Watched Margin Call last weekend. It was kinda meh. OK, but didn’t love it. No Wall Street. Not even Money Never Sleeps. But I like Paul Bettany and his character. And he has a small dialogue towards the end that, IMHO, rings quite true:
“If you really want to do this with your life you have to believe that you’re necessary. And you are. People want to live like this in their cars and their big fucking houses that they can’t even pay for? Then you’re necessary. The only reason they all get to continue living like kings is because we’ve got our fingers on the scales in their favor. I take my hand off and the whole world gets really fucking fair really fucking quickly and nobody actually wants that. They say they do but they don’t. They want what we have to give them, but they also want to play innocent and pretend they have no idea where it came from. That’s more hypocrisy than I’m willing to swallow. Fuck them. Fuck normal people.”
Many would probably see it as a greedy bastard banker speech. And it is. But I also see it as relatively factual view point that the average person doesn’t want to admit to being part of. Gordon Gekko touched on that in Money Never Sleeps too. Although I much preferred his Teldar Paper speech :)
This morning I saw a trending topic on twitter “Who is Paul McCartney”. My first thought was “Hmm..End of Days is here.” I clicked over to it (I pretty much NEVER click on the trending topics as they are typically stupid unless some major news or sports event just occurred) and saw mostly outrage at the topic like my own, but did see a couple tweets indicating they didn’t know. They could have been messing around. But why would you make yourself look so dumb on purpose? (don’t answer…)
Anyway, I tweeted “Who is Paul McCartney is trending on twitter. It’s official. Twitter been taken over by 13 yr olds. Dumb 13 yr olds.” Since then, my phone has been blowing up with retweets, favorited and some responses – a few from offended 13 yr olds. Heh.
I think what this means is not so much that 13 yr olds DO know who Paul McCartney is (which some wanted to point out that they do) but that plenty of people think twitter has been taken over by 13 yr olds (dumb or not.) Sometimes the trending topics I see are sure signs that civilization has cratered into stupidity. But perhaps I am being insulting to 13 yr olds. Some of those topics are most assuredly created/followed by adult-aged humans.
Another 2 trending topics at the same time were about how awesome Chris Brown is. So there’s that.
I just read a story that Ashton Kutcher turned over his twitter feed to his management company. So…what’s the point of having it now?
To be clear, I don’t like Ashton. I think he is douche. I’ve always thought he was a douche. Long before his cheating or replacing Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men (which he doesn’t do well.) BUT, I appreciated the fact that he tweeted a lot and seemed to use the medium to connect with fans. He seemed genuine about that at least.
But now, because he tweeted something stupid, and got flamed for it, he disconnects. #fail
He is a celeb living in a very small, protected bubble. So it’s absolutely no surprise to me that he didn’t know anything about the biggest headline for the past few days (Joe Paterno.) I seriously doubt the guy is sitting around watching CNN or Fox News in the morning. Or picking up a paper on the way to the office. My husband doesn’t watch the news. He is not on twitter. And he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about college football. So he also knew nothing about the story. He said he saw a headline and didn’t think about it again.
And while I enjoyed bagging on Ashton for saying such a stupid thing because…well…I don’t like him much…it seems ridiculous that this much has been made of it. It was crystal clear he didn’t know what he was talking about. Anyone who thinks he didn’t know and was deliberately being an insensitive jerk is an idiot themselves. So call him out for being a bad fact-checker. Call him out for being out of touch. And definitely call him out for being a cheating bastard who is no Charlie Sheen (let’s think about that…) But that’s about it.
And turning over his twitter account to a management team? I think the whole reason people follow celebs on twitter is for them to be themselves and say inane, honest or random things. In the story I just read, one of the PR guys says he would rather his clients, whose tweets go through a vetting, tweet 1 or 2 times per month and say “something of meaning rather than endless prattle every day.” But I disagree. I think people follow celebs FOR that prattle. Otherwise, it’s just a soundbite. Or a story in People or US. And then who really cares about them on twitter at all?
Do I think Ashton is a tool? Yes. Am I on Team Demi when I don’t even really like Demi? Yes. Do I hate finding myself defending 1 word uttered by him? Yes. But I do defend it. Jeez – the guy is a douche. A clue less douche. But hardly worth the vitriol thrown at him on twitter last night (although I did find some of them amusing – especially the misspelled ones calling him an idiot.)
Seriously people…words are words. Stop placing so much importance on words. Actions mean more. Words, pretty/misleading/false/hopeful/hurtful can be uttered by a complete boob. And often are (see Washington DC.)
So I DVRed and am finally caught up on 3 new shows this season:
Ringer
American Horror Story
Revenge
I caught up on Ringer first since I saw the panel at SDCC and thought it looked pretty good. Plus it has Buffy in it :) It’s quite addictive and has GREAT clothes.
I started watching American Horror Story solely based on the cast. I don’t really like horror stuff. Too many scary movies. Who needs it. But I love Dylan McDermott (sorry…he is HOT and 50!! FIFTY! Whoa!) plus Mrs Coach (from Friday Night Lights) and Jessica Lange who is truly fantastic. Plus the rest of the cast is great. All of them. Really. It’s disturbing. And creepy. I will not ever watch it when I am home alone. But it’s great writing.
After I got my 2nd spinal cortisone injection on Tuesday, and had to stay home resting, I watched the 4 episodes of Revenge I had DVRed. LOVED it! What a guilty-pleasure fun show! Of course I love the bad girl, Madeline Stowe – she is so much fun to hate :) Great show about getting revenge – nice!!! No BS moral quandary – revenge for a huge wrong! Muahuahauhuaha!!!
My problem with all 3 of these shows is that while they are all very entertaining and fun to watch, I have to wonder how long they can last. Can they go past 1 season? Shows like this need to be written for the storyline. Like Lost. Like X-Files. They should not be kept going solely because they become sensations. And they get popular with good ratings so they get written to drag on. It happened to Lost (although they redeemed in their last season.) And don’t even get me started on X-Files. Such a FANTASTIC show that was dragged on for no good reason when they should have wrapped it up on a high note.
We’ll see. Personally I do not see how any of these 3 shows can go past season 1. Their plots are written to be a great story told. And then that’s it.
I hope their season 1 is a crazy, high ratings whirlwind that the actors and writers and studios make tons of money, ratings and awards from. But please do not drag them on. Stay true to their currently awesomely fun plots/story lines. Or be really, really creative if you intend to continue. Because I do not accept a past season was a dream sequence. Or that a main character is kidnapped by ?aliens? (or someone) or that their are others spying on Others of relatives of others from an island that doesn’t even exist…..
Cuz I’ve been there and done that. Plus I’m still convinced it was Vincent’s dream all along…
I just finished the 3rd book of the trilogy. I have to say – overall – a big giant MEH. That might not be a popular opinion, but frankly, after the 1st book (which was good and hooked me), they went downhill fast. Part of the 3rd book kept me very interested and I think it could have been good. But man, half-way through you start looking around for any uppers you might have in the house to get through more pages. Not boredom mind you – just a serious downer.
I’m sure I’ll still go see the movie. Or at least rent the DVD anyway. But man, people applauding Katniss as a strong heroine/female figure – that’s disturbing. I would send my tween or teenage girl to a Buddhist Monk temple if she said she looked up to Katniss.
I get the survival aspect. The “do what you gotta do” frame of mind. Don’t disagree with that at all and most of the decisions she had to make. But her constant whining and “oh, I should just kill myself” BS got tired after the first few. Fine, do it or quit your moaning and groaning. Crikey.
And ***SPOILER*** the author really wanted to do a complete 180 from the Twilight series in terms of personal relationships. Jeez. Hook up with the completely bonkers basically lobotimized slobbering goober. Good choice. This will help civilization re-populate and do well. (?????)
Her indecision between Gale and Peeta bordered on an All My Children storyline. Duh – Gale. Period. The end. Yes, I know she is supposed to be a 17 year old girl. But the author wrote her so that we forgot her age and she was a kickass. So you can’t whip out the immature, emotionally-stunted teen girl card when it suits you. That worked for Bella. But we knew going in that she was a whiner through the entire series. And she didn’t kick any ass until well into the 4th book. So we weren’t being teased. We knew she was a whiner. Katniss – she kicked ass. She was tough. At first, the back and forth was OK but then *eye roll* and then *give me damn break you stupid girl!*
So I guess I would say they are worth reading I suppose, but be prepared they are not for everyone.
I just read the Kindle single “Comic-Con Strikes Again!” and I LOVED it! Super quick read. But if you are a Con attendee – you will giggle :) The writer hits it SPOT ON. The frustrations, the lines, the commercialism but also the pure fan joy :)
He also hits the nail on the the head with his note about Star Wars:
“Star Wars is the closest thing the culture of Comic-Con has to a single story that unites it: the myth that can support endless allusions that will be universally understood, at least here. Not a lot of us know who, say, minor Biblical characters were, as we might have a few centuries ago, but we know Jango Fett.”
So true… :)
If you have a Kindle, it’s $0.99. And short. If you’ve ever been to SDCC, you will laugh. If not, you will probably shake your head and wonder what is wrong with us attendees. Entertaining either way :)
Vader’s silence (and then action) is a WAY more powerful tool to relay to us ignorant audience members what is going on with Vader’s conscience (and soul…and midichlorians…and whatever else) than him saying anything. Grrrrrr….
I love ya George, but you REALLY NEED TO STOP MESSING WITH CLASSICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sigh…all I can say is good thing I still have the original original trilogy. WHERE HAN SHOT FIRST!
Just got this poster! A friend bought it for me. It was created for a special screening of Fanboys by Austin Books and Comics at the Blue Starlite Drive-In. That would have been super fun to go to!
If you’ve seen Fanboys, you will understand it a bit more. But really all you need to know and understand is the Star Wars universe triumphing over the Star Trek universe :) I love the bits of bright red used for Han’s Corellian bloodstripe, the Imperial guard, Rebel flag, etc.
I much prefer this version since I’m generally against anything regarding the French Revolution :)
Nice! Amazon has the entire 70s Wonder Woman DVD collection on mega sale today!!!$36!!!
Wonder Woman has just been filling my comic life since Comic Con! It’s like the universe knows what I like…or…Amazon has some cookies on my laptop and a great algorithm to offer me stuff to buy. Whatever! Totally getting it! :)
I truly hope they never get a non-animated WW series or movie green-lighted in Hollywood again. The stills from that one that NBC was going to do looked HORRENDOUS. Lynda Carter pulled it off. And anyone who watched and enjoyed it as a kid will never accept another. Face it Hollywood.
Also…their “Customers Who buy this also buy…” finally worked on me. I added the Buck Rogers DVD set too :) Come on – who didn’t love Hawk? And yes…always liked that Erin Gray could kick some arse and not need Buck AND have good hair :)
