The Philistine take on the Oscars

I'm particularly well-suited to give a "tone-deaf" report because I haven't been to anything but a few children's movies in years. I'm a big fan of Shrek. I really want to see the four big winners, Million Dollar Baby (four Oscars), Ray (two Oscars), but particularly The Aviator (five Oscars) and The Incredibles (two Oscars) because The Objectivists liked them so much.

I liked the winning song, Al Otro Lado Del Rio, very much, though I liked watching Beyonce sing three of the other songs even more.

I was going to rip The Motorcycle Diaries, but the reviews I've read have sold me on it. (That damn Advertising!) It's Che's lifework I hate, though, not what inspired it, and it seems that that is what the movie is about. The admixture of politics and business deserves to be fought, but the means of violent revolution and communism aren't the proper tools for the job. At least they won't relieve the poverty and suffering of the people you're talking to.

The babes were hot, particularly Virginia Madsen and Scarlett Johansson. I enjoyed the women's dresses.

Jamie Foxx deserved the Best Actor for Ray, I think. Morgan Freeman deserves every award that comes his way. I find it hard to believe that Clint beat Scorsese, but it's probably true that neither film deserved a sweep.

Don Cheadle and Hotel Rwanda should have won something.

I actually thought Chris Rock was pretty funny and smooth, even with the pro-Michael Moore diatribe. The jokes that grew out of that cracked foundation were good. Too bad it's all the guy knows about politics. Somebody send him Michael Moore hates America.

I agree with the producers who decided that the technical awards needed a little speeding up; having their awards in the aisles was a nice change of pace. It sort of downplayed the grandiosity of the stage and played up the role of the audience. But when they lined up the whole editing and costuming crews on the stage it emphasized the fact that most of them were losers.

So there! I thought it was a good show.

Update Mar. 3: This dude shows me how it's done.

World Atlas of Archeology on the Web

Something to check out. They need blurbs or updates though.

The Cheeser's are making themselves useful.

The Oklahoma Spaceport will be home to the new Rocketplane XP, a "modified Lear 25 series using the same General Electric CJ-610 turbojet engines found on the standard business jet configuration."

Oklahoma Spaceport? "The plan calls for Rocketplane XP to depart from the Oklahoma Spaceport located in Burns Flat and whisk customers skyward to over 60 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth."

Who? How?

Rocketplane Limited, Inc. has obtained from the State of Oklahoma a $13 million face value Investment Tax Credit to develop a re-usable sub-orbital tourist business at the Oklahoma Spaceport. Rocketplane's main office and engineering center are based at Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City, and quite appropriately located on Amelia Earhart Lane.

See Space.com's article for when, why and more on how.
Where do the Cheeser's come in? "Orbital Technologies Corporation of Madison, Wisconsin is providing the main rocket motor that incorporates patented vortex engine technology."

This comment makes me think that I may one day do a "What the Hell's wrong with that?!" post on the subject one of these days, "Marketing space will not be easy. Fun haters are everywhere. Most of them are lawyers, insurance agents and government officials. Anyone marketing space to civilians must be prepared to meet obstacles," [Jane Reifert, President of Incredible Adventures] reported.

The Philistine take on Biedermeier.

Biedermayer is a decorating style from the middle 1800s that got ripped a lot by the Avant Garde at the turn of the 20th Century.

Seems pretty eclectic to me, but I'm only seeing bits and pieces, not a whole room decorated in the style. Some of it... heck, most of it looks pretty good. That divan, or whatever you call it, is pretty ugly.

I just ripped off a bunch of links from

TBFKADVK and Hugh Hewitt.

And I honored my first guest with a link to his site.

Libertarian stuff I need to work on.

History Without Blinders, by Anthony Gregory: a review of "A Politically Incorrect Guide to American History," by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. Regnery, 2004, 270 pages.

Gregory likes it.

Review of 'Confessions of an Economic Hit Man', by Jude Wanniski.

Actually, it's not a review, it's the transcript of an interview of John Perkins, the author of "Hitman."

Here's what Reynolds says about the book.

I wasn't looking for this, but the Unrefined Eye

(no, I'm not changing my name to that, just emphasizing the aesthetic meaning of Philistine) likes this stuff at usefilm.com.

What the Hell's Wrong With That?!

This will be the signature feature of this blog. I will caste my unrefined eye over the media, and my memory, looking for snarky comments about things that I like. And I will begin to push back.

Middle class values and tastes need to be defended, dammit!

Lileks handles this one pretty awesomely for me though. I don't watch "24", or any other show that requires a commitment of time. I'm a father, a husband, a customer servant and a blogger. That's enough commitments.

Lileks:

Apparently the producers have not just gone mad, but given in to age-old American desires for stereotyping people for devious reasons. Hold tightly to your chair and your hat: "24" suggests that America might be targeted by Islamic extremists.

I am not kidding you.

I'm happy with that quote to whet your curiousity. RTWT. (Oh, that means Read The Whole Thing. I saw that on another blog, so I guess it's okay to use it.)

I just wanna say Welcome

to my new, [impolite term]-lookin' blog. I'll be changing it pretty quick here.

Okay, that's done. Now it looks more manly.

The first thing I've learned is that I don't like my profile quote. I think it's true, but it seems rather...inelegant.