ocars 2012

yawn.

i love movies and i usually write a post on oscars before the ceremony. 

in them i tell who should win, who will win (see last year's post) and tend to be right about the winners for the most part. but that is no great achievement bc most others and prediction markets also get it right. 

that is the problem. oscars are boring and predictable. it would not be if the movies are evaluated on their artistic and technical merit, since ppl can never agree on those.

so instead of repeating what everyone interested knew beforehand, i skipped this year.

෴

my twitter - http://twitter.com/sittingnut
this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian

my oscar choices

ok, just before the show starts, here are my choices for main awards.
usually my choices (when there is a choice, that is) don't win. which failure, like any conceited person, i attribute to my superior taste. however sometimes they do win, surprisingly so.

btw this selection is from those nominated only; that is, don't think my choice for best movie oscar is my best movie of 2010.

for the record, i do think lower buzz and ever decreasing importance for america's main movie award show is a good thing for the world.

best picture: the social network
film while not great (or truthful), was entertaining and original.
all the choices available were of uneven quality; none of my acting choices are in best movie.

best director: david fincher (the social network)
i hope darren aronofsky (black swan) won't win, bc while that movie was good, director included too many cheap tricks (as in jump-scares etc.,).

best actress in a leading role: jennifer lawrence (winter's bone)
imo this is one of the best performances, ever. too bad this independently produced movie was not seen by many and she probably won't win.
award probably will go to natalie portman from black swan, which is not bad bc she did do a great job in spite of the director.

best actor in a leading role: jeff bridges (true grit)
unfortunately colin firth is likely to get it due to vulgar hollywood's fascination with even more vulgar british royals (esp in historically inaccurate and favorable portrayals). :-(

best actress in a supporting role: melissa leo (the fighter)

best actor in a supporting role: christian bale (the fighter)

෴

my twitter - http://twitter.com/sittingnut
this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian

nice guys finish first?

"nice guys finish last, i should know."

says bit character betty finn in 1989 cult classic "heathers".

i don't know, and not just because i am not a nice guy.

it seems fifa has sort of invalided the popular 'wisdom'; spain, which came first in the recent world cup, also got the 'nice guys' award (known as fair play ward) for getting least amount of red and yellow cards of teams that got through to 2nd stage.

hmmmmm...

makes one wonder whether it is still true that "real life suck losers dry" or whether we "have to learn to fly", "to fuck with the eagles"? were my flying lessons a total waste?

;-)

෴

my twitter - http://twitter.com/sittingnut
this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian

merry christmas to you all! feel it! + christmas movies i watch

indi padashow says "it feels not like christmas". wtf? is he nuts?

yes spirit of christmas is a subjective thing, but that blogger always writes like a 'civilized' tourist in native drag for a photo op, observing and commenting on 'barbarian' sri lankan customs. that is why he has a long record of getting all things sri lankan wrong; from fight against terrorists down to christmas in sl. that is why he thinks there is a competitive election going on when everyone who is connected to the soil knows that it was a walkover from the start and after the irresponsible lies/gaffes of fonseka a boring old trashing. but i will save those thoughts for another post.

this is about christmas.

as regular readers of this blog know i was brought up as a roman catholic. i call myself an atheist simply bc i am unable to believe in god, rather than bc i have any antipathy towards the church or any love or respect for irrational inconsistent confusions of fellow atheists. people i live with, friends with, or in love with, have always been catholics for the most part.

from my point of view this one of the best christmas seasons i have lived through. iow indi padashow is nuts.

parties, carols, shopping, baking, decorating, cards, school holidays for kids (of my partner), wrapping presents, and thousands of other things are already past or on going. there will be mass, opening of presents, visiting and receiving relatives, cake, more parties, eating and drinking, games, to come. all round good cheer.
btw we do our little bit to spread it to everyone.

suburbs i live around are choked full of ppl and lighted up. driving is impossible.
as always this is the best season for businesses (even in mostly buddhist sri lanka). btw as i have written before, i welcome unabashed consumption and commercialism; "world will be boring and poor (literally) if not for the rampant consumerism of this season".

happy holidays, christmas, and a new year to every one!

===

christmas movie tweets

as followers of my twitter know i have been watching christmas movies (alone, with others, or with kids,) in past week or so. i haven't finished them yet. but wanted to gather the tweets into one place. i may update it with later tweets.
term 'christmas movies' used loosely. i don't intend to define it.

"the shop around the corner"(1940). charming, funny & touching, but well grounded not cloyingly sentimental 4.5/5
btw "you've got mail" (1998) is a remake of "the shop around the corner". while not terrible,it is imo very much inferior. 3/5


'miracle on 34th street' 1947 original in b&w. classic! what more can i say? 4.5/5
'miracle on 34th street' 94 remake on tv. should really show much better 1947 original with edmund gwenn, maureen o'hara & natalie wood.


watched "it's a wonderful life" for nth time . 4.5/5 no need to say more.
talking about "it's a wonderful life" > a 1991 article by jimmy stewart about the film & frank capra http://tinyurl.com/ylem9vg


watched "bishop's wife" for the 1st time. enjoyed it very much. 4/5.



'a christmas carol'-1938 version-short,pointed & nicely put together.1984 ver-fleshed out & real. both 4/5


'christmas in connecticut' starring barbara stanwyck et al. forgotten how hilarious it is. 'moonlight snow and a cow' 4/5

෴

my twitter - http://twitter.com/sittingnut
this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian

best short article on climate change

climate change debate in public forums is full of silly crap, so it was a pleasure to read slate's save the earth in six hard questions -what al gore doesn't understand about climate change by steven e. landsburg.

it focuses in the real points at issue clearly and simply, without dumbing down, and in the process explains the skepticism felt by large number of people, including by myself, about the whole thing.

while the following are not the questions mentioned in the article, they are related; is climate change real? if so, do we humans contribute to it? if it is real, what are the exact effects? if we know that, do these effects matter? even if they matter, should we care? i am skeptical about the reliability and purported objectivity of the answers provided by climate change "evangelists" for each of these questions in spite of all their nobel prizes and films.

here is a link to stern review report on the economics of climate change referred at the end of that article.

෴