No signs of life?

No, I'm not talking about my lack of blogging lately (busy December). I'm still referring to Roger Ebert, who has been not been heard from recently. The Academy Awards will be announced in a little over three weeks, with the ceremony to follow a month later. Ebert had claimed that he would cover the 2007 ceremony, but his quiet December makes me wonder. Writers write, and Ebert was one of the most prolific writers out there. At the very least I would have expected an occasional new "The Great Movies" or "Answer Man" column. Instead all that we have gotten is a blurb on his latest book, which was written who knows when. I'm even starting to question Ebert's availability for the film festival in April, which would be crippled without his active presence. Maybe he will emerge in January, but I would be surprised if it is not a gradual comeback, with writing first, and stuff like the review show later. And it is still not known how well he is speaking after those throat operations.

Evidence to the Contrary

While a few new reviews by Ebert have been posted the last few weeks, the lack of an Altman obituary by Ebert is not a good sign that he is anywhere close to coming back. I also question these reviews that he has written. Since his "return," any movie he reviews seems to receive four stars. I wonder if Freddy Got Fingered would rate four stars for someone stuck in a hospital and undergoing rehabilitation.

The Workaholic

Robert Altman has died. He lived a life longer than expected considering past health issues, including the need for a heart transplant ten years ago. He never compromised, which was a trait rarely found in Hollywood. I had hoped that Altman could be coaxed by Ebert to come to the film festival next year. Of course, now I guess I should be glad if Ebert is able to make it.

Altman made many great films. His oeuvre included so many films overall that I have not seen half of them. That is good, since it means I will have many opportunities to discover more great ones. Unlike with most directors, with Altman there is always that chance.

All Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

It is rather shocking. I mean, first it was 5 years, then 5 more years, then 6 years. To what am I referring? The time between Nine Inch Nails albums. Ok, so the almost-album EP Broken was sandwiched between Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral, and the double album The Fragile could almost count as two, but there is still a pronounced deliberate release pattern here. So deliberate that I am unaware of any other music artist committing what many would call career suicide. The obvious comparison in the film world is Stanley Kubrick, though he was halfway productive early on in his career.

I can remember waiting, waiting, waiting for the next release after TDS. When I think about the years of school that passed by, it really becomes a long wait. During this last tour, Trent continually referred to work progressing on a new album. I never would have thought that it would already be done, less than 2 years after the release of With Teeth. Especially since much of that 2 years was taken up by touring. Mixing will be done on the release in January, and European tour dates have already been announced for February and March. The new release (no name yet) will probably be out in April or early May. I would say that I can't wait, but history says that I can.

Two dates on the arena tour last spring were recorded using high definition cameras. That concert footage will be coming out on high definition discs sometime in early 2007. The trailer is available here. Scroll down to the 09/23/06 entry. It looks stunning.

The High Cost of Inflation

Today the Ebert Film Festival passes went on sale, and I went ahead and bought two. I think I mentioned this before, but the first year of the festival the passes were only $35. The 2007 festival sets you back a nice, even $100. Inflation? Better films and guests? Well, I think the biggest reason for the price increase is demand. Each year the festival passes sell out sooner than the previous year, even with the price increases. I imagine that all the passes would be sold out on Nov. 1 if they were still $50. I'm glad that I am assured of being able to buy a pass, as long as I don't tarry too long. The festival is a non-profit event I believe, and any extra money goes to the renovation of the Virginia Theater. So I really don't mind the price.

Individual tickets are $10, with a $2 discount for students. I don't recall this discount being available in the past. Perhaps not coincidentally there was some rumbling last year about the lack of students at the festival. It would be nice to see some young blood in the audience. Every year the crowd seems to get older and older. The time of year is extremely inconvenient to students though, thanks to its proximity to finals week. And while the festival is sponsored by the communications department, I think that the festival has more appeal to English majors.

blog bog

My posts have been few and far between lately. It is mostly due to the blog provider, which has been having technical problems, making it impossible for me to post anything. They are in the middle of upgrading. I'm going to upgrade to the beta version of their new software and see what happens. Things can only get better?

The Hat Trick

No matter how talented the filmmaker, it is inevitable that they lay an egg. Often the dud comes right after a really good movie. Three "great" films in a row is rare. Rarer still is the trifecta to begin one's career. Paul Thomas Anderson arguably did it with his first three. Francis Ford Coppola had four in a row in the 70s, but his career began much earlier. Mike Nichols made two fantastic films before stumbling badly with Catch-22.

Sofia Coppola arrived on the directorial scene in 1999, best known for two things-her father and her terrible performance in Godfather Part III. The Virgin Suicides had a unique voice. That voice continued through to Lost in Translation, which cemented her auteur status.

Ok, so that is two films. What about the third? Well, Coppola certainly aimed high. A costumed period piece always has the potential for unmitigated disaster, if only for the reviewers who seem to take bountiful glee in tearing down such a work. Throwing in a contemporary soundtrack is filmmaking suicide.

So what is the result? Does Marie Antoinette succeed?

Well, the reviews have been decidedly mixed-53% at Rotten Tomatoes. Enough reputable reviewers have praised the film for it to be worth a shot. That's not enough consensus however to objectively say that Coppola has done it again. Hey, at least she remained ambitious and didn't make an Adam Sandler movie. And maybe I'll even like Marie when I get around to seeing it.

Back to Work

Well, Roger Ebert has returned, kinda. His letter of explanation reveals exactly why he has been gone so long, and what can be expected for the future. That future is apparently going to be rather quiet until 2007, after another surgery and rehab are completed. I was beginning to wonder whether his film festival in Champaign would be canceled, but he confirmed that the show will go on.

Meanwhile, the lunatics have been running the asylum. David Poland wrote a scathing entry in his Oct. 8th blog about the perplexing choices made for replacement co-hosts of the tv review show. Poland shares my sentiments. Ironically, during this reign of terror the local time slot for this show has switched from 5:30 A.M. to the much friendlier 11:30 A.M. slot. It doesn't make any difference to me since I use a DVR anyway, but it is still worth noting. Some might say the show would be better off airing in obscurity.

Bigger and Blacker

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is one of the best documentaries I have seen-and I have seen many of the so-called greatest documentaries. Somehow the filmmakers were able to to make business, accounting, and stock subjects both compelling and understandable. That last sentence sure sounded boring, didn't it? Well, trust me, the movie has an intoxicating quality. It has something to do with seeing these bloated corporate egos get their comeuppance. An energetic selection of songs are intersperced, providing a further contrast to business as usual. By the way, if you think that Jeffrey Skilling looks familiar, it is because he is the brother of longtime WGN TV weatherman Tom Skilling.

Little Children

When reading about the film Little Children my curiosity was piqued concerning the film's director, Todd Field. Field's only other feature, In the Bedroom, was one of the best of 2001. Before that Field worked primarily as an actor in middling projects. Middling, I should say, except for a little film called Eyes Wide Shut. Very, very, strange. And is it a coincidence that two years after the release of Eyes Wide Shut Field would release his own very accomplished movie? I would need to watch In the Bedroom again, but I have a feeling the influence of Kubrick can be seen in that movie. Kubrick was known for the lengthy time between his pictures. Well, five years passed between Field's first and second film. Googling the Field-Kubrick connection reveals very little. Field does cite Kubrick as an influence. So much for my curiosity.

It will be interesting to see the reaction to Little Children at the currently ongoing Toronto Film Festival. My expectations are very high. Perhaps this time Field will be nominated for Best Director. He was not nominated for In the Bedroom, despite the movie having three acting nominations and the Best Picture nomination. Unbelievably, Ridley Scott was nominated for Blackhawk Down instead.

The Meaning of Life

I never cared much for the Monty Python tv show. It always seemed like a few hilarious moments separated by umpteen minutes of mediocrity. The movies, on the other hand, rise far above their television efforts. Ok, I have not seen And Now For Something Completely Different, but that is supposedly a greatest hits of the tv sketches. The Holy Grail succeeds even when it fails (please don't ask me to explain that), and The Life of Brian is truly brilliant.

The Meaning of Life is a series of sketches, though they are impressively strung together to give the appearance of some cohesion. I just watched it for the second time, though I didn't remember anything about it save the fat guy in the restaurant. I have figured out that there is a five year rule. If I have not watched the movie in the last five years, then odds are that I do not remember the movie very well, and my opinion about it has probably changed. Anyway, this time I was struck by how influential this movie and/or other Python stuff must have been for The Kids in the Hall. Scott Thompson's drag characters were the second coming of Terry Jones. Python's realm of influence also extended to Trey Parker and Matt Stone--i.e. the musical numbers and gross-out jokes.

The Terry Gilliam short film that opened the movie is a precursor to Brazil, though The Crimson Permanent Assurance is lighter fare. As for the "feature," my favorite sketch is the sperm musical number, which is quite bombastic and funny. The rest of the film falls short of this plateau, though several worthwhile moments follow. Just remember that eating is not recommended during the second half of the film. **** out of 5.

Stooge and Roeper

I've been holding off writing about this, hoping that things would improve. Back after Siskel died, a revolving chair of guests occupied the seat across from Ebert. This had two purposes: first, to be able to continue the show until a permanent replacement was named, and second, to use these shows as auditions for would-be replacements. Some were bad (Harry Knowles should never be seen on tv), and some were alright. Nearly all were writers or critics. I actually do not remember Roeper's first appearance. A woman named Joyce Kulhawik was the person I expected to land the job. In multiple appearances she clashed with Ebert, as rarely did their recommendations match up. David Poland has claimed that Roeper was not Ebert's first choice for the job. I expect that Kulhawik was, but I would bet her cancer history scared away Buena Vista, who probably did not want to deal with any more prolonged absences. Anyway, Roeper turned out to be a good selection. It took a couple years, but he eventually began to banter with Ebert almost at the same level as Siskel, though admittedly Siskel was much more sophisticated with his arguments. The mix worked.

Now with Ebert out for an unknown amount of time, we have to contend with a different unqualified stiff sitting across from Roeper each week. So far this guest has been someone with little critical experience. In fact, the first 3 guests were industry people whose biases would surely intrude. Leno was horrible. He is and never will be anything but a kiss-ass. I'm surprised he gave one movie thumbs down. Kevin Smith did not carry himself very well, and it was excrutiating hearing "flik" over and over. Next was a screenwriter whose name I do not remember, and whose appearance was just as memorable. He was followed by some entertainment personality who was annoyingly upbeat. Review the damn movie, and save the fun schtick for the after show party.

Thankfully an actual gainfully employed movie critic showed up on this last weekend's show. He made cogent, succinct points about the movies he was reviewing, with a fluidness that would make you think that he was SUPPOSED to be there. In fact, the show would be in good hands if he remained in Ebert's seat until Roger makes it back. It's not going to happen, and odds are they will go back to the unqualified dope list for their next selection.

As if things haven't been bad enough for him, Ebert is missing both the Telluride and the Toronto film festivals this September. I have not seen any hints when Ebert will be back, though hopefully September will be the last full month without him. But it isn't a good sign that only one new piece, a health update, has been written by Ebert in the last few weeks.

Regarding Michael

It was going to haunt me till the day I died. Not remembering that teacher's name-possibly my favorite teacher in four years of undergrad-might not cause me to lose sleep, but it would cause me to reexamine my past. His work has even been plagiarized, as explained on this page. Most impressive. As I was going through the mess on the floor, I decided to get organized. I would throw the notebooks in stacks according to the year I took that class. I rapidly formed four stacks. Soon all notebooks were separated. While I did finally find stuff from my senior year, the one class that was missing was that damn English 103 class. Not a trace of it. Well, what now? My thoughts were even turning to contacting the university to see if they could provide me with the name of the teacher. But, wait. I saw one last bundle on the other side of the room, but I was sure I had already gone through it. In fact, I had started in that area days before. I didn't see a notebook. There was a binder there. I opened up the binder, and there it was! It really does scare me how much I have forgotten. I don't remember using a binder for any class at UI, much less that one, my last semester there. Maybe it was required by the teacher. I haven't gone through the materials yet to know. (after further research, yeah, it was required).

My next obstacle was the teacher's name. Yeah, maybe you already guessed-all the paperwork from the class only had his last name. The only thing I remembered was that it was a common first name. David? John? Argh. Well, off to the handy UI alumni database again. A search quickly revealed a Thurston who got his PHD in 1995 in English. MICHAEL! That was it.

So I had the name. Time for some detective work. Luckily, detective work had become much easier between the time of the fictional Sherlock Holmes and the 21st century. A google search usually suffices. So, I googled the name. Well, this page (scroll down to Michael Thurston's entry) gives a quick bio. Jumping right into teaching at Yale-now that is impressive. I would think that his move to Smith College was actually an upgrade, though I question the merits of a liberal arts school that restricts its student population to one gender. Regardless, Smith is very prestigious, and, I expect, very expensive.

What all this means is that I was correct in thinking that Mr. Thurston would have attained an impressive status in life in the years between my time as his student and today. My curiosity being satisfied in this area, I can now move on to the other mysteries introduced by my old school books, such as why I have Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance when I do not remember reading it or even being assigned it in any class. The excitement never ends!

I Remember You...

My parents visited two weeks ago. I found that they had an ulterior motive when I realized what, and how much, they brought with them. My bedroom at my parents' house had never been cleaned out, so quite a bit of junk had accumulated over the years. And really it was just a dumping ground while I was going to school. Now that I have my own house, my parents decided it was about time for me to assume possession of those bedroom items. At first I was despondent. I didn't want to deal with it all, not after having spent so much time working on my house---I had just finished making the storage room presentable, and I wasn't about to junk it up again.

This week I finally worked up the courage to go through it all. Much to my surprise I found that many remains from my UofI years were present. These consisted of many notebooks. Syllabi and papers that I had thought were long gone were also there. For a couple classes I think I had saved every shred of paper. For two classes I even had Notes and Quotes lecture notes that I had purchased in lieu of going to class. I probably should have gone to the history class, but the sociology class was a colossal waste of time, so that was money well spent.

These materials brought back a flood of memories. Probably due to the following 4 years years of higher education much of my time at UI was obscured, for lack of a better word. Some of the classes and teachers I barely remember. I did not remember the name of my professor for history 152---that was the class that I purchased the lecture notes for, so that isn't a huge surprise. My first Spanish class (actually second since I dropped the first) was taught by someone who I kinda remembered. She was not a native Spanish speaker, and she would actually use English from time to time. She didn't attack us with the Spanish language. I can't express how much better it is to to learn a language under relaxed conditions. Anyway, she is dead. I found her name on one of the class papers, and googled it. It returned an obituary. To be sure it was the same person, I looked her up on the UI alumni directory. Yep, deceased. She died in 2004, at the age of 37. Ugh. It's too bad because she seemed like a nice person, and there are far too few decent Spanish teachers around.

That revelation spurred me to look up other names. Several of my classes had lecture and discussion sections. I generally remember the professor, but sometimes my memory of the T.A. is very hazy. Two of my history T.A.s became professors. I could find no record of another T.A.--he was an ass, so it wouldn't surprise me if he never went on to do anything worthwhile.

I already mentioned one of my English teachers, Michael Berube, in a blog post from a long time ago. Another English class that I took my last semester at UI, (103-Intro to Fiction) was easily one of the best and most worthwhile classes. You would think that I would remember my teacher for that class. Well, I remember him, but I don't remember his name. Which brings me back to those notebooks. The more I rummaged through them, the more I realized that I had saved nearly every paper from every class I took at UI. I don't remember intentionally doing this--I think it was more a case of my being too lazy to go through everything at the end of the semester. Anyway, that teacher's name should be somewhere in this mess, right? Ummm, no. Argh!

Ken Jennings' Last Laugh

In another example of the daftness of the media, Ken Jennings is being implicated for taking Jeopardy to task for its outmoded character. Nevermind that Jennings' blog entry is not serious criticism. Nevermind that the entry displays quite a bit of humor. Instead, focus on the interpretation that makes for a good story. "Poking fun" is not a good story. "Biting the Hand That Feeds" is.

Two possible conclusions can be drawn from the media reaction. First, that the media likes to manipulate facts in order to arrive at an attention grabbing headline. The second conclusion, which I favor the most, is that the media is stupid--TOO STUPID TO UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SATIRE AND SERIOUS CRITICISM. What, you mean he is not serious when he suggests that Jeopardy should have a category like "Skanks from Reality TV Who Got Naked in Men's Magazines?" Read the entry for yourself, and I am sure you will share my incredulity about the overwrought media reception. In more recent entries Jennings has comments and links to the story and reactions. If Jennings started the blog in order to gain publicity for his upcoming book, then he has succeeded.

While Jennings is seemingly a straight-laced dork, as evidenced by the brain map on his page, he does have some interesting things to say about trivia and movies. Lawyers might be especially interested in his discussions of high profile court cases where trivia was affected. Jennings provides good summaries and analysis, despite not being a lawyer.

Actually, maybe Jennings is not as straight-laced as he looks. Some of his postings could actually be called edgy, and his favorite movies list (including Fight Club, Trainspotting, and A Clockwork Orange) is at least indicative of someone who is open-minded and not overly conservative in his values.

Running With the Night

I am now reading the classics, and recently I concluded Dracula. Is Dracula really a classic? Yes, in the horror genre it is. But there is a good reason why Bram Stoker's other books never really took off. He was not a great writer, if Dracula was any indication. Mina is the most fully drawn character, which is unfortunate as she is also the character I most disliked. Her fragility, or even worse, presumed fragility, is hard to take, and the men who fret over it more than anything else. Van Helsing gets off a couple good lines, but his unfounded confidence is insufferable. Van Helsing starts out knowing nothing about vampires, picks up some rumors and innuendo, and becomes the expert vampire killer. He even says that Dracula has the mind of a child. How he could possibly know this, I don't know. His reasoning makes no sense.

Count Dracula himself is given very little dialogue, and is even made unintentionally sympathetic by his shallow pursuers. At least he is interesting, which is more than you can say for the rest of the characters. That is, except for Renfield, whose allegiance is to the dark side.--go dark side!

Stoker is at his best with imaginative descriptions of various horrific events. His words conjure up stunning visuals. It is no wonder that the book has translated well into the realm of cinema. One other commendable aspect is the use of primary sources. Sources like journal entries and newspaper articles lend to the book's authenticity, when the subject would otherwise seem entirely unauthentic.

After reading the book, I now have newfound respect for Bram Stoker's Dracula. Coppola took the strengths of the book and marvelously rendered the visuals that are so important to the book. I have always maintained that Keanu Reeves' Jonathan Harker is meant to be dull, and the book's portrayal of the character is not far off. It takes a vampire to infuse him with some character, and even vampires have a tough time making Keanu Reeves show some range of emotion.

Up next: Bleak House, all 900+ pages of it.

Give me pay radio!

I actually paid for some timer recording software so that I could use my computer to record Stern every morning. That software, Total Recorder, was lost when my hard drive went down. So when the Dell arrived yesterday, I was afraid that I would have to buy the software again. Much to my surprise I went to the software website and found that a newer version was available, with a free upgrade for people who had already registered! Great, but I lost the registration number with the hard drive. No problem, as I would receive a new number anyway by giving them my email address. Success! And it is a major upgrade over the previous version, all without spending another dollar. If only all software companies were this friendly to the user.

Speaking of recording Stern, I am glad that I have Sirius (thanks Christy). With the longer driving trip into work since we moved, it has helped me to keep my sanity. Stern's show is run 4 times a day, so it is always on when I am in the car. The shows are 5 hours+, which makes up for the four day work weeks that he often takes. And sidekick Artie Lange has become the star of the show thanks to the lack of censorship restrictions. His first year on the show was really shaky. I was hoping that Jackie "the comedy punching bag" Martling would return, if only because it was so funny when everyone would goof on him. But Artie's stories about his quadraplegic dad, his Mad Tv period when he was strung out on coke and took a swing at a cop, and his on again/off-again relationship with his girlfriend who gave him an ultimatum that he see a shrink (he didn't), and his current feud with the long ago washed up Dice Clay over not getting paid for a comedy show have made the show not only great but compelling. And with Artie, none of this is an act.

The one big negative with the show this year was the re-recording of a few old Stern bits that were lost when Stern moved to satellite radio---Stern did not have the right to play any of his old tapes at the new place. These new recordings just weren't the same. Hopefully they will never be played again, since recently Stern aquired the rights to all his old tapes, making the new recordings unnecessary. He really should start another channel now that plays the old shows, but he seems resistant to this. He was also resistant to the idea of the day's show playing 24 hours and gave in (and now admits it was a good idea), so maybe he'll give in on this too.

Oskee Wow Wow

Christy and I took a leisurely stroll through the UI campus on Saturday. In the decade since I was a student there much has changed. The most startling change is the number of new apartment buildings/complexes/towers. I would guess that the number of apartments has almost doubled since my freshman year. People have to be living in these new apartments, so I wonder where they came from, since to my knowledge the enrollment has not increased. I suspect that the dorm dwellers have greatly decreased in number, though I was not aware of many people still in the dorms after their sophomore year. The Greek system has probably gone downhill, though I haven't heard anything about that either. But all the frat houses I was in were dumpy and hardly much of an enticement compared to a nice new apartment. I'm sure their condition has continued to deteriorate.

Green Street is dramatically different. The McDonald's is gone, transported to the food court in the basement of the Union. The Coed Theater is gone, meaning that you now have to travel by car to a multiplex to see a movie (back when I was in school a lot of students didn't have cars, so this really surprises me). In their place is a multi-story complex, with presumably astronomically priced apartments in the upper floors, and a Subway and I think a Kaplan Center in the first floor. Murphy's was expanded quite a while ago, and is now twice the size of the formerly narrow bar. Around the corner is La Bamba's, which moved from its location in the Skylight Court (I lived in an apartment above one summer). I'm trying to remember what is now in the former Wendy's location---it had been empty for many years, despite its prime location. Discount Den is no longer there--a Coldstone Creamery is one of the businesses that now occupies that area. A Fazolli's came and went. Burger King apparently recently closed down. Among the businesses that remain are Jimmy John's (though there is now a closer Jimmy John's near 6th street), the White Horse, and Garcia's I think, though the other two Garcia's in town closed down, probably because it couldn't compete with Monical's. Papa Del's is still in the same place too.

The Union has been transformed somewhat. The check cashing station is no longer there--does this mean students don't use checks anymore? Maybe it is done in a different location. There is a new area in the middle of the Union that was constructed around the time that I was a senior. It's a laidback, cafeteria styled seating area with a stage that can host performances. The basement no longer has the old cafeteria, which lasted a few too many years if you ask me. Unfortunately its replacements are nothing to brag about--the usual McDonald's, etc. The billiards room is gone, replaced by some type of room with exercise equipment, though it is not a standard gym. Looked like something that would cater to women. I guess billiards fell out of favor too--I can't say that I ever played there, though I wasn't a pool player until later years. Certainly the on-campus bars were lousy for pool-don't know if any bar has picked up the slack.

Not much has changed in the main quad. In fact, I remarked at the time that the people sitting and cavorting in the grass could have been transported from ten years ago and looked exactly the same--maybe because those people always have a hippyish look to them. Strangely, we observed a wedding ceremony taking place at Foellinger--or maybe they were just taking pictures on the steps in front.

There is a new circular agriculture building, about halfway between the main quad and FAR. Looked impressive on the outside. Also, construction on a new business building is about to start. If you remember the block south of the Armory (I remember playing tennis there one night my freshman year), it is now a giant pit where the new building will be.

I forgot to mention the brand new Alumni building, over on Lincoln Ave. It's big, it's spacious, and it is quite expensive looking. It is also very sterile. It doesn't seem to have a use for anything but a meeting place. Strange.

Room 66 in the main library was redone. Room 66 was where the film screenings were held for the film classes I took. The film screening were moved (as of about 4 years ago they were in the Armory), and the room looked unused then. But now the room looks brand new. But the room at the back that held the projector was demolished, with the entire room now extending all the way back with windows! Quite a dramatic change for a room that I spent quite a bit of time in.

Speaking of the library, the Undergraduate library was a mess. It is in the middle of some type of renovation, and it looks like such a big project that I wonder if they will have it done by the time students come back this fall. Many cubicles and books and shelves had been moved, leaving empty space. They still had those blue chairs---it's about time for some new furniture!!!

Starting Over the Hard Way

My hard drive crashed. As in, crashed and the data is unrecoverable as the reading mechanism stopped working. Not the worst thing that has ever happened to me, but let's just say I am none too happy. Luckily I backed up quite a few files several months ago when the hard drive first started to act up. But I hadn't had any significant problems recently, so I foolishly hadn't backed up anything in quite a while. Ack.

So I need anyone and everyone to send me their contact info-email address, mailing address, phone number--whatever is pertinent. I actually had my hotmail configured into a pop account, with all the email going to Eudora, meaning all those old emails were lost (can't remember if I backed up that inbox or not). Go ahead and email my hotmail account and I'll receive everything just fine.

I was waiting to buy a new computer until the new version of Windows became available early next year, or I wouldn't be having this problem. We opted for a cheap Dell system, which should tide me over until next year.

Live to Tell

Would Madonna go away already? I have to avert my eyes anytime her current face is shown on television. When I was a kid I was always amazed by some of the Hollywood legends who at one time were considered great beauties. Elizabeth Taylor is the example that is usually given. In her case it was all downhill after the age of 20. Lauren Bacall smoked way too much, and it is amazing that she still has a voice, not to mention still alive. Ginger Rogers? ugh. Garbo had the good sense to go into hiding, and Marilyn Monroe...well, it is not hard to imagine what she would have looked like ten years later. Unlike Anna Nicole Smith she would not have been rescued by a surgical operation. Most music artists are popular for 5 years max, so aging does not become a concern. Madonna's career has defied the usual boundaries, with 17 years of popularity in terms of producing new music that didn't bomb. The last two CDs have faltered, though she is still quite an arena draw (partially thanks to her sporadic touring over the years-keep'em wanting more). The current tour is receiving quite a bit of attention. But part of Madonna's appeal (like most female singers) has been her look, which is not what it once was. I think she peaked during the "Cherish" days (so long ago that I was still in high school). After that she became a little too obsessed with working out, and surgery removed any natural beauty in her face. That being said, she has fared quite a bit better than Whitney Houston. Mariah Carey, look out.
So that I do not appear entirely sexist, I have to mention that Robert Plant has taken on the puffy face that Jimmy Page has displayed for many a year. At least he still has somewhat of a singing voice.

It really is the 21st century...

I hate smoke in bars and restaurants. Smoking in such places is a relic of decades past. That said, I never would have thought that smoking would be eradicated so soon in public places. It isn't really that many years since smoking was banned on planes. I think it was 3 or 4 years ago that New York City banned smoking. That got things rolling for the rest of the country. Chicago recently enacted a ban, though I don't think it has fully taken effect yet. Champaign-Urbana enacted a ban that is staggered-different dates for the bars and restaurants. Some of the quotes in that story are hilarious. I think they should go even further and ban dumb people like Alderwoman Stevenson from speaking. Despite being slightly less progressive Bloomington-Normal passed a similar ban, though just barely. As with Chambana, there were two different city councils to contend with, making it a lot like the situation where the House and the Senate have to come to an agreement on a bill if it is to become law. Once these bans go into effect there will be no turning back, and that is why some loudmouth smokers are up in arms. Too bad. Springfield is another Illinois city with the ban. Hopefully by the time I'm in Carbondale again the ban will be in place there--The Cellar will never be the same!

Geh, geh, geh, geh, geh, geh, Gordo!

Kids are spoiled nowadays. Really. With the Internet and the multitude of cable channels the entertainment possibilities are endless. Me, I could either stare at the wall or stare at the sun. At least I was getting some fresh air if I was staring into the sun.

My few bastions of fun back then were the few chances to watch cartoons on tv. This tv being limited to 4 channels. This became 5 channels when C13 came along, and 6 channels when the fledgling Fox Network began broadcasting quality fare like Werewolf and 21 Jump Street. Ok, ok, so they had one winner with Married With Children. But I already had cable by that time anyway, so the Fox channel didn't matter as much.

So the late 70s and early 80s were the dark ages for my prepubescent mind. I was stuck with a smattering of cartoons in the early morning and after-school hours, and was left with watching shows like Barney Miller with my parents. Even the Barney Miller episodes after Abe Vigoda left. I can feel the sympathy pouring in, thanks.

Of course, Saturday mornings were a gold mine. Not only cartoons, but cartoons on all three networks, intersperced with Kool-Aid and Honeycomb commercials. Looking back, I realize that some of these cartoons were bad. Really bad. Everyone must remember those straight-from-the-arcade cartoons. Pac-Man (voiced by Marty Ingels, ack!), Q-Bert, Dragon's Lair-there was no stopping the lack of originality and the lack of any semblance of plot.

The always reliable Looney Toons (before they were censored) were a mainstay. Thundarr the Barbarian was an interesting ripoff of Star Wars. Dungeons and Dragons was entertaining, perhaps because it had practically nothing to do with the game.

One of my favorites was the Alf cartoon. It came along towards the end of my cartoon watching days (1987), so it had to appeal to an older audience to interest me. I didn't even like the Alf tv show very much and only watched the first season. The cartoon took place on Melmac, which was a good move since all the human characters on the original show were just plain boring.

Even better was a spinoff of this cartoon (that's right, somehow this cartoon was successful enough during it's very brief run to have a spinoff) called AlfTales, which used the cast from the first Alf cartoon as members of a cast that would perform a fractured fairy tale of sorts, only unlike the fractured fairy tales from the Bullwinkle cartoon, these were a half hour long.

Not impressed yet? Well, two of the main writers on AlfTales were David Cohen and Roger Schulman. David Cohen would go on to write for The Simpsons and Futurama. Schulman did even better, as he was one of the four writers credited with the Shrek screenplay. Hmmm, is it just a coincidence that Shrek also featured fairy tale parody? I think not.

It has been way over ten years since I saw any of the Alf cartoons, so maybe they are not as good as I remember. I recorded nearly every episode onto videotape, though the quality is undoubtedly lacking since I tried to squeeze 12 episodes onto each tape. They might not even play after all this time. One thing I hated about Saturday morning cartoons was the mountain of repeats that we would often have to wade through to discover a fresh episode. After I started recording the Alf cartoons, there was one that they just refused to repeat. It was the Legend of Sleepy Hollow episode. Meanwhile, they must have shown the Little Red Riding Hood episode 7 or 8 times. Talk about frustrating. Now it makes me think that maybe there was something controversial about the episode, causing NBC not to rerun it.

But all that does not matter now, as the Alf cartoons are now on DVD!!! Well, some of them, anyway. 9 of the 26 Alf Animated Adventures have been released, and 7 of the 21 AlfTales are available. No doubt if sales are good enough the rest of the episodes will be released. And yes, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow episode is on the AlfTales release, thank God. In a few days I will receive the discs-hopefully they won't be a disappointment after all this time.

The Best Job In America?

I just read Roeper's latest column (see link to the right) and realized that he beat me to the hazing story. Which reminds me about a blog entry that I've had percolating for a while. Richard Roeper has one of the greatest jobs you could possibly imagine. All he has to do is write a relatively short column four days a week. That column is a pop culture/general musings column, kinda like a blog. His homework for this job involves paying attention to the news and listening to Howard Stern each morning. The actual columns will never win Roeper a Pulitzer, but they are often very entertaining and perceptive. Undoubtedly Roeper makes a tidy sum writing the column, despite the fact that it obviously takes little effort. He is worth it though, as there are not many writers capable of writing that column as effectively as Roeper.

Which brings me to something I alluded to in the previous paragraph. Roeper cribs about 25% of the ideas for his columns from Howard Stern. Time after time I have read a Roeper column that dealt with the same subject that was featured on Stern the day before. Coincidence? Well, Roeper is a regular on the show, has defended Stern in his column, has frequently directly referenced the show, and he was recently a judge for Stern's film festival. In today's column he refers to hatemonger Shirley Phelps-Roeper, who has been on Stern's show multiple times, though I didn't recall that her last name was Roeper. Ok, maybe the word "cribs" is too strong, but there is no doubt that he owes a debt of gratitude to Stern's show for originating some, make that many, interesting topics.

Despite a shaky start, Roeper has developed into quite the film reviewer. This seems to be where his real talent lies, as he always has a comeback for Ebert's sometimes inexplicable views. A film reviewer is a great job, but there are not many great reviewers. Roeper is one, though it remains to be seen how good his print reviews would be.

Hazing Ain't What It Used To Be

From hearing the stories about the Northwestern women's soccer team hazing I was expecting something shocking when I scanned the pictures of that night. What a letdown. Talk about overblown. This kind of thing gives hazing a good name.

Da Bomb

It sounded very suspicious when I heard that there have been no screenings of The Da Vinci Code prior to Wednesday's premier at the Cannes Film Festival. As if that was not enough of an indicator, pre-release screenings of the film are extremely limited, with presumably only the reviewers in the biggest cities having access to the film. So, unless your local reviewer is at Canne or works in New York, L.A., or Chicago, you can count on there being no advance reviews. What all this means is that The Da Vinci Code stinks, and Columbia is trying to hide that fact long enough for a big opening weekend to result. The problem is that the film skews older. It's the teenagers that usually pile into the theaters on opening weekend. So word might get around well before Code passes 100 million. With a huge budget and a lot of hype (you have to wonder how much they had to pay for the book rights), the movie will be a big disappointment if it doesn't come close to 200 million.

But with Ron Howard as the director, is this a surprise? He has made some bad, bad movies, and a convincing argument can be made that A Beautiful Mind is the worst film to win Best Picture in the last 30 years. Being attached to screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (Batman and Robin, Lost in Space) only lessens Howard's chances of coming up with a good movie from one of the biggest selling novels of all time.

Survivor Jumps The Shark

We already know that Survivor manipulates the outcome, but tonight was ridiculous. It featured the worst last challenge in the history of survivor (or at least of the ones I have seen). Basically, if a thin woman was in the challenge, she would win it. No ifs, ands, or buts. The challenge was extremely prejudiced against body weight, with the inevitable outcome that the heaviest would be out first. Terry was lucky to maintain his balance for five seconds. The total challenge lasted 30 minutes, when it typically turns into a marathon event as exhaustion sets in. Even worst, they decided to have a reward challenge before that, with the winner getting a good meal--allegedly to help with the final challenge. Terry (or any other male over 150 pounds) could have eaten like a king for the previous thirty days and it would have made absolutely no difference. Because Terry dominated too much during the challenges, the producers decided to throw a wrench in the works, and Terry lost without the chance to compete. One less show for me to watch this fall.

Day 4

It was necessary to stand in line for 1 and a half to 2 hours each day before the doors opened in order to obtain good seats with plenty of leg room. It sounds worse than it was, as good weather prevailed each day except for day 4, and it was nice to be outside. Of course, they were late opening the doors on day 4, which figures since it meant more time standing in cold, rainy conditions.

Director Danny Boyle is building a very impressive oeuvre, with the kind of flexibility that could eventually rank him with the likes of Howard Hawks. Millions is the second film of what might develop into Boyle's "money" trilogy. Shallow Grave was a lesson in how money corrupts. Millions looks at how money should be valued and debates social responsibity. And it does so in a fun way that kids would like. I do wonder about the selection of Millions as the free for kids matinee. The intensity level is raised quite a bit in the second half of the movie, and it might be too much for kids under 10, though the movie is rated PG.

The first reel of the film was not sent, so the DVD was projected for the first ten minutes or so. The DVD did not look half bad at a 250+ inch size, though the letterboxing was a bit disconcerting. I am sensing a pattern since this is the second time that a Fox film has not been sent to the festival in proper form.

Claire Dolan set a record for the number of sex scenes for an Eberfest entry. There was something incredibly unglamorous about those scenes, as the chores of prostitution became a trial in Lodge Kerrigan's somber film. For some people they were a trial to watch, considering the lukewarm applause at the end of the film. That, combined with the light applause for Kerrigan, really made me wonder about the festival audience. I can respect a filmmaker's work without necessarily liking it. Others evidently cannot. This was all the more noticeable when compared to the warm reception for the creator of Somebodies. Kerrigan's discussion with Ebert made it obvious that he is a director to be reckoned with, and I look forward to viewing Kerrigan's Keane and any future endeavors.

Junebug was almost saved by the performance of Amy Adams. It did not quite click for me, and I was bothered by the Huck Finn scene in the kitchen. The movie was interesting nonetheless. It is too bad that Amy Adams was unable to show, though I do not know how much she would have added to the conversation.

Director Terry Zwigoff put one over on Ebert. I think that Ebert thought that Zwigoff was bringing a cut of Bad Santa quite different from the theatrical or DVD version. Instead the differences were quite subtle. The major difference is apparently the ending, though the "happy" ending remains. The "new" ending was a few seconds showing the kid cleaning the blood spot on the sidewalk (left by Bad Santa when he fell after being shot) with a toilet brush.

In fact, I think that the version we saw is shorter than the DVD version. Weird, though the movie seemed better this time than when I watched the unrated version last Christmas Eve. The pacing certainly seemed better. Zwigoff hinted that this version would be released on DVD later this year.

There were two movies at the festival this year that were digitally projected: the horrible Somebodies, which looked like crap (it fit well with the movie), and Bad Santa, which looked incredible. I now have no doubt that every theater will eventually adopt digital projection, though cheapness on the part of the theater owners will make this slow to happen.

Blog This

This is the third year that the film festival has had an "official blogger." I do have to say, that Nate Kohn (or whoever makes the decision) has done a godawful job of selecting the blogger. How about selecting someone who can write and convey information? This year's blogger also has horrible taste in movies. She had bad words for Spartan but she loved Kohn's Somebodies? It suddenly occurs to me that the people who would like Somebodies are those who do not watch any television---where that type of comedy has been done to death.

Back to the blogger...as of this moment she has written almost nothing about the last three days of the festival...and a lot of what she has written about the festival could have been written before the festival even started. What a waste.

2 out of 3 ain't bad

Somebodies goes down as the worst film ever to play at the festival. As Ebert would put it, I hated, hated, hated this movie. I really wonder if Ebert would have liked the film so much if it had not been produced by longtime Overlooked Film Festival director Nate Kohn. But then again, what do I know? The audience seemed to love it, though the two people I was sitting with did not.

The writer/director/star Hadjii will hopefully never be involved with another film IN ANY CAPACITY. Even the average UPN sitcom might reject him. I bring up UPN sitcom because that is exactly what Somebodies is, only stretched out to 90 minutes. His greatest influence? Seinfeld. Ahem. I'm going to quote columnist David Poland off his blog--

"The movies have been good and I have only missed a few of them so far. In one case, I had seen the film and realized after a few minutes that the experience was so unpleasant that I had blanked the screening out of my head. Oy. I escaped before I lost conciousness."

Day 3 continued with the showing of the Rudolph Valentino silent film The Eagle. This film caught me off guard. Not only was it immensely entertaining, but there was also an artistry at work in the look of the film, with a lot of help from the legendary William Cameron Menzies.

Ripley's Game exceeded expectations also. While The Talented Mr. Ripley had more going for it in its exploration of the early development of the Ripley character, Ripley's Game was a worthy follow-up. John Malkovich imbued the character with the kind of force needed to make Ripley believable. If you have yet to see this, go out and rent it now.

More Day 2

The two movies shown earlier in the day on Thursday did not inspire much enthusiasm on my part, as you can probably tell since they went unmentioned in my first post about day 2. Man Push Cart was unrelentingly depressing. While the filmmaking was fine, the slow pacing and repetitive nature made for a forgettable experience that was not saved by the inevitable climax. I thought the premise for the film was suggested by The Bicycle Thief, and yet that film was never mentioned during the after-film discussion. More interesting to me was the discussion. The director was more impressive than the film, which is actually a common occurrence at the festival. Some directors would have tried to exploit the post 9/11 events for a movie, but instead he touched upon that theme while keeping the focus of the story on the main character.

Duane Hopwood was a mediocre movie with scenes of drama and comedy that went together about as well as oil and vinegar. Going all the way back to The Lost Weekend I have never cared much for alcohol addiction movies, and this movie brought nothing new to the table.

Day 2

A movie cannnot become a great movie in the last minute. Gimmick movies containing a last minute revelation have become more common and more contrived in the last several years. It is not that the concept is anything new, as the concept goes back decades. But when The Sixth Sense became a blockbuster and The Usual Suspects won an Academy Award, other filmmakers saw the need to mine this idea for all it was worth. Matchstick Men I especially disliked.

Which brings me to Spartan. David Mamet has made the "con" type of movie more than once, and I was afraid that Spartan would hinge on such tricks. It did not. Spartan is a very effective, taut thriller. The biggest surprise is that Spartan is an action movie, a type of movie that Mamet is not usually associated with.

Not many action movies are going to play The Overlooked Film Festival. That is because such movies usually make a fair amount of money, as they tend to be easy to market to the audiences thirsting for mindless, escapist entertainment. For some reason Warner decided to drop Spartan on theaters with very little marketing push, and the result was that no one knew about it save a few critics.

The critical reception is somewhat mystifying. Spartan is essentially a genre movie. That genre, action, is dominated by lame, moronic pieces that are forgotten as soon as the credits role. So the intelligent Spartan should have stood out as an outstanding effort in that area. Instead the movie received a wide range of reviews, with only 64% favorable on the tomatometer. Many of the negative reviews harp on Mamet, and it makes me think that Mamet should use an alias. Then again, so should Michael Bay, but in Bay's case I do not think it would make a difference.

The Morning of Day 2

Last night was a tad on the dull side. After some time to think about it, the dullness was probably the result of a lack of excitement about the opening movie. Normally it is a race to the good seats once they start letting people in...we raced up there, only to find that we did not have much competition. The movie exceeded expectations, but then the after-movie discussion was boring, as Marnie Nixon went into too much detail that often had nothing to do with the actual movie. And unlike previous years, the weather was nice, but somewhat drab compared to standing in line while a full-blown severe thunderstorm moves through.

I expect today to be different, though thunderstorms are not in the offing. Perusing the official blog, it appears that John Malkovich is already at the festival. Malkovich went to school at Eastern Illinois University and Illinois State University, so perhaps he is no stranger to Champaign.

Overlooked Film Festival, Day 1

I wasn't really that excited to see My Fair Lady opening night. My hope that Vertigo would be the opening night film meant that the announcement of Lady was a disappointment, despite my opinion that it is one of the best of the deservedly maligned musical genre. That last sentence might be awkward, but it is rather late so I do not have the energy to rewrite it. I will say that Lady turned out to be a pleasant surprise, both for the print (with bold colors and strong clarity) and the sound, which betrayed absolutely no signs of age. I was astonished to see several similarities between Professor Henry Higgins and a certain Dr. House. I consider House to be the best show on television, which might be why my outlook on Lady has improved.

Ebert made a brief mention of this, but it cannot be underemphasized how this movie would be very different if made today. The Higgins character would undoubtedly be softened, which would make the movie quite insufferable. It would also be shorter, which would probably be an improvement as this movie contains one of the longest denouements I have ever seen--Eliza's dad's musical number was ridiculous and extraneous.

Some people missed out, as it seemed that several pass holders did not attend tonight, if the number of empty seats in the corners of the balcony were any indication. Musicals are not the draw that they used to be, though I'm sure that more people would have liked to have had the chance to buy individual tickets beforehand.

Arkadin Redux

You know that a release has some buzz associated with it when even the much-too-mainstream Entertainment Weekly devotes two pages to it. Hopefully the right person will notice the flood of positive response to the Mr. Arkadin dvd release and finally see fit to broker the release of Welles' Chimes at Midnight, one of the few "greatest movies of all time" still waiting for a DVD release in this country.

Life Is Too Short

Tuppers was a scaredy cat who hated vacuums and most strangers. He liked to lay down next to us, often for a nap, though unlike our other cat he would spend more hours awake than asleep. The scratch post received his daily attention. The outdoors were always of interest, and lately the numerous squirrels darting through our backyard were high on his entertainment list. Occasionally upon exiting the shower there would be an extended paw showing on the bottomside of the bathroom door, waiting for playful fingers to do likewise. That paw and cat will be missed.

Cupcake
1999-2006

Life After Kane

It's been quiet, but the Orson Welles fandom is about to be shaken up by two upcoming releases. First is next month's Criterion DVD release of Mr. Arkadin, which includes 3 different cuts of the film. Quite a step up from the crummy VHS public domain release that I paid $2 for several years ago. Second is the biography Orson Welles: Hello Americans. The biographer is Simon Callow, an actor whose first Welles biography was Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu. That biography covered Welles' birth up to 1941. This second biography covers the year from 1941 to 1948. Amazingly both biographies are 600+ pages. I guess that means that Callow had better hurry up if he is ever going to finish his writing on Welles, as he has 37 more years to cover!

Tennessee, Part 1.

It was an enjoyable and fast-moving vacation last week in eastern Tennessee. Christy and I stayed with her grandmother, which lessened the financial burden of the trip.

Monday night we went to the NIN show in Knoxville. It was just a coincidence that they were playing in that city during the week of our vacation, so we decided to take advantage of it (actually Christy surprised me with the tickets-thanks, Christy!). All went well until it was time to go back to the parking lot. Just at that time the same storm that tore through Springfield arrived in Knoxville. It was an adventure just getting back to the truck, and the drive home was miserable.

But that was the only bad weather for the entire week. The first two days saw highs close to 80, and after that the temperature closed in on 60 each day. Quite a contrast to the blizzard that we had last night on the first day of spring.

On Tuesday we went to the Berkline Outlet quarterly furniture sale. This sale was the main factor in determining what week we took our vacation, as the Berkline Furniture headquarters just happens to be about a ten minute drive from where we were staying. We had no seating downstairs for our home theater, and the bare carpeted floor provided little comfort. The Berkline home theater chairs are highly regarded, with the motorized versions generally going for $1000+ per chair in the typical furniture store. Even Best Buy wants $999 for the model they sale.

I had heard that the chairs were sold for between $300-$400 a chair at the quarterly blowout sale. This turned out to be true. I would guess that they had between 15-20 motorized sets when the sale started. With about 5 minutes to make a decision before the good ones were taken, we found a set that we liked, and waited for the salesman to come by. All the four-chair sets were priced at $1299. These chairs are sold so cheap because they are out of the box items--stuff that couldn't be sold as new. The Berkline chairs are normally only available by special order, and you can imagine that screwups happen along the way that would cause Berkline to be stuck with a certain number of chairs that were failed sales. Most of the chairs appeared to be in mint condition. It wasn't until we got our chairs home that we noticed that one chair must have been used for at least a short time, though leather cleaner helped to solve this problem. The other three chairs were brand new.

On Friday we went back to the warehouse to have a second look at other furniture. Christy found a Benchcraft (it recently merged with Berkline) set that would be perfect for her parents' sun room in their new house. After a few phone calls we decided to buy that set. This necessitated renting a U-Haul trailer to pull behind the truck. This added room was enough incentive for me to buy a sofa that I plan to use as a second row of seating.

Badder Festival

The more I look at the festival list, the less I like it. It's not so bad, but it pales in comparison to previous festivals. Not one, but two musicals? The 170 minute My Fair Lady is too long, and it will really seem long in those Virginia theater seats. Luckily it will have an intermission.

Amy Adams and John Malkovich are "tentatively" scheduled to appear. As Han Solo would say, "I have a bad feeling about this."

Overall the list is just too new. I've been hoping that the festival would begin to tilt toward older films, but Ebert seems to be going in the opposite direction.

I'm sure that I will have a good time, so maybe I doth protest too much.

It's About Time!

The films for Roger Ebert's film festival have been announced, and I have to say that I am disappointed. Bad Santa is the last Terry Zwigoff film I would have chosen. I saw it for the first time last Christmas and thought it was just ok, with a horrible ending that was not true to the rest of the film. How is it overlooked, anyway? It made $60 million in theaters (very good for an R rated comedy) and probably a lot in DVD sales. I would loved to have seen Crumb or Ghost World again instead of this lessor Zwigoff effort. Is it possible that they were unable to obtain a print for those last two films, with Bad Santa being a last second substition?

Better Late Than Never?

The Ebertfest films still haven't been announced. The announcement arrives at a later time each year. If the announcement is going to be so late, then I would rather they not announce the films till the opening night of the festival, kinda like how it is done at Telluride. Of course, they would have to stop the individual ticket sales, but I think the demand is there to sell many more festival passes.

Stunningly Annoying

Nothing I haven't already said, but this affirms my previous assertions. Only if enough people care will this issue be properly dealt with.

Sunday Night Massacre

Well, my educated guesses didn't go so well. I wasn't too worried about Crash winning, but it's the other awards that killed me. I was hoping to get 2 of the 3 short categories correct, and only got one. And not getting the song right finished me off. At least John Stewart had the best line of the night when he reminded us of the current Oscar Tally: Three 6 Mafia 1, Martin Scorsese 0. And before Ebert gets all full of himself for predicting Crash---he missed five categories, and that is not even counting the shorts, which he didn't predict. Congratulations to Richard Roeper, who only missed one. The one he didn't pick was the rap song, which he actually thought should win. HOWEVER, for whatever reason he made picks for only 19 of the 24 awards. Still, if you went with all of his picks, then you stood a very good chance of winning your pool if you could manage a couple right out of the remaining five. Robert Altman had a heart transplant? Evidently this was kept a secret for ten years, or so Ebert implied in his post-Oscar wrapup.

Picks Finalized

Ok, for good or for ill, the picks are now set. Christy is also in the pool. Her picks are the same as mine except for:
Supporting Actor-Matt Dillon
Supporting Actress-Michelle Williams
Score-Memoirs of a Geisha
Live Action Short-Ausreisser (The Runaway)
Song-Travelin' Thru

Conservative Wins the Race

I rethought some of my picks. Having followed the Oscars for several years (since Brandon started the pool) I know that there are several Oscar axioms. I was in danger of violating 3 such axioms with my previous picks. So recently I changed two. First, I can't get caught up in what the best nominee is. I just don't see the Academy rewarding yet another rap song, especially one with those particular lyrics. That leaves the song from Crash and the Dolly Parton song. More people have seen Crash, so it receives my vote.

Second, it would be a big mistake to go against Pixar. Undoubtedly more people have seen that short, and from what I have heard it is pleasant enough to win.

Interesting that Roeper is picking Crash for Best Picture too. I wonder if it is just to be different, because everything I have read indicates that Crash will fall short.

Academy Award Picks

Picture-Brokeback Mountain...Despite Ebert's pick of Crash, I am going with the frontrunner. Too many other indicators say Brokeback will win. It will also probably receive 97% of the gay vote, which is no small number of the voting block. Another factor going against Crash is that a significant number of people did not like it.

Director-Ang Lee...The biggest lock of the night.

Adapted Screenplay-Brokeback Mountain...It's the other lock of the night.

Best Original Screenplay...Crash...Gotta give it something.

Actor-Philip Seymour Hoffman...He has given several great performances. Heath Ledger hasn't.

Actress-Reese Witherspoon...Because she might actually deserve it, and I think that people are sick of cross-gender roles being rewarded.

Supporting Actor-George Clooney...I'm not that confident about the supporting categories. But George gets the nod here because of the three (actually four) nominations. Matt Dillon could upset. And I didn't even mention Paul Giamatti.

Supporting Actress-Rachel Weisz...This one really gets my no confidence vote, as I see both Amy Adams and Michelle Williams as contenders here. If Williams wins, then we'll know early on in the show that it's going to be a Brokeback night.

Art Direction-Memoirs of a Geisha...I'm gonna win or lose based on how Memoirs performs.

Cinematography-Brokeback Mountain...Because it's the Best Picture contender.

Costume Design-Memoirs of a Geisha

Film Editing-Crash...It's the strongest picture on the list.

Makeup-The Chronicles of Narnia...It'll win because no one wants to vote for Star Wars.

Score-Brokeback Mountain...Best Picture overflow.

Song-In the Deep...One rap song already won this award. It won't happen again anytime soon.

Sound Editing-King Kong...pretty confident here.

Sound Mixing-Walk the Line...argh, this category is gonna kill me.

Visual Effects-King Kong...the third lock of the night.

Animated Feature-Wallace and Gromit...I ain't about to vote against Nick Park.

Animated Short-One Man Band...I ain't about to vote against Pixar.

Documentary Feature-March of the Penguins...Because Murderball didn't really connect with me.

Documentary Short-God Sleeps in Rwanda

Live Action Short- Six Shooter

Foreign Language Film-Tsotsi...Because some Jews will be turned off by Paradise Now.

These picks might change in the next two days, especially if I hear a convincing argument about the shorts. And I'm concerned that I should have Good Night, and Good Luck winning something.

Of course I have HBO and Starz...

Drat! The list for the festival still isn't available yet. Time to be wrong again. Arrested Development has been rescued. TV Guide is reporting that Showtime has made a 26 episode commitment! Just a rumor. JUST A RUMOR.

Prognostications

The Magic Eight Ball tells me that the Ebertfest films will be announced on Sunday. I expect some surprises and some not-so-surprises. Vertigo is sure to be the opening night film. Junebug will probably be one of the Saturday night films. The Eagle, starring Rudolph Valentino, is the silent film that is showed on Friday. The director of the festival, Nate Kohn, is the producer of Somebodies, which played at Sundance this year. Assuming Ebert likes it, it too will be at the festival. Strangely the IMDb does not have a director listed for this movie. Maybe this was one of those movies that directed itself. Criminy, it has a score of only 2.7 out of 10!!! Only 47 votes, but still! Well, maybe Ebert won't like it.

The Road To Nowhere

You might recall Bush making a big deal about ethanol in his State of the Union address. I found it perplexing, because the price of ethanol has barely been below the price of regular gas this winter. None of the articles published in the days following addressed this issue. Finally this story makes known the biggest drawback of ethanol. And this is Bush's solution? Groan.

Friday night I had the best concert seats that I ever had or ever will have. Amazingly enough the concert was at Assembly Hall, which I usually associate with terrible seating. The stage was setup very close to the seating, meaning that the space allocated for the mosh pit was smaller than typical. Our seats were off to the side, but this meant we were a closer to the stage than if we were straight on. We were actually sitting in row 2, but row 1 was unoccupied, as it was used as a pathway for security personnel. And of course I didn't bring a camera. The show itself was the best yet, with Trent and company playing 24 songs. Trent had to go to the back of the stage at one point to throw up, which we wouldn't have known had he not revealed it. Being back onstage after two months off was evidently too much for his system.

Christy surprised me on Valentine's Day with two tickets to the Knoxville show in March. This will be our fourth show on the With Teeth tour. It was a coincidence that we were going to be in Tennessee that week, and Christy shrewdly took advantage of the coincidence.

Netflix Pulls a Scam...

I'm done with Netflix. When I joined I mistakenly believed that returning a DVD quickly would enable me to receive my next disc that much quicker. It turns out that Netflix has a way to block frequent renters from receiving their next DVD as quickly as they should. This AP story has the ugly details.

Was I really alive in 1984?

Very amusing to run across this with the show in Champaign happening in 3 days. It is probably not a coincidence that this happens to be my favorite Billy Idol song. The clip is a 19ish year-old Trent, circa 1984, in a band called The Urge.

The Trouble With Netflix

I have been a big advocate of Netflix since its inception back in 1999. It is now starting to make money, but with mainstream success has come mainstream problems. For the last two months I have been frustrated with the number of movies with a long wait time. I often had ten movies in my queue, all labeled with a "short" or "long wait." It took nearly two months for March of the Penguins to finally ship. That's unacceptable. The Netflix buyer needs to get his act together or customer churn will hit back. I anticipate this problem being alleviated in the next few weeks, as the number of new memberships presumably begins to level off. We shall see.

Another year, Another Ebertfest...

It is dwarfed in size and prominence by other film festivals, but those qualities are also what makes Ebertfest (aka Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival) special. Champaign is a nice central location for midwesterners who live outside Illinois, and the downtown area where the Virginia Theater is located is easy to navigate. The last week of April timeframe does not interfere with summer activities or other film festivals, though my one complaint is that rain is often a problem. Maybe this year will be different.

Festival passes are not hard to come by, but you have to act quickly. I think the passes go on sale sometime in November. I bought mine in December. They are sold through ticketweb, which is now saying that the passes are no longer available. I suspect this means that the passes are sold out already, though a call to the theater might yield favorable results. Not bad considering that the names of the films featured in the festival will not be made available until March.

I marvel at the price of the pass. It is now $85. Actually, I consider that to be a fair price for what is offered, especially when compared to other pricey festivals. What I marvel at is how the price has escalated the past few years. The first festival featured the unbelievable bargain price of $30. I think that the festival organizers were wise to keep the prices low initially to build a following. That following now fills the Virginia to capacity for nearly every showing.

I am always excited to read the list of films when it is finally made known. My familiarity with Ebert and some inside information allows me to speculate on some of this year's film selections. Rumor has it that Vertigo was slated to be the opening night 70mm film last year, but scheduled guest Kim Novak had recently fallen off a horse (isn't she a little old to be messing with a horse?) and due to her injuries would be unable to attend. That puts Vertigo as the frontrunner to be the opening night film this year.

The silent film on Friday night is always accompanied by the Alloy Orchestra. I looked at their website in hopes of finding out what film they would be touring with in the spring, but there is no info available for 2006 yet. My pick would be Blackmail, a Hitchcock silent that I have never seen. That might be too much Hitchcock for one festival, but can you really have too much Hitchcock?

Duma is the odds-on favorite to be the kids' movie on Saturday morning. Ebert and Roeper championed the film last year, but audiences chose to ignore it. It is among the list that Ebert published in the "candidates for Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival" section of his 2005 year in review. The others are Off the Map, The Weather Man, Keane, and The Woodsman.

Will the Bubble Burst?

January 27th. That is the day when the movie industry's foundations might be shaken. You see, Friday marks the premier of Steven Soderbergh's new film, Bubble. While there might not be anything overly remarkable about the content of the film, what makes Bubble notable is that it is opening in theaters the same day that it debuts on HDNet Movies. Other movies have followed a similar path, often with the theatrical engagements following the television debut. But this is the first major film to be released this way. While Bubble has a no-name cast and a small budget, any film by Soderbergh is significant. Early reviews (the film was screened at the Toronto Film Festival last fall) have been promising enough to entice me to watch or record Bubble on the 27th. Ebert and Roeper raved about the movie this weekend (once again they beat me to the punch--I thought that for once I might be able to watch a movie before they had a chance to review it). Those of you without HDNet Movies will also be able to buy or rent the DVD on the 31st.

The newness and immediacy of Bubble's convenient home release make it much more attractive than it would be if it followed the normal channels. Some people say that the "on demand" method is destined to be the primary method of distribution in a few years. While Bubble is not "on demand," it is a big step in that direction. The big theater chains hate all of this, of course. It is invevitable that most will be forced to shut down. Most theaters have put an emphasis on maximizing revenue with little thought towards the ill will created in the long term. The ones that put an emphasis on a unique, enjoyable experience will be able to stay open. Those theaters will be few and far between. The cineplexes are dead. They just don't know it.

March Goodness

Generally March is not the best, though not necessarily the worst, time for movies. It's before the summer action/blockbuster season (which has encroached upon April in recent years), and the lack of a Monday holiday means the potentional for revenue is lessened. March is way too early for the release of any film that has the slightest aspirations for the end of the year award season. "Modest Potential" is the most apt way to describe any movie placed into the March slot.

But last year the end of March saw the release of Sin City. Perhaps not so coincidentally another graphic novel adaptation is being released this year in the same time period, and if advance word is any indication, then there might be something to be excited about in March other than college basketball. I am referring to V for Vendetta, the latest film from those wacky Wachowski Brothers starring the blossoming Natalie Portman. The movie was screened last week, and David Poland literally gushed about the film. I did my usual skimming to avoid spoilers, but from what I did read it appears that the movie shows a lot of promise. Vucking Vantastic? I can only hope.

Capitalists Pigs

What the fuck is the deal with the high gas prices? Did another hurricane wipe out more refineries? Did oil production go down due to a new war in the Middle East? Is it a record cold January?

The price of oil has inflated for one reason---the oil companies have realized that they can get away with charging a high price for their product. Some would argue that it is simply a question of supply and demand. Standard Oil could have made the same argument, and perhaps they did. Because demand has a floor set by necessity, it would take a collapse of the economy of 1929 proportions to lower it any further. So these monopolies have no reason (other than the fear of future government regulation) to keep prices low, as the demand would stay the same whether they raise the price to 20, 40, or even 80 cents higher. The conditions of last fall made these companies realize that they could get away with the higher prices, and we are seeing the results now. And public apathy (my voice notwithstanding) will keep it that way.

A Good Start to the Week

As you'd be hard pressed not to know due to the recent media blitz, Howard Stern debuted on Sirius Monday. First off, it was weird listening to him live. Except for some fleeting opportunities when in range of Chicago or St. Louis, the live show has eluded me for several years. When I lived in Normal in 1998-99 the show was broadcast locally (before it was yanked off, doubtless NOT due to a lack of listeners). Internet downloads have been nice but they aren't the same.

The show on old-fashioned radio was just plain weak the last two years. Ever since that damn Janet Jackson incident, the tightening reign of censorship has killed the show. And when Stern signed with Sirius, his lame duck status meant that his old radio management would provide little in the way of support.

The debut show was a breath of fresh air. Everyone sounded invigorated. No commercials for the first show was a good idea. It made me realize that it is nice to have a few commercials, if only to provide time for a bathroom break or to run to the kitchen for some breakfast. Supposedly they are going to run 6 commercials an hour beginning tomorrow, which sounds about right.

The cast revelations were killer. One cast member cheated on his wife, and was caught. Another had to have his/her stomach pumped due to alcohol poisioning, and woke up to an aquaintance fondling his/her genitals. These are 2 of 11 revelations that were announced. Who the revelations belong to will be revealed next Monday. This is the kind of thing that made the show great years ago, and hopefully this is a sign of things to come.