the buzz log
Dubya Sounds Off
What's the difference between the White House and "Gossip Girl"? Not as much as you might think. Matt Latimer, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, has written a book that reveals some of his former boss's unfiltered thoughts on political rivals. Me-ow, who knew Dubya was so catty?
Even though it won't hit store shelves until next month, searches on the book, "Speech-less," are already beginning to climb. The surging interest is due in large to some juicy excerpts released by the book's publisher. Among the gems are President Bush's impressions of President Obama, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and (hey-o!) Sarah Palin.
A blog from USA Today features some of the excerpts. President Bush said Obama wasn't "remotely qualified" to handle the job, and referred to him as "that cat Obama." Bush also made allusions to Hillary Clinton's larger-than-average posterior, and Joe Biden's tendency to talk too much (not exactly revelatory).
And in a kicker that's sure to sell plenty of books, Dubya ripped Sarah Palin. Quote Bush: "I'm trying to remember if I've met her before. I'm sure I must have... What is she, the governor of Guam?" Eat your heart out, Perez Hilton.
Filed under: George Bush, Books
Jane Austen: Now Safe for Boys
Get the smelling salts. The biggest literary debut arrives now.
No, no, not Dan Brown and his silly little puzzle book. We're talking imprudent headstrong maidens, men in flannel waistcoats, and creatures from the deep. From the late Jane Austen with scandalous liberties taken by one Ben H. Winters of Brooklyn comes "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters." Read it and weep...with heartrending sobs.
Monster mash-up
Quirk Books pushed out titles "Christopher Walken: A to Z," "Stuff Every Man Should Know," and "The Baby's Manual," before the publisher single-handedly created the "literary monster mash-up genre" with "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." At last look, the gory adventures of ninja-trained Elizabeth Bennet ranked #175 on Amazon. The freakish success landed co-author, Seth Grahame-Smith, his newest project: Abraham Lincoln as a vampire hunter.
Some outlets are treating the new sea-monster entry almost as legit lit: New Yorker noted a publishing celebration in its "Goings On About Town" section, and Entertainment Weekly took the time for a proper book review. Reaction: Lukewarm, with EW wondering if "the whole Austen-and-monsters series has already jumped the shark?"
Other Austenian adaptations
Well, if impolite zombies and octopi with a taste for human flesh are already passé, the Austen canon has recently inspired an all-male stage play in England called "Jane Austen's Guide to Pornography," plus movie from Elton John's production company called "Pride and Predator."
All these Austenian adaptations means a whole new audience for the all-time great novelist. Not just the "younger" generation: guys in general, who no longer have to fear the emasculating effects of intelligent reading.
If you want a taste of 19th-century mayhem flavored with 21st-century before you commit to buy (or bypass), check out this book trailer.
Filed under: Books
From Status Update to Movie?
Hollywood isn't shy about recycling ideas. Over the years the dream weavers from Tinsel Town have adapted books, plays, TV shows, comic books, action figures, newspaper columns, cartoons, and video games into films. But Hollywood's newest idea, and where it comes from, really takes the cake.
Publishers Weekly reports that we may soon see the first film to have been inspired by a Facebook status update. Granted, this particular update by Lisa Hamilton Day is a little more interesting than your run-of-the-mill "John Smith is trimming his nose hairs" or "Mary Jones is eating a burrito." Hamilton's update reads: "Lisa Hamilton Day's Pomeranian raided Chinese takeout bag overnight, opened and ate a fortune cookie. Her fortune: You have strong spiritual powers, and you should develop them." You can kind of see where this is going, right?
Show business wheeler dealers certainly can. Currently, Hamilton Day's status update is being shopped around for a book and movie deal by Fletcher and Company, a New York lit agency. The premise, according to Publishers Weekly, would revolve around the dog using "her newfound superpowers to save her owner's home after said owner loses her job and is forced to contemplate moving in with her folks." It's a bit of a stretch from the original post, but hey, never let the truth get in the way of a good talking-dog movie, right?
Snarky blog Defamer points out that while you may scoff at such an idea, keep in mind that "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" grossed a boatload of money. And compared to that Disney flick, this idea looks like "The Godfather." Another blog, The Frisky, writes that the agent who thinks the status update could be a movie is actually a good friend of Ms. Day. (Pays to have powerful friends.)
Though the story is just making its way into the blogosphere, we are starting to see a few searches on "facebook movie." Those are certain to heat up if a deal actually gets done (not a sure thing). We'll be particularly interested to see if the news that a good status update may lead to a movie deal will inspire others to stop blathering about their nose hairs and burritos. We can only hope.
Filed under: Movies, Social Networking, Books
Book Buzz: New Murakami Novel Causes Stir
The plot is a tightly held secret. The title gives no clue. And that, just like "Harry Potter" buzz, is the nifty marketing formula to make the newest Haruki Murakami tome a hit in Japan—before it's even hit the shelves.
Except unlike the boy-wizard series, this author writes esoteric epics like "The Wind-up Bird Chronicles" and "Kafka on the Shore." Not exactly the stuff of summer blockbusters. According to the AP, the popular Japanese writer is a ringer for the Pulitzer Prize in literature. Just to be clear, this is also the country that brought us "Godzilla" and "Hello, Kitty."
Although a marketing campaign to sell a literary novel seems contrived, it's actually in response to the last time the author released a book, five years ago. Fans complained that the impact of the novel was diminished by too much press coverage, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
This time around, it's very hush-hush—and the secrecy has only fueled pre-order book sales. The publisher had to rush another 100,000 copies into print to keep up with the reading frenzy. Theories abound on the title, the not very helpful "1Q84." An homage to George Orwell's "1984?" One thing's for sure: The writer's not talking.
Maybe the bookworms will celebrate the novel's arrival by dressing up as their favorite characters and showing up at bookstores at midnight. While there's no telling when the book will be translated into English, who knows—a movie based on the book could already be in the works. Take that, wizard boy.
Filed under: Books
Newspapers, e-Readers and Billionaire Doomsayers...Oh My
Billionaire investor Sam Zell said he "made a mistake" buying the Tribune Co. and that the "future of the newspaper industry is at risk today." Sumner Redstone, a broadcast billionaire whose father sold papers in Boston, said that while he would never die, newspapers would. Warren Buffett, who aired his doubts about the newspaper industry back in 1992, confirmed lately that his holding company wouldn't invest in the foolscap biz "at any price."
As if the litter of dead or wounded newspapers weren't enough, the stinging dismissal from the billionaire boys' club is wounding indeed. The only thing missing is Donald Trump claiming his hair would outlast newspapers and be a source of renewable energy to boot.
Of course, they're not attacking the message so much as the anachronistic medium: Plenty of eyeballs still read the news, but there hasn't been a good way to figure out how to keep the news going without starving journalists. There have been no shortage of answers (or failed solutions). Now, a bigger, buffer Kindle DX from Amazon ($489 retail, summer release) has spurred hopeful speculation that this will be the really cool device to encourage people to read (and pay) for information.
That school of thought is sort of equivalent to the iPod-as-savior model...although the music industry's not doing that well. Blogs like ReadWriteWeb and Crunch Gear have shot down the Kindle-as-newspaper-platform model almost as fast as traditional media can float the idea. And indeed, the New York Times threw out the proposal of Amazon as "electronic life preserver to old-media companies," only to trample it the very next day. Of course, the NYT company almost closed down a major newspaper itself, which just encourages not-so-idle billionaire chatter.
The Kindle, still without color or video, might have to find a savior itself. Wired reports not one but two threats: Plastic Logic's lightweight, letter-sized touchscreen sheet due out in 2010 and, even worse, rumors of Apple building a tablet-sized iPhone. So far, infamous technophobes Redstone and Buffett haven't spoken on that topic yet. But they probably know—they read newspapers every day.
Filed under: Tech, Apple Computer, Business, Books, Media, Newspapers, iPhone
top movers
| Rank | Subject | 1-Day Move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ford 400 | Breakout! |
| 2 | Indonesia Ferry | Breakout! |
| 3 | Jordan Chandler | 3481% |
| 4 | Evan Chandler | 2322% |
| 5 | American Music Awards | 1841% |
| 6 | John F. Kennedy | 1529% |
| 7 | Turkey Stuffing Recipes | 1361% |
| 8 | Liam Hemsworth | 1172% |
| 9 | Lou Dobbs | 1142% |
| 10 | Hendrick Motorsports | 888% |
top leaders
| Rank | Subject | Move | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Black Friday | +340 | 1290 |
| 2 | NFL | +489 | 670 |
| 3 | Jennifer Lopez | +451 | 515 |
| 4 | New Moon | -67 | 250 |
| 5 | American Music Awards | +236 | 249 |
| 6 | UFC | -36 | 239 |
| 7 | Miley Cyrus | +66 | 169 |
| 8 | Hulu | -11 | 154 |
what's the buzz?
A subject's buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Weekly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for a given week.
For more detailed information, visit our FAQ.