Miscellaneous

I normally don’t review music, because I know nothing about music. I’m sort of like Ellen DeGeneres on “American Idol” in that way, only not as funny or famous or talented. But I’m going to make a rare exception here, because I saw Justin Klump perform at a small venue near my home a couple years and was impressed by his sound.

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It may be unlikely. Hell, you’re supposed to lose this game by at least ten points. And you never exceed expectations, so why am I even going on about this?

Wait, what? You, the Seahawks, pulled off one of the biggest upsets in NFL playoff history last week by beating the New Orleans Saints? And I was at that game, you say, watching Marshawn Lynch finally show to the home crowd why the Seahawks drafted him in the first place?

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There are thousands, if not millions, of writers in the world whose names will never be known and whose novelist careers will never earn them enough to make a living. And then there are the lucky few who receive the critical or market acclaim that elevates them to an entirely different level. John Ajvide Lindqvist has reached that level, at least momentarily.

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There was a time when I understood why people would choose Blockbuster over Netflix: you could still get movies via mail, but deliver them to a brick-and-mortar store and retrieve a new movie instantaneously. Well, almost instantaneously, if you consider driving to the store, waiting in line, and driving home such a thing. It’s now 2010, and after Netflix’s latest business move, it’s hard to imagine anyone not subscribing to the big red.

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The ninth annual Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), co-founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, announced a total attendance of over 410,000 at screenings, panels and free community events, including the Drive-In and Street Fair.  Theater attendance for the Festival screenings and events reached over 94,000. Screenings were often at capacity, with more than 95% attendance at 396 screenings and panels throughout the 12-day Festival.

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I love sports. I also love the Olympics. Meaning I really love the Olympics. As you know, I live in Seattle, and Seattle, like the rest of the west coast, is getting screwed by NBC. But, you know, it’s not that bad. I don’t mind watching sporting events that happened live a two hours’ drive from where I live several hours after they occurred, clipped and edited down to an American sizzle of highlight athletes and mind-numbingly pointless stories about “heroes” and polar bears. I don’t mind going on Twitter or Facebook or the Yahoo homepage to inadvertently read about the events and their winners hours before I even have a chance of seeing them on television. I don’t mind that I am unable to watch the events I want to see on NBCOlympics.com, or for that matter CTV.ca, which blocks my IP address from watching videos.

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This February, the 2010 Winter Olympics kick off in Vancouver, British Columbia, which is – aside from the inevitable border delays – a two-hour drive from Seattle, Washington. Which is where I live. For years, us Seattleites (and Washingtonians in general) have had our options when watching the Olympics: the bloated NBC coverage, which wastes precious time they could be using to show sports by giving us personal stories of redemption and talking head interviews, or the non-stop, more worldly coverage by CBC, a Canadian station.

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Roman Polanski is no longer “wanted and desired,” as he’s been arrested by the Swiss police for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, according to an article by the Associated Press. He could now face extradition to the United States for the crime that caused him to flee from France.

Polanski, who is now 76 years old, was on his way to the Zurich Film Festival to receive an honorary award when he was stopped by police. The U.S. will now have to file an extradition claim to have him deported to Los Angeles.

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If you have an iPhone, you can now visit the FilmJabber Movie Blog with native iPhone support. No more zooming or scrolling about the screen – just visit the URL http://blog.filmjabber.com/ and you’ll have access to all of our amazingly awesome and unbeatable articles in an easy-to-read, easy-to-comment-on format. Check it out now and make sure to add us to your bookmarks!

Patrick Swayze has unfortunately passed away at the age of 57. He died after battling pancreatic cancer, a particularly deadly form of the disease. He passed away peacefully with his family at his side.

Despite his diagnosis becoming front-page news in early 2008 (including reports that he had days to live), he continued to work, primarily on the recently canceled A&E series “The Beast,” in which he played a rogue cop. Swayze is best known for his roles in Dirty Dancing and Ghost. Though he was rarely seen in any major releases since the early-to-mid nineties (following his turn as an adrenaline-loving bad guy in Point Break), Swayze was a worldwide star, whose credits also included Red Dawn (one of my favorites) and Donnie Darko.

Here’s something random: Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies, has swine flu. His publicist reported that the young man is on his death bed… or, at least, he has the sniffles.

“It has just been confirmed that Rupert Grint has taken a few days out of filming due to a mild bout of swine flu,” the publicist’s statement said, according to this article by the AFP.

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I went to go see The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 at the Regal Meridian in downtown Seattle tonight with my buddy Tom. Tom, a college roommate and one of my best friends, is one who you should go to the movies with not at all, depending on your movie watching preferences. There’s nothing wrong with Tom, you see, but Tom has the strange ability to attract the crazies to the movie theater – so if you need peace and quite while watching a movie, he is not the guy to go see a movie with.

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The last couple of years have been full of story’s about IMAX’s success. Ever since the theater chain, which was originally dedicated to documentaries filmed with clunky cameras, started showing “real” movies, its revenues have skyrocketed, and for good reason. People pay – and they do pay – a premium of up to $5 (more if you buy online) to go see the latest blockbuster on a massive screen with excellent sound and near-vertical seating.

But Aziz Ansari, one of the stars in the NBC comedy “Parks and Recreation,” has unleashed a firestorm against the company for diluting the IMAX brand and robbing him of dollars that were unnecessarily spent. And I have to agree with him…

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According to The Associated Press, the Batman villain The Joker was shot and killed by police in Shenandoah National Park. Reported just a few hours ago, an FBI affidavit explains that a soldier “dressed and wearing face-paint like… The Joker” was killed when he pointed a loaded shotgun at police following a chase.

Army Spc. Christopher Lanum was a suspect in the stabbing Spc. Mitchell Stone at Fort Eustis. Stone says that Lanum, who idolized the character of The Joker, stabbed him and used a taser gun on him before fleeing.

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Stefanie over at Endless Simmer sent me a link to a blog post on her site about the top 10 movie food moments of all time. It’s a clever way to take advantage of the upcoming Oscars show by a site that generally has nothing to do with movies.

I don’t necessarily agree with all the scenes mentioned in the list, but it’s fun to look at anyway.

Alternatively, I would have recommended the orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally and the puking scene in Stand By Me. However, I absolutely agree with their inclusion of the scene from Ratatouille.

Check out the top 10 movie food moments.