TODAY’S songs of the day are the following:

“South” by Luxury

“Anne Arbor” by The Get Up Kids

and “405” by Death Cab For Cutie

Movie of the day: O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Now on to the meaty stuff!

Today I will announce… JOEL’S OSCAR PREDICTIONS FOR 2003:

BEST PICTURE: Well, the Academy has a sickly history of picking out the most macabre, depressing movies for best picture (with a few exceptions: Gone With The Wind, The Sound of Music, Casablanca– all of which have sad endings, though). This years top two contenders would seem to be The Hours and Chicago. My pick will be Chicago, even though The Hours fits the bill on almost every criteria for the Best Picture Oscar. The movie I’d give all the Oscars to (if I had it my way) would be The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

BEST ACTOR: This one is a gimme, I think. Daniel Day Lewis is my pick to win for Gangs of New York, although Jack Nicholson is supposed to have turnined in a great performance in About Schmidt, and Adrien Brody likewise has a reputedly amazing performance in The Pianist.

BEST ACTRESS: I think Nichole Kidman will walk away with this baby for her work in The Hours, which I’ve already mentioned fits the Oscar bill to the t. Julianne Moore would be the next closest contender in my mind, for her picture perfect housewife in Far From Heaven. Nichole was snubbed last year for Moulin Rouge because Denzel Washington won the Best Actor award and the Academy felt it had to give Halle Berry the Best Actress award then as well. The Academy has a wierd history of “oh, you got screwed that one time, here, have an oscar and let’s be happy again” stuff.

BEST DIRECTOR: This is one of the chief reasons that I’m picking Martin Scorcese for this award for Gangs of New York. He was totally stood up for Raging Bull at the 1980 Academy Awards. Rob Marshall is (I believe) an Academy nomination first: he has directed one, and only one film in his life, and that film is the 13-times nominated musical Chicago. Roman Polanski is in good shape for an Oscar for The Pianist, except for the minor fact that he is a political fugitive, facing statutory rape charges in the U.S., and wouldn’t be able to pick up the award if he won it. So, I’ll place my money on Scorcese.

That’s it for my first round of OSCAR PREDICTIONS! I’ll have predictions for more of the minor categories in a bit.

Oh yeah, and today I worked and I’m wiped out from it. See ya’ll on the filpside!