Asia Argento as The Last Mistress

We have finally made our film selections for this year’s festival.  As always, we will try and bring you a special report about the opening night excitement.

The opening night film this year will be The Last Mistress (France 2007), directed by Catherine Breillat.  The film is based on a controversial novel by 19th century author Jules-Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly.  The story centers on a Frenchman on the verge of marrying an innocent aristocratic young French socialite.  But before doing so, he confesses to an affair with a Spanish mistress to the bride’s grandmother. A surprisingly open-minded old woman, the grandmother seems to delight in every sordid detail of the young man’s relationship with his mistress.

The other films that we will be watching during this year’s festival are as follows:

Protesters in London tried to snuff out the Olympic Torch during relay but failed.  The torch goes on to Paris tomorrow and will be in San Francisco by Wednesday morning.  Stay tuned for similar mayhem when the torch arrives here.

Jay-Z gets the money and the girl

Earlier this week, there was a story that Jay-Z was in the middle of negotiating a $150 million deal with Live Nation for tour performances over the next 10 years to promote 3 future albums. 

Well, apparently on Friday Jay-Z, 38, and Beyonce, 26, were married on Friday putting to an end a 6-year courtship.  They reportedly tied the knot in a small ceremony in Jay-Z’s apartment. Gwyneth Paltrow and other celebrities were spotted by paparazzi as they arrived at Jay-Z’s place on Friday and friends of the couple leaked the good news.  No official word from their publicists as of yet.

Well, if it’s true, this guy is big pimpin’ for’real!  All he needs to do is finalize the New Jersey Nets’ relocation to Brooklyn, New York and his plans for world domination will be nearly complete.

We walked over to Union Square yesterday not to participate in the Human Rights Torch protest, but to check out the size of the crowd.  Surprisingly, there were only a couple of hundred people there.  There were a bunch of cameras and news crews, so the event was well publicized.  But the attendance was expected to be a couple of thousand.  The guy on the microphone was not very charismatic and couldn’t seem to get the whole crowd excited about the cause.  It seems to me that  the whole protest was a big bust.

Today, the Chronicle ran a story saying that most Asians in San Francisco are fretting at the disrespect being shown to the Olympic Torch by these protests.  Many believe that the Olympic Torch relay should be a celebration of the strong cultural, historic and economic ties between San Francisco and shouldn’t be disrupted by political demonstrations.  Maybe this explains the low turnout yesterday in Union Square which is only a few blocks from Chinatown.

Asians in the city are also not at all pleased about a resolution passed by the Board of Supervisors that called for Gavin Newsom to receive the Olympic Torch with "alarm and protest."  A local attorney and community leader said the following:

"We understand your rights of free speech, by all means, but be a gracious host, be sensitive to the fact that in San Francisco one-third of your inhabitants are Asians…Many of us, Chinese Americans, in the city, we may not be supporting the Chinese government, but to politicize this game and to use this torch relay as a platform to bash China to me is unacceptable."

Since the Olympic Torch is only visiting San Francisco in North America, if public demonstrations or public officials do something to insult the Olympics it will only further sully the image of San Francisco in the eyes of the rest of the country, and the image of America in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Earlier today, upon returning from a walk to the Ferry Building (2.5 miles round trip), I noticed a strange bump on the top of my right foot.  The bump is pretty hard, about the size of a marble, and doesn’t hurt at all.  Weird right!? I of course went on a Googling expedition to find out what the hell it is.  After some searches, I found out that it is likely a ganglion cyst that developed from injuring my foot while walking 12-14 miles in a couple of days last week while in Washington, DC.  Either that or it happened when I twisted my foot walking to work the other day after my return from DC.  Either way this thing on my foot looks really weird, I certainly hope it goes away on its own soon.

Woman holding the
Human Rights Torch.

Three separate torches will be running through San Francisco this week.  First, the Human Rights Torch will be making its way through downtown today, starting at 11:00am in Union Square.  On Tuesday, the Tibetan Freedom Torch will make its way through The City.  And finally on Wednesday, the Olympic Torch will make its way through The City on its only North American leg.

Many of the people attending the rallies and events are expected to protest the Olympic Torch when it is here on Wednesday.  The protesters just need a couple of days to practice yelling at some torches before the real one arrives on Wednesday.

Hopefully, the only thing burning will be the torches and the protests will remain peaceful.  A bunch of angry protesters with their own torches certainly wouldn’t be a good idea.  You should consider coming out to Union Square today to see what the controversy surrounding the Olympic Torch is all about.

Today, the third airline in one week filed for bankruptcy!  What the hell, everyone is doing it.  Not to be outdone by Aloha and ATA, Skybus Airlines declared bankruptcy and shut down.  Skybus is relatively small compared to Aloha or even ATA, which leads me to believe that a lot of smaller carriers are going to go down in the next couple of months.  With the most recent job figures, most economists now believe we’re in a recession so all kinds of craziness will ensue as confidence declines.  Stay tuned.

In the video above, please check out the drummer in the background.  He is totally channeling Tommy Lee in a spinning drum cage circa 1987 like on the Girls, Girls, Girls tour.  This guy seems totally out of place from the rest of the band and it’s funny as all hell.  He definitely stole the show in this performance.  Big ups to Meerenai for emailing me this gem.

ATA Airlines followed Aloha Airlines in declaring bankruptcy and shutting down.  Another one bites the dust!  ATA serves many airports, including Kona in Hawaii and Oakland where many travelers were left stranded and will have to make other arrangements to travel.  I wonder how many more will fold?

Mariah laughing all the way to the bank

Mariah Carey surpassed Elvis in No. 1 singles with “Touch My Body,” her 18th No. 1 single.  She is now second to only The Beatles, who managed 20 No. 1 singles in their illustrious career.  That is incredible!  If someone would have told me 10 years ago that this chick was going to someday be within striking distance to the Beatles record I would have said they were crazy.  I guess it helps that she is pretty good looking.

In Googling for a photo of Mariah for this post I found a whole lot of boob shots and crotch shots for her.  I picked this one because believe it or not, it was one of the more conservative photos and this blog is after all a family show.  I can’t help but think that if she didn’t look like a porn star that she likely wouldn’t be as popular.

I know she *can* sing, I am not saying that she can’t!  I just think that her overwhelming success wouldn’t have been possible without all of the bikini shots and the Playboy pics.    Not that there’s anything wrong with that!  It just adds to her allure.  I am sure that Mariah is going to juice her looks for as long as she possibly can.  After all, it’s a lot harder to sing “Touch My Body” when you are in your forties or fifties.  She is still looking hot so she’s working it.  Besides, you don’t want to see a grandma singing that song do you?

Google lays off 300 from DoubleClick making this the first job cuts in Google history.  Google had acquired DoubleClick last month, so this could just be a way of reducing overlapping functions.  Either way, its a reduction in force and a clear sign that the economic downturn is hitting everyone.

How much do you know about Internet URLs?  Test yourself with this handy quiz over at mental floss.  I personally scored a 73% just by using common sense on some of the URLs that were part of the quiz.  I think a lot of people will be surprised as to where some of the URLs go.   How do you score?  Don’t cheat!

According to Matier & Ross (see third story in the following link), the Gettys will be hosting a $2,300 per plate fundraiser for Barack Obama in their Pacific Heights mansion this weekend where 400 people are expected to attend.  This makes the event the “hottest ticket in town.”  Amazingly, the story claims that Mayor Gavin Newsom will not be attending because he supports Hillary Clinton.

What!?  The Mayor is basically biting the hand that fed him for years and helped make him a multi-millionaire and a political force.  It it wasn’t for the Gettys, Gavin would be successful, but he would not be nearly as wealthy as he is now, let alone be Mayor of The City.  I wonder what the Clintons did for Gavin that makes him feel he owes them his loyal support in Hillary’s campaign.  It must have been something pretty good.  Oh if only walls could talk.

Recent research shows no real advantage in using mouth-to-mouth CPR in outside-the-hospital cardiac arrest cases.  Additionally, the studies show that people are not likely to do mouth-to-mouth on strangers, but are willing to do rapid chest compressions. So the next time someone collapses in front of you clutching their arm or chest, remember that the mouth-to-mouth procedure is no longer required; using your hands only is just fine.