Impulses
My Oscars pick
From winners sobbing uncontrollably to shocking political outbursts, bizarre snubs and streakers, the Oscars have seen it all, and this Monday morning’s (Philippine time) Academy Awards will likely provide fresh drama of its own.
Will it be Avatar or The Hurt Locker for the Best Picture? This is not just a simple rivalry. It is a tiff between sexes, exes and budgets (half-a-billion bankrolled Avatar of James Cameroon vs. pseudo independent film Locker of Kathryn Bigelow; both directors had intimate tryst with each other a year ago). Interesting, huh?
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If I were to judge, based on what I have seen and read in the large screen, in the free movie sites, the YouTube and in pirated DVDs, the following are my top threes (in order):
Best Picture: Avatar, The Hurt Locker, The Blind Side
Best Director: James Cameroon, Kathryn Bigelow, Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), Morgan Freeman (Invictus), George Clooney (Up in the Air)
Best Actress: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side), Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious)
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), Matt Damon IInvictus, (Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones)
Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique (Presious), Penelope Cruz (Nine), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart)
Best Original Screenplay: Up, Inglourious Basterds, The Hurt Locker
Best Animated Feature: Up (almost a sure win), The Princess and the Frog
Best Art Direction: Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, Nine
Best Cinematography: Avatar, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Best Original Score: Avatar, Up, Sherlock Holmes
Best Visual Effects: Avatar, Star Trek, District 9
Best Sound Editing: Avatar, Up, Star Trek
Best Sound Mixing: Avatar, Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
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Top of Form
A new memorandum circular that allows small boats engaged in short distances in special areas in Western Visayas to sail during fair weather despite presence of a storm has been approved by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).
The special areas are the Iloilo Strait between Iloilo City and Guimaras and Tanon Strait between Boracay Island and Caticlan, Malay, Aklan—a sound memo indeed.
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DepEd and Literacy Coordinating Council (LCC) formally launched the 2010 National Literacy Awards in Western Visayas during an orientation program held last March 4.
Tubungan town is expected to reign supreme anew.
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The police in Bacolod City have launched a thorough investigation on the kidnapping of a Filipino-Chinese businessman 26-year-old Jordan Chua Friday morning.
We need immediate result or else the crooks of society will do this again in wanton feeling of impunity.
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“Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is urging government to reexamine the feasibility of re-commissioning the Bataan Nuclear Energy Plant amid continued energy crisis in Mindanao and now recently in Luzon.
I may not like Bongbong but he has a point here. Let us give it a try. Contrary to public perception, Nuclear Energy is a relatively clean technology. It is also enormously efficient and sustainably cheap.
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The advertisements of NP standard bearer Manuel Villar Jr. were aired for a total of 8,730 minutes (6 days) in a span of 3 months before the start of the official campaign period, exceeding the combined airtime of 5 other leading presidential candidates during the same period.
This is scary. It seems that Villar is buying the presidency out. Goosebumps!
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Two-motorcycle riding persons recently held-up a lone man Jojo Fernandez who just withdrew from a roadside ATM booth at Gen. Luna St., Iloilo City.
Just like that? Where are all the policemen gone?
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With only three barangays left, Western Visayas will attain 100% electrification this year, says Engr. Rey Maleza of the Department of Energy-Visayas.
Assuming that Engr. Maleza is correct, how about the issues on brownout, blackouts, power shortage, power pilferage, and high electricity cost?
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City Mayor Jerry Treñas said he is amenable to sign a peace covenant with his political foes—people from the Gonzalez camp—to maintain honest, peaceful and clean elections in the city.
I doubt if the Gonzalez camp will take this bait.
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Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” broke through the looking glass all the way to the top of the North American box office chart this weekend with a whopping $112 million in takings, according estimates.
Move aside Avatar and Dear John. Here comes Alice and Wonderland.
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Eleven soldiers were killed in an ambush by communist guerrillas over the weekend, a military spokesman said.
I thought the NPAs are a dying species?
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The Iloilo City Council deferred the approval of a resolution declaring Iloilo City under the state of imminent danger of a calamity. The opposition councilors want to get additional facts and figures from the different stakeholders.
This is more of an electoral strategy rather than a political stand for the anti-Trenas councilors.
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Inflation slowed for the second month in a row in February on an annual basis, within forecasts but prompting a central bank official to warn that demand pressures could be rising.
I just wonder if the government economists are using their eyes indeed in getting the economic pulse of the country. Their numbers seem to be so hard to believe. All one need is to just walk through the streets to see that inflation in the country is in alarming double figures already!
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The Philippines ranked No. 1 in terms of public involvement in last year’s Earth Hour with some 10 million Filipinos participating in the global event.
This year, let’s double our participation by turning off our lights and non-essential appliances for an hour on March 27. Remember, we are just boarders in this planet and that we need to exercise responsibility in its stewardship for generations to come.
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Smartly Funny Quote:
An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.—GK Chesterton
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Random Quotes:
A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.—Dennis Waitley, speaker, writer
To believe in something not yet proved and to underwrite it with our lives, it is the only way we can leave the future open.—Lillian Smith, writer, social critic (1897-1966)
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Compliments are given to the very informative websites of The News Today, The Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star, ABS-CBN Network, PNA, PIA, joke-of-the-day.com, and The Business World.
(Engr. Herman Lagon, who “Facebookly” describes himself as a “social scientist,” is a physics teacher and a PhD. student in Math. He may be reached through h_lagon@yahoo.com).
