Live Bloggin' : 79th Annual OSCARS

It's Oscar nite!

I didn't get around to watching a lot of the nominated films this year, but I have some rooting interest in regards to the nominees.

The awards are being broadcast in High Definition.... I'll be live bloggin' the entire event.

7:30 PM: The show has just kicked off... I don't know if Errol Morris had any thing to do with the "Nominees". It looks a lot like his work. Also looks a lot like a "Apple Switch" campaign...

7:40ish PM: Ellen is just about done with her opening monologue... it was surprisingly short. Her choice of formal wear is an interesting one. I wonder if she'll be wearing it for the remainder of the evening.

7:48 PM: A big to-do has been made about the strong Mexican presence in this years Oscar ceremony. First award (Best Art Direction) has gone to Eugeno Caballero and Pilar Revuelta for "Pan’s Labyrinth". Big ups and brown power.

7:58 PM: I like Jack Black as much as the next guy... but he seriously needs to be put down.

8:03 PM: Exactly what statement are you trying to make when you bring your Mom as your date to the Oscars? Are you simply not bring sand to the "beach"?


Eddie Murphy: I don't know how well of a chance Eddie Murphy has this evening for an Oscar, but I wanted to quickly share some thoughts on him as an Actor & Comedian.

When I was very young, I grew up in a spanish speaking home. I learned a lot of my early English from watching movies with my father. Some of the movies we saw frequently were - "Uncommon Valor" and "Beverly Hills Cop".

That latter was one of my favorites. I spent hours at home memorizing dialogue and perfecting my Eddie Murphy laugh.

When I first got word that he was nominated for his performance in "Dream Girls", I thought to myself - "wow... how fucking crazy is that?"

... Alan Arkin has just won Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Little Miss Sunshine". A film that I thought was a little over rated... Alan did however make a wonderful (albeit brief) performance. Big ups to him and chasing the dragon.

I heard that there could be some Academy backlash for Eddie's Murphy's "NORBIT".

I don't know if there's any truth to that, but it makes one wonder...

For what its worth, I still love Eddie Murphy. I went out of my way to watch films like - Vampire in Brooklyn, Pluto Nash, Distinguished Gentlemen and METRO. All of which (with the exception of METRO) were pretty good. OK. "Pretty good" may be pushing it... but I think we're going to see a return of "Eddie".

Just the other day I read that he and Terrentino are possibly going to work on some upcoming projects.

Big ups on the nomination Eddie. I *heart* you.

8:43 PM: Cameron Diaz is by far the biggest Train Wreck to view in High Definition. If you don't have HD, I recommend getting it so you can see how bad she looks in it.

9:37 PM: What were the chances of seeing Jennifer Hudson win this evening? I wish I could come up with a shortlist of ladies that have never won an Oscar. Tonight, an American Idol reject - took home a gold statuate and that just has to make a number of the attendees upset.

Punk Rawk!

Apple iPhone: Much to my surprise, Apple introduced a new commercial for their upcoming iPhone. It wasn't a particularly good... but I found it interesting to see them plug a product that won't hit shelves until June of 2007.

9:48 PM: An Inconvenient Truth has just won an Oscar for best documentary. I recently saw this doc (blogged about it) and was incredibly moved. Can't plug it enough. www.climatecrisis.org

Closing: I watched the rest of the Oscars from my bedroom... The last 4 awards (best, Actor, Actress, Director and Picture) were what I anticipated... It was nice to see and hear Scorsese give his overdue acceptance speech. I recall there being a lot of buzz around the release of Gangs of New York. At the time people said he could win because he had never won before... people also said it was a shame that if he did win, he wouldn't be winning the honor for his best work.

I haven't seen the Departed yet. I plan to watch it this week with my father. I hear that it's really well done tho'. All in all, a pretty bad ass nite.

Episode 15.Ekobase

Uploaded on Thursday nite, ekobase 15 is up and ready to be downloaded.

Like many Losties, our frustration is reaching new highs... download and listen to what is pissing me off.

Movies worthy of playing hooky for...

Seriously considered playing hooky this morning when I saw that "How to steal a Million" was on TV this morning...

I opted to not skip work and programed my DVR to record a rebroadcast later in the day.

The movie however got me thinking about movies I would have totally blown all responsibility away for...

1.) Bandwagon - IFC gets around to showcasing this movie once a year. I don't believe that it's currently available on DVD. It's possibly my favorite - rock n' roll flick.

2.) Sexy Beast - Of all the movies I own on DVD, this one is easily my most watched one. I don't ever seeing it programed on tv... I'd gladly hang back and watch it tho'.

3.) The Last Starfighter - This movie used to be on TBS every other month... its not on TV as much anymore. I've never seen it without commercial breaks and there's something incredibly charming about movie. If I ever start a band I'm going to urge my friends to let me title an E.P. "Alex Rogan".

4.) Bad News Bears 2 (Breaking Training) - Nothing reminds me of childhood like seeing the bad news bears play at the Alamo Dome AStROdOmE - Thank you Shawn. "let them play!"



... I'll add more movies later.

Nineteen Ninety 4

Two very quick things to post about this evening.

1.) Idolator just posted a possible song leak from the upcoming Guns N' Roses album - Chinese Democracy.

Guns N' Roses?

I know what you're thinking...

Just hear me out on something. It's taken 10+ years and gobs of money for the new GNR album to come out. While my interests in GNR dried up in 1994, I'd be lying if I said I'm not interested in seeing what took 10 years and gobs of money for Axl Rose to make.


2.) Showtime just had Pulp Fiction on in HD this evening. I forget how long its been since I've seen Pulp Fiction... I recall wanting to see it after I saw Kill Bill 2 in the theater. I can't believe that this film is almost 15 years old now....

Honeymooners

I have a soft spot for really bad movies... a really soft spot. Sometimes I wonder if there are any depths to my insanity. It's sometimes very hard to have friends take my recommendations seriously when I tell them that Meatballs III is one of my all time favorite movies.

* Pornstar dies, needs to get into heaven and her only way in is to get a poor kid laid at summer camp

how cool is that?

Anyhoo, nothing was on TV tonight, so I channel surfed for a little bit and I saw that a remake of the Honeymooners was on Showtime HD.

While I can safely say that I've seen far worse movies... I'd be hard pressed to recommend anyone sit through this one.

If you have showtime... and you have HD and you have very little else going on and you're willing to balance your checkbook online with it on in the background, then its totally worth sitting down for.

NBA All*STAR nite

For the first time in maybe 8 or so years... I went out of my way to stay in and in catch the NBA All*Star 3-Point/Slamdunk competition.

I've never been a die-hard NBA fan. I watched a lot of basketball growing up, but it was hard not to watch the Celtics, the Lakers, the Bad Boy Pistons then Jordan in the 90's.... the NBA player strike / holdout / whatever - made me tune out and I never could get back into it.

But I digress...

Just finished watching a Miami Heat player (whose name I already forgot) win the three point contest with a final score of 24 points.

As impressive as that is... I recall tuning in the night Craig Hodges (Chicago Bull) dropped a record 25 points in the three point competition. I also recall watching him drop a record 19 straight three point shots.

Hoping to see lightning hit twice tonight, I'm saddened to report that neither record fell tonight.

I am however happy to see the shooting contest be broken down into 2 rounds of shooting. I don't recall how many there was before... but the new format is really nice.


UPDATE : Just occurred to me that this is the first Basketball action that I've seen in HD. It's quite possibly the best sport to watch in High Definition. I can't believe that I'm actually enjoying the Slam Dunk contest.

An Inconvenient Truth

Weighing in on this documentary this long after its been available on DVD is embarrassing to say the least... but I can't stress how eye opening it was.

Like many other habitants of earth... I can do a number of extra things to do my part to help the planet. I just did some research on how I can recycle my household waste. The City of San Antonio, collects these items on specific days, all I have to do is get the appropriate containers.

In the documentary I learned about US Cities that participate in the Kyoto Protocol. I've been looking for an updated listing to confirm San Antonio's involvement... as of right now - I have not found confirmation of our city taking part.

I'll post updates on this tho'.

.alamo city rollie.

Black Wednesday

Want to quickly send out some Valentine wishes to all my friends.... this valentine is a little strange for me. My last 3 valentine days were very special... this one sorta snuck up on me.

In Apprecation of : Hard Candy

Just watched Hard Candy for the first time this evening and I had to hop onto the blog and rave about it.

The film is about a 14 year old girl that tricks & traps a pedophile in his home...

A role reversal that's not explored nearly enough...

Anyhoo... the head games are intense. I won't spoil the movie in any way... just trust me when I say its brilliant.

Seriously. It's right up there with Shallow Grave.

Headcold - 2007

Been under the weather for the last 4 days... what started out as a nagging cough, turned into a cloudy head then a full blown headcold.

It's late Monday nite and it still feels like I don't have a complete handle of my top half. I've slept countless hours in the past 3 days and I still feel drained.

Sickness aside... I have very little to report on. I missed the Police performance last night at the grammy's. I caught it on YouTube this morning... I felt incredibly unmoved by the performance. It was good to see Stewart Copeland behind the skins tho'. He's possibly the greatest pop-rock drummer of all time.

Got around to watching some movies while saddled on the couch...

I finally saw - Thank You for Smoking.

In short, the film is an unapologetic comedy. Dark and rewarding on many levels... I'm not a smoker, but I've been around smokers my entire life. My mom for some reason is going to some great lengths to hide her smoking habit. I don't know how pronounced it is... I know that she goes outside at various points of the day and is usually outside for the duration of a good smoke.

I wonder if it would be a good idea to approach her about it?

I have my fair share of bad habits, so its best to not throw stones in glass houses.


Another movie / documentary I saw was - This Film Is not Yet rated.

A documentary about the Motion Picture Association rating system... it's an interesting documentary, I recommend it to anyone who loves cinema. Some of the movies discussed were "the Cooler", "So I'm a Cheerleader" and "Boys Don't Cry"... all movies I saw in theaters with a R rating.

What I didn't know was... that all these movies were given NC-17 ratings... The directors had to edit their films to secure an R rating.

Directors go to some great lengths to get films score an R or PG-13 rating.

There's general guidelines... to many F-bombs in a film will get you an R - for example. The line however blurs greatly when sexuality (women in pleasure, homosexuality, male nudity, etc.) is introduced in pictures.

The documentary explores violence in American Cinema. There's an inexplicable leniency when it comes to violence.... there's also some explicable leniency for pictures made by large studios in Hollywood.

I can't recall the last time a movie rating mattered in any way. It worries me greatly that censorship of any kind is taking place... at the same time however, I think the way people enjoy movies is about to change greatly.

Don't get me wrong. There's always going to be a need to see films in Theater. The communal experience is amazing. I have a 65" 1080p set in my living room tho'... so I can do without the hassle of people's cell phones going off also.

Episode 14.Ekobase

Ekobase 14 is up. Recorded late last night... Jaime, Ted and I got together to discuss the first episode, of the second half, of season 3.

ekobase