I did a more informal version of this a month ago.  With the awards just a day away, once again my picks.

Oscars are awarded more often than not due to political reasons and as the result of multi-million dollar industry marketing campaigns.  It’s said that many people place their votes based on what they think will make the industry look good versus their actual favorites.  At any rate, here’s what I think will win.

Best Picture

Why did they move this from 5 nominees to 10?  This year, I’ve seen 8 of the 10 nominated films.  Awards given out earlier this year would seem to favor Hurt Locker and I loved that film.  But there’s been a bit of a backlash and one producer has been banned from the awards show due to some “mis-behavior.”  I don’t think this will go to Avatar; I don’t think Cameron is that well-liked in Hollywood despite making so much money.  I think Hurt Locker has a lock on this.

Best Actor

I’ve seen 4 of the 5 nominated performances.  Jeff Bridges is well liked in Hollywood and his terrific performances lifts an otherwise run of the mill film into the area of “must see.”  If that doesn’t merit an award, nothing does.

Supporting Actor

I’ve seen just 2 of the 5 nominated performances.   But it seems that there is no question that this is the year for Christoph Waltz.

Best Actress

I’ve seen just 2 of the 5 nominated performances.  I think Meryl Streep really brings Julia Child to life in an otherwise not very remarkable film.   And relative newcomer Carey Mulligan holds An Education together.  Everyone says that this is the year for Sandra Bullock – and I guess one could say that Hollywood would like to reward her for being a consistent box office draw despite being in one godawful film after another.

Supporting Actress

I’ve seen 3 out of 5 and I didn’t think any of the 3 were strong enough.  Everyone says Mo’Nique, I haven’t seen Precious but assuming they’re right on this.

Animated Feature Film

I’ve seen 3 of the 5.  Pixar seems to own this category and while I had some problems with parts of Up, I’ve got no problem if it wins.

Art Direction

I’ve seen just two of the five (Avatar and Sherlock Holmes) and I don’t think either of those two will win.  Hollywood hates Terry Gilliam and almost anything he touches.  Nine won’t win because the Weinsteins are in a downward spiral and Hollywood doesn’t want to see them rescued with even a minor award and will feel they did enough by voting for Christoph Waltz.  So Young Victoria is my guess.

Cinematography

One of the categories that is closest to my heart.  I’ve seen 4 out of 5.  I don’t think Avatar will win because I don’t think DPs see CGI as photography.  I think it’s between Hurt Locker and Inglourious and if it’s a Hurt Locker night, it’ll win here too.

Costume Design

I haven’t seen any of these so no guess!

Directing

This is Kathryn Bigelow’s year.  The winner of the DGA award almost always takes this home and this year should be no exception.

Documentary Feature

I’ve only seen Food Inc and thought it should have been much better.  Something else will win here.

Documentary Short

Haven’t seen any of these.

Film Editing

The pacing and tension in Hurt Locker? Editing.

Foreign Language Film

Haven’t seen any.

Make-Up

Only 3 nominees and I’ve only seen one – Star Trek, which coincidentally is the only American film nominated here.  The voters tend to vote American.

Original Score

Everyone loves the soundtrack for Up.

Original Song

2 more nominations for Randy Newman and he won’t win either.  The Academy loves T Bone Burnett and his songs are the other strong element in Crazy Heart.  While there has been a small kerfuffle over the late Stephen Bruton’s contributions, I think Burnett adds another trophy to his shelf.

Short Film (Animated)

Short Film (Live Action)

Haven’t seen any!

Sound Editing

Again, if everything is swinging Hurt Locker’s way, it could take this one.  Everyone else is picking Avatar and they could be right but I like Hurt Locker here too.

Sound Mixing

Avatar should have a lock on this one.

Visual Effects

Well, there’s Avatar and then there’s everything else.  Even people who hated the film admire the technical achievements.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

I’ve seen 4 of the 5.  The WGA liked Up in the Air and so do I.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

I’ve seen 4 of the 5.  I think A Serious Man is brilliant but I seem to be in a minority here – no worries, over time this will be seen as a classic.  Right now, people like Inglourious Basterds here and that will probably be the winner.

So there you have it.  By lunchtime Monday we’ll know how close I came or how many miles I missed by.

Yes, two posts on a Saturday night, when presumably no one is reading blogs.  Should I write this stuff and save as drafts and postpone published till Monday, following conventional blogging wisdom?  That’s never been my style.  Anyway, this is minor stuff, noted in passing.  It all falls under the list of Reasons I Love Hong Kong.

Friday afternoon I went to Wing On in Sheung Wan in search of de-humidifiers.  I settled on one particular model, only to be told that it was out of stock, that I could buy it and get it delivered within 4 or 5 days.  I decided that I didn’t want to spend my life searching for this, buy it and get it done with, even if I had to wait a bit.  While I was standing on line, a guy rolled in a trolley of stuff that had just been delivered, including a stack of the de-humidifiers I’d just ordered.  “Do you want to take them with you now?”   Why, yes, indeed I do!  The box was quite heavy, I’d bought two of them and I asked them if they could help me get them to my car (which was parked in the Wing On car park).  “Of course!  No problem!”  And a minute later there was a young guy with a trolley to help me out.   Point being that good service is not a rare commodity in Hong Kong in my experience; it is the rule and not the exception.

Standing outside of Amazonia on Friday night, I got to talking with this guy.  Exchanging the usual info, he told me that he was born and grew up in Hong Kong, moved to the States and hated it (he was living in L.A.), happy to return here.   What were the things about Hong Kong that he appreciates?  The usual – the convenience, how it’s so easy to get everywhere, how places stay open late and you have a thousand choices for a good meal after midnight – the kinds of things that we often take for granted.   But I knew what he meant, having moved from HK to San Francisco and then very happy to return to HK again.

Saturday morning, I realized that the Oscars would be broadcast Monday morning local time and that I don’t get broadcast TV at home.  In years past, I’d just watch it in the office (not a problem, after all I was working for a movie company).  So I went down to Patsy House in town and asked, “Do you know anyone who can fix a TV antenna in a village house?”  And one woman behind the counter raised her hand, like an eager schoolgirl who knows the answer to the question.  “I do!  I know someone!”  And it turns out she had two people listed in her contact book who do this.  “Tuesday or Wednesday okay?”  “Well, I was hoping to get it done before Monday.”  She said she’d try her best.   Now here’s the extra mile that she went for me – the guy she found called me at 6 PM and asked if he could come over right away and I said sure and then, two minutes later, the lady from Patsy House called me just to make sure that the guy she found had called me and that I was being taken care of.  By 7:30, it was all fixed and I can now receive our four wonderful broadcast channels.  With my luck, I’ll probably forget to set the alarm clock and wake up after the whole thing’s over.

I know, I know, this is all really simple shit.  But sometimes I take pleasure in the simple shit and don’t want to get jaded to the point where I take peoples’ kind actions for granted.

After getting that taken care of, I thought this might be the day that I finally try the food at Camden Town for lunch.  But they’re gone and already replaced by something else.  Oh well.  I turned the corner and said, “Okay, this is the day we finally try Fiesta Fiesta.”  It’s a comfortable looking small place on one of the back streets in the old part of town.  They’ve got a lot of western food on the menu but I thought it might be better to go with something Filipino.

So I ordered the pork adobo, which was listed on the menu at $68.  A couple of minutes later the waiter came by with a bowl of soup.  “I put you down for the lunch set, same thing plus soup, drink and dessert, and it’s just $58.”  The soup was cream of chicken with noodle with a small bit of garlic bread on the side.  The pork adobo came with a heap of rice and some broccoli and wasn’t bad at all (though not as good as my gf’s).  The dessert was some kind of Filipino jelly thing with a bit of strawberry sauce.  My gf ordered their Lumpiang Shanghai, spring rolls with pork, served with a salad of lettuce, cucumber, tomato, yellow pepper and we both thought it was quite okay (though not as good as her mother’s).   We got to sit outside for a relaxing hour watching people strolling by – lots of people with dogs, lots of people with cameras, as always. This wasn’t gourmet stuff by any means, but comfortably in the cheap ‘n cheerful category.  The place right next door, Pan Da Cafe, also seems popular and I’ll have to give them a try one of these days too.

The dehumidifiers are working great.  I’m shocked at how quickly they’re filling up with water (I got the 21 liter models) and just kicking myself that I didn’t get these years ago.  Tonight I sold off my Nikon D300 to someone via DCFever.  Dinner at home and a relaxing evening.

So it’s been a relatively productive couple of days.  Nothing at all planned for Sunday and I’m quite okay with that.

Hoping someone might have an answer to this annoying problem.

I have a MacBook. When I first got it, I installed Windows 7 Professional Edition (legal version) on it using the dual-boot method. It worked fine. But I got tired of having to reboot and having to maintain two up-to-date copies of the same software that I use on my MacBook (iTunes, Firefox, Picasa, etc.).

So I went out and got Parallels Desktop (again, legal version). Re-installed Windows under Parallels and guess what? Windows tells me my copy of Windows isn’t genuine! I’ve tried re-entering the product key twice but no dice.

Now, to add insult to injury, attempting to use Microsoft’s online help to send a message to customer service, they tell me that I need to pay HK$450 for support for this problem!

There is no way I am going to pay Microsoft $450 to provide support for this.  I’ll sooner junk Parallels Desktop and go back to dual-booting.  And the next time I decide to replace my desktop PC, I’ll go iMac and go 100% Mac and kiss Microsoft goodbye.

Actually, the more I think about it, there aren’t that many reasons I can come up with for needing Windows on my MacBook.  There are just a handful of programs I run that are Windows-only, but there’s one in particular (Newsbin) where I have yet to find a Mac app that works as well as this PC-only app.

Anyway, anyone encounter a similar problem?  How did you solve it?

Oh Microsoft, how do I hate thee?  Let me count the ways …