NEW YEAR'S EVE EDITION
Today is New Year's Eve and the end of 2012 ... the year where the Mayan calendar concluded which many thought meant the end of the world ... who are these people and why do they still exist?? So if a company that gives you a calendar every year all of a sudden stopped sending them, does that mean that is the last year of existence? Does that seem odd to anyone else but me? Isn't it fascinating enough that they made a calendar that lasted hundreds of years and it ended on one day ... couldn't the guy who had to do it simply could be tired? The hysteria and silliness around it is pretty dang fascinating.
Weekly Update:
Drove back from San Francisco on Saturday night and while going through the grapevine (oddly enough, no grapes!) there was a lot of snow covered hills and some on the ground. It was cool (haha, no pun intended) to see and I did have to make a refuel stop in the middle of it all. BOY, was it cold!!! I think it was about 38 degrees and the ground was wet but no rain. If it did, could be close to snow which would make it interesting to drive in, something I have not done in a long time, drive through snow. I do like snow but wouldn't want to live in it for too long. Seeing it, being around it, all good for a few days. When you drive through places like Gorman, Ca (pictured) and you see two fast food places and two gas stations, one very old hotel/motel and wonder ... where does everyone live around there??
At the movies:
These box office number rankings are based on the weekend and not from when they actually started. In at #1 for the third week in a row is "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" with another 32.9 million and now a cume of over 180 mil for domestic box office. I went and saw this film again in regular 2D and it wasn't that bad. Still not a great film but watchable compared to the HFR and 3D which both made the film completely terrible and unwatchable. New at #2 is Django Unchained with a 6-day gross of 64 mil (weekend at 30.7 mil). New at #3 with a lot of award buzz is the musical Les Miserables with 67.5 mil cume (weekend was 28 mil). New at #4 is the family comedy Parental Guidance with 29.6 mil (weekend 14.8 mil). Rounding off the top 5 is "Jack Reacher" with 14 mil as it quickly burns out.
Quote of the week:
"I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts." - Orson Welles
Other News:
A double whammie this week as Hollywood (and the world) loses two more aging stars who gave us decades of entertainment. On Monday legendary funny man Jack Klugman passed away peacefully in his California home. He is best known (to me) for two roles, the sloppy and cranky roommate opposite Tony Randall in the TV version of "The Odd Couple." He was also the crime-fighting coroner in the the TV program "Quincy, M.E." Klugman was a veteran on the stage, TV and the silver screen as one of the stars of the Academy Award-nominated film "Twelve Angry Men." When his "The Odd Couple" co-star Tony Randall passed away in 2004, Klugman told CNN "A world without Tony Randall is a world that I cannot recognize." In which I say a world without Klugman is one we can't enjoy fully. His more recent credits include TV guest appearances on the shows "Third Watch" and "Crossing Jordan." Jack was 90.
Also on Monday, another veteran legend passed who was known as the "King of Character Actors" once. Charles Durning passed of natural causes in his Manhattan home. Among some of his most recognizable roles were the corrupt cop from "The Sting," the Governor in "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" in which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor by the Academy and Jessica Lange's father in "Tootsie." I also remember him as the frog leg king from the classic family film "The Muppet Movie. Another veteran of the stage, he did mostly movies and very little in the TV realm. Durning also has a very historical history as he enlisted in the Army in 1944 and landed on the beaches of Normandy during D-Day. He was also the only member of his patrol to come back alive from the Battle of the Bulge. During his military career he received three Purple Hearts. Charles was 89.
Facts & Tips:
California and Arizona grow approximately 95% of the fresh lemons in the U.S.
"It's a commuter college, there's a lot of displaced anger here." - Maulik Pancholy as Sanjay in the series "Weeds."
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