Tonight...
... Sharon and I went to see Selected Shorts -- Isaiah Sheffer (sp?) in person. Now we know the face to associate with the voice when we listen to the show on Public Radio. He read Woody Allen's short story "The Kuglemass Episode", which was definitely the best of the 3 stories that were read. I got the tickets for Sharon for Valentines, since its her favorite radio program. And she loved it.

Afterwards we both felt awake enough to take on seeing Million Dollar Baby. Since we knew we wanted to see it at some point, we figured we'd go tonight ahead of the Oscars. While it was a very powerful film, after seeing it I now place my bets on The Aviator: Best Film and Director. It was a much bigger acheivement, in my opinion. I figure "Best Movie" should, if possible, be one that you'd want to see more than once, and MDB is not in that category for me. Though Hilary Swank would definitely deserve the Oscar if she were to win a second one. So, why don't I enchant you all with my picks for the big awards? ...

Even though Kate Winslet is someone I quite like (I'll want to see a movie if she's in it), Hilary gets my pick. Annette Bening was great too, and may be the more likely candidate. For actor, something tells me Jamie Foxx is the likely pick, but I did't see Ray. So, I'll go with Don Cheadle (for Hotel Rwanda, not Ocean's 12). For supporting actor, I thought Alan Alda was completely miscast and the only real flaw in the Aviator, so he's out for me. It'd have to be Morgan Freeman. Supporting actress -- of course I didn't see every film, but I'll go with Cate Blanchett. And Eternal Sunshine for original screenplay. It would have been nominated for best picture instead of Finding Neverland, if only the Academy had actually asked my opinion. For Documentary Feature, I only saw two of the nominees, and I will say that it should not be either of them (Born Into Brothels, Super Size Me -- the latter was funny, but should not have been nominated). Hopefully I'll get to see the other Docs sometime this year. The only Doc short I saw was Sister Rose's Passion. A bit of an anti-Mel'sPassion film, and I think it would be a worthy choice. But I'll pick Mel's pic for Makeup. A further this-one-should-NOT-win pick is I-Robot for visual effects. Video game rendering should not count as an award winning visual effect. Seems to me that if you are overly aware of the effect, it isn't a success. That's about all that I have any opinion on. Aviator will sweep. And I hope Chris Rock plays himself in his role as host -- if he does it should be a good show.
  posted by John : 11:35 PM

 
Interface
It strikes me as a bit odd that we went from having cigarette lighters in cars, their original sole purpose being the lighting of cigarettes, to now where cars have several such things on the console or even in the trunk, and its become accepted that their purpose is to charge portable devices. As it is, when I'm on a long road trip, I'll have a power inverter plugged into the cigarette lighter to give me one 2-prong outlet, then a USB adapter plugged into that to power an mp3 player, which is has a mini-jack that is wired to another interface that goes into the cassette player. Makes me wonder why I don't just play tapes and start smoking?

  posted by John : 8:46 PM

 
House
What's been happening lately: we're having the exterior of our house painted, with seveal rotten boards that have been bothering us since we bought the place finally replaced in the meantime. I wish I had some time off to help out the guys doing the work. I'm a good assistant and collaborator, but not so good at doing jobs such as this on my own. The weather here has been inconsistent, but on the verge of real Texas spring and warm days breaking through any time now. It feels good to be taking care of our property.

I'm obsessed with structures and materials more than usual lately. It amazes me that designs of houses in this area basically conform to designs from northern parts of North America: wood structures with sloped roofs, capable of holding a snow load. Ridiculous. Then you drive a few hrs south to Mexico and structures are built more like they are in Europe: from stone. Well, concrete anyway. But there wood is something you use maybe for the front door, and the for the furniture inside. Not just because of the scarcity, but because the middle pig wasn't as smart as the 3rd one, who used bricks to build his house. When I watch an Italian movie from the 50s, with all the exterior shots, I've noticed how everything is paved in stone in Rome, not a blade of grass in sight. I bet they didn't have a much problem with muddy shoes there. Our place is very much unlike Rome. Made of wood, and not much paving, with lots of mud when it rains. Which is fine, and natural and all, but owning a house and looking after it I sure do admire a nice concrete patio when I see one.
Our house now - before the painting has begun.
  posted by John : 3:10 AM

 
New Alamo
The Alamo Drafthouse is a local combination restaurant / movie theater, with really fun programming. They're opening a new venue on the south (our) side of town next month. You might enjoy reading about the cool events they have planned. Duck Soup with an all-soup menu has me interested.
  posted by John : 10:05 PM

 
Super Bowl
Its been nine years since I flew to Dallas on Super Bowl Sunday, for a job interview the following day. I got a job offer, but didn't end up working for that company in the end. But it was the start of a chain of events that resulted in meeting Sharon and calling Texas home. I think the Cowboy's won that year, and the thing I remember was watching the celebration in the streets (on the TV in the hotel room), was that quite unlike the World-Series street parties in Toronto a few years before, that everyone stayed in their cars while they' whooped it up. Probably for their own saftety, as downtown Dallas isn't a place known for being a friendly place to walk around at night. Or to even be at night.

Tonight I'll be flying to Dallas on Super Bowl Sunday, for work in the morning. I'm not an American Football fan at all (I just learned from the radio which teams are playing), and in that I have no access to what amounts to a big ice-breaker with men in the business world -- analyzing the Sunday games. I'd say my indifference to the game is that I never was any good at playing it when I was young. And if you weren't good at playing something then, there wasn't anyone in the school system who would help you to become good at it. I do like watching baseball, and hockey -- those were things we played alot, on the street, in parking lots.

Maybe tonight I'll drive to the Angelika and see the new Pedro Aldomovar movie. It sounds good, and Sharon wouldn't mind because I'd probably want to go see it again with her later. But I might get there a bit late for that, so then I'd probably do the same thing I did on that first trip to Dallas: head to the hotel, flip on the TV and watch the end of the game.

  posted by John : 9:09 AM