Posts filed under ‘Famous Penn Staters’
In Case You Can’t Get Enough of the Paranormal
A couple of years ago we profiled a bunch of Penn State students who were running around the East Coast chasing ghosts and the like. We sent writer Patrick Kirchner to hang out with the students—members of a club called the Paranormal Research Society—one weekend as they looked for Mothman in West Virginia. The article ran in The Penn Stater just as the PRS was about to get some national attention in the form of a reality-TV series on A&E.
Well, you probably know the rest. Paranormal State is still going strong nearly three years later, and the leader of that group of students, Ryan Buell ’06, has practically become a brand. He lists his job as “full-time paranormal research investigator,” and now he’s got a book out as well. Paranormal State: My Journey into the Unknown was just released 10 days ago by It Books, a Harper Collins imprint.
In conjunction with the book’s release, the Paranormal Research Society has some events scheduled locally this weekend. On Saturday Buell will be signing books at the State College Barnes & Noble on Saturday, and he and others will speak at PRS headquarters on such topics as “Paranormal Investigation 100,” “Paganism & Occultism 100,” and “Paranormal Photography.” On Sunday there’s a “paranormal scavenger hunt” on Sunday. More details are available at the PRS website.
Paranormal State begins its fifth season on A&E Oct. 17.
Tina Hay, editor
Patrick Fabian, Silver-Screen Exorcist, is a Penn Stater
I’m feeling a little sheepish that we didn’t know this until now, but the star of The Last Exorcism, which debuted in movie theatres nationwide on Aug. 27, is a Penn Stater. Patrick Fabian ’87 plays the Rev. Cotton Marcus in the film, which is a horror movie—but one that somehow managed to get a PG-13 rating.
It was Joyce Hoffman, the alumni coordinator in the College of Arts and Architecture, who called my attention to Patrick Fabian. If Fabian looks familiar to you, it may be because he’s been on a number of movies and TV shows—he was a semi-regular on Joan of Arcadia, Big Love, and Veronica Mars and appeared on an episode or two of CSI, 24, and Will & Grace, among others.
The Last Exorcism was No. 1 at the box office its first weekend, and has since gone on to gross more than $40 million (it cost just under $2 million to make). I don’t think it’s in too many theatres at this point, but it’s scheduled to be released on DVD on Dec. 1. You can check out Fabian’s website here and read an interview with him about The Last Exorcism here.
I’m much too squeamish for horror movies, so I’m not sure I’ll ever see this one! If you’ve seen it, scroll down to the comments section and let us know what you think of it.
Tina Hay, editor
Mark Deklin: Another Penn Stater to Watch on TV
That's our boy Mark Deklin on the right, playing the character of Trammell on "Lone Star."
Liz Fox ’80, a former member of our Alumni Council, called my attention to the fact that we’ve got another Penn Stater on TV: Mark Deklin ’90 is a character on the show Lone Star, which debuts on Fox tonight at 9 p.m. Deklin, a Pittsburgh native, is the subject of stories in both the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Tribune Review; you can read them here and here.
It took me a while to find Deklin on our alumni database, but it turns out that Deklin is his stage name. His real name is Mark Schwotzer and he has a bachelor’s in English from Penn State. You may also remember him as one of the hunks on Desperate Housewives. Here is Deklin’s bio on the Fox site (click on the “Actor Bio” bar if that’s not what you see right away).
Oh, and the new season of Modern Family starring Emmy-nominated Ty Burrell ’97g starts Wednesday.
Tina Hay, editor
Michael Robinson Now a Seahawk
We interrupt our Bama Week coverage briefly to bring you a nice tale about former Nittany Lion quarterback Michael Robinson ’04, ’06, who was cut by the San Francisco 49ers this past weekend. Robinson was quickly picked up by the Seattle Seahawks, and according to this article at seahawks.com, his new team is very happy to have such a great athlete and classy guy. Thanks to one of our colleagues over in Ag Sciences, Vince Verbeke ’82, for calling my attention to the story.
Tina Hay, editor
Three Emmy Awards for ‘Modern Family’
Penn Staters watched last night’s Emmy Awards with more interest than usual, since Ty Burrell ’97g was up for one of the awards.
Burrell, who plays the dorky dad Phil Dunphy on ABC-TV’s Modern Family, was nominated for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. But so were two other members of the Modern Family cast, and it was one of Burrell’s co-stars, Eric Stonestreet, who ended up winning the Emmy last night.
Modern Family took two other Emmy Awards last night: It won for Comedy Series (ending a three-year lock on that award by 30 Rock) and Writing for a Comedy Series. You can see the complete list of nominees and winners here. And check out the Daily Collegian story from this past Friday, in which they talk to a couple of Burrell’s former Penn State profs.
The photo shown above is the opening spread of our own story about Burrell, from our January-February 2010 issue. More about that here.
Tina Hay, editor
Coming Soon: Naomi Watts as Valerie Plame
Summit Entertainment has just released the trailer for the upcoming movie Fair Game, based on the book of the same name by Penn State’s most famous former CIA spy, Valerie Plame ’85. The film, which stars Naomi Watts as Plame and Sean Penn as her husband, Joe Wilson, played to good reviews at the Cannes film festival in May. Judging from the trailer, director Doug Liman has turned Plame’s story into something of a thriller.
Fair Game will hit theaters Nov. 5.
Tina Hay, editor
David Morrell on Thrillers
With summer winding down, there’s not much time left to dig into the lighter books that are traditionally called summer reading. NPR is helping us readers manage our time wisely by compiling a list of the top 100 thrillers, and David Morrell ’67g, ’71g helped NPR winnow down the bigger list, which was suggested by listeners.
Morrell knows thrillers. He’s co-founder of International Thriller Writers association, and he just co-edited an anthology called Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads. Plus, one of his novels, The Brotherhood of the Rose, checked in at No. 80 on the list.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
LaVar Arrington: Taking His Talents to The Washington Post
He’s not quite ready to dethrone Howard Stern as the self-proclaimed King of All Media, but LaVar Arrington ’00 is making a pretty good run at the title. The Washington Post added him to its roster of sports bloggers this week, and Arrington will continue to co-host a daily sports radio talk show, as well. Plus, you can follow him on Twitter, where he engages in an often-all-capital-letters dialogue with fans and dispenses occasional motivational advice. Plus, his Twitter photo is a terrific shot of himself with Joe Paterno, as you can see here.
Arrington’s blog announcement was, as fellow Post blogger Dan Steinberg noted, a send-up of The Decision, starring LeBron James. Arrington explained himself like this: “I kind of feel like LeBron in the sense that I probably couldn’t win any type of writing championship by myself. So I figured I’d join a group of guys as distinguished and well-respected as you guys are.”
Nice job ingratiating himself with future colleagues, huh? You can listen to LaVar’s Decision here. He hasn’t posted a blog yet, but we’ll let you know when he does.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
The End of an Era
All of you photography junkies out there might like to know that Kodak entrusted their last roll of Kodachrome film to famed photographer, Steve McCurry ’74. The roll of film has already been shot by McCurry and processed by Dwayne’s Photo Service, a company based in Parsons, Kansas—the only remaining shop in the world to process Kodachrome.
McCurry told The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, in an interesting article, “It’s definitely the end of an era. [Kodachrome] has such a wonderful color palette…a poetic look, not particularly garish or cartoonish, but wonderful, true colors that were vibrant, but true to what you were shooting.”
Steve McCurry | Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2010
Most of the details of what McCurry shot are unknown, but according to NPR’s The Picture Show, his first and last images are in New York City with middle images from India. When all is said and done, the final 36 shots will make their way home to the Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y., where Kodak is based.
Jessie Knuth, graphic designer
Paul Levine’s Latest e-Book is “For the Kids”
Ever since my husband bought an iPad, I’ve been wanting to steal it and see how it functions as an e-book reader. I’m a newsprint and hardcover book kind of girl, but he absolutely loves the iPad Kindle app, which has the especially cool feature of reversing the type (white words on black) to make it easier on the eyes.
I’ve got the perfect opportunity now to see for myself. Paul Levine ’69 is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his first mystery novel, To Speak for the Dead, by releasing it as an e-book for $2.99—and better yet, donating all proceeds to the Four Diamonds Fund, which benefits children with cancer and their families.
Who could resist that offer? Not me.
I’d never read any of Levine’s work until (more…)
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