08 Oscar afterthoughts ... My Oscar Thank U Speech

For my group of Oscar kaki punters, the past two winners of previous Oscar pool and I had a neck to neck race till the last catergory before all our bets were the same.

And I like to thank Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova's Falling Slowly, Freeheld and Taxi to the Darkside for going my way, therefore allowing me to win the $20 pot of Oscar pool.



Falling Slowly (my current Earworm now) gave me the lead over Stefan (1st Yr Winner), Freeheld helped me held Mei (2nd Yr Winner) from coming on par with me and Taxi to the Darkside made sure everyone except Shaiful stayed at their respective scoreline ... thrus sealing the fate of all those had betted.

Now to trival observation ... I didn't managed to guess any category right by myself which unlike Stefan and Mei whom both got 2 categories right by themselves. My total number of correct guesses were the same as Mei's winning score from previous year.

and to my 2 cents worth of Afterthoughts .... hehehe more Transformer bashing !!! nominated for 3 technical awards and winning none ! tho I betted on them, I am just glad that this horrible movie about my favourite robots back in the 80s won none ... now I can't wait to get my hands on the Bourne Ultimatum : )

Quote from Charlie Wilson's War

Larry Liddle: Does the Congressman only hire beautiful women?

Charlie's Angel #2: As the Congressman says, "you can teach them to type, but you can't teach them to grow tits."

and the 08 Oscars goes to .. + punter's result Live

9.46am
ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Stefan + 1)
Stefan Drew First Blood !

9.55am
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Ratatouille (Stefan, John, Mei & Richard + 1)

9.55am
ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
La Vie en Rose (Mei, John & Richard + 1)

HMMMM Shaiful out of the Race ?? All scores r tied at this stage

10.07am
ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
The Golden Compass
YEAH - TF suck my balls ! hehehehe !!!!

10.10am
ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION
Sweeney Todd (Stefan, Shaiful & Richard + 1)

Finally , Shaiful joins in the game

10.19am
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men (ALL + 1)
First of the many wins for No Country ?

10.28am
Best Short Film, Live Action
Mozart des picpockets (Stefan +1)
Stefan draws away from the crowd again

10.30am
Best Short Film, Animated
Peter & the Wolf (ALL Except Shaiful & John +1)

10.40am
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton

10.47am
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
No Country for Old Men (Shaiful & Richard + 1)
YEAHHHHHHHHh 2 ups for us !!! Stefan ... I lm coming for ya

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
the Bourne Ultimatum
Bugger ... wonder who told me that The Bourne won't win anything one ... One Less win for TF !

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
the Bourne Ultimatum
Double Bugger !!! should have trusted my instinct instead ... ZERO FOR TF!!! ALL RIGHT !

11.12am
BEST ACTRESS
Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose (Mei + 1)
Mei catching up to the two top dogs

11.28am
ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
the Bourne Ultimatum
JOHN !!! U FUCKED ME !!!

11.43am
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Counterfeiters (Austria) (ALL Except Shaiful + 1)

11.49am
ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
"Falling Slowly" - Once (All Except Stefan & John + 1)
OH YESSSSSSSSSSSS !!! I'm in the LEAD LIAO !!! will buy the OST & Movie Ticket if it turn out to be the turning moment for this betting

11.59am
ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
There Will Be Blood (Mei +1)
ohhhhhhh MEI !!! OHHHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOO

12.09pm
ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
Atonement (ALL + 1)

12.14pm
Best Documentary, Short Subjects
Freeheld (Stefan, John & Richard +1)
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I LIVE .... I LIVE !!! (Shaiful was saying if Mei wins this round ... I die)

12.16pm
Best Documentary, Features
Taxi to the Dark Side (Shaiful + 1)
Yeah !!! haha cheering for Shaiful ... which he pointed out !!! becos we had the same choice for the rest of the categories ... the Oscar Gold Pot goes to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee .... finally !!! after 3 years of waiting !!! I shall give my thank u speech at my afterthoughts !!

12.24pm
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Juno (ALL + 1)

12.29pm
BEST ACTOR
Daniel Day-Lewis - There will be Blood (ALL + 1)

12.43pm
BEST DIRECTOR
Joel & Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men (ALL +1)

12.45pm
BEST MOTION PICTURE
No Country for Old Men (ALL + 1)

ScoreBoard
Stefan + 13
John + 10
Mei + 13
Richard + 14
Shaiful + 10

and the OSCAR punter's stats

BEST MOTION PICTURE
No Country for Old Men (ALL)

BEST DIRECTOR
Joel & Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men (ALL)

BEST ACTOR
Daniel Day-Lewis - There will be Blood (ALL)

BEST ACTRESS
Julie Christie - Away From Her (ALL Except)
Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose (Mei)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men (ALL)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There (Mei, John & Richard)
Rube Dee - American Gangster (Stefan)
Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone (Shaiful)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
No Country for Old Men (Shaiful & Richard)
There Will Be Blood (Mei)
Atonement (Stefan)
The Diving Bell & The Butterfly (John)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Juno (ALL)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Ratatouille (ALL Except)
Persepolis (Shaiful)

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION
Sweeney Todd (ALL Except)
Atonement (Mei)
There will be Blood (John)

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
Country for Old Men (Shaiful & Richard)
The Assassination of Jesse James (Stefan)
There Will Be Blood (Mei)
Atonement (John)

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
Sweeney Todd (Richard)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Stefan)
Atonement (Shaiful, Mei & John)

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (ALL Except)
No Country for Old Men (Mei & John)

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
La Vie en Rose (Mei, John & Richard)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Stefan & Shaiful)

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
Atonement (ALL)

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
"Falling Slowly" - Once (All Except)
"That's How You Know" - Enchanted (Stefan & John)

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
Transformers (ALL Except)
3:10 to Yuma (Richard)
Ratatouille (John)

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
Transformers (ALL)

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
Transformers (ALL)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Counterfeiters (Austria) (ALL Except)
Mongol (Kazakhstan) (Shaiful)

Best Documentary, Features
Sicko (Richard)
No End in Sight (Stefan, John & Mei)
Taxi to the Dark Side (Shaiful)

Best Documentary, Short Subjects
Freeheld (Stefan, John & Richard)
Sari's Mother (Mei & Shaiful)

Best Short Film, Animated
Peter & the Wolf (ALL Except)
I Met the Walrus (Shaiful & John)

Best Short Film, Live Action
Tanghi argentini (Richard & John)
Mozart des picpockets (Stefan)
Om Natten (Mei & Shaiful)

My Pick for 08 Oscar

Best Picture
Haiz ... my heart is with Juno, followed by There Will Be Blood but it seems that it will be an upset that No Country for Old Men didn't win ... so
No Country for Old Men

BEST DIRECTOR
Just as difficult to choose as Best Picture .... my heart is with Julian Schnabel - The Diving Bell & the Butterfly , Jason Reitman - Juno & Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood but as again .... I think it will go to
Joel & Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men

BEST ACTOR
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
Even before watching his performance, my hunch was already on Daniel Day-Lewis and after catching There will be Blood (and without Tommy Lee Jones or Viggo Mortensen's ones)... it's pretty much a lock on for me

BEST ACTRESS
Julie Christie - Away From Her
Like Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose & Ellen Page - Juno but based on what Stefan said, I got a feeling this award will be won by Julie Christie ...

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men
Only managed to catch Javier Bardem and Tom Wilkinson's act for this category and my bet is on Javier Bardem's unrelenting killer performance

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Between Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There & Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton ... tho I only caught Tilda Swinton's performance ... I got a feeling that Cate's portray of Bob Dylan will win this
Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Hard to choose ... tikam choice would be
No Country for Old Men

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Juno

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Ratatouille
It's the year of the Rat !!! The other one is too serious & I don't think the penguin movies will win two in a row

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION
could be The Golden Compass or Sweeney Todd ... will go with
Sweeney Todd

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
Laggi hard to choose ... all beside The Assassination of Jesse James which I haven't got the chance to watch it yet .... I love The Diving Bell and the Butterfly or There Will Be Blood to win but I think it will be won by
No Country for Old Men

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
Toss between La Vie en Rose & Sweeney Todd but I think I will go with
Sweeney Todd

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
La Vie en Rose
PotC: AWE might just win this too ... but my tikam choice will be Rose ... would be fun to see Nobit pull an ironic upset

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
Atonement
I only remember the Original Score for Atonement ... partly also thanks to John's recommendation during CNY visit to his place

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
Didn't liked any of the Disney songs from Enchanted .. August Rush's nominated song didn't go well with me ... the only song that I dig would be
"Falling Slowly" - Once

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
3:10 to Yuma
Loved the intense finale with the chung-king of the steam train ... tho TF might just win this ... I'm putting bet where my heart is

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
Transformers

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
Transformers
As much as I don't like TF ... I think it will win .. or Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End might win it ... either way, an upset won't be too upsetting to me

And categories that I have yet to watch a single nominee

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Counterfeiters (Austria)
the only trailer I saw & very much wanted to watch it ... but Singapore don't have leh

Best Documentary, Features
Sicko

Best Documentary, Short Subjects
Freeheld

Best Short Film, Animated
Peter & the Wolf

Best Short Film, Live Action
Tanghi argentini

Quote from There will be Blood

Plainview: Drainage! Drainage, Eli, you boy. Drained dry. I'm so sorry. Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? You watching?. And my straw reaches acroooooooss the room, and starts to drink your milkshake... I... drink... your... milkshake!

my practice quote

so I told my friend about what happen in the afternoon (that post below) and how I was practicing my "charms" on her ...

when my friend then asked if I have gotten the salesgirl's contact number ... My reply was

"just because I want to practice, doesn't mean that I want victims"

so I kanna Motor Vehicle Theft in JB

Johor Bahru ... the notorious city up north famous for Motor Vehicle Theft (specially Singapore cars) ... I been told to take care while traveling up to JB but always brush it aside ... until my car kanna mugged today

It happened when I was in a shop, collecting my items and chatting with the sales girl when one lady pop in and started asking loudly "Is there a Singaporean diver here ? A Singapore Car just got broken in"

I couldn't believe that I finally kanna the infamous Motor Vehicle Theft in JB !!! What if the whole car kanna stolen ? Did I left any valuables in the car ? Where is my Passport ? Did I lose a car ??

Walking out of the shop and turning a corner, I saw my car .. still there but with the driver door open .... I couldn't believe that the car muggers in JB really so terrok (Malay Word) (Cham in Hokkien)! ... Bright day Light still dare to steal car ...

So I went to the driver seat and check if there's anything stolen ... by the time I got to the driver seat ... it suddenly dawn onto me ... I was stuffing stuff into the car booth just now and the car keys that I carried was a spare one which meant that I wasn't able to use the car key to open the booth ... and I got to open it from the switch at the driver seat

hmmmmmmmm could it be that I had forgotten to close the door after stuffing the items in ? cos my hands were full & I was struggling with it ... which is more likely ... a car mugger who didn't mug anything or a forgetfully me who had forgotten to close the door ???

then the lady and her man who came into the shop walked by and asked if anything's been stolen .... they went on to said that the car muggers are really horrible nowadays and on n on ...

at that point ... I was pondering to tell them the truth or to act pitiful potential victim and add on to the notoriety of the smelly label that JB got

My decision was made purely becos I wanted to save face and blame it on the thief while thanking sky and ground/ god that I didn't lose the car or anything valuable in it

Walking back, the salesgirl that was attending to me asked me once again and I got to lie thru my nose again ... dying of embarrassment, I cut short all the "flirting" with her and made my way out ...

Just before I left, the supervisor asked if everything's all right and said this to me ... "next time come and buy things .... don't chit chat (flirt) so much la" with a wink

Embarrassment overwhelms me

immortalize me pt 2

The Weinstein Company with their New Asian Imprint (Dragon Dynasty) will be releasing The Banquet under the new movie name " Legend of the Black Scorpion "

I don't remember there's was any Scorpion in the movie but by now, We should be used to the Ang Mo's treatement to the Asian movies liao ... so when I saw the dvd news at Dvd Active, I checked their page for this movie out ... see if they added anything on the cover that's equally blasphemes as the USA release for Infernal Affairs


I was quite shocked to see a movie quote "spectacular fight sequences" by none other than the "Singapore #1 Longest Suriving Movie Website" , Moviexclusive .... and I got a stinking gut feeling that it was me who wrote it ... checking the MX's page for the Banquet ... I had a good Laugh ....

Why ??? Click here to see the one liner I wrote for the Banquet !!! and you can see how selective Dragon Dynasty was

CJ7 Press Conference

Trying to beat the CNY Dateline and was pretty proud of myself as I was able to complete it before I got for my reunion dinner ... overall not bad ... what do u think ?

Me in a NutShell

A Fren send me description of my horrorscope and I thought it was quite spot on ... almost like it's Me in a NutShell (but of cos feel free to disagree and comment on it)

Good-natured optimist. Doesn't want to grow up (Peter Pan Syndrome). Indulges self. Boastful. Likes luxuries and gambling. Social and outgoing. Doesn't like responsibilities. Often fantasizes. Impatient. Fun to be around. Having lots of friends. Flirtatious. Doesn't like rules. Sometimes hypocritical. Dislikes being confined - tight spaces or even tight clothes. Doesn't like being doubted. Beautiful inside and out.

Edison's Sex Scandal

Me think this is The Dumbest PR move after a Scandal



Some Points to note
1 - Strange Ordeal? Shouldn’t it be Scandal instead? don't downplay it

2 – Although some thought he admitted it, but if you hear him out carefully, he did not admit those pictures are real or are from his collection.

3 – Assuming those pictures are real and not photo chopped, I don't think the pix were posted because they are internationally hurtful and malicious ... it's more of the sharing mentality of the internet community and any hurtful or malicious actions were actually caused by "who ever" that snap those pix ... it should be that person who took those pictures that apologize.

4 - Quite naive that he think the audience will do as he asked ... unless he got the Jedi trick on his sleeve but I think it only works with gullible female stars . I think it will be more effective if he curses the pictures like how videotapes in Ringu were cursed ... like that more effective

5 – And need to add some emotions to it … sound like he is reading and does not translate his sincerity well. Come on, you been a few films before …. Surely you can do better than that?

Afterthoughts ... If I am the dad of any of the victims and is a triad leader as rumored ... I will most likely hire a killer to kill the one who took the pictures and a few heads that distribute it ... like that can send warning to those who are still downloading the pictures or forwarding the pictures ... like that will be more effective that this video "plead" message

late night insomnia

Just before I slept, I caught this video on MTV Insomnia and it was the Honda Spaceman that kept me awake more than I should be ... and thru the Spaceman Lens, I could figure out that the singer of this song is Badly Drawn Boy (who sang one of my fave song "Year of the Rat" which incidentally is this coming year's animal)

Check it out before I go on why I like this mtv so much

Badly Drawn Boy - Silent Sigh


I liked the notion that years later ... when we are all dead ... would what emotionally troubled us now still matter ?? and will it troubled us thousands years later in that locked memory of ours .... and if bad memories could be erased and edited like a video clip so that it could have a happy ending as remembered in the memories instead of what actually had happen ... wouldn't that be the way to go ??

i m rambling again ...

and just incase you like to know how the year of the rat sound like ... here it goes

Badly Drawn Boy - Year of the Rat

sleep some more

Was driving my Mom around when she complained to me about my Dad; how he could sleep at night, wake up late in the morning and nap again in the afternoon. It seems that he is almost sleeping non-stop.

At the spur of the moment, with no malice intend and just a friendly poke at him ... I said

"He must be training for the eventual eternal sleep"