Since today is 29 February, I thought it would be a good opportunity to write a few words about this day that only occurs once every four years (except on century years that aren't divisible by 400, e.g. 1700 and 2100). Here's the explanation found on
Wikipedia:
Although the modern calendar counts a year as 365 days, a complete revolution around the sun takes approximately 365 days and 6 hours. Every four years, an extra twenty-four hours have accumulated, so one extra day is added to that calendar to keep the count coordinated with the sun's apparent position. (…) A leap day is more likely to fall on a Monday than on a Sunday. This is because the Gregorian calendar repeats itself every 400 years, which is exactly 20871 weeks including 97 leap days. Over this period February 29 falls thirteen times on a Sunday, Tuesday or Thursday; fourteen times on a Friday or Saturday; and fifteen times on a Monday or Wednesday.
Here's the most notable fact that happened exactly four years ago (from
Wikipedia):
76th Academy Awards: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King wins Best Picture and Director awards and nine others for a total of 11 Academy Awards, a tie for the most ever won by a single film, and the largest sweep ever for a single film, having received 11 nominations. Acting honors were as follows: Best Actor: Sean Penn for Mystic River, Best Actress: Charlize Theron for Monster, Best Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins for Mystic River, Best Supporting Actress: Renée Zellweger for Cold Mountain. Sources: (Newsday) (Box Office Mojo) (IMDB)
Fours years have passed! Time flies, as you can see. I can remember this ceremony perfectly, for it was the last one I saw on telly, because after that BeTV refused to broadcast it… (F*ckers.) Anyway, I was very happy for
Peter Jackson and his crew, because all of them had done a terrific job with this marvelous
The Lord of the Rings trilogy. About one year ago, I posted the introductory spot of the ceremony, which is basically a spoof on all the successful movies of 2003:
I spotted references to (in order of appearance)
Last Action Hero,
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,
The Terminator,
Master and Commander,
Pirates of the Caribbean,
Mystic River,
Seabiscuit,
Finding Nemo,
Cold Mountain,
Monster,
Something's Gotta Give,
Lost in Translation and
The Last Samurai. Could you find more?
While looking up for this video, I found one more fine example of
Brokeback Mountain-inspired trailer, this time focusing on the "love relationship" bewteen Billy Crystal and the late
Jack Palance. Most bits come from
City Slickers and
City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold.
Notice that the boy you see at 01:03 and at the end is actually the eleven-year-old
Jake Gyllenhaal, who starred in
Brokeback Mountain with the late
Heath Ledger!
