Scorcese and The Departed WIN

YES!! Scorcese finally had his day, with the added bonus of The Departed winning as Best Film in this year's Oscar ceremony. Monahan also won for best adapted screenplay for this mob drama. only marky-mark didn't (not entirely unexpected)… still i'm glad. the other award was for editing (for thelma s.), to which i wholeheartedly agree.

This makes my day.

as expected, whitaker (The Last King), mirren (The Queen) and hudson (Dreamgirls) won as best actor, actress and supporting actress, respectively. alan arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) won an upset over eddie murphy (which also makes me glad heheh).

coming up: The Oscars

i'd been out of sorts lately due to some issues that have been bugging me for the longest time. they're far from resolved, although i've already settled a few of the more nagging ones. also, my schedule is so messed up i barely have enough time to sit down, take a really long breathe and think… 

it's feb. 23 and there are only 2 days left before the oscars. whoopeeeee! 

so many oscar predictions have been coming out of the woodwork, with varying claims of accuracy, it's a wonder how the nominees manage to go around looking and acting casual (the actors, i can understand — it's part of their trade after all).

well, it looks like the acting nods (best actor, actress, supporting actress) are practically a done deal, that is, except for the supporting actor category. these past 2 months eddie murphy has been on everyone's mind, but after Norbit (another of his trademark dumbed-down films) many people are casting doubts about his 'winnability.' if the cards are right, maybe mark wahlberg will win(?!) *performs cartwheels and somersaults*  — that sure would make my day

the best director category is almost just as settled (scorcese! if he goes home winless  again, i'll– now, don't get me started on this one or we'll never get anywhere.) for best foreign film category, i'm rooting for Pan's Labyrinth; for animated movie, Happy Feet (yeah!). for adapted screenplay, i'm hoping The Departed will nab it.

now, here's the funny part. up to now, the race for Best Picture remains an unsettled issue. depending on your sources, the buzz has flip-flopped between The Departed (*throws arms upwards in a supplicating gesture*), Babel, and Little Ms. Sunshine. even the expert oscar watchers are scartching their heads over this one…

history’s celebrity couples

Romeo and Juliet. Anthony and Cleopatra. Samson and Delilah.

Just what is it about these star-crossed lovers — whose names and stories continue to resonate among us — that inspires poets and chroniclers to immortalize their tales in song and memorable prose long after their bones had turned to dust? And what is it about these couples that makes us empathize and marvel at their plight? 

I'm sure there must have been thousands of lovers who have loved just as passionately before and after these pairs have left their mark in the human imagination. Everyday you meet couples whose quiet and enduring devotion could be just as intense and touching, and yet you don't hear or read about them.

A possible explanation? How about the potent combination of power, looks, social position, and above all a poignant and heart-tugging story. Go ask yourself — if you were a poet or a budding troubadour in search of a worthy subject, and Cleopatra had been a common weaver, Samson a scrawny sailor, or Juliet a struggling widow in her thirties, would you still consider their tales fascinating? 

In short, it is due largely to their unique circumstances that these remarkable individuals were able to inspire people to identify with their emotional dilemmas. (Rather similar to the way we lap up details of the romantic exploits of modern-day celebrities.)

And to seal matters further, they all fit the bill of having stature-defining moments, the stuff of which timeless reputations are made: a dramatic death scene (Romeo and Juliet did theirs with flair; Cleopatra staged her own dramatic exit), a memorable line or two, and remarkable feats (Samson destroying the temple of the Philistines after he regained his strength).

The more I think about it though, the more I get convinced that it all has something to do with having a great press coverage. True, there weren't paparazzi or celebrity magazines during those days. But just consider who their press agents were.

Romeo and Juliet and Anthony and Cleopatra found a worthy minstrel in william shakespeare, who embellished their stories and turned them into superb plays. Samson and Delilah? Well, they got featured in the Bible, didn't they?

z list

Daisy of BlueApron added my blog in the chain of links that's being passed on from one blogger to another. This is to help increase incoming links to blogs included in this list and hopefully boost our page ranks

The premise is simple: Write a post, and copy and paste my list from below into it. Make sure the links are active and correct. If your blog is on that list, remove it because your post isn’t about self-promotion. Don’t worry, because if your name is on mine, it’s on others and will spread. Add your favourite deserving blogs to the top of the list (not compulsory). Publish the post. People will notice the incoming links, and hopefully write their own z-list posts. The result will be that we all get more links pointing to our blogs, and more readers - got to be good!

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i miss the X-Files!

dang. i miss the x-files so much it hurts. i miss racing home monday nights so i wouldn’t miss an episode. i miss being intrigued by mind-boggling, outlandish conspiracy theories. i miss being ’spooked’ and scared witless by monsters — humans or otherwise. i miss the wacky paranoia of the lone gunmen. most of all, i miss mulder and scully. there will never be another show like the x-files. *sigh* dang.

why do i miss it?

let me count the ways…

when these two are on the case, you can’t help but be glued to your TV screen. i don’t know of any other screen couple who can combust without so much as an eye contact. even nature’s call is conveniently swept aside when these walk into a scene and expound on their conflicting theories. the grisly nature of their job only adds to their chemistry. the first time i saw them together (in mulder’s dingy basement office) i couldn’t make up my mind whether i preferred scully or mulder. i liked mulder’s intensity and unflinching conviction, and yet i couldn’t help but be impressed by scully’s cool-headed logic and refusal to be pigeonholed into a stereotype. they just balanced each other out. 

and here… scully flashes her hard-won smile!

after years of watching x-files, i can’t recall of ever seeing scully break into a spontaneous, no-holds-barred smile (well, except for that Las Vegas episode where she got drugged and kept flirting with a room full of enthralled guys… but that’s another story). there were times when her lips twitched and her eyes actually lit up — but that’s all it ever was. and gillian anderson’s grave, brooding looks are simply custom-built for this role. and of course, mulder — for all his porno-loving tendencies and occasionally wacky episodes — had this impenetrably serious side to him. what can i say? they just look good together. 

in hollywood, it’s practically a near-imposssible task to find somebody (much less a couple) who can radiate formidable intellect and look yummy at the same time, but these two — they did it effortlessly.