Hey! Five outta seven ain't bad.

Very very happy to finally see LOTR hit and score every nom (shame that the last time it happened was "Titanic"...Burp!)... I knew it'd happen this time around. When a trilogy of films is just SO undeniably GREAT, it's impossible to avoid 'em. The next time an entire country's population gets involved in the making of a film trilogy, I'm sure it'll happen again.

My misses: Sean Penn for Best Actor (over BIll Murray) and Rene Zellweger for Best Supporting Actress (over Patricia Clarkson). Congrats to both of 'em.

To those who, for whatever reason, visit this site and wonder WHY it takes so long for new posts from your humble narrator? Why, oh why must you wait, sometimes weeks at a time, for pearls of wisdom (or something) to drip from my sage-like lips?
The answer is: Never you mind. Please understand and know that while you sleep, I am tirelessly working toward the betterment of humankind and that you, gentle reader, will be, in the long run, richly rewarded. So there.

I know... I can just smell it...there are those out there just dying to know what I think of Ralph Nader entering the 2004 race for the Presidency. To tell the truth, I'm not 100% pleased by the fact. I can certainly see why some consider it an ego trip par excellence (unlike 2000, which was a REAL run, and for which I continue to steadfastly refuse to accept ONE IOTA of blame for the "siphoning" of votes away from Gore--he lost THAT little fiasco all by his li'l ol' lonely)...My only thinking, and I'll just bet I'm right, is that Nader will do his level best to steer the Democratic party line a little more leftward by (somehow) getting into the debates and by bringing up issues that "centrists" Kerry or Edwards currently daren't. Not that I think there's anything wrong with that! But I imagine that the backlash (such as that from the L.A. Times' liberal stalwart Robert Scheer) will drive Ralph well out of the process earlier than later. So there you have it. You're welcome.

Other issues I'm following:
Gay Marriage
The Imminent Death of Planet Earth
Oscar

From the BBC:
Bush accused of anti-gay stance
Conservative groups want the recent gay marriages declared illegal...Democrats and gay groups in the US have condemned President George W Bush's call for a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriages.

So let me get this straight: Conservatives don't want gays to have lots of promiscuous noncommital gay sex with multiple partners... and ALSO don't want them to settle down into committed monogamous relationships with just ONE partner. Am I getting this right? Also...is there some sort of Gay/Straight Marriage balance we have to keep? I mean...hypothetically, of course...for every gay marriage that succeeds, does a straight one fail? Seems the failure rate for hetero marriages has ALREADY done the work of "devaluing" marriage the way the tighty-righties think gay marriage would. So...Why not a Constitutional Amendment banning divorce? Eh, Mr. Bush? Eh? Eh? (poke poke)

Hmm, maybe I better not give him any ideas.


This also from the BBC:

Earth almost put on impact alert
Astronomers have revealed how they came within minutes of alerting the world to a potential asteroid strike last month.

OMIGOD! Shades of that prescient and putrescent film "Meteor" (1979) with Sean Connery and Natalie Wood! This freakin' ROCKS! (those who've seen it might get that gag)


The Upcoming Oscars

Okay, I'm going on the record:
Best Picture: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Best Actor: Bill Murray
Best Actress: Charlize Theron
Best Director: Peter Jackson
Best Screenplay: Lost in Translation
Best Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Clarkson

If I get 'em all right, will someone buy me dinner?

Well, as you might imagine, this past month has been a bit of a blur, what with Dad's death on the 5th and the ensuing process of going through his things and wrapping up his affairs, all culminating with a memorial wake we held for him on 1/24 at his favorite bar, the Red Brick Saloon, in beautiful downtown San Andreas, CA. While it was great to see a large part of the family present, it sucks that it takes a death to pull everyone together-- nevertheless, I think we sent Pop off in fine and modest fashion, in a way that I think he would've appreciated.

In the meantime, school continues. I'm in the early stages of writing a paper on the Smithsonian's exhibit on the Enola Gay, the controversy around it and the ways in which it speaks to how museums portray "history" and how they can get bogged down in conflicting ideologies. No easy topics here!

This year is already destined--or doomed, depending on your p.o.v.--to be a very busy one for your humble narrator. Setting aside the events of January, here's what I've got on my plate for 2004:

1) Graduation in June
2) Seeking my first teaching job
3) Student teaching in Summer
4) A trip to Seattle and Sequim for Deb's 20 High School
Reunion in July
5) Hopefully actually FINDING a job in time to work in
September
6) Another trip to Seattle in October for Daniel and Helen's
wedding
7) Hopefully a nice peaceful rest of the year. Other events taking place this year are: Bridgette's starting High School, going to see Baz Luhrmann's production of "La Boheme" in March, and....well, hell, ain't that enough?

Movies seen recently: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Monster. DVDs purchased: The Big Lebowski, Velvet Goldmine. More soon, on the Movie Review page.