Here are my predictions on who will win, and who I think should win. Let me know what you think before or after sunday.
Best Actor
Bill Murray: Should Win
Bill Murray: Will Win
Bill Will get it because the Academy is like a bad parent, they reward you when it is to late. Bill deserved this for Rushmore, and will win this year with his second hit. Just as Russell Crowe won for gladiator when he should of won for the Insider.
Supporting Actor
Tim Robins: Should Win
Benicio Del Toro: Will Win
Both actors are fantastic and deserve it. However, Tim has been passed over way to many times, and Benicio for me was a leading character in 21 grams.
Best Actress
Charlize Theron:will win
Supporting Actress
?: Should Win
Holly Hunter: Will Win
Animated Feature
Finding Nemo all the way. amazing film and pixar should be recognized for their innovation to the industry.
Finding Nemo: Should Win
Finding Nemo: Will Win
Directing
Mystic River:should win
Lord of the rings:Will win. This is done and is a gimmick, jackson is good but lets see what he can do with something else
Best Picture
lost in translation or mystic river:should win. there are a ton more movies that should be up here
LOFTR:Will win
Screenplay Original
They all deserve it in this category
finding nemo:should win
lost in translation:Will win because of all the media hype. it does deserve it though
Great article at Business Week Online today. Software.
The article follows two individuals that will be graduating from college soon, similar to myself. One student is at CMU the other in Nagpur, India. The advantages for Indian grads seems to reflect what the US saw in its tech industry in early 2000, just less innovative. The Indian student exclaims how she does not want to do the grunt work that the US is farming out, but would prefer to be an entrepreneur. The article paints a nice picture of the two different cultural situations, and the situation I find myself in. How can US programmers compete with people who will work for 1/5th the salary?
I don't think you can, now US programmers are expected to be socialites and creative geniuses. I think this is a good thing in the long run, but this will have a greater negative effect than simply outsourcing manufacturing like the US does for auto's and electronics. I believe this will greatly effect our GNP, creative industries and national security, so in short we have to be careful.
Over the weekend I made it into Boston to see the Fog of War. Pretty good flick, a review may be forthcoming. What was interesting is the music was composed by Philip Glass. Mr. Glass also composed the music for the qatsi trilogy I am viewing now. The way the music was used and the imagery from the quatsi series and Fog of War definitely were similar and quite enjoyable.
Tonight I skipped Powaqatsi and moved right to Naqoyaqatsi, in short I think it was the easiest and most pleasurable to watch, but not necessarily the best one. A review will also be forthcoming. I am looking at these reviews as a way to bring my film appreciation to the next level. A cool side effect is if people actually read them and get something out of them.
A full and crazy week is ahead, today I found out that if I can find a CS professor to agree to my demands, my final CS credit can be an ISP. I will of course be choosing to roll another version of iAlarm, this version will be huge if I have my way. I also have a major project for each class due Friday, Monday and Tuesday, so why am I blogging, time to work!
Today I spent the entire day programming on the computer. I did some work, and then started programming some new projects I thought of. I should of been doing some homework but since Friday I have been getting a lot of great ideas for new projects. My ideas have been fueled by what is going on in the world of bloging and my exploration of this movableType system (www.movabletype.org). I feel like I am back in high school and learning about how the Internet works.
The movableType system is so cool because of how component based it is. When creating files its very similar to writing PHP or JSP pages, where the server processes the file and spits out vaild HTML for the browser. Some is a bit overly complicated for what it does, but for a geek its all fun and games.
On a side note, the winter this year sucks. Today it was almost 40 degrees F, unfortunately this will be a short winter.
ko-yaa-nis-qatsi (from the Hopi language), n.
1. crazy life. 2. life in turmoil. 3. life out of balance.
4. life disintegrating. 5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.
This film takes some dedication to watch because it is a different kind of film. There are no actors, no narrator, no sex or nudity, not even foul language.
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Koyaanisqatsi takes you on a journey and shows the worlds transformation from nature to a society dominated by technology. The film is broken into four sections; resources, elements, grids and technology.
Resources: the film opens up displaying massive and vast land scenery. Lots of mountains and rolling clouds.
Elements: this section opens up showing a mother sun bathing with her two children on a beach, the camera slowly pans up and as the beach horizon ends you see two massive domes that look like chemical processing plants. This was the most memorable scene for me in the film. As you probably have guessed this section shows how we humans exploit natures resources through the use of technology.
Grids: When looking down on a city you can make out a grid where traffic can flow, when you look over a circuit board you see a grid where electrons can flow. Grids correlates our behavior to the behavior of machines, predictable, controllable and malleable. Scenes of highways, societies efficient use of technology, demolished buildings and computer chip design transition us into Technology.
Technology: Our use of technology to make activities more efficient are now shown as exploiting, dehumanizing and destroying our societies workers. Scenes of assembly lines, typists, traders and other overly mechanical jobs are shown which over time will debilitate a worker. I believe Mr. Reggio was trying to compare the malleability of humans to the destruction of our cities buildings.
The overall theme in the film is showing how our society has moved from using technology to benefit our lives to the position we are in now, where our lives our dominated by technology. Our society is out of balance and we need to find another more balanced way of life. You will have to watch through its entirety or just skip to the end to find the directors interpretation of Koyaanisqatsi.
To help move this film along, mind altering drugs, beer or simply the fast forward button will help keep your attention span. The concept is good, but for a sober individual some of the scenes are a bit slow moving or repetitive.
This bloging concept seems foreign to me. I want to see what all the hoopla is about and take care of some other ulterior motives. If you find my blog, post a comment and let me know.
My hope with this site is to use it as an editorial on current technology and film.
Where does extended entry get placed? I need to really make this website look better, I wish I could buy more time.