| Movies and NY |
[Mar. 19th, 2012|11:48 am] |
Alissa and I stayed near Times Square this weekend and had a wonderful time. The beds in Courtyard Marriott in NYC are amazing - we slept until noon on Friday & Saturday.
Thursday was hectic because I worked in Montvale that morning, rode with my co-worker to LGA, picked up Alissa, took a cab to Times Square and checked in to the hotel. Shortly after we settled in, I realized that I hadn't grabbed my suitcoat out of the car. Strike One. So I called my co-worker but unfortunately, he didn't notice it so it was gone into the Rental Car void. This wouldn't be a major issue if it wasn't for the fact that the impetus for the entire trip was a George Eastman Circle (UR Alumni) event at Gotham Hall. I needed to look respectable and that takes work. So we needed a suit. We visited the concierge desk, who promptly googled "Men's Suits", to inform us that Macy's was down the street. So we went to the megastore that is megastores. After swashbuckling through the Coach purses (Alissa bought one on Sunday) and colognes, we finally discovered a decent Hugo Boss Gray (Grey?) suit. It fit well but needed to be hemmed and hemmed STAT. Our excellent salesperson (Bipal) promised it would be ready by 5 PM instead of the several day wait - hail commission sales! To save 20%, we opened a Macy's card which managed to trigger the fraud alert on Alissa's credit card. They called us informed us that it had been cancelled even though there really was no fraud. Strike Two. We went to an Irish Pub (it was Thursday so it was empty) and got some lunch. Dog Days called - Scarlet, who had surgery last week to remove a small mass on her chest, had managed to rip her shirt and open her wound back up and tear our a stitch. Strike Three. Alissa's wonderful parents managed to bring her to vet, get her checked out and check her back into dog care. My pants were in fact hemmed and waiting for me when I got back there at 5pm. We went to the UR event and it was great. Alissa even managed to use her Epi-pen, but not on herself. (There was a panicked girl eating nuts and the doctors present (it was a UR Alumni event - of COURSE there were doctors there) basically paging Alissa to use her Epi-pen on the student.)
Friday and Saturday were substantially less stressful. We saw Grand Central Station, we bought a Muppet at FAO Schwartz, we ate Cupcakes, we dined on Mexican Food, we sat in a revolving restaurant, we bought fancy pens on 5th Ave, we saw some of the parade, we drank Belgian beers and we saw friends. I got to visit TWO magic shops as well. It was a rockin' weekend!
On Sunday, I dropped Alissa off at the airport and rented a car to drive to Jersey. I ended up in Woodridge (??) where I saw "21 Jump Street" which was a pretty hysterical movie - just the right amount of tongue-in-cheek humor. That evening I drank mini-Fanta cans with Absolut while watching "Tailor, Tinker, Solider, Spy" on the LodgeNet TV. Another terrific film! |
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| Oscar 2012 Odds: Live Action Short Film Category |
[Feb. 20th, 2012|10:46 am] |
Last night, Adam, Emily, Alissa and I went to the Lagoon and saw the 2012 Oscar nominees for Live Action Short Film. So, I researched the "odds" this morning. If I'm reading Oddschecker correctly, it's: 1. Pentecost (1.95x) 2. The Shore (2.42x) 3. Tuba Atlantic (3.85x) 4. Raju (3.94x) 5. Time Freak (5.80x) http://www.oddschecker.com/specials/awards/oscars/best-live-action-short-film(I'm not sure how the odds really work on this one, but I'm pretty sure I'm getting the order right.) However, the various people who have posted reviews (Critics seems like a strong word) have this order: CraveOnline 1. Tuba Atlantic (9.5/10) 2. The Shore (8.5/10) 3. Raju (8/10) 4. Pentecost (7/10) 4. Time Freak (7/10) http://www.craveonline.com/film/reviews/182881-review-oscar-nominated-short-films-2012TheWrap (if I follow his logic correctly) 1. Tuba Atlantic ("likeliest winner") 2. The Shore ("wouldn't rule out") 3. Raju ("longshot for the win") 4. Pentecost ("type of film that frequently gets nominated, but never wins.") 5. Time Freak ("voters will find it amusing but too slight") http://www.thewrap.com/awards/column-post/oscars-live-action-shorts-europeans-are-coming-35208?page=0,0SlantMagazine 1. Tuba Atlantic (will win/should win; "repulsively Scandinavian.. personal favorite") 2. Raju (could win; "Brangelina porn") 3. The Shore ("others among us thought it felt oddly incomplete") 4. Pentecost ("celebratory punchline that would've been a sure winner…if we were talking about the British Television Advertising Awards. ") 5. Time Freak ("might just be the apotheosis of post-graduate navel gazing") http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2012/02/oscar-2012-winner-predictions-short-film-live-action/TheIndependentCritic 1. Raju (3.0; B+) - "even odds to win" 2. Pentecost (3.5; A-) - "2-1 to win" 3. The Shore (3.0; B+) - 2-1 to win" 4. Tuba Atlantic (3.0; B) - "4-1 to win" 5. Time Freak (3.0; B+) - "10-1 to win" http://theindependentcritic.com/2012_oscar_nominated_live_action_shortsSo, combining these five reviews on a 5/3/2/1/0 point basis, I come up with: 1. Tuba Atlantic (19 points) 2. The Shore (14 points) 3. Raju (13 points) 4. Pentecost (11 points) 5. Time Freak (2 points) So, clearly the shorter films (Time Freak and Pentecost) don't seem to be in the running. I think the The Shore has a leg up on the competition because Terry George was the Hotel Rwanda Screenwriter and has some fame on that. Tuba Atlantic just seems to be a popular pick because they feel it "connects with something with everyone" as several writers put it. I think people are giving it too much praise for comedic timing (Terry Gross must have taught them how to deliver a joke) and the find the radio bit at the end a little too deus ex machina for my taste but it was a good film. Personally, I think I would vote for Raju. It was the most interesting film to me and I really felt the actor's emotions - especially when he lost the boy and felt completely helpless. I'm baffled by Pentecost's strong showing in the Oddschecker website, but I think it's just ridiculous British sentiment (as one reviewer put it, "As someone who cares more deeply about soccer than the church..") that gives it strong odds on a UK betting site. Rock. | | |
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| Chad-Libya Border War |
[Nov. 8th, 2011|12:27 pm] |
In the past two weeks, I've read two articles this month about the Libya-Chad war - in the NYTimes and New Yorker. Frank Jacobs wins this round as he not only uses the word "transmogrifications", but his article also contains the phrase, "byzantine history of these internecine acronyms". However, Anderson does get bonus points for re-telling a Qaddafi joke with the punchline, "‘The Armenian resistance—very strong.’ ”
"The World’s Largest Sandbox" by Frank Jacobs
- "King of Kings" by Joe Lee Anderson
ROCK. |
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| nothing if not redudant |
[Sep. 11th, 2011|07:08 pm] |
When "The Daily Show" returned to television on Thursday, September 20, 2001, Jon Stewart had an emotional and memorable opening monologue. I watched it online shortly after it aired and I was transcribed the words. Comedy Central is kind enough to provide the video today: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-september-20-2001/september-11--2001
JS: "Are you OK? And we pray that you and your family is. I'm sorry to do this to you. It's another entertainment show beginning with an overwrought speech of a shaken host and television is nothing if not redundant. So I apologize for that. It's something that unfortunately we do for ourselves so we can drain whatever abyss is in our hearts and move to the business of making you laugh - which we haven't been able to do very effectively lately."
Like television, posting on LJ/Facebook/Twitter/etc. about your September 11 experience on the anniversary is nothing if not redundant - but also as Stewart said - it's something you do for yourself. Somehow, focusing your energy to write something seems like it helps put your mind in the right place. So I post.
Interestingly (to me), when I looked through my LJ archives, I found nearly zero references to 9/11 near any of the anniversary dates. In fact, the only substantial entry that I located was actually written 8/4/2002. I had met with someone from the newspaper and they were intrigued about the September 11 experience. In 2001, I was about three-weeks into my study abroad trip in Accra, Ghana.
Here's my memory of the day:
That Tuesday morning I went to my Agriculture Economics class. Afterwards, I returned to my room and following lunch, I continued reading Frank Herbert’s Dune. Around two in the afternoon, a friend of my Botswanian roommate came in and told me that, “Planes were crashing into your buildings. You should probably come and see.” I figured that was telling some sort of joke, or perhaps referring to a movie on television.
I was staying in the International Students’ Hostel. We were ridiculously spoiled compared to most of peers. Our dorm had television lounges on each of the four floors. That day, everyone had piled into second story to silently watch TV.
There were only three channels in our area. The idea of a television schedule in Ghana is laughable. You turned on the television and never knew what was going to be on. I remember once at the end of the hour they showed a Ric Flair vs Rey Mysterio match from WCW Nitro for absolutely no earthly reason. However, on this day, the television station was broadcasting CNN. The rule was "no talking". You could watch or you could go outside the room and talk about politics, motivations, ramifications, etc. But if you wanted to watch, you had to be silent. As you can imagine, people were tense and things were very uncertain.
Since we were on Greenwich Mean Time, it was already early afternoon in West Africa when the news of 9/11 really broke. I remember thinking that, "Things back at home looked completely chaotic."
I’d heard of the Taliban from their efforts to destroy Afghanistan’s gigantic Buddha statues. The name Osama Bin Laden was well known in Africa – he was responsible for the horrific 1998 Embassy Bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. That was a stinging memory for a lot of Africans and was often brought up in conversation.
School wasn’t cancelled that day. From what I gather, in the US everything sort of stopped and a lot of television stations went to 24/7 news. It wasn't the same way for us. Around five PM, we had our Twi (local Ghanaian language) class with other Americans. We stood outside and discussed the news. Some people had been shopping all afternoon and came directly to class. They were clueless about what we all discussing. Some people had been on the Internet talking with friends in the US. I recall that at some point that day I got an email from my parents. Things were tense. Our Twi Professor didn't quite grasp how shaken everyone was. A few minutes into class, our linguistics professor dismissed us. No one seemed able to concentrate. As I recall, he tried to teach us a phrase akin to, "something terrible has happened" in Twi.
I had brought a radio, and for the next four months, BBC was on – morning, noon, and night. We rarely watched television but we would visit Internet Cafes almost daily so we read a lot of news. Ghanaians had mixed reactions to the tragedy. All their newspaper had huge headlines and sensationalist pictures, but the only reliable and informative news could be found on BBC or the Internet.
The time difference made things difficult: we would have to stay up until midnight to hear the President speak which was kind of late for us. I would have to be up again by six AM for my Physics class (which is comical now since a year later my 9 AM classes seemed "too early").
No one slept well that night, and the kitchen was surprisingly full that next morning. I brought my radio in and we sat around drinking Milo and conversing softly. A lot of us had friends from NYC, and a few students were from NYU. At some point over the next few days, I recall some kind of candle vigil. Maybe I made that up in my head - but I seem to remember standing around the ISH and holding a candle.
I got up early but I skipped my physics class that day. I felt bad about it. However, now I realize how little time we had to "stop our lives" during that week. Instead, while people were sympathetic to the gravity of the situation, it wasn't like much changed in Ghana.
At my classes, some students wanted to discuss the situation. I was obviously an American. A lot of people wanted to know how my family and friends were back in the US. I would assure them they were not in danger from the attacks. Not everyone understood the different between Rochester, NY and New York City – but that’s typical when you travel overseas. If I said I was from New York, they immediately thought I was meant that I lived in NYC.
While the reality of the subject loomed, there wasn’t quite the fear or apprehension that I believe many Americans experienced. Ghana was very safe, and the main threat there was robbery – not Terrorism. Christians and Muslims got along just fine, and I knew many people from either religion. Sometime in September, the US Embassy in Ghana had a meeting for all American Students on campus. A man read a prepared statement that basically warned us against getting our purses stolen. Kids were angry because they thought they were going to tell us about a specific threat in the country. In hindsight, it was kind of funny.
Oftentimes, the Ghanaians would tease the American students. It’s a very machismo society. Moreover, the majority of the American students were female so the men would often shot things from the windows as you walked by. After September 11th, the jibes included things about Afghanistan or Osama Bin Laden. You started to grow a skin about things like that. It was a different atmosphere. Later I'd find out that after the first Gulf War, they used to yell "Saddam Hussein!" as people walked by. It was goofy but basically harmless - as if we were going to lay on the ground in fear screaming, "WHERE?". For us, it was just part of the world we were in.
when I came back home and told people about the taunts, some seemed sort of perplexed. I always liken to starving in Ethiopia or Somalia. Most Americans will never travel there and experience that, and so those events don’t personally impact their lives. It doesn't mean they don't care - but it's not affecting them on a personal level. Likewise, most Ghanaians know they were never going to the US, and so what they see, hear, and read about the attacks seemed very abstract and unreal.
One thing I do remember was that initially many Ghanaians didn’t believe that Osama Bin Laden wasn’t responsible. That might seem odd, but understand that after the East African Embassy Bombings, his organization took immediate credit. Therefore, some people assumed that he would just admit responsibility. People would sometimes ask me things like that - with almost a childlike sense of innocence when it came to lying. It was certainly a cultural difference.
I was never afraid to fly home, and I wasn’t interested in returning early. Out of the eighty kids on the program, only one went back to the US. Her parents were no longer comfortable with her living in such a “hostile” environment. She was from Brown University. I add that detail because she's the only person I've ever known who went there.
When I got back to the US, I heard about "nine-eleven" and I was confused. I really don't remember t hearing the term while I was abroad - it was always "September 11th". I'm sure this is largely since many countries go day-month instead of month-day.
I wrote a lot of letters while I was in Ghana, and that night I wrote one about fearing "a sweeping wave of nationalism that might include intolerance". And I remember talking about my fear of "a lot of bad Art" in the name of September 11.
I would find out later that many of my friends, including people I met in Ghana (like Deborah) had 9/11 birthdays but I didn't really know her at that point in the trip.
Those are my scattered memories - nothing if not redundant. |
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| Shows that I watch regularly |
[Feb. 28th, 2011|12:12 pm] |
30 Rock (Thursday night Comedy!)
Archer (new favorite animated show)
Colbert Report (except the interviews) (on Comcast On Demand)
Community (Thursday night Comedy!)
CSI (on Comcast On Demand)
Cupcake Wars (weekend fare)
Daily Show with Jon Stewart (except the interviews) (on Comcast On Demand)
Family Guy (watch it on Hulu)
House (try to catch it on Mondays over Dinner)
Iron Chef America (when I'm not too tired)
Law & Order: SVU (always good random stuff)
Modern Family (on Hulu) - still my favorite show
Monk (on Netflix)
Mythbusters (haven't seen this much, lately)
Newsradio (on DVD, nightly)
No Reservations (on Netflix)
Parks & Recreation (Favorite Thursday night Comedy!)
Psych (on Netflix)
Resturant Impossible - my new favorite reality show
The Office (Thursday night Comedy!)
The Soup - never miss a week
Top Chef
Worst Cooks in America
WWE Monday Night Raw (especially when I'm travelling)
Indeed! Rock. I wonder if I missed any?
My latest find is the Carlos Miniseries. Really great stuff! |
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| Another AWF Christmas Party is Complete |
[Nov. 30th, 2010|09:10 am] |
Alissa & I successfully traversed half of the country, and drove 2,000 miles round-trip in my 2003 Pontiac Aztek to visit my hometown of Greece, NY over the Thanksgiving holiday. We had a stellar time. This year, we decided to bring our 50-pound poodle Scarlet - who is basically a large fluffy stuffed animal. She did tremendous on the trip and didn't seem to mind being couped in the backseat watching episodes of "The Wire".
I got to see both my parents and my brother Matt's family (including our three nieces and baby nephew). They very much enjoyed having a dog running around the house. I had an opportunity to play some board games with my oldest two nieces including Clue, Jr. and Enchanted Forest which was particularly nifty.
Besides Thanksgiving, the other awesome holiday tradition is the annual AWF Christmas Party - which true to form hasn't been held in December for quite some time. This year, we were graciously hosted at Tom's new house, which included a gargantuan television set left by the previous owner(s) and a basement designed for Lion's Den matches among midgets. Epic gifts that were given this year included ALF Board Game, Mayor McCheese figurine, the infamous Gay Pillow Book transferred in a Turkey & Ham Sandwich (and attached to a Park Title shot via a game of WAR) and best-of-all The Avenging Narwhal playset. We played Rock Band 3; we played AWF Apples-to-Apples; we played Catchphrase; we watched a Ninja movie and the Always Sunny in Philadelphia Christmas special. We ate from the bowl of crap (the toaster strudel was good) and devoured pizza, wings and alcohol. It was certainly chalked full of good times and merry memories.
In other news, my new job (which is over 6 months old but still seems new to me) is going well. I'm spending a fair amount of time out in New Jersey, but soon I should have several uninterrupted weeks at home which will be groovy. Improv classes are on hold until I am available for consecutive dates, but I might have a few one-off Holiday gigs which I am greatly looking forward to!
Last night, I popped in my "Police Squad!" DVD and was greatly amused by the visual antics and silly wordplay. How I long for another wacky comedy like this! Indeed. |
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| I still post on LJ. |
[Aug. 20th, 2010|08:12 am] |
Right now, my livejournal posts are being imported to my facebook feed, but I still use the good ol' LJ interface (just hit my nine-year anniversary in June - my epic first post contained a review of "Minority Report" which I described as, "it's like bill and ted meet vanilla sky meets along came a spider.") along with about five other people - ironically enough, two of which are named Jill. The other things that show up on my friends page - great movie reviews of bad movies from Scott Foy and Superstar Rob Schulz's Fantasy NASCAR updates.
In other "conversations that Alissa & I had in the car yesterday involving Murphy Brown":
* Candice Bergen's mother was technically "Mrs. Bergen" though she was known professionally as "Frances Westcott".
* Eldin was the name of the house painter.
Looking at Wikipedia, I found it unbelievable that Murphy Brown was still on TV in 1998.
As I alluded to in some Status updates, Wednesday was a rocky day. I wasn't feeling great, and when Alissa came to pick me up, I felt awful. We headed out to Coon Rapids to the YesAnd studios to start the new improv class that I was teaching, and since I knew the way, I decided to drive. This ended up backfiring (or literally, forward-firing) on me since I started to get clammy and more unhappy as we drove. Eventually, while stuck in traffic on 210 interchange, my stomach revolted which wasn't an ideal situation. We made it there in one piece, and miraculously I had an extra shirt in the back seat that I wore while I taught. I thought I was doing better on the way home, so I drove again. That was not the best choice as I ended up getting sick again - this time a comically forty feet from our actual house. ALAS! But, in the end, two long showers later, the medicine kicked in strong, and I felt better. I'm chalking the whole experience up to a bad migraine.
Not much else to report. Tonight Em comes to visit! I hope the dogs behave. They knocked down the blinds last night and when I got home, Scarlet had her hind legs tangled in them. Rock & Roll, kiddos. |
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| So, here's what's going on! |
[Aug. 13th, 2010|10:13 am] |
It's been awhile since I really wrote a LJ entry that was just a blog - not some distilled version of an wrestling numbers analysis or oddball economic rant.
Today is August 13, 2010. Local TV Station WCCO's website says that it's 73 degrees F with Humidity of 78%, Dew Point of 66 and 10 miles of Visibility. I've had my new job (Senior Consulting Analyst) now three months and I'm really enjoying it. It's been a great experience learning some new skills - developing strategies for retail marketing and polishing my consultantese. If there's ever been a job where my improv skills come in handy, it's this one! One thing that's really nice is that we're based on Lake Calhoun - so my commute is shorter than when I was working in Minnetonka and the view is far prettier!
Speaking of improv, I've had an eventful summer where I've pulled back on the performing and done some more teaching. Most excitedly, I'm involved with a new improv school based out of Coon Rapids (just a block from the Anoka-Ramsey Community College) called YesAnd Studios. This classroom is exciting for several reasons - new curriculum, new students and opportunities, carpet and AIR CONDITIONING. In total, I've spent almost 4 four years working at Stevie Ray's - I've moved from mostly performing to mostly teaching. It's been a wonderful learning experience where I really honed my skills as an instructor and developed a lot of respect and understanding for the rigors of performing weekly in a professional environment. Right now, performing regularly out at the Chanhassen Theater just isn't in the stars for me; The long commute from Saint Paul just doesn't appeal to me at this moment.
Tomorrow afternoon (Saturday, 8/14 @ 4 pm), APL productions will complete their run of the critically-derided "How to Fight Like a Girl". This is one of the first time (perhaps the first time ever) that Alissa & I have worked together on a play. We punched up the script (to the best of our ability and in accordance with what the producers wanted), we are acting major roles (Alissa plays the lead, Rachel Stewart) and we learned a lot about audience reception, the fringe festival process, working collaboratively, writing for other performers and so forth. I've learned that Twin Cities audiences are extremely referential and they didn't like the form of theater we produced. Still, I'm proud that we got took process from start to finish and raised awareness of the MNCAFE cause that is being discussed. One of my students came to the show and said that she and her husband discussed the material on the way home. For me, that's success - we provoked conversation and debate on the subject, and that's all I've ever wanted from this piece. When we were writing, we were doing it with a particular aim that matched what the group's leaders wanted. It was a difficult and challenging experience, but it's helped me address a lot of fundamental questions that go towards creating a piece that I hadn't considered before. In the past, I've rarely tried message-writing. This opportunity, however frustrating and disappointing moments and receptions have been, has been a really unique artistic chance to work with my wife, try some new and different things, meet some new people in the arts community and discover the ins and outs of the Fringe Festival process. I hope that throughout my life I had more opportunities to do creative projects with my loved ones, family and friends. I'd love to sing with my brothers. I'd love to perform improv with my parents. I'd love to write more comedy with my wife. (And honestly, she helps me edit and improve about every script/sketch/idea that I pitch.)
In AWF news, the House that Hate Built project continues to roll along. I'm really excited for Tom, Gardner and Brian. They wrote a really funny script and they have some excellent ideas. I'm know that GW is feeling really under-the-gun as he tries to execute this enormous undertaking, and whatever they end up producing will be very entertaining and hopefully gain some renown of their combined comedic talents. On the flip side, earlier this week Huber had an interview over on the Figure Four website under his wrestling moniker, "Brodie Lee". I pushed Jon to do the interview and played a small role in getting it set up as well as sending a bunch of questions to Bryan Alvarez to use in the chat. The reception on the website has been exceptionally positive and I hope that this leads to HB2 increasing his profile as a wrestler and maybe even getting that dream trip to Japan. I do miss the zaniness and humor that the AWFers always bring to a party and I can't wait until I get to see them again. Jason's 30th birthday is this month, but I don't believe that I'll make it home in time. I can only imagine what he wants most is a magic ray gun that spouts Firefly catchphrases as it vaporizes X-Pac. Or something to that effect.
Our two-dog family is going well. Meliora is definitely working on adjusting to having a second dog in the household, but overall things are positive and I do feel that both dogs are getting more exercise. It's been so hot that taking the puppies for walks is daunting, but this Fall it should be a wonderful experience. Scarlet is normally pretty mild, but she gets so excited when we go for a walk! It's very entertaining.
In terms of books, I've been re-reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 5-book trilogy (current at Restaurant at the End of the Universe). I've read the books a bunch of times - so it's always an entertaining romp. Other books I've enjoyed have been "Priceless" by Robert Wittman (stories of being a FBI art thief investigator), Keith Ball's "Strange Curves, Counting Rabbits and other Mathematical Explorations" (learn why ISBN #s should be divisible by 11 when you add/multiple the digits correctly) and Roberto Giobbi's "Card College" (the bible of how to hold, shuffle, deal and generally manipulate cards). Last week, after watching "Dinner for Schmucks" (good movie; thumbs up!), Alissa, Adam and I went over to Half-Priced Books - where I found Ball's book and Giobbi's as well as an awesome ALFRED HITCHCOCK MASTERPIECE COLLECTION. Movies include: Saboteur (1942), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), The Trouble With Harry (1955), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963), Marnie (1964), Torn Curtain (1966), Topaz (1969), Frenzy (1972), Family Plot (1976). I look forward to watching this! Rock.
This weekend will be final HTFLAG run, mowing my lawn, possibly replacing our empty propane canister on the grill and maybe playing some more Dragon Quest IX on Nintendo DS. Last night, Alissa & I used our Fringe button to see "The Quest" at the Sacred Path Center in Saint Paul. For a millisecond, I was involved with rehearsing this show, so it was fun to see what the structure has evolved into. I enjoyed it - especially because I understood the blocks they were building from. I'm happy to see the idea come to fruition and a watchable product emerging! If you're in town and looking for fun, think about seeing some live improv such as this show.
Whatever you do, I hope your weekend is entertaining! Huzzah. |
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| How does WWE in 2009 make more money than WWE in 2001? |
[Jul. 28th, 2010|10:25 am] |
Someone asked, how does WWE make more money now than they did in the boom period? So, I was going through their annual reports and selecting like financial attributes that could be isolated. WWE made some reporting changes over the past decade - they became more transparent on the actual financials (for instance, reporting the actual licensing money they brought in that year instead of just how much more or less it was compared to the previous year), they changed their fiscal year (moving to a calendar year ending in December as opposed to a April end-date), they stopped selling their own ads for TV (except in Canada) but they got a large TV rights fee increase, they altered how they reported on certain segments (for instance, Venue Merchandise and WWEShop and WWE.com have all been split into individual categories, but in some earlier reports are lumped together) and so forth. Additionally, WWE has additional streams of income and costs that have come & gone - The World, WWE Films, XFL costs, IPO costs, etc. I didn't even include these so instead it would be more of a comparison of the some attributes. Perfect? Hardly. But better than nothing.
I'll split the comparisons into two categories: Live & Televised and Branded Merchandise.
LIVE & TELEVISED
Observation One: WWE consistently runs more Live Events now than the "boom period".
Between 1998 and 2001, WWF ran 835 shows. Between 2006 and 2009, WWE ran 1,269 shows which is a 52% increase.
I was surprised to see that 1995 had 347 events, especially knowing that wasn't a financially great year for them. They were small shows compared to the boom period or even this modern era.
The average attendance in 1995 was 3,352.
The average attendance in 2001 was 11,556.
The average attendance in 2005 was 4,975.
The average attendance in 2009 was 6,933.
An interesting fact is that the total attendance in 2009 for live events is approximately around what it was in 1999-2001 years (2.3 million people annually). However, since they're touring a lot more internationally (70+ events in the past three years), so it's clear that a much smaller portion of that live audience is domestic. (This is an improvement from mid-decade numbers. By 2005, the live attendance had dipped to about 1.61 million. 2005 was still an improvement from a decade prior to that by about half a million better than 1995's numbers.)
In terms of total pro-wrestling live attendance in North America, let's not forgot that during the 90's, there was WCW live attendance that was also drawing domestically. Today, we're down to one major company which is barely drawing on a worldwide basis the same number of people it had mostly domestically in 1999.
In total, they make about the same amount of money on live event & TV revenues - costs in 2009 as they did in 2001 (about $99k/event profit). However, that number was almost halfed in 2005 ($57k/event).
Observation Two: While PPV revenues are up on a per-buy basis, PPV costs have risen as well. International buys continue to rise.
2009: $80.0 million PPV revenue with $32.5 million in PPV costs. Total PPV buys (domestic+int'l) = 4,490,200 buys.
2005: $85.5 million PPV revenue with $36.3 million in PPV costs. Total PPV buys (domestic+int'l) = 5,280,800 buys.
2001: $128.2 million PPV revenue with $41.6 million in PPV costs. Total PPV buys (domestic+int'l) = 8,010,400 buys.
Revenue per PPV buy
2009: $17.82/buy
2005: $16.19/buy
2001: $16.00/buy
This would suggest that the price increases on the PPVs have offset the fact that a larger percentage of buys is coming from international sources. Remember that the average PPV in 2001 was only $29.95 (WM was $39.95). The average PPV in 2005 was $34.95 (WM was $49.95) and the average PPV in 2009 is $39.95 (WM was $54.95 plus more for HD). A little less than 50% of the average PPV price was received per buy in 2005 & 2009, and a little more than half was received per buy in 2001.
Cost per PPV buy
2009: $7.24/buy
2005: $6.87/buy
2001: $5.19/buy
Revenues - Cost per PPV buy:
2009: $10.58/buy x 4.49 million buys = $47.5 million
2005: $9.31/buy x 5.28 million buys = $49.2 million
2001: $10.81/buy x 8.01 million buys = $86.6 mililon
So, WWE is keeping their head above water on the PPV front on a per-PPV basis - but they've had to increase PPV prices by 33% since 2001 to do that. They're not even close to making as much money over-all on the PPV front as they were in the boom period, once you factor in increased costs.
Observation Three: Overall, the increase in TV rights fees and the loss of advertising money resulted in a slight gain.
2009: $72.8 domestic TV rights fees + $39.1 int'l TV rights fee + $7.7 advertising = $119.6 million net revenue (with $68.3 in cost)
2005: $52.3 domestic TV rights fees + $24.8 int'l TV rights fee + $43.7 advertising = $120.8 million net revenue (with $68.5 in cost)
2001: $20.9 domestic TV rights fees + $14.3 int'l TV rights fee + $90.3 advertising = $125.5 million net revenue (with $78.3 in cost)
2009: $51.3 million in profit
2005: $52.3 million in profit
2001: $47.2 million in profit
It's been an interesting trade-off. Obviously, they seem to be underpaid in TV rights fees at the turn of the century, but they were able to make a lot of money selling ads. Now, they get a lot more for the TV rights (especially in the int'l market) but they barely do more ads. Considering the lower ratings (though the same number of viewers, as was discussed in the newsletter this week), I think they're probably better off not trying to sell ads.
To recap points 1 through 3:
(a) Overall, Live Event Attendance is about the same. Even profit per event is about the same. But by running more events, 2009 has about $13MM more in profit in compared to 2001.
(b) PPV profits are $40MM lower in 2009 than the peak period (2001).
(c) They're been a shift in the allocation of profit from TV Rights + Advertising money, but overall things are about the same (+$4MM in 2009 vs 2001).
Live Events & Televised Profit: down about $22MM in 2009 compared in 2001
2009: $308 - $175 = +$133MM
2005: $285 - $165 = +$120MM
2001: $336 - $181 = +$155MM
1997: $63.9 - $54.6 = +$9.3MM
Branded Merchandise
Observation Four: Profit from Licensing Fees, Merchandise and Home video are up!
Licensing Fees: $44.7 - $11.0 = +$33.7MM (2009)
Licensing Fees: $20.9 - $6.4 = +$14.5MM (2005)
Licensing Fees: $35.6 - $13.8 = +$21.8MM (2001)
I believe this money is coming from better deals with the licensees - toys, video games, etc.
Merchandise: $35.8 - $22.7 = +$13.1MM (2009)
Merchandise: $17.3 - $12.1 = +$5.2MM (2005)
Merchandise: $28.9 - $23.9 = +$5.0MM (2001)
I'm putting WWEShop and Venue Merchandise into one bucket so I can compare the different years.
Home Video: $39.4 - $17.7 = $21.7MM (2009)
Home Video: $20.1 - $9.2 = $10.9MM (2005)
Home Video: $12.2 - $6.2 = $6.0MM (2001)
Licensing/Merchandise/Home Video combined: $33.7 + $13.1 + $21.7 = $68.5MM (2009)
Licensing/Merchandise/Home Video combined: $14.5 + $5.2 + $10.9 = $30.6MM (2005)
Licensing/Merchandise/Home Video combined: $21.8 + $5.0 + $6.0 = $32.8MM (2001)
The increase in these three categories from 2009 compared to 2001 (+$35.7MM) completely offsets the decrease in the Live & Televised Profit (-$22MM).
Observation Five: WWE makes more on publishing and WWE.com than they did previously.
It's not a big surprise that WWE understands how to effectively make money using the internet better today than they did a decade ago.
WWE.Com/Internet Advertising: $16.8 - $6.9 = $9.9MM (2009)
WWE.Com/Internet Advertising: $7.8 - $3.5 = $4.3MM (2005)
WWE.Com/Internet Advertising: $5.6 - $4.9 = $0.7MM (2001)
Publishing: $13.5 - $11.1 (2009) = +$2.4MM
Publishing: $12.2 - $8.4 (2005) = +$3.8MM
Publishing: $17 - $23.9 (2001) = -$6.9MM (I believe it was things like WWE magazine and WWE Music were not making money)
2009 vs 2001: +$18.6MM higher profits on these two categories.
To recap points 4 and 5:
(a) WWE made almost $36MM more in licensing/merchandise/home video in 2009 than they did in 2001.
(b) WWE made almost $19MM more through WWE.com/Publishing in 2090 than they did in 2001.
(c) The additional $54MM in Branded Merchandise profit offsets the -$22MM less from the Live & Televised Event category.
Revenues - Cost: 458 - 244 = $214 (2009)
Revenues - Cost: 363 - 203 = $160 (2005)
Revenues - Cost: 435 - 240 = $195 (2001)
Revenues - Cost: 81.8 - 68.9 = $13 (1997)
In short, how did WWE make more money in 2009 than they did in 2001? They ran more events at about the same profit/event as they did a decade earlier, they made a lot more money on their licensing fees and expanded their ability to use WWEShop to move merchandise, they became much more profitable at producing home video units, they figured out how to make more money using their website and they shuttered some of the unprofitable elements of their publishing business.
Now, this isn't taking into account inflation or other factors, but it gives a good grounding on how things have changed over the past ten years.
-Chris Harrington |
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