How much did you EAT?! Turkey day come and gone and are we still dealing with some leftovers? Them is still good eats, I love making a turkey sandwich with those chunks of meat and throw on a little seasoning salt, mmmmmmmWeekly Update:Made an non-traditional trip up north to San Francisco for this Thanksgiving Holiday and the traffic getting out of LA was insane but once on the open road was pretty clear sailing. The weather up there was pretty freezing with the breezes but it was dry because today its raining and I heard it was pouring up there on Sunday. Coming back was easier since it was Saturday but still a long and tiring drive ... and now its raining here today, thrill. I like the rain but I just got my car washed last week and haven't driven it till this morning, booooo.At the movies:
The penguins continue as they take the box office holiday crown for their 2nd week, "Happy Feet" earns another 37.9 mil and a cume of 100! Well on its way to a possible 200 mil. Holding on to the #2 spot is still legendary secret agent 007 in "Casino Royale" with an additional 31 mil and an amazing cume of 94 mil. New this weekend was Denzel Washington in Deja Vu which did a nice 29 mil for the holiday weekend. At #4 and new this week is the holiday comedy Deck the Halls with a very low 16.9 mil for the extended weekend. Rounding off the top 5 is still that wacky reporter we all know and love ... "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" with a nice extra 10.4 mil.Other new movies that didn't make the top 5 include the bizarre drama The Fountain with only 5.4 mil at #10 and at #11 is the rock comedy Tenacious D with only 5.4 mil as well. Not a good weekend for either of these two films.Comment Response:None at this time.Other News:Iraq on the verge of civil war ... didn't I say this a long time ago? I do remember saying this to some folks a year ago and they were in the belief that all was well and that the infra-structure was stronger and better since we got there. Over the holidays 200+ Iraqi's were killed and several US soldiers as well.
Facts & Tips:The last letter to be added to the our alphabet was "J"."Oh my lucky stars! A Negro!"- Brendan Fraser as Adam Webber in "Blast from the Past"
So this past week has been packed with events and just busy stuff. Last Thursday I went to a King's hockey game and it was great till the very end when they gave up a 3-1 lead to the Flyers in the last 8 minutes of the game to lose 3-4! But it was ok because we were in the UPS Suite and that is always nice ... word of caution, the dessert cart is deadly!
Weekly Update:I am so behind in all my movie watching ... I finally watched "MI:III" last night and I have to say, its a really good movie. The ending was kind of week and hokey for me but otherwise, it was well done and I noticed something ... Cruise sure runs a lot. They introduced some new characters that if they were to do more, they could use again like the computer tech guy who seems like a "Q"-esque type from James Bond. It is unfortunate this movie failed at the box office from the Tom Cruise backlash because his performance and the film itself were both excellent. I highly recommend this one for a good action flick!
At the movies:"Gotta dance ... " and WB takes the weekend crown with their new animated family adventure Happy Feet with a BIG 42.3 mil and will probably break or get close to 100 mark by the end of next weekend with the holiday. Shooting its way to a disappointing but still big #2 spot is Sony's Casino Royale with a solid 40.6 mil. The verdict is still out on the new bond but 007 is back for a bit. Holding on to the #3 spot is still the crazy comedy "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"with an additional 14.4 mil and a cume of over 90 mil! Hanging into the pre-holiday spirit is "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause" with an additional 8.2 mil and rounding off the top 5 is "Flushed Away" with an extra 6.8 mil.Other films that opened big and did not make the top 5 (or even top 10 for that matter) is the failed comedy Let's Go To Prison with only 2.1 mil, high enough to give it the #12 spot this weekend.Comment Response:Why am I registered Republican ... well back when I first registered it sounded like the best match for me, it was the late 80's. Economy was good but who knew it was a set-up for future problems.Other News:Back to Iraq ... the other day over 100 were civilians were killed across the country and more soldiers, nothing new here. It was said recently that 1) we can not pull out or the civil war (because there is in fact one!) will engulf the country full steam 2) we can not let the country govern itself fully because they have shown they have no control 3) we can not win by military means. So what do we do in this "no win" situation that the president has put is in? Dedicate more troops and purchase more body bags and flags to drape over the caskets? And during this time Iran and North Korea step-up their nuclear programs. I guess we are stuck with option 3 ...Facts & Tips:
A compass needle does not point directly north."Like do you know she has six smiles? One when something really makes her laugh. One when she's making plans. One when she is laughing out of politeness. One when she is uncomfortable. One when she is making fun of herself. And one when... she's talking about her friends."- Topher Grace as Pete Monash in "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton
Last Tuesday was election day and it looks like the Democrats took control of the Senate. I knew the campaigning that Bush did would help! He sure made a point to remind folks about Iraq and how well spoken he is that it clearly helped the vote.In case you missed it, that was all sarcastic ... however I do offer him thanks for his campaigning because if he didn't do that, the Republicans might still be in control (phew) ... and I am even registered as a Republican but that is what I love about our system, I am not forced to vote such.Weekly Update:Spend the later half of the week in Concord, CA for a meeting presentation seminar for theatre managers and owners for Northern California. It was the usual fare of stuff and I had to show many movie trailers (previews) of ones that I am sure most of the folks have seen many times over ... boring. However I did get to show a brand new Simpsons movie trailer which was suppose to hit screens last Friday but more testing was being done so it has been postponed.It is cool being able to show something before it hits the screens. I liked when I was at MGM/UA and got short clips from the actual movies to present.So during the drive up, as soon as I got off the freeway into the city, my car died. Basically the transmission went out and it would cost $2300 to fix/replace starting. The value of the car itself is only $2400 at best given its condition. So, got a rental car which I will drive back and the transmission place that looked at it bought it off me for $200 and my plans to get a new car have been 
stepped by several months than expected. What a crazy few days this has been. When I got back I did some car shopping and I was really interested in the Lexus 400h Hyrbrid but I could not get a good price (or what I thought would be) with the features I was looking for. Then as I was shopping around, I spotted the Lexus IS250 and the color it was in ... Sapphire Blue and basically it looks like blue sometimes, and then black most of the time ... it was pretty
cool. The gas mileage was very comprable to the Hybrid because the 400h is still an SUV. So, when all was said and done, I got the Lexus IS250 and pretty happy with it thus so far (pictures are not of the actual car and colors are different for the most part).At the movies:
Our crazy Kazakhstan journalist is on a roll as it takes the box office crown for a second weekend in a row! As word-of-mouth spreads on this film, the shows keep selling out as "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" brings in another 29 million and a cume of 67.8 thus so far! No sign of running out of steam for the crazy mis-guided reporter! Holding strong to the #2 stop is "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause" for another 16.9 mil. Right behind at #3 and almost neck-and-neck is "Flushed Away" with an additional 16.7 mil, talk about a close race between these two family films. New to the scene is Sony's Will Ferrell laugher Stranger Than Fiction as it crawls into #4 with only 14.1 mil. Not a BAD number but expectations I am sure were looking north of 20 mil that did not show up. Still cutting away in the top 5 at #5 is "Saw III" with 6.6 mil and a large profitable cume of 69.9 mil.New to the box office scene in major release pattern are several movies that did not make the top 5. 1st one at #8 is the thriller The Return with only 4.8 mil, didn't expect it to "return" such weak numbers. At #10 is the change of pace Russell Crowe film A Good Year with only 3.8 mil ... clearly not good of a year at all for Crowe on this film. And at #13 this week ... yet another MGM big box office weekend is Harsh Times with only 1.8 mil as this urban LA City drama clearly stayed in LA. The print count wasn't exactly huge on this on this film but enough to show it was done before it started.Comment Response: Regarding the Borat comment: Wow, yeah Borat blew the numbers out of the water and it has been selling out in theatres on a Wednesday afternoon ... now that is crazy. There is definetly a lot it could potentially offend namely the Jewish community and maybe even the Gay community however, its comedy gold.Other News:He may have been a crazy old coot, but he was a great coot. Oscar winner Jack Palance died last Friday at the age of 87. I know he has been in countless roles but I remember him best as the crazy brothers Curly and Duke in both City Slickers and City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold opposite Billy Crystal. Jack Palance died of natural causes and will sorely be missed.
Facts & Tips:Each year, the average American eats about 15 lbs. of apples."I can count to potato."- Johnny Knoxville as Steve "Jeffy" Barker in "The Ringer"
Did you know this is my 40th Blog posting since I started this ... huh, for some reason it does not feel like it should be that much. Well next year it should be 52 if I continue to do it weekly and it seems like its working out best for me this way.
Weekly Update:Last Sunday I broke down and I bought another Alienware but this time a laptop. I did do some extensive research and really the only two gaming machines that I can see out there with support are Alienware and Dell (although Dell technically owns Alienware but it still runs as a seperate company). After price comparison and just really word-of-mouth, Dell came out way more in cost for a machine versus Alienware with the same or better specs. So besides price, Dell has probably some of THE worse customer service (CS) rival only to SBC Yahoo. I would pay more for something if I knew they had a great CS but Dell's is so non-existant to laughable, why waste the money? Alienware isn't great but at least they eventually come through. The laptop has a lot of desktop components in it ... so it should be better than my desktop! Right now I think I am set to get it toward the end of November.At the movies:
Jagshemash! His name is a Borat Sagdiyev and he likes you, he like sex! Taking the box office by storm is the limited release comedy Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan with a huge 26.4 million opening and a per screen average of over 31k! That is an amazing number for this R-Rated comedy and its great to see it be such a HUGE hit!! It's a very funny movie but if you do not understand the comedy, it can be very offensive. New on the #2 spot and Christmas showing up early is The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause opening with 20 mil and to put it in perspective with Borat, a per screen average of 5,700. Also new this week at #3 is the animated feature from Dreamworks and Aardman Entertainment (Wallace and Gromit folks) is Flushed Away with 19.1 mil. This isn't the traditional Wallace and Gromit style of claymation but a full animated feature from Aardman instead. Still slicing away at #4 is "Saw III" with an additional 15.5 mil and hanging tight is "The Departed" to round off the top 5 with 8 mil putting it over the 100 mil mark cume!Comment Response:None at this time.Other News:As election day draws near, you see the president doing a very extensive road tour promoting the Republican candidates in the various states (mostly red ones). Right now the Democrats are poised to sweep or get the majority of seats in congress and the senate. What is funny is they are doing very little compared to the Republicans. I love how Bush is calling on the Democrats to show their 
plan for Iraq ... um, where is his? Personally, he is doing more damage than good because he is just reminding the public of the failure of Iraq. The call for an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq and extending additional tours for many units is up on the table. For some that would mean a 4th and 5th tour which is just insane. October did break the record for the most US soldiers killed in Iraq since January of last year (100) and on 11/3 another 5 were killed along with 61 civilians killed and 45 wounded from gunfire and bombings.
Facts & Tips:A one-minute kiss burns 26 calories."My mother used to say..."If you can't say something nice about someone, make sure they're out of the goddamn room!""- Wayne Newton as Julian Grendel in "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane"
How much did you EAT?! Turkey day come and gone and are we still dealing with some leftovers? Them is still good eats, I love making a turkey sandwich with those chunks of meat and throw on a little seasoning salt, mmmmmmm
Facts & Tips:
