Just a quick word on the Oscars...
No real surprises (well, except for Best Picture... but a great surprise nonetheless...)
I briefly switched on the telecast for the Director award... and while it was great to see Scorsese win, I was a little surprised that, for all the years he's been waiting for this, he basically just read off a list of names...
And on a final note, we all like to see good, decent people receive something... enter Forest Whitaker. While a quick viewing of his acceptance speech shows he's a great guy, I'd like to relay this short story that quickly came to my mind when I saw that he won and frantically turned on the TV to view his speech: Amy Heckerling once told a story about Forest's audition for Fast Times at Ridgemont High - his first role, which was just one line. After he auditioned, he found out he got the role, and he left to go to his car. Heckerling watched him out the window... thinking that no one was watching, he happily skipped to his car, thrilled to have his first movie role. Now he has an Oscar. Doesn't that just put a smile on your face?

The best films of 2006, in order

(To qualify, the movie must have had its U.S. premiere sometime in 2006. If a movie premieres at a film festival in 2005, and then opens in the U.S. in 2006, it will be counted as a 2006 release).

1. United 93
2. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
3. A Prairie Home Companion
4. Babel
5. The Departed
6. Dave Chappelle's Block Party
7. The Pursuit of Happyness
8. Half Nelson
9. The Last King of Scotland
10. Notes on a Scandal
11. A Scanner Darkly
12. World Trade Center
13. The Illusionist
14. Little Children
15. The Queen
16. Little Miss Sunshine
17. Pan's Labyrinth
18. Borat
19. Idiocracy
20. Inside Man
21. Marie Antoinette
22. The Dead Girl
23. An Inconvenient Truth
24. Jesus Camp
25. Brick
26. Children of Men
27. Flags of Our Fathers
28. Letters from Iwo Jima
29. Hollywoodland

I finally sat down tonight and downloaded the entire Freaks and Geeks soundtrack... not the lame "official" 1-disc soundtrack available for purchase (which is mostly made up of score, not songs), but rather every single song that appeared in the show. It took me forever to do, but it stretches across 5 CDs, and it contains 86 songs - every song from the show (except for a couple of disco songs from the last episode, which I decided not to include), in roughly the order in which they appeared. Great music on that show - it has just about everything: great classic rock, cheesy pop, some country-rock, and even some punk near the end of the show's run. Complete list below:

1. Joan Jett - Bad Reputation
2. Van Halen - Running With the Devil
3. Kenny Loggins - I'm Alright
4. Styx - Renegade
5. Styx - Come Sail Away
6. Deep Purple - Hush
7. Doobie Brothers - Jesus is Just Alright
8. Rick Derringer - Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo
9. Santana - No One to Depend On
10. Van Halen - Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
11. Janis Joplin - Maybe
12. Kiss - Do You Love Me
13. Cheap Trick - Gonna Raise Hell
14. April Wine - Roller
15. Ted Nugent - Free For All
16. Van Halen - Jamie's Crying
17. Van Halen - Ice Cream Man
18. Little River Band - Reminiscing
19. BTO - Taking Care of Business
20. Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
21. Love Unlimited Orchestra - Love's Theme
22. Van Halen - Little Dreamer
23. The Faces - Debris
24. Rush - The Spirit of Radio
25. Cream - Sunshine of Your Love
26. Cream - Crossroads
27. Cream - White Room
28. Madness - One Step Beyond
29. Billy Joel - C'etait Toi (You Were The One)
30. Billy Joel - Rosalinda's Eyes
31. Billy Joel - Don't Ask Me Why
32. Brothers Johnson - Stomp
33. Alice Cooper - I'm Eighteen
34. Allman Brothers Band - Whipping Post
35. Journey - Loving, Touching, Squeezing
36. Moody Blues - Nights in White Satin
37. Styx - Lady
38. Kansas - Dust in the Wind
39. Queen - Keep Yourself Alive
40. Van Halen - Everybody Wants Some
41. Ted Nugent - Stranglehold
42. Joan Jett - Do Ya Wanna Touch Me
43. The Who - The Song is Over
44. Ted Nugent and Amboy Dukes - Journey to the Center of Your Mind
45. XTC - No Language in Our Lungs
46. Joe Jackson - I'm the Man
47. Joe Jackson - Look Sharp
48. The Who - Slip Kid
49. J. Geils Band - Flamethrower
50. Supertramp - Take The Long Way Home
51. Chicago - 25 or 6 to 4
52. Bob Seger - Beautiful Loser
53. The Cars - Let The Good Times Roll
54. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - Karn Evil 9
55. Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down to Georgia
56. Pure Prairie League - Amie
57. Lynard Skynard - Free Bird
58. Boston - Smokin'
59. Queen - Fat Bottomed Girls
60. Blood, Sweat and Tears - Hi-De-Ho
61. Jethro Tull - Aqualung
62. George Baker Selection - Little Green Bag
63. Mac Davis - Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me
64. The Who - I'm Free
65. The Who - I'm One
66. The Who - Boris The Spider
67. The Who - Love Reign O'er Me
68. The Who - Squeeze Box
69. The Who - Going Mobile
70. The Who - Drowned
71. Seals And Crofts - Summer Breeze
72. Black Flag - Rise Above
73. Diesel Boy - Lime Green
74. Diesel Boy - Happy Street
75. Diesel Boy - Punk Rock 101
76. Dean Martin - You're Nobody 'Till Somebody Loves You
77. Rush - Tom Sawyer
78. Bob Seger - Katmandu
79. Bob Seger - You'll Accomp'ny Me
80. Warren Zevon - Poor Poor Pitiful Me
81. David Bowie - Fashion
82. Jackson Browne - The Road
83. Foxy - Hot Number
84. Heatwave - The Groove Line
85. Grateful Dead - Box of Rain
86. Grateful Dead - Ripple

I know I've posted this before, but it never gets old...

Baltimoreans Hope to Save The Senator Theater

I don't watch Oprah, but I was flipping through the channels today and caught like the last 10 seconds of it... and I noticed that John Travolta, William H. Macy, Tim Allen and Martin Lawrence were all sitting on the couch together... and my first thought, obviously, was "what the hell?"... Strange group of people to all be sitting together, for sure. A little internet research revealed that they're starring together in some lame upcoming movie called Wild Hogs. Who would really sign on to something like that?...

Eric Von Schmidt
1931-2007

Have I mentioned that Forest Whitaker is fucking scary in The Last King of Scotland?

The trailer for Judd Apatow's new movie, Knocked Up, in theaters June 1st: click here.