Coverage of “12 Years A Slave” From 1853

Even back in 1853, the NY Times was rocking it with some great investigative journalism. The paper gave Solomon Northup’s now famous story a good deal of attention not long after he was rescued and released from the cotton plantation down in Louisiana.

The original article from the NY Times goes into a lot of detail on his ordeal, while Smithsonian magazine has a nice little summary of the whole write up.

After reading through the original story in the old NY Times, no doubt that the folks who produced the Oscar winning “12 Years A Slave” did a great job bringing the story to life!

Source: Smithsonian

Oscars

Well, its that time of year for all you movie buffs out there. The Oscars are today and ahead of the big event, I am going to bust out my picks for this year. This year is different than previous with the ceremony a few weeks earlier than usual. The Academy felt its big night was getting overlooked. February sweeps on network TV were also an influence. I think Lord of the Rings:Return of the King will have a very good night, and it should take home Best Picture and Best Director, if for nothing else than an acknowledgement of the superior work done across the full LOTR trilogy of films, which IMHO is the finest series of movies ever made. In any case, here are my picks for the big categories:

Best Actor: Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean
Best Actress: Charlize Theron, Monster
Best Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins, Mystic River
Best Supporting Actress: Renee Zellwegger, Cold Mountain
Best Picture: Lord of the Rings:The Return of the King
Best Director: Peter Jackson, LOTR:Return of the King
Best Original Screenplay: Lost In Translation
Best Adapted Screenplay: LOTR:Return of the King
Best Animated Feature: Finding Nemo