Nick Cave, Blood, Work, Dick Vitale, and the War

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

My thoughts are all over the place today…

The new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds record came out today. Its called Dig Lazarus Dig!!! Its not a concept record but several of the songs revolve around the premise of God raising Lazarus from the grave against his will, only to find himself a homeless junky tooling around the streets of New York City. It is amazing in every way.

There Will be Blood came out today on DVD. I find it highly amusing that this movie and the Nick Cave record came out on the same day. they are both superior works of art that try their hardest to be unlovable and difficult but are ultimately better for it. The whole point of the ending to There Will be Blood is that Daniel is finally satisfied and it is so perfect that it comes at the expense of leaving critics and the audience unsatisfied. Personally, I cannot wait to see it again.

Everyone called out today except for me and two other people and it feels like the end of the world. The phone will not stop ringing and nobody wants anything that i can actually give them. they all want some kind of magical special treatment that they dont deserve and are not entitled to and it is my great privilege to give them this news. I have been screamed at today, swore at, called useless and i might be mistaken but i pretty sure i was challenged to a fight. I would love to fight that guy today, its just too bad he is in another state. if he happens to read this i will be taking my break around 3, im in Connecticut, if you have the ability to get here by 3 i am going to rip your head off.

Mike and the mad Dog yesterday were debating whether or not Dick Vitale deserved to be in the Basketball Hall of Fame. They were both leaning towards answering the question No, but neither of them seemed willing to come out and say it. I will say that they are wrong. he totally deserves to be in the hall of fame soley because no one, NO ONE, loves basketball more than Dickie V and for that reason alone he should be in the hall of fame. He has been on Mike and Mike (the ESPN morning guys) every morning since Friday and he has ended every conversation in tears thanking everyone under the sun for giving him the opportunity to do what he does and for putting him in the hall of fame. Its all about the love of the game.

I think one thing the war has done for us is re-written the definition of the word ’success.’ before the word success meant  ” the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.” our new definition probably reads something like this, “The semi-favorable but ultimately the same persistence down an inevitable road to failure.” I think its clear that our government has no real interest in stopping this war, pulling our troops out , or even acknowledging that the only way their surge can be deemed a success is that it put more of our soldiers in a position to die. So according to the new definition the surge/ war in iraq is a success. Hopefully, George, John, and their minions of death wont re-write the definition of victory to mean “The death toll in Iraq has reached 140,00 today.”

Oscars

Saturday, February 23rd, 2008

Today i will be picking my winners for the Oscars. A lot of people try to pick who will win, I’m going to pick who i believe should win.  so, without further delay lets pick some freaking Oscars!

Best Picture
There Will Be Blood

Best Actor
Daniel Day Lewis - There Will Be Blood

Best Actress
Laura Linney - The Savages

Best Supporting Actor
Hal Holbrook - Into the Wild

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett - I’m Not There

Best Director
Joel and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men

Now for the films that are inexplicably under represented or not represented at all:

Zodiac
Into the Wild
Christian Bale and Steve Zahn in Rescue Dawn
Frank Langella in Starting Out in the Evening
Eddie Vedder’s soundtrack for the Into the Wild
Johnny Greenwood’s score for There will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood is by far the years best movie and Daniel-Day Lewis gives probably the best performance by any actor in over a decade. he is even better in this than he was in Gangs of New York. I have always been a big Laura Linney fan so if shes nominated for an Oscar I’m going to support her. I’m giving my supporting actor to Hal Holbrook because he was incredible in Into the Wild and Into the Wild got totally screwed this year. Maybe it was because it came out to early and no one remembers it, maybe people are put off by its earnestness. either way it got royally snubbed. I hate the word snub. Cate Blanchett is the only thing worth seeing in I’m Not There, which was by far the years most disappointing movie. I am a huge Dylan fan and i kept waiting for it to let me love it but only when Cate Blanchett’s Dylan was on the screen could you really see the potential within. Finally, The Coen Bros get my vote for directing No Country for Old Men because it would not have worked if it had been directed by any other director much like There Will be Blood wouldn’t have worked if Plainview was played by anyone else but Daniel Day Lewis.

I’m actually pretty pumped for tomorrow. Keep on chooglin’.