Bloggers have the extraordinary task of not only sharing stories and information but also listening to the needs, wants, and comments of their readers.

The other day I was alerted to a blog post by Rafe Needleman entitled, “How to be the most hated Blogger on the Internet: Five role models” and I figured, why not turn it around and applaud those bloggers that put in extra time to listen to their readers.  This is a short tribute to those bloggers who care about their readers and make themselves accessible (feel free to tweet at or direct message).  Some are my personal favs and some were nominated by others.  Do you agree or disagree?-take the poll!

1. Joi Ito (@joi and www.joi.ito.com)
   1. Joichi Ito is currently the CEO of Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that empowers people to create, use, and share consistent with copyright law.  He’s been influential in the tech world for longer than a decade, and just last year he was ranked by BusinessWeek as one of the 25 Most Influential People on the Web.
2. Brian Solis (@briansolis and www.briansolis.com)
   1. Since coining the phrase “PR 2.0″ (also the name of his top-rated blog) in the late 1990s, Brian Solis has been redefining our understand of public relations and social media.  He’s been running bub.blicio.us since 2006 and was named among Silicon Valley’s 40 Under 40 in 2008.
3. Om Malik (@om and www.gigaom.com)
   1. A born writer, Om Malik is the founder of GigaOM.com, a tech and business blog focusing on web 2.0 topics. Since its founding in 2001, GigaOM has grown to a readership of over 500,000 per month and has been ranked among the top blogs in the world by Technorati and CNet.
4. Robert Scoble (@scobleizer and www.scobleizer.com)
   1. This guy’s been in Silicon Valley since the day he was born.  Well, almost.  He came to fame during his time at Microsoft, but he didn’t let it get to him: he posted his cell number on his blog for people to reach him with issues. These days he’s a household name among geeks the world over and though he has over 54,000 Twitter followers, he still manages to punch out a good number of @ replies.  He’ll even follow you back.
5. Gina Trapani (@ginatrapani and www.ginatrapani.org, www.lifehacker.com)
   1. Recently named one of the Most Influential Women in Technology by Fast Company Magazine, Gina Trapani was, until very recently, Madame President of Lifehacker.com, a website dedicated to making your life easier and more productive using technology.  She’s staying productive too: her book is in its second edition and her writings are features in a variety of publications.
6. Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki and www.guykawasaki.com)
   1. The original tech evangelist, Guy Kawasaki is the managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in high-tech firms in Silicon Valley.  Around the time I was born, Guy was working at Apple, laying the groundwork for the giant corporation that it is today.  He has nine books published, and I don’t imagine he’ll stop there.
7. Pete Cashmore (@mashable and www.mashable.com)
   1. Pete Cashmore isn’t well-known for listening to his bloggers, but with a face like his, who cares?  Not only is his website (mashable.com, the home of “All That’s New on the Web”) wildly successful and popular, but he’s also a total hottie with a Scottish accent.  If you’d like to listen to him (or just look), here’s a video interview.

On February 22, 2009, the 81st Annual Academy Awards will be held.  I’m pretty psyched about it because of the number of good movies that were churned out last year.  I’m dedicating this post to the movies that I’ve seen that have been nominated.  The full list can be found here.  And the Oscar goes to…

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I first learned of this movie while in Paris a few weeks ago–every subway had numerous posters for it.  After a while I was brainwashed into thinking I needed to see it or I would be missing out on something spectactular.  As it turns out, it was spectacular.

It really swept the nominations with 13 nominations.  At about 3 hours run-time, a lot of people complain that it’s too long.  But I’m the type of person where I will sit down and be completely mesmerized by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett for hours.  Especially when it’s a life-story movie that takes place in another time period.  I would have sat there and watched, teary-eyed, for another 3 hours.

It’s gotten an 8.4/10 on IMDB if that means anything to you.

And if you haven’t seen this movie…shame on you.  Go buy tickets.  Like, now.

The 13 nominations are:

1. Best Picture
2. Best Actor (Brad Pitt)
3. Best Director
4. Best Supporting Actress (Taraji P. Henson)
5. Best Adapted Screenplay
6. Best Original Score
7. Best Film Editing
8. Best Cinematography
9. Best Costume Design
10. Best Sound Mixing
11. Best Makeup
12. Best Art Direction
13. Best Visual Effects

Milk

This is another phenomenal film up for Best Picture.  Sadly, as was the case with Brokeback Mountain, it wasn’t in wide-release due to its homosexual nature and content.  I guess that just reinforces the theme in the movie that America is homophobic.  Surprise!

This is one of those movies that is so gripping because the tragic true-story ending is shown at the beginning and the rest of the movie just leads up it.  By the end, if you’re not moved to tears, it’s unlikely that you have a soul.

Oh, and Sean Penn is a-mazing.  After 10 minutes of watching I forgot that he was Sean Penn…I was totally entranced by the character of Harvey Milk.

8 Nominations:

1. Best Picture
2. Best Director
3. Best Actor (Sean Penn)
4. Best Supporting Actor (Josh Brolin)
5. Best Original Screenplay
6. Best Original Score
7. Best Film Editing
8. Best Costume Design

Changeling

Since Angie began producing and collecting children, her maternal instinct has really kicked in and I think that it had a huge impact on how she acted in this movie about a child who is kidnapped.  I mean, her emotion and mourning came so naturally and it made the movie come alive.

What’s perhaps more incredible than Angie’s acting (and BTW, I’m not a big fan of hers) is that this a true-story.

Oh, in case you didn’t already know: being a woman in the 1920′s kinda sucked.

3 Nominations:

1. Best Actress (Angelina Jolie)
2. Best Art Direction
3. Best Cinematography

Doubt

I just saw this movie the other day.  I didn’t know what it was about or what to expect, but I knew that it starred Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman and that’s really all I needed to know.  In case that’s not enough reason for you to see it, think about

No doubt about it, it’s a great movie.  There is one word that accurately describes Meryl Streep: explosive.  That woman can just get right in there and you can feel it.  She makes you feel it.

Creepy and intense, this movie leaves you with, well, you guessed it–doubt.

5 Nominations

1. Best Actress (Meryl Streep)
2. Best Supporting Actor (P.S.H.)
3. Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams)
4. Best Supporting Actress (Viola Davis)
5. Best Adapted Screenplay

The Dark Knight

Among my friends it would be almost criminal to say what I’m about to say.  I didn’t think that The Dark Knight was the best movie ever.  In fact, I’d probably lump it into the “mediocre” category with all the other movies that I’ve seen once and probably won’t see many more times in my life.

That said, Heath Ledger’s performance was amazing.  Without him, the movie would have been, in my opinion, a flop.  The Academy seems to agree, nominating the movie in 8 categories, but none of them very significant outside of best supporting actor.

8 Nominations:

1. Best Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger)
2. Art direction
3. Cinematography
4. Film editing
5. Makeup
6. Sound editing
7. Sound mixing
8. Visual effects

The Duchess

I must say that at first I was tweaked out by the lack of a ‘t’ in the title of the movie.  Shouldn’t it be “The Dutchess”?

Anyway, this movie is really interesting.  It’s another true-story that takes place in another time period (have you caught on that I like these?).  This time, it’s late 18th-century England and things are in shambles for this twenty-year-old aristocrat.  Except for her hair and hat.  She had that on lockdown (most of the time).

But seriously, you have to empathize with this poor woman.  She married a guy who’d sooner play with dogs than show her any love–that is, when he’s not raping her or sleeping with other women.  Worse, all she wants is to be happy with the man that she loves–who is not her husband.  Add kids, booze, fiery wit, exquisite gowns and sky-high hair, and you have a recipe for some beautiful chaos.

Not only did I watch it in theaters (twice, actually) but I got to watch it on the plane ride back from Europe.  How perfect.

2 Nominations:

1. Best Art Direction
2. Best Costume Design