Oscar snooze

The 81st Oscar Nominations were announced this morning, and I gotta say, the Academy plays it safer and safer each year. It's pretty much at the point (and has been for a while) where they're as meaningless as the Grammys. That doesn't mean, of course, that I won't still try to see as many as possible in time for the ceremony. Anyway, here are just a couple of my concerns/complaints/comments:

-The Reader? Really? Where did that come from? I'll admit, I haven't seen it yet. But from what I was hearing, it's pretty terrible. But somehow it racked up a Best Picture nod, and Kate Winslet got her Best Actress nom for this film, and not Revolutionary Road (which is what she won her Golden Globe for). Weird.

-Four actors needed to be nominated from Doubt? I realize two of them are Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who could sneeze on camera and get the noms, but really now, four? I always think it's too bad when two actors from the same film get nominated in the same category (Amy Adams and Viola Davis are both up for Supporting Actress for Doubt). I guess if they deserved it... But then people like Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky) get the shaft. Doesn't seem right...

-The Academy failed to put an animated film up for Best Picture. WALL-E would have been the perfect precedent-setter. At least it's still nominated for animation...

-The Wrestler didn't get a Best Pic nom. Mickey Rourke better clean house in Best Actor, or I'll be bummed.

-13 nominations for The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button? I enjoyed the film; it was thoroughly entertaining (and young Brad Pitt was in A River Runs Through It-hottness level, so the makeup people should def win), but I'm not sure it needed 13. I mean, Titanic it ain't.

-Speaking of Titanic, for personal reasons, I would've liked to have seen a double-nom for Kate & Leo for Revolutionary Road. Guess they're gonna have to pair up again in another 10 years--third time's a charm!

Not all of the nominations are bad though. Here are some things I'm stoked for:

-Josh Brolin and Robert Downey Jr. up for Best Supporting Actor for Milk and Tropic Thunder, respectively. Brolin was near-perfect, but man, I'd love to see the Academy honor a comedy for once...

-Waltz With Bashir (which AP features as our lead film review in the issue that's out now) is up for Best Foreign Language Film.

-Slumdog Millionaire! Stoked for director Danny Boyle and A.R. Rahman, who was responsible for one of the most engaging soundtracks/scores. (It was nice that MIA's "Paper Planes" was used in the actual film, and not just the trailer--we're looking at you, Pineapple Express.)

-Mickey Rourke!! He got completely ignored for Sin City (which should've been his big, bad comeback), so better late than never.


Anyway, we'd love to know what you think about the noms. Who are you rooting for? Who got left out? Let us know!




Side note: Anyone else notice that the nominations were announced on the one-year anniversary of Heath Ledger's death, who's up for Best Supporting Actor for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight? (As pointed out to me by our production director, John). Conspiracy theorists are go!

LOST boys (and girls)

I don't know if it's a travesty or a testament to the freedom afforded to American citizens, but I know people who are more excited for the Lost premiere tonight than they were to wake up this morning with a new president officially in place.

To me that's pretty sad. But then again, my feelings on Lost are no secret...

I might be more apt to watch the show if the episodes were cast with dolls, instead of real people:



But then again, I don't watch Heroes, either...

Here's my plea to my coworkers who are obsessed-much (ahem, Tim and Scott)--please keep the re-caps and analytical conversations on the other end of the office. Unless you want to hear me complain more than normal.

Name change, anyone?

So, I get some seriously weird e-mails in my work account. I'm not even talking about the garden variety spam that everyone gets. I mean honest-to-goodness press releases about some weird stuff.

For example, here is the subject line of one I received yesterday: LASIK Surgery for "Barack Hussein Obama"
Hmm, okay. Usually, I just delete right through these kinds of messages. However, I've been wearing glasses since I was 7 (and got contacts when I was 13), and LASIK has been a dream of mine ever since the episode of The Newlyweds when Jessica Simpson had the procedure. (Ah, Nick and Jessica. The good old days.)

Now, in honor of the inauguration Tuesday, this company is supposedly giving away FREE LASIK to anyone named Barack Hussein Obama.

Can someone with experience please let me know how long the name-changing process takes? I mean, would it be worth it to switch over, get the surgery, then switch back?

I don't even know if President-elect Obama needs corrective eyewear (let alone LASIK), but if he does, he should probably cash in on this offer. I know I would.

Either way, let's file this under marketing gone awry.

Winter Wonders

There's a bunch of snow in Cleveland. Like, a lot. And more on the way. Today we actually got a little break in the precipitation and the sun was out. It's amazing how much warmer 9 degrees F feels when there's blue sky to go along with it.

Anyway, winter is maybe not the most obvious inspiration for music (or, well, maybe that one AFI album proves otherwise...)

Regardless, I can't name too many "snow" songs off the top of me head. But earlier today, Scott brought a CD into my office by a band called Blizzard Of 78. First off, he was slightly offended that they would name themselves after a Nada Surf song. But I assured him that that was "Blizzard Of 77." He left the disc with me anyway, because the press release says for fans of: "My Morning Jacket, Wilco and Nick Cave." (I believe his quote was, "This should've been mailed to you.")

True. And I'll try to get around to listening to it as soon as I'm done working on some pieces for our upcoming 100 Bands issue. I promise.

But the whole conversation did remind me how much I love that Nada Surf song. Check it out below:



Then shortly afterward, I was talking with our art director Christopher about the band I'm From Barcelona, which led to a convo about our mutual love for Matt Pond PA, which led me to remember (with some help from CB's iTunes Genius), that I heart big-time Winter Songs, and saw Matt Pond play on that tour and it was amazing. (I miss going to shows at the Paradise in Boston!)

So maybe I have a lot more chilly music than I realized. What about you? What's frosting over your iPod this winter? (Besides, you know, the actual weather.)

Whipped topping

Considering Cleveland is buried under a foot of snow (literally), somehow all I can think about is ice cream sundaes (and sledding, but that's another story). Every good sundae needs some whipped cream on top. But since I'm trying out this whole "healthy eating" thing as part of my 2009 resolutions, I decided to go for a more "metaphorical" Sunday sundae.

So. Here's a vid to serve as the whipped cream to your weekend. If you like Wilco. And Radiohead. (That should include you.)



And Stereogum explains:

We got a rare glimpse of Phil Selway singer-songwritering at one of the 7 Worlds Collide shows in Auckland this week. As mentioned, the series yielded something just as rare and even more bloggable in Jeff Tweedy's take on "Fake Plastic Trees." And here it is. The world-collision quota is nearly fulfilled by this performance alone: Jeff on vocals, RadioEd and Phil on their respective instruments, Johnny Marr on his. (The footage is sorta crappy, but you can also make out BTW Liam Finn playing the role of Jonny, which would make sense 'cause this whole party series is papa Neil's baby.) As you'd expect from a makeshift band comprising 40% of Radiohead and 100% of awesome, it's a very faithful and dynamic cover, all big guitars and perfect sound swell for "She looks like the real thing..." Also not surprising but great to hear -- Jeff gives good Thom.

The performance is in conjunction with the reprise of Neil Finn's 2001 all-star live album 7 Worlds Collide, all the musicians were in New Zealand to record the followup. Jeff's a new addition to the team. Good one, too. Expect the 7 Worlds Collide Part Deux this year.

Bon appetit!

Aziz! Scrubs! Yes!

So, the new season of Scrubs premiered last night--on its new home, ABC. Woo! (If you missed it, they replayed it tonight so you could have caught up.) I'm a pretty big fan of this show (I got seasons 4 - 6 for Christmas this year), but I'm also not a fan of really awesome things over-staying their welcome. I'd rather see something I love go out on top. Regardless, I was still hopeful that a new network and some new John Dorian facial hair would keep the comedy coming.

My fears were pretty much put to rest as soon as I saw Aziz Ansari (of Human Giant fame) was playing one of the new interns. This dude is freakin' hilarious, and I think it will be fun to watch him in prime time. If you're not down with Scrubs, but want to see what I'm talking about, here's the first five minutes of the show. Aziz comes in around 1:20:



Funny, right? He's even funnier later in the episode, but you'll just have to head to abc.com to see for yourself. I suggest you troll YouTube for some of his stand up, too. Check out his stories about Kanye and M.I.A., especially.

Last plug for '08. Swear!

So after getting back to the office and perusing my iTunes and stacks of CDs precariously balanced in various places around my office, I realized that I left three key releases off my 2008 Soundtrack entry. (Which you should check out if you missed--it's got loads of jams!)

Also, in response to a commenter, I purposely left off a few discs (Gaslight Anthem, Anthony Green), because even though I did quite enjoy both of those releases, there are a few other editors (ahem, Scott & Jenn and Tim, respectively) who were way more obsessed-much with those releases, so I didn't want to take away from their love. :)

Anyway, here are three more to cap off your 2008. And then, I'm officially totally and completely SO over last year.

NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST SOUNDTRACK

THE STREETS/EVERYTHING IS BORROWED

FURGIVE DURDEN/RAZIA'S SHADOW: A MUSICAL