His likes include short ruffled skirts (not on him) and Barack Obama. His dislikes include hangovers and people who don’t answer emails…. I suppose it doesn’t matter what his likes and dislikes are as long as Ben Thomas still pumps out the awesome digital photography.

You can purchase his designs on prints and shirts if you fancy ordering from the UK but I likey just staring at his photos on my computer screen for now.

The Disney Channel’s latest creation of a musical TV-movie was Camp Rock, starring Joe Jonas from the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato.

I am ashamed to say I actually chose to stay on the channel my TV was on to watch this movie.

It seems that after the huge success of the High School Musical franchise, the Disney Channel had run out of excuses to have teenagers breaking into song and dance. Their solution? Camp Rock.

Mitchie Torres, played by Demi Lovato, is attending “Camp Rock”, a summer camp where aspiring stars can learn what it takes to rise to the top. Also in attendance at the camp as a teacher is Shane Gray, a super-famous pop star, played by Joe Jonas.

The film didn’t seem to have much of a plot, except that every camper aims to win the competition at the end of camp, for the chance to record with Shane on his next album.

Contrary to what is portrayed on the promotional poster, Mitchie doesn’t stand out from the crowd and actually lies to fit in with the popular crowd. Of course, everyone at camp finds out and Mitchie becomes an outcast, which leads her to losing the chance to participate in the end-of-camp competition.

However, one must not forget that this is still a Disney movie. By the end of the movie, Mitchie learns her lesson that lying is bad, she finds a way to perform at the final competition, and she wins back the heart of her love interest, Shane.

This is such a pile of bullocks.

The message that Disney portrays in this sorry excuse for a film is not fit for children’s naivité. Just becaue you got caught lying and felt really sorry about it does not mean that all is forgiven and you will probably not have such a happy ending as Mitchie does.

Also, the entire film is in complete opposition with their slogan: “Stand Out”. This film is just like any other Disney Channel movie, especially the High School Musical variety. The Disney Channel is simply putting out another film filled with more of their drones who are mediocre singers and actors.

When will this obsession with dancing teenagers end?

The Verdict:
This movie is really not worth watching. Unless (for some inexplicable reason) you are a HUGE fan of the Jonas Brothers, you may potentially want to watch this film, but you may just want to skip to the soundtrack, which is still mediocre.

I really wish the Disney Channel monster would stop producing such unrealistic films that make young children get crazy ideas about life and stardom into their heads.

My suggestion: have a karaoke party with friends. It will be much more entertaining and hurt your ears much less than a screening of Camp Rock.

The Quibbler

Supernova is the second single by British band Mr Hudson from the second album Straight No Chaser. They are signed to music producer Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music label & Mercury Records. Check out the video after the jump.

The band is led by Ben Hudson (guitar and vocals), who is a singer, songwriter and record producer who has worked with acts such as Kanye West and Dizzee Rascal and whose vocal performances have been compared to Sting. Apparently the focus of the song is maintained in the video: Mr. Hudson and his lost love, and the video depicts a melancholy and often morose looking Hudson, who by the end is seen running frantically in search of someone (most likely, that girl or a boy). It features a cameo from Estelle. I didn’t like the song much in the beginning, but it honestly grew on me…

This is a campaign video for Wrangler, with their current tag phrase “We Are Animals”.

Here is a slide show of 4,000 photographs by Ryan McGinley for Wrangler.

via Fubiz

Circle Square’s video for “Dancers” is where the music video meets the avant-garde.

This Joy Divisionesque trip through the dance-art continuum is as refreshing as it is impressive. Robert Longo’s iconic series, Men in the Cities, is brought to life in a way that few other works of modern art have ever been. Stylish, sexy, hypnotic, and astoundingly true to the original imagery, it is as if director Bienvenido Cruz found a hidden play button on Longo’s work and pressed it. Dancers Miles Farber, Vincent Noiseux, Julie Chapple, and Alison Denham also impress. Their vocabulary of movement is of a language that few are inventive or daring enough to speak.

Via Our Young Art and Boompa.

Progressive metal veterans Dream Theater are at it again… Black Clouds & Silver Linings is the tenth studio album of the progressive metal band, the band commenced work on the album in October of last year. Amazingly less than a year later they are done with it. The first single off the album is The Rite of Passage, you can see the official video after the jump. The album was produced by drummer Mike Portnoy and guitarist John Petrucci, and mixed by Paul Northfield. The album debuted at #6 on the Billboard 200 selling 40,285 copies. It was the first time in the band’s history that they have cracked the Top 10 on that chart, and is currently the bands highest single week sales of an album. The album also debuted at #1 on Billboard Top Internet Albums, and #2 on Billboard Top Rock Albums.

I suggest you check them out at a venue near you, their shows are simply amazing to watch. The musicianship these guys bring with them on stage is simply amazing.

The Fallen Princesses series is an idea that I really like. As young girls, and old girls, many of us idolize people and ideas that are completely unrealistic – and as much as many of us hope for Happily Ever After, not many of us get the joy of experiencing it undiluted. In these imagined scenarios, even our favorite perfect girls experience the backlash that comes after the ride into the sunset.

via City of Skies

I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Based on the book by Sophie Kinsella of the same title, Confessions of a Shopaholic goes beyond your average chick flick. There is not only the gorgeous male interest and enough designer clothes to make us say “ooooh”, it also brings to mind that which most young women (and men) don’t know about the world.

Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers) plays Rebecca Bloomwood, a yound woman aspiring to be a writer for New York’s top fashion magazine, “Alette”. Since Rebecca needs to be in fashion to write about it, naturally, she has a craving for top dollar designer clothing. Rebecca’s habit of stopping at every store and buying as much designer clothes as her credit cards can handle lands her at the mercy of the debt collectors.

Now, this wouldn’t be such a problem, except Rebecca has lost her job. There are no longer any openings at her dream job at “Alette”, however she finds a place in another magazine owned by the same company that owns “Alette”. One minor setback is, this magazine is a financial magazine.

Her new boss, Luke Brandon (played by Hugh Dancy, who is incidentally the most underrated actor ever), helps Rebecca realize her talents for writing about everyday financial issues in a way that the public can understand and eventually they both end up falling for each other. However, once Luke and Rebecca’s readers find out the amount of debt she’s in and feel that she is a fraud, Rebecca must pay off her debts, get her job back, get her man back, and find happiness in something other than excessive shopping.

The Verdict:
I’m not normally a fan of chick flicks, but I enjoyed this one. Most chick flicks have the biggest setback to the protagonist as another woman falling for her man, but this one brings some reality to the picture.

Now I’m not saying to make this movie your financial adviser, but it should illuminate the fact that most of today’s younger generations (and even the older ones) don’t understand such everyday things as how to use a credit card.

For an easy brighten-your-day-movie, Confessions of a Shopaholic should be your pick.

And next time, think twice before taking out your credit card.

The Quibbler

via Flylyf

Click here to view the embedded video.

Normally when I admit that I watch “So You Think You Can Dance” , I do it shame-facedly, solely because the title is lame and it undoubtedly puts people in mind of cornball shows like “Dancing With The Stars”. But it’s about a thousand times cooler than that- these people are actual dancers, for one thing, and they perform the most incredible, creative choreography dreamed up by the likes of contemporary dance geniuses Mia Michaels and Sonia Tayeh.

Speaking of Sonia, her badass, beautiful dance set to Blue Foundation’s “Eyes On Fire” was the most amazing number of the show’s season so far. The choreography, danced by Kayla and Kupono, was inspired by love, death, and vampires.

You won’t find that kind of awesome on “Dancing With The Stars”.