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Archive for February, 2008
Post Oscar Wrap Up
31445 days
by kilian
in General Nerdom
I didn’t really bring attention to the Oscar’s before they were handed out last night, mainly because I haven’t seen too many of this year’s nods and so felt I had no place to comment on them.
(I did see No Country for Old Men yesterday, which the wife did not like at all, exsulis seemed more or less ‘meh’ on the film, and I liked quite a bit…)
The show itself, however, well I can talk about that all I want!
Yes, it’s long, and mostly boring. Yes we hear a bunch of crap about how the movies are “magic.” Yes it’s self-congratulatory to a ridiculous degree.
Then why do people watch every year?
It’s not like it ever changes, but inevitably people always complain the next day, even though they sat through it all the night before.
Personally, and I realize I’m in the minority hear, I enjoy every drawn out second. I mean, when you’re talking about the most important award that a place like Hollywood can hand out, then yeah, I expect it to be long, and pompous.
For me, though, the best parts are generally when the winners of the “lesser” categories give their acceptance speeches. You know, every once in a while a major winner will give the audience a really true and hearfelt moment; I think a few most prominent in recent memory are Tom Hanks (when he won for Philadelphia), Cuba Gooding Jr. and Roberto Benigni. But generally, when the two or three guys who win for Sound Editing (or whatever) come up, you’re really seeing someone at one of the defining moments of his/her life. Sure, it’s got to be great to win Best Actress or Best Director, but those are generally won by actual celebrities. And I assume that when your face is plastered all over magazines and you earn millions of dollars a year, something like winning an Oscar is much less important than if you spend your days locked in an editing booth…
To his credit, John Stewart granted such a moment to someone last night. Marketa Irglova, one of the duo winners of Best Song did not get a chance to say her thank you’s, but was brought back on stage by Stewart after a commercial break. It should go down as the best moment from 2008′s show, it won’t, but it should…although the “Gaydolph Titlar” joke was a close second.
Care to give your (well, sort of) thoughts on the night? Well then, there is a brand new poll up so you can do just that…
The best part of the whole night, though, comes to us from Jimmy Kimmel…
Where IS the truth in advertising, I ask you?
21448 days
by kilian
in General Nerdom
I’m currently finishing off a Taco Bell Fiesta Platter, and I have to admit there is a serious lack of any type of party atmosphere in and around my cubicle. That is not what I was led to believe would be the case….
I DEMAND REPARATIONS, OH BELL WHO DISPENSES TACOS! SERIOUS REPARATIONS!!!!!
The Goodness of Search Terms…
51448 days
by kilian
in General Nerdom
First off, big thanks to Holly Won’t from Deceiver. It is nice to get intellectual about something that really has no bearing on anyone’s life…but that’s how we roll over here at Normality Restored…
So here’s an image I think everyone will enjoy…
Good to see our largest demographic of readers continues to be sexually deviant interwebz users.
Second Post Today….Lohan Nude, Thoughts?
51449 days
by kilian
in General Nerdom
At this point, unless you do not own/turn on a television, radio, or internet capable computer (and, if you don’t have that last, what ARE you doing reading this) you have no doubt, at the very least, heard that Lindsey Lohan posed nude for a photo shoot in this week’s New York Magazine…
and here’s your link…and yes you are welcome….
My initial reaction was, mostly, apathy. I mean, I like seeing naked girls as much as the next guy (unless that next guy happens to be gay, in which case I like seeing naked girls way more than him…), but other than that I really didn’t have a reaction.
Then I start reading stuff like this, an entire article devoted to a bunch of PR people saying what a bad career move it was. And then this, which I’d rather just excerpt…
Yes, it’s the height of taste for a young, reckless actress to imitate the patron saint of young, reckless actresses in a copy of that iconic last photo shoot before Monroe died of a drug overdose.
Now let us back up for just a moment.
The photo shoot in question, according to what I’ve read was actually Bert Stern’s idea. Bert Stern, by the way, was the man who took the original pictures (of Marilyn Monroe) that this new set is a recreation of. Stern was the one who approached Lohan.
And as she admits in the accompanying New York article, Lohan’s response was, basically, when will I ever get a chance like this again?
Never.
OK, so now we have the factors surrounding the shoot, what about the pictures themselves? If you read that Radar article, you might think she’d posed for Hustler. First off, any quasi-savy interwebz search will reveal both boob and crotch shots of Lohan, so it isn’t as if people all over the world didn’t already know Lohan’s anatomy in an intimate way.
Secondly, it’s a photo shoot with a well known and respected photographer appearing in a well known and respected publication. Why would that be a bad career move in any context? Oh, right, you can see her nipples. I forgot that, in this country, nakedness automatically equals bad.
The quality of the photos is another conversation. The originals are, without a doubt, amazing. These ones…maybe not so much. There is, I think, one good shot from those posted by NYM, and the best is actually one of the “behind the scenes” shots….
The Deciever post that I excerpted basically said, well, what it says. It was poor taste for a reckless celeb to “rehash” something already done by a reckless celeb. Well, I’d say that makes it more poignant, myself. Look, it would have been tasteless if, say, Mandy Moore (or some other, more squeaky clean celebrity) had done the shoot to “show off her Marilyn” side. Lohan, being who she is, was a much more inspired choice because of what she could bring to the shoot from her own experiences….didn’t really pan out that way, I don’t think, but hey they tried.
Basically, my point here is, can’t we just separate the tabloidy crap from the equation and really consider what is (I think) the important question; are the pictures good?
First Post Today….Saturn Award Nominations
01449 days
by kilian
in General Nerdom
And the nominees are:
FILM
Science Fiction Film
“Cloverfield” (Paramount)
“Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” (20th Century Fox)
“I Am Legend” (Warner Bros.)
“The Last Mimzy” (New Line Cinema)
“Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)
“Transformers” (DreamWorks SKG / Paramount)
Fantasy Film
“Enchanted” (Buena Vista)
“The Golden Compass” (New Line Cinema)
“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (Warner Bros.)
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (Buena Vista)
“Spider-Man 3″ (Sony)
“Stardust” (Paramount)
Horror Film
“30 Days of Night” (Sony)
“1408″ (The Weinstein Co.)
“Ghost Rider” (Sony)
“Grindhouse” (The Weinstein Co.)
“The Mist” (The Weinstein Co.)
“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” (DreamWorks SKG / Paramount)
Action / Adventure / Thriller Film
“3:10 to Yuma” (Lionsgate)
“300″ (Warner Bros.)
“The Bourne Ultimatum” (Universal)
“Live Free or Die Hard” (20th Century Fox)
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax)
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage)
“Zodiac” (Paramount)
Actor
Gerard Butler (“300″) (Warner Bros.)
John Cusack (“1408″) (The Weinstein Co.)
Daniel Day-Lewis (“There Will Be Blood”) (Paramount Vantage)
Johnny Depp (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”) (DreamWorks SKG / Paramount)
Viggo Mortensen (“Eastern Promises”) (Focus Features)
Will Smith (“I Am Legend”) (Warner Bros.)
Actress
Amy Adams (“Enchanted”) (Buena Vista)
Ashley Judd (“Bug”) (Lionsgate)
Helena Bonham Carter (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”) (DreamWorks SKG / Paramount)
Naomi Watts (“Eastern Promises”) (Focus Features)
Belen Rueda (“The Orphanage”) (Picturehouse)
Carice van Houten (“Black Book”) (Sony Pictures Classics)
Best Supporting Actor
Javier Bardem (“No Country for Old Men”) (Miramax)
Ben Foster (“3:10 to Yuma”) (Lionsgate)
James Franco (“Spider-Man 3″) (Sony)
Justin Long (“Live Free or Die Hard”) (20th Century Fox)
Alan Rickman (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”) (DreamWorks SKG / Paramount)
David Wenham (“300″) (Warner Bros.)
Supporting Actress
Lizzy Caplan (“Cloverfield”) (Paramount)
Marcia Gay Harden (“The Mist”) (The Weinstein Co.)
Lena Headey (“300″) (Warner Bros.)
Rose McGowan (“Grindhouse” – “Planet Terror”) (The Weinstein Co.)
Michelle Pfeiffer (“Stardust”) (Paramount)
Imelda Staunton (“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”) (Warner Bros.)
Performance by a Younger Actor
Alex Etel (“The Water Horse”) (Sony)
Freddie Highmore (“August Rush”) (Warner Bros.)
Josh Hutcherson (“Bridge to Terabithia”) (Buena Vista)
Daniel Radcliffe (“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”) (Warner Bros.)
Dakota Blue Richards (“The Golden Compass”) (New Line Cinema)
Rhiannon Leigh Wryn (“The Last Mimzy”) (New Line Cinema)
Direction
Tim Burton (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”) (DreamWorks SKG / Paramount)
Frank Darabont (“The Mist”) (The Weinstein Co.)
Paul Greengrass (“The Bourne Ultimatum”) (Universal)
Sam Raimi (“Spider-Man 3″) (Sony)
Zack Snyder (“300″) (Warner Bros.)
David Yates (“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”) (Warner Bros.)
Writing
Roger Avary, Neil Gaiman (“Beowulf”) (Paramount)
Brad Bird (“Ratatouille”) (Buena Vista)
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (“No Country for Old Men”) (Miramax)
Michael Goldenberg (“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”) (Warner Bros.)
Michael Gordon, Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad (“300″) (Warner Bros.)
John Logan (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”) (DreamWorks SKG / Paramount)
Music
Tyler Bates (“300″) (Warner Bros.)
Jonny Greenwood (“There Will Be Blood”) (Paramount Vantage)
Nicholas Hooper (“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”) (Warner Bros.)
Mark Mancina (“August Rush”) (Warner Bros.)
Alan Menken (“Enchanted”) (Buena Vista)
John Powell (“The Bourne Ultimatum”) (Universal)
Best Costume
Colleen Atwood (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”) (DreamWorks SKG / Paramount)
Ruth Myers (“The Golden Compass”) (New Line Cinema)
Penny Rose (“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”) (Buena Vista)
Sammy Sheldon (“Stardust”) (Paramount)
Jany Temime (“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”) (Warner Bros.)
Michael Wilkinson (“300″) (Warner Bros.)
Make-Up
Howard Berger, Greg Nicotero, Jake Garber – (“Grindhouse” – “Planet Terror”) (The Weinstein Co.)
Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight – (“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”) (Warner Bros.)
Davina Lamont – (“30 Days of Night”) (Sony)
Ve Neill, Martin Samuel – (“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”) (Buena Vista)
Peter Owen, Ivana Primorac – (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”) (DreamWorks SKG / Paramount)
Shaun Smith, Mark Rappaport – (“300″) (Warner Bros.)
Special Effects
Tim Burke, John Richardson, Paul Franklin, Greg Butler – (“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”) (Warner Bros.)
Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl, John Frazier – (“Transformers”) (DreamWorks SKG / Paramount)
Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris, Trevor Wood – (“The Golden Compass”) (New Line Cinema)
John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson, John Frazier – (“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”) (Buena Vista)
Scott Stokdyk, Peter Nofz, Spencer Cook, John R. Frazier – (“Spider-Man 3″) (Sony)
Chris Watts, Grant Freckelton, Derek Wentworth, Daniel Leduc – (“300″) (Warner Bros.)
International Film
“Black Book” (Sony Pictures Classics)
“Day Watch” (Fox Searchlight)
“Eastern Promises” (Focus Features)
“Goya’s Ghosts” (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
“The Orphanage” (Picturehouse)
“Sleuth” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Animated Film
“Beowulf” (Paramount)
“Meet the Robinsons” (Buena Vista)
“Ratatouille” (Buena Vista)
“Shrek the Third” (DreamWorks SKG / Paramount)
“The Simpsons Movie” (20th Century Fox)
“Surf’s Up” (Sony)
TELEVISION NOMINATIONS
Network Television Series
“Heroes” (NBC)
“Journeyman” (NBC)
“Lost” (ABC)
“Pushing Daisies” (ABC)
“Supernatural” (CW)
“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” (Fox)
Syndicated / Cable Television Series
“Battlestar Galactica” (Sci Fi Channel)
“The Closer” (TNT)
“Dexter” (Showtime)
“Kyle XY” (ABC Family)
“Saving Grace” (TNT)
“Stargate SG-1″ (Sci Fi Channel / MGM)
Presentation on Television
“Battlestar Galactica: Razor” (Sci Fi Channel)
“The Company” (TNT)
“Fallen” (ABC Family)
“The Family Guy” – “Blue Harvest” (Fox)
“Masters of Science Fiction” (ABC)
“Shrek the Halls” (ABC)
“Tin Man” (Sci Fi Channel)
International Series
“Doctor Who” (Sci Fi Channel)
“Jekyll” (BBC America)
“Life On Mars” (BBC America)
“Meadowlands” (aka “Cape Wrath”) (Showtime)
“Robin Hood” (BBC America)
“Torchwood” (BBC America)
Actor on Television
Matt Dallas (“Kyle XY”) (ABC Family)
Matthew Fox (“Lost”) (ABC)
Michael C. Hall (“Dexter”) (Showtime)
Kevin McKidd (“Journeyman”) (NBC)
Edward James Olmos (“Battlestar Galactica”) (Sci Fi Channel)
Lee Pace (“Pushing Daisies”) (ABC)
Best Actress on Television
Anna Friel (“Pushing Daisies”) (ABC)
Lena Headey (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) (Fox)
Jennifer Love Hewitt(“Ghost Whisperer”) (CBS)
Holly Hunter (“Saving Grace”) (TNT)
Evangeline Lily (“Lost”) (ABC)
Kyra Sedgwick (“The Closer”) (TNT)
Supporting Actor on Television
Michael Emerson (“Lost”) (ABC)
Greg Grunberg (“Heroes”) (NBC)
Josh Holloway (“Lost”) (ABC)
Erik King (“Dexter”) (Showtime)
Terry O’Quinn (“Lost”) (ABC)
Masi Oka (“Heroes”) (NBC)
Supporting Actress on Television
Jaime Alexander (“Kyle XY”) (ABC Family)
Jennifer Carpenter (“Dexter”) (Showtime)
Summer Glau (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) (Fox)
Elizabeth Mitchell (“Lost”) (ABC)
Jaime Murray (“Dexter”) (Showtime)
Hayden Panettiere (“Heroes”) (NBC)
DVD NOMINATIONS
Best DVD Release
“Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon” (Starz / Anchor Bay)
“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (remix) (Image)
“Driftwood” (Image)
“The Man From Earth” (Anchor Bay)
“The Nines” (Sony)
“White Noise 2″ (Universal)
Best Special Edition DVD Release
“Big” (Extended Edition) (Fox)
“Blade Runner” (5 Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition) (Warner) (this includes interviews with both James Blaylock and Tim Powers!!!)
“Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (30th Anniversary – Blu Ray) (Sony)
“Death Proof” (Grindhouse Presentation: Extended & Unrated) (Genius)
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Platinum Series) (New Line)
“Troy: Director’s Cut” (Ultimate Collector’s Edition) (Warner)
Classic Film DVD Release
“Alligator” (Lionsgate)
“The Dark Crystal” (Sony)
“Face/Off” (Paramount)
“Flash Gordon” (Universal)
“The Monster Squad” (Lionsgate)
“Witchfinder General” (MGM)
Collection on DVD
“The Godzilla Collection” (Classic Media)
“The Mario Bava Collection” (Vol. 1 & 2) (Anchor Bay)
“The Sergio Leone Anthology” (MGM)
“The Sonny Chiba Collection” (BCI / Eclipse)
“Stanley Kubrick” (Warner Home Video Directors Series) (Warner)
“Vincent Price” (MGM Scream Legends Collection) (MGM)
Best Television Series on DVD
“Eureka” (Season 1) (Universal)
“Heroes” (Season 1) (Universal)
“Hustle” (Complete Seasons 2 and 3) (BBC Warner)
“Lost” (The Complete Third Season) (Buena Vista)
“MI:5″ (Volumes 4 & 5) (BBC Warner)
“Planet Earth: The Complete BBC Series” (BBC Warner)
Retro Television Series on DVD
“The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones” (Volume 1: The Early Years) (Paramount)
“Count Dracula” (BBC Mini-series 1977) (BBC Warner)
“Land of the Giants” (The Full Series) (Fox)
“Mission Impossible” (The Second and Third Seasons) (Paramount)
“Twin Peaks” (The Definitive Gold Box Edition) (Paramount)
“The Wild Wild West” (The Second and Third Seasons) (Paramount)
SPECIAL AWARD RECIPIENTS
THE GEORGE PAL MEMORIAL AWARD:
Guillermo del Toro
THE SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:
Tim Lucas
Very Quickly
61451 days
by kilian
in General Nerdom
I spent the better part of yesterday evening getting my ass ripped off and handed back to me by one of my professors…I guess that’s what he’s supposed to do when evaluating my thesis, but the entire meeting left me feeling raw and violated. Afterwards, I was in no mood to go and help people find books (sorry APril…).
Here’s a question: is it a good thing, or a bad thing that the people at Starbucks near my work know my name, a good deal about the recent illnesses my daughter has had, and start making my drink the second I enter the premises?
This week should prove to be more fruitful for website related stuffs…
I wear my sunglasses at night~!
111455 days
Yep Absinthe bar, masks, and art… all in one place ^__^
–Aleister
The Misfits – Last Caress
And for fun, here’s an interview with ONRPG for my company’s new game, Grand Chase ^__^ it’s me!!!