Were Mel Brooks and Jack Kent Cooke in cahoots?

Being a Mel Brooks fan, I noticed something recently while listening to the radio: the fight song for the Washington Redskins is similar to the theme song for Blazing Saddles! It's very subtle, but unmistakable! Compare, if you will.

Redskins fight song

Blazing Saddles theme song

Which leads me to believe . . . were Mel Brooks and Jack Kent Cooke secretly in cahoots?

"I've been called, I've been called, to that great boardroom in the sky . . ." (II)

The cast of Are You Being Served?, the long-running British comedy show about the Ladies & Gents Department of Grace Brothers, has lost another member of its troop. For Wendy Richard, the actress who played Miss Brahms, has died from cancer.

Her death comes almost two years after the passing of the great John Inman, who played Mr. Humphries on the show.

Earworms (VI)

What can I say—I'm growing quite a fondness for classic rock.

Are Sly and the Governator finally teaming up?

Back in the '80s, when both Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were major action-movie superstars, I often felt that the two should team up for a film. That dream appears to be coming true . . . though 25 years too late, and not in the most credible format.

Because right now, Stallone is making a movie called The Expendables, which has an all too familiar premise:

Stallone writes, directs and stars in the movie, a film about a group of mercenaries trying to overthrow a South American dictator. It also stars Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke and Forest Whitaker.

Hmm, Rambo V, anyone?

Anyway, the Governator is apparently not playing an action hero, but instead will simply portray himself, the current California governor, in his cameo. Which sorta says to me that Schwarzenegger isn't even trying, isn't putting forth any effort. Add to that the motif of the film, which Stallone has done to death, and it's hard to take this seriously.

Now if this had all occurred in, say, 1986, on the heels of Rambo II or The Terminator, this could have been the movie event of the century! But in 2009, it's too little too late.

Oscar Night 2009: LIVE BLOGGING!!!

In summation . . .

Well, it was an evening of some surprises, though with just as many awards going as predicted. Slumdog Millionaire fared much better than I expected it to, winning all but one of its nominations. WALL-E took home Best Animated Feature, continuing Pixar's Oscar streak. Kate Winslet finally brought home an Oscar, and Heath Ledger won the second-ever posthumous Oscar. Though I thought The Dark Knight would have fared much better than it did tonight. I thought Hugh Jackman proved to be quite a good and engaging host, and I really liked how the acting awards were presented as individual profiles of each nominee. All in all, a pretty good show.

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11:53 pm

Best Picture: Christian Colson for Slumdog Millionaire — Well, the favorite won it! And I had gotten so used to seeing Jack Nicholson give the Best Picture award that I was caught off-guard by Steven Spielberg walking onto the stage.

Best Actor: Sean Penn for Milk — Wow, this was a major upset here! I was fully expecting (and dare I say, hoping!) Mickey Rourke to win. Though that was a nice little call-out he did to Rourke in his speech.

Best Actress: Kate Winslet for The Reader — Woohoo!!! Finally! After how many nominations? Was it five, six? The incredible Kate Winslet finally brings home that wonderful golden trophy that she so righteously deserves.

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11:22 pm

Best Director: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire — I was personally hoping for David Fincher to win this one, even though I knew it was Slumdog’s.

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11:09 pm

Best Foreign Language Film: Departures from Japan — I'm seriously going to have to find out where these foreign language films are being shown! Because in retrospect, I would love to have seen such films like City of God or The Lives of Others on the big screen.

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11:03 pm

Best Original Song: A.R. Rahman and Sampooran Singh Gulzar for "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire — I liked how they grouped all the songs together in this show, rather than spread them out across the night. I think there are fewer song selections this year, too. You know, with all these awards, I may have to see Slumdog Millionaire sooner rather than later!

Best Original Score: A.R. Rahman for Slumdog Millionaire — I couldn't help but notice that all the nominated musical selections were slow and meditative, with Slumdog Millionaire being the notable exception (at least instrumentally).

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10:45 pm

You know, I really enjoyed seeing Eddie Murphy give the Jean Hersholt tribute to Jerry Lewis. It reminded me of the Eddie Murphy I knew and loved back in the '80s. And that was quite a lovely speech by Jerry Lewis.

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10:36 pm

Best Film Editing: Chris Dickens for Slumdog Millionaire — Hmmm, seems like a dead heat now between Slumdog Millionaire and Benjamin Button!

Best Sound Mixing: Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, and Resul Pookutty for Slumdog Millionaire — Now I had thought The Dark Knight would pick up this one, because the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing must be a very fine line. That was a very nice acceptance speech, though!

Best Sound Editing: Richard King for The Dark Knight — I missed this speech, because I was letting Nora back into the apartment. :)

Best Visual Effects: Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, and Craig Barron for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — Like I said earlier, Benjamin Button is gaining quite a fooothold here!

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10:19 pm

Best Documentary Short: Megan Mylan for Smile Pinki — I wonder if these are playing at the E Street Cinema, too. Or the Drafthouse!

Best Documentary Feature: James Marsh and Simon Chinn for Man on Wire — Wow, I wasn't expecting Bill Maher to present an award tonight! And the magic tricks were a nice touch, too.

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight — I must disagree with a comment made to this live-blog post, because this is a worthy award for a very worthy performance. And Heath Ledger now becomes the second-ever posthumous award winner, after Peter Finch for Network. And I think it's very classy for the Academy to allow his family the opportunity to accept his Oscar.

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9:56 pm

Okay, I'm less impressed with this musical number than I was the first one. Hugh Jackman has great energy, but this number here seems a little redundant.

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9:48 pm

Best Live Action Short: Jochen Alexander Freydank for Spielzeugland — Okay, I must fess up to my idiocy here, because that short film with James Franco and Seth Rogan, it didn't even occur to me that this would be the buildup to the category's Oscar! Here, I thought it was just another montage.

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9:36 pm

Best Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle for Slumdog Millionaire — Wow, Ben Stiller's really stealing the spotlight here! Is it me, or does he actually look good in that scruffy beard?

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9:28 pm

Best Makeup: Greg Cannom for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — Wow, I thought Hellboy II would take this home! But I think Benjamin Button could be gaining a strong foothold here tonight! Look out, Slumdog!

Best Costume Design: Michael O'Connor for The Duchess — Now this award makes sense, because costume design on a period piece is always a sure-fire winner.

Best Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt and Victor J. Zolfo for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — Oooh, now I had thought this would go to either The Dark Knight or The Duchess. The first of many surprises tonight!

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9:10 pm

Best Animated Short Film: Kunio Katô for La Maison en petits cubes — Okay, I published pre-emptively just now. But I'd like to make it to the E Street Cinema sometime, as I think these shorts are playing there!

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9:07 pm

Best Animated Feature: Andrew Stanton for WALL-E — Pixar's Oscar streak continues! And I think I like Jack Black's plan of action RE: Pixar. ;)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire — You know, I'm intriged that Tina Fey and Steve Martin not only presented both screenwriting awards, but presented them one after the other! I regretfully haven't seen Slumdog Millionaire yet, so I can't comment on the faithfulness of its adaptation.

Best Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black for Milk — Another big award at the beginning! I had a feeling it would come down to either Milk or WALL-E.

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8:49 pm

Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona — Wow, I didn't think they'd start off with an acting Oscar right off the bat! But it's a great way to get me hooked. :) And it's quite nice to see Eva Marie Saint grace the stage!

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8:36 pm

Now this is an interesting musical number! Though I admit, a little unexpected. ;) But I like how Hugh Jackman's getting the audience involved directly, as this is quite a good nominee montage. I didn't realize Anne Hathaway could sing so well, either!

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8:31 pm

Wow, that's some stage they got! And it looks like the festivities are about to begin! Woohoo!!!

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8:25 pm

Wow, that's a super-long dress that Marisa Tomei is wearing tonight! And I'm wondering if it was wise to bring up her previous Oscar win (for My Cousin Vinny), because that was one of the greatest whiskey-tango-foxtrot moments in Oscar history.

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8:06 pm

You know, after all these years, even after seeing his bad-boy persona so strong and so believable in Grindhouse and No Country for Old Men, it's still hard to see Josh Brolin as anyone other than Brand from The Goonies.

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8:00 pm

All righty, people, it's time to get this party started!!! :) Tonight will mark my third year of live-blogging the Oscars, and this year I'm blogging the show from Nora's laptop (my own little change of venue). I'm quite excited to see this year's crop of winners, and I'm feeling pretty good about Hugh Jackman as host! And with all the possible outcomes, upsets, and surprises that could unfold before us tonight, naturally the suspense is terrible. Will Slumdog Millionaire sweep all the awards it's been nominated for, or could Benjamin Button or The Dark Knight sneak up from behind? Could Meryl Streep and Robert Downey, Jr., overpower Kate Winslet and Heath Ledger? Or will Kung-Fu Panda upset Pixar's Oscar streak? . . . By the end of tonight, all our questions will be answered! :)

The Razzie winners are out!

Just in time for the Oscar ceremony tonight, the Golden Raspberry Foundation has released its list of winners for worst films of 2008. I make predictions for this like I do with the Oscars each year, so let's go down the list of winners and see how I fared with my picks.

Worst Picture: The Love Guru (picked it!)

Worst Actor: Mike Myers in The Love Guru (picked it!)

Worst Actress: Paris Hilton for The Hottie & The Nottie (picked it!)

Worst Supporting Actor: Pierce Brosnan for Mamma Mia! (I had picked Uwe Boll, since he seemed to be getting a lot of love from the Razzie folk)

Worst Supporting Actress: Paris Hilton for Repo: The Genetic Opera (picked it!)

Worst Screen Couple: Paris Hilton and either Christine Lakin or Joel David Moore for The Hottie & The Nottie (I had picked Uwe Boll and any combination thereto)

Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel: Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull (I had picked Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

Worst Director: Uwe Boll for 1968: Tunnel Rats, In The Name of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, and Postal (I had predicted a tie between Uwe Boll and M. Night Shyamalan, so maybe I'll give myself half a point here)

Worst Screenplay: Mike Myers and Graham Gordy for The Love Guru (I'd predicted M. Night Shyamalan for The Happening)

And let's not forget Uwe Boll's Worst Career Achievement award! Apparently this is the first award given in this category since 1987, when it was awarded to "Bruce", the shark from the Jaws sequels.

Which makes my score 4.5 out of 9. I have to say, I'm really saddened by the win for Indy 4. I know it wasn't on the level of Raiders, but be realistic: it's 20-some years later, and you're not going to capture the luster and magic of the first three films. Besides, it was light years better than (and nowhere near as pretentious as!) the Star Wars prequels.

In retrospect, I probably shouldn't be surprised by Pierce Brosnan's win. I had heard his singing in Mamma Mia! was atrocious, and apparently the Razzies agreed with that assessment. And while I'm pleased that Paris Hilton is again exposed as the talentless non-actress, spotlight hog, and utterly pointless media sensation that she is, I'm a little disappointed that The Happening didn't come away with a win or two here. Because The Happening easily has to be Shyamalan's worst film, and I think this should be a wake-up call to the director to revisit his filmography and assess just where he went wrong.

Well, now that we've crowned the worst films of the year, let us move onto the best films of the year! :) Less than 12 hours to Oscar time, baby!!!

Shameless self-promotion

Before I forget, I just wanted to remind my audience (which might be growing to a record high of five readers!) that I'll be live-blogging this Sunday's Oscar ceremony!

This'll be the third year in what is rapidly becoming an annual tradition for me, and it's definitely an experience that I look forward to each February!

So stay tuned for Sunday night's festivities right here! And keep your eyes peeled for any surprises (read, upsets) that might surface come awards time!

Never rename Nationals Park!

During Tom Boswell's chat today, the idea of naming rights to Nationals Park came up, and it gave me the opportunity to speak my mind and seek out the thoughts of the man who's been the Nationals' biggest champion.

RE: Naming rights: Can't we just keep it as Nationals Park? It feels so much more unique and home-grown with that name, than say, AOL Park. How did that line on "The Simpsons" go? "Corporate sponsorship cheapens our national treasures."

Tom Boswell: The Lerners would like it to be Last-Bank-Left-Standing-in-America Park.

I'd like it to stay Nationals Park forever. In fact, if they ever get a sponsorship deal, I may keep calling it that and force my editors to change it!

"Nationals" and "Nats" are a good enough name for a team. Not wonderful. But "Nationals Park" is elegant.

I'm glad to hear that Boz agrees with me on this! I'd hate to see Nationals Park ever get renamed, because the current name feels so genuine and true.

Beautiful music (V)

Chopin's Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 45, as performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Pondering Oscar upsets

With the Oscar ceremony fast approaching, I've found myself pondering some possible upsets at this year's awards show.

For example . . .

Best Picture: I think it's safe to say that Slumdog Millionaire is firmly out in front for Best Picture. But I've begun to wonder if The Curious Case of Benjamin Button could sneak up from behind and overtake it. Instances like this have happened before—Crash overtaking favorited Brokeback Mountain (a move I still think was the correct one), Chariots of Fire overtaking Raiders of the Lost Ark. From this year's line-up, I think the only other picture that might even come close to scoring an upset is Milk.

Best Actor: If anyone upsets Mickey Rourke, it'll likely be Sean Penn. Say what you will about his politics, but the man can act! All the evidence you need of this is Mystic River and I Am Sam. Earlier I had thought Frank Langella might be the one to pull off an upset, but after seeing Frost/Nixon, I'd have to put him in third place.

Best Actress: As much as I'd like for Kate Winslet to take home the gold, I can't discount Meryl Streep from stealing it away. Bear in mind, I haven't seen The Reader or Doubt yet, so I can't fully assess which actress gave the better performance, but I'm cheering for Kate Winslet on principle, because I think she's a fabulous actress who's long overdue for an Oscar. As to Meryl Streep, I think I've made my feelings for her quite clear by now.

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger was considered a shoo-in even before he died, and while I don't think he'll lose, I don't think Robert Downey, Jr. shouldn't be counted out, either. Josh Brolin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, those guys are pretty long shots in my opinion.

Best Supporting Actress: This one is really hard to gauge. At first I thought it would be Amy Adams who'd be crowned winner, but now I'm starting to wonder if Viola Davis or Penelope Cruz have running chances.

I guess all questions will be answered on Sunday night!!!

Can Snyder and MacFarlane trade venues?

A random thought occurred to me this morning as I heard more about how the DC United might be moving its venue from RFK into PG County: why don't the DC United and the Washington Redskins swap stadiums?

Think about it for a second!

The Redskins already play in PG County, and Dan Snyder has indicated that he's pondering moving the Redskins back to the RFK site—in a new stadium that he would hopefully build with his own money, thus curtailing all the bullshit grandstanding from the DC Council. And since the DC United is looking to move to PG County, it would make sense to go where a venue already exists and has proven itself (accessibility issues notwitstanding).*

Hell, maybe Victor MacFarlane can even come up with a better variation of Raljohn! ;)

* I considered suggested the site of the former USAirways Arena, but I think a shopping mall sits at that spot now.

Muppet origins

I saw this article on CNN.com today, and it provided a fascinating look at something that had never occurred to me before: the origins and inspirations for many of the core Muppet and Sesame Street characters!

Happy birthday to the Mann!

Today my favorite movie director, Michael Mann, celebrates his 66th birthday. I'd normally celebrate his birthday with a YouTube clip of one of his best film scenes (e.g., the coffee shop or gunfight scenes in Heat), but instead, I'm eagerly anticipating the summer release of his newest film: Public Enemies, a period piece starring Johnny Depp as famed outlaw John Dillinger. With a trio like that (Michael Mann, Johnny Depp, and John Dillinger), this ought to be fabulous!!!

Did the Klingons rob the Kwik-E-Mart?

I couldn't help but laugh when I saw this new article today, but apparently someone robbed a 7-Eleven in Colorado using a very unique weapon: a Klingon Batleth!

I have to wonder, would the Klingon Empire approve of such a weapon being used for something so devoid of glory?

Springsteen and Sesame Street

While watching Bruce Springsteen's Super Bowl halftime show last night, I was reminded of something that's been bugging me for a long time: how for years his song "Born to Run" has made me think of Sesame Street. Up until today, I wouldn't have been able to explain this association, but this morning after a quick YouTube search, I finally discovered the reason!



It's amazing how something like that stays in the memory for so long.

Counting the days until spring . . . and spring training!

On so many levels, I'm counting the days until spring.

I freely admit, I don't like winter one bit. I don't like the cold and dreary days, the depressingly early nightfall, or that sense of isolation that comes from being cooped up inside from the cold. Instead, I yearn for the warm days of spring and summer, when I can break free from that isolation, shed the jacket, open up my doors and windows and feel bathed in the outside world, when the days are long and endless from dusk coming as late as 9:00 pm, when the flowers and trees bloom, and when the world just blossoms into life again.

Which is why I'm tingling with excitement at the fact that with each passing day, the days get longer by 2 minutes (a minute each at dawn and dusk), so that when I arrive home from work, there's still a hint of daylight left in the world. That in a mere 5 weeks we can turn the clocks ahead for Daylight Savings Time, and can finally enjoy the evenings with refreshing daylight.

And last but not least, that it's only 24 days until the first spring training game!

Balk if you will at that last point (no pun intended), as I know the Nats haven't exactly had the most memorable, profitable, or even sensible off-season (I still think we put all our eggs in one basket with Teixeira), but the beginning of Nationsls baseball season is something I look forward to with the same kid-on-Christmas-Eve anticipation that I get for Penn State football season. And once the season starts, I attain a sense of completion, because once I'm sitting in Nationals Park, Beaver Stadium, or even RFK back in the day for that very first home game, I feel like I've returned home.

Last year, Will and I were lucky enough (actually, "miraculous" is more accurate!) to attend the inaugural game at Nationals Park, which had the most storybook ending with Ryan Zimmerman's game-winning walk-off. Going to the season's home opener has been something of a tradition for us, and I look forward to it again this year, when the Nats open at home against the Phillies on April 13!

I can already taste the half-smokes!!!