Summer nights still remain cool and I hope that stays for the rest of the year! It has heated up some during the day but still cool enough to stay indoors and not turn on the AC. Hmmm, this opening of the blog lately has become a sort of weather report for the week. I need to change it up soon!
Weekly Update:HOLY COW ... so I braved the traffic and crowds again and attended the 2008 Comic-Con on Thursday. First off, there was so much traffic getting down there that it took about 3 hours plus due to accidents on both freeways to the SD area. Then of course parking was still an issue but we managed eventually. Once inside ... BAM!! Wall-to-wall geeks and freaks as the eye can see. I made some friends in POW! Entertainment which is Stan Lee's production company and I was able to take my friends up to a special ballroom for them to meet Stan. I think they enjoyed that. Later on after much exploring of the convention hall, I muscled my way to the Fox booth and got my pics with some up-and-coming talent just before they were about to leave:*Amanda Walsh- very charming girl.*Matt Lanter- seemed like a pretty cool guy.After the con, I scored some passes to the premiere of the DVD movie Stargate: Continuum, which is suppose to be the 2nd and last DVD movie after the series "Stargate: SG-1" ended. I thought it was a good movie and it was on the flight deck of the USS Midway in the San Diego harbor. I thought it was a pretty cool experience seeing a movie in the open air like that. Although the chairs were not very comfortable, the popcorn cold/stale and my neck hurt from looking toward the screen at that angle with no back-head support. I guess I am spoiled with the stadium seating now these days in theatres. So the access we had also got us into the after reception which was very intimate compared to most movie after-parties. Probably around 50 people which was GREAT!!!!! I had pics with most of the cast already but I still managed to pick up a couple more:*Richard Dean Anderson- He seemed like an ok guy but still, its MacGyver!*Lexa Doig- Very charming and a knock-out!
Finally, I also attended the premiere of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor on Sunday and got some pics there as well. The movie was pretty good but the first two are still the best for me. I did like the use of the Terra Cotta warriors and how they came about in this particular storyline.
*Michelle Yeoh- Amazing!!
*Russell Wong- Pretty cool guy, easy going.
*John Hannah- Very like-able guy.
*Isabella Leong- Very nice person.
*Luke Ford- Way cool and nice guy!
At the movies:
No surprise here as the caped crusader takes the #1 spot again, "The Dark Knight" in its 2nd weekend earns another 75.6 million (I projected at 70 mil so a bit off but not too bad). With a two weekend cume of over 310 mil so far!! I am sure that breaks some records of having a 10 day total of over 300. New at #2 is the comedy Step Brothers with a nice 30 mil opening. Holding on at #3 is "Mamma Mia!" with an extra 17.9 mil. New at #4 is the suspenseful continuation of X-Files: I Want to Believe with 10.2 mil. Rounding off the top 5 is "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D" with another 9.4 mil and surprised its still in the top 5!Quote of the week:"It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more oil ten years from now."- Al Gore
Other News:"Golden Girl" Estelle Getty passed away last Tuesday suffering from advanced dementia, she was 84. Getty best know as her sarcastic octogenarian Sophia character on the hit show "The Golden Girls" about four retirees sharing a house in Miami tapped into the older viewing audiences. The show lasted nearly 7 years and Getty's character firing out the verbal zingers made her one of the most endearing of the four. She will be very missed.Facts & Tips:
Panda bears eat up to 16 hours a day."You can kiss my Neolithic butt!"- Jenna Elfman as Professor Veronica Micelli in "Krippendorf's Tribe."
The weather here continues to be nice this summer with warm but not hot days and very breezy evenings. The nights are close to our typical fall/winter weather where you can keep the windows open and get under the covers at night. The day is more spring where it sits in the mid to high 70's, sometimes getting into the low 80's but next to no humidity. We are already in mid-July so some would call this the peak of summer ... I hope so! Looking at the extended forecast, the days are suppose to get a bit warmer to the mid 80's but the nights remain cool.Weekly Update:
So we just picked up DirecTV for the house and it was a lengthy process in setting it up. One would think the dish would have been the issue but nope, it was trying to figure out the many locations we now have TV. Some drilling and lots of cable, it looks like it will work out and when we have guest, they can enjoy some TV of their own. Some clean up is needed later for the cables but for now, it is just fine. I have enjoyed TiVo for the past few years. Now that DirecTV has its own DVR and cheaper with it being in multiple rooms, it will be time to cancel TiVo. It is sad to see TiVo go, which they pretty much revolutionized that part of the industry is one of the biggest causalities of it.
At the movies:Definitely no surprise here as the caped crusader takes the box office crown this week! The Dark Knight comes in with a big opening weekend earning 158.3 million and breaking all previous opening non-holiday records. Singing in at #2 this week is the romantic musical Mamma Mia! based off the popular Broadway play (which was based on hit songs from the musical group ABBA) as it earns 27.6 mil. Hanging in at #3 is "Hancock" with an extra 14 mil and just shy of the 200 mil cume mark. Slight drop to #4 is "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D" with another 11.9 mil and surprisingly still in the top 5! Rounding off the top 5 is "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" with an extra 10 mil.New movies that did not make the top 5: Looks like Fox does it again for the 2nd week in a row but this one was a bit better than the last one. The kid friendly film Space Chimps earns only 7.4 mil at the box office.Quote of the Week:"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players." - William ShakespeareOther News:
Interesting growth going on around Orange County that I have noticed lately. I have noticed a lot of apartments and condos being built and while those remain completely empty, more are being built near-by. Does that make any sense to build additional homes while the current ones can not be filled to begin with? I thought it was due to possibly being different companies but they have the same look and same style. Some of the locations even share similar names but with a slight twist. That is just here but what about across the country? It looks like the market is pretty bad right now as this one person in Easton, Maryland is trying to sell her house and you get a free car when you do. This isn't an original idea because several of the condos around here are offering free golf carts with every purchase and those can run up to $15,000 which is the price of a cheap car these days. SLOW down on the building, why keep building more if the lot across the street is still 100% vacant??!Facts & Tips:To remove crayon marks from walls, use a hairdryer to heat the wax.
"Are you kidding? Stick my tongue to that stupid pole? That's dumb!"- Scott Schwartz as Flick in "A Christmas Story."
Warm and cool!! The weather has been decent this past week! For the most part during the day it was nice and not too hot with some really good breezes. At night it has been very cool, I would say in the low 60's which is a good temperature to keep the windows open and be under the covers in bed. Now this is summer weather that I can deal with.Weekly Update:So a lot of things going on this past week for me. I was offered a job with another studio and on Friday I decided to accept it. Things at the current job were not working or in fact getting worse. Although I love everything about the company but with no sight of changes, I thought it was time for me to move on. Weird, this is the first time I left a company on my own instead of it closing it's doors or downsizing ... this is new for me! So I will remain at the current job for another 3 weeks to wrap some stuff up and then start the new one immediately after.On Saturday I did get a chance to attend a very small premiere event for the film "Space Chimps" which was ok. Not a great movie but cute and had some fun moments in it. The star turnout was very light and the only one I noticed that was there that I didn't have a picture with before was Andy Samberg who does the voice of the main character and a very cool guy. He is regularly seen on Saturday Night Live currently.At the movies:
Big red wins the box office crown this week as Hellboy II: The Golden Army earns a nice 35.9 million. It enjoys the one week at the top as the Batman will knock out everyone next week. Holding in at #2 is "Hancock" with an extra 33 mil and well over the 160 mil cume, sure to hit 200 by the end of next weekend. New at #3 is the family adventure Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D earns 20.6 mil, way more than any of my expectations. Hanging in to #4 is "Wall*E" with 18.5 mil and now over the 160 mil cume as it tries to reach 200. Rounding off the top 5 is "Wanted" with 11.6 mil and breaking the 100 mil cume mark.New movies that did not make the top 5: We haven't had this for awhile but Eddie Murphy manages to bring it back with Meet Dave earning a disappointing 5.3 mil and sure to be the end of that one.Quote of the week:"You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance."- Franklin P. Adams
Other News:The country is on the grow as we examine the top 10 fastest growing large cities in the US. Coming in at #10 is Denton, TX with a 4.7% growth rate. At #9 is Clarksville, TN at 4.8% and #8 is Gilbert, AZ with 5.8%. Number 7 and 6 are Port St. Lucie, FL and Killeen, TX at 6.3% and 6.5% respectively. At #5 and #4 we have Cary, NC and N.Las Vegas, NV at 7.3% and 7.4% respectively. In at #3 is McKinney, TX with a nice 8.0% growth rate. Strong showing at #2 is Victorville, CA with a 9.5% growth and also a lot of land of nothing to work with. The #1 large city in the US with the fastest growing rate is New Orleans, LA with 13.8% but I wonder if that was due to everyone being wiped out from Katrina and are still living in shelters and make-shift homes. For a full report of these findings, just click away.Facts & Tips:
The shoreline at Wildwood grows almost 100 feet per year."What about elevenses? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper? He knows about them, doesn't he?"- Billy Boyd as Peregrin 'Pippin' Took in "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring."
HAPPY POST 4th of July!"Safe and sane" as they say for those who got to fire off their own fireworks. I remember growing up I use to save my money to buy one of those big firework packages from the Red Devil firework stand. Eventually they banned and outlawed those kind of fireworks in the cities I grew up due to fire hazards ... sure do miss doing that. I remember fireworks being expensive for only a few minutes of fun ... but it was sure fun to light things on fire! Now we all gather in stadiums or parks and watch firework shows which can be fun but still, nothing like lighting your own in my opinion.Weekly Update:On Wednesday I had the great pleasure of watching a special screening of Hellboy 2: The Golden Army in a nice small theatre with about 200 other folks. The director and most of the cast were there for a Q&A after the film which was fun to watch. Before hand I had dinner with some friends including Doug Jones who always cracks me up (and is also in the movie). I sat next to him and he is quiet animated as anyone who has met him will tell ya! The movie was pretty good, it is the kind of movie I would want to see again and soon. I can see why they picked Guillermo to be the next direct for "The Hobbit" as this film was visually stunning. While at the screening, I got some pics!*Selma Blair- INCREDIBLY nice and absolutely stunning.*Luke Goss- Very cool guy!*Anna Walton- She was very nice and sweet.I have met Guillermo del Toro before, twice even and one of those times was just last week. He is a funny guy to watch him talk about movies as well as being very nice. He takes the time to talk to you no matter how busy he is.
At the movies:Super lazy at the box office as Hancock takes the #1 spot with a 5 1/2 day opening of 107.3 mil but only a 3-day total of 66 mil. A very good number overall but probably could have done a bit more for such a big holiday weekend. Hanging in the #2 spot is "Wall*E" with an extra 33.4 mil and now over the 100 mil cume in its 2nd week. Slight drop to #3 is "Wanted" with another 20.6 mil and just shy of 100 mil but will probably reach that before the week is over. In at #4 is "Get Smart" with an extra 11.1 mil and also just shy of 100 mil mark. This film will probably reach that goal in a couple of days. Rounding off the top 5 is "Kung Fu Panda" with 7.5 mil over the holiday and just shy of the 200 mil mark. It might take it an extra couple weeks to get there but sure enough will get there.Quote of the Week:"You can only be young once. But you can always be immature." - Dave BarryOther News:
It is with a very sad and heavy heart that I heard my good friend Don S. Davis passed away last Sunday from a massive heart attack. I spoke with his lovely wife Ruby and she said Don went without suffering and he was doing what he loved, working on his crafts. I have known Don for about 3 to 4 years now and one would have thought we were life-long friends. He was that kind of person that when you met him, he treated you like a personal friend of his. He was very welcoming and often had a smile on his face, especially when he mentioned his wife Ruby. If the name doesn't sound familiar to you, his many characters might. He had such memorable roles as General George Hammond on the TV series "Stargate SG-1" and Major Garland Briggs on "Twin Peaks." He also was seen as Scully's father on "The X-Files" and played opposite such greats as Tom Hanks in "A League of Their Own." Never have I heard a bad thing on or off camera for Don, he would have been 66 next month. He was a veteran in this biz and will greatly be missed but never forgotten.
Facts & Tips:The average raindrop falls at 7 mph."You ever think of writing a book about your exploits in the line of duty?"- Don S. Davis as Major General George Hammond from the TV series "Stargate SG-1."
Weekly Update:
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