Long overdue update

Okay, so I don't update often because law school is like prison in one regard: lots of routine. At least, I've found that's the best way to approach it. If you can stay on top of a regular schedule, you can get all your work done and still have plenty of time for extra-curricular activities. I'll leave it to your imagination what those are, though without a job, resources limit what those activities can be. Anyway, since I last posted, much has happened, but I'll only comment on a few.

Unless you live under a rock (or possibly in Utah), you know that Sunday was the 79th Academy Awards. On the whole, I was fairly pleased. Ellen DeGeneres wasn't as horrible as I thought she would be, in fact she managed to get in a few lines. Generally, she gave a slight edginess to her typical talk-show warmness, which works well for the Oscars. I could not have been happier with the top awards, at least given the nominees. I only saw two of the five Best Picture nominees (The Departed and Little Miss Sunshine) though I had read extensively about the others. Given that limited exposure, I agree with The Departed winning Best Picture. Of Martin Scorcese's recent offerings (The Aviator, Gangs of New York, etc.) this one was hands down the best. While the story isn't original, it's one that deserved to be transported from Hong Kong (and thus relative obscurity) to mainstream American cinema. Only a giant like Scorcese could have taken a project like this and maintain enough independence form the studio to make it the right way, and he nailed it. Accordingly, he also (finally) won Best Director. The film also won Best Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay. Ultimately, winning Best Picture was a foregone conclusion, since it had already won these three awards. My real beef with the Academy was that Children of Men wasn't nominated for more awards. It was much better than Little Miss Sunshine (which was good), and Clive Owen was simply amazing. I don't see how he was nominated for Closer but not this. Alas, my beef with the Academy fuels my love of the Oscars as much as anything.

From the big screen to the small screen. As posted here before, this fall I was hugely anticipating Aaron Sorkin's new show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Despite a couple of bad reviews (wtfuck is wrong with you Entertainment Weekly?) it has generally been warmly accepted by critics. This, of course, is nothing new for a Sorkin show. Also, the pilot garnered more than 12 million viewers and almost cracked the top 20 for its week, pretty good for opening week. I thought for a second that Studio 60 might follow in The West Wing's footsteps and be a critical and commercial success. Boy, was I wrong. Sorta. The show's ratings have steadily fallen since the pilot and has plateaued around 7 million viewers a week. Rumor has it that because of this, NBC is pulling the show in favor of Paul Haggis' (Crash director) new show The Black Donnely's. Well, now I'm pissed. Finally NBC gets its Thursday night lineup right (see my call a few posts ago about lining up Scrubs, The Office, and My Name is Earl), but now you do this?! NBC should take more of Jordan's (the president of the fictional NBS network on Studio 60) and try to make more money by putting up better programming, a la HBO and Showtime. To steal one of her lines, quoting Pericles, "All things good should flow into the broadway," meaning the best of American television should be available to everyone for free. The Nielsen ratings show this strategy works on a financial level. While Studio 60 is flaling around the 60 spot for the week, it attracts a huge number of alpha-buyers, educated viewers with tons of cash to spend. Each of these viewers counts for five normal, American Idol-watching plebians. Ultimately, the show is still profitable, as far as I've read, so I see no reason to pull it. Once the awards start rolling its way, it will get more pub, and thus more viewers. Studio 60 is one of the few bastions of educated, network television, and pulling it would make the American Idols and Apprentices of the tv landscape loom all the larger.

So I don't end my post on a huge diatribe here's a short list of what I've been listening too lately: Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City, The Arcade Fire - Funeral, and the new Modest Mouse - We Were Dead When the Ship Sank. I resent a comment I heard regarding the new MM record as mere "college music." While everyone is entitled to his opinion, this album is different from their previous offerings, and, I think, more accessible. So, even if you don't like their other stuff, it's worth a listen. Also, Arcade Fire = amazing. Enough said. Bloc Party is a bit of a diversion for me, which is precisely why I listen to it. I fell into a hippy music trap a few years ago and am trying to avoid the same pit in my new genre of choice ... well ... college music. As the beginning of this post makes apparent, I am a law student.