Recently in Vid Category
This is 3:30 of video that will make your life a little better and your day a little brighter.
Jon Stewart's monologue is, I think, very well pitched. The strike jokes walk a nice line... they seem obviously pro-writer but not overly so. The Yom Kippur joke was funny, but then again I went to Cardozo....
"Don't Let The Audience Win!" Oh, how true is that.
Judging from Jennifer Garner's speech (nice dress, btw), looks like the Oscar writers are just as bad as they are when they don't have a strike to deal with.
Jeez, I hope that this is the only time-filling self-indulgent montage. Odds are against that, though.
Best Animated Feature.... goes to the movie about the rat. Occasionally the Academy gets it right.
They're being a bit aggressive with the move-along music, aren't they?
Anyway, as Amy Adams has to do the entire song on the stage all by her self (perhaps one beneficial side-effect of the strike is no big production numbers?), it strikes me that Enchanted was one of the best-reviewed movies of the year... but managed to avoid most critics' top-ten lists.
So far... yawn.
Bardem wins for No Country for Old Men. Wilkinson might have been his only competition, but still, no great surprise. Nice speech, though.
Is this Owen Wilson's first public appearance after his suicide attempt? If so, he picked an interesting platform....
More people should watch shorts--it's a interesting form, particularly animated shorts.
Well, I guess that Tilda Swinton wasn't expecting to win best supporting actress. That means that Cate Blanchett just moved into the pole position for best actress. And I loved her speech, particularly the thanks to George....
Jessica Alba should get a scientific and technical award, just for being Jessica Alba.
Oh god, kill me now.
The montages before the acting awards is nice. And the best actress for 2008 is.... Marion Cotillard! That's quite the upset. I wonder if there was some vote-splitting going on?
I'd been hoping that "Roderick Jaynes" (aka the Coen Brothers) would win for best film editing.... it would have been interesting to see who would have come up to pick up the little gold man.
Best song... not a huge surprise, since none of the songs from Enchanted were going to win (vote splitting and all that). Nice speech, though the best part of that bit was probably the John Travolta 707 gag.
Wow... Marketa came out and got to do her half of the acceptance speech... after the commercial! Has that ever happened before?
In a year that had Bermgan and Antononi die, Heath Ledger was the last name on the in memorium reel.
Diablo Cody wins for best original screenplay. Not a great surprise--it's a great story.
Daniel Day-Lewis wins best actor. About the only real surprise is best actress. Quite frankly, it's been boring so far. I'm going to bed.
If, by some magical time machine, the Beatles covered Stairway to Heaven in 1963, it might sound a bit like this:
Parky is just along for the ride….
See also Part II, Part III, and Part IV.
Related: Sellers does various English accents.
TopGear sends a Smart Car into a concrete barrier at 70 mph.
And in other totally unrelated news, blondes make men stupid.
Two quick hits:
- Dick Cavett follows up a second time about the legendary Norman Mailer performance on his show.
- Errol Morris finally finishes his three-part epic about the Fenton photographs from the Crimea. It’s a surprising conclusion, and it’s surprising how it arrived at his conclusion.
Check out this clip of Gore Vidal and the recently late Norman Mailer going at it on the Dick Cavett show.
It’s kinda of sad, but I think that it does say something that pop culture used to be about two great writers getting into it and today all we can seem to talk about is whatever drug-addled celebrity most recently flashed her (or his) genitals.
Seriously—when was the last time that Leno or Letterman actually had writers of the stature of Vidal and Mailer on their shows? Beverly Sills used to appear on Carson; today we get manufactured pop tarts who can’t stay in tune even when they’re lipsynching….
OK, I might be overstating the case a bit, but I was flabbergasted when I first saw this on broadcast television:

