The Joy of Dixie

Last month I experienced the greatest exhibition of joy I have ever seen: I was in an auditorium of middle school students on a Thursday night as the principal announced that an incoming storm had caused school for the following day to be canceled. What followed is exactly what you would expect: hundreds of students yelling, jumping, and high-fiving in genuine and enthusiastic revelry.

Perhaps the second greatest exhibition of joy in recent memory came today: Helen and I went to New Hampshire to pick up our new dog from the transport truck. What we found were over a dozen families eagerly awaiting the arrival of the newest member of their family. Once the truck pulled up, everyone circled around the door and oohed and ahhed as one cute pup after another was brought down the ramp and given a new home.

Dixie, our new dog, came from Arkansas. She is two years old and the mother of seven (she has since been spayed). She was apparently found with her pups in the parking lot of a "high-kill shelter." We found her on petfinder, filled out an application on Monday, and she was on a truck to New England on Thursday!

So far Dixie has been a perfect dog. She is great on a leash, hasn't barked once, and slept on the car ride home back to Worcester! We're sure she is still adjusting to her new home, but we feel very good about her excellent manners.

The Final Solution Satisfies a Holmes Craving

"Here was a puzzle to kindle old appetites and energies."

To those Sherlock Holmes fans out there, longing for more of his mysteries to read in the all-too-finite collection of Doyle's mysteries: you are in luck.

Today I finished reading Michael Chabon's The Final Solution, a stunning mystery novella featuring none other than the star British detective himself. While the detective is not mentioned by name, but rather referred to as the "old man," it is clearly Holmes, in all of his deductive splendor.

The novella takes place in Britain in 1944, in the middle of World War II. The title alludes not only to the Nazi plan of Jewish extermination, but also to the Holmes story, "The Final Problem." In the novella, Holmes tries to find a parrot at the heart of a murder mystery. Where the parrot is, Holmes knows, the murderer is also. To make things more exciting, the parrot is suspected of knowing a secret German code that might prove useful to the Brits, and so the Germans may want this parrot silenced.

The novella gives a perspective of Holmes that Conan Doyle never did. Holmes at this point has lived a long time since his detective days, having given up the profession some thirty years earlier ("As you must know, I am retired. As indeed I have been since the tenth of August, 1914," he explains in the novella). His life, instead, is dedicated to other pleasures, the foremost of which is his keeping of bees. He recognizes these bees as an "animal pleasure," and admits that "such things had once meant very little to him."

At the old age of 89, Holmes struggles with his deteriorating body. He is physically weak, wages a "daily battle in the lavatory," and struggles with "arthritis crippling his fingers." And Holmes thinks of his impending death, not as a result of some detective adventure, but rather as an inevitable event in the course of his now-mundane life. "In particular he feared dying in some undignified way, on the jakes or with his face in the porridge."

Holmes also worries that his mental activities are not as exceptional as they once were, and that they may not be up to the task of solving the mystery at hand.

"He felt - with all his body, as one felt the force of gravity or inertia - the inevitability of his failure. The conquest of his mind by age was not a mere blunting or slowing down but an erasure, as of a desert capital by a driving millennium of sand. Time had bleached away the ornate pattern of his intellect, leaving a blank white scrap."

But Holmes has missed his work as a detective. As Chabon writes,

"A delicate, inexorable lattice of inferences began to assemble themselves, like a crystal, in the old man's mind, shivering, catching the light in glints and surmises. It was the deepest pleasure life could afford, this deductive crystallization, this paroxysm of guesswork, and one that he had lived without for a terribly long time."

It's a thrilling mystery, indeed, and Chabon has yet again proven his masterful storytelling abilities. By setting the story thirty years after Holmes retired, the detective is faced with new challenges and barriers that he never faced in his prime. These new hurdles put a new spin on the Conan Doyle mysteries so many love, and this novella should be a most-welcomed work to Holmes fans everywhere.

Best Works of American Fiction of the Past 25 Years

I love to read. A provocative novel or short story can provide a lasting kind of satisfaction that, at least for me, other forms of art cannot. As a writer, I use others' work to inspire and draw upon. I learn from them, from their styles and approaches. As Picasso said, "Good artists copy, great artists steal."

I also love "best of" lists. While they are almost always arbitrary and meaningless, they are fun nonetheless, and can help to organize, at least crudely, large bodies of disparate things. Perhaps most important, lists often serve as recommendations. If other people enjoy something, I might also.

So when I saw that The New York Times Book Review surveyed 125 writers and book critics to find the "best work of American fiction of the last 25 years," I got excited. More books for me to read!

My excitement was founded. The list is full of authors which I have seen in passing, but have never read. They're being added to my to-read list, posthaste.

On the top of The Times's list is Toni Morrison's Beloved. The four top runners-up are Don DeLillo's Underworld, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, John Updike's Rabbit Angstrom (which is actually four novels: Rabbit at Rest, Rabbit is Rich, Rabbit Redux, and Rabbit Run), and Philip Roth's American Pastoral.

Philip Roth's and Don DeLillo's novels show up over and over again in the list of other works that received multiple votes. While I am very aware of Philip Roth, Don DeLillo is an author with whom I am wholly unfamiliar. I will seek him out.

I am always looking to expand my author readership. I love reading a novel and then, if I like the author, looking for more of his of her novels, taking in everything by the author that I can find.

And so, onto my to-read list, Philip Roth and Don DeLillo are added.

More specifically, I'm adding the list's top-five books, which I will read in the near future. I hope to use them as a springboard to more books. To review, the list of books, in the order I plan on reading them:

• American Pastoral, by Philip Roth
  
• Underworld, by Don DeLillo
  
• Beloved, by Toni Morrison
  
• Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy
  
• Rabbit Angstrom, by John Updike
  

A. O. Scott, the New York Times film critic, wrote an essay about the list and offered an explanation for the top-rated works.

"The best works of fiction, according to our tally," A.O. Scott writes, "appear to be those that successfully assume a burden of cultural importance. They attempt not just the exploration of particular imaginary people and places, but also the illumination of epochs, communities, of the nation itself. America is not only their setting, but also their subject."

The List of Results
A.O. Scott's NYTimes Essay on the List
The List of Judges

Scott's essay, and the list, will appear in the print edition of The New York Times Book Review on May 21.

Movies: Summer 2006

While film season isn't really until late November, the summer blockbuster season usually provides some movies to make me excited. This year is no different. Here are the movies due to come out over the next few months which I am most anticipating. They are listed chronologically by release date.

• Mission: Impossible III - This movie came out last week, and I can't wait to see it. Tom Cruise may be a nutcase, but he's still good for a decent action movie in my book. The real draw of this film, though, is its villain, played by the magnificent, and Oscar-winning, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Any movie with Hoffman in it gets my nine bucks without a second thought.
  
  
• The Da Vinci Code - With all of the hype surrounding this film, I'm very curious to see what Ron Howard has done with Dan Brown's riveting and entertaining book. Plus, I love Audrey Tautou. But what's up with Tom Hanks's' hair? Opens May 19.
  
  
• Wordplay - A much anticipated movie about crossword puzzles and, specifically, New York Times crossword editor (and legend) Will Shortz. The film is complete with cameo testimonials from Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, and Jon Stewart. Opens June 16.
  
  
• Superman Returns - The first Superman movie in about 20 years, I'm interested to see how the mostly unknown Brandon Routh handles his role as the man of steel. The film also stars Kevin Spacey as Lex Luther and Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane. Opens June 30.
  
  
• Little Miss Sunshine -This film is an indie comedy picked up by Fox Searchlight. It stars Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, and Steve Carell in a story about a girl's family taking a cross-country trip to get her to a beauty pageant. Opens July 28.
  
  
• Miami Vice - Every summer needs a good action flick, complete with violence and underdressed women. This film has the benefit of being directed by the great Michael Mann. It stars Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, which may or may not be a good thing. Either way, this film will probably be one of my 'guilty pleasures' of the summer. Opens July 28.
  
  
• World Trade Center - Oliver Stone always seems to be surrounded by controversy, and the subject matter of this film all but ensures some more. Still, the talented filmmaker is capable of doing great things with the medium, and his ability to handle grand scales in his films should result in an interesting, provocative, and memorable movie-going experience. Opens August 11.
  
  
• Snakes on a Plane - Enough said. Opens August 18.
  
  
• Factotum - This movie from Norwegian director Bent Hamer is about a man, played by Matt Dillon, who pursues his writing while taking up distractions of alcohol, women, and gambling. Co-starring Lili Taylor and Marisa Tomei. Opens August 18.
  
  

Teachers Have It Easy

While spending a few days in Maine with Helen, I had the opportunity to finish reading Teachers Have it Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers, by Daniel Moulthrop, Ninive Clements Calegari, and, most notably, Dave Eggers.

The book is a treatise on the state of teachers' salaries in America, and the effect these salaries have on the education system. The authors argue that poor teacher pay discourages talented college graduates from entering the profession, and forces quality teachers to give up teaching for professions that allow them to live a comfortable life.

The book gives accounts from teachers across the country of their experiences struggling on their salaries, and how they are treated by society as a result of these salaries.

On their salaries, teachers are often unable to buy a house or even raise a family. Those that teach in wealthy districts cannot afford to live in the neighborhoods of the children they are teaching. The authors argue that because of their salaries, teachers are treated as second-class citizens, not afforded the respect they deserve considering the jobs they do.

The pay inequities of teachers relative to other professionals are even more stark when you consider the daily schedules of teachers. People often think of teachers as having easy schedules, with summers off and multiple week-long vacations throughout the year. But when school is in session, teachers have to be on top of their game nonstop. They cannot take breaks, have an "off-moment," or space out for a few minutes. They cannot even use the bathroom at their leisure.

Teachers are responsible - legally liable - for the students in their classroom, and are charged with keeping them occupied, interested, and safe all day long, while teaching these students a certain curriculum, and preparing them to pass standardized tests.

The traditional salary scale, which is more or less followed across the country, consists of a starting salary which increases as teachers remain in the district, and as they earn continuing education credits. Despite low pay to begin with, this system usually flattens out after 15 years, giving little incentive for teachers to remain. Furthermore, teachers are often given raises for irrelevent graduate coursework.

The solution, the authors argue, is increased pay for teachers, which will allow teachers to remain in the profession, and attract more and better qualified college graduates into the profession.

The book gives some success stories - instances in which school districts overhaul the traditional salary scale in favor of a series of incentives for teacher improvement. In these new systems, teachers often have lower starting salaries than traditional systems but are able to earn bonuses based on performance and relevant continuing education credits.

These new pay systems have caused an increase in applications for open positions in the school districts, allowing the districts to pick from a more qualified pool of applicants. This has meant better teachers in the school system.

There is not a federal mandate that could fix the system. Districts have different needs, and should employ salary scales that fit these needs, with nuances that are appropriate for their faculty and structure. Still, increased federal and state funding could go a long way to reforming the system.

But there have been successes short of an increase in taxes. Creative and innovative solutions have seen positive results.

Teachers unions, school administrators, and legislators need to get serious about their goals for the education system, and they need to acknowledge that the success of the system depends on increased teacher salaries.

As I enter the teaching profession, I hope to be respected not for my willingness to sacrifice a certain lifestyle, but rather for my dedication to help shape a better society. As a society, we shouldn't be proud of teachers because they give up the opportunity to make more money. Instead, we should recognize them as a vital part of our nation's future, and we should compensate them accordingly.

New England Real Ale Exhibition

Last night I attended the New England Real Ale Exhibition in Somerville, Mass. It was the tenth annual festival and featured 'real ales' from both the U.K. and New England.

Real ale refers to a brewing method in the British tradition that differs from beers more widely available in the United States. It undergoes two stages of fermentation: one in the brewery, and then a second in the vessel in from which it is transported and served. This vessel can be either a bottle or a brewer's cask.

Real ale is not pasteurized or filtered, and it is tapped from the cask using a hand pump or simple gravity tap. Traditional real ale has lower carbonation and a wider array or flavors and aromas than its more 'popular' counterparts.

The alternatives to cask ales are the 'popular' beers that are served from kegs. These kegs are kept colder; they can be stored longer after they are tapped, do not require elaborate cellaring, and are easier to pour. These benefits have led to the prominence of keg beers, and the near-extinction of cask-conditioned ales.

During the year I lived in London, I drank cask ales constantly. There was a pub on every corner, and each of these pubs had about four cask ales on tap at any given time. I learned to love these ales; the low carbonation and slightly warmer serving temperature allowed me to notice qualities and complexities of beer tastes that I had not noticed before. They are smooth, flavorful, and delicious.

The Real Ale Exhibition allowed me to return to some of these London tastes. The first beer I sampled was Fuller's London Pride - my favorite beer to drink in London (and my favorite beer, full stop). The next ale I sampled was Brains Dark, a beer brewed in Cardiff, Wales (which I drank and enjoyed during my two day visit to that city in March 2005).

My third ale was from an American brewer - Midnight Madness Smoked Porter from Rock Art Brewery in Morrisville, Vt. This ale tasted surprisingly like the Brains dark, with roast and caramel flavors and a delicious, lasting finish of malt and roast that stays in your nose.

The final ale I sampled was another Welsh beer - Breconshire's Golden Valley. This ale was unlike any of the other ales I sampled. It was crisper, fruitier, and a bit more complex. I enjoyed it, but liked it less than the first three beers. Golden Valley was perhaps a bit too complex for its own good, not quite balancing its fruity flavor with enough hops. It was not quite bitter enough.

The festival was crowded and hot. There was a line to get in, on which we waited for about 30 minutes. Once in the room, it was cramped and hard to get around. The number of people at the event testifies to its popularity and success, and indicates some hope for the real ale movement in the United States. But it also means that it is time for the annual festival to change venues to a place that is quieter and more spacious, providing a pleasant and relaxing ale-drinking environment.

Despite the crowds, I enjoyed the Real Ale Exhibition, and look forward to returning again in years to come.

Suit Against Clark Misguided, Not Surprising

A lawsuit filed against Clark on Friday (article) claims that Clark administrators did not keep a close enough eye on its students, allowing Michele Bash to develop a drug problem which progressed and led to her death from a heroin overdose.

The blame that this student's parents are putting on the administration is certainly misguided, but considering the coddling and spoon-feeding that happens on this campus, it should not be unexpected.

At the center of the lawsuit is the relationship between Clark and its students. Should Clark play the role of custodian, present to look after its students and walk them through each decision they make? Should parents expect the dean to keep tabs on each student, and provide parents with regular updates of their children's activities?

Such a proposition is not only impracticable, but insulting to a group of students who should be mature enough to live on their own. More than anything else at issue is personal responsibility. The question raised by the lawsuit is this: Should an 18-year-old reasonably expect such close supervision? The answer has to be no.

Clark's objection to the lawsuit seems to indicate that they are aware of such limits. But even as things stand now, Clark plays too large a role in its students' lives. For starters, they need to rethink their mandate requiring students to live on campus for their first two years.

The problem is not that administrators do not pay enough attention to students - it is that they pay too much attention. Students and their parents are wooed into a sense of security that they neither possess nor need.

The university should provide resources for students who need them, and they should advertise those resources and make students feel welcome to use them. This includes counseling, health services and general guidance, be it social or academic.

The university is right to emphasize community on campus. But the encouragement of community should be the extent to which administrators interfere in the lives of students.

The overprotection of students provided at Clark does more harm than good. It delays maturation into adulthood, favoring a coddling that hinders students' progress toward independence. And it provides a safety blanket that, upon graduation, students will be shocked to be without.

Michele Bash's death was tragic. But trying to transfer blame onto the university is imprudent. Bash was an adult who made bad decisions with fatal consequences. Her parents should stop laying blame on the university, and use their efforts toward more productive means, such as drug awareness and prevention programs on college campuses across the country.

~RYAN KELLY, Executive Editor, The Scarlet

Arrested Development continues to live up to its name

by Helen Williams and Ryan Kelly
Contributing Staff and Co-Executive Editor

This article will appear on Thursday in The Scarlet, the official student newspaper of Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

The battlefield of sitcoms is littered with the bodies of cancelled ventures. With the exception of those few great shows that go out on top, these bodies are almost all victims of the cancer of their industry – the ratings decline. Most are deserving of their fate as they melt away quietly into obscurity. But a small corner of the battlefield is reserved for those who died young, their glory unrecognized and life cut short. These unfortunate victims of the sitcom world will be joined on Friday by the latest great to pass too soon: Arrested Development.

The final four episodes will be aired back-to-back on Friday, Feb. 10 at 8 p.m.

Beloved by critics, Arrested Development’s death can be difficult to explain. On the face of it, the show ought to have been a hit. The cast is brilliant, the writing is consistently hilarious and practically flawless, the premise is sustainable and the guest stars are both talented and plentiful. The show’s depth and nuance is something that is unmatched anywhere else on television.

Arrested originally aired between The Simpsons and Malcolm in the Middle, two highly successful shows that should have supported it in the ratings. Yet ratings were low.

And so critics were the only ones to really pay attention to Arrested Development in the beginning.

Arrested Development has been part of a new generation of sitcoms with the likes of Scrubs, The Office and My Name is Earl. The earmarks of this new breed include the omission of several sitcom standards which have been around for years – the shows do not use a laugh track or live audience, and do not use the sitcom-standard four stationary cameras to shoot on a closed set.

The new genre also tends to reinvent components of the standard form, such as the traditional self-contained episode. Situation comedies were traditionally based on one-episode easily resolvable situations, but these “new” sitcoms are willing to let a story arc over several episodes, and they ask their audience to remember details.

Arrested is perhaps a victim of its format and innovation. Its self-referential humor could be asking too much of a popular audience. The toggling between multiple storylines and the heavy reliance on inside jokes that refer to previous episodes leave many casual or passing viewers confused.

This explanation is hard for fans to swallow, however, since, despite being one of the more brilliant examples of this new genre, it has not flourished like its counterparts, which share the same features.

The truth is that Arrested’s death is not due to an internal cancer, but rather to homicidal caretakers.

Despite love and affection from almost every TV critic known to man, viewership has continuously lagged. This season the show has consistently pulled in only about 4 million viewers per night.

If anyone should be blamed for the low ratings of Arrested Development, it is the executives at Fox. A string of obscenely poor scheduling decisions on their part makes you wonder how Fox gets any viewers at all.

Following three well-deserved Emmy wins after its first season, including Outstanding Comedy Series, the show was surrounded by buzz in September 2004. Fox, which should have rushed the show onto the air to take advantage, instead waited almost two months before airing new episodes. By then the buzz had died. Ratings continued to decline, Fox cut their episode order for the second season from 22 to 18 and by April of the following year no one was sure Arrested would be back at all.

By some miracle, fans of the show (who are as dedicated as they come) helped ensure its return for a third season, but they couldn’t prevent the next gaffe – Fox decided to move Arrested from its Sunday night slot to Monday night, a known television wasteland.

Add a lack of promotion to the mix, and you can hear the death knell from miles away.

This season’s episode order was cut from an original 22 episodes to 18, then finally down to 13. While Fox has not yet officially cancelled the show, these episode cuts practically ensure Fox will not bring Arrested back for a fourth season.

Fox hammered the final nail in Arrested’s coffin when they decided to move its last hurrah to Friday night, when it will air against the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympic Games. The Opening Ceremonies traditionally receive extremely high ratings, meaning that Arrested will most likely die a quiet death.

There is some hope for fans, however. Rumors abound that Showtime and ABC have both shown an interest in picking up the show.

Yet Arrested Development fans have learned to live with disappointment, and they aren’t too optimistic about their chances. A resurrection will only come after lengthy negotiations with potential networks and only if show creator Mitch Hurwitz agrees to continue contributing (another uncertainty because of personal problems).

In the meantime, fans will have to content themselves with the first two seasons of the show on DVD. And they’ll be enjoying the last hurrah on Friday, a bittersweet funeral as they celebrate Arrested’s life while mourning its premature death.

Fox’s final scheduling decision may have been poor management, but in a way it is quite appropriate. As most of America looks the other way as it has always done, Arrested will find its final resting place surrounded only by those who love it best – its dedicated fans.

Billy Joel Concert

Helen and I went on Saturday to see Billy Joel in Boston. It was awesome! He played for over two and a half hours, and it was all good stuff. Here is the setlist from the concert:

Angry Young Man
My Life
Everybody Loves You Now
Summer, Highland Falls
The Ballad of Billy the Kid
Stiletto
Zanzibar
Allentown
Sometimes a Fantasy
Good Night Saigon
Movin' Out
Downeaster Alexa
She's Always a Woman
Keeping the Faith
River of Dreams
I Go to Extremes
We Didn't Start the Fire
Big Shot
It's Still Rock 'n' Roll to Me

Encore:
You May Be Right
Only the Good Die Young
Scenes From an Italian Restaurant
Piano Man

My favorite parts of the concert were the fun and upbeat songs, like "I Go to Extremes," "You May Be Right," and "Only the Good Die Young."

On a somewhat related note, does anybody else hate the whole encore game that is always played at these concerts? Let's pretend we're done playing music and let the crowd cheer a lot, and then come back on and play some more songs! I think it's all very silly. Everybody knows what's happening. They're not tricking anyone. Yet time after time they do this.

Oscar Nominations

By Ryan Kelly
Co-Executive Editor

There were few surprises as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Tuesday their nominations for the 78th Academy Awards. “Brokeback Mountain,” the love story of two gay cowboys which met critical acclaim and has been considered an Oscar favorite, took in eight nominations including one for Best Picture.

Two other films, “Crash” and “Good Night, and Good Luck,” each received six nominations. Another big winner was George Clooney, who was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for “Good Night, and Good Luck,” as well as Best Supporting Actor for “Syriana.”

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the nominations was the make-up of the nominated field. In addition to “Brokeback Mountain,” the films nominated for Best Picture were “Capote,” “Crash,” “Good Night, and Good Luck,” and “Munich.” All are serious films dealing with important political or social issues.

And with the exception of Munich, all of the films nominated for Best Picture were made with a budget of less than $15 million (Munich’s budget was $75 million). “Good Night, and Good Luck,” “Capote,” and “Crash” all had budgets in the range of $6-8 million. “Brokeback Mountain” was made for about $14 million.

To put these figures in perspective, last year’s Best Picture winner, “Million Dollar Baby,” was made for $30 million, and was in contention with “The Aviator” (with a budget of $116 million), “Finding Neverland” (with a $25 million budget), and “Ray” ($40 million budget).

If you want to go back another year, “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King,” which won Best Picture of 2003, had a production budget of just under $100 million. Compared to these numbers, “Capote’s” $7 million budget is pocket change.

Traditionally the Academy has nominated one independent or smaller-budgeted film per year. Last year it was “Sideways,” and the year before it was “Lost in Translation.” To have four of the five nominees with such small a budget is a drastic change in recent Academy history.

These small-budget films being honored were not chosen from a field of few big-budget pictures. 2005 saw “War of the Worlds” and “King Kong,” both directed by Oscar-winning directors. The Golden Globe-winning “Walk the Line,” a biopic about Johnny Cash, was also overlooked when it came to the Best Picture nominations.

After a year when box office receipts were down, could this change be indicative of a greater acceptance of small films from within Hollywood? It could be chance that the films studios thought were most worthy of being promoted this year happened to be on the small side. But it could also be that studios are now more willing to produce and distribute small-budgeted films. Blockbusters are not the winning propositions they were years ago.

The greatest indicator of this trend is the increasing number of “specialty divisions” of the big studios that are being set up, to deal with smaller and “independent” films. These include Sony Pictures Classics, Warner Independent Pictures, Focus Features, Miramax and Fox Searchlight Pictures. These divisions are great for film.

We should look at this year’s Academy Awards as a change in a new and positive direction. More “indie” films are being produced, and they’re great films. The Academy is honoring them, which will only boost their popularity and viewership.

It is these films that challenge the status quo and raise important and interesting points. “Good Night, and Good Luck,” while chronicling McCarthy-era journalism, provided a scathing critique of where the state of the journalism industry is now. “Crash” tackled racism at a time when people are forgetting it’s an issue. Even Munich, with by far the biggest budget, addresses the on-going cycle of violence in the turbulent Middle East.

Each of the films to get the Best Picture nod were also nominated for Best Director. This included Steven Spielberg (“Munich”), who has won two Best Director Oscars and been nominated for three more in the past. Ang Lee (“Brokeback Mountain”) was nominated in 2001 for “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.”

In the Best Actor category, “Capote” star Philip Seymour Hoffman is considered the favorite, after winning both a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award for his portrayal of the novelist Truman Capote. He is up against Terrence Howard for “Hustle & Flow,” Heath Ledger for “Brokeback Mountain,” Joaquin Phoenix for “Walk the Line” and David Strathairn for “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

On the women’s side, Reese Witherspoon was nominated for Best Actress for her role in “Walk the Line.” Witherspoon also won both a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award for this portrayal. She is up against Judi Dench for “Mrs. Henderson Presents,” Felicity Huffman for “Transamerica,” Keria Knightley for “Pride & Prejudice,” and Charlize Theron for "North Country." Dench won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “Shakespeare in Love,” and Theron won a Best Actress Oscar for her role in “Monster.”

The Oscars will be presented on Sunday, March 5, 2006 at 8:00 p.m. on ABC. They will be hosted by comedian and “Daily Show” fake-news anchor Jon Stewart.

Merry Christmas!

Hmmm... I guess it's been a while. Merry Christmas!

Movie Time

Some short reviews of films I've viewed recently, not necessarily for the first time:

• Nueve Reinas [Nine Queens] (2000) - This is the movie upon which the more recent remake, Criminal (starring John C. Reilly), was based. It is an Argentinean heist film which chronicles an action-filled day in the lives of two con artists. It peeves me when American filmmakers decide they are going to remake a foreign film for an American audience and fail to improve, or at least alter, the original movie - especially when the original was made fairly recently. (Vanilla Sky was an unnecessary adaptation of the superior Abre Los Ojos.) In this case, it's lucky for the American filmmakers that I saw Criminal first, as they failed to significantly alter or improve upon Nueve Reinas. I had liked Criminal, and it's hard for me to renege on that feeling now, but I am stunned at how similar the two movies are. I love John C. Reilly, but Americans need to start learning how to read subtitles, and filmmakers should start using their resources towards better ends than unnecessary English-language copies of original, well-made foreign-language films.
  
  
• The Limey (1999) - My flatmate has a strange, semi-suppressed obsession with British gangster movies, which is how this film made its way into my DVD player. It's not really a gangster film in the traditional sense - it's about a British con who travels to Los Angeles to take revenge upon whomever is responsible for his daughter's death. Director Steven Soderbergh made some interesting decisions with the editing and semi-linear storytelling - decisions which I found distracting and showy. He should have let the story play out on its own - it's a good enough tale to tell without gimmicks. Despite these distractions, it's a worthwhile film with good performances by Terence Stamp and the always-great Luis Guzman.
  
  
• The Station Agent (2003) - This is a GREAT movie. I watched it for the second time last week, and I'm still a bit awe-struck by how wonderful it is. It's a poignant, simple film about three people in a small, quiet town who make acquaintance with each other by the chance of their circumstances and eventually form unlikely friendships. The characters are interesting and full of depth. Doses of subtle humor are expertly injected into an otherwise serious film, resulting in a fine piece of filmmaking that everyone should see. It is a shame this movie has not gotten the attention it deserves, but it is evidence that the independent film movement is alive and thriving.
  
  
• The Weather Man (2005) - This movie was utterly disappointing. It's about a weatherman (acted unconvincingly by Nicholas Cage) in Chicago who is struggling with his existence in the context of a dying father (Michael Caine), a failed marriage, a disconnect with his children, and a looming opportunity to move to New York for a job on a national morning news program. Commercials I saw for The Weather Man showed me a lot of potential for a quirky, interesting film. Instead I got a hodgepodge of underdeveloped characters tied together in a sloppy package with a big band-aid in the form of voiceovers. It could have been a good film, but was not.
  

In the next installment of Movie Time, I'll maybe take a look at Separate Lies (2005) and Casualties of War (1989).

Mindy!

Check out Mindy's new hair!

Final Registration

This morning I registered for my last semester of classes, which is sort of ridiculous. Being a senior, there was no pressure to get into classes before they filled up, as I get to register first. Regardless, I woke up bright and early, for tradition's sake (8:00 a.m.!) and registered as I had each time previous to this. As usual, I am excited about my schedule. Here are the classes I will be taking:

• Introduction to Screen Writing - According to its description online, this class seems to focus both on theory and the application of that theory. We're going to have to watch some films, which is exciting to me, and will complete a full first draft of a screenplay by the semester's end. Fun! Meets Mondays from 6 to 9.
  
  
• Creative Writing: Fiction - A workshop-format class for short- and long-form fiction. Students give and receive criticism. Rumor has it that there will be six writing assignments over the course of the semester. Credit/no credit. Meets Thursdays from 2:50 to 5:50.
  
  
• Lawyers and Politics - Government seminar looking at the role lawyers play in American politics. This is the class that will complete my requirements for graduation. Meets Mondays and Thursdays from 1:25 to 2:40.
  
  
• Environmental Law - "A survey course in environmental law, with special emphasis placed on the practical skills neccesary to understand and apply environmental laws and regulations." This class is cross-registered in the Environmental Science and Policy; Government; and International Development, Community, and Environment departments. Meets Mondays from 9 to 11:50.
  

So once again I will have Tuesdays and Fridays off, something that I have been enjoying this semester. The biggest change in my schedule will be waking up for a 9:00 class, which I'll have on Wednesdays. I think that it will make me feel like less of a lazy-bum, though, so I'm seeing it as a good thing.

Mobile Blog!

This was my first attempt at mobile-phone blogging, a technology that is somewhat mind boggling to me. In any case, this is a picture that I took with my phone and then posted to my blog directly. Sure, it's just a picture of my living room, and yes, I was sitting right next to my computer when I took and sent it. But still. Amazing.