Hooray

Oscar Noms came out today, y'all!  I have a great love for awards show season, much as I have a great love for pageants.  I am that nerd who starts watching E! at noon that day.

2008 produced the best movie I have ever seen, Slumdog Millionaire.  I can't say it's the best movie EVER made, as I have not seen ALL the movies, but it's the best one I have personally viewed to date.  I have never seen a movie so full of...love?  For the world?  That sounds stupid but it's pretty amazing, trust me.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about this is that SM was nominated for 2/3 of the Best Original Song category.  Including the one written by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam.  M.I.A. is nominated for a motherflipping ACADEMY AWARD, people.  Try and wrap your head around that.  

Also mega bonus points for Heath Ledger, Robert Downey Mewnior, professional cutie pie Amy Adams, and Nathaniel Fisher Sr.  

Say What

Us Magazine is reporting that poor man's Zooey Deschanel and professional me-annoyer Katy Perry is making a vow of celibacy for of the year.  This I could care less about, but this article contains the SCHLAMAZING piece of information that she has a cat named...wait for it...KITTY PURRY.  

IS.  THIS.  4.  REALS? 

If so, that is genius and she deserves the Grammy for meta-naming your cat after yourself.  But not for her music.  Just for the cat.

Bonus points for the rompers tho Katy.   

Sharp Eye: Colour Lovers

In the first SHARP EYE post on School For Birds, I want to introduce you to one of the internet's great time-wasters for design geeks: Colour Lovers.  

It's not really a time-waster, as it has actual value (unlike the hours I spend looking at pictures of unquestionably offensive asian cat stereotypes).  But it does suck away the hours like a pro.  Colour Lovers is the Facebook of color trend sites.  Users from all over the world can post their own color palettes based on...whatever they want.  Artwork, magazine shots, movies, feelings.  It's pretty fantastic.  

You can also make patterns, but I find these less satisfying than the rows of 5 colors all lined up so neatly.  They're ok for test-driving how a palette will be applied in a floral, plaid, etc, but are a little pre-packaged.  What can I say, I go for purity.  

They even let you go so far as to create your own colors from scratch, and add them to the pool.  Anyone can use them in a palette, but you get props.  

As with any creative site, you can add favorite/favourite users and there are forums wherein you can discuss your palettes, get critiqued, or participate in challenges.  For people who are obsessed with color, it's a fun little site to just create for the sake of creating.  Ars Gratia Artis, y'all!

Needless to say, I'm all up in there.  It's an amazing playplace for designers and artists. 

Hope, Change

Today is a turning point in American- nay, WORLD history.  We have a new president.  We have a new blog.  We have no job. 

Less than a week before Obama was inaugurated, I was laid off from my job.  Not cool, universe.  I read in the AM New York (the free subway daily) this morning that 220,000 New Yorkers are out of work.  It is, to quote Neil Pye, a bottomer.  

I am trying to view this as an opportunity to do things that I previously did not have time for.  Important, enriching things.  Like blogging!