Shut it down

So, if you've visited this site in the past few months, you've noticed a dearth of new content: moving from our condo to a house treated me to a long, long commute, which pretty much ate up all of my time that I previously had to spend in front of the computer.

And so, I'm closing down this little blogging experiment, effective right now.

Take heart, though, dear readers, for a new day is dawning: now that I have officially resigned from my day job to stay home with our baby and launch my fledgling freelance writing career for reals, I'm launching a new blog to document the fun.  Check out writer-dad.com to see what I'm up to on that front.

I also plan to launch a second blog with a different focus in the next little bit, so stay tuned.

Thanks for reading.

Coffee is for closers

A memo from Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Mamet (Heist) has shown up on the Internet this week that he wrote to the writing staff of his now-cancelled but entirely excellent TV show, The Unit. The memo is dated 2005, and rather explicitly (and with a fair amount of humour) describes how to write scenes and plot. It's a fantastic read - check it out here. Mamet's work is singular in its sparse use of exposition and its labyrinthine plotting, is is wholly awesome.

A good sport

Each year, the Razzie Awards are handed out, recognizing the supposed worst performances and films of the year. Sandra Bullock has become the second actor ever to pick up her Razzie, for the film All About Steve, ironically shortly before she won an Oscar.

Her acceptance speech is pretty great - check it out here.

Dan's 2010 Oscar Predictions

Roger Ebert recently commented on how easy to predict many of the Oscar categories are this year, and I would tend to agree - a lot of these seem like a slam dunk. I still think Best Picture & Best Director could go either way, and I'm torn on Best Actor, but for now I'm putting my rep on the line with these calls:

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Mo'Nique, Precious

Animated Feature Film: Up

Art Direction: Avatar

Cinematography: Robert Richardson, Inglourious Basterds

Costume Design: Sandy Powell, The Young Victoria

Documentary Feature: The Cove

Film Editing: The Hurt Locker

Foreign Language Film: The White Ribbon

Makeup: Star Trek

Original Score: Michael Giacchino, Up

Original Song: 'The Weary Kind' from Crazy Heart

Sound Editing: Avatar

Sound Mixing: Avatar

Visual Effects: Avatar

Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air

Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker

Oscar Party Kit

Next Sunday is the 82nd annual Academy Awards, and there's a great Oscar Night Party Kit available at the official site.

I'll post my predictions later this week.

The Time Traveller's Alright

Despite the saccrine, rather lame promotional campaign, it turns out that The Time Traveller's Wife, recently released on home video, is actually pretty good. The film doesn't take itself particularily seriously, sidestepping any effort to come up with a realistic explaination for Eric Bana's random time travelling habits, choosing instead to find the humour and genuine emotion from the logistical issues that arise when one half of a couple keeps literally disappearing. One scene in particular - when the pair gets married - stands out as both surprisingly funny and emotionally satisfying. The Time Traveller's Wife may be the year's most underrated picture.

Visit Denmark!

While some people may find parts this kind of disturbing (so be forewarned), here's a great story from The Onion on the new Tourism Denmark campaign directed by Lars Von Trier (Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, Breaking the Waves, Antichrist). Anyone familiar with Von Trier's dark, uncompromisingly challenging work should find it pretty funny.