Caption Contest Results!

I'm offering the above as another little bonus because I've of course totally shafted the winner by waiting this long to announce. And also because I wanna gab about the challenge of finding good fodder for the caption contest.

Because it's HARD. Honestly I was more worried about figuring out how to erase the words in the talking balloons. (Julie has Photoshop on her computer, but I've never used it... turns out it was easy). In order to find the strips, I googled "comics," clicked on the first site that came up, then looked through their catalogue for familiar stuff. They only had five of any given strip, so I thought "Great! Not too many to review. I'll just pick the best one of the five."

In retrospect I don't really like the strips I picked, and I'm not even sure I picked the right one out of five in each case. I'm not even sure if the Superboy cover above is a good example, because it doesn't lend itself to too many alternatives (or does it? YOU decide...)

It's a weird batch of criteria that I just began to grasp when I ran my first contest. Let's take a look...

Dick Tracy


This was one of a series in which Dick tracks down crack dealers who use a flour company as their unwitting mule service. I chose it for the action, but in truth I'm not really sure what's going on. It looks the tiny person whose hand we see in panel two is throwing the objects, but for what purpose? It might be because they ate biscuits made with crack instead of flour. Bet those taste good.

Both JPX and Cat took a stab at this one, and I give it to JPX for incorporating the random throwing:

Panel 1:

Earl: "Ouch! Damnit, woman, stop chuckin' things at me! I'm going to smack ya if you keep it up!"

Dick Tracy: "Calm down, Earl, she's going through a tough time, her husband was just murdered"

Panel 2:

Dick Tracy: "Lucinda, I know you're fragile right now but you shouldn't be taking it out on old Earl"

Panel 3:

Lucinda: "It just makes me feel better when I throw things!"

Thug: "Dames"

B.C.


Of the ones I posted, this was my favorite. Not that joke up there, that's pretty dumb, but the image of the guys in the hole. Somewhere in my life I borrowed a bunch of B.C. books from a neighbor and so I know that's supposed to be a caveman dugout, but I looked forward to what my compatriots would come up with. And I was not disappointed, the entries were about sex, sex and sex.

I'm imagining a series of groans when I announce JPX the winner of this one, since JSP uses "buried treasure" beforehand and Cat even uses "Good Lord." But something about the repeated line just cracked me up (I recall from at least one winning haiku that JPX uses that gag well).

Panel 1:

"I've been looking all over for you two. Good lord, what are you doing, why are you digging up the outfield?

Panel 2:

"We're looking for buried treasure"

Panel 3:

"Why are you both naked as a jay bird?"

Panel 4:

"We're looking for buried treasure"

Honorable mention to JSP for the addition of "my mother's freshly dug up grave." Nice one.

Momma


Meh. This was my worst choice. Any of the other four Mommas I could've posted probably would have been more fun, but I liked the facial expressions in this one and I didn't think it would lead you guys too much. And it doesn't, because nothing freaking happens. In terms of dry, impersonal challenge, I though there was no way I could top ACs double whammy of Doonesbury and Life in Hell from last week, but I think maybe I did. The winner of this one is Catfreeek, for daring to make Momma slutty:

Panel 1

Francis: I've finally come to terms with it Momma.

Momma: What's that Francis?

Panel 2

Francis: The reason my relationships never work is because no woman can measure up to you.

Momma: How sweet, go on please.

Panel 3

Francis: So her's the deal, I think we should just put all morality aside and go tear up that bedroom like no tomorrow.

Momma: Hmmmm....

Panel 4

Momma: I thought you'd never ask.


The Left Coast


I've never heard of this strip, but by this point I'd exhausted the known strips and I was just looking for a distinctive visual, and I'm a big fan of the whole monkeys/typewriters idea. Of the three entries, JPX knocked himself to the bottom of the heap when he pretty much divined the actual original joke, except with Sarah Palin instead of Justin Bieber. Weird!

Picking a winner from between JSP and Cat was difficult; I liked Cat's joke better when I was reading the comments:

Panel 1

"Isn't it amazing Smither's, we were able to replace all the hourly staff with chimps and they work for bananas!"

Panel 2

"That's fantastic sir but what's to stop them from replacing us too?"

Panel 3

"Well, I do own the company."

"I'll go clean out my desk."

But ultimately I laughed more when I returned to the picture and imagined Johnny's last panel of dialogue along with those facial expressions:

Panel 1

“The salesman promised me that eventually these monkeys would type a masterpiece every bit as profound as Shakespeare’s best work!”

Panel 2

“With all due respect sir, that’s merely a hypothetical theorum that requires an infinite amount of time.”

“Panel 3”

“Well they sure are adorable, aren’t they?”

“I suppose… except when they’re flinging their feces at each other.”

He also gets props for mentioning "a hypothetical theorum that requires an infinite amount of time," because smart is sexy.

Ripley's Believe It Or Not!


I still think this is a good caption contest source, but I feel like I'd have to pour through many more to find one that didn't have some obvious lead-in from its illustrations. As it is both entries do a great job of knocking through the expectations: AC almost took it because, in addition to the funny, she remembered to end every Ripley's sentence with an exclamation point:

there's a caterpillar native to southern belgium that scares birds away by humming justin bieber tunes!

a man from elkhorn, nevada has such horrible breath that he can shatter a glass just by exhaling!

the world's tallest port-a-potty has its own dedicated truck and maintenance crew!

But I have to give this one to Johnny for identifying one of the players as himself, and furthermore portraying himself as a glass-eating lush.

Left panel

“The rare Fartichordata worm from southern Missouri has the unique ability to scare its ornithological enemies away by means of musical farts.”

Right panel

“Horrorthon icon and man-about-town Johnny Sweatpants has been known to get so panic stricken when he runs out of alcohol that he eats his wine glass to ensure that no drop goes to waste.”

Bottom panel

“In 1954 a law was passed in Alabama making it illegal to anally rape trucks with giant pillars. It is still recognized today as the smartest piece of legislature to come from the state.”

With two wins apiece, I suppose either brother is worthy, but I'm giving this to JPX because his B.C. entry made me laugh the most. I expect the contest will be at least a day late this week, and I apologize for that. I did give JPX a warning phone call earlier in the day but that still isn't a whole lot of time. Memorial Day actually made me forget what day of the week it was.

Anyway, boy do I love this contest. Running one was sooo interesting, even if I was disappointed in some of my choices. I also found it impossible to think of new jokes when I already knew what originally filled the talking balloons, so that's something else to work on in the future. Or maybe the present, as I found the Superboy picture above just like it is, so I don't know what the cover actually says.

Congrats JPX!

43000 galaxies

at space.com:


click to source

the 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS) has catalogued more than 43,000 galaxies within 380 million light-years from earth (z < 0.09). in this projection, the plane of the milky way runs horizontally across the center of the image. 2MRS is notable for extending closer to the galactic plane than previous surveys — a region that's generally obscured by dust.
credit: t.h. jarrett (IPAC/SSC) 

3 Questions for Jane's Addiction

What 3 questions would you like us to ask Jane's Addiction tomorrow?

They are being inducted into the Guitar Center Rock Walk Of Fame!

esplendor geometrico - moscu esta helado

1981

1981 ♫ http://blip.fm/~150xfa

DC Comics to renumber all comics, offer day-and-date digital distribution

From ew, Superman, your days are re-numbered! DC Comics today announced that it will begin new numbering for its superhero comics this summer, as well as begin releasing digital editions on the same day print editions are available in stores. The renumbering effort for the publisher’s 52 “DC Universe” titles (i.e., its core superhero business) will start August 31 with Justice League No. 1, which marks the debut of superstar creative team Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. It coincides with the conclusion of its highly-touted “Flashpoint” storyline starring The Flash, an epic mystery concerning an apparent timeline reboot. While it’s not uncommon for publishers to renumber a title (usually in tandem with a creative reboot designed to goose sales), it’s believed that DC’s initiative marks the first time a publisher has renumbered all of its books at once. DC will begin offering day-and-date digital distribution of its titles on August 31 as well.

Best Actor 1951

And the Nominees Were:

Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun

Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire

Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen

Arthur Kennedy in Bright Victory

Fredric March in Death of a Salesman

a woman trapped

at naked pastor:


click image to source
via the friendly atheist

'Shark Night 3D' looks like fun

Best Actor 2008: Results

5. Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button- Pitt's performance is a dull lifeless effort that does nothing to bring to life the strange premise of his character.

4. Sean Penn in Milk-Penn performance is always very actory, and always very hard to believe to me because of that. He never realizes a true character to me instead just a series of external mannerisms.

3. Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon-Like Penn Langella as well fails to really realize his character in any true fashion, and as well focuses far too much on his mannerisms, that are incorrect to Nixon anyway, which amount to a rather ineffective characterization.

2. Richard Jenkins in The Visitor- The only person who should have been nominated, but not win is Jenkins. It is not a big performance, or an amazing achievement, but Jenkins is most certainly very good in his portrait of a man who slowly finds some joy, and passion in his life.

1. Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler- Good prediction Dinasztie. This is one of my easiest choices very really, because Rourke is the only possibly choice for this year and this category. He stands far above the rest, in his deeply moving portrait of Randy The Ram Robinson. Rourke shows so much to his character both the positive and the negative, never playing a single moment falsely, despite taking many risks with his performance.

Deserving Performances:
Leonardo DiCaprio in Revolutionary Road
Brendan Gleeson in In Bruges
David Kross in The Reader

X-Men: First Class Is Gonna Be a Great Movie

From toplessrobot, All right, respect. Whatever qualities or problems X-Men: First Class is going to have, it really will feature a scene of January Jones as Emma Frost just hanging out in lingerie as if it was a regular, socially acceptable outfit. While I'm not losing my mind at the Maxim pin-up-iness of it, I do think it's amazing that they've taken this one bizarre character trait of the White Queen and just run it with on-screen. It's probably for the best, because if you've seen Jones try to "act" in any of the million or so film clips that have been released, you'll understand why it's probably a good idea for Jones to be standing around in a bra for most of the film.

the believing brain

on skepticblog, michael shermer presents an excerpt of his book, the believing brain: from ghosts, gods, and aliens to conspiracies, economics, and politics—how the brain constructs beliefs and reinforces them as truths [what a title!] :

snip

according to a 2009 harris poll of 2,303 adult americans, when people are asked to “please indicate for each one if you believe in it, or not,” the following results were revealing:

82% believe in god
76% believe in miracles
75% believe in heaven
73% believe in jesus is god or the son of god
72% believe in angels
71% believe in survival of the soul after death
70% believe in the resurrection of jesus christ
61% believe in hell
61% believe in the virgin birth (of jesus)
60% believe in the devil
45% believe in darwin’s theory of evolution
42% believe in ghosts
40% believe in creationism
32% believe in ufos
26% believe in astrology
23% believe in witches
20% believe in reincarnation

/snip

i'm thinking of carrying around this checklist and conducting a private poll...

tick tock, the dandelion clock

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our world is increasingly fragile -- and cosmos is more relevant than ever.

the introduction to carl sagan's cosmos: the shores of the cosmic ocean



"
the size and age of the cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home -- the earth. for the first time, we have the power to decide the fate of our planet and ourselves. this is a time of great danger, but our species is young and curious and brave, it shows much promise. in the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the cosmos and our place within it. i believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this cosmos in which we float like amote of dust in the morning sky.

we're about to begin a journey through the cosmos. we'll encounter galaxies and suns and planets, life and consciousness, coming into being, evolving and perishing. worlds of ice and stars of diamond, atoms as massive as suns, universes smaller than atoms. but it's also a story of our own planet, and the plants and animals that share it with us. and it's a story about us, how we achieved our present understanding of the cosmos, how the cosmos has shaped our evolution and our culture, and what our fate may be.

we wish to pursue the truth no matter where it leads, but to find the truth we need imagination and skepticism both. we will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact. the cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant troves, of exquisite interrelationships, of the awesome machinery of nature.

the surface of the earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. on this shore, we've learned most of what we know. recently, we've waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. some part of our being knows this is where we came from. we long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. we're made of star stuff. we are a way for the cosmos to know itself. the journey for each of us begins here. we are going to explore the cosmos in a ship of the imagination, unfettered by ordinary limits on speed and size, drawn by the music of cosmic harmonies. it can take us anywhere in space and time. perfect as a snowflake, organic as a dandelion seed, it will carry us to worlds of dreams, and worlds of facts. come with me.
"
- carl sagan

©2011 helen sotiriadis

Best Actor 2008: Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

Mickey Rourke received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Randy "The Ram" Robinson in The Wrestler.

The Wrestler tells the story of past his prime pro-wrestler, who tries to reform his life, after a severe heart attack.

Mickey Rourke's performance here most certainly has an extra quality due to his long troubled career before the Wrestler. Rourke has some detractors here for playing himself, which certianly is a blatant rather foolish statement because what Rourke does here, is anything but just simply act as himself. He may certainly channel himself, and his experiences but almost any actor does that, and rarely do actors ever do as well as Rourke in this film.

The Ram at the beginning of the film is not shown to be the best off fellow, in fact he lives pretty shabbily, and seems to not really have any meaningful relationships in his life. He was a big star in the professional wrestling world though at one time. Rourke is extremely good here, because he certainly shows just the tired aged demeanor of the man in his rather exasperated way of just doing his day to day tasks. Rourke is especially in good in showing that he his time really was the 80's and certainly seems a little lost, such as when he fails to understand a young local kid's description of a modern game.

Rourke though shows that The Ram is not entirely without his small pleasures in his life, he does have a little fun for example with the local kids, but that certianly does not overcome his age. What does overcome this more mentally, although not physically, is found in his wrestling experience, both at local little conventions, and matches at rather small venues.

Rourke here is especially good because he shows Randy's charisma, and presence he has in the ring. Rourke is natural in the ring, and he finds the right believable camaraderie with the other wrestler that works extremely well.  Rourke shows that in the ring Randy is in his own, and suggests his past as the wrestling superstar.

Randy though after a brutal extreme wrestling match and suffers his heart attack and has to quit wrestling. He decides to try to create a relationship with a local stripper Cassidy (Marisa Tomei). It is an interesting relationship because the stripper constantly rebukes him due to her defenses due to her profession. It is not cold, but sort of harsh, but Rourke is extremely good because of his earnestness in the relationship even if it not all shared. Rourke shows that Randy desperately needs the relationship, and it is the desperation that makes him keep trying.

At the same time he tries as well to try to once again create a relationship with his estranged daughter. Rourke shows quite clearly his torrid history with his daughter, and how he really does not know her well at all, due to his complete awkwardness talking about her earlier with Cassidy. Rourke as well shows that still shows his desperation makes him still try, and that he does have a love for his daughter even if he himself can't always remember that. This is of course shown best by his "piece of meat speech" which could have easily been overly melodramatic, but because of Rourke emotional honesty the scene is incredibly effective.

Randy also works more at his supermarket job by working behind a deli, which may be for me, the best part of his performance. Rourke's performance is amazing simply, when he once again finds the old Randy but this time as just a worker in the deli. He once again shows his charisma underneath that age once more, in a simply great scene. Rourke is outstanding in his performance, as he is humorous, a very entertaining and all that Randy is doing is working at a deli.

Randy life though never reforms as he wishes, despite his attempts, but that is due to his own destructive behavior. Rourke makes Randy's downfall believable because Randy is never portrayed as perfect, and Rourke always presents that his trying to fix his life, is always part of his desperation in life. Rourke's performance simply is outstanding becuase he perfectly mixes each part of his life so well, his mistakes, his tries, his success and his failure.

syntagma > airport

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wannalearntoshootlikethomashawk

©2011 helen sotiriadis

Happy Memorial Day!

very large telescope: HD timelapse footage

8 minutes of bliss. watch it full screen.

usman riaz: fire fly

genius!

Best Actor 2008: Richard Jenkins in The Visitor

Richard Jenkins received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Walter Vale in The Visitor.

The Visitor is a somewhat contrived, although not entirely ineffective film about a man who finds a purpose again in life by befriending illegal immigrants.

Richard Jenkins is quite good at being just an average man in this film as Walter Vale. He plays a widowed economic professor. He seems to simply be drifting through life without much of a purpose, except the rather simple day to day tasks involving his job, and the piano lessons he takes basically because his wife memory.

Jenkins simply, but effectively portrays his characters rather overt, yet at the same time subtle depression. He is not visibly crying constantly nor has he stopped his life completely, but Jenkins clearly suggests the profound effect the death of Walter's wife has had on him. It is not so much a sadness, but a lack of joy that Jenkins conveys wonderfully.

Walter soon meets a group of illegal immigrants that is the main focus of the film. Jenkins is again good in his confused apprehension at first as he encounters them in his apartment in New York City that he rarely uses. Walter comes around to them, and in fact befriends the illegal immigrant couple, particularly the man Tarek, who starts to teach him to play the drums.

Jenkins' transition of Walter's relationship is not a huge jump by anyways, but it honestly portrayed by Jenkins, because he still shows that some awkwardness in his relation with the immigrants does stay, and that it is a very gradual transition of greater comfort with his very different from him, new friends.

Jenkins also does not become instantly happy at all, but shows that his life has simply found something new, and has again given more of some joy, that the utter devoid he had before. A passion also grows even more fully actually when Terek is imprisoned due to his illegal status.

Walter once again finds a passion within himself to help Terek the best he can, and Jenkins suggests it as not something new to Walter, but rather this part of himself being risen once more. This is particularly shown well in his angry speech scene at the prison, where Jenkins is effective because he shows that he really does care for what is being done to Terek, and how his relationship with him has moved quite deeply.

With the imprisonment of Terek he also meets and befriends as well Terek's mother Mouna. Again Jenkins is good in creating and honest natural relationship with her, but this time he seems to make an even deeper connection with her, so much that he reveals and reflects more about himself. Jenkins comes full circle very well in showing how Walter had been sleepwalking through life, but finally has grown enough to find a purpose as well as see how he had been previously.

I think I have probably sounded rather positive throughout this whole review, no doubt coming at least partially from the rather lackluster performances I have just gone through. I will say I am positive this is a good performance, and Jenkins shows his ability as a leading man as he did more commonly as a supporting actor. At the same time this is a good performance always, but never quite a great one. Not really for any major reasons but I mostly saw the performance as being a good performance, but it never really made me exceedingly invested in the character just that's all. It never quite had that extra quality that makes a 4.5 and a 5 for me, but still this is a consistently good performance I want to make that clear.

the end of god?: a horizon guide to science and religion

link

syntagma square, athens, may 28th, 2011: a show of hands.

click!
i went to syntagma square again on saturday evening and shot some more.
please view the entire set:
set | slideshow

my previous shoot was on may 25th.

©2011 helen sotiriadis

Best Actor 2008: Sean Penn in Milk

Sean Penn won his second Oscar from his fourth nomination for portraying Harvey Milk in Milk.

Milk is a rather standard biography film, that basically is just a retelling of the documentary about Harvey Milk, making its original screenplay win pretty hard to understand.

I think the best way actually to criticize this performance is to examine much of its praise which it heavily received in 2008. Well it was constantly praised as a technical performance. Look at the way he holds his arms back in enthusiasm was one, the way he walked was another. Well I must say that actually detracted greatly from the performance in my view. Penn lack in Mystic River, but to an even fuller extent always seems to be far to self-aware of his performance.

I know some might say, hey but aren't you that guy who think Laurence Olivier is one greatest actors ever, he most certianly was an actor who knew the in and out of his performance, well in his best performances he never let the audience knew he knew, and brought it about naturally. Sean Penn on the other hand never seems to not let the audience know that he most certianly is acting in this performance.

Penn I never felt really attempted at much to show a greater inner depth of character, but rather like Langella in my view always played each scene as just an acting display. Sure he most certianly has his quiet scenes as Langella did, but like them they seemed much too tailored merely to be the quiet scenes, rather than more natural scenes to show the range of the character.

I was never very convinced by Penn portrayal of Milk becuase of this, and I always felt it to be a very on the surface performance, always caught up on making far too obvious of faces, and gestures in both his quiet and loud scenes. I also thought his portrayal really tried to focus on the flamboyant aspects of Milk, just to simply go hey look I'm Sean Penn playing Harvey Milk, isn't this performance completely different from my other performances.

Due to this fact I always felt he played Milk in a rather stereotypical fashion, that always seemed rather awkward and unnatural to me. Milk's relationship with James Franco's character, never seemed believable because frankly both actors in all of those scenes seemed too aware that they were playing homosexual characters, and they themselves were not.

Sean Penn's performance as Milk never goes beyond his external obvious acting in my book. I think this is partially to blame the film as well, which perhaps also looks as Milk as a fairly surface documentary subject, rather than trying to completely get into the real depth of the character. Well perhaps the film believed Penn would do that, well for me though he never did that in the least.

SNEAK TRAILER: NIN - Led Zepp - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo red band trailer

2sec review: The American Astronaut

Last night, a bunch of friends came over for what has become the tradition of movie night (Film Fridays, Sunday Sushi). We watched The American Astronaut.

What I had seen previously and had shared with friends via MyLiveTube, FB, Twit, etc. was the Hey Boy Hey Boy scene. This was certainly funny and within the first several minutes. The writer, director, main actor also wrote and performed the music... this was fun! The movie was very slow and had all nine of us going, "WTFunk is happening?". The lo-fi effects were certainly amusing. Check the link to see the Hey Boy Hey Boy scene and perhaps just youtube other musical bits.
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0243759/

If you will be in Hollywood this summer.... be on the look out for a recurring movie night outdoors that Pembrooke Andrews and I plan to hold for everyone :)

Best Actor 2008: Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon

Frank Langella received his first Oscar nomination for portraying former president Richard M. Nixon in Frost/Nixon.

Frost/Nixon is a film that frankly tries to make its subject matter seem too important by forgetting about historical accuracy, and just having the wrong tone for the story.Watching the actual interviews are a lot more interesting, than anything in this film.

Frank Langella's performance is what should be described as a mannerism filled performance from his face, to his voice to the way he walks. All in an attempt to imitate the real Richard Nixon. Now Langella claims in interviews that he was not trying to imitate, yet he was still using a voice not of his own, as well as mannerisms, so its a little hard to believe his statement. I guess he was just trying to excuse the fact that he fails to get Nixon down, who real is not really nearly as mannered as Langella's performance makes him out to be.

Frank Langella whole mannered performance is a severe hindrance to his entire performance. He looks almost like a cartoon character at times, because he looks so strange, in not only the way he is made up but also because of the way he walks, and talks, which simply does not work well for Nixon as a character. Langella's whole performance feels out of place because of this, he just never seems natural in his characterization of Nixon, he simply should have cut back on the mannerisms.

Langella performance after his mannerisms seems to have three sets of acting scenes in this film. One is he awkwardly tries to talk to people normally, again Langella mannerisms made Nixon's inability to connect with other people rather unnatural, now that might make it seem like I am saying the right type of unnatural, but I would say unrealistic type of unnatural, not proper to a real person type of unnatural.

Another is his yelling scenes or at least loudly pitched scenes, which has too many of. There are great numbers when he loses it, and frankly again it never felt particularly natural, instead it always came off as excessive ACTING to me. I never felt it was ever really effective, in conveying emotion, but rather just trying to override all other emotions with his angered yelling, which also is completely incorrect to how Nixon acted on the actual tapes, if Langella had been more like how he actual was that could have been a great performance.

Finally he also has his token quiet scenes, where the filmmaker show their belief to create some sympathy for the character just put in some obvious scenes that basically come off as the "sympathy creation scenes".  Langella and his mannerisms again undermine any potential emotion that could have possibly been made in these rather forced moments. Langella never finds the right depth of emotion to really create anything in these scenes either. This is a performance that fails to be a good imitation, and it puts so much of its effort into its imitation causes it to be just a bad performance.

Best Actor 2008: Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Brad Pitt received his second Oscar nomination for portraying Benjamin Button in the Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an overly long, often boring film about a man who ages backwards.

Brad Pitt's performance here cannot be mentioned without mentioning all of the special effects in the various scenes of the film. It is many times difficult to tell how much of the actual character is Pitt in these early scenes, which even seems to include the face partially at times. The one thing that seems to Pitt's own most of the time seems to just be his voice, except for of course at the very end of the film.

I think a major problem, one of the major problems with this performance, is that much of it is special effects, or makeup. Pitt's I never felt really did all that much to do all that much himself to indicate the age as well as deaging of the character. Pitt' always seems to just let the special effects handle most every thing, and I geuss he alters his voice a little bit but not all too much, or all that interestingly.

Another problem comes from the fact that Pitt's portrays his part in an extremely uninteresting fashion. He has a distinct lack of charm in the role, and he again seems to want the special effects to do everything, including in trying to make him an interesting character. Pitt is just deadly dull because he does this, perhaps one could say well the special effects were hindering, I say no, watch John Hurt in The Elephant Man to see a performance, that technically could have been hindered by makeup but never for single moment was.

Pitt's whole performance shows what makes other performances good actually, because when there is a close up to Pitt's face, what does one see nothing. He shows absolutely no reflection on the character's life, or frankly much of a realization that his character is even aging backwards. Pitt always keeps the part at this same level of passiveness, that is quite boring to watch.

Pitt in fact does try to give a performance similar to that of Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. He tries to be a likable guy to follow through his adventures, and misadventures through time. Although I believe this to be a faulty way in portraying a character that seems like he should have deeper reflection, even though he never does. Still as even trying to be like Hanks he fails, because Hanks still was able to be likable and carrying his film, Pitt never does this, making the story of Benjamin Button, quite a dull one.

connectivity

i believe facebook is buggy, inconsistent and untrustworthy -- still, it's great for keeping in touch with my friends, especially if they're abroad or from past activities and towns. it's also an important tool to connect with people who don't ordinarily rummage around the internet in general.

i find myself spending quite a bit of time on FB, often linking to interesting tidbits on my profile that i don't share on my blog, either because they're unrelated to my usual subject matter, or because i'm just feeling lazy.

if you'd like to follow my personal page, you can send me a message and, if i feel confident about the request, i'll add you. if you're interested in getting notices about my photography, you can like my helen sotiriadis photography page! i'm also on twitter, if that's your thing.

of course, there's also my new, improved website, which craves comments on my guestbook!

you can find even more ways to connect with me via the little square icons just under my profile image on the right sidebar (although, to be honest, i've pretty much given up on myspace).

Best Actor 2008

And the Nominees Were:

Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon

Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Sean Penn in Milk

Richard Jenkins in The Visitor

Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

VIDEO: baby kitty - mama cat sleeping snuggling

sean carroll: physics and the immortality of the soul

from scientific american:



'very roughly speaking, when most people think about an immaterial soul that persists after death, they have in mind some sort of blob of spirit energy that takes up residence near our brain, and drives around our body like a soccer mom driving an suv. the questions are these: what form does that spirit energy take, and how does it interact with our ordinary atoms? not only is new physics required, but dramatically new physics. within qft, there can't be a new collection of "spirit particles" and "spirit forces" that interact with our regular atoms, because we would have detected them in existing experiments. ockham's razor is not on your side here, since you have to posit a completely new realm of reality obeying very different rules than the ones we know.'

the entire piece here and at cosmic variance.

1500000 +

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Jeff Conaway, star of 'Taxi' and 'Grease,' dies

From ew, Jeff Conaway, whose career on screens both big and small spanned from playing the wisecracking rebel Kenickie in the iconic 1978 movie musical Grease to sharing his heartbreaking descent into addiction on two seasons of VH1′s Celebrity Rehab, died Friday at the age of 60, his manager tweeted. He passed away from complications from pneumonia.
Born in New York City, Conaway shot to fame in the ’70s as a quintessential cocky guy: first in the internationally successful Grease and then on the TV hit Taxi, on which he played a similarly brash struggling actor named Bobby Wheeler from 1978 to 1981 (he left the show for its last two seasons). In 1980, he married Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John’s sister, Rona, and had a son named Emerson, though the couple divorced five years later.

After Taxi, his career never quite recovered. He snagged roles on The Bold and the Beautiful in 1989 and Babylon 5 in the ’90s, but his most disturbingly memorable appearance came when he appeared on Celebrity Rehab as one of Dr. Drew Pinsky’s most difficult cases. After a long struggle with addiction, he first appeared on the show’s 2008 season to fight a dependency on alcohol, cocaine, and painkillers. His mumbling, drunk arrival at the Pasadena Recovery Center in a wheelchair, as well as his airing of suicidal thoughts, caused alarm even in the most jaded viewers.

The actor had said in more recent public appearances that he was doing better, but on May 19, he was admitted to a Los Angeles hospital after being found unconscious in his Encino, Calif., home. He remained in a coma for two weeks.

Best Actor 1944: Results

5. Cary Grant in None But the Lonely Heart- Grant is not able to rise above, or even compensate for his miscasting in this role. Grant should have been nominated many more times than he was but this is not one of them.

4. Bing Crosby in Going My Way- Crosby role is not much of a challenge, it requires him to sing, and to be  charming, which he is, but he really does not do anything in his role that needed to be rewarded.

3. Alexander Knox in Wilson- Knox gives a strong passionate performance as Woodrow Wilson. He makes Wilson a likable and interesting character well keeping with the film's just about portrayal of Wilson as  just about perfect.

2. Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way- Barry Fitzgerald's performance is indeed a supporting performance, but a great supporting performance. His performance, is an honest deeply effective piece of work. I do not mind not giving him the award here since he has his own proper category to win.

1. Charles Boyer in Gaslight- Charles Boyer gives an effectively mysterious performance in Gaslight. Boyer reveals carefully about his character, and his brutal control in the film is brilliantly done by Boyer, as is his terrific final scene where the tables finally turn on his character.

Deserving Performances:
Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity