…some kind of way out of here….

before i post this, i want to quote roger ebert on twitter: @ebertchicago “Golden Globes nominate “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” but not “Ponyo,” renewing their certification as flywheels.”

that being said, i still love awards season and here are my predictions in bold:

1. BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
a. AVATAR
Lightstorm Entertainment; Twentieth Century Fox
b. THE HURT LOCKER
Voltage Pictures; Summit Entertainment
c. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
The Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures/A Band Apart/Zehnte Babelsberg GmbH Production; The
Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures
d. PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE
A Lee Daniels Entertainment / Smokewood Entertainment Group Production;
Lionsgate
e. UP IN THE AIR
Paramount Pictures; Paramount Pictures

2. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE –
DRAMA
a. EMILY BLUNT
THE YOUNG VICTORIA
b. SANDRA BULLOCK
THE BLIND SIDE
c. HELEN MIRREN
THE LAST STATION
d. CAREY MULLIGAN
AN EDUCATION
e. GABOUREY SIDIBE
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE

3. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
a. JEFF BRIDGES
CRAZY HEART
b. GEORGE CLOONEY
UP IN THE AIR
c. COLIN FIRTH
A SINGLE MAN
d. MORGAN FREEMAN
INVICTUS
e. TOBEY MAGUIRE
BROTHERS

4. BEST MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
a. (500) DAYS OF SUMMER
Watermark Pictures; Fox Searchlight Pictures
b. THE HANGOVER
Warner Bros. Pictures; Warner Bros. Pictures
c. IT’S COMPLICATED
Relativity Media, Scott Rudin Productions; Universal Pictures
d. JULIE & JULIA
Columbia Pictures; Sony Pictures Releasing
e. NINE
The Weinstein Company/Relativity Media/Lucamar Productions/Marc Platt Productions; The
Weinstein Company

5. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE –
COMEDY OR MUSICAL
a. SANDRA BULLOCK
THE PROPOSAL
b. MARION COTILLARD
NINE
c. JULIA ROBERTS
DUPLICITY
d. MERYL STREEP
IT’S COMPLICATED
e. MERYL STREEP
JULIE & JULIA

6. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE –
COMEDY OR MUSICAL
a. MATT DAMON
THE INFORMANT!
b. DANIEL DAY-LEWIS
NINE
c. ROBERT DOWNEY JR
SHERLOCK HOLMES
d. JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT
(500) DAYS OF SUMMER
e. MICHAEL STUHLBARG
A SERIOUS MAN

7. BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
a. CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS
Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation; Sony Pictures Releasing
b. CORALINE
Laika, Inc.; Focus Features
c. FANTASTIC MR. FOX
American Empirical Picture; Twentieth Century Fox
d. THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG
Walt Disney Pictures/Walt Disney Animation Studios; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
e. UP
Walt Disney Pictures/PIXAR Animation Studios; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

8. BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
a. BAARIA (ITALY)
Medusa Film; Summit Entertainment
b. BROKEN EMBRACES (SPAIN)
El Deseo SA; Sony Pictures Classics
c. THE MAID (CHILE)
(LA NANA)
Forastero; Elephant Eye Films
d. A PROPHET (UN PROPHETE) (FRANCE)
Chic Films/Page 114/Why Not Productions; Sony Pictures Classics
e. THE WHITE RIBBON (GERMANY)
(DAS WEISSE BAND – EINE DEUTSCHE KINDERGESCHICHTE)
X Filme Creative Pool/Les Films Du Losange/Lucky Red/Wega Film; Sony Pictures Classics

9. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A
MOTION PICTURE
a. PENÉLOPE CRUZ
NINE
b. VERA FARMIGA
UP IN THE AIR
c. ANNA KENDRICK
UP IN THE AIR
d. MO’NIQUE
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE
e. JULIANNE MOORE
A SINGLE MAN

10. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A
MOTION PICTURE
a. MATT DAMON
INVICTUS
b. WOODY HARRELSON
THE MESSENGER
c. CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER
THE LAST STATION
d. STANLEY TUCCI
THE LOVELY BONES
e. CHRISTOPH WALTZ
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

11. BEST DIRECTOR – MOTION PICTURE
a. KATHRYN BIGELOW
THE HURT LOCKER
b. JAMES CAMERON
AVATAR
c. CLINT EASTWOOD
INVICTUS
d. JASON REITMAN
UP IN THE AIR
e. QUENTIN TARANTINO
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

12. BEST SCREENPLAY – MOTION PICTURE
a. NEILL BLOMKAMP, TERRI TATCHELL
DISTRICT 9
b. MARK BOAL
THE HURT LOCKER
c. NANCY MEYERS
IT’S COMPLICATED
d. JASON REITMAN, SHELDON TURNER
UP IN THE AIR
e. QUENTIN TARANTINO
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

13. BEST ORIGINAL SCORE – MOTION PICTURE
a. MICHAEL GIACCHINO
UP
b. MARVIN HAMLISCH
THE INFORMANT!
c. JAMES HORNER
AVATAR
d. ABEL KORZENIOWSKI
A SINGLE MAN
e. KAREN O, CARTER BURWELL
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

14. BEST ORIGINAL SONG – MOTION PICTURE
a. «CINEMA ITALIANO» – NINE
Music & Lyrics by: Maury Yeston
b. «I WANT TO COME HOME» – EVERYBODY’S FINE
Music & Lyrics by: Paul McCartney
c. «I SEE YOU» – AVATAR
Music by: James Horner, Simon Franglen
Lyrics by: James Horner, Simon Franglen, Kuk Harrell
d. «THE WEARY KIND (THEME FROM CRAZY HEART)» – CRAZY HEART
Music & Lyrics by: Ryan Bingham, T Bone Burnett
e. «WINTER» – BROTHERS
Music by: U2
Lyrics by: Bono

15. BEST TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
a. BIG LOVE (HBO)
Anima Sola Productions and Playtone in association with HBO Entertainment
b. DEXTER (SHOWTIME)
Showtime Presents, John Goldwyn Productions, The Colleton Company, Clyde Phillips Productions
c. HOUSE (FOX)
Universal Media Studios in association with Heel and Toe Films, Shore Z Productions and Bad Hat
Harry
d. MAD MEN (AMC)
AMC
e. TRUE BLOOD (HBO)
Your Face Goes Here Entertainment in association with HBO Entertainment

16. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES –
DRAMA
a. GLENN CLOSE
DAMAGES
b. JANUARY JONES
MAD MEN
c. JULIANNA MARGULIES
THE GOOD WIFE
d. ANNA PAQUIN
TRUE BLOOD
e. KYRA SEDGWICK
THE CLOSER

17. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES –
DRAMA
a. SIMON BAKER
THE MENTALIST
b. MICHAEL C. HALL
DEXTER
c. JON HAMM
MAD MEN
d. HUGH LAURIE
HOUSE
e. BILL PAXTON
BIG LOVE

18. BEST TELEVISION SERIES – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
a. 30 ROCK (NBC)
Universal Media Studios in association with Broadway Video and Little Stranger Inc.
b. ENTOURAGE (HBO)
Leverage and Closest to the Hole Productions in association with HBO Entertainment
c. GLEE (FOX)
Twentieth Century Fox Television
d. MODERN FAMILY (ABC)
Twentieth Century Fox Television
e. THE OFFICE (NBC)
Universal Media Studios, Deedle Dee Productions, Reveille LLC

19. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES –
COMEDY OR MUSICAL
a. TONI COLLETTE
UNITED STATES OF TARA
b. COURTENEY COX
COUGAR TOWN
c. EDIE FALCO
NURSE JACKIE
d. TINA FEY
30 ROCK
e. LEA MICHELE
GLEE

20. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES –
COMEDY OR MUSICAL
a. ALEC BALDWIN
30 ROCK
b. STEVE CARELL
THE OFFICE
c. DAVID DUCHOVNY
CALIFORNICATION
d. THOMAS JANE
HUNG
e. MATTHEW MORRISON
GLEE

21. BEST MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
a. GEORGIA O’KEEFFE (LIFETIME TELEVISION)
Sony Pictures Television
b. GREY GARDENS (HBO)
Specialty Films and Locomotive in association with HBO Films
c. INTO THE STORM (HBO)
Scott Free and Rainmark Films Production in association with the BBC and HBO Films
d. LITTLE DORRIT (PBS)
Masterpiece/BBC Co-production
e. TAKING CHANCE (HBO)
Motion Picture Corporation of America and Civil Dawn Pictures in association with HBO Films

22. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MINI-SERIES OR
MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
a. JOAN ALLEN
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE
b. DREW BARRYMORE
GREY GARDENS
c. JESSICA LANGE
GREY GARDENS
d. ANNA PAQUIN
THE COURAGEOUS HEART OF IRENA SENDLER
e. SIGOURNEY WEAVER
PRAYERS FOR BOBBY

23. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION
PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
a. KEVIN BACON
TAKING CHANCE
b. KENNETH BRANAGH
WALLANDER: ONE STEP BEHIND
c. CHIWETEL EJIOFOR
ENDGAME
d. BRENDAN GLEESON
INTO THE STORM
e. JEREMY IRONS
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE

24. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A
SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
a. JANE ADAMS
HUNG
b. ROSE BYRNE
DAMAGES
c. JANE LYNCH
GLEE
d. JANET McTEER
INTO THE STORM
e. CHLOË SEVIGNY
BIG LOVE

25. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A
SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
a. MICHAEL EMERSON
LOST
b. NEIL PATRICK HARRIS
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
c. WILLIAM HURT
DAMAGES
d. JOHN LITHGOW
DEXTER
e. JEREMY PIVEN
ENTOURAGE

Filed under: Uncategorized on January 11th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

I actually have three blogs going right now. Well, four if you count the main nathanandkylee.com news feed I never update. They’re all for different purposes and I keep them separate. But I’ve always been a fan of the public recording of thoughts for others to access, so here are my other two blogs. I don’t mind linking them from here, but I won’t put this blog on those.

kyleesportfolio.com/blog.html is my “professional” blog where I record thoughts about my profession and keep it less personalish, more business. I could probably copy/paste that stuff here if I thought about it, but I usually don’t.

new blog, as of last night: filmgrimage.wordpress.com. it goes alongside the pro blog, but it’s a personal journey type of a thing, so it’s also to be kept separate. “film-grimage is a long journey or search of great filmic significance. A journey to a shrine of the importance of cinema, in any capacity.” But you can read about it on the site. We made the word up.

also, new life goal. nathan has decided to join me actually. this is the fourth year i will be participating in the 500 festival 5K. i’ve always walked it. we’ve always had a fair amount of ease doing so. this year, i want to attempt to run the whole thing. other internet nerds with a sedentary lifestyle have used the couch-to-5K program with great success, so i have loaded up the iphone app and i’m trying to figure out a place to run that isn’t crowded or icy. i think we can do it. it’s only three miles.

Filed under: Uncategorized on January 10th, 2010 | No Comments »

there is a hashtag on twitter going right now – #10yearsago – that i used in one of my tweets. basically i said i was 13 and had no idea what i wanted out of life. it’s been interesting to search that tag and see what other people were doing ten years ago.

but that’s not the point. i was thinking about that tag when i was coming home today. it seems that everything that has made me who i am today happened in the last ten years. i know so much development and character building happened from age 0-13, but it feels like everything i can recall has happened in the last ten years.

i think about where i was ten years ago. i was 13. i had been using a computer for a year. i hadn’t even started high school yet. i knew some of the things i wanted, but i didn’t know how i would ever obtain them. i didn’t know what i wanted to do as a career. i was always interested in the big city, and i hoped that maybe i would end up in new york. i calculated that if i went to a 4 year college, i would graduate in 2009. it seemed like forever from then. there were parts of life that i read about on the internet that seemed beyond what i would ever do – simple things that adults take for granted, like going to a really nice coffee shop, or having a hobby outside of what you could convince your parents to let you do.

i feel like despite all the obstacles that have come up and still continue to come up, i am living the life that the 13 year old me would have LOVED. i have achieved a lot of what i dreamed for. i changed everything about my life.

today, i got up at 10 am and made myself and my husband breakfast. i got ready and went to yoga at a studio downtown, and took a class led by my friend. the first friend i ever met in indianapolis, actually. then we sat while we did paperwork and chatting in the empty locked up studio, and went to find some food downtown. we navigated up and down sidestreets and talked about our favorite local places. we sat in a pub next to conseco and talked about yoga for two hours. then i came home to my cats, my nice apartment, my mac laptop and flatscreen tv and i await the arrival of friends to ring in 2010 together.

i find the fact that i’m living the life the 13 year old me would have died for to be very comforting. even though i’m not where i want to be yet, it’s nice to see some progress and take a step back to see what can happen in ten years.

here’s to being a millionare in 2020

Filed under: Uncategorized on December 31st, 2009 | 1 Comment »

2009 ends next week, and we start a new year and new decade, which is really really weird. This is only the second time I can remember actually changing decades. The last time was when we jumped from 1999 to 2000, and the decade switch was overshadowed by the century switch. Not that any of it matters, since time is just an arbitrary human construct. And the decade actually switches over TECHNICALLY in one year. WHATEVER. But still, it is kind of…weird. A lot of stuff happened this decade for me. I don’t really recall what happened in specific years, other than starting and finishing high school, meeting Nathan, September 11th, when I started video production and blogging, moving away, getting married….I went into the new decade as finishing my 8th grade year and I saw the 00’s as a whole series of opportunities waiting to be taken. I couldn’t even grasp it, but it was roughly structured out due to school and the fact I knew I would go to a traditional college. Now, as I enter the 10’s, I have absolutely no plan. I know things I want to do, things that will probably happen, or where I’d like to be by 2020, but 2010-2019 is literally a gigantic question mark. I’ve never had that, and it 40% bothers me and 55% excites me and 5% goes back and forth.

Also, I turn 30 in 2017. WAT.

Anyway, here’s a little year in review in photos, since that’s the best way to review anything anyway.

January: Started work on my senior capstone and final semester of college.

February: Did little else than work on my massive pile of homework, wedding related tasks, and capstone. Yikes that was a huge to do list.
March: Finished shooting my capstone, went to Michigan with Aaron and Katie to shoot a documentary

April: Spent an absurd amount of time in the labs rotoscoping and editing my capstone and documentary, made fun of conservative tea parties, had my bridal shower thrown for me by BreAnne, had my last day of school ever.


May: Participated in capstone night, graduated from IUPUI, had my bachelorette party, got a job in video production and ended employment at the zoo ( )



June: Had a pre-wedding celebration with family at the zoo, got married to Nathan, went to Vegas for our honeymoon



July: Settled in normalcy and a fulltime job, moved to a two bedroom apartment on the far northside, discovered the greatness of geocaching


August: Saw Austin get married

September: Began baking more regularly as a hobby, got the opportunity to use a DSLR for portraits (yoga portraits for Amanda, senior pictures for Katee, photo coverage of Nathan’s dad’s wedding). Turned 23.

October: Picked apples and baked even more

November: Not a whole lot.
December: Not much, other than found out one of my favorite people, BreAnne, is now engaged.

It seems this year was completely insane until we moved, then it settled into regular ol’ life again. I’m hoping that next year we manage to have the resources to get out of the state a couple of times, if only for a weekend. Then we can have something to look forward to in 2010 since otherwise we’ve achieved a lot of milestones for a while.

I would really like to travel by air at least once this year. I would love to go to Comic-Con in San Diego. I would also love to go to the Lord of the Rings concert at Carnegie Hall in NYC in October. Katee is officially enlisted in the army (she leaves on July 5th lol), which means we might have the opportunity to drive or fly (I’m thinking drive) to southern Oklahoma in early September if she goes straight into Basic without much waiting in Reception. Nathan is applying to go back to school this fall as well. So we have some things that could possibly be coming up to look forward to, which is nice. At this point, on the second or third official day of winter, I’m really just looking forward to the first spring thaw – not the teaser where one day is 65 and the next day it snows, I’m talking the first day in an official trend of warm weather. That alone almost makes me love spring more than summer.

Filed under: Uncategorized on December 27th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

i was talking with a friend about waitressing. we both have a history of being servers, and we were reminiscing about our old jobs that led us to hate humanity so much. i liked being a server for the most part, actually. it’s just that waiting tables is such a manic occupation. the good times are very fun, and the bad times are VERY VERY BAD. and so much of your job is dependent on the crew you work with. if they are selfish, catty, morons, you end up fixing their mistakes and dealing with their gossip more than taking care of tables. you do end up seeing some pretty crazy stuff as a server. the one thing i really didn’t like was sidework. in every establishment i’ve known people to work in, each server was assigned a job to be finished before they left. this is typically some kind of maintenance that needs to be completed so the next servers (either the next shift or the next morning) can effectively do their jobs. usually you would be taken off tables about a half hour before your scheduled ending time so you could do the work. it was in your best interest to complete the task as quickly as possible because you were still only making your crappy hourly rate (likely $2.13), and you wanted to leave. because of this, a lot of servers end up half-assing their side work. and half-assed sidework leads to a crappy shift as you realize that soups are still frozen instead of being rotated to thaw, or chili heating pans are dried up instead of filled with water and therefore the chili is being scorched. you usually would realize this in the thick of a mad rush. so in the middle of being triple-seated, you have to run into the walk-in and grab all kinds of things to quickly put together what you need.

here’s the greatest hits of wins and fails from my 3 years of waiting tables:

• taking cover in the walk-in during a tornado warning
• crack addict cleaning out his crack pipe in the bathroom
• working with a russian girl and an indy homeless guy, and seeing them spontaneously break out in a conversation in fluent french.
• a giant lady eating enough food for 3 people while feeding her kids vienna sausages, then cleaning up the sausages and congealed gunk from the floor when they left.
• cleaning up a giant pile of kid puke in the middle of a dinner rush. and getting a 10% tip from the kid’s mom who helpfully stated “i’m a nurse. you should wear gloves when you clean that up.” no kidding, and thanks for the assistance nurse vaginaface.
• seeing a hamburger thrown at a crying server.
• working circle city classic 10AM-10PM and walking home with $25 ($5 of which was from 1 lady). also not being able to go out the front door because there were so many people, and walking home while being called racial slurs (CC classic is an african-american event attended largely at night by younger people).
• having an idiot server try to pass me a tray of shakes into my non-dominant tray hand and having them fall all over in front of corporate vps (they knew what happened and left me a huge tip)
• being called out during lunch rush by the overall vp of operations for the company and having him tell me i was the best server he’d seen in a long time. after every other employee and manager had been pestering and butt-kissing him hardcore the whole time, while i just smiled and said hello. my short manager was so mad.
• working gencon. 6PM – 9AM a couple of nights. making so much money. walking to work that evening, then walking home to my apartment downtown. this was 2 weeks after i moved out of my parents house. it was an amazing sense of freedom and independence to work 14 hours and then walk home with hundreds of dollars to my own place, seeing what the city is really like early in the morning on a sunday.
• lots of other crazy customers. the stalker who would only let kathy wait on him. playboy who liked to look at playboys while he ate. white girls, the black guy who looked at white girl porn and touched himself. the campus crusade, who came in huge numbers and left huge tips for me and mandy. the first crazy customer i had in indy, who hated mustard and screamed it looked like baby poop.
• meeting dakota fanning, ron artest, a couple of random other people. seeing the mayor leave a cheap ass tip.

it was a good time. i think everyone should wait tables at some point. you learn a lot about society.

Filed under: Uncategorized on December 20th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

since school has ended and i’ve been able to do some things on my long list of things to do that i read about here and there, i’ve begun a couple of new things.

the first one i started in september – regular blood donations. i have been meaning to schedule my next donation since i’ve been eligible for a month now, but i got sick and i have to wait until i’m better before i can actually donate again. i can’t remember if i blogged about blood donation. in short, everyone who meets the basic requirements should be donating blood regularly. it takes like a half hour to an hour maximum depending on your blood flow and the crowd at the center. your blood can be split into three different products, which means it can help save three different people. you’re eligible to donate again roughly every two months. it’s really not painful and if you’re “afraid of needles”, suck it up. it might be YOU in the ER one day bleeding by the gallonful.

the other thing is i joined: the national bone marrow donor registry (www.marrow.org). bone marrow is needed to save people dying from diseases like leukemia and cancer. according to the website, 70% of donors do not have family members who are an eligible match. if you were in a situation where your loved one was in desperate need of bone marrow to save their life and there was no match, i’m sure you would hope that everyone that possibly could would join the registry.

what being in the registry means: i will be a send a kit with cotton swabs in which i will take cell samples from the inside of my mouth. i’ll send the kit back and be officially entered into the registry. when a patient needs bone marrow, a search will be done on the registry. if i’m a match, i’ll be contacted (usually with other people), brought in for further information, tested, and then selected from the final batch of people who matched to donate bone marrow. i can back out at any time.

bone marrow donation isn’t painful. there are two ways this is done. the website explains this in technical terms, but basically the first way is similar to plasma donation. you’re given an injection for 5 days to bring the bone marrow stuff into your blood stream, and then it’s separated out like plasma (the parts they don’t need are put back in you). the other way is outpatient surgery. bone marrow is removed from your pelvic bone – you aren’t put under, just regional anesthetic. some discomfort while walking is common, but there is no pain during the procedure itself.

i’ve been pondering becoming a part of this registry for a while, and i never really read enough into it to see what a bone marrow donation was like. i always assumed it was really painful. knowing that it’s just a minor inconvenience makes it even easier to join. also, there is usually a $50 fee to join to cover processing, but a promo code is attached to the form right now that makes joining the registry free.

i think everyone should look at that website and consider participating. imagine if your son or daughter or friend or whoever was dying, and a bone marrow donation from an anonymous donor saved their life. you can’t imagine the kind of desperation a family goes through when they know they need a tissue donation and just can’t find someone to do a simple outpatient procedure.

being a poor young person, it’s nice to still have some kind of charitable act to offer to the world.

(i’m also an organ donor but i think i’ll hang on to all of those until i’m not using them. )

Filed under: Uncategorized on December 9th, 2009 | 3 Comments »

In case anyone is desperately trying to figure out what to get for me for Christmas, here is my Amazon wishlist. It’s nice because they added a universal wishlist option, so you can add things from other websites.

Filed under: Uncategorized on December 6th, 2009 | No Comments »

the 00’s are almost over now that it’s december, and i keep seeing top ten lists. i want in on it. so here are my top ELEVEN movies of the decade. because i’m cool and i get an extra one. this is my personal top eleven and i picked them based partially on how influential they were (particularly to me).

EDIT: I totally forgot District 9 (2009). If I was going to replace a film on here with that one, I would replace Superbad just because District 9 is a much heavier movie. I think District 9 is an important film in 2 ways. The first is that it’s exploring topics that many people don’t really consider happening in today’s world. It’s commentary on the political and economical situation that South Africa is in. It’s very raw and terrifying and doesn’t hold back. It’s a movie you watch and don’t immediately wish to watch again because it’s painful and make you think. The other way D9 is important is from a filmmaker’s perspective. It made tons of money and cost pennies to make in comparison with Hollywood blockbusters. It was directed by a brand new director with no experience, showing how possible it is for people to be seen and recognized with today’s very connected world. It was shot primarily on RED cameras – digital video, not film. It was on location in Johannesburg, with real residents on camera being asked about their opinion of the actual events taking place in some parts, and through editing it seems as though they’re talking about aliens. I think District 9 is the direction cinema is going – making it more available to everyone.

Dancer in the Dark (2000)

Before this film, I’d never seen a “musical” with a dark side. I’d never really seen a movie with such a hopeless storyline. It was a break from the conventional and mostly uplifting films around this time. I had begun to listen to Bjork a little before this, and this solidified my fandom. Also, watching and reading things about the making of the film and learning about the methods of Lars von Trier was changing to me, and also interesting because he was a part of the filmmaking movement I attempted to emulate almost 10 years later as the end of my college career.

Memento (2000)

This was another film that changed the way I thought about film at a time when I was just starting to learn about filmmaking. The convention of telling a story from the end to the beginning, and still having the same kind of three act structure was pretty amazing. I watched it sometime within the last year or two and even then I discovered something new about it. And of course it introduced me to Christopher Nolan.

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

Even though these movies are in no particular order, this has been my favorite movie since I saw it in like 2002. I loved the storybook quality of it, the breakaways from the main story to little short tidbits that really opened up Amelie’s world, and just how nice and fuzzy it was. I loved the storyline of a somewhat isolated and different girl and how she sees the world. I think my favorite sequences were when characters would be introduced by what they liked and didn’t like. Amelie is about appreciating the tiny things in life and not letting your various psychoses instilled upon you in childhood by your parents or in adulthood by your health prevent you from living. I also loved the color quality and I think this movie alone made me love color grading.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

The weird thing about this movie is sometime before casting had even begun, I somehow found the script of this movie online and read the whole thing. And I thought then that it would be amazing. It’s another movie with unconventional storytelling, with Joel’s mind being erased of all traces of his ex-girlfriend. It’s another one that made me think more three dimensionally about how I could tell and edit a story. The story itself was so amazingly good too.

Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003) (this counts as one)

This is a no brainer. It came out in the middle of a time when I was really learning more and more about editing. It doesn’t change the conventions of filmmaking, but it was so epic in scale that it was one of the main inspirations to pursue a career as an editor. The endless supply of behind the scenes stuff (that I still haven’t seen completely because there is hours and hours of it) allowed Peter Jackson to make the creation of this movie a transparent experience for anyone that was interested. It was fun to read the books and predict how sections would be adapted, or think about why parts were changed and why book actions don’t translate to film every time. This movie was a culmination of everything I loved, and it made HUGE projects seem more possible.

The Dark Knight (2008)

The 00’s re-defined the superhero movie genre, and this is the centerpiece. It changed the way people thought about how superhero movies could be. And it’s Christopher Nolan again. It took chances, stayed more true to the original graphic novel, and is kind of an example of how dark movies got in this decade.

Children of Men (2006)

This is another dark dark movie of the 00’s, but it ended happily (sort of). The story itself was great and horrifying. And the filmmaking was beyond what I expected – the long takes with so many people in them and so much action going on. I remember the longest long take toward the end of the film, I realized it in the theater that the shot had been running for at least several minutes now. I think this film is the first film since Dancer in the Dark to actually make me feel literally depressed.

Garden State (2004)

This was an interesting film to view just before leaving home, because it was about returning to home after being away for a while. It also changed the way I considered music in film, as it had one of the best soundtracks of any movie and introduced me to a lot of the music I listened to in college. I find it kind of parallels a lot of what I experienced after I left home. I should watch it again soon.

Monsters Inc (2001)

I could only put one Pixar on here really (because that could be a whole ‘nother top ten), so instead of picking my favorite – Ratatouille – I picked this. It was another film early on with Pixar that really showed the world what they were capable of before it really was totally convinced. This was the first of their films to showcase CG hair, and the story itself was so original and amazing that it set the tone for the rest of their films.

Once (2006)

I picked this film to represent all the indie films I saw over the course the decade. This one was inspirational to me because the main actors were not actors, but musicians. The film was shot on location with no permits, and it was shot incognito so that nobody knew that a scene was happening on the street and therefore nobody would get kicked out of the area. That kind of guerilla filmmaking make me happy, because it’s possible for me too.

Superbad (2007)

I had to put a live action comedy on here, and it had to be a Judd Apatow film because his comedies totally stole the decade. This film reminds me of high school in a way, though I never went to parties or got drunk. It reminds me of the kind of moronic things I spent all night doing in high school. It also kind of reminds me of the time right before the end of high school. This film is also such a great example of a good comedy.

There, my top eleven. I wonder what other top elevens I can do? Hmm…

Filed under: Uncategorized on December 5th, 2009 | 3 Comments »

i put myself in charge of thanksgiving at my parents’ house this year. i’ve been enjoying cooking and baking, trying new recipes that i’ve had bookmarked for months before i had time to try them out. so now i’m putting together a menu for thanksgiving. i’m trying some things i haven’t done before and trying to mix it up from the usual dishes we have there this year. i’m also looking for things that can be mostly prepped the day before and assembled/finished easily.

appetizer:
Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Tart
French Onion Soup

main:
Roast Turkey, brined overnight

sides:
Tart Cranberry Dipping Sauce
Roasted Stuffed Onions (and half without the onions, just the stuffing)
Creamy Golden Mashed Potatoes
Alton Brown’s version of Green Bean Casserole
Nathan’s dad’s recipe for rolls
Mac and Cheese casserole
Assorted cheeses and vegetables

dessert:
pie of some sort

Filed under: Uncategorized on November 12th, 2009 | 3 Comments »

it’s very nice to see a step in the right direction for healthcare in the us.

it’s not so very nice to see the conservative reaction to this. the best place to see the true colors of the right is by going to twitter and searching for the #tcot hashtag.

what you’ll find right now is pure hate and racism (aimed at rep. cao). it’s pretty amazing. there’s so much misinformation being spread on twitter about how this will change everyone’s taxes, how people will die and be sick and unemployed…a lot of hyperbole (pronounced hyper-bowl according to rep. boehner, whose nickname is now boner).

the right wants to rally and defeat the “liberal takeover” of healthcare. i feel like republicans are not used to not being in power, and they’ve had to sit and watch liberals take a stand against them for quite a while with all the nonsense that has occurred.

the difference is the liberals for the most part had something to rally about, while now the conservatives are just doing it for the sake of feeling super awesome. they love to brand themselves as hip and cool (great going with “teabaggers”) and take a few more stabs in the dark as the GOP dies off.

i keep seeing that this healthcare bill means surrendering all your rights and freedoms as an individual to the government and how wrong it is. i also keep seeing the ben franklin quote about those who give up freedom for protection deserve neither or however it goes being repeated.

…tell me again about the patriot act?

(c-span CAN be kind of exciting. who knew? can’t wait for the senate.)

this is from today. ridiculous.

Filed under: Uncategorized on November 8th, 2009 | 3 Comments »