Let's face it, this year's crop of Super Bowl commercials were an utter disappointment. It was more difficult than ever to find three ads worthy of being designated "the best", and equally as difficult narrowing down "the worst" from an enormous pile of simply awful advertising (Talking babies? Kooky animals? What decade is this!?). And yet we soldier on, driven by the sheer importance of designating the top three best and worst commercials of Super Bowl XLIV.
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ The Best ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
{3rd} Robin Hood: Trailer Do we need another Robin Hood movie? Probably not. Am I pretending this is the long-rumored Gladiator sequel I always wanted? Yes I am.
{2nd} Snickers: Hungry Betty White and Abe Vigoda? In the same commercial!? SOLD!
{1st} Google: Parisian Love The obvious choice. It's simple, it's touching, and, considering how I use Google somewhere between 25-50 times a day for searches related to just about every aspect of my life, it's relatable.
Oh look, it's Tim Tebow's mother talking about her "miracle baby," what a beautiful...and Tim Tebow just tackled his own mother. Awkward. (Bonus: Head over to the Focus on the Family website to give your brain a free wash!)
{2nd} Bud Light: Auto-tune A Bud Light auto-tune commercial during last year's Super Bowl: trendsetting. A Bud Light auto-tune commercial during this year's Super Bowl: embarrassing. Oh how the mighty advertisers have fallen.
{1st} Late Show: Letterman, Leno, & Oprah WOW, it's EVERYMAN Jay Leno, the guy that DESTROYED the Tonight Show career of Conan O'Brien, doing a commercial for a RIVAL network's late night talk show! HA HA HA HA HA, FUN-NY!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPDATE:Now that the 2010 Oscar nominations have been announced, let's see how successful my predictions were, shall we?
In what I consider the nine "main" categories - Picture, Director, Acting categories, Screenplay categories, and Animated Feature - I managed to correctly predict 45 out of 50 nominations, or 90% correct (46 out of 50, or 92% correct, if you count my alternate picks). Easily one of my best years predicting the main category nominations since Mr. Cooper and I started these shenanigans many years ago.
So how about my success predicting the nominations for the full Oscar ballot? Well, certainly not as good as the main categories, but a pretty solid showing nonetheless. For the list of 21 categories (which excludes the three Short Film categories), I managed to correctly predict 81 out of 106 nominations, or 76% correct (84 out of 106, or 79% correct, if you count my alternate picks).
As far as my reactions to the nominations themselves, my biggest disappointment was the absence of an Original Screenplay nomination for (500) Days of Summer, and concerning the Best Picture nomination for The Blind Side......well, all I can say is I was blindsided. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With less than eight hours to go until the 2010 Oscar nominations are announced, it's time to lock in my predictions. That's right, my predictions are no longer up in the air, so I won't be a basterd and keep them from you any longer. And these predictions are so precious that I've been storing them inside my special locker until tonight. Also...avatar.
Let's do this.
BEST PICTURE
A Serious Man
An Education
Avatar
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
Precious
The Hurt Locker
Up
Up in the Air
BEST DIRECTOR
James Cameron, Avatar
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Lee Daniels, Precious
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
[Alternate: Clint Eastwood, Invictus]
BEST ACTOR
Colin Firth, A Single Man
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
[Alternate: Daniel Day-Lewis, Nine]
BEST ACTRESS
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
[Alternate:Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria]
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Matt Damon, Invictus
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
[Alternate:Alfred Molina, An Education]
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds
Julianne Moore, A Single Man
Mo’Nique, Precious
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
[Alternate:Penélope Cruz, Nine]
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Bob Peterson, Up
Ethan & Joel Coen, A Serious Man
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, (500) Days of Summer
1. Finishing heath care reform once and for all. President Obama must not only reestablish the sense of urgency in passing health care reform, but he must commit to asserting himself into the final process if Congress continues to delay.
2. Outlining a jobs bill with teeth. Unemployment functions as the core of America's economic insecurity. Learn from the faults of a too-timid stimulus package, and put forth an aggressive policy for achieving real job creation. 3. Course of action for ending Don't Ask Don't Tell.President Obama has been committed to ending DADT for several years now. If I may use a version of his own words, the time for verbal commitments has passed, the time for taking action has come.
4. Spending freeze is more than political theater. If a targeted freeze on domestic government spending is good policy in the current economic state, then make the case. 5. Congressional Republicans have been obstructionists. If the GOP wants to operate as the Party of No, that's their prerogative. It's time for President Obama to call them out on it, and to do so in front of the American people. .
Note: If you're wondering why it's taken me half of January to post these resolutions, it's because (a) I abandoned social media for the first week of January in support of my wife's one week "digital cleanse," and (b) I'm a procrastinator, which you'll notice I conveniently left off my list of resolutions for 2010. .
Almost-Raw Honey Cheesecake Bars with Cranberry Topping [Featured in the November/ December 2009 issue of Vegetarian Times]
The only cooked ingredient in this creamy treat is a homemade cranberry topping. For a fully raw dessert, you can omit the topping and serve the bars plain, or garnish them with berries or sliced fresh fruit.
3 cups raw cashews, divided 1 cup frozen cranberries 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs. raw, unfiltered honey, divided 1/4 cup apple juice 1/4 cup raw coconut oil, softened, plus extra for greasing baking dish 1 cup raw walnuts 1/4 cup raisins 1 cup raw macadamia nuts 1/2 cup lemon juice 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1/2 tsp. salt
1. Cover 2 cups cashews with cold water, and soak 3 hours, or overnight. 2. Simmer cranberries, 2 Tbs. honey, and apple juice in saucepan over medium-low heat 10 to 12 minutes, or until cranberries pop. Cool 15 minutes. Pulse in blender or food processor until sauce is thick and smooth. Cool completely. 3. Grease bottom and sides of 8-inch-square glass baking dish with coconut oil. Process walnuts, raisins, and remaining 1 cup cashews in food processor, until mixture begins to stick together. Press into prepared dish, and chill 30 minutes, or overnight. 4. Drain soaked cashews. Puree cashews, macadamia nuts, lemon juice, remaining 1/4 cup coconut oil, remaining 1/4 cup honey, vanilla extract, salt, and 3 Tbs. water in food processor 5 minutes, or until smooth and creamy. Spoon cashew mixture over crust. Spread cranberry mixture over top. Cut through cheesecake with small knife to swirl. Freeze cheesecake 1 hour before serving. Thaw 5 minutes, then slice into 16 bars.
It's now a matter of "when." And that is precisely why, even in the face of California's Prop 8, Maine's Prop 1, and all other similarly intolerant state referenda, there is cause for optimism in the pursuit of equal marriage rights in America. .
Let's face it, this year's crop of Super Bowl commercials were an utter disappointment. It was more difficult than ever to find three ads worthy of being designated "the best", and equally as difficult narrowing down "the worst" from an enormous pile of simply awful advertising (Talking babies? Kooky animals? What decade is this!?). And yet we soldier on, driven by the sheer importance of designating the top three best and worst commercials of Super Bowl XLIV.
