Took me a while to figure out the whole appeal of Facebook.  Then I decided to take the leap.  And wouldn’t you know it… I like it.  A lot.  It doesn’t really allow for blogging and rants like I can do here, but for now that’s fine.  I’m deeply into writing the new screenplay, and when I have the time or the inclination to type, that’s keys better spent anway.  But for just keeping tabs on the usual suspects, and corrupting new and long-absent minds, Facebook does the trick.

See you there…

14 out of 24 correct predictions.  Feh!
Justice for Kate!
Hugh Jackman kicks ass!
The show rocked.  I’ve enjoyed hosts in the past, but never the show itself.  This one?  Killer.

Overall, the Academy Award nominations themselves were a huge disappointment. The Best Picture field, especially, borders on the bizarre. Nonetheless, 2008 is notable for the fact that I am finally going to accomplish something I have been trying to do since I was 17: see every major nominated film before the show.

At this point — and with the caveat that Foreign Language, documentary and short subject nominees are necessarily excluded — I need only see “Kung Fu Panda”, “The Duchess” and “Australia”, and I’m done. “Hellboy 2″, nominated for Achievement in Make-Up, is the recipient of my annual, discretionary Norbit Exemption. It is my intention to squeeze in the documentaries “Man on Wire” and “Encounters at the End of the World”, and the Foreign entries “Waltz with Bashir” and “Revanche”, but that’s up to my 2-year-old.

That said, here are my thoughts on the films of 2008, taking in to consideration that I have seen only 37 of them.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
My Oscar Prediction: Sean Penn in “Milk”
My Personal Choice: Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon”

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
My Oscar Prediction: Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight”
My Personal Choice: Charlie McDermott in “Frozen River” (not nominated)

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
My Oscar Prediction: Meryl Streep in “Doubt”
My Personal Choice: Kate Winslet in “Revolutionary Road” (not nominated)

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
My Oscar Prediction: Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
My Personal Choice: Viola Davis in “Doubt”

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR
My Oscar Prediction: “WALL-E”
My Personal Choice: “WALL-E” *

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION
My Oscar Prediction: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
My Personal Choice: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” *

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
My Oscar Prediction: Claudio Miranda, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
My Personal Choice: Anthony Dod Mantle, “Slumdog Millionaire”

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
My Oscar Prediction: Jacqueline West, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
My Personal Choice: Jacqueline West, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” **

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
My Oscar Prediction: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
My Personal Choice: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
My Oscar Prediction: “Man on Wire” *****

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
My Oscar Prediction: “The Witness” *****

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
My Oscar Prediction: Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
My Personal Choice: Chris Dickens, “Slumdog Millionaire”

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
My Oscar Prediction: “Waltz with Bashir” *****

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
My Oscar Prediction: Greg Cannom, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
My Personal Choice: Greg Cannom, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” *

ACHIEVEMENT IN ORIGINAL SCORE
My Oscar Prediction: A.R. Rahman, “Slumdog Millionaire”
My Personal Choice: Alexandre Desplat, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

ACHIEVEMENT IN ORIGINAL SONG
My Oscar Prediction: “Down to Earth” (WALL-E) (Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman)

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
My Oscar Prediction: “Slumdog Millionaire”
My Personal Choice: “Slumdog Millionaire”

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
My Oscar Prediction: “Presto”

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
My Oscar Prediction: “The Pig”

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
My Oscar Prediction: Richard King, “The Dark Knight”
My Personal Choice: Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood, “WALL-E”

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
My Oscar Prediction: Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick, “The Dark Knight”
My Personal Choice: Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty, “Slumdog Millionaire”

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
My Oscar Prediction: Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
My Personal Choice: Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
My Oscar Prediction: “Slumdog Millionaire” by Simon Beaufoy
My Personal Choice: “Slumdog Millionaire” by Simon Beaufoy

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
My Oscar Prediction: “Milk” by Dustin Lance Black
My Personal Choice: “Frozen River” by Courtney Hunt

MY 2008 TOP FIVE (alphabetically)
“Doubt”
“Frost/Nixon”
“Frozen River”
“Revolutionary Road”
“Slumdog Millionaire”

Bobby Standridge created this, set to “Malignant Narcissism” by Rush.  This has been endorsed by the band (it is on drummer Neil Peart’s site here), and is posted for HQ QuickTime download to your hard drive here.  You might consider checking it out through these alternate methods, as some of the text might be unacceptably small here.  Very cool.

LIBERALVIEWER posted this to YouTube: “When President Barack Obama mentioned atheists (‘non-believers’) in his inaugural address on January 20, 2009, it didn’t seem offensive to me in any way, but that didn’t stop our friends at Fox News (‘Fox and Friends Saturday’ on January 24, 2009) from drumming up a controversy as you can see in this video.”

I was watching the Inauguration, with pride and hope and history and joy and relief. And the message I kept hearing was, “We are one country. This country belongs to everybody in it. Everybody has a voice. Everybody has a part to play. Everybody’s experience matters.  Everybody — except you.  Everybody except you and the roughly 15% of Americans who don’t believe in God.”

Read more here.

In researching some circa-1993 pop culture stuff for the new screenplay, I came across this and just had to share. 

This was the big promotional campaign in which AT&T predicted how their products and services would revolutionize the future.  There’s ample room to debate whether AT&T really led the way on a lot of this stuff, but it is still interesting nonetheless. 

Take it away, Tom Selleck of 1993!

Writing!  Like a fiend!

After what’s felt like an eternity of hypothetical rumination – and two years of not-so-hypothetical prep work – the Great California Experiment is now about fifty days away.  Which is a dreadful amount of time within which to complete a screenplay.  Yet somehow, between being daddy to a toddler and pissing away valuable hours at Comcast, I am pulling it off.  The plan is to have at least one hot, fresh piece of work to hit the street with as soon as I get back to town.  The second phase of the agenda would be to polish up some dormant material from 2000-2003, as well as bump up some backburner stuff that has been too long ignored.  No problem!!

Anyway, here’s a sneak of the new project.  Among the tricks I use to keep myself motivated is to create marketing materials for the movie-to-be.  Hey, it works.