Wow talk about some crazy weather!! So it has been very cold as of late here but on Friday night and parts of Saturday we had MASS rains. It was like a shower head busted and water was pouring out. On Saturday it got so called in parts of LA ... downtown LA had hail but Burbank got a bunch of snow!!! I am not sure if it has ever snowed in Burbank before but I can tell you it hasn't in at least 2o or 30 years if it has. This coming week it is suppose to warm up a bit but still, talk about crazy! I just wish we had some of that snow down in the OC!! Now that would have been cool ... literally!!Weekly Update:Let me see ... oh this was kind of cool. I was at Nickelodeon on Friday and watching/listening to James record for the Kung Fu Panda TV show. The guest voice for this particular episode was Ken Jeong from movies like "Knocked Up," "The Hangover" and the TV show "Community." I have met him before and he vaguely remembered it which shocked me since it was probably around 2 or 3 years ago at a party. He were both then sitting in the recording studio listening to James, laughing it up and just chatting a bit for about 20 minutes or so. He was a big fan of James' and James was a fan of his. It was kind of cool and really fun at the same time. That sure doesn't happen every day!
At the movies:Very sad weekend at the box office but it is a time where the end of the award season is wrapping up. Jumping up to #1 is "Gnomeo & Juliet" with an extra 14.2 million as it just reaches 75 mil
cume. New at #2 is Hall Pass with 13.4 mil. Dropping down to #3 is "Unknown" with another 12.4 mil. Slight drop to #4 is "Just Go With It" earning an extra 11.1 mil. Rounding off the top 5 is "I am Number Four" with another 11 mil and this was the first Disney/DreamWorks venture which didn't work out as strong as I am sure both had hoped for.New movies that did not make the top 5: Just one this week as Drive Angry 3D comes in at #9 with only 5.1 mil for its debut. This film just put 3D technology back into the 80's, way to go Summit for making it cheesy again when it was just gaining ground as an enhancement to the movie-going experience. You know it will be horrendous when you actually put the word "3D" in the title!Quote of the week:"A politician is a person with whose politics you don't agree; if you agree with him he is a statesman." - David Llyod GeorgeOther News:
Last night was the 83rd Annual Academy Awards, or Oscars for short. This year's themed seem to center around honoring the history of the Oscars with vintage clips and simply remembering this honored tradition ... it was nice. Overall this year's awards were pretty dry as a show. The host were just "ok" but not very funny or simply entertaining. They did their job and the show progressed. I think this show does need to be funny though, the best Oscars I can remember are when comedians hosted ... and that right there should be a hint, the ones I remember which means the ones I don't, weren't funny. Besides that, I don't feel there were any real shockers of the evening ... nothing really excited me. Felt like a few inside jokes between the presenters which always works on camera (sarcasm) and I am glad I recorded the show and started watching about an hour later ... I sure used that fast forward feature and not on the commercials. So another year gone, the best part of the show was the "In Memoriam" part which I always enjoy remembering who we lost in this business ... a sort of last farewell.
Facts & Tips:There are seven letters that look the same upside down as right side up."Um... I've invited my dad to my wedding." - Amanda Seyfried as Sophie in "Mamma Mia!"
PRESIDENT'S DAY EDITIONI know I say this every year but it is kind of sad that we lump the birthday's of two great Americans together. When I was in Junior High and High School, they were two separate observed holidays and now ... just one. Well, I don't know what happened but I wonder what will be next ... Thanksgiving and Christmas? We can just call it the Turkey/Ham Holiday I guess since the meals seem to be the common factor. Sad really.
Weekly Update:Pretty busy week for me and I am glad it is over. Had a crazy start with some charity stuff which all accumulated on Wednesday for our 5th Annual Young Variety Pool Tournament. New venue this year and more celebs this year that included some sports figures. It was overall pretty good but very disorganized for our charity. More behind the scenes craziness but I think on the surface it looked fine. While there I did get to meet someone who was unexpected to show up and grab a quick picture with:*Dennis L.A. White- Best known from the film "Notorious" and a really nice guy.Later in the week was semi-calmer but still had to help out some friends with stuff that went on into the late hours on Thursday so I was pretty beat. This week ... not sure what is going on yet but I do have some days filled with activities.At the movies:
Nothing spectacular at the box office this week. The suspense drama Unknown takes top honors with a debut of 21.8 million. A little sci-fi drama debuts to take #2 with I Am Number Four earns 19.5 mil. Slight drop down to #3 is "Gnomeo & Juliet" with an extra 19.4 mil for this winter animated film. Bigger drop to #4 is "Just Go With It" as it takes in another 18.2 mil. New at #5 is the "comedy"
Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son and earns 17 mil which I am sure that is all we will see from this film but its probably enough to make the folks at Fox happy.Quote of the week:"Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps." - William Shakespeare
Other News:"HELLO!" Another sad week for holiday as Len Lesser passes. Lesser is probably best known as Uncle Leo with his cheering and enthusiastic catch-phrase, "HELLO!" from the hit TV series "Seinfeld" died at his home in Burbank, California on Wednesday from cancer-related pneumonia. Lesser's career was actually pretty wide. In addition to "Seinfeld" he also had numerous other TV appearances including "Get Smart," "The Munsters," "ER" and "Everybody Loves Raymond." Oddly enough, I remember him best as one of the screw-up service men from the classic movie "Kelly's Heroes." Lesser also appeared in other features which include "The Outlaw Josey Wales," "Birdman of Alcatraz" and "Death Hunt." In a statement following her father's death, daughter Michele stated, "Heaven got a great comedian actor today ..." and she was 100% correct. Len was 88.Facts & Tips:
The city of Los Angeles has three times more automobiles than people."Relax... A hickie from Kenickie is like a Hallmark card, when you only care enough to send the very best!" - Jeff Conaway as Kenickie from "Grease."
Ok so what is the deal here ... the other night I watched this car (late night) drive through all the parking spots, ignoring the lanes and just basically drive like they owned the lot or lines do not apply to them and then ... they all of a sudden stop at a stop sign? Why do you even bother at this point? Honestly, if you are going through everything, why not just go around the stop sign section so technically you don't have to stop there? That amazed me the most. This is like when I see people cut across 2 or 3 lanes without signaling and then whey the get to the corner to make that right turn, they signal ... again, why bother? Ok, I need a special paint gun on my car that shoots a dyed color paint that when a police car happens to eventually see it (say it goes away within 30 minutes) then they are allowed to pull it over and give it a "stupid driver" ticket. After 5 of them you get a hefty fine, after 10 you get license suspension and after 20 ... take the bus please.Weekly Update:
Not much of a week except some busy work but this coming week have a few lunches and a big charity event coming up. So the first half will be busy and then the 2nd half will be semi-quiet ... I'm looking forward to the later half! OH I guess the big thing for me is I finally got a new phone which so far I am pretty happy with. I went from the old Blackberry (which has served me well when it came to e-mail and general phone use) to the new Samsung Epic 4G. The big thing about this move is I finally dumped AT&T (WORST service EVER!!) to Sprint and so far I haven't had a dropped call and someone left me a message yesterday ... I got it the same day, wait, the same hour ... no no, within the same 5 minutes! So not even a week old, so not much to say about it at the moment.
At the movies:Not a big surprise at the box office but what really is shocking is the #2 spot. In at #1 the lack luster comedy Just Go With It coming in with 31 million for its debut. Just behind it is the life story of "singer" Justin
Bieber in Justin Bieber: Never Say Never with 30.3 mil. Can you have a life documentary style movie if you are under 20? Or even under 18? Seriously? Coming in at #3 is the classic story re-told of
Gnomeo & Juliet which is basically Romeo & Juliet put to lawn gnomes! Looks cute but the preview and ad campaign is very disappointing but it does earn 25.5 mil. Drop down to #4 is "The Roommate" with 8.4 mil extra. Rounding off the top 5 is the action film The Eagle with Channing Tatum playing a Roman ... not so much.Quote of the week:"A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice." - Nadine GordimerOther News:
So with the Academy Awards around the corner and one of them up for Best Picture is the "Social Network," a list came out about The Best Movies About Geeks ... let's see how it is shall we? These do not seem to be in any particular order either. Of course the before mentioned is on the list and rightly so, the story of the creator behind Facebook and that is pretty geeky. I don't think this was a big screen movie but a TV docu-drama called "Pirates of Silicon Valley" which was the story of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and how Microsoft and Apple were created. I remember it being interesting. The next one is "Iron Man 2" which ... I don't think its a movie about geeks but FOR geeks really. Sure Tony Stark might be a geek or just brilliant? The next film is only a couple of years old called "21" and not really a geek movie or even about geeks. Counting cards in Vegas isn't really geeky because a geek (or nerd for that matter) wouldn't really do that. Next is "Pi" which I have never seen or heard of. Looks very old as well so who knows. Do you want to play a game? "Wargames" is definitely a movie about a geek who learns how to hack and gets in some serious trouble ... classic. Another one I have never seen or heard of called "Steal This Film" and ... we move on. This next one I never saw but heard of called "Hackers" and it looks geeky enough. Next is a film I have not seen again but have heard of called "Sneakers" ... is this another word for hackers? I'm not sure about this next one ... "Matrix" seems more like a geek nightmare. It has cool effects and such but maybe another movie for geeks than about them. This one seems like a different category but "Fanboys" is mentioned ... shouldn't this be a movie about fanboys? Another Keanu movie is "Johnny Mnemonic" which I never saw and according to the box office ... neither did anyone else. "Code Rush" is next ... looks old and never seen or heard of it before. Now this one ... it says it all ... "Revenge of the Nerds!" I classify nerds and geeks in the same boat so this one is spot on in my book. Johnny 5 alive in "Short Circuit" but I feel this is borderline geek because its more about a robot than the creator who is the geek. This one had a failure of a remake recently but "Tron" is on the list. Classic sci-fi computer graphics but not a movie about geeks but for them.
Facts & Tips:Pigeons have been trained by the U.S. Coast Guard to spot people lost at sea."To a night the four of us will never forget!" - Bradley Cooper as Phil Wenneck in "The Hangover."
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."
Wow talk about some crazy weather!! So it has been very cold as of late here but on Friday night and parts of Saturday we had MASS rains. It was like a shower head busted and water was pouring out. On Saturday it got so called in parts of LA ... downtown LA had hail but Burbank got a bunch of snow!!! I am not sure if it has ever snowed in Burbank before but I can tell you it hasn't in at least 2o or 30 years if it has. This coming week it is suppose to warm up a bit but still, talk about crazy! I just wish we had some of that snow down in the OC!! Now that would have been cool ... literally!!
At the movies:
Facts & Tips:
