Klausur 1 

►Extreme Makeover

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  Jellyfish Turns Up in Nebraska  NPR

DCE Worksheets: 1  2  3

pdf format [Acrobat reader]

The Lizardman

Animal Tragic

Extreme Plastic Surgery

Extreme Makeover enters its second season after the show's tremendous ratings success last season.

Following nationwide open casting calls and over 10 thousand written applications, the lucky individuals are chosen for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to participate in Extreme Makeover. These men and women are given a truly Cinderella-like experience: A real life fairy tale in which their wishes come true, not just to change their looks, but their lives and destinies.

This magic is conjured through the skills of an "Extreme Team," including the nation's top plastic surgeons, eye surgeons and cosmetic dentists, along with a talented team of hair and makeup artists, stylists and personal trainers, led by an on-camera Extreme Makeover expert. This season will feature more "news you can use" tips about fashion, hair and makeup for the home viewers.

Each self-contained episode will feature two people, seen first in their "before" phase, then as they undergo their various procedures, and finally, in a climactic unveiling — "the after" — when the candidates reveal their new selves to their families and friends.

Each week, Extreme Team stylist Sam Saboura brings you his exclusive News You Can Use!

September 25,2003

1. Always wash your clothes before having them altered. It is important to get the "shrink out" before the tailor gets to them. Remember you can always re-shorten, but can never go back to the original length.

2. Pear-shaped women beware! Avoid high-waisted, tapered pants at all costs. Look for a lower-waisted, boot-cut pant to minimize "the pear" and accentuate the curves.

3. The low-waisted pant craze has spawned the "leaking thong phenomenon." There is nothing worse than a sneak preview of a woman's lingerie in public. To avoid this fashion disaster — purchase the new low-rider thongs.

The Story of the Novel (Channel 4 Series)

What is the novel and who are the writers responsible for creating it? Channel 4's landmark series charts the rise of this enduringly popular artform following the changing styles and objectives from the fledgling days with Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe in 1719 through to writers who have dominated the second half of the 20th century and the birth of the new millennium.

This website goes beyond the writers highlighted in the series with a snapshot of some of the other literary giants helping to create the novel that we know and love today. There's a timeline to show the historical and social influences at work while they wrote.

Not only will you be able to impress your dinner guests with your knowledge, but a glossary of the terms and techniques, a look at Samuel Johnson's seminal dictionary and a bluffer's guide will provide a starting point to writing your own novel.

D.H.Lawrence

 Story of the Novel (Channel 4)

Tobias Wolff

►stanford.edu

►NY State Writers' Institute

►Salon interview

Tobias Wolff and 'Old School'  NPR

Wag the Dog: IMDb / Rotten Tomatoes

POW Jessica Lynch Rescued: Foxnews

Lynch story 'flawed': BBC

Salon (Nov 15, 2003)

Wrong Turn in the Desert (book extract)

Interview (Time Magazine)

Product Description of: What's Eating Gilbert Grape   

Gilbert Grape is a small-town guy with a big heart, resigned to supporting his eccentric family: a 500-pound mother, a mentally disabled brother and two troublesome sisters. But when Gilbert meets a pretty, life-loving outsider, he rediscovers the hopes and dreams he had long forgotten.

Editor's Note

Bizarre, whimsical, and touching scenes mark WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE. Johnny Depp is Gilbert, the eldest brother in a large family of a very large (morbidly obese, actually) mother (Darlene Cates) who hasn't left the house since her husband committed suicide years before. Leonardo DiCaprio, who received an Academy Award nomination for his role, is Arnie, Gilbert's retarded teenage brother who needs constant supervision (he's often found scaling the town water tower). Caring, passive Gilbert is burdened beyond reason, living a dead-end life in a dying small town, stocking shelves at a grocery store whose business being taken over by the new mall supermarket. Gilbert's best friends (Crispin Glover and John C. Reilly) see their futures in the form of undertaker and Burger Barn owner, and Gilbert's other social life is taken up with a random affair with a frustrated and reckless housewife (Mary Steenburgen). Everyone needs the constantly patient Gilbert, whose future seems equally grim until well-traveled, straightforward Becky (Juliette Lewis) and her nonconformist grandmother (Penelope Branning) come to town. Their camper is in need of repair, so Becky stays long enough to actually have an effect on Gilbert, making his new life spiral in wild ways. Based on the novel by Peter Hedges (who also wrote the screenplay), WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE is quirky, irresistible, and endearingly eccentric without being a freak show.

Plot Summary

Lasse Hallstrom directs this beautifully photographed, critically acclaimed drama about small-town life and the contraints a young man's family's responsibilities put on his independence. Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp), the de facto head of the Grape family following the suicide of his father, struggles to take care of his two sisters, his mentally handicapped brother (Leonardo DiCaprio), and his 500-pound mother, when a beautiful young free spirit (Juliette Lewis) awakens him to the fact that he is not living his own life. The screenplay is written by Peter Hedges who also wrote the novel of the same name.

Film Facts Theatrical release: December 25, 1993. The project was filmed in Texas for Iowa.

Movie Mistake: When Gilbert is telling about the family and Endora at the beginning of the movie, he says that his father hanged himself 17 years earlier. Yet, just seconds earlier he says he has a sister that has just turned 15.

● Reviews: Internet Movie Database       

Energy Crunch [Sciam.com]

The Last Fish (SciAm, 2003 pdf)

ANIMATION: The Simpsons BBC 2, 19:00-19:20

The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace. Series 10, episode 2.

Channel Five (Sep 10):WWII/Radar

Wikipedia / Radar Development

Tonight - Extreme Makeover - With Trevor McDonald

Channel: ITV

Nov 17, 21:00 to 21:30