Monday, February 28

Oscars

03:20 Well, it's official. I'm staying up all night to watch the Oscars. (The broadcast starts at 02:30AM here in Sweden.) I've been watching almost an hour now, and amongst others Morgan Freeman has won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. The Incredibles for best Animated Feature. Chris Rock is actually quite entertaining. He gave Bush a real "känga", as we say in Sweden.

03:22 Cate Blanchett just won for Best Actress in Supporting Role, for her role in the Aviator. I guess she was good in that. She was. But I just thought that Natalie Portman was really, really good in Closer. I think she should have won.

03:29 And the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature goes to... Born into brothels.

03:33 Best Editing goes to the Aviator. Seems like the Aviator is making the grand slam this year. 4 Oscars so far.

03:36 Counting Crows is performing their song from Shrek2. On a personal note, the singer has the silliest haircut ever.

03:43 It's time for Best Screenplay (Adapted). I'm cheering for Before Sunset. ... And the Oscars goes to... Sideways. Not to bad.

03:47 It's Visual Effects-time. And yikes, I'm tired. Let's see... The Oscar goes to Spiderman 2.

03:55 No speach has been boring and long, yet. Let's hope it stays that way. Honorary Oscar goes to Sidney Lumet, presented by Al Pacino. He seems a bit nervous. Interesting. Sidney Lumet seems happy, though. He gave a very nice speach.

04:14 Cinematographer. Crap. Another one for the Aviator. Definiently not the best in my opinion. It was ok though. Not bad. But not the best. I might fall asleep any time now.

04:21 Soundediting. A Swede is nominated, I think. For Spiderman2. And the Oscar goes the... The guys from the Incredibles. Goody. Very good speach. "These are refered to as technical awards. They are not. They are awarded for artistic decisions."

04:33 The Swedish host is CRAPPY. Boring, idiotic woman. And not interested in movies. Boring, above all.
Now, Natalie Portman presents Best Documentary Short. Nice dress. Almost a little StarWarsish. The Oscar goes to The Mighty Times.

04:40 Just learned that John Travolta is Oprahs favourite white man. And the Oscar to Best Composer goes to Finding Neverland. I would have voted for John Debney and Passion of the Christ, though. That's a good soundtrack.

04:59 Puff Daddy. P Diddy. Doody. Presents a performance of Best Song, or something. And wtf, Prince presents the Best Song. Yikes.. He seems bored. The Oscar went to Diaries from a motorcycle. Instead of a speach, the composer sang a little song. nice.

05:04 Sean Penn comes to Jude Laws defence. (Chris Rock made fun of him earlier.) A real hero. Anyway. It's time for Best Actress in a Leading Role. And the Oscar goes to... *drumroll* Hillary Swank! Her second Oscar. She seems very grateful. Loooong speach. All these names...

05:13 Seriously. I really hope they sack this idiot before next year. The Swedish host, that is. Now it's time for Best Feature in a Foreign Language, and we have Swedish nominee. As it is in heaven. Haven't seen it, but it seems quite bad. Now, lets see.. *drumroll* The Oscar goes to the Spanish movie, The Sea Inside.

05:16 Time for Best Original Screenplay. The Oscar goes to The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Not really a surprise, I guess. I don't think the film was so fantastic as everyone said, but it was OK. Good acting.

05:24 Best Performance for an Actor in a Leading Role goes to... (Everyone says it's gonna be Jamie Foxx for Ray.) And it's Jamie. He thanks every single one. He speaks of his grandmother, who was his acting teacher. "Act like you've got some sense." Emotional. Nice speach.

05:32 Best Directing. I really think Clint is gonna get it. *drumroll* CLINT! Yes! Thank God Scorsese didn't get it. the Aviator sucked. Oh, shit, Clints mother sits in the audience. They look about the same age... Good choice.

05:37 Best Movie. Barbara Streisand looks very very weird. Million Dollar Baby won. That's another one for Clint. Standing ovations, of course. I'm really looking forward to seeing it now.


05:40 That's it. Now I can go to sleep. Goodnight everybody.

Friday, February 25

Sex, for everyone?

Regina Lynn over at wired.com has written an interesting post about sex, and especially sex toys. In the state of Alabama it's illegal to "produce, distribute or otherwise sell sexual devices that are marketed primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs." So Regina of course asks, what about people who cannot have sex, people who have physical difficulties? Sex is not considered an activity of daily living when it comes to attendant care for people with disabilities. You can read her entire article here. It's interesting in several aspects. Should sexuality be considered a human right, and how can tech help physically challenged people to experience their sexuality? It makes me think of the legislation of sexuality in early modern Europe (1400-1600). Everything but traditional sexual intercourse between a married man and woman was considered sodomy and against nature, and thus illegal. It was even punishable by death. (First decapitation and then burning.) It's sad that sodomy is still being used in legislation to this day. Both that states still use the term, and the effect it has. Want to know more? Here is a site dedicated to sodomy laws around the world, sodomylaws.org.

Monday, February 21

Harry fever

Book six of the Harry Potter series will be released this summer, on July 16. Harry Potter and the half-blood prince. Expect crazy marketing. I dare say this is the biggest one yet. The publisher is keeping quiet about the story, only saying that the book "...takes up the story of Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at this point in the midst of the storm of this battle of good and evil." No big surprise there. J.K. Rowling has said that the prince the title refers to is neither Voldemort or Harry, and that the she has been thinking about the opening chapter for 13 years. Exciting? Yes.. But beware, and brace yourselves. It will be Harry fever, no doubt. The next film is coming out this Autumn, September I think, Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire.

jkrowling.com [beware, it's Flash]
MuggleNet [nice fansite]
harry potter lexicon
Bloomsburys Harry Potter site [it's nice, you can even send a howler]
Warner Brothers Harry Potter Movie Site [kind of crappy]

Saturday, February 19

Shiznit

Gizoogle is like Google.. Almost. Besides giving you search results, it also translates a page into slang. Very nice indeed.

The above translated into this:
"Gizoogle is like Google.. Almost . Keep'n it gangsta dogg. Besides giv'n you search results, it also translates a page into slang . Aint no killin' everybodys chillin'. Very funky ass indeed cuz its a doggy dog world."

To view moln gangsta-style, click here.

gizoogle.com

Wednesday, February 9

deaf revolution

In Sweden there has been a lot of debate regarding 3G, the next generation mobile phone technology. (You know, videocall and all that.) I've never been a fan, but discussing it with a friend, she pointed out the advantages for deaf people. Finally they can make a simple call, using a 3G standard mobilephone. And really, it's amazing. Just being able to call family and friends, using your own language. It's one of the most important things happening to the deaf and hearing impared community in a long time. And a very strong argument for expanding 3G, don't you think?

Read more:

Monday, February 7

Windows suck!

Mark Morford over at SFGate.com has written a nice little post regarding why people are still using Winblows. I'm a mac-user since about two and a half years, but his article still makes me think. Why in the hells do people put up with it? Quote:

There is nothing else like this phenomenon in the entire consumer culture. If anything else performed as horribly as Windows, and on such a global scale, consumers would scream bloody murder and demand their money back and there would be some sort of investigation, class-action litigation, a demand for Bill Gates' cute little geeky head on a platter.
Here is your brand new car, sir. Drive it off the lot. Yay yay new car. Suddenly, new car shuts off. New car barely starts again and then only goes about 6 miles per hour and it belches smoke and every warning light on the dashboard is blinking on and off and the tires are screaming and the heater is blasting your feet and something smells like burned hair. You hobble back to the dealer, who only says, gosh, sorry, we thought you knew -- that's they way they all run. Enjoy!

Read the entire article here.

moln wants you

This is a call to everyone reading my boring, and by now kind of dead blog. I'm thinking of changing it towards more of a living thing, updated everyday. It would be more like articles, less like small pointless posts. Sounds interesting? Focus would be on culture, thus everything from the impact of the iPod to whatever new blockbusterfilm coming out. Please drop me an email, should you be interested in contributing.