Monday Randomness

Didn't watch the Golden Globes last night. I tend to view the Globes as a scam. Awards that seem to go to whatever studio gives the Hollywood Foreign Press the best party, but you can't deny that they influence the Oscars, for good or ill.

So, so happy that Jeff Bridges won. The film, as I've said, is nothing new, but the performances is vintage Jeff Bridges, and, frankly, he should've been showered with awards years ago.

So, so disappointed that Robert Downey Jr. beat Matt Damon in the Musical/Comedy category. It's the award version of star fucking...Downey is "hotter" than Damon, and his move made more bank. Never mind that Damon just killed in The Informant!

And Avatar took it home over The Hurt Locker. Netflix shipped us The Hurt Locker over the weekend, so I expect to be watching it very soon (finally), so I can't really compare, but, that said, I don't think this is a horrible choice. Avatar did provide a visual experience the likes of which I've rarely experienced, and lest we forget...film is a visual medium. I read a snarky tweet that said, "Avatar can be watched on mute to the same effect."

Well, so what?

I'd lay money, based on Kathryn Bigelow's past films, you could say the same about The Hurt Locker, or many of Martin Scorsese's films, or Steven Speilberg's. The fact you could tell a story using mainly visual information is a really illogical way to criticize a movie, or it's maker.

Avatar isn't the greatest movie ever, or even of this year, in my opinion, but it's top-flight ginormo-scale Hollywood filmmaking, and it actually has a compelling message. It will trigger a huge change in, at the very least, how films are presented. This is why I don't entirely balk at it winning awards, and certainly don't think Cameron is undeserving of beating out his ex-wife Bigelow for a Best Director win. Avatar is a director's film, just like The Hurt Locker, the kind that takes every skill a director has to pull off.

I think it's really great that two genre, "action" directors are apparently the frontrunners going into the Oscars. Look at Bigelow's filmography, she and Cameron are from the same school. It's just easy to be snobbish, and think that, because Bigelow made a film about Iraq, and not blue aliens, hers is "more important."

Anyway, I fell down yesterday morning. I am stiff, sore, and my right elbow is tender to the touch. I thank those who've showed concern, but also want to reassure everyone...If I REALLY hurt myself, the LAST thing I'm going to do is run to the phone to tweet about it. Lots of asprin, taking it easy, and I'll be fine.

But it did make me think of something, along with some complaints leveled at me by a friend on Saturday night....

I post a lot of crap via twitter/facebook. I tend to use these status updates as a stream-of-conciousness way to document my own, frankly, worthless musings. Likewise, I use this blog to pontificate on various topics that interest me, and get out various emotional states. I ALWAYS strive to be honest in my blogs or status updates, I am an artist, a performer, and I am my material. There's no point to this blog if I hide my emotional state! Facts, details, names, these are details that made be changed/hidden to protect the innocent, but what I write here is true, and comes from as honest a place as possible.

However....

I am rarely as depressed as I appear, or as excited. Things bother me, things make me happy, and I post them. I consider life changes, and I make mention of them. It's part of my process and sharing myself with the world. If I didn't want to share myself, then, frankly folks, acting is just about the LAST thing I ought to be doing.

What I find interesting is how much importance seems to be attached to a lot of what I say. I mean, half of my status messages are stupid jokes, a good portion quoting lyrics (which may, or may not, be tired to my emotional state...sometimes I just have a song stuck in my head), and the rest is...snippets of me. True, yes, but hardly anything to get upset about.

"I read it on the internet." How often I hear that. Where? Who said Obama wasn't a US Citizen? Who said Jeff Goldblum fell off a cliff in New Zealand? Or that Jackie Earl Haley is playing Sinestro? I mean, these are all false. Obama's birth certificate plainly says he was born in Hawaii, Jeff Goldblum is alive and well, and, according to the Director of Green Lantern, Haley's never even been mentioned. How does this start? Somebody makes a joke, or says "wouldn't this be cool..." and somebody reads it, and adds in their own interpretaion. And it bulids and builds...

Most of what I post is, like most of the internet, far from the full story. Jumping to conclutions is, apparently, now part and parcel of surfing the web.

I fear for us. I really do.