| http://www.zipperfish.com/rants/rants-entertainment.html
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Cameron Diaz makes 20 million dollars per film. Think about this, just for a moment. I know we are all used to high paid celebrities, but when I think about great thespians, I think of Nicole Kidman, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, and dare I say it... Tom Cruise. Now, sorry to all you Cameron fans out there, but the girl just ain't that talented. In fact, she is somewhat of a moron.
Let's break it down. 20 million for a movie. Movies usually shoot for 4 months. That's 5 million a month, & 166,000 a day. A DAY PEOPLE! What the <REMOVED> is wrong with this country? It's not just Hollywood either. Athletes make millions a year, and get even more for endorsements. Musicians also make millions.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a capitalist, not a communist. I think it's the American dream to be rich and famous, and I don't want to change that. What I don't like is the amount of money I have to spend on entertainment, and the fact that people get paid absurd amounts of money for doing something that frankly, is not all that impressive.
First, let's talk about sports. Baseball to me is<REMOVED>retarded. It's basically an individual sport, and not a team sport. If you can pitch a ball, or hit a ball, or field a ball, you're on the team. But it's not REALLY a team, since a baseball player doesn't really have to work with the other players to win. When the batter hits, he does it alone. When the pitcher pitches, he does it alone. There's no dynamic, no sense of team. On top of all that, the sport is basically about sitting on your ass all day long. Unless you are a pitcher, you've got a better chance getting hurt by chewing tobacco, than playing baseball. Besides that, it's a <REMOVED>children's game. So, how much should one get paid for playing a GAME for half a year? Millions. Does that sound right to you? Millions?
I mean, I can almost see an athlete getting paid millions for doing something DANGEROUS, like football. A recent study showed that a career in football takes a toll on one's body equivalent to getting hit by a car 12 times. Ouch. Hey, if a guys knees are shot, or he can't think straight because of to many blows to the head, or god forbid he get paralyzed, you should get paid more. I mean, the risk is there.I often watch "Inside The NFL" on HBO, and they sometimes do showcases on retired players. These guys might be 50 or 60 years old. Ya know what they are doing now? Selling cars! Or running diners! These guys don't have mansions, or boats, or vacation homes. What happened? What changed?
Now, I'm a movie guy. I love the movie theater. I like watching movies at home too, but it's much easier for me to sink into the make believe world of the movies, if I'm in a dark theater. I like talking to my dad about going to the movies. See my dad graduated high school in 1957. Bobby socks and drive -ins. T-birds and diners. Happy Days stuff. He tells me that when he was a kid, back in 1945-50, movies were a nickel, or a dime. Loaf of bread was a nickel as well, and a handful of candy was a penny. That got me thinking. I spend $9.50 on a movie today, and minimum wage is what, 6 bucks an hour? That means someone working at Walmart has to work for one hour, to pay for a movie. This just did not add up to me. I mean, a guy working at the diner in 1945 made more than a nickel an hour, right?
When was the last time you went to the ball park, or a football game, or a hockey game, or a basketball game? Lakers tickets have to be in the hundreds. Just going to a football game will cost you at least 35 bucks, and that's for the nose bleeds. Then you got your season passes, your box seats... couple grand at least.
With movies and sports costing so much money, where does it all go? I'll tell you where. It goes to buy Ms Diaz her mansion, Shaq his 12th car, and Kobe a new diamond ring for his wife that he cheated on. We are getting raped people. These celebrities, athletes and musicians are <REMOVED>, and we are smiling and taking it.Now, I wouldn't mind <REMOVED>, as long as I enjoyed it, but the fact is that the quality of this entertainment is going down. Aside from a few exceptions, Hollywood keeps pumping out more and more crap. And why shouldn't they? We seem to like paying for it.
The Cat in the Hat, Haunted Mansion, Tomb Raider 2, Charlie's Angels 2, Hulk... this is just a handful of the <REMOVED> that has been sold to us in the last 6 months. Do you think it's right that we have to pay for this? And it's not just us being morons, it's just as much Hollywoods fault as it is our own. With the technology used today, a 2 minute trailer could look awesome; enough to put ourselves in the seat opening weekend. Only to find out 90 minutes later that we were bamboozled, gypped, hoodwinked! It's like a old carnival trick. Have the carney sell us on a "lizard man", only to find out it's just a guy with tattoos.
Sports are just as bad. The Florida Marlins VS The New York Yankees? Gimme a break. The Yankees have gone to the world series, what, 4 times in the last 10 years? And why? No salary cap. When the Yankees play the Pirates on TV, guess who gets the money? Yup. The Yankees. Just forget baseball all together. retire the sport and make the Yankees eternal champs. Why not? They always will be. THEY'RE IN THE BIGGEST MARKET. Fans in Pittsburgh don't have the 75 dollars to spend at an afternoon at the ballpark. New York and the New York tourists sure do.
But in the last big entertainment market, music, the tide is turning. After years of making crap, and having us buy it, the internet and peer-to-peer leveled the playing field. Now, you can listen to all the propaganda you want, but the fact is that file swapping only accounts for a fraction of the 18-20% sales drop in music. Why? Because the public smartened up. $18.99 for a CD? <REMOVED>. $14.99 for a CD? <REMOVED>. $12.99 for a CD? How bout this... <REMOVED>!
We're not <REMOVED>stupid, and we ain't buying it no more. We KNOW it costs a <REMOVED>penny for you to press that CD, and another dime for the packaging. WE KNOW that most of these so-called "musicians" didn't write the song; that it was mass produced by some 45 yr old ugly single woman, and she got paid 10 grand for it. WE KNOW that most musicians can't even sing and that it's all studio produced trickery. And <REMOVED>, even if you DID write it, sing, it, produce it, and play it... EVEN THEN... are all twelve tracks good, or did you just get lucky with the one?
We got sick of CD collections that gathered dust. We realized that once we took all the songs we liked off the CDs we owned, and transfered them to our computer, that we only had a handful. And you know what we did? <REMOVED>. <REMOVED>Tommy Mottala! <REMOVED>Sony! <REMOVED>Arista! <REMOVED>RCA! Make better <REMOVED>music. Sign better <REMOVED>artists. Take more time producing good records, instead of the mass marketed crap you've been feeding us.
We did it people! And we can keep doing it. But now we need to do it to sports and Hollywood. Bring down the prices of seats <REMOVED>! Take away some Shaq bling-bling and let a family of four go to a basketball game. Get Jack <REMOVED>Nicholson out of his posh thousand dollar seats and let a real fan sit there. Make baseball America's sport again, by getting back to the game, and not the salaries. <REMOVED>Derek Jeter. You play a <REMOVED>game, <REMOVED>. You should pay me for watching you play such a boring sport.
NO, I won't pay to see Mike Myers in a cat suit! No, I won't pay to see Cameron Diaz's ass in Charlie's Angels 3! No, I WON'T PAY TO SEE WILL SMITH IN ANOTHER PIECE OF CRAP! I don't care how much I think he may be a nice guy! And <REMOVED>Hollywood, and <REMOVED>movie theaters! <REMOVED>for showing <REMOVED>commercials before the movie! I PAID MONEY NOT TO SEE COMMERCIALS <REMOVED>! And <REMOVED>, stop with the product placement! Seeing someone drink a coke does not make me want a coke! How much more money do you want? Do these people deserve to get paid? Of course they do. Do they deserve 50 million dollars a year? Don't be ridiculous. But as long as we keep paying, they are not going to turn the money down. So stop paying. Send a message. Crap is crap. And the guy at Walmart shouldn't have to work a whole hour for crap.
-the walrus |
Heh heh I love this guy.  | |
