Two Words: Jeff Ellis

Monday, March 06, 2006

The Texas state primaries are tomorrow and my phone has been ringing off the hook all day today. My answering machine currently holds 33 recorded messages from various candidates and their supporters, asking me for my vote in tomorrow's Republican primary (which should be a big snooze anyway now that Strayhorn is running for Governor as an independent). The sound of my phone ringing has now replaced the neighbor's dog barking as the most annoying sound in my life!

I wonder if Texas Democrats are having to put up with this...

In other news, I watched the Oscars last night, of course. Despite my earlier comments, I have to now admit that I have been converted into a Jon Stewart fan. He was probably the best host in recent memory. Never once did he give into any of that "Aren't-we-great-and-cute-and-wonderful" rhetoric that seemed to typify previous hosts like, say, Whoopi Goldberg.

All in all, I thought the show was one of the better Oscar ceremonies in recent memory. None of the winners made fools of themselves during their acceptance speeches and even George Clooney managed to pull off his patented political commentary without sacrificing his dignity. The audience even managed to restrain itself somewhat during the montage of the dead.

I guess the big news is that Crash managed to upset Brokeback Mountain for best picture. My own opinion is that neither of these films deserved to win. Brokeback Mountain was doomed by its inability to live up to its own hype. Crash, in my opinion, was one of those films that grows weaker each subsequent time you see it but I can understand why it won. After all, it was set in the hometown of the majority of the voters and it was a good example of one of the Academy's favorite genres -- a film about black people made by white people. Still, I think Capote was superior to both films. Admitedly, I have to wonder if I'd think of highly of that film if I wasn't a writer as well.

One last comment and then I'll be finished with the Oscars --

Is it just me or did it seem that in the clips from Brokeback Mountain that were televised during the ceremony that Heath Ledger was imitating Billy Bob Thornton in Slingblade. "Umm we can't let that thing over take us I reckon um humm..." ¶ 10:28 PM (1) comments

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Well, the Oscars will be starting in about four minutes and I'm about to sit back and watch 'em. However, before things gets started, I'm going to post my own personal choices for the top awards. After the show ends, I can go back and see just how much I disagree with the Academy.

Best Picture: Capote
Best Director: Bennett Miller for Capote
Best Actor: Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Capote
Best Actress: Kiera Knightly for Pride and Prejudice
Best Supporting Actor: Matt Dillon for Crash
Best Supporting Actress: Catherine Keener for Capote

In all honesty, I wasn't so much a fan of Capote as I just wasn't a fan of anything else released this year. To me, the favorite, Brokeback Mountain, is this year's equivalent of American Beauty; a really mediocre film that people decided would be a great film before they actually saw the actual film.

Okay, things are getting started. They're showing yet another one of those damn compilation films that always start off the Oscars. Why they think it's a good idea to show us evidence of how much better films used to be, I can't begin to fathom. Still, all questions will soon be answered. Such as, which dead guy will get the most applause? Chris Penn? Richard Bright? Don Knotts? Soon, we shall know...

By the way, is it me or is Jon Stewart just amazingly overrated? Yeah, he's like Ted Koppel with a sense of humor but was there really that much of a demand for a funny Ted Koppel in the first place? ¶ 6:56 PM (0) comments

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Blogs

Reva Renee Renz -- Renz would have won my vote in 2003's California recall election, if not for the fact that I'm not a resident of California. Anyway, Renz was one of the more likeable candidates in that free-for-all, one of the few who took it seriously without giving into meglomania. Her blog gives the details of her run and her life after. Renz is the owner of Deva's Bar in Tustin, California and I have to admit that the only reason I currently desire to visit California is to have a beer at that bar. Renz stands as proof that Republicans are a lot more fun than most people care to admit.

Yankee From Mississippi -- Shannon Black's blog, featuring writing that often puts me to shame. Plus, isn't that just an amazingly cool title for a blog or anything else for that matter?

Crime

The Charley Project -- A huge site, detailings hundreds of cold cases dealing with missing persons. This site is actually far superior and better written than the similar and better known Doe Network.

Crime News 2000 -- Despite the 2000, this is a daily updated listing of all the latest developments in all the morbid and disturbing stories that tend to capture the national psyche nowadays.

Doe Network -- One of those web sites that justifies the existence of the internet in the first place, the Doe Network is a huge database of missing persons and unifidentified remains from around the world.

Is this girl Tara Leigh Calico? -- This web site details the disappearance of a 19 year-old girl in New Mexico back in the late '80s. The details of Tara Calico's disappearance have haunted me for years now and served as the genesis for my current interest about missing person cases in general.

Politics

Charles Jay -- Personal Choice Party Candidate For President In 2004 -- I wrote in Jay's name for President in 2004. I think about 228 other people -- mostly in Utah -- agreed with me.

D.C.'s Political Report -- With Politics1 on indefinite hiatus, this is now the best place on the web to find continually updated listings of who is running for what and where.

Homepage of the Libertarian Party -- I am a member of the Libertarian Party, even if the party itself can't ever quite seem to get it's act together.

National Review -- The magazine for both true conservatives and Libertarians who think Ayn Rand was a hack

Politics 1 -- The site is officially on hiatus but there's still the occasional update. The archival information on the various candidates in the 2000 and 2004 Presidential races always makes for interesting reading.

Pop Culture

Fametracker

Teevee

Writing

Amazon.com -- I've posted quite a few reviews of books, film, and music on this site and I've gotten a good deal of very gratifying and very positive feedback from them. (I've also managed to piss off just about everyone who cried when they saw Titanic for the 10th times but that's another story...) Those reviews can be found by searching the site for Jeffrey Ellis from Richardson, Texas.

The Homepage of Gregory Alan Norton -- Homepage of one of my favorite liberals, fellow writer Greg Norton who I published in the premier issue of Jack the Daw way back in 1995. His site quotes my review of his excellent first novel, There Ain't No Justice, Just Us and includes information on how to order the book.

Xlibris -- Homepage for Xlibris, the publishers of It's Impossible To Start A Fire If You Have No Desire To Burn