the pod bay door

:: The NY Film Critics Circle has named Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King as Best Picture of 2003. The complete list of winners is here. (The Associated Press, btw, reported this incorrectly.) The NYFCC gave Best Director to Sofia Coppola, for Lost in Translation. (Coppola and her husband, Spike (Adam Spiegel) Jonze, are divorcing.)

Meanwhile, the San Francisco Film Critics Circle reversed those two awards: they named Lost in Translation as Best Picture, but gave Best Director to Peter Jackson for LOTR: TROTK. When will the LAFCA announce their winners?

:: In an interview with Om Malik, Jacques Vallee suggests that weblogs will save the Internet.

:: Kenton and I attending the screening of the new 35mm print of 2001: A Space Odyssey last night at the Metro. The print was good, a bit rough in spots, and there was no surround sound in the theatre. But it was still great to see the venerable 35-year old movie on the big screen, complete with the Overture before the film started, and its intermission after the scene in the pod. The crowd numbered between 50 and 75, and with the exception of the occasional can of pop being opened, the crowd was almost reverant in its respect for the movie. During the scenes where there was no sound, only silence, you could hear a pin drop in the theatre.

2001 still looks good. I’m amazed that the sets and design of the movie still look good, almost contemporary, after three and a half decades. I was so wide-eyed when I saw it the first time, in December 1968. Certainly that sense of wonder isn’t the same now, but seeing the film again made me feel, for a few moments, like I was that skinny 15-year old kid again, amazed at what I was watching on the big screen.

:: … Jena’s site, the absolutely worst version of the Christmas carol, O Holy Night, ever recorded. Turn up the sound, get out the earplugs. It’s hilarious.

:: … Robert’s site, a link to some amazing photos from the Hubble Telescope.

:: … Oliver Willis’s site, this entry on the decline of the bookstore comfy-chair (well, in the USA, anyway, we don’t have Borders or Barnes & Noble around here.) Fascinating to read through the 45+ comments to find an entry from someone who thinks Oliver’s observation is a left-wing cause. Eh?

:: … Derryl’s site, a photo that breaks the gigapixel barrier, containing about 1.09 billion pixels, and stitched together from 196 separate photographs.

:: various sites, mention of the National Board of Review’s Award winners, and the nominations for the 2004 Independent Spirit Awards.

:: A new 35 mm print of 2001: A Space Odyssey, re-released with very restricted distribution by Warner Bros in 2001 (duh), finally makes its way to Edmonton this coming weekend for four days. With 2001 being my favorite movie ever, I’ll be there.

:: I wanted to see a few films while off work this past week, and see as few is what I did: The Station Agent, Wonderland, In The Cut, The Matrix Revolutions, Love Actually, The Hard Word, and Down With Love.

:: I put up my outside Christmas lights Saturday afternoon. Usually I do this before the end of October, but got lazy this year. It’s cold here already, so I didn’t want to wait for it to get colder.

:: Also this week, I’ve been cleaning and purging. It’s been successful so far – I clurged (cleaned and purged) my spare bedroom, and filled four large green plastic bags wth clothes and shoes, which were taken to Goodwill yesterday. My computer room needs much work, as does the upstairs bathroom. To do this realistically, I need to set goals, so the plan is to get the upstairs completed first, then the main floor, then the basement. The vacuum has yet to be passed, that’s to happen later.

Part of the purge process involves losing stuff in drawers, cabinets and closets. Right now, I’m in a paper shred mode, as I work through my filing cabinet. I can’t believe the crap I’m finding in there, outdated receipts and paper trails and expired memberships and so on. I’ve filled up two blue bags with shredded paper, and I’m set to start a third.

:: I saw The Matrix Revolutions today. It is fun to watch and confusing as hell. The effects are at times overpowering, and the dialogue as offbeat and odd as in the other two movies. There is not as much martial arts this time around, and yes, the story does resolve itself. At least twice in the movie I wanted the reel to stop, rewind, and play again so I could try to understand what just happened. I did notice that most of the people in the audience were guys in baseball caps, and when they were in groups of two or more, all sat with an empty seat between each of them.

:: A report and review of The Beatles’ forthcoming, Let It Be…Naked, from the Globe and Mail’s James Adams.

:: I was not surprised to learn that NBC canned Coupling after four episodes (although the website says it’s returning in December.) Despite the fact that the scripts were almost word-for-word equal to the originals used in the British series, the Americans couldn’t seem to capture the Brits’ sensibilities, timing and delivery.

:: Microsoft has created a $5 million US fund to help track and convict virus creators.

:: Napster announced a deal on Thursday with Penn State University, in which students are given access to music funded by student fees, thereby reducing the number of illegal downloads. However, some of the students are criticizing the deal, saying it is an inappropriate use of their student fees.
Read more »