Snap Oscar Judgements, Vol. I

Atonement - good but not great. People in it, good but not great. It had the feel of a movie where at every step of the production people were asking themselves, "Is this going to help us win Oscars?" That always annoys me a bit.

Juno - good but not great. Ellen Page good but not great. I enjoyed Jennifer Garner's performance, but the Academy thought differently. Juno is the next Little Miss Sunshine or Napoleon Dynamite - a lot of hype around an enjoyable film (although I did enjoy this one more than I enjoyed those movies). If you buy into the hype, there is a strong chance you will be vaguely disappointed. If you go in thinking, "I hope it's watchable," you'll emerge a happy (wo)man.

Dewey Cox - ROBBED. Once that movie comes out on DVD, repeated viewings will ensure it is quoted FREQUENTLY at 2008 tailgates.

I haven't seen many other films this season, sadly. My goal for the next 10 days is to see the other 3 Best Picture winners, since they'll all be within a 15 second walk from my office.

Apparently, the movie critic in the local college paper wrote an article proclaiming There Will Be Blood the best movie of 2007 just so he could end it by saying, "Of course, living in Iowa City I haven't been able to see the movie yet," and then trashed the local theatres. Cute, I know, but man - does anyone actually understand the movie release system this time of year? People were yelling at me about Atonement not playing in town when it was playing on 100 screens nationwide. People screamed about Juno before it hit 250 screens.

Someone asked "Why the hell don't you have There Will Be Blood?!?" during the last week of Decemeber - when it was playing on TWO screens in these United States. TWO. Both in Los Angeles.

A word of advice, friends - if you don't live in a very large metropolitan area, and you enjoy seeing Oscar-contending films this time of year, take a pill. Settle down. Relax. Your local movie house wants to play them as badly as you want to see them, and if wanting to play them was the only requirement, you'd be able to see them the first day they played anywhere. Otherwise, drive to the nearest large metropolitan area and leave the employees at your local multiplex alone.

Humorously, the movie critic from the local college paper who enjoys trashing us (while showing a glaring lack of understanding of the business he is supposed to be covering) also enjoys coming to see his movies for free at our theatre so he is able to write his reviews. He'd better bring his eight bucks from now on, because it'll make me all warm and fuzzy inside to tell him we've discontinued our policy of letting him in sans ducket. What's he gonna do? Write another article?

Take that, widely unread local college paper.

I'm alive!

I was driving home tonight when a random song popped into my head. I was listening to some SIZZLING public radio, so I'm not sure where it came from, but as I turned onto First Avenue suddenly "Walking in Memphis" was rattling around in my noggin.

Normally, when a song enters my brain of its own accord, I get angry and do everything at my disposal to drive the tune away.

This time...I settled back and enjoyed the ride. I always liked the line "Tell me are you a Christian, child / I said, 'Ma'am I am tonight'"

This made my ride home enjoyable, until "Walking in Memphis" turned into "These Boots (Are Made For Walking)", at which point I yanked the wheel into the nearest g** d***ed tree in order to end it all.

Not really, but man, it was tempting.

How the heck are all of you? I saw someone pointing out that they were not yet invited to my wedding. Fear not, friends - NO ONE has been invited to my wedding as of yet. The Bibguy will be lucky to get an invitation at all, as I received no invitation to his day of wedded bliss.

My fiance tells me that at some point, I should be assembling a crack team of groomsman to stand at the front of the church and do nothing during the ceremony. I will be assembling this team in the coming weeks. Don't worry, friends who get suckered into this duty - I've done it many times myself, and I've got LOTS of pointers to hand out.

Mmm. Now I'm actually listening to "Walking in Memphis." My day is complete.

Two Things

- I believe the little lady and I have a date - June 21. Having an actual date makes it seem...real.

- I have made a conscious choice not to caucus tonight. I am completely and totally burned out in regards to the 2008 election. I get 20+ pieces of campaign mail a week. I see 3 political ads during every break in local programming. I think Mike Gravel even stumped in my living room last week. I'm not sure.

Maybe other people are fired up this year, but count me out. None of the candidates truly excite me, and having Clinthompsobamabee shoved down my throat on a constant basis has killed my desire to care.

NEVERTHELESS...your RHS endorses Chris Dodd and John McCain this year. I had been leaning towards Bill Richardson before the focus of his campaign became "get the troops out in a year". Iowans have finely tuned B.S. detectors, Bill, and most of us recognize your promise for what it is. Likewise with John Edwards (for whom I caucused in 2004) and his "we'll get those companies to stop sending jobs overseas!" pledge.

Chris Dodd is not only level-headed and occasionally bi-partisan, he has done nothing to offend me during the run up to the caucus. John McCain had the good taste to not bother with Iowa at all. He even still says he's AGAINST farm subsidies - what other candidate on either side would have the guts to say that this time of year? - and more importantly to me, he isn't dragging his religious beliefs around on a chain. (No, I do not care for Mike Huckabee. Thank you for your concern.)

For this, Chris Dodd and John McCain earn Your RHS's Seal of Approval. However, if you're caucusing and you really want my opinion on the matter? No Preference is the way to go. You won't be a viable group and you'll have to pick a candidate anyway, but it might make you feel better about things.