Day 595: Oscar Coverage - The Big Dance!

Oscar Sunday is almost upon us ladies and gentlemen! No narrative today… just Oscar predictions. I do a mini-pool every year where I weight all of the nominees:

Every Nominee gets a point value, 5 being the likely winner, 4, 3, 2, and 1 being the least likely. Whoever the winner is, you get those points. This year, for the best picture category, the points will be distributed 10 through 1… so it’s major category. And of course Make-Up and Visual Effects are only worth 3 through 1 point.

Read through my picks and you’ll get the idea. 127 points = a perfect score. If you are interested in playing next year, let me know.

Also look for the following notations as you browse my picks:
* = Movies I’ve seen
! = The Movie I think deserves to win the category. (Which isn’t always the one I think will win… there is a major difference… and it helps measure how well I know Oscar Votes and how in line my own taste is with the voters.)

Anyway, here we go, I will dedicate next week’s posts to Oscar coverage explaining my choices and commenting on the outcome.

Enjoy:

Actress in a supporting role

5 Mo'Nique in Precious*!

4 Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air*

3 Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart

2 Penélope Cruz in Nine

1 Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air*

Actor in a supporting role

5 Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds*!

4 Matt Damon in Invictus

3 Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones

2 Woody Harrelson in The Messenger

1 Christopher Plummer in The Last Station

Actress in a leading role

5 Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side*

4 Gabourey Sidibe in Precious*!

3 Carey Mulligan in An Education*

2 Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia *

1 Helen Mirren in The Last Station

Actor in a leading role

5 Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart

4 Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker*!

3 Morgan Freeman in Invictus

2 Colin Firth in A Single Man

1 George Clooney in Up in the Air*

Animated feature film

5 Up (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson)*!

4 The Princess and the Frog (Ron Clements and John Musker)*

3 Coraline (Henry Selick)

2 Fantastic Mr Fox (Wes Anderson)

1 The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore)

Foreign language film

5 The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Germany)

4 The Milk of Sorrow (Claudia Llosa, Peru)

3 Ajami (Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, Israel)

2 A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, France)

1 The Secret of Her Eyes (Juan Jose Campanella, Argentina)

Directing

5 Avatar (James Cameron)*!

4 The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)*

3 Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)*

2 Precious (Lee Daniels)*

1 Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)*

Writing (adapted screenplay)

5 Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher)*

4 District 9 (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell)*

3 Up in the Air (Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner)*

2 An Education (Nick Hornby)*

1 In the Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche)

Writing (original screenplay)

5 Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)*

4 Up (Pete Docter and Bob Petersen)*

3 The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)*

2 The Messenger (Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman)

1 A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)*

Best picture

10 Avatar (James Cameron and Jon Landau, producers)*

9 The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro, producers)*!

8 Precious (Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, producers)*

7 District 9 (Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, producers)*

6 An Education (Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, producers)*

5 Inglourious Basterds (Lawrence Bender, producer)*

4 Up (Jonas Rivera, producer)*

3 Up in the Air (Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, producers)*

2 The Blind Side (Gil Netter, Andrew A Kosove and Broderick Johnson, producers)*

1 A Serious Man (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, producers)*

Art direction

5 Avatar (art direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; set decoration: Kim Sinclair)*

4 The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (art direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; set decoration: Caroline Smith)

3 Nine (art direction: John Myhre; set decoration: Gordon Sim)

2 Sherlock Holmes (art direction: Sarah Greenwood; set decoration: Katie Spencer)

1 The Young Victoria (art direction: Patrice Vermette; set decoration: Maggie Gray)

Cinematography

5 Avatar (Mauro Fiore)*

4 The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd)*

3 Inglourious Basterds (Robert Richardson)*

2 The White Ribbon (Christian Berger)

1 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Bruno Delbonnel)*

Costume design

5 The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Monique Prudhomme)

4 Nine (Colleen Atwood)

3 The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell)

2 Bright Star (Janet Patterson)

1 Coco Before Chanel (Catherine Leterrier)

Documentary (feature)

5 The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith)

4 Food, Inc (Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein)*!

3 The Cove (Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens)

2 Burma VJ (Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller)

1 Which Way Home (Rebecca Cammisa)

Documentary (short subject)

5 The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert)

4 The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner (Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher)

3 Music by Prudence (Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett)

2 Rabbit à la Berlin (Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra)

1 China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill)

Film editing

5 Avatar (Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron)*

4 District 9 (Julian Clarke)*

3 The Hurt Locker (Bob Murawski and Chris Innis)*

2 Inglourious Basterds (Sally Menke)*

1 Precious (Joe Klotz)*

Makeup

3 Star Trek (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow)*

2 Il Divo (Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano)

1 The Young Victoria (Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore)

Music (original score)

5 Up (Michael Giacchino)*

4 Avatar (James Horner)*

3 The Hurt Locker (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders)*

2 Fantastic Mr Fox (Alexandre Desplat)

1 Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer)

Music (original song)

5 Down in New Orleans, from The Princess and the Frog, by Randy Newman*

4 The Weary Kind, from Crazy Heart, by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

3 Almost There, from The Princess and the Frog, by Randy Newman*

2 Take It All, from Nine, by Maury Yeston

1 Loin de Paname, from Paris 36, by Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas

Short film (animated)

5 French Roast (Fabrice O Joubert)

4 A Matter of Loaf and Death (Nick Park)

3 Logoramam (Nicolas Schmerkin)

2 The Lady and the Reaper (Javier Recio Gracia)

1 Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty (Nicky Phelan and Darragh O'Connell)

Short film (live action)

5 The New Tenants (Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson)

4 Miracle Fish (Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey)

3 Instead of Abracadabra (Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström)

2 Kavi (Gregg Helvey)

1 The Door (Juanita Wilson and James Flynn)

Sound editing

5 Avatar (Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle)*

4 The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson)*

3 Inglourious Basterds (Wylie Stateman)*

2 Star Trek (Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin)*

1 Up (Michael Silvers and Tom Myers)*

Sound mixing

5 Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson)*

4 Star Trek (Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J Devlin)*

3 The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson and Ray Beckett)*

2 Inglourious Basterds (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano)*

1 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Greg P Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson)*

Visual effects

3 Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R Jones)*

2 District 9 (Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken)*

1 Star Trek (Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton)*

Day 594: Olympic Coverage - The Wins?

So… who really win the Olympics Games? Should we crown the country who wins the most medals? Or should we be crowning the country who wins the most gold medals? This seems to be a philosophical question dividing a continent. Is it the United States or Canada?

There are a number of media outfits, like Eurosport, who have been ranking countries by the types of medals they have won, giving president to the total number of Gold’s, then Silvers, then Bronze. You get the idea. According to them, Canada is the winner with 14 Gold Medals, then Germany with 10 Gold Medals, and finally in order to break the third place tie between the United States and Norway, with 9 Gold Medals a piece, they turn to Silver Medals, allowing the U.S. to edge out the Norwegians 15 Silvers to 8.

However, there are other news agencies that use the total medal count in awarding the winning county. Making the United States the all around champ with 37 medals, Germany is again in second place with 30 medals, and Canada claims third place with 26 medals.

So, which one should be use? Well, on their official Vancouver Olympics website (http://www.vancourver2010.com/), our friendly neighbors to the north are giving the number one sport to the United States. How nice is that? I’m probably reading too much into this, because their might be some group of Canadians who debated for weeks on how they were going to tally the medal count feeling very foolish right now… but I have to say… the Canadian’s kicked some very serious Winter Olympic bootie this year. As an America, no matter how you want to tally to results… but we need to chalk this Winter Olympiad up to a neighborhood victory!

Day 593: The Birth Experience - Postpartum Meals

Now, besides delivery room experiences, our postpartum experiences at these two hospitals were very different as well.

Grayson was born at 7:17pm, and from that moment on things became a blur. By the time Northside mobilized Serena’s wheel chair pusher and Grayson’s bassinet cart pusher it was getting close to 10pm… and guess what folks? None of us had eaten anything since lunch time.

For those of you who have been to Northside, you probably know about the maze of postpartum wings strung throughout the hospital. I half expected David Bowie waiting for us around each corner. Thank God for the Lo-Jack bracelet around Gray’s ankle. It was almost 11pm by the time we reached the postpartum room and during this journey through the hospital is where we became overcome by hunger. I was almost delirious with a singular focus. I had to eat.

Luckily, for Serena, they had a little late night dinner waiting for her… nothing glamorous or very appetizing for that matter. But after pushing out a baby, Serena took down the food like a champ.

As for me, when I asked the hospital staff about food options they behaved as if they has never been asked the question before muttering, “There is a Café’ and a McDonald’s downstairs… but they closed at 3:30pm.” I stared blankly for a moment waiting for a “but…”, it never came. Finally I asked, “So what do people do when they have babies after 3:30pm?” “Umm… there are some vending machines downstairs.” I hadn’t eaten for almost eleven hours and they directed me to potato chips and candy bars.

Since then, Northside has opened a Morrison’s franchise, which is a tad helpful. It’s open until 7pm, but it’s closed on weekends. I just don’t understand… the hospital is open 24 hours… and it’s one of the busiest in the world… why not have one food option available at all times?

“So, what do you guys do for food while you’re on duty?” “We bring our own food.” Stone walled again. You have to be kidding me! Finally, I talked them into giving me some menus for delivery places they had stashed somewhere… only one of which was open… it was the best cold fatty steak sandwich and undercooked baked potato of my life.

Day 592: The Birth Experience - Gilliam's Birth

With Gilliam’s delivery, things couldn’t have been more different.

First of all, reception doesn’t really exist except during normal business hours when the midwives are seeing patients for regular check-ups. So as soon as we walked directly into the birth unit a midwife was there to show us to our delivery room… which was beautiful.

The room was only lit by a single soft lamp and the light peeking in from around the ends of the drawn curtains. The smell of lavender was in the air, and all we could hear was the pleasant sound of water filling the birth tub.

There were no forms to fill out or questions to answer. Just a baby to deliver.

The midwife, who greeted us, actually stayed with us and ultimately delivered Gilliam… we only saw one face from arrival to delivery.

And as Grayson’s midwife behaved more like a doctor whose sole purpose was to catch the baby; Gilliam’s midwife behaved more like a doula or birthing couch… following Serena around the room on all fours as Serena crawled around finding comfort where she could; all the while encouraging her along the way.

She never once interrupted Serena’s laboring to check for progress or such nonsense. Simple armed with a mirror and a flashlight she would assess the situation on the fly… and when she sensed the birth was imminent, she pulled a sting which cued a second midwife to join us for the big show. And then Gilliam was born.

We all just lay there, on the floor, for a while: Me, Serena, Gilliam, both midwives and our doula Sarah

Then the midwives and the doula excused themselves… and we were left alone as a family for almost an hour and a half. No questions asked.

Day 591: The Birth Experience - Grayson's Delivery, 2

Even though I give Northside a very hard time, Grayson’s birth ended up being exactly what we wanted. But we had to work for it.

I have the feeling most women who deliver at Northside intending to have a natural childbirth end up with some sort of medical or surgical intervention. And I think this trend leads their staff to being very unsupportive regard going natural. Like our nurse, whose attitude wasn’t exactly, “I hate natural births,” was more like, “A natural childbirth? Isn’t that cute… why don’t we go ahead and run an IV for later… just in case… when you fail.” And while their attitude might be a product of the hospitals failure rate… their failure rate is probably directly linked to their unsupportive attitude. It’s very vicious circle.

But, when Serena showed herself as the real deal… our nurse eventually jumped on board. And when it was all over privately congratulated Serena and expressed the honor she felt being a part of such a bad ass birth.

However, shortly after Grayson’s delivery the Northside machine started rolling again. We were handed off to a new set of nurses and we had to sign more waiver forms when we told them we wanted to delay Grayson’s weighing, measuring, and bath so we could bond. We only wanted about an hour. And after meeting with the Hospital’s head nurse we got that hour… but staff did not vacate our room… they watched over us like hawks.

Finally, at the end of the hour, I informed the nurse that we were ready for Grayson’s bath. She gave me a ton of attitude and said, “What, now you want our services?” I calmly said, “Yes, thank you,”… and then complimented her lovely mustache.

But, the damage had been done, in that hour; Grayson had been labeled a “dirty baby” hospital wide.

Day 590: The Birth Experience – Grayson’s Delivery

By the time we arrived at Northside to deliver Grayson, Serena had already been in labor for most of the day, probably around 14 hours. But the day had been very pleasant. We took walks, baths, ate pizza, and most importantly, baked cookies. For some reason, Serena had been obsessed with the idea of baking cookies while in labor to keep her mind focused… and she did… they were some of the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever had.

I just wish our arrival at Northside has been as pleasant as the rest of our day had been. Frankly, our arrival was very bizarre. Reception behaved as if they had never seen a woman in active labor before. Saying things like “Is she okay?” and “She’s in labor… now?” Comically, in a Hospital that delivers 50+ babies a day, Serena was the only mother-to-be, out of ten in the waiting room, who was in active labor.

And of course, Northside reception did not disappoint. They lost all of our preregistration paper work… “She’s in labor now? Well, we’re going to need her paper work before we can let her deliver.” Seriously folks… I had to fill out all the paper work again, while my wife put on quite the show… probably reaffirming most choices for a scheduled c-section.

When they finally called us back to the very bright and surgical feeling delivery room we found more paperwork waiting with our assigned nurse… and questions… tons of personal questions like, “are you HIV positive” and “are you an IV drug user”… .

Finally, as Serena and the nurse began to argue over fetal heart rate monitors, IV connections, and hospital gowns… Serena bore down on one hell of a contraction and screamed at the nurse, “No cookies for you!”

Day 589: Tips to Live By

Trusting a Hutt is also a poor choice. And lifetime of poor choices always ends with Rancor monster.