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Issue Date: July 31, 2005
NOVELTY
Vanity has its price
If you haven't yet scored your own reality TV show, relax. You can buy your way to immortality via "gravanity," a marketing trend in which graffiti meets vanity. Examples:
At elsewares.com, pay $150-$225 (plus shipping) for an artist like Mark Weber, of "Rolling Stone" and "Playboy" fame, to custom-create a six-panel comic featuring you. "You know the Andy Warhol famous-for-15-minutes statement? Secretly, everyone wants that," Weber says.
Husband-and-wife team J.S. Fletcher and Kathy Newbern (yournovel.com) will write you into one of their romance novels -- about 150 pages long -- for $49.95 (plus shipping). Choose from one of 17 tomes, then decide the tone, from mild to wild -- "titillating yet tasteful," Newbern says.
At highlyflammabletoys.com, film school grad Russ Tucker will put you on your own custom 8 1/2-by-12-inch movie poster ($95, plus shipping). You can add film critic "quotes" and a list of fake credits. He also creates personal action figures, at $475 a pop. For $299, a comparative bargain, Tobias Trost (imatoy.com) will transform you into either a superhero or a villain, complete with back story and 6-inch-tall action figure. Remember, play nicely!
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Yell your way into shape
Suppressing anger has been linked to depression, and many health care experts believe it can lead to a variety of increased health risks, from weight gain to heart attacks. One option: Exercise with punch. "Anger-obics," a term coined by anger expert Lisa Tener, combines movement, visualization, creativity and humor to help you physically express anger in healthful ways. Examples range from stomping on a Post-it note -- on which you've written a word or situation that gets your goat -- to dancing energetically while shaking a scarf to release your anger. To find out more, go to ultimateangerbook.com.
Contributing: Laura Daily, Judy Mandell
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