TNMC

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A stream runs through the back of our yard.  There is a spot on the bank of that stream, right at the very corner of the property, where some flowers grow.  I am utterly hopeless with plants, so I cannot remember what sort of flowers they are, so don't ask.  Despite being told annually, I can't remember.  What I do remember about them is that they are the very first flowers to appear every spring.  So early that I've often found them blooming in the middle of a patch of as yet unmelted snow.

Well, I wandered through that part of the yard yesterday and this is what I saw.  An early sign of spring?  I think so.  There was also a robin in the yard this morning, but I didn't have the camera with me, so you'll just have to trust me on that one.

For the first time in years, I will not be hosting a live chat during the Oscars. I know, you're heartbroken. But with mom in the hospital I was distracted and nearly forgot about it entirely.

So my recommendation is to go to Kevin Pollack's Chat Show and watch his snarky take on the whole thing. That's probably what I'll be doing. And my sole prediction is a massive upset where Inglourious Basterds sneaks past Avatar and The Hurt Locker and steals Best Picture. Personally, I'd give it to Up in the Air, but the Academy has yet to ask my opinion on these matters.

It's Tax Day.  Yay.  It's a day that brings joy to no one, unless you count those who enjoy spending taxpayer's money.  And I don't.  But what's of interest this time around are the protests scheduled for all over the country.  That I definitely approve of.  People taking to the streets to loudly protest the actions of the government?  A-OK with me.

I do have few quibbles though.  First off, these are largely being labeled as Tea Party protests, in reference to the famous protest by American colonists prior to the Revolutionary War.  The original Boston Tea Party was colonists taking tea from a East India Company ship and chucking it overboard in protest of English taxation of tea which specifically favored that company over American tea.  So that protest was about tax policy enacted without any concern or input from Americans that favored a foreign entity.  So please explain to me what these new protests have to do with tea?  Nothing.  The name Tea Party is being used because it is famous, not because this current protest is analagous to the famed Tea Party.  

You can certainly accuse me of being nitpicky with that complaint.  But I think it is a relevant complaint because that original protest was very specific in what it protested and how.  The act of raiding a ship and tossing the tea in the bay was specifically tied to the tax being protested.  Buying up a bunch of tea bags (probably without sales tax) and throwing them in a river to protest government shenanigans in general is unfocused.  I'm certainly okay with the act of protesting, I just think this one is a bit lamely conceived.  And for once, the tea companies are probably very happy about all this.

The other complaint is that these modern tea parties ran into some problems with the law.  In Washington D.C., they weren't allowed to dump the tea in the Potomac, because that is illegal.  Other protests were stopped cold because they didn't have permits for their protests.  The people who were behind the original Boston Tea Party would have ignored that and just dumped away.  C'mon people.  Grow a pair.  The First Amendment protects your right to "peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."  Remember, it was written by the same sorts of people who first tossed tea to protest the actions of government.  That's exactly why we have a First Amendment.

I think this confirms that whole spring arriving thing.  This grows in my backyard next to a small stream.  It's always the first thing to bloom every spring and has done so for decades.  It's actually been up for at least a week or two.  I'm just getting around to taking pictures now.

Today I saw two solid signs of spring approaching.  In the back of my yard there is a small stream.  Next to it, by the fence that marks the edge of the property, there are small white flowers that pop up every spring.  I'm not sure what they are called but they are consistently the first flowering plant to come to life every year.  They aren't flowering yet but they are most definitely growing.  The other sign is a spring training exhibition baseball game on TV.  This afternoon was spent very pleasantly watching the Mets white wash the Florida Marlins 9-0.  It's spring training so I put no importance on that win at all.  I'm just delighted to see it.  I love the start of spring training every year.  I love the feeling of promise that comes with the start of a season.  It seems like every team has a legitimate shot to win and you can take pure joy in just playing the game.  Gives me a warm fuzzy it does.

I feel obligated to write something about the Oscars, even though it was a few days ago and we had a live chat in which I said pretty much everything I thought about it already.  So here's a quick wrap up.  It was a pretty good show.  Hugh Jackman made a fine host.  I suspect those song and dance numbers play a lot better at the theater than on TV but he did them very well.  I liked the stage set up a lot.  It made the whole thing seem a bit more intimate.  There were fewer montages than in previous years, which was good.  The performances for best score and original song were nicely truncated.  Usually those segments take way too much time.  I wasn't that crazy about the presentation of the acting awards.  Sure, it's nice to see all those great actors together but it took too much time and started to feel like they were handing out Nobel prizes instead of Oscars.  It was too self important.   But over all I give them credit for a good job over hauling the show.

As for the awards themselves, my predictions were pretty shaky.  My instincts are a little more accurate than my tastes but not by a lot.  I was disappointed that Mickey Rourke didn't win best actor.  Don't take that as any sort of slight on Sean Penn, who was phenomenal in Milk.  I'm not complaining that he won, he deserved it.  I was just rooting for Rourke because it made such a good story.  I was genuinely startled that WALL-E didn't win more awards, particularly the sound awards.  And I was genuinely annoyed that Werner Herzog didn't win best feature documentary for Encounters at the End of the World.  But life goes on.

I want to thank everyone who showed up for the live chat.  It was a good time that is always better the more people get involved.

Here we go again kids. It's time to try and predict who those crazy Academy voters are going to pick as the winners at the Oscars this weekend. I can't actually claim to have seen all the nominated films, but that doesn't necessarily affect my picking skills. Personal taste is a lousy way to pick the winners. The years where I've made my picks based on my taste have shown me to be spectacularly out of step with Academy voters. Years where I've largely ignored my tastes and tried to read the tea leaves as it were, I've been pretty damn accurate. That approach is also a lot more time consuming, and time is something I just don't really have any of. So this year I will use a combination of personal taste and instinct. I expect this will make me slightly more accurate than working purely from taste. Got all that? Who cares. Let's go.