TV

Golden Balls
(12/12/08 edition)
I know I know, utter trash, but it was on and I was curious how it worked. It's a twist on Deal or No Deal, of course, and it's equally as dull.

Films

The Green Mile (1999)
[2nd watch]
We got through all three hours of this in a single two-hour seminar, including pauses for comment and discussion. So maybe doesn't quite 'count' as a watch...

Little Miss Sunshine
[2nd watch]
It really doesn't feel like nearly two years (to be precise, 21 months) since I watched this first, as part of 100 Films in a Year 2007. But there you go, time flies & all that. Anyway, the film itself is ludicrously heartwarming and has perhaps the greatest climax of any film ever. Seriously.

DVD Extras

Alternate Endings
and
Alternate Endings with Commentary by directors Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris
(from Little Miss Sunshine)
Four offerings that are not so much alternate endings as alternate final beats -- including one directed by Abigail Breslin, the film's 9-year-old star! It's easy to see why they were excised, though they're certainly fun to see.

Hugh Jackman to host the Oscars

I kid you not!

From People.com via IMDb:

And the hosting honor goes to … Hugh Jackman.

People's reigning Sexiest Man Alive has been chosen to host the 81st annual Academy Awards ceremony, to take place Feb. 22 The Australia star, 40, who'll be hosting the Oscars for the first time, was selected "because we want the ceremony to be fun," says Laurence Mark, producer of the telecast. "He can hold the screen and he can hold a stage. It doesn't hurt that he looks amazing in a tuxedo and he's the Sexiest Man Alive."

Jackman won an Emmy in 2005 for hosting the 59th annual Tony Awards in 2004. He was also nominated as host of the Tonys in 2005. ABC will broadcast the Oscar ceremony live from the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on Feb. 22.

Well I'll be damned -- they usually choose comedians!

I think Jackman will be good though -- clearly he has hosting credentials, plus he's a very likable and very funny guy. Though this rather suggests they're not expecting Australia to get any noms...

Poem of the Day: The Trust Territory V

V. da Capo
by Andy Brown

This week and next, Poem of the Day is presenting Andy Brown's 10-part poem, The Trust Territory. I think there's much to enjoy in each individual segment, and even more so when all ten pieces are put together. Also, at least some parts of it are especially suited to this time of year.

Please see after today's piece for information on where to find the poem in print.

                               da capo / Mus: 'repeat from the beginning'

You scan the line of albums, lick your lips
and ease one out. It opens in your palm.
Wetting a finger you shuffle through the pages
like a teller. A smile fields your face:

'You see, I'm right,' you say (again).
'It was here. You must remember --
'our naked bodies joined together;
'warm breezes shaking perfume

'from the clover?' Why is it, I wonder,
I don't recall a thing; but you -- oh you! --
your memory is so sharp? You slide it back.
We go to bed. Stare at the ceiling; our latest books.

The Trust Territory was originally published as a poetry chapbook, now out of print. It's currently available in Fall of the Rebel Angels: Poems 1996-2006 (find the best prices online here). The versions posted here are taken from the latter. From the author's acknowledgements for that volume: "Many [poems in this collection] appear as they were first published in individual volumes, others have been edited over the years and it is these final versions I wish to preserve."

Andy Brown's latest book is Goose Music, co-authored with John Burnside.

Please see here for information on Poem of the Day and copyright.