Wednesday, November 20, 2002

And now ... the movie about "nothing" Once described as a show about nothing http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/seinfeld/, the "protagonist" now brings us a movie about well, nothing http://www.eonline.com/Reviews/Facts/Movies/Reviews/0,1052,87390,00.html ; , which Brothers Weinstein apparently paid mightily for ... http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,9814,00.html The review got something out of this movie that quite frankly I didn't.  I thought they didn't provide us w/ any context and spent way, way too much time w/ some guy named Orny Adams (http://www.ornyadams.com/pages/875335/index.htm), an aspiring comic, whom Seinfeld's agent / manager George Shapiro signed ... either this guy (Adams) ain't funny or the editing on him was brutal ... it could have been great, but we had little feel for what was going on in the movie; could have been a contender, but I think it's only for MAJOR Seinfeld fans, fans of documentary or comics who are tryijng to make it .... best scenes? Okay, the scenes with Colin Quinn are certainly interesting, but the Chris Rock scenes (raving about Cosby) and Seinfeld's "sit-down" w/ the "Cos" are awesome. One question, is Jerry this neurotic? He's paranoid that all his stand-up stuff sucks; it was interesting. Cosby seemed to have a much better feel for all that both of them had accomplished. 3:36:23 PM    comment []

Can we say it one more time? SLATE Rules! The Saddameter (http://slate.msn.com/?id=2074301) The odds of war. By William Saletan Posted Tuesday, November 19, 2002, at 3:36 PM PT Chance of Invasion Today: 56 percent U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says Security Council won't buy U.S. argument that shots fired by Iraq at planes patrolling no-fly zones violates the latest U.N. resolution. White House backs off that argument. Meanwhile, Iraq Iraq says it will comply fully with inspections and disclosure deadlines. Peace spin: U.S. made its case for declaring Iraq noncompliant and was shot down. War spin: This was just the beginning of the case. 3:25:29 PM    comment []

Housing Starts Slow for Now ... According to WSJ a new Commerce Dept. report states that, "new-home construction tumbled in October but permits for future housing starts continued to rise, suggesting the housing market remains healthy." Housing starts dropped 11.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.6 million units, the lowest level of new-home construction in six months. However, the # of permits that have been filed for rose 1.7% to a 1.76 million pace; signs that housing will hold up. Biggest concerns seem to be potentially for the apartment market / multi-family homes. A much more volatile industry, but with the number of single-family home ownership going up (thanks Fannie Mae), it makes sense that there's more pressure on the apartment market, down 31.4% in this report. 12:13:22 PM    comment []