The Oscars are always full of designer eye candy, but Best Supporting Actress nominee Vera Farmiga stole the show Sunday night with a brilliant, strapless, floor-length Marchesa dress. As some bloggers opined, it took a minute to figure out what was going on — she appeared to have been attacked by a large Christmas ribbon — but ultimately the bold color and over-the-top flamboyant ruffles won us over. What are the Academy Awards for if not to revel in gaudy glamour for a night? Sandra Bullock might have won the statue, but Farmiga showed her up on the red carpet.
Of all the moving acceptance speeches at this year’s Oscars (and Sandra Bullock’s was good enough to almost justify her winning over Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren — almost), our favorite was when composer Michael Giacchino won for his lovely score for the Pixar movie “Up.” He didn’t thank his agent or his lawyer; instead, he talked about how his family always encouraged him and never said that pursuing music was a “waste of time.” Then he told all the young people watching that whatever dream they were following, it wasn’t a “waste of time” either. It was a nice, human-sized moment.
Is it possible to meet an Orange County housewife, a pair of Chinese school girls and a teenage boy in a welding mask in under a minute? With a Webcam and Internet access, Chatroulette.com makes it possible. Users enter the site and within seconds are face-to-face with a stranger. A “next” button moves the user on to one of the more than 20,000 other people on the site. Unsavory types will most likely frighten unsuspecting Chat Roulette virgins, but the ones that stick it out will find: trigger happy users, judging and “nexting” before any actual conversation can be initiated; attention-seekers, putting on some type of outlandish display typically involving dance moves; and the random curious, just interested in the experience. Get past the voyeurism and exhibitionists and this site is an incredible global look at modern society; Chat Roulette introduces people from all over the world who otherwise would have never met.
We’ve always been partial to the caramel corn flavor of Quakes, the bite-size rice-cake munchies from Quaker. But that was until the company came out with the sea-salt-and-cracked-pepper variety. We know what you’re thinking: Rice cakes? Didn’t they go the way of Jane Fonda workout tapes and leg warmers? Well, leg warmers are back, and we’re reaching for these pop-in-your-mouth, 70-calories-per-serving yummies, with enough salt to satisfy the savory tooth and just the right amount of peppery heat to feel the burn.
The characters are pretty one-dimensional and the plot is basically good guys vs. bad guys, but darned if the battle scenes in “Red Cliff” aren’t worth the price of admission. In telling this epic tale of third-century China, director John Woo stages some gigantic and wildly imaginative throwdowns featuring hundreds of extras. In one scene, an army forms itself into a giant “turtle formation,” linking together and covering themselves with shields so they can move around like a giant tortoise. In another, a fleet of ships is entirely covered in straw mannequins to protect the sailors from flying arrows. Realistic? Probably not, but it’s a lot of fun, and looks gorgeous on-screen. “Red Cliff” runs through Thursday, March 11, at Sundance.
