In case you didn’t know, the Oscars were last night. Until then, I hadn’t watched the Oscars in years–I believe it was the year Renee Zellweger was nominated for her role in Bridget Jones’ Diary and I was floored that a comedy received a Best Actress nomination. I watched parts of it between scenes during a rehearsal–that’s how long ago that was. This year, I was a little shocked to see our buddy James Franco alongside Anne Hathaway–not a pair I could have foreseen, but I guess I’m a little out of the Hollywood loop. But that’s not important. What’s important is that regardless of how many of the nominated films I’ve seen or how strongly I agree (or disagree) with the Academy’s decisions, Oscar season always gets me thinking about the movies I love. So here, in chronological order, are ten of my favorite Oscar-winning films, which you should buy, rent, or Netflix immediately: Read more »
It’s Monday morning. It’s Valentine’s Day. Whether you’ve got big romantic plans or not, watch this short film, and you’ll be smiling all week.
Winner – Best Narrative Short, Cleveland Int’l Film Festival, Winner – Jury Award, Gen Art Chicago Film Festival, Winner – Audience Award, Hawaii Int’l Film Festival, Winner – Best Short Comedy, Breckenridge Festival of Film, Winner – Crystal Heart Award, Best Short Film & Audience Award, Heartland Film Festival, Winner – Christopher & Dana Reeve Audience Award, Williamstown Film Festival, Winner – Best Comedy, Dam Short Film Festival, Winner – Best Short Film, Sedona Int’l Film Festival.
This year’s winner of the Literary Review‘s Bad Sex in Fiction Award goes to Rowan Somerville and his novel The Shape of Her. The judges were especially impressed with sentences such as “Like a lepidopterist mounting a tough-skinned insect with a too blunt pin he screwed himself into her.”
“There is nothing more English than bad sex,” said Somerville when receiving the prize. “So on behalf of the nation, I thank you.”
Other nominees for the price includes Freedom by Jonathan Franzen and The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas.
This is just speculation, but do you think Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno series inspired Somerville? Here’s the episode about bed bugs:
The Wasserstein Prize is awarded to emerging female playwrights under the age of 32: a $25,000 cash prize named after Wendy Wasserstein, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who died of cancer in 2006. It’s been awarded for the last three years, thanks to its grant-based financing. This year, however, after writers were nominated and work was judged, the committee decided not to award the prize.
Michael Lew, a blogger and a playwright, was able to review one of the rejection letters sent to the 19 nominees, and wrote a letter to the adjudicator of the prize to protest the decision. The letter stated:
I recently had the chance to review one of the rejection letters for the Wasserstein Prize. As stated in the letter, ‘We regret to inform you that of the 19 nominated plays, none was deemed sufficiently realized by the selection panel to receive the Prize. As a result, the Wasserstein Prize will not be presented in 2010. While the panel thought that many of the scripts showed promise, they felt that none of the plays were truly outstanding in their current incarnation.’
Driving to work yesterday morning, I learned from NPR that Tina Fey had won the Mark Twain prize for 2010. I also found out that Ms. Fey is the youngest recipient ever and only the third woman to receive it since it was created by the Kennedy Center for performing arts in 1998.
Thanking Sarah Palin for her success, Fey said she didn’t feel worthy of the prize and assumed she only won because Betty White was disqualified because of steroid use.
The 90 min award ceremony—which sounds very funny and very much like a Tina Fey roast—will be broadcasted on PBS on Sunday. Fred Armisen, Steve Carell, Jimmy Fallon, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Hudson, Jane Krakowski, Steve Martin, Seth Meyers, Lorne Michaels, Tracy Morgan, Amy Poehler and Betty White are scheduled to appear.
The PBS website has a video clip of Tina Fey answering questions from Facebook and Twitter users. She covers things such as “What work of yours will have the most lasting social impact?” and “If you could go back in time, what would you ask Mark Twain?” and “How is writing for SNL different from writing for 30 Rock?” and may more.
I’m setting my TiVo for Sunday.
What’s your favorite Tina Fey skit or movie or TV episode?
(Dang, the woman has done a lot for only being 40—no wonder she got a prize!)
Thursday afternoon, it was announced that Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Admittedly, I’m what you might call a fanatic of his work, so I promptly started leaving “oh hell yes!” and “woooo-hooo” comments on blogs covering the award. I found that not everyone shared my views. Maybe they had fingers crossed for Cormac McCarthy or Tomas Tranströmer, but quite a few people commented that he was an obscure author (phrased, I believe, as “obscure much?”).
I’m not going to argue that an author with more than 30 novels, plays and essays translated into dozens of languages isn’t “obscure”—that would be totally unnecessary. Instead, I’ll tell you about Mario Vargas Llosa and some of his work.
At a London release for Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, someone decided to steal the author’s glasses. Right off his face. The 27-year-old man who was arrested for the crime, and later released, apparently admired the glasses. The free champagne-induced drunkenness probably had nothing to do with it.
He later recounted the story to GQ: “I devised a short ransom note and planned my escape route (which happened to have a lake in the way). “I ran into the water . . . the copy of Franzen’s book I’d helped myself to was floating away. A helicopter was flying above. Surely this wasn’t for me, I thought. An airborne vehicle with infrared capabilities to track a suspect who’d stolen a pair of glasses? However, the sound of the blades persisted. I could almost feel it circling around me and began to realize the futility of my plan to ever get away without arrest. I lay still though with nothing to lose, clasping only those glasses in my hand – the only thing I had left to bargain with.”
In other news:
The Twilight hand model lady wants you to know who she is. Really badly. Among the concerns brought up by Vulture: “A mere taste of fame has driven this woman to accost strangers at Barnes & Noble. Imagine what real celebrity would do to her.”
The British gambling company, Ladbrooks, is having some difficulties as of late, especially in the realm of oddsmaking on literary prizes. They dodged a bullet today when Mario Vargas Llosa was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Now, they’ve had to suspend betting on the Booker Prize.
The last time I visited Auntie’s in Spokane, I nearly ran into a pillar. Thankfully, no one seemed to be watching. Also, that pillar was covered with staff-recommended books. The one closest to my head, which would have left its imprint on my forehead if I hadn’t snapped out of my daydream in time, was The Bell by Iris Murdoch.
I’d seen the movie Irisa couple of times (it features three of my very favorite actors–Judi Dench, Kate Winslet, and Jim Broadbent–who were, incidentally, all nominated for Oscars for their performances in this film) but had never encountered any of Dame Iris’s books before, so naturally I was curious.
For a book written by a noted philosopher, The Bell is surprisingly easy to read. The prose bears the marks of its time (some overwriting, adjective stacking, etc.) and at times, Murdoch does use some of the trademark tools of the philosophical novel (long speeches delivered by characters, stretches of philosophical internal monologue). But overall, she lets the reader figure out the message for him/herself–and I appreciated that. Read more »
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In case you didn’t know, the Oscars were last night. Until then, I hadn’t watched the Oscars in years–I believe it was the year Renee Zellweger was nominated for her role in Bridget Jones’ Diary and I was floored that a comedy received a Best Actress nomination. I watched parts of it between scenes during a rehearsal–that’s how long ago that was. This year, I was a little shocked to see our buddy James Franco alongside Anne Hathaway–not a pair I could have foreseen, but I guess I’m a little out of the Hollywood loop. But that’s not important. What’s important is that regardless of how many of the nominated films I’ve seen or how strongly I agree (or disagree) with the Academy’s decisions, Oscar season always gets me thinking about the movies I love. So here, in chronological order, are ten of my favorite Oscar-winning films, which you should buy, rent, or Netflix immediately: Read more »
Thursday afternoon, it was announced that Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Admittedly, I’m what you might call a fanatic of his work, so I promptly started leaving “oh hell yes!” and “woooo-hooo” comments on blogs covering the award. I found that not everyone shared my views. Maybe they had fingers crossed for Cormac McCarthy or Tomas Tranströmer, but quite a few people commented that he was an obscure author (phrased, I believe, as “obscure much?”).