- What year are we in? A movie about Nicolas Cage decoding some cryptic historical document and all hell breaking loose as a result is the top earner at the box office? Which National Treasure movie is it this time? Oh wait…..it’s actually Cage’s new sci-fi flick, Knowing, which grossed $24.8 million this weekend? I guess the movie name changes, the plot tweaks ever so slightly but the basic theme remains the same. Either way, Knowing was the top film at the box office this weekend, fending off supposed comedies like the best man-centric I Love You, Man and the Julia Roberts-Clive Owen bomb Duplicity. For Cage, it marks his third consecutive No. 1 opening in the past year and a half. The film’s distributor, Summit, also has reason to celebrate after following up its success with last fall's "Twilight." Paul Rudd’s new flick I Love You, Man came in second with $18 million. The film also scored a surprisingly diverse audience, rating well with both men and women and with both older and younger moviegoers. Not surprisingly, Duplicity had a disappointing weekend, grossing $14.4 million to finish third. Who cold have predicted that? Well, other than me in my post yesterday, when I ripped the film and its capacity to suck big time despite some big-name stars. Finishing fourth was The Rock (sorry Dwayne Johnson, you’ll always be The Rock to me) with his family flick Race to Witch Mountain ($13 million), followed by the comic book adaptation Watchmen, fifth with $6.7 million. Overall, movies had a second straight down weekend after a strong run to start the year. Each of the past two weekends have seen a decline from the same weekend’s take of one year ago, with this week marked by a 5 percent decline. This coming weekend has a chance to reverse the two-week slide, as the animated film Monsters vs. Aliens is expected to bring in big numbers…….
- See, the bad economy is impacting rich people too. It’s not just the little guy who can't afford groceries and rent and is barely keeping his head above water. No, rich people are taking hits too. No longer can they chip off half a million dollars to buy a uniquely complete skeleton of a Jurassic-era dryosaurus dinosaur in an auction at the I.M. Chait Gallery in Manhattan. The relic was expected to bring in as much as $500,000, given the fact that a complete skeleton of the long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur is exceptionally rare, but clearly rich people just do not have the same disposable income they once enjoyed. Auctioneers had hoped for a pitched battle to buy the 150-million-year-old, 9-foot-long dryosaurus, but in the end the bids weren’t there. Other rare skeletons, fossils and other prehistoric memorabilia did sell - including an 18,000-year-old, 7-foot-tall and 15-foot-long skeleton of a teenage woolly mammoth from Siberia that took the auction's top price, fetching close to $60,000. Another popular item was a completely opalized green, blue, yellow and red ammonite fossil measuring 2½ feet in diameter that went for close to $50,000. Despite the down day for the dino fossil, two museums are still thought to be interested in acquiring the skeleton, being sold by Western Paleontological Laboratories out of Utah. As for the auction’s top seller, the director of operations at the gallery has an interesting take on why it was in such high demand. “The woolly is so special because it wasn't fully grown and can therefore fit in someone's living room," says Josh Chait, director of operations at the gallery. “A collector's dream.” Yes, because who doesn’t dream of having an ancient wooly mammoth to display in their living room? It’s the pet you never have to walk, feed or clean up after AND it’s a great conversation piece. “You know how much I paid for that woolly mammoth that I can actually use for anything other than looking at and attempting to impress guests like you who couldn’t care less?” Yes, quite a buy it is…………
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! It’s been too long, Argentine farmers, but we’re back because you just won't give up your fantastic crusade against government export taxes on farm goods. Using a tactic they’ve employed successfully before, thousands of angry farmers blocked highways and rural routes throughout the country to protest the lack in progress in negotiations with the government over export taxes on farm goods. Images of trucks and cars stopped along routes throughout the country were seen all day long Tuesday, from urban to rural. There were traffic stoppages in the provinces of Santa Fe and Entre Rios, there were traffic stoppages in the town of Armstrong, 250 miles northwest of the capital of Buenos Aires…just an all-around good time. Special props to the protesters who stopped traffic on Route 9, in Armstrong, burning car tires and waving Argentine flags. This conflict has raged on for a year, pitting these poor farmers against the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. I’m not sure if Fernandez expected this sort of outrage from Argentina's large farming sector when she decided to impose export taxes on soybeans, but she probably should have. Argentina is the world's third-largest soybean exporter, so you have a lot of farmers depending on soybeans for their living and when you take extra money out of their pockets at a time when the country has been hard hit by recent drops in global commodities prices and a severe drought, you’re going to have a fight on your hands. That much was clear last year when demonstrations by farmers caused food shortages and blocked farm products from leaving the country. Things had simmered down a bit, but tensions were always one good push from blowing up again. That push came Thursday, when lawmakers failed to reach quorum in Congress to debate a bill that would reduce the 35 percent soybean export tax and farmers took it to the streets (literally) to set up roadblocks and throw their country into chaos. The protests were timed to coincide with Fernandez’s announcement of new money-sharing measures. “Soy revenues will go to a fund that will be shared with the provinces and municipalities,” Fernandez said at the presidential residence in Olivos. "Seventy percent of the fund will be controlled by the federal government and 30 percent by governors and local officials. It's never been our intention to take anything away from anyone.” Poor choice of words, Madame President. Your intention clearly was to take money from these farmers. You can say that you did so to raise $1.776 billion for a fund would to be used for social infrastructure needs -- "schools, houses, drinking water, sewers,” just don’t lie and pretend you didn’t know this would hurt these farmers. You’re hurting one segment of your populace to benefit another, so don’t expect those being hurt to just lie down and take it. They’re going to fight back and I salute them for doing so. Riot on, Argentine farmers, riot on……
- I’ve been waiting to comments on the ongoing soap opera between the Denver Broncos and their franchise quarterback Jay Cutler because things just keep getting better and better the longer I wait. However, the saga appears to have hit a bit of a lull and so I think I’ll jump in. By now, everyone knows the origins of the drama: the Broncos fired longtime head coach Mike Shanahan, who drafted Cutler and had a strong bond with the young QB. They hired Josh McDaniels, the young offensive genius who cut his teeth coaching in New England under the Hoodie, a.k.a. Bill Belichick. McDaniels came in and immediately began shaking up the Denver roster, releasing nearly half of the team’s defensive starters from last season. The point where he really ran afoul of Cutler was when his former team, the Patriots, were shopping backup quarterback Matt Cassel. Cassel was vaulted to prominence last season when starter Tom Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 1 and Cassel led the team to an 11-5 record. McDaniels was the offensive coordinator for the Pats last season, meaning he worked most closely with Cassel and developed quite a rapport. When Cassel became available, McDaniels made a play for him, which meant shopping the quarterback he already had. Ultimately, Cassel was traded to Kansas City and Cutler was hung out to dry by Denver. It was at this point McDaniels made his biggest mistake of all; lying to Cutler about trying to trade him. Cutler and agent Bus Cook claim that McDaniels initially claimed that he didn’t try to trade Cutler, which truned out to be a lie. That created a total lack of trust between coach and quarterback, which is never a good thing. After being lied to, Cutler didn’t even want to speak with McDaniels and wouldn’t take his phone calls. He asked to be traded, but was finally persuaded to speak to McDaniels on the phone. That was followed by a face-to-face meeting, a meeting McDaniels came out of believing that progress had been made. Cutler had a very different take, renewing his demands to be traded and amplifying those demands with renewed vigor. He refused to attend McDaniels first meeting with the team as a whole and to this point is adamant about leaving Denver. Recently, Cook also alleged that Broncos owner Pat Bowlen told Cutler after Shanahan’s firing that the team’s offensive staff, with whom Cutler had a strong bond, would remain with the team. However, one of McDaniels’ first moves after being hired was to fire the entire offensive staff so he could replace them w. his own guys. That would make two major instances of the team lying to Cutler, most definitely not the way to treat a quarterback coming off of a Pro Bowl season in which he set multiple team records. I’m siding with Cutler on this one; McDaniels is off to a very bad start as an NFL coach and if he can’t learn to treat his players with more respect and honesty, he’s going to have a very short and unsuccessful career as a head coach…….
- Dear idiots dumping tea bags into bodies of water around the United States and mailing tea bags to President Obama: you are not reincarnating the revolutionary spirit of the original American independence movement; you’re showing what a bunch of unimaginative, lame ass hats you are. Every single one of you should be ashamed of yourselves for a) wasting perfectly good tea, b) doing so for no real reason and c) sullying the name of people who hold legitimate, non-idiotic protests worldwide. The latest of their faux “tea parties” took place in Orlando, Fla., where more than 4,000 people assembled in Lake Eola Park on Saturday to, um, make fools of themselves. Some singer named Lloyd Marcus (never heard him) was among the leaders of this farce, telling the crowd that his assessment of the Obama administration thus far is…..an indecipherable shriek. By now, I’m sure you’ve figured out who these tools are that are hosting these lame-ass “tea parties” to decry Obama in office: conservatives. “This is maybe the greatest single gathering of God-fearing patriots in the history of Orlando, Florida,” said local conservative radio host Bud Hedinger, who emceed the event. Either that or the single most pathetic, misguided, reactionary tools who just can’t stomach the idea of a non-warmongering, semi-intelligent, non-Republican president in office. Seeing these ass clowns rocking their homemade signs bearing slogans such as "Repeal the pork or our bacon is cooked" and "Obama lied, liberty died” is just a sad day for me as an American, given the fact these fools are denouncing a presidency that’s barely three months old when most of them probably voted to hand a second term to our last president, who was easily the worst in the history of this country. But I’ll give the benefit of the doubt to a few of the attendees, given the fact that they are old people with nothing better to do than attend a lame, hollow event before they hit up their local buffet for the early bird special. These are people like Debby Whisenand, 71, of Largo, who fretted, “We're really scared about what's happening in our country.” Thanks for the very specific, not-at-all-vague sentiments, Debby. Now go to the Sizzler and get your senior discount before heading home to watch the early evening news and hitting the sack by 8:30. You just can’t expect anyone to take you seriously when you’re carrying a sign that reads “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money” on one side, and “You can't blame Bush anymore” on the other. Actually, we can. See, if someone drops an atomic bomb on your city (ironically the one thing W. never got around to doing on countries where we had no right to invade) and then is removed from power, you can still blame them from the shi**y state of affairs three months later because they’re the ones who caused the chaos. Even if Obama were the greatest president in the history of the world (not saying he is), he still couldn’t undo all of the messes W. made in just three months. Good to see that you’re keeping an open mind, supporting our president and giving him a chance to turn things around, conservatives, you guys don’t suck at all……..
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