Health Care Reform: A Historic Victory

The DCCC should plan on buying television air time to run this video frequently during the months leading up to the midterm elections.

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iBooks: A 21st-Century Reading Experience

Having never fallen in love with the Kindle - or any electronic book reader, for that matter - I'm surprised by just how affected I am by this guided tour of the Apple iPad's iBooks feature.

For the first time, I get the sense that reading a digital book with the iPad will not only preserve 95% of the positive aspects associated with reading a regular book, but will also expand the reading experience in ways that would never be possible with a regular book.

And that is precisely what consumers should expect from an electronic media reader (whether for books, newspapers, or magazines): all the integrity of the printed version + all the potential of the digital universe.
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President Obama, Thank You

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And The Oscar Goes To...

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UPDATE: Let's see how I did: 15 out of 24 correctly predicted (62.5% correct). Not too bad...although I can't say the same for the Best Picture winner. Zing!
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BEST PICTURE
Predicted Winner: Avatar
Preferred Winner: Inglourious Basterds

BEST DIRECTOR
Predicted Winner: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Preferred Winner: Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

BEST ACTOR
Predicted Winner: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Preferred Winner: Even though I have yet to see Crazy Heart or A Single Man, I'd prefer a win for either Jeff Bridges or Colin Firth over George Clooney, Morgan Freeman, or Jeremy Renner.

BEST ACTRESS
Predicted Winner: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Preferred Winner: Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Predicted Winner: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Preferred Winner: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds (Best Supporting Actor performance of the decade?)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Predicted Winner: Mo'Nique, Precious
Preferred Winner: Mo'Nique, Precious

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Predicted Winner: Inglourious Basterds
Preferred Winner: Inglourious Basterds

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Predicted Winner: Up in the Air
Preferred Winner: Precious

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Predicted Winner: Up
Preferred Winner: Coraline (Although, I have yet to see Fantastic Mr. Fox, which I hear is...fantastic.)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Predicted Winner: The White Ribbon (Germany)
Preferred Winner: Sadly, I haven't seen any of this year's nominees.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Predicted Winner: The Cove
Preferred Winner: The Cove

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Predicted Winner: Avatar
Preferred Winner: Inglourious Basterds

BEST FILM EDITING
Predicted Winner: The Hurt Locker
Preferred Winner: Precious

BEST ART DIRECTION
Predicted Winner: Avatar
Preferred Winner: I've only seen Avatar, so...one of the other four nominees.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Predicted Winner: The Young Victorian
Preferred Winner: The one about the fashion designer?

BEST MAKEUP
Predicted Winner: Star Trek
Preferred Winner: Star Trek, I guess.

BEST SOUND EDITING
Predicted Winner: Avatar
Preferred Winner: Avatar

BEST SOUND MIXING
Predicted Winner: Avatar
Preferred Winner: Avatar

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Predicted Winner: Avatar
Preferred Winner: Avatar (Notice a pattern in the technical categories?)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Predicted Winner: Michael Giacchino, Up
Preferred Winner: Simply haven't seen (heard) enough of the nominees.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Predicted Winner: 'The Weary Kind,' Crazy Heart
Preferred Winner: Once again, I'm ignorant in this category.

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Predicted Winner: A Matter of Loaf and Death
Preferred Winner: Speaking of being ignornant in a category...

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
Predicted Winner: China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
Preferred Winner: Uhh...yes?

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Predicted Winner: Kavi
Preferred Winner: Umm...we're done here.
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Top Ten Films of 2009

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Precious
3. Star Trek
4. Avatar
5. (500) Days of Summer
6. The Hangover
7. Coraline
8. Funny People
9. Where the Wild Things Are
10. A Serious Man

The Academy Awards are tomorrow night, and that means it's time to officially lock in my choices for the top ten films of 2009. Sure, most people have this discussion at the end of the year in consideration, but I've always felt that if the Academy is going to hold the ceremony several months into the next year then I deserve that time to see as many films as possible before rendering a final verdict.

And as far as final verdicts are concerned, I feel relatively comfortable asserting that 2009 was one of the weaker years for film over the past decade. More specifically, I'm referring to my impression that there were relatively fewer films in 2009 that will have a lasting presence in the film appreciation portion of my brain, as well as a bit of an uptick in the number of supposed standout films that ultimately left me unsatisfied (See: Up in the Air, The Hurt Locker, Up...or rather, don't see them. I kid, I kid.). Still, there were at least a few truly great films from 2009, including some that have also passed the "Would I want the DVD in my home movie collection?" test (Inglourious Basterds, please!), and several others that, for lack of a better phrase, constitute "the rest of the best" of 2009.

As always, there remains the caveat that I haven't managed to see all of the films from 2009 that I assume have a chance of being among my top films of the year - including An Education, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Crazy Heart, A Single Man, Capitalism: A Love Story, The Road, Zombieland, and others - and, thus, the list above more accurately represents the top ten films of 2009 of the ones I saw.
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Funny or Die's Presidential Reunion

Funny or Die's Presidential Reunion from Will Ferrell

The first few episodes of HBO's Funny or Die Presents have been at best uneven and at worst unfunny. Thankfully, we have this epic web-exclusive video to reminder us of the brand's original brilliance.

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