Open Bar: December 9, 2010
The Open Bar is a convivial place for all readers of Anomalous Material to discuss anything and everything they want all week starting every Thursday evening. Feel free to chime in or introduce new topics of discussion.
Announcements
- Read my first monthly column on The LAMB: Three Things That Make Me Click Away From Your (Movie) Blog
US Box Office Openings and Forecast
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of The Dawn Treader (Fox): $37.4 million Teens and pre-teens are getting spoiled these past few weeks…
- The Tourist (Sony/Columbia): $23.4 million – Appealing on-screen couple, bland trailer
The Open Bar Soundtrack
Links
- Top Ten Movie Characters with Fur (Celluloid Zombie)
- Ruth expanded on my post with 7 more actors who deserve more leading roles (FlixChatter)
- The Mad Hatter interviews “visual effect wizard” Douglas Trumbull (The Dark of The Matinee)
- Fitz hates Armond White (Nevermind Pop Film)
- The true meaning of Serendipity (Kind In The Front Row)
- 8 Simple Ways To Get More People to Read Your Content (Copyblogger)
A Few Potential Topics of Discussion
- What are your plans for this weekend?
- What movies are you going to see?
- Predict the box office weekend, thoughts on my box office forecast?
- Your favorite songs of the moment?
- What’s on your mind?
- What do you want me to talk about on the next LAMB column?
81 Comments
My Government showed the class 12 Angry Men, which I had already seen (making almost everyone in class ask me who’s who). Anyway, he assigned us to write an essay if we were in Juror #8′s place to see if the final verdict would be different than what it was in the movie. Should be both fun and tedious.
Movies for the weekend include: Ray (never got around to seeing it last weekend), The Bad and the Beautiful, The Devil Wears Prada (confession: never saw it before) and Pi.
Great assignment! Really creative teacher!
We did something like this only except it was with Steinbeck books to movies (Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men ect). We watched the movie and then did a mock trial.
How is Dark Background winning?!
Seeing this weekend: possibly Black Swan. Possibly I Love You Phillip Morris. Possibly nothing. The bigger question: is there anything worth seeing tonight?
Plans for the weekend: become a daddy (hence the ‘possibly nothing’ up there). Also: win two fantasy football playoff games.
If I haven’t said it already congrats on becoming a dad!
I’m waiting for the announcement first!!
Totally agree on the background! I have voted for light background from three different computers!
Background wise I’ve been stumped. I like light but my eye has always seemed to be drawn more towards dark. I dunno
I’m really surprised myself since the common belief is that people like light background/dark text. And thanks for padding the vote Joel!
There must be a ton of dark back ground fans voting like crazy. You should annul the poll because of the dark sides tampering with the votes.
Or just restart the poll. I think for some people too light text is easier to see since its lighter I dunno. I go dark/light text cuz that’s what I’m used to
All I will say is that dark background save power since your computer doesn’t have to light nearly as many pixels!!
I had never heard that before. Huh…interesting.
First of all, congrats Fletch!
Castor, I voted for light background too
I voted. Totally.
*included whether you like it or not*
I hate socializing with people. I’m so bad at it.
My plans for the weekend is as follows
-Change my blog layout
-Get back into the blogging game
-Start new weekly/bi-weekly opinion piece called the Phile Cabinet
-See an advanced screening of Tron Legacy as well as maybe another movie (any suggestions?)
-Hang out with my friends
That’s bout it
Weekend Plans!
Fixing up our hallway in the apartment. Gonna remove the old wallpaper and paint the walls.
Watch the Cross Country World Cup that races in Davos Switzerland, unfortunately the Swedish team have had some difficulties with illness earlier this week.
Finally I’ll reboot my christmas calender that has been on a serious halt.
I have had technical issues for sometime and now when I have started writing again I don’t seem to be able to stop (too wide subjects?) and finish them, the posts keep expanding.
Oh and you need to contact me and give me your information so I can send you your $20
Yes. I am actually gonna setup a paypal donation widget on my blog I’ll set it up within a couple of days.
The song in my head is still stuck from last week. This time its the recently released studio version, its not as good as the one from the show but its still great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQxOHQL0-TU
Rumors has it she is about to record a version in English aswell!
I’m a fan of hers as well (I listen to all sorts of music but I love techno/house/dance) and have heard this rumor as well
Thats amazing! I didin’t know the Swedish version had reached outside our borders?
You’d be surprised. My high school was very diverse in terms of musical taste. We had one girl who loved German rap (oddly enough) and I had a friend who lived in Sweeden for years and got me into September
The funny thing with Septemeber is that she has never been huge in Sweden until she appeared on this reality show with popular artists interpreting each others songs.
She is of course the most famous one internationally but very few swedes knew she was swedish when hearing her songs on the radio before the show, but that has of course changed by now.
Huh interesting. Reality shows can really spark an interest in people’s careers (Conan O Brian’s new show has been doing that a lot with indie bands jumpstarting their career)
Well that and American Idol/So You Think You Can Dance. Both have done that as well
The Swedish show “So much is better” has been a great showcase for some legendary domestic artists in Sweden. Here is the English version of “Mikrofonkåt”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G35-Xm8kt3g
Not as good as the Swedish version but still a catchy tune!
Just read the article Castor…really well done. Like a condensed tips thing. Don’t have anything yet on future topics but it sure helped me
Totally agree! Great points as usual!
Thanks TJ, glad it’s helpful!
It reminds me that I should do my weekly article too. Better get on that lol
I also wonder what the effect The Fighter will have on the Box office.
My prediction is that Narnia will do well because of the dedicated audience, The Tourist will do okay but less then expected and the Fighter will do well.
I hope the fighter does well unfortunately it could be hammered by both Narnia and the Tourist. I hope it slugs them both down!
*ba dum pish*
Yeah I agree. The Fighter has gotten some great reviews (and Oscar buzz) so hopefully it will do well. I know Mark Wahlberg sells pretty well and his last inspirational story (Invincible) seemed to do pretty well.
Just curious guys – is THE FIGHTER coming out this week for you? I have to wait another week for it (meaning it’ll open against TRON LEGACY).
I don’t think studios are terribly concerned with opening numbers for films like FIGHTER anyway. They know they’ll be a long/slow burn…so if they finish down the chart from TOURIST, NARNIA, or TRON for a few weeks…they’ll take it if they can build some slow word-of-mouth.
You are right. The first weekend is not that important for the fighter unless it totally bombs.
Yeah and I think the studio planned on it being a slow burn because a lot of places aren’t showing the film until next week (like Hatter said) and a lot are showing it now. I think this is one of those movies that will still be playing a month from now
Unless your movie is as terrible as Skyline, most major release play at least 5-6 weeks in most theaters.
Usually here it’s a month but 5-6 weeks sounds right in most places
Oh, where are my manners. Thanks for the shout out, Castor!
Weekend plans, well, going to see The Tourist tomorrow with my girlfriends. The reviews are kinda bad but mostly because of the leads, which aren’t the reasons I’ll be seeing it opening night
Hope you enjoy “the Englishman’s” 30 sec of screen time ahaha
j/k
Well hopefully Dalton has way more screen time. With the super dismal review, glad I’m not seeing this for the leads. The critics seem to praise the beautiful Venice… ha..ha… so it’s still a good escape from this dreadful Winter.
When you do your next LAMB post Castor I recommend including absolutists under your negative column. Encourage people to seek out varying viewpoints and not just those who merely reinforce their own. I’ve got a whole crap load of posts on objectivity in cinema discussion if you need some study material
Oh, and as for this weekend – I believe some hot chocolate and a good classic will be just what the doctor ordered.
Good point Ryan. Will do in an upcoming column when I can include that
Thought of another idea for you Castor – bad commenting. In your last post you mentioned people who comment, but there’s more to commenting than just doing so. For example if someone comes to my blog and just writes “Nice post” odds are I’m more likely to disregard it. I have nothing to say in return but “Thanks” and the conversation ends. Not to mention there’s no indication there that they even read my post.
However, usually those people are part of another group. The trackback whores. They come to your blog and do something like “Nice post, read my blog!” In my opinion these comments are barely one step above general spam.
Indeed it goes without saying!! Every comment is a reflection of you and your blog.
Thank you for the plug kind sir…and here was me thinking very few people were actually reading that interview! (I was actually kinda nervous before it began, even though this one was by phone).
I’m seeing THE KING’S SPEECH on Saturday for sure, and hopefully I’ll get one more film in…but that still remains to be seen.
I loved the interview it was very well done.
I’ve heard good things about the Kings Speech but there has been NO news of when it’s coming out here in WA…can’t wait to read the review
I have no idea what opens this weekend… but I’ve got a ton of films on the “to watch” list that I think are out on DVD.
Though, this is the last weekend before YAM launch… which I’m nervous for xD I’m gonna be so happy when this is online to test properly~~~
If you’ve seen Shunji Iwai’s All About Lily Chou Chou film, and liked Lily Chou Chou music (played by Salyu), you’d be happy to know that Salyu is back as Lily with new material… a new single, and a new concert ;P
Someone was lucky enough to get a ticket for the show, so they’re going to be reviewing the show for YAM =D
Did you guys know that Japan has a particular concert ticket sale system? Members of fanclubs get first-serve tickets, what’s left go on sale on a random draw. :\
I also find it interesting that in America is all about lining up. Or I guess North America…
Anyone have a movie/concert queue story?
Half of the whole TIFF experience is lining up.
I’ve met lots of great people in festival lines – including Lady Hatter!
Great post Castor(I mean the one in Lamb), I wonder is my blog slow or not,can you tell me please?
My weekend plan is to go to a reptile-expo and try to find a cute torto to adopt
will also watch some movie so that I can write my 2ndacross the world post
I meant to post this in the comments over there at your LAMB post, but it’s a bit late now: people can go here (http://tools.pingdom.com/) to test their sites’ loading times. Nifty tool.
Thanks Fletch
that is really cool.
Mine opens in 8,4 seconds…yaiii
Mine opens in 2 seconds. Boo yah.
Your pictures could definitely use being optimized but nothing too terrible. YSlow says you have 5065 kilobytes worth of pictures but you could easily save 30-40% of that simply by editing and re-saving those pictures in Paint (an easy way of optimizing jpg).
Wow 6 seconds for me (I don’t think that’s too shabby)
Mine says .4 seconds…can that possibly be right?
I tested your site twice, Hatter – got a 2.4 and a 2.8. Either way, very nice!
I recommend the Firefox add-on YSlow since you can see a breakdown as well as recommendations for each component.
edit in Paint…thanks for the advice, will do it for future pictures. Those that already uploaded will stay like that, I can live with 8s
Yes just open with paint, then save, it will cut down on the size of the file but shouldn’t alter the quality of the picture to the naked eye.
I have tried it on my turtle’s blog
unfortunately I can still see the different quality. Maybe it’s because I am used to see my pets in a good quality picture
At least one foot of snow and potential blizzard on Saturday, great…
I heard it could even be up to 2 feet, Castor, yikes!! Sounds like hibernation is in order but I already promised my friend I’d volunteer at his church. Oh well, God’ll keep us safe
Question for Ruth & Castor. Do y’all hang out?
It occurs to me that I can name almost half a dozen movie bloggers in Minneapolis, and it seems a waste to have all of you so close to one another and not get together like the Toronto crowd does once a month.
You… you mean like meeting in real life? Why would one do such a thing?
Jealous! I know of zero Phoenix movie bloggers. I can’t believe that there’s not a single other Arizona blogger in the LAMB. They must not be taking the Who Are LAMB demo surveys…jerks.
Yeah, I can think of like 3 or 4 other MN bloggers in about two seconds flat. Weird…it ain’t THAT big a town…
OK, that’s a “no”.
Which leads to the obvious question…why not?
Well, the man does appear to like his anonymity. Of course, the same might have been said for you at some point (kinda, not really, but kinda).
@ Fletch… Even at the height of my anonymity, I was never above getting together with some movie-bloggin-brethren
@ Fletch: Come by tomorrow and you will understand! 2 feet of snow, 35 mph wind and -15 degrees will force you to be holed up in your house for 2 or 3 days in a row. There isn’t much else to do but blog
Heck, I just came back from the grocery store and the gym because I know there is absolutely no way I will be outside on Saturday.
@ Mad: I was kidding. I do meet with Ruth to discuss our world domination plans!
I haven’t met Daniel Getahun or Luke from Journalistic Skepticism yet.
Y’know, I actually asked Castor to participate in last Fall TCFF but he’s obviously too busy with his world domination plans ahah.
Hatter, Castor & I did meet once but haven’t been able to hang out again. That’s cool that you Toronto bloggers meet monthly. Which reminds me, Castor – I think you missed my comment in last Open Bar post (when you announced the comment contest winner) about picking up the book award in person. December is a crazy busy month and this blizzard definitely is putting a damp on travel, so perhaps in January?
Whenever you want Ruth!
Over here in WA we had a lot of snow over Thanksgiving. And usually if we have snow on or around Thanksgiving it usually means we will be plummeted with snow on Christmas. Yay (rolls eyes)
I feel your pain Fletch. There are jack squat WA bloggers that I know of. You think there would be more since it rains so much. But mostly I know aspiring actors/directors/writers who want to get into film up here but none that ever plan on blogging. Grr.
Castor – how come I never see any updates on here for the HSX league? You (and everyone else not named Fletch or Kai) just give up on it? I want my fortune and glory!
I think people have for the most part. I tried to keep up on it but other things took over and it became a back burner thought that I would eventually get to. But you two feel free to take the crown. I concede whatever glory or fortune was available to you two
Well to be honest, you are the first one to even mention the HSX league since it was launched so that’s probably why. I think most have sort of given up
I will make an announcement next week in the open bar just to give you your day of glory 
Well, last Sunday was my birthday. My original birthday film was “Black Swan” but because it wasn’t released in Atlanta at that time. I went with “127 Hours” instead. So this Sunday, I will go see “Black Swan” and hopefully get a review out later that day.
At least it gave me more time to finish updating and expanding my old Darren Aronofsky reviews that I wrote for Epinions a couple of years ago while getting a chance to see “The Fountain”. Now that I’ve released all of my Aronofsky reviews. The next thing to do (which I’ve just completed) is expand my review of “The Red Shoes” that I decided to watch in anticipation for “Black Swan” and go in-depth into the contents of the Criterion DVD.
That will come out on Sat. while I will spend the rest of the time figuring out what to do next along with continue work on my Most Anticipated Films of 2011 project which is likely to be split into 2 parts. After “Black Swan” and the review. I will finish my Auteurs essay for Darren Aronofsky.
I don’t have a favorite song at the moment nor do I have any predictions about the box office. Though it’s likely that “The Tourist” won’t do well (I found out about the ending and…). Nothing is on my mind except on what Criterion DVD I should do next to review other than “The Darjeeling Limited” along with finishing some LAMB-related projects on Miss Portman.
Thank you for a very good open bar night.
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