- Good start for movies in the opening weekend of 2009, with big names like Aniston, Sandler, Pitt and the Insane One, Tom Cruise, holding strong at the top of the box office earnings race. Actually, all of the top five films from last week held their spot at the top and did so with revenues declining only slightly. Showing the people clearly like to spend a couple of hours staring at Jennifer Aniston in a mediocre movie, her new film "Marley and Me" won the top slot with $24.1 million for the weekend. So far, “Marley” has made $106.5 million, keeping it on track with lofty studio expectations up to this point. The second-place film was Adam Sandler’s lame family flick "Bedtime Stories," holding strong with $20.3 million. Frustratingly, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" remained in third place and has now made more than $80 in its first two weeks. That might be the most boring movie of 2008, but for some reason people are incapable of stopping themselves from seeing it. If you really need a Brad Pitt fix, just Netflix all three of the movies in the "Ocean’s Eleven" franchise, it’s cheaper and all three are far superior movies to this snooze-fest. Staying in fourth place was the WWII epic "Valkyrie," which grossed $14 million and has now earned $60.7 million in two weeks. Closing out the top five is Jim Carrey's lame-tastic comedy "Yes Man," extorting an additional $13.9 million from brain-dead moviegoers to bring its total to $79.4 million. New films out for the weekend included Miramax's "Doubt" and Fox Searchlight's "Slumdog Millionaire" both of which landed spots in the top ten. "Slumdog" is doing very well so far, with the Bollywood-infused drama earning a respectable $4.7 million to raise its take so far to $28.7 million. Also, you may recall that last weekend, the Kate Winslet-Leonardo DiCaprio reunion "Revolutionary Road," which served mostly to bring back the horror of the four hours too many of us wasted on Titanic, had a stunning $64,000 per-screen average while opening in three theaters. This weekend, the film opened in an additional 30 theaters and remained relatively strong, drawing a per-screen average of $25,000. Definitely an eclectic, varied collection at the top of the heap, but as usual, the films at the very top of the list are the worst of the bunch. how predictable you are, American movie-going public……
- By now, we’ve all heard some sort of public service announcement urging us to stop friends from driving drunk at any cost. The concept is that no matter what you have to do to keep your liquored-up friends from getting behind the wheel and potentially killing themselves and others on the road, it’s worth it. I wonder if Shawn Wallace of Kennewick, Wash. would agree with that sentiment. Seems that last week, Wallace had a friend who had put down a beer or ten and was looking to get in his whip and drive home. Facing the possibility of his pal doing something reckless, stupid and dangerous, Wallace decided that the best course of action was to, you guessed it, do something reckless, stupid and dangerous. In a misguided attempt to help his friend, Wallace began blasting the friend's windshield with paintballs. When a nearby resident called the police to report a man shooting paintballs at a car, the cops came to the scene and tracked down Wallace, who then told them that he was trying to prevent his drunk friend from driving. The end result for the night was Wallace being arrested and booked into the Benton County jail for investigation of unlawfully discharging a weapon and an unrelated misdemeanor warrant. Hmm, methinks that if you have any sort of outstanding warrant on you, you might want to avoid further criminal action and lay low for a while. Maybe find a safe house, stay out of the limelight, because the cops are probably looking for you. And while Kennewick, Wash., police Sgt. Ken Lattin called Wallace’s antics a "very creative" way to prevent someone from drunken driving, don’t take that as an endorsement of you acting like a moron, S. Wallace. Then again, if his friend was that drunk, I’m guessing that Wallace had knocked back a beer or two himself and might not have been thinking so clearly. Good times…….
- Every now and then, someone reads a book that so moves and inspires them that they literally revolutionize the way they live their life. Maybe they find religion, become a better spouse or parent, become more involved in philanthropy, etc. - the point is that a book changes their life in a profound way. However, I doubt that anyone has ever taken such a convoluted, bizarre and wayward approach to this concept as Ed Dobson, a former pastor who read the book "A Year of Living Biblically," by A.J. Jacobs and subsequently decided to devote a year trying to live as Jesus did, based on what is written about him in the Bible and other historical documents. A good concept, trying to mirror the life of the Son of God, but how to apply that to modern life? Leave it to a learned religious man like Dobson, the vice president of spiritual formation at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Mich., to put some practical parameters on this idea. For an entire year, Dobson says he didn’t shave, ate a kosher diet, observed the Sabbath and read through the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John every week. Oh, and he made regular visits to the bar for a beer. “I would often go down to the bar, sit up at the counter, drink a beer and talk about God, which Jesus was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard," Dobson said. Right, except for the fact that the wine drank in Biblical times was nowhere near as potent as the beer you were downing, Dobson. But hey, I guess everyone feels the need to take a little creative license when putting their own modern spin on a classic tale. I’m sure that was the only time you deviated from the norm, right? Wrong. Apparently Dobson also can channel the spirit of God and figure out who Jesus would have voted for. In his opinion, Jesus would be throwing his holy support behind Barack Obama. Thus, Dobson went to the polls and voted for Obama, a man whose avowed policies and beliefs aren’t exactly in line with Biblical teachings on quite a few issues, including abortion and homosexuality. Points for the effort, I guess, but the execution wasn’t exactly stellar on this one. The biggest plus from this endeavor seems to be the sweet, ZZ Top-esque beard that Dobson can now be seen rocking, because safe to say that this whole effort didn’t do a whole lot to better the name of Christianity……
- Good news for all you fellow Wilco fans out there. The band will soon be releasing its first concert DVD, "Ashes of American Flags," in February or March. The DVD will track the band’s February 2008 visits to Nashville's Ryman Auditorium and Tulsa, Okla.'s Cain Ballroom. The disc will be released by record company Nonesuch as it looks to build buzz for the next Wilco studio album, which the band is now recording. "Ashes" was producted by Brendan Canty and Christoph Green of Trixie Films, two guys who also played a big part in Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy's solo DVD "Sunken Treasure." Also, they filmed a documentary that accompanied certain editions of Wilco's 2007 album "Sky Blue Sky," the band’s most recent studio album. One final piece of positive news for Wilco fans is that, according to a newsletter sent out from the band’s website, Wilco will play "a handful of gigs" in the southern U.S. in April, to be followed by an extensive tour of Spain in May. So Euro Wilco fans, there’s an extra bit of good news for you. Those stateside looking for a Tweedy fix can catch him at three solo shows on tap in Michigan and Illinois later this month, with the band also promising its normal summer road tripping. I know that Wilco can be a little mellow for some people and isn’t the easiest, most mainstream band that you can embrace, but if you like good, well-written songs, this is a lot of positive news for you……
- Raise your hand if you’ve ever used a personal or sick day at work to covertly go and interview for a new job? Quite a few hands up, I’m sure. A lot of people engage in the practice because 1) it’s the only way to compete for a new job while hanging on to your current one, and 2) because your current boss would probably be pissed at you for looking for a new job while you are working for them. However, I don’t think many bosses would take as harsh and contentious a stance as Boston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo, who caught wind of head football coach Jeff Jagodzinski was going to interview for the head coaching vacancy with the New York Jets, who fired Eric Mangini after his team went 9-7 and choked down the stretch to miss the playoffs. Jagodzinski is a guy with a strong NFL background, having worked as an NFL assistant from 1999 until he came to BC two years ago. He was tight ends coach for the Packers from 1999-2002, then served in the same role for the Falcons in 2003 and '04 before moving up to be Atlanta's offensive line coach in '05. DeFilippo was reportedly livid when he learned about the scheduled interview and told Jagodzinski that he would be fired if he interviews for the Jets job. Furthermore, DeFilippo also has a plan in place for a new coach if Jagodzinski is fired, with the plan calling for offensive coordinator Steve Logan being promoted to head coach. After making that clear to Jagodzinski on Saturday, the AD then reinforced the school's position Sunday. It seems like an odd stance because of several factors, not the least of which is that it’s widely believed that there is no clause in Jagodzinski’s contract prohibiting him from interviewing with NFL teams if they come calling. Also, he has done a great job at BC, going 20-8 in his first two seasons, including a 9-5 record this season and a berth in the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl. Additionally, the Eagles have finished first in the ACC's Atlantic Division in each year of Jagodzinski’s tenure. I can totally understand why the school would not want him looking for another job, but to make a pretty public point of saying that if you so much as interview for a position, you’re fired - that’s excessively harsh. Now it’s a matter of waiting and seeing who bails first in this game of head coaching chicken…..
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