September 9th, 2008

Coldplay is putting a smile on their fans’ faces.

During a BBC interview on August 30, lead singer (and Mr. Gwyneth Paltrow) Chris Martin said the UK band has plans to release an EP entitled Prospekt’s March on December 26^th.  The EP will consist of songs recorded during sessions for their June album Viva La Vida, as of now the biggest selling rock album of this year.

The only track that is suspected so far for the EP is a song the band recorded with Kylie Minogue called “Luna.”

Martin went on to say that Coldplay are also “gonna have another record ready by November 2009 to end the decade.”  The last album’s sessions had been described as “incredibly fruitful” so perhaps it’s no surprise that the band needs a place to put some more songs.

And that holiday season is just around the corner…

A man in his mid-twenties leaves medical school in order to find work to support his feeble mother who is in a nursing home. He can’t afford the care that his mother is receiving so he becomes a con man. He consistently goes to various restaurants and purposely causes himself to choke mid-way through his meal, luring a “good Samaritan” into saving his life.

He keeps a detailed list of everyone who saves him and sends them frequent letters about fictional bills he’s unable to pay. The people feel so sorry for him that they give him money, send him cards and letters asking him about how he’s doing, all the while helping pay mom’s bills.

Sound crazy? This is just one aspect of the plot of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Choke, a best-selling novel being adapted into a movie by the same name which hits theaters on September 26.

The film is directed by Clark Gregg, starring Sam Rockwell and Angelica Huston. If you’re a fan of Palahniuk’s work, you’re well aware of his visionary talents and the success of a little film based on his first novel called Fight Club. Directed by David Fincher, Fight Club is a generational staple. The kind of film that has a legion of devotees proudly reciting lines from it like Star Wars geeks.

Choke may not have the star power of Edward Norton and Brad Pitt to reel in viewers, but it’s a Palahniuk adaptation and that fact alone makes the film must-see viewing for fans of Gen X’s most visionary artist.