SyFy's Being Human is my new addiction. After just three episodes, I'm completely hooked. It's a show that I think Twilight fans will definitely like. Since it's new, you can get all sorts of freebies just for watching. DISH Network subscribers can again this week win one of 50 iPod nanos for answering a simple trivia question. Read how after the jump.
Want a quick and somewhat humorous recap of last week? Here's episode 3 in :60:
Three ways to win swag by watching Being Human:
DISH Network trivia contest: Immediately following the broadcast of each episode (8:00 p.m. MST/10 pm. EST), be one of the 50 first DISH Network subscribers to correctly answer the following trivia question on the DISH Network trivia Web site to win an iPod nano.
This week's question is:
What does Sally break in Danny's apartment?
a picture frame
a wine glass
a lamp
I'll Tweet the answer on @twilidiot when I hear it. All eligible entries in the weekly contest will also be considered for the Grand Prize drawing “on or about” February 9 for a $20,000 home theater system. DISH network employees and households aren’t eligible which does exclude several thousand people in Colorado, including me. :-(
Also, as soon as I can track down the music from the show, I'll add it to the running .mp3 clip playlist in the Music from SyFy's Being Human Season 1 post. Follow @twilidiot to learn when that updates.
Here are links to five lovely wallpapers and a brand new Breaking Dawn Countdown widget featuring the Edward and Bella honeymoon photo from today's Entertainment Weekly.
Countdown Widget:
To get the Widget above for pretty much any kind of blog or Facebook, click on "Get Widget."
To get the wallpapers below, click on the link to be taken to the original site for the full-size.
Again, visit Robsessed or Novel Novice for the actual wallpapers. These images are just to whet your appetite and get you over to these awesome posts.
TwiPirate is off to raid and pillage Barnes & Noble and will have too much treasure soon. Me hulls be bursting with swag so a massive magazine giveaway is likely later today. Keep ye eye on the horizon by following @twilidiot on http://www.twitter.com/twilidiot!
In 2010, we had Twilight Night outdoor movies the evening of the June 26 lunar eclipse. The dates of two total lunar eclipses in 2011 could be fortuitous for Twilight Saga fans. Perhaps we'll get more special events! Read below for full information and links on the six eclipses total that will take place in 2011.
Four partial solar and two total lunar eclipses take place in 2011. This 4:2 combination of solar and lunar eclipses in a single year is rather rare with only six cases during the 21st Century (2011, 2029, 2047, 2065, 2076 and 2094). The first and last eclipses always occur in January and December.
The dates and types of eclipses during 2011 are as follows.
The NASA eclipse site includes all the information you could possibly want, including some nice full color diagrams. Those of us in North America won't see it the solar eclipse on January 4, but the eclipse will be visible over most of Europe and NE Asia, and to some extent in North Africa.
Maybe another Twilight Night with cast visits on June 15? It is a Wednesday night but that won't be a problem, right Summit Entertainment and Moviefone?
In 2010, there was a special wide rerelease in honor of Bella's birthday on September 13. Might we get the same in honor of the lunar eclipse on December 10, 2011? OK, again I am making a stretch as it is a Thursday, but one can dream.
With all of the eclipses in 2011, this is a great time to educate our children that an eclipse is a spectacular natural event and just a movie and a book. I was giving out vampire-themed silly bands to some fourth-grade girls this past fall for correct answers to Twilight and celestial trivia when this exchange occurred:
Me: "What is an eclipse?"
Girl: "I don't know! I didn't see the movie!"
Gah! Not a good thing. Do check out the NASA Kids' Club Web site. It's full of fun and educational games.
In fact, Vanity Fair poked some fun at a possible eclipse confusion on their blog on December 21:
This morning, around 3 a.m. E.S.T., much of North America dragged themselves out of bed to glimpse a terribly inconvenient lunar eclipse. By all accounts, the moon appeared round, and the sky dark. To be fair: our dispassionate recapitulation of today’s celestial phenomenon does not reflect the fervor expressed on Twitter and in the nation’s newspapers for the lunar eclipse. It’s an excitement and intensity that, in our opinion, appears to be completely independent of the quality of the spectacle itself. In fact, the incessant frenzy recalls the fanaticism surrounding the year’s other significant eclipse: the third installation of the Twilight movie series.
Try for yourself to take Vanity Fair's quiz and see if you can tell whether each viewer comment describes the lunar eclipse or Twilight: Eclipse.
In parting, here's one of my favorite passages from Eclipse:
“I used to think of you that way, you know. Like the sun. My personal sun. You balanced out the clouds nicely for me.”
He sighed. “The clouds I can handle. But I can’t fight with an eclipse.”
-- Stephenie Meyer, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, "Ethics"
'Tis the season of Top 10 lists! I don't always agree but these lists do sift through the media overload. My favorite is Matt Goldberg's Top 10 Movie Posters and the least is the silly MTV's playlist of Top Twilight Moments of 2010. Both inspired me to come up with my own list of Twilight Highlights of the year in the media, music and literature which I hope you find unique, thoughtful, and varied. Bella's birthday is September 13 and so is mine, therefore, my list has 13 items. Please enjoy and comment with your top moments!
13. Eclipse Press Junket as reported on Collider.com: There was a lot of press on June 12 at the Twi-Convention in L.A. and one site let us see the complete video of the interviews, with transcript. In a year when several well-established media outlets constantly misquoted and took out of context the words of the big three, I was delighted to find a site that didn't value slick over truth.
Q: Do you believe in having a soul, like Edward does?
Robert: Yeah, definitely. I can’t remember who said it, but a soul and a heaven must exist because good people aren’t rewarded enough on Earth. I always liked that idea, if that makes sense.
Watch Taylor Lautner interview: Always such an exemplary young man. He won't speak ill of anyone, not even the paparazzi. Why they keep boxing him in on the highway is beyond me because Taylor doesn't do anything even remotely scandalous.
Enjoy Collider.com's content while you're there. It's a unique site that's truly about all aspects of filmmaking and marketing that avoids glib gossip but doesn't take itself too seriously. Steve Weintraub ( @colliderfrosty) and Matt Goldberg ( @mattgoldberg) are interesting follows on Twitter, too, being film critics/reporters that still actually 'go to the movies.' Go figure.
12. Giveaway Contests on KalebNation and TwiFans: Kaleb Nation (twilightguy.com) was the first of 14 fan sites to give away a pretty extensive Twilight prize pack from Summit Entertainment. It was a random, enter as many times as you like contest on YouTube that turned into a Twilighters lightning chatroom. It was pretty darn fun with a total 31,590 comments. TwiFans celebrated their second birthday by giving away an Eclipse Blu-ray signed by Director David Slade. Entrants took pictures of themselves with TwiFans.com on their computer in the background. The photos were cute and I finally got to see what my FanFiction.net pen pal Mrs. Cope looks like. By the way, Mrs. Cope and LauraEmily 18 are frequent entrants and winners in the Twilight Novel Novice challenges. Voting is open now for the "We're Not Vegetarians" challenge.
11. The Oprah Winfrey Show: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and Dakota Fanning all on one show! For the most part, Oprah shows why she's the queen of talk and puts her young guests at ease. Rob and Taylor surprise fans at home and Kristen gives Bella's moonstone ring to a fan who was inspired by Bella to just be who she is. My favorite moment, though, is when Oprah crosses over the pre-arranged boundary and asks Rob about the rumors of him and Kristen dating. For just a second, he gets that twinkle in his eye my grandmother and uncle have when they're about to say something clever. I can't find the video for this segment on Oprah so here's YouTube:
Ask a goofy question, get a goofy answer seems to have become Rob's new strategy. Am I crazy but did Rob seem to 'suddenly' relax and get really good at interviews sometime around February this year? Tell me if you noticed the same.
10. Moviefone Twilight Night: Coinciding with the June lunar eclipse, 12 cities had showings of Twlight and/or New Moon in area parks with live appearances by the cast of Eclipse. More and more municipalities (Denver and Portland, to name two) are having free outdoor movie showings of family-friendly fare all summer long. With the disappearance of drive-ins, it's a new outdoor venue, a great evening picnic with your entire neighborhood. The Moviefone Twilight Night coverage video is an interesting view, with interviews from several sources and behind-the-scenes footage.
9. Stephenie Meyer Fan Mini-Junket: Instead of doing the normal press for the film release of Eclipse and answering the same broad questions, Ms. Meyer chose four fan sites out of a hat and met with them. Finally, the readers get to hear intelligent, in-depth questions that we've all been dying to ask. Here are the links to the four fan sites:
Photo is courtesy of Twilight Series Theories which included the Stephenie Meyer interviews in their podcast, which is great to listen to when you're driving across Nebraska. Listen on Mevio or subscribe on iTunes.
8. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: Stephenie Meyer gives us a world that's very different than the one that Bella is in from the perspective of newborn vampire. I hoped she had as much fun writing about the newborn army ripping apart a ferrie as I did reading it. The final wordless exchange between Bree and Edward is priceless. It's definitely a must read for understanding all that's going in the Eclipse film. The book also raised $1.5 million for the American Red Cross International Relief Fund. Read more and see the Bree Tanner playlist on StephenieMeyer.com.
7. "A Twilight Seduction: What Men Can Learn from Edward": Devra Maza's exquisite essay in The Huffington Post explains why Twilight has "so strongly tapped into the sexual psyche of so many women" and any man hoping to inspire that kind "rapacious passion" ought to be studying the novels like a textbook. The comments below the essay from Maza and others are also worth reading.
6. Robert Pattinson brings his parents to The Tonight Show: I am Team Coco but this appearance is one of the cutest, classiest things I have ever seen. In usual anachronistic, Rob looks smart in a suit that hints at a different era but reads e-mails from his dad on his smartphone. Of course he was destined to play a character that is somehow 1918 and 2010, 17 and 109 at the same time. Johnny Carson's philosophy was that you make your guests look good. David Letterman proved this year in his interview with Kristen Stewart that he is not Carson's heir.
5. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack: This will be a future blog post unto itself. This is the best of the three outstanding Twilight soundtracks, all produced by the genius Alexandra Patsavas and Chop Shop Records. My iTunes playlist is in movie order. I love starting with those first few pounding downbeats of "Chop 'n Change" by the Black Keys. The simple piano of "Bella's Theme" in Howard Shore's score morphs into Emily Haine's lovely vocals in Metric's "Eclipse I'm Yours." Other standouts for me are Muse's Edward/Mormon love anthem "Love is Forever" and Sia's ethereal "My Love." I'll be giving away all three soundtracks later this month in honor of the soundtrack's Grammy nomination. Follow this blog or @twilidiot for details to come.
4. Bella Bracelet from Bella Twilight Shop: The minute I read about the bracelet in Eclipse, I wanted one. I had to wait a while for one with just the right wolf to finally appear. Heather's Twilight and Hunger Games inspired jewelry is representative of how Twilight has inspired so much creativity in the fans in terms of art, crafts, music and writing. Read more on what this bracelet means to me.
When I first picked up "twilight & history" by Nancy R. Reagin, I knew that it followed the story of Twilight and delved into the histories of the different characters. That was about all I knew, and I hoped that I wasn't about to embark on a dry and dreary tale. I mean really, there's been so much written about Twilight already, I hoped that this book would put a new spin on the saga I love so much. And boy did it ever!
So many of the academic books written about The Twilight Saga seem to be really reaching, as if the contributors hadn't read Twilight before they were asked to write a chapter. Some are just full of jargon and unreadable. The authors of Twilight and History, though, are thoughtful and passionate. To see what I mean, you can read the introduction, "Frozen in Time" and first chapter, "An Old-Fashioned Gentleman"? Edward's Imaginary History" and peruse the Table of Contents for free on Amazon. Use the "Click to Look Inside" feature.
"There are still so many beautiful things to be said in C major." - Sergei Prokofiev
It is rare to find a film score piano reduction that sounds like the original and doesn't require you to have a Rachmaninoffian hand span. This songbook is a notable exception. "Compromise/Bella's Theme" and "Jacob's Theme," both in the key of C, sound just like the piano originals in the score and can be played by an early intermediate pianist, but have enough syncopation to keep more advanced players on their toes. I'm currently working on Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" (not key of C, dang B-sharps!) and this makes a nice warm-up. To order online, try sheetmusicplus.com. Flat $2.99 shipping and they always send you a coupon for your next order. Click on the scan above for a larger image.
1. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse movie in IMAX and then on Blu-ray: Duh! I saw it five times in the theaters and then Steve Weintraub at Collider selected me to write the "Twilight Super Fan The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Blu-ray Review." Definitely the highlight of my year.
BTW, I'm giving away some of my Eclipse stuff in a "name the PIP documentary" contest here.
What are your Twilight Highlights of 2010? Please comment below.
The giveaway winner is Karen T chosen by random number:
Thank you to all who entered! A judge's choice is coming for the best name suggestion.
:-) Gretchen
The Twilight Saga Give a Way a Day is on hiatus for New Year's this weekend. I just can't stand a giveaway void so here's a fun contest with a prize pack to enhance your Eclipse viewing experience. Ready for the 411?
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Super Fan Package:
Includes:
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Poster
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: The Official Illustrated Companion by Mark Cotta Vaz More info
SceneIt? Twilight Saga Deluxe DVD Game (includes clips from all three films) More info
*Mini-Jacob Wolf pictured not included
Here's how to enter:
1. Read my "Twilight Super Fan The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Blu-ray Review" on Collider.com. Click here.
2. Return here and comment on this post below with your suggestion for a new name for the PIP documentary feature. If you read the review, the previous sentence will make sense.
Only comments left here will count as an entry into the contest. Comments on the review itself on Collider are welcome but will not enter you in the giveaway. Please enter only once. Multiple entries will be deleted.
3. Follow @twilidiot on Twitter: http://twitter.com/twilidiot. This is optional but the giveaway will not be valid until there are 300 new followers of @twilidiot. Please invite your friends and followers!
That's all there is to it! Enter by 11:59p.m. Mountain Standard Time on January 2, 2011. Contest is open to all citizens of the planet Earth. Contest winner will be chosen at random. Notification will be via the method the winner uses to log into the comments.
