Hop-py Easter, everyone!
One Easter memory that pertains to my blogging activities: I really hoped that the Easter Bunny would bring me the “Finding Neverland” DVD.
Did I get that? No, the Easter Bunny felt fit to give me “Fat Albert.” In retrospect, he gave me the more endearing classic, and I respect his decision.
It’s Easter Eve, which means one faithful thing: “The Ten Commandments” is on ABC tonight.
I’ve watched it in bits and pieces several times over the past decade or so, but I’ve never sat down to watch the whole thing start to finish. I’ve hit all the high points: “LET MY PEOPLE GO!” and the parting of the Red Sea.
The 5 hour run time is a little intimidating. But maybe next year…
Call me a geezer, but I’m developing a sort of technology resistance.
Specifically, to Blu-Ray players. I don’t own a Blu-Ray player and I don’t ever intend to.
I don’t think they are any higher quality of movies. In fact, I think watching a movie on a Blu-Ray player makes a movie seem a lower quality. The characters all seem like paper dolls, and everything seems so unrealistic.
Am I the only one that hasn’t drunk the Blu-Ray Kool-Aid? Or does anyone else feel like Blu-Ray is kind of a sham?
P.S. – I’m not a factoid repeater. This is different from Random Factoid #69.
One morning in 2009, because I truly had nothing better to do, I stopped for breakfast at Chick-fil-A and then waited outside of Target for 15 minutes.
For what? To be the first person to grab the 2-disc “Pineapple Express” DVD. Oh, and it had a bonus digital copy.
But if you think about it, that was kind of stupid because I had to go to school in 30 minutes … so it’s not like I could watch it right away.
I’ve never actually stood in a line to get a DVD. Any movie that is worth that kind of a wait I will have already seen in theaters.
I actually feel legitimate disappointment when good movies have bad DVD covers.
Case in point: “Up in the Air.” Come on, Paramount, is that really the best you can do? A picture of George Clooney laughing surrounded by a whole bunch of empty blue space?
There’s nothing happening on the cover, and if I knew nothing about the movie, I would see it and walk away. I fear that in the future, people will see this DVD and not even think twice about it. Which is such a shame.
What about you? Any DVD cover (or poster, for that matter) really disappoint you?
It gets pretty hard to come up with a factoid every day once you get in the hundreds. Thankfully, I discovered a nice tool for inspiration courtesy of WordPress.
They have a nice button called “Random Post” that randomly selects some post that I have published, in case you couldn’t figure it out from the title. Since I’m fairly factoid heavy, most of the time, I get a factoid. Sometimes I’ll see an idea or thought that I liked and expand on it.
Several factoids from the past week have taken their inspiration from this button. Including this one.
I’ve heard a ton of talk amongst the box office reports this weekend about ticket prices at movie theaters skyrocketing over 20% in some places. Honestly, enough is enough. This is probably the first time that I have gone on the record about the ridiculous ticket prices, but I can assure you that it won’t be the last.
I looked through my movie ticket collection today and looked at how much the first ticket cost. When I saw “Remember the Titans” in 2000, it cost $5 for a child’s admission. In 2010, that same ticket at the same theater would cost $7. That’s a 40% increase in one decade. Insane.
223 factoids later, I finally return to report the results of Random Factoid #20 / An Experiment.
I was trying to see how many people I could draw to my blog using popular people and things as tags, but I think I only got one hit off of the tags. I think it came from “cats,” but I’m not entirely sure.
Safe to say: experiment FAILED.
With my review of “Whip It,” I have officially marked 100 reviews. Wow. It’s hard to believe I’ve cranked out that many.
While I’m at it, I thought I might list a few other amusing stats just because I don’t call them random factoids for nothing.
In the fifth grade, a chapel speaker came to my middle school that asked the audience a series of responsive questions. He wanted people that knew the answers to raise their hands.
The first question: “Who can name the last five winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture?”
Of course I knew the answer, so I shot my hand up. Mine was the only hand raised. Awkward…
When I was 10, I heard a five-second clip of Catberine Zeta-Jones singing “All That Jazz” from the movie “Chicago” on the news and suddenly became obsessed. I bought the soundtrack knowing nothing of the movie but those five seconds.
I proceeded to learn every musical number in the blink of an eye. There was a five-year span between buying the soundtrack and seeing the movie, so I knew the music thoroughly when watching it. But it was weird to put context to the songs I had known for so long.
Sandra Bullock follows me into the shower.
If you read that and thought dirty thoughts, shame on you. But I’m glad that drew you in. What I actually meant is about 1/3 of the time I get in the shower, I am reminded of a Sandra Bullock monologue.
Here’s her speech; it’s from “Two Weeks Notice,” her 2002 comedy with Hugh Grant. To put it in context, she is telling her boss (Hugh Grant) why she can’t keep working for him.
I think about you in the shower .. .not in a good way, but in an I’m-so-distracted-I-can’t-remember-if-I-washed-my-hair kinda way – so I’ll wash my hair twice! So I have a hole in my stomach, I’m running out of shampoo and today is the first day in my life that I did not give a thousand percent on the job. And I hate that feeling.
Often times, thinking of neurotic Sandra helps me remember how many times I have washed my own hair. I guess I should thank her for that – hope this will suffice.
This is seriously not a joke.
I was texting someone yesterday tehehehe to imply a more mischievous giggle than the normal hahahaha. But when I tried to type it, my iPhone auto-corrected tehehehe to thehurtlocker.
Could it be from all the texting I was doing during the Oscars? Either way, it’s pretty amazing that even my phone knows how obsessed I am.
After seeing “Avatar” yesterday for the second time in 3-D, I have come to this conclusion: it is the only 3-D movie that has not given me a headache or made my eyes hurt.
I don’t know if I have just been broken into the technology that much more or if James Cameron’s movie has really raised the standard that much.
Does anyone know? Seriously, let me know in the comments!
Once again, I come before you to alert you to an error that I have made in a previous factoid. It brings me no pleasure to announce that I have made a mistake, but it somehow makes me feel better knowing that I have acknowledged it.
The culprit: Random Factoid #216.
In 2007, I bought a book in New York City called “Oscar Season” by Mary McNamara. It was at a random little shop in the city, and I was struck by seeing the golden statue concealing a gun.
Ever since that fateful day, I have told myself that I will read the book during awards season one year.
2007 came and went, “The Departed” won Best Picture, and I hadn’t read it.
2008 flew by, “No Country for Old Men” won Best Picture, and I still hadn’t read it.
2009 was fine, “Slumdog Millionaire” won Best Picture, and it continues to garner dust on my bookshelf.
Now, in 2010, barring some freak occurrence, yet another year will pass where “Oscar Season” has gone unread. There’s always next year…
The other day, I decided to look at the copyright page of “Oscar Season.” I discovered that it had not been published in 2007 like I had thought, but rather in 2008. So that makes the factoid factually incorrect. I doubt anyone caught it, but it doesn’t weigh on my conscience anymore.
Marshall and the Movies 
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