TV: 2005 Oscars

Every year, this is one of my favorite holidays, and I try to treat it as such. I love movies, the most visual of all the visual arts, a form that was multimedia nearly 70 years befor the term was around. It's been a life long love affair. There are plenty of comments on-line about the awards... we all root for different teams, that's the fun of watching awards shows, they're the closest these arts come to being sports. Just a few notes to the academy...

If the award is given during the telecast, it's important enough to be given on stage!!! Make-up or live action short aren't real awards anymore? "Here congratulations, next year don't bother getting up." Is the first step to having 3 hours of commercials proceeding a rushed reading of the winners all at once? The Oscars used to sit out on a table, go back to that, rush through a reading of the winners and let them pick up the trophy on their way to the door... presenting off the stage... HOW CHEAP. NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!

Next thing, One song per musical performer. I don't care who it is, it's not a concert of them. If you can't get 5 acts for 5 songs, save us half an hour.

...Oh the stage gathering of nominees... You guy's aren't thinking of having Ryan Seacrest host anytime soon, are you? A yes answer would be bad.

If you're an Academy awards planner or something similar or related, you may be scanning the blogs thinking, just say what you thought of Chris Rock, that's the only thing we care about... Well, you worried about the wrong thing. Chris Rock was fine. He's not a Billy Crystal, but he's far better than Whoopi or Letterman. Although if you want to screw with the format, try Letterman hosting while sitting down. Do the whole show in Late night talk show format. Ask the make-up nominees, they know what respect you have for Oscar...

Oh, BTW to whoever produces Red Carpet shows... the field was basically crap this year, so would someone please do...

Bravo:
"Queer Eye on the Red Carpet" Have Carson at the entrance complimenting and hugging everyone, sayin how fabulous they look. Have the rest of the Fab Five sitting in a loft watching Carson on CCTV speaking the truth about who's hot and who's not. Not just on fashion either, but the whole gossipy showbiz spectrum!!!

G4TechTV:
No solid concept here, but some viewers just don't give a damn who the designer of the gown is. Many of those viewers, who also watch G4, like Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb... This seems simple.

TV: Enterprise

The following was a chat about Enterprise had with a friend, who needs a blog of his own ;)


ladage: so did you see enterprise tonight?
p3orion: Hell ya
ladage: well what did you think
p3orion: In an ideal world it would have been a 4 episode arc, with a whole chunk of action on the Klingon homeworld, and like I originally said, way back when... Have only a big chunk of klingons infected, and have the Klingon augments overthrow the empire... Regardless of that... It still could have felt less rushed... As a 2 parter it felt very berman (get it done in 2) like back in the day.
p3orion: Awesome action with the Columbia though...
p3orion: No real consistency with the Section 31 plot...
p3orion: Felt like the story would have played out the same way if not better w/o it...
p3orion: There's a real sense of cramming in wish lists.
p3orion: With little time to go
p3orion: The Vulcan arc was such high art...
p3orion: These plots with the Andorians and Klingons.. Should have been done over a much longer pace...
p3orion: Feels like a ripoff that the Xindi get over a season
p3orion: and the federation history is getting cliffnotes
ladage: good point
p3orion: I appreciate why they're doing it....
p3orion: Section 31 and Malcom just didn't feel like a 2 parter subplot... It seemed like it was on the table as a Season 5 Subplot
p3orion: Hell the whole Klingon thing and Andorian thing may have been for all we know.
p3orion: I'm not unhappy with the episode... Like any Enterprise fan I'm savoring what remains...
p3orion: but the end is a stick in the craw
p3orion: PLUS SIDE to CANCELLATION!!!!!!!!!!!
p3orion: We're not getting masturbation of the cast episodes every to every other week...
p3orion: TNG, I'm thinking of your season 7!
p3orion: But, that was at the end of a dignified run.
ladage: no we get it in guest spots
p3orion: ???
ladage: Frakes and Sirits in the final episode
p3orion: ya...
p3orion: I told ya... They're sitting around going through a photo album
p3orion: OH shit....
p3orion: NO!!!!!!!!!
p3orion: I BET YOU!
p3orion: They're helping their kid with a history paper!
p3orion: The WHOLE series...
p3orion: Holodeck history for a 4th grade paper on Jonathan Archer!
ladage: that sounds very berman like
p3orion: He's writing the episode...
p3orion: I could cry...
ladage: I know
ladage: well I am going to watch my tape of sci fi channel you have a good night
p3orion: nite

DVD Rented: The Terminal

... I'm at a loss for things to say. You've heard of the movie and know who's in it, if you didn't, what the heck would me typing anything about it matter to you? See. As far as the movie goes... it's okay. I think it's okay. The movie is nice, very pretty, entertaining, if slightly cartoonish... no, not cartoonish... eh like the American President felt like an older movie, this one does to. It’s very romantic comedyish. no "Oooooh, How Spielbergian!"

I'm avoiding the topic.... When I sat down I was a little pissed at this coaster of a rental... It's a total platter. It might as well be a VHS tape! I own a movie or two like this willingly, but Spielberg has this little pseudo war with DVD fans, we love his movies and he won't do commentaries. But on this there's NOTHING. Well there's French... Not even a trailer! Behind the scenes documentaries are more than trivial, if that's the way he may see them, they (the good ones, not the infomercials for the movie) are the greatest way of showing how much effort, and dedication by so many people goes into the movie... Oh fuck that. I'm not going to be sentimental here, Special features are the icing on the cupcake! No one would eat cupcakes without it. People like DVD cause of the candy... WHAAAAAAAAAaaaa. Terminal! Waaaaaa! I Didn't get my candy! Waaaaaaaaa!

Sensless Whining about total shit.

That's a textbook Blog. Can you believe Blog posts are reported as news. They never reported on bathroom graffiti, Ham radio chatter, playground banter, or what their mother was told by their aunt Helen at the hair salon. To think of all the important news we missed before the internet. What percentage of what passes as news today is opinion... usually outrage. I'm offended by the news media reporting every time some inane group is offended. Hear my outrage!!! Report it... someone’s pissed off in America, have an old white guy and a young dweeb in a bow tie yell about it for half an hour...

This was supposed to be about Spielberg's The Terminal.

Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) waited at gate 67 for nearly 10 months to get into America, for his dedication to his father's love for an American form of music that hit it's peak popularity around 70 years ago. 70 years from now, no one on earth will have any love for the rile-media of modern America... unless they're a history buff looking for where we went wrong. I could just fucking cry.

Trailer : HHGTTG...

Over at Amazon they have an exclusive on the new Hitchhiker's Guide Trailer. Now, this summer is just shaping up to be a beautiful treat, practically heaven in terms of movies I've dreamed of seeing for quite some time; HHGTTG, Episode 3, and the surprise treat War of the Worlds from that Animaniac, his holiness. The teaser to HHGTTG while being just music and some graphics was still nearly spot on... so how's the first actual trailer?

Is it going to be to American? Vogon ships... I liked the yellow color... "Express way?" What was wrong with Bypass. A classic line has already fallen.... Okay the Vogon fleet looks SWEET!!! This music needs to be burned... Never in a trailer again... Okay vogon interiors... Nice.. Woah! Pastel Guide. Mac OS 12.... The Heart of Gold, suddenly I have that "Lost in Space" feel, dunno why... Men in Black music started playing and suddenly the air went out of my sail.... I want this movie to rule to badly... But was that the restaurant we got a glimpse of??? I hope the FX are still a work in progress since a number of shots in the trailer looked iffy... And after Spielberg dropped a highway on a subdivision at the Superbowl, Mostly anything won't cut it this summer. Unless Fantastic Four only Mostly Sucks, than it'll suck a whole lot less than I think it will.

New Reese's penut butter cup... Fudge! or ? or ...

I LOVE Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. They are my absolute favorite "candy bar", and I'm not to big on any other candy bar. After years though of normal RPBC, I was initially excited for the variant editions... White Chocolate; a home run, smooth and delightful, though it just doesn't jump into your hand when you hav a craving, it's a treat requiring more conscious thought. But, I'm posting since I just tried RPBC:Fudge. I'm going to keep this beating quick. Many people love and or enjoy the peanut butter cups sold in candy stores, the type we buy Valentine's chocolates from. I don't. I find them boring compared to RPBC. Reeses Fudge, taste's like these more expensive but bland imitators. Tastes really good, and nothing like the brand. They should have put the creamy peanut butter in the fudge chocolate.

Web site request: The 2nd Street Tunnel ... Never Mind...

Is there a website out there, or someone intrepid enough to make one, that covers that LA resident movie star of so many countless films; the 2nd Street Tunnel? It feel like this thing has been in everything. We see it in The Annihilators (1985), Another Midnight Run (1994), The Big Sleep (1946), Blade Runner (1982), Con Air (1997), Demolition Man (1993), Heartbreakers (1984), Independence Day (1996), Jack's Back (1988), Money Talks (1997), One Dark Night (1983), Sneakers (1992), The Terminator (1984), and Young Doctors in Love (1982) according to IMDB (plus a bunch of Television that I didn't include) but I would swear that it's also in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Back to the Future 2...

CORRECTION: After just a few more moments of browsing the IMDB, an amazing site 8), I discover that the Griffith Park Tunnel was used for the two Zemeckis movies I mentioned. I've been using that site for years, and every so often, I learn to love it even more. Now if there were one for Comics and movies... of if the IMDB would just become the IEDB... Internet Entertainment DataBase... That would be a perfect world.

(Since I wished for 24 hour McDonalds and got it, why not shoot high! ;) )

DVD Rented: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (part 2)

Part 1 is an entry or so down....

So here I am with a pork steak watching the special features on ESOTSM, a movie I enjoyed, and respected, and judging from it’s rank on the IMDB a few other people have to. At the time I’m writing this, 17,423 people have given the movie a user rating of 10, that 17 THOUSAND people are 46.1% of the people who’ve bothered to give it a rating…
Some of us I’m sure have paid money to see theatrically, rent a DVD or worst yet, though not in my case here, actually purchase the film. I’m not going to bother getting sales figures for the disc, actually I’d appreciate a good link to where that information is handy… Am I bitching that the movie is well liked? No. I need to put this a different way.

Dear Media Conglomerates,
We the consumer are so endlessly pelted with your constant advertising, cross media tie-ins, and market driven entertainment, that imagination is dying on the emergency room table. Children and adults of all demographics are finally, 56 years after the Howdy Doody officially came on the air, virtually everyone in the country is a zombie without the imagination to appreciate most of the manufactured entertainment you produce.
So please, refrain from putting commercials for the entertainment product, in the product, at least the ones that are disguised as documentaries anyway. Sure we like the inclusion of the original movie trailers, and TV spots, especially on movies we’re nostalgic about.
Suddenly I’m defending commercials in the product… I’m one of their zombies too.
--never mind.

But, it pisses me off when we get refried promotional materials passed off as documentaries, especially on a good movie. So the movie, in this case ESOTSM, is rated R. Kate Winslet says “Fuck” a pretty good deal of the time. In a future entry, I’ll describe what an effective word that is. Since she does say it, on the disc… why bleep it in the documentary?
One last thing, some of the talent were bragging how the film had no “green screens” or special effects. Jim Carrey’s top grossing movie is; The Grinch $260 MILLION. Kate Winslet’s, Titanic with $600 million. Elijah Wood’s Return of the King, $377 times a million, and Kirsten Dunst in Spider-Man which grossed 8 billion nickels. Each of them have had their greatest success with FX movies, and I love the three top grossing, of their top grossing movies. Sorry Mr. Carrey… I’m not a fan of the Grinch… actually I guess I do like you without green screens.

NEW MUSIC (to me) : Serah

Serah
I love finding new music to enjoy and, like a beautiful woman, hopefully fall in love with. Like many fans of The Thomas Crown Affair, I've been yearning to find more of the music of Wasis Diop. Well Serah is apparently a friend of his, so I'll be keeping an eye on her.

DVD Rented: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This movie would have ruled the earth if I hadn’t heard and read so many good things about it. It would have been even better if I had now idea what the premise was. If only art were an honest process and marketing didn’t exist… then a movie poster or box could say “Trust me, you’ll like it!” Now, some idiot just thought “that’s what marketing is, idiot. Well, aren’t we a pair then, two idiots separated by a computer screen and a few million miles of copper, fiber optics and a whole lot of other stuff? In a universe as small as the Star Wars galaxy, or ESOTSM, we’d run into each other... which was a symptom of the other movie we rented, but watched last night; Collateral. This film is beautiful, just to look at… before Collateral, the only way to see a city like that was with your own eyes. Oh… yea, a review… some movieish small universe syndrome, but it’s a movie, most have it… Fuck, most stories have it… even real life does. Can I say Fuck in a Blog entry discussing rated R movies?

ESOTSM : 4…. Some things out of 5. 8.5 /10 A- …. I’ll come up with a system.
Collateral: 5 out of 5….. 9/10…. A Yea, I need a system.

Obligitory lame first blog entry...

Okay, blogging feels lame and faddish. I've flirted with the notion of doing this before, as to what would even motivate such a public diary for one who has never kept any sort of journal, or even sketchbook for that matter... this is purely experimental. Do people really read these things? If so... [after this point, I typed a lot of nonsense.]