Entry 45: "An Oscar Named Desire"

Yo!

Sorry, it was kinda hard to make a title pun about this one while avoiding the classic Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street joke. Whereas, "Bald-ney Spears" was just asking for it, right? At least the title itself this week references a rather famous movie, so it sorta works here I guess, given the topic............... Anyway, moving on...

So the 79th Academy Awards happened last night. I didn't watch past the first hour, since I happened to have more pressing, Xbox 360-related matters to attend to, but I'll just go down the list here and mention a few things about this year's winners that struck me as interesting. Observe: The 2007 Oscar Winners List, as posted on IGN.com:

BEST PICTURE:

Babel
The Departed WINNER!
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

ACTOR:

Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland WINNER!

ACTRESS:

Penelope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen WINNER!
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine WINNER!
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Adriana Barraza, Babel
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls WINNER!
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

DIRECTING:

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed WINNER!
Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Paul Greengrass, United 93

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:

After the Wedding, Denmark
Days of Glory (Indigenes), Algeria
The Lives of Others, Germany WINNER!
Pan's Labyrinth, Mexico
Water, Canada

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

Sacha Baron Cohen and Anthony Hines and Peter Baynham and Dan Mazer and Todd Phillips, Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Alfonso Cuaron and Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, Children of Men
William Monahan, The Departed WINNER!
Todd Field and Tom Perrotta, Little Children
Patrick Marber, Notes on a Scandal

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

Guillermo Arriaga, Babel
Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis, Letters From Iwo Jima
Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine WINNER!
Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth
Peter Morgan, The Queen

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:

Cars
Happy Feet WINNER!
Monster House

ART DIRECTION:

Dreamgirls
The Good Shepherd
Pan's Labyrinth WINNER!
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Prestige

CINEMATOGRAPHY:

The Black Dahlia
Children of Men
The Illusionist
Pan's Labyrinth WINNER!
The Prestige

SOUND MIXING:

Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Dreamgirls WINNER!
Flags of Our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

SOUND EDITING:

Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Flags of Our Fathers
Letters From Iwo Jima WINNER!
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

ORIGINAL SCORE:

Babel, Gustavo Santaolalla WINNER!
The Good German, Thomas Newman
Notes on a Scandal, Philip Glass
Pan's Labyrinth, Javier Navarrete
The Queen, Alexandre Desplat

ORIGINAL SONG:

"I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth, Melissa Etheridge WINNER!
"Listen" from Dreamgirls, Henry Krieger, Scott Cutler and Anne Preven
"Love You I Do" from Dreamgirls, Henry Krieger and Siedah Garrett
"Our Town" from Cars, Randy Newman
"Patience" from Dreamgirls, Henry Krieger and Willie Reale

COSTUME:

Curse of the Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Marie Antoinette WINNER!
The Queen

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:

Deliver Us From Evil
An Inconvenient Truth WINNER!
Iraq in Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT):

The Blood of Yingzhou District WINNER!
Recycled Life
Rehearsing a Dream
Two Hands

FILM EDITING:

Babel
Blood Diamond
Children of Men
The Departed WINNER!
United 93

MAKEUP:

Apocalypto
Click
Pan's Labyrinth WINNER!

ANIMATED SHORT FILM:

The Danish Poet WINNER!
Lifted
The Little Matchgirl
Maestro
No Time for Nuts

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM:

Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)
Eramos Pocos (One Too Many)
Helmer & Son
The Saviour
West Bank Story WINNER!

VISUAL EFFECTS:

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest WINNER!
Poseidon
Superman Returns

Okay, so the first thing about this list that's easily the most impressive is the fact that Martin "Close, But No Cigar" Scorsese's Oscar quest is finally over, having scored Best Director once and for all for The Departed, an epic cinematic masterpiece that apparently also took home Best Film Editing, Adapted Screenplay and (not surprisingly) Best Picture. Guess 18th time's the charm, eh? I mean seriously, this guy's been on the cusp of Oscar glory for a little over three centuri-- sorry, decades.... Four nominations after Raging Bull, his first nom, and now he's finally secured his place in Oscar history. Congratulations, Mr. Scorsese. Now for your next challenge: Not messing up casting for Teddy Roosevelt.

Next is Dreamgirls, winner of Best Sound Mixing (figures, right?) and Best Supporting Actress, the latter going straight to a former American Idol contestant, of all people (Excellent work, Hudson! Welcome [back] to Hollywood)! I bet Mr. Still-Can't-Get-Axel-Foley-Movie-Number-Four-Started, Eddie Murphy, is still feeling extremely bummed out about these results though, having lost Best Supporting Actor to Alan Arkin, for Arkin's role in what is easily the best family film of 2006 (screw you, Cars!), Little Miss Sunshine. The first five minutes of this film alone make it impossible to ignore why:

"Mommy.... Why is the old man inhaling sugar through his nose?"

Some interesting victories happened here too, you'll notice. Pirates of the Caribbean 2 stole Best Visual Effects from Poseidon and Superman Returns... Because if there's any visual effect more impressive and wowing to the Academy, it certainly isn't flipping a luxury cruise liner completely upside down, or stopping a bullet with your eyeball:

"Oh my God, Look at that!!! His beard is made of actual squirming tentacles!!!!"

"Oh, I know, isn't that amazing? It' almost looks like the guy actually had a squid surgically grafted to the bottom of his skull, carefully enough to somehow leave the squid still kicking through the whole movie despite all the time the guy spends above water!!!!!!"

"Oh man, guys! I just saw the coolest scene! There was this guy in a wheelchair, and this crazy redheaded chick made the whole house levitate, everything in the house is flying around, and the wheelchair guy is levitated up off his chair slowly, and then---"

"Forget that crappy Xavier movie, man! Look at the guy with the squid for a beard!!!!!!! He's got a freakin' squid for a beard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

.....Also, Happy Feet beat Cars and Monster House for Best Animated Feature... Because clearly, we can't get enough penguins in the movies, CG or not. And when it happens, you just gotta shoot some awards out their way. I mean, I never saw the movie, but that was totally convincing animation in the trailer. For a while there, I actually thought the filmmakers tailor-made small motion-capture suits for actual penguins, and actually taught those guys to tap-dance. ...And then I realized I needed to stop eating guacamole Doritos before bed. Kidding! Just kidding! I don't even like guacamole. Another surprise was Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, grabbed two awards, Best Documentary (they better give him that award. If they let Ewing and Grady take it, somehow, I just know the polar bears would be dying out that much faster!) and Best Original Song. The latter of which, let's face it, shouldn't have had this film as a contender because this is a film that shouldn't be remembered for its one song played during the How Do I Help?/End Credits part. But I bet Etheridge isn't complaining.

Bottom Line: My God, how many times has Clint Eastwood been nominated and/or winning awards for stuff? Seriously, who didn't think Iwo Jima was going to win? Again, kudos to Scorsese for pulling it off, but holy crap! "Old As Dirt-y Harry" pretty much had it in the bag yet again! Goes to show you that these big awards are getting a little harder to predict every year....

.....But that's just me.

See ya next Monday.

-D.

Entry 44: "Bald-ney Spears"

Yo!

...You know, I've been thinking of just moving my timeframe ahead to 8pm-9pm anyway......

Moving on...



Do I really need to say anything about this? Well, other than from future icon to follically impaired in only fourteen years. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I still remember those early MMC days... Yeah, I watched the Disney Channel a lot back in those days... You know, before that network got all sitcom-y. I even remember the first time I heard "Baby, One More Time" on the radio. Make no mistake, I'm far from fan status here, and I never really was a "fan" of this kind of music anyway, but it's just so sad to see such a fall from grace of this magnitude.

Especially as a guy who grew up in the '90s, to see a former sex symbol (of the latter part of the decade, anyway) crash and burn like a celebrity in their forties... Sure, you hear about cases like these all the time about former child stars from way back when. Or at least, almost every other hour or so on the E! channel. 25 years old, two kids, and... well, where do you go from here?

Bottom Line.............. You know, I actually don't know how to sum this up right! More interesting things need to start happening before this blog turns into a celebrity gossip site. From Anna Nicole to this... I need to find some better topics for this thing. Slow week for me, I guess. Britney hijinks all over the news again, it must be an uneventful week.

...But that's just me.

...Now, if you'll excuse me, I must watch 24.

-D.

Entry 43: "R.I.P.... A.N.S...."

Yo!

Yeah, sorry I'm so late with this one, guys. Betcha thought I'd forgotten about you fine readers, huh? Tonight's 24 was just that good. Keep your friends close and your crooked father closer, huh J.B.? Moving on...






So who else here is tired of hearing about this? Anna Nicole Smith hasn't been dead a whole week yet, and already all the news organizations are putting together their own spin theories on Dannielynn Hope's real father, and the guy who stands to gain control of Anna's money... as well as the legal rights to pursue the billions Anna's dead first husband, J Howard Marshall, left behind... A matter that to this day, almost twelve years after his death, remains unsolved. Howard K. Stern vs. Larry Birkhead vs. Prince Frederick von Anhalt vs. That Guy From Jerry Springer That Time Who Fathered 25 Kids, I Forget His Name.... Boy He Sure Got Around. Seriously, suspected dads are stepping forward left and right since Anna's death Thursday afternoon which, should they all have valid basis to claim their paternity, begs the question, did any of these guys ever use protection? Geez, where's Maury Povich when you need him? The perfect person to whip out the DNA results and settle this madness once and for all.

There are also some theories running around, as mentioned in the bottom video above, that Howard K.'s "foul play" may in fact be the cause of Anna's death, and there are others saying that he may have also purposely made Daniel O.D. last fall and trigger his death, which would obviously make him judged as an unfit father for Daniellynn, as well as an overall despicable person, IF IN FACT THESE THEORIES ARE TRUE. Please do not misquote me. These theories are not my own, Donn-The-Game-Master's, and have yet to be proven conclusively. CNN said this weekend that even Anna's autopsy yielded inconclusive cause of death results.

...But the one thing that should be discussed as much as, if not more than this twisted maybe-dad versus maybe-dad circus, is the fate of Anna's five month old daughter, the only definite surviving member of this family, excluding Anna's parents and other relatives and whoever the dad is. I mean, Mommy's dead. Brother's dead. "Daddy" remains to be determined, and supposedly the baby's somewhere in the Bahamas with, of all people, Howard K. See, if Birkhead's the dad, at least he's got Anna's mom's seal of approval, which means the baby will definitely at least have her grandparents involved in her life. von Anhalt... Well, he just married Zsa Zsa Gabor. If he's somehow the father........ Um... well, good luck to Dannielynn, I guess. I actually don't know that much about him. Besides, I'm behind schedule enough with this blog as it is to put more time into looking up someone else on Wikipedia. Okay, and it's late and I'm kinda lazy. It is public belief though, that it's very doubtful that he'll test positive. But if Howard K. is in fact the father... And more than that, if he turns out to be the next O.J. Simpson, and the courts find (conclusive, this time) proof that he is in fact responsible for wifey's (no bloody glove here, though) and son-in-law's death...

...Well that just brings me to this week's Bottom Line. This is apparently what happens when one mixes business with pleasure. Remember, Howard K. was Anna's lawyer once upon a time, and now all of a sudden he's paternal candidate number one. I really feel for that poor child though, because again, as I said earlier, the ensuing legal wars will ultimately decide not only who stands to gain all of Anna's money, but the destiny of this five-month-old little girl. Period. It doesn't get more serious than that. This isn't just any run-of-the-mill money battle in the courts, there's an innocent baby getting helplessly caught in the crossfire here. The media's overwhelming focus recently on who is/isn't the father and what really killed mother and son is really in need of getting toned down a bit in favor of decent reporting and fixing of the one aspect of the whole situation that CAN be changed for the better: The baby's life.

Good luck, Dannielynn Hope Smith. It looks like you'll really need it, depending on the results of the big DNA test.

....But that's just me.

Sigh.... See you next week.... Earlier, I hope.

-D.

Entry 42: "It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Super Bowl Sunday!!!"

Yo!


(CLICK to view larger)

This afternoon, at approximately 2:40pm EST, I began biting my fingernails all the way down in anticipation of the
latest confirmation email cementing my reserved slot in the Halo 3 Beta, as mentioned last week. Man, my hands hurt. Quick clarification, though: I found out a couple days later from a different Halo fansite than the one that the guy copied his invite email to last week, that the Phase 2 registration was to start today, not Thursday during the game timeframe. Phew. However, there was still one vital piece of information that those fansites, all the message boards, and (not surprisingly) Bungie's website, were still omitting: WHEN SPECIFICALLY (re-)REGISTRATION WAS STARTING!!!

Message boards throughout Xbox.com were littered with questions from sleep-deprived gamers who were up at 12:01am EST this morning, And then 3:01am EST (allowing the 3-hour time difference between East-Coast time and Washington state time, where Bungie's HQ is). ...And 6:01. ...And 9:01. ...And 12:01pm. waiting for the new registration link to become available. Finally, 1:33pm, and Clickageddon (bad pun, I know), happened. A few gamers reported a leaked registration link as early as 2am, and guaranteed themselves a spot in the top 100. Or so they hoped. Seeing as Microsoft hadn't made the link public yet, and likely hadn't setup the system properly yet, anticipating a possible URL hack, there's no way for these gamers to know if they hacked their way in or not (yet). Not that it mattered, getting that many visitors that early, since board administrators made quick work of deleting those links, fearing they were fake, spam- or even virus-carrying websites. The e-chaos that erupted after the link was made public was unbelievable:

Click-"Please Try Again"-Back!
Click-"Please Try Again"-Back!
F5! Click-Click-Click-"Please Try Again"-Back!
Click-Click-Click-"Please Try Again"-F5! "Please Try Again"-F5!
Bookmark site! Click-"Please Try Again"-Click-"Please Try Again"-Click-"Please Try Again"!
F5-"Please Try Again"-F5-"Please Try Again"-F5-"Please Try Again"-F5-"Please Try Again"!
Alt+F4-- WHAT?!?!?! THAT'S NOT A CODE TO GET IN THE SITE!!!!!!! H-a-l-o-3-.-c-o-m-Enter......
AAARGH! IT"S TAKING TOO LONG TO LOAD!!!!!!!

Anyway, Good luck to all who survived today's events and reached the above-screencapped confirmation page successfully. I believe the 17th is around the time to start checking your inboxes if you got in. If not, Crackdown goes on sale three days later, so.....

Moving on, I've never personally been into sports in general that much, let alone football. I do enjoy a good game from time to time, but really only on satellite radio, when I'm out working. The last time I watched a televised game was the (Halo 3 Phase One) Panthers-Eagles Monday Night Football game on ESPN in December, and before that, I don't even remember. Usually, I do catch the Super Bowl, though. That wonderful time of year, when fans with large families buy tailgate party supplies by the truckload... Advertisers shill out for air time for $90,000/second, usually only to be forgotten about in just a couple months at most (Sorry, K-Fed & Nationwide Insurance).... And when eleven horses can defeat eleven bears in only four hours.

That's right. For those who missed it this year, the Indianapolis Colts beat the Chicago Bears last night, 29-to-17. This particular Bowl, though, was not without its milestones... "XLI" goes down in history this week as:

-The first Super Bowl to feature a, let alone two African-American head coaches. (The Colts' Tony Dungy and the Bears' Lovie Smith)
-The first SB of new NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, after Paul Tagliabue's retirement on Slovakian Constitution Day, September 1 (Pointless and unrelated statistic... I know. Just had to geek out for a second there.).
-The first SB to have the opening kickoff returned for a touchdown (nice work, Hester).
-The first SB in which the winning team has played all their home games in a domed stadium (Okay, so Manning & company do their pigskin-tossing indoors. Silly statistic, but congrats anyway on the Lombardi Trophy, and breaking the domed-playoff almost-curse).
-The first SB to be played during rain (Again, silly statistic, but whatever).

Also, Prin-- Oh, wait... ... Oh, he's "Prince" again? Since whe-- 2000? Sorry, missed the memo. ...Anyway, Prince was the headliner at the halftime show. Which, this year, was dangerously chock full of complicated lighting and electric instruments, for a live performance outdoors in the rain. Wardrobe malfunction? Try Weather-triggered malfunction! ...Okay, that wasn't very funny. But they could've thrown up a big tent or something, I dunno. It just seemed wrong putting together a show like that with no rainproofing on the equipment. ...At least that I could see. You readers out there with Hi-Def TVs notice something I missed?

Anyway, Bottom Line: As an NFC team Super Bowl rooter... Mr. Smith, please don't put so much faith in Grossman next season. Or don't. You're the boss. I just hope next time it all doesn't fall apart in the fourth quarter like that again.

...But that's just me.

See you next Monday....

-D.

P.S. Thank God for Wikipedia.