Academy Schmademy

I felt like this year I have been more involved than ever in the Academy Awards. Being married to Nathan has certainly made me a critic, which I see as a positive thing. That being said we have enjoyed watching the Academy Award nominees and I was impressed with a few, and not so much with others. Below are my favorites from the Academy and yes, I do think Silver Linings Playbook should have swept the awards.

Best Picture
1. Silver Linings Playbook
2. Beasts of the Southern Wild
3. Lincoln

Actor
1. Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
2. Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln (Daniel certainly deserved his Oscar, however, he's just a movie god. It doesn't seem fair. He could win an Oscar for a commercial... he's just that good)
3. Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Actress
1. Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
2. Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
3. Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Director
1. David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
2. Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom (can't believe this wasn't even nominated)
3. Steven Spielberg, Lincoln (mainly because it's such a period piece)

BTW, major frustration with the Best Picture winner, ARGO. I rather liked the movie, however, it was missing that "Best Picture" quality... I can't put my finger on it. But I think we'll all look back in a few years and find that ARGO is not the first movie that comes to mind. Also, Ben Affleck was not even nominated for Best Director, yet it somehow wiggled it's way to win Best Picture. I have a hard time with The Academy awarding the Best Picture to a movie where the director wasn't even nominated. I wonder what the stats are on this situation with previous Best Picture winners.

Due to all the talk about favorite movies of the last year, Nathan and I decided to list our favorites of all-time. I have a really hard time choosing favorites so this was difficult and I'm sure I've missed a bunch, but here they are.

NATHAN:

1. The Godfather (parts 1 and 2)
2. Elephant Man
3. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
4. Seven Samurai 
5. Master and Commander
6. There Will Be Blood
7. No Country for Old Men
8. Battle of Algiers
9. Glory
10. Rocky
11. Rushmore
12. The Deer Hunter
13. The Thin Red Line
14. The Killing Fields
15. Heat
16. Jaws
17. Donnie Darko
18. Fiddler On The Roof
19. Before Sunrise
20. My Left Foot
21. Sling Blade
22. Little Big Man
23. The Seventh Seal
24. Star Wars
25. Raiders of the Lost Ark
26. Drugstore Cowboy
27. Malcolm X 

 EMMILY: 

1. There Will Be Blood
2. Little Miss Sunshine
3. Fargo
4. Gone With The Wind, love Clark Gable's boisterous laugh
5. The Truman Show, staple of my youth (I'm thinking because it was one of the few movies we owned)
6. Garden State, this movie changed me. 
7. A Serious Man
8. Rushmore
9. Singing In The Rain
10. Rear Window, 'can't breath because it will make a sound' scary
11. My Left Foot
12. Life Is Beautiful
13. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
14. Young at Heart (favorite Sinatra)
15. Magnolia (all but the ending)
16. Capote 
17. An Education
18. Sling Blade, don't watch this unless you've seen the movie. Amazing acting. 
19. Glengarry Glen Ross (dialogue dialogue dialogue)
20. Best In Show
21. The Godfather (parts 1 and 2)
22. Bridesmaids (possibly too early to say if this could be a favorite or not, but I'm not sure if I've laughed harder during a movie...)
23. Elizabethtown (beyond great soundtrack, horrible acting, but there is something about this movie that I  love) Nathan said I'm probably the only person in the world with Elizabethtown and There Will Be Blood on my favorite's list. 

catch up

Sooo, this blog has been under construction, at least that's my excuse for not having posted anything since October. I should go into the detail of the last couple of months, however, I think I'll just briefly summarize.

A lot happened in October. First, we got Oskar, our adorable black lab border collie puppy with a major attitude. Then it was my birthday on the 7th, our anniversary on the 8th, and I had surgery on the 10th. It's probably better to just be brief and say it was a crazy month. And just for the sympathy I'll inform you that from October 10th until November 23rd I had not eaten a smidgen of bread or meat. Can you even imagine? It was not fun.


We decided on a whim to drive to California for Thanksgiving. I was in my annual rut at work and when this happens the only remedy is a promotion (which was just not in the cards), some kind of trip (anything) or some retail therapy (which is short lived and the problem usually comes back after a couple months). So a trip it was and 10 hours later we were in beautiful northern California. It was so nice to spend time with Nathan's awesome family. We mostly played with children the whole time and it was perfect. It could be argued that the only reason I wanted to go to California was to hold a certain baby before she learned how to walk. Which I did, and loved every second of it.

     


We brought Oskar, who by the way is such a good car dog, he slept the entire time. He had such a fun time with Nathan's brother's dog Q and he had a huge fenced back yard to play in the whole time. When we came back to Utah Oskar moped around for a few days as if his life was horrible. He's got such a personality. Anyway it was the break I needed to feel refreshed for work again, that is until Christmas. We already had plans before our Thanksgiving trip to fly out to California for Christmas. We spent 2 days in San Francisco to celebrate our belated anniversary (Oct 8). We had so much fun! We stayed in a central location that was walking distance to everything! We flew in early in the morning on a Saturday and spent a couple of hours trying to find a Starbucks that wasn't closed... it was ridiculous! Everything in that part of town was closed on weekends. We saw probably 15 Starbucks until we found one that was open. Later that night we walked to Union Square and ate at the delicious John's Grill for dinner. The whole night was perfectly romantic. The next day we walked to Ghirardelli Square/Fisherman's Wharf. We spent a good amount of time burning through $20 worth of quarters at the Vintage Arcade then met up with Nathan's parents who took us out to a great restaurant in Union Square. We then got to spend a week with Nathan's whole family! I was finally able to meet all of Nathan's sister, Aubrey's children. We pretty much played the card game Bang for 4+ hours every night and it was a blast!

It was back to the grind beginning January 2nd and has been pretty much since.

We were able to take a little trip up to Park City this past weekend. We stayed in a condo Sunday night and went skiing all day Monday at the Canyon's Resort. It was awesome. We were both terrified about hitting the slopes again since neither of us had been in years. I snowboarded and he skied and surprisingly enough we weren't that rusty. It was a beautiful clear day and practically no-one was there (or they were just dispersed through-out the 7 mountain resort). The only downside is the way my body feels today. I can barely lift my arms and I've got some whiplash from some pretty hard falls. Regardless, it was so fun and we hope to go again before the season is up.

I'll try to be better about this blogging thing...

Playlist Monday

The songs that currently inspire...

Animal Collective- Did You See the Words

TV On The Radio- Family Tree (over the past year this song crept into my top 5 all time greatest songs)

David Bowie- Rebel, Rebel ... doesn't this song just make you want to go on a road trip? 

Devandra Banhart- Hey Mama Wolf

The National- Racing Like a Pro

Cut Copy- Where I'm Going

The New Pornographers- Valkyrie in the Roller Disco 
John Lennon- Watching the Wheels
Wye Oak- Civilian 
Chairlift- Ghost Tonight 
M83- Raconte Moi Une Histoire (I can't help but smile while listening to the adorable imaginative narrative. But on a serious note... the entire album Hurry Up, We're Dreaming is superb. I first listened to it on the way home from Zurich. It was the best 1.5 hours of the 12 hour flight, besides of course the delicious airplane food.

That's it. Go listen to them all.

Platitudes

Ok, here is the actual post regarding the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. Let me preface by saying that while I mostly hate politics, I truly enjoy watching debates and political speeches for the sheer entertainment. I love politicians' bold offensive statements regarding their opponents' personal flaws, their awe-inspiring "I've overcame tough stuff, I'm relate-able" stories, and of course their generic sayings to arouse an oh so patriotic feeling... which usually results in the audience repeatably chanting USA, or 4 MORE YEARS. Those funny and completly nonsensical chants always remind me of the scene from Arrested Development found here. What strikes me the most, however, is the fact that these men and women mostly come from a fairly prestigious academic background, yet they hardly demonstrate that knowledge in their speeches. They instead sound immature and often uneducated. I am going to highlight some of the speeches I heard and what resonated with me. I may not be able to name some of the speakers, however, I'm sure they were not very important if I can't remember their names.

We'll start with Mia Love (R), and how I wish I didn't remember her name (really the only reason I do is because she is from my lovely home state of Utah). Her speech was full of platitudes lacking very much substance or meaning for that matter. Here is a great example, "The America I know is grounded in the determination found... [in] every child who looks at the seemingly impossible and says, 'I can do that'." (and don't worry, I'm not taking it out of context, it was just a really long thought). This is where I have a really hard time with politics. The statements like this are made just to get an emotional rise out of people, specifically parents and blindly patriotic people. They have no substantive information which is why I think that is enough said on my homegurl.

Next was Ann Romney's quite dignified recollection of her past during a humble time in her family's life. She did a good job of portraying her husband as an extremely hard worker, which I do not doubt, and she brought the needed woman's touch to his image. Although I do question how "humble" their lives truly were, I am sure that having a husband attending Harvard Law and Harvard Business school at the same time while raising 5 boys would be very difficult.

Now Paul Ryan's speech did nothing for me; from what I remember it was full of attacks. I agree there have been numerous fubar decisions taken by the Obama administration, yet Ryan's approach was wrong, along with some of his facts. He was far too aggressive to seem likable and thank goodness he was followed by Clint Eastwood the next night....who even remembers any of the previous speeches now?? Did you know there is now such a verb called "Eastwooding" (you know, like Tebowing) which has numerous definitions. I thought I could never feel awkward or uncomfortable in my own home. Well, Clint Eastwood duped me on that. Oh, if you haven't seen the ramblings of an aging man, you should probably check it out. This was a bad decision by the Convention, period.

Let's talk now about Mitt Romney. He effectively displayed the need for a business man in office and took a jab at Obama for having no experience in that field. I agree with the idea that business experience matters and Romney is a business wiz. He also spoke of his upbringing and family, a consistent theme throughout the Convention. Contrary to what Obama and most of the Democrats stated, Romney did actually go through his plan for office. He had a 5 step plan, which I'm actually going to say is a 6 step plan. It is as follows:

1. Energy independence
2. Give citizens the skills they need today for the jobs tomorrow 
3. Make trade work for America (force new trade agreements/consequences) 
4. Balance the budget 
5. Champion small business and reduce the taxes on them
6. Repeal and replace 'Obama-care'

I do wish he would have gone into more depth on each of his steps. However, I'm pretty sure that is just too much to ask of a candidate. He ended by saying he will not raise taxes on the middle class, honor the institution of marriage and guarantee the freedom of religion. His promise is to "help you and your family."

Wow, this post is getting long.

Moving on to Clinton. Great speech eh? I really did enjoy his words, especially his argument on cooperation and compromise between all parties. Sadly, those are his ideas of how government should operate, and clearly not Obama's. What I did not fancy was his "the economy HAS grown, you just can't feel it yet." Which was also emphasized in both Biden's and Obama's speeches.

A couple of thoughts on Obama's speech. I"ll start with the best quote in the entire convention, "You didn't elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear, you elected me to tell you the truth". This is funny... does he not remember why he got elected in the first place? Did he accidentally say that backwards? His whole foundation is hope and change for the future. My observation is this, Obama entertains statements that tug at your heart strings to distract your rational thinking. He does this by examples of how he has changed the life of someone. For example, his stories of the little girl with the rare disease who can now be covered on insurance, or the soldier who had his leg amputated and is now running and having dinner with the Obama's. These stories left numerous people in the audience with tears. Simply said, he is an idealist. He has a very ideal vision for the future of the United States, but he lacks the needed "here and now" leadership to implement the needed action and follow through.

Well that's it folks. Those are my thoughts... what are yours?

Oh, quick P.S.   Is it just me or do all of the balloons falling from the convention ceilings make you think about people with a latex allergy? I was freaking out for them.

Republican National Convention

Just Kidding, I just wanted to get your attention so I could share this incredibly immature greatness with you all, or maybe this is just my way of keeping the link so I will never lose it... either one. I stumbled upon the following video on a friend's Facebook during my daily stalking practices. I don't fully understand its meaning (probably because of the Korean lyrics), but I do know it has an incredible ability to produce in me an uncontrollable movement... I think some call it dancing? Nathan has experienced the same reaction.

Peace! (Y ⌒▽⌒ Y)

P.S. For those who actually care to read my thoughts on the Republican National Convention... stay tuned. It's coming.

Waking up with Shaun T.

Nathan and I have found ourselves waking up at 6am each morning in order to fully murder our bodies before breakfast. It's called Insanity and it's insane. For those who do not know what Insanity is, it's a 60 day cardio interval training workout. And those who know Nathan know he would never voluntarily work out with the exception of church basketball. Speaking of which, funny story, he at one point needed physical therapy for a major church basketball mishap. While the therapist was trying to stretch him out, she informed us (after notifying the other employees) that he broke the record for being the most inflexible patient she had ever seen. It was a big accomplishment. So as you can imagine, such strenuous activity would not be on Nathan's daily regimen if not for me... aww. Also it should be noted that our basement tenants probably hate us, which is sad because we are, or were, great friends. I'm sure they don't especially love the constant 6am pounding above their living room. Hopefully the pounding will get less intense as the days roll on and the pounds start dropping. It would seem to make sense that skinnier people produce softer jumping sounds... right? I'll let them be the judge of that. Until then, our days start off with the super chiseled Shaun T., sweat, and green smoothies. Yum.

P.S. Sometimes I wish I had a neon unitard and Nathan had leg warmers.