Despite my high consumption of vitamin C and washing of hands anal-ness, that dreaded cold that has been spreading around has found its way into my lungs.

Bastard.

I’ve got too much to do to slow down at all.  I’m a little behind on my Superhero pages, plus there are other writing assignments that can’t wait.

In regards to the Oscar nominations, overall I agree with most of their choices.  I am disappointed, however, in the ten nominations for Best Picture. 

Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Up
Up in the Air
An Education
The Blind Side
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man

The intention of increasing the number of nominees, supposedly, was to allow more room for genres that don’t normally get recognition to do so.  Great!  So, I see Up there, which would have probably unfairly been snubbed had there only been five nominations, but–

An Education?  A Serious Man? 

Both fit into the popularly-nominated drama category, yet neither can hold a candle to Up in the Air or The Hurt Locker. 

Where’s The Hangover?  Geez… I would have even been happier to see Paranormal Activity there.  At least that way, there would be more variety instead of the handful of drama flicks that have no chance in hell of winning.

Perhaps increasing the number of nominees to ten is simply a way to get people to go to the movies more, like my wife suspects.  I guess it’s worked.  We’re planning on going to see The Blind Side this week, when normally a movie like that would only be a Netflix pick.  Suckers…

Before I get to work, Oscar nomination day is damn near a holiday in our house, so here are the 82nd annual Academy Award nominations, just announced this morning.

I’ve copied the screenwriting nominations below.

Adapted Screenplay:
Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, District 9
Nick Hornby, An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, In the Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air

Original Screenplay:
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, The Messenger
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Tom McCarthy, Up

I’ll post my thoughts on all of the nominations tomorrow, but my immediate reaction to the writing nods was to be completely stoked to see Up made it and utterly flabbergasted that A Serious Man is there.

The reason every Pixar movie resonates with me, and I’ll guess it’s partly why most people like their work, is that it always involves true human emotion. It’s not just a wam-bam children’s thriller… there are always real-life human situations and emotions that most people can connect with.

If you’re in love and in a happy relationship, you’re going to love this film. It had my wife crying within the first ten minutes.

To be involved at any level with the people at Pixar would be a blessing.

Upon arriving home, I immediately went on their site to search job openings, only to find two I could even understand the titles of… animator (damn, can’t draw), and line cook.

Not a problem… I’ll do whatever. Maybe I’ll overhear something from Brad Bird while I’m refilling his coffee.