Oscars 2008 – Any Americans making films anymore?

Just watched the Oscars and the my overriding thought throughout the show was I wonder if any Americans are making good films anymore other than the Coen Brothers and Paul Thomas Anderson.  It was quite remarkable that this was such an international night.  Until the Coen Brothers started winning, it seemed like Brad Bird was the only American up there, and that was for a movie set in FRANCE.  I was pleased to see “Falling Slowly” win for best song.  I get goose bumps everytime I see them play it.  I still haven’t seen No Country for Old Men yet but I really liked the book, so I’m glad that it won.  There Will Be Blood was quite an achievement and would have been deserving as well.  I was also pleased to see Bourne Ultimatum win so many technical awards early on.  That was an exceptional piece of mainstream entertainment and deserved as many awards as it could get.  It should have been nominated for best picture.  Jon Stewart was good as usual in what seemed to be a subdued performance most of the time. 

More Cruising – Tortola (dolphins) and the Dominican Republic

The next stop for us was Tortola on the British Virgin Isles.  We were wisked away to a place by the bay where they train dolphins to work with humans.  We were able to swim and play a bit with the dolphins.  They are pretty amazing animals and everyone had a good time (hopefully the dolphins were enjoying it too or at least getting well compensated for thier work).  Later that day we went out on a smaller boat to some coral reefs nearby to go snorkling.  We saw lots of interesting fish and even a few squid. It was a 30 minute boat ride there and back.  My daughter hated every minute of the ride because it was turbulent while my son loved it.  On the way back, he stood next to the captain the entire time.  I crawled up top so I could stand with him and I was completely soaked when we got back.  The waters were pretty choppy but it really brought back memories of us fishing on the Oregon coast when I was little.  Fortunately, no one got sick on this ride.  My son certainly has the interest in the ocean that my Dad and Sister have.  I guess it skipped a generation because its not something I share.  The island seemed newly developed and remote.  We didn’t get much of a chance to interact with the locals, so it was hard to get a sense of it.  I got the sense that they tried to shelter the cruise lines as much as possible in these places.

The next day we went to the Dominican Republic.  The kids, their aunt and I all took a tour to the interior of the country to visit Cueva de las Maravillas, the Taino caves that sheltered some of the original inhabitants of the island before the Spanish arrived.  Here is a good site that describes the place we visited.  The cave formations were amazing and the pictographs were very interesting as well.  The cave has only been protected for a few years, so you can see were people have broken off stalactites for souvenirs or to sell.  The oil from our hands can destroy the rock formations as well.  We were told that they grow a centimeter every one hundred years, but they turn black and stop growing if humans touch them too much.  I think he said the caves were calcium carbonate formations.  The pictograph you see here is one that my son thought looked like a zombie.  It is apparently the bat god (there were lots of bats in the cave too) taking someones spirit to heaven.  The pictures looked like a child had recently drawn them but he assured us they were hundreds of years old. 

After the cave, we got back on the bus and our guide told us more about the Taino and the island.  His name was Frederico and he was engaging and up front with us about the island.  He talked about politics and corruption (a recuring theme), seemed very interested in how Obama was doing, mentioned baseball and many other things.  He learned English, French and German from specific programs run out of the various embassies.  His English was through Young Life I think.  He was taken to Europe through these programs as well.  He was trying to learn Russian currently because of all the new rich from Russia coming on vacation.  He also told us about the history of the island.  He said that a Taino population was reduced from 6000 to around 600 people 30 years after Columbus landed on the island, mostly through disease.  Eventually, the Europeans settled on the island and brought slaves with them.  This was why the population was so mixed and varied.  He made the point that you will see people of all different shades on the island because of the diverse heritage present there.  This was probably the most fascinating part of the trip for me (I still like history I guess), and the caves were wonderful.

Musings on cruising the Caribbean – Boarding and Puerto Rico

After finally folding the last of our laundry from our trip, it seems like a good time to collect my thoughts on what we saw.  After a couple of days at Disney World, we set off on our Cruise on Feb. 3 from Fort Lauderdale Florida.  The first evening and the day after we spent the whole day on the Celebrity Cruiselines Millenium ship as it sailed far North of Cuba on it’s way to San Juan, Puerto Rico.  I did watch one of the most entertaining Superbowls I can remember on the Cruise ship on a  huge projection screen.  Alas, I did miss the commercials since it was a satelite feed, which was interesting.  “The Catch” was hugely impressive on the big screen.  I could hardly believe what I was seeing.  I was sitting with a group of twentysomethings who worked on the ship and it was interesting to hear their perceptions of the game.  Most of the girls seemed to be from Australia or New Zealand (one was from South Africa I think) and were not familiar with American football.  The boys they were with seemed to be American and I was not sure if they were working on the ship or on the cruise for vacation.  This was the first inkling that this was going to be a truly international cruise.  The people working on the ship were from all over the world.  Our cruise to Alaska a few years ago was almost entirely Northern Europeans in the upper ranks of the ship and entirely Filipinos on the waitstaff and room service areas.  Celebrity’s staff was much more diverse, as were the guests on the cruise.

After some sun bathing and swimming, our first stop was in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  We took a tour of the city but it was difficult to understand our driver.  He talked a lot about how poor the country was and how corrupt the government was.  Eventually we got to an old Fort there that is now a national park since Puerto Rico is part of the US.  Here is the link to the park service website.  The Fort was pretty big and fun to walk around in.  There were tunnels and beautiful views of the ocean.  The fort protected the island from pirates and other invasions for centuries.  From there, we toured the city some more before getting on the ship.  Lots of very poor neighborhoods right next to nice developments.  I saw a lot of nice cars though I doubt they have many places to put them.  Eventually we got on the boat and headed towards the British Virgin Isles and Torola.

Best Movies of 2007 – Just in time for the Oscars

It’s time to look back at all the drivel I watched last year.  I’m sure too much time was spent on new stuff and not enough on better older movies, but my attention span continues to dwindle and the movie has got to keep me awake for two hours in the evening for me to make it through it (no easy task these days).

Of those listed below, my favorites or best things I saw were the following:
1.  Bourne Ultimatum
2.  I’m Not There
3.  No End in Sight
4.  Breach
5.  Superbad (almost Knocked Up)
Honorable mention:  300

Admittedly, I still need to see some of the oscar nominated movies, but these were the ones that were excellent from the beginning to end.  The worst was easily Because I Said So (shudder).  Lots of good actresses wasted and sullied. Pirates or Ghost Rider would be a distant second.  I have no idea what was going on in Pirates.

What I saw last year (90% in my own home):
Because I Said So – Diane Keaton, Mandy Moore, Lauren Graham from Gilmore Girls, sounds pretty good, but this was an utter disaster and painful to watch.
Bee Movie – cute but a bit creepy and way overpromoted
Blades of Glory – also creepy but it was supposed to be,  some pretty funny moments
Bourne Ultimatum – very tight thriller, excellent in every way
Breach – another great thriller and based on a true story about CIA mole
Catch and Release – light entertainment, didn’t really work but not offensive
Enchanted – cute movie that the kids enjoyed, better than most family films
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer – better than the first film
1408 – pretty good but I’m tired of sadsack John Cusack, I’d like the funny one back
Ghost Rider – very bad, Eva Mendes is bad, Peter Fonda is bad and Nic Cage cannot save it
Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix – Another good entry, liked it better than the book (this was my least favorite of the books)
The Hoax – Richard Gere does some good work here
Hot Fuzz – Funny but couldn’t decide if it was slapstick, dark satire or something else
I’m Not There – So much going on in this film, I just thought it was amazing.
Knocked Up – Enjoyed it but no long lasting impact.
The Lookout – Interesting noir about a man who has lost part of his memory.
Meet the Robinsons – good animated flick
Messengers – crappy PG 13 horror
Mr. Brooks – Costner tries something intersting here but I certainly didn’t buy his fictional daughter’s role in the story.
No End in Sight – heartbreaking look at how badly the Iraq invasion was screwed up.
Once – Enjoyable movie more about recording music than romantic tension.
Pirates of the Caribbean At Worlds End – Confusing, loud and ridiculous
Ratatouille – A well done animated picture though rats in the kitchen still have an “ew” factor.
Shrek the Third – Part of the threequel curse
Spider-man 3 – Ditto, a big disappointment
Superbad – Very funny comedy that resonated with me long after it was over, reminded me of high school
300 – Entertaining but very violent
Transformers – Too much going on here, fun at times but too much
28 Weeks Later – Best first 20 minutes of any zombie film, but gets lost after that
Zodiac – another tense, tight, thriller based on a true story

Terror by Dan Simmons – Which parts are real vs. fantasy?

Boy, do I remember why I liked Hyperion so much all those years ago when I read it.  Dan Simmons is a gifted storyteller with a knack for creating memorable characters.  In The Terror, he takes on the difficult task of reanimating forgotten historical figures while positing a fantastical explanation for what happened to the lost Franklin expedition in the icy waters of Northern Canada.  This is genre busting at its finest.  I can’t figure out where a bookstore could put this so interested people could find it.  It’s at once a nail biting adventure book in the Patrick O’Brien mold, then it morphs into an historical fiction work as the reader learns about ever aspect of what it would take to survive on a ship near the North Pole, then finally focusing on the natural and supernatural horrors of the ice, of the Inuits and of the dark souls in all men.  Simmons starts the book in the middle of his story, after the men have been trapped in the ice for nearly two years already.  Characters are introduced through flashbacks, much like in the TV show LOST.  It is a long but rewarding book, and it’s the type of historical fiction that drives a person to seek out other books on the topic just to find out how much was true.  The evidence for the massive bearlike creature presented in the story is slim, but just about everything else seems  realistic.  It’s place on several top ten lists last year is well-deserved.