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Author: Bryant

Without prejudice

January 26, 2005
2 Comments

Speaking of Oscar nominations, here’s the stupidest thing I’ve read today:

But here’s an interesting dog that isn’t barking… Michael Moore gets passed over for the big award he coveted… and the lefty bloggers aren’t up in arms. In fact, nobody on the left is talking about Moore today.

I still strongly believe that no blogger is obligated to write about any topic, but I just find it interesting that web personalities who one would think would be big Michael Moore fans are collectively shrugging their shoulders over this. You know a lot of Christian conservatives are grumbling about the three nominations in technical categories for “The Passion of the Christ,” and Kathryn’s already noted this on the Corner.

Other possibilities, which Jim Geraghty seems to be incapable of considering:

  • Much of the left isn’t upset because they don’t think Farenheit 9/11 deserved a nomination, because they don’t automatically assume that movies which advance ideological agendas similar to their own are de facto great movies.
  • As countless people pointed out all year, Michael Moore is not the spokesman for the Left.
  • The Oscars are not controlled by a left-wing conspiracy. (Hard to believe, I know.)
  • Geraghty’s assumptions about who is a big Michael Moore fan are hopelessly flawed.

Less snidely, more seriously… I think it’s really sad that a guy who writes for a fairly important conservative national magazine doesn’t understand the difference between appreciating someone’s ideology and appreciating their artistic talent.

It's a boring envelope

January 25, 2005
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The Oscar nominees have been announced. My reaction is, as usual, lukewarm. From the top (of the page):

DiCaprio did not deserve a Best Actor nod. Jude Law might have. Bill Murray might also have, but I didn’t expect anything there — the Academy seemed unlikely to recognize his work twice in a row. You only get one quirky nomination per decade, or something. Paul Giamatti, however, is the big slight. What’s up with that? My choice would be Clint Eastwood, but if Giamatti had been nominated it’d have been a tough choice.

Alan Alda for Best Supporting Actor? Uh. Also, Morgan Freeman? Uh. This is just the halo effect; the Academy likes giving the hot films lots of nominations. Peter Sarsgaard deserved a nomination for Kinsey. I give this one to Clive Owen either way, though.

As I’ve mentioned before, Natalie Portman should have been nominated as Best Actress, not as Best Supporting Actress. That’s purely people not wanting to piss off Julia Roberts. Laura Linney also deserved a nomination for Kinsey. If Portman had been nominated, she’d be my choice; failing her, I think Kate Winslet, but I have no strong opinion.

If Natalie Portman had been nominated for Best Actress, Cate Blanchett would be my choice here; as is, Portman will win and probably deserves to win. It’s an immensely strong category, though. Hey, there’s Laura Linney! I couldn’t really object to any of the nominees winning; this is a very strong group.

How cute. They nominated Shark Tale to fill out the Best Animated Feature group. Incredibles will win and should win.

Art Direction, Cinematography — I think these are deserved for The Aviator. It looked incredible.

Directing, um. Nothing for Gondry? How about Brad Bird? Although there’s a long argument to be had about animated feature directors; in some ways it’s apples and oranges. But it’s tough, directing an orange, so I tend to think Bird deserves a nomination here. Of the nominees I’m hard-pressed to choose, but I guess either Million Dollar Baby or The Aviator. I thought the latter was directed well; the problems come from DiCaprio’s acting and the meandering screenplay. But the Best Director of the year was Richard Linklater, for Before Sunset, an absolutely outstanding achievement.

No opinions on some of these… The Aviator again for Film Editing. No, wait, Collateral is nominated. That was awesome. Actually, where’s the Collateral nomination for Cinematography?

Hm — ah, Last Life in the Universe was submitted for the 2003 Best Foreign Lanaguge Oscar and, regrettably, was not nominated. Hero was nominated in 2002. And didn’t win. Man, those Academy voters are dorks.

I wouldn’t give Best Picture to any of the nominees. Admittedly, I didn’t see a couple of them, so what do I know? If I had to choose, it’d be Million Dollar Baby, but I don’t see how Closer wasn’t a better film.

Since when is Before Sunset an Adapted Screenplay? Weird. Give it the win in this category, especially since I’m not enthralled by any of the other nominees as screenplays. Too many structural flaws. And, again, where’s Closer?

And finally, I would just barely choose The Incredibles for Best Original Screenplay over Eternal Sunshine. It’s a very close call. Move Before Sunset to this category, and I throw my hands up and declare a three-way tie.

Stoneface

January 23, 2005
1 Comment

For my birthday, I got the amazing Kino Buster Keaton boxed set. 11 DVDs, 11 movies, 20 short features, and a ton of archival material. Much of yesterday was spent in front of the television basking in it.

And lemme tell you, Keaton was one ironic fellow. The Playhouse has him playing every single role in a stage company, plus the audience, with as many as nine Keatons on screen at once. Being Buster Keaton, indeed.

Chilly visions

January 23, 2005
5 Comments

As they may have told you, it is snowing pretty hard in Boston. Out of boredom, I went ahead and set up my web cam to look down on my parking lot. Pictures follow. The first one is current; the following ones go back 15 minutes per picture. If you’ve been watching as much Japanese horror as I have lately, you can join me in studying the images for signs of long-haired girls returning from beyond the grave.

Continue ReadingChilly visions

Egoboo

January 21, 2005
2 Comments

Yeah, someone wrote fanfic about my RPG character. This goes in the hall of fame next to getting asked to autograph one of my books at a con, you betcha.

Even if I did have to cajole Ivan into it.

Excelsior

January 21, 2005
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Population: One is now running Movable Type 3.14. It’s almost a mathematical constant! I also upgraded MT Blacklist to match. Let me know if you see any problems.

Fish and fowl

January 20, 2005
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They’re not personal blogs. They’re not generalist blogs. Oh, hell, I read enough of ‘em — I guess they’re Historical Blogs. Thus, Bostonia, a lovely little series of explorations of Boston’s rich history; Old is the New New, “with a special interest in the history of technology and business in America and the world”; Cliopatria, a lot of smart people talking about history together; and Pillow Talk, a blogaptation of Sei Shonagon’s “Pillow Book.”

(“Blogaptation”: my entry in the ongoing contest for the most painful neologism involving the word “weblog.” But really, it’s hard to beat the original “blog,” isn’t it?)

Just say nofollow

January 19, 2005
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If you keep a blog, this is important. You should read it and take heed. If you use Typepad or LiveJournal, you’re covered (or will be soon). If you use Movable Type, see this post. If you use Blogger or Blogspot… um, I dunno, but since it’s a Google initiative and Blogger/Blogspot is owned by Google, I imagine support will come pretty quickly.

Now, this isn’t going to stop spammers from spitting out comments all over your blog. It will make them less likely to benefit from those comments. It would be nice to think that less benefit means less spam, but let’s be serious — the people selling the software that generates this spam aren’t going to tell their customers that it’s a worthless activity. Still, you’re cutting back on whatever money spammers are making, and that’s a good enough reason to do it in my book.

For the eyes

January 19, 2005
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“Whitey’s Boyos” movies and television shows include the following. There are other obvious candidates; if you haven’t seen every gangster flick Scorcese ever made, well, you’re like me because I haven’t seen Gangs of New York yet either. But you know what I mean. These, however, are the direct influences and recommendations.

  • Mystic River: not as good as the book, but still very very good. Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon were on fire.
  • Monument Ave.: Denis Leary was born to play an Irish thug; this is the movie where he does it best. Also with Colm Meaney, Martin Sheen, and a bunch of other good actors. Directed by Ted Demme.
  • The Boondock Saints: yeah, that’s Boston for you, with a whole lot of Irish insanity.
  • Good vs. Evil: the tone maybe goes a little bit too far towards the humor, but the image of a rough-edged group of amateurs fighting very bad things stuck with me.
  • The Shield: wrong era, wrong side of the law, right ethos. Whitey’s Boyos are bad men doing good things, while Detective Mackey’s strike team is the opposite.

This list may also be useful.