Whatever, I post erratically. Get over it. My reactions to Oscar [TM, (c) - PLEASE DON'T SUE!]

My reactions to Oscar [TM, (c) - PLEASE DON'T SUE!]

I have notes. Like a Hollywood executive, I have a few little comments that are meant to be helpful but will ultimately ruin everything. Ha, just kidding, I no power to ruin anything except maybe dinner.

First things first, I haven't seen most of these movies. I have like negative money in my bank account. Not really, but practically.

(Louis CK: You ever have negative money? That’s depressing, isn’t it? You look in your bank account and it says ‘negative $10,’ that’s how much I have now. Negative $10. That means I don’t even have no money now. I wish I did! I wish I didn’t have anything, I wish I just had nothing, but I have less than that! I don’t have none. I have not $10. {laughs} If it’s free, I can’t fucking afford it!)

So I can't afford to see these movies no matter how much I wish I could. If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. Oh, Shakespeare, so wise. So prolific. So off the topic. Where was I? Oh right, yeah, I can't afford to go to the movies. I have to wait for them to come to cable & then be motivated to watch them. I just saw "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" & that was a nominee from last year! I've found that movies are requiring a lot more effort on my part to get excited to see it whereas TV shows (good ones, nothing involving Kardashians or random people touching spiders in the dark) I can't watch 'em fast enough! I've said it before & I'll say it again, while the prestige level isn't there yet, TV is the place to go for quality, in-depth storytelling. I wish more books became TV shows like Game of Thrones. Can you imagine if they tried to stuff those epic length books (A Song of Ice & Fire - which I can't recommend enough) in a two hour movie? <shudder> Look what they are doing with The Hobbit for Christ's sake, it's a trilogy now isn't it? & that book is not long. I love the "Lord of the Rings" movies (more than the book, it was just so WORDY & I love words! but yeesh) but this seems like it's more about making money than telling the books story. But I want to have faith in Peter Jackson & I am very excited to see Legolas again. Swoon. 

Anyway. While I haven't seen many of these movies, I have read a lot about them in Entertainment Weekly or on various entertainment websites. So I feel I'm as qualified as anyone to give my opinion.

The list below is from EW.com. My thoughts will be in italics next to the nominee. If there's nothing there, I have no opinion. Or I approve. Or I got tired of writing this blog. ;-)

Best Picture I kind of hate that they expanded this category to ten nominees from five. Five is plenty. I find it hard to believe that some of these noms couldn't have been celebrated in other categories. Like they have always done since this award show began! Also, if there are 10 noms here, why not 10 Best Director noms? I really feel like these two should go hand in hand. OH! And I thought the whole reason for the expansion was to deal with "The Dark Knight" snub, so where's "The Dark Knight Rises" nom? I thought it was a worthy successor to TDK - not its equal but still award worthy. BAH!
Amour Supposed to be amazing but uber depressing. I'll never see this.
Argo Haven't seen it, can't wait to see it, heard it's amazing & deserves to be here.
Beasts of the Southern Wild See above re: Amour.
Django Unchained I feel like this is a knee jerk nom from the Academy because it's QT's follow-up to "Inglourious Basterds" which was amazing & earned a nod for Best Pic.
Les Miserables Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh. I have no personal desire to see this at all. I have heard WILDLY inconsistent reviews of this movie. People are overwhelmed, underwhelmed & some are just plain whelmed. I guess more voters where overwhelmed than the reviewers & people who saw the movie but sadly have no say with the Academy
Life of Pi I heard this is visually stunning but there is a serious emotional disconnect.
Lincoln Haven't seen it, can't wait to see it, heard it's amazing & deserves to be here.
Silver Linings Playbook Haven't seen it, can't wait to see it, heard it's amazing & deserves to be here.
Zero Dark Thirty Haven't seen it, can't wait to see it, heard it's amazing & deserves to be here.

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook Super excited he's here, I've heard nothing but raves for his performance.
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln I think it's practically impossible for him to act in a movie & not be nominated. He does nothing for me, but I can't deny that he is universally recognized as one of the best actors working today.
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables Meh.
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master I did read he's good in this role, but he just said last week or so that this means nothing to him so why bother celebrating him? Eh. He's another one that does nothing for me. I wish his brother River was still alive. Him, I loved.
Denzel Washington, Flight I have read in many places that he is electric in this role & that the movie is good but not great. Seems that happens a lot for him. He elevates the material.

Best Actress No surprises here. Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour 
Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild Really happy they nominated her even though she's so young. She was only 6 when she filmed this role. I haven't read a bad thing about her performance anywhere.
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Best Supporting Actor No real surprises here. 
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress Again, no real surprises here. 
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Director I feel my rant above about the Best Picture situation says all I have to say about this category.
Michael Haneke, Amour
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Animated Feature I'm just surprised there were five animated movies the Academy deemed worthy. Weren't there only like three films in this category last year?
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits Never heard of it.
Wreck-It Ralph

Doctor Who Personality Quiz

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You are brilliant and have no qualms about letting the world know it. Everyone thinks you are a total twat! You have no fashion sense and always look as if you got dressed in the dark closet of a street clown. You have no real friends to speak of; only a couple of people who tolerate you. You enjoy fishing and have no patience for other people. You will end up on trial for some dubious offence. You will then dissapear and slowly begin to swell.

Rant about elections

I hate election season. 

HATE HATE HATE. 

I hate that the election starts at least 18 months before ballots are drawn.

I hate how much money is wasted buying people's votes through ads or fundraisers or campaign stops. 

I hate that in this country we spend more electing a president than some countries GDP. 

I hate the way people talk about the candidate they dislike or who is against their personal beliefs. 

I hate the way some people seem to judge you based on who you do or do not vote for. 

I hate that religion is an issue in politics: "go to church but not too much, but make sure you go to church, but don't go to a temple or mosque and GOD FORBID talk about your faith other than to acknowledge you have it."

That said, I'll still vote tomorrow. 

The older I get the more uneasy I become about how I vote. When I was young, I was so sure I was voting for the right person. That certainty has faded over the years to the point where I get a creepy-crawly feeling no matter who I vote for.

Six Weeks Post-Op

I had surgery on August 30th. I'd been suffering from mysterious hip pain for months, since late last year, with no diagnosis. My doctor & I decided to scope the hip to see if he could discover what was causing the pain. Thankfully, he found a bone spur that was badly fraying & bruising my labrum (the cartilage in the hip). He shaved the spur & tidied up the labrum as best he could. Now the labrum should heal without the spur constantly beating it up. What is it about us that we need to constantly compare ourselves to others? At least I do! I don't want to, I try not to but it seems every few weeks, I read forums on the internet about hip pain/hip surgery/recovery times, etc. Some people have like no recovery time to speak of; like bam, they have the surgery & then are off the crutches & off the pain meds licketedy quick. I guess I just want to know that my progression is normal. Why can't I just take the word of my physical therapists who told me that you can't compare this type of recovery & that I'm doing fine. I guess I just get frustrated with myself. I need to accept that each individual is different & that it's OK to still feel pain in my hip & need to use a crutch when I walk outside. It's hard not to over do it or to even know if you are over doing it! I also need to actually use the crutch because it's become more of an irritant than a help but when I go without it for a long period of time, I'm MORE sore later on & I'm pretty sure my doctor's office isn't going to keep handing out painkillers! With regards to pain medication, I have a handful left of my prescription medicine & I try to deal with the pain using Aleve & Aspirin (I prefer to Aleve to Motrin because there are fewer pills to take) & only take a narcotic in the evening. I'm also continuing to use ice regularly & I go to PT three times a week. Today I told my dad I'm pretty much in the same amount of pain as I was before the surgery but now I don't mind as much because I know that this will heal & I know what is causing the pain. The not knowing was really distressing, along with the constant pain. People who don't live with constant pain don't understand how wearing it is, how it distracts you from every little thing & makes everything harder to deal with. I'm so grateful that I had the surgery & the doctor found what was wrong & was able to fix it. It's frustrating to still be in pain but I understand why it's happening & that there is an end in sight. It will heal, it will get better & I will be able to get back to being more physically active.

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If I were a comedian, I'd want to be in EVERYONE'S gang

Ever notice how there are like cliques in comedy? Not in a high school-y way in that I think for the most part they are supportive of each other's efforts but ina way that there are groups of actors or comedians that you see together in different projects a lot.

Like of course there's the State troupe with Tom Lennon, David Wain, Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, etc.  

Judd Apatow has a group of actors he depends on going back to Freaks & Geeks & Undeclared, his early TV work including Jason Segal, Seth Rogen, Samm Levine (who showed up in Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds"!). Paul Rudd, Steve Carell (The Daily Show), Leslie Mann (Apatow's wife) all show up in multiple movie roles.

Speaking of Paul Rudd, he co-created Party Down with Rob Thomas of Veronica Mars fame which ensured some of the cast from VM like Jason Dohring, Kristin Bell & Ryan Hansen would show up in guest spots or main cast. Who's the main star of PD? Adam Scott whose worked with Apatow & Amy Poehler & is BFF's with Paul Rudd. 

Then there's the old Upright Citizens Brigade with Amy Poehler (Parks & Rec, married to Will Arnett of Arrested Development fame & Mitch Hurwitz uses a lot of the same faces too), Matt Walsh & I can't think of who else right now. 

Then there's Rob Corrdry (The Daily Show) on Childrens Hospital with Malin Akerman, Ken Marino (another alum of The State who worked on Party Down & VM), Rob Huebel (who did Human Giant with Aziz Ansari (Parks & Rec) & has popped up in a guest spot on The League which stars Mark Duplass who does tons of indie films, Paul Scheer who's a stand up comic & has his own Adult Swim TV show - the one with all the letters), Megan Mullally (married to Nick Offerman, co-star of Amy Poehler on Parks & Rec; also starred on the last season of Party Down). Also on The League? Nick Kroll who guested on Community. 

Which brings us to Community with Joel McHale created by Dan Harmpon & the troupe he utilizes a lot or Cougar Town brought to you by the creators of Scrubs who reuse those actors to audience's delight.

OMG, I can't believe I didn't mention Joss freakin' Whedon & the different universes he cultivates (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, "The Avengers" (look in the background & you;ll see some familiar faces!!) using the same actors again & again while bringing new faces into the fold. God, I love Joss. I don't think there's one thing he's done that I haven't like in some way.

I feel now's the time to mention I'm writing this on pain medicine while listening to the Daily Show online (another group of comedy guys who pop up in one another's projects!) & torrenting Tupac & Biggie's greatest hits, so I'm having a hard time focusing. I'm just gonna stop. There's no way I could 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon them all together but there are so many intertwixing crossroads in comedy it's a beautiful glorious thing.

Stop sharing city names, states!!

If you live in Massachusetts & someone says “Charlestown” you think, okay, I know where that is, it’s that impossible to get in or out of little nook next to Boston. Fair enough.

But if you live NEAR Rhode Island or are in RI & someone says “Charlestown” & you think of that little nook, you are thinking of the wrong Charlestown, bitches! I didn’t think King Charles (either of them, or any of them, were there 3? How many got executed? Chuck I & II? I’m fuzzy on my monarchy from the 1600s, what of it??) was popular enough to merit all these cities & towns being named in his honor. At the very least you’d think they’d change the name after they lopped off his head. “Hear ye, hear ye, good residents of Charlestown, due to the king’s treason as decided upon by the great Lord Protectorate Oliver Cromwell, this fair city shall now be called Olivertown or Cromwellville, a vote shall be taken by all land owning men on the morrow. Fare thee well.”

For weeks, my mentor/instructor/audio engineering teacher has mentioned his summer place in Charlestown right on the water. MA’s Charlestown is by water so that’s where I thought he was talking about. He showed me a picture of a house on his street & I thought, hmm, that looks more like Marshfield than Charlestown but maybe there’s parts of C-town that I’ve never been to. It’s possible, I don’t go there often except for that time I temped there for 3 months & then it was just in & out during traffic times. Thought, get out of me head. Done.

Anyway, I recently was talked about said temp job with my mentor & he asked which C-town, MA or RI, I was referring to, I was like the original one in MA, duh! Then he said I think the original one is in South Carolina, to which I replied I think that’s technically Charleston not CharlesTOWN, this making all the difference & he was like, I dunno.

But I’m right, aren’t I? SC has Charleston, NC has Charlotte (the feminine of Charles, I know).  How did we run out of names for places so quick when we were founding this country? I know we “borrowed” a bunch of names from England but that’s ok, England was a whole ocean away & not easy to get to back then. Plus, the colonists often stuck a “NEW” in front to distinguish. 

/rant over.