academy awards

And The Award Goes To . . . .

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I almost forgot. It nearly slipped my mind.

With all the drama of me becoming once again unemployed, I nearly dropped the ball and failed to mention that I accomplished one of my goals from 2013.

I have now seen all nine of the best picture nominees from the 2013 Academy Awards. Yes, you can touch me now.

They are (as copied and pasted from the Oscar website):

“Amour” Margaret Menegoz, Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka and Michael Katz, Producers
“Argo” Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producers
“Beasts of the Southern Wild” Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, Producers
“Django Unchained” Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, Producers
“Les Misérables” Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, Producers
“Life of Pi” Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, Producers
“Lincoln” Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers
“Silver Linings Playbook” Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, Producers
“Zero Dark Thirty” Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison, Producers

I know Argo won at the real ceremony, but my favorite of all these was Silver Linings Playbook. It was the one that resonated with me most, that I could relate to more than the others.

Of course, I loved Les Miseables. It has one of the best story lines of all time. And Argo was exceptionally well-done. Zero Dark Thirty was way better than I expected. The only disappointment for me was Life of Pi, which did NOT resonate with me at all for some unknown reason and left me feeling a bit disturbed. Maybe that was the point. Maybe it just shows that I’m not a movie critic with a discerning eye for great filmmaking. I do know what I like, though.

Django Unchained was a typical Quentin Tarantino film with over-the-top everything. I expected it to be that way.

I think I’ll keep up this new tradition and watch all the 2014 nominees. Maybe this time, I’ll get through them all while it’s still 2014. Who knows?

Amour: How Much Do You Love Me?

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I have now seen 11 out of the 12 nominees for the Best Picture Academy Award from last year’s Oscars. Only one more to go!

I watched Amour, a very touching movie about an elderly man taking care of his wife after she’s had two strokes. I say the film was touching; it was also unflinching and hard to watch at times.

Love is like that. It’s not always the storybook ending and happily ever afters. Sometimes, there are parts you wish you could leave out. Sometimes, “I do” means changing diapers and having to feed your loved one as if he or she were an infant again.

Love is hard. When the one you love can no longer return that love, when they no longer have the means of communicating their love back to you, what do you do?

God calls us to love the unlovable as He first loved us when we were unlovable. Sometimes, I can still be unlovable; you can, too. But God still chooses to love us anyway.

Did you get that?

At every moment, God is choosing to love you and to love me, regardless of whether you or I have shown that we deserve such love.

The truth is that nobody deserves God’s love, but we all need it and we can have it if we will only open our clenched fists to receive that waiting love. And God is such a patient Suitor.

Who will you choose to love who doesn’t deserve it? Who will you choose to forgive who deserves to be cut off instead? Who will you give a second chance to who never deserved the first?

One day, the someone needing love and forgiveness and a second chance will be you. It will be me. Our humanity means we will fall, we will fail, we will make a mess of things and people and relationships.

Yep. All that from watching one movie. With subtitles, no less.

I needed the reminder because I have been guilty of casting stones instead of extending grace. You have, too. We’ve all been harsh and judgmental and unforgiving to those who needed mercy and grace and forgiveness.

The question is not if you’ve loved poorly in the past but if you will choose to love well on this day that God has given you. Will you?

My Big Ugly Audacious Movie Goal for the Rest of 2013

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I found a list of all the Oscar-winning movies and, to my surprise, I’ve seen quite a few of them. In fact, I’d say I’ve seen roughly about half of the movies that have won at least one Academy Award.

My goal for the rest of 2013 and beyond is to see the other half. Well, there maybe one or two that I’ll skip for personal reasons, but I will watch the vast majority of them.

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First on my list is The Last Emporer from way back in 1987. I don’t know much of anything about this particular film, other than it’s old and long and won 9 Oscars, including Best Picture.

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Second on the list is yet another lengthy film, Gandhi, from 1982. It also won Best Picture, as well as Best Actor for Ben Kingsley and 6 others (bringing its grand total to 8, for those too lazy to do the math).

cabaret

The final movie on the initial list is Cabaret from 1972 (a year which also produced me, though I have yet to be nominated for anything in any category). It also won 8 Oscars, but lost out to The Godfather for Best Picture.

I’ll keep you updated on the other award-winning movies that I watch in the near future, as well as what I think about the 2013 Best Picture nominees, which I have only seen 1 and have 8 more to go.

On a semi-related side note, I finally got around to watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which won all the major Oscar categories. That means I have seen all three movies that swept the major Oscar awards, i.e. Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Acress, Best Original/Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director. It’s not something to put on a resume and it doesn’t make me a better person, but it does give me a sort of warm fuzzy feeling, and that’s got to count for something.

As always, I’d love to hear what old movies you’ve seen and recommend. Even if it came nowhere close to getting nominated for an Academy Award. Even if it got nominated for a Razzie (the award bestowed on the worst movies in any given year). I wanna know.

And the Award for Best Blog Ever Goes To . . . .

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

oscar

I watched the 85th Academy Awards presentation tonight. I don’t know if this will cement my status in the ultimate goober category, but I printed out a list of the nominees and made my predictions in all 24 categories. I am somewhat proud to announce that I got 10 right, and about half of those were lucky guesses.

I fared better with the categories I actually knew something about, getting 4 of the 5 major categories and only missing the Best Actor in a Supporting Role, which I’m okay with since I haven’t seen any of the movies represented in that category.

My goal for the rest of 2013 is to watch every one of the movies nominated for Best Picture (the total so far is 1 down, 8 to go), and maybe one or two of the documentaries nominated. Possibly if I’m feeling brave enough I might even watch one or two of the films nominated for Best Foreign Film. But no promises on that.

Obviously, I am not an actor, producer, or directer. I have very little knowledge of the technical side of film-making. I just know what I like and usually what I gravitate toward are movies about people I can relate to, as long as they’re not incredibly depressing. I don’t mind sad movies, as long as they’re not morbidly sad with no redeeming qualities.

I saw most of the awards ceremony at a friend’s house with some of the people from my Sunday School class. It was a fun, low-key night that made the ceremony better, even if I did strike out on most of the categories.

Hopefully, next year I will have seen more of the nominated movies and can have more to base my decisions on than eeney-meeney-miney-moe or blind guesses. Maybe I’ll go back and watch some of the older Oscar-winning movies that I’ve missed.

 

 

 

My Faux Oscar Acceptance Speech

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

First of all, I really thought Viola Davis should have won the Best Actress Oscar. No, I haven’t seen The Iron Lady, but I can’t imagine any performance being more pitch-perfect and soul-moving than her work in The Help. Even Meryl Streep’s.

On the last day of me being 39, I came up with an acceptance speench on surviving 40 years with all my hair and most of my sanity intact.

Thank you to my family for being awesome. Thanks to my mother, without whom I wouldn’t be here. Literally. And to my dad, who had his share in the blessed event. 50% to be exact. I will never be able in a million years to repay the debt I owe them.

Ditto for my sister and brother-in-law, two nephews and niece. I love you guys and I can’t wait to have you be a part of my birthday celebrations!

Thank you to my friends who have shown me what real grace looks like and have been Jesus to me countless times. You’ve seen my worst and believed the best for me and about me. I am a composite of what I have seen and learned and imitated in you.

Thank you to all the great artists who make up the soundtrack of my life. Life without music would still be worth living, but barely. Ditto for movies and really good books.

Thank you to all the animals I’ve grown up with. All the dogs, cats, and even the parakeet. I still miss you, Sammy. Currently, my cat Lucy has the disctinction of being my best birthday present ever 12 years running.

Thank you, Jesus. You are not just Savior and not just Lord. You are my Life, my Oxygen, my Strength, my Joy, my Salvation and my Song I will sing every day of my life until the day I die (and then I will keep singing it every day after that).

I am still Abba’s child and He is still very fond of me and I will never stop proclaiming to the world that Jesus can take anyone at any point, no matter how far they’ve fallen or how profoundly they’re broken, and make them shine and make them radiant and beautiful trophies of the grace of God.

Thanks in advance for all my birthday wishes. I do read each and every one and they all mean the world to me.

Thanks for reading this little blog by this guy who is way more blessed than he deserves. This Ragamuffin who is still trying to tell other beggars where to find the Bread of Life.