February 2008 Archives

I do not see movies in the theater these days. We saw a few in the summer when Alex was small enough to sleep through a movie in the cry room, but that era ended before the Oscar contenders came out. So, for the first time I think ever, I did not see any of the movies that were up for awards this year, unless you count Ratatouille (please do) or Transformers (definitely don't). But, my ignorance will not keep me from putting in my two cents about the winners!

Best Actress
As soon as I saw the clips of La Vie en Rose I knew Cotillard would win. She is very very pretty, and in at least part of the film she looked very very ugly. The Academy loves that shit, especially for women. (Don't worry, I'll spare you the feminist rant.) Charlize Theron becomes marginally less skeletal, Oscar! Nicole Kidman dons an enormous nose and frizzy hair, Oscar! The ugly and unadorned must seem like another species to the thin and beautiful ladies of Hollywood. They really have to dig deep to portray ugly realistically, and shall be awarded accordingly! In short, women playing ugly = men playing retarded in terms of Oscar accolades.

Best Actor
I don't want to see Lewis screaming about abandoning his boy ever again. I mean it. Just judging by that clip and the milkshake clip, there was a hell of a lot of scenery chewing going on. Besides, it's about time Johnny Depp got an Oscar, as thanks for gracing us with his extreme hotness.

Best Original Screenplay
I have no doubt that Juno is a good, fun movie. Everyone seems to enjoy it, though I have heard a few people say it is overwritten, whatever that means. But, I have strong suspicions that Cody won because people were enamored with the whole former-stripper-makes-good thing.

Best Supporting Actress
I cannot argue with this. Tilda Swinton is a great actress, in that she continually manages to portray sane people when in real life she seems to have a touch of the crazies. I jest, she really is awesome. She's versatile, she's up for anything, and she rocked the American accent.

Best Picture
I am just glad Atonement didn't win. Even the trailers for this film seemed to shout, "GIVE ME AN OSCAR!"

Finally, I heart Jon Stewart. I thought he was funny, despite what those malcontents at TWoP had to say. Maybe they were hoping he would do some musical numbers?

I got some complaints that my last blog post was depressing. Sorry. I will attempt to make it up to you here. People have asked me what Alex and I do all day, so here is Alex's day, as interpreted by me.

Alex and I have been watching lots of Cookie Monster videos, which are hilarious:

Recently Cookie was interviewed on NPR; check it out here. I also loved discovering these videos of a Cookie Monster prototype who appeared in advertisements for Munchos potato chips, pre-Sesame Street:

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Long-time Furdell.com reader Neil Young steals our idea that music is irrelevant.

Hey, do you realize I haven't told you so in almost two and a half years? We're way past due.

Let's rewind back to the 2004 primary. I was disappointed that the Dem. nominee I was pulling for, Howard Dean, got passed over in favor of John Kerry. At the nominating convention, Barack Obama -- attractive, great voice, actually sounds sincere -- gave a rousing, almost angry speech that garnered an unforced standing ovation from the crowd, and I said -- and I quote -- "[n]ow that's the guy who should be running for president."

I continued to push this idea for the next several weeks, but you just kept shrugging me off with the ol' "he's too inexperienced." Remember? I know it was a while ago. But it still stings. And I whined in reply, "Bush doesn't have any experience, and he's been president for four years!" I'm clever that way.

Fast forward to now, and lo and behold, I was right again, and I totally told you so, jerk. (Local news note: both Clinton and Obama are in Seattle now that our vote is unexpectedly worth something.)

As one-fourth of Furdell.com, I hereby endorse Obama. And not just because I'm sexist.

First of all, I've come to the conclusion that whereas (now-almost-certain Republican nominee and pudgy old white man) McCain can't possibly beat Obama, against Clinton he has a fighting chance. I know, it's been our proud tradition since 2000 to nominate the most gratingly-unlikeable charmless smarty-pants we can find, but I think this year we should consider a different tactic. Hillary gains points when she gets weepy, but then the next day she lets out one of her demonic cackles and wipes away the goodwill.

There's more to it than that, as well. This isn't some run-of-the-mill unmarketable candidate, this is Hillary Flippin' Clinton. Those of you who didn't grow up in the South might not be aware of the illogical, unreasoned hatred that a certain type of conservative has for her. I grew up with people who, I swear, could not possibly have been able to articulate either the magnitude of nor the reason for their hatred of Hillary Clinton. I mostly blame Rush Limbaugh, who was less universally-despised at the time. Meanwhile, those same conservatives aren't particularly thrilled about a McCain candidacy -- if there's anything to unify the Republican base and send them to the polls to support McCain, it's Hillary Clinton. That may not be fair, but them's the brakes.

If I absolutely must make decisions based on policies: I've heard a lot of people compare Clinton's policies favorably to Obama's, but I don't see it. Her universal health care plan, like Obama's, isn't universal at all. (Just socialize medicine already, America. Our infant mortality rate is higher than any industrialized nation other than Latvia. What does it take? Geez.) She voted in favor of invading Iraq (which, hmm, if memory serves, yes, I seem to remember telling you so), which is bad (I should demand at least as much prescience from my presidential candidates as I have myself, right?); now she promises to pull all our troops out of Iraq within 60 days, presumably leaving behind a card that says "Please excuse our mess." Yes, the Iraq war was stupid, as so I told you, but you didn't listen, and now you've made a bed for us all to lie in, and there you have it.¹

But hey, screw it! I totally don't have to make decisions based on policies. Nobody else does! A Hillary candidacy may be the only way for the Dems to snatch defeat from the jaws of the total failure that was our government for the last eight years.

So, there you have it. James and Kimberly, I don't know where you guys lie on this debate, but you can nullify my caucus vote at the Q Café, tomorrow at 1pm.

¹ Run-on sentences are the new alliteration.

This year the walking corpse of Tom Petty dusted off some old hits for the Super Bowl, and it was predictably boring. Let's look back fondly to Prince's performance last year, with a viewing of the press conference in which his upcoming halftime performance was announced.

PRINCE
Contrary to rumor I'd like to take a few questions right now.

REPORTER
Prince, how do you feel about --

PRINCE
(awesome guitar riff)

That is what I used to say in college, when all-nighters were common and I scoffed at those who told me some sleep might do me good. I am now paying for that sentiment, here in the Land of the Baby Who Never Sleeps. Our admittedly adorable Mr. Baby is exceedingly nap resistent, and likes to wake up upwards of six times a night. Needless to say, this is a problem. So, I recently did what all nerds do when faced with a seemingly intractable problem. I read books. And the internet -- always reliable. Here's what I found.