The Oscars - 2009

Like most award shows, after the first few minutes the Oscars start to drag and I get impatient. I always look forward to the Oscars but it seems like every year I forget about how boring the acceptance speeches are. I watch because I love the red carpet crap before hand and the Barbara Walter’s special. She always manages to ask completely irrelevant questions and tries to make them sound hard-hitting and thought provoking. I love it!

I usually see one or two of the nominated films and just root for those. I saw Milk and Slumdog and they were both fantastic. The cinematography in Slumdog was really just spectacular. I haven’t seen The Wrestler, but if Rourke did a better job than Sean Penn I definitely have to see it because Penn was awesome in Milk.

Actually, as I start learning about the production end of things at work, it makes me even more aware of how much must go into making a movie. I am beyond impressed with the attention to detail directors have. I watched The Fellowship of the Ring this weekend and Peter Jackson is amazing. Every angle, every shot – it’s just so well thought out. The technical aspects of movie making are fascinating to me. Public television isn’t doing so great right now, so when I get laid off later this year, I am more and more convinced that I really am going to move down to LA and try to break into ‘the biz’.
Oh yeah, and my vampire hottie was there looking great, and that alone made it worth sitting through the first hour of the show. And of course Huge Jackman is always gorgeous, so that didn’t hurt either.

Germany's Jonas Brothers

How come European teeny-bopper bands are so much better than the crap Disney churns out? Of course, it's really hard to get past the hair on the lead singer but if you close your eyes and forget that dude looks like a lady, it's not horrible (although the cheesy thunder in the background and the shots where they look like they are going to be decapitated when they jump out of the helicopter are pretty bad). Okay, so it's not something I am going to listen to over and over again, but I could actually get through the whole thing, which is more than I can say for Hannah Montana or the Jonas Brothers.

Dear Alexandra Patsavas

Dear Ms. Patsavas,

I have been hearing horrific rumors that everyone from the Jonas Brothers to Leona Lewis is going to be asked to create tracks for the New Moon soundtrack. I admire your work and I don't actually think you'd consider those artists, but I have to make it clear that asking any Disney artist to be associated with the next Twilight movie will really, really piss me off. The first movie was so successful, and I think a lot of that had to do with how awesome the soundtrack was. Actually, the soundtrack was what started my whole ridiculous obsession in the first place. Turning music in the sequel into fluff will alienate anyone over 15. (And yes, I realize I don't have enough work to do if I have enough time to read Internet rumors about the New Moon soundtrack.)

Anyway, here are my suggestions. I actually wanted "Monday" by Fair, but I couldn't find it anywhere so I added a different Fair song so you can hear what they sound like. And I don't really like Paramore, but that's about as far as I am willing to bend and they did a pretty good job with Twilight, so who knows? Maybe they'll write another new song for the movie and surprise me again.

Sincerely,
KaDonk

More Random Thoughts

I realize we just got a fresh foot of snow and that some people really, really like the holidays, but it’s almost Valentine’s Day people, take your Christmas decorations down!

I got a haircut. I wanted Hot Asian Chick:

I ended up with Rod Stewart:

Seriously, it looks like Donald Trump’s bastard child with Billy Ray Cyrus. At least it’s just hair and it grows out.

Random Thoughts About ME

My birthday rocked. I am still recovering from it. Apparently, once you hit 30, it takes a lot longer to recover from a weekend of binge drinking.

I hate missing the previews at movies. Sometimes that’s the best part. I saw Milk this weekend and it was fantastic, but the previews looked amazing!

Not to brag or anything, but I am awesome at MarioKart on Nintendo 64. Seriously awesome. I’ve never met anyone that could beat me.

Sometimes I get really depressed when I think about all the amazing books I haven’t read yet and I realize I am going to die before I can ever get through my book list. It really freaks me out.

Go Steelers!

I am shocked at how many people I know didn’t watch the Superbowl. What a bunch of losers. Here are my favorite ads for those of you who missed them.

6. Cash 4 Gold – Ed McMahon and M.C. Hammer, what a great combo. And what’s not funny about former celebrities having to sell off all their possessions?

5. Cheetos – This is how I live my life every day. I mean, who doesn’t sic pigeons on annoying valley girls. Although I will have nightmares about Chester Cheetah saying, “Give daddy a kiss,” for the rest of my life, it’s worth it to see that advertisers have finally stepped up their game again.

4. Bridgestone Tires – Mr. Potato Head. Enough said.

3. Hulu.com – Alec Baldwin is funny. No, I don’t watch 30 Rock because I don’t get NBC on my tv. But now, thanks to hulu.com, which I discovered thanks to Mr. Baldwin’s hilarious ad, I will be able to start watching The Office, 30 Rock, and all the other quality NBC shows I was missing. And no. Heroes is not a quality show.

2. Doritos – Can you think of a better use for a stupid snow globe??

1. Coke Zero – My hats off to you, Coca-Cola. This is a remake of their classic “Mean Joe Greene” commercial. And since I like anything retro, this obviously was going to be at the top of my list.

Go see Slumdog Millionaire. Like, today.

Juneau has a total of eight movie screens. Not theatres, 8 total screens. There is the Nickelodeon, which has one movie each week and usually shows foreign/art films. And then there is Gross Alaska Cinemas, which has two locations; a 2 screen building downtown and a whooping 5 screens in their valley location. Gross Alaska shows the more ‘mainstream’ movies like Mall Cop and my beloved Twilight. Compare that to the 10 movie theatres I can name off the top of my head in DC (and I am sure there are at least 5 or 6 more, each of which probably has at least 10 screens) and you can imagine that I never expect much for the movies here. We never get movies right when they come out. And you usually only have a 1 or 2 week window to see a movie before it’s gone. So I was shocked when Slumdog Millionaire and Gran Torino were both playing at the downtown movie theater! And Rachel Getting Married was at the art house cinema. What to do?

I went and saw Slumdog Millionaire because that’s the one I wanted to see the most. I figure I can just Netflix Gran Torino, and I am sad that I might have missed Rachel Getting Married, but Slumdog was my priority. And I am so glad that I went and saw it. It was fantastic. I am in love with the younger actors. I think it’s sad that when an incredible movie draws attention to something like poverty, the media focuses on how much money the actors were paid instead of paying attention to what is being done and what can be done to eliminate slums altogether. I understand that people want to see the kids in the movie succeed, but that doesn’t help the thousands of other kids that are still there. I realize it’s a gray issue, but I feel that there’s only so much a director or movie studio can do. The point is, the movie is amazing and I highly recommend it.

Also this weekend, the Superbowl was pretty awesome. I always enjoy a close game. I watched it with a hardcore Steelers fan, but there was a larger cheer from everyone else at the house for an ad right after the game announcing that the power company here had finally repaired a downed power line, which means we are off diesel generators and back to hydro power! Yay! It was the second time in a year that an avalanche took out our hydro power and the diesel generators increase our rates 500%, so it’s a big deal.

I also finished the end stripes on my second scarf. Once I am done with this scarf, I am going to learn how to purl and make felted slippers. And once those are done, I can finally move on to the mittens that started this whole obsession.