Monday, February 21, 2011

The Conqueror conquers another heart

Kevin and I watched the most amazing movie this weekend. Truly a classic, it has quickly become one of my all-time favorites. The movie? The Conqueror, starring John Wayne as... wait for it... Genghis Khan, and Susan Hayward as his Tartar bride.

The make-up! Never have I seen so convincing a turning of a white man into an Asian. The costumes! Authentic to the thread! I didn't know they had pink chiffon and sequins in Mongolia.



But the eye is not the only sensory organ so stimulated by this epic. The ears are joyously fulfilled by the smooth handling of the script. The lines simply roll from John Wayne's tongue like ... like... gumballs from a gumball machine, if the gumball machine had some sort of defect in construction. (I was never good with similies.)



And the script - those writers must have been awfully proud. I imagine they wrote home to their mothers as soon as the ink was dry on the page.



Need I mention the acting, with such big names as John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorhead? If you thought John Wayne was good as a cowboy, you should see him portraying a Mongolian warrior cowboy - I mean, a Mongolian warrior! And Susan hayward as the Tartar princess - simply ravishing in all those white, glittery evening gowns, and the range of emotion expressed in her delicate features is simply spellbinding. (Honey, I think she's angry... or constipated... or in love? I can't tell, what do you think?)



If you have never seen this movie, you really must go rent it. Your life will be empty and meaningless unless you do!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Annoying Songs Deux

I have had Alanis Morisette's song Ironic rumbling in my head for a few weeks now, and it wants to drive me insane.

I know there was a discussion about this when the song first came out, but I feel the need to rehash it because it's making me crazy.

An old man, turned 98
He won the lottery, and died the next day


Maybe ironic if he'd always talked about winning the lottery and doing things with the money afterward. Otherwise I just don't see the irony of it. In order for there to be irony, you have to create a story to go with it.

It's a black fly in your chardonnay

No. I just think it sucks. Unless the irony is that a black fly is of a lower class than, say, a tsetse fly, and maybe the guy next to you is having a Coke and the tsetse fly landed there instead of your upper crusty chardonnay.

It's a death row pardon, two minutes too late

Okay, that one's kind of ironic.

It's like rain, on your wedding day

Not ironic. Unless maybe you had planned for a rainy wedding day and then decided at the last minute it wouldn't rain and threw away all your raincoats and umbrellas?

It's a free ride, when you've already paid

Maybe ironic. Again, I feel the need to create back-story to make it definite.

It's the good advice, that you just didn't take

Your own dumb fault. Not ironic.

Mr. Play-It-Safe, was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase, and kissed his kids goodbye
He waited his whole damn life, to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought, "Well isn't this nice?"


Mayyyyybe ironic. Did they discuss the safety record of this particular airplane or captain before they got on board?

A traffic jam, when you're already late

How is that ironic? I think it would be more ironic if you rushed to work so you wouldn't be late for your meeting with the boss and the boss was late. Maybe that would be ironic, if you were always running late and your boss was always early.

A "No smoking" sign, on your cigarette break

What kind of establishment do you work at that thinks it's funny to give you a smoking break and then say you can't smoke? Not ironic, just kind of twisted.

It's like ten thousand spoons, when all you need is a knife

Why on earth are there 10,000 spoons? Are you in the spoon museum? If so, why did you expect to find a knife there?

It's meeting the man of my dreams, and then meeting his beautiful wife

Not ironic. Majorly bad timing on your part, though.

I think Alanis just has no idea what irony is.

Ask.com has a great example of irony:

* I have no doubt your theatrical performance will receive the praise it so richly deserves.

Such a statement is meant to both flatter and insult the recipient at the same time, because the intended recipient infers the statement to be a compliment, whereas everyone else in the room understands the underlying insult hidden within the statement.


Circumstantial irony - I think what Alanis was going for:

Irony can appear in other forms. It can be circumstantial or accidental. For example:

* An ambulance driver rushes to the scene of an accident, only to run the victim over, because the victim crawled into the middle of the street in the darkness of night.


What do you think? Any ironic moments you can share?

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Annoying Songs

I heard this song on the radio this morning and it started to annoy me. First of all, I dislike it because the local stations always put in their own words in the part where the radio announcer comes on and for some reason that drives me nuts. Second of all, what does it all mean?


Say you don't know me, or recognize my face
Say you don't care who goes to that kind of place
Knee deep in the hoopla, sinking in your fight
Too many runaways eating up the night


Wha? Are those lines related to one another at all? What kind of place? How do you sink in your fight? And exactly what does hoopla smell like?

Someone always playing corporation games
Who cares they're always changing corporation names
We just want to dance here, someone stole the stage
They call us irresponsible, write us off the page


Did the corporations steal the stage? Is that why we're called irresponsible?

It's just another Sunday, in a tired old street
Police have got the choke hold, ohhhhh and we just lost the beat


I don't get it! Is this hippie nonsense? Too many drugs back in their heyday?

Then repeat this about a hundred times:
We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll

What does it all mean? Is it just me? What song lyrics make no sense to you?

I'll have another annoying song to discuss in a few days. :)

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Spay Day Online Pet Photo Contest

The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International are currently hosting the Spay Day Online Pet Photo Contest. To enter the contest, just go to the website and upload a photo. You can also upload a photo memorial of a pet who is no longer with you.

To vote, you need to donate at least $1. More info on that here.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Favorite commercials update

Last month I posted to find out what some of your favorite commercials are. Here were the ones you mentioned.

Matt's vote for favorite commercial:



Mom's vote:



Mom's second vote:



Mom's all-time favorite:


Yeah, that one's pretty cool.

I'm having trouble thinking of some of my old favorites. I know I've had many. Do you remember any from a few years ago that stuck in your mind?

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Oscars - The Final Two

The last two - Directing and Best Picture!

Directing

* “Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky
(see trailer under best actress)

* “The Fighter” David O. Russell
(see trailer under best supporting actor)

* “The King's Speech” Tom Hooper
(see trailer under best actor)

* “The Social Network” David Fincher
(see trailer under best actor)

* “True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
(see trailer under best actor)


Best Picture

* “Black Swan” Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
(see trailer under best actress)

* “The Fighter” David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
(see trailer under best actor)

* “Inception” Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
(see trailer under art direction)

* “The Kids Are All Right” Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
(see trailer under best actress)

* “The King's Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
(see trailer under best actor)

* “127 Hours” Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
(see trailer under best actor)

* “The Social Network” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
(see trailer under best actor)

* “Toy Story 3” Darla K. Anderson, Producer
(see trailer under best animated feature film)

* “True Grit” Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
(see trailer under best actor)

* “Winter's Bone" Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers
(see trailer under best actress)

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Oscars, Huit

The next of our nominees are Film Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects! Don't forget to send me your votes!


Film Editing

* “Black Swan” Andrew Weisblum
(see trailer under best actress)

* “The Fighter” Pamela Martin
(see trailer under best supporting actor)

* “The King's Speech” Tariq Anwar
(see trailer under best actor)

* “127 Hours” Jon Harris
(see trailer under best actor)

* “The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
(see trailer under best actor)


Visual Effects

* “Alice in Wonderland” Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
(see trailer under art direction)

* “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
(see trailer under art direction)

* “Hereafter” Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell


* “Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
(see trailer under art direction)

* “Iron Man 2” Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick



Sound Editing

* “Inception” Richard King
(see trailer under art direction)

* “Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
(see trailer under best animated feature film)

* “Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague



* “True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
(see trailer under best actor)

* “Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger



Sound Mixing

* “Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
(see trailer under art direction))

* “The King's Speech” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
(see trailer under best actor)

* “Salt” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin


* “The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
(see trailer under best actor)

* “True Grit” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
(see trailer under best actor)

Monday, February 7, 2011

Oscars, Lucky Seven

Today we see the nominees for Short Film Animated and Short Film Live Action.

Short Film (Animated)

* “Day & Night” Teddy Newton


* “The Gruffalo” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang


* “Let's Pollute” Geefwee Boedoe
(video not found)

* “The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann


* “Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” Bastien Dubois



Short Film (Live Action)

* “The Confession” Tanel Toom
(video not found)

* “The Crush” Michael Creagh
(video not found)

* “God of Love” Luke Matheny
(video not found)

* “Na Wewe” Ivan Goldschmidt
(video not found)

* “Wish 143” Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite
(video not found)

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Oscars 6

Today are the Documentary feature Film and Documentary Short Film.


Documentary (Feature)

* “Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz


* “Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic


* “Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs


* “Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger


* “Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley



Documentary (Short Subject)

* “Killing in the Name” Nominees to be determined
(video not found)

* “Poster Girl” Nominees to be determined


* “Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
(video not found)

* “Sun Come Up” Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger


* “The Warriors of Qiugang” Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon
(video not found)

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Oscars 5

Today's nominees - Animated Feature Film and Foreign Film!


Animated Feature Film

* “How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois


* “The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet


* “Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich



Foreign Language Film

* “Biutiful” Mexico
(see trailer under best actor)

* “Dogtooth” Greece


* “In a Better World” Denmark


* “Incendies” Canada
(English video not found)

* “Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Oscars, four

Part Four - Best Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Musical Score, and Best Song.


Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

* “127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
(see trailer under best actor)

* “The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
(see trailer under best actor)

* “Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
(see trailer under best animated feature film)

* “True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
(see trailer under best actor)

* “Winter's Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini
(see trailer under best actress)


Writing (Original Screenplay)

* “Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh


* “The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson;
Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
(see trailer under best supporting actor)

* “Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan
(see trailer under art direction)

* “The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
(see trailer under best actress)

* “The King's Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler
(see trailer under best actor)


Music (Original Score)

* “How to Train Your Dragon” John Powell
(see trailer under best animated feature film)

* “Inception” Hans Zimmer
(see trailer under art direction)

* “The King's Speech” Alexandre Desplat
(see trailer under best actor)

* “127 Hours” A.R. Rahman
(see trailer under best actor)

* “The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
(see trailer under best actor)


Music (Original Song)

* “Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey


* “I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater


* “If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong


* “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman