1D or BUST! (or how I stopped being embarrassed and embraced my love of boy bands) - PREVIEW

So, tonight's the night. I'm finally seeing One Direction live in concert. I have a floor seat and I'm riding solo, so I'm sure to stand out in a sea of teens and tweens.
Full disclosure - just yesterday I was given the opportunity to write a piece for a small women's issues blog. It may or may not get published there, but it does sort of give me a ready excuse to use if questioned as to why a woman in her mid-40s is attending a 1D concert alone.
Never mind the fact that I'm a super-fan that bought my ticket months ago. I will be reporting back on my experience in detail tomorrow or Friday.

Some things I'm looking forward to -

1. This will be Louis Tomlinson's first public appearance since his baby-daddy news came out, so I'll be curious if it's addressed.
2. I'm excited to see how they've reworked their songs, with the loss of Zayn Malik's beautiful tenor voice.
3. So far they've kept the same set list for the U.S. tour dates; will Seattle be the city that gets a new set?!
4. Will they sing any of my favorite songs?! Actually I'm sort of hoping that they won't. Because I  don't want to cry in front of 13 yr olds.

But I'm hoping to get a little less "Plushious" in the next several months. Wish me luck!

Things I'm looking forward to in March

March is a tricky month for me. On the one hand, the anniversary of my mother's death is March 1 and for the past 8 years that date has just laid waiting to ambush and depress me at the beginning of the month.  But March is also my birth month (seriously the BEST month to have been born), and it was my mother's favorite time of the year, what with the change in weather and the cherry blossoms etc. so I also can find room for happy memories. And this year especially, I've got a bunch of things to look forward to.

First off, I'm not the only person I care about having a birthday this month. Several close friends and family also share March as the best birth month. So I have a bunch of great parties and celebrations to look forward to in March.

• I'm proud to be a part of the fun choral group - the Northwest Firelight Chorale - and we have our annual, mucial theater fundraiser dinner theater/silent auction evening on March 21, 2015. It promises to be an amazing and fantastic night!

• Kyle Chandler finally back on my television? And with Ben Mendelsohn? YES, PLEASE.

 

Is it March 20th yet?

• I've quit caffeine and I'm really making a commitment to start swimming on a regular basis in an effort to cure the insomnia that's been plagueing me for months. It's been really bad lately, and so I'm making March the month that I conquer this! Or at least get at least 6 hours of sleep a night. Yeah, that's right, I don't even get SIX hours of sleep on a typical night. It's pathetic.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Me at work today...

Oscar Nominations - For 2014's year

One of my weird pet-peeves about awards season each year is that I get very touchy and pedantic about people saying things like "the 2015 Oscar nominations". In truth, the Academy Award nominations that were annouced this morning are for 2014. But it's exhausting and annoying to correct people (and I'm sure to be corrected) on this relatively minor issue.

Moving on! Early early this morning I dragged my ass out of bed to go down and turn my tv on to watch this year's nominations be announced live. I know most of my friends and loved ones think this is beyond weird; especially since I do it for pleasure and not for like my job or anything that is paying me money. It's a tradition and I sincerely do look forward to this time of year.

In many ways, the nominations for 2014 aren't that shocking, but there are some very weird and seemingly dumb omissions in various categories.

First, let's just get elephant in the room out of the way - 2, just TWO, nominations for Selma. And one of those is for dumb "Best Song", ironically the only award that the film has a chance of winning. You guys? Oprah is PISSED. But seriously, it's almost more insulting that the Academy threw Selma a bone by giving them the Best Picture nod. To not honor David Oyelowo's brilliant portrayal of MLK with a nomination seems bonkers. Sorry (not sorry) Bradley Cooper, you didn't deserve your Best Actor nomination this year, Oyelowo should be in your place.
And don't get me started about the travesty of Ava DuVernay not getting a nomination for Best Director. This I blame completely on the strangle-hold that "white dudes" have on directing award nominations. This year as in past years the field of directors to choose from is strong, but when I look at the eight Best Picture nominations, Foxcatcher isn't there - so does Bennet Miller deserve a directing nom? Eh, maybe. I actually would have replaced Morten Tyldum with DuVernay; the best part of The Imitation Game is Cumberbatch. I think Tyldum's direction was the weak link. Critic David Edelstein wrote a great piece for Vulture about this.

The other completely bizarre, "what were they thinking" omission from these nominations is that The LEGO Movie wasn't nominated for Best Animated Film. C'mon guys, that's just fucking stupid.

I won't be doing the Oscar Death Race this year. But I will be doing my usual routine; I will see every film nominated in the major categories. That means that I still have the following left to see before February 22 - American Sniper; Still Alice; Two Days, One Night; [caveat - there's no way I'm seeing that turd of a movie "The Judge" so I will be seeing Inherent Vice instead.]

So anyway, here's the full list for you to ruminate over:

Best Picture
Boyhood
The Imitation Game 
Birdman
The Theory of Everything
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Whiplash
Selma
American Sniper

Best Actress
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Reese Witherspoon, Wild
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night

Best Actor
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper, American Sniper

Best Supporting Actor
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Edward Norton, Birdman
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
Robert Duvall, The Judge

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Emma Stone, Birdman
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods
Laura Dern, Wild

Best Director
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game
Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher

Best Adapted Screenplay
Graham Moore, The Imitation Game
Anthony McCarten, The Theory of Everything
Damien Chazelle, Whiplash
Jason Hall, American Sniper
Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice

 Best Original Screenplay

Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo,Birdman
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler
Dan Futterman and E. Max Frye, Foxcatcher

Best Foreign Film
Ida (Poland)
Leviathan (Russia)
Tangerines (Estonia)
Timbuktu (Mauritania)
Wild Tales (Argentina)

Best Documentary Feature
Citizenfour
Last Days in Vietnam
Virunga
Finding Vivian Maier
The Salt of the Earth

Best Animated Feature
Big Hero 6
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Boxtrolls
Song of the Sea
The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Film Editing
American Sniper
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Whiplash

Best Song

Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lashley, and Nick Southwood, "Lost Stars" (Begin Again)
John Legend and Common, "Glory" (Selma)
Shawn Patterson, Joshua Bartholomew, Lisa Harriton, and The Lonely Island, "Everything Is Awesome" (The Lego Movie)
Diane Warren, "Grateful" (Beyond the Lights)
Glen Campbell, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" (Glen Campbell ... I'll Be Me)

Best Original Score
Johann Johannsson, The Theory of Everything
Alexandre Desplat, The Imitation Game
Alexandre Desplat, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Hans Zimmer, Interstellar
Gary Yershon, Mr. Turner

Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman
Dick Pope, Mr. Turner
Robert D. Yeoman, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ryszard Lenczewski and Łukasz Żal, Ida
Roger Deakins, Unbroken

Costume Design
Colleen Atwood, Into the Woods
Anna B. Sheppard and Jane Clive, Maleficent
Milena Canonero, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Jacqueline Durran, Mr. Turner
Mark Bridges, Inherent Vice

Makeup and Hairstyling
Bill Corso and Dennis Liddiard, Foxcatcher
Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou and David White, Guardians of the Galaxy

Production Design
Adam Stockhausen and Anna Pinnock, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Suzie Davies and Charlotte Watts, Mr. Turner
Dennis Gassner and Anna Pinnock, Into the Woods
Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis, and Paul Healy, Interstellar
Maria Djurkovic and Tatiana Macdonald, The Imitation Game

Sound Editing
Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman, American Sniper
Martín Hernández and Aaron Glascock, Birdman
Brent Burge and Jason Canovas, The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
Richard King, Interstellar
Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro, Unbroken

Sound Mixing
American Sniper
Birdman
Unbroken
Interstellar
Whiplash

Visual Effects
Interstellar
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
X Men: Days of Future Past
Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Short Film, Live Action
Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis, Aya (Chasis Films)
Michael Lennox, director, and Ronan Blaney, Boogaloo and Graham (Out of Orbit)
Hu Wei and Julien Féret, Butter Lamp (La Lampe au Beurre de Yak) (AMA Productions)
Talkhon Hamzavi and Stefan Eichenberger, Parvaneh (Zurich University of Arts)
Mat Kirkby, director and James Lucas, The Phone Call (RSA Films)

Short Film, Animated
Daisy Jacobs and Christopher Hees, The Bigger Picture (National Film and Television School)
Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi, The Dam Keeper (Tonko House)
Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed, Feast (Walt Disney Animation Studios)
Torill Kove, Me and My Moulton (Mikrofilm in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada)
Joris Oprins, A Single Life (Job, Joris & Marieke)

Documentary Short Subject
Perry Films, Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Wajda Studio, Joanna
Warsaw Film School, Our Curse
Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica, The Reaper (La Parka)
Weary Traveler, White Earth