Friday, January 30, 2004
A sister!
Hey, I put up another lame-ass looking blog here. It's mostly there for my convenience, and in the long run, will probably end up saving me a lot of time. Check it out, or don't, I don't care.
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
The Oscars
Usually, I am not one to pay attention, but I think that this season's Oscar Nominations are extraordinary, and worth noting. From The Times:
BEST PICTURE
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
• Lost in Translation
• Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
• Mystic River
• Seabiscuit
DIRECTOR
• Fernando Meirelles, City of God
• Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
• Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation
• Peter Weir, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
• Clint Eastwood, Mystic River
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
• Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
• Ben Kingsley, House of Sand and Fog
• Jude Law, Cold Mountain
• Bill Murray, Lost in Translation
• Sean Penn, Mystic River
I'm shocked and pleased that a film as humble and quiet as Lost in Translation recieved 3 nominations, and that Bill Murray's performance recieved such high accolades. I can't say what this says for taste in general, but I'm also thrilled that as mediocre a picture as Cold Mountain which is the sort of thing that one expects to win Oscars wasn't even nominated for best picture. Mystic River is also outstanding, but its nomination is not a surprise.
BEST PICTURE
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
• Lost in Translation
• Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
• Mystic River
• Seabiscuit
DIRECTOR
• Fernando Meirelles, City of God
• Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
• Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation
• Peter Weir, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
• Clint Eastwood, Mystic River
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
• Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
• Ben Kingsley, House of Sand and Fog
• Jude Law, Cold Mountain
• Bill Murray, Lost in Translation
• Sean Penn, Mystic River
I'm shocked and pleased that a film as humble and quiet as Lost in Translation recieved 3 nominations, and that Bill Murray's performance recieved such high accolades. I can't say what this says for taste in general, but I'm also thrilled that as mediocre a picture as Cold Mountain which is the sort of thing that one expects to win Oscars wasn't even nominated for best picture. Mystic River is also outstanding, but its nomination is not a surprise.
Nijinsky
From the introduction to The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky (ed. Joan Acocella, 1995: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux)
“As Romola describes the performance, Nijinsky began by taking a chair, sitting down in front of the audience and staring at them for about half an hour. Eventually, he unrolled two lengths of velvet, one white, one black, to form a cross on the floor. Standing at the head of the cross, he addressed the audience: “Now I will dance you the war,…the war that you did not prevent.” He then launched into a violent solo, presumably improvised, and at some point stopped. On that same day, January 19, 1919, between finishing his lunch and going to Romola’s dressmaker to pick up his costume for the concert, he began his diary.” (xx)
“As Romola describes the performance, Nijinsky began by taking a chair, sitting down in front of the audience and staring at them for about half an hour. Eventually, he unrolled two lengths of velvet, one white, one black, to form a cross on the floor. Standing at the head of the cross, he addressed the audience: “Now I will dance you the war,…the war that you did not prevent.” He then launched into a violent solo, presumably improvised, and at some point stopped. On that same day, January 19, 1919, between finishing his lunch and going to Romola’s dressmaker to pick up his costume for the concert, he began his diary.” (xx)
