Some film stuff I had missed

I know I was planning on splitting up movie stuff for the most part from now on, but there are a few small tidbits that really don't need their own posts.

Firstly, and I only list this out of respect for the franchise, apparently Indiana Jones 4 is going to start filming in June, with Steven Spielberg set to direct, and 62 year old Harrison Ford ready to jump back into the fedora. George Lucas has been saying that this film is going to be made immanently for the past what like 10 years now, so I'll believe it when I see it... or at least once filming starts. At least Spielberg and Lucas have confirmed that they do have an approved script, and honestly want to get this thing made. hmmm... I'm reserving judgement for just a bit on this one.

A new trailer for the second direct to dvd Hellboy animated film, Blood and Iron has shown up on YouTube. Its definitely worth a look. The first film Sword of Storms aired on I think Cartoon Network one night a few weeks ago, but I somehow missed it... oh that's right, my crappy DVR wasn't working that night. Anyhow, the first one will be available to buy on February 6th. Or you could just go look around if you want to see it. Without even trying I found half of it here.

Oh and speaking of awesome animated superhero films, don't forget about the Invincible Iron Man dvd releasing on January 23rd. Check out the awesome trailer for that at the official website. Or the badass, very violent, adult anime Afro Samurai, voiced by Sam Jackson, which starts airing on SPIKE this Thursday (the 4th at 11pm).

So they've greeenlit a Silent Hill 2. hmm... I still have to see the first one. Heard it was good though. Other video games being made into movies of dubious quality: Hitman, Alice, Postal, Onimusha, Bloodrayne II, Far Cry, God of War, a new Street Fighter, another Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil 4, Price of Persia (which for now is the only one I think might be honestly good), and oh so many many more.

Did you guys miss some trailers recently??? oh really, so you already saw the Ocean's 13 trailer? well what about the new Simpsons trailer? I bet you've never even heard of Fast Track... or what about Hannibal Rising, Balls of Fury, and Smokin Aces... ok, well you probably know them all. Sorry, I've been a bit out of touch.

I'm going to head off now, talk more tomorrow. Lates

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer trailer

So entertainment news does slow down a fair bit over the Christmas week, but there was one big new trailer to hit the web, just as everything was shutting down. In case you haven't seen it yet, please check out the trailer to Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. It is utterly awesome

Yo, I'm back

Do you ever feel like all the old people on the plane just suck up the moisture. I'm so dried out. Planes are gross. totally make me feel like I'm getting sick. Gotta remember it's all in my head, persevere.

Erica and I got back yesterday around midday. We had a long time getting home, with troubles both mechanically, and with the dreaded border patrol. US customs is for chumps. I mean seriously look at the Canadian customs versus US customs. The guys who work at Canadian customs are young, friendly kids, often times its a summer job away from college. They are happy that you're coming to the great white north and treat you with the civility and courtesy of a guest. Oh they are still professional, but they don't carry guns, and they manage to do their job while still maintaining a positive image of Canada. Compare that to the US guards and its a whole other issue. Granted the people that work at the airports are slightly better than the ones at overland border crossings, but generally speaking US border patrol scares the heck out of me.They're gruff, armed, and seem pissed off just being there. It's a career of dealing with crap and they hate every minute of it. Did you known that because of forced quotas the most common people pulled aside at the airport checkout line are people of mid-eastern decent? well maybe that's not so surprising, but the second most pulled aside group is young white women. Why exactly? do they look dangerous? No, actually they are pulled aside second most because the border patrol has to meet their quota of (random) searches and knows that young white women will generally not give them any trouble. Very disturbing...

Ok, sorry for the rant. I've just woken up and am a little distracted / asleep still. Thanks to all the people who bought my stuff on eBay, it seemed to be for the most part a success :) I sold over half of the lots I put up and made, after all the shipping, and ebay/paypal fees (I think), around $240. That would've been more but I accidentally screwed up on the listed shipping costs, so some people literally got away with a steal. D'Oh! my fault though, good for them for noticing the mistake I guess. I'll probably re-list 2 or 3 of the lots that didn't sell, or maybe rearrange them to make a more attractive collection. I suppose my final resort is trying to sell them at work too. Which would probably work, only I would definitely lose money on it. As of now my plans for the money go about as far as picking up the Robotech Protoculture Collection, and a few more trades.

I'd better go get myself together for the day, its New Years Eve tonight. Hooray! We've got plans to go over to our friend Miriam and Florian's house for a small gathering, should be fun. I'm sure I'll be back with more later, I had a really good time in Toronto, got to hang with Erica's family, even had a bonding moment or two with her father. Seriously! and I got to catch up with my buddys Bernard, and Lisa. Good times all around. Ok, I'm off to shower lates.

buy my stuff... please

Hey everyone,

So I'm in Toronto now. Well, not exactly Toronto, but Caledon area, and as expected it's very nice. Unfortunately though, they lost our luggage in Chicago with all the Christmas hullabaloo at the airport, so we have no presents and are stuck wearing the same clothes until we get them back :( Thankfully that should be either tonight or tomorrow, and they're even going to deliver it to the house.

I did get into the city today and saw Bernard which was great.

What I really wanted to let you all know though, is that my items on eBay have finally gone on sale. I'm selling something like 430 comic books in 19 different lots (of 20-40 books a piece). I'm selling them cheap, so if you or someone you know might want some comics, please go check out my eBay Sellers Page for more info.

Thanks all.... happy holidays :)

A land far far away...

Tomorrow I'm heading out on the big Christmas trip. Off to Toronto to spend the holidays with Erica's family. It should be a really fun time. Family time is always good, maybe a bit stressful, but still good :)

So with that said, I probably wont be doing any serious updating here until I get back on the 30th. Usually the pop culture news is pretty slow this upcoming week anyhow, but I sure do wish I could see that Fantastic Four trailer clearly... Ah well, it'll be here when I get back.

So I hope you all have some fun plans for next week, and that all your holiday wishes come true. If you're looking for something fun, and festive to do online, check out this page for links to 101 Christmas videos. It's all there, from It's a Wonderful Life, to The Grinch, Frosty, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and the Star Wars Holiday Special. Enjoy 'em while there here. Ok, I better go now, gotta finish packing. Lotsa love people. Peace out.

ps - yes Bernard, it's a personal post. deal.

Silver Surfer!

The first picture of the Silver Surfer has surfaced online! And I have to say... very cool. I really like it. USA Today got this first glimpse:


We should see even more tomorrow once the new trailer for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer hits theaters with Night at the Museum. It's made using the same techniques as they did on Gollum for Lord of the Rings, with as we should all know by now, Doug Jones, playing the silver man in question. What you might not know is that the Silver Surfer is one of the coolest superhero characters ever invented. He's the thinking man's hero; a tortured soul, constantly searching for his lost humanity. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this film goes.

UPDATE - I'm still trying to look around and find the trailer online. I did see a really blurry video of it this morning on youtube from someone who had snuck a camera into the theater, but the autofocus kept losing the picture. From what I did see though it was amazing looking. I can't seem to even find that anymore though. I'm sure it'll launch online officially soon but unfortunately I'm not going to be in a position to bring it to you right away. For more on that see the post above this.

new Ninja Turtles pics

Over at one of my favorite movie sites SuperHeroHype! they got some new pics from the Ninja Turtles movie, and have some new info. Apprently the voice cast will include, Sara Michelle Gellar, as April, Chris Evans, as Casey Jones, Zhang Ziyi as Karai the evil kickass ninja girl bad guy who leads the footsoldiers, and Kevin Smith in a cameo as a greasy spoon diner chef. These guys will join Patrick Stewart who has signed on as the voice of Splinter. Check out the new poster for the film, as well as some awesome pics below. Click for a larger image.

Iron Man site launches

Check out the new Official Site for Jon Favreau's Iron Man movie starring Robert Downey Jr. opening May 2nd 2008.

Nothing there yet, but you can register for updates if you are so inclined. If not; no worries, I've signed up, and I will keep you apprised of any important information ;)

http://www.ironmanmovie.com

NEW Transformers Trailer!

And Christmas comes early. Once this gets onto YouTube, I'll embed the video here, but until then go check out Yahoo! Movies for the brand new, totally awesome Transformers Trailer. Apparently this is attached to Night at the Museum, which looks pretty good too.

I'm really impressed with the trailer, it actually shows more than I thought it would, but still never gives you a really good full reveal of really any of the Transformers. I really like how grainy and dark the film looks too, it makes everything seem more chaotic. And did you notice that nice little Michael Bay moment in the middle with the tender goodbye? I also love the alieness of it all. The music is totally creepy, and the robots movements are so visually interesting. I think this is great, I mean it puts everything in a much more real world context. If I saw a 40 freakin foot tall robot, I would probably completely lose it.

Excellent trailer, for what looks to be an excellent film.

UPDATE - I just noticed this comment on Michael Bay's Blog, where he says about the new trailer:

"I think some of my films have had good teasers but this one is just makes a statement. It's hard edged to show we are not a silly "toy" movie. We show just hints of robots - and almost none of our epic shots are in this teaser, but the movie just looks big. "

UPDATE UPDATE - I just saw that along with the new trailer the Transformers Official Movie Site has been revamped. They've got some new content too, a new really cool site interface that has you navigating around Cybertron to find your information, and more importantly, when you watch the new trailer on their site at the very end you'll hear Peter Cullen, as Optimus say the winning line from the "Make Prime Speak" contest they ran a few weeks ago "freedom is the right of all sentient beings". Pretty cool.

UPDATE FINAL - I only put this here because I said I would earlier. In case you're too lazy to click a link to see the trailer you can now check it out right here. Hooray for YouTube!

R.I.P. Joseph Barbara

Well, its a sad day indeed, because yesterday at age 95 Joseph Barbara died of natural causes. Obviously his legacy will live on with his amazing library of work, but I just wanted to take a second to thank him for making my life, and probably yours, a little brighter. Along with his partner William Hanna (who died in 2001) he created and worked on THE biggest cartoon characters ever. Look at this list culled from IMDB, and I encourage you to read through his WIKI for even more info...

- Tom and Jerry (1941)
- Ruff and Reddy (1957)
- Huckleberry Hound (1958)
- Quick Draw McGraw (1959)
- The Flintstones (1960)
- Yogi Bear (1961)
- Top Cat (1961)
- The Jetsons (1962)
- Magilla Gorilla (1964)
- Jonny Quest (1964)
- Secret Squirrel and Atom Ant (1965)
- Space Ghost (1966)
- Birdman and the Galaxy Trio (1967)
- The Banana Splits (live action/animated, 1968)
- Scooby-Doo (1969)
- Josie and the Pussycats (1970)
- Super Friends (1973)
- The Smurfs (1981)

There are so many cartoons there that meant so much to me throughout my formative years. Even the ones that grated on me like Tom and Jerry are really important cartoons, and I know that there are people out there who feel that that was the one that spoke to them most. But I grew up loving Yogi Bear, and The Flinstones for their simple and funny stories. The Jetsons was probably honestly my first continual exposure to sci-fi, and yes I know its comic and cheesy but I loved the 50s sensibilities to the future. And if it weren't for The Jetsons I would never have even wanted to see Metropolis, or The Day the Earth Stood Still. And although I'm a bit of a sci-fi nut now, I hit youth at an odd time (early 80s) where sci-fi had largely been supplanted by action shows. So toons like Jonny Quest, were instrumental in fostering a sense of fun and adventure while I waited for the next Indiana Jones film to come out. And who out there can say they didn't watch and love Scooby Doo from time to time. I invented at least ten uniquely crazy, and huge sandwiches after seeing how much fun Shaggy and Scooby had at it. And what about the Superfriends. Man... Me and my sister Catherine would watch that religiously. I loved Apache Chief, who could grow to be a giant when he shouted the word Inuk-chuk, most of all. And even though I watch them now and want to kill them, the Wonder Twins were always so fun. Me and Cat would always try to activate super powers, when playing as Superfriends. Finally though we come to The Smurfs... ahh Les Schtroumpfs, I loved those crazy little blue guys. I wanted to live in a mushroom house. I wanted to kick Brainy for being such a smart ass. I wanted to trick Gargamel and his cat Azrael and to learn from the wisdom of Papa Smurf. And honestly, I did. These cartoons were important to me, if only for being able to make me laugh, and to engage me, and to keep me dreaming.

Thanks Joseph Barbara, you will be missed.

Geoff goes swimming

Yesterday after work I went to the Club One gym down in Union Square and went for a swim. They have a deep water lap pool there, which we don't at my work gym. Since I've been having these knee problems it seemed like a good call to try something with little to no impact. I have to say it went pretty well. Except for the fact that I haven't been swimming, well lap swimming, in a fair while. I am a strong swimmer, but really I think I need to accept that I am not 16 anymore. At one point I was actually teaching swim classes, now, while I still am a good swimmer, I really managed to tire myself out fairly quickly. I need to check how long the pool is next time, cause I don't think it actually is 25 meters, maybe though. Anyhow I managed 40 laps total, 15 freestyle/front crawl, and 25 breast stroke. The rest of the gym is pretty nice too. Not as big as the one at my work, but since I already have a membership there for free I'm not going to complain.

Next time I go, I'm going to use the weights and exercise equipment first though, swimming is tiring, but I think more focused exercise might be even better.

I didn't win

A week and a half ago or so I entered a celebrity Mii lookalike contest, with my entry of Daniel Craig. Well, I just wanted to let you know that the contest has ended and I didn't even place. :( But I won't be too sad because I really only spent like 10 minutes making 007, and the ones that did win are absolutely fantastic. Check out the results HERE.

May favorite is definitely Admiral Akbar.

Day Break cancelled

Man, that pisses me off. So I just read that Day Break was canceled this past Friday. That sucks, especially 'cause this was really just as it was starting to get interesting if you ask me. Day Break was the Groundhog Day meets 24 tv show, I'll assume you've heard of it. But I guess maybe I was one of the only people actually watching though, cause ABC has pulled it, and replaced it with ...what? RERUNS of According to Jim, and The George Lopez Show... what a travesty.

The show followed cop Brett Hopper (Taye Diggs), as he keeps reliving the same day over and over again. Problem is the day is pretty much the worst day of his life. He is being framed for the murder of a district attorney, his family is in jeopardy, and he has no clue why. So everyday he tries to find out more of the puzzle. Solve the crime and then maybe figure out why he is reliving the same day again and again. Is that a high concept show? Is it too sci-fi? Cause it made sense to me. Yes the plot was complex, but not any worse than 24. I thought Diggs brought a great charisma to the screen and the action was top notch. I guess it just didn't cut it according to ABC. The really annoying thing to me though is that, like with Smith, Day Break was cancelled just before it was about to do something interesting. With Smith, 'the big score' was about to go down, and with Day Break he was finally, finally starting to get some real answers. Also there was apparently only a few more episodes left too. They had something like 10 more shows that they needed to tell the entire story. That's just lame. Boo ABC, boo...

Thankfully they will be showing the unaired episodes, on ABC.com. Hopefully they'll have the whole rest of the series, but we'll have to wait and see.

a mostly great weekend

This past weekend held a little bad, and a lot of good for me.

The bad, frustrating, terribly awful , and annoying thing was that I went for a charity run, The Christmas Classic through Golden Gate park, and I actually couldn't finish. I think I mentioned that I'd been having knee troubles. Well its getting worse. I went to the doctor a few weeks ago, and she gave me a recommendation for a specialist. When I went to the specialist he said that my right knee predominantly, and somewhat on my left, is 'tracking' wrong, especially when fatigued. Basically that means the plate on the knee, the patella, isn't following the set alignment that it should when bending. You know that it floats right? ok, sorry; everyone knows that. So thankfully though, he said it actually isn't a physiological problem, nothing is physically wrong, and I should be able to retrain my knee to bend properly. He suggested a few sessions of physiotherapy and that after i build some strength in different parts of the knee I should be good as new. This is a very good thing. I know way too many people who have knee problems, and none of it sounds even remotely good. Of course the problem now is that I haven't had time to go to the physiotherapist yet, and won't until the new year. Running is becoming a problem though, and its extremely frustrating. I know the thing to do is not push it, but man.... I can't even finish a 5km run! After about 2 miles my knee just blew. Ok, it didn't blow out really, but it just started killing. Like sharp crippling pain with every bend. So i had to stop. it was depressing, and I know I shouldn't beat myself up over it, I just was pretty upset about the whole situation. So I stopped and rested the knee for 15 minutes or so, and was then able to walk around. Nothing permanent done at least. Erica and I had a good plan though. Because I have a gym membership with my work, I'm going to stop by one of their facilities that has a pool tonight. I think maybe I can handle swimming laps, and that at least will be some exercise. And zero impact too. It won't fix the problem, but it can't hurt.

The really good thing this past weekend was that because Erica and I are going to spend Christmas with her family outside of Toronto, we had Christmas with my family yesterday! Hooray for Christmas! Although we actually see my parents like once every week or so this was a very good visit. I should actually get some more pictures of the kitties. Loki and Freya are sooo cute now, and they've grown so much. We had a good meal too, of some yummy salmon. But of course most importantly, we all got presents. Erica didn't get me anything now, because she got me the Wii a month or so ago, which is totally amazing and I love, so that is really my best present this year. Other than that though, my mom bought me a ton of clothes for Xmas that I badly needed. I actually went with her to pick them out last week, then she took them home and wrapped them up. Its nice to finally have something new to wear again. And then my dad got me a great gift too. He's going to pay for my airfare and entrance fee at this years San Diego Comic-Con!!! Yup that's right kids. I'm going to the SD comic-con! And I'm very excited about it. Sure its not til the end of July, but it's going to be sweet. Erica might actually have to be there for work, but that's not going to be for sure until a bit closer to the date. So for now at least I'm going to plan on going with my buddy Joey. Yes I know this is super geeky, but man it'll be fun. I went two years ago and really loved it. This time, I think I'll have to save up some money beforehand though, and really plan out a proper schedule for the panels I want to see. oh, so exciting...

The main present Erica and I got my parents was tickets to the symphony. We also got tickets for us too; so that should be a fun night, especially since I've never been to a symphony before. And the main present I got Erica was some kitchen knives. I know, I know... it's not super romantic, but she's a practical girl... and really these are very good knives ;)

I also went to a kinda lame holiday party. But that's ok. You can't have all good parties. Oh but I did get a ton of stuff set for sale up on Ebay. I have 13 lots of comic books set to go on auction on Dec 23rd at 8am. And actually 6 more lots to add to the mix still. So please check out my sellers page and buy some comics if you're interested. oh wait, actually you can't see anything there cause nothing has gone up for auction yet. But after the 23rd I'll post that link again. ok, I'm going to sign off for now, there's more I'm sure, so I'll talk to you all laters.

JLA on Smallville

So admittedly I've only watched the first 2 seasons of Smallville, and those are probably the worst two, being predominantly filled with freak-of-the-week style stories, I do plan on catching up on the rest of the series one of these days. I really like the cast, especially Michael Rosenbaum as Lex, and since I never really read any Superman as a kid, I don't have any great attachment to the characters, hence I don't mind any updates they made in the sake of modern hipness.

Check out this trailer for an upcoming episode of Smallville that features a rough semblance of the Justice League. I assume this is from season... 6 (i think). Pretty badass if you ask me. :)

Thanks to ComicBookMovie.com for pointing me towards this one.

Resident Evil: Extinction

Did you like Resident Evil: Apocalypse? Cause I thought it was utter crap. I mean it was just horrible, terrible god, awful writing. It had pretty piss poor acting. It had ridiculous totally unbelievable stunts, and bad direction on the action sequences. Considering how much silly fun I thought the first Resident Evil film was. And how much I love Mila Jovovich, I was very disappointed to see Apocalypse fail to live up to the very modest standards of the first.

That said, it was far far better than most video game adaptations of late. Did anyone here see Doom? or Bloodrayne??? Now those were real travesties. I think I was mostly just pissed that the first Resident Evil film ended on such a good note, with Alice escaping capture to find a deserted, Raccoon City in ruin, overrun with the living dead, and then grabbing that shotgun from the cop car ready to kick some zombie ass. It was one of those Matrix style endings that make you just say 'fuck yea, I can't wait to see the sequel to this'.

So today I discovered that Anderson and co. are hard at work on the third (and final) installment in the franchise Resident Evil: Extinction. ok, well, I suppose I knew that this thing existed somewhere in my brain, but I had forgotten about it until today. The film is set to take place in the Nevada desert, and has the now biogenetically enhanced Alice hiding out and hunting the undead with a few other folks, including Ali Larter (Niki on Heroes!) as Claire Redfield, and these wicked looking curved machete weapons. I'm sure we'll get a cool Old West feel with this one, just like in the extremely successful Resident Evil 4 game, and everyone knows that Old West zombie slaying is pretty darn fun.

I can't say a part of me isn't excited to see this. I know I felt kind of burned by Apocalypse, but I always seem to come back to the fold when it comes to Mila. Pretty much anything seems worth it to see Mila kicking ass.... just check out these photo from the set.

The film is slated to come out September 21st, '07.

del Toro to make Tarzan

So Guillermo del Toro is in talks to direct a new, edgier adaptation of Tarzan. And I think that's a really good idea. I really like the character, and imagine that it could be done really well in the right writer and director's hands. The script is already being written by a guy named John Collee (Master and Commander, Happy Feet), and del Toro, who as we all know is awesome, says he's excited to bring it back to it's roots. To follow closer to the Edgar Rice Burroughs stories, pulpy but intense. And while del Toro is apparently committed to keeping it a family friendly film, we all know del Toro isn't afraid to do something a bit darker in tone too.

Of course before any of this comes together del Toro is set to direct Hellboy 2: The Goldon Army, which will be ultra-awesome in it's own right. But this Tarzan thing could be a very good.... have to see how it develops.

The first eight Tarzan books including the very first, Tarzan of the Apes, can all be read online for free over at Project Gutenberg. Hooray for public domain! I've never read em, but I like Burroughs and plan to go check em out soon.

Thanks to Comingsoon.net I've learned so very very much. Honestly they are a great site.

Transformers production still

So this is actually an official still from the Transformers movie. It popped up online maybe a week or so ago, but I didn't mention it because I really wasn't too excited about it. It's officially found over at Yahoo! Movies, and obviously is a picture of Tyrese Gibson running away from Scorponok. I know what this scene is, after reading the Prime Objectives script a few months ago, and the only thing that really surprises me is the size of the Transformer in the background. In my head Scorponok was pretty small, so having him be big is kinda cool I guess. Anyhow, not a bad pic, but I think I was hoping to see more somehow. And is it just me, or does everything look kind of Starship Troopers-ish in that pic?




Much more exciting to me though is the news that the new Transformers trailer is set to debut online next Wednesday! That is very good news indeed.

Golden Globe '07 nominations

So yesterday morning the announcement come out about the nominations for The 64th Annual Golden Globes. As usual I have formed a few opinions on them that I thought I'd share with you. Why? Because I can. I haven't actually seen most of these films, so really don't trust anything I say... then again that should probably be a given with most topics ;) Here are the nominations along with my picks for winner, in RED.


Golden Globe 2007 Nominations

Picture, Drama: Babel, Bobby, The Departed, Little Children, The Queen

Actress, Drama: Penelope Cruz, Volver ; Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal ; Maggie Gyllenhaal, Sherrybaby ; Helen Mirren, The Queen ; Kate Winslet, Little Children

Actor, Drama: Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond ; Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed ; Peter O'Toole, Venus ; Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness ; Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Picture, Musical or Comedy: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, The Devil Wears Prada, Dreamgirls, Little Miss Sunshine, Thank You for Smoking

Actress, Musical or Comedy: Annette Bening, Running With Scissors ; Toni Collette, Little Miss Sunshine ; Beyonce Knowles, Dreamgirls ; Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada ; Renee Zellweger, Miss Potter

Actor, Musical or Comedy: Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan ; Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ; Aaron Eckhart, Thank You for Smoking ; Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kinky Boots ; Will Ferrell, Stranger than Fiction

Supporting Actress: Adriana Barraza, Babel ; Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal ; Emily Blunt, The Devil Wears Prada ; Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls ; Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

Supporting Actor: Ben Affleck, Hollywoodland ; Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls ; Jack Nicholson, The Departed ; Brad Pitt, Babel ; Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

Director: Clint Eastwood, Flags of Our Fathers ; Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima ; Steven Frears, The Queen ; Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel ; Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Screenplay: Guillermo Arriaga, Babel ; Todd Field and Tom Perrotta, Little Children ; Patrick Marber, Notes on a Scandal ; William Monahan, The Departed ; Peter Morgan, The Queen

Foreign Language: Apocalypto, USA; Letters from Iwo Jima, USA/Japan; The Lives of Others, Germany; Pan's Labyrinth, Mexico; Volver Spain

Animated Film: Cars, Happy Feet, Monster House

Original Score: Alexandre Desplat, The Painted Veil ; Clint Mansell, The Fountain ; Gustavo Santaolalla, Babel ; Carlo Siliotto, Nomad ; Hans Zimmer, The Da Vinci Code

Original Song: A Father's Way from The Pursuit of Happyness ; Listen from Dreamgirls ; Never Gonna Break My Faith from Bobby ; The Song of the Heart from Happy Feet ; Try Not to Remember from Home of the Brave

TELEVISION

Series, Drama: 24, Fox; Big Love, HBO; Grey's Anatomy, ABC; Heroes, NBC; Lost, ABC

Actress, Drama: Patricia Arquette, Medium ; Edie Falco, The Sopranos ; Evangeline Lilly, Lost ; Ellen Pompeo, Grey's Anatomy ; Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Actor, Drama: Patrick Dempsey, Grey's Anatomy ; Michael C. Hall, Dexter ; Hugh Laurie, House ; Bill Paxton, Big Love ; Kiefer Sutherland, 24

Series, Musical or Comedy: Desperate Housewives, ABC; Entourage, HBO; The Office, NBC; Ugly Betty, ABC; Weeds, Showtime

Actress, Musical or Comedy: Marcia Cross, Desperate Housewives ; America Ferrera, Ugly Betty ; Felicity Huffman, Desperate Housewives ; Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine ; Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds

Actor, Musical or Comedy: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock ; Zach Braff, Scrubs ; Steve Carrell, The Office ; Jason Lee, My Name is Earl ; Tony Shalhoub, Monk

Miniseries or movie: Bleak House, PBS; Broken Trail, AMC; Elizabeth I, HBO; Mrs. Harris, HBO; Prime Suspect: The Final Act, PBS

Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Gillian Anderson, Bleak House ; Annette Bening, Mrs. Harris ; Helen Mirren, Elizabeth I ; Helen Mirren, Prime Suspect: The Final Act ; Sophie Okonedo, Tsunami, The Aftermath

Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Andre Braugher, Thief ; Robert Duvall, Broken Trail ; Michael Ealy, Sleeper Cell: American Terror ; Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tsunami, The Aftermath ; Ben Kingsley, Mrs. Harris ; Bill Nighy, Gideon's Daughter ; Matthew Perry, The Ron Clark Story

Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Emily Blunt, Gideon's Daughter ; Toni Collette, Tsunami, The Aftermath ; Katherine Heigl, Grey's Anatomy ; Sarah Paulson, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip ; Elizabeth Perkins, Weeds

Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Thomas Haden Church, Broken Trail ; Jeremy Irons, Elizabeth I ; Justin Kirk, Weeds ; Masi Oka, Heroes ; Jeremy Piven, Entourage

So that's it. Most of my picks are just wild guesses, so who knows. Really it's not that I honestly think The Golden Globes are very important. In my mind they're trying to go too far. Not as good on TV as the Emmys, not as good on film as the Oscars. They're the mutant stepchild, the flipper-baby that you keep locked under the stairs... you know what I'm talking about, and don't pretend that you don't... Anyhow, they can be a good precursor for the Oscars though, and at the least its a bit of a shake out, the wheat from the chaff sort of thing. ok, my metaphors are a bit off today, so I'm going to stop now.

One last thing to remember, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association who vote on the Golden Globes is not a body with proper metrics for accountability. There are real concerns, as to their ultimate bias in deciding who wins or not. They are not in my estimation, even as reliable a voting group as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (which obviously has it's own problems, but are at least made up of industry peers), these guys are critics; arguably critics for hire. That said, they're decisions are probably no worse than that of you and your drinking buddies, and it's all in good fun. Just know what it is, before you put all your faith in them.

The Golden Globes will air on NBC on Jan 15th at 8pm EST.

Posting problems...

Man its been busy lately. I've been out shopping, trying to keep up on the podcast, and generally trying to keep my head together. I've been working off daily "To Do" lists, which I keep when things get a bit overly busy, and even still I'm not keeping up. Granted I find that whenever I make myself a To Do list I end up doing the easier stuff first, and sometimes it gives me more work cause I think of all the millions of small things to get done... I digress though.

Yesterday I actually had a plan to write something here, but what should I discover when I tried to log onto the Blogger Beta site? Apparently the sign in page was deemed inappropriate by my work's firewall and blocked. The reason "adult content", and the word "sex". Whaaa??? Exactly.

As I was also dealing with a problem getting the old skool Blogger to publish for my podcast web page I was hunting through the Google Groups Forum, and found that low and behold I was in fact not the only one experiencing problems logging in. Someone had posted complaining that they couldn't blog from the public library in Nashville, for the same 'sex' reason. And apparently he wasn't alone. Well, it seems that there's this online security program called Wordwise (i think) that tracks keywords. Its been malfunctioning, and various firewall programs that use it are getting barred from sites like Amazon, and Yahoo. funny, eh?

Well, I'm glad they've fixed the bug. cause if I couldn't blog from work I think I might go crazy. Better go now though. You know, work and all ;)