Monday, January 25, 2010

Weather Watch?? Last week was one CRAZY week of weather. We had at least two tornado warnings, several thunderstorms and a few areas in Los Angeles got hit with hail. Of course we had a nice sunny weekend but it was still pretty cold, in the 50's during the day. But the week saw several inches of rain while the mountains got several feet of snow. Lot of flooding occurred and of course your typical LA driver has no idea how to deal with the water on the road. We are expecting more rains this coming week but nothing as bad as this past one.

Weekly Update:
On Tuesday I went to the "Extraordinary Measures" premiere which is CBSFilms first movie since the formation of this new division of the company. The movie was better than what I expected but I can see this airing a lot on the Lifetime channel. While there I did get snag some photos with some folks:

*Tom Vaughan- Director of the film and a pretty cool guy.
*Courtney B. Vance- In the movie but I know him best as the Preacher from "The Preacher's Wife" as well as being a really nice guy.
*Jared Harris- Also in the movie and I remember him from the "Mr. Deeds" remake, he was an ok guy.
*Keri Russell- In the movie also but also from "Waitress" to "Felicity" TV show ... and many other credits. Also a very sweet person.
*Kayla Ewell- From "The Vampire Diaries" and other various TV shows, also very sweet.
*Sonya Walger- Currently in the TV shows "Lost" and "Fast Forward" as well as being very nice.

THEN ... on Saturday I got an invite from a friend to go to the People Magazine 16th Annual SAG Awards after party. It was basically wall-to-wall people and could have gotten pics with a bunch of people but wasn't sure of the layout of the land as it were. But, despite the delay in pic taking, I did manage a few:

*Christina Hendricks- Currently on the show "Mad Men" and she was very sweet.
*Rich Sommer- Also on "Mad Men" and he was a decent guy.
*Jesse Tyler Ferguson- In the new break out hit of 2009 "Modern Family" and a very cool guy.
*Sarah Hyland- Also in "Modern Family" and she was incredibly sweet and chatted with us.
*Ariel Winter- "Modern Family" and a cute little girl.
*Rico Rodriquez- One of the kids from "Modern Family" and cool dude.
*Nolan Gould- Another kid from "Modern Family" and he was having a great time.
*Matt Prokop- From "High School Musical 3" and just an up-and-coming actor who was a really cool guy.
*Michael Paul Chan- From the TV Show "The Closer" and a really nice guy.
*Brandon Routh- Currently on "Chuck" and the latest "Superman" ... he is a VERY cool guy.
*Leslie David Baker- From the US version of "The Office" and such a nice guy.
*Creed Bratton- Also from "The Office" and he was ok.
*Craig Robinson- Another "The Office" guy and he was pretty cool.
*Cory Monteith- From the hit TV show "Glee" and what a crazy nice guy!
*Matthew Morrison- Mr. Schuester from "Glee" and a very nice guy.
*Patrick Gallagher- The coach from "Glee" and a really cool guy, kept giving me his SAG Award to hold and it was HEAVY!
*Harry Shum Jr- Also from "Glee" and just a laid back cool guy.
*Bryan Cranston- I loved him from "Malcolm in the Middle" and a funny guy!
*Jack McBrayer- From "30 Rock" and a likable fellow.
*Scott Adsit- Also from "30 Rock" and a pretty nice guy.
*Maulik Pancholy- Another "30 Rock"er and a cool guy.
*Scott Bakula- From one of my all time favorite shows "Quantum Leap" and a very cool guy.
*Larry David- Co-Creator of "Seinfeld" and from "Curb your Enthusiasm" ... a little stand-off ish but still a decent guy.

I met Tommy Lister at another event prior to both of these but I couldn't remember his name at the time. He has been in a lot of random stuff but I think I remember best from "The Fifth Element" as the President.

At the movies:
Holding ground at the box office is "Avatar" once again with another 36 million to add to its cume of over 550 mil domestically. As the numbers drop each each week, it should lose #1 in a week or two at this rate. New at #2 is the suspense-thriller Legion with 18.2 mil despite its below average reviews. Dropping down to #3 is "The Book of Eli" with another 17 mil. New at a disappointing #4 is the family comedy Tooth Fairy with only 14.5 mil to open. Rounding off the top 5 is "The Lovely Bones" with 8.8 mil as it slightly increased it screen count but yet had a gross drop from last week.

New movies that did not make the top 5: Just one this week as the drama Extraordinary Measures opens at the #7 spot with only 7 million. Not a great start for the inaugural movie for the new CBS Film division of CBS.

Quote of the week:
"People who are always making allowances for themselves soon go bankrupt." - Mary Pettibone Poole

Other News:
magazine paid the ex-I am pretty convinced now that stupid people are so overexposed now, they are losing money for those who invest in them ... and that is a really good thing!! One example is the "reality" TV "star" Heidi Montag who recently under went unnecessary plastic surgery (after she stated she would never do it in her life) and released a record in which it sold less than 1,000 copies in the first week. I guess karma is real that stupid/horrible people do get what they deserve. I know record sales are getting smaller and smaller these days with digital downloads but a decent release is 100,000+ copies for a big named band/musician ... but less than 1,000 is pretty dang bad. Another example of stupid people is Sarah Palin. It was recently reported that inTouchGovernor of Alaska $100,000 to be the headline story for their latest issue. The issue sold less than half of what the previous issue did. Are we all fed up with her now that we have turned it off? I hope so because honestly, she should have never been turned on in the first place. I feel like all the struggles and trials women have gone through to be equal, Sarah Palin set them back 20+ years. I still don't know why she calls her self "rogue" or "maverick" when is he clearly neither of those. Her "rogue" is more uniformed and her "maverick" is simply ... stupidity. Do people cling to her because she doesn't practice what she preaches? I have no clue.

Facts & Tips:
The first human-made object to break the sound barrier was a whip.

"I researched groupies on the Internet.They're sluts!They sleep with the band!" - Miranda Cosgrove as Summer Hathaway in "The School of Rock."

posted by McDuck @ 00:10 0 comments

Monday, January 18, 2010

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream ... let's try and live it before we forget it.

I was driving to work the other day and I saw a business that had a sign "Tool Repair" and I thought ... what if the tool that fixes the tool breaks, is there a tool to fix that tool that fixes tools? And what happens if that tool breaks? When does it end?? How do you make a tool that fixes other tools? So if my hammer breaks, I can take it to get it repaired and will be just as good? This concepts seems really wierd to me ... really wierd.

Weekly Update:
So I finally saw "Avatar" and I thought it was ... ok. Visually without question the movie was stunning, however, the story is just a simple mix of 98% "Disney's Pocahontas" and 2% "Dances with Wolves." Everything about the film aside from the visuals was unoriginal from the music (Titanic-esque) to the story to the characters (which their names and language seemed almost identical to Native American Indians). The movie is long and it felt very long to me as well, probably because my butt and back were getting really sore. The 3-D was pretty good, my eyes only teared up twice which is a lot less than anticipated since I always had issues with 3-D in the past and the tremendous amount of eye strain just after the first 20 minutes. But this wasn't bad ... I lasted! The cool part about seeing the movie is that this was a special screening with a Q&A right after. After the Q&A, I did manage to get some photos with the folks there for it:

*Jon Landau- Producer of this film along with "Titanic" to just name a couple. Ok guy.
*James Cameron- Director of this film plus many others like "Titanic" and "True Lies" which is an amazing movie for sound. Very nice and cool guy!
*Zoe Saldana- Main female lead in the film as well as Uhura in the latest "Star Trek" movie. She was very sweet.

At the movies:
No change at the box office as "Avatar" continues to lead the pack for the 5th week in a row. Unlike "Titanic" which ran at #1 for nearly 19 weeks, I am sure this film won't break that record but should be in the top 10 for at least that possibly as it makes another 41.3 million and now just shy of the 500 mil cume mark. New at #2 is the action film Book of Eli with 31.6 mil. At #3 is the wide release of "The Lovely Bones" which earns a nice 17.1 mil for the holiday weekend. I do have a feeling this film won't last long on the charts though. Hanging on to #4 is "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel" with an extra 11.5 mil and just short of the 200 mil mark. Rounding off the top 5 is "Sherlock Holmes" with 9.8 mil as it struggles its way to break the 200 mil cume mark.

New movies that did not make the top 5: Just one this week as the new family comedy-action film The Spy Next Door chops in at #6 with an 9.7 million to open.

Quote of the week:
"Falling feels like flying, for a little while." - Jeff Bridges

Other News:
Obviously the big news is the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti last Tuesday. Initial reports had the death toll at 100,000 plus with three times that injured. When aide and other relief efforts came to the island nation the next day and the next, the death toll dropped to 50,000. Now that is till a lot but at least it is half to the initial expected and even now, that count be a bit lower as they are finding people in the rubble alive. With today's technology, it is so easy to make a contribution through texting, e-mails, of course over the phone and sending in checks. Of course when disaster hits, scammers also surface and try to take advantage of such a tremendous situation like this. So who do you trust? Honestly you can NOT trust the American Red Cross because the last major disaster that they handled with Hurricane Katrina and they refused to release lost and found records for children and parents to the agencies like the FBI and police to help reunite people. Plus they decline sharing their financial information so the government could make sure the funds were being allocated properly. Did everyone forget that the Red Cross is a government agency?? So who do you trust? Tough one but hopefully you can find an organization out there that you personally know about.

Facts & Tips:
Lizards communicate by doing push-ups.

"Aw, what the hell. Guys like me shouldn't dream anyway." - Michael Beck as Sonny Malone in "Xanadu."

posted by McDuck @ 00:45 0 comments

Monday, January 11, 2010

So this is ... I don't know what this is! I was driving to work the other day and this SUV type vehicle cut me off on a main surface street. So what, no big deal, they didn't signal or anything. Then they speed up ahead and did it to another car up ahead of me, ok this person is very annoying. Again no signal or anything. So I watch it drive further and they were speeding that much past the speed limit when I saw it come up to another car, this other car had it's signal on and made the lane change. The guy in the SUV honked at them!! Sometimes you just want to zap people, you know!

Weekly Update:
On Saturday I had a little fun, I went to "The Spy Next Door" premiere which was at the Grove in LA. The movie itself was cute and fun but nothing to rave home about. I saw some of the main cast there but didn't get close enough to get any pics since there really wasn't any after party ... which is always a bummer. But I did manage to get some pictures with people either there at the event or who were in the film:

*Magnus Scheving- Played the main bad guy and was VERY cool.
*Katherine Boecher- was the right hand woman to the boss bad guy in the movie and very friendly.
*Troy Brenna- one of the bad guy bodyguards and cool guy.
*David Mattey- another bodyguard and way funny too.
*David Foley- his daughter is in the movie and one of my favorites from "Kids in the Hall" ... REALLY nice guy!

At the movies:
Still holding strong at the box office is "Avatar" as it takes the #1 spot for the 4th week in a row earning another 48.5 million and now over the 400 mil cume mark. Also holding on strong is "Sherlock Holmes" with an extra 16.6 mil as it surpasses the 160 mil cume mark at #2. Still singing at #3 is "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel" earning 16.3 mil more as this film collectively goes north of the 175 mil cume mark. New at #4 is the suspense-thriller Daybreakers with 15 mil to open. Rounding off the top 5 is "It's Complicated" with another 11 mil.

New movies that did not make the top 5: We have two this week with not so surprising numbers. In at #6 was the rom-com Leap Year with 9.2 million. In at #9 is Youth in Revolt earning only 7 mil to open and probably close with. I guess audiences Leaped past that one in Revolt!

Quote of the week:
"No wise man ever wished to be younger." - Jonathan Swift

Other News:
I'm not sure what is going on lately in California but it has seen a couple of big earthquakes recently. On Monday or Tuesday the San Jose area in Northern California was hit with a nice 4.6 magnitude. No reports of causalities or major damage. Then on Saturday, the Eureka area felt a big 6.5! On this one there was obviously more damage reported with only around 30 people being hurt but nothing serious. This latter one did knock out power for over 125,000 people for several hours as well as chimney's crumbling, glass breaking and traffic signs falling. Of course the after shocks were pretty much happening throughout the day but it makes you wonder ... what is going on? It first started much further north and then a bigger one hits central California. Is it a slow ripple making its way down the coast? Hope not but it does happen. Earthquakes happen probably every few minutes but we never feel them unless they reach a certain magnitude otherwise we will never notice.

Facts & Tips:
Wrapping rubber bands around the ends of hangers can prevent clothes from slipping off.

"The minute I laid eyes on you, I knew you had what it took." - James Karen as Lynch in "Wall Street."

posted by McDuck @ 00:07 0 comments

Monday, January 04, 2010

NEW YEAR EDITION

Spent New Year's Eve at home with a couple of sick dogs. Well, one wasn't really sick but we made it vomit because he ate a mushroom from the lawn. That was a fun experience, I am sure the dog loved it as well! Of course I am being completely sarcastic but the good thing is the procedure worked and the dog seems just fine now. Aside from that, just relaxed at home which is just fine with me on a night like that. I got most of my fun during Christmas which is a better holiday anyway to do stuff because it involves both food and having fun!

Weekly Update:
The week was pretty dang quiet ... I loved! I only went into work on Monday and then had the rest of the week off to do nothing. It is funny looking back on it and how last Tuesday to now seems such a SHORT time but then when it was last Tuesday it felt like time was good. Looking back though you wonder what happened to the time you spent. I was also struck with tragic news on Saturday night that a dear friend and colleague of mine passed away. Causes right now are unknown and exactly when she died are also not 100% sure. She was discovered in her apartment after she missed two work shifts on both Friday and Saturday. People had been trying to call her but no answer. After the 2nd shirt was missed, they sent police to her home where they found her dead and no evidence of either foul play or suicide. I am very fortunate to have gotten to see my friend, Cynthia Smith, not that long ago and also been able to keep in touch with her through the years and more so thanks to sites like Facebook. She was a great life force and friend ... with a sarcastic wit and full of life. The news so so shocking, someone so young and as far as I knew, healthy. Cynthia, you will be deeply missed ...

At the movies:
Surprise at the box office as "Avatar" continues to be #1 with an additional 68.3 million and now over 350 mil cume. I think this film will actually make its money back but the profit margin may be very slim. Up to #2 is "Sherlock Holmes" with 38.4 mil extra as it punches past the 100 mil cume mark. Drop down to #3 is "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel" with 36.6 mil as it also passes the 100 mil cume mark. At #4 is "It's Complicated" with another 18.7 mil. Rounding off the top 5 is "The Blind Side" with 12.7 mil as it passes the 200 mil cume for the little film that could.

Quote of the week:
"Wealth consists not in having great possessions but in having few wants." - Esther De Waal

Other News:
Did you know that Guinness had video gaming records? I didn't either but according to the Guinness World Records 2010: The Book of the Decade, the most recognizable video game icon is ... Pac-Man! I can see that! Apparently it edged out Mario and John Madden but a well deserved acknowledgement. Other info about video game records: Biggest-selling video game of all time is Wii Sports at over 42 million copies. The most popular puzzle game of the century is Bejeweled. I think it is a fun game but I can lose interest in it fast for myself. Other records include longest time spent playing a massively-multiplayer online game (or MMPOG) goes to a Sara Lhadi who apparently spent over 700 days playing Runescape between November '04 to October '09. Which works out to about over 9 hours a day. Another semi-related record they mention is largest collection of Pokemon merchandise went to a Lisa Courtney who had 12,113 unique items ... now that is just crazy but then again I know folks with some outlandish collections. Maybe not as huge but you would think they were.

Coming soon are my BEST and WORST blog for 2009!

Facts & Tips:
Forty-six percent of leisure visitors to downtown New York City come from outside the United States.

"Oh, it's not in sight. There's a saying of my people that when you can look to the four corners and see only your own land, then you can truthfully say, "I have a rancho."" - Elena Verdugo as Estrellita Estrada in "The Big Sombrero."

posted by McDuck @ 00:03 0 comments