Terrace Agenda

Post-Oscar thread.

Posted in Movies by Fletch on March 7, 2010

Might post a wrap-up here tomorrow.

Air your grievances, you chatty bunch, you.

(Also, if you want to relive all the excitement, click on the liveblog link from the previous post and you can see it all again.)

Nighty-night.


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Oscars Liveblog 2010: Wherein I go apeshit in public when Sandra Bullock wins Best Actress

Posted in Movies by Fletch on March 7, 2010

OK, peeps, here’s the deal: WordPress, in its infinite wisdom, won’t let me embed the liveblog in the blog itself. Trying to keep the Agenda down. So, you’ll have to click through the link at the end of this post. But then you’re in!

So, you should be able to see what I’m posting pretty much instantly. If something isn’t working, let me know on here, I’ll try to check back periodically to see if there are any comments.

As for comments on the liveblog, I have to moderate all of them, but I should work pretty quickly, unless you guys are just going nuts. Which hopefully you are. So your comment won’t come up right away, but it shouldn’t take long.

Right? Right.

And here… we… GO.


Going on Record…

Posted in Movies by Fletch on March 7, 2010

Well, the fact that there are ten Best Picture nominees and I wanted to wait until I saw the Shorts before I said anything, I’m cutting my predictions post pretty close. So this won’t be nuthin’ fancy, just lunchpail work. But here goes.

BEST PICTURE:

The Hurt Locker
A Serious Man
An Education
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up
Up in the Air

I was leaning toward Avatar, but then I learned that the way the votes work this year, the second vote choice matters a whole lot. Remember how I predicted that Hillary Clinton would get third in the Iowa Caucuses? Probably not, this blog didn’t exist then. But I did, and it was because she wasn’t really anyone’s second choice. She was either first or, like, fourth. Same deal is going on here, if a voter’s first choice doesn’t get enough votes to be viable, that choice gets eliminated from contention, and the second choice becomes the new vote. I suspect that Avatar is not the second choice of a lot of people. I think The Hurt Locker probably is.

BEST ACTRESS:
Gabourey Sidibe
Sandra Bullock
Helen Mirren
Carey Mulligan
Meryl Streep

Like I said last year, if I’m going to beat out all the experts, I have to pull a huge upset with my guesses. This is a really silly choice, but what they heck. Everyone says this one comes down to Bullock and Streep. Bullock will probably win this award. I thought Streep was fantastic. But I want a huge upset! And I just watched Precious the other night, so Sidibe is fresh in my memory. Also, she was incredible.

BEST ACTOR:
Jeff Bridges
George Clooney
Colin Firth
Morgan Freeman
Jeremy Renner

Bridges all the way. And he deserves it.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Mo’Nique
Penelope Cruz
Vera Farmiga
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Anna Kendrick

Mo’Nique was devastating, and everyone knows this was the best performance of any kind this year. Cake walk.

SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Christoph Waltz
Matt Damon
Woody Harrelson
Christopher Plummer
Stanley Tucci

Not a lot of drama here, either. Best part of Inglourious Basterds. And there were a lot of good things about that movie. Cake, uh, waltz (yeah! I went there!).

DIRECTOR:
James Cameron
Kathryn Bigelow
Lee Daniels
Jason Reitman
Quentin Tarantino

I would very much prefer Bigelow, but I suspect Cameron wins for his blockbuster cred. Bleah.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Inglourious Basterds
The Hurt Locker
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up

The other best thing about the movie. That opening scene is ridiculous.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Up in the Air
District 9
An Education
In the Loop
Precious

Difficult, difficult, lemon difficult. Not sure who’s gonna win this one. I thought In the Loop was easily the best written of the nominees, but it’s the only one not nominated for picture. Wild-ass guess here.

ANIMATED FEATURE:
Up
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells

I think this one might depend on how the voting works. If the voters don’t have to have seen every movie, then Up probably takes it (though I prefer Mr. Fox… even though I really loved Up). If the voters have to see everything before voting, then look for The Secret of Kells. I have no idea what it is, but neither does anyone else, and it still got a nomination, so it must be pretty damned good.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
A Prophet
Ajami
The Milk of Sorrow
The Secret in Their Eyes
The White Ribbon

I think Haneke is probably too challenging for everyone, so that probably takes The White Ribbon out. Oscar voters aren’t that edgy, still. Since I haven’t seen any of them, I’ll go for the other one getting all the acclaim, A Prophet. Entertainment Weekly says it’ll be The Secret in Their Eyes. Meh.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
The Cove
Burma VJ
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America
Which Way Home

Again, tough to do without seeing any of them.

EDITING:
The Hurt Locker
Avatar
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

Avatar will probably win, though it’s about a zilly years too long. But people notice flashy stuff and don’t really think about that.

ART DIRECTION:
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Don’t count out that Victorian-era stuff. Especially when it’s about Victoria.

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
The Hurt Locker
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Since everything was computer generated in Avatar, I hope they don’t go for that one. Even if I’m wrong about that.

ORIGINAL SCORE:
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

Hoping the voters heard the same thing I did.

ORIGINAL SONG:
Crazy Heart
The Princess and the Frog (x3)
Nine

I’m not picking against T-Bone Burnett.

COSTUME DESIGN:
The Young Victoria
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine

I learned my lesson last year, don’t bet against the Victorians.

MAKEUP:
Star Trek
Il Divo
The Young Victoria

Hell if I know. Go for the aliens.

VISUAL EFFECTS:
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Um, yeah.

SOUND EDITING:
The Hurt Locker
Avatar
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

The sound was incredible in The Hurt Locker. Probably will go to Avatar, too.

SOUND MIXING:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers II

Go the other way this time. But root for Transformers! Cause that would be funny.

LIVE ACTION SHORT:
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

Tough call for me between Miracle Fish and The Door. I chose the more dramatic one, not that Miracle Fish is a laff riot.

ANIMATED SHORT:
A Matter of Loaf and Death
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper
Logorama

Gotta work pretty hard to beat Wallace and Gromit. Don’t see it happening. Logorama is pretty funny, but a one-trick pony.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
Rabbit a la Berlin
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: The Closing of a GM Plant
Music By Prudence

Rabbit was the only one that seemed to bring something new to the table. I could see The Last Truck pulling this out. The makers of Campaign decided it wasn’t appropriate to screen their movie for us normal people.

Is that it? I think that’s it. Come back at 7:30 CST, we’ll get the liveblog going.


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Oscar weekend…

Posted in Movies by Fletch on March 4, 2010

…is coming. Seeing the Oscar shorts on Saturday, then I’ll make my big post o’ predictions.

ALSO, and I know you were wondering, The Agenda WILL BE LIVEBLOGGING the Oscars again this year, and we’re going to be trying something new so that you won’t have to refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh like last time around. Hopefully it’ll work properly.

Good times.

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You know who you are.

Posted in Scandal by Fletch on March 2, 2010

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Look familiar?

Posted in Movies by Fletch on February 26, 2010

This is from a movie called Zero Hour! If you don’t understand pretty much instantly why I posted this, you’re not going to get it.

Oh yeah, you’ll have to click through to watch the clip, they won’t allow embeds.

I really had no idea this is where all that came from.

By the way, Zero Hour! (yes, the exclamation is real, I did not make that up) will be shown on Turner Classic Movies at 10:45 pm CST on March 5th. Set your watches and play along at home!

(Seriously, what in the world? They almost didn’t even change the dialogue for Airplane!)


Wheremin? Theremin!

Posted in Music by Fletch on February 25, 2010

Astounding:

(h/t JP)


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Help us, Admiral Ackbar. You’re our only hope.

Posted in Miscellany, Sport by Fletch on February 24, 2010

Oh, well hi there, everybody! You’re still here? Getting mighty dusty round these parts. We’ll try to fix that right up. Oscars coming soon, gotta watch just a few more movies then I’ll throw my predictions out there for you to chew on.

Gotta say, though, I just haven’t been much enchanted with my usual go-to places for fun and games, and while it’s true that school’s kept me busy, I also just haven’t been too inspired to post. I mean, let’s take a look at my usual topics:

Politics– Snoozer. It’s like watching a basketball game between one team that can’t stop committing flagrant fouls, and another team that promptly misses its free throws, pees down its collective leg, and then turns the ball over. Again and again and again and again… it’s good for a little car-wreck fun, but I think ever since I found out that Fox News’s MASSIVE ratings consist of only about 3 million people, I just can’t get myself too worked up over people saying dumb shit.

Movies– Like I said, I’ve still got a couple to watch. I didn’t think 2009 was a particularly strong year overall, so that has held my enthusiasm in check. There were a couple of excellent movies, and some more I enjoyed, but I don’t feel blown away top-to-bottom. But I’ll get to all this soon. After the weekend.

Sports– Tiger Woods is boring. Haven’t gotten to watch nearly as much of the Olympics as I wanted since NBC DIDN’T PUT THE BROADCAST ONLINE. What is this, the Dark Ages? Man. Shocks are doing pretty well, 22-8. So that’s nice. But baseball season hasn’t started yet.

Personal stuff– yeah, right. Like I ever put that up here. Because, jeez you’re nosy. I did hear there was some good news recently, though, and I’ll bet you can find it if you look in the right places.



OK, enough of that. C’est l’ennui. Here’s what I really wanted to get to–

From the Atlanta Constitution-Journal:

Will a “Star Wars” character be the new Ole Miss mascot?

The campaign for Admiral Ackbar is gaining Internet, if not intergalactic, steam.

Tuesday, Ole Miss students voted to find a new mascot to replace the abandoned Colonel Reb. A student committee to develop and propose a new mascot will be formed soon.

Ackbar, a member of the Mon Calamari species who led the Rebel Alliance ships into the Battle of Endor, appears to be the early favorite. He has more than 14,000 Facebook fans. Websites like notatrap.org — “It’s a trap!” was his famous line — are promoting Ackbar’s candidacy.

Yes, yes, a million times yes.

Do I really need to explain how completely, astoundingly, mind-numbingly awesome this would be?

No, I didn’t think so.

Mississippi will immediately become my second-favorite college sports team if this happens.

(Epic Link Post+Special Bonus!)

Posted in Meta, Miscellany, Music by Zack! on February 15, 2010

Exciting news!  Teh internets is back at my disposal, and I have lots of great links to share.  I haven’t taken the time to get especially upset at anything lately, so you’ll just have to be satisfied with the links–I’ll get around to writing a real post soon.  Promise.

Here’s some weird new capitalist slavery.  Or indentured servitude.  Either way you cut it, I can’t like it.

Lana B tipped me off to this project:  1000 Journals.

What could be better than one Great Pacific Garbage Patch?  How about at least four more?

A slide show of the world’s most influential designers.  It’s a six on the interesting scale.

Musical Terrorism.

This is what I call transparency in American education.

“Being John Malkovich.”  Updated.

A blog devoted to the ampersand?  How much more geeky can I get?  How about another blog devoted to the ampersand?  That’s more like it.

Pictures of astronauts.  Sad?  Clownish?  Poignant?  It’s hard to say.  The post itself is in French.

I’ll end there, mainly because I really just wanted to post this video.

Note:  In no way am I comparing anyone’s prospective bride to Miss Piggy.  I just like the song.

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A whole buttload of awesome.

Posted in Human Interest by Fletch on February 15, 2010

This is for Zacky, who I know has the internets now, but who is probably bogged down by his backed-up Google Reader:

Actual detention notice–

(via)