the pod bay door

¦¦ An interesting take on what might happen in the documentary industry in the wake of both Michael Moore’s acceptance speech at the Oscars, and the success financially of Bowling for Columbine. Has the door been opened for a wave of feature-length documentaries?

The reaction to Moore’s speech has its contrarians, of course. BTW, for the week ending March 25, 2003, Moore was #7 in the Top 10 Gaining Queries list from Google.

Moore is not losing any momentum. His next film, Farenheit 911, will examine the link between Al Qaeda and Dubya Sr.

¦¦ This article pretty much sums up the insanity regarding the Oscar nominations – old news, perhaps, but it’s infuriating to be reminded that Peter Jackson wasn’t nominated for Best Director for Lord of the Rings: TTT. (The error in Devin Gordon’s article appears when he points out that Jackson had been snubbed for the 2002 nomination for Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, as well – he wasn’t, he did receive a nomination for that 2001 Oscar.) Also, consider that in 2002, LOTR:TFOTR won Oscars for Best Makeup and Original Score, and LOTR:TTT wasn’t nominated in either category for 2003. Eh??? As David Gordon points out in the article, the work is essentially the same. A backlash against TTT? Duh.

¦¦ Yesterday in Sydney, Australia, there was a huge protest against the war in Iraq. A participant videotaped some of the march, it’s mostly raw footage with some short interviews interspersed throughout. (Note: an ad plays before you can watch the video.)

¦¦ The only film nominated in one of the major Oscar categories that I did not see in 2002 was Y Tu Mama Tambien. I hope to rectify that soon. In the meantime, read this fascinating short interview with the director, Alfonso Cuarón, from last Sunday’s NYT Magazine. Chances are you won’t guess what film he’s now directing.

¦¦ On March 25th in Toronto, Paul Cellucci, the US Ambassador to Canada, spanked our national ass and sent us to bed without supper.

¦¦ The Book-Film-TV-Video Critiquees are the awards voted on by members of Blogcritics (of which I am one – but didn’t vote, this happened before I was invited to join.)

¦¦ Many reviews of the Oscars have been written this week, and my favorite was in Michael Musto’s column in The Village Voice. His take on Jennifer Connelly is too good.

¦¦ “Should Celebrity Activists Shut Up for Now?” This piece appeared on Salon.com, and is “reprinted” on Bill Maher’s site, featuring interviews with two of my favorite entertainers, Maher, and Janeane Garofalo. (I saw both of them in NYC in November 2002)

¦¦ Did you hear that the Boeing 777 carrying Tony Blair to the USA to meet with Dubya was struck by lightning? A message from God, perhaps?

¦¦ A word from the Harry Potter series has been accepted by the Oxford English Dictionary. In the books, a Muggle is a person with no magical powers. OED has accepted the word and extended its definition to mean “a person who lacks a particular skill or skills, or who is regarded as inferior in some way.” Previous OED definitions of muggle include “a tail representing that of a fish”, “a young woman; (spec.) a sweetheart”, and “marijuana. Also: a marijuana cigarette; a joint. muggle-head…a marijuana smoker” I wonder which of the previous definitions may have influenced JKR.

¦¦ The brain functions better with sleep, of which I have not been getting much lately. Today at work the world was spinning too quickly – so much paper pushing. Yeesh.

¦¦ Librarians looking for an interesting sig file can check Lib.Sigs., “Quotations for Librarians’ E-mail Signature Files”. The latest entry comes from the Oscars, courtesy of Michael Moore: “We like nonfiction, and we live in fictitious times.”

¦¦ Speaking of Michael Moore’s Oscar acceptance speech, this evening I watched a video of the IFP Independent Spirit Awards, which were handed out on Saturday night, the day before the Oscars. Moore won an award there as well, and his acceptance speech was essentially the same one he gave at the Academy Awards, but longer and more drawn out, as he didn’t face a time constraint, and the attendees, independent filmmakers, writers, actors, etc., were on his side for the most part. The nominees and award winners are listed here.

¦¦ Remember Clonaid and their claims of having created clone babies? Apparently this is a picture of the third one. What, you thought there were only two clone babies? Well, try five.

¦¦ Tired of the one-sided tv coverage of the war on Iraq? I’m disgusted with the coverage on CNN today, broadcasting interviews with families of captured US soldiers – what horse pucky! One interviewer asked a father if he’d prefer to have his son released. Well, DUH! Hey, can we get a few more retired generals on board? Cheer up and read You Might Be A Right Wing Republican If …

¦¦ With all due respect to my many dear American friends, occasionally you shake your head in disbelief at what some of them do to get attention, especially in the name of so-called patriotism. Will the “average” American ever learn that there is sentient life outside the 48 contiguous, and, gosh darn it, that it matters too?

¦¦ Another pronouncement from the established media that blogging is now mainstream.

¦¦ Late night musical discovery: Secondsight, from North Carolina.

¦¦ It makes good sense that my friend and colleague Stephen Abram is a member of the Internet Librarian Hall of Fame. My question is: how does one qualify, and who makes decision to induct?

¦¦ It was great to see SNL pay tribute last Saturday to Fred Rogers. Horatio Sanz sat on stage near the end and sang a song in his honour. In the past, SNL skewered him mercilessly, the high water mark being the early 1980’s with Eddie Murphy, when he did Mr Robinson’s Neighborhood. National Lampoon was in on it as well, satirizing him on one of their first albums. Read a most heartfelt tribute to Rogers from PopMatters.

¦¦ Make your own online kaleidoscope! The Internet justs gets better every day.

¦¦ At Geoff’s suggestion, I’ve added Blogrolling to manage the weblog links in the right hand column. So far I’ve added the locals only. I am behind in learning more about CSS, RSS feeds, etc. In time…

¦¦ Curb Your Enthusiasm, already through its third season on HBO, finally made it to Canadian television a few weeks ago. It’s hilarious, and I’m hooked. Yes, we still cannot get HBO in Canada. Bloody CRTC, protecting me from that dangerous American culture, and helping Canadian broadcasters produce other stuff of no interest to me in general. My feeling: let the Canadians produce a zillion shows, but don’t deny me the right to watch HBO as well.

¦¦ It’s late…time for bed.