Greece is screwed. The home country of Mt. Olympus is bankrupt and no spell conjured up by any naked God from atop the Acropolis will be able to save it. Normally, when a country cannot pay off it’s debts, the government can quietly print up a whole bunch of new money via a printing press (ie. out of thin air) to get the creditor pimps off their backs (that’s what the United States does). How cool would it be if we all had our own little, secret printing presses hidden in our closets? Credit card bills too high? Just print until you’re in the black. Want that $1.5 million dream house but you got no coin? Just run off 15,000 one hundred dollar bills. Got a Korean girlfriend? No problem at all! Just give her a mini printing press hidden inside a LV or Prada bag and 98% of all your future fights will instantly disappear. Unfortunately for Greece, the nation cannot print it’s way out of their financial mess like the United States because Greece’s currency, the Euro, is tied to 22 other European nations. Basically Greece doesn’t have the keys to the printing press and today, finds itself in a financial checkmate to it’s world creditors. Zeus is dying. No, actually, Zeus is dead but is being kept alive via an IV, life support, and Wheel Of Fortune reruns. Greece is pretty much laying in the coffin, just one nail short of stepping into it’s own mythology. What is this great Hellenic nation to do? Athena has an idea…
That’s right—your stuffed animal will be escorted around Prague and photos will be taken of him/her at all the lovely tourist sites. You can even pay extra for your favorite toy to receive a massage complete with candles and incense.
Damn, do people actually pay for this shit?! Read more...
I think it’s natural that many of my fellow bloggers and I have hopped on to this week’s Flavah, “ANGST”.. Needless to say, there’s a lot of angst in Hollywood. Hollywood creates angst, practically manufactures it. Why? Because Hollywood is a business that revolves around being judged and getting rejected.
Actors have it the hardest. They go in for countless auditions, boxed in to a holding room, staring down the competition, sizing each other up, tensely waiting for their fate. We’ve all heard the stories where an assistant walks in and immediately starts picking off people, “you, you, you. Everybody else, thank you and goodbye.” Read more...
“For a group of people that are supposed to be good at math, you guys must be retarded to keep making Asian American films.”
That is a direct quote from a conversation I had with a veteran film producer last week about one of my upcoming projects. But before you make any judgment, you need to know that he is Asian American.
Such remarks are not uncommon from a lot of Asian Americans working in the industry. In fact they tend to be some of the loudest naysayers and, at times, biggest obstacles on anything ‘Asian American’ (I will get to that on another day). That being said, I do understand his point. He was referring to Asian American cinema as a business. “Screw business!” you might say, but the reality is that filmmaking is a collision between art and commerce (even the cheapest of films will cost more than your average Mercedes). And within the context of Asian American films, the big elephant in the room has always been its business viability. “It’s a young man’s game,” a filmmaker once told me about Asian American films, “it’s fun to talk about representin’ and stuff until you get a mortgage.” And as a business it definitely makes no sense. Read more...
Choosing to become an actor* is about as smart as choosing to smoke cigarettes. Seems cool from the outside, perhaps allowing you to work out some sort of inner rebellion or parental oppression. But at the end of the day, both will slowly erode your quality of life without you knowing and ultimately kill you.
If I had only one wish, I would wish that 2010 Roger could teleport back in time and whisper into the ear of 1995 Roger. What would I say to my younger, better looking self? ”BECOME A DENTIST YOU DIPSHIT!” But if, for some reason, I could not coerce the younger me into a life of dental hygiene, this is what I would say to me and every other youth considering a career path in Hollywood.. Read more...
i know, economic stuff is like eating sand, so i’ll keep it under 5 sentences so as not to offend…
Today the Dow Jones closed near 10,300 (a sign of economic growth and recovery) BUT gold finished the week at near record levels of almost $1,120 per ounce (a sign of a serious, future economic instability). How can the two exist at the same time if the U.S. Gov’t and many well-respected economists say that the worst is over, the recession is behind us, and we’re on the road to recovery? Great economic health (high Dow Jones) will usually result in low gold prices and vice versa. A high Dow and high gold prices cannot exist in the same sustained reality – someone be fibbing through their butthole – but who? We be living in some funky times baby…
Apple sucks yet I love all Apple products. As I’ve written in my previous post, my relationship with Apple is a love/hate one of the ultimate disfunction. Since a child, all and any computers I have purchased have been of the Apple/Mac variety. The only exception to this rule was when I was 21, just out of college, and super poor. Unable to afford the hefty premium for an Apple computer, I was forced to go to Circuit City and purchase a Packard Bell. It was ugly and hard to use…but it was cheap. Beyond this one infidelity, I have always been faithful to Apple and Apple has always been loyal to sucking as much money out of my bank accounts as possible. It’s like being in love with a super hot vampire – you get sex and the vampire sucks you to death (slowly and virtually unnoticed). Nothing worse then getting sucked to death, I assure you of that.
Which brings me to my most recent purchase of yet another Apple product: my new, white, iPhone 3GS…
A great artists usually isn’t a great business person. And a great business person is usually not a great artists. This is not to say that an artists cannot successfully dabble in business or that business people cannot enjoy taking part in the arts. It’s just that being great or exceptional at both simultaneously is very rare. Art uses a different hemisphere of the brain than business does. And it usually takes many, many years of practice and failing to get good at even one of those disciplines.
But every now and then you come across a person who seems to have a great handle on both. Most recently I was pleasantly surprised by 50 Cent. Yes, the gangsta rapper 50 Cent. You’ve seen him on music videos wearing bulletproof vests and rapping about the thug life. He’s buff, wears the bling, lives in Mike Tyson’s old mansion, rolls with Eminem, and has multiple bullet wounds from past attempts on his life. He has truly mastered the image of 50 that he has created for himself. So I was pleasantly surprised to see a much different side to 50 in this CNBC Business interview. Perhaps Curtis Jackson’s 50 Cent is more akin to Sasha Baron Cohen’s Borat. That in reality, 50 Cent is more a character created and believed to be real than the actual, true man himself. Makes me think twice about judging a book by it’s cover. Who is someone you assumed you knew but totally surprised you with a hidden side?
what if i told you that in 10 years, every dollar you have would be worth 5 cents or less? what would you do differently today?
i ask this question because my general sense is that most people really don’t have a firm grasp of what is happening with our economy right now. and i know most people find economics a topic as interesting as eating sand. so i’ll try and make this fun. i’m just going to throw out a few facts. would love to hear your thoughts of what you would do differently today knowing what you’re about to read.
Greece is screwed. The home country of Mt. Olympus is bankrupt and no spell conjured up by any naked God from atop the Acropolis will be able to save it. Normally, when a country cannot pay off it’s debts, the government can quietly print up a whole bunch of new money via a printing press (ie. out of thin air) to get the creditor pimps off their backs (that’s what the United States does). How cool would it be if we all had our own little, secret printing presses hidden in our closets? Credit card bills too high? Just print until you’re in the black. Want that $1.5 million dream house but you got no coin? Just run off 15,000 one hundred dollar bills. Got a Korean girlfriend? No problem at all! Just give her a mini printing press hidden inside a LV or Prada bag and 98% of all your future fights will instantly disappear. Unfortunately for Greece, the nation cannot print it’s way out of their financial mess like the United States because Greece’s currency, the Euro, is tied to 22 other European nations. Basically Greece doesn’t have the keys to the printing press and today, finds itself in a financial checkmate to it’s world creditors. Zeus is dying. No, actually, Zeus is dead but is being kept alive via an IV, life support, and Wheel Of Fortune reruns. Greece is pretty much laying in the coffin, just one nail short of stepping into it’s own mythology. What is this great Hellenic nation to do? Athena has an idea…
