Movie Sequels
Why is it that movie makers feel the need to capitalize on a movie's success by releasing sequels? Sure, some movie sequels are great. On the other hand some are just Movie #1 all over again in a different location. Or they are just plain awful. Just how many times are they going to free Willy? (I never watched any of those movies so I don't know if they freed Willy in each one.) But I'm not writing this to go over good and bad sequels. Rather I'm here to talk about naming them.
Some sequels are fine with just a number after the title. Like Toy Story, Toy Story 2 & Toy Story 3. That works. Others are kind of strange. Take the Rambo movies for instance: First Blood, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rambo III & Rambo. Shouldn't it be First Blood, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rambo II: First Blood Part III & Rambo III: First Blood part IV? Or even more logical would be First Blood, Second Blood, Third Blood & Fourth Blood.
The reason this subject is even taking up any space in my brain is that I recently saw the trailer for Scream 4. Naming your movie Scream is pretty bland but not too bad. Scream 2 just sounds weird. So do Scream 3 and Scream 4. Why couldn't they be a little creative with naming these films? I would have named them Scream, Scream Again, Scream Some More & Still Screaming.
Black Friday
I recently read an article where the basic message was do what you do and hope people love or hate it. If people love it, they'll spread the word. If people hate it, they'll spread the word. If they are indifferent, they'll remain silent.
Someone can vehemently spout hatred for something with the result of having somebody checking it out and liking it. Same goes for the reverse. One can check something out to see how great it is only to find out that the hype is just hype and the "thing" actually sucks.
It makes sense to me. Would you like a real life example? Rebecca Black and her "hit" single, Friday.
People are viewing the YouTube vid like it's going out of style. It had 42,970,631 views upon the writing of this article. Most of the views are off bad press. But guess what? Friday is #39 on the iTunes chart outselling Justin Bieber and Katy Perry.
Somebody is makin' a little cash off of bad press. Not to mention a video gone viral and a whole lot of people now know who Rebecca Black is.
What do I think of the song, you ask? With it's Auto-Tune fortitude, above and beyond ultra lame lyrics and a 13-year-old who has probably already peaked in her music career, I think it sucks.
And thanks to my negative review and taking the time to write about it I've only helped fuel the movement.
Me and my big mouth.
3 Groovin' Kings
Three kings from the East are following a star that is taking them West. They've been traveling through the desert for quite some time when they decide to stop for a little rest. And a little jam session.
The result is 3 Groovin' Kings. This new take on an old classic is now available on iTunes.
Spread the word!
Product Branding
Ever notice how when a company comes out with a new product that all the other companies' products that follow suit get called the pioneering company's name? Like Jet Ski? Weed Eater? Band Aid? A company called Jet Ski created a Personal Water Craft and everybody called it by it's brand name, "Jet Ski". Then all the other Personal Water Crafts like it were called Jet Ski too even though there was only one company called Jet Ski.
What's my point? Irritating Branding Nonsense. Sing with me:
"I am stuck on Band Aid Brand 'cause Band Aid's Stuck on me!"
When I was a kid the word "Brand" wasn't in that jingle. It was merely:
"I am stuck on Band Aid, 'cause Band Aid's Stuck on me!"
Somewhere somebody decided they needed to set the pinnacle of adhesive bandages apart from the others by adding "Brand" to it. Most people I know call any adhesive bandage "Band Aid" regardless of who makes it. So why did Johnson & Johnson have to add "Brand" to their already cool Band Aid name? I dunno. I still hate the word "Brand" in the jingle. Throws off the meter.
This reminds me of playing with Legos as a child. One day I decided I must read the entire instruction booklet including all of the fine print. Much to my dismay I discovered that all of us children who loved our Legos were doing it wrong. The note read something like this:
"Please refer to this product as "Lego Brand Building Blocks" and not "Legos" blah, blah, blah."
I can't remember the exact wording but it was something like that.
Now what kid is going to say "Lego Brand Building Blocks" when they can just say "Legos"? None that I know of. Hand me that red Lego Brand Building block with the two dots on the top. No, not that one. The other one next to the yellow Lego Brand Building block that's square with the four dots. Hey Billy! Wanna come over and play with my Lego Brand Building Blocks? How dumb does that sound?
I think for vacation this year we will go visit Lego Brand Building Blocks Land. And if I get a cut I sure hope I have a Band Aid Brand adhesive bandage!
Headline Nonsense
Here's a headline from CNN on Sunday, Sept. 20:Kid scores 1,019,000 on Guitar HeroBig freakin' deal. I'm sure the college recruiters are lining up at this kid's door.
Lung Ailment Caused by Spoon Fragment
John Manley has suffered two years of ill health, coughing, vomiting and pain. Finally a doctor, using an endoscope, looked into John's lungs and found the problem. The culprit? A plastic spoon handle from Wendy's. They are calling it a fragment but when you can read "Wendy's" on one side and "hamburgers" on the other, one must ascertain that it was a decent sized chunk.
Now John doesn't recall chowing on a spoon so he said it must have been in either the food or drink. If it was in the food, one would think it would have been discovered by the teeth. I've eaten hamburger with a piece of bone or cartilage in it that was quite easily discovered once it came between my teeth. And it was pretty small. Certainly not large enough to print "Wendy's" on it. If one were eating fast enough I guess there's the possibility of the plastic being missed.
If the handle were in the drink I could understand it going past the teeth undetected. Since fast-food beverages are routinely consumed via straw, I can't imagine a fragment large enough to have legible print on it to be able to pass through the straw. In either case, how did the plastic get into the lung?
That's probably where the saying "inhaling your food" comes from.
Obamanomics
I found this photo to be quite humorous. Why? Because it's funny! Now I had somebody tell me:
"To be fair to him, no he didn't do that. No one person is to blame, and I am personally shocked at the fact that a group of people could so easily condemn one man for what is obviously a broad spectrum of factors contributing in a global economic meltdown."
Obviously Obama isn't solely responsible for the economic situation we are in at the moment. The plane started losing altitude before he took office. I don't think it takes an above average I.Q. to understand that if an airplane is losing altitude that the best way to correct it is to put the plane into a nosedive.
And yes, that is exactly what he's doing.
