Actually, there is not a cloud in the sky today:
‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ whips up stunning $81.7 million" by Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press February 16, 2015
LOS ANGELES — Audiences were more than curious to check out the big-screen adaptation of the racy phenomenon ‘‘Fifty Shades of Grey’’ this weekend. The erotic R-rated drama sizzled in its debut, earning an estimated $81.7 million from its first three days, distributor Universal Pictures said on Sunday.
In addition to destroying Valentine’s and Presidents’ Day weekend records, ‘‘Fifty Shades of Grey’’ has also become the second-highest February debut ever, behind the $83.9 million opening of “The Passion of the Christ” in 2004.
The chart-topping film cost a modest $40 million to produce.
According to Universal, North American audiences were 68 percent female.
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As one of the few family-friendly options in theaters, Paramount’s PG-rated, animated children’s film, ‘‘The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water’’ came in third with $30.5 million in its second weekend in theaters, falling only 45 percent.
As noted here earlier, I will be keeping track of the Grey box office totals for the obvious rea$ons.
Rounding out the top five were holdovers ‘‘American Sniper,’’ with $16.4 million, and ‘‘Jupiter Ascending,’’ with $9.4 million....
That is less than half of last week's take for Jupiter. What a bomb.
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"In ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ it’s not the sex; it’s the stuff" by Joanna Weiss, Globe Columnist February 12, 2015
There are several kinds of porn in “Fifty Shades of Grey”: house porn, clothes porn, closet porn, helicopter porn, all of them more interesting than the sex scenes that have caused so much breathless anticipation. Those come across as stiffly academic, a cataloguing of body parts and equipment. The passion is largely missing.
The real appeal is the stuff.
This is not how “Fifty Shades” is billed, or even how the light-core bondage novel was likely read by its legions of fans. Like “Twilight,” the vampire series that inspired it, “Fifty Shades” appeals to women of all ages because it retells an ageless fantasy: The dashing, mysterious stranger who somehow homes in on insecure you, sweeps you off your feet, helps you realize you’re actually special.
OMG!!!!
All women want to be tortured, huh?
Only the mechanics are different. Christian Grey, the billionaire with a bondage “playroom” in his penthouse, is a metaphor for sex as danger, but hey, why not?
Sigh!
The movie is fine, not really dangerous at all, and a lot funnier than you’d expect.
That's because it was toned down and turned inside out for film.
It’s goofy escapism without much need for guilt. And for those who feared that Christian’s creepy stalkerism, which is largely a separate issue from his particular sexual fetishes, will come across as appealing: Don’t worry. It doesn’t.
????
Except in one way: It’s clear that his fabulous wealth makes him more palatable from the start....
OMG!
Is this $ickening perver$ion being used to justify even worse things?
Money is an aphrodisiac; there’s no doubt about it....
How $ick.
And no, none of this is especially new. Entire cable networks are built around our common desire to gawk at people’s stuff.
Speak for your f***ing self!!!!!!
Little girls dream of being princesses largely because the bling is second to none, and in those fairy tales that end with speedy betrothal, “prince” tends to be the more operative term than “charming,” but it still makes Christian Grey a special cautionary tale, for different reasons than many believe.
Is that why perverted parents want little girls to be princesses?
Given the many true-life tales about shades of unhealthy relationships, it’s worth at least cataloguing our fantasies — remembering who gets classified as charming, for what reason, and what can obscure the real dangers in life.
That's Weiss's Wisdom that obscured torture!!
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Related:
"Jessica Simpson and her Needham-bred husband, Eric Johnson were inspired by the weekend’s box office hit."
I just lost all respect for her.
I sure hope you didn't get your significant other chocolates:
"The counter at Dennis Lane’s 7-Eleven has become a front line in The Great Chocolate War stretching across the Atlantic."
One of the battlefields:
"Mall plot was not terror, police say" Associated Press February 16, 2015
TORONTO — Canadian police said a plot by three suspects who were planning to go to a mall in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and kill as many people as they could before killing themselves was not a terrorist plot but a conspiracy by a “group of murderous misfits.”
One suspect fatally shot himself as police moved in to arrest him Saturday, and an American suspect confessed to the plot when she was arrested at the Halifax airport, a senior police official said.
Related:
"Canada’s Conservative government will introduce legislation to end a strike at Canadian Pacific Railway by more than 3,000 Teamsters. A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Sunday that the measure will be brought forward Monday. The strike by engineers and others began late Saturday after contract talks broke down. Labor Minister Kellie Leitch said the government would review its options and called a strike a ‘‘reckless disregard for Canadians, and the Canadian economy.’’ In 2012, the government passed legislation to force an end to a nine-day strike. It was estimated then that a prolonged strike would have cost the economy $540 million a week."
I'll bet that's why she tried to take a plane.
Canadian Justice Minister Peter MacKay said the planned attack, which was to be carried out on Valentine’s Day, “does not appear to have been culturally motivated.”
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the suspects planned to go to the Halifax Shopping Center and kill as many people as they could Saturday before taking their own lives.
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Maybe it was the beef that drove them mad.
It's another psyop stinker, folks, and we see them happening all across the planet right now to reinforce the terror narrative.
And I was under the impression that is was the snowstorm $poiled Valentine's Day:
"More snow, intense cold compound the misery; Another storm could hit region tomorrow" by Jennifer Smith and Jeremy C. Fox, Globe Correspondents February 15, 2015
A life-threatening deep freeze after the snowiest month on record [as] temperatures were forecast to remain well below normal all week, according to the National Weather Service.
So much so that I almost didn't get a Globe today because when I hit the door the cold was instantly debilitating. Then I decided that the car needed to be started. Lucky Globe.
Forecasters warned that another storm could hit the area beginning Tuesday evening, costing state and city governments additional millions of dollars in cleanup costs and depriving the local economy of millions more in lost holiday weekend revenue, as weather-weary residents learned with dread that another possible storm looms midweek, and yet another next weekend.
Coming pretty regular now!
For some residents who took to the roads, by car and on foot, there were disastrous results. Massachusetts State Police reported a pileup of more than 20 cars on Interstate 95 South just before 3:30 p.m.
Related: Several hurt in 20-car pileup
In Marlborough, a woman in her 20s suffered minor injuries when she was struck by a snowplow as she stood in a parking lot, local police said.
Related: Man attacks plow driver with shovel in Somerville, police say
Roof and building collapses were reported to police and fire departments.
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Mayor Martin J. Walsh said at a news conference Sunday that he shares Boston residents’ frustrations with the onslaught of winter weather and the inconveniences it has brought.
“This is historic,” he said. “We’ve never seen this type of snow in this type of period in the history of this city.”
Walsh said the storms have made a significant economic impact, with businesses closed and workers unable to get to their jobs.
See: MBTA workers share the strain
“A lot of lower-wage earners are losing more than anyone else here,” he said.
The city of Boston had already spent roughly $33 million on snow removal, he estimated, with another $7 million possible for clearing out after this storm.
The mayor said Boston’s snow emergency and parking ban will remain in effect until further notice. Police had tagged 395 vehicles and towed 226 by Sunday morning, he said.
Related: Space-saver ‘justice’ undercuts ban in South End
Around the state, slick roadways made for dangerous travel, State Police Lieutenant Daniel Richard said.
Had a couple out this way.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation crews will have little time to rest.
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National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Doody said Sunday night [that] next weekend, a storm could bring snow or rain beginning late Saturday afternoon or Saturday night.
Boston was barely recognizable Sunday morning as a bustling city of nearly 650,000, as its streets sat eerily deserted and some buildings, plastered with snow, were barely recognizable. Most cars sat idle, forming unrecognizable white lumps lining side streets, some still covered by snow from earlier storms.
Here and there, a solitary figure in a black overcoat or brightly colored parka contrasted sharply with the blinding white.
At Fiore’s Bakery in Jamaica Plain, Rob Halpin said he needed to get out Sunday morning because he was feeling stir-crazy, and only 5 inches of daylight made it through his nearly snow-covered windows.
“I love winter — to a degree — but there comes a point where you are so outside the bell curve, and it’s no longer winter but living on the planet Hoth,” Halpin said, referring to the ice planet in the film “The Empire Strikes Back.”
***************
Overall, this winter is Boston’s third snowiest on record, at 95.7 inches, less than a foot away from setting a new all-time high....
Homeless shelters were at overflow capacity but still able to accept additional guests, the mayor said, and they will allow people to remain inside all day while temperatures remain bitterly cold.
Employees at the Pine Street Inn, a South End shelter, are working with Boston police and EMS to make sure the city’s homeless population is safe, spokeswoman Barbara Trevisan said....
Looking forward to another potential storm, “we will be ready for whatever Mother Nature brings us,” said Kurt Schwartz, director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, at a news conference. “We’re just going to keep on doing what we’ve been doing since Jan. 25, until we dig down and we can see green grass somewhere.”
In Jamaica Plain, taxi driver Johnny Cummings said he debated Sunday morning whether even he was crazy enough to get behind the wheel. Cummings decided to head out, he said, because he thought he could help people....
Related:
Churches find ways to hold services on snowy Sunday
Meals on Wheels drivers brave the snow
Good thing they don't deliver by boat.
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NDUs:
I'm going on strike for today regarding the weather because the T has been hijacked (must be a conspiracy) as slave labor from prison is employed to clear snow. Any further musings will just bring sadness for those not as lucky and envy (speak for yourself). I'm tired of all the green talk when the lakes are freezing. At least the horses got out safely before the roof collapse and after the car went off course and into the river and yet the Globe is still having hot flashes.
