Monday, March 31, 2014

EARTHQUAKE EDITION!!!

So since Friday night, there has been non-stop earthquakes pretty much all over the world that average around a 4.0 magnitude.  Several have hit 5 and a few just over 5.0.  Normally after a decent size quake you feel a few minor moves and that is but this time around, they continue to shake things up and stir stuff around. I have never seen it like this before and the bad part is when you are trying to sleep and it constantly wakes you up.  The water main on my street broke due to the initial 5.4 which was centered once city over.  A bunch of stuff fell off the shelves but luckily everything worth breaking fell on to a dog bed somewhere or carpeted area.  It sure has been a bit crazy to say the least.

Weekly Update:
Well this past week was a huge roller-coaster and not just from the earthquake but from a lot of driving around and a lot of walking!  So the week started on Monday night for when I went to the Blizzard Entertainment launch party for "Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls" expansion in Los Angeles at an old church and it was pretty amazing.  They had never done anything like that before and one would have never guessed.  While there though I ran into a couple of folks:

*Grant Imahara - best known from the show "Mythbusters" and an awesome guy.
*Felicia Day - best known from youtube stardom and she was OK.

Then on Tuesday night I traveled to Las Vegas for my annual convention there.  It was pretty lackluster this time around and I have to say, people at Coca-Cola are just plain mean.  But despite that, I managed to run into:

*Chadwich Boseman - from the film "42" and a really awesome guy.
*Andy Serkis - best known as Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy and a way cool guy!
*Kevin Costner - from "Dancing with Wolves" and a nice guy.

After that, I rushed back home because I had to help with the Monsterpalooza convention at the Burbank Marriott on Friday and Saturday.  That was pretty tiring too with the earthquake and no water situation thrown in there but I did manage to fun into a couple more folks:

*Dee Snider - best known from the 80's rock band Twisted Sister and a really cool guy.
*Rutger Hauer - from "Blade Runner" and a pretty funny guy.

At the movies:
HOLY moly, religion takes the boat this week, literally!  In at #1 is the epic story of Noah as it earns a nice 44 million this weekend.  Above expectations but I did mention it should be plus what they pegged it out and carry its cargo through Easter pretty well.  Average drop to #2 is "Divergent" with another 26.5 mil as it falls just shy of the 100 mil cume.  It should reach it by Tuesday though.  Small drop to #3 is "Muppets Most Wanted" with 11.4 mil as it struggles along.  With the varying Spring Break's happening though it should only see smaller than average drops though.  At #4 is "Mr. Peabody and Sherman" with another 9.5 mil as it almost hits 100 mil cume ... may take a full week to reach it though. Rounding off the top 5 is "God's Not Dead" with another 9.1 mil and should also carry to Easter but the home market is where this film will go big.
Movies that did not make the top 5:
Just one wide release fell very short, coming in at #7 is Sabotage with only 5.3 mil.  This fell WAY below industry expectations by almost 10 mil but it was pretty obvious it would.  Not all action films with a former big movie star will be great.  I did think it would do a hair better but honestly not by that much.  At #12 Lionsgate released a less than 1,000 screen Cesar Chavez which only did 3 mil (less than $5,000 per screen) so this film will probably wrap up soon with those numbers.

Quote of the week:
"A 'startup' is a company that is confused about -1. What its product is, 2. Who its customers are, 3. How to make money." - David McClure

Facts & Tips:
Spiny lobsters migrate in groups of 50 or more, forming a conga line on the ocean floor.

"Well, you can call me Erin, but I'm not gonna respond. So look, I wasn't planing on making you feel welcome here, but then I saw the sticker and I thought, "Hey, maybe the principal's daughter isn't such a big loser after all."" - Jessica Stroup as Erin Silver from the remade TV series "90210."

Monday, March 24, 2014

Well the weather cooled down as we are now officially in the Spring Season!  Thursday was the Spring Equinox which changes the seasons if you believe there are seasons anymore depending on where you live.  But I will say that this past week the weather got a LOT cooler, mostly in the high 60's to low 70's for the day with a lot of clouds and cold winds.  It was a nice change compared to the recent heat waves we have been getting and now we just need a little rain to clean up our streets and supply us some water, lots of rain please!

Weekly Update:
Not much of a week as far as I can remember ... what did I do??  Hmmm ... lot of errands, had to fix some fixture covers.  Can't think of much, how odd is that?  Yeah I can't think of an exciting thing at all I did this past week ... that is good, right?  Well, it is OK for now but I know I will be very bored, wait, I am already bored!  Idleness is not good, never is.  OH, I did drop off
two boxes (medium size) of books at the public library donation center along with some old VHS tapes ... YES, VHS!  They said they take everything so why not?  I hate just throwing stuff away if it can still be used so there you go.  That is what I did this past week, donated a bunch of stuff and hope to donate more as I sift through all the junk in the house.

At the movies:
At the box office this week things landed pretty much as expected for the most part.  In at #1 is Divergent with a decent 56 mil for it's debut.  Just below expectations however almost on the money for my guess.  Word-of-mouth is fair on this film and should suffer a more than average drop-off next week.  In at #2 is Muppets Most Wanted with 16.5 mil, well below expectations all around but with additional spring breaks coming up, it should hold fairly well.  Slight drop to #3 is "Mr. Peabody and Sherman" with another 11.7 mil as it makes it way to 100 mil cume.  Average drop to #4 is "300: Rise of an Empire" with an extra 8.7 mil as it crawls to hit 100 mil cume.  New at #5 in just under 800 screens is God's Not Dead with a solid 8.6 mil.  Word-of-mouth is good on this film so it should do well over the next couple of weeks as we get closer to Easter.

Quote of the week:
"I think one of the reasons I'm popular again is because I'm wearing a tie.  You have to be different." - Tony Bennett

Facts & Tips:
There are more chickens than people in the world.

"Bosnia.  They don't have roads, but they have Facebook." - Rashida Jones as Marylin Delpy in "The Social Network."

Monday, March 17, 2014

HEAT WAVE!!!  Yeah so this week was yet another hot summer in the winter time frame.  We still have about a week of Winter left before we technically hit Spring!  BUT, temps during the week were in the low 80's but the weekend was the mid to low 90's!  I hate this weather during this time ... it is suppose to get cooler this coming week but still, seriously.  It got windy a day too which usually means fire season but luckily nothing happened.  That would have been bad too with wind and then followed by two days of massive heat!  Does this mean that the actual Summer this year will hit 100 degrees most of the days?  I am not prepared for that.  I love AC but no matter where you are, its expensive and then go from cold to hot to cold to hot, that can't be good either.

Weekly Update:
Here is some sad Hollywood news ... the voice of the movie trailer, Hal Douglas, passed away on Thursday. The name may not be familiar but his voice was.  He was the one who coined the phrase, "In a world ..." in so many movie trailers (or previews) for hundreds, if not thousands, of films.  He was the master of movie preview voice-overs and made it his career and life.  Back in 2010 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and also suffered a stroke which took much of his ability to speak.  He was the voice of pop culture in film for a generation and we will continue to hear his voice through his predecessors.  Hal was 89.

At the movies:
Going up the charts this week with just a minor drop in revenue is "Mr. Peabody and Sherman" earning an extra 21.2 million at the box office. This brings the cume to 63.2 and it could hit the 100 mil mark.  Average drop to #2 is "300: Rise of an Empire" with another 19.1 mil as it makes its way to 100 mill as well.  New at #3 is the action film Need for Speed with only 17.8 mil to open, nearly half of all expectations.  I guess the TV star's fame fell short of the transition from small to big screen.  Holding ground at #4 is "Non-Stop" with another 10.6 mil as it tries to crawl to 100 mil but will probably fall just shy of it.  Rounding off the top 5 is Tyler Perry's Single Moms Club earning 8.3 mil this weekend, again another film that fell way below expectations.  One factor that most may have forgotten to calculate in was Saturday night.  With St. Patrick's Day on a Monday, everyone was out celebrating Saturday instead of going to the movies.
 
One movie to mention that had a limited release this weekend was the Kickstarter film The Veronica Mars Movie that came out on about 300 screens and only made 2 million (#10 spot).  That is less than 7,000 per screen so was that campaign to get this film successful?  Sure, because it got made.  But was the film itself successful at the box office?  No, not with those numbers and "Mars-mellows" who supported the film probably didn't want to have to pay again to see it which makes sense to me.  But we continue to not see a successful Kickstarter film as of yet and everyone thought this would be the one.

Quote of the week:
"Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up." - James Belasco

Facts & Tips:
The name of the city we call Bangkok is 115 letters long in the Thai language.

"The internet ... is that the one with the e-mail?" - John Michael Higgins as Corey Taft in "For Your Consideration."

Monday, March 10, 2014

Daylight Saving Time Edition


Saturday night/Sunday morning was Daylight Saving, the time were we lose an hour of sleep because we set our clocks forward.  I hate this one and I say it every year.  I don't mind falling back an hour but once you get that hour, do we have to give it up?  What if we did it over 4 months in 15 minute increments so it is a gradual change?  I mean keep the hour fall back, that is cool but give back the hour in 4 installments??  Come on, this could work!!  And on top of that, it was summer-like weather all weekend long hitting high 80's during the day.

Weekly Update:
Kind of a slow and quiet week in general for me.  A few minor things happened ... had a dog visit for a few days, Dakota, who was a foster here before came to visit and play all day with Orion.  Those two had so much fun together and Orion needed it.  They were two peas in a pod as they say.  Orion was pretty sad when Dakota was picked up but he had a lot of fun.  On Friday I checked out the 4th Anniversary for the Fullerton Art Walk in the Museum Courtyard.  It was OK but what made it awesome was the food trucks.  Of course there was too many to try so I picked the Waff-n-Roll truck.  It was sandwiches but instead of bread or a tortilla wrap, they use waffles.  I checked out the pulled pork and it was good but a little dry, they went light on the BBQ sauce and it made a difference.  But other than that, it was pretty tasty.  I think using a waffle instead of bread is a great idea for almost any sandwich.  You get that perfect mix of sweet with savory.  
That was pretty much it for the weekend.

At the movies:
They rose again to glory ... at the box office.  The sequel to the hit film "300" strikes it big at the box office as 300: Rise of an Empire earns a nice 45.1 million for its debut.  However, as big as it sounds, it was well below industry expectations, nearly 40% of what most thought.  Word-of-mouth is only fair on this film so I expect we will see an average drop off next week.  New at #2 is the Fox/DreamWorks animated film Mr. Peabody & Sherman with 32.5 mil to open.  Yet another film that performed below expectations, however, it did a little better than what I was thinking (mid to high 20's).  Holding ground at #3 is "Non-Stop" with another 15.4 mil and has reached 52 mil now.  I don't think this will get to that 100 mil cume mark Universal was hoping for.  Still going at #4 is "The Lego Movie" with another 11 mil as it reaches 225 mil cume.  Will probably get to 250 and that should do it for this film.  Rounding off the top 5 is "Son of God" earning 10 mil more and probably the last time we see it on the charts.

Quote of the week:
"I used to be 'with it,' but then they changed what 'it' was. Now what I'm with isn't 'it,' and what's 'it' seems weird and scary." - Brent Forrester

Facts & Tips:
Koala and humans are the only animals with unique fingerprints.

"You must be awfully proud of these maniacs." - Danny Murphy as Agent Steve Parfitt in "Me, Myself & Irene."

Monday, March 03, 2014

RAIN!!!  Finally had some rain but not enough.  It started up on Wednesday night but it was so little.  Then through Thursday it was off-and-on but again, too little.  More on Friday and Saturday, those were nice days of rain.  But now the rest of this coming week is just cloudy with no rain in site.  I know the weather reports are ... I would say about 25% accurate so who knows, we may get some rain then!  Seriously weather forecasting for the West Coast of the United States has been so inaccurate.  This was suppose to be the biggest rain storm in decades but I have seen MUCH worse that this was just a spring shower.  Get it together technology!!  Image is from some serious rain flooding years ago, not the current rain we just had.

Weekly Update:
A huge loss for Hollywood last week as writer, director and actor Harold Ramis passed away.  He apparently had gotten sick a few years ago and started battling an autoimmune inflammatory condition.  Ramis co-wrote, starred in and directed some legendary comedies which include "Animal House," "Caddyshack," "Stripes," "Ghostbusters" and "Groundhog Day."  His list of credits clearly made him a comedy genius with hit after hit, all of them becoming cult classics and including incredible stars such as Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal from "Analyze This" to Bill Murry and Dan Aykroyd in both "Ghostbusters" films.  Bill Murray also starred in several of Ramis' films with him and the two were an amazing comedy team on screen.  Ramis was only 69.

At the movies:
Oscar weekend!  So the Academy Awards didn't really effect the box office as action takes the box office!  Coming in at #1 is Non-Stop with Liam Neeson doing what he does best these days ... shooting guns!  The film comes in with a solid 30 million for its debut and exceeded most expectations.  New at #2 is Son of God which had a nice 26.5 mil and about what I predicted.  This film will have a below average drop but the real money for this will be in the after markets.  Slight drop to #3 is "The Lego Movie" with another 21 mil and now breaks the 200 mil cume mark.  This film continues to build-up and should end around 275 domestic.  Holding on to #4 is "The Monuments Men" with another 5 mil and should end soon for its run.  Rounding off the top 5 is "3 Days to Kill" with 4.9 mil extra and also should wrap it up for this film only after 2 weeks.

Quote of the week:

"Nothing can take the sting off the world's economic problems like watching millionaires present each other golden statues." - Billy Crystal

Facts & Tips:
There are approximately 9,000 taste buds on your tongue.

"Hi Bob." - Marcia Wallace as Carol Kester in the TV series "The Bob Newhart Show."