I apologize in advance for the randomness of the following post. It will more than likely be a alot of rambling.

So you are probably wondering what I thought of the Oscars, right? Not bad, I suppose. While I have yet to see Michael Clayton, I must say I really wasn't pushing for Tilda Swinton to win, however her brilliant acceptance speech completely made up for my disappointment. I was really happy to see Marion Cotillard win and really wish I would have voted for her in my Oscar pool. She is a great actress which now I hope will be on a greater path of success (I always loved her in Big Fish and especially in A Very Long Engagement) and am really looking forward to her next two films (Michael Mann's Public Enemies and Nine, which get this - is a musical based on Fellini's 8 1/2). Sure I was abit disappointed that PTA didn't pull an upset for Best Director but the Coen brothers do deserve to get recognized. At least Daniel Day Lewis and Robert Elswit pulled through with wins. All in all not bad.

So I narrowed down my Cleveland International Film Festival schedule down to about 18 films with a solid 14-15 being definite. I am really excited actually. I have my media pass and my week off work and am ready to go. I hope to drag Chiaki along for a few however the most 3 films days make her tired just thinking about them. While we may have been exhausted last year I know she had a good time so lets cross our fingers.

I am slowly but surely building my high definition dvd collection. for my birthday I got The Lives of Others, Infernal Affairs, and Sukiyaki Western Django on Blu-ray and Zodiac: The Director's Cut (which looks utterly jaw dropping in hi-def) on HD-DVD. Then the other night I used some ebay gift cards to purchase Children of Men on HD-DVD and 3:10 to Yuma on Blu-ray. I am at the moment trying to get a good price on Volver on Blu-ray and might even pick up Into the Wild on HD-DVD this Tuesday...maybe. I wonder if I wait awhile longer I may get a cheaper price (when on the HD-DVDs begin to drop like flies in price). Today was supposed to be the first retail price drop for HD-DVD so we will see.

Chiaki and I sat down last night and watched the latest from Wong Kar Wai, his English language debut My Blueberry Nights. It is funny, the film has yet to be released stateside yet (though The Weinstien Company has finally set a New York/LA open for April) but the dvd release is available in Hong Kong already. Anyways, we really loved it. The criticism the film has received is pretty harsh in my opinion. What you get is an American style Chungking Express. To be honest, it was exactly what I was expecting from his first American film. While Norah Jones struggle abit at first with her acting, she seems to get the hang of it by the time the story shifts in location. As expected the supporting cast of Jude Law, Natalie Portman, David Strathairn and Rachel Weisz are a true pleasure to watch. Its really good stuff, honestly. I can't wait to watch it again. I think I am even going to write a lengthy review for KFC Cinema too.