Forget the cold winds and gray skies; nothing quite says November like the frantic scrambling of thousands of amateur (and maybe a few professional) writers across the globe as they participate in terrifying challenge of National Novel Writing Month.

Never heard of it? Here’s all you need to know: crazy people (like me) spend from midnight on Nov. 1 to midnight on Nov. 31 trying to write a 175-page novel. That’s 50,000 words in one month, averaging at about 1,666 words a day. There’s no prize if you win except the satisfaction that your tears, sweat and maybe a little bit of blood went into producing those 50,000 words.

The beauty of NaNoWriMo is that the writing doesn’t have to be good; it just has to be fast. The idea behind NaNoWriMo is get writers writing without worrying about little things that bog them like editing or spelling mistakes – editing is what December is for, after all. Often times a writer gets so caught up in trying to make every single word perfect that they forget to focus on getting their story out, and it takes them ages to keep on writing.

For some, writing the 50,000 words is a piece of cake – I’ve already seen people on the NaNoWriMo Forums that have 31,000 words and it’s not even the end of day three yet! But for others, even hitting that daily word count goal is like pulling teeth. I’m somewhere in the middle. I currently have 3,385 words, and I’ll need 5,000 by the end of the day to make the daily word goal. Getting the word count usually isn’t hard for me, but getting my inner editor to shut up so I can write new words instead editing the last thousand or so is another challenge completely.

This will be my second year participating for NaNoWriMo. I participated last year, and got about 23,000 words before I decided I hated my story and I quit. I’m hoping to do a little better or at least cross the finish line this year. One of my goals in life is to complete NaNoWriMo at least once because it’s such an interesting challenge.

So if you haven’t signed up this year, it’s not too late to do so! Head on over to NaNoWriMo.org and join in the insanity!

While I acknowledge the need for a TV show to keep watchers’ interest, completely destroying the characters and annihilating everything about them doesn’t make me want to watch more.  It makes me sick watching Parkman yell at Sylar and Peter being manipulated for at least the thrid time.  Plus, these last two shows have been rather slow.  They better get the plot moving soon and have the characters get their heads out of the clouds.

The Band: The Kickback
The Buzz: High drama Chicago-based rock band (with at least one very rabid fan) conjures the very best parts of the Veils and the Walkmen and the Killers, writing lean, nervy songs that snarl and snap. Guitarist Billy Yost has a marvelously agonized voice and he wrenches notes from his larynx, hurling himself against the songs’ propulsive rhythms.
Listen If: You’ve got a thing for high drama, or you like songs that move fast and singers that collapse faster.
Key Track: The sneering “Roman Regret,” a song boasting a guitar line that snaps and crackles like a cut electrical wire and Yost at his worked-up, Pentecostal best.

For more information on The Kickback, check out this The Volante article from Fall 2008.

In case you were avoiding contact with anything on the Internet or TV the past two days, you might’ve missed Kayne West interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech during the VMAs Sunday night. While initial viewing of said video will cause a strong case of secondhand embarrassment and righteous anger in regard to Mr. West, the Internet has been quick to turn his rude behavior into a hilarious new meme.

Whether its subbing Kayne’s outburst for Rep. Joe Wilson’s during President Obama’s speech last Wednesday:

Or photoshopping Kayne into other speeches, important historical moments, or moments in cinema:

The denizens of the Internet are bringing the lulz at Kayne’s expense.

Source

Land of the Lost

My childhood is crying in despair right about now. It could be entertaining, but I guess I was expecting a bit more than just Will Ferrell doing his usual routine with dinosaurs involved.
 

Up

 
Oh, Pixar. You certainly know how to come up with some interesting concepts for animated features. Looks good and visually stunning, but I think I need another trailer to convince to go see this one.

Fast and the Furious 4

Does this even need a comment? The action scene at the end of the spot had me rolling my eyes instead of squealing about the special effects.
 

Year One

Hilarious. I hadn’t heard anything about this movie before I saw this spot, but I definitely want to go see it now.

G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra

Looks interesting enough and it has all the qualifications for a summer movie flick, but it’s not high on my must-see list. Maybe once more commericals come out and I get more of a feel of the plot, it’ll start looking more appealing. The Eiffel Tower effect looked amazing though.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

 
…

I will get back to you as soon as I pick my jaw up off the floor. Transformers 2 is at the top of my “Must-See-in-Theatres” list and just think: if this is 31 seconds of complete and unending awesome, what’s the rest of the movie going to be like?

(Answer: Plenty of crass humor,  explosions, lots of gratuitous shots of Megan Fox, slow motion heroic shots of the military, explosions, cool cars, giant robot fight sequences, oh and did I mention explosions? This is Michael Bay we’re talking about, after all.) 

Star Trek

Many of the shots are from one of the earlier trailers, but there’s some new footage in there, including what looks like an attack scene on San Francisco and a cool sky diving scene.

Please see the second post for the trailers of Up, Land of the Lost, Year One and Fast and the Furious 4.

So what do you think? What Super Bowl teaser spots have you wishing it was summer movie season already? Which ones have you shaking your head and mourning the loss of all good things in the world? Share your thoughts below.

Edit: It appears the Transformers 2 trailer may be getting yanked from YouTube. My original link disappeared shortly after this post and I’ve put a second one in place. If it doesn’t show up, that’s probably why and you might have to go hunt down a version to see it for yourself.

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Please send a 250 to 300 word sample of your column/review to the Verve editor Jessica Kokesh at Jessica.L.Kokesh@usd.edu as soon as possible. Thank you!

Write or Die, developed by Dr. Wicked, is a new, effective and free web application that “encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing.” Once you start typing in the box, you’re allowed a brief grace period but if you don’t keep typing, there’s consequences – varying in severity from an annoying pop-up box to the application deleting your words one by one.

As you can see, you can set both a word count goal and the time limit in which you want to achieve that goal. I’ve written upwards of 500 words in 20 minutes using this application – I’d recommend Normal mode for someone who’s used to web browsing as they write as Kamikaze’s consequences can be quite alarming (and annoying) during the first use. 

The application does not offer spell or grammar check as it is aimed to seperate the writing and editing process as much as possible. Version 2.0 also offers the option to copy your text to the clipboard in case you navigate away from the page accidentally, a victory bell when you reach your goal, and a pause button – it only works once, so be judicious when you use it!

It’s a fun application and I highly recommend it to anyone writing on a deadline.

The PWT’s played songs from their latest album “Big Bad World,” including “Sunshine” and “1, 2, 3, 4.” They closed the show with “Hate (I Really Don’t Like You)” and came back for an encore of their famous hit, “Hey There Delilah” which had the whole crowd singing.

Dia from Meg & Dia.

Meg & Dia

Plain White T’s lead singer Tom Higgenson came out to perform a duet with Meg & Dia titled “Bored of Your Love” to a live audience for the first time.