iPod Update

I'm so in love with my little iPod Shuffle (thanks for the Christmas present!) I've been able to discover a lot of music I didn't really know before. I never listen to radio here (except for classical music and NPR) so I had complete fallen off the edge of the world, musically speaking. My latest iPod additions: Mika's "Grace Kelly" (thanks to my brother for that suggestion), Röyksopp's "Remind Me" (which I saw in a commercial and couldn't get out of my head), and now, because he picked up Oscar no. 2 in as many years, Gustavo Santaolalla's "The Wings," a.k.a. the theme from Brokeback Mountain. The 6-minute dance mix of that one isn't bad either :-)

Live Blogging the Oscars

8:30: Here we go. Interesting little montage. Peter O'Toole is really old.

8:35: Ellen!!!

8:40: She is a funny woman. How much $$$ would she demand to wear a skirt?

8:42: Al Gore just got the night's loudest applause. Weird.

8:44: Night's first award. Art direction. Wasn't supporting actor always the first one? Who changed the rules? Nicole Kidman is very pale. And the winner is... Pan's Labyrinth!!! My choice.

8:48: Sci-Tech awards. Snore.

8:49: Dancing? Oh no! Wait... disaster averted.

8:52: Will Ferrell is singing. I'm afraid. Jack Black joins is. I'm afraider. John C. Reilly sings too. "Comedians don't get Oscars?" How about Eddie Murphy? Oh, they're presenting too! Best makeup. And the winner is Pan's Labyrinth!!! I'm 2 for 2!!

8:59: Abigail Breslin and Will Smith Jr. presenting together. Best animated short. The Danish Poet? That looked depressing as hell. Not my choice, but then again, who the hell ever gets this category right?

9:02: The kids also hand out Live Action Short. West Bank Story!! I got it right! Only because the name sounded politically correct. Hollywood people always vote for that stuff.

9:06: I do want to see Letters from Iwo Jima at some point.

9:11: Sound effects salute with a sound effects choir? Weird. But hey... pretty cool, actually.

9:13: Steve Carell and Greg Kinnear! Handing out the sound editing award. And adding sexual innuendo. Letters from Iwo Jima wins! I chose the other war movie, Flags of Our Fathers. Oh, well.

9:17: James McAvoy and Jessica Biel present the sound mixing award. I hate her hair. He's short! The winner is Dreamgirls. Boo! I chose FOOF here also.

9:20: Rachel Weisz shows up, so it's best supporting actor time. For the record, I chose Eddie Murphy for this category, but I'm prepared for an Alan Arkin upset. And it's an Arkin upset!!! Hmmm... does this bode well for a Little Miss Sunshine best pic upset?

9:25: Ellen does comedy with Martin Scorsese. Not as painful as it might sound.

9:30: James Taylor does a song from Cars. I always want to take a nap when I hear his voice. And Melissa Etheridge does her An Inconvenient Truth song.

9:35: Al Gore and Leo DiCaprio do a little environmental plug. Cute. Typical over-earnest Hollywood stuff.

9:42: Best Animated Movie, courtesy of Cameron Diaz. Go Cars! Ick. Happy Feet wins. Grrr... I think it's just too simple of an idea, and sort of riding the coattails of March of the Penguins. But then again, there's no original idea left in Hollywood, right?

9:45: Ben Affleck puts in an appearance. Calling him an "Academy Award Winner" is strange and wrong. A tribute to writers in films? Are they running out of montages?

(Sidebar: I hate Comcast and their intermittently available HD-broadcast!!!)

9:48: Helen Mirren and Tom Hanks. Can so much class fit on the screen? Best Adapted Screenplay is here! William Monahan gets it for The Departed, and I can check off another correct choice! :)

9:59: Best costume design, presented by Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway from The Devil Wears Prada. A "fitting" choice, if I may say so myself. Meryl Streep is fucking hilarious! I guessed Marie Antoinette. Let's see... and I'm right!!! Ha!

10:04: Tom Cruise shows up. Hide your vulnerable young women!! Ugh, it's one of those "special" awards. Zzzz....

10:10: Ellen and Clint. Awkward comedy continues. MySpace plug. Did YouTube not pay enough for a mention? Heh... Ellen "directing" Spielberg in taking a picture.

10:11: Gwyneth Paltrow and the "Amazing Left-Sided-Part Hairdo of Doom." From her awkward banter, I'm guessing that she's presenting cinematography. I picked Pan's Labyrinth. How did I do? I'm right!!! Whee!!!!!

10:19: Naomi Watts and Robert Downey Jr. What a random combo. Visual Effects Award. Downey makes a drug joke. Nice. Naomi looks uncomfortable doing pre-scripted banter. Did my choice win? Yes!! Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest pulls it off!

10:23: Catherine Deneuve and Ken Watanabe. Who picks these combinations? Oh, it's Foreign Language Film - no wonder. Again, I chose Pan's Labyrinth... do you sense a theme? Oops, I guess first we do a "50 Years of Foreign Films" montage. Assembled by Giuseppe Tornatore? Doesn't he have better things to do?

10:29: I guess it falls to Clive Owen and Cate Blanchett to announce the actual winner in this category. And Germany gets it! Darn Krauts. But then again, I do want to see The Lives of Others. Mostly I'm impressed that the German director can speak English with such ease... How could Pan's Labyrinth not win here!??!?!?!

10:32: Snakes on a Plane shoutout! Alright!!!

10:33: Clooney strolls in, cool as always. Supporting Actress time! Will they give it to the American Idol reject? They did! I can't fucking believe it. I guess I have to see the damn movie now, huh? What's with the band? Do not even the acting winners get enough time to do their speeches now?

10:38: There's 10 categories left, and only 22 official minutes to finish them. Good luck. Plus, at least 2 musical performances. This might go a little long...

10:41: Eva Green and Gael Garcia Bernal. Tres international! Documentary Short Subject Award. Also known as bathroom break. I chose some enviro-movie, but I was wrong. It's some China genocide thingamajig. Whatever. (Am I sounding unenlightened about this category?)

10:44: Jerry Seinfeld? Umm.. isn't this a MOVIE awards show? Did he get lost on his way to the Emmys last fall? And he's presenting the Documentary Feature Awards... the randomness continues. And of course he does a little standup. You know, I've seen Seinfeld on stage. He ain't that funny. Just sayin'. And the winner is... An Inconvenient Truth. Shocker... not!!!

10:48: Al Gore stumbles onto the stage with the director. You know, why couldn't the 2007 version of Gore run for President in 2000? How much different would the world be?

10:49: Clint! Damn, he's getting kinda old, huh? Ugh... it's the special award for Ennio Morricone. Celine Dion will be singing. Hide your... um... well, everybody just hide!! She'll frighten the kids and annoy everyone else! She looks like freakin' Skeletor.

12:03: Oops, I kind of let my guard down for a second (or hour), huh? Well, Forest Whitaker just picked up his Oscar and Helen Mirren got hers earlier. Big surprise, huh? I just kind of have to brag a bit because I chose correctly in the Best Song category, which I don't think many others did. Melissa Etheridge holding an Oscar is kind of weird. But she did kiss her wife and was followed in rapid succession on stage by Ellen and Jodie Foster. Good night for lesbians, eh? (Whitaker is still kind of creepy, though.) Full disclosure: I got Film Editing wrong - never underestimate the power of Thelma Schoonmaker cutting a Scorsese film.

12:06: Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas amble out to present Best Director. With this ensemble on hand, how does Scorsese not win? I hope he does. And he does!!! I'm happy for him and so is everyone else, apparently. He's a funny little man, and this was a LONG time coming.

12:13: Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson declare The Departed as Best Picture of the Year. I got that right, but Little Miss Sunshine could have pulled an upset. Having some anonymous producer accept the award is sort of anticlimactic, but knowing that Scorsese is watching on makes it OK. I guess I better go see it now, right?

12:16: Ellen says good night. And so do I!!! For the record, I got 15 out of 24 categories correct. Not bad!

Funny But Wrong

Why can't I stop laughing over this story?? I literally still have tears in my eyes...

Food Coma Sunday

Who knew that I had been missing the exquisite delight that is Burmese food? Last night was absolutely wonderful - both the food and the company. I've rarely had such a wonderful foodie night, and the fact that our host's parents planned the evening with the goal of teaching us how to make these delicious dishes was even better. Everything was home made. Dish one: Egg rolls with sweet and sour sauce. No. 2: Papaya salad. No. 3: Noodles with coconut chicken and fish cakes. No. 4: Grilled beef in garlic-sesame sauce, accompanied by twice-fried green beans in black bean sauce. No. 5: Ginger salad. No. 6: Brownies!! They even gave us some of the more exotic ingredients (dried shrimp powder, ginger salad mix, pickled papaya) so we can make our own. I'm so excited to try it out! And who knew Burmese food had so much in common with Icelandic culinary traditions? Dried fish and fried onions are stapled of this cooking. It's a natural fit for me! :-)

Ome more thing today. I highly recommend an article from today's Washington Post. It's called Failing in Baghdad - The British Did It First, and it's something the current administration should have read about 4 years ago. Here's a sample paragraph:

"Lt. Gen. Sir Frederick Stanley Maude was head of the British army in Mesopotamia when he marched into Baghdad on a hot, dusty day in March 1917. Soon thereafter, he issued the British government's "Proclamation to the People of Baghdad," which eerily foreshadowed sentiments that Bush and his administration would express 86 years later: British forces, Maude declared, had entered the city not as conquerors, but as liberators."

Read it!

Weekend Update

Hey everyone - just chilling on my couch on a Saturday afternoon. I've had an excellent week, and today was no different. I woke up early, took a shower, and then Sean and I headed into town for some errands. We ended up an Eastern Market, where we had brunch. He feasted on a french baguette with butter, ham and cornichons, while I had a sandwich with chicken, bacon, mustard, and caramelized onions. Yum. We got back home around 1 and since then have been reading the newspapers, food magazines, and books (more on my new book later). This evening will actually be quite fun. Our friend Nilar, who is Burmese, is inviting us over for a Burmese food feast/cooking lesson with her parents. So not only will we be eating delectable authentic Burmese food but also learning how to make it. Sweeeeet!

I finished my Doctorow novel on Thursday and began a new book: James L. Swanson's Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. It actually begins with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and then traces the escape of John Wilkes Booth until he was captured in Virginia 12 days later. It's really well written - almost like a thriller. And strangely enough, the story of the novel I finished ended in early April 1865. This book begins right where the other ended, at the very end of the Civil War.

And now, for my annual fearless Oscar picks for tomorrow's ceremony:

Best picture: The Departed (second choice Little Miss Sunshine)
Best director: Martin Scorsese for The Departed
Best actor: Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland
Best actress: Helen Mirren for The Queen (as I predicted in October)
Best supporting actor: Eddie Murphy for Dreamgirls (second choice Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine)
Best supporting actress: Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls (second choice Abigail Breslin for Litte Miss Sunshine)
Best original screenplay: Michael Arndt for Little Miss Sunshine
Best adapted screenplay: William Monahan for The Departed
Best foreign film: Pan's Labyrinth (which I hope wins MANY awards - go see it!!!)

Check back on Monday to see how I did. I, for one, plan to enjoy the awards. Ellen DeGeneres is hosting, and that woman is funny! Which, considering that she's a lesbian, is highly unusual...

OK - hasta luego, amigos. Getting ready for Burmese food!

Lazy Sunday

I love long weekends. Tomorrow is Presidents Day, so I don't have to report to work until Tuesday. Having three days to lounge around is good for the soul, and it somehow allows you to squeeze more leisure into your off-time.

Friday night, for instance, we had Yvonne, Jen and her friend Nilar over for no other reason than to have fun. We ate good food and laughed a lot. Yvonne is test-driving some essential oil stuff on Sean and myself, so we smell like lavender and peppermint these days. Saturday, we got up early and met some acquaintances at a coffee shop down in Alexandria. Then home to lounge. Cat's boyfriend Bryan had a house-warming party last night so we made an appearance there, of course. This morning, we were up super early to do the grocery shopping for the week. Yes, we shop once a week, and spend no more than $70 or IKR 5000 on a week's worth of food - welcome to America! Niiiiice. Tonight we are heading out to dinner at a very nice restaurant downtown. Tomorrow Cat and I are doing lunch and a movie, and then Sean and I are invited to Jen's for a quesadilla dinner party. Again: I love three-day weekends.

I had the misfortune to see Silent Hill this week. Yuck. Let's hope that watching Cars and Clerks II will wash off the awfulness. Sean and I both want to see Breach, but I think that's because it's a DC movie. They even shot scenes at the building where I work!

Long weekends also allow me to make food to use later in the week. This time, I made two things. Jen brought some asparagus over on Friday. I used those leftovers to make a delicious asparagus soup. I also made some meatballs (ground beef, bread crumbs, tomato paste, garlic, basil, red wine, gorgonzola) and threw them in the freezer. I look forward to having those with some spaghetti and tomato-vodka sauce.

Also, for those who have Skype, please look me up - the screen name is asgeir.and.sean. It's free, so use it!!!

OK - gotta go have some delicious food at the Blue Duck Tavern.

Hump Day - Literally

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Not much happening here. The weather has caused most employees in DC and the surrounding Virginia and Maryland counties to not show up for work. I was here at 8:30 am. What's wrong with this picture? Anyway, since I've done most of my work and there is no one to actually work with (i.e. no e-mail replies coming today), I'll go home soon. And not a moment to soon, as I have to cook a Valentine's meal: Tuscan Bean Soup with Lamb, Italian Style Baked Beans, and Chocolate Zabaglione for dessert. (Drooling.) Can't wait.

Until tomorrow, faithful readers!!

Super Bad

Yeah, I know... I've been EXTREMELY bad. For some reason I thought I "took a vacation" from blogging in late November, but now I discover it's been since October! I'm so sorry... my life really isn't that boring. Sometimes you just kind of don't feel like updating this thing. I will try to do better, but we really all know that in 6 months or so I'll take another "break." Such is life. Love it or hate it, nuthin' I can do.

Anyhoo... I've officially entered the iPod age, as of last night. I received an iPod Shuffle from the parentals for Christmas. However, with a 6-year-old computer and an internet connection slower than a fat man on a water slide, I couldn't really do much with it. In the last couple of weeks, however, I have acquired the following: A brand-new swanky HP Pavilion laptop, a wireless Internet connection, Windows Vista, Skype access, and a web cam. I won't say I'm up to 2007 standards, but I've definitely reached 2005 standards. I've become an iTunes aficionado, happily downloading music and (most amusingly) TV shows. Now I don't have to watch TV anymore, I can just buy what I need. I've also discovered that all of the major networks now stream most of their shows FOR FREE on their web sites, beginning the day after they air. So, because I watch 24 on Monday nights, I can catch up on Heroes during my lunch break on Tuesdays just by visiting nbc.com. Sweet! And now I walk around and ride the Metro oblivious to all sights and sounds because I'm listening to Fall Out Boy, Gnarls Barkley and (the shame!) Madonna on my iPod. Ahhh... the isolation technology brings. It brings a tear to my eye.

What would an Asgeir blog update be without a food section? Over the weekend, I finally dug out an Icelandic leg of lamb that had been taking up space in my freezer. I squeezed garlic cloves into the meat and roasted the whole thing for 2 hours. Delicious. Now I can use the leftovers to make a Tuscan white bean and lamb soup tomorrow. And, just because I felt like it, I made steak au poivre out of pork loin last night. You just cut it into beef-like medallions, crust it with pepper and salt, sear it on a pan, and throw it in the oven to finish. Just to be decadent, I topped each medallion with gorgonzola and broiled it to perfection. Sides: creamed spinach and ginger carrots. Not bad for a Monday, eh?

Book update: I don't have space to list all the books I've read since August (nor could I remember all of them!) but I'm currently reading E.L. Doctorow's The March. As I started reading it, I realized I'd never read any of his books before, even though he wrote classics like Ragtime and Billy Bathgate. So far I'm thoroughly engrossed. Other recent books: Hampton Sides' Blood and Thunder, Frederick Jackson Turner's The Frontier in American History, Paul Schneider's Brutal Journey, Kent Nerburn's Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce, David McCullough's The Johnstown Flood, and - of course - Lemony Snicket's The End, in which the Baudelaire siblings come to the end of their 13-book journey. Upcoming books include Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, Michael Oren's Power, Faith and Fantasy, and David McCullough's 1776. What can I say? Me likey read-y.

I recently came to the realization that this spring marks my 10-year high school reunion. Yikes. How did I get to be (almost 30)? Sure, I've got some gray hair, but how did this happen? I can barely take care of my plants, let alone a pet or a child. How did my friends decide that it was the right time to produce offspring - in some cases, two of them already? I will refuse to believe that 10 years have passed until the inevitable reunion party where everyone has to leave early to take care of the kids. Sigh... old age looms ominously...

Anyway - here's how I'm feeling this morning: