Duckburg Gazette

Why do people slow down when they are getting on the freeway?? You take the freeway to hopefully have a quick route to your location. Granted I understand if there is traffic but an on-ramp to a freeway usually tends to be pretty long, at least 100 yards plus some and day or night, you can see if there is traffic that you will slow down when approaching. But when there is not, speed up and enter the freeway at the current speed the flow of traffic is going or to be safe, the roof of the speed limit! Don't enter and THEN slow down!! What is that about people??

Weekly Update:
Bit of a crazy week as I mentioned in the previous blog. Did a lot of running around with a charity board meeting at a very noisy location but we had to have it there since its the future site of our annual pool tournament in a couple of weeks. On the weekend though I was able to attend the 38th Annual Annie Awards which is recognition in achievements on all levels of animation from storyboard to writing to voice acting. My good friend James Hong won for his guest voice on the "Kung Fu Panda Holiday" special that aired over the past Thanksgiving weekend. While there, I got to grab a few pics with:

*Tom Hatten- Legendary stage, screen and TV personality and I know him best from the weekend KTLA Popeye hour. He is a very sweet man.
*Billy West- Does the voice of Phillip J. Fry on the show "Futurama" and a very nice guy.
*John Di Maggio- Voice of Bender on "Futurama" and very funny guy.
*Mike Henry- Known as the voice of Cleveland from both "Family Guy" and "The Cleveland Show" and a cool guy.
*Tom Kenny- Best known for the voice of SpongeBob from "SpongeBob SquarePants" and a very energetic funny guy.
*Jim Cummings- Many voices but best known as the quiet voice of Winnie the Pooh and a nice guy.
*June Foray- Known as the first lady of female voices in animation but one of her classic roles was Rocket 'Rocky' J. Squirrel from the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. Also a very charming and sweet lady.
*Chris Sanders- Directed and did the voice of Stitch in "Lilo & Stitch" as well as recently directed "How to Tran Your Dragon" and a nice guy.
*Danica McKeller- Best known as Winnie Cooper from "The Wonder Years" and very sweet.
*Jay Baruchel- From "Tropic Thunder," "Knocked Up," and recently the voice of Hiccup from "How to Train Your Dragon" and a cool guy.

At the movies:
Very quiet at the box office this weekend but that was to be expected during this time of year not to mention Super Bowl Weekend. Aside from that, coming in at #1 is the suspense film "The Roommate" (website not working, good job Sony!) with a sad opening of 15.6 million. New at #2 is Sanctum with only 9.2 mil which has to be very disappointing after the 3-D hype and James Cameron attached to it. Slight drop to #3 is "No Strings Attached" with 8.4 mil more. Another slight drop to #4 is "The King's Speech" with an additional 8.3 mil as it gets closer to 100 mil for this little indie film. Rounding off the top 5 is "The Green Hornet" with 6.1 mil as it flops its way struggling to hit the 100 mil cume but will probably fall short.

Quote of the week:
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." - Emiliano Zapata

Other News:
Very sad to say, last Sunday Oscar winning music composer John Barry passed away in New York. Barry won several Oscars for his scores which included the score and the song for "Born Free" in 1966, single awards for "The Lion in Winter" (1968). "Out of Africa" (1985), and one of my favorites "Dances with Wolves" (1990). He was also nominated for "Mary, Queen of Scots" in 1971 and "Chaplin" in 1992. His other famous scores including numerous James Bond films such as "Goldfinger," "From Russia With Love," "Thunderball," "You Only Live Twice," "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," "Diamonds are Forever," "The Man with the Golden Gun," "Moonraker," "Octopussy," "A View to a Kill" and "The Living Daylights." Although the original James Bond theme for "Dr. No" which later became the iconic opening to all future films had controversy around it and credit was given to another composer, Barry was called in to help which I believe his influence can be detected in that guitar riff. Barry was 77.

Facts & Tips:
There are over 61,000 pizzerias in the U.S.

"You should be running." - Selma Blair as Liz Sherman in "Hellboy."

posted by McDuck @ 00:16