How the Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt Went to Number One on Amazon.com

A true and hilarious tale.  : )  As reported by The Week:

A new sub-genre of humor has just been born, said Steve Johnson in the Chicago Tribune. Call it “Customer Review Comedy.” A tongue-in-cheek post by an Amazon reviewer has turned the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt into the online retailer’s No. 1 sensation. It all happened after New Jersey law student Brian Govern reviewed the shirt, which he didn’t own, saying it “Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women.”

Sales of the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt have gone through the roof since the comedy free-for-all went viral, said ABC News. And the attention is still building—750 people have posted “over-the-top testimonials” on Amazon, and a Brooklyn comedy troupe has even posted a video on YouTube. (watch the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt comment mash-up) The T-shirt is now Amazon’s top-selling clothing item, and the attention is still building.

The craze is so out of hand that the maker of the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt—New Hampshire‘s The Mountain—appears nervous, said Meghan Daum in the Los Angeles Times. The company posted a comment on Amazon scolding some reviewers for making fun of people who buy the shirt by suggesting they’re low-class. But, come on, the snarky comments are a delightful bit of satire targeting the “nonsensical, irrelevant, and grammatically challenged” online customer review.

C. S. Lewis and Lost

Cover of The Great Divorce

This is a program I’ve never gotten into (what’s going on?), but I’ve seen a number of blogs unearthing deep philosophical and spiritual themes from the series.  Apparently, some of the writers are fans of Lewis and Narnia, as David J. Theroux explains in this post from the C. S. Lewis blog.

ABC’s hit TV series Lost continues to receive attention regarding the influence of C. S. Lewis’s books on the plot, themes and characters. Last year, character Charlotte Staples Lewis (“C. S. Lewis”) joined the series with her arrival clearly taken from Prince Caspian.

And as reported in numerous articles this winter, the plot has included many parallels to Lewis’s book The Great Divorce in which numerous people who visit the outskirts of heaven remain “lost” as they cling stubbornly and vainly to selfish ways only to prefer hell in the process.

Most recently, in addition to Narnia-like magical lands, time travel and mysterious events, Lost has featured more overt symbols from Narnia, including “The Lamp Post” positioned at the island’s entrance, just as it is found at the edge of Narnia in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Further parallels pertain to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Here are some articles that take this subject of comparison further.

“The Lost Dawn Treader?”, by Todd Hertz (Christianity Today, March 2, 2009)

‘Lost’: ‘Caspian,’ See?”, by Jeff Jensen (Entertainment Weekly, February 18, 2009)

“Lost: The ties that bind,” by Molly Lemick (San Francisco Examiner, February 12, 2009)

Lord of the Rings Fan Movie – The Hunt for Gollum

Thanks to The Thinklings for pointing this out.  The trailer looks pretty impressive for a fan film, and Aragorn and Gandalf are pretty good facsimiles too.  It’s amazing what a dedicated group of fans can bring to life.

I just heard of this – evidently there is an extremely low budget yet (by the looks of the trailer) good quality film coming out in May called The Hunt for Gollum. It’s made by fans of the Lord of the Rings, for fans, and will be available online and for free. I think it’s going to be about 45 minutes long.

For my fellow LOTR geeks: this film will recount Aragorn’s hunt for Gollum that occurred between the Long Expected Party and the Shadow of the Past (events highly time-compressed in Peter Jackson’s films).

World’s Most Interesting Bookstores

Selexyz Bookstore in Maastricht, Holland. The bookstore is installed in an old Dominican church.  Photography by madcrow Flickr.com

Open Culture points out a fascinating collection of photos of interesting bookstores around the world.

Miragebookmark has gathered some notable photos from unconventional bookstores around the globe.

The collection takes you from Holland to Paris, Helsinki, and Porto (Portugal), then to San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Calcutta and beyond.

Worth paying a visit.

Iron Man vs. Bruce Lee

Pretty cool!  (Click on the picture to open the URL).