Hillary's Last Stand

For a candidate on the ropes and needing to really rise to the occasion, Hillary chose a very peculiar issue to pounce on at the debate earlier this week. Her "Why do I always get the first question?" mini-tirade did not make any sense, then bringing in "Saturday Night Live" made even less sense.

It's another version of her vast right-wing conspiracy theory. She has until next Tuesday to make her case, then it's over if she doesn't do extremely well in Ohio and Texas. If Hillary doesn't become President, it won't be due to the Republicans, but because her own party told her no. I look for some interesting behind the scenes stories to come out if her campaign ends.

Still Waking Up from the Oscars . . .

Still half asleep from not getting home until after midnight due to the annual Oscar party. Although today is a snow day for my kids and I get to stay home, too, so that's helping.

I had my lowest score ever in this year's pool, missing 14 categories, which may be an all-time record for futility at this gathering. In fact, everyone had a bad night because there were a lot of surprises, especially in the technical categories.
Most of the acting categories went as expected (especially for the guys). The one surprise was for supporting actress, which went undeservedly to Tilda Swinton, a weak role in a weak movie. I still wanted Ellen Page to win best actress for Juno, but they gave it to the woman who played the French singer in a movie a couple people saw.

I thought Jon Stewart did a very good job, much better than his first time out. The show was pretty lean, kept moving without a whole lot of filler, and no Randy Newman! My favorite part of the show was the performance of "Falling Slowly" from the excellent movie "Once." It was nice they gave the girl a second chance to give an acceptance speech, because they were really cutting off folks this year. None of the other acceptance speeches were all that memorable, except maybe one of the Coen brothers who just couldn't talk either time he was up there.

Each year, our host, Carolyn, serves up a variation of her homemade cheesecake. This year's recipe was some triple or quadruple chocolate concoction that was very good as always and gave us that extra buzz to make it through the show. We typically serve this during the lengthy special Oscar presentation to some old person that has never won before and they need to give them an honorary award before they die (this year went to some 98 year-old produce who looked and sounded pretty good for his age).

Or, we eat it during the what we call the "dead people montage" when we all are like, "Oh, THAT PERSON died last year?" Yeah, I know this is supposed to be a time for us to reflect on those we've lost, but it usually stoops to sarcasm and mock disbelief when some obscure set designer from the 60's comes up and we're like, "Oh no, you mean the set designer from "Gigi" passed away?" We always take a quick poll to see what dead person will get the biggest applause. Didn't seem to be any standout dead person this time, maybe Heath Ledger.

An unintentionally funny moment came when they ran through all the Best Picture winners since 1929. For some reason, Carolyn's TV cut off the first couple letters on the left hand side of the screen. So, we were borderline hysterical as they ran through the list and we were just cracking up with titles like "ocky" "liver" "rash" "ramer v. Kramer" "hariots of fire" and "andhi".

Carolyn won the Oscar pool this year. Her picks of "The Bourne Ultimatum" to win in three categories put her over the top.

My Oscar Predictions

What do Ebert, Roeper, and all the other critics have on me? Hey, nothing. By golly, I won the pool at Carolyn's Oscar Night Party last year. So, take that! Glad the writer's strike is over, because otherwise this show would've not taken place, and I do look forward to it, event though it's an eclectic bunch of movie folks and a gathering that Dorene went to once and swore she'd never do again (hey, we like our movies, what can I say).

Best Picture
"Juno" - This is who I want to win. By far the lightest of the nominees. I went into this with very low expecations and loved it. Great writing and a great cast all around, led by a super performance by Ellen Page. This movie will easiliy win Best Original Screenplay because the writing was a true standout.

"There Will be Blood" - A straightforward, yet very odd movie at times. Hard to describe. Strange soundtrack. Very long, but held my interest throughout. People seem to either like or strongly dislike this movie. I very much liked it. This movie will probably also pick up a lesser award like Cinematography or Art Direction.

"Atonement" - A much better movie than I was expecting. Figured it was just some sort of Jane Austen adaptation, but much more. A story of false accusations at some upper class mansion, then it switches gears and you have this well done sequence at Dunkirk. This movie should win Best Original Score, which was good, although "There Will be Blood" had the most unusual one I think I've ever heard (but it wasn't nominated).

"No Country for Old Men" - This is the movie that's favored to win. It is very good . . .but not all the way through. It's got an infuriating ending. Well, it doesn't end, it just stops, and quite abruptly. If someone tells you they like this movie, ask them about the ending. There's no way anyone can say they were happy with it.

"Michael Clayon" - Kind of a disappointment. I found this hard to follow at times and just wasn't always sure what was going on. I wanted to like it, but just didn't really connect with it. The movie thought it was good, but I didn't.

Best Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis should easily win. His was a true standout performance. I enjoyed Tommy Lee Jones in "In the Valley of Elah", which was a movie that absolutely no one saw. Viggo Mortensen had the scene of the year in "Eastern Promises." If you haven't seen this movie, you'll know it when it happens. George Clooney just won a couple years ago, so he has no chance. I didn't see Johnny Depp in "Sweeney Toddy" nor did I care to.

Best Actress
My pick is Ellen Page for "Juno." She truly made the movie. She's too young to win, so that's why the favorite is Julie Christine, who played an Alzheimer's patient in "Away from Her." This is one of those "Oscar" performances that I just didn't buy into and her role wasn't all that large. I haven't seen any of the other nominees in this category.

Best Supporting Actor
No way anyone but Javier Bardem wins for his performance in "No Country for Old Men." His was a truly classic villain. Great performance in a semi-great movie with the previously mentioned, seriously flawed ending. Casey Affleck was good in the very long, meandering, but still somewhat interesting, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." Tom Wilkinson was the best part in the otherwise disappointing "Michael Clayton," the only other nominee in this category I saw.

Best Supporting Actress
Ruby Dee had a microscopic role in "American Gangster," yet she was still nominated and is kinda favored to win. That movie, by the way, was pretty good, although maybe a bit too long. Good performance by Russell Crowe who had that and "3:10 to Yuma" last year. My choice would be Amy Ryan in "Gone, Baby, Gone" a movie that starts out as a typical missing kid movie but is much, much more. I was very surprised by this one.

Best Original Song
"Enchanted" has three songs nominated, none of which are memorable. The song that will win is "Falling Slowly" from the movie "Once." I absolutely loved this movie and the song is truly memorable. Next to Juno, probably the best movie I saw last year. Both lead characters are wonderful.

Best Documentary
Michael Moore is nominated, but I'm not sure the Academy wants him on stage. So, I'd go with "No End in Sight," which was an excellent documentary on how we botched Iraq, as told by those that were in charge at the time. You will absolutely despise Paul Bremer after watching this. The sad thing is, this documentary shows how we actually could've made it work, but those chances are long gone now.

All Other Categories
As always, winning the Oscar pool usually depends on getting lucky with picking the winners in animated short, live action short, and the other obscure categories. I'm going with "I Met the Walrus" for animated short and "Tanghi Argentini" for live action short. Hey, something has to win!

"Transformers" will win any award for visual effects and probably sound too. I can't believe "The Simpsons Movie" wasn't nominated for animated feature film. That was the best one last year, but that leaves "Ratatouille" as this year's winner, which I thought was one of Pixar's lesser efforts.

Time for Him to Go

Around here at a regional campus of Indiana University, who do you think the "Him" is referring to? Yep, Coach Sampson. The guy was trouble when he came from Oklahoma, and he's been trouble ever since. Can't seem to keep his hands off the phone making those illegal recruitment calls. I think the IU President is just making sure they have all their ducks in a row before they get rid of him. They don't want a lawsuit coming back at them later for improperly firing him (which happened at Ohio State).

Keeping Sampson around will only be deterimental. As long as he is here, he can't be trusted. They risk NCAA sanctions and what basketball recruit would want to come to IU with that cloud hanging over them. I've talked to a few faculty members here and they are adamant that he needs to go NOW. I've heard IU President Michael McRobbie speak a few times and he is a very impressive individual and is going to serve us well. I don't see him putting up with this at all.

So, the next question is, would they do it? That is, would they bring Bobby Knight back for an encore and let him finish out his career at IU? You know that's the buzz going around campus. That would make quite a story. I don't think there's any chance it would happen, but you never know. Imagine this: Bobby Knight comes back and wins the National Championship. Who then would present him the championship trophy? Why, that would be NCAA President Myles Brand, the former IU president who fired Bobby back in 2001.

Goodbye Fidel!

El Presidente announced his resignation today, turning over power to brother Raul. President Bush said he hoped this would speed along Cuba's move to Democracy. I'm wondering though, will the people of Cuba seek our help? We haven't done so hot with making Iraq a democracy. Wondering what the people down there are thinking?

I've never quite understood why we kept Cuba under such an embargo for so long, especially after the fall of the communist bloc. The missle crisis happened almost 50 years ago, it's not like the island nation is a threat. As usual, it's the people that suffered under the decisions made by the powers that be.

Is McCain Really the Devil?

Wow, I can't believe the continued venom being directed at John McCain from the talk radio folks like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Laura Ingrahm (my favorite of the three, which disappoints me). They just seem to think he would be the worst thing to ever happen to this country if he's the nominee. I don't quite get it. I really like McCain and could easily vote for him. No, he won't beat Obama or Clinton, but I think he's a good man that has done very well at reaching out to both parties (I got hard core Democrat co-workers that really like him). Maybe that's the problem.

The Democrats are already divided between their two front-runners. Not sure what good it is for the Republicans to be divided like this also. Although, maybe they are not so divided, it's just that these talk radio personalities get a lot of press. In the primaries, McCain is significantly ahead, so it could be just a lot of hot air that will have no impact, except to maybe keep more Republicans home from the polls on election day.

Mitt Hits the Mat

So now it's McCain. I know, Huckabee is still in there, but won't be for long. Now, McCain can sit back and watch Obama and Clinton battle it out. That is going to be quite a battle too. Not sure either side is too enthusiastic about throwing in the towel.

Would Obama take the VP slot? Perhaps. Would Clinton take it? I don't think there's any way Bill would settle for that. Either way, the party is very divided right now. Whether that helps or hinders them in the coming months, we'll soon find out.

Of course, the Republicans are kinda divided too, especially if you listen to talk radio, where Limbaugh, Coulter, Ingrahm, et al have been lambasting McCain. It'll be an interesting run-up to the election. I don't see how the Republicans could possibly win the White House. That would be like saying the Giants . . . . .

Sorry about that Pats!

Wow, what a finish! Still can't believe the Giants actually pulled this one out. Kept waiting for Brady to hook up on a long pass with Moss and put the game way. Didn't happen. Now, it's back to back Manning family championships. Gotta love it!

Super Bowl

Our church is having a Super Bowl party on Sunday night. Well, I guess I should say we are having a gathering of people from our church in which the television may be turned on and coincidentally be tuned to a broadcast originating from Arizona (there, hopefully that will satisfy the copyright hungry NFL and they won't try and shut us down).

This game will be historic. Either New England will finish 19-0 or it will be the biggest upset since . . . .the other New York team with Joe Namath. I am pulling strongly for the Giants. I'd love to see Peyton's little brother take the mighty Patriots out. Can you imagine the endorsments that would follow? Back to back championships featuring two brothers. Maybe Eli can join in Peyton's "Priceless Pep Talk" commercials, although no one can top Peyton's now classic Saturday Night Live sketch teaching football to those kids.

Then again, the game could be over before halftime, because the Patriots could just totally blow them out (in which case, the game becomes secondary to the commercials). If it's close by the 4th quarter, that doesn't bode well for the Giants. Lots of teams this season got close, but could never put them away. I think the Giants have a shot and I hope they can do it, because I don't really want to see Moss, Belichick, et al celebrate.

Snow Day II

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Another snow day today. Twice in one week. Gotta love it. We're all at home again. I'm satisfied now, I like to have at least one snow day a year. For all I care, the groundhog can tell us tomorrow that winter ends next week.