February 21, 2004 - 1:49 p.m. Oscar, Oscar, Oscar Last One In The Pool Is A Rotten Egg! Matthew Baldwin over at Defective Yeti put together a fun, free website where you can host your own Oscar pool. Thanks, Matthew! If you want to use it to organize your own pool, go visit The Yeti already! My own pool has no prizes, I�m more interested in knowing who is rooting for what, as opposed to what you think will win. For example, I am (surprise, surprise) absolutely rooting for a Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King sweep, but actually expect Lost in Translation to get Best Picture. Great flick, but Rings does it for me. If you want to send me your picks, then click here to vote. Remember, these are not your predictions, but who you�d most like to win! The 76th Annual Academy Awards air Sunday, February 29, 2004, so I�ll post the results sometime that weekend. Lord of the Rings rant One reason I�m curious what people most like rather than what they expect the Academy to choose is that I don�t really believe these awards reflect what Is Best. Like almost all awards they are more political in nature than value-based. Just look at the logistics behind what Peter Jackson needed to do to bring LOTR to life, it�s just plain impossible! After watching all of the �making of� documentaries on the extended versions of the DVDs, I�m left feeling that it simply was not possible for Jackson to have actually accomplished what he set out to do! Talk about daunting, the whole project as envisioned was mammoth beyond anything ever attempted! (BTW by �Peter Jackson�, I mean figuratively every last individual working on this movie; �Peter Jackson The Iconic Figure� rather than just he personally). So no nomination for Cinemetography? Really? Please! No Best Actor for Elijah Wood? No Best Supporting for Andy Serkis or Sean Astin? Really? It�s especially bad to once again snub Serkis, what he and the effects teams brought to Gollum was as groundbreaking, both performance-wise and technically, as the introduction of sound to motion pictures! Feh!!! While my personal picks across the board favor LOTR, I fully expect the voting Academy to continue to thumb their noses at Jackson and crew. Whatta you think? Add your own comments, I�d love to hear from you! Just v CLICK HERE v 3 comments so far Ahoy, mateys! Only until Talk Like A Pirate Day! previous - next All content except as noted copyright 2003, 2004 Lawrence C. Steller, all rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without express written permission from Larry, ok? email: