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.

An explanation

So where have I been the past four months you might ask? I've been busy, not quite feeling myself, and sadly, the blog has suffered as a result. The past week at work has been painfully slow, so I decided what better time to reacquaint myself with my blog. What have I been up to? Here's a quick month by month rundown:

September
Started off great. Headed west for Labor Day weekend to San Diego to hang out with Brian Gilb and run the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon. Did ok (finished in 2:45) for not really training. The middle of the month brought a devastating blow. George Parks, director of the UMMB and one of the reasons I went to UMass, died suddenly on the way to Michigan. I was shocked and saddened, and was pretty much in a haze my entire trip to Michigan. After the UMMB performed at The Big House, I expected him to jump out of the stands. Sadly, that never happened. The following Monday, I was on my way to work and there was a brief mention of his death on 98.5 and I burst into tears. It wasn't pretty.

October
Oakmont kicked into high gear and we had a competition and I also went with Nick LaPete to NYC to see Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and American Idiot (yes, for the 3rd time. Billie Joe Armstrong was in it. Couldn't pass it up) the first weekend. The rest of the month was pretty uneventful. Went to a wedding of a friend in Providence which was fun, and Oakmont was crowned USSBA Division III Open New England champions again.

November
Started out the month with a trip to NYC and Annapolis with the Marching Spartans to see The Phantom of the Opera and compete in the USSBA National Championships. was ok, and the band came in 12th in Nationals. Not bad, but they could have done better. Paid a return visit to NYC the following weekend to catch Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice, which was pretty awesome. I was supposed to run in the Philadelphia Half Marathon, but because of my stress injury, that didn't happen. Went to Philly anyways and went to the Eagles/Giants SNF game thanks to Rachel. I don't really like football, but it was cool to go to a game (it was actually my 2nd professional game, saw the Lions/Eagles play when I was in Michigan. I've seen the Eagles more times than I've seen the Patriots). November ended with a great Thanksgiving, and my leg starting to get better.

December
My favorite month of the year - I love the holidays. Decorations, Christmas trees, being the one month it's socially acceptable to listen to "All I Want for Christmas Is You" on repeat, etc...Marathon training started again for the Museum team. I won't be running, but I'll train with them during the winter. Jess and I both ran the Somerville Jingle-bell 5K and got accepted into the NYC Half Marathon in March. Nick Druar and Miss Alison Hay and I did some awesome community service with Harpoon Helps and UMass got blown-out by BC at the Garden (that all happened on the same day). And of course, last week was CHRISTMAS! I got a sweet blu-ray player and a new pair of running shoes.

Whats on tap for 2011? FINALLY seeing Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark and the final performance of In the Heights in January, a trip to Spain in February, the NYC Half Marathon in March and a whole lot of other stuff.

My resolutions for 2011? I know this one has come up before, but this time I'll have help behind me, but my goal is to become financially responsible and get out of debt. I also have a goal to get back into my old running habits and try and do a half marathon a month, with the end goal being running Boston again in 2012. I think two is enough, and those are pretty major.

And what would a blog update be without some film chat? Here are some quick takes over the past couple months:

The Kids are All Right - wasn't impressed, and thought it was pretty MEH. C
The Town - Ben Affleck's sophomore directorial effort and it was excellent. One of my top 10 of 2010. A
The Social Network - pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this, Aaron Sorkin's dialogue is razor-sharp. I can't wait to see it again on blu-ray January 11th. A
127 Hours - Heart-stopping. Danny Boyle can do no wrong and James Franco was outstanding. A-
Black Swan - Don't even know where to start. I saw this a month ago and am STILL thinking about it. Natalie Portman is a revelation. Darren Aronofsky, you've arrived. A
The Fighter - Christian Bale gives a (pun intended) knock-out performance, as well as the rest of the leading cast. A-
The King's Speech - Good, not great. Colin Firth was excellent, but after all of the hype, I was expecting more. B+
Winter's Bone - Just caught this on DVD and I was riveted for most of it (it got off to a slow start). Jennifer Lawrence was great. B+

Seeing True Grit tomorrow and Blue Valentine sometime next week and my movie-going in 2010 will be complete. A couple of films to catch up on once they're on DVD/blu-ray, namely Animal Kingdom, Get Low and The Tilman Story.

That's about it for this re-start. My goal is to update once or twice a week in the coming year. Next post will probably be my top 10 of 2010, followed by a review of the highly anticipated (and highly problematic) Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark.

Happy New Year!

Climbin' in your windows...

two of the funniest videos ever. you need to watch them in order.



and



you can thank me later...happy friday!