Monday, July 26, 2010

Kind of a long week for some reason ... nothing too crazy or off beat but just seemed long to me for some reason. Can't think of why or maybe it was all the short trips I had to take? That could probably be the reason since I had to drive around more than normal so that could be why it just feels so off to me. Well, hopefully this coming week will be completely the opposite ... was also extremely tired the past few days too.

Weekly Update:
Kind of a crazy week and I am beat! So this year the San Diego Comic-Con completely slipped my mind but not to be totally without going, I did manage to attend a party on Thursday night. So I took my friend and we drove down Thursday afternoon, hung out in SD for awhile which didn't seem that crazy as last year. Then went to the party that Lionsgate was co-hosting with IGN (Internet Gaming Network) for their upcoming film "The Expendables." The party was pretty cool and at the party as well as in SD I got to grab a few pics with folks:

*Willie Garson- Various TV and movies including "Sex and the City" and "Fever Pitch" and was a very cool guy!
*Nick Frost- From "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" and also very cool!
*William Fichtner- lots of roles from "Armageddon" to "The Dark Knight" to name a few ... nice guy.
*Randy Couture- UFC Fighter and also in "The Expendables" ... an OK guy.

At the movies:
Bit of a surprise as the box office while "Inception" maintains the crown at #1 with an additional 43.5 million and now just short of 150 mil cume in its 2nd week. New at #2 is the action film Salt with only 36.5 mil. Holding strong at #3 is "Despicable Me" with another 24.1 mil as it passes the 150 mil cume. Average drop to #4 is "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" earning 9.7 mil more. Rounding off the top 5 is "Toy Story 3" with 9 mil and now just shy of 380 mil but no doubt will make it by mid week.

New movies that did not make the top 5:
Just one this week as the family film Ramona and Beezus gets the #6 spot with only 8 mil in its debut. A little higher than industry expectations as this film will quickly disappear.

Quote of the week:
"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week." - General George S. Patton

Other News:
Fires, Floods and storms ... oh my. Across the country is disaster after disaster and it is kind of odd on what they are. IN DC a severe storm has knocked out power for thousands as the district is hit with a sweltering heat wave. Sleepless nights till they can get some power back for the AC! Then in Chicago, many areas are declared flood disasters. We continue to the West Coast in Northern California where hundreds of firefighters are battling several wild fires. How can we get those storms and floods over to the fires? Throw in the oil situation and the clean-up that continues as well as 200 buildings in Iowa are destroyed over a dam breach. It's a beautiful day in the US!

Facts & Tips:
To make a zipper slide up and down more smoothly, rub a bar of soap over the teeth.

"So, you held this guy without trial his whole life. No wonder he's pissed." - William Forsythe as Special Agent Ernest Paxton in "The Rock."

posted by McDuck @ 00:43 0 comments

Monday, July 19, 2010

So I tend to talk about the weather in this area a lot and I try not to because it can be kind of boring but then its the first thing that usually pops into my mind. This week is pretty crazy because of the weather. Not only was it hot this past week both day and night, it rained! We never get rain in July and when its hot ... what is this, Florida?? I guess it did get a little humid one day but that has happened before. Now I didn't see the rain since I spent most of the week in the OC but a lot of people I know in LA were shocked at the rain in the middle of the week, 80 to 90 degree weather and ... July! It didn't rain that much but enough to wonder what the heck is going on here?!?

Weekly Update:
So I was at a fast food place yesterday and I saw a schedule for the local House of Blues for the month of July ... the state of concert venues seems kind of in bad shape. I didn't recognize any of the bands on there for the month and a lot of "tribute" bands were the evening's act. So you have stuff like No Duh (No Doubt), Nearvana (Nirvana), Just Like Priest (Judas Priest) and a few others that I can't quiet remember but ... sad, just simply sad. Well, I guess if you can't get the actual band these days, get the 4th best thing?

At the movies:
No big surprise here as the sci-fi thriller of the summer takes the crown for the box office ... Inception earns a hefty 60.4 million for the weekend. Holding in at #2 is "Despicable Me"for an additional 33.7 mil. New at #3 with a 5 day opening is The Sorcerer's Apprentice with only 24.5 mil which is a pretty bad number considering its for a 5-day opening. Continuing to drop at #4 is "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" with another 13.5 mil but now over 260 mil cume. Rounding off the top 5 is "Toy Story 3" with an additional 11.7 mil as it makes it way close to a 400 mil cume but not sure if it will hit it or not.

Quote of the week:
"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work ... I want to achieve it through not dying." - Woody Allen

Other News:
Last week I got an e-mail from a mailing list I signed up for years ago for a little store nearby that focuses and sells supplies for scrap booking. Now for those who are not familiar with this, its basically creating memories to share and present them in a way that can be charming. Typically you take photos and make a page around it, theme it, so besides it just being a picture, it is almost a piece of art work. I have done it a few times and its pretty fun because it does get the creative juices flowing. I did a different form of this when I use to work at the movie theatre and we did a lot of movie promotions. We would create a type of scrapbook to show what we did and decorated the pages of the photos around the movie (or picture) so it wasn't plain or boring. So the store I got the e-mail from ... it is closing at the end of this month. Sad to see a nice little store disappear but in this age with online ordering, photoshop programs and even a power point set up ... the younger generation is electronic or digital. They create on the computer and then print it out later but there is not hands-on work or feel of the materials you are working with. Just isn't the same and it will be sad to see this little gem disappear.

Facts & Tips:
The starfish is the only animal that can turn its stomach inside out.

"Well, it’s a figure of speech I can’t “figure” out, because I’m not seeing “Colonel” on my uniform." - Michael DeLuise as Nick Marlowe playing Colonel Danning on the TV show "Stargate SG-1."

posted by McDuck @ 00:58 0 comments

Monday, July 12, 2010

What happened? It got warm! Ok, not really but it did heat up just a little bit. What is interesting is our weather in SoCali has been really great. Mostly clear skies, cooler than normal with nice breezes. I hear on the East coast this past week they were hammered with heat waves that were unusually warm setting new records not to mention the humidity. Then the Midwest gets hit with massive flooding but still remains on the warm side or high humidity ... what is going on here?

Weekly Update:
On Friday I helped a friend out with a VERY independent movie called "Stan" that is still looking for distribution. Its a very dark comedy with a side of drama ... the humor is very off but its short. The event itself was pretty good with a nice turn out of celeb friends to support not necessarily the movie but the event. I called upon James Hong and Bill Chott and both showed up which was great! Plus getting to see the two of them again is always a treat for me. I did get to meet someone new there which is cool:

*Geoffrey Lewis - Best known from "Every Which Way But Loose" and "Any Which Way You Can", he is a sweet guy but a little disheveled.

At the movies:
Animation takes the box office this week and it's not Pixar! Universal's Despicable Me earns tops honors with a nice 60.1 million to open. Slight drop to #2 is "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" with another 33.4 mil and now well over 230 mil for its 2 weeks. New at #3 is the hopeful reboot of a dying franchise Predators earning 25.3 mil in its debut. Slight drop to #4 is "Toy Story 3" with an additional 22 mil and now just over 340 mil as it tries to make its way to 400. Rounding off the top 5 with a sizable drop is "The Last Airbender" with another 17 mil however manages to break 100 mil cume so far.

Quote of the week:
"The secret of life is in art." - Oscar Wilde

Comment Response:
Zabel I think you fall in your own category for those "Twi-hards" out there!! The Tweuger!

Other News:
According to AOL and their readers, they came up with a list of the top 7 vacation spots in the US or also known as the 7 Wonders of the US. Starting with #7: Gateway Arch, St. Louis, Missouri - Never been but I would put it on the list since it is probably the only cool thing to see there. #6: Biltmore, Ashville, North Carolina - A big estate based on the vision of George W. Vanderbilt ... never been but it looks nice. #5: Yellowstone National Park (pictured) - definitely one of the best natural landmarks in the US. #4: Longaberger Home Office, Newark, Ohio - It looks like a giant picnic basket! I have no idea what this business does but kudos to the design! #3: Government Bridge, Rock Island, Illinois - Its a bridge that isn't even that impressive. #2: Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Keystone, South Dakota - A great marvel and it definitely deserves to be on this list. #1 by the AOL readers is ... Coronado Performing Arts Center, Rockford, Illinois - really?? Some honorable mentions were Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming and Statue of Liberty, New York, New York. Both of these should have made the list over some stuff like the bridge and the the Biltmore. What about the Hollywood Bowl or the Golden Gate Bridge? How about Pearl Harbor Memorial or Niagara Falls? Grand Canyon would have been nice too. Big miss AOL readers on most of this list ... BIG miss!

Facts & Tips:
The strike note of The Liberty Bell is E flat.

"Ah, Blankman. I see you've finally found someone to work with who dresses worse than you do." - Jon Polito as Michael 'The Suit' Minelli in "Blankman."

posted by McDuck @ 00:40 1 comments

Monday, July 05, 2010

4th of July Edition

A nice long weekend to help celebrate the independence of the United States from British rule. Basically this day is commemorating the Declaration of Independence back in 1776. I believe the actual approval of the document was the 2nd of July however it was later revised and approved 2 days later and hence why we celebrate it on the 4th. Also keep in mind this is NOT the day it was signed but everyone but just the day it was approved. The final signing by everyone didn't happen till almost a month later. After this document was declared, the war still raged on for several more years till mid to late 1783 were it finally ended and the Treaty of Paris was formed. Happy 4th of July everyone ... hope you had a great weekend!

Weekly Update:
I was at this little sandwich place last week getting something to eat when I hear this conversation take place:
Customer: what is that orange colored drink?
Cashier: orange juice.
Customer: oh, I was wondering what drink was orange colored.

Really? Did that just happen? Do people not take a quick moment to think about what they are asking or what they are seeing? I am sure we all sometimes speak before we think but the response to the answer was kind of shocking in the fact they still didn't realize what they said but were simply satisfied with the answer ... go figure.

At the movies:
No surprise here as the tweens and cougars hit the theatres this weekend making The Twilight Saga: Eclipse #1 at the box office for the holiday and earning a 5-day gross of 161.7 million. The number is amazing, however, given the screen count, IMAX up-charge, Tuesday night midnights and the crazies ... it did take a big dip on Sunday. In at #2 is The Last Airbender with a 4-day opening of 57 mil. Hanging in at #3 is "Toy Story 3" with another 30.2 mil and now within reach of the 300 mil cume mark. Drop to #4 is "Grown Ups" with another 18.5 mil and rounding off the top 5 is "Knight and Day" with another 10.2 mil.

Quote of the week:
"It's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper." - Jerry Seinfeld

Other News:
Here is an interesting list ... in today's economic times, it is interesting to see the top 10 retail power players currently in the country (according to the National Retail Federation). Starting with #10: Best Buy - generated 37.3 billion in sales over 1,192 US stores in 2009. They still managed to open 100 new stores over the last year. I'm glad Best Buy made the list but surprised it wasn't higher. #9: Sears - $44 billion but that is a 6% drop from the previous year. Surprised they are still around to be honest, almost all their stores are antiquated. #8: Lowe's - 47.2 billion which is a 2.1% decline in sales. I'm not a fan of their stores, no one around to help and prices don't seem to be impressive at all. #7: CVS Caremark - 55.4 billion in sales with a 13% increase. CVS bought out Long's Drug thus eliminating one competitor. CVS currently has plans to buy back $2 billion worth of shares. CVS' are ok ... nothing to write home about. #6: Costco - $56.5 billion in 406 stores. I go to Costco all the time, the deals are great. #5: Home Depot - no figures to share but they have plans to buy back shares and I enjoy Home Depot due to great customer service and excellent pricing. #4: Walgreen - last year the chain opened 7,000 new locations and giving them a presence in all 50 states. They also purchased several smaller chain stores and plan on more expansion. Hopefully they won't suffer from over expansion as we have seen many companies in the past cause their downfall. #3: Target - 63.4 billion in sales and opening up the grocery market has moved them up a couple of notches. Who doesn't like a well maintained Target store! #2: Kroger - With retailer stores opening up in the grocer segment, Kroger is able to hold its ground and sees growth in the future. Our local Kroger's are Ralph's and they are my favorite. The #1 power player for 2009 (start of 2010) is Wal-Mart: $304.9 billion in sales and opening its grocery business has kept it strong. Many cities in the US have banned Wal-Mart from their areas as it does in fact decrease property value ... not a fan of their stores and current policies since the founder passed away many years ago.

Facts & Tips:
Panama is the only place in the world where you can see the sun rise on the Pacific and set on the Atlantic.

"Hey, you better do something. I don't wanna be known as brother-in-law of the town nut job; I got enough problems already." - Frank Sivero as Andy in "The Wedding Singer."

posted by McDuck @ 00:32 1 comments