The King Has Returned
I’ve often said that the Oscars are given out too early. If you really want to know what movie is the Best Picture of a particular year, wait ten years and then hand out the awards. I’d bet most of the time you would get a different result.
2004, however, was the year The Return of the King won Best Picture and something tells me that we wouldn’t see too many people shouting for Peter Jackson to return his trophy. I wonder, though, how the movie would have been different if it had been about another King.
Not Elvis. I don’t know crap about Elvis.
Shit That Pissed Me Off – 3/21
Pixar is Finally Making The Incredibles 2!
Yes, I know this is, in fact, completely awesome news. So why am I annoyed?
Because apparently nobody noticed the other movie that was announced. That would be Cars 3.
Look, I’m as big a fan of Pixar as anyone but are we not concerned that they are making a sequel to the film that is arguably their worst movie to date? I know that the Cars franchise has made Disney and Pixar countless millions in merchandise and that is why a third film was inevitable.
Make no mistake. This is why they are making another Cars movie.
But can I be a little upset that all Pixar is producing these days is sequels? I want more movies like Up and WALL-E. It’s great that Pixar has found ways to mine the existing universes they have created and I’ve been waiting for a sequel to The Incredibles for a long time.
How about a sequel every other year, Pixar? How about that?
Alphabetical Movie – The Madness of King George
I don’t know if anyone has kept an official tally but it sure does seem to me like the best way to earn an Oscar nomination is to play an English monarch. Helen Mirren has an Oscar for playing Queen Elizabeth II. Judi Dench has one for playing Queen Elizabeth I. Dench was also nominated for playing Queen Victoria. Cate Blanchett was nominated for playing Elizabeth I twice.
That’s just the queens. When it comes to the Kings, things get completely ridiculous. Not too many wins. Colin Firth has one for The King’s Speech, Charles Laughton for The Private Life of King Henry VIII, and Laurence Olivier got an honorary one for Henry V but when it comes to nominations, seems like almost every king of England is Represented.
Nigel Hawthorne was nominated as George III in The Madness of King George. Both Olivier and Kenneth Branaugh were nominated for Henry V. Peter O’Toole was nominated for playing King Henry II in two different films! Robert Shaw was also nominated for playing Henry VIII but he probably lost that award due to stupid Oscar politics. Henry VIII already had an Oscar.
Fucking Charles Laughton.
Olivier was nominated for Richard III.
Oooo! Richard Dreyfuss won for The Goodbye Girl and he was in a production of “Richard III” in that movie. I’m going to count that one!
I mean, you can get nominated for playing a lot of other roles but a head of state in England just might be the ticket, baby!
Maybe it just feels that way because when it comes to historical drama, political leaders are well represented. If you make an American film, you wouldn’t be surprised to see it feature a President (and boy o boy have a lot of folks been nominated for playing Presidents). If the film is set in England, a monarch just might show up.
Geeks Without God and Comics
This week’s episode of Geeks Without God is with friend and CONvergence co-founder Christopher Jones. I don’t know how it came to pass that so many of the co-founders of the convention are not religious but it is entirely possible we were able to do what we did because we had Sunday mornings free.
I can’t take credit for that. Molly said that.
Anyway, Chris has been a professional comic book artist for his entire adult life and so we spent most of the episode talking about his career in the comic industry and he even told us about a very cool project that he’s got coming up.
I haven’t gotten to see enough of Chris since he and I left the CONvergence board. It was nice to have him in the house again. Enjoy the episode!
Putting it Together – Big Fun Radio Funtime
Big Fun Radio Funtime is just over a year old and just performed our sixth show. I’m at a bit of a crossroads right now because I think that we are getting a lot better artistically, but I can’t figure out how to get people to come watch the show. While I know I want to keep it running through the end of the 2014, I’m not certain of our fate beyond that.
The major problem I face is the amount of work compared to the level of attention that work receives. We are averaging 20- 30 audience members per performance. Can we get more? I just don’t know. So I’ve been doing a sort of cost/benefit analysis on the whole effort.
A Plompf Of Cats
My family owns four cats.
After about ten minutes of research on the internet, I have determined that we are not crazy cat people. In order to qualify as crazy cat people, we would need to have reached at least double digit cat ownership. We are no fewer than six cats short of crazy cat person status.
We do own one more cat than the city we call home allows. You are permitted up to three dogs and three cats. Four cats, however, is excessive and you must be stopped. To ensure that our children will not have to deal with the trauma of police bashing down our doors and forcibly removing one of our cats, I am keeping our city of residence a closely guarded secret.
My wife, who frequently takes an afternoon nap, spends a lot more time with the cats than I do. In the afternoon, all four of them can usually be found on the bed. When all four of them are curled up in a single mound of contentment, she has decided to refer to the resulting pile of fur, feet and ears as a “Plompf.” I think this is because it roughly emulates the noise a cat makes when it jumps up onto the bed and flops into position.
This is a very contented plompf
Shit that Pissed me Off – 3/14
Get Raped at Pensacola Christian College and…Get Expelled!
Wait…what????
Welcome to a right-wing Christian college! We want to make sure that you follow the straight and moral path so if your boyfriend abducts you and rapes you in a construction site, we’ll ensure you know it is because you are a spoiled vessel who doesn’t deserve to be around decent people! Especially decent men like your rapist boyfriend!
A regular by-product of fundamentalist religion (any fundamentalist religion) seems to be the shaming of women. It isn’t enough that you are subservient to men. You should, in fact, be ashamed of your gender. If you are raped, it is your own fault for existing.
Actually, it’s Eve’s fault. Blame her for the fact being a woman is so awful. The church isn’t run by a bunch of misogynist assholes. It’s her fault!
As is frequently observed, this attitude is no more helpful for men than it is for women because it teaches men that they have no responsibility for their own behavior. Basically, if you are a guy who sexually assaults a woman, it isn’t your fault. You can’t control yourself. She is supposed to do that for you. If she fails to control your sexual urges, she should be punished.
Tell me again how religious liberty is under attack in this country.
Alphabetical Movie – Made for Each Other
I have an autographed picture of Jimmy Stewart in my bathroom. I know that hardly sounds like a place of honor but it is in the same bathroom with my Peter Jackson autograph so please accept that only the most important stuff that I couldn’t fit on other walls in my house are found in that bathroom.
The autograph came with a certificate of authenticity so while I don’t know for a fact that it is real, I’m confident enough. It is either an autograph by him or by someone who has spent a lot of time learning to copy his signature. One has to admire that amount of effort.
I can’t communicate with Stewart’s spirit because psychics aren’t real. Also, Stewart was a lifelong conservative so he might resent ending up in some liberal atheist’s house just to verify an autograph. Given all of this, I’m going to live my life as if the signature is genuine.
It makes me sad, though, that the picture of Stewart isn’t joined by pictures of Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn.
If that was the case, I’d have the three leads of Philadelphia Story on my bathroom wall, and boy would that be something.
Geeks Without God Talks About Sports
This week, our Geeks Without God podcast tackles geeks and sports. The big question is whether or not geeks who are sports fans are marginalized within the wider geek society. As the only member of the podcast who is a sports fan, I thought it was a really interesting topic to cover.
I tend to keep my opinions about sports to myself but that is mostly because I know that most of the time I’m hanging around people who aren’t interested. When we have so many other things that interest all of us, why spend time on something that isn’t a mutual interest?
We talk about lots of things including what sports seem to interest geeks more than others, what it is that interests me about sports and, of course, the problems inherent in professional sports.
It is, as always, an interesting conversation. I hope you listen!
Also, watch this video with our fundraising challenge for Die Laughing!
Putting it Together – Social Media
Putting it Together is my Monday “artist talking about art stuff blog”. The title comes from “Sunday in the Park with George,” the best (and possibly only) musical that is entirely dedicated to an artist talking about his art. Is that pretentious enough?
I don’t want to pretend I know more about being a professional freelancer than anyone else. I’m quite positive I don’t.
I think I’m starting to get this whole social media thing figured out a little bit, though. The secret to freelancing and social media in this day and age is you must use it. If you stand aloof from social media, you have sacrificed an essential connection to the people you want to reach.
It may be a source of pride that you aren’t on Twitter but is that a good enough reason? Here’s a few things I think I’ve learned about use of social media. I’ll note that a lot of this is comedy centric because that’s what I (want to) do. A lot of it translates, though.
Grail Diary 