Lisa Marcus's Blog Posts

The Most Affordable Times to Visit 26 of the World's Priciest Travel Destinations

The Royal Lahaina Hotel on Kaanapali Beach, Maui, Hawaii | Image: Maui Wowie!

Some people claim they can't afford to travel, but if one makes travel a priority and saves their (Starbucks, pricey grocery foods and dining out, for instance) "petty cash" money and shops smart in terms of travel deals, there are ways they can fit travel into their lives. Even trips to exotic and scenic destinations. 

This article lists 26 such destinations in chart form, with suggestions for the most cost effective time to visit each. The differences in cost between least expensive and peak travel times to each locale are significant. Take a look and see if the list inspires any of your 2016 adventures. 


Leonardo DiCaprio Movies, Ranked From Worst to Best

Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator | Image: Miramax

For a performer who has easily made the jump from child actor to leading man, and one who has been cast  in some cases multiple times  by the most revered directors in the business, Leonardo DiCaprio has his share of detractors. But whether you like him, dislike him or are ambivalent, the truth is, DiCaprio is most likely in the film business to stay. 

While some complain that they never become so immersed in his performances that they forget he's playing a role, DiCaprio does have a wide range. He's played everything from the mentally challenged Arnie in What's Eating Gilbert Grape to legendary French poet Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclipse; from trapped suburbanite Frank Wheeler in Revolutionary Road to first driven, later tortured aviator Howard Hughes in The Aviator.

This article by Will Leitch and Tim Grierson at Vulture presents their ratings of every DiCaprio film from worst to best. While you're bound to disagree with them on at least a few of their rankings, the two present thoughtful explanations of their choices. 


Celebrity Mean Tweets


YouTube Link

It's holiday time, and while we're all feeling warm, fuzzy and full of goodwill, it's time for some more warm and fuzzy, goodwill-packed mean tweets sent to celebrities, which said celebrities then read out loud on Jimmy Kimmel. Because merry good cheer, peace on Earth and all that kinda biz. Via Vulture


Winners of the First Annual Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

Winner, Julian Rad / Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

The First Annual Wildlife Photography Awards, which Miss Cellania originally posted about in October to report its existence and show us some early highlights, has selected its winners. The contest, founded by wildlife photographer Paul Joynson-Hicks, invited submissions from all people with snaps of animals in amusing situations.

Enjoy some of the winning shots above and below, and don't miss the rest of these adorable and entertaining captures here. Via Colossal

Highly Commended, Alison Buttigieg / Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards


Highly Commended, Julie Hunt / Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

Highly Commended, Yuzuru Masuda / Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards


A Cat's Advice for the Holidays



Sometimes the social engagements of the holidays can be so crowded and chaotic that it's hard to know how to respond to all of the stimuli coming at you. We all are incredibly concerned about following the proper etiquette, are we not? But how to know what that is? Have no fear  this primer on a cat's advice for the holidays has all the answers. Because sometimes, a decapitated bird carcass is just the thing to facilitate proper interaction. 

A book full of year-'round advice from these felines is available; order it if you yearn for more after seeing every golden bit of feline holiday advice here.

Via Design Taxi | Images: Francesco Marciuliano








Three-Year-Old Girl Tearfully Explains Why She Cut Her Own Hair


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When three-year-old Ansleigh got hold of a pair of scissors and cut her own hair, she found herself in a bit of hot water with her parents. Here in this clip, we see her daddy giving her a lecture and her earnest yet tearful explanation of the premature, surprise study of cosmetology that resulted in this misguided, mullet makeover. Via Viral Viral Videos


Pups Joyfully Unwrapping Their Christmas Gifts


YouTube Link

As it turns out, the dogs in my family aren't the only ones with a habit of ripping open their wrapped gifts (although these dogs don't appear to be sneaking them out from under the tree early, as ours do). This compilation of dogs vigorously tearing the wrapping paper off of gifts with joyful abandon and their obvious pleasure in finding the toys inside makes for lighthearted, amusing viewing. Via Tastefully Offensive


A Side-by-Side Look at Every Film Quentin Tarantino Has Drawn Inspiration From


Vimeo Link

It is widely acknowledged among all types of artists that borrowing from other artists is par for the course. One example of how a film director uses inspiration from earlier films is shown here, with a look at Quentin Tarantino's films side-by-side with others that have shaped scenes in his movies such as Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill and more.


Reasons Why Star Wars Spaceships Make No Sense

TIE Fighter

Practically every movie we see requires the audience to suspend disbelief in one respect or another. In what they call "an exercise in overthinking a great sci-fi series," Popular Mechanics deconstructs some of the spaceships in the Star Wars franchise, pointing out flaws in design. For instance, here's what the author has to say about the TIE Fighter:

Mainstay of the Galactic Empire's fighter force, the TIE fighter is a pretty menacing aircraft. The Twin Ion Engine (TIE) fighter has two such engines—somewhere—and like a World War II Stuka attack plane makes a menacing screeching noise as it passes by.

The biggest drawback of the TIE fighter are the flat panels on both sides that make it look like an eyeball suspended between two playing cards. This is a large vertical surface area that seemingly serves no purpose—except to be a large aiming point for Rebel Alliance fighters. 

Another problem with the panels is they restrict pilot visibility. The F-16 Viper has excellent visibility, thanks to a bubble canopy with the pilot in the center. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has poor visibility, but the Distributed Aperture System helmet is expected to help the pilot "see" 360 degrees. 

The poor TIE fighter pilot on the other hand has two large panels on both sides of him, preventing him from seeing anything more than perhaps a 50 degree cone in front of him. He would be unable see other TIE fighters flying abreast of him, or even in a staggered formation—unless he had a Distributed Aperture System helmet, too.

Read about four more Star Wars spaceships that Popular Mechanics picks bones with here. Via Digg


Hop the Kangaroo and His Cat Friend


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These two clips, uploaded by YouTube user P Ces, present playtime adventures between their pet kangaroo Hop and their cat. It looks like the two animals are well acquainted, even friendly. Yet there's only so much a cat can take from this exuberant marsupial.

In the clip above, the cat goes from tolerant to crabby to gone. After the cat escapes his attention, Hop's expression says "What? Was it something I did?" In the video below, the kitty patiently endures Hop's good natured ear grooming. Via Arbroath


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Tell Me About John: Friends Remember John Candy


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This clip is sure to bring a smile to fans of the late, great John Candy. Using clips from interviews with Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Tom Hanks, Martin Short, John Hughes and others, the comic actor's sweet personality as well as his natural gifts for comedy and endearing personal qualities are discussed. Via Laughing Squid


Dancing Dawg Has the Moves


YouTube Link

This pup, whom some call Barky Bark, is seen here in this clip getting down to the late 80s/early 90s stylings of Mark Wahlberg and his once Funky Bunch. In high demand since this video first caught on, he's now securing a deal to be on Dancing with the Stars. Via Tastefully Offensive 


Hollywood's First Gay Marriage

 

In another excerpt from Karina Longworth's outstanding podcast You Must Remember This (featured previously at Neatorama), about "the secret and forgotten history of 20th-century Hollywood," the story of actor William Haines is discussed.

Widely regarded as the first openly gay movie star in Hollywood, the article explores truth and fiction surrounding the legend that Haines was fired by Louis B. Mayer for refusing to abandon his male partner and marry a studio-suggested female ingénue. From the article:

"From 1926 to 1931, thanks to hits like Brown of Harvard and Tell It to the Marines, Billy Haines was ranked as one of the Top 10 box office stars in Hollywood. By 1929, his studio boss, MGM’s Irving Thalberg, was holding up Haines as both the prototypical symbol of male youth of his day, and also the new model of a male romantic star. “The idealistic love of a decade ago is not true today,” Thalberg said. “William Haines, with his modern salesman attitude to go and get it, is more typical.”

By the time Thalberg made that speech, he and everyone else in the Hollywood community knew that Haines was, for all intents and purposes, married to a man. In 1926, on a trip to New York while on the cusp of his superstardom, Haines had a whirlwind fling with a 21-year-old former sailor names Jimmy Shields. When Haines returned to L.A., he brought Shields with him, and moved his new boyfriend into his house and got him work as an extra at MGM. Following the example of his friends from his days in New York’s Greenwich Village, Billy was intent on living with Jimmy without embarrassment or apology.

That Haines was living openly with another man, thereby destroying any possibility that he might not be gay, initially did absolutely nothing to impact Haines’ popularity around town or at his home studio. They were one of the few couples to make it into Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst’s inner circle, meriting invitations to San Simeon nearly weekly. And the local movie press knew, too, but nobody had any incentive to publish an exposé about it or anything. If any journalist had, he would have been frozen out of MGM for the rest of time. And at this point in time, as long as they weren’t hurting anybody, which they weren’t, nobody cared. Sometimes Billy would get asked a softball question about his love life, which he was always able to deflect with a wisecrack. Journalist and subject would wink at each other, the actor would be classified in print as an eligible or confirmed bachelor, and everyone would move on." 

Continue reading the story of William Haines at Slate.


Nineteen Photos That Will Take You Back to the 1980s

Winona Ryder

John Hughes films. Poofy blowouts. Skinny ties. Brat packs. Soundtracks heavy on the saxophone. Scripts about rich kids at high schools, rich kids going to prep schools, or rich kids at Ivy League colleges. It was the eighties. Madonna changed the look of half of the fashion. Ralph Lauren handled the other half. The Reagan years evoked narratives concerning class struggle. And our media reflected it all. 

Take a look at sixteen other photos that bring the 80s back here. 

Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise and Emilio Estevez


The Breakfast Club


Polar Bear Cub's Contented Sleep


YouTube Link

This five-week-old female polar bear cub, a resident of Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, is now thriving, despite being abandoned by her mother shortly after being born. Tragically, the mother of the cub suffered the death of her sibling from the same litter, and at that point was too depressed to care for her only surviving offspring.

In this video clip, the cub's zookeepers explain via their Facebook page that the sounds she is making while sleeping are those of contentment. They report that she recently began trying to stand on all four legs, "especially when she’s ready for her next meal!” Via Bored Panda


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Profile for Lisa Marcus

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