This was Keith Olberman's Special Comment (November 10th, 2008) on California's passing of Proposition 8:
Beautifully said, Keith.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Exhausted
I don't want to have to teach people about myself.
What hurts the most is that someone else will have to learn that green is my color, that I love peacocks and Pixar and Sleeping Beauty.
You spend all this time learning about your someone...to be able to read them and know them without speaking. Now someone else has to learn it.
That's what's sad about break ups.
To think that all of this information your someone has collected and filed away about you might just be thrown out and forgotten. Or be rendered meaningless, which is the case in most scenarios, I think.
Ending a relationship is very sad, no matter how else you feel about it, no matter what led you to it. There's still that sinking sad.
What hurts the most is that someone else will have to learn that green is my color, that I love peacocks and Pixar and Sleeping Beauty.
You spend all this time learning about your someone...to be able to read them and know them without speaking. Now someone else has to learn it.
That's what's sad about break ups.
To think that all of this information your someone has collected and filed away about you might just be thrown out and forgotten. Or be rendered meaningless, which is the case in most scenarios, I think.
Ending a relationship is very sad, no matter how else you feel about it, no matter what led you to it. There's still that sinking sad.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Disney's Slate (Part I)
Bolt - November 26th, 2008
Bolt has got a lot of people in The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) on the edge of their seats for several very good reasons. This is the first theatrical release from Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS) in which John Lasseter will stretch his wings as Chief Creative Officer. After John and other WDAS and Pixar directors were shown rough cuts of the working film they made several suggestions to the director Chris Sanders (of Lilo and Stitch fame) and when he wouldn't comply with the suggestions he was replaced by Chris Williams and Byron Howard. John Lasseter notes "Chris Sanders is extremely talented, but he couldn’t take it to the place it had to be."
This film has created new advances in non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) that has enabled animators to give the 3-D backgrounds a hand painted look (specifically based off the work of Edward Hopper). There are between three and fifteen patents pending for the new advances in the NPR technology WDAS created for use on Bolt. Sounds kind of like Walt and the invention of the multi-plane camera.... Could it be that WDAS is becoming an innovator again? We'll wait until the box office dictates how successful these new forays are - then we'll see how much The Mouse will let its animators innovate.
Disney's been opening pretty well with its less inventive films, take Chicken Little for example. At $40.1 million, it was the second largest opening in Disney [not Disney-Pixar] produced movies only to The Lion King's opening at $40.9 million. However, as opening weekend passed and the poor reviews came in, it quickly became apparent that Chicken Little had very little to stand on. Chicken Little made $313.9 million worldwide whereas The Lion King would go on to make $783.8 million.
I think Bolt will do well enough in theaters, as Disney's main audience of children and families is always a fairly dependable chunk of income, but teenage/college/older Disney fans still haven't been given a driving reason to go see this film. They've been burned before by the bad sequels and unimpressive low-grade animation pieces (Home on the Range? Kronk's New Groove?), and I think it's going to take something more to reclaim the audience that expects more from Disney's animated legacy.
Bolt has got a lot of people in The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) on the edge of their seats for several very good reasons. This is the first theatrical release from Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS) in which John Lasseter will stretch his wings as Chief Creative Officer. After John and other WDAS and Pixar directors were shown rough cuts of the working film they made several suggestions to the director Chris Sanders (of Lilo and Stitch fame) and when he wouldn't comply with the suggestions he was replaced by Chris Williams and Byron Howard. John Lasseter notes "Chris Sanders is extremely talented, but he couldn’t take it to the place it had to be."
This film has created new advances in non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) that has enabled animators to give the 3-D backgrounds a hand painted look (specifically based off the work of Edward Hopper). There are between three and fifteen patents pending for the new advances in the NPR technology WDAS created for use on Bolt. Sounds kind of like Walt and the invention of the multi-plane camera.... Could it be that WDAS is becoming an innovator again? We'll wait until the box office dictates how successful these new forays are - then we'll see how much The Mouse will let its animators innovate.
Disney's been opening pretty well with its less inventive films, take Chicken Little for example. At $40.1 million, it was the second largest opening in Disney [not Disney-Pixar] produced movies only to The Lion King's opening at $40.9 million. However, as opening weekend passed and the poor reviews came in, it quickly became apparent that Chicken Little had very little to stand on. Chicken Little made $313.9 million worldwide whereas The Lion King would go on to make $783.8 million.
I think Bolt will do well enough in theaters, as Disney's main audience of children and families is always a fairly dependable chunk of income, but teenage/college/older Disney fans still haven't been given a driving reason to go see this film. They've been burned before by the bad sequels and unimpressive low-grade animation pieces (Home on the Range? Kronk's New Groove?), and I think it's going to take something more to reclaim the audience that expects more from Disney's animated legacy.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Ignorant, Misogynistic Morons
The Bush administration is attempting to re-draft a regulation defining abortion as:
Holy hell, I cannot wait until these people get out of their cruel joke of a position of power and can get back to sticking their heads in the ground.
Why don't they just outlaw condoms and call male masturbation attempted abortion? Does that not also result in the 'termination of the life of a human being before implantation' if we're really going to push the limits here?“...any of the various procedures — including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action — that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”
Mary Jane Gallagher, president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, which represents providers, said, “The proposed definition of abortion is so broad that it would cover many types of birth control, including oral contraceptives and emergency contraception.”
“We worry that under the proposal, contraceptive services would become less available to low-income and uninsured women,” Ms. Gallagher said.
Indeed, among other things the proposal expresses concern about state laws that require hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims who request it.
Nancy Keenan, president of Naral Pro-Choice America, said, “Why on earth is the Bush administration trying to discourage doctors and clinics from providing contraception to women who need it?” - The New York Times
Holy hell, I cannot wait until these people get out of their cruel joke of a position of power and can get back to sticking their heads in the ground.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
The Dark Knight Updates
In three days The Dark Knight broke ten records:- Biggest Opening Weekend Profit - $155,000
- Biggest Single Day Profit - $68 Million
- Biggest Opening of 2008
- Biggest July Movie Opening
- Most Advanced Tickets Sold
- Widest Release - 4,366 Theaters
- Biggest Midnight Screening - $18.5 Million
- Biggest IMAX Midnight Screening - $650,000
- Biggest IMAX Opening Weekend Profit - $6 Million
- Biggest Opening for PG13
[And then Christian Bale goes and pulls a stunt like this? At this moment, you are the biggest star in the world, everyone is watching you... What the hell are you doing?]
Sunday, July 20, 2008
It's Simple... Kill the Bat-Man.
The Dark Knight is destroying the box office... The film made $18 million from the 12:01 showings last Thursday night alone. This is going to be one hell of a weekend for Warner Brothers and super hero/comic book movies.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
