Day: October 20, 2013

NO SEX PLEASE? NO REALLY

A fascinating story from Japan: The youth of the nation do not want t have sex.. so much so that there is a birth crisis on the horizon..

The UK GUARDIAN has a report about Japan, where people seemingly have stopped desiring sexual relations.. As a matter of fact, it’s not just a disinterest, but a large percentage of the nation ‘despises’ sexual contact! 
Even more, the ‘celibacy syndrome’ is so bad that the government is worried about it.
Not mentioned in the story: Worries about Fukushima.. I wonder how many people have stopped being interested in having children because they fear the nation that their children would actually grow up in?
Nonetheless, the GUARDIAN story is worth the read.. 
Is this just evolutionary? That naturally, somewhere along the line, human beings would stop being interested in the very act that resulted in our existence? 

On a bright October 20th .. somewhere in time.

Six year ago today (on a day virtually the same as today weatherwise) my wife Tara and I took our first walk as a married couple. 
This image perfectly symbolized how I felt that day—walking into the future, backs to the past.. but the same bridge of life. 
Since then we had a child, headaches and heartaches, deaths and tribulations. 
Along with it, laughs, endless smiles, and sure, a few necessary frowns.
The journey of life.. accompanying each other..
After six years, we now have a legacy. 
A child .. 
In six years, he’ll be going on 9.. and we’ll be combing out gray hairs—with me maybe shining a bald head.
While we know things can mightily change in the span of only a few years, a few constants will remain. 
Happy 6th Tara Lynn. And many, many more.

So why did a horror-themed movie fail at a Halloween-timed box office?

CARRIE SET PHOTO
I thought the cool secret advertisement that was done in the New York City coffee shop did a great job showcasing the movie.. I have seen endless ads for the film.. the word of mouth has been decent, 
And I even saw a review in CHRISTIANITY TODAY that portrayed the movie in a much more favorable light than what would be expected from a religious publican.
So why did it fail?
First off, it’s up against what may possibly be the movie of the year: GRAVITY, which is now experiencing its third week as the number one film at the box office—and that is pretty impressive this year,  as many movies did not have much staying power once released.
But it’s almost Halloween.. scares are in the air. So why did a horror movie fail?
Interestingly enough, it seems that scary flicks do better in the middle of the summer than the autumn—maybe kids are out of school and parents are more apt to get them into a an R rated film than they would be when school’s in session? I recall when my mom took me to see FRIDAY THE 13TH JASON TAKES MANHATTAN and my music teacher caught her in the act.. 
There is a certain aspect of CARRIE that doomed it from the beginning: The fact that MGM actually remade it to begin with. It was not really, well.. needed. The original film is still a classic, and people happily watch that version when they have the chance.. Nikki Finke made a good point, too: CARRIE did not satisfy the people who wanted SAW-like gore, and didn’t make people happy who wanted the creepy factor like in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY.
So here we have CARRIE, a film that may have been better never existing—at least the current incarnation.. 
But one other thing is for sure: THE FIFTH ESTATE, Wikileaks movie, flopped big time. It is only in about 1700 or so theaters. Next week, it will be lucky to be in 17..

Sunday morning sidewalk..

SUNDAY OCTOBER 20 2013

The Neanderthals ate cooked vegetables!

DAILY BEAST: The disaster that didn’t have to happen: Healthcare.gov is a technological mess..

Good thing they beat that curse! The Boston Red Sox are going to the World Series..

Man undergoes plastic surgery to look like Justin Bieber!

Tacky: Bieber tweets about his strip club experience..

Teen pop star has blood clot and flu..

Brains get rid of toxins while we sleep..

Mosquitos with yellow fever spotted in Californina..

Marilyn Manson joining ONCE UPON A TIME cast..

Teenage girl ‘crucified’ to expel demons!

Pre-Halloween box office a big bust for CARRIE remake..

Modern world: Dress up your cell phone for Halloween..

Sirius XM drops a LOT of popular programming..

I smell a PR disaster..

Sirius XM just dropped a lot of popular shows and channels from their lineup.. a contractual issue with Clear Channel is the reason. But head over to the Sirius Facebook page and see .. every single comment is someone saying they are now dropping their Sirius subscription..
And in a sense, Sirius did not tell people who were signing up within the last few days that the shows they were signing up for were suddenly going to be dropped on midnight October 18 .. very bad business plan on this one Sirius.. .. very bad indeed. They are lucky they have Howard Stern and Art Bell.. There really are few other reasons at this point to keep the service if you’ve already paid for it..

You know why American students are so bad at science…?

Here’s an example.. A story comes out that an asteroid may hit in 2032 (and another one in 2036, but that’s besides the point) .. and what does the news media collectively do? Put it at the end of their newscasts, or the back of the paper, and make a little funny quip about ‘better get your stockpile of food ready’ or something else they find funny.

But it’s not very funny to think that an life-altering event may take place—in our lifetimes! It’s not too humorous to imagine a world where food can’t grow, water is not clean, and everything eventually dies off.
Science is also mocked, left until the ‘end’ of the broadcast.. and when spoken about, changed into a political debate instead of scientific one..
Science is not respected much by this modern world.. And certainly kids in high schools aren’t given many examples in life of their piers respecting much of anything about it.
Believe in earth changes? You’re an elitist.
Scared of 2032’s asteroid strike? You’re a prepper..
All political.
Never scientific.. 
It is frustrating indeed.