PRICE competition between retailers this Christmas will be the most cut-throat for a decade, Asda forecast yesterday.
Asda and Tesco, Britain's two food retailing market leaders, went public yesterday with promises of hundreds of millions of pounds of savings for customers as the sector enters its busiest time of the year.
It came as Asda posted like-for-like salADVERTISEMENTes up 5.6 per cent in the quarter to the end of September, as its market share rose from 16.9 per cent to 17.3 per cent.
Like-for-like sales growth at the group over the first nine months of the year was 7.1 per cent.
Rival Sainsbury's revealed on Wednesday that its like-for-like sales grew 5.7 per cent in the 28 weeks to 3 October as its chief executive Justin King also predicted festive trading would be "feisty".
Judith McKenna, Asda's chief financial officer, went further yesterday, saying: "This year will be the most aggressive on price in a decade."
McKenna revealed that the company is to cut prices on 50 home technology products and accessories as part of the festive price war, including branded televisions and DVD players, mobile phones and sat-nav systems.
The move follows similar pre-Christmas offers from the group covering music, games, toys and clothing, with Asda claiming it will save customers £150m this Christmas.
Tesco responded yesterday by promising customers savings of £250m. Carolyn Bradley, Tesco's UK marketing director, said the supermarket was running "more offers than ever before".
Retail analysts said Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury were all expanding non-food ranges, which tend to attract higher profit margins than groceries. "That, in turn, is ratcheting up the pressure this Christmas on specialist retailers," one analyst said.
Supermarkets are also fighting over the market share of toys-to-DVDs chain Woolworths, which collapsed last Christmas.
McKenna painted a downbeat picture of consumer sentiment more than a year into the recession. She said expectations of future tax hikes and public sector job cuts continued to weigh on consumer optimism.
"Customers tell us they continue to be under pressure and they remain cautious. People are reluctant to spend any cash they have," McKenna added.
Asda's sales performance in the latest quarter to September was a slowdown from the previous quarter's 7.2 per cent rise, which it said was entirely due to falling food inflation.
The group, which is owned by Wal-Mart, said it expected food inflation to remain very low into the Christmas period, helping its planned reductions. McKenna said consumers were expected to pick practical yuletide gifts like bags, ties and belts.
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Monday, November 16, 2009
The jazz score for A Charlie Brown Christmas is so integral to the show's mood and tone, it's practically a character in and of itself.
It has been said that the genius of jazz legend Miles Davis was that he played silences the way other people played notes. He allowed space to come into his music, and it was into this emptiness that an unmistakable melancholy often settled.
I was struck by this observation while watching A Charlie Brown Christmas, which is entirely unique in the genre of animated Christmas specials. The first oddity is the jazz soundtrack. Composed by Vince Guaraldi, the score is so integral to the show's mood and tone, it's practically a character in and of itself. There's a thoughtful, adult quality to it; one that suggests art rather than commerce, and although the show was released in 1965, it has a pre-modern, almost rural feel to it.
Although "Linus and Lucy" -- the signature piece of music to which all the Peanuts famously danced -- doesn't sound until about halfway through the special, it became so culturally embedded, it was used as the theme song for all subsequent specials.
However, it's not this piece of music that starts A Charlie Brown Christmas, but another Guaraldi composition. Wistful and contemplative, this music is in no rush, nor does it try too hard to sell you anything, be it a mood or a new song for your iPod.
As this music plays, the cartoon opens with a slow, 10-second pan. We move languorously across the winter landscape to watch the Peanuts skating on a frozen lake. With implacable faces, they glide about the ice. Instead of jubilantly playing as a group, as most children would, they seem indifferent to one another. Content to do their own thing, they seem lost in their own worlds. While this is slowly unfolding, we hear children's voices, slightly out of tune, singing "Christmas Time is Here." This has to be the most sombre, even mournful, Christmas carol ever.
Of course, the music isn't the only disarming thing about A Charlie Brown Christmas. The voices of the Peanuts and the rhythms of their speech have always seemed a little bit weird to me. There's a choppy, almost breathless quality to the way they deliver their lines, and I only recently discovered that the actors who voiced the Peanuts were indeed children.
Typically, when we're watching a cartoon like The Simpsons, we're hearing adult actors performing the voices of the children. This adds all sorts of polish and depth to the delivery. The actors furnish their lines with the knowing maturity of adults who understand exactly what the writing team intended. In the case of the Peanuts, the children used for the voices were sometimes too young to know how to read, and their lines were fed to them, half a line at a time, and then spliced together.
For this reason, there's an unusual pace and innocence in the way the characters speak. It's as if the words were translated from an adult language to a child's language, making it simultaneously alien and familiar.
Sometimes, it's as though the kids don't even really understand what they're saying. It's all very strange and dislocating, but it has the ring of truth to it.
At any rate, Charlie Brown is not in the Christmas spirit. He attempts to direct the school pageant, but proves a failure at that. He then bungles the task of picking out a tree, choosing one that's little more than an emaciated sprig of parsley. However, after Linus delivers the epiphanic Gospel of Luke, in which the true meaning of Christmas is revealed, things take a turn for the better. The tree, attended to by the Peanuts gang, fulfils its beautiful potential, and we're left with the image of everybody, Charlie Brown included, singing beneath an immense night sky, as snow falls.
Charlie Brown, a square peg in a world of round holes, always has an uncertain frown -- as if drawn by somebody with a shaky hand -- on his face. The jangly lines of an insomniac circle his eyes, and despite his very best efforts to be like the effortlessly confident and graceful Snoopy, things just never work out for him. The melancholic, depressive glaze of the Peanuts is unmistakable, and that's one of the reasons I think it makes for such a strange and compelling Christmas special.
I suppose there are many people who relate to Charlie Brown at this time of year. With manufactured Christmas Muzak bombarding us at the shopping malls, many of us feel pressured to be happy and to confront obligations, both financial and social, that we really want no part of. Often, the absences in our lives feel amplified at this time, and it's easy to fall through the cracks and feel blue, like an outsider, like Charlie Brown.
Each year, the eccentric Peanuts special returns and washes over us like a Miles Davis performance. A Charlie Brown Christmas comes at a different tempo, giving the audience the opportunity to fill the space between the notes that have been struck, and, like Charlie Brown, to find some solace in a restive moment of grace and innocence.
I was struck by this observation while watching A Charlie Brown Christmas, which is entirely unique in the genre of animated Christmas specials. The first oddity is the jazz soundtrack. Composed by Vince Guaraldi, the score is so integral to the show's mood and tone, it's practically a character in and of itself. There's a thoughtful, adult quality to it; one that suggests art rather than commerce, and although the show was released in 1965, it has a pre-modern, almost rural feel to it.
Although "Linus and Lucy" -- the signature piece of music to which all the Peanuts famously danced -- doesn't sound until about halfway through the special, it became so culturally embedded, it was used as the theme song for all subsequent specials.
However, it's not this piece of music that starts A Charlie Brown Christmas, but another Guaraldi composition. Wistful and contemplative, this music is in no rush, nor does it try too hard to sell you anything, be it a mood or a new song for your iPod.
As this music plays, the cartoon opens with a slow, 10-second pan. We move languorously across the winter landscape to watch the Peanuts skating on a frozen lake. With implacable faces, they glide about the ice. Instead of jubilantly playing as a group, as most children would, they seem indifferent to one another. Content to do their own thing, they seem lost in their own worlds. While this is slowly unfolding, we hear children's voices, slightly out of tune, singing "Christmas Time is Here." This has to be the most sombre, even mournful, Christmas carol ever.
Of course, the music isn't the only disarming thing about A Charlie Brown Christmas. The voices of the Peanuts and the rhythms of their speech have always seemed a little bit weird to me. There's a choppy, almost breathless quality to the way they deliver their lines, and I only recently discovered that the actors who voiced the Peanuts were indeed children.
Typically, when we're watching a cartoon like The Simpsons, we're hearing adult actors performing the voices of the children. This adds all sorts of polish and depth to the delivery. The actors furnish their lines with the knowing maturity of adults who understand exactly what the writing team intended. In the case of the Peanuts, the children used for the voices were sometimes too young to know how to read, and their lines were fed to them, half a line at a time, and then spliced together.
For this reason, there's an unusual pace and innocence in the way the characters speak. It's as if the words were translated from an adult language to a child's language, making it simultaneously alien and familiar.
Sometimes, it's as though the kids don't even really understand what they're saying. It's all very strange and dislocating, but it has the ring of truth to it.
At any rate, Charlie Brown is not in the Christmas spirit. He attempts to direct the school pageant, but proves a failure at that. He then bungles the task of picking out a tree, choosing one that's little more than an emaciated sprig of parsley. However, after Linus delivers the epiphanic Gospel of Luke, in which the true meaning of Christmas is revealed, things take a turn for the better. The tree, attended to by the Peanuts gang, fulfils its beautiful potential, and we're left with the image of everybody, Charlie Brown included, singing beneath an immense night sky, as snow falls.
Charlie Brown, a square peg in a world of round holes, always has an uncertain frown -- as if drawn by somebody with a shaky hand -- on his face. The jangly lines of an insomniac circle his eyes, and despite his very best efforts to be like the effortlessly confident and graceful Snoopy, things just never work out for him. The melancholic, depressive glaze of the Peanuts is unmistakable, and that's one of the reasons I think it makes for such a strange and compelling Christmas special.
I suppose there are many people who relate to Charlie Brown at this time of year. With manufactured Christmas Muzak bombarding us at the shopping malls, many of us feel pressured to be happy and to confront obligations, both financial and social, that we really want no part of. Often, the absences in our lives feel amplified at this time, and it's easy to fall through the cracks and feel blue, like an outsider, like Charlie Brown.
Each year, the eccentric Peanuts special returns and washes over us like a Miles Davis performance. A Charlie Brown Christmas comes at a different tempo, giving the audience the opportunity to fill the space between the notes that have been struck, and, like Charlie Brown, to find some solace in a restive moment of grace and innocence.
Christmas starts too early
Feeling depressed, I decided to listen to some Christmas music to cheer myself up. WNIC started their 100 percent Christmas music, so I used that. While getting to the site to listen online, I had the age-old question, a question forced upon us year after year by toy companies, store chains and all Christmas radio: is Christmas before Thanksgiving too early?
The standard answer seems to be “yes,” or in this case “yes, stop beating the dead horse.” And yet, I feel the need to tenderize the meat before cooking. They eat horse meat in Europe. But I digress. Again.
The standard answer seems to be “yes,” or in this case “yes, stop beating the dead horse.” And yet, I feel the need to tenderize the meat before cooking. They eat horse meat in Europe. But I digress. Again.
The two biggest complaints with Christmas season starting earlier are one: Thanksgiving is ignored or glossed over and two, by the time Christmas does arrive, we’re Christmassed out and the actual holiday doesn’t mean as much as it should. The proximity of final exams to Christmas, even with the long break, probably doesn’t help either.
Thanksgiving is unfortunately easy to ignore as much as possible, what with the relatives you hate, the cranberries from the can that become the shape of the can and are supposed to be kept that way for “tradition.” There’s also the fact the star of the season, the turkey, is considered an extremely stupid bird that is celebrated by eating it after cooking it in one of several different methods.
The next problem is, of course, that the bombardment of Christmas for two months can put a damper on one’s holiday spirit, especially whenever you go shopping. The place has Christmas stuff set up everywhere, as if to force you to think about buying stuff. You try to have holiday spirit when those three-feet high decorative nutcrackers are gaping at you. Those things are a hazard.
However, Christmas should be enjoyed as much as possible. It is a time of pretty lights, free stuff, and bleeding-heart liberals pushing the other holidays that come near the season. I have no problem with the term “happy holidays,” or the fact Hanukkah was there first or Kwanza exists. I like candles, but Christmas has a wider base so I’m going to move on.
Thanksgiving should not be ignored, forgotten, or overlooked. Nor should its real history be glossed over. Christmas and Thanksgiving can be enjoyed together, because, like it or not, Christmas is forced on us before we want it. Limit your exposure to savor it later, or enjoy it in its entirety for as long as you like. Either way, just remember that poor bird and his very tasty body.
Christmas arrives on the whims of marketing experts, regardless of our own desires or needs. We can either fight this early Christmas and wait until after Thanksgiving, or we can embrace both holidays at once. Whatever you decide with your holiday conundrums, make sure you enjoy them as much as possible, because it is the key to getting over this over-Christmassed and Thanksgiving-bypassing time.
Thanksgiving is unfortunately easy to ignore as much as possible, what with the relatives you hate, the cranberries from the can that become the shape of the can and are supposed to be kept that way for “tradition.” There’s also the fact the star of the season, the turkey, is considered an extremely stupid bird that is celebrated by eating it after cooking it in one of several different methods.
The next problem is, of course, that the bombardment of Christmas for two months can put a damper on one’s holiday spirit, especially whenever you go shopping. The place has Christmas stuff set up everywhere, as if to force you to think about buying stuff. You try to have holiday spirit when those three-feet high decorative nutcrackers are gaping at you. Those things are a hazard.
However, Christmas should be enjoyed as much as possible. It is a time of pretty lights, free stuff, and bleeding-heart liberals pushing the other holidays that come near the season. I have no problem with the term “happy holidays,” or the fact Hanukkah was there first or Kwanza exists. I like candles, but Christmas has a wider base so I’m going to move on.
Thanksgiving should not be ignored, forgotten, or overlooked. Nor should its real history be glossed over. Christmas and Thanksgiving can be enjoyed together, because, like it or not, Christmas is forced on us before we want it. Limit your exposure to savor it later, or enjoy it in its entirety for as long as you like. Either way, just remember that poor bird and his very tasty body.
Christmas arrives on the whims of marketing experts, regardless of our own desires or needs. We can either fight this early Christmas and wait until after Thanksgiving, or we can embrace both holidays at once. Whatever you decide with your holiday conundrums, make sure you enjoy them as much as possible, because it is the key to getting over this over-Christmassed and Thanksgiving-bypassing time.
’Twas a month and a half before Christmas
ELYRIA - More than 100 children of all ages gathered Saturday afternoon to welcome Santa Claus to Midway Mall as he rode in on an Elyria fire truck.
The children then followed Santa to his special village in the mall, where he read them a story and then spent the rest of the day listening to Christmas morning wishes, posing for pictures and passing out candy canes.
Marcus Krick, 10, of Lorain, hopes to see a basketball and a PlayStation 2 basketball game under the tree come Dec. 25. Is he a basketball fan?
“Kinda,” he said. “Not really, but yeah.”
He’s more definitive about his favorite player.
“LeBron James!” he said.
His 5-year-old brother, Jordan Whyel of Elyria, asked Santa for a red Jeep he can ride. Jordan is a fan of Santa because “he gave me a candy cane. He’s looking at me!” Jordan smiled and waved one last time at Santa before heading home.
The Baker clan from Elyria, consisting of Quinton, 4, Cheyenne, 6, and Tabby, 10, were also big fans of the man in red.
“I wish he could stay home with us,” Quinton said, also wishing for a monster truck. Cheyenne wants a doll as big as she is and Tabby is hoping for Bratz dolls and new clothes.
“I like the way (Santa) comes on Christmas Eve to give us presents,” Cheyenne said.
Eight-year-old Coby DeLeon of Amherst, an avid reader, wants one thing in two forms - the “Ink Heart” book as well as the movie version. Colored pencils for drawing would also be nice. Coby likes visiting Santa Claus because of how Santa makes her feel.
“I feel like it’s really special,” she said. “It only happens once a year.”
Her 5-year-old brother, Christian DeLeon, was definitive about why he likes Santa.
“He brings me some presents!” Christian said with an eye roll. “I asked him if I can have a Hot Wheels Battle Force 5. The red one. The leader. I want the big one.”
The DeLeon children said they are positive they are Santa’s “nice” list this year - but not before looking to their mother for verification.
Santa is available for visits at the mall 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 24.
The children then followed Santa to his special village in the mall, where he read them a story and then spent the rest of the day listening to Christmas morning wishes, posing for pictures and passing out candy canes.
Marcus Krick, 10, of Lorain, hopes to see a basketball and a PlayStation 2 basketball game under the tree come Dec. 25. Is he a basketball fan?
“Kinda,” he said. “Not really, but yeah.”
He’s more definitive about his favorite player.
“LeBron James!” he said.
His 5-year-old brother, Jordan Whyel of Elyria, asked Santa for a red Jeep he can ride. Jordan is a fan of Santa because “he gave me a candy cane. He’s looking at me!” Jordan smiled and waved one last time at Santa before heading home.
The Baker clan from Elyria, consisting of Quinton, 4, Cheyenne, 6, and Tabby, 10, were also big fans of the man in red.
“I wish he could stay home with us,” Quinton said, also wishing for a monster truck. Cheyenne wants a doll as big as she is and Tabby is hoping for Bratz dolls and new clothes.
“I like the way (Santa) comes on Christmas Eve to give us presents,” Cheyenne said.
Eight-year-old Coby DeLeon of Amherst, an avid reader, wants one thing in two forms - the “Ink Heart” book as well as the movie version. Colored pencils for drawing would also be nice. Coby likes visiting Santa Claus because of how Santa makes her feel.
“I feel like it’s really special,” she said. “It only happens once a year.”
Her 5-year-old brother, Christian DeLeon, was definitive about why he likes Santa.
“He brings me some presents!” Christian said with an eye roll. “I asked him if I can have a Hot Wheels Battle Force 5. The red one. The leader. I want the big one.”
The DeLeon children said they are positive they are Santa’s “nice” list this year - but not before looking to their mother for verification.
Santa is available for visits at the mall 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 24.
Pre-Christmas rush sees house prices fall
Asking prices fell 1.6 per cent between October and November as sellers tried to shift houses before Christmas.
Market intelligence agency Rightmove has recorded a £3,744 fall in average asking prices, from £230,184 to £226,440, representing the first drop in three months.
The agency is predicting three months of price falls, with recovery expected in February.
Buyers do not appear to be rushing to get deals through before the stamp duty holiday ends on 31 December.
This applies to homes that are valued at between £125,000 and £175,000. But the number of homes for sale in this price bracket has remained stable for the last three months, at around 24 per cent.
Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said: ‘We may yet see a last-minute rush of transactions, but the balance of property availability in the exempt band remains virtually unchanged.
‘The incentive has been rendered almost irrelevant by lenders’ high deposit requirements. However, its withdrawal adds to the uncertainty surrounding the property market in 2010, which will also have to cope with the slowdown that an actively contested election always brings.’
Market intelligence agency Rightmove has recorded a £3,744 fall in average asking prices, from £230,184 to £226,440, representing the first drop in three months.
The agency is predicting three months of price falls, with recovery expected in February.
Buyers do not appear to be rushing to get deals through before the stamp duty holiday ends on 31 December.
This applies to homes that are valued at between £125,000 and £175,000. But the number of homes for sale in this price bracket has remained stable for the last three months, at around 24 per cent.
Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said: ‘We may yet see a last-minute rush of transactions, but the balance of property availability in the exempt band remains virtually unchanged.
‘The incentive has been rendered almost irrelevant by lenders’ high deposit requirements. However, its withdrawal adds to the uncertainty surrounding the property market in 2010, which will also have to cope with the slowdown that an actively contested election always brings.’
Weekend US box office report: 2012 destroys the theater
There was only one new release this weekend that managed to make a splash in the top ten, and that was the huge-budget disaster movie 2012, from Roland Emmerich. Emmerich specializes in big, noisy, action blockbusters where lots of stuff blows up, which means that 2012 is more like an out-of-season summer movie than it is a traditional winter movie, but that didn't keep audiences away. 2012 grossed an incredible $65 million this weekend.
Undoubtedly, that gross was elevated by both the presence of 3-D screenings and the new D-Box technology. Well, it's not new, per se. The use of physical manipulation of seats to put viewers further into the movie has been around since 1959's The Tingler, and that kind of cheap exploitative gimmick is even more popular today. I, for one, can't be happier to see it, and I'll be trying it out this week.
The only other big news this weekend was the expansion of Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire. The film added 156 theaters, but the gross leaped up a staggering 225% for a take of $6.09 million this weekend. That brings the movie to fourth place. The gross per theater is an astounding $35,000 per showing!
A Christmas Carol held strongly to its audience, dropping to second place from last week's first. The movie picked up another 22.325 million bones in the multiplexes, despite competing with 2012 for 3-D screens. It's going to need a lot more $20 million weekends to earn that big budget back.
Holding to third place was The Men Who Stare At Goats, which picked up $6.2 million this weekend. I got a chance to get into the theaters and see it, and I have to say that it's not a bad movie. It's a little too... Coen Brothers-lite, but it's still pretty entertaining. There's a lot of funny stuff in there.
Michael Jackson's This Is It dropped to fifth place from second last weekend, showing a more normal decline for this kind of movie. Last week was kind of an aberration, I think. The $5.1 million from this weekend fattened Jacko's box office totals to $68 million so far in the States, in only three weeks. I wonder: if Jackson had just made a comeback movie, rather than working himself to death to get back into shape for a big concert stand in London, would he have made this much? I doubt it.
The movies that took fifth, sixth, and seventh are separated by only $500,000 at best, so these numbers aren't guaranteed to be right. The Fourth Kind is probably a solid sixth place this weekend, with its $4.7 million, but Couples Retreat (seventh place, $4.253 million) and Paranormal Activity (eighth place, $4.2 million) could still swap places before all is said and done. Paranormal Activity and Couples Retreat did both break $100 million this weekend, so there's not much to complain about for either, no matter where the chips fall for the two.
Law Abiding Citizen drops to ninth from eighth, but it still took in nearly $4 million this weekend. $3.9 million, to be exact. It handily outpaced The Box, which brought in only $3.185 million to round out the top 10. Pirate Radio just barely missed the top 10.
There's a pretty big slate of movies coming out this weekend. There's Sandra Bullock's uplifting sports drama The Blind Side. The latest in a long, long line of animated comedies rolling out is Planet 51, featuring the voice of The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, among others. There's also a little movie coming out called The Twilight Saga: New Moon, which you might have heard of.
I cannot wait to get my teeth into that piece of junk. I'm salivating. What Twilight did to vampires, they're now trying to do to werewolves. Oh, they deserve this.
Undoubtedly, that gross was elevated by both the presence of 3-D screenings and the new D-Box technology. Well, it's not new, per se. The use of physical manipulation of seats to put viewers further into the movie has been around since 1959's The Tingler, and that kind of cheap exploitative gimmick is even more popular today. I, for one, can't be happier to see it, and I'll be trying it out this week.
The only other big news this weekend was the expansion of Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire. The film added 156 theaters, but the gross leaped up a staggering 225% for a take of $6.09 million this weekend. That brings the movie to fourth place. The gross per theater is an astounding $35,000 per showing!
A Christmas Carol held strongly to its audience, dropping to second place from last week's first. The movie picked up another 22.325 million bones in the multiplexes, despite competing with 2012 for 3-D screens. It's going to need a lot more $20 million weekends to earn that big budget back.
Holding to third place was The Men Who Stare At Goats, which picked up $6.2 million this weekend. I got a chance to get into the theaters and see it, and I have to say that it's not a bad movie. It's a little too... Coen Brothers-lite, but it's still pretty entertaining. There's a lot of funny stuff in there.
Michael Jackson's This Is It dropped to fifth place from second last weekend, showing a more normal decline for this kind of movie. Last week was kind of an aberration, I think. The $5.1 million from this weekend fattened Jacko's box office totals to $68 million so far in the States, in only three weeks. I wonder: if Jackson had just made a comeback movie, rather than working himself to death to get back into shape for a big concert stand in London, would he have made this much? I doubt it.
The movies that took fifth, sixth, and seventh are separated by only $500,000 at best, so these numbers aren't guaranteed to be right. The Fourth Kind is probably a solid sixth place this weekend, with its $4.7 million, but Couples Retreat (seventh place, $4.253 million) and Paranormal Activity (eighth place, $4.2 million) could still swap places before all is said and done. Paranormal Activity and Couples Retreat did both break $100 million this weekend, so there's not much to complain about for either, no matter where the chips fall for the two.
Law Abiding Citizen drops to ninth from eighth, but it still took in nearly $4 million this weekend. $3.9 million, to be exact. It handily outpaced The Box, which brought in only $3.185 million to round out the top 10. Pirate Radio just barely missed the top 10.
There's a pretty big slate of movies coming out this weekend. There's Sandra Bullock's uplifting sports drama The Blind Side. The latest in a long, long line of animated comedies rolling out is Planet 51, featuring the voice of The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, among others. There's also a little movie coming out called The Twilight Saga: New Moon, which you might have heard of.
I cannot wait to get my teeth into that piece of junk. I'm salivating. What Twilight did to vampires, they're now trying to do to werewolves. Oh, they deserve this.
Birmingham Christmas lights: Council admits mistakes
Mistakes were made in the planning of the Christmas lights switch-on which ended in a terrifying crush and left 60 people needing treatment, Birmingham City Council said.
Coun Martin Mullaney, the council's cabinet member for leisure, sport and culture, said his department should have erected a TV screen to allow thousands of people locked out of Millennium Point to see Saturday’s show.
The star-studded event was abandoned after just one act when thousands of angry fans tore down security fencing and flooded in to the huge crowd.
The stampede saw dozens trampled or crushed against barriers before the show was called off.
Boyband JLS had just finished their performance when it was decided to cancel the concert, which had been set to last for more than five hours.
“Lessons will be learned from this,” said Coun Mullaney.
“It’s embarrassing when you have to cancel any event but I would much rather take the flak from a cancellation than from a single death.
“In hindsight, we maybe should have erected some big screens so that people outside the arena could have watched it.
“What we couldn’t have anticipated was hundreds of people turning up and pulling those fences down like they did.
“I am happy that my officers acted very quickly and properly to avert what could have been a much more serious incident.
“We were 10 minutes away from a Hillsborough situation.”
Coun Mullaney said the possibility of a “crowd surge” had been factored in to the planning of the event and it was decided to keep Curzon Street empty to allow police to evacuate the fans.
The councillor blamed high winds for causing steel security fences to topple on Friday night.
Coun Martin Mullaney, the council's cabinet member for leisure, sport and culture, said his department should have erected a TV screen to allow thousands of people locked out of Millennium Point to see Saturday’s show.
The star-studded event was abandoned after just one act when thousands of angry fans tore down security fencing and flooded in to the huge crowd.
The stampede saw dozens trampled or crushed against barriers before the show was called off.
Boyband JLS had just finished their performance when it was decided to cancel the concert, which had been set to last for more than five hours.
“Lessons will be learned from this,” said Coun Mullaney.
“It’s embarrassing when you have to cancel any event but I would much rather take the flak from a cancellation than from a single death.
“In hindsight, we maybe should have erected some big screens so that people outside the arena could have watched it.
“What we couldn’t have anticipated was hundreds of people turning up and pulling those fences down like they did.
“I am happy that my officers acted very quickly and properly to avert what could have been a much more serious incident.
“We were 10 minutes away from a Hillsborough situation.”
Coun Mullaney said the possibility of a “crowd surge” had been factored in to the planning of the event and it was decided to keep Curzon Street empty to allow police to evacuate the fans.
The councillor blamed high winds for causing steel security fences to topple on Friday night.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
UK retailers say sales bounced back in October
U.K. retailers reported their best year-on-year growth since 2002 in October, with sales up 3.8 percent from a year earlier, when financial markets were crashing, the British Retail Consortium said Tuesday.
The figures do not account for new stores opened over the past 12 months. Total sales including additional floor space were up 5.9 percent.
Still, the authors of the report said the gains will be difficult to sustain.
"The longer-term outlook remains considerably more challenging, given the economic backdrop, levels of unemployment, uncertainty regarding the impending (sales tax) rise and the impact of future fiscal policy following next year's election," said Helen Dickinson, head of retail KPMG, which cooperated in preparing the BRC report.
On the up side, conditions are benign "with less discount activity as most retailers approach Christmas with less bought in stock," said Freddie George, retail analyst at Seymour Pierce.
The figures do not account for new stores opened over the past 12 months. Total sales including additional floor space were up 5.9 percent.
Still, the authors of the report said the gains will be difficult to sustain.
"The longer-term outlook remains considerably more challenging, given the economic backdrop, levels of unemployment, uncertainty regarding the impending (sales tax) rise and the impact of future fiscal policy following next year's election," said Helen Dickinson, head of retail KPMG, which cooperated in preparing the BRC report.
On the up side, conditions are benign "with less discount activity as most retailers approach Christmas with less bought in stock," said Freddie George, retail analyst at Seymour Pierce.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
British Airways Strike Possible During Christmas Season
British Airways has announced its plans to cut 1,700 jobs, freeze pay for current staff and offer lower wages for new employees.
The Unite union is ready to ballot its British Airways cabin staff members on strike action. Reports show that the preparations for the vote are already in the advanced stages.
This is a very big ballot for many people all over the UK. If the cabin crew votes for a strike, then it will take place around Christmas time. This means that many travelers could find their holiday travel plans ruined.
British Airways would have to be given seven days notice of any industrial action and would have to be given seven days notice of any industrial action. This means the first possible walk-out could take place on December 21 -- just four days prior to Christmas
Strikes are dangerous to airlines because as well as hitting revenue, they also can damage carriers' reputations and deter passengers flying with the airlines again. The busy holiday travel season would only add to British Airlines troubles if a strike does indeed commence.
Up to 2,000 BA employees massed for a union rally at Sandown Park racecourse in Esher, Surrey earlier in the week. So many workers turned up for the meeting they caused a huge backlog of traffic.
Some workers wore their British Airways uniforms while others had T-shirts bearing the slogan — United We Stand.
An article in the BBC reported that a British Airways spokesman told The Age, "British Airways is facing very difficult economic conditions and is heading for a second successive year of financial losses for the first time in our history."
Poor economic conditions are going to get worse for British Airways if there is a strike during holiday travel time.
The Unite union is ready to ballot its British Airways cabin staff members on strike action. Reports show that the preparations for the vote are already in the advanced stages.
This is a very big ballot for many people all over the UK. If the cabin crew votes for a strike, then it will take place around Christmas time. This means that many travelers could find their holiday travel plans ruined.
British Airways would have to be given seven days notice of any industrial action and would have to be given seven days notice of any industrial action. This means the first possible walk-out could take place on December 21 -- just four days prior to Christmas
Strikes are dangerous to airlines because as well as hitting revenue, they also can damage carriers' reputations and deter passengers flying with the airlines again. The busy holiday travel season would only add to British Airlines troubles if a strike does indeed commence.
Up to 2,000 BA employees massed for a union rally at Sandown Park racecourse in Esher, Surrey earlier in the week. So many workers turned up for the meeting they caused a huge backlog of traffic.
Some workers wore their British Airways uniforms while others had T-shirts bearing the slogan — United We Stand.
An article in the BBC reported that a British Airways spokesman told The Age, "British Airways is facing very difficult economic conditions and is heading for a second successive year of financial losses for the first time in our history."
Poor economic conditions are going to get worse for British Airways if there is a strike during holiday travel time.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Dual-thumbstick PSP out by Christmas?
Source: British handheld specialty site Pocket Gamer.
What we heard: Since 2009 began, one rumor has hung over the game industry week after week--namely, that Sony is readying a true successor to the PSP. Since being introduced to the US and EU in 2005, the handheld has been outsold two-to-one by its dual-screen rival the DS, some 50 million units to 100 million units. Since June 2007, the PSP has also faced competition on the multimedia front from Apple's iPhone, which ramped up its gaming functionality exponentially last summer with the launch of the App Store.
With the handheld market growing even more cuthroat with this week's launch of the Web-browsing, multimedia-enabled DSi, pressure is building on Sony to produce a compelling alternative. The most credible rumors this year have spoken of a slimmer revision of the PSP that ditches the optical UMD drive, whose moving parts can cause long load times and drain battery life. The PSP already supports downloadable games, which are stored on a Memory Stick Duo or Pro, Sony's proprietary flash-memory card format.
Today, Pocket Gamer restoked the PSP2 rumor mill--which has inspired some impressive unauthorized concept art (pictured)--by reporting that it has spoken directly with a developer working with the new PSP. (For those keeping score, that's the same claim made by Acclaim president David Perry in February.) According to the British site, the fourth iteration of the handheld will be much more drastic than its two prior reworks, which streamlined its chassis, brightened its screen, rearranged some buttons, and added video output.
The new PSP will reportedly have a touch-sensitive screen like the iPhone and will offer a similarly sleek appearance by hiding its controls when they're not in use via a sliding panel. Among those controls will be one many PSP users felt should have been included in the original version--a second analog thumbstick. Finally, the handheld will reportedly be released in the US and Europe by year's end following an unveiling at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June.
The official story: "As far as this new round of rumors--we haven't announced any new PSP hardware and can't comment on these rumors or speculation." -- Sony rep.
Bogus or not bogus?: Not bogus something major is in the works. Speaking with GameSpot last month, Sony Computer Entertainment America hardware marketing head John Koller said over half of 2009's PSP games haven't been announced yet. "There's a lot of announcements coming up to E3 and particularly at E3," he said, further indicating that Sony is ramping up its backing of the PSP. (Emphasis added.) With software support ramping up, it would behoove Sony to reshuffle the handheld market deck by releasing an appealing new device.
;)
What we heard: Since 2009 began, one rumor has hung over the game industry week after week--namely, that Sony is readying a true successor to the PSP. Since being introduced to the US and EU in 2005, the handheld has been outsold two-to-one by its dual-screen rival the DS, some 50 million units to 100 million units. Since June 2007, the PSP has also faced competition on the multimedia front from Apple's iPhone, which ramped up its gaming functionality exponentially last summer with the launch of the App Store.
With the handheld market growing even more cuthroat with this week's launch of the Web-browsing, multimedia-enabled DSi, pressure is building on Sony to produce a compelling alternative. The most credible rumors this year have spoken of a slimmer revision of the PSP that ditches the optical UMD drive, whose moving parts can cause long load times and drain battery life. The PSP already supports downloadable games, which are stored on a Memory Stick Duo or Pro, Sony's proprietary flash-memory card format.
;)
Today, Pocket Gamer restoked the PSP2 rumor mill--which has inspired some impressive unauthorized concept art (pictured)--by reporting that it has spoken directly with a developer working with the new PSP. (For those keeping score, that's the same claim made by Acclaim president David Perry in February.) According to the British site, the fourth iteration of the handheld will be much more drastic than its two prior reworks, which streamlined its chassis, brightened its screen, rearranged some buttons, and added video output.
The new PSP will reportedly have a touch-sensitive screen like the iPhone and will offer a similarly sleek appearance by hiding its controls when they're not in use via a sliding panel. Among those controls will be one many PSP users felt should have been included in the original version--a second analog thumbstick. Finally, the handheld will reportedly be released in the US and Europe by year's end following an unveiling at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June.
The official story: "As far as this new round of rumors--we haven't announced any new PSP hardware and can't comment on these rumors or speculation." -- Sony rep.
Bogus or not bogus?: Not bogus something major is in the works. Speaking with GameSpot last month, Sony Computer Entertainment America hardware marketing head John Koller said over half of 2009's PSP games haven't been announced yet. "There's a lot of announcements coming up to E3 and particularly at E3," he said, further indicating that Sony is ramping up its backing of the PSP. (Emphasis added.) With software support ramping up, it would behoove Sony to reshuffle the handheld market deck by releasing an appealing new device.
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