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The Besnard Lakes' Acid Test: Like A Hit Of LSD Minus The Side Effects

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There’s a certain connotation with the music that Montreal’s Besnard Lakes make. The Polaris Music Prize-nominated rock band are often described as ‘psychedelic’ or ‘trippy,’ and their latest album, "Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO", hasn’t escaped such categorizations.

When asked if he sees a cultural connection between his music and the ingestion of mind-altering substances, Besnard Lakes vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and founder Jace Lasek is quite candid.

“I hope so,” he says over the phone. “I’m calling to that altered state of mind. Those times when I was young and listening to music in an altered state probably were the moments that made me realize that I wanted or needed to make music. They were life-changing moments for me and I still call to those moments and have a real romantic notion about it.

“When you’re in an altered state, it doesn’t matter what you’re listening to; you just get completely blown away by anything because your mind is just whirling around,” he continues. “So, I’m calling to arms people in altered states to disappear from the world for 45 minutes. That’s why we make albums; everything’s based on the idea of sitting down, putting it on and listening to it from front to back and getting lost in the world. You don’t even really need to be high to do it but it maybe helps.”

In spite of his desire to conjure the mood or feel of an ‘altered state,’ Lasek admits that he cannot actually make music himself while high on drugs.

“I’m mostly just talking about LSD specifically and I stopped doing that eons ago,” he admits. “But those moments when I was doing it, you’re hallucinating and when you close your eyes, you’re still seeing things floating across your vision, if you can even call it your vision anymore. There’s a heightened sense where you can dig into music and hear things you’ve never heard before. Anybody can do it; you don’t have to be altered to hear things you’ve never heard before. But maybe it happens more immediately. You don’t have to listen to something three or four times to be able to dig in and go, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve never heard that guitar part before.’

“When I first listening to music while I was on acid, it was like ‘I can’t believe the things coming out of these speakers right now.’ You can feel the textures and there’s a curiosity there, at least for me. I wanted to figure out how to make that happen and that’s why I started recording. I grew up in Regina and there weren’t a lot of places I could go to make records sounds like what I was listening to. I motivated myself to figure it out and do it myself. And then I just stopped doing those drugs.”

After hearing Lasek speak so vividly and passionately about his days experimenting with acid, it begs the question: why stop? Why inhibit one’s self from experiencing something that was so formative?

“Because I don’t want to get locked in it for eight hours,” he explains. “That kind of drug, LSD, is a young person’s drug. It can go both ways. You can have an amazing experience. I don’t think I had a bad trip but I knew people who just went down the rabbit hole and it just got ugly. You’re lost in it for five or six hours. You can’t just say, ‘I’m not gonna be high anymore.’ It takes you over. Once you start getting older and you have real life problems where you can’t make your rent or you need insurance—stupid, every day, normal things—those things will enter your brain and completely ruin your trip.“

“So, it’s a young person’s thing. My experiences were from like 18 to 23 years old when I was going to art school and just barely going through the motions but really doing a lot of acid without a care in the world. I lived at home and didn’t have to worry about rent. Once you start to have real life problems, it’s like I don’t want to be involved in that anymore. It’s just too much.”

Lasek says that, in making records with the Besnard Lakes, he’s hoping to create a 45 minute altered state that you can leave at any point but that “it’s always going to be a nice, enjoyable, uplifting, enchanting experience” He describes it as “a mini-acid trip” that you don’t have to you don’t have to lose your mind over.

“I don’t really have any desire to do it anymore,” he says of LSD. “Maybe the music has helped me with that. I get little bits of sensation on-stage, playing the songs live. There’s a correlation there. You do get a sense of euphoria when you’re playing and pushing all this loud, sonic texture into a room at 110, 115 decibels where people are experiencing what you’re throwing at them. That’s a really special moment and I’m never going to take that for granted.

“Some of the greatest euphoric moments are looking out into the crowd and seeing people standing there with their eyes closed. When their eyes are closed, I know that they’re getting it. That’s exactly what I want from people; I want them to lose themselves in it. That’s the ticket!”

You can listen to this entire interview on the Kreative Kontrol with Vish Khanna podcast.


As Hollywood Filming Spreads Out Globally, California Loses

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the old days, filmmakers flocked to Hollywood for its abundant sunshine, beautiful people and sandy beaches. But today a new filmmaking diaspora is spreading across the globe to places like Vancouver, London and Wellington, New Zealand.

Fueled by politicians doling out generous tax breaks, filmmaking talent is migrating to where the money is. The result is an incentives arms race that pits California against governments around the world and allows powerful studios —with hundreds of millions of dollars at their disposal— to cherry-pick the best deals. The most recent iteration of the phenomenon came earlier this month when James Cameron announced plans to shoot and produce the next three "Avatar" sequels largely in New Zealand. What Cameron gets out of the deal is a 25 percent rebate on production costs, as long as his company spends at least $413 million on the three films.

"There's no place in the world that we could make these sequels more cost effectively," says producer Jon Landau. It is neither the archipelago's volcanoes nor its glaciers that are attractive, because the "Avatar" movies will be shot indoors. Sure, Peter Jackson's award-winning special effects infrastructure is there, but the deciding factor was the money. "We looked at other places," says Landau. But in the end, "it was this rebate."

In exchange, the local economy will benefit hugely, Landau says, comparing the ripple effect to the boost that comes from new home construction. "We're doing lumber, we're catering for hundreds of people a day. We're housing people in hotels. We're going to a stationery store and tripling their business in a year."

The deal was "the best Christmas present we could have possibly hoped for," says Alex Lee, an Auckland, New Zealand-based entertainment lawyer. The news is especially welcome because the local screen industry is facing a potential drought: The Starz pay TV series "Spartacus" finished this year and Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" trilogy is set to wrap next year. Thanks to the "Avatar" sequels, the 1,100 workers at Weta Digital Ltd., the ground-breaking digital effects house Jackson co-founded in 1993, can keep plugging away through 2018.

"It would have been a real shame if we had lost any of that talent and they had to move to follow the films," says Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown.

Driving the trend are powerful global forces squeezing the entertainment industry. Falling DVD sales are putting pressure on movie-making budgets, while the demand for ever-more-amazing special effects grows. The spread of technology and skills around the world is creating a huge number of special effects suppliers — some using cheaper labor than can be found in Hollywood.

Government largesse has helped create mini-moguldoms in Vancouver, Montreal, London, New York and Wellington, all of which are aggressively one-upping each other to become the next new hotbed of activity. As the work spreads, branch offices of visual effects companies have opened up in new locations. Even though digital work is borderless, workers must live and be paid locally to generate the income taxes and spending that governments seek.

The tax incentives race is destined to accelerate next year. State incentives in California — home to "Star Wars" pioneer Industrial Light & Magic — are too small to accommodate big-budget movies. Democratic Assembly member Raul Bocanegra is preparing a bill to expand their scope, but it could take months to get through committees, says his chief of staff, Ben Golombek.

And the U.S. federal incentive, an arguably difficult-to-use tax deduction of up to $20 million per film or TV episode, is set to expire at the end of 2013.

"Once our federal incentive ends in two weeks, you're going to have a lot of people who are going to go elsewhere," says Hal "Corky" Kessler, a tax incentives lawyer with Chicago-based Deutsch, Levy & Engel.

Industry business leaders say they're simply following the money.

"This is no different than any other multinational business," says Sir William Sargent, co-founder and CEO of Framestore, a London-based special effects business that worked on likely Oscar-contender, "Gravity," and has offices in Montreal, New York and Los Angeles. "We're just going to where our customers are."

Even if the U.S. moves to counteract growing incentives overseas, the efforts won't prevent another jurisdiction from offering a bigger break.

Joseph Chianese, executive vice president at consulting company EP Financial Solutions, says the competition to offer attractive incentives is intense. More than 30 countries and 44 U.S. states now offer tax breaks to filmmakers.

The mix "changes daily, but it's not going away," Chianese says. "We have now trained a generation of filmmakers and TV makers that production doesn't have to happen here anymore."

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Perry reported from Wellington, New Zealand.

Doe B Dead: Rapper Dies At 22

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Rapper Doe B is dead following a shooting in Alabama. He was 22 years old.

Doe B, real name Glenn Thomas, of Montgomery died after an early morning shooting on Saturday, Dec. 28, local NBC affiliate WSFA reported. Police responded to a call of multiple gunshots at the 900 block of Highland Avenue around 1:30 a.m.

Authorities found Doe B, 21-year-old Kimberle Johnson and six other victims, WSFA reported. Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene, while Thomas was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

The shooting occurred at a venue called the Centennial Hill Bar and Grill, according to AL.com. It was formerly known as Rose Supper Club, but that establishment lost its liquor license and closed a year ago after a December 2012 shooting left six people injured. Centennial Hill opened earlier this year.

Doe B's death was confirmed on Twitter by his camp.




Doe B was signed to rapper T.I.'s Atlanta-based label, Grand Hustle Records, according to Billboard. He was known for his Trap style and his signature eyepatch, which he has worn since another shooting three years ago.

T.I. offered his condolences to the young star's family and friends.


Vanessa Carlton Marries John McCauley In Ceremony Officiated By Stevie Nicks

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Vanessa Carlton is a married woman!

Carlton announced she wed Deer Tick's lead singer and guitarist John McCauley in a tweet Friday, Dec. 27. The surprise ceremony was officiated by none other than Fleetwood Mac superstar Stevie Nicks.

"Married this gentleman two hours ago xo," she tweeted along with a photo of her and her groom. In the pic, the 33-year-old singer can be seen wearing a gorgeous white gown and a floral headband to match her blooming bouquet.







Earlier this month, the "A Thousand Miles" singer revealed on Facebook that she suffered an ectopic pregnancy. The pregnancy was a surprise because she has Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, a hormone disorder.

At seven weeks, doctors discovered the fetus was attached to the right fallopian tube. She was treated with chemotherapy, but ultimately had surgery to get her entire fallopian tube removed.

This is the first marriage for Carlton, who came out as bisexual in 2010. She previously dated Third Eye Blind singer Stephan Jenkins from 2002 to 2007.

Dodgers' Carl Crawford Engaged To Evelyn Lozada

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Los Angeles Dodgers' outfielder Carl Crawford is engaged to reality star Evelyn Lozada.

Crawford asked Lozada to marry him on Christmas Day, according to the Los Angeles Times. The "Basketball Wives" star, who ex-fiancee of former NBA star Antoine Walker and the ex-wife of former Miami Dolphins' player Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson, announced the happy news with an Instagram photo of her 14-carat engagement ring.



"I'm overjoyed and in complete and utter shock!" Lozada told People magazine of the engagement. "What a different year and a half it has been – I'm truly happy!"

The 37-year-old's rep said she "wasn't expecting a proposal at all" and "it took Evelyn by surprise."

In November, TMZ first reported Lozada is pregnant with Crawford's child. She is allegedly seven months along.



Earlier this month, she opened up about her relationship with the MLB star during an interview with OMG! Insider.

"I'm not one of those people that's like ‘we need to get engaged, we need to get married,’" she said, per Us Weekly. "No, absolutely not. I feel like that's going to come, just like with the baby, let it come. I'm not forcing anything, so if it happens, it happens.”

Johnson, who split from Lozada last year after claims he physically abused her, told TMZ he is "happy" for his pregnant ex and already bought her baby some Louboutin shoes.

Lisa Niemi, Patrick Swayze's Widow, Engaged To Jeweler

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Patrick Swayze's widow, Lisa Niemi, is engaged to be married again.

People magazine confirmed Saturday that Niemi is engaged to Albert DePrisco, a 58-year-old jeweler. He proposed on Christmas Eve after a year and a half of dating.

Niemi first went public with DePrisco last October in Miami. They met through a mutual friend at a birthday party.

Reports surfaced last month claiming Niemi and DePrisco were headed for marriage. She allegedly bought a condo in Boca Raton, Fla., to be closer to him.

Swayze and Niemi married in 1975. She lost him in 2009 to pancreatic cancer, but waited three years to remove her wedding ring. "About a year ago or eight months ago, all of a sudden I had this bizarre thought and it didn't really make sense to me, but I had a moment when I went, 'you know what this ring says? I'm married to his physical form,'" she told "New York Live" last year. "And actually my connection to him, since he has been gone, has been much deeper than that. And I felt like in a way, for me personally, wearing the ring was lying about the depth of our relationship."

Krysten Ritter Of 'Don't Trust The B' Stars In Jordan Galland's New Music Video

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For those unfamiliar with Krysten Ritter, she starred in the cut-too-short ABC comedy "Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23," and played Jesse Pinkman's girlfriend and landlord in "Breaking Bad" Season 2. Here, not one, but three Ritters star in Jordan Galland's creepy new music video for the song "Leave My Friends Alone." Watch the video above.

'Little Couple' Star Jen Arnold Begins Chemo For Cancer, Tweets Photo From Hospital

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Earlier this month, Jen Arnold, star of TLC's "The Little Couple," revealed she had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. The 39-year-old mother of two has since been updating her many fans on Twitter and on Friday (Dec. 27) shared a photo straight from the hospital ward.




After initially going public with the diagnosis, Arnold told HuffPost: "I am very fortunate as the prognosis is good. While there is never a good time to get news like this, getting it just as we are building our new family is tough in many ways ... But being surrounded by the love of my husband and our two beautiful children is actually in many ways giving me the strength to fight it even stronger."

A week later, Arnold revealed the devastating backstory to People magazine: When she and husband Bill Klein were in India to pick up their daughter Zoey, Arnold began bleeding. Back in the States, she was diagnosed with stage 3 choriocarcinoma, a rare cancer that began with a non-viable pregnancy she suffered in September. She has since undergone a hysterectomy.

Right before Christmas, Klein shared some news regarding his wife's situation, after which Jen elaborated:










Get well soon, Jen!

Harry Styles, Kendall Jenner Spotted At California Snowboard Shop

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It's been a few weeks, but Hendall (or Karry, whichever portmanteau you prefer) is still a thing.

The rumored couple, were once again spotted together -- this time at a snowboard shop in Mammoth Lakes, Calif, according to E! News. If you're looking for proof that the 19-year-old One Direction member and the 18-year-old reality star were united once again, look no further than this photo shared by a fan named Allie Connolly, who captioned the snapshot, "Casually hanging out with Kendall Jenner and Harry Styles. #dying."



Rumors that the two were dating began in late November after they were spotted enjoying a dinner date at Craig's in West Hollywood. The pair made headlines again after it was reported that Jenner was waiting backstage for Styles while he performed on "Saturday Night Live," and the two unexpectedly hit up Therapy, a popular gay club in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen, after the show. On Dec. 15, Styles was spotted outside Jenner's London hotel at 2 a.m.

16 Latino Celebrity Flashbacks That Will Make You Feel Old

Daniel Romano Sings Hurtin' Songs, But Please Don't Call Him 'Country'

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Daniel Romano sings hurtin’ songs -- tales of heartbreak and the loneliness at the bottom of a bottle. He does it with a pronounced twang and a drawl to his voice while wearing a cowboy hat and a sequinned “Nudie” suit, the type associated with the glory days of the Grand Ole Opry.

But please don’t call him country.

The Canadian singer-songwriter has rejected the country tag, coining himself instead “The King of Mosey.”

“ ‘Mosey’ is a term I made up,” explains Romano. “Basically, it just means classic country.”

So why not just call it “classic country”? That’s definitely where one would file Romano’s latest album, "Come Cry with Me". The problem, says the 28-year-old, is when he tells people he plays traditional country music, most don’t even know what that is.

“The meaning of country has changed pretty drastically,” he says. “So if you tell people you play classic country, the average Joe thinks you mean Tim McGraw. It was fine when people used ‘new country’ for that stuff, but somehow that has gone away and it is now just ‘country.’ But it’s not. It’s some kind of rock ‘n’ roll, super pop, dumbed-down version of what country was.”

Romano is certainly not alone in this opinion. The late country icon George Jones, in an interview with the Associated Press, accused pop acts like Taylor Swift of stealing country’s identity. “What they need to do really, I think, is find their own title, because they’re definitely not traditional country music,” he said.

One can only imagine what Jones would make of DeeJaySilver, a DJ/producer signed to Sony Music Nashville who mashes country with dance music. (See his remix of Carrie Underwood’s “Two Black Cadillacs” below.)



The blurred lines of music genres exacerbate artists’ frustrations with having to label their work at all. And subgenres, usually coined by journalists, DJs or other music industry types and arbitrarily applied based on looks as much as sound, are often met with resistance, if not downright ridicule.

Most recently, dubstep and EDM seem to have been embraced without much distain, but modern music history is littered with bad words -- nu metal, goth, electronica, grunge, emo -- all vehemently rejected by the bands that made them famous.

Witness Jimmy Eat World singer Jim Adkins telling the BBC, “We've never considered ourselves emo,” or Jonathan Davis from Korn insisting “'nu-metal' was made up for all the bands that followed us … we're just Korn.”

And yet, while some such made-up musical genres are mercifully short-lived (wherefore art thou, “electroclash”?), most of them do stick. Artists can plead all they want, but sometimes all that’s left to do is take the piss (see: Kurt Cobain appearing in photographs wearing a T-shirt that read “Grunge is dead”) or at least appreciate the fact that labelling helps listeners find, and buy, new music.

Vincent Marcone of the band Johnny Hollow is rare breed of goth who actually doesn’t hate being called goth. While he sympathizes with artists who reject the derogatory "g-word" for fear of “being dismissed as a 'goth band' by the music media,” he doesn’t share their derision.

“For me as a teenager, the ‘goth’ umbrella helped me discover a variety of new music -- not just Bauhaus and Joy Division but Cocteau Twins, Depeche Mode, Portishead,” he says.

“To this day, I am fond of the term, and am nothing but flattered when a fan refers to us as ‘goth.’ It does not define Johnny Hollow completely, but it is a part of the thematic palette that we use in our music.”

On the flipside of all this you have the headbangers, who literally wear their genre on their (denim and leather) sleeves. When the term “heavy metal” was first introduced around 1973, it was retroactively applied to underground rock bands such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep, who mostly rebuffed attempts to put their music in a box, but, as author Martin Popoff explains it, things changed in the early 80s with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

“Rockers were feeling under siege from the world of punk and new wave,” says Popoff, who has written more than 40 books on the history of hard rock and metal.

“So they end up forming a tribe. They start to say, ‘Hey, we are heavy metal, and we are perfectly fine with that term.’ At this time, the bands look metal, the fans look metal, and every song on these records, starting around 1980-81 in the UK, is very heavy metal. They even start writing songs about being heavy metal, like Saxon’s ‘Denim and Leather’. They were proud.”

Then came hair metal. The glam bands from L.A. may have sold millions of albums but they presented an image of metal that many headbangers found ridiculous and were quick to distance themselves from.

“In metal, you didn’t want to be associated with hair metal,” says Popoff. “This is why grunge bands didn’t want to be called metal, it was the perception. And even today, there is a lingering bit of that. Even though metal is cool and viable again some people say “we’re metal’ not “heavy metal.’”

In this respect, hair metal and new country have a lot in common. Both bought a genre of non-commercial music to the Top 40, in a pop fashion that irked intensely loyal and protective fans of the more traditional versions, and with a level of success that forever changed the very definition of the genre itself. Metal survived by splintering into even more extreme subgenres, while classic country has Daniel Romano and his ilk pushing to keep it alive.

“You have to call your music something,” says Romano. “I know that with ‘mosey’ I’m always going to have to explain what I mean, but I hope it will intrigue people to find out more. I know that other people are going to fall in love with that style of music again and realize it’s a tradition worth protecting.”

'Duck Dynasty' Is A 'Gay Porn Series Just Waiting To Happen,' Suggests Henry Rollins

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Punk rock icon Henry Rollins has a few ideas in mind for the future of "Duck Dynasty" following the controversy that ensued after Phil Robertson offered up a series of anti-gay and racially-charged remarks in a GQ interview last month.

Calling the reality series "contrived" and "ridiculous," the former Black Flag frontman-turned-television host and actor suggests that A&E capitalize on the popularity of "Duck Dynasty" with "a vast array of merchandise" that would secure the show's "crossover potential" in a new blog for L.A. Weekly.

"One of you supremely talented graphic artists should start a comic book series starring the 'Duck' dudes as homosexual bears," he writes. "At the next major gay pride event, there should be hard-bodied men in camo hot pants, ridiculous beards pasted to their chins, blowing through duck calls. 'Dick Dynasty' is a gay porn series just waiting to happen."

He then adds, "When you see the DD men all decked out in their camo gear, they look pretty bitchin' and rugged."

Whether or not Robertson would approve of Rollins' suggestions remains to be seen, of course. You can read Rollins' full editorial here.

Rollins been expressing support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community for quite some time. In a 2012 L.A. Weekly blog, he not only praised Washington state's same-sex marriage victory, but added that the nation's overall stance on the LGBT rights community is "getting better all the time."

"When we all got into punk rock, we learned that we had all kinds of people in our scene; gay was part of it," he wrote at the time. "I thought it was really cool. We were a crew of social misfits of all stripes and it was the music that brought us together. The fact that there were so many gay people in punk bands, I think, really gave the music an incredible dynamic."

Kaley Cuoco's Wedding Cake Hung Upside Down From A Chandelier (Yes, Seriously)

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"Big Bang" star Kaley Cuoco had one of the craziest wedding cakes we've ever seen. Why? Because it was hanging upside down all night, suspended from a crystal chandelier. You read that right -- upside down.

Cuoco posted the photo below on Instagram, with the caption "TY to #thebutterend for creating our magical chandelier cake. Literally hanging above us. EPIC", following her New Year's Eve fire-and-ice themed nuptials to Ryan Sweeting.



The six-tiered cake was made by The Butter End Cakery in Los Angeles. Owner Kimberly Bailey tells The Knot that creating the cake -- from planning to execution -- took about six weeks. As for how it stayed up, she said, "We had hung sandbags off the chandelier to make sure it would hold the weight of the cake. A center pull armature held the cake upright and board planks held the individual tiers."

Bailey's hard work paid off; the cake turned so many heads that Cuoco tweeted an additional photo of it.




Not only did the two-flavored cake look amazing, it was actually able to be cut while hanging upside down.

“If you look at the second to bottom tier, there’s a big hole in it,” Bailey told People. “That’s where she cut it. They cut it, they ate it.”

Cuoco isn't the first celeb to have an over-the-top cake. Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann's 2004 wedding featured a seven-foot tall, six-tiered cake topped with Swarovski crystals.

And in 2010, Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky reportedly spent $11,000 on a 500-pound, nine-tier cake, complete with 1,000 intricately designed sugar flowers.

We think Kaley's upside down confection still takes the cake (sorry, we had to!).

Keep in touch! Check out HuffPost Weddings on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

'Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones' Review: Fifth Installment Brings New Angles

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — It would be a wild exaggeration to suggest that "Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones" breathes new life into the increasingly fumes-fueled found-footage horror subgenre, but it certainly represents a shot in the arm for this series after 2012's poorly regarded "Paranormal Activity 4."

Functioning more as a mythology-expanding spinoff than a proper sequel, this fifth installment (the first directed by longtime series writer Christopher Landon) smartly switches the setting away from airy suburbs to overcrowded working-class apartments, and introduces a winning sense of humor that almost compensates for its relentless reliance on every terror trope in the book. At this point, the conventions and limitations of the found-footage horror film are almost as well-worn and cliched as those of horror flicks at large: "Put down the camera, stupid!" has now probably been shouted at just as many screens as "Don't go down into the basement!" (Look for "Tilt your viewfinder 20 degrees to the left!" to finally supplant "Look out behind you!" within the present decade.)

Appropriately, the hapless heroes of "The Marked Ones" never put down the camera even as they venture into dark basements, or struggle to start a stalled car, or split up in the middle of a haunted mansion — and it's to the credit of the film's primary cast that these bits of genre-appropriate stupidity generate more laughs than groans.

Kicking off with a high-school graduation, "The Marked Ones" centers on likably lunkheaded teenage buddies Jesse (Andrew Jacobs) and Hector (Jorge Diaz), as well as Jesse's tag-along relative Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh). Set in gritty Oxnard, Calif., the film boasts an almost entirely Latino cast of characters — a welcome gesture toward a huge filmgoing demographic that rarely gets to see itself onscreen — while smart casting and production design help capture the flavor of the environs with only moderate deployment of cultural stereotypes.

Seemingly possessing no greater postgrad ambitions than milling around and attempting "Jackass" stunts with their omnipresent video camera, Jesse and Hector harass Jesse's abuela (Renee Victor), smoke pot, play basketball, occasionally run afoul of some local gangsters, draw penises on one another's faces, and generally break each other's balls for a decent chunk of the film. Fortunately, Jacobs and Diaz boast an easy "Beavis and Butt-head"-esque chemistry throughout, making for pleasant company as the audience waits for the inevitable horrors to befall them.

The first complication comes from Jesse's elderly downstairs neighbor, Anna (Gloria Sandoval), whose reclusive behavior is strange enough for Hector to postulate that "maybe the bitch is a bruja." The two attempt to spy on her by lowering a camera down through a ventilation shaft, where they witness Anna scrawling arcane symbols on the belly of a nude younger woman. Being teenage boys, they're far too intrigued by the boobs on display to fret over the obvious occult ritual taking place, but when Anna is subsequently murdered, they decide to attempt some amateur late-night sleuthing, with predictably unpleasant results.

While the film hardly plays it coy about where this is all heading, it doesn't seem to be in a rush to get there, and it springs a number of smart ideas along the way. Replacing the typical Ouija board with a haunted Simon game is sure to provoke howls of laughter from those in the appropriate age bracket, and the idea that a victim of demonic possession would rush to YouTube to show off his gnarly new abilities — and be promptly torn to shreds by comment section trolls — is sadly in keeping with the times.

The haunted house set-pieces provide reliable doses of jolts, even if one can see the scaffolding of each scare being built from miles away, and director Landon has fun with some clever camera placement here and there. A very meta twist ending promises to either open up new narrative possibilities, or else push the franchise deep into a self-referential rabbit hole.

"Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones," a Paramount release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for "pervasive language, some violence, graphic nudity and some drug use." Running time: 84 minutes.

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MPAA rating definition for R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Julianne Hough Leaves The Gym In A Tiny Top

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Julianne Hough rocked a tiny white crop top as she hit the gym in West Hollywood today (Jan. 3).

The 25-year-old dancer-turned-actress went makeup-free and kept hydrated while breaking a sweat. Hough wore spandex workout pants, a headband and pink sneakers.

julianne

julianne hough

She recently celebrated the holidays with her family in Utah before strapping on her snowboard and hitting the slopes on Dec. 27. "My niece Willow and I enjoying this beautiful weather on the slopes today! Woot woot! #family #fun #adventures," she wrote on Instagram, posting the below photo.


Is Matthew McConaughey The New Johnny Depp?

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This time 10 years ago, Johnny Depp was on the cusp of earning his first Oscar nomination, for what was then considered a clever turn as Cpt. Jack Sparrow in the first of way too many "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. The nod was long overdue, arriving years after Depp wowed us in films like "Edward Scissorhands," "Ed Wood" and "Donnie Brasco."

Now, despite two well-deserved nominations since (for "Finding Neverland" and "Sweeney Todd"), a "Pirates of the Caribbean" performance being thought of as seminal -- or Johnny Depp in the same sentence as "Oscar nomination" -- is laughable.

But wait. Let's rewind again. Ten years ago, Matthew McConaughey was starring in "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." "Two for the Money," "Failure to Launch" and "Surfer, Dude" -- the latter of which maintains zero positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes -- all came after. Now what do we have? A crime on our hands if McConaughey is snubbed for his wrenching performance in the AIDS drama "Dallas Buyers Club" when the Oscar nominations are announced on Jan. 16. (He already has Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nods, but Best Actor is a tense race this year.)

It would seem Depp -- once known as one of Hollywood's go-to weirdos, and a marketable one who became a heartthrob and box-office superstar -- has traded places with McConaughey, a former laughing stock of all things critically acclaimed. Call it poetic justice. The oft-shirtless, Southern-fried McConaughey we've known is looking in our mocking faces and daring us to doubt him again. Oh, how quickly everything we thought we knew about pop culture shatters and we're forced to rewrite the industry's casting norms.

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McConaughey's 2013 found him starring in "Buyers Club," "Mud" and Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street." That followed last year's acclaimed "Magic Mike" and, to a lesser degree, "The Paperboy." Depp's 2013? "The Lone Ranger," one of the year's biggest flops and the successor on a résumé that includes the poorly received triumvirate "The Tourist," "The Rum Diary" and "Dark Shadows." Depp's forthcoming slate isn't a lost cause, but it doesn't echo the unique work he's done in the past. If all goes well, Rob Marshall's big-screen adaptation of "Into the Woods" may be one of 2015's top Oscar contenders, but it's an ensemble piece that could find Depp lost in a sea of showy performances from the likes of Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick and Christine Baranski. His other movies -- among them are the artificial-intelligence thriller "Transcendence" and the Nazi caper "Mortdecai" (directed by David Koepp, who's best known for co-writing "Mission: Impossible" and "Jurassic Park") -- have potential, but those films are followed by the fifth "Pirates" installment, slated for 2016. (An "Alice in Wonderland" sequel is in the offing as well.) It's a few small steps forward and one giant step backward, accompanied by another reminder that Depp's depth is in decline.

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McConaughey's 2014, on the other hand, has just two items on the actor's plate: the first season of the HBO anthology series "True Detective," which premieres Jan. 12, and Christopher Nolan's hotly anticipated space-travel movie "Interstellar." That's pretty impressive for an actor who used to crank out multiple trite projects a year. McConaughey has gotten choosey.

No one promises any of Hollywood's golden children a life of endless glorification, but it's evident that Depp's alienation comes at the hands of stale, populist fare. Fame can be fleeting, but we're talking about an actor with nearly 25 years of adulation. When someone like McConaughey, who at one point wouldn't have appeared on even the longest of Oscar shortlists, can emerge as one of the year's most celebrated actors, it deepens the disappointment in Depp's poor decisions. There's nothing wrong with big-budget vehicles, but when movie stars establish themselves as discerning purveyors of eccentricity, as Depp did throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, it's tougher to be forgiving when their careers are reduced to mediocrity (no matter how many millions of dollars their paychecks are worth). McConaughey, 44, recently told GQ that he's aiming for a midlife "ascension." Surely Deep, 50, isn't going for the opposite?

Here's to celebrating McConaughey's surge, and to wishing him years of esteem to come. Whatever your previous opinions of the actor were (don't pretend you don't kind of love "The Wedding Planner"), we can't foster a culture where we deride movie stars' attempts to improve the new chapter in their careers. In keeping, we must hold Depp accountable for the type of actor he billed himself as for years -- one he isn't living up to now. We've said it before, now let's say it again: Come back to us while you still can, Johnny Depp. In the meantime, all hail Matthew McConaughey.

'House Of Cards' Season 2 Promo Features Kevin Spacey And One Very Bendy Rubber Band

Cameron Diaz Thinks Laser Hair Removal On Your Pubic Area Is 'A Crazy Idea'

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Cameron Diaz has some strong opinions about the state of pubic hair beauty standards.

In her new book The Body Book: The Law Of Hunger, The Science Of Strength, And Other Ways To Love Your Amazing Body, the "Bad Teacher" and "Annie" star advises women against lasering their bikini area:
I hear that there’s a big fad these days of young women undergoing laser hair removal on all of their lady bit. … Personally, I think permanent laser hair removal sounds like a crazy idea. Forever? I know you may think you’ll be wearing the same style of shoes forever and the same style of jeans forever, but you won’t. The idea that vaginas are preferable in a hairless state is a pretty recent phenomenon, and all fads change, people.


Diaz is not alone in advocating that women feel comfortable rocking a fuller haircut "down there." According to The Cut, 2013 offered definitive proof that "bush is back." And in October 2013, artist Petra Collins shared her outrage when Instagram censored an image of her body that showed some untrimmed pubic hair.

Diaz reminds her book's readers that pubic hair is not just acceptable, but can be sexy:
Pubic hair also serves as a pretty draping that makes it a little mysterious to the one who might be courting your sexiness... Twenty years from now, you will still want to be presenting it to someone special, and it would be nice to let him or her unwrap it like the gift that it is.


We say that women should feel empowered to do whatever they want with their hair -- pubic or otherwise.

RuPaul Voted 'Best Reality Host' in TV.Com Poll

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After an intense week of voting, the world has finally declared what we all already knew: RuPaul really is the best host of a reality television show there is.

The Supermodel of The World beat out the likes of Adam Levine, Demi Lovato, Blake Shelton and Howard Stern to take the crown for "Best Reality Show Judge Or Host 2013" in this year's annual TV.com poll.

In fact, RuPaul didn't just win -- he slayed the competition with over 30,000 more votes than Shelton, who nabbed second place, topping the charts with 104,871.

As if that wasn't enough, "RuPaul's Drag Race" also snatched the wig title of "Best Reality Competition Series 2013" from big names such as "Face Off," "Survivor," "The Voice" and "American Idol."

ConDRAGulations, Mama Ru!


Video Of '12 Years A Slave' Subject Solomon Northup's Descendants Will Take Your Breath Away

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On this day in 1853, Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery, regained his freedom.

His phenomenal story of strength and survival during slavery was captured in his memoir and turned into the movie: "12 Years A Slave." The movie has drawn attention to his life story to audiences across the globe.

In tribute to the anniversary of his freedom, Fox Searchlight released this incredible featurette showcasing his real-life descendants who live all over the country.

Watch the video above.
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