another quick one

Here is some cool material from across the web. Enjoy, while I try and catch up on my life…

• Seems I wasn’t the only one who objected to hearing that A Beautiful Mind won the Best Adapted Screenplay award. Here’s a more articulate arguement for why it was a poor choice. Also check out this Salon Article that pretty accurately predicted who would win which Oscar and why. It’s the same type of reasoning I used when filling out my form for Jenny’s party.
• Caption Machine – I got turned onto this site by Ronincyberpunk. It’s a cool use of blogger technology. Take a gander, there are some amazing pictures up there.
• Mordo the Magician by Steve Martin – yes, that Steve Martin. It’s a funny, morbid tale of stage magic gone wrong. Available in Flash or Quicktime.

Oscars

try not to rant… try note to rant….

Last night I went to Jenny’s Oscar Party. (hold it together Matt, don’t rant) The food was great! Jenny’s hamster devolved a taste for Andy’s blood. We had a great time laughing at the speeches.

speeches, speeches umm… ahhh…. Ah screw it, FLAME ON!…

There were so many things last night that were rant worthy. I don’t know where to start. I’ll keep it to four things that really stuck with me and spare you the rest of my venom. (I’ve got to be channeling Joel today!)

1. Akiva Goldsman winning the best adapted screen play Oscar for A Beautiful Mind. To quote David Ives it’s “The triumph of the utterly mediocre.” I’m not even going to comment on the man, other than to say Batman and Robin… his record for writing crap stands for itself. However, One would think that an award for “Best Adapted Screenplay” would take into consideration how well the script adapted the source material. A Beautiful Mind is a good movie, but a white washed version of the book it is based on. The script left out some of the more offensive traits of John Nash that are detailed in the book (beyond the oft talked about Anti-Semitism, the book documents Nash’s infidelity [which kinda wrecks the love story angle], and possible homosexual tendencies [which also throws a wrench in the love story]). It’s sad that Hollywood needs to “smooth” out the rough edges of people because we, as a culture, can’t seem to accept fallible heroes (more on that thought in a future blog). If you consider the task of adapting an existing work into a new medium, In The Bedroom, Ghost World, and Fellowship of the Rings were all far more deserving.
2. The tribute film for Sidney Poitier – I love Poitier’s work, To Sir With Love is a favorite movie of mine. He’s a fine actor, a class individual and deserves to be honored. But, the more that I think about the tribute film to Poitier, the more frustrated I get. It’s great to hear other actors and actresses talk about how he inspired them. But why no white actors or other minority actors? Poitier should be honored not only because of the color of his skin, but the quality of his talent and drive. And those are things that are inspiration to people of all creed and color. But this year’s ceremony seemed to be the Academy’s apology for years of minority exclusion in the awards. The issue of race dwarfed everything incluing the tribute, both obviously and subtly (did you notice that was the only film of the night where the interviews were conducted on a black background? Also, if Hollywood has gotten so progressive, why was Halle Berry the only actress interview for the film? If she wasn’t nominated I doubt she would have been included). I guess that just shows that for as far as we think we’ve come, we still have miles to go.
3. That BS tribute to the movies they started the show with – Saluting the movies as a form of escapism and the great quote that “I’d rather see a mediocre movie than a good play” are wonderful examples of the overall dumbing down of our culture. Sometimes I wonder why I’m spending all my spare time working on a play when theatre is dying a sad, pathetic death here in the states. Must control fist of death… (this isn’t to say all movies need to be deep or that they are a less artistic medium than theatre. But do we really need to celebrate Ernest goes to Jail?)
4. Last one, and it’s short: Britney Spears talking about Pretty Woman as a pinnacle of film and how her cintematic role model is a prositute says more about her than I can ever hope to. But everyone’s entitled to an opinion. Or maybe not… A favorite professor of mine in college once proclaimed that before you could have an opinion in his class you first had to prove that you were capable of forming an informed opinion. I at first I thought that was rather elitist… at first….

Ok, after all that ranting, I do have to admit that I won the “guess the Oscars” contest at Jenny’s party (this is the second year in a row for me). It only makes me feel more cynical that the way that the academy votes is so predictable. No wait, it makes me even more cynical that I can think just like they do. Sigh… next year I’m voting the way I think it should end up; that should guarantee that I’ll finish last.

As for the past weekend, I’m trying an experiment. Here are the two handwritten journal pages about it. Hopefully they’ll be legible. If not I’ll rekey ‘em. I’m just too lazy to do it now:

and without further adeu… the Friday five:

1. What is your favorite time of year?

Fall, then spring, winter and finally summer.

2. What is it about your favorite season that, well, makes it your favorite season?

The changing leaves, the smells, the knowledge that soon snow will come and I can ski and snowboard.

3. What is your least favorite time of year? Why?

The end of winter here in Rochester. Waiting for the gray to end and the weather to start to warm up. By the last days of winter we’re all really excited about the prospect of spring!

4. Do you do anything to celebrate or recognize the changing of seasons?

We had banana splits on the first day of spring here at work. Soon there will be pictures and video to share of inflatable monkey love that occurred in preparation for that celebration.

5. What’s your favorite thing to do outside?

Here goes (cause I can never pick one): biking, winter sports, sailing (which I haven’t done enough of in recent years), rollerblading, hiking, camping (again I haven’t done enough of this in recent years), photography

More of a post will follow soon….

broken record

so it just really occurred to me that my blogs as of late have sounded a bit like a broken record. I think anyone whose kept up with it for even a little while could write an entry:

I’m busy. The play is crazy, but moving forward. Martial arts is going well, but not too well. Obsess about Hair and Alyson Hannigan.

actually I haven’t obsessed over her in a while. Note to self: remember to write a stalker worthy blog sometime.…

This repetition is a pretty good indicator that I don’t have much of a life right now. I do have a bunch of stuff that I’m saving to share until I have time to work on the site. Hopefully that will be soon (if I ever get home before 11.30pm or so).

As the Falcon Flys

the falcon soap opera continues. Yesterday the new boy in town (whose been nicknamed “mail man” by the folks here at kodak.com) presented a dead bird (read as “food”) to Mariah (our unfaithful momma falcon). This is an important aspect of falcon mating. Basically the male is proving he can provide, as the female can’t hunt while incubating the eggs and watching the hatchlings. Deadbeat dad’s don’t get any in the falcon world. Here’s it happening…

This also officially kicked off the “carnage cam.” By the end of the nesting we’ll have watch lots of pigeons, chickadees, swallows and other small birds consumed on camera. Seriously, when you go up on the walk, you see bird bones everywhere. On the plus side we have a lot less pigeons (winged rats) around Kodak tower.