TWILIGHT.
I have to say, the Twilight movie was amazing. Quite well-done, and very well-adapted. I think we can all agree that certain movies, aka Harry Potter, were crap at following the books, but Twilight accomplished it most excellently.
I honestly was preparing myself for pure cheese covered in corn, and - I kid you not - I thought Edward was literally going to be covered in glitter due to low budget issues, but... it was fantastic! The casting was perfect. I wouldn't have changed hardly anything, with the exception of Jacob Black's wig (HEINOUS! I was more scared of that wig than I was of James).
For your amusement, here is the breakdown of the audience - roughly:
Total seats in theater: 1,960
Number of empty seats: 0
Percent who were female: 92% (I was surprised at how many guys there were, actually.)
Percent wearing twilight t-shirts: at least 40%
Number of capes seen: 2 (one was red and sparkly, though, so that counts as extra)
Average age: 12-16 yrs.
Number of morbidly obese people seen: 14 or so
Number of people who went strait to IHOP after the movie: 44
Number of times we had to listen to David Archuleta's Crush while waiting for the movie to start: 19.
Granted, we were in our seats for about 3 1/2 hours before the movie started, but still, that means Crush was played about 5 times an hour.
Oh, just some other quick facts.
Numbers aren't concrete yet, but last night, in midnight showings alone, Twilight is reported to have made "north of $7 million." It's predicted that it'll hit $60 million over the weekend. (Dateline Hollywood)
Wednesday Morning, the day before the movie came out, 2,000 midnight showings were sold out across the country.
As of Friday morning, Fandango was selling 5 Twilight tickets per second.
Twilight took #3 for most advanced tickets sold on Fandango. It beat out Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Lord of the Rings. #1 and #2 are Star Wars III and Dark Knight, respectively.
34% of polled moviegoers said they took time out of school or work to see Twilight.
If Twilight made $7 million just on midnight showings last night, it's well on track to make bank. At the West Jordan, UT theater alone (where I saw the movie), there were 7 showings last night. Only three of these were midnight screens (12:01, 12:02, and 12:03). The others were in increments of 15 minutes after that but they still looked like full showings.
Basically, I LOVED the movie. I was very much pleasantly surprised, and I have very few complaints. Catherine Hardwicke did a fantastic job, the actors were phenomenal, and I am still jumping up and down like a little girl.
YAY TWILIGHT.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
I'm not even ashamed.
So the movie 'Twilight' comes out tonight at midnight. I'm not going to lie - I'm going. Three hours early. In costume. Not only that, but all 6 showings in town were sold out, as were the theaters in American Fork, Orem, Springville, and Payson. So... just to make my day that much more fangirly, I'm driving an hour up to West Jordan, just to see Twilight.
That's right, I'm a Twilight fan (or Twilighter, Twi-hard, fanpire, whatever classification your prefer. My personal favourite is 'Cullenist'). Honestly, it's not something I generally broadcast. One of those guilty pleasure things. Like my love of Gwen Stefani.
That's right, I'm a Twilight fan (or Twilighter, Twi-hard, fanpire, whatever classification your prefer. My personal favourite is 'Cullenist'). Honestly, it's not something I generally broadcast. One of those guilty pleasure things. Like my love of Gwen Stefani.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Barstool Economics
This is a really cool analogy (originally posted by my brother) that I thought cleared up a lot of confusion about how proportional taxes work. It comes from a book by David R. Kamerschen.
"For anyone who doesn't get how unfair our tax system is, here's an awesome analogy. For those of you who do get it, it's just an awesome read!
Bar Stool Economics by David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers, he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'
'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!'
'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'
'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible."
It's no wonder that America's wealthy want to take their money overseas. If we keep beating them up, pretty soon they're going to jump ship and we'll finally realized, "Crap, they were paying most of the tab, weren't they?"
I'm for a flat tax, personally.
"For anyone who doesn't get how unfair our tax system is, here's an awesome analogy. For those of you who do get it, it's just an awesome read!
Bar Stool Economics by David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers, he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'
'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!'
'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'
'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible."
It's no wonder that America's wealthy want to take their money overseas. If we keep beating them up, pretty soon they're going to jump ship and we'll finally realized, "Crap, they were paying most of the tab, weren't they?"
I'm for a flat tax, personally.
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