Day: May 11, 2013

Today I spent the late afternoon and evening in Friedrichshain, the hip neighborhood in Eastern Berlin (just east of Kreuzberg) that is obviously the cool place to be. It’s like the Bedford area of Brooklyn about 10 or 12 years ago. Full of life and couples and pizazz. Angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection, dragging themselves through the negro streets and looking for an angry fix. Everyone on the streets is under 40, graffiti and big shady trees and scooters and bicycles. Dozens of outdoor cafes and not a tourist in sight.

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I had an issue today with the wonderful people at Superfit, a health club in Berlin Charlottenberg (Wilmersdorferstrasse 54). I wanted to just hit the treadmill and use some of the machinery, but I didn’t think to bring sweats or shorts with me to Europe. So I tried to skirt the fashion norm by paying my 10 euro-per-day fee and using the facilities with my Nike workout shoes and jeans. Yes, I know, of course — jeans don’t pass muster in a workout club. It’s not cool and I get that. They’re totally right. But I was looking for a little leniency.

Call me a cheapskate but I just couldn’t see shelling out 20 or 25 euros for a pair of bathing suit trunks or gray sweatpants so I could pay 10 euros to do two miles on a treadmill for one time. I was being a pain and a bit obstinate, okay, but was it really that crazy to ask for a little slack? As a one-time deal?

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The following are responses to Michael Fleming‘s 5.10 Deadline story about the Weinstein Co.’s decision to move up the release date of Lee Daniels‘ The Butler from October 18th to August 16th. “That slot has done well for films that include The Help, Julie and Julia and Eat Pray Love,” Fleming writes, “and TWC will hope to follow suit.”

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“Through its use of characters, garbage falling from the sky all the time, and black people constantly playing the trumpet on a fire escape, The Great Gatsby is truly a book by F. Scott Fitzgerald about how you shouldn’t just buy a castle near your ex-girlfriend in the 1920s and then wait for her to fall back in love with you, because eventually you might get murdered by a poor person.” — from Jezebel review of The Great Gatsby by a 16 year-old kid with a very long name who may or may not have read the book and/or may have only seen the film…I can’t tell. (Thanks to Chris Willman for heads-up.)

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Zhou Qi, a professor at Jiangsu’s Southeast University and the architect of the Peoples Daily building on eastern Beijing, is obviously looking to attract attention and build a rep as a nervy professional who thinks outside the box. “Our way of expression is kind of extreme,” Zhou has reportedly told the Modern Express newspaper, “different from the culture of moderation that Chinese people are accustomed to.” Obviously a provocateur, but also a bit of an asshole?

The gist of yesterday afternoon’s World War Z piece by Deadline‘s Michael Fleming is that the super-costly Brad Pitt-Marc Forster zombie film (a) is, according to Fleming, no John Carter and no Battleship, (b) in the opinion of Fleming, who was recently shown the film in NYC, it’s “a rocking, smart, pulse-pounding big-scale pandemic with raging zombies, tension and the kind of hero[ic] star turn Pitt hasn’t done in a long time,” and (c) it’s been unfairly tarnished for re-shooting its last act when doing nothing to improve the film would have resulted in a more positive (or at least more neutral) advance buzz.

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Phase 1 was the lousy Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic ratings. Phase 1.5 was the positive pushback (measured, ardent) from guys like David Edelstein, Rick Groen, Lou Lumenick, Roth Cornet. Phase 2 is the current box-office celebration — $18.5 million on Friday, a projected $50-plus million by Sunday night. And Phase 3 is the verdict of Hollywood Elsewhere readers. Include impressions on how the room felt, whether it seemed to be connecting, etc.