Years ago, some friends and I played against each other in the Hollywood Stock Exchange. After years of not playing, it turns out our accounts are still active, and my account, which started with a $2 million stake all those years ago, now is at crazy Sultan of Brunei levels, clocking in at H$571,176,653.44 when I logged in today. More than two hundred and fifty percent growth on investment ain’t bad.
How I did it is pretty simple. Forget emotion, forget your own preferences. Stock value is supposed to equal, in millions, what a movie will earn after four weeks of release. If the price is less than that, buy it. If it’s more than that, sell it. It’s that simple.
So, The Brothers Grimm isn’t tearing it up at the box office right now? I bought it at $6.68. Unless Terry Gilliam starts showing up in theaters and killing movie-goers with a shovel, it will earn more than $6.68 million dollars in its first month of release. (In fact, it made $15.1 million in its first weekend.) That’s all there is to it.
I used to use my friend Greg’s UpcomingMovies.com site to look two years ahead for summer blockbusters before anyone else heard of them, since they tend to have the largest four week grosses each year. His site is now part of Yahoo! Movies, but the principle is still the same.
Now, if only someone would give me a $2 million stake in real life and unleash me on the stock market …
You know, I thought I started with a smaller stake than $2 million. HSX says my lifetime percentage gain is a whopping +28,443.35%. Yowza.
And now, you can cash in your H$ for some of the least interesting prizes ever. I’m sitting on my nest egg, thanks.
Why the heck didn’t anyone tell me about this show? Every time I turn on MTV2, it’s always that stupid Mike Jones video. (Apparently, you no longer need to enunciate to be a successful rapper.)
Anyway, Video Mods is hilarious — good music as performed by video game characters — and, so far, no Mike Jones.
These guys are some of the pets at the Precious Pets animal shelter on Walnut Street in Hesperia. They and their compatriots will be in a story in Tuesday’s Star.
That third picture just makes me happy whenever I look at it. What a glimpse of pure doggy joy. I wish I was a musician so I could use that for a record album cover.
The #1 sign that the Associated Press might need new thinking in charge of their venerable style guide:
fund raising, fund-raising, fund-raiser
Fund raising is difficult. They planned a fund-raising campaign. A fund-raiser was hired. The organization was planning a fund-raiser.
(Page 102, The Associated Press Stylebook, 2004 edition)
I’m going to hold a fund-raiser to get all of those variants just turned into “fundraiser,” like the rest of the English language uses. And “stylebook” isn’t one word, guys.
I think Augie and I may need to bet a $7 Comic Con pretzel on the eventual winner of Rock Star: INXS.
Here’s how I think it’s going to shake out:
I like Marty, but he wants to be Eddie Vedder, who is, you guessed it, not right for their band, INXS. He simply cannot scream and howl his way through INXS songs, despite the fact that he howls and emotes very well indeed.
J.D. has talent, but no one even half-watching the show is unaware that he’s can be an insufferable SOB. INXS is a group that has been too tight for too many years to suffer inserting a jerk like him into the mix, in my opinion. J.D. needs to front his own band, where he can be the boss. The winner of this contest will be the low person on the INXS totem pole, and I can’t see them thinking for a moment that he’d fit into that position. (The same goes for Ty, incidentally, who needs to stop making faces when INXS gives him fairly mild criticism and suggestions. They’re not doing it to generate ratings buzz, they’re doing it because they’re trying to find a good match for the band.)
At this point, honestly, I think it comes down to Mig and Jordis as the final two. Other than her huge misfire on “Dream On,” she’s pretty much nailed every song she’s attempted, and in a very wide range of songs. The only question is whether or not she can sing things in the INXS mode. She needs to be tossed some songs by the Killers, the Bravery and so on to see if she can work that sort of thing.
Mig’s skills are finely tuned from his West End work, but unlike the rather studied way Ty performs for the most part, Mig really seems to be putting his heart and soul into things. While Dave Navarro is slipping too much into Paula Abdul mode recently (and Brooke Burke is being directed to do some of the more annoying Ryan Seacrestisms from American Idol), he was right when he talked about how affecting some of Mig’s performances have been. I also think he exudes the sort of slick modernity that INXS has always had as part of its image.
In a face off between Jordis and Mig, I think it’ll go to Mig, unless Jordis pulls off another dazzling surprise of a performance. Of course, she’s done that several times this season, so I’d say it’s far too early to write her off.
This sure beats American Idol, in any case, on every level.
|
|
