View From the Bushes

Checking the comments from yesterday's blog it appears that in general people are excited about the improvements (though I guess two is hardly a statistically valid sample). I was going to post something on ENWorld today, but it appears to have been down all day, and on reflection I think rather than making an announcement of the restructuring on Thursday and an announcement about the new adventure on Monday, it might just work out best to announce both at the same time. If anyone's really curious about what's going on over here all they have to do is come over and read the blog. Though I suppose that's like saying anyone who's really curious about the war can go visit the Western Front and sleep in the trenches for a couple of days. I imagine most people would prefer to say in Paris and read about Verdun rather than hear the artillery shells whistle overhead.

To a certain extent with that last paragraph I violated a rule that many people have a pet peeve about. Many people (myself included on occasion) get upset when you compare something truly evil or tragic with something that is merely mildly annoying. For example: in one of the classic episodes of Seinfeld the plot revolves around someone called the Soup Nazi. Now they guy is mean and demanding, but he can hardly be compared in any realistic fashion with the horror that was Nazi Germany. Nor can my blog (or more particularly my writing) as boring, senseless, and un-inspired as it might be, in any sense be compared to the longest battle of World War One. Except perhaps during July when all I talk about is the Tour de France, maybe then.

Every so often a movie will strike my fancy, not as a work of art, but more as like a stock, or in this latest case a train wreck. The movie I'm talking about of course is "Gigli". Good and even great movies come along with reasonable frequency, but it's somewhat more rare for a truly unwatchable movie to show up. As a result I'm very curious about how the movie is reviewed and how it does at the box office. As far as reviews it apparently got 10 good reviews out of 121 total. In terms of the box office, movie theaters are apparently required to run movies in a certain number of pre-designated theaters for at least two weeks. As a result on the weekend of the 8-10 Gigli ran on 2,215 screens, with a per screen average of $306. You had to drop all the way down to movie 113 before you found something with as dismal a per screen average. Once the first two weeks were over and the number of screens was no longer mandated, Gigli was dropped off of 2,142 screens down to 73 and it's per screen average was $256 lower than any other movie on the list except for the very bottom one at 124. Now ask yourself where else are you going to get this kind of detailed breakdown on truly awful movies?

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross