Review Tuesday: Oblivion

I saw trailers for Oblivion a while ago and felt conflicted.

• It looks like a cool sci-fi movie! PRO!
• Tom Cruise. CON.
• Cool special effects! PRO!
• Tom Cruise. CON.
• Cool crafts! PRO!
• Tom Cruise. CON.
• Morgan Freeman! PRO!
• Tom Cruise. CON.
• Olga Kurylenko! PRO!

Just about no con can over-ride that last PRO! So Last weekend I went to see it with some friends.

A drone tech in a post-apocalyptic world discovers the truth about himself and the remnants of the Earth after a NASA craft crashes.

That drone technician is Jack Harper, played by Tom Cruise. He's about 2 weeks away from loose ends being tied up on Earth, then he and his partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) can join the rest of the survivors on Titan, Saturn's moon. The only problem is that Jack is plagued with memories of a lost love, which turns out to be astronaut Julia Harper (Olga Kurylenko), Jack's wife. Once she shows up, everything that Jack knows is turned upside down.

The movie is at once both a simple story, but with a twist that you never saw coming. It's a very clever movie with pretty good writing. Everyone did the part well. However, I feel that Tom Cruise is getting too old for these love stories. He looks more like Olga's dad than hubby. Besides that, the story works. You feel bad for the survivors. The 2+ hours goes by fast. It's a fun sci-fi flick.

It was fun to see this on the big screen, and if you want to experience it that way, better get to it fast. Iron Man 3 comes out this weekend and is expected to destroy all.

More on IMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1483013/?ref_=hm_cht_t2

Note... ever notice how CON is always something bad? I wish I figured that out YEARS ago...

Keaton Simons releases Beautiful Pain / performing on AXS TV tonight

Former Maverick and CBS recording artist Keaton Simons has just released his new album, titled Beautiful Pain. The album was co-produced by Mikal Blue (Colbie Caillat, One Republic) and mastered by Gavin Lurssen of Lurssen Mastering. The album features co-writes with friends and peers Jason Mraz, Jason Reeves, and Glen Phillips (Toad the Wet Sprocket) amongst others. Fans can purchase the album on Amazon and iTunes, and can stream the album in full here.

Earlier this month Keaton premiered the visually gorgeous video for current single "Beautiful Pain." The video was directed by Nick Spanos and executive produced by long time friend, and star of the Showtime series Californication, David Duchovny. The video can be seen here.

"This song has tremendous personal meaning to me. I wanted to show the extraordinary side of real, everyday people, and illustrate that love is worth fighting for," said Simons when asked about the video's concept.

Keaton recently announced a string of record release shows in Los Angeles, NYC, and the Washington DC area. Show details are as follows:

Saturday May 4th @ The Hotel Cafe, Los Angeles CA
10:30-11:45PM; $10 / 21+

Wednesday May 15th @ The Bitter End, NYC NY
9:00-10:00PM; $10 / 18+

Sunday, June 2nd at Jammin’ Java
227 Maple Ave E
Vienna, VA 22180
7:30pm, all ages, $10 advance/$15 day of

Keaton will also be doing a very special live performance on AXS TV today (April 30th) at 7PM PST / 10PM EST. Go to www.axs.tv/subscribe for channel listings and to see if your cable provider carries AXS TV.

To stay current on all things Keaton Simons be sure to follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

"Beautiful Pain" video URL: http://youtu.be/Z2d8r_GIZ9U

Beautiful Pain on iTunes: http://bit.ly/13yQDb4
Beautiful Pain on Amazon: http://amzn.to/154wCOj
Beautiful Pain album stream: http://www.idesignprod.com/keatonsimons/beautifulpain_album/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/keatonsimonsmusic
Twitter: www.twitter.com/keatonsimons

Today's Trivia - 04/30/2013

What names did explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark give to the rivers known today as the Salmon and the Bitterroot?

• Lewis named the Bitterroot for Clark; Clark named the Salmon for Lewis. Neither name survived. But one very personal name Clark gave a river did stick: that of the Judith River in Montana, which he named for the woman he hoped to—and did—marry when the historic expedition to the Pacific coast ended.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

cornice \KAWR-nis\, noun:

1. a mass of snow, ice, etc., projecting over a mountain ridge.
2. Architecture. a. any prominent, continuous, horizontally projecting feature surmounting a wall or other construction, or dividing it horizontally for compositional purposes. b. the uppermost member of a classical entablature, consisting of a bed molding, a corona, and a cymatium, with rows of dentils, modillions, etc., often placed between the bed molding and the corona.
3. any of various other ornamental horizontal moldings or bands, as for concealing hooks or rods from which curtains are hung or for supporting picture hooks.

verb:

1. to furnish or finish with a cornice.

Cornice came to English from the Middle French corniche or from the Italian, largely popularized by the writings of Dante. The noun form entered the language two hundred years before the verb form in the mid-1500s.

Fantabulous

• Sort of like "fabulous" but much more fabulous than the word "fabulous" can convey. Like supercalifragilisticexpialidocius but shorter and easier to spell.

While on a free trip to Italy I won a free titanium frame bicycle and the customs agent let me bring it on the plane for free. What a Fantabulous trip!

Trivia

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History

• George Washington: took the oath of office to become the first POTUS (1789)
• Louisiana Purchase: France agreed to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States for $15 million, thereby doubling the size of the US (1803); eight years later on the same date, Louisiana became the 18th state
• A Tale of Two Cities: Charles Dickens' novel was first published as a serial in a literary magazine (1859)
• Vietnam War: officially ended when Saigon (now called Ho Chi Minh City) fell and South Vietnam surrendered (1975)

Birthdays

• Cornelius Vanderbilt 1898
• Ellis Wilson 1899
• George R. Stibitz 1904
• Queen Juliana (Netherlands) 1909
• Al Lewis 1910
• Eve Arden 1912
• Robert Shaw 1916
• Percy Heath 1923
• John (Johnny) Horton 1925
• Cloris Leachman 1926 - Actress ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Phyllis")
• Willie Nelson 1933 - Musican
• Gary Collins 1938 - Talk show host
• Burt Young 1940 - Actor
• Johnny Farina 1941 - Musician (Santo & Johnny)
• Bobby Vee (Velline) 1943 - Singer
• Jill Clayburgh 1944 - Actress
• Richard Schoff (The Sandpipers) 1944
• Don Schollander 1946
• Perry King 1948
• Wayne Kramer 1948 - Musician (MC5)
• Merril Osmond 1953 - Singer (The Osmonds)
• Jane Campion 1954 - Director
• Paul Gross 1959
• Isiah Thomas 1961 - Basketball player
• Robert Reynolds (The Mavericks) 1962
• Barrington Levy 1964 - Dancer
• Adrian Pasdar 1965 - Actor ("Heroes")
• Turbo B 1967 - Rapper (Snap)
• Clark Vogeler 1969 - Musician (Toadies)
• Chris "Choc" Dalyrimple 1971 - Musician (Soul for Real)
• J.R. Richards 1972 - Musician (Dishwalla)
• Jeff Timmons 1973 - Musician (98 Degrees)
• Akron 1973 - Singer
• Johnny Galecki 1975 - Actor ("The Big Bang Theory")
• Kirsten Dunst 1982 - Actress ("Spider-Man")
• Ashley Dupré 1985 former high-class hooker who took down the NYS Gov Eliot Spitzer, NY Post Columnist
• Dianna Agron 1986 - Actress ("Glee")

Look forward to Monday! April 29, 2013

Linda O'Neil

Honeymoon 1+2

        

Hotty of the day

cred to ou

Weekend Box Office - 04/29/2013

Box Office

1. Pain & Gain $20M
2. Oblivion $17.4M
3. 42 $10.7M
4. The Big Wedding $7.5M
5. The Croods $6.6M

The steroid loaded movie PAIN & GAIN barely took the number one spot with a mere $20 mill. Last week's #1, OBLIVION slipped to #2. My review tomorrow.

Weekend Trivia - 04/29/2013

When it comes to art, why does Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn call himself the Inspector Clouseau of collectors?

• For accidentally poking his elbow through Pablo Picasso’s painting The Dream, the day before he was to turn it over to a buyer for $139 million. Inspector Clouseau, of course, is the bumbling detective of the Pink Panther movies.

What automobile company was the first foreign rival purchased outright by a Chinese carmaker?

• Volvo, which the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group purchased from the Ford Motor Company in 2010.

  

Monday, April 29, 2013

decamp \dih-KAMP\, verb:

1. to depart quickly, secretly, or unceremoniously: The band of thieves decamped in the night.
2. to depart from a camp; to pack up equipment and leave a camping ground: We decamped before the rain began.

From the French descamper, decamp emerged in English in the late 1600s. It is a combination of Latin roots dis + campus, literally meaning "away from open field."

cucuy

• "El cucuy" is about the equivelant to the boogie man, but is much scarier. Contrary to what people believe its not just the MEXICAN boogieman, many different Spanish speaking countries tell stories about the Cucuy. Some say that the Cucuy lives in the closet.

"Te va a comer el Cucuy"

"The Cucuy is gonna eat you"

Trivia

A towering bronze likeness of what entertainer stands at the entrance to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City?

• Comedian Jackie Gleason. The statue depicts Gleason carrying a lunchbox and dressed as Ralph Kramden, the blustering bus driver he portrayed on the TV sitcom The Honeymooners.

History

• Joan of Arc: led her army into Orléans in victory over the English (1429)
• Dachau: concentration camp was liberated by US soldiers (1945)
• Naomi Uemura: became the first person to reach the North Pole alone; he traveled by sled dog (1978)
• Los Angeles race riots: began after the acquittal of police officers accused of beating Rodney King (1992)
• space walk: astronaut Jerry Linenger and cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev stepped out together on first joint US-Russian walk in space (1997)
• Rent: Rock musical opened on Broadway; the Manhattan-set retelling of La bohème went on to win several Tonys, a Pulitzer and many other awards (1996)

Birthdays

• Alexander II (Alexander the Liberator) 1745 - Czar of the Russian Empire from 1855 to 1881
• William Randolph Hearst 1863 - American newspaper magnate, newspaper publisher,
• Sir Thomas Beecham 1879 - British conductor
• Duke Ellington (Edward Kennedy) 1899 - Composer, pianist, big band leader
• Hirohito (Emperor Showa) 1901 - 124th Japanese emperor, emperor from 1926 to 1989
• Tom Ewell 1909 - Actor ("The Girl Can't Help It," "The Tom Ewell Show," "Baretta")
• Richard Carlson 1912 - Actor, director, screenwriter
• Donald Mills 1915 - Musician (The Mills Brothers)
• Celeste Holm 1919 - Actress
• Danny Davis 1925 - Musician (The Nashville Brass)
• Carl Gardner 1928 - Musician (The Coasters)
• Lonnie Donegan 1931 - Musician
• Rod McKuen 1933 - Poet
• Keith Baxter 1933 - Actor
• Otis Rush 1934 - Musician
• Luis Aparicio 1934 - Baseball player
• Lane Smith 1936 - Actor ("Red Dawn," "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman")
• April Stevens 1936 - Singer
• Zubin Mehta 1936 - Conductor
• Duane Allen 1943 - Singer (The Oak Ridge Boys)
• Richard Kline 1944 - Actor ("Three's Company")
• Tammi Terrell 1945 - Singer
• Tommy James 1947 - Musician (The Shondells)
• Francis Rossi 1949 - Musician (Status Quo)
• Dale Earnhardt 1951 - Father of race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.
• Kate Mulgrew 1955 - Actress ("Star Trek: Voyager")
• Jerry Seinfeld 1955 - Comedian, actor ("Seinfeld")
• Daniel Day-Lewis 1957 - Actor
• Michelle Pfeiffer 1957 - Actress
• Eve Plumb 1958 - Actress ("The Brady Bunch")
• Mark Kendall 1958 - Musician (Great White)
• Stephanie Bentley 1963 - Country musician
• Carnie Wilson 1968 - Singer (Wilson Phillips)
• Michael Timmins 1969 - Musician (Cowboy Junkies)
• Master P (Percy Miller) 1970 - Rapper
• Uma Thurman 1970 - Actress ("Pulp Fiction")
• Andre Agassi 1970 - Tennis player
• James Bonamy 1972 - Country Musician
• Mike Hogan 1973 - Musician (Cranberries)
• Tommie Harris 1983 - Football player
• Zane Carney 1985 - Actor
  

  

Dr. Strange-Bob

Thanks again to LISA