News from the Boston Becks

Patterns form where none exist for John (Russell Crowe) and Alicia Nash (Jennifer Connelly) in A Beautiful Mind.

The 74th annual Academy Awards for the film year 2001.  The nominations were announced on February 12, 2002 and the awards were held on March 24, 2002.

Best Picture:  A Beautiful Mind

• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• Moulin Rouge!
• Gosford Park
• In the Bedroom

Most Surprising Omission:  Mulholland Dr.

Best Eligible Film Not Nominated:  The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain

Best Eligible English-Language Film Not Nominated:  Mulholland Dr.

Rank (out of 84) Among Best Picture Years:  #6 (more…)

I’m a Lord of the Rings fanatic with a thing for Cate Blanchett. What were you expecting to see here?

My Top 20:

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. Moulin Rouge
3. The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain
4. Mulholland Dr.
5. Memento
6. Gosford Park
   
7. In the Bedroom
8. The Royal Tenenbaums
9. The Others
10. The Man Who Wasn’t There
11. Ghost World
12. Amores perros
13. Monster’s Ball
14. The Princess and the Warrior
15. A.I.  Artificial Intelligence
16. Vanilla Sky
17. Black Hawk Down
18. The Devil’s Backbone
19. Monsters Inc.
20. Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone

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Veronica and Thomas with Cookie Monster

Erik and Thomas with Bert and Ernie.

Well, Sesame Place had their Free Autism Day again.  We decided not do anything big on the way down like last year (when we went to the Bronx Zoo).  I did, in a fit of insanity, decide to try to show Veronica a little of Manhattan.  It would have been fine, except for the following things:

1 – I went the wrong way at the end of the Throgs Neck Bridge and started heading out on Long Island

2 – I reversed myself by getting on the L.I.E., which, unfortunately, seems to be jam-packed with traffic at noon on a Friday.

3 – I thought this would be a good way to get to the Brooklyn Bridge (which I thought would be a nice way to go), when, in fact, it is a good way to get to the Midtown Tunnel.

4 – Once we were in Manhattan, I forgot that Broadway runs one-way downtown, so my thought of driving her towards Times Square so she could see it, didn’t really work.

5 – Tolls.  F#$%^g TOLLS!  We drove to Philadelphia and back.  Our trip encompassed some 660 miles.  We paid $56 in tolls.  On the list of things I dislike about living on the East Coast, right along with all the damn sporting events happening so late that I’m exhausted just staying up to watch them, tolls is one.  I used to drive all the time from Portland to Southern California.  2100 miles round trip.  The only time I would ever pay a toll is if I took the Golden Gate Bridge. (more…)

Thomas in his costume.

Thomas had a Fairy Tale Theater at school last week.  One of those things where we suddenly learn he has to choose a character and come to school in a costume.  We decided to go the old-fashioned route and make the costume.  And by we, I mean Veronica, with one idea from me.

The shirt was something he already had.  The belt is Veronica’s.  The sweatpants were borrowed from our friend Terry when he got sick in Oregon last year.  The hat is made from some felt from an unfinished art project at his art class.  The beard was my input – it’s construction paper with holes cut out so it can fit over his ears and cotton balls glued to the front.  He also has pointy ears made from construction paper.

It went okay.  The class has a microphone which Thomas finds very distracting, so that was an issue.  But one more big project down.

And speaking of big projects, I have been going through boxes of old pictures, ranging from the early 40′s (pictures of my Mom) to recent pictures.  I am going to scan a bunch and we’ll probably have them up on Veronica’s Facebook page because it’s a lot easier to put them there then to put them here.  So keep an eye out for them.

My copies of As I Lay Dying (clockwise from top left - Vintage trade, British hardcover, Vintage mass, Modern Library gold, First Edition facsimile, Norton, Modern Library hardcover, Penguin British paperback, Vintage mass, Modern Library hardcover (combined with The Sound and the Fury))

As I Lay Dying

• Author:  William Faulkner  (1897  -  1962)
• Rank:  #19
• Published:  1930
• Publisher:  Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith
• Pages:  267
• First Line:  “Jewel and I came up from the field, following the path in single file.”
• Last Line:  ” ‘Meet Mrs Bundren,’ he says.”
• ML Edition:  #187  (published with The Sound and the Fury; also as a paperback #6); #378; Gold Hardcover
• Acclaim:  Modern Library Top 100 English Language Novels of the 20th Century #35
• Film:  none
• First Read:  Spring, 1994

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"My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius." Easily the best scene in Gladiator.

The 73rd annual Academy Awards, for the film year 2000.  The nominations were announced on February 13, 2001 and the awards were held on March 25, 2001.

Best Picture:  Gladiator

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Traffic
• Chocolat
• Erin Brockovich

Most Surprising Omission:  Almost Famous

Best Eligible Film Not Nominated:  Almost Famous

Rank (out of 84) Among Best Picture Years:  #47

(more…)

If you think Crouching Tiger is not the best film of 2000, she will kick your ass. And she might even if you agree. And she'll be sexy doing it.

My Top 20:

1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2. Almost Famous
3. Traffic
4. O Brother Where Art Thou
5. Wonder Boys
6. Thirteen Days
7. High Fidelity
8. The Virgin Suicides
9. Billy Elliot
10. Best in Show
11. Chicken Run
12. State and Main
13. Unbreakable
14. The Claim
15. X-Men
16. You Can Count on Me
17. Nurse Betty
18. Aimee and Jaguar
19. Winter Sleepers
20. The Widow of St. Pierre

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