The Post Office Goes Through An Awkward Phase, or I Hope They Never Put Me on a Postage Stamp
I visited the Post Office a couple times this past week, and I think it may be the first time I’ve ever not wanted to buy stamps. Why, you ask? Well, the newest releases are stamps honoring people, and stamps honoring people are sadly uninspiring. Let’s take Charles W. Chesnutt as a for-example:
Even he looks bored, poor thing.
Then we have author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings:
It’s a little better. There’s more color, certainly, and Rawlings has a bit of a Mona Lisa going on, but, still, it doesn’t say, “Buy five sheets quick before they run out!”
At least they still have some of the Gerald Fords left:
Doesn’t he look like he’s experiencing stomach discomfort? Don’t you want to offer him some Tums?
I think it’s time for more children’s book characters.
And the Oscar for Best Song Goes To…
I’m an avid movie-goer, and I am always very interested to see what will get Oscar recognition each year. With the ceremony coming up this Sunday (Yay Jon Stewart! Yay ending the writer’s strike!), I’ve been looking at the nominees and thinking about what will win. Turns out, I have somehow managed to not see most of the films with nominations in the major categories like Best Picture, Directing, any of the acting categories, or even Documentary (which I am normally all over). What I am well versed in this year is the Best Song category, and what I know is that “Falling Slowly” from Once is the song that’s going to win.
How do I know this? Let’s look at the nominees.
Three of the five nominated songs are from the film Enchanted. One of the songs, “Happy Working Song,” is so vastly superior to the other two that it’s the only one that should even be considered. The Academy doesn’t know that, though, and the voting here will probably be split with Enchanted fans all picking their favorite. Too bad for Disney.
The fourth nominated song is “Raise it Up” from August Rush. I haven’t seen the film, but I listened to the song. It’s fine, but not in a way anyone’s going to develop a passion for or, more importantly, vote for.
The fifth nominated song is the one that’s going to win, “Falling Slowly” from the indie Once. This song has a lot of things going for it: it’s emotional, beautiful, honest, and a straightforward expression of the film’s themes–exactly the sort of song a Best Song Oscar should honor.
If I controlled the world, the sixth nominated song would be “Anyone Else But You” by The Mouldy Peaches from the film Juno, a song that is, I gather, ineligible for an Oscar because the song was previously released. Whatever. I love this song, and Juno is definitely my favorite soundtrack of the year.
Did you know you could check out these soundtracks yourself from the Monroe County Library System? Because you can. Click on the titles below to see where you can find them:
- Enchanted soundtrack
- Once soundtrack (or you could check out the DVD)
- Juno soundtrack
None of the MCLS libraries own the August Rush soundtrack. Go figure.
doubleTwist Helps Consumers Liberate Their Digital Media
doubleTwist Corporation, a company devoted to helping consumers liberate their media, unveils its initial product offerings and announces the close of its Series A venture funding from Index Ventures and Northzone Ventures.
Founded in March 2007 by Monique Farantzos and Jon Lech Johansen (also known as DVD Jon), doubleTwist’s mission is to enable consumers to enjoy their digital media on the widest possible range of evices. Although the explosive adoption of CE devices has enabled any consumer to create and onsume digital media, the process of sharing and moving media between the desktop and various evices such as mobile phones, gaming platforms and set-top boxes has become increasingly painful. doubleTwist is addressing this pain point by empowering consumers to easily share, consume and sync audio, video and photos regardless of device, file format or social network.
“When you receive an email, you can read it on your Blackberry, web mail, or Outlook. E-mail just works. With digital media such as video from a friend’s cell phone or your own iTunes playlists, it’s a jungle out there. It can be an hour-long exercise in futility to convert files to the correct format and transfer them to your Sony PSP or your phone” said Monique Farantzos, co-founder and CEO of doubleTwist. “The digital media landscape has become a tower of Babel, alienating and frustrating consumers. Our goal is to provide a simple and well integrated solution that the average consumer can use to eliminate the headaches associated with their expanding digital universe.”
Jordan Commercial - Look Me in the Eye
Has anyone seen the new Jordan commercial? - Look Me in the Eye - I watched the commercial and typed out the words. Jordan has been an all time idol of mine and I think that its a great way of using his status to help influence others, especially young adults. Here are the words to the commercial taken from the Jordan commercial.
Look me in the eye
Its ok if you’re scared, so am I.
But we’re scared for different reasons
I’m scared of what I won’t become, and you’re scared of what I could become
Look at me
I won’t let myself end where I started
I won’t let myself finish where I begin
I know what is within me
Even if you can’t see it yet
Look me in the eyes
I have something more important than courage
I have patience
I will become what I know I am
Become Legendary
— I really enjoy when athletes create commercials that target todays youth for good and try to influence them in a positive manner. I wish more would do the same!!!
View the commercial after the break …
Lunar Eclipse
Okay, peeps, you cannot forget that there is going to be a lunar eclipse tonight starting at 10:00 PM. The weather conditions aren’t looking great, but who cares? It’s a LUNAR ECLIPSE, and NASA tells me we aren’t going to see another one until 2010. For more info, here’s an article from USA Today and another from NASA. Just remember to bundle up!