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Conference Hound

Earlier this week, it was announced that Macworld Expo NY has changed their name to CREATE, in line with their decision to concentrate less on the Mac, and more on the overall publishing and graphics markets. Consequently, I was requested to revisit my usual speaker gig. Hey, what do I really want to teach? says I, and ended up sending them (no exaggeration) 13 different proposals—all of which I'd love to talk about. We'll see which they choose.

And now, O'Reilly has announced a call for papers for the 2003 Mac OS X Conference. Now I either get to figure out which topics Create won't want that might apply to the OS X Con (I don't want to do the same ones twice), or figure out what I'd like to speak about that didn't fall under Create's niche, but does for OS X. Or both!

Heh. Their site says:

AppleScript in particular seems to us like a rich trove for sessions that will make both developers and administrators sit up and take notice.

It makes me almost tempted to pitch them one on "Why AS is a weight around the ankle of the Mac," but I should be a good girl...

Watch out, Europe!

Jean is going to Europe for 7 weeks. I am so damn jealous. Send us postcards, okay?

Time Traveler Busted

Some stories are just too good to be true, and, well, this one's from the Weekly World News: 'Time-Traveler' Busted for Insider Trading. Supposedly, the guy's made so many correct stock picks that he's been hauled in by the SEC, and his defense is that it's not insider trading, he's just from 2256. Uh huh.

Practice to Deceive

There's been a problem with the Bush folks pushing the Iraq war; they keep changing their reasons for it. And the ones they keep coming up with aren't really sufficient to explain why the US needed to conquer Iraq now, rather than take out Saddam after more work on eliminating terrorist activity. There's no compelling evidence of a connection between Iraq and al-Queda; Iraq's WMD are limited, at best; and the case for Iraq being a imminent threat to the US was never strong to begin with.

Practice to Deceive, by Joshua Micah Marshall, is an interesting article that posits that the hawks in the Bush crowd have been covering up their real agenda, and that the Iraq war is just part of a larger campaign by the neocons who are running foreign policy. If true, that policy would make the Iraq war just the first of the US's Middle East conflicts.

Cancelled primaries?

Some very interesting repercussions here: Some States May Skip Presidential Primaries (LA Times, may require free registration). Utah and Colorado have already done so; Missouri, Kansas, and Arizona are considering it. For Republicans, it's a no-brainer; it's just a plus that it lets them look like they're trying to save state budget funds. For Democrats, it means that they'll have to hold caucuses (at party expense), which tend to attract the hard-core faithful rather than the average joe. Lots of ways that this one could play out.

Taking back America

By Thom Hartmann: How To Take Back America. More along our same usual lines of how to work within the system we've got, but especially well written.

Bluetooth phone modem

From the Apple KnowledgeBase: How to Use Your Mobile Phone as a Wireless Modem.

Cheryl Wheeler

And while I'm alking about music, I saw Cheryl Wheeler last night in Petaluma. It was a really good show. She's very funny, as well as having some terrific music. I brought Sean along (his first concert!) and he had a good time, too.

Prove it, lady!

I subscribe to a mailing list that's about the music of Mary Chapin Carpenter. As I understand it, she's been aware of the list for years, but has always preferred to stay at arm's length. Today, she joined the list, and sent a "Hello" message. Hysterically, the list members (even including the list mom), didn't believe that it was her. She even said in mail to the list: "Quite honestly, I am hoping to smile about this in the future: "Singer/Songwriter tries to join mailing list devoted to her music, but can't get them to take her."" After a flurry of mail and phone calls, the list mom got confirmation that the mystery guest was indeed MCC. The whole thing was pretty humorous.

Maybe They're Amazed..

One thing that I find really annoying, watching the war news, is the tone of amazement that some of the newsreaders have that the Iraqis are actually fighting back. One would hope (in vain, I guess) that journalists would have been a bit more skeptical of the government's propaganda about how easy it would be to invade and take over Iraq. It's as if people from the press and the US government are indignant that Iraqis would fight to defend their country. The nerve! Didn't Saddam's people get the memo explaining that they had to roll over in the face of the mightiest military machine the world has ever seen?

The reality of war never had to sink in during Afghanistan; it's going to happen this time. All the bluster and bloviating out of the government set up the idea of a quick, bloodless victory. I hope that happens, but if it doesn't, how long will the American public continue their support?

And I have to note that so far, we've seen no chemical weapons, no Scuds, and no biological weapons. Instead, the Iraqis have been fighting back with small arms and RPGs. I'm waiting to hear from some administration mouthpiece that we had to invade Iraq to disarm Saddam's "AK-47s of mass destruction."

Oscar Blog

It's the 2^nd Annual Oscar Blog!

Big Winners:

• Chicago: 6
• The Pianist: 3
• Frida: 2
• Lord of the Rings: 2

I'm off to a great start, because the combination of our ReplayTV and Dish Network just choked and didn't record the first 7 minutes. Anyone want to tell me what I missed?

Cameron Diaz presents the first award. If this is an omen for the dresses and hair, we're off to a good start. Spirited Away ought to win for best animated film.

Best Animated Feature: Spirited Away. Good choice.

Keanu's lookin' good. LoTR should win best visual effects, of course.

Best Visual Effects: Lord of the Rings. I expect that we'll see these same folks again up there next year.

Boy, they're cutting the speeches short.

Jennifer Connolly presenting Best Supporting Actor. When I heard that dresses were supposed to be toned down this year, this is exactly the sort of dress I'd envisioned. Good job. Nice set of clips before the award, too.

Best Supporting Actor: Chris Cooper for Adaptation. That was a surprise to me, but I'm told he deserved it.

Jennifer Lopez, also wearing a good dress, and much better hair than last year. I'm not going to have much fun being snarky if everyone keeps looking this good!

Best Art Direction: Chicago, most likely the first of many.

John Travolta was described by Steve Martin as "Your basic movie star." Yeah, right. This is the guy who thinks that Battlefield Earth was enough of a hit that he wants to do a sequel.

Arrgh! They're doing separate bits of each nominated song! It's going to be a looooong show.

Here's where I show my biases, but I think that Queen Latifah looks better than Catherine Zeta-Jones. But they both look damn good.

Since when do the Oscars have instant replay? That one nearly threw me off. Huh? I'll have to pay even closer attention.

Jennifer Garner says "I'm a babe." Mickey Mouse says, "I'm still a Disney slave." Free the Mouse!

Best Animated short: The ChubbChubbs.

Jennifer Garner actually has a pretty good dress, although I'm not sure that pale blue is a good color for her. The hairdo definitely doesn't suit her.

Best Live Action short: This Charming Man.

Mira Sorvino wins the Renee Zellweger lookalike contest. I think she looks too thin, which means that most of Hollywood probably think that she looks too fat.

Best Achievement in Costume Design: Chicago. Like I said, I (like everyone else) expect a whole bunch for that movie.

Brendan Fraser, who I still think can't act his way out of a paper bag, gives the intro to LoTR. No real actors would introduce it?

If all nominated songs were written by someone as talented as Paul Simon, I'd be a lot more forgiving of this category.

Nia Vardalos gives the award for Best Makeup. What, LoTR didn't have enough makeup to let it even qualify for a nomination here? Just the feet alone deserved it, imo.

Best Makeup: Frida.

Sean Connery looking damn good, as always. With a shirt and jacket like that, though, I think that he should have worn a kilt. He's one of the few guys who could really pull it off. Arf. Great set of best supporting actress clips.

Best Supporting Actress: Catherine Zeta-Jones, for Chicago.

Matthew McConaughey wishes everyone "a healthy evening to all of you." Huh? He introduces Gangs of New York. It really seems like the clips are shorter than usual.

Kate Hudson, gorgeous as always, gave the scientific and technical awards.

Renee Zellweger's wearing a dress that's more gorgeous than she is. She's giving the award for Best Original Score.

Best Original Score: Elliot Goldenthal, for Frida. I'm just happy it wasn't Philip Glass—he's one of those love it or hate it composers, and I don't love his stuff.

Why is Julie Andrews getting a standing ovation? I must have missed something. And I really don't understand why she's wearing pants. Maybe because she's one of the few with enough class that she can pull it off? A clip of best moments of Oscar song intros? C'mon! I've always thought that those were one of the worst parts of the show. Well, at least they're not trying to hide how over the top some of the past year's production numbers have been.

Selma Hayek's having a good night (two Oscars for Frida so far), but I'm not thrilled with that dress. Do they have her do the Best Foreign Film award just because she's one of the few that can pronounce the names?

Best Foreign Film: Nowhere in Africa. No surprise there, it always goes to a Jews vs. the Holocaust movie so long as one is nominated.

Julianne Moore's wearing a dress with a color—and she looks great, too. Redheads should wear green more often.

Best Sound: Chicago.
Best Sound Editing: Lord of the Rings.

Gael Garcia Bernal is (as Steve Martin pointed out) pretty darn gorgeous. He says the first actual anti-war statement, and introduces the nominated song from Frida.

Hillary Swank intros The Hours. I didn't see the movie because the book bored me to tears.

Diane Lane looks great from the waist up introducing the best documentaries. From the waist down, though, that's a pretty weird fluffy dress.

Best Documentary: Bowling for Columbine, dammit. Since when does fiction count as a documentary? Now he's getting booed because he's ranting against Bush and the war, and the music comes up and cuts him off. Couldn't happen to someone more deserving.

Is it just coincidence that Jack Valenti (President of the MPAA) comes up right after that? OTOH, I was impressed that they managed to follow Moore with someone I despise even more.

Best Documentary Short: Twin Towers.

Julia Roberts presents for Best Cinematography, and looks great.

Best Cinematography: Conrad Hall, for The Road to Perdition. I thought he was a likely winner as the sentimental favorite because he passed away recently.

Kathy Bates looks great, as always (and she's great in Six Feet Under, too). She introduces some great clips of winners with their reactions to getting an Oscar.

Colin Farrell is wearing a suit instead of a tux, dammit. A friend of mine once said that men look best in a tux or in nothing at all, and I wouldn't mind seeing him in a tux...

U2 does their nominated song for Gangs of New York.

Geena Davis is now a brunette, and has the guts to wear glasses when she announces the Best Editing award. Normally I'm pretty stunned by her dress, but I'm less so this year. Maybe because it's not so great, maybe because there's so many good ones to compare with this time.

Best Editing: Martin Walsh, for Chicago.

Susan Sarandon flashes a peace sign, but will hopefully have the class to keep her mouth shut about politics. She introduces the clips of those who passed away in the last year.

Halle Berry could wear damn near anything and look good, so she does. Nice set of clips covering past winners of best actor award.

Best actor: Adrien Brody, for The Pianist. Well, that was a longshot. That'll be a deciding factor in a lot of office Oscar pools tomorrow.

Wow, he just grabbed Halle Berry and gave her a gigantic kiss. She looks so gorgeous that I'll bet that most of the men (and some of the women) there probably wanted to do the same thing. I like the way she wiped her mouth on camera, though <g>.

C'mon, Dustin, why can't you wear a tux? Nice timing on introducing The Pianist right after Brody won best actor.

Barbra comes on, looking fairly good but carrying her train. If you can't handle a train, don't bother wearing a dress that has one. It's not like she had to come in walking down stairs or anything. She introduces the nominees for best song.

Best Song: Eminem, for "Lose Yourself" from 8 Mile. I was just wondering about that was the only one that (at least I don't recall) having been performed. I wonder if people just wanted to know what Eminem would do onstage.

Is Meryl Streep wearing the same necklace as Julianne Moore? She's introducing Peter O'Toole, who's getting an honorary Oscar. Great clips; I'm glad that they included The Stunt Man, one of my all time favorite films. Nice speech from him. And why isn't he a Sir by now, anyway?

Denzel Washington (again, no tux, dammit) introduces the best actress clips.

Best Actress: Nicole Kidman, for The Hours. Denzel said "By a nose"—how does he know? Does it say on the card? That was a nice speech about the importance of art in a time of turmoil.

Speaking of class acts, it's Olivia de Havilland. Is she the last living star from GWTW? She still looks good, too; not one of those walking skeletons they trot out who have one foot in the grave. A lot of current actresses could learn something by just listening to the way she uses her voice. She introduces 59 Oscar-winning actors and actresses.

That was an interesting tribute to all the Academy Award winners, but I'm not quite sure that I understand the point of it. Was it in reaction to the number of actors who said that they weren't going? Or just a way to make the show run waaaay over its allotted time? Or just a cool idea to pay tribute to a lot of people at once? Surprises: that Tom Hanks has only won two, the number of Sirs and Dames with Oscars, and the number of women in their 40's and 50's who I don't recall seeing onscreen in years.

Richard Gere (shouldn't he have been on stage for the last bit?) introduces Chicago. I thought that best picture movies were supposed to be introduced by someone who wasn't involved with the film.

Marsha Gaye Harden gives the best adapted screenplay award. Another good dress and hairstyle. I'm beginning to think that the hairstyles look good just because they're not trying to look amazingly outrageous—a lot of them just have their hair pulled straight back, and that's a great look.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Ronald Harwood, for The Pianist.

Ben Affleck gives the best original screenplay award (still no tux, whimper). Ben does a good job of saying the Spanish names—I wonder who's been coaching him on his accent?

Best Original Screenplay: Pedro Almodovar, for Talk to Her.

Harrison Ford is giving the best director Oscar.

Best Director: Roman Polanski for The Pianist. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't show up to accept it.

Kirk and Michael Douglas co-announce the best picture Oscar. I have to say, if you're Michael Douglas, isn't it awfully tempting to read off your wife's movie whether it's the winner or not?

Best Picture: Chicago.

Nothing terribly wonderful, no great moments, no amazing disasters, no episodes that people will be talking about for years, but overall, a good night of Awards at a fairly reasonable length. And if you made it this far throughout the entire night, thanks!

Human shield sees reality

A while back, Dori and I expressed our feelings about the people that went to Iraq to be "human shields," then bugged out when the going got rough. Here's an account from another of the people who were there, pretty much confirming what we thought: I was a naive fool to be a human shield for Saddam.

Saddam or Hussein

The Observer answers a question I'd wondered about numerous times recently: Why we much prefer Saddam to Mr Hussein. I'd been wondering why editors and writers chose "Saddam" vs. "Hussein."