Saturday, January 22, 2011

Star Wars Lightsaber Duel 16-Inch Square Pillow

Star Wars Lightsaber Duel 16-Inch Square PillowOld-school collectors of Star Wars paraphernalia and young fans alike will want to decorate their bedrooms with this pillow, which bears a fresh design in honor of the May 2005 release of the third and final chapter in the Star Wars trilogy, Revenge of the Sith. The 16-inch square pillow has a 40-percent cotton/60-percent polyester cover and is stuffed with polyester fill. On one side, the royal blue pillow features an overhead view of a Jedi Starfighter and the label "Squad Leader" while the flip side bears a turquoise and orange lightsaber shield and the Star Wars logo. A whole host of matching bedroom components, from comforters to curtains, is available to deck out the entire bedroom in tribute to the Jedi masters. This pillow is not machine-washable and must be spot-cleaned to remove any stains. --Cristina Vaamonde

Price: $15.00


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Crucible Of Empire: The Spanish American War [VHS]

Crucible Of Empire: The Spanish American War [VHS]This is a well-made documentary with excellent footage, a complementary musical score, and a well-organized narrative that gives viewers a full portrait of a woman who, in 1960, went alone into the heart of Africa at the age of 26 and remained there for decades studying chimpanzees.

Louis Leakey chose Goodall's vocation for her. As his secretary she did not think she had the proper qualifications to study chimps, but he knew otherwise. He sent her to Gombe National Park in Tanzania. The details of Goodall's life given in this video describe not only why Goodall chose such an unusual life but how she has been able to do it, giving the viewer a reason to care about her and in turn about the chimps.

By observing the chimp societies for three decades, she discovered that they used tools, and though she originally thought they were more gentle than humans, she learned they had a dark side too. In 1975 four of her students were kidnapped by armed rebels from Zaire and were held for 10 weeks. Goodall was harshly criticized for caring more about her research than about her students. Confronting the controversy on film makes for fascinating dialogue as Goodall defends herself.

In Jane Goodall: My Life with the Chimpanzees, viewers will learn as much about this incredibly outspoken woman as about the chimps. Her crusade to save them in the wild (at the time of the filming there were only 160 chimps left in Gombe National Park) is extremely important, as is her campaign to improve the situations of chimps in zoos or in laboratories living in horrible conditions. A visit to the chimp cages in a U.S. lab is done with utmost taste but is still mind-blowing. With a smile and mimicking a chimp's hello, Goodall gently forces us all to question the ethics of animal testing. --Cristina Del Sesto

Price: $19.98


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Grey's Anatomy - The Complete First Season

Just when you wanted to say "Oh no, not another hospital drama," Grey's Anatomy turns into one of the most addicting series on television. With no big stars and no hype, the ABC series debuted last spring as a mid-season replacement and became a bonafide smash in its nine-episode season.


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The series, a hybrid of House's medical detectives and Dawson's Creek's hormones and catchy pop-rock soundtrack, follows five competitive surgical interns at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital. There's optimistic ex-model Izzie (Katherine Heigl), bumbling do-gooder George (T.R. Knight), competitive glacier Cristina (Sandra Oh), cocky womanizer Alex (Justin Chambers), and the show's namesake, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), whose medical career is complicated by her famous surgeon mother who now lives with Alzheimer's, and her frowned-upon relationship with another surgeon, Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey, enjoying the best career revival since Rob Lowe). The doctors juggle romance and foster friendships while trying not to stab each other in the back over surgeries.

Grey's Anatomy's first season, while entertaining, went a little far trying to find its groove, overdosing on Meredith's overly simplistic voice-overs ("At the end of the day… faith is a funny thing"), and musical montages. It has the usual trappings of a hospital drama (unusual cases, such as the patient with the 70-pound tumor, and trysts in the on-call room), but with more warm fuzzies and light touches. (Sometimes, a little too light--the opening credits sequence features an eyelash curler next to medical instruments and red-painted toes savorting with a male patient under a sheet)

Pompeo, who can sound just like Renee Zellweger if you close your eyes, is likeable but not strong enough of a presence compared to her co-stars. Luckily the quirky dialogue and stellar acting by the ethnically diverse cast, particularly by Chandra Wilson (Dr. Bailey, aka "the Nazi") and Oh, who won a Golden Globe for best supporting actress, more than make up for it. The DVD covers the first season's nine episodes, plus commentary on the pilot and a behind-the-scenes feature. --Ellen A. Kim


They Came From the '80s: Greatest Teen Actor Comebacks

Why We Love Ellen Pompeo

Check Yourself Into Other Hospital Shows

Price: $29.99


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The Suburbs

The SuburbsWritten, arranged, performed, and produced by the Arcade Fire and co-produced by Markus Dravs, The Suburbs was recorded around Montreal and New York over the past two years.

Price: $15.98


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