Why Occupy Wall Street is Important: An Introduction

Would you like some satire with your greed?

Occupy Wall Street has been going on since September 17th, but most of us will say the date that it officially popped up on our radars as a “big deal” was October 2nd when 700 peaceful protestors were arrested while crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. Some, myself included have been obsessed with promoting and furthering the movement by going to protests and using social networks like twitter to communicate the latest news about the movement. I have my own views about the movement, but I’m pretty sure more than a few identify with what I’m about to say, as millions around the globe have become passionate and enthralled by the Occupy movement in just a few short weeks.

Personally, as a well-informed and left-leaning College student at San Francisco State University, I was about 95% certain that I would need to move away from the United States at some point during my life time. Where would I go? Sweden, Finland, or the oh-so-typical Canada? It doesn’t really matter, I just know that every day I see that our great country is declining so fast. It is very difficult to look forward with any optimism. By the time I have kids, or better yet by the time they begin grade school, will this be a country anyone is proud to call home anymore? I hope so, but I have had my doubts for longer than I would like to admit.

I’m Back and it’s going to be a Little Different

Hey,

After a couple years and a bit of a journey I will start to post on this site again periodically. I’m not necessarily going to be posting about films only. This is going to very much be a personal blog where I’ll just sort of talk about what I’m interested in at the time. Much of the reason why a blog is supposed to have a specific focus is to just get as many views as possible, to fill an internet niche of some sort, but I don’t really care how many views I get.

I don’t have a journal and I will probably never write one. I don’t particularly like talking about myself or my own life, but I certainly don’t mind spouting off my opinion about things going in the world. From reviewing artwork or entertainment to commenting on the latest political trends, I have an opinion about almost everything. Whether or not you want to hear it is up to you. Just do or don’t read my stuff, it’s that simple. But realize I’m purely writing this because of my own interests. I certainly hope others share these interests, but I wouldn’t expect the blog to have a particular focus like only films, or only music, or only politics. Expect different subjects as the days and weeks go on. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy what I have to say headed into the future.

Sincerely,

Adam G.

Do Read! It’s Rather Urgent…

Lowly peons, do not be afraid: we are proud to announce that the Gold Standard is no more!

This morning, effectively at 5:00 AM PST, our newest iteration of this blog was born.

Behold…

WTF: Spiderman 4 Gone For Good

2009 saw Hollywood’s rumor mill really do a number on Spiderman 4 (no pun intended), with headline after headline flooding just about every major entertainment website.  After 2007′s Schumacheriffic threequel, the wheels had begun to fall off the Spiderman gravy train. Still, a fourth film was always a priority for Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios.

Actor Profile of the Week: Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington is one of the biggest, most respected actors around today. He doesn’t have a Will Smith-style box office pull, but Smith doesn’t have the same respect that Washington does. Denzel has had a long career, spanning 30 years and filled with some really great films, as well as some pretty bad ones too.

From Spike Lee to Tony Scott, the guy has good relationships with the best in the business. He has five Academy Award nominations and two wins to show for his efforts.

The 55-year old actor is still busy, and with his high-profile post-apocalyptic thriller, The Book of Eli, coming out this weekend, it’s time to look into his future and check out what we can expect from Denzel.

Stardate set on Star Trek sequel

Remember a little film directed by J.J. Abrams from last year, featuring actors such as Zachary Quinto, Chris Pine, Simon Pegg, and Leonard Nimoy titled “Star Trek”? Well it has long been rumored that a script for a sequel to the Star Trek reboot was in the works and it looks like the script is either locked down or close to it.

This Weekend: “Youth in Revolt” Goes for Teens (Youth), “Daybreakers” Hopes to Suck in Crowds, Couples Don’t Leap for “Leap Year”

Generally if new films are released on the same weekend, these films will take the top slots at the box office. This weekend is definitely going to change this up quite a bit. There’s no doubt that the #1 slot this weekend will go to “Avatar” which will also zip past the $400 million mark domestic, and venture its new 2nd place worldwide record even further towards “Titanic” territory. The real question is how much will it make/drop this weekend? In its second weekend of release it dropped just 2%, allowing it the biggest second weekend ever by a few thousand. In its 3rd weekend it dropped under 10% shattering the 3rd weekend record as well.

A Netflix Odyssey With Eric: John Badham’s “Whose Life Is It Anyway?”

I had not even heard of this movie until I accidentally stumbled upon it on IMDB somehow. I’m a huge fan of John Cassavetes’s work (he has a supporting role in this movie), and I like Richard Dreyfuss as an actor, so I figured what the hell and added Whose Life is it Anyway? to my Netflix queue.

A Netflix Odyssey With Eric: Anton Corbijn’s “Control”

I happened to see this movie sitting on a shelf in a DVD store. Maybe it was something about the cover, or just the fact that I hadn’t heard of the movie beforehand, but for whatever reason, I picked it up and looked at the back. Control is a biopic of Ian Curtis, lead singer of the English Rock band Joy Division. I had never listened to Joy Division before, but the movie still sounded pretty interesting to me (plus the entire thing was shot in Black and White, and it came out in 2007).

O RLY? Sam Mendes to Direct Bond 23?

We previously reported on Peter Morgan’s script for Bond 23, but only found out it will be ‘shocking’ to some degree. There was no word on when the film would start production.

Now it appears despite MGM’s fiscal woes, the project is still on track for a 2011 release.

In fact, according to Heat Vision, the Broccolis have even found a director. It’s none other than one of our Ten Best Directors of the Aughts, Oscar winner Sam Mendes.