It must be that time of year. Companies are talking of more layoffs. According to news reports the RICH widening their gap between them and the middle class, which must mean the poor are getting poorer. What we have doesn’t buy what it did a year ago. One area I read about is trying to kill itself. Earlier I wrote of a community in Indiana who charges parents for their children to ride to school. And to participate in sports. Now I see they are wanting to raise fees for just about everything, and put new fees on anything they can find. NO wonder people are looking to move away. Perhaps this is an attempt to weed out the poorer class (perhaps including the middle class), and establish a community of upper crust citizens. I just read that Illinois citizens have built the WHITE SOX owners a new BACARDI restaurant, at a cost of millions. By the way the taxpayers receive no share of the profits of this restaurant. It all goes to the owners of the White Sox baseball team. BUT we all know that movie theaters make most of their money from concessions. I just read that in Washington D.C. The mayor wants to tack on an extra tax for concession. They already pay 10% tax on concessions. As I understand, which is quite high. BUT to add another 5% and raise the tax to 15%…..well isn’t that a little greedy? Not to mention the less people will be able to attend, and may put the theaters out of business. Thus a loss of revenue from the property, and business tax, let’s not forget the current 10% tax on concessions. I think their reasoning is flawed. They intend to use the money to lure movie production companies thus creating jobs. Am I wrong if less people go to the movies because they can’t afford the concessions, there will be more demand for movies to be made. I know now in my town for 2 of us to go to the movies cost about $20 this is more than the average wage. But get this for one medium Coke and medium popcorn add another $20. That is why we have began driving 2o miles to another town that costs us about $12 on a Sunday afternoon, to get in and about $10 dollars for a medium Coke and medium popcorn Oh for the good old days when we had drive in theaters. One night I think it was Monday was carload night. you could take your whole family to the movies for about $2, You brought your own popcorn and Cokes. Yet the concession stand was always crowded with people buying hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. Well I guess it is getting close to Christmas. What better time to lay people off and raise taxes, fees, etc. That Is How I See It. more than between Views: 165
Tag: Movies
Awards Shows
How many of you watch or even pay attention to awards shows. NOT ME. It has been my observation that the shows or actors/actresses. I think now it is more political correct to call the female actresses actors. What ever that has to do with it. If they are to be called actors then why have two categories. Just have best actor. Back to my original thought. I can only remember one BEST PICTURE, award that I could agree with. Most of the nominated pictures, I would not even watch on TV for free. Most of the TV shows nominated I only watched once and they stunk up the screen so badly I never watched them again. This is so true with all awards shows. I can’t understand anyone watching them. ACTORS. It has been proven that anyone can act. Unfortunately it seem the worst of the group is the ones who get the nominations. (Not always, just almost always). I truly believe these awards are merely a scam to stimulate interest in bad entertainment to put it loosely. As far as movies, I LOVE good movies. I can’t count the movies I have watched. I used to go 2-3 times a week, for many more weeks than I can count. I have never seen a remake that was better than the original. Wait, I do think the Dracula movies from the 50’s or 60’s (whatever the years were) was better than the one with Bela Lugosi. But that was due to the advances made in film effects. As a fan of the older movies. Face it. We no longer have the caliber of a John Wayne, Percy Kilbride, Francis the Talking Mule, Clark Gable, or Spencer Tracey. Actresses, like Audrey Hepburn, Kathryn Hepburn, Sophia Loren, or Marjorie Main. So many of the actors just sort of walk through their lines. I’m surprised that Refrigerator Perry didn’t made more movies. He could walk through them just like Leonardo DiCaprio. Probably the best job he did was on Romper Room, which he was kicked off for being disruptive. Actually best job he did was “Catch me If you Can” Very worst was in Growing Pains. But he was just a kid. I don’t know what happened in “Catch Me If You Can” Great performance. Rest is all downhill. That Is How I See It. Views: 156
Dying Cities/Towns
Growing up in a rural area, I remember traveling to our county seat. (The Big City). At that time they had they had 2 drive in theaters. 3 root beer stands, A DQ, 3 indoor theaters, a roller skating rink. Two bowling alleys. A Borden’s milk delivery service, a Maplehurst milk delivery service, a bread delivery service. For you who don’t know what these were, Milk and bread were delivered directly to your door. The biggest high school in the county, with 6 grade schools. They, unlike our rural schools, even had kindergarten. They had 2 pool rooms, and about 5 drug stores. Not like your Walgreens or CVS, etc. These were small stores where they also had fountains for you to get sodas and ice cream and sit around and talk. Very popular with the tweens, and teens. Downtown had 3 hotels. Large ones. Two or three book stores. Large factories, Enough to employ a large portion of the county residents. A YMCA, a Boys Club, that had actually fees that were low enough that any boy could belong, Not like the rich kids country club they now call the BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB. Fees were like $5 , now I believe it costs about $25-$30 each. It was located where kids could walk to after school, and have fun. The leagues they had set up cost about another $5 to join. (this was just to cover the T-Shirts to separate the teams. Now it cost about $40 plus for the same events. The kids have to walk about 2-3 miles to get to the club (which is located across the street from the county jailhouse. Now the multiiple hard ware stores and lumber companies have been replaced by 1 Home Depot. No more root beer stands, no skating rink, 1 bowling alley, Which is so expensive I can no longer afford to bowl. I used to bowl 2l leagues, Tuesday, and Thursday, 1 on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Saturday and Sunday were reserved for pot bowling and tourneys. Many closed Factories, and high unemployment. Thanks to Wal*Mart (our only place to shop, As they cut prices until competition run out of town. Now we pay more for items than in towns/cities where Wal*Mart has competition. Theye used to have a gas station on about every corner, they actually came out pumped your gas, checked your oil, tire pressure, and washed your windows. If needed they repaired your car, washed it, and fixed flats. Now they have lost most of the Industries. Lost all of the entertainments, they had. Closed about half of the schools. People moving out because there is no jobs to be had. The Electric Company just announced that their revenues are down because there is so many vacant houses, and the loss of industry, and business. To stay in business they will have to raise their rates. The factories, that are left are paying less because there is more demand for jobs than jobs available. The only thing there is more of is Motels, and eating establishments, (mostly fast foot). When I want a good meal I have to travel about 30 miles to eat. Oh yes. The local and only hospital has just announced there will be no more births at their facility because they could not justify the 13 employees they had. So now if you live in this area you will have to drive 30 t0 40 miles to have your baby born in a hospital. The town has so many empty buildings setting, just deteriorating. They would be better to adopt a plan like some of the surrounding communities. If the building sets vacant for over a year or two. The owner must have it removed. Portrait of a dying City/town. Yes they had a thriving town. Many small businesses. I remember they had 3 butcher shops. When Church was over although there were about 10 sit down restaurants, you usually had to stand in line to get a seat. That Is How I See It. Views: 133
Review of Yogi in 3-D
Not much to say. I always loved Yogi Bear and Boo Boo. Of course I am older now, (but I do still watch Yogi cartoons). The movie for me was a total PAN. Yogi and Boo Boo were completely out of their elements. The story line was very weak, even for a cartoon. Why did they even bother adding 3-D. For me the 3-D effects were very poorly done. This is a do not waste your money even on DVD unless your children are 3 or under That Is How I See It. Views: 125
Review of Burlesque
Let me first say I am not a Movie Critic. But I am movie goer. Not so much now as when I was a child. I went at least once a week and sometimes twice a week. I love movies. Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) I went to see “Burlesque” . This will be s short and direct post. The movie starring Cher and Christina Aguilera is thin on story line. The story is the typical small town girl makes good int her chosen profession. However as a Musical, or Broadway play. It rates up there among the best.. I prefer it to the likes of “Cats” which had a long run on Broadway. Cher’s performance, although I would consider it a small role, was very good, a little one dimensional, but that was her character. But, hey it is CHER. Always great. I can’t think of anyone else who could have pulled off the role as well. Christina did her role satisfactory. I could think of other actresses who could have done as well or probably better. The thing that struck me is the similarity in voices of Cher and Ms. Aguiler’s character. The mannerisms of Ally, (Aguilera’s character seemed to mimic Cher. I truly liked the music. As they used to say on American Bandstand, I liked the beat. I really didn’t pay much attention to the words. But I would buy the soundtrack. I feel “Burlesque” is the best Musical since 2002’s “Chicago” which had a much stronger all around cast. Gee it has been that long since we have had a good musical to watch. Maybe that is why I enjoyed it. I give it a 3.5 rating on a scale of 5. Like musicals? See it. This Is How I See It. Views: 129
