jakobnicholas

Oscar nominations are handed out Thursday. Curious if Via-Chicagoans have seen any of the movies that are vying to be on the list of 5 best films. The favorites seem to be Milk, Slumdog Millioanaire, Frost/Nixon, Benjamin Buttons, Doubt, Rachel Getting Married and The Wrestler. Dark Knight, Iron Man, Wall-E or Gran Torino are probably long-shots, but I think it'd be great if one of those got in (especially Wall-E).

I agree that Heartbreak Ridge is farily represtentative of the Eastwood persona in movies. But the original Dirty Harry is how I think of the old Eastwood. Dirty Harry's a pretty damned good movie. My favorite Eastwood-directed movie is Mystic River.

Saw this movie over the weekend. Really impressive movie by Eastwood. Despite his character being a grumpy old guy who throws out racial slurs to his Korean neighbors, he somehow is a bit likeable at first, then even more so as tries to loosen up and be friendly with his nieghbors. Before long, you like Walt Kowalski and are rooting for him, as for his teenage friend who unintentionally gets involved in gang troubles. The movie had some layers....a movie that can be talked about and make you think about things afterwards. I'm hoping it gets an Oscar nomination. I think it has a decent ch

Pitchfork's right. It DOES remind of Escape Club's "Wild, Wild West". And that is NOT a good thing. The single's leaving me under-whelmed.

Mykonos sounded amazing. The vocal interplay and harmonies was sweet. Great to see a quality band like them on SNL.

(Vic Chesnutt) My earliest memory is of holding up a sparkler High up to the darkest sky Some 4th of July spectacular I shook it with an urgency I'll never be able to repeat

The names skit WAS good. Forgot about that. I agree. Harris did a really good job. Next week: Rosario Dawson and FLEET FOXES

SNL was good Saturday night. Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser) hosted. They did a funny short where Harris (on keyboards) and others played the Doogie Howser theme song....as if it was a serious orchestral presentation. Kristin Wiig was awesome, yet again. She played Kathy Lee Gifford on the morning show, which was really funny. To me, she's become the reason to watch SNL. She was really good in a couple other skits also. I also liked the skit about Broadway shutting down theatres, the Frost/Nixon ad parody, and Will Forte's mocking song about why he likes the BCS College Championsh

Gimme Shelter was the first song that popped in my head. I LOVE that intro. Also, Band On The Run is great....love the guitar riffs. Van Halen's Little Guitars is cool.

The victor and victory margin was what I thought it would be. But I did think Oklahoma had a decent chance. The key play was Oklahoma going for it on 4th and 1 in the first half, with the game tied at 7. For some reason, Oklahoma rushed to the line and did a quick snap....only helping Florida bust a gap and make a great tackle. Had OU scored a TD, who knows how the game turns out. No doubt that Florida's speed on defense was the key. Great job by Florida. Hard to argue against the SEC. The athletes they get on defense...particularly the secondary....is the difference.

Yeah. Hard to imagine anyplace doing that now.

I also love root beer, and nothing was better than A&W in a frosted mug at the A&W resturaunt. Not sure if they do that still anywhere....not by me..

I mostly agree with that. But that doesn't take away from the immense offensive talent in the Big 12....particularly QB and receiver. I DO think Florida has a good chance of winning tonight, but it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Oklahoma wins by 2 touchdowns. The spread offense can be very potent....but can also lead to many turnovers if the QB isn't on his game.

I don't drink much pop. 95% of the time I drink water. But Coca-Cola is the king of sodas. Specifically, Coca-Cola from a McDonalds's fountain. I'm convinced McDonald's mixture has more syrup....it tastes so damn good.

I live in Big 12 country, and 2 weeks ago I'd have guessed Oklahoma would win by 2 touchdowns. But right now, I'm leaning towards Florida winning the game. Are the Big 12 offenses THAT good? Are the Big 12 defenses THAT bad? I think the truth is in the middle somewhere. It's been proven that a good rush and speed can slow down the spread offenses. That's why I think Florida has a good chance to win tonight. But I also say that if any Pac 10, Big Ten or SEC team played in the Big 12, their defense would also be rated no higher than #40 or #50 in the country. When the spread offense is

Coyne has that "it" inside him....and I don't what that "it" is, but every so often you see someone that makes you wish you could look at life like that person.

I did not attend the Lips' NYE bash in Oklahoma city, but it sounded amazing. A few fresh songs were added to their playlist, including Turn It On. But even more fantastically, All We Have is Now and PURPLE RAIN (!!!!)....with Drozd ripping a great guitar solo. Here's youtube links to the latter 2 songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVKF4Vlevbo

I agree. I think Batman has more substance to stand on without Ledger than Iron Man without Downey, but both movies leap from "decent" to "good" or "great" because of the 2 actors. The end of Iron Man didn't live up to the first 2/3....but again, Downey helped immensely. I love when he has to wolf down the hamburger. And the relationship with Paltrow's character is fairly strong.

Different strokes, I guess. The last 2 Bond movies were OK, but just didn't seem like James Bond movies to me. They seemed closer to Rambo....a serious macho dude kicking all kinds of ass and destroying things.

To me, Robert Downey Jr. gets a TON of credit for making Iron Man work. I really, truly cared for and felt for his character. And his swagger and confidence and humor throughout the movie was fun to watch. On the other hand, I could hardly invest an ounce of emotion into Bale's Batman. I think it's mostly Bale's fault (does he always have to look and sound so serious and pissed?) But maybe most of the reason is that the Batman character is just dark and bland. He's a little similar to Superman....but with Superman, we also get to see his very likeable, bungling Clark Kent character. The best

Oh wow. I TOTALLY agree with this. I thought Dark Knight was "good"....nothing more. When Ledger was on screen, I was totally transfixed. But the Harvey character did nothing for me. I agree with David Banda that the trasformation of Harvey came across as unreal....I didn't buy it. And once we see the last of Joker in the movie, it needs to end. I had no desire or care to see what Harvey was up to. To me, Iron Man was the best super-hero movie of 2008.

My Mom has these 45's: King Tut - Steve Martin Mr. Jaws - Dickie Goodman And the B-side of Seasons of the Sun (Terry Jacks) had a song called Put the Bone In. It was covered by Soul Asylum later. Very strange title and song: Put the bone in She yelled at the store 'Cause my doggie's been hit by a car And I do want to bring him home something Put the bone in She yelled out once more Because the meat from the pork is so sweet And the bone from the pork give to me Put the bone in she begged him As she paced across the floor Put the bone in she yelled out once more Put the

Eddie Murphy would be a HORRIFIC choice. Shia LeBouf I'm indifferent about.

I love the music of the 70's. Here's how I'd describe it in a 10 song play-list of songs I like a lot. 1. Seasons in the Sun - Terry Jacks 2. Rhinestone Cowboy - Glenn Campbell 3. Jackie Blue - Ozark Mountain Daredevils 4. The Song Remains the Same - Led Zeppelin 5. I Just Want to be Your Everything - Andy Gibb 6. Make A Scene - Chris Bell 7. All By Myself - Eric Carmen 8. Where to Now St. Peter - Elton John 9. Wildfire - Michael Montgomery 10. Have You Ever Been Mellow - Olivia Newton John

Johhny-come-lately here. Just got Kanye West's 808 & HEARTBREAKS. It's very good, imo.