June, 26, 2005 archives
the story about how much the producers of mad hot ballroom had to pay for music rights caused quite a furor, but i think some people took an unfortunate focus on the total cost ($140,000) and portrayed that as the outrageous figure. considering the film, through last weekend, grossed over $2 million (and easily looks headed over $3 million), i’m not sure i find that figure ridiculous at all.
it’s the details of the story that are maddening, like trying to get a license for a kid singing the single line “everybody dance now” or emi asking for $10,000 to license the rocky ring tone that the documentary filmmakers happened to catch or having to worry about billboards and frito lay trucks. and here it’s the producers that are part of the problem: by failing to stand up for their fair use rights, they brought the cost upon themselves.
but the endeavor appears to have paid off: mad hot ballroom is already in the top 25 top-grossing documentaries since 1982, and looks poised to make it into the top 20 at least.
batman begins is surprisingly good. i hadn’t really planned on seeing it, but having heard several positive comments about it, decided to give it a shot. it was just a little bit too long, and you could have cut katie holmes out of it without really losing anything important, but otherwise it hit all the right notes. i think what really helped is that the movie is about batman — and he’s not overshadowed by the villians. it was more character driven, like the spider-man films have been. now we’ll see how long it takes them to drive the franchise into the ground again.
i should have bought some washers, but at least my bed is up off the floor again. the picture is deceiving: that board (and the two metal plates holding it together now) runs parallel to the ground — the board sticking out the back (in the picture) is one of the center legs of the bed.
it’s been a very productive weekend on the domestic front — i also cleaned my blinds this weekend. and now that my bed is off the floor, i can mop.