5 posts and columns on Elizabeth Gilbert

Viral Video: "Eat Pray Love" (Plus Elizabeth Gilbert's "Doomed" TED Speech)

in News on March 24, 2010 at 2:53 am PT

While the film adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert’s hit book, “Eat Pray Love,” has exactly zero rock-em-sock-em blockbustery feel, unlike all the others being released this summer, its trailer is gaining in popularity online. The movie, which stars Julia Roberts, is about a woman in search of, well, herself, via copious travel.

"Has Your Head Exploded Yet?" BoomTown Queries TEDsters on What They Learned

in News on February 11, 2009 at 11:30 am PT

While at the TED conference last week, I asked a variety of people in attendance at the elite gathering which presentation had blown their head off–figuratively, of course! TED, which feels like a four-year college in four days, had an eclectic range of speakers, many focusing on the awful state of the earth. But there were also less-dire presentations, such as one on how Brad Pitt’s head and range of facial expressions are now stored in a Sony database for all eternity. That’s a cold comfort amid all the global melting down, but BoomTown will not refuse it. Here’s some more TED reaction from the digerati.

Kara Visits TED (The Belated Video)

in News on February 11, 2009 at 8:30 am PT

Last week, BoomTown traveled to Long Beach, Calif., to attend the TED conference, a longtime gathering of digerati and others who have come to love its eclectic and outward-looking program. The four-day TED2009, titled “The Great Unveiling,” included Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates unleashing a small swarm of mosquitoes in the hall, a long list of varied speakers and a whole lot of schmoozing. Here is my belated video of the event, including my kids trying to steal a futuristic car.

Video: Bill Gates, the TED Conference and a Box Full of Mosquitoes

in Media on February 6, 2009 at 1:57 pm PT

What does it look like when one of the world’s richest men unleashes a box full of mosquitoes at a high-end conference? That’s what Bill Gates did at the TED confab earlier this week in a much-discussed stunt. And now you can see for yourself.

A New Location for an Iconic Conference–and Here Come the TED Fellows

in News on February 2, 2009 at 6:00 am PT

The well-known Technology, Entertainment, Design conference–better known to its techie fans as TED–will make its move from Monterey to Long Beach starting tomorrow night and will be celebrating its 25th anniversary. TED2009 is called “The Great Unveiling,” with its eclectic speaker roster including: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, neurological anthropologist Oliver Sacks, writer Elizabeth Gilbert, tree researcher Nalani Nadkarni and Web political phenom Nate Silver. But I am perhaps even more intrigued by the introduction this year of the TED Fellows program, whose participants have been picked because of the “world-changing potential of their work.”