November 18, 2008 - The latest shock tactic in sports gear has been unveiled by Nike: the pink soccer cleat - for men!

So what guy is brave enough to put in a shocking pink performance? A guy very sure of himself - who’s fast as a whippet and capable of scoring a hat-trick every game. Or is the pink thing for guys not a big deal anymore? I feel like the shock value may be passe.

See what reaction the cleats have caused among Europe’s finest male players — including Rio Ferdinand, Cesc Fabregas, Gabby Agbonlahor and Theo Walcott — in the latest Nike video viral.

The hue is technically called Mercurial Rosa but make no mistake, it’s pink. Don’t know how many guys will go for the cleats but I can think of more than a few girls who might check them out - they’re pretty cool!

Filed under: Fashion, Reviews, Soccer by jane
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November 10, 2008 - LG Phone: Most electronics-makers slap a pink paint job and some floral prints onto their products and then try to pass them off as a gadget for the fairer sex.

LG has just come up with a girl-centric compact phone, the LX600 Lotus, and according to Wired, it doesn’t completely suck (if you ignore the fact that the crammed keys make it difficult to dial, text or navigate  — even if you’re blessed with dainty digits). Available from Sprint.

Sparks: On the fashion front, sparks will fly at Wet Seal as American Idol season six winner Jordin Sparks has designed a line of clothing exclusively for the retailer.

The collection, appropriately named ‘Sparks’, will begin with an assortment of holiday dresses - in sizes XS to XL - delivering to stores just in time for Thanksgiving. The collection will later include casual apparel and accessories. Each piece will reflect Sparks’ youthful sense of style.

Better known for her big voice than her sense of style, it will be interesting to see what Sparks’ collection looks like. As of this post, we couldn’t find any photos of the pieces. Thoughts?

Filed under: Electronics, Entertainment, Fashion, Music, Reviews, Technology by jane
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March 07 2008 - After a brief round on the festival circuit Girls Rock!, opens in seven cities across the U.S. this week. The documentary film follows four girls of different ages from different parts of the country through their first year at Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, Oregon. Check out the trailer now:

A raucous tale of female empowerment, the documentary became a three-year saga for Arne Johnson (co-director, co-editor, producer) and Shane King (co-director, co-editor, cinematographer), whose first collaboration was a Super 8mm movie in seventh grade.

Everyone knows boys easily conceive of themselves as budding rock stars when all they have is a few instruments, an amp, a total lack of musical knowledge and delusions of talent. Girls, the filmmakers learned, do not. In tracing the path of the leads through the transformative experience of rock camp, the filmmakers got a real education in what it’s like out there for girls. They discovered, among other things, what many books and studies have already described— that girls struggle with a bewildering and heartbreaking array of challenges to their self-image.

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Filed under: DVD, Entertainment, Film, Reviews by jane
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How cool is this? It might be a tad extravagant but if you can afford the nearly $2,000 price tag, the remote golf caddie is a great gift for golfers who want to get exercise walking the course but don’t what the hassle of carrying their golf bag.

Golf Magazine called England’s premier motorized golf caddie “the fairway Ferrari” for both its styling and performance. It features exceptional all-terrain maneuverability —and a compact wireless remote that works over a 50-yard range — driving the caddie forward, back, left and right. A first-of-its-kind cruise-control system lets you select any of four programmable speeds. Includes convenient storage for balls, tees, towel, scorecard and pencil; and a gimbal-mounted drink holder that adjusts for long or short bottles and cans. Lasts up to 27 holes on a single charge.

This has got to be one of the coolest golf gadgets ever!

Stewart Golf X3R Remote Golf Caddie (SG001)

Filed under: General, Golf, Reviews by georgia2
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Five Balls!! This documentary film follows the passion and energy of a Seattle high school girls’ basketball team coached by a maverick tax professor and tells the incredible true story of one player’s fight to play the game she loves.

Directed by Ward Serrill the film follows Bill Resler, a college professor who looks like Santa Claus in Birkenstocks, as he takes on the responsibility of coaching the struggling Roosevelt Roughriders, a girls’ basketball team in a middle-class, predominantly white area of Seattle. His unorthodox style coupled with an intense group dynamic drives the team to statewide championships.

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Filed under: Basketball, DVD, Film, Fun Stuff, Reviews by admin
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Directed by Davis Guggenheim and starring Carly Schroeder as Gracie.
Rated PG-13. 95 minutes © 2007

The rules of the game are about to change.

Inspired by one family’s real drama, this soccer story set in 1978 features a teenage girl fighting for a chance to play competitive soccer.

As art often imitates life, the film is based on true events from the Shue family (producer and co-star Andrew Shue, and Academy Award-nominated actress Elisabeth Shue). Elisabeth, who plays the film’s mom, wanted to be the first girl in her New Jersey town (back in the day) to play soccer on an all boys’ high school team.

Seventeen-year old Carly Schroeder, who you might recognize from “Lizzie McGuire”, or “Port Charles”, stars as Gracie Bowen, the only girl in a family of three brothers. Their family life revolves almost entirely around soccer: her father (Dermot Mulroney) and brothers are obsessed with the sport, practicing in the backyard’s makeshift goal every day from morning until night. Tragedy unexpectedly strikes when Gracie’s older brother Johnny, star of the high school varsity soccer team, is killed in a car accident.

Struggling with grief over her family’s loss, Gracie decides to fill the void by petitioning the school board to allow her to play on the boy’s high school varsity soccer team in Johnny’s place. Her father, a former soccer star himself, tries to prove to Gracie that she is not tough enough or talented enough to play with boys.

Undeterred, Gracie finds reserves of strength she never knew existed, and persists in changing everyone’s beliefs in what she is capable of, including her own. Gracie not only forces her father to wake up from his grief and see her as the beautiful and strong person that she has always been but she also brings her family together in the face of their tragedy.

The Indiana-born Schroeder is a natural who demonstrates just the right blend of beauty and power (truly a Pretty Tough girl). She can kick the ball farther, run faster, and work harder than the boys all with nary a flick of her long blonde hair. Though the film is a sometimes formulaic, feel-good sports movie, Schroeder displays a range of appropriate emotions which makes the film eminently watchable. She embodies Gracie, a real character who flunks history, fights with her best friend, experiments with cigarettes and bad boys, all while chasing her dream of playing competitive soccer.

After Johnny dies, the story follows a predicable string of events…the school board has to decide whether Title IX requires New Jersey to allow girls to play soccer with boys, P.E. administrators are challenged with whether girls should have equal time in the weight room, and Gracie is faced with a pivotal free kick against the rival school in sudden-death overtime.

Directed by Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim (”An Inconvenient Truth”), who is Elizabeth Shue’s real-life husband, this strong family values film at times resembles a Hallmark special (in a good way). Some of the soccer players look like they’d be more at home on a MLS pitch than a high school soccer game but for the most part, the film rings true on all levels.

Featuring a 1970s soundtrack including songs from Boston, Blondie, Aretha Franklin, and Bruce Springsteen along with other great period details (hard to believe their were no cell phones back then) it’s a great time capsule as well a family drama.

OFFICIAL SITE
The Official Gracie Site

Filed under: DVD, Film, Fun Stuff, High School Athletics, Reviews, Soccer by admin
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October 25 2006: As soon as we heard that Sofia Coppola directed MARIE ANTOINETTE we knew we had to see it. Despite the generally luke-warm (or downright bad) buzz, Coppola is a filmmaker definitely worth following. In her third feature film the Oscar® winning director brings to the screen a fresh view of the life of France’s legendary teenage queen. Married to Louis XVI at the age of 14, the naïve Marie Antoinette instantly becomes a major player in the turbulent history of late 18th century France. (more…)

Filed under: DVD, Film, Fun Stuff, Reviews by admin
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