Danielewski admits that he knows a few other writers and artists, but when he insists that he likes the fact that Los Angeles is not a literary town, believe him. Because “House of Leaves” is like no other novel you’ve ever read. As big as the Los Angeles Yellow Pages, it takes the form of a book-length essay by a mysterious blind man named Zampano, writing about a 1993 documentary film called “The Navidson Record....
Wealth and poverty have always coexisted, uneasily, in France. Its affluent, self-satisfied elites, whether left or right, have never shown much concern for the plight of those on the streets. In the past, when this gap between haves and have-nots grew too wide, a revolt would come along to jolt the nation into reality. Think of the cultural-social earthquake of 1968, or the Paris Commune uprising after France’s humiliation by Bismarck’s Prussians in 1870, or the grandpère of them all, the 1789 Revolution....
The macabre drama has riveted the German public. The memory of Nazism’s horrors gives special urgency in Germany to questions of human dignity, the sanctity of life and the ethics of medical experimentation. When Ploch’s doctors realized they couldn’t save her, they quickly recruited a panel of medical, legal and ethical specialists to help decide what to do about the fetus. Ploch never married, and the father’s identity remains a mystery....
Despite the importance of Donkey Kong Country, the series was left alone for much of the 2000s aside from a few spin-offs, only truly coming back in the form of Donkey Kong Country Returns. Since then, only one other Donkey Kong platformer, Tropical Freeze, was released on Wii U and subsequently ported to the Switch like a plethora of other titles. A new Donkey Kong game is long overdue, but if it wants to both stand on its own and keep the love of the franchise’s patient fans, it needs to avoid emulating the now recognizable gameplay of Returns and Tropical Freeze....
Well, even Newton had his Einstein, and now genetics revolutionaries are showing that Mendel’s laws can be broken. Genes, it turns out, act so perversely they would have shocked the monk into a vow of perpetual silence. Mutant genes grow from one generation to the next like a sci-fi escapee, so that Grandma’s tiny and innocuous mutation becomes Grandson’s tragic birth defect. Genes costume themselves so that one inherited from Mom has a markedly different effect from the exact same gene inherited from Dad....
The man’s got a point. “Jay and Silent Bob,” or “J&SB,” as cyberfans have dubbed it, is Smith’s cinematic thank-you to everyone who helped make him what he is today: arguably cinema’s funniest writer about sex, certainly its most candid. In bit parts over four films, his twin creations have become minor heroes–like C3PO and R2D2, only perpetually stoned (hence the title, an allusion to “The Empire Strikes Back”). This time they’re the stars, clearing room for cameos by old friends from Ben Affleck to Brian O’Halloran, who played Dante in “Clerks....
RELATED: Beginner Tips For A Plague Tale: Innocence Collectibles in A Plague Tale: Innocence are divided into categories. Gifts are one of them, special presents that Amicia can find throughout her journey. Those that can be found are displayed in the player’s home in the Chateau d’Ombrage. This handy guide will help track down every last one of them. In total, there are 11 Gifts located in the game....
But then we leave the house. We go to the health club and there’s Oprah chatting about incest on two wide screens above the treadmills. And in the club’s day-care center, where we leave our 5-year-old, the television is blasting kidvid. We take our little girl to the pediatrician’s office and find a set tuned to Special Report Television, which promotes health insurance and pharmaceuticals. When images of a violent drug bust flash on the screen (part of an anti-drug message), all the children become fascinated....
There’s a good case for Fallout: New Vegas 2 to take place in or include areas from Mexico. Here’s why a Mexico-set New Vegas 2 just might work, and some of the lore it could take advantage of. RELATED: Fallout: New Vegas Mod Makes Canceled Van Buren Game Accessible to Play Fallout: New Vegas’ Genre Fallout is drenched in sickly-sweet ’50s and early-’60s Americana, but the exact flavor ranges from game to game....
I don’t want to believe this. That’s the only thought my mind could form when I first found out that Kobe Bryant was involved in a fatal accident. Years later, I still have a hard time accepting it. Like many, I’ve had trouble processing the grief of losing someone I didn’t really know. But then I thought about it. As fans of the game, we all knew Kobe one way or another....
State police issued four warrants last week for the arrestor alleged cult leader Arvin Shreeve,61,a retired landscaper, on charges of sodomy and sexual assault of children. Police decided to act after gathering evidence from a number of people connected to the group. One of them, Ron Van Drimmelen, believed Shreeve sexually abused his 7-year-old son. Last May, when a refugee from the group spoke out, his fears were confirmed. In a sworn deposition in a civil case, Kori Christofferson,23,painted a disturbing picture of sex and sanctimony....
But in addition to the public school officials, administrators, religious leaders, business people, and leaders of non-profits in attendance were 30 students who were bussed to the event by their public schools. And the schools had failed to inform their parents that their children would witness a drag show. As Libs of TikTok reported, permission slips for the field trip only made passing reference to what would take place, noting that “traditionally there are songs, performances, and a food item....
In the days when the world knew him as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI expressed reservations about Turkey’s accession to the European Union, which he believed would mark the end of the EU as the political expression of a common culture. Instead, Ratzinger suggested, Turkey should be associated with the European Union in such a way that it would enjoy the economic benefits of EU membership without becoming a member, with full voice and vote, of the EU’s political deliberations....
This ‘force’ is in allusion to one of the European giants, Spain. The country which lived in the shadows of Germany, Italy and England for years, transgressed from mere underdogs to world-beaters. As an irksome 44-year long wait for a silverware came to an end when Spain finally struck gold at Euro 2008, it heralded a dominant force in Europe in the form of Spanish football. The odds were accentuated when La Roja went to win the World Cup in 2010 and retained their European crown 2 years later, becoming the first ever nation to do so....
Which made him eligible for one of the most audacious experiments in re- cent medical history–the AbioCor, the world’s first fully implantable, plastic-and-titanium, battery-powered replacement heart. In a seven-hour operation last Monday, Gray and his colleague Dr. Robert Dowling cut out most of the man’s diseased heart and stitched what remained to the cuffs of the mechanical one. They made the elaborate electronic connections for power, control and monitoring, and then watched as blood went coursing into the aorta and pulmonary artery....
Law-enforcement officials say Eyler is just trying to escape execution. They also fear that a deal would effectively reward a death-row inmate for committing multiple murders. To improve his credibility - and avoid a second death sentence - Eyler pleaded guilty last month to the 1982 killing of Steven Agan, a 23-year-old car-wash worker from Terre Haute, Ind. He also named an accomplice: 52-year-old Robert Little, a former professor at Indiana State University....
Two summers later, Brian, now 6, is back at camp. He walks over to the food table by himself. “Is this my cup?” he politely asks his counselor. “Yes,” she replies. Brian pours himself a glass of fruit punch. “Thank you,” he says, as his counselor beams. The exchange was a minor miracle for Brian, but it is what Camp Ramapo is all about. The sleep-away camp’s special program (“Mild Month”) for 92 troubled 4- to 6-year-olds is believed to be the only program of its kind....
Amber seemed to blow in from tabloid Central Casting–complete with a tempestuous romantic past and the obligatory nude pictures–reviving cable interest in the story just when it seemed to be flagging. But is her time on the stage proportionate to her value as a witness? While prosecutors aren’t talking much about their line of attack, Amber fits neatly into their scenario of a discontented husband panicked at his impending fatherhood....
