2008 Oscar Predictions!

While just about everyone agrees that Daniel Day-Lewis & Javier Bardem are locks to snag the golden statuette in their respective categories, the rest of the field is wide open. Though on the side of the actresses, the theme of the night may be 'respect thy elders'.

Well, here goes nothing...my picks in bold.




BEST PICTURE
'Atonement'
'Juno'
'Michael Clayton'
'No Country for Old Men'
'There Will Be Blood'
For the most part, a two-horse race...rather than flip a coin, I'm thinking that the Academy will award the Coen brothers in the directing category, but honor Anderson's masterpiece with the evening's Big Prize.

BEST ACTOR
George Clooney, 'Michael Clayton'
Daniel Day-Lewis, 'There Will Be Blood'
Johnny Depp, 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'
Tommy Lee Jones, 'In the Valley of Elah'
Viggo Mortensen, 'Eastern Promises'
I don't know what else to say about this category. It'd be just awesome if JD shocked the world here...but looking outside, I see no flying monkeys. Clooney probably with the best chance to derail the seemingly-unstoppable Day-Lewis locomotive.

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, 'Elizabeth: The Golden Age'
Julie Christie, 'Away From Her'
Marion Cotillard, 'La Vie en Rose'
Laura Linney, 'The Savages'
Ellen Page, 'Juno'
In my Golden Globes predictions, I said that Ellen Page would win the Oscar...umm, I need to retract that statement. Christie as clear a frontrunner in her category as Day-Lewis is in his. Fellow GG winner Cotillard admirable competition...but let's face it, the Academy adores Julie.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Casey Affleck, 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'
Javier Bardem, 'No Country for Old Men'
Philip Seymour Hoffman, 'Charlie Wilson's War'
Hal Holbrook, 'Into the Wild'
Tom Wilkinson, 'Michael Clayton'
I was so tempted to fly in the face of popular convention and choose 82-year-old Holbrook here, predicting that the Academy would honor his entire body of work with a 2008 Oscar. But in the end, Bardem's brilliantly-brutal performance frightened me into this selection.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, 'I'm Not There'
Ruby Dee, 'American Gangster'
Saoirse Ronan, 'Atonement'
Amy Ryan, 'Gone Baby Gone'
Tilda Swinton, 'Michael Clayton'
The most wide-open of all the major categories, I wouldn't be surprised to see anyone other than Ronan win the Award. For all intents and purposes, this is most likely Ruby's last nomination, and the Academy may elect to honor her here (perhaps like Holbrook for Supporting Actor)...Ossie would be so proud. And whether it matters or not, Ms. Dee is the only minority actor nominated this year.

BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson, 'There Will Be Blood'
Joel & Ethan Coen, 'No Country for Old Men'
Tony Gilroy, 'Michael Clayton'
Jason Reitman, 'Juno'
Julian Schnabel, 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'
Like the Best Picture category, two contenders to do battle for this award. What a score for either Anderson or the Coens if one of them sweeps both Oscars!

There it be...I'll be content with 4 out of 6. We shall see in about 30 hours or so.

Ciao4Now.

EDIT (2.25): Yeesh...a little off-the-mark this year. Although not necessarily an upset, Cotillard's triumph took me by surprise. 3 of 6...pretty lousy.

'Semi-Homemade w/ Boyhowdy' - Episode #4

What to do with leftover steamed rice? Like most Chinese restaurants, why not fry it up & make a meal! Here's what you need:
Rice, of course (this is just a simple long grain that I steamed up the day before)
Two strips of bacon, cut
About 1/3 of an onion, chopped,
One clove of garlic, minced
Shrimp
Soy sauce
Oyster sauce
Black Pepper

Fry up the bacon and drain most of the fat.

Add onions and garlic. Sautee, being careful not to burn the garlic.

Add shrimp. Continue to sautee ingredients until shrimp is cooked through, but not overdone.

Stir in the rice. The grains should seperate a little bit and not be so clumpy.

Collect on one side of the pan, then drizzle oyster sauce & soy sauce. Add black pepper to taste. Turn off heat & sautee a little more to distribute the seasoning.

Fin! Of course, you can add just about anything to it - frozen peas, carrots, chopped ham or chicken, scrambled eggs, etc.. Anything goes when it comes to fried rice!


Ciao4Now.

The Hair Down There

I once asked an ex-girlfriend if she ever completely shaved her pubic region. After shooting me a look of disgust, she retorted, "Of course not! Why...do you have some kind of sick young-girl fantasy?" I played it off as one who was 'just asking'...after all, she did once surprise me with a 'heart-shaped' bush on Valentine's Day.

It always perplexes me why some women think a hairless crotch equates to a partner's perverted pre-adolescent thoughts. Somewhere way down our evolutionary chain, pubic hair once served a purpose...for females, it captured the scent of menstruation, or ripeness to breed. Then along came civilization & vanity, and with it, the invention of clothing, thereby dismissing the need for these follicle sprouts.

Like the various styles atop our scalps, shouldn't pubic grooming also be considered a matter of personal preference? Unless completely aboriginal, the hair down there is quite unnecessary in modern culture...and in some cases, may hinder personal hygiene.

Then again, razor burn & irritation's a bitch (I know that firsthand). And waxing...ee-yowch!

As a dude, I really don't care how a woman chooses to tend to her shrubbery around the gateway to pleasure...like getting free Super Bowl tickets, I'm just elated & blessed to be there, you know?

Ciao4Now.

P.S. Coming soon...Bowhowdy's FEARLESS Oscar predictions!

Sarah loves Jimmy (and Matt Damon!)

One last thing before I retire for the evening...last night, I was watching Jimmy Kimmel's 5th anniversary of his late-night show & caught this hilarious musical sketch performed by his girlfriend Sarah Silverman...& Matt Damon! Enjoy.

Ciao4Now.

Get 'Lost'!

'Blown away' would describe my reaction after last night's season-premiere of 'Lost'.

I'm not going to get too deep into it...after all, there are dozens of websites out there that have been analyzing this series way better than I could ever do here (one of my faves being http://thelostdiary.com/ ).

However, I love the 'flashforward' sequences (as opposed to the 'flashbacks' in previous episodes) featured in Season 4. In this viewer's opinion, the characters' pasts have already been adequately established, and any more blood squeezed out of that turnip would've dragged the show toward tedium. Instead of learning how the castaways got there, now the audience is spun around & left to figure out the path toward the afforded future glimpses. Absolutely brilliant!

Not 'Lost' yet? You can watch every single episode online for FREE here: http://video.aol.com/video-category/lost/102917

Namaste...& Ciao4Now.