- Easter is still weeks away, but the Easter bunny is already enjoying pre-holiday success, at least at the box office. Perhaps movies featuring the, um, talents of Russell Brand really can success, just as long as they are at least partially animated and Brand himself doesn’t physically appear on screen at any point in the proceedings. Relying on James Marsden’s acting and Brand’s vocal talents, Universal’s Hop won the weekend box office by a massive margin, hopping its way to $38.1 million in its first weekend and crushing fellow newcomer Source Code. Jake Gyllenhaal’s hunky good looks just weren’t enough for the latest reality-bending mental thriller to beat out a cartoon rabbit, as Source Code finished a distant second with $15 million in its own debut. A third newcomer, action/drama flick Insidious, came in third place for the weekend courtesy of a $13.4 million effort. Last weekend’s top film slid all the way to fourth place, with Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules adding $10.2 million to its coffers and boosting its two-week total to $38.4 million. Limitless continued its own downward slide, rounding out the top five by adding $9.4 million to its cumulative total and raising its tally to an impressive $55.6 million through three weeks. The remainder of the top 10 consisted of: The Lincoln Lawyer (No. 6 with $7.1 million and $39.7 million through its first three weeks of release), the abominably bombing Sucker Punch (free-falling to No. 7 after just two weeks of release with $6.1 million and a two-week haul of just $29.8 million), Rango (No. 8 and chugging along with another $4.6 million for a five-week take of $114 million), Paul (No. 9 and a major disappointment in its own right with a $4.3 million weekend and $32 million for its first three weeks of release) and Battle: Los Angeles (No. 10 with $3.5 million for an overall total of $78.5 million after one month in theaters. Two top 10 bottom feeders from last weekend fell off the list this time around, with The Adjustment Bureau (No. 11) and Red Riding Hood (No. 12) both not doing enough to hold onto their spots…………
- China, how surprising of you to once again oppress the most fundamental rights of your citizens and engage in some of the most oppressive governmental bullsh*t this side of…….well, pretty much anywhere. The wave of oppression perpetually sweeping across China, reversing direction once it hits the border and sweeping right back across the country, swallowed up one of the country’s most high-profile artists and one of its government’s most vocal critics Sunday as Chinese authorities detained Ai Weiwei as he attempted to board a plane for Hong Kong. His friends and associates confirmed the arrest along with the arrests of Ai’s wife, nephew and a number of his employees during a raid on his studio on the outskirts of the capital. The arrests are part of a larger six-week crackdown by the Communist Party on rights lawyers, bloggers and dissidents. Previously, the effort had been concentrated on middle- and lower-class opposition voices, but human rights groups worry that Ai’s arrest signals that no one is off limits. Ai is an internationally renowned artist, a documentary filmmaker and even helped to design the monstrosity that is the Olympic Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing. Not even the last entry on that list was able to buy him enough goodwill from the government to avoid being jailed for speaking his mind and opposing The Man. Ai was taken into custody Sunday morning as he and an assistant passed through customs at Beijing International Airport. The assistant, Jennifer Ng, said Ai was taken away by uniformed officers and she was told to board the plane alone because he “had other business” to attend to. Uh huh, sure he did. If by business you mean “brutal interrogation followed by a long stint inside a dark, dank prison cell, then sure, he had other business to attend to. Ai was simply planning to spend a day in Hong Kong before flying to Taiwan for a meeting about a possible exhibition, but those plans will have to wait. Not surprisingly, the Beijing Public Security Bureau refused any comment on Ai’s whereabouts. Shortly after his detainment, dozens of police officers raided his studio in the Caochangdi neighborhood, cut off power to part of the area and led away nearly a dozen employees. Most of those detained, including several foreigners who work for Ai, were released by Sunday evening after being questioned. No one is sure what police were looking for at the studio, but one employee claimed that officers had been there three separate times last week to check on the documents of studio’s non-Chinese employees. Now that Ai has been arrested, China’s other liberal and reform-minded intellectuals have to be asking themselves if they are next, whether they are well-known writers, rights advocates or simply wealthy individuals bold enough to speak out against the government. Eleven such individuals have simply vanished into police custody over the past few weeks. Ai’s encounter with The Man came as no surprise in part because he has had previous issues with the authorities, including an alleged incident in 2009 in which he said he was beaten by officers who broke into his hotel room the night before he was to testify at the trial of a fellow dissident in Chengdu. He was also confined to his home by police in November in order to prevent him from attending a party in Shanghai he had organized to commemorate the destruction of a million-dollar art studio that had been built at the directive of the local government. Ai suspected powerful figures in Shanghai angered by his frequent criticism of the government for the destruction. Yes sir, it’s a great time to be a voice of dissent in China, as long as you have a good hiding place or don’t mind prison food…………
- What do most fans want from their favorite team? Wins, typically. No one wants to support a loser and everyone likes a good championship riot, er, parade. The chance to loot, burn and pillage on account of your team winning a title is rare and thus always a welcome occurrence. Beyond wins, fans typically want star players they can cheer for and whose gear they can wear. A modern, comfortable place to watch a game, meet or match is on the list as well. Notice that one thing I didn’t mention as a fan “want” for their favorite team was a life-sized statue of one of the most overrated, bizarre pop music acts of all time, a noted pedophile who owned a chimp, created an adult amusement park on his property and wore one glove for no apparent reason. That didn’t stop English Premier League club Fulham from erecting a statue of Michael Jackson outside its stadium and unveiling that statue on Sunday. Team chairman Mohamed Al Fayed anticipated possible backlash to the statue by informing fans that they were free to support another Premier League club if they don't like the idea. Why would the owner of a soccer team put up a life-like statue of the King of Pedophiles outside his stadium? Al Fayed was close friends with Jackson and originally planned to erect the statue outside Harrods department store, which he owned but sold last year. Thinking and adapting on the fly, he scanned his investments and holdings for the next most prominent thing he owned and settled on Craven Cottage, where Fulham plays its home matches. Realizing that many would see the statue as a bizarre gesture, Fayed had a retort locked and loaded when the question was asked and copped a serious attitude towards anyone who questioned his rationale. "Why is it bizarre?" he said. "Football fans love it. If some stupid fans don't understand and appreciate such a gift, they can go to hell. I don't want them to be fans. If they don't understand and don't believe in things I believe in, they can go to Chelsea, they can go to anywhere else." Well, then…….as long as you’re not being petty, childish and overreacting to all of this. Y’know, overreacting by implying that your statue would be such a draw that people would come from all over, Field of Dreams style, just to see……dammit, Fayed did say that? "People will queue to come and visit it from all over Britain and it is something that I and everybody else should be proud of," he proclaimed. No Mohammed, they will not. They don’t care that Jack-O attended a Fulham match in 1999 and they don’t care that he was your buddy…………
- Is gluten-free food, much like fibromyalgia and magic unicorns, completely a mental creation of those supposedly affected by it? According to Colorado chef Damian Cardon, a former executive banquet chef of the iconic Tavern on the Green restaurant in Manhattan, yes. Cardon recently posted a message on his Facebook page revealing that he supposedly served gluten-heavy meals to snobbish “foodies” without them knowing. “Gluten free is bulls**t!! Flour and bread have been a staple of life for thousands, THOUSANDS of years. People who claim to be gluten intolerent [sic] dont [sic] realize that its [sic] all in there [sic] disturbed little heads,” his post read. “People ask me for gluten free pasta in my restaurant all the time, I tell em sure, Then I serve serve em our pasta, Which I make from scratch with high gluten flour. And you know what? nothing, NOTHING! ever happens! People leave talking about how good they feel gluten free and guess what, They just had a full dose! Idiots!” In other words, the doesn’t believe that gluten allergies really exist. Cardon’s revelation came after a recent piece in the New York Times stating that many chefs are irritated with a growing number of overly picky diners requesting specialty meals. The Mayo Clinic, perhaps not as much an expert on all things gluten-free as Cardon, says that when people with Celiac disease eat foods that contain gluten, such as bread, pasta, cookies, and pizza crust, it triggers an immune reaction in the small intestine. That reaction causes the intestine to be unable to absorb certain nutrients, leading it to turn on itself and cause abdominal pain and diarrhea. A 2009 study showed that only 1 percent of the population actually has Celiac disease, although doctors say people who test negative may still have gluten sensitivity and feel better on a gluten-free diet. That research has done little to dissuade those in the culinary world who believe that everyone should stop talking and open their mouths only to eat the food masterpieces put in front of them…………
- Video games rarely reflect reality, whether they are multiplayer shooting games, sports games, racing games or fantasy/action games. In fact, the reason people tend to play video games is so they can have as little contact with reality as possible. The exact opposite will be true for the most popular football video game, "Madden NFL 12,” as it prepares for its August launch (even if the NFL lockout lingers on and no actual games are being played). With concussions an increasingly important issue in not only the NFL, but all sports at all levels, the next edition of the "Madden" football video game franchise will reflect the NFL’s new policies on concussions. That means concussed players won't be allowed to return to the field in the game they are injured, as opposed to being allowed to return the following quarter in previous editions of the game. The game’s namesake spoke recently about the change and supported game maker EA Sports’ decision to make the change. "Concussions are such a big thing, it has to be a big thing in the video game," Madden conceded (no word on whether he tagged that remark with his trademark “BOOM!”). "It starts with young kids -- they start in video games. I think the osmosis is if you get a concussion, that's a serious thing and you shouldn't play. Or leading with the head that you want to eliminate. We want that message to be strong." Madden’s comments followed EA Sports president Peter Moore’s remarks last week at the World Congress of Sports in Miami in which he said it was "wrong" for the "Madden" game to allow concussed players to return to the field in the following quarter. He broke the news about the change in concussion rules within the game, saying that "we have an obligation in our industry" to recognize that brain injuries are an important issue in both real and virtual football at all levels. EA Sports believes it truly can influence kids by changing the rules of its game and to that end, they will also have Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth, the announcers featured in the game, explain the dangerous nature of concussions when they announce that a player can't return to the game. Madden concurred that sending a clear message to kids. "There was a time when someone would get a concussion and you'd say he just got dinged, take some smelling salts and get back in the game. Those days are over," he stated, adding that "if we show players playing through [concussions], then kids won't understand." All of this talk about the teaching power of video games does seem ridiculous on a certain level because even younger game players know that what they’re seeing on the screen isn't real or tied to reality in anything but the loosest of ways, but if it makes Madden and the folks at EA Sports feel better about themselves, then let’s just play along. Allow them to believe that they truly are making a difference and doing more than churning out massive profits while pretending to have a social conscience…………
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