12 Oscar Facts: Be An Oscar Smarty-Pants

Going to an Oscar party this weekend and want to be an Oscar smarty-pants?  Well, here are 12 facts you can spontaneous blurt out when the time is right: 


* The Artist is the first silent film to be nominated for Best Picture in 83 years.


* There are nine first-time nominees this year in the acting categories.


* Kristen Wiig is the first SNL cast member to pick up a nomination while still on the show.  Seven other cast members from the past have Oscar nominations to their credit.


* Cars 2 is the first Pixar film NOT to be nominated for Best Animated Feature since that category's inception in 2001.


* Composer John Williams is nominated for two films this year (War Horse and The Adventures of Tin Tin), giving him a total of 47 (count 'em!) career nominations.  He is the most nominated living person (second all-time behind Walt Disney).


* 6 out the 9 Best Picture nominees this year were based on books.


* It takes Price Waterhouse Coopers approximately 1700 man hours each year to count and verify ballots.  They have done this for 78 years without a single security breach.


* Kenneth Branagh is the first actor in history to be nominated in five different categories (director, actor, screenplay, live-action short, and now supporting actor).


* This is the second time George Clooney has been nominated for two different films in two different categories in the same year.


* Director Stephen Daldry has had three of his four films nominated for Best Picture and the fourth, the beloved Billy Elliot picked up three nominations, including Best Director.


* Host Billy Crystal's ninth stint as host is the second most in Oscar history (following Bob Hope with 18 at bats).  He presided over the most-watched Oscar telecast in history in 1998, the year Titanic won Best Picture.  (Little known fact: David Letterman was host of the second most watched telecast in Oscar history, despite Letterman's assertion that he was a huge failure).


* Each Oscar statuette cast about $500 to manufacture and weighs about 8.5 lbs.

Top 12 Simpsons Episodes of All Time

This year, I've asked fellow psychologists to write "12 for 12" lists of their favorite things in pop culture to celebrate 2012, the year the world ends.  Today, Dr. Pat O'Connor is up with his timely picks for best Simpsons episodes of all time.

by Dr. Pat O'Connor

I consider myself to be a pretty big Simpsons fan.  When I was younger, reruns aired three to four times a day, and I watched every single one, nearly every day.  I collected their comics and figurines.  I could go toe-to-toe with anyone who claimed to be an “expert” on Simpsons trivia.  I played all the video games.  I collect (and watch!) the DVDs.

Last night, The Simpsons aired their 500th episode – a truly impressive milestone.  Selecting the 12 best episodes from 23 seasons is going to be difficult.  Let’s see if some of your favorites are on the list:

12.  Bart the Murderer (Season 3, Episode 4): Bart accidentally finds himself meeting Fat Tony, who hires him to work as his bartender.  Along the way, Bart gets wrapped up in an allegation of murdering Principal Skinner.  Memorable quote:  “Lionel Hutz, court-appointed attorney. I'll be defending you on the charge of... Murder One! Wow! Even if I lose, I'll be famous!”

11.  Homer at the Bat (Season 3, Episode 17): Homer joins a company baseball team whose roster eventually includes Roger Clemens, Darryl Strawberry, Ozzie Smith, and many more.  Each player faces a hilariously tragic misfortune that makes them unable to play in the big game.

10.  Radioactive Man (Season 7, Episode 2): Bart tries out for the role of Fallout Boy, who is the sidekick to the superhero Radioactive Man.  The role eventually goes to Milhouse, who realizes he never wanted to be an actor.  Memorable quote:  “My eyes! The goggles do nothing!”

9.  500 Keys (Season 22, Episode 21): The most recently-aired episode to be on this list came as a pleasant surprise.  The family uncovers a pile of keys, and each one leads to different doors around Springfield.  Lisa tackles a mystery, Bart only finds himself doing good deeds, and Homer and Barney play in the Duff Brewery.  This episode is destined to be a classic.

8.  Cape Feare (Season 5, Episode 2): The Simpsons enter the Witness Relocation Program as Bart is hunted by Sideshow Bob.  Favorite moment: Homer bursting into Bart’s bedroom at night, asking if he wants to see his new chainsaw and hockey mask.

7.  Homer the Great (Season 6, Episode 12): Homer tries to join the Stonecutters, which eventually changes its name to “The Ancient Mystic Society of No Homers.”

6.  Homer’s Barbershop Quartet (Season 5, Episode 1): Homer reflects on the days when he, Apu, Skinner, and Barney were members of The Be Sharps, a barbershop quartet.

5.  Missionary: Impossible (Season 11, Episode 15): Another Homer episode – he gets sent to a far off land where he becomes a mission.  He ends up corrupting the locals, introducing them to alcohol and gambling.  Memorable quote: “I’m not NOT licking toads!”

4.  Homer’s Enemy (Season 8, Episode 23): Someone new gets a job at the Springfield power plant – Frank Grimes.  Despite being killed off in his only episode, every fan of the Simpsons remembers him.  The side story of Bart winning an abandoned factory in an auction was the icing on the cake of this amazing episode.

3.  Marge vs. the Monorail (Season 4, Episode 12): What happens when you combine a shady monorail salesman, Leonard Nimoy, and Marge Simpson?  A fantastic episode that really showcased how funny The Simpsons could be with a one episode character, a random celebrity guest, and a central character who usually isn’t known for providing laughs.

2.  Trilogy of Error (Season 12, Episode 18): We get to see one story from three perspectives – Homer, Bart, and Lisa.  Bart’s run-ins with Fat Tony are always comedy gold, Homer’s anxiety over losing a finger is hilarious, and Lisa’s grammar robot, Linguo, provides what is probably the best death in the show’s entire run.

1.  You Only Move Twice (Season 8, Episode 2): This has long been my favorite episode of the series.  It is bursting at the seams with memorable quotes from beginning to end, from Hank Scorpio telling Homer where he can buy a hammock to the gag that starts and ends the episode about Homer’s dream of owning the Dallas Cowboys.  What’s really great about this episode is that everyone finally gets what we, the viewers, think they need – a better job, a quiet home, an alternative education, serene landscapes – but they wind up hating it all and falling apart in that classic, dysfunctional style for which the Simpsons will forever be known.


Dr. O'Connor is also the creator of Comicspedia and you can follow him on Twitter @Comicspedia.  

Best of Everything of the Past Five Years

There's really no good reason for this post other than I have recently been thinking about the best entertainment art forms of the past half a decade (2007 to present).  Nothing really prompted it, except for stuff swimming around in my noggin.  


Here are my picks in all the major entertainment categories for the best in class.  These are not necessarily my favorites (though many are), but my stab at the best in quality.


Best Movie - There Will Be Blood


Best Television Show - Lost


Best Album - The Suburbs by Arcade Fire


Best Song - Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys


Best Non-Fiction Book - Columbine by Dave Cullen


Best Fiction Book - The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz


Best Videogame - Modern Warfare 2


So...Agree?  Disagree?  These are my picks and I'm stickin' to 'em...at least for now.

How to Spot a Reality Show Narcissist, Part 1

With all the excellent reality shows on right now, I thought it was time for a primer on how to spot a genuine narcissist.  You will have plenty of practice, believe me. Check out Shrink Blog: The Video to see Part One.

10 Big Obstacles Movie Couples Faced

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.  I hope it's a good day for all of you.  Whether you are with someone or single, you can be a happy person...even on Valentine's Day.


In the movies, love often wins out, but in many cases, the odds are just too great.  Here are ten big obstacles that kept a few movie couples apart:


Family Feuds - Romeo + Juliet


World War - Casablanca


Illegal Activity - Bonnie and Clyde


Delusional Thinking - Lars and the Real Girl


Social Stigma - Brokeback Mountain


Heavy Drinking - Leaving Las Vegas


Reverse Aging - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button


Failed Experiments - The Fly


Major Hubris - Titanic


Being Dead - Ghost

Whitney Houston's 10 Best Songs

With Whitney Houston's much-too-young passing, we have lost one of the greatest vocalists of all time.  She easily has fifteen recognizable songs, all with tremendous vocals, which is an amazing career achievement.  Here are my picks for her 10 best songs:


1.   I Will Always Love You


2.   The Greatest Love of All


3.   I Have Nothing


4.   Star Spangled Banner


5.   I Wanna Dance with Somebody


6.   Didn't We Almost Have It All


7.   How Will I Know


8.   Saving All My Love


9.   Run to You


10. I'm Every Woman

Separated at Birth Cinema: The Walking Dead & Lost

By Ace & J2 

Over the last two years we’ve come up with nearly 50 movie double-features to ponder, films that share enough traits to have been “separated at birth.”  With this post we are making history, for the first time pairing two television programs.  Wait, wait!  Don’t leave!  Sure, movies are the dominant art form in our culture.  Certainly the whole concept of a double-feature was born in cinema.  But audiences are watching television shows on ever-expanding HD screens with digital surround-sound, slowly closing the gap between the home and theatre experience.  And as many critics have argued (including the Shrink Blog mastermind himself, Dave Verhaagen), television is currently lapping movies in terms of creativity and storytelling; The Walking Dead and Lost exemplify that trend.

Lost premiered in 2004 and ran until 2010.  The series’ first image was a close-up of Jack (Matthew Fox) waking in a jungle after an airliner crash.  He finds his way to the beach crash site for one of the most gripping scenes in the history of television.  In the aftermath, the survivors discover that they are on a very, very strange island on which nothing is as it seems.  Jack, a surgeon, steps up as a rational leader and problem-solver.  His counterweight is Locke (Terry O’Quinn), who becomes enrapt by the mystical qualities of the island (in large part because being there somehow cured his paralysis).  Jack and Locke are rivals and occasional allies, struggling to reconcile their competing world views.  As Locke puts it, he is a “man of faith” while Jack is a “man of science.”

The Walking Dead premiered in 2010 (a few months after Lost concluded).  At the outset deputy sheriff Rick (Andrew Lincoln) is critically wounded during a shoot-out.  Rick wakes from a coma (ala Jack from Lost) in a deserted hospital to find himself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.  He eventually re-unites with his wife and son and becomes the de facto leader of a group of survivors.  As with Lost, The Walking Dead contrasts two world views through rivaling protagonists.  Rick is motivated to recreate a normal life for his family and is inspired by his son’s optimism (such as his being enthralled by a deer as he takes a hunter’s stray bullet to the chest).  Rick’s counterweight is Shane (Jon Bernthal), another deputy.  Shane holds no hope of a normal existence and derides nostalgia as a narcotic.  In Shane’s view, life in this wasteland is all about survival of the toughest.

These two sagas depict people struggling under duress, and both depict contrasting paths to salvation.  In the end, Lost seemed to side with Locke’s perspective as even Jack came to acknowledge that some mysteries cannot succumb to reason.  It’s too early to know which direction The Walking Dead will take.  To date, both Rick and Shane seem validated; in some moments Rick’s humanity is pivotal, while in others Shane’s ruthless capacity for sacrifice has saved lives.

Will this foray into television start a trend on Separated at Birth Cinema?  Time will tell, but we expect to be back into movies in a couple of weeks.  Hasta la vista!