into the final cut of the film.

After a chance meeting with a rich man who's tired of immortality, Will finds himself with more time on his clock than he ever imagined. He barely has enough time to head to greener pastures before his inheritance makes him a target by the "Time Keepers," who are basically just cops trying to keep the rich and poor in their separate zones. With the Keepers on his trail, Will takes a hostage in a rich young woman named Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried), and begins literally running for his life.

To see why In Time is more silly than suspenseful, just

read more. It's hard to take a movie seriously when it's inundated with laughable dialogue and ridiculous elements. I could easily make a drinking game for every wordplay on the theme, from questions like "Do you come from time?" to "That's a nice watch" - but I'm not sure anyone would survive. The eye rolls don't end there either; so much of the movie makes little sense (e.g. you can clear someone's entire clock in a simple arm wrestling match), but the plot isn't nearly exciting enough to forgive all that. The most entertaining part of the film is watching Sylvia transition from a prissy rich girl to the Bonnie to Will's Clyde. Her kidnapping sets her free, and Seyfried does a fine job of pulling out one-liners and making comical moments of Sylvia's criminal "firsts," like firing a gun for the first time. Together, she and Will channel the spirit of Robin Hood, stealing as much time from the rich as they can, only to give to the poor in a mission to balance the government's class system. In Time tries to push so many agendas that you're not even entirely sure what to take away from the movie in the end. Is it about the importance of rebelling against a corrupt government? Living your life to the fullest and making every second count? In some ways, it feels like the filmmakers were so busy trying to jam a message down our throats that they neglected to make a film that's worthy of its compelling premise. Photos courtesy of Regency

5 Beautiful Black Interiors

Anna Monette Roberts — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 05:00:36 PDT

Black washed walls are hardly macabre or Halloween themed. Instead, black paint, whether shiny or matte, can create a variety of moods including homey, modern, or chic. Don't believe me? See the versatility of black interiors, and have the courage to try it out on your own home.