In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun

Of course today’s inauguration of Barack Obama as our nation’s 44th President is all kinds of historical.  That’s a given.

This morning I had to drive about an hour to do a drop-off for work in Santa Monica, so I caught pretty much everything in the car, listening to NPR.  And as I drove down Santa Monica Blvd., I couldn’t help but cry.  Like, literally cry at the magnitude of today’s significance.  And for some reason, the ensemble classical piece by John Williams seemed incredibly fitting in tone.  When Itzhak Perlman started getting all virtuosic on his violin, there was such a freeing sense in the music.  All the disparate instruments (and how disparate were they?  I mean honestly: piano, violin, cello, and barely-there clarinet?) seemed to be going nuts with their own lines but were still playing together as a unified whole and I started crying.  I cried in my car because I had no other way of expressing my immense joy.

For what feels like the first time, I am absolutely 100% proud to be an American.  I wear the badge with honor now and feel as though the country is finally headed in a direction that I can get on board with.  And I think that sentiment is true for most of my generation, so if nothing else, Obama has been successful thus far instilling a sense of patriotism back into the population at large.  I felt today that I wanted to pursue a career in politics.  Like I wanted to enact change.  Like I wanted to become an active citizen and stop being passive about issues I care about.  And this is from someone who isn’t generally moved to do such things.

I also found Elizabeth Alexander’s poem to be quite fitting as well.  (Whomever programmed this thing did a top-notch job.)

But on an even more serious note:

That hat? Honey, no.  That is a bedazzled bow.  HSN would turn that away with the note “too tacky.”  Love you, Aretha.

And the nominees will be…

For what it’s worth, here are my predictions for who will be nominated for an Oscar Thursday morning.  (This whole entry turned into a much more involved excursion than I originally intended.  That sort of thing usually happens when I start talking about the Oscars.)

BEST PICTURE

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL•E 
Wild cards: Doubt, Frost/Nixon, The Reader
My personal ballot: Cloverfield, Happy-Go-Lucky, My Blueberry Nights, Slumdog Millionaire, WALL•E
My thoughts: I’ll admit that WALL•E is a long shot and my placing it here is steeped in personal bias.  But the ballot for the Oscars weighs first-place nominations more heavily than lower place nominations.  And I feel that a lot of people would put WALL•E first or second (if they’re putting Slumdog first as I also think a lot of people are likely to do).  The Dark Knight is the other wild card here, and I think Frost/Nixon will end up getting lost in the shuffle.  Ultimately, this is Slumdog’s Oscar to lose.

BEST DIRECTOR

Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon
Christopher Nolan – The Dark Knight
Gus Van Sant - Milk

Wild cards: Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler), Stephen Daldry (The Reader), Jonathan Demme (Rachel Getting Married)
My personal ballot: The Coen Brothers (Burn After Reading), Wong Kar-Wai (My Blueberry Nights), Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky), Matt Reeves (Cloverfield), Andrew Stanton (WALL•E)
My thoughts: I wouldn’t mind seeing Aronofsky slip into the mix here, maybe in place of Howard.  I liked Frost/Nixon quite a bit, but it’s a very difficult film to love.  I appreciate it and understand that it’s well made, but beyond that, there isn’t much to get passionate about with the film.  Milk has been overrated, I think (another good-not-great film), so I wouldn’t mind seeing someone slip instead of Van Sant, but like Best Picture, it’s all pretty moot: this is Danny Boyle’s to lose.

BEST ACTOR

Clint Eastwood - Gran Torino
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
Sean Penn – Milk

Wild cards: Josh Brolin (W.), Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road), Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
My personal ballot: Josh Brolin (W.), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Synecdoche, New York), Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon), Sean Penn (Milk), Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
My thoughts: This is a solid category.  The performances I’ve seen (all but Eastwood and Jenkins) I’ve thought were pretty great.  I really like Brad Pitt, but if he’s gonna get an Oscar nomination this year, I’d really really rather prefer it were in Supporting for Burn After Reading.  He just didn’t have to do much in Benjamin Button. 

BEST ACTRESS

Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Sally Hawkins - Happy-Go-Lucky
Melissa Leo – Frozen River
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Kate Winslet - Revolutionary Road

Wild cards: Cate Blanchett (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Angelina Jolie (Changeling), Kristin Scott-Thomas (I’ve Loved You So Long)
My personal ballot: Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married), Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky), Evan Rachel Wood (The Life Before Her Eyes), Naomi Watts (Funny Games), Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road)
My thoughts: Hathaway, Streep, and Winslet are all locks for nominations.  Hawkins is close and I hope she doesn’t fall through the cracks.  I’m throwing Melissa Leo into the mix because there’s usually an unsung indie darling that slips into this category and Laura Linney isn’t in anything this year.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Josh Brolin - Milk
Robert Downey Jr. – Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Dev Patel – Slumdog Millionaire

Wild cards: James Franco (Milk), Eddie Marsan (Happy-Go-Lucky), Brad Pitt (Burn After Reading)
My personal ballot: Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder), Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight), Emile Hirsch (Milk), Bill Irwin (Rachel Getting Married), Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight) 
My thoughts: I’m surprised Bill Irwin hasn’t latched onto the Rachel Getting Married buzz train that I think Rosemarie DeWitt will ride to a nomination (see below) – he was excellent.  And Heath Ledger is so good in The Dark Knight that he overshadowed another strong performance from Eckhart.  If only they had saved Two-Face for a third Batman film.  Dev Patel I think will slip in based on Slumdog Millionaire‘s deafening buzz it’s been generating.  Hoffman’s great in Doubt – too bad it’s a lead performance.  Honestly, though, how awkward if someone other than Heath Ledger ends up winning this. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Penélope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis – Doubt
Rosemarie DeWitt - Rachel Getting Married
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler
Kate Winslet – The Reader

Wild cards: Amy Adams (Doubt), Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire)
My personal ballot: Penélope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Hope Davis (Synecdoche, New York), Viola Davis (Doubt), Rosemary DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married), Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler)
My thoughts:  Well, four of my favorites I’ve prognosticated, so I can’t complain about this category.  DeWitt I think will gain enough momentum from support for the film and from admiration for Anne Hathaway.  She’s just as good as Hathaway, though Hathaway’s getting all the award buzz, which I have no problem with.  I’d really like to see Marisa Tomei walk away with this, though.  She’s the reason The Wrestler is as emotionally-affecting as it is.  It seems like her entire career of the past ten years has been role after role of her justifying her much-derided Oscar for My Cousin Vinny.  Consider it justified, Marisa.  With The Wrestler, and earlier work in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and In the Bedroom, she’s proven herself to be a versatile supporting player and I hope she gets another Oscar that people can agree she deserves.  (Though Hope Davis was far and away the best part of Synecdoche, New York in a very difficult comedic role.)

Those with fears about flying (myself included) got a jolt today…

Doesn’t this sound like the pilot episode of a J.J. Abrams show?  The show could be about how all the passengers’ lives intersected after the crash, but also before or something.  And there’d be mysteries – lots of mysteries!  And also some overarching sci-fi/fantasy thing whose true meaning will only come together in the final episodes of the series.

…

Seriously, though.  How happy are we all that this didn’t turn into a major loss of life today?  Glad everyone’s safe and sound.  The pictures are freakin’ nuts, though.  It’s so weird when stuff like this actually happens and the lines between fiction and non blur more than we’re generally comfortable with.