G.R.i.D. (Get Rich in Dallas)

Then I might be heading here tomorrow. Man I just wish I had the fro to go with it.

Of all places, I just found out from The Gold Rush Cafe that Erykah Badu is making a stop tonight at Bill’s Records over in the South Side. It’s her CD release party and you’re invited. She’s scheduled for midnight but I might suggest getting there a bit early. She’s kind of a big deal you know.

UPDATE (from Bill’s Site)

Myspace presents Universal recording artist Erykah Badu www.baduworld.com at Bill’s Records for an Old School Record Release and Album Signing Party on Mon., Feb. 25th, at midnight! Bring a print out of your profile on Myspace with Erykah in your top 8!

Get there early! Tickets to her upcoming jam session will be given to the first 100 people compliments of Myspace. And, copies of The Last Record Store, a documentary about Bill’s Records, will be given away to the first 50 people!

I thought about the live blogging thing but I just didn’t feel up to it. Instead I was partaking in some delicious food and drink and decided to just give it up at the end.

So, I’ll do my best to recall using other live blogs as my guides to memory.

• Jennifer Garner was ravishing.
• Jon Stewart is a brilliant choice for host.
• Steve Carrell = swoooooooon
• Why all the TV actresses giving awards? - Katherine Heigl, Keri Russell, Jessica Alba. Is this their bridge into final movie stardom?
• Amy Ryan is the new Renee Zellewegger.
• Jennifer Hudson’s 15 minutes is officially over.
• Yay Javier Bardem.

• Best quote from PopWatch - “Annie: Here we go: Supporting Actress. Ruby Dee is slackjawed by her own performance.”
• Yes! I sorta kinda picked Tilda Swinton to win for Best Supporting Actress. She ruled over the other nominees save for maybe Amy Ryan.
• Re the TV actresses - forgot to include Miley Cyrus. And why was she there?
• Sweetest moment #1 - Marion Cotillard winning best actress. I called it!! Well, sort of…I said either her or Julie Christie but was pulling for Cotillard. Genuinely happy and too shocked to have a coherent speech. Which was kind of cute.

• When Falling Slowly was performed, I thought it might win with that ovation.
• Finally, an honorary Oscar speech that was humble and worthwhile. Go Robert Boyle.
• John Travolta continues to be awesome and somehow not a weird Scientologist.
• Annnnd Falling Slowly wins. Good for them.
• Sweetest moment #2 - Jon Stewart giving cut-off song winner Marketa Irglova her time to speak with one of the more killer speeches of the night. “The fact that we’re standing here tonight, the fact that we’re able to hold this, it’s just proof that no matter how far out your dreams are, it’s possible,” Irglova said during take two. “And, you know, fair play to those who dare to dream, and don’t give up. This song was written from the perspective of hope, and hope, at the end of the day, connects us all, no matter how different we are.” (from Yahoo News)
• Dead people montage - didn’t Brad Renfro die this past year? Annnnnd where was he?
• Tom Hanks = swooooooon
• OK, no surprise Diablo Cody wins for best original screenplay for Juno. Now we’re done with you. Funny how she snatched away the envelope from Harrison Ford. Uhh, Diablo…this is now YOUR 15 minutes. Most people try to make it to 20. You’re starting off badly. And that dress didn’t help.
• Didn’t Day-Lewis used to be kinda hot? Should have gone to Depp at least. And then Clooney. Day-Lewis makes me feel icky.
• Day-Lewis speech - “My deepest thanks to the academy for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town.” Ummmm…what?
• Best director and picture go to No Country. Surprise surprise.
• Sweetest moment #3 - No Country producer Scott Rudin thanks his husband. awww.

Best dressed - Helen Mirren
Worst - Diablo Cody

And that’s it for Oscar this year.

Thankfully, many contenders have come out on DVD giving me some little catching up on this year’s nominees. So I took some much needed time to myself and plopped down in front of the tv for too many hours.

I started out with The Valley of Elah where Tommy Lee Jones received the surprise nomination for best actor. It’s a subtle performance that has the usual blase Jones attitude but he is really good in it. The nomination is worthwhile but I think there were probably some better performances this year. Especially by this guy. He’s good, Charlize Theron is good and Susan Sarandon is great in a small role. Oh and Jason Patric is aging quite hotly. The story about a returned soldier from Iraq is compelling and dramatic yet balanced by an emotionally heavy but quiet Jones. Glad I saw it but he won’t win.

Following Elah was the superb Michael Clayton which was everything I hoped it would be. High drama, thrilling suspense, good acting and great writing. I would have no problem if this won all the awards it was nominated for. Clooney kills in his performance as the title character and breaks away from his slick cool usual self. Tilda Swinton is long overdue for Oscar consideration and Tom Wilkinson is consistently reliable, both nominated for supporting performances. The movie is a almost a perfect package recalling days of great 70s filmmaking. However, I think it will have to be content with just its nominations. Other films and actors are too highly favored to win. If the movie has any Oscar chances, it might be with Swinton. The suppporting actress race still seems to be wide open.

But she might lose to Amy Ryan from Gone Baby Gone who knocks it out with her performance has a less than ideal mom whose daughter has been kidnapped. The movie starts out good and continues as such until the end where it just becomes unnecessarily layered in drama. Once it could end with one character it continues and starts to become director Ben Affleck’s masturbatory opus. He’s a good director and could be great but where it could have ended, it didn’t. This is not saying it’s a bad movie. It’s pretty enjoyable and fascinating. Casey Affleck is good as an anti-leading man but I was ready for this to be over. Ryan has a compelling performance that isn’t very likeable but that may be what makes it so good. She’s annoying and vain and almost heartless but damn, Ryan pulls it off with finesse.

Finally, I buckled down for American Gangster with Denzel and Russell Crowe. I had no interest in this movie whatsoever. From its ridiculous title to director Ridley Scott’s attempt for an Oscar to just the subject matter. Nothing about this appealed to me. I didn’t know it was based on a true story but I don’t think that would have changed my mind. And, at an indulgent three hours, all I could think was ‘really?’ And I believe it’s only nomination was for Ruby Dee as Denzel’s mother in about five seconds of the film. Having said all that, the movie turned out to be pretty good. I have no doubt in any of the talents involved but it’s marketing came across as a heavy-handed movie. While it was, it was still compelling and dramatic. Although, I had to take mini-naps during the movie. Denzel and Russell are never great but they are so good they can barely do wrong. I wouldn’t have put either in Tommy Lee Jones’ slot. Ruby Dee could win as a sentimental fave and she did win the SAG award but I can’t imagine she will. Not with the stronger performances by Blanchett and Swinton.

Tonight I finish my catching up with Casey Affleck’s supporting actor nom for the film The Assassination of Jesse James although I think this award is locked up by Javier Bardem who was too good to be slighted in No Country for Old Men. I love me some Phillip Seymour Hoffman but his nomination for Charlie Wilson’s War more or less just rounds out the category than actually figures in. Tom Wilkinson was great but nobody is really holding a candle to Bardem this year.

Hello GRiD readers, all three of you, excluding myself. I hope this finds you well and in good spirits. As you probably have noticed, the postings in the past few days have been fairly light and inconsistent. And I think I’ve figured out why thanks to a couple of Red Stripes at the (cringe) Maple Avenue Lounge this weekend.

It would appear GRiD is undergoing an identity crisis. I’m not sure I want to continue in the same direction I’ve been going and debating to try something a little new and different and maybe even more personal. The last thing I want to do is have any type of diary on here that only says what I did and has no bearing on you whatsoever. But I have things in mind that I’m trying to flesh out and see if I can make work. At the same time, it makes me happy to write up stuff you might not know about or merely remind you of stuff to notice. I don’t know why. I doubt I’m breaking any kind of news but I have satisfaction.

Thus, I’m really confused.

Many of you have been so nice and kind and supportive and maybe I need your input. I’m not opposed to continuing as is or merging my ideas into GRiD now, but right now there’s a block and I’m trying to figure either to go around it or pummel through or go over it. One day I know I’ll hit the block again where the right decision is to back away and be done. But that’s another day. For now, it’s just figuring out the best way to move forward.

Having said that, while figuring this identity crisis out, I’ll post here but probably in more sporadic fashion. Maybe it’s three in one day or maybe it’s one in three days. I just hope you’ll be willing to bear with me. At the same time, I’d totally appreciate your input, ideas, complaints, whatev. Maybe something of yours will kick my a$$ in the right direction.

Til next posting,
R

I just saw two more Best Actress nominees this past week. I finally saw La Vie en Rose with nominee and Golden Globe winner Marion Cotillard and Elizabeth The Golden Age with Cate Blanchett.

Elizabeth falls SO flat that it doesn’t do the first one any justice despite the caliber of talent in the second. The story is far from compelling as the first and the actors are almost too comfortable. Clive Owen who is rarely bad distracts as Sir Walter Raleigh and is pretty much there for his hotness. Geoffrey Rush returns as Walsingham and seems bored the whole way through. Blanchett has enough smarts not to merely phone this performance in but what happens is, she pulls off a performance that I think many actresses could have done whereas the first movie, I don’t think anyone else could have done that role. Despite it being historic, it was overly contrived and at one point even bordered on shades of Pirates of the Caribbean. The movie was simply boring and while Blanchett is never bad, she never convinces me this time. Her nomination might have been just a “who else is there” pick and is perhaps the least likeliest of winners.

On the complete other end of the spectrum, Marion Cotillard kills as Edith Piaf in Rose. This, to me, might be one of the greatest performances of all time. How this petite French ingenue pulls of this vast array of emotions and ages is unbelievable. From her days of singing on the streets as a teen to her early death at 47, Cotillard hits every note just right and you almost feel voyeuristic. As if this is actually Piaf and not a retelling of her life. Maybe it’s the unfamiliarity with the actress or its just that good (it is) but she blows pretty much every actress in the runnng out of the water. Some might see it as overacting but I could see Piaf being this kind of high maintenance diva…and according to the film, she was! Oh, it’s so hard because based on acting alone, the Oscar should go to Cotillard but nostalgia might give it to an oh-so-slightly less, if not equally, deserving Julie Christie.

Skip Elizabeth and get your hands on Rose now.

I must admit, this weather is the kind to keep me in but an exception could be Kettle Art’s new opening, Formal featuring the art of Sergio Garcia. You’re wondering who he is? Thanks to Frank Campagna’s video work, we can get some insight to the guy here:

So then what to do after a cold rainy night of art? You walk next door to Club Dada where the official after party is. Dada goes DJ-like with The Party, Cool-Out and Hot Flash spinning the tunes. Almost like a two-fer one night tonight. So do it.

Oh yes she did. Why Jane Fonda is awesome.

Only two words I can muster.

Kill me.

Considering the show films here that may not be a big triumph, but I know this actor. Marco is part of Martice Enterprises who bring the funnies with their Latino comedies and so much more. I only wish a Latinologues revival was on the horizon. Their version was legend!

Anyway, they send word to watch Prison Break tonight. So do it.

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Marco Appears in Fox’s Show PRISON BREAK

Watch Tonight 2/11 AND 2/18

Marco’s appearance in Fox’s show Prison Break could actually be tonight, Monday February 11 or next Monday, February 18th. So… just go ahead and watch both episodes…

You don’t want to miss Marco on Prison Break!