The Academy Awards [Update Still Ongoing]
[Posted by reader_iam]
Anyone planning on following the show tonight? (Amba is. [Added: Specifically, here, and she calls it simulsnarking].) I'm still wavering about simulblogging this year's "do," though I did so enthusiastically last year.
If you're planning on simulblogging, feel free to put a (legitimate) link in comments after you've put up your first post, or subpost. Maybe I'll check in and update!
First question: Are you a fan or not a fan of the choice of Ellen DeGeneres? I like her, so I'm looking forward to seeing her--though with trepidation, because more often than not, these gigs are disappointing. Hmm. I'm trying to remember what I thought of the host last year--guess I'll have to check the old blog.
---
Update: 7:31 Central (all times will be Central within the body of the post, and I probably won't keep saying "Update" but will just go with the ---):
"I believe in hope, but not hula hula hope." Words to live by!
"Music isn't cheating, except for sometimes." My favorite line in that little piece that opened the show.
Well, except for this one: "I'd like to thank ME ... but I wouldn't dare."
---
I didn't realize until this instant that I'd been wondering, somewhere in my unconcious mind, whether Ellen would shock us all by dressing up in some sort of glam dress. Can't decide if I'm consciously disappointed or not. Well, not too much in any case. I'd like her persona no matter what she was wearing. Though I do sort of think the current riff on not being nervious and winning is going on a bit too long. A switch in emphasis would be good.
UM, but not to Al Gore, please!
---
Much better, this line in a riff about diversity, given the past year:
"Let me just put this out there: If there weren't blacks, gays and Jews, there would be no Oscars. Or anyone named Oscar, when you think about that."
----
Wow, we're at the first award, and we've already gotten a dedication to the memory of someone's mother!
Also, am I the only one who , in looking at this year's set, is reminded of upscale bathroom-tile options which most of us can't afford, but sort of salivate over in design mags as a young male teen-ager would porn?
---
7:59 p.m.--The kids were cute, because, well, kids are cute. I'm not going to get cute commenting about them. Not every thought demands expression.
Oh, and I love animated shorts!!!
---
"Sound editing is like sex." Oh, crap. That's one of those odd/odd phrases which is going to stick in my head, probably for years, and not necessarily in the way intended. The word "is" probably can't be thought of in more than one fashion (oh, wait--um, nevermind), but as for all the others... .
---
Alan Arkin, 73. 73. Sigh.
---
I really wouldn't want to have been voting in the Best Supporting Actor cateogry.
Those weeks in the van paid off for Arkin...the V.O. announcer says Arkin almost didn't get the part because he was "too virile," which would have been the most flattering rejection Arkin ever got, had he got it, [according to Arkin]. I'm trying to think of what rejection would be the analogy for a woman, and if it would be too fraught with whatever to use.
---
I'm disappointed to find myself disappointed with Ellen. "Annoyed" is the word I'd use to find myself watching a Coca Cola commercial rather than the entire Pilobolus performance. Yeah, yeah--I know what underwrites this show. Still.
---
Man, everybody's bald. Or graying. Don't get me wrong--I find bald and graying men sexy. Not so sure about my own corresponding tell-tale hair (darn! forgot to call my hairdresser again this weekend).
I've never thought of seguing from James Taylor to Melissa Etheridge in my personal little playlists. Sure going to give it a try now.
Melissa is sounding especially Indigo Girls tonight. Fine by me, 'cause I like both; just noting.
---
Al Gore: "I'm just here for the movies." Makes perfect sense: He still sounds like a walking script. Or like that application I have on my computer which reads text for me.
OK...that was funny, having the cut-off music well up as Al Gore whipped out a piece of paper as if he were going to announce his candidacy for president. Predictable, but funny anyway.
For the record, I liked Al Gore, a lot, back in the '80s or so, and he would have been a shoe-in for my vote at one particular time period. Just so you know.
---
I love Cameron Diaz, and she is a beautiful woman. But her hair color, hair style and dress is reviving bad memories of bridesmaid experiences past. A pity.
---
Over at Althouse, whose proprietor was flying back from Ithaca tonight, some commenters are simulcommenting. I like this one, in particular, from Tiggeril:
---
An insight into myself I could have done without: Ellen (the ever shrinking, more irrelevant?) comes out with a Baby Bjorn in which an Oscar is rattling around, and for the first time I find myself focussing on the tits of presenters (specifically, the ones who immediately followed). Is this some sort of weird analogy to when, as a breastfeeding mama, I'd leak when someone else's baby would cry? Or maybe, with my 46th birthday looming, I'm thinking...are you sure it's too late? Are you sure?
Meryl: Lose the damn sunglasses! I hate that. (Wow. Best stinkeye--staged, of course--that I've ever seen without benefit of actually being able to see an eye.)
---
9:05--Ooops, meant to mark at the least the half-hours with a time. I see I dropped that ball, among others.
---
I liked the MySpace riff, especially the bit about Spielberg needing to center the picture. I also liked the the intro into Gwyneth Paltrow, who I think needed to either put her hair up or pick a different dress. As it is, the word "incoherence" comes to mind.
---
WE INTERRUPT THIS SIMULBLOG TO BRING THE FOLLOWING WORM-BASHING VIDEO TO YOUR ATTENTION:
Lord, I'm just like my mother. Hate a repeated musical reference that never gets resolved... . Tease without release ain't for me.
---
9:28 (there! I remembered!): TOTALLY into the montage of Best Foreign Language Film winners. Some of my favorite films, and/or actors, and/or memories were encapsulated therein. Ahhhhh... .
---
It's nice to be able believe it when someone says she didn't think she'd win, which I did believe in the case of Jennifer Hudson.
---
Did Jerry Seinfeld just steal the comedy part of the show from Ellen?
Yes, oh yes, that's exactly what I just witnessed.
---
There was zero chance that "An Inconvenient Truth" wouldn't win. Zero. So nonears [what the? The essence: "outrage, or shock, faux or otherwise"] here.
But that reference to New Orleans was cynical and distorting, a misstatement and utterly exploitive. I don't begrudge the awarding of the Oscar; that is what it is. I do, very much, condemn the self-serving dishonesty of that reference.
For shame. How convenient of and for you.
---
FWIW it's worth, I think movie soundtracks are highly underrated these days. Interesting stuff, quite often, which--and this is highly subjective--doesn't get much attention anymore, at least not in the way I used to perceive them as getting.
I should consciously look more into what people write about soundtracks these days.
---
As much as I like Ellen, I have to say--in retrospect--that there are worse things than having one's performance described as painful, or infuriating. At least those things imply that some sort of strong impression was made.
---
OK, I'm going to stop resisting (what the heck? not sure anyone's looking, anyway)--it's rather unfortunate that someone accepting an award for something called "Little Miss Sunshine" has such a flare of light bouncing off his head. Sometimes coherence is overrated.
---
Think I'm just going to soak up the end of this show offline ...
G'night all.
---
Anyone planning on following the show tonight? (Amba is. [Added: Specifically, here, and she calls it simulsnarking].) I'm still wavering about simulblogging this year's "do," though I did so enthusiastically last year.
If you're planning on simulblogging, feel free to put a (legitimate) link in comments after you've put up your first post, or subpost. Maybe I'll check in and update!
First question: Are you a fan or not a fan of the choice of Ellen DeGeneres? I like her, so I'm looking forward to seeing her--though with trepidation, because more often than not, these gigs are disappointing. Hmm. I'm trying to remember what I thought of the host last year--guess I'll have to check the old blog.
---
Update: 7:31 Central (all times will be Central within the body of the post, and I probably won't keep saying "Update" but will just go with the ---):
"I believe in hope, but not hula hula hope." Words to live by!
"Music isn't cheating, except for sometimes." My favorite line in that little piece that opened the show.
Well, except for this one: "I'd like to thank ME ... but I wouldn't dare."
---
I didn't realize until this instant that I'd been wondering, somewhere in my unconcious mind, whether Ellen would shock us all by dressing up in some sort of glam dress. Can't decide if I'm consciously disappointed or not. Well, not too much in any case. I'd like her persona no matter what she was wearing. Though I do sort of think the current riff on not being nervious and winning is going on a bit too long. A switch in emphasis would be good.
UM, but not to Al Gore, please!
---
Much better, this line in a riff about diversity, given the past year:
"Let me just put this out there: If there weren't blacks, gays and Jews, there would be no Oscars. Or anyone named Oscar, when you think about that."
----
Wow, we're at the first award, and we've already gotten a dedication to the memory of someone's mother!
Also, am I the only one who , in looking at this year's set, is reminded of upscale bathroom-tile options which most of us can't afford, but sort of salivate over in design mags as a young male teen-ager would porn?
---
7:59 p.m.--The kids were cute, because, well, kids are cute. I'm not going to get cute commenting about them. Not every thought demands expression.
Oh, and I love animated shorts!!!
---
"Sound editing is like sex." Oh, crap. That's one of those odd/odd phrases which is going to stick in my head, probably for years, and not necessarily in the way intended. The word "is" probably can't be thought of in more than one fashion (oh, wait--um, nevermind), but as for all the others... .
---
Alan Arkin, 73. 73. Sigh.
---
I really wouldn't want to have been voting in the Best Supporting Actor cateogry.
Those weeks in the van paid off for Arkin...the V.O. announcer says Arkin almost didn't get the part because he was "too virile," which would have been the most flattering rejection Arkin ever got, had he got it, [according to Arkin]. I'm trying to think of what rejection would be the analogy for a woman, and if it would be too fraught with whatever to use.
---
I'm disappointed to find myself disappointed with Ellen. "Annoyed" is the word I'd use to find myself watching a Coca Cola commercial rather than the entire Pilobolus performance. Yeah, yeah--I know what underwrites this show. Still.
---
Man, everybody's bald. Or graying. Don't get me wrong--I find bald and graying men sexy. Not so sure about my own corresponding tell-tale hair (darn! forgot to call my hairdresser again this weekend).
I've never thought of seguing from James Taylor to Melissa Etheridge in my personal little playlists. Sure going to give it a try now.
Melissa is sounding especially Indigo Girls tonight. Fine by me, 'cause I like both; just noting.
---
Al Gore: "I'm just here for the movies." Makes perfect sense: He still sounds like a walking script. Or like that application I have on my computer which reads text for me.
OK...that was funny, having the cut-off music well up as Al Gore whipped out a piece of paper as if he were going to announce his candidacy for president. Predictable, but funny anyway.
For the record, I liked Al Gore, a lot, back in the '80s or so, and he would have been a shoe-in for my vote at one particular time period. Just so you know.
---
I love Cameron Diaz, and she is a beautiful woman. But her hair color, hair style and dress is reviving bad memories of bridesmaid experiences past. A pity.
---
Over at Althouse, whose proprietor was flying back from Ithaca tonight, some commenters are simulcommenting. I like this one, in particular, from Tiggeril:
To: Al & LeoAnd, like Ruth Anne, I'm a big fan of Cars, though, truth be told, since I didn't see all its competition, I don't personally know whether it was robbed or not.
From: Me
Re: Going Green
It'd be a lot easier to offset carbon emissions if the Oscars went back to being a simple banquet ceremony instead of the massive (conflict-free) diamond-encrusted bukakke fest it is now, don't you think?
Smooches,
tiggeril
8:42 PM
---
An insight into myself I could have done without: Ellen (the ever shrinking, more irrelevant?) comes out with a Baby Bjorn in which an Oscar is rattling around, and for the first time I find myself focussing on the tits of presenters (specifically, the ones who immediately followed). Is this some sort of weird analogy to when, as a breastfeeding mama, I'd leak when someone else's baby would cry? Or maybe, with my 46th birthday looming, I'm thinking...are you sure it's too late? Are you sure?
Meryl: Lose the damn sunglasses! I hate that. (Wow. Best stinkeye--staged, of course--that I've ever seen without benefit of actually being able to see an eye.)
---
9:05--Ooops, meant to mark at the least the half-hours with a time. I see I dropped that ball, among others.
---
I liked the MySpace riff, especially the bit about Spielberg needing to center the picture. I also liked the the intro into Gwyneth Paltrow, who I think needed to either put her hair up or pick a different dress. As it is, the word "incoherence" comes to mind.
---
WE INTERRUPT THIS SIMULBLOG TO BRING THE FOLLOWING WORM-BASHING VIDEO TO YOUR ATTENTION:
Lord, I'm just like my mother. Hate a repeated musical reference that never gets resolved... . Tease without release ain't for me.
---
9:28 (there! I remembered!): TOTALLY into the montage of Best Foreign Language Film winners. Some of my favorite films, and/or actors, and/or memories were encapsulated therein. Ahhhhh... .
---
It's nice to be able believe it when someone says she didn't think she'd win, which I did believe in the case of Jennifer Hudson.
---
Did Jerry Seinfeld just steal the comedy part of the show from Ellen?
Yes, oh yes, that's exactly what I just witnessed.
---
There was zero chance that "An Inconvenient Truth" wouldn't win. Zero. So no
But that reference to New Orleans was cynical and distorting, a misstatement and utterly exploitive. I don't begrudge the awarding of the Oscar; that is what it is. I do, very much, condemn the self-serving dishonesty of that reference.
For shame. How convenient of and for you.
---
FWIW it's worth, I think movie soundtracks are highly underrated these days. Interesting stuff, quite often, which--and this is highly subjective--doesn't get much attention anymore, at least not in the way I used to perceive them as getting.
I should consciously look more into what people write about soundtracks these days.
---
As much as I like Ellen, I have to say--in retrospect--that there are worse things than having one's performance described as painful, or infuriating. At least those things imply that some sort of strong impression was made.
---
OK, I'm going to stop resisting (what the heck? not sure anyone's looking, anyway)--it's rather unfortunate that someone accepting an award for something called "Little Miss Sunshine" has such a flare of light bouncing off his head. Sometimes coherence is overrated.
---
Think I'm just going to soak up the end of this show offline ...
G'night all.
---
