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Daily Musings 3/4

1 – Obviously the most important topic of the day, IT’S PRIMARY TIME!!! The big states hitting the polls today are Texas and Ohio and if Clinton doesn’t win both those states, along with big showings in all the rest, it’s curtains for the New York Senator. I’ll be refreshing this post as often as I can while refreshing CNN for up-to-date results. I’m on the Obamamania train, but even if I wasn’t, it really is the time and the place for people to once again give a crap about voting and taking control back. We’ve seen the results when we shirk our duties (i.e.: mentally challenged cowboys with their finger on the trigger).

2 – Trent Reznor, aka Nine Inch Nails, is following the Radiohead trail and releasing nine tracks off his new album for free. You can download the EP here, or pay a little more for the full album, or pay a little more for a physical CD sent to you, or pay a little more for a collectors edition, or pay a little more for a super-duper NIN uberfan edition. Really, Trent? The power of giving the album away for free when it starts to look like a drug dealer tossing out the first hit. [via Starpulse]

3 – Spice Girl Melanie Brown, aka Scary Spice, is going to strip naked to help support a charity raising money to fight the sex trafficking trade. Something about getting naked to support the downfall of sex slaves just seems slightly skewed to me. Maybe I’m just having bad memories from the time I went to the Little People’s Rights rally dressed as an Oompah Loompah. [via StarPulse]

4 – Drew Barrymore has shifted the spotlight away from her near perfect relationship with Justin Long to the amazingly generous donation she made to a world hunger charity. She presented the foundation with a $1 million dollar check during her appearance on Oprah yesterday and it is being earmarked for the hunger crisis in Kenya, although if you follow the link on the right side of my home page, it will take you to the charity site and you can designate where you would like your donation to go. I chose “Greatest Need” because I think hunger is hunger no matter where you live. So if you have the spare funds, maybe choose a Domino’s Pizza for dinner one night instead of $60 in sushi, you can easily give that to these starving kids. What you receive is much more filling than food.

5 – This is truly the beginning of the end. They know all our secrets! [via Dave]

6 – Marion Cotillard is firing back at the quotes being used against her concerning 9/11 and the moon landing. Evidently she made those a long time ago and they were taken out of context. So I’ll translate for those not fluent in backtracking French, “I used to be crazy. I’m better now.”

7 – The back-up quarterback of the world breathe a sigh of relief as Brett Favre finally retires from the NFL. He walks away holding numerous records and widely known as one of the most consistent and dedicated quarterbacks in NFL history. Now the only problem is how to supplement the instant loss of tourism and sale of foam cheese hats in the town of Green Bay. [via Sports Illustrated]
8 – The video game Rock Band is taking the next step into musical history as they begin to create and release playable tracks from the Grateful Dead. What this really means is a quick upsurge in arthritis, exhaustion and death from malnutrition as players are chained to their game systems through 4 1/2 day long jam sessions. Also, sales of Cherry Garcia ice cream will undoubtedly take a jump. Mmmm…jump. [via Starpulse, their on a roll today]

9 – Now that Battlestar Galactica is back on the air, people from all walks of life are showing their fandom proudly, but none more so than these musicians that are planning a tribute show for the sci-fi phenomenon. I’m a fan of the show, but I think I am a couple steps back from singing songs about it or naming my kids something that can only be pronounced through a series of grunts. [via Starpulse, again ]

10 – Airborne is going to be paying out $23 million dollars in a class action lawsuit where the petitioners claim: “Airborne is basically on overpriced, run-of-the-mill vitamin pill that’s been cleverly, but deceptively, marketed.” You mean we haven’t cured the common cold yet? What the hell! First some French lady tells me we never landed on the moon, then this! I don’t think I can read the news anymore. It’s too disturbing. [via CNN]

Daily Musings 3/3

1 – Now Google has finally reached the point of full cultural integration. A young, upcoming flash-in-the-pan Hip Hop star, named Teyana Taylor, has released a track under the masterful hands of Pharell called Google Me. Click here to listen to it [via PerezHilton]. Honestly, the beat and the flow = good stuff, the chorus and concept = borderline retarded.

2 – Back in the day it seems the Hell’s Angels were dangerous on land, but completely inept on the water. They hatched a plot to kill Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones but failed in prime hilarious fashion:

“Mangold said the men tried to reach Jagger by sea. “The boat was hit by a storm and all of the men were thrown overboard,” he was quoted as saying. They all survived but made no other attempt on his life, Mangold said.”

I don’t know who this Mangold person is, but he should be getting phone calls from the studios right about…now! This has all the trapping of Will Farrell’s next mildly entertaining Saturday afternoon movie fare. [via The Superficial]

3 – A final goodbye to Jeff Healey. I won’t write out his whole bio, since the people over at Starpulse have already done such a great job of it, but I will say that Angel Eyes is an amazing song and is in heavy rotation in my “Heartwrenching Songs of the Eighties” folder in ITunes. What? You don’t have a folder like that on your computer? Uh huh. Sure, I believe you. Oh, in case you didn’t know the other amazing thing about this truly talented guitarist, he was blind. Yep, now don’t you feel productive?

4 – Marion Cotillard went from being the widely respected winner of the Best Actress Oscar for Mome La to being the widely chuckled at actress who made some badly worded comments about the 9/11 attacks and the landing on the moon:

The Daily Mail says:

“I think we’re lied to about a number of things,” Cotillard said, singling out the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center as an example of the US making up horror stories for political ends.
“We see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes. Are they burned? There was a tower, I believe it was in Spain, which burnt for 24 hours. It never collapsed. None of these towers collapsed. And there [in New York], in a few minutes, the whole thing collapsed.”
She added that the towers, planned in the early Sixties, were an outdated “money-sucker” that would have cost more to modernise than to rebuild altogether, which is why they were destroyed.
She said: “It was a money-sucker because they were finished, it seems to me, by 1973, and to re-cable all that, to bring up-to-date all the technology and everything, it was a lot more expensive, that work, than destroying them.”

“Did a man really walk on the Moon? I saw plenty of documentaries on it, and I really wondered. And in any case I don’t believe all they tell me, that’s for sure.”

[via Tyler Durden]

So what did we learn here today? First off, never give awards to the French, they just don’t appreciate it. Secondly, never say something in a interview you can’t blame on too much cough syrup. Lastly, there are indeed still people who don’t believe we’ve landed on the moon, even though we can send robots to Mars. Sure, that makes total sense. I’m going to go back to banging my head against a wall until more knowledge and facts fall out.

5 – Simon Pegg has blasted Warner Brothers and McG for the complete mishandling of his creation, the TV show Spaced. Evidently the pattern of stealing witty and intelligent comedies from Britain and repackaging them, making them terrible and keeping the same name does make some of the original British creators a bit miffed.  [via FilmDrunk]

6 – The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, just finished a two day visit to Iraq and he wrapped up the whole affair by saying “No one likes the U.S.” OK, I’ll admit we are not the most loved country in the world as we would like people to think. It’s not all teddy bears and rose parades when we come to town, but coming from Iran that statement holds just a little bit more irony. When Switzerland or Jamaica starts saying no one likes us, then I’ll be worried about our global image. If we are only being bad mouthed by crazy dictators who continue to talk about wiping other countries off the planet and ignoring absolutely huge parts of world history, I think we are still in the safe zone then.  [via CNN]

7 – I was really hoping for a cool red beam or some nifty sound effects when I clicked on a link that said “Shoots Reporter with Ray Gun”.  But it turns out this is an actual weapon, not one in my imagination, so it’s not nearly as cool. [via GorillaMask]

8 – Office Dare for the day: Ask a female colleague if you may borrow a lipstick. Then pocket it and walk away.

9 – It seems we can’t stop the battle for worst movie ever made this year. In the last few months we’ve seen Blond Ambition open to $64 per screen average, then The Hottie and The Nottie came in with a whopping $2,000 weekend total, now we get Witless Protection which is currently running a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and is officially being turned away by Canadian theaters. I hear someone shouting, it’s soft but you can just make it out, it sounds like Uwe Boll yelling, “See!! Someone is worse than me!!!” [via FilmDrunk]

10 – Ummmm…ouch:

Oscar Wrap-Up 2008

Go ahead, say one more thing about the haircut. Just get it out of your system already.

Another year has passed and another year of watching Jon Stewart polish off the Oscars like it was just another episode of The Daily Show. I swear the man cannot be fazed. As for the winners, I made predictions a while back, so let’s see how I matched up: (I’ll mark the ones I got right with a “*”)

* Best Picture: No Country For Old Men – Flocks of people left this movie confused about the ending, but I stand as one of the minority that enjoyed it, understood it (at least I think so), and was glad they didn’t try to wrap it up nicely in a Hollywood colored bow. A well deserved win for the Coen Brothers and I anxiously await their next picture, the adaptation of The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon.

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood – Was there anyone who didn’t see this one coming? I wasn’t a huge fan of the film, but his performance was the one thing that kept me interested. I still hold that this role felt a lot like a continuation of his character from Gangs of New York, but since he lost that year I consider it a dual win for him this time around. You might notice the star missing, because even though it was all going his way, I actually wanted Viggo Mortensen a little more for his role in Eastern Promises. I’m happy either way.

* Best Actress: Marion Cotillard for Mome La (or The Rose or La Vien Rose or whatever else they called it) – If she hadn’t won this I might have punched the nearest puppy. This was a monumental performance and when I saw her at a screening of the film there was a five minute standing ovation for her. Never before have I witnessed such an outpouring in person and I felt it could have gone on for even longer and been worthwhile. She was truly brilliant.

* Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men – Another shoe in for the award, even though his field was well stacked. In the end I think he just scared the living crap out of people who might vote against him.

Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton – This was the biggest upset of the night. Most people had Cate Blanchett walking away for her Bob Dylan interpretation in I’m Not There, but again I was in the minority of people who liked Michael Clayton and I congratulate Tilda on her award. If you happen to see her winning it, you can tell she was also honestly shocked. She probably bet against herself in her own Oscar pool.

* Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men – I was thrilled by this. All the other movies were well deserving of nominations, but this film was a true work of art. Well paced, well acted and well shot. Overall fantastic work by these two geniuses.

Best Editing: Christopher Rouse for The Bourne Ultimatum – This is one of three awards the film took in surprising fashion tonight. I would be incredibly remiss to disagree with the choice though because the movie was thoughtfully and skillfully paced. Editing action is an amazing balance of quick cutting and specific holding and if you watch the Brazilian fight scene in this film, you will know why he won. Best use of a book in a fight ever!

Best Cinematography: Robert Elswit for There Will Be Blood – Another well deserved win for this film. I might not have been one of the die hard devotees to it, but it was beautifully shot. The landscapes were picturesque and the intimate moments were kept close and meaningful.

* Best Art Direction: Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – Any Tim Burton film is automatically a wonderland for an Art Director. The worlds are dark, ornate and yet lovely in their eccentricities. The morose canvas they had to play with was helped to create the playground for Tim Burton and his man-muse Johnny Depp to complete yet another in their list of superb collaborations.

Best Song: Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for “Falling Slowly” in Once – The main reason I didn’t vote for this, when everyone in the world who saw it told me to, was because I honestly never heard the song or saw the film. It had a limited run here and I never made it out to see it, but it moved a nation of people and after hearing it played on the show I can see why it walked away the winner. I also want to give a hearty thanks to the amazing Jon Stewart for bringing Marketa back out on stage since she got cut off on her way to the microphone to deliver her thanks. Very classy.

Best Visual Effects: Michael L. Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood for The Golden Compass - The world of cyber-geeks was stunned by the passing over of Transformers and so was I. I saw The Golden Compass and I’ll give them credit for the amazing effects, but the movie itself lacked in so many other areas it was hard to come out appreciating anything about it. If I were them, I would make sure to hide those awards in something bomb proof because Michael Bay is comin’ for them.

* Best Score: Dario Marianelli for Atonement – I went for this no only because it is a truly wonderful collection of music, but it is also the best use of a typewriter in movie history. Clickity clack indeed.

* Best Sound Editing: Karen M. Baker and Per Hallberg for The Bourne Ultimatum – You could hear every piece of breaking glass when he jumped through the window and every bone that got bruised by being bashed with a book (YAY!) or a table leg or an entire cabinet. Amazing work done here.

Best Documentary: Alex Gibney and Eva Orner for Taxi to the Dark Side – A definite shock since Sicko by Michael Moore made a ton more money along with the fact there were two other Iraq war documentaries nominated so the thought was the votes would be split, but I have read that this was extremely well done and hopefully more people, like myself, will see it now. In fact, I’m issuing a challenge to everyone out there to watch at least one documentary a month, just one. So much is out there to learn about. It’s not all people being beat up with books (Can I mention that fight scene some more? It was awesome!)

Best Foreign Film: Austria with Falscher, Die (The Counterfiters) – I actually didn’t even cast a prediction in this category, along with the short film nominations, because I know nothing about them, but congrats to them all the same. I’ll try to see if I can find this on Netflix or somewhere and give it a spin in the ole’ DVD player.

Best Live Action Short Film: Phillippe Pollet-Villard for Mozart des pickpockets, Le (The Mozart of Pickpockets) -They showed a clip of a little kid hiding himself in a duffle bag so he could steal someone’s wallet. I give him the award just for the sheer ingenuity.

Best Animated Short Film: Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman for Peter and the Wolf – Again, I didn’t see it, but the animation looked cool. Kid hung upside down from a tree branch and caught a wolf in a rope net. Sweet move.

* Best Animated Feature: Brad Bird for Ratatouille – This was one where I actually felt bad for the other nominated films. I’m sure they were good, but Pixar is a beast and cannot be stopped by ordinary means. They will continue to dominate the Animated Feature world until someone comes up with a whole new form of CGI. Until then, I’m perfectly fine sitting back and laughing like a little kid in front of their cartoon worlds.

* Best Costume Design: Alexandra Byrne for Elizabeth: The Golden Age – Put Cate Blanchett in that role and those clothes, sign yourself up for the post-Oscar party and save a chair for your statue.

* Best Makeup: Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald for Mome La (or all those other names) – They took a gorgeous actress and made her look not only plain, but aged her nearly forty years. The transformation throughout the film was staggering and I was convinced that three different actresses were playing the part. Stunning work done here. Absolutely stunning.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men – What can you say about these two. This was their year. I was pulling for Sarah Polley for Away From Her, which is one of the most tender films of the year, only second to Lars and the Real Girl (almost completely passed over in my opinion by the Academy), but I can’t be sad about the Coen’s winning anything this year. Tremendous work and they deserve it all.

Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody for Juno – Yes, I loved Juno. Yes, I didn’t vote for it. This goes back to my absolute infatuation with Lars and the Real Girl and this was the only category it was nominated in, so I hoped beyond hope that it would get something. But Juno was another steamroller in the hearts of the voting public and I agree (just take out the uber-cutesy first scene and the movie is scripted flawlessly). Also, kudos to Diablo for a touching acceptance speech.

Best Sound Mixing: Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis for The Bourne Ultimatum – Yet another blow by Jason Bourne and his third film in the franchise against those big spiky, nasty robots.

Best Documentary Short Subject: Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth for Freeheld – According to her speech the film is about the discrimination of same sex couples. Most likely she was on the “give them equality side” of the argument, so I’m happy she won then. Like her, I don’t have that discrimination against myself, but that doesn’t mean I don’t support those who have to deal with it on a daily basis. Were all human, so we should only fear one thing and that’s big spiky, nasty robots. And if you give them a book to fight with, oh hell no, I’m leaving this place right quick.

In the end I got 10/24 right, which isn’t too bad considering there were a handful I didn’t even try for. All the movies this year were outstanding and I can only hope that we keep having Oscar shows where I don’t care who wins what award because they are all so damn good. Those are good days for a movie fanatic such as myself.