I *Heart* Famous People
My professor is the second from the left, wearing glasses. :)
- posted by Nicole @ 11:02 PM

 
Oscar Nominations 2007
I have to say that I thing the Academy did a MUCH better job picking nominees than the Hollywood Foreign Press. As such, I have deigned to convey my picks:

BEST ACTOR: OBVIOUSLY Forest Whitaker for Last King of Scotland - it's an absolutely terrifying performance. I actually jumped off the couch when he won the Golden Globe. Also, I love to see Leonardo DiCaprio be repeatedly snubbed...

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Haven't seen any of these except Blood Diamond, and while I liked Djimon Hounsou, his performance wasn't particularly spectacular.

BEST ACTRESS: Helen Mirren. Obviously. Class class class. (Though - I would also love to see Judi Dench win. Mostly because I'm afraid if she keeps getting nominated every year and never wins, she'll stop coming.)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Either of the two up for Babel (Adriana Barraza or Rinko Kikuchi....though only if she promises not to wear that pink dress again...)

BEST ART DIRECTION: I really need to see Pan's Labyrinth, cuz it's nominated for just about every other category, and I feel like it's probably gonna win. But for now I'll saw The Good Shepherd.

CINAMATOGRAPHY: The Illusionist. They created SUCH a captivating mood and tone - it was breaktaking.

COSTUME: SOOOOOOO Marie Antoinette - ALL the way! Love the montage sequence playing with the song "I want candy". It just sort of sums it all up.

BEST DIRECTOR: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - no contest. I'll puke if Clint Eastwood wins, but I'd rather have him get it than Martin Scorsese.

BEST DOCUMENTARY: And Inconvenient Truth is OBVIOUSLY gonna win. No point in rooting for anything else.

FILM EDITING: Babel, Babel, Babel! (Though I haven't seen Children of Men yet)

FOREIGN FILM: Pan's Labyrinth is SO gonna win.

BEST SCORE: Babel. It's haunting. And visceral. And stimulatingly diverse.

BEST SCREENPLAY: The Queen

BEST PICTURE: Babel. Though I'd be happy if The Queen got it.


That's my take! The class I'm taking on the Hollywood Blockbuster has given me a whole new appreciation for the Academy Awards.
- posted by Nicole @ 5:54 PM

 
Thought of the Day
Classical music soothes my soul.
- posted by Nicole @ 10:43 PM

 
Half and Half
I just made a cup of coffee and then realized that I hadn't bought half and half yet. So I used Amarula instead.

I may never buy half and half again.
- posted by Nicole @ 3:27 PM

 
Golden Globes 2007
I'm not listing my picks for the nominations largely because I am appalled by some of the choices the Hollywood Foreign Press has made this year. I'm sorry - Leonardo DiCaprio does not deserve ANY nominations for ANYTHING, let alone TWO nominations, including one for his LAUGHABLE performance as a South African (with an unindentifiable accent) in Blood Diamond. *Gag* Consider me on strike.
- posted by Nicole @ 11:42 PM

 
The Dirty South: Part One - New Orleans
I've just returned from our Glee Club tour to the Dirty South (Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia). It was interesting because I'd never been to any of those places before, though I can't say it's my favorite part of the country (too much fried food and country music....) I enjoyed the beginning and then end of the trip the most.

We started out in New Orleans, which was really interesting. It's amazing how much damage has still been left unattended to, even more than a year after the storm. The hurricane still dominates life there, and people have not moved on largely because they've been unable to. The city/state level corruption and incompetence has been laid bare, not only in the inadequate preparation for the storm, but also in the failure to address the damage and help people rebuild. Less than 50% of the people have returned to their homes. We spent some time in the lower 9th Ward, and its still completely devastated. In most places, all that remains of the houses are concrete slabs, with driveways or footpaths leading to nothing. Cars have just been abandoned, covered with rust and silt. The houses all have these cryptic X's on the front doors, marked by the national guard units that came through checking for survivors. Some of the X's are next to windows on the upper floors, showing just how high the flood waters rose. It's so sad. It's so alarming to see all those abandoned homes. Not only because of the wreckage, with broken windows and roofs caved in. For me, it was most disturbing how the doors swung open on the hinges and you could see how the inside of the house was utterly gutted. Furniture is overturned and the wall struts stripped bare of paper and dry wall. The home is such a private space - sybolizing security and protection - it struck me as almost obscene to see a home ripped open and left vulnerable. A pervasive sense of eeriness runs through the whole area.

It is also interesting how the storm has brutally demonstrated the disparity of wealth in the New Orleans area. All the wealthy people have already fully recovered - they've fixed their houses or built new ones; the country club-sized houses on St. Charles Avenue - being at a slightly higher elevation - were totally unaffected. But the poor people are still stuck living in FEMA trailer parks, trying to get through miles of bureaucratic red tape in order to get money out of the government.

It's almost as if a cloud is hanging over the whole city. Like the people are trying to be hopeful, trying to move on and rebuild. But the obstacles are still substantial. I was really happy to have the opportunity to participate - albeit in a small way - in the efforts to rebuild the city. Our tour had a strong service element to it: we spent a day working in the lower 9th Ward building houses at a Habitat for Humanity site, and the procedes from our concert in New Orleans went to the New Orleans Children's Choir. I think it was really important that we incorporated some service projects into our trip; otherwise, it would have been nothing but disaster tourism, which appalls me. It reminds me of the "Township Tours" they run in Cape Town - sort of like, lets bring the rich white people in to look at all of the poor black folk in their little shacks....

The city is still suffering, and I wish I could have seen it before the storm. It's difficult to understand how something like this could happen in America, but I think that lately we are finding more and more just house vulnerable we are, and how our perceived invincibility is a fallacy
- posted by Nicole @ 3:26 PM

 
First Post of 2007!
It's finally come: the year of 007 - my graduation year. Very scary. I scarcely feel old enough to be in college, let alone an autonomous, responsible adult. Anyway, I'd like to start off 2007 by catching up on the posting I mean to do last year.

The semester finished off well! I wrote my senior essay and it turned out fantastic! I received glowing reviews from my advisor, and it made all the blood, sweat, and tears that I poured into it throughout the semester totally worth it. All in all, it was - miraculously - another 4.0 semester :)

In order to celebrate all that hard work, Beth and I went to spend a weekend in NYC, right before we left for Christmas break. We had a really great time. On Friday, we met up with my friend Monica (who I lived with while in South Africa); she's at school at Columbia. We went to dinner at a really yummy Italian restaurant in Morningside Heights, and then down to the East Village for a very fancy, semi-formal Christmas cocktail party at her friend Rob's. It was a really fun night! Then Saturday, Abby came to join us in the city, and we all went to see the tree in Rockafeller (sp?) Center, and browsed the shops on Fifth Avenue. Then we all went down to Soho to meet up with Jessica, who's in the city interning with Conan O'Brien. Abby and Beth and I got drinks at the cute place called Balthazar beforehand, then went out for pizza with Jessica in Little Italy. Afterwards, we went to see the movie the Holiday (which was surprisingly good: the key to happiness is low expectations....Jude Law was ABSOLUTELY adorable. You really just want to take him and his British accent home with you....) We covered a lot of ground, despite only being there for short time. Plus it was nice for me to catch up with some old friends.

The theme of catching up with old friends - and especially high school friends AND teachers - continued when I got home. I think I've seen just about everyone who ever went to Sweet Home EVER these past few weeks. I've also been in contact with every boy I've ever sucked face with....interesting....It's nice to get reconnected with your roots, ya know?

I'm getting ready to leave on Glee Club tour now. We're going to Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. I've never been to that part of the country before, so it should be interesting....
- posted by Nicole @ 10:31 PM