Monday, October 13, 2014

Movie news, creepy California clowns and China crushes human rights


- Clowns are freaky and disturbing. Even the family members of a clown don’t really want to be associated with a weirdo whose idea of a good time is putting on pounds of white makeup with red lipstick, a rainbow wig, an odd adult onesie with a polka dot pattern and size 24 shoes, so loathing of clowns is a near-universal feeling that should be wholly universal. That makes what’s going down in Wasco, Calif. even more disturbing than it would otherwise be. Wasco is a relatively anonymous town that wouldn’t be making headlines if not for nocturnal clowns who are using social media and a pretty weak excuse to terrorize people who have done nothing to provoke his demented wrath. In the past few weeks, clowns have been spotted wandering the streets of Wasco at night, snapping Instagram photos of themselves lurking and generally menacing the world from behind their giant red noses. The images began popping up on social media sites several weeks ago, with the ringleader of this freakery appearing to be a clown with an Instagram account who says that the entire charade is a photo project involving he and his wife. That excuse is as paper-thin as they come and townspeople are understandably alarmed to know that at any point, they could be walking to their car from an evening shopping trip or a tasty meal at their favorite local eatery when bam, a clown with a disturbed artistic sense and a yen to be the next Matthew Brady or Annie Leibovitz is lurking around the corner with questionable intentions. As the clowns have yet to break any laws – aside from laws of normalcy and non-creepiness – local police haven’t been able to do much to stop their subtle campaign of terror……..


- Why apologize for doing what you were made to do, Adirondack Flames? The flames are a New York minor league hockey team and as a minor league team, their sole goal in life is finding any possible means to draw eyeballs to their product and put butts in seats. It’s why minor league baseball teams have promotions like Anthony Weiner Night or give free admission to any fan willing to shave his or her head at the gate. No matter how ridiculous or laughable a promotion may be, if it can generate publicity for the team then it’s considered a success. So the fact that the Flames are apologizing for a skit introducing their new mascot as a firefighter-fighting flame from a devastating 19th-century fire is a bit perplexing. Because a team can't simply introduce a freak in a flame costume and let it be, the team had to create a back story for "Scorch" and the tale the came up with is that he’s the lone surviving ember from an 1864 fire that destroyed much of Glens Falls. Up to that point in the plan, the effort may have been insipid, but it hadn't yet reached apology-necessary territory. However, a video debuting Scorch to the world pushed the charade past that point and left the two people who actually care about such things irate. In the video, Scorch is seen emerging from behind a small tree to overpower a firefighter, knocking him to the ground as "POW!" appears on the screen. It took the team all of two hours after Scorch’s debut to issue an apology, saying the skit was done "in poor taste." Yes, but what better way to ingratiate your franchise to its new home after moving from Abbotsford, British Columbia, to Glens Falls? Well done, Flames……….


- If a group of Chinese rights lawyers are meeting in a Beijing suburb, it’s simply a matter of when, not if police will kick down the door and take them into custody. The oppression is never far away in China and so it makes perfect sense that lawyers getting together in the aforementioned suburb to discuss wrongful use of power cases had their get-together busted up by police who stormed into their conference room. Critics were quick to denounce the incident as the latest effort by authorities to obstruct the work of rights lawyers, who have begun to build to a critical mass of naysayers demanding rule of law in China. According to rights lawyer Sui Muqing, about 40 attorneys, relatives of victims of wrongful cases and other citizens were gathering in a hotel Sunday to discuss the cases when police from suburban Huairou district stormed into the conference room. Maybe they didn’t go through enough choke points on their way to the meeting, perhaps someone mistakenly spilled too much information on a social media site or perhaps the secret knock to get into the room wasn’t secret enough, but somehow The Man found out about the meeting and the officers who barged into the room reportedly forced all 40 people inside to leave and board a bus bound for downtown Beijing. The meeting was originally scheduled to continue through Monday, but no one told police that even though officials at the Huairou Police Department said they were unaware of the matter. They’re probably also unaware of whether all 40 people they “detained” are enjoying their new lives at labor camps in remote regions of the country………


- The champ is still gone – as in “Gone Girl,” which retained the top spot at the weekend box office for a second straight weekend, adding $26.8 million to its coffers for a domestic total of $78.2 million through two weeks. Close on its heels was newcomer “Dracula Untold,” which opened to $23.5 million and vastly underperformed given its immense promotional hype and $70 million budget. “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” made its debut and almost earned back its $28 million budget with $19.1 million in its first weekend of release. It was a two-spot fall for “Annabelle,” which creeped its way to fourth place and $16.4 million in domestic earnings, good for a two-week haul of $62.1 million. “The Judge” was another underperforming new film, with Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall’s collective star power proving to not be enough to push the drama higher than $13.3 million in domestic money in its debut. Sixth place went to “The Equalizer” with a $9.7 million weekend, giving the action flick a respectable $79.9 million in its three weeks in theaters. The fourth new movie to crack the top 10 was “Addicted,” which opened in limited release and did well with $7.6 million and an eighth-place finish while showing in a mere 846 theaters. “The Maze Runner” dropped three spots and added another $7.5 million, meaning it has earned $83.8 million so far. Next on the list and in ninth place was “The Boxtrolls,” recipient of $6.7 million in movie dollars and owner of a $41 million war chest through three weeks. “Left Behind” was nearly left out of the top 10, but clung to the last spot with $2.9 million in its second weekend. The religious-themed drama has garnered $10.9 million in its first two weeks of release. “Guardians of the Galaxy (No. 12), “This is Where I Leave You” (No. 13), “Dolphin Tale 2” and “No Good Deed” (No. 15) all relinquished their top 10 spots from one weekend ago……….

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