I saw three Oscar nominees today. I finished out the animated film category and am 4/5 through with best actress.

The first thing I watched was The Princess and the Frog. When I saw the first trailer for this film, I immediately recoiled. It looked so incredibly racist. I was pleasantly surprised, however, with just how GOOD the movie was. It wasn’t racist in the slightest. Instead, it was the most modern feeling of any Disney 2D animated movie that I can remember. The voice acting was top notch and the princess was a hard-working waitress who worked three jobs just to achieve her dream. I loved that aspect. All in all, a truly fun film that I would happily watch again.

After that, I met a co-worker and we went to see An Education. Y’all, it was sooooo good. Carey Mulligan is a true find and Alfred Molina was better than I have ever seen him. Peter Sarsgaard was the appropriate amount of creepy and charming. I thought Olivia Williams also gave a nice, restrained performance. The story was about a sixteen year old girl with dreams of studying English at Oxford who gets swept up in an affair with an older man. Mulligan did such an amazing job of conveying youthful innocence and a sense of wonder at the sudden changes to her life. There were two scenes though, both dealing with intimacy between her and Sarsgaard, that I could barely watch. So uncomfortable. The biggest disappointment about this film was that Sandra Bullock will likely beat Carey Mulligan for best actress. Ridiculous.

Finally, I watched the last of the animated film nominees, The Secret of Kells. I knew nothing of this film when it was nominated and barely anything more when I started watching it. It was an Irish film about the monastery at Kells and the writing of the famed Book of Kells. I was was a totally tough customer going into this film. I loved both Ponyo and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and I just couldn’t believe this would be better. I have to say, I was blown away. The art style in this film is like nothing I have ever seen before. The seemed to have based it on the folios in the actual Book of Kells which gives the movie this trippy, dreamy quality. They often did away with perspective in favor of the style. It was truly cool. The character and story were good enough but the style…that’s why this movie was nominated. Awesome. I actually now believe it was The Princess and the Frog that took the fifth spot. The Secret of Kells was better. The highest praise I can give a movie is to say that it captured my undivided attention. I am a multi-tasker to the extreme but Secret of Kells commanded my attention. It was beautiful. What a year for animated films.

Tomorrow, the foreign films.

OMFG, how awesome is this shirt?

(via http://store.hijinksensue.com/product/team-edward-james-olmos-t-shirt)

I just requested passes to this movie for Monday:

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And I got a gold badge (film and interactive) to this:

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I bought these:

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I plan to watch the following this weekend:
* The Milk of Sorrow
* A Prophet
* The Secret in Their Eyes
* The White Ribbon
* A Serious Man
* An Education
* The Secret of Kells
* The Princess and the Frog

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fin.

I was fiddling around with the music on my iPhone this morning and in my attempt to add a certain Beatles album, I accidentally deleted my current song obsession, Dig a Pony. On the way to work, I pulled up Youtube and did a search and the first result I saw was the live performance from the rooftop concert.

Youtube has everything!

1) It would be awesome to have been there.
2) The Beatles were geniuses (except Ringo)
3) Beatles Rock Band did a really really good job.

Happy 30th Anniversary, parents!

Thanks for always being the best of examples.

I have a plan for lent this year.

In addition to moderation and fasting and all that, I have decided to take the time and do one creative thing a day.  It might be to take some pictures on manual with my SLR or sketch something or decorate cupcakes or write a chapter on one of my perpetually unfinished novels.  It could be to decorate a room in my apartment or change the design of this blog or edit a Pop vs Culture podcast.

It really doesn’t matter.  It just has to be creative.

I know the purpose of lent is to sacrifice but I feel like I sacrificed my creativity for years.  I feel like toiling in the land of corporate design just zapped my creative strength and left me tired and unhappy.  Now, I can feel it coming back and I am anxious to do something about it.  Lent seemed like the perfect time to get it going again.

Anyway, this is mostly a head’s up to warn — well, whoever reads this — that there will probably be more posts about this as I hammer out the details and, of course, start creating.

40 days of pictures, vids, and posts to come.

Woo!

So, I am going to try again with the daily posts for a year thing.  I know that before, it nearly killed me creatively but now, I am in a whole different place and frame of mind.  It just seems like the right time to do this again.  I am in a new job and a new city and I live near close friends and I just really believe this year is going to be different from last year.  Or the year before.  Or whatever year I first tried this.

Yesterday, I turned 27 and I really did it right.  A bunch of friends came out and we karaoked into the night.  It was a blast and seemed a fitting way to begin my 28th year of life.  I was surrounded by people I love, doing something insanely fun, AND working on a life list item (sing karaoke without fear).

I will go through the pictures and video in the next week and post them here.  Be on the look out, you do not want to miss the video I took of Josh singing “Gay Bar” to Chris.

I was feeling bored and creative this weekend and this is what happened!

Also, I’m posting again.  Dig it.

Worn out today.  Off to bed early.  I’m old!

We saw 9 today.  I’m a little sad to say that it didn’t QUITE live up to my expectations.  I thought it would be amazing based on the commercials and while it certainly was unique, I wasn’t blown away.  The animation was gorgeous and there WAS a story there, I’m just not sure if the one they told was the most interesting.  It was a sad movie and very dark.  It was definitely not for kids.

There was a really good new trailer for Where the Wild Things Are.  Can not wait for that one.