Oscar Showdown 2011

It's that time of year again (year 83 to be exact) when the Hollywood elite recognize the best in film. A big change this year is with the hosting duties. Instead of hiring a comic which has been the case for decades to varying degrees of success, actors Anne Hathaway and James Franco will host. I think this is a good change that makes sense and they will do well. Now I'll sum up some of the more competitive categories and name my picks to win.

The Best Actress category is strong this year and there is a good chance an American actress will win this year. In recent years, the Brits (Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren) have been winning the gold. The top two nominees are Natalie Portman ("Black Swan") and Annette Bening ("The Kids Are Alright"). I have seen both films, liked them both and I think Natalie's performance stands out. Her character starts out as a regular prima ballerina and ends up almost at the brink of insanity because of extreme ambition. I warn you though, the ending of this movie is kind of weird and definitely needs repeat viewing. Annette's performance looks better when not compared to another, but may suffer lack of votes since it was given in a mostly comedic film. Oscar tends to reward dramas with hammy performances.

From here we can look at the Best Supporting Actress category. The Academy for some reason likes to use this category to provide a surprise win to an up and coming actress. Some of the youngest winners of acting Oscars have been nominated in this category and again one or more of the nominees here is younger than 18. Your guess is as good as mine who will win this year, so here are the nominees: Amy Adams "The Fighter", Melissa Leo "The Fighter", Helena Bonham Carter "The King's Speech", Hailee Steinfeld "True Grit" and Jacki Weaver "Animal Kingdom". I can tell you the young "True Grit" actress has all the buzz right now, try watching these movies before Sunday to make up your mind.

The Academy has decided to keep the ten film nominee format for the biggest award of the night for Best Picture. The nominees are "True Grit" "Social Network", "The King's Speech", "Black Swan", "The Fighter", "Inception", "127 Hours", "Toy Story 3", "The Kids Are Alright" and "Winter's Bone". According to current speculation "The King's Speech" is coming out of nowhere and seems to be the favorite pick after winning big at awards ceremonies that have already been held. I wouldn't mind seeing "Social Network" win. It was a well produced film depicting something and someone that has forever changed the way the world communicates in the 21st century. I plan to hunker down and begin Oscar Sunday watching the "E" channel's pre-show which begins at noon. Check back in later when I plan to have a recap done of the night's fashions and the ceremony. If I'm in the mood I may even live blog.

Maxwell - Whenever Wherever Whatever

Cupid's Playlist

Monday is everyone's day to celebrate Love and it is the day yours truly came into the world. Above is one of the great songs to get you in the mood. I also recommend listening to Sade's current offering "Soldier of Love" and look for a compilation CD initially sold at Starbucks titled "Sweetheart" on iTunes. I like the track by Rogue Wave covering the song "Maps".
Here are some good love songs:
"Ain't Nothin Like the Real Thing" Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell,
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" Diana Ross and the Supremes
"Don't Wanna Lose You" Gloria Estefan
"When You Love A Woman" Journey
"Biggest Part of Me" Ambrosia
"Anything" Jaheim
"If" Bread
"I Got You Babe" Sonny and Cher
"Until the End of Time" Justin Timberlake and Beyonce'
"Suddenly" Olivia Newton-John and Cliff Richard

Volkswagen Commercial: The Force

Super Bowl Ads 2011: The Good, Bad and Ugly

Annually, whenever we are all getting ourselves worked up to enjoy watching the Super Bowl, many people associate the fun of watching the game with the commercials that are shown during the contest. Some people don't. This particular blog isn't for those people.
This year's bunch of commercials included the usual kind. Ads featuring the E*trade babies, Doritos, Ford trucks and pizza to name a few products. Overall the opinionof most casual viewers and those in the media was that this year's offerings were not particularly good or original. A couple of standouts were the commercial starring Faith Hill for Teleflora (a nice Valentine's Day tie-in with someone representative of football)-sidebar-I think Jane Lynch's (Glee) spoof of Hill's opening theme song for Sunday Night football is hilarious and one of the best sketches of the past season of Saturday Night Live. The whole episode was classic, check it out on Hulu. There was also Roseanne taking Betty White's place in a Snickers bad ad. That was the main trend. Ads featuring celebrities. But isn't that the trend every year? Eminem plugged for Chrysler and repped for Detroit. Kim Kardashian was in a semi-sexy commercial for shape up Skechers.
Super Bowl weekend held a funny coincidence for me that I didn't realize until the day after the game. I didn't even see this commercial while I was watching the game. One of the most endearing, cute ads on Sunday had a tie to one of yours and my favorite movies (that I decided to watch out of the blue over the weekend). The VW Passat ad with the little kid in a Darth Vader costume trying to invoke "the Force" around the house. Ad executives know that if they expend a decent effort and include something that has a "Star Wars" reference, that movie franchise's faithful fans will gush worlwide. This a movie that defined a generation and has almost endless pop culture appeal. Back to the movie I watched which was the last (technically third installment of the "Star Wars" saga) "Revenge of the Sith" released in 2005. This is the only "Star Wars" movie I own. I'm a little too young to have been swept up in the popularity of the first movies that were made, so I think "Sith" is the most important film of the series. "Star Wars" director George Lucas has stated many times that the movies are essentially the story of Anakin who eventually devolves into the Dark Lord, Darth Vader. Everything in the saga comes back to this character. It is about his rise while becoming a Jedi and his fall into evil. The story was also meant to be a statement on the relationships of fathers to sons. Everything that was produced relating to the franchise over the past 30 odd years was leading up to the ultimate payoff of seeing Anakin's dark transformation into Darth Vader. Those old enough to remember seeing the first movie "A New Hope" in 1977 will tell you the Darth character stole the movie, caught people off guard and fans left the movie wanting more back story.
Now back to the commercial. Since everyone know that Darth Vader was such an imposing, evil character ( one of the most resonating villains in cinema along with the Wicked Witch of the West) it's really amusing to see a short, young person attempting an impersonation. The kid in the commercial is portrayed by two 6-year-old boys who made the rounds on daytime TV Monday. One of the boys has an inspiring story. He has overcome numerous surgeries since birth to repair a heart defect and is still in treatment at L.A.'s Children's Hospital. You can still see the interview with his Mom on the Today show.msnbc website.
Check back here for my annual Oscar awards roundup where I'll give you the rundown on my favorites, the movies that have the most momentum and the one category that always surprises but probably shouldn't.

Winter Awakening

Although considered by many to be the dead of winter I have a soft spot in my heart for this, the second month of the Julien calendar year for many reasons. It is unique for the number of it's days, the home of Black History month, many VIPs (former presidents, a few friends and myself) were born in this month, the promise of another memorable baseball season looms in the form of spring training and New Orleans Mardi Gras and Rio de Janiero's carnivale is celebrated. Also, for the past several years the Oscars, the grandaddy of all awards shows, celebrates excellence in movie making. This past Sunday the 81st ceremony took place and some people questioned going ahead with such a lavish affair in the midst of our national economic woes. I for one was not one of those people. Whenever a nation is experiencing negative circumstances, such as a recession, it's citizens tend to crave escapism. Our many forms of entertainment usually benefit from hard times. None more so than movie attendance. So far the movie industry has profitted more from the movies that have been released in this, the early part of 2009, than any other year at the same time. This is quite a feat because usually the winter doldrum months have been known to be the movie release graveyard aka releasing less than spectacular movies before the ones later in the year that people are actually looking forward to seeing. This was probably an added reason why Hollywood was in full celebration mode.
Is it such a bad thing to enjoy watching Tinseltown's annual glorified high school prom? Many people think the highlight of these awards are the various fashions that are put on display. While I have grown to enjoy that aspect of the Oscars, I actually anticipate more the revelation of who the winners will be. Would Queen Actress Meryl Streep receive her first win since 1983 (sadly no), would Indian fairy tale Slumdog Millionaire sweep with wins as expected (yes), would back from the almost dead actor Mickey Roarke get the ultimate comeback prize (no), would Robert Downey Jr.'s Tropic Thunder Vietnam era soldier upset and win over Heath Ledger's twisted Joker (again no), would Clint Eastwood come out of nowhere and win Best Actor even though he was not even nominated, just because he's Clint? (thankfully no) These questions had to be answered and as the world watched it was a good time to be had by all.

What is the Definition of Soul?

I love listening to music like many people do. Something occurred to me as I was listening to my tunes one night. It's kind of interesting how many acclaimed music artists from the United Kingdom have soulful singing voices. I think it is kind of funny how British people can speak with their signature accents and then sound like Black Americans when they sing. I know many drift toward an R&B sound out of a deep respect for roots music like the blues and famous American artists like Aretha Franklin and B.B. King and that's cool. There are probably some people I haven't heard of and many that have yet to be discovered but these names come to mind as examples of my observation and are some of my favorites. Dusty Springfield in the 1960s was one of the first singers to gain stardom for an R&B tinged sound. Follow Dusty up with Annie Lennox, George Micheal, Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse, Adele. Throw in three singers (Van Morrison, Tom Jones and Joe Cocker) who fall into this category but who I think are technically Welsh, which I think is different from being a Brit. A related topic is how some people seem to lose their accents if they can sing in English. No matter who the person is or where they are from, as long as the music is good I'll be listening.

Haiku for You

Lately, it has been exceptionally rainy where I live. That has me thinking of a haiku poem that I composed in elementary school. It goes a little something like this:

The rain is so wet

That raincoats have to be worn,

so look out for rain

Haiku is probably the easiest type of poetry to write. Do you agree?