IMG_2059
Originally uploaded by felixdaacat.
Looking at the Orioles and hoping that spring training is going to be nothing like the regular season. Except the bats. Not the pitching. And definitely not the losing.
Anyway. I was searching for spring training pictures and came across this set from last season’s penultimate game. We were at this game. So let’s play, “Where’s BrowserMetrics?” Squint real hard and find us.
The preliminary count of the winner of the BrowserMetrics Oscar Pool in Imax 3D. I still have to tabulate the votes and make sure that my math is correct. Or I can look at the Seeds count.
Looks to be Jeremy Benthem aka The Seed.
I actually got the most points but I am ineligible for the prize.
I’d like to thank you, my participants, for making this fun. It’s you who make it all worth while.
UPDATE 12:34 AM EST
I think this is the final correct tally.
BrowserMetrics 37
Jeremy Bentham 33
Wyman Lee 30
Riss 25
Marge 23
CapSwell 22
Akeshia 22
Annie 22
I think I’ve closed the google form, here’s the link to the
final submissions. It’s what I’ll be using to tally up the scores. And it looks like I’m gonna have to start putting your names in the hat because they all look the same.
So who’s live blogging this? Or better yet, who’s hosting the live chat? And if you join twitter you may see some of my own bitter tweets.
UPDATE 9:46 PM EST
I forgot to add that I don’t actually win if I do get the most points.
The count so far:
UPDATE 10:03 PM EST
I’m building a lead! Suckers! :p
UPDATE 10:30 PM EST
Heh heh Hurt Locker winning sound!
UPDATE 10:38 PM EST
UPDATE 11:12 PM EST
The Hurt Locker is looking to be the winner of the night! But its gonna come down the the foreign picture to make or break the Oscar Pool.
UPDATE 11:19 PM EST
It looks as if the two time defending champion, riss, has been dethroned. I believe that it is the Wyman who may take her crown. But we still have to do the tabulating of results.
UPDATE 11:50 PM EST
Sandra Bullock looks to give Jeremy Benthem the winning hand.
UPDATE 11:56 PM EST
And it looks to be Jeremy Benthem’s! Unless he gets shot…
Shutter Island is Martin Scorsese doing his thriller thing. It is based on a Dennis Lehane novel as if that means anything to you. Lehane did a few novels that have been turned into movies perhaps you’ve heard of Mystic River or of Gone Baby Gone. He’s a man of New England, and Scorsese is a man of New York. How does this affect any thing? I don’t know but my review is suddenly going off the rails into a different reality…
Shutter Island is about two federal marshals conducting a manhunt on the eponymous island mental institution looking for an escaped patient. She was supposed to have disappeared without a trace. The wardens have no idea what happened.
Unfortunately, it may take you awhile to figure out what the twists and turns in the movie’s plot. Or if you’ve watched a lot of movies, you’ll expect the unexpected.
Scorsese works in a genre that seems out of his interests. But, he did do the Val Lewton retrospective for Universal. And he does bring some of the extraordinary creepiness that was trademark of Lewton. In fact, the strangeness of the film reminded me of The Curse of the Cat People. It’s not what it seems which was the same for both films.
One thing: don’t watch with your psychiatrist mom she’ll know everyone’s crazy and complain that it’s just like work.
3 of 5 stars.
I am surprised that the Pulitzer people deem comics worthy of serious consideration of an artform. They’ve given a Pulitzer to Art Spiegelman’s Maus and lately they’ve awarded the Pulitzer for fiction to an otaku. Since I am myself a comic book fan, I’m glad that they do think it worthy of praise. So I searched out the one Pulitzer winner dealing with comic books and men in tights, Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
It’s the story of the infancy of the comic book industry in the United States. It covers the beginnings of the super hero genre from the introduction of Superman to the first twilight of the industry in the Congressional hearings into juvenile delinquency in the 50s. It the story of two cousins who embark on a blaze of creativity bringing into being several superheroes. It is the story of immigration and assimilation into the United States as all stories of the populace of the American people is really about. It is the story of Jews in America, and the story about escaping who we really are. They are looking for their own übermensch — the Golem or Warsaw, an alien from the planet Krypton, the un-imprisonable Escapist — to do battle with the Germans.
The plot follows Josef Kavalier as he escapes the Prague ghetto before its demise by the Nazis, flees to America, and becomes a comic book artist. The plot also involves Sammy Clay, Josef’s cousin and collaborator, and Rosa Saks the bohemian girl in love with Josef.
Kavalier and Clay begin with their super heroes a few months after the introduction of Superman. They create the Escapist, the super hero who cannot be confined by any jail, box or ropes. He fights to free people from injustice, and at the time he fights the Nazis. He is Kavalier and Clay’s Jewish super man. They also created Luna Moth, a sensual lady crime fighter, inspired by Rosa Saks. These two super heroes are their most famous creations.
Kavalier is the artist. He sees the potential artistry in the comic book medium, and he attempts to break out of the squares of the format. Clay is the prolific writer. He has plenty of stories to tell. He writes all their stories. Brothers by their pen, they create what becomes legend. They mix with the early comics industry making friends and making legends.
The book is written like Kavelier and Clay were real comic creators. Mixing the real New York city in as part of the milieu. Gotham. Metropolis. Empire City. America.
I really liked this book. The comics creation part early was the boring stuff. The story afterwards of the two creators is the important interesting part of the book. It wasn’t they who created art, but art created them. They lived their lives open and free in reaction to being comic creators. It makes me want to be a creator myself.
A-
Japanese Food
Originally uploaded by Danny Choo.
Is there somewhere around here just as sophisticated in their ramen ordering?
Mmm. I could go for a big bowl of soup.
I wish I could show this to you, but I don’t want to shoot your email addys all over the internet without express written consent. Here’s a snippet of the most interesting of responses: the ones where we disagree on the most. I think we don’t have a clue on these choices. We just blindly picked.
Live Action Short
Foreign Language
Doucmentary Short
Those are from the submissions as of tonight (this post time). It’s got at least one extra ballot where someone changed there mind. You still can too!
Can we call this Old School now?
Thanks to the one and only incomparable Annie, we receive an appreciation from one of last year’s winners. Annie ruled the micro points portion of our contest, won a copy of Bolt, and shared her little ones (minus one) enjoyment of this Disney Pixar attempt. Although, those multi-prize times are gone, they’ll be back soon. This year, though, it’s a cage match to the death. “N men enter 1 man leaves!” Our goal this year: beat the two time champ riss.
Consider this an open thread on the Oscar (pool) race
