Coachella 2009

In mid April in the blazing California desert will be a massive festival.Coachella. I have never been but this year I have a weeks vacation already planned.

Headliners for the festival this year is Paul McCartney which marks his first American Festival performance, The Killers, the Cure YES the Cure
Along with so many others that i cant wait to see like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, Band of Horses, The Kills, Silversun Pickups, The Ting Tings and The Crystal Method.

Weekly News Briefs

POLICE SNIFFER DOG DIES OF NOSE CANCER

Max the Spring spaniel was only eight when he was diagnosed with the rare from of cancer that he contracted from years of sniffing for cocaine and other drugs.

Max lived and worked with Police Inspector Anne Higgins who feared that his training and worked lead to her having to put down "her best friend" last week.

PROTEST AGAINST 'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' CONTINUE IN BIHAR CAPITAL
"Slum dwellers" have contined there protest in the capital today with tearing down posters in protest that they are not dogs.
"We will burn Danny Boyle in effigy in 56 slums here," Tapeshwar Vishwakarma, general secretary of the group said.

WATCH THIS EVERYONE
UFO SPOTTED ON OBAMA INAUGURATION DAY

Film Review: Notorious

What does a Beauty Pageant winning little girl from Boulder and a Black street thug turned rapper from New York have in common. There murders will never be solved.

The streets were crowded as they slowly rolled out of the parking lot and to the corner of Wilshire and S. Fairfax. It was 12:45 when the Suburban came to a stop and the dark Impala pulled along side rolled down his window and quickly firing several shots into the car. 30 minutes later the greatest rapper and one of the greatest storytellers ever to live died leaving behind 2 children, a loving mother and millions of fans

New comer Jamal Woodward does a fantastic job at portraying Christopher Wallace aka Biggie Smalls. A drug dealing who just so happens to turn into the best rapper to ever touch a microphone Brooklyn kid who was abandoned by his father and raised by his mother a strong proud Jamaican woman played beautifully by Angela Basset. It is a rather bias film. I don’t think that Tupac was that big of an idiot but I do believe Lil’ Kim was that sexy and Faith could sing that good.

The film revolves around him growing up and when he finally does he is gunned down. The director George Tillman Jr. captures “the street” with a sense of real-ness missing in most movies today. There will not be a dry eye in the theater at the end even though you already know the ending it does a fantastic job of reveling it at the right time and the right way. Not to soon and not to late.

A must see for any Hip Hop / Biggie fans. 4½ out of 5 pot leaves. Loved it

Razzie nominations Worst Film of the Year

Disaster Movie
Disaster Movie witlessly mentions nearly every summer movie (from Iron Man to The Love Guru to Hancock) while an idiot (Matt Lanter) races to save his ex, Cloverfield-style, from an asteroid storm. Written By Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer

Meet the Spartans
The Bigger the Hit, The Harder They Fall.. Another lack luster movie for the summer making fun of all the summer hits. Written By Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer

The Happening
Whats really the wind??? Written By M. Night Shyamalan

The Hottie and the Nottie
Nate moves to L.A. to track down Cristabel(Paris Hilton), the woman he's been in love with since childhood written by Hedi Ferrer

In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
Farmer (Jason Statham), a tough guy who’s not much with words but is a whiz with a boomerang, searches for his kidnapped wife (Claire Forlani) while trying to avenge the death of his son. Written by Doug Taylor

The Love Guru
Guru Pitka (Mike Myers) hopes to become "the next Deepak Chopra" and appear on Oprah. Written by Mike Meyers. Not you best work Mike not by far.

Good Luck to those involved

81st Academy Awards nominations

The Electoral College process is a diffucult and complex thing to grasp but it isnt the half of what the Academy Awards have become. With the thousands or so votes tallied the nominations are in and "The Curious Case of Benjermin Button" has scored big with 13 nominations including the Best Picture and i have yet to see it. Dont know why but I havent. A intersting point to note is the last 20 years the Film with the most nominations wins the Best Picture award but history may be changing with only 2 films in the last 5 years to do so. There were some small suprise I thought and a few major snubs.

Now I have only been paying close attention for the past few years to Award season and i have learned a few things, like Comedies get NO Love and Neither do Anamated films no matter how well they did in the box office. On that note the one suprise to me was Robert Downey Jr. receiving a nodd in the Best Supporting Lead Role in the comedy Tropic Thunder another film that i need to get out to see. Rest asured that I have only missed a few films on these list and i will be seeing everyone before Feb 22 show.

In what i thought was the biggest snub of the year was the the great Clint Eastwood didnt receive any nominations for his acting in the great movie Gran Torino nor did it receive any nominations for anything. I thought that it was a shoe in for a Best Picture nod for sure. But i have been known to be wrong in the past. Eastwood's film the Changling which is another excellent film received only one nomination for Best Actress for Angelina Jolie in which i feel she will be the clear winner in that one.

Here is the complet list of all the Awards with an * designating my pick for the winner.

And the nominees are:

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button(Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Frost/Nixon(Universal)
Milk (Focus Features) A
The Reader(The Weinstein Company)
***Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight)

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Richard Jenkins in "The Visitor" (Overture Films)
Frank Langella in "Frost/Nixon" (Universal)
***Sean Penn in "Milk" (Focus Features)
Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)

This next catagory is a tough
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Josh Brolin in "Milk" (Focus Features)
Robert Downey Jr. in "Tropic Thunder" (DreamWorks, Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt" (Miramax)
**Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
**Michael Shannon in "Revolutionary Road" (DreamWorks)

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Anne Hathaway in "Rachel Getting Married" (Sony Pictures Classics)
***Angelina Jolie in "Changeling" (Universal)
Melissa Leo in "Frozen River" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Meryl Streep in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Kate Winslet in "The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Amy Adams in "Doubt" (Miramax)
***Penélope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (The Weinstein Company)
Viola Davis in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Taraji P. Henson in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Marisa Tomei in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
(Paramount and Warner Bros.) Screenplay by Eric Roth; Screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
Doubt (Miramax) Written by John Patrick Shanley
Frost/Nixon(Universal) Screenplay by Peter Morgan
The Reader(The Weinstein Company) Screenplay by David Hare
***Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Frozen River (Sony Pictures Classics); Written by Courtney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky (Miramax); Written by Mike Leigh
In Bruges(Focus Features); Written by Martin McDonagh
***Milk (Focus Features); Written by Dustin Lance Black
WALL-E (Walt Disney); Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon; Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR
Bolt(Walt Disney)
***Kung Fu Panda (DreamWorks Animation, Distributed by Paramount)
WALL-E (Walt Disney)

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount and Warner Bros.) David Fincher
Frost/Nixon (Universal) Ron Howard
Milk(Focus Features) Gus Van Sant
The Reader (The Weinstein Company) Stephen Daldry
***Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) Danny Boyle

Go Slumdog Millionaire !!!!!!

Awesome !

For the first time the whole world stop ed for twenty minutes today at 10am MST. They were all tuned in to what I be live to be the most watched program in the history of T.V. They watched as Chief Justice John Roberts swore in The 44th President of the United States of America Barack Obama.

Goose bumbs creep ed along my skin as I watched the festivities take place and my eyes grew teary as I listened to the historic 18 minute speech given by the New President. He has already made good strides with us the "Everyday Americans" I myself have been effected personally along with the rest of the world have never wanted to hear another man speak so bad in my entire life, I want to hear every word that ever comes out of his mouth

"Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin the work of remaking America."

A New Dawn

I woke up this morning and thought, This is it. This is the day that the a New Dawn will crest the horizon and smile down upon us. There is a an amazing crowd gathered where only 300 short years ago, people gathered to sell there slaves but today they are there to see the start of Change. For the first time in a long time. Today I am Proud to be an American :)