81st Academy Awards

Best Motion Picture of the Year
Slumdog Millionaire
:(

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Sean Penn for Milk
Who should've won:
Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Kate Winslet for The Reader

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Achievement in Directing
Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire

Darren Aronofsky should have at least been nominated for The Wrestler.


Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Dustin Lance Black Milk

Who should've won:
Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter Wall E

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Simon Beaufoy Slumdog Millionaire

Best foreign language film of the year: France Departures, Japan

Best animated feature film: Bolt Kung Fu Panda WALL-E
Best art direction: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Best cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
Best sound mixing: The Dark Knight
Best sound editing: Slumdog Millionaire
Best original score: Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman (I'm noticing a trend here)
Best original song: O Saya from Slumdog Millionaire, music and lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam
Best costume: The Duchess
Best documentary feature: Man on Wire
Best documentary (short subject): Smile Pinki
Best film editing: Slumdog Millionaire
Best makeup: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Best visual effects: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button




......meh.

Concert Review: Anathollo w/ Willowfair

Had a blast at the Anathollo show on Friday. The venue was in a church which was the first time I have seen a concert in that type of setting. The opening band was Willowfair which opened up with the theme to The Wire. That was sure to put a grin on my face. Very solid band.

Anathollo are a band I've heard of before but am not as familiar with their work as I apparently should be. They employ several different instruments during their live sets which create a unique atmosphere. The lead singer shared stories of a 'Magical Appalachian Hobo' and a marriage proposal even took place. It was an evening filled with spontaneity. Their latest album Canopy Glow has some very strong songs on it and is getting many spins as of late.

Concert Review: Meshuggah/Cynic/The Faceless

Had an absolute blast on Sunday at the House of Blues. It was my first time seeing a concert at that venue. It was a pretty good setting. When I heard that Meshuggah would be touring with Cynic I NEEDED to get my hands on a ticket. It's one of those lineups that are just too good to pass up.

The Faceless
The opening band was a good mix of Cynic and the heavier sides of Opeth. I've onlyt heard of them through their myspace previously but what I heard at the concert I liked.

Cynic
The mighty Cynic return after a 15 year hiatus. Their album Traced In Air was my favorite album of 2008 and seeing it performed live was great. The band sounded amazing. They had a very nice balance of material from Traced In Air as well as their debut album Focus. Seein that those were the only two albums they were able to cull material from, the setlist was great as the best was chosen from both albums.

Setlist:
Nunc Fluens
Space For This
Evolutionary Sleeper
Veil of Maya
But I'm A Wave To
Adam's Murmur
Uroboric Forms
How Could I?
King of Those Who Know
Integral Birth

Meshuggah
I've heard several stories about the brutality of Meshuggah concerts. Alas, the House of Blues did not allow crowd surfing or anything of that nature. But it still sounded brutal. Some of the songs they performed were Rational Gaze, The Mouth Licking What You've Bled, Combustion, Bleed, Pineal Gland Optics, Sane and Electric Red. The crowd abosolutely went apeshit when they pulled out Future Breed Machine for the encore. It was a great cap off to a great concert.


Overall concert: 9/10

Upcoming Music and Film

This is a list of most the films I am looking forward to this year. As the year goes on I will update the list.

FILM
1ST QUARTER
2/13- The International
2/13- New York, I Love You
3/6- Watchmen (Hell yes...the visuals on this film look amazing)
3/13- Bronson (Nicholas Wending Reffin's film that garnered major Sundance Film Festival praise)
3/20- This Side of the Truth (Ricky Gervais is at it again.)
2ND QUARTER
4/22- Earth
5/8- Star Trek
5/15- The Brothers Bloom
5/22- Terminator: Salvation (Hopefully this movie works well)
5/29- Drag Me to Hell (Sam Raimi goes old school. Hopefully this is as memorable as his Evil Dead films)
5/29- Up (It's Pixar man)
6/12- The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
3RD QUARTER
7/1- Public Enemies (Michael Mann. Johnny Depp. Christian Bale. Need I say more?)
7/24- 500 Days of Summer
7/31- Funny People
8/21- Inglorious Basterds (Tarantino's Dirty Dozen-esque WWII film)
9/9- 9
9/18- The Informant
4TH QUARTER
10/2- Ashecliffe (Scorsese takes on the thriller genre with this prison based film)
10/2- A Serious Man (The Coens are cranking out another film a year after Burn After Reading)
10/23- Amelia
11/6- A Christmas Carol
11/6- Fantastic Mr. Fox (Hopefully this animated film shows a new style from Wes Anderson)
12/11- The Lovely Bones (Looking forward to this Peter Jackson effort)
12/18- Avatar (This could be the BIG leap in effects and 3D film yet)



TBA
Blood Meridian (Todd Field doing a Cormac McCarthy adaptation...interesting)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Heath Ledger's final performance)
King Shot (Alejandro Jodoworsky's first film since 1990...produced by David Lynch...I just filled the cup)
The Matarese Circle (This could very well be David Cronenberg's breakout film)
The Road (Yet another Cormac McCarthy adaptation to look forward to)



And here's the music section:

MUSIC
1/13- Kreator- Hordes of Chaos
1/20- Umphrey's McGee- Mantis
2/17- The Appleseed Cast- Sagarmantha
2/24- Lamb of God- Wrath
3/3- U2- No Line On the Horizon
3/9- Pure Reason Revolution- Amor Vincit Omnia
3/24- The Decemberists- The Hazards of Love
3/24- Mastodon- Crack the Skye
APRIL TBA- IQ- Frequency
5/5- Isis- Wavering Radiant
5/19- OSI- Blood
6/23- Dream Theater- Black Clouds and Silver Linings


TBA
Atheist
Between the Buried and Me
Katatonia
The Mars Volta
Massive Attack
Muse
Phideaux
Porcupine Tree
Slayer
Devin Townshend- Ki

Marty breaking the 'Silence'

BREAKING THE 'SILENCE'

Martin Scorsese is planning to film his next project on his slate: Silence. A 17th century drama about a pair of Jesuit priests searching for their mentor in Japan while spreading the word of Jesus Christ. This will be Marty's first theological themed film since the controversial 1988 The Last Temptation of Christ. It is adapted by Jay Cocks from a novel by Shusaku Endo and it's apparently been a project he's been wanting to do for ages now. What just got good got better since now Scorsese has signed on Benicio Del Toro (Traffic, Che) and the milkshake drinking master himself Mr. Daniel Day- Lewis. This will be Mr. Day-Lewis' third outing with Scorsese with his previous two being The Age of Innocence and Gangs of New York.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39970

Scorsese is a director whose films are ones I am there for on opening day in theaters. Silence will be no exception.