On the 80th Academy Awards

I don't usually do this, but I watched the entire show last Sunday. I'm glad I did, not the least because of Javier Bardem's Acceptance speech, and those of Marion Cotillard and Tilda Swinton, both of whom looked shocked and amazed that Cate Blanchett hadn't won. I know that there's a lot of glitz and glam and hype and all, and that for most of us, those aren't real people, or we think of them as superior in some way. So I love it when humanity shows up, when new faces are honored, and when films and performances that were truly amazing and artistic are honored and recognized. I've been a Coen Brothers fan since Barton Fink and Raising Arizona, and it can hardly be argued that after giving us so many incredibly inventive and quirky films, they deserv all the awards they raked in for No Country for Old Men. Anyone who hasn't seen it yet needs to go right now. These guys are directors who use the medium of film to not only tell story, but to get us all to think and react on multiple levels simultaneously, we don't even know exactly why we have such strong emotions connected to their work, but we do. (I Have a friend who vets new friends by asking if the candidate has seen Fargo, and if they liked it. If they didn't like Fargo, he won't be their friend. He just knows that there is too much essential difference between them, and trying to connect with that poerson is going to lead to frustration and disappointment. I don't apply his tet to my new friends, but I get his point. There are people who understand and appreciate the language of film, who can decode the subtext, who aren't put off by the blood or violence, but sdee through to what's being revealed about themselves and about all of us when Tommy Lee Jones just stares off blankly, sighing wearily. Perhaps a blog devoted entirely to Coen Brothers films should be constructed...hmmm... Another highlite of the Awards for me was the Original Screenplay Oscar going to Diablo Cody. There's a girl who has learned how to be herself without apology. You go Girl!!!

Still Photo-Graphing

Have You figured out a decent way to keep your Photos organized? I realized I needed to do something about it before I lost a lot of old photos that are just sitting in boxes, fading away. These online services can really help, It's super easy, and I know that my photos will never ever get lost! I urge you to check it out.

On Life, and the Vagaries Thereof

This is by far my as-yet fav of all the little blogs I've created. I still wonder if anybody ever finds these things. To me the internet is like "space, the final frontier", and it seems highly unlikely that anyone will ever find my little blog, let alone thousands of people finding it, or 100's per day. I wonder what I don't know?

I recently lost a journal that I had been keeping for at least three years. There was a lot of deeply personal stuff in that journal, and the loss of it has had an amazing effect on me . It has made me realize, among other things of course, that there were things in there that I won't be able to share with anyone now. A lot of my memory markers are gone with the wind. So, perhaps by setting some of those stones in the blogosphere, they'll be preserved. Who knows, maybe some centuries hence, this blog will be a treasure trove of information and insights into the early part of the 21st century for archaeologists to discover. So, this blog will become a snapshot of things I love, what I think is cool, the thoughts, theories and theology of a young man in the sea of life.

So I Went Out Today

And I bought myself a fancy widget. Actually it was free, and you can get one too from the guys who make them if you want one. I was in an adventurous mood, so I chose one with a James Bond Theme. Check it out. It seems to stay at the bottom of the page. If you have the time to wait for it to load. It's a pretty big widget, I guess. Maybe I got a little carried away, beings as it's my first one and all.

I found another on another blog, it's pretty cool too, and it seems to stay with the newest post.

Film Art Review

It's all about Film, Art, and the Art of making Film.