oscar

I only picked one Oscar category (well, it was pretty obvious who was going to win Best Actor and Best Picture, so I can say I picked those too) and got it right. Even heard a story about the Peter and the Wolf creators on NPR yesterday.

But nothing made me happier than seeing Once win for best song. And the only really good moment of the awards show was Jon Stewart bringing Marketa Irglova back out to the mic after she was cut off by the orchestra the first time around.

If anyone hasn't seen Once, do so. The low-budget film following a budding not-quite-romance is one of the best I saw in 2007. It's not really a musical, but since the focus is on musicians, there are plenty of songs involved, each of which is weighted with emotion and things-not-quite-said between the lead characters.

a merchant referendum

I should have posted this months ago and seemed like a genius, but instead I'm behind the curve. I was reminded today, however, of a political barometer. Based on an informal accounting of the T-shirts offered by street vendors and gift shops, Obama has held a decided advantage over Hillary since well before the New Year. Today in the window of a gift shop in Union Station, Obama had several T-shirts displayed prominently, McCain had a couple next to his and Hillary earned one design down in the corner.

Last weekend I had an opportunity to see all of the Academy Award-nominated short animated features (I missed out on the screening of the live shorts, and also didn't get to the Archives to see all the documentary nominees, despite my best intentions a week ago).

A quick review on each of the contenders, for those of you desperately seeking an edge in your Oscar pool:

Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)
The only 3D computer animated short in the bunch, a comedic look at a priest trying to sell an old man a way into heaven. A light tone, which was a significant contrast with the rest. The animation was good, a few laughs to be had, including a punch-line of an ending. Probably the best at doing what it aimed to, and the most fun of them all, but it also didn't have the extra emotional weight of some of the other shorts.

Moya lyubov (My Love)
The most unique animation style - done in the style of an impressionist painting. This was actually distracting, because every time a character moved, the brush strokes of the background around them moved as well, giving it the feel of a badly-compressed, pixelated digital file. A Russian entry, this may have lost something in translation. However, the dual love stories around a 16-year-old boy, both of which end badly, weren't particularly compelling and the climatic feverish dream came out of nowhere.

Madame Tutli-Putli
A Canadian entry following a woman's eventful train journey. The promo notes call it a "exhilarating existential journey." The stop-motion animation was amazing, but the story may have been too existential for just one viewing.

I met the Walrus
A five-minute clip of audio of a 14-year-old boy interviewing John Lennon. The animation is, as one review put it, just something interesting to look at while listening to Lennon. It is interesting, though.

Peter and the Wolf
My pick for the Oscar. The animation was impressive, the story was well done (although also done often) and unlike the others it didn't leave me thinking about the flaws. Just an overall strong contender.

you win one reality show dancing competition...

Surfing around Nola.com's Mardi Gras coverage, I noticed something a bit odd.

Click over and check out the caption of the first photo.

The guy has won two Indianapolis 500s, raced in the top circuits since 1998 - but after a season of "Dancing with the Stars," it's "Dancer Helio Castroneves."

(Of course, his Wikipedia page also gives his dancing career a more prominent placing. But at least it mentions the whole auto-racing part of his career.)

demographics

Looking through the early results of the Florida primaries, one thing jumped out at me. And it had nothing to do with any candidate.

According to the CNN exit polls, around than 40 percent of the voters in each primary were 60 or older. About 75 percent of the voters were 45 or older.

According to information on the state of Florida's website, and looking at the population of voting age (18+), those 60 and older made up 28.7 percent of the population, and those 45 and older made up 54.6 of the population.
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I haven't bothered to look at other states yet, although finding the data above took me about 10 minutes and a couple of Excel formulas, so it wouldn't be too hard to do. And I know every so often we hear about how young people don't vote, especially in primaries, and how older people are the most likely voters. I just didn't realize how out of proportion the numbers of older voters were compared to the numbers in the general population.

kiwi humour

I thought I'd posted this a long time ago, but they came up in conversation recently and I realized they hadn't made it onto my corner of the internet:

One of our favorite aspects of New Zealand culture was the willingness to poke fun at themselves, and just about anything else. It even manifested itself in a government advertising campaign for home safety. The ACC - Accident Compensation Commission - pays for all medical bills resulting in any accidents, for anyone in New Zealand. (This takes the place of personal injury lawsuits, which are generally not allowed in the New Zealand court system). The ACC put out a series of TV ads to try to lower accident rates around the home, but the ads have a serious black humor to them.

For example, every time this ad came on TV, Kirsten started laughing uncontrollably:

More of the ads can be seen here. And here's one more that wasn't on-air while we were in NZ.

kiwi humour, part II

One more for you-

This is an official Australian tourism commercial that got a ton of play in NZ our last few months there. Apparently it created some controversy in the UK, since "bloody hell" was seen to be a bit dirty:

This is a NZ take on the ad, apparently put together by a consumer advocate program: