Some big surprises when the Oscar noms were announced this morning. Best surprise: War Horse best picture. Craziest surprise: Extremely Loud for best picture. Surprise by a film i’ve never heard of: Demian Bichir for A Better Life. Biggest snubs: Drive, Fassbender, Shannon and Young Adult. Hugo is the only best picture nom I haven’t seen, must get on that quick! Hugo, Artist and Descendants are the front runners to win the big one.

For the past 6 months I’ve been going back and forth between Inception and Scott Pilgrim as the best movie of 2010. And i’m still not sure which is better, it’s really just splitting hairs. I’ve seen Inception more times, and it’s great every time, and that last shot is one of the best shots i’ve ever seen and is the reason why i love movies. But, on the other hand, Scott Pilgrim has one of the best opening credit sequences ever, with that expanding living room shot while Sex Bob-omb is playing their kick-ass title song. Both movies have ground-breaking special effects and truly innovative and unique scripts, but are completely different movies. Both will go down as 2 of my favorite movies ever…. so why pick, why choose and so i’m declaring a TIE!

After that is the King’s Speech, which is an impeccably made movie that has heavy stakes and brilliant acting that comes together to make a just about perfect film. A step down from there is Let Me In, True Grit, Black Swan and Exit Through the Gift Shop which could be in any order. But after the top 7 there really is a drop to everything else, as this year had some great films, but not a lot of consistancy. Lot’s of films doing great things but not quite coming together.

I watched 94 movies that came out in ’10 (7 more than ’09), almost all in the theatre. 46 of which I gave 4 stars or more (one more than in ’09), meaning about half the movies I saw were good movies. 10 were below 3 stars (3 more than ’09), meaning I only saw 10 bad movies from ’10. The worst being Bounty Hunter and Dear John.

The Top 20

1. Inception
P: R: O:
1. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World!
P: R: O:
3. The King’s Speech
P: R: O:
4. Let Me In
P: R: O:
5. True Grit
P: R: O:
6. Black Swan
P: R: O:
7. Exit Through the Gift Shop
P: R: O:
8. A Prophet
P: R: O:
9. The Fighter
P: R: O:
10. Shutter Island
P: R: O:
11. The Social Network
P: R: O:
12. 127 Hours
P: R: O:
13. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
P: R: O:
14. The Runaways
P: R: O:
15. Animal Kingdom
P: R: O:
16. Paranormal Activity 2
P: R: O:
17. Easy A
P: R: O:
18. Greenberg
P: R: O:
19. Winter’s Bone
P: R: O:
20. The Kids Are All Right
P: R: O:

I was quite happy with most of this year’s Oscar winners, with a few exceptions (Hailee). But, the ceremony it self was quite bad. I’m voting for Justin Timberlake to host next year (even though they will probably go back to someone old after this year’s catastrophe). As for my predictions, 18/24 ain’t too bad, especially considering I started out 0/4.

I’m the kinda guy who likes tranquility in my life. A Saturday that involves sleeping in, playing Rock Band, eating a leisurely lunch while finding new and exciting apps on my iPad, lounging on the couch reading comics, spending loads of time cooking way too much food for dinner and then going to a late night movie, well, it’s a perfect Saturday in my book. A life that has few highs but also few lows. You find happiness and excitement in the small deviations and comfortable repetitions. To find a soulmate with similar tranquil aspirations, well that’s a miracle i wish for everyday. But… what if, out of the blue, inspiration strikes? Not just a small deviation of inspiration, but a full fledged, life-outlook changing, titanic of a strike? It could start small, but soon it’s all you think about, all you really care about, and all you want to spend your life doing. This brings us to the story of Filip Mosz, played with a perfect feel of innocence lost by Jerzy Stuhr. Filip was happy with his tranquil life. He had a loving wife with tranquil aspirations herself. A brand new baby that should take all of his attention and love. And a steady job that was comfortable. A life that was comfortable. But then an 8mm movie camera entered that life and changed it forever.

It’s harder to imagine that a little old movie camera can bring along with it so much drama when these days hardly a week goes by when you don’t capture 15 seconds of phone video, or watch someone else’s 15 second video on YouTube. But there was a time when holding a camera was like holding the world in the palm of your hand. Really, it’s like creating a world in the palm of your hand and then getting to show this world to everyone you know as they shower you with praise at how wonderful your creation is. That can be intoxicating. Sometimes too much so.

Filip’s intoxication grows slowly… He takes a few home videos of his new born child and his neighbors. Then of a concert at his company’s anniversary celebration. And before he knows it, some people richer and more influential then he want him to make movies for them. Movies that lead to public showings and film festivals and to famous movie makers. All the while his tranquil life is floating away behind him, along with his wife, his children and his friends. That tranquil life is no longer good enough, he has found meaning in this new life. And when meaning is what you have found, it’s hard to let go of it, even if it means losing the one’s you love.

Camera Buff’s director, Krzysztof Kieslowski had make many documentaries before this is first real feature film. And you can’t help but think there is alot of Filip in Kieslowski. And through his lens, you side with Filip. How can his wife not see that he’s found a calling? How can his co-workers not see that he’s providing a public service? That filmmakers are service providers? How can the powers that be not see that he’s speaking for the little guy? But that doesn’t mean Filip isn’t caught in the grip of obsession. That he has lost control and the cliff is drawing near. The ending of Camera Buff takes that looming cliff and turns it on it’s head and brings the film full circle to create one hell of a movie that I just can’t get out of my head.

Well, this is the first time in 5 years that the Coachella lineup just doesn’t excite me enough to go (i needed to change it up this year anyway, and i’m shooting for Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago this summer). BUT, there are a few intriguing artists i wouldn’t mind seeing:

• Robyn (almost worth just going to see her perform ‘Dancing on my own’)
• Crystal Castles
• Cee Lo Green (ditto with Cee Lo performing ‘Fuck You’ while yours truely and the entire crowd scream along with him)
• Ariel Pink
• The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
• Titus Andronicus
• Scissor Sisters
• Tallest Man on Earth
• The Love Language
• Jimmy Eat World (one of my top 10 all-time favorite bands playing Coachella = awesome)
• Jenny and Johnny

Wow, just noticed that most of those are on Friday…hmm… maybe i go for 1 day?
(stop it Whitney, just let it go!)

The terra-cotta warriors were pretty impressive. A whole army of clay soldiers buried underground for 2000 years. After a delicious lunch of sweet and sour pork, garlic cucumbers and fried tofu, a tour guide drove us out to the underground pits where they are still excavating the warriors. We walked around the pits for hours taking tons of photos and being mesmerized by the detail of the warriors and how well they were preserved in the dirt all those years.

After we got back we walked down an awesome street filled with vendors and restaurants and packed with people. We had another great meal, a soup like dish where you break up this thick bead into it. Plus we ate some lamb and beef kabobs, and then found some red bean ice cream that was soooo good.

Another great day in China, tomorrow we fly to Chengdu, a pretty relaxing day for a change.

Boy do the Chinese love to barter! It certainly doesn’t make it quick and easy to buy anything. Sometimes the first price they tell you is 6 times what you should be paying, which means you need to start even lower than that to barter up to a reasonable price. And then the drama ensues “oh you killin’ me” they say, then you raise your offer a little, “oh no no no”, then you walk away and they follow you with a counter offer. All the while using a calculator to display their current offer, then you punch in another number. It’s all very exhausting.

As you can tell we spent most of the day shopping. We went to a few different markets that were stocked full of great stuff at great prices, if your will is strong and your bartering skills are too. We picked up some paper fans, a Chinese chess set, shirts, shoes, luggage (handy to fit all our new purchases in), a little stone buhda, jackets, purses and oh so much more. It was a fun and interesting experience.

Right now we are on a night train to Xian where we are going to see the terra-cotta warriors, and the adventure continues…

So I learned something new today, the Great wall of China is fracking steep! But awesome none the less We had a great tour guide take us to the Great Wall and we climbed as far as we could before our legs spontaneously caught on fire. It was a very surreal experience, I never thought I would ever be on the Great Wall, but there I was stepping on thousand year old stairs and peering over the crumbling wall to the valley below. It was all very cool.

The tour guide then took us to the required tourist trap jade factory where we had to endure a short lesson on the history and different kinds of jade, yay. But the awesome lunch they served made up for it as we had these delicious dumplings along with fried rice, cucumbers with sesame oil, and more julienned potatoes.

Then we headed to the Ming tombs, and got an interesting history lesson from the tour guide ( Ariana was her English name, she was very nice) about the emperors of the Ming Dynasty. 13 of the 16 emperors are buried in the same area, each with their own elaborate tomb and surrounding buildings and gateways. We saw the outside of the 3rd emperors tomb. Interesting stuff.

On the way back we drove by the Olympic village and the Bird’s Nest and snapped some pictures. After a quick freshening up at the hotel we went out to this awesome outdoor market that had all this crazy food – scorpion kabobs, starfish, seahorses! Instead we went for some tasty chicken noodle dish, and these great fruit kabobs that were dipped in a thin layer of hard candy – so good. The whole market was just bustling, exactly what I thought China would be like, an amazing experience.

Overall another spectacular day in Beijing, tomorrow we do some shopping before taking the night train to Xian.