Oscars

People that know me, know that I have always been a big movie fan, so I always enjoy to watch the Oscars every year.

Tonight I got around to finally watching the end of the Oscars from this year. It wasn't the best one this year, though. I wasn't sure I would like Ellen as host, but she actually was mildly funny- I guess I just don't like when she does that dancing bit on her talk show. Last year I thought was much funnier with the always funny John Stewart hosting.

A couple of natural funny laughs in the show. I had the biggest chuckle near the end of the show when Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Speilberg and George Lucas came out to present the Best Director award. They started talking about how great it feels to win the Oscar when Lucas reminded the other two that he has never won anything. It was a good laugh- of course I am sure Lucas' confidence is safe- he is pretty much a billionaire between the money made from Star Wars, THX and ILM.

Another funny moment when Robert Downey Jr, who is well known for having a drug problem in the 90's was introducing the special effects award and said “Visual effects: they enable us to see aliens, experience other universes, move in slow motion, or watch spiders climbing high above the city landscape. For me, just a typical weeknight in the mid-’90s.” (thanks to MSNBC website for the quick copy and paste here).

Ritsy and I watched American Idol a few years back when Jennifer Hudson was a contestant. We really felt that she was a pretty good singer and got a bad rap from Simon and the other guy (oops can't remember his name). It's amazing to see her win first the Golden Globe and then the Oscar this year, she was all class too- she never once called out Simon for his rude comments. To be honest though, when they performed she was seriously out-performed by Beyonce- and you know I don't like that type of music so that says a lot.

Final thought from the show was Peter O'Toole. He is about 75 years old now- but he has had an incredibly long and amazing career- most memorable for Lawrence of Arabia. Well he was nominated for the 8th time and was passed over again, the poor guy was shown on camera and you could see he was totally nervous before they read the name and it took a moment for him to realize that it wasn't his name they called. I hope Forest Whitaker's performance was something special- I would have been okay with a sentimental nod in that category.

It was good to see the Departed win the big award too- Scorsese has made so many memorable moves, this one will stand up with the others.

Movie day

My secret weapon, Arec Barwin

The wife and I hooked up with my sister-in-law to watch the movie The Departed at the theater this afternoon. Yep, that is how far behind the North American movie scene we are here, I think this movie was out 3-5 months ago back in Canada!

I really enjoyed the movie. I think it is Scorsese at his best. His best is not easy to stomach for everyone - it is usually very violent and there will be some scenes that are tough to watch. But the pace is always quick, the characters are usually well defined and he shows his love for classic films with scene-setting camera tricks and a great attention to detail. I'd have to say that DiCaprio, Nicholson and Wahlberg all gave performances that will stick out in my mind. I especially liked Mark Wahlberg's character who was always abrasive but so much so that I couldn't help laughing at every one-liner he spat out. Matt Damon was also good but I don't know if his performance stands out above the one he gave in "Good Will Hunting". Chase from 24 was also alright, though not spectacular, he didn't seem so out of place with the great performances going on around him. I also was impressed on the story twist, instead of a Cat and Mouse chase to find the rat, it was a mouse and mouse chess match, as the Police Rat tries to sniff out the mafia rat. Unfortunately the wife and her sister didn't like it as much, could have something to do with the negative outcome for some of the likable characters in the movie.


Speaking of 24- I guess Scott and Benita are mourning the loss of Curtis in the early part of the season. I hope you are still watching!

Movies

Sorry! I have been a little behind the 8-ball so far this week so I lost a couple of days of posting!

On Sunday afternoon in the middle of my lazy afternoon, I happened across an old movie on Wowow the local equivalent to HBO. The movie was called The Collector, and I just kind of stuck on the channel and realized I was slightly interested in it. The movie was made in 1965 and starred Terence Stamp (General Zod from Superman I and II or more recently as Chancellor Valorum in Star Wars episode 1) as a sociopathic maniac that kidnaps a girl and tries to 'collect' her like his collection of rare butterflies with the hopes of her falling in love with him. Other mentionable names tied into the film was director William Wyler who is most known for directing Ben Hur and Roman Holiday. Usually I find the acting in old films to be quite campy and exaggerated (much like modern Japanese dramas) but I was quite impressed with the performances in this one and it was an interesting study in the mind of a madman many years before Hanibal Lecter was even created by Thomas Harris. While watching the movie I remembered that I had actually read about the book before one night while meandering through the Internet. Apparently the book rates up there with The Catcher in the Rye for influencing real life mad men ( actually I am making a big leap in assumption here, I have never researched Catcher in the Rye fully- I am basing this on the part of the movie Conspiracy Theory when the FBI had flagged the book...). According to this highly reputable source (well maybe not - it is Maxim a magazine geared towards single men...) the book has inspired at least 5 serial killers. Well either way if you stumble across this one on afternoon TV one day, give it a watch, the pace is a little slower than modern day thrillers, but I thought it was alright.

Tonight I watched a movie that I remember loving when I was a kid (well 30 minutes of it)- Clash of the Titans. All I can say upon re-watching it is terrible! The special effects are obvious, poorly done and so blatantly clay-mation and blue screening I can't believe that even as a 9 year child I liked it. Is it that the film is aged so it loses it's quality over time, is it that the other special effects at that time were horrible too (nope- I can still watch Star Wars Episode IV and marvel at what they achieved) or is that as a child I was just stupid? I will have to think about that for a few minutes.

Okay, back to some more Japan related blogging next time!

Pete and Mari's Wedding

Took a day off yesterday, had to rest my aching head!

On Saturday Chris and Aki, Miyuki, Ritsy and I went to Peters wedding held at the local Grand Tiara (a place made exclusively for weddings). Look at these attractive people...

The event kicked off with a little wait where we could enjoy a spot of wine. Afterwards, the ceremony started right on time. Both Pete and Mari looked great...

The reception was held in the 'Rose room', any guess as to why it had that name?
There were a lot of good pictures from this day(So I threw together another video and uploaded it to Youtube Here) , but I can't really post them all, here is a good one with the bride and groom
Chris and I sang Shima Uta to rave reviews. The only hitch was that the MD we had was too quiet so they had to abort the song and fire up the karaoke machine- then they proceeded to pick the wrong song some old Japanese Enka song...
The initial party concluded with the happy couple coming down the steps, Mari sporting a new dress, unfortunately all my pictures are a little dark, sorry!
At that point the camera's battery ran out of power. After that we all went home and changed and came out for the nijikai (or second party) which was quite fun- especially with Peter's crazy surfing friend getting much delight in making me gulp back entire glasses of beer at one time ( a Japanese party tradition). We later found ourselves off to a sanjikai (third party) at an izakaya (I don't know it's name) and Chris and I caught the $50 (5000 yen) taxi ride home around 3:40. All in a very fun ceremony and a good time! My heart went out to Pete, Mari and their family as they woke up at 8 am to go and see Kyoto!

Knuckles and Sunny Streets

A little bit of Hamakita life for ya today.

First, there is a great restaurant that I have only seen in the Hamamatsu area and around it (Shizuoka city, Kousai city) that I think should be a hit all over Japan. The place is called Sawayaka. I have eaten there many time but I have only tried one thing off of their menu. They have a menu item called genkotsu (which literally translates to knuckles but rest assured, there is no knuckles in the burger), what you get (vegetarians, don't read any further) is a big ball of a hamburger that looks nicely grilled on the outside. The burger is served on a heated skillet, they cut the burger in half press the red meat against the skillet to finish the cooking. It is then topped usually with Onion sauce, but for onion haters like me, they have a nice demi-glace sauce. With the red meat that you usually get, there is no way that there can be a restaurant like this in Canada (it's illegal to serve a hamburger cooked any less than medium), but is actually is quite delicious.

My local Sawayaka

Across from this Sawayaka they've been building a new shopping center over the past 3-4 months.Little things like this news don't usually excite me, but living in a country-side town It's pretty exciting when new things come along. Last week, they put up a new sign outside of the construction site.

The New Sign

This new sign promises us that we will be able to shop, watch movies, eat, or enjoy a bath (yes you read right).

The mall is overlooked by Guriin Alina (Yes- that's Green Arena)

The location for the new shopping center is totally convenient, about 4 kms from my home, just across the street from Sawayaka and the billboard advertising my favorite local Language School, ESL College - and it is also right next to Hamakita's Green Arena (local sports center). Well anyway, the new spot will be called Sun Street and you can check out the website by clicking on the place name.

Tomorrow is the wedding and I know that I will mess up the song. I will do my best!

Bits and Pieces

Today was the first day back to teaching the children at ESL College. Sometimes I really notice how far the kids are coming or am surprised at what they remember from the classes. The kids are always cute, but I was blown away today at the progress not only the students I taught, Koki and Sana have made, but also some of the younger ones too. Today was one of the days I was happy walking out of there. Of course it's not always like that.

Tonight the wife decided to give the cats a shower. Unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture of Lanny when she was wet, but Santa looked pretty danged funny coming out of the shower.



And here is the after pics of Santa and Lanny looking clean. Of course Santa is still wet, 2 hours later, he has so much fur...



We watched Good Will Hunting on tv tonight. I really liked that movie. I find it hard to believe that Ben Afleck had anything to do with writing that script though and the makers of the Family Guy agree with me as witnessed here (Caution before clicking the link, fart humour). It's just too smart to be him, though Matt Damon looks like he isn't the brightest candle (hence his only lines in Team America: World Police- "Matt Damon!") but I can buy him being the smart one of the two. Also great performance by Robin Williams - he really showed the undertones of anger and delivered some great lines in that movie. If you haven't seen it, I recommend to watch it.

Well time to hit the hay!