It started out well...

Oscars: Opening Montage with Anne Hathaway and James Franco

Posted to New York Magazine by video on February 27, 2011

Click to Play | View Details

Tags: Academy Awards, 2011, video

Powered by Qumana

Academy Awards 2011 edition

The winners:
Documentary short subject - "Strangers No More"
Short film, live action - "God of Love"
Short film, animated - "The Lost Thing"
Film editing - "The Social Network"
Visual effects - "Inception"
Sound editing - "Inception"
Sound mixing - "Inception"
Documentary feature - "Inside Job"
Makeup - "The Wolfman"
Costume design - "Alice in Wonderland"
Cinematography - "Inception"
Art direction - "Alice in Wonderland"
Original song - "We Belong Together" by Randy Newman
Original score - "The Social Network" by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Animated feature - "Toy Story 3"
Foreign language film - "In a Better World" (Denmark)
Adapted screenplay - "The Social Network"
Original screenplay - "The King's Speech"
Best actress in a supporting role - Melissa Leo for "The Fighter"
Best actor in a supporting role - Christian Bale for "The Fighter"
Best actress in a leading role - Natalie Portman for "Black Swan"
Best actor in a leading role - Colin Firth for "The King's Speech"
Best director - Tom Hooper for "The King's Speech"
Best picture - "The King's Speech"

My picks:
Documentary short subject - "The Warriors of Qiugang"
Short film, live action - N/A
Short film, animated - N/A
Film editing - "Black Swan"
Visual effects - "Inception"
Sound editing - "The Social Network"
Sound mixing - "Inception"
Documentary feature - N/A
Makeup - "The Wolfman"
Costume design - "Alice in Wonderland"
Cinematography - "Inception"
Art direction - "Alice in Wonderland"
Original song - N/A
Original score - "The Social Network" by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Animated feature - N/A
Foreign language film - N/A
Adapted screenplay - "True Grit"
Original screenplay - "Inception"
Best actress in a supporting role - Hailee Steinfeld for "True Grit"
Best actor in a supporting role -  John Hawkes for "Winter's Bone"
Best actress in a leading role - Jennifer Lawrence for "Winter's Bone" or Natalie Portman for "Black Swan"
Best actor in a leading role - Colin Firth for "The King's Speech," Jesse Eisenberg for "The Social Network," or Jeff Bridges for "True Grit"
Best director - N/A (Too tough to choose!)
Best picture - N/A (Missed out on four of the nominees: "Toy Story 3," "127 Hours," "The Fighter," and "The Kids Are All Right."

So what have I learned from the Academy Awards this year? One, many of the Best Picture nominees deal with the body in one way or another: "Black Swan," "127 Hours," "The Fighter," "Inception," "Winter's Bone," "The King's Speech." The show, from what I could watch, had a lot of missteps in terms of pacing and entertainment. Now, it's time to try and catch the nominated films I missed, especially "Toy Story 3."

Tags: films, movies, awards, 2011, Academy Awards

Powered by Qumana

Brief comment on the 53rd Grammy Awards

I saw about the last third, but it was a great last third.

• Arcade Fire won Best Album of the Year for The Suburbs.
• Esperanza Spalding beat Justin Bieber for Best New Artist.

All is right in the world of mainstream music — for now.

Tags: music, TV, awards, 2010

Powered by Qumana

My review of 'The 4 A.M. Breakthrough'

4 A.M. Breakthrough: Unconventional Writing Exercises That Transform Your Fiction by Brian Kiteley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Unlike his previous book, "The 3 A.M. Epiphany," this is a collection of writing exercises and prompts to jumpstart the imagination. Many of the exercises require research, which is a nice challenge. Many of the explanations are autobiographical in nature, which often proved to be engaging for me. (Your opinion may vary.) I haven't taken many English or creative writing courses, but I was surprised that Kiteley notes how graduate students often resist or groan about writing prompts. There is a lot of great writing that is produced within defined restraints and conventions, e.g. genre fiction. At some point, I'll have to randomly choose a prompt and write within its borders. For now, this book provides some roundabout insights into how writers approach the blank page and generate strands of fiction that may or may not be used in a future project.

View all my reviews

Tags: books, writing, literature, reviews

Powered by Qumana

Valentine's Day in Japan

From the Wall Street Journal blog, Japan Real Time:

"In Japan, the burden falls on the woman to shower the men in her life with chocolates. And in another departure from the Western tradition, it is a gesture that sings a more obligatory note than a lover’s serenade."

(UPDATE: My friends on Facebook pointed me to "White Day," which takes place a month after Valentine's. I'm not surprised there is an answer day. My thanks to Chris and Liz for pointing this out!)

Tags: Japan, culture, Valentine's Day, chocolate, food, business, social

Powered by Qumana

Photo editing diversion

This comes from my friend Abby via Facebook:

(1) Go to Wikipedia and hit Random Article. The first article you get is the name of your band. (2) Go to quotationspage.com and hit Random Quote. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your album. (3) Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days." The third picture, regardless of what it is, is your album art. (4) Use Photoshop or similar (picnik.com is a free online photo editor) to put it all together.

I cheated a little in my creation. Instead of choosing "explore the last seven days," I went with the third picture from The Commons area of Flickr to avoid any issues with copyright. (The Creative Commons area is also a good place to grab a photo, too, as long as you are familiar with Creative Commons licenses.)

Anyway, here's the result:

I did the photo editing with Aviary's Phoenix tool, which is free to use.

Tags: photography, art, Facebook, friends, diversion, Creative Commons, Flickr

Powered by Qumana