Too bad they’re out of my size, I hate to pass up a deal this good. Nice try Gap, but I don’t think it’s going to work.

Am I completely behind in knowing that there is a movie in production based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”?

I was browsing a few websites, looking for new books to review and found a new edition of Fitzgerald stories is being released in August and it’s because there is a movie based on “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” coming out this Christmas starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.

For those not familiar with the story, it is one of Fitzgerald’s less common fantasy stories. The idea for the story originated from a comment that Mark Twain once made about it being a shame that the best part of life was at the beginning and the worst part the end. So the story is part joke, yet melodramatic as it tells the story of a man who is born old and grows younger and younger. He falls in love but while she ages normally, he continues to get younger.

Enough chit-chat, here’s the trailer.

I think it’s going to be strange, creepy, and fascinating. More than that, I think it’s a great opportunity for those less familiar with Fitzgerald’s work to give the new edition of short stories a chance. While I was searching for the trailer I even found a website where you can read the story (and other stories from Tales of the Jazz Age) in it’s entirety.

What do you think? Will it be good, bad? Maybe you don’t care; what movie are you looking forward to?

Who’s up for it?

(Video from International Herald Tribune)

Parkour or l’art du déplacement, translated as “the art of displacement” is an activity in which participants or “traceurs” perform daring moves to get from one place to another. They use a combination of gymnastics and martial arts in what often resembles the stunts in chase scenes of action movies. Now that description may make it hard to view parkour as a form of art, which is why you have to see it.

There’s something special about viewing these stunts as still images as opposed to live action; I think it adds a certain tranquility and really shows that it is an art. Check out the rest of this photo essay from TIME. You can see that the traceurs take their art seriously planning out the moves and noting precautions they need to take.

Of course there is also some pretty awesome live action videos of parkour online.

parkour from dave keissar on Vimeo.

Though do be aware when searching for these videos that you will find some pretty lame ones as well. Actually, you’ll find mostly lame ones on video sharing sites, but do a google and you’ll find some good parkour sites like American Parkour.

More info about parkour on Wikipedia.

I used to be into freestyle walking, which is somewhat related to parkour, anyone remember that craze?

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Watch this, then go to WheretheHellisMatt.com for more videos and to read the story behind them. (I must thank Joshua Longbrake for bringing Matt back to my attention.)

I would love to do something like this. Come to think of it, I would do pretty much anything involving travel if someone paid my expenses. Anyone need an experienced writer to travel the world writing, photographing, and videographing her experiences?

Now the song this makes me think of, Los Campesinos – You! Me! Dancing

There’s no way I could have a “dancing” post without mentioning Brandtson’s “Nobody Dances Anymore,” which spawned many fan-created videos.

What gets you dancing?