Rick Welshiemer
InstantPride.com

It’s 200 years in the future and Earth is in ruins. Humans have made home on a distant moon called Pandora. The only problem is the Na’vi, (the natives) who already reside there. James Cameron’s latest film Avatar, follows the clash between futuristic-miners who are looking to raid the moon of its desirable mineral, and the soldiers and scientists trying to get the Na’vi to cooperate with them.

When Cameron needed someone to advise Sigourney Weaver on how to be a botanist, his crew researched Universities with botany departments and came across University of Riverside’s botanist Jodie Holt (pictured below). According to Holt, she was found with “a little bit of looking and a little bit of luck.”

After Holt worked with Weaver, she was then asked to write the descriptions of the plants seen in the movie, specifically on the fictional landscape of Pandora. She was asked to look at the images and, use real Biology to give them names, describe them, and to make the plants seem credible. Her descriptions were used in a recently released book describing Pandora and the Avatar video game, where when you roll over the plant– her description will pop up.

Holt says she was extremely pleased with the way the movie turned out. “The movie was fantastic,” she said. She liked how the movie is not only a scientific, but also a nature movie. “The plants have their own role and are really great to watch,” said Holt. “The movie has a little bit for everyone,” Holt says.

USC Professor Paul Frommer created a fictional language for Avatar.

Click here to learn more about the storyline behind the movie Avatar.

Avatar was released to theaters nationwide Friday. On Saturday Dec. 19 Holt will be present for a Q&A at 6:30 p.m., at the Edwards Ontario Palace Stadium 22 & IMAX, 4900 East Fourth Street in Ontario.

We knew last Sunday’s U2 show was going to set a record at the Rose Bowl, with an estimated 96,000 in attendance.

That’s why we got there before 11 a.m. and tailgated in the parking lot. Pretty much everyone got there reasonably early and chilled — of course, then it seemed like everyone decided to go into the stadium all at once. We anxiously pointed out to our friends how ironic it would be to have gotten there 10 hours early and then missed the start of U2’s set. (OK, we were a little panicky.)

According to Billboard, U2 not only set the record for the Rose Bowl but set a new record for a single-headliner concert in the United States.

Box-office totals show that 97,014 attended the Oct. 25 Rose Bowl show, thanks to the in-the-round staging on the 360 tour; that breaks the previous record of 86,145 set in 1987 at the since-demolished JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.

The previous record-holder — U2, during the band’s Joshua Tree tour.

And the third-highest attendance number? That would also be U2, set in September in Maryland.

Pink Floyd is fourth with a 1994 show at Ohio State, and the Backstreet Boys are fifth for a 2000 date in Atlanta.

What’s really mind-boggling is that U2’s 1987 show grossed $1.5 million, while the Rose Bowl grossed $9.96 million.

So we pulled out our old ticket stubs just to see how much prices have gone up. We didn’t include additional charges, partly because it’s confusing and partly because it makes us steamed to pay so darn much extra for service charges.

Our first U2 show, at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago in 1984, was $12 general admission.

After they band had gotten a little bigger in 1985, admission to two shows at the University of Illinois, Chicago, was $13.50 each.

On the aforementioned Joshua Tree tour, we paid $16.50-$18.50 (and probably just a wee bit more for the two shows we saw in Dublin).

For ZooTV in ‘92, we paid $25-$31.

The night before prices were announced for the ‘97 Pop Mart tour, we had a terrible dream that tickets would be $50; we paid $52.50-$54.50 for floor, and seating was appreciably higher.

For Elevation in ‘01, we paid $30-$85 for a seat (we find it hard to believe we paid that much) and $45-$55 for the floor.

For Vertigo in 2005, floor was $49.50-$51.25, which was subsidized by the rich people in the pricey seats.

This time around, we’ve been paying $55-$56.50 for general-admission floor (though, thanks to service charges, the total for a pair of tickets for next June’s show in Oakland was $138.80). Prices for the 360 tour range from $30 to $250, not including the auction prices for the (RED) Zone on the floor near the stage.

Considering the show you get (those giant claw stages cost $40 million), being able to get in for $30 — and get close for $55 — is pretty reasonable. If we had $250 to spend on a ticket…. well, we’d go for the floor tickets and go four or five times, but that’s us.

– photo by Megan McLean

As a music critic, we’ve seen a lot of bands over the years — the transformative, the mediocre and the really, really awful. U2 has been our favorite since the first time we heard “Gloria,” and we go to great lengths to see them as often as possible, our karmic little way of trying to make up for some of those bad shows.

Which is why we bought tickets for two stadium shows in two different states in a week’s time and, but for the economy, would have seen a third.

Tuesday’s show in Phoenix wasn’t a life-changing event for us — honestly, many of U2’s shows have been — but to someone who’s lost track of how many times they’ve seen the band, it felt like home. Which, in retrospect, was exactly what we needed. And why we’ll go again on Sunday, to the largest event ever at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl.

We might even try to squeeze inside the giant claw again.

U2 figured out how to get closer to concertgoers three tours ago, letting a few hundred eager early birds inside a heart-shaped catwalk extending from the stage; last time out, it was an oval. If you were lucky enough to get in, it felt as though you were seeing the band in a club.

For its current 360 ; the stage beneath is encircled by a human moat contained by another raised catwalk.

From on high in the Rose Bowl, it’s going to look as though the stadium has been invaded by some sort of electric spider, or that it’s housing a spaceship in dry dock.

The greenish skin protecting the structure is what makes it look so odd when the lights are up. Once the show starts, the claw is actually home to some surprisingly subtle technology. Cameras rise and fall, the operators stationed far below and out of the way, while images circle and stretch across a curved surface. Bridges crossing from the stage to the catwalk quietly roll a foot or so over the 2,400 concertgoers below.

At Tuesday’s show at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona, a crowd of 50,000 or so seemed like an intimate gathering — especially considering 96,000 are expected at the Rose Bowl.

The experiences promise to be polar opposites. We rolled straight into a great parking spot beneath a sliver of desert moon about an hour before showtime –the new home of the Phoenix Cardinals football team opened two years ago in what was then the middle of nowhere; now it’s surrounded by acre-after- acre of paved lots.

For the show at the grand dame of college football, we plan on getting to our prepaid golf-course parking spot before lunchtime. That’s being encouraged by the Rose Bowl — starting at noon, early arrivals will be able to watch Sunday football in a picnic area; food vendors and music are also promised. (We suspect the more practical plan would be to go a little later in the day and take a shuttle.)

If you’ve got seats for Sunday, our recommendation is to take along a little pair of binoculars, if only for celebrity-spotting; once the show starts, you’ll be getting the full effect of the claw’s wrap-around images (which will be streamed live on YouTube as well as recorded for a DVD).

Those with general-admission floor tickets for the Rose Bowl will have to weigh their options. You can go early and snag admission to the moat and spend the evening getting jostled, mingling sweat, craning to see past the sea of uplifted cameras and PDAs and twisting to watch band members as they move behind and perhaps above you. (OK, so that last one is actually a good thing. And Meg, our touring partner, got some great photos.)

Bono has always had the ability to seem as though he’s making eye contact with everyone in the venue, whether it’s a club or a stadium, but it’s nice to be right there. Plus, the sound from the claw was just about perfect in Phoenix, free of the usual stadium echo.

We didn’t have a particularly great spot in the moat, got annoyed at people who pushed their way in front of us, ducked in a panic the first time the bridge moved our way and emerged with a few small bruises. We all, of course, had a great time.

Despite the fact that a high-tech show leaves little room for flexibility, in Phoenix U2 slipped in bits of the Beatles’ “Blackbird,” Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Two Tribes,” the Clash’s “Rock the Casbah” and an Irish folk tune, “Dirty Old Town.” We were delighted that they reworked “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” from their latest album, “No Line on the Horizon” — we maintain the album version is two mismatched tunes jammed together.

In Phoenix, Muhammad Ali was there, inspiring Bono’s boxing-related band introductions. Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, the Pogues and Sen. John McCain and his family were also in attendance, though presumably not all in the same area. Bono pulled up a set of triplets to dance with, and held the hand of a little girl as he walked around the catwalk.

So we’re looking forward to see what gets played on Sunday and who gets shout-outs at the Rose Bowl. And trying to figure out how many shows we can see when U2 comes back in the spring.

– photos by Megan McLean

Promoter Live Nation made the announcement Thursday afternoon.

Refunds are available at point of purchase; tickets purchased online and via phone lines will be refunded automatically.

There’s no word yet on the reason for the cancelation.

In September, West made headlines at the MTV Video Music Awards when he took the microphone from Taylor Swift to say Beyoncé should have won instead. A remorseful West apologized and told Jay Leno he’d be taking some time off to deal with personal issues, but tickets for the tour went on sale days later.

– posted at 4:06 p.m. by Cathy Maestri

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Kirby Dick’s new film “Outrage” is causing a stir on Capitol Hill. He talks to about why he’s outing some of the most powerful men in politics.

First-time Academy Awards producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark were right when they promised a new kind of Oscars ceremony. Wow.

Sunday’s telecast was actually about films and filmmaking. Who knew, after years of pointless parades of celebrities, that the night could be all about movies and be interesting and entertaining?

Sure, there’s a little tweaking to be done. Hugh Jackman didn’t have a whole lot to work with as the opening number began — but bless his heart, he worked it. He deserved that standing ovation.

But on the whole, the concept was outstanding. Condon and Mark stole the show back from the fashion industry, which had hijacked it by default.

Showing clips from Oscars past and then bringing out previous winners to toast the nominees? Classy. Now when someone says it’s enough just to be nominated, they can mean it. Those kind words mean far more than a trophy.

And for the viewer? The broadcast was funny, it was interesting, it was tastefully glamorous, it was fast-paced. It actually made you want to go see movies — and it made you excited about the ones to come, thanks to the preview clips shown with the credits.

Bravo.

Friday’s is the final show for “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” — and there’s quite a sense of sadness, which is kind of silly considering that the only reason it’s his last show is that O’Brien is moving to Los Angeles to take over “The Tonight Show.” And Leno’s not really leaving, either, just moving to a 10 p.m. time slot with a new show.

This week has featured a parade of retrospective clips — which have been hilarious. (We’re also entertained by the way he’s hacking up the set and handing chunks to audience members as souvenirs. Parts are also being auctioned off for charity – the Chicago pizza costume looks like a steal.)

Here’s a collection of “Late Night” bloopers:

And here’s the invisible-string dance-off with Stephen Colbert:

For more “Late Night” clips, click here.

Friday’s musical guest is the White Stripes, who once spent an entire week on “Late Night.”

Farewell, pale prince. See you in June.

Former “SNL” star Jimmy Fallon takes over “Late Night” on March 2.

Click here for more music, entertainment and pop culture in Instant Vox Pop’s new format.

Let’s face it — unless you won the presidential election or are Tina Fey, 2008 wasn’t the greatest year. And if you did win the presidential election, you may regret it by the end of 2009.

Foreclosures. Gas prices. Fires. Scandals. Layoffs. Ripoffs.

We’ve never seen a holiday season so lacking in cheer.

And things probably won’t get better too terribly soon. But what’s reassuring — and, frankly, pretty exciting — is knowing that they will get better.

Hey, if gas prices can go from $4.79 to $1.61 in a couple of months, anything can happen.

So here’s to a year when we all pitch in, when greed becomes passé, when peace spreads and when we use less and recycle more.

We’ve got a great, big bunch of fresh hope just waiting for 2009.

•Plus, there’s that new U2 album, “No Line on the Horizon,” due in early March.

Speaking of which, it just wouldn’t be New Year’s without “New Year’s Day.” Here’s the long version:

Those of you who were lucky enough to attend the US Festival in Devore back in 1983 may remember this off-season rendition:

Fontana favorite son Sammy Hagar has signed with the new Loud & Proud label (part of Roadrunner) and will release “Cosmic Universal Fashion” on Nov. 18.

The title track includes a rather familiar refrain; the video style offers plenty of deja vu, too.

The tune “Loud” features the Cult’s Billy Duffy and Matt Sorum as well as Hagar’s fellow ex-Van Halen buddy Michael Anthony. There’s also a cover of the Beastie Boys’ “Fight for Your Right to Party.”

Hagar’s annual birthday celebration is scheduled for Oct. 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 13 at his Cabo Wabo Cantina in Cabo San Lucas. (He does like a good party.)

•We were just trolling Gawker to see what’s going on in New York when we ran across an entry titled “Newsman Whining About ‘Editorial Integrity’ Promptly Fired” and were surprised to see it was about The Business Press (part of The Press-Enterprise Co.). Because you wouldn’t expect to find IE media news on an East Coast site. Read the story here.

And yes, editor Bob Dixon had already taken a buyout, so being escorted from the building before he was scheduled to leave wasn’t technically a firing. Still, pretty interesting stuff.

•We now have three items for our Christmas list — a “Colbert Report” On Notice board, a Colbert calendar and the DVD of “A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!”, which will air Nov. 23 on Comedy Central.

See, Stephen gets snowed in at his cabin and passes the time with his musical friends, crooning tunes by “The Daily Show’s” David Javerbaum and Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger, who just happens to be one of our pop-genius favorites.

Colbert will sing “Another Christmas Song”; Toby Keith will do “Have I Got A Present For You”; Colbert and Willie Nelson will sing “Little Dealer Boy”; “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart will join Colbert on “Hannukah”; R&B crooner John Legend will again duet with Colbert on “Nutmeg”; Feist (pictured) will do “Please Be Patient”; and Elvis Costello will join Colbert on “There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In.” The ensemble will then do Costello’s “(What’s So Funny ’bout) Peace, Love And Understanding.”

Wow.

The DVD, due Nov. 25, will include a book-burning Yule log and alternate endings. A portion of the proceeds will go to Feeding America.”

•Fiesta de Comida — featuring food from more than 30 restaurants as well as music from Poncho Sanchez — is scheduled for Nov. 5 at the new Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario. Doors open at 6 p.m.; Sanchez performs 8:30-10 p.m. Proceeds go to the Ontario-Montclair YMCA; call them at (909) 986-5847 for tickets.

•Don’t deny it, we know you’ve been wondering what she would have named you had the VP candidate been your mother. And now you can find out, thanks to the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator. She named her brood Trak, Willow, Bristol, Piper and Trig.

Just call us Rake Trinket. And our little bunny Churn Scorpion Palin.

Click here for your own Palin name — and don’t forget to read the comments (and hilarious names) of your pretend siblings.

•MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann vowed to give $100 to charity every time Palin took credit for scrapping Alaska’s infamous Bridge to Nowhere. (She was actually a supporter of the project — until it became a scorned national issue.) The parameters were extended to any lie, as determined by Olbermann, told by Palin and/or her campaign. On Friday’s edition of “Countdown,” he wrote an initial check for $3,700 to the Alaska Special Olympics.

•Saturday’s Farm Aid concert in Mansfield, Mass., will send initial grants to southern farm and faith-based organizations to help family farmers hit by hurricanes Ike and Gustav.

This year’s performers include founders Willie Nelson (pictured), John Mellencamp and Neil Young as well as Dave Matthews, Kenny Chesney, the Pretenders, Jerry Lee Lewis, Steve Earle and Jakob Dylan and the Gold Mountain Rebels.

Donate to Farm Aid’s Family Farm Disaster Fund here.

•TV host Pat O’Brien and “The Insider” have parted ways. Apparently it wasn’t the drunken phone call asking for sex, or either of his rehab stints. No, over the weekend, O’Brien reportedly sent out an e-mail to staff saying that the show’s focus on fashion makes heartland viewers struggling to put food on the table “want to vomit.” That appears to have been the final straw.

We agree with O’Brien. With the economy tanking and the jobless rate (at least in California — and among our newspaper friends) jumping, the obsession with bling and celebrity seems out of touch and condescending. Which is why we don’t watch any of those entertainment-tabloid shows.

•OMG, MTV is Xing “TRL!” (Translation: MTV is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the once-trendsetting “Total Request Live” by putting it on an indefinite hiatus.)

•For someone who’s been through as much as Britney Spears has in the past couple of years, she sure does manage to crank out albums on a regular basis. “Circus,” the followup to last year’s “Blackout,” is due Dec. 2.

•Tom Jones — who never gets enough credit for being cool — will release “24 Hours,” his first album in the U.S. in 15 years on Nov. 25. And it appears that it’s going to be plenty cool, between a retro Stax sound and a guest spot from U2’s Edge and Bono on “Sugar Daddy.”

Not that Jones hasn’t been busy over the past decade or so; it’s just that his albums haven’t been released on this side of the pond. Not even the tune “Sexbomb,” which did quite well on American dance floors.

•Influential indie rocker Bob Mould has agreed to write his autobiography, and it ought to be interesting. Topics will include his bands, Hüsker Dü and Sugar, as well as Mould coming to terms with his homosexuality. Mould has also run his own record label, spent a year as a scriptwriter for professional wrestling and wrote “Dog on Fire,” the theme for “The Daily Show.”

We admit it — it’s the wrestling we’re most curious about.

•Billy Joe Shaver (pictured) has been indicted by a Texas grand jury in connection with an April 2007 shooting outside a bar. He’s been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and handgun charges, both felonies. And he isn’t even a rapper.

According to Billboard, Shaver, 69, reportedly followed the victim out of Papa Joe’s Texas Saloon and asked, “Where do you want it?” before shooting the man in the face.

Shaver’s attorneys say the victim, who wasn’t seriously injured, was drunk, aggressive and followed Shaver outside with a knife.

•Forget the “Now That’s What I Call Music” series — W Hotels has released its sixth mix disc, and it’s infinitely cooler. “The Sound of Wonderlust” features music from Goldfrapp; Amy Winehouse produer and brother-of-Samantha Mark Ronson; Donna Summer; Zarema; Natasha Bedingfield; Kylie Minogue; Morgan Page with the Wild Colonials’ Angela McCluskey; Wow; Audio Bullys with Nancy Sinatra; Newton Faulkner; Four Tet; and Dame Shirley Bassey.

To order from the W store (where you can also buy on of the hotel’s beds), click here.

•Remember back when Pearl Jam was so anti-corporate that it tried to avoid using Ticketmaster?

Guitarist Stone Gossard’s (pictured) new solo album is part of Timberland’s (the clothing company, as opposed to Timbaland the producer) Dig It campaign — which, to be fair, promotes environmental activism through music. Tickets for four October shows (including Oct. 11 at the Avalon in LA) will go to those who volunteer for “re-greening” events; those who purchase selected Timberland products; and through Pearl Jam’s Ten Club. Click here for more on the LA event.

Meanwhile, baseball fan Eddie Vedder has written the Cubs ode “All the Way,” which he debuted at a Chicago show. To listen, click here. Look for an official version soon at the band’s website.

Personally, it’s “Go Cubs Go” that gets us giddy. Chicago folk singer Steve Goodman (whose biggest his was, ironically, “City of New Orleans”) recorded it shortly before he died of leukemia in 1984. WGN had once used it on radio broadcasts; the song was a hit at the team’s 2006 winter convention, and the station decided to revive it. There’s even a ringtone.

Unlike at Dodger games, where everyone leaves in the 7th inning, Cubs fans actually hang around after victories to sing along.

And this season — the 100th since the Cubbies last won the World Series – it’s been played a lot.

No disrespect to fans of the Dodgers and Angels, who will also likely make the playoffs, but now that the Red Sox have won the Series, the Cubs are the only cursed team left. And if that curse isn’t broken now, it may be another 100 years.