Blargh. Perfect Timing
Tuesday, January 28, 2014 at 8:20PM 
So, it's Oscar season (only 791 hours to go until the big show) and my desktop computer, which houses all the software I use on a daily basis and all my in progress pieces, abruptly quit this morning. Just blacked out with no warning and no dramatic underscoring. My desk is weirdly empty without the silver beast on it and so is my soul. Three days at least without it. *weeps*
I am fighting off waves of self-pity (can't I catch a break once in a while?) but will attempt to keep up the blogging to the point where you won't notice ...save for the conspicuous lack of photoshopping and film bitch awards... okay, okay, you will probably notice. Blogging from the laptop, ipad, or phone is like making dinner with one hand tied behind my back (at least the way I do it).
Join my pity party by mouthing off on something that's really bugging you right now. Let it all out! Vent.
Reader Comments (21)
Post DGA talk about Gravity taking the lead for Best Picture. Frustrating!
No one is joining me in my celebration of Gravity taking the lead for Best Picture. It's, like, super frustrating.
Do I think it's the best film of the year? Heavens, no. But I'm all for a science fiction film (with survival horror notes) finally taking the top prize. You can whitewash history and claim Silence of the Lambs is a thriller, not a horror film, but you can't whitewash a film about people floating around in space because of a failed scientific mission as anything but science fiction. Deal with it.
don't forget it's cuarÓn! lol
but on a serious note, is the smackdown post on that computer? :(
How for the love of gawd could Radioactive NOT win Record of the Year! (BB gnashing teeth, beating breast). Imagine (Dragons) that: Grammys getting it wrong. Sheesh.
Nathan, I hope your computer is well soon!
Nyong'o and Blanchett are winning and yet a surefire McConaughey victory has ruined the whole thing for me. Finally they're getting the actress categories correct in their choice of winners, but they have to do something funny when it comes to the men. I hate the Academy -- good for nothing.
You don't have any geeky computer friends that can help you recover the hard drive? That should always be possible, unless your desktop spontaneously combusted.
No one seems to have geeky computer friends when you need them. They only show up if they hear a girl who hasn't turned them down yet will be at the party.
marcelo -- yes, actually the rough draft is. (sigh. so many half finished thigns i was going to do this very week. argh) Also as for the spelling of Cuarón... sometimes my laptop will do it sometimes it won.t but the dead desktop always understood special characters. *sniffle*
James - agreed.
Robert G -- but i have heard people arguing it's not sci-fi. silly people.
Nathaniel, I've given up on explaining why it's a horror film. That was the marketing campaign for months. I surrender. I will not surrender science fiction. A research scientist gets lost in space, surviving only because of the technology that lets anyone explore space at all.
Of course, if you talk to an actual scientist like Neil Degrasse Tyson, Gravity would be called the best comedy of the year. Physics don't apply in space fiction. All the more reason to say it's science fiction.
"Gravity" wants to be more than a sci-fi spectacle- but it fails to transcend the genre like "2001" Quaron does deserve his best director award.
Something I find frustrating, people on this site bashing Gravity for not being something it never intended to be. Gravity is a simple survival story told with such breathtaking beauty that it becomes cathartic. I feel there are people here (mainly Nat) who were dissappointed that it wasn't something else just because Alfonso Cuarón directed it. I think it's a film that achieved what it set out to do and did it beautifully. Cuarón's vision has always been to bring a sense of heightened realism to anything he touches, be it the world of Harry Potter, or a world in the not-too-distant future where there's no one under 18, or Mexico City and the highway leading up to a beach, or New York at the turn of the 20th Century, or space just outside the Earth. That's his vision and I love that he can apply it to so many different stories. So, I'm glad he's getting the recognition he has deserved for so long and I'll be perfectly fine with this film winning Best Picture (I also loved 12 Years a Slave, so I'll be happy with either one).....
GRAVITY is not the sci-fi picture of the current Best Picture nominees. HER is.
GRAVITY is set in space, but it is based on known technology. Maybe it does flaunt some of the laws of physics and astronauts, but so does every FAST AND FURIOUS movie, and we don't call them sci-fi. APOLLO 13 wasn't sci-fi, and just because it's fiction doesn't make GRAVITY sci-fi either.
Travis, Apollo 13 is a docudrama. Gravity is theoretical fiction based on a plausible scenario dealing with NASA based information -- I don't see how that disqualifies it from the genre of science fiction. Science fiction isn't flying cars and aliens -- it usually is based on the technology we have now furthered or a story that could happen with the tech we have now. Seriously science fiction isn't a pejorative.
Apollo 13 isn't science fiction because it is a true story, which makes it science fact. If someone made a similar, entirely fictional tale, would we really be expected to not call it science fiction? I don't understand the resistance to labeling Gravity science fiction. It's science based, and fiction. It's not wildly speculative science fiction, but it pretty clearly fits within the definition of the genre.
I think Gravity may be a little hard to categorize because space makes it seem unavoidable to consider as a science fiction film. Her is definitely more of a science fiction film. Gravity still leans to action/adventure in my opinion but I also think it has a monster in the house element like an Alien did, except figuratively with space being the greatest threat/monster.
I just saw Her last night, and it's bugging me that I didn't love it, because I was so ready to, and I admire so much about it.
But I thought the casting of Scarlet Johansson created a major hurdle that I couldn't get around because her voice is so recognizable. While the main character has to build this romantic partner up from only a voice, I had a specific face and body attached to it, so my experience, which could have been similar to Leonard's, was actually different. It was a particular problem in a scene where the screen is totally black for an extended period of time.
I had a few other issues in a story that I mostly liked. But it irritated me that almost any other actress would have worked better for me. Picture Christina Hendricks, who is similarly sexy-voiced, but less iconically-voiced.
Anyone and everyone who speaks ill of Netflix in any way, shape, or format!
Netflix has made it possible for us to watch The Hunt, The Square, Cutie and the Boxer, Blackfish, The Story of Film: An Odyssey (ep 1-6), Scrubs (season 1), and Spaceballs, AND Once Upon a Time in the West, all in one snowy weekend.
Sorry about your computer, N. Hope it's up and running again soon.
Pam - agreed. I am also a Netflix defender although i'm not sure i'll remains so if they drop their disc service altogether since the instant watch is so limited in terms of what's available and so erratic about how long it stays available.
Mike - interesting perspective.
GRAVITY doesn't further the technology we have now, it's based on what we already have. That's why I don't classify it as sci-fi. Maybe APOLLO 13 was a misleading example. Stick with the F&F comparison.
Great article, thank you!
I would advise you to use data backups in the future. Or use programs that store data in the cloud. For example, I work through the Fieldwork software. I know that I will not lose my data. Also, can use from a computer and smartphone.