Friday, January 28, 2005

Damn cold...

I suddenly have procured a cold and sore throat. Lovely. So I'm currently battling that.

I received my employee review today and got a small raise. I know the areas in which I need to improve and will do so immediately.

Well, I have to go get my paycheck. I'll be back with my Oscar picks and who I want to win. So here's the nominees and I'll be back later.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Don Cheadle - HOTEL RWANDA
Johnny Depp - FINDING NEVERLAND
Leonardo DiCaprio - THE AVIATOR
Clint Eastwood - MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Jamie Foxx - RAY

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Alan Alda - THE AVIATOR
Thomas Haden Church - SIDEWAYS
Jamie Foxx - COLLATERAL
Morgan Freeman - MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Clive Owen - CLOSER

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Annette Bening - BEING JULIA
Catalina Sandino Moreno - MARIA FULL OF GRACE
Imelda Staunton - VERA DRAKE
Hilary Swank - MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Kate Winslet - ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Cate Blanchett - THE AVIATOR
Laura Linney - KINSEY
Virginia Madsen - SIDEWAYS
Sophie Okonedo - HOTEL RWANDA
Natalie Portman - CLOSER

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
THE INCREDIBLES
SHARK TALE
SHREK 2

ART DIRECTION
THE AVIATOR
FINDING NEVERLAND
LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT

CINEMATOGRAPHY
THE AVIATOR
HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT

COSTUME DESIGN
THE AVIATOR
FINDING NEVERLAND
LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
RAY
TROY

DIRECTING
THE AVIATOR
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
RAY
SIDEWAYS
VERA DRAKE

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
BORN INTO BROTHELS
THE STORY OF THE WEEPING CAMEL
SUPER SIZE ME
TUPAC: RESURRECTION
TWIST OF FAITH

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
AUTISM IS A WORLD
THE CHILDREN OF LENINGRADSKY
HARDWOOD
MIGHTY TIMES: THE CHILDREN'S MARCH
SISTER ROSE'S PASSION

FILM EDITING
THE AVIATOR
COLLATERAL
FINDING NEVERLAND
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
RAY

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
AS IT IS IN HEAVEN
THE CHORUS
DOWNFALL
THE SEA INSIDE
YESTERDAY

MAKEUP
LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
THE SEA INSIDE

MUSIC (SCORE)
FINDING NEVERLAND
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
THE VILLAGE

MUSIC (SONG)
"Accidentally In Love" - SHREK 2
"Al Otro Lado Del Río" - THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES
"Believe" - THE POLAR EXPRESS
"Learn To Be Lonely" - THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
"Look To Your Path (Vois Sur Ton Chemin)" - THE CHORUS

BEST PICTURE
THE AVIATOR
FINDING NEVERLAND
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
RAY
SIDEWAYS

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
BIRTHDAY BOY
GOPHER BROKE
GUARD DOG
LORENZO
RYAN

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
EVERYTHING IN THIS COUNTRY MUST
LITTLE TERRORIST
7:35 IN THE MORNING
TWO CARS, ONE NIGHT
WASP

SOUND EDITING
THE INCREDIBLES
THE POLAR EXPRESS
SPIDER-MAN 2

SOUND MIXING
THE AVIATOR
THE INCREDIBLES
THE POLAR EXPRESS
RAY
SPIDER-MAN 2

VISUAL EFFECTS
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
I, ROBOT
SPIDER-MAN 2

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
BEFORE SUNSET
FINDING NEVERLAND
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES
SIDEWAYS

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
THE AVIATOR
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
HOTEL RWANDA
THE INCREDIBLES
VERA DRAKE

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Cinema...

77th Academy Awards

This morning at 8:30AM Eastern, Adrien Brody and Frank Pierson, President of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, will announce 10 of the 24 nominees for the 77th Academy Awards.

The 77th Academy Awards will be televised live from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, Feb. 27.

As usual, I'll be providing my own commentary after the nominations are announced. It won't be until much later as I don't get off work until 6PM. I'd like to see Fahrenheit 9/11 get nominated for Best Picture, just to piss off the flying monkey right but I think cooler heads will prevail and the Academy voters will be voting for artistic pictures. I think the Best Picture nominees will be Finding Neverland, Million Dollar Baby, The Aviator, Sideways, and Hotel Rwanda. Ray also has a shot here and there is no doubt in my mind that Jamie Foxx will get a Best Actor nomination. I'd like to see The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou get some nominations. Bill Murray needs an Oscar, dammit! It most likely won't and I think it'll stop playing here this week so I need to get my ass in gear and see it...pronto! And I think Super Size Me could lock down a nom and a win for Best Documentary.

Desperate Housewives - Sundays 9/8C on ABC

Wow. I am SO hooked on this show. It's extremely well-written, layered, and darkly comedic. It's addictive as hell. Give it a chance. I still have 9 episodes left to watch on TiVo and then it's time to start devouring...

Veronica Mars - Wednesdays at 9PM on UPN

And lo and behold, Battlestar Galactica sits waiting for me to watch.

Tomorrow James Toback's new film When Will I Be Loved starring Neve Campbell is released on DVD. It's supposed to be a sexually-charged drama and I've heard great things.

Hide and Seek opens this weekend. It looks suitably creepy. In this movie, I think Dakota Fanning will continue her impressive job as one of the best actresses working today.

At work we got a very low mystery shop this weekend, the first time with "new" guidelines. We'd already been shopped for January using the old ones. The new ones are corporate. (We're franchise) In any case, employees were not performing their tasks. Two were fired today. One employee had already received several notices to shape up or ship out. The remaining employees on that shift were written up. It appalls me to no end that I and the rest of the gang give 110% and then something like this happens and it reflects poorly on our manager and the rest of our staff. We have a great manager and corrective measures, aside from the firings, have already been implemented.

I have found out that if I long to listen to Air America/progressive talk at night and I'm away from my computer, I can tune into WCKY 1530AM The Revolution Of Talk Radio out of Cincinatti. Their website is
http://www.wcky.com

And House returns with an all-new episode on FOX tomorrow night at 9PM Eastern. Great show, that one.

Monday, January 24, 2005

Goodnight Johnny....

You are a legend. You are an icon. You are a master. You will be greatly missed.

Johnny Carson

Rest In Peace

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

$240 worth of pudding...

Mike Malloy's kicking ass tonight on Air America Radio. And kudos to Senator Barbara Boxer of California for knocking Condi "Lap Dog" Rice to the canvas today. And congratulations to Air America as they added three new affiliates Monday - Washington, D.C., Cincinnati, OH, and Brattleboro, VT. They'll also add Detroit on Thursday at 6AM and Los Angeles on February 3rd. Keep on keeping on gang! Awesome! If we can't get AAR here in Savannah, I'm still enjoying listening to WLTQ-AM - "Progressive 730" out of Charleston during the day. I'd still like a local affiliate but I guess this'll have to do for the time being.

Remember for any and all things Air America, log onto their website at http://www.airamericaradio.com


I'm a bit miffed as this damn site crashed for a moment and I lost a semi-lengthy post. So this will be truncated at best.

Still on TiVo...

Veronica Mars and Desperate Housewives. About eleven episodes of each. They're both as good as you've heard and then some.

vh1's airing "I Love The 90s Part Deux" featuring the inimitable Michael Ian Black. The man's a genius and if you say a cross word, I'll lacerate you. Man. I will.

So I was perousing the "Coming Soon" DVD we play in-store at work sometimes. We got a new one in today you see. Interspersed throughout the movie promos were videos for Raven Symone, Good Charlotte, and Goo Goo Dolls. And then, I was amazed. For I saw the lovely and gorgeous countenance of one Kathleen Hanna as the video for Le Tigre's "TKO" unspooled before my very eyes. Joy! It was tre cool and not the drummer.

I need to play catch-up at the movies. The remake of John Carpenter's Assault On Precinct 13 opens tomorrow and I'll try my damnedest to fit it in among the litany of films I still need to see.

Movie rentals from work I procured and most likely will not watch for quite some time:

Maria Full Of Grace and Love Me If You Dare

I'll inform you of my progress.

We also finally received all seven seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer for rent at work. It's quite a beautiful sight, seeing all seven volumes of that excellent piece of filmed entertainment on one shelf. It goes along with the other great television series we have for rent, like Arrested Development - Season One, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Family Guy, Firefly, and Carnivale, to name a few.

Head over to http://www.apple.com/trailers to see the teaser trailer for The Fantastic Four. I likey.

Congrats to Jason Bateman for his Golden Globe win as "Best Actor In A Television Series, Musical or Comedy" for Arrested Development. The same goes to Desperate Housewives as it won "Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy. I wish Bateman's show had won, but the winner is light years ahead of lameness like Will & Grace. I just wish Piven would have won for entourage. Now that's a great performance. "Let's talk it out, bitch." Excellent.

Tomorrow night at 9PM Eastern, FOX debuts a new supernatural show from Buffy The Vampire Slayer executive producer Marti Noxon. It's called Point Pleasant and is about a young girl who washes up on the shore of a seaside community and brings trouble to the town. Her father's the devil, it seems. Looks cool and I hope it is.

http://www.fox.com/pointpleasant

Well, I'm going to head for bed. Watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the vh1 special I spoke of earlier, maybe Boston Legal or an episode of Veronica Mars. Nite all.

Veronica Mars - Tuesdays at 9PM Eastern on UPN

Friday, January 14, 2005

Just sitting here...

First things first...click below please...



I don't care if it's $5 or $50, please give. I am. Consider how fortunate and lucky we are and just how badly others are suffering. Every little bit helps, people.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm currently listening to The Al Franken Show on Air America Radio and relaxing. You?

Morning Sedition

Air America's morning show Morning Sedition is astoundingly funny. It combines news and human interest stories with a dollop of subversive comedy which makes for a delicious blend of early morning bliss. The hosts are comedian Marc Maron, who's already made a name for himself with a wicked wit, a brilliantly neurotic sensibility, plus numerous appearances on Late Night With Conan O'Brien and Late Show With David Letterman and Mark Riley, a longtime New York radio stalwart.

They have several dead-on bits including "Palm Pilot" which is the official schedule of Washington politicos that a page, Ramon, brings in. "Marc's Dream Diary" in which Maron details the haunting, sometimes surreal dreams he has, all usually involving right-wing reactionaries lurking in his slumber. The best bit so far has been "Radio Halliburton" in which a right-wing caller calls in (actually a Morning Sedition staffer) and then we hear the sound of a radio dial scanning for a station. The show suddenly becomes "Right and Early" and Maron affects a gravelly, loud voice as Marc "The Shark" Maron. It is an amazingly accurate and always hilarious blast at right-wing radio by imitating them to the nth degree. And the show always ends with "The Liberal Agenda", faxed straight from the Streisand compound. It's a compilation that parodies the typical premises and ideas that people define as "liberal". Today's was:

1. Urge Congress to make "gay aphrodisiac" chemical weapon available for civilian use.
2. Send out mass e-mail with the subject heading, "Horny teens are hot for you..." and when they open it, it says, "because of global warming."
3. Prepare for Bush's inauguration. Re-stoke your disgust to pre-November 2 level.
4. For Martin Luther King day, criticize the Blue Man Group for not having any black members.
5. Today's phrase, just drop it into conversation, "You know where Prince Harry got that Nazi shirt? Cheney's closet, man. It looks like the wardrobe trailer for "Triumph of the Will" in there, man."

For any and all Air America shows, log onto http://www.airamericaradio.com
Miss a show? Get the archive at Air America Place - http://www.airamericaplace.com

I plan to catch up on my movie watching at the theatre. It's been terribly sad as of late. I'm way behind on my movie-going and that's never good for a movie geek like myself. Oh yeah, Kevin Spacey as been cast as Lex Luthor, Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, and the excellent Hugh Laurie (from the excellent Bryan Singer-produced FOX series "House") has been cast as Perry White, editor of "The Daily Planet". Brandon Routh will be playing the Man of Steel in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns. And I for one can't wait. Now if only FOX will sign Joss Whedon to write and direct X-Men 3.

I also need to watch the Battlestar Galactica miniseries DVD as the series itself debuts tonight on SCI FI. It's receiving rave reviews from the media. Check out http://www.aintitcool.com for the scoop. I can't wait to immerse myself in it.

My foot is feeling better. Before I went to cash my paycheck earlier this morning, I took the insoles I had inside my shoes for a month or so. Support and cushion, my ass. The shoes felt looser and more comfortable without these things in them. I do need more padding in my shoes. Or else I'll just buy some new ones with my income tax money.

Green Day performed their epic song "Jesus of Suburbia" on Last Call With Carson Daly the other morning. It was magnificent. They're up for 7, count them, 7 Grammy nominations, including "Album Of The Year". If there is any justice in the world, they'll sweep the Grammys. The band is also performing, but lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong is keeping mum about it. I'm hoping that they'll do the politically-charged, vitriolic, anti-establishment song "Holiday", which is their next single. Maybe on a well-designed set as well? Only time will tell.

Want to watch your Social Security ebb and flow?

Overhauling Retirement Is Worth Risk, Cheney Says

To quote the genius David Cross, "Why don't we all just take that money [from Social Security], [go horse racing] and place it on Papa's Mustache?" Here, I'll speak a language you understand Cheney: go fuck yourself.

And while you and your ilk are at it, you want to have your fellow morons apologize to FDR's grandson?

FDR's Grandson Protests Soc. Security Ad

To quote Mike Malloy, "Have I told you how much I hate these people?"

Not One Damn Dime

On Thursday, don't buy a damn thing. It may not be as effective as congregating en masse in a major metropolitan city but it's going to make me feel good and others as well so there. As the Liar-In-Thief is coronated by his evil flying monkey yes men, don't let a single cent drop into their coffers. You can get that Starbucks Frappucino tomorrow. Damn, now I want one.

Nellie McKay

What I've heard of Nellie McKay (pronounced Mi-ki, as in mick-i) is an amazing virtuoso who blends '40s piano with a edgy, slightly profane sense of female empowerment and it makes for a heady buzz of musical heaven. She was a dream and a half on Air America Radio's The Majority Report the other night and I plan to purchase her 2-disc debut album on Columbia Records, Get Away From Me ASAP.



Sunday, January 09, 2005

Tonight's the night, people!...

1) DO NOT CALL ME
2) DO NOT TALK TO ME
3) LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE

Now you may ask why? Why total and utter isolation? Hot date? Yeah right and Nikita Kruschev delivers my mail. Is there an outing planned? No, not at all. There are three small words that would send me into an obsessive anxiety like this. And those brilliant words are as follows...

24

JACK






FUCKING




BAUER

That's right. 24 returns in all of its nail-biting, intense glory with two nights of two-hour goodness, starting tonight at 8PM on FOX. If you've not supped on the bountiful flesh that is 24, then by all means haul your happy ass down to your local video store and rent the previous three seasons. Or borrow them from a friend.
This is appointment television, folks. As has been established each season's twenty-five episodes tick off one hour per episode of a single day in the life of CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit) agent Jack Bauer. Now you may not think alot can happen in one hour. And how oh so wrong you would be. Entire episodes plot arcs can shift into something unexpected by the denoument of the final three minutes. So give it a chance - you'll be hooked.

Tonight, CBS will air The People's Choice Awards. Fahrenheit 9/11 is nominated, as Best Film of 2004. Hopefully, it'll win, but it faces some stiff competition.

I worked my ass off last night and really continued believing the lingering hypothesis that I need new shoes STAT. My fucking feet hurt like hell (as I was the floor guy). So then I came home and watched Anchorman - The Legend Of Ron Burgundy (thank you Netflix). It has gently bent and twisted humor that hits you in just the right places and was a hilarious movie.

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Watching Alias...

Alias

Alias is kicking much ass, by the way, and I'm about to fill out my job's 401k paperwork. I thought I'd regal you with my thoughts on the latest offering from CBS...

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson - Known to us Yanks as Mr. Wick from "The Drew Carey Show, his first two shows as new host have proved Mr. Ferguson to be an affable, easy-going, laid-back kind of guy. It also sounds like he wrote and recorded the show's new theme song. While I had my heart set on Michael Ian Black as the new host and had hoped Letterman and his crew, along with CBS, had chosen Black, Craig Ferguson seems like a great choice and is proving to be a great addition to late night television. Worth watching.

http://www.cbs.com/latenight/latelate/

Wed nes day...

Happy New Year to those that might come across le blog here. It's as much for me as it is for the hypothetical you. Consider this my form of therapy I guess. Would a sane sober person go out at 11:30PM last night to procure two packs of frozen White Castles to take care of his mother's hunger for said sliders as we live nowhere near a White Castle and she and I were browsing a fast food review website prior to our excursion? I think not.

Wow, the world's longest run-on sentence. I am awed.

So the world will return to normal for my workaday life as next week I resume my Mon-Thursday nine hour shifts. Yay!

The tsunami really makes you feel small and insignificant. For something so horrific to happen gives one pause. Next paycheck I plan to give something. It won't be HUGE but it's something. NBC Universal will be airing a relief special on all of its cable networks on Saturday, January 15th at 8PM Eastern. Please folks, I implore you whether it's $6 or $60, give a little.

Listening to The Majority Report right now. Mulling over whether to watch the litany of series on TiVo, the Battlestar Galactica miniseries I purchased at Best Buy Monday night (where yet again I was accosted by someone thinking I work there), or to just wait for the J.J. Abrams goodness that'll be unfolding from 8PM-11PM tonight on ABC - Lost and Alias. I'll admit that I drifted away from the series but the lavish press the new season has been given, plus cast assurance that the network has implicitly instructed that this new season be more stand-alone may help me dive right in.

Here'a a groovy little recently written piece on Air America Radio I just found:

http://fairfieldweekly.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:94806


Off to perouse the web for a bit.