So I did end up watching the whole Oscar gala last night. Consequently, today has been a long day with little sleep for me since taking an afternoon nap is apparently more difficult to accomplish than I expected. So now I've used up all my strength and am ready to fall asleep.
In any case, I am happy I watched the Oscars this year. The Academy's attempt to make the gala "young and hip" this year was blatantly obvious and even commented on by the hosts. Anne Hathaway, 28, is the youngest person ever to host the Oscars. She shared the stage with another young star, 32-year-old James Franco. The two first-timers did a passable job. Franco was very calm and seemed even a bit stiff at times, but Hathaway countered that with a charming perkyness and unguestionable enthusiasm.
The winners (in categories on which I had some background knowledge of) were not surprising. Sure, the races in some of the categories apparently were quite close this year, especially in the cases of Best Director and Best Picture. This time The King's Speech and Tom Hooper came out on top instead of The Social Network and David Fincher.
The King's Speech was overall the biggest winner of the night by taking home 4 Oscars, all of them from major categories (Picture, Director, Original Screenplay [David Seidler] and Leading Actor [Colin Firth]). Christopher Nolan's Inception also received 4 Oscars, all of them in more technical categories (Cinematography [Wally Pfister], Visual Effects, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing). Both Supporting Actor and Actress awards went to The Fighter (Christian Bale and Melissa Leo) and just as most were expecting, the very pregnant Natalie Portman got the golden man for her remarkable performance in Black Swan. The winner of Best Adapted Screenplay this year was Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network.
Some of the best parts of the show were the nicely excecuted opening video, Kirk Douglas's introduction of the Best Supporting Actress nominees and consequent yet delayed announcement of the winner, as well as the acceptance speeches of both Melissa Leo and Colin Firth. Though this year's gala is not the best I've seen, it did have some aspects that will keep last night's show in my mind for a while. After all, there is a certain magic to hearing both swearing and Finnish from the mouths of fresh Oscar winners...
Tuesday 1 March 2011
Monday 28 February 2011
Pit stop: Oscar night
It's that time of the year again - the night of the annual Academy Awards. For five years I had a straight record with watching the Awards gala each year, but for the last two years I've been slipping. Last year I missed watching the gala completely and the year before that I only saw parts of it live. Now I'm attempting to get back on track.
I'm not sure if I'll be able to concentrate perfectly throughout the whole broadcast, but I'll try my best and will hopefully stay alert enough to at least keep track on the winners. I might even try blogging about it on REEL Time... We'll see.
In any case, the gala starts in an hour and I'll try to stay awake until the end sometime around 5am GMT.
I'm not sure if I'll be able to concentrate perfectly throughout the whole broadcast, but I'll try my best and will hopefully stay alert enough to at least keep track on the winners. I might even try blogging about it on REEL Time... We'll see.
In any case, the gala starts in an hour and I'll try to stay awake until the end sometime around 5am GMT.
Sunday 27 February 2011
Back to the Present
Yeah, maybe the post title isn't as clever as I wanted it to be, but it does serve its purpose.
For the last week I've been slipping badly, both concerning this blog as well as in many other ways. Of course I have a reason for last weekend with me being in London and thus forced to be offline for a while. But from Monday onwards I've had Internet access and still I've been messing up my posting rhythm - i.e. skipping some days when it comes to posting. It's been unplanned each time and allways due to both physical and mental exhaustion.
Well, I knew I needed some time to just relax and let myself be for a while and that's what I've been doing for the past two days. Today has really helped and I'm starting to feel like myself again so maybe I'll even manage to be a bit productive tomorrow and even figure out a plan for Monday's long day on campus. Today productivity has been the last thing on my mind. However, I still managed to progress with the 250-project, and it also played a big part in my feeling a bit better as well.
After an anime-filled day I figured out a live action film would be nice for a change. It had to be something fun and inspiring so I ended up watching Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985) [currently 72 on the list]. I've seen the film a few times before and, even though it's been around ive years or so since I last saw it, I could remeber most of what was about to happen next. However, that didn't matter at all - I was still laughing, squirming around and biting my nails as if I had never seen the film before.
Even though the whole film is brilliant and at times makes your stomach hurt from laughing too much, the best part of it (and the reason for most of those agonising fits of laughter) is the nutty professor Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown. Christopher Lloyd creates the ultimate demented genius that is the epitome of a crazy professor. Since my first acquaintance with Doc Brown around 15 years ago, I have compared every loony genious to him - and rarely found them as satisfying or fit for their purpose. You just can't get the same effect without the rolling eyes, electrified hair, a pure and unyielding love of science and a fluffy dog called Einstein.
I think I'll have to watch the sequels soon as well, just to see more of this magnificent nutty doctor and finish the story. After all, it is a trilogy and the ending of the first film simply begs to be followed soon by the next installation. But that shall have to wait until another day.
For the last week I've been slipping badly, both concerning this blog as well as in many other ways. Of course I have a reason for last weekend with me being in London and thus forced to be offline for a while. But from Monday onwards I've had Internet access and still I've been messing up my posting rhythm - i.e. skipping some days when it comes to posting. It's been unplanned each time and allways due to both physical and mental exhaustion.
Well, I knew I needed some time to just relax and let myself be for a while and that's what I've been doing for the past two days. Today has really helped and I'm starting to feel like myself again so maybe I'll even manage to be a bit productive tomorrow and even figure out a plan for Monday's long day on campus. Today productivity has been the last thing on my mind. However, I still managed to progress with the 250-project, and it also played a big part in my feeling a bit better as well.
After an anime-filled day I figured out a live action film would be nice for a change. It had to be something fun and inspiring so I ended up watching Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985) [currently 72 on the list]. I've seen the film a few times before and, even though it's been around ive years or so since I last saw it, I could remeber most of what was about to happen next. However, that didn't matter at all - I was still laughing, squirming around and biting my nails as if I had never seen the film before.
Even though the whole film is brilliant and at times makes your stomach hurt from laughing too much, the best part of it (and the reason for most of those agonising fits of laughter) is the nutty professor Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown. Christopher Lloyd creates the ultimate demented genius that is the epitome of a crazy professor. Since my first acquaintance with Doc Brown around 15 years ago, I have compared every loony genious to him - and rarely found them as satisfying or fit for their purpose. You just can't get the same effect without the rolling eyes, electrified hair, a pure and unyielding love of science and a fluffy dog called Einstein.
I think I'll have to watch the sequels soon as well, just to see more of this magnificent nutty doctor and finish the story. After all, it is a trilogy and the ending of the first film simply begs to be followed soon by the next installation. But that shall have to wait until another day.
Friday 25 February 2011
Pit stop: Recuperating again
Yesterday was a long day and I spent most of it feeling like a zombie. I had been contemplating on resting by watching a 250-list film - which ever I'd end up feeling like - but in the end I couldn't focus long enough to decide...
Finally I had dozed of on my bed with my netbook beside me. Got a nice long sleep but even so I've been feling quite tired today. I suppose that should be expected after having exhausted myself for so long - it takes some time to bounce back to normality. Well, hopefully the rest of today will help my gather more strength so that I can get back to working after a week long pause.
Finally I had dozed of on my bed with my netbook beside me. Got a nice long sleep but even so I've been feling quite tired today. I suppose that should be expected after having exhausted myself for so long - it takes some time to bounce back to normality. Well, hopefully the rest of today will help my gather more strength so that I can get back to working after a week long pause.
Thursday 24 February 2011
Pit stop: Still exhausted
Yep, another busy day walking around the town with my mother. It has been nice, but I'm getting so exhausted it takes time to form coherent thoughts. That certainly is no delight.
Didn't manage to find the time or strength to type about London... I'll leave that until the weekend since tomorrow will be another long and tiring day - this time mostly spent on campus. Friday will be dedicated to recuperating and hopefully regaining some strength so I can get back to being productive.
No I need sleep so I'll be able to get up fairly early in the morning.
Didn't manage to find the time or strength to type about London... I'll leave that until the weekend since tomorrow will be another long and tiring day - this time mostly spent on campus. Friday will be dedicated to recuperating and hopefully regaining some strength so I can get back to being productive.
No I need sleep so I'll be able to get up fairly early in the morning.
Wednesday 23 February 2011
Tired and uncreative
Weekend in London was nice. However, I've been so preoccupied with content analyses for the IS that getting sufficient rest hasn't been the easiest thing to accomplish. That has of course resulted in me being constantly tired and unable to productively concentrate on anything.
It's wonderful to spend time with my mother, but being exhausted all the time is a bit of a hindrance to cheerful sociable behaviour. Apparently I'm also making her worry about me - which is unnerving, but I'm not currently able to really change that since I have no strength to step up my act.
Well, at least today was a good day, even for the 250-project. We went to see The King's Speech [currently 94 on the list] and both enjoyed it a lot. Sure, the seats were not good (2nd row since the screening was surprisingly already almost sold out when we got there), but fortunately I could forget where I was sitting until the end credits. The stiff neck afterwards is not that great, though...
I can see why Colin Firth has been snatching award after award this season for his performance. He is magnificent in the role and makes the varying levels of stammering all sound natural and believable. Firth's portrayal of the reserved and occasionally very insecure character of his character, King George VI, is touching.
The story, characters and acting in the films were all marvelous, but what I enjoyed the most was the cinematography. It was peaceful and at times nearly languid, with some quite artistic camera angles thrown into the mix. Nothing felt rushed and all seemedto be throughly considered. I also liked the bleak colour scheme that suits the era and the story very well. Bright colours would have been distracting and would probable have felt obtrusive.
That's it for tonight. And by the way, this is the entry for Tuesday. I'll try to have enough strength to type up my "report" from London tomorrow (that'll be the post for Sat, Sun & Mon).
It's wonderful to spend time with my mother, but being exhausted all the time is a bit of a hindrance to cheerful sociable behaviour. Apparently I'm also making her worry about me - which is unnerving, but I'm not currently able to really change that since I have no strength to step up my act.
Well, at least today was a good day, even for the 250-project. We went to see The King's Speech [currently 94 on the list] and both enjoyed it a lot. Sure, the seats were not good (2nd row since the screening was surprisingly already almost sold out when we got there), but fortunately I could forget where I was sitting until the end credits. The stiff neck afterwards is not that great, though...
I can see why Colin Firth has been snatching award after award this season for his performance. He is magnificent in the role and makes the varying levels of stammering all sound natural and believable. Firth's portrayal of the reserved and occasionally very insecure character of his character, King George VI, is touching.
The story, characters and acting in the films were all marvelous, but what I enjoyed the most was the cinematography. It was peaceful and at times nearly languid, with some quite artistic camera angles thrown into the mix. Nothing felt rushed and all seemedto be throughly considered. I also liked the bleak colour scheme that suits the era and the story very well. Bright colours would have been distracting and would probable have felt obtrusive.
That's it for tonight. And by the way, this is the entry for Tuesday. I'll try to have enough strength to type up my "report" from London tomorrow (that'll be the post for Sat, Sun & Mon).
Saturday 19 February 2011
Pit stop: London tomorrow
Tomorrow I'll finally have a good reason for taking a break from studying. Mum is coming to England and we'll be spending the weekend in London before coming back (well, I'm coming back and she's visiting) to Worc. Sure, I'll be working on the IS by still reading Emma on train and probably also at other times too depending on our schedule.
In any case, I'm actually really looking forward to the next few days. That has been a rare feeling lately, so this is good. I'm hoping to find a bit more motivation for studying as well after spending a couple days with mum. (I'm starting to sound like a real mamma's girl, huh..? Tch, doesn't matter. ^_^ )
Oh, since I'll be disconnected from the online world for a little while, the next post will be on Monday night - with scribbles from the weekedn of course. Until then, good night.
In any case, I'm actually really looking forward to the next few days. That has been a rare feeling lately, so this is good. I'm hoping to find a bit more motivation for studying as well after spending a couple days with mum. (I'm starting to sound like a real mamma's girl, huh..? Tch, doesn't matter. ^_^ )
Oh, since I'll be disconnected from the online world for a little while, the next post will be on Monday night - with scribbles from the weekedn of course. Until then, good night.
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