oscar recap

i'm doing the victory touchdown dance.

here's the oscar pick-count:

Group Results
Group Rank	Entry	Predict Pts
1	taragon21 (me)	14
2	anne	10
3	bellezza (kelly)	9
3	erinannie (erin)	9
5	shaka (corey)	5

here's how my picks worked out:

Nominee Category	Your Predictions	Actual Winners
Best Picture	CRASH	CRASH
Actor in a Leading Role	Philip Seymour Hoffman - CAPOTE	Philip Seymour Hoffman - CAPOTE
Actor in a Supporting Role	Jake Gyllenhaal - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN	George Clooney - SYRIANA
Actress in a Leading Role	Felicity Huffman - TRANSAMERICA	Reese Witherspoon - WALK THE LINE
Actress in a Supporting Role	Rachel Weisz - THE CONSTANT GARDENER	Rachel Weisz - THE CONSTANT GARDENER
Animated Feature Film	WALLACE & GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT	WALLACE & GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT
Art Direction	MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA	MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
Cinematography	BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN	MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
Costume Design	MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA	MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
Directing	BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN	BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Documentary Feature	MURDERBALL	MARCH OF THE PENGUINS
Documentary Short Subject	GOD SLEEPS IN RWANDA	A NOTE OF TRIUMPH: THE GOLDEN AGE OF NORMAN CORWIN
Film Editing	CRASH	CRASH
Foreign Language Film	PARADISE NOW	TSOTSI
Makeup	THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE	THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
Music (Score)	MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA	BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Music (Song)	"It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" - HUSTLE & FLOW	"It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" - HUSTLE & FLOW
Short Film - Animated	THE MOON AND THE SON: AN IMAGINED CONVERSATION	THE MOON AND THE SON: AN IMAGINED CONVERSATION
Short Film - Live Action	OUR TIME IS UP	SIX SHOOTER
Sound	WAR OF THE WORLDS	KING KONG
Sound Editing	KING KONG	KING KONG
Visual Effects	WAR OF THE WORLDS	KING KONG
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)	BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN	BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Writing (Original Screenplay)	CRASH	CRASH
Correct Predictions:		14

to see the complete matchup, click below.


overall, the oscars were pretty innocuous. no groping by isaac mizrahi on the red carpet. no majorly controversial political statements. lots of self congrats on how wonderful hollywood is to expose the issues of the world. you know--the usual. the only big surprise was how little brokeback won. don't get me wrong, that's ok. but with all the press, i expected it to do better.

i enjoyed jon stewart, but frankly didn't feel he had a lot to work with. my favorite joke of the night (paraphrased): 'bjork couldn't be here tonight. as she was getting ready for the show, dick cheney shot her.'

now that is a keeper.

irony...albeit a little delayed

so i'm converting some of my favorite movies to ipod viewable formats (as i've previously mentioned) and i just realized that sandra oh's lesbian doctor girlfriend in 'under the tuscan sun' is none other than sandra's current co-star on grey's anatomy dr. addison shepherd.

has everyone else already figured this out??

weekend wanderings

doctor: "you have beautiful teeth, but the bad teeth you have are really bad."

that's the gist of the oral surgery consult on friday. i'm scheduled to go under on tuesday, and subsequently determined to fully enjoy the weekend, as i will probably be in pain for the majority of the week.

saturday morning marked the first therapeutic riding session. as i had hoped, it was much much better than the three hour training session lara and i had been forced to endure. for one, this time i expected to be outside and prepared for the temperature. and once the kids were there, the time seemed to fly. within the 3 1/2 hour volunteer block, there are three riding sessions, so i had the opportunity to 'sidewalk' for three children, ages 3, 5, and 7. all with varying abilities and quirks. all in all it was a succesful first time out, marred by only two minor frustrations--one of the other volunteers who kept insinuating i was not doing my job correctly, yet could or would not 'lead by example'. the other was the extra time we were asked to spend recovering some of the information addressed in the training session. there had been several and lara and i were in the last, so it all seemed rather redundant. but i suppose for those who were in an earlier session, a refresher was not such a terrible thing.

at any rate, the session wiped me out a bit. it may have been in combination with the lack of sleep from the night before, but the result was a total crash. there went my saturday afternoon!

finally, i woke up, hopped in the shower, and went to meet katie for dinner. we have been trying to get together for months, and it just finally worked out that last night was the night. she is one awesome girl, and i'm so glad we were able to get caught up! after a yummy dinner, we went to see 'eight below'.

man, somebody should have warned me. if you are a dog lover, this movie is tantamount to torture. i have never been so terrified sitting through a movie. my entire body was tense, my knuckles white, and i felt a bit nauseated. worse than any horror movie i have ever seen, i nearly left several times. i simply was not capable of watching these dogs struggle (and in some cases die) without an extreme emotional reaction. don't misunderstand me. the movie was excellent. paul walker is looking good, the dogs were amazing, and the storyline flowed smoothly..if only my sensitive animal disposition had not reared it's ugly head, my review might be a little less emotional.

i couldn't get home fast enough. all i wanted to do was rub my nose in cyra's fur and shower her with kisses. and that is exactly what i did. i can't say that i will ever watch 'eight below' again, but it was extremely well done.

today i get to find out how my oscar picks will fair, and am mostly excited to see if isaac mizrahi gropes anyone on the red carpet!

laws of attraction:

eight below:

Nominee Category	Your Predictions	Actual Winners
Best Picture	CRASH
Actor in a Leading Role	Philip Seymour Hoffman - CAPOTE
Actor in a Supporting Role	Jake Gyllenhaal - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Actress in a Leading Role	Felicity Huffman - TRANSAMERICA
Actress in a Supporting Role	Rachel Weisz - THE CONSTANT GARDENER
Animated Feature Film	WALLACE & GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT
Art Direction	MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
Cinematography	BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Costume Design	MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
Directing	BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Documentary Feature	MURDERBALL
Documentary Short Subject	GOD SLEEPS IN RWANDA
Film Editing	CRASH
Foreign Language Film	PARADISE NOW
Makeup	THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
Music (Score)	MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
Music (Song)	"It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" - HUSTLE & FLOW
Short Film - Animated	THE MOON AND THE SON: AN IMAGINED CONVERSATION
Short Film - Live Action	OUR TIME IS UP
Sound	WAR OF THE WORLDS
Sound Editing	KING KONG
Visual Effects	WAR OF THE WORLDS
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)	BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Writing (Original Screenplay)	CRASH

tgif

seriously. i can't remember a time when i have been so happy to make it to a friday. granted, i still have an oral surgery consult looming, and tomorrow marks the first of many saturdays i have chosen to give up my right to sleep in...but the sun is shining, i'm going to buy a couple of movies, and maybe a pair of shoes today, and bottom line, i've made it this far. phew.

forgotten: (i liked the 'alternate ending' better than the one that was in theaters. but why didn't i realize this was an alien movie?)

last night

i looked in the mirror, and i said to my reflection: 'nobody likes me. everybody hates me. guess i'll go eat worms.'

my reflection laughed and said: 'stop being such a drama queen.'

my reflection gives good advice. so to snap myself out of the funk, i did one of my favorite things and watched movies! :) but not only did i watch movies, i also played with my new toy, and with a combination of programs that would allow me to convert my dvds to ipod viewable files. it takes so little to make me happy!

before i rate last night's movies, i should probably mention that my rating scale isn't necessarily based on 'oscar worthiness' or technical genius, or even sometimes, good acting. my ratings simply measure how much i enjoyed the film. sometimes a theme appeals to me. sometimes an actor. sometimes i just give credit for originality even if i didn't dig the concept. so with that said...

cake: (despite heather graham, i enjoyed this. sandra oh and a great soundtrack don't hurt)

ladder 49: ( i was involved with a firefighter when this released in theaters, so i avoided it. holy cow jacinda barrett has come a long way from 'real world')

for those interested, the updated playlist includes the following:

1. joshua radin - closer
2. stars - calendar girl
3. five times august - mystery to me
4. leona naess - calling
5. clap your hands and say yeah - details of the war
6. emily richards - meet me
7. jason mraz - mr. curiosity
8. joshua radin - winter
9. magneta lane - constant lover
10. mindy smith - one moment more
11. shout out louds - a track and a train

and as promised, 'tara's top ten noteworthy olympic moments':

10. lindsay jacobellis totally blows it
9. joey cheek donates all his winnings to charity
8. the dutch
7. kwan withdraws
6. everything about snowboard half-pipe, but especially the flying tomato
5. the complete and utter failure of bode miller
4. ice dancing gets interesting
3. seth westcott wins snowboard cross (and my heart)
2. ross the intern
1. shizuka arakawa takes the gold medal in women's figure skating

for more 'highlights', click here (boreme.com) or here (nbc)

phew. i think i'm all funked out.