Monthly Archives: November 2010

Oscar Roll: Bloggers Predict The Academy Awards


PREDICTING THE ACADEMY AWARDS

The countdown is on & VanRamblings is excited (or, we need to get a life).
In less than three months from now, Hollywood will award prizes for the best films of 2010, ranging from Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Actor to Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography. The ‘in’ for the avid moviegoer revolves around the fact that there will be 20 or more Oscar contenders for us to see at our local multiplex, an almost guaranteed good time in the theatre, serving to create a sort of welcoming camaraderie among all of those who’ve caught all of the Oscar contenders leading up to the Oscar ceremony, this year to be telecast on Sunday, February 27th.
There are a handful of Oscar bloggers who’ve created rewarding employment for themselves by dedicating a significant portion of their lives to coverage of the Oscars, and related awards activities, emerging as ‘experts‘ in the burgeoning field of Oscar predicting. That these very same informed bloggers have also come to have influence in the decision-making of the 5000+ members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences gives them a certain power that not only shapes who ‘wins’ the last Sunday of February, but in no small measure helps to set the tone for the kind of ‘Oscar bait’ films Hollywood studios greenlight or pick up at indie festivals like Sundance or Telluride. As such, for movie lovers it becomes a worthwhile endeavour to spend a little time reviewing the prognostications of these emergent and increasingly influential group of Oscar bloggers.
VanRamblings has listed these bloggers’ websites under the Cinema category in the list of websites to your left, under the title ‘Oscar Roll‘. We’ll write a bit about each blogger after the jump …

Continue reading Oscar Roll: Bloggers Predict The Academy Awards

Tofino 2010: As We Take Leave of a West Coast Paradise

On this, our final day at the Middle Beach Lodge, along the coast of the Pacific Rim near Tofino, we chose to leave the door to the balcony open overnight in order to listen to the sounds of the storm raging outside, and the waves crashing on the rocks and the shoreline. There’s something very elemental in being so close to the ocean and the power of nature, for once we came from the sea and it is near to us, within us, a part of us always.
We take our leave of British Columbia’s western most region to return to the city, to our work, our home, our friends, and to prepare for the coming holiday season, our brief sojourn to the Pacific Rim almost at an end, at least for now. But we will return again next year, perhaps in the spring, perhaps in the summer, to experience once again life in the rainforest, and the primitive, unbridled, natural Pacific Ocean which beckons us always.

Tofino 2010: A Blustery Day on the West Coast of Canada

As promised, the rains fell from the heavens, pounding down relentlessly throughout the day, in this western most region of Canada, the Pacific Rim National Park, where hour upon hour we were buffeted by 60 kilometre an hour winds, and torrents of rain that fell raw and unbridled, the likes of which may only be experienced in a region so close to the Pacific Ocean.
Although the daytime temperature warmed up from days previous, the Pacific region climes remained bitter and cold, as the harsh, unforgiving winds and drenching rain pierced our skin, dampening our eyes such that we felt almost immersed in those rains, every part of our being soaked, intoxicated, a near spiritual assault seeming to infiltrate our very soul.
As expected, then, we arose to a blustery west coast morning, with near tsunami-like wind and rain, and crashing waves, the perfect ‘storm watching’ weather which bring so many patrons to Pacific Rim National Park.
Before heading out for the day, we took a late breakfast in the Middle Beach Lodge dining room (oatmeal with yogurt, orange juice, coffee, and a slice of wholegrain toast with raspberry preserve), admiring the stormy view through the restaurant’s rain-slicked bay windows, not quite realizing what the day held in store for us, the deluge & near drowning experience which awaited, as we headed eastward towards the darkening skies of Ucluelet.
Wrapping ourselves in our rain togs, we drove the 40 kilometres to the Island’s other west coast metropolis, Ucluelet, a must-do (whatever the weather) when one relocates on the north-western perimeter of North America — where we savoured a warming, hearty seafood chowder at the Eagles’ Nest Pub overlooking the misty, rain-soaked Ucluelet harbour — among other salutary endeavours which are recorded in today’s video.
Fortified, we drove home, again in the dark — the near blinding sheets of rain assaulting the windshield in a most unrelenting manner — a slow, arduous but relatively safe affair, as we rarely drove more than 40 kilometres an hour (pulling to the side of the road to allow more seasoned west coast drivers to pass), almost enjoying the drive back as we listened to a dozen or so rousing iTunes songs to aid in our journey — the quest for home and safety — and the warmth of Middle Beach Lodge’s Room 44.
Today was our last full day in the Pacific Rim region of our province. We’ve enjoyed our stay on Canada’s western most coast frontier, feel quietened and rested, and are ready once again to resume our rather prosaic life.
Tomorrow, we will take a leisurely drive over the mountain roads towards Port Alberni, Parksville and then Nanaimo, where (should we arrive early) the 5 p.m. Queen of Coquitlam ferry will await to transport us home to the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, and our welcoming co-op apartment.

Tofino 2010: Florencia Bay, on the West Coast of Vancouver Island

VanRamblings has been traveling to Florencia Bay for more than 40 years.
In the 1960s — when we had returned home from our travels to Lloydminster, Alberta / Saskatchewan; Nelson and Courtenay, where we’d worked respectively as an all-night, evening and afternoon radio announcer (there’s something salutary to be said for being a deejay when you’re just a teenager) — when we found ourselves living in Kitsilano, in an apartment on West 1st Avenue with a gorgeous view of the beach and the mountains in the distance, in the summer we hitchhiked out with friends to the west coast of Vancouver Island, over gravel roads (this was before the Canadian government had designated the area as a national park), to Florencia Bay.
Throughout the 1970s, ’80s and 90s with our spouse and children, and following the skilsmisse, with lovers & intended, friends & acquaintances, and all those who feel about the west coast of Vancouver Island as VanRamblings does and continues to feel to this day, Florencia Bay became our ‘country home‘ to which we return annually, when we are feeling just a tad unmoored, and in need of a little peace and restoration of the soul.