What Dreams May Come

Last night I had a dream about a guy. And as my dreams about men go, it was fucked up! Thursday night, in the midst of my delusion, I sent Paul Walker a tweet. Then last night, I had a dream that featured him and Vin Diesel. We happen to meet at a swanky party. Conversation was awesome and it felt like Paul and I connected. Next thing I know, he and Vin are walking away. In a moment of panic, I yell out "Paul, where are you going?!" He doesn't look back. I yell out again, "Wait for me!" I start to ran after him. At this point, he has somehow changed into his swimming trunks. He then tells me, "Look, I'm off to the beach. If you want to join me, you'll have to take care of my cat as I surf." A couple of things run through my mind. First, AWESOME! Paul is taking me to his apartment! Second, wait, um, I'm scared of pets; especially cats. But what is a girl to do when her crush is right in front of her. I decide to come clean. I start to tell him I'm scared but out comes the cat. Or so I thought. Paul's pet is a raccoon - if I want to spend time with him, I need to take care of the raccoon. But I want Paul, I want Paul sooo bad. I bend down to pick up the raccoon and BOOM, I wake up!

Now, I know this dream probably means I'm pursuing a difficult goal. But reality is, Paul never replied to my tweet, the hunky-blue-eyed-make-me-wanna-do-something-real-bad-to-you is not checking for me. Lastly, Fast Five is the closest I'm getting owning those lips.

Sidenote: thank you little brother for the 3am texts about the movie. My lack of sleep sure does appreciate it!

Come On Beyaki, We Can Do Better!

I have a love/hate relationship with Beyonce. I love her choreography, she tries to do too much with her voice, her songs are hit or miss with me. Below is a "leak" off her upcoming album. The song is called Girls (Who Run The World). This is a classic example of being all over the place, sampling a hot riddim too late, and trying too hard lyrically - I think I need a barber, none of these bitches fade me. Come on Beyaki - back to the studio for you! And for those who don't know, the song samples Major Lazer's Pon De Floor

Girls (Who Run the World) - Beyoncé by HDMI44

Is Britney Officially Back?

I have a confession, I liked Britney Spears Blackout cd; Circus was kryptonite to me. I was not really excited about her new cd, Femme Fatale after all, I'm not much of a fan. I just loved her choreography. I heard she was performing at Rain nightclub in Las Vegas last night. I woke up this morning and decided to see what youtube has. I am impressed by her performance of 'Til The World Ends; are you?

RIP Nate Dogg - King of Hooks

What a sad day in hip hop it is today. Nate Dogg has died at the age of 41 after suffering two previous strokes. When I heard Dr. Dre's Kush, I remember thinking how nice it would have been if Nate could have been featured more on the track instead of Akon. I want to share with you some of his collaborations that I really love. They are many but these I always loved. Don't expect to find Regulate, Area Codes or The Next Episode on this list. I love some of his work that was not necessarily mainstream. Thank you for leaving behind such a great soundtrack.

Robert Downey Jr. Can Get It!

Confession time. I don't watch American Idol; never have and never will. However, I have seen very few performances posted on youtube e.g. Adam Lambert's take on Tracks of My Tears It was thus a great pleasure to see this next delight. In my opinion, Robert Downey Jr. is so cool and smooth in this. Jack Black although dramatic, has the moves down! I knew he can sing but I had no idea RDJ has some ballet and tap dance in his background. I'm loving this guy more and more. This clip is from from American Idol finale in 2008. I told you I don't watch that show!

2011 Academy Award Predictions

It's 6pm, the evening before the 2011 Oscars, and I'm finally done watching all the Oscar nominated films & docs (except 4 of the 5 foreign films). I wish I could get an invite to become a member of the Academy and vote. It's sad to know that many who can vote don't even watch all the films before voting. Before I give you my picks, do you know how the best film is chosen? Ok, let me try to explain.

So, after the whole The Dark Knight-not-getting-a-nomination debacle, something had to be done. That something resulted to 10 film best feature film nominations in the proceeding years. However, It's no longer who get's the most votes but rather who is higher on everyone's preference.

So, let's say 10 of us vote. Each person lists the best picture in order of preference. For me it's

The Social Network
The Fighter
Inception
Black Swan
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Kids Are Alright
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

Now, for a film to win, it has to garner 50% of the votes. So if the Social Network is not voted by 5 out of 10 of us, one film that ranks at the bottom needs to get the boot. So if Winter's Bone is ranked lowest on most of the 10 ballots, it get's booted and its votes redistributed based on popularity. So, if The Social Network, Inception and The Fighter was ranked highly amongst the remaining 9 ballots, then they'll get most of the redistributed votes. This continues until we arrive at the final film. So, it's possible that although I rank the Social Network highly on my ballot, it may get surpassed in number of votes if the other ballots don't rank it as highly. So, you can find the King's Speech or Inception beating it come Oscar night. Hope that makes sense.

As for the rest of my picks, they are as follows:

Best Director:
It's hard to pick which way the Academy will go. Tom Hooper won the Director's Guild Award for directing The King's Speech. However, The Social Network is also a strong contender thus so is David Fincher. I'm going with Tom Hooper.

Best Actress:
Natalie Portman in Black Swan. I love Annette Bening. However, Natalie owns the role and you just get lost in her. Unless the Academy wishes to overlook this and award Annette for losing to Hilary Swank twice, it's Natalie Portman's statuette to lose.

Best Actor:
This was tough for me. Jesse Eisenberg truly annoyed the sh*t out of me as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. James Franco also made 127 Hours truly riveting to watch as the only cast member for most of the film. However, Colin Firth in The King's Speech has the edge this year. And I dare ANYONE to say otherwise!

Best Supporting Actress:
This is hard. It really can go either way between Melissa Leo in The Fighter or Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit. The Academy does love kid actors and first time nominees in best supporting female categories tend to win. See Ana Paquin, Tatum O'neil, Jennifer Hudson and Marlee Matlin to name a few. But, despite history, I give this one to Melissa Leo.

Best Supporting Actor:
There's no competition here - Christian Bale in The Fighter - moving on.

Animated Feature Film:
This is a tie between Toy Story 3 and The Illusionist. The Academy loves Pixar film and Sylvain Chomet (the Illusionist) won this category the last time he was nominated for The Triplets of Belleville (I loved it!). But I'm going with Toy Story 3.

Best Documentary:
I've only watched 4 out of the 5 due to availability. My sister and I truly feel Restrepo should win. However, I think the Academy will go with Exit Through The Gift Shop.

Adapted Screenplay:
The Social Network will edge out Toy Story 3

Original Screenplay:
Inception should and will win.

What are your picks? Make sure you tune in to ABC come Oscar night, Sunday February 27th at 8pm EST.

The Oscars Are Coming!

Ah, what a wonderful way to get back to this blog. The Oscars were announced this morning and if you ask me, yes you did!, The Town and Ben Affleck were ROBBED! Here's a few of the nominations

Best Picture
127 Hours
Inception
Winter's Bone
Black Swan
The Fighter - Yay Mark Wahlberg!!!!!!
The Kids Are Alright
The King's Speech
The Social Network
Toy Story 3 - Overrated in my opinion
True Grit

Best Actor
James Franco - 127 Hrs
Javier Bardem - Biutiful - I knew it! I just knew it! There was no way he would be left out.
Jeff Bridges - True Grit - Oscar loves to invite winners back
Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network - Still have no desire to watch this film....don't know why
Colin Firth - The King's Speech - Swoon!

Best Supporting Actor
Jeremy Renner - The Town - much deserved
Mark Ruffalo - The Kids Are Alright
Geoffrey Rush -The King's Speech
John Hawkes - Winter's Bone
Christian Bale - The Fighter - this could be his year unless Oscar remembers previous winner Mr. Rush

Best Actress
Annette Bening - The Kids Are Alright - can she finally get her Oscar. Natalie Portman may be her Hilary Swank this year...But no Julianne Moore...my bff
Natalie Portman - The Swan
Nicole Kidman- Rabbit Hole - The face moved...it moved!!!
Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine -Yay! This makes up for Ryan Gosling
Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone

Best Supporting Actress
Melissa Leo - The Fighter - welcome back!
Amy Adams - The Fighter - welcome back!
Helena Bonham Carter - The King's Speech
Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom - apparently, I need to watch this movie
Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit

Best Animated Feature Film
Toy Story 3 - I say if you are in Best picture, you cannot be in this category!
How To Train Your Dragon - I don't get it
The Illusionist - must have taken the place of DESPICABLE ME!!!!!

Best Director
Black Swan - Darren Aronofsky
True Grit - Joel and Ethan Coen - took the place of Christopher Nolan for Inception.
The King's Speech - Tom Hooper
The Social Network - David Fincher
The Fighter - David O. Russell

Best Documentary
Restrepo - My fave...just heart breaking!
Exit Through The Gift Shop
Inside Job
Gasland
Waste Land

Best Foreign Language Film
Biutiful - Mexico
Incedies - Yah Canuck! (That's Canada eh)
In a Better World - Denmark
Dogtooth - Greece
Outside the Law - Yay Algeria!

Best Original Screenplay
The King's Speech
Inception
The Kid's Are Alright
Another Year
The Fighter

Best Adapted Screenplay
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

Fun tidbit - Dido can now be known as an Oscar Nominee - Best Original Song for 127 Hours!

You can view the remaining categories here. Tune in to ABC on Sunday February 27th at 8pm EST. Good luck to all the nominees!