Monday January 19, 2015

New England Patriots vs Seattle Seahawks In Super Bowl XLIX

The Seattle Seahawks will play the New England Patriots on Sunday, February 1 in Glendale Arizona for Super Bowl XLIX. The Patriots demolished the Indianapolis Colts 45-7 and the Seattle Seahawks came back to beat the Green Bay Packers 28-22 in overtime to earn their respective berths. The betting lines opened with Seattle being a 2.5-point favorite but moved to a pick ’em at one sportsbook. Deadspin reported early this morning that the Patriots are being investigated by the NFL for possibly illegally deflating footballs, which would have made them easier to throw and catch, especially in inclement weather. The controversy is being talked about on social media using the hashtag #deflategate. Should the Patriots be found guilty they could lose a draft pick or two. Coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 back in 2007 by the league for “spying on an opponent’s defensive signals”. The team was also fined $250,00 and lost a draft pick or two.

 

Holy American Sniper

 

In last week’s Weekend Movie Guide, I linked to sites that estimated American Sniper would win the weekend box office with an receipts on the higher end of the $40 million range. The estimates were half right. American Sniper did easily win the weekend box office, but the estimated receipts came in at $90.2 million. The Hollywood Reporter is projecting that with receipts from today, the movie will come in at $105.3 million for the whole holiday weekend. It now holds the record for biggest January opening and rates only behind The Matrix Reloaded in R-rated movie openings. In another tidbit from Box Office Mojo, Sniper didn’t have a 3D version, which many of the top-grossing movies lately have had to boost receipts.  I saw American Sniper last Thursday and really enjoyed it. The ending is powerful and captures that moment in a very fitting fashion. Go see it while it is in theaters.

The Wedding Ringer, which I also really enjoyed, came in second with $21 million and Paddington came in third with $19.2 million. I was way off on predicting that Paddington would come in second with just under $30 million, but I have heard great things from people who have seen it and think it will hold strong in the coming weeks.

We’ll have more on the weekend numbers on Thursday in our Weekend Movie Guide. We’ll also take a look at movies opening this weekend like The Boy Next Door with Jennifer Lopez and Mortdecai with Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor and Oliva Munn.

St. Louis Cardinals To Wear Oscar Taveras Patch During 2015 Season

The St. Louis Cardinals announced over the weekend at the Cardinal Care Winter Warm-Up that the team’s jerseys would feature a sleeve patch this season honoring the late Oscar Taveras. Taveras died on October 26, 2014 in the Dominican Republic city of Puerta Plata in a car crash that also took the life of his girlfriend, Edilia Arvelos. The team’s decision has drawn some controversy due to the fact that Taveras was legally intoxicated and driving the car at an excessive rate of speed when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed. The team also announced that it will donate money through Cardinals Care to renovate a baseball field in Sosua, Dominican Republic that will then be named Oscar Taveras Field. Taveras’s first game for the Cardinals marked the first time a player from Sosua had reach the Majors.

Dover Police Release DashCam Video Of Officer Dancing To Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off”

Whomever the Dover Police Department in Delaware has in charge of making these kind of decisions has every right to celebrate. The department released a video over the weekend that it implied was footage of an officer caught dancing along to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” while on patrol. The video was staged, but that doesn’t take away from its awesomeness. Jeffrey Gentry thanked the Dover Police Department on Saturday in The News Journal. 

One look at the viral video of the Dover police officer lip syncing and dancing around in the seat of his patrol car to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” was enough to set things right in my world. Prearranged and filmed mostly in a parking lot or not, publicity stunt or not, that hilarious ride-along helped wipe away some of the lingering images of bully cops

Taylor Swift herself shared the video on Twitter over the weekend along with saying “LOLOLOLOL THE SASS”, which I’m pretty sure means she is a fan.

A Dover, Delaware police officer “caught” dancing and singing to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” by his DashCam 

Already saw that lip-syncing video? Here’s one of a toddler singing along to “Shake It Off”.

 

Taylor Swift’s 1989 Set To Hit The 4 Million Mark

In other Swift news, her newest album, 1989, is on pace to become the first album since 2004 to sell at least 4 million copies in its first twelve weeks of release. The Yahoo! Music article puts into perspective just how far album sales have fallen, making Swift’s accomplishment that much more impressive. As long as 1989 sells 56,000 copies this week, Swift and Garth Brooks will become the only two artists since 1991 to have each of their first five studio albums top the 4 million mark. The album is projected to sell 80,o00 this week.

 

Max Scherzer Signs With Washington Nationals

You can put that rumor to bed about the St. Louis Cardinals going after pitcher Max Scherzer. The right-handed pitcher from St. Louis signed a seven-year deal on Sunday with the Washington Nationals. The deal is worth $210 millon. The deal is among the most oddly-structured deals ever signed. Scherzer will receive $15 million per year for the next 14 years. He’ll over receive a $50 million dollar signing bonus spread over multiple years. The way the contract is structured will keep him from paying at least $13-$20 million in taxes. Clayton Kershaw is the highest-paid pitcher in the league. He signed a seven-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers before last season valued at $215 million. Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins is the highest-paid player in Major League Baseball in terms of current contract value. He signed a 13-year contract back in November valued at $325 million.

Thomas Rhett “When I Was Your Man”

Thomas Rhett recently recorded a cover of “When I Was Your Man’ by Bruno Mars. The singer said he recorded the country cover of the song “as a thank you to fans”. The video is currently only available for viewing on the Rolling Stone site. It is scheduled to be released on Vevo tomorrow morning at 3 A.M.

$20,000 Raised For Pizza Delivery Guy In Massachusetts

Last Wednesday I included a video in my Videos of the Wednesday post that showed employees of F&R Auto Sales stiffing Jarrid Tansey of Palace Pizza on a tip and generally being douche canoes. A GoFundMe account was set up by supporters of Jarrid an pizza delivery folks everywhere. Fun 107 in New Bedford, Massachusetts caught up with Jarrid late last week to let him know that supporters had donated $20,000 on GoFundMe. The 23-year-old married father of a 16-month old seems a little awe struck. When asked if he would accept the money he responds “I’m not gonna tell people not to stand up for what they believe in, you know? They wanna give me money, they can give me money.” The GoFundMe account now stands at $31,705 with contributions from 2,989 people.

 

Amazon Studios Getting Into The Movie Business

Amazon’s video production arm, Amazon Studios, announced today that it would “begin to produce and acquire original movies”. Amazon had previously been primarily producing for television. The new arm will be called Amazon Original Movies and have a goal to produce 12 “original prestige movies each year”. Plans call for movies to be first released to theaters and become available on Amazon Prime Instant Video one to two months after that. Amazon’s Transparent recently won two awards at the 2015 Golden Glove Awards. My personal favorite Amazon series is Alpha House starring John Goodman.

5-Year-Old Billed For Missing Birthday Party

The Plymouth Herald has the story of a five-year-old boy that came home from school the other day with a $24 bill for his parents. The boy had RSVP’d to a classmate’s birthday party but then his parents realized they had prior engagements and the dad says his didn’t have the host’s contact information to let her know. The prior engagement? The boy and his sister had plans to hang out with their grandparents. The boy was given the option of what to do and he chose hanging out with his grandparents and sister. After the party when the kids returned to school. the birthday boy’s mother gave an envelope to the five-year-old’s teacher with instructions for her to send it home with the kid. The envelope contained an invoice for a “Childs Party No Show Fee”. The dad confronted the party host at her home address, which was on the invoice, and the mother supposedly threatened to take the family to small claims court in they didn’t pay up. The party was held at a place called Ski Slope and Snowboard Centre. Maybe it’s just that I don’t understand parenting, but who has a five-year-old’s birthday party and a Ski Centre where the cost is $24 for each kid? Just get a cake and some balloon animals or something. The saddest part of this while story is the kid who had the birthday now won’t play with the kid who didn’t show up to the birthday party. Then again, the kids have probably made up by now, but the mother who billed the parents is still probably a terrible person.

Saturday Night Live Spoofs Justin Bieber Calvin Klein ad

Saturday Night Live spoofed the Justin Bieber Calvin Klein ad over the weekend and it’s hilarious.

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