Twerpette

Language: onomatospreia

2009-06-25T08:13:00.001-05:00

Never could a word be more onomatopoeically spoken by Sylvester "Say It and Spray It" Cat:

viscosity

Press: Is Twitter evil? - msnbc.com

2009-04-22T19:50:00.000-05:00

Is Twitter evil? - msnbc.com:

"Immordino-Yang put it another way: 'If things are happening too fast, you may not ever fully experience emotions about other people's psychological states, and that would have implications for your morality.'"

Neologisms: golliwog‏

2009-04-22T19:46:00.001-05:00

Astonished, impressed. (Golly, gee whillikers, agog)

Movies: My 2008 Oscar picks are 13 out of 24

2009-02-23T09:25:00.000-06:00

In the past four years I have yet to see more than 7 films (features and shorts) from the field of nominees before the Oscar awards ceremony. Nevertheless in two previous years, including last year when I saw only 3 nominees, I've picked 15 out of 24 Oscar awards accurately. (A sweep by Departed threw me off by 5 picks in the remaining year for a count of 10 out of 24.) This year, my Oscar picks turned out to be accurate in 13 out of 24 award categories.

This year, I took the experimental step of making alternate picks, but only an additional 7 of my second guesses were accurate. I completely missed on Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress as well as Best Foreign Language and Best Documentary Short.

My system for picking Oscar winners relies purely on intuition (and luck, which goes both ways, in the short film and original song categories). I go on buzz filtered by gut instinct with no time to do more than the usual: read the Houston Chronicle and maybe the New York Times, listen to public radio, and pick up on chatter at Netflix. (Last year I had a 6-month subscription to EW for the low price of $2, but I tossed out half of the issues unskimmed.)

Here are my 2008 Oscar picks (made January 22, except for technical and short categories made February 21) in bold italic (and alternate picks in italic), with Oscar winners underlined:

Best Picture
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Actor
Richard Jenkins in The Visitor
Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn in Milk
Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

Best Actress
Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie in Changeling
Melissa Leo in Frozen River
Meryl Streep in Doubt
Kate Winslet in The Reader

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin in Milk
Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams in Doubt
Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis in Doubt
Taraji P. Henson in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler

Best Animated Feature
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E

Best Art Direction
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Best Cinematography
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Costume Design
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road

Best Director
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, David Fincher
Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard
Milk, Gus Van Sant
The Reader, Stephen Daldry
Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle

Best Documentary Feature
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water

Best Documentary Short
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306

Best Film Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Foreign Language Film
The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Class
Departures
Revanche
Waltz with Bashir

Best Makeup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Best Original Score
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E

Best Original Song
Down to Earth from WALL-E
Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire
O Saya from Slumdog Millionaire

Best Animated Short
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory - Lovestory
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up

Best Live Action Short
Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
Manon on the Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

Best Sound Editing
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

Best Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

Best Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Original Screenplay
Frozen River
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Milk
WALL-E

Movies: My 2008 Oscar nomination picks

2009-02-21T00:34:00.004-06:00

*Sigh.* Another year of making three-fourths of my Oscar picks within a day of the nominations then being unable to wrap up and post them till a month later and on the weekend of the awards ceremony -- after seeing no more than 10% of the nominees.

My system for picking Oscar winners relies purely on intuition, since there is no way I can see even half of all Oscar nominees in a given year much less in one month. Yep, I go solely on buzz and gut instinct (reading just the Houston Chronicle and the New York Times, listening to public radio, and picking up on chatter at Netflix).

For two of the past three years, I've picked 15 out of 24 nominations accurately. (A sweep by Departed threw me off by 5 picks the other year.) The technical and short films categories are always a bear-in-the-fog kind of thing.

In two of the past three years, I have seen just 7 movies from the field but last year the count sank to 3. (Ideally, it would be a lot more.) This past year the count is 4 movies and 1 short.

Followed by my Oscar picks, here is a list of the 50 short and feature films nominated for the 2008 Oscar season, with the 4 movies and 1 short in bold that I have managed to see (as of January 22 and unchanged as of today):

Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
Australia
Bolt
Changeling
Defiance
Departures
Doubt
Encounters at the End of the World
Frost/Nixon
Frozen River
Happy-Go-Lucky
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
In Bruges
Iron Man
Kung Fu Panda
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory - Lovestory
Man on Wire
Manon on the Asphalt
Milk
New Boy
Oktapodi
Presto
Rachel Getting Married
Revanche
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire
Smile Pinki
Spielzeugland (Toyland)
The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
The Class
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
The Final Inch
The Garden
The Pig
The Reader
The Visitor
The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306
The Wrestler
This Way Up
Tropic Thunder
Trouble the Water
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
WALL-E
Waltz with Bashir
Wanted

Here are my 2008 Oscar picks (made January 22, except for the technical and short categories) in bold italic, with alternate picks in italic:

Best Picture
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Actor
Richard Jenkins in The Visitor
Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn in Milk
Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

Best Actress
Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie in Changeling
Melissa Leo in Frozen River
Meryl Streep in Doubt
Kate Winslet in The Reader

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin in Milk
Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams in Doubt
Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis in Doubt
Taraji P. Henson in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler

Best Animated Feature
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E

Best Art Direction
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Best Cinematography
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Costume Design
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road

Best Director
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, David Fincher
Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard
Milk, Gus Van Sant
The Reader, Stephen Daldry
Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle

Best Documentary Feature
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water

Best Documentary Short
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306

Best Film Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Foreign Language Film
The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Class
Departures
Revanche
Waltz with Bashir

Best Makeup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Best Original Score
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E

Best Original Song
Down to Earth from WALL-E
Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire
O Saya from Slumdog Millionaire

Best Animated Short
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory - Lovestory
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up

Best Live Action Short
Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
Manon on the Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

Best Sound Editing
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

Best Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

Best Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Original Screenplay
Frozen River
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Milk
WALL-E

Web: LOLsaints.com

2009-02-20T12:38:00.004-06:00

A whimsical twist on LOLcats...

Radio: Coffee - PHC

2009-02-06T21:53:00.002-06:00

Press: The sentences of Sarah Palin, diagrammed - Slate

2009-01-23T23:05:00.000-06:00

The sentences of Sarah Palin, diagrammed - By Kitty Burns Florey - Slate Magazine:

"In a few short weeks, Sarah Palin has produced enough poppycock to keep parsers and diagrammers busy for a long time. In the end, though, out of her mass of verbiage in the Sean Hannity interview, Palin did manage to emit a perfectly lucid diagram-ready statement that sums up, albeit modestly, not the state of the economy that she was (more or less) talking about but the quality of her thinking: [It certainly is a mess though.]"

Press: Oaf of Office - NYT

2009-01-23T23:01:00.000-06:00

Op-Ed Contributor - Oaf of Office - NYTimes.com:

"In his legal opinions, Chief Justice Roberts has altered quotations to conform to his notions of grammaticality, as when he excised the “ain’t” from Bob Dylan’s line “When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose.” On Tuesday his inner copy editor overrode any instincts toward strict constructionism and unilaterally amended the Constitution by moving the adverb “faithfully” away from the verb.

President Obama, whose attention to language is obvious in his speeches and writings, smiled at the chief justice’s hypercorrection, then gamely repeated it. Let’s hope that during the next four years he will always challenge dogma and boldly lead the nation in new directions."

Press: No snickering - That road sign means something else - NYT

2009-01-23T22:54:00.000-06:00

No Snickering - That Road Sign Means Something Else - NYTimes.com:

"In the scale of embarrassing place names, Crapstone ranks pretty high. But Britain is full of them. Some are mostly amusing, like Ugley, Essex; East Breast, in western Scotland; North Piddle, in Worcestershire; and Spanker Lane, in Derbyshire."

Press: Study says movies skew relationship views - WP

2009-01-14T21:59:00.000-06:00

Study says movies skew relationship views - The Washington Post:

"His team found that fans of the [romance-comedy movie] genre are more inclined to think that a partner should be able to meet their emotional and physical needs instinctively, without them ever articulating those needs.

The team also studied the content of the 40 most-watched recent rom-coms and found common themes. From the start, big-screen couples have trust and attachment bonds that take us mere humans years to develop. They quickly gloss over such transgressions as lying and cheating. They are deeply, quickly enthralled with each other, while married couples in the same films are usually portrayed as bickering and loveless.

“That’s a very interesting contrast to reality,” Holmes says."

Quotes: "When forced to choose between two evils" (M. West)

2009-01-14T21:52:00.000-06:00

"When forced to choose between two evils, I tend to go for the one I've never tried." -- Mae West

Web: Are you in the doghouse?

2008-12-29T22:10:00.000-06:00

Are you in the doghouse?:

"Watch a hilarious rendition [from J.C. Penney] of some husbands who are in the doghouse because of their thoughtless presents."

Nostalgia: Alvin and the Chipmunks' 50th anniversary

2008-12-22T21:20:00.000-06:00

Alvin and the Chipmunks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"The Chipmunks first officially appeared on the scene in a novelty record released in late fall 1958 by Bagdasarian. The song, originally listed on the record label (Liberty F-55168) as 'The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late),' featured the singing skills of the chipmunk trio. [...] It spent four weeks at Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart from December 22, 1958 to January 12, 1959. It also earned three Grammy Awards and a nomination for Record of the Year."

Press: The fall of the Museum of the Weird - HC

2008-12-15T22:02:00.000-06:00

The fall of the Museum of the Weird - Houston Chronicle:

"Dolan Smith was packing up the Museum of the Weird last week, getting ready to move. In the 14 years that the artist has owned the two-bedroom house at 824 West 24th in the Houston Heights, the place has accreted around him: a coral reef of strangeness."

Press: Prime time makes a scientific discovery - LAT

2008-12-15T22:00:00.000-06:00

Prime time makes a scientific discovery - Los Angeles Times:

"More than 40 years after the Professor talked Gilligan out of some ridiculous scrape or another while rigging up an irrigation system, rational thought has taken over television."

Email: After snow [EH]

2008-12-11T21:51:00.000-06:00

Yes, there was a flurry of flakes [last night]. It melted. We may have gotten more during the night since the top of the park's picnic shelter across the street was dripping water in the morning sun. No, [snow] falling and staying (at least a half-inch if not a half-foot) would remind me of Minnesota.

Weather: 38 for 36 degrees

2008-12-11T09:40:00.002-06:00

I awoke quite early this morning so my inner thermostat felt off, even an hour after I finally turned on the heat about 7 am. Walking Twerpette this hour, I just couldn't "feel" the temperature well -- I couldn't decide if it was 34 or 39 degrees. (Houston's humidity and a breeze can tend to muck it up.) I finally guessed an uncertain 38 degrees. Checking weather.com now, though, it says 36 degrees. Hm.

Except that reading of 36 "feels like 27" degrees. Double hm.

Email: Netflix Support

2008-12-05T23:29:00.000-06:00

Title request: The Two Ronnies (1971)

Email: Netflix Support

2008-12-05T23:25:00.000-06:00

Title request: I Love Christmas (2001)

Email: Netflix Support

2008-12-05T23:23:00.000-06:00

Title request: Further Up the Creek (1958)

Email: Netflix Support

2008-12-05T23:19:00.000-06:00

Title request: Carry On Regardless (1961)

Email: Netflix Support

2008-12-05T01:10:00.000-06:00

Title request: The Fast Show (1994)

Email: Netflix Support

2008-12-05T01:06:00.000-06:00

Title request: Auf Wiedersehen Pet (1983)

Email: Netflix Support

2008-12-05T00:35:00.000-06:00

Title request: Popples (1986)