Finally, Your Chance to Be In the Movies! Yoostar Offers a Home Green Screen Machine that Does for Classic Movies What Karaoke Does for Music

Variety reports on a $169 system being offered soon (July 2009) by start-up YooStar:

"Five studios -- Paramount, Universal, MGM, Warner Bros. and Lionsgate -- have partnered with the company, as have the National Basketball Assn. and Sesame Workshop's "Sesame Street" franchise. The package will ship with 14 clips (11 from films, one from "Sesame Street" and two "moving backgrounds," which allow users to improvise a scene).

Included are single scenes from pics as old as "Double Indemnity" (1944) and "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) and as recent as 2006's "Rocky Balboa" and "Employee of the Month." The original "Terminator" and "Beverly Hills Cop 2" are also in the starter pack."

According to the promotional materials, hundreds of other scenes can be purchased.

Here's a demo of sample scenes (starring Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro) that was premiered at CES in January 2009:

Thanks to Scott Kirsner for making me aware of YooStar.

John Hodgman After Obama at the Radio and TV Correspondent's Dinner

Soul Train Line Dance to Curtis Mayfield

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at Bonnaroo

Martyr?

The young woman whose apparent death in a Tehran street protest can be viewed on YouTube has been identified (in a hastily constructed wikipedia entry) as Neda Agha Soltan.

I won't link to the troubling video (I want kids to be able to view this blog) but her death (if accurately reported) and sacrifice must not be forgotten.

Florida Panther

Super Powers

Large Defiant Protest in Tehran: June 20, 2009

Gunshots and a Wounded Protestor in Tehran: CNN June 20, 2009

The Struggle for Voting Rights: Iranian Police Disperse Protestors in Shiraz, Compare How American Authorities Denied Voting Rights

This (remarkable) video which apparently depicts students in Shiraz being beaten by uniformed police was posted to YouTube on June 20, 2009.

In Iran the police and the militia are apparently using brutal force to put down what is essentially a protest for voting rights. In the United States, violence also marked the struggle for voting rights. See the video that follows:

He's Barack Obama

Iranian Uprising Continued: Will Events Prove Rachel Maddow's Report on MSNBC June 17th, 2009 Accurate? In 1979 Americans Oversimplified.

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Peaceful Protest in Iran June 17th, 2009: Regime Change Done Right

The protestors in these videos are demonstrating great courage. For example, Reuters reported today that Mohammadreza Habibi, the senior prosecutor in Iran's central province of Isfahan, has warned demonstrators that they could be executed under Islamic law.
Meanwhile, voices are being raised in peaceful resistance. The woman in the following video (which documents cries of "God Is Great" that are apparently being shouted each night from the rooftops across Iran in protest) is reportedly saying "they can take our phones, our internet, all our communication away, but we are showing that by saying "allaho akbar" we can find each other." The video ends with this unnamed Iranian woman saying that tonight they are crying out to god for help.

Actor (and Right-Wing Nutjob) Jon Voight Calls President Obama a "False Prophet." Stirring Up Violent Christians? Shame on Him.

Comfort WTF?

A New Leader for Iran?

"Atlanta and What It Has To Offer" Video Installation by by Christopher Chambers

Atlanta and What It Has To Offer from Christopher Chambers on Vimeo.

Paul Scofield as Salieri in Amadeus

A modern master at work. Thanks to Chris Fields for making me aware of this clip.

100 Best Movie Lines in 200 Seconds

Who'd Whack a Clown?

Grover Talks About Marriage

Total Eclipse of The Heart: The Literal Version

Lawrence Welk Was Never This Funny

Keith Olbermann Goes After Congressman Vern Buchanan on MSNBC

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Here's a link to the Washington Examiner article that claims Republican-owned car dealerships, like the one owned by Florida Congressman Vern Buchanan, are being singled out for harsh treatment in a government ordered restructuring. Of course, Vern Buchanan (and all other Congressional Republicans) voted against any auto industry bailout (preferring to let all the dealerships fail?). It's difficult to see a partisan plot in dealership closings (even if some Republican-owned dealerships are closing) when, as Keith Olbermann points out, at least some Republican-owned dealerships are being saved by the government bail-out. Even for ideologues, some is still better than none.