Monday, September 30, 2013

I guess I spoke too soon on the weather, it got hot again!  But at least not into the 100's but high 80's to low 90's during the day again but the nights stayed cool again.  What happened to the consistency we use to have here with the winter and summer seasons that was pretty much it.  The seasons sure have changed through the years ... wonder what has caused all of this. Global Warming? Possibly ... just the change in our position in time and space?  Also possible ... could be a combination of both as well!  Spaceship Earth, that is what this is.

Weekly Update:
What a busy week it has been and I am glad it is over ... so tiring though and I just want to sleep in one day, just one day this week.  So Thursday was interesting, went to the new TCL (formally Mann's which was formally Grauman's) Chinese Theatre for a small event.  Had Lars from the band Metallica making an appearance.  The new theatre, which was closed all summer to a complete remodel and IMAX conversion, was AMAZING.  Everything looked great inside and I can't wait to see a movie in there.  But had Lars there to introduce the movie and the crowd went crazy and surrounded him, didn't expect that so I had to run interference.  After that, went to another theatre which was much more controlled but still crazy.  I didn't get home till 2:15AM and then had to head out to the Inland Empire for another appearance by Lars in the early evening.  But managed to grab a quick pic with him:

Lars Ulrich - from the band Metallica and a very laid back, cool guy.

After that appearance, then I had to go to Korea Town in downtown Los Angeles and that was a nice 2 and half hour drive, almost 3.  Getting around that area is way bad at any time of day and night by the way.  My friend Brian was showcasing his new movie and managed to get some other cast members there:

*Steve Park - Asian actor who has been in a bunch of stuff and a decent guy.
*Kelvin Han Yee - for me more recognizable and bigger films, plus a cool guy.

At the movies:
Much like last year, Sony Animation leads the way at the box office during this time frame.  Coming in at #1 is the sequel to the 2009 hit Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 earning a decent 35 million.  The first film opened just barely over 30 mil and last year's "Hotel Transylvania" debuted at 42 mil.  Holding good ground at #2 is "Prisoners" with 11.3 mil more and word-of-mouth is good on this film.  Zooming up to #3 in wide release is "Rush" earning 10.3 mil, that is a 5407% increase on its gross from the limited release last week (also increased to 2200 more screens).  New at #4 is Fox Searchlight's Baggage Claim with a decent 9.3 mil.  This film opened fairly wide for Searchlight as they tend to go the "art" and limited platform release routes.  Also new at #5 is Relativity's Don Jon with 9 mil.  This stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as well as making his directorial debut.

Quote of the week:
"How is it possible to find meaning in a finite world, given my waist and shirt size?" - Woody Allen

Facts & Tips:
The quartz crystal in your wristwatch vibrates 32,768 times a second.

"You can be honest with us.  We'll still be your friends." - Jennie Garth as Kelly Taylor in the TV series "Beverly Hills, 90210."

Monday, September 23, 2013

FINALLY the temps dropped to normal levels or what I consider them normal.  The breezes were nice but the overall temps went down in the high 70's during the day so if you were standing still, it felt warm.  The nights dropped down into the low 60's but finally the late summer heat wave broke as we go into the Fall Equinox this past Sunday.  Almost perfect timing I would say with the seasons and it finally cooling down.  Also during this past week, had some little earth shakers in the EARLY AM that woke me up.  I think it was Friday or Saturday morning, both hit around 4:45AM hour and they were little 3.7 ones but enough to make noise and get me up in the quiet hours of the AM.  I guess Japan got hit with a 5 plus magnitude much later in the same day ... some adjusting going on I guess.

Weekly Update:
Was another semi-busy week for me but still a fun one.  One to the 1337 Lounge Live again with actor Brian Tee and his lovely wife Mirelly.  They played a lot of games, some really old school ones as well, as Brian answered questions about his career and the new upcoming "Mortal Kombat Legacy Season 2" which debuts this week.  Other than that, the week was full of errands and some appointments but that 1337 place is always the coolest hangout to chill and play games all night!  Seriously, I could go there everyday for hours if they would let me and if it wasn't so dang far.  I mean it isn't crazy far but still in North Hollywood which isn't just a quick 5 minute drive.

At the movies:
Nothing too shocking this weekend as "Prisoners" earns the #1 spot at the box office with a very decent 21.4 million being a non-seasonal time of year for movies in general.  Word-of-mouth is decent on this but I am sure it will get the usual drop from this week to next (around 60%).  Holding ground at #2 is "Insidious Chapter 2" with an extra 14.5 mil and a cume of 60.9.  They suffered the usual drop of 64% which was expected with "Prisoners" coming into play and similar genre of "thrillers."  Relativity's "The Family" makes another 7 mil for the weekend and held over better than expected.  Gaining some ground is "Instructions Not Included" which earns a 5.7 mil this weekend and gained 17% at the box office from last weekend.  This little indie film is already at 34 mil cume and this will probably be its peak.  New at #5 is "Battle of the Year" from Sony with only 5 mil but they did play it smart and kept it around 2,000 screens.  In at #9 is the re-issue and re-mastered "Wizard of Oz" on 318 exclusive IMAX houses including the brand new TCL Chinese in Hollywood.  They earned only 3 mil which isn't that great considering the screen average lands around 9.5k, and that is low.  Considering the up charge for IMAX AND 3D ... but maybe that is what caused it be so low.  With everything, an average adult ticket would land you around $18.00 a person.

Quote of the week:
"Identify your top three priorities.  Throw away numbers two and three." - Brett Martin

Facts & Tips:
Antarctica holds 90% of the world's fresh water.

"I'm glad that as a 33-year-old working mother, I can still choose to wear a Hello Kitty T-shirt or stay up late scrolling through the Twitter feed of my junior-high crush." - screenwriter Diablo Cody

Monday, September 16, 2013

Is it STILL Summer?!  Technically it is.  The Fall season doesn't start for another week on September 22nd, that will be the Fall Equinox and will it stay hot?  Who knows since everything has changed in the world since these first began.  All I know it is too hot in this area for September, hitting 90's when it should be 80's but the nights remain cool at least so that is something.  Our weather, I have no idea what is going on!

Weekly Update:
This week overall was a bit slow except on Thursday, now that was good times.  Went to 1337 Lounge Live with Katrina Law and Dan Feuerrigel from Starz Original series "Spartacus" and that was a lot of fun.  It was suppose to be from 8 to 10pm but the questions kept coming and coming, they stayed for another 50 minutes!  They played maybe one or two full games but then got so caught up on answering questions, they couldn't stop!  But it was a very cool and relaxed place, almost a 1,000 people in the chat room asking questions and over 100k in hits of folks checking it out.  But then at the end, Katrina got hungry so we had to cut it which was fine, they were already way over on their time!  I think they both want to come back though and play some games next time!

At the movies:
BOOM!  BIG off season opener for Insidious Chapter 2 with a hefty 41.1 million.  Word-of-mouth is fair on this film but doesn't really matter at this point as it has done what it needed to do.  Off season horror films do pretty well as long as it isn't crowded. New at #2 is Relativity's The Family which did well at 14.5 mil.  "Riddick" takes below standard drop of 63% with an extra 7 mil and after this week, I don't think we will see another one of these films unless Vin takes a 2nd mortgage out on his home.  TWC continues showing with "Lee Daniel's The Butler" with 5.6 mil as the film hits 100 mil cume!  Again award season will be kind to this film and its actors I am sure.  Rounding off the top 5 is "We're the Millers" with another 5.4 mil and this R-Rated comedy continues to dominate end of summer with a current cume of 131 mil.  I could reach 150 at this current pace.

Quote of the week:
"The interesting thing is: if you do it for love, the money comes anyway." - Richard St. John

Other News:
I think I have too many sections and not enough things to write so I will no longer have "Other News" and just add more in "Weekly Update" should something come up.  Basically there is three news sections here really between the introduction, weekly and other that I will just move "Weekly Update" here for now on.  It was starting to get a little difficult to fill in three news-like sections.  I'll still do top 10 lists if they a happen to come up and are interesting of course.
Facts & Tips:
The ridges on the sides of coins are called reeding or milling.

"Be curious, learn and read as much as you can about food."- 
Chef/Restaurateur Rocco DiSpirito

Monday, September 09, 2013

This heat is getting worse!  You know, I know we have summer but not so much during this time of year because we are fast approaching Fall season.  It should be cooling down, getting windy but no, it is getting hot and humid?  We are not a humid place, dry heat and that is about it but the humidity has been so bad.  Someone mentioned that our winter will be very wet, I hope they are right because we need water badly ... but I am not sure if that is how it works, could be wrong though.  But this coming week it is suppose to cool down, we will have to wait and see about that.  This whole week was in the high 90's but felt over 100 with the humidity.  So just stay inside with AC, fans, people walking by, fridge open, anything!  It's hot out there!!!

Weekly Update:
What the heck did I do this past week??  I know I did stuff but tried to keep it all indoors because it was freaking hot again!  OH I guess the interesting day was the past Wednesday.  Went to the Burbank area and helped a friend with a podcast by setting up an interview with Doug Jones (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy) and then another friend with the mock PSA for Stan Lee (creator of many Marvel Comic characters).  Then went over to Disney to visit a friend and drop some stuff off ... THEN went to Dark Delicacies, a neat little horror themed store in Burbank right next to Porto's Bakery!  Again set up another interview for the same friend's podcast with Katrina Law and Dan Feuerriegel of Starz's Spartacus.  Right after that they did a short Season 3 DVD/BR release signing and made some cash for Katrina's animal charity.  The interesting part of the night was after dinner, we played dodge the autograph hounds because they were waiting by our cars!  It was pretty funny because Katrina parked in the front and I parked in the back of the store.  So they had one person at the corner of the block watching the front car and another at the back watching mine.  So what we did was I got dropped off in the front, hopped into Katrina's car and drove down two blocks where she was waiting.  As soon as I got into her car, the hound was gone!  So I was being taken back to my car and I saw that same hound by my car!  So I got out again, got in my car and the two hounds got in theirs and left but I found out later as I was leaving, they were circling the block looking for Katrina and Dan ... it was pretty funny.

At the movies:
Nothing too surprising this weekend as the Sci-Fi action film Riddick takes the crown this weekend.  It nabs the #1 spot earning a decent 18.7 million.  Word is Vin used a lot of his own money to fund this film since no studio wanted to back it, in fact he put a mortgage on his house because he believed in this film so much.  The franchise is pretty solid in terms of sci-fi but the release date is non-seasonal so who knows how far his legs can carry this.  Holding ground at #2 is "Lee Daniels' The Butler" with another 9 mil and just shy of 100 mil cume for this bio-pic drama.  It should be at that 100 mil mark by the end of next weekend I think.  The small film "Instructions Not Included" added almost 400 more screens this week and grabs the #3 spot with 8.1 mil.  After 2 weeks this film is at 20 mil and continues to grow as it will probably expand even further this week.  This 5 mil budget film has put Mexican born film actor-director Eugenio Derbez on the US map.  Holding on to #4 is "We're the Millers" with another 7.9 mil as it makes its way to an almost 150 mil cume for this end of summer R-Rated comedy.  Rounding off the top 5 is "Planes" despite its luke-warm reviews, still manages 4.3 mil extra as it is just shy of 80 mil total.  It won't break the 100 mil threshold but not to shabby for an end of summer family film considering schools went back into session and families taking those final 2013 summer vacations together.

Quote of the week:
"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person." - Germaine Greer

Other News:
This coming Wednesday marks the 12th Anniversary of the attacks on the twin towers at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by terrorist.  I remember clearly what I was doing that morning when it occurred, sleeping.  Since New York is 3 hours ahead, I kept hitting the snooze button but at the same time sort of hearing what was on the radio and couldn't believe what I was hearing so hit the snooze.  But each time, it sounded more and more desperate and shocking that I finally got up and turned on the TV to see that one of the towers was hit by an passenger airplane.  The news and images were simply shocking as the two towers fell and spent the rest of the day and night indoors in a little apartment trying to keep up with everything.  I can imagine that is how people felt when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor as the radio reports kept coming in of the attack but that was military against military, not against civilians and not even military targets whatsoever.  It was the most cowardly attack in the past century if not ever.  But now, we are a nation of resilience and we have rebuilt and come together.  A memorial now sits at ground zero, where the two towers collapsed.  The terrorist claimed in a couple of years (from the attack) that no one will know what the United States was but in fact, we have grown stronger and the terrorist are the forgotten ones.  But I will always remember that morning on 9-11-01 ... I may forget the year from time to time but never the date.


Facts & Tips:
There are 119 grooves on the edge of a quarter.

"About a year ago, Lucy was in a terrible car accident. She and her father went up North Shore to get a pineapple. Her Father broke some ribs, but Lucy suffered a serious head injury. She lost her short term memory." - Amy Hill as Sue from "50 First Dates."

Monday, September 02, 2013

LABOR DAY WEEKEND EDITION

I came home on Monday from Toronto and left there with some nice 60 degree weather and rain.  Came back to SoCali and it has been nothing less than 90 degrees during the day and our humidity has been ridiculously insane!  The past 5 days it has reached any where from 92 to 95 degrees and so muggy, the air is very heavy and you simply do not want to go outside and run the AC all day long!  We are approaching the end of summer and I don't really remember it being this bad towards the end of August beginning of September.  Maybe from time to time for a day but not this long in general.  Its suppose to drop to the 80's next week and not till next Monday to the 70's ... I hope it drops sooner!

Weekly Update:
I think for every average intelligent person, there is about 100 to 200 dumb people.  And it isn't even intelligence but lack of common sense most of the time.  For every very intelligent person, I would say there is 1000 dumb people.  These things can range from walking in the middle of the road, not understanding the concept of waiting in line and/or how to park a car.  Certain situations can be more difficult or challenging but overall common sense is usually missing.  People just need to take a step back sometimes and assess the situation before they act.  Most of the time that is all is needed before you make yourself look foolish.  But that usually doesn't happen and gun-ho they go.  Oh well, not much we can do I guess but avoid and not be like them ... is this how those zombies in all the zombie movies start out and feel like??
At the movies:

Singing it's way to the #1 is the concert film One Direction: This Is Us earning an OK 17 mil for the holiday weekend.  Not a strong number but good enough to take #1.  Slight drop to #2 is "Lee Daniel's The Butler" earning another 12.6 mil as it closes into at the 100 mil cume mark.  Holding ground at #3 is "We're the Millers" as it cashes in another 12.6 mil as it passes the 100 mil cume mark at 109 thus so far.  Also hanging on at #4 is "Planes" with 7.7 mil as it quickly comes to the end of its flight.  New at #5 comes a small release of Instructions Not Included with 7.5 mil but only on 347 screens!  Nice per screen average of 21k which isn't too bad.

New movies that did not make the top 5:
Just one this week as the action film Getaway comes in at #9 with only 4.5 mil for the holiday weekend.  Not a good release but this time frame usually isn't a big box office weekend to begin with.

Quote of the week:
"A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd." - Max Lucado

Other News:
Eleven things we no longer see at the movie theatre ... 1) Red Velvet Curtain - you sometimes see these at premieres but otherwise the weight of the materials usually causes the small motor to burn out.  I am stating these not based on the article but from my experience and from what I know. 2) Uniformed Ushers - you still see uniforms but just very different now.  Cost money to uniform everyone and making sure they stay clean. 3) Dish night - no idea what this is. 4) Ashtrays - with a ban of smoking inside movie theatres way before inside period, don't need them anymore. 5) Newsreels - with TV and the Internet, why would you need old news shown plus the cost it took to produce these couple of minute pieces.  By the 2nd showing, the news is old. 6) Double Feature plus a cartoon - too much time, two movies and a cartoon could mean only 2 to 3 show times where as one movie with no cartoon means 5 show times. 7) Serials - like cartoons but live action ... best fitted for TV. 8) "Ladies please remove your hats" - back when we had slanted slope seating and big hats of which neither really exist anymore except for older theatres still have the slope seating. 9) Intermission - again creates a longer showtime so less performances however this always did help the theatre with the concession sales. 10) Exquisite Decor - the days of old big auditoriums with fine art decor ... to expensive to create now for something you may not even see if you are late for a movie or on time since it is so dark. 11) Full-equipped cry rooms - we call those the lobbies, outside or the bathrooms.

Facts & Tips:
The amount of concrete used in the Hoover Dam could build a highway from New York to California.

"You be cool." - Charles S. Dutton as Leroy Brown in "Crocodile Dundee 2."