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My Oscar picks, yeah not so good

I am nearly a month into my new job as managing editor for the Tyler Tribute and it’s sister papers but I have to admit my touch on the pulse of pop culture around the world has been a little weak nearly since day one. I’m working to correct that, but it’s going to take time.

This all happened during the Oscar time. Normally I have a pretty good pulse on things, but this year I had a few misses including best actor, actress and director. I really shouldn’t be surprised by the out come. The word on “Slumdog Millionaire” was nearly deafening. I did have it up for best picture, but I wasn’t expecting our old friend Danny “Trainspotting” Boyle would come up with best director.

The man who gave us “38 Days Later” was not someone I expected the film industry would recognize. He is an amazing talent and I’m glad to see he got some props for his work. I can’t wait to see “Slumdog,” it’s going to be on DVD so my wait is a few months longer I’m sure.

On a completely different, non-Oscar related kick, it now looks like “Fanboys” is finally coming to Minnesota. For those who don’t know about the flick, it’s the story of a group of friends with the goal of seeing “Star Wars: Episode I” before it was released back in 1999. One of the characters has cancer and wants to see the flick before he dies.

I first heard about this movie years before it was green-lit for production. To see it made, knowing the saga it went through – one that rivals that of THE SAGA – is impressive. I’m planning a trip to the cities this weekend to see Jonathan Coulton and I might try to slip into a theater to see the movie before hand, not likely but I’m going to at least tell myself I’ll try.

Oscar picks for 2009

Around this time last year discussions started about Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in “The Dark Knight.” The discussions generally centered around the fact that ledger had recently passed away. While I had expected great things from Ledger in the film based on short clips and photos, I was a little apprehensive about the way people were talking in light of his passing.

Months after Ledger died “The Dark Knight” was finally released and it turned out, the hype surrounding Ledger’s Joker wasn’t all hot air. He delivered an amazing performance that truly deserves recognition during this years Academy Awards. He is up for supporting actor and it seems he is a lock in for the win.

Ledger’s role in the latest Batman flick isn’t the only transformative performance to hit the silver screen this year. Mickey Rorke’s performance as “Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson” in “The Wrestler” has become an obvious choice for best actor.

While I haven’t seen The Wrestler myself, nor the apparent shoe in for best picture “Slumdog Millionaire” but both films feel like true masterpiece work for the film makers.

Here are a few of my picks for various categories:

Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Director: David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Actor: Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
Actress: Meryl Streep – Doubt
Supporting actor: Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Supporting actress: Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler
Animated: Wall-E

Sure there are more categories, but that’s where I’m looking at this point.

I won’t be watching the Academy Awards live this year but my TiVo is set, with an additional hour for the obvious long speeches, so we’ll see what happens with this years show.

Dropping Cable Television … Maybe.

I’m currently in the process of thinking about possibly dropping cable television. Sure, that means giving up my beloved TiVo and loosing out on a lot of content from the History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic (man I watch a lot of documentary stuff), but I’m finding Netflix and my vast DVD collection are keeping me entertained.

The things that were keeping me stuck to spending between $60-80 a month for cable television are slowly becoming slimmer and slimmer. In reality the thing I would be giving up is sports — and I realized I can listen to the radio for that.

Hulu.com and Netflix streaming could pretty much serve the need for current television (The Simpsons, the Office, Heroes, Chuck and Numb3rs) and season sets of DVD are filling the rest of the need.

I’m contracted with Tivo until the end of December so I have time to make the decision.

Any thoughts?

Netflix drops its used DVD store

A few days ago a friend called letting me know Netflix was doing away with its used DVD store. As a Netflix member and collector of DVDs, I have used the used section of the Web site a number of times to pick up movies mostly for $5.99.

Netflix started selling used DVDs a few years ago, a side venture to its more traditional rental movies by mail model that made Netflix one of the most successful online businesses around.

The move for Netflix to drop out of the used DVD business isn’t really that surprising to me and I don’t think the reasons for the decision are really being talked about.

Netflix claims the decision was made to allow the company the room to focus on its core business — movie rentals by mail and streaming video. I’m guessing that is true, but there is something in the statement that is missing.

Netflix is working hard on building its streaming service, announcing an upgrade to HD for a number of titles, prepping for a launch on Xbox 360 and TiVo along with Blu-Ray players that support the format.

The company has also made agreements with the movie channel Starz in order to get its hands on new movie releases. I think this agreement is actually the most telling reason for Netflix to pull out of the used store business.

Lets face it, the movie industry hates used stores. A used DVD sold doesn’t count in sales figures for the movie and ultimately means a “loss in sales” for the studio or distributor that doesn’t get a cut of that sale.

The movie industry has been slow to adopt the Netflix streaming service, mostly pushing out “catalog movies” that haven’t spent time on the big screen in a few years.

Closing down its used DVD store is a good will measure for Netflix, letting the movie companies know they are ready to play ball and really push the streaming service even further. Netflix is positioning themselves for the future and they’re doing it now.

I only hope Netflix doesn’t give too much. The entertainment industry is notorious for taking a pound when an ounce was offered.

At any rate, the streaming service is building up and becoming one of the most compelling offerings out there. If that means missing out on a few deals on DVD, that’s fine. After all, I’ll be able to watch it on my Xbox soon enough.

The Office returns

It’s the fall television season again. Favorites like Chuck, Heroes, How Met Your Mother, My Name Is Earl and The Office are making their returns over the next few weeks. The Office will be recorded on my TiVo in just a few minutes. Oh and Grey’s starts up too. Thank TiVo for the duel tuner DVR.

As the vacation ends

For the last week I have pretty much done nothing in particular. From catching up on DVDs to watching the Olympics, I finally got around to spending a week of doing very little.

To say that I haven’t done anything really isn’t accurate. Here is a short list of things I did do this week in no particular order.

• Saw “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” in the theater. Great flick but a few flaws here and there. If you dig Star Wars, you’ll probably dig this Star Wars flick. More on this later.
• Started playing BioShock after picking it up new for $20 on clearance. I’ve been wanting to play this game for a while and it really does hold up. Shaping to be one of my favorite 360 games.
• Watched a boat load of DVDs. From most the first season of “Felicity” to “Superman II” and so on, I made my way through a number of DVD discs.
• Slept, a pretty good amount. I think I’ll do some more of that here in a few minutes.
• Pre-ordered the special edition of the new Oasis album, “Dig Out Your Soul” out in early October. Joy.

That’s the short list of what I’ve done. Congrats to Michael Phelps, amazing job man.

Musings for July 2008

The month of July seems to really be flying by and I still haven’t seen “The Dark Knight.” For most of my co-workers, they would have thought I would be first in line for the flick, I have been talking about it for years now.

I just don’t have faith that I won’t end up in a theater with some jerk talking through the whole thing. It seems to happen to me every time. I will see it though. That and the X-Files movie.

Just watched “The Mist,” the latest Stephen King story to make it to the big screen. It’s been sitting on a long wait from Netflix for a while but it finally showed up in my mailbox earlier this week. I kinda saw the ending coming but it was still quiet shocking. Not really the movie I originally thought it would but, but well worth the rent. I have “21″ and “Awake” sitting on my coffee table now for my next viewing.

The Xbox 360 continues to get a work out. I’m starting to play Halo 3 with the difficulty level turned up a notch or two. I’m beginning to think this will end up being a mistake as it is taking me three times as long to progress through the first stage, but my gamer score/pride needs some achievements.

I’m looking at a week in August to take off from work. Things have been crazy at work, many of you probably know the editor for the Independent left recently. We’re still working hard but no announcement for his replacement has been made.

The majority of my vacation will be spent relaxing and letting nothing be my road trip. My Dad is trying to get me to come with him to a battlefield or some other excursion but we’ll have to see. I need some time to just stand still for a change.

I have a new gadget, a SlingBox A/V sitting atop my TiVo. It’s pretty sweet. It allows me to watch and control my TiVo on my MacBook from anywhere I have a broadband connection. I haven’t tested it out too much, but I’m planning on giving it a good work out this weekend.

Current music: Saves the Day “In Reverie”

One Week ago, in a city a few hours away

Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination from Derek Jensen on Vimeo.

Star Wars at MN Sci Museum

I went to the Star Wars exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota this past weekend. It was great to get up close to many of the iconic images, props and costums from my favorite film series. It was also interesting to look at some of the different ways the science of Star Wars was both prophetic and grounded in reality.

Derek had his camera with him and snapped many photos and was kind enough to grab some shots of me with some of my favorites from the exhibit. You can check out those photos here.

You can also peep some of his excellent shots of the exhibit on his flickr page.

This marked my second trip to the Science Museum, it’s one of my favorite places in Minnesota. From getting to see the dinosaurs to watching movies on the giant OmniTheater, if you’re from Minnesota and haven’t checked out this amazing place, you owe it to yourself, go before Star Wars exits in August.