Add my name to the list of fans of the genre interested in more female superhero paraphernalia.

Continue reading “Dear Marvel – Female Superhero Merchandise Please” →

Just a thought that popped into my head recently and I thought it was funny (clever?) enough to put out there. If I was a celebrity who was relentlessly stalked by paparazzi – I’m talking outside of restaurants and public venues, or waiting on the street outside my house, or at the resort with me on vacation, or even in my own backyard (!) – then this is what I would do.

Continue reading “How I Would Handle Paparazzi” →

I found this article interesting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/ma…life.html?_r=0

I’m paranoid about this stuff. I’m careful with what I say, but I’m also prone to brain-farts (which is no secret!). The wrong joke or statement out of context and that’s it. Every one of the ‘infamous’ mistaken Tweets of the past several years deserved to be insulted. A handful of people tweeting the culprit a “You’re an idiot” statement is well-deserved. But if the issue goes viral, it’s no longer a handful of people. It’s suddenly thousands. Hundreds of thousands. And then TV newscasts catch wind. Demands for loss of employment, and the smearing that’s easily found with a simple Google search is there forever (hurting chances of future relationships, employment, etc). Suddenly, just being called an idiot by a couple of people evolves into this life-destroying juggernaut.

Anyway, an interesting perspective on the other side of things. I have over 12,000 followers on Twitter, so saying something wrong (by mistake or otherwise) can go viral in an awful hurry. I do believe you reap what you so – but that’s within reason. You say something blatantly racist or hateful, you deserve hundreds of people shouting you down. You deserve to lose your job. But how terrible and hateful does it have to be to deserve thousands of people shouting you down, and losing a job and being unable to find a new one for a year? And how terrible still does your mistake have to be before millions stalk you and hate you back, and you lose not only your job but prospects of another job (short of flipping burgers) for the next decade? With Twitter, things can reach that point quickly, and Twitter doesn’t see levels of stupidity. It sees two levels – right and wrong. And ‘wrong’ can be blatant and hateful and disgusting, or it can be taken out of context, or said ignorantly. The punishment is the same.

I’ll preface what I’m about to say by saying that The Great One is my idol and has been since I was five. And Wayne Gretzky’s is probably my favorite restaurant in downtown Toronto and this experience won’t change that.

I went there Sunday with the family before going to see the Blue Jays. We were in a bit of a rush but not so much so that we didn’t have time for a meal there. We got there and there didn’t seem to be any air conditioning. It was as though the restaurant wanted to re-create the environment in Brazil…hot and humid…since the World Cup was on! The table was sticky, the food didn’t come after 40 minutes (so we had to go) and they didn’t include drinks with the kids meal. So here are some comments.

1. Sticky table – that happens. No biggee. You wiped it, my wife still wasn’t happy, but still – no biggee.
2. Late meal – that happens too. You were short-staffed and your manager was great in explaining and apologizing. He covered the drinks and did right by us. As far as I’m concerned, you’re still the place I want to go to before a game.
3. No air conditioning? Come one! What, was the person in charge of pressing the A/C “on” button at home sick? Patrons don’t want to sweat while they eat. If the A/C was broken and you were getting fixed, then great. But if it was for some financial reason, I’m extremely disappointed. It just made me want to get out of there.
4. Kids meals don’t include a drink? Really? You can’t fill a mini-glass with half ice and half fountain pop at a cost of three cents to you and include that in your kids meal? It comes off as cheap and petty.

Anyway, fix the latter two, I forgive you for the former two. And I hope we can still be friends.

I just watched Pompeii. Lucky I did, I thought it was great. Granted, I had to turn my brain off and just enjoy the fighting and the fast pace, but this was a “guy’s” movie if there ever was one. So why on earth was the cover of this movie showing a man and a woman kissing in front of an erupting volcano?

I mean…when I was scrolling through rotten tomatoes for the latest movies to watch, I skipped this one. Several times. The title didn’t draw me in, since I knew nothing of the legend of Pompeii. The picture had my scared it was a romance. And the the catchphrase “no warning, no escape” didn’t intrigue. I had zero desire to watch this movie. I was getting movies that were far more boring (I watch a lot of movies, so the bar is low) and Pompeii was nowhere near consideration.

But then I read in Chill magazine that Pompeii was a good guy’s movie. That’s all I needed to see. I watched it with a buddy over a couple of beers, shut off the ol’ brain, and just enjoyed the hell out of it. It was similar to the TV show Spartacus, minus the comic-booky blood. It even had some of the same characters. Keifer Sutherland (i.e. Jack Bauer from 24) was in it. Kit Harrington (i.e. Jon Snow from GoT) was in it. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbeje (i.e. Eko from Lost) was in it.

Here is what you marketing geniuses did wrong:

1. No kiss on the cover. This was not a romance. There was one kiss in the entire movie. You have one target audience, go after them properly.
2. The trailer didn’t get enough play. I don’t even remember seeing it, but then the only TV I watch live is sports. Oh wait, isn’t that the target audience?
3. The trailer showed about 15% of the clips with the leading man and the leading lady. Why? They had one kiss and they were hardly together throughout!
4. Consider a different title. Yes, I’m aware of the history (now). But a more catching title would mean millions more at the box office.

Why is this allowed to continue? Why doesn’t the government step in? These clowns send unsolicited mail in an envelope that really does look like it’s from the government of Ontario – to anyone living in Ontario not actually working for the government, that is.

(UPDATE: Elephas Responded to this post. Or rather…their lawyer sent me an email. More below)

Continue reading “Shady Marketing: Elephas Group (Final Needs Planning)” →

I haven’t bought a lottery ticket in about two years, but when I do I buy about 20 at once. Statistically, that gives you better odds. Still shitty, but better. It makes more sense to do that than to play once a week for 20 weeks.

Recently, a Brampton couple won $50 million, which is disgusting. I mean, sure – good for them. But they couldn’t spend, donate and give away all that money if they tried.

I’ve been waiting. And waiting. And waiting. For the OLGC to wake up and offer a real lottery. None of this $10 million bullshit. $20 million bullshit. $50 million? That’s just laughable.

No, I’m talking about a multiple draw for one ticket. If you have a $50 million pot, why not have 10 draws of $5 million each. So each ticket holder gets 10 cracks at become rich enough to retire and live well forever. I’ll be first in line for that ticket. But giant winnings will never lure me to the lottery counter. And I struggle to understand why the sheep line up and get excited about giant jackpots. I mean – is your life any different for winning $50 million as opposed to winning $5 million? Truly?

Let’s create more millionaires, rather than just a handful of extreme extreme millionaires.