Cleveland Rocks

I've made a major life change - I've moved to Cleveland. Yes, Cleveland Ohio. Well, that's somewhat of a misnomer. Last week I started a new job with a consulting firm, and my first assignment is working on the campaign of the Diocese of Cleveland. I'll be here for about a year and a half, until December, 2012. I figured that since I'd be away from home, it was a good excuse to start blogging again. So here goes.

I'll be working with numerous parishes across the Diocese helping them raise money for their own parish as well as the diocese as a whole. First up, I'll be working with some parishes in Akron, home of the one and only LeBron James, for most of the fall.

It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm really excited to start something new. I think it will be incredibly rewarding, both professionally and personally. And the contacts I'm going to make and experinces I'm going to have are going to be priceless.

A fellow co-worker and I arrived this morning. It was an interesting (and somewhat depressing) ride from the airport in my rented Toyota Carolla. I felt like I should be peddling and it's a pretty small car. For the first few weeks I'm here I'll be staying at a hotel while I find an apartment, which I hope to do this week. It's a nice hotel, and the room is ENORMOUS.

Coolest thing about Cleveland so far? The Avengers is shooting right next to my office! Apparently, it's cheaper to close off a main street in Cleveland and dress it up to look like New York for a month than it is to actually shoot in New York. I will say, the attention to detail is pretty incredible. And I saw a giant explosion today when I was waiting at a light - it was pretty neat. AND! On the way to Akron I passed a White Castle and a Waffle House. Must make it a point to stop there in the not too distant future.

Hey Baby - I Think I Wanna Marry You

Well, I'm not marrying anyone, but someone IS getting married. Last Wednesday morning I was awakened from a blissful sleep by my obnoxious alarm right on cue at 6am. As I do every morning, I check my phone to see if I had any missed text messages. Turns out I did. I had two missed messages from my sister. I clicked on them, and the first picture was of a fancy looking ring, followed by another that said "i'm engaged!". I sat upright in bed and read it again just to make sure - yep, my little sister is growing up and getting engaged. I had figured it was coming, but it still caught me totally off-guard (maybe it's because I saw this all before 6:05am). I frantically called my parents to confirm, and they said yes it's true.

After my initial shock wore off, I was really excited for her. Matt is really great, he treats her right, and she's incredibly happy. When I saw her afterward, she was beaming. I've never seen her so happy.

The plan is for sometime next May with a low-key ceremony/reception somewhere out near my parents. And I get to be a groomsman - huzzah! I told Matt how much it meant for him to ask me (I think Jess and I have grown a lot closer as we've gotten older), especially since they're only each having 3 people in the wedding party. Sure is exciting, and I know that my parents (and me too) couldn't be prouder. I guess I have to get to work....

Is it just me, or is it hot in here?

I'm sure most of you have heard of Groupon. I don't usually buy their deals (even though they're usually pretty ridiculous) unless it's a. a restaurant I've been to before or b. something that I might actually use. Anyways, last week they had an AMAZING deal, $20 for 20 classes (retail cost of $240) at Bikram Yoga Merrimack Valley. I had heard a lot about Bikram Yoga, and how it was supposed to be really good for you, stretches your body, good injury prevention, etc, but had never tried it. So I decided, "what the hell, might as well try it, and even if I go once, I'll have made it worth it."

Last Saturday morning Miss Alison Hay, Meggin Elizabeth and I hauled over for their noontime class. The staff were extremely welcoming as we entered the studio. I knew it was going to be hot, but I didn't really know how hot. Apparently, 105 degrees hot. We put down our mats and towels and waited for class. There are 29 poses (I think) that are performed twice during the class. Some are simple (Cobra, or something, where you lay on your stomach and lift your feet) and others are ridiculous (Lamppost, balancing on one leg and holding your other leg straight out in front of you). But, the good thing is, as long as you try, that's really all they care about. It got pretty hot (I think at one point it got up to 113) and I sweat. A LOT. I was tried and sweaty when it was over (90 minutes) but felt pretty good. Meg and I went back on Sunday for round 2.

I weighed myself before and after class on Sunday and I lost 1.5 pounds. Awesome and kind of gross. Will I keep going? Probably - it will increase my flexibility and I'm hoping it will help with the running injury prevention. This may just be the honeymoon phase of our relationship, but I'm going to ride it out while it lasts...

And the Nominees are....

They're here! They're here! The nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards!



BEST PICTURE
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem as Uxbal, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn, True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, The Social Network
Colin Firth as King George IV, The King’s Speech
James Franco as Aron Ralson, 127 Hours

BEST ACTRESS
Annette Bening as Nic, The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman as Becca, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence as Ree Dolly, Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman as Nina Sayer, Black Swan
Michelle Williams as Cindy, Blue Valentine

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christian Bale as Dicky Eklund, The Fighter
John Hawkes as Teardrop, Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner as James "Jem" Coughlin, The Town
Mark Ruffalo as Paul, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue, The King’s Speech

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams as Charlene Fleming, The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth, The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo as Alice Ward, The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross, True Grit
Jacki Weaver as Janine Cody, Animal Kingdom

BEST ANIMATED FILM
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

BEST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Joel & Ethan Coen, True Grit
David Fincher, The Social Network
Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
David O. Russell, The Fighter

BEST ART DIRECTION
Alice in Wonderland, Robert Stromberg, Karen O’Hara
Happy Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1, Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
Inception, Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat
The King’s Speech, Eve Stewart, Judy Farr
True Grit, Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Black Swan, Matthew Libatique
Inception, Wally Pfister
The King’s Speech, Danny Cohen
The Social Network, Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit, Roger Deakins

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Alice in Wonderland, Colleen Atwood
I Am Love, Antonella Cannarozzi
The King’s Speech, Jenny Beaven
The Tempest, Sandy Powell
True Grit, Mary Zophres

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Exit Through the Gift Shop, Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz
Gasland, Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
Inside Job, Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
Restrepo, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
Waste Land, Lucy Walker and Angus Aynley

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More, Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
Sun Come Up, Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
The Warriors of Qiugang, Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon

BEST EDITING
127 Hours, Jon Harris
Black Swan, Andrew Weisblum
The Fighter, Pamela Martin
The King’s Speech, Tariq Anwar
The Social Network, Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Hors la Loi (Outside the Law) (Algeria)
Incendies (Canada)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Dogtooth (Greece)
Biutiful (Mexico)

BEST MAKEUP
Barney’s Version, Adrien Morot
The Way Back, Eduoard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk, Yolanda Toussieng
The Wolfman, Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

BEST SCORE
127 Hours, A.R. Rahman
How to Train Your Dragon, John Powell
Inception, Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech, Alexandre Desplat
The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

BEST SONG
“Coming Home,” Country Strong, Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
“I See the Light,” Tangled, Alan Menken, Glenn Slater
“If I Rise,” 127 Hours, A.R. Rahman, Dido, Rollo Armstrong
“We Belong Together,” Toy Story 3, Randy Newman

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Day & Night, Teddy Newton
The Gruffalo, Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
Let’s Pollute, Geefwee Boedoe
The Lost Thing, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary), Bastien Dubois

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
The Confession, Tanel Toom
The Crush, Michael Creagh
God of Love, Luke Matheny
Na Wewe, Ivan Goldschmidt
Wish 143, Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

BEST SOUND EDITING
Inception, Richard King
Toy Story 3, Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
TRON: Legacy, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
True Grit, Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
Unstoppable, Mark P. Stoeckinger

BEST SOUND MIXING
Inception, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
The King’s Speech, Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
Salt, Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan, and William Sarokin
The Social Network, Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, and Mark Weingarten
True Grit, Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, and Peter F. Kurland

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Alice in Wonderland, Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1, Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
Hereafter, Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
Inception, Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
Iron Man 2, Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Another Year, written by Mike Leigh
The Fighter, Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; 
Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
Inception, written by Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right, written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
The King’s Speech, Screenplay by David Seidler

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
127 Hours, Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network, Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3, Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
True Grit, written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Winter’s Bone, adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Films with multiple nominations:
The King's Speech - 12
True Grit - 10
Inception, The Social Network - 8
The Fighter - 7
127 Hours - 6
Black Swan, Toy Story 3 - 5
The Kids are All Right, Winter's Bone - 5

Five Observations

1. The lack of a directing and editing nomination for Inception. Not completely surprised by the snub in the director category (the Academy loves them some Cohen brothers), but I was sure it would pick up an editing nomination and win. The last 20 minutes is a masterclass in editing.
2. The 11 nominations for The King's Speech. Just goes to show that if you have a period British film, you're guaranteed double digit nominations. I think the tide is turning in favor of The King's Speech over The Social Network. Shame.
   
3. Black Swan has a nomination from every major guild, yet only ended up with 5 nominations. Clearly it didn't sit well with voters.
4. The fact that Waiting for Superman and The Tillman Story aren't Oscar nominees while Salt and Unstoppable are? Ridiculous.
5. Javier Bardem's nod for Biutiful was a surprise (kind of came out of nowhere), and I guess in the future I should go with the SAG nominee over the Golden Globe nominee (John Hawkes over Andrew Garfield in Supporting Actor).
   

And now, a month to ruminate. What are your thoughts?

Happy Oscar Nominations Eve!

This is it friends. Tomorrow is my 3rd favorite day of the year (behind Christmas and my Birthday), Oscar nominations! I'm going to cut to the chase and get right down to predictions.

Best Picture
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids are All Right
The King's Speech
The Social Network
The Town
Toy Story 3
True Grit

Eight of them are locked and loaded, and there are 3 films vying for the last 2 spots, 127 Hours, The Town, and Winter's Bone. I give the edge to The Town for being a crowd pleaser that had great box office, and 127 Hours for Danny Boyle's masterful direction and James Franco's tour-de-force performance. I'm sure I'll probably be wrong about one of them (I got totally (ahem) BLIND SIDED by The Blind Side last year).

For Your Consideration: How to Train Your Dragon, Shutter Island

Best Director
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
David Fincher, The Social Network
Tom Hooper, The King's Speech
Christopher Nolan, Inception
David O. Russell, The Fighter

David O. Russell is the most vulnerable, and could easily be replaced with Joel and Ethan Cohen for True Grit or Danny Boyle for 127 Hours. This was the line-up at the DGA though, and they all turned in solid efforts, so I'm fully expecting a repeat line-up tomorrow morning. Nolan will finally get his Oscar nomination, but the prize is Fincher's for the taking.

For Your Consideration: Ben Affleck, The Town

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn, True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, The Social Netowrk
Colin Firth as King George IV, The King's Speech
James Franco as Aron Ralson, 127 Hours
Mark Wahlberg as Micky Ward, The Fighter

Bridges, Eisenberg, Firth and Franco are pretty much locks. I've been reading about a lot of love in Hollywood for The Fighter, so I'm going to guess that Wahlberg gets swept up in the adoration for his quiet and understated performance. Watch out for Robert Duvall in Get Low and an absolute shocker (in a good way) would be Ryan Gosling for his performance in Blue Valentine

For Your Consideration: Aaron Eckheart as Howie in Rabbit Hole

Best Actress
Annette Benning as Nic in The Kids are All Right
Nicole Kidman as Becca in Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence as Ree Dolly in Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers in Black Swan
Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross in True Grit

This is between Benning and Portman, so the rest of the nominees are just filler. I also think this is where Hailee Steinfeld shows up, even though the studio is pushing her for supportive. Voters can put her in whatever category they want, and they've been known to move a performance like hers to lead (see Kate Winslet in The Reader and Keisha Castle-Hughes in Whale Rideer), she's the female lead in the movie.

For Your Consideration: Michele Williams as Cindy in Blue Valentine

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale as Dicky Eklund in The Fighter
Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network
Jeremy Renner as James "Jem" Coughlin in The Town
Mark Ruffalo as Paul in The Kids are All Right
Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue in The King's Speech

Bale is on a streak right now, and I'm going to predict him for the nomination and the win. The 5th slot is up for grabs, between Andrew Garfield and John Hawkes. Garfield was nominated for the Golden Globe and Hawkes was nominated for the SAG. I'm going to stick with Garfield, but I won't be surprised if it's Hakwes name that is read tomorrow morning.

For Your Consideration: Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur in Inception

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams as Charlene Fleming in The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth in The King's Speech
Marion Cotillard as Mal in Inception
Mila Kunis as Lily in Black Swan
Melissa Leo as Alice Ward in The Fighter

Supporting Actress is usually where the surprises occur, and I'm going out on a limb with Marion Cotillard. She was magnificent in Inception and deserves recognition. If she doesn't make the cut, look for Jacki Weaver from the Australian film Animal Kingdom.

For Your Consideration: Dianne Wiest as Nat in Rabbit Hole

Best Original Screenplay
Mark Heyman, Andrés Heinz and John McLaughlin, Black Swan
Christopher Nolan, Inception
Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids are All Right
David Seidler, The King's Speech
Eric Johnson, Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy,The Fighter

Best Adapted Screenplay
Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle, 127 Hours. Based on the novel "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" by Aron Ralson.
Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network. Based on the novel "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich
Ben Affleck, Peter Craig and Aaron Stockard, The Town. Based on the novel "Prince of Thieves" by Chuck Hogan.
Michael Arndt, Toy Story 3. Based upon characters created by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich.
Joel and Ethan Cohen, True Grit. Based on the novel "True Grit" by Charles Portis.

I'm fully expecting a few surprised. Tune in tomorrow morning at 8:35am to see the announcement life. I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight!

Snowmageddon

Ok, so it's really not THAT bad outside, there's just a lot of snow. It was nice when we had the blizzard the day after Christmas, it was gone by New Years day. These past two storms? not so much. It's not that I don't like snow. I do, it makes everything look pretty. I just don't like plowable amounts of snow. Like, say more than 3 inches at a time. It can come, look nice for a few days, then melt.

It's a pretty slow day at work - I feel like that always happens on snow days. Plans for Spain are starting to fall into place (less than a month!). I'm excited to go to Barcelona, we didn't get to go there when I went with my family in high school. That trip was more of southern Spain; Málaga, Seville, Granada, Toledo and Madrid. I'm hoping that when get to Barcelona we get to see a Barça game - that would be sweet. The only thing is they don't decide if they're going to play Saturday or Sunday until about a week before the game. If the game is on Saturday, we're out of luck, we don't get there til Sunday morning. Hopefully it pans out. Emily asked what I was doing to brush up on my Spanish. Nothing, as of yet, but I'll probably watch some trashy telenovela on Univision.

27

Wednesday was my 27th birthday. I officially entered my late 20's. I don't really know why, but it was a pretty difficult pill to swallow. Maybe part of it is because I look at some of my other friends my age, they're married, own homes (or condos), are having kids, etc. But then I realize that I don't really want any of that, at least not right now. Maybe the owning a condo part, but no thanks with the kids.

Anyways, we went to Sacco's Bowl Haven in Davis for some beer, pizza and, you guessed it, bowling. It was really fun even though I'm an absolutely atrocious bowler. The food was pretty good, but the place was hipster central. Something I can get over? Probably, but my eye-rolls will be audible for the time being.