Level Orange

While it’s starting to look like Slumdog Millionaire is the favorite to win Best Picture at the Oscars this year after snagging top honors at the Critics’ Choice, Golden Globes and SAG Awards, there’s also growing unrest over the nominations as a whole.  Would you rather have seen others on the list like The Wrestler, WALL•E or even The Dark Knight?

Are there any films that you think were overlooked or are these the right choices out of last year’s crop?

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Something you can never really count on these days is for a television show to get it right. With the networks cranking out reality TV shows, the same ol’ standard hour-long procedurals and only a smattering of sitcoms over the past several years, the odds of a television network putting together a quality scripted program are at an all-time low. Sure, I enjoy all of those from time to time, but there are only a few shows that I simply cannot go without watching every week. It’s a rare thing that I find something on TV that I will essentially schedule my life around, even in the days of DVRs and online viewing.

It’s only fitting, of course, that the two shows that I’ve been looking forward to the most, LOST and Battlestar Galactica, are also in the final stretch of their respective stories. I knew they would have to end some day. I was just hoping that day would be much later. Then again, I’d rather have quality over quanity anyday.

If you have any interest in seeing these shows and/or maybe aren’t caught up yet, consider yourself warned, there be spoilers ahead.

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Nominations for Best Picture include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader and Slumdog Millionaire. Despite campaigns to land nominations, The Dark Knight and WALL•E were shut out, although WALL•E seems to be a shoo-in for Best Animated Feature. Also of note, Heath Ledger nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role of the Joker in The Dark Knight. Also also, Tropic Thunder’s Robert Downey Jr./Kirk Lazarus nabbed a nom too.

Personally, this will mark the first year that I haven’t seen a single one of the nominees for Best Picture. I’m not exactly in a hurry to see any of them, although I’ll probably catch Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon and Slumdog Millionaire on DVD someday. However, I’m excited to see Ledger, undoubtedly the best part of the year’s biggest film, receive some even-higher-profile recognition for his performance. 

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With Barack Obama about to take office, he’s definitely bringing a new type of swing to government, including a full-fledged soundtrack. Featuring cuts by Black Eyed Peas, Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge, Jennifer Hudson, Robin Thicke, Lionel Richie and others, the first single to drop is Stevie Wonder’s new original song “All About the Love Again”.

Apparently, Obama’s quite the Stevie Wonder fan:

“If I had one musical hero, it would have to be Stevie Wonder. When I was at that point where you start getting involved in music, Stevie had that run with Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Fulfillingness’ First Finale and Innervisions, and then Songs in the Key of Life. Those are as brilliant a set of five albums as we’ve ever seen.”

I’m all for breaking new ground and achieving some new firsts, but having your own administration soundtrack? Yes, he can!

It’s All About the Love Again – Stevie Wonder (Download MP3)

There’s no mistaking the voice, the style or the suave-ality of Ricardo Montalban. Probably best known for his role as Mr. Roarke in TV’s Fantasy Island (or as the menacing Khan to Star Trek nerds), he was in many ways an inspiration for Latinos to cross boundaries and carry themselves with dignity. Even his final on-screen appearance in Spy Kids 3D, in which he was seen standing proud and tall  with the help of visual effects magic (Montalban had been confined to a wheelchair since 1993 from a debilitating spinal injury), was a touching sight to see.

I like to think of him as the Mexican Sidney Poitier, if you will. But with a fly three-piece white suit and Hervé Villechaize always within arm’s reach. A class act, indeed.

RIP Senor Montalban

Erika Olsen from Redbox’s Redblog shares photos from her trips around the world to find and document locations from movies like Jurassic Park, Godzilla, Master and Commander and The Lord of the Rings. There’s also the bonus photos from the set of LOST. Fun stuff!

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It’s been nearly ten years(!) since I really dabbled in creating typefaces, but I’ve finally added some more to the type page, including Hospital, Sartori and TranScript.

Be sure to read over the full descriptions and licensing details for the fonts if you’d like to use them for a project. Enjoy!

Although I find it lots of fun to read through ‘em, I normally don’t care to make end-of-year entertainment lists. I find that things usually get slanted to what I’ve been into recently as opposed to the entire year.

However, I figured I’d go ahead and try something a little different and just go by what I remember most and what ”stuck” during 2008, no matter if I it’s strictly from 2008 or not. Let’s see what happens…

Top 5 songs

• “Chasing Windmills” by Heavy D – A pleasantly surprising reggae spin from Heavy D. In fact, the whole album “Vibes” is pretty solid.
• “Just a Little Bit Closer” by Bungle – What I imagine drum’n'bass would be if it ever became mainstream. Soulful and effervescent.
• “Flashing Lights” by Kanye West – A killer track with a killer video, not to mention the fact that I spent many days in GTA IV driving around blasting it.
• “Pro Nails (Rusko Remix)” by Kid Sister – The original mix with Kanye (video) is all right, but this remix is the shit that make ya speakers bump.
• “Wildstyle” by Dz – “This is music I’ve been waiting all my life to hear. And I didn’t know it.”

Top 5 movies

• Cloverfield -  The first movie I was truly anticipating coming into 2008. Even if audience reaction was mixed, I enjoyed it a whole lot. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d go back for Odette Yustman too.
• The Dark Knight – While the hype was unbelievable after Heath Ledger’s death, I had been excited about this film ever since watching Batman Begins. More epic and intense than I ever expected and a fitting follow-up to the first film.
• WALL•E – What I’d call one of Pixar’s absolute best efforts to date. Classic.
• King of Kong – After hearing so much about it, I finally had a chance to watch this documentary about two men going after the Donkey Kong world record high score. I never thought I’d care so much about nerds playing arcade games.
• Naked Fear – A low-budget flick I caught on Netflix about a reluctant stripper who’s set loose naked  in the New Mexico landscape and hunted for sport. Sounds horribly misogynist, I know, but I was enthralled nevertheless. I could’ve done without the ending though.

Top 5 TV shows

• LOST - Season 4 was a sight to behold as the series went in an all-new direction and built up to an unbelievable season finale. I can’t imagine what’s going to happen with Season 5.
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – With the unique circumstance of having two seasons in one year, TTSCC started off a little wobbly, but built to a great Season 1 ending point. Season 2, on the other hand, started off strong and despite horrible ratings, Fox ordered a full season of episodes. Now I just hope people start watching.
• Life on Mars – A great period cop show with a great cast that mixes drama and comedy and sci-fi. Hopefully, pairing the show with LOST when it returns in 2009 will bring in more viewers to this show.
• Surface – I went back and watched the one and only season of this 2005 NBC series on Netflix recently. I got a kick out of revisiting Miles, Nim, Rich and Laura and only wonder what a Season 2 would’ve looked like.
• The Office (UK) - I’ve missed so much of the US series that I just went back and watched the UK series instead. Still a great show.

Top 5 games

• Call of Duty 4 – I played enough COD4 to hit Prestige mode a few times over and so much so that I felt no need to pick up Call of Duty: World at War.
• Portal – Even though I had little interest in the rest of The Orange Box, I absolutely loved Portal.
• Battlefield: Bad Company – An interesting new entry in the Battlefield franchise from EA. Loaded with attitude and humor, I think I actually enjoyed the single player campaign over the often chaotic multiplayer experience.
• Ace Combat 6 – In an effort to get away from first-person shooters, I picked up the most recent Ace Combat game and enjoyed it quite a bit. Only after finishing the game did I realize that I was, in fact, still playing a first-person shooter.
• Mass Effect – A game I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy or not, but actually had a lot of fun exploring, even if I did eventually get stuck on one boss battle and never went back to it.

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