One Oscar to Rule them All: The King gets his due

– R. Bobby Umar

The Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday February 29, 2004. This year there is a mix of very close races and some major guarantees. I have been waiting for this Oscar event for awhile since I have been anxious for Lord of the Rings to finally get its due. The other interesting thing is that the academy has moved the Oscars a month, earlier which technically should make it harder to predict since the Oscar voters would not have been able to wait to see who won the Golden Globes or the Screen Actors Guild awards before voting. Therefore, they do not have as much pull, which was evident in the nominations not being as closely linked.

One trend has continued from the past few years. The major categories do not have to match each other. Best picture last year was Chicago, while Best Director was Roman Polanski. However, Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty started a personal campaign to get votes for Polanski and Brody, which ended up in wins. This influence may be more prevalent now and especially for Renee Zellweger, who was the huge frontrunner in her category but is now threatened to be upset.

I have allocated numbers to the nominees to indicate their percentage chance of winning. I have also put them in order of my confidence. Feel free just to scan down to the ones you are only interested in. Again, remember folks, whoever the academy picks is only THEIR opinion of who is deserving and not reflective of what the whole world or certain individual’s think (There are only 6000 academy members). So here goes:

Best Picture

100 LOTR: Return of the King

Mystic River

Lost in Translation

Master & Commander

Seabiscuit

Return of the King’s only miss is that the Academy never votes for fantasy or sci-fi movies. However this movie does come from an extremely popular novel, it’s a sweeping epic, it’s timeless, the series has had wins the past 2 years, critics loved it, it made $1 Billion, and it won the Producers Guild (PGA), Directors Guild (DGA), Screen Actors Guild (SAG) ensemble, and the Golden Globes (GG). The only movie that could possibly upset would be Mystic River but that would be the biggest upset since Chariots of Fire beat out Reds (what movie was that? Exactly!)

My Pick: LOTR: Return of the King

My Second Pick Mystic River

My Preference: LOTR: Return of the King

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Best Director - Motion Picture

100 Peter Jackson, LOTR: Return of the King

Clint Eastwood, Mystic River

Peter Weir, Master & Commander

Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation

Fernando Meirelles, City of God

Peter Jackson won the DGA, which is a 90% predictor. Also the Academy voters are actors, producers, directors, and technical people, who all would marvel at the enormity of Jackson achievement of balancing acting, storytelling, and effect. Again this category is a lock.

My Pick & Preference: Peter Jackson

My Second Pick Clint Eastwood

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Best Performance by an Actor

40 Sean Penn, Mystic River

35 Bill Murray, Lost in Translation

25 Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean

Ben Kingsley, House of Sand and Fog

Jude Law, Cold Mountain

This one is quite fun because a two-way race between Penn and Murray all of a sudden became three-way when Depp won the SAG. All three were great but Penn has been nominated before and although he never goes to the awards, I believe on the advice of Clint Eastwood he has been going to the various award events. Would love to see Murray win, and I think Depp will come around some other time.

My Pick: Sean Penn

My Second Pick: Bill Murray

My Preference: Bill Murray

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Best Performance by an Actress

80 Charlize Theron, Monster

15 Diane Keaton, Something's Gotta Give

5 Naomi Watts, 21 Grams

Samantha Morton, In America

Keisha Castle-Hughes, Whale Rider

Although Keaton has a lot of industry support, Theron’s transformation has garnered her all the pre-cursor awards and she fits in my yearly ingénue theory. I am sure Watts and Morton will be around again.

My Pick/Preference: Charlize Theron

My Second Pick Diane Keaton

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Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

70 Tim Robbins, Mystic River

25 Alec Baldwin, The Cooler

5 Djimon Hounsou, In America

Benicio Del Toro, 21 Grams

Ken Watanabe, The Last Samurai

I have loved Tim Robbins for years, ever since Shawshank Redemption. This is his year, as he has won many of the awards and is loved by the industry. Since supporting categories have upsets, I would be cautious here.

My Pick & Preference: Tim Robbins

My Second Pick Alec Baldwin

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Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

50 Shohreh Aghdashloo, House of Sand and Fog

49 Renée Zellweger, Cold Mountain

1 Patricia Clarkson, Pieces of April

Marcia Gay Harden, Mystic River

Holly Hunter, thirteen

This one is VERY interesting. When the noms came out I was like Zellweger is a LOCK! However, there has been growing momentum for Aghdashloo, the first Iranian ever nominated. Zellweger has been nominated the past three years but she made a few nasty faux pas. Last year, she was so upset losing to Kidman that she went straight home, not joining her team from Chicago that won most of the awards. She also said this year that last year ‘wasn’t fair’ and that she ‘deserves to win this year’. I hope my emotions don’t get the better of me because I really hope she doesn’t win. Zellweger both deserves to win and to lose. She did win the GG and the SAG, but she wasn’t up against Aghdashloo, so my gut is saying the upset will be this year. .

My Pick: Shohreh Aghdashloo

My Second Pick Renee Zellweger

My Preference: Shohreh Aghdashloo

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Best Original Screenplay

80 Lost in Translation

20 In America

Finding Nemo

The Barbarian Invasions

Dirty Pretty Things

Lost in Translation won the Writer's Guild (WG) and the academy would love to give something to Sofia Coppola so this is where it’s going to happen. In America is another nice story with a father sharing the writing with his 2 daughters and it received some acting awards too. Would love to see Finding Nemo win because I think it’s sometimes harder to write for animation.

My Pick: Lost in Translation

My Second Pick In America

My Preference: Finding Nemo

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Best Adaptive Screenplay

33 Seabiscuit

32 Mystic River

20 American Splendor

14 The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

1 City of God

Mystic River was the front-runner but then American Splendor won the WG. Lord of the Rings may get it for its full body of work. City of God has a chance similar to Pedro Almodovar’s win last year. And finally, Seabiscuit has gained incredible momentum and the Academy would have an opportunity to give a win here. However this one may not necessarily go to the major nominated films. All in all, very confusing. If Robbins and Penn win the acting categories look for them to NOT win here. Since I predicted that, I have to go with Seabiscuit.

My Pick: Seabiscuit

My Second Pick : Mystic River

My Preference: LOTR: Return of the King

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Best Original Score

70 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

20 Big Fish

10 Finding Nemo

Cold Mountain

House of Sand and Fog

Howard Shore won the GG and his body of work for LOTR is impressive.

My Pick: LOTR: Return of the King

My Second Pick Big Fish

My Preference: LOTR: Return of the King

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Best Original Song - Motion Picture

80 "Into the West" - The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King

20 “You Will Be My Ain True Love" - Cold Mountain

"A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" - A Mighty Wind

"Scarlet Tide" - Cold Mountain

"Belleville Rendezvous"- The Triplets Of Belleville

Into the West sung by Annie Lennox, won the GG. The two nominations for Cold Mountain from Sting and Elvis Costello will likely split the votes bought by Harvey Weinstein of Miramax.

My Pick: Into the West

My Second Pick Will you be my ain true love

My Preference: Into the West

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Best Animated Film

100 Finding Nemo

The Triplets of Belleville

Brother Bear

Way too easy. It’s also up for score and screenplay

My Pick & Preference: Finding Nemo

My Second Pick: The Triplets of Belleville

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Best Foreign Language Film

70 The Barbarian Invasions (Canada)

30 Evil (Sweden)

The Twilight Samurai (Japan)

Twin Sisters (The Netherlands)

Zelary (Czech Republic)

Canada has an entry for foreign language film? Probably cause French is so foreign to the US. IT is the one to beat since City of God is not here and it is the only film with noms in other categories.

My Pick & Preference: The Barbarian Invasions

My Second Pick: Evil

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Best Art Direction

80 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

15 Girl With a Pearl Earring

5 The Last Samurai

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Seabiscuit

LOTR won the Art Directors Guild.

My Pick: LOTR: Return of the King

My Second Pick Girl With a Pearl Earring

My Preference: LOTR: Return of the King

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Best Cinematography

60 Seabiscuit

40 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

City of God

Cold Mountain

Girl With a Pearl Earring

LOTR is not here. Seabiscuit won the American Society of Cinematographers award.

My Pick: Seabiscuit

My Second Pick Master and Commander

My Preference: Seabiscuit

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Best Costumes

45 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

35 The Last Samurai

20 Girl With a Pearl Earring

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Seabiscuit

My Pick: LOTR: Return of the King

My Second Pick Last Samurai (same designer as LOTR)

My Preference: LOTR: Return of the King

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Best Make-up

95 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

5 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

My Pick: LOTR: Return of the King

My Second Pick Pirates of the Caribbean

My Preference: LOTR: Return of the King

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Best Film Editing

80 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

10 Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World

10 Seabiscuit

City of God

Cold Mountain

My Pick: LOTR: Return of the King

My Second Pick Master and Commander

My Preference: LOTR: Return of the King

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Best Sound

100 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Seabiscuit

The Last Samurai

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

My Pick: LOTR: Return of the King

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Best Sound Editing

100 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Finding Nemo

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

My Pick: Master and Commander

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Best Visual Effects

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

My Pick: LOTR: Return of the King

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Best Achievement in Documentary Feature

60 Capturing the Friedmans

40 The Fog of War

Balseros

My Architect

The Weather Underground

My Pick: Capturing the Friedmans

My Second Pick The Fog of War

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Best Achievement in Documentary Short Subject

100 Chernobyl Heart

Asylum

Ferry Tales

My Pick: Chernobyl Heart

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Best Animated Short Film

40 Destino

15 Boundin'

15 gone Nutty

15 Harvie Krumpet

15 Nibbles

My Pick: Destino

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Best Live Action Short Film

40 Two Soldiers

15 Die Rote Jacke (The Red Jacket)

15 Most (The Bridge)

15 Squash

15 (A) Torzija ([A] Torsion)

My Pick: Two Soldiers

The Return of the Other King: A Review of The Gunslinger

by Ted Langlais

Although I’m a High School English teacher, I’m not ashamed to admit that Stephen King is the reason I became interested in literature. I remember as a young boy taking Firestarter from my mother’s paperback collection and being entranced by the very first paragraph. The gruesome repulsion and attraction of the main character’s headache being described as a horse running over the tissue of his brain caught my attention even then.

To this day, I am a defender of King’s works, his early ones anyway. His ability to generate realistic and believable characters and to put them into fantastical and bizarre situations has always been second to none. It is a shame that his works became overly self-aggrandising and poorly edited during the mid eighties. Thousand plus page tomes with little more than three hundred pages of actual story filled the best seller lists for years and, coupled with flop after flop at the box office, my esteem for King’s talent diminished in much the same way as it did for U2 during their Rattle and Hum period.

After having learned more of King’s life, however, and his past addictions, I kind of picture him as Jack in The Shining, under the influence, and typing page after page of nonsense, believing every word to be a spark of genius.

Thankfully, that seems to have changed in recent years. Dreamcatcher, despite the terrible movie inspired by its pages, shows glimpses of the wonder and fun of King’s early works. In the afterward of that novel, he discusses how it was written during his recuperation following the car accident that nearly took his life a few years back. One can easily imagine that this accident helped King to find himself and his true muse once again.

In the introduction to the newly revised, The Gunslinger, the first instalment of King’s The Dark Tower series, he writes about this accident; he mentions how it changed his view on life and how he now understands that it sometimes takes a brush with mortality to truly understand that we cannot stay young forever. And it was this realisation that helped King to find the impetus to finish the fantasy series that has been nearly thirty years in the making.

When The Gunslinger first came out as a single volume in 1982, I was that young boy, just beginning the Firestarter. I continued to read King’s novels throughout my teenage years, holding off on The Dark Tower until it was completed. I didn’t want to start something without being able to finish it immediately. Other than The Dark Tower, I ravenously devoured everything King wrote up until Pet Semetary, but couldn’t seem to get through the mid-point of any book after that. I did read Misery in the early nineties, but all those other Stephen King paperbacks, the ones where it is difficult to see the cover behind the letters of his name, just seemed to be the same old, same old.

A year and a half ago I picked up Dreamcatcher as a discarded paperback in my mother’s home and made my way through it in less than a week. It rejuvenated my interest in King’s work, but not enough to go back and plough through those other books. Last summer, I read “On Writing” and enjoyed it immensely; King is always wonderful in his non-fiction. His conversational tone draws the reader in, makes one feel as if you are sitting and chatting with the guy over a few beers.

For newly published version of The Gunslinger, King has finally learned that revising a book can make all the difference in the world. He talks about removing adjectives and re-writing passages to make them more readable in addition to re-working elements of the plot that have become contradictory to the later works of The Dark Tower series.

The result is a highly readable piece of escapism that achieves moments of true brilliance. It revels in the author’s profoundly vivid imagination. King is back to the full strength of his seventies’ works. It stands alongside The Shining, The Dead Zone, and Carrie in its characters and its story. It is not so much a novel as it is a series of related short stories, and indeed, they were originally published as such.

Roland of Gilead and his young companion, Jake, wander through the tales in search of the Black Man. Roland faces many enemies, but his true nemesis comes from within himself and his own past and is revealed in flash backs to his days as a gunslinger-in-training in a palace community lifted straight from the pages of more standard fantasy works.

The newly written introduction to the novel details how it was inspired from both Lord of the Rings and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Roland is much more of a Clint Eastwood type than a Viggo Mortensen, and in many ways the biggest shame about this series is that it has taken so long to reach its completion. Eastwood has simply grown too old to play Roland in the movies.

The story opens with our hero wandering the desert in search of the Black Man, a figure that has intricate ties to Roland’s past. During the course of his chase, he recounts a harrowing experience in a town where the inhabitants listen to “Hey Jude” and an evangelical preacher, Silvia Pittston who is more evil than any preacher you’ll see on Sunday television; he rescues Jake, a young boy newly born to Roland’s world after dying in a car accident in New York 1977, he allows himself to be raped by a mystical plant-like Oracle in an effort to discover more information about his quest; deep within the darkness of a mountain train tunnel, he faces a group of undead mutants straight from a seventies horror flick; and finally he discovers the secret of the Black Man and the Dark Tower, only to have even more questions raised about where his journey will take him.

Despite the mystical, post-apocalyptic setting, it remains true King. References to twentieth century pop culture, American westerns, and even his other works are all present in this collection. In addition, I’ve read recently that The Dark Tower is the collection that binds King’s other works together in a single universe, that references are to be found to many of his other novels and stories, making the experience highly rewarding for fans of the horror master.

For the first time in fifteen years, I’m truly excited about the world of Stephen King and can’t wait to jump back into Roland’s universe sometime in the near future.

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Viking Press
Revised & Expanded: June 23, 2003
0.93 x 9.42 x 6.10 inches
ISBN: 0670032549

Sun, Surf, and Former Pirate Hideouts: San Andres, Colombia

by The "EX" Patriot

San Andres is the largest island in an archipelago of coral islands four hundred and eighty miles north of the Caribbean coast of Colombia. In fact, it is actually closer to the countries of Central America. It is small enough to circumnavigate in about an hour, but the beaches are so nice and the waters are normally so calm that you probably won’t even notice the size.

The island itself was first discovered by the British in the early to mid seventeenth century who then fought with Spain over rights to the land until the Treaty of Versailles in 1793 when the Spanish obtained official and permanent control. The archipelago became something of a Kashmir of the west during the twentieth century as Colombia and Panama each claimed rights to its shores. In recent years, however, it has fallen under control of Colombia (where it will most likely remain) and, for all intents and purposes, has become the country’s only serious international tourist attraction where visitors don’t seem to be worried about being kidnapped.

San Andres is a free port which means a lot of cheap shopping, at least by North American standards. From the perspective of someone who has lived in Latin America for ten years, however, there aren't many bargains to be had. There are many knock-off products and a lot of contraband, and several interesting stores like the oddly named Gourmet Shop in the photo at the upper right. The drawback to the island's position in the Atlantic, of course, is that it provides perfect shelter for the drug trade; it is rumored that many pounds of illegal substances are exchanged off the coast every month.

The first thing one notices upon arriving, is that San Andres does not have any visible signs of Spanish colonization. Every other community in Central and South America has the pre-requisite Spanish architecture and layout, but San Andres has houses and towns that seem remarkably familiar to those from the Northeast Coast of America and Maritime provinces of Canada.

San Andres also has the highest literacy rate in Colombia as public education is free up until the twelfth grade. Most islanders speak English and Spanish, as well as their native Creole. Not only is the trilingual nature of the locals impressive, it is necessary in a culture where the dominant trade is tourism. And San Andres’ unique location makes it an economic vacation locale for both North and South Americans. Even the usually finicky Quebecois seem to have a good time on the island.

The sheer number of tourists is, in fact, the only real drawback to vacationing here. Do not expect any solitary romantic walks along the beach or hidden trysts in the surf. Do expect to indulge yourself in just about any style of water activity you can think of. There are wind surfing and water boarding facilities, in addition to great scuba diving and snorkelling opportunities.

The major hotel chain on the island is the Decameron which has five resorts ranging in price and quality of facilities. Each hotel is based on “all inclusive” packages where food and, more importantly, drinks and cigarettes are included. And, for you North Americans and British who are used to having your recreational lives regulated by those pesky laws and restrictions that your governments feel they have to place on your private lives, don’t worry about closing time or having to smoke in special rooms.

Not every Decameron hotel has everything you may want to do, however, so there is service provided where the clientele of one hotel will be welcomed at another during the day. The first thing to do, however, is study the Decameron brochure to find out the details of how to make reservations. When my wife and I were there we spent the first two nights eating in the lesser quality Buffet Dinner restaurant because we couldn’t wake up in time (eight o’clock) to make reservations in the good restaurants. The second day we were there, we realised that you could sign up at the good restaurants for the other hotels the day before. Sound strange? It did to us as well.

There are also several services that provide tours of the island. Spend the money and take the smaller private company tour. It offers an air-conditioned mini-van and free booze throughout the four hour tour. You get to go to this restaurant on the highest point of the island which serves great coconut drinks, a small museum displaying life on the island when electricity and telephones were not readily available (nor even invented for that matter), a trip to the cave where the pirate Henry Morgan used to hide his treasure, and the “blow-hole” a small crevice in the coral just off the shore which acts as a whales blow-hole spurting water all over tourists at irregular intervals.

The first thing the North American will notice travelling to these locations is the complete lack of government regulation. Whether or not these things are being slowly destroyed by the numerous tourists hanging out there, I couldn’t really say, but it is nice to be able to actually walk down into the cave rather than simply admiring it from afar.

All this being taken into account, the best thing to do in San Andres is relax. Whether it is sunbathing, sitting at the bar or on the hotel board walk with a good book, or simply watching the moon hanging over the surf breaking on the distant coral reefs, you can spend days on the island doing nothing and enjoying it.

Check out more from The "EX" Patriot about San Andres

The Ramones Come Home

by Anicycle

Last year “The Scribe” requested pictures of snow for the winter edition. One of the reasons was to show snow to people that live in countries where they may have never seen it. I got thinking about this and realized that many people may think that snow is white, fluffy and beautiful. It is…. but not in urban areas. I live in New York, where we do not get much snow, but the snow we do get gets UGLY quickly. It gets brown from cars. People throw their garbage in it. Dogs urinate on it. It stays on the sidewalk for days and just gets dirty, dirty, dirty. This photo was taken in the East Village, NY, one week after a snowstorm.

The name of the street I live on is Joey Ramone Place. How cool is that? CBGB’s , the bar that spawned punk music and on many nights saw performances by the Ramones is right across the street. This was the neighbourhood where he lived and became a legend. On November 30, 2004, all I had to do was step outside my door to watch the official ceremony for the renaming of my street, from plain old 2nd St. to Joey Ramone Place. The first picture is of Joey Ramone’s Mom, the remaining members of the Ramone’s and miscellaneous officials for the ceremonies during speeches. The 2nd picture…our new street sign!!!