Last night seemed like a powerhouse of movies with some amazing actors all around. There were only three films I was familiar with; Ratatouille, No Country For Old Men and Sweeney Todd. Ratatouille and NCFOM fared very well. Sweeney Todd was criminally overlooked and, as I recall, only got one award for art direction. When I get around to seeing Juno and Atonement, I better leave the theater with a good understanding why they were up for Best Picture over Tim Burton's masterpiece.
The commercials, however, reminded me of the Super Bowl. I don't recall the commercials ever having such a huge part of the evening before. There were three different contests going on; one for Dove where viewers were asked to vote between a sucky DIY Dove commercial and a slightly not-as-sucky DIY Dove commercial, something from Diet Coke where you had to go to their website to be entered into a contest to win Heidi Klum's dress - an idea I would find more interesting if Heidi Klum were not aware of it and it was for whatever she happened to be wearing at the time contest officials corner her and show her the fine print in her cola contract, and I don't remember the third contest at all. It seems odd to me to have sponsors showing commercials that encourage you to move away from the television to participate in their contests.
Most appalling were the Diet Coke commercials. They kept touting ad naseum how they are raising awareness about women's heart disease. Yet they never said anything about women's heart disease! Not one fact, not one educational nugget, not one piece of advice to reduce the chances. All they did was raise awareness that Diet Coke is aware of women's heart disease. And given the sodium and caffeine content of Diet Coke, this is sort of like Marlboro Lights trying to raise awareness of lung and mouth cancer.
ONE MESSAGE. LOUD AND CLEAR
"Impeach Bush Now" Google hits: 47, 700 (up one thousand since Friday)
Tuesday, March 4th - get your voice heard by creating a worldwide Cyber Shout. Post on your blog, message boards, comment sections, wherever you can, "Impeach Bush Now!"
Here is a great grassroots website called Impeach Bush. It has lots of information on the how and why to impeach George Bush. It has a lot of information about events and petitions around the country. It even tracks how often "impeach Bush" is mentioned in the blogosphere.
THE BS NEWS QUIZ OF THE DAY
Friday, I asked...
"To further study motion sickness, German researchers put 72 small fish in what?"
62% said "A washing machine"
- They actually were large fish at the start of the experiment, but they shrank.
14% said "A teacup ride"
- And after the German researchers studied the effects of fish vomit on their shoes.
12% said "A blender"
- No, that was for the the small fish smoothies they made to celebrate the experiment.
12% got it right with "Space"
According to the AP, seventy-two small fish were briefly launched into space by researchers last Thursday, hoping their swimming patterns would shed some light on motion sickness. The thumbnail-sized fish were filmed as they swam around weightlessly in small aquariums during the unmanned space flight. The scientists said the fish landed safely and appeared to be in good condition. Other fish left behind have viewed the videos and believe the whole thing was faked.
