Tonight is the night! It’s pajamas and tiaras, accompanied by yummy food and great gals.
I did do my best to cram in as many of the nine films that were nominated for best picture this year. In the end, I saw: Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Lincoln, and Silver Linings Playbook. I also really wanted to catch Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, but that didn’t happen.
But just because I haven’t seen most of the films and just because I haven’t read any critical reviews as the Oscars approach, I won’t be stopped in making my own Oscar predictions. Who cares if they’re ill-informed, right? I mean, really, after all, it’s a bunch of people in one industry congratulating themselves on their own work. (Although I do feel terrible for them. Apparently this year is the lowest value swag bag in history. A paltry $48,000 in free goods.)
The other day someone mentioned the Oscars. Oh! That means it’s time for my annual cram-fest … where I see how many nominated movies I can manage to see before the actual event. This year’s Oscars are on February 24th, which means I have 17 days to see what I can squeeze in and not feel like a pop-culture wallflower (aka a parent).
Last year, out of the 10 films that had been nominated, I’d seen three. This year, there are nine films nominated for Best Picture and I’ve got the run-down here for you:
#1: Amour
Never heard of it. Have you? On the Oscars site, the film synopsis describes it as follows:
“In the final months of her life, a retired music teacher and her husband of sixty years struggle with the debilitating effects of two strokes on both her health and her quality of life. As Georges cares for the increasingly unhappy Anne, the pair finds the nature of their life together irrevocably changed.”
I don’t feel like running out to see it. But it’s probably one of those deeply felt ones.
#2: Argo
I have heard of this one, and I’d like to see it. Definitely going on my priority list for cramming. Here’s the synopsis:
“When six Americans take refuge in the Canadian embassy in Tehran during the 1979 hostage crisis, U.S. government agent Tony Mendez turns to Hollywood for help. Working with a producer and a makeup artist, he devises a rescue mission that centers on the creation of a fake film production company scouting locations in Iran.”
Anyone who can wear this this brown polyester shirt with massive collar and still look hot totally deserves an Oscar nod in my world.
On several occasions, I’ve overheard Stella say this to someone who’s asked her about me being away on a trip:
When mom is away, my dad gets bored and watches Lord of the Rings or Star Wars movies at night. I don’t like it! The music is so loud that I can hear it in my bedroom — and it can be really scary and eerie!
Not only do I find it sweet that she thinks he’s bored without me (even though I don’t actually believe that for a minute!), but I love imagining him indulging in his favourite sci-fi films. So when I heard that Canada’s NAC Orchestra was going to accompany the film the Lord of the Rings, I knew I had to get us tickets!
Luck had an even better plan and the NAC hosted a “Blogger Night” for us last night. So what’s a “Blogger Night,” you ask? A small group of bloggers are invited by the NAC to come to the opening night with a date, as well as receive a few other thoughtful perks, such as a welcome greeting to the show by Gerald Morris, a communications officer with the NAC. I couldn’t hear anything he was saying over the noise of the crowd, since for some reason we were gathered at the edge of the stairwell, so I decided to snap some photos of him. He’s an interesting-looking guy, and later, Hubby and I bumped into him at intermission, and he’s an interesting guy to talk to as well.
Gerald Morris welcomes bloggers to the Lord of the Rings at the NAC — a first for Ottawa.
In addition to pretending I could actually hear a word Gerald was saying and taking photos of him, I also took a look around the lobby … Wow! It was a-buzzing! Lord of the Rings fans were here in droves — and wearing costumes! I thought that was so awesome! You know you’ve created a cool experience when people come in costume!
I asked two young women if I could take my photo with them. They are in full dress and you’ll note that the blonde has elfin ears poking out of her hair.
Moi and two Lord of the Rings fans
By the end of the night, I wanted some elfin ears for myself! Sure, I probably couldn’t pull them off as well as Liv Tyler, who plays Arwen, an Elf maiden, but whatever.
Despite Hubby’s affection for Tolkein’s work, I had never read the books or seen the films. I generally fall asleep during the inevitable sci-fi plot line of: Good guys have to fight the Bad guys –> a token female gets thrown in –> Good guys win.
But I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. It felt extremely luxurious to watch a film on a 60-foot screen with a full orchestra and choir. The stage, as Natasha Gauthier of The Ottawa Citizen, describes:
The Southam Hall stage was jam-packed with an army of musicians: a massive adult chorus; a children’s chorus; both a boy and a female soprano soloist; and the NACO, impressively augmented not just with extra string, brass, woodwind and percussion players, but also guitar, mandolin, accordion, hammered dulcimer, prepared piano, Japanese drums and a host of other exotic and unusual instruments.
I snapped a quick photo of the scene while patrons were still coming in to take their seats:
All in all, I have to say how impressed I was that the NAC Orchestra has brought something so appealing to young people to their stage. In fact, over all the years that Hubby and I have been attending NAC events, this is the youngest crowd we’ve ever seen (I’ve commented on the age of the crowds before)!
But this young crowd is different, with different preferences. The NAC has tapped into some of them by encouraging costumes, welcoming people to bring their smartphones for photo-ops in the lobby with a Lord of the Rings set, and sharing its own photos of fans on its facebook page. Now the question is: how to turn these young people into return customers?
Hubby and I agreed that these tactics listed above are indeed the way forward. In addition, we also chatted about the following in the car:
The women’s washrooms! Seriously, it’s utterly embarrassing how long the line is for these inadequate facilities. I know it will cost big money to renovate the washrooms, but this situation is costing the NAC money! Intermission is a prime time to earn some much-needed cash for an arts center via drink sales but we rarely use the bar because I have to spend the entire intermission waiting in a line-up for the ladies room and Hubby can’t be bothered to wait in line for the bar if he’s not going to be able to share a drink with a companion. Also, I never end up being able to buy a show souvenir because — yes, you guessed it — I spend the entire intermission in a line-up! If couples were able to spend some time chatting and sharing a drink during intermission, the experience overall would be more enjoyable and feel more like a “date night.”
I noticed a number of people had snuck cans of pop and bags of chips into the theatre. I was not impressed! But Hubby commented that maybe that’s what the NAC needs to do if it wants to encourage the younger generation to attend. And then I remembered all the shows I’d seen in NYC’s Broadway — they allow food and drink into the theatre. So maybe Hubby was on to something. Here is a photo of a plastic, no-spill cup from the last Broadway show I saw in New York. My red wine was poured into it and I could bring it back to my seat.
No-spill cup from Newsies, The Musical
Sell different food at intermission. The pastries and current selection are, well, old-fashioned.
Create unique keepsakes to purchase. I would imagine that souvenirs are a good money-maker for the arts, but last night’s offering looked like the same stuff I could buy at Chapters. I personally love to collect a mug from each Broadway show I see. Each mug tends to have an interesting quote from a character on it. I know from working in marketing myself that these mugs can be produced, even in very low quantities, for less than $5 and yet I still buy them for $12 to $15 from each show.
The back of my Billy Elliot mug.
Reduce the cost of parking? I’m not sure if this is do-able, but even if the NAC could offer a student rate for parking, that might help. Or perhaps a parking voucher for anyone who spends more than $50 on souvenirs?
Anyhow, I’ve gone way off track here … it’s just that I truly love the arts and want my hometown to have a very successful and lively arts scene!
So, back to the show: It was a really unique experience and I’d recommend it. I checked the online ticket site and there are still some seats left for tonight (Friday, July 6th) and tomorrow (Saturday, July 7th). If you’re a student between the ages of 13 and 29, be sure to take advantage of the NAC’s amazing Live Rush program, which lets a student buy two last-minute tickets to a show for only $12!
To give you an idea of what the experience is like, here is a clip of a similar performance by Radio City Music Hall in 2009:
P.S. In re-reading this, I see that I am rambly and hardly even talk about the performance itself. Gah! You’ll forgive a girl for having just-arrived-back-from-cottage-brain, right?
Edited on July 9th to add: To make up for not writing about the actual performance enough, here are reviews from other “Blogger Night” guests to give you a feel for the performance. Apparently, attendance was fantastic, so I’m hopeful that the NAC will bring it back again next year with the second film in the trilogy! Here is Sterling Lynch over at Ottawa Sneezers and Wayne C from The Many Faces of Wayne. Also, a BIG thank you to the reader who Stumbled this post — it doubled my blog’s traffic today!
Hubby and I are having one of those weeks where we are feeling burnt out and tired. On Tuesday evening, we decided to order-in pizza (haven’t done that since mid-January!) and eat dinner with the kids in front of the television. Sort of a comfort-food and comfort-visual evening.
It’s fairly impossible for us to find anything that we all want to watch due to a combination of ages and interests. The only thing we can ever manage to agree upon is a wildlife documentary. So I flipped over to Rogers On-Demand to see what kind of documentary I could stir up.
I found “Born to be Wild.” We all loved it. So maybe your family might too? It’s got adorable baby animals combined with inspiring and compassionate humans. Plus gorgeous visuals from faraway lands. Oh, and Morgan Freeman as narrator. What’s not to love, really.
If you’ve seen it, what did you think of it? If not, here is a short trailer to give you a taste.
It’s old fashioned and sexist to believe that men should all be strong and brave, just as it would be to believe that all women should be nurturing and gentle. But the news has been filled with stories of weak, dishonourable men as of late. And it is making me long for a time (fictional or not) for when “men were men.”
First there is the Penn State football scandal in which assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky repeatedly abused young boys. On several occasions, according to this report posted today, Sandusky was caught in the middle of abusing a child:
In the fall of 2000, a janitor named James Calhoun witnesses Sandusky pinning a young boy up against a wall and abusing him. He does not pull Sandusky off the child and get the child to safety.
In this same year, another employee, Ronald Petrosky, is cleaning the showers and comes across Sandusky abusing another young boy. Again, another man witnesses a man abusing a child and does not intervene and get the child to safety.
In 2002, a graduate assistant to the team, Mike McQueary,comes across Sandusky sodomizing a young boy. Yet again, another a grown man does not intervene and get the child to safety.
I like to think that if I had been in the position of any of the three men above that I would run up screaming and yelling and try to push Sandusky away from the child. I also strongly believe that the men I know best would rather risk a black eye and upsetting an influential sports figure on campus, than live with knowing that they walked away from a child who desperately needed help. It’s one thing to hear of suspected abuse, but to witness it in the act not intervene? I simply can’t understand this.
Next, we have Captain Schettino of the Costa Concordia. His ship goes down, and rather than working to organize a rescue, he jumps overboard and saves himself. From a lifeboat, he watches the passengers frantically trying to escape while a Coast Guard captain urges him to go back on board to assist with the rescue. The entire conversation between Schettino and the Coast Guard is recorded and you can hear the captain’s weak excuses for not going back and the Guard finally demanding that he do — ” Get back aboard, damn it!” – to no avail. There are 11 passengers confirmed dead, and another 23 still unaccounted for.
And last but not least, the major news from yesterday was the guilty verdict in the Shafia case. Three members of the family, including the father, are charged with killing four members of the family – three sisters and the father’s second wife. Again, we have a man, Mohammad Shafia, putting his own needs first.
In the Penn State case, it would seem that the men did nothing so that they could avoid ruffling the feathers of a popular football team’s leadership, while in the Costa Concordia situation, Schettino feared for his own life and ran for shelter rather than to fulfill his duty as captain. Then, with Shafia, he is so focused on his own “honour” and reputation, he murders his own flesh and blood. Rather than re-examine his own values and do the hard work of bridging a compromise with his daughters, he decided to just make the “problem” go away.
I know there are plenty of honourable men – and women — in our society today. They quietly do hard, brave work every day. But the spate of recent media stories has really had me feeling sick to my stomach.
Here’s where I chat about whatever is percolating in my brain on a given day … silly family anecdotes, travel tips, a new movie or book, or just life in general.
