Just in Case You Forgot

When will they meet again? It could happen at any time...

Round 1



Round 2



Round 3

Ledger Wins the Oscar

It had to happen. Like I said earlier, if Heath Ledger didn't win a posthumous Oscar for his portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight, Hollywood was gonna burn.

It was destiny.

Chris Jericho Attacked, Understandably Freaks Out

These people need to be arrested and beaten. I mean more than just the simple pie-face and punch that these idiots received. I've seen Chris Jericho in person (and don't just mean at a wrestling show) and he is a decent, stand-up guy. He does care about the fans. As I work for an independent wrestling company up here in Canada, and we had Jericho come into town as he and his band, Fozzy had a concert here. He went out of his way to accommodate everyone he could, and then some. Some of these fans are just simply nuts. You should see the lengths they go through just to get an autograph or picture.

Yeah, some wrestlers are dicks (I've seen that too)Jericho is not one of them. I see this stuff all the time. These people clearly deserved what they got, female or no female. It was self-defense, pure and simple. If he gets any legal troubles for this, it would be a travesty and a joke.

The Joker

It had to happen. Since the Joker is now my second favorite comic book villain behind Electro (don't ask me why, I just find him cool) I had to post a tribute of some sort to Batman's arch-nemesis; and yes it is because of Heath Ledger's recent resurrection of the character. What can I say, it was brilliant. And, by now, you know I'm not the only one.

But since I'm a Spiderman guy mostly, I haven't paid all that much attention to other superheros. Although, like anybody else, I do know the basics on most of them. Certainly the major ones. So of course I know the history of the Caped Crusader and most of his enemies like most people, but I just lack the knowledge of the character to do so.

But I ran across this column by someone with the user name, Achilles over at RetroJunk.com, a cool little site that is chalked full of memories from my pre-teen years-especially the commercial clips.

I enjoyed it and learned a few things. This guy clearly did his research and his intricate knowledge shines through.

Phantom of the Paradise

When I was a kid, around 10 or 11, I was sleeping over at a friend's house and we stayed up til around 2 A.M. just to watch this movie that was coming on called Phantom of the Paradise. All we knew was that it was (probably) about some guy with a cool, silver helmet that wore a lot of mascara.

To make a long story short, we were a little confused at the end, not totally understanding the adult-theme premise. But we thought it was one of the coolest movies ever! By the way, this buddy of mine, Todd, who I haven't seen for 30 years-last I heard he was in Calgary; is the same guy I saw my earliest, coolest movies with-all on VHS of course. Conan the Barbarian, The Warriors and This flick come to mind. This guy even had Planet of the Apes dolls. How cool is that?

Anywho, I thought nothing of my (what I thought was) normal appreciation for the movie since.
I even liked the soundtrack-nothing wrong with that.

So skip ahead 30 years and I'm at a friends house just shootin' the shite, and the subject of Phantom came up. My buddy asks me, "You know the only two cities where that did well; where it made a lot of money?"
"Where," I said.
"Winnipeg and Paris, France"

So naturally being from Winnipeg, I thought, "Hmm." But basically just thought it was a cool coincidence, and maybe he didn't know what he was talking about.

That is until I see this. Read it. If nothing else it's just a good little article on some strange occurrence in the realm of entertainment. Or it could be a source of pride that not only am I just one of 450,000 or so people that actually like this movie (cause it's cool) but that this so-called "phenomenon" happened in my hometown.

I'm good either way.

Worst Sports Uniforms of All Time

I agree with every pick on this list, except one, They almost got it right. But I think the old Vancouver Canucks clown suits were the worst, most putrid thing ever draped over the shoulders of a professional athlete. But it's about time some collective asked round the cubicals to name the worst dressed athletes ever and put them to press. If there were other such lists printed (and we all know there were) I've never seen one.

But a good one.

Wow! I Didn't See This One Coming

I thought it would fill out the top five for Best Picture, but 13 nominations? This thing could potentially beat Ben Hur and Titanic for the record of 11 Oscars for one motion picture.
I couldn't believe it when I read it. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has been nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director and 10 other Academy Awards.

Look, this was a good movie, maybe even a really good movie, but to justify 13 Academy Award nominations without the real marketing or word-of-mouth that you would normally see for a pre-bought, hope-to-be-blockbuster release, is surprising to say the least.

However, I do like the nod for Brad Pitt for Best Actor. I think he should have won a couple of times already for Fight Club and 12 Monkeys, for which he was nominated for. One of his best roles has to be Achilles in Troy. I want to say Se7en, but although that was a good performance, I don't think it warranted an Oscar. Hey, I'm not in love with the guy.
I have to add his best cameo (even before his pretty funny appearance on Friends) would have to be as Floyd, in True Romance. Funny.

But anyways, this movie was sweet, sincere, flowing and sad, even though the makers tried to make us feel alright, as if to say, "it's o.k."
But 13 nominations? I can't wrap my head around it. Is this the answer Hollywood gives us? They don't want to have to decide between Milk, because it's a Prop 8-accompanied release, which has made squat, considering? Or The Dark Knight because it was the best movie of the year? Unfortunately, it's a "comic movie," so it doesn't count.

Well, we have a buffer-zone for Hollywood bigwigs now. No direct competition. No questions about an "epic" winning a monopoly on Oscars night, right? And once again, the wrong movie will win Best Picture.

On the bright side, Heath Ledger got his obvious Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actor for one of the most brilliant performances you ever will see portraying The Joker.
Never again will I look at another Batman comic and not think of Ledger as Joker.
But I also can't believe Christopher Nolan didn't get a nomination for Best Director for The Dark Knight. Or for sure, The Dark Knight not getting a Best Picture nomination? I know. It is a "comic movie"but it was the best movie of the year!
Just being released outside of that 1-month zone killed it chances. You know the zone. The 1-month time target that only focuses on films released (at least the Best Picture) within one month of the awards ceremony.

Clint didn't get his Best Actor or Best Director nods! And with Gran Torino and The Dark Knight out of the way, it's down to Milk and Slumdog, it seems. Oh right, then there's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and its 13 nominations! Still, it's rather fishy in Denmark-type stuff.

What else got nominated for Best Picture of 2008? The Reader(?) and the liberal art house favorite, Frost/Nixon.

Mickey Rourke got a Best Actor nod for The Wrestler.See it. He is now my favorite to win. Along with that was Marissa Tomei has a chance for a second Oscar, this one in a drama from the same film.Slumdog Millionaire has 10 of it's own nominations overall as well. We have us a gen-u-ine Cinderella-like story going on. Strange how a movie with absolutely no acting nominations gets the nomination for Best Picture.

And Wall-E got the nod for Best Animated Feature.
Good little movie.

But, 13 nominations for Benjamin Buttons? What the...? Where did this come from?

Ah, who cares? Just another ceremony that allows-on a nationally televised platform- the entertainment elite to pat themselves on the back for being Masters of the Universe, that lasts 18,000 hours long.
Nothing ever changes with this "tradition."

I wonder if I have to work that Sunday?